"Celia, you don't have to come and watch us play if you don't want to," Katie said as she pulled her Quidditch jumper on.

"No, it's okay, I want to support you." Celia was sat in front of the vanity in the corner, brushing her hair into a high ponytail.

"Thanks," Katie said, although she still looked a little concerned, "I just can't stand the thought of you being stuck with Cormac in the stands. I swear all he does is complain about how he could do better than Ron the entire team."

"No... he also says how he could do better than the entire team," Celia said with a small smile, "Besides, I don't have to sit with Cormac. I have other friends too luckily although it is a bit lonely without you guys. Still, I love seeing you three play even if I don't always understand what's going on."

"Yet you cheer anyway," Katie said with a grin, "That's the sign of a good friend."

A sharp knock at the door interrupted the girls' conversation and they opened it to find Angelina and Alicia waiting outside.

"Is Sarah in there?" Alicia asked, "I need my Charms textbook back from her before I go to the game. I need to revise afterwards but I can't if she has it."

"No, we're the only ones here," Katie said, trying and failing to put her hair into a bun.

"Oh god, Katie, that's going to come out," Angelina sighed, "Here, let me help you," She walked over to Katie, brushing her hair out and sorting it out for her. Alicia sidled over to Celia who was still sitting at the vanity, staring at her own reflection blankly. Upon her friend's arrival, she looked up and gave Alicia a smile.

"Nervous for the game, Al?" She asked. Alicia considered this before her face broke into a smile.

"Nah, we're going to crush it. It's Hufflepuff and I'm going to be channeling all my irritation into thrashing them." Alicia said.

Celia laughed slightly, "What did Hufflepuff every do to you?"

"Nothing but I'll imagine that all the players are people I hate," Alicia said, "I'll pretend the hoop is Goyle's face and if the keeper gets in my way, so be it..."

"Just remember the keeper isn't Goyle, don't hurt them, Al," Celia replied softly, "Besides maybe we shouldn't be too angry, maybe Cormac was right - "

"No, Celia, he wasn't." Angelina cut in from the other side of the room, "I don't even know the context and yet I know he's wrong."

"You guys are harsh on him - " Celia began to protest but Alicia cut in.

"And with good reason, the guy's a total asshole," Alicia leaned back on the wall, "He's kind of cute but his personality completely cancels that out."

Celia didn't respond to this. Part of her wanted to leap to his defence and tell they were wrong but she wasn't exactly sure if she believed it. He'd been dismissive of her feelings and even if he was right and she was blowing the kiss out of proportion, he should have acknowledged her feelings. Silence seemed to be the best policy. 

Eventually, Katie's hair was done and the four girls left the dorms. Katie did feel a bit like the odd one out due to the fact she was the only one of them not to be wearing a Quidditch uniform so she hastily wrapped a Gryffindor scarf around her neck to match. Her heart fell slightly as she saw Cormac sitting leisurely on one of the sofas, looking hopefully up at the stairs. A few people were sat near him and judging from their expressions when Cormac spoke they were simply humouring as opposed to enjoy his company and conversation.

"Oh God," Angelina muttered, "Celia, do you want me to hit him with my broom for you?"

"No, it's fine, he's just sitting down," Celia replied, "He might be waiting for someone else."

"Considering he has no other friends, that seems unlikely," Alicia smirked slightly. Although she would have preferred to sit with someone else, if Cormac was waiting, she knew he'd be upset if she ignored him. They were old friends after all and they usually sat together in Quidditch matches, she felt kind of obligated to sit with him.

"Do you want us to wait with you until he goes?" Katie asked but Celia shook her head.

"No, it's fine, you guys need to get down to the pitch anyway, I don't want you guys to be late." The three of them looked at her, their eyes filled with slight concern, "Really guys, it's fine. I refuse to let you guys be late for me. I'll be fine with him, he's my friend."

"Right," Angelina eyed him up as the four of them proceeded to go down the stairs. Cormac noticed their arrival and stood up to greet Celia. Angelina hissed to Celia, "If you want to get away from him, send red sparks into the air and I'll throw the Quaffle at him."

"Thanks," Celia smiled, "I'll see you guys after the match, okay?"

"Okay," Alicia said, reluctantly leaving, "Bye Celia... bye McLaggen." Her voice taking on a slightly irritated tone as she said the last part before following her two friends. With a slight wave, the three of them vanished through the portrait to head to their match. Although the prospect of being alone with Cormac had seemed slightly annoying before, it now seemed positively daunting as he gave her a slight smirk.

