The Raven's Tail

The Quidditch team was having practices every night in the lead up to the big game. With those in addition to homework, Tess found it easy to avoid Alastair. She might have found her resolve weakening, because in truth she did miss her friends, but every time she saw them, they were with Alice. Alice tried to talk to her, but Tess always found a way to cut those conversations short. It seemed to her that Alice genuinely wanted to be her friend, but Tess got angry whenever she saw Alice with Alastair and just couldn't bring herself to accept the new girl.

Alastair didn't try to talk to her again; he simply stared at her with a pathetic, confused expression on his face.

Alice tried a new tactic in class, sitting next to Ash and trying to get Alastair and Tess together. Tess would sit with Luna however, who was happy at first, but then began to tell Tess that Alastair looked lonely, or that Tess shouldn't sit with her instead of her real friends.

Tess felt as though playing Quidditch was the only thing keeping her sane. Each night at practise, when she was flying around at high speed, with the wind blowing through her hair, she felt happy and peaceful. After the practice ended, however, Tess would begin to worry once more; about the situation with her friends and about the forthcoming game. She wished she could just stay on the broom all week.

Saturday rolled slowly around. Tess got up early, trying to avoid talking to everyone, but Alice had beaten her out of bed.

"Big day today!" said Alice, in greeting.

Tess murmured a response and tried to ignore her. Alice's hair and eyes looked black in the dim light in the room.

"We need to do your hair," said Alice, ignoring Tess' rudeness. "You're representing your house out there, after all."

"I don't want your ribbons!" Tess snapped. She was under enough pressure without needing Alice's vanity shoved onto her as well.

"No, I mean something bolder than that," said Alice. Tess noticed a gleam in her eyes. "Something that no one will miss."

