Work Text:
Hope was nervous. That was the first game of the season. Against the Gryffindor. She looked around. In the bleachers there were the fans of both teams. She looked for blonde hair. She looked for her among the Gryffindor. Nothing. Then she searched her among the Slytherin. She couldn’t have been there after all that had happened. Hope sighed.
“Ehi, Mikaelson”
Hope turned around to the sound of the so loved but so cold voice. Lizzie was right in front of her. But she wasn’t a fan. She had the team uniform.
“Have you seen the new seeker of the Gryffindor? Who would have ever thought it?” someone whispered behind Hope.
She widened her eyes. “You are their new seeker?” she asked Lizzie.
Lizzie answered coldly: “You always think so low of me, don’t you? I told you I would have shown you how much I’m worth. I’m like you. No, I’m better than you. And I trained all summer. Be prepared.”
And it was true. Lizzie trained all summer. Josie helped her. Lizzie had ridden the broom for hours every day, increasing her speed. And she did all of this to show Hope that she was worth it. She wanted to make the auburn girl understand how much she had lost when she had broken up with her without an explanation at the beginning of summer. Lizzie had been devastated. But then her despair was transformed into hatred. And hatred became a desire for revenge. And now she would have defeated Hope in what she loved the most, Quidditch. Surely Lizzie wasn’t good enough. But she had an ace in the hole. She had used the entire vial of Felix Felicis she had won with Hope during their classes of Potions the year before. She knew there it would be the right time. And now that moment was arrived. She smiled. She felt invincible.
On the other hand Hope felt sick and tired. She was tired about the attitude of the blonde girl. Tired because she loved the girl so much, but there was nothing to do because… well because the consequences would have been terrible. She looked at Lizzie with sadness in her eyes and then she sighed.
“Good luck Lizzie. May the best win.” She caught her Nimbus and went towards her team.
“Ready to warm up the brooms!” Alyssa Chang, Gryffindor, shouted into the microphone. She would have commented the entire game. “Go Gryffindor!” she encouraged her team and a chaotic cheering came from the crowd.
“Go Slytherin!” someone shouted and all Slytherins with him.
The game started. Slytherins took the Bludger first. Lightning flashed through the air. Then a loud and terrible sound. Hope looked at the sky, worried.
“You aren’t afraid of some drizzle, I hope” Lizzie apostrophised Hope. Hope huffed. Her attitude was getting on her nerves.
“I’m not scared. I’m worried. And you should be too”
Lizzie huffed, and as if she was speaking to an invisible crown said: “The pureblood Hope Mikaelson, ladies and gentlemen. The daughter of the Great Evil scared by some lightning ”
“Stop with your sarcasm, Lizzie! This is serious”
“You used to love my sarcasm” Lizzie replied with an angry grin.
Hope was silent. Then something caught her eyes. It was the golden snitch. The two girls looked at each other for a brief moment. Then they chased it. Shoulder to shoulder they started to run towards the snitch. There was some more lightning and drops of rain began falling from the sky more and more intensely making it harder to stay focused. Hope couldn’t understand which team was in the lead. Lizzie didn’t care. She only wanted to beat Hope.
Lizzie pushed Hope with her shoulder and the girl dodged the bleachers at the very last moment.
“Are you crazy??” shouted Hope trying to drown out the noise of thunder.
“I thought it was something legal in this game. I learned it from you!” shouted Lizzie with a challenging look. Hope rolled her eyes and accelerated, reaching her.
The snitch changed its direction flying up to the sky. Lizzie was ready and she changed immediately her direction effortlessly. Hope wasn’t ready and she lost precious moments. She thought how strange it was that Lizzie changed her direction so quickly. Hope herself, the best seeker of the last three years, needed more time to change her direction. She drove away her thoughts and ran after Lizzie.
“It’s too dangerous, Lizzie! We better go back!”
“Do as you want! I’m going to win this game!”
Hope huffed. She was thinking about slowing down and coming back, when she noticed a glint in Lizzie’s neck. It was the necklace. Their necklace. A metal necklace. Hope’s heart skipped a beat when she understood what was going to happen. The time had slowed. Lizzie was closer and closer to the snitch. She reached out, keeping the other hand tightly on the broomstick. Last few centimeters and it was done. She closed her eyes.
Hope accelerated in the hope of avoiding the inevitable. She rushed towards Lizzie to the best of her abilities and closed her eyes. There was a loud and terrible noise. When Lizzie reopened her eyes,
she saw a broom falling and not too far away a corpse gathering speed.
“HOPE!” shouted Lizzie terrified. She threw herself towards the girl racing with the highest speed she could. But it wasn’t enough. Hope was faster. The ground was closer and closer. Lizzie took out her wand. She pointed it at Hope and screamed: “Arresto Momentum”. Hope’s body slowed down until she was laid on the ground. She was motionless; her broom was next to her, broken into a million pieces.
When Lizzie touched the ground, she threw away her broom and she ran towards Hope. She wouldn’t move. Lizzie fell to her knees. She shook her: “Hope please, wake up!”. Tears started to run down her cheeks. A hand rested on her shoulder. It was Mc Gonagall’s. Meanwhile, other professors came nearer offering first aid to Hope who still wasn’t moving. Lizzie looked down at her hands, devastated. Her right hand was clenched into a fist. She opened it slowly. There was the snitch. She won. She cried, sobbing uncontrollably in the arms of her sister who had just reached her.
--------------------------
Lizzie was extremely worried. She was in the infirmary, at the end of Hope’s bed where the girl was sleeping. The nurse bandaged her breast and her right shoulder.
“She was lucky” the nurse moved next to Lizzie. “If you hadn’t slowed her fall, now there would be nothing to do. You saved her life.” And then she left the room. Lizzie hid her face in her hands and started again to sob. Now everyone thought she was a hero. But the reality was that she was a fool. She hadn’t listened to Hope and the auburn girl had literally taken lightning for her. Hope was the real hero. Stupid Felix Felicis thought Lizzie. She heard coughing and she immediately approached Hope with a sigh of relief. Hope tried to get up, but was stopped by the terrible pain in her chest.
“Take it easy”
“Water” Hope whispered.
Lizzie gave her a glass of water and helped the girl. Then she changed the position of the pillow to make Hope feel more comfortable. “How do you feel?” she asked with a mixture of concern and relief for Hope being alive.
“As if I was hit by some lightning” Hope joked, but then started to cough with a painful expression. The smile of Lizzie disappeared immediately: “Are you feeling bad? Do you need something? You want me to call the nurse?”
Hope smiled at Lizzie’s concerns. “You still do care about me then”
“I have always cared about you and you know it” sighed Lizzie.
“Look, Lizzie. About what happened at the beginning of summer…”
“Shh, not now. It’s not the time for this. We’ll talk about it when you are feeling better” and she took her hand. Hope squeezed it. They smiled at each other.
Lizzie felt warm in her heart. She loved her smile. Maybe things would never go back to normal, but she wanted to live the moment. And maybe, after all, Felix Felicis had not been so useless that day.