A prank war is all it takes for a wild and carefree Gryffindor to change an isolated Hufflepuff's perspective on life and teach her that they are more alike than she thinks.
Companion books:
- Other Eyes (Ginny Weasley)
- Gravity (Percy Weasley)
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During the weeks of October it was pretty easy for Maxine to balance sleep, school, Quidditch, and assisting Tamsin. She wrote to her parents a lot, updating them on school and making sure to ask if they were financially okay. That was always a worry for her during the times that she wasn't at home. What if her parents weren't able to feed themselves properly because of house payments? What if they lost the house?
To make matters worse some of Maxine's class books were beginning to fall apart due to them being the cheapest and most worn ones she could find at Diagon Alley. And her Hufflepuff robes were beginning to fall apart at the seams - literally. When she informed her mother and father of this, Maxine was not surprised to be told that she would have to talk to her teachers and try to borrow class copies and maybe ask Professor Sprout if she could stitch up her robes.
Asking for things was something that always made Maxine uncomfortable. After interrogating her as to why she needed a new copy of her potions book, Snape literally threw one at her. The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was more understanding, only asking that she took care of it and that she return it in the same condition he gave it to her in.
Whenever she got down time, Maxine made sure to savor it. She worked hard on the Quidditch pitch during practice, even if she was annoyed to no ends by Cedric's pestering and complaining that she couldn't hit the bludger hard enough with her bat. Part of the reason the team was being worked so hard by their captain was that the Gryffindor team was being worked twice as hard by their captain. Cedric repeatedly brought up the topic of Oliver Wood, and how if the Hufflepuff's didn't work harder they were going to regret it.
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On Halloween, instead of going to Hogsmeade or working on her "swinging skills" as Cedric had put it, Maxine stayed in the school library in order to relax. For the whole day she slept on and off, attempted to read something, and even took it upon herself to fix her school robes (she somewhat succeeded). When mid-afternoon came around, she finally got bored and roamed around the library.
Maxine walked up and down the long aisles of books, not even really paying attention to the titles or topics. The library was a quiet place, and just walking and listening to the silence was good enough for her.
Except eventually it wasn't silent anymore.
Maxine was walking a couple rows away from the restricted section of the library when she heard a couple of shouts, laughs, and multiple curse words. Then a book fell from above her and landed right onto her head. Immediately she brought her hands to her head and looked up to see what the hell caused a book to fall. She was met with a sneaky smile.
"Hello, Beater Girl."
One of the Weasley twins was crawling along the top of the book case which, as anyone would think, was awfully suspicious.
"What the bloody hell are you doing up there?" Maxine asked as she rubbed her probably bruised skull. "Shouldn't you be terrorizing first years or robbing Zonko's?"
