FIC: Judgmental Bell (5/6) (Zacharias Smith/Katie Bell)
Title: Judgmental Bell (5/6)
Author/Artist: dovingbird
Characters: Zacharias Smith/Katie Bell
Prompt number: 22
Word Count: 11,926
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Rated for language.
Summary: Katie Bell's finally snagged a spot on the starting line-up on the Wimbourne Wasps! But her excitement wanes at the appearance of the new transfer to the team: the one and only Zacharias Smith. How in Merlin's name can she cope playing beside the biggest git Hufflepuff has ever seen, especially when he seems bizarrely determined to prove to her that he's changed?
Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to the world of Harry Potter at all, nor do I own this prompt. These all belong to their respective owners and authors. The only thing that I own are all of the words on these pages and the OCs therein.
Author’s Notes: Thanks to my wonderful boyfriend for being my beta on this piece! I hope everyone enjoys my first Harry Potter fanfic.
Chapter Five
The voice began to blur together and Katie realized that she wanted to do nothing more than sleep, but Merlin‘s beard, she needed to know what in the world had happened on that pitch. She squinted up toward the ceiling, her eyelids as heavy as if bezoars were tied to the ends of her eyelashes. “Oliver?”
A weight sank down onto her mattress, and she turned to look toward it. The burly dark-haired man gradually appeared to her. “What the hell, Katie?” he asked, grinning down at her. “You get a concussion, and three seconds after you’re healed you wake up? What sort of woman are you?”
Katie felt like she should laugh, but she was too fascinated by the sparkling of the sunlight through the infirmary’s stained glass windows to remember much of what a sense of humor was. “Did we win?”
“Ah...no, not quite.”
“Not QUITE?”
Wood chuckled quietly. “210 to 30, Puddlemere.”
She groaned in despair and dug her fingers into the scratchy sheets. “Noooo…what happened? Elizabeth was reaaaaady…”
“Well. She had a friend of hers to worry about for the rest of the game.” Wood quirked an eyebrow at her seriously. The guilt that suddenly stirred at the base of Katie’s stomach made her want to throw up all over again. “Been a while since we lost a player within the first twenty minutes of a game. Good on you there, Katie.”
“I am so sorry. I can’t believe I didn’t see that Bludger coming.”
“Now, that’s not what you should be apologizing for.”
Katie forced her eyes open wider. “What do you mean?”
“Seems to me we could’ve avoided this whole mess if you’d just passed to Smith when you saw he was open. Don’t tell me you didn’t see him. I know for a fact you did.”
She pressed a fist to her lips as the nausea churned more aggressively. When it passed a moment later she huffed out a sigh. “Did I…really cost us the game?”
Her coach chuckled as he stood to his feet again and turned to face her. “In theory? Afraid so. But hey, it had to happen sometime, right? Might as well get it out of the way early so next time you can cream the opposition and give their Keeper a few things to watch out for.”
“What even happened? All I remember’s falling straight down and being pretty sure I was about to die right there if a ref didn’t respond.”
Oliver drew his lips into a thin line as he began to pace slowly beside her bed. The fact that he didn’t immediately volunteer information was beyond surprising. This was the man who gave forty-five minute locker room speeches after every Gryffindor game, perhaps stretching into an hour on the games that they lost. But finally he lifted his head and began to speak, his voice as soft as if she had a hangover. “A Bludger took you out. The Puddlemere Beaters have always been…rather aggressive. Not quite Crabbe and Goyle, you understand, but…quite close.” He paused at the end of her bed and looked at her. “But yes. A Bludger took you out, and Smith caught you.”
“Caught me?!” She was halfway to sitting up before the throbbing in her head grew noticeable again, and she fell back to the bed with a wince. “What the hell was Smith doing catching me?”
“Not being a wanker?”
How did he do that? Katie gradually turned her eyes to the doorway, where Zacharias Smith was leaning against the infirmary doorframe, his arm firmly pressed against it above his head. When she caught sight of him she furrowed her eyebrows. “Do you just…ALWAYS show up where you’re being discussed every time?”
He smiled faintly and looked down at the vomit-colored tiles before he nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, guess I do. Call it a Hufflepuff trait. I’m so loyal to my own name and identity that I just…teleport to where it’s being discussed.” It was a fairly Slytherin drawl that he pulled off there, she noticed, worthy of a Malfoy sneer. Katie sank back against her pillows with widened eyes when he pushed off of the frame and entered the room, tucking his hands into his pockets. “Coach, could you…?”
