Disclaimer: I don't own harry potter.
Jason smacked his alarm clock, groaning. He didn't do mornings. He hated them. Even when he went to muggle primary school he had often been late due to waking up late.
Muggle primary school. It had been an interesting time for him. He had enjoyed it immensely towards the end. After all he had been one of the most popular kids in school. He'd learned young that a bright smile, some compliments and talking about a persons favorite hobbies made them like you. And when people liked you, they did things for you. And then later in school he learned that making friends with the right people had even greater benefits. He had indirectly placed himself at the centre of his primary school. All the other 200 kids in his year had looked to him. And he even managed to make money off it on the side. The odd bets here and there, buying and selling things that people wanted. All together he had worked out that knowing the right people got you everywhere.
And now he was at Hogwarts. He was now a small fish in a huge pond (stealing a phrase from his muggle father). He was going to have to make pick friends all over again. In the two days that he had been at Hogwarts he was already beginning to pick up on just who would be worth making friends with. He saw it as even luckier that he had the luck to be in the house of one of the son of Harry Potter. But he felt even luckier. On the train he had bumped into a boy, who was talented and infamous. He could see all the whispers that followed him. Normally such a boy would be one to be avoided, he was usually the type that would lose you all your other friends in school if you decided to befriend him, but this was different. He didn't act like the weird kid that nobody wanted to make friends with. Aside from being a boy who used far too many words he seemed nice enough. And he was very intelligent, a most beneficial friend to have, all things considered.
Making friends with guys was easy, all you had to do was be into the same things and share some experiences together. So the day before he had slyly orchestrated the three of them practicing quidditch. From what he had seen in primary school with muggle football he understood that it would be a great way to quickly solidify a friendship with the other two, if they spent time playing quidditch together.
And that was why he was smacking his alarm clock cursing it in his head with words that would have led to being hexed by his mother. Jason rolled out of bed groaning, he rubbed his eyes and looked around. All the curtains were closed and light snoring could be heard from the other three beds. He walked over to Albus' bed and drew the curtains.
"Yo, Al, wake up." Jason said shaking Albus gently.
"Get lost James." Albus replied sleepily before rolling over.
"Albus, up!" he tried again, slightly louder. Albus groaned and covered his head with his pillow. Jason sighed. What he could really use at this moment in time was his two little sisters. At the ages of 3 and 7 both of them were absolute nightmares, loud annoying and brilliant at waking him up against his will. However seeing as they weren't here, he decided he'd just adopt their approach instead. He grabbed the covered and yanked the duvet off Albus. Albus opened his eyes, looked up and blinked a few times.
"What do you want?" Al rasped. "It's so early."
"We're meant to go practice." Jason replied, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice. Al groaned, turned around and hugged his pillow in response.
"Oh for Merlin's sake." came another disgruntled voice. "Rennervate." Jason looked over to see Scorpius pointing his wand at Albus.
"Okay, okay, I'm awake." Albus said, his eyes now wide open. He sat up and looked around. "Why are we awake so early?" Jason sighed.
"For the millionth time, we are going to the quidditch pitch to practice!" he said.
"Oh yeah. Quidditch." he said, his face lighting up into a bright smile. Jason smiled back.
"Get changed." Scorpius called out, already changing into his robes. Jason rolled his eyes at Al and Albus laughed.
"What?" Scorpius asked, confused.
"If you used any fewer words, you'd be a mute." Jason replied smoothly.
"And if you used any more, you'd literally be a chatterbox." Albus replied. Scorpius descended into a fit of giggles over this, causing the two of them to look at him again. Scorpius simply shrugged this time.
"Would you three go away so I can sleep!" called out another voice from a bed with drawn curtains. It was Dexter. The volume level of their conversation had obviously risen to a level where it was waking people up.
"Sorry Dex." Jason called out. Others might have felt bad about not inviting Dexter but Jason didn't. It was simple, Dexter didn't seem like the kind of kid who would turn out to be cool. So Jason felt it totally unnecessary to expend any extra effort befriending him. It was a mean way of thinking, but Jason wasn't nice.
The three of them got dressed in silence to avoid keeping up Dexter any longer feeling bad. Albus was first to be ready, Jason noticed that he was really eager to go out and practice. Jason was inwardly happy at this, this sort of thing, male bonding, his dad called it, was always easier when you were taking an interest in someone's favourite interest. And clearly quidditch was Al's.
