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!

93. A Go Orange Easter

Chapter Ninety-Three – A Go Orange Easter

"Good morning!" Lily declared cheerfully as she welcomed Jonah with an enthusiastic hug and kiss outside of Ravenclaw tower. "Happy April Fools' Day!"

"Same to you," he assured her; playing along with how she'd obviously decided to work things out between them. "I'm getting to like this day so much; I'm thinking about making it my favorite holiday – or just making every day April Fools' Day."

"That's an idea," Lily agreed.

"Or not," Stephanie interjected as she and Alyssa joined them – along with the rest of the gang that had been with Jonah to find out whether they were going to need to blast Lily depending on if she'd been pranking him. "Welcome back, Lily, but you don't have to have April Fools' Day every day."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lily said; and Stephanie shook her head.

"Whatever you say; but none of us want to put up with April Fools' Day jokes and pranks every day of the year; so try to keep that in mind before taking your joke too far."

The news stories from home and Hogwarts continued to impact Al, Gwendolyn, and nearly everyone close to them on Wednesday – and through the rest of the week. While that could range from fun to weird – and sometimes both; Harry's new record and Lily's resumption of her relationship with Jonah added drama to their lives; the Cannons also had to move on and start getting ready for their next match – against the Wasps. They once again only had a week and a half between matches, but with the occasional three-second-long match thrown in here and there; that schedule wasn't tough at all! Al continued to change up their daily training; the collective happiness rolled along; and then they were able to take the weekend off with only a few work-related activities on their schedules along with a visit to Hogsmeade for a handful of the Cannons' plyaers along with a set of twins. While Ray went to spend the day with Cyndia, Al and Gwendolyn had his parents, Jaimie, and Lorie with them for a morning-only visit with Lily and Jonah; and they met them in town because Lily could apparate and bring Jonah along for the ride.

"Happy April Fools' Day – again," Ginny teased as she hugged Lily – getting her turn to do that after Jaimie and Lorie were finished with their first blast of fun with Lily and Jonah.

"I've been told to stop doing that," Lily advised her – "though I don't know why. My first day of the month was especially-brilliant; so I just wanted to have a few more days just like it."

"Or maybe a few thousand," Ginny suggested. "At least your April Fools' Day joke didn't break any of my records."

Lily laughed. "You loved that – and James will survive being on the wrong side of that record. The way he was acting before and after the match; I'm glad that the joke ended up being on him."

"James does make it tough to feel bad for him when things aren't going his way," Ginny agreed. "So what's the plan for this morning? Get the boys to do all of the boring shopping while we go and play with the girls?"

"That works for me," Lily agreed – "though some of my friends are busy with Apparition testing this morning. Hugo's taking his test too."

"Is he okay?" Harry asked with a grin. "I hope that Ron hasn't been messing with him just because he didn't pass his first time taking that test."

"Only because he splinched a bit of an eyebrow," Lily added with a nod. "Yes, Hugo is okay; and yes, his Dad has been messing with him. We will need to watch out for apparating teens; but that'll only get weird if any of them get distracted and end up apparating themselves into one of the stores or something."

They continued to chat as they got started on the shopping. Lily and Ginny took Jaimie and Lorie with them while leaving Harry, Al, and Jonah to get started on the boring supply shopping. Jonah hadn't stopped having mirror chats and visits with them, but spending time together was a lot better now that he and Lily were back together. That wasn't something they talked about. Harry and Al were as happy as Jonah was to just accept the changes and move on. They did talk about Quidditch, school, and home, though; and kept busy and entertained until they had that work done; met up with their favorite girls again; and eventually went to the Three Broomsticks for an early lunch. That meal was a last blast of fun before Lily and Jonah were left alone, but they didn't head back to Hogwarts then – Lily took Jonah to their family cottage at Camp Cannonball so that he could see the place for the first time since Christmas.

"I'm amazed that this place has been empty on any Hogsmeade weekends for you to come here and hang out," Jonah told Lily after she talked about her visits to the cottage over the past few months. "It's a good thing that our townhouses are so amazing; or everyone would want to live here instead."

"That might work for a holiday here and there," Lily suggested, "but I don't think that we'd all want to live here full-time. Once Al has the entire camp built; I expect that there will be quite a few people here year-round. We're going to really see a lot of changes around here over the next couple of months. Al's been working on the buildings since Christmas – or before that; so it'll likely all come together nearly as quickly as the buildings went up around the Cannons practice pitch."

"I wouldn't trade my summer job for working here, but the counselor jobs working with groups of kids every week is going to be amazing."

"It's a safe bet that the Cannons will be involved with the camp and kids," Lily pointed out. "You'll like that better than taking care of the kids day and night; and it might be a bit scary with the teens and tweens – especially when you'll know most of them from Hogwarts."

"They might have other plans for teens our age," Jonah suggested. "It's not as though we'd need the same kind of supervision that the kids will need. Do you even know what they're going to do yet?"

"No," Lily admitted. "I just expect it to be like a bigger version of the day camps we've done over the past two summers."

"That's a lot to do seven days a week – especially when you add in the full-day activities we've done when we've had the campfires and camping nights," Jonah pointed out; and then laughed. "Okay, maybe I wouldn't want that job for the entire summer. That might be just a bit too much work."

"Al likely has a plan for that problem," Lily told him. "It's still annoying more-often than not, but he wouldn't want any students to work that hard all summer – even if they wanted to do that an earn as much money as they could."

"I'm sure you're right," Jonah agreed; and then changed the subject with a hug and kiss. "Thank-you for choosing us," he told her seriously. "This place – and everything else we're going to be doing – wouldn't mean anything to me without you to share it all with."

"You'd have been okay either way," Lily assured him with a grin. "Jaimie and Lorie had a back-up plan for you."

Jonah laughed again. "That was an awesome back-up plan," he agreed, "but it'd be tough to wait twenty years for them – and then have them change their minds about that when they realized I was too-old for them by then."

"I thought that you were going to wait for me forever," she teased. 'Now you're suggesting it would have been twenty years tops – if my nieces were still interested in you by then."

"You know I'm just joking about that," Jonah told her. "If you didn't decide to choose us; I wouldn't have ever tried to make a life with another Witch because that would never be fair to anyone else when I'd never be in love with anyone except you."

"You're so sure of that," Lily said; and Jonah nodded.

"I am," he agreed. "That doesn't mean that I was sure that things would work out for us – I just knew that I only have one choice when it comest to you and me; so I'm really glad that we're going to be okay now."

"Are you sure about that?" Lily asked.

"Yes," Jonah agreed. "Don't you feel that too?"

"I think so," Lily answered – "though I'm not sure how you can be so certain."

"We're going to be a lot better than just okay, but that doesn't mean we won't still have challenges," Jonah pointed out. "Our families and friends are amazing – including any that you're currently mad at; and as long as we're together; we'll be able to handle anything that comes our way – both the amazing and brilliant and the not-so-much-fun stuff."

"I should've never let you spend all of that time with Al this morning," she teased. "It'll take weeks to get you back to normal!"

While Lily and Jonah moved on to spend some quality time snogging each other senseless until they needed to get back to Hogwarts, Al and Gwendolyn had an afternoon team event that was for the kids; and that they had fun with for a couple of hours during the early afternoon. They moved on from there to do some work at Camp Cannonball – after Lily and Jonah were gone; they had dinner with her parents; and then they joined some of their neighbors and friends in one of the Virtual Mirror System rooms to watch a new virtual show that was out at the Virtual Mirror Theater in London in time for Easter. Sunday was another work and play day, but Al and Gwendolyn spent the evening on their own; enjoying some quiet play time for two and a good night of rest ahead of a very busy work week with a full Quidditch schedule.

With the two-week countdown on to the Easter holiday, the league Quidditch schedule seemed to be crammed together because of the late timing that put Easter so close to the end of the regular season. While the Cannons got ready for their match against the Wasps on Saturday; the Harpies and Catapults were playing evening matches on Wednesday and Thursday against the Bats and Magpies respectively. While the Harpies and Catapults were each expected to win those last matches of the season against lower-ranked teams before finishing up their last two matches against two of the other top teams – including the Easter weekend match against each other; they were still important for the playoffs standings; and matches that needed to be watched by the players on the other teams that could end up playing against them in May. That's why Rose had her team doing their 'homework' both nights; and everyone began that game-watching at the cafe so that they could hang out together – and with quite a few of their neighbors.

"The Harpies are going to win this match – barring one of those freaky, anything-can-happen Quidditch moments," Rose said as she settled in to watch the Harpies-Bats' match at a cafe table with Brandon, Al, Gwendolyn, Seth, and Susannah. "That'll give them nineteen wins; so they can still get to twenty-one if they win their final two matches. The Prides are the only other team that can even get to twenty wins now, right?"

"Yes," Gwendolyn agreed. "The best United can do is seventeen – including winning their match over the Harpies; the Catapults can get to fourteen wins plus that tie if they win-out; and then there are four teams battling it out for sixth-through-ninth spot. That'll come down to the end, I expect – though we might knock the Wasps out of the running if we win this weekend."

"We'd better keep that in mind," Brandon offered. "They haven't been out of the playoffs in quite a while; so they'll be motivated on Saturday."

"That isn't true for the Bats tonight?" Seth asked. "They might not be playoffs-bound, but jobs are usually on the line for the bottom-five teams; and that can be a big motivation too."

"It can be," Rose agreed, "but the Harpies need this one too – especially since it sounds as though there will be a big difference in the first round match-ups for the teams that end up in second and third place."

"I'm more-interested in which team we're most-likely to end up against in the first round," Seth told them. "I know this is not going to happen, but would it actually be in our best interest to help the Wasps get that eighth spot in the playoffs? I'd rather go up against them than the Falcons or Tornados for that first playoff match-up."

"We're three wins away from an undefeated regular season," Gwendolyn reminded him. "You're right – that isn't going to happen."

"Al would rather have us play the Falcons in the first round anyway," Rose suggested. "We'd have the best chance of getting out of that battle without serious injury."

"I'd be happy if the Falcons were one of the teams that didn't make it into the playoffs anymore until they started to play nicer with the other Quidditch kids," Al suggested. "They might not ever change because it's the right thing to do, but if they start getting hit in their Gringotts' vaults; that might help them to figure out that they need to play differently."

"It really is a good thing that you don't want to work at the Ministry of Magic," Susannah teased. "You'd reform all of the bad guys; and put all of the Aurors out of work!"

"That would be great too; but won't happen," Al assured her. "I don't expect to get rid of the bad guys in the league anytime soon either. There are still lots of Quidditch fans that like their teams and players to be mean and unscrupulous."

That was certainly-true, but the Harpies-Bats match was one of the 'good' Quidditch contests that Al liked. The Bats played hard, but while the Harpies out-scored them by a two-to-one margin; the lead was only one-forty to seventy when Gabrielle ended the match in three-hours and twelve minutes with a great snitch catch that was one of the highlights of the night. That victory had the Harpies just two wins behind the Cannons, but Rose wasn't worried about that, since even if they didn't manage to win all three of their final matches of the regular season; there was basically zero chance that they'd lose all three. The Harpies, on the other hand, were going to have a tough end to their season with matches against the Catapults and United.

Thursday night Quidditch was a near-opposite to the Harpies-Bats' match. James led the way in a truly-ugly battle. Al and Gwendolyn had to wait until morning to get the details after only watching it until they needed to be home ahead of their team curfew, but the first-half of the match that they did watch had been bad-enough – and got worse from there. James and the McClaggens put the Magpies' Seeker into his bed at St. Mungo's; worked on running up the score against Ollie, Landon, and their team mates while trying to knock more of the Magpies out of the game; and then James apparently got bored after hours of doing nothing but flying around and acting like a git; so he caught the snitch at the six-hour and thirty-minute mark for the six-forty to one-seventy victory.

Al was glad that he missed the worst of that match, but also needed to focus on the Cannons' training on Friday – though he had to deal with some questions from reporters about James' great victory. That focus on his brother's team really should have been amusing – if not for how the Catapults were earning their victories; since the fact that the Cannons were only three matches away from an undefeated season was largely ignored by most reporters. Some substituting of reality was likely involved, since their favorite haters just couldn't reconcile the facts with their desire to see the Cannons fail spectacularly. Dealing with all of those distractions took time, but didn't affect any of the Cannons players; so they were ready to play their best on Saturday afternoon.

There was Quidditch going on at Hogwarts too – the last junior team match of the season between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Al and Gwendolyn didn't try to attend, but Ray was able to go and see Cyndia; and Ginny took the twins there too so that they could spend time with Lily while Harry, Al, and Gwendolyn were busy with work and the final preparations for their match. While they would have liked to support their junior team friends, Al and Gwendolyn missed a very short match because it only took Cameron Lynch thirty-five minutes to best the Slytherin Seeker to earn the quick two-hundred to naught. Elle Kirke played brilliantly to stop everything the Parkinson twins could throw at her in an offensive shoot-out that Gryffindor won too thanks to poor Slytherin defense and a Keeper that the Gryffindor Chasers could best because they'd discovered bad habits that allowed them to guess corectly on nearly every scoring attempt. The early victory cut back on the time Lily got to spend with her mother and the twins – or that Ray had with Cyndia; but it worked out great for the Cannons' game-watching plans because the victory party was before lunch in Gryffindor tower; and Lily was able to spend the rest of the day with Jonah after that while Ray went to meet up with his team and Ginny had fun with her granddaughters through to game time.

