December 1946

The state of Gryffindor Tower on Boxing Day morning was an interesting one.

The first thing Ro registered upon lifting her head from her pillow – no, it was a sofa cushion, she hadn't made it to the dormitory – was how stiff her scalp felt. She immediately regretted not undoing the sticking charm she'd used to keep her hair in place. Upon propping herself up on her elbows to look at the rest of herself, she saw she only had one shoe on and the gold skirt of her dress was incredibly crumpled as if it had been left abandoned on the floor. Which Ro realised was very accurate when it finally dawned on her that that was exactly where she was.

Around her were similar scenes of devastation, which was a mild reassurance to her sleep-fogged mind. On the nearest sofa were Minerva and Larry, him awake and her still asleep with her head on his chest. Nancy and Ernest were still together too, limbs tangled together and looking incredibly comfortable in each other's company, but they were on the floor in front of the fireplace. Cleatus was in the armchair with his head on his chest, snoring loudly. There was no sign of Poppy, but Ro vaguely remembered her not staying for the Firewhisky so it was likely she was enjoying their dormitory all to herself.

The Firewhisky; now it was all coming back to her. While the official Yule Ball had ended at 11pm, some of the Gryffindor seventh years had snuck into Hogsmeade with a hearty supply of Firewhisky to kick off the Gryffindor's afterparty. Ro had taken on board Poppy's chastising that she wasn't old enough for proper alcohol, unlike Butterbeer, so had only had one, but some of the older students had taken full advantage of their overage status. As a result it was mostly sixth and seventh years that were still in the Common room, but Ro and Minerva had chosen to stay along with the rest of the Quidditch Team. With no clock in the Common Room it had been impossible to know what time they'd fallen asleep, but from the tiredness lingering behind her eyes Ro doubted it had been anything remotely sensible.

"How's your head?" Ro looked up at the voice to see Minerva giving her a tired smile.

After pausing to consider for a moment, Ro nodded. "Fine actually, but I hardly had anything. You?"

Minerva hummed in agreement. "I didn't think it was worth the headache, either from the Firewhisky itself or from Poppy when she heard about it."

"When Poppy heard about what?" asked a new and much more awake voice, seconds before Poppy appeared from around the sofa. She'd actually changed out of her dress robes, a feat that no-one in the Common Room had managed, though her hair was still loose around her shoulders.

"Nothing, actually. They were both surprisingly good," Larry said, trailing off to end in a yawn.

Poppy rolled her eyes, moving around to give Ro a scrutinising look which didn't falter when Ro cracked a sheepish smile. Her defensive response was stopped when she saw Irma looking very amused from where Poppy had been stood a moment ago. She was borrowing some of Poppy's clothes so clearly hadn't spend the night in the Dungeons, the bright colours looking a little odd since Irma rarely wore anything that wasn't black or something equally dark. "When'd you get here Irma?" She asked, racking her brain but coming up empty.

Irma gave a short breath of laughter before replying "I quickly got tired of hearing Druella's complaints throughout the Dungeon so I decided to come and take full advantage of your near-empty dormitory. You look comfortable down there, as do you up there." Her final smirk was aimed at Minerva, who met Larry's eyes as they both blushed.

Focusing back on Larry, Poppy continued "Anyway, I hope you were good too, you don't come of age until a week before Ro does."

"Go easy on them Poppy, we're all allowed a night of fun once in a while." It was Nancy who had spoken, her tone incredibly groggy and her eyes still closed.

Huffing slightly, Poppy pointed out "None of the Professors would have given permission for fifth years to have Firewhisky, even if it was the Yule Ball."

Sitting up properly to look her square in the face, Ro declared "I'm Quidditch Captain, I gave myself permission."

This time Poppy couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head slightly. "Oh alright then, if you say so. Let me sort your hair out though, it looks a little interesting."

"Polite way of putting it," Larry snickered, though grunted when Ro thumped him hard on the arm.

The unusual morning didn't end there, and only seemed to get stranger when Ro, Minerva, Poppy, Irma, and Larry all arrived in the Great Hall for a very late breakfast. None of the tables were very full, but Ro still noticed they were getting some strange looks as they sat down at the Gryffindor Table. The Owl Post didn't arrive long after they did, and their quiet conversation ceased immediately when a thick red envelope was dropped atop Larry's (thankfully unbuttered) toast. A Howler.

