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!

94. League Champions - Cannons?

Chapter Ninety-Four – League Champions – Cannons?

Lily was in a great mood as she stepped out of the Gryffindor locker room and into a round of hugs and kisses that began with Jaimie and Lorie offering their unconditional love and support. Her day had been going great from the moment she woke up through Jonah's good morning hug and kiss – and good luck gift; through breakfast to the current moments of fun with the members of their family that had come to cheer her team on. All of the good feelings more than off-set the bad that came from Slytherin taunts, but Lily knew that she was able to ignore all of that silliness because the Slytherins offering those taunts were delusional too. That wasn't over-confidence – just simple fact that was going to be obvious to everyone in the stadium very soon.

That needed to wait for the pre-game best wishes from their family, though, and Lily was happy to see a good turnout for nearly-everyone on the team. Ray was there for Cyndia more than for his sister, but both sets of parents had come along – Cyndia's parents so that they could watch her last-ever Hogwarts match; and Melissa's parents in support of their daughter and niece. Fred and Hugo had three parents there between them, with George getting to watch Fred's final Hogwarts match while Ron took care of the stores. While her own parents were skipping the match, Lily was happy to have her aunts, uncle, Al, Gwendolyn, and the twins there for her, and while they didn't have a lot of time to spend together; they packed a lot of fun into just five or ten minutes.

"We picked out your good luck gift!" Lorie advised her aunt proudly as Lily got around to opening it after the round of hugs and kisses. "Do you like it?"

"I love it – and it's perfect for sharing," Lily assured her while holding out the box of chocolates to Jaimie and Lorie so that they could each choose one for themselves. "If I just ate all of them myself; I'd never get off the ground on my broom when the match starts."

"You're just making that up," Jaimie decided.

"Yes, but it still isn't a good idea to eat a lot of chocolate right before playing in a Quidditch match," Lily advised them. "We'll share them; and then everyone can be happy."

"Okay," Lorie agreed before making her choice and then popping it into her mouth. "Thank-you."

"You're welcome," Lily told her after putting one in her mouth too so that her words would be as garbled as Lorie's thanks had been – earning giggles from both girls.

"We thought that you'd keep them for later," Gwendolyn told Lily. "Al has extras for the twins – and they'll be on treats overload before they get to the Catapults-Arrows' match.

"Then it's a good thing that you'll be at the Harpies' match instead," Lily offered unapologetically. "I remember wanting to get gifts like that when I was little – though James was more-likely to do that if he wasn't giving prank gifts instead."

"Or combining the two," Al added with a nod. "You're very confident about this match."

Lily nodded. "I am," she confirmed. "Jordan hasn't played against me since I started using my Hurricane; the Wilkes brothers are going to find out that they're no match for Fred and Orlando; and the rest of the match-ups might even end up being worse for them."

"Then play nice," Al suggested; and Lily laughed.

"That's you – not me," she reminded him. "I have team mates that want the chance to impress the scouts; and we can have fun with that all day. You can't say much about that Al after that first match you had against the Falcons."

"Well, you could shock everyone and be nicer than I was in that match," Al suggested. "You won't need all day to impress the scouts either; and don't forget that there are some league Quidditch matches to watch this afternoon – and they could make a difference for the playoffs standings for the first round."

"I thought that we were being very nice in that match," Gwendolyn joked, "but it might drive the Slytherins a bit mental if Lily tried that sort of thing with them today; so maybe she'd better not do that – especially when not everyone on her team has one of your uniforms to help them out with the hits."

"That's a good point," Lily conceded seriously. "I'll keep that in mind out there; since I really don't want any of my friends to get hurt today." She looked at her watch and shook her head. "We're almost out of time."

"Then spend the rest of it with Jaimie and Lorie," Al told her with a nod. "We can talk later – or catch up tomorrow night with our mirror chat."

Lily did that; took her team back into the locker room soon after that; and Al and Gwendolyn went with the gang that headed for their seats on the border between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw sections. Jaimie and Lorie were kept entertained by a small gang of their favorite Hogwarts teens and tweens; while Al and Gwendolyn talked with Jonah and the rest of their cousins and friends. They were still in the visitors' section with the parents and a few grandparents, so that seemed a bit strange, but they had fun too; and they had a fairly-nice morning for a Quidditch match.

"Ray's here for Cyndia," Stephanie leaned forward and told them quietly, "but you're the only cousins here for this match – and that includes Rose and other siblings of Gryffindor players. Will you stop coming to matches after next season?"

"We won't come to as many matches," Gwendolyn answered, "but we will try to come to at least one match a season for our younger cousins. Rose does have extra work as team Manager; so she can't do things like this as often as we can. I've never really thought about that for our older cousins, since most of them didn't even want parents to come to school for matches; so their perspective is different than ours."

"I suppose," Stephanie agreed. "Maybe the parent visits will taper off too now, though I think that's too bad; since we should all want to see our parents when we can while away at school."

"Those visits haven't exactly become a flood of visitors," Jonah pointed out. "The school is open to any visitors for these matches. All of the parents could come here to see their kids; yet only a handful do." He nodded toward the Slytherin visitor section. "Are there any parents of the Slytherin team players over there? Professor Slughorn has a few guests, but that section is nearly-empty."

Stephanie laughed. "Our parents aren't here either; so maybe I should just drop the subject. Is there any news you can talk about for the playoffs – or the Europe Cup?" she asked Gwendolyn.

"Not really," Gwendolyn answered with a shrug. "Tickets for the first round of the playoffs won't go on sale until tomorrow – once the top-eight and matches are set. The first-round match-ups for the Europe Cup haven't been announced yet, but that should be happening soon – along with the locations for those first eight matches. Kendall's dealing with that for Rose – and with Malorie and any of the other Managers involved in the Europe Cup for everything from tickets to souvenirs."

"That must be a lot different from the Quidditch world Cup," Stephanie suggested. "The Ministry of Magic and league get most of the benefits from things like souvenirs for that competition, right?"

"Yes," Al answered after Gwendolyn looked to him to get involved. "The players get paid too, but most of the money goes to the national teams and Ministry of magic Department of Magical Sports and Games. The Europe Cup is more like the league for how they share the money – with the Europe Cup Committee getting a percentage of everything. There are only fifteen matches for the entire competition, so it's a lot smaller than the Quidditch World Cup, but that'll still likely be more than a million tickets sold – depending on the size of each stadium; so that'll be more like the same amount of tickets sold at twenty-five or thirty league matches."

"That sounds good for the Cannons," Stephanie suggested. "Do you know if they use campgrounds like with the Quidditch World Cup?"

"They do," Al confirmed. "There are other activities going on each weekend too; though we don't have a lot of the details yet. That's likely something else that will be announced along with the match-ups and stadiums that are picked. We might hear more about that from our Weird Sisters' connections first if any of their bands get hired to play at concerts at the campgrounds or stadiums."

"And no – we haven't heard anything yet," Gwendolyn added. "I doubt that Dad would talk about that sort of thing early anyway. All of the bands are sure to get lots of work next summer, though; and Dad's already talked about getting ready for those shows. I'm sure they'd take the gigs this summer too; since that'd help them out with getting back into the spotlight in time for the Quidditch World Cup."

"I'm hoping that we'll be in the spotlight for the Quidditch World Cup," Stephanie leaned closer and whispered so that she wasn't overheard. "Maybe if we do well this summer; only playing half a season next year won't matter when it comes time to picking the National team."

"Maybe you'd rather play on that team with Pauline and Peter," Gwendolyn teased; and Stephanie laughed.

"That would be brilliant, but if I wanted to do that; I'd have had a better chance if I'd taken a job with the Prides instead."

Gwendolyn turned around to look at her friend. "Did you get offered a job with them?"

"No comment," Stephanie answered with a grin. "I can suggest that there might be a new standard for league players that the other teams will need to catch up with sooner instead of later."

"I'll hope for later on that one," Gwendolyn offered with a grin. "Change of subject – are you going to cheer for Slytherin today?"

"No," Stephanie answered. "Gryffindor has won the Quidditch Cup already, and if we lose our match to Hufflepuff; I'd rather deal with a tie-break for the senior team title with Gryffindor instead of Slytherin."

"Is that to your advantage?" Gwendolyn asked next; and Stephanie shrugged.

"I don't think that the difference matters very much when they're playing against each other today – unless one of the teams get a big advantage and try to run up the score. Hufflepuff might beat us, but if they do; it won't be with some sort of blow-out score."

"Leanne wouldn't do that," Jonah offered. "They'd like to win too, but even if they do; the score won't matter for the standings in the Quidditch Cup or senior team titles."

"Actually, it would for the senior team standings," Stephanie disagreed. "Slytherin and Hufflepuff would each have one win; so the tie-break would be needed for deciding third and fourth-place."

"Okay," Jonah conceded – "not that Slytherin would care; since they'd just point out that they beat Hufflepuff this year." He shrugged and smiled ruefully. "I don't think that any of this matters. Gryffindor is going to win today; and I think that we'll win our last match too; since we do want to at least win the senior team title now that the Quidditch Cup is out of reach."

Al hoped that would work out for them – even if Lily might cheer for Hufflepuff in hopes of still winning both titles for a third year in a row. He also agreed with Jonah about those predictions for wins; and it wasn't much longer before Mr. Peakes got the match started and Gryffindor went to work proving that they were the better team. The Quidditch action was intense, but one-sided. Cyndia led the way for the Gryffindor Chasers – though that happened both with scoring goals and setting up goals for Melissa and Kathryn. They scored seven goals in the first hour and Hugo only gave up one to Bethany Pritchard. The scoring difference in the second-hour was six-to-one in favor of Gryffindor, and might have been higher, but Lily caught the snitch at the one-hour and fifty-five minute mark to put an end to the battle – and save Slytherin from further embarrassment.

Most of the Slytherin players and the other Slytherin students – did not appreciate that kindness, but even the Wilkes brothers had been taken to Quidditch school by Fred and Orlando – and they'd learned that before you can pound on opponent players; you have to be able to be better than the Beaters you're competing against. Al had liked that part of Lily's game plan for Slytherin, and while she hadn't likely done it on purpose; the Gryffindor game plan also worked to make Bethany Pritchard look like the best player on the Slytherin team – with her brother coming in second; and Jordan Greengrass a distant third after at least keeping up with Lily for nearly two hours.

Ray was the happiest visitor in the stadium to have the match end soon-enough for him to get to spend nearly an hour with Cyndia, but Al and Gwendolyn stayed too; allowing Lily and Jonah the extra time with the twins before heading for London and their game day luncheon at the Leaky. The post-game action on the pitch didn't include anything more-serious than taunting by some of the Slytherin guys. There was a bit of inter-team fun to be had, though, and that happened because of Jaimie and Lorie. Their moment of fun with the Slytherin players happened by accident – when they were running around and Lorie bumped into Jordan Greengrass. She apologized; congratulated him for playing so well against her Aunt Lily; and then she and Jaimie both went on to tell Bethany that they'd liked the goals she'd scored on 'Uncle Hugo' too. While those moments were rare for Slytherins in general, Al enjoyed what he'd sensed from the two teens; and they'd been kind in return to Jaimie and Lorie.

That might not seem like much, but Al was glad that the twins hadn't been on the receiving end of the usual Slytherin hatred toward anyone that wasn't a pureblood.

While they enjoyed that extra time with their favorite Hogwarts students; moving on to the game day luncheon kept the Quidditch adventure going – especially since talking about the Gryffindor-Slytherin match provided a lot of the entertainment while they enjoyed that meal. Jaimie and Lorie were with Malorie and Patrick for lunch; and with Harry, Ginny, and the rest of the gang going to the Catapults-Arrows' match after they finished eating; so Al and Gwendolyn got to hang out with the grown-ups both for that food break and when they headed to Exmoor stadium for the Harpies-United match. It was a bit unusual to not have the defending champions at the best stadium for the final match of the season, but not really a surprise that the league would expect the Harpies-United rivalry to sell more tickets. The stadium was sold-out for the match; and that made getting through the food and souvenir booths gauntlet a bit of a hassle. That had everything to do with why Al and Gwendolyn didn't get to their seats until just moments before the teams were introduced, but they had been doing a fair bit of sitting down to watch Quidditch or eat by then; so a bit less time in a stadium seat worked for them.

"I'm glad that we're here," Gwendolyn told Al, "but we probably should be at the Arrows' match today; since we're likely to be up against them next weekend."

"We'll keep an eye on that match too – and Mum and Dad will be able to help us out with the full game analysis for that match anyway. "We could end up playing against one or both of these teams during the second or third round; so this match is important for us too."

"Okay, let's go with that excuse," Gwendolyn decided with a nod. "Would you like to comment on the expert predictions majority going with United today?"

"Lee picked Alex's team – as always now," Al reminded her. "I wouldn't suggest that they'll be wrong, since this match ought to be too-close to call, but their reasons for picking United are a bit wrong-headed."

"Why do you say that?" Gwendolyn asked; and Al shrugged.

"Victoire and Aunt Gabrielle won't be as affected by their physical condition as those experts seem to think, and it was Victoire's birthday yesterday; so she has some extra motivation – not less. United probably wants this win more, though, and that'll only change if the other matches end sooner and they find out that the win or loss doesn't matter for this game."

"That won't likely happen for the Catapults," Gwendolyn suggested. "Won't James need to at least win that match by more than we did in our match against the Arrows?"

"I doubt he'll be happy unless they knock half the Arrows out of the match and into their beds at St. Mungo's," Al declared with a shake of his head. "I don't know whether Madison can best James yet, but if the Arrows are going to win today; she'll need to do that – and probably have that happen early so that James, Tiberius, and Brock don't have time to wear her down with all of the hits and cheap shots."

"We can hope," Gwendolyn said with a nod; and then added – "for the early win; not Madison getting beat up by the Catapults."

Their hope didn't prove to be of any help to the Arrows – or to the Harpies as the matches got started. For the Harpies' match, that truth wasn't because United gained a big, early advantage. Their battle was very defensive, so while there were a lot of shots on goals; there wasn't much scoring – as in no scoring at all in the first hour. United scored one goal in the second hour and another early in the third before Victoire finally earned a goal against Belinda mid-way through the third hour. United added one more near to the end of that hour, but it was the Seeker duel that decided the match – and wasn't helped at all by the fan support and hope for the Harpies. Al sensed something that none of the other spectators knew about, though, which was why Alex's snitch catch just four minutes into the fourth hour came as such a shock to pretty much everyone watching the match in the stadium or on the mirror network shows.

"No!" Gwendolyn pretended to wail quietly; and Al laughed.

"The Harpies are still in third-place," Al reminded her. "We'd rather have the win, but this is better than winning a marathon match – or at least I think that it is."

"Maybe – but not as good as the early win would have been for our team," Gwendolyn challenged. "We do get to go home and have dinner there – and probably with Mum and Dad too; so I'm happy about that."

"We can call Mum too and see if Jaimie and Lorie have had enough Quidditch fun and pick them up on the way home too," Al suggested. "From what we've seen of that match so far; it won't be over anytime soon."

"James ought to just end it," Gwendolyn suggested. "United has won; so the Catapults will be in fifth-place now whether they win or not."

"We know that isn't going to happen," Al pointed out, "and from what I've seen from Madison lately; it's probably too-late for her to get the snitch catch for the win – or loss; though the Arrows aren't in any imminent risk of giving up the one-sixty lead. Susan, Lee, and Tory are playing pretty well."

"Madison is playing full-out defense now," Gwendolyn offered with a nod. "She's more-worried about getting pounded than in catching the snitch."

"She has good-reason for that worry," Al pointed out. "Let's forget about that for a while; get out of here; and try to have some fun for the rest of the day."

Gwendolyn was happy to do that; they ended up with a small gang back at the atrium – including Kirley and the twins; they played for a couple of hours while Gwenog was still busy; and then they had most of that same gang plus a few extras for a take-out dinner that was also held at tables in the atrium. Having dinner at the cafe had been an option, but it was already busy there with the game-watchers that had been there most of the afternoon; so doing their own thing was easier than trying to juggle table space at the cafe. the game-watching continued during dinner, though, and that put a bit of a damper on the meal – especially after James and Brock teamed up to knock Madison out of the match. That proved to be one of the stranger Quidditch moments of the year because Madison wasn't seriously-injured. She was knocked off of her broom, though, so she was out of the match as soon as she landed in an aisle between sections of stadium seating behind the Catapults' goals.

