-Will fate conquer you? Or will you conquer it?-

"Where's Hayden?" James asked Caitlyn as they sat down for lunch.

"Dunno," she replied optimistically, "But I'm 99.9 sure that she's with her darling Andrew…"

"What's the point of having the .1 left?" Sirius grumbled angrily.

"It's the argument that the Hayden Short I knew three weeks ago would have rather ate worm guts than be walking around--alone--with a guy," Caitlyn said jubilantly, "Rather handsome guy I might add."

"Your hypothesis proves to be correct," Remus said, glancing towards the doors of the Great Hall.

"Translation…?" Caitlyn asked.

Remus sighed and nodded to the doorway, "Hayden and the prick have entered the room together."

Caitlyn waved to Hayden, who was looking around the hall for them. Smiling, Hayden waved back and started to make her way towards Caitlyn and the Marauders. Andrew frowned, but he stayed firmly clasped to Hayden's arm.

"I'm not sitting with his gitness," James snarled under his breath, "Tell him to go sit with his own friends."

"Oh James," Caitlyn muttered, "Lighten up, he's not that bad."

"He's still a git," Remus stated as if that settled the matter.

"Hey Cat!" Hayden said eagerly bounding up to them, "I thought you were going to wait for me after potions?"

"I forgot! I'm sorry, Hay!" Caitlyn said guiltily.

"It's all right," Andrew replied smugly, "I managed to get her here by myself."

"Does somebody want a cookie?" Sirius said sarcastically. Even Hayden giggled, although Andrew looked affronted.

"And which of your bed warmers did you escort here, Black?" Andrew snarled back.

"Me," James said with a playful grin, "It was quite a time, just the two of us--alone--"

"I bet it was Potter," Andrew tried to keep some dignity in his voice, but everyone was already rolling with laughter. Huffily, he added, "Let's go back to my table Hayden."

"Oh, but Andrew," Hayden managed to say between laughs, "I wanted to--"

"We always sit here," Andrew complained, "I want you to meet more of my friends."

"Okay, okay," Hayden smiled apologetically at her friends, "I guess I'll see you guys later."

"Later," they all mumbled, but she was already being dragged away.

"Merlin, what a prat," Sirius sniggered, "Can't even take a joke."

"That was a good one mate," Remus slapped Sirius on the back, "Of course, I only use the cookie line with you every other day, so it is a little less impressive, but…"

"Oi! Shut it!" Sirius threw his apple at Remus, who moved his head just in time. Unfortunately, it did hit Professor McGonagall squarely in the back.

"BLACK!" she screamed, "DETENTION!"

"Aww come now, Min-Min," Sirius swaggered, "If Remus here hadn't of dodged the apple, then it never would have hit you. So in the end, it's Lupin's fault."

"Shut up, Black, I do believe it's throwing the apple that 'tis against the rules, not hitting someone with it. And please do refrain yourself from calling me Min-Min," McGonagall gave a quick nod to Sirius, "Good day to you."

"Bye Min-Min!" Sirius yelled after her, "Damn she's good with the rule book, but I'll swear it time and time again, she's in love with me."

"That's gross Padfoot," Remus said disgustedly, "She's like fifty or something."

"I can't help it if I attract all kinds," Sirius replied, "Besides, I know you're only jealous…"

"Jealous of what?" Arya asked, taking a seat next to Remus.

"McGonagall being in love with Sirius," Remus replied. Arya looked horrified.

"Who is he?" James wondered aloud.

"I'm the god of male beauty, Prongsie, you know that," Sirius joked.

"Not you, prat, I meant Hayden's new parasite," James replied, "Or rather, the great Andrew Conte."

"Oh him," Sirius said dejectedly, "Never seen him before in my life 'til about three weeks ago."

"I wouldn't have expected you to have met a guy from France," Caitlyn's rolled her eyes in amazement of Sirius' amount of common sense, "Honestly…"

"He's from France?" Sirius seemed confused.

""Yes…" Remus looked slightly worried for Sirius' health.

Sirius looked at us all as if we were stupid, "Well then, Hayden obviously fell in love with Andrew, had sex with him, and then he dumped her. That's why she moved here."

James busted out laughing, "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Hayden Short fall in love?"

"She can fall in love," Caitlyn defended her, "It just hasn't seemed to happen yet."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Arya interjected, "I mean, Hayden's never really told us anything about being at Beauxbatons or why she moved. And she is really afraid of getting attached to people. Sirius' story could be completely true for all we know."

"Ha!" Sirius said triumphantly, "I do have good ideas!"

"You were blindly guessing," Remus pointed out, "And you only have a one track mind."

