Acceptance: Hogwarts Legacy Continued

Chapter 48: MC- fight or flight

TW: Sebastian is kind of an ass

Diana sat on the edge of her seat as the whistle blew and the game was off. She watched in awe at their speed and strategy. This was the first real game she had ever seen, and it was so much more exciting and fast than the practices she had done with Natty. If it wasn't for the commentator she would have had no idea what was going on. Within the first two minutes Slytherin had scored, Imelda making the point. She cheered with the rest of the Slytherins, and the game continued.

She mostly ignored the commentary now and focused on Sebastian. She would have to ask Ominis to help her write out the game play for Anne, but right now she wanted to see what her friend was doing. She found him, black bat raised high as he sped across the field. He took whack after whack at the bludgers, sending them with great accuracy to the Ravenclaw team. He seemed to especially like sending them to their seeker, who wasn't even doing anything right now.

She leaned over to Ominis "Is trying to hit a seeker who isn't after a snitch yet part of quidditch strategy?"

"No. It sounds like Sebastian is just being a git." he replied curtly.

She nodded her head even though he wouldn't be able to see. She knew there was more than one person at Hogwarts that Sebastian had gripes with, she figured he must be one. She didn't think she knew who the seeker was, or really any of their team. The only person from Ravenclaw she really knew well was Amit and quidditch wasn't his thing. She continued to watch as her friend flew along, protecting his teammates and trying to get hits on their competitors. The blue seeker ended up spending most of the match trying to avoid the beaters' apparent pettiness.

A gasp escaped the crowd, including Diana, as everyone noticed the two opposing seekers set off across the field. Everyone was locked onto the two, racing around each other trying to be the first to catch it. She stole a glance at the scoreboard, if she remembered how the points worked, Slytherin was up, but not high enough to still win even if they lost the snitch.

She turned back to the match, and saw Sebastian now within the mix. Why would he be racing after them? There was no way he could locate a bludger and send it at the seeker going that speed. Then suddenly a bludger came barreling across the sky, with enough accuracy that Sebastian only had to slow a little before deflecting it right onto his target. The other Slytherin beater had sent it flying to his teammate, a move that had obviously been drilled in practice. The ball hit with a loud "crack" and the seeker clutched his shoulder as he started to spiral down.

Diana got to her feet, along with many others, trying to see the player's fall. She had instinctively pulled out her wand in an attempt to cast something to catch him, but she was not needed. Madam Kogawa had magicked him to the ground safely, and not a moment later cheers erupted across the Slytherin section. The HufflePuff looked frantically around trying to see what was going on, and could see the Slytherin seeker hold her hand up in the air as she glided leisurely now across the air. The gold glint hit her and Diana began to cheer with everyone else.

Poppy jumped up and down beside her, grabbing Lucan by the side and basically throwing him up with an insane strength. The boy looked flustered but very pleased, and when she let go he picked her up and spun her around. Diana laughed, then turned to Ominis so was also standing and clapping for his team. The commentator announced the win and sent another, even louder, set of cheers through the green stand. The blind boy covered his ears, and it made Diana pause, she knew he was extra sensitive to loud noises. She leaned over to him, and with a voice as quiet as she could while still being heard said;

"Let's see if we can sneak onto the field."

He nodded, hands still over his ears, and let her pull his outstretched elbow through the crowd. They escaped rather quickly, with almost all of the fans still celebrating above. They jogged over to locker room doors and after checking the coast was clear, went through the room. They made their way onto the field, and in the commotion of everything they were barely noticed. There was one person who noticed them though, and that was their very smug looking friend.

He was over with his team, celebrating and jumping around. He spotted them as soon as they walked on. He ran over to them, and before they could say anything he had pulled them in for a huge hug. Being the shortest of the three Diana ended up getting buried, and she felt extremely grateful when Ominis shoved the other boy off of them.

"You stink! Don't touch me" he hung his arms out to the side as if the sweat were dripping off of him.

Sebastian just laughed; deep and hearty. She smiled, thinking she had never heard him laugh like that before, but glad he was feeling happy.

"You were great!" She said, rocking back and forth from toe to heel as the excitement of the game still coursed through her "That strategy at the end really got you guys the win! You guys must have worked really hard on it- it was so impressive."

He beamed at her, seemingly glad she had noticed. Before he could reply though, a few of the Ravenclaw team came by and they both stopped to watch. There was a boy carrying who Diana assumed was the seeker because he was holding his shoulder like he had been before. As he got closer though she realized that she did in fact know him; he was the boy that tried talking to her in the library and had ... .created a scene. She felt her face start to get hot, and she quickly turned back to Sebastian to avoid making eye contact.

Her friend's eyes flicked between her and the Ravenclaws walking by and he got a devious grin on his face. He moved closer to her, uncomfortably close. She tensed, thinking he was going to try to hug her again, but instead he leaned his face in even closer- too close. Her eyes were wide as she stared at him, totally confused as to what he was trying to do. She felt his breath on her skin, and alarm bells went off in her head. Before he could do anything else she instinctively swung her arm up and knocked him right across the jaw.

The panic she felt must have kickstarted her into a fight and flight and her magic responded in turn. When she punched him it sounded like a thunder clap, and sparks flew around her. Even though she was smaller than him, and physically weaker, her magic fueled punch sent him flying backwards as if he had been hit by a spell. He hit the ground with a thud and Diana froze. She was feeling the course of adrenaline she felt during many of her fights the previous year. Instinct tried to get her to go after Sebastian for another hit, but she fought the urge. She just stared at him, eyes glued to his spot.

Everyone was too stunned to know what to do. The cheering team has stopped, and even the adults nearby just stood frozen. Everyone just looked back and forth between the groaning boy on the field and the small girl who put him there. The only one who didn't seem frozen in time was Ominis, who obviously hadn't seen what transpired.

"What the hell just happened??" He was holding his wand out, red light blinking, scanning around. "Where did Sebastian go?"

She didn't answer; she couldn't answer. She couldn't get the words to come out. She just opened her mouth, waited, and when nothing came out closed it again. The blind boy's question must have roused the teachers enough though because Professor Hecat who was apparently nearby moved over to where the boy lay on the ground. Diana jumped when she felt someone's hand on her arm, and she turned finally to see Ominis trying to get her attention.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

Something switched inside of her; fight changed to flight and immediately she turned and started running. She didn't stop when her friend called after her, nothing could stop her at this point. She felt frantic, and confused and embarrassed, and just too many emotions to deal with at one time. So she ran away from the confrontation, from her friends, and tried to run from the emotions. Diana ran until she made it to the bell tower courtyard and over to the broken wall. She jumped through the crack and slid down to her treasured spot. She was sprawled on the ground, breathing heavy, mind racing.