Strange Beginnings

Chapter VII.II

With a wide swing, Y/N hit the bludger towards Cedric who soared towards the golden snitch. The older boy dodged the path of the vicious ball and continued his course. Fingertips barley brushed the humming wings when his path got disrupted by a successful strike to the foot from Y/N's carefully timed hit. His distraction was brief, pursuing the evasive ball once again. Eventually he managed to grasp the thing and the two packed up the supplies.

"You know you're lucky you're not going against Slytherin tomorrow, because you'd never get to that thing with me on your tail," Y/N teased.

The taller student laughed, "What makes you think it'd be any different from today?"

Y/N shrugged with a cocky smile, "I let you catch the snitch today because I was getting bored."

The two teased and poked at one another till they had put away their things and left to shower and change before supper. When Y/N walked into the common room Alex excused himself from the friends he was with.

"Hey, what were you doing?" he quietly asked.

"I was just doing some runs with Cedric, why?" Y/N hadn't picked up on his hushed intentions.

The umber toned boy whipped his head left and right hoping no one had heard that last statement. They had walked to Y/N's room door and paused.

"I would be careful about practicing with people from the other teams. If Flint found out he'd be pretty pissed and I've seen him kick people off the team before."

Y/N rolled their e/c eyes. "I'll tell him I'm just getting to know our opponents better."

"He might be an idiot but he's not totally stupid. If you're gonna do it try to be more discreet about it," he gently warned, "I'll see you at dinner okay?"

Y/N nodded and proceeded into their room.

Dinner wasn't eventful as usual. Most of the conversations revolved around the quidditch match that would take place tomorrow. Occasionally a word or two would be mentioned about the students still petrified in the hospital wing. Y/N had written home asking Mr. and Mrs. Diggory if they happened to be attending Hogwarts when the chamber had been opened. Beth wrote back telling Y/N of the good laugh they had gotten and explained that even Amos, who was older, hadn't been born yet. Y/N apologized profusely in their following letter for getting the timeline so wrong.

An enlightening thought, however, had been realized in their mind. Dumbledore was in fact old enough to recount the happenings fifty some years ago. Waiting in great anticipation for the meal to end Y/N had forgotten about their hunger, knee bouncing fiercely under the table while they tapped their fingers against the wood. They kept glancing towards the high table at the end of the hall. The headmaster seemed to be in a profound conversation with professors McGonagall and Sprout to his right. Before even half of the students had finished their dinner, Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall exited through one of the doors in the back. Y/N then rushed to finish the last bites of their chicken and potatoes.

"Whoa there Y/N, got a fit date?" Alex snickered.

Before the last bite was in their mouth they stood from the bench, "Just wanna beat the library rush," they lied. Leaving before the older boy could contest that no one clamors off to the study hall on a Friday evening.

After walking out the great hall doors they headed up the staircase towards the Headmaster's hidden office entrance. Stepping lightly on the stone floors they could hear the professors' voices echoing around the next corner.

"Pomona says the mandrakes will be ready for cutting in less than a month from now," Minerva mentions to the group.

An irritating chuckle who could only have been Lockhart followed, "How wonderful! I could make up the potion if you'd like. I'm practically an expert, must have brewed it a hundred times by now," he boastfully interjected.