"I thought that the Wasps would look happier," Jonah told Lily as they watched the Wasps' players land at center pitch. "They have as many family and friends' connections with the Cannons as any other team – and more than most."

"When you add in the Ministry of Magic and Auror connections," Lily agreed. "I'll guess that they look like that because they need to win-out to make it into the playoffs; and that's not looking very good for them today."

"Will they really be out if they lose?" Jonah asked. "I didn't realize it was that close for them already."

Lily shrugged. "Technically, they wouldn't be out if they lose today, but they'd need lots of help from other team losses that wouldn't be very likely."

"Then this match is going to be more-interesting than I thought," Jonah decided.

"Why would you say that?" Lily asked; and Jonah shrugged.

"The Cannons will play their best to keep the undefeated season going and the Wasps will keep playing regardless of the score if this really is a must-win match for them – like every team would normally do in the playoffs when losing means you're out."

"You're likely right," Lily agreed. "I should look it up and see whether Mum had any matches like that near the end of their undefeated season."

"Or you could just send a mirror message and ask her," Jonah reminded her. "The more I think about this, though, the more I'm feeling sorry for the Wasps and their fans. Aaron can win any Seeker duel he's in, but if the Cannons get the one-sixty lead; he won't be able to defend the snitch indefinitely – not against your Dad."

Ginny was enjoying the Quidditch action above the pitch at Exmoor while keeping busy with Jaimie and Lorie, but after a mirror message exchange with Lily; she had come to the same conclusion that Lily and Jonah had reached; and didn't want to see this match turn into a marathon battle that would just end badly for the Wasps. That outcome was looking more-likely as Rose kept a shut-out going while Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray earned the one-sixty lead fairly-quickly – with just minutes to go in the third hour. Harry did as he should and stopped trying to defend the snitch against Aaron – even though that would mean losing his first Seeker duel of the season – and his professional career. Aaron didn't try to end the match for the loss, though; so that battle between them got weird as Harry only took best chances to end the match; Aaron played brilliantly to keep that from happening; and then there were long pauses where not much of anything was happening in their duel. With the match-winning lead secured; Ginny took the opportunity to take the twins for washroom breaks and a chance to get out and stretch their legs and explore. Hermione went along; and then they got to have some bonus fun when they crossed paths with some of their favorite Wasps' fans.

"I know why the grandparents and grandkids needed a break on our side of the stadium, but things are going well for your team; so why are you out here?" Christine asked Ginny.

"We're tiring Grandma out so she'll be able to sleep tonight," Lorie answered before Ginny could; earning laughs from the adults.

"That sounds like a good idea," Christine told her, "but we'd have liked this match better if you'd tried to tire your Grandpa, Uncle, and Aunt out last night instead."

"They went to bed really early," Lorie advised them – "even before me and Jaimie!"

"They did try to tire them out yesterday during our training," Ginny advised Christine. "Maybe you should be cross with the twins for helping out so much with our team conditioning."

"Maybe," Christine agreed. "They're causing more trouble with the Quidditch kids for other teams too. The reporters make fun of your training, but our grandkids don't see why they can't play with their parents at work too."

"We'd be happy to have them come and play with us," Ginny offered. "Your kids are growing up so fast. You start at Hogwarts in September, right, Doug?" Douglas Madley was Nicolas' youngest; the oldest of the cousins still not at Hogwarts. Christine had all three of them with her.

"Yes," he agreed. "I'll be eleven in August."

"I still have one more year to wait," Bella chimed in. She was Kate and Aaron's middle child; and her younger brother, Jayden, nodded his agreement as she added – "and Jayden will be the last of us at Hogwarts the year after that."

"I remember," Ginny advised them. "We saw Cameron's match this morning. She played very well; though the Slytherin Seeker wasn't quite up to her speed. Lily's very happy. Gryffindor will win the Quidditch Cup if they win their final senior team match; and could still win the tie-break even if they lose."

"They won't lose," Bella declared. "Cameron said that Slytherin lost their best Seeker when she went to play for the Tornados at Christmas."

"They have a pretty good back-up Seeker," Ginny told her, "but you could be right; since he hasn't played against Lily since her third year – and she has her Hurricane broom now."

"Cameron wants one," Bella offered with a nod; and then turned her attention to her grandmother when Christine laughed.

"Your father wants one of those brooms," she explained – "and he has one of the new Lightningstorms."

"I haven't flown a Lightningstorm yet," Ginny interjected, "but I love my new broom a lot more than my old Lightningbolt. The Hurricane won't be fore every Quidditch player. You have to be just a little crazy to try some of the tricks that you can do with them."

"You're not crazy, Grandma," Jaimie offered.

"Okay, let's call it daring then," Ginny suggested. "Everyone that has a Hurricane so far has found out that falling off is an option while learning to fly it properly."

"I've never seen you fall off," Bella told her. "You're the best Seeker in the league right now!"

Ginny laughed. "I'm not sure that's true after Harry beat my fastest catch record, but thank-you – and I have fallen off a lot in practices. We can use magic to keep from getting hurt in practices; and we never, ever try any tricks in a match that we haven't practiced until we get them right every time first."

"You make all of those tricks look so easy," Bella said; and Ginny nodded.

"It does seem that way – when you don't get to see all of the practices when things don't go so well. Are you still playing all of the positions except Beater?"

"Yes," Bella agreed. "I don't know if I want to be a Seeker like Dad and Cameron; a Chaser like my aunt, uncles, and some of our cousins; or maybe try to be a Keeper; since nobody else is doing that in our family."

"It is tough following older siblings and cousins," Ginny told her. "I had that problem with five of my brothers. I'm sure that's why Al decided to be a Chaser instead of playing Seeker like his parents, brother, and sister."

"That seems to be working out well for him," Christine teased – "though it seems to me that growing up playing Quidditch with Gwendolyn might have had something to do with that decision."

"No doubt," Ginny agreed. "Is there anyone I don't know about that Bella really likes to play Quidditch with?"

"Yuck – no!" Bella exclaimed.

"Double-yuck!" Lorie offered with a giggle.

"Triple-yuck!" Jaimie added; giggling too.

The kids took over the conversation then; they moved on to wander around the booths together for nearly twenty minutes; and then headed back to their seats on opposite sides of the stadium with fresh drinks and snacks – except that Bella went along with Jaimie and Lorie to play with them for a while. Watching the Quidditch battles above the pitch was brilliantly-entertaining, but that was heavily in favor of the Cannons. The Wasps did break Rose's shut-out in the fourth hour, but Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray continued to put on a Chaser clinic. The fact that everyone was having fun despite the frustration that the Wasps players were dealing with helped a bit with the disappointment for the Wasps and their fans as it became clear that they were not going to get a Quidditch miracle. They still gave it all they had; and Aaron's Seeker battle truly was an epic effort right through until Harry finally bested him at the seven-hour and twenty-four minutes mark of the game for the four-ninety to forty victory.

It was heading toward nine-thirty by then, including the time-outs, but the post-game fun still took quite a while – starting with a really heartwarming blast of fun between the fourteen players before getting to the interviews and fan time. Jaimie and Lorie were getting tired by then, so Ginny didn't stay for the entire post-game action, but it was also late-enough that they didn't try to have a late dinner celebration with the team either. She went home; helped Malorie and Patrick with getting the twins tucked in for the night; and then the victory celebration ended up being a low-key gathering at the cafe with only a few guests – including Ron and Hermione; along with some of their neighbors. It was past-eleven by the time Rose led her team into the cafe; they were all tired out by then too after a long, challenging match; and they only 'partied' until a bit after midnight – or at least that was as late as Harry, Ginny, Al, and Gwendolyn wanted to stay out before heading to their townhouses for the rest of the night.

The Cannons were one step closer to an undefeated regular season, but as they'd done so far all season, they didn't let the successes go to their heads; enjoyed the happy moments; and then they'd move on and get ready for the next challenges and opportunities.

The Cannons had an Easter holiday match to start getting ready for during the week leading up to Easter, but it was on the Monday after Easter, so while they only had five and a half training days to get ready for that battle against the Arrows; they got a bit of a break from the reporters as the top story of the week was the match between the Harpies and Catapults on Saturday. That comparative lack of interest in the Cannons worked for Al; and he had the added bonus of a fun holiday to help with making their workouts very entertaining. Using Easter themes all week led them to the kid-play highlight of the week on Friday – an afternoon of fun and games that included an extreme Easter Egg hunt on brooms; lots of prizes for the kids; and a visit from the Animorphmagus Easter Bunny. That kept them busy until the end of the work day, and while Al and Gwendolyn weren't going to King's Cross to welcome any of their younger cousins home for the holidays; they did still finish work early so that everyone could get started on their holiday weekend fun.

Al and Gwendolyn didn't have the entire weekend off from work, but Renee didn't book more than two activities for anyone on the team so that they could rest up ahead of their match on Monday afternoon – or at least have the time available for all of the family and friends' Easter fun. With the Harpies' match on Saturday, they didn't have any family dinners or parties booked, but Al and Gwendolyn did share the twins with Harry and Ginny on Friday evening; the girls stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for the night; and then they all went to Hogsmeade for an Easter weekend visit with Lily and Jonah that kept them busy until they needed to be in London for their usual game day luncheon at the Leaky. That shopping and play time was fun, and so was the luncheon; so Al was as ready as he could be for what he expected would be a Quidditch match that he wasn't going to enjoy at all.

"What is going on in here?" Stephanie asked as she walked across the classroom to the table where their game day snacks and drinks were being set up. "Do I need to go and have a talk with our Head Boy? It seems that someone has been smuggling contraband into the castle – and is now planning on consuming those adult beverages!"

"We're sharing," Lily advised her with an unapologetic smile and a glass raised in salute. "Strong drink may be required to get through this match – especially if the Catapults actually have any luck backing up their boasts and promises. We don't have any of the younger teens and tweens with us this week; and the Prefects in the room can look the other way if one or two of our favorite OWL students join in for a drink or two."

"One or two of those Prefects are under-age too," Jonah reminded her; and Lily laughed.

"So have a drink or two – and then you won't care so much about those pesky little rules," she suggested. "I have a feeling that this really is going to be an ugly match. The Catapults need to win-out to have a better match-up in the first round; and the Harpies can lock up second-place if they win their last two matches."

"I get that," Stephanie assured her, but if I was in charge of the Harpies; I'd seriously-consider keeping my stars out of the match; playing the reserve squad; and have them play-to-lose without getting hurt. The playoffs start three weeks from today; they still have one more regular season match after this one; and the last thing they need is to either get seriously-hurt or play another marathon match."

"That would disappoint a lot of fans," Lily pointed out. "We likely can't know everything that would go into that kind of decision – not to mention that we can't really know some answers – like what a tie-break might look like if the Harpies and Prides end up with nineteen or twenty wins. If the Harpies played their reserve squad; Merlin only knows what James would decide to do."

"He might run it up on the Harpies all weekend," Leanne offered as she joined in on the chat after arriving for the most-recent few comments. "Don't forget that Victoire will want to play against Louis despite the risks; and Gabrielle has played against a lot of Seekers that play the way James does. I don't see them backing down just because it might be a good strategy." She smiled at Stephanie. "I'd suggest that the Cannons wouldn't do that either, but your future team isn't really going to have a reserve squad to do that with anyway."

"That's true," Stephanie agreed, "but part of the plan is to make sure that we are ready for matches like this one – and have the extra time to recover from the tough matches too." she laughed and then smiled ruefully. "I was just thinking that Al and the other guys will want to work the toughest matches so that we don't have to do that; and at least a few of us – the Witches – would be okay with that plan."

"Well, you could always trade the Harpies' matches for the Catapults' or Falcons' games," Leanne suggested. "Fred might not mind being the only Wizard in those matches with Katrina and the rest of you."

"He wouldn't think so if he liked that too much," Katrina joked; since Leanne had been directing the last part of her comments at them. "I'd be one of the exceptions; since I'll want to find out whether Fred and I can win our Beater duels against the McClaggens or Notts."

"Or not?" Lily added and joked. "We're about to find out what the Harpies and Catapults are going to try and do today, though, so grab a drink if you don't have one yet; and let's watch all of the good and bad that Quidditch is likely to be today."

The Quidditch action at Exmoor was at least as tough as Al had expected it to be right from the quaffle-toss. The McClaggens went after Victoire and Gabrielle early and often; Scorpius helped them out with his attacks on Victoire; and James seemed to be on a mission to defend the snitch and pound on Gabrielle at every opportunity. With his hyper-active senses, it was painful for Al to know about every injury inflicted on his favorite Harpies, but they played on all afternoon and even managed to keep a small lead in the match for the first few hours. That was the biggest difference between matches against the Falcons and Catapults – the Harpies couldn't earn a big lead first before the hits and cheap shots began to slow them down. That was why Scorpius, Miya, and Roman were able to 'earn' the lead in the fourth hour; and then begin to slowly build on it after that – until mid-way into the fifth-hour when Scorpius, Tiberius, and Brock got away with a horrendous attack on Victoire that led to an even-worse crash because Victoire managed to stay conscious long-enough to avoid hitting any spectators – a choice that had her crashing into a wall and then falling to the pitch.

