Falling Into Black

It was the first day of October, and the first Quidditch match of year was about to begin. Katie and Natalie were in the girl’s locker-room trying to get Natalie ready. Natalie was calm and collected, while Katie was jittery and nervous. Which was ironic because she wasn’t even the only playing. But she was nervous for Natalie and Sirius.

“Funny how I’m not nervous but you are” Natalie snickered, strapping on her shin guards.

“I’m always nervous during Gryffindor games” Katie shot back. “And you say that every time, so shut up.” Natalie grinned.

“Defensive, are we? Are we afwaid wittle Siwius is going to get hurt?” she cooed. Katie glared at her friend, but before she could retort, someone yelled it was time to go.

“Well, good luck” Katie sighed, hugging Natalie.

“Thank, Kitty” Natalie smiled. “Now get. I have a match win.” Katie smiled back, before exiting the locker-room.

~

Sirius sighed as he paced around, his heart nearly springing from his chest. He hadn’t felt this nervous about a game since first year, but now that he knew Katie was watching, he had to do his best.

“Padfoot, man, calm down” James laughed when he saw the anxiously pacing man.

“Shut up, Prongs. I’m not going to calm down because I know Katie’s watching and I want to impress her, but I’m afraid I’m going to screw up and make a fool of myself, Ohmygod, Prongs, what do I do?” Sirius said in a rush and in all in one breath. James chuckled, patting his friend on the back.

“Relax, man” James said gently. “You’ll do fine. You always do. And Katie had always been watching, you just didn’t exactly know at the time.” Sirius sighed, and nodded. “Good, now come on. Let’s win this game!” he cheered, earning whistles and whoops from the other guys.

~

Katie’s newly healed leg was bouncing up and down with anxiousness as she watched the game intently. She couldn’t hear anything around her, and could only see Natalie and/or Sirius. She knew Remus was beside her, and Peter was on his other side, but that was because that was how they sat. Katie hadn’t looked away from the game since it had started.

“Katie, you need to relax” Remus chuckled, patting her arm.

“I won’t until the game is done” she retorted. “And you know how dangerous Quidditch can be.” Remus shrugged.

“Yeah, but if it helps, no one has died in, like, 20 years maybe” he stated.

“What about seriously injured?” she shot back, raising her eyebrows but not looking away. Remus pursed his lips, saying nothing. “Exactly.”

~

Natalie easily caught the quaffle, and whipped her broom around. She zipped around Slytherin Chasers easily, dodging bludgers. Her breath sawed out of her chest as she shot toward the ring, and she cheered when the Slytherin Keeper missed the quaffle and it went sailing through the ring.

“Nice shot, Nat!” she heard Sirius yell, and grinned. The Gryffindors were winning 120-45, and if only James would catch the stupid snitch, then this massacre would be over.

Just as she thought that, James zipped off to the left and started swerving around, no doubt chasing the sneaky little snitch. Natalie watched him for a bit, before focusing back on the game.

~

As Sirius was about to whack a bludger away from himself, another bludger appeared out of nowhere and crashed into his raised arm, causing him to loose his bat. Sirius wobbled on his broom as he cradled his no-doubt broken arm to his chest. Before he could pull out of the match, a bludger came sailing toward him. Quickly, he zipped out of the way, but it followed. “Oh, shit” he hissed to himself. Thinking quickly, he swerved around the towers hoping the bludger would give up. It didn’t.

Just when he thought this couldn’t get any worse, the second bludger slammed into the back of his broom, sending him flying off his broom. He hit the ground hard, but, ignoring his pain, rolled over as one bludger tried to pound his head into the sand.

“Expulso!” he suddenly heard, then the bludger exploded into a million little pieces. “Sirius! Are you alright?” a familiar voice asked. He blinked as Katie’s face came into his line of vision.

“Ow, I think so” he groaned. Katie helped him sit up, face laced with concern. Sirius couldn’t help but notice, even through his pain, that with the sun behind Katie and with her blonde hair, she looked like an angel. Beautiful.

“Come on, lets get you out of here so Madame Pomfrey can look at you” she said urgently, looking around. Sirius winced as he stood up with Katie’s help, and then limped off the track below the game. As soon as they were out of the pitch, Madame Pomfrey was in front of them, easing him onto a stretcher. “I think his arm’s broken” Katie told her. “And his heart is beating unevenly. Is that normal?”

“From the fall he took, yes that is normal” Madame Pomfrey said shortly. “And I can fix his arm, easily.”

“Did Prongs get the snitch?” Sirius mumbled. His entire body ached, and he felt lightheaded, but he wanted to know how the game turned out. Katie smiled a bit.

“Yeah, right as you hit the ground he caught it. Right now I bet he’s trying to get past the crowd that has him swamped so he can see you” she said softly. He smiled a bit as well.

“Just like him” Sirius murmured. Katie nodded in agreement, though he could see the worry still in her eyes. “Hey, I’m going to be fine. You don’t need to worry so much. You’ll get wrinkles.” That made her laugh a bit. Her laugh was beautiful. Music to his ears even as they were ringing and his head was pounding. I’m so in love with her, Sirius thought matter-o-factly.