"Oh that's good to know. I was worried to see both Professor Bentley and you arguing in the stands. I only found out later that it was because the bludger I hit, knocked Gideon Gert off his broomstick and Professor Bentley was upset about that. I hope that Professor Bentley knows that I wouldn't intentionally hurt someone. It's all in the game right?" Alyssa was now worried that her other favorite Professor would be upset with her because she had done that.

She nodded when she heard her Head say that Professor Williamson had a right to cheer on whomever he wanted. Alyssa decided that she would keep an eye on that. If she heard him cheering for Ravenclaw in their next match and then whomever they played against in the next round, then she would have suspicions confirmed.

Sophie just smile and nodded. That was cool their Head of House was here to congratulate the quidditch team too! They deserved it! It had been a brilliant match! "Hufflepuff is doing so well this year! I hope we win the Quidditch Cup aaand the House Cup!" Sophie couldn't help it but feel proud of her house. She had heard they hadn't won the House Cup in 13 terms, and now they were the best at pretty much everything! How great was that! Awesome team work, right there! WOOP!

She stopped to think for a second. "Is there a Gobstones Cup, Professor?" Imagine if they won that one too! Wow!

"I don't mind them." Sophie said looking back at Oakey. "I mean, I think they're cute and all. I don't think I would have one as a pet, though." Or any other animal, for that matter. Pets were too much responsibility, she thought. Although she was enjoying taking care of a Pygmy Puff.

Sophie smiled when the kitten purred. That was the cuteness she was talking about! She frowned a little when Oakey spoke about his "foster dad". "Why don't you just call him 'dad'?" She asked with a curious face, not realizing that it might have been an inappropriate question and not noticing Oakey's uneasyness.

Alyssa noticed Justin sneering at her after she had told Minerva the reasons why she preferred not to have a party right now. Then she saw them whispering to each other. She couldn't hear what they were saying, nor did she want to hear, because she could sense the anger that Justin was giving off. 'What did I say? I didn't mean to infer that it was because of her celebration party that we lost the Cup. I guess I should have made myself clearer by saying that we had been warned about the existing belief that this House had about pre-celebration parties and how bad luck it was.'Alyssa thought to herself. But she decided that it wasn't something that she would speak to Minerva without Justin around. But clarifying the matter with Minerva was something Alyssa intended to do.



Alyssa listened as Oakey corrected her referring to Harvey as his step dad. She nodded in understanding and whispered back."Well I won't tell and I don't think anyone else will. So does this mean that you won't play for us again if you're asked to?"Alyssa asked him. She actually liked partering up with him, even though she did miss having Minerva play with them.

Why was she laughing? He hadn't tried to be funny or anything. So what was so funny. Should he just...join in? It seemed like the normal thing to do even though he had absolutely no clue what was going on. But then maybe she was laughing AT hime. It would definitely be weird if he joined in if that was the case. Huh.

Settling with another smile, Lewis blinked down at her for a moment when she waved at him. "Same. Nice to meet you, Sophie." He finally replied and - since that was expected of him right? - waved back at her, even though she wasn't even standing that far away from him.

Quidditch? Him? "I...started this year actually. I don't know why I decided to go to tryouts. I've never been much of a Quidditch fan." And especially NOT a Quidditch player. "Do you? Play I mean." Hey he was actually talking to somebody. Like a normal person. Go him!

Lewis turned his head upon hearing somebody calling his name, and found himself looking at one of his team mates. Alyssa, right? "I am." Because you know, he was here. He wasn't sure why she had felt the need to point that out. "You are too." It was quite obvious, though, wasn't it? Strange.



Hug. Him? He hardly ever got hugs. From anybody. Well, from his mum. And occasionally Valerie but that was it. "Uhm." What was he supposed to say? She would definitely be upset if he said no, right? Subconsciously leaning back a little, away from Alyssa he continued to stare at her. "I guess so...?" Why did she have to go around hugging random people? And people said he was weird.

