A/N To My Reviewers: Yes, I hate her too. She's meant to attract loathing; like Umbridge, only easier on the eyes.
The alarm clock shrilled. Harry disengaged his face from the soft downy pillows, rolled over, and switched it off. Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, he reluctantly threw back the super-soft Chudley Cannons duvet and climbed out of the cosy queen-sized bed he had spent the night in. His toes tingling as they came in contact with the deep-pile carpet, he padded his way across the heated floor and into the en-suite bathroom.
A cup of steaming hot chocolate was waiting for him by the side of the tub. Harry took a long bubble-bath, then dressed in the spotless Quidditch robes that were laid out on his now-made bed. Feeling refreshed and absolutely ready to take on the Ravenclaw team, he wandered down to the Great Hall for a spot of breakfast.
Hermione and Ron were in their usual places at the Gryffindor table. This morning, both had dark rings around their eyes, and Ron seemed to be pushing his porridge around in the bowl.
"Don't tell me you've lost your appetite," said Harry in mock astonishment, as he took his space on the bench next to Hermione.
"You'd lose your appetite if yourn smurf wurdebgullow," Ron trailed off. He pushed his bowl out of the way and laid his head on his arms. Harry leaned over to check his temperature, but was reassured when he heard a faint snore.
"What Ron means to say," said Hermione, "is that the party went on until about an hour ago. Most of the school is in the same state. You look well-rested, though," she added accusingly. "Where were you all night, huh?"
"Slept in the Room of Requirement," said Harry, smearing apricot jam onto a piece of toast. "It was fantastic. I think I might move in there." He glanced around at the rest of the school – those that had made it to breakfast, which was somewhat less than half. Many of those looked in a worse state than Ron and Hermione – including Professor Sprout, who was holding an ice-pack to her head, and Madame Pomfrey, who looked faintly green and covered her mouth with her hand as the kippers were passed down her end of the staff table.
Just as Harry decided the upcoming match would be a pushover, Naedine strode into the Hall, looking fresh and relaxed in snowy white robes. She briefly glanced over at the Gryffindor table as she slid onto the Ravenclaw bench next to Padma Patil, and began to nibble delicately at a bowl of melon and strawberries.
"Hey!" said Harry indignantly, causing Ron to sit up with a startled exclamation. "What the hell's she doing, schmoozing with the enemy? Doesn't she know we're about to play against them? Hasn't she any house loyalty?"
"She is a Ravenclaw," explained Hermione tiredly. "After you left last night, they got the Sorting Hat down from Dumbledore's office. It was that, or play Spin The Bottle again. Turns out the Hat was muddled up, what with the curse and all. She moved out of my dorm this morning."
"Where did she get the fruit salad, that's what I want to know," grumbled Ron, poking at his devilled kidneys with his fork.
"Oh, and Harry," Hermione said nervously, "there's something you ought to know about the match..."
Harry strode off the pitch, Firebolt clenched in his hand, muttering to himself. The other players wearily followed as he entered the Gryffindor changing rooms and began to angrily remove his muddy robes
"Ravenclaw "guest" player, my ass. Firebolt 2000? Who does she think she's kidding? Downright bare-faced cheating." He stormed out again without pausing to remove any of the mud from his shoes. Angelina exchanged a glance with Katie Bell, but didn't have the energy to carry it further.
The match – obviously – had not gone well. Harry and the other Gryffindors had arrived early, and were throwing a Quaffle around as a warm-up, when Katie had looked up and spotted the Ravenclaws arriving. "Look!" she said, pointing. All were in the regulation Ravenclaw Quidditch uniform, except for Naedine, who was still garbed in her blazing white robes. Harry, who had to shield his eyes when he looked at her, had been prepared for her arrival – Hermione had warned him, after all. What he was not prepared for was her position.
"Beater?" he said dubiously, as the Gryffindors watched the Ravenclaws warming up in the air. "This isn't good. Not good at all. Our Beaters are cr... well, they're new at the job," he amended hastily. Sloper and Kirke pretended not to hear.
"Well," said Angelina hastily, "she's new, maybe she won't be any good." Harry shot her a dark look. "Or, well, maybe she'll get nervous and mess up. Hell, I don't know. We can always hope."
The Ravenclaw captain chucked the Quaffle directly at Naedine, who was facing in the opposite direction. Naedine whirled around, as though warned by some sixth sense, and, holding the bat in a two-handed grip, hit the Quaffle so hard that it flew off the pitch entirely and vanished into the Forbidden Forest. Tossing her hair proudly as her teammates cheered, she noticed the watching Gryffindors, aimed her broom downwards, and made a perfect landing directly in front of Angelina.
"Greeting," she said, offering a slim hand to the two Beaters. "I see you're all surprised to see me! Last night I mentioned I used to play for the Farthington-Stokely Flying Squirrels, and Noah Pyszczynski graciously offered to let me take his position for the upcoming match. You don't mind, do you?"
Ron gaped at the broom she now had tucked under her arm. "That's a Firebolt! But it's not like Harry's... what the hell?"
"It's a Firebolt 2000," said Angelina, stunned. "Those are still in the development process. How did you...?"
"My Daddy has some friends," said Naedine airily. "My, my, I see the spectators are arriving... not as many as I'd hoped, but I'm sure we'll give them a game to remember anyway, shan't we? Cheerio!" She fluidly leapt onto her broom and shot into the air.
The game was delayed for a few minutes as the Quaffle was retrieved from the Forest. Once it started, however, Harry wished it hadn't. It was quite embarrassing. Though Ron managed to block more than one goal, and the three Chasers slipped quite a few past the Ravenclaw Keeper, the two Gryffindor Beaters were having more trouble than usual. Naedine was a white blur, sending Bludgers in every direction, and Harry had to use some tricky manoeuvres to avoid being unseated at one point.
More worrying, however, was the fact that the Bludgers seemed to swerve away from Naedine. Kirke and Sloper put up a valiant fight, tearing round the pitch at high speed and outdoing everyone's expectations. Hermione, watching from the stands, said to Hagrid, "You can tell they've been training hard over the summer." However, their efforts to knock Naedine off her broom came to nothing – no matter how much force a Beater put behind his bat, the Bludger seemed to slow down and wander off aimlessly when it came to within a few feet of the Ravenclaw Beater. And when Harry made his amazing catch – being dragged through the mud for seventeen feet as he strained to reach the Snitch – he came up to find that Ravenclaw, scoring at the last second, were ten points ahead.
He was still angry at lunchtime when Dumbledore stood at from the Staff Table. "Congratulations to Ravenclaw at winning this morning's rather spectacular game!"
The booing from the Gryffindor table was altogether drowned out by the loud cheers of the other three houses. Dumbledore tapped the nearest water-jug with a fork, and the noise subsided.
"Ahem," he said. "As you all know Halloween is only a few weeks away. This year, we've decided to do something totally different from the usual Ball – this year, we're calling it the Halloween Hop!" He beamed out at the assembly of students. "Well? Don't you like it?"
A lone Hufflepuff raised her hand. "Yes?" said Dumbledore.
"And it's just the same as the Halloween Ball, with a different name?" she asked.
"Yes, of course."
Excited conversation broke out. The first (official) party of the year was always highly anticipated, and this "hop" was going to be no exception. Already Harry could see, out of the corner of his eye, various sixth- and seventh-year males wandering casually over to the end of the Ravenclaw table where Naedine was sitting. Ron looked depressed.
"Is it almost Halloween already?" said Hermione in confusion.