While that wasn't good for the Arrows, and Madison did still need some medical attention, Al got teased about not needing to save a damsel in distress this time; and it was strange to watch mirror network images of Madison continuing to watch the match from the sidelines after being treated for her injuries by the MediWitch on-duty at the stadium. On the ugly side of Quidditch, that match became even more-pointless for either team, but the Arrows couldn't do anything to end it without their Seeker; so it was up to James to decide how long they'd keep playing on – short of a Captains' agreement to end it. That didn't happen, so Al stopped watching the match after that and had fun playing with the twins and a few other kids that were hanging out in the atrium – including Ruth's kids and some younger cousins or friends' kids for a few of their neighbors.

The swim time; playground action; and a walk on the paths kept them entertained until after-dark. Jaimie and Lorie watched a show on the mirror network with Malorie and Patrick to get them wound down at bedtime; and Al and Gwendolyn watched the last part of the Catapults' match at the cafe because they were invited to do that with Rose, Brandon, and a few other friends once Al had finished playing with the kids for the night. There was no obvious reason for James' decision to end the match in the closing minutes of the eighth hour – unless getting the win ahead of the one-sixty lead was his goal. The five-fifty to two-fifty 'victory' wasn't something that Al thought was worth bragging about, but that's what James, Tiberius, Brock, and Scorpius did during the post-game interviews.

That news did make the top-eight standings official, though, so while Al was ready to move on and ignore the awful sportsmanship; they could also, officially, start getting ready for their first-round match against the Arrows.

That was going to need to wait for morning, though, and while Al would have been just as happy to take Gwendolyn home and wrap up their day with some hot-rated play time for two, they stayed and spent another couple of hours with their friends first – and then used his time-stopper to 'make' the time they needed for the bed and bath fun that had them in a very happy mood by the time they did return to normal time and go to sleep!

"One more trouncing down – three to go to our next championship!" James declared enthusiastically as he strode into the locker room – last to get there as always. He smirked darkly while glancing expectantly at the 'enemy' side of the room. "I'd tell you to cheer up, but you ought to be embarrassed; since we got this win with no help from the three of you!"

"Congratulations," Louis told him derisively. "We played for eight hours to win a pointless match that means nothing in the standings; since we'd have ended up in fifth place win-or-lose. Well-done, King James!"

"No – we played – brilliantly – for eight hours. You may as well have fallen off your broom and kept the Whit-less Wonder company on the bench – and taken Miya the Mutt and her lap-dog with you."

"We played our best – and will continue to do so," Louis told him. "Our last match against United didn't end very well for us, though, and you ought to be at least a bit worried about how angry some of the United players are sure to be next Saturday – instead of patting yourself on the back for cheating to knock Madison out of the match and then only needing three hours to catch the snitch after that."

James laughed. "If they want payback; you should be the one that's worried about getting pounded – and we'll be just fine if you do get knocked out; since you're useless anyway. Maybe I'll get Tiberius and Brock to help Tina out with that. They'd love to hook up with her – even if that's only in a Quidditch sort of way!"

Louis shook his head. "That's a brilliant strategy, your majesty. What could possibly go wrong with a game plan that begins with spotting your opponent a player or two – not to mention what you'll do for the second-round of the playoffs after single-handedly saving the day next weekend."

"We have a back-up Keeper," James reminded him, "but we both know that the loser would need to save another damsel-in-distress – meaning you; so I wouldn't get lucky-enough to just be rid of you."

"Hasn't Al saved you a time or three?" Miya asked him innocently; though there was an edge to her sweetly-delivered barb. "That must make you a damsel-in-distress too."

"Shut it!" James told her angrily. "The loser hasn't done anything to help me – ever!"

"According to you – neither have we," Miya pointed out. "I'm sure that's just a coincidence – not a denial of reality based entirely on your need to turn on anyone that doesn't just go along with anything you do or say no matter how horrid or ridiculous!"

"In three weeks, we'll still be league champions – and then you'll be looking for a new job," James warned her. "If you're so offended; feel free to return your awards; and we'll be happy to have your name stricken from the trophy – especially since you've done nothing to deserve the honor!"

Miya laughed. "You're one to talk about honor," she retorted. "When was the last time that you won at anything without cheating?"

James smirked at her. "At lunchtime – with your Mum," he answered. "She told me it was the best five minutes of her life!"

"Thanks so much for the compliment – regardless of how impossible that would be,' Miya told him. "According to your own bragging, you only hook up with the hottest Witches; so I'm so glad to hear that you think that my Mum is hot – especially since I look so much like her."

"Sometimes I make exceptions," James advised her; still forcing the vicious smirk to stay on his face despite being annoyed by her – and the laughs she got from Louis and Roman. "When you're unemployed by the end of the month; you'll wish that you'd had that kind of fun with me. I do hope that you'll have to call off the wedding while you're both busy looking for new jobs. I hear they're always looking for squibs to work the booths at the stadiums. You'd fit right in!"

"This is fun," Brock told him, "but we've a party to get to – and Witches to impress; so go hit the showers, James."

"Or don't – and that'll leave more Witches for us!" Tiberius added with a laugh.

"I'll leave it to the Arrows – and those three – to stink up the joint," James told him; and then laughed. "I'm sure that someone will make a lot of money next weekend – if they sell nose plug charms at the match between the two-worst teams in the league!"

League playoff fever began on Sunday, and while the growing legion of Cannons fans were fired up about their team's first appearance in the playoffs since before most of them were born, and despite being ranked first and undefeated; the Quidditch experts were, as always, predicting the worst for them – even in the first-round against the eighth-ranked team. Al and Gwendolyn were still in high demand on the Quidditch news circuit, though, and were kept busy on Sunday – and through the rest of the week. Quidditch was the main focus of their lives, and even the only 'extra' event on their schedule – Al's nineteenth birthday on Tuesday – did not get in the way of their efforts to get ready for their match against the Arrows. They still had lots of family and friends fun – it just needed to be mixed in with the Quidditch.

For Al's birthday, that meant celebrating his special day while also having a working breakfast; Rose and Gwendolyn took over the training from him and kept everyone entertained with Animorphmagus-themed activities that the reporters had a bit too-much fun with; and then Lee took the opportunity to interview Al and Gwendolyn on his show while adding in an Animorphmagus-related monologue that included a top-ten reasons for having an Animorphmagus on your Quidditch team in the playoffs. That had been strangely-fun, but Gwendolyn made sure that Al's special day ended on a much-hotter note even though they'd already been out past their training day curfew; which helped them a lot with having an awesome rest of the week.

By Friday evening, they were ready for an early, game-day bedtime, but the news of the day was all about the first of a three-part season finale for The Healer that once-again had James and Scorpius at the center of the storyline. Al and Gwendolyn watched the episode in their townhouse instead of at the cafe or with anyone else, and loved the show as much as always – and they really were still fans of the top-rated mirror network show; though it was also strange to watch a make-believe story play out around the Quidditch playoffs for a fictional league and team that had James and Scorpius' team as the number one team and favorites to win – even with the drama that they were being distracted by in their personal lives. While the 'Cardiff Catapults' managed to survive in the first round even as the drama cliff-hanger left the patient on the edge of life and death; Al and Gwendolyn were willing to predict that the team – and patient – would pull through in the end.

Al also thought that if reality didn't work out as well for James; then at least he really had found a way to reject reality and substitute his own – and likely get paid pretty well to do it!

Al and Gwendolyn got to sleep early after watching The Healer – thanks to using the time-stopper for their bedtime play time; so Al was awake at his normal time for a workout by the lagoon; and then he and Gwendolyn eventually made it to the cafe for a game day breakfast. There was a Hogsmeade weekend on the schedule along with the first-round Quidditch matches, but while Ray was given time off to go and see Cyndia, that wasn't an option for the rest of the team; so Harry and Kirley took care of getting Jaimie and Lorie there so that they could still have their visit with Lily and Jonah while all of their favorite league Quidditch players and managers got ready for their respective first-round battles.

"You're going to the Cannons' match today?" Lily asked her nieces; feigning shock as they gave her that news after they'd finished the opening round of hugs and kisses. "I thought you'd be at James' match – or go to the Harpies' match."

"We want to watch Grandma play," Lorie told her. "Mum says it will be hysteric."

"Historic?" Lily asked; and Lorie nodded.

"That's what I said – historic."

"Well, it could be that – if the Cannons go on to win the championship," Lily agreed. "No player has ever won the league championship with undefeated seasons on two different teams."

"Aren't you going to watch Grandma play today – on the mirror network?" Jaimie asked.

"We're going to try and watch all four matches," Lily answered; and then turne her attention to Harry and Kirley. "Speaking of – do you have those extra mirrors for us to use this afternoon?"

Harry summoned the undetectable expansion bag that he'd gotten ready and held it out to her. Kirley had another bag with him that he offered to Jonah.

"They're extras; so you can keep them until we see you next – or after you get home again," Harry advised Lily. "Do you want to give us the boring shopping and go have fun with Jaimie and Lorie for a while?"

"Definitely," Lily agreed. "Jonah already has the lists – including for all of the extra treats we'll need for these playoffs matches."

"Then we should get at that," Jonah suggested. "The supplies orders are big too with everyone needing extras to finish up end-of-term projects ahead of exams."

They did that; Lily had help from friends to keep up with the twins; and Jonah ended up with Hugo and a few of their usual study group mates; and Harry and Kirley had fun talking Quidditch and helping them out with getting the 'boring' work done. They got to spend another half-hour or so with Lily once the supplies were picked up, but then the teens went for an early lunch at the Three Broomsticks; and Harry and Kirley took the twins home for some play time before going on to London and the Leaky for their game day luncheon.

"I don't know if this is going to work, but it's definitely different," Alyssa declared to Hugo and the other teens helping Lily and Jonah with their game-watching set-up.

"We've never tried to put the portable pool in the middle of the room," Lily pointed out, "but we have the mirrors high-enough in the corners that we'll be able to see over the sofas and anyone sitting on them to still watch the different matches too. "The only problem we'll have will be if too many of our friends want to watch one match and not the others."

"We can make adjustments for that if needed," Jonah suggested. "I think that we'll be okay with what we've done; since we will have fans of at least one team in all four matches today."

"True, but maybe we should have only put two or three sofas out in front of the mirror for the Cannons' match; since they do only have a few fans."

"There are Arrows fans in our group too," Alyssa reminded her. Drew and John will be cheering for their sisters."

"You're going to need to drop that joke about only having six Cannons fans," Hugo told Lily. "It just isn't true anymore – not that it actually ever was true. The expert predictions are up soon, though, so why don't you tell us your picks before you go to the other side of the room from Alyssa and me to watch the Harpies' match."

"That's easy – I pick the top-four teams to win," Lily answered. "I don't want the Catapults, Tornados, or Falcons to win, and while I'd be okay with the Arrows making it past the first round; that probably isn't going to happen."

"Wouldn't you rather see the Catapults win – and then get a second-round match-up against the Cannons?" Alyssa asked; and Lily laughed.

"Yes – and no. That wouldn't be a good match that I would likely still love a lot in a wrong sort of way, but what I don't want to see today is an even-worse match against United; since that's what it would take for the Catapults to beat them. Jonah wants to watch the Cannons too, so we'll at least start with that match, but the Prides and Harpies matches against the Falcons and Tornados could end up being ugly as ugly to watch as we all expect the Catapults-United match to be."

"That's likely," Hugo agreed, "but even that wouldn't have had you picking a Cannons match over the Harpies – or the Catapults – all that long ago; so I'm still surprised."

"Even after Lily took pity on Slytherin a let them off the hook last weekend?" Alyssa asked.

"Rule Number One applies," Lily advised her. "Al pointed out that he wasn't being good with their first win this season over the Falcons; and suggested that I could shock everyone by being nicer than him against Slytherin. Then there was the fact that not everyone on my team has one of his uniforms; so I didn't want Slytherin to have time to hurt any of my friends."

"We're glad that you didn't try to have an all-day-and-night match," Jonah assured her. "If you're right about the teams that will move on today, though, the matches for next week are going to be interesting; and I'll predict that we will and won't want to watch what James does after the match and in the interviews."

Lily laughed. "I'd like to be recording his pre-game bragging to use against him after the match," she only half-joked. "If the Catapults do lose today, though, James will be predictable and throw a team mate or three under the Knight Bus."

"Okay, boys – and I'm not talking to the traitors in the back row; we're done with the warm-ups also known as the regular season. It's time to get serious; remind the other teams and players why we're league champions; and do that in a big, painful way! Today, we'll turn United into mere puddles, and then, if the clown brigade doesn't get shot down by the Arrows as they should; we'll destroy them; and after that, if we're really, really lucky; we'll get to end the careers for a few Harpies on the way to our second championship!"

"Should we be afraid now?" Brock asked with a grin. "I'm pretty sure that you got a mark of 'Troll' in Divination."

"I didn't take that stupid class," James reminded him. "Those aren't predictions – they're statements of fact. Believe it; let's get out there; have some of our kind of fun; and once we've done that; we can party for the rest of the weekend – or week!"

"I'm going to try my best not to let my inner-Mum out today," Rose joked. "I really want all of us to have fun too, but we do need to win these last three matches to make this last part of my dream happen; so let's really try hard to have fun and still win today." She smiled when Ginny laughed.

"Then maybe you should let that inner-Hermione out," Ginny offered in explanation for the laughter. "She stressed about her big tests too – and then she always got the top marks. That would work out well for us today."

"Maybe that's true for the rest of you," Seth suggested, "but I'll need to do a bit better than my normal if we're comparing this match to our tests at Hogwarts."

"You and me both," Ray assured him with a nod. "We have other motivation today, though, so we're going to have a good day."

"Should we ask?" Gwendolyn teased; and Ray laughed.

"That wasn't what I meant," he insisted. "We don't want to just get close after having such an amazing season; winning that little bet with the old owners is rather important for all of us; and I don't mind admitting that there are a few people that I'd like to prove something to today – and over the next couple of weeks too."

"We'll do our best to help you out with that," Al promised quietly; and then smiled at the reactions to his comment. "Will any of you ever stop being surprised about things like that? I do think that winning is part of the having fun plan."

"Probably not," Gwendolyn answered, "but we'll just have fun with that too."

Lily cuddled with Jonah on a sofa as they watched the Cannons-Arrows' match and settled in to enjoy the Quidditch entertainment with the friends that chose that match to focus on over the other three. The noise level in the room was higher than normal with four mirrors being used, but they were finding out that it was possible to tune in and out of the different matches when something they heard or saw caught their attention. While they'd been interested in the start of each match, once they'd talked about first impressions; Alyssa changed the subject to the game announcing news instead – and that was a bit of a news story because the top announcers weren't covering the Cannons' match.

"I get why Lee picked covering the United-Catapults' match with Alex and Lucy playing in that one," Alyssa offered when making the topic change, "but Teresa and Kylie picked the Prides-Falcons' match instead of this one; and I'd have thought that the number one team in the league ought to have rated better than the third or fourth string announcers and commentators – especially when it's been so long since the Cannons were even in the playoffs."

"Teresa does have her cousins to cheer for with the Prides," Jonah reminded her. "That's why Stephanie's watching that match now instead of this one. It'll be interesting to find out which of these matches get the most mirror network viewers."

"If it's this one, then I'd say that anyone that could have picked covering it first will wish they had," Hugo offered – "though I'm sure that there are lots of fans interested in watching the other three matches to find out whether the bad guys will win each of those matches." He shook his head. "I still can't believe how many of Lee's experts are hoping for the worst – I mean predicting that the worst teams will win today."

"They're likely hoping for that because those are the teams they want to see try to play against the Cannons next week or the week after," Lily suggested. "You should take that as a compliment to your team."

Hugo laughed. "Because they think that the only way to best the Cannons is to cheat?" he asked. "That hasn't worked out for anyone so far this season; and I don't expect that to change."

