Year Three at Hogwarts
(---)
Chapter 13: Suspicions and Quidditch
Jacke woke up from his unconscious state to find that he was back in the common room. He thought he heard the sound of a door creaking but saw no one and thought it was his imagination. He went off to the showers to get himself cleaned up and couldn't wait to have warm water hit his sore body.
Brad woke up when the sound of his housemates woke him up. He wanted to stay in bed because he was not only a little sore but sleepy from being out so late. However, he was hungry so he decided to have breakfast and then go back to sleep later.
Reggie saw that he had a bruise on his left cheek when he looked in the mirror. He quickly focused and covered it up. He was thankful for his own little gift. However, it didn't stop the pain but at least it didn't draw attention and questions. He made his way down to the common room so he could be on his way for breakfast.
Matt went over to Tyler's bed and shook him to wake up and threw a pillow at him to hurry along.
Every single one of the seekers made their way to the Great Hall with their bodies aching from the events of the few previous hours. Reggie was trying very hard not to put so much force on his stomach, Brad thought that his back was going to fly out of his own body, Tyler arms were feeling heavy from lifting Jacke through the chamber and Jacke whole body ached from the physical attack that he suffered a few hours prior. They all could tell that they were hurting and nodded off to each other that it was best if they get a break from one another to heal themselves.
"Thank Merlin it's Saturday. I don't think I'll be able to handle if we had classes," Jacke said sitting down next to Max and Jennifer.
"Why, what's wrong?" Jennifer asked with a face of curiosity and concern.
"I just ache, that's all Jenny."
"Ache, you haven't done anything to get you to ache."
"Forget it. Can't we talk about something else Max. What do you have two have planned for today for instance."
"Well, I was planning on doing some flying today. Care to join me Jacke?"
"No, I don't think I'll be able to. I have to rest."
"Jacke, you're starting to scare me. What were you doing?"
"Nothing Jenny," he said quickly. "Besides, what makes you think that I was anyway. I just ache."
"Funny, seeing as how Max saw you on the couch all sweaty."
Jacke turned to Max and saw that he was waiting for why this was so. They both had suspicious expressions on their faces and seemed to be waiting for Jacke to answer. Jacke turned back to his food and tried to get himself concentrated on eating it but still felt his friends' eyes on him and then he cracked.
"Okay, okay. I'll tell you after breakfast."
Then Jacke turned his attention back on his food and tried to ignore the feeling of eyes and the feeling at his sides.
"Now Jacke, what are you hiding?" Max said as they sat by the lake after they all finished breakfast.
"Look, me and Tyler were just dueling and I got hexed pretty hard."
"You and Solemn were dueling? Were you dueling at the brink of dawn? Was that why you were all sweaty?" Jennifer asked with a shocked voice.
"Calm down Jenny. Okay, I admit it. We were up early but that was because we just wanted to duel without attracting the rest of the castle."
"Did the two of you duel because you had a fight?" Max asked.
"No, no, it wasn't anything like that. It was just a practice duel for training. Something exciting to do for fun. That's all."
"Fun?"
"I don't think fun is when you could barely get through sitting without clenching your side for 2 minutes while you sit and talk," Jennifer said as she pointed to where Jacke's arm was holding his left side.
"Look, just drop it Jenny okay? We just wanted to see how strong we could be and we got a little carried away. Really, it's nothing. A good day's rest and I should feel fine."
Jacke saw that Max and Jennifer were still looking at him, almost piercing him for answers so he got up and headed out for his dormitory to get some more rest. He let himself fall on his bed and tried to sleep off the aching in his body from his training battle with Tyler and Basil.
(---)
Reggie seemed like he was going to collapse as he was finishing his breakfast. That last landing was really a devastating hit. He may have won the duel but his drastic thinking got him to have this pain as the reward. He couldn't believe that he thought so recklessly in order to win. It was as if he wasn't even thinking at all. He was thinking on how he could've been so stupid that he didn't hear as his friend Laura was trying to get his attention.
