Well, it was nearly the end of another semester at Hogwarts. In three weeks, we'd all be home for the holidays. But the reality of midterms exams still remained an unforgiving barrier between now and then. This year, there was more importance placed on the exams than ever. Our Heads of Houses explained during our individual Career Consultations that our exams would influence what opportunities were open to us once we left Hogwarts.

But before we committed ourselves to studying for exams, we decided to go on one last adventure by following through on our prior plans to infiltrate Hogsmeade.

"Wait, Alice," I hissed, stopping her from running out towards the one-eyed witch.

Filch passed by with his mop, grumbling loudly to himself about Peeves.

"All right, now!"

We made a dash for it and joined Marlene and Lily in the passageway. Dorcas joined us a minute later.

"All right, it's a bit of a walk," I warned.

"It's been a while since we've been together like this," Alice said happily. "I'm glad we're doing this together before exams."

"And now you've got to show us the prefect's bathroom, Lily," Dorcas said. "Ray found a way into Hogsmeade. She held up our part of the bargain fair and square."

"I know, I know," Lily said reluctantly. But the next moment, she said enthusiastically, "This is so exciting!"

"You sure you're a prefect?" Marlene laughed.

"Oh, speaking of prefects, we should have invited Remus," Lily said. "We were chatting during patrol last night, and he was saying how much he loves the chocolates at Honeydukes."

"Why don't you just ask him to go the next Hogsmeade trip with you?" Marlene suggested. "You obviously fancy him."

"I do not fancy him!" Lily spouted. "We're just friends!"

"Well, I prefer him to Snivellus any day," Marlene shot back hotly.

"Not again," I moaned. "Don't fight again. I swear you two are like an old bickering couple."

"Well," Marlene replied, and smiled warmly at Lily, "we do love each other."

"Oh, the feels," Dorcas exaggerated, clutching at her heart.

"Maybe we should've invited Riley too," Alice mentioned. "Given he's so… down these days."

"Well, I imagine so," I responded quietly, remembering my conversation with him.

"I wish we could cheer him up somehow," Alice said.

"I think it's better to leave him alone," Marlene said. "I'm sure he gets enough of people feeling sorry for him. And it's not as though we were close to him. I don't think he'd like it if we all suddenly tried to act all nice to him. I know I wouldn't."

"No, you wouldn't, but not everyone is a strong as you are, Marlene," Alice replied.

Just then, Lily pointed ahead. "Oh, look, it's a trapdoor!"

"All right, now remember, it's the dead of the night," I said. "We could get caught for breaking and entering, so we have to be silent."

"There's probably Alarming Curses as well," Marlene thought aloud.

"Ready?" I said.

Everybody nodded, and so, we bit the bullet and crept into Honeydukes cellar.

As we predicted, a barrage of curses was awaiting us, but Lily and Dorcas together masterfully and skillfully disarmed them.

Marlene, Alice, and I stared at them in awe.

"How-?" I began as Alice shook her head.

"What?" Lily asked as they stowed away their wands.

"Nothing," I said meekly.

"Well, come on then!" Dorcas beckoned to us.

It turned out that the cellar had multiple rooms. It was, ironically, even bigger and neater than the store itself.

"Come look at this room!" Lily called, and we rushed over to her.

It was a pretty awe-inspiring sight. Boxes of sweets, bars of chocolate, and loads of other candies were stacked to the roof.

"This. Is. Brilliant." Marlene whispered, astonished.

Lily chose a box of thin pear slices dipped in dark chocolate, a box of shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, and a bar of solid white chocolate fudge. Dorcas went more for the "Special Effects" sweets, like Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Levitation Toffees, and Pepper Imps. Alice stuck with the normal delicious sweets, like a box of dark chocolate truffles, a bar of milk chocolate with strawberry cream, and some crystallized blueberry. Marlene chose Exploding Bonbons, Peppermint Toads, and Pumpkin Pasties. I carefully selected a box of crystallized watermelon and pina colada, the Classic Chocolate Frogs, and some Sugar-spun Quills.

"There's a door over here!" Dorcas hissed. "I swear it leads to Zonko's!"

She was right.

"Wonderful!" Marlene whisper-shouted.

