Exhaustion

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'This is for you!' Bagsy got out quickly, rushing over to Professor Blythurst. She was back at Hogwarts, garbed in her quidditch gear, and on her way to Hufflepuff's first match of the year.

Blythurst looked down at her. The large, pale, asymmetrical man was hobbling over to the quidditch pitch amongst a crowd of students and teachers. Bagsy thrust a letter into his shaking hand.

Blythurst's eyes zeroed in on it, a disapproving expression stretching across his scared face. 'Pepsini...' he croaked in disgust. 'Now he's getting...' Blythurst took a shuddering breath, 'students to do his dirty work for him. I'm... sorry he involved...' a cough, 'you in this.'

'It's no worries,' Bagsy rushed her sentence – Teresa was pulling on her sleeve, hauling her in the direction of the rest of the Hufflepuff team.

'Come on!' Teresa whined. 'We don't have time for this!'

Bagsy excused herself from Professor Blythurst and followed after her. They raced to the team tent, ducking inside to find the other members already gathered.

'This is our chance,' Ford murmured seriously, his fists clenched at his sides, once they'd all finished getting into their quidditch gear. 'No one out there, not ever our own house, thinks we can do this. They haven't seen the effort we've put into training, they haven't seen our determination.' Ford pointed at them, a fierce look in his eyes. 'Now is the time to show it!'

Some of the team were sitting on the benches, their brooms and gear to their sides, whilst others, like Bagsy, were standing tall and stiff, their faces focussed as they listened intently to Ford.

'Everyone stand in a huddle,' Ford said suddenly as the idea came to him.

Bagsy and Teresa shared a confused look but didn't complain. Jon came to Bagsy's other side, who in turn was flanked by Ford as they all put their arms over the shoulders of the people next to them. Emmeline and Greenda paused as they realised they would be next to each other in the circle.

'Emmeline, Greenda,' Ford said warningly. The two didn't move.

'Please,' Bagsy added in a small voice. Emmeline and Greenda looked at each other in silence. With an angry sigh and a frown, Emmeline threw her arm over Greenda's shoulder and pulled her into the circle, Greenda looking like she'd been turned to stone at the action.

'We can win this,' Ford said, looking around the circle and fixing them all with a hard stare, 'or at the very least, we can come close. Hufflepuff are done being a joke. We are in this competition, and we are going to show them we're a threat. Hufflepuff on three,' he announced. 'One, two, three!'

'Hufflepuff!' they all yelled together, before walking out onto the pitch.

The first thing that Bagsy noticed was that Ravenclaw had some new players since last year; one of which, a chaser, was Robin Ignis. The second thing Bagsy noticed was that Robin and Winifred looked awful. They were incredibly pale, their fiery amber eyes dull and grey, with dark bags below their eyes. Bagsy could relate – she had been feeling the tug of tiredness for a while now. She hadn't had a proper sleep for about a week. She'd been relying on exhaust-gone instead.

As Bagsy stared Winifred coughed, and she saw smoke spill out of the girl's mouth. 'Oh, no...' Bagsy trailed off, wondering how they had been allowed on the pitch in such a state.

Professor Kim was standing in the middle of the pitch, her foot on the chest containing the bludgers and golden snitch, and held against her side was the quaffle. The entire school seemed to have turned up for the show and were cheering wildly from the stands.

Bagsy cast a glance to the Hufflepuff section in case Mezrielda was there. When she couldn't spot her, she turned her attention to the Slytherins and there, in the back row, she saw her, sitting behind Maisy and Paloma. Mezrielda gave her a calm look and a polite wave and Bagsy beamed brightly back, countering with an enthusiastic waving of her own. Mezrielda averted her eyes and scowled; her way of telling Bagsy to focus. Bagsy briefly wondered why Paloma was sitting in the Slytherin area before she obliged Mezrielda's wish, keeping her mind on the game.

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