unforeseen [h.p.]

THE TRUTH HURTS

"Lucky the ground was so soft."

"I thought they were dead for sure."

"We told her the handle would be slippery in the rain-- OW! Bloody hell, woman--!"

"That's for jinxing our new Chaser."

Alex could just barely hear voices over the pounding in her head. Where was she? Why was she in so much pain?

Alex groaned, raising a hand to her left shoulder, which felt like it was on fire. Opening her eyes, she saw that she was lying in the hospital wing. The entire Gryffindor team, splattered in mud, were surrounding her bed for some reason. Blake, Gemma, Ron, and Hermione were also there, soaked with rain.

"Alex," cooed Gemma. She looked like she'd been crying. "Are you okay? How do you feel?"

Alex groaned again, "Like I got run over. . . What's happened to me?"

"A Bludger hit you in the shoulder," said Blake, wincing from the memory. "It knocked you off your broom."

"You fell at least twenty feet," added Cat.

Alex cringed, "Ouch."

Alex was flooded with memories of the match. Gryffindor was leading, and then-- lightning, cold, the Snitch, dementors. . . Screaming . . . Pain.

"Harry's awake too!" announced Fred, whose pale skin contrasted extremely against the brown mud. Alex looked over to her right, and there in the bed next to her lay a groggy and confused Harry. "How're you feeling, Harry?"

"What happened?" Harry said, sitting up suddenly.

"You fell off," said Fred. "Must've been -- what -- fifty feet?"

"We thought you'd died," said Katie, who was shaking.

"But the match," said Harry. "What happened? Are we doing a replay?"

Silence. Alex felt her gut sink.

"We didn't -- lose?"

"Diggory got the Snitch," said George. "Just after you fell. He didn't realize what had happened. He tried to call it off, wanted a rematch, but they won fair and square . . . even Wood admits it."

"Where is Wood?" asked Alex.

"Still in the showers," said Fred. "We think he's trying to drown himself."

Alex couldn't believe her luck. Her first ever match, dementors had come on the grounds, and she'd been knocked off her broom. She felt like crying.

After the team stood discussing ways Gryffindor could steal the top spot in the tournament back from Hufflepuff for ten minutes, Madam Pomfrey came over to tell the team to leave them in peace.

"Feel better guys," said Cat, "We're going to make sure Wood hasn't tried to end it all." She followed after the team, who were going on about whether Hufflepuff would beat Ravenclaw or not.

It had gotten significantly quieter after they'd left. Only Gemma, Blake, Hermione, and Ron remained.

"Dumbledore was really angry," Hermione said in a quaking voice. "I've never seen him like that before. He ran onto the field as Harry fell, waved his wand, and Harry sort of slowed down before he hit the ground."

"Nobody did the same for you, Alex," Blake said, looking apologetic. "Everyone was distracted by what was going on with Harry. We didn't notice until it was too late; Rose was screamin' something about you getting knocked off your broom by a Bludger."

"We're so sorry," said Gemma, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.

Alex shook her head. "I'll be fine. It wasn't that far a fall. My back and shoulder hurts like hell though. . . What happened with the dementors?"