07 September 1995, Hogwarts

The wind whistled past her ears and whipped her face. From her broomstick, Valentina observed the candidates for the Seeker position as they were trying to prove themselves. This year, the team had three spots to fill: a chaser, a beater, and a seeker. The two first positions had opened up because their former occupants had graduated at the end of last year, but the seeker position had become vacant after its last occupant and captain of the team's death, Cedric Diggory. Reluctantly, Valentina had taken on her late friend's role and had become captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. So, she now found herself selecting the new team members, although she wasn't exactly thrilled about it.

She had asked the only friend she had made in Gryffindor throughout her school years in Hogwarts for advice, Angelina Johnson, captain of her own house's team, and far more experienced in the matter than she was. Angelina had given her a few useful tips, and thanks to that, Valentina was able to select the new chaser and beater correctly, in her opinion. As for the seeker's position, that was a very different story. None of the candidates seemed to impress her and for half an hour she tried to decide between the five hopefuls, unsuccessfully. She then decided to organise a race: the first to catch the golden snitch would take over the position. Margaret Vance, a fourth-year girl, managed to win, and with that, Valentina put an end to the tryouts.

Their first match of the year would oppose them to Gryffindor and was set to take in a month. By then, she'd have plenty of time to train her new members properly in the hopes of winning the match. And for that matter, the other members were doing fairly well too, with Johan Lynch as keeper and Beetee Pelham as beater, she could focus on the quaffle without worrying too much about the rest of her team. And even though she did not really appreciate Zacharias Smith, who played in the same position as Valentina, she had faith in his skills as a chaser.

As she ended the session, the Gryffindor Quidditch team made their way onto the pitch. Valentina briefly greeted Anglelina, who looked overwhelmed between Fred who was trying to convince a new recruit to swallow one of his sweets, and George inciting another one to try a broomstick of their creation. Or perhaps it was the other way around - she couldn't tell the twins apart, given how similar they looked. Angelina was trying to prevent the twins from doing anything foolish, but without success. Valentina couldn't help but smile at the comical scene her friend found herself in. Those two, she thought, would definitely keep people talking. She also caught a glimpse of their younger brother, Ron Weasley, who looked as green with nerves as the Quidditch pitch itself.

Exhausted, Valentina quickly returned to her dorm, changed, and took a well-deserved shower. When she was done, she decided to head to the library to join Fenella and do her potion's homework. Valentina found her friend accompanied by David Lloyd, Fenella's current crush and Head Boy. She couldn't help but think that her best friend was a bit too much. Every year, she would take an interest in a different boy, and every year, she would grow bored of him within six months. This year, it was David Lloyd, a year older than them. Well, Valentina could admit that, although extremely irritating in her opinion, the boy wasn't unpleasant to look at. She sat down at their table, right across from her friend, and opened her bag to grab a piece of parchment, a quill, and her ink bottle.

"Val! How did the tryouts go?" Fenella called out to her.

"Hum, not too bad. I just had a bit of trouble selecting our new seeker, but I think the one I chose will do ... " Valentina answered, not entirely convinced by her own words.

"Surely, it's gonna be hard to replace our famous Cedric Diggory in many ways ..." David Lloyd said in a drawl, absentmindedly flipping the pages of his Charm textbook.

"Lloyd!" Fenella cried, elbowing him in the ribs.

"Oh, sorry ... But you have to admit that replacing someone like him won't be an easy task at all ... How do you plan to handle that, O'Shea ?"

Angry hisses echoed around their table, and Valentina opened her potion textbook, deciding to ignore Lloyd's provocation. But the young man wasn't done yet and spent most of his time tossing jibes at Valentina rather than working on his Charm's homework. Irritated, Valentina gave a gentle kick to her friend under the table and nodded her head, inciting her to leave the library together. And so they left the library silently to go back to their common room.

"Honestly Fenella, how can you stand that guy ?" Valentina asked, exasperated.

"Well ... He can be interesting sometimes, you know ... " Fenella said, lowering her gaze.

" "Sometimes", well, that can't happen very often, can it." She said through greeted teeth.

"I didn't quite understand what got into him, it was stupid and very clumsy of him to compare you to Cedric."

"Frankly, aside from his angelic face, I don't see what you see in him."

"He seems to like you, you know. He doesn't usually act like that with me."

"Well you can have it, he's all yours. I would rather go out with a grindylow than spend another five minutes with him, thanks." Valentina snaped.

Fenella burst out laughing. Trying her best to control herself, she turned to her friend.

"Don't you think you're a bit too harsh? Well, at least you admit that he is not unpleasant to look at, that's a start! Anyway, I am genuinely convinced that having a boyfriend - or girlfriend - would do you well too! So this year, I am determined to find you someone! "

Valentina chuckled at her friend's suggestion.

"I don't need that, you know. All I ask for is just a quiet year for once, without the school nearly getting destroyed or people getting killed." She said, her mouth halfway between a smile and a grimace.

"Yeah, it's sure that we were not exactly lucky these past years, with the giant snake trying to kill every muggle-born, that Black guy who sneaked into the school and tried to slaughter everyone, and the death of Cedric by one of you-know-who's follower, we could have died a hundred times in five years!"

"You're forgetting Professor Quirrell, who turned out to be you-know-who's host, and his resurrection last year," Valentina added with a touch of irony.

Fenella paused for a moment, thoughtful.

"Do you believe what that Harry Potter says?" She asked. " Do you really think that you-know-who is back?"

"He's the one that saw Cedric die with his own eyes, I don't see why he would lie."

"He's a Gryffindor, they're always doing whatever they can to draw attention to them."

"Well, for now, it is thanks to him that the school is still standing, at least somewhat," Valentina said.

"Yeah, maybe you're right, but still, they always get the attention!" Fenella said, rolling her eyes. "Gryffindor this, Gryffindor that, I am sick of it!"

"I like them, some of them are funny."

"By "some of them", you mean those two rather handsome beaters in their Quidditch team, don't you?"

Valentina tried to contain her laugh. Why did her best friend have to care about such things? Finding love was the least of her concerns in Hogwarts.

"Not particularly, I get along quite well with Angelina and ... most of the time, they are the ones who bring some life when it's needed..."

"Hmph" pouted Fenella, rather disappointed. "Well, right now, they'd better not try that in Umbridge's classes. And you'd better show them what the Hufflepuff Quidditch team is capable of in the next match!"

"Count on me, even if I wasn't really excited to take on the role of team captain at first, I am not going to give up on everything that Cedric taught me. I'll do my best to honour his memory in the next match!"

In a lighter mood, Valentina and Fenella returned to their common room to continue studying under better circumstances.