Okay, so they didn't win the Quidditch cup. But, they did win one match and played fantastic all the way through the term. Wade entered after changing, since it was a party after all. He began crunching on some pickles while looking around for his teammates. They would be wearing their onesies too, yes? no? maybe so? Heh.

Minerva slowly made her way down from the dorm.. Honestly didn't anyone realize she needed to just be in her bed with the covers over her head hiding. She had just watched Ethan for the last time play quidditch. He was amazing, but it was the last time to see him play as keeper, to see her Hot Keeper Boy.. Was she allowed to call him that now that it was over... Well she was going to anyway. She had overheard a few people say about Ethan and pro.. Milton has suggested that last year. She thought he was good enough as well, but at the same time she wanted to be selfish and not want him to go that way, because if he did she would never see him.. So much for Hogsmeade weekends and she didn't know if she could handle that..


As she got to the common room she looked around... Why were they doing individual parties? So much for united school...She thought it was kind of odd and she wanted to be with Ethan, so she was pouting on top of just feeling so sad and depressed... It took so much effort to even make a fake smile towards Wade, "Hey Kitty"

Curling up on the couch she brought her legs to her chest and rested her head on her knees.. Was this over yet?

Alright so they won third place, that was good right!? Kace was about to walk down the stairs when he noticed Wade in his onesie. Kace took a few steps back and walked back into his dormitory. He got his onesie Wade gave him and put it on. He walked back down stairs and then he was in his penguin onesie!

"Hey Wade!" he smiled back at him. "Nice onesie you got there." he motioned towards him. "So we won third place, that's good for us!" he beamed at him. He was starting to feel a little better after the ice cream incident. "Do you know where everyone else is?" he asked. Then he noticed Minnie coming down and he waved towards her. She did seem a little upset lately, he wished he could help her out somehow. "Hey Minnie!" he smiled towards her.

So... third place.

That wasn't bad, yeah? It wasn't as if they hadn't tried this term... they really had! And everyone had been really awesome! But... it kind of made the sixteen year old wonder whether Quidditch was the right path for him. Would professional Quidditch teams even accept him? What would he do if they didn't?

See, there were a LOT of things to worry about.

Shaking his head, Alec let a small smile spread across his lips before heading over towards the other people at the party. Who... just so happened to be the other members of the team! And LOOK! They were ALL wearing onesies! How awesome was this?

"Hey guys!" And was that Wade having pickles? Did that mean that there was other good food here too? Because FOOD!

Third place wasn't bad. It beat last place, anyway. Yawning, Jory
headed down the stairs and spotted Wade, Kace, Min and Alec all dressed in their weird outfits. "Hey, guys,'' he called, too tired to ask what all the get up was about. "Great job with Quidditch this term!'' He briefly wondered if he would get the time to come watch them next term.

Jory looked towards the food. He could use some coffee. Needed to stay awake. Maybe he'd get something to eat later. In the mean time, he dropped into a chair.

"Hey there Minnie Mouse," Wade beamed at her as she came in wearing her onesie, he was expecting some more pets and singing from her but instead she made her way straight to the couch.. Hm? He furrowed his brows. He wondered if she was still upset from that other party, but didn't have much time to continue as some others came in.

"Hiya Kace, you make an awesome penguin." He patted his stubbed animal onesie arm over Kace's head. Nodding at his optimism. "That's right! We did awesome in every game." Where was everyone? Wade shrugged, "Not sure, but they should be here soon." Least he hoped. Oh and look who came in.

"Alec!" Extra beam as he waved his stubby arm at him. He made a great gorrilla, heh. "Is Ella coming soon?" Oh, lookie, another one came. The party was on its way soon as he noticed Jory coming in. He knew he had been dating one of his friends, Ronnie, "Hey and thanks Jory." He was cool to Wade, as well. Then Wade crunched on another pickle. Hmm, now who else was arriving?

Right, so... Quidditch Party In the common room, by themselves. This was dumb. Why was there a stupid party? Kaiden frowned, and headed off to sit in the far corner by himself. He was not wearing his team costume onsie thing. It was on his bed in his dorm. He didn't want to be here, Quidditch was... not fun anymore. The ONLY reason he was here was because there wasn't anywhere else to be. After all, Miks would be off in her common room.

