Felix had barely slept more than two or three hours when his alarm clock began ringing, louder and louder until grudgingly he crawled a hand from underneath the duvet, turning it off.
Outside his room nature slept, except for the occasional owl flying by, the sun not yet started on its daily voyage.
His mind coming to, consciousness flooded his mind as he shot up from the bed as did the reason of his stressful night and why he had not slept much. Hastily he put on clothes, shoes, backpack on his shoulder and out the room he was in under two minutes the bed left unmade.
Three dates had been important to him when this, final school, year had started. This was the first of the three, the second had been temporarily postponed and NEWTs were as yet far away.
He made his way down the dorm stairs, out the Common Room door and up the dungeon stairs. All in all, in ten minutes he stood outside the Forbidden Forest where he proceeded to pacing back and forth, hands in his pockets, lost in his thoughts.
"Boss", he heard Liam's voice behind him. The sun was just rising in the horizon.
"Liam. Morning", Felix nodded with a smile.
"Final game's tomorrow", Liam stated, nervousness clear in his voice.
"This is the final stretch, trust in me, yourself and the team to pull through and leave all anxiety behind. Just focus on what's ahead", Felix replied soothingly.
"Yes, boss. I just want to win soooo bad!" Liam exclaimed rubbing the sleep off his eyes.
Felix smiled saying nothing, there were no words that could describe how bad he wanted to win this game and the Quidditch Cup.
Eloise then Katya and the others arrived one by one.
"Follow me", he told them taking off deeper into the Forest in appreciated silence.
He walked them deep into the Forbidden Forest for over an hour until they reached a clearing, one of the forest's many, surrounded by tall thorny trunks and low lying ferns, the floor covered in moss and fallen leaves.
Felix stood at the clearing's edge dropping his backpack onto the floor.
"Uhm…Captain? Won't we train?" Steven asked seeing no apparatuses or brooms about.
"No", Felix shook his head gently, turning to see them. "We are done training for this year, these next twenty-four hours will be different than what you've experienced so far. This is the final stretch, leave all the anticipation, anxiety, and stress outside this clearing. Trust in me, in our trained strategy and tactics, yourselves and each other. You need nothing and no one else for tomorrow's game.
"To that effect I've cleared it with Professor Willows, and we'll be staying here until the game's start."
"Won't we freeze out here at night, Captain?" Eloise asked skeptically.
"When have I ever let you down? Trust in me", Felix replied with confidence.
"Right, sorry Captain! So, what'll we do here if not train?" Eloise beamed.
"Nothing. This is a day and night where we do nothing more than relax, talk, release stress, play and just unwind. We will eat here, sleep here, the outside world will not influence us, the temperature of this clearing and the Forest's various denizens will not bother us."
"Play? Play with what?" Sofie asked letting her backpack fall to the ground.
"I brought magic snap and boardgames", Katya replied removing boxes from her enchanted backpack.
"Me mum made us pies and cakes!" Liam pipped in excited with a toothy grin. "Nate let me know this would be happening."
Graham retrieved beverages and blankets from his backpack, while Steven tried to use the tickling charm at Felix which backfired on him making him fall on the soft soil in a fit of uncontrollable laughter for a minute or two before Felix terminated the spell.
"Oi! Why didn't that work! You weren't even holding your wand!" Steven said standing up.
"I need no wand, the Dueling Xiphos protects me just by being near me" Felix replied removing a magical phonograph from his backpack. He set it on the soil on top of one of the blankets and tapped it once with his wand.
"Wicked murtlaps!" Eloise cried with excitement slapping her hands together at the sound of the Wizarding band's tune.
Katya and Eloise set up the 'think before you charm your hex' board as Felix, Graham and Sofie started on a game of magic snap which soon enough developed into a mayhem of loud sounds and flashing lights followed by screams and laughter as Felix and the others tapped their wands on the cards.
Graham took a light noon nap, as did Eloise while Felix chatted with Katya and Liam about what he'd like to do after Graduating, what they wanted to do, their families, friends, and interests.
Emerick found Claudia and Ethel in the library, their heads bent over heavy-looking, dusty tomes. He paused to take a breather.
