I leaned forward in my chair and glanced nervously at the rest of my team, sat in a line punctuated with Slytherins across Headmaster McGonagall's office. We were still clad in our yellow robes and Cassie's hands were clenched firmly around the snitch, so tightly that her knuckles were white. The atmosphere wasn't euphoric, however, but tense as we waited for the final verdict from the group of professors who had gathered in a room off of the main office. None of us spoke. Heather chewed her nails with anxiety, a Slytherin coughed, and I could feel Scorpius's eyes boring into the back of my head.
"Quite controversial," said one of the paintings above me. I couldn't recognize the Headmistress, but she had crammed herself into a frame with three other past headmasters of Hogwarts, and they were obviously discussing us. She opened her mouth to continue but one of the others clamped a hand over her mouth before us students could hear.
When the teachers walked back in, headed by McGonagall, we all straightened our backs simultaneously, and the quiet whisperings of the paintings above ceased at once.
"Now, while I tell you what we've decided, we don't want any interruptions," said McGonagall, clasping her hands in front of her as she looked down at us from behind her desk. "I want you to be aware that one team is going to leave this room very disappointed, and another very happy, but that I expect both to act with only the best sportsmanship."
There was a chorus of agreement from the two Quidditch teams.
McGonagall looked to Cassie. "You can relinquish the snitch, Ms. Klein."
She shook her head. "I never want to let it go. If that's okay with you, of course, Professor."
There were some sneers from the Slytherins in the room, but a curt glance from McGonagall quickly silenced them.
"I'll only be taking it for one moment," she said.
Cassie reluctantly handed over the snitch, and McGonagall passed it to Scorpius, who reached out and touched it. I held my breath, but the snitch did not react to him. When it was passed begrudgingly back to Cassie, however, the snitch unfolded its wings and struggled to escape Cassie's now-firm grasp.
"So there hasn't been a snitchnip," said Professor Longbottom.
I frowned at that. They're dubious that Cassie actually caught it?
He must've caught my look, because he clarified. "We wanted to make sure that with all the fouling that occured in that game, a snitchnip wasn't one of them."
Okay, I admitted. That's reasonable.
McGonagall took over again. "I never would've expected such a dirty match from students, especially not from Hufflepuffs. As you've surely guessed, we've been contemplating punishing the team for their brazen actions on the field today."
I hesitantly raised my hand, but was ignored as McGonagall pressed on. "We have done a careful evaluation of the match, however. Every foul was called and the penalties were given for each one."
This time it was Scorpius's hand that was ignored.
"The matter of the end of the match required further discussion, as you may have guessed. What looked to many of the spectators today like a blatant display of blocking required some evaluation. A penalty shot is normally awarded as a result of this foul, but as the snitch was caught by Ms. Klein before this could occur, ending the game, this left an unresolved foul that we have decided should cost the game."
The Slytherins moved to rejoice, while my team's hearts all sunk, Cassie's especially. McGonagall's steely look kept us quiet, however.
"However, as we all recounted our own tale of what occurred in those final few seconds, we came to realize that this was not a case of blocking as we assumed due to the high amount of fouls that had occurred throughout the match. Instead, Mr. Malfoy was circled by Hufflepuff players, as you are all aware, but they did not obstruct his path to the snitch. It was a bludger that ultimately knocked him from his broom and cost Slytherin the match, a perfectly legal, un-foulable event in a game of Quidditch."
I bit my lip, tasting blood, and I was sat on the edge of my chair. I could hear Slytherins and Hufflepuff's alike holding their breath.
"Thus, as there were no unresolved fouls, Hufflepuff has fairly won the match."
It took amazing willpower for the fourteen or so students to hold their tongues as we were dismissed from the room. The paintings up on the walls showed no such constraint, and burst into loud whoops and arguments almost immediately. I exchanged awed looks with my team as we rose from our seats, thanked the professors in the room, and moved towards the doors. My pride nearly burst as I saw Geronimo quickly pat Cassie on the back.
"Ms. Dursley, remain for one moment."
I stopped in my tracks and turned back to face Headmistress McGonagall.
"Tell me, why would you advocate for such tactics in a school match? Does winning mean that much to you?"
"It means that much to the rest of the team, Professor," I said, "and I was outvoted on the matter."
"Quite un-Hufflepuff," came a cry from one of the paintings nearby.
