- CHAPTER SEVEN -

Drowning

The next morning I woke up to the early mutters of newly awake chattering students. I couldn't make out what anyone was saying, but I knew it would revolve around the events that unfolded the night before. As I opened my eyes my vision was fuzzy and my head was aching with exhaustion. I couldn't remember when I had even fallen asleep, and the floor hadn't made for a very comfortable night.

I reached up to rub the sleep out of my eyes and I tried sitting up, but couldn't. Turning my head I realized why. Fred was still holding me in his arms tightly. It appears he hadn't let go the entire night.

"Fred," I grumbled, giving him a shake, "Fred, Fred get off."

Unable to wake him I lay back down and stared up at the ceiling of the Great Hall. It was cloudy and dark outside and it looked like a pretty miserable day.

"Hey."

I looked over and saw George stretching his arms over his head with a great yawn.

"G'morning," I answered, yawning as well.

"You've got a Fred on you," George pointed out.

"Yeah I know. Could you give me a hand?" I asked.

George climbed out of his sleeping bag, carefully avoiding the rest of our friends who were just now beginning to rise themselves. He gave Fred a swift kick in the ribs and yanked him off of me just as he groaned in pain.

"Ugh. What?" Fred said rubbing his eyes sitting up, "what was that for?"

I snickered at him as he scratched at his eyes and turned my attention on the rest of the hall. Everywhere people were starting to whisper anxiously to each other, and I saw Percy readying himself to start herding the Gryffindor students back to the common room. I hoped we were going to get some answers about the circumstances soon.

Over the next few days, unsurprisingly, all anyone would talk about was Sirius Black. Theories were spreading throughout the school about how he could have gotten in; each more idiotic than the last. I myself didn't have a clue as to how he managed it.

In terms of Damage Control: the Fat Lady's portrait had been replaced by the portrait of Sir Cadogan and his fat grey pony. The Gryffindors were all extremely upset by the change, and with good reason. Sir Cadogan spent half of his time challenging people to duels, and the rest thinking up extremely ridiculous passwords, which he changed quite a few times a day. Unfortunately for us, none of the other portraits wanted the job after what had happened to the Fat Lady.

The teachers were now spending much more of their free time patrolling the halls, which made it extremely difficult for trouble makers like Fred and George to get their full dose of mischief. Thus, they were quite often grumpy.

On top of all the other insanity, Oliver had the Quidditch team practicing like mad once again. To make matters worse, the weather was horrible and was becoming increasingly so, but Wood continued to push everyone to their limit.

It was during one of these horrible rainy-weathered practices that we received some bad news.

"We're not playing Slytherin! Flint's just been to see me, we're playing Hufflepuff instead." Wood announced to the entire team.

"Why?" I asked.

"Flint's excuse is their Seeker's arm is still injured."

Everyone scoffed in disbelief.

Rumour had it that Draco Malfoy, Slytherin Seeker and arrogant prick extraordinaire had falsely accused a hippogriff of biting him out of violence-apparently this was the cause of his injured arm and the reason why they could not compete.

"But it's obvious why they're doing it. Don't want to play in this weather. Think it'll damage their chances…" Wood finished.

"There's nothing wrong with Malfoy's arm!" Harry said suddenly. He sounded furious. "He's faking it!"

"I know that, but we can't prove it," said Wood, "And we've been practicing all those moves assuming we're playing Slytherin, and instead it's Hufflepuff, and their style's quite different. They've got a new captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory-"

He was cut off as Katie and Alicia giggled and then began whispering. The twins rolled their eyes at the pair, and then sent me a warning glance as if to tell me to keep my mouth shut. I laughed at them and turned back to Oliver.

"What is it?" said Wood, frowning at the two giggling girls, clearly confused about the outburst.

"Oh, it's just that he's gorgeous," I supplied for him, seeing his puzzled expression. Fred and George both frowned at me. I grinned widely at them as the two other girls continued.

"He's tall and good looking," Alicia said.

"Strong and silent," Katie added.

