Author's Note: So we finally get to fourth year! This year:

Teddy and Victoire have graduated!

Dom and Molly are in their sixth year.

Jay is in his fifth year. Ew, OWLs.

Rox, Lucy, Fred, James and Phoenix are in their fourth year.

Al, Rose, Louis and Scorpius are in their third year.

Lily, Hugo, Alice, Lorcan and Lysander are in their second.

Also, for anyone who was wondering, this story will be based off of a combination of facts from the books and movies. I've read the series a grand total of 8 times, and I've seen the movies countless times, so occasionally the difference between the two is blurred. One thing you can be sure of, however, is that Harry Potter's eyes are green.

I don't own Harry Potter; if I did I would have found colored contacts that didn't irritate Daniel Radcliff's eyes, as well as given colored contacts to the young actress of Lily Evans.

Surprises

It is a known fact that ancient Egyptians had slaves. The slaves were said to have regarded the Pharaohs as a sort of living god. Muggles believed that this, combined with a bit of a fear factor, caused them to work for their Pharaoh with little to no resistance.

As wizards, we knew that Egyptians had impressive magical abilities, as did their slaves. The evidence is obvious in the success of ancient Egypt, as well as in hieroglyphic depictions. This posed the question as to how Egyptians controlled their slaves with so few rebellions. The answer our Unspeakables came up with couldn't be proven, but they believed that the Egyptians branded their slaves with a magical symbol, which allowed them some measure of control over the workers.

It is, however, a known fact that there were some rebellions from slaves over time. Most were strikes over not receiving grain or for better working conditions, but they still leant the question: how did the slaves break the powerful spell the symbol created?

The Unspeakables came up with an answer for this too: the slaves had to be more powerful than the castor. The same symbol was branded on each slave, as the symbol would be that of the current Pharaoh, which meant that the spell ended up cast over the slaves as a group. This meant that if one slave broke the spell, all slaves were free. The Unspeakables even found evidence that the Egyptians had been working to individualize a group spell (though they had previously believed that the spell was intended to create an illness), which further proved their point, as it was only logical that an advanced group like the Egyptians would figure out their problem and attempt to fix it.

My friend, who had been researching Egyptian hieroglyphics and came up with the theory on where magic comes from, actually agreed with the Unspeakables. She thinks that the Egyptians were very close to creating the individualized spell, and that it would have been easy to complete, had anyone found the spell.

"Al, do me a favor, fly back a few meters and stay there."

"Alright."

I waited until my little brother nodded to show he was ready, then flew straight at him. At the last possible moment I flipped my broom upside-down, holding on with one hand as I gripped the Quaffle in the other. I flipped back around just before I reached the hoop, tossing the Quaffle before pulling up hard on my broom. I made a giant loop, and ended up nose-to-nose with Al.

He started laughing, "That was great, but you should probably work on that last part. I don't think Jay would appreciate you getting this close to the other team's Keeper."

I opened my mouth to respond when I heard my Mum calling to us.

"Phoenix, Al! Your Hogwarts letters are here!"

Al and I flew towards the ground, still laughing. We entered the house and were walking towards the kitchen when the Floo dinged.

A brown-haired blur flew towards me, lifting me off the ground and spinning me around.

"I'm captain! Phoenix I'm Quidditch captain!" Jay shouted.

"That's amazing, I knew you would be! Congratulations!" I yelled back. Jay pressed his lips against mine, still spinning me.

A throat cleared behind us, and Jay quickly set me down, stepping away from me. My Mum was grinning at us, as was Al. Lily started singing a song from a muggle romance Aunt Hermione had shown us. James, however, had his arms folded across his chest, and it was obvious that he had been to one to clear his throat.

"You're lucky Teddy and Dad aren't here," James said, then his face broke out in a grin. "Congrats mate, Vic would have been a git not to pick you though!"

I rolled my eyes at him. I had been hopeful that James had matured a little bit after I watched him comfort Scorp, but apparently he had only done it after talking to Dad about him. Dad had encouraged him to become friends with Scorp, so that's what he did. Unfortunately James hadn't spoken with Dad about his Giggler problem, as he had started a list of past Gigglers and "Gigglers-to-be". It would appear our nickname for his witches had stuck, and Fred and I were slightly less fond of it now that James used it.