And then their Head of House was talking to him. To HIM!

Lewis jumped a little when he heard Professor Hadley turn to him, accidentally kneeling on Vanilla's tail. With a meow of protest she quickly made him aware of that fact and he shifted to the side, patting her head apologetically. "Oh, I'm so sorry." He muttered softly, clearly playing for time since he wasn't quite sure how to react to the professor telling him he was awesome. Or played awesome but whatever.

Finally averting his gaze away from his cat and back to Professor Hadley, Lewis nodded slowly, blushing a little. "I...thank you, Professor." He hadn't been that bad, had he. And Treyen had scored like all the time so that had been pretty amazing.

A small, twelve year old boy bounded into the common room and stopped. He bent down and tried to gather his breath back again. Really. Why was there such a big meeting in the common room? If this WAS a meeting that is.

Alec looked up and around the room. Was it just him or was it really really packed today? Had everyone gathered round just to celebrate? Or was there some sort of strategy talk going around? Hm... Alec looked around. There was Lewis! And Treyen! Two of the cool older guys on the team who Alec secretly wanted to be like when he grew up. And then there was Lyss and... Oakey? The people with the bats! And...

O____O

Was that the... Was she... What was the Head of House doing here? Was he in trouble? He didn't think there was anything wrong with jumping in the snow with your best friend. Snow was nice! And it was just there, practically asking them to jump in it and have snowball fights. He should not get in trouble for this at all.

"Erm, hey everyone!" Alec said, giving everyone in there a small wave, "Hey Professor!" Because she did have the power to scare him if he didn't greet her.

Sophie smiled at him when he waved back at her. She knew it was kind of silly to wave from such close distance, but she had always liked waving better than shaking hands.

He had started playing this year and was already on the team? "Wow, that's cool!" Her smile widened and she nodded twice. She was really impressed! "Good thing you decided to try out!" Even if he didn't know why, he had helped Hufflepuff win the match! That was a good reason to want to be on the team, eh?

"Oh, no, I'm no player. Just a big fan!" Appleby Arrows fan, if you will. Best. Team. EVER! YEAH! But he said he'd never been a quidditch fan, so he probably didn't have a favorite team. Or did he? "Do you root for any team?"

Sophie noticed some people staring at the entrance of the Common Room and turned her head to look in that direction.

THE SEEKER!!!

She ran up to him with a big smile on her face. She remembered talking to him on their first day at Hogwarts, but that was it. "You did a WONDERFUL job, Alec, congrats!!" Luckly they kept saying the players' names during the match. But maybe he didn't remember hers. "I'm Sophie, by the way!"

"Right here!" he yelled, catching the end of her query.

A scene of jubilation met his eyes. Half his team seemed to be present, and people were talking excitedly. Good! Hopefully this will keep up our momentum for the House Cup as well!

Mnrgkajnrgalkgna!! THE CAPTAIN! How could have Sophie missed THE CAPTAAAAIN??? Running up to him, she once again started jumping up and down, her arms waving around her head this time. "Caaaptaaaain!! That was a brilliant game! You all did so well! You did such a good job with the team and during the match too! I saw you making some pretty cool defenses there!" She was talking really fast again. She couldn't help it, she was still really excited about everything!

Evelyn had been relaxing on the couch next to the fireplace when she noticed the young Hufflepuff seeker enter the room. Gosh, he was brilliant during the game. She got up and walked up to him.

"Hey, kid." Evelyn smiled warmly. "Congratulations! I thought you did a great job out there."

She wanted to wish the others as well but they all seemed occupied.

Minerva nudge Justin "Wake up (Cough, Cough) silly.. There are a ton of people in here and you are sleeping." she was feeling worse, but didn't want anyone to really know. Maybe she should head back to the dorm and lay down. She had already missed the match she didn't want to miss everything.


