Jock Talk

by GlANTSQUlD

The Gryffindor Quidditch team is full of jocks-complete with weightlifting, matching sweatsuits, and locker room talk. How is Penny ever going to find a boyfriend as the only girl on a team full of over-protective rowdy boys? (AU-ish - Marauders-era characters, but takes place in 2010s and there's no war and modern pop culture references.)

1. New Seeker

Warning: language, underage drinking.

September, 2010s

Penny Prett takes a deep breath and dives through the air, loving the feeling of the wind in her hair. This is the first quidditch practice they've had since last year, and she's never felt more joy than she does right now. A delicious rush of adrenaline surges through her as she flies, loving the way her new broom feels as she clasps her hands around the handle. She looks around and notices her teammates laughing and whooping as they, too, complete their first circle-of-the-pitch of the season.

Vince Afton, James Potter, and Parker Banks, the three Gryffindor chasers, are performing loop-di-loops together at one end of the pitch; Sirius Black, Penny's fellow beater, is racing low along the ground at top speed; Griffin Vaughn, their newest teammate (who will be their seeker this year) is the only other fourth year on the team, and he completes some spectacular dives in the middle of the field. Finally, Rillian Prett, Penny's older brother and the team's keeper, is zig zagging between the goal posts.

Penny may not have missed homework and class, but she sure as hell missed this. She and her brother spent their summer practicing for the season, but they can't fly very high in the backyard of their suburban home lest a muggle should see them. The freedom she feels from being back on the pitch at Hogwarts is unbeatable. She can soar as high as she wants to; she can fly as fast as her broom will carry her.

She's so caught up in her joy, she doesn't notice that everyone else has flown back to the ground until Rillian yells, "Yo! Twitch! Get your ass down here!"

"Twitch" is the team's nickname for her because of the way she "twitches" her broom sideways and upwards to catch their opponents off-guard. She lets the enemy think she's going in a certain direction, then she'll twitch to another direction just as the other team comes close. Her beater counterpart, Sirius, is known as "switch" because of his ability to change the course of a bludger in a split second. Together, they are the infamous Gryffindor beaters, Twitch & Switch. Penny grins and beelines towards her brother on her broom. As she gets closer, she doesn't bother moving out of the way.

"Don't even think about hitting me!" Rillian screams. At the last possible second, Penny swerves to the left and narrowly avoids knocking her older brother to the ground. Then she comes to a complete halt and hops gracefully off her broom.

"Yeah!" her teammates begin cheering for her, and she grins and performs a dramatic bow.

"Hold the applause, please," she says, beaming at Griffin Vaughn, their new teammate, who is staring at her with his mouth agape. He's going to need to get used to a lot of roughhousing and near-death experiences if he's going to keep up with the rest of them.

"And that's why we call her Twitch," Sirius says with a grin, pulling Penny into a headlock. She fends him off, wriggling herself away from him within seconds. Penny is small, but she's fast, and she uses this to her advantage. She's easily the smallest member of the team.

Penny is somewhat of a legend in the history of quidditch; she's a tiny girl, and most of the time, beaters are huge boys. She's the first female beater the Gryffindor quidditch team has enlisted in over fifty years.

She's also currently the only girl on the team, which is annoying.

Last year, Winona Harris was the Gryffindor seeker. The two of them had bonded over being the only two girls on the team. Penny is nothing if not a feminist, and she keeps trying to convince her roommates, Ziph Tarringer and Satlynn LaRue, to try out for the quidditch team with her. Unfortunately for Penny, she seems to be the only sports-inclined female in her house at the moment.

She would love it if the team was full of bad-ass, powerful women; at the moment, though, the team is 90% testosterone-filled idiots. Winona graduated last year, and now she's been replaced by Griffin Vaughn, a gangly, glasses-clad boy with strawberry blonde hair; just another jock for Penny to attempt to get along with.

"All right, all right," Vince Afton says with a smile as he tries to break up the brawl that Sirius and Penny have started, "Jesus, this team has a lot of energy. I love it," he admits. Vince is a seventh year and this is his first practice as Gryffindor captain.

Penny knows that her brother Rillian, who is also a seventh-year, was a bit upset when he found out that Vince would be captain. Rillian had expected to be given the position. Vince has been on the team longer, though, and he's one of their top scorers. Rillian is a great keeper, but it's rare to see a keeper in the captain position.

Actually, it's rare to see anyone other than a chaser receive the honor. It's kind of unfair, Penny thinks, and she just knows that next year, they'll choose James, just because he's a chaser, even though she thinks that Sirius would make a great captain, as well. Penny and Sirius spend a lot of time practicing beater skills together, and he's been a great help to her. But, of course, the role of captain will likely go to a chaser.

They better not choose Parker Banks, Penny thinks with a roll of her eyes; Parker is a fifth-year, and he is currently attempting to braid some pieces of grass together. That boy has the maturity of a twelve-year-old; everyone was perplexed when he somehow became a prefect this year. He's got sandy blonde curls and dopey brown eyes that blink more than the average person's, and he's outrageously douchey towards women. He is a fantastic chaser though, Penny admits to herself.

"That felt amazing, didn't it?" Vince asks the team with a grin. Penny notices that Vince's hair is still suspiciously perfect. Everyone else is looking windswept, but captain Vince has somehow managed to keep his chocolate-brown hair perfectly coiffed to one side.

"Afton, how much Sleekeazy's did you put in your hair today?" Penny interrupts Vince teasingly. She catches Sirius's eye and they both laugh at Vince's obsession with his hair. Vince squints at Penny irritatedly and gives his hair an affectionate pat as Parker, James, and Rillian burst into laughter.

"Damn! It really hasn't moved a centimeter!" James says incredulously as he inspects the head of his fellow chaser. He looks thoughtful; probably wondering how Vince does it, Penny thinks with a smirk. James's own hair is perpetually a bit of a mess, but she thinks he does it like that on purpose. He seems to think it will get him more female attention. (Which, unfortunately, it does.) Vince shoves James off of him, looking irritated.

"Can we please focus, team?" Vince asks them. The problem is, the team doesn't exactly take him seriously as a captain. Vince, Rillian, Sirius, and James have been playing together for years now, and they're all such good friends that it would be weird for them to take orders from Vince.

Winona was the captain last year, and she was extremely intimidating. Not only was she terrifyingly bossy, she was also a supremely talented witch, and wasn't afraid to hex the boys if they didn't listen to her. Sirius and Parker had ended up tied to a goalpost last year when they teased her about Havelin Trobe, the boy she'd begun dating during her seventh year. Nobody messed with Winona; Penny strives to someday achieve that level of notoriety.

"We've got our opening match in two weeks, and we still need to train Vaughn. Do you guys want to win, or not?" Vince asks heatedly. The team sobers up at that; they're nothing if not competitive, and Griffin Vaughn being such a green seeker is their greatest weakness.

"Good," Vince says, satisfied that they've stopped tittering and teasing him. "Here's the plan for today: Banks, Potter and I will practice passes and then attempt a new passing technique Potter told me about," Vince begins, nodding towards James appreciatively. "While we do that, Vaughn, Switch, and Twitch will help Rillian by throwing spare quaffles on goal so he can practice blocking."

Penny rolls her eyes; of course, the practice revolves around the chasers and keeper. They rarely get to do anything that will actually help the beaters and seeker hone their skills.

"What was that look, Twitch?" Vince asks sharply, noticing her eye roll.

"Nothing. I think it sounds like a great plan," Penny says emotionlessly. Vince cocks an eyebrow at her.

"Fine. It's a bit chaser-and-keeper-heavy, don't you think? The beaters have to train somehow, too," she explains.

Vince frowns at her. "We'll have individual position practice once we're done with the first task I've given you," he says. "I want everyone to be their best, Twitch, but they can't be if we don't help each other. That's why I've got you lot working with Rillian right now."

Penny nods slowly. She supposes that makes sense. She glances at Sirius, who gives her a slight nod. Well, she concedes, if he agrees with this practice idea, she supposes she does, too. Reluctantly, though. Very reluctantly.

She's hesitant to take orders from Vince Afton, especially since just last year, she watched Vince blow bubbles with a straw using his nose and then accidentally drink his own snot. Now he's suddenly an authority figure, and she's not sure how to deal with it. She supposes undermining him isn't exactly the best way of dealing with it, so she reluctantly makes her way over to the goalposts with Rillian, Sirius, and Griffin.

"So, here's an annoying thing about being a member of a team, Griffin: you actually have to work with your teammates. Instead of just working on seeking, like you probably should so you can get good at your position, we also have to help people like my lame brother by pretending to be chasers and trying to score," Penny explains in a sweetly sarcastic voice as they walk over to the shed to grab some quaffles.

Rillian rolls his eyes at her and addresses Griffin, "Ignore my dear sister. She's just bitter because this is virtually all we did this summer," he explains. Penny scowls at him; it's true. All summer long, Rillian forced her to shoot quaffles at him so he could practice his keeping technique.

Griffin nods, looking absolutely terrified at what he's gotten himself into. Penny has been in class with Griffin since they were first years, and she knows that, while he's an excellent seeker, he's not the bravest of souls. He rarely spoke during his first few years of school because he was so shy and afraid of messing up. Hopefully he'll be able to jive with the rest of the team. The rest of the team is strong, but if they don't have a good seeker, they might as well be dead. No pressure, Griffin, she thinks sullenly to herself as she watches him fumble around with two of the spare quaffles until he drops both of them on the ground. Good lord. They have a lot of work to do.

The first drill is largely uneventful; Penny scores five goals, Sirius scores three, and Griffin doesn't score at all. Poor Griffin, Penny thinks. He didn't sign up for this. He just wants to be a seeker. Luckily, once the drill is over, Vince assigns the rest of the team to work with Griffin on seeking strategies. Penny is relieved; practice should be used to train weak areas, not areas that are already strong, and Griffin definitely needs some work.

They all watch and shout criticism at Griffin as they throw small balls (reminiscent of snitches) toward him to catch. He does a pretty good job, but looks very frazzled towards the end.

"Nice work, Vaughn," Vince says uncertainly as he claps a very downtrodden-looking Griffin on the back when it's over. Penny can tell they're all having second thoughts about choosing Griffin, but there weren't any other good seeker candidates for the team. It's most worrying because the Ravenclaw and Slytherin seekers are particularly good this year; they're going to have to train Griffin pretty hard if their house is to have any semblance of a chance at winning the championship this year like they did last year.

Finally, Vince announces that it's time to release the bludgers so Penny and Sirius can do some beater training. Penny lets out a bark of manic laughter.

"At last!" she sings excitedly. "My babies," she says fondly as Vince takes out the case that the bludgers are kept in. Sometimes she refers to the bludgers as her babies; they're just such wonderful pieces of sports equipment.

"You're so weird," Rillian comments as he soars back off to the goalposts to practice more keeping strategies. Penny ignores him and exchanges a grin with Sirius. She hasn't interacted with a bludger since last year, and she's ecstatic to get a chance to fling them across the pitch again.

Most quidditch players are terrified of bludgers, but not Penny. She loves them. She loves feeling like she can control something that's otherwise unruly. She grabs a bat from the case and positively beams as Vince finally sets them free, and she jumps onto her broom and shoots after one of them at top speed.

She laughs as she catches up with it and pelts it in the opposite direction. Her aim is as good as ever, she notices with satisfaction. It soars fifty, a hundred feet, then switches direction and starts racing towards Griffin, who looks afraid for his life. Penny bolts after the bludger and nearly crashes into Griffin as she reaches him just in time to fling the bludger back in the direction it came from.

"All right, mate?" she asks him with a grin, noticing his queasy expression. He nods weakly, giving her what she assumes is supposed to be a smile. He looks anything but happy, though, and she laughs lightly and pats his arm reassuringly.

"Don't worry about bludgers. I've got your back," she says with a wink as she jets off in the direction of the bludger. Maybe Griffin just needs a friend, and she vows to become a source of comfort for him as he joins the craziness that is this team.

X

An hour later, Penny is still in the weight room, even though most of the team has left. She's convinced herself that she needs to train twice as hard as everyone else because she's a girl.

Winona, last year's captain and Penny's role model, didn't live by this strategy, but Winona was a seeker, not a beater. Beaters need to constantly grip their brooms and bats and need to have a strong enough swing to send a bludger flying. Penny reminds herself of this fact as she breathes loudly in and out of her mouth and completes five reps on the bench press. She needs to be strong; she needs to be better than Samhain and Mordred, the Slytherin beaters.

Metal music blares over the bewitched box and Penny grits her teeth and forces herself to complete a few more presses. A bewitched box is like a boombox, but it only plays the music that the owner wants to hear. A witch or wizard can wave his wand, and the song they're thinking of will magically play out of the box.

Clearly, Rillian is in charge, as it's playing his favorite song. Penny closes her eyes and rests her exhausted arms for a moment before she moves on to the Fly Machine that works out her pectoral muscles. She's just settling her feet into the foot rests when her brother stops the music.

"Rillian!" she yells angrily, "I'm not done in here yet!"

He shrugs, "Well, I'm hitting the showers. I'll leave the BB in here, though, if you want to play your own music." Penny glances around the room; Sirius is still here, doing some dumb bell stuff, but other than that, the room is empty. She shrugs. Sirius won't mind if she plays her music.

"Okay," she says, and she points her wand at the bewitched box, thinking of the song "Hollaback Girl," which immediately starts playing. She grins to herself. This song always gets her pumped up. Rillian rolls his eyes at her music choice and walks away, swinging his copper hair out of his eyes as he leaves the room. Penny, too, has the copper-colored hair. It goes so well with her name, she thinks sarcastically; her parents think they're so freaking hilarious. American muggle money, of all things.

"Hey! What's this girly crap?" Sirius calls from the other side of the room.

"Tell me this song doesn't pump you up," Penny calls back as she adjusts her weights and completes her first rep. Sirius grins at her and drops his dumb bells unceremoniously on the floor, "Okay, I'm a sucker for Gwen," he admits as he crosses the room to jump onto the pull-up bar that's in front of Penny's weight machine; he proceeds to swing back and forth giddily. Penny grins as she squirts a stream of water into her mouth from her water bottle.

"I heard that you were talking shit / and you didn't think that I would HEAR it!" Penny sings along with Gwen Stefani.

"Okay, but what is a 'hollaback girl'? I've never known what that meant," Sirius says as he continues to swing his legs annoying and hang from the bar.

"I think it means you holler back at the men who catcall you," Penny explains, "so you actually acknowledge their attention instead of ignoring them like a normal person."

Sirius grins, "Oh. In that case, I've met quite a few hollaback girls." Penny rolls her eyes at him.

"You want to see who can do more pull-ups?" he asks her as he shows off by completing one. She squints at him. It's not exactly a fair competition, considering she's a fourteen-year-old girl and he's a sixteen-year-old boy.

"Are you sure? Have you seen these guns?" she says, feigning confidence by rolling up her sleeve to show off her toned arm. He snorts. "And have you seen these?" he asks, showing her his (admittedly far more toned) arm. She pouts, "That's not fair. You've got two years and a different gender on me." He jumps down from the bar.

"That's true," he says. He looks at her for a moment, then suggests, "How about arm wrestling, then?" Penny groans and lets her weights clatter down.

"If it will get you to stop annoying me, then sure," she says, but there's a smile on her face as she stands up. Why is he so determined to have some sort of beater face-off today? She shakes her head as she crosses the room to the table in the corner and sits down with her arm propped and ready.

"Right-handed," she tells him, knowing that he is left-handed and will be at a disadvantage. She will probably lose anyway, but she might as well make sure he has as many handicaps as possible.

"The shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S," Sirius sings softly to himself as he sits down opposite her and grasps her hand.