"There's got to be something else," James argued, "Hayden's tough, she wouldn't move just because of a guy. And she's not stupid enough to go that far in a relationship that's not sturdy enough to withstand time."

"She did seem happy to seem Andrew," Remus pointed out, "So that would rule out her being upset with him."

"Okay, so maybe she didn't have sex with him," Sirius replied, "But I still think that she fell in love and the guy turned out to be a jerk, so she had to get away from him."

"What do you know about love?" Caitlyn asked him, "Besides, Hayden said that she moved because her dad's job was changed. So maybe she and Andrew were together at the time, but split up because they didn't want to go through a long term relationship."

"That would make sense," Arya said slowly, "It explains why there aren't any hard feelings between them anyway."

"He would still send letters though," James reasoned, "Believe me, a guy wouldn't just let a girl like Hayden slip through his fingers, even if they were just friends. We're missing too much information, there has to be something else that happened!"

"Nothing happened James!" Caitlyn argued, "Hayden and Andrew would have known each other from school and maybe they were friends or even a couple. Then, Hayden moved here because her dad got a new job and they broke off whatever thing they had. When they saw each other again, they got back to together and they're happy. This is the first time Hayden's been this happy since Lily--"

"LILY!" James practically shouted, "Hayden would have told her if something happened. They tell each other everything."

"Might I remind you that Lily's hated all of us for almost the last two months?" Remus said softly, "We aren't getting information from her."

"We don't need information," Caitlyn replied, "James is just wrongly convinced that some huge devastation happened in Hayden's life."

"It would explain everything!" James argued.

"James," Arya said gently, "If some catastrophic event has scarred Hayden for her teenage years, we would know about it. Let it be."

"There's the bell," Sirius said dully gathering his things.

James was shaking his head angrily, but he didn't say anything other than, "This had better not get in the way of her quidditch skills. The first match is in two days."

Hayden's POV

I awoke to beautiful fall sunshine fluttering through my window. Checking my watch, I saw that it was six o'clock in the morning. Quickly, I unlatched the window and thrust my head into the outdoors. There was a slight wind and it was still a little cool outside. Perfect quidditch conditions.

Bounding down the steps into the common room, I found James sitting alone on a couch. He was staring into the empty fireplace with a determined expression on his face. Humming to myself, I rubbed his shoulders and played with his messy hair.

"I can't think when you do that," James said, a slight grin on his face.

"You think too much anyway," I retorted, "Besides, we need our number one chaser to be in his best shape."

"Are you going to give Andrew a massage before his first match too?" James asked me teasingly.

I slapped him around the head, "Fine, you can find someone else to massage your shoulders," and I plopped down next to him on the couch.

"I was only teasing gorgeous," He pushed me lightly, "You ready for today?"

"When am I not ready?" I asked him, "Drumstrang doesn't have a chance."

(No one's POV)

"That's the spirit," James lazily stretched out on the couch. Hayden, meanwhile, began to flutter around the room, dancing and screaming at the top of her lungs. James smiled, this was the Hayden he knew, this was one of his best friends. She even looked like the old Hayden; her tousled hair up in a ponytail, with some boxer shorts and a sweatshirt that she had slept in still on, and no makeup.

"You're going to wake up everyone," James said laughing at her ridiculous behavior.

"It's good for them to roll out of bed before ten," Hayden twirled around before collapsing into a heap.

"Don't hurt yourself," James said, "I'd hate to play Malfoy instead of you."

"I don't get hurt," Hayden replied and she went back to singing and dancing. A sleepy and confused Sirius appeared to the bottom of the stairs, still wearing the clothes that he'd slept in also. "Come on, Sirius!" Hayden grabbed hold of his hands. Sirius stumbled around the room for a few minutes before he seemed to get into a dancing groove.

"You two have no idea how stupid you look," James said from the couch, watching the two of them twirl and sing.

"Come on Prongs!" Sirius said, laughing as Hayden did the moonwalk.

"Alright…as long as you two don't start singing—"

"THE BEATLES!" Hayden's scream cut James short. Both Hayden and Sirius had been completely obsessed with the Beatles since they had all gone to a muggle concert a few years ago.

Sirius jumped onto the coffee table and pulled Hayden up next to him while singing into an imaginary microphone, "Help…I need somebody!"

"Help…not just anybody!" Hayden sung.

James couldn't help but laugh, especially when he saw many of their fellow Gryffindors stumbling into the common room to watch the show. Truthfully, Hayden and Sirius both had pretty good voices and it was rather enjoyable to listen to the two of them. Evidently, the audience agreed as a roaring applause and shout of "encore!" were directed toward the mayhap stage.