Minerva saw Keefer come in and she frowned sad she missed all the action from being sick. She waved towards him. "I am so glad we won. I am so sorry I got this bug and had to miss it. I hope to be better for practice." as she finished she started coughing again. "Sorry" she said quietly again and took a drink of water.

Justin woke up as Minnie ribbed him. " Oh....Sorry. Didn't mean to fall asleep, but the medicine the healer gave me makes me a bit groggy. Maybe I'll go lay down in the dorm. " he said as he leaned over to kiss her forehead. She was burning up. His eyes widened as he looked at her. She was pretty pail. " Minnie, I think you should go lay down as well. You've got a fever and you don't need to get any sicker..... Go lay down and I'll have one of the girls bring you some soup...And no argueing about it. " Justin said with an authoritative tone.

Violet grinned as she left her dorm. Yes, she was back. The Huffie couldn't stay there forever, anyway. Violet would have to get over living with Rupert and Holli. They weren't bad people, but she just missed her parents. Her long, blonde hair was tied up (she'd tried to tidy herself up and dump the bedhead style) and she was wearing jeans and a funky t-shirt. Violet couldn't wait to see her friends again, that was the trouble with hiding away from everyone. She was also holding a tray of newly-baked cupcakes, some of which had little messages in strawberry icing. The rest were covered thickly in it with rainbow sprinkles. "Hello, everyone!" Violet addressed the crowd in general, in a sing-song voice.

Ella entered the common room with a wide smile, still feeling excited about watching the match. It was extremely crowded and there were people talking all over. She figured she'd announce herself by giving the Hufflepuff players their props. "Hey guys, you all played awesome!"

Alyssa turned when she saw Ella enter the Common Room. "Hey Ella, thanks for supporting us out there. It helped me alot, hearing you all rooting for us. That's what I love about being in Hufflepuff House. It doesn't matter whether you're part of the Quidditch or Gobstones Team, or whether you're on the stands cheering for the team, or you're working hard during lessons and handing in our homework and earning house points. We all have one objective, and that is to win all the Cups this year...and we can do it. Right Everyone?" Alyssa said aloud to anyone who was within hearing distance.

Aaron grinned after hearing Lyssard's speech. Right. They could totally win this cup. Every one of them. Even the House cup, who cared that they hadn't won it since Merlin knows when?
Not that Aaron had contributed to any of the points the Hufflepuffs had received so far... He had a grand total of 0 house points. And that suited him just fine.
'Riiiiiiight!' He shouted out, feeling like he should probably be wearing his Badger suit right now.

Aaron then made his way over to whoever he could find from the Quidditch team, they did preeeeetty darn good, so far as he knew. And he didn't know a lot about Quidditch.
'Heya. Good job and stuff.' Aaron nodded and sipped from his Dr Pepper.

"It was no problem! I love watching you guys play!" Ella said with a smile. She listened as Alyssa continued to talk, giving a rather inspiring speech actually. She nodded throughout, agreeing with everything she had said. When Alyssa finished Ella said loudly, "Righttt!" with a smile. She liked all this Hufflepuff pride going around.

And just as he had entered the room, someone was running up towards him. Alec grinned nervously. Really. He had only played in one Quidditch match. He hadn't expected people to know him or come running up to him and say things.

But... this was that girl he had met back at the start of term, wasn't it? He was going to have to make sure to keep in touch with this one. "Thanks!" he said, "We all did pretty well. Between you and me, I think Keefer's really happy." He did look pretty chuffed.

Oh right! Her name was Sophie! That was it! "Hey Sophie!" he said, "Erm, i think we've met before? I'm Alec but it looks like you already knew that." She had said his name, after all.



The sound of someone behind him made Alec turn around and grin at the boy standing there. It was cool older guy number 3! Namely, Captain Keefer! The guy of the hour.

