The Wronski Feint

Hexes and detention

Like every Tuesday morning, I started my breakfast alone. After pouring pumpkin juice into my glass, I began to inspect the Great Hall with a misty look. The Ravenclaw table, my current house, was half empty. Not surprising since the captain of the Quidditch team, Emmett Young, thought it was a great idea to arrange extra training to prepare the team for its first match against Hufflepuff. And, that's why every Tuesday morning I waited half asleep for my friend, Rebecca Puckett. Rebecca had joined during the trial the Ravenclaw team as a catcher at the beginning of the year. Since then, Young had been pushing her beyond her limits both physically and mentally. After every training, I would find Rebecca exhausted while the day had just begun.

" Hi, Billie" Rebecca told me, spreading out on the bench in front of me. She grabbed the pumpkin juice.

" Young is still a lot on your back, isn't it?"

She nodded, yawning. I levitate two toast on my plate to butter them carefully. It took me a few minutes to notice that aside from sipping her pumpkin juice, Rebecca was not touching what she had in her plate. Worse, she seemed lost in her thoughts and was staring into space.

" Everything is fine? Usually, you swallow everything before I even get the chance to serve myself"

She smiled slightly before chewing on one end of her croissant. She looked from left to right and finally leaned toward me. Rebecca mumbled something I did not understand the first time.

"Why are you whispering? » I said.

She grunted and leaned closer. Her long blond hair was almost soaking in her pumpkin juice.

"Keep this to yourself, I'm not supposed to talk about it. Because of - you know the other teams could use it to destabilize us and Young would hate it if-"

" Could you be any clearer?" I interrupted her.

"I was going to if only you were not interrupting me every thirty seconds! » I pretended to lock my mouth and she laughed at my guilty look.

" So, as I was saying, during training, Felix Vembulom, our main chaser. You know the one who always has a spike shaped like a question mark on top of his head. (She clarified after seeing my lost expression) Well, he broke his wrist and Pomfrey said he had to rest for a while before he could resume training. "

My mouth formed an "O" of surprise. It was rather bad news.

"Young must be fuming?" I asked even if I already knew the answer. Emmett Young was a quidditch captain as brilliant as ruthless both on the pitch and in real life. Long story short he was an ass. Besides, I remember that in our first year he had shouted in front of Great Hall that one day he was going to win the Quidditch Cup. Since the years had sunk and his frustration had grown over time. We were now in our seventh and last year at Hogwarts, and no doubt he was struggling to deal with the fact that he was losing forever his chances to win the trophy.

"You cannot even imagine ... It sounded like my mother sent me a Howler! (She sighed.) The problem is that we do not have any substitute chaser, I guess we were too confident from the start. "

Speaking of the devil, Young entered the Great Hall, looking dark. I could hear sneers coming from the Slytherin table and Young shot a murderous look in their direction. As some say, the walls of Hogwarts have ears. Or rather, the Slytherins are real weasel I believe. Young met my eyes and headed towards us. He sat next to Rebecca in silence.

"Hi Young -" I tried softly. He gave me a look that prevented me from continuing my speech to raise his spirit. Rebecca looked down at her plate again when I looked in her direction for her support. The atmosphere was heavy and I hastily finished my pumpkin juice to get away from it. The pair in front of me gave me a quizzical look.