Chapter Eight – Kylee's Finest Hour

The first thing he felt when he woke up was the fact that he was warm, like someone had put a blanket over him during the night. He opened his eyes a bit, seeing that his feet were still propped up on the table, keeping the restricted book safe from any others that might have been curious as to its contents. There were a couple familiar-sounding voices from the dorms, and the grouchy dialogue told Cory that it was likely morning. He'd spent the whole night in the common room.

He yawned, stretching and taking in a deep breath of air. That's when he noticed that something smelled odd, and he paused, confused. It was only then that he noticed Alexia was sitting right next to him.

"I know I smell," she mumbled sleepily, her eyes still shut. "You would, too."

"Lex… You're back," Cory responded stupidly. Finally, she seemed compelled to open her eyes.

"I can't believe you just noticed. You must have been tired." Lex slid out of the chair and onto the floor, kneeling and reaching back into her hair to pull the tie out of it. Her dark hair was dull and disheveled, just as the raven's feathers had been. "I would have awakened you, but you looked so…" She stopped speaking abruptly, looking back at Cory. He was amused to see that her cheeks were a bit red… It was the first time he'd seen her embarrassed. She shook her head. "I… was tired too. So I thought maybe I'd just take a nap."

"You should have taken a shower."

Her cheeks brightened in color. "That wasn't very nice."

"It's true." Cory smiled. Alexia hesitated, then smiled back.

"Is practice morning or evening today?" she asked, stretching her arms up over her head. "…The others'll want to know what happened. That's as good a time as any to tell 'em."

"Right after classes today. He's booked the pitch for a couple hours, starting around seven. Which means—"

"Be there early. Don't worry." Lex got to her feet, heading toward the girls' dormitories. "I've been waiting to tell this story for a couple weeks now. I'm not going to be late. Just make sure the others are there on time, too."

He waited until she got to the stairs to call out to her. "Oh, and Lex?"

She turned.

"…Welcome back."

Alexia smiled. That comment coming from anyone else might have made her roll her eyes. But from Cory?

It just seemed more sincere.

---

Ryan was one of the few people in his house that didn't actually have an owl of his own, and that meant he had to use one of the owls from the aviary to deliver any sort of letter he happened to want to send. That was usually fine, except for the fact that he was sending a letter from Green to Anna, and that meant he really needed to try to find an owl that at least looked similar to Green's. After all, why would he use an owl that wasn't his own? Ryan was actually hoping that Magellan would show up, but so far, there was no sign of the great horned owl. And, as luck would have it, it didn't look like there were any great horned owls available that belonged to the school.

So, he had to improvise. Opening the envelope carefully, so as not to tear the paper, he added a script after the forged signature:

Please excuse the use of the school owl. Magellan is ill.

Taking out his wand, Ryan performed a heat spell that melted the wax seal on the envelop just enough to re-seal it. It looked as if it had never been open. Summoning the closest owl he could find, he sat it down on a poop-covered banister. "Okay. I know you have no idea who I am, but I need a favor. This is for Anna Emerson. She's a Ravenclaw. You can get it to her, right?"

The owl puffed up with a mixture of pride and indignation, which clearly meant, "Of course I can!"

"Good, good. Whatever reply she gives you… Whoever she tells you to send the next letter to… You have to come back to ME, okay? Promise?"

The owl looked slightly confused, but hooted anyway. Ryan handed him the letter. "There'll be some owl treats for you when you get back." Perhaps the mention of food would make the bird go a bit faster that normal? One could hope. He watched the owl fly off toward the Ravenclaw dormitories, and only turned away when it was out of sight. It was just about time for Quidditch practice; since there was nothing else better to do, and he already had his equipment anyway, he headed off toward the pitch.

He'd seen Alexia once or twice during the day, just in passing, though. He hadn't really gotten a chance to talk to her. Apparently she was going to tell her "story" before practice, as Cory said. It must have been weird for her, just going back to the normal daily routine after being a raven for a few days. She was in class, though.

"If I'd been transformed like that, I would have taken a few days to recover," Ryan said to himself, chuckling. Anything to get out of school for a while counted as a valid excuse. Upon reaching the bottom of the aviary steps, he picked up his broom and bag, which he'd left there to keep clean. The owls weren't exactly known for their remarkable cleanliness.

The walk to the field was nice… Though the weather was still chilly, it wasn't bitter, and there wasn't any snow to wade through. The ground was also thawing nicely. By the time their game against Gryffindor came around, the weather would actually be pleasant.

