On Christmas morning Victoire woke up to Ella throwing her pillow at her. Usually it was the other way around. The one other girl who had stayed in their room, Faith, was already awake as well and laughing with Ella as Victoire woke up. They had invited Faith to join them in their holiday activities (wizard chess competitions as well as the snowball fights) but she’d been hanging out with some Ravenclaws instead. Victoire sat up and moved to the front of her bed where there was a stack of presents waiting for her and Ella and Faith did the same. They laughed and joked as they each went through their piles. After they’d thouroughly explored their presents they got dressed and went down to the common room.

Unsurprisingly Ben, Fred, and Teddy were waiting for them downstairs and they all trooped down to breakfast together. They discussed the presents they had got and what they were planning to do the rest of the day. Faith told them that some older students had organized a larger wizards chess tournament to take place in the great hall between lunch and dinner. They all thought this was an excellent idea. Ella decided to watch, saying she was far too competitive and too bad at chess. Very bad combinations for a wizards chess tournament. Ben attempted to dispute this, she had just beat him in their most recent tournament.

They had reached the Great Hall and Faith pointed out where the sign up sheets were for the tournament. She then went to wish her Ravenclaw friends a Happy Christmas. They all signed up (except for Ella) and went to eat breakfast. During breakfast Fred made what he thought would be a really weird suggestion.

“I know this will sound insane, but why don’t we go outside and play Quidditch before the chess tournament? No one else will be out there and we can switch the teams around a bit.”

“Ah that’s why we keep you around Fred, to suggest the impossible and have us do it. I’m all for it!” Ben started getting up, being already done with his breakfast.

“Well if everyone is feeling insane I’ll go ahead with it as well” Victoire couldn’t really believe she was agreeing to do this but some part of her was wondering why she hadn’t thought of it. Probably spurred on by Victoire volunteering so quickly the rest of them agreed as well and when Ella and Fred had finished breakfast they ran upstairs to get their brooms and started out to the field.

Conditions weren’t exactly ideal for Quidditch, it was windy and snowing slightly but weather conditions could never have stopped this team of players and as they stood waiting for Teddy and Ben to bring the balls Ella to Victoire commented on how fine the weather was.

Despite the threat of head colds and frost bite (according to passerby who were sledding on the hills below) they successfully played until Fred caught the snitch. He was playing all time seeker and whichever team had just scored would get the points from the snitch. Despite comments about competitive versus non-comptetive the teams had been Ben and Ella against Victoire and Teddy. Unsurprisingly Ben and Ella beat them thouroughly but Teddy and Victoire admitted they weren’t exactly expecting otherwise. On the way back up to the castle Ben admitted he may have let a few of Victoire’s balls get past him a little more than he would have otherwise but he would have had absolutely no problem throwing the ball hard in the other direction had Teddy been playing chaser. Teddy said he appreciated it very much and Victoire dumped snow from her gloves on Ben’s head once inside.

After lunch they waited around the Great Hall for the tournament to start. Much to her dismay Victoire found out that she was going to be playing a sixth year her first game, a sixth year Ravenclaw even. The bracket had been set up that it didn’t matter what year you were in, just what house you were in, rather discriminating against the Ravenclaws assuming they were the best at it and against the Gryffindors assuming they were courageous enough to try anything. Needless to say she lost badly and had one more game to keep herself from getting disqualified. This time it was against a Slytherin third year, a little more evenly matched and she only barely beat him. Oddly enough this put her against Ben next, she admitted to him that she had absolutely no chance of getting very far but he did so she let him win.

She spent the rest of the tournament with Ella watching the other contestents. One of the more fun games to watch ended up being one later on when Ben and Teddy finally faced each other. Carrying on the trend started in the Quidditch game it ended up being a rather show no mercy game. It finally ended with Teddy winning because Ben was ignoring his pawns. It turned out this was only the first game Ben had lost and Teddy had only lost one as well. Also it turned out there were only three more games until the “championship.” Victoire was satisfied to see that the Ravenclaw she had lost to was still in (“At least I didn’t lose to a bad chess player”) and the Slytherin she had beat (“ok not so good…”)

Fred lost the next game to a Hufflepuff girl and came to join them, saying something about how he hoped Ben beat her next game. Which he did, Ben and Teddy were now two of the last four and Ben now had only to beat the Ravenclaw to get into the championship.

“How insane would it be if they both got in the championship?” Fred commented as they watched the game from a distance. “I mean, joining the competition on a whim and just sweeping the whole thing?”

“Yes it would be strange” Victoire agreed. But she thought to herself that it wouldn’t be that strange, all the time they spent in between classes playing wizards chess. She was only as good at it as she was because she’d watched them play so much.

