When It's All Over

by cottagecore-sprout

Before Harry was born, before the prophecy, before Lord Voldemort was powerful, before war broke out in the Wizarding World, the Marauders and their friends were just kids growing up in a world changing around them. They laughed, they loved, they struggled, and, eventually, they fought and died for what they believed in. These are their stories.

10. Selfish

Chapter 10: Selfish

The frosty dawns of March and April melted into the dewy mornings of May, where the grass on the Hogwarts grounds sparkled with drops of water. Given her way, however, Emmeline would not have been awake to see the dew, beautiful as it was in the morning light. Unlike some of her dormmates, Emmeline Vance was decidedly not a morning person, and she was very displeased each time that Marlene McKinnon was forced to rouse her. The sun was barely even up above the trees of the Forbidden Forest when Marlene prodded Em, who groaned and rolled over onto her stomach, trying to hide her face.

"Five more minutes," she said groggily. Marlene huffed out a quiet laugh, then Em felt her pillow being pulled out from under her head. She sat up, rubbing her eyes and glaring at her roommate.

"Seriously, Marley?"

"Keep your voice down," Marlene said, a smile on her face as she held Emmeline's pillow up and out of the other girl's reach. "And yes, seriously, you have to get ready for Quidditch practice."

"Ughh," Emmeline said, frowning and slipping out of bed, Marlene throwing her pillow back down. Emmeline winced as she put her feet down on the floor, the hardwood cold under her bare skin. Marlene grinned, then turned back towards her own bed, pouring herself some water with the jug that was on her bedside table.

"You'd better get ready quickly," Marlene said quietly as she sipped her water, checking her watch. "We have to be down at the Quidditch Pitch in fifteen minutes."

"Why didn't you wake me sooner, then?" Emmeline grumbled.

"And be treated to your cheery morning attitude for longer than I needed to? No thanks."

"Shut uuup," Mary grumbled blearily from her own bed, the curtains still drawn around it. Emmeline managed a small smile as she went into the bathroom. Mary was even less of a morning person than Emmeline, if such a thing were possible. Seven minutes later, Emmeline had dressed, brushed her teeth, and thrown her long hair into a messy ponytail. Her hair had changed greatly since the beginning of puberty, darkening from her childhood dirty blonde to a light brown, and becoming wavy and frizzy. She still wasn't sure quite what to do with it, so she tied it out of her face most of the time.

Marlene, who had fidgeted impatiently near the door of their dormitory while Emmeline was getting ready, led the way down the dormitory staircase eagerly. In the common room, they found James waiting for them. He grinned at the sight of them, and they set off at a brisk pace together.

"We're cutting it close," James remarked. "I already saw Florey, Marcus, and Chris head towards the pitch."

"Not Sam?" Marlene asked.

"Knowing Sam, he's probably been there all night," James joked.

"Yeah, well, Em's a horror in the mornings," Marlene said cheerfully. "I didn't want to wake her any sooner than I had to."

"I'm better than Mary," Emmeline grumbled. "We're lucky she didn't chuck something at us for talking. Anyway, not everyone can be freakish morning people like the two of you."

James laughed. "Trust me, I am the only morning person in my dormitory, too," he said. "If I tried to get Remus up before at least eight, I'm convinced he would conspire to murder me in my sleep the following night."

"He could do it, too," Marlene said, grinning. "Smother you with your pillow or something."

"Maybe he'd force feed me whatever it is he managed to brew in Potions on Tuesday," James said, shuddering. Emmeline cracked a smile, thinking of the ominously gurgling, murky brown concoction that Remus had come up with in their last Potions lesson, which had emitted rank fumes until Slughorn vanished it, to the relief of all.

"Maybe I'll force feed that to Sam for making us have Quidditch practice at six thirty in the morning," Emmeline said, though she was smiling slightly. They all laughed, and headed finally into the changing room next to the pitch, where all of the rest of their teammates were waiting. Quickly, Emmeline headed to her locker and pulled on her Quidditch jersey, which spelled out her name on the back in gold lettering. She turned to face Sam Thomas, who had begun to give them his usual pre-practice tactical talk.

Sam was tall, taller than any of the rest of his teammates, which made sense, because he was also older than any of them. He stood at about 6'2", and had dark brown skin and curly, dark brown hair which formed an afro on his head.