Wood looked between the both of them before he nodded slowly, narrowing his eyes slightly in consideration. “Of…course. I’ll return in a few minutes. I’m sure Elizabeth would love to see you conscious.”
As the coach sauntered out of the room, both Smith and Katie watched him depart. It was only a moment later that Smith met her eyes, however, and the absolute lack of malice in them made her shift under the sheets. “Hello,” she managed.
“Hey. Glad to see you’re awake.” He sighed as he sank into the chair beside her bed and leaned forward, planting his elbows on his knees and tenting his hands. His shoulders were so broad. How had she missed that? Could he have caught her so easily without them? “And no worse for wear.”
When he looked up at her again, Katie felt her eyes began to sting. She didn’t understand. She HATED it when she didn’t understand. She bit her bottom lip, the fresh pain there an attempt to push her tears back, before she spoke. “So you…you didn’t go for the Quaffle?”
Smith furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. “What?”
“You went for me. You didn’t go for the Quaffle. You let it fall, and you went to catch me instead.”
He dropped his eyebrows further until they almost met and all the wrinkles on his forehead smoothed out. “Well…yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
She lifted her chin higher, even as she felt it wrinkling and her bottom lip beginning to shake. “You caught me instead of getting all the fame and glory for yourself by scoring?”
“Of course I did!” Smith slid forward in his chair until he was on the edge of it. He stared at her like she was a stranger.
“Why’d you do it?” Katie asked between deep shaky breaths, digging her short fingernails into her palms.
The light bulb went off then. But then again Smith was a Hufflepuff, not a Ravenclaw, and could be forgiven for a slower thought process. He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly as he sat up straight and tall. “Because…because people can change, Katie.”
For reasons she didn’t even know, she rolled over into a ball and began to cry. The full weeping moans that dragged themselves from her lips were the most peculiar thing she’d ever experienced, and she was barely aware of Smith grabbing her hand and squeezing it tightly until the Irish nurse bustled into the room again. “Oh, my dear!” The nurse made her way toward the bed and began to rub Katie’s back soothingly, keening in sympathy. “Don’t you worry there, lad. Concussions play with a person’s emotions, especially when you speed the healing. She’ll be like this for a few days, at least.”
“Are you sure?” Smith’s voice was high, like it was about to crack, and he loosened his grip on Katie’s hand. She squeezed it so tightly that she might as well have been giving birth. He squeezed back when he realized that he wasn’t going anywhere at the moment. “I-I mean, I haven’t heard anyone cry this much since my sister went through labor!”
“Trust me, not peculiar in the least. Now then, Miss Bell, you’ve got to give the lad a little circulation in his hands, all right? That’s a dear.” The nurse coaxed Katie’s hand out of Smith’s and patted hers gently. She saw through blurred vision that Smith stood to his feet and stared down at her. The way he rubbed his hands together betrayed his antsy state of mind. “Would you mind finding Miss Riley for me, my dear? She’ll be delighted to find Miss Bell awake and well.”
Katie waited for the wisecrack, the reference to her being anything BUT well in this state, the sneer, but Smith merely stood there for a moment longer and watched her. The tears began to dissipate just as soon as they appeared, just in time for Katie to catch the steady intensity gleaming in Smith’s eyes that vanished only a second later. He nodded and tucked his hands into his casual robes. They were so navy blue and nondescript that Katie could only fancy that he was wearing them to slip through crowds to the infirmary unnoticed. “No problem.” He turned toward the door, but paused to look over his shoulder. “Get some rest, all right, Bell? Otherwise Weaver’s gonna drive the reserve Chaser insane, and, uh…I didn’t catch you for nothing, you know.”
She widened her eyes. “What?”
“Well, I’ve still gotta make you throw me the Quaffle, don’t I?” He grinned at her before he strolled out of the infirmary.
The nurse busied herself with checking Katie’s vital signs as well as the neutral magical output that her body was emitting, but was pleased to announce that nothing seemed affected by her headbutt with a Bludger. “Madam Pomfrey always told me she thought you Gryffindors were hard-headed,” she murmured with a faint smile, pressing a bar of chocolate into Katie’s palm. “Eat up. The sugar will get your strength rising all over again.”
