x

x

x

Chapter 2

x

x

x

x

"Okay! That was really great flying out there today, everyone! Absolutely brilliant!" Megan congradulated her Hufflepuff quidditch team cheerfully. So what if she was lying a little? Or a lot... "There are a few things that I definitely think we can look to improve on for next time though," she stressed, trying to sound as positive as she possibly could about that fact.

"A few?" Zacharias scoffed, glaring at Owen Cauldwell angrily while rubbing the spot on the back of his head that had accidentally collided with Owen's Beaters bat. The fourth year just shifted uncomfortably under Zacharias's stare, eyes cast downwards.

Megan pretended not to notice the fact that Zacharias was clearly being sarcastic. "Yep! Just a few," she continued cheerfully. "First of all, yes Owen, you need to remember that Zacharias's head is not a Bludger. Can you work on that for us?" Owen nodded without looking up from his staring contest with the ground. "Okay, good. And Morgan, I know you've been feeling a bit wonky lately, but we need you to be going after the snitch, not running into the commentator's booth. You're a better seeker than Slytherin's could ever hope to be, so I'm sure you'll be back on your game before the match against them. Eloise, has the bleeding stopped yet?"

"I dink id albost has," Eloise nodded, still laying on the snow covered grass while holding a towel up to her nose.

"Awesome. Alright. Everyone, go get inside before you freeze to death. One more practice before Christmas hols, yay!" Megan cheered, attempting to still appear energetic despite the fact that she was just as worn out as the rest of the team after that disaster of a practice. They'd get better though, she hoped. And hey! Who was to say that someone hadn't bewitched Owen's bat to attack the players instead of the Bludgers? Megan knew Owen had better aim than he had displayed that day.

After dropping off their equipment and spotting Zacharias trudging back to the changing room through the snow a few yards ahead of her, though, Megan figured she could fret about Beaters bat bewitching later. "Hey Zach!" she called after her curly haired housemate as she scurried up to him. "Zachi... Zacharias!" Finally caching up to him, Megan tapped him on the shoulder and gave him a little wave before spinning around to walk backwards ahead of him. "Hey! I was calling you."

"Were you really, Meg Mega Megan?" Zacharias asked her, having heard Megan calling the whole time. It was COLD out though, and he didn't want to hang out in an impending snowstorm any longer than he had to if Quidditch practice was over. "Yes I was," Megan replied, any sarcasm in Zacharias's comment flying over her head. "Is your head doing any better?" she asked him, gesturing to the spot where he'd gotten rammed by Owen's bat as she glanced behind her to make sure she wasn't going to accidentally trip over anything while walking backwards.

"I should live," Zacharias assured her. "My millions of adoring fans would be devastated otherwise."

Megan frowned, as she always felt a bit odd when people made jokes about death, especially given the way that the war head been going outside of the castle's walls. "Don't joke about that. I would cry, and then my face would get all red and splotchy, and you know you don't want to be responsible for that."

"Your face would match your hair, though," he suggested.

"My hair is not splotchy!" Megan scoffed, subconsciously running her fingers through her hair to double check on its unsplotchiness.

Zacharias shot her a dumbfounded look, it making his brain hurt a bit that this ditz had taken his well-earned spot as Quidditch captain. "...I was more or less referring to it being red."

"Oh," Megan laughed at herself, feeling her face growing warm out of embarrassment, despite the fact that her cheeks were already pink-tinged from the cold. "Well, I just wanted to say good job today, and thank you for not killing Owen when his bat freaked out and tried to give you a concussion."

"You're too easy on Cauldwell, Meg," Zacharias reported matter of factly. "You've got enough... pep for the whole of us, and I think you're brilliant with coming up with plays, which you should feel special about because you know how I am with compliments." Megan nodded, knowing this very well. Zacharias continued. "But it's not going to do you a bit of good if no one takes you seriously as captain, though."

"Why do you have to be mean for people to take you seriously?" Megan asked him, genuinely curious.

Zacharias shook his head. "Not... MEAN, mean. Just not... nice."

"I see."

"Good."

Megan sighed, shrugging her shoulders. "I can't be mean to people."

"Why not?" Zacharias asked her, also genuinely curious. Mean was simple. The whole "being nice all the time" thing, though, now THAT seemed hard.

"Because I just can't. OH! QUESTION!" Megan interrupted herself, finally remembering a good way to change the subject. "Should our baby be a boy or a girl?"

Zacharias, instead of answering her, proceeded to stare at Megan as if she had three heads. "Our WHAT?" he asked incredulously.

"You know! The baby, in the Muggle Studies egg-speriment," Megan explained, curious as to how he could have possibly forgotten something like that. Then again, Muggle Studies was Megan's all time favorite class, and she was planning on doing something with Muggle/Wizarding relations after she left school. Most of her classmates, though, tended to take it purely for an easy O.

"You mean our egg?" Zacharias almost snorted, once he realized what she was talking about. Leave it to Megan Jones to take a project in Muggle Studies wayyyy too seriously. Megan nodded happily, glad that Zacharias had remembered. "Um... I don't know? Maybe..." he trailed off, trying to figure out a way to escape this conversation. "Maybe we should wait and see what it looks like before giving it a name?"

"You're RIGHT!" Megan agreed, nearly shocking Zacharias off his feet with her outburst. "How horrible would that be if we decided to name the egg Tamera, and it ended up looking like a Steve!"

"...I'm sure it would be traumatized. You're going to run into the wall."

"I'm wha.." Megan started to ask, only to collide with the wall of the building, having still been walking backwards, not paying attention to how close they were getting to the locker rooms. "Oops."

"Good job, Jones. I'll see you in the commons," Zacharias just smirked at his clumsy housemate before disappearing into the boy's half of the changing rooms.

"Megan leaned back against the door to the girl's locker room and groaned. She hadn't been lying in the slightest when she told Hannah there was nothing between her and Zacharias. No "OoooOooo", no fireworks, nothing. At least, it was kind of obvious that there was nothing like that as far as Zacharias's feelings extended to Megan, except for maybe eternal amusement at her abilities to constantly make a total doof of herself in front of him.

Megan, on the other hand, thought that life had been much simpler when she was sure she returned his lack of feelings.

x

x

x

x

x

Author's note: Woo teen angst! More minor characters popping up soon, which is fun, because minor characters are what makes the world go round.