Later that day, the nearby hall was filled with students walking when Nearly Headless Nick, who was talking with the Grey Lady, floated in and commented on something.
"Have you heard? Harry and Joni Potter's the new Gryffindor Seekers. I always knew they'd do well."
Then, The twins along with Ron made it to the hallway after explaining that McGonagall had proposed to the brothers.
"Seekers?" Ron asked. "But first years never make the house teams. You two must be the youngest players in--"
"A century, according to McGonagall." Harry said.
"Harry's the main Seeker, and i was put in as a substitute if he's unable to play." Joni then added.
Then Ron's older twin brothers came from behind and joined the younger students.
"Hey, well done, you two!" Fred said. "Wood's just told us."
"Fred and George are on the team, too." Ron then continued. "Beaters."
"Our job is to make sure that you two don't get bloodied up too bad." George said. "Can't make any promises, of course. Rough game, Quidditch."
"Brutal!" Fred then continued for his brother. "But no one's died in years. Someone will vanish occasionally..." His voice then started to get smaller as he and George continued to the hall while Joni, Harry and Ron turned to the field.
"But they'll turn up in a month or two!" George then shouted as they went separate ways.
At this, Joni and Harry started to look nervous.
"Oh go on, you two. Quidditch is great. Best game there is, and you'll be great too." Ron tried to ease the brothers in, and Hermione who was sitting in a bench doing her homework, noticed the boys and ran to them.
"But we've never even played Quidditch. What if we make a fool of myself?" Harry asked.
"I don't wanna look even more bloody fool by swinging myself off the broom." Joni added.
"You won't make a fool of yourselves." Hermione said next to Joni, and the boys turned to her. "It's in your blood."
"It is? How?"
Hermione then led the boys to the trophy case and pointed to the plaque of Quidditch players. As they saw what her finger pointed at, they were shocked. On one of the plaques it read the name of the twins' father, James Potter, showing he was a Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
"Whoa." Ron said surprised. "Harry, Joni, you never told me your father was a Seeker, too."
"We-we didn't know." was all Joni managed to stutter out, and he looked at his brother, who looked back, just as surprised.
--
After the boys found out about their father being a Seeker too, they, along with Ron and Hermione, were getting to the moving stairs while making their way back to the Common Room.
"I'm telling you, it's spooky." Ron said to the twins. "She knows more about you two than you do."
"Who doesn't?" Harry said.
"We thought we were regular kids until our birthday." Joni then added.
It was at that moment when the stairs the kids were walking up started to move from the wall to it's left. The kids stumbled a little before they got a hold of on the railings.
"What's happening?" Harry asked shocked.
"The staircases change, remember?" Hermione said behind the boys.
The stairs then turned to the floor on their left which had a door to a corridor.
"Let's go this way." Harry said to others and started walking to the door.
"Before the staircase moves again." Ron continued, following Harry.
"Guys, shouldn't we--" Joni tried to say, but saw the other two simply get to the door. "Oh bloody hell." He sighted and followed them, with Hermione following behind. Harry opened the door to the corridor and stepped inside, and the room itself looked empty and was covered in many spider webs.
"Does anybody feel like... we shouldn't be here?" Ron asked with fear in his voice.
"We're not supposed to be here." Hermione then reminded the boys. "This is the third floor. It's forbidden."
"I tried to say couldn't we have just waited for the stairs to move again." Joni then said, starting to feel nervous himself.
Suddenly, a flame on a pillar next to the kids light up, which spooked the kids, while a cat walked inside the corridor.
"Let's go." Joni said, but when they turned around, they saw the cat with red eyes named Mrs. Norris staring at them.
"It's Filch's cat!" Hermione said shocked.
"Run!" Harry then said, and the kids started to run in the opposite direction. As they all dashed off to the end of the corridor, while the flames on the pillars kept lighting on.
"Quick! Let's hide through that door!"
Reach a door at the end of the corridor, Joni takes a hold of the handle, he tries to open the door, but it's locked. Slamming the handle down, he said "It's locked!"
"We're done for!" Ron said looking behind them.
"Move over!" Hermione then said, pushing both Harry and Joni away from the door before taking her wand and pointing it at the lock.
"Alohomora!"
The lock was then moved, and Hermione started opening the door while saying "Get in." with Joni close behind, followed by Harry and Ron. Ron closed the door behind before turning towards Hermione.
