I was sitting in Potions class, trying to stay awake as Professor Mason droned on about this or that. I was just about to fall asleep when I felt someone poke my cheek. I lifted my head groggily and tried to pry my eyes open. Jacob was glaring at me, his finger poised near my face. I briefly wondered if I had willing sat beside him, considering he's not the best at Potions, when he began to speak, cutting off my interal debate.

"Why did you mess up my hair last night?" he growled, fixing me with a pointed stare.

I grumbled and turned so that my body was facing him. "Jacob, it's hair. You were fixing your hair so that you could go to bed. Get over it."

"Easy for you to say. You've been rocking the same hairstyle since fourth year," he sighed, looking at my ponytail quite judgingly if I say so myself.

"Key word there being rocking it," I said rolling my eyes. "Anyways, why are you so obsessed with your hair anyways? You should really go see someone about that. I don't think it's healthy."

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes at me. We both went back to focusing our attention on Professor Mason (well, I was trying to) and before I knew, we were let out of class. I was stumbling out of class when Melody grabbed my arm.

"Wow!" she said, trying to keep me balanced. "What's with you?"

"Tired," I yawned, leaning my head against her shoulder.

I never realized how soft and comfortable Melody's shoulders were. Like tiny pillows on a person. I sighed contentedly and tried to grab hold of her arm like I would a teddy bear, but then I was falling towards the ground. I thrust out my arms and caught myself before my face slammed against the hard ground, glaring at it for attempting to hurt me. I looked up at Melody and scowled.

"What was that for?" I demanded, feeling slightly pissed off. "I could have broken my nose!"

She smirked and raised an eyebrow at me. "Ah, but you didn't!"

I stuck my tongue out at her and she rolled her eyes. What was with people and rolling their eyes? I mean, I know that I did it often, but did I surround myself with people who did it as well? It had become more noticeable this year, the eye rolling I mean. Maybe I was rubbing off on them. I smiled at that, happy that I was influencing my friends with my little quirks.

"Earth to Abby. Abby, are you in there?" Deidra was waving a wand in front of my face.

I quickly snapped out of my reverie and focused on her. We were standing in front of the Transfiguration classroom, though I had no recollection of actually walking there. I realized they had asked me a question and I tried really hard to remember if I knew what it was, but I must have been so immersed in my mind that I couldn't remember a thing since we had left Potions.

"Sorry?" I asked, giving her a confused look.

The others groaned but all Deidra did was smile. "We're planning a Welcome Back event of our own, but just for sixth year Gryffindors," she said as we walked into Transfiguration. "Shall we say the boys' dormitory tonight? Archer promised he could get us a tiny bit of Firewhiskey, along with sweets from Honeydukes and Butterbeer."

We sat down next to each other at a desk and I shrugged. "I'm up for that. Exactly how much Firewhiskey is he bringing though?"

Deidra smirked. "Not enough for even one person to get drunk, don't worry. He said he wants to take the initiative and be responsible for once in his life."

I was taken aback and Deidra's obvious delight at the gobsmacked look on my face told me it had distorted into something less than attractive. Let me explain.

I've never gotten drunk, not once. Wendy and Kara haven't either. I mean, Kara and I have had alcohol, but we've never gotten pissed, which I couldn't say with much certainty when it came to Melody and Deidra. Melody's family hosted a lot of parties and I knew for a fact that when Jack, her muggle boyfriend over the summer holidays of fourth year, broke up with her, she had snuck into one of her mother's bashes and snatched a rather pricey bottle of champagne. While Melody's family was pureblood, they had a lot of muggle alcohol for some reason.

And I knew she had gotten drunk off it because the next day I had received a parcel in which the empty bottle was in, along with a note that said 'Jack broke up with me and I saw him kissing Arianna Russell. I'm sad and alone. Come comfort me.' Needless to say, she had a right wicked hangover and a broken heart when I got there. Deidra on the other hand was a bit of a party girl. She was actually quite tame compared to some of the muggle girls I heard outside my house at two in the morning, but she did like the buzz that Firewhiskey gave her.