"That's one of the reasons for why I hope the top-four teams win today," Alyssa advised them. "If cheating doesn't pay off anymore; maybe those teams and players will get a clue and change. Nothing motivates some Witches and Wizards more than losing money – and there is a lot of money to be made with every round of the playoffs."

"You could have a point there," Lily agreed, "but teams like the Falcons might not care about that. They might lose more money if their fans started to get mad because they decided to be nice."

"Well, there's no danger of that happening from what we've seen from them so far today," Jonah suggested with a nod toward that mirror. "I'd say they're trying to take the Catapults' game plan from the championship match last year and trying to knock Pauline out."

"It might just look that way because Brand and James have the same goals," Lily pointed out. "Pauline can take advantage of that if she can keep from getting hurt. Brand won't even seriously try to catch the snitch unless the Falcons' Manager decides that they've inflicted enough pain on the Prides to end the match – and they won't do that for the loss in the playoffs."

"So the Prides need to get the one-sixty lead and then have Pauline wait for a best chance to end it while trying not to get knocked ou by Brand and the Nott brothers," Alyssa summarized. "That sounds easy to me – not!"

'Easy' wasn't a word that applied to the Quidditch action in any of the matches or for any of the teams – except for the Cannons – and they only made it look easy while having so much fun. Some spectators keeping an eye on all of the matches might not agree with that, but by the end of the first hour, the Cannons had a fifty-to-naught lead over the Arrows; and that lead had come without any pain at all for any of the players on either team. That wasn't true for the four goals that the Prides earned over the Falcons. Peter was holding onto a shut-out still too, but he and Pauline were the Falcons' primary targets; and Alice, Francine, and Daniella were all taking a lot of hits too while pushing hard to try and earn the one-sixty lead.

The third-place Harpies were in a tough battle with the Tornados, and while the cheap shots and cheating that was led by the Harper brothers helped the Tornados; that was just a battle to a draw with three goals for each team as they headed into the second hour. Finally, United earned a small, two-goal advantage over the Catapults because Belinda was stopping everything too; and the McClaggens were having no luck trying to knock her out of the match – though they did try to help James with pounding on Alex too; so their efforts were a bit divided. They were also up against two very-talented and determined Beaters; and taking risks with the cheating and cheap shots attempts – especially since they did know very well how dangerous it was to get Tina Johnson mad!

Lily and Jonah went for a swim with some of their friends early in the second hour, and by then; each of the four matches were pretty much getting locked into the match-play plans that one or both teams in each contest wanted to impose on their respective opponent. The scoring rates didn't change much either. That reality was frustrating for the Arrows as the Cannons took a one-hundred to naught lead into the third hour, but most of their players were still having fun too; and the growing lead had a lot to do with Rose playing a brilliant match in goals for her team. That was true for Peter and Belinda in their matches, but the biggest difference in both of those matches was that they had to fend off continual attacks from the Falcons or Catapults players that weren't just trying to score goals on them, but knock them out of the match. The eighty-to-naught lead for the Prides by the end of the second hour had them half-way to the one-sixty lead that they really needed for protection, but while Belinda did all she could for her team; Dominuqie, Lucy, and Olivia only added two more goals; so their forty-to-naught lead wasn't of any comfort to them as the hits from the Catapults just kept coming.

The third-hour of Quidditch action proved to be very, very important for three of the matches. Lily and Jonah were cuddled on a sofa again by the time the first game-changer happened – and that was with the Catapults-United match. Scorpius, Tiberius, and Brock were responsible for a change in tactics and a triple-hit on Dominique near the mid-way point of the third hour. The good news for them was that they seriously-injured Dominique. The bad was that United got a time-out called before she could crash out of the match. Lucy helped her to land; and then there was an injury time-out while the Medi-Witch and Medi-Wizard on duty did what they could to patch her up enough that she could keep playing – though she likely should have gone straight to St. Mungo's instead.

"They're such idiots!" Lily declared as she kept an eye on that mirror and listened in as Lee commented on the little celebration going on around the Catapults' benches because of their 'success' in finally injuring one of the United players – though that was only happening with James, Scorpius, and the McClaggens while Louis looked as angry as the United players all were; and Miya and Roman were definitley not celebrating too.

"They really are," Jonah agreed. "How many times will they need to see Tina get mad before they get it through their thick skulls that it's a really bad idea to get her motivated like she is right now?"

"At least this one more time," Alyssa joked. "There's goal number thirteen for the Cannons. Is the timing just coincidence?"

"Probably," Lily answered – "though we'd better get back to watching that match; since Madison might be getting desperate now that the Cannons are only three goals away from the one-sixty lead."

That declaration wasn't prophetic, but United was still in their injury time-out when Ginny ended the Cannons-Arrows match at the two-hour and forty-two minute mark on a great play that totally-fooled Madison and had her out of the play while Ginny made a spectacular catch that was definitely one of the highlights of the match. The game-watching action kicked up a few notches again as the Cannons celebrated their first playoff win in longer than any but a very few elderly Wizards and Witches could remember. Nearly everyone in the classroom kept an eye on the Catapults-United match as it resumed, but while Dominique was in trouble and only played defensively as best she could; it was the Catapults that found themselves in trouble as Tina took her game to the next level and focused on some quality retribution that she was going to take out on James while Calvin was apparently ordered to give Scorpius something better to do than beat up on Witches and try to score goals against Belinda.

While that was going on, the Prides and Falcons continued their ugly battle without any sign of change at all, but the Harpies-Tornados' match came to a shocking, abrupt end with just minutes left in the third hour – and that match soon had the attention of everyone in the room with Lily and Jonah too. The game-winning play hadn't even been covered with the 'live' mirror cam – including Gabrielle's catch of the snitch because they'd switched from the Chasers' play that they had been followeing to the aftermath of the crash between Andrea and Dave when he missed an attempted hit of Gabrielle and yet-again bashed into her while Caleb's bludger nearly knocked Andrea off of her broom as she managed to only take a glancing hit from it while fending off Dave as he tried to use her to keep from falling off of his own broom because of their collision.

Compared to that crash, Gabrielle's snitch catch wasn't anything spectacular – she just took advantage of the opportunity and got the job done. The two-forty to eighty score proved that their match had continued to be close, and Andrea had been playing well against Gabrielle; so Dave's mistake had been the game-changer – in a bad way for his own team. There was a lot of anger among the Catapults and their fans, but the Harpies didn't give them the chance while in the air to try and vent that frushtration – which was why the situation at center pitch looked very tense; and intense. Everyone watching was expecting trouble when the mirror-cam followed Andrea as she glared at the Harpies and then apparently asked Caleb Harper for his Beater Bat. He was grinning viciously as he handed it to her – in anticipation of what she was going to do with it, but then he looked as stunned as most spectators were when Andrea used it to knock Dave Harper out cold with one hard swing that he barely had time to see coming before she hit him up the side of the face and head.

"Thank-you," Andrea told Caleb while tossing his bat back to him while he stared at her in shock and then had to juggle the bat to keep from dropping it. "Sometime between when he wakes up and the start of training camp – assuming he still has a job with our team; tell your brother to get a clue and stop messing things up for the rest of us! We were doing just fine until he lost the match for us with that stupid play!"

"I'd say that 'if' is a big one," Rachel Rosier interjected with a nod of approval for Andrea – and then she focused her attention on Caleb. "Don't even think about it," she warned as she saw that he was trying to decide whether to defend his brother and retaliate against Andrea or let her get away with it because he also knew she had good-cause for knocking his brother out. "If Andrea hadn't tried to knock some sense into him first; I'd have been next in line!"

"We can still curse him while he's down," Licentia suggested.

"Why bother?" Andrea retorted. "He's already cursed with extreme stupidity. It's a wonder that he hasn't hit himself in the head with a bludger – or his own Beater bat. Speaking of – let's go pretend to congratulate the Harpies; do the interviews; and play nice with the fans before I go and get the broken bones and the other injuries that idiot gave me Healed by someone."

"Be glad that you're not playing for the National team," Rachel told her with a sneer. "I'm still trying to get the stench of Animorphloser out of my nose from being ordered to let him heal me in our match against Bulgaria in the last Quidditch World Cup."

"You have had to play against him a couple of times this season," Andrea reminded her, "but wasn't winning the Quidditch World Cup worth even that experience?"

"I'll let you know if I ever decide," Rachel lied, but then Andrea knew exactly what getting healed by Al Potter was like; so she expected that the only thing that Rachel hated was the fact that it had felt so good.

Losing her first playoff match, on the other hand, hurt Andrea more than the broken bones and bruises she'd gotten from having Dave crash into her; so it took everything she had to move on, play nice with the reporters and fans; and then get the unwanted, early start to her off-season.

"That must've hurt!" Jonah said quietly as they watched James take a bludger hit full-on with bone-breaking force.

"Not as much as this is going to hurt if Alex isn't just faking a..." Lily began; and then the mirror-cam view showed the snitch too; so she continued with "...chase for the snitch that he will or won't or will catch! Yes!"

"You're cheering James' loss?" Hugo asked in amusement. "I thought that you wanted the Catapults to win."

"I predicted that United would win," she reminded him. "Wanting the Catapults to end up playing the Cannons wasn't for good reasons – and I'd say that this loss was as self-inflicted as the Tornados' loss just was. Maybe James and Andrea can get together in the off-season and train together like they did at Christmas a few years ago at Hogwarts. They have a lot in common today."

"I wouldn't say that," Jonah offered. "Andrea wasn't at fault for her loss."

"We'll talk later – again – about why you think so highly of Andrea Avery," Lily warned, "but I'll also disagree with you; since she does know that Dave is an idiot; and should have been ready to get out of his way."

"James wasn't in on the hits against Dominique," Alyssa pointed out. "Maybe he wasn't at fault for this loss either. I don't know why Tina didn't go after Scorpius – or the McClaggens."

"Because she knows that nothing happens with the Catapults that James doesn't order," Lily answered. "From how mad Louis still looks, though, I'd say that he wasn't in the loop for the beat-up-his-sister part of the game plan." She grinned then. "Tiberius and Brock better hang onto their Beater bats!"

James was ready for a fight when he walked into the locker room; so his anger just flared hotter when he saw that the three people he wanted to rip into weren't there.

"Where are the traitors?" he demanded hotly.

"Gone," Tiberius answered derisively; and sounded angry-enough that James actually noticed – and then saw that Tiberius was getting an impressive black eye.

"You got into a fight with them?"

"No," Tiberius spat back. "Louis punched me; and then the Mutt and her lap-dog kept Brock and me from putting Louis into the hospital along with his sister – if she even went there. It's more-likely that the Animorphloser will help her out instead." He laughed derisively. "Good riddance to them; since they're done with working for the Catapults – if we have anything to say about it."

"They are," James agreed – "and I hope they're done in the league; unless it's getting jobs cleaning the stadium washrooms or something."

"I hope they do get jobs on one of the other teams," Tiberius disagreed. "That way, we'll get two chances a season to pay them back for blowing the season for us this year!"

"We'd only need one match," Brock suggested. "They'd never want to play again once we were done with them – assuming they could still do anything at all."

"That's a cheery thought," James decided; and then turned his attention to Scorpius. "I'm surprised that you didn't join in and blast them."

Scorpius shrugged. "I got here after the worst of that was over; and they were nearly ready to leave; so there was no point," he answered. "You won't have to worry about getting them fired. I overheard them basically tell Daniel that they're done with the Catapults – that he could trade them or fire them; since they wouldn't be playing on the team with us anymore."

"I guess that Miya's able to quit when it suits her after all," James declared with a laugh.

Scorpius shrugged again. "I have no idea whether she's quit or not. For all we know; she didn't take a contract extension last year when the rest of us got those offers from the owners. She could just be done now anyway."

"Whatever," James said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I'd have rather paid them back for messing up what was meant to be our second league championship, but I'll just have to settle for getting started on our off-season – with the Witches that are already lining up to help me out with getting over the loss!"

Harry took care of helping Dominique after her match was over, though the Healers at St. Mungo's would have been able to have her healed easily-enough too – if not quite as quickly. While he was busy with that, his team mates kept busy with their own post-game interviews and visits with fans; and then they all eventually met up back at the cafe and practice pitch for a low-key celebration while they watched the only match still going on – the Prides-Falcons' match. They were able to have a late dinner together too, though GO Magisports helped out with the food by ordering in a lot of take-out food to supplement what the cafe could handle. By the time they sat down to eat; Al and Gwendolyn were ready to take a break – and have a quiet meal and visit with their parents, Malorie, Patrick, and the twins.

"The good news is that our teams have made it through the first round," Gwenog offered as they began to enjoy their food; "and the bad is that you'll be up against an angry United team; and we'll get the Prides – or the Falcons; if they can pull off a comeback tonight."

"Either might be okay for you," Ginny suggested. "That match has already been tough on the Prides, so even if they win; they'll need time to recover."

"Did you point that out to Harry before he went and helped Dominique out after their match?" Gwenog countered. "For all I know; Harry and Al will help out their favorite Prides players too."

"We probably will – if they need us," Al agreed easily; and then shrugged. "I know that atrition has been part of the game since it started, but that doesn't mean we can't try something radical and make a change to the way we play the game that's for the better."

"I totally agree – when it helps my team," Gwenog joked. "Our season might have been over if you hadn't helped Gabrielle and Victoire, but I still don't like it when that benefits our opponents; so maybe the fair thing to do would be not to help anyone."

"I don't agree with you, Mum," Gwendolyn advised her. "There are a lot of changes happening right now all at once, but is any of it really all that different from other improvements to the game in the past? How is the way Al chooses to share his healing talents any different from the impact his brooms and uniforms are having on the game – not including the fact that he's doing the healing for free? Should he not sell any of his inventions to other players?" She laughed; and Al grinned at her next thought. "Sorry, but I was just thinking that you likely think that some of the awful things that have been done to Quidditch players to keep them out of matches or for other reasons is okay; so your problem with what Al and his Dad are doing is that they're being too good and helpful."

"I haven't liked other changes to the game," Gwenog advised her daughter, "but you do have a point; and a lot of fans of the game – me included – have more trouble with changes to the game that make it nicer or less-dangerous. If we change it too much more; it just won't be any fun to play at all."

"Or it could be a game that more Wizards and Witches could have fun playing," Harry challenged; and then shrugged. "If it gets to a point that you don't like it anymore; you could always start up an old-school league – or split the current league. I'm sure that teams like the Falcons would love fewer rules; less safety; and more danger."

"You're joking; but that could happen," Gwenog warned seriously. "I'm not sure what the Harpies owners would decide if they needed to make that choice."

"I'll hope that doesn't happen," Ginny offered. "It would be bad for all of the teams – at least for a while." She smiled at Gwenog. "If you really miss the old days that much; you could always just start up a little not-so-friendly tourney and play that kind of Quidditch against the worst teams in the world. I'm not sure that any of your current team mates would like to join you for that, but I'm sure that you could find seven – or fourteen – players to field a National team."

"You're suggesting that I'd need to get players like James," Gwenog accused.

"Yes – and wouldn't that be true?" Ginny challenged. "If you brought on players like Al and Gwendolyn; they'd just play nice, possibly win, and defeat the purpose of trying to have a revival of old-style Quidditch."

"I so wish that this chat hadn't started," Gwenog decided. "What do you think of the rumors we're hearing that all is not well with the Catapults tonight?"

"They lost; James threw Louis, Miya, and Roman under the Knight Bus; and I wouldn't be surprised if the rumors are mostly-true," Ginny answered. "Louis didn't say much to us about it after Victoire and Gabrielle got hurt, but I think that he was done with the Catapults after that and was just finishing out the season."

"We've talked about them putting up with all of the cheating over the past couple of seasons," Harry added. "I'm really only surprised that it took Louis this long to come around – and not until it really became personal for him."

He does have a league championship," Gwenog pointed out. "I wouldn't have put much – if any – of the blame for their loss today on the players that James blamed, but having a split team like that – which is what you're suggesting, Ginny – likely did affect them."

"I'm sure it did," Ginny agreed. "If Dominique was intentionally targeted because of that, though, then we could say that Louis was responsible for the loss."

"You've both forgotten Rule Number One," Gwendolyn teased. "It's always Al's fault."

