As the weather grew colder, excitement dusted the air. "Quidditch season" was coming up, and the wizards were crazy about the few sports they had. This meant that the opposing teams in the upcoming match were attacking each other's houses in the corridors, and this, although the Quidditch teams were being attacked the most, was the reason why Envy was standing in the middle of the Hospital Wing with his hair trailing on the floor behind him. He had been unable to change it back, so he was waiting for Pomphrey to finish with the two other students whose body parts she was correcting.

Recently the Gryffindors had begun teasing him for his hair. It was really annoying at first, but he was just starting to get used to it . . . when this happened.

Going to Madam Pomfrey had not been his first thought, of course. He had tried reverting his hair back to it's normal length, as was already mentioned, and that hadn't worked. He'd chopped it with scissors, but it had grown back again, and at some point he had resorted to poking it with his wand. He had eventually dragged himself over to the Hospital Wing, followed by much laughter.

When it was at last his turn, he found his hair back to normal in a matter of seconds. Pomfrey was, however, not satisfied with his health. "Do you feel quite all right?"

"I'm fine!" Envy snapped for the third time.

The matron frowned. "Go outside and get some fresh air, then, but don't stay out too long. You don't want to catch a cold."

Under her critical gaze, Envy dared not disobey, so he headed down to the Slytherin Dormitories for a scarf and cloak. Satisfied with his protection against the cold, he hurried outside.

It was freezing, much colder that he expected—nothing he couldn't handle, of course, but still annoying. He shivered and started trudging across the frosty courtyard.

Very few people were out, owing to the temperature, but he did see Ron, Hermione, and Harry huddled together. As he watched, Professor Snape approached them, said something, and could soon be seen walking away with an object that looked like a book. Envy couldn't quite tell from his distance.

The trio started in the direction he was coming from, so by walking toward them he managed to be at the same place at the same time as them.

"What was that all about?"

Ron shot him a glare, but spoke at Hermione's prompting gaze. "Snape made up a rule about not being able to take books from the library and took away Quidditch Through the Ages."

Envy stared blankly. "What's Quidditch Through the Ages?"

Hermione answered this time. "It's a book about Quidditch and its history."

Envy gave a shrug. "I don't see what the big deal is. It's just a book."

"Just a book?" Ron looked incredulous. "Everything about Quidditch is in there!"

Harry cut him off before he could start rambling. "He's right, Ron. It's just a book. Come on, let's go."

Hermione nodded, holding up a jar with what appeared to be blue fire in it. Envy paled slightly. "The flames are dying, and I don't want to be caught with them if they're against the rules."

"Why don't you just go ahead and put the fire out right now?" Envy suggested, slight nervousness touching his voice.

"It's a good idea," Ron said grudgingly. "Hermione, put it out."

Hermione, however, just frowned then asked a rather blunt question. "Are you afraid of fire?"

"Of course not!" Envy retorted quickly. "Why would you think that?"

"Well . . ." Her frown deepened. "Nevermind." She put out the fire and stowed to jar away within the folds of her cloak. "Let's go."

Envy watched as the trio trudged from the courtyard and into the safety of the castle. Once he was quite sure they were out of earshot, he yelled a curse and kicked a few pebbles into the air.

"Oi!" came a voice from behind him. "What's got you so worked up?"

He turned and came face to face with the red-haired twin pranksters, Fred and George Weasley. "It's nothing you need to know," he snarled.

"All right, all right." The two boys, who were speaking in unison, held up their hands in an effort to placate him. "We were just asking. No need to get all touchy."

Envy huffed and turned to leave.

"But for some reason, you don't seem as bad as the other Slytherins."

He stopped and turned back around.

"So," started one twin.

"We propose a deal," continued the other.

"After all," they said together, identical cheshire grins spread across their faces. "Who would expect a snake to work with a pair of lions?"

Envy caught on quickly, and a grin to match the twins' stretched his mouth, although more malicious. "And what are the terms of this deal?"

