This is the seventeenth and final chapter of A Crazy Little Thing Called Quidditch, I can't believe I've even made it his far to complete it! With the help of my best friend BV, this story has developed from a simple idea into a full fledged adventure, with many more things to come. I hope that you have enjoyed reading this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I am truly sorry to all of my readers for having it take this long, but to those of you that have stuck with me I greatly appreciate it. Well after that last scene I bet you would all like to know what happens next. With love, Quidditch-star-16.

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I hate to talk like this
I hate to act as if
There's something wrong that I can't say
I have this dream at night
Almost every night
I've been dreaming it forever
It's easy to remember it

It's always cold
It's always day
You're always here
You always say
I'm all right
I'll be ok
If I can keep myself awake

"Keep Myself Awake" Black Lab

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When Rachel returned to the castle, she did not run to the Gryffindor commons where her belongings were but instead down a familiar corridor, throwing open a thick wooden door, passing an empty desk and bursting through a solid wood door to her left, flying onto the bed that occupied the room, burying her head into the pillow that lay at the head of the unmade bed. She cried into the pillow, allowing it to soak up her tears, and she wallowed in the smell of him that somehow seeped its way permanently into the pillow. In fact the whole room still smelled like him to her. And that made her cry even more.

She heard the door that had seemingly closed on its own behind her open up, and Rachel held her breath, afraid that it might be Oliver, so she did the only thing that she thought that she could do, and she rolled off of the bed and crawled underneath of it hiding.

Hearing the heavy footfalls, that she knew to be Oliver's she gasped in a large amount of air and held her breath as he walked past her and into the single bathroom, turning on the faucet and gathering a pool of water into his hands. He dipped his face into the cool puddle and splashed it back into the sink, turning the faucet off once more and placing his hands on the sides of the sink, examining the red bruise that would soon form on his jaw. He stared at his dripping wet face and glared at his own reflection. Leaving the bathroom, Oliver shut off the light and returned to the bedroom, seating himself on the edge of the bed. He places his elbows on his knees and rested his forehead against the palms of his hands. He sniffled and the first of teardrops fell to the floor at his feet, in front of Rachel's head. She wanted to reach out and wipe them up, before crawling out and soothing him, but she knew that she could not. Not after what had happened to them down at the lake.

He reached up to the head of the bed where the pillows were placed and he brought it to his face to muffle his sobs of embarrassment and shame, but when the pillow touched his face, he saw that it was already tear-soaked, and make-up smeared. He looked around bewildered but was summoned before he could find her.

"Mr. Wood," Professor McGonagall called from the doorway, "it is time to go. I believe all of your belongings have been placed in a carriage out front," she said standing in the doorway of his bedroom.

"Yes, Professor," he said drying his face hastily and placing the pillow back where he had found it, exiting the room and hurrying past McGonagall and leaving the castle and the girl that was hiding somewhere in his room.

Rachel relaxed slightly and slowly let out her breath.

"You can exit as well now Ms. Rivers," McGonagall called as well.

Rachel jumped and then sighed, scurrying out from under the bed and standing where Oliver had.

McGonagall noted how both of them seemed extremely upset and had tears running down their faces, Ms. Rivers, as it seemed, was more open about crying, as most women are. "Come, come," McGonagall said ushering the young woman out of the room and into the hallway. "Now, seeing as you hold such important information that can never be discovered I must send you away immediately to a disclosed location," she informed her.

"Wait, what?" she questioned shaking her head. "I have to see Ron," she said fighting back, looking around adamantly. "We-we have a rematch. We have to have a rematch," she said talking in circles.

McGonagall rolled her eyes and looked at Rachel. "Hold open your hand, dear," she instructed.

Rachel did as she was told and McGonagall dropped several small items into her hand, and upon closer examination of them she realized that it was her luggage that her Professor had seemed to shrink with Reducio.

"Now," McGonagall said, closing the girls hand on top of her belongings, "put those in your pocket so you don't lose them. I'll take you to see Mr. Weasley, and as I am sure, Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger should be at the burrow as well."

Rachel smiled slowly and McGonagall grabbed firmly onto the girl's sleeve and the two disappeared from the Great Hall of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry with a loud pop that seemed to echo off every surface.

