Chapter Thirteen

George woke the next morning earlier than he typically would have, even for a game day. He'd slept rather poorly the night before, the mixture of anticipation and the heavy pit in his stomach making it altogether too uncomfortable to sleep. He was always at least somewhat anxious the night before a game, but this time felt much more intense.

He wasn't entirely sure what he was most nervous about. Losing to Slytherin was simply a thought so unappealing it nearly made him sick just to entertain the idea for a second. He wasn't a fan of losing to anyone, but losing to Slytherin would be particularly more painful than if it were Ravenclaw, say. Wood would also be particularly morose if they lost and the thought of what he would say if they did was enough to make him hope a bludger would knock him unconscious just to avoid the shame of it. It also felt more like a fever dream that they would win the match today, given the fact that Slytherin would be riding the fastest brooms in the world. Regardless of what Vanessa said, those were tough odds to beat.

Ah, yes, the other reason the thought of losing made him want to be sick. He wasn't entirely sure why her opinion if they lost would matter all that much more, but she was supremely confident in their ability to win today and the thought of disappointing her was nearly as bad as disappointing Wood.

He shoved his pillow into his face with a groan. Fred was right. He was becoming a sap. Maybe he'd just chuck himself off the Astronomy Tower and ignore the whole bloody thing.

"C'mon, you two, I know you're awake."

The sound of Lee's bracing voice pulled him out of his self-deprecating spiral. He got up, dressed, and opened the curtains around his bed to see Fred, looking just as green as he felt. They met each other's eyes for only a moment before grimacing and following an overly chipper Lee down to breakfast.

Eventually the rest of the Gryffindor team trickled in slowly. Tori and Harry were the last to make it down. Under normal circumstances, the fact that Tori looked so anxious despite the fact that she had been adamantly agreeing with Nessa for the last month, would have been cause for him to tease her. As it stood now, it took all his effort just to convince his stomach that this was any other Quidditch game and it did not need to be making him want to have a heave in the loo.

As eleven o'clock approached, the whole school started to make its way down to the Quidditch stadium. Vanessa came up to the team briefly with Hermione, Ron, and Ginny and gave Tori a hug, whispering something in her ear as they pulled apart. Surprisingly, Tori's mood seemed to improve slightly and she nodded back at her weakly. She squeezed his and Fred's shoulders briefly and gave Harry a lingering hug, whispering something that sounded like "be safe", before disappearing with the rest of the school.

Eventually, the team could not ignore the time any longer and trudged along to the locker rooms. It was a muggy sort of day with a hint of thunder in the air and George hoped that it would rain, if only to give the Slytherins a disadvantage. The team pulled on their scarlet robes, then sat down to listen to Wood's usual pre-match pep talk.

"Slytherin has better brooms than us," he began, "No point denying it, But we;ve got better people on our brooms. We've trained harder than they have, we've been flying in all weathers –"

"Too true," muttered George. "I haven't been properly dry since August."

"- and we're going to make them rue the day they let that little bit of slime, Malfoy, buy his way onto their team." Chest heaving with emotion, Wood turned to Harry. "It'll be down to you Harry, to show them that a Seeker has to have something more than a rich father. Get to that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying, Harry, because we've got to win today, we've got to."

To George's surprise, Tori straightened immediately and looked disapproving of this approach, but before she could say anything Fred spoke.

"So, no pressure, Harry," said Fred, winking at him.

As they walked out onto the pitch, a roar of noise greeted them; mainly cheers, because Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were anxious to see Slytherin beaten, but the Slytherins in the crowd made their boos and hisses heard, too. Madam Hooch, the Quidditch teacher, asked Flint and Wood to shake hands, which they did, giving each other threatening stares and gripping rather harder than was necessary.

"On my whistle," said Madam Hooch. "Three…two…one…"

With a roar from the crowd to speed them upward, the fourteen players rose to the leaden sky. George forgot his anxieties instantly as the wind whistled in his ears and through his hair, even as he watched Flint knock the Quaffle from Angelina and race to the other side of the pitch. Shooting higher up to avoid the Chasers, he shot after a Bludger that was gunning straight for Harry. So caught up with whatever Malfoy was saying to him, Harry only narrowly missed being hit with it.

"Close one, Harry!" he shouted, shooting past him and hitting the Bludger back toward Adrian Pucey with a powerful whack. George watched in disbelief as the Bludger changed direction in midair and shot straight for Harry again.

