Year 1: Star Gazer

Chapter 4: December 2015

Before Louis knew it, his first term was over and he was home for the Christmas holidays. Though he was overjoyed to see his parents, he also felt a twinge of sadness when the Hogwarts Express pulled out of Hogsmeade station. He was going to miss the castle. After all his doubts and nervousness about going to Hogwarts, he'd grown to like it. He had his friend Justin, he had the astronomy club, and he had his sisters in case he ever felt homesick.

Nonetheless, being back in his old room felt good. Especially since he didn't have to share the room with four other boys. Louis liked to keep his room tidy, but with four room mates, it was almost impossible to keep the dorm clean. There were always dirty clothes lying around on the floor, even in Louis' part of the room, despite the fact that he kept his clothes either in his trunk or in the laundry. And for some reason, the boys' dorm always smelled like there was some kind of rotting food lying around somewhere, though Louis had never been able to identify the source of the smell. And the other boys didn't seem to care.

What Louis was most looking forward to though, was Christmas Eve at the Burrow. Over the past months at Hogwarts, Louis had had his sisters with him, and he'd been in contact with his parents. What he'd really missed since he'd left home was spending time with his cousins. Ever since he was little, Louis had spent much of his time at the houses of his various aunts and uncles. Particularly, he missed James and Lucy – the two cousins with whom he was closest in age, besides Molly who wasn't much fun anyway (they were both a year younger than Louis).

As soon as he and his family arrived at the Burrow, Louis hurried upstairs to find his cousins.

"Louis!" Lucy exclaimed, running at Louis and giving him a hug. "I missed you!"

"I missed you too Luce," Louis said. "You too James."

"You've got to tell us everything," James insisted. "What's Hogwarts like?"

"Don't you pretty much know?" Louis asked. "I mean, Teddy's been going to Hogwarts for years and he practically lives with you."

"Yeah, but he's a seventh year," James pointed out. "He's old. I want to hear from you."

"Did you just call me old?" Teddy asked, coming down from upstairs.

"Definitely not," James shook his head seriously. "I would never call you old. Wise certainly. Mature obviously."

Teddy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered, ruffling James' hair. "Louis, good to see you. Any idea where your sister is?"

"Victoire?" Louis guessed. "Still downstairs, I think."

"Thanks buddy," Teddy said, patting Louis on the shoulder before heading downstairs.

"Hey!" Molly called out after Teddy. "Are you coming back? Should we wait for you to play?"

"I think we're going to sit this one out, Molls," Teddy called back.

Louis heard Molly harrumph. He laughed. She hated nicknames.

"Come on, let's go upstairs," Lucy suggested then. "Rose and Hugo and Fred and Roxanne aren't here yet, and we can't start hide-and-seek without them, so we can talk."

"Can I come with you?" Albus asked, appearing at James' side.

"No," James said, shaking his little brother off. "Go play with Lily."

Albus wrinkled his nose. "I don't want to play with Lily," he complained.

"Then go play with Dominique," James amended. "Just don't follow us."

The three cousins made their way up to the fifth floor and went into Uncle Ron's old room, Lucy and James sitting down on the bed and Louis pulling up a chair.

"So?" James prompted when Louis didn't speak right away. "Tell us everything."

Louis frowned. "Well… I joined the astronomy club," he said.

James gave his cousin a blank stare. "The astronomy club?" he repeated. "Seriously?"

"Hey!" Louis cried defensively. "It's a lot cooler than you think!"

"What do you do exactly?" Lucy wondered.

Louis smiled. Surely this would sound cool to them. "Well," he said. "Right now, we're working on building this huge telescope. It's going to be able to see things normal telescopes can't. It'll be the strongest one Hogwarts has ever had."

"So… let me get this straight," James frowned. "You're attending Hogwarts – a magical school full of magical things do to. You could be playing Quidditch, or playing exploding snap with your friends. But instead you're building a telescope?"

"Well, yeah," Louis replied.

