A/N: The next chapter (not this one, the next one) will be the last of this story! Fear not! Pyxis will return in a sequel! It will skip forward to our little pranksters' fifth year at Hogwarts. I will also be doing a small story about the time when Pyxis and James argued and weren't friends during their second year, so look out for that too! Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers and followers!
Life carried on at Hogwarts. Pyxis' friendship with James, Dominique and Fred became very strong over the passing months. They were barely seen without each other's company. Pyxis would often go and spend a lunchtime or an evening with Ezra and became friendly with some of his Slytherin piers. She trained twice a week with her Quidditch team and they steamrolled the Slytherin team in their Quidditch match. She gained a good relationship with her teammates, especially Jack and Eoghan. Teddy and her would often be found sat in the common room together, telling each other stories about their shared family history. However, the closer they got to the exam period, the more work and revision the teachers seemed to be setting them.
'UGH! I seriously don't know how Binns expects us to do another foot and a half on the Goblin wars!' Fred complained.
They were all laying around by the fireplace in the common room doing the massive amount of homework they had.
'I know, completely barbaric! It's sooooooo boring.' Dom threw her quill down and turned over to lay on her back.
Pyxis chuckled at her friends. She glanced at James, whose brow was furrowed in concentration and his tongue sticking out. Pyxis laughed louder. James looked up.
'Shut up, I'm concentrating here!' he shot at her.
'Yeah but do you have to look like an idiot doing it?' Pyxis choked out, clutching her stomach for support. James threw a cushion and hit Pyxis square in the face, knocking her backwards. After her giggling fit had subsided, Pyxis sat up, wiping the tears from her eyes.
'We need a break. How about we use some of that pranking gear you got me for Christmas Fred?' She said micheviously.
The scowl that was on James' face turned into a wicked smile.
'Hell yes, I know just the victims!' he said with a glint in his eye.
An hour later, they resumed their homework. James looked at the clock. It was taking a long time, maybe it hadn't worked. He continued to scratch at his parchment. Just as he was writing about how Greeqizell the Great fought Bascrull the Brave, the portrait to the common room swung open.
'FRED! JAMES!'
A soaking wet Teddy marched angrily into the common room, with Victoire walking moodily in behind him, dripping water all over the floor.
The four pranksters held in their laughter. The almost- smiles on their face threatening to give away their guilt.
'Weather in a bottle? That's one of your dad's products Fred!'
'Lots of people go to my dad's shop.' Replied Fred sweetly.
'Yeah but not a lot of people know where me and Vic go to-' he stopped, coughing to cover up his mistake.
'Go to what Ted?' James asked, putting on the most innocent look on his face. Teddy's cheeks turned bright pink.
'Nothing. I will get you all for this.'
He and Victoire marched off to their respective dorm rooms to dry off.
Once they had made sure that Teddy and Victoire were safely out of earshot, the four of them burst into a long fit of laughter, clutching their stomach and rolling around on the floor.
'I'm so glad I knew where they go to kiss, that was the funniest thing I've ever seen.' Dominique said, gasping for air.
Once, the laughter had died, they settled down and tried to write the rest of their essays.
On the morning of the Quidditch cup final (Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw), Pyxis was walking down to the Great hall with James for breakfast, talking tactics. They were walking through the entrance hall when they heard a voice shouting behind them.
'Pyx! Wait up!'
They both turned around. Ezra was running up from the corridor that lead to the dungeons. He caught up to them.
'Potter.'
'Zabini.' They nodded to each other. Pyxis knew that the two boys disliked each other. Ez thought that James was too arrogant and James thought that Ez was pompous. She knew that the both boys had put their differences aside as they both knew how much the other meant to Pyxis.
'I'll meet you in the hall Pyx.' James stated, and walked to get his breakfast.
'Good luck today, I know you're gonna be great!'
'Thanks, but the Ravenclaw seeker is brilliant, I watched some of his matches and he hasn't missed a single snitch!'
Ezra could see the worried look on Pyxis' face. He placed his hands on her shoulders.
'Neither have you Pyx. I know you can do this.'
Pyxis gave his a small smile. He squeezed her shoulder.
They walked into the Great hall.
'Good luck.' He whispered as they parted ways.
