"See?" Meg gestures at breakfast the next morning. "Look at them!"

I look down the table at Vero and Dan, who are talking like absolutely nothing is wrong, and level her with a flat stare. "We need to have a discussion about what merits the use of the word disaster,"

"You weren't at breakfast on Sunday morning!" Meg accuses. "You have no idea what happened!"

"Well were you staring at them like you are now? Because that's enough to make anyone feel awkward!" She pointedly looks up to avoid my eyes. "So they made out on Saturday? I make out with people all the time-"

"Sorry, what was that?" James interrupts, not able to hide the shit-eating grin that's growing over his face.

"Fuck off," I tell him. "I'm trying to calm the dramatics,"

He snorts. "Good luck with that. We've been trying for years,"

Meg throws a clump of eggs at him. "Jerk!"

While James returns with the favor with a slice of bacon, I sneak my own look over at Vero and Dan. All three of the Puff girls are with us at breakfast this morning and Dan and Vero have recruited Maeve and Liam into their conversation. No trace of whatever awkwardness may have been lingering at yesterday's breakfast.

Vero further diffuses the situation in Arithmancy. "Yeah, we're all good,"

Lizzie and Maeve share a concerned look. "All good?" Maeve asks.

Vero nods. "Yeah, we talked this morning. It was just some fun,"

"So it's all good and done with?" Lizzie confirms.

"No, it's definitely going to happen again," Vero nods.

I beam. "'Atta girl!"

"Vero!" Maeve hisses.

"Maeve," I say warningly.

"No!" She shakes her head. "This is not...this-Ver, this is the first guy you've gone anywhere near since Lycus! I just don't want you to get hurt!"

Oh. That...is a good point. I look over to see Lizzie pursing her lips and Vero worrying her bottom one. "V, we'll support you no matter what," I add, and see Maeve nodding along hurriedly in the corner of my eye. "I think Maeve just wants to make sure you're okay with something casual,"

"Yes," Maeve grabs at, relieved.

Vero nods. "I don't-I'm not looking for anything serious right now. Dan's cute, and funny, and we get along and I really don't want anything more than somebody who I can snog once in a while,"

"Famous last words," Lizzie's eyes narrow. "And then Lou will get his head out of his ass and suddenly you'll all have beautiful Gryffindor boyfriends and I'll be left here alone,"

"You'll still have Meg," Maeve says reassuringly.

Vero and I exchange a look. Little does she know.

The morning of the Hufflepuff match could not be more different than our first one of the year; it's cold, cloudy, and every so often, it'll start to flurry. My bitterness about the weather matches the bite in the wind and Coop keeps making faces every time it starts to snow.

At least I'm not the only one.

Maddy and Scott look infinitely better this morning than on the day of our first game. Scott's got an easy grin on his face as he sings along with and laughs at Freddy and Fitz's pre-game ritual. Maddy sticks with her game face, cool and imperturbable as she sits on the floor in front of me so that I'll braid her hair again before the game.

And then there's James.

Our illustrious captain is moving around the room, bouncing between each of us and periodically moving outside to give weather updates. "Snowing again," He pops back inside.

"Damn it," Coop curses.

"James," I say sweetly.

"Yes?"

"We know the weather sucks; find something else to talk about,"

He grins back at me. "How about this-grab your brooms, it's time to line up?"

I pat Maddy's head and grin back at him. "Now that's more like it!"

James grabs possession once we kick off and passes off quickly to me as we start to make our way down the pitch

The funny thing about Quidditch-well, all sports, really-is that so much of it is based on strategy. And if you do your homework and really look at another team's players, plays, and past games, you can put together a lot of what they like to do to try and make it a little easier on yourself.

So it's not really surprising that as soon as James hands the Quaffle off to me, I'm double teamed, by two of Hufflepuff's Chasers. After all, I did score the majority of our points last match.

Unfortunately for Hufflepuff, we Gryffies are now using Advanced Quidditch statistics to drive the play of game, so that plan isn't going to work anymore.

I push through the two of them as much as I can and drop pass to Scotty when there's nowhere else to go. Uncovered, he shoots off toward the hoops; I manage to block one of the Chasers near me and the other makes to follow him, but it's too late.