Elizabeth appeared in the doorway then, cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling, and she grinned from ear to ear and ran toward Katie’s bed the instant she saw her. “Jesus!” She skidded to a stop and threw her arms around the younger girl, burying her face in Katie’s neck. “Don’t you ever do something that stupid again, do you hear me? Never again.”
As she smoothed Elizabeth’s hair Katie smiled, letting her eyes drift shut peacefully. “He’s still a git.”
“A git who’s been talking about you nonstop since it happened.” Elizabeth plopped onto the edge of the bed with a sigh before she snatched the chocolate bar from Katie’s hand and began to unwrap it. “Wood was about ready to hex his mouth clean off his face.”
“Smith?!”
“Yeah!” With half the bar unwrapped she began to break it down, biting her tongue as she made incredibly precise separations down the chocolate lines. Little blocks made their way into Katie’s hand, and she nibbled at them while staring at Elizabeth with wide eyes. “He was pissed at you! Not that I blame him. It was a shoddy thing you did out there, Kate.”
Three times in less than an hour. It had to be a record. But hearing it from Elizabeth’s lips felt far different than it coming from her overcompetitive coach or the individual who started it all. This was her roommate, someone she’d seen cry in the past, someone she‘d shared her hopes and dreams with. Katie deflated and looked up at the ceiling with a heavy sigh. “How did things get so bloody complicated?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…in school, things were clear cut. Befriend your fellow Gryffindors, despise those manipulative Slytherins, hit on the Ravenclaws that could help get your homework done, and just ignore the Hufflepuffs.” She rolled the chocolate between the pads of her fingers, feeling it smear as it began to melt. “And then you pass your O.W.L.s with flying colors and pretend You-Know-Who’s not coming back and suddenly everything just gets…thrown out of place.”
Elizabeth snatched one of the chocolate pieces away from her. It was nearly a nub at this point, but she shrugged and popped it into her mouth anyway. “Your sixth year’s when you joined the D.A., right?”
“That was when it was established, yeah. You can thank Hermione Granger, hero of Hogwarts, for that. Bloody annoying sometimes, but I don’t think it would’ve lasted a week if she hadn’t been there keeping it organized. Anyway, yeah, that’s the first time I really met that Smith kid. Knew from the beginning that he was an insult to Helga Hufflepuff’s good name. I really don’t have a clue how he ended up in that house in the first place.”
Elizabeth chuckled. “Loyalty’s what they like, right?”
“Among other things, yeah. See what I mean?”
“Not at all! Look, if there’s anything I know from back at Salem, it’s that sorting is never a mistake, all right? There’s always something in you that’s dictating the sorting suggestions, even if you don’t like it.” The older woman sucked a bit of chocolate off of the tips of her fingers before she waved her hand through the air. “I mean, look at Smith. He’s been playing professional Quidditch almost as long as you have, and he’s been starting even longer. Wood wouldn’t have grabbed up his contract if the kid wasn’t a team player.”
“Yeah, but-”
“AND.” She tapped Katie’s nose. “And. And Smith’s been down there in the conference room talking about you nonstop. He’s loyal to you too, you see.”
Katie snorted, her cheeks flushing. “Or he just wants to snog me.”
“Well, I mean, he kind of earned it, didn’t he?”
“Elizabeth!”
She laughed and jumped away from the bed before Katie could slap her. “I’m just saying you should give him a chance as a teammate, all right? Whether you like it or not, Weaver’s almost 35 now, and his physical prime’s waning. He’ll be retiring after this next World Cup, I can guarantee it, and you and Smith…you’ve got this potential to have ridiculously amazing chemistry on the pitch!”
“But I can’t stand him,” she whined.
“What’s that got to do with anything? A little annoyance is good for a relationship on the pitch, right? You both’ll be trying to perform to the best of your ability just to outshine the other-”
“Which means we’ll drop the Quaffle all over the pitch!”
“Possibly.” She stuck her index finger in the air, pursing her lips thoughtfully. “Possibly. BUT. You might not. Especially if you get on as well as I think you will.”
Katie thudded her head against the pillows, though she winced at the subsequent throb that made itself known in the front of her skull. She’d have to get better about that in the future. “All right, all right, I’ll…do something. Give him a chance to prove he’s not a total git. Can I have the rest of my chocolate now?”
Elizabeth’s grin nearly split her face as she leaned forward and pressed the rest of the broken bar into her hand. “With pleasure.”