After they'd all just looked at it for a few long seconds, Ro said in a hushed whisper "There's no time to run, you'd better just go for it." The Howler wouldn't wait long enough to get back into Gryffindor Tower, possibly not even to the Grand Staircase by then.

Larry swallowed heavily before nodding, leaning back in his chair so he could open the envelope as far away from himself as possible. All other conversation in the Great Hall was silenced when a female voice started shrieking from the envelope "LAURENCE SPENCER-MOON, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

In the brief moment of silence that followed, they all looked at Larry who shook his head with a shrug, a clear indicator he had no idea what was going on.

"YOU TOOK THE HOGWARTS CHAMPION TO THE YULE BALL, ONLY TO LEAVE HER FOR ANOTHER STUDENT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DANCING? YOU DISGRACED HER, YOU DISGRACED YOUR SCHOOL, AND YOU DISGRACED YOUR FAMILY. WHAT WILL WINSTON THINK OF YOU NOW?"

Movement in the corner of Ro's vision caught her attention, and she turned to look further down the table to where Winston Spencer-Moon was sat with Malcolm McGonagall, Atticus Weasley, and Imogen Farley. Winston had turned bright red at the mention of himself and was trying to slide as far under the table as he could.

"YOU ARE THE MINISTER'S ELDEST SON, LAURENCE, WE BROUGHT YOU UP TO HAVE BETTER MANNERS THAN THIS!" After the final word was spoken, the envelope tore itself into shreds which all dropped into Larry's cup of tea.

Larry simply stared at the remnants of the Howler floating in his mug, stunned into an embarrassed silence, until the resume of conversation in the rest of the Hall took some of the focus away from him. "My mother, everyone," he said jokingly in an attempt to laugh away his humiliation.

"Well at least you haven't been disowned," Irma said in her typical blunt kindness, which succeeded better than Larry's comment in bringing laughter to the table.

Voicing the question that had been on Ro's mind, Poppy's face was in a deep frown as she asked "But how would anyone have known that Larry and Ro danced together last night unless they were here?"

Larry gave a feeble shrug, still not quite recovered from the shock of the Howler. "Maybe Ernestus Rabnott told her? He's a friend of the family."

"Good guess but not quite," said Millicent's voice which announced the arrival of her and Septima. They were sporting the same slightly bedraggled look that the rest of them were, dressed in their usual casual clothes but their hair still half in the styles they'd worn the previous night. Ro could easily see a few hair pins clinging onto Septima's long hair.

"Morning you two, you just missed the embarrassment of the century," Ro said with a grin, causing Larry to bury his head in his hands.

Septima patted him on the shoulder as she passed before sitting down next to her sister. "Oh don't worry, we heard the gist as we were coming down from the Tower. And we think we bring the answer to your question; Minerva, have you read the paper yet?"

Millicent was waving her Daily Prophet around as she slid into the seat next to Ro, lifting it up to show them the front page. Two large moving photographs dominated the cover, the first of Larry and Minerva dancing together while the Champions had been opening the ball, then underneath there was a blurrier one of Larry and Ro in the midst of the crowded dance floor. The headline read in stark words: 'MINISTER'S SON LEAVES HOGWARTS CHAMPION JILTED?'

"I expected there would be a Daily Prophet reporter there last night but I thought they'd be there to take photographs, not write a report on false information." Irma commented as she leafed through Minerva's paper which had come in the Owl Post. "Page 3, Ro."

After watching herself in the bottom photograph for a moment, Ro and Poppy took Millicent's copy of the Prophet and turned to where Irma had said. The report itself wasn't massively long, but it detailed the reporter's confusion that Larry had been introduced as Minerva's partner yet had spent one dance with someone else.

"Emmet Moynihan, I recognise that reporter's name," Minerva said thoughtfully, tracing the name with her finger while the other hand rested on her chin. "Has he written anything notable before?"

Millicent made a noise to catch their attention as she hurriedly swallowed her spoonful of porridge. "Emily Stretton would be the one to ask, her mother's one of the chief editors. I'm sure I've heard his name around before though."

Humming in agreement, Minerva gave a vague nod as she passed the paper back to Irma. "Well that's certainly not what I was expecting," she said breezily, clearly taking the unexpected news much better than Larry was.

