Trade Mistakes

The next few days went by without many more problems. Katie Bell was at St. Mungo’s and Harry would not leave the Malfoy theory alone. Ron and Hermione often rolled their eyes when he went on about Malfoy being a Death Eater. Though they doubted it, Trinity was slowly beginning to agree with Harry.

Trinity had begun to see a change in Malfoy. Lately, his pale skin was looking paler than it had been before. Faint dark rims could be seen underneath his gray eyes, like he had been missing sleep. She also noticed that he hadn’t been making fun of the half-blood or Muggle-born children at Hogwarts lately. He was quieter in the classes the Gryffindors shared with the Slytherins. If he was a Death Eater, she felt sorry for him instead of hating him like Harry did.

“Pay attention Trinity, Snape’s coming.” Neville whispered in Trinity’s ear while they were supposed to be reading pages 273 and 274 on vampires and how to repel them. Straying from her thoughts, she let her eyes wander to the front of the room where, indeed, Snape was approaching. Trinity rolled her eyes and looked back down at the book before turning the page to 275. Suddenly she felt someone’s eyes on her.

“Miss. Diggory, I doubt that you have read those two pages I have assigned at the beginning of class. I will not have students daydreaming in my class.” Professor Snape had told her, glaring down at her. She glanced up at him, not intimidated by the greasy professor’s attempts to make her afraid.

“I’m sorry Professor but I read these two pages as soon as you assigned them. I will not disagree with you about daydreaming because I certainly was but however, I have to disagree with your assumption that I didn’t read these pages.” Trinity replied. Snape leaned down further and got as close to her face as a teacher could. The scowl on his face was almost a mirror image of Malfoy’s.

“You will not speak back to me…ever Miss. Diggory! Twenty points from Gryffindor.” The other Gryffindors groaned except for Neville, Hermione, and Harry. They seemed to understand her predicament, somehow. Some of the Slytherins snickered but she didn’t see Malfoy laughing. Instead, she saw him looking out a window, spacing out.

Trinity turned back to Professor Snape who was now whacking Ron upside the head for talking to Harry. Lavender, who was sitting next to Parvati in front of her and Neville, covered her mouth to conceal the obnoxious giggle escaping her throat. Trinity scrunched up her face as well as Neville. Both of them looked at the other and silently laughed before the bell rang for class to be over.

**

At Quidditch practice that afternoon, Trinity noticed Dean was on the field next to Ginny, dressed in a Gryffindor Quidditch uniform. Was he Katie’s replacement? What happened to promising that poor third year a spot once a player was injured?

“Harry Potter!” Trinity yelled. She sounded very much like her best friend, “What’s the deal with Dean on the team?" Dean glared at her from beside Ginny but she didn't care, "I thought you promised that third year a spot on the team if someone was injured?” Trinity asked him, her anger coursing through her. How dare he take back his promise to that poor boy that was beaten by her! His mates made fun of him for a full week after the incident. She felt terrible.

“He injured himself in a Potions accident and wasn’t able to play Trinity! If you ever jump to conclusions again about my authority, I’ll kick you off the team!” Harry yelled, obviously frustrated. Trinity cooled off after hearing that he didn’t break his promise. She had deserved to be scolded like that. Rarely did she ever do what she just did and it reminded Trinity of her father, someone she did not want to be like…ever.

For the rest of the practice, Harry was trying to train Dean the plays they had gone over so many times while the rest of the team flew around the pitch. Ginny and Trinity were throwing and hitting a quaffle back and forth to each other, weaving through people flying around. Ginny threw one extremely hard and Trinity hit it with just as much power. It flew over her head and into the arms of Ron who was sitting on his Cleansweep in front of the goal posts. He smirked as he caught the ball perfectly. He better be that good come next Saturday. Trinity thought.

“Throw it back!” Ginny called over to Ron, waving her hand that wasn’t clutching her broom. Ron nodded and tossed the quaffle over to his little sister. The ball fell short though and started to descend to the snow covered ground below. Ginny quickly took off after it, increasing her speed as she reached out to grab the quaffle. Trinity could only watch in terror while Ron turned pale. It looked like the youngest Weasley would slam into the ground, possibly breaking all the bones in her body if she didn’t pull up soon. Finally she caught the quaffle and pulled her broom up so she was parallel with the ground that was only a few inches below her feet.

Trinity breathed a sigh of relief while Ron's face began to turn red. She didn't need to think twice to know that he was mad.

“What the bloody hell was that?” Ron yelled, staring at her with disbelief. Trinity couldn’t believe her friend just pulled off a stunt like that too. Ginny glared at her brother for yelling at her.

"It's called a Wronski Feint Ron and you should bloody know what it is by now!" She retorted. Trinity almost smirked but held it back.

“I know what it is! It was impressive...” He added, with awe and a hint of jealousy. Trinity felt bad for the boy. Being outshone in most areas by his siblings was hard. She knew what it felt like too with Suzanne and Oliver being the successful ones while she struggled to get the grades they got with the flick of their wands. Some things just aren’t fair, “Don’t ever do it again or I’ll tell Mum and Dad.” Ron warned as he got off his broom.

At that moment, Harry and the rest of the team flew down to where they were. Harry looked about livid as he stared at Ginny. The expression on her face wasn’t readable as she stared back at him. Trinity could tell there was a lot of tension between the two but turned to the rest of the team. They were walking back to the locker rooms, the signal that Harry had just ended practice.

“Don’t ever do that again Ginny. We’ve only got a week before our first game. Katie’s already out, I don’t anymore injuries. Understand?” Harry told her in a softer tone than Ron had used. Ginny nodded but she smirked at him before joining Trinity to walk to the locker rooms.

“I hope Dean didn’t have to wait too long.” Ginny told her as they put their brooms in their lockers after changing into their clothes. Trinity didn’t understand why Ginny was still with Dean. He was a nice guy and all but he often ignored her to talk to his friends. Besides, it was painfully obvious that she still fancied Harry. Ginny had told her out of confidence back around the time of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. It also seemed like he was beginning to see how awesome of a person Ginny was.

“He probably didn’t. Let’s go, I’m starving.” Trinity remarked, linking arms with her best friend. It seemed that life was going great for her. For once, she wasn’t in the shadow of her older sibling’s accomplishments. None of the teachers really knew she had older siblings, except for maybe Professor Dumbledore who seemed to ‘know’ about her past. This reminded her that she needed to pay the Headmaster a little visit. Excusing herself from Ginny, Trinity made her way to the Dumbledore's Office.