Chapter 8: Celebrations and Consequences
Though disliked at first, it now seemed that Drew could do no wrong in Olivia’s eyes. She laughed at his jokes, let him follow her around, and asked him questions ranging in topic from his childhood to their Potions homework. Even Cora put up with him, and before long, the three had become inseparable.
However, an onslaught of homework soon brought about a more serious attitude toward most things. Both Transfiguration and Charms assigned practice spells every night, and essays abounded in all other subjects. Only one teacher did not assign homework- Professor Thomas, their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Cora supposed the idea hadn’t even occurred to their teacher- so caught up was he in the past that he completely forgot about the present.
In fact, Defense classes had now become so lackadaisical that many of the first-years had begun treating the class as an extra study hall. Most students spent the period doing homework for other classes, and the ever-courageous Josh Dartman sometimes practiced levitating feathers under the desks. Only Drew ever paid attention, determined as always to be a good student.
October passed in this manner, with days spent slaving over cauldrons and needles, or, alternatively, playing Hangman. Nights were whiled away in front of the Common Room fire: writing essays, looking things up in Olivia’s gigantic book, and asking each other obvious questions.
October 27th dawned bright, brisk, and blustery. “Perfect Quidditch weather,” noted Cora, as she, Drew, and Olivia sat down to breakfast.
“You can say that again,” replied Olivia, glancing out of one of the high windows.
“Perfect Quidditch weather,” repeated Cora, smiling. Olivia rolled her eyes and Drew burst out laughing.
The view out of the high windows was suddenly obstructed by the arrival of the post owls. Several of them landed in front of Cora, who moved the bacon away from the oncoming birds just in time.
Drew raised his eyebrows as the myriad of owls, all bearing cards and letters addressed to Cora Potter . “What’s all this for?”
Olivia joined in. “No one’s- no one’s died, have they?”
Cora dropped an envelope addressed in green at this question. How could Olivia have stumbled, so unassumingly, on the truth? No one had died recently, but someone was dead… But she laughed it off and replied, “Don’t be thick, Liv. It’s my birthday!”
This could not qualify as a lie, either, because it actually was.
That night found Cora alone in her dormitory. She wasn’t sure how she had got there, but she knew why she needed to be alone: because of a letter she had received that morning. A force she couldn’t quite describe had somehow told her not to open it at the breakfast table. Something had made her realise that this letter wasn’t an obscure ‘happy birthday’ or ‘congratulations’, and it wasn’t signed by any of her cousins, either.
So, she had made up some random excuse for Drew and Olivia about going to bed early, made sure that Jennifer, Brianna, and Cassidy were all in the common room, and had stolen away to the dormitory alone.
The envelope was addressed in neat, familiar handwriting. More paper than parchment, if bore no stamp and no return address.
“Open it, Potter!” The voice came from nowhere. Cora whirled around, but she was still alone in the dormitory. Strange.
And then she remembered the voice she had heard on her first night at Hogwarts; the high, cold voice that had yelled her name across the entrance hall. The voices were one and the same.
Afraid to disobey, Cora opened the letter with shaking hands and scanned its contents. Her worst fear realized, she sighed and lay down on her four-poster bed, fully clothed.
“Happy birthday to me,” she muttered, and when Olivia came twenty minutes later, she pretended to be asleep.
Olivia, caught up in her own worries as she got ready for bed, didn’t notice the silent tears coursing down Cora’s face.
The rest of October passed slowly for Cora and Drew, and far too quickly for Olivia- the Quidditch season was approaching. Practices claimed six nights a week, and Cora and Drew became accustomed to spending nighttime study sessions without Olivia.
The first game of the season, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, was drawing great enthusiasm from all four houses. Both teams had practiced long and hard, and everyone was exited. The comments in the corridors ranged from nasty- “Hey, Abdiknot, I heard Hogsmeade is having a mass sale on bandages this weekend ”- to nice- “Good luck on Saturday, Olivia!”- and everyone was anticipating the outcome, no matter which team came out on top. Quidditch did that to people.
The day arrived. Excitement pounded through the Great Hall, and no one talked of anything else over their morning cornflakes. Only one person was not enjoying the festivities, and her name was Olivia.
“C’mon, Liv, you’ve got to eat something.”
“I’m fine, Drew.”
“Drew’s right, Olivia. You need your strength.”
“I’m not hungry, guys, okay?”
“No,” put in another voice, “It’s not okay.”
Olivia sighed. “Geena! Don’t you try to force me, too!”
“Why not?” Geena pretended to be hurt.
“Oh, stop it, all of you, stop it!” Olivia was now not only nervous, but mad. In retaliation, she grabbed the nearest plate of bacon, stabbed some, and ate it.
“There,” she said when she had finished. “Happy now?”
“Yes,” said Geena, in complete honesty, and she skipped away.
Drew, who had watched these proceedings with one eyebrow raised, now made an announcement. “Cora, your entire family is completely mental.”