Septima laughed as she exclaimed "It was unexpected for you? At least you had some sort of explanation, Millicent and I saw you all on the front page and had no idea what was going on!"

Ro supposed that since Millicent, Septima, and Poppy had all been dancing themselves when Larry asked Ro to dance, they wouldn't have had the context that the rest of them had to explain it. The thought of Septima and Millicent's utter confusion brought a grin to her face.

"I'm going to have to owl my mother and sort this out." Larry groaned.

"Look on the bright side though, some of these photos are lovely," Millicent said, taking her paper back and showing them the other photos there were of the Yule Ball. The three largest ones were of Minerva, Reynaud, and Svetlana with their respective partners, while there were some of Professor Dippet with Madame Crickerley and Madame Marguerite with Professor Rykov.

Irma suddenly laughed, the rarity of the sound causing everyone else to look over at her. "Druella and Abraxas have made it in here, and they're not going to be happy," she said, not bothering to conceal her devious grin as she lifted up Minerva's paper. The photographer had perfectly captured the moment they'd been sent flying off the dance floor, with a caption that read 'Does the heir to the Malfoy family have two left feet?'

Minerva was looking incredibly proud of herself as she said "Oh I wish I could have snuck into the Dungeons again to see their faces when they noticed that."

After spending a moment reliving Druella's spectacular fall, Ro's attention turned to the photo below, which was of Professor Merrythought practically wrestling with Mr Rabnott on the edges of the dance floor in her attempt to show him how to position his hands. Ro winced as she read the caption; 'Disagreements between Professors and Politicians? Is Galatea Merrythought as jolly as her name suggests?'

"That's pure slander, that is," Ro said with a frown, reaching across the table and unbalancing a goblet of pumpkin juice to point to the photograph in Minerva's paper.

Poppy quickly steadied the goblet to prevent the imminent spillage before leaning close to Ro to see it for herself. "That's horrible," she said, her voice aghast, "surely they know about Professor Merrythought's injury?"

"Well if we've seen anything here it's that reporters aren't afraid to take things out of context," Larry said grimly, and Ro gave a huff of agreement.

The sudden sound of the door banging open made everyone jump and Poppy squeak slightly in shock, the entire Hall falling silent again when Professor Merrythought stormed down the centre aisle towards the staff table with a copy of the Prophet in her hand. "Armando, I'm going to wring that Moynihan's neck!" she shouted as she neared the table; Ro couldn't tell if her red face was due to anger or embarrassment.

"Poor Professor," Millicent said quietly as they all watched Professor Dippet's attempts to pacify her, making what was probably a slew of empty promises as Professor Aurelius rubbed her shoulder comfortingly.

The table went quiet for a moment, before Ro remembered something she'd wanted to point out. "Hey Larry," she said, waiting for him to look up before adding "Laurence?"

Larry turned red again but he managed to grin. "Well you're technically Rolanda," he spluttered in an attempt to fight back, though his comment was lost under everyone's laughter.

The rest of the Christmas holiday passed in a sleepy reverie, taken up by catching up on O.W.L. preparation work as well as trying to figure out Minerva's golden egg. The resume of lessons left her with six weeks left before the second task to work out what she was meant to do, a challenge that they made no progress in no matter how persistent they were. The hideous shrieking continued no matter what spell Minerva tried before opening it, and the sound was so jarring that Ro was getting sick of hearing it on a daily basis. Svetlana and Reynaud would ask whenever they crossed paths with Minerva how she was getting on; Reynaud had somehow managed to figure it out a mere fortnight after the first task, whereas it took Svetlana until the first week in January. Still, neither of them offered her any hints as time went by and she still had no answer.

With the idea of opening it outside in the cold, Minerva, Ro, and Poppy had wrapped up warm before taking the egg out into the grounds. Ro could hear a group of Durmstrang students on the Quidditch Pitch in the distance, no doubt preparing for the games that had been scheduled for the following weekend. A casual match had been promised to the House Quidditch Captains following the reveal that there would be no official Tournament, and upon hearing this the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students had quickly asked to be included. While Minerva and Poppy experimented with the egg, Ro had a pencil and Muggle notebook in her lap to make further notes taking into account the unknown tactics of the foreign players. She'd been given the stationary for Christmas from Erika and found it much more convenient for Quidditch notes than the traditional quill and parchment.

