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After hours of ruthless practice and nail-biting anticipation, the match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw finally arrived. The match that would determine whether or not they would progress to the final.
Was there excitement around the school?
Yeah.
Was Gwen Hamilton nervous as hell?
Double yeah.
Though her nervousness was quickly masked by excitement as Harry was showing off his Firebolt during breakfast. Everyone came up to get a closer glimpse of it. Some people even took a few pictures.
"I love the fact that everyone is more excited about the broom than the match," Gwen stated sarcastically as she poured herself a cup of peppermint tea.
"Of course everyone is excited about the broom! Merlin's beard, it's a Firebolt!" Alicia exclaimed as she blindly poured orange juice into a goblet.
Her eyes never left the Firebolt which caused the goblet to overflow.
"AWICIA!" George exclaimed with a mouth full of toast. Some of the orange juice fell onto his lap, leaving a rather large stain on his trousers. Frankly, it looked as if he pissed himself. He sighed as he picked at the pieces of pulp that got stuck.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Alicia maintained eye contact with the broomstick and dropped her butterknife into the orange juice. The weight of the knife caused it to topple over and the rest of the liquid continued pouring all over George's lap.
"Are you still not speaking to me?" Fred asked hesitantly. Gwen refused to look at him even though he was right in front of her. She instead played with a teaspoon to look busy.
"Because if you're angry with me then I'm sorry. I stepped out of line and I apologise for being negative towards Cedric. I won't make fun of him... well at least not in front of you." Fred joked but Gwen looked at him blankly.
"I miss you and I'm sorry. I can't stand the thought of you hating me." Fred added. Gwen smiled slightly. "Like I could ever hate you."
Fred grinned. "So, are we good?" Gwen nodded. "We're good."
"Thank Godric, you two made up. I don't want you to throw off your game because you're mad at each other." Oliver exclaimed from Fred's right. The man was looking at his team and paid close attention to what they were eating. He wanted to make sure that they got all the nutrients that they needed.
"You just ruined the moment," Harry muttered, with one eye still on his broom.
"I didn't!" Oliver exclaimed. Fred and Gwen looked at each other and then at Oliver. "You did." They said simultaneously with grins on both their faces.
"Nice broom, Harry. You've found quite a superb replacement from your Nimbus." The Gryffindor team turned at the sight of Cedric who came to congratulate Harry.
Cedric looked at the broom in awe. Gwen could tell that he wanted to ask Harry more about it, but he didn't say anything. Probably he didn't want to push his luck
"Thanks, Cedric," Harry replied with a polite smile on his face. "Good luck on the game today." He said and everyone murmured thanks, even the reluctant Oliver.
"Hey, Lyn," Cedric said in a much quieter tone as he sat next to Gwen. As she looked into his grey eyes she found that looking in them were enough to calm her nerves.
"Good luck on the game. I would say that I'd like to meet up with you later, but you would be too busy celebrating."
Gwen raised an eyebrow. "You sound so sure that we're going to win." Cedric nodded. "Why wouldn't you win? They have you on the team. And mostly because of the Firebolt. It's a beautiful broom."
Gwen hit him on his arm which caused Cedric's grin to widen. "You're awful," Gwen stated. "But you're not," Cedric replied. "I'll be rooting for you. Goodbye." Cedric stated. He gave Gwen a quick peck on the cheek and then left.
From the corner of her eyes, Gwen couldn't help but look at Fred whose smile faltered slightly at the two.
She waved Cedric goodbye and then turned back to her breakfast.
At a quarter to eleven, the team left the Great Hall and to the changing rooms with their brooms on their shoulders.
While there, Gwen made quick work and changed from her black school robes to her scarlet red Quidditch uniform.
"You know what we've got to do," Oliver stated as they stood in a line, ready to go out. "If we lose this match, we're out of the running, just fly like you did in practice yesterday and we'll be okay!" He ended with confidence and a lot of nervousness.
"But, no pressure," Gwen muttered which caused some chuckles from the team.
When the Gryffindor team entered the pitch which caused loud applause for their side. The Ravenclaw team was already out on the field.
