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!

86. Home and Hogwarts Quidditch Work andPlay

Chapter Eighty-Six – Home and Hogwarts Quidditch Work and Play

Lily smiled as she sat back in her seat and the Hogwarts Express began to steam away from King's Cross. She hadn't sat and watched her parents and the group they were with fade from view, but she had waved goodbye to them – and to Jaimie and Lorie – before putting her bag away and sitting down in the last available seat in the compartment that Kathryn had picked for them while the rest of them were busy with the goodbyes on the platform. Jonah was in the Prefect car, but Melissa, Katrina, Meg, and Robin Ackerley were with Lily and Kathryn; and they all looked as happy as Lily felt.

"You're the opposite of Al when it comes to going back to school," Melissa told her. "Was he a total puddle this morning while saying goodbye to you?"

"I wouldn't say the opposite," Lily disagreed. "He wasn't too bad this morning. I know Al will miss me, but has too much to be happy about to be sad today. So do we – and I'd say that being at Hogwarts without my over-achieving brother will be part of why this is going to be a great year for me."

"Some of us are with you on that one," Kathryn told her with a grin. "Be glad that Al didn't want to be a Seeker; or you'd have been the one on the reserve squad for three of our first five years."

"Scary, and possibly true," Lily agreed. "I do still have some tough competition against Riley and Hunter, though; so I wouldn't say that making the team is easy for me – and you'll still have a lot of competition for those Chaser jobs too."

"That's only true for you if you really don't decide to invoke your Captain's privilege and not put your Seeker job on the line," Kathryn reminded her. "Cyndia has a job in the show already. Do you think she'd take the year off and let Melissa, Roxanne, and I play instead?"

"No," Lily answered seriously. "She may have that job waiting for her, but Cyndia would really like to prove that she deserves that spot on the Cannons' team because of her own talent – not because she's been pulled along by Al and Ray. Ryan has said that he won't put his Keeper job on the line – even to be fair for his sister; so I'm really tempted to go back to the old way of doing that; since it'd suck for me if Riley or Hunter bested me at tryouts."

"I can't blame any of you for thinking that way," Robin offered quietly. "Some of us have had that next-best problem in Ravenclaw behind Gwendolyn and Stephanie too. I love them; and kind of hate them just a little bit too."

"Kathryn and I feel the same way about Al, but we bought the posters and toys anyway because he's hot too," Melissa said with a grin for Lily – "especially with that new hair style and the uniform. I should definitely take another look at the geeks around our school to find out if any of them look that great under their robes!"

"Would you like to invite a bunch of them to a pool party?" Lily suggested. "That'd be an easy way to find out."

"Except for the part of that plan where those geeks would be incoherent from seeing us in swimsuits," Kathryn countered; and Lily shrugged.

"Melissa didn't say she was looking to talk with them – just see whether they're hot or not. Once you know that; you can put clothes on and work on getting the geeks you like past the babbling-idiot stage."

"I didn't know that you weren't dating anyone," Robin told Melissa and Kathryn. "Didn't you have a boyfriend heading into the summer break?"

"Past tense," Melissa answered. "My last ex-boyfriend couldn't see me much; and found other, local girls to keep him entertained."

"And I don't want to talk about my lack of summer romance," Kathryn added with a shake of her head. "That'd just lead to a round of Wizard-bashing; and I'd rather talk Quidditch – or anything else."

"Well, your sisters and my cousins had a good match yesterday," Lily offered as an opening to that chat topic change.

"They did," Kathryn agreed. "You might not know that they still got beat up pretty badly, but they won; and I don't feel bad about Tina knocking James out after the match."

"It is too-bad that the Healers fixed his broken jaw," Melissa told her. "He was probably much nicer to be around while he couldn't talk."

"That's one of my brothers you're talking about," Lily reminded her; and Melissa laughed.

"I'm just saying what you're thinking," she suggested. "James was fairly-awful in the interview I watched this morning on the mirror network. I don't know if he'll ever be the greatest Quidditch player in the history of the game; but he's well on the way to the top of the lists for worst-winner and worst-loser when it comes to sportsmanship."

"Are you sure about that?" Lily asked. "He is being horrid, but other Wizards and Witches have done some truly-awful things to other players – and I'm not actually referring to Jonah's Mum turning her ex-best-friend into a woodlouse. I remember hearing some Quidditch World Cup stories that were really bad – like a Seeker that got his knees turned around backwards so that he couldn't fly his broom – probably by players from the team he was supposed to play against."

"You've been hanging around with Al too much this summer," Kathryn told her. "That's not worse than what James did to Stephanie in her first year at Hogwarts; and I'd say that some of the other injuries he's caused to Pauline and others is at least as bad as your example. What's really funny, though, is that James would probably love that accolade."

"Then don't tell him that he's in the running; or he might try even harder to win," Lily suggested. "Maybe I have been hanging out with Al too much, but I truly am glad to be getting a chance to be at Hogwarts without him – even while I wish that I was out and playing in the show already too."

"I'm not sure how I feel about going back to school," Katrina told her. "We've had so much fun this summer working with the Cannons that Fred and I both wish that we could keep doing that – and could have played this season too, but while they've won their first two matches; they're sure to get dumped on whenever they lose this season; so it might be for the best that we'll miss the first season or two. Would you really have preferred to spend the summer training with the Harpies? You had a lot of fun with Jonah and the rest of us; and wouldn't have been able to spend much time with Jonah at all if you'd been doing that instead."

"There have been lots of couples that have juggled work on two Quidditch teams," Lily reminded her. "I'm not worried about that at all; and I'd have had just as much fun with the Harpies. As for you and the Cannons; I'd say the extra time gives you a chance to come to your senses and find jobs with different teams – or maybe you'd like to come and play for the Harpies too."

"I can't," Katrina told her. "That isn't because Fred's my boyfriend, Lily – it's because I think we make a brilliant Beater team. It isn't quite the same as what Al and Gwendolyn have; but it's really good; and I don't think I'd have that with anyone else."

"That is one thing that's different for Seekers and Keepers," Lily conceded.

"I wouldn't say that for Keepers," Meg interjected; joining in on the main chat for the first time. "Keepers can have good and bad relationships with their Chasers. The Catapults-United match yesterday is a good example of that. Belinda has a much-better relationship with her Chasers than Louis has with his; and that showed up on the scoreboard."

"I'm not sure about that," Lily told her while thinking that over. "United is a more defensive team than the Catapults; and they play better as a team. The Catapults are practically two teams – the three 'good' players; and the four players that will do whatever it takes to win – no matter how awful. They take more risks; and that's bound to lead to more goals scored on Louis when they make mistakes against the best teams. I'd say that Louis actually has a pretty good Chaser trio in front of him – even while they're an unusual combination."

"That's an understatement," Robin said with a nod. "How many teams in the show can even claim to have players from all four Hogwarts Houses?"

"None right now," Lily answered. "Speaking of Slytherin, though, maybe it's time to go for a first walk along the train to see what we can find out about their Quidditch teams and new Prefects."

"I'll go along," Melissa offered. "Quidditch news won't be the only gossip to catch up on; and you're just the Witch for the job of hunting down the best stories."

"Welcome back," Gwendolyn said as she and Al stood and then were each hugged by a twin as Jaimie and Lorie ran ahead of the parents as they walked from the atrium entrance. "Did you get all of our favorite students safely onto the Hogwarts Express?"

"Yes!" Lorie assured her. "Do we get to play now?"

"As long as your Mum doesn't need you before lunchtime," Al answered. "Is that what you do every year after the Hogwarts students go back to school? This is our first time getting to be home since we started at school."

"I don't know," Lorie answered. "Is that what we did last year, Grandma? I don't remember."

"We played – and did some shopping in London; and went out for lunch," Ginny answered. "There are more things to do here than there were at our old home, though; so we'll stay here today – especially since it'll be nice to rest up before we go back to work tomorrow. We didn't have jobs last year."

"Some of you didn't," Malorie interjected as she walked toward them from her townhouse. "We did have the weekend off last year, though, and I didn't have as much work as I do now; so we definitely had more time to play last year."

"We play every day," Jaimie declared. "I love it here!"

"Me too!" Lorie added. "We want to stay here forever!"

"No pressure there," Harry joked. "I guess we'd better keep having fun and see what we can do about making that happen for them."

"Why don't you and Al go and play with the girls for a while," Ginny suggested. "Malorie, Gwendolyn, and I can throw something together for lunch; and then we can decide what to do for the rest of the day to keep us busy while we're missing our favorite Hogwarts students."

That's what they did, and while Harry and Al started out with some play time at the outdoor playground; the three Witches took care of making up an easy-lunch that they ended up doing with some of their neighbors after Ruth's kids went out to play too – with Patrick and Eric; and then Ray was added because he'd come back from King's Cross and wanted to hang out with Al for a while to have something to do while missing Cyndia. They eventually had lunch; the girls picked an afternoon hiking adventure that both kept them entertained and tired the kids out; and then they wrapped up their play time together with an early dinner. Al and Gwendolyn spent their evening until curfew working for the team or around their townhouse; and then they wrapped up their day before going to bed by having a mirror chat with Lily that Jonah couldn't do with them while busy with his Prefect duties.

Lily hadn't really missed Al during the long trip to Hogsmeade Station or during the sorting ceremony and feast once they were at Hogwarts, but after saying goodnight to Jonah and then going on to Gryffindor tower; she did start spending more time thinking about him while visiting with friends in the common room; and actually noticed a difference cause by his absence. While she'd been certain that being brother-free would be good for her; the changes she noticed among her fellow Gryffindor didn't feel good at all; since it seemed that there was less love and happiness – not that she really wanted to think about that too much. It wasn't just her imagination running away on her, though; and there really was a palpable difference – as if certain teens and tweens no longer felt the need to be on their best behavior. That wasn't something she wanted to talk about with Al and Gwendolyn, but when she did go up to her dorm room to unpack and get ready for the girl chat and first day of school; she did feel the need to talk with them – and initiated the mirror chat soon after getting to her sixth-year room and hopping on the bed with Holly once she'd been set free from her carrier.

"We didn't expect to hear from you for a week or two," Al teased when he answered her chat request.

"I just let Holly out of her cage and decided to check and make sure that you hadn't decided to play a trick on me and replace her," Lily shot back with a grin. "Don't you want to hear all about my trip and the rest of the news from around here?"

"At least one of us does," Gwendolyn interjected. "We were terribly disappointed to find out that it isn't non-stop partying out here while the students are away."

"I already heard that you went out to play today," Lily advised them. "Be glad that it isn't non-stop partying. You'd be sick of milk and cookies within days – a week at most."

"No doubt," Gwendolyn agreed with a laugh. "I don't see any pictures of Al or your Dad on the wall behind your bed. The jokes haven't started for that yet?"

"Yes, they have," Lily assured her, "but I'm one of the first up to our room; so it might be another hour or two before the posters go up. Jonah and I have had lots of Cannons-related jokes tossed at us; we've had run-ins with various action figures; and some of our friends are carrying the cards around with them for both of you, Mum, Dad, and others – along with some Cannons' gear and wheezes."

"No surprise there," Gwendolyn said with a nod. "Let's start with the latest Quidditch news – unless there were some sorting surprises that we should know about first."

"Some of the stories are about both," Lily advised her. "For the famly part of that report, if you haven't heard about it yet; Brett got sorted to Hufflepuff with Greta and Christy; so he's happy – and they are. We have a firstie Weasley cousin – Wilbur. Hugo and I welcomed him once we were in the common room, but to be honest; I don't remember him at all from any bigger family gatherings. He's not interested in playing Quidditch, and while we'll try to help him when we can; he was getting picked on a bit." She smiled at Al. You thought that Albus was bad; so be glad that you didn't get stuck with something like Wilbur Weasley."

"Call him Wil; and maybe that'll catch on instead," Al suggested.

Lily shrugged. "If he's okay with that," she agreed. "I expected Gwendolyn to suggest an idea or two for something that would go with Potter and be just as bad."

"I probably couldn't come up with worse than the nicknames Al has already collected," Gwendolyn suggested. "Did Ravenclaw get the junior Seeker they're hoping for during the sorting?"

"No, but Gryffindor got another one – Aaron Lynch's daughter, Cameron. I don't know how good she is, but that could be a fun rivalry if she can give Caylee as much competition as Riley and Hunter have given me over the past five seasons."

"That just isn't fair," Gwendolyn complained. "Ravenclaw had a bit of a good run with Pauline and Jonah, but we're going to have some tough seasons ahead if we end up with as many as six seasons without a quality Seeker after Jonah graduates."

"That could happen," Lily agreed, "but there have been Seekers that have needed to develop for a while before they got good; so that could happen in your House if someone decides they're willing to work hard-enough to fill that gap. You did get another of the Madley kids – Lauren. The only other firstie from the kids of our parents' friends this year is Rachel Cresswell, but other than recognizing the name; I don't really remember her at all either."

"Her Dad is Auror Matthew Cresswell," Al told her. "Keep an eye on her if you can, Lily. Her Cresswell grandfather was killed during the war; and her Aubrey grandfather was an Auror that was killed shortly after the war while trying to help round up all of the bad guys – in that botched raid that Candice's Mum got caught up in."

"Okay, I remember," Lily said seriously. "I always thought that those connections that linked all of our families together were amazing."

"Are you mentally playing that game – except linking families through your father?" Gwendolyn teased; and Lily laughed.

"No, but I was thinking about how that parental friendship happened through Aunt Hermione and House Elf Liason; and then eventually came back to Dad again with Auror-trainee kids. I'll be needing to wrap this up soon, though; so let's keep going with the latest news from around here. Andrea Avery and Preston Parkinson are the Slytherin team Captains; and I can tell you that the Wilkes' brothers are not happy about having Andrea in charge of their team. We knew that Terri Timms got the Head Girl job; so you'll only want the added news that Bethany Pritchard and Dan Derrick are the newest Slytherin Prefects. Bethany will be fine; but I have no idea how Dan Derrick got that job. He'll be terrible."

"Maybe Professor Slughorn is hoping the responsibility will help Dan," Al suggested; and Lily snorted.

"Even you can't be optimistic-enough to actually believe that one, Al. I don't want to talk about him, though; so let's move along. We talked about Quidditch a lot, but since we have a full school week before the junior team tryouts – and two before we'll get to our tryouts; we'll have time to find out about most of the players for three Houses – and maybe get a good idea of who is playing well-enough to make the teams. I'm actually hoping that two weeks of practices will help make tryouts easier for me."

"You're hoping for some drop-outs?" Gwendolyn guessed; and Lily nodded.

"Yes; and that should happen. I've never understood why some teens and tweens try out for the teams even after playing against the best players in our Houses and seeing how they do by comparison."

"You shouldn't be surprised," Gwendolyn suggested. "Patricia went into tryouts against you and was still clueless about her own Quidditch skills after you won. Thank James for helping so many teens and tweens to find their own happy delusions."

"Which also means that it's Al's fault," Lily offered with a grin. "Do you have any news from home? I have incoming roommates; and need to speed this up – not to mention that you have training curfew that I don't have to deal with anymore now that I'm back here."

Gwendolyn took care of a quick story about their day at home; they did a round of goodnight best wishes; and then Lily got on with her first bedtime chat with her roommates before eventually getting ready for bed and going to sleep. Al and Gwendolyn didn't break curfew, but they wrapped up their weekend with a bit of quality play time; and then they were, eventually, ready to get some sleep and rest up for another busy work week with the Cannons!

Getting back to work on Monday included a lot of attention from reporters for the Cannons; since everyone wanted to know what they were going to do now that their reserve squad kids were back at school. That added to the entertainment for Al, Gwendolyn, and everyone else on the team, since what they did in the morning was nothing at all while continuing their training as normal with just eight players. That changed at lunchtime when their reserve squad for the week arrived, and while they were only going to be coming over for scrimmages most days; they'd all been invited to have lunch with the team too for the first day – and that had made things very-interesting at the cafe for that hour of food and fun.

Rose had gotten lots of help with the player recruiting, and they were going to have different players helping them out all season, but for the first week; all but one of the players were 'in the family' for one of the Cannons players; and the exception was a member of Ginny's Harpies family. Al and Gwendolyn were on the edges of the gang for that lunch, but only because Rose was busy with Brandon, Ray, and their mothers; and Harry and Ginny had George, Angelina, Alicia, and Demelza with them. That left Ray, Seth, and Susannah with Al and Gwendolyn while having lunch; and then they all had a bit of time talking with reporters before getting to work for the afternoon. While the reporters happily underestimated the quality of the workout they were watching, Al, Gwendolyn, and the rest of their team and guest veterans had a blast playing together; and 'the kids' learned a lot from their mentors – even if it might not seem that way because they also won their scrimmage.

