Harry Potter - After the Epilogue

by PotterFanSteve

Continuing the storyline from 'After the War', this book focuses on the Hogwarts years and beyond for Albus and Lily Potter, Rose, and Hugo Weasley, and their family and friends. I hope you will enjoy this imagining of what happens in the Harry Potter universe - After the Epilogue!

85. Cannon's Quidditch Hurricane

Chapter Eighty-Five – Cannon's Quidditch Hurricane!

Hogwarts letters day really wasn't a big deal for Al and Gwendolyn on Sunday morning, and since it also wasn't a training day; they hadn't even expected to be involved in that fun at all as they sat out on their atrium patio to have breakfast. That didn't end up being entirely-true, though, because they found out that there were some Hogwarts students staying with siblings overnight – and Cyndia had stayed with Ray after a date night with some friends while Al and Gwendolyn had been busy with the family wedding. They got to witness the arrival of the Owl Posts; and then they had a visit from Ray and Cyndia as they finished breakfast because Cyndia had wanted to talk to them about any news they might have about team Captains and other Hogwarts news. Al set their friends up with drinks and some bakery treats because they hadn't eaten breakfast yet; and then they all sat around the small patio table.

"We didn't expect to hear from Lily or Jonah for a while this morning," Gwendolyn told Cyndia. "They stayed later than we did at the wedding; and are likely sleeping in. I'm surprised that anyone else is awake around here. Al and I have a mirror network morning show interview to do soon; or we might have slept in too."

"I doubt that Al sleeps in very often," Cyndia suggested, "but I couldn't have slept in this morning. That's dumb, since I also don't want to think about only having four weeks left to go before I'll be apart from Ray for the school year, but I still want to know who our team Captain is going to be; and all of the rest of the usual Hogwarts letters news that the rest of you don't really care about anymore."

"I'd have cared a lot if you'd been named Head Girl or team Captain," Ray told her.

"Maybe, but that's weird for me too; since I'm half-glad that I'm to be neither," Cyndia told him. "Being Head Girl helped Susannah to keep busy while missing Seth last year, and I guess that was true for Rose with being Captain and a Prefect too, but I'll need more time to keep up with my studies – especially when I won't have most of my favorite study buddies to work with this year."

"I'm glad that you're not Captain," Al advised her; and laughed when that assertion earned her full attention. "You'd do well as Captain, Cyndia, but now you don't need to make the choice of whether to have open tryouts for all three Chaser spots on the team; and will get to go out there and prove that you're one of the best Chasers at Hogwarts."

"That is part of why I'm glad that Rose didn't pick me for the job," Cyndia admitted. "I'd have wondered whether I got the job because she didn't think I was good-enough without the help."

"You've been good-enough to best Kathryn, Melissa, and the other Chasers over the past two years – and longer; if you'd gotten the chance in other years," Gwendolyn reminded her. "The only way I'd be surprised at your tryouts would be if you're not the top Chaser – especially after the training we've been doing this summer."

Cyndia laughed. "How can you say that? According to most of the reporters, our training is a joke; you're only looking good compared to a bunch of kids; and we spend too much time playing with toddlers and the sports camp kids."

"They'll get it eventually," Al suggested – "even if most of them won't ever want to admit to getting their assessments and predictions so wrong. You don't want to underestimate your competition at tryouts next month, since you will be up against some talented Chasers; but I hope you'll have as much confidence in yourself as we all have in you."

"Will you offer that same pep talk to your cousin and Ray's sister and cousin?" Cyndia asked half-seriously.

"I'll offer my support for them," Al assured her. "One of them is going to be disappointed, though, and we'll have to deal with that too – just as we have in the past when that's happened."

"Well, we can deal with that when we must," Cyndia decided – "and I hope that you're all right about whether I'll make the team again or not; so let's see what we can find out about the Hogwarts news of the day. If Lily and Jonah are sleeping in; you could still check in with Fred, Hugo, and Alyssa. Susannah might have some news from Hufflepuff – or she can get it from her brother."

Gwendolyn tried to help Cyndia out with that, but they sent out mirror messages instead of trying to do mirror chats; and didn't get many responses before Al and Gwendolyn needed to clean up and head for the mirror network studio in London where they were doing the live show interview. They were getting used to doing those interviews and Al was getting better at dealing with the waiting around that took up most of the time before they'd get their usually-short time in the interview spotlight. They then had fun while the show hosts tried to make them look bad with backhanded insults and leading questions meant to corner them into answers that could then be exploited to further insult them, but that didn't work out for the hosts; and Al was beginning to develop a slightly-warped enjoyment out of the verbal jousting as he not only tried to avoid the traps, but by also playing nice with the reporters and show personalities; including making them look good no matter how ridiculous or stupid their questions or insults.

By the time they got home again from London, there was more news from their favorite teens. The top news for Gryffindors was that Lily was named senior team Captain; and they all found out that Fred had asked Rose not to recommend him for the job because he didn't want the extra responsibility in his NEWT year. Ryan got the Captain's job for Ravenclaw over Stephanie, but Gwendolyn and Stephanie didn't tell anyone other than Al that they'd picked Ryan because they thought that it might help him with getting good job offers from league teams that Stephanie didn't need when she already had her deal with the Cannons. That choice did have a downside for Gwendolyn's cousins, since Ryan had basically told Meg that he wouldn't likely go with an open tryout for Keeper and risk losing that job to her, but that was still his call; and he could always change his mind about that ahead of tryouts if he wanted to be as fair as Rose and Gwendolyn had been while they'd been Captains at Hogwarts too.

While those news stories were two of the best for Al and Gwendolyn, there was other news making the rounds. Teresa was proud to advise everyone that her brother, Patrick, had been named Head Boy. Roxanne and Riley were Gryffindor's new OWL-year Prefects; Greta got the nod for one of the new Hufflepuff Prefects; and they also found out from Greta that Ricky Peakes was the new Hufflepuff senior team Captain. All of that information was out there by lunchtime, but the rest of the Hogwarts news took time to find out about – especially for any news from Slytherin House. That lack of news didn't keep Lily, Jonah, and their cousins and friends from making guesses about what was going on – or getting help to find out where possible, but Al and Gwendolyn weren't directly involved in most of that fun.

They were able to have some fun with their families and friends too, but the morning interview wasn't their only work-related activity. There was an afternoon appearance at a picnic hosted by a supplier and attended by families as new toys were revealed in time for back-to-school shopping – along with some new toys that would be out for opening day for the season. Since that toy reveal included two new Animorphmagus toys that Al and Gwendolyn had made; they had multiple reasons for being there and supporting their supplier-partners. Getting to play with kids made that part of their day fun too; so they were happy campers by the time they headed home again and then got together with their parents, Lily, and Jonah for dinner at Harry and Ginny's townhouse.

"You do know that the league season starts in a week, right?" Gwenog asked with a faux-frown that was directed at the four Cannons players at the table. "We're getting an extra week for training camp this year compared to most, and after four weeks of workouts and the rest of the team-related activities; you are not supposed to be this happy."

"I hate to break it to you, Gwenog, but I am happier now than I ever was when we trained together with the Harpies," Ginny advised her. "We'll all get to see how that works out for us this season, but Al really does make the workouts fun every day; and Rose, Malorie, and Susannah are doing their best to get each of us doing the extra activities that we're each best-suited for instead of sticking us with doing many events that we don't like." She smiled at Al. "I loved your interview this morning. You may not like that part of the job much, but you've a true talent for handling those interviews."

"When he's not intentionally trying to annoy reporters like Rita," Lily added with a grin. "He's good at that too."

"It doesn't matter what I say to her," Al pointed out. "She'll write whatever she wants anyway. You have to admit that she's done pretty well with learning how to control the giggles while working – and we've seen her at our practices a lot."

"A fact that the rest of the teams like a lot," Gwenog advised him. "That's been great for us with most of the reporters that annoy us most while they're here covering the top story of the summer. Feel free to keep up the good work with that all season."

"If Rita's learning to be good to avoid giggling fits; I'd say that there's hope that those other reporters can learn to be nicer too – even if that doesn't translate into the rubbish they write or report on with their articles or mirror network shows," Harry offered. "Al and Gwendolyn probably want the latest Hogwarts news, though; and we'll have lots of time to talk Quidditch pretty much all of the time from now until next May."

"We don't really have much more news – and most of that is Quidditch-related too," Lily advised her father. "Caroline Campbell, Adam Ackerley, and Ethel Ackerley got the Captain's jobs for the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff junior teams; and that Drew Summers and Chris Madley are two more of the fifth-year Prefects. That's pretty much it for the school update."

"No news on your new Head Girl?" Gwendolyn asked. "Could Terri Timms have that job? We know it wasn't Stephanie or Cyndia; and you must've heard by now if Justine was picked."

"That's our guess," Lily answered with a shrug. "I should likely be happy to have Terri bossing Jonah around instead of Stephanie, Cyndia, or Justine; but I can't really get very excited about having a Slytherin Head Girl – even though it won't likely affect me at all."

"It might not affect you, but it'll make for an interesting year for Patrick to share the Heads' office with Terri and her friends."

"Maybe they'll all get along – and the Ravenclaw and Slytherin Quidditch players will become best friends," Gwendolyn suggested and joked.

"I'm having a tough time picturing that – especially with the Wilkes brothers," Jonah offered. "Patrick has his own group of friends, though; so I don't expect to be in the Heads' office just to hang out with him."

"That's Fred's fault," Lily suggested with a grin for Al. "Those Weasley cousins have a history of messing things up for the Ravenclaw Wizards. If not for Al and Fred; Landon and Patrick might have been much happier Quidditch players!"

"Wouldn't that same theory apply to you with Jonah?" Kirley teased; and Lily laughed.

"No. I wasn't even trying to date anyone; so that isn't the same at all."

"It isn't," Gwendolyn agreed. "It is funny that you can include Louis in that for Deanna – and Hugo with Alyssa."

"That really is a weird new family fact," Ginny mused. "That doesn't work for your Witch cousins, since there is a mix of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw husbands or boyfriends; or that'd make for a great story too."

"That is different from our generation," Harry offered. "You, Ron, and George all married Gryffindors, but in our kids' generation; Roxanne is the only cousin dating a Gryffindor."

"Some of our cousins have dated Gryffindors," Lily pointed out. "How did we get here from talking Quidditch and Hogwarts news?"

"I have no idea," Ginny answered with a shrug. "Maybe we should talk about back-to-school shopping. That's going to be a bit of a challenge this year when we're working and can't just take a day off to shop."

"Can't we?" Lily countered; smiling brightly. "I'd say that would be a brilliantly-fun workout for your team – and at least as challenging as playing with the kids on Fridays or our toddler time on other days!"

"It would be," Al agreed; surprising his sister; and earning a round of laughs. "Suggest it to Rose; and I'll agree to one or two mornings – after breakfast and warm-ups."

"You're serious," Lily decided; and Al smiled and shrugged.

"You're right about the exercise part of the shopping – especially if you shop at our favorite Muggle Mall; it'll be fun for most of us; and I think there is true training to be had with shopping too."

"I'm sure you can explain that one to me," Gwenog interjected; and Al nodded.

"Sure," he agreed. "If you can successfully dodge hundreds or thousands of Muggles in a Mall; two bludgers are easy. Getting to the best sales ahead of the competition is like intercepting a quaffle; and spotting those sales from half a mall away is perfect training for a Seeker."

"You're a bit scary," Lily told him after joining in for the round of laughs. "I'm all for the shopping-training, though; so I'll go and talk to Rose about it later."

"We can do that," Ginny offered. "Should we see whether Gwenog wants to bring the Harpies and their kids along too?"

"Our first match is on Saturday," Gwenog reminded her. "That isn't going to happen – no matter how much the girls would like to do that instead of doing real training."

Ginny laughed. "We've both trained with the Harpies and gone shopping with a gang of teen Witches. Do you really think that the training is harder?"

"Take bludgers along with your four Beaters; have them bash the bludgers at you while you shop; and get back to me on that one," Gwenog joked.

"Al did only agree to one or two half-days of shopping," Harry pointed out. "We'll still have bludger practices and scrimmages in the afternoon."

"Scrimmages for sure," Al agreed. "I'd pick working on our game plans with position practices over the bludger-dodging."

"You'll be in trouble if you don't work on that enough," Gwenog suggested. "I'd say the Beater game in the league is the biggest difference in the game compared to Hogwarts because more of the Beaters are experienced veterans."

"That has been true," Ginny agreed; "but it is changing too. Including our team; more than half of the league teams now have fairly-young Beaters."

"That's true," Gwenog agreed, "but half of them still need years of experience before they'll be very competitive; and the other half are getting close to having enough of that experience to be among the best. We'll have to see how Brandon and Seth do in the show. If they can't keep up; that's going to be bad for the rest of you."

"Brandon is his mother's son," Ginny told Gwenog seriously. "Lysa thinks that he's better than she was at his age – and you thought that she was pretty good back then."

"We'll see," Gwenog said with a shrug. "I noticed that Al didn't try to explain how shopping was going to help with training your Beaters."

"Weight training while carrying the bags?" Lily offered before Al could comment. "He didn't mention training for Rose and Hugo either; and I don't think that Hugo will want to stand around defending the sales' bins or racks from the other shoppers until we can take a look and see if there's anything we want to buy."

"They can decide what they want to keep while the Chasers score the best buys," Gwendolyn suggested. "Let's not get too excited about that until we find out whether Rose will even agree with the idea. Our summer reserve squad players need to do that back-to-school shopping, but the rest of us don't; so she might not go for it."

Al didn't actually think that was a risk, but their dinnertime chat moved on; they had fun; and then Lily had Ginny and Gwendolyn help her out with convincing Rose to approve a compromise for one shopping morning 'workout' for Tuesday morning. They wrapped up their evening and weekend with some atrium play time with their families and friends; Gwenog went home ahead of her team training day curfew so that she could get some work done; and Al and Gwendolyn went back to their townhouse soon after that and ended their day with a bit of time-stopped play time for two before returning to 'real' time again and then going off to sleep for the night.

The final week of training ahead of opening day for the league season was both busier and quieter for the Cannons as reporters needed to divert their attention to the top eight teams from last season and their preparations for the matches on Saturday. There wasn't a total escape from that part of the job, and the Cannons got some attention thanks to two alternate-training options that were ridiculed by the reporters that did cover those stories. Al thought that both of those days were brilliant, though; and everyone involved had fun with the shopping trip on Tuesday morning and the afternoon 'training' at the seashore on Wednesday for Ray's eighteenth birthday. That had been a suggestion that Al had come up with for his best mate's birthday; Cyndia had approved the plan; and in addition to the afternoon of sun, sand, and water fun; Ray's birthday dinner was at a great little seafood restaurant; and then the rest of his birthday was spent with his family – and with Cyndia when it was time for them to get back to his townhouse ahead of their training day curfew.

While they weren't playing on opening day, Al and Gwendolyn had a lot to get done ahead of the weekend, and while the shopping and birthday entertainment was just part of the fun; they also got a lot done around the rest of their Quidditch training – including some quality play time with Jaimie and Lorie; their Friday adventures with the sports camp kids; and one team promotional dinner. They also had to help out with some planning for the two big family events on the weekend in addition to having family playing in each of the four matches on Saturday; though Rose led that effort for her parents' twenty-second anniversary on Saturday; and Harry was in charge of plans for Ginny's forty-third birthday on Sunday. There was still work to be done that Al and Gwendolyn helped out with, though, so by the time they headed for bed on Friday night – hours after the game night curfews that the players on eight of the teams had to deal with or ignore; they were ready to crash, nap, and rest up for the last play weekend they might get to have for quite some time now that they were just a week away from the start of their rookie season!

Al was awake early on Saturday morning. He did his workout by the lagoon; moved on to help Gwendolyn get her day started in a fun, hot, and sometimes-wet way before they headed over to the cafe for breakfast. Having that meal there was optional on weekends – or at least it would be optional except for on game days, but Al was sure that most of the residents of their little community would be at the cafe for that meal, since even though the Cannons weren't playing; opening day was still a big deal – and everyone had at least two tickets to one of the matches. Susannah had done that with the sports camp kids too as prizes, but she wasn't taking the kids to those matches because they were making the first Cannons' match the big event of the summer for the kids and their families. Al and Gwendolyn were among the first customers of the day for the cafe; so they didn't order their meals right away and instead enjoyed drinks and some chat time with family and friends as they arrived – and then ordered food once their tablemates for the day had joined them. Harry and Ginny brought the twins with them; and LIly and Jonah weren't far behind after being delayed with a side trip to talk with Hugo and Alyssa while on the way to the cafe.

"Did we get the twins for breakfast because we won't be at the same match with them today?" Gwendolyn asked Ginny after they'd finished giving their orders to Juliet – their server for the day.

"Yes," Ginny agreed. "Malorie hasn't decided what she'll do this season for sure yet, but Jaimie and Lorie can't go to all of the matches for all of their Quidditch-player relatives; but she does want them to see James' opening day match."

"That only seems fair; since we will hope that they'll come to a lot of our matches," Gwendolyn said with a nod. "They'd still get to see their cousins for up to eight other matches; though I won't expect them to be at the winter matches with us – even if Al made them a set of uniforms to help keep them warm."

"They could watch the winter matches here – in one of the Virtual Mirror System rooms," Al pointed out. We can use them for watching replays of other matches when getting ready for our own upcoming matches too."

"You should've built more rooms," Harry suggested. "They're getting used a lot already; so you might have issues with tying them up for too much of the time with the team."

Al shrugged. "I don't expect us to use them a lot for that, since it's faster to use our portables or the regular mirrors for watching game highlights – or we can use our glasses instead. There also aren't many of the upgraded mirror-cams yet; so most matches won't have all of the new features available anyway."

"That'll be interesting to experience, Al, but not that big of a deal for watching Quidditch," Ginny suggested. "It's one thing to have that in a game you're playing; and another to feel the wind, warmth, or cold while sitting and watching a show."

"Feeling the cold would defeat the purpose of watching those matches indoors," Gwendolyn added. "Let's talk about the matches for today. Mum seems happy-enough with how ready the Harpies are to play today, but starting out against the Falcons is going to be tough – and could be a problem if they get beat up when they have to play three matches in four weeks."

"I'm a bit worried about that for Victoire," Ginny admitted. "She'll be ready to play today too, but her conditioning is sure to be a bit behind; and a long match won't be good for her – even if she can keep from getting hurt."

"Al will be there to help her after the match," Harry pointed out – "though I'd suggest that you only do that if really necessary," he added; directing that at his son. "We need to take care of ourselves for the entire season too, so unless our favorite players really need us; leave the minor healing to the professionals."

"I'll try to keep that in mind," Al promised, "but you and I both have a problem with actually doing that."

"We do," Harry agreed with a smile and nod. "Only one of us is playing every match this season, though; so you need to try a bit harder to do that than I do."

"Grandpa's trying to use the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do rule on Uncle Al," Lily advised the twins. "Let's check back later today and see whether either of them listened to that advice or not."

"I'll pick not," Jaimie told her in obvious imitation of a line she'd heard more than once.

"Me too," Lorie chimed in with a giggle. "Pancakes?" she asked as Juliet arrived with a tray of food.

"As ordered," Juliet agreed as she put a plate on the table in front of Lorie. "They're hot off the griddle, so give them a minute or two to cool down before you start eating them."

"Okay," Lorie agreed. "Thank-you!"

