tw for MILD homophobia throughout this chapter

also tw for underage drinking. I will say it here that Estella IS going to drink throughout this chapter, and due to her having a very small alcohol tolerance as it is her first time, she will be a bit drunk. Ron is also somewhat an enabler, but that is not something i want you guys to criticise or hate him for. Estella has a choice.

If you are likely to be triggered or offended by Estella or anyone else drinking, stop reading at the end of the Quidditch game. But i will warn that you will miss a few important plot moments. I will summarise them at the start of the next chapter.

✯ CHAPTER FORTY ✯

April 21st, 1993.

The Easter holidays quickly came and went -- and unfortunately for Estella, they hadn't been very much of a 'holiday.' The third years had never had so much homework, and with all the catching up Estella had to do with Remus, her workload was even higher than most; not to mention she also had quidditch practice three times a week.

There was times where she questioned if her education was even worth it -- but after hours and hours of staring at textbooks and fighting the urge to drop dead, she made it through and got to the same level as everyone else.

She was still worried about Hermione, though. Her best friend had taken a break, just like they discussed, but as soon as she got back to studying she was immediately stressed again.

So, with all of the work Hermione was doing, and so Harry and Estella could focus on Quidditch -- as the final was fast approaching, and Wood was getting stricter and stricter, Ron had taken over responsibility for Buckbeak's appeal. When he wasn't doing his own work, he was poring over enormously thick volumes with names like The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology and Fowl or Foul? A Study of Hippogriff Brutality. He was so absorbed, he even forgot to be horrible to Crookshanks.

The whole of Gryffindor House was obsessed with the coming match. Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup since the legendary Charlie Weasley (Ron's second oldest brother) had been Seeker.

Estella was probably more desperate to win that anyone, however.

She needed to get Malfoy back -- and this was the most perfect way to do it. The young Slytherin would be absolutely mortified if Gryffindor was to win -- and for this reason she was so determined to make sure that they did.

Never, in anyone's memory, had a match approached in such a highly charged atmosphere. By the time the holidays were over, tension between the two teams and their Houses was at the breaking point. A number of small scuffles broke out in the corridors, culminating in a nasty incident in which a Gryffindor fourth year and a Slytherin sixth year ended up in the hospital wing with leeks sprouting out of their ears.

Estella was one particular victim, but she supposed the fact that she had a history of not getting along with certain Slytherins played a really big part in that. Parkinson was constantly at her nose, finding a way to insult her at every point given -- if Estella hadn't been so afraid of losing her place on the Quidditch team, she probably would have thrown another punch.

All usual pursuits were abandoned in the Gryffindor common room the night before the match. Even Hermione had put down her books.

"I can't work, I can't concentrate," she said nervously.

There was a great deal of noise. Fred and George Weasley were dealing with the pressure by being louder and more exuberant than ever. Oliver Wood was crouched over a model of a Quidditch field in the corner, prodding little figures across it with his wand and muttering to himself. Angelina and Katie were laughing at Fred's and George's jokes. Estella and Harry were sitting with Ron and Hermione, removed from the center of things, trying not to think about the next day, because every time Estella did, her stomach felt like it might explode.

"You're going to be fine," Hermione told her, though she looked positively terrified. "You and Harry have both got Firebolts!"

"That doesn't mean much," said Estella, pressing her hand on her belly. "Things can still go wrong."

Hermione sighed. "But things can always go wrong. You could be walking to bed one day but fall down the stairs and smack your head open on the way, but you don't stress about that everytime you head to the dorm. The more you worry about these things, the worse they're going to be."

"Thanks Hermione," Estella chuckled, "now I'm never going to be able to walk to bed peacefully again."

"Oh, shut up," her best friend rolled her eyes. "You're going to do great tomorrow. I have every ounce of faith in you."

"Yeah..." said Estella, her stomach writhing. "Let's just hope you're right."

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

April 22nd, 1993.

