Raven (Fred x oc)

89. Lions and Snakes

Still rather shaken, I woke up the following morning and ate my breakfast before heading downstairs to go to London. The moment I came downstairs, I was stopped by Harry. "Not now, Harry," I said. "I'm off to London. I need to deal with some things."

"When will you be back?" he replied.

"Late tonight," I replied. "If you want to talk, wait until tomorrow."

Once I'd gotten to London, I went down to the small basement room where all the family things had been stored. Sure enough, an entire box was missing. I grumbled, shutting and locking the door and calling, "Kreacher?" He appeared.

"Mistress, I wasn't expecting you," he said, giving me a slight bow.

"Kreacher, did you know Mudungus was here taking things?"

"No, Mistress," he said, horrified. "Please, Kreacher-"

"No, no, I believe you," I interrupted with a sigh. "I'm upgrading security to try and keep it from happening again."

"Very good, Mistress," he replied.

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"Peppermint Toads," I said, approaching Dumbledore's office. It opened and I was let upstairs into his office.

"Valerie," Dumbledore said.

"Albus," I replied. "No one's told me anything. How is Katie?"

"She was moved to St. Mungos," he replied. "They've been sending me hourly reports."

"I-Is she...is she going to live?" I stuttered weakly.

"Highly likely," he replied. Shifting aside some papers on his desk, he said, "I also heard that there was a robbery at Grimmauld Place."

"Yes," I sighed. "Mudungus. Even Kreacher had no idea. Harry was the one who found out. An entire box is gone. Honestly, I care more that it was that easy to break in than that some of my things are gone." Before we could talk more, the office door opened and Harry entered. "Right, I should go," I said. "Albus, please let me know if there is anything new on Katie."

"Of course, Valerie," he replied.

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The opening match of the season approached and I was spending even more time on the pitch, supervising. Slytherin and Gryffindor were practising every spare minute as well as Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Harry had rather quickly replaced Katie with Dean and they seemed to work well together.

I glanced up during their first practice together from my work to see Ron punch one of the other players. My mouth dropped open and I hastily set aside my work and grabbed my own broom. "Ron," I shouted, hurrying to get to the girl.

"It was an accident!" Ron shouted as I helped the girl to the ground. "I'm sorry, Demelza, really sorry! I just-"

"Panicked," Ginny filled in irritably. "You prat, Ron, look at the state of her!" I sighed, pointing my wand at her mouth and quickly fixing it. I got back on my broom and flew back to the stand as they continued to practice. It was a dreadful practice. I waited until they were all heading in to follow.

The next morning was the day of the first match. I hovered a few feet above the ground, my whistle hanging from my neck. The two teams stepped out. Once they had met, I landed and stood above the open crate, ready to release the balls. "Captains, shake hands," I ordered. Once they had, I said, "Mount your brooms. On the whistle...three...two...one..." I blew the whistle. The bludgers and snitch streaked off and I threw up the quaffle. Instantly, the game began.

For half an hour, I flew around the pitch, trying to watch everything and listen to the commentary in hopes it spotted what I couldn't. Everything seemed to be going remarkably well until a hoard of shouting caught my attention. I turned to where they were pointing and saw Harry rubbing his shoulder in pain as another player streaked away.

Whatever had happened, I'd missed it. Then the two seekers started streaking towards the snitch. Harper, who was playing for Draco, somehow sped past it and Harry caught it. I cheered with the rest, blowing my whistle and ending the game. Once they'd all landed, I smiled at the joy around the stadium and leaned back against the stands to wait for it all to clear out.

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"My apologies for being late," I said, hurrying into my office. Hermione had caught me in the hallway a few weeks after the match and had asked to speak to me after classes Thursday. "I was dealing with some disciplinary issues." Sitting down, I asked, "Tea?" She nodded, looking drawn and rather sad. Frowning, I poured her some tea and asked, "Now, what's wrong, Hermione?"

"I-It's Ron," she said angrily. "He's such an idiot!" I couldn't help smiling slightly as I made myself tea as well.

"Most teenage boys are," I replied. "But what specifically is he doing?"

"We were going to go to Slughorn's Christmas party in a couple of weeks," she explained, her anger fading away into sadness. "And he just goes and starts snogging Lavander Brown all the time. He never understands anything!"

"Boys are like that," I said, sipping at some tea. Setting it aside, I explained, "Boys are...well, they think differently than we do. All on a scale, of course, but in general, they tend to not understand unless we are blunt."

"How else could he take me asking him to go to the party with me?" she retorted.

"He probably assumed as just friends," I explained. Sensing she wanted more to rant and wasn't quite in the receiving advice faze, I quietly sipped at my tea as she began to rant about Ron and how stupid he was.

With a sigh, she finally sat back and asked, "What would you do?"

"Give him time to realize he's being an idiot," I replied. "But honestly, there isn't much you can do."

We sat in silence for a bit before she said, "Oh, I also wanted to let you know, I've heard a lot of talk recently."

Setting aside my teacup, I asked, "What sort of talk?"

"Girls in my year and lower are talking of slipping Harry a love potion," she explained.

"And you've warned him?" I clarified.

"Yes," she replied.

"Good," I said. "Hopefully he'll be smart enough not to take anything from one of those girls. On the bright side, only one more day of classes and then it's Christmas break. Are you staying here or going home?"

"I'm staying here," she replied. "I'm assuming you're going home to see Fred?"

"Yes," I replied, smiling widely at the thought of seeing him again. "It's hard, not seeing him as much, but I've been able to see him during the weekends."

"I'm happy for the two of you," Hermione said, genuinely smiling.

"Thank you," I replied happily. We talked a little longer and Hermione ended up leaving my office much happier than she entered it.