When they reappeared, it was a cloudless starry night outside in Ottery St. Catchpole. They were on a long, narrow road.

McGonagall grabbed Rachel's arms firmly and turned her to face her. "I will give you two days, spend them wisely. I will be at the Burrow in two days from now," she said and pointed up the road. "I believe you'll find the Burrow up around this corner to the right," she said and with a curt nod of her head, she disappeared into the night.

Rachel turned in the direction that McGonagall had pointed her and trudged slowly up the road, kicking up dirt with her converse. When she looked up again, she saw the Wesley home illuminated but the moon, and she even saw a few lights inside.

She walked up to one of the doors near where the light was brightest and opened the door, walking into a kitchen area. Looking around she mused at how tiny, yet quant the house was.

"Bloody hell! Rachel? Is that you??" a voice called.

Rachel looked to the table and saw Ron sitting there with a bowl of porridge.

"Heh," she mumbled and fell over, passing out on the kitchen floor.

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She felt like she was under a waterfall, Rachel opened her eyes and sat up quickly in bed, gasping for air.

Harry, Hermione, Ron, George and Fred were all standing around her. Hermione hit George, how was holding his wand. Rachel looked up and saw that there was a bucket over her head, turned upside down and still dripping water, then it disappeared.

She sighed and fell back against her pillow, causing water to squirt out onto her friends.

"Rachel, please get up," Fred pleaded with her.

"You've been asleep for a day and half," Harry said.

Rachel's eyes widened and she sat up slowly, "what? A day and a half?" she questioned afraid.

"'Fraid so," George said.

She turned to Ron, "hey, what do you say to that rematch," she said, putting on her best smile, trying to hide her pain.

Ron looked at her confused and then gave Hermione and Harry a quizzical look, which they could only shrug in reply. "Uhh sure thing Rachel," he said, "I'll meet you outside in five minutes then, ya?"

"Sure!" she said enthusiastically and nodded her head. The boys left the room and closed the door behind them.

Rachel pushed off the covers and climbed out of bed, digging her luggage out of her pocket, and grabbing her wand, which someone had set on the nightstand for her. "Engorgio," she commanded to the tiny pieces of luggage that she had set on the floor at her feet.

Her broom was apparently on of the items that McGonagall had shrunken for her. She set that aside on the bed and opened one of her trunks in hopes of finding something clean-and dry- to wear.

Hermione, who had seated herself on the bed, one leg crossed over the other, with her arms folded under her chest observing Rachel finally spoke up. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Rachel stiffened and pulled out a pair of jeans that had been in New England with her and Oliver, well it appeared as if he had packed her clothes for her. "Talk about what?" she said throwing them on the bed and grabbing a clean tee shirt and a fresh sweatshirt.

Hermione sighed, "Dumbledore," she said calmly. "I know that you weren't there, and you really don't know how it happened, but-"

"I was in the dungeons of Voldemort's lair when Jed came back and announced it," she said peeling the wet jeans off and replacing them with the cleaner ones. "He told me that I was going to be a full fledged Death Eater," she said changing her shirts. "I'm going to kill him one of these days. He'll pay for what happened to Dumbledore," she growled, anger fueling her now.

"Ron and I aren't sure what is going to happen. Harry was there. He's going to spend the summer looking for Horcruxes, we're, we're not sure if he's going to be coming back to Hogwarts in the fall," she said looking down.

Rachel looked at her afraid. "He has to," she said confidently.

Hermione looked up at her confused.

"There is keeping Voldemort alive right? He has to find them. You two should go with him, I know that this isn't going to be easy for him. Harry is going to need you two the most now, so you should go," Rachel said nodded her head and grabbing her broom from the bed.

"What are you going to do? You're coming too aren't you?" Hermione asked standing up and looking at Rachel expectantly.

Rachel stared at her for a moment and shook her head, "No, I can't. I have a previous engagement. Besides, the three of you started this together. You three need to end this together," Rachel said and gave Hermione a small reassuring smile before exiting the bedroom, shutting the door tightly behind her, letting the fakeness drain from her face and be replaced with a deep frown.

---

"So Rachel," Ron said after squarely being beaten by Rachel, "what do you think is going to happen in the future?" he questioned leaning over his broom toward her as the two floated around in the night sky.