The evening game-watching set-up at Hogwarts for Lily, Jonah, and their friends changed up a bit after dinner because they switched to just one mirror for Quidditch; and had mirror gameing or other entertainment options on the other three mirrors. The Prides had a comfortable lead by then, and the battle had devolved into a sort of cat-and-mouse contest with the Prides trying to keep from getting beat up more than worrying about the score while the Falcons continued to try their very best to beat up their opponents. That change in the action was why Lily and Jonah were in the pool when Pauline finally caught the snitch for the win at the six-hour and thirty-nine minute mark. Lily and Jonah did get to see that winning play because it was covered live, but it wasn't fun to watch; and Pauline had to take a last hard hit from Brand after the catch – and before she could get away and avoid getting hit again.

"Four-ten to twenty," Lily announced; getting the attention of a few swimmers that hadn't seen Pauline's catch. I'll give Pauline the top Seeker award of the day, and while Peter might only be third-best to Belinda and Rose because he gave up two goals; I'd rank him higher for doing that even with all of the hits he's taken."

"I agree with that for Pauline," Jonah assured her, "but I'd still pick Rose as the top Keeper; and they're all so closely-matched; it probably doesn't matter anyway."

"Let me know if you still think so next weekend," Lily suggested. "I do like these match-ups; so we should be in for an epic Quidditch day."

"Unless your Dad goes for breaking his own record," Jonah teased with a grin. "Do you think that Belinda would like to have a shut-out for the loss?"

"No, but now you have me wondering if Louis liked his shut-out in his last match against the Cannons," Lily answered. "That's one way to avoid taking the blame for losses."

"It wasn't right for him to get any of the blame for the loss today," Jonah offered, "but we've gone over that already; and we're not surprised that James needed to throw team mates under the Knight Bus again – like he did with Ollie the year before last."

"Along with every other year when he didn't win," Lily added with a nod. "We still have time until curfew. Should we stay and play – or go find somewhere we can use for a bit of snogging type of alone time?"

With the last playoff match of the day finally over, snogging – or more – wasn't only on the minds of quite a few teens and tweens at Hogwarts. Dinner and a minor celebration around the Cannons' community wrapped up sooner instead of later for a lot of couples that were more-interested in the private, hotter kind of play time for two that didn't require family or friends support or participation! Al and Gwendolyn were among the first to head back to their townhouse after the end of the Prides-Falcons match – and their side-trip to offer some help to their favorite Prides players didn't take long because Harry and Ginny went along and helped out too while Kirley and Gwenog headed home for the night.

The experiences from their first week as league players in the playoffs had given the younger Cannons a whole new perspective on the business from what they had as kids, so it wasn't much of an adjustment – and no surprise – when the workload and demand on their time kicked up another few notches by Sunday. For Al and Gwendolyn, the extra interviews were just part of the busy because they also had a family event to attend – Anthony Jones' first birthday party. Anthony's special day was quite a bit different thatn Dora's – mostly because they could have the lunch and play time outdoors, but the family and friends fun was the same; and Anthony had just as much fun. Al didn't need to ask his own parents about what his first birthday had been like – particularly when he compared his own experiences to what he saw happening between Anthony and his big brother, Johnny. It ought to be funny that the only brothers in his generation of first cousins for Molly and Arthur's part of the Weasley clan couldn't get along even from a young age, but Al just found it sad; and continued to wish for better – no matter how unlikely the chances were for that happening.

Personal history musings aside, Al had a really awesome day on Sunday – even with all of the interviews and some work that he got done in a time-stop; and the week leading up to the semi-finals round of the playoffs was really amazing too. With only four teams still left to cover, there were more reporters to deal with each day starting on Monday; and that added to the entertainment – even when the 'reports' were unflattering to the Cannons because that happened in ridiculous ways. There were no extra family and friends events during the work week, but Al still needed to get the work done at Camp Cannonball by the end of the month, so he 'made' time to do that every day; and usually put a few magical hours of work in after the afternoon training session and before the daily commitments that he had every evening with Gwendolyn. Some of those events were with the entire team; others on their own; and all of them more-fun because they got to share the adventure together!

Friday evening ended almost-exactly the same as it had a week ago for Al and Gwendolyn – except they watched the second episode of the season finale trilogy for The Healer in the cafe with quite a few of their neighbors and friends instead of on their own. While everyone still loved the ongoing drama and were left hanging by the 'to-be-continued' storyline, the clash of reality with fiction added an element of comedy to their evening – especially when Lee poked fun at the show and interviewed the two couples from the show that everyone was talking about. The Cannons' manager would have needed to reprimand her team mates – and herself – for staying up late to watch Lee's show, but they all did that from their townhomes or flats; and then they each pretended to hear all about it before breakfast on Saturday morning. The quotes from that interview and 'analysis' of Lee's top-ten list for the night offered lots of fodder for their morning meal chat time; got the day off to a good start; and then it was time for the Cannons' players – and some of their GO MagiSports friends – to get to work.

"Remind me again why I made that stupid deal with Mum to stay at Hogwarts through my NEWT year?" Lily asked as she took a break from her studies about an hour after they'd started to work after having breakfast in the Great Hall. "While you're at it; which one of you thought that spending the morning studying was a good idea – especially when it's so nice outside!"

"You made that deal so that you'd only have five classes this year and next," Jonah answered first.

"And we all need to be here and studying," Alyssa added. "We only have two weeks and a day left to get ready for our exams – and we're way behind where we were last year."

"Invoke Rule Number One here," Hugo joked. "I don't think we're behind – we're just not insanely over-prepared this year."

"Will you still feel that way if your marks aren't as good on your report in August?" Alyssa challenged.

"Mum won't be," Hugo answered, "but I'm still doing well-enough – and I don't want to do too-well; or they might try to stick me with the Head Boy job next year instead of Jonah."

Alyssa laughed. "Would you still feel that way if I'm named Head Girl – either with Jonah or one of the other guys?"

"You don't really want the job either – and as long as one of our best friends get one of those jobs; we'll get to share in all of the benefits of having the Head Office without the extra responsibilities." He smiled and shook his head. "I'm not avoiding the joke you're making, but is that Head Boy and Head Girl romance history really about the jobs? We're in our sixth year; and Louis and Deanna have been the only couple to get together and then go on to get bonded for life. Their jobs were likely harder for them because they wanted to spend time together. All of the other Heads took turns with their duties so that they weren't busy with that all of the time – which meant that they don't really spend all that much time together except for the meetings and the other duties they do take care of together."

"So you're saying that Prefect couples shouldn't want to get both jobs?" Denise asked; and Hugo shrugged.

"I guess that would be up to them," he answered. "I wouldn't want to spend all of my spare time working, but if that sort of thing is for you; then go for it."

"I would," Denise assured him with a grin for Lily, "but if I did that; my best friend would try to turn me into a Butt-Bogey for stealing her boyfriend from her."

"You might try to do that – and I'd definitely blast you," Lily assured her after joining in on the round of laughs. "We do have a couple of big Quidditch matches to watch after lunch, though, and while some of you might be studying while doing that too; I'd better get back to work because I want to take the rest of the day off."

"Which you might be able to do with only five exams to get ready for," Denise reminded her. "I'm glad that you didn't quit early – and you will be too when you earn those NEWTs and can actually use your magic to the best of your abilities." She shook her head. "I really don't get why we're having so many students quit early. Even if they can earn some Quidditch glory or a lot of money; is that really worth the trade-off when they're only half-trained Wizards and Witches?" She smiled at Lily. "Would you really be happy with never getting to learn all of the most-amazing magic that we're learning now and next year?"

"I am still here," Lily pointed out. "Thanks to James, though, I don't need to let reality get in the way of wishing that I was playing in the show this afternoon instead."

"Well, he is on a team heading into the league championship match today," Alyssa joked. "Maybe you should put together a new show where you get to play Quidditch next season while doing this boring Hogwarts thing in the real world."

James was in a great mood as he sat next to Andrea on one of the sofas in his flat while Scorpius and Lysandra cuddled together on the other and they got ready to watch the Prides-Harpies match – a fact that surprised him; since he'd expected to have a lousy couple of weeks through to the end of the playoffs. That had all changed over the past week thanks to a lot of good news that followed the end to the Catapults' season a week ago. First up, on Monday, was the assurances from the owners that Louis-the-Weasel, Miya-the-Mutt, and her lap-dog would all be traded or sacked. That was followed by a three-way deal with the Catapults owners, the company that produced The Healer, and James and Scorpius to do a spin-off show called 'The Seeker' that would take their careers to the next level – and make them even more money! They even got right to work on planning out a storyline for the first season; and the three people in the room with him all got to be in on that creative process because one of the first things that they did was offer Andrea a job with the new show – and the production company planned on getting quite a few players from the league to either join the cast or at least make cameo appearances to go along with the supporting cast that would help out with the 'game' and 'practice' scenes for the show.

Compared to all of that amazing news; the actual league playoffs seemed insignificant now. That had made their interview with Lee more-fun too, since they couldn't talk about the new show while going along with his jokes about The Healer 'reality' being better for James and Scorpius than the real world was for them; and he was okay with using both shows to create his own reality – and do that in a way that the loser couldn't mess with! There was still a flash of annoyance – and darker emotions – when Lee and his experts had a split decision with all but one of his panel picking United for the win over the Cannons, but while he hated both teams now; what made him most-angry was the inner-voice that suggested he should be glad that he wasn't playing against the loser – or his ex-father – so that he could at least pretend that his team would have been able to destroy the clown brigade – even with three traitors working against them. That didn't last long, though, and then he only had to put up with watching two of the other teams that he hated battle it out for a spot in the championship game.

"I don't want to talk about us not being out there playing today," Andrea said not long after the quaffle-toss got the match started, "but Kylie just reminded me about something I read this morning on the wireless web that I was going to ask you about – a poll for fans of The Healer that showed that three-quarters of them think that the Catapults will be playing in the league finals next weekend. Did you see that?"

"No, but I'll look it up now," Lysandra told her while getting her portable mirror out to do that. "I'm surprised that you didn't say something earlier."

"We were busy doing our own things this morning; and I didn't think about it again until that comment about fan picks going against the expert predictions today."

"Well, they'll find out how that goes for us on Friday night," James joked with a grin. "Our bosses for the new show won't likely let the Catapults win a league championship every year, but we will win a lot; and I suppose we can let your team win a championship or two along the way too."

"Gee, thanks a lot," Andrea told him. "Will I get to play on the National team with you and Scorpius for the Quidditch World Cup – as your back-up Seeker? I'd like that better if you were my back-up instead."

James laughed. "We should talk about that idea. Maybe your character could be from another country; and then you could play in that Quidditch World Cup championship match against me."

"Or just have her play for Scotland or Ireland," Scorpius suggested; and then grinned at Andrea. "Could you handle an Irish accent; or would you just be yourself and maybe make your league team from Ireland. Are there any towns that start with 'T' in Ireland?"

"I'll look that up next," Lysandra offered. "That's a great idea for the show, though, and if you have Andrea's team win a championship sooner than later; you'll earn a lot of fans from Ireland too."

"Do you always spend so much time thinking about that sort of thing?" James asked; and Lysandra shook her head.

"No – not much time. It is really important, though, since Scorpius and I can't take over the Wizarding World one Quidditch and theatre or mirror network show fan at a time if we don't keep getting more new fans – along with their money."

"Are you sure that you want to talk about that with King James?" Andrea asked; looking amused. "He might decide to usurp your plans to take over the Wizarding World – or whatever you'd call that."

"He'd hate actually being in charge," Lysandra answered. "Do you even want to be Captain of your team now that Miya's out?" she asked James.

"No – I'll let Scorpius have that job," James advised them. "Besides – I'm King; not Minister of Magic. You can have that job – and all of the hassles that go with it!"

"Well, at least I get to be Captain of the Catapults while you have the King's permission to be Minister of Magic," Scorpius joked. "What job will you want, Andrea? The Minister for Magical Games and Sports? Head of the Aurors?"

"I'm not interested in all of that work either," Andrea answered with a grin. "Maybe I'll overthrow the King and take the throne instead."

"The Quidditch Queen does have a nice ring to it," Lysandra suggested – "and quit grinning like that, James; since she did say that she'd overthrow your reign; not become your Queen."

"Not in that way," Andrea agreed. "I'm a bonded-for-life kind of Witch; and that ought to be all that James needs to know about me to be scared off!"

"That's only a challenge – for me to convince you of how much more fun you'll have when you find out that wanting to be like them is too-boring compared to my life!" James insisted; and Andrea laughed.

"That just isn't true – for the right pairing of Witch and Wizard," she disagreed. "My parents, for instance, would agree with you. I've even heard that my Mum has a new joke she likes to tell her friends that if she'd just killed my Dad years ago; she'd have gotten out already with that amnesty instead of being stuck with him for the rest of their lives." She nodded toward Scorpius and Lysandra while they all laughed. "Their parents, on the other hand; are blissfully-happy. I'm going to have that someday too, James, and I don't want to offend you, but all of those girls you hook up with are empty relationships. The friendship that the four of us have is likely the best one you have – even though you keep trying to screw that up with us by hitting on Lysandra and me."

"Interesting choice of words," James deadpanned with a meaningful grin; and Andrea shook her head.

"This is too-serious a chat for a play afternoon, but I've lived with those empty, meaningless relationships through my family James; and I'm not going to ever go back to that kind of life – and I'm okay with waiting until I find the right Wizard to share that life with."

"Good luck with that," James told her dismissively. "You're all missing out on the best benefits that go along with being famous and rich, but it's your loss."

"Speaking of losses – didn't you bet that Victoire would get the first goal of the match?" Scorpius asked him. "In case you missed it; the Prides earned the first goal. That's one for our team."

"Just keep track as usual; and we'll settle up at the end of the afternoon – or night," James suggested. "Maybe my ex-cousin isn't quite as recovered as they've claimed. I'll likely lose my bet that the Boot-licker and the Harpies' Hag-of-the-month will crash and knock each other out of the match too, but I can still hope for the best!"

"Happy Birthday, Ollie," Ginny said with a smile when she saw Ollie with Lacey Finnegan and they were making their way toward seats in the row ahead of where Ginny was sitting with Ron, Hermione, and the twins. "I thought that you'd be here – but on the other side of the stadium," she added while reaching into the bag she'd brought with everything she needed for the twins and pulled out a small, gift-wrapped box. She held it out to him; and he looked surprised.

"Thank-you," he said while taking the gift. "Mum and Lacey were in on this little surprise. Did you know too?"

"No," Ginny answered. "Al's a really good guesser, though; and that gift is from your cousin, Cyndia, and some of your Cannons' friends. Now I know why they gave it to me instead of Lacey. You're welcome to cheer for United – Jaimie and Lorie are going to cheer for Dominique, Lucy, and Alex."

"We're going to cheer for everyone!" Jaimie advised them happily.

"But we want Grandpa to win," Lorie added – "and Uncle Al and Aunt Gwendolyn and everybody else!"

"Maybe we'll cheer for everyone too," Ollie told them. "My sisters might get mad at me for that, but we should cheer for my cousin too – especially after he got me a present for my birthday."

"What did you get?" Lorie asked; and Ollie grinned at her.

"Let's find out together," he suggested.

The twins were happy to do that with him; he promised to let them try out his new virtual mirror game – one that wasn't going to be released for another couple of weeks; and then Lacey and Ollie moved on to their seats. They didn't have to wait much longer for the start of the match because Ollie and Lacey had been among the last spectators to get to their seats before the teams were called out into the stadium. The fun-level only kicked up a notch because Dominique and Lucy had hugs for Harry, and that earned some teasing for Ginny; but that was as far as the United players were willing to go for good sportsmanship – at least at first. The take-off and opening plays on both sides of the quaffle were brilliant; and set the tone for a fast-paced; non-stop-exciting kind of Quidditch battle!

"Quick – take a picture," Lacey told Ollie. "Belinda actually smiled after getting that save!"

"She'd deny it – even if you had picture-proof," Ollie suggested. "That was a great save, but we'll see how long her shut-out lasts. Has any team gone more than a half-hour before giving up a goal to the Cannons this season?"

"We didn't score any goals against the Catapults in our last match against them," Ginny joked; earning a round of laughs.

