𝟠. 𝔸𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕊𝕝𝕖𝕖𝕡𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣

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"Laurie Elizabeth Parker! Is that a love bite?" Penelope shouts. 

I sit on my bed, furiously dabbing makeup on my neck. "I don't know what you're talking about." 

"Ooh- so I take it things are going well with Russell?" Patty wiggles her eyebrows. 

I throw my pillow at her, blushing. 

"How was it?" asks Eleanor as she ties her tie. 

I sigh, my stomach fluttering as I remember the events of last night. "It was very romantic," I grin. 

Something back inside my mind nags at me, reminding me of how I didn't want to go that far with Russell. I push it back; I'm a normal teenage girl, not a prude. I should want to do scandalous things.

---

The Ravenclaw quidditch team trains long and hard. Before I know it, it's time for our match against Hufflepuff. 

At breakfast, there's tension between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. I sit with the members of our quidditch team, trying to get the nervous second years to eat something. 

In the locker room, I give the team a pep talk.

"Alright- I know we'll do great today. No need to be nervous," I look around at the 6 other members. 

Russell winks at me. I roll my eyes playfully. 

I take a breath, "Yeah, Hufflepuff's got a damn good seeker, but we've got one too," I smile at Cho. "And we've got 6 other spectacular players. That's more than enough. We've been training harder than ever. Let's finish off this section of the season the right way. Okay?" 

They all nod in agreement. 

"Alright. Let's go get 'em," I grab my broom and start leading the team out of the locker room, towards the pitch entrance. 

We wait for Lee Jordan to call out our team, then waltz out onto the pitch, brooms in hand. A roar arises from the section of the stands covered in blue. 

I shake the Hufflepuff captain's hand. On Madame Hootch's whistle, we kick off from the ground. 

I head straight towards our goalpost, keeping an eye out for where the Quaffle is at. 

The Hufflepuff chasers try to score a goal, but I easily catch the ball and toss it to Roger Davies, who heads off to the other side of the pitch. 

I hear a whistle and spot Russell about twenty feet down the pitch, waving at me. Rolling my eyes, I wave back. 

Cho Chang is flying back and forth above everyone, like I taught her to do. Cedric Diggory does the same. 

After about thirty minutes of dodging bludgers, blocking goals, and keeping an eye on Cho, I see her dive. Cedric is hot on her tail, but she nears the ground and slows down, her arm raised in triumph. 

I steer my broom towards her, pumping my arms and cheering. Lee Jordan is shouting, "Ravenclaw wins! 240 to 90!" 

I reach the ground and hug everyone on the team, cheering still. The party tonight is bound to be a good one. 

---

All of the Ravenclaws that night are ecstatic. We won our first game of the year with a pretty good margin; that's a whole 150 points added to our contending for the cup. Gryffindor, with their amazing (underage) seeker, doesn't even have that many. 

Russell pulls me over to the couch and sits down with me, handing me a butterbeer. 

"Good job today," he smiles, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. 

"You too!" I clink our bottles together and take a sip. 

The common room is full of food stolen from the kitchens. There's lots of wizarding chess and singing going on, too. Everyone seems to be having fun. 

---

The Friday night before Christmas break is a fun one. We sleep over in the boys' dormitory again. 

I sit next to Russell, leaning my head on his shoulder. 

"So, how're you lovebirds doing?" asks Clancy, raising his eyebrows. 

Russell answers for us. "We're good." 

"Is it just me or is anyone else surprised Laurie's stayed in a relationship for this long?" laughs Dougal. 

"Back off, mate," says Russell, getting defensive. 

"You're just jealous, Dougal," I stick my tongue out at him and ignore Russell's raise in temper. Everyone laughs. Except Russell. 

"Speaking of lovebirds-" Patty wiggles her eyebrows at Eleanor and Jacob, who are also sitting close to each other. They both blush profusely. 

"I dunno what you're talking about," Eleanor smiles, indiscreetly taking her hand away from his. 

"Awh, how adorable," Benjamin grins. 

"I saw you two at the Masquerade ball," teases Clancy. They both blush even more. 

"Alright, let's lay off them a bit," I laugh. "How about our match against Hufflepuff?" 

"Cho Chang's a brilliant seeker," nods Penelope. 

"I wasn't sure she'd hold up against Diggory, but turns out my doubts were pointless," I smile. 

"I'm still amazed at how Potter caught the snitch in his mouth," Jacob shakes his head. 

"Unbelievable," I agree. 

"Bet you're worried about playing them, eh, Laurie?" asks Benjamin. 

"Well, I mean, kind of-" I admit. "As long as we beat Slytherin by a good margin, we'll have the cup in the bag." 

"Honestly, I think we've got a good chance of winning this year," grins Patty. 

"Are you guys doing anything special for Christmas?" 

The conversation continues. Before I know it, it's around 1 am. Russell takes my hand and pulls me into his bed with him, wrapping his arms around my waist. 

I don't feel super comfortable cuddling in front of literally all of our friends, but I've found that it's not very useful to argue against Russell, so I just drift off to sleep. 

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AN: kind of a short chapter, but these past few ones have been super long so here's just kind of a break from that i guess

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