William and the pukwudgies had saved their lives, and they had also found Vanessa and Cassandra alive. William said they were both being attacked by gnomes after they had fallen into a bush. For the next couple of days, they would surely have gnome bite marks all over them.

William had informed Professor Steward, the deputy headmistress, of both situations. Rebecca was not mad at William for it. He only did his job and he saved her and Morgan's life.

Andrew and Sheila were not in trouble, but they were both in the Hospital Wing. The spell Andrew was hit with had swollen his nose to be abnormally large. Sheila's hair wouldn't stop growing which to Morgan, was way worse than what Andrew had. "She's always had short hair. It's about time she let it flow for once" They also had to contain Sheila to a room on her own and someone had to sit with her to cut her hair every ten minutes so it didn't become a jungle inside.

Rebecca opened up her Transfiguration book with Morgan to do homework. Since Andrew was not able to help, they had to try on their own, but Rebecca's attention was thrown off by the note she had forgotten in her book.

"What's that?" Morgan asked. Rebecca began reading it to herself.

Rebecca,

I want to say I really enjoyed being with you at the party. Everything I can remember of it anyways. If you want to maybe make this a more permanent thing between us, could you meet me by the lake next to the tallest pine tree this Saturday evening? Sort of like a date.

Alexis

P.S. sorry about the hickey.

"Oh my. She's going to propose to you." Morgan said. She was reading along behind Rebecca's shoulder.

"What?" Rebecca asked.

"Just kidding." Morgan chuckled. "So you got a date. Are you going?"

"Should I?" Rebecca asked. She didn't know if that was what she wanted. A relationship.

"That's up to you, but you already seen how she can be. Very quick to jump straight into something."

"What do you know about her?" Rebecca pressed on.

"Well, if you can believe it, her grandmother is in the Saturn Society. Her father is dead and her mother lives in terrible conditions. Her grandmother took her away."

"How did you know all that?" Rebecca folded the note back up.

"Vanessa tried to 'recruit' her in first year and spilled it all out when she said no." Morgan shrugged. "She keeps to herself mostly but she's friends with that Roman Winters. His father is in prison for something, but also has ties to the SS."

Rebecca thought on it for a bit. If she went, there couldn't be no harm in that, but she truly was not interested in having any sort of relationship. She decided to decline and not go.

She planned to explain to Alexis on the following Thursday. After class, she hurried to catch up with Alexis. Her shoulder length hair bobbed down the hallway.

"Hey Alexis." Rebecca called out. Alexis stopped and smiled at Rebecca. She approached the girl with a smile back.

"Hey. I- I um..." Rebecca didn't know how to say it. But Alexis said, "Is it about Saturday?"

"Yeah. I can't make it." Rebecca said.

"Oh well okay. Do you want to arrange another day?" Alexis asked optimistically.

"No. I'm sorry." Rebecca said. "I'm not interested in dating. I- it's not the right time for me."

There wasn't any sign of disappointment on the girl's face. Instead she said, "Well, okay then." And she turned quickly and walked away. Rebecca was confused. She later explained the situation to Morgan who said, "Girls. We're so difficult we can't even figure each other out. So why did you say no?"

"I don't want to get attached to anyone here. I doubt I'll be here long. The war has to end soon and if it's not by the time I graduate, I'm leaving to go fight."

"But why not have some fun while you can?" Morgan said. "At least someone asked you out. Nobody here ever has, nor will he ever ask me out."

"He?" Rebecca asked. "Who's he?"

Morgan froze up. She shook her head and said, "Nobody. Just an expression."

"That was a pretty big expression." Rebecca admitted. "Come on. You can tell me."

"No..." Morgan said. "It's best that I don't mention it at all. Especially to you."

Rebecca looked at her funny. "What does that mean?"

"Sorry. That sounded very bad. I just mean... Ugh, you ever found someone who's your best friend for years and you end up liking them?"

"No. My only best friend was Lucy and you seen how that turned out." Rebecca said. She gave it a little more thought. "And then there's Albus and Scorpius. I guess I can kind of count them as friends. Although we're not getting along right now. And of course you and Andrew, but I've only known you two for a short while... Wait a minute."