"Reggie, hello, are you there?" Reggie only heard her very faintly until she shook him and finally snapped him out of his stupor.
"Hm, what?"
"I've only been trying to talk to you for the past two minutes. What's wrong?"
"Nothing Laura. I've just been thinking about something that's all."
"What? You could tell me."
"No, I really couldn't."
"Why not?"
"It's somewhat a private matter between me and my friends."
"You four are always so mysterious. I can remember when you first got together. Everyone was always wondering and watching you guys to find out what you all do but after a while, they just plain gave up since you seem to do nothing but study together, or play games on the grounds and talk quietly together. What can be so important that you're forgetting that you have quidditch practice later."
"What?" Reggie said with his attention completely on Laura now.
"Now he remembers. That's what I've been trying to ask you. I wanted to know if what time you were going to be finished so we could work on our potions work. You promised you check over my Astronomy and History of Magic work if I helped check your potions work."
"I'm sorry, I completely forgot about practice. I can't practice today."
"Why not? The match against Hufflepuff is two and a half weeks away. Your captain isn't going to be happy with you. Especially since you couldn't catch the snitch in your last match against them."
"I feel very stiff and I can't move around. I can't focus today so that snitch could fly circles around me. I'll have to tell Captain Sagat that I had a tough night."
"Why? Don't tell me that you and Claudia Ments decided to have your date early? I saw her in my dormitory and she did seem a little happy," Laura said raising her eyes in a teasing way.
"Ha Ha, no we didn't if you must know. I was just up studying and I overdid it with the wand movements. That's all I swear." Reggie held his hands up so to confirm his innocence but Laura didn't seem to shrug it off.
"You're hiding something?"
"What makes you say that? How am I hiding something? What have I got to hide?" 'Besides the fact that I can conjure and manipulate air and wind, can become an eagle and that I'm friends with an ancestor of one of the founders that happened to be a parselmouth and that the other seekers and I are training for the most powerful potion ever imagined,' he added as an afterthought.
"Oh, just the fact that you keep squinting your eyes. I can always tell when people are lying or nervous when they blink their eyes a lot as they talk."
"Well, then I have to say that you're off this time." Reggie turned and avoided his friend's gaze so that she couldn't see the nervous gleam in his eyes. He focused his attention on memorizing facts of the potions that would appear on their upcoming quiz for Professor Reckler and hoped that Laura had stopped looking at him for an answer.
(---)
Brad was feeling so sleepy that he was barely paying attention to what he was doing at the breakfast table. Hawkster had to repeatedly snap him out of his sleepy stupor.
"Brad," Hawkster said snapping his fingers in front of him.
"Hmm, what?"
"You were about to dip your bacon in your orange juice. What's with you this morning? You look like you didn't sleep a wink last night. You were snoring like a wild bear last night so I know that you had to sleep."
"Err, I'm just very tired today."
"Why didn't you stay in bed then?"
"I was tired but I was also hungry. After this, I'm heading straight for my pillow."
"Anyway, you will be ready for today right?"
"Today?"
"Yeah, we were going to practice on the pitch after Ravenclaw has the early afternoon spot. You didn't forget did you?"
"Oh right. Sorry, I'm so tired that I can hardly remember what color is my hair. I should be okay after I get some sleep."
"I hope so Brad. You haven't failed Hufflepuff in catching the snitch. You beat all three of your friends and we're all hoping you'll do it again. You've been undefeated so far and we want to see it again. You know that Hufflepuff rarely gets any attention."
"Don't worry about me. Just worry about that quaffle that you have to get into the goals."
Hawkster took a look at him after he said that and before he could turn back to his food, he doubled his head back at Brad's direction. "Brad, what's that bruise on your hand?"
Brad looked and saw that he had a clear blue-ish bruise on the front of his hand that he never noticed until just now.
"Oh, I must've gotten that from the last training session."
"No, it looks fresh. We haven't trained for the past week."
"Oh, then...I guess it's from...my duel."
"Your duel? With who? Did a slytherin jump you?"
"No, no. I was having a practice duel with my friend Reggie and I guess I got this from that duel."
