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Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and places from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by JK Rowling. However, all plots are my own and are in no way endorsed by JK Rowling or anyone affiliated with the Harry Potter universe.
Chapter 1: September 2016
After a summer of diligent studying, Molly found herself back at Hogwarts. Flying up to the school in the self-propelled carriages had felt good to Molly – it had felt right. Molly had started to feel more studious just seeing the castle from the carriage window. Despite the endless hours of reading and revising Molly had done over the summer, nothing compared to the concentration she could get here at Hogwarts without her sister bothering her every two minutes.
Of course, Lucy was starting school this year as well. Molly was unsurprised when at the welcome feast, Lucy was sorted into Gryffindor with the rest of the Weasley clan. At this point it wasn't even a question. Molly could only hope that Lucy would quickly make friends of her own, and that if she didn't, she'd have the good sense to bother one of her cousins rather than her sister. Molly had enjoyed the past two years without listening to Lucy's prattling every day and very much didn't want that to change.
The new inter-house lounges that Headmaster Slinkhard had mentioned at the end of the previous year were announced at the welcome feast as well. And just as the Headmaster had promised, the school now had one for every year. And to make matters 'less complicated' as the Headmaster put it, each year's lounge was located on the floor that corresponded to their year. Which meant that Molly's year's lounge – the third year lounge – was the one on the third floor; the same room that last year had contained the only inter-house lounge. Not that Molly expected that she'd ever use it for anything. A lounge didn't have the same quiet dignity that a study room held.
To Molly's surprise and delight, however, Headmaster Slinkhard also announced the inauguration of four brand-new private study rooms in the library. It was explained that they could be booked through Madam Maxwell in the library and that they were for small groups of students to reserve for academic purposes only. Molly found herself very excited to test them out. So as soon as the welcome feast was over, she and her friends headed to the second floor to check out the library before heading up to their dorms.
When they arrived in the library, Molly was shocked at the sight before her. The entire architecture of the place had changed. While there used to be shelves to both the left and right wings of the library with small study areas interspersed throughout, now there was a large common area right at the front with tables and chairs, and it appeared as though all the shelves had been moved to the right wing of the library. On the left, a large wall had been erected with four doors and windows through which the girls could see the study rooms on the other side.
"Wow," Debbie commented, spinning around as she took it all in. "It sure is different in here."
"Yeah," Molly agreed, not sure how she felt about it. The shelves in the right wing looked really crammed. And what about students who liked studying between the shelves? It didn't look like there was much room left for that anymore.
"Do you girls like it?" Madam Maxwell asked, appearing from somewhere deep in the right wing of the library. "Headmaster Slinkhard and I worked hard on the design all summer. We weren't sure we'd have it all finished for today, but here we are."
"It's certainly changed," Julie said diplomatically. "Is there any chance we could take a look inside one of those study rooms?"
Madam Maxwell agreed readily, seemingly eager for some praise. The four girls chose the nearest room and entered slowly, scrutinizing the room carefully as they went.
The study room was bigger than the one the girls had created for themselves last year. It made sense of course, since the room was meant to be accommodating to small and large groups. Molly wasn't sure how she felt about the extra space. She'd always like the coziness of the study space.
The other thing Molly immediately didn't like about the room was that it contained one long table through the center of the space with chairs all around it. In their private study room, Molly and her friends had had desks to themselves, not a communal table. Molly liked having her own space and wasn't sure how she'd feel about sharing.
"It's really great!" Sarah said, noticing Madam Maxwell hovering by the doorway. "I'm excited to try it out. Can we book it for tomorrow afternoon?"
"Absolutely!" Madam Maxwell exclaimed enthusiastically. "You girls will be my first clients!"
As Madam Maxwell hurried to her desk to get the sign-up sheet, closely followed by Sarah and Debbie, Molly and Julie hung back.
"Not exactly what we're used to, huh?" Molly commented, sensing that Julie wasn't loving the space either.
Julie shook her head. "It's a nice idea, but it's now ours," she explained. "In our old room, we could store all our books, all our homework, everything, without having to carry it around everywhere. We made it our own. We'd be sharing this room with the entire school."
"Not to mention, there's only four rooms," Molly added. "What happens when they all get booked and we haven't reserved one? Then where do we go?"
