Up to no good

Chapter 7: Game, set & match !

The Saturday of the match clearly came faster than I could have imagined. Clearly it was VITAL that I wear our House colours. I was a redhead, wasn't that enough? The girls were ecstatic, especially when I had vaguely told them about my conversation with Sirius. They were bouncing and squealing all over the place, I braided my hair and tied it with a black ribbon. A jumper flew across the room and landed on my head.

"Put this on.
- But is it yours, Alice?
- Maybe you'd rather go and steal Sirius'."

So much sarcasm in such a small being. I put the jumper on, grumbling. Luckily it was a nice day, otherwise their preparations would have been useless. Alice put the shoulders of the jumper back on me properly. Really? It was that bad?

"TADAM!"

Ariana and Diana raised their huge sign with "GO GRYFFINDOR" in red and gold letters. I nodded in admiration. They were very dedicated.

"I thought it was just a friendly game... I remarked, playing with my wand as they all tried on different hairstyles."

At Beauxbatons there was just as much excitement but my housemates at the time seemed, like me, only interested in the official games and the World Cup. Deborah laughed before handing me her brush to finish her ponytail. She sat on the floor as I tied them up.

"The atmosphere, Isabelle! The mood!"

I shrugged, a slight smile betraying me. I loved seeing them full of life and taking me into this colourful world with them. I admitted defeat.

"In that case... We'll have to shout loud enough for them to hear us!"

An explosion of happy shouts rang out in the common room, cutting off everyone's reaction.

"What the..."

I jumped up from my bed, followed by the four of them, laughing louder than I did on the stairs as I glanced up at the common room from above, a sparkle swirled around me. It joined a huge, roaring lion made of fireworks. Wide-eyed, I looked around to see who was already celebrating the victory when nothing had happened. Not even a match. Obviously, I didn't know these people but Marlene did. Carried by one of the guys, settled on her back, she shouted:

"Izzy! Come here! This is the day!"

I shook my head as I descended the last few stairs to find Marlene overexcited.

"Guys, this is Isabelle or Izzy or cutiepie," she said, squeezing my cheeks. "Look how cute she is with her beautiful blue French eyes."

I raised my eyebrows, letting her disfigure me like that.

"And this is Adam and Aaron, chaser and beater!"

Adam, blond, brown-eyed, and snub-nosed, a charming smile, he carried Marls effortlessly. He winked at me as the catcher jumped off his back. Aaron, the dark-haired one in this case, blue eyes, square jaw, chiselled features, pointed with his chin to something behind me, I turned to see Dorcas trying to calm our friend.

"Marls, if you don't calm down a bit, you won't be able to catch the Golden Snitch."

Before she could protest, Lily pushed her off, leaving my roommates to give me a huge, reassuring smile.

'She's always like that on game days.'

So Marls was being whisked off to lunch as she waved to everyone with big signs, Lily asking me:

"Shall we meet up later?"

I nodded in response as the boys and the three third years went downstairs before my room. A sigh escaped me, feeling a little overwhelmed by everyone's excitement. Marlene was literally on crack. Deborah put her arm around my shoulders to comfort me.