Golden Flower of Hogwarts

Philosopher's 15

It's official, breakfast was disgusting. Chrys just shoved the plate over towards Gregory and Vincent; the two looked at the plate, it was another thing that their friend was notorious for getting, peanut butter oatmeal with blackberries and raspberries. Any other day Chrys would be wolfing down his breakfast with little to no hesitation, but today? He was not in the mood and looking at it just made him sick.

He wasn't the only one at the table who was ignoring breakfast, Harry barely even touched anything at the table – heck, he even had hearty eggs and bacon that he just slid over to Neville. Hermione just stared at the two in disbelief and tried pushing a small bowl of fruit to them, they just turned their noses at it.

"At least eat something." She insisted. "You two have a game today and are going to need your strength."

"Exactly why breakfast looks disgusting right now." Chrys eyed a plate of bacon nearby, "Harry, hand that over to me."

Akari blinked as Harry did so, "Wait...Chrys?" She spoke up, "When was the last time you've had meat in general?"

Chrys paused for a moment as he held a piece up in thought, that was indeed a good question. He shrugged it off and was about to eat it, but he didn't get far as Akari quickly took it from him with worry - and also to keep Slytherin from being a player short for the game.

"Damn it, Akari, let me wolf down some bacon and cause myself to be sick so I can avoid the game altogether." Chrys offered.

"If you're going down, I'm going down with you." Harry looked at Chrys and grabbed a jug of cold milk.. "First one to chug an entire mug of milk, wins."

"Oh my god, don't!" Dudley held his cousin back, "You know what'll happen if you drink something cold too fast!"

"Exactly." Harry moved out of his hold.

"Guys, please." Vera held up a blender; the concoction inside was...something else. It was obnoxiously pink with edible glitter in it and...plastic dinosaurs? She gently shook it with a smile. "Here, pep up with some Vera Juice, it has plastic dinosaurs in it~" she said in a singsong voice.

"That...That looks like it could kill a person!" Neville cried out. "W-What's in it?"

Draco gagged and covered his mouth when she opened the lid and started pouring two cups of it. "Oh sweet Merlin it's as if coffee and bogarts had a baby!"

Ron patted Harry on the shoulder. "Hey, at least you two have a reason to call in sick, if this fails you guys could try and actually break your legs to avoid playing."

The two looked at each other before grabbing the cups in front of them; there was the distinct smell of berries and coffee mixed in, actually there was probably a lot of unholy mixes of whatever Vera could humanly blend and make it anything remotely edible. They were scared, but, if it would get them out of the game...especially if Snape was rumored to be the referee for the game. Turning to each other, Chrys and Harry quietly gave their 'cheers' and were about to take a drink from the cups.

"What are you doing!?" Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint hurried over. "None of that Truemoon, we won't allow sabotage!"

"I'm not sabotaging them!" Vera pouted. "I'm helping them get the energy they need for the game!"

Marcus snatched the cups away. "If either of us have to forfeit today's match then Hufflepuff's back in the running!" he looked at the unholy pink mixture and held the cups away from his face. "We already have your new beater to worry about, we don't need to give you any more upper hands!"

"Again, not sabotaging." Vera stuck her tongue out at them.

Chrys and Harry exchanged disappointed glances as their potential escape plan was foiled by the concerned captains. They knew that Oliver and Marcus had a point - playing fair was important, and sabotage would only tarnish the integrity of the game. Deep down, they knew they couldn't resort to such tactics, even if it meant facing their fears on the Quidditch field.