Stories from the Vault - Hogwarts Mystery One Shots

Quidditch Differences

Sarah and Barnaby emerged from the castle, hand-in-hand, to hear raised voices in the courtyard. 

"Is that Penny and Andre?" Sarah asked. 

They found Andre and Penny on the other side of the fountain. They were standing close together, noses in each other's faces, shouting. 

"The Prides!" Andre kept yelling. 

"The Wanderers!" Penny shouted back. 

Barnaby hurried to step in between the two. He hated it when his friends fought. 

"Hey, calm down you guys! What's the matter?" he said. 

"Penny was going on and on about the Wigtown Wanderers, again," said Andre. "I merely pointed out that the Pride of Portree has better overall stats than them, when she jumped all over me."

"As if!" said Penny. "He insulted me. He said I wasn't a quidditch fan, just a Parkin fan." She glared back at Andre. "Everyone knows you only like the Prides because you like to wear purple!"

"My grandmother was on the Prides, thank you very much!"

"Stop fighting," said Barnaby fiercely. 

"So, you both prefer different teams," said Sarah. "What's the big deal?"

"It's not about preference," said Andre. "It's about which team is the best. What do you think, Sarah?"

"I've always been an Appleby Arrows fan, myself," she muttered. 

Andre rolled his eyes. "Doesn't anybody at this school have any sense? Barnaby?"

"The Harpies!" he said. "They've got the coolest mascot!"

"Well, at least that's a better reason than because one of their chasers has been featured in Witch Weekly's article for most handsome wizards," he said. 

Penny fumed, but Sarah cut her off before she could make her nasty reply. 

"Barnaby and I were just headed to the village. Why don't you two join us?"

They agreed, but they refused to speak to each other the whole way down. Sarah could sense everyone else's agitation, and wondered what she could do to settle the argument.

"I'll buy the drinks," said Andre when they arrived at the Three Broomsticks. "At least, I'll buy them for anybody who admits the Prides are the best team in the league."

"The Prides are the best team in the league!" Barnaby shouted at once. 

Penny huffed. "I'll just get my own."

She stormed off to the bar. 

"Sarah?" Andre asked. 

"I'm not getting in the middle of this," she said. "You two really need to relax. This is such a silly thing to fight over."

"Silly? Apart from fashion, quidditch is the most important thing!"

Sarah shook her head sadly and went to buy herself a drink. 

As they sat around their table, Penny and Andre continued their squabbling, though at a more reasonable volume. 

"This really isn't how I wanted to spend the day," Barnaby muttered in her ear. 

Sarah agreed. She'd never seen those two act this way before, especially not Penny. 

"What are we gonna do?" asked Barnaby. 

Sarah sighed before taking a long swig of her butterbeer. Before she could say anything, McNully rolled over to their table in his wheelchair. 

"Continuing to spy on the competition for Gryffindor, Sarah? Good work," he joked, giving Andre a pat on the shoulder.