It didn't take long for the match to start. Oliver and the Ravenclaw Captain, Roger Davies, shake hands and the whistle was blown, indicating the start of the game.
Gwen stomped off the ground and was in the air only in a matter of seconds.
Gwen kept an eye out for the Quaffle, and it didn't take long to find it in the possession of a Ravenclaw chaser.
She could see that George was trying his best to shoot the Bludger towards the Chaser, and Gwen quickly flew beneath him. The Bludger shot by the Chaser, which caused him to lose his hold on the Quaffle. Gwen flew faster and to her content, caught the Quaffle.
"Gryffindor in possession, chaser Gwendolyn Hamilton of Gryffindor is making her way towards the goal. Can you believe the speed that the Firebolt has? Sheesh." Lee said, his voice magnified. Him unintentionally promoting the Firebolt got him a scolding from Professor McGonagall.
Twice had Gwen had to duck to dodge a Bludger as she made her way towards the other end of the field.
She saw Alicia in the corner of her eyes and quickly nodded to her. Alicia nodded back indicating that she was ready. Using all the force that she had, Gwen shot the Quaffle to the other side of the pitch.
The Bludgers were now aiming at her and as they neared the goalposts. Alicia quickly shot the Quaffle back to Gwen and Gwen didn't hesitate to shoot it through the lower goal as the Keeper was caught off guard at the change of possession.
Maddening cheers came, especially from the Gryffindors as the first ten points were given to Gryffindor.
"Ten points to Gryffindor! That's my best friend over there!! I'm proud of you, Gwennnnnn." Gwen rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless.
"The firebolt, incidentally, has a built-in auto-brake and- okay, Professor, I'll stop."
The Gryffindors didn't seem to have any problems during the match, thanks to all of the practice they had. The score was eighty to zero, in favour of Gryffindor.
It came to the point where Gwen was hoping that Harry would find the snitch and get the game over with. It almost seemed too easy.
That's when Gwen saw it. "Harry! Be careful!" She shouted as soon as she saw black cloaks flying in mid-air. Gwen, who wasn't flying a long way from the dementors, oddly, didn't feel anything.
Harry heard of Gwen's cries and he didn't hesitate to pull out a wand and cast an incorporeal Patronus. It didn't take long until the snitch was caught and Madame Hooch blew her whistle, indicating the end of the game.
The Gryffindors all burst out in cheers and Gwen along with the others on the team, didn't hesitate to run towards Harry.
Before he knew it, Harry was being simultaneously hugged by the Gryffindor team. "That's my boy. That's my boy! THAT'S MAAA BOYYYYY!!!" Oliver kept chanting, his face bearing a large grin.
Gwen was elated when she walked up to Harry. "Congrats Harry, you won! And you managed to do a Patronus! You're amazing! I'm so proud of you!"
Gwen stated. She grabbed Harry by his cheeks and kissed his forehead. Harry tried to hide his blushing face but it didn't help when Gwen started to shout that he's the man.
The Gryffindor house also ran towards the boy, engulfing him in the middle of it. "Party! Gryffindor Common Room! Now!" Shouted George. "Come on, Harry!" He shouted.
Just before Gwen could follow her fellow teammates, her attention quickly went towards a shouting McGonagall. On the ground, in long black cloaks were Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Marcus Flint. Gwen then realized why she didn't feel a thing when they were near her.
"Let's go, Gwen! Time for us to celebrate!" Fred said with a Cheshire grin.
Gwen nodded, a grin of her own on her face and then begun to chant. "GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR!"
It didn't take long till the entire Gryffindor house started chanting along with her. With the team in lead, they marched towards the Common Room, still chanting loudly and with Harry being hoisted up in the air.
Although it wasn't the Quidditch Cup that they won, they still celebrated hard! The party went from day to night. The music was being blared just as hard and food, Butterbeer and even some Firewhiskey were being consumed everywhere.
Gwen sniffed warily at the shot of Firewhiskey in her hand. "I don't what the fuss with Firewhiskey is. I'm burning my nostrils just from smelling it." Gwen admitted as she eyed her friends.
Fred, George, Lee, Angelina, Alicia and Gwen were seated around a table, finally sitting down for the first time that night. They had to shout to hear each other as the music was quite literally damaging their eardrums.
