•Memories• ||D.M.||

7. Falafel

"I can't believe you're actually playing today..." Donna nudged my arm in excitement. Chloe, another first year, sat next to Isabella at the other side of the table. I'd seen her talk to Donna and Blaise, and she seemed super sweet.
"You're the new keeper?!" She asked with stars in her eyes.
"Ah, yeah!" I blushed.
"That's so cool!" She continued. "I'm Chloe! Chloe Kang, pleasure!" She introduced loudly. "I'll be cheering for you!"
She was so bubbly and sweet that everyone else seemed caught off guard, me especially by her green robes.
I was beaming. "Thank you, Chloe. I'll be looking for you!" I smiled.
"Oh, don't flatter yourself Granger." Malfoy spat out.
I turned to him, but Simon beat me to it.
"Why are you three sitting here then?" I looked to his posey of angry little boys and chuckled.
He rolled his eyes and stayed quiet, glaring at me like usual.
"Elizabeth?" A tap was placed on my shoulder and I turned to Jeremy.
"Hey Jer, what's up?" I spun.
He pulled something from his robe. "I know how nervous you are, so I sewed you and Jay a plushie for stress relief."
My eyes were wide as I looked at the derpy looking snake plush with a head that was ridiculously big, in fact-
"Jeremy made a green sperm plushie for an 11 year old!" Simon yelled.
He glared at his classmate.
"Thanks, Jer, it's really cute." I ignored the comment and thanked him.
"Jay got a little lion, so.." he awkwardly cleared his throat. "Don't die please, Christina would kill me." He begged as he left.
I made eye contact with the beedy-eyed plush.
"Protect me.." I begged to it.
---
"She's small, she can't guard shit." Jay's teammate cheered.
"She is strong and independent, okay!" He defended.
They all looked at him strangely.
"And I'm gonna crush her into the ground!" He transferred from emotion to emotion as they waited on the field.
I hovered on my new broom, smoother and steadier, with E.G. carved into the handle.
I felt stupid as the helmet squished my cheeks and made my face a bit scrunchy.
When the game started, I was too focused on the ball-thing (my brain had been scrambled relentlessly during practice for weeks now) to listen. Was it like Waffle? No, Felafel?
"10 points for Gryffindor!"
tHEY SCORED?!
I paid attention closer as my cheeks flushed in embarrassment, and the ball-thing made its way towards the Gryffindor goal, only to be blocked by an actually good keeper.
It was then on me as it made its way back, and boom, deflected into our caption, Marcus's, arms.
But once again, someone shoots and I barely miss this time.
Instead of being upset by my lack of ability, my team became visibly frustrated, resorting to petty kicks and shots to get their keeper down, scoring.
I found it hard not to smile when I was sent a thumbs up by Simon.
Marcus gave me an angry but somehow inspiring solute before heading over and scoring us another point, and we managed another.
I blocked over 10, usually at the expense of my body, but I powered through it.
My house's cheers would drown out the booing that the other houses would make every time I blocked.
I even saw my sister booing at me.
Ouch..
The crowd was booing, but I looked to Chloe and smiled.
I blocked about 17 more scores, and our house was ready to worship me.
The ball-thing headed back over, all by the work of Jason Webber.
"I swear, Liz, move!" He begged.
"Not a chance, pretty boy!" I laughed and his eyes widened at my competitiveness.
He hesitated, and the ball-thing was-
Oh, Quaffle!
"Wait, what's up with Harry?" I looked up and Harry was spinning crazily, the snitch barely being visible.
I gasped as he continued to lose control when he was hanging just by his hand.
After a minute, he somehow fixed himself upright and chased the snitch with our team's seeker.
They were head to head in a nosedive and I closed my eyes after our seeker pulled back, as Harry continued forward.
Loud cheering issued and I looked down as he pulled it from his mouth.
"Brilliant! Disgusting, but brilliant!"
I cut out my smile when I saw Chloe yelling like a sailor from the stand.
I waved at her and her mood changed and she gave me a sweet wave back.
Strange girl..
---
"Rubbish!" Draco raged when we got back to the common room.
"I'm sorry guys, I should've tried harder so we could get more scores-" I began to apologize.
"Oh, shush up will you?! You did bloody fantastic! It's that Potter that keeps ruining everything!" Draco continued and I smiled to myself a bit as Donna handed me a hot chocolate, sitting next to me as the boy continued to pace in front of the fireplace.
I looked around, Blaise and Pansy on the other couch ranting about the game, Isabella ranting to the older years about how I deserved to win, and how half the shots that the other team made were fake.
I felt loved, in a weird, twisted way.
It was the way that I never really got from my parents, even if I was a twin.
The attention was never even, but it was just how it was.
Being the angry, underproformer didn't fly with our strict parents.
But here, the entire common room was buzzing about their first year goalkeeper, and for once I felt like I was the main character in my own life.
Not just a side one in my sister's.
I stayed up with the girls at night, Chloe sneaking in, chatting about whatever, and I was happy.