"He's only silent because he's too thick to string two words together," said Fred impatiently.

"Do I detect a hint of jealousy?" I asked Fred smiling.

Fred rolled his eyes and turned back to Wood. I swear I saw him blush a little.

On the day of the first match of the Quidditch season it was raining and cold outside. The whole school, as usual, had gathered in the stands to watch the two teams face off. The Gryffindor team sat in the in the change room for Oliver's pep talk. He stuttered and wasn't able to say anything, so just beckoned the rest of us to follow him onto the field and into the harsh, biting wind.

When Madam Hooch blew her whistle, both teams soared into the air. The rain was now coming down hard and it was difficult for me to see anything. I did manage to get a few points for Gryffindor, but for the most part it was a lost cause.

It was pure chaos as Katie, Alicia and I attempted to get a hold of the Quaffle. Even when we had managed to grab it we had no way of knowing who was in possession. It was too difficult to see past the pellets of rain striking us from all angles. This also brought out the issue of Bludgers. If we chasers could barely see the Quaffle, how were Fred and George supposed to see the Bludgers? At least the Quaffle is coloured red—the Bludgers were the same colour as the darkening sky.

So, the game progressed in confusion. I was continually afraid of being knocked off of my broom by a rogue Bludger, and it became increasingly difficult to avoid hitting other players on my way toward the goal.

The entire team desperately needed Harry to catch the Snitch. Lightning started to flash in the sky when I heard Madam Hooch's whistle sound again. Seeing that Wood had called a time out I zoomed back down to the ground.

The team huddled at the edge of the field under an umbrella. A few blankets were conjured up to keep us temporarily warm.

"What's the score?" Harry asked.

"We're up fifty points," Wood answered, "but unless we get the Snitch soon, we'll be playing into the night."

"I've got no chance with these on," Harry removed his glasses just as Hermione appeared through the storm.

"I have an idea Harry! Give me your glasses, quick!" she said, snatching Harry's glasses from him.

Hermione tapped them quickly with her wand, casting a spell that caused them to repel water. Just as quickly as she had come, she left again and Madam Hooch was telling everyone to mount their brooms. Wood looked immensely impressed and began to ask Harry if the spell had helped as he slipped his glasses back onto his face. Harry confirmed that he could indeed see better, which gave us all a glimmer of hope that this could be over soon.

"Are you alright?" Fred asked me. He was huddled under the same blanket as me, along with Alicia on his other side. His hair was completely drenched and he was squinting to see me through the rain.

"Yeah I'm fine," I answered, shivering from the cold. I actually felt quite horrible, but if there is one thing I hate to do, it's showing weakness in front of the twins. It's hard being best mates with guys; the macho factor sort of rubs off.

Oliver's time was up, and we were back in the air. Only minutes later, however, the team was back down again. Harry had fallen off of his broom. Dementors had found their way over to the pitch and caused him to faint, hurtling to the ground. I hadn't seen it happen, but the sight of him lying unconscious was frightening. He looked awful. We were assured he would be fine, and the entire team hurried up to the castle as Harry was brought to the hospital wing. The Dementors were ordered back to their posts by a positively furious-looking Dumbledore.

"You sure you're alright?" George asked me as we stood around Harry's bed. He was still unconscious.

"Yes I'm fine," I answered irritably, "Stop asking."

Fred put his arm around my shoulders and kissed my drenched forehead just as Harry opened his eyes.

"Harry!" Fred yelled, "How're you feeling?"

"What happened?" Harry asked sitting up.

"You fell off," Fred answered, "must have been, what, fifty feet?"

"We thought you'd died," Alicia said, she was still shaking from the cold.

"But the match, what happened? Are we having a replay?" Harry asked, causing everyone to fall silent.

No one wanted to be the bearer of bad news.

"We didn't lose did we?" he asked, his eyes widening.

"Diggory got the Snitch," George said, "just after you fell. He didn't realize what had happened. When he looked back and saw you on the ground, he tried to call it off. Wanted a re-match. But they won fair and square…even Wood admits it."

