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CHAPTER THE SECOND
Quidditch Anyone?
by Fiora Visirel
It couldn't have been two minutes later when feet were heard running up the stairs that lead to the boy's dormitories. Neville burst through the door just as the trunk lid slammed shut. His face was flushed and his breathing ragged, as if he had just run the entire quidditch pitch seven times.
"Let me guess, you are coming in here to ask if we have seen Trevor. You see-" Seamus started quickly, not wanting to give anything away.
"No," Neville interrupted, "Actually, I came up here to inform you that-"
"Neville," Dean cut in, just as flustered as his Irish counterpart, "We'd love to stay and chat but I /do/ believe that there is a little thing called a Quidditch game about to start, and if we don't leave now, we will be late. And if we're late, McGonagall won't be happy with Seamus, owing that he /is/ the announcer, and a late announcer means a late start. And a late start means some edgy students. We don't want that now do we?"
With that being said, Seamus and Dean headed out the dormitories at a rather hurried pace, leaving poor Neville looking as if he would burst into confused tears at any moment.
"Way to babble incoherently, Thomas." muttered Seamus, running down stairs at near lightspeed.
"Shut up. Like you were acting any less suspicious."
"Just. Act. Normal." breathed Seamus, not sure if he were addressing Dean or himself.
As they stepped out onto the grounds, the slight chill in the air hit them like a hammer. Ever since morning the grass had been covered with a thin layer of frost, and it had not yet melted. Despite the cold, all the flowers and trees were still in full bloom. The day was clear, with a few cotton ball-like clouds scattered in the powder blue sky. The sun shone brightly, creating a large golden streak in the pond at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Like the school, the outside was quiet. No birds singing, no voices to be heard anywhere; the only audible sound was that of their breathing. The boys walked briskly, realizing that they were later than they first thought.
Within moments, towers of green and silver, red and gold, blue and bronze, and yellow and black rose above the hills in front of the two boys. As they approached the Quidditch pitch, they could see large masses of black and house colours randomly scattered along the field, as well as a total racket coming from the center of the pitch.
"This is interesting," Dean commented sarcastically on the scenery to Seamus with the air of art critic, "But why on Earth would they be having a fair in the middle of the Quidditch pitch right before a match?"
"I really hate to burst your bubble, Dean", Seamus said, echoing his friend's tone, "but I /do/ believe that this is what a riot looks like."
Upon a closer examination of the pitch, it was obvious that Seamus was right. Students yelled and ran all across the field to get away from the normally docile Ravenclaws, who were acting a little out of character, to say the least. They'd even gone so far as throwing random unidentified objects onto the pitch out of lack of patience. All because the game
was ten minutes late due to the absence of the announcer and his prefect companion.
Seamus stared in disbelief. "Honestly, it's only been ten minutes. They're acting like I'm five months late."
With that, the pair ran across the pitch and proceeded to trek up the stairs to the top of one of the Gryffindor towers. They managed to arrive at their seats five minutes later. (Climbing up those fifty flights of stairs, even when one knows magic, /is/ a bit time consuming.) Upon reaching the top, McGonagall had a look on her face that would make even the seventh years cower.
"And where have you and Mr. Thomas been, Mr. Finnegan? Hmm? Perhaps, Mr. Finnegan, you should start the game and put an end to this madness." Professor McGonagall began gesturing to the rioting crowd. She opened her mouth to say more, but just then a butterbeer bottle rocketed through the air, headed straight for her head. The Transfiguration professor was just a second too late in ducking, for the projectile hit the point of her hat and knocked it off the back of the stands. With a sigh, she began descending the fifty flights of stairs to retrieve her hat.
"/Sonorus/!" Seamus said, holding his wand to his throat. "Hello and welcome." Seamus continued, his voice booming over the madness of the crowd. Needless to say, this got the students' attention. "Will all Hogwarts students please report to their house sections?" Seamus waited until the pandemonium had calmed down and everyone was in his or her rightful positions.
Seamus's announcing voice was rather dry today, yet, there was a trace of panic in it also. Everyone was too busy trying to get back to their sections that they didn't notice. "Today's game, Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor." Cheers echoed from the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor sections upon the announcement of their teams, both houses trying to outdo one another. "Allow me to introduce our players today. On the Ravenclaw team, Cho Chang, the seeker, and the first female Quidditch captain in Hogwarts history. Jules Jacobs, keeper. Adam Chang and Maria Clearwater, the beaters. Adam, as you might have guessed is Cho's little brother, and Maria is sister to another Hogwarts alumnus, Penolope Clearwater, who was Head Girl back in '93. And here's some interesting trivia for all you gossips out there- Penelope dated Head Boy Percy Weasley for quite some time until she discovered his change in preferences and that he had run off with the former Gryffindor captain, Oliver Wood."
There was some snickering from all sections, two cries of "STOP SCARRING ME!" that sounded suspiciously like Ron and Ginny.