Her earmuffs weren't doing a lot to stop her hearing the sound of the egg as she worked, and after nearly an hour her patience had run thin. Abandoning her pencil and notebook in the snow, she marched over to Minerva and Poppy and, without thinking, gave the open egg a mighty kick with her boot that sent it soaring through the air.

"Hey!" Minerva exclaimed, flicking her wand to encase the egg in a bubble of water. Once it was safely floating back towards them, she looked properly at Ro and asked "What was that for?"

"Sorry," Ro sighed; her sudden anger had faded as fast as it had come on.

Minerva smiled gently as she wrapped an arm around Ro's shoulders. "It's ok, we know it's been getting to you. I just need to get this figured out then you'll be rid of it."

Nodding, Ro took a deep breath as she heard the sound of the egg nearing despite it being muffled by the water bubble. "I know, I know, it's just been giving me a head-wait a sec." The egg's shrieking hadn't just been muffled by the bubble, it seemed to sound different altogether. "Min, the sound's changed in the bubble."

They all fell quiet for a moment to listen, Poppy's eyes widening and Minerva giving an affirmative nod. "We might be able to understand it now!" Poppy gasped.

"But how are we going to get in the bubble with it?" Ro asked, though something was still telling her that the solution was in sight. "Can you make it big enough to fit in?"

Minerva nodded very slowly. "Yes, but that would mean being inside a bubble full of water," she said, and suddenly Ro understood the worry on her face. Of course she'd be nervous of being submerged in water given how close she'd come to drowning last year. Thanks to Ro; it had taken a long time for her to be able to forgive herself for that.

Poppy touched Minerva's elbow in an attempt to ground her back in reality as she suggested "Maybe try the Bubble-Head Charm? That's usually done with air bubbles, I know, but it wouldn't take much to alter the spell. Then you'd still have your feet on the ground."

"That's a great idea Pops," Ro said with a grin, the hope growing in her chest.

Minerva hummed in agreement, still looking apprehensive but no longer downright scared. "Yes, we can try that," she said, adding a quick "cover your ears," before popping the water bubble. The egg shrieked again for a split second before Minerva pushed it closed and twisted the catch.

Poppy pulled out her wand and asked a gentle "Are you ready?" before waiting for Minerva's nod. Once she had taken a deep breath and lifted the egg to be level with her face, Poppy whispered an incantation and moved her wand in a wide circle.

While Bubble-Head Charms usually just encased the head and neck, Minerva's bubble stretched just below her shoulders to include both her arms and the egg too. Ro's heart was thumping nervously as Minerva struggled to get the catch open, nodding encouragingly when the egg finally opened and grinning again when Minerva didn't even flinch. It was obvious from that alone that the ear-piercing shriek was gone underwater. After closing the egg again, Minerva pushed desperately at the edges of the bubble until it popped and the water dropped around her.

The egg had fallen to the ground too, thankfully still shut, but Ro's relief was short lived when she took one look at Minerva. Her hair and the top of her coat were dripping wet, but it was her pale frightened face and trembling hands that had both Ro and Poppy rushing over to her. After helping her to sit down, Poppy used her wand like a hairdryer to dry her off and stop her getting too cold.

"Deep breaths, Min, you're fine," Ro said as Minerva started to gasp, slowing her own breathing so Minerva had something to mimic. "You're not underwater, you're safe on dry land."

Minerva started shaking her head frantically, taking a few gulps of air before trying to speak. "No, you don't understand," she stuttered out, "the second task, I have to go in the lake!"

Ro suddenly sat back, the brief triumph she'd felt replaced by a suffocating dread. The feeling was reflected on Poppy's face when the two locked eyes for a brief second, before Poppy looked back at Minerva and asked "What did the egg say?"

"Come seek us where our voices sound, we cannot sing above the ground," Minerva recited, taking another ragged breath before adding "You can only understand the egg underwater, it's got to be in the lake! There's merpeople in there, I saw them through the glass wall when I was in the dungeons with Irma."

"It makes sense," Poppy agreed quietly, undoing Minerva's long plait in order to dry her hair.

Ro nodded grimly, unable to think of any other explanation. "Was that it, or have we got any more clues to go by.

"While you're searching ponder this, we've taken what you'll sorely miss, an hour long you'll have to look and recover what we took." Minerva's eyes were wide with fear as she looked between Poppy and Ro.