"I doubt Madam Maxwell would let us reserve a room for the whole term, let alone the year," Julie nodded, understanding.
Molly sighed. "Well we have to at least test it out," she said. "We're the ones who brought the idea to Headmaster Slinkhard. It wouldn't look very good if we went back to our old ways without even trying it."
"You're right," Julie agreed. "But if we hate it, I say we go back to the fifth floor."
"Agreed," Molly said. Immediately, she felt better. They would give the new study space the benefit of the doubt, and then day after tomorrow, they'd be back in their old study space.
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The next day was a disaster. After last period, the girls had headed to the library to use their reserved study space and had found it worse than expected. Not only was the space too big, the table too awkward, and the room too impersonal, but the window at the front of the room made everything extremely more distracting. Whenever Molly looked up from her homework, there was another student on the other side staring through the glass, watching her and her friends study.
"What do you expect they want?" Molly demanded, starting to feel a little self-conscious. "Don't they have lives of their own without spying on ours?"
"I'm sure they're just curious about the new rooms," Debbie said. "They aren't staring at us. Just the room."
Despite Debbie's assurances, Molly still felt like a fish in a bowl and ended up packing her things up early.
"Leaving already?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah," Molly nodded. "I can't study in here. I'm just going to go back to the common room for the night. At least there nobody will be staring at me."
"Won't it be extremely loud?" Debbie asked. "First day of school, not too many people are going to be back in school mode yet."
"I'll be fine," Molly muttered. "I'll make it work. Tomorrow we'll study on the fifth floor like usual?"
Her friends all nodded.
"Definitely," Julie agreed. "Oh, and if you're heading back to the common room, don't forget to sign up for Quidditch tryouts!"
"What?" Molly frowned, pausing on her way out the door. "Quidditch tryouts?"
"Yeah," Julie said looking up from her work with a confused expression. "Don't you remember? We all agreed in June that we'd try out this year. Didn't you practice this summer?"
"Oh," Molly said in shock. Of course she remembered the conversation, she just didn't expect that her friends had been serious. Molly had been sure, when the topic had never come up again, that her friends had all realized the folly of trying out for the Quidditch team and had refocused their efforts on school like she had. "Right," she muttered, scrambling for a response. "Yes, of course. I was just surprised because I didn't realize tryouts were this early in the year."
"Oh yes," Julie nodded. "The teams start training right away, so they can't wait on holding tryouts. The sign-up sheet should be posted on your common room's notice board. Our captain put ours up this morning."
"Well then I'll be sure to check it out," Molly declared. She was halfway out the door when Sarah spoke up.
"Hold on," she called out. "I'm coming with you. I can't study here another second. And this way I can get my name on the sign-up sheet as well."
"Great," Molly muttered, trying to think of a way out of this one. She certainly didn't see one. Her friends all thought she was on board. It looked like she was just going to have to go through with the tryouts, if only to prove how pointless the whole idea was in the first place.
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The next afternoon, as soon as they got out of their first arithmancy class, the four third year girls headed straight for the fifth floor. However, when they arrived, they were met with an astonishing sight. Where there used to be several smaller abandoned classrooms at the end of the hallway, now there was one very large fifth year lounge. It appeared that the library hadn't been the only part of the castle to undergo renovations over the summer. Walls had been knocked down and put back up in different places, rooms had been combined, and the girls' old study room as they knew it was completely gone.
"Slinkhard did this on purpose," Julie immediately declared in an accusatory voice. "He knew we wouldn't like the study rooms in the library, so he built this here to stop us using our old room again."
"Or he thought the rooms in the library actually would work, and we wouldn't need our old space," Debbie suggested optimistically.
"Well whatever his motivation, we obviously can't study here anymore," Molly pointed out, feeling discouraged. "What are we supposed to do now?"
"We find a new space," Julie declared. "The castle is full of empty rooms and abandoned classrooms. There has to be another one that fits what we're looking for."
The other girls agreed that this was the best course of action, and so the four girls began to search the castle. They started on the fifth floor, where they were, but didn't find anything that was the right proportion. They moved to the fourth floor next, keeping to the end of the castle opposite where the hospital wing was located – if they studied too close to the hospital wing, they risked getting sick more often. It wasn't until they reached the third floor that they found a room that was suitable.
