One. Last. Time. {Oliver Wood}

Arguments & Quidditch

February 17, 1991

"Ace will you stop pacing! We're going to do fine!" Valerie shouted at Ace from across the locker room. They were minutes away from playing in the Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin Quidditch match.

"I know that, Valerie!" Ace shouted back, still pacing nervously.

At these words, Angelica walked up to Ace and put a comforting hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. Instantly, Ace became flustered and blushed a deep shade of red before turning away from Angelica.

Valerie smiled at them from across the room and then heard the Slytherin team's names being called out to the pitch. "Come on Ace, we got this." Valerie said encouragingly to Ace and continued to walk out to the pitch.

As Valerie walked out onto the pitch, she saw Flint, on his broomstick, in position as Chaser. Angelica caught Valerie sneering at the Slytherin team and asked her, "Wasn't Flint off the team?"

"That's what I thought." Valerie replied, still staring nastily at Flint. Flint was avoiding her gaze, clearly scared of her in that moment. "Stupid tosser."

Before Angelica could add a nasty comment about Flint, Valerie kicked off the ground and soared up to the goalpost, looking incredibly nonchalant. As Valerie waited for Ace to shake hands with the Slytherin team captain Valerie noticed Oliver in the crowd wearing a blue rosette on his chest. He caught her looking at him and smirked at her, Valerie smirked back and winked before looking back around the pitch.

She caught another set of eyes on her and saw that they were Flint's. She snaked her head around to stare at him and caught his attention with hatred in her golden-brown eyes. He peered back for a moment before turning back away, looking half-ashamed, half-proud of himself.

Valerie was feeling particularly angry with this certain Slytherin because she had thought he was off the team, apparently, he wasn't. Madam Hooch's whistle blew, and the game commenced.

The Slytherin's were putting up a fair fight, playing incredibly nasty as they always did, and it was taking much more effort to block goals then it usually did for Valerie. Although it was hard, Valerie was still able to block every Quaffle thrown at her.

Apparently enraged by this, one of the Slytherin Chasers came flying towards her, Quaffle under his arm and swerved around the goalposts without throwing the Quaffle in. Valerie was confused by why he wasn't throwing it in and turned all her attention towards the, in her opinion, idiotic Chaser. Unaware of what came soaring at her, Valerie felt an object crash into her head and instantly felt one hundred times more pain in her head than she had the morning after her fourteenth birthday party.

Valerie slammed her eyes shut in pain as she was shot back from the impact of the Bludger, still on her broomstick, no longer guarding the goalpost. Briefly after she heard the roaring cheer of Slytherins and the protests of Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, she opened her eyes to see the Chaser that was soaring around the goalposts had scored right under her nose.

What made Valerie even more enraged was when she noticed Flint, ten feet to her left, with a Beater's bat in his hand. Valerie wanted to hex, jinx, and curse Flint into oblivion, but she couldn't think too hard on this because she was seconds away from falling off her broomstick. Valerie tried her hardest to steady herself on the broom and make her way back to her goalpost, but she couldn't. Right before falling off her broom and blacking out, she saw the Ravenclaw Seeker make a sharp dive downwards, toward a small, golden, fluttering object. On her way down, she heard the faint yells of a thick, Scottish accent.

***

"Ace will you stop smiling! Valerie could be dead for all we know!" Angelica whisper-shouted at Ace.