Author's Note: I am dreadfully sorry for the long wait, but this chapter is a freaking monster that should hopefully make up for me going so long in between updates.

Chapter 14

Quidditch, Christmas, and… School?

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

After the incident at Flourish & Blotts, the new information was added to their list of clues about their father. However, they were no closer to discovering his identity.

And so it was with mixed emotions that they boarded the Hogwarts' Express on September 1st. They were disappointed to not have learned more over the summer, but, at the same time, they were overjoyed to finally be able to try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Personally, Lyra was sure that there was no possibility they wouldn't make the team. Leo, on the other hand, was more reserved. He knew they were good and worked together seamlessly, but they were young and smaller than the average Beaters.

His musings were interrupted as they slid into the compartment that O'Malley and Teddy had saved for them. The first thing they saw was O'Malley literally bouncing with excitement. He had spent long hours with the Weasleys over the summer learning to play Keeper from Ron Weasley, and, occasionally, Oliver Wood.

He tackled them to the seats once they were in the compartment and began talking Quidditch. The four friends did not thoroughly exhaust that topic until long into the train ride. After finishing their discussion, they had a moment of silence before Teddy asked, "So, did you find out anything more about your dad?"

Lyra sighed dramatically. "Not a thing. We just added what Mum said to Harry to our list of things we know about him."

O'Malley spoke next, "What exactly is on the list?"

Leo answered him, saying, "Very different from the rest of his family, a fine Gryffindor, more reckless than me, brave, loyal, possibly a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and he died before we were born."

"Not much to go on, is it?" Teddy replied.

"No, it's not."

As second years, it was their first time taking the carriages up to school. Teddy knew all about thestrals from Harry, but the others were utterly clueless. O'Malley was the first to say so as he asked, "What's pulling the carriages? Or is it just a charm that makes them move on their own?"

"Thestrals. They're invisible, most of the time at least."

"Most of the time?"

"Yeah. You can only see them if you've seen someone die. They're very friendly though."

Leo sighed in relief.

Lyra spoke up then. "Oi! This one's got room for us. Hurry up, you lot! I want food!"

Leo was the voice of reason to her insanity. "We won't be able to eat until after the Sorting anyway, so there's no need to rush, o crazy one."

Climbing into the carriage, they found it to be quite cozy despite the slight bouncing as it started to roll towards the castle.

As they reached to the castle, they clambered out. Leo managed to restrain Lyra, so she would walk sedately to their regular seats at the Gryffindor table. They had to wait a bit before Professor Flitwick finally led the shivering first years into the Great Hall.

This time it was Leo who spoke as he asked, "Were we really that titchy last year? I mean, they're downright tiny."

Teddy shushed him as the Sorting Hat began his song. They were all able to really enjoy the song this year as they did not have to worry about being Sorted. As the Hat ended, they burst out in applause alongside the rest of the students and staff, and the Sorting began.

To Lyra's delight, it was over swiftly, and Professor McGonagall kept with the same short speech as last year. The food quickly appeared, the tables groaning under the weight. She quickly dug in, only looking up when she heard sounds of disgust coming from those around her. The boys, however, were used to it and merely shook their heads. Teddy also piped in that she was "worse than Uncle Ron" when it came to table manners.

Swallowing, she replied, "I resent that. I have plenty good table manners." Then she smirked. "I just choose not to use them."

"My point exactly."

With the pudding finished and all their stomachs stuffed to bursting, Lyra headed for the nearest prefect to get the new password. This time, it was Metamorphmagus. Lyra burst out laughing when she heard it and couldn't stop long enough to tell the boys even as they hurried over to see what had happened.

Finally, gasping for air, she managed to get out, "The password… It's 'Metamorphmagus'."

O'Malley and Leo joined in the laughter as the tips of Teddy's hair turned pink in embarrassment.

"Alright," he grumbled, "that's enough. It's not that funny. Can we head to the tower now?"

"Sure, sure. I haven't had a chance to see Emma and Jojo yet anyway." Emma, of course, was Lyra's best girl friend, and Jojo was the only other tolerable girl of their roommates. The others were way too boy obsessed for second years, and they had latched onto Teddy, O'Malley, and Leo as the fittest boys in their year from the very beginning and were quite obnoxious about it. They had learned quickly though not to bug Lyra for gossip about the boys. None of them had been able to sit down comfortably for a week after she was through with them the last time.

