Regulus and Gemma met up every evening for the next week without fail. Sometimes their sessions would run deep into the night, and Gemma found herself using History of Magic lessons to catch up on her sleep. 

Unfortunately, it was almost to no avail. Regulus seemed to be making no progress, and every time she told him to use a different memory, he would insist he was using the strongest one he could. 

They both knew that wasn't true though. If it was then the patronus should be working. But she didn't say anything, they'd been somewhat civil these past few days and she didn't want to interrupt that.  

Gemma had also resumed quidditch practise. She was a bit rusty from her long break, but she was becoming familiar with the broom again, and knew she would have no trouble with the match after Easter. She and Mulciber were getting along fairly well now, although she was still considerably better than him. 

The chasers on the other hand, were an absolute disgrace. Gemma wasn't sure what training Regulus had been giving them, but Jules kept fumbling with the ball and Avery was too slow on his broom. Ted ended up getting frustrated at them, and he lodged the quaffle right into Avery's face. It smashed into his nose before he could react, and the nose broke while blood spurted everywhere. 

'What the hell!' Regulus roared at Ted, and Avery howled in pain. 'How are we supposed to practise if you start maiming my players!'

'We'd probably do better without him!' Ted snapped, but Gemma knew it wasn't just quidditch that had him all riled up with Avery. 

'I'll take him to the hospital wing,' Mulciber droned boredly, touching down on the ground.

'No,' Regulus ordered. 'You need to practise more, your slower than my grandmother without her walker. Gemma and Snyde will take him, since they're the only competent players left on this godforsaken team.'

'Ugh,' she grumbled, as she looped Avery's arm round her shoulder. Snyde did the same with his other.

'Serious, Blythe, you can't walk yourself?' He asked. 'It's a broken nose, not leg.'

'It hurts,' Avery moaned. Snyde shook his head.

'You are worse than a child.' Gemma snapped. 'Now we have to miss practise because of you.'

'Looked like it was your friend that bludgeoned him,' Snyde said accusingly, as they made their way off the pitch.

'That's because he's in love with his girlfriend, I bet it has nothing to do with quidditch,' she replied bitterly. Snyde barked a laugh. 

'Teddy Nott, in love with Isolde Greengrass? Who could've guessed.'

'Wait... what?' Avery mumbled. They ignored him and entered the castle. 

'How did we win against Ravenclaw, anyway?' She questioned. 'You guys suck.'

'Yeah well, this is the first practise we've had in a while,' He shrugged. She stared.

'What? Regulus told me you guys practise every day.'

'Every day!' Snyde laughed. 'We've been luck to get twice a week, screw once a day.'

'That lying git,' she said through gritted teeth. He laughed again.

'Besides, beating Ravenclaw isn't exactly difficult,' he continued. 'They should stick to books and being boring, honestly.' Gemma laughed, as they finally hauled the casualty up the stairs and into the hospital wing. 

'Another quidditch injury!' Madam Pomfrey said shrilly. She glared at Gemma. 'I suppose this was you, hm?'

'What?' Gemma said, while Snyde snickered, but Madam Pomfrey was busy scolding Avery. 

'I think we should take our leave now,' Snyde whispered, turning and leaving while she followed. 

They didn't bother going back to the pitch, instead they just went back to the changing rooms. They were a bit earlier than usual, so Gemma got changed quickly before everyone else finished, not caring whether Snyde saw her or not. He didn't really seem to care either, and just talked normally about the quidditch league. She found out they both supported the same team, the Montrose Magpies.

She usually changed in the broom closet, seeing as there was still only one changing room for Slytherin. Up until her third year, there had been a ban on girls playing quidditch- only on the green team, of course, courtesy of the sexist captain. She'd finally managed to rouse enough interest in the sport among the girls of Slytherin to go to Slughorn, and he'd finally convinced the captain at the time- some guy called Montague- to lift it. Unfortunately, they hadn't bothered adding any facilities for girls, but Gemma didn't want to seem like a complainer.

They were packing up their things to go back to the common room when the others came in, arguing loudly. She realised it was between Ted and Jules. 

'And I should be the head chaser, because your too incapable of doing anything!' Ted yelled. Gemma had genuinely never seen him in a worse mood than he was today. 

 'Your not even a chaser!' Jules cried. 'Your a beater, who got displaced by Mulciber because he's better than you!'

'He is not better than me!' Ted roared, pulling out his wand and jabbing it right under Jules' throat. 

'Go ahead,' Jules simpered. 'You were too much of a coward to go after the girl you liked, what would you do to me-'

'REDUCTO!' Jules jumped out of the way, just as the bench behind him exploded into pieces. They all stared in shock.

'You just tried to kill me,' Jules whimpered. 'He- he's a... Murderer!'

'No!' Ted said, all anger dissipating from his face. 'I- I don't know why I did that.'

'It was an accident,' Gemma announced, pushing through the crowd. 

'Didn't look like an accident,' Mulciber muttered. She gave him a pointed look, and he fell silent. Gemma saw Regulus watching with his eyes narrowed, and she gave him a pleading look. He cleared his throat. 

'Nobody will say anything,' he announced. 'Ted was just angry at Jules' inability to play quidditch. If he hadn't tried to hex him, frankly I would have.'

'Hey!' Jules complained, but Gemma didn't hear the rest as she guided Ted out of the building. When they were outside, she punched his arm. 

'What the hell was that,' she hissed. 'I know it wasn't an accident because Reducto is the only spell you know properly.'

'I just got so mad!' He said, the shame evident on his face. 'I- walked in on Avery and Iz this morning. He was yelling at her. Yelling at her, Gemma! How could he yell at her! She's so perfect, and beautiful and-'

'This is getting weird,' she muttered.

'Anyway, I confronted Iz later, and she got super mad at me. Started yelling at me and saying I should stop interfering in her life.'

'Look,' Gemma said, as gently as she could. 'Ted, maybe you should move on from Iz, okay? I- its never going to happen, clearly. What about that hot girl you went on a date with before Christmas?'

'That was Luciana,' he dully. 

'Damn,' she muttered. Regulus was still adamant on sucking Luciana's face off every evening in the common room, and after a painful month, she'd finally stopped being affected by it. 

'And anyway, nobody can compare to Iz. If I stick with her, she's bound to cave eventually, right?'

'What? Definitely- Definitely.' She been about to say definitely not, but she couldn't after seeing the hopeful look on his face. His eyes narrowed. 

'You were about to say definitely not, weren't you.'

'No.'

'Yes.'

'Maybe.'

'Gemma!' He said, and she started laughing. He rolled his eyes, and they approached the common room.

'You coming?' He asked. She shook her head, and he grinned. 'Ooooh another late night with Regulus?' He waggled eyebrows and she frowned.

'That was scary. Please never do it again. And yeah, another night of watching him fail miserably.'

'Damn. Have fun.' He said the password Mudbloods Suck (clearly somebody's idea of a joke), and the door swung open.

'Yeah, she muttered, once he'd gone through the door. 'Sure'.