"You'd better be taking this seriously, Switch," Penny warns him. "This is eating up my valuable weight lifting time."

He smirks at her, "You love it." Penny raises an eyebrow.

"Not exactly," she says. Sirius frowns and narrows his eyes at her.

"Fine then. On your count," he says. She counts down from three, and within seconds, he has flattened her arm completely.

"Great, so that was pointless," she says, trying not to sound annoyed. She is quite competitive and hates losing. Penny stands up and brushes dust off her knees from sitting on the floor.

"Should have gone with the pull-up competition," Sirius says annoyingly. She wrinkles her nose at him.

"Can't you get one of the guys to do that with you?"

He shrugs, "I suppose. But it's more fun with you." He smiles at her and she shakes her head at him as she situates herself again on the fly machine.

"You are very immature, did you know that?" she asks.

"I'll be seventeen in two months," he lets her know. She pauses what she's doing to stare at him.

"That can't be true," she says in disbelief. He raises his eyebrows at her, "Well, it is."

She sits there in silence for a moment, pondering the fact that this insane boy standing in front of her will be a legal adult in the wizarding world in two months. Half of their team will be gone by the time she's a sixth year, she realizes in a panic. What will they do without Vince, Rillian, James, and Sirius? It will just be her, Griffin, Parker, and a bunch of randos. Since when is everyone getting so old?

"So, how was the rest of your summer?" Sirius asks as he leans against a piece of equipment, his workout entirely forgotten as he immerses himself in conversation with her.

Penny shrugs, "It was fine. Warm. Rillian's annoying as hell. Going hiking in Snowdonia was probably the highlight of it."

Sirius nods, "I want to go there someday. Maybe the whole team can take a trip together sometime. Wouldn't that be fun?" She nods, knowing this will probably never happen, but indulging the fantasy, nonetheless.

"It would be," she agrees. "What about you? How was your summer?"

Sirius grins at her, "Fantastic. Staying with your best mate is the best way to spend the summer. We got so much practice in! Of course, the best part of it was when you and Rillian came over so we actually had enough people to scrimmage."

Penny nods. It had been nice; her brother was good friends with James, so naturally, they hung out every summer. This was the first summer that she, too, had been invited to James's house to practice quidditch. Last year had been her first year on the quidditch team, and she's thankful that she fits in so well.

"What do you think of Griffin?" she asks as she goes back to lifting.

"He seems fine. I think with some training, he'll be pretty good. He was better than the other dingbats that tried out," Sirius points out.

Penny nods, "I agree. He's always lacked backbone, but hopefully we can toughen him up."

"Ah, I forgot he was in your year. That's so weird," Sirius says.

"Why is that weird?" Penny asks as she moves on to the leg press machine. Sirius follows her and lies on the bench of an empty machine next to her. Still not actually doing anything, Penny notes in annoyance.

"Because he seems so young!" Sirius says. "He looks like an infant." Penny shoots him a look.

"Well, he's no more a baby than I am," she points out. He nods, then sits up a little too quickly and bonks his head on part of the weight machine. Penny gasps and sits up.

"Are you okay?" she asks, clamping a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.

"Yes," he says haughtily as he holds the side of his head.

Penny giggles, "You should go ice that." He shoots her an irritated look and obliges.

"Fine. Have fun with Gwen Stefani," he says as he leaves the room and she bursts out laughing.

X

Penny slides into a seat at the very back of the History of Magic classroom and waits for her friends, Ziph and Satlynn, to show up. The three of them usually commandeer the back of the room and force the Hufflepuffs (with whom the Gryffindors take this class) to sit in the front. They proceed to spend the entirety of the class period catching up with one another and doing anything but taking notes.

Where the heck are they right now? They're usually right behind her. No matter, Penny thinks as she pulls out her book, some parchment, and a very boring goose-feather quill. She sighs; at the end of last year, she'd had a beautiful, flashy, orange quill from Hattie's Specialty Quills in Diagon Alley. However, she'd somehow misplaced it over the summer and had been missing it ever since. It's not that she likes things that are flashy and eye-catching. She doesn't like getting dressed up or trying very hard with her appearance at all. But the quill had been something special, something cool, something that made her stand out and feel confident during exams.

Penny is startled from her thoughts when someone slides into the spot next to her. She looks up and sees that it's none other than Griffin Vaughn, AKA the new seeker on the Gryffindor quidditch team.

"Hello there," she says to him. She lets just a hint of cold seep into her voice so he knows he's not exactly welcome here at the back of the room. The fourth-year girls usually don't let anyone sit with them, and the truth is, no one has the guts to mess with them.

Penny is a terrifyingly good beater, if she does say so herself; Satlynn comes from a long line of single-mother witches who have a reputation of turning men into toads; and not only is Ziph extremely talented in the hex department, but she's also not afraid to call upon these talents whenever she feels like it.

That's why Penny is surprised that Griffin has the guts to take a seat next to her when the girls have made it quite clear that they like to have the back row to themselves. Penny does realize that this is a bit selfish and bully-ish of them to do. She just doesn't particularly care that much.

"Hey," Griffin says, flipping his blonde hair out of his eyes and giving her a little half-smile. Maybe it's the fact that he's acting confident; maybe it's the fact that he's on the quidditch team now; maybe he's suddenly been catapulted into the world of "cool" now that he's on the team; but whatever the reason, Penny finds his mannerisms surprisingly attractive, all of the sudden.

"Listen, I won't take much of your time," Griffin says quickly as Ziph and Satlynn enter the room, "but my grandmother got me this as a back-to-school gift and it's really not my style."

To Penny's astonishment, he pulls a long, pink, flamingo-feather quill out of his bag and places it on the table in front of her. She shoots him a glance, trying not to let her excitement show.

"That's nice," she remarks in surprise, picking it up and handling it carefully. It's a well-crafted quill; the feathers have been perfectly aligned and glossed to perfection. It must be from Hattie's Specialty Quills.

"You can have it," he says quietly, watching a smile take over her face.

"I was literally just thinking about how much I missed my orange feather quill," Penny muses to herself as she strokes the feathers of the flamingo quill lightly. Penny looks up as Ziph and Satlynn sit down next to her, letting their book bags hit the table with two loud bangs in rapid succession. Griffin grins at her and glances warily at Ziph and Satlynn.

"I'll see you later," he says as he slides his chair back and walks over to the other Gryffindor boys. Penny watches him go, bemused as her friends join her.

"Ooh, that's pretty!" Satlynn remarks as she eyes Penny's new quill with a smirk on her face. She flips her platinum-blonde hair over her shoulder as she pulls some parchment from her bag.

"Did Vaughn just give that to you?" Ziph asks as she grabs the quill from Penny and examines it closely.

"Yes," Penny says hotly as she snatches the quill back. Satlynn and Ziph exchange worried looks.

"Penny," Satlynn says slowly as she looks over at Griffin's table. "What do you mean, Vaughn just gave you a fancy quill?"

Penny shrugs, "Exactly that," she explains. "He said his grandma gave it to him, but he doesn't want it. One point for Penny Prett, zero points for 'ole fragile masculinity."

"Pops, boys don't just give you nice gifts like that," Ziph explains, rolling her bright blue eyes way back in her head. Her friends and family sometimes call Penny "Pops," because her initials spell "POP."

"Well, Griffin does," Penny snaps.

"What?! Vaughn is Griffin now?" Satlynn says, shocked by the sudden use of the boy's first name.

"Shh," Penny says, glancing, panicked, over to Griffin's side of the room and desperately hoping he can't hear them.

"Pops. You cannot like him," Ziph says crossly. "Remember our pact? Friends first, boys second? If any of us break the rule, we have to wear The Pants to school."

Penny groans as she remembers the stupid rule that her friends had made up back in first year. Ziph only created the rule because a Hufflepuff boy, Wendell Porter, had had a crush on Penny during first year. Ziph had freaked out and convinced herself that Penny was somehow turning her back on the "Girl Code" (even though they'd only been friends for a month at that point), and had made Penny and Satlynn sign a contract agreeing that they couldn't date anyone unless that person had been approved by the group.

What this basically means is that none of them are allowed to date. If they do somehow choose a boy over the friend group, they have to wear a pair of hideous pants that Satlynn's mum gave her. They're apparently "witch's pants," and they're huge, ugly, billowy pants in a sickening pink and red paisley print.

"Yes, Ziph, I remember our stupid pact," Penny snaps, crossing her arms over her chest. "Also, who said anything about me liking Grif- I mean, Vaughn?" Penny adds. Ziph narrows her eyes, making them glint and match her blue-black hair.

"We are bad-ass women who don't need men to complete us," Ziph explains."I mean, look at Satlynn's family: generations of witches who didn't need men! Women who raised each other to fend for themselves in this garbage hole we call a world! These are the kinds of women we should be striving to be! Not girls who get little presents from random dickheads."

Penny scowls at her, "You're missing the point! Being a bad-ass woman doesn't mean forsaking men altogether. It means standing up for yourself and not letting the patriarchy get you down."

"So, I'm keeping this nice thing that Griffin gave me, and I'm not going to feel like any less of a person for doing so," Penny says with finality as she grabs her new quill and christens it with some ink from her well.

Ziph purses her lips and looks away. Penny's not afraid of boys the way Ziph is. Penny grew up with an older brother and has now spent a year on the Gryffindor quidditch team; she thinks she can handle a little testosterone every now and then without turning into some sort of whimpering floozy like Ziph seems to think she will. Satlynn shoots Penny a curious look, and the three of them spend the rest of class actually taking notes, for once.

X

Penny yawns and uses her wand to lazily light and extinguish the candle on her bedside table over and over again.

"What's the point of lighting it if you're just going to put it out again?" Ziph huffs from her desk by the window where she's attempting to finish her transfiguration homework.

"I'm just bored! It's 9:00 PM and I've done nothing exciting today. Not one exciting thing!" Penny complains as she continues to light and put out the candle.

"Who says every day of your life has to be exciting?" Ziph asks.

"Well, I'm going to die soon! I don't want to waste a day!" Penny retorts. Satlynn whips her head up from her magazine to shoot Penny a quizzical look.

"You're dying?" Satlynn asks, her brow furrowed.

"Aren't we all?" Penny asks dramatically as she flops her head against her headboard.

"You are so full of shit," Ziph says, "and if you're looking for something so 'exciting' to do, why are you lighting and putting out a candle? In what world is that exciting?" Penny rolls her eyes at her friend's reasonableness. She doesn't want to be reasonable right now; she wants to do something.

"Anyone have any liquor?" Penny asks, looking around hopefully at her friends.

"It's a Wednesday!" Ziph barks at her.

"I'm saving mine," Satlynn says with a shrug.

"I cannot handle you two; I'm taking a shower," Ziph says as she throws her quill down in defeat and grabs her shower supplies.

"We're normal! You're the one doing your transfiguration homework on a Wednesday, even though it's not due until Monday," Penny points out as Ziph sticks her tongue out at her, walks into the bathroom, and rams the door closed behind her.

"Your level of maturity is appalling!" Penny calls after her, but Ziph has already turned on the water and doesn't hear.

"Thank God she's gone!" Satlynn lets out a breath and scrambles over to join Penny on her bed.

"Wha-?" Penny asks. She wonders if Satlynn is mad at Ziph, for some reason.

"I have to talk to you about something," Satlynn says, lowering her voice dramatically. Penny raises her eyebrows expectantly.

"Well? What is it?" Penny asks, her curiosity growing.

"This thing you have with Griffin Vaughn: can you pursue it? Please date him, Pen!" Satlynn practically wails, and her eyebrows waver with sincerity.

"What?! Why do you want me to date him? You practically bit my head off just for calling him 'Griffin' today in History!" Penny points out. "You don't want me to date anyone, lest I dishonor the ever-Holy Girl Code."

Satlynn winces and covers her forehead with her hand so Penny can't look at her eyes.

"Okay, here's the thing: I don't actually care about the Girl Code," Satlynn admits, flinching as she waits for Penny to swat her in response to this confession.

"Didn't your mum and grandmas practically write the Girl Code? Your family's whole thing is witch empowerment through hatred of wizards," Penny reminds her. Satlynn's older sister, Marcy, is infamous around the school for her vitriol towards men.

Satlynn grimaces guiltily. "Yeah, but I don't want that," she mumbles, and she slowly uncovers her face to look at Penny when she realizes a slap isn't coming.

"I want to flirt with cute boys and go on dates and have a fairytale romance," Satlynn says in a rush.

Penny stares at her in disbelief; this is the same girl who's been preaching misandry since she was in diapers.

"I can't tell Marcy or my mum; they wouldn't understand! And Ziph is insane and doesn't get it at all," Satlynn says bitterly. "But if you date Griffin first, and you wear The Pants-"

"Oh, so that's what this is about? You want me to wear The Pants?!" Penny asks.

"No one knows who I am! If I wear them, my entire social status will be destroyed! I'll be forever known as the girl who wore the hideous pair of witch's pants in fourth year," Satlynn explains miserably.

"What, and my reputation doesn't matter at all to you?" Penny demands.

"Your reputation is already good! You're an athlete and you hang out with, like, James Potter-"

"Because James is the epitome of cool-" Penny says sarcastically.

"Um, yeah! He is, actually!" Satlynn says, as if this is the most obvious thing in the world.

"So let me get this straight: you want to date someone-" Penny begins.

"I'd take literally anyone at this point," Satlynn says under her breath.

"-but you don't want to wear The Pants because doing so will tank your nonexistent reputation, so you want me to be your sacrificial lamb and tell Ziph that I'm dating Griffin so that she makes me wear The Pants. Then if you do end up dating someone, it won't seem like as big of a blow and Ziph won't make you wear them," Penny reiterates.

"Yes, exactly," Satlynn says, sounding relieved that Penny's caught on.

"I don't even know if I want to date Griffin," Penny says.

The rebel in her wants to cease all communication with Griffin now that Satlynn's trying to force her to date him. Anytime Penny's forced into something, her immediate instinct is to rebel. She frowns as she mulls it over; Griffin did look strangely attractive today in History-and he'd been so nice to her, and he seemed uncharacteristically confident…

"You know what? I'll think about it," Penny says finally, and Satlynn smiles and clucks her tongue with excitement.

"Yes! It's happening, Pen! We're getting boyfriends this year!" she squeals, and Penny cringes and wonders what she's gotten herself into.

X

The team decides to sneak into Hogsmeade to get drunk after a long, exhausting practice. This is a common thing for them. James and Sirius know all of the good secret passages for sneaking in and out of the school, and the rest of the team is always down to blow off some steam together. Penny notices that poor Griffin, as always, looks frightened. Penny ditches Rillian, Parker, and Sirius and skips to the back of the group, where Griffin is walking alone.

"Hi," she says cheerfully as she shoots him a smile. Someone needs to care for this lost little boy, she thinks with concern. She squints at the rest of the team, who have been largely ignoring Griffin's presence since he joined the team. She rolls her eyes at them; boys can be so unwelcoming and hostile towards one another sometimes.

"Hi," Griffin says nervously. He's kind of adorable, Penny thinks. Then she catches herself; she doesn't want to prove Ziph and Satlynn right by being interested in Griffin. He's adorable like a sad puppy, Penny amends her thoughts. There.

"Don't worry about Hogsmeade," Penny says reassuringly. "We never stay too long. You'll be able to go to class tomorrow, no problem." Griffin looks relieved and shoots her a grateful look.

"It'll be fun," Penny says. "We usually just head to The Three Broomsticks. You've been there before, right?"

Griffin nods, "I know the spot, yeah," he says with a smile. She feels like she's being a bit patronizing; of course he knows about The Three Broomsticks. There's not a Hogwarts student who doesn't know about The Three Broomsticks.