That first food delivery diverted the attention of everyone at the table for a while; Al and Gwendolyn helped Jaimie and Lorie with getting their pancakes ready to eat; and then they were all soon enjoying that morning meal while resuming their chat about the four Quidditch matches. Al didn't join in for making predictions for winners and losers, but he enjoyed the entertainment as Gwendolyn, Lily, and Ginny in particular had fun joking about what teams that the Cannons actually ought to be cheering for from the perspective of what was best for their own team. It was funny just to think about cheering for the four worst teams of the top-eight, but regardless of what might truly be best for their team; they were all going to cheer for their favorite players – even though that wasn't always going to include cheering for the same teams. They unanimously planned on cheering for the Harpies, United, and the Arrows for three of those matches; but had a split group when it came to the Catapults-Prides match. Gwendolyn – and Al – could get away with cheering for her aunt's team, but they didn't make a big deal of that around Jaimie and Lorie; and they definitely wanted to support their father's team – and were, fortunately, still too-young to understand why James didn't deserve the love and support they gave to him unconditionally – and without his knowledge.

When they were finished having breakfast, there was a bit of social time with a handful of the other diners; and then there was a small gang that went along with them to Diagon Alley for some shopping fun that was partly for back-to-school shopping for the Hogwarts students that went along with them. Al and gwendolyn took care of the twins while they were doing that; had lunch with them too; and then headed for Ilkley stadium with Lily, Jonah, and the rest of the families and friends' group that was attending the Harpies-Falcons match. They picked up drinks and snacks, but not many souvenirs because Al no longer needed to have a supply of them for gifts now that they wouldn't be going back to Hogwarts – though some of the kids and teens with them were given the chance to pick up toys and other gear before they went on to their seats. Al and Gwendolyn didn't end up in seats that were close to Teddy and Dora, since they were surrounded by the Delacour clan and Great-Grandma and Grandpa Weasley, but they did get to have a bit of cuddle time with Dora before they sat down; and it was going to be fun to be part of Dora's first time getting to see her mother play for the Harpies – even if she was a bit young to understand or remember the momentous event!

They could all hope that it would also be a motivator for Victoire and Gabrielle that would help the Harpies earn an opening day win!

James grinned wolfishly as he stopped just inside the player entrance that the Catapults had been assigned for the top opening day match; and turned to face his team mates. Tiberius, Brock, and Scorpius were the only players smiling too, but then that didn't surprise him; since Louis, Miya, and Roman were always too-serious and insecure. They hadn't messed up last season and they'd won the championship, though, so as long as they at least managed to keep doing that; then he could ignore them and just have fun with his real friends and true team mates.

"Any last words of wisdom before we go out there and remind the Prides why we're league champions – and they're not?" Brock asked James.

"We're about to be stuck listening to a bunch of pompous old windbags," James reminded him. "The last thing any of us wants is another speech."

"I'll pick having to put up with those opening day speeches over being one of the also-ran teams," Tiberius suggested – "or the runner-up players that are going to need their beds in St. Mungo's by the time we've finished destroying them again today!"

"Well, if James doesn't have a speech for us; we could take bets on which Prides' player will go out first today – or in which order,' Brock suggested.

James laughed. "That'd be a sucker bet when you'd just make sure that you pounded on the players in the order that you pick – and I don't want that sort of thing messing up our game plan today. We're not going to just win again today – we're going to destroy the Prides! Beat them up; run it up on them; and then, when we get bored with it; I'll put them out of their misery."

"Try not to have too much fun," Louis told him seriously. "We have three matches in four weeks; and don't need to start the season out with a bunch of marathon matches."

"It's no wonder you married Deanna," James retorted. "She's boring-enough that she likely doesn't notice that you have the stamina of a slug. If you're going to start complaining already this season, just shut it; try not to let in too many goals; and leave the real Quidditch to the players on this team that will do what it takes to stay champions for another decade or two."

"Whatever you say, your majesty," Louis told him. "Shutting up now."

That wasn't really an issue because it wasn't much longer before they were called out into the stadium. James led the way – as always; Scorpius flew in the second row with Miya and Roman; and Tiberius and Brock flanked Louis in the third row. James ended up having them do a lap and a half around the stadium because he had fun showing off the speed of the only set of Lightningstorms in the league so far; so they needed more room to slow down before landing at center pitch. Standing there for a half-hour while the speeches droned on endlessly was annoying, but James kept himself entertained by silently taunting Pauline and flirting with a hot Witch that was a Ministry aide to one of the pompous old fools giving the speeches. When it was finally time to get the match started; he lined up next to Pauline; and was in a great mood as he anticipated her imminent humiliation that he was going to make sure was even worse than it had been in the championship match.

"Congratulations on your recovery from our last match," James taunted as they waited for the quaffle toss. "You'll have the loser to thank for what's about to happen to you again today; and you'll wish that you'd lost that eye and retired."

"Good luck to you too, James," Pauline told him. "I'm so glad to see that winning a league championship hasn't changed you at all – though I've no idea how you could possibly become even more of an egotistical git than you laready were."

James laughed. "If that's the best you can manage; do yourself a favor and fall off your broom on take-off," he suggested. "You'll save yourself a lot of pain and healing time if you do."

Pauline didn't need to answer because the quaffle was tossed; and they all took off. James tried to bash into her, but had to abort that attempt when he didn't have the faster broom advantage; and would've gotten a face full of broomtail when Pauline used her broom to block him and then try to speed away. That just motivated him to take up the chase, and his smile was vicious as he looked forward to chasing her down and then spending some quality time making sure that she would regret coming back for another season in the show.

Al and Gwendolyn used their portable mirrors to keep up with the other three Quidditch matches while watching the Harpies begin their battle against the Falcons, but while they wanted to know what was happening in those other three contests; Al was also disappointed to see that three out of four of the opening day games included a lot of cheating by at least one of the teams. The Falcons were the early favorites for worst-in-show as they pounded on the Harpies, but having Davis join his brother at Chaser seemed to be a good move for the Falcons and improved their offense – though that was partly thanks to the Zabini brothers' willingness to make up for the talent gap with cheap shots and cheating. While that was true, Al's extended senses also allowed him to know that there were a lot of Witches in the stadium – including on the Harpies' side – that liked the handsome pair of wizards enough for their good looks to ignore the cheating and simply enjoy the view.

While they were getting pounded and the match was ugly, Victoire still led the Harpies to an early lead; and their team was noticeably-better even though Al knew that his cousin was having some trouble getting up to game speed and dealing with the hard hits she was taking. That fact, combined with the improved Falcons team kept the score low and closer than the Harpies would have liked; and in the first hour of the match; the Harpies only managed a forty-to-ten lead. Comparatively-low scores seemed to be the name of the game in the other two matches that also included a lot of one-sided cheating. For the Catapults and Prides, the hits from Tiberius, Brock, and Scorpius slowed down the Prides' Chasers; but Peter kept a shut-out going through the first hour while the Catapults' Wizards focused on pounding the four Witches on his team. Alice, Francine, and Daniella scored two goals on Louis, but they'd paid a high price to get those goals as the hits they took to earn them added up quickly.

The United-Tornados match was very similar in that Belinda was playing brilliantly at Keeper just as Peter was with the Prides; and the Tornados were taking their game play to new lows thanks to the new added 'toughness' that the Harper brothers brought to their new team. They had some success with their dirty style of Quidditch play against the United Chasers, but had more trouble against Calvin and Tina Johnson than the McClaggens had against Jensen and Stanley – or the Nott brothers had against the Harpies' Beaters. Al didn't like most of what he saw from any of those matches, but then the one match that was being played well by both teams was the Arrows-Wasps' match; and he couldn't really keep up with that battle too beyond keeping an eye on the score and catching a few highlights. He was happy to see that Madison was having a good first match of her career against Aaron Lynch, though, and her addition to the Arrows team seemed to be motivating everyone to play better as they took an early lead over the Waspes and slowly worked on building on that while Eddie was also having a very good match at Keeper for his team.

Quidditch wasn't the only thing going on around Al, but while Ron and Hermione were celebrating their anniversary at the Harpies' match too, Al and Gwendolyn weren't really involved in most of that fun – just as they'd missed out on the first round of that entertainment during their game day lunch while busy with the twins. Rose, Brandon, Hugo, and Alyssa were helping to make sure that his aunt and uncle were having a fun day, though; and they would, eventually, be involved in the celebration after the game because Rose and Brandon were going to host an anniversary dinner and party back at their townhouse and the atrium. Watching some of their favorite players getting pounded all afternoon didn't really seem like a happy way to celebrate an anniversary to Al, but then they'd been married a week after the Harpies had won the Quidditch World Cup for England; so maybe it was weirdly appropriate to watch a Harpies' match – even when it was an ugly, tough battle against one of the meanest teams in the league!

Harry and Ginny had been having a tough afternoon while watching their eldest son attempt to once-again seriously-injure Pauline and put her out of the match – or end her career. That wasn't as awful as the championship match had been because he wasn't having as much success at actually doing that thanks to Pauline's own, more-successful game plan to counter his cheating and avoid the attacks from the McClaggens. Her Lightningstorm helped with that effort, but Harry and Ginny knew that she was also intentionally trying to keep James running all of the time while knowing that he wouldn't really even try to catch the snitch for the early win; and had subtle help from Jensen and Stanley as they played a very defensive battle against the McClaggens by shadowing them as often as possible and minimizing their opportunities to do much more than bash bludgers around.

They didn't come close to stopping all of the cheating, though, and it was tough to watch those hits against Prides' players that Harry and Ginny loved a lot because of their friendships with those players' parents. Jaimie and Lorie needed regular breaks to either keep entertained or for washroom visits, and since their grandparents were happy to get those reprieves from the ugly parts of the game; they took care of those breaks while Malorie stayed to watch the Quidditch battle with Patrick and the rest of their group. Jaimie and lorie had them out on their third washroom break of the match when the game came to a sudden, unexpected end; so they missed out on watching Pauline catch the snitch at the two-hour and forty-eight minutes mark to earn the two-ten to thirty victory for the Prides. Hearing the roar of cheers from the 'wrong' side of the stadium shouldn't have been fun, but was; and then they had to wait until they got back to their seats to find out what the collective gasp had been about because they'd also missed out on seeing James' attempt to bash Pauline after the snitch catch. He'd missed; and then, apparently, nearly crashed after Pauline had successfully dodged him and avoided being knocked off of her broom and into the spectators in the seats that had been about fifty feet below the two Seekers at the time.

"Daddy lost?" Lorie asked her grandmother when she understood enough of the conversation the adults around her were having to know that the Prides had won. "Boo!"

"Boo who?" Jaimie asked with a giggle.

"Don't cry – it's only a game," Lorie offered; giggling too.

"The Catapults did lose today," Ginny confirmed for both girls while smiling at their toddler-rated attempts at humor. "You don't have to boo Pauline and the Prides, though, since we like most of their players too."

"We wanted Daddy to win," Lorie insisted. "Boo!"

"Will you boo your grandpa and me if we win our matches against your father when we play against them later this season?" Ginny asked. "We're hoping that you'll cheer for us too."

"We will," Jaimie assured her. "Go home now?"

"Soon," Ginny agreed. "We can help with getting everything ready for Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione's anniversary party until they get back from the Harpies' match."

"Party!" Jaimie repeated. "Have cake?"

"After dinner," Ginny answered. "We could pick up ice cream treats for an afternoon snack, though; and then go home."

Both twins were all for that plan; Ginny ended up having other family and friends support for the twins while Harry stayed so that he could help their favorite Prides' players with some healing after the post-game festivities; and then she ended up playing and swimming with Jaimie and Lorie while others helped with the party set-up. Rose and Brandon had most of the work done ahead of time; so it wasn't a big deal to set up tables and chairs for the dinner; and then they were all able to play while they waited for the other matches to end and everyone else invited to the dinner party to join them in the atrium.

"One match down; three to go; and we won't feel bad about the loss for the defending champions," Gwendolyn half-teased while switching her portable mirror to the Arrows-Wasps' match. "Let's hope that this match goes as well for Gabrielle as that match went for Pauline."

"I'm happy that Pauline won," Al offered; "but I wouldn't say that the match went well for her in any other way except for the win."

"True, but the pain is a lot easier to take after a win than a loss," Gwendolyn pointed out. "Your Dad will help Pauline and her team mates as needed too; so it won't even hurt for that long."

"That might be true for the Prides," Al agreed, "but that loss isn't going to be good for the next teams playing the Catapults. They took their match-play to all-new lows after every loss last season; and I'm sure they'll do the same now."

"Who are they up against next?" Gwendolyn asked.

"The Arrows and United are up next," Al answered. "I'll hope that the players on both teams can learn from what the Prides did today, but whether they do or not; they'd better get ready for the worst that the Catapults can bring."

"As if what they did today wasn't rotten-enough," Gwendolyn suggested. "The Falcons have been just as bad today; and it seems that the Tornados want to take their team in that direction – even if they're not to those lows yet."

"How are the Arrows and Wasps doing?" Al asked.

"One-twenty to forty for the Arrows," Gwendolyn reported. "They're early in the fourth-hour too; so Madison must be doing well against Aaron."

"I don't think she's at the same level with Aaron or Aunt Gabrielle," Al offered, "but if she can hold the other Seekers off from earning the wins; the Arrows could get some one-sixty leads against teams like the Wasps."

"But not the Harpies?" Gwendolyn asked; and Al shrugged.

"That isn't impossible; but not all that likely," Al answered. "The Arrows aren't normally going to get the big leads over teams with better Chasers or Keepers unless there are other problems like injuries."

"Well, I suppose we shouldn't hope for too many of the other teams to get a lot better this season too," Gwendolyn suggested with a quiet laugh. "That'd just make our jobs even tougher."

"Or more fun," Al offered. "There's likely a better chance of that happening than getting the Falcons and Catapults to start playing fair and becoming good sports."

"What would the league do if there were no villains?" Gwendolyn asked mockingly. "Is it even possible to have good guys if there aren't any bad guys to fight against?"

"I'd be okay with everyone being good and of the Light," Al assured her. "That isn't going to happen; but it would be great if it could."

"Congratulations!" James spat derisively as he walked into the locker room. "I'm sure that three of you are very happy to have lost and had your own insecurities and doubts proved out; and the rest of you did a brilliant job of playing down to their level instead of following the plan and destroying the Prides as badly as we did in the championship match! Well done, all of you!"

"Don't forget to congratulate us for predicting that you'd throw the rest of us under the Knight Bus too," Miya offered. "We got that one spot-on too."

"I was telling the truth; and you and Roman deserve a lot of the 'credit' for losing today. Did either of you even score a goal? How many did you give up on defense? All of them? The only reason you even have a job on the team is because I had to carry you along to that championship."

"We know," Miya agreed. "It'll be up to you to do the same again this season; so try not to lose too many of your Seeker duels; or we'll be out of luck – and some of us will end up out of a job too."

James snorted. "You ought to be out of a job by tomorrow. You may as well have been out there chasing your own tail, dog-face."

"I'm a Cat-apult," Miya shot back, "and if you want to keep insulting me; I'll be happy to show you my claws to prove it."

"I might believe that – if you'd even tried to have any kind of cat fight with the Prides' Chasers,' James retorted scathingly. "You're ridiculous as well as ugly to threaten me for pointing out that you sucked today. If you do have any fight in you; then why didn't you prove that out there when it mattered?"

"We played hard – and got beat," Louis interjected. "So did you, James – or you'd have gotten that win for us – just as we all know you won the championship while the rest of us were just there to give you a team of seven to avoid the only risk of losing that you had – a forfeit. We're also good to have around to take the blame when we do lose, so since that's all you think the rest of us are good for; you ought to be very happy with us right now. If we'd played brilliantly and not-quite gotten the one-sixty lead because you couldn't last three hours against Pauline; then it would be much-tougher for you to blame us for the loss. You're welcome."

James laughed. "Nice try, cousin, but if you'd get with the program and play the game the way you should; we wouldn't have lost. You're all still playing as though the other teams don't have the faster brooms too – even if they don't all have one like we do; and you'd better all get up to the new speed fast; or I will be getting the lot of you replaced!"

"Is that a promise?" Miya asked with only half-feigned enthusiasm and hope. "I've heard that the Cannons might be looking for some reserve squad players once the teens they're training with go back to school on September First. Maybe they'd give the rest of us those jobs!"

"Go for it," James told her. "You'd fit right in on the Cannons Clown Brigade; since you're as much of a loser as they are!"

"Well, they're still undefeated this season and we're not," Brock joked. "You'll have to wait until next Saturday to officially call them losers."

"They took jobs on the worst team in the league," James countered. "I'd say that makes them losers from the get-go."

"Your parents were here to support our team again today," Louis pointed out. "Aren't you going to go to their matches and support them in return?"

"No – and it's stupid that they show up where they're not wanted while I'll wager that your parents were too-busy being there for the family princess to bother with their younger daughter and son. Did your wife even bother showing up today; or was she at one of the other matches too?"

"She's been working today," Louis answered with a shrug. "That works for us; since she'll get the same weekends off that I'll have."

"If I were you; I'd rather be on opposite schedules to her for obvious reasons; but then I'd likely just decide to off myself if I was you and be done with that bonded for life thing with that book-mutt you hooked up with."

"No wonder he didn't catch the snitch – he's gone blind," Tiberius joked with a laugh. "Some of us know that Deanna's hot – even if her idea of foreplay is likely to include discussing Ministry of Magic rules and regulations."

"Are there Ministry rules and regulations for that sort of thing?" Brock asked whimssically. "Have you looked that up to see how many of those rules you've broken, James?"

The conversation devolved into base humor from there, but while that convinced Miya, Louis, and Roman to leave the room; it did at least divert James from his rants about the loss for a while. The owners were still having a dinner party after the match, but it wasn't a victory party; and wouldn't be as much fun – regardless of how many hot Witches James managed to hook up with and take home for the rest of the weekend. The play time would give him something that he loved to do even more than Quidditch, though, and then, when they went back to work on Monday; he'd make sure that his team was ready to play the way they should have in their first match – and take out his loss on the next teams on their schedule!

That'd give him some entertainment while he plotted his revenge against Pauline and the Prides!

Al and Gwendolyn had taken some breaks from all of the awful as the Harpies-Falcons match rolled on and on with no end in sight through the afternoon and into the early evening, but then were in their seats and saw the winning play on his portable mirror when Alex won the match for United over the Tornados at the five-hour and eight-minute mark of that battle. They were happy to see it end, since the Harpers had been doing their best to pound on the United players, but the three-ninety to twenty score was much different than what was going on with the Harpies and Falcons thanks to a brilliant match from Belinda. The Tornados Seeker also didn't try to catch the snitch for the loss even after Alex backed off from defending against that, and while that was a mistake by the Tornados; it worked out great for United – and that points spread might be enough to put them in first place after the opening day matches were all finished.

Watching replays and the start of that post-game show didn't divert Al and Gwendolyn from watching the last play of the match they were watching in person; and Gabrielle wrapped up their match just minutes later – at the five-hour an forteen-minute mark – when she caught the snitch for the win despite a last-moment hit from Brand that came just a second too-late because he'd messed up the timing and underestimated her speed and the angle of his defensive attack. She held on to the snitch despite the hard hit; was able to spin away because they were flying on different paths; and then she got low and landed before Brand or any of his other buddies could try and hit her again. The final score was three-forty to one-ten for the Harpies, but none of their players looked happy after more than five hours of getting pounded by the Falcons while their opponents acted as if they'd won the day – which from their perspective; they had.

"You'll need to wait until after the post-game fun out there is done before you can heal them; but I'll go along with Rose, Brandon, and the others so that we can get everything ready for dinner – if that work isn't done already."

"You could call Mum and ask," Al suggested. "They likely are ready for the party; but might like help with picking up the food for dinner."

"Dad and I can get Lily and Jonah home first and then just ask," Gwendolyn decided. "We might need an undetectable expansion bag to carry all of the food anyway. I don't even know how many we'll end up having there for the meal – especially now that three-of-four of these matches are done."

