"I wonder if they're gonna fly in."
"Don't be silly, Briar. They can't fly in the castle."
"I wish they could."
Rose flipped the page of Dragonic Mannerisms and tried to tune out the babble around her. She knew people were excited about the Riders, but couldn't they be excited a bit more quietly?
A tap on her shoulder once again broke her concentration. She turned and said, "Do you mind?"
Scorpius gave her an odd look. "Someone didn't sleep well," he grumbled.
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm just-"
"Impatient," inserted Scorpius. "Yeah, I figured. Where's Al?"
"Right here," said Albus as he slid in next to Scorpius. "Had to get away from James."
It was one of the few times that the Great Hall was not divided into sections by house. Rose was reminded of the previous year's Foreign Studies lessons, where students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were encouraged to mingle with the Hogwarts students. Few took the opportunity to do so.
The main doors opened with a bang. Giovanni, clad in what appeared to be work robes, entered first. He was flanked by the burly man and man with olive skin. The woman followed them slowly, helping the man called Marco towards the front of the room. All five were clad in black leather accented with red and purple stripes. All wore leather gloves accept Marco, whose gleamed in the magical light.
"Greetings!" called Giovanni. "It is a pleasure to see you all once more. Quite a crowd, is it not?"
To Rose's estimation, nearly all the students were in the Great Hall. She knew that some of them were not interested in riding, but who could resist a meeting like this? She had seen Tia Marsh coming in with Liam O'Grady, even though Tia had admitted having little interest in the Riders.
"I believe it is time for introductions to be made," continued Giovanni. "To my left are Maria and Rodolfo Miranzi."
The olive-skinned pair waved, and Rose guessed by their striking resemblance that they were brother and sister.
"Next we have our training master Schunverri," said Giovanni. The burly man grinned and lifted a hand in recognition. "And finally, Marco Falicci, our resident specialist."
The man with the limp gave a small wave that matched his reserved smile. He was the first to sit on one of the stools lined up behind the Riders. The others sat only when Giovanni had finished introducing the group. Rose waited to find out what field Marco was a specialist in, but Giovanni had already moved on.
"This is meant to be a short, informative meeting," said Giovanni, lacing his fingers over one of his knees. "The real work will come with the beginning of lessons. Now, I want to make sure you all know what exactly you're getting into before you get started. Rodolpho?"
Rodolpho was only a few inches shorter than Schunverri, but his frame was lined with wiry muscles that stuck close to his lean frame. He stood once more, shifting his weight back and forth before speaking.
"We had a list of rules and regulations agreed upon by your Ministry," said Rodolpho. "These rules will be part of your lessons. No one is getting close to any of the dragons without learning these first. We have copies today if you'd like to look them over and know what the limitations are. We're not here to waste your time, so we ask that you not waste ours."
Someone near Rose snorted derisively, but the rest of the room was still, attentive.
"We'll be starting lessons in two weeks," continued Rodolpho. "Our mounts need time to adjust to their new surroundings, so we will be spending much of our time with them."
"Professor McGonagall has agreed to let us fly above your forest," interjected Giovanni, "which we will do mostly at night. However, there will be a few afternoons where parts of the grounds will be off-limits to students. You'll get these dates in advance, and we appreciate you respecting these limitations."
"My sister has more information about the selection process for the exhibition," said Rodolpho, "and will be passing that around along with some of the rules I mentioned earlier."
Maria was handing stacks of sheets out at each of the crowded tables, stopping every few steps to quietly answer a question posed to her. Louis grabbed a smaller stack and passed them back to Rose, who began scanning the pages.
"If you have any other questions," said Giovanni, speaking over the whispered conversations that had broken out, "we will be around the castle, I'm sure. I look forward to teaching those of you who decide to take lessons. Until then!"
Some of the students began to file out of the hall, but Rose remained seated, looking through the lists that Maria had handed out. Most of the Ministry rules were obvious things about safety (don't bring food to lessons, don't approach a dragon without proper protection) but others seemed like overkill.
"I'm heading up," said Albus, following Scorpius into the throng of people. Rose waved at him, then folded the pages and put them in her bag. She lost sight of the boys in the entrance hall. Someone tapped her shoulder, and she spun to see Lorcan, his face partially obscured by a tall stack of books.
"Lorcan, what are you up to now?" she asked, taking some of the topmost books. Unfogging the Future caught her attention. All of the books were about psychics: Have You Seen This Seer; Focusing Your Inner Eye; Modern Seeing Miracles.