Overlooking the issue of Minerva in water for a moment, Ro racked her brain for any way someone could stay underwater for an hour. "Well the obvious answer would be the Bubble-Head Charm, but if there's points for creativity then there's the idea of a full-body Transfiguration. You'd definitely pull that off."

"No, I can't!" Minerva said, bordering hysterical as she shook her head again. "I can't do it Ro, I can't go back in the lake! I- I'll have to forfeit, I can't-"

"No you won't." Ro interrupted firmly, taking one of her shaking hands in her own and tilting her chin up with the other so she was looking Ro in the face. Minerva shook her head again, so far away from her usual unshakable strength that it was almost unnerving. But an idea had snuck its way into her head; ridiculous and risky, but on a second thought most of her ideas were like that so it didn't scare her too much.

Poppy gave her a confused glance, pausing midway through plaiting Minerva's hair again. "But Ro, what other way is there?"

"I'll do the task for you." Ro said.

Silence followed her statement, both Poppy and Minerva giving her blank looks. Minerva was the first to react, asking "But how though, you'd have to be completely disguised as me."

Ro nodded. "That's simple; well, it's simple in theory anyway. What was the last thing we covered in Slughorn's lessons before Christmas started?"

"Polyjuice potion." Minerva and Poppy said at the same time.

Poppy let out a long breath, holding her head in her hands briefly before looking back up at Ro. "That's far from simple Ro, we don't learn how to make it until seventh year and the instructions are kept in the Restricted Section! Not to mention it takes a whole month to make and we'll have to smuggle the ingredients out from the Professor's storeroom!"

After waiting a couple of seconds to make sure she was done, Ro dared to start answering her objections. "I think I've covered all that. Yes it takes a month to make, but we've got just a couple of days over that until the second task so as long as we don't have to restart we'll be fine. Minerva can break into Slughorn's office in her Animagus form, and if they know it's for the Tournament one of the Professors will let us in the Restricted Section."

"Well clearly you've covered all that, but who's going to make it?" Poppy demanded next. Ro stayed quiet and just looked at her, until Poppy's eyes widened with clarity. "You've got to be joking."

"Why?" Ro asked. "You're the best potioneer in our year, and if you need a hand then we've got Irma too. And if we do it in our dorm then unless we blow the Tower up no-one's going to notice."

Poppy held her gaze for a moment longer before she looked away with an exasperated laugh. "I can't believe I'm signing up for this, but fine. I can't think of a better way."

"Thank you, both of you," Minerva said, taking off her glasses to clean them on her jumper and rub her eyes.

Ro shrugged, squeezing her hand briefly. "It's no problem, I've always been a strong swimmer. I'll have to take some of the potion with me since I'll need more than an hour, but Cleatus got given a hip flask when he turned 17 so I'll ask to borrow it."

Minerva nodded, looking a lot more collected now that they had a solid plan coming together. "You should probably Transfigure yourself to be able to breathe underwater. It's what I'd do, I'll teach you how to do it like I would."

"Then we're sorted!" Ro said with a bright grin.

Poppy sighed at that, shaking her head as she muttered "The things you make me do, Rolanda Hooch."

"Well I guess one day you can call in the world's biggest favour and I'll have no choice but to do it for you," Ro laughed, giving a Poppy a sweet smile until she started to return it. Standing up and pulling Minerva up with her before offering a hand to Poppy, she added "Now let's go back inside, it's bloody freezing out here!"

With only a few days left before the one month mark, there was no time wasted before preparations for the Polyjuice potion began. Professor Dumbledore was more than happy to sign a Restricted Section slip for Minerva after she explained she was researching advanced Transfiguration, trusting that since she'd managed her Animagus transformation then she wouldn't be putting herself in danger. Since Irma spent practically all her time not with her friends in the library, Mr Pratchett knew and trusted her enough to fetch the book from the Restricted Section herself so it wasn't hard for Ro to stuff Most Potente Potions into her rucksack while Irma and Minerva tracked down Adaptations to the Human Form. Once reunited with Poppy back in the dormitory, they all avoided looking at the pained illustrations as they read through the list of ingredients and instructions. Thankfully everything needed for the first stage was kept in the student storeroom, meaning that Ro had another couple of weeks to perfect her break-in plans.