"Where's Felix? There's…"
"Took the team and Vanished, top secret wouldn't even tell me where to", Claudia replied in a whisper without looking away from her book containing complex symbols and alphabets.
"He told me he'd meet the team in the Viaduct", Ethel whispered back.
"He told me in the drawbridge", Claudia shrugged.
"Lisa's making changes!" Emerick said louder than Mr. Thorson liked drawing a 'ssshh' and an unhappy glare from the Librarian.
"Yeah, and that's why he did it", Claudia sighed looking up, placing a hand over the book, probably to mark where she'd stopped reading. "He doesn't want anyone or anything influencing him or the team in any way. We'll see them again tomorrow in the Quidditch pitch."
"We can try and find him!" Emerick whispered, stressed.
"Good luck with that, only Professors Jordan, Horsewood and Willows know where he is. And you can safely bet he'll have placed every anti-locating enchantment and protective ward imaginable!" Claudia restrained a laugh. "He doesn't want to be found today, that's the end of it."
"Right…well I must do something!" Emerick looked almost ready to launch off in orbit from the stress and excitement.
Ethel gave a low cackle finding it amusing. "Someone more stressed than I!"
"Well, yeah. It is my best friend's Magnum Opus…of sorts. Four years now he's been building the team, his Quidditch strategy and tactics and this cat and mouse game with Lisa the last two years. I just want him to win is all", Emerick slumped on a chair, placing his head in his hands.
"As we all do. Hint! None of us wants to win more in tomorrow's game than Felix, and none of us is more stressed about it than him", Claudia replied with a shrug.
"Felix? Stressed? He's always so confident!" Ethel drew a very unhappy gaze from Mr. Thorson.
"I know right? I don't think this is what's he's really stressed about, but he won't tell me what…how did Elisabeth put it? The thing where a much deeper worry laches on to something else that stresses you but normally you manage to keep it in 'normal' levels and blows it out of proportions? That."
"I don't know, it is the end of his effort. Quidditch, Dueling Tournament, NEWTs, the House Cup, which admittedly he's already won almost single-handedly…I mean I get your point but…no, okay I get your point. What else could he be worried about, though? War's finished, Azrail's defeated, his mum is alive, is it Charles being dead and him alive?" Ethel said abandoning her book.
"I do not know, he won't say", Claudia revealed but a slim surface of how much this bothered her. "But somehow I don't think it's anything related to school, or Quidditch. He's usually like this when something's threatening his life."
"But what? Or who?" Emerick propped up straight off his hands.
"I don't know….and he won't tell me", Claudia said in a resigned tone.
"So, how do I find him? Gotta tell him about Lisa's changes to her team!" Emerick changed the subject back to what was stressing him.
"How did you even find out about this?" Claudia asked, ever so slightly annoyed now.
"I've been dating Marissa Rottenberry, her cousin's in Slytherin team and told her. Marissa told me to impress me", Emerick explained.
"You've been had. That's what Felix would tell you if he were here now. Either Marissa's in on it, or Lisa's using her to get to Felix through her and you knowing of you two dating. She already tried the same thing with Alfred before the Gryffindor game, this way no one will see Felix or the team before the game", Claudia breathed out.
"Fine, but how can you study? Aren't you anxious over tomorrow's game?" Emerick relented.
"You mean there is a single student in this school who isn't talking, gossiping, discussing, analyzing, stressing, or thinking of the game for over a week now? Of course I am but studying helps me get my mind off other matters. Now, if you'll excuse me", Claudia turned her eyes on her book, tilting her head over it.
"Imma go find Uriel, then", Emerick made to stand up.
"He's under viaduct with Ariana, it's their 'spot'", Ethel grinned wide with a wink of her right eye.
"Oy…I'll find Marissa I guess, instead."
"Slytherin common room talking to Lisa and Anneke about the game", Ethel said not making an effort to hide her glee at knowing where everyone was.
"How…?" Emerick asked standing up, backpack over his shoulder.
"I know things", Ethel said mysteriously without indication she had any intent to say more.
Emerick raised an eyebrow, thinking internally whether there was any chance she'd, actually, say more if he pressed then decided against it. "Fine, I'll go find something to pass the time."
Katya woke up the morning after to see Felix already awake with one leg and the other one foot on knee of the other leg that was balancing on his broom, his eyes closed in deep concentration, hands by his sides and breathing steadily.