"Where is Wood?" asked Harry, glancing around the room in search for our captain.

"Still in the showers," George answered, "We think he's trying to drown himself."

There were a few snickers at that comment. Harry looked miserable as he was filled in on the details.

"You sure you're warm enough?" Fred muttered, eyeing my blue lips as I shivered next to him.

He removed a blanket from around his shoulders and wrapped it tightly around me.

"Fred I'm fine," I said, "I'm not a baby."

"I know you're not," he said with a small smile, "I'm just looking after you. Is that a crime?"

I gave him an unimpressed look, but said nothing. The fact that we had lost the match wasn't sitting with me too well, and my drenched clothing was making me more uncomfortable than I cared to let on.

"I don't want you freezing solid. You're too heavy for me to lug around the castle again," he joked, smirking at me.

I rolled my eyes at him and pulled the blankets tighter around my body just as Madam Pomfrey came in to usher us all out.

Giving a hurried goodbye to Harry, the rest of us headed out the door and into the freezing cold corridor—or at least it seemed freezing cold with my robes dripping wet.

We made our way slowly back up to Gryffindor Tower, stopping momentarily to convince Sir Cadogan we were uninterested in a duel.

There was a debate amongst us as to whether or not we should go down and fetch Oliver from the showers. It was agreed that Katie and Alicia would go and fetch him, as it probably wasn't safe to leave him down there alone in such a mad storm.

That left Fred, George, and I to slump up to our prospective dormitories to shower and change into dry clothes.

Once I had cleaned and dried myself to satisfaction, I pulled on warm clothing and descended to the common room once again. I was almost tempted to just go straight to bed, but with the Dementors around and the Sirius Black scare still in the back of my mind, I wanted to see for myself that Oliver and the girls came back safely.

Fred was sitting by the fire when I re-entered, looking just as put out as I felt.

"Today sucked," I said childishly as I slumped down on the couch next to him.

"I know it did," Fred replied, sinking low into the cushions.

"Do you think we still have a chance at the Cup?" I asked hopefully.

"A slim one," Fred answered dully.

"You've got that right."

I turned around to see Oliver dripping wet and looking miserable as he sulkily made his way past us. Alicia and Katie both hurried up to our dormitory to change, seen as how their duty had now been fulfilled.

"But it's still a chance," Fred told him optimistically.

"I guess," he said, sounding doubtful.

"You gunna be ok?" I asked him.

He looked at me and shrugged before slumping up to his dormitory.

"How very uncharacteristic of him," I said with a frown when he had disappeared.

"He's needs to get himself a girl," Fred replied. "That game was rubbish, but he's more upset than he should be."

I smirked.

"You don't have a girl," I pointed out.

"I do so," Fred said, sitting up straight.

"Oh ya? And who is that?" I asked him.

"You."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Says who?"

"I did," he answered simply.

"Oh really?" I said sarcastically. "What makes me your girl, exactly?"

"You just are."

"What about George?" I questioned.

"What about him?"

"Maybe I prefer him. Maybe I'd rather be George's girl."

"Why on earth would you want that?" Fred looked disgusted.

"Why on earth would I want you?"

Fred pretended to be offended, and I took a swipe at him. He dodged me easily and pinched my cheek. I shook him off irritably.

"I was just having some fun Jules, don't get so worked up."

"Me? Please," I said. "You don't have that kind of power over me."

"That's true," Fred agreed with a cheeky grin on his face. "You can't make someone love you for real, so you must have come across your feelings for me on your own."

"Smart ass," I muttered, getting up and smacking him in the back of the head in the process.

Fred watched me climb the stairs, laughing to himself.

"Love you Jules!" he called after me.

I ignored him at first, but grumbled back at him before I stepped into my dormitory.

"Love you too, Fred."

A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for all of the reviews so far…and if you haven't sent me one yet I'd really appreciate it if you did so you can let me know what you think of the story so far! Thanks for the support.