A/N: Thank you for your lovely reviews! This is a pretty fast update for me, so I hope it makes up for the long wait for the last chapter! Happy New Year!

'I can't believe they still haven't announced the new Quidditch team,' Jane grumbled to Maura the following Saturday as they headed out of the castle, bound for Hogsmeade. 'It's been a week already! All the other Houses did it days ago.'

'I'm sorry I didn't attend your Quidditch trial,' Maura apologised with a look of guilt. 'I was unsure if I would have even been allowed at a Gryffindor event like that, and then Numerology and Grammatica Chapter 4 was left on an academic cliff hanger, and I couldn't put it down…'

'You don't need to be sorry!' Jane waved her apology off. 'Quidditch trials aren't that exciting; I wouldn't like to put you off before you've actually seen a game.'

'Was there a lot of competition for… Beating? Is that the correct term?'

'Yeah, there were three others trying out for Beater. There are two Beaters on a team, see, but everybody knows they'll keep one of the Beaters on from last year's team – the other one graduated – so the four of us are really going after one spot.'

'Were they as good as you?'

'Oh, they weren't bad,' Jane stuffed her hands in her pockets and shrugged, trying to look modest. 'I nailed a Bludger Backbeat, which, I know you have no idea what that means, but it's pretty tough to do properly. I think the Captain might have been impressed, but she's got a damn good poker face.'

'Who's the Gryffindor captain?' Maura asked as they reached the Hogwarts entrance gates and made for the path to Hogsmeade where Professor Harper was collecting permission forms.

'Her name's Rowan, she's a seventh year. She's Runa's sister, actually. I had no idea until last week.'

'Runa did mention a sister,' Maura remembered. 'For some reason I had assumed she was also a Ravenclaw. Is it common for siblings to be Sorted into different Houses?'

'Depends on the family,' Jane shrugged as Professor Harper took their slips of paper and waved them on. 'Sometimes you get an entire clan going through one House for generations. Like, I'd be willing to bet those first year Avery twins come from a long line of Slytherins. And Harry Potter's best friend had five brothers and a sister, and all of them and their parents were Gryffindors. Then you get families like mine: I'm a Gryffindor, Frankie's a Hufflepuff. My Ma was a Hufflepuff too, but she said she was nearly a Hatstall because the Hat couldn't make up its mind between that and Gryffindor. And then my Pop was a Slytherin.'

'I guess it's the same with Runa and Rowan, then,' Maura said thoughtfully. 'What about Frost, does he have any siblings here?'

'Nah, he's an only child, and I don't know what his Dad was. But hey, what about your Mum? She must have gone here since she's a Brit, right? Don't tell me… I bet she was a Ravenclaw too!'

Maura shook her head. 'My mother was educated at l'académie de magie Beauxbâtons.'

'Beauxbatons? As in France?'

'Oui, c'est précis,' Maura nodded.

'You speak French, too?!'

'Un peu,' Maura held her thumb and forefinger up close together and giggled bashfully at the impressed look on Jane's face.

'I don't know why I'm surprised,' Jane wondered aloud. 'Hey, did Frost say anything to you this morning about going to Hogsmeade? If him and Anna end up in Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, I'm going to barf.'

'Who's Madam Puddifoot?'

'Well, I haven't been in there myself yet, any of Hogsmeade Village actually, but I've heard…'

Jane began to outline everything she knew about Hogsmeade, and where she wanted to visit; The Three Broomsticks, Honeydukes, the Shrieking Shack. Maura was interested of course, but only half-listening. Jane was chattier today than she'd ever seen her, and she found she was quite enjoying this new side of her. She had found Jane to be good company essentially from the first day they'd met, but she had to admit: most of what emerged from Jane's mouth was sarcastic remarks, or superficial complaints. While on some level, she registered that such genuinely open behaviour like this was rare for Jane, she couldn't know just how remarkable it was that Jane had inadvertently let her guard down after only two weeks of knowing Maura.

