The Chaser : A Fred Weasley Fan Fic

Five: Mudblood

Madam Pompfrey wasn't impressed that I was back in her hospital wing with another ailment that had been caused by Fred.

"Those boys will be the death of me" she muttered under her breath, as she handed me a dark swirling potion that slowly returned my hair to its natural colour.

I hadn't realised the hex I'd cast on Fred meant that the solution wasn't as simple as cutting his hair. Every time Madam Pompfrey hacked at it with scissors it grew back to the same magnificent length. Fred didn't seem to mind, he kept flicking it about dramatically to make me laugh while I sat on the bed beside him waiting for my own hair to go back to normal.

"This has to work" Madam Pompfrey scoffed, pulling out a dark blue liquid in a small capped bottle and adding a few drops to his glass of water. "Drink that"

As soon as he'd finished the glass, Madam Pompfrey cut at his hair again and this time it stayed in place. She continued to snip away until it was back to its original length just above his shoulders.

When we were both looking as we had when we'd woken up that morning, we were dismissed to rejoin the rest of our lessons for the day.

Monday evening meant Quidditch practice and I hurried from my last lesson to get changed and head down to the pitch. Everybody was there waiting, already in a circle around Oliver, brooms in hand. I picked up one of the tatty school brooms from the floor and joined the circle.

"You're late" Oliver said sternly, not even looking up from a roll of parchment in his hands.

"I'm 5 minutes late" I said, glancing down at the watch on my wrist.

"Right, I need to talk to all of you" Oliver raised his voice, silencing everyone, "We need to get our act together. I've had enough of the disrespect and the lack of team work. We need to win this this year, do you understand?"

Everybody gawped at him and nobody dared open their mouths. I'd never heard the twins and Angelina so quiet before. Katie shot me a worried glance from the other side of the huddle and I could tell we were feeling equally panicked.

"I said, do you understand?" Oliver bellowed.

"Yes" chimed everyone, nodding their heads and taking hold of their brooms.

"Well come on then" he clapped his hands, together and hurtled up the pitch towards his preferred hoops to defend.

We all silently got into our starting positions, nobody wanting to mess around or give him another reason to be angry with us.

Whatever he'd said had knocked us all in line. That night, we had the best practice since I'd joined the team. Everybody was on top form and nobody purposely got in each other's way. I scored countless points against Oliver as keeper and Harry had caught the snitch within a few a minutes of it being released from the box.

"Well done everyone!" called Oliver, as we dropped to the ground carefully around him. Spirits were high and everybody patted each other on the back graciously.

We all began to scatter, heading towards the castle when Angelina tapped me on the shoulder. I thought I was imaging things when I turned round to see her smiling back at me. She hadn't once aimed any niceties in my direction and seeing it in the flesh was unsettling.

"You did really well today" she grinned, pulling me in for a hug and patting me strongly on the back. I stood still with her arms wrapped around me and let it happen.

"Thank you" I stammered as she leant away. I didn't quite know how to react but I was pleased that she wanted to put any disdain she felt for me behind her.