Harry dropped quickly to avoid it, and George managed to hit it hard toward Malfoy. Once again, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and shot at Harry's head. George swore violently as Harry raced toward the other end of the pitch and the Bludger shot after him with no hesitation. What the hell was going on? Bludgers were not meant to target one specific person; it was their job to try and unseat as many people as possible…

Racing after Harry, he watched as Fred swung with all his might and knocked the Bludger off course momentarily. The happiness on his twin's face was short-lived. As if magnetically attracted to Harry, the Bludger pelted after him once more and Harry was forced to fly off at full speed again.

He met Fred's eyes and, with a nod, they shot after Harry. The others would have to make due without them for the time being. Whatever was going on with this Bludger was not only at risk of taking out the person who could win them the game, but was also, and more importantly, in George's opinion, at risk to end up breaking Harry's neck. Merlin, he did not want to have to explain that to Nessa.

As heavy raindrops began to fall onto his face, he smacked the Bludger away and watched it switch direction again and come gunning for the three of them. He had no idea what was going on in the rest of the game as he and his brother attempted to get some semblance of control over the rogue Bludger, until he heard Lee say "Slytherin lead, sixty points to zero —"

He swore violently. The Slytherins' superior brooms were clearly doing their jobs, and meanwhile, three of the Gryffindor players were flying so close to each other that the only thing they could see was Harry's irritated expression and their flailing arms.

"Someone's — tampered — with — this — Bludger —" grunted Fred, swinging his bat with all his might as it launched a new attack against Harry.

"We need a time out," said George, attempting to signal to Wood and keep the Bludger from breaking Harry's nose at the same time.

Wood had obviously gotten the message. The sound of Madam Hooch's whistle rang out and the three of them dove for the ground, still trying to avoid the mad Bludger.

"What's going on?" said Wood as the Gryffindor team huddled together, all of them looking dejected and frazzled. "We're being flattened. Fred, George, where were you when that Bludger stopped Angelina scoring?"

"We were twenty feet above her, stopping the other one from murdering Harry, Oliver," said Georgem angrily. "Someone's fixed it — it won't leave Harry alone. It hasn't gone after anyone else all game. The Slytherins must have done something to it."

"But the Bludgers have been locked in Madam Hooch's office since our last practice, and there was nothing wrong with them then…" said Wood, anxiously.

"Listen," said Harry suddenly, looking at Fred and George. "With you two flying around me all the time the only way I'm going to catch the Snitch is if it flies up my sleeve. Go back to the rest of the team and let me deal with the rogue one."

"Don't be thick, " said Fred. "It'll take your head off."

Wood was looking from Harry to the Weasleys as if debating the possibility. Tori lost patience with the situation and pointed at Wood dangerously.

"Absolutely not, Oliver!" she said, angrily. "You can't let Harry deal with that thing on his own."

"If we stop now, we'll have to forfeit the match!" said Harry, desperately. "And we're not losing to Slytherin just because of a crazy Bludger! C'mon, Oliver, tell them to leave me alone!"

"They'll reschedule, Harry!" she said, whirling on him next. "It's just a game! It could break your neck and I am not telling Nessa —"

"Nessa has nothing to do with this!"

"The hell she doesn't!" said Tori, her voice becoming dangerously shrill. "If that Bludger doesn't break your neck, she certainly will! Call off the damn match, Wood, I'm serious! It is not worth his life!"

"Oliver, I can't handle it, I swear! Tell them to back off!"

"This is all your fault," George said angrily to Wood. "'Get the Snitch or die trying', what a stupid thing to tell him —"

Wood looked at the determined look on Harry's face.

"All right," he said. "Fred, George, you heard Harry —"

"OLIVER!" shrieked Tori in frustration, looking as though she were going to wring his neck.

"- leave him alone and let him deal with the Bludger on his own."

Tori whirled on the twins immediately and pointed at Wood behind her.

"I don't care what he says! Do not leave him alone!" she said in irritation.

The twins looked at each other hesitantly. Tori was very easy to irritate or anger on a low level, but this level of agitation was very rare for her. This did not really sit well with George and he half expected that this response was due to the fact that Nessa was not there to smack sense into Harry herself. A part of George knew, too, that, if anything happened to Harry because they listened to Wood, Nessa would be terribly upset and there was no valid excuse that would grant her any relief.

