'Seeking a Seeker'
Cold, November winds had just started to breach the walls, students only finding comfort in front of the fires that burned in their torches. The first match of the season, between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, was due to take place in a few days time.
Lori stood, reluctantly, on the pitch, with her team behind her and the prospective Seekers in front.
"Listen up!" she shouted, all of them falling silent, "Please bear in mind that this is only a substitute for Harry and doesn't give you a permanent spot on the team."
McLaggen was stood cockily at the front, as well as Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan and some others she didn't know.
"We will start with some basic one-on-one Snitch catching, just to see where everyone's at. Dean, Seamus, you're up first."
The team watched as the two fourth years kicked off from the ground, the Snitch rocketing into the sky not long after. It was a slow crawl, but eventually, she had seen each person trying out in the sky.
Lori turned to the team, "I can't find anyone that's anywhere near on par with Harry." she put her head in her hands, "I'm gonna have to pull the team."
Katie shrieked, "Loretta Jasmine Weasley, don't you dare!"
Lori was taken aback at the use of her full name, her face crinkling up in disgust, "Merlin, Katie, you sound like my mother when she's angry."
"I try."
"All right, I won't pull the team," she discreetly pointed to the prospective players, "but we're going to get flattened by Slytherin if we rock up with one of those guys."
"Point taken," Angelina said, smirking slightly, "but who said we need the new player as the Seeker?"
Lori looked confused for a moment, before realisation swamped over her, "Merlin, Angelina, no!"
Katie interrupted, a suggestive smile on her face, "But, didn't a certain Hufflepuff teach you to play?"
Lori rolled her eyes, "One time! I can't play against Malfoy. First off, he has a Nimbus 2001 and I've got a school Cleansweep that's probably been alive longer than Dumbledore."
Lori ploughed on, "And second, he's a good Seeker when he's not bullying Harry."
"Is he though?" Katie quipped, leaning on her broom.
Lori suddenly shouted, "This is a dictatorship, not a democracy!"
The team fell into a stunned silence, baffled that Lori, who was such a sweet, innocent girl, would ever raise her voice.
Much calmer now, Lori continued, "But, it's actually kinda sweet you believe in me. So yes, I will play Seeker in the friendlies."
The five of them whooped and cheered, pulling their Captain into a hug. Lori felt awful about taking the spot, bordering on selfish, but if the team had faith in her, as she had in them, that was enough for her.
"We're still a player down, though," Lori reminded them, "and we don't have another reserve. We can't play with two Chasers, especially against Montague's team."
Fred stepped forward, "I think you and I both know the ideal candidate."
*
Hufflepuff had been utterly flattened by Ravenclaw in their match, as their Captain, and Seeker, wasn't allowed to play. It had been almost painful to watch as Cho's hands wrapped around the Snitch, her rival almost the other end of the pitch.
The stands were half full, the rivalry between the Eagles and Badgers didn't run very deep, if at all. There was, however, no doubt that their own match would be much more electric.
Lori had found the perfect Chaser at lunch, having been met with almost no struggle to get them on the team as a temporary substitute.
Badges were being distributed around the school from an unknown source, first displaying Cedric's face on a yellow background, before it morphed to Harry's, the caption reading 'Potter Stinks!'.
All five of the Weasleys had been sat inside Hagrid's hut, politely refusing any rock cakes and tea that was pushed their way. He had agreed to sneak them into the woods where their older brother, Charlie, had brought some dragons over for the first task.
When it got dark enough, the six of them had trailed through the Forbidden Forest, Ron jumping everytime one of the dragons roared.
None of them had seen him in a while, so they all pulled him into tight hugs when they first saw him, now with a slight tan from working in Romania.
Now, with Cedric and Danny opposite them, Lori was sat with Ellie on the grass in the courtyard, testing her for a Potions quiz she had coming up, the four of them not wearing the badges on their robes.
"What's a bezoar commonly used for?" she asked.
The Hufflepuff thought for a moment, "Treating common poisons."
Lori smiled, throwing a sweet at her and flicking through her notes in search of the next question, "What is another name for the plant more commonly known as wolfsbane?"
"Aconite." she replied without a moment's hesitation.
"Ellie, I think you're all set for this test," she smiled, throwing another sweet to her. Cedric laid down on the grass, with a book in his hand, casting occasional looks at the Gryffindor.
Danny nudged him, pointing to the other Hogwarts champion who was striding across the lawn towards them, "Potter's coming."
Cedric bolted upright as Harry reached the four of them.
"Can I have a word?" he asked, "With you and Lori?"
Cedric nodded, the pair of them standing up and following Harry around a tall tree, "Dragons," he simply said, "that's the first task. They've got one for each of us."