About mid-way through the summer, Mum had received an "anonymous tip" to give us "the talk". She had been insulted that anyone would try to tell her how to raise her children, but she had still gotten a thoughtful look on her face that James and I didn't like one bit. The next day, Fred, Roxy, Lucy, James and I found ourselves sat in the living room, trying to avoid each other's gazes as Mum and Aunt Angelina tried to be serious and straightforward about the whole ordeal, Aunt Penelope and Uncle Percy tried to explain things with scientific nonsense and (the horror!) a diagram, and Uncle George attempted to joke about the entire thing. Dad spent the entire time sitting on the couch, staring at the floor with red ears.

Fred and I had decided that, should we ever get our hands on the "anonymous tipper", they would receive "anonymous pranks" for the rest of their lives.

"Vic would have been an idiot not to do what? And why is who lucky we're not here?" Teddy's voice rang though the house as he stepped through the front door, Dad on his heels. Jay went white, while James began to smirk.

"Ted! Daddy!" Lily squealed, rushing to them.

"Vic would have been a git not to pick Jay for Quidditch captain, and I was lucky you weren't here because I never would have gotten my boyfriend back as you two ex-captains tried to give him advice," I lied smoothly, rolling my eyes for effect. "Obviously I didn't get lucky for long, seeing as you're here now. Why are you home so early?"

James looked rather put out, but Al looked extremely impressed. Mum just looked proud.

"Well, the raid we were on went bad, and they sent everyone who was on it home early while the Unspeakables took over," Dad explained. Teddy, who was currently shadowing Dad, nodded.

"Yeah, we were down in Lucius Malfoy's old manor when one of the blokes, Wrenson, tried to pick up Malfoy's old diary. Immediately these markings on the walls lit up, and we barely had a chance to get out of there before the whole place went up in smoke. It was mental."

"Did they call in Bill's team?" Mum asked. Dad nodded. "What about Penny's?" Dad nodded again. Aunt Penelope had become an Unspeakable shortly after the war, and, as far as we could tell, she was doing quite well at it. She had her own unit, so we based our theory off of that, as that was all we knew about her work.

"Now, my lovely wife, I do believe that someone mentioned giving advice to a new Quidditch captain, so I had best go see about that," Dad said. I groaned as he and Ted yanked Jay into the living room, shutting and locking the door before I could follow.

"Are we inviting the Woods to dinner?" I asked my Mum, as she enjoyed spending time with Alicia and Oliver Wood. She nodded; so I walked over to the floo-in the kitchen; since someone locked me out of the living room-to invite them over.

Alicia saw me just as my head came through to their grate. "Oh hello Phoenix, would my boy happen to be over there with you? He got his Hogwarts letter, then he flooed away before I could ask him about exams, supplies, or anything else!"

"Yes, he's over here, and actually I was flooing to-oh hello Mr. Wood! Did you just get home from practice? How was it? The weather's wonderful for Quidditch today, Al and I have been out since early this morning!"

Oliver chuckled, "Hello Phoenix, and again, please just call me Oliver. Yes I did just get home from practice, and the weather is perfect today! What are you working on?"

"Well, actually my Mum wanted me to invite you two, as well as Jay but he's already there so I suppose that would be redundant, over for dinner, so perhaps I could show you afterwards, if that's alright?"

"Oh, dinner would be lovely. I suppose your Mum would be starting dinner around this time, so I'd best floo over right after you to help her out. Ollie, you can floo over after you change," Alicia said.

"Yes ma'am. I'll just head back over and let Mum know. See you in a moment Alicia, Mr. Wood."

"Phoenix call me Ol-," I laughed as I heard Oliver begin to shout at me for calling him Mr. Wood, again. I yanked my head out of the grate, shouting to Mum that Alicia was going to be following me before heading up to my room. Along the way I passed Lily, who was writing her friends.

"Hey Lil," I said, pausing in her doorway.

"Hey Phoenix!" Lily sang back, standing on her tiptoe to reach for her owl, which was on top of her dresser. "If you need to borrow my owl again you'll have to use James', I'll be writing Allie back and forth for the next few days. We're trying to figure out a birthday present for Lorcan and Lysander. You know, we really should get you a pet. I don't know why you don't already have one, everyone else does, and you love animals!"

"Just never found one that seemed just right, I guess. Kind of wanted a connection, like Dad described with Hedwig, or Aunt Hermione with Crookshanks. And I just figured I should let you know, Alicia and Oliver are going to kip over for dinner, so you may want to change out of your pajamas."