The three of them made their way out of the room and the common room.
"So, how long you two been playing quidditch then?" Jason asked.
"Well I had a real broomstick since I was seven." Al replied. "What about you Scorpius?"
"Same."
"Would it kill you to use more than one word in a sentence?" Jason asked.
"Literally or figuratively?" Scorpius asked.
"You read too many books." Al replied shaking his head with a smile. "You talk just like my aunt and my cousin. Always using words that nobody knows the meaning of."
"Which cousin is this?" Jason asked.
"Rose," he replied. "The one who Scorpius humiliated in DADA." Al sighed. "You know she's going to do everything possible to get you back. She's pretty good at holding grudges."
Scorpius shrugged looking unphased.
"You'll have to give us more than that." Jason said. "You destroyed her. Why?" Jason had noticed the flinches that came across Scorpius' face when people had been talking about him behind his back.
"I don't like to be second." he said quietly.
"Well I guess you just indirectly declared war on her then. Cause Rose also hates being second." Al replied.
"He'll be fine." Jason spoke up. From what he had seen Scorpius during lessons, aside from Herbology, Scorpius was more than capable of holding his own. Yes, he'd picked some great friends out.
Al shook his head.
"She's going to obsess over beating him... at everything." Al replied.
"Good for her." Scorpius replied, it was obvious to Jason that Scorpius didn't care much for his competition, and rather only cared about being top.
"Well, Scor, I can call you that right?" Jason asked, Scorpius cocked his head to the side as if to consider and then nodded. "Well, Scor, the way I see it, you focus on being top and if I have the time maybe I'll play a few mind games on her."
"Mind games?" Al asked sounding slightly worried. "That's my cousin you know."
"Dad always said one of the best ways to deal with competition was to mess with their minds." Jason said to Scorpius, he then turned to Al. "I know it's your cousin, but we are Scor's friends, so it's our duty to ensure that he comes out on top."
"I don't need help." Scorpius replied sounding slightly irritated.
"We aren't saying you need it, but take it anyway. You've helped me out tons already, at least let me help you out a bit." Jason smoothly replied back.
"Okay." Scorpius said, the corners of his lips turning up slightly.
"Oh and Al?" Jason said turning to Al. "Not a word of this to Rose."
"Fine." Al replied sounding defeated.
By this point the three boys had arrived at the quidditch pitch and unstrapped their brooms from their shoulders.
"Hey, Jason, you never said which broom you had." Al stated, looking at Jason's broom. Jason smiled smugly. It was not by accident he had kept it to himself.
"Come take a look." Jason replied smugly. He passed the broom over to Al.
"What!" Al said shocked taking a closer look at it. "How did you get a Swiftstick MKII? They cost 100 galleons."
"I changed all my muggle money for it at Gringotts." Jason replied. It had cost him five hundred pounds but he knew, like with football boots were a quick way to elevate your popularity.
"What about you Scorpius, what do you have?" Al asked.
"Same as your brother." he replied curtly. Jason looked at the sky and how the sun which had only just risen when they had gone outside was now fully visible. They only had an hour and a half or so till breakfast. Jason walked over and brought out a quaffle.
"What we going to do for Al?" Jason asked. Scorpius pulled a small white ball out of his pocket. "Is that a golf ball?" Scorpius nodded.
"An enchanted one. My Dad was a seeker, so he used to use them to practice." He tossed it at Al who caught it without any effort. "See the black cross on it?"
"Yeah." Al replied.
"Touch it once for the equivalent of a slow snitch, twice for a normal one and three times if... well if you are crazy." he continued. Jason stared at him somewhat slack jawed.
"I think that might just be the longest set of sentences you ever strung together, Scor" Jason said. Until now, he didn't know that Scor was capable of stringing so many sentences together. Scorpius shrugged.
"I can talk." he replied cooly. Jason winced slightly, he hadn't meant for it to be a stinging remark. "Enough talk anyway, lets practice."
The three of them jumped on their brooms. They rose up. Jason was slightly unsteady on his broom as he had only been using one since he had gotten broom at the beginning of summer. He looked at Al and Scorpius, both seemed very at home on their brooms.
"So, Scor, did your dad ever manage to catch this thing on crazy?" Al asked looking at the small golf ball.