I shook my head in awe as I followed them into Zonko's cellar. I got myself a false, but brilliant French moustache, a Disappearing Snitch, and a pack of Exploding Snap.

We ended up leaving six Galleons and three Knuts in Zonko's and ten Galleons in Honeydukes, tipping them both an extra Galleon for their unintentional hospitality, and reset as many alarms as we could before we sprinted back to Hogwarts, giggling and shoving and barely managing to keep the merchandise in our arms.

Back at Hogwarts, we were sneaking down the corridor on our way back to the Gryffindor common room when Lily said suddenly, "Wait. Let's go to the prefect's bathroom."

"Right now?" Alice whispered breathlessly.

"Why not? We're already out", Lily said, her eyes bright with excitement. "Right this way."

"I swear you're more daredevil than all of us," I whispered to Lily as we peered around the corridor to check for Filch. "You just like to hide it."

Lily grinned.

We tip-toed our way to the fourth door on the fifth corridor, next to the statute of Boris the Bewildered.

"Lavender blossoms," Lily whispered and turned the handle.

The entire room seemed to be carved from white marble and was finely decorated with delicate ornaments. The bath tub, which sunk into the ground, was absolutely enormous, and it was overlooked by tall colored glass mirrors and paintings. A small fireplace with a merry fire was going in a lounge area beside the bath tub.

"Wow," Alice said. "Lily, this is incredible."

"It's almost worth it to be a prefect for this," Marlene commented. "Maybe I should have behaved myself these past years."

Dorcas placed an extra lock spell on the door and then created a basic soundproof barrier in the room.

Lily went around the bathtub and said, "Which ones shall we turn on?"

"What do you mean?" Marlene asked.

"Well, each faucet is different," Lily explained. "That's why every one of them is set with a different jewel. So, we can have different types of bubbles or scents or temperature of water…"

"What's your favorite?" I asked, joining her at the faucets.

"Well, this one," Lily said, turning a light green crystal-crowned tap, "lets out warm water that smells like pear blossoms and lilies…" And so it did.

I reached over and turned a dark blue sapphire-crowned tap and pink and blue bubbles the size of footballs came floating out before resting gently on the surface of the water. I turned another tap, which was pearl-crowned and non-transparent, pearl-colored bubbles spilled out and sunk to the very bottom before fizzing in rainbow spirals to the top.

The rest of the girls joined us and in just a few seconds we had about twenty taps going so that the water was comfortably warm and smelled just heavenly, layers and layers of colorful bubbles and sweet-smelling foams and even something like glittery snowflakes cool to the touch rested upon the water. When Alice pulled out a pink crystal-crowned tap at the very top, light pink and purple clouds floated to the top of the room and began to rain down glitter.

We had the best time, diving and shoving and swimming in the pool, laughing and screeching so loudly it was a wonder we weren't caught despite Dorcas' spells.

Finally, we took a break from the water, putting Drying Charms on ourselves sat beside the fireplace to divulge in the kitchen goods and Honeydukes sweets- roasting English muffins and marshmallows and passing around Pumpkin Pasties, Sugar-spun Quills, chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. We told jokes and played Exploding Snap, and all the while I sported a most brilliant French moustache, if I do say so myself.

The first rays of dawn broke out and the light filtered through the beautiful windows, casting rainbow colors over the water. We all slipped into the shallow end and lay quietly in the gold-tinted water with small light purple bubbles, inhaling the musky scent of black raspberry vanilla, peppermint, and French lavender, lost in our own thoughts or nodding off to sleep. Somebody passed around Drooble's Best Blowing Gum to keep us awake. I watched as my almost-transparent bluebell bubble grew from my mouth and rose up, up to the ceiling. Lily's glittering light-green bubble joined mine, then Alice's lilac-lavender one, Dorcas' shimmering silver one, and Marlene's hot pink one.


The roar of the crowd was ferocious. It was the last Quidditch match of the season.

We'd lost our first match to Slytherin, thanks in large part to me. But then we'd defeated Ravenclaw, who Slytherin had lost to. That landed us back to equal standing with Slytherin. After that, Hufflepuff defeated both Ravenclaw and Slytherin. So, once again, this last match was going to decide who took the Cup. Except Gryffindor had to win by at least two hundred points if we were going to take home the Cup- a feat not unheard of, but rare in amateur Quidditch.