"So, we all know that Hufflepuff beat Slytherin in their match on Saturday," Sam started. "That's good news for us, since we beat both teams when we played them earlier this year, but Ravenclaw also beat both, so we have to train hard for our match against them in two weeks. I think we should focus on offensive ploys for the Chasers, as we know that Ravenclaw is best at defensive tactics. Emmeline, you should practice your double eight loop around the goalposts, as the Ravenclaw Chasers pass very quickly to each other, which can be tricky. Marlene, practice rolls, but for heaven's sake, hang on this time. We don't need another Hospital Wing visit."

All of this was said in a slightly less than his usual verve, and as he grasped his broom and led them out onto the pitch, Emmeline saw that his shoulders were slightly slumped. Throughout the practice, she watched Sam, noting how utterly deflated he looked. Of course, he still played just as well as he usually did, and gave his teammates tips to improve their playing. Still, when James made a risky move that left him hanging one-handed from his broom, Sam barely even told him off, just helped him back onto his broom and retrieved the Quaffle from the ground, resuming play.

Emmeline knew she couldn't ask him directly what was wrong. When practice was over at eight, they all returned to the locker rooms to shower and change, and Emmeline saw that Sam had been accosted by Florence, though he was clearly trying to shake her off. Sighing, Emmeline left the locker room to go up to breakfast, leaving the rest of the team still getting ready. She knew that Marlene and James always took longer than her, so she would catch up with them later at breakfast. First, she dropped off her Quidditch bag in her dormitory, then headed down to the Great Hall, where Hestia and Mary were already eating.

"How was practice?" Mary asked as Emmeline sat down.

"It was good," Emmeline said, pulling a jug of pumpkin juice towards her and pouring herself a glass. "Sam was a bit off, though."

"Why?" Hestia asked, only looking mildly curious. Emmeline knew that neither Hestia nor Mary liked Quidditch quite as much as Em did. Hestia, who had grown up with two wizarding parents, had both gone to games and listened to them on her radio from a young age, but while she enjoyed watching Quidditch, she had little interest in playing it. Mary, who was Muggle-born, had never heard of Quidditch until coming to Hogwarts, and though she liked the flying lessons in first year and taking the occasional joy-ride on Emmeline's broom, she was rather confused by all the rules. Both girls supported Emmeline avidly, however, turning up to every game with painted faces and cheering enthusiastically for her, which Emmeline appreciated a great deal.

"I'm not sure," Emmeline said, beginning to serve herself eggs and toast. "He's always a bit grouchy, that's just Sam. But it's usually in a joking way because he has to tell Florence and the others off so much. Today he just seemed a bit deflated. He barely even scolded James for a ridiculous maneuver he did that left him hanging off his broom one-handed."

"Talking about Sam?" James asked just then, sliding into the spot on the bench beside Emmeline, his hair still damp from the showers. Marlene followed him, sitting next to Hestia.

"I was just saying he seemed off this morning," Emmeline responded. "What do you think that's about?"

"Florey told Marlene," James said, lowering his voice conspiratorially. "That Sam's pining for some Muggle girl back home, and that's why he's brooding today."

"He doesn't seem broody," Emmeline said, glancing down the table towards Sam, who had just gone to sit with his seventh year friends. "He seems sad."

"Yeah, he's not himself," James agreed rather carelessly, beginning to serve himself breakfast, "I hoped that stunt with the broom might snap him out of it. I know he always likes giving us a good telling-off."

"Oh, don't act like you did that on purpose," Marlene said, giving James a mocking look. "That was just your usual idiocy."

Before James could retort, Emmeline turned to Marlene, intent on the earlier topic of conversation. "So what did Florence tell you about Sam?"

"She didn't say much," Marlene said, shrugging and pulling a platter of food towards her. "Just that he fancies a girl back home but he can't tell her he's magical so he's all twisted up inside about it."

"That sucks," Emmeline said, looking sympathetically down to Sam. Marlene nodded, beginning to shovel food into her mouth.

"Florey told him he should just ask her out and tell her he's a wizard if he's going to tear himself up about it," Marlene continued, her voice somewhat muffled by food. She swallowed a large mouthful and rolled her eyes. "But you know Sam, he's a stickler for the rules."

"The Statute of Secrecy isn't just some dumb school rule, Marlene," Emmeline said, giving her friend an incredulous look.

