"So then what happened?" asked Lee, leaning forward in his chair. He and the twins were sitting in the comfy armchairs in the Gryffindor common room discussing the events over Christmas. Lee had only just arrived back from holiday before George had beckoned him over to the seats in front of the warm embracing fire.

"Hagrid dragged us back to the school," said Fred, tilting back in his chair and putting his feet up onto the small table in front of the three boys.

"I mean, what did the school do about that Valek guy?" said Lee, rolling his eyes. He saw Fred and George exchange shifty looks. "You did tell someone at the school about him didn't you?"

"Of course we did," scoffed George, dismissively.

"What do you take us for?" said Fred, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Who did you tell?" Lee had been around the twins long enough to know when they were being evasive.

"Well there's you…" said Fred, counting off on his fingers.

"And?"

"… er… and George."

"So let me get this straight, there's this assassin who's immune to magic, and was going to kill you both, and you thought it would be a good idea to keep this a secret?"

"See there's a slight problem there," said George. "It seems that when it comes to telling the truth Fred and I aren't exactly the most… what's the word?"

"Honest?" ventured Lee.

"Exactly and we've sort of built up a reputation for… exaggerating," said Fred, finally settling on a suitable word.

"Is that another way of saying 'lying?" said Lee, raising an eyebrow.

"It's another way, it's not a polite way but it's definitely another way," conceded George.

"Look, if George and I came up to anyone else but you and told them that we'd been attack by that thing what do you think they'll say?"

"First they'd probably check the calendar to see if was April Fool's Day," admitted Lee, thoughtfully tapping his chin with his finger.

"Exactly," nodded Fred.

"Then they'd look around to see if anyone else was sniggering," carried on Lee.

"Right."

"Then they'd probably check with someone else to see if there were any witnesses."

"Precisely."

"Then they'd probably check in the library to see if such a creature even exists."

"Okay, we're getting a little off track now," said Fred.

"Actually what am I on about?" said Lee, shaking his head. "They wouldn't do any of that. They'd just assume you were lying."

"Well, they might do some of it," said George indignantly. "We sometimes tell the truth. Can't actually think of anything recently but I'm sure we've done it."

"Anyway, what are we going to do about it?" said Lee. "We have to tell someone. We can't let that thing stay out in the Forest, it might attack someone else. Or even try to get into the castle."

"Nah, it wouldn't dare coming into the castle," said George, dismissively waving a hand.

"Why not? We had a troll get into the dungeons remember?"

"That was ages ago," snorted Fred.

"October, it was October," said Lee.

"Yeah but last year," said Fred. The expression on his friend's face was all the reply he needed. "Fine, we'll tell someone."

"Right, who do we know that will not only believe us, but be able to help stop this Valek?" said George, rubbing his chin. After a few moments of silence he added, "don't all rush at once."

"Well there's…" started Fred before lapsing into silence.

"Seriously, you can't think of anyone?" said Lee, looking astounded. "Really? No one jumps to mind?"

"If you mean you then I hate to break it to you but I don't think you'd be able to stop him anymore than we did," said George, trying to let his friend down gently.

"Not me you muppet. Enoch. You know, your uncle? Former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, explorer, adventure, and all round get-into-trouble-a-lot-person."

"Of course," said Fred, slapping his forehead with his hand. "Why didn't we think of that? See, this is why you're part of the dream team Lee."

"All round get-into-trouble-a-lot-person?" said George, pulling a face.

"What would you call him then?" queried Lee.

"Normally just Uncle Enoch covers most things," admitted George before clapping his hands together and rubbing them. "Right, we'll write a letter to Enoch letting him know what happened…"

"Wait," said Fred loudly, startling the others. "We can't"

"My handwriting's not that bad."

"Well…" said Lee, frowning.

"It's better than yours," said George defensively.

"I don't mean that," said Fred. "Don't you remember what Valek said?"

"Which bit? The part about killing us, or the other part about killing us? Because that pretty much covers all the important bits of our meeting."

"He was trying to use us as bait to kill Enoch," explained Fred. "If we write to him, he's going to come straight down here, and go looking for Valek, who'll have some trap waiting for him no doubt."