Jane, for her part, hadn't realised just how talkative she was being until she paused for breath and couldn't remember Maura saying a single word for the last little while. She glanced sideways and caught a strange, happy little smile on Maura's face that she hadn't ever seen before. Curiously, it disappeared the moment Maura realised she was being watched. Jane stuffed her hands back into her pockets, unable to recall taking them out in the first instance, and felt suddenly self-conscious.

'Sorry,' she gave a nervous laugh. 'I'm talking too much; I'm probably boring you.'

'Oh, no, absolutely not!' Maura assured her. 'The opposite, actually. Tell me more about Honeydukes! I don't think we ever had Pepper Imps in America.'

Jane gave a big smile, and started to describe the black peppermint sweets she often found in her Christmas stockings. Maura watched Jane almost with enchantment as the taller girl's face became animated and her hands flew out of her pockets once more to mime smoke coming out of her ears and nose.

Maura was very content to do a lot of looking today. This Saturday also marked the first day she had seen Jane Rizzoli in street clothes. She recalled wondering about a fortnight ago what Jane might wear when she was out of uniform, and now she had her answer. It had been absurdly hot the last couple of weeks, and everybody was commenting on how very uncharacteristic it was for a Scottish September. Jane strolled easily in the heat in a pair of short khakis and a form fitting, forest green t-shirt. Maura was having a hard time trying to keep from gazing at Jane's long legs. Normally they were covered up with black stockings for school, but now there was tanned skin exposed from mid-thigh all the way down to Jane's white sneakers, and Maura could unmistakably see Jane's calf muscles contracting with every step in her peripheral vision.

Though that wasn't to say there wasn't plenty for her to be happy about at eye level and above. Jane's recently-conditioned hair shone in the sun, and dark waves cascaded down her back and over her shoulders in a way that made Maura want to reach up and test if it felt as soft as it looked. As usual, Jane seemed to be completely oblivious to her natural beauty. She had simply woken up, rejoiced in the sudden realisation that there was no Potions class for three and a half days, and thrown on some clothing appropriate to the weather. She owned three more of the same t-shirt in different colours, and a second pair of the exact same khakis. Splashing water on her face, cleaning her teeth, and running a brush through her hair was about all the preparation she needed for a visit to Hogsmeade. She'd stuffed a handful of coins into her pocket and gone to meet Maura, the option of checking herself in a mirror not even occurring to her.

Maura had been waiting for her on the fifth floor landing, conversing with a portrait. She was wearing a cream coloured skirt that stopped several inches above her knee, coupled with a cobalt blue sleeveless blouse, and matching strappy sandals. Jane was glad Maura's back was to her as she descended the stairs from two floors above; it gave her a small window of opportunity to stare freely. She was actively refusing to give much thought to the effortless and natural conclusions her brain had reached a fortnight ago: Maura Isles was the single most attractive person she had ever seen in her life.

'Yes, Stella McCartney,' Jane heard Maura inform the portrait. 'She's a Muggle, but her shoes are to die for. Or live for, perhaps; everything she designs is vegan…These are from her 2012 Spring collection, so a little out of date, I know, but they're so comfortable I couldn't bear to part with them.'

As Jane came within a few feet of Maura, she noticed her hair was done in a tricky-looking plait she thought she'd once heard called a fishtail braid. It started near her right temple, and came down to become a side plait over her left shoulder. Jane was in awe that Maura could manipulate her hair so flawlessly without help. On the few occasions Jane had tried a hairstyle that deviated even slightly from her standard ponytail, it had been a complete disaster.

'Hey,' Jane had said brightly, coming up next to Maura. 'Am I interrupting something?'

'Oh, Jane!' Maura beamed. 'Nymphadora was just asking after my shoes.'

'Don't call me Nymphadora!' the witch in the portrait, who had bubblegum pink hair, frowned. 'It's Tonks, though I'm technically a Lupin now.'

'Sorry,' Jane apologised on Maura's behalf, steering her away to the next flight of stairs. 'She's new. And American. Sort of. We'll see you 'round!'

'Why mayn't I call her Nymphadora?' Maura had asked once they were out of earshot. 'Who is she?'

