Chapter Seven : Life Sux

Life is so…whatever.

Ject P.O.V

My hand closed around the snitch, but as soon as I did, I could see my mistake. My heart hit my stomach as I looked through the rain at the scoreboard: 260 Slytherin – 100 Gryffindor. My points hit the board: 250 we had lost the game by ten points. Matt told me at time out that I had to catch the snitch soon, but I lost count. I lost the game, the first game I had ever lost.

I landed, but it was Matt that brought me back, a small voice in the distance, "Ject what the hell was that?"

I didn't listen to it – it was too far away. Then a blast hit me: screaming and cheering. Slytherin were going nuts, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw looked shocked and Gryffindor looked like the world had ended. All because of me.

Matt's voice came at me again, "Ject what the hell was that? 10 points."

I turned to see his face red, and angry. That was when I got mad and shoved him hard. "I told you, man! I told you! I didn't want to, but you pushed it and now… leave me alone!"

I dropped my broom and walked off. I was only one in the girls changing room, because I was the only one on the team, but I didn't stay long. As I was about to close my locker, I saw my wallet and made a decision. The Hog's Head would make me feel better.

Aaron was waiting for me when I walked out of the locker room. "You OK?" he asked, looking at me seriously.

"Leave me alone and I will be."

"If that's what you want."

I didn't even look at him, just pushed past and headed down to the potions room. I knew no one would be down there, because of the game. I took some aging potion and headed straight to The Hog's Head and started with a beer. I kept going until my world started to burr. My watch wasn't making much sense at this stage, so I felt like it was time to go home.

My head swam as I stood up and I nearly fell over. Catching myself, I saw a bottle behind the bar and I asked for it. I gave the bartender all the money I had. I didn't know how much it was, and I really didn't care, but I thought I should get back before someone noticed that I wasn't there.

I don't quite know how I managed to get up to the school, but I did, and as luck would have it the first person I walked into was Jeff.

"Hey," he said to me.

I tripped over my feet and he caught me.

He looked me up and down. "Mmm, drunk, I see."

"Leave me alone, Jeff." I tried to get my arm loose from his vice-like grip.

"Na, I might just stick around."

"No." I pulled my arm away from him but nearly fell over.

"Come on, Ject," he said, grabbing my arm again. And that was the last thing I remembered.

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My eyes opened to find I was in my bed with the curtains pulled around me. I lifted my aching, spinning head. Man, did I have a hangover. I pulled the curtains back slowly… the light! Man, the light! Who conjured the sun in my dorm!

"Good you're up – time for breakfast." Jackie walked over to me from by her neatly made bed.

I grumbled at her.

"If you have a hangover, it's—"

"Don't start," I told her.

We walked into the Great Hall, silence hit and people looked at me. Just great, people were talking about me and my great muck-up. Jackie led me to where the rest of the group was sitting at the Gryffindor table. We sat down and people slowly started to talk again. I put my head down on the table.

"You know, Ject, you are heavy when you are unconscious," Jeff said, sarcastically.

I lifted my hand and gave him the fingers. There was a bit of silence within the group.

Eventually, Ben, said to me, "Don't worry about yesterday."

I lifted my head and looked at him in the eye. "I'm not worried about it. You and Matt should be worried. I told you no. I don't care. All I'm worried about is this hangover." I put my head back on the table.

After several minutes of silence, I lifted my head to gaze around the room. Some people were staring at me, but as soon as I glanced their way they looked down. My eyes found the Slytherin table. They all seemed pretty happy with themselves. Apart from Malfoy, who was as sour as ever, glaring down at the table.

"Now, that's a pretty funny story."

I turned back to Aaron as he spoke. He, along with our friends, was all looking at the Slytherin table. Apparently my thoughts had been clear to them.

"Did you know that Malfoy Sr. was at the match?"

"No." Well, that certainly was an interesting piece of information.

"Well, after the match, he went nuts at Junior over there for missing the snitch and all that crap – it was pretty intense. If I didn't hate him so much, I might of felt sorry for him, but it was funny as hell.

I didn't answer, I just watched Malfoy. After a while, he lifted his head and looked at me. I kept my eyes focused on him, and he gave me a look of disgust.

I kept watching until Jackie's voice drew me away. "Mail."

I smirked and looked to see if there was any for me, but no. Ben got one from his mum, Jackie got a newspaper like she always did, and Jeff got a couple of letters that looked like they were from his fan cub.

"Jackie, what happening in the world?" Aaron asked.

"Nothing much," she said, nervously.

"You're a great liar," Jeff said dryly, looking up from his letters.

We were all looking at her now.

"It's nothing," she squeaked.

Aaron quickly grabbed the paper. She tried to grab it back, but she missed because he threw it to me. Ben wrapped his arms around her, so she couldn't snatch it back again. I opened the paper.

"Ject, it's nothing," she said quietly.

I looked down and the front page hit me. "To be or not to be, that is the question!" read the headline, and there were two pictures, one of me catching the snitch yesterday, making us lose the game, and one of my father. The caption under the picture was, Jessica Potter, above right catching the snitch early, losing the game for her team." I closed the paper. As I did, I hit Jeff with my elbow because he was reading over my shoulder.

"You're right, it's nothing," I said, proud of the way my voice remained even because my insides felt like they had stop working.

I stood up and taking the paper with me and walked out. I stopped when the doors closed behind me. Then I ran up to my room and went straight to my trunk. I sat there for a minute, then I turned around and headed for Jeff's dorm.

Jeff would still have my bottle from the day before. Up in the boys' dorm, I kicked his trunk open and just as I thought, the bottle was lying there on the top. I grabbed it and shoved it in my robe and left. I walked straight out of the common room knowing exactly where I wanted to go: the Astronomy tower.

A/N: Sorry about the shortness of the chapter, but I hope you like it.

This story is in memory of my wonderful Granny who passed on today.