Fourth Year VI.
"This year just can't get better can it?" Alicia grumbled, flopping face down on her bed. The girls had a hard week behind them. The school was becoming crazier and crazier by the minute. Strange things started happening and it was quite creepy. Rhea was in deep thought, sitting on her bed, engulfed with mind-wrecking theories of what could be happening. What was even more concerning was that Harry seemed to know far more than he was letting off. That boy was sure to get in trouble again.
He was prone to trouble for some unexplainable reason and Rhea couldn't help but find it annoying. That by getting himself into any possible trouble he was stressing the girl far more than she deserves.
"Did anything like this happen before?" Katie asked out loud. A thought that has been going through everyone's mind. The Professors seemed to be quite familiar with the strange occurrence but were secretive about it. Rhea seriously contemplated asking Harry for more information. She hated being left in the dark like this.
"What you mean like someone painting on the walls?" Angelina asked, she was keeping her calm and collected attitude. Not wanting to show that she too was freaked out by the situation. She was considered the strong one of the group and she was not about to break that facade for some trick that could have been played by Fred and George. "Before we start thinking about some beasts and I don't know what, maybe we should consider the fact that the school's pranksters might be striking again," Angelina said sending a pointed look at Rhea who was part of the pranking trio.
The blonde looked up at her with furrowed eyebrows. Rhea was far too deep in her thoughts to pay attention to whatever Angelina was saying but she just felt their eyes on her so she looked up.
"What?"
"Is this one of your pranks Rhea? Be honest, this is not funny anymore." Angelina accused harshly.
"What are you on about?"
"Seriously Rhea the whole school is on their tiptoes because of it. First-years are scared and this is just not good." Alicia said while sitting up in her bed, her voice almost pleading Rhea to say that it was a prank. But Rhea Black wasn't having it. How could her best friends be accusing her like that? Yes, she and the twins did pull pranks all the time but this certainly doesn't belong to them and they wouldn't be taking credit for it. This was far too serious.
"Oi shut it, both of you. Don't you think that I would tell you already if it was a prank?" She said standing up from her bed. "This goes too far even beyond our boundaries," Rhea explained, looking at her three friends with eyes full of hurt since they had implied she was making fun of this serious topic.
The girls let the words sink in. Angelina felt slightly ashamed for accusing her friend of something like that. Alicia just went limp on her bed again. Staring up at the ceiling while thinking. Katie looked between the three girls, nervously fiddling with her fingers. Rhea sighed, looking around the room, thinking of what to do. It was already late so talking with Harry is out of the question now. And she is far too stressed to be sleeping.
Her eyes landed on the pile of playing cards on her bedside table. She won them from Lee last weekend when he bet them whilst playing with her. Said he could easily beat her. Five games later and five humiliating losses later Lee involuntarily gave her his set of playing cards. Of course, he tried to argue about it but everyone that was there said that Rhea won them fair and square and that he should stop being the sore loser and give them up.
And since that they there are laying there on the wooden surface of Rhea's bedside table next to her dark red Gryffindor theme lamp. She shrugged walking over to the cards and throwing them on her bed, looking around the dorm at her roommates.
"Who wants to play?" She asked nodding towards the cards. All three girls grinned, glad for the distraction and went to play a game of Exploding Snap.
***
The Gryffindor Quidditch team was quite tense on the Saturday morning of their first match. No one was talking much, everyone was quite displeased by the clear advantage that the Slytherin Quidditch team had over them. Rhea sat next to Angelina, listening to her mutter encouraging words towards herself. Rhea wanted to know how to hype like Angelina but this morning she couldn't find one positive thing about anything.
When they made their way to the locker rooms after breakfast, Rhea couldn't help but glare at her old broom. True it was her father's and she was proud to have it, but it wasn't benefiting her in any way now when Slytherins had the most advanced equipment on their side. Combined with their dirty play, Rhea was sure she would end up knocked down from her broom by the end of the game.
Oliver must have noticed the glum looks. He himself wasn't feeling all victorious. He was putting a lot of importance on these matches because he dreamed of winning the Quidditch Cup someday with him as a Captain, just like Charlie did. And he won't lie, he was also put down by the unfair situation but he believes in his team if nothing more he was sure he had the best players in the whole school.
So when they were all were in their Quidditch robes with their brooms in hand and ready to go out there on the pitch, he stopped them for the usual pre-match pep talk. Something he did every time. But this time he decided to do it differently.
