A/N Thanks again for all the reviews :) Hope you enjoy this chapter! xxx
Chapter Nineteen
The Quidditch Match
The D.A. quickly became everyone's favourite thing to do every week. Even Angelina, who seemed keen to do Quidditch practises all the time was eager each week to learn the different spells. Tessie came up to Amara every day moaning that they should do it more often, so Amara made her go to a club to keep her mind off it. It was quite lucky that there were three Quidditch team practises they had to plan around, but as Harry said, it was good because it meant there was no regular pattern that someone could latch onto. During the next few weeks, Parvati mastered the Reductor Curse, Colin mastered the Impediment Jinx and Tessie managed to single-handedly Disarm five people at the same time by saying the spell so quickly no one could react.
Hermione soon devised a very clever method of communicating the time and date of the next meeting to all the members in case they needed to change it at short notice, because it would look so suspicious if people from different Houses were seen crossing the Great Hall to talk to each other too often.
One meeting she gave each member of the D.A. a fake Galleon, which Ron thought was real at first, and told them about the charm she out on it.
"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" Hermione said, holding one up for examination. The coin gleamed fat and yellow in the light from the torches. "On real Galleons that's just a serial number referring to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake coins, though, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting. The coins will grow hot when the date changes, so if you're carrying them in a pocket you'll be able to feel them. We take one each, and when Harry sets the date of the next meeting he'll change the numbers on his coin, and because I've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimic his."
A blank silence greeted Hermione's words. She looked around at all the faces upturned to her, rather disconcerted.
"Well — I thought it was a good idea," she said uncertainly, "I mean, even if Umbridge asked us to turn out our pockets, there's nothing fishy about carrying a Galleon, is there? But . . . well, if you don't want to use them . . ."
"You can do a Protean Charm?" said Terry Boot.
"Yes," said Hermione.
"But that's . . . that's N.E.W.T. standard, that is," he said weakly. "Oh," said Hermione, trying to look modest. "Oh . . . well . . . yes,
I suppose it is. . . ."
"How come you're not in Ravenclaw?" he demanded, staring at Hermione with something close to wonder. "With brains like yours?" "Well, the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting me in Ravenclaw during my Sorting," said Hermione brightly, "but it decided on Gryffindor in the end. So does that mean we're using the Galleons?"
There was a murmur of assent and everybody moved forward to
collect one from the basket.
"The Sorting Hat didn't say anything like that for me," said Tessie as she took one. "It just said Gryffindor straight away."
"I nearly got Ravenclaw," said Ethan and Amara remembered that he was on the stool for a long time.
"It nearly put me in Hufflepuff," said Flick brightly. "But then it chose Ravenclaw ..."
"I suppose the only danger with these is that we might accidentally spend them." Harry was saying.
"Fat chance," said Ron, who was examining his own fake Galleon with a slightly mournful air. "I haven't got any real Galleons to confuse it with."
Annoyingly the D.A. meetings were put on hold because Angelina was practising for the first Quidditch match if the season: Gryffindor versus Slytherin.
Everyone was very excited for the upcoming game. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were excited to see who won because they hadn't played a match yet this year and they needed to up their skills if necessary. The Head of Houses, who tried to pretend they weren't competitive, were helping them by wanting their sides victories. Professor McGonagall wanted to win so badly she didn't give them any homework the week leading up to the match.
"I think you've got enough to be getting on with at the moment," she said loftily. Nobody could quite believe their ears until she looked directly at Harry and Ron and said grimly, "I've become accustomed to seeing the Quidditch Cup in my study, boys, and I really don't want to have to hand it over to Professor Snape, so use the extra time to practice, won't you?"
Professor Snape was making sure that the allegations against his team were squashed and replaced with another reason, even though there were always many eyewitnesses. One example was when Alicia, who had been working in the library, had got hit with a jinx by Miles Bletchley, and made her eyebrows grow so much they covered her eyes. Snape refused to listen and Miles got let off (but Amara and Ron got him back by tripping him up in front of everyone at dinner with a well-aimed jinx). Professor McGonagall told Bletchley to get smaller shoes.