On the pitch Harper and Hestia shook hands cordially, but each of them had a hard glint in their eyes. Then, Madam Hooch blew her whistle, and we all kicked off skywards.

Half an hour in, the battle was not going well for the Gryffindors. It was easy to see how Hufflepuff had wiped Ravenclaw and Slytherin- their teamwork which had once been just enough to match us was now extraordinarily on-point as every single player on their team had been there for a couple years. Even with Sirius, James, Hayden, and Harper, it was difficult to score enough goals to keep up with them. A single misread, a single fumble- and it was a Hufflepuff goal. I'd already blocked Jesse from getting the Snitch, as we were still thirty points down. Forty-five minutes later and Jesse was grinding his teeth in frustration at me. Hufflepuff was sixty points up, but I wasn't letting him get anywhere near the Snitch. He'd gone for it and lost it three times now, because of my constant interference.

The whistle blew.

"I called for time-out!" Harper said, motioning us together.

"They're too good," Hayden said, shaking his head.

Harper paused and I could tell he was making a difficult decision.

Finally, when Madam Hooch came over and said, "Ready to resume, Captain?" Harper turned to me and said, "Ray, buy us more time if you can but… but if you see the Snitch, just catch it, all right?"

I looked at him with wide eyes. Was he admitting defeat? But it was time to mount our brooms again. My mind was working furiously. How am I going to get out of this one? Five minutes later, Hufflepuff was seventy points up, but another twenty minutes later and following another time-out where Gryffindor changed tactics, and now Gryffindor was making a comeback. Our Chasers were passing using only tight hand-overs and playing more aggressively while our Beaters were getting better at reading the Hufflepuff Chasers. Gryffindor pulled to thirty points of the lead. I looked at Jesse who was flying furiously, trying to find the Snitch and end the game before Gryffindor could catch up.

I took a deep breath. It was time for drastic measures. Although I was quite familiar with feints, I'd only tried this variation once with Jamie and I'd seen Sola do it- but it was difficult, very difficult. I elevated myself quite high and pretended to look for the Snitch, circling around- and then I did spot it. It was a mere five feet behind Jesse! Desperation kicked in and all anxiety erased from my mind It was this or nothing! I dove, spiraling down flat against my broomstick, nearly vertical at the ground.

"And she's seen the Snitch! She's seen it!" Mary yelled.

Jesse panicked and took off after me at full speed.

The ground was rushing up to me faster than my perception could really calculate. This move was all about instinct, which was why it was so difficult and dangerous.

One, two- and NOW! I jerked my broom up, almost slipping off at the sudden change in direction. Jesse, on the other hand, slammed hard, full-speed in the ground. Even thought that was aim of the feint, I winced.

"It was a feint! A Wronski feint!" Emmeline shouted excitedly. The Gryffindor crowd was roaring. James used the distraction effectively to score another goal. Now it was the Hufflepuff Captain called for a time-out.

We huddled as well. "You've earned us some time. Jesse's too dazed to play for the moment, though not for long. It's up to us now," Harper said. "All right, team. There's nothing left to say. It's now or never."

We put our hands together, and shouted, "Gryffindor!"

Back on the pitch, Sirius managed to send a well-hit Bludger towards the Hufflepuff Chaser tailing James. Free of any defenders, James managed to throw the Quaffle towards the goal posts- and SCORE!

Our Keeper, John Prewitt, managed to block a Hufflepuff goal and threw it back to James, who dove towards the ground, taking the ball low as he made a beeline for the goal posts. The Hufflepuff Chasers began to descend on him, but he lithely passed it to sixth-year Gryffindor Chaser, Aiden Thomas. Aiden raced forward, before suddenly spiraling into the air to avoid the oncoming Bludger. He risked a long toss and threw it to our Captain, Harper Bell, who was waiting near the goalposts. The Hufflepuff Keeper turned to face Harper, but Harper reverse passed just before another Bludger caught his broom. James caught it and threw it into a wide open right goal post- and SCORE!

