Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series.


Chapter 2
The Dirty Decision


The Great Hall buzzed as the Heads of Houses distributed weekly schedules along the house tables. The students of Hogwarts spoke animatedly amongst one another as they compared classes. Ravenclaw's Head of House, Professor Callahan, lazily walked from one student to the next. By the time he reached the end of the bench, Effie Greengrass was seething in impatience.

"He's always taking his bloody time handing these out," Effie grumbled, eyes skimming over her timetable.

"I've got Herbology first thing in the morning," Andy groaned, looking down at his own. "I'd rather have Quidditch practice with James Potter. And I know what type of bleeding drills he makes his players do."

Dominique snatched his schedule from his hands, presumably to compare it with her own. Effie silently took in hers, flinching at the mentioned name. She would be out class by four in the afternoon and the rest of the day would be dedicated to her club meetings. Owl's Post members met thrice a week about an hour before dinner to discuss their next issue, and their first meeting would be later that afternoon.

Suddenly Effie was hyperaware of the small box tucked in carefully inside her school bag. She had given it plenty of thought, even sleeping rather late the night before despite her exhaustion from the travel. Naturally the first decision that came to mind was no; she could not publish it. The anonymity of its appearance and the fact that James Potter probably had no clue that these pictures existed made it seem so wrong and unfair, as ironic as it sounded.

Then Effie began to really think. It was not just random and shallow gossip. There was real proof in her hands, and this was news that considerably affected the student body. Quidditch was a real deal in Hogwarts, even if Effie did not quite share the same feelings for it. House rivalry and pride was also a significant part of campus life.

As far as Effie understood, cheating was not a new concept in the wizarding sport, but these actions mostly ranged from dangerous fouls within the game to deliberately injuring rival players before a match. Not to mention this was regularly only done by Slytherins. James Potter, Gryffindor House's Golden Boy, breaking into a Slytherin captain's dormitory to steal to a playbook seemed like an entirely different situation. The same James Potter who consistently spoke his pride in belonging to his house, the same house that apparently held the honorable and dignified.

"Effie!"

She blinked, snapping out of her internal monologue.

"Yes?"

Andy and Dominique looked intently at her.

"I asked about your first class?" Dominique raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, er, it's Arithmacy," Effie replied then glancing at her watch without actually reading it. "Speaking of first class, ah! Would you look at the time? Got to run!"

Wide-eyed, she slung her bag over her shoulder, briefly heard Andy perplexedly mutter, "Class starts in an hour," and dashed out of the Great Hall without a single bite of breakfast.

Effie briskly walked through the castle's halls with no actual destination. It would be too early to actually go to class and her mind was too jittery to be around anyone and have a decent conversation. Andy and Dominique would eventually suspect her, if they did not already. She was determined to avoid telling them the truth as long as possible.

At a sharp turn, Effie halted just in time before ramming straight into another person. The first thing that registered in her mind was the messy black hair. Words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them, her voice high-pitched and raspy.

"You again! And I probably would have fell on my arse like yesterday if I didn't stop in time."

He let out a chuckle. "Sorry?"

Effie blinked at the sound of his voice and lifted her head up to get a good look at him. A pair of bright green eyes watched her in amusement.

"Oh, bloody hell!" Effie exclaimed, slapping a hand to her forehead in embarrassment. "Sorry, I thought you were somebody else."

"And who might that person be?"

A perfectly arched eyebrow rose teasingly at her. Effie almost laughed at the resemblance because there seemed to be none. It was rather shameful that she almost mistook him for his older brother.

Albus Potter was in fifth year, but he towered over her small frame. He was a bit taller than James although a lot leaner. He wore no glasses, which made Effie feel even more stupid for her initial impression. Not to mention he sported royal blue robes of Ravenclaw House, entirely different from his older brother's crimson Gryffindor ones, and a stack of books was tucked under his arm rather than a Quidditch broomstick.

"Well, it's funny because I thought you were your brother," Effie chuckled embarrassedly.

"Believe it or not, I still get that a lot," he sighed. "I mean have you ever actually seen James carrying books around? Or a bag for that matter?"

