Minerva McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey have a secret game.
The wager
"Here is my bet, Poppy..."
Minerva McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey have had a bet for many years.
Like almost all important things in life, this one began almost by accident just over 20 years ago, when Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had among its students the much-missed James Potter and the treacherous Sirius Black.
For some reason known only to the stars, from the second year of the pair of troublemakers onwards, the school's infirmary was host to the strangest accidents of magic the school had ever seen.
It was legendary when Sirius Black had to be sent to the infirmary, accompanied by James Potter who could hardly contain his laughter and the prefect Lupin, who rolled his eyes as if asking for divine help, when in the middle of a Transfiguration class, the handsome Gryffindor began furiously scratching his ear. It wouldn't have mattered except: He did it with one of his legs, while his skin began to mottle like a Dalmatian. McGonagall thought it was the weirdest thing she'd ever seen in school and Madam Pomfrey agreed...
"I was wrong," she said a few weeks later as a wide-eyed nurse nodded her head, when this time it was James Potter himself who turned up before lessons at the same infirmary, sporting the most impressive antlers McGonagall had ever seen adorned with holly, tinsel and Christmas baubles.
While a groveling Potter shot death glares at the young Black, who was rolling with laughter at the sight, Prefect Lupin tried to convince the nurse that this was nothing more than a magical attempt to make Potter look more Christmassy and appropriate to woo Evans which went horribly wrong.
"Now, that is the weirdest thing I have ever seen."
At that, the two responsible and respectable adults decided that the only logical way to proceed as the unimpeachable teachers that they were, it was to establish a pool on what would be the strangest magical accident that would occur that year?
For years, the two exchanged galleons, laughter and some legitimate concern every time the winner of the wager was established, and today had been no different.
Across from them a boy and a girl, second year students, had been laughing, arguing, shouting, exchanging candies, homework and smiles until the girl, out of exhaustion, had curled up in a ball on the bed sheets and fallen asleep.
"So your money's on Miss Granger. Right, Minnie?" asked the veteran nurse.
McGonagall turned her head to face her old friend after seeing how the red-haired boy had been looking at the girl with his loving eyes and had unconsciously begun to scratch her between her pointed ears, causing her to emit a contented purr that could be heard throughout the infirmary in her sleep.
"No." The head of Gryffindor house shook her head. "On them."