Everything else was forgotten though when the long-awaited Quidditch weekend finally arrived. While the games weren't supposed to be competitive no-one would ever guess that by the excitement in the castle, with the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students looking forward to it just as much as the Hogwarts students. Ro and the other three Quidditch Captains – Ravenclaw's Philip Ackerly, Hufflepuff's Sophie Sommerby, and Slytherin's Neil Lament – had decided to play as House Teams rather than form a combined Hogwarts Team as the other two schools had been forced to, meaning they'd scheduled two matches for Saturday and the third for the Sunday after which the team with the most points would be crowned the victors. As the previous year's Quidditch Cup winner, Ro had been given first choice over who she wanted the Gryffindors to face and she'd barely hesitated a second before choosing Durmstrang.

"Think about it; the last two World Cups got cancelled during the War, but in the 1936 games Germany absolutely smashed it with the USSR not far behind." Ro said as she fastened her boots, in the Gryffindor's changing room with the rest of her team. "I know I'm clutching at straws here, but if those countries are where the Durmstrang lot come from then we might be in for the match of a lifetime. We proved last year we can beat the other Houses so it'll be a good challenge for us."

Nancy nodded firmly as she pulled on her gloves, cracking her knuckles with a determined expression. "I'm with you on that. Think of how stocky the lot of them are, I'll bet their Beaters are more than impressive. Much as I'd have liked to see you thrash Beauxbaton's skinny twig of a Seeker I'm looking forward to this."

Minerva gave a questioning hum. "She'll be fast though, did you see the broomstick she was carrying? It wasn't a Comet or Cleansweep, either they have different brands in different countries or she's had one custom built."

Shrugging, Ro turned to glance at her own Rocket when the subject of custom broomsticks was brought up. "Almost a pity we're not fighting Beauxbaton then, we could have had a decent broom-off."

"Was that her we saw when we were coming in?" Anthea asked Nancy, her eyes widening when Nancy nodded. "She can't be much older than a second year, one well-placed Bludger and she'd probably snap in two."

"Thank Merlin that Beauxbaton are against Ravenclaw rather than Slytherin then," Cleatus joked.

Their laughter was cut short by a shrill whistle sounding from the pitch, and the atmosphere among them instantly changed from relaxed to business-like. "Right," Ro said, clutching the handle of the Rocket as she stood. "Usual formation then chaps, we treat this like any other match. Let's go."

It had been so long since the last Quidditch match that Ro had almost forgotten how loud the crowd was when they walked out onto the pitch, unable to restrain her wild grin. The stands looked more crowded than ever with the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students crammed in

"And here come the players, ladies and gentlemen!" called Maggie Jordan over the megaphone, resuming her usual commentary job after Madame Crickerley had taken over for the First Task. "Playing for Hogwarts is the Gryffindor House Team lead by Captain Rolanda Hooch. Chasers Newton, Spencer-Moon and McGonagall, Beaters Campbell and Lawrence, Keeper Weasley, and Hooch herself as Seeker, undisputed winners of the House Quidditch Cup for the last two years." There was a resounding cheer from the audience, and Ro felt daring enough to wave briefly as she looked around.

After a brief pause to let the crowd quieten down, Maggie continued. "Against them we have the Durmstrang Team, lead by Captain Svetlana Tolstoy; Chasers Scholtz, Ivanov and Bauer, Beaters Tolstoy and Liskutin, Keeper Kozlowski, and Seeker Kucera. With two of our three Triwizard Champions on the pitch alongside some incredibly talented players it looks like we'll be in for quite the match."

Minerva had introduced her to Svetlana briefly when they'd passed in the corridors one time, but facing her on the Quidditch Pitch felt completely different. If Ro was honest she was almost intimidated; her usually flowing red hair had been braided up into a bun, robbing her image of it's usual warmth, and her typical cheery grin had been replaced by a wry smile. Ro returned it with a smirk of her own as they shook hands, before swinging a leg over her broom and hovering in wait for the Quaffle to be thrown.