Cora pondered that. “They are, aren’t they?” When Drew nodded a vigorous assent, she shrugged, and went back to her cornflakes.
Having succeeded in eating absolutely nothing else, Olivia followed the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team to the changing room half an hour later. Cora and Drew allowed themselves to be swept up in the throng headed towards the Quidditch pitch, and found seats about halfway up. They listened to the usual chatter of a steadily-filling arena, particularly a conversation being held between two fifth-years sitting behind them.
“Look, I don’t see why we always have to go through this! It doesn’t matter if you’re afraid of heights!”
“But, Noah, those broomsticks go so high!”
“Liz, are you the one riding the broomstick?”
“No, but-”
“See! Nothing to worry about!”
Giggling slightly, Cora and Drew turned to around to listen to the commentator, Cyril Whitney, as he began to introduce the match.
“Welcome to the first game of the Quidditch season here at Hogwarts! I’m your commentator, Cyril, and I promise to provide you loyal fans with and honest, unbiased commentary! Remember, it’s not about who wins, but instead-”
“Whitney!” Professor Thomas, who was supervising the commentary, was apparently unimpressed with Cyril’s long-winded introduction. “Get on with the commentary!”
“Right you are, Professor! Today’s match is between Gryffindor-” a roar of assent came from one quarter of the stands, which was a solid block of crimson- “and Ravenclaw!” A second roar, this time from a different quarter, which was clad completely in royal blue.
“First, the Gryffindor team: Wood! Nelson! Blaughton! Weasley! McFadden! Abdiknot! And… Keaton!”
Seven scarlet blurs shot on to the field, followed by several more cheers from the Gryffindor supporters.
“The Ravenclaw team: O’Malley! Johansson! Rourke! Shimery! Larson! Carlsberg! And… Miller!”
Seven blue streaks shot out this time, hovering slightly, bolstered by the shouts of their supporters and the names on the back of their robes.
Another broom rose into the air. This one belonged to the referee, Professor Spinnet.
“And they’re off!” shouted Cyril. “The Quaffle is immediately taken by Larson, that’s Bridget Larson of Ravenclaw- Larson passes to Carlsberg; Oh, nice interception there by McFadden, McFadden of Gryffindor, who passes to Abdiknot- nice play there-”
Olivia streaked up the pitch, surprised by the lack of opposition, when her path was suddenly blocked by one of the Ravenclaw Beaters, Rourke.
“Abdiknot reverse-passes to Wood- Laura Wood, that is- Wood shoots, O’Malley tries to block it- Gryffindor scores!”
A shout rang through the Gryffindor end of the stadium. O’Malley threw the Quaffle into the air in frustration. Laura grabbed it and threw it right back at him.
“Gryffindor scores again!”
The match progressed in the same manner. Gryffindor scored again and again, while Ravenclaw managed only one shot, which Geena blocked easily. It was obvious that Gryffindor would win, but still they played on, for the Snitch had not been found.
Eventually the Ravenclaw captain called time-out, and the teams descended. Laura called her team into a huddle.
“Look, we’re up by so much that this hardly matters, but has anyone seen the Snitch?”
When this question was met by silence, Laura threw up her hands in exasperation. “Skylar! What have you been doing up there?”
“Well, there was this bird, see-”
“WHAT?”
“Only joking, Laura. I’ll get on it, really!” he added quickly. Laura Wood could be extremely intimidating.
Twenty minutes later it was over. Skylar had noticed the Snitch near the goal hoops and nearly knocked the Ravenclaw Seeker, Catriona Miller, out of the sky in his attempt to catch it before she did.
Cyril Whitney was shouting himself hoarse. “Gryffindor wins, 300-0! Gryffindor wins, 300-0! Professor Thomas was trying very hard to pull the megaphone out of his hands. No one else paid them the slightest attention.
Gryffindor supporters mobbed the field. Olivia found Cora and Drew, and there was much rejoicing everywhere.
In the common room that evening, there was so much celebrating that the noise level rivaled that of a small bomb being detonated. Someone had stolen mountains of food, and everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly.
At one point, Geena stood up on a chair, grabbed Cyril Whitney’s megaphone, and shouted into it.
“Hey, everyone! We won!” Everyone cheered.
“But,” continued Geena, “now we have to suffer the consequences.”
“What’s that, Geena?” shouted Skylar.
“Now we have to live with the fact that everyone knows we’ve got the BEST RUDDY TEAM IN THE SCHOOL!”
Everyone cheered some more, even Cora, who hated crowds, and Drew, who didn’t understand Quidditch.
Olivia smiled.
“What’s up, Liv?” asked Cora.
“Nothing, really. Everything just suddenly seemed all right.”
And it was. For the time being.
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to all my loyal reviewers, who kept me on target and made me assert a deadline, which I succeeded in meeting! They also didn’t abandon me when I took forever to update. So, guys, this one’s for you! Keep it up, and I will too !
Yes, I know, another cliffhanger! Shame on me, right?