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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

After one particularly gloomy Quidditch practice, which was held in the pouring rain (Ginny was proving to be just as strict of a Captain as the past three), Arabella trudged into the Gryffindor common room, the welcoming warmth being something that she couldn't feel anywhere else in the castle these days. She quickly spotted Seamus sitting on a sofa by the roaring fire working on his homework, right where she had left him when she had left to go to practice, and took back her spot next to him.

"Back already?" he asked her, quickly noticing that the rest of the team was not back yet.

"Yeah," Arabella answered simply in a tired voice. She didn't feel like explaining to him that she had changed out of her Quidditch gear and left the changing room as quickly as possibly to avoid facing her sister's wrath.

"Well, thank Merlin you're back. I don't understand this at all," Seamus said, glancing down at his Transfiguration homework. "Neville and I tried working on it together for a time, but he gave up and went to bed, claiming he had a headache. Personally, I don't think it had anything to do with the homework; he's got better marks in Transfiguration than me. I think it's the stress, it's starting to get to him. Not that I blame him, I mean, they beat him pretty bad yesterday. Did you know about that?"

"You talk a lot, Seamus. But yes, I know about that. Word spreads fast around this castle, you know. As for the stress, it's getting to all of us. Here, let me look at that." Arabella grabbed his homework from him, but she was only able to look over it for a moment before someone else was trying to speak with her.

"Bella, you might want to take cover," Fraser said, panting slightly as he stood next to her. "Ginny's out for blood."

The sound of the portrait hole opening caused him to look over his shoulder nervously, and when he saw Ginny coming through, he took off up the stairs to the boys' dormitories so fast that all anyone saw was a blond blur.

Ginny marched right over to Arabella, and by the look on her face, Arabella knew it was over. There was no where she could run to that Ginny couldn't go as well. All she could do was sit and wait.

When she reached her, Ginny roughly grabbed her wrist and pulled her off of the sofa, and then proceeded to pull her out of the common room and up the stairs to the girls' dormitories. At first, Arabella was thankful that at least Ginny was feeling generous enough not to cause a scene, but then she considered that maybe she was just making sure there were no witnesses.

"I guess I'm failing, then," Seamus sighed, looking down at his homework as his only chance at figuring it out was whisked away.

Ginny led Arabella into her dormitory, slammed the door shut, and then rounded on her. "What the hell is going on with you lately?" she questioned angrily. "For this past week, you've been moping around, hardly speaking. At first I thought that maybe you were tired of getting beat and cursed for talking back all the time, but now whatever it is is affecting your Quidditch skills. Really, you were pathetic today! We were out there for two hours and you didn't score one goal, and it's not like we've got some prodigy Keeper out there. We've got our first match in less than two weeks, Bella, and we already don't have a very good chance at winning, so I can't have you slacking off now. So tell me what's up with you so we can figure this out and get you back on your game."

Arabella scoffed. "You only care because I suck at Quidditch?" she asked, a weak smile on her face.

Ginny rolled her eyes, but when she spoke next, her tone was more gentle. "You do not suck at Quidditch. You just sucked today. And I don't just care because of that, I care because you're my sister and I love you, even if you do piss me off. I just didn't bother to ask until now because I thought it was because of the war and everything else so I thought there was nothing I could do."