AUTOPHOBIA - G. WEASLEY

First Year: The fight

✯ CHAPTER TEN ✯

❝Oi! Malfoy!❞

January, 1992.

IN THE NEW Year, Harry told Ron and Estella that Dumbledore had had a chat with him and convinced him to stay away from that horrid mirror -- also mentioning that it wouldn't be there for much longer. Estella was so extremely grateful for this, even if Harry seemed sad, as she was still sure that the mirror was bad news.

These suspicions were confirmed even more for her when Harry told them he had started having nightmares about his parents.

"You see," said Estella, the minute she heard her friend talking about them, "Dumbledore was right, that mirror could drive you mad."

Ron nodded his head in agreement.

Hermione, who came back the day before term started, took a different view of things. She was torn between horror at the idea of Harry being out of bed, roaming the school three nights in a row -- with both Ron and Estella atleast once ("If Filch had caught you!"), and disappointment that they hadn't at least found out who Nicolas Flamel was.

They had almost given up hope of ever finding out anything about him in a library book. Once term had started, they were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during their breaks. Estella and Harry had even less time than the other two, because Quidditch practice had started again.

Wood was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't dampen his spirits. The Weasleys complained that Wood was becoming a fanatic, but Estella was on Wood's side. If they won their next match, against Hufflepuff, they would overtake Slytherin in the house championship for the first time in seven years.

During one particularly wet and muddy practice session, Wood gave the team a bit of bad news. He'd just gotten very angry with the Weasleys, who kept dive-bombing each other and pretending to fall off their brooms.

"Will you stop messing around!" he yelled. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"

Estella's eyes widened. George Weasley really did fall off his broom now.

"Snape's refereeing?" he spluttered through a mouthful of mud. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin."

The rest of the team landed next to George to complain, too. Estella knew exactly why Snape wanted to referee, though, and it was all to do with wanting to attack Harry...

"It's not my fault," said Wood. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us."

"And that's all very well," Harry whispered, so that only Estella could hear him. "Unless I die."

"You won't," the young girl said back. "He would never get away with it."

"He got away with it last time."

"Well, true, but -- Harry, trust me, you'll be fine."

The rest of the team hung back to talk to one another as usual at the end of practice, but Harry and Estella headed straight back to the Gryffindor common room, where they found Ron and Hermione playing chess. Chess was the only thing Hermione ever lost at, something Harry and Ron thought was very good for her.

"Don't talk to me for a moment," said Ron when his two friends sat down next to him, "I need to concen -- " He caught sight of their faces.

"What's the matter with you both? You look terrible. Is it really that cold outs --"