“But it seems fairly likely that at least one of them will be in the championship. Do you think they’d win if they did end up facing say, that Ravenclaw boy?” Ella claimed she didn’t enjoy wizards chess that much but she couldn’t resist a competition.

“I bet they could, Teddy especially. Ben’s a little too headstrong to do that well at chess all the time,” said Fred.

“I doubt the rest of them would be too happy if they do” Victoire started but she was interrupted by a shout from the other side of the room “or if they just did.”

“He didn’t…”

“I don’t think I want to watch this game, Teddy’s too unstressed and Ben’s too competitive.” Ella observed, “But of course, that could make it all the more interesting.”

“That Ravenclaw isn’t like a beater for their team is he? That’d be unfortunate.”

Needless to say Teddy won, but not until after a very long chess game and after dinner they went up to the common room, Fred commenting that they’d better not upset the Ravenclaws anymore.

“Oh they’re not quite as competitive as we are. At least most of them, that one girl I beat early on wasn’t too happy.” Ben had taken losing fairly well but he was thankful Teddy wasn’t the gloating type.

“But we are facing the Ravenclaws next in Quidditch,” Victoire pointed out. “That guy isn’t a beater is he?”

“No, he’s not,” said Teddy. Victoire said she was thankful. “He’s the keeper.”

“Oh joy. Well at least it wasn’t me who beat him.”

“Yeah you’re on his good side, but Ben, you should be glad you’re a beater and not a chaser.” Ella added “In fact I’m pretty glad I’m a beater.”

“I’m sure Tabitha will be very happy we’ve got on his bad side. She will be very proud of you two,” Victoire laughed.



my longest entry ever

great post can't wait 4 more

A few weeks after Christmas break was over they had their Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. As predicted by the Quidditch fanatics among the students Gryffindor beat Ravenclaw. This put Gryffindor in first place and meant Hufflepuff and Slytherin would be playing to see who else would have a chance at the cup. This also meant Tabitha was working them harder than ever and there were practices every chance they got. And with exams coming up, especially for Ben who was taking his O.W.L.s everyone was feeling a bit stressed.

By the week of the Quidditch cup the weather had become clear and fairly warm. The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff teams were out practicing at almost all times, when one wasn’t out there the other was. There was less of the usually unpleasant build up to the final match because the Hufflepuffs weren’t as much at odds with the Gryffindors but the players still received more attention than most would want. Having been through this the year before most of them handled it well, even those who hadn’t been through it. Tabitha became rather tense and more and more competitive as the game came closer and closer. Ella and Hazel however became quieter, Teddy had always been rather quiet so if he was any more so it was hard to notice. Fred was excitable and, for lack of a better word, hyper, which made evenings in Gryffindor common room very loud. This boisterousness made Ben more tense and likely to snap at people as he studied for his O.W.L.s and tried to keep up with the homework he already had. Victoire just practiced as hard as she could and tried not to think about it when she wasn’t at practice.



sorry about the short entry, I'm really busy this week

it's alright post again when you can

The day of the match arrived, a little chillier than the days before and slightly foggy but nothing short of an earthquake was likely to stop Quidditch fans on the day of the last game of the season and even that would only distract them momentarily. Victoire didn’t even look to see what time it was when she woke up, she knew she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep anyway. She got up and dressed then sat back down on her bed. She knew that if they lost they’d probably have another chance at it the next year, maybe even with the same team. But would the others see it that way?

She sat there for a while pondering this. Amazingly enough she was up before even Ella, a feat not easily accomplished. After hard thinking it hit her, what she should have known without thinking; they might be disappointed at first but even the most competitive member of the team would have enough hope and faith in their team to realize that they could pull off a win next year even if they didn’t this year. This thought was most comfortingly and she snuck down to the common room calmer than she’d been all week.

She found Tabitha and Hazel already down there, unsurprisingly, they were both looking nervous and excited. Victoire considered staying with them and waiting for more of the team to come down but she realized they were both so nervous she wouldn’t last very long with them without getting all her own nervousness back. She told them she was going down to breakfast.

“I doubt breakfast is even ready yet this early,” Tabitha told her.

Victoire stopped, “never mind then, I’ll wait up here for a while.” She sat down by a window that faced away from the Quidditch pitch. She faintly could see Owls soaring over the misty Forbidden forest even though the sun wasn’t up yet. She wondered how soon she would be able to go down, the silence in the common room was very stressed.