"Just came from her Trelawney's room," he explained, eyes bright with excitement. "She's assigned me all sorts of extra projects and books. She really thinks I have power!"
"And I agree," said Rose. "Did you miss the meeting?"
Lorcan shrugged, which made his pile of books wobbled precariously. "I suppose I have," he said. "Shame. Well, I won't be flying anyway. Mum says I need to concentrate on Trelawney's lessons."
"Come on," said Rose, giving up on finding Albus and Scorpius, "let's get these into your common room."
It was the second time that Rose had made the trip to the Ravenclaw common room. The tower was opposite Gryffindor Tower. Some of the Ravenclaws they passed on their way up gave them an odd look, then smiled upon realizing it was Lorcan. He and Rose ended up lulling behind the other students, weighed down by the many books. When they turned the final corner, it was to find Louis Weasley snogging Arianna Clearwater.
Lorcan cleared his throat loudly, and the couple jumped apart.
"Lorcan," groaned Louis, "do you have to sneak up on people like that?"
"Hi, Rose!" said Arianna cheerfully, not at all bashful at the position she had been caught in. "Helping Lorcan with his Divination work, I see."
"Only carrying some books for him," admitted Rose. "I really don't know the first thing about Divination."
"Trust me," said Arianna, "it's better that way. It's killer when you get to your O.W.L. year."
"Speaking of O.W.L.s," Louis chimed in, "if I'm not back to the common room pronto, Dominique is going to launch into one of her responsibility lectures."
"I'll miss you," said Arianna softly.
Louis leaned in for a slow, sweet kiss.
"I'll see you in the morning," he said quietly.
Arianna took the stack of books from Rose. "I'll get these," she said. "Come on, Lorcan. Let's go in."
Once Arianna and Lorcan were gone, Louis sighed and leaned against the wall. He had a far-off expression on his face.
"You coming?" said Rose after an awkward moment.
This seemed to pull him out of his reverie. "We'd better hurry," he said.
Dominique was, indeed, waiting just beyond the portrait hole. "Where were you?" she asked as soon as the Fat Lady swung closed. "You should be-"
"Studying, I know," said Louis tensely. "I walked Arianna backed her common room."
"She should be studying too," snapped Dominique. "Your O.W.L.s are not be taken lightly, Louis."
"I'm going to bed," said Louis sharply. "Good night, Rose."
He stomped up the stairs and disappeared into his dormitory. Dominique sighed and flopped down in one of the chairs.
"I just want him to do well," she said softly to no one. "Is that too much to ask?"
Rose marveled at how Dominique had changed over the past year. She had always been carefree and fun, unlike her strict older sister, Victoire.
She brought it up to Albus and James over breakfast the next day.
"I figure she's stressed over her N.E.W.T.s," said Albus.
"Maybe she thinks she needs to keep him in line," said Rose, "now that Victoire's not around. That was always her job. Dom got to do whatever she wanted."
"I feel bad for Louis," said James, between bites. "I mean, he had to quit the Quidditch team for his O.W.L. year. Quidditch was everything to him."
By the look on Albus' face, he had just remembered that the first Quidditch game was rapidly approaching.
"Days," he groaned. "We only have a few days to get everything set. We're not gonna make it."
"We'll pull through," said James confidently. "After all, the team does have me." He finished the statement was a cocky grin.
"You won't even have to play," said Rose in what she hoped was a reassuring voice. "Everyone on the team will be there. It'll be fine."
However, seeing the boys' expressions as the rest of the week passed, Rose began to doubt her own words. Each time they came back through the portrait hole, there was less grinning and more grimacing.
"We'll see," said James on Friday night before trudging up to his dormitory. It was the least confident Rose had ever seen him. She went to bed feeling unsettled. True, she didn't care about Quidditch, but she did care about her cousins and wanted them to succeed.
The next morning came too soon. Rose woke with a sour stomach, and when she saw Albus and James at breakfast, they looked worse than the night before.
"Eat," she ordered Albus as she sat at the Gryffindor table. His face was pale and his eyes were dull.
"Not hungry," he grunted, then put his head on the table.
James seem to have a healthy appetite. He ate enough food for both he and his brother, then filled his plate with thirds.
"What?" he asked when Rose looked at him. "You said eat, I'm eating." Then he looked back at his plate, grimaced, and took another bite. He always had handled stress differently than his brother.
Rose found Lorcan and Lysander on their way down to the Quidditch pitch. Albus and James had ran ahead when Cameron had stood, clearly hoping that he had something encouraging to say before their game.
"How's Scorpius feeling?" asked Lysander as they found a spot in the stands.
