Chapter Twenty two

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Five days later they were told that Beaxbatons had won against Durmstrang and would be arriving at Hogwarts at 10-o-clock five days from now with the match starting at 11. Unlike the school tournament it didn't matter how much they had won by it was just skill against skill. They were getting nervous again, the whole team was suffering. None of them were eating and Emma-Leigh was brushing her hair again. And the match was five days away! Harry called a practice.

"I wish we could have watched that match, just to see Beaxbatons play, but we didn't SO!" Harry said to a slightly shaking team. "We will just have to practice the way we did Durmstrang and win it!" he ushered the team onto the pitch and practiced their diversion tactics, passing, scoring, and unfortunately they all failed dismally. Emma-Leigh dropped two out of three passes. Dawn and Candice didn't do much better, And the goals that actually made it to the goal posts were let in by Draco. Harry let the snitch go and didn't see it again for the rest of the practice. And the beaters… well they did all right but even they didn't do great. They got to the change rooms abut an hour later, very disgruntled and not very happy with themselves.

"Okay… that was…" Harry began.

"Awful," Draco said,

"Terrible," Dawn whined,

"Revolting," Dave grunted,

"Dreadful," Candice whispered,

"Horrid" Thomas cried,

"Appalling," Emma-Leigh said all at the same time.

"Uh... yes, all of those things, but we were nervous. I don't see why. We are the best damn team around! We will win!" Harry said trying to give his team the pep talk they needed.

"Not if we play like that." Dave said with his head in his hands. Harry shot him a look.

"Well it's true Harry." Draco commented seeing the look.

Yes. Okay. I know. Meet me here tomorrow. We will try again. Everybody eat. Everybody sleep. We will do better tomorrow."

XxX

'1,2,3' "SNORE" '1,2,3' "SNORE". Harry was counting the seconds between each of Ron's tremendous snores. Harry lay awake. He told his team to sleep yet he was awake.

"Whg" he said. He got out of bed and walked to the window. The stars were shining brightly in the sky. Harry knew it was pointless but he started to count them anyways. '1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8…' What if they lost this match? '17,18,19,20,21,22…' why wasn't he this nervous with Durmstrang? '27,28,29,30,31…' At least they were playing on home turf. '39,40,41,42…' Twinkle, twinkle little star. '49,50,51…' Where did that song come from? '56,57,58' …

XxX

"Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky, twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are." Emma-Leigh sang quietly under her breath. She sighed, as she sat on the windowsill with one leg dangling out the window, her head leaning against the side. She cast her eyes across the sky; she found the brightest star she could find. "Star light, star bright, grant the wish I wish tonight." She closed her eyes and wished with every fibre of her being…

XxX

He sat alone in a corner just staring at the fire, his grey eyes reflecting the dancing flames.

"Malfoy cannot save a thing, he cannot block a single ring, that's why all Beaxbatons sing, Malfoy is their king. Malfoy is their king, Malfoy is their king, he always lets the Quaffle in, Malfoy is their king!" he threw another log on the fire and watched as thousands of little sparks jumped up, Draco was furious with himself. He was as bad as Ron was when he first started. "Ugh," he said "uhg, uhg, uhg, uhg, UHG!"

"Drakey?" a whiney voice from behind him whispered.

"Fuck off Pansy."

"but…"

"I'm not in the mood. Actually, when I think about it, I am never in the mood for you. I hate you Pansy Parkinson. So if you don't mind stop hanging off me, stop talking to me, and STOP CALLING MY DRAKEY!" he roared. He still hadn't turned around. Tears filled Pansy's eyes as she ran off to the girl's dorms.

"Shit" Draco said, he felt bad, sure he had spoken the truth but he shouldn't have taken his anger out on her. "I'll make it up to her tomorrow. I'll have to or my dear father will hear about this." He threw another long on the fire and watched the sparks fly…

XxX

'I will not lose, I will not drop the Quaffle, we will win, I will score goals,' Candice wrote so fast that you couldn't see the tip of the quill and her vibrant green eyes blurred. 'I will do my best, I will pass with accuracy, I will be a team player' Candice ran out of parchment she flipped it over 'I will doge Bludgers, I will fly fast,' she dipped her quill in the inkwell but missed and knocked the ink all over her bed. "DAMNIT" she hissed hoping she hadn't woken the other girls. She scrambled to get her wand, "Scourgify" she whispered. The ink was gone but the stain remained. She sat down with a new inkbottle and continued to write. 'We will win, we will fight, we will win.'…

XxX

Dave sat. He just sat. He was in the Ravenclaw common room, alone, in the dark, nothing moved. It was silent. Which left Dave with a lot of choices. He could go insane in the quiet, but he chose this time to think. Not about anything important, he just thought, in all honesty he didn't even know what he was thinking. Random images popped into his head, him playing Quidditch, his friends, his parents, his house, his potions homework. Just random things. "What the hell?" he asked himself...

XxX

Dawn paced. 1,2,3,4,5 steps this way. 1,2,3,4,5 steps that way. Over and over again back and forth. Her curly red hair bounced with each step. 1,2,3,4,5, turn, 1,2,3,4,5...

XxX

Thomas was eating crisps, cookies, anything he could get his hands on. 'munch, munch, munch.' He looked up and saw Dawn plopping her way down the stairs.

"Hey" Thomas said with his mouth full, in a very Ron type way.

"Hey, what are you doing awake?" she asked.

"Same as you I suppose." He answered.

"We aren't really doing as Harry said are we?" Dawn said laughing a little.

"Want something to eat?" he asked pointing to the immense pile of food in front of him. "I'm… a nervous eater," he explained as she grabbed a handful of crisps.

"I pace." She said as she walked in front of the fire, her normally bubbly personally was very subdued. Thomas pushed the food away and Dawn stopped pacing and looked at him.

"What?" she asked.

"Why are we nervous? It's exactly like Harry said. We're the best damn team out there!" dawn nodded surprised by his outburst. "We have nothing worry about! Anyways we have school and practice tomorrow so we should really go to bed" with that he got up, kissed Dawn on the cheek, and ran up the stairs. Dawn stood there slowly placing her hand on her cheek where Thomas had kissed her. She cleaned up the food and went to bed smiling.

XxX

'59,60,61,62..' Harry counted, "Good Night stars." He whispered and went to sleep

Okay some people were confused... each paragraph inbetween the XxX's is a different place... eace of them is one team member doing their pre game 'freak out' ... i hope that clears it up