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The noise of cheering students was near deafening. Brooms whizzed past the stands, blowing the hair back of cheering onlookers.
Inej hovered above the Quidditch pitch, her dark brown eyes scanning below her, looking for any sign of gold. Below her, green and red robes flew back and forth. She watched as Nikolai tossed the quaffle towards the Slytherin’s middle goal post. She silently cursed as Alek blocked it with ease, sending it flying towards one of his chasers, who didn’t hesitate before turning around and flying towards the Gryffindor goals.
“Ready to lose?” A smug, silky voice asked.
Inej looked to her left where Zoya was now hovering. Inej didn’t talk to Zoya much, in fact, outside of Quidditch games, they never talked. Between her beauty, position as seeker, and her charisma, she was quite popular in the Slytherin house, and even in other houses. Kaz, Inej’s… well, not friend, but not exactly
just
an acquaintance, had come to her to rant about Zoya before.
“She’s such a snob, acting like the queen of Slytherin and all that.”
Kaz would tell her.
“She keeps going on and on about this fancy broom that her parents sent her, a brand stinkin’ new Nimbus. I think I’m gonna steal it, hide it from her so she can’t use it for her next game, but I’ll need your help.”
Inej had thought it over, before agreeing to help Kaz smuggle the broom into a hidden nook in the owlery. Zoya still hasn’t found it and had been acting extra bitchy since then. Currently, she had to use her previous Nimbus, which she hovered on next to Inej now.
“I see you still haven’t found your new broom? How long has it been since it went missing?” Inej asked innocently, hiding the smirk wishing to spread across her face.
Zoya furrowed her eyebrows and glared at Inej. “It’s been two weeks, I bet that creep Kaz has something to do with it. You’re friends with him, do
you
know anything about it?” She leaned forwards, examining Inej’s face, looking for any sign of deceit.
“Nope.” Inej shook her head. She turned away from Zoya, going back to scanning the field for any sign of the snitch.
“You know, last week we won, because I caught the snitch,” Zoya said proudly. “You should’ve seen the look on Alina’s face when I caught it. She was so disappointed.”
“Yeah, I bet,” Inej replied absentmindedly. She tried to focus on looking for the snitch, but with Zoya trying to initiate conversation, it proved harder than expected.
“Alek says that he thinks I’ll be the Quidditch captain after he graduates.” Zoya continued. Inej bit back a groan as Zoya kept talking. “I think I’ll make a great captain, I have all the skill and everyone loves me.”
Without thinking, Inej replied, “Not everyone.” Her face reddened as she realized what she said and spun to face Zoya, who’s glare seemed to be even fiercer than before.
“What?”
“Well, you know-” Inej stumbled through her words. She may not like Zoya, but starting a fight in the middle of a game was not exactly at the top of her bucket list, there was already enough competition, especially between Gryffindor and Slytherin. “Like… our team- Not that you’re a bad person! Just because-you know…”
“Oh, yeah,” Zoya nodded, her gaze neutral. “Rivalries and such.”
Inej sighed and nodded, turning back to searching for the snitch. It was silent. Inej began to think that Zoya had flown away. Finally, she could concentrate solely on the sn-
“I wish you were a Slytherin?” Zoya said.
Inej raised an eyebrow and looked back at Zoya, who had, in fact, not flown away. “Why is that?”
“I just think you’d be a great addition to our team- not as a seeker, of course, I’m the seeker- maybe a chaser. You’re very nimble on a broom, almost like you’re the one flying, not the broom.”
Inej shrugged, looking down to the side. “Oh… well, thank you, I guess.” Inej looked up at Zoya and began to say,“That’s very ni-” She suddenly paused, examining Zoya’s face. Zoya raised an eyebrow, in a silent question, but Inej didn’t reply. “Are you trying to distract me from looking for the snitch?”
“What?” Zoya laughed, but Inej could hear the nervousness in her voice. “No, of course not. I would never.”
Inej frowned. “You don’t need to pretend anymore. I know you are.”
Zoya grumbled, glaring at Inej. “Alright, fine, I was, so what? It’s not against the rules or anything. How could you tell?”
“No, no it isn’t,” Inej replied, fighting to not snap at her. “I could tell because when you’re tricking someone, you have a small smirk on your face, no matter what. You also act extra nice to whoever you’re trying to trick, to get them off guard. Also, why else would you be trying to have a conversation with me during a game rather than looking for the snitch?”
Zoya rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever. You have very good eyesight, so Alek and I decided I’d try to distract you before the game started.”
Inej turned behind her, looking back at the Gryffindor stands, where a sea of red cheered. She paused for a split second, before turning back to Zoya and stared at her, thinking. Suddenly, she turned her attention to the left and below Zoya and without another word, dove down.
“Hey! Wait!” Zoya called after her, speeding down after Inej.
Inej slowed down, letting Zoya catch up, and finally zoom down past her, widely looking side to side, for any sign of gold. Inej smirked and turned around, towards the Gryffindor stands. Without waiting for Zoya to notice, she took off towards the bottom of the stands, where a small dot of gold hovered.
As Inej sped towards the snitch, Alek called out from his position at the goal post, “Zoya! Wrong way! Turn around!” But it was too late, Inej had caught up to the snitch.
The cheering from the Gryffindor stand grew louder as the snitch darted back and forth, just out of Inej’s reach as she chased it across the length of the field.
“Yeah, Inej!” Nina whooped, as she and Tamar hovered on either side of her as she sped after the snitch, both Nina and Tamar holding their beater’s bats up and ready to hit anyone or anything that came near the snitch and Inej.
“Zoya’s coming,” Tamar grinned, quickly gesturing behind them.
Inej spared a quick glance behind her where Zoya was speeding towards them, her green robes flying behind her. Inej faced forwards again, willing her broom to pick up speed. Her hand was outstretched, the snitch just barely out of reach. Nina and Tamar fell behind her, attempting to block Zoya’s way.
The snitch was so close, Inej could actually feel it brush against her fingertips. Just. A. Bit. Further.
“Behind you!” Nina called out from far behind Inej, and Inej didn’t have to look behind her to know that Zoya was right behind her, she could hear Zoya’s steady stream of curses as she gained distance on Inej.
Both girl’s hand’s were outstretched. Zoya was picking up speed, nearly head and head with Inej now. Inej groaned, knowing what she had to do to make sure she got the snitch instead of Zoya. Whispering a prayer to whatever Saint would listen, Inej launched herself off her broom and groping at the air in front of her as she fell to the ground below. She rolled on the ground into a crouching position, her left hand on the ground, keeping her steady, and her right hand tightly balled into a fist in front of her.
Nina and Tamar landed next to her, kneeling down, both looking at Inej, waiting.
“Did you?” Nina asked, her voice laced with nervousness. “Inej, please tell me you got the snitch.”
Inej looked up at Nina, out of breath, and held her fist up. She opened up her fist and darting around her open hand, a streak of gold.
Nina squealed, tackling Inej to the ground in a bear hug. “You caught it! I knew you could, Inej! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!”
The crowd roared and the horns were sounded, signifying the end of the game.
“With 14
and
the Snitch to 13, Gryffindor wins!” McGonagall announced, nearly drowned out by the cheering crowd, not even she was able to hide the excitement in her voice.
Inej grinned as the rest of the Gryffindor team crowded around her and Tamar hoisted her up onto her shoulders. From her perch on Tamar’s shoulders, she looked up at the Slytherin stands, where a familiar tall boy with dark hair stood. She waved at him, and he quickly turned away, hiding his face. But he didn’t turn away fast enough to hide the grin spread across his face.