Gwen along with the rest of the team was still dressed in their scarlet red Quidditch robes.
It wasn't legal for them to actually drink Firewhiskey, but they agreed that taking one shot shouldn't be too bad. "How do you know? Have you ever even tasted Firewhiskey before?" Lee asked as he sipped his shot slowly.
"No, I've taken it," Gwen admitted. Then she raised the shot in his direction. "And that's the problem, it's not a good taste. But I'll endure one. Bottoms up!"
The girl drank the shot in one big gulp and instantly grimaced. "Yep, just as horrible as I remember it." She stated as the Firewhiskey burned her throat.
"I do agree with you," Alicia said as she placed her empty glass on the table. "I've tasted muggle whiskey before and it tastes great. Firewhiskey just burns your tonsils."
Fred clapped his hands. "Well, I guess we can all agree that that was a horrible experience. I'll go grab some Butterbeer instead."
George waited until Fred left before he said anything. "It's good that you two reconciled things. It was getting awkward, to say the truth."
Gwen smiled. "Yeah, well, I just wanted things to go to normal. I was too hard on Fred on the whole Cedric thing."
"That's no excuse," Alicia started. "What he was saying was plain rude. He couldn't control his feeling towards Cedric because-"
"Because he has a crush on me?"
George started choking on the air of a sudden. "Wait, whaatttt? What makes you think that Fred has a crush on you? That's preposterous, ridiculous, out of this world crazy, gr- how did you figure it out?"
Gwen raised an eyebrow. "Hermione told me." Lee nodded. "Of course she told you as if you'd figure it out yourself." "What's that supposed to mean?" Gwen asked incredulously.
"He's right I suppose." Angelina started. "I mean, he didn't do a fantastic job of hiding his feelings. And he had a crush on you for years and you found out because someone told you. Let's just say that we know why you weren't placed in Ravenclaw."
"Thanks a lot, Ange," Gwen replied with a frown. "Gwen's idiocy is not what's important right now," Alicia added.
"Hey!"
"What are you going to do about it is the question?" Alicia asked and the other Gryffindors moved closer to her.
Gwen instinctively moved slightly away. "Nothing?" The others looked at each other. "Are you sure that that's the right thing to do? It's better to just confront your problems." Alicia tried to reason with her.
"I get where it's coming from but I just think that it's better this way. Why would I tell him that I know how he feels if I would just be telling him that I don't like him that way?" Gwen explained as she grabbed a pumpkin pasty and stared at it intensely.
"Are you sure you don't like him that way though?" George added. That quickly caught Gwen's attention. "No, I don't. And even if I did, I'm with Cedric and I really like him."
"Some help over here please." Gwen turned when she saw Fred holding a bunch of Butterbeer bottles. She stood up and grabbed a couple of bottles.
"What were you guys talking about?" Fred asked as he pushed Gwen slightly on the couch. Gwen rolled her eyes as she made way for Fred to sit.
"How worse Oliver will turn for our upcoming game," Lee said, as he lied with ease.
"Let's not think about that tonight, today, we celebrate," Fred explained as he took a sip of his Butterbeer. "What do you have in mind?" Angelina asked.
"Drinking Butterbeer and dancing," Alicia added with a grin. Gwen shook her head. "No, no way. I'll probably kill myself. I don't even have control over my legs when I'm walking, let alone dancing."
"You're no fun," Lee added. "You know what, let me drink my Butterbeer and eat the pumpkin pasty in peace. Then I'll see."
The party in the Common Room went on until one in the morning. The only reason that it ended was that Professor McGonagall entered the Common room in her nightgown. At that time Gwen and Lee were in the middle of doing the Hippogriff with everyone cheering them on.
It didn't take long till Gwen and the rest of the girls fell asleep in their dorms. They easily slept until everyone in the Gryffindor tower got woken up by a high pitched scream.
Angelina was the first to wake up. "Merlin's beard! Someone came to kill us! Be gone force of evil! I'm too pretty to dieeee!" She sprinted out of the dorm room and the other girls followed suit. Worried about what could have happened.
