Chapter 15

Raining and Cheering

"Kasia, wake up!"

A full-blown growl answered Demi.

"Yeah, yeah, you're a scary wolf. But you need to wake up!"

Then Demi had the nerve to pull back Kasia's blankets. Kasia cracked open one heavy eyelid. Only two hours had passed since she collapsed into her bed after the full moon. She slid her narrow eyes over to her offending friend. "Demi, is your life flashing before your eyes?"

Demi blinked and tilted her head to the side. "No. Why?"

Kasia snatched the blankets back. "Because that's what's meant to happen when you're moments away from death."

Demi just rolled her eyes and pulled Kasia to her feet. "You'd never. Anyway! I have peace offering!" She presented a bag of Easter chocolates and raised her eyebrows with a smile.

Kasia took the chocolates, but glared at her. "Why did you wake me at such an unholy hour just to give me chocolates?"

"Ah! That would be because it's sunny, and Apollo cancelled Quidditch practice, so we decided to feast on the leftover Easter food next to the lake!"

Kasia glanced at her bed. "Can't it wait till midday?"

"No!"

Demi marched across the room and threw some clothes at her from the drawers, and half an hour later, Kasia found herself sitting in the sun with her friends, eating the leftover Easter chocolate.

"Now, was that so bad?" Demi asked Kasia with a sly grin.

Kasia considered opening her eyes so she could roll them at Demi, but decided her eyelids were too heavy. "At least it's Sunday."

"I'll take that as a thank-you."

James and Fred were Transfiguring the chocolates into different animals besides a rabbit.

"Now, what in the name of Merlin's stockings is that?" James asked incredulously.

Kasia opened an eye and caught a glimpse of Fred's new creation. It resembled most closely what a Quaffle would look like if one were to melt it until it bubbled.

Fred raised an eyebrow. "That right there, James, is a—er…a quimpy."

Demi leaned closer to the lump. "A what?"

"A plimpy, I said!" Fred exclaimed. "Yes. They're small round fish and we learnt about them in Care of Magical Creatures last year, we did."

Kasia narrowed her eyes. "Don't they have spindly little legs?"

Fred waved his wand and muttered a spell, and two longer lumps protruded from the ball of chocolate. "Yes, and there they are."

"I think the legs are thinner than that, and on either side," James said, eyeing it critically.

"Yes, and the body has a spine on the top," Kasia said with a nod, before Fred raised his wand.

"And a weird little face with downturned lips," Demi added.

Fred pouted at them all for a moment, and then picked up his creation and shoved it in his mouth. He grinned at them as he chewed, and said something that sounded like "You can't prove anything."

oOo

Unfortunately, Sunday was the last day they had to enjoy the brief spell of sunshine. Every other afternoon that week was taken up by Quidditch practice for the others, and Kasia spend most of her time working on a Potions essay with Trey, who she had been assigned to work with earlier in the week.

"I'm surprised your captain isn't making you practice every day like Apollo is," Kasia said to him one Wednesday afternoon. "Don't you have a game against Hufflepuff next week?"

Trey shrugged and rested his chin on his folded arms. "Yeah. But half our team is studying for N.E.W.T.s or O.W.L.s, and Annabel wants to be an Auror, so she needs top marks to get into her N.E.W.T.s classes. We still practice twice a week, but beating Hufflepuff has never been a challenge."

Kasia scoured her memories to try and remember what her friends had said about Hufflepuff's team and why they had improved lately, but there was so much talk of Quidditch, she couldn't remember one distinct conversation. Instead she shrugged. "Fair enough."

"Hey, I know we're meant to be doing that essay," Trey said, "but could you help me with the Summoning Charm? I just can't seem to get it right."

Kasia agreed, and they practiced the Summoning Charm for a while.

"Am I flicking my wrist wrong?" Trey asked after another failed attempt. His eyebrows knitted together with frustration.

Kasia bit her lip. "I think so. Try doing it like this." She demonstrated.

