MATILDA - fred weasley

Chapter 10

The next few days were full of nothing but talk of Sirius Black. Matilda was sick of it by the following Thursday night, and blimey was she sick of being a werewolf. She'd spent the day vomiting anything she ate and pushing through the pain of walking anywhere, and now she had to train for the upcoming Quidditch match on Saturday – which happened to be the day after the Full Moon.

It only got worse as Wood delivered the team some horrible news.

"We're not playing Slytherin!" he told them, looking very angry. "Flint's just been to see me. We're playing Hufflepuff instead."

"Why?" chorused the rest of the team.

Matilda was not amused. This meant playing against Cedric.

"Flint's excuse is that their Seeker's arm's still injured," said Wood, grinding his teeth furiously. "But it's obvious why they're doing it. Don't want to play in this weather. Think it'll damage their chances ..."

There had been strong winds and heavy rain all day, and as Wood spoke, they heard a distant rumble of thunder.

"There's nothing wrong with Malfoy's arm!" said Harry furiously. "He's faking it!"

"I know that, but we can't prove it," said Wood bitterly. "And we've been practising all those moves assuming we're playing Slytherin, and instead it's Hufflepuff, and their style's quite different. They've got a new captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory –"

Angelina and Alicia suddenly giggled.

Matilda turned up her nose at them.

"What?" said Wood, frowning at this light-hearted behaviour.

"He's that tall, good-looking one, isn't he?" said Angelina.

"I'm going to pretend you did not just say that, Ange," Matilda muttered, running a hand over her face.

"Strong and silent," said Alicia, and they started to giggle again.

"He's only silent because he's too thick to string two words together," said Fred impatiently. Matilda smirked at this comment."I don't know why you're worried, Oliver, Hufflepuff are a pushover. Last time we played them, Harry caught the Snitch in about five minutes, remember?"

"We were playing in completely different conditions!" Wood shouted, his eyes bulging slightly. "Diggory's put a very strong side together! He's an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you'd take it like this! We mustn't relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin is trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!"

"Oliver, calm down!" said Fred, looking slightly alarmed. "We're taking Hufflepuff very seriously. Seriously."

The next day, Matilda ran into Cedric on her way to Defence.

"Hey, Tilly!" he called out, grabbing her attention.

Matilda smiled politely at him, "Hi, Ced. Excited for tomorrow's match?"

"Yeah, though not at all prepared..." he said, running a hand through his hair. "I'm worried I'm not going to be good enough as Captain. It's a huge responsibility, I'm not sure I've got the gift to do it."

"I'm sure you'll do great," Matilda said, and she really did mean it. She knew, perhaps more than anyone, how much Cedric tried to please everyone. "Even if you lose, everyone knows you've done your best."

"Thanks, Till." He relaxed his shoulders and appeared less stressed. "How're you feeling? Full moon tonight."

"I could be doing better," she said, haughtily. "I'm just thankful the pain will be mostly gone for tomorrow's match."