On the morning of Friday, November 6th, 2020, Lily
On Friday, August 14th 2020, James, Hugo, Devon, Ainsley and Lily arrived at the Savers house via portkeys Samantha had given them before they'd left Potter Manor.
They landed smack dab in the middle of Samantha's room. Samantha was sitting on her bed with her new sister, Stephanie.
Samantha's bedsheets and pillowcase were a vivid shade of Arizona Cardinals red.
On the south wall of Samantha's room were several pennants representing various NFL teams. Samantha's desk was towards the north part of her room just below her curtains and atop the west end of her desk was a clock with very large red numbers, good for seeing while lying in bed. At the east end of desk sat her Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone and her Kindle Paperwhite.
On a west wall was a sheet of paper listing her favorite quotes. Amongst these were.
"It is not our abilities that show what we truly, it is our choices." - Albus Dumbledore.
"Failing to prepare is preparing to fail." - John R Wooden.
"I thought you'd value yer friend more n rats." - Rubeus Hagrid.
But what caught their attention the most were 2 pictures on the wall above her desk.
These 2 pictures were both time stamped with Sunday, September 16th, 2007 at 4:07 p.m. AZ time.
1 of the pictures showed a newborn baby girl being held by a woman who was presumably her mother. The other showed a man wearing an Arizona Cardinals shirt and hat jumping up and down as a football was splitting 2 uprights.
"I have a super cool Arizona Cardinals connection," said Samantha joyously, "You see on Sunday, September 16, 2007 at 4:07 p.m. AZ time, Sarah was giving birth to me at a local hospital while at that same minute Samuel was jumping up and down in his seat at University of Phoenix Stadium celebrating Neil Rackers last second game winning 42 yard field goal that gave our beloved Arizona Cardinals a 23-20 win over the rival Seahawks. Also Samuel and Sarah had already purchased Cardinals season tickets for me before I was even born! I can't remember ever not going to Cardinals games. Samuel, Sarah, and me in our same seats every home game. That true story of Sarah giving birth to me at a local hospital while Samuel was celebrating a big Cardinals win at University of Phoenix Stadium that very same minute is super cool and gives me a super cool Arizona Cardinals connection!"
"That's an awesome story, Samantha, " said Lily in amazement.
"It might be the coolest story I've ever heard," agreed Ainsley in awe.
"Samantha has been teaching me NFL history since the Savers adopted me," explained Stephanie, "Apparently the Cardinals finished that season 8-8 but the next season the Cardinals would win their 1st ever NFC Championship."
"But the Cardinals have never won the Super Bowl. Here we are heading into the season of Super Bowl 55 and the Cardinals still don't have a Lombardi Trophy." said Samantha in a depressed voice.
"Don't give up," said Stephanie.
"BTW," said Samantha clearly, "Remember the number 1 rule of being at my house?"
"No yelling," chorused James, Hugo, Devon, Ainsley and Lily.
"The fact that Samuel and Sarah understand that yelling is evil and inhumane is 1 of the things that has made them good parents to me and now Stephanie." said Samantha approvingly.
There was a slight pause and Samantha pointed to 1 of her closets, 4 sleeping bags were visible on the floor.
"Do you remember me explaining to you what your sleeping arrangements would be if you came here?" Samantha asked Ainsley and Lily nervously.
"Yes," said Lily clearly, "We will be sleeping outside in sleeping bags."
Ainsley nodded in understanding.
"James, I'll give you this room while you're here." said Samantha kindly.
"Hugo, I'll give you my room while you are here," said Stephanie warmly.
"Devon, you'll be staying in our extra room," said Samantha cheerfully, "Stephanie and I agree that it is okay if we, Ainsley, and Lily have to suffer some inconveniences while we're all here but we want to make sure James, Hugo, and Devon are comfortable and cared for."
Stephanie nodded.
"Let's go to my room," said Stephanie proddingly, "And Hugo can see where he's sleeping."
So Devon, Hugo, James. Ainsley, Samantha, and Lily all followed Stephanie into her room.
Stephanie's room itself was slightly than Samantha's as her bedsheets, and pillowcase were all a simple white color and she had a smaller clock than Samantha on her desk. Because Stephanie loved to draw, there were opened packs of markers and colored pencils on her desk along with a large stack of paper.
On her walls were loads of pictures she'd drawn herself.
AMONGST these were a beautiful deception of a desert sun, a flawless drawing of Hogwarts Castle, a spooky sketch of a Jack O Lantern, a perfect illustration of herself chasing after a bludger with her beater's bat, and wonderful picture of Larry Fitzgerald making an amazing diving catch.
"Devon," said Samantha uncomfortably, "Let us show you to the room you will be staying in. Fair warning, it will not be as nice as Samantha's and my rooms as it is not regularly used."
Devon was not happy to hear this and grunted.
"Let me give me give it a fair look before I say anything." said Devon unoptimistically.
They all made for the unused room.
This unused room was pretty plain with nothing on the walls and nothing in the room but a bed.
"How did you and Stephanie determine who was going to get which room between James, Hugo and myself?' asked Devon curiously, not sounding happy at all.
"Random draw," explained Samantha, "We put all 3 of your names in a hat and drew for rooms. We drew for my room 1st and James's name came out of the hat. Then we drew for Stephanie's room and Hugo's name came out of the hat. That left you to get the unused room."
