Justin walked into the common room , his arm in a sling and a cast on it as well. He craddled his right arm in his left and sat down in his favourite chair wincing in pain. So he took out the medicine the healer gave him for the pain and swallowed it down. Then he looked over at Minerva and tried to think of how he should tell her of his little mishap.

Oakey looked at Nate as the younger Hufflepuff ran back to their Dormitory. WAIT! CAT! Oakey hesitated a look back when Nate had mentioned his cat. Oakey had just gotten one during Christmas break and now his little fella was usually sleeping in the Boy's Dorm. Charmer wasn't very good with other cats yet. Oakey was nervous that if Charmer saw Nate's cat it would be the end of the world. He was going to rush back into the dorm right behind Nate to make sure his cat was still sleeping soundly on his bed and not...well cat fighting.

But then he felt something brush up against his foot. Oakey looked down to see a black kitten. Charmer. Oakey said rather relieved that his cat had decided to wake up and walk around for a bit. Picking his new good luck charm up into his arms and began petting the little guy.

Right! Luck, that's what it was. Oakey was lucky all through out that game. Aside from Gideon's broom smacking Oakey's beater hand hard (which didn't hurt to much or bruise to badly). He Took a look at Harvey's Quidditch goggles resting around his neck and scratched Charmer behind his ears. These weren't charmed like his rabbit's foot was, but Oakey felt that they played an integral role as good luck charms for him today.

I disagree with you there, Alyssa, It doesn't take luck... at least not for you ...to direct a Bludger at a Gryffindor two years older then you and knock'em right off their broom.


Then their Head of House walked in to join in their small celebration. Again, I really didn't do much. But thank you Professor. Come on downplay his performance, Oakey didn't want the spotlight on himself. If everyone kept quiet about how well he played, Oakey won't speak a word of it anywhere and Harvey would never know that he went against his order not to play Quidditch.

Lewis made his way into the Common Room along with some of his team mates - that still sounded so weird in his head, he was part of a TEAM - and quickly sat down on one of the couches in front of the fireplace next to his cat. Vanilla barely acknowledged his presence but after opening her eyes for about one second, closed them again to go back to sleep.

Smiling to himself Lewis turned in his seat at the sound of their Head of House's voice. Oh wow. He had never seen her in here. That was definitely a surprise. Now kneeling the wrong way on the couch, with his elbows on the back of it, the 16 year old glanced around the room absently.

This whole winning thing was pretty awesome, actually.

Evelyn was still excited as she walked into the common room. Eeeek. They actually won! How amazing was that!?

She made her way towards one of the couches near the fireplace and plonked down with a sigh of relief. She folded her legs underneath her and rested her head against the couch. She was tired after all that cheering.

Sophie hurried into the common room and looked around, trying to spot any of the quidditch players. She was still really excited they had won and wanted to congratulate each and every one of them!



She saw Alyssa and ran in her direction. "Heey! Congrats, Alyssa! You did really great!" Sophie said happily to the older girl, jumping up and down.



She noticed that Oakey was there too and smiled at him. "You did great too, Oakey! Good job!"



Then she saw a much older boy that she had not officially met yet, but she had seen him playing. She rushed to where he was. "Hey! You did brilliant in the match!" Sophie exclaimed looking up at him. "I'm Sophie, by the way." She added smiling.

Where were the otheeers?? Sophie glanced around the Common Room, but couldn't see any of the other players there.

Minerva was feeling horrible. She had just looked up when she saw Justin with...a..sling cough, cough "What..did..you..do?" cough, cough.

Lewis looked up in surprise when somebody was actually talking to him. "I...I was?" Had she been watching? Cheering even? For him? Well, not for him per se obviously but for the team he was on. The team he was on, he really did like the ring of that.

Well, he guessed he hadn't been that bad. Or else Keefer hadn't put him on the team in the first place. And the roster for the actual match. Hopefully he would get to play again next time too. "Hi." Was all Lewis said for a moment, returning the girl's smile. After a short moment of silence he realized that it was probaby expected of him to say his name too. "I'm Lewis." Yes.

"Hmm. I wonder what type of tales these are. Does anybody know what the book of mysteria is." Nate really needed to know. The tale probably wouldn't say.

Justin noticed Minnie wasn't well, then he answered with the only story he had.... the truth." Well, last night me and Harv were down at the duck pond and he caught me walking on the ice.... He told me to get off ....and well, me being me didn't listen and I fell on the ice and broke my arm. " he said his head hanging. Then he looked back up at her and said, " You don;t look like you're feeling well, nor do you sound well. would you like me to get some soup for you or something? I could get a house elf go and get it. "

Minerva looked at him. "What were you doing on the ice?" she just shook her head and began to cough again. "No I'm fine, I just feel a bit under the weather. Nothing to big, but your arm I can't believe you did this."