"Well," one twin drawled. "If you were to, hypothetically of course, help us with some pranks, that would be excellent."

Envy nodded. "And what would our first hypothetical prank be?"

The other twin spoke this time. "If you were to hypothetically turn a few third year Slytherins' robes magenta and frame one by not changing theirs . . ."

"That would be great," the first twin finished.

'-'

When four of the Slytherin third years shuffled into the Great Hall late Saturday morning with pink robes and hair, the previous chatter of the hall was silenced for a moment. Then laughter filled the quiet.

The Slytherins turned as pink as their robes and started swearing under their breaths. Meanwhile, Envy was attempting to hide his smirk and keep his expression looking as infuriated as the other Slytherins'. He was starting to get rusty in his acting.

The Weasley twins, matching grins spread across their faces, swept their gazes over the Slytherins, pausing for a moment on Envy before moving on.

The laughter soon died down to be replaced with the previous excited chatter. The two Quidditch teams that were playing today, Gryffindor and Slytherin, left the Great Hall, and the students followed soon after.

Envy finished off the last of his toast before going after those of his classmates who had already left. The weather was clear, which he supposed was good for the players, and there was a slight chill in the air—it was warmer than yesterday, at least.

He managed to get a seat fairly high up in the Slytherin stands. The rest of the pitch slowly filled with more students, and the level of noise grew louder and louder until all the students were cheering for whichever team they were siding with. Envy wasn't siding with anyone in particular, although he was leaning a bit toward his own house's team.

The individual teams soon took off—commentated by the boy with the tarantula—flitting about and passing the Quaffle. Envy found this game rather interesting—his favorite balls were the Bludgers, for obvious reasons. The beaters, who Envy thought were the ones who hit the Bludgers, were the Weasley twins for the Gryffindor team, and really, they and Harry were the only players he knew the names of.

Harry was the Seeker, who was supposed to catch a little ball that was hard to spot. The Snatch, or something like that.

The game was going normally, or at least Envy thought so—he'd never seen a Quidditch match before now. Anyway, the match was going quite normally until Envy noticed Harry's broomstick acting funny.

Harry had recently gone after the Snatch (Snitch?), only to be blocked by the Slytherin captain, Marcus Flint, and had started circling the pitch. That's when it started. He dodged a Bludger which had flown dangerously close to his head, and his broom had given a lurch. Then it gave another, and another—it was like the thing was trying to buck him off!

This went on for a while. Envy was almost bored of it when it suddenly stopped. With Harry safe, Envy began scanning the stands, trying to figure out why the air smelled of smoke. He saw, just a few boxes over, that Snape was stomping out the blue flames that were making his robes smoke. Blue flames . . . that was familiar.

Quirrel, who was sitting behind Snape, was straightening his turban and looking a bit disgruntled. There was something off about him . . .

Eh, whatever.

The game ended with Harry almost swallowing the Snitch (which wasn't called the "Snatch" as he had found by the commentary). The Slytherins were very upset about this, so few of them took the time to wonder why Envy didn't seem to care. The only one who did think to puzzle over this was Draco Malfoy.

Finally, I got this out! I really didn't feel like writing the Quidditch chapter. I barely figured out how to start it. I just thought for several days, and then I realized a few jinxes would be flying, so why not make Envy's hair grow? Ah, but there has to be a point to him going to the Hospital Wing. I know! Pomfrey will tell him he looks pale and tell him to go outside, and there, his fear of fire will be revealed! Yeah . . . anyway, glad I finally got it done.

Poor Envy has slight PTSD . . . *cough* Anyway, hope you enjoyed that. On a side note, I'm permanently changing my penname. I've decided I've changed it enough and I need to settle on something. So, my new pseudonym will be Quiet Leaf. I'll change it, say, five hours after I post this.

Please review, any reviews you post will probably guilt-trip me into writing. I'm serious, the lack of reviews left me feeling uninspired last chapter. ("Oh, someone else will review, I'm sure, so I won't.")

-The Leaf on Italy's Head