With much relief by Eddie and Natalie, Christmas morning arrived. Having left out Nathan's present for the house-elves the night before, Eddie and Natalie woke up in their respective dormitories in a flurry of excitement and anticipation.

They had also left presents for each one of the other members of the Fateful Eight as well as their housemates and received a few in turn. Having no access to Diagon Alley, the presents they got from each other were very limited in nature, often being books or candy. However, Eddie received a box of Chocolate Frogs from Ernie, a new quill from Hannah, an American National Quidditch Team banner from Justin (who knew that Eddie was American), and a few other things. Nathan had gotten his gift, and he walked over to Eddie with a sly smirk on his face.

"This is how you want to make up for the prank?" he grinned.

"Come on… you know you love it."

Eddie and Natalie had given him a bracelet with the initials NTVP, for "Nathan Turner-Victoria Parker", engraved on it.

"I'd hang on to it, Nathan…" Natalie whispered. "Don't quote me on anything, just keep your hopes up." This made the boy smile, glance quickly at Victoria, and look back at them.

"Thanks, I'll be sure to." He pocketed the bracelet and left with a bit more skip in his step and his shoulders slightly higher.

When they got down to the Great Hall, the enchanted ceiling was snowing. It looked beautiful. And the food! A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce - and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table.

After Eddie pulled a few wizard crackers with Ernie, Justin, and Wayne, he suggested they all go outside and have a snowball-fight. Because he had invited the members of the Fateful Eight along, he also suggested having the Fateful Eight against the Hufflepuffs. This resulted in a Hufflepuff victory. After that they returned to the common room, cold, tired, hungry, but happy nonetheless, prepared for some hot chocolate by the fire. They had a wonderful Christmas evening, talking, laughing, playing cards and the like.

When the rest of the school returned from the holidays, things began to pick up again. The Fateful Eight had spent much of the holiday by their common room fires, drinking cocoa and playing Exploding Snap. Unbeknownst to Eddie and Natalie, the others of the eight were about to pull the prank of their lives. The entire Fateful Eight (besides Eddie and Natalie) were in on it. Nathan, posing as Eddie, would write an elaborate love letter to Natalie. Tom would hand the letter from Nathan right to Natalie, upholding his story, and Natalie would read it.

Nathan's letter read,

Dearest Natalie,

I have been watching you for some time now, and I feel that the prank we pulled on Nathan and subsequently, working on his present, has drawn us closer together. Will you, Natalie Margaret Rogers, accept my request to be your boyfriend?

Signed,

Edward Daniel Pattinson

But that wasn't the end of it. Victoria also wrote a letter.

Hey Eddie,

I would have told you this while we were working on Nate's present, but I chickened out. I think you're super cute and I really hope that you will date me soon.

Love,

Nat

They planned to wait until Valentine's Day, as it would give Eddie and Natalie time to let Christmas slip to the back of their minds. They couldn't wait.

When the day finally arrived, Nathan and Victoria woke up with grins on their faces. They had sent their letters the previous night to their people on the inside, Tom and Lily, as it would look far too suspicious for them to give the notes themselves. Both had promised to deliver the notes to their respective targets Valentine's morning at breakfast. And so it was when the pair of Ravenclaws arrived at breakfast on that fine day, they sat down and eagerly awaited the results. Tom and Lily arrived first, and they waved the pieces of parchment at Nathan as they passed. This was good, as Eddie and Natalie would be handed the letters upon their arrival. Eddie walked in first.

Lily didn't hand Eddie his note right away, as he was likely to confront Natalie upon her entrance. When Natalie arrived, then Lily delivered the note.

"Oh, I was told to give this to you," Lily said offhandedly.

"Who's it from?" Eddie asked inquisitively. "And why isn't there an owl?"

"You'll see," she grinned.

When he flipped open the parchment the look on his face was priceless. It had turned from its normal shade to white to red in less than five seconds. He immediately scanned the Gryffindor table for Natalie, and met her eyes. She was wearing the same shocked look.

After they finished eating, the pair met up in the Great Hall.

"What was that?" Eddie asked.

"What was that?" Natalie replied pointing at Eddie.

"I had no idea you felt that way."

"I..didn't write anything." Natalie said.

"Neither did I… who'd you get your letter from?"

"Tom. Something's up. Lily! Tom! Get over here, now!" Natalie shouted.

They walked over.

"Did you write these?" Natalie and Eddie asked, holding up the letters.

"No, you did," they replied.

"Do we look stupid to you?" Natalie asked.

"Yes," said Lily, snickering, "because we didn't write them."

"Well, who did?" Eddie inquired.

"Guess."

They thought long and hard until they rolled their eyes over to the Ravenclaw table, where the pair of pranksters looked fit to burst with laughter. They stormed over.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Well, I'd have to say I commend you on the effort," Eddie began.

"But you should have only sent it to one person," Natalie finished.

"Oh we weren't going for that," said Victoria, "we just wanted to see your faces."

"And boy, were they priceless," said Nathan.

"If you were trying to set us up, I'm sorry, it didn't work," Eddie grinned.

"Haha, very funny," snorted Victoria.

They all had a round of laughs before saying bye to one another and heading off for class. Now, finally, things were set right between them.

