Grissa Skylark ran up to her friend Casey Banes and nearly tackled her.
"Congratulations!" she shrieked. It was the end of the first week of term and Casey had just made the Slytherin Quidditch team. Grissa was already on the team.
"Thank you. You'll need a sidekick worthy of your prowess," she grinned.
"I need a partner who can hit the Bludger instead of their own head," Grissa said as they walked up the hill from the pitch. Casey laughed.
The two girls had been friends since the first day at Hogwarts. Now both fifth years, they had entered what was to be the hardest of their seven years. Grissa wasn't worried, she rarely did. She already knew what she wanted to do with her life.
The Gryffindor team was headed down to the pitch to hold their tryouts. A leggy black haired boy led the pack.
"Oh God," Grissa groaned.
"Walk faster and maybe he won't see us," Casey hissed. Too late.
"Hullo ladies!" he called.
"Hi James," they replied.
"Lovely day for Quidditch, isn't it?" he said.
"Fantastic," Casey said. He ruffled his already unkempt hair and smiled.
"I'd love to stay and chat, but I have a Quaffle to catch," he ran off and met up with the rest of the team.
"Bye James," they said.
"He thinks he's so damn sexy," Grissa said as they kept walking.
"He's the only one," Casey said. "Even the girls in his own house think he's a git."
"Can you blame them?" Grissa said. Casey shook her head as they walked back into the castle. They had a little time to kill before dinner. The common room was full of students working on homework. In one of the chairs sat a gangly, hook nosed boy absorbed in a book. Grissa walked over to him and swatted him in the back of the head.
"Ow, what was that for?" he asked, rubbing the spot she'd contacted.
"Why weren't you at tryouts?" she asked.
"I had work," he said.
"Well you better show up for practice or Teagues is gonna give you the boot," she said.
"Fine," he said, irritated she'd interrupted his reading.
"If you spent less time in those books and more time socializing, you might like it," she said.
"I doubt that very seriously," he said, not looking up.
"Obviously," she muttered and went up with Casey to the girls' dorms.
"I dunno why you bother with him," Casey said. Grissa sighed.
"Maybe I feel like he needs a little encouragement," she said.
"I think he needs a swift kick in his scrawny hindparts," Casey said, stowing her broom under the bed.
"Perhaps," Grissa smiled. "Maybe I just like a challenge."
"I know you do," Casey said. "In that case you should date James Potter."
"I said I like a challenge, not masochism," she said. Casey laughed.
The weekend passed quietly. The only real event was the list of Hogsmeade weekends being posted. Most of it was spent swimming in the copious amounts of homework that had been assigned.
"This is obscene. I've never had this much work in my life," Casey said on Sunday afternoon. She was halfway through her Herbology essay and hadn't even started her star chart for Astronomy.
"And what the hell is pacalauri?" Grissa asked, flipping through her Potions book.
"It's pacalaur and they use the fur for sleeping and calming draughts," Nora Deetle, the third member of their trio, said.
"Thanks," Grissa said, scribbling that onto her parchment.
"No problem,"
"I think our idea of becoming professional Quidditch players is looking better by the second," Casey said, closing her Herbology book.
"No thought involved," Grissa smiled.
"Don't say that too loud or Teagues will have your head," Daniel Dean, one of the Chasers, said.
"I know that only too well," she said. "I give up. My brain is going to explode. I'll do it later and pray Professor Werb is feeling senile." Casey snickered.
"Keep praying," she said. Their Potions professor was pretty sharp.
"Or I could just cheat off Severus," she said. He didn't move from his Defense Against the Dark Arts work.
"Oh yeah, great listener," Casey said.
"Now there's something for the rare beasts collection. A man who listens," Grissa said. The girls in the room laughed.
"Have you two gotten anything done?" Nora asked.
"Hardly," Casey said.
"You two aren't going to get any O.W.L.s if you keep it up," she said.
"Well I figure Herbology and Defense Against the Dark Arts are in the bag, so that's two. Transfiguration and Charms will take some work, but we can get at least an 'A', so that's four. What more do you need?" Casey replied. Nora rolled her eyes.
"What about Potions and Ancient Runes? Astronomy and History of Magic? Arithmancy? Don't those count for anything?" she asked.
"Eh, I suppose," Grissa said. "My brothers both got seven O.W.L.s each. I guess I have something to live up to."
"See? There's your motivation," Nora smiled.
"I'm the only child of two Muggle parents. They don't really know the difference," Casey said.
"I wouldn't say that too loud or you'll have the supremacists all over you," Grissa cautioned.
"And what will they do? Call me the 'm' word? I'm damn proud of where I came from," she said.
"I'm just saying," Grissa sighed. "I think they're retarded too, but we have to live with them."
"Unfortunately. Why can't we have a cult to wipe them out?" Casey said.
"I only wish," Nora agreed.
"We could wear purple robes and give each other code names," Grissa said.
"I could be…what could I be?" Casey began.
"Wolfbane," Nora said.
"And you could be Beetle!" Grissa said.
"And Grissa could be Larkey!" Casey added. The trio burst out laughing.
"We should start calling each other that," Grissa said, wiping her eyes.
"Everyone will think we're retarded," Nora said.
"Let them. We shall be the Cult of the Anti Purebloods," Casey said.
"Here, here!" Nora and Grissa agreed. Severus just looked up from his Dark Arts work and sighed.
"You wanna be in our cult?" Casey asked.
"No," he replied.
"You sure? We can give you a cool name," she said.
"No," he repeated.
"Your loss," she said.
"How did you get sorted in here?" he asked.
"The hat," she replied. "I believe it was the cunning folk clause, but I could be mistaken."
"Used to be they didn't let your kind into Slytherin," he said, closing his book.
"Care to elaborate on that statement?" she said, bristling. Grissa saw where this was going.
"Cut it out you two. Severus, shut up. Casey, calm down. We don't need you two trying to blow each other up in the middle of the common room," she said.
"I'm just defending myself," Casey said.
"I know. I'm ready to kick his ass into next week as well, but now's a bad time," she said, giving Severus the evil eye.
"Come on Casey, let's move upstairs," Nora said.
"Sure," Casey replied.
"I'll meet you guys in a minute," Grissa said as they left. She turned to face Severus, who was still sitting in the chair.
"The next time you pull something like that, don't or I'll let James Potter and Sirius Black eat you for lunch," she said.
"Dually noted," he said.
"Better be," she said. She disappeared up the stairs, leaving him to his book.