hello! yes, I'm back with a new chapter, hope you enjoy it, and I'll guarantee more will come way sooner!

Spending the rest of the train trip to Hogwarts helping Daniel get rid of the purple dust was not exactly how Olivia had imagined she would, but at least it served as a great distraction until they arrived at the castle. A simple spell could have spared everyone the work, but neither she nor Daniel or Moira could remember exactly what spell was appropriate; a clear effect of vacations and academic laziness as none of them had a ravenclaw spirit. It left the girls then to remove the effects of that prank with their own hands, between parallel conversations.

Both of them tried not to give the impression that they were comforting the boy with their help, both Olivia and Moira were still simmering and planning retaliation each in their own way. Potter was right when he accused her of hypocrisy for criticizing his childishness, because it only took someone poking her the wrong way and she would demand a payment in kind. She had basically a compilation of reasons to be furious with James Potter and company, so many that she could barely list. Everything irritated her, her trip would've been completely spoiled if she didn't have her friends there with her, but even they couldn't get her mind off Potter or off her anger.

Arriving at Hogwarts, then, was a relief. More than she had ever expected, all her bad mood from the start of the day started to fade, leaving her only hungry for a different meal than chocolate frogs and sleep in her warm bed in the Gryffindor dormitory. The three friends stayed together until they entered the Great Hall, their moods, now calmer. They were not always as temperamental as Olivia and it was the influence of her Hufflepuff friends on her that still kept the Wood girl on its axes, without them, she would have attacked her classmate as soon as she crossed his path towards the Gryffindor table. Daniel was in the middle of a story about his younger brother and his visit to France, so she just took a deep breath and kept walking.

Yes, she was aware that her steps were heavier than what it was necessary, but at least she hadn't cast a spell on Potter's back.

Still, she glared at him all the way, during Minerva McGonagall's welcome speech and during the selection of the first years. They were on opposite sides of the table on purpose, but she still tried to murder him with her eyes. She wanted to strangle him with her own hands and then strangle him again with magic, make him go through his biggest embarrassment in front of the whole castle. It would've been so easy because she had done this to him in small doses all her life, but she could deliver one last final blow. Her gaze was so intense, she expected him to burn at that very moment, but, fortunately or unfortunately, she was no longer a child who could do spontaneous magic. Sometimes he would look at her too, smile sideways thinking he had won the round, and make Olivia see even more red.

"What's in your head, Olivia?" Asked Moira, breaking her train of thought and making her turn to her friend besides her, that had with one of her thin eyebrows raised in suspicion.

Olivia tried her best to hide it, to prevent her friend from trying to guess her thoughts so vehemently. And at the same time her eyes sought distractions on the table, anything that served to remove Moira's attention. Nothing good would come, at least for themselves, if they kept talking about it.

"I think they're calling for your at your table." She pretended to be looking directly at the Hufflepuff table, at the mass of yellow scarves, but Moira was not so easily deceived, especially by someone so bad at the art of manipulation. She quickly looked away from her home table and then turned back to Olivia, doubly suspicious.

"Nobody is calling for me. I'm always sitting him between meals. You can't lie to me, why do you even try it?" She crossed her arms over the table and Olivia could sense that she would need to confess all her revenge thoughts to Moira and knowing her hufflepuff friend, she would definitely not approve.

But fortunately, a figure arrived to interrupt the conversation. It was her other friend, Chloe Dursley.

"I was looking for you the whole day!" The girl exclaimed, sitting in front of Olivia, next to Daniel and pushing the other students away to make room. She was a Gryffindor just like Olivia, her crimson scarf was always around her neck out of pride for the house she belonged in. Being around the hufflepuffs was good for her temper, but Olivia would always be grateful for Chloe's presence in her life. Dursley was the lastname of her Muggle relatives, she was the only magical daughter. Despite being a relative to the Potters, she liked James as much as Olivia and always took her friend's side, a fact that united them more than sharing a dorm. She was the smallest of the girls, with a round face, brown eyes and light brown hair.

"And, besides, what was all that in the train? I overheard the Rowans talking, those two are disgusting." Chloe was not one to hate anyone, especially 'authority' or peace-keeping figures, both propositions would hardly fit the Rowans, but they liked to self-proclaim it, while everyone laughed behind their back. However, she hated the Rowan twins as well as everyone else and if she were there when the whole confusion happened, perhaps the discussion would have gone on even further.