She sat cross-legged on her sleeping bag before joining him, balancing on a horisontal tree trunk, in silence.
"The others are still asleep", Felix stated in a low voice a few minutes later, his eyes still closed.
"Yeah, but they are awake when they must be", Katya said trying to even her breathing.
"Indeed, yet you are awake always", Felix replied with a small silence between sentences. "It is why you are effective immediately the team Captain."
Katya fell off the tree trunk in her astonished surprise, unable to believe what she had just heard. "Butbutbutbut! Steven has all that energy for chaser strategies! Graham…" She stuttered trying to get up.
"Yes, everyone has something to offer, it is why they are in the team", Felix opened his eyes looking at her, still balancing on his broom. They all see Quidditch through their positions in it. Yet you are the only one who has asked questions outside being a Seeker during training, the only one who has tried to see the whole picture, propose alternatives…"
"I thought that…irked you", Katya cut him off still shocked out of her wits.
"Sometimes, but I also wanted the Person who would succeed me in this role to have a level of clairvoyance and constantly question everything, see the whole team not just their own part in it and to adjust their thinking to each game's requirements. You are Captain after me", Felix took the Captain's badge passing it on to her. "What say you we go kick some Slytherin ass?"
"Yes, Captain!" Felix's head turned to the sound of the whole team speaking in unison.
"Good, grab your things and let's go to the Quidditch pitch", Felix jumped down from the broom pinning the badge in Katya's torso, right in the middle, below her neck.
They walked out of the forest and straight into the changing room tent where they changed into their Quidditch robes before heading into the pitch early.
"Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for being such excellent teammates all this time. Now, Steven I've been intentionally playing you in the wrong spot for years, for this game you are a Beater and I'll be a Chaser. This is our motto for this game. Take no prisoners and show no mercy. This is our strategy for the game, gather round and listen well", they gathered around Felix as he went on explaining them the strategy they'd use for this final game of the year and of his Captaincy.
Twenty minutes later students started filling the stands and thirty minutes later Lisa and the Slytherin team arrived in the pitch surprised to see the Hufflepuff team already there.
Half an hour after that Professor Willows and the two teams hovered mid-air.
"Good…" Lisa started saying but swallowed her tongue when she saw the look on Felix's face, all of it painted in team Hufflepuff's colours of black and yellow.
"Let's cut the crap. Four years ago team Slytherin humiliated Hufflepuff by defeating us three thousand to zero. Today we repay the kindness. May the best Hufflepuff win", he told her with the team and everyone not Slytherin in the stands roaring.
Lisa's jaw slacked when she saw the Captain's badge not on his chest but on Katya's and realized Felix was no longer going to play as a Beater with despair dawning on her.
"Th-that's an illegal move!" Lisa cried to Professor Willows, fear descending in her eyes and despair settling well in her mind. "The players' positions are set at the beginning of the year!"
"Per Captain. I resigned my Captaincy yesterday and Katya made this change today before the game as is her legal right as the team's new Captain as set by the rules of Hogwarts' Quidditch Tournament as well as most Quidditch Tournaments worldwide. Noose and switch, not bat", Felix replied calmly with a very smug, self-confident smile.
"The roles' switch is legal", Professor Willows said loud and clearly for both teams and everyone in the stands to hear. He then held the Quaffle in front of him, placing the whistle in his mouth. The game begun with another thundering roar by the Hufflepuff students in the stands.
Professor Willows launched the ball above him whistling the start of the game. Felix's reaction was instantaneous as he darted upwards at the ascending ball with an outstretched hand. He snatched it while Lisa was still lost in space and too late to offer any resistance as Felix passed to Eloise who passed it to Sofie who then launched it back to Felix already halfway across the pitch. Felix caught it with an upside down three sixty loop spiraling towards the Slytherin goal posts with the Slytherin Chasers still far away from him and the Beaters too slow in their reflexes with the bludgers.
"GOAL! First blood for team Hufflepuff!" The commentator yelled trying to be heard over the chorus of chanting Hufflepuffs.