Using some shortcuts they had discovered the previous year, they were able to beat the prefects and the crowd of first years to the common room, as well as most of the rest of the house. The boys were quick to snag the best seats in front of the fireplace while Lyra headed for her room.

As she was the first one there, she took the time to unpack some of her trinkets that stayed on her bedside table. Among them was a wizard picture her mother had taken that summer of Leo and Lyra in the middle of a water balloon fight, laughing their heads off. Lyra sighed. It had been good to be home with just the family, even if she had missed Teddy and O'Malley. It had also been a bit rough being home again, but she hadn't felt like she could burden Leo with her thoughts, so she had pretended all was well.

In truth, one of her oldest dreams had died over the summer. Ever since she could remember, she had wanted a father. In her heart of hearts, she had always thought that one day, their mother would tell them about him, and he would become a part of their life. But with the knowledge of his death came the end to that dream.

There would never be any father to meet her boyfriend and terrify him. There would be no father to hold her tight as she cried after a breakup. There would be no father to help her with her summer homework or to teach her how to perfect her technique as a Beater. There would be no father to walk her down the aisle when the time came.

And for the first time in a very long time, Lyra allowed herself to cry.

When the other girls finally reached their room, they found her asleep on her bed. None dared wake her, but Emma took the time to pull a blanket up over her. As she tucked it in around her sleeping form, she noticed the tear tracks on her face. Smoothing her hair down, Emma made a mental note to ask Lyra what was wrong when she next got a chance.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Lyra woke the next morning to find herself well rested yet slightly icky after falling asleep in her clothes. Luckily, she was the first one awake and was able to take a long hot shower while the others slept on.

Slipping downstairs after she was ready, she saw the common room devoid of life as all had chosen to sleep in that morning since it was the last morning for a while in which they would be able to do so without worrying about last minute essays that needed to be completed.

Her first thought was to go noisily wake the boys as they had to her this same morning a year ago, but she decided to take pity on their roommates. Tiptoeing into their room, she scrawled a quick note, so as they would know she was already at breakfast, before dropping it on Leo's bedside table.

Once she was back in the common room, she headed for the portrait hole at a leisurely pace, deciding to take her time getting the Great Hall as there was no need to hurry, and if she did hurry, she risked getting there before the house elves sent the food up to the tables.

As she turned the corner on a fourth floor corridor, she was brought up short as she heard crying coming from the far side of a nearby suit of armor. Walking to it, she found a girl curled up on the floor, crying into her robes. Unable to leave her there, Lyra bent down and asked, "What's wrong?"

The girl sniffed and hiccupped before saying, "I was trying to make it down to the Great Hall for breakfast, but the stairs kept moving, and I got lost."

"Well, get up then. I was just on my way down, and I can show you the way."

The girl's face brightened. "Really? That'd be great!"

"Come on then. I'm right hungry." Lyra stood up from her crouched position and stretched before heading for the staircase that would lead them down another floor.

The girl clambered up quickly and followed. "My name's Daisy. I'm a first year muggleborn."

Well, that explained why the moving staircases upset her so badly. "Lyra's the name. Second year. You ever need help again, just ask. I'm not much one for schoolwork though, so it'd probably be better you asked my twin brother, Leo, about that."

"You're a twin? That's brilliant. My younger brothers are twins too. I swear they have telepathy or something." She laughed at the last bit; it was obviously a common joke in her family.

"Ah ah, don't laugh. They might actually. It's not unheard of. And there are muggleborns whose siblings follow them here."

"Truly?"

"Yep. Just wait and watch for anything weird happening around them when you're home."

"I will."

At that, they had reached the Great Hall, and Lyra left Daisy to find a seat while she headed for her usual spot.

After finishing her breakfast, Lyra amused herself by practicing a color-change charm she had found in a book over the summer. It allowed not just for different colors but also different patterns.

"That's an advanced piece of magic there," a voice said from behind her.

Spinning around, she saw Professor Longbottom smiling down at her.

She smiled in return. "Oh this? It's not that hard."

The Professor just shook his head at her. If only she put all that talent to use in class instead of just for fun. She was a lot like the Weasley twins in that. "Where are the boys? It's rare to see any of you by yourself. Even during the summer, Teddy and Mr. O'Malley were together most of the time."

She laughed. "I decided to be nice and let them sleep in."