A few minutes later Ella came down, she didn’t even stop to talk but headed straight out the portrait hole. Apparently no breakfast wasn’t going to stop her, she would probably be waiting outside the Great Hall. Victoire decided she could wait until one more person came down to head downstairs, and knowing the rest of the team that wouldn’t take too long.

Sure enough not five minutes after Ella had left Ben came down and sat down in a chair by another window, apparently trying not to think of what was coming. Victoire got up opened the portrait hole without a word, she hoped Tabitha was wrong about breakfast, she wanted to finish breakfast before any other students came down. She’d gone down a few floors when she heard someone coming up behind her, actually, it sounded like a couple people. She turned around and coming up behind her were Fred and Teddy, apparently they’d been told she was already going down.

“Hey Victoire, wait a minute. We wanted to talk to you about something.,” Fred called. He ran up to her and stopped, he turned around to wait for Teddy then faced Victoire. “The three of us; Ben, Teddy and I, were discussing something last night. This is going to sound rather pessimistic; we don’t think we actually have much of a chance to beat Hufflepuff this year.”

Victoire thought some part of her had been expecting this, she knew it as well. Hufflepuff was made up mostly by experienced Quidditch players.

“We probably would have kept our comments to ourselves,” Teddy continued “But we also know that not only is Hufflepuff very good, they’re also almost all seventh years. Next year only three of their current team will be coming back. Meanwhile all of us still have at least two more years.”

Victoire nodded, they were thinking along the same lines as she was. She felt a rush of gratitude for them, to think she’d been wondering how they’d feel if they lost.

“We’ve talked to Tabitha and she thinks that out of the other people who tried out this year only one of them would have a chance of being better than any of us.” Fred went on“We all know any of us would just say that to be nice but Tabitha says she was thinking the same thing to herself, she wasn’t going to admit it to herself though.”

“Actually I was thinking the same thing this morning, I wasn’t as pessimistic as you three, I didn’t label us as having no chance.”

“And we’re not saying we don’t have a chance” Teddy said quickly “we brought it up because we wanted the rest of the team to know that we wouldn’t be depressed for the rest of the year if we didn’t win.”

That rush of gratitude grew even more. This was exactly what she had needed to get her hopes back up. “Well then, let’s go out there expecting to do our best. Nothing more and nothing less.”

And that’s exactly what they did. They fought off losing until Hufflepuff’s seeker caught the snitch and ended up only 150 points behind. The party in the Gryffindor common room afterwards was no less boisterous than usual and everyone agreed that the cup would be theirs next year.



just cut out the last sentence

please post. don't leave me in suspense, i beg of you post. jk. i would love i post but i'm not that dramatic.PAMS PAMS PAMS PAMS

Edit: entry deleted by me

Great Post can't wait 4 more.

New Reader Alert. O this is definetly 1 i will be following!

Thank you for reading Molly, I appreciate your comments



It was a normal day leading up to the exams and Ella felt like messing with Ben. “Did you know,” she began, “that Violet, you remember that girl in Hufflepuff who is in your year, has barely even started her studying? She says she knows it all like the back of her hand.”

“Wonderful. I’m very happy for her. Now what’s the main ingredient in a strengthening potion?” Asked Ben distractedly, he was reading his notes but was having trouble reading his own handwriting. Victoire glanced over his shoulder, “I think it looks like it says something along the lines of Bubbles but that doesn’t quite make sense.”

“Well it sounds like she has very low expectations for the teachers,” Teddy mused, “If she thinks the O.W.L.s don’t even need to be acknowledged with studying.”

Ella shot him a look; he was interrupting her teasing of Ben. “But then she doesn’t create sludge monsters every time her potions explode. And Fred, what on earth are you doing? Speaking of strange creatures.”

For Fred had produced from somewhere in his bag what looked like a very large, pink and fluffy worm and was in the process of having it crawl up one of the legs of a desk where several 2nd year girls were doing homework.

“Oh, I’m just playing with some merchandise that’s in testing… experimenting and all that…”

“And what exactly is it?” asked Ella interestedly.

“Well Dad didn’t exactly say, he said Uncle Ron discovered it accidentally when it was trying to drink his tea. Wasn’t exactly sure what it was really, thought it might have grown from one of their left over experiments…”

“Yes it looks exactly like something that would grow from their garbage cans, not one of Ben’s potions,” Victoire shot a look back at Ella. “How do you know it’s not dangerous?” she demanded of Fred.

“It doesn’t exactly look dangerous does it? I mean, pink and fluffy and all.”

“Yeah but so was Umbridge…”

“An excellent point, but Henry here is perfectly safe. Ow!” Fred stuffed “Henry” back in the bag. “Ok, except for the spines.” Ella got up and moved farther away from his bag which was now jumping up and down.

