Peculiar Behavior
Lyra watched Harry get ready for his trip out to the forest. He seemed to be taking the naming of the unicorn way too seriously. When he named the various Hidden in their family, it had always been on whim or because one of them had requested a specific name. The horned horses were beautiful and powerful, but they weren't as familiar as any of their tribe and didn't seem to express any desires beyond eating and playing. Finally, she just shrugged and prepared to have her own adventure for the evening.
Along with her Astronomy pass for the evening, she took some warm clothes, pages from the Explorer's club for new entries, and her telescope in case she wanted to do some homework. Then, she went to find Whispers. She found the furball with Jasen in the corner of the common room where they were listening to music on Harry's gramophone. The younger boy had been trying to get others interested in American hip-hop, but few had expressed interest in the music. Whispers seemed to be cautiously getting into it.
"He seems to like the rhythm," Jasen told her happily as Lyra approached.
Whispers bobbed his head with the music, then said, "Goood moosic."
"The rest of his family likes jazz," Lyra told him and added, "Sometimes some Eric Clapton or Santana too."
"Your cat doesn't like anything I play," Jasen told her with a frown.
Lyra glanced around and asked, "Where's Sylvie?"
Whispers bared his teeth, "Slyvie hunts rats." His voice sounded predatory, mixed with pride.
"Thanks for hanging out with him," Lyra told the boy. "Not many people treat him like a real person."
"He's like a little kid," Jasen replied happily. "It reminds me of babysitting my neighbor's kid while our dads would watch football."
Whispers poked at the gramophone as the song ended and the record began to skip.
"We're heading out to explore and go watch the stars." Jasen looked a bit hopeful before she added, "Sorry, second years and up. You'll get your chance to break curfew next year."
He shrugged as Whispers ran off to get his yeti-fur gloves to explore outside the dirt floors of the common room. As the two of them got to the entrance of the common room, their path was blocked by Cedric Diggory.
"Doing Astronomy homework?" he asked knowingly. "Pass?" he asked. Lyra supplied it. "Do you know where the secret star-gazing balconies are?" She shook her head. "Do you want to know?"
"I'd prefer to find them alone," Lyra said firmly.
"Very well, I figured as much." Cedric shrugged. "The best ones are on the sixth and seventh floors. The most public ones will have little staircases going out of the tower to reach them. Secret ones often have some kind of signature of the stars near them. Have fun, but try to be back before 3 am to get some sleep. I have my prefect patrol tonight at that time. I'll send you to bed if I see you out."
Lyra gave him a playful smirk before giving herself a ceremonial wand tap on the head, shimmering out of sight along with Whispers. As Cedric looked to each side, Lyra spoke up, "You won't see us," then giggled and turned visible again.
"Incredible disillusionment," Cedric told her with shock, "Take two points for the spell and two more for it being non-verbal."
Lyra looked like she had been caught, "Oh… oops. I was told not to let people know I could do it without saying anything."
"Just don't get caught out there tonight," the older boy told her, shooing her out the door.
On the way out, she passed by Patricia, who was swimming laps in the grotto pool. Whispers put a toe in the water and withdrew it quite quickly as it was not warmed up at all. Lyra cast the water-walking spell on both of them, waiting for Patricia to pass before running across the surface of the water and out to the main hall. They still had nearly an hour before curfew began, so a few students were moving around the hallways. She passed by The Great Hall and saw a few steaming mugs on the table nearest the door. Venturing closer, she read a sign that they were filled with mint tea, so she took one and continued her exploration.
As the sun had set, a few torches and other candles were burning to light up the hallways. Some portraits made sure to tell her to get to bed before the nightly curfew. She acknowledged and thanked the ones who were polite to her. Those that were not, she ignored. Even though the star-gazing balconies started on the fourth floor, she decided to take a trip around the second floor, where the basilisk fight had been previously.
It was still very obvious that much of the floor had been completely rebuilt. You could see where there was new stone and masonry work, like two puzzles were put together with the same edges from different sets. Even the suits of armor and statues that had been destroyed were now brand new and clean of a thousand years of wear and tear. As she got closer to the bathroom that now held the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, a thick cloud of black fog came around the corner towards her.
