Immediately after Rehmat's announcement, the Hufflepuff section of the spectators erupted into raucous screaming and applause. I directed my broom over there, swooping over their heads with Hugo and Mona close behind, laughing along with them as many hands reached up for high-fives. It was only one match that we had won, but if it felt this good to win, it must feel like heaven to win the cup.
Hufflepuff was obnoxiously loud on their way up to the castle, a swarm of witches and wizards dressed in yellow running across Hogwarts lawn, crushing through the doors to get inside. Becuase our dorms are right by the kitchen, it was easy for students to sneak food in for the party, and the house elves were more than happy to oblige, whipping up cakes, candies, and all sorts of goodies for us to eat.
Hufflepuff house was euphoric.
"All hail Esther Dursley, our fearless captain!" Hugo shouted when we made it to the dorms, making us all laugh.
Before I knew what was happening, Geronimo had lifted me onto his shoulders and I was being paraded around the common room as the rest of my house waved their yellow scarves and stomped their feet, all chanting my name.
"Dursley! Dursley! Dursley!"
Safely on my feet again, I blushed red as the entire room burst into applause. I was saved from having to make a speech or some kind of inspirational statement when music began playing from somewhere - maybe an enchanted instrument or a Muggleborn's iPod - and the center of the common room turned into a mess of dancers.
I wasn't left alone for much more than a minute. Neither was anyone else on the team, for that matter. We had been praised for our Quidditch playing before, of course, but nothing like this. It felt good. We weren't letting our house down, we were building them up.
I was dragged onto the dance floor first by Midha, whose hijab was a nice lemon yellow for the match, and then by Oliver, who twirled me around so many times that he had to find me a place to sit down and wait out the dizziness. Every time I finished my bottle of butterbeer, it was replaced by a wellwishing Hufflepuff. I must have spoken to everybody in the entire house, first year through seventh, by the end of the first hour of celebrations.
I did make sure to talk with each member of my team, thanking them for their hard work and congratulating them. Each and every one of them was grinning wider than I had ever seen before. Even Cassie was bouncing around with her friends, laughing along with them.
"You did well today," I told her.
"I didn't do much."
"Still. You're a valuable member of the team. You certainly gave Scorpius a run for his money."
"Yeah, I suppose. I'm just glad that we won for once. I didn't like letting the team down." Cassie offered me a candy, which I accepted. "Do you think that tactic could work again? We could probably win every match like that."
"It'd be long and hard, sometimes tricky, but we can try," I said, honestly.
A little later I stood with Sawyer, who had his arm around my shoulder, praising me to anyone who would listen. "That plan you saw executed today was a stroke of genius," Sawyer said. We were surrounded by a gaggle of first years, all of them clutching lukewarm bottles of butterbeer, their eyes sparkling from our victory. I didn't mind Sawyer stealing the spotlight a little, and let him talk. "Esther took inspiration from Viktor Krum, right? One of the best seekers in Quidditch history," Sawyer said, "but he caught the snitch too early. Esther hoped Malfoy would take the same bait."
"And he did," I said. "That was mainly luck. I thought he would be smarter than that."
"Guess not," said Sawyer, beaming. It must have been the first time I had seen him smiling while Scorpius Malfoy was the topic of the conversation.
As her friends dispersed into the crowds, one of the first years lingered behind, lookeing up at me. She had her hair in two short braids and held her bottle with both hands. I wondered if all first years looked so young and innocent.
"You're a Muggleborn, aren't you, Esther?" she asked.
I nodded. "That's right."
"Wow," the girl said, her eyes widening. She nearly lost her grip on her butterbeer. "I'm a Muggleborn, too, you know. From Ireland, actually. I really love wizarding sports, much more than football and cricket and other Muggle games."
"Me, too," I said. "There's a sad lack of games played on broomsticks in the Muggle world."
"Do you think I could play Quidditch for our team next year?"
"Sure you can," I said. I had been incredibly happy before, but this was a different feeling. I was inspiring this young girl, and that meant a whole lot to me. "Your blood status isn't a factor in whether or not you're chosen for the team. Work hard in your flying classes this year and next year you could most definitely try out."
"Who knows," said Sawyer, patting me on the back. "You might even be captain one day."
~~~
There was a huge surge in Hufflepuff pride in the weeks lasting until the holidays. Yellow scarves were worn by all, visible shocks of yellow that seemed much, much brighter than the reds, greens, and blues after our victory. There was a decline in snide remarks and an increase in jealous grumbles from the other houses, for the first time in what felt like forever. It was too cold for Quidditch, so the season was pausing until after the holiday break, when it would begin to warm up and each house would play each other one last time before the finals. We had ended the fall section well.
Scorpius, however, wasn't pleased.
"You shouldn't have caught the snitch so early," I told him, after he ranted at me during one of our Defense tutoring sessions. He was pacing the room, waving his wand around, while I was inspecting a bruise on my knee that I had gotten when he successfully jinxed me earlier in the evening.
"I know," he said.
"Too bad you don't have a time turner, or you could go back and change the whole thing."
He frowned at me, crossing his arms, and I beamed.
"Don't underestimate Hufflepuffs," I said.
Scorpius unfroze and continued his laps on the room, his shoulders hunched, his brow furrowed as he thought this through. "Maybe that was my downfall. That, and terrible planning. I'm a seeker, though! It's in my nature to see the snitch and catch it then and there. I can't wait for the right moment, or the game could last forever. What if your team had just kept scoring? Then what? The game would never end, because your seeker was never going to catch the snitch and if I was waiting for the most opportune moment to do so, it never would have happened."
