𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒 // George Weasley

𝟗𝟑. 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝

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Despite Gryffindor's impressive win, there was no celebration in the common room that night. Most of the house had just gone to bed. Elle was sitting next to Fred with her leg bouncing up and down anxiously. Fred hasn't said anything since after the match. He still looked furious with Malfoy. Angelina was in the corner complaining that she'd told them not to lash out. Alicia was lying with her eyes closed on the sofa, may would have guessed she was asleep but the lack of snoring said otherwise.

Ron was nowhere to be seen, Elle suspected he was embarrassed after what had happened. He'd let in four goals which wasn't even the worst part. Elle didn't know how she would feel if the Slytherins had made a condescending song about her. She could tell why Ron was hiding away. The only thing they had to be thankful for was the fact that they did win the match, however their victory seemed to have dwindled as soon as Harry and George had been marched away.

Suddenly the portrait into Gryffindor tower swung open and Harry and George strode through looking livid and shaken. Everyone jumped up immediately in anticipation. Except Alicia, maybe she actually was asleep. George shook his head but no words came out as he collapsed into a chair. Harry just looked up at Angelina and sighed.
"What happened" Angelina snapped,
"Banned" Harry muttered.

Elle frowned in confusion. What did he mean banned. It seemed George had read her mind,
"We can't play quidditch anymore" he grumbled "neither can you" he turned to Fred who froze,
"It was Umbridge wasn't it... she's in charge of punishments now" Elle balled her fists in anger as Harry nodded "that cow, she can't ban you"
"She can" George retorted,
"Why Fred though" Alicia mumbled from the sofa "he didn't do anything"

"I would have if you three hadn't been holding me back" Fred replied,
"Exactly what Umbridge said" Harry shrugged, he seemed completely lost. Elle noticed that the snitch was still clasped in his hand. He let it go and it began flying aimlessly round the room.
"Where's Ron?" Harry muttered as he walked over to Hermione. She shrugged.

Fred flopped back down into his seat looking paler than before,
"Off the team" he mumbled "last year an all"
"I'll kill Malfoy" Elle stated "and that cow Umbridge"
"She's getting more power everyday" Angelina noted "soon even Dumbledore won't be able to say anything against her"
"Why don't you go to Dumbledore" Alicia suggested "maybe he can overrule her,
"He can't" George contrasted solemnly "that was decree number twenty five or something"

"What on earth are we going to do" Angelina began pacing "two beaters and a seeker down"
"We'll just have to hold more trials" Alicia shrugged "no one'll be as good as you three though, that's impossible"
"I'm going to bed" Fred stated as he stood up suddenly and paced over to the boys dorms.
"Me too" Angelina sighed "banned" she kept muttering as she left. Alicia yawned before following suit.

Elle moved over to sit next to George who had his head in his hands,
"I should have listened" he muttered to Elle "you were right, he wasn't worth it"
"There's nothing you can do about it now"
He looked up and Elle could see that the anger from his face had vanished he just seemed depressed.

"I love quidditch" he sighed "it was one of the main reasons we came back this year"
"Umbridge shouldn't have banned you, I bet she didn't ban Crabbe for hitting Harry with that bludger"
"No she didn't, gave him lines" George said bitterly.

Elle didn't know what to say now. She couldn't make this right, by going to Umbridge she'd just end up getting herself kicked off the team and she would hate to see Angelina's Face if that happened. Instead her and George just sat silently staring into the fire and the flickering orange flames. Playing quidditch without the twins was definitely going to be a lot less fun. She always enjoyed training more because they were there, it lightened the mood especially with Angelina turning into a stern captain.

"I think I'm going to get some sleep" George muttered as he looked away from the fire and back at Elle. She nodded in response. George shot a quick look over to the common room to make sure no one was staring before he leant coward and kissed Elle gently. She felt herself lighten up as he held her face lightly with his cold hand.
"Goodnight" she smiled as he pulled away, for a moment she'd forgotten everything. When it came rushing back to her she wanted nothing more than to relive the experience.

However George jumped up from the sofa, shot her one last smile and trudged back over to the boys dorms. With no one to talk to now, Elle thought it best that she follow everyone else and get some sleep. After that tiring match, sleep was definitely something she needed. She changed quickly and lay back in bed closing the hangings around her. She could feel the soft snores of Alicia which confirmed that she was definitely asleep this time.

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The next day marked the beginning of snow at Hogwarts, it coated the grounds and made the school look like something out of a snow globe. Fred and George spent all of their free periods having snow ball fights, Elle joined in a few but left feeling cold and beaten. After that they decided to bewitch snow balls to fly and hit the Gryffindor window making it nearly impossible to study in there. At some point Ron stuck his head out of the window to tell them to knock it off, he got a snowball to the face.

That week also saw Hagrid's return to Hogwarts. Elle wasn't overly thrilled about this as she'd found herself enjoying Grubbyplanks lessons a lot more than she thought she would, there was a lot less stress that Hagrid would show them something dangerous. On their first lesson back he showed them something called thestrals, Elle had never heard of these before however she couldn't exactly see them either. Apparently to be able to see the horses, you would have had to witness death. Elle allowed Emilia to describe what they looked like to her, she decided not to ask who she'd seen die.

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The Gryffindor quidditch team also had to hold tryouts in order to build up their team again. These didn't go so well. Expectations were so high after the twins and Harry that no one could live up to it. Having the tryouts in the snow didn't help as even the actual players were finding it difficult to hold a steady game.
Eventually Ginny Weasley became the new seeker. She was no Harry, but she had managed to catch the snitch in the snow in a pretty good time. The beaters (Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper) we're nowhere near as good as the twins but we're better than any other candidates they had meaning they were the only option.

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The only thing keeping everyone going at that point was the DA meetings. They'd had about one a week since the first one. Moving on from just disarming, they'd done stunning, the impediment jinx which froze your opponent and finally the reducto jinx which helped destroy objects.
The last meeting before Christmas, Harry let everyone practice what they had already been doing.

Elle worked with George on impediment. She'd managed everything after the first few tries however George hadn't mastered this particular jinx yet. This left everyone frozen around the room while their partners looked awkwardly around waiting for them to unfreeze. Elle spent a lot of her time frozen since she was helping George which meant the lesson went by a lot faster than she'd hoped.

At the end, Harry hinted that they might be able to start patronus' after the holidays. Elle was thoroughly excited about this as she had been wanting to find out what form her patronus would take for a while.
"Merry Christmas everyone" Harry called as the students left the room of requirement in small groups like they usually did.

Elle went to bed rather quickly when they returned to the common room. There was only a few days of school left now and she was thrilled about it. She'd been piled with work for ages despite only taking four subjects. Elle fell to sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow not knowing that she'd be woken in a few hours with some dreadful news.

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