"Great – so Louis earned a shut-out for three or four seconds," Ollie said with a nod. "Belinda's already gone several minutes; so that's brilliant!"

Lily and Jonah had started their game watching on a sofa near the mirror showing the Cannons' match, but after a first hour when the Cannons only managed to score two goals against Belinda while Rose had a shut-out going into the second hour; they decided to go for their first swim of the afternoon – and ended up with a handful of friends that were a mix of the fans watching the two different matches. The Prides were having an even better start to their semi-final match with four goals in the first hour, but Peter lost his shut-out bid to Victoire in the first half-hour, so while he only gave up the one goal to that point; he didn't have that incentive getting in the way of making best choices for himself and the team. Both matches were very exciting, though, so weven while they floated around in the pool, they watched the Quidditch action and continued their ongoing conversations that were mostly about Quidditch.

"I know that the Catapults were supposed to win it all again this year, but can anyone watching these matches not think that the four best teams are playing today?" Stephanie asked after cheering for another Cannons' goal that Gwendolyn earned against Belinda and Olivia. "None of the matches last weekend were as good as either of these games."

"Maybe, but I'd like to know what happened to the version of the Cannons that should have been in the playoffs for that fictional league that James and Scorpius are in on The Healer," Leanne joked. "There was an all-Witch team with a team crest that looked a lot like the Harpies, and a United team in for the Catapults to beat up on in the first two rounds, but no mention at all of a Cannons' team at all."

"Last-place teams aren't in the playoffs," Lily reminded her. "In James' version of reality; that's where the Cannons would be. I hope we don't find out that much about their fictitious league – though I could think of lots of fun cases for Lysandra to solve if they did – like an Animorphmagus that gets hit by a bludger; has a brain injury; and can't remember how to change back."

"And then you'd have a pet for Lysandra," Stephanie suggested with a nod. "The Cannons clown brigade could actually do a Catapult demonstration before a match and then Tiberius or Brock could hit the cat with a bludger – or Beater bat. We're being awful, but that'd still be brilliantly-funny for the show!"

"it would," Lily agreed. "Jonah should suggest it to Wendy and Wanda later. The show is getting huge ratings for this season finale again; so they're sure to want to bring James and Scorpius back again next season."

"No doubt," Leanne agreed. "What are the odds that they could bring them back and then keep them so that we don't have to play against them once we're in the show too?"

"Zero," Lily answered. "James still has a long way to go before he'll be the greatest Quidditch player in the history of the game."

"You want to play against him," Leanne half-accused; and Lily laughed.

"Of course I do. How else will I be able to prove to him that I'm better and that he'll never get to be the best-ever?"

"It's so much fun talking to you," Leanne told her. "I practically feel modest by comparison – though we all have over-sized egos to want to play in the show – and win championships."

"I doubt that you could play in the show for long without a big ego," Jonah offered seriously.

"I used to think so," Leanne agreed, "but Al seems to be doing pretty well; so maybe you're wrong about that."

Jonah laughed; and then smiled ruefully while explaining. "Sorry, but Al has a huge ego – and the talent to back it up. You can have that and not brag about yourself all the time."

"Okay, but he's annoyingly-modest," Leanne suggested – "and even-more-annoyingly successful so far too. That's why I'm cheering for United in that match."

"I thought you were cheering for your brother and sister-in-law," Stephanie teased; and Leanne laughed.

"See what I mean? Al's so annoying that I forgot the number one reason I had for cheering for United – and the number two reason too."

"Because you don't want the Harpies to have to play the Cannons in the finals?" Lily guessed; and Leanne nodded.

"Exactly – though that doesn't sound as though it makes any sense when United just won their match over the Harpies two weeks ago."

"We've wondered if Mum had Gabrielle back off in that match," Jonah advised her; and Leanne looked surprised.

"Why do you say that?"

Jonah shrugged. "They were in a tough battle that could've gone on for a lot longer with so few goals getting scored. Winning or losing wasn't such a big deal for the Harpies that it was worth getting worn out with yet another marathon match – and Mum might even have been thinking aobout that for the entire playoffs."

"A worn-out United team might not have won last weekend," Leanne mused thoughtfully – "and we've already decided that these matches are the best we could have hoped for in this round. Didn't you just ask your Mum?"

"No, since I don't think she'd admit it – or at least she wouldn't do that until after the playoffs. The Prides also had a much-tougher match last weekend, so that worked out for the Harpies, but we'll have to see if that makes a difference; since the Prides aren't showing any early signs of getting tired out."

"Dad and Al helped them out after the match last weekend," Lily reminded him. "I seriously doubt that'll be a problem today – for any of the teams."

"Do you think that Al will help out if any of the United players get hurt during the match today?" Stephanie asked. "Better yet – would Rose and Gwendolyn let him do that?"

"Yes, he would; no, they wouldn't; and it won't be an issue unless there's an accident," Lily answered. "Brandon and Seth don't play to intentionally injure anyone, and the United players ought to all be too-good to make the kind of mistakes that would get them hurt; so I think they'll have an injury-free match."

"It's a wonder that the other teams haven't learned to take advantage of Brandon's and Seth's playing style," Ryan suggested; joining in on the chat for the first time in a while.

"How would you do that?" Fred challenged. "The McClaggens and Notts have tried their worst without any success. Brandon and Seth are being underestimated because they don't go for the big hits, but they're faster and better than any other Beater duo in the show – with the possible exception of Calvin and Tina – and I'd say that they're slightly ahead in this match so far."

"Are they better than you and Katrina?" Ryan teased; directing that more toward his sister than to Fred.

"Yes – for now," Katrina agreed. "We will be that good or better, though, so whichever team you end up on once you're in the show, big brother; be afraid – be very afraid!"

Ryan laughed. "Why? You've just been telling me that they won't play to hurt their opponents. There's nothing to be scared of from them – or you."

""Except for the part of the matches where we help our team to win," Katrina reminded him. "A lot of Cannons wins should scare all of the other teams in the league – including Mum's and Aunt Gwenog's teams."

"I don't know how you're handling having so many teams to cheer for today," Leanne told them. "I can at least cheer for Alex's team and Mum's old team for these matches, but you have family on three out of four teams."

"With the good news there being that I'll still have at least one team to cheer for in the championship match," Katrina reminded her; "and I have better odds than you do for getting two of my favorites through to next weekend."

The group that Kirley was sitting with for the Harpies' match was different than normal – or even what was becoming normal now that the Potters and Weasleys had so many teams to support, but he was still enjoying the Quidditch adventure; the battle between his wife's and sister's teams was brilliant; and they had the added bonus of getting Aunt Muriel for their match. He was sitting next to her – which was why he was using his magical earbud on that side of his head to listen in on the Cannons' match – though that only helped a little when she whispered something to him – or to one of the others sitting closest to her; and not at all when she got excited and shouted at a player or referee.. Fortunately, she didn't have a lot to shout about; since his hearing was rather important to Kirley; and he really didn't want to lose it – even if that was only temporary.

Losing was something he was thinking about a lot as the match they were watching rolled along. Sure, as they headed toward the end of the fourth hour, the score was only one-sixty to sixty for the Prides, but he'd watched a lot of Harpies matches over the decades; and recognized the signs of a team that was pushing as hard as each player could; and knew that might not be enough against an opponent that wasn't showing any of those signs of fatigue – even though the Prides had the tougher first-round match. That didn't mean that all hope was lost for the Harpies and their fans – as long as they could keep the Prides from the one-sixty lead, but he knew that the longer the match lasted; the worse the odds for 'his' team.

The opposite wasn't true for the Cannons-United match, since both teams were still going full-out, but while the scoring advantage wasn't much different from what the Prides had over the Harpies; the one-ten to naught lead seemed more one-sided despite the fact that everything else in that match was nearly-equal. There was one difference between the two matches that was obvious to anyone who wanted to see it – the Cannons and United players were all having fun.

Kirley knew that feeling, since he always had fun with his band, but he'd never thought about that quite the same way for Gwenog and her team; probably because he'd never thought of Quidditch as being fun. Now, after watching Al and Gwendolyn take his perception of professional Quidditch and turn it around; he wondered if his own choices as a teen and young adult would have been different if there had been a team like the 'new' Cannons back then instead of the role models he'd grown up with – including his mother and her contemporaries. That was a past that couldn't be changed, but he could enjoy the game more now – and hope that those changes would help Gwenog and his favorite players and teams to find real joy in the work in ways they hadn't before now.

Some of that hope was admittedly-selfish, since life at home was always better when Gwenog was happy instead of stressed and obsessed over her work, but that was still a good thing for her too; so Kirley was okay with hoping for the best for everyone – win or lose.

"Yes!" Lucy exclaimed as she watched the quaffle get past Rose and sail through the center goal. "It's about time!" She laughed when Rose stuck her tongue out at her.

"It was too-soon for me," Rose advised her. "Congratulations – now get out of here, cousin – you're bothering me!"

"Welcome to my world," Lucy offered while flying past and then she needed to blast off and get on defense again.

Rose watched all six Chasers race toward the United goals and tried not to be disappointed at losing her bid for a shut-out in the playoffs. Going about four and a half hours before giving up that goal was still awesome, though, and that fun little moment with Lucy was great too; so it was impossible not to stay happy – and now she could challenge herself not to let that goal be the first of many for the United Chasers!

"And the Boot-licker puts the Hapless Harpies and their Hag-of-a-Seeker out of our misery!" James declared derisively. "What a waste of a perfectly-good afternoon, but at least it's over now. Let's go get some food and then we have parties to get to tonight!"

"You don't want to watch the rest of the other match?" Andrea teased; and James laughed.

"No – and neither should any of you." He nodded toward the mirror. "If Dave hadn't messed up your match; the Tornados probably would've bested the Prides; and if we hadn't been stuck with three traitors on our team; everyone would have found out that the clown brigade is still the joke of the league! We'll have to wait until next season to prove that now; so who cares what happens for the rest of the playoffs today?"

"Especially when half or more of the Wizards and Wiches in the world will believe that the Catapults are the league champions anyway by next Friday night," Scorpius joked with a grin. "They could skip the match on Saturday and nobody would notice!"

"True-that," James agreed with a laugh. "Now to more-important things – where do we go for that dinner?"

The Harpies-Prides match ended while the Hogwarts students were in the Great Hall for dinner, so while Lily could talk about Pauline's big catch and the three-fifty to eight victory with her usual group of Gryffindor friends; she had to wait until they returned to their study classroom and resumed watching the Cannons' match to talk about it with Jonah and some of their Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff friends and relatives. By the time Lily and Jonah settled in for another Quidditch and cuddle session, the Cannons-United match was heading into the seventh hour; and the Cannons had finally secured the one-sixty lead – allowing Harry to back off and stop trying to defend the snitch. Everyone knew that Alex wouldn't make the catch for the loss, so while the Seeker duel basically took a pause; the Chaser battle heated up as Dominique, Lucy, and Olivia threw everything they had at Rose – and she continued to stop every shot except for the lone goal that Lucy had earned for her team.

"Quit looking so happy," Leanne told Lily; feigning annoyance with her. "Our team lost today; and it's not looking very good for my brother's team right now either. I might not have any team to cheer for next weekend!"

"There are some former Hufflepuffs on my Mum's team," Katrina reminded her before Lily could offer a comment. "You could cheer for them."

"Won't you be cheering for your own team next weekend?" Lily asked. "You might be glad about not having any distraction from the league championship match – especially when some of the Ravenclaws could have a lot of distractions that could help you a lot."

Leanne laughed. "Go Cannons!" she joked. "I honestly wasn't thinking about that at all – not that I believe it will matter – or if it does; that'll be because some of the Ravenclaw players are more-motivated instead of distracted."

"It was worth a try, but she saw right through it," Lily teased; directing that at Jonah. "Since that didn't help, though, here's something else to think about, Leanne. If the Cannons do win today, would you really want the Harpies to be the team that could go down in history as the opponent to lose a championship to the Cannons in more than a century? That's a distinction that I wouldn't want to have – even if I had the chance to be part of the team that was able to keep that from happening – and also end an undefeated season in a championship match."

"I wonder if Mum thought about that – or is worried about it now?" Katrina mused. "Normally, I'd say that any player would tell you that they'd rather have the chance to win the championship over being out of the running, but you do have a point – and there are other Quidditch moments that still haunt other teams."

"Then it's a good thing that the Catapults lost last weekend," Lily joked. "How tough would it be to be on the wrong end of both the new fastest snitch catch and..." she paused and laughed at herself before continuing with "...okay, they'd have been up against the Cannons in this round and couldn't have lost to them in the championship match; but you know where I was going with it – even if the joke doesn't quite work."

"Maybe your Mum could do both next weekend," Jonah joked. "She'd love to get that record back again."

"I hope not," Lily told him seriously. "That would make for a seriously-lousy game – not to mention that everyone pays a lot to see that match; and wouldn't be happy to spend that much money for only three or four seconds of entertainment."

"That's true," Jonah conceded. "I guess she'll have to save that up for sometime next season."

There were some jokes about that; the conversation – and Quidditch match – moved on; and then it wasn't all that much longer before Alex lost his battle against Harry halfway through the seventh hour – not including time outs; Seth got the Beater assist; and Harry's only playoff match Seeker duel ended with a fairly-spectacular catch that included a breathtaking spin and stop that was mere feet above the heads of the spectators lucky enough to get the up-close view of his catch. The three-forty to ten final score didn't reflect how well United had played in the loss – though it did prove that Rose had put on a brilliant Keeper performance in the win. Somehow, the Cannons-hating Quidditch experts still found a way to try and spin the victory and their spot in the championship match in the worst possible ways, but there was a lot of fan support at the stadium after the match – and even the United players, managers, and fans had a tough time being mad after getting to enjoy a battle where their best had been awesome; but not quite enough to win the day.

There was time for Lily, jonah, and their friends to celebrate until curfew, so they did that with swimming, snacks, drinks, and mirror gameing. While they were busy with that, Ginny had help back at home with putting together a late dinner and celebration for the Cannons at the cafe and practice pitch – though that ended up being more of a late-night buffet than a dinner by the time their team returned from the stadium after a very long post-game adventure that included interviews and a lot of fan time. Taking a couple of hours to enjoy their success and celebrate it with their neighbors, family, and friends was still an important part of the fun, though, so even Al managed to stay up later than he would have liked – especially since he had helped his team mates out with some time-out fatigue healing when needed; and had pushed himself to the limits with his Quidditch play too. That added up to reason-enough to wind down by one o'clock, though, which was why he was happy to do that at a cafe table while Gwendolyn was still busy mingling and playing with their friends.

"Mind if I join you?" Ollie asked as he stepped up next to Al's table.

""Not at all," Al assured him with a tired smile. "Happy Birthday – or I guess that'd be belated birthday now. I'm glad to see that you're having a good one."

"Have you had time to notice?" Ollie asked; and Al nodded.

"Yes – though I can sense the happiness too."

Ollie smiled at him. "You do know that some of us find that very annoying, right?"

"Probably most others," Al agreed with another nod. "Did you want to talk about anything in particular – or am I in trouble with your family now that they've had time for the loss to sink in?"

"Belinda and Olivia took that better than I expected right after the match; though I expect that they will be mad eventually. Ray's side of our family is quite happy with you tonight; so you'll likely be okay." He shrugged then and smiled a bit self-consciously. "There's no reason behind this chat – other than I guess we need to start somewhere; since I hope to be spending a lot more time with Lacey – so we're sure to see each other around here more-often – especially while we're in the off-season."

"That'll likely be a bigger deal for you and Ray – especially once Cyndia's done school," Al half-joked. "We'll get along okay from now on too; so this doesn't have to get weird for you."

"As if it isn't already," Ollie offered with a laugh. "How much of all of this have you known for years? So many of the things you told me that I hated so much just a few years ago aren't just proved-true – they're more like prophetic."

"A lot of what we used to talk about came from you," Al reminded him. "I didn't know what choices you'd eventually make back then, but I knew that you could be more like your father because I could sense a lot of the same things in both of you." He glanced over to where Lacey was talking with some friends and nodded. "She saw that too – even when you were trying your very best to be more like James."

"Well, that's worked out better for him than me," Ollie offered a bit darkly; and Al looked back at him again.

