Chapter Seven
Hermione and Jack followed Ginny and Draco through the throngs of people talking and laughing as they discussed the game. They raced through the halls until they reached the players area of the stadium and Ginny ran in and jumped into her big brothers arms hugging him in delight.
"Yay! You beat the Wasps!" She yelled. The entire room was chaos as the players, still in their orange robes leapt around congratulating each other and celebrating with their families. Hermione felt herself grabbed from behind and soon she was spinning around. She laughed, and hugged Harry tight as he put her down.
"Good game Potter!" She said with a grin.
"Did you break the arm of the chair when I dove this time?" He teased her. He hit him lightly on the arm and laughed.
"Now I only actually broke the chair once and that was in the World Cup, and you almost killed yourself that game!" She defended herself.
"but thank you for not falling off your broom and not even getting hit by a bludger today. Maybe you're finally ready to have your name taken off your bed in the hospital wing…" She said with an evil grin.
"Hermione Granger! Are you implying that I'm clumsy?" He said in mock outrage.
"Nope. You've just had more accidents than half the league combined." She said in a serious tone and the shrieked as he began tickling her. Ron came running over and joined in.
"What are we tickling her for today Harry?" He asked over the laughter of the rest of the room who now watched the trio play around with fond smiles.
"She's making fun of all my injuries again mate!" Harry laughed as he picked Hermione up so she couldn't get away.
"Okay, Okay, I give in!" She yelled laughing. "None of the injuries were your fault, you are the supreme Quidditch God!" She giggled as they put her down.
"Well, as long as we've got that straight." Harry said with a cheeky grin and kissed her on the cheek before running off to talk to Draco.
"Good game Ron. One of your best in fact. You weren't even glaring suspiciously at Cho too much!" She said with a grin. He stuck his tongue out at her and bounded off to find Laurie who was talking with her parents.
Hermione was soon hugging the rest of the team members, and it must have been about ten minutes before she remembered with a horrified expression that she must have abandoned Jack somewhere by the door, and got carried away celebrating with her friends. She rushed back to look for him and found him watching the celebrations quietly.
"I'm so sorry! I just got caught up in everything Jack! It's just that this is a really important win for us, and they played really well, and…" Jack interrupted her.
"It's ok Hermione. I understand." He said, though he looked a bit put out at having been rather excluded from everything and the doubts Hermione had been having about the Quidditch game being a good idea for Jack came back with a vengeance.
For the next hour Hermione made a conscious effort to introduce Jack to everyone and to make him feel as involved as possible. She felt like she was a little detached from the rest of the celebration however, as she kept having to check out of the corner of her eye to make sure he was getting on alright. Usually this was one of her favourite parts of the day as the team all relaxed and analysed the game and teased each other. Today for the first time ever she felt uncomfortable as she realised it must be virtually impossible for an outside to penetrate this close knit group of people all with shared interests and connections to one another. She was almost relieved in some strange way when they stood to make their way to the Burrow. Ron, Harry and Laurie headed off to the locker rooms to change as Hermione gathered up their scattered belongings, finding their brooms and placing them in their protective cases ready for transport.
"Ready to apparate again?" She asked Jack as the others rejoined them. He made a slight face.
"Don't worry, it's not as far this time so the sensation is less pronounced." She reassured him as she took his hand and they left the apparating point with a soft `pop'.