It didn't seem possible that almost a year had gone by, and he wasn't sure he wanted it to end. Though the Quidditch team had only been together for a year, it almost seemed like they were all best friends already. Cory would be gone after it ended, and Brad and Green would only have a year left. Then it would be Alexia's turn, and then Ryan himself would graduate, along with Luc. Kylee would be the last one left of the original Post-You-Know-Who Slytherin team. It seemed a long way off in technical time, but it really wasn't that long at all.

When he spotted the group of six people already on the Pitch, he quickened his pace a bit, smiling. He wasn't late by a long shot. In fact – he sneaked a glance at his watch – they were all a half hour early. Hopefully he hadn't missed anything… Knowing Brad, if the team was there early, he'd take advantage of it.

"Hey, guys," he said, waving as he climbed the slight incline up onto the pitch. His smile broadened when he spotted Alexia all suited up and tossing the Quaffle back and forth to Green and Brad. When she saw Ryan, she backed off from the triangle and practically tackled him in a hug. He chuckled. "What was that for?"

She backed off, holding her hand up for the Quaffle again, which Brad threw to her. "You're the only one I hadn't caught yet," was all she offered as an explanation.

"Yeah, well. We're all here. Hopefully you haven't told 'The Story' yet, 'cuz if you have, I wanna hear it, too." Ryan shrugged his school robe off his shoulders, wadded it up, and stuffed it in his bag. After digging around through books and parchment, he found his Quidditch uniform, which looked as if a hippogriff had used it for nesting material. Noticing the disapproving glances of his teammates, he said, "What? This is what wrinkle-removing charms are for." He waved the robe around a bit, and the wrinkles practically fell out of it.

"That's either very smart, or very lazy," Lucas drawled.

Alexia shook her head. "I'll go with the latter. Okay, guys. Story first. I've been waiting to tell it forever."

Brad looked as if he was about to protest, but his interest got the better of him, and he relented. "Go on. How'd you do it, then?"

"I've been going at this for five years now," she began. "Ever since I was a First-Year, and heard about animagi."

"You have this so scripted," Lucas smirked. Alexia threw the Quaffle at him, and he caught it, but only just.

"I had a lot of time to think about it," she replied.

"Go on, Lex," Cory encouraged.

"As I was saying, I've been thinking about this for five years. And I've been talking to Professor McGonagall on and off about it, and I finally started making some progress the end of last year. It takes a really complex series of spells, and some of them are easy enough to locate. But the final ones are really restricted for obvious reasons. So she made me tell the Ministry of Magic what I was up to before she'd give me permission to check books out of the library's restricted section.

"But I didn't know what animal I'd become. It's not something you can really choose. Well, some people can pick a particular animal and strive toward it, but according to the books, it always ends up being something different. Similar, but different. Like there was this one guy that was trying to become an iguana, but he ended up as a salamander… Which was almost useless. It's best to just let it happen how it happens."

"So, were you shooting for anything in-particular?" Green asked.

Alexia shook her head. "There were a couple things I would have liked to become, but… I didn't want to try to become, say, a cat and end up as a gopher or something. McGonagall said something about my 'inner animal.' …Yeah, it sounds lame, but the way she explained it… It made sense.

"Anyway. After talking with her for a while, she gave me access to get the book so I could do the final spell. After that, it should have worked… But it didn't. And she told me that some people just couldn't do it. So I stayed up all night this one time, and just… thought about it. My hands were hurting…" She held them up, displaying the now-healed pink scars. So that was where the red spots on her wings had come from, Ryan thought.

"…The quills started to grow through my skin. When I stopped concentrating, they stopped growing. It hurt."

Brad narrowed his eyes a bit. "So those times you weren't at practice, or left practice early…"

"I was either meeting with McGonagall or…" She dropped her hands back to her sides. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys. It was just that it was easier for me to do if I was sure you all weren't going to tease me about it."

"We were worried," Lucas said.

Kylee nodded. "We thought you were a werewolf! You'd always disappear around the full moon."

Alexia snorted. "Yeah, I heard. I wasn't even thinking about it."

"How'd you finally change?" Ryan asked.

"It was the weirdest thing… I was sitting in my room, and I was half asleep thinking about it… And I just… did." Alexia shrugged. "And I couldn't change back. So I panicked, and I ran – so to speak. The house was pretty empty, so… I don't even remember how I got out. It was a blur. I got out a window somewhere. And… You all know the rest. After I figured some stuff out, I came back."

"So your inner animal is a raven," Green wondered. "Interesting."

Alexia shrugged. "My father was in Ravenclaw."

"Wasn't your mom in Slytherin?" Ryan asked.

Alexia nodded, and Ryan looked pointedly at Green… Who pretended not to notice. So… A relationship between a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw could work, hm? Most interesting…

"If you're done, we've already lost fifteen minutes of our pitch time," Brad reminded everyone. As an afterthought, he added, "Glad you're back, Alexia."

