Delicate - eng version

Preparations

McMahon of Hufflepuff speeds along after the snitch, but James's Firebolt seems to be too fast for him. James, showing all of the skill he inherited from his dad and Grandad before him, takes a sharp turn right, veering totally off course from where the snitch is. McMahon looks around, curiosity getting the best of him, to see just what the hell James is doing. It does seem rather ridiculous – even I can see the bloody snitch! As soon as McMahon takes his eye off the snitch, James turns again and speeds off in a completely different direction – the snitch has now changed course and James is heading right for it. McMahon's broom isn't able to turn as fast as James' Firebolt, and by the time he gets back on course again, James has caught the little golden ball. I can hear the Gryffindor screams from all the way over here.

Yes, I'm watching the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff match with a pair of omnioculars from the hospital wing. Although I was discharged a few days ago, Madam Pomfrey insists that going to see a Quidditch match would excite me too much and wouldn't be good for the baby. So I've decided to come and see the still unconscious Laura instead. Her mother hasn't, to my knowledge, returned to see her since I lashed out in zed-snapping fashion. Her father stops by every now and again, and he seems decent enough.

Yet there has been no change in her since she was brought back from St Mungo's. I visit every day, something that really confuses Chas.

"But Laura hates you," she says bluntly every time she hears of me visiting the hospital.

"I know."

"And you hate her."

"I don't understand her, that's all."

And it's true – I don't understand her. I used to think she was such a one-sided person, dumb, shallow and vindictive. Now I realise that there is more to her, that it's not her fault she is the way she is. I'm sure that some of her father's decency must have been passed on to her somehow. I don't think she hates me, not really.

Minutes after the Quidditch match has ended, James comes to the hospital wing. He's come a few times, but he can hardly stand to look at Laura's lifeless body. James is a joker, and in a situation that lacks even the basic essence of humour, he feels extremely awkward. It's just how he is. Again, I used to think James was a one-dimensional person, but perhaps he's deeper than he lets on.

"You should see Garrison," he says, shaking his sweaty head, sitting down on the chair beside mine, "We wiped him off the pitch. Dom hit a bludger right at him, he won't be walking straight for weeks!"

"I know, I saw," I say disapprovingly, "Garrison's not that bad."

Lance Garrison is a very haughty seventh year Hufflepuff, and captain and keeper on the Quidditch team. There has always been an ongoing feud between him and James, ever since they both became captains in their fourth years. Although Garrison does appear to be very narcissistic and a bit of an arse, he's not the worst. Dom hates him because he's always coming on to her and touching her leg. Something tells me that this isn't the first hit from a bludger he's gotten from her.

"So...how is she?" James asks uncomfortably, ruffling his black hair.

"No change," I shrug.

He nods, as if he'd expected me to say that. He's fiddling with the golden snitch he's just caught, and looking down at his hands because I know he doesn't want to look at Laura. She looks so gaunt and thin. She's frightening.

"Red, do you think this is my fault?"

And just like that he has voiced exactly what I've known has been running through his brain. Of course he's going to be consumed with guilt – the girl he publicly dumped and humiliated has tried to kill herself.