After the initial shock wore off, she recognized it as the still-petrified form of Professor Binns from Harry's memories. As it floated closer to her, she pulled out her wand, wove it through the air, and incanted, "Skurge!"
The purple bubbles of the spectral cleaning spell arced toward her former professor. As it impacted, the ghost simply bounced off and went in the other direction, ricocheting off the wall behind him and continuing to move down the hallway away from her. Lyra chased after, with Whispers bounding after her. The dark spectre slowed down after bouncing off a few walls, so she managed to get past it and turned to blast another Skurge spell at the slowing ghost.
Again, Binns was repelled by her spell and caused him to bounce off the walls in the other direction. Whispers jumped at him, aiming to swat him back towards Lyra, though at the last second his eyes glowed and he panicked, pulling his arm back, but was still in mid-jump and sailed through the black mass. Upon landing, he shivered and shook himself like a wet dog, though he was perfectly dry.
He made a few sounds like he had just eaten something disgusting.
"Maybe you can play when you can use a wand," Lyra joked. Then they continued back toward the main staircase.
Near the third floor, the lights in the castle flickered to show that there were only ten minutes left until curfew, and a few students here and there ran past them in both directions to get back to their common rooms. By the time they were on the fifth floor and the lights all over the castle dimmed to show that the curfew had begun.
The air all over the castle had become quieter. There were plenty of times that Lyra had been in empty halls all over the school, but it was never this quiet. It would certainly be a bit unnerving to anyone who had never been in a dark and quiet place before. She had grown up on an island with plenty of dark and mysterious places with no lights or fires for her to find her way at night. Getting to the sixth floor, she saw two students sneaking through the hallways. They were older and huddled closely as they searched for something. Suddenly, Professor Umbridge appeared from around a corner near the couple, and Lyra vanished from sight, Whispers following suit.
She shined a bright light from her wand at the two students, "You are out after curfew and not heading toward any dormitory. You have one chance to tell me why."
The boy pulled out an Astronomy pass and passed it nervously to her, "We have homework to do."
Umbridge sighed, then smiled, a deeply unnerving smile. "You are both sixth-year students. There is no NEWT-level astronomy class. Twenty points from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and a week's detention for lying. Now tell me which younger student gave you their pass."
The Gryffindor boy drew himself up straight, "No one, I found it abandoned in the common room. I don't know who it belonged to."
Umbridge reached out a hand full of stubby fingers and put it on the Gryffindor boy. He looked at it like someone had just put a slug on his shoulder.
"Well, the real culprit is whoever lost the pass. If you find out who it was, let me know, and I will punish them instead," Umbridge offered in what she must have thought was a sweet voice. The Ravenclaw girl was already backing away when Umbridge dismissed them back to their dorms.
As they passed by Lyra and Whispers, still invisible, the girl asked her partner, "I thought you told me that the Barclay kid gave you the pass?"
"He did, but no way I'm ratting out anyone in Gryffindor. You do the crime, you do the time."
She smiled and hooked her arm into his as they walked past. Lyra went the other way to follow the toad that was teaching them history. The round woman walked with a bounce in her step as she approached a stairwell leading out to the side of the building. Lyra waited patiently for a few minutes before several girls rushed down the stairs with unhappy looks on their faces, followed by Umbridge, who continued her happy trot to another balcony spot.
Lyra turned around and silenced herself with an owl feather before running back toward the central staircase. She and Whispers sprinted up to the seventh floor, where she nearly collided with Fred and George coming down the stairs at breakneck speed. They looked a bit shocked at running into someone invisible, but rallied themselves quickly.
"Revalio!" one of them incanted, the spell splashing into Whispers and turning him visible.
The other pointed his wand directly at Lyra, "I'm guessing the other is Miss Black?"
Lyra turned visible, "Umbridge is after all the students on the balconies. I'm trying to warn the ones on this floor."
Whispers nodded, adding, "Ribbit."
The twins choked back laughter before wishing her luck and continuing to run down the stairs. Lyra found the first seventh-floor balcony and pushed through the door to find a couple lying on a blanket, the boy's shirt off and the girl's halfway, as they both screamed at the sudden arrival.
Not wasting any breath, Lyra told them, "Umbridge is coming," then ran to the next one.
