"I swear, Black can be a real pain in the arse," Leila muttered darkly as she and Alex trudged to the Quidditch field the following afternoon. Breakfast had just ended and people had decided to take advantage of a clear Saturday to come outside and enjoy the cool breeze—or shiver outright, as a group of Slytherin girls decided huddling by themselves on the nearest Quidditch stand, chattering excitedly. Rebecca was with them, Leila could see, and felt a twinge of pity that she quickly mustered down with a healthy dose of objectivity. Rebecca knew from the beginning what was coming her way—not her fault if she can't make up her mind about what she really wants.

"Scheduling a tryout in less than a day, what does he think, that we're all some sort of dogs that he can order around any time he wants to?" She kicked the broom moodily. "Ow," she said.

"The game's in less than two weeks, isn't it?"

Leila scoffed. "And naturally they couldn't take into account the fact that the Slytherins don't even have a team. Let me ask you—who else is talking about fair play, eh? The mighty Gryffindors? Yeah, the Hufflepuffs wouldn't care, except that's the only thing they've got going on for them—"

"The Slytherin Quidditch team began the fight, that's been established—"

"Listen to you, someone might actually think that you're on Black's side." Leila peered curiously at her friend. It'd been three days since Alex came back to Hogwarts and, as far as anyone could tell, she was adapting back her old habitat extremely well. Despite missing an year of school, she somehow kept up the pace of the seventh-year schedule, which included a whole mess of six years' worth of review plus more advanced theory and spells. Alex had told her that Slughorn had arranged for some fellow seventh-years to be her tutor every week or so, but as far as Leila could tell from their time in Transfigurations, Charms, and Defense (who needed anything else?), Alex was doing fine—a bit too fine.

And there were signs of this. Alex was never skinny, but she seemed thinner than she used to be. At five or six in the morning—Leila never got up before seven, so she wasn't sure—she could hear noise from Alex's part of the room, and when she asked her later, Alex just shrugged and said that she went "jogging." Leila supposed that physical exercise was good for coping with trauma—Alex did lose her mom to that terrible incident—but she couldn't tell if Alex was thinking about her mom at all. She was almost cordial to the fellow Slytherins, as if she felt nothing but comradery toward them, even though rumors behind the Daily Prophet had it that the "incident" that Sophia Wilson had been a victim of had been a cover-up for Death Eater activities. Leila shuddered. Her family stayed out of the Dark Lord business as much as possible, of course, and she couldn't imagine being affected—but all the more reason why she couldn't understand why Alex was so calm. She even offered Rebecca help with her Charms homework, for Merlin's sake. Rebecca, who'd been her number one rival since arriving to Hogwarts! Though Leila supposed that it was good of Alex to let go of petty rivalries and be the bigger person, especially seeing as Regulus was out of her life.

But this was a new development.

"Why are you trying out for the team?" Leila asked, unable to contain her curiosity. "You've never been interested in Quidditch. At all. Despite my continuous efforts."

"Maybe your efforts finally paid off."

"I don't think so," Leila said, narrowing her eyes. "You're not—"

"What?"

"I dunno, it's just—all these girls here—"

"What?" This time there was a coldness in the lines of Alex's face as she looked stonily at her. But the cat was already out of the bag.

"Well it's the first time the Slytherin team decided to let in girls in, like, seventy years, and all the girls finally got an excuse to come out and openly watch or even try to try out, trying to, you know, catch the eyes of—" Leila nudged her head toward the direction of the implied person, but Alex just raised her eyebrows.

"Eyes of what, Leila?"

"C'mon, don't make me suffer because he was an asshole to you."

Alex sighed. "You're right. Sorry," she muttered, looking at the ground.

Leila shrugged. "I was just wondering if you came to the try-outs to impress him, or something, you know, prove that you "still got it," and all that. And I know you're already busy, studying to catch up and looking at job applications and all. From that reaction, I guess not."

Alex scratched her head. "I don't know. I just finally have it, I guess."

"What?"

"Perspective." And then Alex suddenly grinned at her. "It's not like these dunderheads know how to fly anyway, right? Might as well show them how it's done." And with that uncharacteristically reckless remark Alex began to march toward the center of the field and Leila quickly followed, feeling worried—not about her own chances, but for Alex. There was an odd glint in Alex's eyes that made Leila uneasy. Too uneasy.