There was no sense of deja vu for Al as he apparated onto the pitch and to his cousin's aid, but there was all of the usual anger and then some as he began to assess Victoire's injuries; prepare her for transport to St. Mungo's; and then took care of that trip himself. Victoire's injuries were awful, but not anything that the Healers couldn't have handled without Al's help. He joined in anyway because they all knew that he could make sure that her recovery took days instead of weeks. That didn't seem good-enough to Al, since it still meant that Victoire would be spending Easter in a hospital bed instead of at home with her husband and daughter, but that fact fueled his anger and magic; allowing him to take his Healing to the next level – as usually happened; and a much-better use for that 'bad' energy. He was still working on Victoire when he sensed his father and one of the Medi-Witches working at Exmoor arrive with Gabrielle and quickly put her into one of the other beds in the room. He knew that she'd been injured at least as badly as Victoire – or a bit worse, but needed to continue with the Healing he was doing; and had to leave it to his father and the new team of Healers that came in to help his adopted aunt.

"What happened?" Al asked his father quietly.

"You don't want to know right now," Harry answered. "When you can spare a moment; you should take a look at Gabrielle and make sure that we're not missing anything – and I can see a few things that you'd be best-suited to help her with. We have a lot of Harpies fans right here in this room; and they will not be happy if Gabrielle and Victoire need much time off to heal."

"That's funny coming from one of the Cannons' players we're not happy with after you bested our team," Healer Kendrick told him. She'd been called in to help; and was leading the team that was taking Gabrielle's case. Al sensed that she was tired; and likely hadn't had any rest since finishing her last shift before being called back to the hospital.

"We're Harpies fans too," Harry reminded her – "even when we have our matches against them now." He frowned as he and Al both sensed something wrong with Gabrielle; and Al had to divert some of his attention to Gabrielle – and then sned a magic flow toward her after nudging one of the other Healers to the side a couple of feet so that he could do that. "What is it?" Harry asked.

"Internal bleeding," Al answered shortly. "Give me a second." He was pushing it to keep what he was doing with Victoire going while trying to stop the bleeding in Gabrielle as a bone fragment that had shifted nicked an artery. Her blood pressure had plummeted because of that; so he'd needed to jump in before it was too-late instead of taking the time to try and explain.

"I don't know how you do that," Healer Kendrick told him.

"I'm a good guesser," Al half-joked once the immediate danger was behind them. "Do you see those bone fragments?" he asked while returning his attention to Victoire. "Be careful putting the pieces back together. There are others in there that could be as much of a problem if they get moved around the wrong way."

"We're on that," Harry assured his son while helping to do that.

Everyone in the room except their two patients got back to focusing on the Healing. It was past-midnight before Al finished what he could to help Victoire; he moved over to join his father to help Gabrielle after just a short break; and they needed another three hours to finish putting her back together again – not a days-long Healing; but still a tough, draining effort that left both of them wiped out. Victoire and Gabrielle were family too, though, so they headed out to the waiting room with two of the Healers – including Healer Kendrick – to reunite with Ginny, Gwendolyn, and the rest of the members of their family that were there for Teddy, Casey, and their kids. The Healers took care of the medical reports for each of their patients while Harry and Al shared hugs and kisses with their respective wives.

"The match is over?" Al asked Gwendolyn quietly; and she nodded.

"Yes, and be glad that you weren't there for the rest of it," she answered. "One-thousand to two-thirty; and the only reason that James ended it was because he was bored and wanted to go out and party. That's not a guess – he said that after the match."

Al shook his head. "I'm not surprised – and better not think about that too much – unless St. Mungo's has a few dozen more cases for me to work on tonight."

"They have others," Gwendolyn advised him, "but I'll guess that you've done about all you can for tonight. You're doing more Healing in less time the better you get at it, but the magical power drain is still the same."

"It is," Al agreed. "How is everyone in here doing? I thought that there might be a few more here."

"There were," Gwendolyn assured him. "Fleur sent some of them home to rest so that we can take turns helping out here – or with Dora." She nodded to where Fleur was currently cuddling her granddaughter while getting the update from Healer Kendrick about her sister – after already getting the news about Victoire. "Dora's been a handful. She really wants her mother."

"They can at least let her see Victoire now," Al toldher. "She'll be sleeping for a while, but she won't scare Dora." He shook his head again. "I'm never going to be okay with this sort of thing, Gwendolyn."

"Neither will I," Gwendolyn assured him, "but it's also a part of the game that won't be changing anytime soon; so the rest of us will just be very glad that we have you and your Dad around to help us out when things go bad." She looked at her watch and shook her head. "You should take a moment to visit with everyone else; and then we need to get you home. Are you going to need to sleep until Monday?"

"Possibly, but it's Easter; and we're going to be a bit too-busy for me to do that."

"We're still trying to decide whether we'll need to change our plans – especially for the family and friends Easter picnic and play afternoon."

"We can't disappoint the kids," Al told her seriously. "Dad and I will be fine; and he can catch up on his sleep for a couple of weeks after our match on Monday afternoon."

"I can do that," Harry agreed; since Al had directed that comment at his father. "We do still have time for naps now, though, so let's get out of here and do that while we can."

"That was brilliant!" James declared as he walked into the locker room; smiling brilliantly; and ignoring the reactions to that statement from Louis, Miya, and Roman. "A thousand points; two Harpies' knocked out – possibly permanently; and five more barely standing at the end! Way to go, Tiberius, Brock, and Scorpius!"

"Shut it, James," Louis told him; his voice low, dangerous, and angry.

"No," James retorted. "We'd have won by more if not for your pathetic excuse for a Keeper performance against the family princess, and don't blame me about what happened to her; since it's obvious that she can't take a hit and shouldn't play the game!"

"I saw what happened to Victoire – and to Aunt Gabrielle," Louis advised him. "The four of you are the worst sort of cheats – and I'm sick of it! Look at yourselves! Do you care about anybody but yourselves? You don't care that you put my sister and aunt in the hospital – and away from their kids on Easter? You're patting yourselves on the backs for cheating your way to this win while making me play on for half the night while not knowing whether two of the people I love-most are going to be okay! How can you be like that? Tiberius? You've been one of my best mates since we started at Hogwarts! You're okay with this?"

"Yes," Tiberius answered honestly. "This is part of the game, Louis. You know that; and it has nothing to do with our friendship – and shouldn't have anything to do with your family. James is right – if Victoire and Gabrielle are too weak to play the game; then they shouldn't."

"You cheated to knock them out," Louis countered.

"We didn't get so much as a warning from the referee for any of the hits on them," Brock challenged.

"So you didn't get caught cheating – good on you," Louis told him scornfully; and then shook his head. "I'll say it again – you're a bunch of Slytherin or Falcons-worthy cheats! I've been a hypocrite to stand by and put up with any of it, but after tonight; I'm done with that."

James laughed derisively. "What are you going to do – quit? Go for it! We don't need wimps like you on my team!"

Louis stood up and shook his head. "No," he answered; and then shocked James by pointing his wand at him and blasting him. "That's for what you did to Aunt Gabrielle," he told James; and then pointed his wand at Tiberius and Brock next as they both jumped to their feet too. They were just as stunned when he blasted them too; both of them hitting the wall behind them and then sliding to the floor. "That's for what you did to both my sister and aunt."

"Don't do it," Scorpius warned as Louis turned toward him next. He had his wand drawn too – having had the extra time to react now that Louis had lost the advantage of surprise.

"That's what I said while watching you do all of those horrid things to my sister," Louis advised him while attacking anyway.

The magical brawl was on then, and while Scorpius stopped that first attack, and soon had help from James and the McClaggens; Roman and Miya sided with Louis; and the three 'nice' members of their team soon had their bigger, meaner team mates disarmed and bound.

"What is going on in here?" Daniel demanded as he and Ritchie ran into the room after hearing the escalating fight.

"Louis attacked us!" James shouted. "Free us; and then I want the three of them sacked for this!"

"Yeah – that's a great plan," Miya scoffed. "Fire half your team right before the playoffs! What a brilliant idea, oh wise and wonderful Quidditch King!"

"Calm down – all of you!" Daniel demanded. "Louis?"

"James is right," he answered unapologetically. "They put my sister and aunt in St. Mungo's; I'm done with standing by and doing nothing about all of the cheating they do; and now James has his question answered; since he seemed to really want to know what I'd do about it." He turned his full attention on Daniel then. "If you don't want to fire me, I'll stay to the end of the season – however long that lasts for us, but I'm done after that; so you'll either need to release me or trade me to another team."

"Let's not talk about such things when you're all obviously angry," he suggested. "Release your team mates and return their wands."

Louis shook his head and handed over the two wands he'd taken from Scorpius and Tiberius. "Release them yourself – after I leave." He turned back toward James. "Stay away from me – and if Al and Uncle Harry can't work their usual magic on Victoire and Aunt Gabrielle; then this isn't over."

"I'm going to make sure that you wish it never started," James promised. "You're done on this team – and in this league, you stinking, lousy traitor – and that goes for the two of you too!"

"Enough with the threats – both of you," Daniel told them. "Go ahead and get out of here if you must, Louis, but we are going to sit down and talk about this on Monday morning."

"Fine," Louis agreed, "but you won't change my mind about this. I won't blame you for standing by the Quidditch King, since he got you that championship and a lot of money. It turns out that there is a cost that's too-high to by my honor, though; and they've crossed that line tonight."

Life went on around the Wizarding World after the Harpies-Catapults' match. Children and teens still woke up to Easter surprises; families gathered to celebrate the holiday; and even the family members and friends that were directly-affected by Victoire's and Gabrielle's injury problems still celebrated Easter – if in a more-subdued way with lots of time spent at the hospital. Al and Gwendolyn were able to keep up with everything – including two visits to St. Mungo's – because they'd gone home; used Al's time-stopper; and gotten as much rest as he needed to recover from the extreme power drain. He then helped Harry with some fatigue healing before breakfast; and then they had some Easter fun with Malorie, Patrick, and the twins while having that morning meal. There was work to be done around the atrium and practice pitch ahead of the families and friends' Easter picnic and play afternoon; and Al was at the center of most of that work. He and Gwendolyn did their first trip to St. Mungo's after that work was done; couldn't do much of anything there while Victoire and Gabrielle both continued to sleep; and then they were back home in time to join in on welcoming their guests.

The picnic was open to everyone in the community and their families; and Susannah had invited some of the families they worked with through the charity too; so they had a very large group by the time everyone was there. Having fun under the circumstances was tough for Al, but he still did everything he could to make sure that the people he loved got to have the happiest Easter possible. That meant helping out with the work on either side of the picnic; playing the games and joining in on one of the Quidditch scrimmages; and trying to make as many good memories as possible. Those hours of non-stop action blasted past; there was a major clean-up that started as their guests headed home or elsewhere for dinner; and then Al and Gwendolyn had an evening visit to the hospital.

Victoire and Gabrielle had each woken up by then, but only briefly before needing to sleep again; and they continued to sleep while Al and Gwendolyn were there – though that was only for a short time because they still had a game night curfew. They were home with time to spare; had a bedtime visit with Harry and Ginny that included a mirror chat with Lily and Jonah; and then they headed for their bed – and actually went off to sleep for the rest of the night. They didn't use the time-stopper again; since they didn't want to be too-rested at the wrong time of night. Getting their rest the 'normal' way didn't make for a very exciting end to their holiday weekend, but they were back at full-power and ready for their next-to-last Quidditch match of the regular season.

"She's finally asleep," Fleur said tiredly as she sat down on one of the sofas in the drawing room at Grimmauld Place and leaned tiredly against Bill. "We could have taken her tonight, Teddy."

"I know," he agreed, "but Victoire will sleep the night, and we all have to work in the morning; so it'll be easier on Dora to just stick to the normal workday routine."

"Except for the part of it where she won't get to see Victoire at breakfast – and will likely have to visit her again tomorrow night at the hospital," Fleur pointed out.

"We can work out the visits with Victoire – and maybe add extra time in during the day too if Victoire wakes and feels up to it," Teddy suggested.

"I could take time off tomorrow morning or afternoon and take her for a visit," Deanna offered; and then smiled at her husband. "Louis would likely take the week off to help out; but won't."

"For all I know; I won't have a job by tomorrow morning," Louis suggested; and then smiled grimly at the reactions from his parents and brother-in-law. "I haven't told you yet, but I got into it with James after that match – early this morning – and then with Tiberius, Brock, and Scorpius. It ended in a dueling sort of way; Miya and Roman helped me to best our team mates; and now James wants us sacked. I'm more than half-hoping that they do fire me."

"You can't be serious!" Bill exclaimed. "The playoffs are just weeks away – and you're defending champions!"