Amara was very worried about how Ron would fare during the match. When she didn't have homework she went down with them to watch the practise and saw that sometimes Ron was actually very good - during one memorable practice, he had hung one-handed from his broom and kicked the Quaffle so hard away from the goal hoop that it soared the length of the pitch and through the centre hoop at the other end. Amara had laughed (and been very impressed) so hard she fell off her seat. The rest of the team felt this save compared favourably with one made recently by Barry Ryan, the Irish International Keeper, against Poland's top Chaser, Ladislaw Zamojski.
Fred had even decided that they may start telling people that Ron was actually related to them now he was getting better.
Fred had also gotten told off by Angelina for sitting on the edge of the stands (having flown over) and talking to Amara. Angelina had told him she'd ban Amara's visits if he didn't play properly. George, Harry and Ron had found this very funny indeed, so Amara threw the Quaffle at them.
The only problem with Ron was his confidence - if he made one mistake he usually got all flustered and made many more.
He also received torments from the Slytherins too, which Harry was used to already.
"Hey, Potty, I heard Warrington's sworn to knock you off your broom on Saturday," Pansy Parkinson sneered one day.
"Warrington's aim's so pathetic I'd be more worried if he was aiming for the person next to me," he retorted, which made Amara, Ron and Hermione laugh and wiped the smirk off Pansy Parkinson's face.
Ron, however, turned green and ran to the nearest bathroom every time a Slytherin made a nasty comment.
November soon arrived and even though Amara was excited for her sixteenth birthday, the weather turned into icy drafts and hard frosts each morning. It was so cold in the castle that people started wearing their dragon skin gloves between lessons.
The day of the match dawned bright but cold. It was still a good week away from her birthday, and Amara had made sure everyone knew (especially Fred for some peculiar reason). Amara and Hermione dressed in red and gold - with scarves, gloves and rosettes all in red and gold too. Amara put her red and gold hat on too and her red trainers.
They met up with Ginny in the common room and walked down to the Great Hall together. Once inside, they found the Slytherins louder than usual, all laughing about something. Amara noticed they were wearing crown shaped badges on their cloaks.
Ginny and Hermione had noticed too and they all found out what they said rather quickly.
WEASLEY IS OUR KING
"Oh no," said Amara with a sinking feeling.
"We can't let Ron see those badges," said Ginny, looking rather angry.
They found Harry trying to coax more food into Ron, who was looking miserably into his cereal bowl as though he was being sent to his deathbed.
"How're you feeling?" Ginny asked Ron.
"He's just nervous," said Harry.
"Well, that's a good sign, I never feel you perform as well in exams if you're not a bit nervous," said Hermione heartily.
"Hello," said a vague and dreamy voice from behind them. Luna Lovegood had wandered over from the Ravenclaw table. Amara had noticed that she had been sitting with Flick and Piper. On Luna's head was a life size lion's head in a hat and was rather impressive.
"I'm supporting Gryffindor," said Luna, pointing unnecessarily at her hat. "Look what it does. . . ."
She reached up and tapped the hat with her wand. It opened its mouth wide and gave an extremely realistic roar that made everyone in the vicinity jump.
"It's good, isn't it?" said Luna happily. "I wanted to have it chewing up a serpent to represent Slytherin, you know, but there wasn't time. Anyway . . . good luck, Ronald!"
She drifted away to where Piper and Flick were sitting with their own smaller versions of Luna's hat.
"When you're ready," Angelina said, who had walked over whilst they were recovering from shock. "we're going to go straight down to the pitch, check out conditions and change."
"We'll be there in a bit," Harry assured her. "Ron's just got to have some breakfast."
Ron was not capable of eating anything else, so ten frugal minutes later, Harry have up trying to make him and decided to go down to the Quidditch pitch.