In the middle of the field most of the students had already gathered—some scrawny second-years who might (Leila supposed) make decent Seekers had Regulus not already occupied position, all of the former Quidditch team members who weren't suspended, several new upperclassmen that Leila had seen before, and a handful of girls who appeared breathless from excitement. What excitement, one could only guess. Regulus surveyed the whole crowd impassively, as if he were made out of stone.

Leila shook her head. She supposed that Alex and he were together for a reason.

"Alright, listen up," Regulus said, his voice tense. "It's Saturday, and the field's not even booked properly, so there might be some people wandering around. Keep that in mind. The first task is simple. On my whistle, get on your brooms, kick off, and do three laps around the field. Don't try to do anything fancy, this is just to warm up. Is everyone ready?" A round of vigorous head-nodding ensured and Regulus gestured everyone to get on their brooms. Leila's heart pounded painfully against her sternum, and she thought she couldn't breathe—but then she saw Alex looking at her with a look that said "this is going to be too easy," and then remembered the letter from Fred that she received this morning wishing her good luck, and all the times she'd been kicked off the Quidditch field because she wasn't "qualified," and she was off in the air.

Leila couldn't remember most of her try-out; she knew that she got back to the ground safely (unlike a few younger students, who had attempted to go faster than they actually could to get ahead before crashing gently into the field), and that there was a lot of commotion as Regulus chose the most violent try-out method possible as he gathered up a group of potential chasers, tossed them a Quaffle, and told them to take it and to score as many times as possible. She remembered some scratching and shoving involved (possibly she was the recipient and giver of both), and that she scored a few goals and blocked more goals from being scored, before coming back down after the whistle, convinced that she'd messed up the entire thing horribly.

"Alright," Regulus said, barely looking up from his notebook. "I'm going down the number of goals, and the rest can try out for other positions if they want, but otherwise thank you for coming… Clarendon, Livingston, Parkinson, Dingby, Gibbon, Wilkes." He looked up from the notebook. "That's all. I need you six for the Beaters and Keeper tryout, so stay on the field." And then, ignoring all protests from other students, he walked to the other side of the field where potential Beaters, including Alex, were sitting and watching. They collectively stood up when Regulus approached and followed him solemnly.

"Nice job up there," Alex muttered as they waited for Regulus' instructions. Leila grinned faintly.

"Did I? I don't remember," Leila replied in an uncharacteristically squeaky voice. Alex laughed quietly.

"Yeah, not bad."

"Not bad?"

"Here's what we're going to do," Regulus interrupted their conversation briskly. "Beaters will be randomly placed into pairs, and each pair will try to knock off the Chasers flying around them. We'll go in that way for one round and then switch up the partners. Understood?"

"You're not going to hit me, are you?" Leila asked, looking up and down at the bat in Alex's hand. Alex just grinned.

Despite Leila's worry that most of the students who tried out for Beater were guys and big, Alex stood out—to everyone's surprise. She was stable and strong on the broom that Leila had pulled out from the bottom of her trunk (she had several stashes of stolen brooms from her brother) and managed to knock out Gibbon and Livingston with her partner (a third-year named Thorne) before Regulus blew his whistle.

"Not bad," Regulus said impassively before turning to Rowle and the younger Nott. "Ready?"

"Not bad," Leila repeated nonchalantly to Alex, who grinned tightly.

"You reckon?"

"Yeah. What have you been up to the past year? Practicing Quidditch?"

"I told you in my letters, didn't I? I was backpacking across Europe."

Leila rolled her eyes. "I know that. But you couldn't have been just traveling for an entire year."

"I mean, yeah, I met some people along the way, and I helped out for room and board and stuff, sometimes."

"Were you with Muggles?" To Alex's look Leila quickly added, "Not that that's bad, or anything, but you know what I mean."

"Sometimes, yeah."

"I was wondering, though."

"As always."

"You know who's in Bulgaria?"

To this Alex looked genuinely puzzled. "Who's in Bulgaria?"

Leila rolled her eyes in frustration. "Henryk!" she yelled, loudly than she'd intended. Several onlookers turned toward them annoyed—including the captain of the team, whose face was dark—due to the fiasco happening in the air or because of what Leila said, she couldn't tell. He blew his whistle and the players came down, one by one.

"Rowle!" he yelled. "What was that?"

"I was going for the Bludger—"

"When Nott was clearly fifteen seconds closer to it," Regulus cut him off. "And you were in a perfect place to hit Dingby. Or didn't you see that?"

"Look, Regulus—"

"That's enough," Regulus snapped. "We'll move on."