"Just as long as I don't have to send Teddy to the Hospital Wing from the shock of it."

"No promises," she replied, grinning.

Once they all had their timetables at the end of lunch, they headed off for their first class of the morning, Transfiguration. Soon enough, it was as though they had never been gone.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Quidditch tryouts had been scheduled for the first Saturday of school in hopes of getting a jumpstart on practicing with the new team. The captain, Andrew, was a bit worried about the turnout as there was only one other returning member. His worries, however, were nothing compared to a certain group of four second years who couldn't even stomach food at the thought of tryouts later that day. None of them had eaten a single morsel of food, not even Lyra. Despite her supposed confidence, she was just as nervous as the boys about what would be happening in a few hours.

Finally, the food disappeared off the tables, and the friends were forced to admit that it was now time to get their broomsticks for tryouts. Not wanting to be late, they raced up to Gryffindor tower, grabbed their brooms and headed straight for the Quidditch pitch.

Standing on the pitch, Leo looked around and took a quick headcount, realizing there were close to fifty people there to try out.

The captain then called for silence. Once it had quieted down, he began, "All right, you lot. My name is Andrew, and I'm the captain this year. I play Chaser, so there are only two Chaser spots open for you. The only other returning player is our Seeker, Hannah. I believe in taking the best, so there is a chance to take her spot if you truly prove to be better.

"Now. If you don't have a broom, you can borrow one from the shed. You'll be going up in groups of 5 to begin with, and you will have to fly a lap around the pitch. If you can't do that, you will be automatically cut. Any questions?"

There were no questions, but a handful of people seemed to realize they had no chance and walked off the pitch.

"All right, then. You five there, get going."

As expected the four friends made their lap easily, but many did not. By the time everyone had gone, there were only twenty seven people left in total, not counting the captain or Seeker.

The first to try were the Keepers. They were being judged on how many they could stop out of ten shots made at them by the captain.

The first, O'Malley thought, wasn't all that good. In the end, he only stopped six of the ten. The second got O'Malley worried, making nine of the ten. The third was so bad that the captain sent him off the pitch directly, not even waiting to see how O'Malley did. O'Malley was last to go, and while nervous, he knew that he could stop every shot. While he had been paying attention to the other Keeper hopefuls, he had also paid close attention to the captain and felt that he could read his tells quite well, considering he had no experience playing against him.

To O'Malley's delight, he stopped every shot as they came at him. Some had been very close calls, but his summer of practice had paid off. The captain was quick to name him the new Keeper while also letting the runner-up know that he would be called on to play should O'Malley ever be unable to, be it due to illness, injury, or detention. He also asked the new backup to help with Chaser tryouts.

Of the thirteen Chasers trying out, two were cut almost immediately as it became clear they could not catch the Quaffle when it was passed to them. The eleven left were told to take five shots each at the backup Keeper. In the end, three made two shots each, two made three shots each, two made four shots each, and Teddy was one of four to make all five shots. With the others cut, those four were put up against O'Malley. Teddy went first, making eight of his ten shots. The next two made six each, and the last made eight as well. The last, whose name was Jason, along with Teddy, became the new Chasers while the other two became backups.

Next were the Beaters. They were told to pair up and pass a Bludger back and forth between them. After all, you can't be a Beater if you can't aim. Four of the ten hopefuls were sent away during this first exercise. The six left, including Leo and Lyra, were told to move farther apart from their partner with each successful pass. Two more were sent away as they were unable to hit the Bludger far enough. With four left, the captain sent up the new Chasers as well as the backups and told the first two to try and hit them. They were only able to hit the backups before the captain told them to stop. As Leo and Lyra flew up, an evil glint could be seen in their eyes. They quickly made good use of the Bludger, hitting Teddy and Jason once each and the backups twice each. Once they landed on the pitch again, the captain immediately named them the new Beaters.

Despite the captain's speech at the beginning about welcoming challengers to the returning Seeker, there was no one that wished to try. And so the Gryffindors had their Quidditch team for the year.

Sending the backups away, the captain gathered his new team around him. "Welcome to the team, all of you. Like I said earlier, my name is Andrew, and I'm the captain and a sixth year. This is our Seeker, Hannah. She's a fifth year. So, names and years all around."

"Jason, fourth year."

"Teddy, second year."

