Author's Note: Not beta'd, sorry if there are any mistakes.
"Kids! It's time to wake up!" Laura's dad shouted cheerily, right before opening the door to Laura's room.
They were all a huge heap under the blankets in Laura's monstrous king-sized bed; you couldn't tell where one body ended and another began. A red head shot up at the sudden noise, wand already out and ready strike. In hindsight, it may not have been the smartest idea after only four hours of sleep and five big butter beers. Danny lost her balance and fell to the floor, taking three of the blankets along with her.
"Oh shit!" She massaged her head, wincing.
Laura groaned from her bed, shoved her head deeper under a pillow. "I don't wanna get up."
"Didn't you girls say there was this big broom challenge you wanted to get to?" Mr. Hollis frowned.
There was a moment of complete silence as the words sank in. Then, Laura slowly pulled out her head from underneath the pillows and looked at Danny who was still sitting on the floor, finally looking more like herself again.
Perry and Lafontaine didn't give any signs of acknowledging the activity surrounding them, still fast asleep.
Well, until Danny and Laura started screaming and jumping around as they realized the waiting was over, at least.
The International Quidditch Cup was finally here.
Laura jumped up from the bed and kissed her dad's cheek. "It's called Quidditch, dad."
"Potato, poh-tah-toh." He rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "I'd much rather have two night shifts in a row at the station than having to remember the names of all your wizarding shenanigans."
"Oh dad, come on!" Laura shouted her indignation at him, already in the bathroom to get ready.
Lafontaine raised their head, still mostly asleep. They gave up after a few seconds on having to concentrate on everyone bustling around, and laid their head back on Perry's chest.
Laura however was keen on having everyone up and about in record time, and Danny followed her example. The tall redhead dragged what was left of the blankets off the bed while Laura, now in full Moose Jaw Meteorites costume, started tickling Lafontaine and Perry's feet.
"Come on guys, we're on a schedule here!"
"Ugh, who plugged her in so early in the morning?" Lafontaine groaned, kicking their feet so Laura would stop tickling.
Perry yawned, "I'm sorry, sweetie, but she's right. We need to start preparing if we want to catch good seats."
"Ugh."
"Come on, Laf, a little more dedication here!" Danny cheered on, while applying dark green and gold paint on her face. "Besides, Quiberon Quafflepunchers sure need all the support they can get."
Lafontaine got up at that. "That was like one time. And if my memory serves me right, your precious Harpies got their asses kicked back to themselves right after when they played against the Vratsa Vultures.
Danny rolled her eyes, "Oh please don't remind me; that was a day of national mourning." She added as she pulled a brand new Holyhead Harpies sweater over her head.
"Oh, I'm sure you haven't forgotten." They turned their head to look at Laura, who was currently picking up whatever was lying on the floor and dropping everything into a pile inside her closet. "Hey, when's Carmilla getting here?" They asked pointedly, eyes trained back on Danny.
"Oh Laf, don't you da –" Danny began, but was suddenly interrupted by Laura.
"Oh my god, Carmilla! She should have been here already!" She quickly scrabbled from the floor and ran out of the room.
Taking the stairs two at a time, Laura almost pancaked herself into the front door as she rushed to get outside.
She was not disappointed when she finally got to her front porch.
"Took you long enough."
Carmilla was leaning against the wall, playing around with a snitch painted in the classical burgundy and silver Vratsa Vultures colors. She was all dressed up for the game, except unlike the others, her outfit was authentic.
Like, really authentic. As in hers.
Karnstein was broidered with silver thread on the back of her robe, a big number 7 underneath it.
"Carm," Laura squealed, right before jumping into her arms. Carmilla dropped the snitch back into her pocket and turned to face Laura, before they would have both turned in a huge mess on the ground.
She caught her effortlessly, grinned as Laura's legs locked around her waist.
Laura kissed her, then kissed her again. "I was afraid you'd back out," she whispered against her lips, before closing the distance between them for a third time.
