AN: I do not own the rights to use Harry Potter. Please Read and Review, I like hearing feedback, and will take criticism as long as it's constructive.
Chapter 7: Let It Begin
The crowd could still be heard as the team walked away from the field. "Weasley is our King/ Weasley can save anything/ He never leaves a single ring/ That's why Gryffindors all sing/ Weasley is our King!" Then they would all cheer out the names of the Harry, Ginny, Fred, Ygraine, Seamus and Liam, trying to figure out how to include them into the kingly song, as this game was a showcase of everyone on the team's talent.
Almost everyone in the school had been at the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw match, where Gryffindor had reigned superiority over the Quaffle, Bludger and Snitch, with a winning score of 300-0. Not only had they scored 15 goals and caught the Snitch, the defense team was on fire. Ron had blocked every shot. Fred and Ygraine had rebounded each other's hits, sending Ravenclaw players flying in every direction. The Ravenclaw's new Seeker, now that Cho was gone, had even almost caught the Snitch, which would have tied the game. Harry had been right on the fourth year's tail, when a Bludger sent by Ygraine had allowed Harry that extra leverage to catch the Snitch, as the girl had only been a foot in front of him before she had been sent falling with a hit, the Snitch not in hand.
"That game was fucking marvelous! I don't think I've even seen a football match where I was sitting so far off my seat. Hell, I was standing most of the time, the game was so busy!" Dean said as he greeted his friends who were all congratulating each other in the changing room. Neville and Hermione followed right behind him, Hermione going up to Ron and Harry to give them both a victory hug.
"Ew, you two really need to shower before you come back to the common room for a party. In fact, all of you do, this room reeks of sweat – and victory!" They all cheered and headed to their separate areas to shower.
Professor McGonagall entered, the biggest smile on her face. "What brilliant strategies you had out there. Harry – the plays you came up with! I must say you guys have worn the Ravenclaws out. I'm sure the Slytherins are terrified of what you'll do to them. I just thought I would tell you all, I've ordered a round of butter beer for the Gryffindor house in celebration of our victory. Unfortunately for me, I will no be able to attend our little soirée. You'd probably enjoy it more without me anyhow. Once again, congratulations and I will all see you at a later time. Cheers." The team all smiled and thanked McGonagall as she left the change room to the team and their friends.
"What she say 'Mione? Couldn't hear her right, she say that she got us all some butter beer?" Ron walked over to Hermione, white towel wrapped around his waist, water dripping down his chiseled chest and tight stomach, his hands tussling his red hair with his other towel. Hermione could not understand how Ron could look so amazingly sexy and built despite the amount of food he put in his mouth every day. She looked him over, feeling a little flush as he wrapped his clean arm around her shoulders, turning his face to look at her with his questioning, stomach hungry, goofy smile.
"Jeez Ron, you're getting me all wet!" Hermione mock-screamed at him, as she pushed his dripping body away with her hands on his bare chest.
"Glad to know my half-naked body can do that to you; wait until you see the full thing!" Ron smiled at her, giving a chuckle as Hermione pouted her lips at him with a jokingly disgusted look on her face.
"Ron." She rolled her eyes at him. "Oh my GOD! Stop it!" Ron had come up to her and started to shake his wet hair all over her, rubbing his head into her school robes. She started laughing, trying hard to push her best friend away. "Stop it! You're getting water all over me! Ygraine? Anybody? Help!" Everyone just looked on, ignoring the two kids, who were obviously enjoying themselves. Ron twisted up his hair towel and slapped Hermione across the ass with it as she tried running away.
"Ouch. Cut it out Ron… or I'll," Hermione said, facing Ron who was preparing his towel for another hit.
"Or you'll what?" Ron smiled at her, almost laughing, everyone watching the two of them go at each other.
"Oh, I don't know – you know I wont take points away from my own house." A hush went over the change room.
"You wont take points away from your own house, eh?" Fred asked, thoughts running wildly through his mind, ideas of things he had to tell George once he saw him.