"Ah. My Chasers. You both did spectacularly up there. I see many goals being scored this year."

"O'Malley, second year."

"You were beyond brilliant. I could hardly believe it when you stopped every shot I sent at you. Maybe we'll even have some shutout games this year."

"Leo, second year."

"Lyra, second year."

"Twins are you? That explains a bit. The last pair of truly magnificent Beaters we had was the Weasley twins. You play off each other perfectly. Now, this calls for celebration. I think a trip to the kitchens is in order." The team quickly seconded their captain's suggestion.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

After making the Gryffindor Quidditch team, the four friends soon found they had little time left for mischief. They were either doing their schoolwork or practicing. If nothing else, it kept them out of detention.

They were still left with plenty of time to fret about the first Quidditch game of the season. As expected, it was the Gryffindor versus Slytherin game. Practices had been steadily getting more intense as the game approached until the day finally arrived.

Rather than irritate Lyra's roommates, Hannah was sent to wake her and drag her downstairs. Most of the team still looked half asleep when they got to the common room, but Andrew had insisted that they get a good breakfast in and then run through plays before the game began.

The team followed him down to the Great Hall, but several could not get any food down. They knew they were good, but this would be the first real test of their abilities.

Finally giving up on eating, the team rose as one and headed for the changing rooms. Andrew was the only one to speak. Even Lyra was silent as she contemplated the coming game.

They pulled on their Quidditch robes before gathering to go over plays. After ten minutes though, Lyra finally broke her silence to tell Andrew that, "We know these plays forward, backwards, and sideways. We don't need to go over them again."

Jason was quick to second her.

"Alright, alright. Well, as Lyra pointed out, we know everything we need to. We are ready to whoop some Slytherin butt out there today, and we are GOING TO WIN!"

The team answered with whoops and yells.

"Now, let's get out there and show them what Gryffindors are made of!"

As the game began, Slytherin was fast to grab the Quaffle and just as fast to drop it when hit by a Bludger from Leo.

That set the tone for much of the game. The few times a Slytherin was able to get to the goal posts to shoot, O'Malley was always there, stopping the Quaffle from going in.

Each of the Gryffindor Chasers had scored once when Hannah made a dive for the Snitch. At least, for what everyone thought was the Snitch. Avery, the Slytherin Seeker, followed her into the dive, but with less experience, he nearly crashed as she pulled up just above the ground. Once he realized that she had been faking, he began swearing up a storm and chasing after her. He seemed determined to knock her off her broom, but Lyra put a stop to that, knocking the wind out of him with a Bludger to the gut.

She pulled the same trick several more times throughout the game while the Gryffindor Chasers managed to score three more times. By the time she had actually spotted the Snitch, Avery was so sure that she was faking it again that he was nowhere near her when she caught the Snitch, ending the game.

The cheers from all the houses except Slytherin were deafening as the team landed on the pitch to head for the changing rooms. Entering the changing rooms, Hannah dropped straight onto a bench to lie down. "That many almost-Wronski Feints are exhausting. But it was so worth it."

"You were brilliant out there, Hannah. That titchy Slytherin never saw it coming." Andrew was bursting with excitement after winning his first game as captain.

Leo responded, "His name's Avery, and he's a bit thick."

"Well, it worked out for us. So everyone, clean up and change, and we can go celebrate with the rest of Gryffindor. We're the guests of honor after all."

The celebration was already in full swing by the time the team arrived. The already deafening noise level only increased as they stepped through the portrait hole. Looking around, it was clear that several someone's had made a trip to the kitchens for food and butterbeer. The team was swept up in the celebration before finally claiming exhaustion and going to bed. Lyra was the only one with enough energy left to stay up until the party was shut down at 3am by Professor Longbottom.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

The Quidditch practices lessened as the weather got worse, but there was still little time for mischief as their workloads increased with the holidays approaching.

The first Saturday of December found the friends sleeping in the quiet of the morning as the snowfall from the night before muffled the normal sounds.

Slowly waking, Lyra found Emma sitting on the end of her bed watching her.

"You know that's slightly creepy, don't you?" she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Emma smiled. "Yes, I do. But that's half the fun. I was kind of hoping you'd freak out when you saw me sitting here."

A smirk appeared on Lyra's face as she stated, "I'm not that easily startled. I grew up with Leo after all."

Emma cocked her head to the side. "How does that make a difference? He's not the mad one; you are."