Archer was like the Deidra of the boys' group, but multiplied tenfold. He had one wicked alcohol resistance and I had once seen him chug a flask during the middle of a seventh year party last year – which he hadn't been invited to until they saw how he could drink them all under the table without blinking an eye. Jacob, Albus, Timothy, and Evan had all had alcohol, I'm sure, but I don't think any of them had ever gotten drunk. So you see, the dynamic of our large group together meant that the person leastlikely to be responsible with alcohol was now promising to be responsible. You can understand my surprise.

"What's that about?" I asked quietly, discretely looking over at the party animal in question.

Deidra smirked. "Well, a little birdy told me that Archer has his eyes on a pretty girl with skin like cocoa and a smile that could make fairies swoon."

I squealed and the boys looked over at us from their own desks, along with Kara, Melody and Wendy. I felt my cheeks go red as Albus gazed over at me.

"Girly stuff," I said, dismissing the matter with a wave of my hand. "Nothing you should be concerned with."

The boys grimaced except Albus and turned back to whatever they were doing. Al on the other hand, just continued staring at me. I shrugged at him and turned back to Deidra.

"So, let me get this straight," I said, my voice low so that no one else could hear me. "Kara likes Archer. Archer likes Kara. Neither of them knows about the other liking them, but we do. Archer is trying to show Kara he's responsible and a nice guy to get her attention. This is literally the cutest thing I've ever had the privilege to witness."

Deidra nodded quickly her smile wide. "I know! Isn't it just adorable? Imagine if they got together!"

I tried to discretely look over my shoulder to study my two friends, but it obviously wasn't as subtle as I wanted it considering Albus gave me a funny look. I smiled at him and saluted and he frowned.

"What is it?" he mouthed from his desk.

I shrugged. "Don't know what you're talking about," I mouthed back and turned to the front of the classroom as Professor McGonagall walked in.

That was strange. Professor McGonagall was the Headmistress, not the Transfiguration professor. I knew she had been at one point – there's only so many times Albus's Uncle Ron can retell the story of him and Harry walking into Transfiguration class when they were little first years only to find a cat on the desk at the front who then transformed into Professor McGonagall – but I don't think she'd set foot in a classroom since I had come to Hogwarts. Well, I might be exaggerating. I had never seen her set foot in a classroom since I had come to Hogwarts. I straightened up in my seat as her piercing gaze travelled over the class.

"Professor Dietrich is unfortunately ill today. I will be filling in for him until he gets better. I have heard that you have been studying the Bird-Conjuring Charm?" she said, her catlike eyes flitting from one student to the next.

I looked over at Deidra. "What do you want to bet that Professor Dietrich is hung over from the weekend?" I murmured.

"Yeah. Either that or he got hexed by McG when he tried to come onto her!" Deidra responded, laughing under her breath.

I snorted and giggled a little bit louder than I probably should have. But Mr. Dietrich's creepy obsessive love for Professor McGonagall was really funny.

"Miss Prescott and Miss Morrow, would you mind repeating what I just said to the class?"

I gulped as I turned to look at Professor McGonagall. Her gaze was hard and she fixed me with it. I suddenly felt very guilty that I had been talking in her class. I looked over at Deidra and saw her looking at McGonagall with the same guilty expression.

"I don't… I don't know…" I finally said, looking down at the ground in embarrassment.

"Precisely what I thought," McGonagall said disappointedly. "Ten points from Gryffindor and if I catch you talking out of turn again you will find yourself with a detention.

I scowled and crossed my arms. Deidra just rolled her eyes and we spent the rest of the class listening to the technicalities about the charm before actually attempting it. My sad attempt was only intensified as I looked over and saw Albus lounging about, remembering that he had mastered the charm last night and thus could skive off doing any actual work.

"Bloody arse," I muttered glaring at him as he looked up and winked at me.

"Language, Miss Prescott. That's another five points!"

The rest of the Gryffindors in the class groaned and I rolled my eyes. "Sorry."

**********

"GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ARSE, ABBY!" McKenna screamed, swooping around on her broomstick to fly to the hoops where I was stationed. "How could you miss that shot? Huh? Tell me."

I felt my cheeks burn red and I glared at her. "Look, I'm not a machine! I'm going to miss some."

She scoffed. "There's no misses on my team, Prescott. ALBUS!"

Albus visibly winced from thirty feet away when McKenna screamed his name. He slowly made his way over to us, stopping and giving me a concerned look.

"McKenna," he said warily. "What's up?"

McKenna glared at him. "You will shoot on Abby for the next twenty minutes. No breaks, no stops."