"Well, perhaps this year when we go to Diagon Alley you will. And thank you!" I smiled at my little sister before turning and continuing on my way to my room.

I debated taking my hair out of my favorite knotted twist (which Uncle Charlie had recently told me was called a "Dragon's Twist", since it was invented by the female dragon keepers to keep their hair from getting scorched) but Rox had been pushing the idea of "messy cute" on me recently, so I left it. I pulled on a pair of shorts, an older pair that would still allow me to play Quidditch later, and an over-sized shirt. Finally, I pulled on my converse, and deemed my outfit acceptable.

"Hello again Phoenix, you look lovely," Alicia said sweetly as I came down the stairs.

"Thank you Alicia! Has Mr. Wood come yet?" I asked as I hopped up on the counter to watch them cook. When I was younger I had always tried to help out in the kitchen, but sadly, despite coming from a large family of rather good chefs, I couldn't boil water.

"Yes dear, he's in the living room. I'm so excited for Jay; Quidditch captain is such a big honor! Though, we're quite lucky he has you to help him out, with his OWLs this year he'll have quite a bit on his plate. Though I imagine your NEWT year you'll have even more! Obviously you'll be captain after Jay, you're the best pick for it, and I simply can't imagine you not being Head Girl, or at the very least Prefect."

I felt a dark blush spread across my cheeks as she praised me. I hadn't known that Alicia thought so highly of me, "Thank you ma'am. I would be honored to be captain, as well as Head Girl or Prefect."

She smiled at me in response. Suddenly the door to the living room burst open, and I was outraged to see James and Al rush out, as well as Oliver, Dad, Teddy and Jay.

"Sexist!" I cried. Teddy laughed, scooping me off the counter and rushing towards the back door.

"Alicia, Lily, Ginny! Drop what you're doing, put a warming spell on that, and come outside! Impromptu garden Quidditch match!" Dad yelled. Mum giggled, throwing warming spells at the food as she and Alicia rushed towards the door. Over Ted's shoulder I saw Lily skipping down the stairs, her hair practically falling out of the Dragon Twist she had attempted. As soon as Teddy set me down outside I ran over and fixed it, smiling at her thanks, before darting over to snatch my broom from Jay. Jay grinned, holding the broomstick high in the air.

"Jay! Come on! I can't even jump that high! You put that down now!" Jay just laughed as I crossed my arms and gave him my best Weasley glare. I smirked as he quickly lowered his arm, but it quickly changed to a scowl as he threw the broomstick at me.

"Jay! That's not funny! This is a Nimbus 2101! If you messed this up I would have been so mad! Now I have to clean it, again, and I just did it this morning!" I wailed. Jay laughed at me (again) before picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder. "Jay I-don't-know-your-middle-name Wood, you'd best put me down! Seriously I'm going to fall, and that's a long way for a little person!"

"Phoe, you've fallen off your broom twice since I've met you, my 6 feet 1 inch is nothing!" He laughed.

"What do you mean, 'twice since I've met you'?" My Mum asked suddenly.

"Erm, well you know, when we practice our dives they aren't always perfect, and well sometimes…you…fall…off?" Jay offered. I shook my head, clucking my tongue at his sad attempt at lying.

Mum kept eying us, but luckily Oliver decided he couldn't take it anymore. "Quidditch!" He screamed, grabbing his broom and flying towards the far hoop. Teddy immediately took to the other hoop. Dad followed Oliver, flying over to be his Seeker, while Al, who was decent at Seeking as well as Keeping, flew over to Teddy. Mum grinned, picking up a Beater's bat and winking at James, who stared at her with wide eyes. She flew over to Oliver and Dad, Jay and Alicia quickly following her. James looked at me before flying off towards Teddy, leaving Lily and I with a Beater's bat.

"I'll do this," Lily said, lifting the bat that was nearly as long as her arm.

"Lily, you do know that you use that to…hurt people…right?" Lily just gave me a grin before taking to the air. I quickly followed.

"Alright, garden Quidditch, same rules as the game only with less players! Your player gets injured, guess you're down a player!" Mum yelled, flying down to the box as she spoke, "Good luck and may the best team win. Heads up!" With that she kicked open the box and sent a Bludger hurling towards us.

Jay dove, reaching for the Quaffle. I flew towards him as fast as I could and snagged the Quaffle from his fingertips.