The training continued all week as the Cannons got ready for their match against the Wasps, and as with the predictions for their first two matches; the majority of the 'experts' were sure that they were going to lose that match – their first against a top-eight team. While the Cannons were busy with work; Al and Gwendolyn were mostly out of the loop for everything going on at Hogwarts beyond getting reports from their favorite teens. Lily and Jonah had been happy to find out that their class schedule was exactly the same as the one Al and Gwendolyn had gotten in their sixth year – apparently because it was a schedule that their Professors were happy with; and not something that had only been set up especially for two favorite students. Quidditch was a big part of life at Hogwarts too as the players trained and got ready for tryouts, but the only extra event that Al and Gwendolyn missed out on was Corey Rivers' thirteenth birthday on Friday.

Al and Gwendolyn did have a mirror chat with Corey while having breakfast at the cafe, and they'd sent a gift for him with Winter; but Corey's siblings, cousins, and friends took care of the birthday entertainment at school that included a party after dinner while his Cannons' player-relatives had a quiet night and early curfew ahead of their Quidditch match on Saturday. As newlyweds, being sent to their bedroom early on a Friday night wasn't a problem for Al and Gwendolyn, but then nobody else knew that they used his time-stopper so that they could have their play time for two for as long as they wanted; and still get a full night of rest ahead of their Quidditch matches. That was a favorite difference from being at Hogwarts – not being separated at night; and had more than a little to do with why they were so happy when they went to sleep – and when they woke again and got ready for their next league Quidditch test.

"This confirms it – we've become our older siblings," Melissa declared as she sat down at the work table in their study classroom and started getting ready to study for the morning. "Why are we here? I'm pretty sure that we played all day during junior team tryouts last year."

"We didn't have any classes ahead of that first weekend last year," Jonah reminded her. "That's the main difference for us now; and we will be taking the afternoon and evening off to play and watch Quidditch."

Melissa laughed. "Speaking of differences – most of us would have never been interested in watching a Cannons' match last year. Now everyone wants to watch that match."

"With most of those spectators hoping to watch them crash and burn," Lily added with a smile and nod. "I'm half-hoping for that too, but it'd be fun to see the Cannons undefeated going into their match against the Catapults too; so the other half won't be upset if they keep winning."

"I'm not suggesting that Aaron can't win the Seeker duel against your Mum," Hugo offered; "but I don't think that he can do that before the Cannons can get a one-sixty lead on the Wasps."

"The Cannons' biggest Seeker duel might end up being between Lily's parents," Jonah suggested. "They'll be competing for a best-of-twelve-matches total against each other; and we all know how competitive they both are when it comes to Quidditch."

"I'll pick the veteran player with the brilliant record in the show to win that battle," Kathryn declared. "We should probably talk about Hogwarts Quidditch instead. Is there any news we should know about from Hufflepuff or Slytherin this morning for their junior team tryouts? We didn't hear much at our table during breakfast, but both tryouts ought to be interesting this year."

"That's more-true for Slytherin," Lily suggested. "Hufflepuff lost their best junior Chasers from last season, but they still have Christy at Seeker; while Slytherin needs a new Seeker and a Beater duo too. That could make repeating their undefeated season a bit tough."

"That's good for our Houses," Jonah pointed out. "It's funny that Jordan has had more luck than Andrea at Seeker, since I think she's quite a bit better than he is, but I guess that's happened with other players too; and I don't feel so bad for Andrea that I'd hope she has a better season this year – at our expense."

"You'd better not underestimate her," Lily told him. "We have heard that she had a summer job with the Tornados, and if she trained with them too; she could be a lot better than she was last year."

"I'm surprised that she took that job when it would have meant working with the Harper brothers all summer," Melissa said with a shake of her head. "Then again; I don't know why the Tornados hired them when they're such gits toward Quidditch-playing Witches – or Witches in general, for that matter."

"They're on a team with Witches from families they wouldn't dare to mess with," Lily told her. "If Andrea wasn't on the outs with her family; they'd have never messed with her either – and they were still stupid; since Andrea is being supported by Lysandra and her parents. I expect that the Harpers will do what they're told by their managers and team mates or they won't last long in the show."

"We've gotten off-track from school Quidditch again," Kathryn advised them. "Was there any news you guys heard about in Ravenclaw for Hufflepuff or Slytherin tryouts?"

Jonah and Alyssa were in on that answer – though they didn't have anything new to add to what they all already knew about the first two junior team tryouts of the day. They got into their studies too; kept busy until a half-hour or so before lunch; and then went outside in search of the latest news from the morning tryouts. For Lily and Jonah, the top news was from Hufflepuff as Christy kept her Seeker job and Brett earned the Keeper job for their junior team. The news from the Slytherin tryouts was surprisingly-complete, but their younger friends had learned that another pair of brothers were continuing the Beater tradition in Slytherin – this time from the Carrow family. Firstie Alec and second-year brother, Kevin, were expected to be tough – and play dirty; so that wasn't good news for the other Houses. The news was better for their Seeker – in not 'good' for Slytherin. Heathrow Higgs won the job, but didn't have much competition – if the rumors were true; and he hadn't impressed anyone watching the tryouts.

Some of that news came during lunch in the Great Hall, and was overheard by students in other Houses, but by then; the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students were as-interested in talking about the afternoon tryouts for their junior teams – and about the Cannons' Quidditch match. Lily had fun with that, but then her life got a bit weird when she had to hurry through her lunch; head for their study classroom; and be in charge of the game-watching-party set-up for the first time now that Al had graduated. She had help for that work, but not from Jonah; since he needed to head out to the stadium to support the Ravenclaw junior team – including his younger cousins. That was strange for Lily too, and while it wasn't the first time that she didn't have her favorite cuddle buddy with her for a Quidditch match; the combination of that, being in charge of the party, and intentionally-watching a Cannons match was practically surreal.

"We need to recruit some Wizards to do all of this work for us," Melissa told Lily as they sat down on one of the sofas once the work was done. "I know we've helped before, but I don't think I realized just how much work Al and Gwendolyn usually did for us ahead of these league matches – and they did that once or twice a week."

"It's too bad that we couldn't just rent a room for the entire year; set everything up once; and be done with it," Kathryn said with a nod of agreement. "Between us, we just spent a couple of hours doing this; we'll have that much again at the end; and I don't want to think about how much time that'd be over the season between now and the end of May."

"You don't," Lily agreed, "but we might not have the work to do later; since that might be up to Jonah and our Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff friends to deal with – unless this match lasts until after dinner."

"Won't we leave this set up either way?" Melissa asked. "We can have a play night if the Quidditch is finished by then."

Lily grinned at her. "You can do that, but I'm thinking about having some quality alone time with Jonah after dinner; and won't need our friends around for that part of my play plans for today."

"Some of us have so got to pick boyfriends soon," Melissa half-joked. "I am so jealous of you, Lily. Too many of the Wizards around here are gits with only one thing on their minds and the attention span of a fly when it comes to Witches."

"Blame James," Lily suggested. "Those are the guys that want to be just like James – especially when it comes to getting to play around with a lot of different girls. I don't want to go there, but we can talk about the guys that might be worth looking at for at least temporary boyfriends for you. There are some options; including a few Wizards that look quite a bit better now than they did when we saw them last back in June."

"Al's married now," Kathryn joked – "and we saw him at least a few times a week all summer. You have a boyfriend too; so why are you even noticing whether any of the other guys are hot or not?"

"Because I can," Lily answered flippantly. "It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for my single friends. We're about to get the expert predictions, though; so let's take a short break and we'll get back to the girl chat in a minute."

"That is so stupid!" Jonah declared; and then turned his attention to Alyssa when she laughed.

"I thought it was a good goal," she teased. "Did I miss something?"

"A unanimous pick for the Wasps to win today," he explained. "Lee's either losing his touch; or he's intentionally picking the wrong team for some other reason."

"This is the Cannons' first match against a top-eight team," Alyssa reminded him. "They haven't been up against a team with more than one Lightningstorm either; so I'm not surprised that they're still being underestimated. Rose is happy with that; so don't let it bug you."

"Those excuses are going around," Jonah agreed, "but they're not really valid reasons for the way the reporters are treating the Cannons. I'm biased, but don't think that keeps me from looking at the team objectively – just as I can do with the other teams that I like the best. That isn't true for people that want to hate the Cannons – or hate one or more of the players." He shook his head. "Those so-called experts aren't even trying to see what the Cannons are actually doing because if they did; they'd realize just how special they are compared to any other team."

"That's a bit further than I'd go, but they are a lot better than the reporters claim," Alyssa suggested. "What do you think of our junior team tryouts so far?"

"I think that we won't have any changes at Chaser; Corey will need to do better at Keeper if he wants to make the team this year; and we won't know whether we'll have a shot at the Quidditch Cup this year until we find out if we have a decent Seeker."

"Now you're avoiding the obvious; since we have seen enough of the junior team workouts to know that answer," Alyssa suggested in a whisper. "We're in trouble again this year."

"Maybe, but I'm trying to be nice – and that's definitely not what most reporters are doing with the Cannons. If we could get one junior team win, though, we might still have a shot at the Quidditch Cup if we can win our matches."

"That's a big 'if' when we haven't had much luck against Lily's teams," Alyssa pointed out.

"Changing that this year is one of my goals," Jonah advised her with a rueful smile. "That might get me turned into a bat-bogey, but Lily has won four of our Seeker duels in our school matches; and everyone seems to forget that I like to win too."

"You'll need to start doing that against Lily more-often; or the Cannons won't want you to play against her in any league matches," Alyssa suggested. "Your record is better than it looks, though, since you have allowed some snitch catches for losses – and caught for a loss to help with points tie-breaks too. Your record must be nearly as good as Pauline's."

"It isn't that good so far," Jonah disagreed. "Pauline has one of the best-ever records for a Ravenclaw player. Gwendolyn might have done better – if not for those pesky Gryffindors over the past two years."

"Yeah – how dare her husband best her by having an undefeated career at Hogwarts," Alyssa teased. "You're right about Corey," she added after they watched Corey's shot get saved by one of the other Keeper contenders. "That puts him two behind Lorcan and Lysander."

"He didn't think that he could beat them," Jonah offered. "That's part of Corey's problem, but then Meg could be right; and he's just better-suited to be a Keeper whether he likes it or not."

"We can't all be good at different positions on a team," Alyssa suggested; saying that loudly-enough to be overheard by Stephanie; and getting a few laughs for the comment.

"I wouldn't say that's true for me anymore," she advised Alyssa. "It was one thing to be competitive as a junior team Seeker, but we're all getting to the point now where you have to practice a lot to keep up with the other top players; and I don't play Seeker often-enough anymore to do that against Jonah, Lily, or any other really good Seeker. It's a good thing that Gwendolyn convinced me that I could have just as much fun at Chaser; and now I'm really happy to have a different dream than I did as a kid."

"Don't talk like that around Lily," Alyssa told her. "She starts getting mad when we say things like that."

Stephanie shrugged. "She doesn't have to change her dream – even if I think she'd be happier playing with us on the Cannons. We don't need to tell her that either, but you both agree with me; and I wish that Lily would actually think about it seriously."

"Me too," Alyssa agreed; and then grinned. "That doesn't mean that we can't have fun talking about Seekers we can get to work with Jonah instead while we wait to find out who our new junior team Seeker will be."

"Maybe she'll be one of those prospects for the Cannons," Stephanie teased. "Ginny might be willing to keep playing that long if needed."

Al smiled brilliantly as he watched Gwendolyn score a goal against the Wasps; and they each made flips so that they could switch to defense. He joined in for the laugh as she reacted to a good-natured taunt from Jeremy Campbell that he sensed but didn't overhear. They'd earned the early lead over the Wasps, and Rose was as-yet unbeaten, but all of the players on both teams were having even more fun than Al had expected. This was their first match against quite a few players that they knew well – whether that was Seth's father, Ryan Bradley; or long-time friends of the family that included Jeremy, Aaron Lynch, and Alex Kirke – though Al felt more of a connection to Alex through his kids now instead of the parental links through the Ministry of Magic.

While he was enjoying the match, Al was also having fun with what he sensed from the spectator rivalry – including between his family and the Campbell clan as they supported their favorite team and players. Having the lead was great, but the challenge of battling against some of the most-talented veterans in the show was amazing too; and from the start it was a contest of experience against youth and innovation – with the exception of the Seeker duel that was a brilliant renewal of an old rivalry! After crossing mid-pitch, Al spun around again and got ready to lead the defense while allowing what had been his forward motion to continue in the same direction toward the Cannons' goals. The speed he could maintain while now going backward was deceptive; which was why Ryan's attempt to hit the brakes and slingshot Jeremy past them with a pass that was meant to go over Al's head didn't work. Al spun again; intercepted the pass just inches out of Jeremy's grasp; flipped and drifted to avoid a crash; and threw the quaffle to Ray without looking.

"Merlin!" he heard his Aunt Muriel whisper to his grandparents – and everyone else in the stadium. "That boy is going to scare me to death with those crazy stunts!"

He was grinning at that, and his eyes sparked emerald fire, but he was on offense again too; traded passes with Gwendolyn and Ray; and then the Wasps earned a good save on Ray before their battle turned defensive again.

"Quit scaring Aunt Muriel," Gwendolyn whispered into his ears through his magical earbuds. "That's very distracting for the rest of us!"

"Maybe, but it's fun too," Al whispered back. "Bludger – four o'clock high in three, two..."

"Got it," Gwendolyn assured him while dodging it.

That dodge gave Jeremy room to get past her, but he didn't have the quaffle; and Alex couldn't get it to him thanks to Ray's defense. The Wasps did eventually get the next shot on goal, but it wasn't a good one; and the Chaser battle moved on from there. The smiles and grins were infectious, and while Al, Gwendolyn, and Ginny were likely having the most fun even with the toughest challenges, there was one undeniable fact that was obvious to everyone watching and playing – that they were all experiencing the kind of joy and excitement that Al thought that Quidditch should be – and would be; if he could help to make that dream a reality!

"Tag – you're in charge," Lily told Jonah after sharing a quick hug and kiss with him. Alyssa and most of their Ravenclaw friends were with him, but she would have crossed paths with Hugo at the stadium; since Lily only had Melissa wait for her while the rest of the Gryffindors had gone with Hugo to get to the stadium in time for the start of the junior team tryouts. "Have you kept up with the score? How'd your junior team tryouts go?"

"Yes," Jonah answered first; patting a pocket and indicating that he'd just put his portable mirror away. "The news you'll want from tryouts is that Lauren Madley got the Seeker job. She did okay, but tried out for Chaser too; and was hoping to get a spot on the team there – and was as disappointed as Corey was to only rate spots on the reserve squad."

"Did Corey make the team at Keeper?" Lily asked; and Jonah nodded.

"Yes, but he's the least-happy member of the team." He paused; and then laughed. "Actually, Jonah Madley is likely more-disappointed. He took a Beater job instead of a spot on the reserve squad too."

"That could be bad for your junior team," Lily suggested thoughtfully. "If Jonah was another of your next-best Chasers; then your team is going to take a hit for the quality of your reserve squad if they'll be stuck with the next-best trio after Corey, Jonah, and Lauren."

"That's true," Jonah agreed. "I should also let you know that I've already been drafted to help Lauren with her Seeker training; so be prepared for the inevitable teasing – no matter how silly that will be for all of us."

"Lauren is pretty," Lily pointed out with a grin. "I'll talk to her and offer the standard bat-bogey hex threat; and we'll be just fine." She looked at her watch and shook her head. "I'm late; and need to get going. If we get done early; I'll send you a message to let you know whether I'll be back here or not. If we run late; I'll see you after dinner in the Great Hall."

Lily ended up missing the Beater tryouts for the junior team, but had been assured that she hadn't missed much; and that there hadn't been a major surprise discovery for the next, best-ever Beater duo for their House. She had been there in time for the Chaser and Keeper battles; that had taken quite a while; and the results were being tabulated by the Arithmancy 'experts' that Caroline had recruited to keep track of the scoring and saves for all of the Keeper and Chaser contenders. While she didn't know all of those results, Lily was a bit concerned by what they'd seen; since Elle Kirke had been the best Keeper by far; and the Chaser contest had been about as weak as she'd ever seen it. To be fair, she'd been distracted a lot by the awesome Cannons-Wasps match that most of the tryouts spectators were watching on portable mirrors, but that hadn't kept her from noticing the comparative drop in competition among the younger Chasers – and that was a potential problem for the season and the future in an area of the game that had been very strong for Gryffindor for a long time.

"Yes!" Hugo exclaimed quietly; and Lily smiled because he was cheering for Rose's most-recent save against the Wasps.

