Chapter two

Beca woke up at seven sharp the next morning. She glanced around disorientated, her eyes taking in the red and gold decorations around the room with confusion before she remembered where she was.

The Hogwarts dormitory contrasted greatly with the walls of her bedroom at her mothers house. There her walls were a plain white but were covered with posters of her favourite Quidditch players, all from the Falmouth Falcons, at first they had freaked out her mother when she walked in to pick up dirty laundry and found the poster of Karl Broadmoor winking at her flirtatiously.

Beca sighed as she thought of her mum being all alone in their house whilst Beca was at school for the majority of the year. Ever since her dad had left them when she was a kid her mum had seemed really lonely. Beca shook her head, clearing those thoughts from her mind as she reminded herself that her mum had friends to keep her company.

She stood and changed into her clothes, not having to put on her robes as it was a Sunday. Looking around the dorm she noticed that every bed was occupied except for Grace Dawson's. Beca's eyes narrowed at the posters for the Holyhead Harpies that littered the space above her bed. Her lips curled at the green and gold robes of their players.

"Harpies fans" she scoffed quietly to her poster of Karl Broadmoor who made a disgusted face in agreement as his grey-white robes billowed behind him.

Grabbing her broom, a sleek Nimbus mode X that she had been saving for three years to get, and her polishing kit. It was too early for Jesse to be up so she decided she would tend to her broom in the common room whilst she waited.

Making her way to the armchair in the corner of the room, she sat cross legged and pulled her broom into her lap. Pulling out her wooden clippers she began trimming the near perfect bristles on the edge of her broom, tongue poking out slightly in concentration.

After a while a creaking from opposite her signalled somebody had sat down, glancing up she saw that Grace Dawson had taken the seat.

Her dirty-blonde hair was tied up in its usual ponytail and one hand held a thick book as the other waved at a group of first years who were pointing at her and whispering. Beca was aware of how popular the girl was with the rest of the school, probably due to a combination of her Captains status last year and her friendly personality. Beca didn't buy into it.

The blonde turned back to Beca with a smile that Beca regarded with suspicion.

"Hey Beca, how was your summer?" she asked to which Beca replied with a shrug as she resumed the trimming of her broom.

"Okay, cool" the girl trailed off awkwardly as the smile began to disappear from her face.

"So, I just want to ask... There's no hard feelings, whoever gets captain. Right?" she asked as Beca began to polish her broom with a worn cloth.

"Yeah, sure" Beca muttered, eyes not moving away from the minuscule scratch on her broom handle that she was trying to buff out.

"Okay, that's great" the blonde laughed out with a slightly relieved tone in her voice.

They sat in awkward silence for the next few minutes as Grace gave up on making small talk and returned to her book.

After a while Beca was saved from the interaction by Jesse stumbling down the stairs whilst yawning, his eyes barely open as he finally spotted Beca in the corner of the common room.

He made his way over and rolled his eyes exasperatedly as he took in Beca polishing her broom.

"You literally just got that thing! How can it need polishing?" Jesse groaned as he reached Beca and sat down on the armrest of her chair.

Beca decided to ignore his comment and instead shoved him off the armrest.

Jesse glared at her from his place heaped on the floor. Beca smirked in satisfaction at his grumpy expression. Unfortunately Jesse was never one to stay mad so he instead leapt up and sat down on Beca's legs causing her to let out groan of pain.

"Oomph, Jesse! Get your fat ass off me." Beca moaned as she struggled under the larger boys weight. Jesse chuckled heartily at her feeble attempts. Her strength from Quidditch training was no match for the countless pop tarts he had eaten over the summer.

"Hey Grace" Jesse greeted when he noticed the blonde watching them, still not moving from his place on Beca's lap.

"Hi Jesse, how was your summer?" Grace asked with a smile as she watched the two friends fight.

"Great! How was yours?" Jesse asked with a grin as he felt Beca attempt to squirm out from under him.

"Good, i think you might want to move though" Grace gestures to Beca's feet which are kicking out in frustration.

"Good idea" Jesse agrees as he stands and quickly jumps away when Beca aims a kick at his leg.

"Prat" Beca mumbles before standing and brushing off her robes, making sure to check that her broom was undamaged before marching past Jesse and out of the portrait hole. Not before she lands a swift kick to his balls in the process.