The next two actually had students watching the stars, but didn't want to deal with their History Professor, so they left anyway. The final one was empty, so Lyra used a color-changing charm on the door to write "Ribbit, ribbit, toad."
After leaving that balcony, she noticed a suit of armor that had the constellation Libra on its shield. Remembering Cedric's advice, she tried to see if it contained a hidden passage. She spoke the name of the constellation, tickled the suit of armor, and tried a few revealing spells. In the end, Whispers found the secret by just pushing the star at the zenith of the constellation on the shield. The star glowed briefly, and a small door to the side of the statue opened to allow them passage. As soon as they were inside, Lyra cast the strongest locking charm she could manage at the door behind her.
The path twisted until she and Whispers walked straight out onto a small balcony overlooking the grounds and the Permissible Forest. There weren't any windows nearby with light that could obstruct her view of the sky, so it would be great for actually looking at the stars. However, she felt a tug on her robe as Whispers pointed out over the grounds. Off toward the forest, they both could see the sparkles of someone disillusioned, sneaking into the forest. As they disappeared into the trees, they spotted someone else sneaking out of the castle, who could not be stealthy if their life depended on it, Guryon Scamander.
Their large Head of House was carrying two large barrels that could probably fit three students inside each, and made a beeline for Hagrid's hut. The groundskeeper met him outside and took one barrel from him, setting it up on a table. Guryon placed the other on the ground nearby, then conjured chairs and started a fire as they sat together in conversation.
Now and then, Lyra would see someone trying to sneak out of the castle, some disillusioned, some not, heading for various points outside the castle; the lake, the forest, the Quidditch stadium… apparently, no one followed the curfew. Whispers was mostly just watching the stars, never seeming to get bored with the pinpricks of light in the heavens above. Lyra did manage to chart the stars she needed for her astronomy homework before hearing a shout from below.
Looking out into the night, he saw Hagrid and Guryon running toward two students emerging from the forest, holding onto each other for support. It didn't take more than a moment to recognize them, even at such great distance, as Fred and George.
There was some kind of conversation that was impossible for Lyra to hear before Hagrid picked up a boy with each arm, cradling them like newborns, as Guryon led them back to the castle. Back at Hagrid's hut, his boarhound Fang was busy eating whatever food the two men had left behind.
After a little more time under the stars, Lyra woke up Whispers and made her way back out of the secret passage. The door she had locked was silenced before she countered her own spell, opening the door to the hallway and turning herself invisible.
She couldn't hear anyone around, but still kept quiet, sneaking back to the main staircase. When she got there, she found Umbridge sitting at a table looking down the stairs, a glass of wine in her hand, and muttering to herself.
Lyra couldn't see a way around to the main staircase. As she evaluated her options, she grabbed Whispers to pull him back from going closer. On the far side of the stairs, she saw some masonry that would let them climb down to the first landing and pulled her little brother over there to make their descent.
On the sixth floor, she stopped to head out into each corridor and write on the walls, "Umbridge watching from the 7th floor." Then she also doodled a really ugly toad next to it. Continuing down the stairs, she left messages again at each level.
On the bottom floor, she swung by the infirmary to see Fred and George in the first beds, their faces and upper bodies with bruises all over them, while Madam Pomfrey treated them. Seeing that they would be OK, she started back to the common room and passed by The Great Hall to see Guryon and Hagrid having a drink near the door.
"I've heard they are horrible troublemakers," Guryon was saying.
"They're good lads, smart, an' troublemakers," Hagrid chuckled, taking a swig from his oversized mug.
"I guess… It's obvious they knew their attackers, too. Wouldn't rat them out. We will need to keep an eye on them, especially with the different potion ingredients they managed to pick while they were in the forest."
"Nothin' they do does any real harm," Hagrid argued.
"Nothing they do does any real harm to someone like you," Guryon countered. "Remember what I told you."
"Yea', I guess so... Bowtruckles," Hagrid nodded.
Guryon was about to say something else before he stopped and turned to look directly at Lyra, standing invisible by the door. Feeling like the Usurper was looking her right in the eyes, she dropped her invisibility and waved.
Guryon sighed and extended his hand, "Astronomy pass?" Lyra handed it over. "And your homework?" She provided that as well. He pulled his wand and performed some kind of spell on it before handing it back. "Go to bed."
