It is a known and undisputable fact. Duvets increase the Earth's gravity when you are underneath them and its nice and cozy whereas cold and miserable outside of them, it is done so that you lose the will to get out from under them and remain there content and happy. It is at least for every child and teenager in existence. But, as with most things there are exceptions to the rule.
This Friday morning. Break of dawn to be more precise, was one of those exceptions to the rule that made Lisa shoot up straight an hour before her alarm clock would ring its infernal call.
She discarded the white, fluffy duvet off her and proceeded to change from her night ware all the while her brain raced to the day ahead, and specifically to the middle of the day when Hufflepuff would play against Ravenclaw.
And not only that but the postponement of the Dueling Tournament had brought up the third and final game between Hufflepuff and Slytherin two weeks earlier than before. Which meant next week.
They had gone from having a month to prepare to one week forcing everyone's minds firmly on Quidditch and the three games, two involving Hufflepuff, one involving Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Gryffindor was already out of the race with too many points behind the other three to care for anything else other than a victory for their pride, Ravenclaw could only hope to win the cup if they could manage to not lose today by more than one hundred points and for the two next games to end with their victory over Gryffindor and a Slytherin victory over Hufflepuff by no more than forty points. Slytherin wanted and needed Hufflepuff to lose both games regardless of points and Hufflepuff needed only one victory over five hundred points in their last two games, but Felix wanted both games won.
Few people on this Friday had a mind for classes and even fewer actually managed to keep notes.
"What is this Noose and Bat?" Lisa least of all, her mind constantly revolving around this last bit of strategical information she had managed to pry out of Hufflepuff training sessions before Felix caught on and made it impossible for her to sneak peeks. "I have searched and read every Quidditch book and strategy manual in existence and I have not found it. If Hufflepuffs lose today's game, it'll crush their moral for the upcoming game against us…" Lisa thought to herself drawing scribbles in her notepad.
A very stressful half a day later she sat on the Quidditch tower stands still thinking things through.
The teams entered the pitch and mounted their brooms under a hot spring sun and few clouds with just the faintest of breeze.
The teams hovered midair with Professor Willows telling them to adhere to the rules and keep the game clean and fair. Felix and the Ravenclaw Captain wished each other a good game and the whistle was off.
Hufflepuff scored a goal right off the bat before conceding three goals in a row with the crowds cheering and booing. It was very obvious to Lisa from very early in the game that the Ravenclaw team captain was not following what she had told him a day before in the privacy of an abandoned classroom.
Twenty minutes later Eloise stole the Quaffle passing it to Steven who equalized for team Hufflepuff.
Fifteen minutes after that they were trailing Ravenclaw again by three goal and yet it never crossed Lisa's mind as to the intentionality of team Hufflepuff's gameplay, and how they weren't the only ones trailing their opponent, yet they were the only ones doing so knowingly.
Felix sent the Bludger flying at the Ravenclaw Chaser in possession of the Quaffle making him lose his concentration in his effort to roll and doge. Sofie came in from behind dislodging the ball from his hands as Eloise picked it up, instantly passing it to Steven. Five minutes of intense passing between the three Hufflepuff Chasers they scored forty to sixty.
The commentator's voice blasted through the megaphone, trying to describe what was doubtlessly becoming an intense game.
"What is this folks!" She yelled, her eyes fixating on Katya who had made a sudden and quite sharp dive from above the tower stands. "Katya, the Hufflepuff Seeker is making an impossible dive! Pull up girl, you'll break your neck! The Ravenclaw beater sends the Bludger after her but Liam's there for the save! He blasts it right at Horacio, Ravenclaw's chaser! Tara, Ravenclaw's Seeker tries to dive in after her, but Steven cuts her off! THAT WAS NO MISTAKE REF! Okay, okay sorry ma'am", the Ravenclaw girl commentating didn't even have to glance at Professor Horsewood to know the Headmistress was eyeing her disapprovingly. "Tara is driven off and….looks like Katya has caught on to something! The game is over, she's caught the Golden Snitch, folks…the game's over!" Her voice was drowned amidst the roars and cheers of the Hufflepuff students in the stands, their team coming out victorious.
Lisa left the spectators' stands angry and frustrated with her plans were not coming to fruition.
Half an hour later, with the Hufflepuffs still celebrating their victory on the Quidditch pitch with the team she saw the Ravenclaw Captain coming out of the changing rooms tent and sped up to catch up to him.