Rebecca gazed over at Morgan and confronted her. "You like Andrew."

"I didn't say that." Morgan said quickly. She then picked up her book and started reading it. Her face went as red as her hair.

The Wampus tryouts finally came and Rebecca was ready to go. Morgan and Andrew wished her good luck as she decided to go alone. She made her way down to the quidditch pitch. The odd thing about Ilvermorny was that it had a quidditch pitch, but its primary use was for quodpot. Rebecca had later discovered that the American National Quidditch team played here in the summer. That had meant her dad played here many times. Even though her father grew up in Britain, he was born in America, so it gave him two options: the U.K. or the U.S. and he had chosen the U.S. after being recruited out of Hogwarts.

Rebecca wondered if the teams played during wars. There was no doubt her father wouldn't be playing. Not because of the war, but because of injury.

Rebecca found the locker room area. She wandered around to find her house team. Instead, she found herself bumping into someone. A bald man. "So sorry." Rebecca said.

"Not to worry." He said. "Can I help you?"

"I'm here for quodpot tryouts with Wampus house." Rebecca said. But the man was now carefully looking over her. "What's your name?" He asked.

"Rebecca Warren." As soon as she said this, the man's face lit up into a smile.

"I thought so. Merlin's beard." He held out his hand for Rebecca to shake. Rebecca took it uneasily. "Robert Green. I played with your father. Mercy, it's been years. I retired and passed on team captain to him on the American team."

"Nice to meet you." Rebecca said. She wasn't interested in hearing about her father, but she acted nicely.

"I tell ya. Your father knew quidditch like the back of his hand. It sucks what happened in that game against Bulgaria. I still think Krum did it intentionally."

Rebecca was losing patience. She just stood there and smiled.

"So you said you're looking for the quodpot team?" Green asked, cocking his head to the side. "Why not quidditch?"

Rebecca said as nicely as she could, "Because I don't like quidditch. In fact I hate it."

"Ah yes. I forgot your father had mentioned only one of his kids enjoyed playing the sport. He always thought you might come around one day, but I see you took a different path. I'm a little disappointed in your choice of sport though." Green continued on about Rebecca's father. "I remember recruiting your father in fifth year. Team Captain for Hufflepuff. Took over after that Diggory boy's death. Switched positions from chaser to seeker. You have no idea what your father has done for quidditch in America when he got here. He's the reason we have two World Cups-"

Rebecca heard quite enough. The man was wasting her time bragging about her father's accomplishments and she said quite rudely, "I could care less about what my father has done for you, quidditch, America, or anything else. Excuse me, but I have things to do." Rebecca pushed herself through without looking back at Green.

Rebecca made her way onto the field where she found a group of broom-wielding students. She approached them quickly, not wanting to miss anything. It seemed as though the captain was giving a speech. A silver haired girl who looked older than Rebecca was standing in front of her and about three other people. Behind the captain was what must had been the rest of the team.

"Now there's only one spot available on the team this year. So for those who are seeking a spot, you'll have to perform your absolute best."

"Ivy, you should had just given me the spot." Said a boy with blonde shaggy hair. "You already know I'm better than these." He pointed towards Rebecca and the rest of the tryouts.

"Dillon, shut up." Ivy said. "You know good and well we'll never simply let someone on this team. You'll fight for it just as everyone else will. I thought after the last two attempts to make the team, you would had realized this by now."

Dillon just grinned as though he had won a prize. Like getting on Ivy's bad side was something to be proud of. Ivy didn't seem to be the type of person who would put up with nonsense such as Dillon's.

"Alright then. Let's run trials. Grab a ball and line up." Ivy took off into the air. Rebecca and the others took a ball from a cart. Dillon forced his way past them to get one first. "Gotta be quick." He said as he went past Rebecca.

In the air, they were running trials similar to what Horned-Serpent had been doing where someone took a stopwatch to time the ball carry, which Rebecca figured it was to show for the amount of time the ball had before exploding. Ivy set the first round to making it halfway downfield against six players from the team. Anyone who couldn't make that would be done for tryouts. Dillon had went first. He wasn't too bad. He managed to weave between the players and scored. He bragged about how he knew their playstyle, but Ivy ignored him.