"Stop rambling," I said. "Cassie probably can catch a snitch. She's done it in practices. She's nervous, is all, and sometimes that gets into her head."
Scorpius obeyed, shutting his mouth and sitting on a desk besides me. "You're some kind of Quidditch evil genius, Essie," he said. "That plan was insane."
"Yeah, I know. I wasn't sure that it would work, but it was our last hope."
"Because your seeker sucks."
"No. I didn't say that."
"Well, we both know Cassie isn't very good. She followed me around the pitch for the entire match. Is that what you told her to do?"
"More or less, I guess."
"Well, it certainly began to throw me off."
"Excuses, excuses."
Scorpius swatted at my shoulder. "Shut up," he said. "What was I supposed to do?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. I'm certainly glad you did what you did, though."
"I'm not. We had a perfect record until that last game. It wasn't completely my fault, though, because my job is to catch the snitch, and I did just that. The chasers should've fought harder for the quaffle, and our seeker needed to pay a lot more attention."
"Stop overanalyzing it. You lost one match out of three. That's not bad. We've lost two out of three."
"That's why it's embarrassing! No offense to you, of course, Esther, but your team was supposed to be an easy win."
"Just as well that we weren't then," I said, frowning.
"Sorry. I'm angry at myself, not at you."
"Let's stop talking about Quidditch. You're thinking about it too much."
"Says you."
"Touche," I said. "I'm changing the topic now. It's almost the holidays, which means we're going to get our standings for the first half of the year."
Scorpius nodded. "Are you nervous?"
"For Defense, at the very least. I know I'm doing well in Potions. I got an O on the last two essays, though last week I misread instructions and crushed my beetles instead of slicing."
"Oh, terrible mistake," said Scorpius. "A hundred points from Hufflepuff."
I rolled my eyes at him.
"Anyway, Esther, you've got a brilliant tutor now. You're going to do fine at Defense."
"I don't think the tutor had anything to do with it," I said, laughing.
"Maybe not. But honestly, you'll be fine. And if not, well, it's only the end of term report. It's not your final grade or anything. Even this year doesn't matter too much. It's the N.E.W.T.s that count."
I shrugged. "What about you, Scorpius? Any classes you're not going to like the results of?"
"I somehow got myself into N.E.W.T. level Divination and it's pretty terrible," said Scorpius. "It seems that I have a natural proficiency for it, but most of the time I make stuff up for my homework right before class. I'm actually hoping I do terrible enough so I can drop the class and don't actually have to take the N.E.W.T. next year. It's my parents that don't want me to drop anything I do okay in, though."
"That's fair, though," I said. "I failed out of Divination last year."
"Horrible class," he said.
"Come on. If you do good, why not actually try? I can definitely imagine you growing up, leaving Hogwarts with at least an E in Divination, and then going out and predicting the future with your crystal ball and reading tea leaves." I smirked, holding out my hand. "Go on. Read my palm and tell me what my future holds."
Scorpius was laughing as he accepted my hand, cupping it in his, running his thumbs across it and trying to look mysterious as he scrutinized the lines on my palm.
"What do you see?" I asked.
"Well," he said, "you're going to live a long, happy life and I can see great fortune in your future."
"That's lame."
"Yeah," he said. He traced a small line by my index finger with his own. "See that?"
I nodded.
"See, that's a very special little line on your hand. Very telling. Right there, it says that you're going to buy Scorpius Malfoy a very nice Christmas present to thank him for being such a good friend and Defense Against the Dark Arts tutor."
"Ah," I said. "You can tell that from that one little crease on my palm?"
"Yes. If you don't believe me, you should talk to Trelawney. She'll tell you exactly the same thing I did."
I laughed, snatching my hand back from him. "I did get you a gift, though."
Scorpius made an exaggerated noise of excitement and clapped his hands. "Good. I got you something, too. Not entirely sure of what you like, but I trusted my gut and went for it. Last Hogsmeade weekend was the last time I could buy anything, after all."
I copied his noise of excitement. "What is it?"
"You'll have to find out," he said. "Trust me, though, it's good."
"As good as Hufflepuff beating Slytherin in Quidditch?"
Scorpius gave an exasperated sigh and threw his hands up.
I laughed and then jumped off the desk, picking my bag up from where I had dumped it on the floor. As I wrapped my yellow scarf around my neck, i glanced out the window. Snowflakes were hitting the glass, frosting it over. Scorpius came and stood besides me, his own back over his shoulder. It was the first snow of the year.
"Pretty," he said.
I nodded in agreement.
He turned to me. "Well, Esther, if I don't get a chance to talk to you again, have a merry Christmas and a happy new year."
"You too, Scorpius," I said. "Thanks for all your help with Defense this semester."
"We're continuing after the holidays, right?" he asked. "I mean, this is the only time we ever get to talk very much. What with Sawyer hating me and all."
"Trust me, I need all the help I can get with Defense, and Christmas won't change that," I said.
"Good."
He wrapped me in a hug and I hugged him right back. Then he was talking at a mile an hour about his plans for the vacation, leading me towards the door.
We walked as far as we could and then stood for a moment where our paths split. The hallways were empty, as everybody would be expected in their dormitories in only a few minutes. Scorpius and I lingered, though, and hugged one last time.
"Expect Pavo with your present sometime before the holiday," I said.
"And you should expected Atalanta. I'll get some proper parchment and send you a Christmas letter along with it."
"Sounds good," I said. "Merry Christmas."