"And miss out on seeing your delicious scrunched up face as your Meteorites lose to my Vultures?" Carmilla's grin widened, "Not a chance." She kissed Laura again as she shifted their positions, so that Laura was now caught between the wall and her own body.
Carmilla grabbed Laura's bottom lip between her teeth, swallowed the little gasp Laura let slip. Laura's hands were in her hair, pulling her closer.
Laura kissed her, like really kissed her, like an Oh-my-god-get-a-fucking-room-goddammit kind of kiss.
Carmilla bit back a moan; this was neither the time nor the place. She tightened her hold on Laura's waist, and slowly, tenderly, brought their make-out session down into the PG-13 approved stage.
"We can apparate upstairs in my room," Laura breathed, her voice rust, sandpaper.
Carmilla pulled away from Laura's lips, but left their foreheads rest together.
"Your dad loves me, Hollis." She cracked a smile that Laura felt more than saw. "I'd like to keep it that way." She pecked Laura on the lips one last time before lowering her to the ground.
"Can you stand or do your knees need a little helping spell?" Carmilla joked.
Laura huffed, but it was more a laugh than it was indignation, "My knees are very capable, thank you very much."
They both knew perfectly well what effect they had on each other.
"Come on, let's go inside. Dad's making breakfast."
Laura had already turned when Carmilla grabbed her wrist. "Wait a second,"
Laura raised an eyebrow at her in question. Carmilla dropped her hand, straightened her robe and put her best game face on. Jaw set, lips pursed, eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"Do I look badass?" she asked in her most serious tone.
Laura burst out laughing, before moving on to kiss her again. "Yeah," she said as her hand sneaked around Carmilla's waist, bringing her to her side, "Yeah, you look badass."
"Finally! Thought you'd never get enough of each other out there," Danny exclaimed as Laura dragged Carmilla inside by the hand. Carmilla looked thoroughly bored and cool as soon as she was on the other side of the door, and it was easy to miss the way her thumb brushed against Laura's or the way her fingers tightened their hold slightly every now and then.
At Danny's words, Carmilla turned a deep shade of red, a perfect match for her costume.
Especially as Laura's dad cleared his throat loudly from behind Danny, before coming forth and extending his hand towards Carmilla.
"Mr. Hollis." Carmilla said, dropping Laura's hand to shake his.
He pulled her forth and enveloped her in a one-armed, bear hug, smiling. Carmilla tensed, not knowing what to do, even if the hug wasn't completely unexpected.
It happened the other dozen times Carmilla had seen Laura's dad, as well.
She patted him on the back self-consciously, otherwise simply standing there praying to God she wasn't embarrassing herself too hard.
Perry suddenly appeared from the kitchen, Lafontaine hot on her heels. They wound their arms around Perry from behind, laid a small kiss at the back of her neck.
"Breakfast's ready!" Perry said loudly, before she got the chance to take in the scene before her.
Carmilla, looking more uncomfortable than that time Laura realized out loud in the Great Hall that Carmilla has a crush on her; Laura, trying really hard not to laugh, and finally Danny, a look of pure satisfaction all over her face.
Lafontaine whispered in her ear, "We should take a picture, this is gold blackmail material."
"Carmilla would kill us all and not think twice about it." Perry whispered back. She decided to save the poor girl and went on, loud enough for everyone to hear and ruin the mood, "Come on everyone, before the eggs get cold."
It was pretty tight around the kitchen table, everyone except Mr. Hollis already dressed up in costumes representing their favorite teams.
Laura's ginormous moose hat risked falling into her omelette more than once.
Still, both Danny and Carmilla were able to act civilized around each other, and Laura was actually pleasantly surprised when she realized they had threatened each other only twice during the whole meal.
Even she was riled up if she were being honest to herself, she couldn't promise she wouldn't have cursed someone with a tail if they had insulted the Moose Jaw Meteorites right then. Only Lafontaine and Perry seemed to get along as usual, even if there was a well-known rivalry between Laf's French Quiberon Quafflepunchers and Perry's German Heidelberg Harriers.
