To all my long-time readers:
One of you devoted few, FredFanatic, has made an excellent point: it's been over a year since I updated. You probably only have a general memory of the story, and some of you are loathe to reread the whole damn thing.
So, what follows is a READER REQUESTED SUMMARY; a "brief" review of what has happened so far:
Muggle-born Taylor Durden, 18 years old and recent graduate from Hogwarts, boards the train to take her off to college at Wandslake Wizarding University, hidden in the Scottish highlands. Alone and nervous on the train she happens to have a run-in with an affectionate cat and her owner, a certain attractive Scotsman she might have known from Hogwarts.
At Wandslake she meets her roommate, Chloe, and they become fast friends, sharing a love of Christmas lights and a deep loathing of dining hall food. Classes start before either girl is ready, and just as quickly Quidditch sign-ups appear on the campus bulletin boards.
Taylor, seasoned Ravenclaw Beater, shows up for tryouts and is slightly intimidated to find herself one of only two girls present. She immediately takes to the other girl, Mel, and soon sees another familiar face from Hogwarts: George Weasley is also trying out for a Beater position.
Oliver Wood, attractive Scotsman from the train, turns out to be the Quidditch team captain, which makes Taylor both nervous and determined to excel. During a scrimmage match, Taylor gets in a fight with the giant Bulgarian, Poliakov, but comes out swinging. He is thrown off the pitch with a broken nose, and Taylor establishes her reputation as a quick temper and quicker fist.
Mel, George and Taylor all make the team, and take Chloe with them for a celebratory dinner, where they run into the rest of the team. Taylor now knows Mel, Ann, Donna, George, Gary, John, Charles, Paul, Kyle and Richard, and Oliver takes each aside to discuss their role on the team; Taylor is told she will be a starting player.
Taking far too many classes, Taylor is advised to talk to John, a second year who had been similarly ambitious—and successful—during his first year. She meets him at the boys' flat, and they escape Charles' terrible cooking by heading back to Taylor's room, where Chloe has installed a magically enlarged full-size kitchen in the closet. Taylor and John agree to meet in the library after her classes each day to study, and she is completely oblivious to John's fairly obvious interest in her. Chloe bemoans Taylor's thick-headedness. Meanwhile, each time Oliver and Taylor run into each other around campus they become equally flustered and awkward and clearly unsure how to approach the other.
Only a few days into the semester, all of Wandslake is shocked when in the United States there is an unexpected and unprecedented Death-Eater attack on the wizarding school in Salem, MA, and on the same day John mysteriously goes missing, leaving Taylor a letter with no real explanation where he has gone or why.
The attack shakes everyone, but George is not one to be kept down by bad news and hosts a team movie-night, which is somewhat overshadowed by the fact he nearly electrocutes himself trying to set up the Muggle electronics. Taylor arrives just in time to perform CPR and resuscitate the unfortunate redhead, though she alarms all her teammates who are unfamiliar with the Muggle practice and are afraid she has used dark magic to bring George back from the dead.
The resulting argument and discussion makes her late for class with Professor Lupin (teacher of both Taylor's Dueling and Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts classes), who—instead of rebuking her—offers her a Ministry of Magic internship, with an interview in Inverness at the end of the week. She agrees to go to the interview, despite her already overloaded schedule.
Near-death experience notwithstanding, George rounds up the team (and Chloe, to cook for them) for the movie night, during which all enjoy ridiculing Lord of the Rings as an example of Muggles' imagining of magic, and Taylor and Oliver continue their awkward flirting. George, who is not one to pussyfoot around uncomfortable situations, takes each aside and harangues them for putting moves on the other while John, still in the running for Taylor's affections, is absent.
At the next practice, Oliver tells the team about the annual jamboree in London, where all the teams in their conference come to play some pre-season matches. He also explains that because of the attack on Salem, Wandslake has taken new security precautions and they are unable to apparate to London directly. Instead they must use Muggle transportation, which will require them all to skip classes on Friday, and also force Taylor to miss her Ministry internship interview.
Painfully early the next morning, the team piles onto a bus and most of them immediately fall asleep again. When Oliver spots a Muggle photograph Taylor is using as a bookmark, she explains that she has adoptive Muggle parents. Oliver, like so many before him, theorizes that Taylor might not actually be Muggle-born, that her real parents might have been witch and wizard. This only upsets Taylor, who long ago decided that—were this the case—her real parents must not have wanted her. She falls asleep on the bus…
Poof! Six years, 35 chapters and 110 pages in under 830 words. Hope this helps, FredFanatic. Good thinking.