Ultimately, George did not agree with the decision at all, but it was Harry's call to make and based on the look on his brother's face, he seemed to agree. Tori, sensing they had come to some sort of agreement, threw her hands up in the air in irritation.

"You're joking! You two morons never listen to anyone, and the one time you do it's when someone is being so obviously stupid!" She pointed at the four of them again and her chest was heaving with anger at this point. "Let me tell the four of you something, right now: Whether Harry comes out of this game alive or dead or injured, Nessa is going to kill every single one of you. For your sakes, you'd best hope that I'm in a far better mood at the end of this than I am right now because the only one who's going to be able to calm her down is me."

And with that, she mounted her broom and kicked off the ground hard to get away from them. Oliver nodded at Madam Hooch, seemingly unbothered by Tori's words based on the manic glint in his eye, and the sound of the whistle was their cue to push off the ground again.

It was raining harder now and was much more difficult to see, but this did not stop the Slytherins from continuing to score several more times. With Fred and George now able to focus on the untampered Bludger, however, the Gryffindor team was able to put up a much bigger fight, despite their slower brooms. A well-aimed Bludger by George caused the Quaffle to fall out of Pucey's hands and directly into Tori's beneath him. In her residual anger, she threw the Quaffle so hard through one of the goalposts that it knocked Bletchley through the hoop with it. The crowd roared at the first Gryffindor score as Bletchley clutched his stomach briefly in pain.

The laughter from the crowd was likely a sign that whatever Harry was doing to avoid the Bludger in the meantime must have looked incredibly stupid. George chanced a glance away from the game to look at him and nearly groaned as he watched him twirl ridiculously to narrowly avoid a hit to the back. He shook his head and focused back on the game just as Tori scored again. He really hoped Harry found the Snitch soon.

There was a loud groan from the crowd several moments later.

"Ouch! Tough hit to the arm by that Bludger, Harry — shake it off, mate, atta boy! Hastings scores again! Slytherin lead, ninety - fifty and…wait a minute! HARRY POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS!"

As a deafening roar broke out through the stands, George high-fived Alicia Spinnet in celebration. It was at that moment that he realized that Harry was taking a fall toward the ground, his arm hanging at an odd angle. He dove to the ground and had to brace himself as the Bludger came barreling after a passed out Harry. He grunted as it hit him directly in the stomach and attempted to wrestle it away from the younger boy and get it back in its case.

It took a considerable amount of effort and he was barely making any progress at all. Whatever the Slytherins had done to the Bludger, it did not care at all that its target was currently incapacitated, so long as it could maim its intended target. Fred came to help once he had gotten the other Bludger put away and, though still terrifically difficult, they did manage to finally lock the thing away after several minutes. George collapsed on the ground, panting, watching the crowd grow around Harry.

He could see the wave of auburn hair through the thicket of legs in front of him and his heart dropped at the sight of the terrified look on Nessa's face as she knelt next to her brother. Tori stood close beside her and was clearly trying to keep her sane. Harry was cradling his arm to his chest closely, but appeared to have woken up once again.

Pushing himself to his feet, he shoved his way through the crowd to stand beside Tori, Fred following close behind him. George did not like the harsh look Nessa sent the two of them, nor did he enjoy the cocky eyebrow Tori raised in response as if she was very tempted to say 'I-told-you-so.'

"Stand back," said Lockhart, pushing his way through the crowd and rolling his jade green robes up at the sleeves. "Not to worry, Harry, I can fix that for you."

"No, not you," said Harry with a desperate look at his sister.

"Doesn't know what he's saying," said Lockhart, loudly to the growing crowd of anxious bystanders. "Lie back, Harry, it's a simple charm I've used countless times —"

"He needs to go to the hospital wing," said Nessa, firmly.

"He should really, Professor," said Wood, grinning widely despite his injured Seeker and covered from head to toe in mud. Nessa shot him a particularly vicious look as well that he didn't seem to notice. "Great capture, Harry, really spectacular, your best yet, I'd say —"

"Here's a piece of advice, Wood," said Nessa, sharply. "You should consider showing more concern for the fact that my brother has a broken arm or I'll hex you in front of the entire school until you do."

"Nessa, I'm fine, really," said Harry placatingly. She glared at him and he immediately stopped talking.