"Well, then you have nothing to worry about," she says with a shrug, "it's a familiar location, and everything!" He nods and smiles at her appreciatively.

"So, what's new with you? What classes are you taking this year?" she asks him, realizing that even though they're in the same house and the same year, she's never really bothered to get to know Griffin before.

He begins rattling off his list of classes, and they spend the rest of the walk pleasantly discussing the pros and cons of taking Care of Magical Creatures instead of Astronomy.

Once they get to the bar, the team swoops in on a large table at the back by the window. They have to drive off a gaggle of middle-aged witches, who happily oblige for the handsome young lads. Penny rolls her eyes at her stupid brother and his friends and their charm, but she's grateful for the table, nonetheless.

"Round of butterbeers, on me?" Vince asks them once they've all taken their seats.

"YES!" Parker screeches annoyingly, and the other boys whoop and holler in agreement as Vince gets up and drags Parker with him to get the drinks.

"I'll never understand that man's hair," James mumbles once Vince is out of earshot. Penny bursts out laughing; Vince's hair does always look immaculate.

"I think he uses a sticking spell on it," she says through a series of giggles.

"He does!" Rillian pipes up from his corner of the table. "I've seen him performing it in the morning! He literally uses a sticking spell to get it to stay like that!" The rest of the table guffaws with laughter, grateful that Rillian and Vince are roommates so Rillian gets all the dirt on their captain.

"What's so funny?" Vince asks as he and Parker arrive back at the table, drinks in tow.

"Nothing," the others say guiltily, and Vince shoots them a suspicious look before sliding back into his seat.

"Alright then," Vince says as he slides their beers down the table to them, one at a time.

"You know what this party is missing?" Sirius asks.

"Girls," he confirms as Rillian and Parker nod along.

"AHEM," Penny says, motioning towards herself, "Have I missed something? Did someone transfigure me into a fish?"

"Not a bad idea-" she hears Sirius mutter, and she shoots him a glare.

Rillian waves his hand dismissively, "You don't count, Pops." Penny stares at her brother through narrowed eyes. Apparently, she's not a girl anymore.

"And why is that, exactly?" she asks skeptically.

"Because you're my sister!" Rillian says with another wave of his hand, as if this is the most obvious thing in the world. Penny scoffs.

"Griffin thinks I'm a girl. Right, Griffin?" she asks, and Griffin nearly chokes on his butterbeer. She slaps him on the back to help him get ahold of himself.

"Right," he says weakly once he stops coughing. The older boys exchange suspicious glances with one another.

"Vaughn, that's a dangerous road, my pal," Parker explains.

"You can't think of Twitch as a girl," Sirius adds expertly.

James nods solemnly in agreement.

"Maybe I want to be thought of as a girl," Penny snaps at them; honestly, it's no wonder no boys want to date her. Not only do Ziph and Satlynn force her not to date, but her older brother ensures that all boys think of Penny as...as a fish, or something! The entire team seems dead-set on refusing to acknowledge her female status, and it's downright annoying.

"Well, we don't want you to be thought of that way," Rillian snaps. "This is a team of men. Having girls on the team would just be distracting." Penny folds her arms across her chest in annoyance.

"Seriously, Rill? Do you know how sexist you're being right now? You're basically saying that girls are only good for ogling at, and that if there is one who happens to be a good quidditch player, i.e., myself, they should be considered a 'man' and not given any credit for the great things they've accomplished for womankind," Penny retorts.

Rillian's face flushes with anger, "That's not what I mean, Pen! I just don't want any of these loons-" he motions towards the rest of the table, "seeing you as a potential conquest. I know them! Trust me, I'm just trying to protect you."

"We're really not that bad-" Sirius says defensively.

"You and Parker once made a bet to see who could snog the most girls at one party," Rillian reminds him.

"Hear, hear!" Parker says with a grin, "I won that one."

"Point taken," Sirius says as he looks from Parker to Penny, clearly agreeing with Rillian's statement that Penny needs to be thought of as a guy so that boys like Parker don't take advantage of her. Penny sits in silence, fuming at the team for talking about her this way.

"You're all disgusting," she says as she scoots her chair back and gets up from the table.

"Let's go play pinball," she adds as she pulls Griffin up from his chair and tugs him over to the pinball machines.

Maybe she'll go out with Griffin just to spite her brother. The team really are a bunch of assholes, so she kind of sees Rillian's point, but he's kind of being an asshole, too, for not letting anyone think she's attractive. Or even think of her as a girl, for that matter. She doesn't know what to think; she just has to get away from them all as fast as possible or she's worried she'll hex them into oblivion.

X

Penny's beer sloshes a bit as she jostles her way through the crowd towards the pinball machine.

"You got any sickles?" she yells at Griffin over the noise.

"Good!" he yells back. Penny shakes her head at him. It's way too loud in here. Or maybe she's just too small. It's hard out here for a girl who is barely five feet tall and whose teammates are all gangly beanpoles. She pulls Griffin's face down until his ear is next to her mouth.

"SICKLES!" she yells directly into his ear.

"Ohhh," she hears him say over the din as he fishes around in his pockets. He pulls out two sickles, and she grins and starts the game. He watches, captivated, as she deftly steers the ball through The Wailing Woods and Breakneck Bog.

"So, have you been using the quill I bought you?" Griffin yells as he takes a draft of his beer. Penny turns around to glare at a woman who stumbles into her before answering.

"I thought you just gave it to me," she says, smirking a bit as she flings the ball upwards with her left lever.

"Oh- I-" Griffin stammers. He takes another drink, probably trying to hide his embarrassment.

"I may have bought it for you," he admits with a grimace. Penny raises an eyebrow at him skeptically, but her heart soars; so Griffin got a present for her. She tries to hide her smile as she continues casually playing her pinball game, but she becomes acutely aware of Griffin's presence next to her and her hands get slippery on the levers. She finally becomes so distracted that she forfeits the game and whirls around to lean against the machine, unable to stop staring at Griffin.

"You know what we need?" she asks him. He just shrugs and returns her stare.

"More drinks," she says, motioning towards their empty glasses. He nods and grabs her hand as he leads her towards the bar. She hopes he doesn't notice how sweaty her palms have become; or if he does, she hopes he assumes it's because of her excitement over the pinball game.

They arrive at the bar, only to find the rest of the team already seated, taking shots.

"Twitch!" Parker yells when he sees her.

"We're taking shots!" James adds.

"Get over here!" Sirius says, beckoning her towards them. Penny immediately drops Griffin's hand and bounds across the room to join the rest of the team.

"We'll take another shot for Twitch!" Parker tells the bartender, who rolls his eyes and gets out another shot glass.

Penny puts her hands on her hips. "Did I say I would take a shot with you?" she asks Parker with a glare. Parker can be such a douche sometimes. He's one of those sports guys who was never chastised for being a jerk, and thus thinks that "jerk" is synonymous with "human male."

"Have you ever, in the history of this quidditch team, refused to take a shot with us?" Parker shoots back. His cherubic blonde curls are, as always, in contrast to his devilish personality.

Penny squints at him, then says at last, "Fine. You're right," as she slides onto the open bar stool next to him. Griffin stands awkwardly behind her.

"You want one too, mate?" James asks Griffin politely. Griffin glances nervously at Penny, then says, "Oh, what the heck. Sure."

"YEAH!" Parker yells, and the rest of the team joins in applauding Griffin's choice.

X

An hour and four shots later, Penny is drunkenly watching as James tries to beat Sirius's high score on the Wizard's World pinball machine.

"You got this, Pex!" Parker is shouting belligerently. Griffin is standing near her, and Penny can feel his body heat.

"What's up with all the nicknames?" Griffin calls to her, even though they're standing centimeters away from one another.

Penny swallows the rest of her second beer before answering, "So, I am Twitch," she says, "because I twitch," she slurs, not very articulately. She's had one beer and...three shots? Four? She's lost count now, but she just shrugs as she sets down her second empty beer glass.

"Because she does this twitchy thing on her broom," Rillian booms in Penny's ear, clearly listening to their conversation. Penny rolls her eyes.

"Why you gotta harsh my vibe, man?" she asks her brother. Every time she tries to talk to Griffin, one of her other teammates shows up to defuse the situation.

"I'm not harshing anything," Rillian shoots back, crinkling his nose so that his freckles become slits on his nose.

"Anyway, Griffin," Penny says pointedly as she turns away from her brother, "I am called Twitch. Sirius is Switch. James is Pex, because he can do that pec thing."

"Don't tempt me, Twitch! I won't hesitate to stop this game and do the pec thing!" James yells as he rapidly smashes the levers down, furiously watching the metal ball slide through the course.

"Pec thing! Pec thing! Pec thing!" Parker starts chanting in his loud, douchey voice. He grabs a random group of people next to them and gets them to join in the chant, then gallops around the bar at top speed, waving his arms and making random people join the chant.

"Afton, you ready to take over for me?" James yells to Vince over the din.

"On it!" Vince says urgently as he sets down his drink and positions himself to take over for James.

"Three, two, ONE!" James yells, and the two of them expertly swap spots. Vince quickly repels the ball, and James seems satisfied.

Pec thing, pec thing, pec thing! The room chants, and James grins sheepishly as he hops up onto an empty table and whips off his shirt.

"What-" Griffin asks, and then a look of comprehension dawns across his face as he watches James move his pectoral muscles up and down to the beat of the song that's blaring over the speakers.

"He's got dancing nipples, so we call him Pex," Penny explains, and Griffin just shakes his head at her. A group of scantily-clad girls jump up onto the table to join James, and soon he is lost in a sea of dyed-blonde hair, perfume, and stilettos.

Soon, everyone is hopping onto the tables, and then the bar security has to step in and try to get everyone back down on the ground before someone falls. In all the mayhem, Penny discreetly grabs Griffin's arm and tugs him outside to the alley behind the bar. It's quieter here; except for a few straggling smokers, nearly everyone remains inside.

"Finally, some peace and quiet!" Penny says, and her voice comes out a little more loudly and little more shrill than usual. This tends to happen when she's had a few.

"And you're ruinin' it with all that yellin'!" an old man in the alley snaps at her, his teeth gnashed around a cigar.

"Sorry," she mumbles with a hiccup as she takes a seat on a bench and pulls Griffin with her.

He looks at her, eyes shining from the fairy lights that have been strung between the bar and the neighboring building.

"Anyway, now that it's quiet, I can finally tell you...what was I telling you, again?" Penny asks with a frown, trying to recall the reason she dragged him out here.

"Nicknames," Griffin says with a grin.

"Right. So, some people call me Twitch," Penny slurs out, "others call me Pops. That's because my initials are P-O-P. Penelope Ophelia Prett. Then there are people who call me Pen. And my grandma calls me Nelly. I think that's it." Penny smiles at Griffin; his head is swimming in and out of focus, but that doesn't mean it isn't still a very good looking head.

She's not sure how it happens, but the next thing she knows, she's got her hands in Griffin's hair and is full-on making out with him. Right here. In the alley behind the bar. Like a tramp. But she doesn't care. She feels numb; he's so warm. Why is he so warm? Is it normal for someone to be this warm?

Her brain is so full of alcoholic chemicals at this point that she can't tell up from down, and if she doesn't open her eyes soon, she's going to get seriously dizzy. As she pulls back, she registers dully that this will always be the way she remembers her first kiss: twinkling lights, the smell of cigars, vomit, and slick pavement, the taste of firewhiskey on both their breaths, the numb, heady feeling of too much drink.

She feels her heart sinking as she realizes that was it: that was the special moment that everyone talks about. The first kiss. And she's so drunk, she'll barely remember it.

X

Griffin runs wildly through the crowd, searching for his teammates. At last, he runs into Sirius and Rillian, who are chatting up the local band that played at the bar that night.

"Guys!" he says desperately, and Rillian glances at him, a hint of reproach in his eyes.

"I need your help," Griffin pants as he pulls them towards the exit. Griffin leads the other two grimly towards the bench where he had been sitting with Penny just moments before. Rillian gasps and sprints towards the bench in the alleyway when he sees his sister's crumpled form lying atop it.

"Pen!" He yells, grabbing her and shaking her unceremoniously.

"Mate, be careful!" Sirius snaps as he, too, rushes to kneel next to Penny.

"What the hell happened?" Rillian barks, glaring at Griffin.

Griffin throws his hands up innocently, "I-I don't know, one minute we were-" he glances at their angry faces, "Uh, one minute we were talking, and then her head just lolled forward and…" Griffin gestures helplessly towards the passed-out Penny.

Sirius glares suspiciously at Griffin's tousled hair, which he quickly pats into a more presentable shape. Griffin can feel himself going a bit red as the other boys glance at each other and try to figure out if he's telling the truth. Which he's not completely, Griffin realizes guiltily, and he hopes desperately that his guilt doesn't show up on his face. He and Penny had been doing a lot more than talking.

Rillian sighs as he looks at his sister. "I'll go round up the boys. Looks like we're calling it a night. There's always that one teammate that goes just a little too hard," he says with a shake of his head. With that, he goes back into the bar to search for Parker, Vince, and James.

Griffin watches in awkward silence as Sirius checks Penny's breathing and hoists her onto his back.

"At least this time it was the 90-pound one that passed out," he mutters. "Last time, we all had to take turns lugging Parker back to the castle."

"Why not just levitate him?" Griffin asks bluntly. Sirius glares at him for a moment. "Well, that is a great idea, actually," he admits at last.

"Come on, let's go to the front and meet the rest of the team there," Sirius says, carrying Penny as if she's nothing and leading Griffin out of the alley. Griffin thinks miserably that he completely messed up tonight; not only did he fail at bonding with everyone, he also had to watch Penny pass out. It had been nothing short of terrifying, watching her head hit her chest without warning.

The man with the cigar turns to stare at them as they walk by.

"Your girlfriend ain't dead, is she?" he asks Griffin.

Griffin shakes his head, "No, sir, she's fine...I think," he says, casting an uncertain glance toward Sirius, who refuses to look at him. They walk in silence and then stand at the front of the bar, waiting for the others to join them. Griffin watches the lights around them blur together as he sways a little bit where he's standing.

"This your first time going out?" Sirius breaks the silence, but still doesn't look at Griffin. Griffin stares into the distance, looking at the lights of the other shops.

"My first time going out drinking, yeah," Griffin says finally, wishing he had something to do with his hands.

"Well, here's a pro-tip," Sirius says, and Griffin can't help but notice a hint of accusation in his voice, "when you have a drinking buddy- someone you hang out with all night- it's your job to take care of each other. Make sure nothing bad happens to them."

"I-I'm sorry," Griffin stammers, "I didn't know that."

Sirius glares at him. "Well, now you do."

Griffin nods and has to sit down, feeling himself getting queasy. He crouches on the sidewalk, his head in his hands. At last, the rest of the team comes barreling out of the bar's front entrance.

"She had to be a nine, at least!" Parker yells as he barges out of the bar.

"Nah, mate, you've got Beer Goggles," James refutes him as he stumbles after his friend. "She was definitely more like a six. On a good day."

"Eh, mate, you alright?" Vince asks as he kneels beside Griffin, who is still crouched on the ground.

"Yeah, totally," Griffin says, but as he stands up, he gets super queasy again and has to run over to the bushes to throw up.

"These fuckin' noobs," Parker yells, "don't know how to party!"

"They're fourth years, mate," James reminds him as he heads over to check on Griffin.

"Alright, Vaughn?" James asks, and Griffin smiles weakly in response. He finally begins to feel a bit better after standing with his hands on his knees for a moment.

"I'm good," he tells the others. "Let's head back."