"A fact that I can't be at all proud of anymore," Louis advised him. "Not after last night. Merlin, Dad – I may not have been in on any of the cheating that led to hurting Victoire and Aunt Gabrielle – or any of the other players my team mates have hurt so-badly in the past; but I didn't do what was right either! We all have Al and Uncle Harry to thank for doing that every time – including when Al saved me from spending the rest of my life in a wheelchair or worse!"

"You're not responsible for what your team mates do," Bill told him – "and you deserve the awards that you've worked so hard to earn. I hate what happened last night too, but none of us would ever blame you for it."

"I can blame myself enough for all of us, but before we move on; I also need to tell you that I'm sorry for something else that totally is my fault – because I more than owe that to Al to do so."

"What do you mean?" Bill asked in confusion.

"I've gone along with James on more than Quidditch – at Hogwarts or with the Catapults," Louis answered seriously. "Either through intentional omission or outright lies; I've led you to doubt what's true for everything that's gone on between Al and James. I lied to myself too because that was necessary to justify my own actions; and I'm sorry for my part in causing problems with our family – and for Al – that should never have happened at all."

"Al's been in the right – for everything?" Fleur asked; looking unhappy now too; and Louis nodded.

"For everything that is most-important and that I know the truth about for certain. Al's never claimed to have never done wrong, but that has never, to my knowledge, ever been the case for anything that he's been wrongfully blamed for by James or others. I've all but encouraged your doubts about him, but I can't go on with those lies anymore either."

"How can you be so certain?" Bill asked.

"Possibly for some of the same reasons that I am," Teddy interjected. "I can't talk about anything related to Auror business for this, but Louis was there at Hogwarts for a lot of what happened; and we both know that Al really is the kindest, most-compassionate person we know."

"To the point where his one, biggest failing might be that he protected Witches and Wizards far-beyond what they deserved," Deanna suggested; smiling ruefully when Teddy and Louis both nodded their agreement. "I'm at fault too," she added. "I've felt horrid and guilty for months now, and how I've acted toward Al really boils down to childish jealousy – and I felt that way despite the things that Al had done for my family; starting with when he saved my cousin's life after James' attack on her at Hogwarts!" She shook her head. "That certainly wasn't the start of it for James' lies, but it was one of the most-obvious; and yet we still went along with his awful version of reality whenever the lies suited our needs or goals."

"We did," Louis agreed, "but as I said; I'm done with all of that – whether I still have a job with the Catapults for the rest of this season or not."

"Will you quit?" Bill asked – "even if you win another league championship this year?"

"Yes," Louis assured his father. "I'll play my best if they let me stay for now, but I won't be a part of the Catapults after that – anymore than any of us would want me to play for the Falcons. I can live without ever winning another Quidditch award or championship as long as that means that I can get my dignity and honor back again. Winning at any cost is no longer an option for me – especially when four of my current team mates believe that destroying some of the people I love the most to get those victories isn't a price that's too-high to pay."

"Then I support you," Fleur assured him – "and you have the right of this too."

"We support you," Bill added with a nod; and then shook his head. "I've lost my mind too; since I should have agreed with you from the start – and long before now." He paused; and then shook his head again. "James was in the wrong for everything," he half-mused. "I should have believed that all along too instead of doubting."

"We can't change what's in the past," Teddy pointed out gently, "but we can do better moving forward."

"And we will," Fleur declared – "possibly sooner than later for some of us," she added with a meaningful glance and smile directed at Louis.

"Maybe," he agreed – "though I do expect Daniel to keep us on the team. James would insist otherwise, but our changes of getting anywhere in the playoffs with three reserve team players finishing out the season is very-near to zero."

"After this weekend; I'd be okay with that," Teddy only half-joked.

"Okay, Quidditch fans; it's time for another weird and happy Cannons' Quidditch battle!" Lily declared as if she was starting her own version of one of Colin's pre-game shows while they watched the Cannons being introduced into the stadium. "The six true fans of the still-undefeated, worst team in the league – along with the legion of converts that have jumped onto that bandwagon over the past nine months – are expecting another brilliant day for their team; while the weird begins with the fact that they might actually want the Arrows to win today to make sure they end up in the playoffs instead of one of the other teams still in the running for eighth-spot!"

"That's only weird for anyone who thinks that a better way to play the game," Hugo suggested. "I know it annoys you, cousin, but Al's fair-play plan includes playing to win – and that's fair for every other team in the league."

"Tell that to the teams that have lost two matches this season that have been sure-wins for decades," Leanne suggested with a laugh. "The Harpies would be in first place right now if not for those two losses against your team."

"That could be just as true for the Prides," Katrina pointed out. "Mum's team might have the better chance right now of getting second-place. The Harpies still have two players in the hospital; and they'll be up against United in their final regular season match."

"I don't think we can really guess at what might have been different for the other teams this season," Alyssa offered. "The changes with the Cannons have affected the league in other ways – including how teams played in matches after Cannons' losses. There has been some good and bad because of that, but I don't see any way to try and even guess at how many other matches were won or lost differently than might have happened if the Cannons had been the same old team."

"You're right about that," Jonah agreed, "but the Cannons are only part of the changes to the league standings this season. The Harpies are having a better season because of having Victoire back, so when you count in those two new losses; they're currently four wins better than last season against the other eleven teams. The Prides will have dropped by a win or two from last season, but they've also won and lost different matches against other teams; so they're just proving that they're one of the best teams again this year. Then there's teams like the Catapults and Falcons that have been affected more than most teams. We're all thinking that's making them play their worst, but they're both doing worse in the standings too – and by more than two losses. Depending on how the final matches go for everyone, the Catapults could fall from second-place last season to fifth or sixth this year – and have five or six fewer wins. The Falcons were in fourth-place at the end of last season; and will end up in seventh or eighth-place this year. They'd need to have everything go wrong for them to end up out of the playoffs; so I doubt that'll happen. It does mean that they'll be down five or six wins too, though, which suggests that playing their worst isn't working out very well for them."

"Or the other teams have learned a few tricks from the Cannons," Lily suggested. "Did I say that out loud?"

"You did," Jonah assured her. "We won't tell anyone."

"Though some of us noticed that your scrimmage this morning between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw looked like too-much fun," Leanne teased.

"We do have some players on both teams that have trained with the Cannons," Cyndia reminded her. "That shouldn't be a surprise. I'm glad that we could play like that. If Mr. Peakes hadn't changed up the match schedules; we wouldn't be doing something like that this close to a Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match."

"Actually, we have done that in the past," Jonah disagreed – "at least for scrimmages; if not for full team workouts. We should have more of those scrimmages this week."

"You want to have a scrimmage or three against my team?" Leanne asked in amusement.

"Would that really be bad?" Jonah asked. "It isn't my call, but I wouldn't mind – and you could practice against Gryffindor instead if you and Ryan have a problem with that much good sportsmanship."

"And now you're suggesting that Luke spend some quality time playing with Lily," Ryan joked. "Are the two of you still pretending that it's April Fools' Day and trying to prank us?"

"I think it's funnier that you mention that as we're getting ready to watch a Cannons' match," Stephanie told him. "That win over the Catapults will go down in Quidditch history for best April Fools' Day pranks – even though it wasn't meant to be one."

"That loss likely had a lot to do with what happened on Saturday, though," Leanne suggested more-seriously. "James didn't get to beat up on the Cannons; so he took it out on the Harpies instead. I know that Jonah's right about the Catapults having more losses – and that tie – this season, but that theory didn't work out for the Harpies on Saturday."

"Losing to the Cannons was a factor," Hugo agreed, "but James decided to hate the Harpies a long time ago. I don't want to get into trouble with the Harpies fans in the room, but they knew what to expect in that match, and while I hated all of the cheating and horrid things that James, Scorpius, and the McClaggens did; they found a way to win – and the Harpies weren't able to stop them."

"Should we hex the messenger?" Lily asked Leanne.

"No; since he isn't wrong," Leanne answered. "I don't know why the Catapults were so-successful with all of their cheating on Saturday. It's something that the Harpies are going to need to figure out, though, since Victoire got knocked out of two matches this season – and that hadn't happened before. Glynnis and Gwenog need to figure out why that's happened – especially if it's due to something that other players have figured out about Victoire and are taking advantage of something she's doing to make her vulnerable to attacks – whether fair or not."

"That's a good point," Ryan told her with a nod. "Let's see if we can find anything like that with the Cannons today – so that we can use it against them when we're in the show next season."

"As long as we don't share that with any of these future Cannons' players," Leanne agreed. "They'd just go and tell their future team mates about what we found out so that they could fix the problems before we could take advantage of them."

"Good luck with that," Hugo told them. "This match isn't going to be a good one for that sort of thing."

"Why do you say that?" Ryan asked; and Hugo shrugged.

"Because I think this match will be like the last one – with the Arrows trying whatever they can to win regardless of the score. The Cannons want to win to keep the undefeated season going, but the Arrows need the win – or might; so they're at the same disadvantage the Wasps had."

"I wouldn't say it's exactly the same," Lily disagreed. "The Arrows have a younger team than the Wasps; and an up-and-coming Seeker instead of a veteran."

"Will that matter against your Dad?" Hugo challenged. "Madison never won a duel against you; and only caught the snitch for the loss against Jonah. I'd give the Seeker advantage to the Cannons in both match-ups."

"With either Lily or Jonah?" Cyndia teased; and Hugo laughed.

"Now you are trying to get me hexed," he decided. "As Jonah would say – shutting up now."

James was not happy as he walked into the locker room after the end of the Catapults' afternoon work-out and saw that his team mates were watching the Cannons-Arrows' match. Then again, he hadn't been happy all day – and that said a lot; since his work day hadn't started until lunchtime because he'd decided to skip the morning half of the workout – and only showed up for lunch so that he didn't have to pay for his own meal. He'd wanted to fire Daniel and Ritchie when he found out that they hadn't sacked Louis, Miya, and Roman first thing in the morning; and he didn't care that they might be right about that being a bad decision with less than two weeks left in the regular season. He wasn't sure about that, since there was a chance that Louis was traitor-enough now to sabotage the team to get back at them for hurting his precious sister and aunt, but then if that happened; James was sure that he'd have all he'd need to get Louis sacked – and likely everyone else that was supporting him instead of standing with their King!

"Let me guess – the traitor turned that rubbish on," James suggested derisively. "Are you cheering for the clown brigade, traitor?" he demanded. "The Chosen Chump and Animorphloser fool you into believing that they saved the princess and your crash-test-auntie; and now you're officially one of the deluded?"

"I turned it on," Miya advised him coldly – "and some of us want to watch two of the teams that we could be up against in the playoffs; since we can't all be as perfect and unbeatable as you."

"Just leave them be," Tiberius told James. "We're obviously going to have to win this next championship with half a team. It seems that you were right about them all along; and I wish that I'd never tried to defend them – in any way."

James laughed. "Now there's an idea. Stop doing that and let them get knocked out of the rest of our matches. We'd be better-off without them anyway. Scorpius would do as well without the mutt and her lap-dog; and you could help him more by bashing on the other team's Chasers." He laughed again. "Better yet, do us a favor and knock Louis out first in every match from now on. Then he could get the loser to run off to the hospital to save the day – and get him away from stinking up the stadium for the rest of us!"

"Wouldn't it be better to do that in practices and then at least have a Wizard with a pulse in goals for our matches?" Brock asked. "I can't believe that Louis still has a job after what he did to us on Saturday night."

"He's part-Veela," Tiberius offered maliciously. "Maybe Daniel and Ritchie are just in love with him."

"Keep that sort of nonsense up and we'll be happy to blast you again," Miya offered. "It's a wonder you can even recognize yourself anymore when you look in the mirror."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tiberius demanded.

"I meant that for Brock too," she said first. "What I mean is that I remember when you would lose your ability to speak around Victoire or Dominique when we were younger. I remember when you cared enough about Louis that you'd never even think about hurting someone he cares about the way you hurt Victoire and Gabrielle on Saturday." She turned her attention to Brock. "Do you even remember when you chose to get kicked off of the Gryffindor junior team because you didn't agree with King-in-training James – and then you were befriended by Al, Gwendolyn, Rose, and their friends? I remember that – and when you thought that Rose was amazing and hot. Oh wait – that was last summer at opening day of training camp. Now the lot of you hate nearly-everyone – including family and friends that you used to love – and there are no limits to how low you'll go to take what you want. I don't know what any of you see when you look in the mirror, but I don't see more than a small trace of the Wizards you once were – and nothing of what you could have been if you hadn't decided to be such a bunch of horrid gits!"

"I like what I see when I look in the mirror," James assured her, "while if I was a mutt like you; I'd likely just break every mirror to avoid having to look at myself at all."

"Are you still going at each other?" Ritchie demanded as he walked into the room. "Get over it – all of you; or we won't get very far in the playoffs with a team that's split in half!" He nodded toward the mirror. "At least that's one thing you're doing right – assuming you're paying attention at all. Our last match is against the Arrows; and they are likely to be two of the other seven teams in the playoffs – though the Arrows will need some help if they lose these final two matches."

