Regulus finally came back to her during lunch.
"What's in the third floor corridor?"
She jumped, knees hitting the table so hard she could already feel the bruising. "Merlin!" she gasped.
Regulus squinted at her. "Yes. Me."
"Rex, you okay?" Draco whispered out of the side of his mouth. When she turned her stare to him, trying to figure out why he'd broken the one rule of ignoring the things she did, he glanced down at the table. "Sounded painful," he said flatly. "If you break something before the game and cost us the Cup because of it, I'll never forgive you."
She snorted. "I'm fine and I'll do fine."
"Then bloody eat something so you don't faint on your broom."
With that reminder—Regulus scoffed at the fact that she needed to be reminded when she was literally sitting in the Great Hall for a meal—she got down some steak and kidney pudding, a jacket potato, and two glasses of pumpkin juice before heading out. Draco gave her a glance and a nod as she left. There was still an hour before she had to meet the rest of the team in the changing rooms, so she went ahead and got her broom and quidditch robes settled there before heading out for a stroll along the lake, careful not to stray too far from the stadium.
"It took you long enough."
Regulus hissed at her in response and moved to block her path. When she simply marched straight through him, he huffed. "The third floor corridor."
"Yes. That's where you left me."
"There's something there."
"Yes, I would imagine there is."
"It's important. Whatever is there—"
"No," she warned, stopping and scowling at him. "I know where you're going with this. Don't."
"—wants it but doesn't want the other to know—"
"Don't do this."
"—not working together—"
"Mer, please. Please don't—"
"—and you and I both know that voice."
She pressed her lips together. Her bottom lip stung, and she wondered if she'd been chewing it again and for how long. She closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. "Please," she whispered. "Just let me play this match."
He didn't say anything for a long time. Finally, he conceded, "After."
"Yes," she murmured. "Okay. After."
She spent the rest of her time waiting in the Slytherin team's changing rooms, already dressed in her quidditch robes and turning over one of the worn practice quaffles in her hands. After a time, the rest of the team arrived and changed, and Flint cleared his throat.
"We all know Wood is a stubborn captain who trains his team to be the best," Flint said, as if she knew Wood well enough to know anything about him beyond him being Percy's roommate and sometimes too loud during breakfast in the Great Hall if the Daily Prophet had updates on the world of quidditch. "But they're Gryffindors." Flint grinned. "Gryffindors are too righteous to do what it takes to win."
Leo wrinkled her nose and glanced at Regulus, but he seemed far too distracted by glaring at the door in a clear reaction to her putting off what he wanted her to do. It wasn't quite fair, she thought. She'd almost been a Gryffindor, and Draco would probably lose his head laughing if anyone ever implied she was too righteous for anything. Besides, she'd learned weeks ago that the Weasley twins were the Gryffindor beaters; she doubted Flint had thought to consider how ridiculous calling them too righteous to win would sound. She doubted they would have any issues doing anything and everything within the (probably bendable) rules whenever they felt like it. After all, she'd seen what they'd done to Percy's hair two weeks ago, and the prefect had huffed and shushed her as he desperately tried to focus her on their tutoring sessions and not the shifting colors.
Flint finally wrapped up his speech with a reminder that they didn't know much about Harry Potter's abilities as a seeker, but that it wouldn't matter much as long as they kept their quaffle points high and Leo caught the snitch quickly.
She followed her team out onto the field, her Nimbus in hand. She glanced over at the Gryffindor team as they approached Madam Hooch as well. She caught Harry's wide-eyed gaze and tilted him a smile and a wave, excitement finally catching up to her. She started bouncing in her steps. Oliver Wood narrowed his eyes at her, but he looked surprised too, and she realized that Percy must not have mentioned her place on the team after all.
"Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you," Madam Hooch said. Though the way she looked at Flint made Leo consider it probably more of a warning.
Leo followed Harry's gaze up to the large banner that read Potter for President, held up by the youngest Weasley boy and Hermione Granger. She then tracked her gaze across the crowd to where Draco was sitting. The distance made it hard to see details, but she didn't think he'd been wearing that green and white face paint at breakfast, let alone that much of it.
"Mount your brooms, please."
Leo stepped onto her Nimbus, and it was so easy to breathe. She cocked her head at the triangle the opposing chasers formed, Angelina Johnson spearheading. Flint scowled at her. Leo tried to catch Harry's eye again to give him a grin, but he was busy staring back up at the banner.
At the shrill noise from Madam Hooch's whistle, Leo rose into the air alongside everyone else, angling her broom so that she went soaring upwards and backwards to put plenty of distance between herself and the scuffle from the rest of the players as quickly as possible. The commentator started talking, and it wasn't long before Leo could tell he was a Gryffindor himself.
She kept an ear on the commentary and an eye out for the snitch as she flew up to match Harry's figure eights above the field. "No sign yet," she said as she came alongside him, not looking at him in favor of doing multiple twirls while scanning the air for gold. Regulus was far below, lingering near the ground but unable to leave her completely.
"I didn't know you'd made the team," Harry said. And then, "Should we even be talking?"
"Why not?" she asked. "Oh!" She saw a glint of gold directly below them and instead dove for a spot far across the field. She heard a sound of surprise from Harry as he raced after her. She grinned and leaned sharply backwards, flipping out of her dive to turn—broom over body—and speed in the opposite direction. She shot past him as he continued the wrong way.
The snitch was low to the ground, and she got within two broom lengths when she saw the bludger out of the corner of her eye. She swung into a Sloth Grip Roll. She felt the barest brush of grass against her hair, and the bludger shot right past her knuckles. Once she'd righted herself, she'd lost sight of the snitch, and the Weasley twin that had batted the bludger her way was gone. The commentator was roaring about the close call, and she shot back up into the air and then after Harry, who was flying in a very purposeful line.
She saw the snitch Harry was after just before Flint got involved and earned the Gryffindor team a penalty shot. She shot past them, and it was both bludgers hurtling towards her at the same time that made her abandon her hunt in a twirl.
"And we're saved from a Slytherin win by the Weasleys!" the commentator roared. "Malfoy executes a disgustingly adequate maneuver that saves her from a weeklong stay with Madam Pomfrey. Chaser Katie Bell has the quaffle!"
Leo rose high into the air again, keeping an eye out. She glanced over at her fellow seeker just in time to see him dodge a bludger and then jolt to the side in a move that didn't exactly make sense. He hunched forward on his broom, eyes wide and knuckles white. He gave another awkward yank. When she opened her mouth to call out to him, he lurched forward in a zig-zagging pattern. She blinked. That didn't look right. He wasn't an experienced flier, sure, but—
"Something's wrong," Regulus said, appearing at her side. "His broom is jinxed. Get to him before—"
"Got it."
She leaned forward, zooming after Harry as he started to roll again and again and— She pulled her wand from her robes. Her shield charm was still weak, but if she could cast it quickly enough several times in a row along with a cushioning charm, then maybe— She kept one hand on her broom as she straightened, wand extended towards Harry. "Proteg—"
She was so focused on Harry that she didn't see the bludger coming.