"Once." Scorpius replied. "He says it was pure luck."
"Once is enough." Albus replied, his voice suddenly a lot more confident.
"Don't lose it!" Scorpius replied suddenly concerned. However it was already too late, Al tapped it three times and then almost jumped in shock as the white ball whizzed off.
"Crap!" Al shouted before whizzing off on his broom to find it. Jason laughed.
"He's not going to get it, is he?" Jason asked still in a fit of giggles.
"Nope." Scorpius said with a sigh. "Anyway get in goal." His eyes turned hard and Jason for a second felt a small amount of fear. It was like Scorpius had fire in his eyes.
Scorpius flew straight at Jason with the quaffle tucked safely under his arm. Jason was guarding the top goal when Scorpius raised his hand to throw the quaffle at the lower right goal hoop. Jason dived with his broom to cover it but no quaffle came. Scorpius lightly threw the quaffle into the middle hoop and started laughing. Jason frowned. If it was going to be like this then it was time to put all his football knowledge to use. To him the difference between the two sports seemed very minimal. On the whole quidditch was more like a three dimensional version of football. So he made it a bit easier on himself, he imagined that it was a goal he was in front of instead. Scorpius flew and picked up the quaffle.
"That one was for free, you aren't getting another one in!" Jason shouted. He felt a lot more secure, now he was viewing it as playing keeper. Scorpius came at him again and this time threw the quaffle straight at the top hoop. Jason dived and caught it easily. He felt a big smirk grace his face as he realised that quidditch really was just a messed up version of football.
Scorpius shook his head. He retrieved the quaffle and came at me again. This time Jason knew exactly where he was going and rushed Scorpius with his broom. They collided and Jason reached for the quaffle. Scorpius shoved the nose of Jason's broomstick downwards and the two of them ended up diving to the floor. Scorpius pulled off first leaving him free to score, whilst Jason just avoided smashing into the ground. Jason grinned. If Scorpius was going to play dirty, so could he. Jason flew back just as the quaffle left his hand he was lucky enough to be able to punch the quaffle skywards and watched as it sailed over the hoop.
"How long you been playing quidditch?" Scorpius asked looking at Jason.
"This is my second time in an actual game." Jason admitted.
"What?" he shouted his eyes flaring up. Jason silently noted this to be perhaps the biggest display of emotion from Scorpius.
"Chill out. Playing keeper in quidditch is just like playing it in football." Jason paused, remembering that Scorpius hadn't gone to a primary school. "You know what football is right?"
"Yeah, I read muggle books." Jason laughed at this.
"You and your books." Scorpius shrugged at this and went back to retrieve the quaffle. The two of them continues to pit themselves against each other for the next hour, acquiring many bruises as they progressively got more dirty and sly with their tactics. Jason was quite happy to collide into Scorpius and attempt to punch the quaffle from his grip, even if he missed and Scorpius was more than happy to use the quaffle as a bludger. About half an hour into their foul play version of penalty shootout Jason was flying towards Scorpius as he attempted to move out the way. Suddenly there was a flash of white followed by a collision. The collision was followed by falling and then pain. A lot of pain.
"Ngrrrrrrrrrrrrr." groaned Jason. He opened his eyes and and looked around. Al was beside him also groaning in pain. Scorpius was on his arms and knees not moving. Jason watched as Al lifted his right hand in the air and displayed the golfball.
"I... got... it..." he rasped. Scorpius looked over with a look of indignation.
"You better have it!" he shouted, before clutching at his ribs. "Ow!" Scorpius cried out.
"Well, I think we're done with quidditch for today." Jason said, he started to laugh and then clutched at his ribs painfully. The other two laughed briefly however they also succumbed to the pain they were in when they laughed.
"Can we walk to breakfast without someone making a joke?" Al asked.
"Ask Jason." Scorpius replied. Then he looked thoughtful. "Actually, don't. It's not worth the risk." causing the other two to start laughing again.
"I hate you, Scor." Al said shaking his head. The three of them walked back to the castle with their brooms slowly talking and trying to make each other laugh to induce pain. Jason being considerably good at this earned a lot of hateful glares after each one.