"Well, you know what I mean. I don't want to have take points away from my house." She looked around at everyone, they did not seem convinced. "Ok, I won't take points away from Gryffindor. Now you know, just don't tell anyone. And Fred, don't tell George, because he'll just go crazy around me. Who knows what he'll throw in my bed?" They all nodded in agreement with Hermione; Fred, while doing so, also had the most devilish look spreading across his face. Ygraine looked at him, questioning what was possibly going on through his practical mind.
"Speaking of my brother George, where is he? Did anyone see him at the game?" Ginny asked moving around the room to see if George was hiding anywhere, as he had the habit of doing so.
"I didn't see him – Dean?" Hermione asked Dean who was standing with Ygraine and Seamus.
"No, didn't see him in the Gryffindor seats; then again, I wasn't looking for him."
* * *
George was sitting in the common room alone, reading a book in front of the unlit fireplace. He was curled up in the corner of the sofa, his back resting on the arm, his feet up on the cushions, his book on Transfiguration resting on his knees. He had wanted to go to the Quidditch game because he loved the sport, but his bitterness towards Harry and Ygraine had kept him away from the game, and the practices before that. He had tried to go to the practices but had only made it onto the pitch once, his pride and ego taking over. He was supposed to be the beater for the Gryffindor team, not a spare player who only plays at the practices; he was just too good for that. He felt that he should be the one playing and Ygraine should be the extra beater. He just got further and further away from the pitch every time he attempted to join a practice, and now, with the first Quidditch game for Gryffindor, he found himself doing homework instead.
Students started to pile into the common room, all with happy faces and talking spastically about the remarkable game they had just witnessed. George felt a lump of guilt forming in his stomach; he knew his siblings and friends would be upset with him.
"No, Seamus, I will not lend you my Head Girl badge for your Halloween costume." Hermione and the gang came bursting though the common room door.
"Please, Hermione? Ygraine has already agreed to let me use her uniform – and my costume just wont be complete without it!" Seamus pleaded and begged Hermione, tugging on her robes, trying to get her to say yes.
"Wrinkling my school robes will not get me to lend you my badge, Seamus. Bugger off, will you." Seamus still clung to Hermione's robes. "Fine, stay attached, you still wont get the badge. I'm going down to the kitchen to see if I can ask the house elves to send up some food for the party." The two students headed back out into the corridor to go find the pear and tickle it to see what snacks they could find.
As they headed out, everyone else pilled into the room, awaiting the rest of the Gryffindor team. George tried to slink his way out of the common room, not wanting to face the reason for the boiling guilt and rage within him.
"Oy – George!" Neville called out towards him before he could disappear among the crowd of Gryffindor students.
"Hey, Neville." George said, slinking over to his friend's side to have the conversation he didn't want to have, in fear of the question he didn't want to answer.
"Didn't see you at the game today. How come?" There it was; Neville had just asked him, and he knew the attention would be focused upon him. He normally liked the spotlight, but lately he hadn't wanted it, and right now was the prime example. He knew he was in the wrong, and he didn't want a whole bunch of people pointing it out.
"I didn't want to go." He mumbled under his breath.
"Sorry, what did you say?" Fred asked, "Couldn't hear you through your pathetic mumbling."
"I said, I didn't want to go, ok?" George tried to leave but Ginny and Harry were blocking him.
"Why didn't you want to come and see us play George? We won, you know." Ginny seemed upset with her older brother; George couldn't stand to look at her. He glanced over at Harry, who was glaring at him. He couldn't tell if it was because he had missed the game or because he had hurt his sister. He turned and looked at the rest of the team; Ygraine was pretending not to pay attention, just standing behind Dean.
"Look, I'm sorry." George said insincerely.
"Yeah, sure you are." Ygraine had let the words slip right out of her mouth. She didn't want to butt into the discussion; she knew it wasn't her place, but she had been hurt as well by George not showing up. Not only had he almost completely ignored her from the moment that she had made the team, but the times that he did pay any attention to her, he had just tried to make things uncomfortable for the both of them. Their first week at Hogwarts had seemed to show potential for their friendship, but things had just gone downhill. Fred had assured her that his brother would be back to flirting with her in a week, but he hadn't. He had completely changed, and she wasn't the only person to have noticed. He had also turned a bit cold towards Harry. All of these feelings had just taken over, and she had let it slip, and regretted not biting down on her tongue.
