Chapter 8

I froze on the spot. They stopped kissing and looked at me. Walk Jess, one leg in front of the other, move. Finally the movement kicked in and I started to walk, then jog, then run and finally sprint to the Gryffindor common room, then to my dorm and my bed, under the covers where I finally took a deep breath and let the tears fall. He has a girlfriend, how come nobody knew about her? Well maybe it was just a kiss, or the start of a relationship, what about last night? Well maybe I was right at the start, maybe he just wanted me to play well today, back to the old, he just likes me because I'm a 'professional' idea and now that we won, he's free to get back with his girlfriend. "Ergghhh!" I screamed, I really hate people taking advantage of me, especially since I thought I was past having crappy things like this happen me. Stupid darn big piece of quidditch meat Moran!!

Oh Merlin I need air, realising that being under the covers was quite stifling. I ran to the window and burst the windows open. The cold air hit me and I swallowed as much of it as I could to calm me down. I could hear everyone enter the common room and as expected, some of those footsteps continued up the stairs to our dorm. I had controlled the crying at that stage but the sight of them running towards me just made me burst out crying onto Ange's shoulder all over again.

"What happened hun?" Alicia said pulling my hair out of my face as Ange cradled me.

"He...he he was... was kissing someone else." I said as a new wave of tears came over me.

"He what, who the hell was he kissing?" Ange questioned, pulling me up and looking at my face. I shrugged at her and started to take deep breaths as Alicia dried my face on her sleeve.

"Oh baby, he was probably just retaliating because he thought you were with Ty!" she said looking into my eyes. I shrugged again.

"Lets get you cleaned up and go down stairs and enjoy the celebrations no matter what that boy is playing at." I went for a shower and the girls had clothes and make up at the ready for me. Five minutes later I was all ready to appear downstairs again, thanks to some After Tears Potion.

"Remember babe, big smiles!" I nodded and we quickly made our way downstairs so it was like we'd never left. We found our way to the twins and I gave them a celebratory hug and recieved a butterbeer from them.

"Guys, got a stronger version?" They each smiled and winked at me, then swapped my bottle for one that looked pretty much the same. It was just a slightly stronger version of butterbeer, still tasted all yummy. I chatted to some people for a while, recieving congratulations and play by play accounts of certain moves from the game from some people, but still no sign of Oliver. Why did every room seem a bit pointless when he wasn't in it. I sat on the sofa with the twins who had just been informed of what had happened.

"You ok? I was sure he fancied you, he was so obvious.." Fred said, putting a comforting arm around me.

"There has to be something more to this. I guess he was really pissed when he saw you and Ty." George said thus getting glares from everyone else.

"No guys, I reckon he never liked me, he just wanted me to play well today, which is why he let me stay in his room."

"Say what?" Ange anxiously questioned so I explained what happened the night before.

"Well, that just makes him more of an ass!" Alicia said.

"Lets just forget about it for now and celebrate guys!" I said as I saw their faces drop, I turned and looked in the direction of their gaze and saw Oliver and his girlfriend, sitting in the corner kissing.

"Ooookay, so guess I was right. Now let's talk about something else." We sat around for a while chatting before I headed up to bed.

So four weeks have passed and I'm still not talking to Wood and he's not talking to me either, well except for the necessary quidditch stuff, and it's been horrible. My grades are improving though because I'm spending a lot of time in the library, although Ty noticed and kept trying to talk to me, which normally was whenever Wood happened to walk in. I couldn't really blow Ty off though, I did say we could be friends. Our second game of the season is tomorrow though and we're playing Slytherin, so the pressure is really on, we have been training all the time and I had a feeling Wood was being particularly harsh to me. This evening's practice was crazy long and intense, it really didn't help that it was freaking gale force winds outside. I was so completely exhausted after that session, the normal practice of getting ready for bed was like climbing some glorious stairway to heaven. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I woke up the next morning after the first great night sleep I'd had in ages. I stretched then I remembered, shit we had a game today, and I just slept by myself. Ok don't panic, I wont tell anyone, then it won't affect their performance. I was already awake early so I went down to the Great Hall for breakfast on my own. I could feel it in my gut that we we're going to loose, but I didn't want to start the day being pessimistic, perhaps this would be the day the curse would be broken. I was forking my food around the plate when Ty came over.

"Hey, I know you probably want to be on your own before the big game, but I needed to warn you, you're not playing Slytherin, they've swapped with Hufflepuff." he said before heading over to his own table. I just dropped my jaw and then carefully moved my breakfast to the side, leaving just enough room to slam my head against the table. Maybe I should just go back to bed now! I kept my head glued to the table as I heard some people join me at the table.

"What's wrong Jessicacaca?" Fred or George asked.

"We're playing Hufflepuff." I replied.

"No, we're playing Slytherin, you need more sleep Jess!" I looked up at George

"Slytherin switched, we're actually playing Hufflepuff."

"Shit, where's Wood, he's gonna..." No need to finish that sentence, Wood stormed into the hall and stomped all the way to a seat next to us. Everyone held their breath.

"Fucking Slytherin assholes!!" he said going very red in the face.

"Ok Oliver breath, don't let them know they got to you. We can beat Hufflepuff, they're not as good as Slytherin anyway." Ange offered, trying to calm him down.

"You know what, lets just finish breakfast, go to the dressing rooms early and talk about the hufflepuff team, what tactics we should use, it will be fine, we have loads of time yet!" I offered and everyone seemed to agree, except for Wood.

"Did you know they were going to do this?" He asked me angrily.

"Me, how the hell would I know, I just found out when I came down for breakfast." I said confused and ready to cry at the way Wood was glaring at me.

"Oliver shut up and don't say something you'll regret." Fred said in the most serious tone I've heard come out of his mouth to date. Oliver listened and went about eating his food. I finished my breakfast first and decided to leave the tension and head towards the pitch.

Please review! Next chapter is the last! Thanks for the reviews I got! xxx