Chapter Title: Breaking Oliver’s Nose
Pairing: George Weasley/Donella Stirling (Original Character)
Warning(s): none
Words: 1191

Notes: SEE! SEE, I TOLD YOU I WOULD PICK THE PLOT UP!

“Where the hell is Ella?” Oliver growled as he paced around the Gryffindor locker room. “The match is starting any minute now, this is completely unacceptable,” he muttered to himself. “Katie! You’ve got to know where she is!”

“No, Oliver, I don’t. I’m sorry, I really have no idea,” Katie said helplessly, picking at her robes. She was actually quite nervous, Ella was never late, especially not this late and especially not late to Quidditch.

Oliver massaged his temples as the stress of the oncoming match set in. “Fine,” he groaned, “Alica! We need you again today!” He barked at Alicia Spinnet, one of the reserve Chasers. She looked as though she didn’t enjoy Oliver yelling at her for no good reason. “Well come on,” he said, beckoning the rest of the team to follow him, “we’re playing. With or without Ella.” George followed Oliver absentmindedly. It really was odd for Ella to be missing Quidditch.

“Do you really not know where she is?” He asked Katie quietly as they walked onto the pitch. Oliver took off for a warm-up lap around the posts to blow off some steam.

“I really don’t,” She answered him just as quietly.

George sighed and Fred patted him on the shoulder comfortingly. George was just starting to mount his broom when Professor McGonagall came rushing out onto the field with a large purple megaphone.

George’s stomach tied itself in knots.

“This match has been canceled,” Professor McGonagall announced. Students began protesting immediately with boos and shouts and Oliver, who looked extremely devastated, landed in front of McGonagall.

“But, Professor!” She shouted desperately, “We’ve got to play —  the cup — Gryffindor —”

Professor McGonagall ignored him and continued to shout through her megaphone:

“All students are to make their way back to the House common rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!”

She lowered the megaphone and beckoned Harry, Fred, and George over to her.

“Potter, Weasleys, I think you’d better come with me…”

The knot in George’s stomach tightened as he wondered what she could possibly need them for. Harry, he understood, a lot of suspicious things had been happening that might have had to do with Harry. But what did he and Fred have to do with anything? Ron shoved his way over to them and Professor McGonagall told him that he better come along as well. This was in no way going to be good, he could tell. They followed Professor McGonagall into the school, wordlessly moving through hoards of complaining students.

“This will be a bit of a shock,” said Professor McGonagall in a surprisingly gentle tone as they approached the infirmary. “There has been another attack…this time a triple attack.”

George’s stomach didn’t even feel like a stomach anymore, it didn’t even feel like it was knotted anymore. It felt like an angry swarm of hornets were buzzing around in his abdomen. Professor McGonagall pushed the door open and he entered with Harry and his brothers.

Madam Pomfrey was bending over a fifth-year girl with long hair that George recognized as Penelope Clearwater, the Ravenclaw Prefect that Percy had a crush on. And on the bed next to her was —

 “Ella!” George had gasped just as Ron was groaning, “Hermione!”

Ella lay disturbingly still, her eyes wide open and glassy. She was frozen position that indicated that she was probably trying to shield someone from something.

“They were found near the library,” Professor McGonagall said. “I don’t suppose any of you could explain this? It was on the floor next to them… .”

She was holding a small, circular mirror.

They all shook their heads, staring at their petrified friends.

“I will escort you back to Gryffindor tower,” said Professor McGonagall heavily. “ I need to address the students in any case.”

George climbed through the portrait hole, and before Professor McGonagall could even enter the common room Oliver practically pounced on Fred and George.

“So where was she, huh?” Oliver demanded. He seemed incredibly furious. “Was she in the library again? Reading some stupid book about something stupid? Merlin, what a traitor!”

Before anyone could stop him, George threw a punch right at Oliver’s nose and felt the slightest bit a satisfaction when he felt a crunch. Oliver’s nose was broken and blood was pouring down onto his upper lip. George couldn’t believe that Oliver had just said that about Ella. She was an amazing Chaser, who had been one of the reasons that the Gryffindor team was so strong. She was also one of his best friends, and George didn’t take kindly to people talking sorely about his friends.

Oliver looked at George in complete and utter shock but didn’t hit him back, there was no point, Professor McGonagall was already in the room.

“Detention, Weasley!” Professor McGonagall said angrily. “Now is not the time to be turning on each other!” She directed her attention at Oliver, said, “Episkey,” and had his nose fixed in an instant. “Now,” she cleared her throat and started to read from a roll of parchment:

“All students will return to their House common rooms by six o’clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities.”

The entirety of Gryffindor House was packed into the common room, listening to Professor McGonagall in grim silence. She rolled up the parchment she had been reading from and said in a somewhat choked voice, “I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward.”

She slinked awkwardly out of the portrait hole, and the common room exploded into conversation.

“That’s three Gryffindors, not counting a Gryffindor ghost, one Ravenclaw, and one Hufflepuff,” said the twins’ best friend, Lee Jordan, counting on his fingers. “Haven’t any of the teachers noticed that the Slytherins are all safe? Isn’t it obvious all this stuff’s coming from Slytherin? The Heir of Slytherin, the monster of Slytherin — why don’t they just chuck all the Slytherins out?” he roared, to nods and applause.

Percy was sitting in a chair behind Lee, and for the first time in his life that George could remember, he wasn’t talking. He looked pale and slightly ill.

“Percy’s in shock,” George told Harry quietly. “That Ravenclaw girl — Penelope Clearwater — she’s a prefect. I don’t think he thought the monster would dare attack a prefect.” But George could tell that Harry was not all listening to him, and he went upstairs, murmuring to Fred as he passed, “I’m going to bed.”

“I’ll come too,” Fred said and followed his brother up to the dormitories.

But neither of them went to sleep. Neither of them slept at all that night.