Shannon Samuels flitted about her basement, cleaning what was already clean, and straightening what didn't need to be straightened. The reason for this was simple. She had been sent down into the basement to get it ready for their house guest, and if she stayed down here long enough, she wouldn't be put to work.

See, a few months ago, after Shannon had finished school, she had tried out and made the Puddlemere United Quidditch team as a Chaser. A few weeks ago, the captain of the team, Johnny Clark, had informed the entire team and their families, should they still live with them, as seventeen year old Shannon did, that they were getting a new team member who lived too far away from the team and needed a place to stay. Shannon's parents had loved the idea of letting him or her stay with them, despite Shannon's reserves. So, because of this, she was staying out of the way as the family bustled about the house getting it ready for the new housemate.

Shannon heard the doorbell ring a few minutes later, and she heard her step-father, Joseph, call down the stairs, "Are you done cleaning down there yet?"

She ran halfway up the stairs, nodded to her step-dad, and came the rest of the way up. Then she moved past him into the entryway where the new player was standing. "I am Analisse," Evan's mother said, "and that is my husband Joseph, and my daughter Shannon," she added when she saw her come upstairs.

"Oliver Wood," the bloke said. He held out his hand for Shannon to shake, which she did, smiling. He smiled back. "You would be my teammate?" She nodded.

"I'll take your things down to the basement," Joseph said. "You'll be staying in our little room down in the basement, since we don't have an extra room upstairs." Joseph carried all Oliver's bags downstairs at once, and then Analisse spoke up.

"We have to insist on a few rules be taken into account," she said. "First of all, you do not have to stay holed up in the basement; you are allowed up here and you may help yourself to anything in the kitchen, which I know is a risk with a sports player; after all, we have two already in this house."

"Two?" Oliver asked.

"My husband's son, Jay, plays hockey. My husband is a muggle, and so is Jay, so we have to insist magic be kept to a minimum, since, though they know about it, they don't particularly like it."

"I understand," Oliver replied.

"A bit of an unspoken rule is that if you mess with Jay's X-Box, which is a video game console, he will be extremely pissed at you. Try as we might, we can't get him away from it." Oliver nodded, though he didn't understand the concept of the video game thing. He'd have to ask Shannon about it later. "One more rule, and I'm sure you can understand this one, is that you are not allowed upstairs, like, to the second story of our house, unless given explicit, spoken permission."

"I understand," he replied.

"Good," Analisse said happily. "Now, Joseph and I both work, and Jay is always at his friend's house during the weekdays—we sort of have an unspoken agreement that he is to be there because he's not old enough yet to stay by himself; he's only ten—so you and Shannon will be alone in the house most days, unless she leaves, which is likely." Analisse seemed to tense at this, and Shannon shot her mother a look. "Well, anyway, I hope you're happy here!" she finished cheerily.

"Thank you, Mrs. Smyth," Oliver replied.

"Technically, it's Samuels-Smyth, which is a mouthful, so please just call me Ana," she replied.

"Samuels-Smyth?" Oliver questioned.

"My name when I was first married to Shannon's father was Samuels, but now I'm married to Joseph Smyth," she explained, and Shannon nodded as if to confirm, yes, she has a step-father.

"You don't talk much, do you, Shannon?" Oliver asked. Shannon shook her head. She pointed to herself, then put a finger to her lips. "You don't talk at all?" Oliver asked, understanding what she was telling him.

"Funny you can understand what she's trying to tell you at all; Joseph and I have to ask her to write it down, which she does with magic, much to Joseph's frustration," Ana said. Shannon pulled out her wand, summoned a notebook, and magically wrote, 'I do not appreciate being spoken of as if I am not presently in the room.' "Sorry, Shannon," Ana said to her daughter. Shannon took the notebook, which was floating in midair, and then magically sent it up the stairs presumably to her room. "You're lucky your father—step-father isn't up here; he'd ground you for that." Shannon rolled her eyes. "Whatever," her mother said exasperated. "Help me with supper?" she asked, and Shannon silently followed her mother into the kitchen. Oliver went down to the basement, for lack of anything better to do.

"So," Ana began awkwardly, "when's your first practice with the entire team?" she asked as they worked on making the spaghetti for dinner. "Er…Saturday?"

Shannon shook her head, crossed two fingers as if to say 'plus,' then held one finger up.

"Sunday," her mother concluded, understanding what her daughter was saying for once. Shannon nodded just to confirm, and the two worked in silence once more. The silence was fine for Shannon, but it drove her mother mad to think of what caused Shannon's vow never to speak again.

Just then, the front door opened, and Jay walked in. he was a short and, in Shannon's expert opinion, annoying ten year old with sandy blond, curly hair that matched his father's and boring brown eyes. Shannon had prided herself with her appearance, having silky black, straight hair that hung halfway down her back with a dark blue streak for team spirit, and bright green eyes that one could see sitting in the stands around the Quidditch pitch. These eyes were usually squinted competitively when she was playing, though, so they usually could not be seen. Still, they were a sight for any member of the opposite gender, and even a few members of the same one.

"Mom! You were supposed to pick me up from Mikey's!" Jay whined.

"No, her mother and I agreed she would drop you off here," Ana protested.

"That's not what she said. She said you should have been there an hour ago, and she was mad. So she dropped me off and told me I couldn't go back there if you were going to leave me there."

"I wasn't intending on leaving you there," Ana insisted. "She told me she would drop you off today, because she knew we'd be busy getting the house ready for our guest."

"Hey by the way, where is this mystery weird magic sport player?" Jay asked.

"Basement," Ana replied. "I'll call Charlotte tonight and work this disagreement out." But Jay was gone before Ana even got her sentence out, running down into the basement to meet the new house member. She sighed and turned to Shannon, who she knew would listen to her. "How's it coming?" she asked, referring to the food. Shannon gave her mother a thumbs-up. "I'll go call Charlotte now," her mother said. She took the phone and left the room.

Joseph came up the stairs then followed by Jay and finally Oliver. "Is supper almost ready?" he asked. Shannon nodded. "Good." He opened the fridge and took out a beer. Shannon gave him a look behind his back as if to say, "Really?" Oliver smirked.

"Dad! Shannon gave you a dirty look behind your back!" Jay tattled.

"Shannon!" Joseph snapped. Shannon shook her head frantically.

"She didn't," Oliver spoke up. "He's lying."

"I am not, weird magic person!" Jay said.

"You, Jay, need to learn to stop your lying," Joseph said sternly to his son.

"I'm not the liar here!"

"I believe him. He seems like an honest man," Joseph said, referring to Oliver. Shannon smiled as if to say, "Thank you," and Oliver smiled back. Maybe this bloke was worth a shot, Shannon thought.