I flew towards Oliver, tossing the Quaffle to James and swerving to avoid Alicia. Suddenly I heard a loud crack, and Alicia barely had time to dodge as a Bludger shot at her. I twisted around on my broom to see Lily grinning at me, her bat still extended.

"Shite Lils!" Teddy yelled, ignoring the glare his language earned from Mum. James flung the Quaffle back at me, and I decided to try my hand at the move I had been practicing earlier with Al. I shot straight forward, barely bringing my broom into a loop before I crashed into Oliver. I eased out of my turn just before I reached the goal post, and threw the Quaffle through the hoop. I flipped around again before I could hit the goal, and remembered to angle my curve so that I didn't end up much to close with Oliver.

Instead I ended up nose-to-nose with Jay.

I laughed as he jumped backwards, his face turning bright red. I caught the Quaffle from the side and veered around my still-startled boyfriend to take another shot at the hoop.

Oliver missed his block, and this time Alicia grabbed the Quaffle. She flew towards Teddy before being forced to drop it as Lily shot another Bludger at her.

"Lily! Try and kill someone else for a change!" She whinged. Lily giggled before taking aim yet again, this time at Jay, who had picked up the fallen Quaffle.

I flew up on Jay's right and bumped into him, trying to throw him into the Bludger's path.

"Oi! Woman, where's the love?" Jay yelled. I laughed, giving him another shove before trying to grab the Quaffle from him.

The game continued much like that, with my team winning after Al snatched the Snitch from under Dad's nose.

"Lily Luna! Do you realize how fantastic you are?" I called. Lily blushed as she landed her broom.

"You're trying out for the team. We're down a Beater and I think you would work fantastically with Nikki. Tryouts are the first Saturday of the school year, and I expect you to practice until then," Jay told her.

"Yeah, I can help you out if you'd like. Nikki and I are good friends, and we've been talking about what sort of things she'd like to see in a partner. You're swing is really great, but you tend to just hit and sit. When you swing you should follow through with the bat. Have your whole body turned with your bat, but always be aware of your surroundings," I told her. Lily grinned at me, rushing forward and throwing her arms around Jay and I.

Dinner was loud, per usual, and I teased Oliver by calling him 'Mr. Wood' the whole night. I also learned that Jay's middle name was 'Alexander', which I fully intended to use at every available opportunity. By the time our parents and Ted were on their second glass of firewhiskey, Jay and I decided to go for a walk. True to form, our walk ended up the same way as last time, snogging on the Quidditch Pitch.

"We should do this more often," Jay said softly a while later.

"What, snog? I mean we can, I just thought-"

"No no, I just mean go for walks and sit together. Look at the stars Phoe, aren't they pretty?"

I followed his gaze upward. Above us a hundred stars lit up the sky. I automatically found Sirius, before looking at the stars as a whole.

They were beautiful.

"Gods this is gorgeous," I whispered in awe.

Jay never dropped his gaze from the sky, "You're gorgeous."

I blushed, "You're not even looking at me."

He just smiled. "I don't need to. You're always gorgeous. You're gorgeous when you first wake up after we pass out on the sofa, with a head full of bedhead. You're gorgeous when we've just finished with a Quidditch practice in the pouring rain. You're gorgeous when you pout, when you laugh, and when you're completely focused during a Quidditch match. You're gorgeous with and without makeup. Most of all you're gorgeous on the inside, which is what I like best about you." He finally pulled his gaze away from the sky to stare into my eyes.

"I really like you…Alexander," I whispered, smirking as I pulled his lips back to mine.

We picked up our school supplies the following Sunday. I spent most of my time either in the bookstore, the Quidditch supplies store, or in the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. It wasn't until we were about to leave that I found myself being dragged towards another store.

"You're going to look at animals and we are GOING to find you the perfect one, even if we have to pick up every animal in the store before we do!" My little sister demanded. I simply stared at her in bewilderment.

Honestly, my first year I nearly caved and just bought a pet. After all, Hagrid had bought Hedwig for my Dad, and she had been so perfect he hadn't had his own owl since, so why shouldn't I find one if I was picking it out on my own? Mum, whose pets had all been hand-me-downs until she got a little Pygmy Puff called Arnold, encouraged me to just choose. It wasn't until Dad had told me that it was okay if I waited that I decided not to just buy an owl. Each year since then I had gone back, but I had pretty much given up hope after last year when Uncle Charlie took me to a dozen different shops-magical and non-to no avail.