Chapter Four | Chapter Six
Author/Artist: dovingbird
Characters: Zacharias Smith/Katie Bell
Prompt number: 22
Word Count: 11,926
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Rated for language.
Summary: Katie Bell's finally snagged a spot on the starting line-up on the Wimbourne Wasps! But her excitement wanes at the appearance of the new transfer to the team: the one and only Zacharias Smith. How in Merlin's name can she cope playing beside the biggest git Hufflepuff has ever seen, especially when he seems bizarrely determined to prove to her that he's changed?
Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to the world of Harry Potter at all, nor do I own this prompt. These all belong to their respective owners and authors. The only thing that I own are all of the words on these pages and the OCs therein.
Author’s Notes: Thanks to my wonderful boyfriend for being my beta on this piece! I hope everyone enjoys my first Harry Potter fanfic.
Chapter Five
The voice began to blur together and Katie realized that she wanted to do nothing more than sleep, but Merlin‘s beard, she needed to know what in the world had happened on that pitch. She squinted up toward the ceiling, her eyelids as heavy as if bezoars were tied to the ends of her eyelashes. “Oliver?”
A weight sank down onto her mattress, and she turned to look toward it. The burly dark-haired man gradually appeared to her. “What the hell, Katie?” he asked, grinning down at her. “You get a concussion, and three seconds after you’re healed you wake up? What sort of woman are you?”
Katie felt like she should laugh, but she was too fascinated by the sparkling of the sunlight through the infirmary’s stained glass windows to remember much of what a sense of humor was. “Did we win?”
“Ah...no, not quite.”
“Not QUITE?”
Wood chuckled quietly. “210 to 30, Puddlemere.”
She groaned in despair and dug her fingers into the scratchy sheets. “Noooo…what happened? Elizabeth was reaaaaady…”
“Well. She had a friend of hers to worry about for the rest of the game.” Wood quirked an eyebrow at her seriously. The guilt that suddenly stirred at the base of Katie’s stomach made her want to throw up all over again. “Been a while since we lost a player within the first twenty minutes of a game. Good on you there, Katie.”
“I am so sorry. I can’t believe I didn’t see that Bludger coming.”
“Now, that’s not what you should be apologizing for.”
Katie forced her eyes open wider. “What do you mean?”
“Seems to me we could’ve avoided this whole mess if you’d just passed to Smith when you saw he was open. Don’t tell me you didn’t see him. I know for a fact you did.”
She pressed a fist to her lips as the nausea churned more aggressively. When it passed a moment later she huffed out a sigh. “Did I…really cost us the game?”
Her coach chuckled as he stood to his feet again and turned to face her. “In theory? Afraid so. But hey, it had to happen sometime, right? Might as well get it out of the way early so next time you can cream the opposition and give their Keeper a few things to watch out for.”
“What even happened? All I remember’s falling straight down and being pretty sure I was about to die right there if a ref didn’t respond.”
Oliver drew his lips into a thin line as he began to pace slowly beside her bed. The fact that he didn’t immediately volunteer information was beyond surprising. This was the man who gave forty-five minute locker room speeches after every Gryffindor game, perhaps stretching into an hour on the games that they lost. But finally he lifted his head and began to speak, his voice as soft as if she had a hangover. “A Bludger took you out. The Puddlemere Beaters have always been…rather aggressive. Not quite Crabbe and Goyle, you understand, but…quite close.” He paused at the end of her bed and looked at her. “But yes. A Bludger took you out, and Smith caught you.”
“Caught me?!” She was halfway to sitting up before the throbbing in her head grew noticeable again, and she fell back to the bed with a wince. “What the hell was Smith doing catching me?”
“Not being a wanker?”
How did he do that? Katie gradually turned her eyes to the doorway, where Zacharias Smith was leaning against the infirmary doorframe, his arm firmly pressed against it above his head. When she caught sight of him she furrowed her eyebrows. “Do you just…ALWAYS show up where you’re being discussed every time?”
He smiled faintly and looked down at the vomit-colored tiles before he nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, guess I do. Call it a Hufflepuff trait. I’m so loyal to my own name and identity that I just…teleport to where it’s being discussed.” It was a fairly Slytherin drawl that he pulled off there, she noticed, worthy of a Malfoy sneer. Katie sank back against her pillows with widened eyes when he pushed off of the frame and entered the room, tucking his hands into his pockets. “Coach, could you…?”
