Pheonix

Training

Asura received her timetable the next day only to be greeted with disappointment. Everything was advanced, the Newts are going to be horrible. She looked at Brooks timetable and sighed. She didn't even get to be tortured next to her best friend.

"Hey 'mione?"

"Yeah."

"Can we swap lessons?"

Hermione looked at her timetable and grimaced.

"What did you get on you OWL? this looks like torture. Even by my standard."

"I got all O's but I don't find this fair, " Asura complained.

------------------

Brook was back! Asura hasn't been happier, finally, she didn't have to be stuck talking to boring people she didn't like.

"How dare you leave me! Don't ever do that again!" Were the first words that came out of the Slytherins mouth.

Brook looked horrible, to say the least. The had these horrible bags beneath her eyes and she looked positively distant. Like she wasn't even there at all.

Asura just sighed and gave her friend a hug. She then took her hand and dragged the girl to the room if requirements.

"Tell me what's wrong. Now."

Brook just sighed, "he's coming back."

"Who?"

"You know who."

Asura felt as if she had been torn apart. She has friends here, the most supportive people she had ever met but Tommy was a completely different story. Tom Riddle was her best friend, they were inseparable, admirable. She was the only person who could make the dark lord see the positive. Asura was the only person he had ever loved, against all odds. It should've been impossible, he shouldn't have been able to. It did.

Asura knew that. She knows things. How was she going to choose a side? She may have been neutral her whole life but this was different. With her confusion, she burst out in tears.

"No matter what happens, we are going to be in it together. I promise that much Brook, I would never break that promise."

Brook nodded and they both fell into an embrace.

"When?" Asura croaked out.

"Next year, they are planning to give me the mark later this year, " the broken girl whispered.

"Oh Brook, we are going to get through this. together. you and me. We're invincible. I'll get it the year after, that I promise."

The girls looked at each other with pure love. A light surrounded them both, neither of them noticed. They embraced once again.

"Now, do you want to play matchmaker with our two favourite boys, " Asura made the attempt to lighten the mood.

Brook nodded, smiling a small, weak smile but it was a smile all the same.

"Honestly they had been flirting all term and it was painful to watch, " Asura complained, shaking her head.

Brook giggled and the girls both got up to find said boys.

------------------

"Harry apparently got the grim in divination, " Asura said offhandedly.

Brook chuckled, "cast your mind into the future!"

The two girls started giggling.

"Oh yeah, Draco got hurt by a hippogriff while he was 'insulting' Harry, " Asura began, " but apparently he told his dad and they are going to get the poor thing put down."

Brook shook her head, " he is a pure git, isn't he?"

Asura nodded, "he makes our sweet child happy though."

The two started giggling once again.

"What else have you missed? Oh, yeah! We have and actually decent DADA teacher. He's great, it's now my favourite lesson."

"He sounds cool, I can't wait now."

"He was my mum's friend, I've known him for a while."

Brook just nodded in response.

"Has Quidditch started yet? I always loved that season."

"I think Harry had said something about it, I saw him talking to Wood anyway, " Asura responded, " I think they are practising now actually, would you like to watch?"

Brook didn't respond, instead, she just grabbed Asura's hand and raced down the to pitch.

There were seven people on a Quidditch team: three Chasers, whose job it was to score goals by putting the Quaffle (a red, soccer-sized ball) through one of the fifty-foot-high hoops at each end of the field; two Beaters, who were equipped with heavy bats to repel the Bludgers (two heavy black balls that zoomed around trying to attack the players); a Keeper, who defended the goalposts, and the Seeker, who had the hardest job of all, that of catching the Golden Snitch, a tiny, winged, walnut-sized ball, whose capture ended the game and earned the Seeker's team an extra one hundred and fifty points.

Oliver Wood was a burly seventeen-year-old, now in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. The girls could hear a quiet sort of desperation in his voice as he addressed his six fellow team members on the field.

"This is our last chance -- my last chance -- to win the Quidditch Cup," he told them, striding up and down in front of them. "I'll be leaving at the end of this year. I'll never get another shot at it. "

"Do you think we're going to beat his arse this year?" Asura asked Brook.

"I wish to beat his arse in a completely different way, but sure, " brook responded, starting at Wood.

Asura burst out laughing, her contagious laugh causing Brook to laugh also, this eventually caught the team's attention.

"What're you doing up there Asura?!" Shouted Wood, smiling a bit at the girl.

"Am I not allowed to watch my only child practice for his big game?!" Asura shouted back, " speaking of which, hiya Hazza!"

Asura enthusiastically waved, Harry shyly waved back, going a bit red in the face.

Wood carried on with his pep talk, shaking his head slightly at the girl's antics.

"Gryffindor hasn't won for seven years now. Okay, so we've had the worst luck in the world -- injuries -- then the tournament getting called off last year. " Wood swallowed, as though the memory still brought a lump to his throat. "But we also know we've got the best -- ruddy -- team -- in -- the -- school," he said, punching a fist into his other hand, the old manic glint back in his eye. "We've got three superb Chasers. "

Wood pointed at Alicia Spinner, Angelina Johnson, and Katie Bell.

"We've got two unbeatable Beaters. "

"Stop it, Oliver, you're embarrassing us," said Fred and George Weasley together, pretending to blush.

"And we've got a Seeker who has never failed to win us a match!" Wood rumbled, glaring at Harry with a kind of furious pride. "And me," he added as an afterthought.

"We think you're very good too, Oliver," said George.

"Spanking good Keeper," said Fred.

"The point is," Wood went on, resuming his pacing, "the Quidditch Cup should have had our name on it these last two years. Ever since Harry joined the team, I've thought the thing was in the bag. But we haven't got it, and this year's the last chance we'll get to finally see our name on the thing. . . "

Wood spoke so dejectedly that even Fred and George looked sympathetic.

"Oliver, this year's our year," said Fred.

"We'll do it, Oliver!" said Angelina.

"Definitely," said Harry.

"Woooo!" Came the shout of the two spectators.

This caused the team to laugh as they began their training session.