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Letter to No One

By RowanRhys and Dancingkatz

 April 1996

We won against Ravenclaw today and the entire House is celebrating. It was an awfully close thing though. Normand made a snide comment to me about losing my edge because it was only a lucky hit from a bludger that knocked Chang hard enough off course to keep her from grabbing the Snitch before I could. It's not that I wasn't giving my absolute best effort to get it, but that the darn thing always seemed to pop up where she was instead of near me. That happens some times.

As soon as I could, I headed down for the kitchen and hid out there. My gaolors were caught up in the celebration in the dorms--some Seventh year had smuggled in a bottle of Firewhisky and Zabini, at least, was well into over-indulgence by the time I ducked out. Crabbe and Goyle weren't far behind him, so I think I won't need to worry about slipping them sleeping potion tonight.

Cordy was there, already working on a slice of our favorite raspberry-chocolate torte. The House Elves had a slice in front of me moments after I sat down next to her, and we spent well over an hour analyzing the match. She admitted that there's not much any strategy can do if the Snitch gets a mind of its own about keeping close to a particular person, but insisted that if I used some of the strategies she proposed, we could have won by a much higher margin. I'd have been offended had it been anyone else. I still insisted that my ideas were better though. I mean, I've got three years of experience on her after all. She just grinned and shook her head.

By the time we got back to the Slytherin Common Room, the party was over and it was deserted. There was a fire in the grate and it was tempting to sit down in the armchair closest to it to warm up. It may be April, but the dungeons are still chilly this time of year. But neither of us wanted to be caught out--especially since with the way my luck's been going lately, it would be Pansy who would decide to leave the dorms and after what happened before Valentine's Day, I don't want to risk Cordy being hurt by her again.

So I said good night, and once again, she surprised me. I don't ever remember getting a hug before from a pretty girl who didn't do it just because she wanted something from me or some other ulterior motive. Cordy hugged me, wished me good night, added a crack about rethinking my Seeker strategies and said she'd see me at practice the next day.

Laying here in bed behind a silencing charm and with a Lumos just strong enough to see to write, I can still feel the warmth of her arms around my shoulders and her head against my chest. Or maybe it's the warmth of her friendship I'm feeling. This is the first night in a long time that I've felt this good before I went to sleep.

Of course, in the morning I'm going to have to deal with my three hungover dorm mates. I wonder if I still have ingredients for a hangover potion. They're nasty enough when sober... with hangovers and headaches, I might not survive tomorrow in their company.