'About time I know something you don't!' Jane teased. 'She's Nymphadora Lupin, Tonks was her maiden name. She was an Auror for the Ministry of Magic, and a member of the Order of the Phoenix. She was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange in the Battle of Hogwarts when she was only twenty-five. Her husband was killed too, and he's in the portrait next to her, but he doesn't hang around very often.'

'Oh, that's tragic!' Maura lamented, at the same time that Jane gave a snort and said, 'Ha, hang around… portrait… so punny.'

She was caught off guard as Maura shoulder nudged her into the bannister, as a punishment for her lack of sensitivity. She recovered with a feigned affronted look, which resulted in Maura giggling and running down the stairs away from Jane as fast as she could in her heels.

The path to Hogsmeade took them through a patch of sparse, sunny forest, and Jane found herself walking in step with Maura, as Maura's overshoulder coin purse jangled lightly against her hip with every step. There was a sweet smell in the air from wild flowers, and several times they caught the bob of a fluffy white tail as rabbits lopped through the longer grasses. As they walked, Maura rattled off the Latin names, origins, and uses of a dozen or so plants, and Jane began to imagine Maura's brain as an enormous warehouse full of filing cabinets.

'What's… that one?' Jane tested her, pointing at two flowers that shared a single stem.

'That's Linnaea borealis,' Maura answered promptly. 'More popularly known as Twinflower, and named after Carolus Linnaeus, as it was one of his favourites. It's becoming increasingly rare in Great Britain, and it's often indicative of nearby ancient woodlands.'

'Like the Forbidden Forest!' Jane made the connection. 'Cool! What about… that one?'

'Oh, wow!' Maura followed Jane's finger. 'That's Juniperis communis; Juniper. I'm very surprised the rabbits didn't get to it. Juniper berries lend their flavour to gin, and it's thought that the word "gin" originates from the French word for Juniper: genievre. Juniper was one of the first tree species to colonise the United Kingdom after the last Ice Age, and its wood burns with a near-invisible smoke.'

'Holy crap, Maura! How do you know all this stuff?' Jane exclaimed. 'I think you might be a genius.'

'Yes,' Maura replied simply. 'I am.'

'And a humble one, too!' Jane gave a surprised laugh.

'What?' Maura was equally surprised at Jane's reaction. 'It only takes a hundred and fifty IQ points to be a genius.'

After another ten minutes or so they had left the forest behind them, and the path they were following turned into a road. They could glimpse Hogsmeade Station up ahead, and before long the road gave way to cobblestones, placing them suddenly at the bottom of High Street.

'This is adorable!' Maura looked around in rapture at the picturesque thatched cottages and the tidy streets of Hogsmeade. 'There was nothing like this in Boston!'

'Where do you want to go first?' Jane looked around, equally thrilled, now doubly conscious of the coins in her pocket and eager to trade them.

'Everywhere!' Maura turned to her excitedly, almost bouncing on the spot. 'Let's just walk and go everywhere!'

'Everywhere except Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop,' Jane agreed. 'Though we're going to need to sneak past later and see if Frost and Anna are… canoodling.'

'Let's go in here!' Jane felt a forceful tug on her arm, and the next thing she knew, she was being pulled over the threshold of a shop called Tomes and Scrolls. She immediately saw that Maura might have just found her own personal heaven as the awestruck girl wandered through every aisle in the ancient bookshop, running her fingers down spines, and climbing ladders to read the synopses of enormous volumes that were out of reach.

'Jane! Jane! Jane!' she exclaimed excitedly after Jane had been dragging her feet aimlessly around the store for a good fifteen minutes. 'Look what I've found!'

'What?' Jane rounded a bookshelf quadruple her height to find Maura clambering quickly down a ladder with a book tucked under her arm.

'The Healer's Helpmate!' she showed Jane the cover. 'It's a compilation of magical household remedies to common ailments from the 1960s!'

'But…' Jane looked confused. 'Hasn't Healing kind of… you know, improved in the last… half century?'

'Yes, considerably!' Maura nodded, looking very happy.