Trey mimicked her, and she shook her head. "Not quite. Er, do you mind if I…?" She reached for his hand, and he offered it.

She manoeuvred his hand so it twisted the way it was meant to. "That's how it's meant to be."

He met her eyes for a moment, and then took his hand out of hers to demonstrate the movement on his own. "Accio book! Oof!" The book flew towards him and hit him in the middle of the face, before falling to the ground.

Kasia burst out laughing. "Are you okay?"

Trey, his cheeks reddening, leaned to the ground, retrieved the book, then proceeded to bury his face in it. "I'm fine."

Kasia attempted to control her laughter, but found it difficult. "Why didn't you catch it? You are a Seeker, aren't you? I see missing those Quidditch practices has made you rusty."

Trey emerged from the book and closed it with a straight face. He looked at her, and, rather indignantly, said, "I didn't think it would actually work, so I wasn't ready."

The librarian shot Kasia a dirty look when she let loose another peal of laughter, and she controlled her laughs to a contained giggle. Trey couldn't help but chuckle too, but when another snigger came from behind a nearby bookshelf, they turned around to see who it was.

The books in the shelves blocked the laugher's face, but Kasia could see their shoes from the base of the bookshelf. Kasia raised her wand with a grin. "Accio!"

All the books blocking their observer's face came flying towards their study table, and Kasia and Trey managed to catch them all before they collided with their faces.

Scorpius Malfoy stared at them, wide-eyed, and dashed out into the open. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to laugh, but…"

Trey waved a hand. "It was pretty funny. What are you doing in here, Scorpius?"

His face fell. "I have to do an essay on The Medievil Assembly of European Wizards."

"Ah, I remember that essay," Kasia said with a grimace.

Scorpius nodded. "Hey, do you mind if I ask you guys something?"

Trey and Kasia exchanged a curious glance, and nodded at the second year.

"You're from different houses, but you're still friends?"

Trey laughed once. "Yeah. Gryffindors and Slytherins aren't so different, you know."

Scorpius folded his arms and leaned against the bookshelf. "But people still see Slytherins as…well…untrustworthy."

"Some people might," Kasia said. "But I think you'll find most people don't care about that stuff anymore."

Scorpius gave a short laugh. "I don't know about most."

Trey patted him on the back. "Give it time. She'll come around."

Scorpius' eyes widened, and he stared accusingly at Trey. "Trey!" His eyes darted to Kasia meaningfully.

Kasia waved a hand. "Relax, it was a fifty-fifty chance of being about a girl." She gathered her books. "So we'll meet here again to finish that essay tomorrow?" Trey nodded.

Scorpius shifted in his seat as Kasia stood. "You know, it's not like I, er, you know…fancy this girl or, ah…or anything." He cleared his throat. "I just, it's just that, you know…she thinks I'm…" He cleared his throat again. "It's not like that."

Kasia exchanged an amused glance with Trey. "Alright, then. See you later."

oOo

"No!" James yelled. "No, no, no!"

Fred made a strangled noise and punched the wall of the Quidditch stands.

"And Hufflepuff wins, 215 points to Slytherin's 110!" Jemima commentated, her voice higher than usual with excitement.

Apollo swore and tore off his Slytherin scarf. Then he whipped around to the Quidditch team. "Alright, you lot! We've got to win the next two games. I want to see everyone at practice an hour early tomorrow, running drills!"

The team groaned and muttered complaints to each other over the noise of Hufflepuff cheering.

On the way back to the Gryffindor tower, Demi shoved her hands in her pockets. "Do you realise we'll have to get 320 points in our match against Ravenclaw, before catching the Snitch, if we want to win the House Cup?"

"How did Hufflepuff get so far ahead?" Fred said incredulously.

"At least Ravenclaw will have a lot to catch up on, too," James muttered. "They're not faring much better than us, this year. They'll need 270 points and the Snitch to win."

"Sounds like it's going to be a long game," Kasia said.

James kicked the dirt as they walked. "I shouldn't have caught the Snitch in our match against Slytherin. Then we wouldn't need to catch up so far."