"You've reason to be happy today," Lily suggested to him. "Rose has only given up one goal so far today; and Elle will likely have the best numbers for all of the Keepers and Chasers. That doesn't work for those of us that like to see a lot of scoring."

Hugo laughed. "I like to see a lot of scoring – as long as it's against the other team. That's working out for Cannons fans again today, and since your brother and sister-in-law are a big part of that scoring success; you should be happier than you look right now."

"I want to win another Quidditch Cup; and we need a good junior team to help us to do that," she told him seriously. "We're weak at Beater again, and while Elle looks great today; none of our junior Chaser prospects did very well against her – and their reserve squad could be really weak; which won't help them at all when it comes to training this season."

"You – we – have been spoiled," Roxanne interjected. "Caroline is getting a decent team so far, Lily – and they're sure to get one of the best junior team Seekers in the school too. We shouldn't expect to get so many junior and senior teams like we've been lucky-enough to play on so far every year." She laughed. "I might have liked more Chaser tryouts like this one. Some of mine have been a bit too-tough – and this year won't be an exception."

"I'll pick the years on the reserve squad and better competition," Kathryn told her. "Sure, we'd all prefer to play on the team, but we want to make it in the show too; and it'll be tough to do that without having good competition to help us get better. We've been spoiled in more than one way lately too. A lot of players have been getting straight onto league teams out of Hogwarts while we've been here – more than normal compared to the past. I know that part of that is because of the junior teams and having more years of training than most players got to have when there was only one House team, but there are only ninety-one spots available on league teams; and that won't continue either."

"Ninety-eight – if you include seven extras for the Cannons," Hugo reminded her and joked. "You're right, but we still have quite a few teams in need of better players; so that good competition you're talking about us having here is going to translate into the league as we graduate too."

"Says the fan of the worst team in the league," Melissa teased. Hugo laughed and waved a hand at his portable mirror.

"Does that look like the worst team in the league to you?" he challenged. "You don't have to be a fan of your brother's team, Melissa, but everyone ought to be able to see that they're way-better than most of the reporters are claiming; and they're proving that today against a really good team."

"They are," Melissa agreed, "but some of us are not going to let facts get in the way of the jokes; and the Cannons are the team that keeps on giving for that too – along with the Quidditch entertainment."

"Says one of the Witches with posters of my Dad and brother on the wall behind your bed," Lily offered. "Your jokes are a bit scary too."

"No they aren't," Melissa disagreed. "It's the fact that your father and brother look hot in those uniforms that's scary – for you. The scary part of the Cannons for me is that I might go broke while buying all of the posters and toys – especially when they've got the Animorphmagus-of-the-match toys and posters."

"Did you get your Mum and Dad to buy the Wasps' versions?" Kathryn asked; and Melissa shrugged.

"Maybe. Let's not go there and mess up any future jokes I might have in the works for Lily and Hugo."

"I am so glad that Rose didn't decide to be an Animagus too," Hugo told them; and then nodded toward center pitch. "The results are in; so let's take a break and find out who Elle will have for Chasers on her team this year."

They did that; continued to watch the Cannons' match; and then they all got caught up in the Seeker duel. While Caylee Fawcett was the favorite to keep her spot on the team, she had three challengers – including Cameron Lynch – Aaron Lynch's daughter. That made for a strange combination for Lily as she watched her mother battle against Aaron in their Seeker duel on the mirror while Caylee and Cameron fought to earn the last spot on the Gryffindor junior team – and that proved to be an epic battle. It was soon obvious that the two extra competitors were no match for Caylee and Cameron, but while one of them dropped out after getting hit by a bludger; the other stayed in and futilely tried to follow along behind the two Witches but really had no chance of keeping up – in part because he was flying a much-slower broom than the Firestorm two-fifties that Caylee and Cameron were using.

Having the last tryouts spot of the day was the only reason that there ended up being enough time to have a winner of that contest because they were able to keep the Seeker duel going late. When the end came, it was as close as the rest of the Seeker duel had been with Caylee and Cameron fighting right to the end while the exhausted Wizard followed far behind. Lily didn't have Al's talents for sensing the feelings of everyone around her, but it was obvious to everyone that Cameron was as shocked as Caylee was when she caught the snitch and won the Seeker job for her House junior team. The two young Witches didn't share a mid-air hug, but they did shake hands after landing; and it was tough for Lily to watch as Caylee was too-stunned to even manage to cry over the crushing disappointment. That wasn't helped at all when she was reminded that she had the option of being the third Chaser on their team; and didn't seem any happier after choosing to do that while leaving the reserve Seeker job to the Wizard that hadn't been interested in a follow-up Seeker duel with her to try and earn that spot on the reserve squad.

"Don't get too excited about Cameron's win," Lily decided to declare; directing the comment at Riley and Hunter; and smiling at them. "I'm really having second thoughts now about an open Seeker tryout, but if I do that; you should be afraid of what might happen if either of you win that Seeker duel. There might be a new Bat-Bogey living in the Forbidden Forest by a week from tomorrow – in an Acromantula's nose."

"And they have eight legs to pick their noses with," Melissa added with a grin. "I wonder if they eat their Bat-Bogeys?"

"I'll laugh at those jokes later," Riley told them seriously. "Right now; my sister needs me." He smiled ruefully at Lily. "Some of us can relate to how she's feeling right now."

Lily reached into her bag and pulled out a small box of chocolates. "I may not be able to relate, but I can commiserate," she assured him while handing the box to him. "Before any of you ask; I'm not turning into Al – he sent a few things along with me to help out when needed here and there; and this is definitely one of those moments."

"You still came prepared," Roxanne told her. "We'll give you points for that, Captain."

"We'll also give Riley a head start," Kathryn offered. "Caylee is going to need a few minutes before she'll want to put up with the condolences from the rest of us – even when she has that back-up plan spot on the team instead of the job she really wanted to keep. I know I would want that break – and have wanted it in the past."

They did that, but didn't stay in their seats; since they all needed to head back to the castle for dinner soon. Lily led the way for the congratulations that they offered to Caroline and her team mates; and that ended up being strange when they were talking with Cameron and congratulating her at the same time that they watched Ginny win her Seeker duel over Cameron's father. The Cannons had been holding the one-sixty lead for more than an hour by then, but that lead had been close-enough that Aaron hadn't tried to catch the snitch for the loss; and defending the snitch against Ginny on her Hurricane broom proved to be too much for him. The three-forty to twenty final score only looked lop-sided; and the Wasps' players and fans had a lot to be happy about despite the loss thanks to getting to watch a really exciting Quidditch match.

"Boo!" Cameron jeered good-naturedly – directing that at Lily. "I was hoping that Dad would have as brilliant a day as this is for me."

"I'll guess that he'll be happier once he gets your news," Lily suggested. "You've joined a rather-exclusive club today – winning the Seeker job on a House team over one of the defending Quidditch Cup Champion Seekers. Jonah was the last one to do that over Stephanie Boot in his first year."

"That may have worked out well-enough for Stephanie," Caylee offered, "but I don't want to be a Chaser; and didn't expect to lose my Seeker duel even after you told us that story and suggested that we try out for Chaser too."

"Stephanie didn't want to be a Chaser back then either," Lily advised her. "It took a while for her to find out that she was good at it – and liked playing with Gwendolyn and Alyssa. That doesn't have to be the same for you. Rose played Chaser in her first year and still ended up playing Keeper because that's what she wanted to do – and was best at too."

"I suppose," Caylee said dubiously. "That isn't helping right now, though; and I can't help but wonder if I made the right choice trying out for both jobs."

"I haven't tried out for Chaser before," Riley reminded his sister. "That might be because I'm not very good at scoring goals; but let's not let facts get in the way of pointing out that you will at least get to play on the team again this season; while I haven't had that option."

"I'd say that it's the fact that your girlfriend would have a problem with it if you had tried out at Chaser and bested her that has kept you from attempting that back-up plan," Caylee suggested. "This tryout is done now, though; so I'll just do my best to help the team at Chaser this season – and try to get good-enough to win my Seeker job back next September."

"Now that might be a first – if we can win the Quidditch Cup again this year," Lily suggested to both Witches. "I doubt that there has ever been back-to-back Seeker switches for Quidditch Cup Champion teams."

"Maybe not,' Cameron agreed with a nod; "but I would hate being on the wrong side of that new record!"

"As much as I hate being on the losing side of this duel," Caylee assured her. "I'd better try to stop talking about that for a while, though – and we came over to find out who won the Cannons-Wasps match; since that must be what the cheering was about."

"It was," Lily agreed. "The Cannons won; and Mum caught the snitch."

"Over my Dad," Cameron added. "I was one of the Wasps' fans doing the booing."

"With the weird part of that being that there are more Wasps fans on our junior team," Hugo suggested with a grin.

"I'd say the weird is having more than one Cannons' fan," Caroline interjected as she joined them from where she'd been talking with some of the other teens and her friends. "We need to get out of here," she added. "Can I get any Wizard volunteers for hauling the Quidditch set to the equipment room?"

She got those volunteers; they all moved on from there; and most of them went straight to the Great Hall to wait for dinner to start and talk with their friends about the tryouts and Cannons' Quidditch news. Lily was able to meet up with Jonah for a while before dinner; and they were both happy with making plans for a play evening for two instead of hanging out with their friends thanks to the timely end to the Quidditch entertainment for the day.

Al had enjoyed every moment of their Quidditch match, and he was happy with the win too, but his post-game fun came from the entertainment surrounding the relationships he had with his team mates and the Wasps players; the play time with their fans; and only a bit of the sometimes-silly interviews with the reporters. Some of those reporters were actually angry with them for having the audacity to win, so they weren't very nice with their questions or comments; and decided to belittle the Wasps too; since they'd quite obviously been over-estimated. While they'd enjoyed the post-game time with their opponents in the first two matches, it was different with the Wasps because of the more-personal connections with the players and some of their favorite Wasps' fans. For Al, those family and friends highllights included cameo moments with Seth and his Dad; and visits with the younger Campbell clan kids that were getting to attend the match while their older cousins or siblings were at Hogwarts.

Rose eventually hosted a victory dinner and party in the atrium that kept the fun going for everyone invited to join in on the food and play time, but Al and Gwendolyn helped out with a lot of the work once they got there from the stadium; so they had to mix their entertainment in with the chores. They were able to take some breaks – at dinner; and after the clean-up that followed that late meal; but it still felt as though they were going non-stop through until they helped out with getting Jaimie and Lorie off to sleep and then they could just sit down by the pool with cold drinks and enjoy some quiet chat time with the other Witches and Wizards that were winding down instead of moving on to other Saturday night adventures. Their companions were a bit different than normal because Rose and Brandon led a group that had decided to go out to play at a pub, and Harry went with Ginny for her interview on Lee's show, but that was a nice change for Al too; and he liked the chance to talk with friends that they didn't get to spend as much time with as they did with their best friends and his parents.

"You guys are so good with Jaimie and Lorie," Lacey told them after they'd sat down in two of the chairs that were lined up in a semi-circle around the shallow end of the lagoon. "It's no wonder that they're so happy to have you home now instead of back at school."

"Spending time with them is one of the things we love-most about being home now," Gwendolyn assured her. "How come you didn't want to go out with the gang looking to take the party to the next level?"

Lacey laughed quietly. "It's been a long week. I hope that the stadium vendors get with the program sooner instead of later; since all of these last-minute deliveries are a pain."

"I think that they'll come around soon," Al suggested. "The match today helped, since our gear likely out-sold the Wasps' souvenirs and toys by quite a bit; and those vendors will have even better data once we've played the top teams and they can see how our sales are doing compared to teams like the Prides and Harpies."

"If they bothered to take the time; they could do that right now," Lacey challenged. "All of the teams have played three matches now; so it shouldn't matter whether we've played those teams or not."

"That's true," Al agreed, "but don't forget that the general opinion of our team is still based on what the reporters are saying; so your problems with supplying those vendors is a consequence of that part of the plan that we're stuck with – for now."

"Having the other teams underestimate you makes sense," Lacey said with a nod, "but that won't happen with teams like the Harpies; and even the most-arrogant players will need to stop listening to those so-called experts eventually."

"Don't underestimate the capacity for some of those gits to stay in denial forever," Gwendolyn suggested and then joined in for the laughs. "The Falcons won't even care – as long as they can beat up on us."

"I'd be worried about that first match against them if I was going to be playing," Lacey told her seriously. "Actually, I'm worried anyway – for all of you."

"I'm not," Roland Baxter offered. "Scott and I have been scouting their first three matches, and one thing that most spectators might not even notice while being amazed by all of the fancy flying and scoring is that our players don't get hit very often – or not at all for some of them. It'll be a bit tough for teams like the Falcons to hurt them if they can't hit them either."

"Our uniforms will protect us from a lot of the hits too," Gwendolyn reminded Lacey. "We can still be hurt, but we also have a couple of talented Healers on the team too; so we really do have some advantages this season over the other teams."

"That's an advantage that I'd want to keep," Roland told them, "but I get why GO MagiSports would want to get in on the Quidditch equipment business. They'll likely do very well selling your new gear."

"Rose agrees with you on the first part of that," Gwendolyn advised him. "Al's the one who wants to make Quidditch safer for all of the players."

"No surprise there," Savannah Scott said as she joined in on the chat for the first time. "He probably gets that from his Dad. It was a radical idea for the Aurors at the time to not just keep themselves alive and well, but to try not to kill the bad guys either." She smiled at Al. "In a way, it's your Dad's fault that there was that push for the amnesty, Al, since if more bad guys had been killed; Azkaban wouldn't have been getting so crowded!"

"That sounds like a conversation for sometime closer to Halloween," Lacey suggested – "though I'm okay with a break from talking about Quidditch or work at all."

"We could talk about Hogwarts," Gwendolyn offered. "Some of you are used to this by now, but those of us that are out here in September for the first time since we were ten are having issues with the transition – or missing our younger siblings, cousins, and friends."

"I don't know whether to go with that because I miss my little sister – or stay away from it because Ray does too," Lacey joked.

"Where is Ray?" Scott asked. "I didn't see him go out with the gang that wanted to go out to play tonight."

"He's hanging out in one of the virtual mirror game rooms," Al answered. "You can check in and see if there are still any open timeslots for the other room if you want to get in on that too."

Scott shrugged and shook his head. "Maybe another night. I'm not feeling that energetic. I hope there will be more virtual mirror network shows soon, though; since I like all of the few shows and that demonstration show a lot."

"That's going to take time," Al advised him. "The mirror network channels are still experimenting with the virtual glasses systems, and the virtual rooms haven't even gone on sale yet; so it will be years before there are enough of them out there for that to be big-enough for the shows. It'll be much faster for the virtual games; since that just means adding features to what is already being done."

"I'd love to see that Christmas movie the drama club did re-done into a virtual show," Gwendolyn suggested. "I'll be that opening scene with the flying view of the train would be amazing in the virtual room."

"That would be brilliant," Lacey agreed. "Ditto that for the ghost flight to the past, but it might not be a big deal for most of the show; since you'd still just be sitting there for a lot of it."

"True, but the ghosts moving around could look very different in the virtual room," Gwendolyn pointed out. "I just don't know if they'd have enough camera anles to re-do the show without needing to film the entire thing again."

"I'm not going to be drafted into doing the Animorphmagus scene again," Al advised her.

"You keep saying that you don't like the attention; yet you come up with new ways to be in the spotlight with your animal forms," Lacey told him. "Why?"

"I get talked into going along with things like that movie or the toys the Cannons are using for each match, but the ideas are usually from someone else," Al advised her. "There are lots of good things that go along with being an Animorphmagus, but almost none of that happens when I get too much attention for it; so I'd be okay with it if I just got to play with my animal forms without any of the drama."

"You might actually wish that," Lacey agreed; "but I'll guess that you won't mind all of those toy sales at bonus time. Gwendolyn had suggested talking Hogwarts, though; so why don't we do that? Cyndia is having a good and bad start to her school year. She likes her class schedule and is glad to be back at her magic lessons, but she's worried about tryouts next weekend; and missing Ray like crazy."

"From what we heard about the junior team tryouts, Cyndia won't be the only senior team player worrying about tryouts," Gwendolyn offered. "Caylee sure didn't expect to get beat out at Seeker today. I have no idea whether she was over-confident and that made a difference or not, but it is another example for anything can happen in Quidditch that seems to get forgotten too-often."

"Is Lily worried about her job now?" Scott half-joked.

Gwendolyn laughed. "I expect that Riley and Hunter are more-worried about winning their tryout against her than losing it; since I'm sure she's promised to hex them if she loses."

"Has she actually ever blasted anyone?" Scott countered. "We've all heard those threats, but I don't remember her actually doing anything."