"This could work," Julie said, inspecting the room thoroughly. "And look, the view isn't terrible either."
Molly moved closer to the window and saw that it overlooked the lake.
"It's not ideal of course," Julie continued. "Admittedly the third floor is a little far from the seventh, but if we keep all our textbooks and things down here anyway, I don't see why we would need to trek up to the seventh floor more than once a day."
"It's better than anything we've seen so far," Sarah agreed. "And the sixth floor is kind of far from the library, which we would likely need to visit far more often that the dorms. If the sixth floor even had a suitable room, which we don't know yet. I say we go with this room."
"Go with this room for what?"
Molly practically jumped out of her skin at the unexpected voice. She and her friends turned around to find Professor Longbottom looming in the doorway with a sour expression on his face.
"Nothing!" Debbie rushed to say. "That is – well not nothing, obviously, but – "
"I know what you're doing here," the Professor declared. "Headmaster Slinkhard predicted this would happen, and I received word that the four of you had been seen wandering about the castle in a very atypical manner. You intend to put together another study space, as usual against the Headmaster's wishes."
"Well yes," Julie admitted. "But we've always been able to come to an agreement in the past – "
"I'm sorry girls, but that's not going to work this year," Professor Longbottom interrupted. "Headmaster Slinkhard has more than fulfilled his end of the bargain. Not only had he created seven different spaces for inter-house mingling, but he's also implemented four new study rooms in the library. Study rooms you girls requested. There will be no private study space this year."
"Can't we speak with the Headmaster?" Julie wondered. "Perhaps we can come to an arrangem – "
"No," Professor Longbottom interrupted once again. "The Headmaster's mind is made up. He let you have the study space when there weren't enough alternatives, but he was always clear that the study room was a temporary thing. However, going forward it simply wouldn't be fair to the other students to give your four special treatment."
"But – "
"And if you go against the Headmaster this time, you'll all be facing loss of house points, detention, and even possibly letters to your parents."
At this, Julie stopped trying to protest and stood in shocked silence.
"I hope I've made myself clear to you girls," Professor Longbottom said. "I don't like being the bad guy here, but you've made it necessary."
"We understand, Professor," Molly said when none of her friends spoke up. "We won't be any more trouble for you."
"Thank you," Professor Longbottom said. "I appreciate you not making this harder than it has to be," he added before turning and disappearing down the hall."
As soon as he was gone, Julie blew out a breath and crossed her arms.
"Well this totally sucks," she declared. "What are we supposed to do now?"
"I guess we're supposed to try to get used to the library," Debbie shrugged. "Figure out a way to be alright with it. Maybe it'll be better in the new study rooms, now that students have gotten a chance to get used to them. Maybe there won't be as much staring."
"They'll still have all the same other problems," Julie muttered. "And what, now we're going to have to carry around all our books all the time? Or will we be running up and down the stairs from the second to seventh floors all the time?"
"We'll just have to plan ahead," Debbie declared. "Decide at the beginning of the day what subjects we're each going to focus on. Or maybe we each bring books for different classes, and then we can share, so we each carry less."
"Well that's certainly not ideal," Julie muttered.
"No," Debbie agreed. "It's not. But it's manageable. We'll make it work."
"Yeah," Sarah nodded. "And besides, we have Quidditch tryouts this weekend, so that's something to look forward to!"
At this, Molly felt her blood freeze. The previous day, she'd gone ahead and put her name on the list for chasers along with Sarah, hoping that when the time came, her friends would have dropped their foolish notions and Molly wouldn't be required to try out. Now though, it was looking like it was really going to happen and Molly didn't know what she was going to do. She didn't even own a broom!
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All too soon, Saturday arrived – the day of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Quidditch tryouts. Ravenclaw was in the morning, and Gryffindor was in the afternoon. Hufflepuff and Slytherin had the pitch booked for tryouts on Sunday.
Molly and Sarah awoke early Saturday morning and headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast where they met up with Debbie and Julie. Though Molly would certainly be more productive spending the morning working on her runic alphabet, her friends had decided that they would watch each others' tryouts to provide support.
When breakfast was over, the four girls headed straight down to the pitch. There was no telling how long tryouts could last, and so they had to start as early as possible. Sarah and Molly took seats in the stands while Debbie and Julie lined up on the pitch with the other Ravenclaw hopefuls. Julie was trying out for seeker, while Debbie was trying out for chaser like Molly and Sarah.