-x-y-z-a-b-c-
The three of them walked into the breakfast to be greeted by murmurs and stares. Jason was wondering what was wrong as they were looking at the three of them rather than just Malfoy. Also it wasn't the usual gryffindor stares accompanied by the words death eater. Rose Weasley who had been the subject of much conversation stood up and made a beeline for Al. She yanked him away from the two of them and sat him down on the gryffindor table.
"You think they realise he's a Slytherin?" Jason whispered to Scorpius. Scorpius shook his head. The two of them sat down next to Alice.
"What in merlin's name happened to you three?" she asked straight away. "You're all covered in bruises!" she gave Jason and Scorpius another look over. "You weren't fighting were you?"
"Quidditch." Scorpius replied simply.
"Quidditch." Jason confirmed. He found it quite amusing.
"Well you two had better let people know that because it looks like you were muggle duelling! There are already enough rumours floating around about..." she trailed off, glancing at Scorpius. Jason looked at Scorpius and watched as his face instantly became cold. He opened his mouth to speak up but at that moment a surly looking Al plonked his plate down on the table.
"What's wrong?" Alice asked.
"I'm going to murder my brother." Al replied simply.
"I don't think the press will take it kindly if you murder the first son of Harry Potter. Actually wait, they'd love it, you'd be in the papers for months."
"I would be dead first." he sighed "Killed by my mother."
"Why?" Scorpius asked.
"She favours him. Just because he loves to play quidditch as a chaser."
"Will you boys stop talking about quidditch for even two minutes?" Alice said indignantly. "Isn't it enough that you managed to beat each other to a pulp playing it this morning."
"We'll let you pick the topic to talk about then." Jason replied with a smile. "Do you have one ready?" his smile turning into a smirk.
"Ermmm... er..." Alice stuttered.
"It's okay. I'll pick one." Jason turned to Albus. "So which one of the redheads is your brother?"
"Look for the one surrounded by girls." he replies somewhat absent minded playing around with his food. Jason looked over at the gryffindor table. It was easy to spot by this description. James was surrounded by girls who were laughing as he was talking. He felt envious as back in primary school it was him that had that sort of status. Everyone wanted to know him. But here, it seemed like all you had to do was be a Weasley or a Potter and you were famous. Jason knew he was going to have to put in some real work to attain the same sort of status. He looked at Al and Scorpius and felt slightly more at ease. The two of them were famous and infamous. Being placed between the two would mean that people would quickly begin to notice him as well. Though he was going to have to put in some work to make sure that he wasn't just refered to as the tag along.
"Hey Scor, what class do we have first?" Jason asked, he waited for the famous 3 word answer.
"Transfiguration." Jason held up one finger. "Lightwater." and then another Hufflepuff." and then a third. It was met with laughs from everyone around. Even Scorpius smiled.
-x-y-z-a-b-c-
Jason walked into the transfiguration room talking animatedly with Al and Scorpius about which teams they preferred when it came to quidditch. They had been arguing over whether Puddlesmere united or the Tornado's were going to win that season when they walked in.
"Right, everyone stand at the back now." Came said a quiet but very well projected voice. It was Professor Lightwater. He was a tall bald man with piercing blue eyes. Everyone fell into immediate silence as his presence seemed to fill the room.
"You will be seated where I place you." he said again. His voice still quiet but the way he looked at them commanded an instant aura of respect. "You." he said looking at a short blonde haired Hufflepuff girl, Jason recognised her as Lucinda MacMillan from the sorting ceremony. "Sit there." he pointed to a a table. He placed everyone randomly. Jason found himself seated next to Elliot Harris.
"Right if you will take out your books and turn to page 10 please. You, whats your name?" Lightwater says, his eyes fixed on a tallish blonde haired, blue eyed boy in hufflepuff.
"Henry Edmunds, sir"
"Stand up and read the first paragraph." The boy rose to his feet and read out the paragraph and sat back down. Lightwater continued to assign them passages to read for the next 15 minutes, whilst the rest of them had to take notes. By this time Jason was thoroughly bored. He decided that rather than continuing to focus one hundred percent of his attention on the class he'd make some more friends and contacts. He tore off a bit of paper from his parchment, and wrote on it.
Hey, how you finding the class?
He slipped it over to Elliot wordlessly pretending to still be focused on his work. He watched from the corner of his right eye as Elliot's eyes widened slightly, looked around cautiously before scribbling with his quill on the paper.
It's okay, teacher seems pretty scary though.