'So then, why…?'

'It'll be fascinating to learn what the average magical household relied on in the latter half of the twentieth century! I recall my father saying last summer that he'd had a patient who had tried to cure herself of boils using a very out of date remedy from this book.'

'So you're going to buy it?'

'Absolutely!' Maura clutched the book a little tighter as though she was scared somebody was going to try and wrestle the store's only copy from her. 'It's only ten galleons; it would be a crime not to.'

'Ten galleons?' Jane's jaw dropped. 'I got most of my schoolbooks this year for ten galleons! You're going to spend ten G's on an out of date book?'

'Exactly! Jane, this isn't in print anymore; if it's not a collector's item now, it will be soon!' And without waiting for a reply, she hurried to the counter, where a kind-looking old man had appeared.

'Don't see many youngsters like yourself getting excited about our shop,' he commented with a twinkle in his eye, taking the book from Maura. 'First time visiting Hogsmeade?'

'Yes,' she beamed. 'And this is the very first shop we've visited, in fact!'

'Well, what an honour! Honeydukes a short ways down the road usually gets that privilege. An aspiring Healer, are we?' he asked, as he placed Maura's choice into a brown paper bag that had "Tomes and Scrolls – Specialist Bookshop since 1768" printed across it in a dark green ink.

'Very possibly, Sir,' she nodded.

'Well, I hope to see you in here again soon,' he winked as Maura paid him and then went to join Jane, who was hovering near the doorway.

'Do you know what you just did?' Jane asked once they were back in the street.

'Yes,' Maura frowned. 'I just purch-'

'You took my Hogsmeade virginity, and gave it to a crusty old bookshop! Without my consent!'

'I don't know what you mean…'

'But you can make it up to me,' Jane didn't bother to explain, but turned on her heel and headed across the road, knowing Maura would follow. 'You can stand in here and be bored out of your mind for twenty minutes while I drool over brooms I can't afford.' She stopped outside a shop called Spintwitches and held the door open for Maura, ushering her inside with a wicked grin.

Indeed, those twenty minutes in Spintwitches were not the most entertaining of Maura's life. She stood to the side feeling quite out of place as Jane compared the stats of at least six different brooms and grimaced at the price tags.

'Jane? What's this gear for?' she came across a glass cabinet housing a mannequin clad in heavy protective equipment.

'That's a Keeper's getup,' Jane wandered over. 'They defend the goalposts, and they have to wear the most gear out of all the players. Lots of close range defence, y'know?'

'What does a Beater have to wear?'

'Same stuff I had on when I flew up to your common room the other week, just with a team uniform.'

'Yes, I've been meaning to ask about that, actually,' Maura followed Jane as she began browsing smaller merchandise along a shelf. 'How did you know where my common room was?'

Jane snorted. 'It's not really a secret that the Ravenclaw common room is in Ravenclaw Tower. I doubt I could get into it the normal way, but it's not hard to find on a broom.'

'Oh,' Maura said thoughtfully. 'So your common room is in Gryffindor Tower?'

'Yup,' Jane plucked a small tin of Beater's Bat Wax off the shelf and made for the counter, paying the witch there nine sickles. 'I'm not sure about Slytherin and Hufflepuff, though. I should ask Frankie. Where to now?' Jane pocketed her purchase as they stepped back onto the street, now in much higher spirits.

'I'm starting to feel a little parched,' Maura volunteered. 'Where did you say the best place to get a drink was?'

'The Three Broomsticks Inn!' Jane resisted the unexpected urge to link arms with Maura as she led them further into the village.

'What can I get you, darlin'?' the witch behind the bar at The Three Broomsticks put down her cloth and waited for Maura's order. She was a middle-aged woman who Maura estimated to be around fifty. She wore a long beige bohemian skirt with a denim vest, and honey coloured hair fell in loose ringlets around her face.

'Uh, gillywater, please,' Maura answered after a pause. She had been unconsciously peering at the witch's green eyes. They looked as though they had seen more than their fair share of history.

'And you, honey?'

