Friendless » Fred Weasley

lxxxiii. night before the match

Sir Cadogan had been fired from his duty has the Gryffindor portrait and the Fat Lady had returned. She was still extremely nervous and only agreed to return to her job on the condition that she was given extra protection by a load of security trolls.

The students had become more and more anxiety-filled with every day. Whispers about how Sirius Blacked got in, let alone escape circled around the school. Ron had became some sort of a celebrity, people always wanted to hear his story.

Tori had to admit it, she felt bad for little Neville Longbottom. Professor McGonagall was so furious with the third year she had not only banned him from all Hogsmeade trips but forbidden anyone from giving him the password. Every night someone had to let him in, and the security trolls weren't the nicest.

There was yet another Hogsmeade trip soon around the corner. Tori had reached out to her Nana to meet in the three broomsticks for about an hour. It was nice being able to talk to her again. Her Nana was always a great listener, and with O.W.L.S. coming up, she could have someone to talk to about it.

"With the Quidditch Cup coming up I hardly enough time to get any work done. Don't get me wrong, I'm as excited as anyone for the match. Gryffindor hasn't won the cup in like seven years."

Nana nodded, "I'm very excited to see it, oh, yes, I'm coming. You'll do excellent! And with your O.W.L.S, you've always been an extremely smart girl, I'm sure that you'll do just fine." Tori nodded, feelings but excited that her Nana would be there. But so would the rest of her family, so the feeling died quickly. "Oh, are those your friends?"

Tori glanced over her shoulder to see the twins standing in the doorway. They had full bags from Zonko's in their hands as they scanned the restaurant, looking like they were on a mission. "Uh, yeah!"

"Well, have them come over here! I want to meet them!" Tori gave her a weird look before waving them over. The twins glanced at each other with a grin before coming over.

"Nana, this is—"

"I'm Gred—" Fred interrupted, grabbing her Nana's hand and shaking it. "And I'm Feorge. A pleasure to meet you."

Tori covered her face with her hands as the twins took a seat next to her in the booth. Nana only laughed, "Well, with the look on your faces, I'm not sure that's your actual names."

"Ah, you've caught us." Fred grinned. "Nana. This is Fred and George. Twins? This is my Nana I was telling you about." She smiled awkwardly at the three.

Her Nana grinned, "Tori and I were just talking about the Quidditch Cup, you two are excited?" Fred nodded, "Yes, ma'am. Wood's been working us nearly every day. It's a bit nerve-racking."

It was weird for Tori to see the twins get along so well with someone from her family. But, Fred and George seemed to be genuinely enjoying this. Her Nana was very kind, even telling the twins old stories about Tori when she was younger.

"She was a troublemaker, constantly riding around in that little broom I gave her for her sixth birthday. She'd swoop all around, breaking loads of vases and expensive things!"

Fred and George were very surprised to hear about that. Once they had said goodbye and left, the two kept bringing it up. "No wonder you get along so well with us!" George was telling her as the walked the long road. "You're just like us!"

"Oh, shut up."

✧ ✦ ✧

The Easter holidays were not exactly relaxing. The fifth years had never had so much homework. Even Fred and George seemed close to a nervous collapse.

Not only did they have to study for their O.W.L.S, but each fifth year were told of a meeting and given information booklets promoting certain careers are given to them.

Tori had no idea what she wanted to do, and looking through that booklets wasn't helping. Professor McGonagall has told them in the new few weeks she would be inviting them into her office one by one to discuss their career choices and how they had to get on their O.W.L.S. to do so.

Tori, meanwhile, had to fit in her homework around Quidditch practice every day, not to mention endless discussions of tactics with Wood. The Gryffindor-Slytherin match would take place on the first Saturday after the Easter holidays. Slytherin was leading the tournament by exactly two hundred points. This meant (as Wood constantly reminded his team) that they needed to win the match by more than that amount to win the Cup.

The whole of Gryffindor House was obsessed with the coming match. Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup since the "legendary" Charlie Weasley had been seeker. The pressure was crushing Tori, and she started to get more and more frustrated with her performance. She kicked a chair over once in the locker room after making a bad play.

The night before the big match, there was a great deal of noise. Fred and George were dealing with the pressure by being louder and more exuberant than ever. Wood was crouched over a model of a Quidditch field in the corner, prodding little figures across it with his wand and muttering to himself. Angelina, Tori, and Katie were laughing at Fred's and George's jokes, even the ones that weren't that funny. And Harry was sitting with Ron and Hermione, removed from the center of things.

Tori was holding her hands together so tight her knuckles began to turn white. She couldn't shake the awful feeling of her gut. Not only did she have to beat Slytherin tomorrow, but she had to beat her brother too.

It came as a relief when Wood suddenly stood up and yelled, "Team! Bed!" Without any sort of hesitation, the group marched upstairs and got into bed, nervous about what tomorrow would bring.

i know for a fact i would have loads of anxiety