“Anyway as I was going to say, I don’t think you’re going to have any problems with the O.W.L.s Ben, you may complain but you are not nearly as bad at school as you seem to think you are.” Victoire said cheerfully.

“I’m glad you’re so confident Victoire, we’ll see in a few years if you stay the same way when you’re faced with the O.W.L.s” Ben commented from behind his pile of library books.

The end of term rolled around slowly for Victoire this year with no more Quidditch to look forward to. She and Ella found that their tests were harder than usual (though they were thankful they weren’t taking O.W.L.s like Ben.) And the anticipation of spending a lot of her summer with Ella made her a little more anxious for the end of term than usual. Ella’s parents, who both worked at the ministry, had work away from home so she was going to spend the first few weeks of summer at Victoire’s house and Victoire had so many things she wanted to show her. As with all things you can’t wait for they’re the things you have to wait the longest for.

To add to their excitement (she managed to thoroughly excite Ella on the train ride home) Luna was waiting for them at the train station along with their parents and Harry. She looked just the same as ever, dreamy and slightly surprised looking. She greeted them cheerfully; Victoire realized how much she had missed Luna while she was looking for mysterious creatures in other countries, she was always so friendly and funny. And when finally, late that night, they driving home from Harry and Ginny’s house where they had all congregated her Dad asked her how her school year had went. The question had already been asked several times that night but now Victoire was finally able to think about it for herself. It had been a great year, enough to top previous years. And they had plenty more years ahead of them, if handled well each could be better than the last. Her dad glanced back at her; she’d been quiet for a while.

“Oh I think it was quite satisfactory dad. How has your year been?”

great post. I love this story. PAMS PAMS PAMS PAMS

edit: entry deleted by me

short and sweet. great post

“Victoire! There’s something for you in the mail. And it looks like there’s something for Ella too!” Bill called up the stairs. He had barely finished his sentence when Victoire came running down the stairs closely followed by Ella. She paused for a moment at the table when she saw the letters weren’t there and noticed that her dad was still holding them. He waved hers at her; she rolled her eyes and came back over to get it. As she had expected it was from Hogwarts, carrying their lists of schoolbooks as always.

Back up in Victoire’s room they looked over their lists, they had all the same classes except for Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures so they had almost all the same books as well.

“This means we’ll be going to Diagon Alley soon, maybe we’ll work out something with the others so we’ll all be there at the same time.” Victoire said folding up her letter and putting it back in the envelope.

“Hey you know what they’ll be sending out this year? Prefect badges, and guess who’s a fifth year this year.”

“Come to think of it, we do know several fifth years. All of whom seem quite likely to get a badge. Which two do you think will be opening their letter to find a badge in it right now?”

“Well knowing your dad he probably messed around before he told us the letters were here so they probably opened their letters a while ago,” Ella pointed out. Victoire rolled her eyes, “you know what I mean.” “Yes of course I do” Ella laughed. “Well, I would have to say Teddy seems pretty likely. He’s more sensible than the rest of us as well as he may hide it.” Victoire agreed, he had his moments but Teddy did seem the most likely of the fifth years she’d met. “And as for a girl… I’d say Tabitha but she’s already Quidditch captain, after her… probably Hazel.”

Victoire thought this over, she would have said Tabitha first as well, but she hadn’t thought of whom else there was. She supposed Hazel was likely to be made prefect, she was very quiet and seemed a bit moody at times but she had turned out to be much different from their first impression of her. For the most part she didn’t talk very much and she spent a lot of her time with older students, one seventh year in particular who was also quieter than most. But when she was with the rest of them Hazel was friendly and could be quite funny as well. Victoire wished she hadn’t been so unfriendly when she’d first met Hazel.

“You know Ella, Hazel’s friend she was always with will have graduated this year. She was a seventh year wasn’t she?”

“Yeah I guess she was I never really saw much of her.”

“Me either, she always seemed nice and I considered trying to get to know her once but she was never around when I wanted to talk to her.”

“Well we’ll probably be able to ask Hazel about her, I’m surprised we never got around to it before.”

“Yeah I’m not sure why we didn’t.” Now that she thought about it Victoire really regretted not trying to talk to the girl. She had probably been lonely, no wonder Hazel was always around her, she was probably trying to get to make her feel at home. Thinking even deeper Victoire thought there were probably a lot of people at Hogwarts who felt that way. There would probably be more chances during the year for them to get to know those people. She resolved to herself to watch for those chances. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be one of those people.

great post

“There you are Fred! We’ve been searching all of Diagon Alley for you, where have you been?” a few days and quite a lot of owls later Victoire and Ella were waiting with Victoire’s Mum in Diagon Alley for the rest of their crew to show up. Ben had arrived on time and had gone off with his parents and Bill to exchange their Muggle money.

