AUTOPHOBIA - G. WEASLEY

First year: First Game

✯ CHAPTER EIGHT ✯

❝You're serious?❞

November 1991.

AS THEY ENTERED November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy gray and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Hagrid could be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaverskin boots.

But there was one good thing that came with the chilly weather.

The Quidditch season had begun and on Saturday, Estella and Harry would be playing in their first match after weeks of training: Gryffindor versus Slytherin. If Gryffindor won, they would move up into second place in the house championship.

For a while, nobody had known that the two first year Gryffindors were going to be playing on the Quidditch team, because Wood wanted to keep it a secret, but somehow now word had gotten out and Estella was honestly starting to forget what privacy felt like.

People would stop her in the corridors to tell her that she was going to be an amazing addition to the team, while others told her she was going to be dead by Christmas.

She just tried her best to ignore it all, though.

Estella and Harry were both really lucky that they now had Hermione as their friend. With so much Quidditch practice, they didn't know how they would've got through any of their homework without her. They had also took turns at reading her copy of Quidditch Through the Ages, which she had been kind enough to lend them. Estella thought it had been quite an interesting read -- and she had learned alot from it.

Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry and Ron had saved her and Estella from the mountain troll, and she was much nicer for it. The day before the first Quidditch match the four of them were out in the freezing courtyard during break, and she had conjured them up a bright blue fire that could be carried around in a jam jar. They were standing with their backs to it, getting warm, when Snape crossed the yard. Estella, Harry, Ron, and Hermione moved closer together to block the fire from view; they were sure it wouldn't be allowed. Unfortunately, something about their guilty faces caught Snape's eye. He came over to them. He hadn't seen the fire, but he seemed to be looking for a reason to tell them off anyway.

"What's that you've got there, Potter?"

Estella looked at Harry's hand. It was Quidditch Through the Ages. The young Potter boy showed him.

"Library books are not to be taken outside the school," Snape told him. Estella immediately knew that this was a lie, but she remained quiet having learned better than to give the Potions master any attitude. "Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor!"

"He's just made that rule up," Estella informed her friends, as the Professor was walking away. It was only now that she noticed he was limping. Harry seemed to have seen the same.

"Wonder what's up with his leg?"

"Dunno, but I hope it's really hurting him," said Ron bitterly.

The Gryffindor common room was very noisy that evening. Estella, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat together next to a window. Hermione was checking Harry and Ron's Charms homework for them while Estella did her own, not understanding why the two boys were always so desperate for help. She suspected that it was because they knew that if Hermione checked their answers for them they would get it right straight away.

Quite suddenly, Harry stood up, announcing that he was going to go to the staffroom and try and get Hermione's book back from Snape.

Estella gave him a look. "Better you than me."