The Beast Within

Celebrations

There was a loud roar from the crowd. I jumped off of my broom, still holding the snitch. A loud ringing filled my ears. The next thing I knew I was being crushed in a huge crowd and was suddenly lifted up into the air. I grinned. Two figures ran across the pitch towards us. It was Remus and Ava. They were congratulating us, cheering and waving. It was hard for me to understand them. Everything was just a blur. We began to move and I looked down to see Brendon was carrying me. I leant over so I was hanging upside down and high fived him. I'd never seen him so happy. He was beaming. I looked at Renn and Blaise the two other chasers laughing and celebrating together. Chase, one of our beaters had been knocked off their broom but everyone else was fine. Felix, our team captain and keeper, and our second beater Harley had turned into little children and were jumping up and down, despite being 18 and in their last year at Hogwarts. Professor Holmes presented the Quidditch Cup to Felix, who kissed it before holding it in the air. I could faintly hear the Slytherins booing and hissing in the distance but I ignored it. No matter who won, if it wasn't Slytherin, they would boo. Even the Gryffindors were cheering us. The cup was passed to everyone in our team. Our Head of House, Proffesor Bones strolled up to us, a smug look on her face.
"Great job team!" She exclaimed. "We did amazing this year!" I handed her the cup and she hugged it "We haven't won since 1988, my mother was 8 the last time Hufflepuff won!" She added, beaming. Professor Holmes shook our hands before sending us to get changed.

We returned to the common room amongst the cheers of the other Hufflepuffs. The rest of the team went to join their friends. Brendon and I looked for Ava, Sam and Remus. They were nowhere to be seen.
"I'm gonna check the girl's dorms. Maybe you should check the boy's." I said as I ran up the stairs to the dorms. I checked in every room, I couldn't see anyone, they were all in the common room. When I went back down, I found Brendon was already back.
"Nothing?" I asked.
"Nothing." He confirmed, nodding. Someone cast a spell, causing mini fireworks to appear, exploding and lighting up the room. Suddenly the door burst open. Remus and Ava stumbled through. The room went silent.
"Food...?" They said awkwardly, holding up bags of food. Everyone began celebrating again and they placed the food on a table. People began to eat the food.
"How did you even get this?" I asked, taking a cauldron cake.
"Magic..." Remus said, laughing.
"Seriously, you too now?" I said, shaking my head.
"We got it from the kitchens. They're just down the corridor. Just tickle the pear on the painting and it will unlock the kitchens." Ava explained.
"I'll make sure to keep a note of that." I muttered, my mouth full of cake. We gorged ourselves until we were full and sat down, talking about quidditch. The party carried on late into the night, ending when the door flung open revealing Professor Bones in a dressing gown, glaring at us.
"It is 1 o'clock in the morning. You should be asleep by now." She hissed before slamming the door shut. I giggled loudly.
"I can hear you laughing!" Her muffled voiced cried. We kept laughing and eventually went up to our dorms. It was getting late and we were getting tired. I grabbed some food to hide in my trunk. As I put the food in, I saw a glint of gold. I reached into my case and picked it up. It was the snitch Aurelia had given me. I smiled but it also hurt to think of Aurelia. I put it back and went to sleep.

The next we had potions first. We went down to our classroom. As we turned the corner, we were confronted by Alexa. She towered over me, glaring at us menacingly. As I tried to slip past her, she grabbed the hood of my robes, choking me. She pulled me back.
"Uhh... Hi." I said. "Not a nice way to greet someone, choking them."
"You think I care?" She growled.
"I need to get to my lesson." I explained, pointing at the door to our classroom.
"Going to your lesson isn't exactly going to help you." Alexa hissed, still holding onto my robes. "It's Slytherins and Hufflepuffs in potions today." I saw Remus slowly draw his wand, so Alexa didn't notice.
"Don't." I spat.
"Don't what?" She sneered.
"Nothing..." I whined, pretending to be scared. She laughed. The next thing I knew, a fist had just appeared in front of my, hitting Alexa. I stamped on her foot and ran. As we ran into the class, I heard Alexa howling in pain and swearing. We sat down.
"That felt good." Ava said, shaking her hand. "Bloody hurt though."
"That was you?" I marveled, staring at her amazed.
"Yeah. Thought I'd have to do something." She said.
"I mean, I kinda had a plan but that was better." I said, still shocked. "Remus tried to take her out. He had drawn his wand."
"Yeah... probably wasn't the best idea." He muttered. We laughed as Alexa strode in, her face was red and she was clearly embarrassed but was trying not to show it. She stared silently at us.

We were making an Antidote to Uncommon Poisons. We grabbed some fire seeds, a graphorn horn, a few billywig stings and some chizpurfle carapaces and began to make the antidote. Sam and Ava were working together while me and Remus made our own. I laughed when Sam spilled some of the antidote and Ava began scolding him. He looked at us, terrified, and shrugged. Still giggling we continued. Alexa appeared to be struggling. Her potion started burning through her cauldron. It melted, causing the potion to spill everywhere. We jumped onto our stools.
"At least I didn't melt our cauldron." Sam whispered to Ava, grinning. Ours was going well. When we had finished mixing it at the end, it was a greyish blue colour just as the book had stated. Remus raised his hand, telling the teacher we had finished. The professor strolled over to us, examining the potion. He nodded approvingly.
"Very well done, Phoenix and Remus. 5 points each for Hufflepuff. This is the perfect antidote." He said, smiling. Alexa groaned. As he left, I celebrated, grinning at Alexa who stuck her middle finger up at me. I ignored her and high fived Remus. Ava and Sam were the next people to finish. Eventually, everyone had finished. Even Alexa had. The teacher had had to supply her with another cauldron and more ingredients so she could do it again. We left the class and I grinned. We laughed and joked on the way to our next lesson, charms, with the Ravenclaws. Nobody was more ambitious than a Slytherin, and nothing was better than seeing a Slytherin failing. Especially a bully. We learnt how to use Glacius, the freezing spell in charms and then defence against the dark arts where we learnt about vampires. However, in the middle of care of magical creature, learning about fire dwelling salamanders, I began to feel sick. I told Hagrid and was let off to go to the hospital wing. I told Madam Pomfrey who gave me the potion. By the time I had told her, we had to go back to our common rooms, waiting for astronomy in the evening. I went back to the common room and told Remus and Ava. We spoke about it and I told them to wait by the main door when I left with Madam Pomfrey on the full moon. They got excited but I sat in silence, my head pounding. Eventually, the full moon arrived and I was taken out to the shrieking shack. I raced out after Madam Pomfrey had left and went to the main door. Nobody was there. I howled. A loud yelp sounded from behind me. It was Remus. He was being attacked by something, a raven was pecking at it. I galloped towards them. It was the other werewolf.