"Alohomora?"
"Isn't that the Unlocking Spell?" Joni asked the girl.
"Yes, Joni. Standard Book of Spells, chapter seven." she commented.
At the other side of the corridor, Mr. Filch then came through the door, approaching his cat.
"Anyone here, my sweet?"
Filch started to look around the corridor, but when he found nothing, he turned to Mrs. Norris and said "Come on" before leaving, Norris following it's owner.
The kids meanwhile were listening in and heard Filtch leave the corridor.
"Filch is gone." Hermione said.
"I thought we were done for a second." Joni commented, swiping the sweat off of his forehead.
"He thinks this door's locked" Ron said as he, Joni and Hermione started to move away from the door.
"It was locked." Joni and Hermione said together.
Harry meanwhile was staring at something in front of them with wide eyes. "And for good reason." The other three looked where Harry was looking before their eyes also widened.
What was lying on the floor was a giant three-headed dog that was sleeping, before it started to wake up and noticed the four kids. Wide-eyed, the kids followed it's heads as the dog rose up and started to growl at the kids.
The kids then started to scream in terror and ran back to the door, with Harry, followed up Ron, followed by Hermione, and lastly Joni who was pushing Hermione faster, getting to the other side and tried to close it while the dog approached and tried to push against the door. The kids managed to push the door closed enough and Joni placed the lock back in. They then started to run back to the Common Room.
"What do they think they're doing..." Ron said when they were getting inside, shocked at what they saw. "... keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?"
"You don't use your eyes, do you?" Hermione asked out of breath. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"
"I wasn't looking at it's feet! I was a bit preoccupied with it's heads. Or maybe you didn't notice. there were three!"
"Yeah, seeing a giant three-headed dog does that to you." Joni then added, as the kids were making their way up stairs to their dormitories.
"It was standing on a trap door." Hermione decided to to continue. "Which means it wasn't there by accident. It's guarding something."
"Guarding something?" Harry asked as they were standing between the boys and girls dormitory doors now.
"That's right". Hermione then focused on Harry and Ron. "Now, if you two don't mind, i'm going to bed, before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed. Or worse, expelled."
Joni, who was standing closest to Hermione, noticed she only mentioned 'two', and it got him hoping she didn't include him as one of them.
Before she turned to the girls dormitory, Hermione said to Joni "Goodnight, Joni."
"O-oh, goodnight, Hermione."
Hermione then opened the door and got inside, and then suddenly Joni thought of something.
"Wait. Is expelled worse than getting killed?" he asked while tilting his head sideways.
"She needs to sort out her priorities." Ron said while shaking his head, and with Harry nodding his head, the two started to make their way to the boys' dormitory.
Joni turned to look at them, and then tapped his pocket to check that his package was still with him. With a final glance at the girls' door, he also started to get inside boys' dormitory.
--
One week later, it was September 19th, and Joni woke up early in the morning. Noticing it was 7:30, he had a feeling that Hermione was awake at this point and was going through her homework like she tends to do. He then dug underneath his pillow and took a small box, smiled at it and started to make his way down to the Common Room.
Walking down the stairs, he noticed Hermione on one of the armchairs with a book in her hand. Smirking, Joni started to sneak closer to the girl, wanting to give her a small scare before the real thing. She was so focused on the book she didn't notice the boy sneaking close.
"Expecting someone?"
Hermione gave a sharp yelp at the voice, closed her eyes and suddenly punched at where the voice came from her left.
"Ouch!" She then opened her eyes and saw Joni clutching his right arm, while he chuckled at this. "You know you punch really hard!"
"Oh gosh!" she said while covering her mouth with her hands. "I'm so sorry. Are you alright?" she asked while talking a hold of the arm she punched.
"Yeah, yeah, it's nothing too bad, see?" he said while he slightly started to move his arm, though he did flinch just a little bit, he powered through and gave a smile. "I can swing it just fine."
Hermione raised her eyebrow, but chose to believe him. "So you decided to give me a scare this morning?"
"Well, not at first. But that wasn't why i got up this early."
Hermione now got curious at what Joni said.
"Oh? And why's that?"
With a hint of a smirk, Joni then questioned. "Do you know what day today is?"