"Finally, Mandy Brocklehurst, Riordan Andrews, and Martin Davies, the chasers." The Ravenclaws settled down now, and Seamus continued. "Now for the Gryffindor team. Harry Potter, the captain and seeker; Dennis Creevy, the keeper; Ron Weasley and Colin Creevy, the beaters; and finally, Ginny Weasley, Carmela Moon, and Daniel Nott, the chasers." The Gryffindors took this oppurtunity to go nuts. "Harry Potter and Cho Chang approach the center of the pitch to shake hands. The players mount their brooms and Madam Hooch steps onto the field to begin the game. You know what's what now and if you don't, well..." Seamus trailed off, trying to think of a witty line, but not able to find one in his current state of distraction. "Anyway, quaffle through hoop, 10 points; seeker catches snitch, 150 points and end of the game. Is everyone clear on that? Good, I thought so."
Dean glared at Seamus for his extreme lack of enthusiasm. /At least Lee was passionate about it, even if he was extremely biased./ the prefect thought to himself.
"Alright, those bloody bludgers are up and there goes that elusive little snitch. Madam Hooch releases the quaffle, and the game begins." Seamus's voice had gained a little more energy than it had a few minutes ago. Being caught up in what was about to happen, the thought of a girl or whatever that pink-haired thing was hiding in Dean's trunk had totally slipped his mind. That did not mean, however, that he lost the little trace of panic in his voice. "Martin Davies of Ravenclaw house beats Ginny Weasley to the quaffle. Martin swerves out of the way of multiple bludgers sent his way by the Gryffindor beaters, Colin Creevy and Ron Weasley."
Martin, a lanky third year with shaggy brown hair and denim blue eyes, just missed the last bludger sent his way by Ron. That was enough for him to have dropped the quaffle. Within a matter of seconds, Ginny dove to recover the quaffle for the Gryffindors. Swerving around the bludgers knocked towards her by Adam and Maria. Adam was almost a spitting image of Cho, except his eyes were an emerald green. Maria, another third year, was the shortest on the team at 5 feet tall, not your typical beater material.
"Gryffindor scores!!" Seamus announced as the Gryffindors cheered, loudly drowning out his next few words. "Riordan Andrews now has the quaffle... he dodges Carmela, and easily maneuvers around Ginny. He shoots... and ouch!!! Off of the edge of the hoop! /That/ had to hurt. That makes the score Gryffindor seven, Ravenclaw three. I mean, Gryffindor ten,
Ravenclaw zero."
The next half hour of the game passed like the first ten minutes. Gryffindor would get the quaffle and Ravenclaw would steal, then Ravenclaw would drop the quaffle and a Gryffindor would pick it up. Seamus was not as together as he thought he was. The realization that he and Dean have a girl or whatever she was locked, not so much locked as closed in, a trunk in their dormitory had finally dawned on him. He started calling bludgers "bulgers", referred to the people by the wrong names, mixed up the score, and even started to mutter "they know, they know" until Dean took the liberty of whacking him upside the head. Things couldn't get much worse. Just then, a little gleam of gold materialised and Seamus pulled himself together enough to start announcing once again.
"And there they go. Harry Potter /and/ Cho Chang have both spotted the snitch."
Harry dove, Cho dove. Harry sped up, Cho sped up. Harry fell back, Cho fell back. This was starting to look like the game back in the third year where Cho followed Harry's every move.
Actually, this game was /exactly/ like the one three years ago.
"And here comes a bludger hit by Adam Chang... and bloody hell! It's headed straight for Harry's head." Seamus's voice boomed over the scene. "Harry veers off course as he just misses the bludger. Cho's almost there... and oh! The snitch is gone." After the gasps of the Gryffindors finished their collective gasps, there followed a generic sound of disappointment from the Ravenclaws.
"At this point, the game is tied. Ravenclaw: 80, Gryffindor: 80. The quaffle is passed from Ginny to Carmela, from Carmela to Justin, from Justin back to Carmela. Carmela shoots, and Jules is just a second too late. Another ten points for Gryffindor."
Carmela was an average size girl of average weight with dark brown, almost black, hair and hazel eyes. Though the only second year on the team, her flying skills were phenomenal. She had the ability to change direction literally within the blink of an eye. Daniel was just another pretty boy of Hogwarts, noted for his good looks as much as Draco Malfoy. Seamus never failed to notice his natural blonde hair and mesmerizing cerulean eyes.
Ravenclaw Keeper Jules Jacobs, another ogle-able lanky boy that served as eye-candy for Seamus, had long jet-black hair and gray eyes. He'd missed the block due to the fact that he veered to the wrong side. When he realized that the quaffle was coming from his left and not his right, it was too late, for Carmela had already scored.
"There's movement above the rest of the game. Harry and Cho are headed after the snitch again, that fast little bugger. Harry looks like he is about to... yes, yes... it is... it's the Wronski Feint!! Perfectly executed too. And it looks like... yes... Harry Potter has caught the snitch! 150 points for Gryffindor! Gryffindor wins with 240 points to Ravenclaw's 90. This is Seamus Finnegan for the Hogwarts Ravenclaw/Gryffindor quidditch match, signing off." Seamus then pointed his wand to his throat and whispered "/Quietus/"
With that, the entire Gryffindor house ran out to the center of the pitch to once again congratulate Harry for another win. This was the routine after every quidditch game for the last four years. No one, yet anyway, had been able to beat the famous Harry Potter to the snitch. Everyone else left in a quiet, dignified manner. After the rest of the houses had filed out of the pitch, the Gryffindors cavorted back to the common room to celebrate.