"Alright, stand back," said Lockhart again, waving his wand in an odd twirl and pointing it directly at Harry's arm before Vanessa could protest further.

Harry had shut his eyes, his face turned away from his arm and hidden in his sister's lap, but that did not prevent him from hearing the gasps that rang out through the crowd. Tori's gagging was nearly as loud as the clicking from Colin's camera, but it was Vanessa's shocked cry that caused Harry's head to jerk sharply to look at his arm.

Whatever Lockhart had done, it had not been repairing the bones in Harry's arm. George watched in disgust as the teacher bent Harry's wrist back in a way that was unnatural and watched it flop back into place like a fish. Tori turned away quickly and gagged again.

"Ah," said Lockhart. "Yes. Well, that can sometimes happen. But the point is, the bones are no longer broken. That's the thing to bear in mind. So, Harry, just toddle up to the hospital wing — ah, Mt. Weasley, Miss Granger, would you escort him? — and Madam Pomfry will be able to — er — tidy you up a bit."

Vanessa watched as her brother was lifted by his two friends and was taken back toward the castle, Hermione giving her a reassuring smile on the way. George was surprised that Nessa did not make any immediate attempts to follow as the crowd around them began to thin, but she seemed to be still recovering from the sight of his boneless arm.

"I've a hard time believing there could be anyone more useless than Lockhart," said Fred.

George grimaced as Vanessa's head whipped around to look at the two of them. The sound of Fred's voice seemed to have pulled her out of her shock and she looked positively enraged as she shot up from the ground. Tori snickered as he and Fred took an immediate step backward.

"You can't, can you?" she shrieked at them. "Because I was thinking the very same thing when I was watching you and George flying around for half the game while my brother was avoiding a cursed Bludger!"

It took a moment before George had any idea what to say back to this, as he was suddenly enraptured by the way she looked when she was angry. He'd never particularly taken much notice before, but she was particularly pretty. As it stood, her usually pale cheeks were flushed as she looked between the two of them waiting for a response. Her normally kind green eyes glinted menacingly and her auburn hair, normally very smooth, was untidy as though she had been running her hands through it incessantly. And he wasn't entirely sure if he were imagining things, but the air around her seemed to crackle with anger.

Fred seemed to recover from the shock first.

"In our defense, we told him not to handle the Bludger on his own," he said hastily.

George groaned as her shoulders squared and she took another step toward them, her fists clenched. This was exactly why he did not let his brother be the lead in situations like these.

"So you knew, then, that leaving him to fly around up there like a clown — with no help from the two of you — was a bad idea and you still let him do it?"

Her voice was still shrill and there were several stragglers from the original group of students who were watching the confrontation before them, whispering and giggling behind their hands.

"Love, we —" began George before being immediately shut down.

"Don't you 'love' me, George Weasley!" Nessa yelled, pointing a finger at him. Tori grinned widely as George's mouth snapped closed immediately. "I have no idea what the two of you were thinking and I've absolutely no interest in listening to either of your excuses! He could have broken his neck! He could have died! People have died from being hit by Bludgers before, which I assume you two were perfectly aware of!"

"He didn't die!" said Fred, hotly. "He just broke his arm, Nessa, honestly! We've all broken bones before playing Quidditch! It's not that big a deal!"

Before either of them had any idea what was happening, Nessa's wand was pointed directly at Fred, who's eyes widened in surprise. Tori stepped forward slightly and put a hand on Nessa's wrist and, while it seemed to keep her from hexing him outright, she kept her wand steady at his arm.

"Maybe I ought to break your arm, Fred Weasley, and then you can tell me whether or not it's a big deal."

Fred recoiled at the suddenly calm voice she used and took a step to the side, shielding himself partially behind George.

"George," he said nervously, patting his brother on the back, as if to say 'You're up, mate.'

"Nessa, really, Harry said he could handle it and Oliver said —"

"Oh, Oliver said!" she said, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "That makes it all much better, George, thank you! Because Oliver has been well-known to care about the safety of his players more than winning the game!"

"Look, it isn't our fault that Harry has a broken arm!" said George, angrily. "I tried telling him it was a stupid idea, but he's thick and listens about as well as Tori does!"

