CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
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-: sixth year :-
── IN WHICH THEY RIOT
. . .
Erin had a headache.
And it was a bloody awful one.
Except it wasn't because she had forgotten to have any water, or that someone had angrily hit a bludger at her head or she had fallen off her broom or crashed into the Keeper's hoops after Oliver Wood had shown up during her allotted practise time.
In fact she hadn't even stepped onto a Quidditch pitch, but the headache was very much caused by Quidditch related problems. Problems in the name of the finalised teams list she had pinned up to the Slytherin common room notice board before leaving for dinner.
And then after dinner, her and Cynthia had joined their friends in sitting in a quiet corner of the library (it wasn't as quiet when Daniel and Cleo got into a rather heated argument), for around an hour, just talking and completing homework without the pressure of school the following day - Friday evening were always their favourites.
The two Slytherins had walked back to the common room at a slow pace, saying their goodbyes to their friends in the Entrance Hall before descending down the long, winding staircase. Muttering the completely awful password for that week, Cynthia had pulled Erin in after her.
Only to find the place in utter uproar, busier than they had seen in several years and almost every single one of them looked angry or distressed, talking far too loud for such an enclosed space. Even the Giant Squid had heard the disruption, and two gigantic amber eyes were peering through the large windows at the end of the common room.
Erin's eyes widened when she realised exactly where the focus of all of their anger was - the length of parchment that the Tonks girl had pinned to the notice board. "Oh for fuck sake." The girl breathed out, glancing to her friend, who was equally wide-eyed and taken aback by the noise.
"Bloody hell." Cynthia's gaze drifted across the scene. "Well, Erin.. I'm going to go and-"
"Oh no you don't!" Erin stopped the Parkinson girl from sliding away. "I know you're not a fan of conflict but neither am I, so you're going to help me deal with this. Or at least help me get over to the notice board."
"Fine." Cynthia grumbled. "I wasn't abandoning you.. it's just the conflict thing. Don't want to see a fight." Linking arms, Cynthia began to pull Erin through the cloud. She was a little bigger than the Quidditch player and managed to drag her through with little to no trouble.
"Hold on.." Erin murmured, surveying the scene and was rather glad that nobody had noticed her yet, nodding to a nearby coffee table and Cynthia helping her drag it over. "Hey Blaise." Erin noticing Cleo's younger brother was watching with a rather. "If I get killed, make sure Cleo plans my funeral."
"You've.. got it I guess. Thanks for the Chaser position." Blaise helped as Erin and Cynthia pulled it over. "Draco was glad to hear it."
"I bet he was." Erin eyed her cousin stood in a corner, whose arm was still in a sling and was laughing about a seventh year almost crushing a first year. "How well do you think Draco could pull off keeping that injury all the way into October?"
"Oh very well." Blaise nodded. "Why, do you have a plan?"
"Lets just say that I don't exactly have faith in any of my backup Seekers." The Tonks girl replied, before pulling herself up onto the table. "Hey idiots!" She shouted, clapping her hands together. It fell silent for just a moment, before the clamouring began again. Perhaps it wasn't the best way to address them, but after the Quidditch tryouts it was becoming her thing. "Hey!" She shouted again. "Since when do we all act like Gryffindors! Merlin shut up, all of you!" She yelled.
That did manage to shut them up, mutterings following the silence. "Okay, now you should all manage to behave yourselves and order yourselves into queues. This is not going to be a rowdy arguement. You're going to put your hand up and politely ask me your questions." Erin smiled, but it held no warmth and instead question - where they going to stop her from ordering them about?
No, it seemed that Erin's comment about Gryffindors had subdued them as they do as she asked, her headache subsiding slightly from the lack of noise. People began to put up hands, Erin looking across the room before beginning asking them.
"What sort of bullshit is this?" An older student asked, taking no care of the first years near him. "I'm on second reserve team? What the hell?"
"You're lucky you're even on that list Carews." Erin retorted. "And mind your language or you can shove that position up your overly-entitled arse. Next question."
"Why is there a half-blood daughter of a blood traitor of our Quidditch captain. We want Flint back - he wouldn't have a stupid system like this!" Someone yelled.
"Take up any complaints about my blood status and position of Quidditch captain to Snape. Who I am sure would absolutely love to hear that from you, considering his status." Erin retorted. "And as for Flint, well he was a crappy captain at best and thank Merlin I'm not forced to have him on the team. And the system.. well if you don't like it you can ignore it. I've chosen my teams, and I'm willing to do anything to win. Next!"
"Who's going to be replacing Malfoy at the next match?"
"Nobody at the minute. See, all the seeker tryouts were utterly useless and I have a plan for what I'm going to do about Draco. However I need to discuss that with him and Snape later on in the year when match time comes." Erin replied. "I believe that is all I have patience for, any complaints or questions and you can leave them in the fireplace. This is my system, that is my team, and I will not be changing my mind."
And Erin hopped off of her table, twisting her way around the crowd of disgruntled Slytherins and making her way up to her room.
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