✔️ 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐎 → ℎ. 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑤𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦

23 | C L O U D S

is this what the clouds feel like?
never really happy,            
      but quiet and polite.

   SPRING WAS ARRIVING with the first sunny days of the year, and getting up on March the first the earliest she ever did, Ember hastily wrapped a box full of chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's she earlier that week had ordered from Honeydukes in red and golden paper. It was Ron's sixteenth birthday, and also it was the day of the match Hufflepuff against Gryffindor. Fair to say that after she'd failed last time, her nervousness had been taken to a new level. Her hands were already terribly shaking when She fumbled on Ron's present, and in the end it looked like a three year old had done the packing.

   "I'm doomed ...", she muttered, leaving the common room to head to the owlery. It was close to dawn, the first light fleaks were already visible behind the mountain tops, and when Ember finally sent Woody through one of the windows of the lonely tower, the first sunrays came out to tickle her skin.

   Soon, way too soon, it was time for the match, and as she made her way down to the pitch, her tummy was twisting, her guts turning, and not even half of those feelings had anything to do with Quidditch. She hadn't talked to Harry ever since Valentine's Day. Nor had she spoken a word to Ron. And it was a strange sensation to now have the ginger as a concurrent. Almost she was glad that Harry, Fred and George had been kicked out of the team, but in the same moment she hated herself for thoughts like that. Nevertheless, she wouldn't have been too keen on flying against her brother and the Weasley twins as well.

   "You know, this brings us into a scrape", Fred, who suddenly had appeared to her right, as she was halfway down the hill to the pitch, said.

   "Absolutely", George to her left added. "See, we love you, kiddo."

   "Indeed, we do", Fred said, and she could even hear his mischievous grin. "So it really hurts us in the deepest of our hearts to do this, but ..."

   "We have no choice, do we?", George grinned, and all of a sudden they blocked her way, smirking down upon her, and the way they did was clearly telling that they were up to no good.

   "What's the matter, boys? Can't you just go and blow up a toilet or something like that?", Ember sighed. "I really ain't got the nerve for that now."

   "Didn't I just tell you, we have no choice?", George asked, winking at her. "See, this all would be no problem if the two of us and Harry would still be in the team."

   "But we aren't", said Fred, clutching a hand over his chest. "Instead we now have two beaters that can't differ a Bludger from the Snitch, and I won't complain about Ginny, but she is no Harry, is she?"

   "And there's no need to talk about Ron, I guess", George muttered, and much louder he told Ember, "You see, we have a problem. Because unfortunately Hufflepuff has a pretty good team."

   "And a pretty good Seeker", Fred added, his grin growing wider, and Ember's cheeks flushed pink. "But you're our friend, aren't you, Emmie? You wouldn't want to see us upset!"

   "I won't lose this match on purpose!", Ember exclaimed, as suddenly she knew where this was leading to.

   "Are you sure?", Fred asked, tilting his head in a sad attempt to look innocent. "Because we still have this nosebleed nougat that doesn't work properly and would make you bleed and bleed, until you end up as something like a raisin. It would be terrible, if accidentally you'd oversee one of those in your cereals ..."

   "Oh great Helga, are you threatening me?!", Ember yelled, having some passerbys turning towards the trio. "You aren't threatening me, are you? Not after all I've done for you! I smuggled your deathly sweets to the World Cup! I sneaked Doxies out of the saloon at Grimmauld Place, right under your mother's nose! Don't you dare to use this stuff against me, if I hadn't lied for you all those times, your mother would have burnt down all your inventions long ago!"

   "You don't have to lose that high", George shrugged. "Just ten points!"

   "Maybe you could catch the snitch when Gryffindors leading with one hundred and sixty?", Fred suggested, but Ember just pushed both of them aside, storming further down the hill.

   "Unbelievable", she muttered, then turned around and yelled at the two red heads, "You're unbelievable!"

   With the resolution to check her meals thrice from now on, Ember reached the security of the dress rooms, the whole rest of the team already waiting for her.

   "You're late", Smith snapped, his eyebrows furrowed.

   "Can't see the match has already started", Ember growled, snatching her broom.

   Smith muttered something under his breath, and Heidi threw Ember an encouraging smile, before the captain clapped her hands, shouting out, "Okay, let's get it on! We beated the kittens last time, we'll destroy them today!"

   "Am I the only one worrying that our Seeker is friends with half of their team?", Smith loudly whispered, giving Ember a hard time not to grab a Beater bat and slam it in Smith's arrogant face -

   "If you want me to accidentally hit him with a Bludger, just tell me", Maxine O'Flaherty, one of Hufflepuff's Beaters, whispered, her bat swinging from her hand, but before Ember could reply, Heidi was shushing them out onto the pitch.

   For a match, the weather was perfect. A couple of clouds floating through a blue sky, barely windy, not too cold, not too warm - until Ember's eyes fell on Ron, and suddenly it got pretty warm inside her Quidditch uniform. With his ears red, he was smiling at her, while Heidi and Angelina Johnson shook hands. A loud whistle was yelling over the field, and Ember rose high towards the sky.

   "Ready to lose, Potter?", a wildly grinning Ginny asked, floating three feet away from Ember midair.

   Ember's lips curved into a smirk. "Wait for it, Weasley!", she laughed, and there she spotted the Golden Snitch just inches next to Ron's red glowing ears.

-