"He's much more reserved in public than he is when it's just us. There have been plenty of times were he snuck up on me just to make me jump. I'm pretty much immune by now."

Emma nodded her understanding.

"Is there a particular reason you were sitting here waiting for me to wake up?" Lyra asked.

"Yes, actually. I was thinking last night, and I realized that there was something I'd wanted to talk to you about that I had forgotten."

"Oh yeah? What was it?"

Emma paused for a moment, unsure of how to start. "I know that you… that you cried yourself to sleep on the first night of term. I was wondering what was wrong. You're not normally one to cry."

"Oh. That." Lyra sighed. "I was just having a little pity party for myself while I was alone."

Hiding her frustration at Lyra's evasiveness, Emma asked, "What was the pity party about?"

"I found out over the summer that my dad's dead, and he has been since before I was born. I was just thinking of how there was no possibility of him becoming a part of my life."

Emma scooted up next to Lyra on the bed and gave her a hug. "I'm sorry, sweetie."

"It's alright now. I just hadn't had a chance to really cry about it at home because I didn't want Leo or Mum to know, especially Leo. He can be really touchy about the whole thing, so I try to minimize new developments like this."

"Well, if you ever need to talk, I'm here."

"Thanks. You're a good friend, Emma."

After getting ready for the day, despite it being nearly noon already, Lyra headed down for lunch. She was soon joined by the boys, and they began discussing their plans for the holidays.

Teddy began, saying, "You're all invited to stay with me over the holidays. Gram said so in her last letter."

Leo replied for the twins, "Mum already said no to going anywhere but home for the holidays. Sorry, Teddy."

He shrugged. "It's alright. I thought I'd offer though. What about you, O'Malley?"

He smiled. "I just got a letter from my Mum this morning saying it was alright. I've never had a magical Christmas before. What's it like?"

The other three looked at each other before shrugging simultaneously. Leo spoke up, saying, "Same as a Muggle Christmas I suppose, but with magical presents and listening to the WWN."

"WWN? What's that?"

Lyra responded, "It's the Wizarding Wireless Network. It's a magical radio station."

"Really? That sounds brill."

"Eh. It's really not that much different from Muggle radio."

"I'll make my own judgments, thank you very much. You lot are all just too used to having magic around all the time."

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Almost three weeks later, the friends were sharing a compartment on the train ride home. All were excited for the coming holidays, but O'Malley had actually managed to surpass Lyra in excitement level as he anticipated his first Wizarding Christmas.

Despite the weight of his trunk, he still managed to be one of the first off the train as it pulled into King's Cross Station, dragging said weighty trunk behind him. Spotting Andromeda Tonks amongst the crowd, he approached her. "Hello, Mrs. Tonks. It's good to see you again."

She smiled down at the boy who had spent so much time with the family over the summer learning Quidditch. "Hello, Canice. How was school?"

Finally used to her refusal to call him by his surname, he managed to refrain from grimacing as he answered her, "It was brilliant, especially the Quidditch. Teddy told you I made Keeper, right?"

"Yes, yes he did. And here he comes now. I don't see your other friends though."

He turned around to see Teddy walking towards them with the twins nowhere in sight. He was a bit sad to not be able to say goodbye but he reasoned that their mum had probably snatched them up as soon as they got off the train.

"Hi, Grandma 'Dromeda," Teddy greeted, pulling her into a hug.

"Hello, sweetie. Everything alright?" she questioned.

"Everything's wonderful. I didn't even get a single detention this term."

She smiled down at him and patted him on the shoulder. "That's good, Teddy. Now, let's get going. We're to Harry's first. He would have come to get you himself, but Lily was being fussy today."

As O'Malley had figured, Hestia had indeed grabbed hold of the twins the moment they stepped off the train. She had seen Andromeda across the platform and was hoping to keep her from seeing the twins.

Ushering them to the car, they were soon home unpacking.

Just as Leo was finishing putting everything away, Lyra bounced into him room, plopping down on the bed. "Mum said there's this new program on the telly that she thought we'd like. She's recorded it so we can watch the whole first series."

Leo arched his eyebrow. It must be quite good for Mum to have recorded it. She was better with electronics than most wizards, but the twins were normally put in charge of complicated things like recording. "What's it called?"