Leila whistled low under her breath. "Talk about drama," she said. "But he didn't really occur to you?"

Alex sighed. "I remembered him, yeah, but we didn't have much time."

Leila raised her eyebrow. "We? And I thought you were travelling—time's the only thing you do have."

"Yeah, but—I couldn't figure out what I'd say, you know? I didn't know where he was, and just showing up seemed like bad form."

Leila rolled her eyes. Alex could be so slow sometimes—as if that guy would ever mind her just "showing up." "Sure," she said. "You're not going to tell me anything, that's fine."

"I'm not trying to hide anything—"

"Yeah, yeah, you are," Leila said. "And I get it, you know? Your mom passed away, and you don't want to talk about things. But it's been three days, and you haven't said anything." She paused. "I'm going to see if Regulus needs a fresh Chaser." And she stood up and left.

Sadly, Regulus wasn't exactly in a better mood than her.

"Stop the chatter, Parkinson," were the first words he said.

"Stop being a brat, Black," Leila shot back. "Not my fault that you can't control your temper." Regulus let out a long, thin breath.

"What do you want?"

"I figured you might need another Chaser. Dingby looks like he's taken a beating."

"Fine. You can switch with him the next round." Regulus scribbled something in his notebook. Leila peered at it from his side—next to Alex's name (unemotionally written "Wilson") there were several more checks than next to other names.

"Alex is doing pretty well, isn't she?"

"I'm aware, Parkinson."

Leila rolled her eyes but decided not to say anything. How she ended up with these two most frustrating and stubborn people as her "friends," she would never know.

Truth to be told, she would not have started talking to Regulus Black had it not been for Alex, and Alex would not have started talking to Regulus Black—or, rather, Regulus Black would not have started talking to Alex—had it not been for the fact that the two were the most isolated people in the Slytherin house. Back in first year no one trusted Alex—she was a Wilson, a family infamous for its anti-Pureblood agenda (her grandfather, whether Alex knew it or not, had once occupied a fairly prominent position in the Ministry), and had it not been for the family having a very old, Pureblood line, Alex probably would not have survived the first month in the house. And Regulus had just been the second son of the Black family, overlooked due to the much more outgoing and noticeable older son. And he probably preferred it that way, being the boring bookworm that he is. Their friendship—though she had to admit that sometimes it looked more like a contractual companionship between Alex the lost puppy and Regulus the lonely dog-owner who protected his puppy from other mean puppies—was understood by many to something that would disintegrate over time as their priorities shifted. And Leila thought the same thing, even when she became friends with Alex and saw their relationship more up close. They were different people, from different backgrounds, with different perspectives. It wasn't until Alex left and Leila had to go on patrols with Regulus that Leila began to see why they were involved for so long in what appeared to her as a dysfunctional relationship destined to fail.

They were bull-headed—clearly—and both didn't show their emotions very well, which wasn't so unusual or disliked in Slytherin. It was good policy to keep things inside, and students let other students have their privacy. But their families, although they were very different, produced two children who grew up feeling similarly out of place and left out—Alex from her magical abilities and Regulus from his proper place as the Black son—and, as far as rumors went (but Leila was pretty sure at this point that they were true) neither Mrs. Black nor Ms. Wilson were always capable of being there for their children, while their fathers were either blatantly indifferent or absent. They were both intelligent (Leila, of course, would never admit this to Regulus), interested finding out in how things worked, and they were both ambitious enough to want recognition for their accomplishments. But the more Leila watched the Slytherin prefect secretly spiral out after Alex's departure, the clearer it became to her that Alex wasn't the lost puppy—they both were, and he needed her as much as she needed him, if not more. And, despite everything, Regulus was fair; he was, as far as Leila knew, quite possibly the only prefect other than the Hufflepuffs who gave people in his own house the same punishments he gave to other students. And he, being the stubborn asshole he was, was constant about the things he said, even though others didn't always like them, and he genuinely cared about what his duties as the captain and the prefect. Which brought the question as to why the two broke up in the first place. She'd seen Alex in low spirits because he always kept the relationship a secret from everyone else, and Leila doubted that Alex was thrilled about his connection with the Death Eaters, but it was difficult for her to imagine that Regulus went against his word. But, of course, neither talked.

"That's enough!" Regulus shouted to people across the field. "For the next round, I want Nott, Wilson, Castleberry…" And again he waved off a round of protests and paired the Beaters off into twos.

Leila sighed. At least her own life was in order.

That night Leila was feeling more celebratory.