" I was checking the thickness. i miss going ice fishing back at the Manor.. That's all. Are ya sure, babe? I can have some sent....well, if you change your mind. " he said as he walked over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. " it'll be fine. "

Minerva sat back. "Ok if you say so, but don't go out on that ice again. I'm fine I (cough, cough) just have a bug. I can't believe I got sick the day of the quidditch match and couldn't play." she looked down sad. "Of all times to get sick."

Nate wanted to read the book, but he wanted to know what the book of mysteria was first. So he asked again "Does anybody know what the book of mysteria is?"

Justin sat beside her and put his good arm around her. " I won't, don't worry. Well, there are other matches, Min. and now all you need to worry about is getting better. I can't have my partner in crime sick. Just let me know if I can do anything for you. Okay?"

"So that's where you were? I was worried about you? That's okay you need to rest. I don't think we should have any parties right now. It's kind of like a taboo for our Quidditch team. Last year we partied and we didn't win. I think that we're going to do our partying WHEN we win this time."Alyssa smiled at her team mate.



"Awww....thanks for saying that Oakey. I just think that it was pure luck or Gideon's bad luck for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm just glad that I was able to help protect our Chasers AND Seeker as much as I could. We all played well today. Even you. I hope that you won't get grief from your stepdad for playing today."Alyssa leaned over to whisper into Oakey's ear.



Alyssa looked up and saw Lewis come in. He too looked tired but like her had to first grab a seat on the couch to rest for a while. "Lewis!! You're here. I didn't get a chance to say that you played really awesome today. I usually hug my team mates when we win. Can I hug you?....Platonic of course."She nodded smiling at the older boy.



Alyssa couldn't help but laugh at the younger girl's enthusiasm. "Thanks for saying that, Sophie. We all played well. Even you helped out too you know. I could hear you cheering your lungs out. That helped me play better knowing that our house mates were out there supporting us. So thanks alot for doing that....especially when it must have freezing cold up there on the stands." Alyssa smiled at the younger girl.



Then Alyssa got the greatest surprise of her life. Professor Hadley was actually here in the Common Room. She rarely came in unless someone was in trouble. But she was beaming from ear to ear, so she couldn't be angry at anyone just yet. From her words, she was actually to congratulate the team on their win.

"Oh Wow! Professor, thanks for saying that. I could hear you yelling from the stands. I hope that you and Professor Bentley didn't end up in a fist fight. Uh! Was Professor Williamson actually supporting Gryffindor. When I flew by him and heard him yell for them, I almost wanted to send a bludger his way."Alyssa grinned up at the Professor. "Oops I mean I almost hoped that a bludger would ACCIDENTALLY fly his way."

Minerva smiled "I will be fine. I just need to sit here and rest a bit." she leaned into his shoulder and closed her eyes.

Minerva smiled. "Ok sounds good." then she went back to leaning on Justin.

Justin sneered at Alyssa when she said thats why they had lost their matches last term. He was about to say something to her , but Minerva rested her head on his shoulder and he pulled her into him instead of bugging out on her. so, he sat there with a smile as he held his love.

Minerva felt him stiffen and knew he was upset. She put her warm hand on him and whispered "I know it wasn't my celebrations that lost us matches. I guess she just doesn't understand supporting a team. Plus it was lack of players and some not being very good last year that had us losing matches. Don't worry about it."

Justin felt her hand on his chest and then listened to her as she tried soothing him,. " I know that...I had a part in that too though. " he whispered back. " That's why I decided not to try out again this term. I want to be ready for next term....Then I'll show her and the whole of this school what I've got. " Justin's ego bruised and somewhat beaten , he closed his eyes and imagined how it'd be next term. as he drifted off to sleep his irratation slipped away with the sound of her heartbeat so near.

Stop, I really wasn't that good Oakey said trying to hold in blushing in embarrassment from all the complement's he was getting from his housemates. He started petting Charmer quicker


Maybe I rubbed off a bit on him during the match. Oakey whispered a smile back to Alyssa. I know you haven't met him but call him Harvey He said back to Alyssa on her comment on his Foster Father. Technically he's not really my Step Dad. He had no relation to any of the Gunter's at all. Oakey just took on the last name because he didn't know who his real parents were and he needed a last name. I should be fine as long as Harvey never finds out he whispered to her again.