She went back, finding Sylvie sleeping on her bed with a stomach full after a successful night of hunting.
Harry and Lyra found each other first thing in the morning. They both had strange looks on their faces and immediately asked the other what had happened. After two more attempts to speak and to let the other go first, they exchanged a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors and determined that Lyra would tell about her night first.
Harry got a good laugh out of her disrupting Umbridge's hunt and the notes she left for their unpleasant professor. Harry was a bit surprised at the number of students that she saw breaking curfew to go to the forest, and even more surprised at the Weasley twins getting hurt on their adventure. When it was his turn, Lyra just nodded along to the story and only reacted to the strange behavior of the Centaur Chieftess, Agestra.
"She's different from the others," Lyra commented. "She doesn't always speak in riddles and is more emotional than the rest."
"But why?" Harry asked.
She just shrugged and went to find Whispers and Sylvie to continue the morning at breakfast.
In The Great Hall, Hermione and Ron were staring each other down over their chess match. Professor Lupin stood to the side, observing the game. As Harry got closer, Ron spun around and stared daggers at him, so he held up his hands defensively and went to stand next to the DADA professor.
After a few minutes of watching no one make a move, one of the Weasley twins entered. He had a large bruise on one side of his face and glanced around the room before walking straight over to Harry.
"Are you OK?" Harry asked, but was ignored.
The ginger boy stood in front of Harry for a moment before spinning in a circle and then poking Harry in the chest lightly with one finger.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked, a little annoyed.
He was still ignored, and the Weasley then ruffled Harry's hair and pushed him gently.
"Hey!" Harry exclaimed and then pushed him back harder.
Lupin got involved at that point, "I assume you have a point in this?"
"Maybe…" either Fred or George replied before leaving the Hall.
Even Ron had taken a moment to look away from his game to watch the exchange. When his brother had gone, he looked back at the board in front of him and advanced one of his pieces. Hermione looked concerned.
A minute later, the other twin entered the room. Harry could only tell it was the other twin because the bruise pattern on his face was different. This twin walked straight up to Professor Lupin and stared at him for a moment before spinning in a circle. Lupin looked at Harry in confusion.
The other twin politely asked, "Professor Lupin, may I cast some diagnostic spells on you?"
Harry and Lupin both looked confused, but the professor slowly replied, "I guess so?"
He took out his wand and mumbled several incantations as waves and splashes in shades of purple fell on the professor, who looked even more confused.
"I'm not a ghost, Mr. Weasley." The boy raised his wand again and halfway into an incantation, Lupin interrupted him, "Nor am I a boggart. What are you trying to determine?"
"I'm not sure…" he trailed off. Then turned around and left the room.
When he was gone, Harry took a look at his father's friend and shrugged before heading to his table to eat. He hadn't been sitting for ten seconds before Blaise dropped into the seat next to him.
"What was that about?" he asked, gesturing to where the twins had been doing whatever they had been doing.
"Not a clue," Harry shrugged.
"Do you know who beat up the twins?"
Suddenly, realization hit him, "Yeah, I think that I just figured it out."
"And you're going to tell me?" Blaise said in a leading manner.
"I have a small problem of my own. I'll trade my info for your advice, regardless of whether it helps." Harry smiled.
"Sounds perfect," the Slytherin boy grinned.
Quickly after breakfast, they found an empty room near the hall and locked the door.
"What happened to the twins feeds into what I need advice on," Harry told him.
He proceeded to tell Blaise about visiting the centaurs to determine a name for the young unicorn. He then mentioned Lyra's evening and seeing Fred and George head into the forest. Then he connected the two by the centaurs complaining about Castor and Pollux and how the twin constellations were, in hindsight, an obvious reference to the Weasley twins. The centaurs must not have taken kindly to the encroachment on a night they weren't welcome.
"So they just beat up the twins?" Blaise asked incredulously.
"And let them leave," Harry added. "It was a serious warning."
Blaise stared at Harry, then nodded, "You think like them a bit. Like Draco's shoulder."
After a bit of silence, Blaise asked, "So what did you need advice about? The unicorn name?"