"Prongs!" Sirius shouted, "This is your song, get up here!" and without further ado, he dragged James onto the suddenly crowded coffee table to sing with them. With a wave of Sirius' wand, the music of "Here Comes the Sun" floated around the room.

"Here comes the sun…" Sirius sang in a strong clear voice.

"Here comes the sun and I say…" Hayden followed him.

"It's alright…" James sang flashing a charming grin to the audience where many girls were screaming hysterically with adoration for Sirius and James. He even caught sight of a certain red head making her way through the crowd with annoyance, but even Lily couldn't keep a slight grin off her face. And to his delight, Lily sat in a chair near the back to the crowd rather than leaving as James had expected her too. More confidently, he began to sing again:

"Little Darling, it's been a long and lonely winter…Little Darling, it seems like years since it's been here…"

Professor McGonagall came into the common room near the end of the song and yelled them all for making so much of a racket. It was with great reluctance that everyone went back into their dormitories and changed out of their pajamas. James called his team at nine o'clock and they arrived to breakfast with a stampede of screams and cheers.

Drumstrang, it turned out, played a dirty game of quidditch. Twice, the beaters whacked James over the head with their bats when he was trying to score. Sirius, in retaliation, "lost control of his beater's bat" and sent it soaring toward a Drumstrang chaser, breaking his wrist. Another Gryffindor chaser, Katie Smoot, was pushed off her broom and fell about ten feet to the ground where she laid out cold until Madame Pompfrey escorted her off the field. Their Keeper, Zach Matthews, had let in seven goals, but thanks to James, Gryffindor had remained close behind with fifty points.

"TIME OUT!" James called and motioned his team over to him. "What's going on out there guys?"

"We're getting killed out there Potter! Tell the ref to calls some fouls," Robbie Lane argued angrily.

"Queiton isn't going to do anything," James told him, "He went to Drumstrang as a kid. We're just going to have to pick up our game a little, but don't play dirty. Just play like you do in practice and—"

"Are you out of your mind?" Zach Matthews argued, "I say we show them whose boss, beat the bloody hell out of them."

"You start saving some goals, Matthews, and we wouldn't be so far behind. What's wrong with you, slick your hands up with butter before you came?" Sirius replied coolly and Zach reached for him wildly leaning off his broomstick.

"Oi!" James yelled, grabbed Zach's robes, "Let it go, both of you! We've got a quidditch match to win here! Now then," he continued when his fellow teammates had calmed down, "We're going to play fairly, no matter what, you hear? That's the only way we're going to win this match." Mister Queiton's whistle symboled the end of the time out. James grabbed Hayden's wrist and whispered in her ear, "Do me a favor and catch the snitch, would ya?"

"I'm working on it," She snapped back, "Drumstrang's seeker is playing just as dirty as the rest of them!"

"Get over it," James said and Hayden flew back up into the air. James whispered to Sirius before taking his place on the field, "Take care of her, mate."

Hayden flew higher over the game, looking everywhere for the snitch. With a jolt in her stomach, she spotted the tiny ball near the ground. Plunging into a dive, her mind focused on one thing, catching the snitch. Faster and faster the air swooped by, and vaguely, she wondered why the Drumstrang seeker wasn't following her.

"HAYDEN!" She heard James scream. Turning, she saw a bludger not five feet from her. Desperately she wished her broom to go faster, only a bit father and she could have the snitch.

"HAYDEN!" James screamed again, but she didn't veer away from the bludger's path in hopes of ending the game. Stretching her arm as far as it would go, her fingers clasped around the golden snitch and at the same time a loud "TWACK!" echoed throughout the stadium. A gasped silence fell from the crowd, only James' piercing screams of her name rupturing them.

Hayden gasped for air, realizing that they had won the game, she'd caught the snitch. And even more startling, a strong pair of arms were supporting her to keep her from feinting to the ground. But oddly enough, the bludger hadn't hurt when it'd hit her, in fact, she didn't feel pain on any part of her body.

"You're alright, I've got you," a soft male voice whispered to her encouragingly.

Hayden looked up to see Sirius holding her close to him, "Wha—What? I—I didn't…" and then she saw Sirius struggling to keep hold of a struggling black ball in his arm.

"Sheik? Are you with me?"

"You stopped it…" Hayden grasped, "You stopped the bludger from hitting me…"

"Well I couldn't let my favorite girl get her head drilled in by a bludger, could I? It'd ruin your pretty face," He smiled at her warmly, "Now, I imagine that a bunch of these folks in the crowd, and James, would like to know that you're not dead…and they might like to see what you've got in your hand." Hayden grinned and flew up into the air, her fist raised. Instead of cheers as she'd expected, the shocked silence still lingered among the crowd.