"Staying and Healing seven Quidditch players might be the easier job," Al joked. "Would you like to punch me for that now or later?"

"After watching these matches; I don't feel like even talking about hitting anyone," Gwendolyn decided. "I agree with Rose for her plans about how we should keep our equipment advantages to ourselves at least for this season; but I'll also be happier when your uniforms can keep other players we care about from getting hurt."

"That'll take at least another year anyway," Al advised her – "and there's no guarantee that every team will be willing to buy them, but if they did; that'd be ninety-one uniforms – or one-hundred and eighty-two including reserve squad players – and that'd still only be one uniform each. I'll need help to make hundreds of them."

"Well, don't look at me for that," Gwendolyn told him. "I already know how boring that is from helping with the prototypes; and wouldn't find making hundreds of them fun at all."

"That could be a problem for those jobs," Al mused. "I'll have to find ways to keep it from being so boring – or find another way to make them."

"Maybe you could charm entire bolts of cloth and still have it work when cut into the uniforms," Gwendolyn suggested.

"That didn't work with doing that to entire pairs of pants or tops," Al advised her, "but I'll look at the idea – and may just need to try something completely different for the defensive charms." He laughed. "I'm not even sure that the material could be cut after charming it that way. The scissors might just bounce off; and you wouldn't want a cutting charm to rebound."

"The Harpies just won and you're talking shop," Lily interjected. "Let's get out of here and on to the anniversary dinner and party before Al puts us all to sleep!"

Getting to that party happened sooner or later for the guests of honor and their guests; and that ended up being near to the end of the dinner for Al. He'd needed to wait quite a while for the extended post-game festivities and interviews; and then it had taken longer than he'd expected to heal all seven Harpies' players. He didn't end up having his 'leftovers' dinner alone, since he wasn't the only late arrival, but the party moved on without him to the play time in and around the lagoon. That actually worked for him, since he was able to have some quiet chat time with the other late arrivals; they caught the end of the Arrows-Wasps match that included Aaron Lynch making the snitch catch over Madison for the loss because she'd been able to back off after her team had the one-sixty lead; and then they joined in for the families and friends fun that continued on until sometime after Al and Gwendolyn did a round of goodnight hugs and kisses and headed for their townhouse and bed by a bit after midnight.

The partying didn't end on Saturday night, since Ginny had her forty-third birthday on Sunday, but most of the fun they had to help her out with celebrating her special day was kid-friendly; relaxed, and quiet – at least compared to opening day league-level Quidditch and the fairly-large dinner and party that had kept them all busy on Saturday. The birthday celebration began late with a brunch after nearly everyone except Al, Gwendolyn, Malorie, and the twins slept in after a late night; there was play time in and around the atrium that included a few dozen drop-in visitors for cameo moments of birthday fun; and then Al and Gwendolyn hosted a small birthday dinner that only included their parents, brother and sister, Ginny's parents, Aunt Muriel, Malorie, and the twins. That was as much work as fun for Al, but he was happy to help out with making his mother's birthday a good one; and making sure that she had a mostly-work-free day was part of that plan.

Having a training night curfew kept the birthday fun from extending far into the evening, but then Al and Gwendolyn had work to do around their townhouse before getting back to work on Monday. Since the sports news on the weekend had been all about opening day, the top-eight teams from last season, and the results of those matches; the Cannons' manager and players had mostly been left alone by the reporters. That changed on Monday; and their practice pitch was the place to be for most reporters – especially first thing in the morning when they could do morning show interviews and get in on the great food at the Cannonball Cafe. The news reports weren't very flattering for the Cannons as Al made sure that fun was still the name of the training game for the team; and his methods were ridiculed by nearly-all of the reporters. That included reports from Lee, Teresa, Kylie, and others, but they picked on the Cannons in fun ways; presented the facts to their audiences fairly and honestly; and didn't make predictions about whether their unusual training methods would lead to a disastrous Quidditch season.

Al knew that it continued to be a bit warped to be enjoying all of the bad publicity and verbal jousting with reporters that interviewed him, but he was having fun with that; and the Quidditch play time didn't feel like work either. On Monday, the fun included play time with Jamie and Lorie; on Wednesday, it was another round of birthday fun that was for Katrina's sixteenth this time and included an afternoon and evening at their favorite Muggle amusement park, dinner out, and a pre-curfew swim in the lagoon for everyone that had gone out to play with them while the reporters happily insisted that they were going to be in for an ugly reality check on Saturday – even against one of the other worst teams in the league! Thursday included another round of play time with the twins as part of the workout; and their sports day camp fun on Friday was a great way to wrap up their training ahead of their first league match. There was a last round of interviews; and then Malorie and Rose hosted a wrap-up and update meeting with the GO MagiSports Managers and the Cannons' players.

"I want to start this meeting by thanking all of you – and everyone that is working for GO MagiSports – for everything you've done to get us to here – the start of our first season with the Cannons and in the show. We're not going to make any promises or guarantees except to promise that we're going to do our very best to make the Quidditch side of our business as much of a success as the rest of you are doing with your businesses."

"Won't that be the case whether you do well or not?" Lacey teased; earning a round of laughs. "Most of our successes will only happen if the Cannons do well too. The mirror games and apps may be the only exception."

"Technically true and funny; but you all know what I meant," Rose said after laughing too. "I hope that you have at least a little faith in us too; since this first match is scary for at least some of us. Despite the news reports, though, I'll also add that we are as ready as I think possible for tomorrow; and we'll soon know whether we're getting this right too or not."

"Don't start doubting your dream now," Brandon told her. "I'm nervous about tomorrow too, but you have made beleivers out of the rest of us, Rose, or we wouldn't be here."

"I'd say that's true for most of your friends," Renee added seriously. "It's just going to be a really great added bonus to watch all of those gits saying such awful things about all of you look stupid tomorrow when you have a brilliant first match!"

"Some of us are going to have as much fun watching how you handle that with them," Toni told her with a grin – "though I expect that they'll just insist that they've over-rated the Kestrels; not underestimated our team."

"No doubt," Rose agreed. "I'm not going to go into any details about our work week, since you'll all be there to watch us take the test we've been studying for; so let's cover the news for the businesses that directly affect us tomorrow; and then get out of here."

"Why don't you start, Lacey?" Malorie suggested. "Our souvenir orders for the booths was far too-low. Are you ready with the back-up stock we talked about putting together?"

"Yes; and I'll have help getting it delivered if needed," Lacey answered.

"There won't be an 'if' about that," Malorie assured her. "We'll keep in contact with the souvenir booth owners; and be ready to deliver the stock – which I predict they'll need within fifteen minutes of the gates opening. Hopefully those booth owners will learn their lesson tomorrow and we won't have this happen again, but I still expect that they'll sell twenty times what they're predicting for our Cannons souvenirs and merchandise."

"You can't blame them," Rose suggested. "They're basing their own predictions on years of historical sales records. I'm sure that they think that increasing their stock by fifty percent is too much."

"I get that," Malorie agreed, "but if Lacey didn't have us ready to help out with that; we'd all lose a huge first opportunity tomorrow." She returned her attention to Lacey. "This isn't about tomorrow, but let's get an updae for how we're doing for your inventory and production."

"We're at plan for inventory, so as long as we are close on sales projections; we'll be in good shape both for the production for team souvenirs and to add new work into the fall for new contracts with other teams. Now that we've been doing this for a while, I get why other souvenir suppliers charge more per unit for smaller quantities, but Al's inventions make those extra costs a lot smaller – and we can make more of nearly everything faster too. That's really going to pay off if we get the sales."

"Good," Rose said with a nod. "What are our final numbers for ticket sales?" she asked Ruth.

"We got our hands on some unsold tickets that the Kestrels released," she answered. "Our final pre-sales number for tomorrow is a bit over twenty-nine thousand – plus the ten-thousand tickets we have the rights to for every league match; and we'll have to wait until next week to get the numbers from the ticket sales at the gate; though we'll get more than half of the team portion of those profits too based on our sales numbers."

"More like sixty-five or seventy percent," Malorie suggested with a nod. "That'll push us ahead of plan for tickets by about sixteen percent for the day – maybe twenty; depending on the price of the tickets that were available."

"There weren't any of the cheapest tickets left," Ruth answered. "Ten galleons and above only – and we got them at a discount because the Kestrels waited so long. I honestly don't know why they didn't sell out – unless nobody thought to check with them for more tickets."

"That's likely it," Malorie agreed. "How are we doing for the next few matches?"

"You already know we're sold out for the next one; and we're still getting some sales further into the season; but that's slowed down a lot. We expect that to change after tomorrow."

"If we win," Rose offered with a nod and smile. "That's up to us; but you're doing great, Ruth; so let's hope that we can keep that going – and then get those kinds of sales for the rest of the season."

"Adverts for tomorrow are next," Malorie interjected. "Would you like to scare Rose with how much we're spending tomorrow?" she asked Toni and Michael.

"That isn't actually scary for our end of the business," Toni pointed out. "The more adverts we sell; the more we make. The only thing we won't know until after this weekend is how much we'll make because that depends on how many mirror network viewers see those adverts. We think that you might get more viewers than any of the opening day matches because there's less competition; and more interest."

"In watching the train wreck," Seth offered with a laugh. "I really hope that we'll be disappointing all of those spectators."

"I hope we'll be earning a new group of fans from that group," Rose countered. "That won't happen after just one match, but we will eventually need that support; or even starting out this well won't keep us going for long."

"You're already earning new fans," Ginny told her seriously. "Most of the reporters aren't noticing that either, but I've been there with the Harpies; and see it happening here too. A lot of Witches and Wizards like the image you're creating; and that's going to keep getting better for us – starting tomorrow."

"Are you predicting a win?" Seth asked.

"Just between us – yes," Ginny answered. "We're getting the meeting off-track, though; so let's get back to it – and then we all need to take a break and have a quiet evening ahead of our game night curfew. Getting a good night of rest might not be easy for some of you, but trust me; you'll want to find a way to make that happen; since we're all going to use up a lot of energy tomorrow – and the Quidditch match will only be part of that. If you think that bashing a bludger around for a few hours is tough; wait until you've signed your first thousand autographs after a match!"

"I doubt that's a problem for Beaters," Seth told her; and Ginny laughed.

"Tell that to Gwenog. She's likely signed more autographs than Kirley over the years – and still gets asked for quite a few of them at the Harpies' matches."

Al knew that was true, but the meeting rolled on from there; he was happy with where they were at heading into the first match; and was sure that the good news would keep coming for the team and GO MagiSports. When they were finished with that last blast of work; he went home with Gwendolyn; made dinner for two; and then they wrapped up their day with some quiet play time in the atrium with their families and friends – including Kirley and Gwenog – until shortly before curfew. There was a bit of play time for two once they were home and alone, but that was just a bit of fun to help them wind down and be ready to sleep; and then they cuddled close and really did do their best to get rested and ready for their debut in the show.

Al smiled as he woke Gwendolyn with a soft kiss and then handed her the good luck gift he'd picked out for her first game in the show.

"If you're going to keep doing good luck gifts before every match for all of your favorite Witches; it's a good thing you have that inventor back-up job; or we'd likely have trouble paying the bills," she told him while already beginning to open her gift.

"I don't know what I'll do with that yet," Al admitted. "Gifts for every match probably won't work, but I'll still do some gifts now and then for particularly-important games – especially when it comes to playoffs or other important challenges."

"That might work," Gwendolyn agreed – "though if you're going to do sets of those miss-matched earrings; that won't work with the Harpies unless you and the other guys are going to start wearing earrings too."

Al laughed. "I think that that hairstyle change is enough for me to last for a while – not that I've ever had an interest in piercings of any kind."

"I'm okay with that, but since we will be debuting our new uniforms today; you'll still get a lot of attention for radical changes," Gwendolyn teased. "I won't say more about that, since we're both going to be dealing with the attention that is going to come along with those uniforms – and that won't just be from the little girls that all seem to adore you."

"We knew that would be a consequence of the new clothes," Al offered with a shrug. "I honestly don't know what will be stranger for me – what I sense from the guys around us when they see you in your uniform – or how they react to Mum."

"I'll pick your Mum for the strange factor," Gwendolyn decided with a laugh. "That is sure to be weird for Lily, Jonah, and some of our cousins too; so be glad that you won't be at Hogwarts in September."

"I have gone through that for my older cousins," Al reminded her. "Jonah and Hugo will likely get the worst of that because of you and Rose; and I'll hope that Lily has more trouble with Dad's posters and action figures."

"You can hope, but I'll guess that Lily and Frederica will both have issues with posters in their dorm rooms of both of you," Gwendolyn predicted. "I'd better go and get ready, though, since we have to be at the cafe on time for breakfast; and then we'll be busy with all of the game day work."

She thanked him for the gift first, and then while she went to have a shower; Al got his gear bag ready to go – including packing his team robe and uniform; took care of a few chores; and then helped Gwendolyn with her gear bag before carrying both of them when they were ready to head for the cafe. That wasn't really necessary, since he could just summon them when needed, but it was something that most players still did anyway – and not just because many of them couldn't summon anything over large distances. There wasn't a big turnout for the early breakfast because most of the residents of their little community didn't need to be up early too, but that worked for Al; since it was quieter; and he and Gwendolyn were able to enjoy that meal with his parents, Lily, and Jonah before they moved on to a short team meeting; hair appointments; and a round of pre-game interviews at Ellis stadium before they did their pre-game warm-ups and then had a lunch-meeting that was more work than food as they only snacked ahead of the match.

That was very different to be on the player side of the game day preparations, but exciting and fun too. Missing out on the spectator game day entertainment and luncheon at the Leaky was a downside to being on the Cannons team – especially when they were missing out on sharing the experience with their sports day-campers, but they were going to get to spend time with those kids eventually; since they were hopefully, all going to be at the practice pitch and atrium for a victory party after the game. Al, Gwendolyn, and the rest of their team mates needed to focus on the work at hand first, though; so they both had fun and took their jobs very seriously as they counted down the last hour or so until game time.

"This is really weird," Lily declared as she watched her father sit down at the table that they were sharing with Jonah, his parents, Jaimie, and Lorie. "We're used to game day lunches with three out of four parents; but the Mums are mixed up today."

"We're not," Gwenog pointed out. "Mixed up would be if I was here and your Mum was getting ready to play for the Harpies. This is your new normal – at least for days that I can come and watch Gwendolyn's matches."

"If you think this is weird; wait until we're having the game day lunch and your Dad will be the one working with the team instead of your Mum," Kirley suggested. "He is likely the only grandfather to also be a rookie in the show; and we all want to find out whether that reporter's advice will prove to be good or disastrous."

"Everyone seems to have forgotten why he suggested that to me," Harry interjected. "He thought that a player's perspective would change my convictions about fair play in the game. Now even he is making it about whether I have any talent for the game or not; and I've never had any doubts about that."

"But you have wondered about what might have been if you'd chosen Quidditch over being an Auror," Gwenog stated; and Harry nodded.

"Yes, and in about ten days from now; I'll get to start finding out the answer to that question – even if I'll only be a part-time player."

"Unless Ginny's winning every Seeker duel against you in practices; I'll guess that you already know," Kirley offered. "The reporters can write or say what they want; but your team must have the best Seeker match-up for training for every team in the show."

"Thank-you," Lily half-joked. "Jonah and I are trying our best – and Mum and Dad aren't bad for a couple of old grandparents."

That joke earned giggles from Jaimie and Lorie; their chat was interrupted with the arrival of their food; and then they continued to talk Quidditch while quickly enjoying the meal so that they could move on to the stadium with time to get snacks and drinks before going to find their seats – which were in the season's tickets section of the stadium for the Cannons and right in front of the 'owner's box' section that Rose had 'given' to Susannah to use for the day-camp kids with just two exceptions – Ron and Hermione. The Cannons' season's tickets section wasn't a lot larger than in previous years, but they'd bought up a lot of tickets for the first match; and most of them were in the same area so that the normal families and friends group was dwarfed by the rest of their guests for the match – all GO MagiSports employees and managers; and quite a few friends for all of the players on the team – including some of Ginny's friends.

As Lily, Jonah, and everyone else in their group enjoyed the entertainment that was leading up to the start of the match, she knew that there was one, undeniable difference to what was going on compared to any other Cannons match she'd ever attended in her life; and that was the fact that everyone in the stadium was fired up and enthusiastic – regardless of whether they were hoping to watch a brilliant display of Quidditch from the new Cannons team or expecting to watch an epic, magical sports train wreck!

Rose and Ginny led the way to 'their' player entrance into Ellis stadium. Brandon and Seth were in the second row; and Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray were last – though that was only because Al convinced Rose to have Brandon closer to her so that they could share in the first-match fun.

"I knew that I should've written a speech; 'cause right now, I've drawing a blank; and just want to get on with playing the game," Rose offered with a self-deprecating smile. "Does anyone else want to take a shot at it?"

"There's nothing more to be said," Ginny offered. "Let's go out there and have as much fun as Al wants us to have; since this is going to be one of those matches that you'll remember forever."

"Do you remember your first match with the Harpies very well?" Rose asked; and Ginny nodded.

"Yes," she answered. "We played the Wasps on opening day – a re-match for the quarter-finals match that the Harpies lost the previous season; and we won that match by a score of two-ninety to forty. I got to share that amazing day with Gwendolyn's, Ray's, and Brandon's mothers; so it's a bit of a fun fact for me that I'm getting to play this match – and this season – with four of our kids – as well as one of my brothers' daughters."

"That leaves me as the odd one out," Seth joked.

"True, but you still have a connection to our family through your mother; since she was one of Hermione's best friends back then – and still is; though they don't get to spend much time together anymore."

"Don't take that thought any further," Brandon told Seth. "I don't want you starting to wonder why you didn't end up with Rose the way that Al and Gwendolyn did through their Mums."

"I don't even remember spending much time with Rose and Hugo when we were little," Seth told him. "I was more-likely to hang out with Dad and his mates instead of Mum and her friends; so that's not really a surprise. This has been a nice diversion, but let's get back to focusing on the match-at-hand; since at least one of us needs to do that."

They didn't actually get time to do that because they were called into the stadium before they could get past a couple of minor jokes directed at Seth; and then it was time to enjoy their first moments in the league Quidditch spotlight!

"Leading the way for the Cannons Clown Brigade is Manager and Keeper, Rose Weasel, and as I predicted, she has my not-so-dear, old, disowned Mum flying with her; an obvious suck-up to the family in the hopes of scoring better gifts at Christmas!" James announced cheerfully. "If you bet against me on that one; pay up!"

"I would, but can't see anything right now," Tiberius offered. "I think I've been blinded by all of that neon orange!"

"We've made a bunch of bets," Brock reminded them. "Just keep track of them; and we'll settle up after the match."

"Okay," James agreed. "Instead of listening to Lee's nonsense, though; I'll point out that the Cannons' new Seeker hasn't won a match in the show in over a decade; and that trend is going to continue today. Their weasel-manager not only looks like a clown in that robe; but will play like one too; and that might just be enough to finally get my ex-uncle to give up on his life-long Cannons delusion and start cheering for a real Quidditch team – like ours." He paused while taking a quick drink of double-malt; and then resumed his version of the team introduction.

"Next up; the weasel picked her pathetic excuse for a boyfriend and his Beater partner to follow her, and while they're useless; I'll give her credit for putting the Animorphloser, Potty-trainer, and the Dog-Wood in the last row where they belong. Watch the spectators below as they pass out from the stench as they fly past!"

"Note to us – plug our noses before our matches against their team," Brock suggested with a snort. "We wouldn't want to lose by forfeit because we passed out before the start of the match!"

"True-that," James agreed. "Ignore all of that rubbish Lee's spouting right now. He's obviously gotten senile in his old age; and I can't believe he's picked the Cannons for the win."