I turned to face him. "Not exactly," I said. "It took dedication to research all the fouls and diligence to come up with an exact plan for winning the game. Those are Hufflepuff traits, and we did it to prove ourselves as a house. We may not have played very fair, but we can't always be expected to fill out every aspect of our house at once, can we?"
"Certainly not," said McGonagall, nodding her head. I may have been imagining it, but I thought I saw the slightest of smiles. "It was a brave move and we will allow it this once. If that many fouls occurs in another match again, however, your team may have to sacrifice the win. I personally would like to see Hufflepuff house win on more honorable terms next time, but I do agree that the house traits need to be stretched every once and a while." This time, I definitely saw the smile. "You're dismissed, Ms. Dursley. I'm sure you have an important announcement to make back at the Hufflepuff common room."
"Yes, Professor," I said. "Thank you."
~~~
Cassie was waiting in the hallway when I got out of the office, hopping from foot to foot. "Hey, Esther."
"Hey. Thanks for waiting."
"Uh," she said, "I just wanted to thank you."
"Oh. There's no need, Cassie."
Cassie looked at her feet. "Yes there is. If it wasn't for you giving me all that extra training, I wouldn't have been able to catch the snitch. Not to mention all your support. Nobody else on the team, except maybe Hugo, really believes in me like you do."
I smiled at her, touched. "Thanks for working so hard," I said.
She smiled back.
"Come on," I said. "We should get back to the common room before one of the others can announce the news that you should rightfully be telling."
~~~
Scorpius's rant on sportsmanship lasted at least ten minutes and included a lengthy example from a Quidditch World Cup final match.
"No need to go on, Scorpius," I said, before he could launch into a more detailed history of snitchnip. "You got your point through fairly succinctly by now. I understood twenty minutes ago, and so did everybody else in the library."
He frowned, but slouched in his chair, which I knew meant he was done and we were friends again. "You and your stupid tactics. How did they let you get away with that?"
"Don't get hit by bludgers," I said, setting my quill down. "It cost me the match, too."
"Against Gryffindor, which doesn't mean anything because they're undefeated. As usual. Stupid Albus Potter and his stupid Quidditch genes."
"It's not his fault his mum played professionally."
Scorpius crossed his arms. "It's not my fault mine didn't."
I laughed. "You're starting to sound ridiculous, even for you."
"Hey!"
"I can't believe it," I said, ignoring him and flipping the page in my textbook. "One more match and then we're in the finals."
"That's only if you beat Ravenclaw," he said.
"I've put in the work and the effort, and so has the rest of my team. That's what we Hufflepuffs tend to do, you see. So I'm fairly confident."
"Only fairly confident?"
"It translates to me not being very confident," I admitted. "We got away with hundreds of fouls once, but McGonagall's not going to allow it again. She told me definitively. I need a new tactic. Again. This is starting to get a bit repetitive."
As I said it, though, there was still a glimmer of hope. Cassie had officially caught the snitch, and the change in her person was obvious and great. She was bouncing around the halls, laughing loudly and smiling often. Hugo confided that she had told the story of how she caught the snitch to anybody who would listen to the point of annoyance, but that she was always thanking the rest of the team profusely in her stories. If she went into our match against Ravenclaw with this newfound confidence, we might be able to play a normal match, and win in the normal way.
There was a flurry of noise and a cloud of curly hair as Holly arrived, stopping her momentum by slamming into the desk, sending Scorpius's school books clattering off the end of the desk, on to the floor. He frowned at her and I, out of old habit, stooped to pick them before he whisked out his wand and used a spell to return them to a neat pile.
"Look at the pair of you. Quidditch nerds," said Holly, beaming. She caught my eye and subtly raised her eyebrows.
"Is that supposed to be an insult?" I asked her, ignoring her unspoken comment through eyebrow movement. "I'll wear that badge with pride."
Holly was now ignoring me. "Hello, Scorpius."
"Hello, Holly," he said.
"Hello, Esther," I said. "There. Now we've all said hello."
Scorpius rolled his eyes at me before turning to Holly. "So, any luck with Sawyer?"
"Not much," she said, "which is why I wanted so badly to talk to you two together. I've been doing my best to figure him out, but he's an enigma. I swear, he's got some kind of unbreakable binding spell on his secrets, and they're buried deep, deep down inside him. He won't budge."
"But he's still talking to you," I said.
"Yes, but I've had to be careful about how much I prod him, because I'm sure he'd give me the silent treatment in the blink of an eye. We need a new tactic, and that's why I've gathered you too."