Amara pulled Harry aside whilst Hermione was saying good luck to Ron.
"Don't let Ron see Slytherin's badges okay? It'll kill him ..."
Harry looked confused, but Ron had turned towards them and she have Ron a tight squeeze.
"Good luck Ron!" She said. "You'll do great - Tally said so too ..."
Amara, Hermione and Ginny went down to the pitch with Dean and Neville. Amara didn't know where Seamus was.
Everyone else were walking down as well, and some Slytherins had started singing. Amara didn't really want to listen to the words: they were sure to be rather horrible and against the Gryffindor Quidditch Team.
Once they had sat down in the stands they waited for the two teams to come out. The Slytherins came out first - their captain used to be Marcus Flint but had been replaced with Graham Montague, a huge fellow with horrible hairy arms. Lucian Bole and Peregrine Derrick had been replaced by Crabbe and Goyle, who looked even more stupid than usual and resembled trolls whilst carrying the beaters bats. Amara was strongly reminded of the time they knocked out one in their first year.
The Gryffindor Team came out too, with cheers and roars following them, and Madam Hooch made the two teams shake hands.
Further down the bench, Amara saw Tessie hopping up and down ready for her first match.
"Mount your brooms. . . ."
Madam Hooch placed her whistle in her mouth and blew.
The balls were released and the fourteen players shot upward; Ron flew over to the goal hoops, Harry zoomed higher and Fred and George swooped about with the beaters bats.
"And it's Johnson, Johnson with the Quaffle, what a player that girl is, I've been saying it for years but she still won't go out with me —" Lee was doing the commentary as usual, and it was still very funny.
"JORDAN!" yelled Professor McGonagall.
"Just a fun fact, Professor, adds a bit of interest — and she's ducked Warrington, she's passed Montague, she's — ouch — been hit from behind by a Bludger from Crabbe. . . . Montague catches the Quaffle, Montague heading back up the pitch and — nice Bludger there from George Weasley, that's a Bludger to the head for Montague, he drops the Quaffle, caught by Katie Bell, Katie Bell of Gryffindor reverse passes to Alicia Spinnet and Spinnet's away —"
Amara watched the game avidly, praying that Ron would do well.
"— dodges Warrington, avoids a Bludger — close call, Alicia — and the crowd are loving this, just listen to them, what's that they're singing?"
The song the Slytherins were singing suddenly became louder and Amara could hear the words with a sick feeling in her stomach.
Weasley is our King.
Weasley was born in a bin,
He always lets the Quaffle in, Weasley will make sure we win, Weasley is our King.
"— and Alicia passes back to Angelina!" Lee shouted, obviously trying to drown out their horrible song. "Come on now, Angelina — looks like she's got just the Keeper to beat! — SHE SHOOTS — SHE — aaaah . . ."
Bletchley, the Slytherin Keeper, had saved the goal; he threw the Quaffle to Warrington who sped off with it, zigzagging in between Alicia and Katie; the singing from below grew louder and louder as he drew nearer and nearer Ron —
Weasley is our King,
Weasley is our King,
He always lets the Quaffle in,
Weasley is our King.
Amara groaned to herself. They knew Ron was nervous, so they were deliberately putting him off by singing.
"— and it's Warrington with the Quaffle, Warrington heading for goal, he's out of Bludger range with just the Keeper ahead —"
A great swell of song rose from the Slytherin stands below:
Weasley cannot save a thing,
He cannot block a single ring . . .
"— so it's the first test for new Gryffindor Keeper, Weasley, brother of Beaters, Fred and George, and a promising new talent on the team — come on, Ron!"
"GO RON!" Amara yelled with Ginny and Hermione desperately.
The Quaffle went straight through the hoops and Amara squeezed her eyes shut as the Slytherins cheered.
"Slytherin score!" shouted Lee amid the cheering from Slytherins and boos from the Gryffindors. "So that's ten-nil to Slytherin — bad luck, Ron . . ."