"I took the other side of that bet against you too," Tiberius reminded him. "Does that mean that I'm getting senile already too?"

"No – you're just delusional; or blinded by all of that orange," James joked. "Brock and I appreciate your contributions, though, since by the end of the afternoon; you'll have paid for our lunch, drinks, and snacks."

"What's going on with the Cannons?" Brock interjected with a hand wave toward James' massive mirror that was bigger than the one they'd had in the Gryffindor common room or that many of the Inns like the Leaky or Three Broomsticks used for their main dining rooms. "Are they getting undressed?"

"Maybe this match will be more-interesting than we expected," Tiberius offered with a coarse laugh that trailed off as they all watched the seven Cannons players remove their neon orange robes to reveal sleek, black uniforms that had the Cannons' logo in the same neon orange on the front-left chest of the jackets; orange flame accents on the arms and legs that looked really sharp; and a larger logo on the backs that was also in the neon orange. "Merlin! Have I mentioned before that your mother is seriously-hot?" he asked James.

"Yes, but I've disowned her; and you can just shut it," James retorted.

"If she was my Mum, I'd disown her too – and then try to hook up with her," Tiberius joked. "They're going to play in those outfits? Can they even do that?"

"No – and what a surprise that they're already cheating," James declared at the same time as Brock answered his brother's question with a "Yes, they can." James scowled at him.

"There's no league rule stating that the team robes must be worn," Brock insisted. "You know that because there are no rules about clothing at all. That's just the tradition." He nodded toward the mirror again. "Look at the Kestrels' players. They're as stunned as we are; but their Captain and Manager aren't running to the referee to even talk about it."

"Just because they're too-stupid to file the complaint doesn't mean that the loser isn't cheating," James said stubbornly.

Brock shrugged. "Feel free to get your copy of the league rule book and show me the section that proves me wrong," he suggested. "Do you notice anything else – other than the fact that your Mum, Gwendolyn, and Rose all look really hot in those uniforms?"

"Isn't that enough?" Tiberius asked; and Brock laughed.

"It's going to make watching the show more fun," he agreed; "but I was referring to the fact that I don't see any pads – and you'd be able to see them easily under those pants and jackets. Even their gloves don't look to be armored on the backs."

"They're likely just cheating in a bunch of ways," James declared. "The league officials should step in and put an end to this right now before the match even starts; give the Kestrels the forfeit; and ban the lot of them from ever playing in the show again!"

"There's no rule against not wearing the protective equipment either," Brock advised him. That's colossally-stupid, but I wouldn't believe they're that dumb; so there's likely another answer to explain what they're doing."

"One that we'd get if you'd shut up and listen,' Tiberius told him.

They all listened as Lee offered his comments on the uniforms-reveal; had fun with some jokes about how hot the Witches looked; and advised his viewing audience that outfits were a much-better-looking version of the workout clothes that the Cannons wore during their training workouts. By then, the referee was ready to get the match started; the teams were lined up; and the mirror view was switched from Lee to the pitch; where they watched all of the Cannons' players offer handshakes and enthusiastic-looking best wishes for their Kestrels' opponents.

"Can we buy one of those uniforms for you?" Kirley asked Gwenog as they watched their daughter take off and race her Kestrels' opponent for the quaffle.

"Not exactly the same," Harry answered while watching the opening plays too. "There are replicas available at the souvenir booths as of right now, but without the added features built into the team uniforms. There are new action figures, posters, and other souvenirs too."

"You're not worried about Ginny having posters like that for sale?" Kirley teased; and Harry laughed.

"Wait until you see them; and I'm still thinking about buying the lot of them. I'll at least need to get some for Jaimie, Lorie, and me for their room and my office."

"They won't have room on the walls for anything else if you get them posters of Mum, Al, Gwendolyn, and Rose," Lily suggested. "They already have posters of James and the rest of their cousins."

"Maybe you could make them into a calendar," Jonah suggested with a grin. "They have four relatives on the Cannons – five, if you want to include Brandon; three for United; two with the Catapults; and one each for the Harpies and Arrows. They'd need to double up in another two or three years, but then they could just have one calendar each after that." He jumped to his feet and cheered when Gwendolyn scored the first goal for the Cannons; and then laughed when Lily hugged him while standing too. "Yes, I know that Al set her up to get that first goal in the show; but that was still brilliant!"

"It was," Lily agreed. "I'd say that Al's off to a great start with making sure that we all have fun today!"

Gwendolyn was Captain of their team, his wife, and a brilliant Quidditch player; so Al had known all along that she'd earn their first goal in the show – and the fly-by hug and kiss was just a great added bonus that also earned a roar of whistles and laughs from the spectators. The Kestrels' Chasers were already back on offense by then, though; so they had to get back to work too – and did as they worked together with Ray to keep their opponents from even getting an official shot-on-goals when the shot attempt missed the goal to Rose's left by two broom lengths. Rose still got to the quaffle first and then passed it to Gwendolyn, but that really just sped up the transition to offense. They were taking their time with setting up the first plays, though, so the Kestrels still had time to switch to defense again and then pick their pairings too. Rose and Gwendolyn had decided to do that intentionally too because they wanted to avoid straight-up speed comparisons to the few Lightningstorms that the Kestrels had purchased for their team; though they were okay with showing off the better maneuverability of the Hurricanes because the other brooms couldn't compare anyway.

Playing their best was part of the plan too, but Al also tried his best to have fun with the Kestrels' Chasers and Keeper too. That wasn't quite as easy as it was to have fun with Gwendolyn, Ray, and Rose, but his smile was infectious; he congratulated the Kestrels' players for good saves, defensive stands, or scoring attempts; and downplayed his own victories. The fun just kept getting better for Al as the match rolled along. Playing in front of tens of thousands of spectators was even more of a rush than playing for hundreds or maybe up to two thousand Witches and Wizards at Hogwarts; and doing that with Gwendolyn was even better than he'd dreamed it would be! While they took their time setting up their offensive plays and allowed the Kestrels to set their own pace in the other direction too; it was soon obvious to Al that the Cannons really were significantly-better than the Kestrels.

In the first hour; they scored five goals – and likely could have score twice that if they'd really tried to push harder. That wouldn't have been fun, though, and hwile Rose earned a shut-out for the first hour and the shots on goal were strongly in their favor too; the battle was still fun and entertaining for the fans of both teams. Their strategy also made the match appear to be more-defensive than it really was, since five goals in an hour would normally be considered pretty good offense, but then that was intentional too; and was working out great for the Cannons.

Al kept up with all of that – and everything that was going on around the stadium, but while he did that; he still focused most of his attention on having fun with Gwendolyn and the rest of their team; and enjoying every moment that he was glad that he'd get to remember forever!

"First washroom break completed successfully," Lily told Malorie as she and Jonah sat down again with Jaimie and Lorie. "Did we miss much?"

"Al scored a goal," Malorie answered; "and I'd say that it must have been successful – for the twins. Nice jackets; though it's a bit hot out to be wearing them."

"Not hot – cool!" Lorie told her mother; earning a round of laughs.

"Well, I'd say you look hot in them too – and possibly for more than one reason," Lily teased.

"You said we looked cool," Lorie insisted; and Lily laughed.

"They're both compliments, sweetie; and it's possible to be both at the same time."

"Okay," Lorie said with a nod. "Saw Uncle Al's goal, Mommy,' she added. "Saw it on mirrors."

"Then you haven't missed anything," Malorie told her. "Do you want to come and sit with Grandpa and me for a while so that Lily and Jonah can take a break?"

"Okay," Jaimie answered before Lorie could. "I like this game. Everybody is smiling and happy."

"We like that a lot too," Harry assured her. "Quidditch is a lot more fun when the players are all happy."

"It's easy to be happy with you and Lorie around to help us out with that,' Patrick offered as he hugged Jaimie before passing her along to Harry while Lorie ended up with Malorie. "You look a lot like your Grandma in those jackets – though I'm still trying to get used to seeing her in a Cannons uniform instead of wearing a Harpies' robe."

"Tell me about it," Gwenog interjected with a laugh. "Seeing her playing on the same team with Gwendolyn is still brilliant, though – even if that isn't with the Harpies."

"In a way, this Cannons team is here thanks to the Harpies," Harry offered while holding Jaimie as she decided to stand on his lap to have a better view of the action above the pitch. "We do have one former player and four kids of former players. Add in four more Harpies' kids on our summer reserve squad – including the future Harpies' player; and that's a pretty strong connection."

"It is," Gwenog agreed. "Merlin!" she exclaimed as they watched Al and Gwendolyn exchange the quaffle while jointly doing a spin before shooting off in different directions. Gwendolyn went on to get a great shot on goals that was barely-stopped; but the play had been brilliant and breathtaking. "Are they playing Quidditch or dancing?"

"I'd say a bit of both for that move," Kirley offered with a grin. "At least there wasn't another mid-air kiss with that one. It's a good thing they are on the same team; since they'd have already earned a lot of penalties if they'd been playing against each other and sharing those kisses."

"How would the referee figure out which one of them was commiting the foul?" Harry asked in amusement. "That was a good save. I know that it isn't showing up on the scoreboard, but the Kestrels are actually playing about as well as I've ever seen them play – maybe a bit better."

"Do you think so?" Gwenog asked dubiously. "They've had some good moments; but their offense isn't getting anything done; and their defense has a lot of holes in it."

"Rose is playing great, but they're also not getting any really great scoring opportunities," Harry told her seriously. "They're all enjoying this contest; and it shows in how hard they're playing. We'll see if they get frustrated eventually if they can't score any goals; but I like what I'm seeing so far."

"You're biased," Gwenog countered; "and it's a wonder you notice anything other than your wife in that uniform."

Harry joined in for the round of laughs. "I can multi-task watching the match with appreciating how lucky I am to be married to Ginny. What do you think about the Seeker duel so far?"

"I think that Ginny's holding back," Gwenog answered. "That's part of the game plan, and I'd have likely done the same thing in this match; but I wouldn't try it against better Seekers."

"So Mum should go for the fastest snitch catch against Aunt Gabrielle?" Lily offered whimsically. "That'd be brilliant; but I'd rather get to see how Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray do against our Chasers for a while first."

"What will you do in that match, Lily?" Malorie asked. "Cheer for the Harpies or for your Mum, brother, sister-in-law, and the rest of their team?"

"I'll cheer for the Harpies, of course," Lily answered. "That won't change just because half of our family has switched teams."

"We're still Harpies' fans," Harry assured her. "The only difference now is that we'll have to cheer for ourselves for two of the Harpies' matches – and it's okay with us if you can't do that too."

They all had something to cheer about when Gwenodlyn scored a goal; and then their conversation splintered as some of them were drawn into other chats while they continued to watch the Quidditch action and enjoy the fun with their families and friends.

James was only pretending to have fun while offering his ongoing insults and jokes about the Cannons, but it took a fair bit of double-malt to keep him from just being angry as the loser and the rest of the clown brigade were happily cheating their way to a big lead while apparently deluding everyone except him. That had been why he'd only invited Brock and Tiberius to the game-watching – just in case this happened. Sure, he'd invited Scorpius too, but his new best mate had picked hanging out with Lysandra on a day off instead.

"Brandon and Seth are even worse than I remember," Tiberius told Brock; interrupting James' train of thought and gaining his interest. "The Kestrels' Beaters are lightweights; and they're not really even keeping up with them since they've at least had a few near-hits."

"They're playing defensively," Brock offered. "That is working to help the Weasel with her shut-out so far, but if that's the best they can do; it's no wonder that none of the other teams offered them jobs last year."

"That's good for us," Tiberius pointed out. "I'll probably feel bad about what we'll be able to do to those clowns – especially the hot ones; but it's going to be fun proving that we're defending league champions and they're the clown brigade for very good reasons!"

"I'd say they look more like a circus today," Brock told him. "They'll be sitting ducks for us with all of those stupid flying tricks. It's amazing that even the Kestrels' Beaters can't figure out how to knock them off their brooms in the middle of those spins and flips."

"Well, we'd love to be the first to show them how it's done, but I suppose they'll be up against other good Beaters before they get around to our first match against them at the end of September," Tiberius half-lamented. "Do either of you know which teams they'll be playing before we get our first chance to destroy them?"

"Who cares?" James lied; since he did know the answer. "The two of you need to stop admiring those Witches, though, and be ready to bash some heads in by then; since we are going to put the lot of them into their beds at St. Mungo's – or worse; and I'm thinking about a record-breaking high score – though that might be too much; since there have been matches that have lasted weeks and we'd run out of Cannon-fodder long before that could happen!"

"Wouldn't you like us to torture the loser for a week or two?" Brock joked; and James laughed.

"Yes, but the rest of you get mad when I drag a match out for more than a few hours; and you probably couldn't keep up with me for weeks. I'll settle for watching you crush his little heart first; and then bash his face in once he's had to watch us run it up on him."

"If you're going to do that; we'll need to start by bashing the Weasel," Tiberius suggested as they all watched her make another save. "Are you going to take your Mum out – or would you like me to do it?"

"Ex-Mum – and I'm going to need another drink if you're going to keep on with those jokes about her – especially when you're obviously blind to think that she's hot at all!"

Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray earned the one-sixty lead early in the fourth hour, and Ginny backed off from trying to defend against a snitch catch, but then the Kestrels' Seeker hadn't gotten any good chances to win their duel to that point; and then he didn't try to make a catch for the loss. She was okay with that, since earning a snitch catch in her first match with the Cannons was something she'd really wanted. Her opponent had been playing well defending against her, though; and he continued to do that as the fourth hour rolled along. Al and Gwendolyn each scored another goal to take the lead to one-eighty to naught by the half-way mark of that hour, but she didn't get to enjoy that part of the show while busy with her own battle.

"Have you had enough fun yet?" Ginny laughed at Al's question as he used their mirror communicator to talk with her privately for the first time in more than an hour – with the last time being a simple warning about a bludger hit coming at her from behind.

"That depends on what you mean by that," she answered.

"Do you see the snitch right now?" he asked next.

"Not at the moment," she admitted. "You do?"

"It's on the other side of me from you," he answered – "heading toward the Kestrel's goals. Shadow us on this play; cross paths with us at the goals-line; and I'll try to help you out with tracking the snitch while you use us to get some separation from the Kestrels' Seeker."

"Sounds like fun," Ginny said while already doing that. "Keep giving me updates on the snitch; and that'll help me spot it once I'm past you."

Al did that; and his impromptu little plan created a brilliantly-exciting, game-ending play. Gwendolyn had the quaffle as she and Al closed in on the Kestrels' goals; she went inverted; dropped the quaffle to Al; Ginny shot through the gap that opened between them; and Gwendolyn blocked the Kestrels' Seeker while Ginny went after the snitch and Al distracted everyone with a spin and flip that was jaw-dropping to watch as he tossed the quaffle mid-flip and scored the goal. He was flying away from the goals as if heading back on defense; but got to watch his mother earn the snitch catch too.

"Yes!" he exclaimed happily; earning a laugh from his mother as their magical earbuds were still connected on the private link. "Bludger nine o'clock high," he added quickly; and laughed too as his mother did her own flip; hit the brakes; and the bludger missed her by thirty feet or more.

"I love you," she told him. "Thanks for helping to make this one of those best-ever kind of Quidditch matches!"

"Are you still glad that you got this part-time job, Dad?" Lily asked while still standing and watching her mother celebrating the victory with her team mates. "That'll be a tough act to follow in your first match."

"That was an awesome play," Harry agreed, "but expectations are low for me; so I'll just try to muddle through and do what I can to help our team win that match too – even if I might not be able to manage anything that good."

"You sound as though you're beginning to believe your own press; but I know better," Lily told him. "Mum won't likely get any credit for that win anyway, but she should; and that really was a lot of fun. Do you want to stay for the post-game show; or should we get back to the atrium to help out with the victory party set-up?"

"We can stay for the start of it – and then get going," Harry decided. "We can always watch the interviews and commentary on our portable mirrors once we're home."

"We're already booked to help out with Brett's birthday party," Gwenog reminded Lily and Jonah. "You'll need to at least make an appearance there sometime this evening, and now that the Cannons have won; it might help him a bit with his mates if Al and Gwendolyn could stop by for a few minutes too."

"If Gwendolyn's wearing that new uniform; they wouldn't have cared if she'd won or lost," Jonah joked; and then laughed when Lily punched him. "She's my sister; and I'm hoping that the Harpies will have those uniforms in their team colors by the time we're in the show."

"He's also not wrong," Kirley added. "I still want to pick up one of those outfits for your Mum on the way out of here."

There was a round of laughs when he got punched too – by his wife; and then they moved on to watch the meeting between the teams at center pitch before gathering their things and heading for home or elsewhere – though quite a few members of their game watching group were going to either be at the victory party, Brett Jones' eleventh birthday party, or both.

"That's five and two galleons for me from the two of you," Tiberius told James and Brock as they watched the post-game action and listened to the start of Lee's wrap up commentary. "Don't feel bad – that's still pretty close considering how many bets we made this afternoon."

"As if you've much to brag about," Brock told him while tossing two coins to his brother. "You're only ahead because you bet on the hotter Witch – or the Witch, if that was an option – nearly every time."

"I should've gone with that strategy the entire time," Tiberius countered. "I'd have won more."

"Maybe," Brock conceded. "I'd have done better if I hadn't bet on the loser to show off more than he did; and I sure didn't expect Rose to get that shut-out – not even against a team that's as bad as the Kestrels."

"They're all a bunch of cheats," James declared as he paid up his bet too. "If the league won't do something about it by the time we have our first match against them; then we'll deal with them ourselves. The Cannons Clown Brigade won't be laughing by the time we put them all into their beds at St. Mungo's!"

"I'd comment on that, but you've ordered me not to talk about your ex-Mum that way," Tiberius joked. "We've a dinner party to get to soon, though, so I'd better get going so I'll have time to get ready for it." He looked at James speculatively. "Are you going to be okay; or should we come back and give you a hand with getting there too? The owners won't be happy if you splinch yourself on arrival and get blood all over one of their fancy homes."

"I'll be fine," James assured him. "I don't see how anyone could sit through that match without drinking a lot. Don't worry about me – I'll be there right on-time."

"Meaning fashionably-late for him," Brock added. "It must be nice to be King of the Catapults."

"It is," James assured him, "but I'm just getting started. King of the Quidditch World is just a matter of time!"

Al stayed with Gwendolyn almost all of the time after the end of the match. The mid-air victory hug and kiss was special; and she helped him out with getting through the post-game interviews that had included a lot of insults and jokes about everything from how they looked in the new uniforms to the 'circus' performance from the Cannons Clown Brigade. They eventually split up while hitting the showers and getting ready for the victory party; and then Al really had fun with signing autographs for hundreds of kids – and while that took quite a while; he was patient, cheerful, and kind with all of those kids. The fact that they did have a lot of new fans looking for autographs was a great sign; and Al didn't actually sense any darker emotions from the Witches and Wizards that had waited so patiently to meet them in person and get their autograph prizes.

The party might not have been as much fun for Al if it had been the normal type of event that most teams held, but their victory celebration was a family-friendly dinner and play evening; the sports daycamp kids and their families were among the guests; and the VIP guests were encouraged to bring their families along for the fun too. That required a lot of space, so they used the patio area outside of the practice pitch and atrium; the practice pitch; and the atrium to make room for everyone. The Cannons players missed most of the social hour before dinner that kept their guests busy while they waited to have that meal. Al and Gwendolyn were with the sports daycamp kids – and Jaimie and Lorie – for that blast of food fun and entertainment; and then they took a break to pop over to Brett's party with Lily and Jonah to at least get to spend a bit of time helping him to celebrate his eleventh birthday before going back to the team party so that they could play with the kids there for the rest of the evening.

