Bryony slipped into her room through just a crack in the portrait, trying to let as little light in from the hallway as possible. She heard one of her roommates sigh and roll over and held her breath for a moment, but the room stilled again.

The brunette started scraping her sheets of hair back as she walked over to her bed, mindful of the ever-growing pile of clothes practically in the middle of the room. She grabbed her pajamas from her trunk and padded to the bathroom, hopeful not to disturb any of the girls any further.

As she combed through her hair, the young witch smiled to herself softly. It had only been her first night of patrol, and Cedric had surprised her by switching to take the watch with her. The two had mostly stayed focus, but it was nice to have a night with him after only having time to really sit down and talk once since classes had begun. She removed her makeup, washed her face and brushed her teeth before making her way back into the dormitory and finally settling into bed for what was sure to be too short of a night.

Just as she had predicted, a pillow slammed into her face after what only seemed like minutes, and Bryony sat up in shock.

"That's for waking me up when you came in last night," Becky said, jokingly smacking her best friend again.

"Don't blame me, blame the powers that decided to make me a Prefect," Bryony laughed back, grabbing her pillow and fighting back. "I was as quiet as I could have been."

"Also a little later than you should have been if you were just doing patrols," Yutaka said as she walked out of the bathroom, pulling a brush through her short hair. "We take it you got paired with Cedric last night?"

The brunette tried not to groan as she fell back into her bed, but found a grin fighting its way onto her face instead.

"I'll take that as a yes," her roommate teased before heading back into the bathroom.

Becky Arncliffe laid down next to the brunette, shoving her over to have more room on the bed. "Are you sure you have time to study with us? You kind of already seemed like you're drained."

"Is that your way of telling me I look like death?"

"At least I said kind of."

The two started giggling again as Joan Kerridge and Yutaka Amano walked out of the bathroom together, both rolling their eyes at the girls with small smiles.

"Get up, psychos," Joan said, throwing a stray shoe that had ended up near her bed at them. The American had transferred to Hogwarts in her second year, and tended to be the peacekeeper in the dorm. "Breakfast starts in 15."

The two girls waved as they walked out of the portrait, leaving the other two laying on the bed.

"Did she say breakfast starts in 15 minutes?" Bryony asked a moment later.

"Yeah."

"Damn."

The brunette scrambled up from the bed, grabbing a fresh uniform and starting to get undressed before she even made it across the room to the bathroom.

"What's the issue? Breakfast lasts an hour, and then you have free period. It's Tuesday."

"Exactly," she called back, pulling her shirt on but leaving it unbuttoned as she searched for her makeup bag. "I have to interview Oliver Wood today and turn that story during my free period for it to make print tomorrow."

Becky snorted. "I repeat: do you have time to study with us?"

The witch rolled her eyes but grinned as she quickly finished getting ready, stopping to grab her wand, watch, bag and best friend before starting to wind their way down to the Great Hall.

When she spotted a familiar mess of dark hair by the entrance, she broke off from the blond with a grin, immediately allowing Cedric to pull her to him for a kiss.

"Hey handsome," she said, snuggling into his chest.

"Good morning, gorgeous. Good sleep?"

"Not nearly enough of it. Can we go back to summer?"

He laughed lightly by her ear, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "If only. Then I would have you around all the time."

Bryony gave herself a moment longer to be wrapped up in her boyfriend before pulling away, kissing him again. "Dinner tonight?"

"Can't. We're starting Quidditch practice. Breakfast tomorrow?"

"It's my turn to oversee printing. What about lunch?"

"Tutoring for Charms." He groaned. "Now I really wish it was summer again."

"We'll figure it out," she promised, allowing him to give her one last kiss before breaking away from him and making her way into the Great Hall.

She scanned the tables as Cedric brushed past her, gently running his hand along her back and making her smile. A moment later, her eyes locked on to a close-cut brown head of hair that was bent over a very thick book, which she could only assume was his playbook. Bryony smiled to herself again before making her way down the Gryffindor table and laying her books down across from him.

"Oliver?" He glanced up, smiling reflexively at the girl. "Hi, I'm Bryony with the TowerTimes."

"Of course, pleasure," Oliver said, standing up to shake her hand before gesturing at the seat across from him. They took a moment to settle in before an awkward pause settled in. "Sorry, I have no idea how to do this," he said almost immediately, running a hand over his hair.

She smiled at him, reaching out to pour herself a cup of coffee. "Don't know how to have breakfast?"

He laughed lightly, picking at the corner of his playbook. "Actually talk about Quidditch to anyone other than my team."

"Why does it have to feel any different?" She poured some cream into her cup, and stirred it slowly, looking up to meet his glance. "For all intents and purposes, I'm your personal stalker for the rest of the season. Just consider me part of the team."

Oliver's surprised laugh made her grin as she lifted her cup and took a sip, taking in the seventh year sitting across from her. "We'll have to get you a jersey."

"I'm going for a full set this year."

She watched his eyes trail over to the Hufflepuff table on the other side of the room, and took the moment to grab her annotation quill and some parchment out of her bag.

"So whatever I say about the team, or any of us say about the team, it's all between us, right?"