"And you let him do it anyway! That's the bloody point! What if it hadn't been his arm? What if it had been his head or his neck or his back! Then what?" she said, her voice hitting a desperate sort of note. "Just because something turned out better than it should have does not mean that the choice you made was a good one!"

"I didn't agree with the bloody decision, Vanessa!" said George, running his hand through his hair in exasperation. "Oliver is the one who told him to get the Snitch or die trying —"

George knew he had said absolutely the wrong thing when Nessa stilled immediately and he halted speaking. She was so still that George wasn't entirely sure if she was still breathing.

"I don't think you should have said that, mate," said Fred astutely, speaking directly into his ear.

Tori let go of Vanessa's arm and rolled her eyes up to the sky before looking back at George as though he had just done something so stupid that she was questioning his sanity. George had half a mind to tell them both to sod off, but, as it were, he was trying to make himself so still that maybe Vanessa wouldn't notice he was still there.

"He said what?" she said, her voice dangerously low, looking him directly in the eye. Staying still had not worked, then. When he didn't respond immediately, her eyes flared again. "What did he say, George?"

"He was only joking, Nessa —"

"Where is he?" she said, rounding on Tori and ignoring him completely.

"Locker rooms," said Tori, helpfully, appearing not at all bothered by her friend's rage. She watched as Nessa stomped off toward the locker room and wondered if Wood would ever be able to play Quidditch again after she was through with him. Turning back to the twins, she grinned at their shocked faces. "I would like to be the first to say that I told you so."

"Shut up, Tori," they said in unison, glaring at her.

"Honestly, it astounds me that the two of you are so good with women," she said, rolling her eyes. "That was truly embarrassing to watch."

"Are you going to go save Oliver or not?" snapped Fred in irritation.

"Not right now," she said, raising an eyebrow. "He deserves it far more than the two of you do. Besides, once she's through with him, she's going to go and kill Harry. Might as well save my strength."

"Better him than us," muttered Fred. "Feels like I just got run over by a horde of Hippogriffs."

Tori snorted.

"Just do us all a favor and admit you were morons. She holds a mean grudge." said Tori pointedly. "Now if you'll excuse me…I'm going to go peel Oliver off of the locker room ceiling. I'll see you boys in the Hospital Wing."

-o0o-

The Hospital Wing was so silent when Nessa walked in that she would have imagined someone had died. Under normal circumstances, the Gryffindor Quidditch team was rowdy after a game had been won, but the whole of them, sans Oliver, who Nessa had hexed until he apologized and left in the locker room, stood around Harry's bed looking nervous as she approached.

Harry sat in one of the beds, nestled up against a pile of pillows, looking pale and with his arm in a sling. Madam Pomfrey had been bustling around him, muttering about inept teachers and dangerous sports and Nessa agreed silently as she took one of the seats next to Harry's bed and crossed her arms against her chest. She could tell by the awkward glances being passed around by the Gryffindor team that the anger must have still been showing in her face.

Tori leaned back against the wall between Harry's bed and the bed next to him, resting the sole of her foot against the wall and grinning as though Nessa had not just left Wood covered in bogies in the locker room. The twins shuffled nervously behind her and refused to make eye contact with her.

Harry was the first to speak, eyeing his sister cautiously.

"You're going to yell now, aren't you?" he said morosely.

"No," said Nessa shortly. "Why would I yell? It's not as if you'd done something stupid, is it?"

Ron attempted a smile at Harry, something Nessa assumed was supposed to be encouraging, but really came out more like a grimace. The others busied themselves looking anywhere but at the group around the bed. She would have been amused by Alicia and Angelina's attempts to make small talk over a small potted plant in the corner under any other circumstances.

Harry looked over at Tori imploringly, who looked back at him blankly with a raised eyebrow. He sighed heavily and looked back at his sister.

"I'm really fine, Nessa," he said placatingly again. "I've had worse before."

"That's not really the point, is it, Harry?" said Nessa, working hard to keep her voice as calm as possible. Watching her brother be hit with a bad Bludger and then fall to the ground, passed out, had been a horror she would not quickly forget. "I'm well aware of the risks of Quidditch under normal circumstances. Someone tampering with a Bludger so that it wants to kill you isn't really a normal circumstance, now is it?"

"Well, no, but —"

"And, logically speaking, it would have made much more sense to, say, postpone the game until Madam Hooch could fix the Bludger that wanted to kill you, yes?"