"Yes, mum," Marlene said sarcastically. "But he's known this girl forever, apparently. How can you keep a secret from someone for that long, anyway?"

"Sometimes keeping things from people is better for them," Mary piped up. "None of my Muggle friends back home know I'm a witch, and I know that telling them wouldn't be in their best interest."

"Still, it must be hard to keep it from them," Emmeline said, looking at Mary.

Mary shrugged. "Not very, to be honest. My life is pretty non-magical when I'm home for the holidays anyway, since we can't do magic outside of school. It'll be harder when I get out of school and get a job, though, I bet. Boarding school Muggles understand, but not wizarding jobs. Maybe that's why Sam's thinking more about it now. He's about to graduate."

"Yeah, I guess people are used to talking about their jobs with their friends," Hestia said contemplatively. "I'd get suspicious if someone refused to give details on what they do."

"Poor Sam," Emmeline said, casting another glance towards her Quidditch Captain at the end of the Gryffindor table.

"Oh, I know that look," Hestia said, scrutinizing her friend suspiciously. "No meddling, Em. There's nothing you can do."

"I'm not going to meddle," Emmeline said, turning back to her friends and giving Hestia an offended look. "But I wish there was something I could do. He just looks so sad."

"You're compulsive," Hestia said, pointing her spoon at Emmeline accusingly. "You can't always solve other people's issues."

"Shut up," Emmeline said, rolling her eyes. "I'm not compulsive."

"Oh, really?" Marlene said, grinning. "Then why are you always the first person to offer anyone your notes when they miss class?"

"Because it's a nice thing to do, Marlene," Emmeline said, raising her eyebrows. "What's wrong with—"

"And you tidy up my corner of the room when I'm not looking," Marlene said, her smile growing wider.

"I just thought that you might need some—"

"And you're always trying to get involved in other people's fights," Hestia broke in, exchanging a smirk.

"When have I—"

"Evans literally almost cursed you the other day when you got between her and Sirius," James said, grinning slightly at what he clearly considered an amusing memory.

"And now you're sitting, worrying over our poor, pining Quidditch Captain instead of eating your breakfast," Marlene said, a satisfied look on her face.

"So what?" Emmeline said, a mutinous look on her face. "I like to take care of other people, what's wrong with that?"

"The problem is you forget to take care of yourself, Em," Hestia said, smiling slightly at the look of mild outrage on her friend's face as her food lay abandoned on her plate. "Have you forgotten that we're teenagers? We're supposed to be selfish, that's the whole teen thing."

"Being selfish isn't a good thing, Tia."

"Sometimes you have to be selfish, Em," Hestia said, shaking her head incredulously. "In fact, being completely selfless is neither natural nor good for you."

"She's got a point," James broke in, smiling. "You can't live your life if you're always thinking about other people all the time."

"I take care of myself," Emmeline said, crossing her arms. "And I don't just think about others all the time."

"Prove it," Hestia said, smiling. "Go two weeks without your compulsive selfless acts."

"I'm not going to stop doing nice things for people," Emmeline said, her eyes widening. "You can't seriously be asking—"

"We'll all enforce it," Hestia said, grinning mischievously. She turned to the rest of the group. "If anyone sees her being compulsive, stop her by any means you deem necessary."

"Oh Merlin," Emmeline said, looking at Hestia in horror. "Don't tell them that. You do realize who you're talking to, right?" She said, gesturing towards Marlene and James, who had identical evil grins on their faces.

"Well, maybe they'll motivative you," Hestia said, grinning in what Emmeline considered an entirely unnecessarily crafty manner. Emmeline groaned, shook her head, and turned her attention back to her breakfast. The eggs lay cold upon her plate, and she sighed before digging into them, knowing that the bell was likely to ring soon, and she had to eat something before History of Magic.

...

Over the course of the next few weeks, Hestia, James, and Marlene annoyed Emmeline by preventing her random acts of selflessness. They did this by getting in her way every time she tried to do something which they termed "compulsive."

When she tried to clean the other girls' areas in the dormitory, Marlene would shoo her away, making her sit on her bed as she watched Marlene do it herself, Emmeline's right eye twitching slightly as Marlene stuffed random pages of her notes haphazardly into the drawer of her night table. When Mary came down with a cold and missed Astronomy one week, Hestia had stepped in front of Emmeline when she tried to offer Mary her notes, presenting the other girl with her own.