Vince leads the way back to the castle, and Parker pulls out a wizarding drug called Xakka— which Griffin has never heard of — that he starts smoking out of a joint and passing around to the rest of the team. When it gets to Griffin, he politely declines; he's had more than enough experimentation for one night.

X

Sirius is seriously pissed off; this new Griffin kid is a sad excuse for a team member. Not only can he not hold his alcohol, he also somehow made Penny pass out, and now, of course, Sirius is the one who ends up carrying her home. He grits his teeth and ignores the fact that he volunteered for the job; this is all Griffin's fault.

And what was up with the comment from the old man with the cigar? Your girlfriend ain't dead, is she? Griffin had done nothing to refute that statement. Sirius's blood boils as he looks at the scrawny seeker. The twerp better not be messing around with Penny; he could screw up the team dynamics forever.

When they get to the school, the seven of them sneak as stealthily as possible towards the Gryffindor common room. Miraculously, they make it without getting caught. It's around 1:30 AM, and most of the school is asleep.

"Take her up to her room," Rillian tells Sirius, who nods and takes James's invisibility cloak from him.

The girls' dormitory entrance has an enchantment on it that doesn't allow boys up the staircase, but James's cloak prevents the spell from happening. Sirius throws the cloak over himself and Penny and makes his way up towards her room on the fourth floor.

He knocks tentatively on the door, then pushes it open when he gets no response. Penny's roommates are sound asleep in their beds, completely oblivious to her absence. Sirius frowns at them; they really ought to pay more attention to Penny's comings and goings to make sure she's safe.

He sets Penny down on her bed and wiggles her under the covers. There's makeup smudged all over her face, so he walks over to the bathroom, trying to keep his footsteps light so no one wakes. He finds a washcloth and runs it under warm water, then hastens back to Penny and begins gently rubbing her eyes with the cloth. He's almost done with the first eye when her lashes flutter and her eyes slowly pry open.

"Sirius?" She asks groggily. She's clearly still very intoxicated.

"What're you doing?" She slurs out, closing her eyes again.

"Taking off your makeup," he explains as he moves on to her other eye.

"Oh," she remarks. Then there's silence, and her breathing gets heavy again. He figures she's passed out again when suddenly her voice cuts the silence.

"Do you remember your first kiss?" She asks. His hands still, and he stares at her, surprised by the question. Her eyes are still closed.

"Yeah," he admits as he goes back to cleaning out her eyes.

"Was it...special?" Penny asks hesitantly.

Sirius thinks back to a day in his first year, when an older girl he didn't know had pulled him into the corner and kissed his mouth without warning.

"Not really," he says.

"Oh." She's quiet for a moment.

"I wanted mine to be. But it wasn't," she confesses, and she lets out a strangled sob. Sirius's heart plummets as he gazes at her. Penny has been his protégée for the past year. She doesn't deserve to have a shitty first kiss; she doesn't deserve to cry about it alone in her room. He knows this must have to do with Griffin, and suddenly, all Sirius wants to do is pummel the boy. Who does he think he is, exactly, joining the team one minute and fucking it up the next?

"It doesn't have to count," Sirius tells her quietly. "Maybe the drunk ones don't matter. Your next first kiss will be better," he promises her, and she smiles a little.

"Okay," she whispers, then drifts off to sleep.

He busies himself making sure that she has a glass of water and a rubbish bin by her bedside, then heads back to the common room. He's surprised that Penny cares so much about having a romantic first kiss; she's always come across as someone carefree, and he can't recall ever hearing her squeal over cute boys or weddings or other...romantic things. But, he reminds himself, she is a fourteen-year-old girl.

Sometimes Sirius forgets that Penny is different from the rest of the quidditch team. When he gets to the common room, he's surprised to find Rillian and Vince sitting in two large, cushy chairs surrounding the fire.

"What kept you?" Rillian asks sharply as Sirius joins their circle and rubs his palms together in front of the roaring fire. Sirius shoots him a quizzical look, surprised by his suspicious tone. What does Rillian think happened up there?

"Just making sure YOUR sister is taken care of," he snaps defensively. Rillian gives him a long look, then nods.

"Well. Thanks for that, I guess," Rillian says reluctantly. He clears his throat and looks at Vince.

"Alright, here's the thing: I don't think Penny should go out with us anymore," Rillian explains. Sirius frowns.

"What? Why not?" He blurts out.

"Why do you think, Switch?" Rillian asks. "Look what happened tonight! She's too young for this level of partying."

"We did that 'level of partying' at her age," Sirius says, "and besides, it wasn't her fault that this happened. Griffin was a bad influence on her."

Vince snorts. "Oh, right. Like any of us believe that," Vince says, rolling his eyes. "We all know if anyone was instigating risky behavior, it was Twitch."

"That's not true! She doesn't usually get that wasted. It had to have something to do with Griffin," Sirius retorts darkly.

"You're just upset because she was paying attention to someone other than you for once," Rillian says, crossing his arms and sitting back rigidly in his chair.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius asks, a skeptical scowl taking over his face. He doesn't appreciate the implication that he only hangs round with Penny because she gives him attention. Which she doesn't even do! Half the time, she's screaming at him for acting immature.

"It means she practically idolized you last year, but now that she's established herself as a beater, she doesn't need you anymore, so she doesn't spend all her time fawning over you," Rillian says.

"Fawning?" Sirius repeats. "She doesn't fawn! We play the same position. I helped her get better!" He attempts to explain. "This has nothing to do with me, anyway. It's about this new recruit, Griffin. I don't think he should go out with us anymore," Sirius continues as he stares at the fire and refuses to look at his teammates.

Rillian rolls his eyes. "Vaughn will be fine. It's my sister we need to exclude. I'm just thinking of her safety," Rillian explains.

Sirius turns to stare at him, remembering the panic he'd felt when he saw Penny hunched over on a bench in the back alley of the bar. He frowns; maybe Rillian has a point. Even though Penny is their friend and teammate, maybe it would be better for everyone if she stopped coming out with them. Then she wouldn't get the chance to go around kissing idiots like Griffin Vaughn.

"Fine," Sirius says at last, and Rillian gives him a nod before the three of them head off to their dormitories.

X

Griffin wakes up the next morning feeling like he was both run over by a truck and diagnosed with the flu last night. He has to run to the loo twice to be sick before his roommates even get out of bed, and when 7:00 hits, food is the last thing he wants.

He skips breakfast and attempts to fall asleep during the last remaining minutes before class starts. It's no use, though. He dreads the thought of having to go to class in this state; how the heck does the rest of the team do this? He knows they go out often, but Griffin feels he would be completely fine if he never drank again in his life. He's not sure how he's going to keep up with them for the rest of the school year.

Griffin's stomach churns (not just from the alcohol) as he wonders what the heck he's going to do about Penny Prett. They've had nearly all the same classes for the past four years, and she's always been one of the more popular students in their year.

Griffin's always noticed her, but at the end of last year, Penny became incredibly pretty — or at least, Griffin thought so, and he started paying more attention to things she did: what she talked about, what she liked. It's not like he had a crush on her; it's more like he noticed her a bit more than usual. When he saw the flamingo quill in Diagon Alley, he thought maybe she'd like it, since she was always using that orange quill last year. Before he even processed what he was doing, he'd gone into Hattie's Specialty Quills and purchased it.

Now Penny's definitely noticed him, he decides as he remembers queasily the events of last night. She'd kissed him completely out of nowhere! It was his first kiss — his first as a teenager, anyway. When he was five, he'd kissed his childhood friend, Sadie Valentine. Somehow, he doesn't think that counts.

Griffin sighs and finally gets out of bed and gets ready for class. What's he supposed to say to Penny?

"Hey, nice of you to make out with me! Sorry that it was so bad, you passed out immediately after!"

Wow. That would probably go over well. Griffin makes his way down to charms, his first class of the day. A knot forms in his stomach as he thinks about the fact that he and Penny have six of their seven classes together. He's going to have to see her all day. He watches his feet as he shuffles towards the classroom, dreading going in.

"Where have you been, mate?" Griffin looks up at the sound of his friend's cheerful voice.

"Oh, hullo, Taman," Griffin replies dully.

"You didn't come to breakfast," Taman points out.

"Yeah, I, uh, wasn't feeling well," Griffin murmurs. He spots Penny across the hall. She looks infuriatingly radiant; she's chatting with her friends, laughing, and doesn't look at all like someone who was too drunk to walk home the previous night. How the heck does she do it, Griffin wonders. Penny glances at him without breaking away from the conversation she's having with Ziph and Satlynn, and his heart leaps as their eyes meet for a moment.

"Griffin!" Taman is saying.

"Huh?" Griffin asks, turning his attention back to his friend.

"Are you okay?" Taman asks skeptically.

"Yeah- sorry. Just a little out of it today," Griffin mutters as they walk into class. Taman just shakes his head at Griffin as they take their customary spot near the front, and Penny and her friends sit in the back.

Griffin taps his quill anxiously as class begins; he hates that she's in the back, so she can see him, but he can't see her. He feels like they desperately need to talk, but he has absolutely no idea what to say to her.

He pays absolutely no attention to the professor throughout class, and when at last, the clock strikes 8:50, Griffin practically runs out of the room and tells Taman he's gone to use the loo. He hangs back and hides behind the door of the classroom as he waits for Penny to emerge. He hears her tell Ziph and Satlynn to go ahead, and Griffin's heart speeds up as he wonders if Penny wants to talk to him, too. She appears at last, and he pops out from behind the door.

"Hi," he says. He can't think of a cooler greeting, unfortunately. Penny's brown eyes flicker upward to meet his, and his stomach flip-flops.

"Hi," she repeats. They stand there for a moment, staring at each other and blocking the doorway to the charms classroom.

"Um..." Griffin says awkwardly. He notices she's wearing a pink blouse under her robes, and it complements the rusty color of her hair. He feels his face flushing as he flounders for what he's trying to say.

"I'm sorry," he says hurriedly, and Penny raises her eyebrow at him.

"For...?" she asks. She inclines her head slightly as she begins to walk towards the dungeons and motions for him to do the same.

"For... I mean...For what happened last night," Griffin stammers as they fall into step with one another.

Penny shoots him an annoyed look.

"So, you wish it hadn't happened?!" She says, her tone accusatory.

"No! That's not what I meant at all!" Griffin stutters. Ugh, he's really bollocksing this up. "I just meant...I don't know. I'm not sorry it happened. Maybe a little sorry about the circumstances, though," Griffin adds quickly.

Penny shrugs noncommittally, but Griffin sees a slight smile hiding behind her easygoing veneer. "It's fine, mate. I had a nice night," she says dismissively.

Griffin's heart races as he hazards a glance at her; is she implying that she enjoyed the whole night? Including the part where they kissed?

"So what did I miss after I passed out?" Penny asks casually.

"Oh. Nothing, really. We left not long afterwards," Griffin says with a shrug. He doesn't want her to know that they left because she passed out, so he tries to make it sound like they just happened to decide to leave. Penny nods as they arrive in the dungeons for potions.

"Well... I guess I'll talk to you at practice on Tuesday," Griffin says as a farewell.

"Or whenever," Penny replies with a smirk as she goes off to find her friends.

"Or...or whenever," Griffin whispers to himself after she leaves. He'll see her whenever.

X

Penny's weekend was uneventful: she sat around all day on Saturday and finally went to dinner at 4:00 PM, along with most of her friends; on Sunday, she did some homework with Ziph and Satlynn, which ended up being more of a never-ending conversation while sitting at the library, rather than any actual homework-doing.

She's seen Griffin a few times over the weekend, but she still feels like she can't quite talk to him when her friends are around. Ziph is too judgmental of boys; she'd notice straightaway if Penny was hanging out with Griffin, and Satlynn's bizarrely hopeful that Penny will talk to Griffin, so Penny's stuck in a limbo of one friend's utter disapproval and the other's annoying enthusiasm.

She's resorted to sending secret glances his way every once and a while when they're in the same vicinity.

He'd been in the library on Sunday with Taman Perry, and Penny's pretty sure he was at least partially listening to her conversation with Ziph and Satlynn. Penny had acted fun and hilarious, hoping Griffin would think she was effortlessly cool.

Now that Tuesday has finally arrived, Penny is ready to talk to Griffin again. She can chat with him at quidditch practice, and no one (read: Ziph and Satlynn) can suspect her of anything; they're teammates! They have to talk to each other.

Penny fluffs her hair in the mirror before practice, and Satlynn walks into the dorm bathroom to squint at her.

"Yes?" Penny demands grumpily. She's trying to psych herself up before seeing Griffin; she doesn't need to be distracted by Satlynn telling her about a new nail polish that changes color with your mood, or whatever.

"What's going on with you and Vaughn? Are you dating him? If you are, you're contractually obligated to tell me and Ziph," Satlynn says.

"Well, I see you're getting straight to the point," Penny huffs, purposely avoiding the questions. Satlynn raises an eyebrow at her skeptically.

"You're not telling me something," Satlynn guesses. Penny chews the inside of her cheek, debating how much information she can trust Satlynn with.

"Okay, fine. I'll tell you: I'm not dating Griffin Vaughn," Penny admits at last. "...Yet."

"YET?" Satlynn squeals, and she breaks out in a grin as she joins Penny by the sink. Penny smiles back at her friend, feeling embarrassed by how excited she is at the prospect of potentially dating Griffin.

"So, tell me more!" Satlynn says, and Penny bites her lip. She has been wanting to tell someone about what happened; she's just not sure how much she wants to tell Satlynn. And it's been kind of exciting, having a secret that only she and Griffin know about. It would be nice to talk to someone about it, though.

"Ugh, fine. Something happened," Penny says, dropping her voice to a dramatic whisper.

"Go on," Satlynn urges, her blue eyes wide with anticipation.

"On Thursday, I went out with the rest of the team. We went and got drinks, and of course, since the guys all suck, they were ignoring Griffin completely. I decided to take it upon myself to be his drinking buddy and welcome him to the team," Penny explains.

"Oh, of course. With no ulterior motive," Satlynn adds, and Penny narrows her eyes at her friend; she doesn't need the commentary. Satlynn holds up her hands defensively, and Penny continues.

"Anyway. Then I drank a bunch, and I don't even know what else happened-James and Parker were dancing on a table, I think. Who knows. Anyway, then I dragged Griffin out to the alley with me. I don't think I even came up with a very good excuse to get him out there - and I just, like, made out with him."

"Excuse me?!" Satlynn demands. "You made out with Griffin Vaughn on Thursday and you're just telling me now?!"

"I mean, yeah," Penny says with a shrug.

"But - but we saw him all weekend! At dinner, in the library-you didn't even talk to him!" Satlynn says accusingly.

"I'm playing it cool."

"You're playing it too cool! He probably thinks you hate him, or something!" Satlynn says, sounding horrified.

"We talked about it on Friday. It's fine," Penny explains.

"Talked about what? Your status? Are you going to go on a date with him? What's the plan?" Satlynn asks.

"We don't need to figure any of that out yet! We just, like, happened to kiss. Casually. Maybe we'll go out, maybe we won't."

"How can you be so cavalier about this? Your first kiss is not just some casual thing, Pen!" Satlynn says shrilly. Penny just purses her lips at Satlynn; it's true, it's not some casual thing, and she's been thinking about Griffin a lot more than she's letting on. She doesn't want Satlynn to know how nervous she is about the situation - she wants to appear cool and collected.

"He's a quidditch player, Pen. If you don't get him to date you before the first game, someone else is going to sweep him up," Satlynn says knowingly. Penny just scowls; that can't be true!

"It happened with Parker last year, remember? No one cared about him that much, and then he joined the quidditch team, and BAM! Instant chick magnet," Satlynn explains.

