As the final match of the Quidditch season drew closer, tensions ran high. Gryffindors traveled in packs to try and take out any member of the Ravenclaw team that was alone. Jackie ordered her team to always travel with at least one other person.

'I don't want to have to find a backup this close to the match,' she told them.

Jackie scheduled practices every evening the week leading up to the final, and let her team out early on that Friday.

'Okay everyone, I won't lie, I really want to win tomorrow. Just fly like you have been for me this week and we'll do amazing.'

'We'll beat Derrick for you,' Diana chirped up. The rest of the team joined in and Jackie smiled.

'Thanks guys. Now go relax, I'll see you guys at breakfast tomorrow.'

'Ravenclaws for the cup!' Nathaniel cheered as he saluted. Everyone cheered with him and walked back up to the castle.

They all walked up Ravenclaw Tower together and dispersed when they entered the common room to relax their own ways.

Jackie went up to her dorm and lay down on her bed. Ari was the only other one in the room.

'You'll do great tomorrow,' she told Jackie.

'Just don't talk to me about that,' Jackie moaned into her pillow.

'Okay then, what do you want to talk about?'

'I really don't want to right now. I'll let you know if I do.' Jackie felt more like there was something rather large trying to get out of her stomach than like talking.

Jackie had finally managed to calm down and she and Ari had changed into their pyjamas and were lounging in the room when Nathaniel came bursting through the door, causing Ari to go tumbling off her bed.

'Ok, here's the deal,' he began, ignoring the fact that Ari was swearing on the floor and Jackie was unable to control her laughter. 'We've got a big Quidditch match tomorrow, so I want you,' he pointed at Jackie, 'to get to sleep now, and you,' he glared at Ari, 'need to let her sleep. See you both tomorrow.' And with that he left, leaving Ari on the floor and Jackie rolling on her bed in laughter.

'How the bloody hell does he get up here?' Ari grumbled, picking herself up.

'More importantly, why is he telling me to go to sleep? I'm the captain, and it's only eight-thirty.'

The door opened again and Rebecca walked in swearing under her breath. Jackie was fairly certain that she heard Nathaniel's name. 'He ordering you to sleep too?' she asked. The look on Rebecca's face confirmed it. 'I'll take care of him.'

She marched down the stairs to find Diana, James and Edward sitting together and Nathaniel advancing toward them. She caught him with a Petrificus Totalus before he made it to their circle and levitated him downstairs to his dorm.

'Trust me, buddy, it's for your own good. I'm pretty sure Rebecca wants to kill you right now,' she explained, pulling the blankets up over him and kissing his forehead. 'Get some sleep, sweet dreams.'

The next morning, Jackie didn't feel any better. The large something that was trying to get out the previous night was still at it. She got ready for the match mechanically, trying to ignore her stomach.

She met her team in the Great Hall and encouraged them all to eat something while she didn't touch anything herself.

'Okay, it's time to go,' she told them and most jumped up, eager to get doing something again instead of just sitting there.

They walked to the pitch together, no one could talk. In the locker room, they all got changed in silence until the sounds of the rest of the school walking down the lawn entered the locker room. Then the silence broke and the rest of the team started talking nonchalantly, or trying to sound like it.

Edward, however, looked sick to his stomach. Jackie sat next to him.

'I can't do this, Captain,' he told her desperately. 'I'm only a second year. The rest of those wins were luck.'

'No they weren't,' Jackie interrupted him. 'You're a brilliant player.

'You overestimate me; you've been overestimating me all year.'

'You've been underestimating yourself,' Jackie told him.

He looked like he didn't believe her, but he didn't have the chance to say anything because it was time to go.

As Lee Jordan announced them and they flew out of the tunnel, Jackie took a second to look around. It was a beautiful day for a Quidditch match, and the entire school was in the stands.

Jackie flew down to the center of the pitch to face Derrick. She kept her face blank, but he looked like he wanted to say something. She just shook his hand and flew away before he could say anything.

'Okay, team, we just need to win by one hundred and thirty points and we've got the cup. Let's do this.' She smiled before the whistle blew.

They all took off into the air and the biggest match of Jackie's career began.

Immediately, the Chasers were flying and passing the Quaffle, the Beaters were hitting the Bludgers and the Seekers were on their search. There were people everywhere, and Jackie was in her element. The chaos was strangely calming to her; she thrived in hitting Bludgers everywhere. Admittedly, she did aim at Derrick a lot, but she managed to concentrate and divide her time.

An hour later, the score was 120-120. Her team looked like they were looking a little disheartened and tired, so Jackie called a time-out and had her team gather below their goal posts.

'Guys, I want you all to take a deep breath right now.' Once they all did, she continued. 'We can beat these guys. Just calm down and play like we did against Hufflepuff, we did amazing against them.' They all took off again, but Jackie held Edward back. 'I'm telling you the truth – you're the best Seeker I've seen in a long time, definitely better than Derrick. You can definitely find the Snitch first.'

He smiled and nodded before taking off again. The game resumed and Jackie immediately saw that Derrick and Edward were racing for the Snitch. She sped over to the Bludger that was closest to them and hit it at Derrick. She barely had time to hear the satisfying crack of his arm as the Bludger collided with it before Edward had snatched the Snitch. The Ravenclaw section exploded, the Hufflepuff section was cheering loudly. Even the Slytherin section seemed happy that Gryffindor had lost.