"Why were you dueling? What do you mean practicing?"
"Well..." Brad looked around to see if there was anyone listening before he lowered his head and voice. "I'll tell you but you have to give me your word that you won't say anything about it to nobody."
"Yeah, sure, what?"
Brad went into an explanation into finding out about a secret potion hidden in the forbidden forest and the seekers' attempts to train for getting it.
"That's about the whole layout."
"Wow, that potion sounds amazing. The power of creation completely in a vile. It's...it's like whoever gets their hands on it become gods."
"Yeah I know. I hardly believed it myself when I first heard of it. Remember, you promised not to tell about this."
"Don't worry. I won't let you down. Brad, you never did tell me how or where you four found out about all this."
"That part, I can't tell you. That's a little too secret for me to tell you. I'm sorry."
"Oh. Well, I guess it's okay. You did tell me this much and I guess that's enough if you look at it."
(---)
Tyler only knew how to dip his fork into the bowl and chew the food he got. He was so worn out and tired that he couldn't even make out the people around him. It was as if his vision blurred completely away; everyone looked like melted away colors of the background. He kept this up until he felt a tap at his cheek and shook his head to find Matt, Morgan, Sam, and Regulus near him as the rest of the Great Hall came into focus. It seemed that the one who gave him that slap was Morgan.
"Tyler?"
"Hmm, what?"
"Good, we started to think that you were dead. What's with you this morning? You look like you were having the life drained out of you."
"Oh, I just had a rough night."
"What? But, you went to sleep earlier than any of us and you were dead asleep this before you woke up. Unless you weren't asleep," he said narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
"Oh come on. I'm just exhausted. Really."
"Really? Then how come your hair was so shiny like you just had it wet?"
This made Sam and Regulus raise their eyebrows in response and seemed to be waiting for Tyler's answer.
"None of your business."
"Tyler...what were you doing?" Morgan asked looking curious, and a little apprehensive.
"Tylerrrrr, is there something that we should know? Like why you were limping a little on your way to the table," Regulus said staring into Tyler's eyes.
"What?" he said out of nervousness. "Limping?"
"Yes, I shrugged it off when I saw it but now that Matt pointed this out I want to hear your explanation."
"Yeah, why don't you explain yourself," Sam said joining in on the interrogation.
"Look, it's nothing. Besides, it's none of your business. Butt out of it."
"Tyler, we're only asking because you're worrying us. Come on, tell us what's wrong," Morgan said a little comforting and a little forcefully like she was trying to be nice but couldn't help being aggressive and pushy.
"I was just taking an early shower. I slipped and I twisted my ankle. That's it."
"Why would you get up and take a shower just so you could go right back into bed?" Sam asked like it was crazy which Tyler realized it was.
"I don't know," he said shrugging. "I guess I'm weird today."
"Today?" Regulus asked narrowing his eyes with humor causing everyone to laugh.
"Very funny. Very, very funny." 'At least they stopped questioning me.' He thought thankfully.
(---)
After that grueling morning, one week had come and gone. Throughout the week, the seekers continued with their training. It seemed that all four of them had perfected their conjuring powers flawlessly. They could release their conjured elements like it was the natural thing to do. Their spells have also been getting accurate and handy. Tyler even showed them his Fire Whip Spell. He showed them the incantation and how to use it. He even showed them how you could use it without even speaking the spell but the whip that were conjured were always shorter and lacked the control of the effect you wanted the whip to be. Reggie and Brad thought it seemed like a good spell to practice with but Jacke didn't want to practice it. He thought it looked a little too dark for him to use so he passed it off. Brad's transfiguration talent was starting to become in handy. Whenever he had a practice wands only duel, which they called a duel without their other powers, he would transfigure objects to absorb or block spells to protect himself. Jacke's charms were effective and strong. His shield charm especially had become very fast to come up so he was good at rebounding small spells back at his opponents. Reggie said that he was working on potions that he thought would be helpful but he didn't say what they were since he wanted them to be a surprise. He also was spending his time researching anything which he thought might be good for guarding valuables and Brad was helping him whenever he could. Tyler and Jacke helped on occasion with reading up on creatures and obstacles meaning that they did it only when Reggie cornered them about it. Overall, they seemed to be progressing well. They felt like they would be ready for when the time came or at least they hoped they would.
