Scorpius, Holly, and Sawyer were waiting for me outside the locker room when I emerged, straggling after the rest of my downtrodden team. Holly took possession of my beloved broomstick as I hugged each of them.

"You played fantastically," said Scorpius. "What a game."

"You don't need to be effusive with your praise because we lost."

"I'm not. I'm being honest, Esther. Take a compliment."

I gave him a tiny smile. "Thanks for the effort, but your compliments are not really appreciated right now. I'm going to be bitter for a few days. Just bear with me, please."

"Understandable," said Scorpius, putting his hands up in surrender. "I was only impressed by those saves, especially the one when you -"

Holly clamped a hand over his mouth. "What happened out there, Essie?" She paused. "Wow. I didn't mean that judgmentally, but it certainly came across that way. Only I thought you guys had a trick up your sleeve, but I didn't see anything. If that was the object, then good job, though obviously you didn't pull it off because you -"

Scorpius clamped a hand over her mouth. The two of them stared daggers at each other, each stifling the other. Sawyer forced himself between them, breaking their hands apart.

"We did have a trick," I said, "but I decided against using it."

"What?" Scorpius said, dodging Holly's hand this time. "Why?"

"It wouldn't have been fair."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows. "Where's the Essie I know?" he asked. "You don't go for stereotypes."

"It's not a stereotype," I said. "It's a truth. I'm a Hufflepuff and ultimately, I feel the need to be fair and just. I'm diligent. I'm hardworking. Those are fine. The stereotypes that I'm against are the ones that say that Hufflepuffs can't be leaders, or successful, or win the Quidditch cup. Yes, I'm aware that we didn't win. But we made it to the finals, and if we did win, I wanted it to be fair. There are parts of me that are Slytherin, that are Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, but I wanted to win as a Hufflepuff."

Scorpius threw his arm around my shoulder and shook his head incredulously. "Spoken like a true Hufflepuff, too. Not sure why I expected anything different of you, Dursley."