"She's blasted Al a time or three," Gwendolyn answered; "and she led a particularly-devious revenge ambush on James and Ollie in her first year – our third – after they ambushed and pranked her, Jonah, and some of their friends. I'm pretty sure that James left her alone after that one – at least for anything really rotten."

"I didn't hear about that at all," Scott admitted. "It doesn't surprise me that James and Ollie wouldn't say anything; but why didn't she brag about it if she was able to blast them?"

"She didn't want to embarrass James," Al told him – "just prove that she could defend herself and her friends. Getting back to current events, we think that Lily and Jonah are enjoying the start to this year because they don't have Gwendolyn and me around. They like their schedule too, since they got the same one that we had in our sixth year; and I don't think that Lily's worried about tryouts after training all summer with Mom, Dad, and Jonah on top of her team workouts. The reporters can say what they want about our summer reserve squad, but I think that Lily and Jonah are both better than James was at the start of his sixth year."

"Are you sure – or biased?" Roland asked seriously. "James had already won matches in the show by then."

"I'm sure – and biased," Al assured him with a wry smile. "Lacey doesn't want to talk Quidditch, though, so maybe we should let the girls talk about the latest teen drama gossip from Hogwarts instead."

Lacey and Gwendolyn were happy to lead the way on that; and Al was content to sit back and enjoy the quiet entertainment. That transition into the background didn't become his motto or anything, since that was all but impossible for a league Quidditch player – especially on a still-undefeated team, but Al still felt a bit like that even as he was right in the middle of his new life outside of Hogwarts. The wrap up to their day on Saturday led to a mix of work and play on Sunday; with most of the work being chores around their townhouse, atrium, and the rest of their home. They only had seven training days to get ready for their match against the Prides, so there was some bonus Quidditch play time on Sunday afternoon too, but then Al and Gwendolyn did some extra work for that during the week too – a fact that they didn't advertise to anyone outside of the GO MagiSports team.

Their jobs – and the team curfews – got in the way of having fun that they would have liked to be having during the second week of September; with the Harpies' match on Thursday night being the family and friends fun activity that they wished they could have attended but couldn't on a work night. That hadn't been something they'd thought about for their lives after graduating from Hogwarts, and while they'd grown up around professional Quidditch; they still needed to adjust to the changes that went along with being a player on one of those league teams – including those little sacrifices that had them staying at home and watching one of their favorite teams on the mirror network.

The only change for that from their past seven years at Hogwarts was that their training curfew was a bit earlier!

While Al and Gwendolyn couldn't be at the stadium to support her Mum and the Harpies, they weren't the only fans of the team in their new little community; so they had company for the first part of the game watching. They had fun with that until it was time to split up and head for their own townhomes or flats – especially since Victoire was having a best-of-the-season-so-far match against the Wanderers; and had her team ahead with a comfortable lead by then. It was probably for the best that they hadn't gone to watch the game at the stadium because it rolled on and on as Gabrielle and Erin were having an epic Seeker duel to go along with the great match that Victoire was having; and that was also why Al and Gwendolyn were sleeping long before Erin caught the snitch after more than seven and a half hours – though that was a catch for the three-fifty to two-ninety loss; and a couple of hours after the Harpies had earned the one-sixty lead and Gabrielle had stopped defending the snitch.

The late game night for many Harpies fans didn't affect Al and Gwendolyn – or their team mates – for work on Friday, but it did add to their morning and breakfast-time entertainment. That entertainment began with getting the good news while first getting up and ready for the day; they got to celebrate with their family and friends – including a mirror chat with Gwendolyn's tired parents; and then it was the top chat topic while enjoying their morning meal with Harry, Ginny, Malorie, and the twins. Jaimie and Lorie were more interested in the food and the little games they were playing once their orders had been delivered; but at least four out of five of the adults were happy to talk about Harpies' Quidditch – both as fans and competitors of both teams.

"We'll need to watch the rest of that match – and probably re-watch the first-half or so that we caught last night; but it seems that Victoire is back up to full game speed now; and Gabrielle and Erin both had a good night too," Ginny told the other four adults; and then smiled at Harry. "We'll have to see whether Erin's improved since her match against you; or just played better against one of her favorite rivals last night."

"Erin may have played a better match," Al suggested; "but they played for at least a couple of hours longer than necessary, so if that was a decision by the Wanderers' Managers; it wasn't a very good one."

"Are you sure about that?" Harry asked him. "There are situations and strategies that do work with attempting comebacks or keeping matches going for other reasons. Even if that comeback wasn't likely for the Wanderers; it might help them against other teams to have the extra hours against a top team."

"Or the Managers might have simply wanted to find out whether their team would keep playing hard even after the one-sixty lead," Ginny offered with a nod of agreement. She paused and smiled as she read an incoming mirror message – and then turned her attention to Al. "Your sister is mad at you for not being there to help her out with being tired from staying up to watch the entire match last night."

"She knew we weren't there before making that choice," Gwendolyn pointed out.

"She did," Ginny agreed – "not that facts matter for Lily with things like this."

"No doubt," Al agreed with a nod. "I'll just hope that our birthday gifts and good luck gifts for her tryouts tomorrow will make up for the blame I'm getting for not being there to help her out this morning."

"Now that you mention tryouts - I am a bit surprised that she took the risk of getting worn out so close to those tryouts. She does have tough competition at Seeker with Riley and Hunter, and while she's got the better broom; she'll still need to be at her best tomorrow."

"She is team Captain," Harry pointed out. "Has she actually said whether she'll have tryouts for all spots on the team? She doesn't have to do that just because some of the recent team Captains have put their own jobs on the line." He laughed and shook his head. "It never even occurred to me to do that the year I was Gryffindor's Captain." He smiled at Ginny. "If I had; you might have been Seeker that year instead of me!"

"I was – for one match," Ginny reminded him. "You also got your head bashed in in one of the other matches; so I'd say it worked out well for me that year anyway."

"Has Lily said one way or the other?" Gwendolyn asked Al?"

"She hasn't said anything about it around me," he answered after checking the related memories since the Hogwarts letters came out. "I guess we'll find out on Saturday."

That was a simple fact, but then Gwendolyn and Ginny still discussed it for a few minutes before getting back to the Harpies-related Quidditch talk and then other topics that included plans for the weekend and other news and gossip of the day. They still had a work day to get through after that ahead of the weekend. For Al, the top family event of the weekend was going to be Lily's birthday; and he wished that he could be there to help her celebrate. That wasn't an option, though, so they were going to take Jaimie and Lorie to see James' match instead – an activity plan that, ironically, Lily would rather be doing while stuck at Hogwarts and unable to come out to play with them. Fortunately for both of them, while they couldn't each always get to do everything they wanted – or avoid the few things that they didn't like; they did still get to have a lot of fun and joy in their lives – thanks entirely to getting to share both the brilliant and bad with the people they loved-most!

Lily smiled brilliantly as she stepped out into the hallway outside of Gryffindor tower and saw Jonah waiting for her with a gift in his hands and a warm smile on his face too that brightened the moment he saw her. Denise, Kathryn, and Melissa laughed as they watched her hurry ahead of them and then share a quick hug and kiss with him before taking the gift from him.

"Happy Birthday," Jonah told her quietly. "How are you today?"

Better now," she answered while already tearing into the wrapping paper. "Some of my friends have told me that they can't give me birthday gifts because they might be considered bribes ahead of tryouts. Al wasn't waiting for me in the common room either; so it's been a weird start to my birthday."

"I don't know whether to suggest that you talk about that bribery idea a lot or not," Jonah offered. "On the one hand, that could score you a lot of bonus birthday gifts; but then could end badly when you couldn't give everyone jobs on the team."

"We didn't say that we won't be helping you to celebrate your birthday," Melissa reminded Lily – "only that we don't want anyone thinking that tryouts aren't fair." She smiled and joined in on the laughs as she watched Lily share another, more-enthusiastic hug and kiss with Jonah. "Do you think that we should go on ahead without them?" she asked the other girls. "They might be a while."

"We won't be," Lily answered before anyone else could – and as she stepped away from Jonah again – "and no; he didn't try to one-up last year with an engagement ring."

"We knew that; since you'd already promised to blast him if he did," Denise told her with a grin for Jonah. "You're welcome for that advance warning," she added and teased.

"She did do that," Jonah admitted to Lily; "but I hadn't been planning on pushing my luck – and take that the way it's meant instead of how it might sound to some."

"Well, I'm disappointed," Kathryn told them; trying her best to look serious too. "I was hoping that you would propose – and then give Lily all the motivation she needs to win our match against Ravenclaw."

"Don't even joke about that!" Denise interjected while everyone else laughed. "Would you really want to see Lily acting like Gwendolyn did that September of our fourth year – and be like that until November or December? I wouldn't think that you'd even want to be practicing with her team either; if even half the stories we heard about those Ravenclaw practices were true."

"You really wouldn't – and I saw some of those practices," Jonah advised them.

"Ravenclaw won the Quidditch Cup that year," Kathryn reminded them. "I could put up with a bit of tough training if we could win the top prizes again this year. We only have two more chances to do that before we graduate."

"If we make the team," Melissa added. "That isn't a sure thing, cousin – which is why we need to move on from the birthday fun and start thinking about getting ready to earn our spots on the team."

That wasn't really possible, and the Gryffindor tryouts weren't until after lunch anyway, but Lily was still happy to talk Quidditch with some of her best friends while walking to the Great Hall; Jonah stayed with her until right before breakfast was served; and then her birthday fun and the Quidditch talk kept them entertained while they ate. She had a blast with all of the gifts that arrived with a handful of Owl Posts – and didn't have a problem with opening them the way Al had during most of his birthdays at Hogwarts. There was one gift that she couldn't talk about or show to anyone. She wasn't sure whether she even wanted to talk about it with Jonah; since she wasn't even sure what to think about the news that her parents had apparently invested a one-hundred-thousand galleon trust fund into GO MagiSports and the Cannons!

She might have needed to re-think all of her jokes about those bad investments if she'd known that she had so much money at risk too!

While opening gifts and the rest of the birthday fun was amazing, it really wasn't that long before Lily was back into full-immersion Quidditch mode with her friends – starting with walking with Jonah and some of their Ravenclaw friends out to the stadium and then wishing them luck before moving on to watch and wait for the first tryouts reports for the senior teams. Denise led the group of friends that wanted to study while they waited, but with only five classes; Lily didn't really need to join in; and decided that she could get away with that lack of effort because it was her birthday too. That also gave her an excuse to play around with the prototype Hover Board that Al had given her – and that would likely be in stores for Christmas; and that soon led to a lot of attention from other teens and tweens – especially when she began letting her friends play with it too. That kept the entertainment going for quite a while – whether in good or bad ways; so it really didn't feel like it had been all that long before she was reunited with Jonah and got the full Ravenclaw tryouts report.

The good news – for Ravenclaw – was that there weren't any surprises or upsets for their new team. Ryan kept his promise not to put his own job on the line; so Meg had to settle for winning a spot as Keeper for the reserve squad. Jonah, Stephanie, Alyssa, Patrick, and Katrina all kept their jobs on the team; and Robin Ackerley became Gwendolyn's replacement at Chaser – coming in third-place behind Stephanie and Alyssa. While that wasn't as good a trio as they'd had a year ago, it was still pretty good; and Lily expected that they'd be a match for Gryffindor's Chasers – regardless of which trio of Witches she ended up with by the end of the day. Not all of Jonah's team mates stayed with them for very long, but their usual gang of Ravenclaw friends did hang out with them for the rest of the morning; and they played or studied until lunchtime.

Hufflepuff tryouts news began spreading along the gossip network before their tryouts were finished, but with Tory and Madison graduated now; Lily also had an easier time getting that news directly from her Hufflepuff friends – including some of the players on the new team and reserve squad. Hufflepuff didn't have any major surprises for their new team either, but there were some changes; and Lily expected that her Hufflepuff friends would be in for another tough season compared to the other teams. Captain Ricky Peakes hadn't put his job on the line, but he also had issues to deal with when Greta clearly out-played Lee Johnson to earn the spot on the team as Ricky's Beater partner. There was a chance that Lee had held back a bit in that contest because he and Greta were semi-officially dating now, but nobody suggested that; and there was still no doubt that Greta was one of the best Beaters in the school.

Luke Summerby took over at Seeker from Madison, but while Lily liked Luke and he had some talent too; she also knew that he wasn't at the same level with her – or with Jonah and Andrea; and was going to have trouble taking over from the Arrows' rookie Seeker. Leanne Jordan had, apparently, won her Keeper job convincingly, but then that also meant that Hufflepuff might have issues at Chaser. Sure, their Chasers looked good on paper with Justine Finch-Fletchley getting back on the team again and taking Tory's spot along with returning Chasers, Drew Summers and Michael Macmillan, but if they were all having troubles scoring goals on Leanne, then she'd either gotten a lot better – and was a concern for the other teams; or the Hufflepuff Chasers had lost ground during the summer.

Either way, Lily was fairly-happy while having lunch; and excited about her chances at winning another Quidditch Cup – even before officially having her team picked for the year!

"Happy Birthday to Lily," Al said quietly as he smiled and handed a pair of Virtual Mirror glasses to Ray. They were getting settled into their seats at Ilkley stadium; and Ray was in the seat in front of Al – with both of them on the aisle; since Al was going to need easy access while helping to take care of Jaimie and Lorie.

"Thanks, but I already have a pair," Ray reminded him; and Al laughed.

"I know, but that pair is set up so that you can watch the Gryffindor tryouts – when we're not busy with this match. Gwendolyn and I thought that you might like to watch Cyndia prove that she's the best Chaser in Gryffindor this year."

"Thank-you!" Ray said enthusiastically; stood and hugged Al for a brief moment; and then looked around them. "Do you think anyone saw that?"

"Yes, but it probably won't ruin your rep," Gwendolyn suggested. "Keep us posted if you get any really good news." She smiled at Al. "I'm apparently not supposed to watch too; since I'm not Gryffindor."

"What difference does that make?" Ray asked. "Maybe that has made a difference in the past, but it hasn't mattered for the past couple of years; and probably won't change while your collective cousins are still on both teams."

"It probably shouldn't matter for tryouts anyway," Gwendolyn offered. "It isn't as if we don't find out who the players are on each team through the gossip network anyway – even for Slytherin."

"You could keep secrets starting at tryouts if you really wanted to do that," Al suggested thoughtfully. "James' idea for picking fourteen players and then choosing seven for each match could have been a good one if he'd used it the right way; and that would make it tough for other teams to prepare for matches when they wouldn't know which players they'd be up against."

"That only works if you have fourteen really good players," Ray pointed out. "Some of the Hogwarts teams have a tough time getting seven really good players – or at least seven that match up with all of the positions."

"There's that – and they'd also need to be able to mix things up and still play well as a team," Gwendolyn added with a nod. "That is a part of your plan for our team that is a big experiment, Al; and we'll have to see how it works out."

"Well, you guys have fun talking about that," Ray told her. "I've a Gryffindor tryouts to watch now – and it's likely already started."

Al knew that Lily had already gotten the Beater tryouts started, but he and Gwendolyn were soon busy with the twins again – and the start of the Catapults-Bats match. They needed the entertainment diversions – whether with the twins, catching glimpses of the Gryffindor tryouts, or chatting with the others in their game-watching group because the Catapults' Quidditch was so horrid pretty much from the start of the match. The Cannons were just two weeks away from their first match against James and the Catapults, though, so as much as Al disliked watching the match; he still focused a lot of attention on it – and thinking about the best ways to counter the dirty tricks and cheap shots as well as ideas for besting Louis and the Catapults' Chasers.

Getting to enjoy some glimpses of the Gryffindor tryouts and all of the sidelines fun helped to off-set the darker emotions that Al could sense from James and others; and he tried not to feel guilty while also knowing that James had his team playing the Bats the way they were intentionally to send a message to him – and to everyone on the Cannons. That was quite a contrast to the Gryffindor tryouts, but then Lily was different from both of ther brothers – a fact that she proved while holding the senior team tryouts. The part of Lily that was like Al was kind and encouraging toward everyone trying out for the team; and then there was the side that was a bit like James that popped up when she didn't put her Seeker job on the line at the last minute – though she tried to make light of that choice by invoking special birthday privileges and a Witch's right to change her mind whenever she chose to do that too. The jokes didn't really soften the blow for her top Seeker competition – or change the fact that she then only allowed Riley and Hunter to battle it out with the other Seeker hopefuls for the spot on the reserve squad; though Riley in particular tried to play nice about it despite his disappointment. Al didn't agree with that choice, but then it wasn't any different than what Ryan and Ricky had decided to do with Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff – and maybe he was just hypocritical about that sentiment anyway; since he hadn't actually believed that his job on the team had been at risk when he'd opted to do that during his one stint at Captain.