Kace was sitting near Minnie when he noticed Alec coming into the common room. Kace got up and said "Hey Alec!" and then gave him an high five. "I am liking your onesie." he nodded in approval.

Then he noticed Jory coming over. He did seem tired. Kace smiled and went over to him in his penguin onesie. "Hey Jory!" he waved to him using his penguin hands on his onesie. "Long time no see..how have you been?" he asked his fellow puff.

He heard Wade talking to him. "I do don't I?" he asked walking around in his penguin onesie proudly. He felt him pat his head and he squirmed cutely. He was glad they agreed they played awesomely during the game. "It seems like yesterday we played in our first game of the season huh?" he asked conversationally.

Kace noticed Kaiden walked in. He smiled and said, "Hey Kaiden!"

So not only was Tobias sad, he was straight up in a bad mood. Not about the quidditch thing... that didn't matter... it was just a game. No, the problem he had was that he was so sad and miserable whilst so many people around him seemed to be managing to be happy. And that wasn't FAIR. TOBIAS was the one who was always supposed to have a smile on his face, and he was meant to be like... the super happy person who made other people happy by osmosis.

But no, now he was sad and sulky and merrr.

He arrived at the common room again and saw all the party stuff. Toby WOULD have made a face but he was too MEH to even do that. He wanted to go to his dorm and lay in bed forever until he could go home but it was SO FAR AWAY and he was probably supposed to be at the party. Eh.

So, Tobias went over the the couch next to Minnie and dropped onto it, slouching down low with his arms folded, just because if he didn't do that he had no idea what to do with his hands. Then the Hufflepuff wibbled slightly but he IGNORED THE WIBBLE 'CAUSE NO MATTER HOW SAD HE WAS HE DID NOT CRY. So he just looked sad instead. And hoped that nobody would try to force him to be happy. 'Cause that wasn't fair.

'Cause it was impossible.

Minerva looked up from her little cocoon she had made with her arms wrapped around her legs on the couch to see the others walking in. She wasn't even sure she could fake normal after doing it so much at the match. She was exhausted and so emotional thinking about all the last things with her special claw. This stunk and she was in no mood for a party. Why did she come down again... why...


She looked to the side of her and saw one of her cutie pie first years. Minerva knew she had to force something for him so she made herself smile. "Hello Kace, did you go to the match today?" She didn't know if she saw him or not, but her eyes were on the pitch most of the time. A certain keeper could keep her focus for hours.

Looking up she gave Kitty a half smile for Minnie Mouse.. She had actually liked the nickname the boys had given her this term. Mouse didn't bother her one bit. She did love her puffs this was the best team ever. She felt herself getting choked up thinking about her team and how wonderful they were and it made her sad all over again. She was about to hide her face when others came in..

She gave Alec and Jory frowny waves and then blinked at Kaiden not sure what to do. They had become super close this term and in one night he stopped talking to her.. She had to fight tears thinking about that. She didn't like fighting with her friends and she wasn't even sure what she had done wrong to make him upset with her. She blinked a few more times and moved her eyes long enough to notice a body slump down beside her.


She looked to see Toby and he looked as sad as Minerva was feeling. Was everyone poisoned that night... She feared the worse was coming with the Lafay poison. She still knew that's why she couldn't control her emotions.. Ever since that syrup.. So it had to be her.. She didn't want to upset the younger badgers by this information so she tried not to bring it up.

He looked like he needed a hug so bad, but she just wasn't sure she could give it. Minerva loved hugs.. Hugs and flowers... and now... they took those away from her... She couldn't go near either without a panic attack. It just wasn't fair. She watched Toby and her fight got worse. She had to comfort him, but she didn't want to hug... Tears fell onto her cheeks as her brain had yet another fight on what to do. Reaching out she took a deep breath and put her arms around him very loosely.. "It's alright Toby.. Everything will be alright." Says the nonstop crier....

Suddenly there were arms.