"Lily we probably won't find anything," I protested. Lily just sent me a glare reminiscent of Mum's before yanking open the door to the store.

"Hello girls! Come to look at our Kneazle kittens?" The shop-owner asked. Lily responded before I had even finished processing his question.

"Yes please!" She said sweetly. The man beamed at her before guiding us over to the corner of the store.

"Now, which one of you ladies is looking today?" The man asked.

"Just my sister here, I'm quite happy with the owl I have at home," Lily said.

"Alright, excellent. Now, Kneazles are known to have a bond with their owners. Most Kneazles will open their eyes around six weeks, which would be in two week for these babies, and imprint on whoever owns them at the time. If its true master holds a Kneazle, the Kneazle will mark them. A Kneazle will forever have a bond with their true master, but their loyalties will be to their imprint. If, however, the imprint-ee is also their true master, their bond will be one of the strongest in the world. If a Kneazle's master holds them before their eyes have opened, their eyes will open automatically, and will be fully developed. That way they imprint on their true master. Powerful magic, that of a Kneazle."

I nodded, having looked at several Kneazles before. This time, however, I had an odd feeling. I moved towards the basket, my eyes instantly locking on a tiny, fluffy black kitten.

I reached for her, picking her up, and instantly felt a tingling in my wrist. I moved to look at it when suddenly bright green eyes were staring back at me.

"Of course, Phoenix picks the cat that looks like Dad…or Al! Hey maybe she'll name her cat Alpuss! Ahaha!"

I ignored James as I moved to look at my wrist. The outline of a light grey hawk, its body forming a circle, was now imprinted on my skin.

I then glanced back at my kitten. "Circe. Her name is Circe. Circe was said to have green eyes, and black hair. Her name also could have possibly originated from a term for circle, and is related to the gyre of a hawk, both of which make up my marking." Circe purred back at me, and I knew I had chosen correctly.

Lily beamed, reaching forward to pet Circe, and I made a mental note to buy her something extra for her next birthday as I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

"Nix, your bloody cat won't get off of me!" Fred wailed.

"Honestly Fred, quit your whinging! She likes you. Seeing as she's a Kneazle, that should be a compliment!" I sighed, rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, well, I don't like her, so she can just shove off!"

Nikki gave Fred a glare, reaching across me to pick Circe off his lap. "Poor little C! Mean old Fred never gave you a chance!" She cradled my Kneazle to her. Circe purred, nuzzling up to Nik. Circle liked Nikki almost as much as she liked Fred, and Fred was only beaten by Jay and I. "So Lils, you're going to be my new partner, huh?"

"Well…I have to make the team first," Lily blushed, looking up from her Transfiguration textbook.

"Lily, you're going to make the team," Al told her simply.

"Yeah, with moves like yours, how could you not?" Scorpius said sweetly. I smiled at him, chuckling as his face reddened at the wording of his statement.

"Oh, so now you're trying to put the moves on a second year?" Rose snapped from her spot on the floor. Rose had seen how everyone-even her father, who had originally whinged and pouted for days-had come to love Scorp after to getting to know him, but Rose still refused to be kind to the poor boy.

"That's not what he meant Rosie. Lay off a bit," James scolded.

"Yeah, and anyways, I was a third year trying to put the moves this one," Jay shifted his legs a bit, jostling me around in his lap, "when she was a second year, do you hate me for that one?"

"No," Rose said, grudgingly.

"Teddy does," Dom sang. Suddenly a tall seventh year walked up behind her.

"So, is this corner of the common room strictly for Weasleys, Potters, and their guests? Because if so, I'd like to apply for an invitation," At this point he gave Dom a disgusting look, and I felt my upper lip curling even as she fluttered her eyelashes back at him.

"Definitely invitation only, and we don't extend them to the likes of you. You'd best get lost," Louis spoke suddenly. I agreed with the quiet third year, but I knew this would do nothing to discourage Dom.

As predicted, Dom merely giggled before whispering, "That's alright, we'll just have to invite ourselves elsewhere." She led the boy away, and I gave Louis a sympathetic look. We all knew Dom's behavior bothered him, but she was either oblivious or just didn't care.

"You know, I do believe Dom's got the right idea. See you lot in a bit," James said cheerily. I glared at his back as he walked away.

Fred no longer assured me that James was merely snogging the Gigglers, and I no longer asked.