Rachel chuckled and replied disdainfully, "I'm not a psychic Ron. I have no clue what the future holds," she frowned.

"Well say you were, what do you think would happen?"

"I don't know," Rachel said, and then smiled to herself. "I think it'll be pink," she said.

"Pink?" Ron questioned confused.

"Or maybe I'll be blue," Rachel said more solidly.

"Blue? Sapphire blue?" he gulped.

Rachel shook her head and shrugged. "I don't think I know, so I'm going to settle with yellow for now," she said unsure.

Ron whimpered, "Oh god, a canary," he whispered sullenly.

Rachel looked up and over at him, "What are you mumbling about?" she asked confused.

"Nothing, uh, it's nothing," he said smiling sheepishly.

"Okay," she said looking over and around once again before feeling as if she was hit with a dizzy spell. "Oh, um Ron, can we land, I feel like I'm going to hurl," she said in a small voice as she slowly began to lower her broom toward the burrow yard.

"Yeah," Ron said and followed her down until they reached the ground.

"Well, McGonagall is going to be here soon to take me off, so I better go and get my stuff," she said walking back toward the house with Ron towing behind her.

When they entered the house, Mrs. Weasley called over to them both to grab a plate of supper and Ron agreed but Rachel declined. "I'm not very hungry, thanks though," she said before quickly running up the stairs and getting her luggage together and shrunken once again, throwing them into her pocket just as Fred came through the door.

"Hello," he said, knocking slowly as he opened the door.

"Oh, hi Fred," she said looking up at him trying the best to smile.

"How are you?" he questioned.

"I don't know," she frowning before he step towards her and enveloped her in a hug.

It felt awkward to her, and she slowly pushed him away, seeing the look of disappointment painted over his face. She crossed her arms over her chest and paced the room for a moment before she heard Mr. Weasley call up the stairs for her, saying that Professor McGonagall was here for her.

Her head snapped toward the door and hollered down her reply, "I'll be right down!" She turned back to Fred who held a quizzical look on her face.

"Did something happen Rachel? Between you and Oliver?" his voice held a small about of venom when he said Oliver's name and Rachel noticed it and visibly cringed.

Shaking her head and shivering she answered, "I can't deal with this right now Fred," she said with a sad look in her eyes before she turned and headed out of the door and down the stairs to the kitchen.

Professor McGonagall was standing with her arms hanging in front of her with her hands folded. The room was now eerily silent as non of the Weasleys in the kitchen were making any noise, nor were Harry or Hermione.

Rachel heard Fred come down the stairs behind her and stand close enough to her that she felt his body heat radiating onto her back.

"Come now, Ms. Rivers," McGonagall said, motioning for her to follow.

"Are you sure you don't want anything for the road, dear?" Mrs. Weasley begged her one last time.

Rachel flashed Mrs. Weasley and small smile and declined, "No, thank you Mrs. Weasley, I have to go. But that you all for the hospitality. And Ron, maybe next time you'll win," she winked and smiled one last time at her friends, sending a sympathetic look to Harry, who nodded his head slightly and steeled his face of all emotion.

Rachel left the Burrow behind and followed McGonagall down the road to where they had arrived. "This location is a blank zone," McGonagall informed her. "It is a crossway between sites, and it is hard to track Apparations to and from this area."

"Oh," Rachel said quietly as McGonagall stopped in the middle of the road.

McGonagall grabbed onto her sleeve once again and the two disappeared with a snap into the clear night air.

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Well, that is it! This is not beta'd, because after this long I just wanted to get it out for all of you loyal readers to enjoy. I know that this took me forever to complete, but I hope it was worth it for you all. A lot has changed since I started this fic, my writing one of them, but I have to give a huge thanks in advance to all of you that have read and reviewed this story. It gives me a great sense of pride in all those that took their time after reading to tell me what you thought.

And yes, even though this is the end, we all know, that it isn't over, until its over. I'm not sure if I'll be starting on the sequel anytime soon, seeing as how I'm a busy college student with all the fixings but you never know..

Thank you all once again.. So Long and Goodnight, Ladies and Gents!

Quidditch-star-16