Harry made a grim face, "This feels more important than most names like Whispers because he made whispering noises, or Sylvie because she's silver in color." He began to pace in the room a bit, then turned back to Blaise, "Where is your name from?"
Blaise looked reminiscent, "I was told it was my Grandfather's name. My mother told me that I was named for my father's father because he didn't know the man himself. He hoped that he could have his father live on through me."
Harry stared at Blaise, a small smile forming on his friend's face. It was strange, as his mother was very cavalier with her marriages, yet this one seemed to mean something to both of them, more than just being his father. She didn't have any other children with her other husbands.
Harry asked, as politely as he could, "How did he die?"
Blaise seemed to realize he was looking nostalgic, and his face snapped into a bit of anger before replying, "An honor duel. My mother later married the other man."
Who later died in some bizarre circumstance… Harry thought. All of his mother's husbands, Blaise showed great disdain for except his father. That made a bit of sense, but still, something was missing. Instead of dwelling on it, he thanked Blaise and returned to The Great Hall to get Lyra and head to class.
However, as he entered, a boy in Gryffindor robes pushed past him angrily toward his table, hand on his wand.
"Warner!" He yelled at someone. An older boy stood up at the Gryffindor table. "You snitched on me!"
All eyes turned to the two boys, the older one threw up a finger to his lips, "Shhh, no, I didn't!"
The younger one ignored him and pulled a short piece of parchment out of his pocket and read it out loud,
"For selling your Astronomy pass to another student, you are docked thirty points and will serve two weeks' detention. Further Astronomy privileges are revoked. Sincerely, Professor Umbridge."
Lyra appeared next to Harry as the two Gryffindor boys stared each other down.
"That's the boy I told you about," she told her brother. "I didn't think he'd sell out his housemate."
Just then, an owl dropped a red letter next to Warner. As he reached for it, it popped up and floated next to him, slowly folding itself into the shape of a cat before speaking in Umbridge's voice.
"For allowing true justice to prevail and handing me the culprit that was allowing others to break school rules, your point loss and detention are rescinded. Thank you."
Most of the other students near Warner had already turned their backs on him as he continued to profess his innocence. The younger boy, Barclay, raised his wand and splattered his housemate's robe with green paint.
"Snitch," he cursed, then turned and left the hall.
Transfiguration started mostly with Professor McGonagall trying to settle down the class, talking about the incident in The Great Hall with the two Gryffindor boys. It took nearly ten minutes for their teacher to quiet down the rabble of second-year students from her dias in the center of the room. As soon as students on one side of the room quieted down, some on the opposite side started talking.
Finally, Colin Creevy asked McGonagall directly, "What do you think about it?"
The room was silent as they waited for her response.
"Both students broke the rules," she began in a bit of strained speech. "I have told all of you at least once that your house is like your family. So I will just say that none of you should put one of your family members in a position that the other would need to lie or break rules to support you."
It was clear she was trying to be diplomatic and not to pick a side with either of the students, and also that she did have a side. Though it was difficult to tell on whose side she was. The rest of the class worked on free transfiguration of turning stone into metal.
Wood into metal was much less difficult due to the nature of wood being able to be shaped into different objects and having a less rigid structure. Stone, on the other hand, did not like being changed, and no one in the class was able to change more than a small amount of their rocks into something metallic by the end of class
Charms had them working more on animation charms and getting objects to perform specific functions. Over the next few weeks, they would need to learn how to tie knots, assemble structures from children's blocks, and have mannequins perform cool handshakes with each other. Many students complained about the knots because there were already charms for nearly every knot, specifically. Flitwick shut down those students with a glare.
Potion lessons had the class brewing more antidotes, this time to an unknown poison. Harry's partner volunteered to be their guinea pig, expressing trust in Harry's deduction and brewing skills. Harry found it amazing that discovering the ingredients of the poisons would lead to discovering their nature.
He assumed that anything in the potions would need to have an ingredient in the classroom and tried to take samples from jars he thought to be in the poisons to deduce their effects without drinking them. The poison with the sloth brain extract was countered with a magical cup of coffee. The lip-sealing poison contained hummingbird wings, and he made an antidote that had a primary ingredient of a zipper fish's mouth. He lost some points brewing an antidote to a skin-freezing poison by creating an antidote that included heated dragon blood. It worked too well and ended up giving Leonard Quincy first-degree burns on his whole body, and he was sent to the infirmary. Harry was given detention, though he didn't mind because all of Professor Snape's detentions were time to fix his mistakes or just brew more potions.