There weren't any surprises for the Gryffindor tryouts – in Al's opinion. Hugo replaced Rose as expected; Cyndia, Kathryn, and Melissa won the Chaser jobs; and Fred and Orlando were clearly the best Beaters in their House. That also all added up to a really talented team for Lily to work with – and probably put Gryffindor in top spot as early favorites to win the House Cup again – especially when they might have the best junior team too. That was good news for the Weasley clan, and since the Catapults were dominating their match against the Bats; that was true for the cousins playing the game at Ilkley too – even if some of the members of their family didn't like the way the Catapults went about trying to not just win, but embarrass the Bats' players.

By the time the Gryffindor tryouts were done, Al wished that the match they were watching was over too – and knew that James had no intention of letting that happen anytime soon. Attending a long match with the twins meant that Al and Gwendolyn had lots of opportunities for diversions as they helped to keep their nieces entertained, but the need to really watch and analyze the match too made for a very strange afternoon and evening. The joy of spending time with Jaimie, Lorie, and many of the people they loved the most was awesome; with the down side being that there were rotten reasons for why they were getting to have all of that family and friends time. The Catapults had the one-sixty lead by the end of the third hour, but James didn't try to catch the snitch and wouldn't let the Bats' Seeker get the catch for the loss. Instead, he helped Tiberius, Brock, and Scorpius to pound on the Bats' players mercilessly and run it up on their demoralized opponents.

The twins weren't aware of the worst that was going on above the pitch, but after those first few hours; they were more-interested in the sidelines adventures that went along with a long match – like stadium foods dinner; snacks; exploring; and even some visiting with other friends sitting elsewhere in the stadium. They had lots of time to do that, but after only having very short afternoon naps; the girls also, eventually, ran out of steam before James finally decided to end the match a few minutes into the tenth hour. Al knew that his brother's decision for that was all about having time to party for the rest of the night – and because he'd gotten bored; so even ending the game was entirely a selfish act. By then, Scorpius had led the way with thirty of the Catapults' sixty-six goals; and the eight-hundred-and-ten to sixty final score was an accurate record of just how badly the Bats had been outplayed – as well as how horridly four of the Catapults had played to 'earn' that so-called victory.

It was a relief to see that one-sided battle come to an end; and then Al and Gwendolyn were busy with getting their sleeping nieces home and into their beds for a while before they were able to wind down in the atrium with some of their team mates and neighbors. Al took care of a bit of work first too that included getting drinks and a snack put together; and then he joined Gwendolyn, Ray, and his parents around one table near the lagoon while the others were sitting at tables close-enough for them to include the entire group in the Quidditch chat that was already in-progress by then.

"Okay – Al's here now; so he can tell the rest of us how he's going to make sure that we have fun in our match against the Catapults," Brandon declared with a grim smile for Al; and he wasn't really making a joke of the statement. "The Bats certainly didn't have fun today, and even if we win our match against the Catapults; it doesn't seem as though we can have fun while doing that."

"We can keep talking about that tonight," Rose offered, "But by tomorrow; we'll need to get back to focusing on our match against the Prides next week. If we start looking past them to the Catapults; we could wind up losing both matches."

"Maybe you should keep me out of that discussion," Al suggested. "After watching that match; the kind of fun I'm thinking about having in that match is not the way we want to play the game with our team."

"Then that sounds like we really should get you to tell us those ideas," Ray told him with a laugh.

"It isn't," Al disagreed, "and since you're most-likely to end up matched up against Roman; that shouldn't be a problem for you – especially since I expect the McClaggens to leave you alone too."

"You think that James will have you, me, and your Mum as their top targets?" Gwendolyn guessed; and Al nodded.

"Yes – and we should help them out with that," Al agreed and added.

"You want to encourage them to bash your Mum and wife?" Seth asked. "I'm sure there's some logic there – though I can't see it."

"Al's suggesting – in his usual back-handed way – that we're better-off letting our fastest players deal with the cheating," Rose advised him. "He's also going to suggest that you and Brandon focus on protecting me because I'm more-vulnerable in goals."

"Protect you – and spend the rest of their time trying to keep Tiberius and Brock busy so they have less time to pound on us. They won't be able to stop everything, but as long as we can keep the hits from adding up; we'll likely be okay. I also saw a fair bit today that we can work with after the Prides' match that'll help us with avoiding hits too."

"I'm sure that we all saw some things they were doing today that'll help us," Ginny suggested. "Your ideas for Brandon and Seth are good, Al, but I think that we should let them battle it out head-to-head with Tiberius and Brock – because they're the better Beater duo even with all of the cheating the McClaggens are doing now."

"Do you really think so?" Seth asked in surprise; and Ginny smiled and nodded her agreement.

"Don't believe anything you're reading in the Quidditch news," she suggested. "I'd rank you and Brandon at the top of the league with Tina and Calvin. We'll have to wait and see how we do in those matches against United before we'll know whether they're still the top Beaters in the league – or you are."

"Thank-you," Brandon told her sincerely. "It might be a while before we can believe that, since we couldn't even get a decent offer with any of the other teams last year; but it means a lot that you believe in us."

"Don't you think that you got the best offer last year?" Ginny teased. "It's working out pretty well for all of us so far this season."

Brandon laughed. "We are happy; and I should just stop letting that bug me; since we probably wouldn't have been enjoying our jobs this much on any other team."

"Which is why we should talk about what we're going to do over the next few weeks to keep the fun going," Seth suggested. "Brandon and I are okay with focusing our game on the McClaggens, but that might not be enough to keep them from taking their cheating to new lows – especially if we do win that battle of the bludgers and they just decide to ignore them and fly around bashing into the rest of you."

"They might do that," Al agreed – "and I'll hope that they don't take that too-far; since I really don't want to find out how I play when mad."

"You don't want to go there; while the rest of us are half-wishing that you would," Gwendolyn teased.

"Where are the nearest lakes to Exmoor stadium?" Ray added with a grin. "That might be something the McClaggens will want to know before playing against us!"

Those jokes were a bit dark, and they had more of that kind of fun while talking Quidditch and winding down from a long, busy day, but Al also used that time to get happier again too – and then Gwendolyn helped him out with that once they went into their townhouse for the night and wrapped up their play day with some hot-rated bedtime fun.

Lily's birthday 'happy' had continued through the Gryffindor tryouts; she'd been happy with her new team – even though she could commiserate with Roxanne, Riley, and the other players that either ended up on the reserve squad or didn't make the cut at all; and then she had a blast with the birthday party that Jonah had set up for her in their new study classroom that was also a game-watching party for the Catapults-Bats' match. She played with her friends, went swimming a couple of times, and enjoyed the Quidditch action – even the worst parts of the battle; and then her birthday party wrapped up in time for dinner. They left the classroom set up for the ongoing game-watching, but while Lily and Jonah kept an eye on the match after dinner; he'd set up a quiet evening for two to wrap up her special day; and Lily was happy to share some teen-hot snogging fun with her boyfriend – along with some music play time and the Quidditch action.

Jonah didn't have a Prefect patrol, but he was also still a bit too-much like Al; and wouldn't stay out past curfew. Lily would have done that, but still had fun with the goodnight hugs and kisses outside of Gryffindor tower; and then she went on to have some bedtime girl chat time that was entertaining too. There were things that she could have wished for to have an even happier birthday – like spending time with her parents, Al, Jaimie, and Lorie, but she'd still had an amazing day; and she was sure that her school year was going to just keep getting better and better!

Al's daily life seemed to take a turn for the happier on Sunday as he got focused on work – and their first 'real' Quidditch challenge of the season against one of the top teams in the league. The Sunday morning entertainment wasn't all fun, since there was still a lot of chat about the Quidditch matches and Hogwarts tryouts on Saturday, but Al and Gwendolyn also had two interviews and an afternoon charity event that all ended up being very entertaining – including the interview that was yet another attempt by a reporter to ridicule them. Most of the reporting through to game time on Wednesday evening was biased and insulting toward the Cannons; and Al didn't help out with that by making the training workouts so much fun for everyone involved instead of taking the challenge of playing the Prides seriously.

While most reporters were happy to ridicule play time with the twins and other kids, the lack of competition with the Cannons' rotating 'reserve squad' players, and everything else about their training that was too-fun to be considered 'real' work; the one thing that those reporters wanted and didn't get was any juicy quotes or sound bytes from the players on either team that could be used to further trash their already-low opinion of the Cannons. Al and Gwendolyn hadn't expected any trash talking from their friends on the Prides' team, and while his team mates really wanted to win a lot too; Al was more-interested in making sure that his favorite people on – and supporting – both teams had fun first regardless of which team won. That was why he was so fired-up and happy when the Cannons were finally called out into Exmoor stadium. He smiled brilliantly while making the lap around the pitch with Gwendolyn flying next to him as they followed their Captain and his father; and then he had fun while sharing hugs, handshakes, and best wishes with all of the Prides' players and Managers. The referee took care of the pre-game formalities; and then Al lined up with Francine while Gwendolyn was paired up with Alice at center pitch for the quaffle toss.

"How is it that you're still managing to stay out of trouble for hugging other Witches?" Francine teased after Al shared a bonus good-luck hug with her before they got ready for take-off.

"That's all part of our game plan to distract our opponents tonight," Al joked with a grin. "Is it working?"

Francine laughed. "No, but that's funny," she assured him. "You must be glad that you're not a Beater. I doubt that your hugs would go over as well with Jensen or Stanley."

"I'd say that most of the Beaters in the league need to be hugged more-often," Al suggested, "but that's still weird for most Wizards; so I won't go out of my way to get our opponent Beaters mad at me."

That was all the chatting they had time for ahead of the quaffle toss; and then the game was on – and Al was happy to take their fun to the next level! Gwendolyn won the race for the quaffle; Peter soon made a great save on that opening play; and Al wasn't the only person in the stadium to laugh when Gwendolyn stuck her tongue out at her former team mate for winning that first little skirmish between them.

"Be careful, Hermione," Ginny told her sister-in-law and friend. "If you keep smiling like that, before you know it; you'll be a true fan of the game!"

Hermione laughed. "I already am a fan – when it's played like this – and when our kids are playing so brilliantly." They both stood and cheered when Rose made another save on a shot from Alice; and then sat again as Al caught the quaffle and the Cannons' Chasers went back onto the attack. "I don't know how you're putting up with all of the nonsense from everyone, but it's amazing to see Rose having so much fun out there tonight, and I'm more than a little jealous; since I never have that much fun at work – or at least it hasn't been fun at the Ministry of Magic for quite some time now."

"You're doing a lot to make this possible for our kids," Ginny told her seriously. "If you – and some of our friends – weren't doing the jobs you have at the Ministry; Al and Rose might not have felt free to play Quidditch instead." She smiled as she watched Harry and Pauline fly around in search of the snitch; and the happy she felt was in response to the joy and excitement she saw on their faces. "I'm constantly surprised too; since this has been so much better than I ever expected it could be."

"That isn't saying much; since we had no expectations at all back when the kids first started joking about playing for the Cannons," Hermione suggested.

"LOOK OUT!"

Hermione and Ginny both jumped at Muriel's outburst from directly behind them.

"Yeah, Uncle Al! Yeah, Aunt Gwendolyn!" Lorie and Jaimie added in turn as they all watched the end of the play that Al and Gwendolyn had just pulled off for the second goal of the match.

"Merlin – those two kids are going to scare me to death!" Muriel declared; and then laughed as Al and Gwendolyn met up for a quick mid-air hug before getting back on defense again.

"Don't be scared, Aunt Muriel," Lorie told her while reaching up to hug her. "They're only playing!"

"I'll try to remember that, sweetie," Muriel promised while sharing that hug.

"If I can, I'll try to warn you in advance," Ginny leaned back and offered. "Peter is a really good Keeper; so Al and Gwendolyn have a lot of tricks like that one planned for this match."

"That might help – though I doubt it," Muriel told her. "Those two are even crazier than you and Harry."

"In a brilliantly-fun sort of way," Ginny agreed. "If I wasn't having so much fun sharing the Seeker job with Harry; I'd be tempted to see how I'd do taking a turn playing Chaser with them instead."

"You have changed a lot just to think that," Hermione suggested. "Would you have ever agreed to do that when you first signed up with the Harpies after we finished school?"

"Yes – if I could have done that with Harry – and knew as much as I do now back then. It's still going to be another couple of years before that part of Al's plan can be put in place for every position on the team, and Merlin only knows how many years it'll be after that before he's proved right or wrong about whether it'll work, but I'm already convinced that it's brilliant for the players." She laughed; and then added – "if I'd been having this much fun during my first five years in the show; I might not have stopped to have kids!"

"I'm fairly-sure that you would have," Molly leaned forward and offered with a smile. "Isn't making time for that sort of thing part of Al's plans too?"

"It is," Ginny agreed with a nod. "Harry didn't offer to take time off from the Aurors to take care of our kids, though; so I don't know if that would have worked out for us or not – in that hypothetical past."

"Well, if that idea catches on at the Ministry; don't expect me to sign up and take turns doing Hermione's job," Ron interjected with a grin. "I'd be terrible at her job – and hate it nearly as much as everyone else would hate having me there again!"

"No doubt," Hermione agreed. "Would you take turns with Rose at Keeper for the next couple of years until Hugo graduates from Hogwarts?"

"I'd love to do that," Ron admitted – "if I could do that without all of the training work. If Al didn't help me out after the turns I've taken with the team scrimmages over the past couple of weeks; I'd have needed a month to recover from each of those workouts."

"And that's just from playing with the twins," Ginny teased; and then laughed again as they watched Al score an impossible-looking goal on Peter. She clapped and cheered; and then returned part of her attention to her brother and sister-in-law. "Being on the Keeper side of the practices for tricks like that one would likely be tougher than any match play, Ron; so maybe you'd do pretty well if you gave it a try."

"Al and Gwendolyn have been taking it easy on me – and you know it," Ron countered. "Brandon and Seth are doing the same; so at least one of us knows that I really don't want to join you and Harry on the team." He was smiling – as he did pretty much constantly now during Cannons' matches; and shook his head. "It's enough for me to finally have a Cannons team that is winning matches – and not getting those wins out of pure, dumb luck."

"You should hold off on that sort of praise," Ginny warned with a grin. "The Prides are the universal pick to win today."

"If anyone watching this match so far still thinks so; they're either Prides fans, delusional, or both," Ron declared.

"I wouldn't say that," Ginny disagreed. "The Prides are playing well, and Pauline is a very good Seeker, so unless we can earn the one-sixty lead; this match can go either way."

While she believed that was possible; Ginny didn't actually think that Pauline was going to win her duel against Harry – unless it was for the loss. The so-called Quidditch 'experts' could spout off all they wanted about how Harry was a never-been, too-old rookie, but they just didn't understand that he'd not only played against some of the best Seekers in the world – he'd taught and helped them to become great players. That thought had her laughing as she included the Seeker for the reigning league champions in that list; though their eldest son would never give that credit to either of his parents. The Quidditch match going on above the pitch was brilliant, though, so her thoughts and the conversation going on around her moved on as they enjoyed watching the non-stop action!

"Yes!" most of the group of Prides fans cheered as Alice scored the Prides' first goal against Rose near the half-way mark of the second hour. "Way to go!" Katrina added.

"Aren't you supposed to be cheering for your future team?" Lily teased from where she cuddled on a sofa with Jonah.

"I have been," Katrina reminded her. "That won't keep me from cheering for Mum's team too – and that was a great goal. Sixty-to-ten looks better too – especially when Rose is looking nearly-unbeatable tonight."

"That is only the third goal she's given up so far this season," Hugo advised her; sounding very proud of his sister. "Six-to-one is the best so far against her this season!"

"I don't want to jinx Rose, but the Prides will do better than that," Lily predicted. "Dad and Pauline are having a brilliant Seeker duel so far too; so this could be a very long night."

"Maybe for you," Denise offered from where she was working with the members of their study group that still had revision to get finished. "You can have naps during your study classes tomorrow, but most of us are too-busy to stay up late – and none of us have Al around to heal us from being too-tired this year."

"You could have cut back to five classes too," Lily suggested; and Denise laughed.

"No, I couldn't have done that," she countered. "Some of us have to worry about getting regular jobs after we graduate; since Quidditch will never be my thing – or even doing game announcing like Colin does so well."

Lily shrugged. "I get that – for the extra classes; but you don't have to worry about getting a job. Your parents have lots of connections through the Ministry, and if you don't want to work there; I'm sure that Malorie could find something you'd like through GO MagiSports. I'm fairly sure that she hired nearly half of Al's graduating class – at least from three of the Houses."

"She didn't hire any Slytherins?" Denise asked; and Lily shrugged again.

