Florence was beyond nervous, sitting in the locker room, shrouded by Cho Chang and Ivy Buchanan's conversation about Anthony Goldstein's disgusting eating etiquette, her anxiousness causing her to completely drown out the chatter. Furling and unfurling one of the laced on her royal blue Quidditch robe, the prospect of winning started to seem more and more impossible by the minute.

"...hello?" suddenly Ivy was right in front of her, waving a hand infront of her face, "Earth to Captain? You can't freeze in place now, we have a game to play!"

"Yes," she said stiffly, trying her best to not let her pessimism infect the others, "I was just thinking..."

"That's dangerous," Cho pointed out, "You should never be left alone with your pre-game thoughts. They're going to start eating each other up."

A small smile appeared on Florence's face, "It's always been like this ever since, yeah?"

"Ever since our first game together." Cho smiled, "And before that too, most likely. So I'm going to tell you not to worry, like I always do. This game is your second to the last house game ever. You should just think of enjoying it, rather than worrying about whether or not we're going to win."

"You're right," Florence huffed, "Sorry. I can't help it. It would be nice to win the cup before I leave this place, though, which is why I'm making a big fuss about all of this."

"We don't have to win all our games to get the cup." Ivy reminded her, "We just have to have more points when it comes down to totaling."

"And we did have a pretty big lead against Slytherin during the last game," said Cho, "That's got to count for something, right?"

"Most likely," she said, heaving herself off of the bench before slapping both palms to her cheeks, as if to shake herself out of her pessimism. "Alright. We can do this. We can do this."

The stadium divided by two different colors was a sight that Florence had gotten used to by now, the burden in her chest lifting as she walked to the center of the pitch, with her team in tow, waving to them as the chants grew louder and louder. Averting her attention forward, she could see Angelina and the Gryffindors heading towards the center as well. Right behind Katie Bell, she could see Lisa Branson, looking dapper in her Quidditch robes, a mix of excitement and fear evident on her face.

"Okay, Ladies." Madame Hooch addressed the respective captains of the teams, "You know the drill. Shake hands, to execute good sportsmanship.

Florence reached forward, clasping Angelina's hand with a firm handshake. She smiled at the Gryffindor captain, "Good luck, Ange."

"You too, Florence. No hard feelings or whatever, okay?"

"Ofcourse." she agreed, the two of them parting as soon as the sound of Madame Hooch's whistle pierced the air.

Fourteen players shot up into the sky, Florence seeing Ivy dart towards the goal posts as quickly as she could. The Quaffle came hurtling into the air seconds later, Jeremy immediately snatching it into his arms, Florence and Roger launching forward to assist him in scoring a goal.

Lee Jordan's commentary soon started blaring, dictating all the action word for word. Jeremy ducked past Alicia Spinnet's snatching hands, passing the Quaffle to Roger who was nearing the bludger zone. Securing it tightly in his grasp, he came charging forward towards Ron Weasley, and with a good throw, the Quaffle soared into one of the hoops with ease.

"And Davies of Ravenclaw scores the first point of the game! Let's step it up a little bit, shall we, Gryffindor?"

Cheers erupted from the blue cladded side of the audience, Florence not having the time to bask in the applause as the Quaffle was thrown towards her. Angelina attempted to lunge forward to grab it, her path cut off as a Bludger from Owen sailed right infront of her. This gave Florence some time to fly towards the goalposts without anyone tailing her, only for Katie Bell to appear mere seconds later.

Florence muttered profanities under her breath as she was forced to pause, a Bludger from Lisa nearly nicking her in the shoulder. Nearly closing in to the end zone, Florence passed the Quaffle over to Jeremy, only for Angelina to snatch it in mid air.

She could hear the excited cheers of the Gryffindors from down below as their team captain came hurtling towards the Ravenclaw's end of the pitch, slipping easily past Davies and Stretton, before throwing it towards the goal posts. As quick as she could manage, Ivy dove down to stop the Quaffle from passing through, but her put stretching arms only managed to lightly graze at the ball, earning Gryffindor's first score.

Ivy looked rather teary-eyed as she looked over to Florence, who flashed her a reassuring smile, before swerving her broom around to dash towards Katie, who was now carrying the quaffle.

It was an agonizingly tight game for both teams, only managing to be a point ahead of each other every time. Cho was searching the pitch fruitlessly, as was Ginny, who was playing in Harry's spot, her long red hair pulled back into a tight ponytail.

Florence tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, gripping her broom handle as she saw an opportunity to snatch the Quaffle out of Angelina's grasps. She looked over to the score board.