"No, it hasn't," he disagreed. "James wouldn't agree with that, and I'm sure there are lots of times that he's enjoying the benefits of his successes, but he isn't happy. You know as well as anyone that you can't be filled with hate like that and be happy too."

"James wouldn't be the only one to disagree with you on that one too," Ollie suggested. "I know that you're right, but that's still tough to reconcile with the reality when James really has been so much more successful than I have been so far."

"Only if you measure success in galleons, awards, and the adoration of millions," Al joked with a grin.

"You seem to be doing pretty well too," Ollie pointed out.

"I was doing pretty well before the Quidditch – and not very many people even know that now," Al reminded him. "This has all been brilliant, and I love having fun and playing Quidditch for the Cannons, but I don't consider that part of my life what's most-successful."

"What do you think is most-important," Gwendolyn asked as she joined them; her smile playful while her tone held a hint of warning.

"Now you're in trouble," Ollie warned.

"I'm not," Al disagreed. "Gwendolyn knows that I think that our relationships are most-important to me – including our marriage and my relationship with her. I love what we're doing together – and I mean all of us – to make life better for ourselves and so many others; and I think that it's brilliant that we're involved in work and projects that are really going to make a difference for everyone in the Wizarding World."

"That last part sounds cryptic; since I don't see that happening through Quidditch and making souvenirs."

"Now you're on dangerous ground," Gwendolyn warned; though not because Lacey was coming over to join them – though she was heading in their direction by then – along with Ray and a couple of friends.

"That isn't a comment on the importance of Lacey's work,' Ollie assured her. "I don't even think that's what Al meant anyway. He's talking about things that I don't know about – not that I'm surprised. I don't know what he's talking aobut half the time."

"Join the club," Ray offered as he sat down next to Gwendolyn. "That pretty much describes every study session I ever had with Al."

"You're exaggerating quite a bit," Gwendolyn told him. "Is this the start of a party wrap-up chat?" she added; directing that at everyone with Ray.

"It likely should be," Lacey answered. "I have a lot of work to get done starting tomorrow now that we know for sure that the Cannons are in the championship match. We were able to make a lot of the souvenirs we'll need next Saturday ahead of time, but now we have others to make; and others that need to be customized for the big match."

"Al and I have the morning show interviews to do," Gwendolyn advised her. "For some reason, Rose and Renee seem to think that we like early starts to our days more than the rest of our team mates."

"That's true – for Al," Ray pointed out. "You should have thought about that before marrying him."

"Maybe," Gwendolyn conceded, "but we're having fun; and there are some great things that go along with early mornings that you miss out on when sleeping until noon."

"I've heard that," Ray assured her, "but I don't have my first work appointment until noon; so sleeping in is an option for me – even if the rest of you have to settle for a few hours of sleep tonight."

"Keep that up, and I'll get Renee to book you for a visit to help out first thing in the morning with the souvenirs," Lacey warned. "I'm sure that everyone would appreciate the team support for their extra work."

"Shutting up now," Ray declared and decided.

Their chat really did wind down from there; Gwendolyn took Al home about fifteen minutes later; and they actually opted to just get ready for bed, snuggle close, and get started on their second-favorite bedroom activity – sleeping!

The countdown to the championship match began on Sunday morning, but while Al and Gwendolyn were busy with work for parts of the day; they had some family and friends time too – particularly with their parents and the twins. 'Making' time was needed too, since Al still needed to get work done at Camp Cannonball, but some of that work was being passed off to others – including Susannah; since the charity had the first week for kid campers booked for the first week of June; so she was dealing with getting ready for that. Alexa Johnson had been hired to be the manager for Camp Cannonball; she was dealing with getting the hotel and cottages ready for use by GO MagiSports employees and their families; and she was putting together the stafff she was going to need for everything except the cafe – which was going to be – at least temporarily – managed by Art and Wanda with help from their staff at the Chudley Cannonball Cafe. Al didn't have a problem with letting others take over the project and run the business; and he was sure that they would make a success of it where it mattered most – with making everyone just a bit happier!

While the Cannons' players focused on their first championship match, at Hogwarts, the countdown was on for both the final Quidditch match of the season and to final exams that were now just two weeks away. For Lily, Jonah, and their friends; that meant studying all day on Sunday with only one afternoon play break – plus the extra Ravenclaw senior team practice. Most of their spare time during the week was dedicated to studying too, though some nice weather had them taking that outdoors in the afternoons when that was an option. League championship Quidditch was one of the top gossip topics at Hogwarts too, but not usually in a good way for Lily and Jonah as the Slytherin haters came out to play with their worst insults along with horrid predictions; and there was still a strong majority hoping for the worst for the Cannons right along with them – if not necessarily in career-ending-injuries ways.

There was only one extra family activity on the schedule for the work week – Gwenog and Kirley's twenty-first anniversary on Thursday. Gwenog had been busy with season wrap-up work for the Harpies during the first three days of the week, but she put in extra time to get that done sooner; and was taking a week and a half off once she was finished work on Wednesday – time that she and Kirley were going to spend at 'their' family cottage at Camp Cannonball. Before doing that, they had an anniversary breakfast with Al, Gwendolyn, Harry, and Ginny at the cafe – along with a mirror chat with Lily and Jonah; stayed to watch a bit of the morning training session; and then they eventually had a dinner party at Camp Cannonball that also allowed some of their McCormack and Jones family members and some friends a chance to see the Camp and the cottage for the first time. They had that dinner at the Camp Cannonball cafe – and Art and Wanda used that as a test run before the hotel and cottages would open on Sunday. After a long day at work, Al and Gwendolyn had to hurry to get ready for that dinner party, but they were still ready to go and have fun by the time they began welcoming guests to the cafe along with their parents – making an even-better impression because they used the atrium entrance for that and the patio for the social time and dinner.

"This is your idea of a camp?" Meghan asked Al and Gwendolyn as she arrived with her husband, Darian; and they'd finished with a short visit with the guests of honor. "I know you've been camping before; so how did you get from there to here?"

"The same way all of Al's ideas seem to start with something the rest of us picture one way and then end up like this," Gwendolyn answered. "Do you like what you've seen so far?"

"Yes – and I'm sure that everyone will love it here. Who do we talk to about booking a holiday here?"

"You can't," Al answered with an apologetic smile. "The kids' camp is for the charity to use along with a bit more than half of the weeks of the summer booked for paying campers, but the hotel and cottages are only for GO MagiSports employees or for other charity-related uses."

"The good news, though, is that you have some family members with exclusive use of one of those cottages," Gwendolyn added. "I'm sure that we can work something out – just as we've done for this week with Mum and Dad."

"You own one of the cottages?" Darian asked; and Gwendolyn shrugged.

"Not personally – or the way you mean," she answered, "but we do own the camp as part of GO MagiSports; and some of the cottages are set aside for team families and GO MagiSports managers."

"That's still a great bonus that goes along with your jobs," Darian told them. "I wonder why the Prides don't do something like this for their managers and players?"

"Maybe you can ask them about that at the victory party Saturday night," Meghan suggested with a meaningful grin for Al and Gwendolyn.

"Should we invite them?" Gwendolyn joked in return. "I'll mention it to Renee and see what she thinks."

"Let's not have any Quidditch rivalry fights tonight," Ginny suggested to them. "You should be working on Kirley and Gwenog stories anyway. This is the first time that Al and Gwendolyn have gotten to be here for one of their anniversaries in eigh years."

"Lucky number thirteen was our last," Gwendolyn reminded them. "That probably seems like a lot longer for us than the rest of you."

"No doubt," Meghan agreed, "but we're older and have had quite a few changes in our lives since then too."

"Like going from Head of the Aurors to unemployed for years to a gig as a part-time Quidditch player?" Harry offered with a grin. "Ginny went from reporting back to playing again; and you've gone from playing into management."

"Don't remind her," Darian told Harry. "If Peter had to miss the match on Saturday for any reason; she'd be happy to jump in and take over his job in a second – thanks to you and Ginny."

"There are other players our age still in the game," Ginny pointed out."

"True," Darian agreed, "but how many of them are still playing at the level Meghan was used to with her teams? I'm glad she isn't playing right now – especially with more teams wanting to be like the Falcons or Catapults. It's getting ridiculous – and the serious injuries are way up in the league this year."

"They are," Meghan agreed, "but some of us have Al and Harry around to help out if medical attention is required; so I'd be just fine."

Al agreed with that – and was glad that she wasn't playing in the show anymore because there was a good chance that she'd need his help too-often. Gwendolyn's aunt and uncle moved on soon after that anyway; the meet and greet continued; and then Al and Gwendolyn were on the sidelines for the dinner roasting that the brothers, sisters, parents, Harry, Ginny, and a few other friends took care of while they enjoyed the first-ever meal served at the cafe. There was more social time after dinner; and then the guests headed home – ahead of training curfews for some of them; and Kirley and Gwenog got started on their anniversary holiday celebration.

The final training day ahead of the championship match was another blast of fun that included an hour of play time with their favorite sports camp kids; and then they got to be in on the fun when those kids each found out that they had tickets to that match. Reporters took one last opportunity to bash on them ahead of the big day; Al and Gwendolyn had extra work and interviews into the evening; and then they were at home and alone while watching the big season finale of The Healer. Lysandra saved the patient; James and Scorpius managed to overcome the personal drama to win their league championship in style; and all was well in that fictional world – at least until next season! It was time for Al and Gwendolyn to go to bed after that; they used the time-stopper to wrap up their day with some hot-rated fun for two; and then still had all night to get rested and fully-charged for their first attempt to make Rose's dream come true and earn a league championship for the Cannons!

"Was that Al's idea for an alternate championship match day workout for Ray – or is everyone on the team doing that sort of thing too?" Lily joked while nodding to Ray and Cyndia while they were in mid-snog. She earned a round of laughs and giggles; and smiled at her nieces. "What are you giggling about? Grandpa's here, so if that is what they're doing; we ought to be a bit worried about who Grandma is snogging instead of him!"

"Maybe we did our workout early," Harry suggested with a grin that strongly-suggested that he might have had a fun start to his day.

"Now you're scaring the kids and grandkids," Lily told him; earning more giggles from Jaimie and Lorie. "You've brought quite a gang with you today. I thought that more of you would be busy with the championship game today."

"We will be," Harry assured her, "but we wanted to be here for Jonah and his team mates; and Ryan has a lot of family coming to his last Hogwarts match too."

"Hopefully along with lots of interested scouts," Lily added with a nod. "An undefeated season as team Captain ought to help him a lot with that – though I'd be okay with a loss today and see what happens with the tie-break for the senior team title – especially if it goes our way."

"Didn't you practically make sure that wouldn't happen with your last match?" Kirley reminded her; and Lily shrugged.

"Probably, but it sounded good – if not at all realistic."

"Will you be cheering for Hufflepuff anyway?" Harry asked her.

Lily sighed. "No, I'll have to cheer for Jonah – and then hope just a little bit that Hufflepuff will win anyway – even if that isn't very realistic either. Luke Summerby just isn't at the same level as Jonah or me yet. The rest of their teams are too-closely-matched; so it will come down to the Seeker duel today."

"That could be true for the match this afternoon too," Kirley suggested; and Lily laughed.

"Sure, let's go with that – no matter how unlikely." She glanced at Gwenog meaningfully before adding – "Al has the chance to help Rose make her dream come true today, and while I'd rather not lose my bet with Rose; I certainly wouldn't double down on it now – or bet against him."

"The Prides are motivated today too," Harry reminded her, and Pauline has won more matches against Gabrielle and the other top Seekers in the league than she's lost; so we are not going into this match with any sense of over-confidence."

Lily laughed. "Of course not, but that doesn't make what I said any less-true; and Pauline is not likely going to best Mum today before the Cannons get a one-sixty lead. I wouldn't even want to think about what losing today would do to Uncle Ron either; so don't forget to add that factor to the mix too."

"Now that's a good point," Harry admitted. "He's trying to play it cool, but anything short of a championship win today is going to devastate him no matter how much he pretends otherwise."

"We should get to the stadium and see Jonah, Ryan, Katrina, and the others," Kirley suggested. "Gwenog hasn't had as many chances to see him as I have lately; so we should spend as much time with him as we can – especially if we don't get to do that before we need to head to the championship match if this one is still going on."

"We can do that – and you could come to town next weekend and spend more time with him," Lily offered; though she pretended to direct that at Kirley while excluding Gwenog. "I'm sure he'd like to spend some time with you before we're into the push for final exams."

Lily didn't feel guilty for snubbing Gwenog, but then she didn't think that it had any real effect on Jonah's mother anyway; since she just ignored the little slights and back-handed barbs. Their visit with Jonah and the rest of the Ravenclaw players was fun; and Lily stayed out of the way while Jonah spent time with his parents, Harry, and the aunts , uncles, and grandparents that had come along for the morning. From there, they headed into the stadium – or everyone except Ray and Cyndia did that; They had time to visit with cousins and friends; and then it was game time! Colin's pre-game Quidditch update didn't have any drama, since the best he could come up with was a senior team tie and tie-break possibility while the Quidditch Cup had already been won, but he still had fun; and the team introductions took a while as he put extra effort into talking up each player – especially the NEWT-year students that were playing in their final Hogwarts match. Mr. Peakes eventually got things started with the quaffle toss; and then the game was on!

The early advantage was clearly in Ravenclaw's favor, and while Lily was happy for all of the wrong reasons when Leanne gave up the first goal to Alyssa within the first fifteeen minutes; she also had to admit that she hadn't been thinking about one very important factor – that Ravenclaw had four players using Hurricane brooms while Hufflepuff didn't have any – or at least not any that they could use in the match. That made it tough for all of the Hufflepuff players – especially when Katrina could get around faster than any of the players she was hitting bludgers at; and the Hufflepuff Chasers were at a distinct disadvantage against Stephanie and Alyssa on their Hurricanes. That was great for Ryan, since he had the better Chaser defense too; and had everything to do with why he earned a shut-out during the first hour of the match. Ravenclaw only earned two goals, but Lily didn't really want to give Leanne credit for playing brilliantly to keep the scoring that low; so she didn't.

"Did you overestimate Hufflepuff?" Kirley asked Lily quietly early in the second hour while they watched the aftermath of Ravenclaw's third goal. "Jonah's team is looking very good so far."

"Maybe I'm just in denial," Lily offered. "Ravenclaw did beat my tean this year; so I'm biased – against them."

"Your House still won the Quidditch Cup," Gwenog reminded her. "Do you have to win it all every year?"

"Yes, if I possibly can," Lily agreed. "I've been on both sides of the wins and losses that come with needing to rely on another team to help out with winning at Hogwarts Quidditch; so I'm going to be happy to get to the show and try my very best to prove that I can be the best and win every year."

"That doesn't surprise me," Kirley told her; trying to mitigate the tension between the two Witches. "You are your mother's little girl."

"I am," Lily agreed. "She could end up with a few more awards over the next couple of years, so I'll have my work cut out for me, but I am going to be even better; and that ought to scare every other team in the league – for the next two or five decades!"

"That doesn't sound good – for Jonah and the Cannons," Melissa teased. "I guess that they really should try their best to win today if the Cannons' next losing streak is just another year or two away from starting!"

"We Want to win championships with whatever team we end up with too," Kathryn reminded her. "Let's not hope for the best for the Cannons or Harpies."

"What about United?" Melissa asked; and Kathryn laughed.

"Just make that wish for less-than-the-best for every other team that isn't the one we end up with," she suggested. "Lily isn't the only teen with dreams of having a better career than the other Quidditch players in the family – and we have a fair number of them too – if not quite as many as the Weasley clan has now."

"Be glad that Ginny and her brothers didn't all have seven kids each," Kirley joked. "There might not be room for anyone else on the league teams if they had!"

"Not all of my cousins are in the show," Lily reminded him. "Molly doesn't even play Quidditch."

"True, but Charlie's kids could have played professionally from what I've heard," Kirley countered; "and Molly likely could play the game if she was interested in doing it. I don't know where the talent for the game started in your family, but it seems to be getting stronger from Ginny's generation to yours – and that's true for the Wood family."