The walk back was just as tiring as the walk down, except this time, there was no need to hurry. Neurotic energy was building up between Seamus and Dean. It had just occurred to them that all of the Gryffindors (except the quidditch team) were back in the common room and dormitory.
"Nobody will be in our room... will they Seamus?" Dean said with the infamous butterflies accumulating in his stomach, the ones that felt more like bricks right now, as he and Seamus sauntered back to the common room.
"Nobody except Harry, Ron, Daniel and..." Seamus trailed off.
The two boys looked at each other, experiencing a moment of mental telepathy. "Neville!" They chorused.
Within moments, their leisured pace had quickened into a run. Upon entering the common room, they were colourless except for extremely rosy cheeks and noses. Both were hoping that Neville had conveniently forgotten about seeing Dean close the trunk lid as they shut Marionette in. Neville forgot everything else, right? So no worries. They hoped.
The common room was flooded with Gryffindors celebrating the quidditch victory- the upperclassmen even threw back bottles of butterbooze, the third years put on music and started what seemed to be a club, and everyone else had just decided to talk if they weren't dancing. Dean and Seamus scanned the scene to only find Neville missing.
Dean looked at Seamus, "I think we may have a slight problem."
Seamus nodded his head in agreement, feeling at this point as if he had broken the nervousness barrier. The two boys split up, Dean looking in the dormitories and Seamus thoroughly searching the moshing mob of students in the common room.
During the course of their search, Seamus harshly interrogated anyone he mistook to be Neville, until people started to look at him strangley. A whole hour went by, and after Seamus had finished the search of the mob in the common room, he managed to meet back up with Dean. The two took the oppurtunity to share their findings.
"Nobody in any of the dormitories. Except Hermione who is doing a bit of 'light' reading again. What about you?" Dean questioned.
"Well," Seamus started with a sigh. "I managed to mix up everyone who looks like Neville from the back with Neville himself. Needless to say, vituallly everyone I turned around accidentally thinks I'm mad. But," Seamus threw a finger in the air, and Dean finally thought he was on to something. "My findings are thus- people are either dancing to that annoying music, snogging, or drunk. Unfortunately, actually fortunately, Neville is nowhere to be found /here/. Where on earth do you think he is?"
As if right on cue, a yell came from outside of the common room. In fact, it was the all too familiar yell of Neville.
"Let me in!! Let me in!!" The hapless boy sounded like an impatient little three-year-old who wasn't getting his way. Lucky for Neville, the Quidditch team was approaching the portrait. When the quidditch team entered, people crowded them and shouted out their congratulations. (As if things weren't loud enough already.)
Like always, the team entered one by one with Harry entering last. Harry glared, holding tight to Neville's left arm muttering something to him that looked like "I /need/ to talk to you." Neville consented and off to Harry's dormitory they went.
"Hmm... I wonder what /that/ is all about." Seamus started maliciously. "Perhaps Harry has the hots for Neville and wants to tell him in his dormitory so they can snog in private without anyone knowing about it. Or..." but before Seamus could come up with another socially radical idea about Harry, Neville, and various toppings that were usually reserved for ice cream sundaes, Dean gave a pull at his arm and off to the dormitory they went.
"First of all, Harry and Neville?" Dean cringed at the thought and threw a confused look at Seamus who in return, just shrugged. "Seamus, you /are/ mad aren't you?"
"No, just extremely gay." he smirked. "And if I can't be heterosexual, why should anyone else be-"
Dean rolled his eyes sarcastically, paying no heed to Seamus's inane babble. "Harry is /so/ checking out Draco... everyone and their owl knows that The Boy Who Lived wants The Boy Who Is Incredibly Vain. Anyway, had you forgotten why we are up here in the first place?"
Seamus shaped his lips as to answer the question but Dean cut in before he had a chance to say anything.
"That was a rhetorical question. Anyway, what are we going to do with that girl... spirit... thingy that we have locked up in /my/ trunk? We can't keep her there forever."
"We can't?" Seamus asked looking at Dean with those loveably innocent eyes of his. So Seamus's gayness was contagious today. Swell. In an act of self-defence, Dean continued to act pissed off.
"No, we have to find a place to keep her where she will hopefully be hidden and not suffocate... can she suffocate? If we kill her, it's your fault and I'll have nothing at all to do with this."
Dean was beginning to act panicky, so Seamus took it upon himself to grab his friend by the arm and calm him down. "Listen, I don't think she /can/ suffocate, but to be on the safe side, we won't put her anywhere where she could... okay? Second, you /need/ to relax."