Scott pulls back his arm, aiming for the left hoop, as we'd discussed...and it sails in. He loops around on his broom, arms raised and a beaming smile on his face. I high five him as he passes but James' mere half smile (a ten-point lead is far too early for any celebration from James) gets him in position defensively and the game quickly takes off again.

It's such a different game from our last one. Hufflepuff are definitely a better team than Slytherin and it shows in the score, which is much closer, but the confusion on their faces is evident as they attempt to figure out our strategy. Our efforts to target the left hoop until their Keeper moves to cover that one, and thus leaving the others more open, go swimmingly, particularly as James and Scott are the ones taking most of our shots initially...leaving the Hufflepuff Chasers and Keeper even more confused.

One hour and two Snitch sightings in (one of which had James actually panicked), we're up by 30 and Hufflepuff's Keeper is finally starting to hover by the left hoop. I watch with anticipation as Coop makes a save and then James gives the signal, a short little thing with his arm that you'd miss if you weren't looking for it, so when Coop passes it off to Scotty, I take off along side him, ready and waiting, dodging a bludger to get in place near the right hoop.

Hufflepuff's Keeper is in ready position as Scotty weaves, but he's not quick enough to get all the way across when the kid lobs it over for me to easily pop it in the furthest hoop.

As Dad often says, one of the marks of a great Keeper is the ability to bounce back. "Can't let one goal get you down," He's done a whole sports psychology thing on it. Unfortunately for Hufflepuff, their Keeper could use some work in this area; his confidence visibly deflates immediately after my goal goes in.

Hufflepuff's Chasers are good, which takes helps make up some of the difference, but it's not enough. James is one of the best Chasers in recent Hogwarts history and Scotty has made so much improvement in the last few months, since we've started using the stats to fix his game.

With Maddy's snitch catch, we win the game by over 200 and the whole House storms the field. There's still a game against Ravenclaw and even the Final after that, but it's going to be tough for anyone to beat us with these point differentials.

I lose James in the chaos of the crowd, celebrating with Housemates that I both know and don't know like we've already won the damn Cup. "CDUB!" Meg's voice somehow manages to carry over the noise and I turn away from a group of Third Years just in time to see her and Freddy approaching, him carrying her piggyback style to better push through the crowd.

Both are wearing wide grins and as they approach, I move closer to them, and when we meet in the middle, Meg lifts Freddy's arms so that they're both pulling me in for a giant hug. "You were brilliant!" She shouts, and he doesn't even wince, he's so amped up, even though it's right in his ear.

"Fucking right!" He agrees.

"So were you!" He's still got one of his arms around me, the other holding tightly onto Meg's arms around his neck, and I lean into his side. "I don't think you had a single non-contact hit. Your gross production average is going to be so high!" I beam, giddily.

"Nerd!" Meg teases.

"Yeah," Freddy agrees. "Can't you just be excited about the win like the rest of us and go back to business on Monday?"

"That's why the Cap pays me the big bucks to be his second in command and you're just a lowly peon," Freddy waggles his eyebrows and I smack his chest, knowing exactly where his mind is at. "Don't!"

He rubs the spot (proving that he and Meg are perfect for each other, because he too overdramatizes everything, seeing as I barely touched him). "Meg, go beat Carson up for me!"

Meg giggles. "Only because she's been ditching me for James this week,"

"What?" I cry, outraged, as Freddy cracks up. "It was for Quidditch!"

"Mmhmm," She nods skeptically, giving me a knowing look. "Right. That's what you were doing on James' bed with the curtains drawn."

Well, it was partially what we were doing, but I'm certainly not going to admit that to her now. "Yes!" I maintain.

She and Freddy both laugh outrageously. "Right. Okay."

"Screw you guys!" I flip up both my middle fingers, one for each of them. "I'm going to find James,"

"Locker room is probably empty!" Freddy calls. "I can hold anyone off for another 30 minutes, probably." And he and Meg laugh even harder as I flip them off again while turning around in search of James.

As soon as I push through to the other side of the pitch, I see James...surrounded by a group of scouts, holy shit. It's actually happening, they're actually talking to him.

Including, surprise of all surprises, my dad and Uncle Justin.

Way to tell me you guys were visiting this weekend, jerks.