“There were some things left to be done in the shop and Mum couldn’t take me so I had to wait for Dad. We’re not that late are we?” Victoire thought jealously that guys grew much faster than girls, Fred had surely grown even since the last time she’d seen him.

“No you’re not really that late, Victoire just isn’t very patient. Especially since our speculations keep growing the longer we wait to find out anything.” Ella looked back from the gray owl she had been playing with and smiled at Fred. “Victoire hasn’t a single doubt that Teddy has been made prefect, I think as far as we know there might be some other quiet fifth year we don’t know about.” Fred grinned knowingly, “I may already have information on that particular subject…”

Victoire sighed, “And I don’t suppose you’re about to tell us are you?”

“Nope, but you may not have to wait that long to find out.”

“You really enjoy keeping us in suspense.”

“Did I say I was the only one waiting for my Dad?” He ignored their exasperated looks and changed the subject, “did you guys notice an odd addition to the list of required equipment etc.?”

“Not really, Ella’s Care of Magical Creatures book, mind…” Victoire started but Fred interrupted.

“I’m talking more robes and such. The books are always a trip.”

“No, nothing odd,” Victoire got her list out of her bag and scanned the section about what robes are required. “Hang on; what are ‘dress robes’ doing on here?”

“My question exactly” Fred had his own list out. “That does lead to interesting questions as to what is planned for this year.” Ella looked over Victoire’s shoulder at the list, “I actually did notice that. I figured it was just something they added in our fourth year or something, but since Fred has it…” Victoire just stared at the paper, really hoping this didn’t mean what she thought it meant. Then Teddy came out from the Leaky Cauldron entrance to Diagon Alley with Fred’s Dad and she was distracted from the offending paper.

“So have you done any of your shopping yet?” He asked as he came up to them.

“Oh don’t you start avoiding the question as well Teddy,” Ella interrupted.

“What question…?” He started again.

“You know very well what question! The one Victoire and I have been debating all…”

“Well not exactly debating…” Victoire interrupted Ella now.

Teddy looked quizzically at Fred who just grinned and shrugged. “And you had absolutely nothing to do with this I’m sure, Fred.”

“Of course not, I said nothing. Besides a little hinting… and not saying…” he grinned again, “but it’s so much more interesting this way. You’ve figured out by now what they’re ‘debating’ or ‘not debating’?”

“Yes please just tell us, yes or no answer, if you’ve been made prefect or not?” Victoire broke away from the argument they’d started.

“Yes or no to what question?”

“Seriously you’re as bad as Fred. Have you been made prefect? By your dodging the question I’m guessing the answer is yes.”

“Yes I have been made prefect.”

“Ha! I was right Ella.”

“As if I didn’t say he was going to be…”

Amazing post. Guys just love teasing their friends, don't they. PAMS PAMS PAMS

They continued their shopping by going to Madame Malkins, which brought up the question of Dress Robes once more. Victoire didn’t want to admit it but it seemed most likely that there was going to be some form of ball… thing… as stated by Fred.

“I mean they have to do something new every now and then. If it is a dance it’s probably because it seemed the least damaging of new ideas…”

“The least damaging for whom?” Victoire didn’t know why but she didn’t like the idea of a ball.

“Well keep in mind we’re just speculating, and you’re the one who brought it up Victoire. I don’t think a ball would be all that bad personally,” said Ella.

“Well maybe there’s another reason,” said Ben “maybe they just decided we all needed to buy ourselves dress robes, they’re taking charge of our wardrobe now.”

“Ok that sounded like something Fred would say Ben.”

“Is there a problem with that?”

“Well he’s just trying to come up with more options as to why we would be asked to get dress robes Victoire,” Teddy pointed out. “I don’t see a problem with that, though he could be more sensible about it.”

“I can’t be more sensible because I don’t think there’s any other reason for us to be required to get dress robes.”

“That’s a gloomy thought.”

“But why are you so opposed to a ball Victoire?” Ella asked “It doesn’t seem like such a bad idea to me.”

Victoire was quiet; she wasn’t entirely sure why she didn’t think a ball would be a good idea. But going off the stories she had heard from her aunts and uncles about the ball they’d been at she didn’t want to see what it would be like. She wasn’t entirely sure how to explain it.

“I don’t know, I’ll just hold out for another possibility, hope springs eternal…”

great post. That's weird that Victoire doesn't want a ball to take place. I thought all girls loved to dance (with the exception of me) PAMS PAMS PAMS