"Rowan, the Slytherin goalkeeper, picks up the ball and tries to pass it to Lisa but Sofie steals it and scores again! Twenty to zero, folks! Lisa picks up the Quaffle passing it to Christine who passes it to Roderick who…Sofie steals it again!" Before the game and for a year now Lisa had wondered why Felix had picked such a small-bodied, fragile-looking person to be a Chaser. Now, it was made perfectly clear as Sofie navigated the air with dragonfly speed, catlike reflexes and pivots and a lethal accuracy, stealing the Quaffle time after time from the Slytherin Chasers and the Slytherin Beaters seemed just as lost as to how to handle this fast flier who in their minds should have been a Seeker instead.
And the goal difference only kept increasing between the two teams. A hundred to zero, four hundred to zero, five hundred, six hundred. Lisa seemed completely lost and unable to counter anything Felix and his team were doing, constantly reacting erroneously to the wrong things, her team was in complete disarray, no longer playing as a team but as a disjointed bundle of individuals each playing for themselves and with no faith to their team trying to defeat team Hufflepuff all on their own.
At one thousand to zero frustration, annoyance and humiliation settled in causing them to foul often, giving Hufflepuff even more chances at scoring as their flanks and rear were left defenseless for Felix and his team to assault at will and preference.
Team Hufflepuff on the other hand acted as a single entity, where Felix acted the whole team followed united, smiles on their faces, celebrating each and every of Sofie's steals and each and every goal with their House mates in the stands.
"This isn't a game, this is a…a…I don't even know what to name this…" Emerick yelled at Claudia cheering his friend's team's latest goal.
"IT'S A FIESTA FOR HUFFLEPUFF! IT'S NOT A GAME! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN FELIX WOULD NEVER HAVE ALLOWED IT TO BE A COMPETITION!" Claudia tried in turn to be heard over the defeating roars of the crowd. "THIS IS AMAZING!"
Lisa was not only lost, but she did also not appear to be capable to come back from the staggering start and pull herself and her team together to answer the Hufflepuff onslaught, as a result the score difference between the two teams kept increasing.
"Felix steals the Quaffle from Lisa, just when she seemed to be coming back from the abyss! That was a good passing game there, considering! Felix has the ball but doesn't pass it along! Why is he waving at Katya?! What will this team do now! He dodges Roderick, avoids Lisa again, ducks under a bludger! Is there nothing that can stop him!" The Ravenclaw girl commentator shouted passionately not even caring that it wasn't her House playing or winning, completely lost in the moment.
Lisa yelled at her scattered team, motioning them to outflank Felix and form a wall in front of him. All three of Slytherin team's Chasers flew on ahead standing between Felix and the goal as Liam and Steven deflected the bludgers away from him and Katya.
"Felix isn't passing the ball! Sofie and Eloise are trailing him on either side at a distance! They don't seem to want to protect his flanks, what are they cooking now!" Felix flew straight on ahead as if daring the Slytherin Chasers in a game of chicken, who will blink first, and closer and closer he got to the wall of three players wanting to steal the ball from him, probably even foul and debroom him just out of spite with all and any hope of victory long since vanquished from their sight.
"This ain't a game of chicken! For the love of Merlin do something!" The commentator shouted grabbing hold of her hair as if wanting to tear at it from the suspense.
Felix edged closer and closer until Lisa and Roderick launched at him and in one seamless, well-practiced move he climbed on his broom, releasing his hands, broom surfing while simultaneously turning a full circle from right to left and in ten glorious seconds he was left alone with the three goal posts and a terrified, disheartened goalkeeper and the rest of the Slytherin team behind him.
Still broom surfing he flew, his body behaving as if he was riding a wave not air as his foot kept nigh-perfect control of the broom, at the goal posts and the goalkeeper who when Felix threw the Quaffle at the right most goal hoop did not even have the energy or will to do anything other than just hover there as the Quaffle went right past his right side and into the Goal Hoop.
"FELIX SCORES! THREE THOUSAND TO ZERO! OH BY MERLIN'S BEARD WHAT A MOVE! AND WHAT IS THIS?! KATYA HAS CAUGHT THE GOLDEN SNITCH! The game is over! Hufflepuff have won the game and the cup with three thousand one hundred and fifty to zero! It is all over folks! See you again next year!" The Ravenclaw commentator cried caught by the moment as Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students erupted in the stands.