"Hmm," Penny says, suddenly concerned as she realizes that Griffin's been unusually confident lately. Being on the quidditch team might give him an inflated ego - which, unfortunately, will probably make girls like him more. What if Griffin turns into, like, a Parker? But he could also turn into a James and handle the popularity (for the most part) gracefully.

"Maybe you have a point," Penny admits begrudgingly as she grabs her stuff and heads off to practice, now more nervous than ever. "I'll see what I can do about Griffin."

"Yeah, and let me know if something happens so we can pick a date for you to wear The Pants!" Satlynn is sure to add before Penny leaves, and Penny rolls her eyes; how comforting that the only reason her friend wants her to open up is so that Satlynn can force Penny to wear The Pants.

X

Griffin sighs and closes his gym locker. His arm twitches and he tries to ignore the nervous jitters that have been plaguing him since class ended at 3:10.

It's relatively easy to ignore Penny in class, when they're surrounded by other people, but at practice, it's not so simple. They're always getting into team huddles and there are only seven of them- and more often than not, the chasers do their own thing, leaving only four of them- and she's impossible to avoid.

Not that he's avoiding her; he's just freaked out by her - she's so unpredictable, and he doesn't know where they stand now. They kissed, then they talked, and she always seems so flirtatious, but it's still unclear what, exactly, is going on with them.

"Gentlemen, I have an announcement!" Vince yells, excitement palpable in his voice as he charges into the locker room. Griffin turns to look at him politely, but Rillian and Parker continue roughhousing in the corner.

"GUYS!" James yells, and Vince clears his throat as Rillian and Parker finally stop fighting. Vince looks disappointed that the team is more likely to listen to James than they are to him.

"Sorry 'bout that," Rillian says, motioning his head towards Parker. "Help us settle this: a keeper is more important than Chaser #3, right?" he asks, looking expectantly at James and Vince.

"I'm staying out of this one," James says, putting up his hands in surrender.

"Guys, I have an announcement, remember?" Vince asks exasperatedly. Griffin notices that Vince is carrying a huge plastic bag full of what looks like...towels?

"Gather round," Vince tells them, his enthusiasm returning. "Hang on. Why isn't Sirius here yet?" he shoots James an accusatory look.

"Don't look at me! It's not my fault he's perpetually late," James says.

"Yeah, but you live with him, so you can encourage him to be more punctual," Vince snaps. "Anyway," he continues. "Guess who's got swag now!"

"I dunno, Justin Bieber?" Parker sniggers, and Vince shoots him a glare.

"Our uniforms came in!" Vince says, attempting to keep the team's attitude upbeat, rather than sarcastic.

He pulls out the first package and reads the label. "Banks," he says, handing it to Parker, who rips it open immediately and looks at one of the cool sweatsuits they've ordered to show team solidarity. They're made out of a red, shiny material and have yellow stripes running down the arms of the zip-up sweatshirt and the legs of the sweatpants.

"Not bad, Afton," Parker says in surprise as he examines the outfit.

"Why are you so surprised? Did you expect me to pick out ugly stuff?" Vince demands, and Parker holds up his arms defensively.

"No! Dude, why are you so touchy today?" Parker asks as he tries on the zip-up and shakes his arms out.

"We've only got three more practices until our first game! Why aren't you touchy, Banks?" Vince snarls as he continues handing out packages to the rest of them.

Griffin accepts his quietly and tries to ignore the lurch his stomach gives when Vince reminds them how soon the first game is coming up; he tries not to freak out about the fact that he's still only caught the snitch a handful of times at practice and doesn't feel at all prepared for the game.

He knows that the reason Vince is so nervous about the first game is mostly because of this, as well - everyone's worried that Griffin won't be able to hold his own when it comes down to it - especially since their first game is against Slytherin. The Slytherins are notoriously competitive. Griffin knows that next Saturday, he'll have to prove to everyone that he can do it - either that, or he'll prove everyone's suspicions right and fail. Why did he try out for this sport, again?

"It'll be fine, Afton," James says, clapping Vince on the back reassuringly. "We've got plenty of time to hone our skills, and most of us are veterans, so there's not much to hone, anyway."

Vince casts an uneasy glance at Griffin, and Griffin feels himself blushing a little; everyone's worried about the one member of the team who isn't a returning member.

It sucks, being a seeker, because his job is incredibly important - it determines the end of the game and (usually) the winner of the game, as well- and yet, it's so unpredictable: it all depends on Griffin finding a tiny, gold ball before someone else does, which is largely dependent on being in the right place at the right time.

"I'll, um, do my best," Griffin mumbles, and Vince looks far from relieved at this response.

"That's reassuring," Rillian says sarcastically.

"Alright," Vince sighs, "Anyway. We'll wear the new sweatsuits under our robes on Friday the 24th, then the next day- game day-we'll wear them until the game starts. No wearing them before that! I expect them to stay safely in their packages until next week. No soiling them and no losing them!"

"Soiling them? Do you expect us to wet ourselves anytime soon?" Parker asks, and James lets out a snort.

Vince grits his teeth at the lack of seriousness his team is displaying, but James gives him a reassuring look, which seems to help a little.

"'Gryffindor' on three?" James asks, and the boys nod and form a huddle so they can complete their sports chant. Between his nerves about being a new seeker and his nerves about Penny, the chant does little to calm Griffin's unease.

X

"Ah, fuck," Penny mutters to herself as she scrambles down the stairs and into the common room. She spent so much time having that 'deep chat' with Satlynn, she's now late for practice. Hopefully, the guys will take too long to complete their usual homoerotic pow-wow in the boys' locker room to notice her tardiness.

"You've got to be freakin' kidding me," Penny says when she notices Sirius rushing towards the portrait hole. "You're late, too?" she asks incredulously.

"Well, what is time, really, but a construct?" Sirius asks as Penny follows him out into the hallway. She shoots him a skeptical look.

"Okay, yeah, I'm also late," he admits as they both start rushing towards the front doors.

"Do you think Vince will go easier on me since I'm not the only one who's late?" Penny asks hopefully, and she yelps as Sirius yanks her arm and pulls her behind a painting of a clan of giants stomping out the entire population of a medieval village.

"Shortcut," he explains as he leads her through a dank passageway. "And no, I think he'll be even more pissed that both of us are late than he would be if it was just you."

"Well, great. I may as well prepare myself for death now. Goodbye, old friend," Penny says dramatically, addressing her dear broom, whom she's fondly named 'Terrence.'

"Why are you late, anyway?" Sirius asks as he pries open the exit of the passageway and checks to make sure no one's around before helping Penny through.

"Was talking to Satlynn and lost track of time," Penny explains with a shrug. They're near the front doors now, she notices; the passage actually saved her a lot of time. She'll have to remember that the next time she's late. (Not that she's late often.)

"Why are you late?" Penny asks skeptically, knowing with Sirius's track record, it'll have something to do with a girl.

"None of your business," he mumbles as they leave the castle and head down to the quidditch pitch. The others are already huddled on the field, Penny notices. She only panics a little; Vince will get over it.

"I told you why I was late!" Penny says, irritated at Sirius's inability to see that this goes both ways, here.

"Oh, believe me, you don't want to know," Sirius tells her with a smirk, and Penny wrinkles her nose in distaste.

"Alright, I'll take your word for it," she says disgustedly, hoping he'll stop talking.

"Nice of my beaters to show up!" Vince calls as he notices Penny and Sirius making their way down to the field.

"My bad, Afton! Your hair looks great today!" Penny hollers back with a thumbs-up.

"You can't suck up to me!" Vince says as Penny throws her quidditch robes on over her clothes and levitates the rest of her things into the girls' locker room.

"I'm ready!" she says cheerfully.

"This is the third time you've been late to practice, and this is our third practice!" Vince says, crossing his arms. The rest of the team looks on awkwardly.

"Shall we just start, then?" James asks Vince tentatively, who nods and waves them off with his hand. James, Rillian, Parker, and Griffin all take off as Vince stays behind to chastise Penny.

"I swear, Prett, if you're late one more time, you're on probation. You're already on thin fucking ice," Vince says menacingly, and Penny exchanges a panicked look with Sirius.

"What do you mean, 'probation'?" Sirius asks.

"I mean that she's running out of chances if she wants to stay on the team," Vince explains.

"You can't do that!" Penny protests. "And, hello! Sirius was late, too! Where are his consequences?"

Sirius squints at her. "I just stuck up for you, and now you're throwing me to the wolves," he accuses.

Penny just ignores him and looks at Vince. "This is sexism, you know," she says with a knowing nod. "Wait until I tell Marcy about this. She'll curse your whole family."

Vince just rolls his eyes at her. "I'm not being sexist! There would be consequences for Sirius, too, if he'd been late to every single practice."

Penny frowns. "Ugh, fine," she says at last. "I'll be on time on Thursday, I promise."

"You better be," Vince says threateningly, and with one last disdainful look at the pair of them, he kicks off on his broom to join the others.

"You better not get yourself kicked off the team," Sirius says. "Remember your tryout? Literally everyone else sucked."

"Yes, I recall. I blew away all the competition," Penny says as she twirls her hair up into a ponytail.

"I refuse to learn to work with someone else. You and I already have all our strategies down," Sirius says, sounding a bit whiny.

"That's what I'll have to do when you graduate," Penny reminds him. "We should just find a replacement now, so I can start training with them," she adds thoughtfully.

Sirius shakes his head. "You can't. It's a rule," he explains.

"WOULD YOU IDIOTS STOP DAWDLING? IT'S BAD ENOUGH YOU WERE TWENTY MINUTES LATE!" Vince screeches, and Penny looks up guiltily and hops onto her broom.

In all this excitement, she realizes, she's completely forgotten about Griffin: her quest to figure him out was momentarily abandoned when she discovered her position on the team could potentially be in peril. But now she notices him, circling high above the field, looking windswept and a bit stressed. She wants to fly over to him, but Vince is on her case, and he won't stop glaring at her until she does what she's supposed to be doing.

Penny sighs and starts with the mandatory lap around the field she's supposed to be taking, but she glances at Griffin every few seconds.

X

An hour later, Griffin is physically and mentally exhausted; he's so worked up about the match coming up and about whatever the hell is going on between him and Penny that he could barely even focus on practice, and Vince is so on edge that everything Griffin does results in Vince shouting critiques at him.

Finally, James tells Vince to give Griffin some room to breathe, which Griffin is eternally grateful for. At long last, the team gets in their customary huddle to signal the end of practice. Griffin finds himself next to Penny, and he can feel the heat radiating from her as they put their arms around each other. Parker is on his other side, and he's making no attempt to be gentle.

"Alright gang," Vince begins, looking around at all of their sweat-soaked faces.

"'Gang'? Are you Fred from Scooby Doo?" Parker teases, and Vince glares at him.

"Alright team," Vince begins again. "We've got three more practices left before the first match. I've been doing some research on the Slytherin team-"

"You've been spying on the Slytherins' practices again?" Rillian groans, throwing his head back and rolling his light brown eyes.

"Can't you get in trouble for doing that?" Penny asks.

"Okay, can I talk?" Vince asks irritably. Penny and Rillian exchange an annoyed look, but don't say anything.

"Anyone is allowed to sit in the stands whenever they feel like it, and I just happen to feel like it when the Slytherins are practicing," Vince explains. James is looking at Vince skeptically, as if he doesn't approve of these spying tactics.

"So I've compiled some notes for all of you. I was planning on having chasers look at information about Slytherin's chasers, beaters look at information on Slytherin's beaters, and so on, but then I thought it might be useful for us all to have information on everyone. So I made you each a packet of information about the Slytherin team," Vince says, and he unlinks his arms from around Parker and James and lugs his gym bag to the middle of their circle. He unzips it and starts handing out what looks like a 20-page homemade packet to each team member.

Penny looks at Sirius incredulously. "You made us all packets?! Okay, Leslie Knope," she tells Vince.

"I think this is really cool. It could really help us out," James says kindly as he takes his packet from Vince and starts flipping through it.

"Thank you, Potter," Vince says, shooting Penny a glare. She just shrugs and reluctantly opens her packet.

Griffin looks at his own packet warily; he feels overwhelmed by all of this information. How is he supposed to remember which way Farlowe Esteque likes to swerve? And how is he supposed to actually use any of this information during the match, when he will likely be so nervous, he can barely fly, let alone remember all of this detailed, technical information?

"So, take a look at these over the next week and a half. Make sure you talk to the rest of the team if the information in here helps you come up with any strategies we can use during the match," Vince instructs them.

"Okay, that's it for today, folks. Thanks for all of your hard work!" Vince says, clapping his hands together.

Griffin loiters around a bit, pretending to be interested in the page about Regulus Black, the Slytherin seeker, but he wants to stick around and say something to Penny. He feels awkward because they'd said on Friday that they would "see each other at practice," but now they're at practice and they've barely exchanged two words.

Penny is a few paces away, looking at the pages about the Slytherin beaters with Sirius, but she glances over at Griffin and catches his eye. His heart jumps a little and he rubs the back of his neck casually, trying to pretend he's not waiting for her to come and talk to him. Sirius follows Penny's gaze over to him and Griffin looks guiltily away when he sees the stony expression Sirius uses on him.

"Vaughn, walk with me," Vince says briskly, motioning for Griffin to come and join him on his way back to the locker room.

"Oh. Uh -" Griffin says, glancing at Penny and feeling his heart sink as he realizes he won't have a chance to talk to her, after all.

"Okay," Griffin says at last, and he falls into stride with Vince as they make their way back to the locker room and Vince starts telling him about which parts of the packet he wants Griffin to focus on.

X

Griffin feels uneasy as he slides into a booth at The Three Broomsticks later that evening. He hadn't wanted to go out tonight - especially after the crazy events that transpired during their trip out last week - but Rillian convinced him that they would have more "casual" night this time, since it's a Tuesday.

Griffin is still skeptical, though, and he feels uncomfortable since Penny isn't here. The guys figured she would be a while in the locker room, and instead of waiting for her, they just decided to go. Griffin wishes they would have waited for her; even though he feels a bit nervous about their situation, he'd rather she was here than not. Then he wouldn't be so blatantly the youngest one in the group.

James and Parker both have one drink each, then immediately dissolve into the crowd to find girls, leaving Griffin sitting awkwardly with Vince, Rillian, and Sirius. The three of them are exchanging significant looks with one another, and Griffin sips his hot chocolate innocently; he has no idea what they're trying to communicate with each other.

"Vaughn," Rillian says, leaning forward on his elbows to look at Griffin.

"Um. Yes?" Griffin says, looking at him expectantly.

"We need to talk to you," Vince adds when Rillian doesn't continue. Griffin glances warily among the three of them. What is going on? Is he being kicked off the team? His palms start to get sweaty and he lets go of his mug nervously.

"Is - is this about the match?" Griffin asks timidly. "I know I'm not very experienced, but I'll do my best. I don't know what else I can do."

"No, that's not what we wanted to talk about," Vince says uncertainly. He clears his throat and looks at Sirius and Rillian.

"I don't think you should hang out with Penny," Rillian says suddenly. "I think she likes you, but the last thing we need right now is for the team vibe to get all screwed up with you two liking each other."

"Yeah, and if you two are too busy flirting to focus on the game, then we could be in big trouble," Sirius adds, his tone sour.

"But you flirt with her!" Griffin finds himself blurting out.

Sirius shoots him a disdainful look. "No, I don't," he snaps.

Rillian squints at Sirius suspiciously, but doesn't say anything.

"I have to agree with these guys. After what happened last week with Twitch passing out from too much drinking, I think it's best if she doesn't go out with the rest of us. We don't want her feeling like she has to drink to impress you, or whatever, so we want you two to try to stay away from each other," Vince says. "At least for now, anyway. Maybe in the off-season, you can pursue her."

