Chapter 52

Ginny POV

A few quick days after they'd arrived back at Hogwarts, Quidditch trials were upon them. At 5 pm that evening, anyone interested in the Gryffindor Keeper or reserve slots would be down on the Quidditch pitch. Ginny had grown nervous over the past few days, but still felt confident in her abilities. She'd worked hard, and all she could do now is give it her best shot. Ron, on the other hand, seemed anything but confident. As she, Demelza, and Colin sat down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast, they heard Lavender and Harry trying their best to boost Ron's spirits.

"Come on, mate, on that new broom you're unstoppable! Think of all of Ginny's shots that you blocked this summer, you were great!" Harry said encouragingly.

"Hey, I heard that…" Ginny said as she sat down across from the three.

"Won-won, you're the best Keeper there is! Gryffindor would be so lucky to have such a strong, brilliant, and handsome Quidditch player such as yourself on the team!" Lavender gushed, hanging off of Ron.

Ginny cringed a bit, but fought off her disgust to offer a word of encouragement of her own, "You really were great this summer. You're confident on your new broom, and all you've got to do is believe in your abilities tonight. You've got this, Ron. Plus, everyone is rooting for you. God knows no one wants McLaggen on the team…"

Everyone nodded at this as they looked down the table at McLaggen, who was wolfing down a large plate of eggs, bacon, and sausages. Ron, on the other hand, hadn't touched his plate.

"You've got this, Ron. Really, you do," Ginny said earnestly, as she began to load up her plate with fruit, eggs, and potatoes.

"Well, that's easy for you to say, isn't it? Everyone's been talking about how bloody amazing you are out on the pitch. I wish I had been able to get private lessons with Juliette Marat…" Ron muttered.

"Look, I'm not going to feel bad for the work I've put in… You've got a real shot at this, but if you don't believe that you do, then it's done," Ginny said definitively.

"She's right, mate. You've got to at least believe that you can do this. We all know you can, but it's got to come from you as well," Harry agreed.

Ron rolled his eyes and sighed, "Yeah, alright... I'm going to go off to class… Come on, Lav…"

As the two walked off hand in hand, Harry looked across the table at Ginny distraught, "I can't have McLaggen joining the team. I know Angelina doesn't want him to, but if Ron doesn't get it together, what choice are we going to have?"

Ginny fidgeted slightly and ran a hand through her long, red hair.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Juliette made me train for every position in the spring… She said it'd make me invaluable to any team that looked at me…"

Harry gaped at her for a moment, "So, you could be the new Gryffindor Keeper?"

Ginny paused, then shook her head, "I couldn't do that to Ron. It'd honestly be the position I'd want to play the least as well… But…"

"But it'd be better than McLaggen joining," Demelza chimed in, nudging Ginny lightly.

Ginny looked at her, and gave her a small smile.

"Let's just hope that Ron gets the job done, and I don't have to worry about this. Harry, don't say anything to Angelina, okay?"

Harry stared at her for a moment, then reluctantly nodded, "Alright."

As the four started to finish up their breakfasts, Colin and Demelza got up from the table.

"We're going to head off to Herbology. Ginny, are you coming?"

"I'll catch up with you two in a bit, I've got to talk to Harry about something."

"Alright, see you there!"

As the two walked off, Ginny leaned across the table and spoke in a hushed voice, "I think Demelza may fancy me again…"

Harry nodded, "You have been hanging out a lot lately. I just figured you'd rekindled your friendship or something. So, does that mean you don't fancy Hermione anymore?"

Ginny looked down, "I like Demelza, as a friend. I'll find a time to make that clear at some point, but Hermione…" Ginny sighed.

Harry was still staring at her, quietly waiting for her to continue.

"We spoke over the summer, and I asked her point blank if she was in love with Juliette, and she said she was. I was all for using that to move on and not look back, but there were a few… Moments…"

"Moments?"

"Yeah, moments. Where I'd catch her looking at me, or she'd say something that could be considered to be flirting… The night before we left for Hogwarts, I was consoling her while she cried about how much she missed Juliette, and…"

"And…? And what?"

Ginny looked at Harry and blushed, "Honestly Harry, I thought for a moment that she might kiss me. And now with Demelza…"

"What about Demelza?" Hermione asked briskly, sitting down beside Harry.

Ginny gaped at her, turning as red as her hair.

"Uh, Ginny's feeling bad that she's likely going to take the reserve spot up and Demelza won't make the team in any capacity…" Harry said quickly.

"Well, that's ridiculous. There's nothing to feel bad about, Ginny. If you're better, you're better. You've worked very hard, you should be proud of what you've accomplished, and if you earn the reserve spot, you should be happy, not upset that someone else didn't get it," Hermione said firmly.

