Venus' face reflected extreme nervousness and anxiety as she paced around in the changing room, biting on her lips and nails. In front of her were the slytherin quidditch team putting on their boots and getting ready for the quidditch match they had against hufflepuff.

 Venus caught Andrew's eyes who smiled at her in reassurance, hoping that it would somehow calm down her but it was no help.

 In the past, slytherin had lost every final match they have ever played and that seemed to haunt Venus that year as well. She didn't want to loose, not after making it to the finals for the third time. She had extreme faith and belief in her team mates but having Fawley on the team after what happened between them, she knew he would try to take revenge. 

"Van?" Chloe questioned when she found the team captain shivering terribly,"What's wrong?"

"I'm nervous. I don't want to loose the match." Venus admitted, wiping her sweaty hands on her uniform.

"The least you could do is give your best Venus." Chloe tried to regain Venus' confidence,"Don't stress yourself too much or you're gonna faint during the match itself."

Venus sighed and nodded, putting up a confident smile,"Right." She grabbed her broom and took a deep breath before following everyone out in the field. "Just give your best guys." She said glancing at the team following her out in the field.

 Venus nervously looked around and smiled at the banners GO SLYTHERIN!, SLYTHERIN FOR THE WIN, it made her feel much more confident. They reached madam hootch who was standing in the middle of the pitch and it got Venus wondering on how she still had the strength to be a referee. 

"Alright, are you lots ready?" She questioned, her gaze meddling between the slytherin and hufflepuff quidditch team standing on her either side. Venus gave an acknowledging nod and everyone mounted the broom once madam hootch blew the whistle. 

"Chloe Higgs takes the quaffle." Elphias' voice boomed around,"Hold on, that's Cara. My bad." Venus looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the golden snitch so that she could win the match. 

She whipped her head around when she heard a zooming sound nearing her. Her heart nearly stopped when she found the bludger heading her way and she could have swore it was going to hit her but Andrew swung the bat and the bludger deviated from hitting Venus. She let out a sigh in relief and looked over at Andrew who gave her a small smile.

 "That bludger almost killed my best friend! But Andrew thank god, he saved her.

"Cara zooms toward the hufflepuff hoop and. . . oh well, the keeper, David saved it. Nice try Chloe." Elphias continued,"Chloe flies fast and she's so close to the goal post. Oh my god. Come on Chloe. The keeper dives but misses and oh well SLYTHERIN SCORES!!"

The crowd went wild and the slytherin stand broke into cheers while the hufflepuffs howled and moaned. Venus smiled widely and that's when she spotted the golden snitch flying around Chloe's head. She zoomed towards the chaser and it seemed like the hufflepuff seeker, Goldstein had noticed the snitch as well.

"Slytherin in possession once again, Bletchely with the quaffle and passes it to Chloe or Cara and once again SLYTHERIN SCORES!"

Venus smiled widely at the achievement but she had lost the sight of the snitch which brought back her insecurity. She looked around for the hufflepuff seeker to get any clue about the whereabouts of the golden snitch. 

She bit her lip in anticipation, completely unaware of the hufflepuff chaser heading her way to get to the hoop making her startle and back away instantly.

 She lost her control over her broom for a moment and before she could regain her balance the bludger hit her hard on her head, knocking her off. The crowd went wild in cheers when the hufflepuff chaser managed to throw the quaffle in the hoops but the celebrations turned into gasps and screams.

 "VAN!" Elphias' scream rung around in the field and before the slytherin captain could terribly fall down on the pitch, Andrew and Chloe caught her by her arms.

They safely landed down, being approached by madam hootch, neville and a freaked out mcgonagall.

"Merlin." McGonagall breathed out,"Take her to the infirmary this instant."

 Neville motioned Venus' friends to move away and picked up her in his arms, hurrying towards the infirmary. Everyone was shooed out by Madam Pomfrey who started cleaning the wound the bludger had caused. 

The bludger only went past her head which only scraped her forehead a bit. Madam Pomfrey allowed her friends to visit her who crowded around an unconscious Venus after getting scared out of their wits. They were later ushered away when madam pomfrey asserted that they weren't allowed to stay out after curfew. 

Around eight in the night, Venus' finally opened her eyes and it took her quite a few blinks to get adjusted with her surroundings. "Venus!" She heard an all too familiar voice and shot up straight from her sleeping position, hoping to see her father but realized that she was all alone. Her head started throbbing with pain and it struck her how she had lost her balance and ended up in the infirmary.

 "Fuck." She muttered, touching her head lightly to feel the rough bandage wrapped around her head. 

She looked around even though she had no idea what or whom she was looking for. "Venus." 

She whipped her head towards the entrance to find Teddy standing by the door, dressed up in his night robes. "Edward?" Venus questioned as he was out of bed. Maybe he's on rounds. She wondered.