Griffin feels like his eyes are bugging out of his head, he's so surprised at what he's hearing. He and Penny barely know each other! And, yeah, they kissed. But none of these guys even know that. They really don't have the right to tell him and Penny what they can and cannot do. But Griffin does see their point - it could make things weird for the rest of the team if he and Penny were to start dating, or something.

"The off-season doesn't start until, like, December!" Griffin exclaims.

"November," Sirius corrects him. Griffin just glares at him; like that matters! It's far away.

"Look, dude. We're just trying to think of the team as a whole. You wouldn't want to do something selfish at the expense of the rest of us, would you?" Rillian asks. Griffin frowns; he really doesn't think it's that big of a deal. Why do they all need to get involved with this, anyway?

"No," Griffin says hesitantly, "but I don't even really know Penny. I mean, I don't know if she likes me, like you guys think she does."

He feels a bit vulnerable, putting his feelings out there for these intimidating older boys to evaluate, but he'd also like their opinions on what she thinks of him. Maybe she's talked to some of them about him, he thinks hopefully. Sirius rolls his eyes, which Griffin thinks is quite rude, considering Griffin is trying to open up to them.

"Well, let's keep it that way," Rillian says gruffly, clearly not wanting to engage in a conversation about anyone's feelings, either.

"Alright, so we have a plan? Vaughn, you'll try not to get involved with Twitch. The rest of us will keep doing what we're doing: keeping morale high and drama low," Vince says curtly. Griffin hesitates a little, but nods nonetheless.

"Cool. So it's settled. I need to go find Prongs," Sirius says, and he slides out of the booth and disappears into the crowd without another word.

"What's Prongs?" Griffin asks the others cluelessly.

"Some fruity-ass nickname he has for Potter," Rillian says with a yawn.

"Oh. Okay," Griffin says awkwardly. The three of them sit in silence for a moment, and Griffin feels more and more uneasy as the seconds tick by and no one says anything.

"Um. I think I might leave," Griffin mumbles, and Vince slides out of the booth to let him out.

"Later," Rillian tells him, and Griffin just swallows hard and begins maneuvering his way towards the front exit.

He lets out the breath he's been holding once he's out in the open air.

What the fuck just happened? How is he going to interact with Penny now? He didn't realize when he started developing a mild crush on her that she came with a million scary older dudes who could probably beat Griffin up for liking her.

He grits his teeth in annoyance; why couldn't he have chosen some other, normal girl to like? But no, he just happened to like the one whom he apparently isn't "allowed" to like. He gets that Vince will do anything to protect his precious team; it's understandable. Rillian is being a bit overbearing, though. He definitely doesn't need to police his sister's actions so closely. And Sirius is kind of understandable, since he's a beater with Penny and he has to deal with her all the time, but Griffin can't help his annoyance with him for caring so much. Doesn't Sirius have better things to do than worry about his teammates' love lives? And he already has a strong friendship with Penny since they spend so much time together - he should have told her to stay away from Griffin, and not the other way around.

Whatever. Griffin stomps towards the school. It's dark out, and he wishes he had someone to accompany him. It can be eerie out here, especially alone. He shivers and picks up his pace, not wanting to spend any extra time out here.

He sighs when he reaches the school; so that's it, then? He's just going to give up on Penny? He feels strangely disappointed, considering he didn't feel that committed to the idea of her in the first place. But now that he's agreed to stay away from her, he wishes he'd taken more of a chance on her. Looks like it's too late now.

X

Penny spends about twenty minutes putting on Satlynn's makeup in the privacy of their dorm bathroom before quidditch practice.

She's going to get Griffin's attention today; she's going to get him to ask her out before the day is over. She's determined. She's practically poked her eye out putting on eyeliner and mascara, and her complexion has been evened out by a thin layer of foundation.

If that doesn't get him to notice her, she's got a backup plan. She plans to wear a pair of her tightest shorts and a tiny tank top to weight training after practice, and Griffin is bound to notice that. Boys never notice mascara, but they can't deny a booty, Penny reasons as she sheepishly puts the shorts on under her robes.

They have to wear robes to fly, but no one expects her to wear robes to weight lifting, so she can show up in this getup and shrug and tell Griffin "oh, sorry, it's just so HOT in here, you know?" Penny gives herself a sly grin in the mirror. She feels a bit foolish, but she's also excited. She's ready to be showered with attention.

She's ready for Griffin to get all tongue-tied and cute as he pops the question (Not THAT question) when he asks her out at last. Penny's never been one to put much effort in, especially not for a boy. She supposes she's never really attempted to flirt before.

Penny straightens her robes and feels her boobs creak uncomfortably as they move around in the push-up bra she's wearing. She found it under Satlynn's bed. Penny's never actually worn one of these before, let alone flown in one; she usually sticks to comfy sports bras that keep what little amount of boob she has in one place while she darts around the quidditch pitch.

Penny gives herself one last look in the mirror, hoping she doesn't look as much like a prostitute as she feels. She sighs and wrenches open the bathroom door. She's ready.

X
"Pen!" Penny looks behind her as she heads down to the quidditch pitch and sees Rillian jogging towards her. She's disappointed; not that Griffin would ever call her "Pen," anyway, she realizes. She was silly to think it could be him.

"Hi Rill," Penny says, trying not to be too short with him. She's irritated by his presence. The last thing she needs right now—on her quest to be attractive—is BROTHER energy.

"Can you believe our first game is only a week away?!" Rillian asks cheerfully as he bounces down the hill towards the pitch.

"Nope," Penny says impatiently as she looks around for signs of Griffin. She looks behind them, but all she sees is Vince and James making their way out of the school.

Rillian eyes her curiously."Why are you orange?"

Penny freezes and stares at him. "Orange?!" she repeats, trying not to panic.

"Yeah. Your face has like, an orange tint to it," Rillian says. He studies her face with narrowed eyes. "Wait a minute. You're wearing makeup," he points out.

"Maybe I am," Penny says lightly, turning her face so he stops staring at it.

"You are way too young for that sort of thing. It doesn't suit you," Rillian says crossly.

"Who are you to tell me what does and does not suit me?" Penny snaps as she quickens her pace to get away from him.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe your older brother who's concerned about his sister being mistaken for a harlot!" Rillian calls from behind her.

"Sod off, Rill!" Penny yells as she practically runs towards the girls locker room (or as she likes to call it, her own personal locker room, considering she's the only girl on the team.)

"I'm telling mum!" she hears Rillian yell as she slams the door.

Oh, please. He sounds like a five-year-old, threatening to tell mum. To be fair, their mum probably really would have her hide for this.

Their mum likes to think of Penny as if she never grew older than ten years of age, and tends to coddle her a bit. She wouldn't be pleased to find out her precious baby is wearing makeup now. If only she knew that Penny also likes to go out drinking and wear push-up bras to get attention from boys.

Luckily, Penny has plenty of dirt on Rillian to use as blackmail. She could tell mum plenty of things, like about how Rillian once put on a pair of thong underwear as part of a drunken dare. He then proceeded to run through the common room in it. The image will haunt Penny for life. Yes, Penny definitely has leverage. She doesn't let Rillian worry her. It's Griffin she's concerned about.

Despite the fact that they've been doing some steady flirting— as well as their cringey drunken make out session— nothing has officially happened yet. He has yet to make a move, and Penny's wondering if she's doing something wrong.

Penny jumps when she hears someone pounding on the door to her personal locker room.

"Twitch! Get out here, practice is starting!" Vince yells, sounding anxious, as always. He's very concerned about the status of the team. Penny yanks open the door and nods to Vince as she strides as confidently as possible towards the bench the rest of the team are sitting on.

Her heart races when she spots Griffin's mop of strawberry blonde hair, and she plops down next to him as casually as she can. He doesn't look up, and she tries not to be disappointed as Vince begins his instructions for them. She maneuvers her arm slightly so it's touching Griffin's. Maybe he'll notice that. She looks at him as discreetly as possible, but he doesn't seem at all affected by the fact that their sleeves are touching. Penny frowns and pretends to focus on what Vince is saying. Griffin hasn't looked at her, and he doesn't seem to care that she's purposely invading his personal bubble. What is up with him?

At last, Vince stops blabbering. Penny seizes her chance and immediately says, "Hey, Griffin," in as seductive a tone as she feels she can muster without Rillian suspecting anything.

"Hi," Griffin mutters as he stands up and shakes some grass off of his robes. He grabs his broom and, before Penny can think of a suitable, flirtatious conversation topic, he's lifted off and left Penny sitting in baffled silence.

"Gee, thanks for the riveting conversation!" she calls after him, annoyed at his clear avoidance of her. What has she possibly done wrong?!

She shoots a look at Parker, who just shrugs and says, "Don't ask me to try to explain fourteen-year-old behavior. You lot have got WAY too many hormones bouncing around."

"Flex, you're FIFTEEN. You have the SAME amount of hormones as we do," Penny says irritatedly.

"I'm sixteen. I've got an early birthday," Parker informs her, as if this makes a difference. She rolls her eyes; she doesn't have time for Parker's bullshit right now.

She hops on her broom and takes off, too, even though she now has no idea what she's supposed to be doing. Griffin's distracting presence during Vince's spiel took up all of her attention, and she hasn't got a clue what Vince told them to do. Vince and Sirius have also taken off now, too, but they're going in different directions than Griffin.

Penny sighs and reluctantly flies back over to Parker. "Uh, what are we doing, again?" She asks guiltily. Parker snorts at her.

"Like I'll tell you after you just yelled at me. You're on your own, Twitch," he says with an evil grin.
"Ask James, he's the nice one," he adds, and with that, he, too, ditches Penny in favor of flying away.

What a vote of confidence this has been; really, Penny should wear makeup more often! It effectively keeps boys away, rather than draws them to her. She shoots James—who's now the only one left on the bench— a pleading look.

He sighs at her. "Twitch, you really need to pay more attention when Vince is giving directions," he chastises her. Finally he shakes his head and says, "Fine. We're doing loop drills then moving on to speed drills."

"Thank you," Penny says, eternally grateful that James has covered up her cluelessness without asking questions about why she's so distracted. He really is the nice one. (But don't tell any hot girls that.)
X

An hour later, Penny groans as she flops down on the bench in the girls' locker room. What an absolute failure; it started to rain halfway through practice, and she now has black makeup smeared under her eyes.

Instead of looking like a goddess, as she'd intended, she looks like some sort of creepy swamp creature. She bolts over to the sink and tries to rub off as much of it as she can. After the loop drills, they'd done some partner work, and she'd tried to ask Griffin to be her partner, but he'd apparently established in advance that he was going to work with Vince. She'd tried not to feel snubbed as she ended up working with her lame-ass brother.

Well, she decides as she looks at her ruddy, recently-wiped face in the mirror, it's time for phase two. She needs to stop dawdling, though, or Griffin will be done with his weight-lifting assignment before she even gets there. Why does he have to be so speedy with everything? He's ridiculously prompt.

Penny prefers to take her time. She's almost always the last person off the pitch. The team makes fun of her for being "such a girl" and taking forever to clean up after practice, but she really doesn't care; she'll take her long showers and not be bothered by their comments. Why is it an insult to be "such a girl," anyway? Is there something inherently wrong with being a girl? Penny mentally berates herself for not getting a move on. At last, she gives herself one more look and hurries off to the weight room.

X

"Are we going out tonight?" James asks the room at large as he stretches his arms above his head and rests his head against the back of one of the weight machines.

Sirius glances around and makes sure Penny isn't in the room. If they go out again, she can't know about it, or she'll want to come. As he and Rillian have already agreed, it's in everyone's best interest if she doesn't come out with the rest of the team.

"I can't," Sirius tells James as he adjusts the weights on the lat pull-down. "I'm going out with Layla."

"Layla Nonette?!" James asks, fiddling with his glasses.

"Is there another Layla?" Sirius asks, raising a brow.

"No," James says with a frown. "You didn't tell me you were going out with her."

"Do I need to inform you of every aspect of my personal life?" Sirius asks.

"Well, no," James says, "but didn't you just go out with that Ravenclaw bird on Saturday?"

"As if you've never dated two different girls in the same week," Sirius scoffs.

"I haven't!" James says defensively as he finally starts using the machine he's been sitting on for the past few minutes. Sirius shoots him a skeptical look.

"Candace and Bianca," Sirius says casually. James's weights fall down with a clatter.

"Since when do you pay so much attention to MY personal life?" James huffs as he hurries to rearrange his weights again.

Sirius shrugs, "Just a good memory."

"I have SUCH a good memory," James imitates him in an annoying, conceited voice. Sirius just rolls his eyes at him.

"I'm up for going out tonight," Rillian calls from across the room as he does some dumb bell work. James brightens and looks around at Vince and Parker.

"You lot in?" He asks. No one bothers to ask Griffin, who will likely be the last to be invited. Griffin's been flying through the weight set Vince assigned him and is now nearly done. He's going ridiculously fast, and Sirius doubts Griffin is actually getting much of a workout going at such a breakneck speed.

Before Vince and Parker can answer, Penny whirls into the room and glares at Griffin. It takes Sirius a moment to realize that Penny is sporting an unusual ensemble, to say the least. She looks like some sort of cheerleader, with a pair of minuscule, sky-blue short-shorts and a skimpy tank top.

Sirius jumps violently and quickly stares at the floor instead of at Penny. He can't possibly think Penny is sexy; those two words don't go together. Penny's Rillian's little sister, but she's also kind of like the whole team's little sister. She's like Sirius's little sister. He's always tried to help her and keep her safe— safe from guys who think she's sexy. But apparently that now includes himself. What the hell.

Sirius hazards a glance over at Rillian, who, to his relief, is glaring at Penny and hasn't noticed Sirius's oddly jumpy reaction to her. Sirius can't look at her again; maybe if he just avoids looking at Penny, everything will be fine. Her uncalled for sexiness will go away. His heart will stop racing and he won't have a death grip on the machine he's using.

"PENNY PRETT, WHAT IN GOD'S NAME-" Rillian yells, and the rest of the team looks away awkwardly as they try to ignore the sibling argument that's undoubtedly about to break out. Sirius is thankful for the distraction; he doesn't want to think about Penny and her silly outfit and hot body — now there's a completely unwelcome thought; he in NO WAY thinks she's hot, thank you very much. She's Penny. She's fourteen, he reminds himself. Too young for him to be having thoughts about. Not that he's having thoughts.

"MIGHT I REMIND YOU THAT WHEN MEN TRY TO POLICE WHAT WOMEN WEAR, WHAT THEY'RE REALLY DOING IS ADMITTING THAT THEY THINK OF WOMEN AS NOTHING MORE THAN OBJECTS AT WHICH TO OGLE," Penny yells back as she and Rillian face off in front of each other, both fuming.

"Oh, really? Parker, what do you think of Penny's outfit, here?" Rillian spits. Parker, who's been minding his own business, breaks out into a reluctant grin.

"Pen, where have you been hiding that rack?" Parker asks, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. Sirius ignores the fact that he was just thinking virtually the same things and scowls at Parker. Where does Parker get off, saying disrespectful shit like that to Penny? He's supposed to be her friend!

"Ugh, fuck off, Banks!" Penny says disgustedly.

"See what I mean?" Rillian asks. "When you dress like that, slime balls like THIS," he points to Parker, "react like THAT."

Penny folds her arms protectively over her chest. "You know what, Rillian? I don't care. Maybe I like the attention. Or maybe I don't give a fuck about it; the fact is, you can't stop me from wearing whatever I want," Penny snaps as she sits down at a weight machine and begins her set without another look at her brother.