I exchanged a look with Scorpius. "What are you suggesting?" he asked. "Sawyer doesn't talk to Esther anymore and he hates me. I don't see what we can do."
"You two are resourceful. Well, Esther's resourceful and diligent while you're cunning. I've got the wisdom. We're an interhouse dream team. We should be able to think of something that could get Sawyer to cooperate with us."
"I know," I said. "You can come up with an elaborately genius plan, Scorpius can use some unforgivable curses, and I'll cheer you on from the sidelines like a good Hufflepuff."
"Oh, don't get angry. I was using good stereotypes, Essie!"
"Well, I've had enough of all stereotypes, good or bad."
Scorpius studied his nails. "I don't know. The Imperius Curse might work a treat in this situation."
I kicked him and he gave me a wicked grin.
"We need to force it out of him, but not literally force it," said Holly.
"Nicely put," I teased, "but how do we do that? He won't tell you and he certainly won't tell Scorpius and I, and I'm assuming you don't want to resort to tricks or unforgivable curses."
"No."
"What are the possibilities?" Scorpius asked. "You two are his best friends. He can't have come up with this issue out of the blue, so you should know something. Anything suspicious he's said in the past six years could come in useful right now."
"I don't know," I said. "Holly?"
She shrugged. "He sort of did come up with it out of the blue, which is the issue. Unless there's something he's been hiding from literally everybody, including us."
"So his issue only came about once I started talking to Esther. The most obvious reasons for that would be that he has a crush on one of us and is jealous."
"I'm pretty sure he's straight, so don't go getting any ideas," I told him, blushing slightly.
"I'm just trying to think of all the possibilities. If he's been anti-Slytherin for his whole life, it could explain why he would be so adamant about not telling us this entire time."
"What else?" I asked. "Any reasonable ideas?"
"Hey!"
Holly grabbed a handful of her long, unruly curls and hid her face in them. "I'm not thinking of anything he's ever said that could help us. I acted like I knew what I was doing for a while, but I really don't know what we can do about this at all."
"How badly do you want to solve the problem, though?" Scorpius asked.
"He's my friend," I said indignantly.
"Really? Because he hasn't been acting like it. Frankly, he's been acting like a first year, and an immature one at that. He hasn't spoken to you for weeks now, and all because you made a new friend and he couldn't dominate every second of your time."
"I did go behind his back, Scorpius."
"Yes, but only because he made a huge fuss and would throw a tantrum if he found out. Which he's now done. He won't talk to you and you don't really know why, which is why we're trying to think of ways of solving the issue without knowing what the issue is, which is rather impossible, Esther. Sawyer's hardly being a good friend, and he still hasn't approached you even though you've done what he wanted and left him alone for a while. He should stop being unreasonable and come out with what his problem is ad you should forget about it until then."
His point made, Scorpius crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, his eyes piercing me, daring me to rebuttle. Instead, I looked away, biting my lip and thinking. He says the things that I don't let myself think, even when somewhere inside me I agree. his is why I still manage to be friends with Scorpius, even though he comes out with statements like that.
Holly clenched her fists, glaring at Scorpius. "I can't believe you just said that. Sawyer's been our friend for six years."
At least someone was convicted of that fact. "He has a point," I said. "You have to admit it."
"Yes, but that doesn't mean I want it said aloud by the possible cause of Sawyer's problem!"
"I can't fight you there."
Scorpius's defiant scowl drooped and he slumped, relaxing his resolve. "Sorry, you two. I didn't mean to offend you or insult your relationship with Sawyer or anything like that. I hope I haven't screwed anything over between us now, too."
"Don't worry about it," I said. "I half agree with you anyway."
"Look, we'll find a way of solving your Sawyer issues," he said. "I'll talk with the Slytherins. Like, really talk to them about it, until we figure out what it is. Holly, maybe if you stop talking with Sawyer, too, he'll turn around and realize that he needs to tell us what his issue is. He might be looking for something like that to give him an opportunity to tell us when he's the one initiating and in charge of the situation."
"Right," I agreed. "When Holly's bombarding him with constant questions, it immediately puts him on the defensive."
Holly nodded slowly. "Okay," she said. "I think we might be getting somewhere with this."
"About time," I said. "I just hope it finally works."
"So Esther," Scorpius said, "what are your tactics going to be in the match against Ravenclaw?"
He smirked, and I whacked him over the head with my book.
Holly sighed. "This meeting is hereby adjourned."