Sunday, April 12, 2020 was Easter Sunday and while sleeping in was still the name of the game in the morning (as it always was on a Hogwarts Sunday), at 11 A.M. Hogwarts time, a massive Easter Egg Hunt was held on the sweeping lawns of Hogwarts. No, real eggs were not involved. Instead, plastic, openable, eggs in a mix of house colors and Easter pastel colors were used. These plastic eggs had candy hidden inside. The Hogwarts Easter Egg Hunt was setup by year and by house so that, depending on many how many students were in each year in each house, a certain number of eggs would be hidden in their portion of the field. Hugo, Devon, Samantha, Ainsley, Stephanie, and Lily were told by Professor Longbottom that thirty eggs had been hidden in their part of the lawn and that a beeping would occur when they had all been captured. Half of the eggs were in Easter pastel shades of pink, light blue, orange, and yellow. The other half were a vivid Gryffindor scarlet.
When Hugo, Devon, Samantha, Ainsley, Stephanie, and Lily heard the beeping, Hugo and Lily, who were very good at search games, had each amassed ten eggs. Devon and Ainsley, whose search game skills were average, each had five. But poor Samantha and Stephanie, both of whom sucked at search games, had collected zero each.
A dejected Samantha started to walk away.
"Samantha, where are you going?" asked Lily.
"To our common room," said Samantha sadly, "Nothing against you guys, but it's too much of a bummer for me to watch others eat the candy when I wasn't able to get any myself."
"Samantha, " said Lily fiercely, "It's okay, I'll let you have half of mine. And no sooner had the words left Lily's mouth when she dropped five eggs into Samantha's hands.
"Thanks a lot, Lily," said Samantha weakly, "You're a great friend as always."
Hugo followed Lily's lead and gave half of his eggs to Stephanie. There was no expectation from the staff that the more successful students would share their eggs with the less successful students. That wasn't how Easter Egg Hunts worked and at any rate they would have all taken the view that each student got what he or she earned and if some got shut out, well, that's the way it goes sometimes. In fact, this was the way it played out in most groups. There were in fact a handful of students who would get no eggs and no candy that day. But Hugo and Lily were not about to leave two of their best friends shut out when they had excess. In fact, the thought of Stephanie and Samantha having nothing while they had excess made both Hugo and Lily feel very uncomfortable.
When they actually opened the eggs, they found that apart from the typical Easter staple of Jellybeans, most of the candy was chocolate.
Lily, who enjoyed cream filled products, loved the Cadbury Cream Egg she'd found in a yellow egg. For the others, the hollow Lindt's chocolate bunnies were the biggest hits. There was nothing really magical about the Easter Egg Hunt but a was nice thing for students to enjoy and an Easter dinner centered around thick carved ham was served in the Great Hall later that night.
On Saturday, April 18th, 2020, Lily awoke feeling confident in Gryffindor's chances to beat Hufflepuff and win the Quidditch Cup. Wesley had worked on teamwork with Ainsley, Rachel, and Roxanne ever since their poor showing against Ravenclaw. Lily felt confident the Chasers would play better with the new strategies Wesley had put in and she knew Samantha would shut down the Hufflepuff Chasers. And, well, Lily herself had always been a good flier and a good Quidditch Player and she had caught the snitch in her first two matches. She had no reason not believe in herself as well.
The team was feeling confident enough that nerves were minimal and although the team members stuck to just toast, at least they were able to get something in their systems without being too queasy.
After breakfast the team walked into the locker room. Wesley, having been happy with his teams' recent practices, eschewed any advice to his team and just told them, "Just win baby!" before they headed onto the pitch.
Ainsley would face off in the center circle against Hufflepuff Chaser Tiffany Thompson, a short green eyed brunette haired second year. (The other Hufflepuff Chasers were a black fourth year named Denise Derozan and a tall blue eyed blonde haired seventh year named Marissa Marshall. The Hufflepuff Keeper was a tall brown eyed brown haired fourth year named Sierra Stop.)
Ainsley seized the quaffle almost at once.
"Cochlain gains control of the quaffle, " announced James on the commentary, "Cochlain keeping the Quaffle, Cochlain zigs zags between Marshall and Derozan. Cochlain glides towards the south hoops, Cochlain shoots for the right hand hoop, Stop has drifted too far left. AINSLEY COCHLAIN SCORES! GRYFFINDOR STRIKES FIRST YES!"
"Gryffindor leading 10-0, Thompson with the quaffle, and Weasley of Gryffindor approaches Thompson from behind, Weasley snatches the quaffle away from Thompson. Weasley with a brilliant downpitch pass to Robins. Robins with an easy three footer. RACHEL ROBINS SCORES, GRYFFINDOR LEADS 20-0!"