Then, our other beater, Hayden Knight, dove headlong at the crowd of Hufflepuff Chasers waiting to block Harper. The Hufflepuffs scattered at his sudden attack. The path was clear, except for the Keeper. Harper feinted to the left, but threw right- and SCORE!

The Gryffindor crowd was roaring wildly, as we were even with Ravenclaw now.

But just then, Jesse returned to the game, and Gryffindor still needed a fifty-point lead.

Jesse eyed me warily as I tailed him. I felt so guilty, but I knew I had to stay focused on the game. I would apologize to him after I caught the Snitch.

Then, we both gasped as Hufflepuff Keeper Amos Diggory, frustrated with his lack of contact, whacked the Bludger so hard it reverberated off the invisible boundary of the Quidditch pitch and came soaring back, right at their own Hufflepuff Keeper. Hestia had to dive. Harper saw the wide open goal post and taking a deep breath, risk a half-field goal. But to everyone's surprise, it went in.

"Merlin's saggy buttocks!" Emmeline yelled, loud enough to have McGonagall admonish her, but even in her reprimanding, McGonagall's excitement and hope could be obviously detected.

Hufflepuff was losing their focus, and Gryffindor, tasting the possibility of victory, gained focus. Even as James threw in another goal that brought us to fifty point, our Chasers were re-forming with the intent of pulling ahead to sixty.

But what the Chasers were doing was no longer my concern. It was time to go Snitch-hunting.

Jesse and I both sped upwards and circled, searching. Then, the Snitch flickered beside Amos Diggory's foot.

Jesse saw it first, but I was less than half a second behind. We both hurtled out of the air towards Amos. Amos, realizing what was going on, hit a Bludger right at me. I ducked, feeling it whistle over my back. The Snitch headed deeper into the game, weaving through the thicket of Chasers who were still in the middle of a furious battle. The Snitch swerved between Hufflepuff Chaser Sam Chang, who was in the middle of trying to swipe the Quaffle from James. James, seeing what was happening, let Sam have it and dove out of my way. I pulled in neck-in-neck with Jesse now, thanks to James' quick thinking. Sam, with the Quaffle, raced towards the Gryffindor goal posts.

Now, the match depended on two things- whether Sam was going to score for Hufflepuff or not and whether Jesse or I caught it, and the succession in which these events happened- because Gryffindor had to win by two hundred points, and we were up by fifty points.

Sam threw the Quaffle. It was a fast, spiraling throw at the left goal post. John Prewitt reached for it and he managed to knock it away, but he slipped off his own broom. He started falling to the Pitch. Sirius rushed to his rescue, and barely caught him before he hit the ground.

I saw none of this. I was blind to everything but the Snitch.

Jesse's hand reached out. I slid forward dangerously on my broom and knocked his hand out of the way, and reached out myself. Jesse retaliated, but it was too late. My fingers dragged in the Snitch to my palm and its wings fluttered against my fingers before I realized that it was done. We'd done it.

"AND GRYFFINDOR HAS DONE IT! 380-180! They've won the Quidditch Cup!" Emmeline screeched. "The greatest comeback Hogwarts has ever seen! Bloody hell! Bloody-effing-hell!" Even Professor McGonagall was too awed to reprimand Emmeline.

As soon as I landed, I turned to Jesse.

"Jesse! Are you all right? Listen, I'm really sorry about that feint," I said. But Jesse shook his head. "Don't be. I would've done it too, if I could. You're a great flyer, you know." He held out his hand. I took his hand. "Good match," he said. "And watch out, 'cause I'll be better next year."

I smiled, and Jesse left to find his own team.

Then, I was ambushed by our Captain, Harper.

He threw his arms around me and said, "That was brilliant! Can you believe it!? We did it! We pulled it off, Ray!"

I laughed and patted his back, saying, "Yeah, Captain, we did."

Besides me, Hayden Knight, our gloomy Beater, shook his head in disbelief and murmured, "This is completely mental."

"Isn't it?" I said to him. He looked up at me and then, we both broke into broad grins.

James appeared and suddenly lifted me in the air, twirling me. I laughed and fell back into his arms.

