Always There For You (Harry Potter OC X OC)

42. Accident and Break in-

Dementors might be up upon the thick gray clouds. Everyone crowded in at thebleachers.

'Ready?' asked a Hufflepuff player to her teammates in the waiting tent, suppressing anxiousness.

'Are you?' joked her friend.

The other checked the weather outside. 'It's gonna rain heavily.'

'C'mon, I know we can trounce them all,' said another.

'Let's show the Gryffindors that we can do better. Let's go and get ready,' said the captain.

They stacked their hands and screamed the Hufflepuff slogan on top of their lungs.

***

The Hufflepuff common room was almost empty. Most students were already down on the pitch. But Lizzy stayed at a corner study area, writing an essay.

'Lizzy? What are you doing? The game's starting,' said Sandra in disbelief. She was ready to head out with Markus and Carl. They had their supporting accessories.

'I'll meet you guys there, have to finish this before tomorrow,' she lied.

'Maybe I'll skip too, I haven't done any work,' said Carl.

'Uh, no!' said Sandra. 'One goody two shoes is enough. Two? Two, too much. You're coming with us, Carl.'

'But--'

'No buts, do it later if you have to.'

'You really have some nerves sometimes, Sandy,' Carl said.

Sandra stared at him flatly, not taking a pence.

Carl rolled his eyes in annoyance. 'See you at the pitch, Liz!'

'See ya!'

Silence. Peace. She pulled out a quarter cut of parchment that she hid behind her essay. She had written Joel and Toby's name next to each other and had a long line to separate.

She wrote things she liked and disliked about them. Joel had a longer list. Reading Joel's list again, her heart started pounding. Fluttery of nervousness. An imminent revelation. She found herself smiling, so she frowned again. She didn't understand. It had been like this, lately. The more she was with him, the nervous she got. She managed to escape her awkwardness with excuses to escape him, but there were times that he thought she was mad at him, so escaping wasn't always on the table. And when she didn't have a choice but to hang out with him, she couldn't look him in the eyes.

This is stupid... I can't possibly have a crush on Joel...

She sighed and took the list to get burned in the fireplace. She watched it ashed away. She eyed Joel's name before the paper was completely gone.

Damn it. Why. He and I are just friends. It'll be awkward if he knows. I can't tell Sandra either...

She summoned her stuff from the desk with her wand and rushed to her dormroom, and leaving her stuff pointlessly on the bed to go down again. She was ready to the pitch.

When she exited the castle to get there, the crowd were loud. She could hear them chant to their teams from here. She could see the players fly around on the top.

A raindrop fell on her forehead. Lizzy looked up. Several drops fell on her. It was starting to rain. She got her wand quickly and casted an umbrella charm. The raindrops repelled like a real umbrella, an invisible one. She entered the loud pitch. People were there, some were soaked carelessly and some were dry with their wands up. She looked around. Her mates would be around with the other second years... Found them! She walked up to meet them and settled next to Markus. 'Hey! Am I late?!'