Dean stiffened as Seamus slid his fingers along his friends' collarbone but drew his hand away after one pass. "You worry too much. Let's go get her out of the trunk so she can breathe, if she does breathe, and so we can find a hiding place. Plus, living with a random pink-haired magical being can't be /that/ bad... I mean, anyone who willingly offers to do an essay for Snape can't be an evil incarnate, now can they?"
Dean could see where Seamus was going with this. He was saying that they would have tomorrow free of anything- including potions essays. Dean smiled at Seamus as if to say, "Why hadn't I thought of that?" With that, they walked over to the foot of Dean's bed where the trunk and Marionette were located. Cautiously, Seamus lifted the lid only to find Marionette curled up and asleep in the trunk.
"Dean, she's asleep!" Seamus said in an excited wisper. "She told us that she must be /put/ to sleep by her master. In other words, I'm the only one capable of putting her into her deep slumber to be awakened by someone else."
Feeling as if they'd betrayed the girl/thing, they closed the lid again, and heard a faint yawn as they did. The trunk was opened back up only to find that Marionette awake. Both boys gaped at her in confusion.
"What?" Marionette's voice was light and feathery, almost flakey, like Seamus's voice when he was trying to act clueless after being caught staring at Malfoy's posterior end.
"I thought that /we/ were the only ones capable of putting you back to sleep for someone else to wake up." Dean replied.
"Well, you understood correctly. Although I do take catnaps, just to regenerate. What do you need?" Marionette asked.
"You /did/ say that you would write essays for us, right?" Marionette nodded in agreement as Seamus continued. "It just so happens that Dean and I have potions essays to write by tomorrow... do you think you could handle it?" Marionette nodded a second time and Seamus gave her the particulars. "It /must/ be at least five rolls of parchment on how to counteract a dark poison of your choice. Since we have not yet chosen poisons, you are going to have to choose one for us. They /must/ be different and /must/ be written in our penmanship and sentence structuring, spelling mistakes and all. Um... please?"
Marionette curtseyed and set off to find supplies. She was just about to walk out the door when Dean stopped her.
"Sorry, you can't go out there. Everyone's still in party mode, so you're going to have to stay in where you won't get caught in a mosh pit... but where to put you? The trunk is too cramped for you to write there... I've got it! Why don't you stay under my bed? I /do/ have that frilly thing around the bottom, and we can charm it to be sound proof from the outside and to not emit any light that you are using." Dean looked proud of himself. "Come on Seamus, let's go find something to do."
"The library?" Seamus suggested.
"Why? It's not like we'll be doing any homework."
"Well, we've got to find out exactly what Marionette is some time before the next asteroid hits the earth." Seamus kept his voice low, feeling as if he offended the spirit in some way, even though it seemed to have no ego to harm.
"Good point." Dean agreed. "But the Ravenclaws are there; it's where they always vent after a Quidditch loss, and being surrounded Ravenclaws venting their anger, especially after today's riot..."
"Is not safe." finished Seamus, cracking a typical Seamus Finnegan grin. "Shall we make a library date for after dinner, then?"
"I suppose so, as long as you don't phrase it that way."
"Shall we sit in the library together and do some research?" Funny how it sounded even more wrong that way.
"Sure."
After the area was charmed, Marionette retreated to her hiding spot under Dean's bed. The two boys walked out of their dormitory talking rather excitedly to each other. While preoccupied with conversation, they walked directly into Neville heading in the opposite direction.
"Oh, sorry about that," Seamus said turning around to see who it was they walked into.
"Oh, it's okay. It happens all the time," Neville replied with a smile.
Seamus, overcome by curiosity, cocked his head and said, "Neville, what /exactly/ did Harry want with you? I mean... are you and Harry..."
Neville just stood there and blinked until...
"No!" he said, horrified at the accusation. "He was only placing a memory charm on me so I could remember the password to the common room. The other Gryffindors were getting tired of either telling me the passwords or letting me in every time I came upstairs. I have to get into the room to feed Trevor." He shouldered his way between the two boys to get back through the door to his room.
Dean just stood and glared at Seamus. "You know, Seamus, it's times like this I love to say, 'I told you so!!' I mean, Harry and Neville..." Dean trailed off, cringing once more at the mental picture his friend had painted for him in vivid colour. The two then continued their descent of the stairs. They found the common room emptied and completely trashed.
After a quick assessment of the disaster, Seamus came to the conclusion that the Gryffindor mob decided to raid the kitchens as they did after every victory celebration. Without warning, Marionette appeared with Harry's invisibility cloak puddled around her feet. Both of her arms are full of parchment, five in one arm, and five in the other. All seemed to have ink on them.
"I am finished!" Marionette said with a tone of accomplishment and a big grin on her face. Both boys jumped about five feet and then gaped in wonder as they looked at the arms of parchment and then at each other. Marionette continued, "Seamus, these are yours." She nodded to the parchment in her left arm, "And Dean, these are yours." She nodded to the parchment in her right arm.
Each boy took said parchments out of Marionette's arms. Assessing the quality of the essay, a look of bafflement crossed their faces. "Why, this is completely wrong," Seamus said to Dean.