…Business as usual.

Practice, of course, was rather broken up by the fact that the whole team was back together again and most of them just wanted to have fun. Brad and Lucas really seemed to be the only ones with their minds in the game, though Kylee did learn a new move that she was going to try to use against Gryffindor in the next game. They went nearly the whole two hours before Brad finally gave up trying to keep everyone together, and dismissed them.

When Ryan got back to his dorm, the owl he deployed earlier in the day was waiting for him. Sitting at its feet was the exact same letter he'd written, with one change. The words 'Return to Sender' were written across the front of the envelope.

He sighed.

---

 "Okay, team." Brad stood in front of everyone in the locker room. There was already a roar of voices coming from the field… The day had arrived. This was the game they'd all been waiting for.

Of course, Brad's speech was made somewhat less awesome because of the fact that Ryan was following him around, mimicking everything he did.

Kylee rolled her eyes, trying desperately to keep from giggling. It wasn't easy, considering the rest were already losing it, and Brad was trying unsuccessfully to salvage his pep-talk. Obviously, the Seeker thought, they didn't need a pep-talk. They were all in great spirits, and they knew they were going to win.

Brad paused, and Ryan seized the opportunity to take over. "…Okay, team! I want a clean game. I hope you all brought soap. Unfortunately, it actually isn't raining for once, so I hope we can get a hose on to the pitch to rinse everything off when we're done."

Lucas looked blank. Coming from a wizarding family, that didn't associate with Muggles, he was sometimes unclear as to certain Muggle artifacts. Like hoses.

"And," Ryan continued, "I'd like to remind Cory to let every possible shot through the rings."

Cory stood up and saluted. "Aye, captain."

Brad shook his head, trying to hide his face with his hand.

"Alexia. Green. Ryan." He pointed to himself. "Our job is to fly around and just look cool."

Green rolled his eyes.

Lucas, as usual, was standing near the window. "Looks like we're due out there," he said, nodding toward the pitch. "Gryffindor's already doing victory laps. I say we bring down their ego a few notches."

Ryan pointed dramatically to the locker room exit. "Away, then! To the pitch!"

As the rest stampeded out of the locker room, Kylee stayed behind to wait for Brad. He looked almost hurt. She didn't say anything at first, opting instead just to tag along behind him as he headed outside. The sun was actually warm for once, and the sky was clear. It really was an ideal day for Quidditch. "Hey Brad?" she finally prompted as they both mounted their brooms.

He looked at her. "Sometimes I just don't know why I'm the captain."

She'd never seen him question himself before. She hesitated just a moment before answering. "…Isn't it obvious? Do you really think Ryan would be able to keep us together like you have? He's… He's like a cheerleader. We need both of you, see? You do all the serious parts, and he gets to make sure everyone stays happy."

As they reached the field and Brad started to break away, Kylee saw him smile. Hopefully he'd be all right when the game started. She noticed he was down on himself lately… Maybe it was the stress they all had from being so close in points to both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Out of everyone, Brad wanted more than anyone to make sure Slytherin wasn't the horrible house everyone made it out to be.

She watched as he shook hands with Gryffindor's red-haired captain and chaser – Charlie Weasley. A moment later, the Quaffle was in the air, and Kylee hurried to get out of the way of the action. As usual, she flew above the field, looking for the tiny golden Snitch.

It usually took an hour or more to spot it, and that was with intense searching. She almost didn't want to blink, in case she happened to miss it in the microsecond it would take to open her eyes again. They really had to win this game if they wanted to still have a chance at getting the Quidditch Cup.

Five minutes went by before, impossibly, Kylee saw the Snitch. She watched it for a full second before diving after it, as she didn't seem to be able to believe it was actually there. As expected, she heard the roar go up from the Slytherin section, then a louder exclamation from the other three houses as Weasley joined the chase.

This was the moment Kylee had been dreading since the very first game against Gryffindor. Her heart was hammering in her chest, and though she tried not to overexert herself, the red-haired Seeker was gaining on her easily. Taking a chance, she swung her broom out to the side and back again, successfully knocking her opponent off course just enough so that she could jump ahead of him into the lead.

It wasn't enough. He was back again, and he was reaching. His arm was longer than hers… She wasn't going to be able to catch it.

Remembering one of the tricks Brad and Alexia had taught her, she went into a roll, trying to gain just a little bit of speed so she could have a much needed advantage. Too late, she realized that she'd taken her eyes off the Snitch.

It didn't matter, though. As she closed her hand into a frustrated fist, she realized that she had it. A cheer went up from the Slytherin section.

"Well, I'll be," Charlie Weasley said, looking at her incredulously. "Good job, kid. Can't wait 'til we meet up next year."

And that was that.