"Yes, but, we would have —"

"So, really, this isn't about the fact that you broke your arm at all," said Nessa. "It's really more about the fact that, for some reason, you have no regard for your own safety, isn't it?"

Ron cleared his throat uncomfortably and looked up at the ceiling, as if it would give him some form of distraction. Hermione was working hard to keep her face neutral.

"It was just a Bludger, Nessa," said Harry with a roll of his eyes. "It's not as if I went running into a wall of fire."

Nessa laughed darkly.

"No, you're right, Harry," she said sarcastically. "Because you'd already done that last year when you went running after Voldemort and the Sorcerer's Stone."

Everyone in the room besides Harry and Vanessa flinched at the name.

"That was different!" said Harry defensively. "This was just Quidditch! I know you were worried about me, but, honestly, I'm fine! You're overreacting."

Angelina and Alicia stared at him as if he'd grown two more heads before hurriedly talking loudly about the color of the bedsheets. Fred and George shook their heads in disappointment and muttered in unison "Bad thing to say, mate." Hermione's jaw dropped and she looked at Harry as though she'd never seen him before. Ron's eyes remained steadfastly on the ceiling, but the grimace on his face told Nessa that he knew what was coming and that it was not going to be good.

Nessa shot up so quickly from her seat that it skidded loudly from underneath her and fell over with a crash. Tori shot up from the wall and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder to keep her steady, glaring at Harry as if he were Voldemort himself.

"Overreacting?" whispered Nessa, her voice quavering with emotion. Harry gaped at her like a fish, his lips moving but there was no sound coming out. "Overreacting?! Do you have any idea what it's like watching your sibling fall through the air and pass out on the ground because he wanted to beat Malfoy so badly he could care less about anything else around him? Have you, for one second, ever considered what it feels like to watch you risk your life at every turn and have absolutely no power to do anything to stop it?"

"Nessa, I —"

"I am not overreacting. You are the only family I have left, Harry. You're it! And every day you go around this castle like you don't think about that at all, don't you? Like the bloody Bludger is the only thing I have to worry about with you! Like this is the only time in your life that you've put yourself in unnecessary danger! Just when I think I'm going to get a reprieve from your death wish, you do something new! Each day you are infinitely more stupid than you were the day before and you have absolutely no regard for how it feels for me to watch you and wonder which time will be the one that takes away the only reason I get up in the morning."

She could feel Tori's grip tighten on her shoulder as her voice choked briefly on the emotion and her chest heaved with anger, but she continued anyway.

"Fred and George told you not to do it for chrissakes! You'd think that would be evidence enough that this was a stupid idea because when have Fred and George ever discouraged anything? But noooo! Just as long as you get to beat Slytherin, what difference does it make if you break your neck in the process?"

Harry stared at her, looking pained and apologetic, but unable to form the words to placate his sister. She'd yelled at him countless times before and each time had felt like someone was pulling his insides out of his body, but he'd never seen her cry and she looked like she wanted to right now. And didn't that make him feel like an idiot? Of course, he still believed that the likelihood of his having broken his neck was slim and he didn't totally regret the choice he'd made, but he did regret not taking his sister's feelings into account.

Tori was still glaring at him ferociously, despite the gentle words she must have been saying to his sister because he watched as Vanessa relaxed slowly and took several deep breaths until she had calmed significantly. Harry had no idea how she did it, but she truly was the only one who could calm his sister when she was upset. A feat that was apparently mutual because he had seen Nessa on several occasions prevent Tori from hexing someone just by saying her name. When Fred had tried to do the same thing once, Tori had hexed him too.

When Harry was sure that Tori had managed to do the impossible and calmed his sister enough to rationalize with her, he spoke again.

"I'm sorry, Nessa," he said softly. She glared at him still, but at least she wasn't on the verge of crying or yelling anymore. "Really. I didn't think about how it would feel for you and I should have. I just…well, I didn't want them to call off the game and that was probably stupid."

"Probably?" muttered Tori to Nessa, who rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Look, I can't say I'm sorry totally because we won and that's probably going to make you mad to hear, but it's the truth." said Harry hastily when she opened her mouth again to retort. "But I do regret not thinking about how it would upset you. Tori tried to get me to think about it, but I ignored her and that was selfish. And for that I'm sorry."