They didn't have a game or training night curfew to worry about, so staying up late was an option; and the only reason the party began to wind down early was because the youngest kids ran out of steam; and Rose, Gwendolyn, and Ginny had to go and do an interview with Lee for his nightly show. Al didn't go along with Gwendolyn for that; and was glad that he hadn't been invited along – though he got teased about Lee only inviting the Witches as much as Ray, Brandon, and Seth did. There were quite a few Witches and Wizards interested in Lee's monologue and that interview, though, so when it was time for the show; there was a noticeable pause in the action around the atrium, practice pitch, and cafe as watching mirrors became the top entertainment.

"Good evening," Lee said cheerfully as he walked out onto the main stage for the set of his popular nightly show – "and welcome! I'm sure that everyone watching tonight witnessed – or has at least heard about – the Quidditch news of the day. Yes, that's right, folks – orange is the new black – or in this case; black is apparently the new orange for the Chudley Cannons!" He joined in for the studio audience laughter – as did everyone sitting with Al at one of the patio tables at the cafe. We'll talk with the three Cannons players that the majority of spectators that I spoke with after the match thought looked best in those new uniforms – and they played a pretty good game of Quidditch too!"

"I thought that you guys looked really great too," Cyndia offered with a grin. "I think that his survey was heavily biased."

"Meaning that he only asked Wizards," Susannah suggested with a smile and nod.

"Yes, everyone except for my friend, Ron Weasley, and the other five Cannons fans that had still been staunchly supporting their favorite team is in shock tonight/ and it seems as though most of the Quidditch experts will need to come up with all-new reasons to explain why they're still sure that the Cannons will be the worst team in the league again this year despite this shut-out win today,' Lee continued. "Well, Wizards and Witches of the press, you're in luck; because I've got your top-ten reasons right here and right now!"

"Be afraid – be very afraid," Harry had time to say before Lee jumped right into that list.

"At number ten – the Cannons only defeated the team that was in twelfth-place last season; so this win was no big deal. Nine – they had too much fun out there today; and won't last long against any of the serious teams. Eight – the rest of the teams will not be surprised and distracted by the new uniforms. Seven – the number of players a Quidditch team is supposed to have instead of eight; and six – this is not the first time that the Cannons have begun a season undefeated; since they did that just five years ago!"

"Is that true?" Cyndia asked.

"Yes," Harry answered with a nod. "They won their first two matches that season. We think that Santini was trying to impress Gabrielle ahead of an early-season match against the Harpies."

By then, Lee had already made fun of Al's home-made brooms while pointing out that no league team had been successful with doing that since befoere there were broom-making companies – and that none of the other broom companies had been able to claim a league championship since the Firebolts had become widely available thirty years ago. He also pointed out that the team had still gone to the dogs – at leat for the Animagus members of the team; and that the number three reason for why the Cannons could still be ridiculed was because the neon-orange logos on the backs of their new uniforms were pefect targets for the opposing teams' Beaters.

"We're almost there," Lee told his audience. "My runner-up top reason for why the Cannons will still be at the bottom of the league again this season is that they've hired an unemployed grandfather to play Seeker in half of their matches, and while I was happy to hear that it is possible for a former Head of the Aurors to get a job; being a rookie Seeker in the show could prove to be a bad idea – no offense to Kellum McAdams; since that was his suggestion!"

"Well, at least you weren't the number one reason," Ron joked. He and Hermione had joined the group; but were standing behind Harry instead of getting chairs and sitting down too. "And the number one reason for why the reporters are going to keep picking on my team is..."

"...one hundred and thirty-two years of Quidditch futility is not going to be changed by a pair of grandparents and a bunch of kids," Lee finished.

"He's likely not wrong about that one," Ron declared – "though I'll still keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best."

"Like you do every year," Hermione added with a smile. "Lee's just having fun with that, though; since there's no way he believes that the Cannons won't be a lot better this season – even with an old, former Head of the Aurors playing Seeker for half the matches."

"Well, that was funny; but might be a bad sign for our interview," Gwendolyn suggested. "Remind me why we're doing this again, Rose."

"Because Lee has the most-watched show; it's fun even when he's razzing us; and showing that we have a sense of humor will help us out with getting more fans," Rose answered. "You're both better at this part of the job than I am; but even the bad interviews are still going better for me than I'd expected; and the reason Lee picked the three of us for this interview is an ego boost for me – even if I don't believe that I'm one of the top-three hottest Cannons."

"Well, I think that we are," Gwendolyn only half-joked; "but the boys look pretty good in our new uniforms too; and I probably wouldn't like being married to someone better-looking than me – especially if he knew it."

"Last I heard; you weren't even sure that Al was still in your top-ten for best-looking Wizards," Rose reminded her; and Gwendolyn laughed.

"Well, I think I'd put him somewhere in that list since he got that new hair style, but don't say that too-loudly; or Lee might be doing a second top-ten list with us during our interview!"

Back at the Cannons' practice pitch, Al had taken a break from the show-watching after Lee's monologue; he got tied up with seeing their party guests on their way – mostly doing that with the kids; and he missed Lee's interview with his mother, wife, and cousin. He did get to hear all about it from some of the other guys, and he'd sensed that everyone around him that had watched the interview had enjoyed it, but then he was also glad to be reunited with Gwendolyn when she got back home; they spent a bit more time with some departing guests; and then went back to their own townhouse while the party continued on for some of their friends. They wrapped up their brilliant day with some quality play time for two; used a time-stop to do that; and were still sleeping hours before the last of the partiers headed for their homes and beds sometime in the wee hours of the morning.

After exerting so much effort into getting ready for that first Quidditch match of the season, there might have been a let-down for Al, Gwendolyn, and the rest of their team mates by Sunday, but that didn't happen; and they were more fired-up about their work and training thanks to the win over the Kestrels. There was a lot of fun to be had too, and while they only had a bit of work on Sunday thanks to doing two interviews; it wasn't back to nothing but work by Monday either thanks to having Malorie's twenty-first birthday to help Jaimie and Lorie celebrate with their mother. Taking the day off was less of an option for Malorie and her best friends than it was for the team, but they had a birthday breakfast at the cafe; a lunch picnic provided by the cafe that they had in the atrium so that swimming and playground fun was part of the entertainment; and then Jaimie and Lorie opted for a beach party for their mother after work that included the sand and surf fun first and then a later dinner at a seaside Inn that kept them busy until shortly before their training night curfew.

On Tuesday, Al and Gwendolyn had to deal with another new reality for their lives – the fact that they couldn't attend other league Quidditch matches on days that they were working. They likely wouldn't have gone to the Catapults-Arrows' match, but Harry, Ginny, Lily, and Jonah couldn't go either; so they had extra tickets to give away; and Molly and Arthur took Jaimie and Lorie to see their father's match while Malorie worked too. The training and focus on his work didn't keep Al from knowing what was going on in that match, since it was being shown on the mirrors in the cafe and there were some reporters watching it too while assigned to cover their workouts, so while it was weird to not take time off from work; he was happy to have something better to do than watch the horrid display of quidditch that four of the Catapults' players were inflicting on the Arrows.

James wasn't in any hurry as he led the way for 'proving' that the Catapults were the best team in the league. He was playing his worst, though, and after pounding Madison regularly right from the quaffle toss; he put her out of the match early in the third hour with a series of cheap shots that were nearly as vicious as what he'd done to Pauline. With his Seeker opponent out of the way; James moved on to ignore the snitch; taunt the Arrorws' fans; and do what he could to help Scorpius, Tiberius, and Brock pound on the rest of the Arrows. The Cannons were finished their training for the day before they knocked Susan Cornfoot out of the match in the fifth hour, but while there was a game-watching group in the cafe by then, Al and Gwendolyn didn't join them; and instead kept themselves entertained in happier ways – at least as much as that was possible for Al when his extended senses couldn't be shut off to avoid the 'noise' all around him. They definitely couldn't avoid it at dinnertime because they had that meal with Lily and Jonah; and Lily wanted to keep watching the match – and talk about it.

"I know that you don't want to talk about the Catapults' match, Al, but everyone is, and I want to talk about it too; so deal with it," Lily told him bluntly.

"You'd be happier right now if you weren't watching the match – or talking about it," Al suggested.

"Yes, but it's okay to be mad and outraged now and then," she countered. "What James did to Madison was ridiculously-horrid; and there's no excuse for what they're trying to do to the Arrows now – and it's all your fault!"

"I'm sure that our win last Saturday is part of the problem," Al agreed, "but James knocked Madison out of the match to make sure that she couldn't get the win the way Pauline did in his first match. This is how they're going to play, Lily; so every team and player in the league is going to have to deal with that – and try to find a way to win anyway – just as the Prides did."

"The Arrows must've looked at that match; and it isn't helping them today," Lily pointed out.

"That isn't the same as playing against those players – and Madison probably underestimated James; since it's been quite a while since her last match against him."

"Not to mention that you're not there to take the hits for her," Jonah teased a bit darkly. "I'm surprised that you didn't go to St. Mungo's after work to help her out."

"I can't help everyone – no matter how much I wish that I could," Al told him seriously – "though I'd go if the Healers wanted me to try and help with anything particularly-serious."

"What they're doing today has been bad-enough to this point," Gwendolyn interjected, "but going on to try and run it up on the Arrows bugs me as much now as it did every time Slytherin tried to do that to the other Hogwarts teams – and has me tempted to not be very nice to them when we play our first match against them next month."

"You're not more-worried about getting pounded like that?" Jonah asked her. "There's no doubt that Scorpius and the McClaggens will be going after you and Al."

"I expect they'll go after Al for sure," Gwendolyn agreed with a smile for her husband that was more-grim than amused. "That could work out great for me." She paused while watching something on Lily's mirror; and shook her head. "I might feel bad for Louis or Miya, but when I see them going along with their team mates acting like that; I have a tough time feeling sympathetic for them at all."

"They got to be league champions by doing that," Lily offered with a shrug. "I can at least understand that; and don't know what I'd do if in the same place. Would you take a stand against your own team mates, Gwendolyn?"

"Miya was with the Catapults before James and the McClaggens," Gwendolyn said thoughtfully, "so her case is a bit different from Louis and Roman, but they knew what they were getting into before signing up; and I'd have never taken a job on a team like that in the first place. If I was in Miya's place; I'd have likely stayed quiet; and demanded a trade or quit once the team started to play like they did for a lot of last season."

"Louis started at the same time as the McClaggens," Jonah pointed out, "but even though he might not have known just how bad they'd get; I guess he should have known enough to make that choice."

"I think he changed at the end of his sixth year," Lily told him with a nod. "He went along with it when Olivia kicked Al off the team supposedly for getting Malorie pregnant; since that got him onto the team for the last match of the season; and then he did the same with James and Ollie in his NEWT year for the same reason – so he'd get to play even though he knows that Rose is a better Keeper. It's just been a downward spiral for him since then. Now we'll just have to wait and see whether he goes all the way and starts playing as horridly as James does or just continues to go along with it no matter what the other guys do."

"Well, they play United next weekend," Gwendolyn told her. "If his team mates put Dominique in the hospital; we might get to find out how far Louis is willing to go to win another championship."

"They're trying to put one of his brother-in-laws in the hospital today," Al said quietly. "That ought to bother him just as much as if they were going after his sisters, aunts, or other cousins."

"I keep forgetting about that connection between Louis and Eddie," Lily admitted. "They've known each other through Teddy for quite a few years now too; yet I don't really even know if they're very close. Louis hasn't seemed as close to Teddy the last few times I've seen them together either."

"They're not," Al advised her. "We should probably stay away from politics, though; and I'd rather hear about what you'll be doing with your team workout tonight."

"You could come and find out," Lily suggested. "I don't mind if you do that, Al. It's not even as if you were the last team Captain; so you don't need to give me space to make the team my own."

"They haven't been coming to any of my practices either," Jonah pointed out. "Maybe they're just too cool and famous to do that sort of thing anymore."

That joke and change in topic led their chat away from the Catapults' match, but Lily kept the match going on her portable mirror – even after she left and headed for the practice pitch for her team workout. Gwendolyn apparated Jonah to his Ravenclaw practice that Ryan was hosting; and Al took care of the dinner clean-up. By the time they were back together; he'd heard the news that the Catapults had managed to knock Susan Cornfoot out of the match too; and that ongoing Quidditch horror continued until past-curfew for Al, Gwendolyn, and their team mates when James apparently decided that he'd had enough fun – and proved his point – when he ended the game early in the ninth hour to give his team the seven-hundred-and-ten to forty victory over the Arrows. The actual time to the end of the match had been much-longer than the game-time because of the extended time-outs that were mostly due to Arrows' player injuries, but by the time it ended; Al was glad that he could ignore the post-game nastiness and end his day with some quality cuddle time with Gwendolyn and get a good night of rest.

"Now that's the way we should have played against the Prides!" James declared enthusiastically as he joined his team mates in the locker room after being last to finish up with his post-game interviews and some quality time with his adoring fans that included getting two dates set up for later in the week and on the weekend. "Keep up the good work; and that'll be the only loss we have this season!"

"Please stop making predictions like that," Louis told him tiredly; and he wasn't smiling or happy. "You obviously didn't take Divination for a very good reason."

James snorted. "I predicted we'd win the league Championship last year; so I'd say I have a great record."

Louis shrugged and shook his head. "You would, but it's been a long day; and I don't want to get into it with you, James. Congratulations. You won your Seeker duel; and it only took you five hours to catch the snitch after you knocked Madison out of the game. Nicely done!"

"Thank-you – and you're welcome," James told him sarcastically. "What is your problem, Louis? We won, and you only gave up four goals in more than eight hours – thanks to Scorpius, Tiberius, and Brock; so you should be as happy as we are right now."

"I told you that I don't want to get into it with you tonight," Louis told him as he stood and grabbed the things he needed to take with him into the guys' shower room. "Enjoy your glorious victory and leave me alone." He walked away; and James watched him go while heading for the bench where he'd left his own gear.

"Do you know what's bugging him?" he asked Tiberius.

"Yes," Tiberius answered. "His brother-in-law congratulated him after the match – for winning with a team chock-full of cheats; and then told him to sod-off. Louis took that a bit personally."

"He should've punched Eddie in the face," James suggested. "What a sore loser!" He glared at Miya when she laughed derisively and had obviously been listening in on their conversation. "Something funny, dog?"

Miya laughed again. "Yes," she assured him; but didn't offer more as she stood and headed out of the room too – toward the girls' shower room.

"Why do the owners keep that dead-weight around?" James demanded.

"Because she's hot and sells a lot of merchandise and souvenirs," Brock answered with a grin. "She's also a fair Quidditch player; though you've never believed that. How many goals and assists did she have today, Scorpius?"

"I have no idea," Scorpius answered with a shrug. "I had twenty-four; so she split the other thirty-two with Roman. You don't have to like her, James; but Licentia was the best Chaser I'd played with before joining the Catapults; and Miya is better. If you do eventually insist on replacing her; you'd better make sure it's with someone at least as good."

James snorted again. "Keep talking like that about her; and we'll need to replace you by the time Lysandra is done with you," he suggested; and then laughed with more amusement. "On second thought – go ahead and do that; since I'd be happy to comfort your girlfriend in her time of need once she is done with you!"

"You helped me out with getting this job," Scorpius pointed out. "She might decide to blame you. This is pointless, though, since she knows that she has nothing to worry about from any Witch when it comes to me. Did you get a date for the victory party; or are you planning on chasing after Witches at the party instead?"

"Having a date wouldn't keep me from doing that," James told him, "but I didn't make any dates for tonight; and only have two new dates for the rest of the week and weekend. I need to keep my schedule at least partly-clear in case something better comes along."

Wednesday was another work day for Al and Gwendolyn – and another day for a league Quidditch match that they couldn't attend because of their job. This time, it was the Harpies playing against United; so it was a match that they wished they could have attended. It was also a much-better match to watch from the perspective of Quidditch fans, so while they couldn't be there; they did keep tabs on the game with more enthusiasm – and then they were happy to watch the rest of the match once they were finished work. With Victoire back on the team, the Harpies had the slight advantage at Chaser – and that was despite United having the faster brooms for their Chasers. That was off-set a bit by Belinda, but since Gwenog had her team playing more-defensively to off-set the broom advantage; the entire match was very defensive in nature without much scoring. It took Gabrielle nearly five hours to out-duel Alex for the snitch catch; and the one-eighty to fifty victory proved just how well-matched the two teams were once again this season.

That was great news for Harpies' fans, if not so much fun for their favorite United players and their supporters, but Al was able to be much happier through the rest of the day and week. There was a family birthday that he had nothing to do with beyond being in on a joint gift, but Percy didn't even invite his sister and brother-in-law to join in on celebrating his forty-eighth birthday; and he didn't answer any mirror chat requests from any of them either. Al and Gwendolyn still had a good day at work and with a team event dinner, though; and Friday was another happy day thanks to play time with the sports day-camp kids. The work for the week wasn't finished for Al and Gwendolyn by the time they were done with the Cannons duties on Friday – they had to get ready for their weekend plans to have two days of back-to-school family fun – along with several team events too. On Saturday, she was hosting her family for that family and friends play day; and he was doing the same on Sunday with his family – though that was a co-host with his parents, Rose, Brandon, and their younger siblings. They also weren't the only residents of their community hosting family and friends parties both days; so they needed to get the place ready for hundreds of visitors each day.

There was lots of help for that work, but it still took most of the evening to get everything ready; and then it was time to play as much as possible while also doing a lot of the work that kept the parties going all weekend. Only having a week to go until September First seemed to be a much bigger deal for Al even though he wasn't going back to Hogwarts, and he knew that he was going to miss Lily and Jonah a lot, but there was no sadness that went along with those sentiments; and he was as excited about the coming school year as Lily was about going back to Hogwarts and her hopes for a brilliant sixth year as she tried to have another great year of Quidditch – and do well with her five classes too. It helped for him to know that Lily truly was happy about getting her chance to shine without her brothers there to compete against, so while she did have a small part of her that wished she was finished school too; it was far-outweighed by her hopes and dreams to finish up her Hogwarts years by besting both of her brothers – at least at Quidditch!

Those sorts of hopes and dreams weren't restricted to Lily from among the cousins in their collective families – or with their younger friends either, so if there was anything that stood out for Al as he spent time with all of them; it was those shared hopes and dreams – at least when it came to the Hogwarts-bound teens and tweens. The emotions for the adults ranged from 'can't wait to be kid-free until Christmas' to 'wish they'd let me home-school them' depending on the parent; though regardless of where they were at along that scale; Al was glad to sense that nearly-everyone had been enjoying their summer – even when that had included a lot of work and not much holiday time. The Weasley, McCormack, and Jones clans had all loved the idea of a first family event at Al's and Gwendolyn's home, and while that was both brilliant and a lot of work; it was also amazing to share all of that fun with the families and friends of the others in their new community.

Having so many Witches and Wizards sharing the common spaces of the atrium, practice pitch, and the area around the buildings didn't just feel different to Al – he sensed the truth of that in everyone around him – and that was almost-entirely in a good way. Sure, pretty much everyone had experience the community living that came with attending Hogwarts, but hardly anyone got to have that at their homes – or at least they didn't get to have that with other witches and Wizards even if they could be part of their communities with Muggle neighbors. The biggest difference was being able to use magic openly; and that was no small thing when hiding from the Muggle World was something they had to do nearly everywhere else except in their protected homes and places like Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. Al certainly got some new ideas for doing more community activities; and it was easy to envision community fairs or other events to share with his family and friends.