CHAPTER THE SECOND
Quidditch Anyone?
by Fiora Visirel
It couldn't have been two minutes later when feet were heard running up the stairs that lead to the boy's dormitories. Neville burst through the door just as the trunk lid slammed shut. His face was flushed and his breathing ragged, as if he had just run the entire quidditch pitch seven times.
"Let me guess, you are coming in here to ask if we have seen Trevor. You see-" Seamus started quickly, not wanting to give anything away.
"No," Neville interrupted, "Actually, I came up here to inform you that-"
"Neville," Dean cut in, just as flustered as his Irish counterpart, "We'd love to stay and chat but I /do/ believe that there is a little thing called a Quidditch game about to start, and if we don't leave now, we will be late. And if we're late, McGonagall won't be happy with Seamus, owing that he /is/ the announcer, and a late announcer means a late start. And a late start means some edgy students. We don't want that now do we?"
With that being said, Seamus and Dean headed out the dormitories at a rather hurried pace, leaving poor Neville looking as if he would burst into confused tears at any moment.
"Way to babble incoherently, Thomas." muttered Seamus, running down stairs at near lightspeed.
"Shut up. Like you were acting any less suspicious."
"Just. Act. Normal." breathed Seamus, not sure if he were addressing Dean or himself.
As they stepped out onto the grounds, the slight chill in the air hit them like a hammer. Ever since morning the grass had been covered with a thin layer of frost, and it had not yet melted. Despite the cold, all the flowers and trees were still in full bloom. The day was clear, with a few cotton ball-like clouds scattered in the powder blue sky. The sun shone brightly, creating a large golden streak in the pond at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Like the school, the outside was quiet. No birds singing, no voices to be heard anywhere; the only audible sound was that of their breathing. The boys walked briskly, realizing that they were later than they first thought.
Within moments, towers of green and silver, red and gold, blue and bronze, and yellow and black rose above the hills in front of the two boys. As they approached the Quidditch pitch, they could see large masses of black and house colours randomly scattered along the field, as well as a total racket coming from the center of the pitch.
"This is interesting," Dean commented sarcastically on the scenery to Seamus with the air of art critic, "But why on Earth would they be having a fair in the middle of the Quidditch pitch right before a match?"
"I really hate to burst your bubble, Dean", Seamus said, echoing his friend's tone, "but I /do/ believe that this is what a riot looks like."
Upon a closer examination of the pitch, it was obvious that Seamus was right. Students yelled and ran all across the field to get away from the normally docile Ravenclaws, who were acting a little out of character, to say the least. They'd even gone so far as throwing random unidentified objects onto the pitch out of lack of patience. All because the game
was ten minutes late due to the absence of the announcer and his prefect companion.
Seamus stared in disbelief. "Honestly, it's only been ten minutes. They're acting like I'm five months late."
With that, the pair ran across the pitch and proceeded to trek up the stairs to the top of one of the Gryffindor towers. They managed to arrive at their seats five minutes later. (Climbing up those fifty flights of stairs, even when one knows magic, /is/ a bit time consuming.) Upon reaching the top, McGonagall had a look on her face that would make even the seventh years cower.
"And where have you and Mr. Thomas been, Mr. Finnegan? Hmm? Perhaps, Mr. Finnegan, you should start the game and put an end to this madness." Professor McGonagall began gesturing to the rioting crowd. She opened her mouth to say more, but just then a butterbeer bottle rocketed through the air, headed straight for her head. The Transfiguration professor was just a second too late in ducking, for the projectile hit the point of her hat and knocked it off the back of the stands. With a sigh, she began descending the fifty flights of stairs to retrieve her hat.
"/Sonorus/!" Seamus said, holding his wand to his throat. "Hello and welcome." Seamus continued, his voice booming over the madness of the crowd. Needless to say, this got the students' attention. "Will all Hogwarts students please report to their house sections?" Seamus waited until the pandemonium had calmed down and everyone was in his or her rightful positions.
Seamus's announcing voice was rather dry today, yet, there was a trace of panic in it also. Everyone was too busy trying to get back to their sections that they didn't notice. "Today's game, Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor." Cheers echoed from the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor sections upon the announcement of their teams, both houses trying to outdo one another. "Allow me to introduce our players today. On the Ravenclaw team, Cho Chang, the seeker, and the first female Quidditch captain in Hogwarts history. Jules Jacobs, keeper. Adam Chang and Maria Clearwater, the beaters. Adam, as you might have guessed is Cho's little brother, and Maria is sister to another Hogwarts alumnus, Penolope Clearwater, who was Head Girl back in '93. And here's some interesting trivia for all you gossips out there- Penelope dated Head Boy Percy Weasley for quite some time until she discovered his change in preferences and that he had run off with the former Gryffindor captain, Oliver Wood."
There was some snickering from all sections, two cries of "STOP SCARRING ME!" that sounded suspiciously like Ron and Ginny.