"You were amazing, Ray," he said to me, his eyes bright with happiness. I returned his praise and said, "So were you, James. Fifteen goals, you scored!"

We both had to shout to make ourselves heard over the crowd that was coming our way.

Behind James, I could see Sirius Black and Aiden Thomas hoisted into the air by the crowd.

Harper Bell had John Prewitt in a happy headlock as a form of over-excited celebration.

Professor Sprout came to cordially congratulate Professor McGonagall, who tried to appear modest, but was too proud nonetheless.

The Gryffindors were determined to mob us. Whooping and cheering, they circled James and slapped him on the back repeatedly and shouted, "Potter for President!"

Just then, the girls rushed over to me, screaming joyfully. Their intent to hug me was so intense that they ended up piling on top of me. I fell to the floor at the bottom of the heap, laughing too hard to speak.

"No, no, no!" Dorcas shouted. "Get up, you ordinary people, we're suffocating the superstar!" The heap disappeared and Dorcas pulled me to my feet.

James, who had also just disentangled himself from the crowd, was approaching us. Seeing Lily, his hand immediately went to his hair, which was indescribably messy.

Lily hesitated and then said, "You played really well, Potter."

His face split into a radiant smile. "Thanks, Lily."

Hayden Knight pulled me into a shoulder hug, connecting me to Harper, Aiden, and John on his other side. I grabbed James, who grabbed Sirius, and tripping, laughing, and followed by the rest of the Gryffindor House, we made our way back to the common room.


The party began immediately, with music and drinks and food and lots of laughter. People threw off their red and gold scarves and strung them together. James threw it up where it hung from the chandelier like some bizarre decoration. It nearly hit the candles and caught on fire.

About an hour in, I'd thanked about every single person who'd come to watch the match. Happy but exhausted, I turned to Dorcas and Lily to tell them I was going to head up for a shower and bed. But when I turned to them, they were staring at something past me. Lily's mouth was slightly open and her eyes were wide in shock. Dorcas, on the other hand, had narrowed eyes and her mouth was a hard, thin line.

I followed their line of sight, half-knowing what they were watching already.

Sure enough, in the midst of a throng of people cheering them on were Sirius and Marlene, sitting on a chair, kissing each other furiously. She was straddling him and his hands were around her waist while her fingers were lost in his dark locks, pulling him closer to her.

I smiled gently, though I knew that my smile was hollow, and turned back to Dorcas and Lily. I slid my finger under Lily's chin and closed her jaw.

Turning to Dorcas, I said, "Give them a chance, won't you?"

I made my way up the stairs, feeling slightly light-headed. Too many drinks after too much Quidditch, I thought.

Alice was already in our dormitory, not particularly fond of all the shouting and blasting music in the common room. When I entered, Alice said, "You're smiling. Did something good happen? Other than the Quidditch win, I mean."

I shook my head and replied brightly, "I'm going to take a shower."

I felt the hot water run and splash down my body and closed my eyes.

Ten minutes later, I stepped out of the shower. I wrapped the towel around myself and looked into my own face at the mirror. A strange, unexplainable wave of disappointment hit me. I had just played the Quidditch game of my life. I knew that I was physically capable of many things. And even though I knew it was silly to let it affect me so much, especially after such an amazing Quidditch game, thinking about Marlene and how attractive she was, and knowing that no matter how good I was at Quidditch, I wouldn't have that quality, depressed me.

I shook my head at myself, and turned away from the mirror. I lazily dried my hair with my towel and changed into a clean shirt and pajama bottoms.

With my hair still rather damp, I walked back into the common room and fell flat onto my bed, reveling in the soft comfort of my blanket against my cheek.

"You must be exhausted," Alice said sympathetically. "But that win was amazing, Ray. You're happy, aren't you?"

I am, aren't I?

Yeah, I meant to say, you bet I am.

But I was too tired to speak. The words wouldn't come to my lips.

Alice hesitated and then said softly, "You're not happy, are you?"

Again, I didn't answer but continued to lay still on my bed. I felt her gentle hand brush my head, and with her hand on my head like that, shielding all the bad thoughts away, the jealously and the anxiety and the insecurities, I drifted off to sleep…