"And what makes you the authority to say whether I'm sorry or not Ygraine?" George spat back at her.
"I'm just saying that it's obvious that you're not sorry for missing the game. The team isn't oblivious to why you didn't want to come." Everyone in the common room had now turned all of their attention to the two tall red heads standing near the fireplace.
"Oh yeah? And why is that, Fred? Ginny? Ron… Harry?" He glared at Harry, who was standing near his little sister. "Why didn't I come to the game?" George looked around at all of them, ending with his look upon Ygraine.
"George, don't." Ginny pleaded, knowing how her brother would get when upset or provoked. The Weasleys were people who had tempers, and they weren't easy to calm if things got to far, and she knew that both George and Ygraine would regret this conversation later. She touched him on the shoulder, in order to give some comfort, but he just shrugged her off, pulling himself away and out of her reach. She knew then that it was too late.
"Your friends are just too nice to say it to you, George." Ygraine moved closer to him. He leaned in and asked her, right to her face, "And what's that, Ygraine?"
"That you're acting like a sore loser. That you can't get over the fact that someone else happened to be a better Beater than you."
"No, that's not why." George protested, knowing full well that it was true.
"Then what is the reason George? Cause it sure seems like it to me, and everyone else who is on the team, or who knows you for that matter. Ever since the tryouts you have done nothing but act like a five year old. You don't come to any of the practices; you don't show any support for the team, let alone your own family. You just sit around and sulk all day. Sure sounds like the signs of a sore loser to me. Everyone has noticed. You snap at anyone who mentions the words Quidditch around you; you have even walked away from conversations because your ego has been bruised. Get over it and start acting like you used to."
Everyone looked at Ygraine in horror. They had all wanted to say something to George along those lines, but they figured to maybe do it a little more privately. They looked at George and waited for his response.
"Who do you think you are? Coming into my life, into my school, taking my friends away, my position on the Quidditch, and my family! Everyone knows that it has always been Fred and I who were the beaters for Gryffindor, not you and Fred, me and Fred – not you!" George was yelling right into her face. Everyone was paying so much attention to the two that they didn't even notice the butterbeer appear on the tables.
"No George, everyone knows that it's me and Fred now, they were there to see it at the Quidditch game today – there were no protesters there cheering your name, they were cheering for everyone else. Get over yourself and find something better to with your life then be jealous of me."
"Jealous of you? How could I be jealous of you? You're just a fucking Scot who has nothing to her but the fact that she has some ability at being a Beater." George's comment had some of the Scottish students not voting in George's favour anymore.
"Well, obviously you're not even good enough to be a female Scottish beater, so why don't you go fuck yourself, and take the fucking Beater position on the team if you want it that way!" Much to both of their surprises, the students in the room protested Ygraine's offer of George taking her spot.
"See, George, they want me there, not you. So put this Beater business behind you and get on with your life. I have, so should you-"
"Fine Seamus, I'll lend you my badge, but you have to promise-" Hermione and Seamus stopped in their tracks as they stepped through the portrait.
"Did we interrupt something?" Seamus looked at everyone who had turned their attention to the front entrance. George looked at Hermione and Seamus.
"No, we were just finishing." George said, moving through the small crowd towards the dormitory doors. "Ygraine, consider yourself forewarned- I'm not going to just let this drop. I'm out of here." And he huffed up the stairs.
"Fine, I will!" She called after him. "Ok, let's party. We have a game to celebrate." Ygraine said solemnly, taking her hair and fixing it into a messy bun, heading towards the table with all the food on it. She grabbed some food randomly and shoved it into her mouth, chasing it back with some of the butterbeer. It was obvious to everyone that she didn't want to acknowledge that she wanted to cry, they saw it through the excessive eating and the fake laughter as Ron and Seamus tried to cheer her up.
The party continued in a much quieter manner than they had hoped for after their win, but people moved on. Fred sat in the corner, just pretending to listen to his friends, trying to figure out what his next actions were going to be.