As it turned out, Christina did not look at the yearbooks after the exam was over, because Gryffindor was ramping up for its next quidditch match with Ravenclaw. Wood was eager for a win after the disaster that had been the last match, and most of Gryffindor house was shivering with anticipation.

The night before the match, the Weasley twins threw a party in Gryffindor tower, attended by pretty much everyone except for the other members of the quidditch team, who were getting a solid night of sleep. Percy Weasley sat in the corner with a stack of books, telling everyone who passed by his table that he was there to make sure things didn't get out of hand.

Gryffindor's first years were sitting on the floor by the fire, painting a large banner on a bedsheet Paolo had stolen from the school laundry. They'd been meaning to draw a lion chewing up an eagle, but none of them were quite sure how to draw a bird and the whole thing was looking rather muddled until Dean Thomas came to their rescue and drew an eagle quite clearly in the throes of death.

"I think that's a little dark. It's just a quidditch match." said Nya Lewis, staring at the expression on the eagle's face.

"Nya, we gotta win this." said Nora. "If we win tomorrow's match, we're still in the running for the quidditch cup."

"And what does winning the quidditch cup get us?"

"Oh, you know, only eternal glory. Does that sound fun, Nya? Eternal glory?"

"I guess."

"And Potter's got the firebolt!" Paolo shouted, a little too loudly. He'd had a little too much butter beer. "Watch! He'll smoke every other player on that pitch! Who's Ravenclaw playing as seeker?"

"Cho Chang." said George matter-of-factly. "She's had some problems with injuries, but she's pretty good. No match for Harry, though."

"Excuse me, but how do you get injured in quidditch?" Abigail piped up. "You're just sitting on a broom. My brother plays muggle football, and he's gotten some pretty bad knee injuries because he's actually running on the ground."

"You'd be surprised what a bludger can do." said George darkly. "That, and beaters can sometimes get overuse injuries from lifting heavy bats all the time. But we've seen some pretty nasty injuries in our day. Harry lost all the bones in his arm last year."

"Ohmygod I remember that!" Fred snorted, spraying butterbeer all over himself. "He'd had his arm broken by a bludger, and Lockhart tried to fix it and removed Harry's bones instead!" He flopped back in his chair, cackling. "Oh man, I miss Lockhart sometimes."

"You do not!" said Dean. "That guy was awful!"

"Who's Lockhart?" Christina asked.

"The weirdest defense teacher we ever had." said Dean. "Spent more time on his hair than most girls did. Wouldn't shut up about himself. Made Harry help act out passages from his books.

"We loved the guy." Fred laughed. "He'd let us act things out in his classes too. The poor fool lost his memory at the end of the year, had to sent to hospital.

"We still write him once a month and tell him how great he is." George added. "The bloke has no idea who we are, but he always responds so politely."

Christina shook her head. "Every time I ask questions I hear things I didn't want to know. I should just stop asking them."

"That's Hogwarts for ya." said Fred, his head dropping on his chest. "The longer you're here, the weirder it gets."

"I've heard it was pretty quiet until Harry showed up." said Dean.

"It wasn't." said Percy from his corner. "It was quiet until Fred and George showed up. They covered the grand staircase with soap during the halloween feast their first year and half the school ended up in the hospital wing."

"Ooh I forgot about that." said George. "That was a good prank."

"My bruised tailbone begs to differ." said Percy tartly. "Come on, it's time you lot were in bed anyway. As much as I don't care for quidditch, I share a room with Oliver Wood and I'll never hear the end of it if we lose tomorrow."

They threw Percy some dirty looks, but begrudgingly picked up the sheet and the paints and the bottles of butter beer and headed up to the dormitory.

The next morning was bright and clear, much nicer than Gryffindor's last match. Paolo had dug out a tube of red face paint, insisting that they had to show house pride since the Ravenclaws were doing face paint too. Christina thought that the Ravenclaws were too nerdy to show house pride like that, but lo and behold at breakfast Sam had her face painted blue and bronze. Furthermore, so did Derrick.

"C'mon, Derrick." said Abigail. "Sam didn't pick sides when it was Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff. Why are you picking sides now?"

"Hey, Hufflepuff won last time." said Derrick. "If Gryffindor loses today, that puts us in better standing for the cup."

"You shouldn't be in the running for the cup just because of a couple of dementors." said Andy, who was busy stuffing his face with pancakes. "You didn't win that match fair and square."

"Cedric is an excellent player!" said Derrick. "He would've won no matter what!"

"You keep telling yourself that." Andy helped Paolo unfurl the banner they'd made last night. "We'll be attending this match in style. Wingardium Leviosa!" He lifted his wand and the banner hovered over the Gryffindor table.

Sam raised her eyebrows. "A bad design, but executed well, I'll give you that."

"Dean Thomas helped us." said Christina. "None of us knew how to draw an eagle in the throes of death."

