To the Game and to the Exams!

You gather your things from the Great Hall, now mostly empty, and head out to the Quidditch yard. You sit down in the stands and sulk, but before too long Ezra and Raj join you. Raj shoots you an amused look, and Ezra asks "What did you and Jen get into? She stormed right on to the field."

"It was nothing," You say noncommittally.

"She's probably mad because of how you always go off on that Potter-boy." snickers Raj.

"C'mon you know she's got a soft spot for him." laughs Ezra.

"She does?"

"Seriously? You don't see it?" Ezra sighs exasperatedly.

You turn towards the field in silence. You don't brood too long before the intramural teams take to the field. The teams are made of members of the Quidditch club, with half of the club wearing colorful cloaks, and the other wearing hats with large peacock feathers in them. Cloaks vs Caps- a Hogwarts tradition.

The game itself is played on personal brooms, and the Snitch and Bludgers have been modified to be more safe. The snitch moves slightly slower, and the bludgers have an extra layer of padding to ensure that no one gets too injured playing.

You see Jennifer march out on to the field with the rest of her team, she is playing for the Caps, and her feathered cap is a strange contrast to her athletic wear. You smile as she takes a few practice swings with her cudgel. Jennifer, unsurprisingly was an incredibly talented Beater.

"Why has Jen been so stressed lately?" you ask Ezra.

"Seriously?" He responds. "You don't know? This is a scouting match." You blink uncomprehendingly. Ezra sighs "If she does well on this she'll make the Ravenclaw Quidditch team next year, its essentially pre-try-outs."

You groan inwardly, that explains why she was nervous about the game. This was a big deal, she was less worried about the mystery than she was about her chance at the Quidditch team.

You turn your attention back to the game, its a close match, the cape team is really good, but Jennifer is flying around like a bat out of hell. She is wailing on the bludgers like a girl possessed. Both protecting her seeker, and targeting her opposing team's chasers. At one point she wails on a bludger so hard that she shatters her cudgel and tears off the protective layer from the bludger, and it knocks the unsuspecting chaser clear off of his broom.

A quick charm from Madam Hooch, and the chaser is slowly lowered to the ground. Madam Pomfrey is waiting for the poor chaser as soon as the charm brings him gently to the earth.

Madam Hooch blows on the whistle calling a pause in play, while they re-pad the bludger and replace Jennifer's cudgel. The rest of the Ravenclaws were cheering as if the snitch had been caught, and Jennifer's face was a combination of pride and determination.

Even though the Caps lose, the Cloaks had captured the snitch, it was close. Jennifer is surrounded by a group of Ravenclaws. She is beaming like the sun. The Ravenclaw team captain was shaking her hand, and the 7th year Beater was clapping her on the back. It was fairly clear that she made the team.

You sidle through the crowd, and wave to Jennifer. She sees you and waves back. She finishes her conversation with the Ravenclaw team lead, and comes over to you.

"Sorry about this morning," You say. "I didn't realize this was your scout game."

She shakes her head. "Yeah, but it worked out, you got me real mad Marvolo and I suppose that helped. I just imagined the bludgers were your smug face!"

You share a laugh with Jennifer.

Smiling as you chat with Jennifer, Ezra and Raj make their way through the crowd, and you all amble back inside for dinner in the Great Hall.

The next few days pass in a blur. You attempt to make headway into the mystery. You try to work out a means to track the Headmaster, or at least a way to make sure you know when he has left the premises. However, with finals rapidly approaching you know you need to study. You don't seem able to find any time to plan for the acquisition of the Philosopher's Stone.

You aren't worried about the exams at the end of the year, well except maybe for DADA, but all your other classes are easy enough to be almost boring. Transfiguration might give you a hard go of it, but frankly you've improved significantly from the beginning of the year. Even Professor McGonagal had admitted that she was impressed.

You should focus on studying, but the problem is you can't stop thinking that it won't matter if there isn't a Hogwarts come September.

This fact doesn't seem to faze Jennifer at all. She has you in the Common Room or Library every night helping her cram. Even Anya from Potions class joins you to bone up for Snape's exam. From his other exams you suspect that the final will be hard. Anya seems relatively concerned that she might not meet standards on the assessment and be sent home with some form of demerit.

You find time to write Kingsley, and he sends an owl with some applications, which you fill out and send back. Unfortunately, this also eats into your free time considerably. Ezra and Raj seem to be calm and prepared for their tests, and helping out Gareth who just didn't seem to adapt to History Of Magic well at all. Apparently muggles had a different accounting of history than the Wizarding World.

Before you know it the first exam arrives. You have your Charms exam first, which you aren't terribly worried about but you probably should have studied more.