Olivia, Moira and Daniel shrugged to both of her questions. It was a long story and Olivia was not in the mood to tell it, especially in a neutral way. Chloe had probably heard everything out there, she just hadn't put the pieces together.

"A prank, with the hufflepuffs. Daniel and I were there. It was ridiculous." Fortunately Moira decided to sum it up, her harsh tone revealing that she wouldn't be forgiving Potter so easily. A twinge of hope sparked in Olivia that maybe Moira wouldn't judge or stop her, but she knew she was just deluding herself.

"Ugh. I thought the season for attacking the Hufflepuffs was over. This is so cliché and outdated." Chloe replied, rolling her eyes.

"Me too!" Exclaimed Moira, raising her arms in exasperation and attracting attention from a table that was not hers. Usually, no one cared that she was sitting at the Gryffindor table as long as she remained quiet, or so she thought, Olivia and Chloe would never let anyone kick Moira or Daniel out, but the Irish girl was embarrassed and murmured an apology to the students by her side.

"And are you okay, Daniel?" Asked the newcomer, not in the least worried about not looking concerned as Olivia and Moira had tried earlier. Daniel's face immediately went red, the moles on his face contrasted with the new color and his expression closed. Olivia watched the interaction with apprehensive eyes, she could foresee that nothing good would happen if Chloe continued to pressure him.

"It was no big deal, Chloe. The usual." He answered in a hard voice, his eyes on the food. Chloe narrowed her eyes, but didn't seem to understand.

"Okay, I was just wondering." Olivia and Moira sighed at the interaction. There was a reason why Olivia hated when they teased Daniel, more than when they teaser Moira. The girl had always known how to take care of herself while the boy, almost never. And Wood was a protective person to those she appreciates, just as Chloe was, but Daniel hated being cared for or being treated as helpless.

With the intention of breaking the tension, she stood up, adjusting her cloak on her shoulders so that it wasn't so crooked and spoke up.

"Look, I'm going to the dorm right away. I woke up in a hurry today and I haven't been able to get the sleep I deserve yet."

"I'm going with you!" Chloe said. The two Gryffindors said goodbye to the two Hufflepuffs, who immediately got up to go back to their tables, and started off towards their own dormitories.

They weren't the only Gryffindors in the room, they shared it with two other girls who hadn't arrived yet, but Olivia had never gotten along very well with them. They were too frivolous for her taste and could never join her in a good conversation, so Olivia never tried to approach them either. She changed to pajamas and laid on the bed in silence.

When Olivia thought she was spared, Chloe turned her brown eyes directly to hers, it wasn't yet dark enough that she couldn't face her.

"You're not thinking about getting into trouble, are you?" She asked suddenly.

She couldn't offer an answer, not when Chloe looked at her straight in the eye and could identify any wavering of her sincerity. In another situation, she would have vehemently nodded and sworn revenge on Potter, but she wasn't sure if that was what she wanted to do at the moment. Maybe she was too tired to think about it, or maybe she just wanted Potter to forget everything, he had meddled in her moment and seen that photo, she didn't want to hear any more of his comments.

It was too early to decide. She just closed her eyes and left Chloe without a definitive answer.

At Hogwarts, Olivia woke up at normal hours to her surprise. Probably because of the commotion in her dorm, with all the girls looking for their stuff and getting ready for the new day. She was dragged by Chloe still early to the Great Hall on the grounds that they would be better as soon as they went to have breakfast. Dursley was actually right, because the Great Hall was considerably more empty, and consequently calmer, when they arrived. Not like Olivia preferred, but even she could enjoy eating without stressing over the people around her the first day of school. They sat idly talking until the room was full, Moira and Daniel later joined the Gryffindor table.

"Your timetable, Wood." Professor Harris, the Gryffindor's head of the house and astronomy teacher, walked the room distributing the hours to her classmates and handed Olivia's calmly when she reached her. Olivia suspected that she was in a good mood because she didn't slap her on the back of the head with the paper as she used to do in other years. Professor Harris took it upon herself to try to get her students on track, and since Olivia had never been in compliance with the authorities, they rarely sympathized with each other.

As if to prove that she was really in a good mood and not interested in arguing with Olivia, Professor Harris went towards the nearest student, without any comment about her lack of correct of the correct dressing, as Olivia was only wearing her blouse and skirt, without any intention to put on the tie and cape unless it was expressly needed.