In his regular bouncey bouncey mood, Tobias would have launched himself into the hug and smiled and bounced and squeeeeezed backed and grinned and laughed.

But he didn't probably a good job too, not that he knew it.

Toby did, however, relax slightly into the weird but appreciated kinda hug thing and let out a long, slow, gentle sigh before turning to look at Minerva. She was all crying and now Toby felt BAD. Had HE made her cry? Was that his fault? Oh how AWFUL everything was.

His lower lip wibbled again and his eyes got all shiny but HE WAS STRONG and wouldn't cry because then he'd be making more sad and he didn't want to do this. So he nodded. Yes. He didn't believe everything WOULD be alright but if he could pretend then at that was something.

"Thanks," he whispered to her. For the hug. And being nice.

He was so upset with himself that he was upset too... he wanted to be happy because quidditch had been awesome all year. But now he just couldn't find it in him to bounce.

"I want to be bouncy again."

WIBBLE.

With a wide yawn, the red head entered her common room. She hadn't exactly gone to see the last match, you couldn't blame her, she had been studying most of the morning and in a year like this studying had to come first. So sorry for you quidditch. Maybe next---never mind that.

Third place. It was okay. Renesmee was still proud of everyone on the team. Especially Ella, it wasn't easy being a Captain and Ness knew that. It meant responsibility, leadership skills and of course a little bit of stress. Ella had that, as well as she had some time to develop those skills even more, so Ness felt if Ella went the way she was she'd get that quidditch house cup in no time. Badgers were hard workers and most of the time they achieved what they worked for. Quidditch matches were definitely going to be attended by this red head next term, not a chance she'd miss them.

Looking around the room with her bright blue eyes, Nessie looked around for someone to greet. She obviously knew everyone there, and just like everyone she too was in her onsie that Wade bought the team. They were comfy okay? And it wasn't like she was the only one, so it totally wasn't embarrassing. Maybejustalittle, like if someone else walked in or something. Could you actually imagine that? If someone did actually walk in, which chances are they wouldn't, they'd see a whole onsie zoo. Bonkerloodle Badgers.

But greetings. Who to go to first? "Um....Hey." She raised her voice a little and decided to greet everyone that was already there at once.

Now where were her kiddos? Could she get cheek pinches? And James, she'd be coming too right? Well for the trophy? Hopefully so.

Third place.

The sixteen year old had been thinking it over and it wasn't so bad for her first time as captain, she guessed. At least she knew her Dad was proud of her no matter what so that helped. She just hoped she hadn't let too many other people down. Would Hadley be disappointed? Or Sir Treyen or Max or her team? The badgers, were they okay with this? It was just...a lot to think about.

After changing into her elephant onesie, Ella timidly made her way to the party, stopping to observe for a moment. She smiled to herself when she saw what the others were wearing, stifling giggles. Her team really was the best. The blonde's face fell a bit when she saw little Tobias looking quite sad. She'd need to talk to him when Min was done, see how he was. She hated thinking something was making such a nice person upset.

Spotting Ness, the blonde walked up beside her and greeted the group. "Hey guys." Mini!beam. She then nudged the red head gently and bit her lip. "Hi Loch Nessie."

While she probably should've delivered the second place trophy after the first, it didn't make much sense for James to venture to a seventh floor tower, come all the way back down to the kitchen area, and then head back up to another seventh floor tower. So, after visiting with the Slytherins, the Official gathered the bronze trophy in her arms and wiggled through the entrance of the Hufflepuff common room, being cautious not to let the trophy brush against anything, and was... a bit disappointed with the sight of some of the faces of her old house.

Third place wasn't bad. They had won a match this term. Ella had been an awesome new captain, Alec had still had plenty of good snitch catches, Tobias had blossomed into a fearsome Keeper over night, Wade had come out as one of the top Chasers, and the team as a whole had been a shining example of good sportsmanship, teamwork, and spirit.

All of the things that James treasured most.