"Downton Abbey. It's set in the early nineteen hundreds and follows an aristocratic family and their servants on their country estate. It's got stuff about the old Muggle hierarchy and some Muggle history that she said was quite interesting."

Leo had always been fascinated by Muggle history. Maybe that would be enough to make up for the mushy love stuff that was probably also in the program. "Alright. I'm done for now. You want to go watch it now or later?"

"Now!"

"Should have guessed."

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve found Teddy and O'Malley asleep in their shared room at Potter Manor. Stumbling downstairs for breakfast, they found the house had been overrun while they slept. Every blood relative as well as honorary family member had arrived, and together were eating, playing games, and causing general chaos throughout the house.

O'Malley was quite overwhelmed. While he had spent some time with some of Teddy's extended family over the summer, he had never seen them all in the same place at the same time. Luckily, he was able to find Victoire and Katarina Wood. As Oliver Wood's daughter, she had come along to some of the Quidditch session over the summer, so O'Malley knew her fairly well. They talked Quidditch for a bit until Teddy returned with breakfast, or rather, lunch as it was nearly noon.

After lunch, a Quidditch game was organized. It was almost entirely adults, but Teddy, O'Malley and Katarina were allowed to play as well. Victoire was considered old enough as well, but she had no desire to even try.

The game was chaos. Players were constantly switching sides to fit their fancy, and no one seemed to know the actual score.

Before anyone could come to blows over who had won, they were all called in to get ready for dinner. The meal had been prepared by Molly Weasley, the first, with help from Kreacher.

As people found their seats around the table, even the banquet hall of Potter Manor began to feel stuffed with over forty people in it. It did not help that Hagrid took up the same space as three entirely human people. Even Professor McGonagall had managed to make it away from the school for the meal since it was on Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day, where she would be expected to go to the meal at Hogwarts.

Dinner was more chaos, but it was fairly organized chaos, and the only messes were those made by the children to young to know any better.

After dinner, it was time to open gifts as most people were heading off that night to spend Christmas Day with other family.

The most notable gifts, of course, were the Weasley sweaters that had been knitted by Grandmum Weasley for every single grandchild, whether a blood relative or not.

Teddy's favorite present, however, was the pair of bright green Chaser gloves from Victoire. He was also quite happy with her reaction to his gift to her. He had bought a sparkly headband with a rose on it and then gotten Lyra to charm it to change colors to match her current outfit. Vic was enamored with it.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

On Christmas morning, Lyra pounced on Leo as he was sleeping peacefully. It was only 4am, after all. He flipped her onto the floor with a practiced air before rolling over and going back to sleep. She was not having any of that though, and she bodily dragged him out of bed and heading for the stairway. By the time she reached them, he had given up on getting any more sleep and insisted on walking down the stairs under his own power. He preferred to not end up at St. Mungo's on Christmas morning.

As per tradition, they were only allowed to open their stockings while Hestia still slept peacefully upstairs. She had filled them quite full, hoping to keep them occupied long enough that she would be able to sleep in until a decent time of morning.

Unfortunately, Lyra was bored by 6am and proceeded to drag their mother out of bed as well.

Stumbling downstairs, she watched them open their presents with gusto and soon found herself feeling quite melancholy. Her Christmas morning wakeups had always reminded her of Christmas her seventh year, a time when she had been at her happiest. The war was barely touching their lives, and they had been able to be so utterly removed from it for one last time.

Looking at the twins again, she saw them sporting Weasley sweaters. Apparently, being friends with Teddy added them to Molly's list of family. That was good. They needed to have a bigger family than just her. And soon enough, she would be forced to tell them about their father, and there would be no more reason to keep them away from the other old Order members.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The week following Christmas, Hestia was pulled into work unexpectedly, and so she left the twins home alone for a day. As they were prone to do, they took the opportunity to snoop through the boxes their mother had stashed in the attic.

However, they only found one thing of any consequence. It was an old leather jacket that had obviously been well loved and was not only too large for Hestia, but also unlike anything they had ever seen her wear, either during their lifetime or in pictures from when she was younger. She had always had a very distinct fashion sense that had never included wearing overly large leather jackets.

Author's Note: Sorry if any of the Quidditch stuff seems off or lacking; I'm not much of a sports person, so I did my best.

To all those who love Downton Abbey, I apologize for any inadequacy in the description. I have never personally watched it, so feel free to correct me of you feel my description is lacking.