Ginny nodded, "Uh yeah – you're right. Thanks Hermione. Are you going to come and watch the Quidditch trials tonight?"

Hermione nodded, "The sixth year Prefects will be on patrol tonight as neither of them are trying out for the team. Since Dean will be trying out, we figured it'd be best for us to have the night off. I'll need to be studying while I watch as I have so much less time now to do so, but I'll be there, books in tow," she smiled at Ginny, and Ginny smiled back.

"Well, I'm off to class. See you tonight, Ginny. See you in class, Harry," Hermione said before walking off.

Ginny leaned back closer to Harry, "See! She's been weird about Demelza… Almost like she's jealous…"

Harry studied her face and remained silent.

"What?"

"She's still with Juliette, isn't she?"

"Well yeah, but – "

"Ginny, that's your answer."

Ginny frowned, and pushed a few pieces of fruit around on her plate, "Yeah… Okay…"

"You've got Quidditch trials to focus on, let's just think about that, alright?"

Ginny sighed, "Okay. I know you're right. Maybe it's all in my head anyway..."

"Yeah… Maybe…" Harry muttered as they both got up and headed off to their respective classes.


5 pm came quick, and Ginny was in the Gryffindor Quidditch locker room with the other prospects, sitting off on her own by her locker, strapping on her pads. As she pulled the training bib with the number six over her head, Demelza approached her nervously.

"The training bibs certainly make it real, don't they?" she asked, adjusting hers a bit.

"Yeah, they do," Ginny agreed.

Ginny looked around to the other people in the locker room, and honestly, felt pretty good about her chances. Everyone but Ron and McLaggen would be competing for the reserve slot, and she just didn't think anyone else would've thought to cover all positions like Juliette suggested she do. Hopefully that would make a difference. She watched as Dean and Seamus gave each other pep talks and Ritchie chatted with Fred and George who were cracking jokes seemingly to try and ease his nerves. A short and sturdy second year boy by the name of Jimmy Peakes was also there, swinging a Beater's bat around, stretching out his shoulders. There were a few others as well, but still, Ginny felt less and less nervous the more she looked at who she'd be competing with. Honestly, her only real competition was Demelza, but Ginny knew she'd only trained as a Chaser, so really, this was her spot to lose.

Suddenly, McLaggen swaggered into the locker room with his broom over his shoulder. He scanned the room, gave everyone a cocky smile, then walked over to Angelina to grab his training bib. Ginny glanced over at Ron, who looked petrified, then turned her back to the room and faced her locker, casually flipping through the book she'd brought with her, Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland.

"Are you really reading?" Demelza asked, a smirk on her face. "Boy, Hermione would be awfully proud of you right now," she smiled, then walked off to her locker.

Ginny focused on the book, as she found it comforting and felt it was helping to calm the little bit of nerves she had bouncing around in her stomach. All she had to do was relax and rely on the skills she knew she had, that was it.

"Weasley…" she heard the smug, arrogant tone from behind her and slowly turned in her seat on the bench. McLaggen was standing over her, almost menacingly.

"What?" she asked flatly.

"How's Granger?" he asked, smiling.

Ginny didn't respond.

"So, is she actually with you, or is she still with the French girl?"

Still no response from Ginny, she just stared up at him coldly, refusing to break eye contact.

"Guess it doesn't matter, really. She'll be mine soon enough, I'm sure of it. I always find a way to get what I want," he said with a nauseating smile, adding a wink for good measure. He walked off, and to Ginny's horror, approached Demelza. She placed her book in her wooden locker, and swiftly rose to her feet, quickly closing the gap between her and them.

"Maybe after this, once I'm the new Gryffindor Keeper, we could…" Ginny heard McLaggen say as he was towering over the much smaller Demelza, who looked terrified. Ginny stepped between the two firmly, and stared McLaggen down again.

"Come now Weasley, you can't hoard all the pretty girls…" he said with another one of his slimy smiles.

"What gives McLaggen, huh? Have you struck out with all of the straight girls, so you've got to go after the ones that don't fancy boys?" Ginny asked fiercely.

"I guess I just consider the straight girls to be too easy… I like myself a challenge…" he said, eyeing Demelza. Ginny reached behind herself to grab Demelza and pull her closer to her to try and block her from McLaggen's view.

"Oi, why don't you move along, you enormous prat?" Ritchie said, as he stepped beside the two girls. Up close, Ginny realized Ritchie had grown another few inches over the summer, but he still wasn't nearly as tall or burly as McLaggen.

McLaggen laughed harshly, "Oh yeah? Are you going to make me?"

"Yeah, we will," said Fred, stepping beside Ritchie with George right behind him.

Nearly everyone in the room had finally caught on to the interaction between McLaggen, Ginny, and Demelza, and had come over to help.