Tess stopped, suddenly uneasy.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

~~~~~~~

Tess made it to the change rooms far ahead of everyone else. She sat nervously, clutching her broom, ready to go before the first of her team members even arrived.

Magden entered, then stopped. He whistled.

"Wow, you're keen, aren't you?"

"Can you blame me?" she asked in a small voice.

"Absolutely not," the beater replied, grinning. "You look spectacular."

Alice had changed the colour of Tess' hair to match her robes. It was bright blue, with bronze streaks through. Alice was astoundingly useless in class, but when it came to magic that altered your appearance, she was an expert.

"That's the spirit, Tess!" said Thomas Bradley, the team's Captain, and another Chaser. Roger Davies had graduated the last year, allowing the captaincy to pass to Bradley and for Tess to move up from the reserve squad.

She sat waiting for the rest of the team to get ready, tapping her feet with a nervous energy. Her knuckles were white around the broom handle; she wished she could be outside, flying already. The team seemed to take ages to assemble. The previous game against Hufflepuff had been Tess' first. She had made several fumbles, and missed a couple of goals. The others didn't seem to think it was too bad, but Tess had been driving herself ever since. She knew she could fly well, but it was the quaffle-control she needed to work on. They'd won the game, but that had been due to Cho's skill, rather than her own.

"Right, team, this is it," announced Bradley. Everyone was finally ready. "If we beat them today, then it's us versus Gryffindor in the final game, for the trophy. Now we all know everyone hates Slytherin, so nearly the entire crowd will be on our side today. Malfoy is still off their team, so the pressure is off Cho. It's just like we've been practising. Slytherin are all about size. We know we can out-fly them, so they're going to want to hurt us instead. But that won't stop us. We're fast, we're agile, we're the house of the eagle and we belong up there. They don't have a hope, so let's go do it!"

The team cheered. Tess felt elated to be a part of the group, but the nerves suddenly doubled. She knew she was going to mess it up and didn't think she could live with herself for being the cause of their defeat. She hoped that Cho would be able to end it quickly.

Outside, they could hear the commentator, Zacharias Smith announcing the Slytherin team.

"Here we go; good luck, guys," said Bradley.

"Hey, calm down," said Magden to Tess. "You'll be okay. You'll do great."

She nodded.

"Hey, Tom," Tess asked Bradley. "Can we do a lap of the pitch before we start? It helps my nerves."

"Good idea, Tess," he replied. "Team, as soon as your feet hit grass, mount up and do a circuit. Show them we mean business."

The stands were already awash with cheering and clapping as they emerged. The cheering increased as the team zoomed past on their circuit.

"Here come the Ravenclaws, and don't they look eager!" came Smith's voice, echoing round the ground. Tess pushed up to top speed, only inches above the grass. The stands blurred past her, the students becoming little more than coloured smears in the corner of her eyes.

"Out there in front with the blue hair is the team mascot... I mean the Chaser, Lyndon; followed by Chang, the Seeker; Bradley, the Captain; Chambers, the Chaser..."

Tess had finished her lap and dismounted before Smith had finished announcing the team. Cho landed behind Tess, and they grinned a greeting to each other. The Slytherins attempted to look intimidating as the captains shook hands, but the Ravenclaws were too full of adrenaline to notice. Madam Hooch blew her whistle and they were off.

Bradley immediately took the quaffle and fled toward the right side of the field. Chambers went down the middle, and Tess followed, to his left. One of the Slytherin Chasers pulled up to block her, so she dived under him, and then pulled up to the right, in good position on the goals. The defense rounded on her, and Bradley passed to Chambers, who had gone left. He took a shot, but the Keeper caught it.

'The role of the Chaser in a game of Quidditch is to score goals and to prevent the opposition from scoring against you.' Tess thought to herself. It was a quote from Catherine Kuttlewhip in her biography, which she had learned by heart.

She made a tight turn and sped back towards the Ravenclaw goals. The Slytherin Keeper passed to Urquhart, the Captain, but Tess cut him off. He attempted to ram her, but she jinked to her left, and he scratched his face on the end of her broom. Disoriented, he was hit by a bludger, and dropped the quaffle.

'The ultimate aim of the Chaser is to score enough goals, and to block enough of the opposition's goals so that the one-hundred and fifty goals scored from snitch-capture is rendered irrelevant.'

Tess grabbed at the loose quaffle. She fumbled, but managed to keep a hold of it. This is it, she thought to herself as she accelerated, low to the ground.

'This outcome is, of course, very unlikely, but the Chaser must always be striving toward the goal.'

"Take it to them!" yelled Magden, pulling alongside, in a defensive position. He deflected a bludger, before colliding with a defender. Tess made a quick turn left, before swinging back to the right, across the goals. The Slytherin Keeper came out to intercept her, but Tess twisted, aiming for the left goalpost she was already passing.

The shot nearly missed. The Keeper lunged, but the quaffle passed a few centimeters from his fingertips. The quaffle bounced off the inside edge of the goalpost before ricocheting through.

The Ravenclaw supporters - most of who were behind the Slytherin goals beneath her - erupted into cheers. Tess flew a circle above them and waved. Luna was wearing some kind of giant eagle-hat, which screeched at Tess as she passed. Sitting next to Luna were Alastair, Ash and Alice, who were all clapping enthusiastically.

Slytherin took the quaffle, and Tess flew back into the game, feeling elated. The Slytherin team had evidently decided that they weren't going down without a fight. This meant that their usual aggressive tactics became even more brutal. Chambers was knocked off his broom and left the pitch injured. He was replaced by Artie Chisholm, a small third-year boy who managed to score a goal within thirty seconds of joining the game, after which he was targeted painfully by the Slytherin defense.

Tess was knocked about quite a bit herself, by defenders and the odd bludger. She was feeling quite bruised and sore, and wasn't sure how well she would be able to walk after the game finished.

The injuries weren't all to Ravenclaw though. Vaisey, a Slytherin Chaser was hit by a bludger from very close range (he may in fact have been hit by the bat as well, though no one seemed able to judge), and careened head first into a goal post. Madam Hooch stopped the game after this incident so that both teams could have a stern talking-to; while Vaisey was taken to the hospital wing.

Tess scored a further two goals, and including several penalties, Ravenclaw were ahead one-hundred- and ten-points to eighty when Cho caught the snitch.

~~~~~~

Tess and Cho collided into an embrace, and fell from their brooms. Luckily, they were only a few feet from the ground. The rest of the team arrived a few seconds later. Magden pulled Tess off the grass and into his arms, congratulating her. The hug lingered though, and at first Tess wondered why he wasn't congratulating the rest of the team as well. Then she understood. All those looks and smiles he had given her suddenly made more sense. But it wasn't possible, surely? Tess didn't understand why he wouldn't like someone older and prettier than herself.

He pulled back from her and their eyes met. A moment turned into several seconds, and Tess wondered if he was going to kiss her. The thought was confusing, yet her heart was beating quickly, and not from the game. Tess had almost forgotten where they were, staring into Magden's eyes, til Bradley slapped her on the shoulder.

"Well played, Tess! We showed them, huh!" the Captain exclaimed.

A screech caused Tess to turn. Luna was leaving the pitch, while that eagle hat of hers was still flapping, and appeared, in fact, to be attempting to take off from her head. Her hair was becoming a terrible mess. She walked on, apparently unconcerned, though everyone around her was giving her a wide berth.

Magden still had his arm around Tess' shoulders, though now he was attempting to make it seem more of a comradely gesture as he joined the team, who were in full swing recounting their exploits to one another.