While she usually had time to fly upwards before everyone made a dash for the Quaffle, this time Ro was forced to duck back down as the three Durmstrang Chasers swept and all but ploughed through her own Chasers to take the Quaffle. She wasted a moment to watch them with a stunned expression before she was shooting up into the air, picking out Seeker Kucera from the throng of grey-clad Durmstrang players all heading towards the Gryffindor hoops. The Durmstrang players seemed to be all but unstoppable forces, neither Minerva, Larry or Anthea so much as touching the Quaffle before Chaser Bauer was lobbing it towards the centre hoop. Cleatus throwing himself between Quaffle and hoop stopped them from scoring but the force of the throw was enough to actually push him back a little on his broomstick- Ro winced a little thinking about how bruised his ribs would be by the end of the match.

Nancy had been right; the Durmstrang players were strong. But from her airborne position she could see they weren't as fast as the Gryffindors, lacking the agility in their stocky builds to do the quick turns she knew her players were capable of. That would have to be their main tactic if they wanted any hope of winning.

Thankfully it seemed like her fellow players had picked up on this at about the same time as her, since the moment Anthea caught the Quaffle from Cleatus they all seemed to put on an impressive burst of speed. Larry swerved tightly under an incoming Bludger that knocked a few bristles off his Cleansweep to take the Quaffle from Anthea before shooting it at a passing Minerva, the three of them making quick progress up the pitch until Ernest's well placed Bludger kept Keeper Kozlowski out of the way long enough for Anthea to score the first goal.

It didn't take Durmstrang long to get over their shock at the Gryffindor's tactics though, leaving them fairly evenly matched as the game continued. Half an hour in the scores were perfectly equal, neither team able to pull ahead before the other side scored another goal to make it even again. Which meant, Ro realised with a resigned sigh, that the outcome of the match rested solely on her catching the Snitch.

Whereas Kucera seemed to prefer flanking the rest of her team, Ro stuck to her usual tactic of circling the pitch from high above the other players in her search for the Snitch. The cloudy day meant there would be no telltale golden glint to clue her in to its whereabouts, so the only thing she could do was keep moving in the hope that their paths would collide at some point. It wasn't just that keeping her moving though, making sure her attention didn't leave the Bludgers for too long in case one of the Beaters caught her off guard. They were hitting hard enough that she knew a single hit to the chest or head would be easily enough to take her out.

When she spotted the Snitch it was flitting around the very centre of the pitch, with at least a good 50 feet between her and victory. She didn't waste time working out if Kucera had noticed or not, leaning forward as she shot towards the Snitch before it had a chance to move again.

"Hooch and Kucera seem to have both spotted the Snitch, both Seekers coming at it fast from opposite directions," Maggie's excited voice rang out.

Ro cursed under her breath as she glanced up to see Kucera racing towards her. But she also noticed a red cloak in her peripheral vision, raising a bat in their direction.

"Campbell and Tolstoy are both approaching, and at this rate I think it'll be the fastest Beater rather than the fastest Seeker who determines the winner of this match!"

Even with the potential threat approaching Ro didn't risk looking away from the Snitch now, both her and Kucera less than 15 feet away. She risked leaning further forward on her Rocket, stretching out a gloved hand just as Kucera did the same. A reckless lunge, and-

Pain spread like lightning bolts through her ribs as she was hit hard just below her outstretched arm, recognising the distinct feeling of something cracking just before she collided with Kucera and they were both plummeting towards the ground. She braced herself for a painful landing when she was caught in someone's arms before being gently laid on the grass, opening her eyes to see Nancy's concerned face just above her. Movement on her other side made her look over to see Kucera being placed down next to her by Svetlana herself; it seemed that both Beaters had reacted quickly enough to catch their falling Seekers before they could hit the ground.

"So, vhat happened?" Kucera asked the question that had been on Ro's mind, the throbbing pain in her lower ribs preventing her from thinking very fast.

"Ve hit you both at same time, and you crash togezher," Svetlana said apologetically, helping Kucera to sit up.

Nancy nodded, adjusting her hand behind Ro's back and wincing visibly as she let out a pained hiss. "You're alright, I've got you Ro. Poppy's coming for you," she said, glancing upwards.

"Well that was the most dangerous 'fun match' I've ever seen in my life!" Poppy's shout sounded just before she came into Ro's vision, her face pale and drawn despite Godric the puffskein humming happily on her shoulder. "Come on then, where are you hurt?"

Ro prodded where she was hurting and couldn't restrain a sharp exhale when something shifted painfully, her other hand still wrapped around Nancy's shoulders for support. "Definitely broken, but I've suffered worse. You got here quickly."