"Quidditch team!" she shouted, flinging herself onto her bed. "Finally, after six long years—"

"Congratulations," Alex said from her bed, taking her shoes off. Leila flipped toward her.

"Well I can't take all the glory," she said. "You're on the team too, remember?"

Alex sighed tiredly. "Yeah."

Leila frowned. "Problem, Wilson?"

"I just realized that I have three different assignments due Monday and I forgot about two of them."

Leila harrumphed. "Assignments on a glorious day such as this! No, no, we have to celebrate."

"By doing what? It's already past curfew."

Leila grinned. "How about the kitchen? It's only one floor above."

"How about the library? Seventh-year privileges, remember?"

Leila dove into the trunk in search for the secret compartment. "Ah-hah!" she shouted.

"Leila—"

She triumphantly held up a bottle of Firewhiskey. "Ta-da," she said. "Now, I know what you're thinking—"

"What am I thinking?"

"As a prefect, you want to set a good example, but —" But whatever excuse Leila thought she was going to give, she never found out; before she could finish her sentence, Alex grabbed the bottle from her hand, unscrewed the top, and took a large swig.

Leila's eyes widened. "Blimey," she said. "You did some travelling, huh?"

Alex grinned. "Let's say I grew acquainted with foreign objects."

A few minutes later, Leila managed to convince Alex to go to the kitchen with her for a late-night snack and alcohol made Alex admit that she didn't want to study. As they stumbled down the stairs, Leila recognized a face going up to the fourth-year girls' room.

"Connie!" Leila said. "Constance Selwyn. Where are you headed?"

Constance stopped and looked worriedly at her. "Leila, what did you do?" Her eyes widened. "Are you drunk?"

Leila rolled her eyes. She'd known Constance for a while, of course, and liked the younger girl more than she liked other girls she was forced to socialize with during her parents' parties. Constance was more level-headed than most girls her age in the Slytherin house, which meant, to Leila, that she was conversant in Quidditch and indifferent to Boys. And now there was the added bonus of regarding this new Keeper of the Slytherin Quidditch team with fond, if not slightly tipsy eyes.

"Pooof," Leila said, which she meant as "of course not."

"Yup," Alex said from beside her. "Connie, is it? Alex Wilson, nice to meet you." They shook hands.

"I remember you," Connie said slowly. "You just came back, you were the prefect with Regulus."

"And the Beater!" Leila added loudly, the former quip about drunkenness already forgotten. "Merlin, three girls on the Quidditch team, two on the reserve. I'm feeling pretty stoked right now."

"Leila's been fighting an uphill battle," Alex explained.

Connie patted Leila on the shoulder. "I heard about the "Slytherin tradition." No girls allowed. It's so silly, just look at the Hollyhead Harpies!"

"Ex-actly!" Leila said, her voice still too loud. But for once, she didn't care how loud she was being. "A girl after my own heart. Finally. Finally."

"We're actually going to the kitchen," Alex added, "if you want to join us." Leila looked at her friend with a skewed look.

"You? You're inviting a younger student to break the rules with us?"

Alex shrugged. "It's probably good for teamwork," she said, grinning at Connie.

"That's exactly how the players got thrown out the last time, Wilson," Leila said sarcastically, but Connie seemed excited.

"I'll go!" she said, looking around. "Do I have to bring anything?"

"Nope," Leila said. "C'mon."

The way out the Slytherin Common Room was easy enough. Other than a large group of students engaged in a game of Exploding Snaps, almost everyone else seemed engaged in their homework. They slipped out the door unnoticed and quietly began to make their way to the small staircase that very few students used outside the Slytherin house when they heard hushed voices. Alex, who had been leading them in the front, held out her arm and stopped them.

"What is it?" Leila whispered from the back. Alex shook her head.

"I don't know," she said. "But the sound's coming from the staircase, so let's wait in the shadows." Connie nodded, and they flattened themselves against the wall as footsteps grew louder and louder.

"It's a bad decision, Regulus," a male voice—the older Nott—said.

"You should've thought of that before attacking the Gryffindors, Nott."

"We didn't attck them, we—"

"Not the point," Yaxley said impatiently. "No one's going to accept girls on the team, Regulus. You know that."

Several footsteps halted and Leila drew in a slow, deep breath—trying to calm herself down so that they didn't get discovered, and that she didn't leap out from the dark and slashed Yaxley's face. That idiot. Next to her Connie began to shiver and Leila drew a comforting arm around her.