Sharing was a big part of the weekend fun. The 'hosts' often combined their efforts for meals and other activities. Quidditch scrimmages were much more interesting thanks to a larger pool of players; and the kids and teens had more friends to play with in addition to their cousins and kids of family friends. Al and Gwendolyn only played in one scrimmage each day, but that had more to do with work and other responsibilities that kept them from taking an hour or more off at any one time. They also had the breaks for Cannons-related work; though those cameo moments were relatively-short; and they didn't get in the way of the family and friends fun. They really did have an amazing weekend; and then it was time to go to bed early on Sunday night; and get ready for the last work week of the summer.

The Cannons' second match of the season and summer was on Tuesday afternoon against the Wanderers; so Monday was the last training day they had to get ready for Harry's debut in the show. That had everything to do with why the reporters were out in full force at the training pitch pretty much all day; and Kellum McAdams was particularly-enthusiastic about getting his audience ready for the big match so that they could find out what would happen now that Harry truly was going to be taught a long-overdue lesson on what it was really like to play in the show – all thanks to Kellum's brilliant suggestion.

As usual, most of the reporters continued to ridicule the Cannons' training – especially when they still had play time with Jaimie and Lorie with that big match just a day away, but Al didn't plan on changing anything for their training all season – at least for the 'how' they worked. They were going to have new players to train against once their summer reserve squad went back to Hogwarts, but that was going to be fun too; and would surely get just as much of the bad kind of attention from the reporters. Al and Rose were happy with the attention that was directed at his father; since it was sure to mean big ratings for the mirror network game watchers – and the adverts money that went along with that change for the Cannons. Thanks to a game night, they didn't have interviews to deal with for long after they were done training for the day; they had a quiet evening; and then all of the players were in bed ahead of curfew – if not necessarily asleep right away too.

Al smiled as his father joined him near the shallow end of the lagoon for a Tai Chi workout before dawn on Tuesday morning. He was already doing his warm-ups; so Harry joined in as he offered a good morning greeting.

"Are you sure that you don't want the extra rest?" Al teased as he continued the exercises that were meant to flex joints and stretch muscles before they'd begin the Tai Chi forms. "We'll be doing team warm-ups later this morning; and you don't want you to get too tired-out mid-way through the match."

"It's funny that so many reporters are making those jokes; yet Erin is a bit older than your Mum and me," Harry countered.

"I wouldn't beleieve that if you were up against the youngest Seekers," Al assured him seriously. "Age is only one factor for stamina; and not really all that important compared to some of the other factors – at least at your age. I'm not going to suggest that you might not have trouble keeping up ith the game if you were Aunt Muriel's age, but a lot of the insults made about you are dumb – especially when there are still lots of pprofessional players still going strong into their forties and fifties."

"I'd suggest that she might do well-enough at Beater, but while I love Aunt Miriel; I'll admit that I don't want to even picture her in one of your new uniforms, Al."

"So I shouldn't get her one for Christmas?" Al joked; and Harry laughed.

"That's totally up to you, but if she tries it on and hates it; you're on your own for the consequences. I thought you'd be focused on Quidditch already. Don't you want to offer any advice now that you're a veteran of one match in the show?"

Al laughed. "I'm sure there's nothing that I could offer that Mum hasn't already told you – not to mention that you don't need that kind of advice in the first place. You may not have played in the show, but you have played against some of the best Seekers in the world; and it's going to be fun to see everyone find that out today."

"Your Mum might be hoping that I lose," Harry offered with a grin. "Rose might decide to have her play more often if I can't win any matches for the team."

"Mum's sure you'll be brilliant; and only wishes that she could be playing today too. Maybe we should put her in at Chaser for one or two of your matches – just like in your Hogwarts days when you played for Gryffindor."

"Or not," Harry disagreed. "I also have a record of getting injured in matches when Ginny's playing on my team; so maybe there's a connection."

"Were you too-busy watching her to notice that bludger?" Al joked. "I don't remember that being part of the story."

"It wasn't," Harry assured him, "but it's also true that Ginny has a better Hogwarts record at Seeker than she had as a Chaser. You have a good trio right now; so don't mess with it even if Ginny would have fun playing with you and Gwendolyn."

"We are going to change things up over the next two years," Al reminded him. "We can always keep that in mind for another season if we don't do it this year."

"You have two years for me," Harry reminded him. "After that; you'll have Jonah for sure; and we'll see what happens with your Mum."

"I definitely don't want to go there," Al decided. "If you're ready; I'll shut up now and we can get on with the Tai Chi forms."

They did that; had a small audience by the time they were done; and eventually met up again at the cafe to have breakfast with Ginny, Gwendolyn, Lily, and Jonah. That was a blast of fun – including a gag good luck gift from Lily for her father along with some old age jokes; and then it was time to get to work again – at least for the seven players in the match against the Wanderers and anyone else heading off to work for the day too. While Al, Gwendolyn, and Harry moved on to their team meeting and the rest of the pre-game work; Ginny, Lily, and Jonah got to spend the morning with Jaimie and Lorie; do a bit of shopping; and then eventually meet up with Kirley for the game day lunch at the Leaky. There was a good-sized group for that bit of food fun because there were lots of members of their family and friends interested in being at the stadium for Harry's first league match; though that didn't include any of the family cousins with jobs on other teams or most of Harry's brothers and sisters-in-law.

Ron was there for his best mate and daughter, though, and while Hermione wasn't taking the afternoon off for the match; she did join him for lunch with Hugo and Alyssa. While Ginny could be quietly frustrated by the absent members of her family, she was too-busy to let it bother her; and semi-hosting the luncheon was just the start of the work and play time. As the odd-player out for this match, she wasn't just helping out with her granddaughters; she was also the 'star' representative for the team in the owner's box for the VIP guests that Malorie and Rose had invited to the match. That's why she needed to eat quickly; get to the stadium early; and be there to welcome those guests while Lily and Jonah took care of the twins for most of the time from that point through until the end of the match. They went along to the stadium early too; but wandered around the souvenir and snack booths for quite a while first before going to their seats with Kirley and the cousins and friends that stayed with them after leaving the Leaky too.

"Is there any chance that the two of you will pick different Animorphmagus toys when you have two to choose from today?" Lily asked Jaimie and Lorie.

"Do you want them to do that?" Jonah asked. "They are keeping track of those sales to find out whether your Dad or brother sell more."

"That's just for fun," Lily pointed out; "and it's much easier if Jaimie and Lorie don't have to write names on their toys to avoid any mix-ups."

"I want the bigger one," Lorie advised them.

"Okay," Jaimie agreed. "I'd like the one that looks like Grandpa – please."

"Grandpa?" the booth attendent asked in confusion; and smiled when all three girls laughed or giggled.

"She means the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Animorphmagus toy – and it is modeled on her grandfather's Animagus form – just as the other one is one of her uncle's animal forms."

The young Wizard nodded. "I should've realized. They look like their grandmother – just as you do."

"Well, Mum and I didn't get those awesome green eyes; but we're close-enough to be a matched set. We'll take one of each of the toys."

"Make that two sets," Jonah added; and then smiled at Lily. "They'll make great extra gifts for at school," he explained.

"As long as you don't give them to any of my roommates," Lily told him half-seriously. "I'm already expecting to have enough trouble with posters and toys of my parents and brother."

"You'll just have fun with that – and I'll try to do the same when my roommates have posters of Gwendolyn and your Mum plastered all over the walls in my dorm room too."

"We have their posters in our room,' Lorie advised him.

"All of them,' Jaimie added with a nod. "Thank-you," she added as she was handed her new toy.

"Thank-you too," Lorie added when she was given hers next.

"You're welcome," the Wizard assured them with a smile. "Good luck to your favorite team today."

"The Harpies aren't playing today," Lorie advised him; and then giggled when Lily hugged her.

"That's my girl!" Lily told her. "Don't you let grandma, grandpa, and the others turn you into a Cannons fan on me!"

I like the Harpies too," Jaimie told her; and then smiled when she was also hugged by her aunt. "Can't we like the Cannons too? The Harpies don't let us play with them."

"Maybe they'll let you do that once I'm on the team with them," Lily suggested. "We could ask Jonah's Mum about that if we see her tonight after the game."

"Okay," Jaimie agreed; and then was diverted by something that caught her eye at the next souvenir booth.

They moved on from there; eventually went to their seats once they were done with the 'shopping' and had a good supply of drinks and snacks; and then they had fun with the rest of their game-watching group as they arrived over the next fifteen or twenty minutes leading up to game time.

"Are you sure that we shouldn't have the animals on the team lead out today?" Gwendolyn asked as she lined up in the front row next to Rose. "That might boost toy sales – especially if they could figure out how to fly while in puppy mode."

"We'll do the Manager and Captain thing today," Rose answered; "and I haven't decided how much to switch up the line-up after that for our game-time introductions. Al prefers hiding in the pack anyway; so he'd be happy to never lead out."

"Too bad – I was going to make sure he led out for the Catapults' match," Gwendolyn joked.

"You could have him sit on your broom in cat form and then hit the brakes and send him flying," Ray suggested with a grin. "Get it? You'd be a CATapult!"

"That's funny," Gwendolyn agreed – "and would fit right in with what James will be saying about us heading into that match. We should talk about doing that."

"I don't want to make us into the joke of the league," Rose reminded them.

"No, but we can still have a sense of humor," Gwendolyn countered. "If the Catapults get announced first for that match; I could even send Al flying right at them when I come in for a landing."

"You probably shouldn't," Al told her. "I might be too tempted to change into something bigger before landing on them – like an elephant."

The stadium announcer called for them then; so the chat ended; and it was time to have some Quidditch fun!

"Well, that's too bad for Dad; but I'm glad that Rose wants to keep putting the best players in the front row," Lily teased.

"You aren't going to put either your father or brother in the top-two out of any seven players?" Jonah asked in amusement.

"Would you exclude your sister and include them instead?" Lily challenged; and Jonah laughed.

"Any answer that doesn't pick the Witches will get me into trouble here, so I'll dodge that; and suggest that the un-noticed story of the day for this match will be the Beater battle."

"Because Calvin and Eldon got jobs with the Wanderers last season while Brandon and Seth didn't get any good offers?" Lily asked; and Jonah nodded.

"Yes, and while Rose is really glad of that; at least a few of the other teams are eventually going to regret not even trying to recruit them once they see how well they play in the show."

"They did get offers – just not with any of the top teams – unless you include the Arrows and their reserve squad offer."

"They didn't have many top-eight teams looking for Beaters," Jonah pointed out; "but the Wasps and Tornados should've took a serious interest in them. Brandon and Seth are where they should be; so it's only too bad that they had to wait a year. Let's hope it'll be worth it this season."

"Are you making predictions?" Lily teased.

"No, but I do hope for the best for the Cannons. You can keep making jokes, Lily, but I do expect them to have a brilliant season." He paused and then shrugged. "On second thought, we have seen most of the other top teams play two matches so far; so I will predict that the Cannons will be in the top-five this season."

"Wow – that's bold and unexpected," Lily decided. "Remind me to write it down later and we'll see whether I get to make fun of it next May."

"You don't want to start making fun of it right now?" Jonah asked whimsically. "That's unexpected too."

"A bit," Lily agreed; "but we've a Quidditch match to watch; and this should be a better test for the Cannons. The Wanderers aren't ready for the next level right now, but they do have some talent with Erin, Myra, Calvin, and Eldon. I don't know why they aren't trying to get better Chasers – and a better Seeker. Erin can still play, but she'll never get them to the top of the league."

"Well, I've just predicted that the worst team from last season will be top-five this year; so that's good for me,' Jonah joked. "I have heard that their scouts talk to lots of the Hogwarts players. They just haven't had much luck other than hiring Myra. I wonder whether they offered Tory a job, but if they did; she still picked the reserve squad with the Arrows."

"The Harpies might have talked to her too, but Tory's so jealous of Gwendolyn; she'd have likely turned them down when she still thought that Gwendolyn would be with the Harpies too."

"I'm sure that you're right, Lily, but she might not want to be on the same team with her Mum either. That's a tough legacy to live up to for any kid."

"So you think that I shouldn't play for the Harpies – or Cannons?" Lily asked.

"You love challenges like that," Jonah told her seriously. "Tory hates comparisons to Gwendolyn or other players that have done better than she has; and I expect that she's better-off playing on a different team."

"I'm sure she's glad to be on the same team with Madison – even if she isn't getting to play in the show yet. She might get that chance this season – especially if the other teams start trying to pick on Susan and Madison the way the CAtapults did last week."

"I hope that doesn't happen," Jonah declared earnestly. "Al's right about it being time for the league to get nicer – not worse."

"It's a good thing we'll be back to school on Sunday," Lily decided. "We definitely need to get you away from my brother!"

While she was half-serious about that, they were both soon able to get into the Quidditch match as they watched the quaffle toss; Gwendolyn's victory in the race to get it first; and the high-octane action that followed. She couldn't deny that it had been more fun to watch the start of a match that included some good luck hugs that were shared between players on both teams; and Al and Gwendolyn were apparently going to get some laughs, cheers, and cat-calls for their pre-game hugs and kisses too. There was also no doubt that most of the players were having fun with the competition right from the start too, and Lily could relate to that; since she'd been having fun in all of their summer workouts. There were lots of jokes to be had too as they watched Harry and Erin enjoy their Seeker duel, and while that wasn't the same as the duels he had with Ginny; it was entertaining to watch 'the veteran' Wanderers' Seeker battling hard against 'the rookie Seeker for the Cannons.

The next-best battle was between Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray and Myra Graves. Lily didn't include the Wanderers' Chasers in that because they weren't having a good start to the match, but Myra was; and she made some brilliant early saves against Al and Gwendolyn that likely would have been goals against most other Keepers. Rose stopped everything too, but that had a lot to do with Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray making sure that the Wanderers' Chasers either didn't get a shot on goals at all or only very-poor chances that Rose could easily stop. In the first hour, the Cannons scored five goals and didn't give up any, but they might have scored more than double that without Myra playing so well; and that helped everyone in the stadium have more fun.

"Do you still think that the Beater battle will be the big story today?" Lily asked Jonah with a nod toward her father and Erin as they continued their Seeker duel early in the second hour. "I'll pick the Seekers – or maybe Myra as the top story so far."

"I said that'd be the story that nobody noticed – and I rest my case," Jonah told her with a grin. "You haven't noticed how well Brandon and Seth are doing compared to Calvin and Eldon."

"Have any of the Beaters done anything so far?" Lily countered. "I haven't noticed anything at all."

"Brandon and Seth have kept Calvin and Eldon from even coming close to getting a bludger close to any of their team mates; they've helped Gwendolyn score two goals on Myra; and used bludgers to break up four offensive plays for the Wanderers. That first hour was a solid win for our Beaters."

"Your Beaters," Lily countered. "Mine aren't playing today."

"I need to go to the potty," Jaimie advised her.

"Me too," Lorie added. "Can we get ice cream too? It's hot out here!"

"That sounds good to me," Lily agreed, "but let's be quick. I don't want to miss too much of the Quidditch action!"

That was true, and Jaimie and Lorie loved watching some of their favorite Witches and Wizards playing the game, but they were also too-young to stay focused on a Quidditch match for hours; and needed to be entertained fairly-regularly for the rest of the afternoon. Having treats – like ice cream – helped out with doing that, and they played with their toys while in their seats some of the time too, but they also needed to go for regular walks; play some more-active games while doing that; and they liked to visit with other Witches and Wizards a lot too. That worked out for Lily and Jonah, since they got breaks from the babysitting parts of their afternoon, but with just days to go before they'd be back at Hogwarts; the extra fun time with the twins was great too.

So was the ongoing Quidditch action – though Lily still had mixed feelings about that; and it was the having so much fun part of the game that was affecting her the most. She always had fun with her Seeker duels with Jonah – and with her parents, Al, and a few others; but she couldn't say that about other duels she'd had against other Seekers at Hogwarts. Sure, her father had saved Erin's life, but that didn't have to mean that they could have so much fun in what should be a serious battle for both of them. Watching Al and Gwendolyn having as much fun as always was no surprise; but it bugged Lily to admit that everyone was right and that Gwendolyn would've never had that much fun with Victoire and the Harpies. That was a thought that she didn't want to take to the next logical step; since she wasn't even going to let her own thoughts mess up her plans to play for the Harpies!

Thinking about the Harpies – and ways for them to best this new Cannons team was a potential distraction, and as Captain of the Gryffindor senior team; she decided that it would be good practice too. As the game continued into the fourth hour, Lily wondered if the Cannons' biggest advantage was at Keeper; since Rose continued to have a shut-out, but while her cousin was playing well and had even earned a few pretty good saves by then; honesty had her admitting that it was the Chaser defense that was the biggest difference in the score – with the sixteen goals that gave them the all-important one-sixty lead the other part of the equation. That lead also allowed her father to back off from trying to catch the snitch – which he did; and that made his job much easier. Erin didn't try to catch the snitch for the loss, so her job got harder; since she still had to defend the snitch against Harry when he could just fly around and wait for good chances.

"Why are you frowning?" Jonah asked; interrupting her thoughts; and it took Lily a moment to shift her focus from trying to puzle out how she'd try to play against the Cannons. "Aren't you having fun too?"

"Yes," she answered. "That was apparently just a thinking-frown."

"Try to think about happier things then," Jonah suggested. "Frowns are so not-you."

"I'm trying to come up with ways for the Harpies to beat the Cannons," she advised him. "The frown is because I don't like what I've come up with so far – which is no answer at all."

"Well, they can hire you to win Seeker duels against your parents," Jonah suggested – "or against me once I'm playing for the Cannons too."

"Which won't help if I can't best them – or you – before the Cannons get a one-sixty lead. I give the Harpies' Chasers better odds against Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray; but I'm not sure that Vicky would do nearly as well as Myra is doing today; so the outcome might be the same."

"You know that the Harpies are going to need a new Keeper soon," Jonah pointed out. "They need new Beaters too; and that is a problem because Mum really has changed with how she's handling things with her team – and so is Glynnis."

"Then I'll need to get them to change their minds about that," Lily decided.

"You know that Al wants Rose to be the same way with the Cannons – if not taking that even further," Jonah pointed out. "You don't hear them talking about any other players beyond the group they're putting together now – or at least they're only talking about players that won't be able to play in the show for a long time."

"They're starting out from the perspective of the worst team in the league," Lily pointed out. "Let's see how they feel about things like this if they ever have to experience going from top to bottom instead. They might start kicking people off the team as soon as that happens." She shook her head. "This really is dumb. The Harpies have done what was necessary in the past; and I don't believe the owners will just sit back and let our team go downhill without getting involved."

"Maybe not, but you're actually wrong about that for the Harpies. You mention Erin for that as an example; but she's the exception for the Harpies. Nearly everyone else is replaced through retirement – including our Mums and your Aunt. I also think that Glynnis knew she'd made a mistake with hiring Erin because she didn't fit in with the Harpies – not to mention that your Mum really is a brilliant Seeker."

"You don't think that they'll give me the job over Aunt Gabrielle," Lily deduced.

"They might – if you win it from her; since I don't think that Gabrielle is ready to retire yet; but they'd hate doing it. We've gotten away from what you were thinking about, though; and this isn't any fun at all. I think that the Harpies and Cannons are a draw at Seeker and either team could win that battle. I'll give the rest of the position battles to the Cannons – including Victoire against Al or Gwendolyn because the other would be up against Candice and that's a miss-match."

"Scary – and probably true," Lily admitted. "So much for my attempt at honing my leadership skills with a brilliant, winning game plan that I could have given your Mum."

Jonah laughed. "Mum's likely having the same issue, Lily; and she's been a team Captain or assistant manager for a long time."

"You're just saying that because you want me to suck at game planning this season," she teased.

"Well, that would be a bonus for our match against your team in November," Jonah admitted. "We'll have enough trouble just with all of the advantages you are going to have with your team."