"Well, it would've been better if you'd caught the Snitch last match against Hufflepuff," Fred said with a laugh. "That'd solve the problem."

James stared at him. "Thanks, mate."

When they arrived back at the Gryffindor Tower, Demi pulled out her Potions essay with a groan. "Studying is the last thing I feel like doing."

"Yeah, but this is due tomorrow," James reminded her. The two of them had been paired together for the essay.

"I know," Demi grumbled. She glanced up at Kasia, who was reading over a passage for Care of Magical Creatures. "How's yours going?"

"Trey and I finished it last week."

"Of course you did," Fred muttered. "I'd be just as organised if we didn't have Quidditch practice every other bloody day." Kasia raised an eyebrow at him over her book, and he rolled his eyes. "Alright, probably not. But it sure doesn't help."

oOo

Three weeks later, Kasia stretched her arms above her head and suppressed a yawn. She rubbed her eyes and forced herself to get back to her Herbology essay. It was a revision essay on Bubotuber pus, but the lesson about the plant seemed like so long ago, it was hard for her to concentrate. She glared at the next question.

Who discovered the properties of Bubotuber pus, and how?

Kasia groaned and flipped open one of the textbooks sprawled about on her table in the library. She wouldn't be up so late doing the essay, but amongst all of her other assessments, she'd managed to forget about this one. She pulled her candle closer to the book, and sent a wave to the librarian, who retreated into her office for the night.

"Sacharissa Tugwood attended Hogwarts from 1885 to 1893. She excelled in Potions, and four years after graduating, she had begun to develop many cosmetic potions. Met with disbelief and disgust by her fellow witches, Tugwood discovered the properties of Bubotuber pus when she…"

Kasia looked up when the door to the library slammed open. James stood in the doorway, drenched from head to toe and mud dripping from his Quidditch uniform.

"Hey," he said, his voice tired, but surprised. "I didn't expect to find anyone here."

Kasia held up her parchment. "I forgot about the Herbology essay due tomorrow."

James chuckled, and held up his dry satchel. "Same, here. Budge over, would you?"

She did, and he took a seat next to her, spreading out his own essay next to her.

"So how was practice?"

James shuddered. "Horrible. We only just finished. The weather's going to be storming on Saturday, so Apollo thought we should practice in the dark. And the rain." He considered Kasia. "You don't mind if I murder your brother, do you?"

Kasia chuckled. "Maybe wait until after the match."

"If we don't win, I think he'll take care of that for me." James sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Oh, Kasia, I so do not want to do this essay. I'm exhausted."

"Same."

James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but you haven't been at Quidditch practice for the past four hours."

Kasia raised an eyebrow. "No, but I do have a curse raging through my bloodstream that's just a couple of days away from rearing its ugly head."

"Ah, of course. Sorry." He wrung his sleeves dry, and pulled out a quill.

"But James, it about Bubotuber pus!" Kasia said with mock excitement. "It's your favourite!"

James shot her a look. "Oh, I remember it. That stuff stung. And now Neville won't let me forget where the showers are."

Kasia chuckled. "You did disrobe in front of the entire class."

"Hey, I seem to recall a certain someone admiring my back," he said with a sly grin. Kasia hit his shoulder.

"I thought I saw some Bubotuber pus on it."

He raised an eyebrow. "But I didn't get any on my back."

"I know that, now." Kasia willed her face to stop pooling blood, but James just shook his head bemusedly.

They worked on their separate essays together, sharing quotes from textbooks and chatting idly about schoolwork and their friends between paragraphs.

After another forty-five minutes, Kasia tore off her length of parchment. "Finally."

James looked at it jealously. "Ugh. I'm not even halfway."

Kasia set it down and began to pack her things away, but paused when she saw how tired James looked. "Do you want me to stay and help?"

James bit his lip, then shook his head. "No, no. You go. Go to sleep. I'll get it done."

"You know, it's no trouble. I'm used to being tired."

