Maggie

Chapter 20 - Cheat

"Louis, for goodness sake. Enough of that language!" Cried Professor McGonagall. But, no one else seemed to care. The other players and Professor Zabini were hurting to the ground towards the Toss brothers. A trickle of blood was coming out of Damon's nose. Enzo's face was shocked and bloodless, his eyes wide with fear.

All seven of us rose as one and, without a backwards glance, we tore down the staircase in the stands and onto the pitch.

Zabini had conjured two stretchers and, using a hover charm, had lifted Damon onto the first. He made swift eye contact with Albus and Scorpius, the latter nodding at him and drawing out his wand. With a wave, Damon's stretched began to float towards the castle, the rest of the group hurrying behind it. When Albus hesitated, I took his hand and guided him back up the castle behind our friends.

"Are you okay?"

Al shook his head, silent with suppressed rage.

"Al, please talk to me."

"That prick," he spat. "He nearly killed you a month ago. He could've killed Morgan with that stunt he pulled. And now Damon-" he hissed. I said nothing. What Oscar had done was unbelievably dangerous. I felt another nauseating wave of panic rise up through my torso - this time, not for myself, but for my friend on the stretcher.

We made it to the hospital wing and Scorpius marched straight inside. I ran to Madame Pomfrey's office and pounded my fist hard on the door.

"Maggie?" She exclaimed when the door opened. "What's going o-"

She had spotted Damon.

"Quidditch!" She bellowed, before dashing over to the floating stretcher and hovering Damon onto a bed. "Out of the way, I say. How do you expect me to treat him with you all breathing down my neck! Wait outside. Go on! Out!"

We left, closing the door behind us. After sitting in the corridor in silence for a few minutes, we heard footsteps. Zabini was hurrying up the corridor with Oscar in tow, also on a stretcher. I scowled as he went past - I would never forgive him if Damon was badly injured.

Almost an hour went by. We didn't speak to each other at all. The seven of us just waited silently, sitting on the dirty floor of the corridor with our backs against the walls, our knees to our chest and our heads on each other's shoulders. I whiled away the time by watching the others, analysing their faces and being hit over and over with waves of affection.

I kept forgetting that I had people in my life I could call friends. I had been so used to being totally by myself, that lonely had become my default state. Now, not only did I have friends, I had no less than seven. Every single one of them cared for me as much as I cared for them.

Damon's accident had my chest tightening painfully with worry. What had happened on the quidditch pitch had made me realise how much I cared for the group sat around me and the boy in the hospital wing. It was slightly scary, the way my ribcage heaved, my stomach churned and my hands turned numb and cold with worry.

I had noticed that Albus and Scorpius were sitting extremely close. This legs had crossed over at the ankles and I strongly suspected that their hands, hidden in the space between their bodies, were held tight together. I wondered if they had more than just the friendship they displayed to the rest of the world - and how I hadn't noticed this before now.

But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. It would explain several things. For one, why Scorpius had been working so hard to babysit me all the time. He knew, of course, that if something happened to me, Albus would blame himself. For another, it would also reveal the reason Scorpius knew so much about Albus' trauma - and why Albus had confided in him but not his other friends. The idea of my favourite cousin and my new friend making each other happy like that sustained me for a long time, lifting the weight that Damon's unknown and undiagnosed injuries had placed upon my mood.