Poppy only huffed, pressing her hand much more gently to Ro's broken ribs and tutting slightly. "It's the lowest ribs so you're not at risk from a punctured lung. But I'll let Madame Quinine look just in case."

"She's on her way," Minerva's voice announced her arrival as she crouched next to Poppy.

The pain had just started to become ignorable when Nancy's sudden movement jostled her again and she groaned again. "Sorry, but hold up a minute. Is the Snitch still up there?"

Ro frowned in thought for a moment, glancing at an equally confused Kucera before shrugging her good shoulder. "Guess so," she sighed, turning to look properly at the Durmstrang Seeker. "You play really well, that was a fantastic match."

"Zhank you. You are also brilliant flyer, hard to chase," Kucera nodded with a broad smile, offering out a hand. "Nadezda."

It took Ro a second to work out that she was introducing herself, but she quickly returned Nadezda's smile as she shook her outstretched hand. "Thanks, and it's Ro. We'll have to have a rematch at some point."

Nancy was still looking upwards as if trying to spot the Snitch against the grey clouds. "Well if the Snitch isn't caught the game's not over, so once you're both given the all clear then we're back up there."

"You will do no such thing!" Poppy hissed, Minerva's hand on her shoulder doing nothing to calm her down.

"Zhis is your medic friend, yes?" Svetlana asked Minerva, turning to Poppy when Minerva nodded and adding "Is good to meet you again. Less fortunate circumstances zhis time." Poppy huffed again, offering no further comment. Clearly sensing she wasn't about to get any conversation from Poppy, Svetlana looked back at Minerva as she asked "Have you vorked out Egg yet?"

Minerva glanced briefly down at Ro, who grinned back up at her from where she still clinging onto Nancy for support. "I'd say we've got an idea."

Author's Note:
To begin my commentary for this chapter, may we all take a moment to commemorate the death of my old laptop.

I wrote out about 80% of this chapter (everything apart from the Quidditch match) literally a week after posting the last one, since I went on holiday and spent about 9 hours on trains over the course of a week. Turns out speeding through the British countryside is a great backdrop to writing fanfiction. I was super hyped to get it finished as soon as I got home, but then disaster kind of struck. Does anyone remember around this time last year when the memory wiped itself after my cat knocked a cup of tea over it? Well we think the tea came back to bite me, since when I tried to start it up after getting home it literally wouldn't turn on. Thankfully I'd been using an external harddrive since the incident last year so everything was safe, but when we opened up the laptop for a better look the internal circuitry had been frazzled.
RIP Laila's old laptop, 2005 - 2017. You served us well.

While I had the chapter and all my notes saved on my harddrive, I had to use my iPad in place of a laptop so I couldn't access the chapter to finish it. But last week for Christmas I recieved a shiny new laptop, and at long last I bring you a chapter.

This was such incredible fun to write, every single section of it. The Common Room scene at the beginning makes me laugh every time I read it back, and I love the Great Hall scene. While I don't have a Rita Skeeter-esque character as a main plot point I wanted to have the press mentioned at some point since it wouldn't be realistic for the Tournament to have no press interest, but that might be the last you hear of it. I'm enjoying writing Larry alongside our main six girls, and while the focus won't shift from them at all there will be more times when Larry is there with them. But I think he's developed enough both as an individual and alongside everyone else that it works. There's been little development between him and Minerva here simply because there were other priorities for Minerva at this point (don't forget this chapter spans less than a month, most of which would have been taken up by the Egg and Quidditch), but I'd say things will start to move again in the next chapter.

Speaking of which, the next chapter will include the Second Task. Of course you already know what to expect after the events of this chapter; I had planned out my own original Second Task, but after realising the complications caused by Minerva's fear of water I thought it would be more interesting to stick with the Task used in the series. I'm definitely looking forward to writing it.

It was so good to write a Quidditch match again after so long, I can't even tell you. Most of the Durmstrang players are simply names plucked out that won't be appearing again, but Kozlowski the Keeper is Piotr, Svetlana's boyfriend, and Nadezda the Seeker was briefly mentioned as Svetlana's Czechoslovakian friend in the last chapter. They'll both be coming back round again at some point, as will Svetlana herself and Reynaud obviously.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Years Eve tonight, and until next time :)