James cast his eyes down. "I mean, well…If you want to, I won't say no."

Kasia laughed. "Alright, where are you up to?"

It only took another half hour to finish James' essay with the two of them working on it. Afterwards James sighed and smiled.

"Thanks so much. I'd hug you, but my uniform's all muddy."

Kasia pulled out her wand. "Tergeo!" A layer of dried mud vanished off his uniform, but it was still damp. "I don't know the drying charm."

James laughed. "That's fine." He shoved his things in his satchel, and Kasia gathered hers into a pile. Before she could pick them up, he pulled her into a hug, anyway.

Kasia wrapped her arms around his back and chuckled. "I thought you said you were too muddy."

"I decided I didn't care."

Kasia sighed as they stood there. She hadn't hugged him since the beginning of the school year, when she first found out about Silverback. She'd been too terrified then to notice how nice his back felt, or his arms around her. Her heartrate picked up, and she pulled away before he noticed.

James gave her a large smile and squeezed her hand gently. "Thanks for staying."

Suddenly conscious of the fact that he might feel her pulse through her wrist—which certainly didn't slow down when she met his bright brown eyes—Kasia pulled her hand away and went to pick up her belongings.

"I'll get those." James picked up her things and strode to the door. When she didn't follow, he looked over his shoulder with a grin. "You coming?"

"Right. Yes. Okay." She shook her head in an attempt to clear it.

James chuckled. "Now, there is a fourth way to give an affirmative response. For fifty bonus points, can Kasia Days find it?"

Kasia rolled her eyes and walked next to him. "Of course."

James raised his eyebrows expectantly. "So what is it, then?"

Kasia supressed a laugh and just stared at him patiently.

His eyes widened. "Oh. Right."

Kasia grinned. "Right, yes, okay?"

"Of course." They laughed together, and James sighed. "May I remind you of how tired I am?"

They walked in comfortable silence for a few more moments.

"I am starving," Kasia said suddenly. She hadn't even realised she was hungry until she felt a stabbing pain in her stomach.

"Same. Hey, you want to get some food?"

Kasia raised an eyebrow. "It's past midnight, there won't still be food out."

He shrugged. "So we'll go to the kitchens."

She stopped in her tracks. "You know where they are? I thought you hadn't found the Marauder's Map?"

He grinned. "I found it over the Christmas break. Come on."

Kasia followed James down to the basement as he told her how he'd stolen it off his father's desk. It had been hidden in a false board, and since then, he'd kept it in his dormitory.

"How come you didn't tell us?" Kasia demanded as he stopped beside a painting of a bowl of fruit.

"Oh, Fred and I were planning a few pranks. But we never got around to doing any, between studying and Quidditch practice." He leaned forward and scratched the pear in the painting.

It squirmed, laughed, and transformed into a green doorknob.

Kasia laughed. "I love Hogwarts."

James opened the door into a dark room, and stepped into it with light feet.

Kasia followed. "I can't see," she whispered.

James fumbled in the dark and grabbed her hand. "Follow me."

He led her through the room, and she had that awful feeling that she was about to run into something the entire time. But instead she focussed on James' hand.

Finally, James bent down. "Rorpy. Hey. Rorpy."

A squeaky mumble answered him. "Mister Potter?"

"Shh. I didn't want to wake everyone. Can you get us some leftovers from tonight's dinner?"

"Of course, Mister Potter!" The squeak was louder, and met with other mumbles around the room. Kasia stared around in the blackness. She couldn't see them, but they must have been surrounded by sleeping house elves.

James led Kasia to follow the elf's footsteps, until a door shut behind them.

"Lumos." James still didn't let go of Kasia's hand, and she pretended not to notice. "Oh, this is Kasia. Kasia, this is Rorpy. He's the best house elf in the kitchens. Always happy to get me some extra food."

Rorpy, a shrivelled old house elf with large eyes, gave something that looked to be a smile. "Mister Potter is too kind, sir! Nice to meet you, Miss Kasia, ma'am. I'll get you both some steak and kidney pudding right away! Did you want some of the chocolate and strawberry pudding, as well, Mister Potter, sir?"