80-60

They were currently twenty points ahead, thirty, as Florence successfully stole the ball from Gryffindor possession, easily scoring a point. 90-60. But she knew it was a matter of time before they caught up.

The Quaffle was now in Jeremy's possession, Roger and Florence acting as defense in order to stall their opponents, when suddenly a bludger came hurtling from above, striking Jeremy square in the back. In an instant, he went limp, keeling over sideways and falling completely off of his broom. Roger swooped down almost immediately to catch him in mid air, the Quaffle now in Gryffindor's possession again.

With two of her Chasers preoccupied, Florence chased after the Quaffle herself, not noticing the commotion occuring between the Seekers.

Ginny and Cho were neck to neck, reaching out for the Golden snitch. Determined, Cho pushed her broom harder, her fingers nearly closing around the snitch when another bludger came hurtling towards her, crashing into the back of her broom, shaking her off course.

Madame Hooch's whistle signaled the end of the game, as Ginny waived around the captured snitch secured in her grasps. Florence paused in mid chase, a sense of sadness washing over her at the looks of disappointment on her teammates' faces. Cho was now on the ground with Anthony Goldstein, while Owen held Ivy in a tight embrace as tears streamed freely down her fave.

Florence descended from the skies as well, a wave of Gryffindor supporters now crowding around their team.

She put a hand on Ivy's shoulder, "Awww, it's okay, Iv. We did our best, is all that matters. You were amazing up there!"

The second year girl sniffled, her glassy eyes looking up to meet Florence's "Really?"

"Really! We did good. That's all that matters." she said, ruffling her hair, "Besides, we have one more game to end the year. We'll try again then."

"Florence!" a breathless voice called out, the Ravenclaw captain swiveling around to find Lisa running over towards her, broom in hand, "Florence, I, I'm sorry."

Florence chuckled, pulling Lisa in for a hug, "No need to be sorry, dummy. It's part of the game. You did what you had to do, and you did it good, and I'm so proud of you."

"I..." she pulled away, guilt evident on her face as she glanced towards where Jeremy was being hoisted into a stretcher, ready to be carried over to the hospital wing with Roger in tow, "I just feel so bad... Is he going to be okay?"

"Jeremy's been through worse. And feeling bad is normal on your first game, just know that there will never be any hard feelings after a match, alright?"

She nodded, a small smile on her lips, "Thanks, Florence. I better go, I have some people I need to see."

Florence watched the Gryffindor girl go, before looking around for a certain pair of redheaded twins. Where had they gone? She wasn't really able to look for them in the middle of the game, since they probably sat at the Gryffindor side of the stand.

She was about to ask Nicolai if she had seen the Weasley twins when a pair of arms circled around her waist from the back, lifting her slightly off the ground. Florence let out a surprised noise, before turning to hug him, pausing in mid action as she stared at his shirt.

"What...?"

"You like?" he grinned, both Fred and George doing a full 360 to show her what they were sporting. It was a shirt with poor stitch work right in the middle, the left half a bright blue color, while the right half was a deep red shade. "Fred and I made it ourselves." George quipped in.

"You two need to take sewing lessons from your mum." she chuckled, before throwing her arms around the the two of them, "And thanks, your support means the world to me."

"We would never miss an opportunity to cheer on our favorite Chaser." Fred grinned, before wrapping an arm around her waist, "Don't tell anyone from Gryffindor that I said that, though. Otherwise, I'll be branded a traitor for life."

She prodded his chest playfully, "As if. You and George just trained a mighty fine beater there. Don't think I haven't noticed Lisa's skills while I was chasing around a ball. Good job on that, by the way."

"George's been with her most the time, love. The credit should go to him." Fred said, his former sentence said as if to imply something else, given the light blush that bloomed on his twin brother's face mere seconds later.

"Lisa did that all on her own. I didn't even have to teach her that much.... Anyway!" George said immediately, in an attempt to stir the conversation away from Lisa, Florence arching her brows at his jittery antics, "There's a party at the Gryffindor commons tonight. You mind if I take my brother awhile to go run some errands?"

She pressed a kiss onto Fred's cheek, before stepping out of his embrace, "He's all yours. I'll see you two tomorrow."

"And oh! If there's any drinking, don't drink too much. The last thing I'd want is for you two to waltz into our review session tomorrow with a hangover." she reminded the two, before heading her way.

"Well, then," Fred said, grinning at his brother as soon as Florence was surely out of earshot, "Let's go get smashed, yeah?"