Hurt | Remus Lupin

~10~ Gryffindor's Win

At the next Quidditch match, Ravenclaw played Slytherin a week after the start of term. Slytherin won, though narrowly. Ollie said this was good for us, and started increasing the number of team practices to five times a week.

"Please come with me to McGonagall!" Ollie pleaded to me. "To try and convince her to let Harry use his Firebolt." 

"No way! You're acting selfish Ollie!" I said angrily. "What if the firebolt tries to throw Harry off or something. To finish him off?"

"Oh Please."

"Fine. But only so that I can see McGonagall yell at you."

And I was right. She yelled at him. I was grinning behind Ollie the whole time. Ollie quickly fled McGonagall's office. She looked at me. "Did you even try  to convince him to not ask me?" she asked.

"I did but he insisted on talking to you. Then I decided I wanted to see you rip him to shreds."

McGonagall sighed. "Honestly, sometimes I wonder if you should've been in Slytherin instead."

I gasped. "No Professor! Take that back! The Hat told me I could be in Ravenclaw!"

She shrugged and I left. Ollie and I went to find Harry to deliver the bad news. 

But with our match against Ravenclaw coming nearer, and Harry still not having a broom, I was starting to see where Ollie was coming from because I was getting stressed. We were training harder than ever, but Harry's school broom was incredibly slow. 

"Use my broom!" I told him. "I'll use the school's broom. I don't need to be as fast as you, as long as Angelina and Alicia are good." 

"No!" Harry insisted. "Please, I'll be fine. I'll figure it out."

Just a few days before the match, McGonagall came into the Common Room. She walked over to me, Ollie and Percy. "Have any of you seen Mr. Potter?"

"No Ma'am." I said. "I haven't seen him since lunch."

She left the Common Room. Only a few minutes later, Harry came back into the common room with Ron and was holding his firebolt. People started crowding around him.

I ran over, leaving Percy and Ollie behind. "Wow! You got it back?"

He nodded. "Do you want a go on it sometime?"

"Oh I'd love  to." I gushed.

After a long while, everyone went back to doing their own thing. I sat back down with Ollie and Percy. Ollie was wiping tears that were seeping down his face. "I think we'll win this match, I really think so." he sobbed. 

I bit my lip and willed myself to not laugh. 

But suddenly, a strangled yell echoed down the boys' staircase. The whole common room fell silent, staring, petrified, at the entrance. Then came hurried footsteps, growing louder and louder -- and then Ron came leaping into view, dragging with him a bedsheet.

"LOOK!" he yelled, shaking the sheets in Hermione's face.

"Ron, what --?" Hermione started. 

"SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS!"

Hermione was leaning away from Ron, looking utterly bewildered. I squinted my eyes to get a better look from where I was, looking at the sheet Ron was holding. There was something red on it. Something that looked horribly like --

"BLOOD!" Ron yelled into the stunned silence. "HE'S GONE!"

Ron and Hermione were so angry at each other, I was convinced they'd never be friends again. We all tried to comfort Ron, who was truly devastated that Scabbers was gone.