Blood Ties
Part 19
Rating, summary and such are same as before.
Note: Thank you Joahn for beta-reading the story.
Harry slowly opened his eyes and growled. "Harry." He turned and found Professor Lupin kneeing beside him, a warm smile on his face. He reached out, and helped Harry sat up "C'mon. Deep breaths." He instructed.
Harry looked around and frowned. "I..."
"It's alright, Harry. I didn't except you to do it the first time. In fact, I would have been astounded if you had." The professor handed Harry some chocolate. "Here. Eat this. You'll feel better."
Harry accepted the chocolate and took a bite. "That was a nasty Dementor."
"Oh no, Harry. That was a Boggart. I found it lurking inside Mr. Filch's filing cabinet last week. The real thing will be much much worst." Professor Lupin explained. "Matter of interest. What memory did you use?"
"First time I rode a broom."
"That's not good enough." The professor shook his head. "Not nearly good enough." Harry frowned. "Why don't you go back and have some rest? We'll continue next week."
"But..." Looking at the professor's pale face, Harry sighed. "Yes professor." He stood. "Good night professor."
Professor Lupin watched as the young wizard moved towards the door for a moment before calling out. "Harry?" Harry halted. "Think of a memory, okay?"
Harry nodded and left.
Willow opened her eyes and looked around, smiling as she found her roommates sleeping deeply. She turned towards the other way, resolve painted her face as she saw a Dementor fly passed it. Quietly, she flipped away her blanket, picking up her broom and sneaked out of the room.
Looking around making sure no once was here, Willow moved towards the end of the corridor and pulled out her wand. "Alomahora." She waved her wand at the window, and pushed it open. She then climbed up of the window sill and mounted her broom, before taking a deep breath, and jumped.
Willow bit her lips, stopping herself from screaming as the broom waving and swaying in the air. When the broom finally stabilized, the redhead sighed in relief and started looking around. "C'mon..." She narrowed her eyes when she saw something black reflected under the moon light, and without a second thought, she took off.
It didn't take long for Willow to finally catch up with the Dementor. The Dementor stopped and turned around, but took off again when it recognized the redhead.
"Hey! Stop!" Willow ordered. To her surprise, the Dementor followed the command and halted. She quickly flew passed the Dementor and stopped right in front of it. "Why are you avoiding me?" She paused. "You're avoiding me, aren't you? All of you. I need to know why."
The Dementor just floated in the air, not moving, as if studying the redhead. After a moment, it turned around, intended to leave. Willow took off with her broom and stopped right in front of the Dementor again. "WHY!"
Slowly, the Dementor held up its hand; its long, bone white figure appeared from the dark cloak, shaking slightly. Then, it slowly moved forward, floating right pass the redhead and disappeared into the night.
Willow tightened her grip on the broom, so hard that her knuckles turned white, even though her eyes were as black as night.
"We don't have to cheer for Slytherin, do we?"
Harry, Ron, Xander and Buffy were making their way towards the Quidditch pitch. It was the first Quidditch match for the new semester, and the first match for Slytherin since Professor Snape had asked for delaying all Slytherin's matches due to Draco's injury. In Harry's opinion, it didn't matter anyway since Draco wasn't that good of a seeker. "You don't have to, I guess." Harry shrugged. "I'm only cheering for Willow anyway." He blushed immediately when he realized what he had said.
Buffy exhaled.
"I really don't know what you see in her, Harry." Xander sighed. Harry immediately sent a glare at him.
"She is nice enough, but did you see her last night at dinner with those piles of books?" Ron made a face. "I swear she reads even more than Hermione."
"At least she plays Quidditch." Xander sighed again.
"Where's Hermione, by the way?"
"I've asked her." Buffy answered. "She rumbled something about two hundred and twenty-six pages and then shooed me away."
"That girl is getting crazier and crazier." Ron shook his head, and immediately received a smack on the back of his head from Buffy. "Hey!"
"I don't care if you're still angry at her, Ron. She's our friend." Buffy scowled before turning towards Harry. "I have asked Giles to see if he can get the Firebolt back, but he said," she cleared her throat and put on her best 'Giles-stuffy-face'. "'It is for Harry's own safety, Buffy', and then he started cleaning his glasses again."
"It's okay, Buffy." Harry sighed again as they chose to stood along with the Ravenclaw students at the stadium.
The match finally started. Harry couldn't help but grin when Willow spotted him from the air and waved happily at him. As the game processed, Ravenclaw managed to score thirty points, while Slytherin scored twenty. Willow had managed to make a couple of good saves, but not enough as Ravenclaw's strong defense had given the Slytherin's Chasers a really hard time.
"Ravenclaw in possession." The commentator's voice echoed in the pitch but could only be barely heard through the cheering. "Roger Davies is heading for the go- wow!" Everyone in the pitch watched as Marcus Flint, chaser and captain of Slytherin team, held up his elbow and smashed it towards Davies' face. The hit wasn't hard enough to draw blood, but enough to cause the Ravenclaw captain to drop the Quaffle. "It's a foul! Ravenclaw penalty!"
"The Slytherins are getting more violent." Buffy frowned.
"They're desperate, I guess." Harry commented. He watched as Roger Davies, the captain and chaser of the Ravenclaw prepared for the penalty, and Willow started flying around the three goal hoops at a high speed.
"Willow Slytherin is doing a double eight loop. Will she be able to stop the goal?"
"Is Willow using a Comet?" Xander asked. "I thought she has a hand-made broom."