"That might have as much to do with opportunity to play as family," Gwenog suggested. "Older generations weren't allowed to play Quidditch at home nearly as much as is allowed now. I didn't start playing until after I got to Hogwarts – as was true for most kids back then. That's still true for a lot of kids now; so Quidditch family kids do have an advantage – at least at first."

"That may be more-true than not for Hogwarts Quidditch lately," Lily offered, "but there are still a lot of players on the teams and reserve squads that aren't from Quidditch families too – especially on Slytherin; and that's a quarter of the players right there."

"I'm not discounting inherited talent," Gwenog assured her – "though your point about Slytherin actually fits in with the differences that go along with both natural talent and better training opportunities; since their House teams haven't exactly been very successful over the past couple of decades."

"Yet they still end up with a lot of players making it into the show," Lily offered – "including the top Chaser in the league for the past two seasons and two of the league's thirteen Seekers. For all I know, there could be Slytherins making up a quarter of the players in the league too – most of them with no family history for league Quidditch."

"That's only twenty-three," Melissa pointed out; "and I can think of fifteen without even trying just between the Falcons, Tornados, and Catapults."

"Are you including James and the McClaggens?" Kathryn asked. "They play like Slytherins."

"No, but that's funny," Melissa answered. "What's even funnier, though, is that I'm having a tougher time coming up with fifteen Gryffindors currently in the show – even when I can start with five of them on the Cannons, four with United, and three for the Catapults."

"Two Beaters with the Prides and Victoire with the Harpies gets you to fifteen," Lily advised her."

"Don't forget about my brother too," Kathryn added. "That shouldn't surprise us, since there aren't really that many players in the league that didn't attend Hogwarts. League teams don't even scout in other countries very often."

"I guess," Melissa agreed, "but if there's supposed to be some sort of balance for that in the league; I hope that won't mess things up for us. All of those Gryffindor we just mentioned are still really young; and that wouldn't leave many spots for us if we can only have a quarter of the spots in the league!"

"Including two or three fewer spots with the graduating class this year," Kathryn reminded her; and then laughed. "Make that one or two; since Fred's going to be part of the extra players on the Cannons' team."

"Or just add in seven more spots," Fred suggested; since she'd said that loudly-enough for him to overhear. "The chances of a Slytherin getting a spot on the Cannons team anytime soon is pretty low too; so that's fourteen spots that will be with Gryffindor and Ravenclaw players – at least to start with for the next few years."

"Has Rose picked a Seeker to work with Jonah that we haven't heard about – or is Lily's Mum just going to keep that job?" Melissa asked and teased.

"I have no idea," Fred answered with a shrug. "Whatever she does, though, it's a safe bet that Jonah won't have a Slytherin Seeker to train against – and I'm not just saying that because Andrea Avery is already working for the Tornados."

Lily glanced over at him; and shook her head as he grinned at her. "Two words – Butt Bogey," she warned; and Fred laughed.

"Shutting up now," he promised.

Their conversation moved on from there – after Fred got teased a bit for being afraid of his cousin, but then Lily was soon busy with Jaimie and Lorie again as they got bored and wanted to go exploring instead of continuing to watch the Quidditch match. She took them for a walk, visited with some Hufflepuff friends while doing that; and wandered down to the lake and back. By the time they were in their seats again, there wasn't all that much time left before most of the parents – and the twins – would need to leave for game day luncheons at the Leaky or elsewhere; so Lily tried to spend the rest of that time with her father, Jaimie, and Lorie. Ravenclaw had built up a comfortable lead into the third hour, but Ryan had lost his bid for a shut-out; and the sixty-to-ten lead wasn't getting Ravenclaw to the one-sixty lead very quickly. They only added one more goal before Harry, Kirley, and Gwenog decided to head out, so with no end in sight for the match they were watching; Lily went along to walk them out to the gates – along with most of the other parents, grandparents, and quite a few of the other visitors because most Quidditch fans that were avid-enough to attend Hogwarts matches also had tickets to the league championship match.

The goodbyes at the gates didn't take long, but Lily was happy as she headed back to the stadium with the other teens and tweens that had gone along to get the extra time with family or friends. Lily took a detour when she spotted Cyndia walking along one of the paths heading toward the lake by herself; and picked up her pace so that she could catch up with her team mate and friend. That still took a few minutes, since they were heading in the same direction, and then Lily just offered a one-armed hug while falling into step with Cyndia and offering both her support and a foil-wrapped chocolate to help out with Cyndia's obvious sadness.

"You will still get to see him off-and-on all afternoon," Lily reminded her – "unless you don't want to watch your boyfriend playing Quidditch against three beautiful Chasers."

"Thanks, Lily, but that isn't really helping," Cyndia told her sadly. "This is likely going to be one of the best days of Ray's life; and I won't get to be there to share it with him. If we weren't so close to the end of the school year; I'd likely just quit so that I could be there."

"I wish that I could be at the match too," Lily assured her. "Of course I'd rather be out there and winning the day for the Harpies, since they'd have been in this match if I had been playing last weekend too, and then that wouldn't end brilliantly for Ray or the Cannons anyway – and then you wouldn't feel sad about missing out on being there at all."

Cyndia laughed. "Nice job with the circular logic there," she complimented – "though I'd suggest that you ought to be glad that you're here; since that might be a hard claim to back up against the Cannons – and we've talked about not wanting to be a player on the wrong side of this potential Cannons' record if they do win today."

"That's true – but I did get you to laugh. Rose and Susannah had the same problem this close to the end of last year – and I mean that it got harder to say goodbye to their boyfriends even while they were getting so close to the end of their separations from them."

"A fact that still has me wondering how you managed to see Jonah every day for three months and stand being broken up with him," Cyndia advised her. "After spending all of this time apart from Ray; I don't ever want to have that kind of fight with him – or ever be apart from him again."

"I don't want to talk about that, but let me know how your no-fight plan works out; since I personally think it's impossible for Wizards not to mess up now and then and get us mad at them. They're guys; and can't help it."

"Whether it's their fault or not," Cyndia suggested; and Lily nodded.

"Absolutely, and if that doesn't work; refer to Rule Number One for the back-up plan."

"It's a wonder that Al can even walk around with the weight of everything that gets blamed on him on his shoulders. How's the match going? Will we be watching the start of the league championship on our portables?"

"Possibly," Lily agreed. "It was seventy-to-ten for Ravenclaw when I left to walk out to the gates with Dad and the twins. Jonah might be taking it easy on Luke so that everyone else on both teams get to have a chance to impress the scouts, but Luke has made some good defensive plays too; so it could just be that Jonah hasn't gotten the right best-chance yet to end the match."

"You're just hoping he loses so that he won't be at a party all afternoon," cyndia joked; and Lily laughed.

"That's true, but isn't likely to happen. If Jonah loses to Luke Summerby after winning his duel against me this season; I don't expect that I'll want to cuddle with him anyway – so he should probably win."

"Especially since the next April Fool's Day is still more than ten months away," Cyndia offered. "Let's head over to the stadium. I'm as ready as I can be to hang out with our friends – and we really should be there to support or Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff friends."

Ray laughed as he arrived in the locker room at the Quidditch World Cup stadium and Al welcomed him with a good luck gift. "If this is a pair of miss-matched earrings; I am going to have to hit you," he joked; earning a round of laughs from everyone else in the room.

"It isn't,' Al assured him – "and I didn't do that for the girls today either; since I didn't think that any of the Witches on either team would want to wear earrings of purple and orange."

"Does that mean that you still sent some other kinds of good luck gifts to the Prides?" Ray asked while opening his gift.

"Yes, but we decided on a team gift; and nothing that might get us into trouble," Al answered. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," Ray assured him. "I'll deal with missing Cyndia again after we win this championship today."

"Good," Rose interjected. "Get ready. We have our pre-game warm-ups in fifteen; and then you'll have to multi-task your pre-game interviews with lunch."

"And so it begins," Ray said with a sigh. "I am so ready for the off-season!"

Lily stayed with Cyndia after they got back to the stadium; and they enjoyed the Quidditch action as the match rolled along through the third and fourth hours. Lunch was served outside of the stadium; and the two teams agreed to the time-out soon after that announcment was made – just a couple of minutes into the fifth hour. They waited for the first rush to get food and drinks before heading out of the stadium too; and doing that nearly ended up having Lily miss out on the end of the match. She and Cyndia were just getting back into the stadium with their food and drinks when Jonah won his Seeker duel over Luke Summerby at the four-hour and eight-minute mark to give his team the two-sixty to twenty victory – along with the undefeated season and senior team title.

"Boo-yeah!" Lily declared; earning a laugh from Cyndia.

"You've won eight of nine senior team matches so far, and you were eight of nine with the junior team," she pointed out. "Add in three Quidditch Cups, two junior team titles, and two senior team titles so far; and I really do think that it's okay for us to be happy for our Ravenclaw friends today, Lily."

"I am happy for them – and not," Lily advised her. "Jonah did save us from having to walk all the way back up to our seats, though, and the league championship pre-game speech-fest is still going on; so the timing is pretty good – even if we won't get the classroom set up before the Cannons-Prides match starts."

"We won't," Cyndia agreed, "but I'll wager that it'll be responsible for this being a very short post-game celebration – at least out here at the stadium. Let's go and congratulate our friends in both Houses; and then get on with the championship game-watching!"

Al's smile was brilliant and infectious as he lined up next to Francine Longbottom and watched his amazing wife and team Captain get ready for the quaffle toss at center pitch against Alice Longbottom.

"Cut that out – you're annoying me," Francine joked while pretending to scowl at him; and Al laughed.

"Sorry, but I can't," he advised her. "You were in your first league championship match recently-enough to understand; so I hope you're ready to have a lot of fun today."

"I definitely am – as long as my team wins," Francine told him; and Al laughed again.

"I can't help you out with that either, since I do have a rather important dream to try and make happen for my favorite cousin; so I'll wish you good luck – and hope that we have just a bit more fun than you do."

The referee tossed the quaffle then, so Francine couldn't respond as they both took off, but she was smiling too even as Al only blasted to about twenty feet above the pitch; hit the brakes; and changed direction so that he was heading toward the Prides' goals – and underneath Gwendolyn and Alice. Gwendolyn reached the quaffle first; used a broomtail-whip to bat it toward the Prides goals too; and Al caught it as it fell toward the pitch and had a clear path to the goals – except for Peter Boot. Drawing Peter toward the far-right goal, Al used his own tail-whip to hit the quaffle back to Gwendolyn; she took a long-shot from outside of the goals-zone; and Peter managed to get all the way back to the left-side goal to make the first save of the match! The game was on then; and all of the players on both teams got to work on trying to win the championship for their team and fans.

Harry sat next to Ron and Hermione as the Cannons' first league championship match in more than a century kicked off, but in addition to Jaimie and Lorie; they had two rows in front of them filled with the sports day camp kids and their families; Malorie, Renee, and some of the other managers were busy with VIP guests in the rows behind them; and everything was bigger and better at the Quidditch World Cup stadium that held nearly twice as many spectators as any of the league stadiums. While all of the Cannons haters in the media and most of the Qudditch experts predicted a Prides victory, there was more than hope for the best happening among the Cannons' fans in the stadium – and there were a lot of those fans – possibly more than there were for the Prides; if the cheers for every early Quidditch highlight from the Cannons' players was any indication.

Both teams were playing brilliantly – particularly when it came to the Keeper battles against six of the best Chasers in the league. Ginny and Pauline were having fun with their Seeker duel too, but while Harry watched that battle as much as he could too; it was the Chasers that were really putting on a show with Al and Gwendolyn taking their tricks to new levels while the Prides' Chasers threw everything they had into defending against those tricks and then trying new tactics on offense that earned them some decent shots on goals against Rose. The scoring shut-outs continued on both sides for longer than anyone expected; and Peter didn't give up his first goal until more than a half-hour into the match – a goal that Al earned with a mind-boggling display of flying that was so good that it earned a shout of warning from Muriel that might have been heard from miles away.

"I'm glad that he's on our team," Hermione told Harry, "but you do know that your youngest son is a bit crazy, right?"

Harry laughed. "Yes, but that was brilliant; and I wish that I could do that trick too; but I haven't been able to pull it off yet without needing magical help to keep from crashing."

"I wonder why – not," Hermione said with a shake of her head. "You're just as crazy to even try it."

"Then I'm in good company," Harry suggested with a shrug and smile. "Get ready for more of that sort of fun, though, since if that's what it is going to take to best Peter today; this match is going to be intense."

As far as James was concerned, being at the league championship match was a waste of time, but not only did the Catapults' owners insist on his attendance; his appearance was also part of a publicity stunt for The Healer – and for the show that nobody new was coming up in September that he would be starring in – along with Scorpius, the McClaggens, and possibly three actors or the players that were hired to replaice the traitors. Spending the day with Bristol; having some fun on the side with other Witches before and after the VIP luncheon; and the interviews and fan time had all been great. It was the Quidditch entertainment that was horrid for him to put up with – even after only two or three hours. He had to check the game clock for that; since the torture seemed to be lasting forever!

"Let's go for a walk," Bristol leaned close and suggested to him. "Your scowls after every Cannons' goal could break mirror-cams; and we can't have that!"

James laughed; though not with any amusement. "What's the problem? It isn't as though they've scored many goals. Ninety-to-twenty after three hours of this circus and it's a wonder that anyone has stayed!"

"Especially when everyone knows that the Catapults won the league championship last night on The Healer," Bristol reminded him with an infectious grin. "Come on – we'll dazzle some fans; and then maybe find something better for you and me to do for a while." Her smile turned into something more interesting as she leaned closer and added – "I am not built for sitting around and doing nothing for hours!"

"No, you're not – and neither am I," James agreed and added; his smile now wolfish; and his annoyances and anger forgotten – at least for a while.

Lily continued to watch the Quidditch action on her portable mirror as she had dinner with her usual group of friends in the Great Hall – and pretty much everyone in the room was doing the same thing; so the noise level was fairly-high as they filled plates and enjoyed the meal. The match was into the fifth hour – not including the opening ceremony and two time-outs. The Cannons were out-scoring the Prides by a three-to-one margin, but while the goals were still coming relatively-slowly, and the Prides were still in no imminent danger of giving up the one-sixty lead; Lily could see that the Cannons' players were just getting better while the Prides were showing the fatigue that was normal after that many hours of extreme flying and game play. She knew that Al had used the time-outs to help his team mates with fatigue healing, but that just made his own game play that much more amazing – for anyone that wanted to think about that with honesty.

"Yeah, Gwendolyn!" Kathryn cheered quietly as they watched the quaffle bounce off the inner-rim of the right-side goal after she caught Peter guessing wrong and then being out of position for the save. "Is Al still ahead?"

"That ties them again – this time at five each," Lily answered. "Alice is getting tired faster than Francine, though, since out of those ten goals; Alice has been the goals-line defender on six of them."

"I'd say that Peter's getting tired too," Hugo offered; and then smiled ruefully. "I can relate – even though our scrimmages last summer were never anywhere near this long. He's still playing brilliantly, though – and maybe even a bit better than Rose."

"Only because he's facing more really tough shots than Rose is," Kathryn told him. "Rose has only given up four goals – and that's against one of the best Chaser trios in the league too."

"I think she's playing great," Hugo assured her. "What I don't know, though, is how she'd do against her own Chasers."

"There's no way to know that if you also include that she wouldn't have them on her side for defense either," Lily pointed out. "All of those great flying tricks might get all of the attention, but Al, Gwendolyn, and Ray have the best-rated Chaser defense in the league – by quite a bit."

"Are you complimenting them?" Melissa teased. "That's not like you!"

Lily laughed. "I'm playing nice and making an exception today; since the Cannons could be making history – along with making Rose's dream come true."

"And if they do that; what will you do tomorrow?" Hugo asked; and Lily shrugged.

"I haven't decided yet – though I may just ignore reality outside of Hogwarts while I can and deal with final exams instead."

"Don't remind us," Denise told her. "Some of us need to study tonight; since we can't afford to take the entire day off from getting ready for our exams."

"I'll invoke Rule Number One on that – even though you don't spend all that much time around Al," Lily decided.

"No, but I can wish that I was that brilliant," Denise told her. "We're at the end of our sixth year and I still haven't figured out how to toss Slytherins from the stadium all the way into the lake."