Nessa stared at her brother without saying anything for a moment. As his green eyes met hers, she debated whether or not to accept his apology. It was sincere, she could tell, and part of her knew that she'd never get him to admit that choosing to handle the Bludger on his own was stupid. He was proud and he loved Quidditch and he had done what he needed to for the team, so that they could pull through a win. A part of that was admirable, of course, and she knew it.

She also knew a part of her upset was just residual feelings about her brother that she had never voiced and likely should have. Because all in all, she also could agree that, while not totally negligible, the likelihood that he had been murdered by a stray Bludger was statistically unlikely. As if sensing her inner dilemma, Harry spoke again, this time in a tone of cajoling.

"If it helps, I have to grow all my bones back," he said with a grimace. "Madam Pomfrey says it's going to hurt."

"Good," said Nessa shortly. "You deserve it."

Tori shook with laughter behind her and Harry smiled at her, but rolled his eyes anyway at her matter-of-fact tone.

"I love you too," he said sarcastically. Nessa released a slow breath and picked up the chair she'd knocked over and took a seat again. There was another moment of silence as the team looked between her to Harry and back again. "So, are you going to tell me how great a catch it was?"

The team inhaled sharply and looked as though they were going to make an excuse to leave before Nessa could start yelling again, but to their surprise, she only shrugged with a clearly forced blank expression.

"I've seen better," she lied nonchalantly.

"Where?" snorted Ron, with an exaggerated look at Harry.

"Come on, Nessa," grinned Harry. "Even you couldn't ignore the look on Malfoy's face when we won."

"I don't want to condone this kind of behavior, Harry," she protested, but the corners of her mouth were twitching.

"What if I say that I will endeavor to be less stupid tomorrow than I was today?" he said with a raised brow and a smirk.

"Fine," she said, waving her arm at the Gryffindor team, as if granting them permission. "Go ahead."

Immediately, the entire team rushed forward and the room was filled with cheers and excited chatter at their recent win.

"Unbelievable flying, Harry," said George. "I saw Marcus Flint yelling at Malfoy before we came up here. Something about having the Snitch on top of his head and not noticing. Malfoy didn't seem too happy."

Nessa shook her head with a smile as Harry grinned at her. She hated him a small bit, but only because she could never really stay mad at him for too long. It had been spectacular flying, stupidity aside.

As the others trickled out of the hospital wing, giving Harry their final congratulations, the atmosphere in the room was much more casual than it had been when she'd entered it. Tori was in a seat next to her, eating a Cauldron cake the twins had snuck in some time ago, and leaning on the two back legs of the chair precariously. Ron and Hermione sat opposite them, grinning and giving Harry a play by play of the match since he'd been thoroughly distracted. The twins lingered as well, standing at the end of the bed, looking awkwardly at Nessa.

"I assume you yelled at Fred and George too, then?" said Harry suddenly, noticing the twins' awkward glances. They grimaced at the inquiry which seemed answer enough. "They did try to tell me not to do it."

"Yes, well, unfortunately for them, actions speak much louder than words," said Nessa, shortly, clearly not open to discussing the twins just yet. "As is clear by the fact that you have no bones in your arm."

"Nessa, don't be upset with them," said Harry, pleadingly. "It's my fault, really. I should have listened to them and —"

"No, she's right, Harry," said George firmly. Nessa's head shot up to meet his stare in surprise. "Spectacular catch aside, it could have been much worse. We should have pushed harder."

"I — thank you," said Nessa lamely. "And — er — for what it's worth, Fred, I'm sorry I threatened to break your arm."

Tori laughed under her breath and Hermione gasped in horror.

"Don't mention it," said Fred. "I live with Tori, so, really, I've been threatened much worse."

Tori chucked an unopened Cauldron Cake at his head, which he caught with a grin.

"You threatened to break his arm?" said Harry in alarm.

"It may have been a slight overreaction to the situation," she said, guiltily.

"May have been, she says," Fred muttered to George. Nessa glared at him and he froze, looking around the room for someone and said "Who said that?"

The others dissolved into a fit of laughter at this that attracted the attention of Madam Pomfrey, who stormed over, shouting "This boy needs rest, he's got thirty-three bones to regrow! Out! OUT!"

And Nessa was forced to leave her brother alone in the Hospital Wing with a final hug. At least he was alive, she thought tiredly. And she could only hope that regrowing bones was the last of it.