"You're right," nodded George. "In fact, Valek is probably expecting us to write to Enoch. So we should do the exact opposite of what he's expecting."

"Like get Enoch to write to us?" ventured Fred uncertainly.

"No," said George, shaking his head. "Like… actually I don't know."

"Hang on. Valek knows we're going to write to Enoch," said Fred. "But…"

"Stop it," said Lee, letting out a long sigh.

"Stop what?" said Fred, frowning.

"You're going to say 'but we know he knows' and then George will say 'but he knows we know he knows' and then you'll add to that and you'll both go back and forth until you get confused," explained Lee.

"I wasn't going to say anything like that," sniffed Fred haughtily.

"Oh, sorry, I just thought… you know, it doesn't matter, I'm sorry. What were you going to say?"

"Er… well, you see… he knows but we know he knows," said Fred.

"Stop it right now," said Lee quickly, before George could follow up.

"Oh come on, it's traditional," complained Fred.

"Fine, just get it over with," said Lee.

"But surely he knows we know he knows," said George, taking up his cue.

"Ah, but we know he knows we know he knows, you know?" said Fred triumphantly.

"Is that enough? Are you done?"

"Well I thought we had one more round in it to be honest but we'll call it quits," admitted George.

"Great, so are we writing to Enoch or not?" asked Lee, trying to steer his friends back on track.

"The problem there is that Valek knows we'll…"

"How about I write to Enoch?" said Lee, interrupting his friend.

"Oh good one, Valek won't be expecting that," conceded George.

"Also write one to Miro," added Fred quickly. "He's training to be an Auror right? Plus he knows us. He'll have to believe us."

"Have to? I don't know about that but it'll be worth a try," said Fred, shrugging his shoulders.

"What'll I say?"

A few hours later the three boys made their way down to the Owlery to send their letters away. For Enoch's letter they picked a particularly hefty looking owl for the undoubtedly long and arduous journey and sent it on its way. They just grabbed the closest owl for Miro's. As they watched the two owls leave over the horizon they were interrupted by a familiar face.

"Alright guys," said Oliver Wood entering through the main doorway of the Owlery. He was carrying a large letter and waved it in the air before waiting for an owl to volunteer its services.

"Alright Oliver, good Christmas?"

"It was okay I guess," said Oliver . A brown barn owl had flapped down onto a wooden perch next to the boy and waited patiently for him to affix the letter to his leg. "It's normally just my parents and me but this year we had all the relatives over and ended up playing a friendly game of Quidditch after lunch. And things got a bit… heated."

"What did you do?" asked Fred, knowing that Oliver could sometimes become a little bit over the top when it came to his favourite game. And by 'sometimes' he meant 'always' and by 'little bit over the top' he meant 'more mental than a dwarf in a diamond mine who'd forgotten to bring his pickaxe'.

"I didn't do anything," said Oliver innocently, as he attached the letter to the owl's leg. "I just pointed out that maybe my great Aunt Bessie wasn't the best choice to play Seeker on our team."

"And that's it?"

"Well, my mum and dad weren't doing very well as Beaters, and my cousins were next to useless as Chasers. I mean, I wasn't the best when I was four but I could at least throw a bit further than them, none of them followed my tactics either. It's like they weren't even trying to take it seriously. Why play it at all if you aren't even going to try to win?" said Wood, shaking his head. "None of them turned up for the early morning training for a follow up game the next day either."

"How early?" asked Lee.

"Six."

"Six? In the morning? On Boxing Day?" said Fred.

"Yeah, I know right?" said Oliver, disappointedly. He let the owl go and watched as it flew off on its errand. "I was going to wake them at five but I thought I'd be generous and give them a bit of a lie in."

"A whole hour? Very generous," nodded George.

"Speaking of early morning practice," said Oliver, perking up, "I've got some good news."

"You've decided against them?" asked Fred, sounding hopeful.

"No, why would I do that?" said Oliver in a confused tone. "Quite the opposite. I was able to book the pitch for early morning practices every day. Isn't that great?"

"How early?" said George, not really wanting to know the answer.