Beca makes it to the doors of the great hall before Jesse catches up with her. The slight limp he's now walking with doing nothing to diminish the annoyingly positive look on his face.

They walk in together to find the great hall practically empty, save for a few eager first years and at the far end of the hufflepuff table they spot Emily and Benji. Beca figures that the vast majority of the school are not used to getting up before noon after the long summer break. Beca however had been waking early so that she could train in the fields near her mothers house without any muggles noticing.

They make their way over to where Benji had been waving at them and sit down, Beca opposite Emily and Jesse opposite Benji.

"Hey guys" Jesse greets cheerily as he reaches for some toast. Beca nods in greeting before grabbing the nearest plate of bacon and reserving it for herself.

"Hi Jesse, Beca" Benji answers as he reaches over to snatch a piece of bacon only to have his hand slapped away.

"What did you make of the exchange students?" Jesse asks excitedly having not been able to discuss them with anyone except Beca and the idea of discussing girls with someone he thought of as a sister was just gross.

"They were really pretty, weren't they" Benji answers with a dreamy look on his face as emily nods happily in agreement. "They seemed really nice" she adds "One of them helped me pick up my books this morning when Priscilla Parkinson knocked them out of my hands, she said her name was Stacie" Emily informs them with a smile before taking a bite of her croissant.

"That bitch!" Beca grumbles angrily at the thought of Parkinson's ugly toad face. The seventh year Slytherin had been responsible for a foul play in their match last year that almost broke Beca's arm and stopped her playing Quidditch. Luckily Beca had gotten off with just a sprain, nothing a little skeleton-grow couldn't fix.

"I should go Jinx her right now for that!" Beca mutters as the image of the Slytherin pushing poor Emily around filled her mind. Beca makes to stand, ready to march over to the dungeons and camp out for Parkinson when Emily stops her.

"Don't worry Becs, Stacie actually took care off her. It was kind of weird. Stacie glared at her for a bit and she ran away with her friends, she usually doesn't back down that quickly" Emily wonders out loud, giggling slightly the way Parkinson had ran away so quickly.

"Yeah, that is strange" Benji adds as he thinks back to all his encounters with Parkinson and her group of bullies. "Do you think that-" Benji continues only to be interrupted by the sound of light chatter from the entrance hall.

Beca felt the butterflies that she had banished yesterday return to her stomach as her ears picked up on a particular feminine voice. The sweet intoxicating smell filled her nose one again and she could practically feel her pupils dilating in pleasure in response to the scent.

All four heads turned towards the door, each taking in the group of entering Veela in varying states of awe.

Beca heard Jesse sigh deeply and snorted slightly, turning away from the great hall and back to her bacon. However she quickly looked up when she heard Emily let out a similar deep sigh.

Beca gaped at the love struck look on Emily's face as she gazed at the group of women. This was unprecedented.

The tallest of the group, a beautiful brunette, had locked eyes with Emily and gave her a flirtatious wave. Beca watched as Emily grinned and waved back happily.

As Beca's eyes moved between Emily and the tall brunette, who she assumed was Stacie, she felt an intense stare burning into the side of her head. Her eyes moved to meet the deep green that were staring back at her.

Beca quickly looked away after remembering her embarrassing encounter with the blonde on the stairs the day before, the tips of her ears tinging pink.

She poked the bacon around her plate with a fork suddenly having lost her appetite, her mind continued to play on what a fool she must have made of herself last night in front of the beautiful women that had now taken their place at the Ravenclaw table.

She chanced a glance at the Ravenclaw table only to see that the blonde hand sat with her back to Beca. Beca schooled her face to remove the traces of disappointment that appeared when she realised she would t be able to catch her eye again. The tall brunette however was facing Beca who she gave a smirk when she noted her watching the blondes back.

She quickly looked away whilst flushing red. At this rate she wasn't going to have any blood left to circulate her body with all the blushing she had done in the past twelve hours.

Polishing off her plate of bacon along with various other breakfast foods she leaned back with a sigh, happily listening to Jesse and Emily chatting excitedly about their Charms club, all the while keeping an eye on the back of the blondes head subconsciously.

A loud commotion from the doors of the great hall had all four of them turn their heads towards the door for the second time that morning.

Beca rolled her eyes when she saw the crimson lining on the robes of everyone in the large cheering group. Despite her commitment to Gryffindors Quidditch team, she did sometimes find their brash attitudes a little overbearing.