"I'm going to go ask Slughorn about this essay," Molly said to no one in particular.

"Hey Ali, do you want to go check out a few extra books for this essay? McGonagall will kill us if we turn it in late," Lily asked Alice. The blonde nodded, and the two drifted away. Hugo, Lorcan and Lysander quickly followed.

"Want to go sneak some food from the kitchens?" Fred asked Scorpius and Al. Both nodded, and Rose followed them out, yelling about how they were breaking the rules.

"You know, I don't approve of sneaking off to…snog…random blokes, or Gigglers, but I would love to sneak of to snog you," Nikki said to Arnold, who grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the room.

"I'm Roxanne Weasley and I approve that message," Roxy said, rushing out with Dalton hot on her heels. I turned back to our little corner to find that Lucy and Lana were headed up to the dorm, and Louis had snuck off when no one was paying attention.

"It never ceases to amaze me how a family as large as yours can clear a room so quickly," Jay said in awe.

"Comes with practice. Between my Uncle George and Fred and James, you learn how to clear a room real quick," I winked at him, and he laughed loudly, kissing me softly before we turned back to our book.

"Alright, our next event will be actual tryouts. If you couldn't finish your laps or get your broom off the ground, you'd best leave," Jay called.

"That means you McLeay!" I yelled at Dom's latest conquest. He scowled, storming off the field, and I smirked when I saw Dom laughing at him from up in the stands. Louis was beaming from his place next to her, and I winked at him when he looked my way.

"Now, in the past we've typically done this in the order of oldest to youngest. However, the team and I have talked it over, and we've decided to change things up a bit this year," Nikki called.

"As you've been trying out, we've been keeping score on things like stability while flying, pacing and breathing while running, attitude, grades and classwork, and how well we think you'll work together with Nikki." Jay said, "So this year, we will be going in order of those ranked lowest, to highest. Now, it we have several people tied for the same number of points, we will be going in order of youngest to oldest. We're trying to bring a fresh start to all of this, to start a fresh year. This year, the team will be doing things completely differently, so this will just be a taste of it all. First up will be Olsen, Evan."

We started out by just marking names off the list. We determined that if there were no better contestants than these, we would just call off the team that year, or start looking in other houses. Though, we had seen Lily play, so we weren't too concerned about this.

Finally, Jay started on the highest-ranking group. First up, reminding me quite of myself, my second-year baby-sister mounted her broom.

I watched as she flew, feeling an indescribable amount of pride. She was brilliant, her grip perfect, and her swing through after hours of practice over the summer. Her long red hair, ginger like our mother's, and straight rather than curled like mine, was pulled back in the Dragon Twist I had done for her this morning. She was trying to learn how to do it, for, like me, she favored having her hair off of her face, but she found it difficult to do for herself, so I was doing it for her until she learned. The twist revealed her big brown eyes, which I always found incredibly gorgeous, though she told me she wished for my green. I loved watching nearly anyone fly, but my little sister was like a bird in the air.

"She flies a lot like you, you know," Jay whispered in my ear. I smirked as he wrapped his arms around my waist, his clipboard resting against my leg as we simply watched Lily.

"You think?"

"Yeah. You can tell she watched you a lot while she was learning. Her grip is the same, and she's got almost a winged quality. I swear, if either of you ever become an Animagus, you'd be a bloody swan or something," Jay said.

"Do swans even fly?" I tried to keep from laughing.

"I don't bloody know, aren't they supposed to be graceful though?"

I was struggling to keep a straight face, though I felt like falling to the ground and rolling around laughing at my silly boyfriend. But I didn't want anyone to think I was laughing at Lily. Especially not Lils.

Lily did extremely well, but so did several other high scoring try-outs. I really wanted my little sister on the team, but couldn't pick her without knowing she was the absolute best option.

So we dismissed all but the highest scorers, and ran them again.

In the end, we picked Lily, but only because of a charisma that she had with Nikki. Not that we would EVER tell her that. I would have been crushed if the final decision to put me on the team had been because of anything but my skill in Quidditch, and I knew Lily would feel the same way.

"We would like you to know that you three were extremely close, and we had a very difficult time deciding between you. It eventually came down to the slightest of details. The two of you that don't make the main team will be our two reserves, no questions asked. Lily, you're our Beater. You two, you were so, so close. Thank you so much for trying out."

