The months went by in the blink of an eye. Final exams were just around the corner and the Ravenclaw common room was full of studying students. The seventh years were hiding in their dorm rooms, desperate to get the most peaceful environment to study for their NEWTs, as did the fifth years for their OWLs. I certainly couldn't blame them for not wanting to be in the library or common room, many students were studying in groups and weren't quiet about it. Even the studious Ravenclaws couldn't stay quiet when working with others.

The first Saturday in June was the first day that anyone desired to take a day away from their studies. It was the final Quidditch game of the year, Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw. A few months before, Sytherin had beaten Ravenclaw by quite a lot so it was clear Ravenclaw was hoping to make up for lost points against Gryffindor.

In the common room that morning, the whole team was having a meeting and it became clear that Lewis was still intent on winning the Quidditch cup. The only problem with that was they needed to score a total of two hundred and twenty points in order to surpass the snake's score. If they didn't hit that, Ravenclaw would miss the chance to win the cup. The plan was to have the chasers score seventy points before Lewis caught the snitch.

I walked beside the male first years and Sophie as we made our way into the stands. Each team was already flying around the pitch and running their before game drills. That morning at breakfast, I had tried to catch Hayden and the twins before the match to wish them luck, but they hadn't even showed up to eat. That was unlike them as they usually were wolfing down a feast full of food. I didn't think much of it, knowing full well that Oliver Wood was likely getting them in for a last minute practice beforehand.

As our group sat, I found myself placed between Sophie and Finnley near the front row with Michael and Anthony right behind us. Both Mandy and Clara had decided not to come, but none of us were complaining about that. During the Slytherin match, Sophie had nearly blown up on them when their arguing was louder than the cheering crowd. So the girls opted to not attend the final match.

I placed my hands on the railing and leaned over it to try and spot where Hayden was. Typically he was pacing in front of the Gryffindor bench, just waiting for the moment Wood came over and said he was in. However, this time, he was nowhere to be seen. My brows furrowed as I turned to my friends. "Has anyone seen Hayden today?"

Michael was the first to speak up, but it wasn't the answer I wanted to hear. "Nope. We got to breakfast early this morning too and none of the third years were there."

"Don't you guys always have breakfast before a match?" Anthony questioned, his eyes scanning the air to watch the Ravenclaws get into formation.

I frowned. "Yeah.. Usually.." I muttered and went to say more when Lee's booming voice echoed over the pitch.

"Good morning Quidditch fans! We have a spectacular match for you guys today. The undefeated, stunning, kick ass-" The boy was quickly cut off by McGonagall's irritated voice. He let out a chuckle before continuing. "Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw who's looking to knock our amazing lions off their perch. Will this be the year Ravenclaw takes the Quidditch cup or will Lewis lose out again and hand it over to Gryffindor, the rightful owners?" Lee was cut off again by his head of house and he grumbled in disappointment.

"Does someone want to explain to me how a Gryffindor got the job as announcer?" Finnley rolled his eyes, leaning back. "He's been disruptive at every game, you'd think they'd swap him out."

Sophie chuckled, her arms resting on the railing. "I don't know, this is pretty funny having McGonagall yell at him every few words." There was a sound of agreement from each of us as Lee began to speak once again.

"Now I know we Gryffindor's were heartbroken to hear that Spinnet had come down with a horrible bug-"

"One that you conjured!" A Gryffindor shouted over Lee.

"Not the point." Lee quickly retorted, continuing on with what he was saying. "So we will have a replacement for our poor chaser." He let out a sound of excitement as the Gryffindor team flew past his announcing box. "And there he goes now! The perfect stud, Hayden Quincy! Hopefully he'll make up for our bloody seeker being in the hospital wing.." He muttered the last part in clear disappointment.

My eyes went wide and I quickly stood up straight to get a better look. "You're joking." Lee's words rang true as Hayden went flying by the stands with the other two chasers. He was finally getting to play after holding the bench down all year. Just a couple weeks before, he had made it clear that he was out of luck and there was no way he would be playing. How had he managed to pull this off?

From behind me, Anthony let out a snicker. "I heard the Gryffindors yelling about how Lee got Spinnet sick just so Hayden could play. Certainly wouldn't put it past him."

His words flew right through, I barely heard a single word he spoke. Slowly, a bright smile formed on my face. At that moment, I had so much pride for Hayden. I had never seen him play Quidditch before and I was ecstatic to finally have the opportunity.

My hands went up to cup my mouth as I let out a loud cheer. "Go Hayden! Kick some ass!" I had never been one to cheer at matches so my friends all looked to me with both confusion and disgust. I couldn't blame them too much, I was cheering for the other team after all.

