ᴀ ᴅ ʀ ɪ ᴇ ɴ ɴ ᴇ [1]

14. hang in there

chapter fourteen

HANG IN THERE

• ────────⋅☾ ☽⋅──────── •

THE COMMON ROOM IS PACKED AND NOISY, everyone eating the sweets and desserts sent up from the kitchens, swapping fantasies of what the troll might be doing to Snape. Hermione, however, stands alone by the portrait hole, waiting for us.

There is a very embarrassed pause, in which none of us look at each other.

"Thanks," she mutters eventually, and hurries off to get a plate.

But from that moment on, Hermione Granger becomes our friend. I guess there are just some things you can't share without bonding from, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll together is one.

* * *

As we enter November, the weather turns bitterly cold. The mountains around the school become icy gray, the lake like chilled steel, and every morning the ground is covered in a glistening frost. Hagrid can be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaverskin boots.

The Quidditch season has begun. On Saturday, I'll be playing in my first match, after weeks of training; Gryffindor versus Slytherin. If we win, Gryffindor'll move into second place in the House Championship.

Hardly anyone has seen Harry or I play, because Wood has decided that, as his secret weapons, we should be kept, well, secret. But the news has leaked out somehow - I don't know what's worse; people telling me I'll be brilliant, or that they'll be running around underneath me, holding a mattress.

Hermione has lent me a book called Quidditch Through the Ages, which turns out to be a very interesting read. I learn that there are seven hundred ways of committing a Quidditch foul, and that all of them happened during a World Cup match in 1473; that Chasers are usually the most alert on the field; that they usually all know each other from out of the Stadium, as they work together better that way; and that although people rarely die playing Quidditch, referees have been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert.

Hermione has become much more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry, Saskia, Ron and I saved her from the mountain troll, and is much nicer for it. The day before my first Quidditch match, Harry, Ron, Hermione and I are out in the freezing courtyard during break, Hermione and I having conjured up a bright blue fire that can be carried around in a jam jar. We're standing with our backs to it, warming ourselves, when Snape crosses the yard. I notice at once that Snape is limping.

The four of us move closer together to block the fire from view - we're sure it isn't allowed. Unfortunately, something about our guilty faces catches Snape's eye. He limps over, not seeing the fire, but looking for a reason to tell us off anyway.

"What have you got there, Potter?" he asks me, and I look down at the copy of Quidditch Through the Ages in my hand.

"A book, sir," I say, biting my lip to stop myself from adding, as a teacher, you ought to know that.

"Library books are not to be taken outside the school," said Snape. "Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor."

I shove the book into Snape's hands, watching him limp away grumpily.

"He just made that rule up," I seethe, "the greasy scumbag."

Hermione sniffs, as if I offended her with my comment.