"Oh finally." He smiled in relief and scanned his eyes over the whole infirmary to make sure madam pomfrey wasn't around. He approached Venus who looked quite frustrated and dazed,"I got a letter for you. It's from Mr. Nott."

 "What does it say?" Venus asked and furrowed her eyebrows together, feeling the headache getting worse,"Can you read it for me?"

 "Oh yeah sure. But I need to be quiet or madam pomfrey is gonna throw me out." Teddy mumbled to himself as stood in front of her and unrolled the parchment of the paper. Venus shifted slightly on her place to give him some space to sit and did surprise Teddy as well as Venus herself. 

The hufflepuff situated himself next to Venus who looked down at her lap waiting for him to start reading. 

"Dear venus." He started,"I'm really sorry I couldn't be there when I really wanted to. The situation just doesn't allows me to. Father caught a really bad cold and I had to take him to st. mungos. I still haven't told him about you cause I know he'll start fretting over you and it would worsen his health. I'm really sorry my little one." Teddy glanced at Venus with a small smile who was almost in tears and it made him stop midway,"Venus. Don't. . . Don't cry. Mr.Nott is just stuck and-"

"I lost." Venus sobbed, shaking her head as if to say that her father wasn't the reason she was upset,"I lost the match. We lost." 

Teddy sighed, keeping her hand on Venus' shoulder,"You might have lost the match Venus but it isn't your fault. And I'm sure that you'll have a lot of opportunities to win in the future."

"No." Venus denied, coughing a bit,"This was the last chance I had and I fucking lost it just because i was impatient and anxious." 

"This wasn't the last match of your life Venus." Teddy frowned,"You tell yourself and just watch yourself working on your flaws. There's no point in crying over the harm that has already been done." 

Venus kept quiet and took few breaths to calm herself down, wiping her tears with her hands. The tear drops glistened on her hand under the moonlight which escaped through the window. She wiped it on Teddy's t-shirt who threw an unpleasant glance toward her. A small smile cracked on her lips and she muttered a faint sorry. 

Giggles and the sound of footsteps made the two of them jump apart but they took a breath of relief upon realizing a couple sneaking out. "Why were they dressed up in those?" Venus whispered to Teddy. 

"Hufflepuff won. The quidditch team threw a party so that's the reason everyone's sneaking out tonight." Teddy explained, passing a small sympathetic smile to Venus who nodded in response. 

"Why aren't you out there?" She asked after a while, staring at the wall in front of her,"The party?" 

"I needed to pass on mr. nott's message to you." Teddy explained,"And also frankly speaking, I didn't feel like attending it. Anyway, how do you feel?" 

"Fine." Venus had nothing else to say except,"But I feel bored sitting here." 

"You need to rest." Teddy asserted, emphasizing the word rest. "I know, I know." She waved him off before an idea popped in her head,"Hold on- Can you get me the book I gifted you?" 

"What? Why?" He frowned. "I wanna read it!" Venus exclaimed. 

"Hold on." Teddy fake laughed, getting up on his feet,"You want me to go back all over to my dorm, fetch you the book, escape the party, jake and then come back here when I'm not even supposed to be out?" 

"Chill. You're a headboy." 

"That doesn't gives me the liberty to roam around like ghosts to get you a bloody book." Teddy hissed, rolling his eyes at the way Venus looked pleadingly at him. 

"Please. I really wanna read it." Venus whined like a kid. 

Teddy groaned before replying,"ugh. alright. fine. I hate you so much." 

"The feelings are mutual buddy." Venus winked, smirking slightly as she shooed him away and reminded him to be quick. After Teddy left to get the book, Venus took it as a chance to read the get well soon cards she got from her friends, james, fred and surprisingly, rivals. She picked up a small box kept next to james' card and opened it to find it filled with chocolate pasties. 

"Oh jamie." She gushed, popping one of them inside her mouth before keeping it aside. 

Once Teddy was back, she smiled gratefully at him and almost snatched the book out of his arms. "Wait, can you read it for me?" She asked nicely, keeping on a very innocent face. 

"No way." Teddy backed off,"I'm not staying all night here with you." 

"Please edward." She pouted, holding out the book for him to take and cracked a smile when he hesitantly agreed. Her head was throbbing with pain minutes ago but she ended up annoying the hell out of teddy. He had no motivation to stay back with Venus all night but he did and watched her cry which made him laugh like a dying goat. 

Only when it was around four in the morning when Venus unknowingly fell asleep with tears stained cheeks. Teddy kept the book aside, straightened his t-shirt and wiped her tears with his dorsal. With a last glance at her, he left the infirmary and hurried towards the common room. 

author's note  

oh to be carried in neville's arms 🧑‍🦯🚶