𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝; 𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐡.𝐩

𝓨𝓮𝓪𝓻 2, 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 7: 𝓜𝓾𝓭𝓫𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓭𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓜𝓾𝓻𝓶𝓾𝓻𝓼

~ chapter seven: mudbloods and murmurs ~

before this chapter starts, i just want to say that i have read all of your guys' comments and i actually died laughing—like they were so funny i can't- ☠️

all jokes aside, thank you so much for commenting on my story! it really means a lot.

Harry and Y/N spent a lot of time over the next few days dodging out of sight whenever they saw Gilderoy Lockhart coming down a corridor. Harder to avoid was Colin Creevey, who seemed to have memorized Harry and Y/N's schedule. Nothing seemed to give Colin a bigger thrill than to say, "All right, Harry? Y/N?" six or seven times a day and hear, "Hello, Colin," back, however exasperated they sounded when they said it. Harry had even less time in second year than in first year to snap photos of Y/N and add them to his scrapbook, but every once in a while, when she was completely 'alone', he snapped a photo and printed it out in the library.

Hedwig was still angry with Harry (and Hades with Y/N) about the disastrous car journey and Ron's wand was still malfunctioning, surpassing itself on Friday morning by shooting out of Ron's hand in Charms and hitting tiny old Professor Flitwick squarely between the eyes, creating a large, throbbing green boil where it had struck. So with one thing and another, Harry was quite glad to reach the weekend. He, Y/N, Ron, and Hermione were planning to visit Hagrid on Saturday morning. Harry, however, was shaken awake several hours earlier than he would have liked by Oliver Wood, Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Whassamatter?" said Harry groggily.

"Quidditch practice!" said Wood. "Come on!"

Harry squinted at the window. There was a thin mist hanging across the pink-and-gold-sky. Now that he was awake, he couldn't understand how he could have slept through the racket the birds were making.

"Oliver," Harry croaked. "It's the crack of dawn."

"Exactly," said Wood. He was a tall and burly sixth year and, at the moment, his eyes were gleaming with a crazed enthusiasm. "It's part of our new training program. Come on, grab your broom, and let's go," said Wood heartily. "None of the other teams have started training yet; we're going to be first off the mark this year—"

Yawning and shivering slightly, Harry climbed out of bed and tried to find his Quidditch robes.

"Good man," said Wood. "Meet you on the field in fifteen minutes."

When he'd found his scarlet team robes and pulled on his cloak for warmth, Harry scribbled a note to Ron explaining where he'd gone and went down the common room, his Nimbus Two Thousand on his shoulder, and saw Y/N standing near the portrait hole, rubbing her eyes.

"Woken up early too, huh?" he asked as he approached her, and mentally slapped himself. 'You bloody idiot, of course she's been woken up early—'

"Yep," she said with a half-smile, knocking him out of his thoughts. She yawned. "Angelina woke me up a few minutes ago—"

There was a sudden clatter behind them and Colin Creevey came dashing down the spiral staircase, his camera swinging madly around his neck and something clutched in his hand.

"I heard someone saying both of your names on the stairs! Look what I've got here! I've had it developed, I wanted to show you both—"