"It's lonely to be more powerful than any man you know."
- Merlin
Twelve years after Harry Potter defeated Voldemort and put an end to the First Wizarding War, the Wizarding world is shaken by the news that Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban. But no...
YOUR FACE JUST LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE A BLUDGER ✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧
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The Easter holidays were not exactly relaxing for anyone. The Third Years had never had so much homework; though Rhea could only make her judgement on that based on what everyone else claimed.
Neville constantly seemed to be close to a nervous collapse, and he wasn't the only one. Even those who normally had a pretty chill attitude towards school had been affected by the stressful atmosphere.
"Call this a holiday!" Seamus Finnigan roared at the common room one afternoon. "The exams are ages away, what're they playing at?"
But nobody had as much to do as Hermione. Even without Divination, she was taking more subjects than anybody else. She was usually last to leave the common room at night, first to arrive at the library the next morning; she had shadows like Lupin's under her eyes, and seemed constantly close to tears. Rhea truly worried for the girl but had come to realise that Hermione was so stubborn that the only thing that could make her see sense was actually having a complete breakdown.
Ron and Rhea had taken over responsibility for Buckbeak's appeal. When the cousin-duo wasn't doing their own work, they were poring over enormously thick volumes with names like The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology and Fowl or Foul? A Study of Hippogriff Brutality. In a desperate attempt to find a way to save Buckbeak, Rhea even sent her mother a letter, asking if she had any ideas on what they could do.
Everything was made even more intense for Rhea who had to fit her studies and Buckbeak's appeal around Quidditch practice with Harry and the team every day. On top of that, she also had to sit through endless discussions of tactics with Wood. Normally she found the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain to be quite charming company, but slowly she was starting to understand what Angelina and Katie meant when they said that he could be a little too much at times.
The Gryffindor-Slytherin match would take place on the first Saturday after the Easter holidays. Slytherin was leading the tournament by exactly two hundred points. This meant – as Wood constantly reminded his team – that they needed to win the match by more than that amount to win the Cup. It also meant that the burden of winning fell largely on Harry, because capturing the Snitch was worth one hundred and fifty points.
"So you must catch it only if we're more than fifty points up," Wood would tell Harry constantly. "Only if we're more than fifty points up, Harry, or we win the match but lose the Cup. You've got that, haven't you? You must catch the Snitch only if we're—"
"I KNOW, OLIVER!" Harry yelled one day when he grew tired of the constant reminder.
It did not help that the whole of Gryffindor House was obsessed with the coming match. Apparently, Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup since the legendary Charlie Weasley – Rhea's second oldest cousin – had been Seeker. Ironically, the cousins she'd heard the most stories about growing up were also the ones she'd yet to actually meet since Bill and Charlie had graduated years ago.