"I didn't get to tell you before but, erm, great job out there Captain!" Alec said. He did do a great job! A brilliant job! Why the boy made him Seeker though, Alec didn't know. Maybe the boy wanted to test Alec's loyalty to the house or something. Who knows. Either way, he was proud of the cool older guy.



And now he was being approached by another girl. Alec looked at her. Who... was she? Had he met her before? Either way, this older girl seemed to know him. She... wasn't going to scare him, was she?

But she seemed to be smiling at him so he didn't have anything to worry about. And she was congratulating him? "Thanks!" he said, grinning up at the tall girl, "Erm, i'm Alec by the way. Alec Summers." He didn't mind being called a kid but... Alec was his name. And he hadn't exactly met this older girl before.

Minerva wanted to argue, but she knew he was right. "Ok I will go lay down for a bit though. I have homework to do." she said as she got up. "I will talk with you later."

Minerva smiled when she saw Violet. "Hey stranger. Glad to see your out of hiding!" she said jokingly to her friend.

Justin smiled as she got up and heeded his advice. " Okay, Babe. I'll see you for dinner though right?" Justin asked as he started for his dorm.

"Minnie!" Violet exclaimed. "Yup. I've decided that I can't stay there forever. Cupcake?" she offered, holding out the tray. The messages on some of them said things like "Funny face", "BFF" (Lilly had to have one of them) and "In your dreams!" There were also ones completely coated in icing with sprinkles. Violet suddenly noticed that Minnie looked quite pale. "Are you feeling alright, Minnie? You don't look too well." The Huffie didn't know much about healing, but a few things about when a person looked that pale they weren't well.

Minerva smiled, "Sure I will go to dinner." she headed towards the dorm.

"Oh I'm ok, just not feeling to well today is all. Why don't you save me a cupcake for later." she smiled at her friend. "So Violet what's been going on with you? Is everything ok? You have me so worried."

Justin smiled and walked over and gave her a little kiss on the cheek. " Okay. Night. " he said before turniong towards his dorm and went up the stairs and into his dorm room.

Sophie was extremelly happy with the crowdedness of the Common Room. Everybody seemed to have Hufflepuff's spirit now and that was awesome! They could sure win the House Cup if they continued with it!



She noticed a girl she had never seen before coming out of the dorms. The girl seemed happy and Sophie liked happy people. She walked up to the girl and smiled. "Hello, I'm Sophie!"



As the words came out of her mouth, Sophie heard another familiar voice coming from the Common Room's entrance. She turned around and waved her arms. "Heeeeeeey, Ellaaaaaaaaaa!!" Hopefully her friend would see her through the crowd.



Then Sophie heard Alyssa's little speech and grinned. She was, too, wishing they would win all the Cups! Especially the House Cup. "Right!! We can definitely do it!" She clapped her hands together as her eyes sparkled. YAAAY!!



Sophie smiled. "I'm absolutely sure he's happy! We all are, actually!!" What was better than quidditch to boost the house spirit?! "I'm really looking forward to the next match!"

She nodded a couple of times. "Yeah, we talked a little in the Welcoming Feast!" And she had heard his name a feeew of times during the match, heh!

Ella spotted Alec, a fellow first year she'd met at a Quidditch match and smiled. "You did an awesome job in the match Alec! I was impressed!" She said happily. She would have been so nervous in his shoes and she would have probably messed something up.

Ella heard someone calling her and turned to see Sophie. She smiled, waving. "Hey Sophie!!!" she said happily.

"Ok, then," Violet smiled. "I've been...fine," she said. It was only sort-of lying. "I've been baking and I feel much better now," she nodded. Cooking was fun. She couldn't be that bad because Ashley had liked her picnic, even though it was pretty simple. Being right next to the kitchen helped a lot, too. Violet hadn't talked to Ashley in a while. Nor anyone else, recently. But he was quite high up on the list of people she wanted to talk to. Lilly was at the bottom. As sweet as her twin was, Lilly had a bad temper and was very blunt. Violet needed to retrieve her strengh before seeing her.