Yeah, I'm just waiting for someone to get caught talking, he might kill them with his eyes.
What like some kind of human-basilisk mix?
Totally, his eyes look like they have fire in them. Anyway how are the people in your house?
Really nice actually. We've got five boys and four girls. What about yours, don't you have that Malfoy boy and Albus Potter?
Jason had to read that note over twice. He tried to think of a way to change the perception of Scorpius. It would be easier for him if people would start looking at Scorpius in a good light, but that would take a while.
Yeah. Scorpius is pretty cool actually. He's really good at quidditch and so is Albus. We were playing this morning, that's why we are all covered in bruises.
He watched as Elliot's eyes increased in size at this note.
Really? Sophie Wade said that you three had been in a fight.
Well there were many fights over the quaffle. Anyway, you play quidditch?
Never tried.
Why not?
I'm a muggleborn.
Awesome. My dad's a muggle. You miss videogames?
So much! And football too!
Awesome. Who do you support?
Chelsea
We can't be friends anymore. I'm a tottenham supporter.
At this point Jason noticed Elliot covering his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud. Things were going pretty well, he felt he could now stir the conversation into the direction he wanted.
Anyway, you seem pretty cool. You mind introducing me to your friends at somepoint?
Sure, come sit down on the hufflepuff table during lunch.
Inwardly Jason was jumping for joy. He had gotten exactly what he wanted. Of course, he was aware that Hufflepuffs were friendlier than most and that it would be a lot harder to be given the chance to do the same with the Ravenclaw bunch and even harder with the Gryffindors.
Jason and continued passing notes back and forth during the class until the end.
-x-y-z-a-b-c
"So what do we have next Scor?" Al asked, when the three left the classroom.
"Charms, Flitwick, Gryffindor." Scorpius replied.
The three of them made their to the charms classroom.
The class was greeted amicably by Proffesor Flitwitck.
"Come in and sit down all. And if you would take out your quills and wands please." He stated.
Jason, Al and Scorpius sat down together. Jason looked around the class and noticed one thing immediately. The Gryffindors were all looking at Scorpius whispering. Jason couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Scorpius. After all was it really fair that because of the family he was born into that he was so hated. Jason however noticed that all it seemed to do was put a hard look on Scorpius' face.
"Right today, I will be teaching you a simple levitation charm." Flitwick began. "If you will take out your wands and practice the motion with me."
"Wingardium Leviosa." Flitwick said with a swish of his wand.
"Wingardium Levisoa." the class repeated. Jason spotted Rose Weasley and his mind began twisting cogs.
"Hey, Scor, what's the counter charm to this?" Jason whispered.
"Try, pondus gravis." Scorpius replied. He then turned to look at Jason. "Why?" at this point Al also turned curious.
"Wait and see." Jason said, a smirk gracing his face.
"Right would anyone like to try first?" Flitwick asked the class. Rose Weasley's hand shot right up immediately. Scorpius let out a giggle that was totally unlike him causing the class to look his way. Rose was staring daggers at Scorpius
"Would you be so kind as to tell me what is so funny, Malfoy?" Flitwick asked.
"Nothing sir, sorry." Scorpius stated whilst looking down and apologetic.
"Right, Miss Weasley if you will."
"Pondus Gravis." Jason muttered pointing his wand at Rose's quill.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" she said strongly pointing her wand at the quill. Yet the quill did nothing. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she tried again, this time practically shouting. But the quill went nowhere as Jason still had his wand pointed on the quill.
"Well keep practicing, Miss Weasley, I'm sure you will get it." Flitwick said sympathetically. "Would anyone else like to try?"
"Scor, raise your hand." Jason whispered.
"Why?"
"Just do it." Jason said again. Scorpius pointed his wand at the quill.
"Wingardium Leviosa." his wand began to rise into the air gracefully.
"Very well done Mr. Malfoy." Flitwick said. "10 points to Slytherin." Rose turned to look at Scorpius with such a strong glare which was met back with an emotionless mask. Al and Jason began to giggle at this covering their mouths with their robes.
"You've really done it now." Al whispered. "She's going to kill you."
"Right the rest of you can go ahead and practice." Flitwick said.
"Should we do it again?" Al asked clearly finding the whole situation quite funny.
