Subverted Expectations

“Aaand walking onto the field, we have the Slytherin team!” The crowd roared, loudly enough that Bellatrix was only barely able to pick out her own name being announced through the noise. Slytherin House was never as popular as it was during Quidditch matches, and she knew part of that was because of her.

Of course, she was a large part of the reason that Slytherin was widely disliked outside the field as well. But she thought it balanced out well enough- everyone seemed to put aside their personal issues during a match just to watch her play because, without embellishment, the best player in the school. This probably had to do with her small stature (she wasn’t weighed down at all), her amazing memory (so she knew exactly how to get other players fouled out while avoiding that same fate herself), her brutal playstyle (she was as violent as she could be without being penalized), and her chronic insomnia (hey, three in the morning was a great time to practice Quidditch). And everyone else on the pitch knew it, too- she was the prime target for the opposite team’s Beaters, which she thought just made it all the more fun.

“Captains, shake hands!”

Robert Nott, a burly sixth year, stepped forward to shake hands with the Gryffindor captain. She’d been a bit affronted when she hadn’t been made Captain for her last year of Hogwarts, but when she thought about her long, long list of conduct violations and fouls (back from before she’d perfected balancing her playstyle with not getting kicked out of the game), she supposed it made sense. Besides, she didn’t have the time or patience to coach the newer players without strangling the lot of them.

She mounted her broom as the whistle rang out sharply, eyes focusing in on the Quaffle. As she did, though, her gaze caught sight of something in the stands.

Emma Green was sitting surrounded by some of her Gryffindor friends, only visible because of her incredibly distinct hair. From where she was, she couldn’t really see Green’s expression, but she knew with certainty that her eyes were directed towards her.

She held her gaze, wondering why Green had been staring at her in the first place, and why she wasn’t breaking eye contact like she normally did whenever they’d caught each other’s eyes since their last conversation. Something weird was coursing through her, and-

The whistle blew, and the world rushed back into life around her as she snapped out of her trance. She looked down just in time to watch the Gryffindor Chaser race forward and grab the Quaffle right out from under her nose and race off down the field with it. The Gryffindor stands were going wild- she hadn’t let the other team’s Chaser get the Quaffle first since her first game.

Robert gave her a questioning look- she waved him off and took off after the other team’s Chasers. She had no idea how she’d let herself get distracted- she was supposed to be better than this.

Well. She wasn’t going to let it distract her anymore. From now on, her focus was one hundred percent on the game (when she flew past Green’s section of the stands, she found herself turning her head to try to find her again in the crowd more than once, but it was fine, she was still focused, right?)

“And there’s Perry with the ball, taking it down the- Slytherin Beaters intercept, and now it’s Black, dodges a Bludger, dodges Perry, and- SHE’S SCORED!”

She shot her cheekiest grin at the Gryffindor Keeper, who threw the Quaffle so hard at his teammate that Perry lost her grip on it.

Who was distracted now, hm?

As the game went on, she found her footing again, and soon enough it was like her slight mishaps at the beginning had never happened. She didn’t have to care about them, up here- she only had to care about this moment, who had the Quaffle, where the Bludgers were, how riled up she could make Gryffindor’s Keeper. The answer to the last one was, apparently, a lot- he was obviously a new player, not just because she’d never seen him on the field before, but also because he didn’t seem to know how to react to a game against actual opponents with an actual crowd. She could practically see him sweating when he managed to block one of her shots for the first time (okay, sue her, Perry had practically been on top of her) and the Slytherin portion of the crowd booed loudly enough to drown out any cheering.

She shifted her broom up, further and further until she was at the same height as the Seekers, who were both circling the field at a respectable distance from each other. She spun towards Gryffindor’s. “Nice match?” she grinned, relishing in the way he startled and nearly fell off his broom. “Bit windy. Do be sure you don’t fall.”

He paled. “I- there- that’s not- that’s illegal,” he sputtered.

“What?” She cackled. “I’m not going to push you. That would make it too easy.”

What? She could, theoretically, take out the entire Gryffindor team right now, but then she wouldn’t really be playing the game. It was only fun if they were able to put up a fight (this was why she especially hated playing Hufflepuff).

“Catch you later,” she winked (hey, always nice to leave an element of suspense). Without much preamble- from his perspective at least, she’d been keeping a careful eye on the game below the entire time- she dropped suddenly through the air, heading directly for the Slytherin goal posts, where Perry was about to shoot-

As soon as the Quaffle left her hands, she grabbed it and raced down the field with it. The wind ripping through her hair created a very real risk of her hair tie snapping and her whole mess of hair getting everywhere, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. That was definitely a problem for future Bellatrix to worry about.

After she’d scored (an inevitability once she got her hands on the Quaffle, really), she let out an actual, full laugh, and she realized she probably hadn’t laughed at- anything, actually, except when someone had a particularly funny reaction to her terrorizing them, since last year. There were probably a thousand different reasons for Quidditch bringing out this reaction in her, and whatever they were, she was thankful for them. She rarely allowed herself to feel this much over something simple like scoring a goal.