"Angelina! Calm down!" Gwen shouted as she ran after her. Angelina continued to run, but at least her shouting ceased.
"What happened?" Gwen asked as soon as she entered the common room. The room was filthy from the party and it was deserted apart from Harry, Ron, Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan.
"It was Sirius Black! He came at me with a knife." Ron stated, waving his hands frantically.
Gwen stared at him. "Wait, what? Are you sure though? You weren't dreaming, right?"
That just enraged Ron even more. "Of course not! There's even the slashed curtains to prove it. SIRIUS BLACK TRIED TO KILL ME!"
That statement easily caught everyone's attention. The other Gryffindor students who were descending the stairs stopped, a boy even gave out a shriek.
It was only a matter of moments and an entire pandemonium occurred in the Common room.
The Weasley twins entered the Common Room, dragging Lee with them. Fred broke into a grin when he saw Gwen. "Excellent, are we carrying on?"
Gwen didn't get the chance to shoot his idea down as Percy Weasley arrived desperately yelled at everyone to stop.
"Perce- Sirius Black! In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!" The entire room fell into silence.
"Nonsense! You had too much to eat, Ron- had a nightmare." Percy said. His face was turning red as he felt eyes on him. He didn't like all the extra attention at that moment. "I'm telling you-" Ron's fear started to mix in with anger when he saw that his brother was shooting him down.
"Now really, enough's enough!" All eyes snapped towards McGonagall. Gwen could safely say that everyone was taken aback by her appearance. Not only because they were about to be scolded but also because it was weird to see the professor wearing a nightgown and her usually pulled out hair cascading on her shoulder in a braid.
"I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!" McGonagall stated as she gave Percy a disapproving look. Gwen could hear Fred and George snicker behind her when Percy looked flabbergasted.
"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor! I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare-"
Ron quickly cut his brother off, interrupting him in a shrilling high tone. "IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE! PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS
BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!" Ron said, desperately reenacting what happened with his hands.
Professor McGonagall stared at him, she shrugged him off though dread was still evident in her features. "Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"
"Ask him! Ask him if he saw-" Ron was pointing at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture. McGonagall wordlessly went outside the common room to speak with the knight. The whole common room was silent as every student wanted to listen.
"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" McGonagall asked. "Certainly, good lady!" Sir Cadogan replied, clearly not seeing the error of his ways.
Things somehow went quieter.
"You- you did? But- but the password!" McGonagall finally asked. "He had 'em! Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!" Professor McGonagall pulled herself back through the portrait hole and faced the entirety of the Gryffindor students.
"Which person- which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
It was dead silent and although no one spoke, the trembling figure of Neville Longbottom responded to the question. Gwen instantly felt bad for the poor boy as he terrifyingly raised his hand and received a glare from the professor.
"I'll deal with you later. I need to warn the headmaster. Percy, make sure everyone stays here!" And just like that McGonagall was gone. It didn't take long before the common room turned into a state of panic. Percy desperately tried to quiet everyone down but to no avail.
"Hey, people! Calm down!" Gwen yelled out causing the students to fall into silence. Gwen could feel Percy glaring at her slightly as she managed to do what he couldn't. "You have every right to panic but it would all be for nothing," Her voice fell softer in fear that Sirius Black was truly still in the tower and might hear her.
"The professors will see to everything shortly. So, don't panic and everyone stays in the common room. As long as we're together nothing bad could happen. And let us try to keep our voices to a minimum. " Gwen finished and ended up having everyone looking at her. She blinked a couple of times. "And thanks for..um- listening." Gwen finished awkwardly.
"Look at you being all authoritative. It's revolting." Fred stated causing Gwen to roll her eyes. "Do you think he's still here?" Alicia asked as she looked at the empty staircases.
"I don't think it's likely," Lee answered as he sat down on the carpet and Gwen followed suit. "He must have escaped soon as he saw that the whole tower was woken up."
"Good thing that our brother screams higher than Gwen shrieking when she so-called sings," George said. "Oh sod off," Gwen replied through the corners of her mouth rose slightly.
"What do we do now?" Angelina asked, eyeing the terrified students in the room. Gwen shrugged. "I guess we just wait."