"No." Jason answered. "It's a mind game." The three of them watched as this time her quill elevated just fine. She looked flabbergasted causing the three of them to laugh again.
"You're evil, Jason." Al said in between his giggles. "She looks like she's been confunded."
"Well blame my dad. He taught me all about mind games." Jason replied happily.
The rest of the class passed with out much incident although Rose continued to glare at the three of them continuously.
-x-y-z-a-b-c-
Al, Jason and Scorpius walked into great hall together.
"I'll see you two later." Jason said peeling off from the other two.
"Where you going?" Al asked.
"Oh I said I'd eat lunch with one of the guys from Hufflepuff." Jason replied nonchalantly. The two of them gave him oddlooks but said nothing else. He was going to be doing them a favour anyway. Jason wound his way towards the hufflepuff table and scanned for Elliot.
"Hey, Jason!" Elliot called out, obviously having spotted him looking like a fish out of water. "Come sit over here." he said with a bright smile. Jason walked over with a smile and sat down.
"Guys, this is Jason and he's in Slytherin." Elliot said introducing him. At the mention of Slytherin a few brows furrowed but Jason had expected as much. House reputations preceeded them at the school, and it had become apparent very quickly that there wasn't much interhouse mingling if you were in Slytherin.
"Jason this is Luci, Zelasi, Richard, Sophie, Henry and Tom." Elliot said motioning to each person.
"Hey guys." Jason said with a warm smile on his face. "So how you all finding Hogwarts?" the rest of the group seemed to visibly relax after Jason had greeted them.
"It's hard work." said Richard with a sigh. "I've already got a mountain of homework." the others murmured in agreement.
"Yeah us too. Flitwick told us to write 12 inches on the charm Wingardium Leviosa." Jason said agreeably.
"You guys too?" piped in Lucinda. "I found it hard just to even get the spell right."
"Got a funny story about that actually." Jason said grinning. "You guys know Rose Weasley right."
"How could we not?" said Henry. He stuck his hand up in the air and pretended to look really eager. The table descended into fits of laughter.
"Do you guys also know Scorpius?" Jason then asked.
"Who that Malfoy boy?" Sophie said with a scowl. "My mom told me to stay away from him."
"Well he's actually really cool, he's friends with Al Potter and I." Jason name dropped. It would make things easier for Scorpius if he was associated with Al Potter after all he was the son of the most famous man in the wizarding world since Merlin. "Anyway, Rose Weasley came up to do a class demonstration on how charm a quill." At this there were murmurs of how unsurprising this was. "Wait she's like this in your classes too?" Jason asked feigning ignorance. He knew perfectly well she would be.
"Totally, she's always trying to win the teachers favour. You should see what she's like in Herbology with Professor Longbottom." chimed Richard.
"Well anyway, she stood up and tried to do the spell in front of everyone and failed." Jason said brightly.
"Really? She's always been really good at spells in our class." chimed in Tom. He sounded somewhat jealous.
"Well, it got better. Scorpius is like really smart too. Anyway so he did the spell right afterwards and it worked for him. And she had a silent hissy fit." Jason said trying not to laugh. "She looked like she wanted to storm out of the class. It was damn funny."
"I wish I had been there. She seems a bit arrogant." Tom said happily.
"I'll make sure to get a Polaroid next time Scor beats her in something. It's like the two of them have settled into some kind of rivalry."
"What's he doing in Slytherin if he's so smart?" Zelasi pondered out loud.
"Well he told me that he was nearly put in Ravenclaw." Jason replied. He saw now as the opportune moment to make everyone feel a little bad for Scorpius. "I feel bad for him though. A lot of people are talking behind his back about his dad when he's actually really cool. He doesn't say anything but I can tell it really bothers him." the statement had the desired effect. The Hufflepuffs began to look slightly guilty at this. Jason grinned inwardly, they'd taken the bait hook line and sinker.
"Well I guess if you and Albus Potter are happy to be friends with him then he must be alright." Elliot chimes in. Jason grinned. Things were going according to plan.
So that chapter came out okayish. I hope I conveyed Jason well enough for an intro. You'll get to know them better and more intricately soon enough. Oh and things are soon going to get very interesting. Anyway read and REVIEW. Just one word is enough. It makes me feel happy, and inspires me to write. On that note a shout out to vox populi 12 for inspiring me to get this chapter done sooner rather than later.