When Uncle Justin sees me, he grins, holding his hand out for a high-five, so I approach, just in time to hear James praising me to one of the Falcons scouts. "She's been a great addition to the team, obviously; the spearhead of our stats movement for sure, the driving force behind so much of our strategy and improvements. I don't think it's an exaggeration at all to say that we wouldn't be in the position we are as a team without her-"

He stops abruptly when he notices I'm there and I grin at him. "No, no, go on. Keep saying nice things about me,"

"Piss off," James says teasingly, and all the scouts and managers around him laugh, including my dad, who's also got this look on his face, like he doesn't know whether to laugh or frown. Classic.

The Wasps Manager raises his hand up once the laughter quiets and immediately starts speaking before James acknowledges him. "Can you expand on how you're using these stats?"

"Uh, sure," James says, and I can't even fight back my laugh as he attempts to explain how we're using stats to improve and drive our play. "-and so combined with our team numbers we've really noticed an improvement in how we strategize, but also in how we play, since we have these concrete numbers in areas regarding improvement and areas we should focus on."

"Could you give us an example?" A guy from the Cannons presses. "On what you've been using this for?"

"Sure," James nods. "So since our last game, we've focused a lot on controlling the Quaffle and passing drills, based on our STSR and Hufflepuff's Harper-Wilde."

Cannons guy's eyes narrow. A stats skeptic for sure. "And you think this is has been a good use of your time? Looking at your STSR?"

James nods and I smile. For all the debates we have about exactly how much use the metrics have, he's still willing to fight for them for me. "It's a good measure of our team play. I think we've improved?" He looks over at me for confirmation. "You think it's around, what?"

"Like 106?" I shrug, thinking through all our shots this game. "I'd guess, off the top of my head,"

"That's impossible," Cannons guy laughs, rather meanly.

I shrug. "Well that's way down from the 116 it was at after our last game,"

He snorts in response. "Maybe your stats person needs some work on how to calculate."

"Maybe the Cannons should start using stats, and they wouldn't be the worst team in the league," Dad, Uncle Justin, and James all beam proudly at my retort and I smile, satisfied, as the others around us start laughing, even as another of the scouts starts to ask James about his use of stats in game, still a relatively novel idea in the world of Quidditch, particularly the way we use them, to drive play and not just keep track of numbers.

"You were great!" Uncle Justin pulls me into a hug, as James thanks them all for coming to talk with him. "Star of the show,"

"Don't tell the Cap!" I tease, throwing my arms around Dad, as he joins us. "I'm so mad you didn't tell me you were coming!"

"We wanted to surprise you!" He grins. "We're going to crash your victory party," He teases.

"Okay!" I grin.

"I was kidding,"

"You should!" James agrees, finally joining us. "We were going to open one of the whiskeys tonight,"

Dad and Uncle Justin exchange a look. "Well, if you insist," Uncle Justin says.

"Yay!" I cheer.

"Are you drunk already?" Dad asks.

I snicker. "Uh, no, but Freddy might be by now,"

He shakes his head, laughing slightly. "Go get dressed."

It takes another few minutes for James and me to make it to the locker room, getting stopped by more housemates looking to celebrate. The mood is infectious, and it's easy to get more excited as we make out way through the crowd. When we finally make it to the locker room, James pushes me against the first locker he sees, barely even letting the door close behind us. "Left fucking hoop," He declares enthusiastically, kissing me soundly.

"Ow ow!" Freddy catcalls, and I manage to successfully flip him off as I loop my arms around James' neck.

They're blasting music, that upbeat song Freddy had claimed as our victory anthem after last game on repeat, as the entire team is in various states of disarray, attempting to get themselves ready to head inside for the party. "Plenty of time for that later!" Coop throws his glove at us, successfully breaking James and I apart. "There is booze with my name on it!"

I grin up at James. "And we have a whiskey to try,"

He kisses me again. "And adults to entertain," He grins lazily.

I wave that off as I go over to grab my stuff to shower. "I'll bet you all my laps next week that they've found Meg and are upstairs drinking already,"

He scoffs, but the look on his face is hilarious when we get back to the Common Room and we see Dad and Uncle Justin ripping a round of shots with Meg, Lou, Dan, and Liam.

Merlin bless his sister for capturing the look on James' face when we walk in the door. That photo's going to be a beauty.

Coming Up Soon: Valentine's Day at Hogwarts, Meg has more opinions about Carson's date that Carson does, Lou should just consider changing his name to Louis I-did-something-stupid Weasley