James snorted. "Would you have us lose to help them make it in?" he asked scornfully.

"No – but only because there are weaker teams that we'd rather see make the cut," he answered seriously. "We may want that win a lot too if it'll help us to move up in the standings another spot; though we won't know if that'll matter or not until a week from Saturday anyway – and possibly not until after our match is over; since United can earn fourth-place over us if they win-out too."

"Oh, I do hope we don't end up playing United in the playoffs," James pretended to wail girlishly. "Louis doesn't want us to play to win against anyone in his family anymore – he's just not going to have it!"

"Won't that be true for the Arrows, Cannins, and Harpies too?' Tiberius asked. "You'd better take that into account before you let him play in any of those matches, Ritchie. He's more-likely to turn on us than help out if anyone he cares about gets so much as a hurt feeling!"

Ritchie shook his head. "You've been warned. Figure out how to suck it up and work together; or this season will not end the way we all hope that it will – with another championship." He nodded toward the mirror again. "We didn't win our matches against the clown brigade when you were, for the most part, playing as a team. How do you plan on changing that if you're at each-other's throats like this?"

"By having the four of us carry the rest of the dead-weight to victory – just as we've done all along," James answere dismissively.

"No team has ver gone from last to champions in one season," Scorpius added. "We'll be happy to keep that streak going this year."

"No team has ever gone from worst to an undefeated regular season either," Ritch pointed out with another nod at the mirror. "The Cannons are up one-twenty to twenty so far; and looking unstoppable – unless the Arrows get a bit of luck on their side before the one-sixty lead. Do you think that they have no chance of breaking that record too?"

"I think that they've cheated all season; and ought to have all of those matches marked as forfeits," Scorpius declared; and then scowled darkly when Miya and Louis both laughed derisively at his declaration.

"Cauldron, meet kettle," Miya joked – "except that I've heard that Al's cauldron is golden; not black!"

"He cheated to get that too," Scorpius advised her.

"So I've heard you claim," she pointed out. "Those assertions of yours are so logical too. The Head of your House chose the loser to be the school champion over you – the student who was in the Slug Club while Al wasn't; a Prefect – which Al wasn't after quitting the job; and the Wizard that would have been Head Boy if you'd stayed for your NEWT year. You have also been one of Slughorn's Christmas party guests of honor; so I have to wonder why Slughorn would have done that to you – his favorite Slytherin. Could it be that he simply wanted to win that Potioneer award; and knew that Al was his best chance? It certainly wasn't because he liked him."

"The Animorphloser duped the old fool," Scorpius insisted.

"What a brilliant idea!" Miya told him; feigning excitement. "Too bad you weren't bright-enough to come up with that idea! It certainly can't be that you played by the rules because you have too-much honor to cheat the way you do in Quidditch!"

Scorpius drew his wand and went on the attack, but Miya was ready for him; and then they were in yet another four-against-three duel.

"Will you ask Daniel to fire you now?" Miya taunted angrily. "You started this one; and you only thought that a fair response to Louis' attack on your Quidditch King!"

"You started this – and we'll end it," Scorpius declared.

It took nearly ten minutes before he found out that he was wrong about that. This time, there were some injuries on both sides before Daniel and Ritchie managed to break up the fight with only five players still standing and armed.

"Maybe you should've stayed for that NEWT year after all," Miya suggested to Scorpius while handing his wand to Ritchie. "Your DADA skills are a bit weak – unless you'd like to concede that Louis was a better Head Boy and student than you could have ever hoped to be had you stayed and tried."

"We'll see which of us is laughing when we're done with you," Scorpius warned. "Watch your back, traitor."

"I will," Miya promised.

"That's enough!" Daniel declared. "I want the three of you to get out of here," he told Louis, Miya, and Roman. When you get back here in the morning; put this behind you – or else!"

"I'd say it's a bit late for the last part of that," Louis suggested; "but we'll leave – and don't worry, Daniel. King James will either win it all for you again; or offer up three scapegoats on a platter for you to roast and serve up to the owners so that you can keep your precious job as Assistant Manager to the first or second-biggest group of cheats in the league!"

"With the only question I have for that being – why would you want to keep it?" Miya added.

Ginny was enjoying the Quidditch contest between the Cannons and Arrows. It was a nice spring day; Jaimie, Lorie, and everyone else with her in the Cannons owners' section helped to make their magical sports adventure more-fun; and the action above the pitch proved to be even better than she'd expected. That had everything to do with the Arrows' players trying their very best to take their playoffs destiny into their own hands instead of leaving it up to fate, but as the match rolled on into the evening; the only reason that they still had any hope at all was because Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray did not keep pushing their hardest to extend their lead once they had the one-sixty advantage.

Doing that wasn't entirely a kindness, but since the Arrows didn't allow Madison to try and make the catch for the close loss – which Ginny actually thought was the best option for their team; piling on the goals until Harry could win his duel with Madison wasn't the right thing to do either. Those choices and options weren't something that Ginny had expected to be dealing with at the end of her first season with the Cannons, so while it was a serious business for everyone with an interest in the outcome of every match now; she could still find it amusing to have such unexpected consequences to having the Cannons so close to an undefeated season while other 'safe' teams were on the bubble and fighting for a spot in the playoffs.

The end to the match came at the six-hour and forty-minute mark on a play that was appropriately-brilliant to go along with the rest of the amazing display of Quidditch during the rest of the battle. Gwendolyn had scored the most-recent goal to once-again give her team a one-eighty lead. Madison had been defending the snitch without trying to catch it herself for more than two hours by then, and that had a lot to do with why she got caught out of position – and then lost the duel thanks to a well-timed bludger from Brandon that made it impossible for her to catch up with Harry. For his part, Harry needed to pull off an eye-popping, jaw-dropping feat of flying to earn that catch because the snitch flew straight at a pillar along the outer edge of the stadium; tried to 'hide' behind it; and Harry needed to spin and drift his broom around the column tightly-enough to still reach out and grab the snitch. Even with hitting the brakes, he was still going more than sixty miles-an-hour when he earned that catch; and then continued with the crazy spin-slide until he could straighten out and then fly over to Madison to offer his condolences and congratulations.

"Maybe you should take a look at the schedule for next season and make sure that your husband doesn't play any matches against other beautiful Witches," Hermione teased as they watched that mid-air hug.

"That's an idea," Ginny agreed easily, "but if we do that; I wouldn't get to have as many hugs with some of the hottest young Wizards; so I may need to think about that a while longer before doing anything rash."

"Is that even the same for you?" Hermione asked half-seriously. "One of those other Wizard Seekers is a nephew-in-law; I doubt you care about hugs with Santini – or Brand Bletchley; James isn't a big fan of hugging his opponents at all; and there are four or five Witches at Seeker on the other teams. That doesn't leave you with many Seekers that off-set those beautiful Witches that Harry gets to hug."

"That's a valid point," Ginny agreed, "but I like the way this season has worked out for us; so we probably won't change things up too much."

"I'd be okay with next season being exactly like this one," Ron interjected with a laugh. "We're one win away from an undefeated season!"

"From an undefeated regular season," Ginny corrected. "We're four wins away from a championship-winning undefeated season – which is why we'll still keep taking it one match at a time."

"My team hasn't made the playoffs in my lifetime," Ron reminded her. "You can't blame me for looking ahead to that."

"Just don't forget to keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best," Hermione reminded him. "These matches are going to keep getting tougher – regardless of how far into the playoffs the Cannons get next month."

"I'll do that," Ron promised enthusiastically.

Al, Gwendolyn, and the rest of their team mates really did want to focus on their final match of the regular season and not look ahead to the playoffs, but that wasn't possible for everything they were doing; since there was work on their schedule during the rest of the week that was all about looking ahead – to the playoffs, Europe Cup, Camp Cannonball, and their second season as members of the Chudley Cannons. On Tuesday, the top 'extra' activity was an evening recording studio session with Kirley to start recording the songs that Al and Gwendolyn had written for the team. Doing that with Witches and Wizards with a diverse range of musical talents – or lack of any talent at all – was a challenge for Kirley, but they all still had fun with that; and managed to get all of the 'team' parts of the songs recorded and done ahead of their training curfew.

That wasn't the only work that Al and Gwendolyn did for the day. They used the time-stopper to get work done at the camp between work and dinner; and then Al did more work after they got home – again in a time phase. Add in a short visit to the hospital to see Victoire and Gabrielle; and their day was full pretty much from start to finish. Wednesday was Fred's eighteenth birthday, but while he celebrated that while at Hogwarts over the holidays; Al and Gwendolyn were only involved through a mirror chat and the gifts that they'd left with Lily and Jonah on the weekend. They still had a nother busy day; and a bit of a repeat from Tuesday too; since they worked at the camp before dinner; and were in the recording studio with Kirley in the evening – taking care of the bulk of the music and vocals work for all of the songs that the Cannons were going to be using during their second season. They were getting some band support for three of the songs, but that was something that Kirley could add in without Al and Gwendolyn there – just as he was going to be working with the Hogwarts' Cannons players on Saturday while they were in Hogsmeade for the day.

Wednesday was also the day that Victoire and Gabrielle each went home from St. Mungo's – which was why Al and Gwendolyn didn't have visits with either of them. That was great news, and the Quidditch training during the day and music fun at night had been brilliant, but what Al was enjoying the most as the week rolled along was the work that they were getting done at the camp – and he put in even more time-stopped time on that project on Thursday and Friday. By the time he and Gwendolyn went to bed on Friday night – at the cottage; he had the hotel, atrium, and practice pitch with retractable roof put together. The camp cabins for the kids got set up, and about half of the other, smaller buildings that were for the camp part of the plan ready to go too. There was still a lot more to do, but Al was sure that he'd have everything done in time for the first camp that Susannah was going to have for charity kids during the first week of June.

That progress worked for Kirley's plans on Saturday morning; and he set up a temporary studio using the future home of the second Cannonball Cafe that would also double as the dining hall for the camp. Al and Gwendolyn helped him out with that set-up; and then they moved on to do some other work while waiting for Lily and Jonah to come over – and bring Fred, Katrina, Cyndia, Stephanie, Hugo, and Alyssa along with them for the special recording session. Harry and Ginny didn't wait for them – they took Jaimie and Lorie into town to spend the extra time with Lily and Jonah – and then they came back to the camp so that the twins could play while the teens were busy with Kirley.

"Good timing," Al told his nieces as they ran over to where he and Gwendolyn were working. "We could use a couple of extra helpers. Did you bring your wands?"

"We don't get to have wands yet," Lorie advised him. "Not until we go to Hogwarts – and we still have to wait forever for that!"

"Right – now I remember," Al agreed. "Well, since you can't help with the landscaping; maybe you'd like to test out the hoverboarding-snowboarding lift for us. Grandma and Aunt Gwendolyn will need to go along so that you have a way back down the hill, but I can keep working while you play for a while."

"Can we?" Jaimie asked at the same time that Lorie asked – "what is that thing?" while pointing at the magical lift that Al had designed and built – and that he and Gwendolyn had just finished setting up.

"Yes," Gwendolyn answered – "and it's a magical way of getting up to the top of that hill instead of hiking up that trail or doing the rock climbing that will be set up once Uncle Al gets around to that part of the landscaping."

"How does it work?" Jaimie asked; and Gwendolyn grinned at her.

"Well, we have to start by finding out if it works; and then I think you'll understand the 'how' of it – if not the details for the magic behind the lift."

Al had already summoned two hoverboards by then; so Gwendolyn took one; offered a hand to Jaimie; and led her over to the lift while Ginny did the same with Lorie. They sat down on the lift seat that was facing the hill and had room for up to three people; Gwendolyn lowered the bar that wasn't much different than a Muggle chair lift; and then they were off and gliding up the hill with the help of a fairly-simple locomotion charm. Another 'chair' appeared a few moments later; Ginny and Lorie sat down too; and then there was a short delay before they headed up the hill too – so that there was some space between the two chairs. Al and Harry were both smiling as they watched the four girls – and they could see their faces when the chairs each rotated so that the passengers could get an awesome view of the valley they were rising above as they headed up the hill. There was a half-way stopping point along the way to the top; Gwendolyn and Ginny each chose that spot to get off the lift chairs; and then they hopped on the hoverboards with one twin each; and headed down the 'easy' part of the hill that was meant for the youngest campers while more-challenging hoverboarding or snowboarding would be available from the top of the hill.

"Well, it isn't a magical amusement park, but I think that Lily will love this," Harry suggested to Al as they watched four of their favorite girls playing together and having a blast. "They're going to want to do that again – a few dozen times. What can I do to help while they're busy?"

"I want to keep working on this hill and get it done this weekend if I can," Al answered. "I've added a portable river to the plan to go along with the portable lake; but can't put that in until this is done; since I wouldn't want to have anything go wrong and then end up filling part of it in; since it's going to loop around up here."

"You're going to make part of it flow uphill?" Harry asked; and Al nodded.

"Yes, but it won't be anything that's even as extreme as a Muggle water park tube slide – though it will be a bit-faster than a Muggle lazy river."