Maura caught a subtle glare from Jane at being called "honey". 'Er, what are my options?'

'Ah, first time to Hogsmeade?' she guessed, and Jane nodded. 'Broomstick virgins! I'm expecting droves of you in here around noon. I'm Madam Rosmerta, I own this place.'

'I'm Jane, this is my friend Maura.'

'It's mighty nice to meet some new faces! Well, Jane. For you we do gillywater, butterbeer, cherry syrup and soda - that comes with ice and an umbrella -, and I've been playing around with a new non-alcoholic mead if that's your poison.'

'Alright, um… can I get a glass of half butterbeer, half cherry syrup and soda. Hold the ice thanks, but I won't say no to that umbrella.'

Madam Rosmerta busied herself with their orders with a very amused look on her face. Maura gaped at Jane in disbelief. 'You're going to drink that? It sounds sickening!'

'I dunno,' Jane teased. 'Sounds like it might be on par with gillywater. And if it's terrible, at least I get a pretty umbrella to put in my hair,' she mimed sliding a cocktail umbrella behind her ear and batted her eyelashes comically. 'I'm just going to run to the loo.'

'She sure is a character,' Madam Rosmerta placed their drinks on the bar and took a swig of leftover butterbeer from the bottle she'd had to open to fulfil Jane's request. 'Reminds me a bit of a girl I used to know.'

'She's wonderful,' Maura smiled almost reverently, earning her a curious look from the innkeeper. 'What do I owe you?'

'Gillywater's a sickle twenty.'

'Oh, I'll get Jane's as well.'

'Then four sickles twenty-five.'

When Jane returned from the bathroom, Maura passed her her drink and the two went to find a vacant booth. Rosmerta could have sworn she heard Maura apologising for "taking your virginity, Jane", and Jane rapidly correcting her with a hushed "my Hogsmeade virginity Maura, not my actual virginity! Sheesh!" She couldn't shake the feeling these two were going to be a bit of free weekend entertainment for her in the months to come, and she had to admit: she was looking forward to it.

It was with considerably happier taste buds that they continued their inaugural exploration of the wizarding village. Jane wanted to inconspicuously meander past Madam Puddifoot's, in case Frost and Anna had had the same idea as them, and stopped in for a mid-morning beverage. But Maura caught sight of pink coconut ice in the window of Honeydukes, and beelined for the door with little more warning than a high pitched squeak of delight. As it transpired, Anna and Frost were already in Honeydukes; Frost daring Anna to try a blood-flavoured lollipop. A bell tinkled as Jane and Maura entered, but the sweetshop was so packed with raucous students that nobody heard it. A tubby bald man with glasses was panting furiously as he lugged boxes of sweets upstairs from the cellar, needing to restock the shelves. Exploding candy made loud pops every so often, students shrieked as chocolate frogs escaped, and big unburstable bubbles of Drooble's gum drifted through the air.

Jane had to shout a greeting to Frost, but once she got his attention, he came over immediately.

'Hey, Jane,' he didn't quite meet her eyes, seeming to know he'd been neglecting their friendship for the last couple of weeks. 'I was hoping I'd run into you. I wanted to apologise for being a bit MIA lately.'

'It's fine, Frost,' she tried to wave him off, but he knew it wasn't.

'Come outside for a minute?'

Maura had wandered off to browse the range of coconut ice, and Anna had been intercepted by some other Ravenclaws, who wanted to know what on Earth she was doing looking at the bloodpops, so Jane didn't feel guilty about ducking out for a moment.

'I've been a jerk,' he got straight to the point the moment they had some breathing space. 'I've been neglecting you, and-'

'How did this thing even happen?' Jane cut him off before he got too sappy. 'I thought you didn't like Anna last year?'

'I… didn't,' Frost laughed, thinking back. 'I dunno, we really hit it off at the Feast. She's a half-blood, too. Her Dad's a Muggle, and her Mum didn't tell him she was a witch until after Anna was born. He completely loathes magic, and so her Mum actually broke her wand in half to save their marriage. They didn't want Anna to come to Hogwarts, it's insane.'