"Not that I know of," she confirmed. "I suppose it's possible; since they do have a lot of employees in their various companies now; and I haven't met all of them."

"Maybe you'll get to do that at the company Christmas party," Jonah suggested. "They might need to use the practice pitch if they do that for everyone, but I'm sure that'd be an awesome party."

"Even with the trouble magnet attending?" Lily challenged with a laugh. "Are you sure about that?"

"That's a good point, but he's done pretty well with all of the Cannons' events so far this season," Jonah offered. "Maybe he'll be able to start going to bigger parties without getting into trouble every time."

"He's going to get into trouble tonight if he keeps playing like that," Kathryn interjected as they all took a moment to cheer for Al's latest, amazing pass to Gwendolyn that led to another goal for the Cannons. "Has anyone ever gone out of a match for hugging-related injuries?"

"Not that I've ever heard of," Lily answered first; while joining in for the round of laughs too. "To be honest; I'm surprised that Jensen and Stanley haven't tried any bludger attacks while they're doing those hugs after scoring goals. They aren't taking time outs for them; so they could attack."

"Don't suggest that to the Falcons," Jonah told her. "They'd likely do it."

"Lily has a good point," Melissa agreed with a nod for her friend. "Would you try and attack if you were out there, Katrina?"

"Definitely," Katrina answered. "It hasn't worked when I've tried that in practices with the team or scrimmages at home, and I doubt it'd work in a league match either; but I'd still try."

"Keep that in mind when you're sharing mid-air hugs with Fred after good Beater plays and your opponents try to bash you," Jonah teased. "I expect that sort of thing to happen a lot with the Cannons once all of the couples are playing in the show."

"Really?" Lily asked. "Who do you expect to be hugging during matches? What about Seth and Stephanie?"

"Shutting up now," Jonah decided.

He did that, but the girls had fun teasing him before getting back to the game-watching and changing their chat topic. Most of their game-watching group also studied for most of the time through until they needed to pack up ahead of curfew; and then Jonah walked Lily home; went out on Prefect patrol; and left her to continue watching the brilliant Quidditch match in her common room with the large group of Gryffindors that were into watching the match – whether that was in support of their Gryffindor alumni or in hopes of watching them get beat by the Prides.

Lily was happy to cheer for all of her favorite players on both teams; and only hoped just a little bit that the Cannons would lose and quit looking quite so brilliant while having so much fun!

Al smiled brilliantly, but had to settle for a wave for Gwendolyn after scoring the goal that gave them the one-sixty lead; since they had to rush back onto defense. He paired up with Francine again; laughed when she offered a mild insult; and continued to have fun as they resumed the Chaser battle that she was enjoying as much as he was – even if that wasn't showing up on the scoreboard for the Prides. Earning that lead led to a step up in the Chaser battle as Alice, Francine, and Daniella tried to at least get that lead down to one-fifty or less, but they didn't manage to do that; and Pauline suddenly had a much-tougher job trying to defend the snitch while the rest of her team tried to outlast the Cannons and eventually give her a chance to earn the win.

That choice was a bit of a problem for Al, since he didn't want to run up the score on their friends, but then the effort that all of the Prides' players were putting into the attempt at a comeback worked out to a near-draw as the two teams pretty much began to trade goals as they rolled into the sixth hour – and past-midnight. The fact that everyone was having fun had everything to do with why they didn't get tired out even after a long day and night; and the Prides were happy to play on as long as they were at least able to keep the score within reach of the one-fifty lead. While that continued to work out for them, the near-stalemate for the Chasers didn't help Pauline in her battle against Harry.

Al sensed how everyone was doing, and knew that Pauline was getting worn down as they headed into the seventh hour. He really wished that Gwendolyn's aunt would make the choice to order Pauline to go for the snitch catch for the close loss – even as he wanted his father to keep their Seeker winning streak going, but that didn't happen; so he played on; kept having as much fun as he could; and then he enjoyed what he could sense of the game-winning moment when Harry earned the Seeker duel and match victory at the six-hour and forty-eight minute mark with a fairly-spectacular play that included a spinning dodge of Pauline's attempt to block him; and then an amazing play to get back to the snitch and make the catch.

"Insert bad word here," Francine offered as the whistle blew; and she could tell from Al's smile alone that their battle was over. "Congratulations, Al. I like you just a bit less now than I did about seven hours ago."

"Thanks – and I still love you just as much," he answered. "We'll likely all wish that we didn't stay up playing so late tonight when it's time to get up for work in the morning; but that was a lot of fun!"

"It was – right up to the part of the match where my team lost," Francine offered; and then turned her attention to Gwendolyn as she flew up next to Al. "Are you sure that you want to hug and kiss him again? He just finished telling me that he still loves me – even though I don't like either one of you as much as I did before this match started."

Gwendolyn laughed. "I've gotten used to sharing Al with other Witches – as long as that's in a mother, sister, or cousins sort of way. Do you really like us less now?"

"For right now – yes," Francine assured her with a laugh. "I'll probably get over that in a day or two."

"Give or take a month," Alice added as she joined them. "Congratulations, guys. We didn't believe any of those gits that were predicting a blow-out win for our team, but that feels worse to me right now; since we were ready to play our best." She waved a hand toward their brooms. "Our owners are not going to be happy about buying our new brooms now that they know that yours are even better."

"That works for me," Francine told her sister. "Blame it on the better brooms. That way we can pretend that Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray aren't better than us."

That joke was turned into a news sound byte during the post-game interviews when Francine repeated that joke to a group of reporters, but Al had fun with that; and with the rest of the action and entertainment on the pitch. He and Gwendolyn stayed together for the fun they had with the Prides' players and managers; she took the lead for their interviews; and then there was some fan time before they could head for the locker room. There was just a bit more fan fun when they were ready to head home; so it was heading toward four o'clock by the time they got home. That didn't leave them with much time to sleep; so they headed for their bed; and actually did get started on the nap they had time for before needing to get up and going again.

"Happy Birthday, Hermione!" Harry and Ginny chorused as they joined the breakfast party at the cafe.

"Is it?" Hermione asked tiredly as she stood to share hugs with them. "You are both far too-happy looking for getting no sleep."

"We've had a couple of hours of rest," Ginny assured her – "and Harry's going to explain to you why we're so happy."

Hermione laughed when Harry helped her out with some quality fatigue healing while sharing the birthday hug; and then laughed again when Ron's scowl turned into a rueful smile when Harry then went on to put hands on his friend's shoulders so that he could heal him too.

"I think that she likes your second birthday gift of the day," Ginny told Harry.

"With the first one being that win over the Prides?" Hermione guessed. "Ron's happy about that; but I'd have rather gotten the extra sleep."

"I thought that you did nap for a while when we were taking our turn cuddling the twins around midnight," Ginny suggested.

"I was tempted; but only closed my eyes and listened to the match for a while," Hermione answered. "Let's sit down. I don't have that much time for breakfast because Emma and I have our first meeting at eight-thirty today."

"That doesn't sound like a fun way to spend your birthday," Ginny told her. "Why didn't you book the day off?"

"If I had, Ron would've just wanted to come here and watch your practice – or play too," Hermione suggested in answer. "I'll save up the time off for when we can spend time with our kids and best friends – which might only be in the off-season and during holidays for the next few years."

"Or longer," Ginny agreed with a nod and smile. "We should talk about ideas for holidays with the kids next summer sometime soon, but since you don't have much time right now; let's get to the food and have you open your gifts."

"We can do that," Rose offered, "but when you get around to talking about those holidays; don't forget that we're hoping to be playing Quidditch next summer too – in the Europe Cup."

Ginny laughed. "You might be a step closer to an invitation for the Cannons after last night, but even if that doesn't happen; you've given me an idea for taking trips with Lily and Hugo; since they'd love going to some of those matches – just as we did for the last Quidditch World Cup trips."

While Hermione's birthday and having breakfast was most-important; their conversation ended up including a discussion about the Europe Cup and the possible vacation opportunities that could go with the four rounds of that competition in June and July. They really didn't have a lot of time to spend together before Ron and Hermione left for London; and then it was time to get back to work for the Cannons' players – starting with Al and Harry helping the rest of their team mates out with some fatigue healing as needed before moving on to their usual morning play time. The win over the Prides didn't change anything about their work and training, but it did have a noticeable effect on the reporters covering the league as they scrambled to explain the 'impossible' victory; and justify their ongoing low-opinion of the Cannons.

Those efforts were the top entertainment for a lot of Quidditch fans on Thursday morning, but they soon had even more Cannons-bashing fun to enjoy as James, Tiberius, and Brock resumed the taunts and insults they'd been offering during all interviews while getting ready for their first match against the Cannons. They professed to be happy that they'd be the first to defeat the Cannons' Clown Brigade and prove the experts right – and promised to crush them with an epic, record-setting, blow-out trouncing! The reporters took every quote from the Catapults and used them to bolster their own claims and opinions, so by late-afternoon on Thursday; Al, Gwendolyn, and their team mates had to work hard to play nice while putting up with all of the repeated insults and redoubled efforts to tear them down. That's why they were ready for a fun break by Saturday morning when they picked up Jaimie and Lorie and headed for Hogsmeade to have their first visit of the school year with their favorite Hogwarts students!

"Now I feel bad about saying all of those awful things about you back at the castle when you weren't there to give us a ride to town," Lily joked as she hopped off of her hover board and stepped up next to Al. She stroked his soft, sleek-black nose; and then jumped back and laughed when he tried to lick her.

"She didn't really do that," Jonah advised them as he slowed to a stop. He'd been running on charmed shoes; and hadn't been far behind Lily. "You didn't usually do carriage rides on nice days anyway; and Lily loves her new hover-board."

"I expected Mom and Dad to come today," Lily said next as she moved on to climb into the carriage and take turns hugging and kissing the twins.

"They've got the morning interviews," Gwendolyn advised her. "Your Mum is going to call when they're done and make sure it's okay for them to visit too. We don't want to mess up your reputation by having a huge gang come here to see you every time we can."

"I think that we'll be okay for this weekend," Lily decided. "It's only a week past my birthday – and there will be some visits you won't be able to do while busy with the Cannons." She grinned then before adding – "just be prepared for the extra haters you'll have today after winning that match over the Prides."

"Haven't you kept up with the news?" Gwendolyn asked; grinning too. "That's for the best; since we're going to be destroyed next weekend by the Catapults – and that wouldn't be nearly as much fun for them if they would have just been the next team in line to beat up on us."

"I have heard that," Lily assured her, "but the only thing that would be worse for James than finding out he's delusional about all of those claims would be what I'll do to him if he actually does do anything to hurt Mum next weekend."

Gwendolyn laughed. "It's too bad that Rose is having us play nice with the reporters; since that'd be a great quote to give them."

"James wouldn't be worried, but I'd better not say more; since we have little ears listening in and I don't want to say anything I shouldn't."

"Bad words?" Lorie asked with a giggle. "Play nice, Aunt Lily!"

"I'll try, sweetie," Lily promised. "Let's get everyone we can fit into the carriage; and head for town. You can tell me all about what you've been doing since we had our last mirror chat."

Lily lent her hover board to Jonah; most of her girlfriends were able to get in the carriage; and then Al pulled them to town while the boys followed along – whether they tried to keep up; or just took their time. There was another round of hugs after Al changed back to human form; and then they got right to the shopping. Lily had Al help Jonah, Hugo, and some of the other guys with the 'boring' shopping, but that still felt different for Al even as it was too-much the same as most of his Hogsmeade weekends while attending Hogwarts. That meant a bit less time with Lily too, but they had fun when they could; and then Harry and Ginny took their turn – and took custody of the twins; while Al and Gwendolyn moved on to do a late-morning interview and then attend a team VIP luncheon that was kid-fan-friendly and one of the parts of the job that they were really proving to be brilliant at for representing their team and GO MagiSports.

Their work for the weekend wasn't done after that, but they did have the rest of the day off on Saturday; and spent that time at home and with their friends. They watched part of a Quidditch match; had a take-out dinner in the atrium with six other couples; and then they had a play evening that included hanging out with a rotating group of friends and neighbors; a bit of play and swim time with the twins; and an early bedtime that didn't include going to sleep while turning the heat up on their fun for a few hours. The public relations work on Sunday only took a couple of hours; Al and Gwendolyn spent the free parts of their morning with his parents and the twins; and then they spent the afternoon and early evening with Kirley and Gwenog ahead of what was going to be a very busy week for both the Cannons and Harpies as they got ready for their next matches on the last Saturday of September.

The play time on the weekend was a change for their work days, but even with the ongoing drama with the reporters and the gamesmanship directed at them from four of the Catapults' players; Al and Gwendolyn had a lot of fun with their training during that last five days leading up to what they were sure would be the first match in a new rivalry between James' Catapults and their Cannons. They didn't have any extra activities for family or friends to deal with in addition to their work responsibilities, but that just allowed them some extra time to spend with their parents, Malorie and the twins, and their friends when they weren't busy with their training and other team-related activities. By Friday, they were ready for that weekend Quidditch battle, and while expert opinion continued to be against them; they were really looking forward to – hopefully – proving all of the naysayers and haters wrong!

James had a jaunty, confident smile on his face as he sauntered into the Exmoor stadium lockerroom that was assigned to the Catapults; and inclined his head as any good king would when his arrival earned the attention of everyone else in the room. He didn't like what he saw on the faces of his team mates and managers, but couldn't ignore their ridiculous worry and lack of confidence. He truly thought that was crazy too. They were defending league champions going up against the team that had the worst record in the history of the game; yet even the McClaggens looked unsure of themselves.

"Thanks so much for joining us, your Majesty," Daniel told him with a feigned subservient bow. "You have less than a half-hour to get ready; so I hope you warmed up at home."

James laughed. "I did – though my alternate workout probably wouldn't be approved by the team."

"Too bad," Brock offered with a grin. "Our work weeks would be a lot more fun!"

"Right up until you'd find out during our Quidditch matches that you actually need to practice a lot to win in the show," Daniel told him.

"Or you could all try to be like me; go with the alternate workouts; and win at everything!" James half-taunted. "Pull yourselves together! We're the defending league champions; and I shouldn't have to keep reminding you to act like it!"

"You know why some of us feel the way we do," Louis told him. "Instead of getting into that fight again, though, I'd only like to suggest that if the rest of us can't pull off your 'destroy the Cannons' Clown Brigade' plan; then you should try to win the day for us before they can get the one-sixty lead."

James shook his head in disgust. "I am seriously getting sick of that kind of talk, cousin. Do you honestly believe that you're that bad at Keeper compared to the Weasel? You're also basically saying that you don't have any confidence in our Chasers or Beaters – league champion players all! For Merlin's sake, Louis, if you're truly that bad, then you should quit; and go get a job sitting behind a desk pushing parchment instead!"

"I think that's a no to your suggestion," Miya told Louis. James snorted derisively.

"That request is self-defeating," he countered. "Get out there, do your jobs, and destroy those clowns; and then I'll put them out of their misery once you've done that – if there are any of them still in the stadium by then instead of their hospital beds!"

"We'll do our best," Tiberius told him, "but Mum likely won't talk to us for a month if we succeed; and we're going to blame that on you."

"Or thank me if it turns out that you like the break from your parents," James countered.

"Just get ready," Daniel told him; his tone as neutral as he could manage while fighting the urge to knock some sense into his 'star' player. "You don't want to be late and lose by forfeit."

"Don't worry about me," James insisted. "I've been looking forward to this match for months – which is why the rest of you had better get it together and not mess it up for me!"

"Happy Birthday again!" Lily told Kathryn as she welcomed her friend and team mate into the classroom that was now set up for a birthday party and game-watching afternoon. "You're just in time for Lee's expert predictions, and then, because it's your birthday; we'll have the second-best match of the day on the big mirror while I keep an eye on the Harpies' match on my portable mirror."

"That line would've worked better on Melissa," Kathryn suggested. "I only have a cousin playing in that Cannons' match. We all know that actually will be the best match of the day, though; and I expect that nearly every teen and tween in the school will be watching it too."

"No doubt," Lily agreed. "The Slytherins will be watching it just to get new ideas for cheating from the Catapults."

"And to watch them destroy the Cannons," Melissa added. "Let's not go there, though; since there have been enough problems around the castle thanks to all of the Slytherin bullies that have come out to play since we got back here."

"It didn't take them long to figure out that they could get away with a lot more now that Al isn't here," Lily conceded with a shake of her head. "I've only had a couple of problems on top of the usual insults and razzing, but that didn't go well for those Slytherins; so they've left me alone since then."

"Then maybe you should start up a patrol to help all of the younger kids," Kathryn suggested.