"Why did you not use my tips!" She got in his way cutting off his departure. He looked down on her, being at least a head taller than she was, his ebony skin glistening from the shower he must have had after the game.
"Because if I had we'd have lost by a mountain-load", he told her with a contemptuous voice and a singsong accent. "'Hammersmith' would have left our goal posts defenseless and our beaters running rugged."
"You don't know what you're talking about! You were winning and almost got equalized twice!"
"You don't know squat about Quidditch strategy, and you're only still team Captain because you've been having your cousin intimidate anyone who would challenge you for the role! We lost because Hufflepuff played better, and I didn't counter Felix's tactics. You don't even know what this 'Noose and Bat' thing is!" He spat at her, shoving past her with his elbow.
Lisa tried to run after him fuming from her ears.
The next day Terry, as the Ravenclaw team captain's name was, found Felix as he was entering the Great Hall for breakfast.
"Couldn't get through the hordes of Hufflepuff students yesterday but wanted to tell you what a great game you played", Terry told Felix shaking his hand.
"Thanks, same", Felix reciprocated.
"I only have one question, man. If you can answer it for me…what is 'Noose and Bat'?"
Felix's lips curved in a faint smile. "It's not. Someone broke into my room a few weeks ago and found what they believed, in their naiveite, was my textbook containing all my strategies. Which of course it wasn't, it was in fact nothing more than your average Quidditch Through the Ages with some rubberish notes coded into it in a way to make…someone desperate enough believe otherwise. It's all bullshit to make whoever would read that book chase their tales and not concentrate on building their strategy instead. Noose and Bat isn't a strategy, the strategy was in it being nothing."
"W-why?" Terry gasped, unable to comprehend why would Felix go to such trouble to create something like that.
"Fight your enemies where they're not, something I read in a book in my cousin's house a few years ago. If Lisa is not spending time training her team in valid tactics and is running around in wild goose chases of inexistent strategies instead it allows me to set the terms, fight her with any strategy I want and all the time in the world to prepare."
"Damn…" Terry left shaking his head.
"Damn straight…" Felix smiled to himself. "And now, let's see…" he walked over and took a seat next to Uriel and Ariana in the Slytherin table.
"Good morning", he told his friends aloud, serving himself cereal and coffee.
"Oh, heya", Uriel replied interrupting what he was telling Ariana. "I still wonder why they postponed the Dueling Tournament's Finals."
"Because" Felix cut in. "of that Imperio attack against me."
"But they tested everyone's wands and found nothing?" Uriel swallowed his toast.
"Oh, yeah. Ministry's not done. They're getting authorization and will come back with Veritaserum, a Ministerial Pensieve and permission to use Legilimancy on all of us until they find the culprit. You can use a backup wand and dispose of it afterwards, but it is considerably tougher to alter or remove a memory of having committed the attack so that when asked under the influence of Veritaserum you can tell the 'truth'", Felix explained.
"Can't you lie?" A nearby first year asked, having overheard their conversation, immediately blushing at having interrupted three Seventh year students.
"No, it is the most powerful truth serum known to the Wizarding world. There is an antidote to it, but you'd have to somehow manage to drink it under the watchful eyes of two? Three? Aurors just seconds before they give you to drink Veritaserum. Or seconds after. Both equally impossible at this instance. Assuming of course one knows how to brew it, and it ain't what I'd call easy. So, that leaves us with a memory manipulation charm so well crafted, and successfully executed that'll make sure you can pass through the interrogation under the influence of Veritaserum and simultaneous examination by legilimancy and Pensieve without the Aurors finding out anything even remotely suspicious", Felix replied to the young, black haired boy with a voice that Uriel found a little louder than he'd think required.
"But if you're under Veritaserum you can't lie?" Ariana asked him with a guilty look as if she was supposed to know the answer to this, being a Seventh year and so close to passing NEWTs.
"Yes and no, there are techniques to increase resistance to Veritaserum, but it takes great amounts of time and training. A teenager with no prior training would be completely unable to lie under it. It's not even so much that you can't lie. It's it makes your mind believe there is no other option but to tell the truth. Lying isn't an option because your mind believes it's not."
"Grand", Ariana scoffed.
"I'm sure Professor Horsewood if not Jordan as well, will be there to monitor that the Ministry digs out only what'd be related to the attack", Uriel said shrugging.