Bryony blinked in surprise, sitting back up. "Of course, Oliver. I know I just work for a school paper, but I want to do this after I graduate, too. If I go around running my mouth, that won't only hurt my reputation when I try to get a job, it'll get me kicked off the paper here. Besides," she said, shrugging slightly, "I'd like to think I'm a better person than that as well." The brown eyes across from her blinked a few times as she set up her quill. When she looked back up, he was still studying her. "You can trust me."

The Scot nodded after a moment, a small smile pulling at his lips. "Apologies. You have to understand. We have to win this year. It's my last year, and I'm going to do everything in my power to make it happen."

"Then I look forward to working with your this year," Bryony said with a small smile back, before turning to address the quill. "Oliver Wood, Gryffindor Quidditch captain for a fourth year, Chaser and currently in his seventh year of school." His eyes watched the quill dart across the paper instead of meeting hers, so she waited until he flipped his attention back before saying, "everything else from here on out is on the record. You ready?"

With his nod, she glanced at the bullet points she had scribbled on the parchment. "You've built a team with a lot of experience and passionate players, including most famously Harry Potter. Why do you believe your team has missed out on the championship over the past few years?"

The pair had been talking for almost half an hour when a body was suddenly at her side, with an arm reaching straight between her and Oliver. Bryony jumped a bit as another body appeared next to the Scot as well, grinning at her.

"Sorry, love, you'll have to forgive George. He was raised in a barn."

"We were raised together!" the person sitting next to her said, throwing the half bitten piece of toast he had apparently grabbed at his identical image. "And at least I slept in the hay loft. You were left with the goats."

"Bryony, Fred and George Weasley," Oliver said with a mix of amusement and frustration in his voice. "My very own walking pair of bludgers."

"How appropriate," she said with a grin. "I'm also familiar. We're in the same year."

"Now Olly dear, we're sorry to butt in on your breakfast date but there seems to be a slight issue with the training schedule for this year," the twin sitting next to his captain chimed in plowing straight over the conversation.

"I'm in the middle of something."

"Yes, of course," the one next to her added, "and we'll allow you to get back to your lovely lady over here in a moment, but there is an issue."

Oliver shot her an apologetic look before nodding slightly for the twin on her side of the table to continue.

"Now you see, we noticed that we have practice three days a week."

"At early hours of the morning."

"We were wondering if it would be possible to not do that?"

"And do what instead?"

Bryony's eyebrows were slowly floating up onto her forehead as she wanted the conversation happen, her eyes finally landing on Oliver with the question.

"Practice two days a week."

"Tuesday and Thursday, about half an hour after dinner."

"Don't want anyone getting sick," the twin across the table added, tossing her a wink.

"No."

"But Oliver-"

"I said no." She was surprised by the firmness in his voice. Oliver had mainly seemed to be humoring the twins up to that point, but was leaving no room for discussion. "I change the schedule, and it gets in the way of Gobstones Club or Charms Club or your detentions," he said, glancing between both of them. "I want to make sure we're ready. Practice starts next week. I expect the entire team to be there."

"Ah, we tried," the twin sitting next to her said with a small shrug, grinning at his brother before turning to her. "Now, for the real reason for being down here, what's your name and why are you having breakfast with Olly dearest over here?"

The Scot started to sputter from across the table, but she just grinned and leaned a bit closer to the twin. "What would the information be worth to you?"

"Sorry, come again?"

Bryony shrugged slightly. "I'm not just going to give you gossip to use against your captain without knowing what I can get out of it."

He seemed to think about it for a moment, leaning back and glancing over to his twin. "We'll have to get back to you on that."

"Then it was lovely talking to you boys, but I have work to do." She stood up and started gathering her things, tucking the parchment and quill away before draining her coffee. "Same time week after next, Oliver?"

He nodded at her, slightly flushed, and she waved to the twins before making her way out of the Great Hall and up to the Astronomy Tower. The brunette had some time before her next class, so she gave herself a short break once she got into the newsroom, nodding to the two copy editors who were on the desk before plopping down in her chair.

After a few minutes of simply sitting there with her eyes closed, Bryony reached into her bag and pulled out her schedule. Cedric's father Sophia had purchased from the Muggle village nearby after both of them had been named prefects. It was overwhelming to look at her entire life laid out for the month, but at the same time, the brunette wasn't sure how she would get through the year without it. She flipped to the marker for the week, sighing as she grabbed a quill from her desk and dipped it in the inkpot nearby before drawing a line through her note of "Oliver – breakfast" that was at the very top of her list. She still had to write her story, go to Defense, eat lunch and then she had double potions.

"Bryony?"

She turned to Jamie, one of the copy editors she had spotted on her way in, surprised to see it was just the two of them left. "What's up?"

"Can you get that done before lunch? I'm the only one on the desk tonight and Amy wants to get the layout done before Astronomy."

"I'll definitely have it done before the end of lunch," she said, guilty creeping in to her voice.

Jamie nodded. "I'll grab something from the kitchens for us for lunch then." He waved at her on his way out after that, leaving her alone in the newsroom. The brunette took a deep breath and twisted her sheets of hair into a ballerina bun before getting to work.