With that she threw him the Quaffle she had been keeping under her arm. Albus grabbed it quickly and looked over at me.

"McKenna, twenty minutes is a long time for her not to have a break, not to mention I woouldn't be getting one either," he said, reaching out and touching her arm comfortingly. "Even James wouldn't have done that."

McKenna threw his hand off her and glared at him. "Well James isn't here anymore is here?" she spat out, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Twenty-five minutes. I'll switch you halfway through."

With that she flew off and I cursed under my breath. Albus looked at me and shrugged.

"Told you she was stressed," he said, turning his broom around and flying off a little bit before turning back around. "Anyways, why did you miss that shot? It was fairly easy. I should know, I was the one who threw it."

I shook my head and focused all my attention on the Quaffle as he began to fly forward. I saw his right eye twitch towards my left hoop and I positioned myself as he swung his arm back and then flung it forward, the Quaffle soaring out of his hand and towards the hoop. I quickly jumped in front of it and caught the damn thing before it could go into the hoop.

"I don't know why I missed it. I've just been distracted with this whole…" I looked around suspiciously." This whole society thing." I lowered my voice on the word 'society' and other than the fact that Albus's left eyebrow twitched, I would've guessed he hadn't heard me.

I passed him the Quaffle as he raced by me and waited until he tried to send the Quaffle into another hoop before talking again.

"I'm just a little nervous. I don't know what to do. What if I fail one of the initiations?" I bit my lip.

Albus looked at me with his impossibly green eyes and I felt my stomach turn. He rolled his eyes and I threw the Quaffle at him which he almost dropped in surprise.

"Abster, you're amazing. I'm sure you'll do amazing during initiation," he said, smiling at me. "And you really don't have to be worried about anything yet. Just relax and play, okay? That might help you clear your mind."

I nodded and gave him a small smile. "Okay." I sighed and then looked back up at him devilishly. "Want to keep track of points?" I asked and he smiled too.

"What's the wager?" His eyebrow was raised and his smile turned into a smirk.

I pursed my lips before finding the perfect bet. "If I win, you carry me around Hogwarts on your back for a week. If I win, I have to clean your dormitory."

Albus smiled. "You're on."

**********

The sweat was running down my face and my breathing was laboured. I ran my hand from my forehead down to my neck, wiping some of the droplets away before more sprung up in their place. I had no idea how many minutes it had been since McKenna had ordered us to do this, but it felt like an hour. Not even in an actual Quidditch match would I get this much exercise. Neither would Albus.

Usually, I had the chasers zipping around with the Quaffle so the opposing team couldn't shoot on me, and Albus usually had two other chasers to work with, not to mention that we usually worked together so we really had to pull out everything we had just to try and keep the other from winning. But he was flying towards me, determination written on his face. I concentrated, watching him like a hawk. He brought his arm back and I observed everything.

His eyes were looking right at the left post, but I could see his body aimed at the right one. Impulsively, I threw myself at the right hoop only to watch in horror as he released the Quaffle and it began to sail towards the middle hoop. Time slowed. I barely registered McKenna flying over and telling us we could stop now, or that the rest of the team was behind her, watching in awe as I tried to get my hand between the Quaffle and the hoop.

I stretched, my muscles straining and my body demanding my broom to move faster. As the Quaffle slowly spun closer and closer to the hoop, I felt the tip of my gloved fingers touch the leather ball and its course shifted. Still trying to get a hold on it, I felt it pass by my hand and grunted in frustration as I tried my hardest to catch it. But it was too late for me to do anything but watch. It was spinning towards the ring, its rotations strange because of my contact with it. As it finally hit the hoop, it did a little bounce and hit it again, finally falling through the hoop.

"NO!" I shrieked, turning to Albus, a frown on my face. "No, please don't make me do it! I'll do anything else. Please, please, please!"

I was not about to clean the boys' dormitory. The only reason I had said I would because I was so sure I was going to win. I knew all of Albus's tricks and his plays. The one he had just pulled was new.

But before he could respond, McKenna interrupted us.

"Okay, I have no idea what that's about, but I don't think I care. Albus," she said, pointing at the sweaty boy who was panting heavily on his broomstick (and no, that is not a euphemism), "go take a break. Grab some water or something."