Estella really struggled sleeping that night. It took her ages to actually manage to drift off, and when she eventually did, it wasn't long before she was awake again because her mind just wouldn't shut off. Twice this happened, and on the second time when she woke up and saw that it was already six in the morning she decided there was no point even trying to fall back asleep -- she wasn't going to get very long if she did.

Hermione, Lavender and Parvati were all still asleep; she could tell by the drawn curtains and the light breathing. If Hermione had been awake, she would've been out of bed and studying by now -- and it was very rare for either of the other two to be up before ten on a weekend day, so Estella would have been surprised to find either of their beds deserted.

She didn't want to get up and wake any of them, but lying bored in bed was giving her worse anxiety than ever before, so she decided she would grab her school work and head down to the common room, where hopefully it would be empty for her to sit down and relax her mind.

It was really dark in the room apart from the smallest bit of light shining through the crack of one curtain. It was the time of year where mornings were starting to get lighter, but at six the sun still hadn't full risen yet, so it wasn't really very bright.

Estella cast the 'lumos' spell on her wand as she stumbled around fully opening all the curtains, and as she reached the final one, she immediately jumped out of her skin at the sound of something she hadn't expected.

"Estella?"

She turned, quickly, determined to find out who on earth had interupted her down time. She was shocked to find that it was her good friend Ginny Weasley, wrapped up in several different blankets, on one of the common room couches.

"Ginny?" she asked, her eyes widening. "Did you sleep here?"

Ginny sat up on the couch, stretching her arms and rubbing her eyes. Normally Estella would feel slightly guilty after waking someone up, but the shock of finding someone asleep on a couch as uncomfortable as the one the redhead was on was drowning out that feeling right now.

"Yep," Ginny laughed, now standing up. "Must've fallen asleep down here. I was the last one awake -- suppose I need to start going to bed earlier."

Estella would've believed this story if it wasn't for the several blankets, which definitely were not normally stored in the common room, so Ginny had to have brought them in. She picked one up.

"I see," she said. "And these just happened to magically appear on you through the night?"

"Yes!" said Ginny, and Estella could see a little bit of fear in her eyes. "Isn't it crazy?"

Estella simply looked at her, her eyebrows narrowed. "Gin, no time for sarcasm. Are you okay? Has something happened in your dorm?"

She didn't get an immediate response -- Ginny looked down, picking the blankets up. "It doesn't matter, Stella. You have more to worry about right now."

"That doesn't mean I don't care," It frustrated Estella that Ginny saw her issues as a reason to not be there for anyone else -- Estella had alot of problems, there was no denying that, but that didn't mean she only cared about herself. If one of her friends were struggling, she wanted to be there -- she would never force Ginny to talk to her, but she would listen.

The redhead just shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Of course it is," Estella reassured her. "No one should be in a position where they have to sleep in the common room, not unless they did it by choice. You don't have to tell me, but if you want to, I am here to help."

Ginny sighed. She pondered for a second, and Estella got the vibe she wasn't going to say anything, but then she opened her mouth. "Remember, back on your birthday, when I told you that I might like girls?"

Estella nodded, allowing her friend to finish speaking before she said anything herself.

"Well, turns out, not everyone is like you."

Estella turned her head to one side, eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?"

"I- you were so accepting, and I don't know, it gave me some sense of hope that more people would be like that," Ginny fiddled around with her hands, fast talking. "I thought that the girls I share a dorm with were safe. They're some of my best friends, so I told them, thinking they'd take it in a similar way that you did. They- they didn't, and now they kicked me out of our dorm. Apparently they don't feel comfortable sharing with someone like me."

Estella was in disbelief -- how dare they. She knew the vast majority of people were not exactly accepting of homosexuality, but she had been delusional enough to believe that the world was getting somewhere with each generation, and the fact that they were trying to stop someone from sleeping in their own bed just because they liked the same gender truly disgusted her. She felt so sorry for Ginny, she couldn't even begin to imagine how horrible it must have felt.

"That is -- absolutely disgusting, Ginny, I'm so sorry," Estella couldn't even put her anger into words. "Is there anything I can do to help? Anything at all?"

Ginny shook her head. "There's nothing anyone can do, really. It's fine. I'll just have to sleep here for a while."