"Slytherin has better brooms than us. No point denying it." Oliver started, speaking with a firm voice. The others sighed or shook their heads. that wasn't something they needed to hear.
"Encouraging Oliver," Rhea commented sarcastically, her fingers nervously drumming against the handle of her broom. She stood next to Fred, with Harry on her other side. Harry was quite confused by Rhea's nervousness. He had never seen Rhea so nervous or in doubt. Fred however was familiar with this. He has been the best friend of Rhea for far too long and he knew how anxious she was before every match, now she just was too worried to try and hide it.
He gave her a side look, seeing her trembling slightly and he sighed, she was just making everyone else around her nervous now since they were all used to Rhea being the calm one. One of his hands let go of the broom against which he was leaning and he slumped it down. Carefully slipping it inside Rhea's shaky one, giving her a reassuring squeeze. Rhea looked up at him surprised, but once he gave her a smile she calmed down, her nerves getting pushed to the back of her head and she appeared calm again. The crisis was eliminated.
Fred nodded towards Wood to signal him that he had everything under control and that he could continue. Oliver gave them a look before opening his mouth again to continue with his speech.
"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," George muttered from the other side of Fred, slightly shivering at the memories. "I haven't been properly dry since August" Some members of the team chuckled at the cheeky joke, but it was true. They were training day and night in any weather possible. Mostly in the rain as this September seemed to be especially stormy.
"And we're going to make them rue the day they let that little bit of slime, Malfoy, buy his way onto their team," Oliver said with determination in his voice and the team cheered. Oliver carefully turned to Harry and Rhea. He noticed how nervous Harry looked and so he turned to Rhea first. Knowing she was holding onto Fred's hand and would try to keep calm. "Black, I know you are amazing out there. And you've proved it to them countless times. So I want you to go there and destroy them." Oliver said with a bit of aggression in his voice.
"What a peaceful request." Rhea chuckled weakly, trying to joke to cover for the uneasiness inside her.
"If you score fifty, I'll buy you a Butterbeer." Oliver offered, holding out his hand. Rhea grinned at the Captain, releasing Fred's hand and sealing the deal with the Captain.
"Get your Galleons ready Wood, the next trip to Hogsmead is next week," Rhea said with confidence, something that Wood was glad to hear from her because it meant she would be playing her best out there. Oliver then turned to Harry who was kind of expecting the Gryffindor Captain to say something to him as well.
"But in the end 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."
"So no pressure, Harry," said Fred teasingly, winking at him. Harry gulped nervously looking up at Rhea who gave him a reassuring smile and thumbs up.
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. Flint leaned a bit to Wood, whispering something to him, a sadistic smirk reaching his lips. Oliver then walked back to his team, giving Rhea a determined look. She nodded, knowing it was meant to be a warning since Flint was most likely going for her.
"On my whistle," said Madam Hooch. "Three... two... one..." The whistle was heard. With a roar from the crowd to speed them upward, the fourteen players rose toward the leaden sky. Rhea flew in the air, straight up like a line, catching the Quaffle before Flint could react. But it was true that their brooms were so much faster as Flint suddenly flew next to her. Rhea quickly searched the field for her teammates, seeing Alicia occupied with Edmund, the two of them seemed to be more talking than anything.
"Rhea!" Rhea looked up to see Angelina flying over her and she tossed the ball just in time for Flint to bump into her, sending her flying through the air. She let out a yell, startled by the strength that she was tossed aside with. She wasn't able to get her broom to stop spinning around and she was feeling dizzier and dizzier.
She managed to see a scarlet blur race past her and suddenly she stopped. Her head spun as she tried to adjust herself to her new position. Rhea couldn't figure out on which side of the pitch she was for a while as well as who had helped her stop. Once she was familiar with her surrounding she looked behind her to see Fred still holding onto her broom, to make sure it was steady enough.
"You fine?" He asked with worry tracing in his words. Rhea only managed to nod, still trying to catch her breath. Her attention got caught by something far more concerning. A bludger seemed to be targeting Harry quite a lot. It went to strike at Harry. Luckily, 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.
"That can't be right," Rhea commented, looking over at Fred who nodded.
"I see that. I'm gonna go help George protect Harry. You score some hoops and stay alive please. Got enough work out here without you adding to it." Fred instructed, not even waiting for Rhea's answer as he advanced on his broom to reach Harry.