The next player, a girl in her third year, did not make it. She dropped the ball at the start of the whistle. Ivy gave her another chance, and despite doing better, she still failed to reach midfield.

Another boy in sixth year did reach past midfield, but only just after the whistle blew. Ivy didn't seem too impressed, but regardless, he made it and would go on to the next challenge.

Now it was Rebecca's turn. She scanned the field of the players. Ivy watched alongside the time keeper. Rebecca waited anxiously for the whistle to begin her trial. Dillon was literally laying on his broom, thinking he had this one in the bag.

The whistle sounded and Rebecca took off like she was shot out of a cannon. She turned left to avoid the first player. Success. She went down to avoid the next. Perfect. Two tried to team up on her, but they couldn't knock the ball out of her hand as she twisted. She was now past midfield, but she didn't know how much time she had left. Perhaps her worrying is what kept her from scoring. The whistle blew before Rebecca could take a shot. However, she was safe.

Dillon argued that since he was the only one to score, he should be picked. Ivy repeated what the goal was and she now made the next trial about defending. It would be one on one matchups to make the player with the ball not get to the goalpost.

Dillon went first since he was so eager to prove he was the best. He was able to successfully stop his opponent. The other boy was not able to do so, thus eliminating him from the field. Now it was up to Rebecca. She had to stop her opponent. She kept close to hers making sure he couldn't find a way to dart past her. He did get away from her though and took off to shoot for a goal, however, the whistle blew before he could, which was a successful stop for Rebecca.

"This is an outrage. You know I'm better than her." Dillon cried to Ivy.

"If you're better than me, then why don't you try and stop me yourself?" Rebecca asked cooly.

Ivy smiled. "That's a great idea for the last round. Dillon, you try to score. Warren, you try to stop. Start from midfield with thirty seconds.

"What?" Dillon bellowed. "This is unfair."

"If you don't like it, then get off my pitch." Ivy said firmly. Dillon opened his mouth, but closed it back. He turned to Rebecca and said, "You're going down."

On the whistle, Rebecca got right up in Dillons face. He was much closer to the goal than her previous opponent so she needed to be more aggressive. He didn't like it and it caused him to fumble the ball. The whistle blew.

"Gotta be quick." Rebecca mocked Dillion.

"Great job." Rebecca heard someone say. Dillon was not happy. In fact, he had bumped into Rebecca as they began to switch sides. This only made Rebecca want to win so much more.

The same situation, but this time Rebecca would try to score while Dillon defended. The whistle blew and Rebecca was like a bullet, looking to hit Dillon head on. He wasn't expecting this, but instead of hitting him, Rebecca dived downward and passed him as he raised his hands to shield himself from her. She scored her goal.

Dillon did not hang around. He left the field immediately. Ivy had planned to do a best out of three, but she didn't bother to tell him to come back.

"Congratulations." Ivy said, shaking Rebecca's hand. "You've made the team."

Later that evening, Rebecca told Morgan and Andrew about what happened at tryouts.

"I can't believe Ivy still lets Dillon try. This is his third time now." Morgan said. "Everyone knows the only reason he goes is because he has the hots for Ivy."

"Who doesn't?" Rebecca admitted. "But we're going to have practice every Saturday until the first game which I found out will be against Horned-Serpent."

"Perfect." Andrew said. His nose had returned to normal size. "By the way, Sheila got out of the hospital wing. They had to remove all of her hair in order to stop the crazy growth. It'll take the rest of the holidays before it can be back to how she likes it."

Rebecca and Morgan laughed at this news. Rebecca suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around her. It was Isabelle.

"I heard you made the quodpot team! Congratulations!"

Rebecca returned the hug. "Thanks, Issy."

"Why though? You don't like flying." Isabelle asked.

"People change." Rebecca said. "Now I do."

"That's cool. Just don't change too much. I still want you to be my sister." Isabelle continued her hug.

"Don't worry. I always will be." Rebecca said. Isabelle let go and said bye before she skipped down the aisle.