Madison Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Chapter 21: Worst Practice Ever

The first thing I did when I returned to school (after giving all my homework to the designated teachers) was go and find my brother. I didn't want to speak about anything involving Voldemort or the war. I wanted to talk about Quidditch with him.

"Is Katie still in St. Mungo's?" I asked him as I sat next to him on the couch in the common room, scaring the poop out of him.

"You almost gave me a heart attack! But yeah, she's still in the hospital."

He went on to tell me that from what he had heard, there was no chance of her getting out any time soon.

The team that Harry had trained (with the help of me) since September was now one Chaser short. He put it up to me to find a good one, but I declined: he was the captain, after all.

"Well, neither of us can stand another full-House try out," I told him.

He nodded. Together, we got up and cornered Dean Thomas. I had a feeling that Harry didn't exactly want to do this, but he had to.

"Hey, Dean, are you still interested in playing Chaser?" I asked him.

"Of course!" Dean replied.

"Well, you're in, there's a practice tonight at seven."

"Yes!" Dean cheered. "I can't wait to tell Ginny!"

Dean sprinted away, leaving Harry and I in an awkward silence. I had a feeling that he didn't particularly like Dean at the moment.

That night at practice, Harry and I both acknowledged the fact that choosing Dean was a good choice. He worked well with Ginny and I, and the two beaters were getting better and better. Ron was the only problem.

Ron had little confidence, and I knew that. The upcoming game must have really gotten to him and brought out all of his insecurities.

He let six scores in by Ginny; his technique soon became wilder and wilder.

His ways became so wild that he accidentally punched me in the mouth.

"It was an accident, Madison, I'm so sorry!" Ron sincerely shouted at me as I flew down to the ground. Blood was all over me. "I just-"

"Panicked," Ginny angrily stated, landing next to me. She examined my lip; I had the feeling that it was getting swollen. "You prat, Ron! Look at the state of her!"

"I'm fine, really..." I muttered, blood everywhere.

"I can fix this," my brother told the two of us, landing next to us.

"Uhm, no, you won't. Last time you tried to do this-" I told him before he interrupted me.

"Episkey!"

My lip instantly felt better.

"Thanks, Harry," I told my brother.

"No problem," he nodded. "And Ginny, don't call Ron a prat. You're not the Captain of this team-"

"Well, you seemed too busy to call him a prat and I thought someone should."

I forced myself not to laugh at her sass.

Towards the end of the practice, I looked at Harry. We had a silent understanding between the two of us that this was the worst a practice the two of us had ever seen.

After practice ended, Harry, Ron and I made our way up to the castle. By the time we reached the second floor, I pushed open a door that would lead us to the shortcut to the common room.

However, the three of us found ourselves looking at Dean and Ginny making-out.

My brother had this fierce look in his eyes. Ron suddenly spoke up.

"Hey!"

Ginny and Dean broke apart and looked around.

"What?" Ginny said.

"I don't want my own sister making-out with people in public!"

"This was a deserted corridor until you came!" Ginny said.

"She has a point, Ron," I told him.

Dean looked embarrassed. He gave my brother a weird smile; my brother did not return it.

"Let's go, Ginny," Dean said.

"You go!" said Ginny. "I want a word with my brother!"

Dean left, looking happy to not be in the scene any longer.

"Right," Ginny began, pulling her red hair into a pony and glaring at Ron. "It is none of your business who I go out with or what I do with them!"

"Yeah, it is!" Ron angrily snapped. "I don't want people saying my sister is a-"

"A what?" Ginny shouted, pulling out her wand. "A what, exactly?"

"He doesn't mean anything, Ginny-" I tried to tell her, hoping to save Ron a trip to the hospital wing.

"Oh yes he does!" Ginny yelled at me. "Just because he's never kissed anyone in his life! Just because the best kiss he's ever had is from our Auntie Muriel-"

"That's enough!" I tried to intervene, only to fail.

"Shut up!" Ron bellowed, his face red.

"I will not!" Ginny yelled. "I've seen you with Phlegm, hoping she'll kiss you on the cheek every time you see her-"

How did Fleur fit into this?

"And it's pathetic!" Ginny continued. "If you went out and got a bit of kissing done yourself, you wouldn't mind that everybody else does it!"

Ron pulled out his wand, and Harry and I both stepped in between them.

"You don't know what you're talking about! Just because you don't do it in public-"

Ginny laughed. "Been kissing Pig, have you? Or do you have a picture of Auntie Muriel under your pillow?"

"You-"

A streak of orange light nearly missed me.

"Don't be stupid!"

"Harry kissed Cho Chang! Hermione kissed Viktor Krum! Madison has kissed George! It's only you who acts like it's disgusting, because you have as much experience as a twelve-year-old!"

With that, she stormed away. I gave Harry a look that said I'd follow her, and that those two should head back to the common room.

"Ginny, wait!" I called out, running after her.

I finally caught up to her, and we both stopped in the middle of the hallway.

"What?" Ginny snapped. "Oh, it's you. I thought maybe you were Ron."

I snorted. "Do I look like Ron?"

She shook her head.

"Ginny," I began. "You shouldn't have treated Ron like that back there. Ron shouldn't have done what he did either, but you're his little sister. He's trying to look out for you."

She glared at me. "Easy for you to say. You didn't grow up with six older brothers protecting you from everything!"

I shrugged. "You're right, I grew up with a sassy, sometimes quite annoying older twin brother. But Ginny, your brothers protected you from the horrors of the real world. You protected them in a way, too."

"Harry and you-"

I interrupted her.

"No. Neither one of us protected each other from the horrors of the real world, because we had already seen the worst thing you could ever see when we were one."

"There are worse things than death, Madison, and you know that," she tried to tell me.

I sadly smiled at her. I felt like laughing on the inside.

"The only thing that is worse than death involves death, Ginny. Kids aren't meant to see their parents die. They aren't supposed to see them be murdered by a heartless monster.

"You have been protected from death. Sure, you saw Sirius die, but you only saw him go into the veil. You didn't see his last breath. It's different when you see it. When you see it young.

"Harry and I grew up being told that our parents died in a car crash. It's far from the truth. I had no clue that they were murdered brutally until I was eleven. But I knew I was there when they died, because Harry and I would both dream about that night."

"It's different with six brothers-" Ginny fought back, her voice loud.

I replied with a calm voice, "I bet it is. But the six of them have protected you, and like I said before, you protected them. Harry and I couldn't protect each other because we already knew what others were being protected from.

"Cherish it, Ginny, please. Cherish the fact that Ron is looking out for you. Because one day, and probably soon since we are in a war, he's not going to be able to protect you any more."

"But this is all about him not kissing-"

"I KNOW!" I yelled. "But it's not something to fight over! It's not something to nearly hex him for! Ginny, calling him pathetic shows only one thing. You are the one who is pathetic."

"Me? Pathetic? If anything, it's you who is pathetic. 'Oh, my parents are dead! I don't want to go back to the Dursley's!'"

"You have no right what so ever to be saying those things."

"You don't either, because it is pathetic!"

I tightened the grip I had on my wand that I had apparently taken out. Red sparks flew out of it and hit the ground.

"STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW, I AM SERIOUS! My parents are fucking dead, Ginny. I got the puberty talk from Remus- do you know how awkward that was? I never got to tell my mom about my first kiss or anything, like you have. I never got to go to Quiddditch games with my dad like you have.

"And I bet that if you spent a day with the Dursley's, you'd be crying too. So watch what you say is pathetic and what is not. There's a big difference between the truth and being pathetic, Ginny, and obviously you haven't found it yet."

And with that, I stormed off, not once looking behind.