Disclaimer – The original Harry Potter characters and the world of Harry Potter are not of my own invention and I do not claim ownership of them. KC
Aubrey ran into the Gryffindor change rooms at the Quidditch Stadium, bringing a large puddle of water in with her. The storm was horrendous and the rain was pelting down. How the Gryffindor team was going to play Quidditch in this, she had no idea. Frankly, she thought it was a bit mad but she knew she wouldn't be able to convince her boyfriend otherwise.
She used a drying charm to evaporate the water from her clothes and hair and looked around the room. The Gryffindor Quidditch team were already dressed in their scarlet and gold Quiddich uniforms and were discussing last minute logistics with their captain. Mitch loved being captain and spent most of his time planning and training for their games. He had a commanding yet supportive air whilst directing his team which Aubrey found very attractive. He noticed her standing near the door and smiled. He said a few more words to his team, leading them in a team cheer, before walking over to kiss her hello.
"I can't believe you are going to play in this weather," she said, pulling away from him at the sound of thunder. "Isn't it dangerous?"
"Only if we get struck by lightning," Mitch said, grinning cheekily. "But I have the best team behind me and there is no way Slytherin is going to beat us today!"
The sound of the whistle calling the players out onto the grounds was blown and the roars of the dwindling crowd were heard shortly after. Not many had come out to watch the stormy game today as most had decided to watch from the comfort of the castle. Aubrey however had decided to brave the weather so as to add to the Gryffindor's support team in the stands; the Slytherin crowd was much larger than the Gryffindor one.
"Just be careful," she said to Mitch, giving him another peck on the lips.
"We'll be fine," he reinforced and ran off to lead his team out into the weather.
The Gryffindor Seeker, Benjamin Roman, who was a classmate of Aubrey's, gave her a nervous smile. He didn't look at all thrilled to be flying off into the thunder storm. His job was going to be especially hard today, trying to find the tiny gold snitch in the pouring rain, so she wished him luck.
Pulling on Mitch's spare rain jacket that he had left in the change rooms, Aubrey climbed up into the stands to join a small group of nearby Gryffindor supporters. Taking a seat she was surprised to see Henry sitting in the stand block down from her. She had hardly spoken to him all year, apart from in class, as he had pretty much buried himself under his books and notes. As Fifth Years they would be taking their O.W.L.s soon to apply to continue with their subjects next year when they would be studying at the N.E.W.T level. Henry had taken to his studies this year like a fish in water, probably due to all his practice in the previous year, while other students struggled and often broke down from stress and exhaustion. Aubrey too was feeling the strain but her time flying with Mitch often helped to release some of her stress.
Under his wing she had become an excellent flyer and he had even taught her the basics of Quidditch. But today she felt glad that she wasn't the one out their playing in this whether because she doubted she would be able to stay on a broom in this wind.
Madam Hooch entered the stadium to begin the game. She opened the Quidditch ball box, sending the bludgers and snitch flying off into the darkness, and threw the Quaffle into the air. Slytherin was the first to catch it and their Chaser zoomed towards the Gryffindor hoops. However Mitch was already there waiting for them and made a spectacular dive to prevent the Slytherin Chaser from scoring.
Aubrey cheered loudly every time Gryffindor scored and every time Mitch successfully stopped Slytherin from scoring. However the latter didn't occur as often as it usually did and Slytherin were in the lead after only twenty minutes.
Aubrey squinted in the murky grey sky for a sign of Roman chasing the snitch. They needed him to catch it pretty quickly to prevent Slytherin from taking the victory.
Suddenly a bright crack of lightning illuminated the sky and Aubrey saw Roman falling from the sky. His broomstick had been struck by the bolt, charring the end completely off, and he was falling quickly towards the ground. Aubrey shrieked as he fell, crashing into and taking down another two Gryffindor players and a Slytherin player in the process, and hit the ground. Madam Hooch blew her whistle, signalling the game to be paused, and ran out onto the field. Aubrey too quickly made her way out onto the field and approached the groaning pile of bodies on the ground.
The Slytherin player was clutching his ankle while the two Gryffindor's each held their wrists to their chests. However Roman was no moving at all as he had been knocked unconscious and Madam Hooch called for a stretcher to take him to the hospital wing.
