February 4th: A Gratuitous Claim
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February 4th: Bravado - The Characters must act quickly! Out the door, down the road, fearlessly onward, they will meet their enemies on the field of battle! Some verbal or physical muscle flexing from the troops An inspiring speech Adventure awaits!
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Aaron sat between Emily and Dave at breakfast the morning before The Game, and both of them looked positively green. Emily, especially. Hufflepuff vs. Slytherin was always an intensely personal battle between the two of them. Aaron… couldn't really understand the fascination.
"How did you do that?" Aaron asked, staring with fascination at the tiny green snakes charmed to dart around Emily's Quidditch robes. When he leaned in to touch one, it slithered angrily away from his finger with its miniature, pink-stitched tongue flicking at him.
"Spence," she told him, blearily staring at her eggs. "Gave it to me when I went to get my broom this morning."
"He wouldn't do mine," Dave said grumpily, trying to transfigure his pumpkin juice into coffee. "Said badgers have too many limbs and he couldn't work out ears. Little twit."
But he said it fondly. As it turned out, the one sure-fire way into David Rossi's heart was by risking your neck to help one of his friends. As one, they turned to glance at the middle table where Spencer was still visible in the sea of multicolour robes simply by being an easy head shorter than everyone else around him, having to have the platters of food passed to him by longer classmates.
"Mom was so annoyed when I told her they'd gotten rid of House tables," Emily said suddenly, her rounded American accent thickening with irritation as she glanced up to see the Great Horned Owl her mother favoured diving in overhead. "Said it was diluting tradition. Speak of the she-devil."
"I like it," Aaron said absently, shuffling aside on the bench so the large owl could land between them and bump his beak against Emily's elbow, a glossy letter clutched in one talon. "It promotes inter-house friendships and—"
Dave elbowed him. "You know, you can take the broomstick out of your bum occasionally and not turn everything into a team-building exercise. Besides, we're supposed to be getting pumped."
"Pumped," Aaron repeated blankly.
"Pumped!" Dave roared, surging to his feet. Someone threw a chunk of sausage at him that he diverting into Emily's goblet with a quick flick of his wand. Emily, skimming her letter and feeding Hogarth beans with her fork, didn't seem to notice. "Because we're gonna eat those snakes, got it guys?"
The rest of the Hufflepuff team hummed non-committedly.
"Badgers don't eat snakes," Aaron said, blinking.
"Honey badgers eat snakes," Dave corrected. "And we're honey badgers, right boys! And girls. And honey badgers don't give up."
People were looking at them now. Aaron shrank down in his seat and took the empty fork from Emily's slack hand, refilling it with beans for the crabby looking Hogarth.
"Everything alright?" he asked Emily, her face oddly difficult to read.
"Hmm?" she said, darting a look at him. Hogarth nipped at one of her snakes, earning a swat on the beak. "Oh, get out of it, stupid bird. Go home. I'll send Hermit with a reply if I want to speak to her."
Hogarth snicked his beak and took off, cuffing Aaron with his wing as he went. Aaron dodged it, ignored Dave's continued efforts to 'pump' people up, and slid back closer to her. "Em?"
"Yeah, it's fine," Emily huffed. "Just Mom being Mom. 'Why aren't your grades better, who are you networking with, I knew we should have sent you to Beauxbatons or Ilvermorny.' Oh, and she asked if you wanted to come stay with us this summer instead of going back to McGonagall's. Unless you're going to Dave's."
"Where is she stationed this year?" Aaron asked curiously, well aware of the elder Prentiss's Ambassadorial duties for the various magical governments. It was the main reason the Prentisses had had the pick of schools to send their daughter to.
"Greece, I think. Some whole thing, I don't really pay attention. You should say no, then I can beg out halfway through summer and go to Dave's. His sisters love me." Emily took and swing of her juice, choking on it as she realized there was a sausage still bobbing in there. "Damnit, Dave!"
"My sisters love everyone, don't feel special," Dave said, switching his attention back to them. "And Mamma just likes feeding people. Especially skinny people. Ooooh, we should drag Spencer over. Imagine her glee. Anyway, ready to get bitten by the badger, Prentiss?"
Emily rolled her eyes. From across the table, the Hufflepuff captain snorted loudly and called out, "You know, we'd probably actually win one against Slytherin if you'd do anything else in the match except trying to knock her off of her broom."
"Trying," Emily pointed out smugly. "Notice how I can knock you out of the air while still playing the game, Rossi honey?"
"Oh, it's on," Dave growled, grabbing his Firebolt, the handle of the lovingly restored broom gleaming under his palm. "It's so on. Bring it."
Aaron just sighed and picked up his bag, following the two squabbling friends out of the hall as students surged to the pitch. Maybe he'd have time to catch up on his essay while they played…