Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(109) Lions vs Serpents

Minutes turned to hours, hours into days, and days into weeks. All the students, especially those in their last year, felt as if all their time was poured into countless hours studying, exhausting themselves in the library, some burdened with athletic duties, and some, well, improving their skills in entrepreneurship.

The Defense classes of with Harry had met about 4 times during the month of October, due to the fact that most of them were cancelled because of Quidditch practices, and usually only a handful of people would turn up, because of the others' busy schedules.

On one meeting, he was successfully able to teach them the disarming spell. It had been a few weeks since Umbridge's decree, all the members deciding to keep their organization private, as Umbridge was sure to disapprove of it. And with their secret meeting place in the Room of Requirements—a place that most of them hadn't heard of before—they were pretty secure.

Hermione had also managed to come up with a way for them to communicate, through a bunch of galleons that she had strung together with a Protean charm, a smile appearing on Fred and Florence's face as they reminisced the memories they made with their own proteans.

But with all the stress, the students were finally able to allow themselves to breathe, as the first Quidditch game of the year was nearing. Gryffindor was to play against Slytherin, and as everyone knew, it was the most interesting game of all.

Florence had deliberately smeared scarlet stripes on each side of her face for the game, eating with the twins who were cladded in their house jumpers. A terrifyingly realistic lion's roar erupted throughout the Great Hall some time during their meal, only to trace back the sound to a rather small Ravenclaw girl, a gigantic lion's hat mounted atop her dirty blonde hair.

Florence and Nicolai had gone down to the stadium particularly early as soon as they finished with their dessert, Xander walking ahead of them on the dirt path, hand in hand with Olivia. Nicolai had convinced Jillian to tag along as well, but insisted that it still might not be a good time to be around the raven-haired girl.

"But they share a dorm room, don't they?" Florence asked her friend in a whisper, "I mean, they see each other everyday."

"Yeah, but Jillian said that they're rarely in the room at the same time unless they're sleeping."

"Oh well..." Florence shrugged, "Don't worry, they'll make amends eventually. I'm sure Olivia will realize that she can't keep rolling her eyes at Jillian forever..." she consoled, "But right now, just let them be."

"You're right," Nicolai offered her a small smile, "Anyway, enough about that. We have a Quidditch game to watch! First time in awhile, yeah?"

"Definitely," she linked their arms together, off we go!

Nicolai had went up ahead to the stands, finding them a comfortable spot while Florence headed down to the locker rooms, as Fred had asked her to stop by before the game.

"Georgie!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him, as she was the first twin that she had caught sight of. "Good luck out there. I'll be cheering for Gryffindor. Loud and proud."

"Counting on that, Flo." he smiled, "Thanks for coming down here. Now, if you will excuse me for a bit, I think Ron stole my gloves." he said, before wandering away from the brunette.

Fred had emerged from the locker rooms a few minutes later, now in full playing robes, just like his brother. His brows crinkled momentarily, eyeing the thin jacket she was wearing.