'So, are you guys, like, a couple, or…?'

'No, but, I think she likes me! We stayed up until two in the morning talking in the common room last night!'

'I think it's pretty safe to say she likes you, Frost,' Jane scoffed. 'I take it you're all gooey for her, too?'

'Nobody's ever shown an interest in me before!'

Despite his excitement, Jane noticed he didn't answer the question. 'Does Anna know Seraphina's kinda pissed at her?'

'I'm keeping way outta that,' Frost held both his hands up in a half-surrender. 'She says Sera ditched her for Michael first, over the summer.'

'Ugh, girls are so stupid,' Jane rolled her eyes. Except Maura. Maura's the most intelligent person I've ever met.

For a moment it felt like old times; Jane and Frost laughing at how ridiculously petty and self-absorbed some of the girls in their year were, discussing the Quidditch regionals, complaining about their homework late at night in the library.

'I hope you're not feeling too ditched, Jane, because you definitely didn't ditch me first,' Frost said then, and reminded them both that for now at least, those old times were exactly that.

'It's cool, Frost,' Jane assured him, realising all of a sudden that maybe it was okay. 'I'm actually really enjoying hanging out with Maura.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, I mean, I thought she was completely weird and annoying at first. And she is completely weird, but not half as annoying as I thought. She's fun.'

'No, I mean, is it really okay? The Anna thing?'

'Well, I still maintain that she's a stuck-up bitch, but yeah! Go get some lovin', Frosty. I'll be here to help you pick up the pieces if she smashes your heart like an icicle. Just… I dunno, keep me updated on your life at dinner?'

'Deal,' he grinned, and they retraced their steps into the sweetshop chaos.

It was many more hours before they decided if they continued shopping, their legs wouldn't carry them back to school. Jane and Maura had stuck with Frost and Anna after Honeydukes, and the four of them must have covered at least half the village together. Jane and Maura led the way out of Hogsmeade, all four of them carrying enormous bags of Honeydukes candy. In the hopes that Bass would enjoy the exotic fruits it produced, Maura had also bought a cloudberry plant from a shop called Dogwood and Deathcap, after The Magic Neep had been fresh out of British strawberries. Jane, whose only further purchases for the day had been some new ink and a packet of envelopes, offered to locomotor plant it, as Maura seemed to be struggling enough with her Honeydukes spoils and nonfiction text collection, which had tripled in size in the last few hours. Anna carried several bags from Gladrags Wizardwear, while Frost trekked alongside her looking very goofy with a dusty old rug rolled up under one arm, and a new wizards' chess set under the other.

'Remind me again why you're carrying around a manky old rug?' Jane shot him a very amused glance over her shoulder as they reached the forested area.

'I ran into Frankie the other day. He's just been taught the levitating charm, and he asked me if I could try and find an old rug. We're going to try and wingardium leviosa this bad boy into a magic carpet.'

'You know a magic carpet probably won't be any less scary than a broom, right?' Jane laughed, quite tickled by the idea. 'Where'd you swipe it from, anyway?'

'I didn't steal it! I found it next to some bins down by the Hog's Head.'

'Is that why it smells like something died?' Anna wrinkled her nose disdainfully.

'It's almost reminiscent of Dracunculus vulgaris,' Maura sniffed thoughtfully. 'Though that wouldn't make any sense, since it's endemic to the Balkans.'

'A Dracun what?' Anna asked.

'It's a plant,' Maura explained. 'Usually called the dragon arum. It gives off the scent of rotting flesh to attract flies as pollinators.'

'There's… dead flesh on my rug?' Frost began to wretch.

'It's entirely possible,' Maura began, but her affirmation was lost in a sudden clatter. Frost had dropped everything he was carrying and dashed into the long grass to throw up.

'Uh, Frost?' Jane took a few steps in after him. 'You okay?'

'Yeah, yeah, totally fine,' he said in what he hoped was a chipper voice.

'Here, open up,' Jane plucked Maura's potted plant out of the air and put it on the ground as Frost rejoined them. 'Aguamenti,' she shot a jet of water into Frost's mouth so he could rinse. 'Better?'