"Isn't that a little dark for a school quidditch match?"

"That's not the point." said Paolo. "It's all about spirit."

"Sure." Sam went and sat down at the Ravenclaw table to eat her pancakes.

After breakfast crowds of people wearing blue and red swarmed outside towards the pitch, waving banners and grabbing seats with friends. Christina and her friends found seats near where they'd sat last time, which Christina didn't like because she'd smacked her forehead on the bleachers the last time she'd sat in this section. Still, the sun was shining. Today would be different.

A swift toss of the quaffle from Madam Hooch and the match began. Harry Potter outpaced everyone on his Firebolt, but Cho Chang was putting up a good fight. Lee Jordan, meanwhile, was going crazy in the commentator's booth and telling the entire school about Firebolt brooms, while Professor McGongall yelled at him to pay attention. The teams swapped scores and beat bludgers, and after a while Christina decided that maybe there wouldn't be any dementors at all. Until, of course, someone on her left shrieked.

She turned and saw Abigail pointing at a few dementors coming toward the pitch. "Not again!" Christina braced herself for the heavy, cold feeling in her limbs and for her knees to buckle, but the feeling never came. The sun remained bright as ever. She looked up just in time to see Harry Potter cast something silvery out of his wand, then lean forward and catch the snitch.

"We've won!" Paolo shouted. "Forget the dementors, we've won, we've won!" Older Gryffindors were already scrambling down to the pitch, and someone grabbed Christina's arm and dragged her along with them. Down on the pitch Ron had taken Harry's arm and was screaming in delight, while Wood yelling at no one in particular and the chasers were hugging their friends.

"Party in the common room!" Fred shouted. "After the match!"

"Another party?" Andy bellowed over the noise.

"It'll be like nothing you've ever seen, trust me." said George.

"Christina!" someone yelled.

"What?" Christina whirled around to see Sam, looking quite disgruntled, half her blue face paint mixed with sweat and trickling down her neck. "Come to congratulate us?"

Sam sighed. "Of course not. Cho Chang just needs a better broom is all. Christina, did the dementors affect you at all?"

"No. Don't know why, but I'll take it."

Sam sighed again, then took Christina's arm and dragged her over to the edge of the crowd. "Look."

Four Slytherins were on the ground tangled in long black robes, with Professor McGonagall standing over them screaming about detention.

"They—"

"Weren't dementors." Sam finished, shaking her head.

"Typical Slytherin nonsense." Christina smiled broadly, laughing as Draco Malfoy attempted to extricate himself from a long robe.

Sam laughed too, despite her house losing the match. "Tomorrow, let's hear Derrick's take on this match, since he's technically a neutral party. You, me, him, and Abigail. By the lake, after lunch."

"I'm looking forward to it!"

After the match Gryffindor tower held another party, far more raucous than last night's. Everyone was celebrating except Hermione Granger, who was angrily reading a book in the corner. The night's activities blurred together, but Christina remembered gorging herself on sweets, Fred and George leading everyone in several songs, and a sixth year who tried, without much success, to teach everyone a muggle party game called beer pong. 11pm saw butter beer spilled on the carpet, midnight saw Oliver Wood waxing poetic about Firebolt brooms, and 1am saw Professor Mcgonagall storming into the common room and ordering everyone off to bed.

After brushing her teeth and wiping the last traces of paint off her face Christina sank into bed, hoping for a sound night of sleep before she got back to homework the next morning. Alas, they were all woken again a few hours later by someone screaming.

""What the bloody hell was that?!" Nya sat bolt upright and turned on a lamp. Did you guys hear that?"

"It sounded like someone screaming." said Abigail.

"Someone probably just had a nightmare." Jeanie groaned. "Nya, turn that light off."

"But whatever it was, it wasn't over. They heard several sets of footsteps pounding down the stairs from the boys' dormitory, then loud voices in the common room. The girls looked at each other, then began pulling on dressing gowns and slippers and heading down to the common room.

"Sirius Black!" Ron Weasley was shouting. "Standing over me, with a knife!"

"Nonsense!" said Percy. "You just had a nightmare. Go back to bed."

"Enough!" Professor McGonagall clambered through the portrait hole in her tartan dressing gown. "This is getting ridiculous. I told you all to go to bed two hours ago."

"Professor, Sirius Black was standing over me with a knife!" Ron shouted. "It wasn't a nightmare! It was really him!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Weasley. How on earth would he have gotten through the portrait hole?"

"Ask him!" Ron shouted, pointing at the back of the portrait hole. "Ask him!"

The whole of Gryffindor house waited with baited breath as McGonagall questioned Sir Cadogan about letting a man into Gryffindor tower. As Sir Cadogan replied in the affirmative, Christina felt every last drop of that fabled Gryffindor courage leave her body, replaced with cold heavy dread.