"Well I actually don't see him around a lot," Effie admitted. "It was just yesterday that we bumped into each other sort of randomly."

"You seemed pretty alarmed when you almost bumped into me," he pointed out, eyes glinting. "Avoiding him?"

"Wha–No!" Effie exclaimed unconvincingly.

He let out a hearty laugh. "I'm kidding! Anyway I don't think we've ever properly met. I'm Al."

"Effie," she replied, shaking his outstretched hand.

Al gave her a weird look. "Hold on. You're one of Dominique's friends, aren't you? The one who runs the school paper?"

"Er, yeah, that's me."

"Strange we've never actually met before," he said. "You publishing anything interesting for this month?"

Suddenly Effie's bag hung heavier over her shoulder.

"We're working on it," she answered vaguely, trying to give him a smile.

"Cool." He grinned. "I actually read it every month though I tend to skip Hagrid's Bowtruckle columns."

"Don't we all?"

Al lifted his wrist to check the time. "If you'll excuse me, Effie, I've got Potions in half an hour so I've got to get a move on. I'll see you around!"

With a polite wave, the younger Potter made his way down the hall without looking back. Effie sighed, utterly confused. Running into two Potters in two consecutive days? In her six years in Hogwarts, she hardly ever crossed paths with either of them.

Stuffing her hand in her bag, she delicately felt the small box, different thoughts whirling in her head. After a few minutes leaning against the cool wall, she darted towards her classroom, desperate to end the day.

Lucky for her, the day went quicker than expected. Effie managed to avoid Dominique and Andy despite attending the same Charms and Potions classes. Andy tried to corner her at one point in the afternoon but Effie just escaped him when his Quidditch captain reminded him of the tryouts for the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team, which momentarily distracted him.

Effie did not actually have a concrete reason why she refused to share the small box's contents with her best friends. Perhaps it was because she knew what they were going to tell her to do, which was to publish it, or because telling someone about it felt as wrong as printing it on her paper.

After Potions, Effie ran out the door and began to make her way to her club's assigned classroom although before she could get too far, someone pulled the hood of her robe back, making her lose balance and her bag drop carelessly to the ground, spilling its contents.

"Why've you been avoiding us all day?" Dominique hissed, gripping Effie's arm.

"I have not," Effie mumbled, attempting to pull her arm away.

"Yes, you have!" the blonde shrieked, causing passersby to stare.

Andy appeared from a corner and caught up with the two, placing a hand on Dominique's shoulder.

"Dom, let her go," he said calmly. "She'll tell us when she's ready."

"I don't care if she's not ready!" Dominique snapped. "She wasn't even trying to make it subtle! What the hell's up with you? You know we deserve to know!"

Effie merely stood, out of words. Her heart beat wildly against her chest as she faced Dominique's wrath. The rational part of her brain told her to just tell them but the paranoia was meaner and louder, telling her to get her bag and run before they managed to squeeze the information out of her.

Suddenly Andy bent down and Effie realized too late that he was reaching for something that spilled out of her bag.

"Why do you have pictures of James Potter?" he asked, bemusedly examining one of the moving photos of the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain wandering in the Slytherin common room.

Effie gasped and snatched the picture away. Before she could take the rest, Dominique was quicker and took all the contents of the small box that opened due to the fall of her bag.

"Effie, what in the world–"

"I didn't take those!" Effie cried out in panic. "Someone put the box on my bed before I got to the dormitory last night. There was a piece of parchment that said–"

"'Gryffindor's Golden Boy: A Dirty Cheat?'" Dominique recited incredulously.

"Bloody hell," Andy whispered, looking through all the pictures.

"Effie, why didn't you just tell us this was bothering you all day?"

The brunette refused to look into Dominique's hurt expression, a bundle of guilt growing in her stomach.

"I knew what you were going to say," Effie muttered.

"And what was that?" Dominique huffed.

"Publish it, of course!" Andy exclaimed rather snippily.

The girls turned to him in shock.

"This is a whole new level of cheating!" he continued furiously. "Who knows if he'd gotten Chang's plans as well?"

"New level of cheating?" Dominique shot him a look of disbelief. "You Quidditch players deliberately inflict danger to your rivals just to get them injured before playing matches! How the hell is this any worse?"