"The kids will love that too," Harry predicted. "Okay, so what can I do to help with the hill landscaping?"

Al saved time by just sending the mental pictures of what he had planned; they got to work; and the only thing they needed to be careful about was the hoverboarders playing on the section that Al had already finished. They took a snack and drinks break when Jaimie and Lorie were ready to move on to other entertainments; Ginny and Gwendolyn continued to play and explore with the kids after that; and then there was more hoverboarding fun to be had when Kirley finished working with the Hogwarts teens and they all wanted to be among the first to try the lift and sections of the hill that were ready to be used by then. That's why they all ended up heading back to Hogsmeade later than planned for lunch at the Three Broomsticks; they watched part of the Quidditch match being shown there while having that meal; and then the teens headed back to school. Harry and Ginny moved on with the twins then too – though they still had some time before needing to return them to Malorie and Patrick; while Al and Gwendolyn went back to the camp; kicked up the work into a time-stopped mode; and used the late-afternoon nice weather to get the hill finished; the rock climbing sections built that were in 'easy' and 'difficult' sections to be challenging for kids, teens, and adults; and then Al went ahead and installed the portable river and lake too.

Getting all of that work finished meant adding nearly a day to their weekend, but they had some play time and a long nap along with all of the work; so they were very happy when then returned to 'normal' time; went out for dinner with their parents; and then enjoyed a quiet evening back at their townhouse and in the atrium with the handful of neighbors that were hanging out in the atrium or cafe too. Swimming, an evening walk on the trails, and some chat time and drinks was a nice way to wrap up the first-half of the weekend. They missed out on celebrating Teddy's twenty-seventh birthday on Saturday, but that was because Victoire went ahead with her weekend getaway plans for her husband even while she was still recovering from her injuries; so the 'family' celebration of his special day happened at a dinner late on Sunday afternoon after Teddy, Victoire, and Dora got back from their little trip.

Al and Gwendolyn were invited to that mini-party along with the other available cousins, but before they got to that part of their day at Andromeda and Mark's home; they had a busy morning that included saying goodbye to some of the younger Hogwarts students before they headed back to school. That wasn't a big part of their day, but they made a few quick stops at aunts and uncles' homes to do that; and then moved on to the camp to work there again while they could use a time-stop and do that for a half-day or so. They also had a lunchtime interview; an afternoon visit to the children's ward at St. Mungo's; and then they went home in time to get cleaned up and ready for Teddy's dinner party. Harry and Ginny still visited Andromeda and Mark's home a few times a year, but it had been years since Al had been there for anything; and it was quite a bit different for him to spend a few hours with a mix of his own family and Teddy's adopted one.

"We know you've only come over here to play with Dora," Victoire teased while handing her daughter to Al for a hug, "but I'll still thank you again for helping me out last weekend. I wouldn't be back on my feet yet without the Healing you did – and neither would Aunt Gabrielle."

"You do still play for our favorite team," Al reminded her. "We had to do what we could to help – though I'll likely be in serious trouble with my Manager and Captain if the Harpies knock us out of the playoffs."

"That's a fun thought, but I'm just trying to get up to speed again in time for our match on Saturday. I'm fairly-sure that I've never been this worn down heading into the playoffs."

"I wish that I could help you out with that, but even fatigue healing is temporary and catches up with you eventually," Al advised her. "The restoratives aren't helping?"

"As much as they can," Victoire assured him. "That only works to a certain point; and then it's a matter of getting some real rest and time off to get back to full power again. I definitely understand now why Aunt Ginny retired when she was ready to start a family. It's tough to keep up with everything – even with just one toddler that likes to get into everything."

"With the scary part of that being that we have Dash and Misty to help us – along with a lot of family support," Teddy offered with a nod. "All of our favorite parents and grandparents are having fun with this, though, so even though they claim otherwise; we do think that they're enjoying at least a bit of payback for what we put them through as kids."

"That sounds like a starting place for your birthday roast tonight," Gwendolyn suggested. "You have a lot of Witches and Wizards looking to talk with you before dinner, though, so we'll move on and talk again later. Do you want us to take Dora long for a bit of play time with Jaimie and Lorie?"

"That works for us," Victoire agreed. "The other guests can track her down for hugs and kisses wherever they set up to play as easily as they can do that with us."

Gwendolyn had Dora in her arms by then; they took a couple of favorite toys along; and went to play with the twins for the hour or so before they sat down for dinner. Al and Gwendolyn knew everyone there, but the connections to Mark's family weren't just through Andromeda and Teddy anymore. Michael MacDonald had a Harpies' connection too through his long-time girlfriend, Amber – which was why they were there too; and Donald Townsend had taken a job with Eric Entwhistle; and was now an assistant manager and developer for the MirrorApp side of that GO MagiSports business.

As happened now and then for Al and Gwendolyn, that work connection led to other family networking; and several of Teddy's adopted cousins were interested in a career change as they began to find out more about GO MagiSports – and saw how successful Donald was becoming with his new job. Al didn't make any promises, but he did spend some time talking with those interested Wizards and Witches; and thought about jobs that might work for them – especially where they might be able to help with the businesses he was still just getting started. All of that was totally-unrelated to Teddy's birthday fun, but it still added to the entertainment; and Al loved getting chances to help everyone that he could to have better, happier lives.

Their dinner was a picnic and pot-luck adventure; there was another hour of play and chat time after the clean-up; and then nearly everyone needed to head home for the night – whether that was due to team curfews or because they were working in the morning. Al and Gwendolyn went home; helped to get Jaimie and Lorie tucked in for the night; and then they headed for bed too. Sleeping wasn't their only reason for turning in early, but another blast of time-stopped fun that was hot-rated helped to make for an amazing end to their weekend while still allowing them to get a full night of rest.

The countdown was on to the end of April by Monday – and the end of the regular season for the Cannons – and about half of the other teams in the league. Getting ready for their match against the Bats on Thursday evening – the First of May – was fun, but while they weren't looking ahead to the playoffs; there was a quiet confidence among all of the Harpies' players. Ginny was also looking forward to playing again after getting her break from match-play while Harry took his turn against their most-recent batch of opponents; and that final match of the season would be a good warm-up for the playoffs.

Okay, that was more-true for every practice and scrimmage between Harry and Ginny, but that truth was a bit egotistical too; so it wasn't something they even talked about with each other or anyone on the team.

While their training was more-important than ever even when the only motivation for a match that they didn't 'need' to win was earning the undefeated regular season; Al continued to be most-fired-up about his ongoing work at Camp Cannonball. With only a month left to get that ready to open, even with all of his considerable magical talents and help from Gwendolyn and others; there was still a lot to get done. That's why he worked there after finishing work every afternoon during the last three days of April – and he used a time-stop to be able to do that while still having daylight and warmer afternoon temperatures.

Taking Thursday afternoon off because of their evening Quidditch match almost felt like a day off by comparison, but Al was still as ready to play by the time they headed to Ellis stadium by late-afternoon for their usual pre-game warm-ups, meeting, interviews, and snack-meal.

Lily and Jonah had help as they walked into their usual study classroom and started setting up for their Quidditch-watching and study session after dinner on Thursday evening. Hugo, Alyssa, Fred, and Katrina had volunteered too; and they all got right to the work once they were in the room and had put down their book bags and anything else they'd brought with them.

"Do you want the pool tonight?" Jonah asked Lily as he got the mirror out of it's undetectable expansion bag and set it up in the usual spot so that it could be seen from the work tables and sofas that Lily was setting up with help from Fred and Katrina while Hugo and Alyssa started on setting up the snacks and drinks table.

Lily shrugged. "You can decide," she suggested. "This won't be a tough match for any of us to watch, but the study load is fairly-awful this week; so some of us might want the water-play breaks."

"I'll set it up," Jonah decided. "We're getting dumped on, but the younger teens and tweens we'll have with us again tonight won't need to work all evening."

"I wish that we didn't need to work," Hugo told them. "The Cannons are going to be in the playoffs for the first time in forever. That ought to be cause for cancelling final exams this year!"

"That isn't going to happen," Alyssa assured him. "Don't suggest that to any of the Professors either; since they'd be more-likely to cancel the last matches of the Quidditch season instead of final exams if they really did think that we were too-burdened with work."

"You'll have that problem," Hugo pointed out. 'Our Quidditch season will be done after our match on Saturday."

Alyssa laughed. "Then it's over already," she teased. "According to our usual gang of Slytherin haters; they have that match won already; and you should just forfeit it to avoid all of the pain that'll go along with the blow-out loss."

"Slytherin needs to stop picking brothers for their Beater duos," Lily suggested. "The Wilkes brothers are even dimmer than the Harpers – and that's saying something!"

"Is that a bad thing?" Katrina joked with a laugh. "They won their only match this season with an intelligent Captain in charge. Don't give them any ideas for changing that and messing up the status quo that we've been able to enjoy most seasons since before our parents went to school here!"

"Slytherin was still winning Quidditch Cups when our parents were here," Jonah reminded his cousin. "Their losing streak started when Lily's parents got here."

"Then they're still good to go on losing for another century or so," Hugo suggested.

"Haven't you told us that you wouldn't wish that on anyone?" Lily reminded him.

"Yes, but I'll still be okay with Slytherin losing on Saturday – and when we play them next year. Let's talk about the Cannons' match. We're all sure they'll win, but do you think that Rose will try to keep it short; or play longer to help with getting ready for the first round?"

"They won't run it up on the Bats," Lily told him; "so I'll guess that they'll try to win it within a couple of hours." She smiled and shrugged. "You're wondering about strategy for the playoffs, but I don't think it really matters today. That should be a bigger deal for the matches on Saturday."

"Don't all of the teams playing on Saturday want those wins?" Alyssa asked. "The Harpies could still get to second-place; United and the Catapults could end up in fourth or fifth depending on the combination of wins and losses for them; and the Arrows might still be able to get to seventh-place."

"I hope not – though Al would be okay with facing the Falcons in the first round," Hugo suggested. "He'd hate this for a playoffs strategy too, but I'd pick having the Falcons and Catapults wear down the other teams in the first two rounds."

"Can you blame Al for not liking that idea?" Katrina asked him. "It must be exhausting doing as much Healing as he's done for cousins and friends this season – and I won't be surprised if he has more of that to do over the next few weeks."

"Will he still be allowed to do that in the playoffs?" Fred half-joked. "Rose and Gwendolyn might have a problem with him helping the other teams like that – or tiring himself out."

"He'd help anyway," Jonah assured him. "We know there are things that Al does that the rest of us wouldn't – or don't agree with, but that's part of who he is; and that isn't going to change."

"Which in Al's case means that we have to take the extra-good with all of the rest of the good," Alyssa teased. "That's so annoying!"

"And then some," Lily agreed. "We're ready at this end of the room," she added. "I'd better get started on the revision now. If I sit down and cuddle with Jonah first to catch the predictions and start of the match; I probably won't get motivated to study at all."

"We need to stay ahead of the work – especially when we'll lose all of Saturday for Quidditch this weekend," Jonah reminded her.

"And most Saturdays for the rest of the month," Katrina added with a nod. "We might want to think about getting an extra mirror or two sent up to us for the playoffs. Regardless of what happens with these last matches of the regular season; we'll likely want to watch all four of the first-round matches for at least one of our favorite teams."

"That'd just get confusing to have four large mirrors blaring out the play-by-play for all of the matches," Hugo told her. "We can watch the Cannons' matches and then just keep up with the others on portables using magical earbuds."

"That works for you," Katrina pointed out, "but not so much for the Harpies and Prides fans."

"We have fans for most of the other teams in our game-watching group too," Fred added. "If the Cannons play the Arrows in the first round; I'd expect one of the other matches to be better anyway."

"Maybe – but not in a good way for the Catapults and Falcons matches," Jonah offered – "so I wouldn't say 'better' for those matches."

"That does remind me that we were talking about the playoff strategy for the matches on Saturday," Lily said with a nod. "It might not matter a lot whether United or the Catapults end up in fourth-place, but that does give one of them home pitch advantage for the first round. Seventh place would be a big deal for the Arrows, but the one match-up we haven't mentioned is for the team that ends up going against the Tornados. Would the Harpies prefer that match-up over getting second-place and possibly playing the Falcons in the first round? Maybe they should want to lose to United on Saturday to make sure that doesn't happen."

"That's a good point," Alyssa said thoughtfully, "but are you thinking about that from the getting beat up perspective? The Tornados might actually have the better chance than the Falcons have of getting playoffs wins – especially now that they have Andrea at Seeker."

"I'm thinking that Victoire and Gabrielle can't keep taking more hits so soon after the match against the Catapults," Lily answered. "Dave Harper is more-likely to knock Andrea out of the match than Gabrielle."

"Ow!" Jonah exclaimed when Lily punched him.

"Alyssa pointed that out about Andrea; but you were likely thinking the same thing," she explained.

"Why do you hit him because of Andrea?" Katrina asked seriously. "I don't think I've seen you do that because of Madison, Pauline, or any of the other Seekers – and I'd rank most of them higher than Andrea."

Lily shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted. "That's likely just because of the rivalry between the three of us – not to mention that it really bugs me that Andrea's in the show already."