Other Ravenclaws seemed irritated that I was cheering for a Gryffindor so Finnley grabbed my wrist and pulled me back down into my seat. "Do us all a favor and keep your love for Gryffindor to a minimum. I'd rather not get into a fight with the upper years today."

My face flushed pink and I lowered my gaze in embarrassment, but quickly shook it away so I could keep watching Hayden. The match was finally starting with each team forming in the respective places. Madam Hooch let each ball out, the snitch quickly flying away and the bulgers flew up near the beaters. Finally, she threw the Quaffle into the air and within that same moment, a Ravenclaw chaser caught the ball and was zooming down the pitch.

I watched as Hayden followed close beside our chaser, trying his best to check the quaffle out of their hands but to no avail. Just as quickly as our chaser had the quaffle, it went soaring through one of the hoops, scoring us our first ten points. Lee could be heard sighing and begrudgingly announcing the goal, but his disappointment was drawn out by the cheers from the Ravenclaw house.

The game went on like this for a half an hour with Ravenclaw scoring goal after goal. Many times, Gryffindor tried to score a goal, but our keeper kept the quaffle out effortlessly. Each time Hayden tried to score and the ball was knocked away, I could see him cursing and becoming more and more frustrated. As much as the other chasers couldn't score, it seemed he was more frustrated than them all. It was his first and only game of the year and they were losing terribly.

Suddenly, a wave of wind blew through the stands as the seekers finally caught sight of the snitch. Both Lewis and the Gryffindor's reserve seeker were neck and neck with one another, their hands within grasp of the snitch. Everyone was on their feet to catch a glimpse of who would catch it first. The Gryffidor's reserve hadn't played all year yet he was still right next to Lewis with no issue. It was going to be a close call.

Both seekers lunged forward and collided with one another and fell to the ground. The crowd went silent as the snitch was no longer seen flying around, someone had caught it. We all watched with anticipation as the boys slowly sat up. As they shook the dust off, only one of them stood up with a smile.

Lewis stood besides the other seeker, his hand raised in the air with the snitch in his hand. The Ravenclaws erupted into a roar of cheers at the amazing victory. Gryffindor hadn't been beaten this bad in three centuries and we were the ones to do it. Sophie lunged at me, engulfing me in a tight hug, her screams leaving a ringing in my ear. But just as quickly as we all had gotten overtaken by excitement, we all went silent as the score was called.

We had scored two hundred and ten points. Just ten points away from the Quidditch cup.

Slytherin had won.

Down on the field, none of the team seemed bothered by this as they all huddled up and were cheering louder than anyone. Even Lewis had a bright smile on his face. They may not have one the Quidditch cup, but they had been the only ones to beat the mighty Gryffindors that year and they had done so in a record breaking way. This was a game that no one would forget.

The crowds in the stands quickly dispersed and I went towards the pitch to see Hayden, letting my friends know that I would catch up with them. When I got to the grassy field, I found Hayden sitting on the bench between Fred and George, his head in his hands. I frowned and walked over. "You finally got to play, why the long face?" I questioned despite the answer being obvious.

The blonde groaned, only peeking up at me for a moment. "First game I play and it's the only one we lose. I must be bad luck."

I rolled my eyes. "Come on now, don't be like that. It's not all your fault."

Fred patted the boy on the back and agreed. "Not like you could have predicted Harry getting caught in a death defying situation."

When I raised an eyebrow in confusion, George shook his head. "We'll tell you later, what matters now is this is not all our boy's fault."

To that, I nodded in agreement. "You did your best. If it helps, you did your best. Our team was just.. Really dead set on winning. You really should've seen them this morning. There was no taking the victory from them."

"Yeah.. sure.." Hayden grumbled, sitting up before getting to his feet. "That's it, this summer is gonna be all about training. I'm getting back on the team next year and showing everyone I'm better than this."

The twins stood up after him with matching grins. Fred spoke first, "Damn right you are!"

"You two should come by for the last few weeks in summer and stay with us," George continued, his statement catching me off guard. "We'll all practice together. And I'm sure Pens here would love to meet Ginny."

I blinked at his words. Hayden often went to visit the Weasley's during the summer while I stayed back with Mariah. I had never even considered that they would extend the offer to me after we met. In my head, the summer would just go by as it normally did. I never even thought I would have friends that wanted me around.

Hayden quickly agreed, knowing full well that he would need to practice with more than just himself. He turned to me to see what I thought and noticed my scared expression. "On second thought, give us some time to think on it, alright? I'll send you guys a letter after we get home on what we'll do."