"Indeed", Felix continued eating his breakfast as whispers spread over the Slytherin table.
"Okay, I'll see you guys later, classes then Quidditch training", he told Uriel and Ariana standing up.
"The final game will determine the winner and our captain can't lose", a fourth year boy said with overwhelming malice. Felix ignored him leaving.
Uriel couldn't prevent a low cackle from escaping him. "Sure she can, you've never had to have him explain his mind to you, that's why you think he can be beaten."
"You should be more supportive of our House's team", Lisa told him with a look of pure disgust.
"Oh, I am. But I am also realistic", Uriel replied unfazed by her effort to guilt him into submission.
"She's defeated him once before already!" The Fourth year boy went on, throwing fleeting glances at Lisa. "She did so last year, and she can do so again this year and take the trophy!"
"You can do better than Lisa", Ariana replied faster than Uriel with a face of contempt at both the Slytherin boy and Lisa.
"Wh-what! I'm only speaking the truth!" Rafael, as was his name, said in effort to repel her statement, caught off guard.
"Oh, sure you are. If your nose were anymore up her posterior your eyes would be able to see through her mouth!" Ariana replied calmly and yet with a vicious curl of her lips.
"I don't date younger guys", Lisa said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "But, in all honesty even a boy would make for a better boyfriend than the riff raff you are….consorting with."
In that moment if Ariana was a volcano instead of a human being there'd have been a very sizable crater around her and the look she gave Lisa voiced a lot more than words ever could have, yet Uriel placed a gentle hand on hers, shaking his head slightly before turning his attention to Lisa who was sporting a very smug smile.
"Oh well, this riff raff's father is a Governor again, he is respected and in the good graces of the New Ministry of Magic, and not in a cell in Azkaban for life. The polar opposite of your parents…lest we talk of more extended family members", he replied with a very calm and almost pleasant tone of voice.
Lisa's fists clenched, her smile vanishing in an instant. "Where is your loyalty and allegiance to Slytherin!"
"For far too long people like you have mired what it means to be a Slytherin. My allegiance lies with my House and with Hogwarts as well with my family and friends. Not with the likes of you. Come on, let's go", He finished motioning Ariana to stand, who did not need to be asked twice.
Claudia heard of the incident later in the day, from Ariana making her friend laugh at the extend her Italian swear words vocabulary and the speed at which words left her mouth.
She found Felix after dinner and asked him to take a walk with her around the viaduct and walls. He did always loved to walk hand in hand with her and talk so off they went.
"Ariana told me what happened, you hide it well from the others, but I can see through you, something's got you worried."
"It's nothing, just stressed is all, final game with Slytherin, the Dueling Finals, NEWTs…graduating school, I never thought I would make it", he replied pausing for a moment to lean over the parapets of the wall overlooking the inner courtyard.
Claudia tagged at his hand making him stand up straight before she wrapped her hands around his waist. "Those are all, indeed, valid points, but there's something else, I don't know what, but something's got you afraid, more afraid than even battling Azrail last year."
Felix hesitated a moment, peering into her concerned eyes. "Knowing what must be done, having accepted the task and its consequences and actually be willing to go through with it are two different things it would seem for I know what I must do and yet as the year comes to a close I'm finding myself increasingly less eager to go along with it", he told her at the verge of tears, well concealed ones.
"Your Prophesy? Why? You defeated Azrail, what else could be worrisome?" Claudia's voice cracked.
"Nothing, I'm probably just stressed about the game and the exams, is all", Felix pulled at her hand gently indicating they should start walking again.
Claudia let out a contained sigh, she knew better than to test his stubbornness when he didn't want to discuss something. "Why? You'll win and I don't know anyone eminently more capable in our year or any other of receiving straight O's than you."
"Because…what if Lisa's seen through my strategy and is stringing me along to a trap like I think I am doing with her? And…I don't know, NEWTs are supposed to be uber tough? Have I studied enough? Revised enough? What if I only think it's enough but it turns out it's not and I flank out?" He replied in a single breath.
"You've never been wrong about your strategies before, trust your instincts, and where's your self-confidence gone? You've never been worried about either Quidditch games or tests before, you just know you'll do great and you do so", she said in an attempt to boost his morale and vanquish doubts of his abilities, it killed her seeing him like this.
Felix kissed her caressing her cheek. "You're right, I'm just tired, come let's walk. How was your day?"