They were holding hands under the table though, so Laura felt there was nothing to worry about.
"You guys all set up?" Mr. Hollis gave Laura another once-over.
They were all standing in the back yard, ready to apparate on the other side of the globe, in Styria for the European Quidditch Cup.
"Be careful out there, you never know what those crazy iron balls hit."
"They're called bludgers, dad."
He made a sweeping gesture with his hand. "Yeah, yeah, you know what I'm talking about."
"We'll be fine, sir, I assure you." Perry chimed in.
His eyes landed on Carmilla, who was currently holding Laura around the waist.
"Carmilla, if you could – "
She nodded before he got to finish his sentence. She already knew his request by heart. "Of course, sir. Absolutely."
After kissing Laura's forehead one last time, Mr. Hollis took a step back and watched on as they all grabbed a disgusting-looking boot, before transforming into a swirling vortex and disappearing into thin air.
They stumbled right into a group of witches passing by as they apparated right in the middle of the tent camp.
Lafontaine whistled when their eyes landed on the huge quidditch arena. You had to really crane your neck to see the top of it.
"Merlin's beard!" Danny shouted. She tapped Laura's arm numerous times, trying to get her attention. "Laura. Laura, that is…that's…she's…" she sucked in a breath as she saw the famous Holyhead Harpies seeker going through the crowds, sharing autographs with the fans. "I think I'm gonna pass out…"
Laura was too busy watching a couple of muggleborns, fans of rivaling teams, start a break dance competition right where the road was busiest.
Carmilla, on the other hand, quickly disentangled herself from Laura and caught Danny by the shoulders right before she touched the ground.
She grunted, but held Danny up. Perry gasped, squeaked out a Wingardium Leviosa, joined shortly by Lafontaine.
"MacGonagall so owns Slytherin 50 points for saving her dear Chaser." Carmilla muttered, trying to smooth over her obviously kind and heroic action.
Laura came back to her side, rose on her toes and kissed her cheek. "I'm sure I can find a way to thank you for saving my friend from public humiliation."
"Our." Carmilla said under her breath, looking as if every letter brought her physical pain.
"Sorry?" Laura furrowed her brows, genuinely not understanding what Carmilla was getting at. "What our?"
She huffed and repeated herself, a little more intelligible this time, "Friend. Our friend."
Laura smiled softly. She kissed Carmilla again, properly this time. Well, respecting that small limit imposed by having good manners in public. "You are such a sap."
Carmilla rolled her eyes and drew her hood over her head.
Laura laughed, as she was suddenly reminded the main character from Assassin's Creed.
After Danny recovered and Carmilla shoved into her face an autograph from the Harpie seeker without as much as looking at her, they finally managed to put up their tent.
The arena was so tightly packed you couldn't even breathe your own air. Still, they had really good seats – mostly thanks to Carmilla's connections and family wealth – so they couldn't complain.
The first match between the Heidelberg Harriers and the Montrose Magpies was about to begin when Danny heard unusually loud cheering behind them, right before –
"Oh my god, bro, we so made it in time!" Kirsch's animated face came into view, or what was left uncovered from the indecent amount of paint currently on his face.
"Um, I'm sorry, but what the hell are you doing here?" Danny blocked his path.
"Watching the game, duh." He gestured to his Montrose uniform, "What does it look like?"
"No, nu-uh, this is not happening. You can't be here."
"Sorry to disappoint, Whiningdor, I got tickets." He waved them into her face. "What does it matter to you, anyway? Weren't you rooting for that chick team, or something?"
Danny glared at him, before snatching a flag from Perry with the Heidelberg Harriers printed on it. She turned around towards the game and started yelling almost as loud as Perry.
(It was pretty fricking loud.)
By the end of the first match both Danny and Kirsch lost their voices, in what quickly had turned into a screaming contest. Perry wasn't faring much better either, especially since her team lost the match. She sat down on her seat and rested her head on Lafontaine's shoulder, who sat down along with her.