"But it's so uncomfortable," said Estella, pressing her hand down on the sofa. "Not to mention you don't even fit on it properly. Your feet were hanging off. You'll end up hurting your back if you sleep here every night. It's not fair--"

"It's not," Ginny sighed. "But it's my own fault. I shouldn't have told them."

Estella rolled her eyes. "It's their problem. You shouldn't have to have to hide that from people."

"It's fine," said Ginny. "I'm just worried. What if they go to McGonagall? What if they tell her? Will she tell my parents? What will--"

"Shh," Estella held up one finger. "One thing I've learned in life is to not worry about things until they actually happen. That might happen, but it hasn't now, so don't stress too much yet. Besides, I have a solution."

"Which is?"

Estella smiled. "Leave it with me."

"No," said Ginny. "Estella, you have to tell me--"

She supposed that was only fair.

"Well, being the child of a Professor does have a few pros."

Ginny's eyes went wide before Estella could even finish what she was saying. "You can't tell him--"

"I'm not going to," said Estella, quickly reassuring her. "But I can tell him that I saw them being rude to you, and ask him to talk to McGonagall. A white lie never hurt anyone."

"But what if she talks to them about it? What if they tell her then?"

This, Estella hadn't really thought about. Though she could think of one teensy tiny problem they'd have --

"Well then they'd have to confess to being homophobic, and while LGBT might not be socially accepted yet, I'm sure there is a rule somewhere saying that Hogwarts doesn't tolerate that."

Ginny sighed, running a hand through her ginger hair. "I just -- I don't know, Estella. I really appreciate you wanting to help, but I feel there's too many things that could go wrong with your idea. And I also don't want to get you into trouble."

"You wouldn't get me into trouble," said Estella. "But, I understand. You don't have to tell me now -- but I will do it, if you want me to. I just want you to know that my offer is there."

"Thank you," Ginny smiled. "I really do appreciate it."

Estella smiled back, sitting down. There was an air of awkwardness in the room -- she didn't know if it was because of the conversation they'd just had, or the simple fact of how early in the day it was. However though, it got to a point where eventually the silence became far too much to bare, and so Estella had no choice but to break it.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up, by the way," she said.

"Oh, that's okay. I knew an early start was a risk that came with sleeping in the common room," Ginny stated. "Why are you up so early, anyway?"

Estella adjusted how she was sitting. "I couldn't sleep, to be honest. I don't normally get that stressed out before quidditch games -- but this one, I don't know, I feel crazy about it."

"Well, that's understandable," said Ginny. "It is the final, after all. And I've seen and heard how much Wood is pressuring you."

"I suppose."

"Admittedly, I'm just as desperate for Gryffindor to win as everyone else," Ginny continued, "but, I do genuinely believe that you will. You're a great team, with really talented players. Half of Slytherin's members are only there because of rich parents."

Estella chuckled. "That's not a dig at anyone in particular, is it?"

Ginny answered with a shrug, grinning. "It might be, you never know." She started rummaging through a bag, which Estella hadn't even noticed was there until now, her grin taking a u turn. There was a very clear shower of stress now appearing on her face quite suddenly.

"Shit."

"Gin, are you okay?"

"No," said Ginny. She placed her bag down and lifted her knees up to her chest, rubbing a hand across her face. "I left my outfit for today in my dorm."

"Oh..." said Estella, "Um, if you wanted, I could go and get it for you?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "There's no point. You're not going to get in," she stood up. Estella noticed that her whole body was shaking. She also got the vibe that Ginny was trying to hide this, so she didn't mention it.

"I'm just going to have to go and get it myself."

She started heading towards the stairs, slower than a snail, as if the slower she went her the more likely it becamee that her clothes would magically appear. Estella couldn't ignore the urge to stop her.

"Wait!" she said. "Let's look at ways around this. We could try and levitate your clothes down?"

This was probably not a good idea, considering how many things could go wrong with it, but anything was better than Ginny having to enter that dorm -- and Estella had some experience with the accio charm, even if it wasn't very much.