"Finally, Mandy Brocklehurst, Riordan Andrews, and Martin Davies, the chasers." The Ravenclaws settled down now, and Seamus continued. "Now for the Gryffindor team. Harry Potter, the captain and seeker; Dennis Creevy, the keeper; Ron Weasley and Colin Creevy, the beaters; and finally, Ginny Weasley, Carmela Moon, and Daniel Nott, the chasers." The Gryffindors took this oppurtunity to go nuts. "Harry Potter and Cho Chang approach the center of the pitch to shake hands. The players mount their brooms and Madam Hooch steps onto the field to begin the game. You know what's what now and if you don't, well..." Seamus trailed off, trying to think of a witty line, but not able to find one in his current state of distraction. "Anyway, quaffle through hoop, 10 points; seeker catches snitch, 150 points and end of the game. Is everyone clear on that? Good, I thought so."
Dean glared at Seamus for his extreme lack of enthusiasm. /At least Lee was passionate about it, even if he was extremely biased./ the prefect thought to himself.
"Alright, those bloody bludgers are up and there goes that elusive little snitch. Madam Hooch releases the quaffle, and the game begins." Seamus's voice had gained a little more energy than it had a few minutes ago. Being caught up in what was about to happen, the thought of a girl or whatever that pink-haired thing was hiding in Dean's trunk had totally slipped his mind. That did not mean, however, that he lost the little trace of panic in his voice. "Martin Davies of Ravenclaw house beats Ginny Weasley to the quaffle. Martin swerves out of the way of multiple bludgers sent his way by the Gryffindor beaters, Colin Creevy and Ron Weasley."
Martin, a lanky third year with shaggy brown hair and denim blue eyes, just missed the last bludger sent his way by Ron. That was enough for him to have dropped the quaffle. Within a matter of seconds, Ginny dove to recover the quaffle for the Gryffindors. Swerving around the bludgers knocked towards her by Adam and Maria. Adam was almost a spitting image of Cho, except his eyes were an emerald green. Maria, another third year, was the shortest on the team at 5 feet tall, not your typical beater material.
"Gryffindor scores!!" Seamus announced as the Gryffindors cheered, loudly drowning out his next few words. "Riordan Andrews now has the quaffle... he dodges Carmela, and easily maneuvers around Ginny. He shoots... and ouch!!! Off of the edge of the hoop! /That/ had to hurt. That makes the score Gryffindor seven, Ravenclaw three. I mean, Gryffindor ten,
Ravenclaw zero."
The next half hour of the game passed like the first ten minutes. Gryffindor would get the quaffle and Ravenclaw would steal, then Ravenclaw would drop the quaffle and a Gryffindor would pick it up. Seamus was not as together as he thought he was. The realization that he and Dean have a girl or whatever she was locked, not so much locked as closed in, a trunk in their dormitory had finally dawned on him. He started calling bludgers "bulgers", referred to the people by the wrong names, mixed up the score, and even started to mutter "they know, they know" until Dean took the liberty of whacking him upside the head. Things couldn't get much worse. Just then, a little gleam of gold materialised and Seamus pulled himself together enough to start announcing once again.
"And there they go. Harry Potter /and/ Cho Chang have both spotted the snitch."
Harry dove, Cho dove. Harry sped up, Cho sped up. Harry fell back, Cho fell back. This was starting to look like the game back in the third year where Cho followed Harry's every move.
Actually, this game was /exactly/ like the one three years ago.
"And here comes a bludger hit by Adam Chang... and bloody hell! It's headed straight for Harry's head." Seamus's voice boomed over the scene. "Harry veers off course as he just misses the bludger. Cho's almost there... and oh! The snitch is gone." After the gasps of the Gryffindors finished their collective gasps, there followed a generic sound of disappointment from the Ravenclaws.
"At this point, the game is tied. Ravenclaw: 80, Gryffindor: 80. The quaffle is passed from Ginny to Carmela, from Carmela to Justin, from Justin back to Carmela. Carmela shoots, and Jules is just a second too late. Another ten points for Gryffindor."
Carmela was an average size girl of average weight with dark brown, almost black, hair and hazel eyes. Though the only second year on the team, her flying skills were phenomenal. She had the ability to change direction literally within the blink of an eye. Daniel was just another pretty boy of Hogwarts, noted for his good looks as much as Draco Malfoy. Seamus never failed to notice his natural blonde hair and mesmerizing cerulean eyes.
Ravenclaw Keeper Jules Jacobs, another ogle-able lanky boy that served as eye-candy for Seamus, had long jet-black hair and gray eyes. He'd missed the block due to the fact that he veered to the wrong side. When he realized that the quaffle was coming from his left and not his right, it was too late, for Carmela had already scored.
"There's movement above the rest of the game. Harry and Cho are headed after the snitch again, that fast little bugger. Harry looks like he is about to... yes, yes... it is... it's the Wronski Feint!! Perfectly executed too. And it looks like... yes... Harry Potter has caught the snitch! 150 points for Gryffindor! Gryffindor wins with 240 points to Ravenclaw's 90. This is Seamus Finnegan for the Hogwarts Ravenclaw/Gryffindor quidditch match, signing off." Seamus then pointed his wand to his throat and whispered "/Quietus/"
With that, the entire Gryffindor house ran out to the center of the pitch to once again congratulate Harry for another win. This was the routine after every quidditch game for the last four years. No one, yet anyway, had been able to beat the famous Harry Potter to the snitch. Everyone else left in a quiet, dignified manner. After the rest of the houses had filed out of the pitch, the Gryffindors cavorted back to the common room to celebrate.