"Ella Bishop," the woman greeted, a knowing smile on her face as she beckoned the captain over(and she subtly flicked her wand to stop the confetti shower), "You'd better get over here and claim this beautiful trophy." Because it WAS beautiful and they SHOULD be proud of it. James BEAMED at them. BEAM BEAM BEAM. "And give a speech," she whispered to the girl. Because if Ella didn't, Erin would. She couldn't stand to see any of them unhappy. C'mon, Ella. You could do it.

Then Tobias heard a very familiar voice. On top of all the sad he'd been sitting there worrying about how it would look to the Quidditch official if he looked all miserable when she came in. HE would look like a bad sport and that JUST wasn't true and thinking about THAT made him start wibbling ALL OVER AGAIN. Toby wanted to impress certain professors and James was one of them.

SO when she came in he felt all sad and crestfallen because he was FAILING at being happy and everything was just all WRONG.

But they had a trophy and Toby KNEW that they were supposed to be all happy and stuff about it and it WAS shiny so he tried SUPER SUPER SUPER HARD to put a smile on his face, at least while James was here, because he wasn't going to try and explain feeling sad for no reason because nobody would believe him.

After a few moments of preparation, Toby hitched a smile onto his face, teeth and all. He'd wanted it to look one of his BEAMS but really it felt very forced and he knew it looked forced too.He didn't move other than that... not enough energy; this was enough exertion. Smiling always came so naturally, so it was weird to have to concentrate on it.

And before Ella could sneak off and grab some snacks and possibly find out what was wrong with her keeper and chaser, Professor James was here with a trophy. A trophy! Ella suddenly became very aware of how some of her teammates looked and she felt very defensive. Like, Professor James understood that lots of the sad feels had to do with the things going on at the school, yeah? This wasn't them being poor sports at all because they weren't. Not even a little. And Professor James was brilliant and kind and smart so she had to know this. She really had to.

The sixteen year old smiled a little as she headed over to the woman, observing her and thinking of Max a little too. She really wanted to talk to him about the stuff going on here, tell him about her first term as Captain and hear what he thought about it. He always made her feel better when she had doubts. He really did.

"Hello, Professor." The blonde greeted as cheerfully as she could, giving James a genuine smile as she reached for the trophy. "I...this is beautiful. Really." Her very first trophy as captain and it felt good.

BLINK.

"A speech? But I..." Ella's green eyes widened a bit as she whispered back, not knowing what to say. She, Ella Bishop, wasn't good with words! She was horrible. Hugs! Hugs was what she was good at. Why couldn't she just hug everyone in the room? Would that work? ...Probably not. GULP! "I'll...try."She'd try for Professor James. Nodnod.

Ahem.

"Erm, guys?" She started off, trying to get everyone's attention. The blonde shuffled a bit and glanced down at the trophy, hoping it'd give her some clue where to start. Instead, she just saw her reflection in the shiny bronze and bit her lip. She looked as nervous as she felt. Gah! get it together, Bishop!

"I just wanted to say that I...I had such a great time being your Captain this term and I feel so strongly about what we did as a team and how well we worked together to accomplish what we did..." Was this making sense? "It's just...You're all brilliant, each and every person on the quidditch team and if I didn't say it enough, I'm sorry. You're all so talented and even more importantly, you're all great people. We didn't win every game this term but even the losses were okay because we won and lost together. No matter what happened, we dealt with it as a team and I just...I'm really proud of that and proud of you." Ugh. She was getting emotional and she really didn't want to cry. "This trophy might be for third place but for me, having a team like you lot, well that makes this feel like first." First place, that is. Ella really did feel lucky. She was also a bit teary and she had a bit of a lump in her throat so she turned to Professor James and bit her lip. Was that good enough?

Oh wait..she had one more thing! "And for the rest of you badgers, thanks for supporting us and showing up to cheer and just being awesome Hufflepuffs. It means a lot to all of us."

There. Now she was done.

Minerva kept her arms around Toby comforting him the best she could. No matter how horribly sad and upset she felt, she would always put her little badgers first and Toby seem to need her at the moment. She kept him in the cradled hug and rubbed his back a bit. Not paying attention until she heard new voices. She turned her tear stained face towards the rest of the group. Giving a small nod to Ness and Ella she just didn't have the energy to say anything.