"Oh come on, she doesn't want your notes, Tia," Emmeline said indignantly. "Your handwriting sucks."

"I made an extra effort to make it neat this time," Hestia said, smiling satisfiedly at the offended look on Emmeline's face as she gazed down at the notes, which were indeed much neater than normal. "And I know that you like to go over your Astronomy notes on Thursday afternoons, which you would not be able to do if Mary had them, now would you?"

Emmeline glared at her friend mutinously, indignant at her extremely inconvenient act of consideration. Mary shrugged and laughed, taking Hestia's notes from her outstretched hand.

"Thanks, Tia," she said. "I'm staying out of this."

Mary was one of the only people staying out of it, however. Hestia had recruited both Dorcas and Lily to her cause, and now whenever someone asked for anything in the dorm, Emmeline was met with a chorus of "You stay there," before she could even move to get up.

Emmeline resentfully kept her silence now. It was true that she was busy as they came up to exam time, as well as the end of the Quidditch season, and their last game against Ravenclaw looming. She practiced harder than ever, and tried to be grateful to her friends for taking up the slack. Still, the change nagged at her mind.

She was used to taking care of people, and she liked it. She had done so ever since her dad had gotten sick, when she had been seven years old. Emmeline's father, Charlie Vance, was a Muggle, who had married her witch mother in 1958, three years after his last marriage ended in divorce. Emmeline had an older half-brother, Benjamin, from that previous marriage. Naturally this meant he was a Muggle, but knew the truth about the magic in the family. He was ten years older than she was.

Emmeline's father was a whole eight years older than her mother, Esther, and had had more health problems associated with his advancing age. When she was seven, he had been diagnosed with liver cancer, and had to have a transplant. With her mother in the hospital all the time, Emmeline had become used to taking care of her younger brother, Noah, sometimes with the help of Benjamin, sometimes without. In the years since then, she had not been able to break the habit of constantly looking after others. Now, however, her friends were demanding that she stop prioritizing others' wellbeing above her own, and she was fighting them tooth and nail.

...

In the last week of May, the final game of the season, Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor, was finally upon them, and, as usual, excitement was high among the Gryffindors. As with her last two games, Emmeline's nerves began to build up at the beginning of the week, and climaxed on the morning of the game. It was sunny and clear, not a cloud to be seen in the sky, which would be good for visibility for both teams.

After she got ready to go down to breakfast, Emmeline stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror for a very long time, her own dark brown eyes staring back at her, looking larger in her face than usual. Her hand went to the pendant around her neck, a Star of David which her mother had gifted to her at her bat mitzvah the previous summer. Finally, she took a deep breath and left the bathroom, grabbing her broom and hoisting it over her shoulder, walking down to the Great Hall.

The hall was full and buzzing with noise by the time she got there, the members of different houses dashing across the hall to talk to their friends about the upcoming match. When Emmeline went over to join Mary and Hestia, Miranda Ellerton was sitting talking with them. Miranda was a short, Black girl from Ravenclaw who was one of Mary's friends, and sometimes sat with them in lessons. She was very nice, especially talented at Transfiguration, and even managed to stay awake during History of Magic, which was a practically superhuman feat, according to the Gryffindor third years.

"Hey, Em," Miranda greeted her in a friendly way, giving her a smile. Emmeline smiled back and sat down across from her.

"Hey, Miranda," she greeted the Ravenclaw girl. "How are you?"

"I'm good," Miranda said, smiling. "Excited for the match. Good luck, by the way. Of course, I'm supporting Ravenclaw, so don't tell anyone I said that."

Emmeline laughed a little. "Is that what you told Marcus?" Marcus Ellerton, one of the Gryffindor team's Beaters, was Miranda's older brother.

Miranda laughed, sweeping her long dark hair, which was braided into cornrows, behind her left shoulder. "I told Marcus that I promised Cassie Philips ten galleons if she knocked Marcus off his broom today, actually," she said, giving the rest of the girls a mischievous smile. Mary and Hestia laughed, while Emmeline gave Miranda an amused smile.

"I'm sure he'll be on his guard, then," Hestia joked, and Miranda smiled, standing up from the table.

"I should go. Don't want to be seen fraternizing with the enemy for too long," she said, giving them a wink before turning to go sit with her friends at the Ravenclaw table.