The twins nodded in understanding and after seeing what Hayden saw, they walked over and threw their arms around my shoulders. "Don't even worry about it, Pens."

"We're pretty flexible guys." They grinned sheepishly.

I glanced down at my feet. "Thanks.. I'm sorry."

All three of them quickly waved me off, making sure I knew it wasn't a big deal. Afterwards, they were called by Wood to meet in the locker room and they bid me goodbye and disappeared.

Our conversation had reminded me of how quickly the summer was approaching. After next week's exams, we would be leaving this year behind. A frown crossed my lips. I had grown quite attached to my routine here at Hogwarts. Would my friends even reach out over summer or would I sit at home just waiting for the new year to begin?

Over the months, I had quickly lost my obsession with finding out more about Remus Lupin. My friends had kept me from shutting them all out even though they had next to no idea what was going on. They kept me on track. How would I keep myself from becoming obsessed if they weren't with me.

I continued these thoughts until I made it back up to the castle entrance. I was barely at the door when I heard my name be called. When I glanced up, I saw my group of friends waiting in the doorway.

Sophie came running over and looped our arms together. "There's a party in the common room, we didn't want to go without you."

My brow furrowed in confusion. "I would've caught up sooner or later. You guys didn't have to wait."

Anthony shook his head. "Kinda lame to go without all of us. A party is only fun when everyone is there."

"And besides," Michael continued on. "It's the last party of the year. Soon the only way we'll get to talk is through letters."

"Gotta make the memories now." Finnley nodded in agreement, walking behind Sophie and I to give us a small shove forward. "Let's go before all the food is gone."

A smile returned to my face as we headed inside and began our long walk back to the Ravenclaw tower. As we chatted idly, I realized how silly I was being. These guys weren't going to bail on me just yet. I had nothing to worry about.

As we all made our way back to the Hogwarts express at the end of the year, I thought back to the night of the final feast. The Great Hall had been louder than ever before. At that point, everyone already knew that Slytherin had taken both the Quidditch cup as well as the House Cup. The other three houses were pretty upset with this development as Slytherin had won the House Cup for the last seven years. No one really wanted to see them take it again.

Before the feast began, Dumbledore stood in front of the room and gave a speech, congratulating everyone on finishing their exams. He went on to say that Slytherin had one the House Cup, only to backtrack on his words, announcing he still had points to award. In a matter of a few moments, Gryffindor was awarded one hundred and seventy points which pushed them ahead of Slytherin for the House Cup.

The entire Great Hall aside from Slytherin bursted into cheers. It was clear that no one cared who won as long as it wasn't Slytherin. Even Mandy and Clara, who had been fighting all year, had smiles on their faces.

As the food finally appeared in front of us, I found myself looking around at the people around me. After years of not thinking I belonged anywhere, I found myself fitting in with the other six in my year just fine. It was almost like I was meant to be here all along. Even those from Gryffindor pulled me along with no complaint, they actually wanted me by their side. I was proud to be their friend.

I brought my focus back to the Hogwarts Express as we all began to board. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Hayden waving me over. When I got to him, he motioned towards Lee and the twins. "Wanna sit with us? We have plenty of room."

A smile crossed my lips as I glanced back to where Sphie and Finnley were standing. We had agreed the night before to board the train together so I turned back to Hayden and shook my head. "I think I'll pass. I think Sophie would kill me if I didn't play cards with her on the way back."

Hayden looked to where my friends were and smiled softly. "Sounds good." He glanced back down at me and reached out to ruffle my hair. "I'm really proud of you for making friends. You did pretty good this year."

A light tint of pink covered my cheeks. "You act like I couldn't do it on my own."

"No, not at all." He quickly spoke up. "It's just that when you first got here, you didn't know where you'd fit in. And you figured it out so easily." He brought his hand back to his side and continued. "You amaze me is all."

I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear and looked away to hide my embarrassment. "Thank you.. I really appreciate that." Just as I finished speaking, I heard Finnley call my name.

Hayden gave me a light shove. "Go on. I'll see you on the platform."

With a curt nod, I ran off to join my friends and we headed onto the train. When my feet stood on the first step, I turned back one last time to the place I had made my home and smiled. It was at that moment, I wasn't afraid of leaving anymore. I knew I would be back and things would go back to normal. I'd see my friends every day and nothing would have to change. My worries were irrational. This castle was my home and I was comfortable with that. My mind was finally allowing me to calm down.

However, the calm can only last so long. And when Hayden and I returned to Mariah's to find adoption papers on the table, I was anything but calm.