McLaggen looked around unphased by the sudden crowd, a smug smile still plastered on his face.

"You want a shot at Keeper or not, McLaggen?" Angelina asked firmly.

His smile faltered, and he nodded.

"Then knock it off. Come on, let's all get warmed up."

The group exited the locker room, brooms in hand. Ginny and Demelza waited back a moment.

"Are you alright?" Ginny asked Demelza.

Demelza nodded lightly, "Thank you for that, for protecting me."

"Of course," Ginny nodded. "Come on, let's go show that prat a thing or two about Quidditch," Ginny said, walking towards the locker room door.

The Quidditch trials were intense. Ron, literally and figuratively, had certainly showed up to compete, to everyone's relief. The only two Chasers who'd been able to get anything past him were Katie and Ginny, however, whenever she got the opportunity, Ginny tried to make sure she was shooting against McLaggen. To Ginny's frustration, McLaggen was as good as he boasted. However, his knack for giving unsolicited advice to every player on the pitch was wearing thin on just about everyone in the Quidditch stadium. He'd even dared to tell Harry, the twins, and Angelina how to play their positions better, which Ginny actually laughed at she found it to be so ridiculous.

As she predicted, her only real competition had turned out to be Demelza, who was flying exceptionally well. Not even the twins could get her with a Bludger, and they were arguably the best Beaters in the entire school. She and Demelza played quite well together, and worked diligently to score on McLaggen the best they could. He blocked most of their shots, but they'd managed to slip a few past him, and with every goal against him, he got angrier and angrier, which appeased Ginny to no end. She noticed Hermione also seemed to find McLaggen's compounding fury to be amusing from her place in the stands, as Ginny caught her smiling every time she scored on the large boy.

After about an hour, Ron and McLaggen had allowed the same number of goals against, and the next few goals would determine who would become the new Gryffindor Keeper. Angelina set Dean, Seamus, Alicia, George, and Ritchie against Ron, and Ginny, Demelza, Katie, Fred, and Jimmy against McLaggen, which he complained about loudly, but everyone ignored him. Ginny, Demelza, and Katie flew forward in the Hawkshead Attacking Formation, speeding towards McLaggen who was hovering in front of the hoops, moving between the three. They shook off Alicia, Dean, and Seamus, who all tried to intercept the Quaffle, as the three girls were solid as they flew as one unit. Ginny felt a Bludger go whizzing past her ear, and looked up at Ritchie in shock, assuming it'd come from him as she knew George wouldn't send one so close to her head. She quickly noticed that Ritchie was no longer holding his Beater's bat, and as Katie tossed her the Quaffle to shoot, she was immediately hit in the face with a Bludger.

- CRACK -

She heard her nose break before she felt the blinding pain. The impact nearly threw her off her broom, but she somehow managed to just barely hold on. As she reached for her face, she weakly shoveled the Quaffle off to Demelza who immediately caught it and shot it past McLaggen. McLaggen had no chance of making the save, as he was still holding Ritchie's Beater's bat. Ginny flew as quickly as she could down to the ground and landed hard, dismounting her broom and putting her other hand to her face. Her face, hands, and training bib were completely covered in blood, and it was dripping down onto the pitch. The pain was almost too much to bear, and she felt herself drop to her knees.

As others landed around her, absolute chaos broke out. She could hear shouting from every direction. The twins yelled at Ritchie first, then rounded on McLaggen who was already being angrily confronted by Ron, Harry, Dean, Seamus, Jimmy, and Angelina. Demelza shouted at Ritchie too, who Ginny could just barely make out explaining that McLaggen had taken his Beater's bat from him and he would've never given it to him to use. Alicia and Katie were holding onto Ginny, trying to keep her upright as her nose continued to bleed freely down her front and onto the pitch. She felt woozy, and was worried she might faint. She saw Demelza come into view, trying to wipe some of the blood off of her face, then suddenly, Demelza's worried face was replaced with Hermione's determined face.

"Episkey! Tergeo!"

Immediately, Ginny felt her nose snap back into place and the blood on her hands, face, training bib and Quidditch robes disappeared. She gingerly felt her nose and stood up straight, looking directly into the eyes of a highly emotional Hermione, who grabbed her arm and started pulling her away from the group.

"Come on, you need to go to the Hospital Wing. The boys will get your broom, let's go," Hermione said, as she whisked Ginny out of the Quidditch stadium.

Hermione POV

As soon as she saw McLaggen wrestle the Beater's bat out of Ritchie's hands, Hermione started running as fast as she could down to the pitch. She kept her eyes on Ginny as she flew in formation with Demelza and Katie. At the speed Ginny was flying at, Hermione was sure should wouldn't be able to accurately cast a protective spell to keep her safe. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw McLaggen swing the Beater's bat hard, and she gasped. The Bludger missed Ginny's head by inches. Unfortunately, Fred hadn't quite realized what was going on, and sent the Bludger back at McLaggen, who then swung even harder, sending it directly at Ginny again.