Jackie flew to Edward first and gave him a huge hug. 'I told you that you could do it,' she congratulated him.

He looked positively radiant. 'I did it!'

Jackie smiled as the rest of the team joined in on their hug. Diana and Rebecca were chanting, 'We've won the cup! We've won the cup!' Nathaniel, James and David were doing a sort of celebratory war-dance on their brooms. Somehow they made it to the ground safely; everyone was just one huge mass of people.

When they got down, Nathaniel and David hoisted Edward up on their shoulders and Diana and Rebecca joined James in the war-dance. Professor Dumbledore was smiling as he handed Jackie the silver Quidditch cup and she beamed as she passed it up to Edward, who held it up high.

Three hours later, the party in the common room was still going on. The cup was on display in the middle of the room, and Professor Flitwick had stopped by earlier to offer his congratulations to the team. The entire house was celebrating, and Jackie saw that there were a few Hufflepuffs in the crowd as well, including James's girlfriend, Lily. She smiled to herself and finished off her Firewhiskey before getting ready to go up to her dorm. Before she got to the stairs, she saw Winston at the window, a note attached to his leg. She let him in and took the note.

Come outside

Jackie went to the window and looked out, but didn't see anyone. She walked over to the common room door and exited. Once the door had closed entirely, she felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around her waist.

'Congratulations, sweetheart,' Trent whispered into her ear.

'Thanks.' She smiled as she turned around in his arms to face him.

'You mind if I join your party?' a voice drawled from behind Jackie. She sighed and turned around to face a drunken Derrick.

'What do you want now?' She tried to put as much contempt into her voice as she could muster.

'I just want to let you know what you're missing with me.' He staggered forward. 'A scout came to me today and offered me a position on the Wimbourne Wasps. You could have been a Quidditch player's wife.'

'Derrick, I don't want to have anything to do with you,' she told him, turning around to go back inside the common room, but he grabbed her shoulder.

'Jackie, think about what you're doing,' he said, gesturing to himself.

Before Jackie had time to hit him, Trent's fist came from the side and broke Derrick's nose.

'You might want to get that checked out,' Jackie told him coldly, grabbing Trent's hand and walking back into the common room. She saw him look curious as he entered, so she led him to her favourite armchair and sat in his lap.

'Welcome to the Ravenclaw common room.'

'This is nice.' He nodded appreciatively.

'It's not normally this loud.' She looked around at all the people with Firewhiskey bottles in their hands.

'I notice that you weren't a complete looker-on,' he observed, obviously able to smell the Firewhiskey on her breath.

'Well, I only had one bottle over the span of three hours, while many of them have had an entire case all to themselves.'

Trent smiled. 'So you've had some before? Enough so that one bottle doesn't get you drunk?'

Jackie flushed slightly and smiled. 'Who's to say that I'm not drunk right now?' Trent just raised an eyebrow and smirked, so Jackie laughed. 'Okay, yes I've had some before. But it's always been one bottle only, no matter how long the party goes on.'

'Uh-huh,' Trent agreed, still sceptical.

'Hey, man,' Nathaniel and Hannah joined the group. 'I didn't notice you get in. Want one?' he offered Trent a bottle of Firewhiskey.

'Sure,' Trent agreed, taking the bottle and uncorking it with his teeth. 'To the Ravenclaw Quidditch team,' he toasted them before taking a swig.

'To their amazing captain,' he toasted Jackie in her ear, taking another drink.

As May came to an end, even the weather seemed to be celebrating with the Ravenclaws. Each day was beautiful, but many students were unable to enjoy it all. They had finals to study for.

Every sixth year celebrated being done with the O.W.L.s and tried to ignore that they had N.E.W.T.s to look forward to the next year.

A hush fell over the school and all of its inhabitants as the week of finals began. Jackie went through finals week with relative ease – what student doesn't second-guess themselves after a large test – but she felt that she had done well.

However, during her Defense Against the Dark Arts final on Thursday afternoon, Professor White wasn't there.

'Where'd he go?' she asked Ari, figuring that she'd know.

However, for the first time Jackie could remember, Ari didn't know. 'I don't know,' she looked puzzled. 'I'll have to ask around.'

Sure enough, Ari's network of contacts came through for her. Jessica and Danielle were having their final that morning when someone got a paper cut. Professor White seemed to have spasms and barely managed to get out of the room before the girl healed it. When someone went up to his office to let him know that they had finished their final, he was drinking something red. The student had been able to tell that it was blood.

The news was all over the school by the end of the day – Professor White was a vampire. Many students claimed to have known the entire time, Jackie knew that they were all full of it. The next day, owls began arriving from parents, questioning why Professor Dumbledore had hired a vampire to teach children. No one saw Professor White after that.

Once that week was over, the entire school got to relax for a few days before the results came in. Jackie spent most of her time hanging with her friends – all of them. She was happiest on the day after finals, when Ari went up to Stephen to introduce herself. Jackie could finally have all of her friends together.