"It's okay, Perr. Next time, yeah?" They rubbed comforting circles on her back.
She nodded her head and sighed, resigned to the defeat.
After one full week the cup was over, which was surprisingly fast. Laura didn't like to think about the way Carmilla kept waving her wand around when the Vratsa Vultures played, or how she smirked whenever they scored a goal.
She also didn't like to think of the way Carmilla full-out grinned when the snitch stopped dead in its tracks, making the Vultures lose to the Moose Jaw Meteorites for the first time ever. And what she outright hated was that she didn't get as offended for not winning fairly as she should have gotten.
But right now the cup was over, and Laura seriously couldn't keep thinking about how mad she should have been when Carmilla was kissing her like that.
None of their teams won the actual cup though, so maybe it was okay that all she wanted in that moment was for Carmilla to push harder, harder, and
"Goddammit, Carm, stop teasing," Laura managed to get out as Carmilla nipped at her pulse-point.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Carmilla answered, a look of pure innocence on her face.
But her fingers were deftly unlacing Laura's uniform and hell yeah she knew exactly what she was talking about.
After a whole week of staying awake on spells and soda, Perry simply plopped down on her bed, Lafontaine snuggling behind her. They fell asleep almost instantly, fortunately quite oblivious to what happened around them.
Kirsch was expecting a war with Danny, especially after the Holyhead Harpies lost to his Montrose Magpies…again. What he did not expect, in any of his lifetimes, was to be dragged inside the tent where Danny was staying and shoved against a bedpost – Danny's, he hoped – before she grabbed his face between her hands and kissed him.
He fell into it, his hands automatically on Danny's waist. After a couple of seconds he pulled back, his confusion winning over his utterly unexplainable attraction to her.
"Wait, wait."
"What?" Danny panted.
"Do you even like me? Like, is this because your team lost to mine, is this your way of getting back at me? Because really Lawrence, if you're trying to annoy me, it's not exactly wor– "
"God, just shut up, you idiot,"
Danny pulled him closer again, his words got muffled by her lips.
Neither Laura and Carmilla nor Danny and Kirsch had the energy to take things much further however, since, well, staying awake for an entire week would take its toll on anyone.
Danny and Kirsch fell asleep tangled up in Danny's bed, but sometime during the night Kirsch must have tried hogging the blanket, because he woke up two thirds on the floor and with a black eye.
(Danny would apologize later.
She'd even kiss it better after making sure no one was looking.)
Laura woke up with a still sleeping Carmilla between her legs, which was hilarious really, since her pants weren't even off. One of Carmilla's hands was resting over a half-undone button, and Laura forced herself not to giggle as she dragged Carmilla farther up on the bed so that they were at eye-level.
Laura kissed the tiny pout that formed on Carmilla's lips – in her sleep, Laura supposed – before promptly falling back asleep.
(She would tell Carmilla about the whole thing afterwards when they would be back at Hogwarts, in the Astronomy tower in the middle of the night, with a bottle of rudely expensive wine and French blue cheese. She would have drunk a glass or two before whispering the story in Carmilla's ear, between giggles.
Carmilla would almost make her do an unbreakable vow to never tell anyone about it ever again.
Almost. If only she didn't trust her so much.)
When the whole gang went back to Laura's dad before the school start, he got almost more upset then they were that none of their teams won.
But Laura looked at the way Danny tried to hide her blush when Kirsch showed up with a ridiculously big bouquet of flowers, and she leaned back to rest against Carmilla's front as her girlfriend read some muggle philosophy book. She saw out of the corner of her eye Perry check the list of supplies and cross over everything they had, with a satisfied smile.
Laura craned her neck backwards to grab Carmilla's attention. She was rewarded with a small kiss and 'five more minutes, sweetheart' and yeah.
She won a lot of things. It just happened that the Quidditch Cup wasn't one of them.
She had better things to win, anyway.