Pyxis sat huddled together with her teammates, and a few other Gryffindors including James. Teddy was breathing quickly. It was the first time Pyxis had ever seen Teddy nervous. Obviously, Pyxis wasn't the only one to notice. Victoire placed her hand on Teddy's, stopping him from tapping his fingers. They shared a look. As if no one knew anything but them. A smile crept up Pyxis' face. She wondered if one day she would share such a meaningful look with someone. They seemed to understand each other perfectly. James nudged Pyxis, nodding at the eggs and toast he'd put onto her plate. He smiled and stuffed his face full off bacon. Pyxis chuckled and began her own breakfast. After a few minutes, Teddy kissed Victoire on the forehead and stood up. The team all stopped what they were doing and looked up at their captain.
'Well come on then! We're not going to lose the cup because you lot are stuffing your faces!'
There was an outbreak of the scraping of seats and people hurriedly trying to finish the rest of their juice with Eoghan trying to fit as much of his remaining toast into his mouth as humanly possible.
They sat expectantly in front of Teddy. Garbed in red and gold with all their gear on.
Teddy breathed deeply.
'We're so close. Today we're going to be the heroes. Today, we're going to lift that cup and we're going to gloat in the Ravenclaw's smug faces. They took the cup, our cup, away from us last year, and I'll be damned if I let them do it again this year.'
He looked around the room.
'This is our year!'
Cheers erupted.
'Our cup!' Everyone got to their feet.
'We are lions!' Cheers turned to shouts.
'AND WE ARE GOING TO KNOCK THOSE EAGLES OUT OF THE SKY!'
Fifteen minutes into the game and Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were neck and neck. They had twenty points each. Pyxis was circling the pitch trying to ignore the Ravenclaw seeker, who was trying to distract her by pulling tricks and calling her name. He was really starting to get on her nerves. Suddenly a glint of gold flickered near the Ravenclaw hoops. Pyxis charged after it. The Ravenclaw keeper clearly didn't understand what was going on, as there was a panicked look on her face as Pyxis raced towards her. She whizzed past the keeper and was within an arms reach of the snitch. Suddenly, the Ravenclaw seeker, Roscoe Smith, hit her arm out of the way. Within a second, the snitch had disappeared again. She turned around angrily only to find that Smith had zoomed off with a smug grin on his face.
She resumed circling the pitch once more.
'Hey Malfoy!' Smith called over. 'Aren't snakes lunch to eagles? Sure you want to be up here with us?'
Anger flushed her face.
'How come you got to be so close with Potter? Didn't your father like try to kill his father a few times?'
She breathed deeply, desperately trying to ignore him.
'Mini- Death eater. You're probably trying to infiltrate Gryffindor and go back to your own side at the most opportune moment.
That was it, saying she was a snake was one thing, but saying that she would betray and hurt James and her friends? That, she couldn't take.
She turned to face Smith opening her mouth to say something vulgar but she noticed a gold shimmer behind his head. He hadn't noticed. She flew right at him. He looked confused and slightly worried at her apparent violent outburst. She flew right past him towards the snitch. Smith soon caught on to what was really happening and slowly caught up with Pyxis. The snitch was flying straight for the stands once again.
'I know your game Malfoy, I watched your first match! I'm not pulling up before you do so you can get the snitch.'
Ignoring him, she continued to chase the snitch. They were about to crash, Smith was looking back and forth from the snitch to Pyxis. Pyxis suddenly leant forward on her broom, grabbed the snitch and pulled up. Unfortunately, Smith wasn't as quick on his reflexes and went straight into the stands.
The noise was deafening. The Gryffindors were screaming, the Hufflepuffs cheered, even some of the Slytherins were clapping along with the crowd. Suddenly something crashed into Pyxis. Teddy had flown right into her, throwing his arms around her. There was another thump. Jack was there. Thump. Eoghan. Thump. Kush. Soon all of the team were hugging and crying in a heap and gently floated downwards, exhausted and ecstatic that all their hard work had finally paid off. Pyxis tried to find Ezra or her father in the crowd but she was too caught up in the elation of her team. They landed and Madam Hooch marched over and gave Teddy the cup. He lifted it for all to see. They reveled in their success a while longer, before skipping off to the changing rooms, arms around each other.