Disclaimer: I own the plot, a few characters, but sadly, everything else is Jo's.

A.N. Okay, so this started out as the epilogue for Help, but then it turned into the prologue for the sequel to Help. So here is the brand new, epic sequel. Hope you all enjoy! And when you're done, please review!

Who Says Love and Quidditch Can't Mix?

Prologue

"Girls! Hurry! You're going to miss the train!"

Owing the fact that Oliver just had to show Charlotte some last minute pointers for Quidditch before she went back to school, the Wood family had arrived at the train station incredibly late, and the final whistle was blowing to call the last minute stragglers aboard.

Hermione pulled Charlotte toward the train, glancing worriedly at the engine, hoping it wasn't about to start moving.

"Okay, have a good term, Charlie! We'll see you at Christmas! And remember, keep those grades up! And don't let your Head Girl duties overwhelm you, I know it can be difficult at times to keep up with everything like schoolwork and all the rest of it, but sweetie, you can do it, I did it when I was in seventh year and I just know-"

"Mum! I got it! I swear I'll be good, keep the grades up, and keep all the little toe rags in line like a good Head Girl. Belles! Come on! We're gonna miss the train!" Charlotte called to her younger sister, who was staring at the train with a mix of intense fear and interest.

Oliver knelt down next to his little girl. "Go with yer sister, Belle. I know yer scared, but yer sister's gonna be with yeh the whole year. Remember?"

The little girl's dark brown eyes looked into her father's own dark brown eyes. His eyes were her eyes. But her hair was her mother's. Unruly and wavy and almost ridiculously unmanagable.

"Daddy, I'm scared," she almost whimpered.

"I know. But me and Mum will write to yeh every day if it'll make yeh feel better. And yeh can write us too. Okay?"

Belle nodded, and threw her arms around her father's neck. "I love you, Daddy."

Oliver hugged her back and cast a look up at his wife. Hermione smiled at the scene and felt her heart clench with love and loss. Her little girl was leaving her and Oliver for the first time to go to Hogwarts. Hermione didn't want to let go, but she had to. Just like she had to learn to let go of Charlotte, who was eagerly awaiting the Quidditch scouts to be attending the matches at school this year. There was a good chance that she was going to get drafted to one of the pro teams, and Hermione knew that if she was, she would have to leave home.

The train started to inch forward.

"Belle!" Charlotte cried, grabbing her little sister's hand and dragging her to the train.

Oliver hoisted their trunks onto the train once they had climbed aboard.

"Love yeh both! We'll see you soon!" he called, waving as the train picked up speed and pulled away from the station.

Belle watched with a mildly horrified look as her parents sped away from her, then disappeared from sight when the train rounded a turn.

Hermione watched with an equally horrified expression as the train vanished from sight. Oliver understood her feeling of loss as their baby was carried away from them, and he wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders.

"There, there, lass, it's gonna be all right. We'll see them again at Christmas time. And yeh know yer gonna write to them both every day."

Hermione smiled a watery smile up at him. "I know. I had almost forgotten how awful it felt to have your babies leave home. Remember the first time with Charlotte?"

Oliver remembered vividly. Charlotte's first train ride had been a disaster for Hermione, who had ended up sobbing like a baby once Charlotte had boarded the train. It had been so hard for Hermione to let go of her baby, considering everything that they both went through together, and had survived. Hermione had fought so fiercely to protect Charlotte when they were with Matt, and Hermione felt that Charlotte was incredibly vulnerable outside her realm of protection with both her and Oliver.

Oliver hugged her tightly. "It's gonna be all right. And think of it, lass, we've got the house all to ourselves now for almost three months."

Hermione laughed at the suggestive look on his face and swatted his arm playfully.

"You, Mr. Wood, need to extract your head from that dirty gutter it's in."

Rhianna and Charlie wandered over. They too, had just sent off their first child on the train. Rhianna seemed to be handling it quite well. Perhaps it was due to the fact that she was carrying another child in her arms, a little boy by the name of Aidan.

"How yeh holdin' up there, Hermione?" Rhianna asked over Aidan's curly red hair.

Hermione shrugged, reaching up to stroke Aidan's soft curls. "I'm doing all right. It's always hard to let them go. How about you? Was Mackenzie scared to death to get on the train?"

Charlie laughed. "Oh no, she's a fearless one, she is. She takes after her mother. And I'm sure you know just how fearless she can be."

Rhianna dug her elbow into Charlie's ribs and smiled sweetly. "Of course she's fearless. She's a Wood at heart. And we Woods are made of tough stuff. Right Ollie?"

"Got that right," Oliver said proudly, puffing out his chest.

"Besides, she knows that she'll find Belles on the train. They're inseparable, you know that," Charlie reassured Hermione.

"You're right. I'm just being silly, that's all."