James grinned. "Absolutely."

"Hey, you found a fifth way to say 'yes'."

James laughed. "So I did. Fifty bonus points to me."

Once Rorpy handed over the food in a large bundle, James led Kasia back through to the corridor, and dropped her hand. She found herself suppressing a frown.

They made their way back up to the Gryffindor Tower. James moaned. "This smells incredible. I almost just want to eat it here in the corridor."

When they reached the seventh floor, Kasia grasped his hand, and lowered her voice to a hiss. "Wait!"

He paused next to her with a quick glance at their hands. "What is it?"

Kasia put a finger to her lips and cocked her head.

Voices were coming from around the corner.

"Prefects."

James' eyes widened, and he pulled her in the opposite direction, and up the stairs. The Gryffindor Tower was not far, now.

A voice echoed down the corridor. "Hey!"

"Run, run, run!" James exclaimed, and they ran up the stairs. Footsteps echoed behind them.

They reached the Fat Lady and blurted out the password.

She opened it up with an exasperated expression, and James pushed Kasia in first.

"James Potter!"

James stepped into the portrait hole, and stuck his head out before it closed. "It's Albus Potter!"

The portrait shut, and Kasia burst out laughing. "It wasn't a Gryffindor prefect, was it?"

"Nah," James said with a grin. "It was one of the Ravenclaw sixth years."

"I'm a Gryffindor prefect, though."

They whipped around to the common room, where Joe Brooks, a seventh year, stood with his arms folded and his eyebrow raised. "It's two in the morning. What on earth are two fourth years doing up?" His eyes fell to their entwined hands, and they separated abruptly. Kasia's cheeks reddened.

James cleared his throat. "We were just working on a Herbology paper due tomorrow. And then we stopped for food on the way back."

Kasia gestured to the food, and held up her essay. "See?"

Joe narrowed his eyes. "How do you know how to get into the kitchens?"

"My best friend is Fred Weasley," James said at once.

Joe nodded thoughtfully as he considered them.

"How about some chocolate strawberry pudding to smooth this all over?" James offered.

Joe's eyebrows raised as he looked at the food in James' arms. He walked over and took the pudding. "Next time, it'll take a lot more than pudding for me to let you off the hook. Now get to bed." He walked past them and out the portrait hole.

"What's he doing up so late?" Kasia asked suspiciously.

James laughed. "Prefect's rounds, I guess."

They settled in front of the fire and dug into the steak and kidney pudding with relish.

oOo

A few days later, and Kasia had dealt with the full moon, and was now in the Quidditch stands with Yasmine, Chandi, and Katriel, cheering for Gryffindor.

The game had already gone on for three hours, and Ravenclaw and Gryffindor were neck and neck, at 250 points. Rain was pouring down the entire time, and thunder boomed ominously in the distance. One more score for Ravenclaw, and they would be ready to catch the Snitch.

Up until this point, James and the Ravenclaw Seeker, the seventh year Grace Lee, had spent most of the game chatting idly to one another as they hovered side by side in the corner of the stadium. They'd been separated for periods by fierce rounds of Bludgers, and after Gryffindor reached 200 points, James was constantly evading Bludgers, with Parry Wilson beating away as many Bludgers as he sent to Grace Lee.

Yasmine was cheering loudly for James as he avoided another Bludger, and Kasia leaned away to spare her eardrums. She watched James worriedly herself.

She'd been trying not to think of the night they spent doing their Herbology essays and eating food from the kitchens, but ever since then, when James looked at her, she found herself stumbling over her words. And he seemed to look at her a lot.

This is all Demi's fault, for putting the idea in my head, she thought grimly to herself.

Demi had suffered a Bludger to the leg herself during the match, but still guarded Gryffindor's hoop as well as she ever had. Apollo and the other Gryffindor Chasers passed the Quaffle back and forth, and shot it like an arrow towards Poppy Mitchell. There was no mercy between Apollo and Poppy now, despite their long relationship.