"So I got the short of the stick in the drawing," said Devon tonelessly with a less than happy expression on his face. Devon seemed a bit resentful at James and Hugo getting it better than him.
The Saver sisters exchanged nervous glances. They had anticipated that James, Hugo, and Devon would all be cool about the results of the draw regardless of who got "stuck" with the unused room, especially since others would sleeping outside in sleeping bags.
Fortunately for the Saver girls, Hugo took control of the situation.
"Devon, you can have Stephanie's room while we're here. I can sleep here." said Hugo matter of factly.
"Thank you, Hugo," said Devon in a relived voice, "I appreciate you letting me have Stephanie's room."
"Remember, I have my own room at Potter Manor and it's pretty plain," said Hugo crisply, "I'm used to sleeping/staying in a plainer room."
"We'll have to remember that for future reference," said Samantha wryly,
"I'm in a really good spot," said Hugo firmly, "I'm 1 of only 3 out 7 of us to be sleeping in a real bed these next few days."
"In that case," said Samantha clearly, "This can always be your room when we all gather here. James can always stay in my room and Devon can always stay in Stephanie's room."
"Excellent," chorused James, Devon,, and Hugo.
That evening at 5 p.m. the septet arrived at University of Phoenix stadium.
The 1st semifinal featured Texas VS California.
The interesting thing about the Texas-California match was that the dominant players wound up being the Beaters, a rarity in Quidditch and something Stephanie really appreciated seeing.
The score was 10-10 for a long time as the Beaters didn't merely aim to keep the Bludgers away from their own teams, but actually directed them towards opposing Chasers who had the Quaffle in the hopes of either knocking the Quaffle loose or distracting the Chasers so they would make mistakes. These things happened over and over and over again until, 3 hours into the match, the California Seeker caught the snitch for a 160-10 California win.
The 2nd semifinal featured Arizona VS Pennsylvania.
This matchup was personal for Samantha. She knew it was the Pittsburgh Steelers who had denied the Cardinals the ultimate prize in Super Bowl 43. Both Samnatha and her fellow Arizonan and albino, Michael in Arizona, were in full agreement the Cardinals losing Super Bowl 43 was a MUCH worse tragedy than the World Trade Center collapse. As such, there was nothing she wanted more than to see Arizona whip Pennsylvania's ass. And they did.
The Arizona Chasers, a small and short woman with very light brown hair and a deep tan named Jennifer Branch, a tall black haired man with a long black mustache named Fred Smerlas, and an average sized average heighted woman named Heather Alworth, would mange to score 9 goals, 3 apiece, despite their Seeker, a tall man with a mustache named Randy Wilson catching the snitch in only 3 minutes, resulting in a 240-0 shutout for Arizona.
The next night the septet returned to University of Phoenix Stadium and took the Cardinals preseason opener VS the Oakland Raiders. Samantha wore her favorite Arizona Cardinals shirt to the game but it didn't bring her team any luck as the Raiders trounced the Cardinals 31-10 :(
The final match featured Arizona vs California and was played at 1 p .m. AZ time.
Arizona and California had always been sports rivals with the Dodgers-Diamondbacks rivalry being especially intense.
The stakes in the finals of the Quidditch United States Cup were enormous. The team that won would not only receive gold medals but would also represent the United States in the 2022 Quidditch World Cup.
There turned out not to be much to see and a lot to see at the same time.
Randy had his eyes completely focused on the snitch at the nanosecond of its release and quickly tracked it to the north end zone. Not only did Randy catch the snitch in under a minute, but he made history by catching it underhand.
"YES!" exclaimed Samantha!, "ARIZONA IS THE THE QUIDDICTH UNITED STATES CHAMPION! YOU LIKE THAT! YOU LIKE THAT!"
Samantha was jumping up and down in her seat, all sanity forgotten, clapping her hands as hard she could and stomping her feet.
Samantha then mindlessly Hi 5ed James, Hugo, Devon, Ainsley, Stephanie and Lily multiple times in no particular order or rhythm.
"Congratulations, Samantha," beamed Lily, who couldn't have been happier for her friend's joy.
"You know," said Samantha thoughtfully, "The state of Arizona hasn't had a muggle pro sports championship since the Diamondbacks won the 2001 World Series, well, the Arizona Rattlers have won a few but few people care about Arena Football. For it to be almost 2 decades since the Diamondbacks won a World Series, to have never had a pro Hockey or pro Basketball championship in Arizona though we came close to the latter in 1993 before John Paxson broke our hearts, and most painfully, the Cardinals having never won the Super Bowl. Things haven't been great for us in the muggle sports world. But for we witches and wizards with Arizona ties, this is.."
"Profoundly special," supplied Stephanie, 1 of the newest Arizonan witches.
"That's exactly it, sis." said Samantha emotionally. As the elevation of the moment faded, the meaningfulness of the triumph started to set in. Samantha and Stephanie were now both in tears, the emotional kind.
James, Hugo, Devon, Ainsley, and Lily were quiet for a few minutes to allow the Saver girls time and space to feel the genuine emotion of the day.
For Stephanie but especially for Samantha, this was a day of triumph that would never be forgotten. Their muggle sports may still be long suffering but no one could take away that Arizona was Quidditch United States Champion and would represent team USA at the 2022 Quidditch World Cup.