The Slytherins sang even louder:
WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN,
HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN . . .
"— and Gryffindor back in possession and it's Katie Bell tanking up the pitch —" cried Lee valiantly, though the singing was now so deafening that he could hardly make himself heard above it.
WEASLEY WILL MAKE SURE WE WIN,
WEASLEY IS OUR KING . . .
WEASLEY IS OUR KING,
WEASLEY IS OUR KING . . .
They kept singing the song louder and louder and Amara was feeling so sorry for Ron and wanted to kill all the Slytherins at the same time.
WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN . . .
"— and it's Warrington again," bellowed Lee, "who passes to Pucey, Pucey's off past Spinnet, come on now Angelina, you can take him — turns out you can't — but nice Bludger from Fred Weasley, I mean, George Weasley, oh who cares, one of them anyway, and Warrington drops the Quaffle and Katie Bell — er — drops it too — so that's Montague with the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Montague takes the Quaffle, and he's off up the pitch, come on now Gryffindor, block him!"
WEASLEY CANNOT SAVE A THING . . .
"— and Pucey's dodged Alicia again, and he's heading straight for goal, stop it, Ron!"
The Gryffindor end groaned as Ron let the Quaffle slip through once more. Pansy Parkinson was now conducting the Slytherin supporters in their singing and Amara wanted to punch her.
THAT'S WHY SLYTHERINS ALL SING:
WEASLEY IS OUR KING.
They could still win - if Harry got the Snitch now they'd win with one hundred and thirty points.
Ron let in another two goals, making the screaming and singing and booing get louder and Harry speeded around the pitch desperately.
"— and Katie Bell of Gryffindor dodges Pucey, ducks Montague, nice swerve, Katie, and she throws to Johnson, Angelina Johnson takes the Quaffle, she's past Warrington, she's heading for goal, come on now Angelina — GRYFFINDOR SCORE! It's forty-ten, forty- ten to Slytherin and Pucey has the Quaffle. . . ."
Luna's lion hat set off a roar that the Gryffindors continued. Forty-ten? They could still win!
"— Pucey throws to Warrington, Warrington to Montague, Montague back to Pucey — Johnson intervenes, Johnson takes the Quaffle, Johnson to Bell, this looks good — I mean bad — Bell's hit by a Bludger from Goyle of Slytherin and it's Pucey in possession again . . ."
WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN,
HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN,
WEASLEY WILL MAKE SURE WE WIN —
Harry did a sudden dive down to the ground - Malfoy streaked after him quickly as the Snitch sped round the goal posts ... They were neck and neck - Malfoy stretched out his hand, as did Harry ... There was a scrabble and then Harry pulled up with the struggling ball in his hand and the Gryffindors roared.
Amara saw Harry get hit square in the back by a Bludger and gasped as Harry fell off his broom and landed hard on the floor.
Amara left the stands quickly, because she had a feeling Ron wouldn't be in a good state and she wanted to see if Harry was alright.
As Amara hurried across the grass of the pitch she noticed Draco Malfoy standing near the Gryffindor team talking loudly.
"We wanted to write another couple of verses!" Amara heard Malfoy say, as the rest of the team congratulated Harry. "But we couldn't find rhymes for fat and ugly — we wanted to sing about his mother, see —"
Amara hurried faster over to the group. She couldn't see Ron either, and that panicked her a bit.
Fred and George had now turned towards Malfoy, both very angry. It looked like Angelina, Alicia and Katie were all holding Fred back so he couldn't leap on him.
Harry was holding onto George's robes too.
"— but you like the Weasleys, don't you, Potter?" said Malfoy, sneering. "Spend holidays there and everything, don't you? Can't see how you stand the stink, but I suppose when you've been dragged up by Muggles even the Weasleys' hovel smells okay —"
Amara hurried forwards and grabbed hold of George's robes too, to help.