(---)
It was a new Saturday, which was the day of the next match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Also, it turned out that the next Hogsmeade trip was the following day. When people's minds weren't on quidditch then they were on Hogsmeade. People were ecstatic over it since it was coming close to Christmas break, which was in 2 weeks. At this moment in time however, Reggie and Brad were in their respective changing rooms suiting up for the match. Reggie was listening to their captain Sagat on his tactics that would be best to use based on Hufflepuff's playing style. Brad was getting Hawkster to relax since it was his first match and Brad was eager to get back to the field after a long summer away from flying. Moments later, they found themselves walking on the pitch to begin the game.
Tyler and Jacke were in the stands ready to cheer for their friends. However, unlike their past games where the only ones joining them were Regulus, Morgan and occasionally Matt, there were now Sam, Max and Jennifer too. Although, Sam was on the far side of Tyler's left and Max and Jennifer were on Jacke's right. It seemed that Sam and Max especially didn't think it was comforting to sit close since they were quidditch rivals playing the same position on opposite teams especially theirs. Jennifer was choosing to try and pretend that the slytherins weren't there if they chose to say or do anything insulting or whatever and just enjoy the game. Morgan also was feeling a little negligent when she teased Jacke about her bludger attack but she did congratulate him for dodging it the way he did. Tyler and Jacke expected this sort of behavior from the addition of Sam, Max and Jennifer but Tyler and Jacke weren't going to try and force them to like each other on their account.
"Hey Jacke, who do think will get the snitch, Reggie or Brad?"
"Well...I'd say Brad. He beat all three of us to it last year and I think it might be him again. Reggie hasn't caught the snitch yet remember? We all beat him."
"Yeah, maybe Brad might win. Maybe luck will get it's way with Reggie though. Only one way to find out."
The teams took off down on the pitch and began the match. After about 20 minutes of plays, it seemed that the Ravenclaw captain, Jasper Sagat, had made the right calls on preparing for Hufflepuff's tactics. Hufflepuff had only made 4 successful shots while Ravenclaw had made 15. Reggie was impressed at Sagat's planning abilities and hoped that he could be that good someday. Brad saw that his team was in trouble. He looked and saw that Hawkster was doing okay but the chasers were overwhelmed at the defensive strategy that the Ravenclaw team took to stop their scoring attempts. It seemed that the only way to have Hufflepuff win was for Brad to catch the snitch soon enough to crown Hufflepuff the winners. But finding the snitch was proving to be hard. The weather wasn't helping in the slightest with the big dark clouds and the cold air blowing strongly. Reggie and Brad's attention was divided on finding the snitch and shivering from the cold. They would kill for Jacke's ability to be able to warm the air around him with his fire power not that Jacke could do that in a match but it would be great nevertheless. Reggie went close to Brad to keep a better eye on him and look for the snitch until another gust of cold wind blew by.
"This wind is ridiculous. How are we supposed to find the snitch before becoming ice sculptures?"
"Reggie, come down," Brad said from afar. Then something in his mind clicked. "If I were you then I'd do something."
"What are you talking about?"
"Have you really forgotten what you could do for the past two years?"
Then Reggie could've slapped himself. He was a wind elemental. He could have the wind isolate itself from the area. He wasn't too strong in getting the wind to stop blowing all over the stadium but he could stop it from blowing in his area. He mentally had the wind keep away in a little over a seven-yard radius since that was the best he could do. Brad felt the wind stop and he started to focus extra hard to look out for the snitch. With the wind gone, it seemed that the field became clearer to Reggie. He sharpened his focus and tried to look for at least a glint of the snitch. It was hard since he had to focus on keeping the wind at bay and look for the snitch was only having a small fraction of his attention. He then made the decision for Brad to look for the snitch for him so that the snitch wouldn't cause him to lower his power grip. He had for half a second thought that maybe this was a little illegal, that he was cheating by controlling the environment factor of the match but he shrugged it off and would have to worry about that later.