"Five. Every morning," beamed Oliver.

"Five? Every morning? Five? Five!"

"I know. I couldn't believe that none of the other teams had book those times, so I snapped them right up before they could." Oliver looked thoroughly delighted with himself. "I'm going to let the rest of the team know right now."

"We'll come along," said George, nodding encouragement to his team captain.

"You will? Brilliant. That's what team spirit is all about."

"We will?" said Fred turning to look at his brother.

"I want to see Angelina's face when Oliver tells her," admitted George.

"I want to see Oliver's face when Angelina clatters him one," added Fred.

The news of the new training schedule was received as well as George had expected, and after a lot of shouting and complaining a compromise was reached. The team met every afternoon after class for a longer training session than normal and Oliver put any thoughts of five a.m. starts out of his mind while Angelina put any thoughts of hexing off Oliver's ears out of hers. Despite the compromise, Wood was still making them train harder than ever. Even though the snow had now been replaced by endless rain, he still expected the team to give their all during each and every practice. Although Fred and George thought that they could probably do with more rest and less work, Wood kept reassuring them it would be worth it in the end. If they won their next match, against Hufflepuff, they would overtake Slytherin in the house championship and it was upon this goal which Wood had become fixated.

It was during one particularly wet and muddy practice session that Oliver gave the team some of the worst news they could possibly hear. The twins were busy dive-bombing each other and pretending to fall off their brooms, much to the enjoyment of the team. Well, most of the team.

"Will you stop messing around!" Oliver yelled, as he wave his hands towards the two boys. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"

George really did fall off his broom at these words. He landed heavily in a large muddy puddle and sloshed about a bit before being able to regain his balance and stand.

"Snape's refereeing?" he spluttered through a mouthful of mud. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin."

The rest of the team landed next to George to complain, although they all decided to avoid the puddle in which George was still standing.

"It's not my fault," said Oliver, appearing rather crestfallen. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us."

"He already has an excuse to pick on us, he's Head of Slytherin," said Alicia as the group grumbled in agreement. George had finally squelched his way out of the puddle and was doing his best to try and wring water out of his practice robes. "How's that fair? Is McGonagall going to referee Slytherin's next game?"

"No she's… actually that's not a bad suggestion," said Oliver, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder if she would go for it."

"So are we done for the day then?" asked George, looking uncomfortable as he squirmed from side to side. "Because the water is seeping into my socks… oh wait… yep and underwear too."

"Yeah I think we're done today," said Angelina, the rain had caused her hair to stick to her face.

"Unless you guys want to practice for a bit longer?" said Oliver, hopefully. The rest of the team didn't need to say anything they just collectively gave him a look. "Maybe not."

"Is there any way we can ask for Madam Hooch to referee the match?" said Katie as the team collected up the equipment and made their way back towards the castle. "There's no way Snape will give us chance of winning."

"Already tried," sighed Oliver, carrying one side of the box that contained all the Quidditch gear. "I doubt McGonagall's happy about it either but there's nothing she can do without basically calling Snape a cheat."

"Which he is," muttered Fred. His broom was slung over one shoulder while he used his spare hand to hold the other side of the large box.

"It'll be fine," said Oliver certainly. "We have the best team, and we have the best Seeker. Don't we Harry? Harry?"

"He's already gone in," said Angelina, shaking her head. "He left as soon as practice finished. Didn't you notice?"

"See? I told you we had the best Seeker. So fast I didn't even see him go," said Oliver cheerfully.

"What's up with you?" asked Alicia, looking over at George who was now walking in a rather strange waddle motion.

"The soaked underpants situation has now been upgraded to 'total'. It is not pleasant I can tell you," said George, grimacing.

The team slowly, and rather squelchy, made their way back to the Gryffindor Common Room. The girls and Oliver immediately made their way to their respective dormitories to shower and change into something far warmer and drier than their current attire. Fred and George stayed in the Common Room to talk to Lee who had waved them over immediately when they entered through the portal door.

"What's up?" said George.

"Did you hear back from Enoch already?" said Fred eagerly.