Hermione then put on her 'thinking face' as Joni liked to call it, but couldn't think of anything. "I don't know, i've been really focused on our studies to keep up with what day it might be."
"Well, do i have a surprise for you". Joni then took a box out of his pocked and, with a smile, handed it to the girl. "Happy birthday, Hermione."
Hermione gasped and her eyes widened at this. Couple days after they had started their studies, Hermione had told Joni, after he had asked, her birthday was on September 19th (Also telling him that it would be her 12th birthday, meaning she was almost 10 months older than the boy), but with all the studies she had forgotten about it.
With soft eyes, she took the box from Joni's hand and smiled at him.
"Thank you. But you didn't have to get me anything."
"Nonsense." Joni simply said. "Of course i had to get you something, and i wanted to."
Smiling, Hermione then started to open the box, and inside she found a new set of ink and a quill to help her write.
Joni then started to scratch his right cheek with his finger. "I... I didn't really know what to give you, since we haven't known each other that long. I... hope you like it."
Hermione continued to smile, and then hugged the boy, which got him to blush before the returned the hug.
"Thank you. I definitely like the gift."
They then separated, then suddenly a thought hit Hermione before she looked at her gift again.
"Wait." She then turned to look at Joni. "Was this the package you got defensive about at the flying lesson?"
"Yeah. After you told me when your birthday was, i asked Harry if i could borrow Hedwig for a bit. I bought quill and ink and had Hedwig deliver it to me."
"That was really thoughtful of you. Thank you."
"You're welcome." Joni replied while blushing slightly, before a smirk made it's way to his face.
"Also, remind me to never get on your bad side with a right-hook like that."
Deciding to play along, Hermione smirked herself before replying "As long as you don't give me a reason to."
---
Over a month later, it was October 31st, meaning it was now Halloween. Joni and Harry were walking with Oliver Wood to the field for their first Quidditch lesson, while Harry and Wood were carrying a box with different Quidditch equipment.
"Quidditch is easy enough to understand." Wood started to explain, while he was also holding two bats. "Each team has seven players. Three Chasers, two Beaters, one Captain and a Seeker. That's you." They then lowered the box on the ground, and Wood opened it while taking out a large ball.
"There are three kinds of balls. This one's called the Quaffle." He tossed the Quaffle at Joni who caught it. "Now, the Chasers handle the Quaffle and try to put it through one of those hoops." He pointed behind him at the Quidditch field where there were three hoops on each side.
"The Keeper, that's me, defends the hoops. With me so far?"
"I think so", Harry replied while Joni nodded and tossed the Quaffle back to Wood. He then pointed at two other smaller balls in the box.
"What are those?"
Putting the Quaffle down, Wood then took a bat in each hand before handing them to the brothers.
"You two better take these."
The brothers took the bats, while Wood let the chain that holding one of the balls inside loose. The ball suddenly flew in the air, before it started to come back down.
"Careful now, it's coming back." Wood said while looking up.
Harry meanwhile got ready, swung the bat and hit the ball, which blew between two swords held up by a statue on a roof.
"Huh, not bad, Harry. You'd make a fair Beater." Wood said impressed. Harry smiled at this and Joni tapped him on his shoulder.
"That's my brother for you." Joni said proudly.
The ball suddenly flew back the same way it came from, and Wood saying "O-ou." he caught the ball, which then started to struggle to get away from his grasp. While struggling on the ground, Wood crawled back to the box and locked the ball back in it's place.
"What was that?" the brothers asked.
"Bludger." Wood replied as he was catching his breath. "Nasty little buggers. But you two are Seekers."
He then opened a small locket that looked like the Hogwarts crest, and took a small golden ball that was a size of a small nut.
"The only thing i want you two to worry about is this. The Golden Snitch." he held the ball to the brothers, with Joni taking it in his fingers.
"I like this ball." he said chuckling.
"You like it now." Wood said. "Just wait. It's wicked fast and damn near impossible to see."
"What do we do with it?" Harry then asked.
"You catch it. Before the other teams' Seeker. You catch this, the game's over. You catch this, Potters, and we win."
"That is quite a lot of pressure for one player." Joni said while opening his palm, looking at the Snitch.
"It really is." Wood replied.
The Snitch then sprung wings and started to fly above them, all the while the brothers kept their eyes on it, muttering "Wow." The snitch then flew away fast before they started to chase it.