"Fine then. If you want to fuck up your life, that's your choice," Rillian spits as he stomps back to his dumb bells and begins aggressively lifting. He turns up the music on his bewitched box and doesn't look at his sister. The room is awkwardly silent as the rest of them pretend that a fight didn't just break out between two of their teammates.

"I guess we're not going out tonight, then," James mumbles, and Sirius can only nod, still too stunned to say anything.

He agrees with Rillian: Penny will definitely attract the wrong type of attention if she wears clothes like this. At the same time, though, Sirius secretly wants her to keep wearing clothes like that; he just doesn't want idiots like Parker to see her in them. Or idiots like anyone else, for that matter.

Without meaning to, he looks over at Penny again. She's using the leg press, and he notices the way the fluorescent lights make her shins shine as they move up and down. Her legs are shiny. She must shave them, he realizes. Penny shaves her legs. Why has this thought never occurred to him before?

She's got a focused look on her face, her lips slightly parted; she's sitting up straight and bending her neck ever so slightly. Suddenly, her eyes dart upward and she meets his gaze.

Sirius freezes and he can feel heat rising in his face as he practically gets whiplash from how quickly he looks away and starts clumsily adjusting the weights on the lat-pull machine he's supposed to be using.

He looks over at James, who thankfully hasn't noticed anything weird and keeps calmly working on his weights. Sirius lets out a long breath. He needs to get a grip. He can hear Penny using the leg press, and he tries not to think about her shins. Or maybe he does want to think about her shins, as that's a relatively innocent part of her body.

"I'm calling it a day," Sirius tells James as he grabs his water and prepares to practically run out of the room.

"You twat! We're not done yet!" James calls after him, but Sirius couldn't care less about James's opinion of him right now as he dashes away from the team— particularly away from Penny.

X

Penny is beyond disappointed when Griffin finishes with his weights a few minutes after she arrives; he's clearly been going as fast as possible so he doesn't have to see her, and she watches him finish his final set and practically bolt out of the room. Penny wonders if she can follow him out without the others suspecting anything. She glances around at Rillian and Vince.

"I've gotta pee," Penny announces to the room, and thankfully, Rillian barely looks up from his dumbbells. Penny breathes a sigh of relief as she tears out the door and into the cool, fall weather. She spots Griffin ahead of her, his gym bag on his shoulder as he walks along the path to the locker rooms.

"Griffin!" Penny calls, and she jogs to catch up. Her feet make a squelching sound as she runs through the mud towards Griffin. He turns and, Penny's a little offended to see, has a panicked look on his face.

"Why are you avoiding me?" Penny asks, a little breathlessly, when she's in front of him. His eyes focus on the ground, and he takes off his glasses to clean the rain off them.

"Avoiding you? Nah," he says, but he's not even looking at Penny. Something is clearly going on.

"I've been trying to get your attention all day! You've barely even looked at me, despite my attempts at conversation!" Penny says, and she narrows her eyes as she crosses her arms to keep herself warm; she's still wearing her silly, strappy tank top, which isn't very practical for autumn weather.

"I know," Griffin mumbles, and he kicks at some pebbles on the ground as he makes to keep walking towards the locker rooms.

"What do you mean, 'you know'? And don't walk away, we're having a conversation!" Penny says crossly as she grabs his arm to prevent him from continuing to avoid her. He looks up at her when she touches him, and she notices the uneasy look in his eyes.

"What's up with you?!" Penny asks him desperately. Things had been going so well! She knows Griffin is at least somewhat interested in her — why else would he flirt with her for the past few weeks? But then, suddenly, today he's acting like his top priority is getting away from her.

Griffin sighs and casts a glance around them, then says, "I can't tell you."

Penny shoots him a skeptical look. "What do you mean?"

Griffin looks around again, then pulls her behind the girls' locker room where they'll be out of sight if any of their other teammates leave the weight room. She expects him to say something, now that they're in this private location, but he just stares at her, and she hears nothing but the steady drip of the rain water off of the roof they're standing under.

"Forgive me if I'm being presumptuous, but I thought you liked me," Penny says, irritated by Griffin's silence and deciding to break it with blunt honesty.

"I do like you!" Griffin admits, and Penny watches his pale neck flush a little as he shifts his weight nervously.

"Then why are you being so fucking weird?!" Penny snaps.

"Because I'm not supposed to like you!" Griffin confesses finally, and he stares at the mud on his shoes, looking dejected.

"Not supposed to? What do you mean?!" Penny asks, baffled by Griffin's behavior.

"I can't tell you," Griffin says in a strained voice.

"Well, why the hell not?" Penny asks. Griffin chews the inside of his mouth, looking like he's having some sort of inner struggle.

"Fine. On Tuesday after practice, I went out with the rest of the team, without you. They basically told me to stay away from you," Griffin says at last.

Penny freezes for a moment and just stares at Griffin in disbelief.

"No. No way. Absolutely not. I am going to fucking KILL Rillian!" she says as she whirls around and begins stomping back towards the weight room.

"Penny, wait!" Griffin calls after her, but Penny's determined and no one is going to stop her.

So her brother not only thinks he can control what she wears and whether or not she can wear makeup, but now he wants to control who can like her, as well?! Penny wrenches open the door and points her wand immediately at the bewitched box and turns it off; then she points it at Rillian and levitates him twenty feet up onto a bar sticking out of the wall. He's got his stomach on the bar, his legs and arms hanging off the sides hazardously.

"What the hell is your problem, Rillian?" Penny screeches.

"What the fuck- put me down! Help!" Rillian yells to the rest of their teammates as he flails his limbs helplessly.

"Don't you dare help him! You guys are mixed up in this, too!" Penny fumes, pointing her wand threateningly at Vince, Parker, and James.

"What are you talking about, Twitch?" Vince asks, looking worriedly at Rillian. Vince is probably more concerned about his keeper potentially being injured than he is about his friend's safety, though.

"Why did you tell Griffin to stay away from me?! What the fuck is wrong with you?" Penny yells to Rillian, who is still struggling to keep his balance on the pole sticking out of the wall.

"No, the real question is what's wrong with you, Pen?" Rillian yells back. "You can't like someone from the team! It will completely screw up our vibe! No one on this team is allowed to like each other. That's the rule. Griffin is off-limits for you," Rillian says firmly.

"Off-limits?!" Penny yells. "You don't get to say that, Rill! You're not even the captain. Afton, what's your take?" She asks, turning to Vince and giving him an expectant look.

"I - uh... I'm not sure," Vince stammers, clearly not expecting to be put on the spot this way.

"What do you mean, you're not sure? You were there when we told Griffin to leave Pen alone!" Rillian says, giving his friend an accusatory look.

"Well, yes, and I agree that it could be bad for the team, but we don't really have the right to tell them what to do," Vince says with a shrug.

"We're not even doing anything, anyway! You're basically just forbidding me from communicating with a fellow team member, which is way worse for team dynamics than a little innocent flirting," Penny says, and Rillian just stares at her grumpily.

"Oh, please. You and Griffin are doing more than 'innocent flirting.' He tried to come onto you when you were too wasted to say no!" Rillian pouts, and Penny gasps.

"He did no such thing!" she says defensively.

"Oh, so you didn't make out with him and then immediately pass out afterwards?" Rillian asks her, a hint of smugness in his voice.

"Okay, yes, that happened," Penny says with a frown, "but you don't know the whole story! I'm pretty sure I was the one who started it. Griffin wasn't taking advantage of me! Come on, Rill, this is Griffin we're talking about. Not Parker."

"Hey!" Parker calls defensively from the weight machine he's using. Penny shoots him a significant look.

"Okay, maybe that does sound like something I would do," Parker grumbles as he goes back to pretending he's not listening to Penny and Rillian's argument.

"I'll have you know that Parker and I had nothing to do with this," James pipes up suddenly. "We were just trying to go out on the town. We weren't part of the whole lecturing-Griffin thing."

"I appreciate that, James," Penny snaps as she looks back at Rillian, who exchanges a helpless look with Vince.

"Come on. Admit I'm right," Penny wheedles.

"Fine," Rillian says defeatedly, shaking his head a little. "Go ahead. Flirt with Griffin," he mumbles.

Penny beams and points her wand at Rillian to lower him back down to the ground.

"Now come with me and apologize to Griffin," she orders Rillian. "You, too, Vince. I know you backed him up," Penny adds, giving Vince a warning look, and he relents and follows Penny and Rillian out of the room. When they leave the building, however, Penny is disappointed to discover that Griffin is nowhere to be found.

"He was just here!" she hisses to herself, then she leads Vince and Rillian over to the boys' locker room.

"Go see if he's in there," she orders them. Rillian rolls his eyes at her, but he pushes open the door.

"Oi, Vaughn! You in here?" Rillian calls as he vanishes into the room, and a moment later, he reappears with Griffin at his side.

"Penny," Griffin says in surprise when he sees her.

"My lame brother and his lame friend have something to tell you," Penny says, shooting Rillian a look.

"Hang on a moment," Vince says, and he disappears into the locker room.

"What the hell, Afton! We're trying to accomplish something, here!" Penny yells after him, but he's already gone.

She's impatient to get back to her conversation with Griffin - the one that involved him saying he liked her. Penny glances nervously over at Rillian, who's looking at Griffin like he's the most disgusting human being he's ever encountered. How pleasant. Thankfully, Vince bursts through the door again before things can get too awkward, and he's dragged Sirius with him.

"Sirius was a big part of the decision for Griffin to stay away from you, so I thought we'd include him in this lovely formal apology you've set up," Vince explains to Penny.

Penny frowns in disappointment. She really thought that Sirius, of all people, would understand and want her to be free to hang out with Griffin. Sirius dates a different girl every week, practically! He must understand that Penny just wants to have a love life, too.

And more than that, Penny had told Sirius about wanting to patch things up with Griffin since their first kiss had been slightly disappointing to her, and he'd reassured her that drunk kisses don't count — wasn't that advice implying that Penny should keep trying with Griffin and make it better next time?

"Fine. Well. Rillian, tell Griffin what you just told me," Penny says, motioning for Rillian to take the floor.

"Ugh," Rillian says, rolling his eyes. "Okay, I take back what we said the other night. You don't have to stay away from Penny. She can decide who she wants to hang out with," Rillian grumbles reluctantly.

A hint of a smile graces Griffin's face briefly, but then he seems to remember that he's still on thin ice, so he clears his throat and says, "Wow. Thank you. I - yeah." He looks at Penny then, and he can't hold back the grin that he's suppressing. Her heart flutters as she shoots him a grin of her own in response.

"Alright, go back to your business," Penny says to the others, waving her hand dismissively and hoping they'll get the hint to leave her and Griffin alone. Vince rolls his eyes and begins the trek back to the weight room.

"You're still on probation, mister," Rillian says as he points his finger menacingly at Griffin.

"Right. Yes," Griffin says, trying to look solemn, but still clearly overjoyed about the news. Rillian elbows Sirius sharply in the ribs.

"Ow! Yes- I agree. Probation," Sirius says, but he doesn't sound very confident. Penny shoots him a curious look; he's staring at the ground, looking a little uneasy. She feels like she should probably yell at him — how did Rillian find out that she'd kissed Griffin the other night, anyway? — but he's being so weird and quiet that maybe she'll have to do it another time. Whatever. It doesn't matter. What matters is that she can go back to her original plan of trying to get Griffin to ask her out.

"Okay, BYE, guys," Penny says impatiently, and thankfully, Rillian and Sirius get the hint and head back into the locker room.

"Anyway," Penny says, a bit breathless, as she turns to look at Griffin. He looks great: his glasses are still flecked with raindrops, and she notices that his eyes, which she's always thought were kind of brown, are actually a soft, hazel shade that shine in the post-rain light of the sky.

"You mentioned something earlier about liking me. Can we go back to that?" Penny asks, raising her eyebrows flirtatiously.

Griffin rolls his eyes good-naturedly. "Sure. Let's get back to that."

"Maybe I like you, too," Penny says, and she's pleased when Griffin flushes a little at that. "Maybe I want you to ask me out," she adds, and he looks over at her, amused.

"Well, you're quite forward," he remarks, but then he clears his throat. "Alright. Do you want to go out with me?"

Penny tries to suppress a smile. "I'll think about it," she says.

"Come on! You just begged me to ask you out, and then-"

"Okay, fine, Griffin, I'll go out with you, geez. But only because you were so insistent," Penny says, shooting him an evil grin. He just shakes his head at her, but he's smiling, too.

"So what will this date involve? Do I need to bring a bathing suit?" Penny asks.

"Probably not, considering we'll probably just go to the first Hogsmeade weekend together. It's October 2nd," Griffin says. Penny looks up at him in surprise; he actually has a plan for a date. He really has been thinking about this! She grins, but then she realizes that it's only September 16th today.

"October 2nd? That's not for like, three weeks," she notes with a frown.

"Well, we'll see each other before that. We can maybe - uh, get to know each other a little bit beforehand," Griffin says.

"Okay," Penny says, and he smiles back at her. Her first date; it's really happening.
X
"Why would you do that?! I thought we agreed that Vaughn is bad news," Sirius says to Rillian once the locker room door closes behind them. Rillian just sighs.

"I dunno, mate. Griffin seems like a decent bloke, and Penny's impossible and relentless. It just wasn't worth the fight anymore," Rillian explains. Sirius frowns; he thinks it's worth the fight! He doesn't think she should be with that little dweeb. Penny can do so much better.

Sirius wanted to say something when Vince pulled him out of the locker room. He wanted to say that maybe Rillian thought it was okay for Griffin to talk to Penny again, but he didn't think it was— but then Penny was there, still wearing her stupid outfit – which, he realizes with a pang, was probably all for Griffin— and then he was just stupidly speechless. He's been such an idiot.

"Alright," Sirius sighs, not knowing what else to say. No one seems to care what he thinks, anyway. Penny only wanted her brother's blessing. She doesn't need Sirius's blessing, apparently. Not that he thinks she needs it, either. It's not like it's any of his business who she likes.

Rillian gives him a grim smile and goes to wash up. Sirius sighs and leans his head against a locker. He should probably leave, but Penny and Griffin are probably still out there, flirting and being disgusting.

Sirius can't believe how foolish he's been; he completely fell into Penny's seduction trap, but she set it for someone else. It's not his fault that she's suddenly the hottest girl he's ever seen. Sirius groans and covers his eyes in embarrassment. It is his fault, though. He's terrible with women - he can't seem to stop flirting with them and boosting his own confidence when they fall for him.

He'll have to just ignore the urge to flirt with Penny — he can't just do what he usually does when he's attracted to someone. First of all, because she's Penny, and second of all, because she's apparently got Griffin now. He tries not to think about how annoyed he is by this new development. Why should he be annoyed?

It's not like he likes Penny, or anything. He's just - apparently - attracted to her. And even that's probably just a weird fluke thing that will be gone tomorrow. That's what Sirius tells himself, anyway, as he shoulders his bag and leaves the locker room. But then, why is he so irritated when he sees Griffin and Penny walking a few paces ahead of him, holding hands and giggling excessively?
X

"It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday!"

Sirius scowls and puts his pillow over his head; seriously, does Peter have to sing that annoying-ass song every Friday morning?

"Shut up, Pete!" Remy grumbles from his own bed.

"What? You guys don't like Rebecca Black?" Peter says, and Sirius perks up to tell his running joke:

"Well, of course I like my cousin, Rebecca," he says, and he grins at Remy, who rolls his eyes and sits up groggily. Peter still believes that Rebecca Black really is Sirius's estranged American cousin.

Remy doesn't really approve of James and Sirius telling Peter lies that he always falls for, but he's just such an easy target. James flings the bathroom door open and comes out wearing a seafoam green towel around his waist.

"I see you lot have finally awoken," he says, looking annoyed that they're all staring at him when he's half-naked.