"Gryffindor pulls ahead at 300 points after a fantastic play by Wood and Nicolson!"

"Come on, only twenty more points," Kasia muttered.

The Ravenclaw Chasers intercepted the Quaffle, and darted around the pitch in their convoluted plays towards Demi.

"Young shoots, and scores! Ravenclaw at 270 points!"

"That's the score they need to win," Yasmine exclaimed, all but jumping up and down.

Gryffindor edged up to 310 points. Ten more points and the Snitch would bring them to 470, which is how many they'd need to beat Hufflepuff overall.

"Grace Lee shoots off! She must have seen the—Potter follows! Gryffindor in possession, and on their way across to Ravenclaw's hoops!"

Kasia, Katriel, and Chandi all rose to their feet with Yasmine, leaning forward as if it would help them see better.

Grace Lee and James darted across the pitch, towards the Slytherin stands. At the same time, the second year Cody Hughes passed the Quaffle to Peter Nicolson. Peter pulled his arm back to shoot and the hoops, and instead threw it to Apollo.

"Nicolson throws to Wood in a last-minute play, and, oh! Morris intercepts!"

The Ravenclaw Chaser drove the Quaffle back up, away from the hoops.

Kyle Davis, one of Ravenclaw's Beaters, shot the Bludger towards James and Grace as they flew past him. Kasia opened her mouth to scream a warning, before remembering it was useless. The entire crowd was screaming.

The Bludger hit James' shoulder as he and Grace extended their arms—the same one he'd hurt twice already that school year—and he doubled over his broom.

After a split second, he flung his other hand out and fumbled with her in the air.

Jemima was commentating hurriedly, but Kasia focussed only on James and Grace.

He managed to push Grace Lee to swerve in the opposite direction, and began to zigzag chaotically to the ground. He swiped at the air as he fell, and drew himself up hard. He fell off his broom a few metres from the ground, and rolled on the sand.

James forced himself to his feet, and held up his fist with a scowl.

"James Potter has caught the Snitch! Gryffindor wins 470 to 270 thanks to that last play by Wood and Hughes!"

James' face went from confusion, to an elated grin as he heard the commentary.

The Gryffindor stands were ear-splitting with cheers. Katriel yelled in Kasia's ear when she asked her what happened.

"Cody and Apollo passed the Quaffle down at the last second, and Apollo sent it to the hoops from almost halfway across the field when he saw James and Lee fumbling for the Snitch! And he got it in, because Fred sent a Bludger Poppy's way!"

Back in the Gryffindor common room, celebrations were well underway, and food seemed to cover every surface. Finally, the Quidditch team entered, dripping and grinning.

James let the Snitch fly around the room, and whooped along with the rest of his team. Apollo gave the young Cody Hughes and hearty slap on the back and yelled praise in his ear.

Kasia joined James, Demi, and Fred, who couldn't stop grinning. "That was fantastic!"

"I know, right!" Demi squealed, and threw her arms around Kasia.

"I thought I'd lost it for us!" James yelled delightedly. "I knew I wouldn't be able to play for much longer so I caught the Snitch so Grace wouldn't, but I didn't even realise we scored another point!"

"You did brilliantly, James," Apollo assured him with another of his great whacks on the back. James laughed when it knocked the breath out of him, and rubbed his shoulder with a wince. "You too, Fred! We couldn't have done it if you hadn't sent that Bludger to Poppy!"

Kasia laughed too and hugged Fred as part of the celebrations. When he released her, she hugged James too.

"Congratulations," she said in his ear.

"Thanks." She could hear the grin in his voice.

He pulled away, but kept his hands on her shoulders. His eyes burned as if he were about to say something, and he let his hands fall. He opened his mouth, closed it again, and then blinked. "Thanks," he said again.

Then he was pulled away by other admirers wanting to hear his version of the match, and Kasia stared after him, ignoring Demi's nudge.

oOo