"She's done well-enough," Katrina offered, "but I'm not sure that's the best plan for Andrea starting a year-and-a-half early. I wonder if most Beaters look at that differently than other players. Only the dimmest want to go up against top Beaters in the league – or at other levels – without being ready to compete. That usually makes for very short careers."

"Aren't you thinking about skipping your NEWT year to play with Fred next season?" Lily asked.

"Yes, but that has more to do with not wanting to spend the next year apart from Fred – not because I'm in a rush to escape from Hogwarts or in a hurry to play in the show. I want to learn as much about magic as I can too; and it's much-harder to do that on your own – or at least that's true for me." She nodded toward the mirror; though not to point out anything specific. "Look at everything that Andrea isn't learning since leaving school and all that she'll miss out on next year. When will she have time now to learn all of that while working full-time? I wouldn't want to be that unprepared – or simply unable to do most of the most-amazing magic!"

"Do you think that we resemble that comment for only taking five classes?" Jonah teased; and Katrina laughed.

"Yes, but at least you're taking the five best classes for learning advanced magic – though Herbology is just as important as some of the classes you're taking; and I think that Care of Magical Creatures should be more-important for everyone than it usually is except for the students that want jobs of some sort working with magical creatures."

"You're very enlightened – for a Beater," Alyssa complimented with a grin. "If Hugo was a year older than me; I'd likely quit early."

"If you're talking about that sort of thing; change the subject – or I'll come back later," Cyndia interjected as she walked into the room with Stephanie and the next group of friends – most of them NEWT-year students. "I'm glad that I stayed this year; but it is hard to be apart from Ray like this – especially when he's having so much fun out there without me."

"You've less than two months to go now," Katrina reminded her – "and Alyssa might want to quit early if she was in the same position as you are – and I will be next year; but I don't think that she would do it. We were actually talking about the learning-magic reasons to stay – and I'm still wondering what it's like for the Witches and Wizards that do quit early and never learn the sixth and seventh-year magic. Maybe that isn't a big deal for weaker Witches and Wizards, but it's a waste for anyone with strong magical talent."

"There are examples in our family that prove that you can still do well without NEWTs – or even doing particularly-well at school," Lily pointed out with a nod toward Fred. "Your Dad did well-enough without earning his NEWTs; and I'd say the same for my Dad and Uncle Ron."

"They had extreme circumstances and motivation to keep learning," Fred reminded her. "Your Dad and Uncle Ron had years of advanced magical training with the Aurors that went way beyond anything that's taught here – plus everything they learned from Aunt Hermione; and Dad still learns a lot while experimenting with new wheezes. I wouldn't say that can't happen for other Wizards and Witches, but I'm having a tough time picturing James doing any magical studying on his own in his spare time."

"Well, he seems to have a lot of spare time from what we hear in the news about how often he shows up for work whenever he chooses," Hugo told him with a grin. "Maybe that's exactly what he's doing!"

"I am so glad that you're not reading the gossip news to know that isn't true," Lily advised him with a smirk, "but let's not go there either; since Cyndia probably doesn't want to talk about that sort of thing either while apart from Ray."

"Especially when she'll have to watch him in that uniform tonight," Stephanie added with a grin. "It's too bad that you'll be playing on Saturday while he's here."

"Or for the best," Lily suggested meaningfully. "It'd be quite a scandal to have a Cannons' player kicked out of Hogwarts a week before the playoffs for inappropriate behavior!"

Harry sat with Malorie, Jaimie, and Lorie as the Cannons-Bats match began. Patrick wasn't with them because he was working, but Ron and Hermione were with them; and Ron was as fired-up as he had been for every match – sure that his daughter, sister, and the rest of 'his' team were about to make Quidditch history with the only last-place to undefeated season accomplishment. Having Ginny in the match for earning the final win was great too; and Harry was thinking about sharing all of the victories with her – and comparing that to his memories of the Harpies' undefeated season when Ginny had played in all of those matches. Back then, they couldn't have even imagined the kind of team or season they were having this year – mostly because when they had imagined having him play in the league too; that was as rivals; not team mates. That had been a brilliant year for them too, but Harry knew that this year was better; and in ways that went far-beyond the Quidditch.

"They're starting out very conservatively," Hermione leaned in and told Harry; nudging him out of his mental musings. "Why? They don't need to do that against the Bats."

"True, but there's no point in taking any extreme risks tonight; so they won't be doing that; and they'll work on their defensive plays instead." He smiled at Hermione. "Don't you like the idea of trying to wrap up the season with a shut-out for Rose?"

"That would be great," Hermione agreed, "but most of the spectators are here to see the amazing tricks and big goals."

"Are they?" Harry challenged with a quiet laugh. "I'd have guessed that most of them are here hoping that we'll blow the undefeated season thing tonight – despite the odds against that happening."

Hermione laughed too. "What odds are you talking about? Half of Lee's experts still picked the Bats for the win tonight."

"I'm talking about the odds that we live with in the real world," Harry answered – "not the rich fantasy one that our favorite haters live in."

"Careful," Malorie interjected. "That's very close to sounding like bragging; and we can't have that – even if it's deserved or honest!"

"I can brag about my team all I want," Ron told them – "and it's more-fun to do that now. It's funny that I used to get razzed about supporting the worst team; and now I still get razzed about that despite the fact that the worst team in the league is undefeated."

"That's something else that's a lot different from Ginny's undefeated season with the Harpies," Harry offered thoughtfully. "I've ben thinking about that season compared to this one tonight," he added in explanation of why he'd taken their chat in that direction. "The Harpies had a lot of haters wishing them the worst too, but that wasn't like what we've dealt with this year; since everyone at least accepted that they were playing brilliantly and the new brooms made a huge difference for them too."

"I was one of those rival fans hoping for the worst for the Harpies," Ron reminded him with a grin. "This season is a lot more-fun than that one was for me."

"Open mouth; insert foot," Harry told his best mate when Hermione glared at her husband.

"What?" Ron demanded – still clueless.

"Here's a hint," Harry offered. "You're allowed to say that was the worst start to any Quidditch season in your life; but it was the best-ever starting by the middle of that September – twenty-three years ago."

Ron laughed and shook his head. "How did I get into trouble for that when we were talking about Quidditch? I'd also say that if our daughter wins the league championship for our Cannons team that even Hermione should rank that right up there with our wedding for best-ever moments!"

"I'm proud of our daughter whether they win or not," Hermione offered – "and I know that you'll put a Cannons' league championship ahead of our wedding on your best-ever moments. I just can't do that too."

"You just need to have a seperate list for things like that," Harry suggested. "I've never put Quidditch or other 'things' ahead of the best family and friends moments like weddings and all of the best moments with our kids, but this entire season is going to be up there on my best memories list for things we've done or accomplished."

Ron snorted. "Good for you, since that list for your last job would've been a worst-ever list!"

"That's scary; mostly-true; and we could say that about our jobs before even adding in fighting the bad guys," Harry joked. "Hermione definitely doesn't want to talk about politics, though; so let's not go there."

"I don't," Hermione agreed. "Be glad that you're out of the loop for most of the drama going on there."

"Maybe you should get Kingsley to hire Al as a happiness consultant," Malorie joked.

Hermione laughed. "That's a great idea – except that he'd make things worse for Percy and his faction – and there are a few groups that would hate that even more than Percy would."

Malorie shrugged. "Al has more than his share of haters on a few of the other teams," she reminded Hermione. "Does that matter if he makes your job more-fun?"

"If Al had to do all of the paperwork that's part of most jobs at the Ministry of Magic; I doubt that even he would be able to make the work fun," Hermione suggested.

"I'd expect him to make a MirrorApp to replace all of the paperwork," Malorie disagreed; and then laughed at Hermione's reaction. "That is basically what they did with RevisionWizard and then RevisionMaster – eliminate most of the boring parts of report-writing." She shrugged. "I'm sure that the Ministry paperwork would be a lot more-complicated, but it could be done too; and even your political opponents couldn't argue with being more-efficient."

Hermione laughed. "That was going great up until that last point," she advised Malorie. "One thing that Percy has a lot of support for is a job for everyone at the Ministry with basically no way to lose it. Whatever would all of those Wizards and Witches do if they didn't need to spend two-thirds of their time filling out reports; reading reports; or doing other things with them – whether that's meeting about them, filing them somewhere, or anything else that's done with them."

"Work that actually accomplishes anything?" Ron offered. "I'd say that's an impossible dream, but the Canons are on the verge of an undefeated season; so who am I to say what's possible or not?"

The Cannons were more than on the verge of that accomplishment. Harry was sure about that the entire time they were there and enjoying the Quidditch action – even though the Cannons didn't prove that with overwhelming force over the Bats. Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray only scored nine goals during the two-hours and ten minutes it took Ginny to earn the Seeker duel win. The goals they did score were all really amazing, and Ginny's snitch catch was memorable too, but it was the defense and shut-out that was really impressive – especially since the Bats basically didn't get any quality shots on goals against Rose. She did make a couple of dozen saves too, but her Chaser defense truly was exceptional.

Once the match was over, Harry helped Malorie with getting the twins home and off to sleep while Ginny was busy with the post-game fun at center pitch and then with their fans. There was a bedtime snack and drinks celebration in the atrium that most of the team and other neighbors joined in on; and then they headed for their beds because it was a work night – and because Friday was the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts; so at least some of them were going to be up early to remember their lost loved ones with their usual early-morning memorials.

Al and Gwendolyn met up with Harry and Ginny in the atrium an hour before dawn on Friday morning. They shared a round of solemn hugs and kisses; and then headed out to do the rounds of visits to cemeteries where most of the fallen war heroes were buried. That hadn't been something that Al had been able to do with his parents since before he'd started at Hogwarts – and he hadn't gone along every year before that; mostly because his parents hadn't wanted to bring their kids along until they were old-enough to understand. They didn't meet up with any other mourners until they were at their last stop of the morning – to visit Fred. They weren't the first to arrive; so they shared a round of hugs and kisses with Molly and Arthur before turning their attention to Fred's gravestone. Molly had already cleaned it up a bit, but then she made sure that it was well cared for year-round anyway.

"I knew that you'd come this year," Molly told Al and Gwendolyn quietly. "Only a couple of your cousins have visited after graduating from school, but then not all of your uncles and aunts visit on the anniversary anymore either."

"Did you bring along any of your snap-dragons?" Arthur asked him; and Al laughed.

"I thought about it, but didn't want to leave something like that around where Muggles might find it. I can make a bouquet of them up if you'd like to have them at home."

"That might depend on what they do," Arthur suggested. "We've heard that some of your flowers can be a bit messy – or noisy."

"That's true," George agreed as he and Angelina joined them. "Thanks for the good idea, Dad. I just realized that Al hasn't come up with any snap-dragons that are stinky."

"Fred would think that Dung-Bomb snap-dragons would be a hoot," Ginny suggested, "but if you make them; do not send a boquet to Aunt Muriel."

"Or to me," Molly added with a shake of her head. "We always seem to turn these visits into one big joke, yet it still seems fitting for Fred; so I can never get upset about it."

"Fred could always find humor in the gravest situation," George offered with a grin. "Get it?"

"Yes – and that was appropriately-bad," Ginny assured him. "I expect that Al and Gwendolyn are here for the stories about their uncle, though; so let's have a bit of fun with that instead of working on new wheezes or bad puns."

Al was happy to hear those stories again, since each retelling was a bit different, but was a bit amused too; since even his mother sometimes overlooked his memory talent. That ability also made it possible for him to pick out the parts of those stories that had been changing over time, but unlike legends that grew to become something far-greater than original deeds or persons; their family stories, if anything, were understated. His grandmother had been right about his aunts and uncles, and while the visitors changed from year-to-year; Ron, Hermione, Rose, and Brandon were the only other members of the family to join them – at least until they headed home again shortly after sunrise.

Having the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts the day after earning their twenty-fourth victory and undefeated regular season made for a somewhat strange day for Al and Gwendolyn – especially when they also had a birthday party to attend for Victoire's twenty-fifth birthday. Breakfast wasn't a solemn or serious event because Jaimie and Lorie made sure that their grandparents, aunt, and uncle were having too much fun to be sad. Three reporters, including Rita Skeeter, needed to try and make a story out of the anniversary with a tie-in to their first day of training to get ready for the playoffs, but they ended up needing to write up their hit pieces without any good quotes from any of the Cannons' players. The final playoffs standings wouldn't be determined until after the matches on Saturday, but while Rose, Gwendolyn, and Al didn't openly admit it to anyone else; they still started to get ready for another match against the Arrows in the first round. They had to keep their workout neutral-enough so that wouldn't be obvious, but they still began work on a game plan; and parts of Al's workouts were meant specifically to help with new ideas he had for playing against the Arrows. They had a full-day workout; Al and Gwendolyn did an interview with Teresa and Kylie after that; and then they had time to get ready for Victoire's birthday dinner.