"Please, Dom, that's normal and it's easy to defend ourselves from arseholes like those," Andy replied nastily. "Secretly taking another team's plans on the other hand is just sick and gutless! And I thought Gryffindors believed in all that bull on honor and bravery?"

Effie's expression matched Dominique's of incredulity. It was not like Andy to show this much hostility over anything. In fact, Effie thought it would be Dominique encouraging her to publish the news and Andy being more sympathetic towards James Potter's fate. But now that they both knew, perhaps the inverted reactions were not so surprising at all.

James was Dominique's cousin, and even if they were hardly close, it definitely did not seem right to sabotage one of your own. On the other hand, Andy loved Quidditch more than anything and always despised dirty play. These two exceptions on their personalities seemed to meet in this particular situation.

"You can't publish this," Dominique said, looking at Effie with wide pleading eyes. "Effie, this is mad! James would–"

"Deserve it!" Andy countered. "He would deserve it!"

The blonde's look did not faze. "Effie, please!"

Effie gazed between Dominique's hopeful gray eyes and Andy's blazing blue ones. Unable to make a decision, she snatched the photos and parchment from their grips and swung her bag over her shoulder. Without another word, she sprinted away from the pair.


Fifteen minutes late for her first club meeting, Effie barged in the room with a layer of sweat glinting on her forehead. Five wide-eyed students turned to look in surprise at her sudden appearance.

"Sorry I'm late," Effie gasped.

"Where've you been?" sixth year Slytherin, Marriot Geller asked suspiciously.

"Er, dismissed late," Effie lied. "Anyway let's begin?"

Silence and knowing looks followed the suggestion, Marriot practically glaring at her. Effie blinked at their unusual response, refusing to believe the voice in her head that they somehow knew about the package she received.

A hand attached to a petite blonde donning royal blue robes slowly raised, a hesitant look on her face.

"Yes, Sarah?" Effie regarded her calmly.

"We heard a rumor a few minutes before you came," she began quietly. "My best friend called me out just to tell me someone told her that they overheard you talking about some headliner on James Potter that had to be published."

Things literally could not get any worse. Effie sighed deeply.

"That–It's nothing," Effie tried to explain. "It's just–"

"You're lying," Marriot accused, eyes narrowed at the Ravenclaw.

"Effie, if you've got anything on James Potter, you've got to tell us!" fourth year Hufflepuff, Spencer Abbott said encouragingly. "He's the most popular boy in school! Can you imagine the amount of readers we'd get if he were in our front page?"

"But we don't post gossip remember?" Sarah reminded him.

"Well it's never too late." Spencer shrugged.

Sarah opened her mouth to counter but Effie seemed to have enough. Slamming both of her palms down on her desk, she caught the attention of her crew. The only two who were yet to speak up on the matter were two Gryffindors, Carson Thomas and Lysander Scamander, seventh and fifth year respectively.

"This isn't exactly gossip," Effie caved. "Someone left a box on my bed last night and it contained… Well, these."

Pulling out the contents of the box from her bag, Effie passed the pictures and parchment to Sarah. Five heads immediately hovered over the desk where Sarah laid the sheets out.

"Is he stealing from Scorpius Malfoy's dormitory?" the only Slytherin in the club, Marriot exclaimed.

"Bloody hell," Carson uttered his first words since Effie arrived.

"'Gryffindor's Golden Boy: A Dirty Cheat?'" Spencer muttered the words allowed, clutching the piece of parchment in his hand.

"I can't believe you weren't planning on telling us." Marriot's eyes flashed, glaring directly at a cowering Effie. "This has to be published! The Slytherin Quidditch Team deserves to know! The entire Hogwarts Quidditch community deserves to know!"

Effie was dauntingly reminded of Andy's similar reaction.

"And since when have you been an avid fan of Quidditch, Marriot?" Sarah snapped at the furious brunette, refusing to stand down despite being the youngest of the club. "Do you even hear yourself? Asking Effie to publish information from an anonymous source about a boy who probably doesn't even know these pictures exist? Who do you think we are, Witch Weekly?"