Hermione reasoned with herself later that sending her youngest daughter off to Hogwarts for the first time was a walk in the park compared to everything else that she had faced in her life. Then again, she wouldn't have little Belle to worry about if she hadn't reunited with Oliver in the first place.

Hermione remembered the joy of having Oliver in her life and his proposal, just the night after Matt had died. Matt's death had been bittersweet for Hermione; sure, she was glad that she no longer had to put up with the abuse and the yelling, but he was the man she had fallen in love with and married, and then, he was dead.

But Oliver was there when she needed him most. They enjoyed a short engagement, about two months, and then they couldn't wait any longer. And neither could Rhianna and Charlie. So, in a double ceremony, the two couples exchanged vows to be with each other until "death do us part." And this time, Hermione knew the man standing across from her at the altar meant what he said.

Not long after they were married, Hermione and Oliver discovered with joy that Hermione was going to have a baby. Oliver was nearly beside himself with pride; he loved Charlotte as his own, but now, he had actually created another life. And nothing could make him happier.

Charlotte was just as equally happy. She had always wanted a little brother or sister, and when Belle was born, she took up a fierce responsibility for her little sister. She was overprotective to the extreme, always going wherever little Belle was tottering off to, rescuing her from peril, being the big sister she knew she could be.

And now that Belle was off to Hogwarts with Charlotte, Charlotte's sense of responsibility doubled, what with her new Head Girl duties and all. She would make sure to keep an extra eye out for her little sister, and make sure that she stayed out of trouble, and found all the secret passageways in the castle.

Oliver and Charlie were discussing the possibility of Charlotte getting drafted by a pro league after she graduated Hogwarts this year. Rhianna and Hermione rolled their eyes and giggled.

"I think this is what they mean when they say that parents live vicariously through their children," Hermione commented, listening to the men banter as they walked through the Muggle train station.

"What do yeh expect? Oliver retired too soon after that Bludger accident pretty much ruined what career he had left. He misses it, yeh know. He just wants to make sure that his oldest girl gets the right deal and gets treated fairly."

Hermione nodded. She knew how much Oliver missed playing Quidditch. His accident happened shortly after Belle was born. It was a fierce match; Puddlemere versus the Holyhead Harpies, and both sides were ruthless against one another. Oliver had just made a spectacular save against the Harpies, and in retaliation, one of the Harpies' Beaters slammed a Bludger in Oliver's direction. Oliver, not paying attention due to the fact that he was gloating over his save, caught the full brunt of the Bludger in the shoulder, and his rotator cuff had shattered, almost to the point where the Healers at St. Mungo's couldn't fix it. They had managed in the end, but told him that his Quidditch days were over.

Those weeks after he had been forced to give up his second love of his life were awful. Hermione did everything in her power to keep him happy, and keep his mind of the game he loved so much. She put so much energy into forcing him to interact with Belle, who was only a few months old at the time, to make sure that he got to be the true father he had always wanted to be. Sure, those days and weeks were rough, but they had weathered them out, and stuck together, through thick and thin, just like they promised each other they would.


Back on the train, Belle and Mackenzie had finally caught up with one another, and were now talking with great enthusiasm about which house they would be sorted into.

"No question about it, it's got to be Gryffindor," Belle was saying. "Mum and Dad were both in it, so it can't be any other way. And Charlie's in it too. How can I not be in the same House as my sister? Oh, no, Mack, you don't think that I'll get separated from her, do you? And what if you and me aren't in the same house? Oh no. . ."

Mackenzie put a hand on her best friend's shoulder. "Calm down, Belles, it's gonna be okay. Even if we aren't in the same House, we'll still be friends. It's not the end of the world. And even if you don't get into Gryffindor with Charlie, you're still gonna be fine. Hopefully, if you aren't with Charlie, you'll get with me, and then you won't feel so alone. You'll still have one of us."

Belle heaved a huge sigh. "I hope so, Mack, I really hope so."

Meanwhile, Charlotte had just arrived in the Head's compartment to receive her instructions on her Head Girl duties. Minerva McGonagall was still Headmistress of the school, and was there in the compartment to congratulate the new Head Boy and Girl, and to hand out instructions to the Heads and to the new prefects.

Minerva was struck by Charlotte's likeness to her mother the moment the girl walked into the compartment. Charlotte looked just like Hermione did at seventeen; her hair had finally stopped being so disagreeable and flowed gracefully down her back in shiny chestnut waves. Her golden eyes sparkled with life that Hermione had feared would never return to her little girl.

Minerva held out her hand to Charlotte once she had greeted her Headmistress.

"Miss Wood, it's a pleasure to see you again. I trust your summer went well?"

"I spent most of the summer training with Dad, and you know I wouldn't have it any other way," Charlotte grinned as she shook McGonagall's hand.

Minerva looked over the top of her spectacles at her favorite student. "Let's hope that all that training comes in handy this year. I've become very accustomed to the Gryffindor winning streak, you know."