"You mean you don't accept girls on the team," Regulus said lazily.

"I don't care, but—"

"But what?" a short silence followed, broken by a very quiet voice. "Is that a threat, Yaxley?"

Yaxley sighed. "No," he said begrudgingly.

"The guys on the team aren't going to work with them, Regulus," Avery said, reasonably.

"They'll work with them."

"Think about it, Regulus. Even they don't want them on the team."

"They were chosen because they fit well with the female players. If the girls aren't on the team, they're not on the team."

"Come on."

"There are three female players on the team," Regulus said. "And three male players, excluding myself. Do the math, Avery. Who do you think will win if it came to a fight? Or would you like Wilson to sprain Macnair's ankles again?"

"You did that?" Leila said, impressed, but Alex nudged her in the ribs to keep quiet.

"That's a brilliant plan," Nott said. "Scare the guys into following, is that it?"

"No," Regulus said. "I expect Gibbon, Castleberry, and Dingby to have more sportsmanship than you lot." With those words the footsteps resumed and the three of them relaxed against the wall.

"Close one," Leila said. "You reckon Regulus would've reported us for being out past curfew?"

"We could've reported them for being out," Alex muttered. "C'mon, we don't want to wake up the house-elves."

The said house-elves reassured Alex in particular (Leila and Connie being rather used to having house-elves) that they didn't mind being bothered at eleven at night at all, and that it would be their pleasure to prepare whatever the missus needed. Alex awkwardly asked for a hot chocolate and Leila asked for a double batch of treacle tarts.

"You don't want anything?" Leila asked Connie, who, looking rather pale, stared at her hands on the table top. Connie shook her head.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked, drawing closer to her. Connie let out a breath shakily.

"Those boys, they weren't—they wouldn't do anything, would they?" she asked worriedly. Leila felt a pinch at her heart. She was used to talking over whatever obnoxious male that came her way, but—she also knew that she already paid a price for her loud mouth, and that before paying the price she was always scared, too. On the other side of the table Alex sighed.

"I don't think so," she said. "Not unless they have strong reasons to."

"They picked a fight with the Gryffindors without a strong reason," Connie pointed out.

"Yeah, but—they know that Regulus is being serious, yeah? I don't think they'll cross him a second time," Leila said, half-convinced that what she was saying was true. Alex turned her face away.

"Do they really listen to Regulus?" Connie asked with a wondrous look.

"Who knows," Alex muttered. Leila kicked her leg under the table.

"He chose to let girls in this year. He decided to make a change for the better, y'know? I think he's going to stick to his decision." Leila explained and Connie nodded, looking a little reassured.

"And if there are guys who do bother you," Alex added, "you can come to either of us."

"As we've seen, Alex is capable of spraining ankles," Leila said. Alex grinned.

"It'll be fine," she said to Connie, offering one of Leila's tarts. Connie smiled and took it.

Back in their room Leila lay on the bed in the dark while Alex read by the candlelight on the table. Rebecca, it seemed, was nowhere to be found. Leila nibbled on the last treacle tart she took from the kitchen and turned to Alex.

"You don't think guys are going to try anything, do you?"

For a while Alex didn't answer. "As long as we don't provoke them into feeling like they need to prove anything, I think."

"Damn it," Leila said. "If we lose, they're just going to say I told you so. If we win—"

"It'd have to be a spectacular win. But even then they're not going to like us."

"What else is new?" Leila said glumly, drawing up her blankets to her chin.

"It was decent of Black, you know," Leila said suddenly. Alex didn't look up from her book.

"To do this, I mean," Leila added.

"The thing that all other houses have always done?"

"It's new for the Slytherins."

"It took him only three years. He's been the captain since fourth year, remember?"

"I s'ppose," Leila conceded. "But you know what I think?"

"No."

"I don't think would've done this if he didn't see you didn't come back."

"I really doubt it," Alex said.

"He's been an absolute idiot while you were gone, you know."

"He's always been an idiot."

"Even more than usual," Leila insisted. "Honestly, I was worried about him."

"I really don't want to-"

"But that's the thing!" Leila said. "I don't know anything, and you don't tell me anything!"

Alex finally looked up from her book, her face inscrutable. "What do you want to know?" she asked.

A/N: Thanks to those who came back to read the last chapter after a year! I really appreciate it:) And if you have any comments/reviews/opinions/criticisms please let me know, I haven't been in the FFN game in a while and still feel pretty rusty (and would love all the help I can get).