Chapter 17

An extra chapter to celebrate the new year!

"Here is my favourite team!" I grinned as I approached the quidditch team with Lee before they entered the changing rooms. The rain was coming down hard, and I had my wand pointed upwards to shield me from the rain. The twins' smile was large, but Angelina pushed past them, making them grumble and hugged me tight. Her clothes already wet.

"You'll do great, Ange. Can't wait to see the triple threat." I grinned as I pulled back. I saw the twins wait expectantly for their own hug, but right before I reached them, I dashed for Harry.

"Good luck, Potter." I smirked, because I knew he hated that I called him by his last name, I think my cousin had something to do with that. He pursed his lips at me, but a smile crept through. "I hear everyone talking about the youngest seeker in a century, so don't let me down."

"I'll try." He grinned and leaned closer to whisper. "I have a meeting with Professor Lupin at the end of the week. To talk about… everything."

"That's great, Harry. He'll love it. He wished he could come see the game, but he's a bit under the weather."

"You can recap everything for him."

"I'll try." I winked and gave him a quick hug. "Alright, I better get going!" I said and turned to leave. I couldn't help my grin when the twins called out. "Yes?" I turned around with a straight face and a raised brow. It was hard to hold back my laughter at the faces of the twins. Angelina was standing next to Lee with a grin of her own. "Alright fine." I sighed, a smile slipping on my face. "If you need a hug that badly." I rolled my eyes and opened my arms.

The twins both stumbled towards me in a hurry as they wrapped them both around me. "Good luck, boys. Let's see what those arms are made off." I rubbed their arms with a grin. I leaned on my toes and kissed their cheeks. When I landed back on my feet, I tucked a wayward strand of hair behind my ear, the twins' ears red. "I'll see you after the game." I looked between the twins. "Lee! Let's go! Before McGonagall has your head!"

Lee gave Angelina a sweet and chaste kiss, murmuring a good luck before darting over to me and the twins. I turned and headed to the stands where Lee was going to announce the game. The chanting and voices loud as the stands started to fill up. And because of the noise, I only heard Lee's chuckle and half a sentence before the noise was too loud.

"You two have it -"

LB

When Lee and I reached the stands, the players all walked on the pitch. The wind was so hard, they had to push through. Their clothes already soaked and weighed down by the rain. They climbed their brooms and shot up in the air. When Harry lifted from the ground, I saw him sway back and forward as he tried to balance himself. The game wasn't a pretty sight. With the heavy rain and wind, they could barely see each other, even Lee's commentary was faded due to the noise as he tried to peer through the rain to see what was happening.

"I don't think Harry can see very much." I spoke loudly to Lee and pointed to Harry who wasn't flying too far off from us. Harry had almost flown into a Katie, his glasses filled with raindrops. The sky was getting darker, as though the night was about to fall, but in reality, it was only just a little after noon. When a strike of lighting illuminated the sky and a loud thunder followed, Hooch's whistle filled the air and the players descended towards the ground. I leaned over the banister and saw Hermione pointing her wand at Harry's glasses. Oh, a water repellent charm. Smart girl. I thought to myself. With another loud thunder the players climbed their brooms again and shot up in the air. With the rain, lightning, thunder and crazy bludgers, the game had become more dangerous by the minute. I was biting my nails to the brim from my nerves as my eyes flickered over the pitch.

Then suddenly Cedric, the Hufflepuff seeker pelted up the pitch, going after a small golden flicker on the other side of the pitch. Harry raced after him when Wood called out, as he was distracted by something on top of the empty stands. Just when Harry threw himself flat on his broom and went after Cedric, at least a hundred dementors flooded the pitch, their black robes and their hidden faces beneath us.

"What the actual fuck!" I cried out and took my wand and headed down, the rain drenched me after only a few seconds. I didn't hear Lee call after me, I only thought about my friends on the pitch, about Harry. I knew how he reacted to the dementor on the train. Now he was flying high in the sky, what if… I couldn't finish the thought because at that moment I saw something falling from the sky. I stood rooted to the staircase and clutched my hands around the banister as my knees went weak. Harry was falling down from the sky in rapid pace, his broom being swept away by the wind. Then suddenly his trajectory slowed down, until he landed on the ground with a thud. The dementors were being driven away from the pitch by the teachers but they had a hard time. So, I pulled myself together and conjured my own as I ran down the stairs to Harry. Loki was chasing away the dementors who dared to come near Harry. I dropped down next to him, just as the headmaster and Professor McGonagall reached us.

"Harry." I whispered and pushed his wet hair that stuck against his forehead away. But he didn't react or move.

"Miss Lupin-Black. We need to get him to the hospital wing." Professor McGonagall touched my shoulder lightly. I nodded my head absently and let the professor levitate him from the pitch. I followed them quietly, and the headmaster strutted off to the remaining dementors. Then red quidditch robes caught my eye, and I saw the other players rush over.

"Are you okay?" I asked the group right before Angelina hugged me tight.

"We're fine. I mean, need to recover from all the dementors on the field, but I'll manage." Angelina gave me a feeble smile.