Wood looked between the both of them before he nodded slowly, narrowing his eyes slightly in consideration. “Of…course. I’ll return in a few minutes. I’m sure Elizabeth would love to see you conscious.”
As the coach sauntered out of the room, both Smith and Katie watched him depart. It was only a moment later that Smith met her eyes, however, and the absolute lack of malice in them made her shift under the sheets. “Hello,” she managed.
“Hey. Glad to see you’re awake.” He sighed as he sank into the chair beside her bed and leaned forward, planting his elbows on his knees and tenting his hands. His shoulders were so broad. How had she missed that? Could he have caught her so easily without them? “And no worse for wear.”
When he looked up at her again, Katie felt her eyes began to sting. She didn’t understand. She HATED it when she didn’t understand. She bit her bottom lip, the fresh pain there an attempt to push her tears back, before she spoke. “So you…you didn’t go for the Quaffle?”
Smith furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. “What?”
“You went for me. You didn’t go for the Quaffle. You let it fall, and you went to catch me instead.”
He dropped his eyebrows further until they almost met and all the wrinkles on his forehead smoothed out. “Well…yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
She lifted her chin higher, even as she felt it wrinkling and her bottom lip beginning to shake. “You caught me instead of getting all the fame and glory for yourself by scoring?”
“Of course I did!” Smith slid forward in his chair until he was on the edge of it. He stared at her like she was a stranger.
“Why’d you do it?” Katie asked between deep shaky breaths, digging her short fingernails into her palms.
The light bulb went off then. But then again Smith was a Hufflepuff, not a Ravenclaw, and could be forgiven for a slower thought process. He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly as he sat up straight and tall. “Because…because people can change, Katie.”
For reasons she didn’t even know, she rolled over into a ball and began to cry. The full weeping moans that dragged themselves from her lips were the most peculiar thing she’d ever experienced, and she was barely aware of Smith grabbing her hand and squeezing it tightly until the Irish nurse bustled into the room again. “Oh, my dear!” The nurse made her way toward the bed and began to rub Katie’s back soothingly, keening in sympathy. “Don’t you worry there, lad. Concussions play with a person’s emotions, especially when you speed the healing. She’ll be like this for a few days, at least.”
“Are you sure?” Smith’s voice was high, like it was about to crack, and he loosened his grip on Katie’s hand. She squeezed it so tightly that she might as well have been giving birth. He squeezed back when he realized that he wasn’t going anywhere at the moment. “I-I mean, I haven’t heard anyone cry this much since my sister went through labor!”
“Trust me, not peculiar in the least. Now then, Miss Bell, you’ve got to give the lad a little circulation in his hands, all right? That’s a dear.” The nurse coaxed Katie’s hand out of Smith’s and patted hers gently. She saw through blurred vision that Smith stood to his feet and stared down at her. The way he rubbed his hands together betrayed his antsy state of mind. “Would you mind finding Miss Riley for me, my dear? She’ll be delighted to find Miss Bell awake and well.”
Katie waited for the wisecrack, the reference to her being anything BUT well in this state, the sneer, but Smith merely stood there for a moment longer and watched her. The tears began to dissipate just as soon as they appeared, just in time for Katie to catch the steady intensity gleaming in Smith’s eyes that vanished only a second later. He nodded and tucked his hands into his casual robes. They were so navy blue and nondescript that Katie could only fancy that he was wearing them to slip through crowds to the infirmary unnoticed. “No problem.” He turned toward the door, but paused to look over his shoulder. “Get some rest, all right, Bell? Otherwise Weaver’s gonna drive the reserve Chaser insane, and, uh…I didn’t catch you for nothing, you know.”
She widened her eyes. “What?”
“Well, I’ve still gotta make you throw me the Quaffle, don’t I?” He grinned at her before he strolled out of the infirmary.
The nurse busied herself with checking Katie’s vital signs as well as the neutral magical output that her body was emitting, but was pleased to announce that nothing seemed affected by her headbutt with a Bludger. “Madam Pomfrey always told me she thought you Gryffindors were hard-headed,” she murmured with a faint smile, pressing a bar of chocolate into Katie’s palm. “Eat up. The sugar will get your strength rising all over again.”