"I don't know," admitted Rose. "He and Al don't talk about Quidditch around each other. I haven't had a chance to ask him, I've been so focused on Albus."
Truth be told, Rose had forgotten that they were scheduled to play Slytherin. She looked to the other side of the pitch, which was decked out in green and silver banners. It somehow made it worse, realizing that either Albus or Scorpius was going to have to lose to the other. It was bad enough that Scorpius had made it onto the team, while Albus was spending his year as the reserve.
Rose sat on her hands to keep herself fidgeting as she willed the opening remarks to go faster. Both teams were out- the captains were shaking hands- the players were in the air- a loud roar of cheers and the sound of a whistle. The game had begun.
It was nothing like the tryouts Rose had come to watch. She had seen a few professional league games with her father when she was younger but had stopped when Hugo developed his interest in Quidditch. It was easier to decline when she could offer Hugo as her replacement. It had been such a long time, and she had somehow forgotten how fast a real game could go.
There was no friendly mid-air banter like the games played on the Grange. She realized now that her cousins had just been fooling around over vacation, throwing the balls around to keep themselves entertained. It was nothing like this.
"A foul shot for Gryffindor!" called the commentator. Rose recognized her voice but couldn't see her face. "A brief reminder for Dulan: taking the Beater's bat and attacking another player is illegal and constitutes a foul."
Rose watched as Zelma Castillo took a shot. The Quaffle flew through the center ring easily while the Keeper scrambled around the left hoop. Rose cheered with the other Gryffindors, ignoring the booing of the Slytherins.
Scorpius was easy enough to spot. His pale blond hair stood out as it was hit by the sun. He circled overhead, then swooped down to intercept the Quaffle as Charles Mink passed it back towards Zelma.
"I've never seen Scorpius fly before," remarked Lysander. "He's... quite good."
"He's amazing," said Rose, "but he hates showing off. I'm surprised he tried out for the team."
"He's better than he was during Slytherin's practices," added Lorcan. "I watched a few of them from Trelawney's room."
Scorpius scored in the left ring while Dominique was guarding the right one. The Slytherins cheered, and even Rose cracked a grin, which she immediately felt guilty for. Still, it was good to see him doing well, even if he was on the opposite team.
The game seemed to close to the end when James made a sudden dive. The Slytherin seeker, a boy by the name of Rowlen, followed suit. They were neck and neck-
Then James slammed into the ground and tumbled off his broom. He rolled twice before righting himself. The other Seeker was already back in the air, reaching for what must've been the Golden Snitch.
In an instant, James was back on his broom and up in the air. He flew directly up into the sky, passing Mink, who once again had the Quaffle. Instead of heading for the Slytherin goal, Mink circled back around and shot in front of Rowlen. The boy spun around, his broom twisting away from the near collision. Mink zipped away as Rowlen made a furious grab for him.
But James had pulled ahead and thrown his arm out. His fist closed - the shrill whistle was sounded - and like that, the game was over.
"And Gryffindor takes the first victory of the year," cried the commentator. "James Potter catches the Snitch, earning his team 150 points!"
Rose, Lysander, and Lorcan stood and cheered along with the other Gryffindors. The team landed and began to hug each other, laughing and cheering. James was in the center of all the attention, showing the Snitch to his teammates. Albus had joined the mass of players from his spot by the sideline and was cheering with the lot of them.
Rose rushed down the stairs from the stands, grinning nearly as widely as Albus when he broke away from the group.
"We won!" he cried happily. "We did it, we won!"
Rose hugged him again. "Congratulations, Albus!"
"Did you see James?" said Albus exuberantly. "That crash, that catch!"
"It sure was something," said Rose.
Lorcan and Lysander had reached the group, and Albus turned to explain the maneuver that James had been attempting when he crashed. Rose looked around the pitch and saw Scorpius with his teammates on the other side. She couldn't tell if he saw her or not but decided it was best not to chance a wave, not right now. For the first time, she was struck with the realization that his teammates probably felt about her and Albus the way James felt about him.
The festivities moved inside, where the Gryffindors returned to the common room. They were plates of biscuits and tarts waiting for them when they funneled through the portrait hole.
"Food!" rejoiced James, swooping down on one of the trays immediately.
Rose grabbed a tart and a cushioned chair, settling in for a play-by-play of the game as told by the members of the team. Albus was still beaming with joy, and though she was tempted to remind him that this free time would be well-spent catching up on his homework, she resisted the urge. After how much pressure he had been putting on himself, he deserved a celebration.