James gave Louis a look and then exchanged one with Lucy. Then he sighed.

"Lame," he said while Lucy nodded.

Louis was baffled. How could his cousins think he was lame? Astronomy club was fun! He was learning way more about astronomy and telescopes than he ever would in astronomy class. And as a member of the club, he'd be among the first students to get to try out the telescope once it's built. Maybe even before some of the faculty members.

Before long, Rose, Hugo, Fred, and Roxanne had arrived and Molly made the announcement that hide-and-seek was starting. As usual, nobody wanted to be the first counter, so Molly nominated Lucy.

"Ugh," Lucy groaned. "You always pick me."

"You didn't count last year," Molly pointed out.

Lucy didn't bother to argue with her older sister, and instead covered her eyes and began counting. Louis immediately made for the stairs leading down and ran to the second floor, running into his Uncle George's old room. He was still small enough to hide under the bed, and this was his favorite bed to hide underneath. Quietly, he slipped under and pulled the covers down so that he wouldn't be immediately visible to Lucy when she came seeking.

Just as Louis finished safely hiding himself, someone else came bounding into the room.

"Who's out there?" Louis hissed.

"Lily," his youngest cousin replied.

"Well go away," Louis demanded. "I'm hiding in here."

"Two people can hide in the same room," Lily said. Louis could practically hear the sass dripping from her voice. She was much too young for sass, Louis mused.

"Fine, well just hide before we're both caught," Louis demanded.

He felt Lucy bounce up onto the bed, the springs above him bouncing as she did. Then suddenly the covers that Louis had so carefully positioned were pulled up, leaving Louis completely exposed.

"Lily!" Louis cried. "What are you doing?"

"I'm hiding under the covers," Lucy replied.

"Well I was using those," Louis said. "So can I have them back please?"

"Then where am I supposed to go?" Lily asked.

"I don't know," Louis said. "Anywhere else."

"I'm staying here," Lily declared.

Louis groaned. His hiding spot was no good without the covers to block him from sight. Lucy would spot him immediately. He was about to slide out from under the bed to find a new hiding spot when he heard Lucy descending the stairs and knew he was out of luck.

"Don't give my hiding spot away," Louis ordered, pushing himself against the wall as much as he could and trying not to move. Maybe if he was lucky, Lucy would see Lily first and then move on.

Though he could no longer see the door, he knew immediately when Lucy had arrived because the footsteps came to a stop.

"Seriously guys?" Lucy asked. "Louis is that you under there?"

Louis sighed and pushed himself out, bringing with him a cloud of dust.

"Yeah, it's me," he sighed.

"And you thought that was a good hiding spot?" Lucy questioned.

"Well Lily kind of ruined it," Louis replied. "She stole the covers so I couldn't pull them down in front of me.

"Hey!" Lily cried, popping up out of the bundle of covers on top of the bed. "You gave me away. That's not fair, you said I couldn't do that to you."

"She knew you were here already, Lily," Louis shook his head. "It wasn't the most ingenious hiding spot."

"Well she still found you first," Lily declared happily, climbing off the bed. "So I don't have to count anyway."

Louis sighed. "So not fair," he muttered.

Lucy was able to find everyone without much effort. After years of playing this game, the Weasley cousins were having trouble finding creative places to hide. For the most part, they all knew where all the good places were.

Since Louis was found first, he reluctantly covered his eyes and counted out the next round, listening carefully to his cousins' footsteps in the hopes of identifying where they were going. Unfortunately, there were too many of them and his ears weren't strong enough to discern all the different feet and it did little good.

When he finished counting, Louis began to make his rounds, starting on the fourth floor in Uncle Percy's old room and then crossing over to his father's old room, locating Roxanne, Rose, Albus, and James. He found Dominique on the fifth floor in Uncle Ron's old room, and Molly and Fred were both in the attic. Finally, he descended to the second floor to find Lily in the exact same spot on Uncle George's old bed and also found Hugo and Lucy in Aunt Ginny's old room.