The game went on for nearly another thirty minutes, at which point Slytherin was up by a hundred and ten points. Everything was starting to get very tense- she and Perry had been racing each other back and forth across the field for the last ten minutes, there was blood on the Quaffle (some of it may have been hers), and Gryffindor’s Keeper had been penalized for cursing her out.

Suddenly, both Seekers dove for the Slytherin Goal Posts, and everyone stopped what they were doing to watch, which she had never really seen the point of. She scored once, twice, three-

Wham!

Her entire world shook as something collided with the back of her head. The Quaffle slipped as she threw it, soaring right into the Keeper’s waiting arms.

Wow. She might actually have a concussion now- she was still blinking stars out of her eyes, and she was so disoriented that she started bringing the Quaffle to the Slytherin goal posts before she realized she was going the wrong way.

But it was fine. This was fine. She’d gotten hit on the head before- Merlin knew she was no stranger to blunt force trauma. Sure, a Bludger was a bit more heavy duty than a fist, or a door-

The world darkened around the edges, and she slumped to the side- Robert caught her arm and shook her slightly. “Bella, the game’s almost over, you can-”

“And they’ve lost it, folks, Allan with some choice words for Gryffindor’s Beaters-”

“‘M fine,” she muttered. “Go do your job, alright?”

“Er- sorry, what was that?”

“I said-” She frowned. Her mouth felt vaguely numb. Was it supposed to feel like that?

“Okay, maybe we should-”

Something whistled below her, and she looked down just in time to see the Bludger hurtling up towards her. Robert followed her gaze, and his eyes widened. “Shit-”

When the Bludger hit her arm, she felt something in her body go, “Nope, that’s enough”, and before she knew it, she was letting go of her broom as the world finally darkened completely.

—--------------------------------

When she woke up, her first impulse was to ask about the match- had they won? Who’d gotten the Snitch? What was the end score? She had to stop herself, because while she was known for being an excellent player, she was also known for ‘not really caring’. And part of that was true- she’d joined the team not because she really wanted to win, or because she cared about the team, but because she had really just wanted an excuse to fly and knock people out of the air. But by now it had been four years and she was invested, damnit.

So when she blinked her eyes open and caught sight of a few of her teammates along with Cissy, who was sitting a careful distance away from all of them, she said, “Don’t tell me you’re all missing a victory party to sit here and stare at me.”

“We won’t say anything, then,” Robert huffed. “You gave us quite a scare, there. Pomfrey was saying she might have to send you to Mungo’s if you didn’t wake up soon.”

“But she’ll definitely kick us out once we tell her you’re up, so we’ll give it a minute or two,” Rodolphus, who she hadn’t even noticed was in the room until now, said. “By the way, yes, we did win the match, and don’t worry, you’re not the only one in the hospital wing.”

“Great,” she muttered. “I hope you at least knocked Perry off her arse.” She glared up at Robert, who raised his hands in mock surrender.

“I got Connors,” he said defensively. “Last I heard, she was still out, too.”

“Katherine Connors could find a way to knock herself out if you don’t get there first,” she scoffed, which wasn’t technically true, but she did end up in the hospital wing more often than not after a match. It was a mystery to her why they even kept her on the team for all that.

“Well, I did-”

“Ah, Miss Black, you’re awake! Everyone else out.”

Despite hers and her team’s protests, Madam Pomfrey had pushed everyone out into the rest of the hospital wing- as the curtains around her bed opened, she caught a glimpse of a gaggle of Gryffindors around another bed, and a mane of bushy hair-

Emma Green turned around at the commotion and caught her eye once again just as the curtains shut around her.

“Alright, dear. How’s your head? You took a nasty hit there.”

She tried not to roll her eyes (mostly because her head did hurt a bit when she moved her eyes around). Of course she already knew she’d taken a bad hit- she’d been there.

Still, she sat still and let Pomfrey run her checks and ask her questions, because it had been a pretty nasty hit and she did at least care about being able to use her brain again. At the end of the day, Pomfrey concluded that she would be staying overnight and shoved a potion bottle at her. “Drink up, dear. It should reduce the swelling, and you’ll just feel a bit confused for a bit.”

“Fine,” she sighed, taking the stopper out and downing it all in one go. Pomfrey was right- she immediately felt like a pressure had been taken off her head, but also like someone had settled a layer of cotton over her brain. “Mph,” she muttered.

“Alright, get some sleep now. Why they let children play this sport, I’ll never know…,” she muttered to herself as she left.

She very much wanted to argue that she was technically an adult, but words were becoming increasingly difficult at the moment and she wasn’t sure she would be able to. Instead, she just let Pomfrey shut the curtains around her and, presumably, leave to kick out Connors’s friends too.