"No, not a word, but I was thinking about how we could beat this Valek guy if he ever show up again. So I went to the library and got this." Lee pointed to a large book one the table in front of him.

"We're going to hit him with it? I mean it's a pretty big book but I doubt it'll stop him," said Fred, prodding the tomb with his finger.

"I dunno, if we dropped it on him from Gryffindor Tower I'd say we'd do a fair amount of damage," conceded George.

"Yeah but we'll have to get him to stay in one place long enough for us to aim it. I doubt it'll work. Good try though Lee," said Fred, sympathetically.

"Read the name of the book," said Lee flatly.

"Exotic and Extinct Magical Creatures by Elba Wolfsburg. And that'll make it more accurate when we throw it will it?"

Silently Lee leaned forward and flicked the book open to the contents page. His finger tapped on one particular chapter title.

"Kosa… oh, Valek's a Kosa. How handy is that? Maybe that'll tell us how to stop him," said George excitedly.

"Good idea George. We'll call Lee's book throwing idea Plan B."

"No, that was never… you know what? Forget about it, we'll see what the book says," said Lee. Since knowing the twins he thought he could generally tell when they were deliberately trying to wind him up but every now and then even he wasn't completely sure.

"Haven't you read it yet?" asked George.

"Nah, only just managed to find it before Madam Pince shooed me out of the library. Only sat down about ten seconds before you two came in."

"Right. Kosa. Kosa. Kosa," said Fred flicking through the book. "Ah, here we are. Blah blah blah, history history history, more blah. Even more blah. Oh here we go. 'Kosa were notoriously difficult to kill…'"

"Perfect," mumbled George.

"'They were naturally immune to most forms of direct magic,'" said Fred, continuing to read from the book.

"Found that out the hard way," commented George, only to be shushed by Lee.

"'They were however susceptible to indirect magic as well as physical attacks, however the latter was not be recommended given the Kosa's formidable accelerated healing abilities that allowed it to survive most attacks that would kill lesser creatures. One wound that a Kosa could not heal itself from was one administered by a unicorn's horn as they were deathly allergic to its touch.'"

"That's it," said Lee, excitedly jabbing his finger down on the passage in the book. "We just need to get a unicorn's horn."

"Brilliant," nodded Fred. "Any ideas where we can get one?"

"Nope."

"Didn't that first year kid get one for his birthday?" said George. "What's his name? Something Thomas?"

"Dean Thomas and he got an actual horn, which, unless we plan on trying to deafen Valek, is pretty much useless," said Fred. "Think, where would we get a unicorn horn from?"

"Anywhere in Hogsmeade sell stuff like that?" asked Lee.

"Could try Dogweed and Deathcap?" ventured George.

"Nah, they only sell Herbology stuff," said Fred, shaking his head. "Pippin's? I know they just do potions but they might sell one as an ingredient."

"I think they only sell finished potions but it's worth a try, I suppose," said George.

"What about The Hog's Head?"

"Lee, that's a pub. We're not trying to take Valek out for a drink," said Fred.

"Yeah I know it's a pub, it's a really dodgy pub. You know? The kind of dodgy pub where dodgy people sell all kinds of dodgy things."

"Has the word dodgy just lost all meaning to anyone else?" asked George.

"I meant we could probably find someone down there who could sell one to us."

"Oh yeah, that makes more sense," agreed Fred.

"There's also another option," said Lee, reluctantly. "There's always Snape's supply cupboard. I bet he'd have a least one lying around."

"No chance we're going anywhere near messing with Snape until after the Quidditch game," said George. "If we get caught he'll make sure we don't play in the game. And there is no way I'm listening to a lecture from Oliver about doing what's best for the team."

"So, we have to sneak down to Hogsmeade, to a dodgy pub, to do some under the table deal with one of the weirdoes that goes there, to get a unicorn's horn, to kill a Kosa, a creature that shouldn't exist anymore," clarified Lee. "To anyone else that would just be the most insanely bizarre thing they have ever done."

"To us, it's a Tuesday," said George, squirming slightly.

"You okay?"

"Wet underpants Lee," said George, slapping a hand down on his friend's shoulder. "I have uncomfortably wet underpants."