The walk back was just as tiring as the walk down, except this time, there was no need to hurry. Neurotic energy was building up between Seamus and Dean. It had just occurred to them that all of the Gryffindors (except the quidditch team) were back in the common room and dormitory.
"Nobody will be in our room... will they Seamus?" Dean said with the infamous butterflies accumulating in his stomach, the ones that felt more like bricks right now, as he and Seamus sauntered back to the common room.
"Nobody except Harry, Ron, Daniel and..." Seamus trailed off.
The two boys looked at each other, experiencing a moment of mental telepathy. "Neville!" They chorused.
Within moments, their leisured pace had quickened into a run. Upon entering the common room, they were colourless except for extremely rosy cheeks and noses. Both were hoping that Neville had conveniently forgotten about seeing Dean close the trunk lid as they shut Marionette in. Neville forgot everything else, right? So no worries. They hoped.
The common room was flooded with Gryffindors celebrating the quidditch victory- the upperclassmen even threw back bottles of butterbooze, the third years put on music and started what seemed to be a club, and everyone else had just decided to talk if they weren't dancing. Dean and Seamus scanned the scene to only find Neville missing.
Dean looked at Seamus, "I think we may have a slight problem."
Seamus nodded his head in agreement, feeling at this point as if he had broken the nervousness barrier. The two boys split up, Dean looking in the dormitories and Seamus thoroughly searching the moshing mob of students in the common room.
During the course of their search, Seamus harshly interrogated anyone he mistook to be Neville, until people started to look at him strangley. A whole hour went by, and after Seamus had finished the search of the mob in the common room, he managed to meet back up with Dean. The two took the oppurtunity to share their findings.
"Nobody in any of the dormitories. Except Hermione who is doing a bit of 'light' reading again. What about you?" Dean questioned.
"Well," Seamus started with a sigh. "I managed to mix up everyone who looks like Neville from the back with Neville himself. Needless to say, vituallly everyone I turned around accidentally thinks I'm mad. But," Seamus threw a finger in the air, and Dean finally thought he was on to something. "My findings are thus- people are either dancing to that annoying music, snogging, or drunk. Unfortunately, actually fortunately, Neville is nowhere to be found /here/. Where on earth do you think he is?"
As if right on cue, a yell came from outside of the common room. In fact, it was the all too familiar yell of Neville.
"Let me in!! Let me in!!" The hapless boy sounded like an impatient little three-year-old who wasn't getting his way. Lucky for Neville, the Quidditch team was approaching the portrait. When the quidditch team entered, people crowded them and shouted out their congratulations. (As if things weren't loud enough already.)
Like always, the team entered one by one with Harry entering last. Harry glared, holding tight to Neville's left arm muttering something to him that looked like "I /need/ to talk to you." Neville consented and off to Harry's dormitory they went.
"Hmm... I wonder what /that/ is all about." Seamus started maliciously. "Perhaps Harry has the hots for Neville and wants to tell him in his dormitory so they can snog in private without anyone knowing about it. Or..." but before Seamus could come up with another socially radical idea about Harry, Neville, and various toppings that were usually reserved for ice cream sundaes, Dean gave a pull at his arm and off to the dormitory they went.
"First of all, Harry and Neville?" Dean cringed at the thought and threw a confused look at Seamus who in return, just shrugged. "Seamus, you /are/ mad aren't you?"
"No, just extremely gay." he smirked. "And if I can't be heterosexual, why should anyone else be-"
Dean rolled his eyes sarcastically, paying no heed to Seamus's inane babble. "Harry is /so/ checking out Draco... everyone and their owl knows that The Boy Who Lived wants The Boy Who Is Incredibly Vain. Anyway, had you forgotten why we are up here in the first place?"
Seamus shaped his lips as to answer the question but Dean cut in before he had a chance to say anything.
"That was a rhetorical question. Anyway, what are we going to do with that girl... spirit... thingy that we have locked up in /my/ trunk? We can't keep her there forever."
"We can't?" Seamus asked looking at Dean with those loveably innocent eyes of his. So Seamus's gayness was contagious today. Swell. In an act of self-defence, Dean continued to act pissed off.
"No, we have to find a place to keep her where she will hopefully be hidden and not suffocate... can she suffocate? If we kill her, it's your fault and I'll have nothing at all to do with this."
Dean was beginning to act panicky, so Seamus took it upon himself to grab his friend by the arm and calm him down. "Listen, I don't think she /can/ suffocate, but to be on the safe side, we won't put her anywhere where she could... okay? Second, you /need/ to relax."
