𝓒𝓪𝓵𝓶 𝓓𝓸𝔀𝓷 | 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝚆𝚃𝙼

005

➳༻❀✿❀༺➳

As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy gray and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Hagrid could be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaverskin boots.

The Quidditch season had begun.

"Oh, yeah!" James, Sirius and many other Quidditch players and fans cheered.

On Saturday, Harry and Aranya would be playing in their first match after weeks of training: Gryffindor versus Slytherin. If Gryffindor won, they would move up into second place in the house championship.

"Yes! His first game!" James grins, thinking about his son. He was glad his son had inherited his gift for flying, the thought of his niece didn't even enter his head.

Beatrice also manages a small gentle smile, for her daughter.

"Yes!" Sirius cheers happily.

Euphemia smiles at him, indulging him.

Peter nods.

Hardly anyone had seen Harry and Aranya play because Wood had decided that, as their secret weapons, Harry and Aranya should be kept, well, secret. But the news that they were playing Seeker and Chaser had leaked out somehow, and Harry didn't know which was worse -- people telling him he'd be brilliant or people telling him they'd be running around underneath him holding a mattress.

James scoffs. "Come on, those are just nerves."

Sirius nods seriously.

"Yeah, he'll do great." Mary says.

As for Aranya, many people had been saying how she had only gained the privilege because her Father was the Headmaster; That she was cheating.
She did not like that.

Dumbledore frowns at that, same with Beatrice who twists her lips to the side nervously.

It was really lucky that Harry and Aranya now had Hermlone as a friend.

They didn't know how they'd have gotten through all their homework without her, what with all the last-minute Quidditch practice Wood was making them do. She had also lent Harry 'Quidditch Through the Ages,' which turned out to be a very interesting read.

Aranya had already read that book many times.

Harry learned that there were seven hundred ways of committing a Quidditch foul and that all of them had happened during a World Cup match in 1473; that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players, and that most serious Quidditch accidents seemed to happen to them; that although people rarely died playing Quidditch, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert.

Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry, Aranya and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll, and she was much nicer for it. The day before Harry and Aranya's first Quidditch match the four of them were out in the freezing courtyard during break, and she had conjured them up a bright blue fire that could be carried around in a jam jar.