Olivia also diddn't comment on anything, her curious look was soon directed to the paper in her hands, hoping for a favorable time this year. Preferably with several free times to practice Quidditch.

"Dammit! Potions and Transfiguration on a Monday!" She complained loudly. Olivia almost knocked her hands on the table, but managed to hold on. Instead, she turned to her Hufflepuff friend with a butter knife in one hand. "Daniel, kill me, it's gonna hurt less."

"Stop being so dramatic. Look, at least we will have Charms and DADA together this year." Said Moira, who had already grabbed her timetable with her head of the house earlier. She had a more optimistic view of her time and her own sanity, Olivia would say, something that she herself was not capable of.

Annoyed, Olivia turned to her food, in time to see it being stolen by a new figure. Potter.

"Wood, don't monopolize the bacon. Learn how to share." The boy then dragged the plate in front of Olivia to him, not caring about the deadly look he was receiving from the girl.

"If you knew how much I'm considering becoming a murderer right now, you wouldn't have done that." She threatened bitterly, leaning over to take her food back, with enough force to make the boy give in if he considered insisting on keeping her plate. Chloe's idea of not stressing out was clearly failing, all of Olivia's bad mood had already came back.

James Potter, to further encourage her fury, just smiled playfully, despite having let Olivia drag the plate back to her. He somehow managed to look immaculate that early in the morning, his dark hair was still damp, only remnants of the curls he had appeared. His blue eyes were as treacherous as ever and made her wonder if he never slept or if he woke up ready to irritate everyone around him. Unlike her, he was already wearing his uniform, although his tie was casually undone, but that was how he always wore it.

The exchange of deadly glances between them became even more intense, despite Olivia's ramblings from the night before; and nobody around felt bold enough to intervene.

"Olivia! James! Exactly who I was looking for!" It took the other girl's call to make Olivia look away, and Potter did the same, and she probably only did it because her name had been called. The author of this vocative appeared running through the door of the great hall, crossing the whole place until she fell into the empty space closest to the two, in front of Potter, with a nervous smile so big on her face that it was impossible, even impolite, do not return.

Heather Bennett was a housemate and a Quidditch colleague, but her presence there, especially looking for Olivia and Potter at the same time, was a surprise. The girl was a year older, about the same height as Wood, with long straight dark brown hair, an oval tanned face and dark eyes. And she was particularly known to Olivia for her nervous mannerisms and lack of confidence in herself, but despite that, she was a great company when the team got together.

"It's good that you are in the same place, it makes everything easier, and look, without killing each other! I wish everyone was here." She raised her hands, pointing at the two subjects in the sentence, but got no reaction so she just dropped her arms and looked away nervously. Even Olivia, who had no great gift for reading people, could see that she had something to say and was looking for the best way to say it; typical Heather's behavior. "Anyway, I don't know if they've spread the news, but I'm the team's new captain, at least this last year and..."

"Professor Harris chose you as captain?" Olivia interrupted her unintentionally, making everyone look at her, judging her a little. Only in the next second did she realize that her tone had been a little too harsh and everyone had noticed.

"Uh, yes." Heather replied, getting nervous again and almost physically cowering in her chair. She ran a hand through her straight hair just to get busy and look away from Olivia.

Potter discreetly lowered his head to chuckle, but it didn't go unnoticed by her and Olivia just limited herself to sending deadly looks at him. It hadn't been her intention, she was just surprised by the decision, and if Potter decided to make a mockery of it she would surely jump on his neck in the best Muggle style.

"This is great, good luck, you're gonna do a great job." She tried to look excited about her compliment to clean up her image a little and not look so hard on Heather, but Olivia was still absorbing the news and what it meant.

She had spent so much time rambling about other things on vacation during the season that news like this had arrived - how she had not been chosen as team captain and then finding out if her greatest fear had materialized only to feel immense relief when it reached the her ears that Potter hadn't been chosen either - that she hadn't even thought about who Harris had actually chosen. Heather Bennett. Heather Bennett had surpassed her. Heather had been chosen over her. It was like a punch in the gut that could only be worse if Potter had been chosen.