Finally, for Herbology, Professor Sprout took the class out to the Permissible Forest. They didn't go very far in, but she led them on a tour to identify various mushrooms and other fungi that grew near the edge. They came across belltops like the ones Harry had seen the fairies sleeping inside, and purposely made them ring out and make noise. There was also Fly Agaric, which could be used as part of magical insecticides; Scarlet Cups, which could gather water for use specifically in healing potions; Common Stinkhorns, that could be used as a reagent in potions the decrease the stirring needed for some complicated recipes; and Chanterelle Mushroom, which were used often in meals in The Great Hall.
Following dinner, Cedric led the Quidditch team out to the pitch and took a deep breath before giving them a speech, "In two days, we are visiting the Wye Valley Forest for our first match against a team our age. Some of the Harpies will be taking us there, though, at least Arlene Green and maybe other members of their team won't be cheering for us. So today, we will be running drills until you can play in your sleep, but can't because you are too sore. Tomorrow you will recover, though we will still have a light practice. I'm expecting all of us to play well and make a showing for ourselves, and I'm certain the victory celebration at Hogwarts will be epic."
"What if we lose?" Meagan asked.
"Then we will just have a smaller party," Cedric shrugged, "and many more practices."
Thus began the difficult practice they had experienced. Cedric recreated the bludger drill that had been done before for the beaters increasing in number on the ground, but with practice balls, since they didn't have a healer available. They were just as heavy to hit, and he felt the bats getting heavier as time went on. At least when they had the healer present, they were able to take a small break while getting their wounds treated. Now, Cedric only gave him and the other beaters a break when they were completely covered by pink impact marks.
Now and then, Harry was able to glance up at Lyra and William practicing chasing snitches. Lyra looked increasingly frustrated as she hadn't caught a single one. Each snitch she went after would mysteriously stay inches out of her fingers before taking her on wild chases through the arena. It was the same with William, and both of them were dodging their training bludgers; Lyra had three going after her. The chasers were also playing a half-court style game against each other, with Cedric as the only keeper. They also had a couple training bludgers going after them with no beaters to defend them. At the beginning, there would often be a cry of pain now and then as Cedric had gotten hold of a Quaffle that would heat up the longer it was being held to encourage more passing.
After nearly four hours of hellish training, the team nearly crawled their way back to the common room. The grotto was already steaming with hot water, and a few of the first-year housemates, plus Whispers and Sylvie, were already soaking. The team quickly changed and got into the pool to relax.
After several minutes of silence, Patricia swam over to Lyra and asked, "I've been reading about some hot springs in Japan that are supposed to be magically blessed. After what you and Harry did for the common room, could you do something like that for the grotto?"
The idea seemed to spark interest in Lyra's eyes, but she couldn't focus on it. "Ask me tomorrow."
As they were all getting out, an owl dropped a letter for Cedric. He took a quick look and groaned, then incinerated the paper, got dressed, and headed out into the castle. No one was in the mood to care about anything other than sleeping, so he was not questioned at all. He trudged up to the fourth floor, finding the statue of the Quidditch player and elbowed it in the side.
"Ahh, Foul! Excessive Cobbing!" the statue exclaimed, revealing the hidden passageway.
At the end was the room where the Council of the Quidditch Captains met. Already present were the other four captains: Roger Davies, Tasmin Applebee, Oliver Wood, and Marcus Flint.
"Congratulations," Wood started, gesturing at the table. "Looks like Hogwarts has agreed that you are an official Quidditch team."
Cedric smiled back. It had been nearly a year since he had transfigured the square table to a pentagon. The fact that the spell hadn't worn off was a testament that the school agreed with his changes. There was also a banner showing the Scamander sigil on the wall behind his seat, but that could have been placed there by house elves.
"We were watching your practice," Flint told him. "You have some special equipment, don't you?"
Cedric smirked. Of course, they would notice.
"So? What of it?" he replied sharply.
"Where did you get it?" the older Slytherin boy demanded.