"Has that been a goal of yours?" Kathryn asked in amusement. "I didn't know that."

"I was just going for the joke; and you know what I mean – including with his Quidditch skills for the Chasers in the group."

"That's true," Melissa agreed, "but I'm actually learning more today from how the Prides have been trying to stop the Cannons. I like their strategy, and it might still work if Pauline can win her Seeker duel against Lily's Mum. It's taken about five hours for the Cannons to get a one-hundred point lead, and at that rate; Pauline has about another three hours to get that win for her team."

"I'm not saying that Pauline can't do that," Lily offered, "but from what I've seen of their Seeker duel so far; that isn't very likely. Pauline is tired and fighting just to keep up with Mum at this point – and it's only going to get worse for her from here."

It was near-dark, and into the seventh hour of the match, when Al scored the goal that gave the Cannons the one-sixty lead; and he did that in style with an extreme trick that left all of the spectators cheering – followed by a mass-groan of disappointment from the Prides' fans as they realized the implications. That wasn't quite the end of that fight for the Prides, since Peter earned six more saves in a row while Alice managed to get another goal for her team, but then Gwendolyn scored another goal to regain that all-important lead; and that seemed to take the fight out of the Prides' Chasers – and their fans.

"We're going to win!" Ron declared as if having a tough time believing it – and he didn't say that very loudly either.

"It's looking pretty good for us," Harry agreed with a nod. "Are you thinking about uncrossing your fingers now? Your hand must be getting tired."

"I tied them in place," Ron joked – "and no – I'll keep them crossed right to the end."

"You're doing better than I thought you would be," hermione advised him. "That's why you're sitting next to Harry – in case the shock overwhelms you."

Ron laughed. "It might, but there's no way I'll faint dead away," he assured her. "I'll need years just to get around to all of the I-told—you-so's that I need to tell everyone who ever made fun of me for sticking by my team through this little spell of bad luck."

"Starting with the Seeker that might help you to finally get that championship?" Molly leaned forward and asked him.

"You're closer," Ron pointed out with a grin, "but you did take that bet with me today despite the fact that you're really cheering for my team today too; so I'll try not to be too annoying about that when I take your money after the match."

"That only seemed fair considering how many bets you've lost to me over the years even when you were pretty sure you'd lose before making them against the Harpies," Molly offered with a nod. "You deserve the credit today for your loyalty – and not many of the current Cannons fans can claim that right."

"Did you even get many bets for this match?" Harry asked Ron. "You haven't said anything about it to me."

Ron shrugged. "That's because I didn't get many takers – other than a few Harpies fans. George bet me too, but he was just doing that to bug me – and we only made a wager for which of us would get opening day off to watch one of the matches in August."

"That could work out well for you, though," Harry pointed out. "George hight have tried to make you work that day without the bet."

"Good point – not that it would have worked," Ron said with a nod. "Yes!" he added enthusiastically as Rose made another great save to keep the lead at one-sixty. "That's my girl!"

Rose continued to play brilliantly – and so did the rest of the Cannons. The Prides' players battled on, but while they didn't give up; they also couldn't catch up either. By the end of the seventh hour, the Cannons had a two-forty to sixty lead. A Prides' time-out early in the eighth hour probably backfired on them because Al healed his team mates and had them at full power while the stoppage in play just made it tougher for the Prides to kick it up into high gear again. Al was easily the most fired-up player out there; which had everything to do with why he also pulled ahead of Gwendolyn in the personal scoring statistics – and earned three of the final four Cannons' goals – including the last one that came early in the ninth hour.

The end of the brilliant Quidditch battle came at the eight-hour and eighteen-minute mark of the match – near eleven o'clock at night in real time including the opening ceremony and time-out breaks. As with pretty much everything in the rest of the match, the final race for the snitch was amazing; Pauline gave it all she had to try and keep Ginny from earning that catch; and got beat thanks to a bit of a risky, extreme flying trick that worked for Ginny – and that Pauline couldn't stop. Catching the snitch while inverted, spinning; and flying backwards was mind-blowing; and then Ginny had to follow that up with an equally-awesome crash-avoidance that only-barely-avoided contact with a small group of wide-eyed spectators sitting in some of the supposedly-worst seats in the stadium.

The Chudley Cannons were League Champions!

"What day is it?" Al asked as he leaned back from the dazzling victory kiss he'd been sharing with Gwendolyn; and she laughed.

"It's still before midnight – on the same day," she assured him. "We did it!"

"With an emphasis on the 'we' for that," Al agreed happily. "Let's go and congratulate our team Manager."

"Once Brandon finishes helping her out with that," Gwendolyn suggested. "Your Mum's with Pauline, though, so we could start there."

"Okay," Al agreed, "but save up the punches for later." It was Gwendolyn's turn to laugh again.

"I think that we can make a few exceptions for both of us today." She looked ready to burst with excitement and happiness. "I knew that this would feel great, but this is better than anything I expected or dreamed!" She grinned at him. "I know what you're thinking; and yes, I expect that this is better than it might have been to win with the Harpies – because I get to do it with you, your Mum, and everyone else. We've made history today!"

"We have – and Uncle Ron isn't even in need of Dad's Healing help!" Al agreed and added with a nod toward the owners' section for the Cannons. "I wish that we could share all of this with them right now."

"Who says we can't?" Gwendolyn asked. They had already been on the way toward his mother and Pauline by then; and he laughed as she changed directions; led them to the aisle next to where Harry was standing; and amazed everyone when they landed; started sharing a round of hugs and kisses; and then had everyone laughing when they each took a twin with them and flew off with them to continue with the mid-air celebration.

"We brought your favorite fans along to congratulate you,' Gwendolyn advised Ginny; though the two Seekers had seen them doing that; and met them half-way.

"I see that," Ginny said with a nod. "I love you, Jaimie; Lorie! Thanks for coming along to share in the celebration."

"You're welcome," the girls chorused; and then giggled. "Hugs?" Lorie asked; and then giggled some more as she got hugs from both Seekers. "I'm sorry you didn't win," she told Pauline. "Grandpa – and everyone – says that you and Grandma were brilliant today. I hope you had fun anyway; 'cause we had fun watching you."

"Me too," Jaimie added as she took her turn hugging Ginny and then climbing onto her broom from Al's. "Mommy said we have to come right back, but can we go flying first?"

"Can I go with you?" Lorie asked Pauline. "We can pretend we're still having a Seeker duel!"

"I don't think that your grandmother will be letting go of that snitch anytime soon, but we can do that," Pauline offered while Lorie was already climbing on expecting the answer to be yes; and then the two Seekers were off and flying a lap around the stadium while Al and Gwendolyn were left to move on to a visit with Rose and the rest of their team near the Cannons' goals that Rose had defended so brilliantly all afternoon and evening.

The celebration above the pitch lasted for quite a while, but the spectators enjoyed the show; there was more family and friends fun when the other members of the Cannons team took turns visiting with their favorite fans – and when Jaimie and Lorie were returned to their mother and step-father-to-be. While all of that was going on, the set-up for the awards ceremony was done at center pitch; the two teams eventually spent nearly ten minutes together on the congratulations and condolences hugs and kisses; and then it was time for more sppeeches to go along with the awards presentations. Al loved getting to share everything with Gwendolyn; and even the speeches were fun – in-part because it appeared that at least a couple of them needed to be changed on the fly because they hadn't been written with any expectation that the Cannons would actually win. One of them even included a gaffe that wasn't easily glossed over because the part that had been skipped had also obviously been a reference to coming so close to breaking the longest losing streak in league history only to fall a match short – and the official giving the speech silently directed his anger over the fact that he looked bad on the Cannons instead of himself.

Al would have wished that he missed out on the awards part of the ceremony – if he hadn't sensed that he was going to be ignored as much as possible by the committee that made the choices for everything except for the one thing they couldn't choose – and most of those committee members wished that they could award the championship to the Prides instead too. While Al really just found that drama amusing, it wasn't all bad either. The championship match MVP award was declared a tie and went to Ginny and Pauline. Offensive player of the game went to Gwendolyn – also a good thing as far as Al was concerned. Peter got the nod for defensive player of the game, and while Rose had the better record; he had played brilliantly too; and Al knew that she was happy with that choice too – even if the majority of Witches and Wizards watching the ceremony were at the very-least confused by the choices. Finally, for the good sportsmanshipp award, the committee actually earned a stadium-wide round of laughs for choosing all four Beaters for that honor – apparently because not a single player was injured during the marathon battle. It was definitely another league first!

The runner-up awards were handed out next; the Prides' players were all smiling by then; and the roar of approval from everyone in the stadium was heart-warming as they received their silver medals and the runner-up trophy was presented to their managers and captain. Finally, Al had no choice but to be in the spotlight as he got on stage with his team mates – including his father now; and they were awarded the league champions gold medals and trophy. It was a bit of a surprise to have a round of cheers that were as loud as they'd been for the Prides; Al especially loved getting to watch Rose and Gwendolyn recieve the trophy from the Minister of Magic, the Minister for Magical Games and Sports; and the other officials taking care of that; and then it was time for Rose to step up to the lecturn and give her victory speech.

Rose took a long moment to look around and enjoy the thrill that had been with her for hours now as she saw her dream coming true – and helped to make that happen! Standing there grinning like an idiot indefinitely wasn't an option, though; so she took a quiet, deep breath; and got started on a speech that she hoped wouldn't be as boring as some that had been inflicted on everyone watching both before and after the match.

"I would like to begin by thanking – and congratulating – my father, Ron Weasley, for his life-long support for the Cannons. We're here because of him; and while we've had a bit of bad luck with our team for quite a while now; this win is proof that even the most-unlikely of dreams can come true!" Her smile turned amused then as she added – "I'd also like to thank my mother for her love and support – especially when nobody else believed in me – in us." She continued to smile as there were some laughs and cheers; and then she continued.

"This has been a brilliant Quidditch contest, so we want to thank the Prides for helping to make this such an amazing adventure for all of us; and their fans for supporting one of our favorite teams and our friends on your team!" That statement earned an ovation from the Prides fans; and Rose invited them to stand and accept the accolades.

"It's been a really long day, and I'm a big fan of short speeches; so I'll just add two more comments. First, I want to thank my team mates and everyone at GO MagiSports because this truly is a dream that came true thanks to everyone involved in helping to make it happen. I also need to thank everyone that has ever been involved with the Cannons in the past – the owners, managers, players, and fans – all of you! I know that it's been a long time since our last championship, but the Chudley Cannons have had a long, storied history that every fan of the game should be proud of – especially when the team has persevered through even the worst of times! That has changed today; and we will do our very best to carry on a Cannons' tradition that has never been forgotten – we just needed to keep our fingers crossed and build up a bit of hope before we were ready to have our name on the league championship trophy again!" She had to wait for another round of laughs and cheers; and then she wrapped up her speech.

"Finally, to everyone who has made wagers with me in the years since we first started joking about winning a league championship with the Cannons in my life time, since it wouldn't be right for me to profit off of that sort of thing now that I'm playing in the show; let's make all of those wagers payable to the GO MagiSports Charity or other worthy cause of your choice. I won't call any of you out on that; but you know who you are!"

That earned a roar of laughter – and then more when Ginny stepped over to Rose and paid her ten galleons – money that Harry had handed her. The Master of Ceremony had some closing comments; and then it was time for the interviews and some fan time that kept all of the players, managers, officials, and reporters busy until well-after midnight.

"You have to see this," Melissa told Lily as she carried her mirror over to Lily's bed and sat down. "Lee's interviewing the reporter that challenged your Dad to get a job in the show."

"Kellum McAdams," Lily supplied with a nod and smile. "You have to love it when reporters become one of the stories instead of just covering the news."

"Maybe, but this one is easy on the eyes; and can be funny – even when he's being an idiot," Kathryn offered as she joined them and both cousins sat on Lily's bed with her – and with Holly and Poofy.

"Kellum, thanks for joining us," Lee told him while smiling with amusement. "You may be surprised to find out that the top question we've had tonight from our viewers is about you – and what you think about Harry Potter and the now-league-champions Cannons. Has their victory tonight – and undefeated season surpassed your expectations?"

Kellum laughed. "Yes, but then they exceeded my expectations by winning any matches at all."

"Yet you've been an outspoken critic of the Cannons all season," lee pointed out; and Kellum nodded.

"I have been," he agreed – "and I plan on cheering for all of the other teams next season to help all of us out with restoring order to the Quidditch universe where the Cannons begin a new centuries-long losing streak!"

"That's funny, but our viewers are most-interested in any comments you might have about Harry Potter – or anything you might want to say to him tonight."

"I've been reminded this week that my original suggestion to Harry was that he get a job in the show before having the right to comment on how Quidditch is played in the league – or intervene as he did that night after that match had ended. I don't agree with his views, but I will concede that he has done as I've asked, and beyond that; backed up his words with his actions both on and off the pitch. That isn't the kind of future I want to see for our Quidditch league, since I believe that most of us enjoy the game as it's always been played, so while I'll give Harry the credit he's due; I'll also keep my fingers crossed and hope for that return to normal next season!"

"Well, that was almost nice of him," Lily decided after joining in on the laughs with Kathryn and Melissa. "Lee ought to be able to come up with lots of jokes for tomorrow night too; and his top-ten should be a classic!"

"No doubt," Melissa agreed. "That Cannons' motto at the end was a nice touch, but I wonder if he's finally started to clue into the fact that the Cannons are earning a lot of new fans – and that's just going to explode after today."

"No doubt," Kathryn agreed. "That sucks for us. I expected it to be bad-enough trying to do as well as Belinda and Olivia, but how do you even come close to starting out a career in the show compared to winning the first league championship for a team in like a thousand years?"

"It's a bit early to start making that sound even worse than it was," Lily suggested – "and I have some ideas – like winning a Quidditch World Cup before starting in the show the summer we graduate!"

Katthryn and Melissa both laughed. "How do you plan on doing that – especially with so many great players just on those two teams?" Kathryn asked; and Lily shrugged.

"Well, you could get summer jobs playing Quidditch for one of the league teams; maybe play in a couple of matches; we can win the Quidditch Cup again next year – and the senior team title; and then see what happens."

"You've been watching Al on the mirror network for too long to be that optimistic," Melissa decided. "Even if you have a chance of getting an invitation to play over your parents, Pauline, Alex, James, or any of the other Seekers in the show; Kathryn and I have zero chance against all of the Chasers."

"That's true if you don't even try,' Lily agreed. "Didn't you listen to Rose's speech? I'd think that if you could ever believe in impossible dreams coming true – today would be the day for that!"

The festivities continued at the Quidditch World Cup stadium until nearly two o'clock – including the round of late-night autographs that fans waited for until after the teams had finished getting cleaned up and changed. By the time that Rose led her team onto the practice pitch, the victory party was already in full swing, but there was still a huge cheer and round of applause for them – and a lot of hugs and kisses to share with their families and friends. That took a while, so it was nearly another hour after that before Al and Gwendolyn got to sit down and have something to eat. They had Kirley and Gwenog with them for that little break; though they were ready to head back to the cottage by then and get back to their vacation – though they were soon going to have lots of company both at the cottage and camp as the hotel and cottages opened on Sunday for the first guests. Al and Gwendolyn were going to take some time off too, but they weren't going to be at the cottage every day. They didn't want to think about work or vacation play time, though; since it was enough just to enjoy the moment and celebrate an amazing accomplishment.

That cameo bit of food and conversation with Gwendolyn's parents was just one of many that ended up keeping them busy until near-dawn, but Al and Gwendolyn had the time-stopper advantage, so when they went home and off to bed; they went into a time-stop; enjoyed a very-hot victory celebration for two; and then they got as much sleep as they wanted while still in the time-stop. Al didn't really think about the future at all while playing with Gwendolyn or sleeping. There would be time-enough for that in the morning – or in a second or two; once they woke up and returned to normal time again.

The great thing about making Rose's dream come true, though, was that with that done; Al could take some of his own dreams – including bigger and better ones for the Cannons – and work on making them come true too!

League Champions – Cannons?

For Al, that was just the beginning of the fun he wanted to have – and share with everyone he loved the most!