"Ready for the match, Celia?" He said with a confident tone.

"Yeah, I've got my scarf and everything," She said with a forced smile, "Shall we go?"

"Sure," Cormac eyed the people on the sofa up, "I feel a bit bad leaving them," He gestured over to them and Celia couldn't help feeling that they actually seemed happier now that Cormac had gone.

"I'm sure they'll be fine," Celia said with a wry smile, "Come on, we'd better go down to pitch if we want to get good seats."

"Yeah, you're right. I want to see how Weasley does, he did okay last game but I reckon it was beginners luck..."

Cormac proceeded to complain about Ron for the entire duration of their walk. Celia was surprised that he was complaining about Ron, she assumed he would have moved onto Harry, Fred and George who's out of match fight had led them to be banned from the game. Ron being a good keeper was definitely not the main event to take away from that game although to Cormac it clearly was. 

" - I reckon he'd put a charm on his broom to be completely honest," Cormac said as they filed into the seats, "You can do that, you know, I've seen it happen - "

"Cormac, look there are a few seats at the front!" Celia cut in, dashing a few paces ahead and filing down the seats.

"I don't know," Cormac stopped, blocking the streams of people who parted around him, "The few of the hoops isn't great..."

"Cormac, come on!" Celia called, "If better seats come up we can take them but this gives us a good view of the game as a whole!"

Cormac sighed and reluctantly followed her, sitting down and craning his neck to see the hoops, "I guess I can see the hoops from here, it will do. Oh wait, actually I can see the hoops..."

Celia's attention began to drift away from Cormac, shifting, instead, to the large boy who sitting down on the Slytherin stand on the other side. Although she couldn't make out his face well she could tell by his lumbering walk and broad figure that it was Goyle. Even though he was all the way over the other side of the stands, she still felt her hairs stand on end and her bruises ache at the memory of their last encounter. An overwhelming wave of nausea suddenly came over and she bent over on her seat as her head began to spin. He's on the other side, she thought, he can't hurt me but the panic set in.

"Celia?" She heard Cormac say, putting his hand on her back, "Celia? What's wrong?"

He hastily climbed off his seat, kneeling in front of her, trying to lift her head up from her lap. Slowly, she complied, lifting her head up to meet his eyes. Loose strands of hair fell around her face, slightly obscuring her face although Cormac could still make out the discomfort etched onto her face.

"Celia? What's wrong?" He asked, "Are you sick? Do you want to go back to the dorms?"

"I'm not sick," She whispered, "He's there on the other side... I feel like he can see me."

"Who?" Cormac knitted his brows as he turned around, trying to figure out who Celia was talking about, "Celia, you sound crazy, nobody's watching you."

By now, a few people had noticed Celia and exchanged concerned glances. In response to this, Cormac gave them a cocky smile, mouthing that she was okay to keep them at bay.

"Celia, you're causing a scene," He whispered, "What's wrong?"

"Goyle's in the stands over there," She whispered, "I knew he'd be here but I don't want to see him."

Cormac drew back slightly, the concern slowly seeping out of his face, replaced with a look of intense frustration. Celia sat up slightly, moving her hands from her face.

"Celia, really?" Cormac sighed, "He's over there, he's not going to kiss you... for God's sake, he can't even see your face. He probably doesn't know you're there, he's not going to come and find you. Stop making a scene, I thought we agreed that you were going to forget about it, it was just a kiss... I've kissed tonnes of girls and they never act like this."

"Maybe they do and you just don't see," She whispered and was slightly relieved to see that Cormac didn't hear her. Cormac removed his hands from her shoulders and stood up, returning to his seat besides her. Celia followed suite, straightening herself and tucking the loose strands of hair behind her hairs.

"Stop making a fuss." Cormac hissed, looking straight forward. With a start, he stood up, pointing down below. His face lit up with glee as the team began to walk up, his irritation and concern for Celia all forgotten, "Hey, look, the team's coming on the pitch, Celia, look..."

Celia stayed rooted to her chair, her eyes still fixated on Goyle. She finally managed to tear her eyes away from him, joining in the chairs, determined to support her friends even if her head was still slightly spinning. Despite this, she still felt her glance slipping back to Goyle every so often, the same feeling of dizziness and nausea overtaking her every time her eyes rested on him. She wanted to 'just move on' but it felt like, until she had closure on the incident, Goyle would still occupy a permanent space in her mind.