Heavenly Bodies

Part Six | Quips and Quidditch

"Come on,  Cass, we're going to be late if you don't get your arse down here!" the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain yelled up the stairs to the girls' dorms, "Don't make me put Hanson in for you!"

Cassia ran down the stairs, her broom clutched in her hand, "Calm down, Danny! We've still got two hours before the match."

"But you've still got to eat, and warm-up, and we need to go over the plays, and..." Danny was starting to pull at his hair. Cassia pulled his hands down, looking him in the eye.

"I've already eaten. I was up three hours ago," Cassia could see he was about to lecture her on sleep, "You know I went to bed early last night. Now come on, let's go warm up and run some plays."

She looped her arm through his, leading him out of the Ravenclaw Tower and down to the Quidditch Pitch. The older boy was still muttering darkly, his eyes darting around the Great Lawn as if he expected the Slytherin team to pop out of nowhere. Cassia rolled her eyes as they joined the rest of the team and their reserve players.

Isla, the other seventh year on the team and thus the self-chosen vice-captain, took one look at Danny and shook her head.

"Oh, Danny boy," she said, "You've gotten yourself all worked up again. Alright, while our captain calms down, ten laps around the pitch and then stretch. We'll go over plays after that. Move it!"

~

"WELCOME STUDENTS to the Ravenclaw vs Slytherin Quidditch Match!" Murphy Tulls announced from the stands. Cassia could hear him through the locker room door, and her heart started beating hard in her chest. 

"Alright, let's do this." Danny gave each of his players a last lookover, nodding at their grim determination, "Remember, we need to be ahead by at least 70 points before Tremmins gets the snitch, although over 100 would be favourable."

"Make a bet, did ya, Danny?" Isla asked, and he nodded, "Don't ya come runnin' to me if you lose all your allowance again. You still owe me 4 galleons."

Danny waved her off, "I'll pay you, soon as I win this bet. Now get in line."

"AND NOW, THE RAVENCLAW TEAM," Tulls' voice soared over the cheers of students, "Introducing chasers... COLLIER! BEVEN! KENNEDY! Beaters STEELE and SINGLETON! Keeper HAMILTON and last but not least, Seeker TREMMINS!"

There was a roar of applause as the Ravenclaws took to the pitch, lining up across from the Slytherins. Danny stepped forward to meet the Slytherin captain, a stocky Beater named Jemima Hayes. 

"Shake hands," Madam Hooch, the referee, commanded. Jemima and Danny shook hands politely, with none of the violence that Slytherin had against Gryffindor. Say what you will about Jemima Hayes, but she played by the rules (at least until the match started).

"I want a clean match, all of you," she glared at the Slytherin team only slightly more than the Ravenclaws, "Mount your brooms."

She blew her whistle and they took off, Cassia heading directly for the hoops behind her. Not a moment too soon, because Slytherin Chaser Jordan Kaur was heading directly at her. He leaned as if to throw through the left hoop, but Cassia knew his moves. He was trying to fake her out and then throw it to the middle hoop.

She hovered between the two, waiting for him to take his pick. The ball soared through the air towards the middle, and she stretched out to grab it.

"I didn't realise you were a Keeper, Sweet Pea." a voice seemed to whisper in her ear, nearly making her miss the quaffle, "Well, I did, but not a Quidditch one."

She threw the quaffle to Danny, who hovered a few feet to the right. Cassia searched for the voice. There had been no one close enough, and there was no one close enough. Then she spotted Regulus flying high above her head, staring down at her.

Of course it's him, she thought, Who else calls me Sweet Pea? I wonder how he did it.

"Cass! Get your head in the game!" Danny yelled, cutting off another Slytherin chaser. She shook herself. None of them could afford to slack off. If they won this game, they'd just need to win against Gryffindor in May to be awarded the Quidditch Cup. Really, if they won by over 100 points now, and the other matches were close, they didn't even need to win in May.

Determined, Cassia set her sights forward.

~

The match had been going on for an hour and a half, and the score was up 80 - 20 Ravenclaw. Three times, Regulus had tried to distract Cassia, and although she desperately wanted to know how he was throwing his voice like that, he'd only managed to distract her from a goal once. The other Slytherin goal had simply been because she'd had to duck around a bludger.

"You know, Sweet Pea, you're so charming you could take over for Professor Flitwick." Ignored.

"If you stood in front of a mirror holding eleven dahlia flowers, you'd see 12 of the most beautiful things in the world." This one distracted her long enough that she was late on the save, and the quaffle brushed past her fingers through the right hoop.

"You're the first person I look for when I walk into a room." Ignored with stubborn resolve.

"I quite liked your faery costume at All Hallow's, but I think you'd look better in nothi— WATCH OUT!" Cassia turned too late; a bludger hit by Jemima slammed into her jaw, and then she was falling, and a whistle was blowing, and the world went black.

~

Regulus waited until lunch started before visiting Cassia in the hospital wing. He felt guilty, not that he would ever admit it. Her team was gone, as were most of her friends, lured away by the thought of food.

The only people inside were Madam Pomfrey, a first-year who Regulus didn't know, Teddy Rellin, and Cassia herself.

"What are you doing here, Black?" Rellin asked, stopping his conversation with the first year when he saw the boy.

"Checking on my Potions Partner." The sixth-year looked suspicious. The first year, who Regulus now recognised as Helianthia Simmons, looked up at him.

"She's still unconscious. Madam Pomfrey doesn't think she'll wake up today." She looked over at Cassia, and added, "She should wake up before tomorrow, though, if you want to see her then."

"Thank you," Regulus said to the girl, setting down a  box of sugar quills beside Cassia's bed. Then, without looking back, he left the Hospital Wing, a strange feeling dancing in the pit of his stomach.