"How are you feeling?" Mary asked, giving Emmeline a sympathetic look when Miranda was gone. Emmeline shrugged, pulling a bowl of porridge towards her.

"I'm alright," she lied, her stomach churning slightly.

"You're going to do great," Hestia reassured her, giving her arm a slight squeeze. "You're always nervous, and you always do great anyway, remember?"

"Yeah, I guess," Emmeline said, giving them a small smile. She glanced down at her porridge, then took up her spoon. No matter how repellant eating sounded at the moment, she needed to have something in her stomach before going out onto the pitch. The oatmeal tasted like glue in her mouth, however, despite the abundance of cinnamon she always put in it. After she was finished, she gulped down pumpkin juice to try to dissipate the rather slimy feeling in her throat.

Much sooner than she had anticipated, Sam stood up at the end of the table, looking down it at his team. "Time to get to the locker rooms," he said, his voice carrying down towards them. Emmeline's teammates stood, and she followed them, giving a last smile—which ended up as more of a grimace—to Mary and Hestia, who gave her reassuring smiles in return and wished her luck.

Emmeline trailed at the back of the group of Gryffindor team players, all dressed in their red and gold Quidditch uniforms as they headed down to the pitch. Florence was talking boisterously to Marcus, Marlene and James listening in eagerly and breaking into the conversation one and a while to comment excitedly. Christopher Campbell, their third Chaser, who was a fifth year just like Marcus and Florence, walked quietly alongside Emmeline at the back. Sam, at the front of their little procession, was also quiet, his eyes trained steadily on the corridor in front of him as they headed down to the pitch.

Arriving in the locker rooms, the team pulled their Quidditch robes from their lockers and put them on over their uniforms, grabbing bats and gloves, chatting with one another or readying themselves in silence, as Emmeline was. They all stopped when Sam cleared his throat, however, and turned to listen to his pre-match speech. This one was short and sweet.

"We all know what we have to do today," Sam began, looking around at each one of them with intensity in his gaze, his eyes locking on each of theirs in turn. "We're here to play our hardest, to try our best, and to either win or go down with one hell of a fight. I know all of you are ready, I know you all have it in you. I'm proud of everyone on this team, and I'm confident that whatever happens out there, there will be nothing that I would have done differently in the last few weeks. Now let's go out there and show them that Gryffindors play to win!"

The team yelled in appreciation, and began to gather their last equipment, moving out to through the doors towards the pitch. Emmeline, her heart beating fast and her head suddenly feeling a bit light, put her hand out to brace herself on the locker, then slid down to sit on one of the benches.

"Em," Marlene's voice said, seemingly from far away, "you okay?" Emmeline didn't reply, just closed her eyes, her breathing coming out quickly. She thought she heard some of her other teammates make noises of concern, but a voice broke over all of them.

"You lot go wait outside the door, I'll take care of her."

A moment later, Emmeline felt a weight drop onto the bench beside her, and a warm hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes and looked up to see Sam sitting next to her, looking down at her in concern. She closed her eyes again, looking away from him and trying to slow her breathing.

"I'll be okay in a moment," she said weakly, trying to reassure herself as much as him.

"I know you will be," Sam said, his voice soft and steady. There was a short pause, then Emmeline spoke again, the words rushing out of her almost against her will.

"I'm just nervous," she said quickly, her heart beating faster as she thought about it. "I'm afraid of letting everyone down."

There was a moment of silence where Emmeline cursed herself for saying anything. This was her Captain, her seventh year Quidditch Captain who she had never said anything to that didn't relate to Quidditch before. She should have kept her thoughts to herself. Then, he spoke.

"I know what you mean," Sam said. His voice was quiet, thoughtful, and Emmeline opened her eyes to look at him curiously as he spoke. The expression on his face was conflicted, his brow furrowed slightly. "I used to get nervous before games a lot, too, you know. It's hard to feel like you have a responsibility to other people, to your teammates, to your house, to play well. It's a lot of pressure. It got worse when I became Captain, too."

"Really?" Emmeline asked, startled out of her panic slightly, her eyes focused on his face. He met her eyes and smiled slightly, nodding.

"Really," he said. "But you know what changed it for me?" She shook her head, her dark brown eyes trained on his lighter brown pair.