"How are you?" The twins flanked me and wrapped their arms around me as we continued our walk to the castle.

"Worried about Harry. It doesn't look like he has broken anything, but he's as white as a sheet."

"He'll be okay." George rubbed my arm gently. Ron, Hermione and Lee reached us, just as we were about to walk in the castle. The whole group walked in silence towards the hospital wing. Even then, when Madam Pomfrey did her diagnostic spells, we all were quiet as we took a seat on the bed across from the unconscious boy. When the healer was finished, we we're allowed to sit with him. Ron and Hermione took a seat on either side of him, and Fred pushed a chair next to Hermione and pushed my shoulders until I sat down. Normally I would've thanked him of give him a smile, but my eyes were fixed on Harry. So, I just squeezed the hand that still rested on my shoulder.

"Has anyone found Harry's broom?" I asked after the silence became too much.

"It flew into the whomping willow." Hermione said with a strained voice.

"Oh, no." I whispered because I knew what that meant.

"I can't believe he didn't break anything." Katie said from the other bed, next to Alicia.

"Lucky the ground was so soft." Lee said.

"I thought he was dead for sure." Fred said behind me, and I shot him a glare.

"He didn't even break his glasses." George added.

"It was Dumbledore, he slowed his fall." I said looking back to Harry.

"That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life." Ron shuddered. And Harry's eyes snapped open. We all gathered closer to the boy in the bed in the middle of our huddle.

"Harry!" said Fred, his hands clutched on my shoulders. "How're you feeling?"

"What happened?" He asked as he pushed himself of the bed.

"You fell off, must've been fifty feet?"

"And the match? What happened?" I rolled my eyes internally, of course he would think of the game. The others were all silent and Harry swallowed. "We didn't – lose?"

"Diggory got the snitch." George said behind me. "Just after you fell. He didn't realise what had happened. When he saw you on the ground, he tried to call it off, wanted a rematch. But they won fair and square… Even Wood admits it."

"Where is Wood?"

"Still in the showers." Said Fred. "We think, he's trying the drown himself."

Harry buried his head in his knees. I stood up and Hermione shuffled aside to let me pass. "Harry." I put my hand on his shoulder. Harry looked at me with a defeated look. I looked to the others for a second. "Can we have a moment?"

While the others nodded and headed to the doors, the twins hung back for a few seconds before they walked out of the hospital wing. Hermione and Ron also waited until Harry nodded for them to go, though Hermione seemed more reluctant to do so. Once they were out, I pushed Harry to the side so I could sit next to him.

"I just fell out of the sky, and here you are pushing me out of the bed." Harry huffed but he grinned.

"At least I can make you laugh." I smirked. "Harry, it's just a game. Things could have been so much worse. If Dumbledore wasn't there…"

"But he was. And besides if he wasn't, I think you would've come up with something." He nudged me with a smile.

"Hm." I hummed because I had no idea if I would've come up with something before he'd hit the ground. "What did you see?"

"What do you mean?"

"Right before Wood called for you about the snitch, your eyes were fixed on a point at the stands."

"I –" He looked around the room, and I cast a Muffliato charm around us. I felt his shoulders relax against me. "I saw a large black dog." My breath hitched at that sentence. It couldn't be right? I saw pictures of Sirius in his dog form next to the others, all Animagi.

"Are you sure it wasn't the lighting playing with your eyes."

"That's what I thought first. But I have seen the dog before."

"Where?" I frowned as I looked to him.

"Back at the Dursley's. The night I ran off, before the knight bus arrived, I saw a large scruffy black dog in the bushes."

"What- what do you think it is?"

"I don't know." I saw the confusion in his eyes. "Professor Trelawny says it's the grim, the omen of death." His voice serious. I looked at him for a long moment before I burst into laughing. "It's not that funny!" Harry grumbled.

I clutched my side as I try to control my breathing. "Oh, Harry." I wiped a tear away as I smiled and put an arm around him. "There is a reason they don't teach divination at Beauxbatons." I couldn't help another chuckle. "Dat is belachelijk. It's ridiculous. I believe there are true seers in the world, but I know you can't learn to be one. When I first heard there was a class here for that, I didn't believe it. So, don't worry. You're not dying, not any time soon trust me." I squeezed his shoulder and I grinned at the blush on his cheeks.

"Thanks, that actually makes me feel better." He smiled shyly. I felt that the cushion behind me was wet from my drenched clothes and hair. So, I put a drying charm over me, Harry and the bed. Harry took a lock of wavy black hair between his fingers.

"Wasn't your hair lighter?"

"You pay attention to my hair?" I teased and his blush became more apparent. "In the summer it's lighter, something with the sun. So, in the summer it's more like my mum's hair. And now…" I shook my head, my hair flinging from one side to the other. "Do you think you're up for the duelling club? I saw you three had signed up."

"I am. Can't wait actually, we had one last year but that was just … bad." He chuckled.

"That's what I heard." I joined in. "I better let Lupin know that you're okay."

"Yeah." He nodded. "Can you send Hermione and Ron back in."

"Of course, but don't strain yourself!" I said in a motherly voice and Harry shook his head with smile.

LB

Happy New Year!