She drifted away. We had not quite recovered from the shock of Luna's hat before Angelina came hurrying towards us, accompanied by Alicia and Katie, whose eyebrows had mercifully been returned to normal by Madam Pomfrey.

'When you're ready' she said, 'we're going to go straight down to the pitch, check out conditions and change.'

"Both teams" Alicia added quickly. As the reserves are playing first, the firsts can watch us and take advantage of knowing how we get the most from the conditions"

'We'll be there in a bit,' Harry assured her. 'Ron's just got to have some breakfast"

It became clear after ten minutes, however, that Ron was not capable of eating anything more and we thought it best to get him down to the changing rooms. He seemed too distracted to notice much of what was around him, and this was lucky, because I saw at that moment what was on the Slytherin's badges.

"Weasley is our King"

What this could mean, I had no clue, but it obviously wasn't going to be anything good.

The frosty grass crunched under our feet as we hurried down the sloping lawns towards the stadium. There was no wind at all and the sky was a uniform pearly white, which meant that visibility would be good without the drawback of direct sunlight in the eyes. Hermione pointed out these encouraging factors to Ron as we walked, but it didn't seem like Ron was listening.

"You're gonna smash it bro, trust me" I said, wrapping my arm around his shoulders outside the changing rooms. "You've got this, just believe in yourself!"

This had little effect however.

"You did all you could mate, gotta just hope for the best now" said Katie, seeing the disheartened look on my face.

As we went into the stands though, we discovered that the Slytherin end was absolutely packed, which was unheard of for a reserve game. Normally, the stands were only about half full when it came to those, but this time, it seemed like every single Slytherin in the school was there from minute one.

"What's got all of them down here?" asked Angelina.

I had a sudden sinking feeling in my stomach, and I chewed my lip nervously. I had an idea of what this could be, and could only pray I was wrong. I sat down next to Harry. It seemed like the awkward period following our breakup was over. Sure, I was annoyed by his renewed interest in Cho Chang, but right now, that was unimportant.

"Ron" I whispered to him "The badges. They're here for Ron"

"Yeah, I have a horrible feeling you might be right" said Harry

As the players came out onto the pitch, I saw Hermione giving some last minute attempted comfort to Ron, but he just shook his head and flew awkwardly towards the goal hoops. The game started horribly, not only because Ron conceded two goals within the first 2 minutes, but because the Slytherins started singing a song, which only got louder once the goals went in.

'Weasley cannot save a thing, He cannot block a single ring, That's why Slytherins all sing: 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.'

"Those fucking twats" Harry grumbled, and I nodded in agreement as Lillian Avery flew low over our heads.

"Enjoying our new song, guys?" she asked, grinning evilly, and without waiting for a reply, she grabbed the Quaffle, tore off towards Ron again, and slammed another goal past him, putting Slytherin 30-0 up within 3 minutes of quaffle drop.

"Come on guys, what's going on?!" Angelina yelled up at them "sort yourselves out", as the Slytherin's singing got even louder. Hermione grabbed the Quaffle from the restart, exchanged passes with Demelza and scored Gryffindor's first goal. She beckoned aggressively with her arms for her teammates to follow her and be ready on the restart. From this, Alicia scored to make it 30-20, and this shot did actually strike Sarah in the face on it's way in, for which Amy was delighted, and she fist bumped Alicia just before the next drop.

Hermione was sent through again, but this time she struck the rim of the centre hoop, and play continued. Gryffindor quickly won back the quaffle, and it seemed like the momentum had swung very much in our favour, so much so that the Slytherins stopped singing. Lillian Avery decided that this needed to end though, so shot back towards her own goal and grabbed Hermione's broom tail, in a move reminiscent of the one Draco Malfoy pulled on Harry in the 1994 first team final, and this meant she flung her shot wildly over the hoops. Hermione barged her very roughly in retaliation, which lead to penalties for both sides. Demelza missed ours though, and to our great frustration, Slytherin scored theirs, meaning that despite our dominance of the past few minutes, we were now 40-20 down. Slytherin then scored twice more in quick succession, and this lead to our frustration getting the better of us.

Slytherin were now dominating, and they kept increasing their lead, and we only scored twice in the next 15 minutes, both goals coming from Demelza. Avery seemed to have gotten her team extremely well drilled, and they were playing some tactics that I hadn't seen used at Hogwarts before. This lead to us committing a large number of fouls, and Ron still wasn't saving a single shot. I could only hope that we could get the snitch, as this performance was becoming very embarrassing. After 45 minutes, Slytherin established a 150 point lead, and Ron had only made 4 saves, meaning we needed to get the snitch now to even draw. Hermione struck the hoop rim again, increasing our frustration, and then Slytherin scored right after that. It was just not our day. In the end, Sloper caught the snitch, but it was too little, too late. We had lost 220-210.

As the whole Gryffindor team landed, they all stood around, looking dejected and at a loss for words. The Slytherins were hugging each other and celebrating in front of their housemates. As Ron walked off the pitch alone, they all collectively pointed at him and repeated their song.

"First blood to us" said Avery, with another infuriating grin on her face, again from right above us. I made a lunge for the end of her broom, but she was gone way too quickly, laughing loudly.