(1) Lux Brumalis (R. Weasley)

Chapter Twenty

Pixie has never run so fast in her entire life. Her little feet pounding against the stone floor as she, along with Neville, Ron, Hermione and Harry, each of them pushing their little bodies as fast as they can to outrun their fear and that dog. Giant dog. Huge dog. Pixie has never felt fear like that. Well, not in a while. The Chitauri really scared her. She was terrified when she had to face them down. They only stop when they reach the Fat Lady on the seventh floor, reaching the Gryffindor common room. The woman in the painting looks over the students.

"Where on earth have you all been?' she asks them, looking at their dressing-gowns hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces and alarmed expressions.

"Never mind that – pig snout, pig snout," Harry pants out and the portrait swings forward and they pile in, all but Pixie who doesn't move from the other side of the portrait. Harry turns to her when he realises.

"I...I have to get back" She shrugs a little and takes a step back from the portrait. She's not allowed in that common room, she has to go back to her own.

"Pixie" Harry stops her, she hums and looks at him. "Thank you...." She shrugs again and then walks away, heading back to her own common room. Harry knows that she didn't have to come and find them. That she broke rules to help them.

............

Pixie slides into her bed and lets out a breath, listening to her head thump in her chest. Pounding really. She's never seen a dog that big before. Never even heard that they could get that big before. She's made a mistake. She knows her mother asked her to keep an eye on him but she shouldn't have. She should have just kept to herself. Kept out of trouble like she said she was going to. She pulls her blankets over her head and curls up. Willing herself to sleep. Though given what she's seen, that is very unlikely to happen.

......

Pixie pulls her hair up into a messy ponytail as she heads towards the great hall for breakfast, she looks as tired as she feels having gotten absolutely no sleep whatsoever after events. How could she sleep knowing that monstrosity was inside the building? She yawns into the back of her hand and pushes open the door into the great hall.

"Stark!" Flint shouts before she even fully stepped into the room. She sighs a little as he moves towards her. "Come with me" He grunts out and leaves the hall, she rolls her eyes and follows him out, her breakfast seemingly unimportant.

.......

The first thing Pixie notices about the Slytherin quidditch team is that they are all boys. All of them. And not just boys, but big, huge boys. Flint might have only picked Pixie because Snape made him, but there is no way he would ever have picked her himself. Not if he was going for size. She looks tiny among them all as they each give her the once over. All seem to come to the same conclusion as Flint. She's too small. Flint waves them all off as he moves to Pixie and holds out a wrapped parcel. She gives him a look and he shakes it at her. She takes the parcel and pulls open the string tying it all together. Inside the parcel are a broom and two Slytherin kits, one for training and one for match games. There is a note too and she recognises Snape's scrawling handwriting on the front. Clearly, he's put them up to this, likely to make her feel better about joining the team. A player leans closer to her and nudges her, she glances at him.

"As you will be the secret weapon we want to keep you quiet, hence this secret meeting," He tells her. "Flint's not really one with the words" She hums in agreement.

"You don't say" She comments dryly.

"Adrian" He offers. Pixie nods a little. It's going to take her some time to remember all their names. Thankfully, they all have their surnames on the back of their uniforms which will help. A little like the football shirts. "Flint thought nothing of it but...Terrence and I pitched in for these" He motions to another player as he holds out a bundle of books to her each one on quidditch. "Thought it might help..."

"Thanks" She offers them both as the other players take their leave. Pixie takes the books from him, trying to juggle everything in her arms. Getting these back to the common room without anyone seeing her is going to be problematic.

"Try not to spoil the surprise, huh, Stark?" Terrence teases as he follows the other Slytherin players out of the changing room. Pixie smiles to herself as she looks down at the broom. She never thought she wanted to play quidditch. She loves going to games with her mother but playing is a whole other thing. She's kind of excited now. She sits on a bench and opens up the note that was in the paper wrapping. She was right, it is from Snape. Just explaining that her mother sent across the coin and Snape had gone down to Hogsmeade to pick up everything that she needed. There is no doubt a note on its way from her mother too, but that will come with the owls. Pixie slides the note into the pocket of her robes and tries to figure out a way to get the rest of the stuff back to the dungeons without someone figuring out she's now on the quidditch team.