Dean stiffened as Seamus slid his fingers along his friends' collarbone but drew his hand away after one pass. "You worry too much. Let's go get her out of the trunk so she can breathe, if she does breathe, and so we can find a hiding place. Plus, living with a random pink-haired magical being can't be /that/ bad... I mean, anyone who willingly offers to do an essay for Snape can't be an evil incarnate, now can they?"
Dean could see where Seamus was going with this. He was saying that they would have tomorrow free of anything- including potions essays. Dean smiled at Seamus as if to say, "Why hadn't I thought of that?" With that, they walked over to the foot of Dean's bed where the trunk and Marionette were located. Cautiously, Seamus lifted the lid only to find Marionette curled up and asleep in the trunk.
"Dean, she's asleep!" Seamus said in an excited wisper. "She told us that she must be /put/ to sleep by her master. In other words, I'm the only one capable of putting her into her deep slumber to be awakened by someone else."
Feeling as if they'd betrayed the girl/thing, they closed the lid again, and heard a faint yawn as they did. The trunk was opened back up only to find that Marionette awake. Both boys gaped at her in confusion.
"What?" Marionette's voice was light and feathery, almost flakey, like Seamus's voice when he was trying to act clueless after being caught staring at Malfoy's posterior end.
"I thought that /we/ were the only ones capable of putting you back to sleep for someone else to wake up." Dean replied.
"Well, you understood correctly. Although I do take catnaps, just to regenerate. What do you need?" Marionette asked.
"You /did/ say that you would write essays for us, right?" Marionette nodded in agreement as Seamus continued. "It just so happens that Dean and I have potions essays to write by tomorrow... do you think you could handle it?" Marionette nodded a second time and Seamus gave her the particulars. "It /must/ be at least five rolls of parchment on how to counteract a dark poison of your choice. Since we have not yet chosen poisons, you are going to have to choose one for us. They /must/ be different and /must/ be written in our penmanship and sentence structuring, spelling mistakes and all. Um... please?"
Marionette curtseyed and set off to find supplies. She was just about to walk out the door when Dean stopped her.
"Sorry, you can't go out there. Everyone's still in party mode, so you're going to have to stay in where you won't get caught in a mosh pit... but where to put you? The trunk is too cramped for you to write there... I've got it! Why don't you stay under my bed? I /do/ have that frilly thing around the bottom, and we can charm it to be sound proof from the outside and to not emit any light that you are using." Dean looked proud of himself. "Come on Seamus, let's go find something to do."
"The library?" Seamus suggested.
"Why? It's not like we'll be doing any homework."
"Well, we've got to find out exactly what Marionette is some time before the next asteroid hits the earth." Seamus kept his voice low, feeling as if he offended the spirit in some way, even though it seemed to have no ego to harm.
"Good point." Dean agreed. "But the Ravenclaws are there; it's where they always vent after a Quidditch loss, and being surrounded Ravenclaws venting their anger, especially after today's riot..."
"Is not safe." finished Seamus, cracking a typical Seamus Finnegan grin. "Shall we make a library date for after dinner, then?"
"I suppose so, as long as you don't phrase it that way."
"Shall we sit in the library together and do some research?" Funny how it sounded even more wrong that way.
"Sure."
After the area was charmed, Marionette retreated to her hiding spot under Dean's bed. The two boys walked out of their dormitory talking rather excitedly to each other. While preoccupied with conversation, they walked directly into Neville heading in the opposite direction.
"Oh, sorry about that," Seamus said turning around to see who it was they walked into.
"Oh, it's okay. It happens all the time," Neville replied with a smile.
Seamus, overcome by curiosity, cocked his head and said, "Neville, what /exactly/ did Harry want with you? I mean... are you and Harry..."
Neville just stood there and blinked until...
"No!" he said, horrified at the accusation. "He was only placing a memory charm on me so I could remember the password to the common room. The other Gryffindors were getting tired of either telling me the passwords or letting me in every time I came upstairs. I have to get into the room to feed Trevor." He shouldered his way between the two boys to get back through the door to his room.
Dean just stood and glared at Seamus. "You know, Seamus, it's times like this I love to say, 'I told you so!!' I mean, Harry and Neville..." Dean trailed off, cringing once more at the mental picture his friend had painted for him in vivid colour. The two then continued their descent of the stairs. They found the common room emptied and completely trashed.
After a quick assessment of the disaster, Seamus came to the conclusion that the Gryffindor mob decided to raid the kitchens as they did after every victory celebration. Without warning, Marionette appeared with Harry's invisibility cloak puddled around her feet. Both of her arms are full of parchment, five in one arm, and five in the other. All seemed to have ink on them.
"I am finished!" Marionette said with a tone of accomplishment and a big grin on her face. Both boys jumped about five feet and then gaped in wonder as they looked at the arms of parchment and then at each other. Marionette continued, "Seamus, these are yours." She nodded to the parchment in her left arm, "And Dean, these are yours." She nodded to the parchment in her right arm.
Each boy took said parchments out of Marionette's arms. Assessing the quality of the essay, a look of bafflement crossed their faces. "Why, this is completely wrong," Seamus said to Dean.