"I love school!" Lily's head shot up from its previous position inches above her plate to stare at her cousin, who was clutching a bread roll in one hand and spooning peas into his mouth with the other. "What?" he asked, in response to her incredulous expression. "The food's good!"

Vanessa's chuckle quickly changed to a grimace as she pulled a half-chewed pea out of her hair, pulling her napkin off her lap to use as a barrier to protect herself from Hugo. Lily grinned at Hugo's offended expression, and took advantage of her friend's occupied hands to poke her in the waist, her most ticklish spot. Gasping, Vanessa doubled over, nearly knocking over her glass of pumpkin juice with her elbow. Giggling, she attempted to return the favor, but Lily had snatched up her now-clean plate to use as her own shield. Vanessa's frustrated sigh quickly vanished as the desserts appeared on the table and she deftly snatched the biggest wedge of treacle tart out from under Hugo's fingers.

Hugo's grumbles only subsided as Headmistress McGonagall was slowly helped to her feet. Lily watched the frail woman with interest as she raised a hand for silence. The eyes were no less piercing, even from afar, but McGonagall was no longer the imposing figure that her parents reminisced about. Nevertheless, the Great Hall became quiet almost immediately.

"Welcome to a new school year. I trust all of you have had productive holidays and are ready to leap back into the fold." McGonagall's eyes swept the hall, as if daring anyone to confess that they had done nothing all summer. Lily noticed a particularly guilty-looking third-year who looked about ready to pass out from embarrassment. She caught the girl's eye and tried to give her a reassuring smile, but only caused her panicked expression to increase. Puzzled, Lily realized that her Prefect badge was probably a little off-putting. Her gaze moved past the poor girl and landed on the Slytherin table. Smith was apparently listening to McGonagall, though a look of boredom was obvious in his face. Suddenly, his head turned and his dark eyes met Lily's. Lily expected him to sneer and look away, but instead he held her gaze. Finally, she looked away, furious at the blush that was blooming on her cheeks, and attempted to pay attention to McGonagall. But McGonagall had sat down and sound of scraping benches was filling the hall.

"Hello…Ms. Prefect…Lily! Wake up!" Lily registered her friend's hand waving in front of her face. Jumping to her feet, Lily searched for the line of frightened first years, but they seemed to have disappeared. Seizing Vanessa's hand, she dragged her through the doors and up the packed staircase, slowing down only once they were safe in a hidden passage on the second floor.

"Lily, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," said Lily. "Absolutely nothing."

Dear Lily,

How's your first couple of weeks back been? I bet you 300 galleons that all the teachers have given you the whole "Now that your OWL's are over, you need to start killing yourselves for your NEWT's" speech. Send your reply pronto because I need the money!

Auror training is hell, and I'm loving every minute of it. The Aurors do not approve of "hand-holding"; their methods are more similar to chucking you off a cliff and expecting you to know how to fly. Now, with a broom of course, that wouldn't be so hard…but instead of trying to go into more detail to make my metaphor actually work, I'm just going to beg that you don't pick it apart.

James wants me to pass on the message that he won't be writing for a while as he's off for a month of "intense training", or something that was supposed to sound very impressive. Supposedly all contact with the opposite gender is forbidden in this time period to help them focus, so that somehow includes you, even though I would be puking for days if James confessed a romantic interest in you (Merlin, my brain is shriveling up at the thought!) To be honest, I think he's just lazy, but at least he gave an excuse for the crap lack of communication you'll be getting for the next few weeks.

When's your first Hogsmeade weekend? If I can get time off, I'll try to briefly come up and visit. Until then, try to keep your reputation and all limbs intact (I'm just teasing you, don't curse me!)

Your caring and communicative (James!) elder bro,

Albus

Ok, pass the Quaffle to the right, swerve left around the defender, catch the Quaffle and SCORE! Lily's mental mantra was interrupted by the whoop issuing from her own mouth as she watched her shot soar past Damien Wood's outstretched hands. Slapping high fives with Jamie, her fellow chaser, she zoomed up towards the darkening sky into a loop-the-loop. Maybe with that goal, Howard would finally end practice…

"Potter!"

Damn. Lily halted upside down and looked confusedly down into her captain's irritated face. "Yes?"

"When your defender's on your right, you have to shoot with your left! That's the whole point of the play! If you just wimp out and use your right arm, it's easier to snatch the ball away. And for God's sake, stop hanging upside down like a gorilla!"

Slightly shamefacedly, Lily swung right-side-up in time to hear Jack say, "I didn't know gorillas could hang upside down, Captain."

"Well, you learn something new everyday," muttered Howard.

"Actually, Howard, I think you're trying to refer to an orangutan, not a gorilla. Or maybe a sloth, they spend almost all their time upside down".

"I don't give a damn whether ruddy gorillas hang upside down; this has nothing to do with Quidditch!" Howard roared at Jamie, whose mildly amused expression didn't slip.

"But Captain," trilled Julie, innocently twirling her beater's bat, "how do you expect us to understand what you are talking about if you don't use your words properly?"

Howard seemed to be suppressing a strong urge to smack himself in the forehead. "Fine, I give up! If you want to slack off, let's just end practice now." He looked up expectantly, but immediately sighed in irritation as he saw his entire team speeding towards the ground. "And reverse psychology is supposed to work…." Muttering to himself, he sank towards his dismounting team.

"Slackers!" exclaimed Julie in the locker room. "We'd been practicing for four hours. What does he think we are, raving mad lunatics?"

"Took you long enough to figure that one out," joked Lily as she emerged from the showers. Julie was only a third year and it was her first year off the reserves, but she was by no means intimidated by their blustering captain. Lily enjoyed her for this, especially as she and Julie were the only girls on the team. The younger girl's half-amused, half-exasperated expression was clear, even though it was upside down as she bent over, rubbing her hair with a towel.

"Well you certainly developed your strategy a lot faster than most of us did," remarked Lily with a grin. "Confusing him always works. Evan, who was on the team last year, decided to be an idiot and yell back at him; needless to say, that wasn't very successful."

Julie chuckled. "I remember how frustrated he got at the tryouts during the scrimmage, when Howard discounted every goal he scored...and every time Howard came up with a rule that Evan had violated."

Lily gave a wry smile. "That's probably the only time I've seen Howard act blatantly unfairly. He's a good guy, just really obsessed about Quidditch and he doesn't understand why everyone else doesn't live and breathe it too."

"We're going start our morning practice on Saturday a ½ hour earlier than normal to get in more drill time!" Howard's voice came floating through the door from outside the locker room. Lily groaned, turning to Julie.

"Remember what I said about him being a good guy? Forget it."