Chapter Nine

NOT a Date

Although it was to the detriment of her rapidly increasing stack of homework, Lily's bonding sessions with Reuben and Kyle seemed to pay off. At the first team practice on Tuesday, the three of them played well together – although still not as well as James, Fred and Lily had done.

"It'll take time, though," Samuel said as the team walked back up to the castle together afterwards. "James, Fred and Lily had been playing together since Lily learnt to fly, I bet. We've got plenty of time."

Mia thought 'plenty of time' was a bit of an exaggeration – the first match of the season, Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw, was the first weekend in October.

Before that, however, they had the first Hogsmeade weekend to look forward to in the last weekend of September.

Lily and Mia ended up walking down to Hogsmeade on their own since Hugo and Louis were both going with their girlfriends. Louis and Ailie were particularly excited, as this was Ailie's first ever Hogsmeade weekend.

It was just starting to rain as they exited the castle and Lily and Mia quickly performed the Impervious spell to keep their heads and faces dry.

"Don't they just make you sick?" Lily asked Mia as they walked a short way behind Louis and Ailie, who were holding hands.

"Not really," Mia shrugged. "We're getting to that age where everyone's pairing off. And we all know you and Mac are going to declare your burning passion for each other for each other any day now."

"Shut up," Lily said, although Mia noticed she'd stopped denying it at some point in the last week or so. "Okay, then, who d'you like?"

Mia considered. "I wouldn't say there's anyone I Like like, like you like Mac, but there are plenty of guys who are pretty good looking.

"Like who?" Lily demanded.

"Reuben," Mia shrugged. "Theo. Kieran-"

"But he's going out with Frankie!" Lily protested.

"I know," Mia said. "I only said he was attractive, not that I want to marry him."

"Who don't you want to marry?" asked a cheery voice and Lily and Mia turned to see that Mac had caught up with them as they reached the edge of the village.

"Kieran Finnigan," Lily told him.

"Wise move," Mac nodded. "So, fancy a drink? – Butterbeers are on me."

Mia looked at Lily, who shrugged. "Why not?" she said.

"I think you mean 'thank you o eternally generous one'," Mac said.

"Thank you o eternally generous one," Lily and Mia repeated monotonously.

Mac laughed, pushed between them and hooked his arms through theirs. "Come on then, my beautiful ladies," he said.

Lily and Mia let Mac guide them into an already crowded Three Broomsticks and went to find somewhere to sit whilst Mac got the drinks. They found a table next to Josh Young, the seventh-year Gryffindor who'd had a two-year long feud with the Gryffindor Quidditch team – James in particular – after Mia beat him to the Keeper's spot. Mia smiled a greeting at him but he ignored her.

It took Mac a surprisingly short time to navigate his way through the crowded pub and soon the three of them were sipping their Butterbeers and talking about Quidditch, the HEC, and latest Hogwarts gossip.

"So, tell me all about the two new Gryffindor Chasers," Mac said. "They're both my year, aren't they?"

"Yeah, Reuben and Kyle," Lily said. "They're no James and Fred, but they'll do."

Mac, as Quidditch Commentator, was always interested in the ins and outs of the house Quidditch teams. He loved Quidditch, although he was a bad player himself, and so the commentator position was perfect for him.

They were still talking Quidditch when they finished their Butterbeers.

"Another?" Mac asked.

"If you're paying," Lily shrugged.

"Mia?" Mac asked.

"No thanks," Mia said. "I've got some shopping to do."

"But we were going to go to Honeydukes together," Lily protested.

"So I'll meet you there in half an hour," Lily said. "You enjoy your drinks."

She and Mac both stood up. Lily grabbed Mia's arm as Mac walked off to get the drinks.

"Don't leave me!" she said.

"Enjoy your date," Mia grinned, walking off.

"It's not a date," Lily called after her. "Mia! It's not a date!"