"Derozan with the quaffle, Derozan speeding down the pitch, Derozan shoots, 'SAVED BY SAVER!"
"Of course," said Samantha boastfully, waving her fingers, "Samantha Saver never lets the quaffle in!"
"Cochlain takes possession of the quaffle. The Quaffle starts to slip through Cochlain's fingers but she holds on. Cochlain tosses a few feet ahead to Robins, Rachel duck that's a bludger, ah, Baylac saves the day and knocks the bludger away from Robins. Robins streaks ahead. Robins with a backhanded pass to the trailing Weasley, Weasley aims for the center hoop, Stop deflects it short. The rebound caroms out to Weasley. Weasley quickly shoots again this time aiming higher for the middle hoop. ROXANNE WEASLEY SCORES! 30-0 GRYFFINDOR!"
'Thompson takes possession of the quaffle. Thompson fakes a pass to Marshall. The Gryffindor Chasers converge on Marshall. Thompson with open pitch ahead of her. Saver has drifted too far to the right. Thompson closes in. Thompson shoots for the left hand hoop. WHAT A RECOVERY! SAVER RECOVERED IN TIME TO STOP THE QUAFFLE!"
"I'm the best damn Keeper on this planet period!" said Samantha loudly.
"Cochlain takes control of the quaffle. Bludger speeding towards Saver. Baylac swats. NO! Baylac missed. The Bludger hits Saver square in the face. Saver is bleeding profusely. Her nose may have been broken. Weasley finally successfully knocks the bludger away from Saver."
But despite being battered, bloodied, and in immense pain, Samantha's performance didn't miss a beat all match. Samantha continued to make save after save after save, many of them in spectacular fashion. Meanwhile, Ainsley, Rachel, and Roxanne had a great rhythm going and eventually each of them scored seven goals so that Gryffindor was leading 210-0.
Lily then did something that had never been seen in a Hogwarts Quidditch Match before. Lily could now clearly see that the snitch was hovering around the center circle. Lily put on her afterburners and sped towards the center circle. But instead of attempting to catch the snitch in her hands in the typical way, she put out only her left pinkie towards the snitch. Lily enclosed her left pinkie but unfortunately the snitch slipped away. It was impossible to control a snitch with only a pinkie.
James commentary made it clear how disappointed he was.
"DAMN!" lamented James, "That pesky snitch got away. Potter had her finger around the thing and DAMN IT GOT AWAY!"
Lily was inwardly cursing herself. Why did she try a fancy move? With her Seeking skills she surely would have caught the snitch if she had attempted a routine capture.
"Damn you, Lily," thought Lily to herself, "Why did you try to be cute, being good was more important!"
The snitch now darted toward the sideline on the east side of the pitch. Sadly, for Lily, the Hufflepuff Seeker, Mellissa Jones, the daughter of Megan Jones who was herself the niece of Gwenog Jones, happened to be hovering around the east sideline and saw the snitch approach her. Mellissa took the more routine approach and captured the snitch.
"Jones catches the snitch," said James dispiritedly.
But James quickly moved on and said in a much more upbeat voice, "But the good news is that Gryffindor defeats Hufflepuff 210-150. And with a record of 3-0 and having defeated each of the other houses without a loss, "GRYFFINDOR WINS THE QUIDDITCH CUP!"
'YES!" screamed Samantha in pure jubilation, "Gryffindor has the Quidditch Cup and I was the MVP of this season! YOU LIKE THAT! YOU LIKE THAT!"
Clearly being injured and in pain was doing nothing to subdue Samantha's pleasure with herself or excitement at winning the Quidditch Cup.
Ainsley, Roxanne, and Rachel all exchanged high fives.
"That was the best damn game we Chasers played all year!" said Ainsley with a tent of pride in her voice, though nothing too boastful.
Rachel and Roxanne both gave quiet nods and "yeps" Both were both too humble and too quiet to do or say much more than that.
Lily's primary emotion was relief; relief that her gaffe hadn't cost her team the Quidditch Cup.
Professor McGonagall was now presenting the Quidditch Cup to Wesley, the first non playing captain to hoist the Quidditch Cup since Brett Brooks of Ravenclaw in 1987.
The Quidditch Cup was then passed around amongst the team, Wesley handed it off to Fred, who handed it off to Rachel, who handed off to Roxanne, who handed it off to Ainsley, who handed it off to Stephanie, who handed it off to Samantha, who finally handed it off to Lily, each holding it above his or her head before passing it on.
Lily finally handed it back to Professor McGonagall, who handed it Professor Longbottom and said, "Congratulations, Mr. Longbottom, the Quidditch Cup will now reside in your office."
"That's wonderful, "said Professor Longbottom happily, "I'm so proud of our team."
"I'd like to have a celebration with team members only," requested Wesley, "We'll do it in the locker room."
