𝟏.| ✬ 𝒟ℯ𝒶𝓇 ℬ𝒾𝓁𝓁, ✬ {ℬ. 𝒲ℯ𝒶𝓈𝓁ℯ𝓎}

\ℯ𝒾ℊ𝒽𝓉\

~

The first person Eleanora talked to when she got back to the school after Christmas was Wood. He bombarded her and the twins when they first walked into the common room and started talking a mile a minute about a Firebolt. Eleanora looked at the twins, but they seemed just as perplexed as she was. "Oliver, what on earth are you going on about?" she said finally, interrupting him.

"Haven't you been listening? Harry got a Firebolt!"

She perked up. "Really? That's brilliant, why are you so upset?" 

"Professor Mcgonnall- took it-" Wood was so angry he was struggling to get the words out. "Because she thought- it might be jinxed!"

"What?" All three of them cried at once.

"She's not stripping it, is she?" George said in horror. Wood nodded.

"But she can't, we need Harry on a good broom and it's a- it's a Firebolt!" said Fred, still wrapping his mind around it. A real Firebolt on their team.

"Eleanora, do something! McGonagall likes you!" said George, taking Eleanora's shoulders and shaking her.

"She doesn't like me that much," Eleanora said in disbelief that anyone would put a brand new Firebolt in any danger of being stripped.

"She was going to make you a prefect, Nora."

"I'll see what I can do," she said, grabbing her bag.

"I'm coming with you," called Wood, running through the portrait hole to catch up.

When Professor McGonagall let Eleanora and Wood into her office, they didn't even bother to sit down. "What is this?" McGonagall asked when she saw their expressions of rage.

"Professor, you can't strip Harry's broom," Eleanora said. "He needs it! We're playing Ravenclaw soon and he can't use a school broom."

"Miss Marks, I can assure you we are only stripping it because it is necessary, who knows what kinds of curses the sender could have put on it," McGonagall said calmly.

"But Professor," erupted Wood. "You can't just take a Firebolt from a student!"

"I assure you, Wood, he will get it back."

"When?" Wood shot back.

"As long as necessary, Wood."

"But Professor-" said Eleanora indignantly.

"It could have a hurling hex on it, and then you wouldn't have a seeker," snapped McGongall.

"But-"

McGonagall gave her a harsh look. "If you can argue with that, you have your priorities wrong."

"I don't care if Harry's broom throws him off as long as he catches the snitch first," Wood said heatedly. Eleanora turned to him.