"Now you're messing with me," Lily decided. "I think that our teams will be an even-closer match-up than any of the top teams in the show – especially now that Al, Gwendolyn, and Rose have moved on."

"But not Ray?" Jonah asked.

"He's closer to the same level as some of the Chasers we still have on our teams," Lily answered with a shrug. "You know that."

"I do," Jonah agreed, "but he's better than some are giving him credit for; since it says a lot that he can keep up with Al and Gwendolyn – even if he isn't as flashy or maybe crazy would be a better word."

"Al's actually been taking it easy with the tricks so far – even at practices," Lily suggested. "I think he's saving them up for bigger matches."

"Every match is big for the Cannons this season, Lily. I'm glad that I won't have that kind of pressure by the time I get to the show. They've built all of this up; and the team needs to have a great season to keep it – and everyone depending on them now – from falling apart."

"With the better news being that you'll have time to get a different job if things don't work out," Lily offered.

"True, but I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best; since I really love what they're doing; and I'd hate to only have that townhouse for Christmas and summer holidays until we graduate. I doubt they'd let me keep it if I go to work for another team."

"Me – not we?" Lily asked archly; and Jonah laughed.

"That's another of those questions I'll get in trouble with no matter my answer; so I won't go there."

"What in Merlin's name are you doing watching that rubbish?" James demanded as he walked into the locker room and saw that the rest of the players were all there and watching the Cannons-Wanderers' match.

"We're multi-tasking," Brock answered. "Don't you want us to be ready to beat up on – I mean, win – our matches against the Cannons and Wanderers?"

James snorted. "I don't need to watch the worst teams in the league to know that they suck."

"The Cannons are up two-ten to naught," Miya advised him. "I'd hardly call that sucking – especially since Myra seems to be having a very good match despite the score."

"That just tells me that the Wanderers suck even worse than the Kestrels," James told her dismissively. "Shouldn't that match be over – or does the Weasel only talk big about playing fair when other teams are running it up on their oppenents?" He laughed derisively. "You should turn it off – and the spectators at the stadium should all leave in protest!"

"Your Dad isn't defending the snitch anymore," Louis advised him. "Erin isn't trying to catch it for the loss; so the Wanderers are likely hoping that the Cannons will wear down if they keep the match going."

"Then they haven't done their homework," Roman offered. "Al and Gwendolyn get better the longer a match lasts."

"Better at cheating," James told him. "Give me a break and stop acting so impressed."

"Whatever you say," Louis told him. "Watching this match will be homework for us ahead of our matches against them; so watching the rest of it now will save us time later – and even you can't have a problem with that when we're here and busy anyway."

"They'll likely put my ex-Mum in against me for our match anyway," James told him dismissively. "The Chosen Chump would get embarrassed; and they probably think that I'd take it easy on the dear old hag that gave birth to me." He smirked while saying that. "They'll find out that they're wrong in a visit-to-St.-Mungo's kind of way!" His smirk turned to a scowl when Miya laughed at that declaration. "What's so funny, dog-face?"

"You are," she answered bluntly. "Your brother and father both have a well-known gift for Healing; yet you're apparently sure that you and your mates will have no trouble at all knocking the Cannons into their beds at St. Mungo's. I haven't even seen any of them even get seriously-hit at all – and I watched the entire first match, so you'll need to figure out how to hit them in the first place; and then even if you hurt them; they can just take an injury time-out and get healed. I'm amazed that you're not laughing at yourself!"

"Isn't that what you say every time you look in a mirror?" James retorted. "If they try to use magic during a match; we'll just get the forfeit, dog-face."

"Magic is allowed during a time-out," Miya reminded him – though she knew he was just being an idiot now. "Don't let facts get in the way of your reality, though, and if you don't want to watch the match; then go somewhere else and don't watch the Cannons win their second match of the season and stay undefeated. I get why you can't have that happen in your world."

"They've got time to lose still," James pointed out; "and I think that I'll stay and talk with the other real players on our team about how we will make sure that the loser and chump won't get the chance to heal anyone; since you've apparently forgotten that time-outs don't matter for players that are already knocked out of the match. We have Lightningstorms and they have toy brooms; so we shouldn't have any trouble knocking some heads off of those clowns!"

"You want us to knock your Mum's head off?" Tiberius asked. "That's harsh, mate."

"Don't go soft in the head," James told him. "She chose to be stupid and come out of retirement, and if you want to keep winning championships; then don't start making exceptions for how you play against any of our opponents. If you can't do that; then go play for another team; and I'll find someone else to work with Brock."

"Someone hot?" Brock asked hopefully with a grin for his brother. "That might work for me."

"Do you have anyone – other than Tina – in mind for that?" James asked him. "It isn't as though you have many choices for Witches that are good-enough to be in the show – though I'd say there aren't any that ought to be playing professional Quidditch at all."

"You're a bit scary sometimes," Brock told him. "The league would be a lot less-entertaining without any Witches playing too."

"And uglier," Tiberius added with a nod. "You wanted to talk about beating the Cannons, though, James; so tell us how we're going to do that."

James was happy to do that while he was there, but he took a shower soon after that; and headed home after offering his suggestions on how to gang up on each of the Cannons' clowns and pick them off one-by-one. Once on his own, he actually did watch the rest of that match; and hated every minute of it as he caught the last couple of goals and then his father's snitch catch early in the sixth-hour that gave the Cannons the four-ten to naught victory over the Wanderers. He'd needed a couple of drinks to get through that; and then he decided to go out and hook up with a playmate to help him work off all of the mad.

He'd have been happier if the Cannons had started out the season by losing every match, but even though he hated the fact that they weren't being embarrassed by even the other worst teams; there was at least a small consolation that he'd be able to prove them the clowns that they were when his team destroyed them at the end of September!

Al was brilliantly-happy during the rest of the day on Tuesday. Watching his father win his first professional Quidditch match had been amazing, but then having a Quidditch match that had been fun for nearly everyone had been awesome too. Post-game fun that included hugs and kisses with Gwendolyn kept the happy going; Harry got most of the media attention – which was great for Al too; and then there was a victory dinner celebration at the atrium that was both fun and relatively-short thanks to a normal training night curfew. Lily and Jonah still had their team practices after the game too, but Lily worked that in around the dinner fun; and her team mates were happy to get in on the free food and have the lighter workout.

The Cannons' second win kept the news spotlight on them for a day - in part thanks to Harry's subsequent interview with Lee and the monologue that had been very entertaining, but it was still back to work again on Wednesday too; and Al and Gwendolyn had extra work to do on Wednesday and Thursday as they helped with getting ready for Jaimie and Lorie's third birthday and the end-of-summer, sports day-camp wrap-up party that were both on Friday and was going to include a games and prizes play day; barbeque dinner for the families and team; and a camping night for the kids, volunteers, and at least some of the team players. Since most of that extra work had to be done after they were done with work for the team, and there was more going on around the practice pitch and their community that needed to be juggled too; it all added up to a very busy couple of days on Wednesday and Thursday – with more going on than they had time to keep up with or join in on everything either.

Al and Gwendolyn missed out on the final Gryffindor and Ravenclaw team practices on Thursday evening; Lily and Jonah had their friends from both groups get together for a joint end-of-summer party and camping night that wasn't much extra work; since Al and Gwendolyn had already set up the tents for the Friday night fun by then anyway. They made an appearance at the campfire, but really did make that a short visit; and then it was time to go home again for their training night curfew. They could have bent the rules for that – and some of their team mates did do that thanks to the birthday and sports day-camp fun that was booked for Friday anyway, but by then; they were more-interested in getting enough rest to keep up with all of the work and play time with the kids. As with the rest of their responsibilities, that meant having a bit less time with Lily and Jonah before they'd be going back to school on Sunday, but everything else they were doing was important too; and they would at least get to have most of Friday and Saturday to spend time with them – and the dozens or hundreds of others that would be with all of them through the weekend.

"Where are you going?" James asked as Scorpius and Lysandra walked up to him; and he could tell that they were ready to leave even through a half-drunk haze. "The party is just getting good – and you're the guest of honor, birthday boy!"

"We have a training night curfew and our next match on Saturday," Scorpius reminded him. "I have to get home – and Lysandra has a busy day tomorrow too. They're still trying to get quite a bit done before the student members of the cast head back to Hogwarts. They may even need to work on Saturday to get everything done."

James snorted. "What's the big deal? We know how easy her job is now that we've done so brilliantly at that now too. If they're having troubles; they just need to get some better actors."

"We're not allowed to talk about that in public yet," Scorpius reminded him in a whisper.

"Not to mention that you weren't acting with what you were doing," Lysandra added with a shake of her head. "I can't believe they paid you to sit around snogging Witches. What'd you have – five or six lines?"

"Of Witches waiting to snog me?" James retorted with a wicked grin. "Yeah – that sounds about right. You should've gotten in line too. You'd have forgotten all about Scorpius by the time I was done with you."

"You're forgetting your promise," Scorpius warned – "again."

"I know," James agreed; "but it's her loss – and yours; since you're missing out on having fun with other Witches. You'll both figure that out eventually – or grow old and boring together. Are you really going to blow off your own party just because of a stupid team curfew?"

Scorpius grinned at him. "Not just for that. It is a good excuse for me to leave – and have a bit of alone time with Lysandra once we're home."

"I'd offer an alternate suggestion, but you'll just badger me about that stupid promise again," James decided with a wave of his hand. "Fly, be free, and when he doesn't do anything with you that I would, Lysandra; feel free to give me a call later; and I'll be happy to help you out with having more of my kind of fun!"

"Goodnight, James," Scorpius told him. "Try not to party too much more. That match on Saturday is against United; and you're the one that wants us to be ready to keep the winning going."

"You should want to give that to yourself for a belated birthday gift," James suggested. "Don't worry about me – I'm always, um, up to any challenge; anytime!" He'd offered a couple of hand gestures directed more at Lysandra than Scorpius; and laughed when they both shook their heads.

"The more you drink; the less your promises are worth," Scorpius decided. "See you at work tomorrow."

"Sooner or later," James agreed. "Call me later," he told Lysandra with a leer. "You know you want to."

"Hex you," Lysandra added. "It's Scorpius' birthday, though; so I'll save that up for another time when you really need to be hexed or cursed."

"Gee thanks," James deadpanned. "If we ever crossed wands, though, you'd be so impressed with mine; you wouldn't want me to stop using it on you – over and over again."

"Goodnight, James," Scorpius repeated; looking truly annoyed now. "Thanks for coming to the party."

"Again and again," James offered with a smirk. "You – and those happy Witches – are welcome!"

"Happy Birthday!" Al offered with quiet cheerfulness as Jaimie and Lorie ran up to him from their townhouse. "Did your Mum make you wait until I was done my exercises to come out here?"

"Uh-huh," Lorie confirmed as he scooped both of his nieces up into a warm hug. "We're not supposed to ask if you have presents for us either 'cause Mum says that's being rude."

"Then it's a good thing you don't have to ask," Al told her. "We can go and see Gwendolyn and you can open one of your gifts from us right now."

"Yeah!" the two girls chorused enthusiastically; and then they pretty much dragged him off toward his own townhouse as soon as they finished hugging him.

He exchanged some non-verbal communication with Malorie from where she'd been watching them and smiling in amusement that let him know he could have ten minutes before getting the twins back to her; and then they spent that time with Gwendolyn. There were more hugs and kisses; the girls loved their first gifts from their aunt and uncle; and then they were off and running again while Al and Gwendolyn finished getting ready for work and then they headed over to the cafe for breakfast – a special birthday breakfast for Jaimie and Lorie with their favorite morning meal foods. They sat together as a family with Patrick as the only 'extra' guest; though Al really thought of that as only being technically-true; since Patrick loved Malorie and the twins – and hoped that Malorie would let him be part of their family someday too. Jaimie and Lorie had more gifts to open; they had a lot of fun; and then it was time to get to work – which meant a play day with the birthday girls and the sports day camp kids and their volunteers.

The team 'warm-ups' were all games that they played with the kids out on the practice pitch; there were races and other games that they played for prizes for the rest of the morning until they went for a swim in the lagoon before lunch; and then their afternoon fun included hiking, outdoor games with more prizes, and another swim before the day camp kids' parents and other guests began arriving for the dinner part of the combined parties. Al and Gwendolyn played and worked in near-equal amounts, but it was all work before and after that meal for the cooking, serving, and cleaning – with lots of help from the parents, their team mates, the volunteers, and anyone else that offered to pitch in to keep up with feeding what ended up being more than one hundred Witches and Wizards by the time they were done. There were more games – and more work to do in the evening; so it wasn't until the start of the campfire that Al and Gwendolyn were able to sit down, relax, and take a break from all of the busy while others took care of the kids and the first round of snack-toasting in the double campfire they'd set up so there would be enough room for all of the guests to gather around the larger-than-usual campfire area.

"If we make it into the top-eight this season; we'll either have to do this differently next summer – or have to go home to bed early and miss the campfire and camping," Gwendolyn suggested. "Mum and Dad are missing out on this; and more of your cousins would be – if they'd come to the party."

"I think that if we'd been playing tomorrow too; that'd make the camping adventure even more-fun," Al suggested – "at least for the day camp kids."

"More than half of them will still be going to one of the matches tomorrow," Gwendolyn reminded him. "They'd all be going if the others didn't have other plans for the day; and Susannah just made sure that they won tickets to other matches in September or October instead." She smiled as she watched the kids closest to them – including Jaimie and Lorie. "This has been a really busy day, but we've had fun too; and got to play with a lot of our favorite Hogwarts students before they head back to school on Sunday; so we can't really ask for more than that."

"If we hadn't been doing this; we'd have been working instead," Al offered with a shrug. "We've been talking about not going back to school on Sunday too – and getting teased about it, but this is our normal now; and the back-to-school activities shouldn't even be a big deal for us again until Jaimie and Lorie are ready to go to Hogwarts."

"We're still going to have issues with missing Lily, Jonah, and the rest of our younger cousins and friends," Gwendolyn declared; "but I know what you mean. We're out in the real world now with the rest of the adults; and the countdown to September First just isn't the same as it has been for us for a long time – since Teddy first started at Hogwarts for you; and then with all of your older cousins and James before we started there."

Al laughed quietly. "That year without James was a really happy one for me; though I still sometimes wish that wasn't true. This year might feel the same as our first at Hogwarts – if we were in a confined place and had to deal with James every day. That isn't the case, though; and one of the best things about being done school now is that we'll get to keep spending time with Jaimie and Lorie year-round."

"If we keep having as much fun as we've had all summer; everything about being home to stay is going to be brilliant," Gwendolyn predicted.

Al believed that too; their fun for the day continued as they took that break and then were drafted to help out with the campfire entertainment; and then they kept busy with the music, stories, and campfire treats and entertainment until it was time to get the kids wound down and off to sleep in their tents. They had Jaimie, Lorie, and four other kids with them in one of the tents for the night – along with two of the teen volunteers. By the time they had all of the kids in beds and sleeping; it was past-one; they left their volunteers in the tent to watch over the kids; and spent nearly another hour cleaning up from the campfire – including a once-through of the atrium; and then they headed for their bed and the few hours of sleep they'd have time for before needing to get up and started on the last game day of the summer that would begin with a major breakfast at the cafe for their gang of kids and other guests.

"You got up early for your workout today too, didn't you?" Lily asked Al; and wasn't pretending to look tired and grumpy as he smiled brilliantly at her while standing to welcome her with a hug. "Stop looking so happy, Al. You're annoying me!"

"I'd rather help you out with getting happy too," Al told her; and then did that by hitting her with a blast of fatigue-banishing healing. He laughed when she hugged him more-tightly while he did that; and she was smiling too by the time he stepped back. "That's better. Grumpy is not a good look on you." He turned his attention to Jonah next. "Do you need some help too?"

"Thanks, but I'll be okay," Jonah answered. "Lily probably burned twice the energy I did yesterday; since she did twice as much as I did with all of the kids."

"That's true for most of us compared to Lily," Gwendolyn agreed. "Come and sit down. You're among the last to get here and don't have long to eat before we'll head for Diagon Alley."

"I'd have been okay with it if we'd had breakfast at noon and then gone on to the game from here," Lily suggested.

"You wouldn't like that when it came to not getting to shop for your perishable school supplies," Gwendolyn suggested – "and you won't have Al around this year with his extra supplies of everything."

"Don't remind me – though that's a good reason for why Al shouldn't look so happy when you won't get to see us again until Christmas starting tomorrow."

"I'll need to multi-task missing you with being happy," Al advised her. "We'll have to see what your schedule is going to be this year too, but we'll definitely come to visit you when we can on Hogsmeade weekends and for Quidditch matches when we're not working too; so it won't be Christmas before we see you again."

"That might not work out as well as you hope," Lily told him with a shrug; "but we'll take all of the visits we can get – especially with Jaimie and Lorie."

"I'm sure that someone can bring them for every possible visit," Gwendolyn told her; and then grinned. "Do you think that Scott and Roland would want to bring them along when they're scouting the school matches for us?"

"Are you going to have them do that?" Lily asked. "That seems a bit pointless."

"Well, Rose does need to find a Seeker to work with Jonah; since you don't want that job," Gwendolyn teased. "Seriously, though, there will be a lot of players going to the show from Hogwarts possibly from now on as the kids of league players grow up, and just because we won't need to recruit more for quite a while; we do still want to have files on them so we're ready to compete against them again once they're in the show with us."

"Okay, I'll give you that one," Lily conceded – "though I won't be happy if that scouting helps you out against me and the Harpies in two years – or less."

"Or less?" Gwendolyn repeated.

"I will be seventeen soon," Lily answered. "I haven't totally given up on the idea of playing some holiday matches for the Harpies between now and when I graduate. "I think that Aunt Gabrielle should take the Christmas holidays off to spend time with Riley and Caylee – starting this year."

"Should we have Jonah play for the Cannons starting next summer too?" Al asked.

"Sure," Lily agreed. "I'd be happy to play a match against him next summer – if you manage to do well-enough this year to rate a match against my Harpies as one of the top-eight teams."

"You've predicted at least a top-eight finish for us," Gwendolyn reminded her. "Have you changed your mind?"

"No," Lily admitted, "but that still doesn't mean you'd get matched against the Harpies in a summer match. That would depend on which team you lose to in the first round of the playoffs."

"Keep that up and we won't be all that sad to see you go tomorrow," Gwendolyn joked.

"You will, and don't suggest that I'm not being supportive or fair; since you won't be cheering for my team this season either; so it's totally fair for me to cheer for the Harpies over you."

"We'll be cheering for the Harpies too," Al assured her. "That won't keep us from trying our best to win our matches against them, though, and you know I'll be happy whether you win against Ravenclaw or not this year – even if it's true that Gwendolyn will be happier if you lose."

"Keep that up, and I won't be all that sad to be going back to Hogwarts tomorrow without you," Lily told him with a grin for Gwendolyn.

"You are glad of that," Al countered; "and I think that we're both going to have a brilliant year – even though I wish we weren't going to be spending a lot of the next two years apart. That's certainly a big change from the only other two years we spent apart."

"For you," Lily agreed. "Being an only child at home – and without James too – was pretty good for me even if it was a horror for you."

"Well, you have a lot to look forward to this year," Gwendolyn suggested. "You'll have Apparition lessons this fall and be able to get your license at Christmas; Quidditch; and only having those five classes really is brilliant compared to what our OWL years were like. I wonder if you'll get all of your classes together with Jonah? The odds were against that for Al and I; so we really lucked out with our schedules."

"Some of us doubt that luck was involved," Jonah offered. "You were very popular with the Professors; so that second year of getting the same classes wasn't luck – even if there's a chance that it was partly luck in your sixth-year."