"You know we are friends with a professional team. I asked for some training equipment. It's not like we have faster brooms or anything."
"That's not exactly fair, you know," Applebee told him.
Cedric smiled at his old housemate, "Well, what would be fair is for you to find your own sponsor. There are quite a few 'Puffs on local and national teams you could talk to."
Oliver latched on to that idea, "Yeah, there are a bunch I know too!"
Ignoring Marcus and Rodger still objecting, Oliver scribbled out a message on a paper near him and tapped it with his wand. The paper folded itself into an airplane and took off.
"There have to be some rules to this, though," Cedric tried to appease the Slytherin and Ravenclaw captains.
"No new brooms unless everyone gets them," Roger suggested.
"What about personal brooms?" Flint objected. "Most of the Slytherin players already have better brooms than the other teams."
Tasmin spoke up, "Let's just agree no broom sponsorships for now. Assistance with training only until we can agree on something more."
Each captain looked around, waiting for someone to object, but no one did.
"How about the original reason we called the meeting?" Wood asked.
Flint nodded and relaxed in his chair, "I have received notice with complete assurance that in the Headmaster's Tournament of the Ages next year, there will be a Quidditch tournament."
Cedric's eyes widened. A Junior World Cup had been suggested for the last decade, but no one had been able to put one together. With the World Cup already happening in Magical Britain this summer, topping it off with a Junior Cup would be insane. Though he snapped his attention back to the table, as they would need to decide on the team composition somehow.
"As Slytherin has won the majority of the house cups over the last century, we should have the most presence on the team," Marcus said flatly.
There was a flat "No" from Oliver, Tasmin, and Roger simultaneously. Cedric had stayed silent as he didn't know if anyone on his team could match up to the veterans.
"I don't see what the problem is," Flint shrugged. "Ravenclaw hasn't won the cup in thirty years, Hufflepuff in nine, Gryffindor plays too honorably, and Scamander is completely untested."
"Get the national team involved," Cedric suggested. "I'm pretty sure that Bagman's department would want in on this, too. The professionals should be involved in the construction of a Junior National Team."
"Let's call it to a vote," Tasmin suggested.
Marcus was the only one against it.
"Your starter team is mostly seventh years anyway," Wood told him. "They won't get to play next year anyway."
"I'd flunk myself for a chance to participate in this," Marcus snapped back.
"The complete team will probably consist of nearly all the houses anyway," Roger said analytically. "Most professional teams have at least two reserves for each position. We just need to determine who our starters will be and then the strings for each spot. We could probably field every Quidditch player at the school, just in case."
"I want Slytherin taking up the first two strings," Marcus reiterated.
"Then make sure they play well," Oliver told him. "The first game is in a few weeks, Gryffindor versus Scamander. You might want to let some of your younger players take the place of the seventh years on the team if you want to give them a chance of being on the full school team."
"You just want a better chance of winning this year's House Cup," Marcus sneered at him.
Oliver gave a devilish grin, "Well, I guess you could just give all your potential spots next year to us if you want to ignore my advice."
The other captains looked on with amusement as Marcus tried to figure out what he would do.
Finally, he just asked, "Anymore business? No? Good."
With that said, the window behind Marcus popped open, and he snatched the broom next to it and jumped out.
"Well, that was fun," Oliver said before popping open his window and flying out. Roger and Tasmin followed.
Cedric pulled a miniature broom from his pocket, shaking it to full size, but frowned when he remembered that behind him was the door and not a window.
Speaking out loud, "I don't suppose the castle could figure out a way to put a window behind my seat?"
He waited for nearly a minute before taking his broom and leaping out the Hufflepuff window and flying back down to the castle entrance near the common room.
Author's Note: I saw that it was coming up to one whole year since I last posted, and I've been working extra hard to finish this chapter and the next before that full year expired. Not that anything would have happened if it had reached a full 365 days. It just feels better to start posting again. My daughter is going to turn three years old in another two months. I've also got my writing desk set up again after having to dismantle my office to turn it into her nursery and then get rid of it completely when we set up her playroom. However, now it's almost back to how it was since I've cleaned up an old room that was mostly storage before. I'll post more, and whenever I have two chapters ahead, I'll post the older one. I hope to have the next chapter published in less than a month.