I put my arm around him and shrugged. "Let's go back to the castle," I said. "I'm starving."

~~~

It was rough, seeing the victorious Gryffindors in the hallways, knowing that we had lost to them. I felt awkward around my teammates, though they all told me individually that they respected the decision I had made for the team. As Hugo assured me, the best thing to do wasn't often the easiest. Unfortunately my heart and my brain weren't cooperating; my brain knew why it had made the decision it did but my heart still pumped faster every time I saw a flash of a scarlet scarf.

Not only did I get the awkward, morose feeling of having lost after so much hard work, but it was also odd to not have to organize weekly Quidditch practices. The team had no reason to meet up all together and, since we all had our own friend groups, we didn't congregate all together. I saw them all in the dining hall or in the dorms or in class, of course, but it wasn't the same.

I made a point of speaking to all of them, though, whether it was about Quidditch or just school in general. We may not have been training any longer, but a captain still needs to look after her team.

One of the most rewarding things to come out of being the captain of the team was seeing how my players grew and developed. I had watched Oliver and Mona grow closer together as friends and then romantically; even if now they were often a bit too close - they were reprimanded for making out in the middle of the hallway - it made me happy to know that their relationship was in part due to our extensive Quidditch training. Cassie, of course, I had seen grow tremendously in her actual playing ability, but also personality wise. She had become gregarious - well, more gregarious at the very least - as her flying improved. I had watched her form an unbreakable friendship with Hugo during our private practices before the ones with the full team, had seen them go grow acquaintances into an inseparable duo.

In an awkward free hour between lunch and my next class, I hung out with the pair of them outside. It was one of the first days of truly nice weather we had gotten in a while; there had been copious amounts of rain, but that day we sat in the courtyard with the sun warming our backs and the school books we had lying out besides us for show.

"Uh," said Cassie, staring up at the clouds as she thought. "Would you rather... have to take Divination or not pass the O.W.L. you study the hardest for?"

Hugo grimaced. "Wow. Tough much? I think I'd go for taking Divination, despite all the things I've heard about that class. Who knows, it might actually be pretty cool. Esther?"

"I failed my Divination O.W.L. Does that count?"

They laughed.

"I'll go," I said. "Would you rather only be able to eat muggle sweets or never be able to drink butterbeer again?"

Hugo shook his head. "I need a minute for this one."

"I've never had any muggle sweets," said Cassie, "so maybe they're actually pretty good?"

"Yeah," I said. "Cadbury's is nice. I like their cream eggs the best."

Hugo nodded. "I'm with you there, but giving up chocolate frogs? Fizzing Whizbees? I'm not sure. I am quite fond of butterbeer, too...." He clutched his head and moaned in anguish as he tried to come to a decision, making me laugh.

"Hey, Esther?"

I turned to face Cassie, taken slightly aback by the sudden change in tone. "Yes?"

"If I'm on the team next year -"

"When," I said definitively. "When you're on the team next year."

Cassie gave me a small smile. "Are you sure? There might be some brilliant second year or some undiscovered seeker from one of the other grades."

"So? You're part of the team, Cassie."

"Well. When I'm on the team next year, I'm going to give it my all. I'm going to catch the snitch more than once, at least. I'm asking for a new broom for my birthday, which might help with the speed, and I'm going to practice all summer, I promise. When you see me again in September, I'll be a whole new player."

Hugo grinned. "We'll look at you and ask where the old Cassie went."

"She'll still be here," she said. "Just buried by time, that's all."

"What are you doing this summer, Esther?" Hugo asked.

I shrugged. "My parents will probably bring me to the seaside. I'll catch up with some of my Muggle friends, I guess. Nothing very exciting." I felt slightly nauseous just thinking about how close it was to summer break; in only a few weeks I would have to lock up all evidence of my life as a witch and pretend to be normal, whatever that meant.

"Can't you at least practice for the Quidditch season?" Cassie asked.

"Definitely not," I said. "There's nowhere for me to practice. Imagine if all the Muggles saw that strange Esther Dursley girl flying around on a broomstick like something out of a children's picture book! My broomstick stays in the closet until September."

Hugo frowned. "It's incredible when you think about it."

"What is?"

"How good you are at Quidditch when you don't get to practice all summer."

I blushed. "I play football at the park with some of the neighborhood boys when they let me. Goalkeeping for them isn't too far removed from playing keeper at Quidditch."

Hugo let his arms give way under his weight and laid back in the grass. "This one's just for you, Esther. Would you rather spend your summer with your parents or in the wizarding world?"

I fell silent and let myself fall back into the grass as well. The clouds above drifted lazily across the sky and the grass tickled my bare skin as a gentle breeze sent the blades dancing haphazardly.

"That's a difficult question," I said finally.

"It's not supposed to be an easy game," Hugo said.

Cassie gave me a sympathetic look. "Hugo, that wasn't a very nice thing to ask."

"It's okay," I said. "Look, on one hand, I love my parents and don't get to see them throughout the year except at Christmas. But then again, I never get to practice Quidditch or do anything related to magic during the summer. I get some news through the witch who lives in my neighborhood and I get a couple letters, but that's it. I'm effectively a normal Muggle until school starts again. I hate being split so distinctly between these two sides of me."

Hugo nodded. "Maybe," he said, "there's a way to have both."

I frowned. "How? Unless you can convince my parents -"

"You might not ever be able to have both at once," he said, "but you can certainly do both."

I turned to look at him, squinting suspiciously. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing."

Cassie shook her head. "He's definitely up to something, Esther. I can tell."

Hugo sat up and shrugged, looking proud of himself. "I've got an idea, that's all."

~~~

Holly was occupying an entire table to herself at the library, despite it being almost full with fifth and seventh year students trying to be productive before their respective exams. She had bunches of crumpled parchment that she was attempting to flatten out on to the table and dispersed among them were her Magic the Gathering cards, all placed in specific locations that only Holly understood. When I came to join her and accidentally nudged one of the cards out of place, she let out a tiny shriek before darting over and rotating it back to its exact position.

"What is this?" I asked, trying to make sense of the arrangement.

