"Jessica Lynette Saunders!" my best friend and teammate Sammy Capper yelled at me. "Get your arse out of bed this instant, or I'll call Cedric up here to do it!"
I groaned and rolled over, pushing my face into my pillow. It was 5 in the morning, and my other best friend/captain, Cedric Bloody Diggory had called a stupid 5 am Saturday practice. Well, if that git thought I was getting up at 5 in the bloody morning he had another thing coming to him.
Oh, I'm sorry, let me introduce myself. My name is Jessie, Jessica Lynette Saunders. I'm a sixth year muggleborn chaser on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. My two best friends are Samantha Louise Capper and Cedric Amos Diggory. The three of us have been best friends since the train ride to Hogwarts our first year. Ced and Sammy taught me everything they knew about the wizarding world, and most importantly, everything they knew about Quidditch.
"Jessie!" Sammy whined, pulling my blanket off of me, leaving me unusually cold in my black Soffee shorts and yellow Hufflepuff Quidditch tee. I unwillingly dragged myself out of bed and threw on a black sports bra for later in the day and a yellow zip-up hoodie over top of it. I pulled a pair of black sweatpants on over my shorts, grabbed my brand new Firebolt, given to me by my brother Thomas, the new reserve chaser for the Wimbourne Wasps, and allowed Sammy to drag me out to the common room where Cedric and the rest of the team was waiting for us.
"Good morning sleepy head." he joked, handing me a cup of lukewarm coffee. "It would have been hot if you had been out here at 4:30 with the rest of the team."
I took a sip of the coffee before producing my wand and performing a heating charm on the drink. I pushed Cedric back down onto the sofa and sat myself down on top of him, as there was nowhere else to sit.
"What?" I asked, casting a glare at the three new members of the team. Devin Cadwallader, a fourth year, had taken my brother's place as chaser. Wayne Hopkins and Megan Jones, both third years, were our new beaters. Zacharias Smith and Sammy were used to the blatant relationship that Cedric and I shared. We were like siblings. But these newbies obviously thought that something was going on between us. What a joke!
Just as I had re-heated a piece of toast, Cedric grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder, then grabbed both of our brooms. "Alright team, now that Miss Saunders has finally graced us with her presence, we best be making our way down to the pitch."
Any other time of day, I would have kicked and screamed for Ced to put me down, but not this early in the morning. That and it was sort of nice having Cedric's arm wrapped around me. Wait, did I just say that? Wow, that didn't sound right. I couldn't have feelings for Cedric Diggory. He was my best friend, my captain, my teammate. It would just be wrong. So why aren't the butterflies disappearing?
