Secrets I have held in my heart (part 1)

Chapter 16: Apologies?

That night, all the houses slept together in the Great Hall. Hermione asked me what had happened at Hogsmeade since she had helped Fred look for me. I explained everything, from George telling me that he had a girlfriend to Draco curing my hand after my breakdown. She spent the whole night next to me, holding me tight and telling me that I deserved better. I was truly grateful for Hermione, she was such a good friend and she was the only person in the world that I could tell her anything and she would understand.

The following days, I had spent most of my time cramming in homework late at night because of Potions, ever since the sticky floor 'inicident', Snape had been as mad as ever, assigning essays for the next day. At first it was funny but now it felt like he was overreacting. Also because of daily Quidditch practice. Oliver kept insisting that we had to beat the Slytherin team, and I completely agreed, I wanted to see Draco's face of defeat. The worst part of practice though was seeing George. We didn't talk anymore and sometimes he would look over at me and I could feel him staring. I would tell myself that if he truly was interested, then he would gather the courage to speak to me. I was still friends with Fred though, we had gotten into trouble during practice because he kept yelling and cheering annoyingly every time I scored and I couldn't stop myself from laughing. Oliver gave us a long speech afterwards about having to be professional and the usual, how important the house cup was for him. 

The night before the match, Oliver gave an award winning speech for being the longest speech of humankind about how this was our (his) year, the need to win and so much more blabber that at one point I heard Fred fake snore which made me snort, earning us the famous Oliver death glare. Fred and I walked back up the stairs, Harry had to be escorted by a teacher so he couldn't join us.

'so Edwards, feeling nervous for tomorrow?' asked Fred 

'well as long as I don't bruise my ribs and get knocked unconscious then I'll be fine' I joked

We both laughed on our way back. Once in the common room though, the atmosphere was much more tense. Oliver was standing in the middle and was surrounded by the team.

'Oliver, what's wrong?' I said frowning

'we're not playing Slytherin tomorrow' he said hotly 'We're playing against Hufflepuff because apparently their seeker still has an injured armed'

'that's bullshit' replied Harry to the news 'he's faking it, he just doesn't want to play because of the weather' 

Harry was right. The weather was not in our favour, it had been raining and tough winds had been surging for days on end, it didn't seem like it would stop.

'so what?' argued Fred 'Hufflepuffs don't know what they're doing half the time, we won against them last time'

'well, they have a different strategy than Slytherin and we've been going over tactics to beat them, Hufflepuff has another game tactic' he said exasperated 'plus, they have a new seeker and captain, Cedric Diggory' 

I could hear some giggles from Angelina and Katie, my fellow chasers, they obviously seemed to fancy him. I hadn't met him yet but from their comments apparently he was very good-looking.

'it doesn't matter, Diggory can't even put two words together, we'll win the match in no time' reassured Fred

Oliver dismissed us after this and he left to his dorm, muttering under his breath about the lack of organisation and how unfair and preposterous this was. Following what Oliver said, I headed back to my dorm as well, it was pretty late and the heat from the fire was making me drowsy,

'night Fred' I said before climbing up the stairs

'night Edwards' he replied

Back in my dorm, I took a long warm shower as being up in the air had frozen every part of my body. I put on my pyjamas and then I remembered I left some books from doing homework before practice, I quickly headed down. I grabbed my books from the table but was unpleasantly greeted by George who was cuddling with Olivia in the couch where a month ago we had sat.

'Oh sorry' I said embarrassed 'didn't mean to interrupt'

'you're y/n Edwards, right?' asked Olivia. I really didn't want to have a conversation with George's girlfriend when she was clearly rubbing their relationship in my face.

'yeah, that's me' I said awkwardly 'I'm guessing you're Olivia'

George was just as uncomfortable as I was. He shifted from his seat, forcing Olivia off the couch. 

'it was lovely meeting you' she said sweetly after a long painful silence, she gave George a kiss and headed off to her room. Leaving George and I alone in the common room.

'well' I said uncomfortably 'I'll see you at the match'

'y/n wait' he said

'I'm tired, George' I said sharply

'right, sorry' he said, taken aback, I left the room while George just sat there looking at the fire

I hated how nice Olivia had been. I didn't know if she was mocking me as she seemed sincerely nice. That night I laid in bed, unable to fall asleep. I was extremely nervous for tomorrows match but my mind kept drifting to how quickly George and I had fallen apart. It didn't make sense to me. It seemed too organised, especially when Draco followed me into the shop and knew that George had a girlfriend. I didn't want to jump into conclusions as it was no longer my business. I took out my Walkman, I had to put some charms on it so it could work in the school. I put my mum's favourite song on repeat and eventually fell asleep.

The next day, being the match, I was awoken by a very excited Ginny.

'y/n come on! It's game day' she said enthusiastically

'oh right' I said wide awake, I had forgotten since it was so early in the morning but now I was even more nervous than last night. I took out my Quidditch robes and with trembling fingers put them on and went down to the Great Hall, accompanied by a very eager Ginny and Hermione, who was holding my hand.

I looked down at my plate, I had filled it up purposely with lots of food as I knew I would need the energy but I couldn't bring myself to eat it, I felt like I was going to throw it all up. To my surprise, Malfoy approached the table, his arm wrapped in the sling that he hadn't worn in ages.

'I came here to apologise to all of you' he said loudly, looking at Hermione, Ron and Harry 'I want to apologise firstly to Potter  for-'

'Malfoy, what the hell do you think you're doing' I said furiously standing up from my seat, he was not going to make a scene on game day.

'I am apologising, to prove to you that I'm willing to change' he said defensively

I grabbed him by his robes and carried him to the end of the Great Hall. He was not going to ridicule me in front of my friends. 

'what are you doing?' I said more quietly this time but with the same tone of urgency

'I already told you, I want you to see that I am making a change for you' he shrugged off as if it were completely normal to do that

'Malfoy, I told you I'm not interested. I don't want to be your friend and I most certainly don't want to ever go out with you' I said disgusted

'Is he bothering you?' came a voice from behind

George was standing just a few feet away and looked concerned.

'it's none of your business George' I hissed at him 'leave me alone'

He looked at me startled, then frowned. Without another word, he walked away angrily to were he was sitting, ignoring Olivia's attempt to calm him down.

'piss off Malfoy' I said ending the conversation. He looked hurt but, what the hell was the playing at? He was most definitely trying to make me look stupid in front of the Gryffindor table.

I returned back to where I had been sitting, feeling furious. Not only was Malfoy making me enraged but I had obviously hurt George's feelings. Even if I told myself over and over that I didn't care, it was no use. It hurt me to see him hurt.

No one said anything when I returned to the table, they were all as shocked as I was so we sat in complete silence until Oliver gathered the whole team for a last minute pep talk in the changing rooms.