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helenadurazzo · 1 year

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Miscalculation

Part One of my rewrite of Year 7, Chapter 51, also featuring the fall of R, spoilers ahead

“The snitch has been caught!” The commentator loudly and enthusiastically informed the crowd. “The Holyhead Harpies gains a victory over the Wimbourne Wasps, allowing their position for the quidditch league cup to advance!”

Helena cheered loudly at the sound of the announcement, just like the other Harpies fans who were either dressed in emerald green and gold, or had fan merchandise such as flags, with those colors. It had certainly been an exciting match, although the Harpies were behind for the majority of the game. However, they managed to pull through. In fact, the other seeker would have probably grabbed the small golden ball with wings first if it wasn’t for them being distracted by a bludger sent by none other than Helena’s girlfriend, allowing just enough time for the Harpies’ own seeker to snatch the golden snitch

She watched as a familiar blonde hair figured approached her with a smile, “Hope you enjoyed the game.” Erika had managed to get Helena and her brother VIP tickets for the game so not only was she in one of the best spots to watch the match, it also was not very crowded, and accommodated for a casual conversation, even equipped with enough room to land a broom as many of the VIPs went to await seeing other members of the team, “Want a ride? I know a wonderful spot near the pitch.”

“Of course!” Helena happily exclaimed.

“Do not forget we have to meet up with Mum and Dad soon.” Her older brother, Jacob attempted to remind her, “Aunt Cynthia is coming to visit , remember?”

“I have not forgotten.” Helena replied as she carefully got on the broom. “Chill.”

“I will get her back in time.” Erika assured him, seemingly noticing Jacob’s somewhat impatient attitude, “Don’t you worry.”

As they flew away, Helena could imagine her brother with his unimpressed, yet reluctantly accepting face. She remembered how when she first told Jacob about Erika, how he went into an overprotective brother mode, however, took a few steps back when he realized that Erika could be a fair match for him, after all, she was a skilled dueler, even though the majority of her talents fell within the realm of quidditch.

Erika flew the broom towards a beautiful meadow with colorful flowers that was still within sight of the quidditch pitch. In fact, the two probably could have walked there if they could not fly or apparate. The bright shining sun brought the meadow to life by seemingly enhancing the vibrant colors of each and every petal. It reminded her of the time Erika surprised her with a nighttime tea date in one of the greenhouses following the Valentine’s day dance when both of them were at Hogwarts. Helena figured that Erika had learned by now that it did not take much to impress her in the end.

“You did wonderful out there!” Helena congratulated her girlfriend again with a warm embrace once she landed her broom, getting off carefully and then looking back towards Erika as she held her broom firmly. “The seeker may be the one to seal the victory by catching the snitch, but without beaters like you and Gwenog, they would never have a chance.”

Helena was never a super fan of quidditch when she was younger and could not claim any different now. However, what she definitely knew was that she had found a favorite quidditch team in the Holyhead Harpies, although she might have been a little biased. After all, her girlfriend did certainly look magnificent in her emerald green uniform that was not all that different from the dark green uniform she wore when she played for Slytherin as a student.

“I am still technically a reserve.” Erika reminded her with cautious optimism. “I only got to play this match because Rhonda fell badly ill with dragon pox.”

“Wasn’t she planning on retiring at the end of the season?” Helena asked curiously, hoping not to sound insensitive, “or was it the next one?”

“Yeah, although she was quite speculative about it.” Erika admitted. “As much as I want to be a permanent player, it’ll be sad to see her go, she has been a staple of the Harpies for many years.“

“You do make a good point.” Helena agreed. Although she had never met Rhonda before, she did recall seeing her name pop up a number of times, having at least part of the credit of successful victory to Harpies credited to her.

“I don’t want to make this all about me, so what have you been up to?” Erika asked.

“Well, you can not tell anyone what I am about to tell you.” Helena quietly began, glancing around her, “because if the wrong person hears this, it could ruin everything and we’d have to recalculate.”

“Does this have to do with R?” Erika questioned quietly, picking up on the need for secrecy.

“Yes.” Helena nodded, “Me and Jacob have a plan on how to take them down. Basically, we are going to get as many aurors as we can and ambush them at their next meeting, ending their reign of terror right then and there, and no one will get hurt ever again.”

Erika nodded at Helena’s brief explanation, “You have not told any of the members of the Circle of Khanna about your plan?” Erika skeptically asked.

“We have many members who are great with combat.” Helena explained, “Talbott and Tonks have been working hard to become an auror after graduation, and Jae knows his way around Knockturn Alley so he knows how to defend himself against dark magic. Regardless, we are all just students at the end of the day. The people we face if R are experienced with dark magic and much more knowledgeable than us, if the Circle of Khanna ambushed her, someone would get hurt, if not die for sure, and I cannot risk that. At least if we bring in Aurors, plus me and Jacob, no one else will need to get hurt.”

Erika sighed, “Seems like I am not talking you about keeping yourself out of danger am I? You need to remember that you are also not as experienced as the Aurors, and it’s simply because you have not had the extensive training they have had and nothing more, you want to go risk your life as well?”

“I managed to defeat Rakepick in the Sunken Vault.” Helena reminded her, “I may not be as strong as the Aurors or my brother, but I need to-“

“Shush.” Erika suddenly said, using her head to motion to someone who was most likely approaching them. She then leaned and whispered, “We will continue this later, just be careful.” into Helena’s ear.

