Chapter 22-A Swing and A Miss

I run through the stands as the game is still going on, the jar of potion tucked against my chest, warming my body. I push through the people in the Ravenclaw section. I know how the game will end and I need to get to her before it does. I see her in the stands with her blonde hair flying out around her.

"Frieda!" I shout. She doesn't even look in my direction. "FRIEDA!" I scream. I repeat her name over and over and over again until she pauses and swishes her head around until she spots me. I see her eyes through the crowd of heads. She pushes through the people and smiles at me.

"Pocahontas!" she shouts. "You came! The game's almost over though, I—."

I pull her robes and lead her off to the side where there is at least a bit less noise so we can hear each other. "Frieda, I need a favor."

She knits her eyebrows. "What kind of favor?"

Leo stood, high above the audience and players, in the announcer's box, his eyes moving quickly on the scene.

"And look!" he shouted. "The golden snitch has been spotted by the Ravenclaw team seeker who speeds after it in hot pursuit! The Gryffindor seeker quickly catches on and is following, but making for it from the opposite end of the stadium!" He loved the way his voice echoed powerfully through the stadium and controlled the screams of the crowd. Most of them couldn't see the chase from where they sat. They leaned over the edges of the viewing stands, trying to get a better look, but the fight for the tiny golden ball was happening on the very outskirts of the field. "The Ravenclaw seeker makes a jump for the snitch…and misses! That's a move she'll need to recover from, but the Gryffindor seeker is still on its tail! The Ravenclaws are still significantly ahead of the Gryffindors in points, though. If they manage to boost their score before the snitch is caught, the game could still go to them."

"Leo, would you stop sounding like you want the Ravenclaws to win?" Patricia huffed beside him, her voice catching into the spell and echoing through the stadium.

"I'm trying remain impartial," Leo said. "As any good announcer should."

Albus grabbed his wand and shouted. "GO GRYFFINDOR!" The message roared through the stadium. The Gryffindor crowd went wild and Leo yanked his wand back.

"Would you two get out of here? This is supposed to be my box. You've invaded it. Leave!"

"No, mate, I must stay! You need me!"Albus shouted as Leo pushed the two out of the room and locked the door behind them. He turned back to the game, cursing to himself when he realized that he'd missed a chunk of the game and then cursing again when he realized that he'd just announced multiple swear words to the entire audience. Well, at least that could be interpreted as his frustration at Gryffindor loosing.

"The Gryffindor seeker appears to be behind once more to the Ravenclaw seeker who was able to quickly take the lead of the snitch a second time. And Gryffindor just scored! And again another Gryffindor…was taken out by a Ravenclaw budger." Again, George was the culprit. He was livid when he saw that she had taken Lorcan's spot. So Lorcan really was off of the team. Merlin, first his mother and now this? He hated that girl, though he couldn't say that he was surprised. She was proud to steal his spot on the team. Something perplexed him, though. He noticed the way she held her bat.

As the players swarmed around the pitch, it looked as if the game wasn't close to finished after all. The seekers were still whipping about at an odd angle, but he didn't see any… Just then he saw it. The snitch flew from under the stands and the seekers were on it instantly. And he saw one other thing that nobody else could see. George. She raised her bat. The crack of a bludger against a wooden bat. A hand closed around the snitch.

"Gryffindor wins," Leo said, slight surprise in his voice. There was no enthusiasm from him, no line of congratulations and praising of the team as there would have been after such a hard fought game. The Gryffindor crowd erupted in cheers and screamed its utter delight at the results. They were rapt. Leo wasn't. Because from his angle, he'd seen what nobody else had.

He pulled himself together.

"Ah…and that rounds off the game. Congratulations to Gryffindor," he concluded lamely. He shut off the announcer spell on his wand and stepped slowly out of the box and stood there for a moment before what had just happened snapped into place in his mind and he bolted. He ran, bumping into countless people on the field celebrating or cursing their loss. Leo pushed and shoved to escape the crowd, but people kept calling his name and joking with him about what he'd said in the announcer's box. He could hardly pay attention to any of it. What had just happened? Why?

"Leo!" Jeremy shouted, waving his arms. He was still in his Quidditch uniform when he ran up to him. "This is great! Are you coming to the party?"

"Um…yeah," Leo said. "Yeah, I'll be there." Suddenly Carina came to his mind. When he'd asked her whether she was going to see the game, she said she'd already seen it and he had to wonder if they'd seen the same thing. "Hey, do you know if Carina's going?"

"Oh…no, she never got back to me."

That was Carina. Vague about everything and almost conditioned to vanish and reappear. He had the feeling they'd meet again before the day was out.

Leo pushed his way towards the changing rooms and almost as soon as he got there, someone nudged him from outside and he fell through the entrance, stumbling as he came in.

"What in the—Leo?!" George said. "What are you doing in here?" She flipped down the collar of her shirt which had popped up. She didn't seem distressed to see him in the girls changing area, especially strange considering they were alone.

Leo looked at her and walked forward. "Good game."

She grinned. "Was that a true compliment? Why, Leo, I'm honored."

"Why did you do it?"

George raised her eyebrows and shook her head. "Why did I…do what? I'm going to need more information."

"You know what I'm talking about. The game. Just now. You threw the game. I know you did."

"Throw the game? Please." She smirked. She turned around to pick up her Quidditch robes on the ground and hang them up. "Why would I want to throw the game?"

"I don't know why you did it since you barely cared before, but you did."

She reached for her heavy winter robes on a hook. "I didn't throw—." Leo stopped her so they both had her robes bundled in their fingers, one hand over the other. He stared down at her.

