in which hollis rosier falls asleep in the wrong compartment
or the right one, depending on who you ask
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part one of two
editing closed, logged off wattpad (sorry only like half of it is edited, but its obviously still all good)
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#...
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"pregame worries"
Hollis stabbed her eggs so forcefully that her fork dented against the metal plate. Marlene raised an eyebrow, and Lily looked at her sympathetically.
"Nervous for the game?" Lily asked, taking a sip of orange juice out of her tall glass.
Hollis nodded, looking behind her at Regulus, Lucius, and Theodore in their emerald and black Quidditch uniforms. Regulus was a beater along with Lucius, since he hadn't made Keeper. Theodore was Slytherin's Seeker, and had been since his third year at Hogwarts.
"I absolutely hate playing and practicing with them," Hollis spat, turning back around after she had made eye contact with Theodore. Marlene leaned into her with a warm, comforting arm.
"It's not hard to understand why," she said gently. "I would, too."
"Also, if I were you, I would have knocked them off their brooms at practice," Lily said loudly, making Marlene snort. "Boom, accidentally waved my wand, and oh- they're on the ground. As simple as that."
Hollis smiled at her best friends as she finished off her eggs. Unknown to them, there was another enormous reason that she was nervous to play in her first Quidditch match since Christmas break besides the usual nerves.
Her back was healing incredibly slowly, and threads of skin had just begun to pull back the two sides of her gash together, something that Hollis had been waiting on to happen for weeks. It was a sign that her body was finishing up the process, but this period of healing was also the most delicate part of the whole ordeal. If she were to mess anything up today, Hollis would be back where she started.
She couldn't let that happen.
"And it's my first match against James, and I'm a bit nervous for that," added Hollis, leaning forward slightly to look down the table at Potter in his scarlet uniform. "He's pretty good, isn't he?"
"Well, he's the one person on the Gryffindor team I wouldn't mind if he got hit in the head by a bludger," Lily muttered. "Maybe it would deflate it."
"Lils!" Marlene scolded, slamming down her spoon on the wooden table. "He's playing for our team!"
Lily glanced at James, who was now seeing how many blueberries he could fit into Sirius's ear, and made a disgusted face.
"I don't know how he has any passing marks," Lily said as she turned away, and Marlene reluctantly nodded. "How can someone be so intelligent yet lack so much common sense?"
Hollis reluctantly stood up from the bench just James had done a few seconds earlier.
"Rowle wants us on the pitch an hour early, I have to go," Hollis sighed as she grabbed one last biscuit from the metal mesh basket in front of Lily. "See you all after the match."
"Good luck!" Marlene called out. "Even if you're playing against us!"
Hollis smiled back at her, and Lily waved goodbye. Hollis passed where Sirius and Peter were sitting and acknowledged their good lucks with a sarcastic salute.
"Just don't go too hard on James," Peter said as he shoved another sausage in his mouth.
"Yea, he won't be able to handle it," added on Sirius, winking at Hollis.
She rolled her eyes. The third boy at the table didn't even try to say anything.
Hollis still hadn't spoken to him since the night at the oak tree when they had all transformed into Animagi for the first time, the heavy tension between the two of them stretched to a thread. Hollis knew that Remus, due to the cloak, now knew why she didn't want to explain what was going on. At least that was something.
It's just an unnecessary burden.
Remus watched with emotionless eyes as the girl that refused to accept and help walked away from him.
"She'll come around, mate," assured Peter, who had been watching the way Remus's face changed.
Sirius nodded in emphasis, also trying to help Remus believe that this was a temporary disruption. "I think that she just doesn't want to stress you out more than you already are, you know?" he added, with the implied because of your furry problem.
Remus didn't reply, just looked at the empty spot next to Marlene.
.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡ ﾟ+..｡*ﾟ+
Hollis walked out onto the snowy pitch, a shiver going down her arms. Her black boots crunched against the snow, gloved fingers tightly gripping around the dark wood handle of her broom. A howl of wind pierced through her sweater like a knife, the chill intensifying.
She was already thinking of a hot shower after all of this.
She made her way to the rest of her team, cutting between Yaxley and Rookwood, two of their Chasers, to get inside the all male circle. Regulus looked down at Hollis nervously as they listened to Rowle's instructions.
Regulus didn't know what, but some major injury had been inflicted onto her over Christmas break, and he doubted that whatever it was had healed this quickly. She's really good at hiding pain from this kind of thing, Regulus reminded himself. So let's hope that it won't get so bad that she has to show it.
Hollis felt someone watching her and glanced across the circle to see Regulus's worried expression. She shook her head subtly. You don't need to be worried about me. Black didn't nod in agreement as he looked away.
"Rosier, Potter is going to be on his best game," Rowle said, his dark features focused entirely on her. "You better not let too many of those quaffles slip in, no matter how close you two are," he finished with a stern voice, turning away from her to address Regulus and Lucius about where to aim their Beater's bats.
Hollis tried to hide her angry expression, but according to the look on Theodore's face, failed.
"Nothing wrong with a little reminder, Hol," Theodore whispered as he leaned down to her.
"Not if it's a ridiculous one," snapped Hollis sharply before turning her back to him with irritation.
Theodore raised an eyebrow, not that Hollis could see.