Hermione could see from the bottom of the stands that Ginny's nose had been shattered by the Bludger that McLaggen had rocketed towards her. She ran down the stairs and out onto the pitch where Ginny was landing roughly, clutching at her face. There was blood everywhere. The others had landed and were shouting at McLaggen, Katie and Alicia were trying to hold Ginny up while Demelza desperately attempted to clear some of the blood off of Ginny's face with her hands.

Wordlessly, Hermione gently moved Demelza aside and stepped in front of Ginny. She'd never seen quite that much blood before up close, but she was determined to not let that phase her.

"Episkey! Tergeo!"

Hermione's wand siphoned the blood off of Ginny's face, hands, and clothes as Ginny gently touched her nose, staring at her. She was extremely pale, and Hermione figured she'd lost a good amount of blood. She grabbed Ginny's arm, and started to pull her away from the group.

"Come on, you need to go to the Hospital Wing. The boys will get your broom, let's go," Hermione said, as she whisked Ginny out of the Quidditch stadium.

They walked slowly and quietly. Hermione could feel Ginny's weight on her as they walked, and she did her best to support her as they made their way up to the Hospital Wing.

"What happened to her? Another Quidditch accident?" Madam Pomfrey asked, taking in Ginny's Quidditch robes and training bib.

"She took a Bludger to the face and surely broke her nose. I did my best to fix it, but there was also a lot of blood. She's weak and pale, and I just – "

"You did the right thing bringing her to me. Come, she can lay down over here."

Hermione helped Ginny over to one of the beds and Ginny laid down slowly. Hermione pulled up a chair and sat beside Ginny, watching her carefully. Ginny first looked down at her Quidditch robes and training bib, then turned to her, and for the first time since the Bludger smashed into her face, spoke.

"How'd I do?" she asked weakly.

Hermione let out a quick and amused laugh as she shook her head in disbelief and smiled, "You did very well."

Ginny nodded, wincing a little, "And Ron?"

"He did well too. Made more saves than McLaggen in the end."

"Good… I hope that'll be enough to keep McLaggen off the team…"

"I'm sure they won't be taking him… Don't worry about that now, just relax, okay?"

Ginny chuckled lightly, "You telling me to relax? That's a new one…"

Hermione shook her head again, smiling. Madam Pomfrey arrived and began to look over Ginny. She gently pressed into her face, checking to see if anything was still broken. Ginny tried not to move, but grimaced at every touch. Madam Pomfrey looked at Hermione with approval.

"You did a very efficient job of healing the broken nose, Miss Granger, it's snapped right back into place. I believe it will look just as it did before Miss Weasley's accident. You say she lost a lot of blood as well?"

"Yes. It was… Everywhere…" Hermione said weakly, remembering the visual of Ginny drenched in her own blood.

"Well, we'll give her a small dose of a Blood-Replenishing Potion, just to be safe."

Madam Pomfrey began observing Ginny's ability to track light, which Ginny winced at, and her ability to recall moments from the past few days, which didn't appear to go as well as Madam Pomfrey had hoped.

"A possible concussion as well, I believe. Well, Miss Weasley will be fine, but she'll need to stay here tonight for further observations."

Hermione nodded as Ginny frowned. Once Madam Pomfrey had walked away, Ginny tried to sit up.

"I'm fine, really, I…" she laid back down as her face had gone pale again.

"Ginny, just rest. Madam Pomfrey knows what she's doing, and she said you only have to stay for one night. It's fine…" Hermione said reassuringly, instinctively running a hand through Ginny's red hair. As she realized what she was doing, Hermione froze, her eyes widening slightly in shock, and Ginny was looking up at her with a very similar reaction.

Suddenly, the doors to the Hospital Wing crashed open. Hermione quickly pulled her hand back as everyone from the Gryffindor Quidditch trials (except McLaggen) were surrounding Ginny's bed, talking over one another.

"No, no! Absolutely not! Miss Weasley needs her rest, out! Out!" Madam Pomfrey demanded, ushering the loud group out.

Hermione moved to leave as well, when she felt a hand grab ahold of hers. She turned to find Ginny looking up at her imploringly. She sat back down at once, rubbing the back of Ginny's hand with her thumb soothingly. Ginny closed her eyes and Hermione sat with her until she knew she was asleep. She gently moved Ginny's hand out of hers, placing it by her side. Hermione stood up and looked down at Ginny, lightly chewing on the inside of her bottom lip. She began to lean down towards her –

Don't…

Hermione closed her eyes tightly in frustration as she quickly stood up straight. She took one last glance at the sleeping girl in front of her, and left.