"I saw you. The announcer's box is higher than everyone else's. I saw exactly what no one else could. You could've easily taken out the Gryffindor seeker and let Ravenclaw win. You were about to. I saw it. But then you hesitated. You paused and let the bludger fly late so it hit the Ravenclaw seeker after the snitch was caught."

She stared back into his eyes, motionless for a moment. "It was an accident."

"You didn't miss a single time this game."

"I missed quite a bit. I'm just good at hitting what I don't mean to."

"Stop lying to me, George! I saw what happened! Why would you do that? Why would you make your own team lose?"

She yanked her robes out of his hand. "Oh, so it's okay for you to demand secrets from me, but I can't ask the same of you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, now who's playing dumb?! You knew all about Lorcan and you didn't tell me even when you knew I would've taken his spot on the Quidditch team! Your Gryffindor loyalty is to a fault."

Leo stared at her. "You know about Lorcan's mother?"

She rolled her eyes and ran her fingers through her short brown hair. "I'm not as thick as everyone thinks I am, you know. You'd know that if you bothered to get to know girls before you judged them. You're such a good guy. How did you wind up this way?"

He would've spoken, but he found there was nothing to pull out of his throat. The words were a jolt. He didn't know why. They weren't at all remarkable, but he had no smart comeback. He and Gorge just stood there, staring into one another for a long time. He didn't think of anything. The moment was blank.

Just then, Nathan came in and stopped short when he saw the two of them alone together in the girls' changing rooms. Leo stepped backwards. He didn't realize he'd been standing so close. She pulled on her robes, covering her goose flesh.

"Nathan, did you tell her about Lorcan's mother?" Leo asked, though more inquisitively than accusatory. He felt sleepy all of a sudden. "I can't believe you would do that."

"You would if you'd seen what she gave me." From his pocket, he retrieved a list of runes, but Leo had no clue what they meant. He wasn't in Ancient Runes. "Lorcan's been drawing them all morning. He didn't even care about the game today, Leo. He was so busy drawing these, he forgot all about it. These are the same runes Mrs. Scamander had been drawing when I went to visit her."

Leo looked up at the two of them from the runes on the paper. "So we have to tell a teacher."

"Then Lorcan will go to St. Mungo's too and nothing will be resolved," George told him.

"And you think that it can be resolved? How? How would you possibly…" But he stopped himself. He knew how. "You want to find somebody who can read the runes."

"We just haven't got anybody," Nathan shrugged. "I'm in Ancient Runes, but there are thousands of runes and I only know a few of these ones."

"So, you were just planning on doing…what exactly?"

"Well, we weren't planning on doing anything today, spur the moment," George said. "We need to do some research first. You just so happened to drop in."

As if by magic, and perhaps it was, Carina, Frieda, Albus, Patricia, Rose, Scorpius and even Darius Minesworth and Sloane Copperridge walked into the tent.

"Leo," Carina said, coming forward. "I brought everyone."

Leo's eyes widened as he looked over the group. "Why?"

Carina looked confused for a moment before she slapped her forehead. "We haven't had this conversation!" she said.

"Is this a psychic thing?" he asked.

"I brought everyone so we can resolve the Pearl's impact. These are all of the people affected by it."

"Carina," Frieda called from the entrance. "Where's Jeremy? I thought this was supposed to help you get with him."

Carina shifted her eyes without turning back to face her friend. "Yes, well, I lied, didn't I?"

"Ah! Carina! You're so mean!"

"I'm sorry, but I knew that if I told you the truth, you'd never help me gather everybody and no one would've followed me here."

"You should've been in Slytherin," Scorpius smirked.

"How do you even know this is everyone?" Leo asked. "Half of the school could be affected."

"Leo, trust me. The people in this room are all of the ones who are important."

Leo crossed his arms. "All of them?"

Carina faltered. "What do you mean?"

"Where's Jeremy?"

"Jeremy isn't affected," she responded, a little too quickly.

"Jeremy is my best friend. If anyone's been around the Pearl and effected by it, it's him. I'll run naked through the Great Hall if he's not part of this."

"Has he shown you any signs of being changed by the Pearl?"

"He's interested in you."

Carina paused. She was obviously taken aback by the comment. She scowled. "He's unimportant."

"Oh, yeah? Keep telling yourself that. So typical of girls. Trying to deny things."

"So typical of you to applying everything one female does to the entire gender!"

"Leo, Carina, please," Rose stopped them. "We didn't come here to fight."

"Why did we come here?" Frieda asked.

"Because of what's been happening!" Carina told them. "I've tried to keep track of it all, but it's just gotten too hard as the Pearl's influence spirals outwards. Slowly, more and more people are being affected. For the last week, I've been trying to find out who's been affected by the Pearl and how to get them here in this moment. We need to tell each other everything and just come clean once and for all so we can come closer to resolving this entire issue." She looked back to Leo. "Please, Leo. Are you with me?"

In the months since he'd met Carina, Leo hadn't known her ever to be so open, but perhaps living in a world of secrets became difficult after a while. Perhaps for the first time she just wanted to lay everything on the table. As a journalist, he wasn't sure why he'd ever hesitated. This might've been the smartest thing Carina had ever done.

"I'm with you!" Darius shouted, raising his ax in the air.

"You've certainly changed your tune since we got here," Sloane commented, crossing his arms.

Leo nodded. "I'm with you on one condition. We get Jeremy."

Carina's expression dropped. "Don't drag your friend into this. Only those involved should know."

"He is involved. More so than Nathan or George, anyway. He knows my mother left me, he's noticed strange things happening, and, most convincingly, he remembers your face like the rest of the people here. We get him or I'm leaving along with your precious Living Pearl."

"Oh, goody," Freida chimed. "I'll go get him." And she vanished from the tent.