"Oh look who it is," Malfoy said, noticing her. "The Mudblood has come to defend her friends."
"George, don't," Amara said as both he and Fred doubled their efforts to get to him. "Don't let him -"
"What about this," said Malfoy, leering as he backed away, "You can remember what your mother's house stank like, Potter, and Weasley's pigsty reminds you of it —"
Harry released George, who managed to break free of Amara, who in turn stumbled backwards because of the force of it, into Fred and the other girls. Harry and George ran at Malfoy and started punching every inch of him.
"HARRY!" Amara screamed at them, her hands on her face. "STOP - GEORGE! NO!"
"Harry! HARRY! GEORGE! NO!"
Angelina, Alicia and Katie were screaming too; Malfoy was yelling in pain and George was swearing. Madam Hooch, who'd finally noticed what was going on, was blowing her whistle.
"IMPEDIMENTA!" Madam Hooch screeched. Harry and George flew backwards over the grass, leaving Malfoy whimpering, his face bloody.
"Amara -" Angelina cried and Amara turned to see Fred struggling hard to get out of their grip. Amara ran to over and started helping too.
"Fred - no!" She said as Madam Hooch ordered Harry and George to go to Professor McGonagall's office. The other teachers were making the crowds retreat; Pansy Parkinson had hurried over to Malfoy to help him up.
"He's not worth it, Fred," Amara said shakily, making him look at her and not at Malfoy. Fred stopped struggling as much when he did and he stopped looking as angry. That is, before Pansy started slagging off George and Harry.
"They are worthless - shouldn't even be here ... Worse than Mudbloods ..."
Amara had had enough. She whipped around, walked up to Pansy and punched her so hard in the face she fell over backwards.
"Know when to shut up you sleazy old cow," she hissed at the girl on the floor. With a firm glare, Amara turned back to the others, Fred was gaping at her.
"You're going to be in trouble," Angelina said worriedly. "They won't keep that quiet ..."
"I don't care," said Amara forcefully and she grabbed Fred by the arm and started marching off the pitch. "C'mon, let's go wait for Harry and George in the common room ... Let's hope Umbridge hasn't butted in ..."
The walk to the common was silent for the majority of it. The rest of the team were numb with worry as they walked behind Amara and Fred, the former still marching to vent her anger at Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson.
They sat in sofas near the fire, the rest of the Gryffindors not daring to come over when they saw such angry faces.
Angelina, Alicia and Katie sat on a sofa whilst Amara sat with Fred, trying to calm him herself down.
"Good punch," Fred told her as they sat side by side. Normally, Amara would have been flustered at how close they were, but at that moment, she didn't care.
"McGonagall will only give them detention, right?" Katie said nervously.
"Yeah," said Alicia. "But what if Umbridge is there? She'll do something worse."
"But she doesn't have the power –"
"Not unless she's passed another Educational Decree thing," said Angelina unhappily.
Hermione and Ginny entered the common room too and sat down. They didn't say anything, because they already knew what had happened.
The team got changed out of their Quidditch Robes and came back down and slumped around the fire.
After a while, Ginny and Hermione went down to dinner with the other people in Gryffindor house, all of which were very sad indeed. Amara, Fred, Angelina, Alicia and Katie didn't bother.
It wasn't until well into the evening when Harry and George came back. They had the worse news possible, so bad they couldn't even say it properly. Umbridge had intervened and had given them a life-long Quidditch ban. And to make matters worse, she'd said Fred should get a ban too, because he'd be 'just as violent' as his twin.
"Banned," said Angelina in a hollow voice. "Banned. No Seeker and no Beaters . . . What on earth are we going to do?"
The people in the common room were taking it just as bad as the team. Dotted around the room were angry faces, no one talking much and no one partying because they won. Amara was starting to get worried about where Ron was, because he had seemingly disappeared after the end of the match.