"Do you know the charm for grabbing things from another room?" Ginny asked. "Because we haven't learned that yet."

"Techincally, neither have we," Estella replied. "But I've seen Dad do it so many times, and he's taught me about it. I think I can give it a go."

Ginny looked uneasy -- almost unsure of it, and she was probably right to, Estella thought, with the lack of experience she had of this charm. But, she was eager to try it, to make things easier for her friend, and she was so sure that she'd be able to master it first time. I mean, she'd mastered a patronus, how much harder could the accio charm be? Surely not much.

This was a very wrong assumption.

Ginny agreed to let Estella have a go, with the strict instructions that if anything went wrong she would take full blame for it. So, she'd attempted, yelling the words "accio clothes" with her wand pointing at the stairs, and all of a sudden someone's wardrobe had come flying out of nowhere, landing in the common room with a massive crash.

Worst thing about it was it wasn't Ginny's wardrobe, nor Estella's, but some poor random first years.

The entirety of Gryffindor had come rushing to the common room at the sound of the crashing.

"What on earth is going on down here?" yelled Percy, being sure to be at the front of everyone. "What was that--" At the sight of both the wardrobe and his sister, his eyebrows raised. "Ginny, was this you?"

"No-"

"Oh wow, Gin," said Fred, approaching both her and Estella wirh his twin at his side. "You're taking after me and George. We're very proud."

"It wasn't me--"

"I did it," said Estella, taking the blame away from Ginny as promised.

"You did this, Lupin?" asked Percy. "Dare I ask why you needed someone's entire wardrobe -- in the common room?"

"Well, in my defence, I didn't mean to bring that down. I was trying to get clothes out of my dorm and I think I -- uh -- messed up just a little bit," Estella explained. "Sorry," she added, speaking to the timid first year who'd kneeled down to try and pick up some of her clothes.

"I'll help you with that," Percy said, to the first year. "Lupin, I'll let you off this one time, because the house is in highs about quidditch. Just make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Right, thank you."

Percy went to help clean up the mess of the wardrobe, with magic, which is obviously why he didn't let Estella do it. She turned back to Ginny, frowning apologetically.

"Sorry," she said. "I thought I'd be able to do it."

Ginny chuckled. "Well, that's the last time I ever trust you doing magic."

"I suppose it was a silly idea. Do you want me to come to your dorm with you?"

"I'll be fine," the redhead said, her eyes skimming across the room. "They're in here now. I can just quickly run up and grab it without them noticing. You need to get ready for the game. You have a trophy to bring home."

"Alright, no pressure," Estella laughed. "Be careful. I'll see you after the game."

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

Estella and the rest of the Gryffindor team entered the Great Hall to great applause. Estella couldn't help but grinning broadly as she saw that both the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables were applauding them too. The Slytherin table hissed loudly as they passed. Estella noticed that Malfoy looked paler than usual.

Wood spent the whole of breakfast urging his team to eat, while touching nothing himself. Then he hurried off to the field himself before anyone else had finished, so they could get an idea of the conditions. As they left the Great Hall, everyone applauded again.

"Good luck, Estella!" Ginny called. Estella could feel herself blushing. Why was she blushing?

"Okay -- no wind to speak of -- sun's a bit bright, that could impair your vision, watch out for it -- ground's fairly hard, good, that'll give us a fast kickoff --"

Wood paced the field, staring around with the team behind him. Finally, they saw the front doors of the castle open in the distance and the rest of the school spilling onto the lawn.

"Locker rooms," said Wood tersely.

None of them spoke as they changed into their scarlet robes. Estella wondered if they were feeling like she was: as though she'd eaten something extremely wriggly for breakfast. In what seemed like no time at all, Wood was saying, "Okay, it's time, let's go --"

They walked out onto the field to a tidal wave of noise. Three quarters of the crowd was wearing scarlet rosettes, waving scarlet flags with the Gryffindor lion upon them, or brandishing banners with slogans like "GO GRYFFINDOR!" and "LIONS FOR THE CUP" Behind the