Seeing someone coming in the room that truly wasn't a puff, oh wait she was a puff. Minerva sat up a bit better, but kept her arm around her little badger. As she saw the look Professor J was giving Minerva felt her frown grow deeper. She wasn't sad about quidditch really she wasn't. They had an amazing team, such a bonding group. Many of her closest friends were sitting right in this room. Quidditch just made them closer, they had hard matches and she knew they did their best. Her tears were not at all from third place. No.. she didn't even know what her tears were from.. She couldn't stop them, she couldn't stop the sad that wouldn't leave her alone.

She listened as Professor J talked and then Ella got up for a speech. Well this was nice, but it made her even sadder. The end of this term... Oakey gone.. Nessie gone.. ETHAN... gone.. She sniffled loudly not being able to keep her emotions in. Maybe she should just go.. this wasn't going well at all.

As Kace was going around talking to others, he noticed Minnie asked him a question. "Oh i didn't get a chance to go to the match. I actually overslept. I guess my body wanted me to catch up on my sleep." he grinned sheepishly. He couldn't help it, he was feeling tired lately. His body just shut down and by the time he had the energy to go to the Quidditch Pitch, the game was over...
"But at least i managed to make it to this party." he gestured around the common room.

Then he noticed Nessie waking in. He smiled and said, "Hey Nessie how have you been?"

After he saw Nessie, he noticed the Captain finally managed to make it to the party. Kace smiled and waved to Ella in his penguin onesie. He was actually loving this thing. At least he got to keep it. "Hey Captain!" he said to Ella. Then after he got his hello in, he noticed the Quidditch Supervisor come into the common room to give Ella her trophy.

He went back to his seat and waited to see what she had to say in her speech. She got a Trophy usually a speech follows. He was listening and he was getting teary and he was proud of himself and the rest of the team members. They all won and lost together. This was like his second family. He was sad to see Oakey and Nessie leave this term. In fact Ronnie was leaving this term as well...This was getting depressing knowing term was about to be over.

He got up and went to hug Ella after her speech was done. "It was fun to have such a great captain in my first year of Quidditch." he beamed up at her. After he gave his hug, he noticed Minnie crying. Well he heard her loud sniffle. He felt bad for her. He would hug her but she didn't like to be touched. He went over to Minnie and just smiled to her to let her know it was gonna be okay.

Dementors in da haaaaussssss!

They glid in as if they were on butter.

Alright students, pucker up, cause we're going to lay it on ya!

Minerva didn't realize that she began rocking with her arm still around Toby. Her mind was wondering into the dark place that it had been for days. She didn't know why she was always being like this. Was it the head injury... No that was apparent since she was comforting someone that seemed to be having the same issue. It had to be the syrup, they were poisoned.. She couldn't figure out how, but she knew it.. They had to be. Would anyone believe her? She thought about the fighting with the ice cream her and Ethan would have, nope people would think she was still mental.

As she continued to feel alone in this down hill of emotions she felt that so familiar cold and shivered. Her latest failure smacking her right in the face. She had seen them in the courtyard...She watching them enter the castle. Her patronus wasn't good enough and even if it was she had nothing happy to give right now. She pulled her arms tighter around Toby defensively.. She might not be able to make a partonus but she would protect him as long as she could. If she could hug all her badgers tightly behind her she would.

She watched them in horror and scanned the room. She was one of the older students in their other than Wade, Jory, and Nessie.. She prayed their pratonus could do something and she fumbled for her wand knowing it was just useless.. She was useless and cold. Why did she fail in the courtyard.. She was so pathetic and just a disappointment she couldn't even protect her friends... her little badgers when they needed her.

Okay enough forced smiling for one year.

Tobias made sure he clapped a little bit at the end speech as well, before letting his hands drop again. Ella had been a brilliant captain, she really had. And they'd worked so hard. And had loads of fun.

Except now he couldn't seem to muster up those happy feelings from the games or the team activities or anything. In fact they were getting further and further away. Almost like...

...

... oh.

Dementors.

What a surprise.