They played a few more rounds of hide-and-seek before Grandfather Weasley called up that the family Quidditch game was starting. Louis and his cousins descended to the garden and assembled by the pitch as the adults decided on the teams.

"Louis, you should play," James encouraged his cousin. "You're at Hogwarts now, you've taken flying lessons."

"Only a few," Louis shook his head. "I'm not ready to play a competitive game of Quidditch. Besides, the teams would be uneven if I joined."

"Oh come on Louis, play," Lucy urged him. "It'll be fun!"

"Hey Dad?" James called, without giving Louis the opportunity to say no again. "Louis wants to play."

"Well alright then!" Harry exclaimed. "We've got a new player!" He clapped Louis on the back and led him over to the other adults, standing by the broom shed. "Look who's decided to join us," Harry said.

"Alright Son," Bill said. "Nice to see I've at least got one kid who's interested in the game."

Louis grimaced. He didn't particularly want to play, but now that the adults were so excited, he didn't see that he had a choice. Plus, his father was excited, and he wouldn't want to disappoint him.

"I can sit out," Aunt Angelina volunteered. "Unless you guys want to play with uneven teams?"

"I think I know how to even the teams out," Teddy declared, walking away from the group and taking Victoire aside.

Louis couldn't hear what Teddy and Victoire was saying, but from the looks of it, Teddy was trying to convince Victoire to play, and Victoire was reluctant to agree. Eventually, Teddy returned with Victoire, a victorious smile on his face.

"All solved," Teddy said. "Victoire will make the teams even. Five against five."

"I'll be on Teddy's team," Victoire volunteered.

"I don't think so," Louis' father shook his head. "Louis can be on Teddy's team. Victoire, you'll fly with me."

Victoire pouted and then Teddy whispered something to her that made her smile.

The adults conferred for another few moments before making their final decisions. Louis' team consisted of himself, Teddy, Uncle Ron, Uncle George, and Aunt Ginny. The other team consisted of Victoire, Uncle Charlie, Uncle Harry, Aunt Angelina, and of course his father.

The teams then separated to confer with one another. As a former professional Quidditch player, Aunt Ginny immediately assumed the role of team captain, declaring that Ron would play Keeper and George would play beater, while she, Louis, and Teddy would be the chasers and seekers. Since they were only a team of five, there was only one beater, and the role of seeker wasn't designated to only one player.

Louis was glad he'd been assigned to be a chaser. The pressure of being his team's only keeper or beater would have been too much.

Across the pitch, the other team appeared to have made their decisions as well. Charlie flew up to guard the goalposts and Bill grabbed a beater's bat, leaving Louis to surmise that in terms of chasing and seeking, he was up against Victoire, Aunt Angelina, and Uncle Harry.

Louis chose a broom from those available – there were plenty, though most were old or outdated. He ended up on an older Nimbus model and carefully kicked off from the ground, trying to keep steady as he took his place in the sky.

As usual, Aunt Audrey released the bludger and snitch, while taking the quaffle in her hands and walking into the center of the field. As soon as she released the quaffle she ducked and ran to the sidelines and joined with the cousins and other adults who weren't involved in the making of dinner.

Louis pushed his broom forward in the direction of the quaffle, but Aunt Angelina got to it first, flying past him at lightning speed and going straight for the goalposts. Aunt Ginny tried to stop her, but Aunt Angelina evaded her, throwing the quaffle at the goalposts. Lucky for Louis and his team, Uncle Ron flew in and saved the day, catching the quaffle and then tossing it in Louis' direction.

Panicking, Louis reached out both hands to catch the quaffle. Unfortunately, taking both hands off the broom handle caused Louis to lose his balance and wobble a bit. In his haste to regain his balance, he missed catching the quaffle, watching in dismay as it fell below him and Uncle Harry flew past, scooping it up and making straight for the goalposts. Uncle Ron was distracted, keeping an eye on Louis and his shaky flying and didn't have time to block Uncle Harry's goal. The quaffle sailed through the goalposts and landed on the ground behind, where Aunt Audrey picked it up and returned it to Uncle Ron.