"What's going on there?" Benji asked, directing his question at the two Gryffindors at the table who both shrugged bemusedly.

The cheering grew louder as someone in the centre of the group was hoisted up in two sixth years shoulders. Chants of 'Go Gryffindor' sounded from the students as Beca identified the girl on their shoulders as Grace Dawson.

She felt the colour in her face drain as her grip on the fork in her hand tightened until her knuckles were white.

"I present to you Captain Dawson!" an obnoxious Gryffindor boy called from his place somewhere in the hoard of her cheering housemates.

"Okay, okay, put me down please" Beca just about heard Dawson ask before she angrily looked away.

She shrugged off the hand that Jesse tried to place comfortingly on her shoulder before standing.

"I'm done. I'll see you guys later" she bit out, snatching up her broom before walking as calmly as she could last the crowd of Gryffindors, her shoulders were tight and she had her spare hand balled into a fist at her side. She felt Dawson's eyes on her as she left but didn't acknowledge her.

Beca's instinct was to head for the Quidditch pitch. Flying always seemed to calm her down and right now she definitely needed calming down.

As she stepped foot on the deserted Quidditch pitch she let out a heavy sigh. Many would find the vast emptiness of the pitch creepy, especially with the blanket of morning fog that still hadn't lifted, but Beca was comforted by the eerie atmosphere.

Quickly mounting her broom she took of, guiding her broom straight upwards. The icy wind that bombarded her face distracted her from her anger as she enjoyed the feeling of riding her broom again without having to look out for muggles again.

She had no idea how long she was up there but the eventual rumbling of her stomach gave her some indication that it was near lunch time.

As she floated her broom slowly towards the ground she spotted a group of students wearing royal blue fringed robes sitting in the stands. One had stood and was waving her closer.

Beca frowned at the unusual sight, she rarely found anyone on the Quidditch pitch this early in the year, especially spectators. Maybe they were spying for Ravenclaw, her brow furrowed at the thought of bad sportsmanship. She would put it past Ravenclaw though, they were super tactical.

She brought her broom into a controlled hover and decided to see what the Ravenclaw wanted. Normally she wouldn't but she felt drawn towards them, maybe she was looking for a confrontation.

As she neared the group she felt the lightheadedness from that morning return and it quickly became clear who she was heading for. This time however it was different, as if the feeling was muffled or distant. Whatever it was, Beca was glad it wasn't as strong as it had been previously.

Cursing herself when she realised she couldn't turn back without appearing rude, she continued to drift over, all the while wondering why she cared if they thought she was rude.

Beca felt a wave of disappointment fill her when she noted the absence of the blonde who was the cause of her sudden sappiness. She shook it off and turned to the Veela who had been waving at her, the one Emily had said helped her out.

"Hi, my name is Stacie Conrad of the Posen clan" the brunette smiled showing off her perfectly symmetrical pearly white teeth. "They are all of the clan as well" she informed Beca who was now looking at the twelve sets of eyes staring at her.

"Oh, I'm Beca. Beca Mitchell. Of the-uh-Mitchell clan?" she stumbled slightly at the overly formal introduction. She cringed at the soft chorus of giggles from the group.

"Well Beca Mitchell of the Mitchell clan, would you mind helping us find our way back to Ravenclaw tower? We had to let those two go." Stacie asked her as she pointed to two Ravenclaw boys in the distance who were ambling back towards the castle dazedly.

"Oh why?" Beca asked as she levelled her broom as it began to dip downwards. The last thing she wanted was to fall fifty feet onto her face in front of these beautiful women.

"Well as you may know, we are of Veela inheritance" Stacie tells her, flashing a smile that reinforced her words to Beca, who nodded although still not understanding what this had to do with anything.

"Veela have a certain... affect on certain types of people's emotions" Stacie explained slowly.

"I'm sorry, I still don't get what that has to do with them?" Beca asked, quickly becoming confused at the brunettes vagueness.

"Basically we made them super horny and some of us got uncomfortable, so we sent them away" a redhead from the pack of Veela piped up with a cheery smile as she moved to stand next to Stacie.

Beca lost control of her broom at the redheads words, she fell a few feet before managing to gather herself and hover back up to face the Veela, her face a bright red.

"Umm, yes. That's one way to put it" Stacie hesitantly agreed before whispering something to the redhead.

Beca's confusion furthered as she picked up on the words 'Aubrey's mate' and 'protect'.