Tobias wasn't shocked or anything and he couldn't muster the energy for fear. He just sat where he was and didn't do anything else other than watch with sort of vague interest and loads and loads of melancholy. He already felt totally empty anyway.

The place was getting colder. "Why?'' Jory wondered vaguely. He was about to fall asleep in the chair he had been sitting in and was completely unaware of what was going on around him.

Suddenly he bolted upright. It was them. The Dementors. Jory could feel the effects...the hopeless feeling creeping up on him. They'd need Patronuses. How many students here could cast one? He reached for his wand and gripped it tightly, his heart thudding rather loudly.

Oops!

Oops indeed Oakey went straight from the Match to his dorm. Somehow commentating the match had worn him out. Probably from snatching the Mic back multiple times from Dylan. Either way he had totally forgotten about the party, and fell asleep.

It wasn't until he stirred from his slumber by the voice of Ella coming outside that he realized what he was missing he hopped off his bed and hurried to the door leading out to the Common Room. Cold air was seeping through the crack at the bottom of the door, and Oakey did not like the feeling of it. He was sure of what was behind the door. He opened it slowly spotted the Dementors, closed the door just as quickly and ran back to his bed snatching his wand from his bedside table. He swung the Door open and pointed his wand at the Dementors ruining the party. "You jerks are just a bunch of sore losers, if you want to torture souls so badly go back to Azkaban! I'm sure they'll welcome you back with open arms!" Seriously Dementors give them some damn breathing space. "Expecto Patronum!" Oakey clung onto the closest happy thought he could muster, and out came his silvery blue moose. He did not direct it towards the Dementors, but instead kept it circling his Housemates in the Common Room. He really hoped these were NOT the same Dementors from the Room of Requirement.

First person to greet him? Or them? ... Jory. Alec smiled at the older boy, feeling both weird and sad at the same time. Wasn't it Jory's last year too? Would he be happy with... all of this? "Hey! Erm... thanks, mate!" Nodnod. "You want to get something to eat?" Because Alec was STARVED.

And speaking of food... or... someone who was happily munching on food... "Curly Wade!" he called, waving enthusiastically back at the older Puff, "I see you've already got yourself some pickles!" And did he always carry around a jar of those or did they somehow manage to pop up wherever Wade was?

Also, Wade had a good question. Alec furrowed his eyebrows and looked around the common room until his eyes landed on... "There she is!" And she was standing right next to the Head Girl too! "Hey Ells! Hey LochNessie!" Wave!

High fives? Yeah, sure, why not? The boy high fived Kace back, grinning a little at the boy's enthusiasm. Why couldn't he have that too? "Thanks, mate!" Courtesy of Wade, they had all gotten some pretty awesome onesies! "I like yours too! You make an awesome penguin!"

The uncomfortable and worried feeling from before sunk in again when someone else entered the common room, laden with a bronze trophy. The sixteen year old shuffled a little on the spot and smiled at Professor James before looking over towards the blonde Captain. ... Speech. Words. Talks about winning and losing and working together as a team. Alec smiled a little more at that. They did have a good team! Great, even. And he wanted to be happy about this little fact but... something just seemed very off about everything.

He did give her a thumbs up, though, and maybe clapped a little -- would he look silly if he was the only one who started clapping? -- before heading over towards the food table. His eyes scanned the room and... he frowned. People looked so... sad! Like Tobias over there. Wasn't he jumped between the benches with Oakster before the start of the game? And now him and Minnie were just... sitting there. And Kaid was on his own so... Kaid was going to get bro talk. Or bro... juice... drinking time, whatever that was.

Grabbing two glasses of pumpkin juice, Alec headed over towards the Chaser. "Erm... hey General!" The nicknames were back, yeah? "I thought you might like some pumpkin--"

BLINK. BLINK. STARE.

Groan. Again? Really?! Frown.

The cold... the sadness... it was all starting to become so... normal. Especially after, what, four separate encounters with the creatures? He set the glasses down on the table and took out his wand. He didn't know about Kaiden but he couldn't cast a Patronus. Nope. He'd try, though. Trying was a good start, yeah? Gulp.

...

Oh... hey! Moose! ... Oakster was here?