"I realized that I don't play for my teammates, or for Gryffindor," he said. "I play Quidditch because I love it. I play it for me."

She stared at him, and he smiled at the startled look on her face. "You're a great Keeper, Emmeline, the best I tried out. I didn't let you on the team because you're James' or Marlene's friend; I let you on because you are the best. You know that, don't you?"

Emmeline let out a small, nervous laugh. "I guess so."

"I'm guessing, though, that you didn't try out for the team because you thought you owed it to someone else, or to your housemates. You tried out because you wanted to be on the team because you loved Quidditch and you wanted to play. Am I right?"

"Yeah, I suppose you are," Emmeline admitted. Already her breath seemed to be slowing, the weight on her chest lifting.

"Well, that's true for all of the rest of us out there as well. We're playing for Gryffindor, yes, but mostly we're playing for ourselves, and we're playing because we love the game. And if we win, that's great, and if we don't, we had a hell of a time trying, anyway. So when you go out there, don't play for anyone but yourself. Don't do it for us, do it because you love it. Otherwise it's not worth it. Okay?"

"Okay," Emmeline said, taking a deep breath and feeling relieved, as she realized that her heart rate, too, had returned to nearly normal. Sam gave her a warm smile and stood up, holding out his hand to her. She took it, letting him pull her to her feet before following him towards the door, opening it to join their teammates who were waiting for them.

"You okay?" James asked, looking slightly concerned beside Marlene. Emmeline gave them a smile, feeling more confident all of a sudden than she had ever felt before another Quidditch match.

"Yeah, I'm good now," Emmeline said, shouldering her broom and following her teammates as they all walked out onto the pitch.

...

The Gryffindor victory over Ravenclaw that day was not easily won. It involved several fouls, James breaking his wrist, and Christopher almost knocking the Ravenclaw Keeper off his broom with the force of the Quaffle as he launched it towards the goal posts.

It turned out that Miranda might really have been serious about her promise to Cassie Philips, as the 4th year Ravenclaw Beater did indeed almost knock Marcus off his broom midway through the match with a clever hit to one of the Bludgers. Still, he hung on, and Florence retaliated by hitting her next Bludger back at Cassie, causing her to roll in the air to avoid it.

Emmeline's newfound confidence after her talk with Sam followed her as she took to the air. The Ravenclaw Chasers worked together like a well-oiled machine, tossing the Quaffle back and forth as they approached her at the Gryffindor goalposts. Still, Emmeline prevailed over them, letting in only five goals in total so that the final score, when Marlene pulled out of a sharp dive inches from the ground with the Snitch clasped in her hand, was two hundred and forty points to fifty, securing the Quidditch cup for Gryffindor.

When the Gryffindor team raced into the stands to collect the Quidditch Cup, Sam held it out to his teammates, and they all reached to touch whatever corner of the cup they could get their hands on, lifting it into the air collectively, every one of them beaming with delight at their victory.

Much to the disappointment of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, especially Florence, James, and Marlene, they were not allowed to bring the cup to the common room for their victory party, but handed it off to Professor McGonagall. Still, they rallied quickly and led the procession back to the locker rooms, eager to shower and change before the Gryffindor victory party. Marlene took James to go get his wrist healed by Madam Pomfrey, though he had put on a brave face up until that point, insisting that it didn't hurt that much.

Emmeline took her time, letting the others leave ahead of her, knowing that the party was likely to last all night anyway. When Emmeline finally left the locker rooms, clean and wearing the change of clothes from her locker, she found Mary and Hestia waiting for her outside. They both squealed in delight at the sight of her, drawing her into a three person hug.

"You played so well!" Mary exclaimed as she drew back, beaming at Emmeline. Emmeline smiled.

"Thanks," she said, beginning to walk in the direction the Gryffindor common room, her two friends at her side. "I liked your guys' signs from the crowd."

Mary and Hestia exchanged mischievous smiles. They had spent the previous evening—while Emmeline was tossing and turning in her bed after saying goodnight early, saying she needed a good night's sleep for the match—constructing large, sparkling signs that read "Go Gryffindor Go!" and "Emmeline is our Queen" (the latter of which sported a large drawing of Em wearing a crown and hovering in front of the Gryffindor goalposts). Emmeline had been slightly embarrassed by this sign, but rather pleased as well.

