𝐊𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐍 | 𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘞𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘺

Chapter 21 - Mudblood and Furry Friends

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"I expected so much more from you."

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Betelgeuse was woken up by a frantic Angelina Johnson. "Bel, we need to go!" She urged, shaking the Black girl.

"Johnson, touch me one more time, and I will bodily remove your arm," Betelgeuse threatened, getting up. She squinted at the window. There was a thin mist hanging across the pink-and-gold sky. "It is the crack of dawn, on Saturday. I am going to kill Wood one of these days, and no one will find out it was me," she stated.

"Well, technically you just admitted wanting to commit a murder," Alicia pointed out.

"Now you have two witnesses," Angelina added.

Betelgeuse fixed the two girls with a steady look. "Not if these two witnesses will mysteriously vanish." She proceeded to put on her crimson Quidditch uniform and head downstairs, leaving her friends speechless behind in the dorm.

Betelgeuse, George, and Fred made their way down, hurriedly followed by Angelina and Alicia. Katie joined them once they passed the Great Hall, to the Quidditch pitch. They all entered the tent where Wood was already waiting. 

"Quidditch practise!" Wood announced, his eyes were gleaming with a crazed enthusiasm.

Fred and George sat, puffy-eyed and tousle-haired, next to Betelgeuse. Alicia, the reserve, seemed to be nodding off against the wall behind her. Katie and Angelina were yawning side by side opposite them. 

"None of the other teams has started training yet; we're going to be first off the mark this year —," Wood paused when Harry came running in the tent. "There you are, Harry! What kept you?" But he did not give Harry time to reply. "Now, I wanted a quick talk with you all before we actually get onto the field because I spent the summer devising a whole new training program, which I believe will make all the difference." Wood pulled in a large chalkboard on which he had drawn many lines, arrows, and crosses in different-coloured inks. He took out his wand, tapped the board, and the arrows began to wiggle over the diagram.

He is mad.

As Wood launched into a speech about his new tactics, Fred's head drooped right onto Betelgeuse's shoulder, and he began to snore. Betelgeuse had to cover her grin with her hand.

The first board took almost twenty minutes, but there was a second one under that and even a third. Betelgeuse sank into a stupor as Wood droned on and on. "So," Wood finished. "Any questions?"

"I've got one, Oliver," George, who had woken with a start, said. "Why couldn't you have told us all this yesterday when we were awake?" 

Wood scowled, glaring at the entire team. "Now, listen here, you lot. We should have won the Quidditch Cup last year. But unfortunately — due to circumstances out of our control —" Wood took a moment to regain control of himself. Their last failure was apparently still haunting him. "So, this year, we train harder than ever before. Okay, let's go and put our new theories into practice!" Wood shouted, seizing his broomstick, and leading the stiff-legged and still yawning team out of the locker rooms.

Betelgeuse mounted her broomstick and kicked at the ground, soaring up into the air. The cool morning air whipped her face, and she welcomed it like a balm on scorched skin. It felt wonderful to be back on the Quidditch field. She soared right around the pitch at full speed, racing Fred and George.