"SHE'S GOT THE SNITCH!" James screamed jubilantly, "WE'VE WON! HOGWARTS HAS WON!"

An earth-shaking explosion erupted from the people in the stands. Hayden could only laugh as she watched her fellow Hogwarts students' scream themselves senseless after finally realizing they'd beaten Drumstrang. She stayed in the air, her fist still raised, as her team came flying toward her in a huge hug.

"I thought you were dead," James said before crushing her in a hug, fifty feet into the air, "Thank Merlin you're not."

"More like thank Sirius!" Hayden told him.

The crowd still screaming, the team lowered themselves to the ground. McGonagall hugged James and Sirius while screaming and jumping around like she was five years old again. Dumbledore congratulated Hayden personally on her amazing catch and told the team to shake the hands of the Drumstrang opponents.

"You are very good for a girl," the seeker told Hayden, "I would not have risked getting my head taken off by a bludger to catch the snitch."

"I didn't really think about it," Hayden told him, "I was too concerned on winning the game, I guess. You're pretty good too…for a guy."

He laughed, "I am honored to be complimented by such an outstanding quidditch player and beautiful girl." They shook hands once again, and parted ways.

Meanwhile James pulled Sirius aside, "What happened out there?"

Sirius grinned, "You told me to protect her…so I did."

James gave Sirius an identical smile as Hayden bounded up to them, "Sirius here, was about to give me a play by play on how he saved your neck."

"I'd like to hear this one myself," Hayden admitted, "I was sure that the bludger had drilled me even though it didn't hurt."

Sirius began, "Well, as you know, you dived for the snitch, and I saw the beater hit the bludger toward you. I figured that you were going to catch the snitch whether the bludger was going to flatten you or not, so I tore after you. Just as you caught the snitch, I hit the bludger with my bat and grabbed it out of the air. You sort of fainted, so I caught you too…" Surprisingly, Sirius blushed a little, "That's pretty much it."

James shook his head and said to Sirius, "I could have sworn you'd missed it, mate," then, turning to Hayden, "And I truly thought you were dead."

"I guess I'm pretty lucky to have such a great guy like Sirius to save me," Hayden teased Sirius playfully. Remus, who'd announced the game, was still shouting the results to the dispersing crowd.

"Short with an amazing catch and Black with an amazing save! Hogwarts wins, 200-70! Next match in two weeks: Frongfringer vs. Beauxbatons!" Remus' voice echoed across the stadium, "And don't miss the special celebration ceremonies in the Great Hall starting in an hour! Goodnight, folks!"

"You look marvelous, Hayden, my love," Andrew told her as they danced.

"And you don't look too shabby yourself," Hayden replied with a grin. "This is one great celebration! I can't believe we won today! Wasn't it great?"

"It was," Andrew forced a smile, "Think you can manage to talk about something other than quidditch for awhile?"

"Sorry, I'm just so excited!" Hayden screamed suddenly as the Beatles song, 'I feel Fine' began to play, "I love this song!"

Andrew scoffed, "This music is terrible."

"No, it's the Beatles! They're great," Hayden exclaimed, "Lets go dance with my friends."

"No, let's take a walk outside," Andrew argued.

"But—"

"I just want to be alone for awhile," Andrew said, kissing Hayden softly. Hayden shivered and allowed him to lead her into the outdoors. "I love it here, just the two of us."

Hayden snuggled closer to him, "Look at the stars, aren't they pretty?"

"Not half as wonderful as you, Hayden," Andrew's tone was passionate, "I love you, now until the day I die." Hayden didn't return his words, but his lips were on hers before he noticed. Again and again, he kissed her, each kiss becoming more passionate. Her body was crushed against his, fiery heat erupting from both of them.

'It's perfect,' she thought to herself, 'Just like I remember…' A loud 'meow' broke the two apart and Hayden laughed to see Ember pawing at her feet. Andrew looked slightly annoyed at being interrupted by a cat.

"They're looking for you inside," Ember told Hayden, "They want to congratulate the team."

Hayden laughed, "I think I may be needed inside for a celebration," she told Andrew. He irritably followed her back inside the Great Hall and watched as she strode onto the stage with her fellow teammates.

"Where have you been?" James asked her worriedly.

"Outside," Hayden said briskly, and edged herself between he and Sirius. The team smiled at the screaming crowd of students and the blinding lights of cameras. And for a few minutes, with James and Sirius' arms around her and the crowd chanting, Hayden was happier than she'd been in months.

A/N: Wow…that took forever…huge case of writers block and it still isn't a great chapter. Don't worry, the next one will come sooner, and it will be much better, I promise. Please review!