Louis felt himself turn red. If it hadn't been for his wobbly-ness, he'd have caught the quaffle and Uncle Harry wouldn't have made that point. Or at least, Uncle Ron wouldn't have been distracted and would have been able to block it.

Resolving to do better, Louis got a firm grip on his broom and rejoined the game. He wasn't quite as fast as the rest of the adults, but at least he wasn't as bad as Victoire, who was barely keeping up at all.

After about half an hour, Louis still hadn't been able to make any points. Every time he tried, Uncle Charlie blocked it. He saw his father fly over to Uncle Charlie and say something, gesturing in Louis' direction. Louis assumed Bill was telling Charlie to let Louis have a free shot, which Louis didn't appreciate at all. Once Bill had flown away, Louis met Charlie's eye and shook his head, making sure his uncle got the message not to give any points away undeserved.

Just as Louis was preparing to go after the quaffle again, he noticed something shiny only a short distance away from him. Looking around, he surmised that he was the only one who saw it. If he made a break for it, everyone would know what he saw and would either all try to grab it too, or else keep their distances and let Louis win out of pity. Louis didn't like either of those possibilities, so instead, he continued to fly at his usual slow pace, keeping his eyes focused elsewhere than the floating golden ball, while keeping the snitch still in his peripheral vision.

Once he'd drifted close enough, Louis slowly began to reach out his hand, not wanting to frighten the snitch away. If it zoomed across the pitch now, then he'd never catch it. He reached his hand higher, and higher, and then with a grin closed his fist around it, reveling in the feel of the cool metal against his palm.

"I caught the snitch!" Louis cried in victory.

For a moment everyone came to a stop in confusion. The game usually either ended in a mad dash for the snitch, or Grandmother Weasley calling them all in for dinner. The snitch being caught without anyone noticing was unprecedented at the Burrow.

Louis opened his hand to prove that he had indeed caught the ball, and suddenly both teams had flown over to him and were congratulating him, slapping him on the back proudly. The opposing team didn't seem disappointed at all, and Louis knew they were just glad that his first game had been such a success.

Louis touched down on the ground and his cousins surrounded him, all wanting to get a turn to hold the snitch. Louis didn't know what was so special about the snitch – it was the same snitch they always used and nobody had cared about it before. He supposed now that he'd caught it, it was more special or something.

Luckily, dinner was just about ready, so Louis was able to escape the mob that was his family by excusing himself to wash his hands. Back in the kitchen, he volunteered to help his Grandmother to get the bowls of food onto the two tables and then he called everyone else inside.

"That was amazing!" James said, sitting down with Louis at the kids' table. "You should be on the Quidditch team. Forget this astronomy club nonsense."

"I don't know about that," Louis shook his head. "It was a lucky catch. I never would have gotten it if it hadn't been right there. You saw how terrible I flew."

"I saw how terrible your sister flew," Lucy laughed.

"Hey!" Victoire's voice called out from down the table. "I heard that!"

Lucy shut her lips and tried not to smile. "Well it's true," she muttered under her breath so that only James and Louis could hear.

Louis laughed. "Alright, I guess I'm not the worst flier here."

"You'd better watch out for next year though," James warned. "Because as soon as I get to Hogwarts, I'm going to be flying all the time. I'll be unstoppable."

"I look forward to that," Louis laughed. "Though I may not play again next year."

"But you have to!" Lucy cried. "No way will Victoire play again, so you'll have to play to make the teams even with James playing."

"Or you could play," Louis pointed out.

"Me?" Lucy asked in surprise. "Oh, I don't know about that. I'm not much of an athlete."

"I guess we'll see about that," Louis smirked.

"I guess we will," Lucy agreed, taking a bite of turkey. "It won't be long now."