"Are you serious?" Cedric asked.
Lori was confused up until that point as to why she was here, but quickly realised, "I've seen them, in the Forbidden Forest."
"And Fleur and Krum, do they..?"
Harry nodded, walking off and leaving the two of them alone, both of them moving back to Danny and Ellie. Lori's eyes suddenly snapped over to one of the paths, where Ron and Seamus were heading straight for Harry.
"Excuse me," Lori said, straightening her robes, "looks like I've got some fallout to contain."
She strode purposefully across the courtyard, all but ripping her brother and Harry apart, "If you two can't get along, just stay away from each other. Problem solved."
"Good idea." Ron spat, walking off with Seamus.
Lori looked at Harry, "He'll come around, he always does. Just ignore him while he thinks things through."
Smiling thankfully at her, Harry began to walk away to class and Lori headed over to sit with her friends.
"Why so tense, Potter?" Malfoy sneered, both stopping in their tracks, "My father and I have a bet, you see. I don't think you're gonna last ten minutes in that tournament."
Malfoy dropped down from the tree, his Slytherin friends surrounding him, "He disagrees, he thinks you won't last five."
Lori went to pull Harry back, but he had already started yelling at Malfoy.
"I don't give a damn what your father thinks, Malfoy." Harry shoved the Seeker, "He's vile and cruel, and you're just pathetic."
Harry turned, walking over to Lori. She and Moody saw Malfoy move to grab his wand at the same time, shooting different spells at him.
"Expelliarmus." Lori disarmed him, his wand clattering to the floor, before she pulled Harry behind her.
Moody, on the other hand, fully transfigured him into a ferret, "I'll teach you to curse someone when their back is turned!"
The ferret started being thrown into the air, "You stinking, cowardly, scummy backshooting..."
"Professor Moody!" McGonagall shouted, running across the courtyard, "What are you doing?"
His lips twisted into a cruel smile, "Teaching."
"Is that a..? Is that a student?"
"Technically, it's a ferret."
The ferret then disappeared down Crabbe's trousers, Goyle raced forwards to extract it, before it crawled down his leg and out onto his shoe, biting Goyle as it went.
"Reparifarge." Lori shot a spell at the ferret, it's small form morphing back into Malfoy.
"My father will hear about this!"
Moody stumped forward, "Is that a threat? Is that a threat? I could tell you stories about your father that would curl even your greasy hair!"
McGonagall looked at him as he watched Malfoy race across the courtyard, "Alastor, we never use transfiguration as a punishment! Surely Dumbledore told you that."
"He might've mentioned it."
"Well, you will do well to remember it." she turned, pushing students away from the tree, "Miss Weasley, with me."
*
Lori sat rigid in her chair in Professor McGonagall's office, her Head of House towering down at her from the other side of the table.
"You used a duelling spell in this school?" she asked incredulously, her eyes flaming with anger.
Lori hung her head, "Yes, Professor."
"And you shot the first spell? You attacked Malfoy unprovoked?"
She straightened up in her chair, "Yes, Professor."
McGonagall sighed, "I saw such potential in you, Miss Weasley. But, I see that I have no choice but to strip you of your prefectship."
Not even looking, Lori began to unpin her badge from her robes. Their attention snapped to the door when it was swung open, Cedric standing there, his cheeks flamed red.
"Diggory, out!" McGonagall pointed at the door.
"Professor, with all due respect," he began, slightly out of breath, "Lori was justified in her attack."
The Professor tutted, "I didn't ask for your opinion, Mr Diggory."
"No, you didn't, Professor." he admitted, "But she was defending Harry; Malfoy was about to hex him."
Her head snapped to Lori, "Is this true, Miss Weasley?"
She nodded, "Yes, Professor. Admittedly, I was unsure which spell Malfoy was going to use, but I judged it safest, in everybody's interests, to disarm him."
A rare smile curled on the teacher's lips, "Then, Mr Diggory, it appears you were right. Miss Weasley, I have judged that you acted with the honour I would expect from a Gryffindor."
Cedric and Lori smiled at each other.
"Mr Diggory, you may return to the Hufflepuff Common Room, along with twenty points to your house."
Smiling, Cedric shut the door behind him.
"Miss Weasley, while you acted in an inappropriate manner, you took the safest course of action and potentially prevented a bigger conflict. Fifty points to Gryffindor."
Lori took that as her cue to leave, thanking her for a lenient judgement and putting her chair neatly back under the table.
"Oh, and Miss Weasley?"
"Yes, Professor?"
"That was the best Untransfiguration Charm I have ever seen performed by a student in all my years of teaching. You should be very proud."