"You don't think we'll get the same schedules?" Lily asked him; and Jonah shrugged.

"Honestly – I'll be surprised if we do; though we should get three or four of them together anyway; and it'll be bad luck for us if we get less; since there ought to be three classes with all four Houses anyway."

"That'll be different for you anyway," Gwendolyn suggested. "Al and I did a lot of work that you won't be doing this year; so whatever happens; you should still have lots of time to do your Quidditch training together." She grinned at Lily. "Maybe this will be your year to have time to learn to be an Animagus."

"We've been over that before; and I'm not interested," Lily told her; and Gwendolyn shrugged.

"Okay, but you might want to think about that one; since the Harpies might be willing to pay extra – especially since your Dad and brother are selling a lot of Animorphmagus-of-the-match toys."

"That might even work – if my animal form is something awesome," Lily agreed. "If it wasn't, though, I'd still have to get registered; it'd be a big story; and I'd never live it down. No thanks – I'll stick with being a normal Witch."

"You're too-amazing to be normal," Al told her; "but we know what you mean."

Their chat moved on from there as they all enjoyed their morning meal; they had some day camp kids' time after that while some of them were picked up and headed home or elsewhere; and then their shopping group left for Diagon Alley. Al and Gwendolyn didn't need to do any shopping, so they helped out with kid control for the rest of the morning and through until they went to the Leaky for the game day luncheon. They weren't responsible for the day camp kids by then, since if they were going to one of the matches; it was with their own families and not with Susannah and her volunteers. They spent some time with Jaimie and Lorie, but the twins were at a table with Lily and Jonah for the meal while Al and Gwendolyn sat with Rose, Brandon, Susanah, Seth, Ray, and Cyndia.

While they were happy to be spending the time together, the range of emotions that Al sensed were diverse as four of them were happy that they wouldn't soon be separated for another school year; and two of them were trying to deal with Cyndia's impending departure for Hogwarts that was now less than a day away. Ray and Cyndia were both glad to have their best friends supporting them, but that only helped so much; and it was tough for them to try to enjoy their play day together while being sad too. Al thought about that, since he understood the opposing emotional forces even when he didn't have the exact-same personal experience; and didn't come up with any new ideas to solve that 'problem' for his friends – or anyone else.

Sometimes you just had to deal with the parts of your life that weren't any fun at all and get through it by whatever means worked best for you.

That didn't mean that he couldn't help at all, though, and Gwendolyn was happy to help Al with that effort to be part of a really good last day for Ray and Cyndia before she headed back to Hogwarts for her NEWT year. Lunch was part of that effort, but then they stayed together once they headed over to Yorkshire stadium with the group of Harpies' fans while the rest of their game day lunch group went to Exmoor for the top match of the day between the Catapults and United. They ran the gauntlet of booths as a group; went to their seats together; and were settled in and ready to get started on the Quidditch-watching fun with ten minutes to spare. They were also close together in two rows; so talking together was still an option as they waited for the teams to be introduced into the stadium.

"Not going back to Hogwarts tomorrow works out good for you today," Cyndia suggested to Al and Gwendolyn; looking over her shoulder and smiling at them. "You don't have to feel bad about skipping the Catapults' match and missing out on a last chance to spend time with the twins."

"That does work out for us," Gwendolyn agreed. "This match might be just as ugly to watch, though; since the Harpers seem to be on a mission to prove that they're even worse than the Notts or McClaggens."

"They likely are worse," Al suggested. "Fortunately for the Harpies; they're not as talented as they think they are; so they won't do as well against our team as the Catapults and Falcons have been doing recently."

"I'll still pick this match over that one," Rose offered. "We'll have to watch it eventually anyway, since we'll be playing against all of these teams over the next few months, but we'll at least have heard the worst before we do that; and can skip over the really rotten moments."

"We'll keep an eye on that match too," Gwendolyn told her with a nod for the portable mirror that Al already had out and tuned into Lee's pre-game show. He was using one of his magical earbuds already; and had the other ready for her to use when she wanted it. "Teresa and Kylie are covering this match, right? We should check in on that now and then too."

"Is it a surprise that they picked the match with the all-Witch team?" Ray asked.

"They didn't pick it – their viewers did," Rose advised him. "That's their plan for the rest of the season – to cover viewers' choice matches when there is more than one match to cover. I think it will work out better when they're not up against Lee's coverage, but they're doing pretty well; and I won't be surprised if they're the second-most-popular mirror network announcers very soon."

""Speaking of popular; we may need to skip some matches this season and find out why the game-watching at the cafe seems to be bringing in a lot of customers," Seth suggested. "From what I heard at breakfast; we're missing out on a lot of fun."

"We won't want to come to every match when we're not playing – and couldn't do that even if we wanted to try," Rose told him seriously. "You'll be able to start going there for some of the evening matches next month; and any appearances we make at those parties will help the cafe business; so we should try to do that when we can."

"That sounded a bit too much like Al," Brandon told her. "We have decent weather and what will hopefully be a good Quidditch match to watch; so let's not talk business all day."

"Would you rather talk about how you and Seth are going to play Beater against your Mum's favorite team?" Rose teased.

"No, but then we already know how we're going to play against all of the other teams," Brandon answered – "though that might be a lot to ask of us against teams like the Tornados, Catapults, and Falcons."

"Those matches will be different for all of us," Al offered quietly; and smiled ruefully when that statement earned him the extra attention from everyone around him.

"Have you changed your mind about playing nice and having fun with everyone?" Susannah asked.

"No, but those matches are going to be different," Al insisted. "There's a chance that the rest of the teams will be able to have fun playing against us regardless of who wins; but that won't be the case with those three teams this season – or longer. That'll make those matches more-confrontational; so Brandon and Seth may just end up going head-to-head against their Beaters and find out which pair can win those battles."

"While still playing nice," Seth guessed; and Al nodded.

"Yes; and you'll have a lot to be proud of if you can win those battles despite the cheating they're sure to try and use against us."

"You don't sound sure about whether we can do that or not," Brandon told him.

"I like our chances; but don't think that any of us should get over-confident about any match we play this season. Getting arrogant and beating ourselves is the only way we could lose that I'd be unhappy about."

"I'll hate losing at all," Gwendolyn suggested; "but won't you hate losing to any of those cheaters too?"

"I'll be happy if we play our best and get beat anyway – even if the other team cheats to get the win," Al answered seriously; and then grinned. "That doesn't mean that we'll make winning that way easy for them. I'd really like to convince even the worst players in the league that cheating is wrong."

"All evidence from last season to the contrary," Cyndia told him. "Losing to teams that played fair just had the Catapults taking their game to new lows. Winning a championship that way is going to motivate other players that don't mind bending or breaking the rules."

"It has," Al agreed, "but the same can be true if we can prove that playing fair and having fun can lead to championships too; so I'll hope that our plans work out for everyone."

"You do know that's impossible, right?" Cyndia countered. "Everyone can't win."

"That depends on what you mean by winning," Al suggested. "Getting league championships or other awards is just one measure of winning. I want to win some of those awards along the way; but hope that we'll win at other parts of our lives that are way more-important – like the work we did with the sports day camp kids and all of the work Susannah's doing with us. We'd all like to do well on the business side of the job that Brandon doesn't want to talk about; and I hope we'll all do pretty well with the family and friends part of our lives too."

"Well, you're doing pretty well on at least some of those fronts right now; so we'll keep letting you play with us while that's working out for all of us," Brandon joked. "Just don't forget that we do need some of those wins too; or the rest of what you want to do won't matter at all."

"That's not true," Al disagreed; "but I'll concede that we'll be able to have more fun – and do more – if we do well with the Quidditch too."

That was the end of their chat because the stadium announcer got their attention and was soon introducing the Tornados into the stadium. Al watched with interest as the Harper brothers led the way for their team – apparently in an effort to intimidate the Harpies. Al took that opportunity to focus his extended senses on all of the Tornados' players; and half-wished that he hadn't done that when hit with a lot of dark, negative thoughts and emotions. He really didn't think that the Harpers would become one of the best Beater duos in the show, but the Tornados were hoping that they'd be as tough as the Nott brothers were for the Falcons – and give their team that same advantage. Al really didn't like what he sensed from Rachel Rosier and the other players as they hoped that the Harpers would beat up on the Harpies. On the good side of things, the Harpies were feeling pretty good as they were introduced and did their lap around the stadium, and while they were focused on the job at hand and serious too; they were happy and hopeful about their chances of staying undefeated during their third match of the summer and season.

Al kept an ear and eye on the Catapults' match too, and the team introductions at Exmoor were going on at the same time, but he was glad that he wasn't there; since he really did take the darker emotions from his family more personally, and while James was the wors for that; he didn't expect that Dominique, Louis, Lucy, or Alex would be very happy today either. The two quaffle tosses happened within a couple of minutes of each other; and then Al was as immersed into the Quidditch action as much as any of the spectators at both stadiums and the viewers on the mirror network. The timing for the start of the matches wasn't the only thing they had in common. There was one team trying to cheat and beat up on their opponent at each stadium. Both battles were very defensive with great goals-keeping from at least one Keeper in each match. There was one Keeper in each match that kept a shut-out going through the first hour.

Vicky didn't keep her shutout for long after that, but Victoire kept the Harpies ahead of the Tornados by at least a goal through the second hour and into the third; though that lead never got larger than two goals because there just wasn't much scoring at all. That was true for United too as Dominique, Lucy, and Olivia had trouble scoring goals on Louis thanks to the pounding they were taking from Scorpius and the McClaggens, but they earned a two-goal lead by the start of the third hour thanks to Belinda's continuing shutout. The first real difference in the matches was also the end of the battle for the Harpies and Tornados as Gabrielle proved that the Tornados were still in need of a more-competitive Seeker despite having tougher, meaner Beaters trying to knock opposing Seekers out. She caught the snitch at the two-hour and twenty-six minutes mark of the match; and the Harpies managed to survive with comparatively-minor injuries while getting that one-ninety to twenty win.

"You've got time to check out the action at the cafe now," Gwendolyn suggested to Brandon and Seth – "unless the Catapults-United match ends soon too."

"I can't do that," Brandon told her. "Alyssa and Hugo are going back to school tomorrow; and we have orders to get them home for some parent time as soon as the match is over."

"Dad will be at the store until closing," Rose reminded him; "but we'll meet up with your parents and my Mum; and we should do a visit with Grandma and Grandpa Granger too – unless Mum wants to do that visit in the morning on the way to King's Cross. You'll be getting together with your families too, right?"

"Yes," Gwendolyn agreed; "and we'll do the dinner work now too. Normally, I'd rather have a longer match to watch, but in this case; I'm glad that it's over before the Harpers could manage to do any real damage to our favorite Harpies."

"You're just saying that because Al won't need to help out – and get a bunch of hugs and kisses from other Witches," Ray joked, "but I'm glad the match is over too; since Cyndia and I can get out of here; go home; and snog each other senseless until tomorrow morning."

"We have a dinner with our families too," Cyndia reminded him, "but we have a bit of time now; and should definitely talk about that later too."

They got teased about that for a few minutes, but then everyone in their group packed up and headed for the exits instead of staying to watch much of the post-game action on the pitch. while they hadn't sat together during the game, Al and gwendolyn had Kirley, Lily, and Jonah with them when they went home; they all went for a swim break in the lagoon; and kept an eye on the Catapults' match. That battle had gotten uglier as the afternoon wore on, but Belinda kept her shut-out going despite the attempts to permanently knock her out of the match; and Dominique, Lucy, and Olivia had slightly-better results against Louis even as the hits piled up against them too. Despite the lack of success from his Chasers, James didn't try to catch the snitch at all; and was happy to spend his time bashing Alex and keeping him from catching the snitch while trusting that the McClaggens would eventually soften up enough of the United players to allow Scorpius, Miya, and Roman to get back into the match. His plan fell apart a quarter-way into the fifth-hour when a well-timed bludger from Tina gave Alex a chance to catch the snitch; he did that; and gave his team the two-ten to naught victory.

"You can't get involved," Ginny whispered to Harry as they watched James go after Alex and try to bash into him well-after the snitch catch. "You're a member of a league team now; and could get into trouble with the officials."

"I know why they have that rule, but don't think it should apply to stopping other players from attacks and fights after the match. I'm not trying to knock someone out so they can't play in one of our matches."

"No, but if you stop someone from getting hurt; that could still affect future matches – and it isn't worth getting a suspension. It seems that won't be a worry now anyway," she added as they watched Alex avoid the hit; and then get back-up from his team mates. James may be furious, but he can't want to start another brawl..."

"Or he can – even with those odds," Harry interjected after Ginny trailed off and James opted to go after Tina next. The punch that he led with was met by Tina's Beater bat. The loud crack and howl of pain strongly-suggested that James broke his hand. "He couldn't have been playing in the same match that we watched to think that a good idea." He winced when James tried to grab Tina and pull her off of her broom; she swung her bat again; and hit him solidly up the side of the head. James howled in pain again; and began to swear as he had to grab his broom to keep from falling himself – an effort that really hurt when he needed to use both hands to do that; and that wasn't easy when one of them was broken in several places.

"Here comes the Catapults' Cavalry," Ginny said quietly. "Will they keep the stupid going or not?"

"Better late than never," James snarled. "Do me a favor and beat that B-Witch senseless!"

"I'd love to help you out with that mate," Tiberius told him, "but I think she could take us; and that'd just be too hard on our egos – especially when we didn't exactly get the job done for you during the match either."

"Then give me your bat; and I'll do your job for you!" James retorted.

"No," Tiberius said firmly. "From the look of that hand, you couldn't do anything with my bat anyway, James, so give it up; and we'll try to do better in our next match against them."

"If you still have a job by then," James declared scathingly. "I don't know why we keep you around when you keep going soft in the head around the Witches on the other teams. Did you hold Tina's hand while she bashed that bludger at me; or just sit back and moon over her?"

"I got beat," Brock told him. "Give it a rest, James. The match is over; so put that short memory you're so famous for to good use and forget about it." He nodded toward James' hand. "You'll want to get that looked at before it swells up so much that you'll need to wait to be healed."

"Keep that up; and I'll forget that you're on the team," James said with a sneer; and then turned his attention to Scorpius. "I suppose that you've no fight left in you either after that stellar no-goals display of your Quidditch skills."

"No, but I'm not interested in a pointless fight that changes nothing," Scorpius answered. "Let's save up the mad and take it out on the next few teams we play against instead."

"Cowards," James spat. "It's no wonder you lost again today!" He spun away from his team mates; pretended to fly away; and then spun again and tried to run over Tina again. She'd still been ready to defend herself; he took her Beater bat on the chin; and the lights went out.

"Come and get your idiot team mate before I drop him," Tina bit off angrily as she fought to keep James from falling off his broom. "I doubt that a visit to St. Mungo's will help with him, but the post-game interviews will be quieter; so you're welcome."

"Your prediction that teams would start coming up with ways to win despite the cheating seems to be proving true," Gwendolyn told Al as they watched the McClaggens take their unconscious team mate from Tina Johnson and then quickly head for the pitch with Scorpius following them.

"Tina and Alex timed that last play really well," Al suggested, "but Tina and Calvin did a better job today keeping Tiberius and Brock too busy to cheat as much as they normally would; so the Catapults would have needed more time for their game plan to work at the slower pace. James is going to need to figure out when it's better to try and catch the snitch early instead of waiting for his team to pound the other players into the ground."

"So you think that's a workable game plan – as long as a team can both slow down the hits and catch the snitch?" Gwendolyn asked; and Al shrugged.

"It worked today. I have no idea whether the Catapults will work on ways to deal with that. Most teams don't have Beaters as good as Tina and Calvin; so the McClaggens will win more of those battles than they'll lose. James is the biggest problem the Catapults have right now. He won't admit it, but it is his game play that cost them the two losses they've had so far. He wants his team to run it up on every opponent and beat up on the other players; so he doesn't even try to catch the snitch. He might have been able to win both of those matches if he'd just tried to win his Seeker duels. I'm not saying he would have won for certain; but the odds would have been better. Not even trying to catch the snitch also makes the job easier for the other Seekers if they know that isn't a risk at all."

"That makes sense – and not even the best Seekers can defend the snitch against other top players indefinitely. I'll mention all of that to Mum; though she's likely noticed the same things."

"The Harpies' Beaters wouldn't want to try that same game plan," Al warned. "It just wouldn't work for them against Tiberius and Brock – though they could work on setting up plays to help Aunt Gabrielle. They'll need to focus on defending Vicky, Candice, and Amber – and possibly Victoire too if she has problems with Scorpius. They have lots of time before that first match, though; so maybe we'll learn other ways to help them out against the Catapults before then."

"The Quidditch is done for the day," Lily told them as she and Jonah walked up to them. They were both wrapped in towels; and fresh out of the lagoon. "Don't you want to play while we still can?"

"Yes, but we have to deal with getting dinner together first," Gwendolyn told her. "You'll miss the lagoon and atrium, but I think that you'll appreciate it more than we will when you're home for Christmas."

"I'm sure we will," Lily agreed. "Are we having dinner out here?"

"If you'd like," Gwendolyn answered. "It'll be busier out here, but that won't bother us; and Jaimie and Lorie willlike being able to run around and play after being in their seats at the stadium for so long – even with however many breaks they took."

She was proved right about that soon-enough, but Lily's intervention got Al and Gwendolyn moving. They set up tables and chairs on their atrium patio; Al did the food run because they'd decided on take-out by then instead of a major cooking session; and Gwendolyn had help with getting drinks and other treats out and ready to go. The next couple of hours were fairly-busy and entertaining as they enjoyed the meal and family time. Creating those memories with Lily and Jonah was the most important part of that, and since they didn't have a work day in the morning; staying up later than normal was an option too.

Al and Gwendolyn took care of most of the post-dinner work, but then they had fun with Lily and Jonah too – and with Jaimie and Lorie as Malorie let them spend as much time as they wanted with Lily and Jonah while they still could. That included playground fun; pool time; and some outdoor entertainment; and then they headed into Harry and Ginny's townhouse to watch a show on the mirror network. That cuddle and wind down time put the twins to sleep, and while Lily had plans for a sleepover with Jonah; Jaimie and Lorie were put into their beds there too instead of taking them over to their own home so that they'd be able to start the back-to-school day with their grandparents, aunt, and uncle.

It was getting late by then, so Kirley and Gwenog led the exodus when it was time for everyone else to go home. Malorie and Patrick were next; and Al and Gwendolyn were last to leave. They were still going to have breakfast together in the morning, but it really did feel like the end of summer to Al by the time he walked home with Gwendolyn; and they were both dealing with the impending separation from their younger siblings. That had everything to do with why they just got ready for bed and then cuddled close and talked together for quite a while before Gwendolyn eventually fell asleep and Al stayed awake for a while longer while letting his thoughts wander.

It was already September First by the time he did drift off to sleep, but while there was a touch of sadness, most of Al's thoughts were happy and he continued to be very excited for their collective future – whether that would be at Hogwarts or home. There was so much joy and love in his life that he felt blessed by the Light and grateful for everything. By comparison, the problems they did have seemed small; and that was a welcomed change from previous back-to-school days when the opposite had been true – and not just because of how he felt. He knew that his feelings, perceptions, and senses did matter, so being happy and hopeful was a great sign; and that gave him good reason to be enthusiastic and excited about the coming weeks and months.

Beginning the new month without taking a long trip on the Hogwarts Express – or even a trip to King's Cross – was going to be strange, but it was brilliant too; and that really was just one example for all of the good things Al and Gwendolyn had to look forward to – like not being in separate Houses and dorm rooms every night until Christmas!

Then again – that was reason-enough to be happy about being finished school; so everything else would just be a series of brilliant bonuses!