Our new reserves nodded, and I could tell they had noticed how well Nik and Lily worked together.

"Well?" James demanded as we walked towards the bleachers. The rest of our family was gathered around him, waiting impatiently.

"I made the team!" Lily cheered.

We threw a party "in honor of everyone who tried out" that night.

"Hey Phoenix, do you remember when someone accidentally taught Lily the word bint?" James asked from across the breakfast table to me.

"Oh yeah, that was when she was about three right?"

"Oh hey, I remember that. It was Uncle Ron right?" Molly asked as she sat down.

"Yeah, but then he blamed it on Uncle Harry." Lucy said.

"But Dad had already taught her to blame anything he did on Uncle George right?" Laughed Al.

"Yeah, so Uncle George tried to blame it on our Dad," Dom laughed.

"Who made the mistake of blaming Aunt Hermione," Molly snorted.

"Who put it right back on Uncle Ron!" Finished Roxy. We all began laughing hysterically.

Suddenly there was a large pop from the entrance to the Great Hall.

Heads whirled around as smoke began to pour from the doorway. Hearts began whizzing through the Hall, and a banner dropped from the ceiling.

Phoenix Potter, will you please go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?

Jay walked into the Great Hall with a handful of orchids, my favorite flower. I could hear girls 'awing' around me, and I noticed Fred leaning against the wall just inside the Great Hall.

I smirked, holding up my wand and letting off a bang. The smoke from the bang slowly turned into a ribbon, which formed the words:

Jay Alexander Wood, of course I will.

The Great Hall broke into applause, but I ignored it as I crossed the Hall, grabbing my boyfriend by the shirt and backing him out of the Hall. I winked at Fred as we passed, but I didn't let anything distract me as I backed Jay into a secret passageway. I pushed him up against the wall and began snogging him.

My bouquet was slightly flat on one side when we remembered to pick it up off the ground a while later.

Now, for anyone who may need clarification, Penelope, or Penny, is Percy's wife. And she was Penelope Clearwater. I loved Percy and Penelope together, as I think it made him a bit more human. Now, I know according to J.K. Percy married a woman named Audrey, but I just loved the idea of Percy Weasley, former traitor, marrying a muggleborn. So in my stories they ended up together!

Also, I hope my introductions on some chapters aren't too confusing. Basically I'm trying to fill in bits of background information on what's going on elsewhere in the wizarding world, with Minister Hastings. That way, when the real action starts up from his end, the details will make sense. Also, I do try and research a lot of things about Egypt that pertain to the chapter, but some things I do make up so they make sense. For example, Egyptian slaves really did go on strike, but obviously they didn't have symbols on their bodies that forced them to work…that we know of…

And, fun fact: Phoenix's incapability in the kitchen is based off of my own. Honestly, everyone in my family can cook (and I do have a large family), yet just the other night I burnt milk while trying to boil it for pasta. ~sob~ It's quite sad, for I rather like food.

I've always pictured Ginny as a very versatile player. In the books she plays both Seeker and Chaser, but I think that while practicing in secret she would have tried her hand at everything she could, so that she could see what she was best at, in hopes of convincing her brothers to let her play. Therefore I had Gin playing Beater in this chapter. Plus, Ginny's bad-arse, so I could totally see her wielding a Beater's bat and giving her son a wicked-scary grin. Sorry if you don't like this, but I'm telling this story the way I imagine it, and that was it.

I love my Greek mythology! I'm also a fan of Percy Jackson, so when it came time to buy Phoenix a pet, Circe was perfect! I loved her in those books, as I thought she was quite funny. I also wanted a creature that was protective, but also one that I could play with a bit, in terms of tradition. A Kneazle seemed perfect, so that's what I went with.

You guys don't even understand how happy I am to be writing out full scenes again! Obviously the decision to summarize the years like I did in her second and third year was made for a reason, but it's lovely to be able to write actual dialogue again. Character development is one of my favorite things to write, especially when the character is supposed to be witty. Comebacks are the best thing ever!

This chapter was a good deal of fun. I love family scenes; they make me happy. Coming from a big and slightly chaotic family, family scenes are easy and fun to write. And, who knows? Some of these scenes may be things that happened to my family in real life…minus the magic of course.

Sorry for such a long Author's Note at the end here, but I wanted to let you guys know all of that, should you be interested in knowing it.

Thank you for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following!

Xx~IfIOnlyWereAWeasley