May the Best Man Win |×| Fred Weasley | 1 |×|

×| EIGHTEEN |×

THE FIRST QUIDDITCH MATCH of the season, that Ravenclaw were going to be playing, was looming as Evelyn and the rest of Ravenclaw's Quidditch team pulled on their royal blue robes. Nobody was speaking, all focusing on readying themselves for the match. They would be playing Hufflepuff, which only made Evelyn more nervous, seeing as Ashton and his team had defeated the Gryffindor team (well known to be one of the best) two weeks before.

Although the Hufflepuff team captain, Cedric diggory, had insisted a re-match as Harry Potter, the Gryffindor seeker had fallen off his broom by the influence of Dementors, Ashton had been bragging about their win almost non-stop. He didn't care that their win might not have been fair. He only wanted to be better than his friends for once. And Evelyn couldn't have that. No. That would give the boy too much satisfaction, and Even Nikki was desperate for Ravenclaw to win.

Because as much as Evelyn hated to admit it, she could have easily dragged Ashton to the edge of the astronomy tower during their lesson a few nights ago, by his ear, and brutally, because there would be no other way to go about it, Shove him off the edge. And it wasn't like he had an arse about it. Except it was. So Evelyn had ended up pinching her leg with her nails multiple times, which turned out to be a bit of a stupid idea because her leg had been covered in nail marks for half of the next day, to stop herself smacking him across the head with her telescope.

"What happened to being a Hufflepuff?" an exasperated Evelyn had asked him that morning before the game. Ashton had brushed it off saying 'not all Hufflepuff's are made equally, Evie.' and Evelyn had resorted to physically biting her tongue just so she didn't throw her freshly buttered toast in his sorry, weirdly arrogant, face.

Roger had been getting very worked up during practice, let alone in the common room where many a night in the past week he had gathered the team to have a strategy meeting. He was paranoid that, if Hufflepuff beat them, there would be no hope for Ravenclaw to win the cup. The cup. That was the only thing their captain cared about now, yet Evelyn and the rest of the team - while also desperately wanting to win - would have liked at least one day without any sort of practice, because quite frankly, the late nights and early mornings were piling up on them. Luckily for them, such a wish had been granted the night before - the right decision on Roger's part - so that now, they were rested enough to play their best. Especially Evelyn, who was not going to let a single goal, at least that she would throw, get tangled in the hands of that grey eyed idiot robed in canary yellow.

"Right team" Roger announced as Evelyn finished tying off her right shoelaces, "We've got this. This is the best team Ravenclaw's seen in a long time - I'm sure of it. This is our year! And we're going to go far! I can feel it!"

"Since when does Roger act on feelings?" Grant Page grumbled as he pulled on his royal blue robes. Evelyn giggled - but fortunately Roger hadn't heard.

"This is Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff. But that's no reason to slack off. We're going to win this game. We better win this game. And you all are perfectly ready to smash it out of the tower!" His voice was full of enthusiasm and energy that brushed off on the team. It started with Inglebee standing up and chanting "Ravenclaw! Ravenclaw!" Over and over again. Soon the rest of the team was chanting and parading around the changing room (including Roger, who was usually the first person to scold them for such behaviour.)

It was another ten minutes of cheering and marching before Madame hooch peered through the door to give the team a "five minutes until game time" warning. Roger had immediately stopped them, made a final exclaimation of support before they lined up to walk into the pitch. Evelyn took her place beside Jeremy and Behind Roger, Nimbus 2001 in hand and even more reason to shove her bragging best mate from his Cleansweep 4 inbeded in her head.