Seeker tryouts were held first. As Julie mounted her broom and prepared to face off with the other hopeful seekers – first to catch the snitch got the position – Molly turned to Sarah.
"How do you think she'll react if she doesn't make the team?" she wondered.
"Don't think like that," Sarah insisted. "We have to think positive."
"Right," Molly muttered, feeling conflicted. She wanted to be supportive, but at the same time didn't want any of her friends to make the team.
When Julie caught the snitch, Molly was speechless. Though she'd of course known that there was a possibility one or more of her friends would make their respective teams, she hadn't really considered it as a potential reality.
Molly was practically glued to her seat as the chaser tryouts came up next and before she knew it, Debbie had made the team too.
"How did this happen?" she asked Sarah, dumbfounded. "How did they both make the team? We're only third years? Aren't there more experienced players out there? Older students with more skill?"
"Weren't you paying attention?" Sarah asked. "Didn't you see their tryouts? They were amazing! I'm certainly not surprised they made the team. Especially after all the work they put in this summer."
Molly had to admit that she hadn't really paid attention to their tryouts. Or she had, but she didn't know enough to tell whether they were flying well or not. She hadn't studied Quidditch, or practiced it all summer like her friends had. She'd thought the whole thing was a joke. And now things were spiralling out of control. Two of her friends had made the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Did they have any idea what this was going to do to their academic careers?
Molly was very quiet at lunch. Sarah congratulated Julie and Debbie on their success, and the Ravenclaws tried to reassure Sarah and Molly that they would certainly make the Gryffindor team that afternoon. But Molly was still reeling from the realization that all of a sudden, everything was changing. This was going to affect everything! Quidditch practices were rumored to be long and brutal. Her friends' study time was going to be seriously reduced, and it was likely they were going to be a lot more tired than normal. In a passing thought, it occurred to Molly that maybe it didn't matter than the Headmaster wouldn't let them have their study room this year, because it wasn't as though they were going to be able to use it.
When the girls finished lunch, they headed back down to the pitch for the Gryffindor tryouts. This time, Debbie and Julie took seats in the stands while Molly and Sarah joined the hopeful Gryffindors on the pitch.
The Quidditch team Captain, Kurt Robins, divided them into groups based on what position they were trying out for. Sarah and Molly joined the group of potential chasers while the other groups formed nearby. Then Kurt declared that he would be holding the chaser tryouts first and ordered the other three groups to sit on the edge of the field where they wouldn't be in the way.
"Alright chasers, mount your brooms and we'll start the tryout," Kurt declared.
As if for the first time, Sarah and Molly both became aware of the fact that Molly didn't have a broom.
"Did you forget your broom in the dorm?" Sarah frowned. "How do you expect to tryout if you're stuck on the ground?"
"That's alright," Kurt said, coming over. "You can borrow a school broom from the broom shed for today. But if you make the team, I'll expect you not to forget things like this again."
Molly frowned, looking around at the other hopeful Gryffindor chasers and realized that the notion of her making the team was absurd. She hadn't flown since flying classes in first year, and she certainly didn't have any interest in being on the Quidditch team. She was only here because she'd felt pressured by her friends, and suddenly that didn't seem a good enough reason.
"Actually, no," Molly said, making up her mind. "I don't think I'm going to try out after all."
"Suit yourself," Kurt said, turning back to the rest of the group.
"You're not?" Sarah asked, confused. "But why not?"
"Because I don't want to be on the Quidditch team," Molly declared, feeling good about her decision. "I just want to study. I don't want to have to divide my energy."
"But we agreed we'd all try out together," Sarah protested.
"And you should go ahead and try out," Molly said, gesturing towards the other chasers, who had all mounted their brooms and were hovering a few feet off the ground in a circle. "But I think I'd rather be in the library."
Without waiting for Sarah to respond, Molly turned around and walked right off the Quidditch pitch. She could hear Debbie and Julie's voices calling after her, demanding to know where she was going, but Molly didn't stop or turn around to explain. She'd had enough of this. Her friends could do what they wanted, but she wasn't going to follow along just for the sake of it. Molly knew what she wanted and that's what she was going to do. And today, it was memorize the runic alphabet.