"Fred, Rachel, Roxanne, Ainsley, Stephanie. and Samantha can go celebrate," said Lily tonelessly, "I don't deserve to partake in a celebration."
"Lily, please join," said Ainsley fiercely, "You're just as much a part of this team as the rest of us."
"And we want you to celebrate with us," added Fred clearly.
"You're our friend and our teammate, Lily, we really do want you to come enjoy this triumph with us." said Stephanie warmly.
"B-but." said Lily, "I was the only one who didn't get the job done today when you all were brilliant. I don't deserve to celebrate with you. I didn't earn it."
"Yes, you do and yes you did," came a polite but clear voice that belonged to James.
"Remember," said James matter of factly," That the Quidditch Cup is comprised of a season. Well, Lily, remember, the Chasers really struggled against Ravenclaw and it was only 10-0 when you caught the snitch in that match. Keeping everything else constant, if you don't get the snitch in that match, Gryffindor loses to Ravenclaw 150-10. Ultimately, this would have led to Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff all going 2-1. Since none of the three teams would have beaten both of the other two, the next tiebreaker is how many times during the season each team's Seeker got the snitch. Had you not gotten the snitch vs Ravenclaw the three way tie between Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw would have been broken by the fact that Mellissa was the only Seeker to catch the snitch three times this year and Hufflepuff would have won the Quidditch Cup. Thus, your capture of the snitch in the Ravenclaw match that allowed Gryffindor to beat Ravenclaw on a day when their Chasers played like kindergarteners and ultimately allowed Gryffindor to go 3-0 was a key moment in allowing Gryffindor to claim the Quidditch Cup."
Lily took this in and after about ten seconds she actually gave James a small smile though she still said nothing.
"Lily," continued James, "If you don't want to join the team's celebration for yourself then do it for your teammates. They all want you there and they'll be sad and disappointed if you skip out."
James had done it; he had said exactly what Lily needed to hear to convince her to join the celebration with her teammates and she walked back to them.
"We win as a team and lose as a team," Fred told Lily clearly, "When we win, we all share the triumph."
"That's what team sports are all about," added Ainsley, "You picked us up against Ravenclaw and today was our turn to pick you up."
"And," said Stephanie, "Win or lose, good or bad, a true team sticks together."
Lily was feeling better and better every nanosecond. Granted it was easier for her teammates to stick by her when her stupidity hadn't actually cost them any. But she could tell how sincere they all were and that meant a lot to her.
"Thanks, everyone," said Lily gratefully, who was getting some energy back, "We're Hogwarts Quidditch Champions so let's go celebrate!"
"That's the spirit, Lily!" said Samantha with a smile.
Fred, Lily, Ainsley, Samantha, Stephanie, Roxanne, and Rachel followed Wesley back to the locker room.
The nanosecond the team had all gathered in the locker room, Wesley waved his wand at the ceiling. A nanosecond later, The Gryffindor Quidditch Team found itself showered in red and gold confetti. Everyone felt the confetti falling against his or her hair and arms as it came down. It was a nice feeling brushing the victory confetti out of one's hair. At first, they were all brushing the confetti from themselves. And then they started throwing it on each other and messing up each other's hair. This went on for five minutes.
And then the real frivolity began. Wesley blew up a thousand red balloons with the Gryffindor lion on them. At first, they just threw the balloons at each other, Then, Fred, Lily, Ainsley, Samantha, Stephanie, Roxanne, Rachel, and Wesley all had a lot of mindless fun finding different ways of popping the balloons.
Fred pulled a few darts out of his right pocket and threw them at the balloons. Wesley was using Reducto to pop the balloons. Roxanne and Rachel were biting the balloons. Samantha and Stephanie were stomping on the balloons. Ainsley and Lily were poking the balloons with their wands. After fifteen minutes of this frivolity and noise, the locker room was a mess with all the popped balloons.
"We Gryffindors never need an excuse to make noise and mess," said Samantha with a smirk.
Then they all started chanting "Go Go Gryffindor!" at the top of their lungs and Wesley finished off their celebration by singing We are the Champions.
By the time they were all back in the common room, Lily was on cloud nine, she could now see how her performance in the Ravenclaw match had saved the season for Gryffindor and she now believed she did deserve to be part of it all.
While the celebration in the locker room had been for team members only, the whole house held a noisy and messy party in the common room and Hugo, Devon, and James got to join in this one. Even those not into Quidditch much such as Rose Weasley and Pamela Patil were thrilled that Gryffindor had won. Every single house member took part in the common room party. This party involved more of the same for the team members with confetti, balloons, singing, rowdiness, and noisemaking. Food was also consumed. By the time the day was over the Gryffindor common room was a mess.
Lily lay in her bed that night feeling happy and content. Gryffindor had triumphed. She was a Quidditch Cup Champion.