"This," said Holly, turning to face me with her hands on her hips and her hair in her face, "is how I'm going to pass all of my exams."

A few fourth year girls wafted by, looking at us hopefully, willing us to give them a seat at the table with their eyes. Holly told them to leave with an icy glare from hers.

"I don't see how this can help you, Holls."

"Really? I'm disappointed in you. This was your idea, after all."

I frowned for a moment, until I remembered. "You're using your cards to help you study." I leaned in closer and glanced at the closest piece of parchment. Holly's handwriting was small and cramped, almost illegible. I could barely make out what it was saying. "Are these your charts of the correspondences?"

"Yeah," said Holly. "Each card has a specific association to something I need to know for one of my tests. I gave each class a type of land, so I don't get confused between them and -"

I automatically tuned her out as she launched into an in-depth explanation of each of her cards and how she was using them to both study and take down those threatening her position of reigning champion. For me, just trying to memorize the material seemed to work best. If using overly complicated charts and diagrams written in smudging ink on hundreds of sheets of parchment worked for Holly, then that was what she would do.

Holly laid down the last of her cards and then took a step back, nodding admiringly at her handiwork. She turned expectantly to me and I nodded back at her.

"Nice work," I said.

She looked incredibly pleased with herself. "I know," she said. "Now, weren't there supposed to be more of us meeting up to study?"

"Don't want to be alone with me?" I asked. "I see how it is."

Holly rolled her eyes.

I gestured to the entrance of the library, where Scorpius and Sawyer were just coming through. Scorpius was struggling under the weight of what seemed to be every single one of his textbooks, his bag slung over one shoulder gaping open with random papers sticking out the top. He and Sawyer spotted Holly and I as we waved and started over. As they went, a sheet of parchment fell out of Scorpius's bag and landed softly on the floor. A first year bent down and picked it up and then, seeing that Scorpius was incapable of accepting it back with his hands, awkwardly jammed it back into the bag.

I got up and ran to meet them. "Need help?"

Scorpius shook his head. "I made it all the way up from the dungeons like this. I can make it the ten feet to the table."

"That might actually be a problem," said Sawyer. He started to laugh. "Holly's got the whole table under her own control."

"What?" Scorpius peered out from behind his stack of books. "What am I supposed to do with all of these?"

Sawyer was laughing harder now. "I told you that you should've left most of them behind. Unless you're camping out here until exams actually start, I doubt you're going to need literally all of your books."

"Shut up. Don't laugh at my preparedness," said Scorpius.

I was trying not to smirk. "You're so prepared that you're unprepared."

"It's not my fault Holly took over the whole table before I could get here," said Scorpius. He staggered the last few feet to the table. "Hey, Holls, do you think you could give me at least a corner of the table?"

"And ruin the organizational system I just spent half an hour perfecting? Absolutely not."

Staring daggers at her, Scorpius dumped his books all over the table. Holly shrieked, causing me to wince as everyone in the vicinity looked up in anger. Uncharacteristically, Holly shrunk under the eyes of the stressed, studying students and lowered her voice to a whisper as she berated Scorpius.

"Do you know how long it took me to set that up?"

Scorpius snorted. "Oh, I don't know. It's not like you just told us it took half an hour or anything."

Holly faltered. "To set it up here, yes, but to write out all those charts? Hours and hours, Malfoy. And you've gone and crumpled them all up. They better be salvageable or St. Mungo's going to have a bed with your name on it."

Sawyer and I hung back, shaking our heads, as Scorpius, looking slightly sheepish, gathered his books back up as Holly fretted over the state of her Magic the Gathering cards.

"Well," he said. "It's certainly a lot more interesting with a fourth member of our little gang."

"Most definitely."

"I sort of wish I'd known back at the beginning of the year that this is what it would be like having Scorpius around," Sawyer admitted. "All my anger over you becoming friends with him seems really silly now."

"It wasn't," I said. "You had no way to know."

Sawyer shrugged.

"That's not true," I amended. "Maybe if you'd been serious about Divination...."

He laughed and hit me playfully. "We both know that that would never happen. Come on, let's help them clear the table. I've actually got some work to do."