It had started to rain, Rhea could feel her long hair getting heavy as the water soaked them. But she flew forward, her eyes scanning the pitch for her Quaffle. She hasn't held it for quite a long time and her hands were itching to score a goal. She noticed the red ball in Edmund's hands. She smirked to herself quickly flying towards him.
"How we doing?" She asked casually, flying by his side. Edmund looked over at her and sighed. Gripping the ball tighter.
"Saw you flying out of the pitch, how are you here so soon?" Edmund wasn't being mean, he just knew that his team was already pissed at him for denying the new broom and now if Rhea takes the Quaffle from him this easily there will be a threat of him getting kicked out of the team.
"Fred stopped me." She explained, flying even closer to Edmund. "You know I need that." She commented pointing to the ball with her free hand. Ed looked in front of him, seeing that he was still too far from the goal.
"Come and get it then," He said diving down. Rhea was ready for this and she flew upside down, taking the Quaffle effortlessly from his hands. She quickly spun in the air flying towards the Slytherin goal. She was close enough to throw a Knuckle Ball when suddenly a bludger came flying at her, causing her to lose her balance. The ball fell out of her hands to Pucey who caught it and zoomed away with it.
Rhea watched in defeat as Adrian tossed the ball to Edmund who scored the goal. She groaned once hearing a terrible cackle from behind her. Already knowing who it was.
"Slytherin lead, sixty points to zero." Lee Jordan called into the speaker. His voice lacked the usual enthusiasm. She shook her head when someone she truly despised glided next to her.
"How is the 'best' Chaser doing? Losing are we?" Flint teased, enjoying the humiliated look on Rhea's face. The droplets of rain trickled down her hot skin. Flint would have said she was beautiful, but she was Gryffindor, to him she was nothing but scum.
Rhea was trying to avoid his gaze, knowing that one look at his troll-like face would make her feel nauseous and she didn't need to be sick in the middle of the match especially now that they were losing. And it was good she wasn't losing her concentration because that way she could see Angelina coming to her with Quaffle in her hand. Angelina flew up nodding her head to the side and showing Rhea where to go. The Chaser swerved her broom to the side and lunged down before Marcus could tease her more.
Angelina passed the ball to her which she caught with ease. She flew with it through the air. The cold droplets hit her face as she hurried towards the Slytherin goal. Rhea went to pull her broom up so she could score when suddenly a green flew past her and something hit her in the face hard. Rhea, however, didn't let go of the ball and she kept pulling her broom up almost ready to score when Madam Hooch's whistle rang out.
She sighed, the pressure on her chest suddenly easing down. She dived for the ground dropping the Quaffle next to her feet once she was on the ground. She felt a hot sticky substance running down her nose, and she reached up to touch it. Thank Merlin for the fingerless gloves she had. She pulled her hand away to see her fingers covered in the red substance. Most likely her blood. She was sure someone had punched her, if it were a bludger she wouldn't have her head on her neck anymore.
Once Harry, Fred, and George came to her, all three of them immediately looked concerned at the amount of blood dripping from her nose. Oliver came over as well with the other two girls. Oliver stared at Rhea with wide eyes while Alicia and Angelina went to inspect Rhea's injury to which she dismissed them that she was feeling fine.
"What's going on?" Oliver asked, trying to ignore the obvious injury of his teammate but he couldn't help but glance at her every so often. "We're being flattened. Fred, George, where were you when that Bludger stopped Rhea scoring?"
"We were twenty feet above her, stopping the other Bludger from murdering Harry, Oliver," George snapped angrily. Of course, he was annoyed that they couldn't focus on the game normally and their other teammates were getting hurt, but there is something seriously wrong with that mad bludger. "Someone's fixed it, it won't leave Harry alone. It hasn't gone for anyone else all game. The Slytherins must have done something to it." He explained, sending a glare towards the Slytherins.
"But the Bludgers have been locked in Madam Hooch's office since our last practice, and there was nothing wrong with them then..." Oliver argued, anxiously. Madam Hooch was walking toward them. Rhea groaned. If they ask for an inquiry they would have to sacrifice the match for it. And now that she had a bloody nose she was not ready for that.
"Listen," said Harry as Madam Hooch came nearer and nearer, "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." He said mentioning to Fred and George who shook their head.
"Don't be thick," said Fred. "It'll take your head off." Rhea nodded agreeing with Fred.
"Oliver, this is insane," Alicia Spoke angrily, she was slightly terrified by the situation. Tempting with bludgers was dangerous, especially if it was targeting only one player. "You can't let Harry deal with that thing on his own. Let's ask for an inquiry..." She suggested, mentioning to Madam Hooch who was coming to them.