"Well, we couldn't ignore Wormtail's god-awful singing," Remy explains as he cracks his neck from side to side.

"Ugh," Peter says, shivering at the sound of Remy's neck-crack. "Wouldn't you guys rather hear my singing than Remy's bone-cracking?"

"I'd rather hear absolute silence at 7:00 AM so I can sleep," Sirius says flatly.

"Today is the first casual dress Friday," James says as he walks over to his trunk and flips it open violently. "I have to make a good shirt decision," he mumbles, mostly to himself.

"Oh, yeah, the pressure's on," Sirius says teasingly.

"Yeah, better choose something good," Peter adds, trying to keep the joke going and falling flat, as always.

"This is a big deal!" James says indignantly. "It's a chance to show everyone what style I really have."

"I just want to see what the girls are wearing," Sirius says, shooting a knowing nod in Remy's direction.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Remy asks. He hops out of bed and starts for the bathroom.

"I dunno. I just thought we'd be on the same page," Sirius explains. Sometimes he forgets that not everyone will high-five him like Parker will when he talks about hot girls.

"Okay. Well, I call shower next," Remy says as he locks himself in the bathroom.

James is rummaging around in his trunk, trying to find the perfect outfit.

"What do you guys think: this reddish shirt or this green one?" James asks, sounding nervous as he holds up a collarless, burgundy shirt with three buttons down the neckline and a basic green tee shirt.

"Whichever one you think looks better on you," Sirius says boredly.

"I like the red one," Peter says kindly. He's already dressed, and Sirius hasn't even gotten out of bed yet. Peter is what you'd call a morning person; Sirius just calls him an irritating person.

James nods to them both and puts on the red one. "Okay, now for pants…" James mutters.

"Oh, GOD. Why does this have to be such an ordeal? It's not like you're going on a date. You're just going to school. We're seeing exactly the same people we see every other day of our lives," Sirius says, exasperated by James' obsession with his appearance. James just glares at him.

"Speaking of dates, didn't you go out with Layla last night?" James inquires. Sirius flops back on his pillow.

"Yeah, I guess," he says dully.

James raises his eyebrows."What do you mean, you 'guess'?"

"I dunno," Sirius sighs. "I guess I just don't really like her. I have no idea why I asked her out in the first place. We all know she's annoying."

"We also all know she puts out," Peter pipes up from his bed, where he's rubbing lotion on his heels like an absolute weirdo.

"Yeah, I figured that's why you asked her out," James says with a shrug.

Sirius shoots him a look. What, everyone just assumes he's a slut these days? Maybe he actually wanted to find someone to be with for longer than a week. Maybe it was disappointing that Layla sucked. (In more ways than one... Ay!)

But, Sirius reminds himself, he's got to stop thinking about women this way. Maybe he needs to get a more grown up attitude if he wants Penny to notice him. He sits up, suddenly remembering what happened yesterday. Oh, what the fuck; so now he apparently wants Penny to notice him? He didn't realize he was in that deep! Maybe he's just used to getting what he wants the moment he finds he's attracted to someone. James snorts from the other side of the room.

"Dude, what just happened to you? Your eyes went glassy like a zombie and then you sat up like you had an epiphany," he says questioningly.

"Oh - uh - nothing," Sirius mumbles as he leans back against his headboard casually.

"Did you have a vision of the future?" Peter asks, taking a seat on the end of Sirius's bed and bringing his beloved lotion with him.

"Get your heels away from me," Sirius says as he kicks Peter off his bed.

Peter just squints at him. "They get crusty if I don't -"

"PLEASE stop talking," James cuts him off as he adjusts his hair in the mirror. Peter just grumbles something about 'sensitive skin' and 'tight shoes.'

Remy comes out of the bathroom, fully dressed and humming "Friday," and he slaps Sirius with his towel as he walks by.

"Get up, you lazy hoe," Remy says as he neatly hangs up his towel and goes to fix his hair in the mirror next to James.

"Why does everyone think I'm a 'ho?" Sirius snaps back, crossing his arms and refusing to get out of bed.

"Geez. It's just an expression," Remy says as he borrows some of James's hair gel. "But, I mean...you are," he adds, grinning at Sirius through his reflection in the mirror. Sirius just scowls.

"Damn, we look good," James says as he and Remy high-five each other.

"Ready to rock casual Friday," Remy agrees.

"Yeah, we could walk in like one of those slow-motion montages in a high school movie," Peter says excitedly, and James and Remy exchange a skeptical look. They're probably both thinking that Peter definitely doesn't look as good as they do.

"And you'd be the one that falls into a trash can," Sirius tells Peter as he stretches and considers getting up, but then slumps back down again. It's only 7:15. He's in no rush.

"Why on earth would that happen?" Peter asks, looking at Sirius accusingly. He is being a little meaner to Peter than usual today, Sirius realizes. Maybe he should let up a little.

"It's from a scene in Mean Girls," Remy explains. "...Not that I know that," he adds when James looks at him like he's crazy.

"What are you wearing today?" Remy asks Sirius.

"I dunno," Sirius says.

"Well, you should try to match the vibe we have going, here, so everyone sees that we're, you know, cool," Remy says. Sirius just shoots him a judgemental look.

"Just because you said that, I'll wear the ugliest ensemble I can find," Sirius says. "Throw off the vibe," he says, adding as much sarcasm as he can to that last word.

Remy can be so pretentious sometimes. Sirius climbs out of bed at last and rifles through all the trash in his trunk until he finds his favorite old tie-dyed tee-shirt that has a beer stain on the right nipple and a few tiny holes in it from being worn under his robes for nearly a month at one point third year.

"Oh, no. Not the tie-dye," Remy says weakly as Sirius throws it on proudly.

"Awesome. Am I part of the Plastics now?" Sirius asks in a girly voice.

"Nah, you look like Cady in that scene where everyone else looks hot, but she looks like garbage in Damien's pink shirt," Remy says. Sirius shoots Remy a grin as he pulls on some jeans.

"Exactly what I was going for," he says. "Alright, let's do this casual Friday thing."

"Aren't you going to shower?" James asks, giving Sirius a grossed-out look.

"Nah. Showered last night," Sirius informs him.

"Oh, so you are a 'ho, after all," James says, and Sirius shoves him out of the way so he can use the mirror to do his hair.

"Had to shower after practice, didn't I? You twat."

After bickering about nothing for ten more minutes, the dysfunctional four of them finally head down to breakfast. James gets a few stares from girls for his (apparently oh-so-sexy) burgundy shirt, and Sirius gets a couple weird looks for his tie-dye shirt that's old and ratty and a bit too small. But he doesn't really care - anything for a little rebellion, right?

"I hope they have eggs today," Peter says excitedly as they enter the Great Hall.

"Dude, you know they have eggs every Friday, right?" Remy asks him.

Peter just shrugs. "I can still hope for them, though. You never know."

They find an open spot at the Gryffindor table and take their seats as usual, with Peter and Remy facing the Hufflepuff table and James and Sirius facing the Ravenclaws and Slytherins.

The hall is all a-chatter with people talking about each other's casual dress outfits. It's really not that big of a deal; they're allowed to wear whatever they want on weekends. The only notable difference between casual Friday and weekend wear is that the Great Hall is open all day on weekends, so students generally aren't all there at one time. Also, people tend to wear pajamas all day on weekends, anyway, so this is the first time that they're all seeing (or rather, judging) each other's clothes.

Sirius glances down the table and pretends he's not looking for Penny. He finds her and, to his irritation, she's sitting with Griffin Vaughn. Of course, Griffin looks great in a black long-sleeved shirt and a maroon beanie. He's looking better than ever before. Sirius suddenly feels self-conscious about his choice to wear the old tie-dye instead of actually trying.

This could have been a good day to impress people, he realizes as he loads his plate with food. Not that there's anyone he's trying to impress, of course. But it would be nice to look better than Griffin. Although, in his humble opinion, he always looks better than that twig.

"Everyone ready for the Transfig exam today?" James asks between bites of potato.

"I've been studying every day since Monday and I still don't feel ready," Remy admits.

"I think I'm toast," Peter says. "I can't seem to keep any of the spells straight."

"Here," Sirius says, rummaging around in his book bag, "use this. I made up some mnemonic devices to remember them." He throws Peter a piece of crumpled-up parchment with a list of spells and funny ways to remember them. Peter wipes his nose on the back of his hand as he stares intently at the piece of paper.

"Finish your breakfast and then go to the classroom early and memorize that whole thing," James tells him. Peter nods and shovels the rest of his food in his mouth before grabbing the parchment and rushing off to do his last-minute studying before class starts at 8:00.

"That boy needs to get his shit together," Sirius remarks once he's gone.

"Thank God you made that," James says, referring to the parchment sheet. "I take it you're ready for the exam?"

Sirius nods. "As I'll ever be."

James rolls his eyes. "Indeed. We all know you never study and then you somehow do better than the rest of us every time."

Sirius just shrugs. "How many times do I have to tell you about my amazing memory?"

Remy looks surly about this. The three of them eat the rest of their breakfast and then decide to leave for Transfiguration, too, so they can study a little before the exam.

"Well, at least we won't have Transfig homework over the weekend," James says as he crams a last bite of toast in his mouth and they make their way out of the Great Hall.

They're about to turn the corner out of the Hall when Sirius hears someone calling after him. He whips around and pretends not to notice how his heart rate picks up when he sees that it's Penny. She's wearing an earthy-brown colored dress and has her hair slung around her face in loose curls, like some kind of goddess, or something, he notices in annoyance.

"Yeah?" Sirius asks expectantly as he pauses to wait for her. He lets his friends move on and get to class. He's irritated with himself for appreciating how good Penny looks when she's clearly dressed up for someone else. She takes a few steps closer to him, then stops, chewing on the inside of her cheek with her brow furrowed like she's concentrating hard on something.

"You told Rillian," she says finally, folding her arms and giving him an accusing look.

"Oh," Sirius says abruptly, knowing exactly what she's referring to. But he'd felt like he had to tell Rillian that Penny and Griffin had kissed when she was drunk; he was worried about her.

"Told Rillian what?" he asks, feigning ignorance.

Penny huffs in annoyance. "I'm not going to confide in you anymore if you're going to go tattling to my brother," she continues, her voice venomous.

Part of him wants to say, 'Great! See if I care!', but he can't help noticing how visibly upset she looks, and he likes that she trusts him; he doesn't want her to stop.

"And don't you want me to be happy?" Penny asks. "Why would you try to sabotage me like that?"

Sirius just stares at her guiltily, not knowing how to articulate that he does want her to be happy, he just doesn't want her to be happy with Griffin. But, he supposes, it was a bit psycho of him to convince Rillian and Vince to try to force them apart.

"I didn't mean to sabotage you," he says finally. "I was just -" he cuts himself off, and she makes eye contact with him suddenly, like she knows what he was going to say. He's not ready to do this; he needs to work through how he's really feeling. He can't just do something crazy, like tell her that he's maybe feeling a little envious of Griffin.

"I'm sorry," he says at last. "It was out of line, what we did. We got too caught up in team dynamics to think about what you want. And I won't tell Rillian anything you tell me in confidence; I was just concerned over the state you were in when it happened and I wanted to make sure you weren't being taken advantage of. But… I hope everything works out for you...and Griffin."

Penny looks taken aback by his sudden sincerity, but after a moment, he sees a shadow of a smile ghosting its way across her lips.

"Well thank you," she says, her tone much more cheery as she starts walking out of the Great Hall. Sirius walks next to her, feeling relieved.

Maybe he should be a little more...nice to her. He looks over at her timidly, not wanting her to see him looking. He notices that her dress is patterned with autumn leaves and she's wearing little sparkly earrings that are only perceptible when they catch the light every so often. She's got her wand placed jauntily behind her ear. She looks over at him suddenly, and he glances quickly at the ground, realizing he's probably been looking at her for a weirdly long time.

"Don't you have Transfiguration now?" Penny asks him, a smile in her voice as they climb the staircase to the second floor.

"Oh, yeah," Sirius says absently.

"And you've got a big test today, right?" Penny asks.

"Right," Sirius says as they arrive on the second floor and he follows her towards the East Wing.

"So, shouldn't you be on the first floor, studying?" Penny asks, giving him a look like he's possibly a crazy person.

"Oh. Yeah, probably," he admits. She laughs and shakes her head at him, then stops in front of a huge window overlooking the grounds. Her rust-colored hair gleams in the sunlight, and it complements the rest of her autumnal ensemble perfectly.

"You look really nice today," Sirius says, feeling the words come out before he thinks about the consequences that might come along with saying them. His voice sounds strangely shy, as if he's confessing an embarrassing secret. Penny doesn't say anything for a moment, and Sirius feels his neck getting hot (why did he wear this stupid, too-small shirt?) as he realizes that he just gave her a really awkward compliment.

"I know," Penny says at last, grinning as she takes a look at his outfit. "You don't," she adds with a snort.

"I'm like, making a statement," he mumbles.

"Mhm. What statement is that? 'I'm a hippie who spills beer on his shirt'?" she supplies, but she's looking at him affectionately as she pokes him in the chest where the beer stain resides.

"Yeah, I guess," he says, feeling lightheaded as a waft of her perfume hits him. He looks down at her - looking so pretty, standing so close- and is overwhelmed by a sudden urge to kiss her. His heart thumps as she smiles at him.

"Didn't you wear that, like, every day your third year?" she asks, still shaking her head at his stupid shirt. At least he was able to get a good conversation out of his wardrobe decision, he realizes; he bets Griffin can't do that.

"Yeah. You remember that?" he asks her playfully, suddenly excited that she noticed something about him - even if it was something dumb from three years ago.

"I'm pretty sure everyone remembers that," Penny says. They look at each other for a moment longer before she says, "Right, well. I have to get to charms."

"You have charms first period?" Sirius asks, feeling surprised that he never knew this. Penny nods and fiddles with her earring.

"That's really cool," he says.

"It's really not," Penny snorts. "Okay. I gotta go. I'm glad everything is cool with us," she says, and a rush of adrenaline hits him as she pulls him in for a brief hug.

"See you later," she says.

"Okay," Sirius says, and he takes a moment to watch her walk into class before he starts making his way back towards Transfiguration.

He turns around and sees Griffin Vaughn and his friend, Taman, walking towards him. Griffin shoots him a judgemental look, and Sirius can't help but feel pleased that Griffin got to watch Penny very obviously hug him. He nods to Griffin, barely concealing the grin that's definitely about to break out on his face.

Sirius walks in late to Transfiguration whistling "Friday" as loudly and forcefully as he can. Everyone looks up from their tests to glare at him, but he really doesn't care. The professor whispers fiercely that she's taking five points from Gryffindor for his tardiness as she hands him a test to take, but once he takes a seat, he sits and taps his quill against his desk for a moment, not wanting to focus just yet.

He likes Penny; he might as well admit that to himself. It's possible he's liked her for a while and never noticed until yesterday. The rush he felt from talking to her, being around her; he never wants to let go of that feeling. He realizes he's being a bit dramatic about this, and he glances around the room suddenly, hoping no one in here can do legilimancy and is listening in on his thoughts.

He looks up at the clock and sees that they're already five minutes into class. Alright, he decides; better focus on the exam now. He dives into it, but every few minutes, he finds himself smiling secretly as he thinks about his moments with Penny in front of the East Wing window.

Writer's Note:

I don't support JKR or transphobic behavior.

I do not condone underage drinking, partying, sexually explicit behavior, etc.

I wrote this story seven years ago and I probably will never finish it. It's an embarrassing reflection of the internalized misogyny I had at the time. However, it is entertaining and I decided to post it anyway.

Hope you enjoy. :)