Charlotte looked down at her shiny Captain's badge, just underneath her new Head Girl badge. She'd been made captain in sixth year, the same year that Oliver became captain, and the same year that Harry Potter had been made captain, as her mother told her with tears in her eyes when she saw the new badge.

The compartment door slid open again, this time to reveal the new Head Boy. Charlotte's warm eyes instantly hardened, and the smile on her face slid off faster than Stinksap.

The boy, no, more like a man, walked into the compartment, his step more like a swagger, and his eyes as cold as Charlotte's had become. His blonde hair was shaggy and in his eyes, though quite attractively so. He stood about a head taller than Charlotte, quite a feat, as she was bordering close to five feet ten inches.

Charlotte loathed him on principle. She knew who he was, what he came from. She knew who his father was, though she had never met him. Her mother had told her the stories, and shown her pictures from the Daily Prophet, the first pictures of his capture, then the later ones of his sworn allegiance to the Ministry, and a renouncing of his old ways.

Of course, as life would have it, the one person that she vowed to loathe with an undying passion had to be brutally handsome. She inwardly groaned as she kept up her glare in his direction.

Derek Malfoy returned her glare with interest. Normally she just ignored him. This was something new. And he welcomed it greatly. He'd only been trying to break through that cold front for the past two years, something she was resisting with great force.

"Well, now that the two Heads are here," McGonagall spoke up, breaking the icy silence.

Charlotte was acutely aware of how close Derek was standing behind her. She could almost feel his warmth on her arms.

She twitched irritably when he touched her on the shoulder, snapping her out of her reverie, and awakening her to the look that Minerva was giving her.

"I'm sure we'll get along just fine this year, Professor. Won't we, Charlotte?" he asked sweetly.

She closed her eyes briefly. 'I'm a nice person, I'm a nice person,' she repeated to herself.

"Of course we will, Professor, you don't have to worry about us!"

As soon as Minverva dismissed them, Charlotte spun around and left the compartment as quickly as she could. She barely got five steps in, however, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She stopped, closed her eyes to find some patience, and then turned around.

Of course it had to be him. Who else could possibly put a hand on her shoulder to stop her, when any of her other friends would have yelled her name? She looked up at him, keeping her calm.

"Yes, Derek?"

"So, it's us this year, I guess."

'Good job genius,' she thought. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"Should be interesting, sharing a dormitory," he said with a sly smirk.

Charlotte inwardly groaned and felt her stomach drop out. 'No, no, no, no, no! Why me? I don't want to share a dorm with a boy! Not him! Argh!'

"Hmm. Yeah, I suppose it will. Well, I have to get going, Derek, so if you'll excuse me. . ." she trailed off and spun around, taking off as fast as possible without looking too obvious to find Belle.

Derek watched her flee with an unreadable expression on his face. 'I am a Malfoy,' he thought. 'This will work.'

Charlotte found Belle sharing a compartment with Mackenzie. Both girls grinned when she walked in.

"You look flushed. What's the matter, Charlie?" Belle inquired.

"Head Girl duties getting to you already?" Mackenzie asked slyly.

"Arggggh!" Charlotte groaned.

Both younger girls exchanged looks.

"Was it him?" Belle asked sympathetically.

Charlotte ran an annoyed hand through her hair. "Exactly."

Belle giggled. "I don't get why you hate him."

"I don't understand why you don't understand me!" Charlotte exclaimed. "Has Mum not told you the stories of who his father is?"

Belle looked puzzled. "No."

"He was a Death Eater!" Charlotte nearly shouted.

Mackenzie and Belle looked slightly taken aback.

"But," Mackenzie said slowly, "that doesn't mean that his son's all bad."

"Git," Charlotte muttered. "I'm not going to like him! I refuse to! Not after what all his father did to Mum in school and what he did with his extracurricular activities when he ditched Hogwarts! And besides, I have no time for him! I have Quidditch!"

Both girls exchanged another look. It sounded a lot like Charlotte was trying to convince herself of all this. They both got a mischievous glint in their eyes.

"Don't give me that look! Ack! You guys are infuriating!" Charlotte cried, jumping up and fleeing the compartment.

She found an empty compartment at the very end of the train, much to her delight. She needed to hide away from her little sister and her sneaky little ways. More importantly, she had to keep an extensive distance between herself and Derek.

She sank down into the seat, leaning her head back and closing her eyes.

"There has to be an easier way to get through this year," she muttered to herself.

Yes, Charlotte was dreading the impending school year, shut up, in a dormitory, with Derek, pretty much Satan himself. And Head duties, she could hardly forget the endless amount of time that would be required of her to spend with him.

She groaned again. "Graduation can't get here soon enough."

Little did she know, as fate would have it, that her life would take an interesting turn soon after graduation.