"She bought it just before the new school year started." Harry explained.
"It looks slower." Ron frowned.
Harry didn't comment but focused on the Slytherin Keeper as the match continued.
"Davies shoots! Slytherin hit the Quaffle away! What a disappointment!"
"Yes!" Harry shouted excitedly, and immediately earned himself a sea of glares from the Ravenclaw students around him. "Ah..."
"Keep it down if you wanna get out here alive." Buffy whispered to her friend.
"Montague! Pass to Flint! To Montague again! Ravenclaw steals the Quaffle! Davis heading towards the goal! He shoots!" The Ravenclaw students watched in awe while the Slytherin students cheered as Willow blocked the Quaffle with her one hand and leg curled around the handle of her broom and her other limbs outstretched. "Starfish and stick! A beautiful save from the Slytherin team!"
"Wow. When did she learn that move!" Xander said, his mouth dropped open.
Harry smirked at his friend's expression. He and Willow had spent quite sometime practicing different moves together. Harry had been practicing on 'wrongski defensive feint' while Willow's working on her 'starfish and stick'.
Harry's smirk turned into a frown when Draco and another Ravenclaw player raced passed in front of him. He turned towards them, and recognized the Ravenclaw player as Cho Chang, the famous (and pretty... even though he would never admit it in front of Willow) Ravenclaw seeker.
"She's fast, even though she's only using a Comet." Xander said.
"Are you kidding? She's bloody brilliant!"
Harry smiled at Ron's expression, before turning back towards Cho Chang. "She's using the same broomstick as Willow." He commented.
"The whole Ravenclaw team is using the same broomstick as Willow, Harry, or you didn't notice until now?" Xander grinned, and Harry blushed immediately. "You really got it bad, Harry."
Buffy exhaled quietly... again.
"Malfoy catches the snitch!" The gang turned back towards the match, and found the Malfoy was now in the middle of the pitch, holding up the golden snitch in the air. "Slytherin wins!"
"Damn it!"
"Don't curse, Xander." Buffy gave his friend a disapproving look.
"Like you don't." Xander countered.
"It's a close one." Ron said. "You reckon we have a chance winning the Quidditch cup this year?"
"May be." Harry shrugged, and grinned when he saw Willow waving at him. He waved back, smiling, but his smile quickly turned into shock as a bright green ball of energy shot towards her from no where. "WATCH OUT!"
Hearing the warning, Willow quickly swerved away, barely avoiding the energy ball that was heading towards her. It hit the wall behind her, leaving a hole on the wooden structure.
Students started screaming as a second ball of energy appeared and shot towards Willow again. The redhead pulled up and opened her palm, facing outwards and called on a shield. The energy ball hit the redhead's shield and exploded. But even before the dust from the explosion settled, a third energy ball appeared and headed towards the redhead. She quickly pulled up her broomstick, but not fast enough as the energy hit the handle of her broom.
Willow's broom got hit by the energy ball and smashed into two. She fell backwards, her head hit the goal hoop behind her before crashing onto the ground. Harry screamed and quickly ran towards the pitch with his friends.
"Everyone to the castle!" Dumbledore ordered as he too moved towards the unconscious redhead with other professors.
Draco was the first to reach Willow's side. He quickly knelt beside her, looking at the arriving professors with a panicky expression on his face. Harry looked down, his eyes widened when he saw blood covering the redhead's forehead. "Willow!" He reached for her, only to be shoved away by the Slytherin Prince.
"Get away from her, Potter!" Draco shouted.
Dumbledore ignored Draco and Harry and focused on Willow. He carefully reached the redhead's head and neck, checking the bones, before turning towards to Hagrid. "Hagrid. Take her to Madam Pomfrey. Hurry." Hagrid nodded, carefully picking up the redhead before running towards the hospital wing. Without another word, Harry and Draco immediately followed.
"But-"
"OUT!" Madam Pomfrey ordered. Hagrid looked apologetically at Harry, before closing the door of the hospital wing, leaving the gang and the Slytherin students outside.
Harry stared at the closed door, his hands shaking. Suddenly, he felt himself being shoved onto the floor. He looked up, and found Draco glaring at him angrily.
"Hey!" Buffy quickly moved herself in front of Harry. But to her surprise, Dawn also moved forward and put herself in front of Harry, shielding him.
"What's your damage Malfoy?" Dawn shouted at her fellow Slytherin.
"Move aside, Rosier! It's between me and that mudblood-lover." Draco shouted back, pointing at Harry.
"Right. You pushing him around will help Willow. Very mature." Dawn rolled her eyes, before turning towards Buffy and the others who were helping Harry up. "Potter, you better leave."
"Ms. Rosier is right, Mr. Potter." The students turned around and found Professor Snape standing there. "What happened to Ms. Slytherin is none of your concern. Headmaster has ordered all students to report to their common rooms. We wouldn't want the good name of famous Potter to be destroyed, now do we?"
"I don't need you to care about my good name, Professor." Harry grounded his teeth.
Snape narrowed his eyes, before bending down a bit and whispered into Harry's ear. "Ms. Slytherin has a bright future, Mr. Potter, and she doesn't need some... un-wanted distraction lurking around in shadow like a love sick puppy." He hissed. "You will leave her alone. And this will be your only warning." He then stood high and turned towards Draco. "Report back to the common room, Malfoy."
"But Prof-"
"Now!"
Harry and Draco both stared hard at the professor, before leaving for their prospective common rooms.