"If we're going to discuss this in terms of ethics and justice, let's first look at the facts," the soft but clear voice of Lysander Scamander resounded in the room, effectively shutting everyone up. "James Potter is explicitly caught doing something remarkably dirty presumably to help him win the Quidditch Cup this year. Effie received the package last night, is that right? And there's no way to tell where or whom it came from. If we're going to be decent human beings we should probably warn Potter of the news before actually going through with the intentions of the sender, which is to publish it in our first issue that is due to be released in two weeks.

"But then again, approaching Potter would obviously lead to him finding out about the photos and knowing him, he'll find away to destroy them or threaten us. He'll do anything he can to keep us from publishing them, and to be completely honest, that is not a battle we should be willing to get into."

"So you're saying we should just publish it?" Carson hissed, finally speaking up. "Gryffindor could be disqualified from the Cup!"

"They won't," Lysander said calmly. "Players have been purposely sent to the hospital wing by their rivals before matches and I don't see any team disqualified for those, despite inflicting pain and injury towards other students in school premises. The worst that could happen is a deduction of points, detention, and Gryffindor's reputation would be slandered."

Carson gave him an incredulous look, probably appalled by Lysander's lack of Gryffindor loyalty. Since the day Effie met him, Lysander was never the typical Gryffindor at all from the tips of his white blonde hair to his toes. He was especially quiet and quite the eccentric genius. He wrote mostly opinion columns on the Owl's Post because it seemed to be what he enjoyed the most.

Lysander was an opinionated, sharp-eyed boy who was considered a prodigy in anything academic and seemed to enjoy a hobby of writing. He was never much of a people person similar to Effie but completely opposite to his twin brother, Lorcan, who also belonged to Gryffindor house and spent his time sneaking into Hogsmeade with his friends to pose as off age wizards to buy Firewhiskey.

While it seemed unusual for the rest of the group for Lysander to suggest the option that would taint Gryffindor house's name, to Effie it was not. He was just being as logical as he normally was, and house loyalty and rivalry never seemed to be a factor in his decision-making.

"You two are family friends," Carson said, still flabbergasted at Lysander's words. "How could you do this to him?"

"We're not related, are we?" Lysander scoffed. "Anyway this would be a great time to get his inflated ego back on the ground, don't you think?"

"James is a good man," Carson snapped. "And he's a great friend. If you go on with this, I'm quitting."

He was looking at Effie now, a determined look in his eye. His fist was enclosed in rage.

Lysander, on the other hand, sneered. "A good man? That arsehole is anything but bloody good, always stepping on people he deems lower than him and using his last name as leverage."

Effie frowned at the hostility.

"But we still don't know him," Sarah tried to reason as soon as she noticed the same thing Effie did.

Lysander's claims did not seem so objective after all. Somehow, the topic on James Potter unusually triggered a sense of emotion from the boy who never seemed to have any. This issue seemed to be taking a toll on various personalities; first Dominique was showing tact, then Andy was actually getting angry over something, and now Lysander was showing signs of real human sentiment.

"None of us know why he did this or what his real intentions were," Sarah continued. "What if he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and we release this story under the assumption that he was meaning to cheat?"

"Sarah, there's a picture of him smiling while he looked through Malfoy's Quidditch plans!" Spencer said. "It's pretty damn clear what his intentions were, if you asked me."

"I say we vote on it." Marriot stated, raising her hand up in the air. "For those who think we should get on with the publishing no questions asked?"

Spencer and Lysander raised their hands as well. Marriot's head snapped to look Effie, who was thinking over her decision with her arm half raised.

"You've been awfully quiet, Ef," Marriot taunted. "Think about the students. This isn't some schoolgirl gossip we picked up from the toilet. This is relevant. It's news."

"The very fact that you think cheating in Quidditch is news is bloody news to me!" Carson bellowed, brown eyes blazing. "Everybody cheats!"

"James Potter is a FRAUD, Carson!" Marriot yelled back, jumping up on her feet. "And a coward! I'm sorry that you don't think that letting this go would be completely unfair to teams who actually work hard for that trophy because apparently the new Gryffindor trend is lying and sneaking around to get their rewards!"