Mia just grinned to herself as she left the Three Broomsticks and headed back out into the rain. She recast the Impervious charm and hurried up the road toward the garish 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' sign – her stock of MIs was getting low.

The shop was packed, as usual; it was a popular destination for students on Hogsmeade weekends. Today, groups of students milled around, browsing new displays and selecting old favourites, counting and recalculating to see how far their money would stretch.

Mia spotted James and Fred toward the back of the shop and fought her way through the crowd to say hello.

"Mia!" Fred said when he saw her, with several times more enthusiasm than was necessary. "How are you doing? What have you done with Lily?"

"She's in the Three Broomsticks with Mac," Mia said, knowing exactly how Lily's brother and cousin would interpret her words.

James raised his eyebrows. "Anything I should know about?" he asked.

"No," Mia said. "I mean – it's painfully obvious that they like each other but won't admit it, but they're not on a date or anything. I was with them until I came here to stock up on MIs."

"Well, you came to the right place," Fred said, gesturing at the wall behind him and James; they were standing in front of the MI display. There were MIs of every colour under the rainbow as well as those which changed colour depending on how long ago they'd been sent and those which could be marked 'urgent' and flashed red, attacking the recipient more and more violently until they read them.

"What're these?" Mia asked, picking up a pack of white MIs stamped with the Hogwarts crest.

"Only allowed to sell those to Hogwarts staff," Fred said.

"They bypass the spells which keep MIs out of classrooms," James added.

"So, give us all the gossip," Fred said as Mia chose her MIs. "Who've they got to replace us? How's Sam doing as Captain?"

"Reuben Goldstein and Kyle Caplan," Mia told them. "They're okay, but…"

"But they're not us, huh?" James grinned.

"And Sam's the most disorganized Captain I've ever known," Mia said. "He's hired me as his PA!"

The boys both laughed.

"Has he been late to his own Quidditch practice yet?" Fred asked.

"No, because I tell him practice starts half an hour before it actually does," Mia said. "He's actually a pretty good captain, once he's actually there captaining, but it's the other stuff… he only remembered he had to do Chaser tryouts when I asked him about it."

Mia selected her MIs: an ordinary pale purple packet and a colour-changing one that got more and more persistent if you ignored it – she thought that might be good for sending messages to Samuel.

"I'll MI Lily and tell her you're here," Mia said.

"Don't bother," James said. "They get wet and can't fly – haven't you seen them in the street? We've had people complaining all day. It's not hard to guess what our next improvement on these will be."

"Oh, well, I'll tell her when I see her later," Mia said.

"James, Fred, get back to work!"

Mia turned around to see George, Fred and Roxanne's father, walking toward them.

"See you, Mia," James said, and then he and Fred walked away to deal with customers.

After paying for her MIs, Mia did a bit more shopping and then headed to meet Lily in Honeydukes. It ended up being Lily and Mac, who were browsing the sweets when she arrived.

"I'm not stalking you guys, I swear," Mac said as Mia went to stand next to him. "I just need chocolate too, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever," Mia grinned. "Lily – James and Fred are in Wheezes."

"Meanies – they never told me!" Lily said. "Right – I'm going to go see them."

"I'll come too," Mac said. "I'm running low on MIs."

Mia made kissing faces over Mac's shoulder at Lily. Lily rolled her eyes and walked off with Mac.

"I'll just go back to the castle by myself then," Mia said to no one in particular.

"Hi, Mia."

Mia turned around and saw Samuel standing behind her.

"Ready for your first PA payment?" he asked, grinning.

"Huh?" Mia asked.

"I said I'd be paying you in chocolate, didn't I?" Samuel asked. "So, what'll it be?"

The two of them wandered around the shop. Every time Mia chose something, Samuel told her to choose something else as well.

"Are you trying to rot my teeth, Sam?" Mia demanded, after the fourth box of chocolates. "This is enough, seriously."

Samuel paid for the chocolates and then he and Mia walked back up to the castle together, talking about Quidditch.