Brad still hadn't found the snitch and his team was looking like it would suffer an inevitable defeat. Ravenclaw was now at 200 while Hufflepuff had 80 points. It was getting harder to find that snitch because even though Reggie was keeping the wind in their area away, the wind was still raging everywhere else and the snitch's flight would definitely be affected. Also, it was still cold because even though Reggie kept the cold wind away from them, the overall factor was that it was still cold even without the wind. Not too mention the fact that there were still big dark clouds blocking out the sun's light and making the snitch more near invisible.
Tyler and Jacke were starting to worry that Reggie and Brad had numbed being so still in this cold and windy December weather. They were also starting to cool up even though they had on gloves and winter cloaks. They hoped that this match would hurry.
Reggie kept his eyes closed and focused on keeping the wind around him to be weak and soft. He had his ears open to Brad so that he could tell when he moved for the snitch. Then something was happening; Reggie was starting to feel the air currents and could start to feel the movements of the other players, bludgers, and the quaffle. He never focused on manipulating wind for this long before and he guessed that he just discovered another plane of his power. Then he felt something very small in the air about 40 yards away in his direction- The snitch. He didn't see it but he was sure it was there. When he caught it in his sights after he opened his eyes, he leaned forward and went off in that direction. Brad felt Reggie move away and went after him and stared at Reggie's path until he too caught sight of the snitch. Reggie and Brad pushed straight through the two bludgers gracefully and also avoided a crowd of the chasers trying to steal the quaffle back from the Ravenclaw ones. Then something unexpected happened; the snitch looked like it was pulled in one direction like it was a feather in the wind. Reggie and Brad also started feeling the powerful gusts of cold wind again. It appeared that Reggie had lost his concentration the moment he went for the snitch and now he couldn't manipulate the wind to not blow at him anymore while he was moving for the snitch. Brad's hands started to feel like rock but he kept going for the snitch. The two seekers dived for where the snitch was released from the wind's power. The two of them extended their arms and looked into each other's eyes to each see a glint of competitiveness in their eyes. They looked back at the snitch and then made motions to grab it.
Tyler and Jacke looked to see if they could tell who caught the snitch. They could barely make out their friends' faces. But after they saw Brad's surprised look and Reggie smile then they automatically knew.
The commentator Phil Villar loudly announced his house team's victory. "Reginald Falkner has caught the snitch. Ravenclaw wins at an astonishing 360 to 100!"
Back at the stands, Tyler and Jacke bid farewell to their respective house comrades and went off to find Reggie and Brad.
"Seems Reggie broke Brad's clean record."
"Well I hope Brad's not taking it too hard. He couldn't keep this up against us forever."
"I have a feeling he'll be okay Jacke."
"How would you guess?"
"Instinct."
They arrived to see that Reggie and Brad were already changed and were taking off to the side. They seemed neutral so they joined them.
"Hey Reggie. Great catch there."
"Thanks Jacke."
"I'm sure that should give you a more appealing image for your date tomorrow with Claudia Ments huh?" Tyler said nudging him.
"Oh shut up."
"Reggie here broke my undefeated record remember that too. I'm sure his date will be extra friendly after that."
"Yeah, if he slips something about his ability with the wind then I'm sure that he'll get three for the price of one," Jacke said joining the teasing.
Then the three of them took off laughing and running from a tempted Reggie with his wand raised high chasing after them with yells of "Come back here!" or "Wait until I catch you!" Reggie even let out wind orbs to trip them up but that made them run and laugh harder at how they got under Reggie's skin when they fired their own element orbs to cancel them out.
"Hello there," a voice called out making them all freeze up.
(---)
End of Chapter 13Author Notes:
Well there goes another one. Who has caught them using their powers like that? They shouldn't have been so reckless. Will it be over? Can they still continue their plan? Will Reggie first date go along good? You'll have to wait.
Review and it might not be a long one.