"We already have Prefect patrols," Lily reminded her, "and while I can defend myself well-enough; I don't have Al's talent for sensing danger or whatever he was doing to stop pranks and ambushes before they happened. I have helped some of the younger kids that have been bullied with some wheezes or other suggestions for staying out of trouble with the bullies; but I don't want to try and replace Al as some kind of school enforcer."

"Here come the predictions," Melissa interjected with a nod toward the mirror. "I'll pick the Cannons and Harpies for the wins today."

"That first one is a bold prediction – according to most of the Quidditch reporters," Jonah teased.

"Maybe she's simply picking the teams with Witches at Seeker," Hugo suggested. "I guess that's true for the Keepers too today, but the experts hardly ever predict winners based on the Keeper match-ups."

"Maybe not, but if Louis was being honest; he'd pick Rose for the win over him too," Alyssa offered. "She's bested him pretty much all of the time for the past four years."

"I've wondered if she'd have bested Louis in her first year – if he'd put his job on the line for the junior team that year," Lily told them. "What an idiot!" she added as one of Lee's experts picked the Wasps for the win over the Harpies. "He obviously needs his head examined!"

"I think the Harpies will win too," Jonah told her, "but Aaron can still win any match; so it wouldn't be a major upset if he did that today."

"It'd be a major upset for me," Lily warned; "so you'd better hope that doesn't happen!"

"Go Harpies!" Jonah declared enthusiastically.

They all watched for a while as Lee and his experts went on to have a majority pick the Harpies; and then Lee had the only vote for the Cannons while the others all picked the Catapults to win that match – based entirely on their collective expertise, of course! Lily really was keeping an eye on the Harpies' match too; so she split her attention between both mirrors as the teams were called out into the Exmoor or Yorkshire stadiums.

Kathryn might be the guest of honor for her party, but by then; everyone in the room was focused on one or both Quidditch matches!

"Last chance to change your minds about that kneazle-catapult gag for our team entrance," Gwendolyn teased as they waited to be called into the stadium.

"No," Rose said before Al could. "We can talk about that for another, future match, but we're not going to start this first match out by looking like the clown brigade they think we are already."

"That won't change regardless of how well we play today," Ray pointed out. "I really hope that our game plan works; since it's going to be fun finding out how this loss for the Catapults is going to be Al's fault."

"Stay focused on the match," Rose cautioned; though she was smiling too. "I know that Al wants us to have fun too, but let's watch out for each other out there and stay safe. We won't be having any fun if we get hurt – or lose this match."

"Take another look at Al – and Mum," Gwendolyn suggested with a laugh. "We are not going to lose today, Rose."

Harry sat in the owner's section with Malorie, Jamie, Lorie, and the rest of their usual game-watching group – along with a handful of VIP guests. He was smiling and fired-up as the Cannons were called out into the stadium; and joined in to cheer for them along with Lorie and Jaimie. They'd cheered for James and the Catapults too, but Harry enjoyed what he saw and sensed from 'his' team; and hadn't liked anything about the Catapults – which was a harsh admission to make when those players included one of his sons and a nephew. The interaction between the two teams wasn't fun to watch either; and was enough of a contrast to the other matches so far for the Cannons that even the twins noticed.

"Why aren't they hugging?" Lorie asked him. She was in Malorie's lap; and he had Jaimie sitting with him.

"Your father's team doesn't usually share hugs with their opponents," Harry reminded her. "That's just the way they are."

"They should hug more," Jaimie suggested. "That must be why our team is happier."

"I'm sure you're right about that," Harry agreed; and then nodded toward the pitch. "There you go – some hugs and kisses."

Those embraces were only among the Cannons' players, since not even Miya and Louis gave their opponents the opportunity to share hugs with them when they were under orders to do their worst against their enemy; and then it was time for the players to line up for take-off. Harry watched as Ginny lined up next to James, and while he wasn't surprised to see and sense the interaction between them; he still felt bad that Ginny had to put up with being treated that way by one of her own children. There were changes for the start of this match, since Al lined up at center pitch next to Scorpius for the quaffle toss and opening chase to win first possession of it; and that pairing was probably even more of a contrast of Light and Dark – though without the verbal jousting and insults.

Once they were set, the referee tossed the quaffle high into the air; and the game was on!

Al smiled as he won the race for the quaffle because he was going to make sure that he had fun regardless of how horrid the Catapults tried to be toward him – or with his favorite team mates. Scorpius opted to back off and go directly on defense after losing that battle; so Al turned toward his own goals before getting the first offensive play set up.

"Tiberius at four o'clock low in three... two..." he warned his mother. His smile brightened when she flipped out of the way on one; and then Tiberius ran into James while Ginny avoided both of them and headed in the opposite direction.

"Thank-you," she told him. "Don't get mad. I'll be fine."

"If they know what's good for them," Al added; and then continued with his own job.

He'd already passed the quaffle to Gwendolyn; she'd tossed it on to Ray; and then all three of them converged on a spot at the edge of the goals line from three different directions. Ray was above Al and Gwendolyn when he dropped the quaffle and swerved away while blocking Roman from helping to defend against Al or Gwendolyn. While it looked as though Gwendolyn would get that drop pass, instead of doing that; she and Al met and flipped around so that he could take the pass while Scorpius needed to dodge her spinning broom. Al hit the accelerator; took his broom into a drift; and then he hit the brakes in a way that pushed his body out over the top of his handlbars while he also let go of the quaffle. While hanging on to his handlebars; Al stretched out; twisted; and kicked the quaffle past Louis and through the far-right goal. He laughed at his cousin's open-mouthed astonishment while continuing his flip through until he was back on his broom – if inverted; and then he raced toward Scorpius while Louis chased down the quaffle.

"I'll save the hug for that one for later," Gwendolyn teased. "That was awesome!"

"Fun too," Al agreed; and then he had to work to keep the smile on his face as he added – "Down hard; roll right!"

Gwendolyn immediately responded; and Al watched as Brock whiffed on his attempt to blindside Gwendolyn and hit her with his Beater bat flat against his forearm so that the force of any hit would be hardest. Brock didn't run into Miya, but the missed cheap shot did mess up the Catapults' first offensive play and all three Chasers had to back off and get set up for another run toward the Cannons' goals. That was fun for Al and Gwendolyn, since it gave them a moment for a quick fly-by hug; and then they got ready to help Rose with defending their goals.

"Remind me again how your brother ended up with a reputation for being boring?" Kathryn asked Lily. "He's supposedly playing against the hottest Chaser in the league – according to Kylie Cootes; yet Al's the Wizard to watch in that battle."

"I'd say that Al's hotter too – especially in that uniform," Denise offered with a grin before Lily could answer the question.

"Al's never been accused of being boring when it comes to Quidditch," Lily reminded her friends. "This is a bit more-extroverted than normal for him, though; so I'm going to guess that he's setting something up for the rest of the game – or just trying to get the Catapults to try and stop him instead of pounding on Mum, and Gwendolyn."

"But not Rose?" Hugo asked; and Lily shook her head.

"No – because Brandon and Seth are protecting Rose. That's likely part of the game plan too. They won't get any credit for it, but I haven't even seen Tiberius or Brock even get close to Rose without having Brandon or Seth getting in the way; and a bludger hasn't even gotten in the way of a defensive play yet either."

"Maybe we should think about that kind of strategy for our matches against Slytherin this season," Stephanie suggested thoughtfully. "Everyone else needs to be really careful without Beaters protecting them very much; but it could work for us too."

"I'll look at that for our team too," Lily told her, "but the Cannons have other advantages that we don't have – at least for all of our players; so that might not work as well for us."

"That strategy doesn't work very often in the show," Jonah suggested, "but going back to what you said before; what do you think that Al's setting up by the way he's playing now?"

Lily shrugged. "We'll have to wait and see, but my guess is that he'll try to get the Catapults to slow him down – and then let them succeed."

"And then just set Gwendolyn and Ray up instead," Jonah added with a nod. "That might work too."

That strategy proved out, but it took a while to develop; and Al scored four of the first five goals for the Cannons before the Catapults did try to adjust their game play and began to try and slow him down by early in the second hour. James wasn't happy with that decision, since it pulled Tiberius and Brock away from focusing on helping him with trying to knock Ginny out of the game, but it also seemed to be effective because Al didn't score another goal for more than an hour; Scorpius got the first goal for the Catapults; and some of the Catapults players settled in and even seemed to be having fun with the battle and challenges. There were still non-stop efforts to bash on the Cannons by any means necessary, but Tiberius and Brock weren't successful with those attempts – beyond supposedly stopping Al from scoring goals; and the Cannons players worked together to constantly watch each other's backs. Some cheap shots and foul attempts hit their marks, but their uniforms protected them from the worst of those hits; and it got easier for Al, Gwendolyn, and the rest of their team to enjoy the match play too as their game plan was proving successful in nearly every way possible.

The Harpies and Wasps were having a good match too – especially for the Harpies fans, but even though the scoring for the Harpies and Cannons was a near-match; the Wasps were doing better than the Catapults in keeping up. That's why the score was one-forty to ninety as both matches headed toward the end of the third hour when Gabrielle won the day for the Harpies – and her duel over Aaron Lynch. The Quidditch watching continued with the match on the large mirror for Lily and her cousins and friends, but the end to the Harpies match also led to some banter between the Harpies and Wasps fans in the room.

"That's one for my Mum this season," Caylee teased; directing that comment at Cameron Lynch. "Tell your Dad that it's all your fault."

Cameron joined in on the round of laughs before responding. "I will – and he'll think that's funny too; though he won't be happy with that loss. Our team is having a tougher start to the season than we'd expected."

"I'd say that every team that has played the Cannons so far this season has that same problem," Caylee suggested. "I know this is only Aunt Ginny's third match so far, but Mum thinks that she's playing even better than she did the last year she played for the Harpies while Mum was off work with me."

"Dad would agree with her on that," Cameron assured her, "but since your Mum won today; I'll probably have to cheer for the Cannons when they play the Harpies. When is that match?"

"In the middle of November," Lily answered – "and Mum will be the Cannons' Seeker for that one." She grinned at the other two girls. "She'll be happy to have extra fans cheering for her; since I'll be cheering for my team to win!"

"Over your own Mum, brother, sister-in-law, and cousin's team?" Caylee asked in mock amazement. "That just seems wrong!"

Lily shrugged unapologetically. "They chose to play for one of the other teams – not that Al had a choice to play for the Harpies. That's just a small sacrifice I'm willing to make for my team – and future team mates." She nodded toward the mirror. "Compared to what James is trying to do today; I'd say that my lack of support for my family when they're playing against my team is nothing. It's not as if I'm suggesting that the Harpies should do whatever they can to beat up on them."

"I'm just glad that the Catapults are totally failing at that," Jonah offered.

"They've managed to pretty much shut down Al's scoring," Kathryn pointed out. "That's a win for them."

"Is it?" Jonah asked in return. "Al hasn't scored another goal, and Scorpius now has two against him since Al's last one, but the score is one-thirty to thirty heading into the fourth hour; so the Catapults are still being out-scored four-to-one. That's even better than they did against the Prides."

"So you're saying that Lily was right – and that they've just switched to having Al be the playmaker," Melissa said with a nod of understanding. They've been making the Catapults' best and dirtiest Chaser feel as though he's now winning his battle against Al while letting Gwendolyn and Ray best Miya and Roman. I guess that can work when all of your Chasers are better than your competition."

"I wouldn't have ranked Ray higher than Miya or Roman," Kathryn advised her cousin.

"You should," Stephanie countered. "Sure, he's third-best to Al and Gwendolyn, but keep an eye on his numbers as we go along this year; and you might be surprised at just how highly he'll be ranked among all of the league Chasers. I'll predict that he'll be top-ten by the end of the season; and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets all the way to top-five."

"Thanks to Al and Gwendolyn," Kathryn countered.

"In part," Stephanie agreed, "but I've played against him a lot this past summer, Kathryn – and with Al and Gwendolyn; so I know that it isn't easy to keep up with them; and he really is a much-better Chaser than he gets credit for."

"Watch out, Cyndia," Lily teased. "Stephanie seems to like your boyfriend just a bit too much."

Stephanie laughed. "I love him – in a brother or cousin sort of way. Cyndia knows she's got nothing to worry about from me."

"Or any other Witch – if Ray knows what's good for him," Cyndia joked. "It's funny now that Ray fought against Rose's dream and plans practically right up to this past June, but he gets it now, so even if he might have been able to be the top Chaser on one of the other teams; he knows that wouldn't be as great as it is getting to play with his best friends on the Cannons." She nodded toward the mirror too. "This match is a perfect example. Every Cannons' player is smiling and having fun out there. Louis, Miya, and Roman look as though they've started to enjoy the competition too even though they're behind, but all of the Catapults' players had a totally-different attitude at the start; and James, Tiberius, and Brock are not having fun. I'm glad that I won't be playing for one of the teams that are like the Catapults."

"Shouldn't you hope that the Cannons stop doing quite so well?" Cameron asked. "I've heard you talk about sharing playing time the way they're already doing with their Seekers, but if they keep playing this well; I don't get why they'd want to do that and risk messing things up."

"Don't point that out to them," Lily teased. "I'm hoping that will happen – just in time for me to get to the show with the Harpies!"

"What Al wants to do with the Cannons is an experiment," Jonah reminded everyone. "They want to win some championships along the way as much as any other players do, but that isn't the top priority. Win or lose, they want to be happy, have fun with the people they love the most, and enjoy life." He smiled at Lily. "Some of us were on the losing end of training scrimmages on a regular basis last summer; and we were too-happy to care. How many players on other teams in the league – or here – can say the same?"

"Possibly none," Cameron admitted. "I guess we'll have to wait until the Cannons lose some matches to find out whether they can truly still be happy regardless of the wins and losses."

"Maybe," Jonah agreed, "but I'll hope that Al's plans work out so brilliantly that the Cannons just get to be happy all of the time and win a lot!"

Al switched up his game play to adjust for the changes that the Catapults made as they stopped trying to knock him out of the match and returned to trying to attack Gwendolyn and Ginny. That change hadn't been ordered until much-later than he'd expected, but as they – the Cannons – closed in on the one-sixty lead; James' managers had needed to try something to keep Gwendolyn from scoring so many goals. Heading into the fifth hour, Gwendolyn had led the way to a one-ninety to fifty lead, and since she'd scored ten of those nineteen goals; it really was amazing that it had taken the Catapults so long to realize that she'd been responsible for more than half of the scoring.

The changes that the Catapults made actually started to hurt their own team. Tiberius and Brock were frustrated and angry at their lack of success in even mildly hurting any of the Cannons' players; so their renewed efforts to pound on Ginny and Gwendolyn caused problems for their own players – especially Miya; since she needed to be ready to dodge bludgers or cheap shots from her own team mates when Gwendolyn avoided them too. Scorpius had gotten a bit complacent in his own Chaser duel by then too after scoring three goals and not giving up any to Al; which was why Al's fifth goal of the match almost seemed easy as he imitated a passing play to Gwendolyn that they'd used several times; used one of their variations that changed it into a scoring attempt for him; and then he totally surprised Louis with that change-up for the goal that temporarily gave them the one-fifty lead.

Miya quickly redoubled her efforts again, and though it took three more exchanges on offense and defense; she got that goal back again to keep the Cannons twenty points away from that all-important one-sixty lead. Ray earned the next goal for the Cannons – his sixth of the match – just ahead of the half-way mark of the fifth hour; and then the match play kicked up another notch or three as the Cannons' Chasers worked together to try and get the next goal while Miya, Roman, and Louis tried to stop them; and James, Scorpius, Tiberius, and Brock all pushed even harder to try and seriously-injure any of the Cannons' players. Those attempts to cheat and injure helped Al out a lot; so a little bit of anger went along with all of the happy as he went in on goals against Louis at the same time that Brock missed bashing into Gwendolyn after she'd completed a pass to him; and James and Tiberius were trying to beat up on his mother while she was trying to race for the snitch against James. He sensed it all playing out in front of them; and laughed as he sent his broom into a wild spin and vertical slide higher before hitting the brakes and taking the shot.

"Albus Potter scores for the two-twenty to sixty lead!" the stadium announcer declared; and Ginny smiled brilliantly.

"It's all yours,' she told James as she hit the brakes and gave him the free shot at the snitch – while also avoiding Tiberius' attempt to sandwich her between them.

"Son of a B-Witch!" James spat; and then Ginny was truly surprised when James peeled away to the right while Tiberius went left – and they left the snitch completely undefended.

It took some effort, but she kept the laughter locked up while hitting the accelerator again; shooting between the two Wizards that were already too-far away from her; and then she victoriously caught the snitch without any fancy tricks or plays to end the match and give her team the brilliant, three-seventy to sixty victory!

"WHAT THE HELL?" James bellowed at the same time as the referee blew his whistle and the stadium announcer said – "and Ginny Potter has caught the snitch!"