Elizabeth appeared in the doorway then, cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling, and she grinned from ear to ear and ran toward Katie’s bed the instant she saw her. “Jesus!” She skidded to a stop and threw her arms around the younger girl, burying her face in Katie’s neck. “Don’t you ever do something that stupid again, do you hear me? Never again.”
As she smoothed Elizabeth’s hair Katie smiled, letting her eyes drift shut peacefully. “He’s still a git.”
“A git who’s been talking about you nonstop since it happened.” Elizabeth plopped onto the edge of the bed with a sigh before she snatched the chocolate bar from Katie’s hand and began to unwrap it. “Wood was about ready to hex his mouth clean off his face.”
“Smith?!”
“Yeah!” With half the bar unwrapped she began to break it down, biting her tongue as she made incredibly precise separations down the chocolate lines. Little blocks made their way into Katie’s hand, and she nibbled at them while staring at Elizabeth with wide eyes. “He was pissed at you! Not that I blame him. It was a shoddy thing you did out there, Kate.”
Three times in less than an hour. It had to be a record. But hearing it from Elizabeth’s lips felt far different than it coming from her overcompetitive coach or the individual who started it all. This was her roommate, someone she’d seen cry in the past, someone she‘d shared her hopes and dreams with. Katie deflated and looked up at the ceiling with a heavy sigh. “How did things get so bloody complicated?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…in school, things were clear cut. Befriend your fellow Gryffindors, despise those manipulative Slytherins, hit on the Ravenclaws that could help get your homework done, and just ignore the Hufflepuffs.” She rolled the chocolate between the pads of her fingers, feeling it smear as it began to melt. “And then you pass your O.W.L.s with flying colors and pretend You-Know-Who’s not coming back and suddenly everything just gets…thrown out of place.”
Elizabeth snatched one of the chocolate pieces away from her. It was nearly a nub at this point, but she shrugged and popped it into her mouth anyway. “Your sixth year’s when you joined the D.A., right?”
“That was when it was established, yeah. You can thank Hermione Granger, hero of Hogwarts, for that. Bloody annoying sometimes, but I don’t think it would’ve lasted a week if she hadn’t been there keeping it organized. Anyway, yeah, that’s the first time I really met that Smith kid. Knew from the beginning that he was an insult to Helga Hufflepuff’s good name. I really don’t have a clue how he ended up in that house in the first place.”
Elizabeth chuckled. “Loyalty’s what they like, right?”
“Among other things, yeah. See what I mean?”
“Not at all! Look, if there’s anything I know from back at Salem, it’s that sorting is never a mistake, all right? There’s always something in you that’s dictating the sorting suggestions, even if you don’t like it.” The older woman sucked a bit of chocolate off of the tips of her fingers before she waved her hand through the air. “I mean, look at Smith. He’s been playing professional Quidditch almost as long as you have, and he’s been starting even longer. Wood wouldn’t have grabbed up his contract if the kid wasn’t a team player.”
“Yeah, but-”
“AND.” She tapped Katie’s nose. “And. And Smith’s been down there in the conference room talking about you nonstop. He’s loyal to you too, you see.”
Katie snorted, her cheeks flushing. “Or he just wants to snog me.”
“Well, I mean, he kind of earned it, didn’t he?”
“Elizabeth!”
She laughed and jumped away from the bed before Katie could slap her. “I’m just saying you should give him a chance as a teammate, all right? Whether you like it or not, Weaver’s almost 35 now, and his physical prime’s waning. He’ll be retiring after this next World Cup, I can guarantee it, and you and Smith…you’ve got this potential to have ridiculously amazing chemistry on the pitch!”
“But I can’t stand him,” she whined.
“What’s that got to do with anything? A little annoyance is good for a relationship on the pitch, right? You both’ll be trying to perform to the best of your ability just to outshine the other-”
“Which means we’ll drop the Quaffle all over the pitch!”
“Possibly.” She stuck her index finger in the air, pursing her lips thoughtfully. “Possibly. BUT. You might not. Especially if you get on as well as I think you will.”
Katie thudded her head against the pillows, though she winced at the subsequent throb that made itself known in the front of her skull. She’d have to get better about that in the future. “All right, all right, I’ll…do something. Give him a chance to prove he’s not a total git. Can I have the rest of my chocolate now?”
Elizabeth’s grin nearly split her face as she leaned forward and pressed the rest of the broken bar into her hand. “With pleasure.”
Chapter Four | Chapter Six