These people were weird.

"So, I can take you back to the tower if you want?" Beca cuts in trying to stem the awkwardness she was feeling at just standing there trying not to eavesdrop.

"Oh, thank you! You're the best!" the redhead grinned a blinding smile as reached around Beca's shoulders and squeezed her in a tight hug. The broom dipped forward, the redhead was much stronger than she looked. "My name is Chloe by the way!" the redhead told her.

"Uh , I'll meet you down there?" she suggested once she was finally released from Chloe's clutches.

Stacie nodded before moving towards the stairs with Chloe. The rest of the Veela giving her smiles and waves as they all moved to follow in unison, it was kind of creepy how in sync they all were.

Beca flew to the ground at the entrance of the Ravenclaw stands and dismounted from her broom.

As she waited she thought about the reason she came to the pitch in the first place. She hadn't gotten captain and it was her last shot. She was never one to cry but thinking about Grace Dawson being awarded the shiny crimson badge that she had been dreaming about brought her pretty close to tears. Right in that moment she resolved to work as hard as she could to get scouted this year and eventually become captain of the Falcons... and maybe rub Dawson's face in it. Probably.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't hear the clan leave the stands. A snapping of fingers in front of her face grabbed her attention and she whipped her head around to see the entire clan watching Chloe click her fingers in Beca's face.

The curious way they kept looking at her was starting to make her feel uncomfortable. Stacie must have noticed this and quickly intercepted the questions she knew Chloe would have for the tiny brunette.

"After you!" she gestured to the castle, grabbing Beca's shoulders and turning her towards the castle whilst chastising Chloe over her shoulder silently. Aubrey had told both of them it was likely that Beca was her mate the night before. The blonde had also given them a very clear order not to scare her off.

They walked in silence for a moment before Beca broke it. "Do you guys always walk around together?" Beca asked, hoping she didn't come across as rude.

"No, but we prefer to. It gives us a sense of comfort, we are like family to one another" Stacie answered.

"So this is all of you?" Beca hedged.

"Yes, only a certain number of places were available in the exchange programme but the Posen clan is much bigger than this"

"Oh, I meant is this all of you at the school. Like, nobody is missing from the group that was here yesterday...maybe?" The brunette trailed off as she glanced at Stacie from the corner of her eye.

The taller brunette barely held in her grin at the less than subtle way Beca was asking about Aubrey. She knew that if Beca truly was Aubrey's mate she would be experiencing a certain infatuation with the blonde at this stage of the process. Stacie decided to put Beca out of her misery.

"Well, apart from Aubrey. You know the tall blonde?" she spoke earning a quick nod from Beca. Wow, she was eager. Stacie smirked. "She represents the Posen clan whilst we are hear so she had a meeting with Professor McGonagall, but other than that this is everyone" Stacie finished.

"Oh, okay. Cool." Beca commented in a disaffected voice, trying to pass it off as if she was making small talk. "That's totally cool..." Beca repeated herself.

Stacie could feel the amusement of her clan mates at the brunettes stumbling. She gave them each a warning look before turning back to the brunette with a dazzling smile.

"So., tell me about this 'Quidditch cup' your houses compete for"

By the time Beca has explained almost every detail known to man about the workings of the Quidditch cup, they had reached the entrance to Ravenclaw tower.

"Thank you very much, Beca Mitchell of the Mitchell clan" Stacie teased as she guided everyone through the door, each of them stopping to plant a kiss on the brunettes cheek in gratitude. Stacie rolls her eyes at their antics, knowing they are enjoying the brunettes constant flustered state.

"You're welcome" Beca mutters as she fiddled with the bristles on her broom.

"I'm sure Aubrey will want to thank you in person later for helping out her clan" Stacie informs Beca with a suggestive wink as she enters the common room.

Beca remains outside the door for a few moments wondering if she misinterpreted the situation before clearing her head. She needed to focus on Quidditch, not a blonde Veela who she hadn't even had a conversation with.

A really pretty blonde Veela she hadn't had a conversation with.

Thank you to all the people that followed and favourited the first chapter, and an especial thanks to the twelve people who reviewed :)

Also as you can probably tell from this chapter, i'm leaning towards this being a Stemily story as well. That pairing needs more stories.

P.s Some of you have probably noticed that this story is heavily influenced by my deep venture into the Fleurmione fandom a couple years ago ;)