He nodded. 'Is there… any way you can clean that here?' he asked Maura, pointing to the rug.

'No, but I can improve the smell?'

'Might help,' he nodded.

'Iuncundus odoratus,' a powdery bronze puff of smoke emerged from her wand and surrounded the rug.

'Mmm,' Jane sniffed eagerly. 'Coffee.'

'I thought you and Frost might appreciate that,' Maura smiled.

'Don't worry, Barry,' Anna piped up, not having moved from her spot. 'You can get the house elves to clean it when we get back to the castle.'

Frost merely nodded, still staring hesitantly at the rug despite its new smell. 'Locomotor rug,' he spoke with a look of distaste.

Jane got Maura's flower back under her spell and the group continued.

'Hey, I know what'll cheer you up!' Jane declared after a few minutes. 'Maura's like a walking encyclopedia! Pick any plant or animal in these woods, and she'll be able to tell you about it. Go on!'

'Jane, I think that's a considerable over-estimation of m-'

'Over there,' Frost nodded towards a tree. 'There's a little frog. What's it called?'

'Oh my Goodness,' Maura stopped and frowned as she saw where Frost was indicating.

'What, is it rare or something?' Jane studied Maura's confused face.

'No… it's just… I have no idea what it's doing in Scotland.'

'There are frogs in Scotland, you know,' was Anna's contribution.

'Yes, I do know that,' Maura said earnestly, starting to inch a little closer to the creature, but stopping when it leapt behind a branch and watched her warily. The frog was no more than about two inches long, coloured a brilliant yellow. 'I'm not sure of its binomial name, but it comes from the family Dendrobatidae. It's called a golden poison arrow frog, and as far as I know, it only lives on the Colombian coast. This frog is a very long way from home.'

'Poison?' about summed up the information Jane had taken from her micro-lesson.

'Yes, among the most poisonous creatures in the world. It secretes a potent alkaloid toxin, which can lead to heart failure if it achieves sufficient interference of nerve impulses.'

'So how do you know it's not going to jump out and eat us?' Jane eyed the tiny frog warily.

'It's poisonous, not venomous. Its poison is used chiefly as a self-defence mechanism; it will only cause harm if you provoke it.'

'Yikes,' Jane shuddered despite the reassurance. 'That concludes our Care of Non-Magical Creatures lesson for today, folks. Moving right along.'

'I can't… This isn't… It shouldn't be here!' Maura sputtered as Jane, Frost, and Anna turned away.

'Jane!' a shout from a ways behind them sounded just as they were preparing to move off. 'Wait up!'

A tall, athletic-looking girl with thick black hair jogged up to them. It was Rowan. 'Hey,' she greeted breathlessly. 'Jane, do you have any plans for tonight?'

'Um, I was going to eat dinner and then visit the owlery to make sure my family's owl is still alive,' Jane answered. 'Though, thinking about it now, maybe I should check the owl first.'

'Perfect,' Rowan grinned. 'Quidditch meeting tonight, in the common room at 8. Congratulations, you're our new Beater!'

'What? Are you shittin' me? Like, actual Beater? Not a reserve? I didn't see a list up!'

'On my way to do it now,' Rowan laughed. 'Sorry it took so long. I knew for certain you were the one I wanted after you made that flawless Bludger Backbeat, I've just been trying to decide all week whether to take on Ruddy or Boomer as Keeper.'

'Who'd you pick?'

'Ruddy. We'll talk about it tonight!' And she was off, jogging the path back to the castle to try and get her Quidditch responsibilities in order. The first game was at the beginning of November, and there was plenty to organise before then.

'Jane!' Maura beamed, the frog forgotten for the moment. 'Congratulations!'

'Nice one,' Frost agreed. 'I don't know of any other third years in the school making their House team!'

'Thanks,' Jane tried her best to act like it wasn't a big deal, but even she couldn't stop the Cheshire cat grin from spreading across her face. 'Wait until I tell Pop!'