𝐒𝐎 𝐒𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍; 𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐫.

𝐱𝐱. 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬

"𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀 𝐅𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐒, 𝐉𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐒𝐄𝐓 𝐔𝐏 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐎𝐀𝐋!" Sirius roared, holding his hands up to celebrate. "Bloody fanta—er, sorry, Professor," he called down to McGonagall, who only shook her head bemusedly. "Er, good job, Gryffindor! And they're now leading seventy-fifty to Ravenclaw!"

Amara had only enough time to swoop by James, fist bumping him, before the Quaffle was back in play. She tugged on the front of her broom, yanking it to the left in an effort to cut off Josephine Bungle, a square-jawed, thick-necked Chaser and sixth year prefect from Ravenclaw. 

"Oh, no, you don't," Amara muttered as Josephine tried to swerve under her. She fell into a nose dive, ponytail whipping in her face. "You bloody git-face, you." 

Josephine tossed the Quaffle over to Tommy Hilger, but James intercepted it with a grand spiral move, slinking under a Bludger and tossing the Quaffle to Amara.

She shot forward, Quaffle tucked under the one arm and firmly steering with the other. Amara let herself fall off the left side of her broom, legs locked around it, and hung upside down to avoid the other Bludger, expertly sent by a Ravenclaw Beater. "Prewett," she yelled, dropping the Quaffle. 

Clearly, he'd understood, because Fabian was waiting under her, and with a wink and a wide, rather crooked smile, he was off. Gideon had by now sent the offending Bludger at the Ravenclaw Seeker, and yelled in triumph when it managed to hit him in the hand.

Amara pumped her fist and shot down to help Fabian score; he was being three-manned by all the Ravenclaw Chasers. With a particularly rough grunt, Josephine slammed into him and made to grab the Quaffle from his open palm, but Amara beat her to it. 

"Tough luck, Bungle," she hissed, weaving through the rest of the Ravenclaw offense. She made to toss it off to James, but he was nowhere to be seen, so Amara gritted her teeth and threw the Quaffle toward the lowest hoop. 

It soared between the Keeper's outstretched hands and Amara yelled in delight, high-fiving Fabian. She turned to find James supporting the Ravenclaw Seeker, Billie McGuffin, as she flew at a severe downward angle. 

"Took out her flying hand," he yelled hoarsely up to her. "Help me slow her fall, c'mon."

The roaring crowds had dimmed significantly. It was looking as though Ravenclaw would have to send out their reserve Seeker, who Amara believed was a third year named Quigley Walsh. James hastily called a time-out, and the Gryffindor team, after helping her to the ground, gathered round in a huddle. 

"Now, look here," Amara said. "They're pulling in a cold Seeker, right? So we have to make Charles's job here a lot easier, and—"

"Hold up, Tal," James said, entering the circle, from where he'd been discussing with the Ravenclaw Captain and Poppy, the medwitch intern. He was smiling rather dreamily. "Okay, say it all again."

She paused, glancing at him. "You're not going to tell me that pep talks are your job? Don't you have something to say?"

"Go on, mate," he said, eyes on his shoelaces. His grin broadened. 

The Prewett twins eyed each other, mirth plastered on their faces. Fabian was turning red from suppressed laughter. 

"Well," Amara began nervously, glancing at him again. "Well, you see, er—I was saying that since they're putting in a cold Seeker, our best bet of winning quickly is to just make Charles's job as easy as possible. Let's just put a big enough lead on for him to relax, alright, and Beaters, leave us alone; stay with Charles, how about that?"