Amara was slumped in the chair, leaning against Fred, staring dejectedly into the fire. Her hand that she had used to punch Pansy was throbbing slightly.
"It's just so unfair," said Alicia numbly. "I mean, what about Crabbe and that Bludger he hit after the whistle had been blown? Has she banned him?"
"No," said Ginny miserably; she and Hermione were sitting on either side of Harry. "He just got lines, I heard Montague laughing about it at dinner."
"And banning Fred when he didn't even do anything!" said Alicia furiously, pummeling her knee with her fist.
"It's not my fault I didn't," said Fred, shifting closer to Amara and looking miserable too. "I would've pounded the little scumbag to a pulp if you three hadn't been holding me back."
The Snitch was whizzing around the room, most people were gazing at it as though it was a hypnotise charm.
"I'm going to bed," said Angelina, getting slowly to her feet. "Maybe this will all turn out to have been a bad dream. . . . Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and find we haven't played yet. . . ."
Alicia and Katie went off too after a while. It left Harry, Hermione and Ginny on one sofa, Amara and Fred in another and George across from them. His lip was still swollen but he refused to get it checked by Madam Pomfrey.
Amara raised her hand and saw that the knuckle was bruised and bleeding slightly. She had punched Pansy very hard.
"Merlin," Fred commented as he noticed it too. "You should get that checked."
"Nah," said Amara, putting it down and resting her head back on his shoulder. "She'll know I hit someone. Umbridge probably knows already, to be fair."
"Hope not," mumbled Fred. "I should've done it."
"You would have tried to kill him," Amara said.
Fred, George and Ginny went to bed shortly after, the twins glaring at everyone who looked at them. It left Amara, Harry and Hermione by the fire.
Snow was falling outside and Amara hoped that Ron was not out there freezing.
"Have you seen Ron?" Hermione asked in a low voice.
Harry shook his head and Amara shrugged, still rather miserable.
"I think he's avoiding us," said Hermione. "Where do you think he — ?"
She stopped because the Fat Lady swung open and Ron stumbled into the common room, looking very pale and had snow in his hair. He saw Amara, Hermione and Harry and stopped dead, staring at them as though they were monsters.
"Where have you been?" said Hermione anxiously, springing up with Amara.
"Walking," Ron mumbled. He was still wearing his Quidditch things.
"Outside?" Amara said. "It's snowing! Sit down, come on …"
Ron walked to the fireside and sank into the chair farthest from Harry's, not looking at him. The stolen Snitch zoomed over their heads.
"I'm sorry," Ron mumbled, looking at his feet.
"What for?" said Harry.
"For thinking I can play Quidditch," said Ron. "I'm going to resign first thing tomorrow."
"If you resign," said Harry testily, "there'll only be three players left on the team." And when Ron looked puzzled, he said, "I've been given a lifetime ban. So've Fred and George."
"What?" Ron yelped.
Hermione told him the full story, because Harry couldn't and Amara didn't want to. When she had finished, Ron looked more anguished than ever.
"This is all my fault —"
"You didn't make me punch Malfoy," said Harry angrily.
"— if I wasn't so lousy at Quidditch —"
"— it's got nothing to do with that —"
"— it was that song that wound me up —"
"— it would've wound anyone up —"
Hermione got up and walked to the window, away from the argument, watching the snow swirling down against the pane. Amara watched the two boys, not really concentrating at what they were saying.
"Look, drop it, will you!" Harry burst out. "It's bad enough without you blaming yourself for everything!"
Ron said nothing but sat gazing miserably at the damp hem of his robes. After a while he said in a dull voice, "This is the worst I've ever felt in my life."
"Join the club," said Harry bitterly.
"Well," said Hermione, and her voice was trembling slightly. Amara turned to look at her, confused. "I can think of one thing that might cheer you both up."
"Oh yeah?" said Harry sceptically.
"Yeah," said Hermione, turning away from the pitch-black, snow- flecked window, a broad smile spreading across her face. "Hagrid's back."