Bellatrix was reminded, very quickly, why she hated staying in the hospital wing. Last time she’d been here, she’d been able to keep herself from getting too bored with the promise of bothering Green, but now she was just. Sitting there. In silence. With her thoughts. As the minutes passed, her head started clearing, making it harder and harder to sleep-

The curtains opened again, and someone stepped in quickly before closing them again. She sighed and turned her head-

“What’re you doing here?” she demanded, attempting to push herself up. She partly succeeded- she ended up leaning awkwardly against the headboard.

“I- er-” Green stuttered, uncertainty written all over her face. “I was just, I mean, you-”

“Spit it out, Green,” she groaned. Of course, just when she was starting to regain her lucidity, Green decided to bother her.

“I don’t know,” Green blurted. “I just- you look different. When you’re not storming around and-”

“So, what, come to see me in a moment of weakness?” she snapped. “Bloody hell, Green, why don’t you just come watch me sleep?”

“Call it even, then,” Green huffed. “Since you stormed into my space last time we were here.”

“Whatever,” she muttered. Green stared at her with an unreadable expression for another moment, then started backing away-

“Wait,” she blurted. Green shot her a questioning look, and she shrugged. “I’m bored. Entertain me, or I’ll tell everyone you’re a mudblood.”

“Is this really what you’re going to use that on?” Green asked, but for all that she sounded annoyed, she still sat down next to the bed.

“You assume this is a one time thing,” she smirked. “You know I’ll milk this for all it’s worth.”

“Of course,” Green sighed.

They sat there in an almost-comfortable silence for a while. Bellatrix wondered why on Earth she’d made Green stay- sure, she was bored, but if she was really bored she could’ve gone to bother Connors. She supposed it wasn’t terrible to admit, though, that something about Green still fascinated her, even after she’d discovered her secret. Maybe it was because she still hadn’t found out why she was lying in the first place, or where she’d come from, or any number of details that would fill in the holes in ehr story. Maybe she could ask about that now.

“So. The rest of your friends go off to the victory party?” Bellatrix wondered aloud. She immediately frowned- what was this? Small talk? What was she doing?

“Er- I mean, Gryffindor didn’t win,” Green shrugged. “I assumed they were all going back to our dorm.”

“Hey, everyone’s invited to the party,” she told her. “Slytherin throws the best ones, too, everyone knows it.” She would like to think that part of that was her, but contrary to popular belief, she didn’t play Quidditch for the parties. Sure, she liked getting drunk and hooking up with random people, but she mostly preferred nursing her own drink in the corner over getting mixed in with the dancing.

“Oh. That’s not what we- I mean, I didn’t know everyone went to those,” Green frowned.

“If I let you go, are you going to go?”

Green wrinkled her nose. “No. I’m not the party type. Let me guess, though, you are?”

“Sure,” she muttered. “I’m definitely not happy about missing it.”

Anything, even hooking up with Rita Skeeter (hey, it was one time), would have been better than sitting here alone in a hospital bed. Maybe that’s why she’d asked Green to stick around.

She looked back at the other girl, who was staring intently at the potion bottle on the bedside table like it was the most interesting thing in the world. She’d never paid much attention to her up close before- she had freckles, she realized. She hadn’t noticed those before.

“Why don’t you like parties?” she asked.

Green’s eyes snapped back to her. “Er- I don’t know. Too loud, and I don’t think I’d like being drunk. And- people always talk about being able to fool around, but no one’s ever- I mean, I had one boyfriend, but no one else has really-”

Later, she would blame this on the concussion, or the side effects of the Potion, or being tired, but at that moment her head felt clearer than it had in a while, and in that moment-

Green let out a little startled squeak when she grabbed her collar and pulled her in. Her lips were soft, and they tasted like cherry, and oh, Merlin, she was going to regret this-

She felt her start to kiss her back, and something stopped in her chest. She wanted to stop. She wanted to keep kissing Green until the sun came up. She wanted to tangle her hands through her hair. She wanted to push her away from her and never see her again.

Green broke away first, her breath hitching, and Bellatrix felt herself fall sharply back down to Earth. What had she- what was that?! What the hell was she-

Green leaned back in, and she backed away, scrambled away, pushed her away. “What-”

“Get out,” she hissed, chest suddenly heaving with a million unidentifiable emotions.

“I- I didn’t-”

“Get. Out.”

Astonishingly, Green hesitated- but, of course, she nodded and ran off as quickly as she’d come. Bellatrix could feel her heart beating so quickly she thought it might stop, and her face flushing, and oh, Merlin, what had she done-

Green had left the curtains gaping open a bit. Bellatrix stared up at them, feeling disoriented and weird and out of sorts. Through the gap, she could see Pomfrey bustling around, and McGonagall dropping in to check on Connors, and Green sneaking out of the hospital wing.

She got up and stepped towards the gap- and then grabbed onto the curtains, and closed herself off from the world.