"Anyway, I think the Cuddly Cannons have a good chance of winning this year, seeing as Ginny isn't playing anymore." –Hobbitpal, "Way It's Meant to Be"

"Okay, you bunch of mayflies, listen up!" said Tony Zeno. "This is our year, right? With Mrs Potter off the Speaking Eagles, there's no team that can stand between us and the big prize. All we've got to do is keep in shape, stay hungry…"

"And find a better mascot," Peleus Edson muttered, glancing at the paraphernalia lying about that was festooned with images of a beaming cartoon culverin, its spindly arms outstretched to offer the entire world a big hug.

His sister and fellow Chaser Thetis gave him a wounded look. "I like the Cuddly Cannon," she said.

Peleus rolled his eyes. "You would."

"Enough chit-chat, you two!" Zeno barked. "Come on, folks, get on your bleeding brooms and let's see how champions practice!"

"How can either side claim to hold the high ground when their oh-so-righteous voices die amidst the screams of the causalities?" –KJmom, "Salvation"

"Cadmus, the imperative's perfectly clear," said Antioch Peverell. "We who have magic in our bones are under an obligation to comprehend magic itself as fully as we can; wandlore is the summation of all magic; therefore, if a man can construct the ultimate wand, it's incumbent on him to do it. To use the Unction of Dis in any other fashion would be a dereliction of our duty as wizards."

Cadmus shook his head. "No, Antioch, I can't agree," he said. "We aren't only wizards; we are also, and more fundamentally, mortal men. Long before we cast our first inadvertent spells, we were bound in the shackles of corruption and death, and loosening them must always be our first duty. Isn't it so, Ignotus? –Ignotus?"

But the youngest Peverell had long since left them. His native clairaudience, which their recent encounter with the Lord of Shades had only amplified, had caused the fine moral sentiments of both his brothers to be drowned out by the noise of their own future agencies upon history; when Antioch spoke, he heard only the cries of a thousand murdered wizards, and Cadmus's arguments were lost among the groans of countless limbo-stranded souls. So he had fled away from them into the woods, not caring where he went or what happened to him, but only desiring to escape from the screams of his brothers' causalities.

"For her Yale Ball in her fourth year, she ended up asking Neville to the ball." –Dragons-Twilight1992, "Indigo Laura Bones"

"You look beautiful tonight, Indigo," said Neville sincerely.

Indigo laughed, and rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Neville, that's sweet of you," she said, "but you don't have to pretend. Next you're going to tell me that this getup brings out my eyes." She shook her head. "Seriously, what madman decided that the Triwizard Tournament needed a ball where everyone has to dress up as a horn-swivelling goat out of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them?"

Neville shrugged. "Well, tradition is tradition," he said.

And Indigo, whose family still celebrated her dead parents' birthdays, could hardly argue with that. With a resigned sigh, she tucked a stray lock of her hair back under her headpiece, and took Neville's outstretched arm. "Well, Mr Longbottom," she said, "shall we to the Yale Ball?"

"'I shouldn't give you any just for your complaining,' he mumbled as he took the four giblets from James and set them on the floor." –madamwolf, "So, Wait, What Year Is This?"

"What?" James exclaimed, his face a picture of theatrical shock. "You'd deprive me of the luck that the Christmas turkey giblets bestow? Now, when Lily's finally starting to soften? You're heartless, Padfoot."

"I don't know that I really believe in these superstitions, you know," Peter commented. "I mean, my mum's birthday's in May, and she married a wizard, so…"

"I never said they all work," said James. "But if someone's offering me a year of good fortune just for eating a bird's gizzard off the floor with my teeth, I'm going to take it. I mean, what can it hurt?"

"Well," said Remus judiciously, "that would depend on when the floor was last cleaned. But this one doesn't look too bad, so I'm game."

"Okay, then," said Sirius, having finished laying out the little grey lumps of poultry. "Hands behind your heads, and dive. Remember, if your fingers touch your giblet once it's laid, the luck turns sour."

So the four Marauders clutched their occipital areas, lowered their heads, and snapped up the turkey innards in front of them. And they all aced their final exams that year, and Lily did finally go with James to Hogsmeade in November, so perhaps there was something in the old witches' tale after all.