By this stage Mitch had flown to the ground to survey the damage to his team. Aubrey saw him go pale and become very concerned.
Aubrey approached him to comfort him but he shook her off.
"With three players off the field and only two reserves, we are going to be a man down," he said to his team. Aubrey watched as they did the math and all their faces fell.
"There is no way we can win now," said one of the Beaters and the others murmured in agreement.
"Not if we bring Aubrey out to play," said Mitch, pointing at his girlfriend.
Aubrey and the rest of his teammates were completely stunned at his suggestion.
"She is a good flyer and if we put her on as our reserve Seeker, we can use the other two reserves as our replacement Chasers. They know the tactics already and Aubrey would be out of the way of the action chasing the snitch. It all works out." Mitch explained receiving apprehensive nods from his teammates.
"Well your captaincy for next year is riding on this decision, Conwell," said the Beater, "We need to win this game to go into the final. But if you think it'll work, then I guess we have no other option."
Mitch told Madam Hooch what they planned to do before pulling Aubrey, who was still dumbstruck at the idea of her playing, towards the change rooms. He gave her a spare uniform and retrieved her broomstick from out of storage. When Mitch had been made captain, his parents had gone out and bought him a brand new racing broom so Mitch had sold Aubrey his old one for a cheap price. It was still a very good broomstick and she could ride it comfortably. But she felt extremely nervous at the idea of riding it in this storm.
Walking back onto the field, Aubrey heard someone in the stands shout something loudly and turned around to see Henry making his way over to her and Mitch.
"What do you think you're doing making her play in this storm, Conwell?," he directed at Mitch angrily, "She doesn't even play and you're putting her out there for the first time in this weather. It's absurd!"
Henry had grown a lot over the past year, making him appear very intimidating at that very moment, and his silver eyes were piercing in his rage.
"She can play very well actually, Wilks," Mitch said, defending his decision, "and I have complete faith in her that she will do the team proud and catch us the snitch." Although this was meant to encourage her, Mitch's words made Aubrey feel almost sick with nerves.
"Now if you excuse us," Mitch continued, "we have a game to win," and then he directed Aubrey away from Henry and over to join the rest of the Gryffindor team.
Aubrey took off into the air when Madam Hooch recommenced the game and she wobbled slightly in the wind. It was unlike any type of weather she had ever flown in and she squinted around the field, trying to catch a glimpse of the tiny gold ball she was supposed to catch. Her hair whipped her face and she looked down at where Mitch was protecting the Gryffindor hoops. He was concentrating hard on the game and Aubrey felt queasy at the thought of letting him down. She not only needed to catch the snitch to win the game but also to ensure that he was named captain again next year.
As if thinking about the snitch made it appear, Aubrey suddenly saw it floating a few metres in front of her, struggling in the wind. She rocketed off towards it but it darted away at the last second. She swooped downwards to follow it and her movement must have caught the Slytherin Seeker's eye as he soon joined her in the chase. However in his desperation to catch up to Aubrey and the snitch, he overbalanced slightly and the wind carried him over the front of his broom and towards the ground. He bumped into Aubrey as he fell and she could feel herself losing control of her broom. The snitch was only inches in front of her and so she lashed out at it before hitting the ground below the Slytherins hoops.
She sat up quickly, not being badly hurt, and opened her fisted hand. Nestled into the palm of her hand was the snitch and she held it up triumphantly.
"Gryffindor Wins!" she heard the commentator shout and the Gryffindor team flew down to celebrate with her. Mitch flew down to her and in one bound scooped her up in his arms and spun her around, making her laugh out loud.
The Gryffindor team, still soaking wet and incredibly muddy, entered the Gryffindor common room to a huge roar of applause and the embraces of their friends. Nell jumped on Aubrey with a squeal of delight, bringing them both down to the floor. Aubrey laughed and beamed widely. From the time she had caught the snitch, a smile had not left her face.
The Gryffindor team started to head down to the Great Hall for dinner, still in their dirty uniforms, but Aubrey raced off towards the owlery, eager to send a letter to her parents about the game. She told Nell and Mitch where she was going and headed towards the tower where the owls lived whilst their owners were at Hogwarts.