"If we stop now, we'll have to forfeit the match!" Harry said, looking over at Rhea to see her pressing the back of her hand to her nose to stop the bleeding. Fred stepped a bit more towards her, whispering something in her ear and gently helping her to tilt her head forward so the blood wouldn't run down to the back of her throat. "And we're not losing to Slytherin just because of a crazy Bludger! Come on, Oliver, tell them to leave me alone!" Harry was determined to continue with the match. Knowing how much it meant to Rhea and Oliver. They both wanted to win so much and he was inferred to do this for them.
"This is all your fault," George said angrily to Wood. "'Get the Snitch or die trying,' what a stupid thing to tell him," George muttered angrily walking towards Rhea and Fred. Madam Hooch had joined them. Sparing a look at Rhea taking note of the amount of blood coming out of her nose.
"Ready to resume play?" she asked Wood. Oliver looked at the determined look on Harry's face. He then glances back at Rhea.
"Do you want to sit this out?" He asked her carefully. Fred went to say yes for her when Rhea suddenly shook her head.
"Nope, I'm good. I'm getting that Butterbeer of you, Wood." She said looking over at Oliver to give him a confident look. He wasn't too convinced especially seeing Fred and George glare at him and shake their heads to tell him not to even think about it. But both Harry and Rhea were looking at him, ready to throw a fit if he decided against them.
"All right," he agreed with a sigh. "Fred, George, you heard Harry, leave him alone and let him deal with the Bludger on his own. Rhea, get back on the broom and be careful around Flint." Oliver instructed. Rhea nodded, bending down to grab the Quaffle and she mounted her broom.
"Bloody nutter," Fred commented from behind her, dissatisfied by Wood's decision as was George.
"Quite literally," George commented, mentioning to the red stream coming from Rhea's nose. The rain was falling more heavily now. On Madam Hooch's whistle, they kicked off the ground. Rhea flew right for the hoops with the Quaffle in her hands. She was determined to get it there. This time she won't let Flint kick her off just like that. She was on the side of the hoop, still far but she had no other choice but to shoot before the bludger from the Slytherin beater came at her. A Curved Ball made its way straight to the hoop, the Slytherin player had no chance of catching it.
The crowd erupted in cheers and Rhea went to celebrate her first goal of the season as well when something hard hit the side of her broom. She felt someone grip the handle of her broom tightly and when she looked at the handle she recognised the black leather fingerless gloves. She was met with Marcus Flint glaring straight at her, his hands gripping her broom almost snatching it from underneath her.
Gripping someone's broom was a clear violation of rules but Madam Hooch was too occupied with the match Harry was having with Malfoy that she didn't notice the Slytherin Captain trying to kill the Gryffindor player.
"You think you are so amazing don't you? What do you say, do you want to show how great of a flyer you are?" Flint taunted, his broom coming dangerously close to Rhea's. With her peripheral, she could see that she was coming to the corner of the stadium, Marcus was pushing her to it forcefully and there was no way she was getting out of his grip.
Before Rhea could yell for help to George who was flying past, Flint pushed her broom causing her to spin madly in circles. Her broom went out of control for the second time that day. Rhea grabbed the broom tighter using her whole body to change its trajectory before she would crash into the stands.
There was a whistle heard signalling the end of the match as Rhea, crashed harshly into the wooden surface. Her broom fell from her grip and she started to freefall down towards the ground. The wind rushing around her was blocking every other sound and from the blood loss and the strong impact of the hard exterior of the stands, she was feeling slightly dizzy. She was sure to hit the ground until someone caught her just before she could.
"I told you not to play like that." The voice of her saviour scolded and when she looked up at him she could see Fred looking down at her with worry. "You lost too much blood, woman. How did you expect to play like that?"
"I would have managed, but Flint grabbed my broom." She croaked weakly, her voice frail with exhaustion and hurt.
"I'll deal with him later, now we have to get you and Harry to the hospital wing." Rhea didn't even get to question what happened to Harry before Fred rushed her to the Hospital Wing. She however found out that they have won the match which she was glad for.
Madame Pomfrey gave her a potion to drink to help with her new concussion and the blood loss. And she managed to stop the bleeding from Rhea's nose. The girl was released from the wing quickly but Harry was a whole other story. Having to stay overnight to let his bones grow. Nothing pleasant.