"Okay, shut up!" Effie screeched, banging both fists on the desk before her.

Marriot and Carson hesitated but eventually sat back down, awaiting her verdict. Lysander was seated rather peacefully, playing with a quill in his hand while his sight remained focused on the trees swaying by the window. Sarah and Spencer looked shaken by the recent argument and eyed Effie for her decision as well.

Suddenly Effie heard voices in her head; the need for justice in Marriot's, the resentment in Lysander's, the doubt in Spencer's, the disbelief in Carson's and the rationality in Sarah's.

Effie used to believe she hardly ever crossed paths with James Potter, but then she realized that she did. She just never regarded it as anything because there was never any real interaction with each other.

But she did see him. He would be strutting by the lake with his best friend and cousin Fred Weasley, jinxing anyone who got in his way or taunting any Quidditch captain he would encounter. She vaguely remembered Lysander being a regular target of his bullying, which would explain the boy's hatred towards his housemate.

She thought she also noticed Carson following Fred and James around like a lost puppy, constantly asking for Quidditch advice and attempting to make their little duo into a trio. Carson tried out for the team every year. He was yet to be accepted.

Then the very last of her memories about James Potter and perhaps the clearest of all was their accidental collision in the Entrance Hall just yesterday. The sincerity in his gaze as he apologized and the soft smile he offered her made Effie think twice about who he was and who he really could be.

Just as Effie was about to give her answer, Lysander turned at the last second, steel gray eyes piercing hers.

"We're publishing it," she began softly, "and I'll do the article."


At dinner, Effie Greengrass sat alone and chewed quietly on her roasted chicken. Dominique was absent and Andy chose to sit with his teammates. He would sneak glances at her but Effie chose not to entertain them. Her crew was the only one who knew about the headliner and her decision, and she was pleased Andy and Dominique were not around to badger her about the state of the situation.

Before leaving the room earlier, they all swore not to breathe a word of it before the issue was released. Carson stayed true to his initial threat, personally approaching Effie to tell her that he would not be continuing his sports column for Owl's Post any longer although he assured her that he could be trusted and would not be blabbing about the headline until it was published.

Sarah respected Effie's decision but admitted that she expected more from her. Effie could see her chatting down the Ravenclaw table with her fellow third year mates, a ghost of a smile on her face.

Naturally, Spencer and Marriot were the most delighted of all. The Slytherin could hardly hold her squeal of glee at the announcement of Effie's decision, and the Hufflepuff began to speak on about the various possibilities this headline would provide for the paper.

Lysander had no physical reaction whatsoever and left the room for dinner immediately after the promise to keep quiet was made. Effie's eyes scanned the Gryffindor table only to find him already looking. The fifth year raised his goblet to her then drank.

With a sigh, Effie tore her eyes away and coincidentally landed on a certain bespectacled seventeen year-old boy clad in scarlet-lined robes, laughing at a joke Fred Weasley just made. And in his laughter, his eyes unexpectedly shifted to meet hers. Effie blinked, unable to look away. James Potter could not seem to either.

After a few tense seconds, James ripped his curious gaze away from the Ravenclaw and turned his attention back to his redheaded cousin, who seemed to be inquiring what he was staring at. Effie immediately looked down at her food as Fred's head began to whirl around as if to identify what or who caught his best mate's eye.

Effie's focus stayed on her plate for the rest of dinner.


Author's Note:

Hello again! Pretty excited to start this so this is a relatively quick update. Thank you for my three reviewers! To one of the anonymous reviewers, I hope this chapter sums up the answer to your question concerning my view of cheating in Hogwarts Quidditch.

Some of you could also be bothered by my choice of houses for some of the canon next gen characters but this is a Ravenclaw based story so I'm telling you now, a couple of them will be in Ravenclaw including Al and Dominique. Anyway Ravenclaw is great and it shouldn't be a problem for them to be sorted there. :)

Lastly, I do not count the Cursed Child as canon in any single way and I would like to believe that book or play or script whatever never happened and we are still free to imagine what could have happened to the next generation.

So a question for thought that you could maybe answer in the reviews (because it would be really cool for you to review!): Is the Cursed Child canon or not? Why?

-Finner