Sophie chuckled when he seemed to be surprised. She just nodded when he asked the question and looked kind of confused about something, then sort of happy. That guy had all the colors of emotions, eh? Haha!

Hi! Sophie chuckled again. This older badger was funny, even if he didn't seem to want to be funny now. Oh, a name! "Nice to meet you, Lewis!" She waved up at him. "How long have you been playing quidditch?"

Sophie had helped too? It was funny to think it that way. And Alyssa was able to hear her??? Wow, she didn't think she was cheering that loud! Sophie was actually surprised! "Yeah, it was pretty cold, but the jumping warmed us up!" It really did, heh!

She turned to look at Oakey again. She giggled at his words. It was actually funny how none of them seemed to believe they did well, or at least didn't want to take credits on their own. Sophie thought that was really cool. "Yeah, you were!" Ooo! Cat! "I've never seen this one around before!" She said looking down at the black kitten Oakey was petting.

Treyen had been VERY busy spending some quality time with his girlfriend, mind you. It was completely fine to come in late. Though, neither Keefer or Alec were around, so, technically, he was on time.

Actually, he'd rather stayed with Ellie longer than he had. Especially knowing that the most important boys weren't going to be around...

...but hey! The most important person was in the room, at least. Hadley.

"Hey, Professor," he greeted, with a smile and a nod, "Did you watch the game?" she'd learned a LOT of the sport, she probably didn't need anyone to tell her what had been going on throughout the game.

Sophie was still with the other quidditch team members when she heard a familiar voice. She turned around with the biggest smile to face... "TREYEN-MISTER-HEAD-BOOOOOOOOOOOY!!!" She missed calling him that. Hurrying in his direction, she started jumping up and down, clapping her hands together. "You were brilliant scoring so many goals! That was wicked, really!! You did so great!!" Her eyes sparkled as she spoke extremely fast, looking up at him. She was quite impressed with his performance, actually. To be honest, she hadn't expected that from the Head Boy, heh.

Sophie just noticed their Head of House in the room. Oopsie! "Hi, Professor Hadley!" She smiled and waved at her. "Great game, wasn't it??"

The book of mysteria? Fina frowned as she heard a young hufflepuff asking about something she hadn't heard being spoken of for years. That was when she also noticed what the young boy was holding. "They added stuff about that into Hogwarts, A History?! Shiny karma! I can't believe it!" She blinked, moving to have a look at the book. "They must update these copies regularly or something." Obviously. Things at Hogwarts did change annually and not just the students.

Fina shook her head frowning at Oakey's modesty. "You got up on a broom and swung that bat around. That's more than half the people at Hogwarts will ever get to say they've done." Just saying and all. You don't actually have to hit the bludger to have 'done something'. Getting on a broom in the air was enough, wasn't it?

Just as making passes with the red leather ball. "You played awesome as well. Nice passes you made there." Even if you didn't get to score the shots, making assists was just as important.

Fina smiled as she heard Alyssa thank her and compliment her on the cheering. "Naw. Professor Bentley and myself are cool..." now if it was Lafay, it'd be a different story. "And professors can cheer on who they want to, you know. I wouldn't take it personally. I'm sure he was just as thrilled by our outcome of the match."

Oh! And Treyen had arrived!! "Of course I did, Treyen! And I even commented to Ellie about how superb your chasing had been." See. She knew what position he played in the match everything now.

She even knew it was called a quaffle.

Heh. That was when she noticed how embarrassed a young first year seemed by her presence. "Hey there Sophie! It was quite the game, yes!" Probably next game would be more interesting... but you know....

Oh good a change in subject! You like Cats? Oakey would never claim to be a "Cat Person" but that didn't mean he didn't like Charmer. He scratched his black kitten behind his ears and Charmer purred. I got him for Christmas, My Faster Dad thought he'd come in handy.... Oops I mean that He'd be uh... um... nice, yeah nice... to have around. Oakey looked around hesitantly for something he could change the subject on again.



I've always loved Quidditch since I was little. Oakey said back to Hadley. I just can't let my Foster Dad know that I played...

stupid stupid stupid! Oakey berated himself mentally. With all this attention going around to the Quidditch players It made it difficult for Oakey to keep his mouth shut on anything! Nobody needed to know this. The only person he had told Alyssa who had done a great job at keeping his whole bad luck problem a secret. He didn't need to spill the beans to his Head of House that His Care Taker Forbade him from playing Quidditch, that might make things worse.

Oakey started petting Charmer faster. His black kitten was beginning to look annoyed from all the petting Oakey was doing.