So as not to show favoritism to one housemate over the others, Dorcas had joined them, making a sign which she could flip around, one side reading "Potter for Prime Minister," while the other was a large drawing of Marlene on her broom, speeding towards the Snitch with the words "Marlene for the Win."

"It's lucky that Mary is such a good artist," Hestia commented. "I mostly did coloring."

"Lucky I brought my pencils and things with me," Mary said, shaking her head in amusement. "I can't believe wizards still use quills for everything. I mean, I get we're a wizarding school, but is it really worth making our lives so much more difficult just for the aesthetic?"

Emmeline and Hestia laughed. "Dorcas cast some spells to make the pictures move and sparkle and things," Hestia continued. "We thought it turned out rather nicely."

"They were certainly very noticeable," Emmeline said, smiling. Hestia and Mary laughed. "But really, thanks. I appreciate it."

"No problem," Mary said, smiling.

When the three girls finally reached the common room, the celebrations were already in full swing. There was food on a large table by the fire, which Emmeline eagerly headed towards, feeling famished after playing for so long. Before she could reach for it, however, Sam appeared in front of her, a harried look on his face.

"Don't eat the chocolate eclairs," he warned. "Someone put something in them that made Christopher's ears turn into kumquats. I think it was James."

"Didn't James have to get his wrist fixed in the Hospital Wing?" Emmeline asked, smiling slightly and picking up a custard cream instead.

"Yeah, but it took all of five seconds for Madam Pomfrey to heal it, and then they went to the kitchens to get all of this food." Sam said distractedly, vanishing the offending pastries.

"Well, thanks for the tip," Emmeline said, smiling. "I guess I'll leave you to try to keep order."

Sam laughed. "That is my unofficial job description, I suppose," he said.

Emmeline smiled at him. "Try to have some fun, too, though," she said. "We won, after all. You deserve it."

"Thanks, Emmeline," Sam said. "I'll try, when I'm not trying to keep my underage teammates from getting too drunk on firewhiskey." He headed off into the crowd, and Emmeline smiled to herself. She shoved the custard cream into her mouth, then headed up the girl's dormitory staircase towards her room. She wanted to put her Quidditch bag down and change into something a bit more suitable for the party, rather than her Quidditch sweats.

She found Hestia there, looking like she had just finished changing, too. Hestia looked up in surprise. "You're not ditching your own party already, are you?" She asked. Emmeline laughed, and shook her head.

"Just came to change."

"Oh, well, good," Hestia replied. "You deserve to enjoy the fruits of your labors."

Emmeline smiled to herself, then turned her back on her friend, moving to grab some clothes from her dresser and change into them while Hestia was turned away from her. When she turned back around, her friend was tucking away her Gryffindor sweater in a drawer, which she had worn to the game.

"You looked pretty confident when you got out onto the pitch," Hestia remarked casually. "I was surprised, since you looked like you were about to puke when I last saw you at breakfast."

"Yeah, well, Sam gave me a bit of a pep talk," Emmeline said. "It was really helpful."

"Oh?" Hestia asked casually, glancing at her friend.

"He told me that I had to just go out there and play for me, and not for anyone else," Emmeline said, avoiding her friend's gaze, knowing the "I told you so" look on Hestia's face even out of the corner of her eye.

"That's good advice," Hestia said, a slight smile playing across her lips. Emmeline laughed slightly, moving to fold her clothes on her bed. Then she straightened back up, turning to look at her friend again. There was a pause as she tried to find the words.

"Thanks, Tia," Emmeline said finally, giving her friend a small smile. "For making me focus on myself for once, these last few weeks. I think I needed it."

"Of course," Hestia said. "I was a little worried I was pushing you too hard, to be honest. You seemed pretty annoyed."

"I was," Emmeline said, smiling amusedly. "I didn't want to listen to you, because, well...taking care of other people is easy for me. It's where I'm most comfortable," Emmeline admitted, shrugging and looking down sheepishly.

"I know it is," Hestia said, giving Emmeline a kind smile. "But sometimes what's most comfortable isn't the best thing. It's good to be good at taking care of other people, but it's also good to be good at taking care of yourself, you know?"

"I guess I'm learning that, now," Emmeline said, smiling. As Hestia stood up and moved over to her mirror, hooking a pair of hoop earrings into her earlobes, Emmeline realized that perhaps her friend had been taking care of her all along, too, without her even realizing it.