The Harpies were playing on Saturday, so partying all weekend wasn't an option for Victoire; and Teddy didn't try to have a big dinner party at Grimmauld place either. Instead of doing that, Bill and Fleur helped Teddy out with hosting Victoire's birthday dinner in one of the private dining rooms at the Leaky. By the time that Al and Gwendolyn arrived at a quarter-to-six; the social hour was already in full-swing; and they were kept busy with the first round of greetings with their family and all of the friends that had been invited to celebrate with Victoire. Grandparents were taking care of Dora – and Jaimie and Lorie; so Al and Gwendolyn were free to hang out with the other young adults; and even ended up having dinner without any kids at their table too!

"Al likely wishes that he's playing with the kids instead," Rose offered as everyone at their table sat down, "but I'm wondering if the players from the different teams are being segregated on purpose ahead of the playoffs."

"Dominique and Eddie are sitting together – and with Louis and Deanna," Gwendolyn pointed out. "That's four different teams at one table."

"They have four teams at the table every time their family gets together," Rose reminded her; though that hadn't been necessary. "I meant that we weren't seated with any of Victoire's friends or team mates – including your Mum."

"They didn't put Al at a table with anyone from the Ministry of Magic either," Brandon pointed out with a grin. "Maybe they're only segregating the trouble magnet from all risk of messing up Victoire's party."

"That could be," Al agreed – "though it could just be that we're being lumped in with the Weird Sisters' family thanks to Gwendolyn."

"Thanks for that," Heather Barbary told him with a nod and smile. "I was beginning to think that Victoire must be mad at me for not hanging out with her often-enough lately if this is the table that nobody wants to sit at with you."

"I'd guess that Victoire has a tougher time keeping up with all of her friends right now," Gwendolyn suggested; and then laughed. "Sorry, but I was just thinking that Al could still get into trouble tonight. One of the few times we've been together with you and Victoire in the same place; we collaborated on a hit song."

Heather laughed. "Well, we don't have a good birthday song for the band. Maybe that's an idea."

"We do get regular requests at our shows to celebrate birthdays," Martin Barbary offered, "but I don't see that sort of thing being our next hit song."

"Really?" Meghan Crumb, his 'on-again' girlfriend and band mate asked. "I'm fairly sure that everyone in the world knows the birthday song. We'd do well-enough if we could write a song that popular."

"Maybe the rest of you could do that," Marc Tremlett – Heather's long-time boyfriend and another member of the Weird Kids interjected, "but at least one of us doesn't have that songwriting talent; so I can't help with that."

"Neither can I," Brandon assured him with a laugh. "You have the wrong side of the Graves family at the table for that – unless you're looking to use the sounds of bludgers as part of your percussion."

"Percussion – or concussion?" Heather joked. "Marc isn't being totally-honest about that, though, since he does help with our songs – adding in the music for bass guitar and making up vocal harmonies."

"That doesn't seem like a big deal," Marc countered; "and let's not even talk about my attempts at writing lyrics; since anything I came up with was atrocious."

"That's true," Heather conceded, "but you haven't even tried in a long time; so maybe you just gave up too soon."

"Today is your birthday," Marc sang quietly; "I got nothing for ya!" He laughed at himself. "See – that didn't even rhyme!"

"Well, maybe you could ask Victoire to use her birthday wish to help you out with that," Gwendolyn teased – "though she'll likely wish for a win tomorrow – or for a league championship."

"My wish; for you; is that your dream becomes all that you want it to," Al sang while smiling in response to Gwendolyn's joke and inspiration.

"Your hopes are big; you want it all," Gwendolyn continued; smiling too; "you believe that you can win no matter what you're told."

"And when you're out there shining for the world to see," Al added while their table mates were mesmerized by their little song; "You'll always know somebody loves you; and hopes your dreams come true."

"Yeah-e-yeah-ay-ah, this is my wish," Gwendolyn finished.

"You guys are scary – and in thewrong business," Marc told them while Gwendolyn shared a happy hug and kiss with Al.

"Maybe that's what Victoire would really wish for," Heather joked – "for Al and Gwendolyn to decide to quit Quidditch before the playoffs,"

"She might," Martin agreed, "but I'd say that we have something to keep enertained with while we have dinner now. I loved that a lot – and maybe I was wrong about having a hit birthday song."

While that was Martin's suggestion; Heather led the way as she got Al and Gwendolyn to help her out with taking that little chorus and turning it into a complete song by the time they finished having birthday cake or other dessert options along with after-dinner drinks. The Weird Kids would still need to work on it for the instrumental arrangement, but they even had some awesome harmonies worked out; and the four members of the band were seriously fired-up about their efforts by the time the dinner party began to break up ahead of game day curfews for the Quidditch players that had matches on Saturday afternoon. Those curfews helped with keeping the round of goodbyes shorter too, but Al and Gwendolyn got to spend a bit of extra time with Teddy and Victoire on their way out because they had bonus play time with Jaimie, Lorie, and Dora while the kids were waiting to be taken home.

Malorie and Patrick had help with getting the twins to bed too – because the girls talked Al and Gwendolyn into keeping them for a sleepover ahead of their morning Quidditch plans at Hogwarts to watch Lily's final Gryffindor match of the season against Slytherin. While Malorie and Patrick ended up with a kid-free night and went back to her townhouse to enjoy the break, once the twins were sleeping; Al and gwendolyn met up with Harry and Ginny for a bedtime drinks and chat break on their patio in the atrium. Harry had taken care of getting the drinks; and they were all ready to relax and wind down from a very busy day.

"You don't have to cave in every time those two girls flash their dimples at you and hug you into giving them what they want," Ginny told Al.

"Doesn't that work on all of us most of the time?" Al asked.

"Yes, but we're heading into the playoffs; and we all need to be thinking about that first for a few weeks."

"I doubt that I could do that," Al admitted – "though I was taking that into consideration tonight; since we might need to spend a bit less time with Jaimie and Lorie with the extra work we'll have on the schedule – starting on Sunday for most of us once the first-round match-ups are set."

"Patrick's family will help out," Ginny told him. "We're going to need to share more with them – especially once Malorie and Patrick are married."

"I'm glad that Patrick's family loves Malorie, Jaimie, and Lorie too," Al said with a nod. "Sharing won't be a problem – especially one we have our full team working with us. We'll be able to take turns playing with the twins while everyone else in their families are working."

Ginny laughed. "Will that really help you? We did hear that you couldn't even take a few hours off for dinner without going to work on a new hit song with your dinner companions."

"Rose and Brandon didn't try to help out with that," Gwendolyn joked. "It's funny that we haven't been in the same place with Heather and Victoire very often; yet now we've come up with two songs."

"Don't point that out to your Weird Sisters' cousins or they might start setting up those get-togethers every week," Ginny teased. "We should likely talk about our plans for tomorrow, though; and then get some sleep. We could be in for a very long day."

"Especially for those of us going to the Catapults' match," Harry added.

"We'll only have a problem with the schedule if Lily's match is more than a few hours long," Gwendolyn suggested – "unless there's something new going on that we don't know about."

"There isn't anything new for tomorrow morning or afternoon," Ginny assured her. "I was thinking more about after the matches – and maybe making plans for Jaimie and Lorie if our match gets long and ugly. We haven't really made any serious plans for dinner or later in the evening. You'll want to spend time with your parents tomorrow night if there's time for that – especially since Gwenog will want to get started on her first-round game plan on Sunday for sure."

"We didn't get to talk much tonight, but either I've missed something; or she's more stressed than usual right now," Gwendolyn said thoughtfully before answering Ginny's question. "I do want to see her after the game if we can; but don't want to make things harder for her than they seem to be tonight."

"Stressed might not be the right word," Ginny told Gwendolyn. "I've been wondering whether Gwenog is doubting herself a lot – second-guessing her decisions."

"Because of Lily?" Gwendolyn guessed; and Ginny nodded.

"That's part of it," she agreed. "She doesn't know about the choices Lily's made about Quidditch since then – just as we don't know about plans the Harpies are making, but even if she did; I don't know if that would help with the doubts she's having – and might make them worse if Lily has as brilliant a start with the Cannons as we all hope she will this summer."

"Don't you agree with what she – and Glynnis – decided?" Al asked his mother.

"I'm glad it wasn't my decision to make," Ginny hedged. – "and I honestly don't know what I'd have done if in their position. Do you?"

"Yes," Al admitted earnestly. "I'd have hired Lily – and Gwendolyn."

"What!" Gwendolyn exclaimed; and then laughed and lowered her voice. "Explain quickly," she warned; and Al laughed too.

"If I was in charge; the Harpies wouldn't only hire Witches," he explained; earning a round of laughs. "Rose would've been on her own for this Cannons' dream – or we'd have done all of this with the Harpies instead. None of that was an option, though, so it doesn't matter what I'd have done."

"That's funny, but a bit of an evasion," Ginny accused.

"It is," Al agreed, "but then we all know that what would have been best for the Harpies would have been to hire Gwendolyn and Lily – and Rose; if they could have gotten her to play for them instead. We don't know whether the Harpies' owners would have agreed to spend the kind of money they'd need to get that many top players on their team, but they could do it; and would have ensured having a top team for another twenty-five years or more."

"There are always good new players coming up," Ginny pointed out. They can change things up if what they're doing isn't working."

"They could do that," Al agreed, "and I'm not suggesting that they won't stay one of the top teams, but these most-recent choices could easily mean the difference between winning championships and only getting close each year."

"Isn't that great news – for us?" Harry joked.

"The consequences of the Harpies' choices have been good for us," Al agreed and added. "All I'm really saying is that Gwendolyn's Mum has valid reasons for her doubts. You and Dad were the best Seekers of your generation, Mum, and while we don't brag about it; you are the two best Seekers in the show right now. Lily might be better; and Jonah's not far behind her; so we could be the next team to beat for a long time – instead of the Harpies or one of the other teams that have been at the top for the past two or three decades."

"You could be right," Gwendolyn offered, "but let's not have a repeat of this chat with Mum tomorrow night – or maybe not ever." She turned her attention toward Ginny next. "I don't know if we can make much of a plan for tomorrow night. Both matches could be long and tough. We could just order take-out if we can get home early-enough for that. If we don't get home until later; we might just all be too-tired to be interested in getting together for anything at all. If that's what happens; then I'd suggest getting together for breakfast instead – or maybe a brunch if Mum wants to sleep in."

"That's a good idea," Ginny agreed. "I'll mention that to Gwenog in the morning. Having everyone fend for themselves for dinner tomorrow night – whether that's here or at the stadiums – will be easier anyway, and if both matches run late; Harry or I can always bring the twins home and stay with them here too."

"I'll hope that both matches are shorter," Harry told her seriously – "especially for the Harpies. They do not need another long, tough match – especially if they could end up playing against the Tornados or Falcons in the first round."

"We've talked about all of that before – a few times now," Ginny reminded him. "Let's just be glad that those decisions aren't ours – even for our team. That sort of thing is entirely up to Rose."

"That sort of thing isn't an issue for us this season," Gwendolyn pointed out. "We'll either win-out or not from here. That sort of thing is sure to come up for us eventually, though, so I do keep wondering what I'd do if in charge of one of the teams dealing with those choices tomorrow – or over the past couple of weeks for some teams." She shook her head. "We've talked about that a lot too; so maybe this is something else that there just aren't any good or right answers to be had."

"Not to mention that bad choices don't always end badly," Ginny added with a nod. "Luck has been known to play a part; so even the best and worst choices can have unexpected results."

"With the funny part of this discussion being that while we hope for the best for our favorite teams and players; we still want them to have just a little bit less luck than we have over the next few weeks," Harry half-joked.

His father's comment-joke stuck with Al as their chat moved on – and after they split up and headed into their respective townhouses when they were ready to head for their beds. While he still believed that he could be happy for those other teams and players – if they won the league championship fairly and with honor; he still wanted to get the championship for Rose, their team mates, and the long-suffering Cannons' fans. He was sure that they could win, but that wasn't the same as 'would' win; and anything could happen in Quidditch – including having an undefeated season come to an unhappy end in the playoffs.

By the time they were in bed, Gwendolyn had much-more-interesting ideas for Al to discuss with her in a non-verbal and hotter way; though that play time needed to be quiet too with their nieces in the house with them. Wrapping up their work week – or getting their weekend started – with that kind of fun was brilliant. By the time they were ready to sleep, they were both happy and ready to rest up for what would hopefully be a brilliant end to an amazing first season with the Cannons.

As one dream was possibly on the verge of coming true, though, Al dreamed of even more for everyone he cared about the most; so that hoped-for best ending to their season really just felt like the start of something much bigger!

"My wish, for you; is that your dream becomes all that you want it to."

Al had known from those first words that their new song hadn't only been about a birthday wish for his cousin, but then they'd wanted to create something that would have meaning for everyone; and that included their own dreams. Maybe those thoughts ought to feel a little bit wrong just hours before he'd be at Hogwarts and cheering for Lily when her own dreams weren't going to happen for her at all – at least with the Harpies; but Al didn't feel that way at all.

He might not be able to make every dream come true, but that didn't mean that he couldn't help to make reality better than those unfulfilled dreams; and he was fairly-sure that Lily would be happy with a future that was as amazing as the one he saw for all of them!