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Ravenclaw ended up defeating Slytherin in Quidditch later that week, which knocked Slytherin out for the running for the Quidditch Cup much to the dismay of Sean and Claire. Ravenclaw's record progressed to one and one, which set up "The Lovebird Match" as Nathan and Victoria jokingly called Eddie and Natalie's upcoming match, referring to the prank.

"You need to let Natalie win, Eddie," Nathan teased. "You are the gentleman in your relationship after all,"

"Ha ha, very funny," Eddie retorted. Eddie knew that he deserved the retaliatory prank, so he took the teasing with a lighthearted approach.

Lily informed him before the game that no Hufflepuff team had won their first two games start since 1956. This put pressure on Eddie even more to come through, as he desperately wanted to win the cup before his other Quidditch-playing friends.

When that day arrived, on the ninth of March, he shot right out of the gate, scoring the first four goals, and according to Lily, was the first Chaser to score the first four goals for his team since James Dayer of Slytherin in 1904.

Hufflepuff ended up leading, 220-70.

It was at that point Eddie went into a panic attack, as he just saw Natalie had just started speeding for the Snitch. Quickly doing the math and reacting almost instinctively, Eddie shouted at Ernie once more.

"Give me the Quaffle!"

Then, tucking it under his arm like a running back, just tore through every Gryffindor player, heading for Oliver Wood, dodging past him, and firing as hard as he could toward an open hoop. Wood didn't have a chance at getting the Quaffle.

As soon as the goal went through Eddie turned around and there was Natalie, holding the Snitch up high. He groaned, but, desperate to make his case, started thinking.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle. Confusion and chaos ensued. Eddie was double-checking his math, then screamed to Terry, "230-220! WE WON!"

Immediately the two captains, Terry and Oliver, flew over to Madam Hooch.

"Eddie had the Quaffle through first, we win!"

"No, Natalie caught the Snitch, it's a tie!"

Madam Hooch blew her whistle again, stopping the argument while she flew over to the teachers' stand to confer the play. It was at this point Eddie noticed that several of them were carrying gold binoculars… Omnioculars, such as those Harry had bought at the Quidditch World Cup!

"It is my understanding that Rogers caught the Snitch before the goal went through," she said decisively.

The Gryffindor section of the stands roared loudly in celebration, until Madam Hooch blew her whistle again.

"However," she boomed, "As per Hogwarts rules, we do not allow ties." Now it was the Hufflepuffs' turn to cheer. They had a fighting chance.

"Hufflepuff will get a free shot, if he misses, Gryffindor will get a free shot, if both teams miss, we play on until another goal is scored."

Eddie flew forward to take the penalty, if you could call it that, wind whistling in his ears. Shaking, he nearly fell off his broom, sending a few gasps threw the crowd. He'd never done well in high pressure situations back home in sports. Taking a deep breath, he rushed for the goal. One swerve left, one swerve right, he held the Quaffle in front of Wood's face and…

Whipped it through the empty left hoop! They'd won! Bedlam erupted so loudly Eddie feared the stands might break as he sighed in relief.

In the aftermath, he found Natalie and apologized sheepishly for being too quick.

"Ahh," she said grinning. "We'll beat Ravenclaw and then we'll win the Cup, don't you worry."

Eddie wanted to reply but was swept away in a joyous sea of black and yellow, and then looked into Justin's exhilarated face.

"Who says Chasers are useless! Way to go!"

The party that day lasted longer than the previous one, and well into the night. The prefects didn't regulate a curfew this time round, and it was well past midnight when they started filing up to their dorms.

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The morning after, Eddie was sitting at breakfast, talking with Lily about the match when out of the blue, a certain pale-haired blonde Slytherin strolled up to him.

"Bet you think you're a Quidditch genius, Pattinson."

"N-no…" Eddie was confused. Why would Malfoy provoke him? He hadn't done anything to Malfoy as far as he could remember. Bewildered, he turned back to his food, shrugging his shoulders.

"Good," Malfoy drawled. "Because no Mudblood will ever be good at anything."

Justin, who was also nearby, started to object, but Lily was a step ahead.

"Anything, Draco?"

"That's right."

Looking at the stupid smirk on Malfoy's face, Lily was even more excited at what she was about to do.

"Then beat him in a game of baseball," he smiled, "and we'll prove it."

Malfoy was taken aback. "What in the world is baseball?"

"It's a Muggle sport."

"I think you misunderstand me, Jackson. I only play civilized games. Father would never catch me dead in any sort of Muggle activity whatsoever." Unnoticed by Malfoy, Eddie chuckled slightly at the mention of Lucius.

"No…" Eddie, now joining in, piped up. "You said you could beat me at anything. Isn't that right, Lily?"

"Yep!" Now the two of them were grinning.

"What- I-" Malfoy stammered. His face flushed.

"Meet me on the Quidditch pitch on the 27th of April at three o'clock. Sharp." Eddie was loving this.

"Can you at least explain the rules?" he drawled in a bored voice.

Eddie's face twisted into an evil grin.

"Oh… No no no… for Draco Malfoy is simply flawless at everything he does, correct?"

"Yes!" he replied indignantly, not really thinking about the response. When he realized his mistake, he bit his lip and glared. but didn't bother correcting himself.

"Then you should have no trouble at all," he said happily. "Good luck."

And with that, he left Draco shell-shocked for the moment, before the Slytherin regained his composure. "Mudblood filth. Ready to lose at your own game?" he sneered. Before Eddie or Lily could offer a response, he turned on his heel and strode off.