"...and completely hoodwinked their keeper!" Bradley exclaimed

Tess saw Alastair heading back toward the castle with a group of Ravenclaws. He looked over at her, and hesitated for a moment before Alice took his arm, and the pair, plus Ash, continued on their way. She couldn't work out what that expression had been on his face when he'd looked at her. She also couldn't work out how she was feeling as he left. The least they could have done was come over and congratulate her. Was it disappointment? It hadn't been long since they were such good friends, but now it was all so awkward. That amazing feeling inside at having won the game was suddenly feeling rather sour to her.

"Well, it certainly made them angry!" said Cho. "From up where I was, they looked like ants out of a disturbed nest."

Tess couldn't concentrate, lost in her own thoughts. The team began heading back as a group, still chatting and laughing.

"Then he ran straight into the goalpost!" said Chambers, roaring with laughter. "Did you hear the sound his head made? A very hollow-sounding clonk! Always figured his skull was mostly empty."

A smile reluctantly formed at the sides of her lips. She had had to try and quell her giggles mid-game, when Vaisey had his accident. Chambers was right; it had been a very hollow-sounding noise.

"Slytherin have been in disarray all season," commented Magden. "It still feels bloody marvellous to beat them though, even if they're not in top form."

"Absolutely! Pity we can't do this again tomorrow!" said Bradley. "Still, we'll need more practice before we take on Gryffindor. Imagine how good it's going to feel when we top them!"

The team cheered.

"You did so well today, Tess!" exclaimed Cho, pulling her away from Magden, who frowned at the Seeker. She ignored him though, and the pair fell back from the group. "So, are you guys together now?" Cho asked in a low voice. There was a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Oh, well ... I don't really know," Tess replied, embarrassed.

"He's obviously into you," Cho pointed out. "Do you like him?"

"I don't know. I guess so," Tess replied. It certainly felt as though she should like him.

"He's so good-looking," said Cho, helpfully. "Rich too, apparently. His parents are ... well, I'm not sure exactly. Something important in the Muggle world."

Tess didn't reply.

"And he's so good-looking," repeated Cho, with a grin.

Tess smiled, though really she was feeling confused, awkward and embarrassed.

"Even if it doesn't work out," continued Cho, but sounding serious. "It will still be good for you to get away from those boys."

"They're my friends," mumbled Tess, with a frown. She hadn't managed to say that very convincingly, but she wasn't really sure herself, anymore. She had defended Alastair and Ash to her other friends many times in the past. This time it was more of a reflex than anything.

Magden was waiting for them when they reached the castle.

"Can I speak with you a moment, Tess?" he asked.

It felt as if he had drawn his wand and cast a vanishing spell on her stomach. There was a blank, yet very-nervous hole in her middle.

Cho gave Tess a significant look, which didn't help the way she was feeling at all; and a squeeze of the hand, which helped a little.

"Good luck," whispered the Seeker, as she left Tess alone with the older boy. Tess wished that she had stayed for support.

"Well," he began as he led Tess a little way from the door. "I suppose it's obvious by now how I feel."

Tess' mouth felt too dry to answer. He stopped and looked at her.

"My god, you look like a rabbit caught in the headlights."

Tess didn't know what that meant.

"Look, Tess," he continued. "I really rather fancy you. I was going to ask you to the next Hogsmeade visit, but there isn't one for weeks. So I thought perhaps we could go walk out by the lake together. Tomorrow, if the weather holds."

"Um," replied Tess, wondering how he could be so calm about all this. "Um, sure, okay."

She was suddenly furious with herself for being such a child. He was asking her for a walk round the lake. That wasn't bad at all. That was easy. She wished she were able to speak with a little more eloquence. He certainly was handsome, she thought. Her cheeks were already pink, but suddenly the blush covered her whole face, which only embarrassed her further.

"We don't have to call it a date if you don't want," He grinned. "We can just be team-mates out for a stroll on Sunday morning."

Tess nodded. "Okay."

"Though, I hope we can be more than just that." He smiled that smile, and Tess felt a bit unsteady on her feet.

"Yes," she said, feeling that she should say something, but not thinking about what it should be.

"Great," he said. "Well I guess we should go back in and celebrate with the others."

He gave her a kiss on the cheek. Tess wasn't sure she could walk, but she managed it. She was going out with Magden Archer-Bromley, who was the best-looking boy in the house. He was maybe the best-looking in the whole school. It was all happening so fast; they'd won the Quidditch game and she got a boyfriend. Was this the best day of her life? She didn't remember ever feeling so elated before. They'd won and she was with Magden. She suddenly wasn't sure if her feet were actually touching the ground, because it didn't feel like it.