He nodded gratefully and flew off, though considerably wobbly. The constant practicing had taken a toll on both of us. I gulped a few breaths of air down before McKenna turned to me, her gaze not blood curdling as I thought it was going to be, but sympathetic.

"Alright everyone," she called out to the rest of the team, not taking her eyes away from mine, "practice is over. Except for you, Abby. Stay here."

Lily gave me one last glance before flying down with the rest of them. I gulped but kept eye contact.

"Abby," she started, flying closer to me, "I'm sorry. I went overboard. It's just it's an insane amount of pressure. I mean, I'm coming in as captain right after James flipping Potter!"

I nodded. "I know. And… I understand… completely. Just please… don't make me do that… ever again."

She smiled and nodded. "I'll make that a promise. Let's go join the rest of the team."

We began to fly down together, my stomach turning and turning as we went. I felt like my dinner was going to make a reappearance.

"Abby," McKenna suddenly said, her voice soft and scared, "can I ask you a question?"

We touched down on the ground and my knees almost gave out on me, but I answered all the same. "You already did. But yes you can ask another one."

She smiled at me. "Do you think I'll be a good captain? Do you think I am a good captain?"

"Oh, well…" I stopped and looked over at her. She was biting her lip and apprehension danced in her eyes. "Yeah, I think you could be a great captain one day. You have one major fault though." Her face fell and I smirked. "Don't try and kill your team."

Her face lifted and she giggled. "Deal. Now let's get you into the showers. You look a mess."

I grimaced at her. "Wow, thanks. At least you haven't told me I smell like a pig's pen."

"Well there's that too."

"Hey!"

**********

I was in the shower, under the streaming water, letting it wash away all the sweat and grime I had accumulated during the madness that was our practice. I sighed as it pounded against my upper back. My muscles were all tense and knotted there.

Lathering up my hair with shampoo, I closed my eyes and tipped my head back, letting the water rinse away the bubbles. I ran my fingers through my thick mane of wet hair, marveling at how different hair feels when it's wet. It's really strange when you think about it. Or maybe that's just me…

But I was just about to grab my bottle of conditioner when the lights started flickering and strange footsteps could be heard in the main part of the changing rooms. No one was in here with me, I was sure of that. I had been so slow taking off my kit everyone had left by the time I had stepped into the shower. I had a brief flashback to when I had been kidnapped in the library when the lights flickered again. I sighed, getting annoyed with the shenanigans.

"Whoever that is, I'm in the shower right now. I'll be out in five minutes and I'll be dressed in fifteen, tops. Keep your trousers on." The lights had been flickering during my brief tirade but they stopped when I finished and I smiled. "Thank you very much!"

I finished washing my hair and quickly washed my body. As I passed the bar of soap over my legs, I cringed. I really needed to shave before I wore my skirt tomorrow. But that would be for another time since the person stalking me had been so nice and let me finish my shower instead of taking me out and bringing me to wherever in either a towel or my birthday suit.

Sticking my arm out and patting the wall for the hook my towel was on, I found it and brought it back to my shivering body, wrapping it around myself tightly and securing it. Walking barefoot over to the main dressing room, I rolled my eyes as I saw a figure in the corner holding a Gryffindor towel around its cloaked form as if trying to hide from me. That was definitely not what I had been expecting.

I grabbed my duffel bag and pulled out my after practice clothes – my comfiest bra and undies, sweatpants, a soft and baggy t-shirt, my trademark hair elastic, and a pair of fluffy red slippers (don't judge me, James had given everyone on the Gryffindor Quidditch team a pair when they joined up and it was now a tradition). I made my way back into the shower area and shed my towel, using it to wrap up my hair instead.

Nothing was worse than having a dry body and wet hair, because then your clothes would get soaked and you'd be wet all over again, your attempts at drying yourself off futile. I quickly slipped on my clothes and then shook my hair out from the towel, bringing it up into a very think ponytail. Once I had it secured, I brought all of my stuff back into the main dressing room and stuffed it all in my locker. Then I turned to the towel-wearing cloaked person and crossed my arms.

"I'm going to sit on this bench. That'll make it easier for you to stun me, won't it?" The figure barely nodded and I sighed. "I'm closing my eyes now. Is that what you want? Secrecy because no one–"

I didn't have time to finish before I heard a muffled Stupefy and everything went black.