She entered the tower and quickly wrote a short letter detailing the events of the game. Then sealing the envelope, she looked up at the rafters for her owl, Austen. But she couldn't spot his rusty coloured feathers or big green eyes on any of the owls currently there. She was just about to fasten the letter onto one of the Hogwarts owls when Austen came flying in the window with a large collection of letters.
She untied the letters from his foot and looked at the names they were addressed to. But they weren't for her; they were for her parents. She turned the letters over to see her own name on the back, marking her as the sender, and she realised that these were all the letters she had sent to parents this year. But why had they sent them back?
She then spotted another letter attached to Austen's other leg. Untying it from his leg, she saw that this one was addressed to her and she opened it immediately.
Dear Miss Jones,
We regret to inform you that Darren and Caroline Jones no longer live at this address. We intercepted your letters in the Muggle Post and investigated as to why they were not being received by the people they were addressed to. We sent a Ministry official to your house and discovered from the new owners that the previous owners had not left them a forwarding address and had also not packed up one of the rooms in the house. We found your belongings in this room and have taken them to a storage facility at the Ministry. If you could please send us a new address then we will deliver your belongings to you there.
We are sorry to bring you such unfortunate news and will continue to try and locate Mr and Mrs Jones at your request.
Hope you are otherwise well and all the best for your upcoming O.W.L. examinations.
The Wizarding Communications Department.
Aubrey felt her heart fall down to her stomach. Her parents were gone and they hadn't even told her why or said goodbye; They had abandoned her.
She could feel her throat closing up and she slid down the wall to slump on the floor. Burying her face in her hands, she began to sob like she never had before.
"Aubrey, there you are. Nell told me that you were – "
Aubrey didn't need to look up to see who it was as she could tell just from his voice. She felt Henry sit down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, and pulled her into a hug. She wailed into his chest, staining his jumper with her tears.
"My parents," she choked out, "they ha – have left and I don – don't know where they've gone."
She saw him pick up the letter from the Wizarding Communications Department and she sobbed harder into his chest.
"You can come live with me," he whispered and wrapped his arms tighter around her.
"They le – left because I'm a witch," she cried. "They abandoned m - me because of the magic. They were scared and I didn't reassure them."
"Shhhhh," Henry soothed, "everything will be alright. It'll take some time but you'll see." Then he placed a tender and lingering kiss on her temple.
Even in her distraught state, the kiss caught her by surprise. He had been almost completely absent from her life for the past year. Why was he here? What was he inferring with that kiss? 'No, this isn't happening' she thought, 'No… no…'
"No," she said out loud, pushing herself away from him to stand up.
"'No' what?" Henry asked, looking very startled at her sudden change in emotion.
"That!" she exclaimed, putting her hand to her temple where he had kissed her. "What was that?"
"I was comforting you," said Henry, defending his actions.
"You were doing a fine job of it before you…" she couldn't even say it. "You can't just ignore me for almost a year and then come in and act like this!"
"But I – "
"No!" she interrupted angrily, "I thought you were my best friend but then you shut me out because you believed that studying was more important than my friendship. Now suddenly you walk in here and act all friendly again and even have the nerve to kiss me like that. I have a boyfriend!"
"I wasn't – "
"I can't just be your friend when it is convenient for you, Henry! You take and take yet never give anything towards this friendship and I'm sick of it! Arghh, your being such a…" but she stopped herself from saying it.
"Go on," glowered Henry as he stood up to face her. "Go on, say it."
"Like a Slytherin!" she shouted.
Even though he knew it was coming, hurt still showed on Henry's face. Aubrey suddenly wanted him desperately to retaliate, to say something mean about her so that she could feel the pain she had just given him. But he simply walked out of the owlery, leaving her to heave in anger.
She kicked the wall, sending several owls fluttering out the window, trying to continue to feel angry at Henry. But all she felt now was guilt.
CHAPTER 7 (YEAR 6) NOW AVAILABLE!
As a first-time FanFiction writer, I would love a review or feedback from you on my writing. Just like Aubrey I am very excited to be setting out on a new journey and I can't wait to share more of my ideas with you.
KC