Never Is Our Always

Check For Now, Umbridge 5

(Minnie pov) (February)

Quidditch practice, I was not happy with how today's was going to go.

"Let's try..." I whispered to Angelina, "this is going to soul crush me more than you." I sighed heavily, holding Harry's broom.

"We'll be okay, you're a good seeker," she smiles.

"I'll catch the bloody thing in the first five minutes if I have to."

"Thank you."

—

Stumping into the Hall splattered with mud and looking grumpy, I huffed. "Look— you upset Cho when you said you were going to meet me, so she tried to make you jealous. It was her way of trying to find out how much you liked her."

"Is that what she was doing?" Harry said, as I dropped onto the bench opposite them and pulled every dish within reach towards me. "Well, wouldn't it have been easier if she'd just asked me whether I liked her better than you?"

"Girls don't often ask questions like that," Hermione said.

"Well, they should!" Harry said forcefully. "Then I could've just told her I fancy her, and she wouldn't have had to get herself all worked up again about Cedric dying!"

"I'm not saying what she did was sensible," Hermione said, as Ron joined us, just as muddy as me and looking equally disgruntled. "I'm just trying to make you see how she was feeling at the time."

"You should write a book," Ron told Hermione as he cut up his potatoes, "translating mad things girls do so boys can understand them."

"Yeah," Harry said fervently, looking over at the Ravenclaw table. Harry looked back at Ron and me. "So, how was Quidditch practice?"

"It was a nightmare," Ron said in a surly voice.

"Oh come on," Hermione said, looking at me, "I'm sure it wasn't that—"

"Yes, it was," I said. "It was appalling. Angelina was nearly in tears by the end of it, so was I, it was just... we need the old team back." I sighed.

"Wood too?" Ron asked, then I got an idea.

"I should write to him, see if he'd come down and help us," I say.

—

I had been struggling with a new star-chart for Astronomy for half an hour when Fred and George turned up.

"Ron not here?" Fred asked, looking around as he pulled up a chair, and when I shook my head, he said, "Good. We were watching the practice. They're going to be slaughtered. They're complete rubbish without us."

"I know," I say, "trust me, I know," I whispered.

"You almost cried," George said.

"I did cry, once," I whispered, putting my head in my hands.

"You should just be keeper," Fred told me, "you know what you're doing and you're really good at it too."

"And seeker," George said, "I can't believe you never played."

"Didn't want to," I reply.

"What are you going to do?" Fred asked me.

"I'm writing to Oliver tomorrow morning and getting his Scottish ass down here to help the bloody team win." I told them. "He needs to help us."

"He'll kill us," George groans.

"He doesn't know," I say, they both groan. "The ban is only until she leaves."