"Get out of there," Gwendolyn warned. "They're coming after you!"

"Let them," Ginny answered quietly as she braked and turned to face James and Tiberius.

"You're a dirty, rotten cheat!" James shouted as he barreled toward her. "I'll kill you!"

"I'm not – and you won't," Ginny told him as she sent her broom straight up at the last moment while James missed her completely. "You don't want to do this, Tiberius," she added as he came after her too.

"Yeah, I really do," he disagreed with a vicious smirk on his face – righ tup until Ginny let her broom drop straight down again; he missed too; and then he got to watch as Ginny's team mates converged and then surrounded her protectively.

"You're all a bunch of cheats!" James bellowed as he flew back and confronted them.

"How did I cheat?" Ginny challenged; nudging her broom forward so that she was between Al and Brandon. "Just because I told you that the snitch was all yours to catch for the loss? Did you think that'd mean that I wouldn't still try to catch it for the win if I got the chance – or that I'd be happy to fly around and let you and your mates keep trying to knock me out of the game until you did?" She laughed at the expression on his face. "You thought wrong; so thanks for making that catch so easy for me!"

"It isn't going to be easy for you at all," James promised. Come on, boys – I'd say that it's past-time to..."

"...Play nice and get on with the post-game fun," Al said quietly; moving forward and actually hooking James' broom handle through his handlebars. "Keep hating me all you want, James, but we're not going to get into a brawl with you; and you really don't want to even try to start one."

"Yes, I really do," James disagreed; and then glared furiously at Al as they both simply began moving down toward the ground in an arc that would lead them to center pitch. He tried to take a swing at Al, but a slight adjustment had that punch missing by a foot or more.

"Stop it, James," Al said earnestly. "I don't want to have you look the fool, but I won't be letting you hit me ever again; so it's your choice."

"Fine," James spat. "Let go of my broom."

"Once we're on the ground," Al agreed, but then he gritted his teeth and added – "hang on!"

He didn't just hit the brakes; he accelerated in reverse. Because of the way their brooms were locked together, and thanks to a partial spin; he brought James along with him – and then had to dodge an attempted elbow to the face as Tiberius missed both of them with his attempt to hit Al in the back of the head with his Beater bat. Brock's attack was altered in response, and Al had to deal with the shouted warnings in his earbuds, but he spun out of the way of that attack too; kept James with him for the ride; and even ducked Brock's back-handed bat swing and another punch from James before resuming their descent.

"That was almost fun," Al told James while actually smiling and a bit fired-up by the successful danger-avoidance. "I hope you're done now, though; since I doubt you want that laughter that's starting up to be at your expense."

James looked ready to offer another retort, but then he actually started to listen to the roar of laughter that was rolling around the stadium – even from the Catapults' 'side' of the pitch. "Son of a B-Witch!" he spat as they landed and Al unhooked their brooms and stepped away from his brother. He looked up as Scorpius was first to land next to James; and then nodded when his rival for the day didn't attempt an attack too – though he looked as though he'd really like to lash out at Al.

"Good game – mostly," he told them; and then smiled brilliantly when Gwendolyn landed; stepped close; and shared and enthusiastic hug and kiss with him. "Make that a great game," he teased with a laugh. "I love my job!"

"What a coincidence – so do I," she offered; laughing too. She turned to look at James; and smiled. "You'll be okay, James. Just remember rule number one."

"What does that mean?" Scorpius asked her; and she laughed again.

"It's all Al's fault," she explained. "You should try it. I even use it now and then; so it comes in very handy."

"You're both freaks," James spat. "Stinking, rotten, cheating freaks! Get away from me before the stench of you makes me puke again."

"You can put your want away," Hermione told Harry. "The happiest player in the league isn't going to let the Catapults start that brawl."

Harry smiled ruefully and did as ordered while hugging Jaimie. "I'm glad of that; since Ginny would have felt bad later if she'd needed to knock some sense into those boys."

"Would she?" Ron challenged. "I don't ever remember her feeling sorry after blasting me – or anyone else."

"Okay, you might be right about that," Harry conceded after joining in for the round of laughs and giggles. "I'm glad it's over, but it's too bad that it ended that way; since they'd been having a pretty good Seeker duel to that point – for the most part."

"Grandma won and Daddy got mad," Jaimie offered helpfully. "It's just a game. He was bad to yell at Grandma."

"Bad Daddy!" Lorie added with a giggle. "He needs a time out!"

"Or a nap," Jaimie suggested. "Mummy makes us take naps when we get cranky and yell too much."

"Don't suggest that to Uncle Al," Harry told them. "He might think that's a good idea and make us take afternoon naps at our practices."

"That'd be fun," Jaimie told him.

"No way!" Lorie disagreed. "No more naps! Play all day!"

"We can talk about that some other time," Harry told them. "Let's pack up; head home; and then you can play in the atrium while some of us get things ready for a late celebration dinner for our favorite team."

"Are the Harpies coming over?" Lorie asked with an impish grin; and giggled as that earned a round of laughs from all of the adults that overheard her.

"They aren't," Harry answered, "but we are going to have a visit from Teddy, Victoire, and Dora for a little while tomorrow; so you'll at least get to see one of your favorite Harpies' players."

After spending the majority of five hours sitting down, the twins were happy to go along with Harry and about half of their game-watching group; though they stayed long-enough to catch the short exchange between the two teams and the start of the press conference before getting out of the stadium. Jaimie and Lorie ended up getting great-grandparent supervision once they were home so that playing in the shallow end of the lagoon was one of their play options; and Harry recruited helpers to set up tables and get ready for a minor dinner party while waiting for their Cannons' players to get back from Exmoor stadium too.

Lily was having dinner in the Great Hall with her usual group of Gryffindor friends when her mother won the match for the Cannons; so she hadn't gotten a very good view of the catch – even after it was covered in the replays. It had been obvious that James had messed up by abandoning the chase for it and then forgetting that he still needed to defend the snitch even with his team behind by one-sixty, but then he'd been such a git all through the match that she didn't feel sorry for him at all. The nonsense immediately after the snitch catch had been ridiculous; and she'd joined in on the laughter as her mother and brother made James, Tiberius, and Brock all look the fools for trying to start a brawl and pound them. The bad little part of her that didn't want the Cannons to be doing so well wasn't happy about them now beating the most-recent two league champions teams – in just a week and a half; and it worried her a bit that she'd again have a really tough act to follow getting to the show two years after Al. That didn't keep her from celebrating with her friends; and they spent the rest of the meal time watching the post-game interviews and commentary while talking about the match and a bit of gossip related to the reactions from everyone in the Great Hall.

"You and the other three Cannons fans here at Hogwarts are way louder than I expected possible," Denise told Hugo. "More than half of everyone here was jeering that catch and win, but your cheers were loud enough to hear even with all of the razzing."

"Maybe we'll get to catch the end of a match next May and find out how the cheering for the Cannons compares to the jeers by then," Hugo suggested. "There are a lot more fans now than last year, but Rose's team will need to win a lot more before they'll keep those fans for very long."

"She won't get enough credit, but only giving up six goals against the defending league champions is awesome for a match this long," Lily offered. "Belinda's likely still ranked number one for Keepers, but Rose must be second; so that match against United should be a good one."

"I'm sure it will be," Kathryn agreed, "but that's also going to be another battle between cousins; and I won't be surprised if my sisters and your cousins end up being nearly as mad as James is right now. Belinda really wants this to be their year to win another championship; and she won't want the Cannons messing that up for her – especially when those two matches have also been sure-wins for United."

"I'm okay with that," Lily assured her with a grin. "They'll be in trouble if they mess with my Harpies, but then I feel that way about United, the Prides, and every other team. Victoire's back, and they're starting to play pretty well again; so I like our chances this year too."

"Well, this match is over, so instead of going on about Quidditch; maybe we should talk about what we're going to do for the rest of the evening to celebrate Kathryn's birthday," Melissa suggested. "We haven't exactly done a lot of partying yet today."

"I'd be happy with more pool time and watching a show or two on that mirror we still have set up in our study classroom," Kathryn advised them. "That party was only supposed to be for the afternoon anyway; so it's my own fault for spending more time watching the matches than I did playing."

"Well, I was planning on going off with Jonah and doing our own thing if the match was over in time, but I suppose that we can hang out with the rest of you instead," Lily decided. "Would you like us to invite anyone special to be your cuddle buddy tonight?"

"Let's not even talk about my total lack of dating success," Kathryn told her seriously. "I'm beginning to wonder if Melissa and I have been caught up in some family curse."

"Maybe we just need to find the right pair of Wizards for the two of you," Lily suggested. "Lorcan and Lysander are still a bit young, but they might be worth waiting for; and they're a matched set."

"That'd be a long wait at our age," Melissa pointed out. "I don't like that idea at all – even for Wizards with their hot potential."

"Well, kathryn's over-age now, and you will be soon too; so we could look at older Wizards," Denise suggested. "How about a pair of Chasers or Keepers out of the league?"

"Are there any pairs of either that are actually available and that we'd want to even seriously consider?" Kathryn asked.

"Not to mention that there are a lot of Witches playing Chaser on the best teams in the show," Melissa added.

"You're so picky," Lily teased.

"Look who's talking?" Kathryn countered. "Jonah might be the best Wizard in our year; and it still took you more than four years with him at the top of your potential boyfriend list before you agreed to officially start dating him!"

"How about that Quidditch match?" Hugo interjected. "Can you believe that it's the end of September and my Cannons are in first place – and still undefeated?"

"No, but point taken," Kathryn answered. "I'd rather talk about that match anyway. There was a lot going on with the Cannons that we could use this season – even for those of us who don't have one of those brooms."

James stalked into the locker room, and was surprised to see it empty. Make that almost-empty; he amended in growing annoyance when he spotted Ritchie getting a last few things packed up and ready to take back to the Catapults' training pitch. He knew that he'd been stuck dealing with reporters and fans much longer than the rest of the players on both teams, but even when he had to deal with the idiots and their stupid questions after his team blew the match for him – again; he had to suck it up and keep his fans happy.

"Where is everyone?" he demanded of Ritchie. "I'd like to have a nice long chat with my team mates about what happened out there today."

"They're either at or on the way to the team dinner," Ritchie answered. "The owners set this one up expecting a sure win to show off their team to a bunch of VIP guests; so it's on despite the loss – though they're not any happier about that than you are."

"I doubt that they're nearly as furious about this as I am," James scoffed. "Half of our team went into that match believing they were going to fail – and then they all did exactly that!"

"We did," Ritchie agreed, "but we can talk about it on Monday – and then move on and get ready for our next matches. Right now, you need to hurry and get to that dinner party." He held up his portable mirror and then pocketed it. "Go with the jokes you made about taking it easy on your poor old Mum and that line about her lying to you about the snitch being all yours tonight. They'll at least go over well-enough with the owners and their special guests – even though we all know it's total rubbish."

"That's exactly what she did!" James insisted; and Ritchie nodded.

"Yes, and I heard her admit that in one of her interviews," he agreed, "but we also both know that she meant that she stopped defending the snitch against you – not that she wouldn't try to catch it if she could." He shook his head at James' reaction. "Just let it go and move on, James. I get what happened with your brother scoring that goal for the one-sixty lead and then having your Mum basically taunt you to go for the catch for the loss. You lost your mind for a second; and Ginny took advantage of that opportunity. Except for that moment, you played a great match against a former league and world-champion Seeker. You won't likely face her again this season, so go out and make the best of what happened; and then forget about it."

"Maybe I'll do that," James decided grudgingly, "but if the rest of my team can't even believe that they're winners, let alone play like the defending champions that we are; then we'll need to make some changes around here."

Ritchie laughed as he picked up the equipment bags he'd finished packing. "Well, if you need to make that happen, remember that you semi-liked that little bit of advice from me when you start talking about sacking people," he suggested. "Better to keep the assistant manager that you know instead of getting a new one that might bug you even more than I do." He looked at his watch and shook his head. "We have about a half-hour to get to that party before they'll be sitting down to dinner. Try not to be late. The owners really weren't very happy when they left the stadium."

"Too bad I can't fire them," James groused.

"Maybe you could get all of those bored, rich Witches that like to play with you to buy them out," Ritchie joked; and James laughed.

"Now that's a great idea – especially when it comes to the fun I'd have in the asking!"

Al had enjoyed the post-game interviews more than he likely should have; and he always had fun spending time with their youngest fans while signing autographs and talking with them, but he was also glad to get home; and then sit down to a late dinner with Gwyndolyn, his parents, Malorie, Patrick, and the twins. Their team mates and the rest of the dinner guests were at tables that were set up around the shallow end of the lagoon, but they were able to take a real break and enjoy the food and family fun.

"While you were having fun at the stadium after the match; we had some good news on the business side of the job," Malorie advised the players at the table.

"The Animorphmagus Catapults were a big hit?" Gwendolyn guessed; and Malorie laughed while glancing at the new toys that her girls had kept with them since Grandpa picked them up for them at the stadium.

"Well, they did well too, but I was actually talking about a surge in new ticket sales through the TicketWizard MirrorApp. Ruth could be sold out of our allotment of team tickets through the end of the Christmas holidays within days now; and she's selling a lot of tickets for the top-team match-ups for the second-half of the season too – including for the Catapults' match."

"I'm so glad that I'm just a rank-and-file Auror and don't have to worry about such things," Patrick only half-joked. "All I got from your comments is that GO MagiSports is probably doing pretty well so far – which isn't a surprise to me when their new team is undefeated even after playing the top two teams from last season." He smiled at Al and Gwendolyn. "Did you even expect things to go this well for you so far?"

"Al probably did," Gwendolyn answered; and then laughed. "I still had lots of doubts about the entire idea even a few months ago; so this is better than my best hopes."

"Which is good for me," Al added with a grin for his wife. "Gwendolyn promised bad things for me if we didn't do well with the Cannons after messing up her dreams for a brilliant future with the Harpies."

"No wonder you're so motivated," Patrick joked. "Why haven't you mentioned that story to any of the reporters?"

"Maybe we will – some day," Gwendolyn offered. "That might be a fun story for sometime after we win a championship, but most reporters would just make fun of us over that right now." She shook her head. "Even after these last two wins they're still trying to insult us; and I won't be surprised if we're given no chance to win against United either when they switch to that story by tomorrow or Monday."

"Those reports seem to help you more than they hurt," Patrick suggested – "though I don't get how some players that have played with or against you at Hogwarts seem to believe all of that nonsense. The Prides were ready to play against you, but I don't think that the Catapults even had a real game plan today – other than to try and knock each of you out of the match."

"I think that was the only game plan," Ginny suggested. "It's worked for them in the past; so the McClaggens in particular didn't know what to do when they couldn't really even hurt any of us."

"Brandon and Seth won the Beater battle today," Harry added with a nod of agreement. "while Tiberius and Brock spent all of their time trying to bash our team, they quietly had a fairly-brilliant match. They broke up dozens of Catapults' offensive plays; helped Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray on offense; and did that on top of keeping Rose safe all afternoon. I wonder if any of the reporters covering the match even noticed all of that."

"A few would have," Ginny assured him – "even if they cover the McClaggens story instead just because they're so overt and appropriately-dangerous for the best Beaters in the show."

"That's too bad," Al offered; "and I'll hope that a nicer, more-technical Beater game will catch on in the league thanks to Brandon and Seth."

"You'd say that about the entire game," Gwendolyn pointed out; and Al nodded and shrugged.

"Yes, but I'd be okay with it if everyone would just play by the rules – even if they prefer to play rough instead of working on Quidditch skills."

"Playing tough is a skill," Harry pointed out. "We need to work on that part of our game – at least for our matches against the Falcons."

"We can work on taking the hits," Al suggested, "but I don't want to ever play like they do – even if we tried to do that without breaking any rules."

"Which is why all of the kids love you," Ginny told him; and then laughed. "I'm not sure whether to worry about you surviving in the show; or wonder whether the league will survive the changes you'd like to see happen."

That semi-joke had Al thinking about that idea for quite a while as their chat moved on and they enjoyed the meal. They spent another couple of hours playing with their friends after that; and then Al and Gwendolyn ended their day with some quietly-hot play time for two after they headed for their bed not long after helping to get the twins tucked into their beds for the night. While their first five wins with the Cannons wasn't changing the league forever, Al did think that it was a good start; and he thought that his vision of a happier, better league was a good one – just as he wished for the same for the Wizarding World in general.

Having those happy thoughts heading into the scariest month of the year might be a bit too-optimistic – even for him, but when he eventually drifted off to sleep; Al was still brilliantly-happy and hopeful that their Quidditch season – and lives – would continue to be scary-amazing instead of just plain scary!