She would feel like an asshole afterwards for thinking so bad about someone as nice and gentle as Heather, but she bitterly doubted that Bennett was the best person for the job. She had joined the team only in her fifth year, while Olivia had played hard since her third one. Her shyness, insecurity and nervousness always got in the way of her skills and the whole team always needed to calm her down before a game. How would she lead an entire team and deal with responsibilities. Even if the other girl was in her senior year and it was her last chance to contribute to the team, it was not an argument enough to make such a decision.

This whole monologue replayed in Wood's mind as she tried her best to keep a neutral expression on her face that wouldn't give away her negative thoughts. Knowing herself, she preferred to lower her head and continued to eat. Interestingly, the silence was broken by Potter.

"So, Bennett, what you had to say to us?" He gave the new captain a little smile, and the girl became a little puzzled. As it was deliberate and everyone knew it, the rolling of the eyes was instantaneous. Moira even went a little further and snorted.

"Uh ... I was just going to inform you that I'm already starting to work on some things, as much as I can. That I've already talked to Harris to schedule the tryouts as soon as possible." She replied when she managed to recover and took a breath to continue. "I think we can do it even before Hufflepuff. And also, for the sake of d-democracy, I will be listening to for suggestions and recommendations."

She ended with a small smile that only made Olivia feel even worse for being so surly before.

"It looks like you're going to be a great captain, you're already organizing everything." Olivia would never like to boast about getting to know the boy well, but after so many years of forced coexistence, it was one of the consequences. There was only a flash of bitterness, even envy, in his expression and tone of voice, but he managed to hide it much better than she did with all that false friendliness, interest and charm.

A superior smile came to her own lips, at least she wasn't the only terrible person there.

"I will be more like a substitute more than anything. Lewis will be sorely missed, but I'm… I'm confident. And, hey, who knows next year may be one of you, huh?" It was the last thing Heather should have said. But the brunette didn't realize it until she had finished the sentence and feeling that everyone's mood at the table, but especially Olivia and James had darkened considerably, got up as soon as possible and said goodbye between murmurs, abandoning them to their own thoughts.

She had many complaints that she wanted to vent in a loud tone to her friends, but she had to restrain herself and wait until they were alone. What only happened at the end of the day, after all classes, when it was almost curfew time, that the four managed to gather near the library, sitting on one of the staircases. Since they were from different houses, it was not very well seen to infiltrate Moira and Daniel in the Gryffindor common room or vice versa, so they invented other meeting places.

"I'm sure Harris did this to screw us up. She doesn't like Quidditch, she doesn't like that it's messy. That we are interested in something other than her boring classes and she doesn't like me!" Olivia vented, frustrated by the whole situation. She wished she could speak louder, but they had to be silent so as not to attract the attention of monitors or teachers who were going to send them to their dormitories earlier. "It can cost us the Quidditch Cup!"

She ended up looking at her trio of friends, hoping to see them as irritated by the situation as she was, but the three of them had disinterested looks on their faces.

"Blah, blah, blah, are you keeping this one?" Muttered Moira, dropping her head on the shoulder of Daniel who was sitting next to her.

Olivia puffed. Outrageous. All she wanted was a little sympathy, but even though the four of them had been friends for so long, there were things they couldn't sympathize with, because in their view it was just a game, just Quidditch. Even Chloe, who liked cheering for the games, also looked at her as if she was exaggerating.

"Livs, I know you're up to something, but what exactly are you up to?"

"Heather will graduate next year and the position will be vacant. It only means one thing, Chloe." She solemnly announced, showing that she was determined even if her plan was not fully assembled. She had lost that year, she had to admit it, but she wouldn't let it get lost in vain. It was her year to convince Heather to refer her to Harris and Harris to accept her so that next year she could finally be the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And beat her brothers and Potter with one stroke. "War."

Another couple of original characters that will be important, at least for this story. For such a proud Gryffindor, Olivia hangs out a lot with Hufflepuffs, doesn't she? kkkkkkk Just Chloe to keep her in place.

I hope you don't think she was too bratty in this chapter, but Olivia has her flaws and one of them is that she has a highly esteemed opinion of herself and, well, she always wanted to be the captain. You will see more of Heather and that they even get along, don't worry.

I was organizing some things in the story and decided that it will be kinda shorty, probably about 15 chapters at most, so that I can also work on the next New Generation stories - their own literary shared universe I'm so excited about it - so I hope you are enjoying it!