Helena could not deny the fact that Erika had a strong point. However, she knew she was not like her peers, she never really was. None of them needed to get thrown into the cursed vaults and R nonsense but ended up being thrown in anyways, and it was her fault. She knew full well that if she had told her peers about her plan, they would not have questioned the idea of joining her, especially as it translated into Rowan’s death finally being avenged by contributing to the fall of the dark society that caused it. However, it was a risk Helena could not bear taking. Was her

plan complete nonsense? Possibly, however it did not matter much to her anyways, in a week, she told herself over and over again, replacing the amount of time with the necessary amount, this will all be over.

As these thoughts flowed through Helena’s head like a loud and rushing river, she noticed Gwenog Jones approaching them, like Erika she was still dressed in her Holyhead Harpies uniform, supposedly going to find them before heading to the tents to change like the rest of their teammates. She must had walked all the way there as Helena had not heard anything that could point to Apparation being the method of her arrival, unless her thoughts caused her to not hear the brief moment it happened, and she certainly did not have her broomstick in her hand. Still, Helena did not think much of it, after all, it made sense. Erika and Gwenog had been friends ever since they met during

their school years, with Gwenog serving as a mentor to Erika in the ways of being a beater.

“Great to see you again!” Gwenog called out with a smile, “How have you been Helena?”

“Good.” Helena replied simply, “Me and Erika were just talking about your victory against the Wasps, it was such an incredible match to watch.”

“Glad you enjoyed it!” Gwenog cheerfully replied, “Always happy to please a fan.”

“Any word about Rhonda’s condition?” Erika asked suddenly. “Is she recovering?”

“Hmm?” Gwenog started, as if she was caught off guard by the question, “Ah yes, Rhonda! I apologize, after all the prep work for this match and the insanity of actually doing said match has made the topic slip my mind you know?”

“Right…” Erika replied, however Helena could tell by her facial expressions that she was unconvinced.

Helena initially attempted to pay attention to Erika and Gwenog’s conversation, but an observation she silently made caused their conversation to become nothing but background noise. It was certainly hard to make out due to how bright the sun was shining, however Helena could confirm that there were two figures, on brooms, flying towards them. One was clearly a man, and by his messy black hair and seemingly lack of flying talent shown by how his broom refused to fly in a completely straight line, allowed Helena to determine that it had to have been Jacob who somehow managed to get his hands on a broom, rather than a more experienced member of the Wimbourne Wasps.

The second figure however, was much more difficult to determine. It was most certainly a woman, but her lack of wearing a green or yellow quidditch uniform determined she had either changed out of her uniform into more casual clothes, or like Jacob, was simply a spectator who got her hands on a broom, although she was certainly wearing the emerald green of the Holyhead Harpies. However, she started questioning more as the brooms got closer, and she could more clearly examine the woman who had a darker complexion and dark brown hair that almost appeared to be black that was styled in braids that flew gently with the wind, she almost looked like Gwenog, in fact, almost too much like Gwenog.

As if on cue, Gwenog suddenly turned around and pulled out her wand and did a quick swish of it but did not say anything. Almost immediately, her brother fell from his broom and succumbed to gravity, quickly tumbling towards the ground below him, however, the woman who looked like Gwenog more and more the closer she got, quickly landed her broom, stationed it to be directly below Jacob, and transfigured it into a mattress, which Helena inferred was certainly an improvement to landing awkwardly on the ground.

Normally, Helena figured that in the rare case she was ever involved in a situation that involved a doppelgänger and Gwenog, that Erika would need to be the one to tell the difference between the two. However, in this instance, even Helena, who did not know Gwenog as well, could even tell the difference. After all, she remembered during her first meeting with Gwenog Jones, she admitted to being poor with charms, even in the present. However, she also claimed she was one of the best in her year when it came to the art of transfiguration.

Helena grabbed her wand and pointed it threateningly at the imposter, however the woman only smirked as she uttered the word, “Expelliarmus.” With ease, causing for Helena’s wand to go flying out of her hand with a flash of scarlet light.

Her brother and Gwenog had their own wands out and engaged in a couple of spells back and forth with the fake Gwenog. However, the imposter managed to avoid each of their spells with ease, knocking both of them out with a stunning spell, though she herself even realized it would not give her a lot of time.

Helena watched as Erika instinctively stood in front of Helena as the woman turned towards them, “I do not know who you are.” Erika confidently spat at the woman, “but I won’t let you lay a single finger on her.” Helena assumed Erika did not have her wand with her, which honestly made sense as she hardly ever saw Erika with her wand during her training.

The woman only chuckled like a stereotypical villainess, Helena admitted it was cliche, but there was something about hearing an evil laugh in person that made it frightening, especially in a situation where you had no means to defend yourself effectively. Helena watched once more as the woman transformed herself into another form, Helena determined it was Verucca Buckthorn-Snyde, the director of R and according to multiple sources, one of the leader’s most trusted allies. Verucca looked as how Helena remembered her from spying on previous R meetings, an old woman with completely grey hair with the exception of a single part that was amber, not too unlike a certain Slytherin in her year.

“Unfortunately for you.” Verucca replied with a smirk as she grabbed both of them firmly most likely to enact a forced Apparation, “you don’t have a choice.”

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