Where on earth did I leave off?

I've been trying to do too much. So, I've decided to update once a week, or more if possible. My upload due date is Sunday, so I'll work on it during the week and if I can upload it earlier, I will.

I hope that makes sense.

Watch the video over there. It brings me to tears every time.

Once term had started, we were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during our breaks. Harry had even less time than the rest of us, because Quidditch practice had started again. Wood was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't dampen his spirits. The Weasleys complained that Wood was becoming a fanatic, but I was on Wood's side. If they won their next match, against Hufflepuff, we would overtake Slytherin in the house championship for the first time in seven years.

One day, we were sitting in the common room. (Shocking, right?) I was sitting in my chair by Ron and Hermione, who were playing chess.

"Hermione, that one goes there." I told her.

"Shut up, Jinx. This isn't checkers." She said back.

Harry came in from Quidditch practice then. He looked pretty low.

"Why so low, bro?" I asked. Harry didn't answer. He sat down beside Ron.

"Don't talk to me for a moment, " said Ron. "I need to concen --- "

He noticed Harry's face.

"What's the matter with you? You look terrible." Ron said.

Speaking quietly so that no one else would hear, Harry told the other two about Snape's sudden, sinister desire to be a Quidditch referee.

"Don't play." said Hermione at once.

"Say you're ill." said Ron.

"Pretend to break your leg." Hermione suggested.

"Actually break you leg." I said. "Here, I'll break it for you."

Harry gave me a scared look and shied away from me.

"I can't." said Harry. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryffindor can't play at all."

"I'll play for you." I said immediately.

At that moment, Neville also toppled into the common room. How he had managed to climb through the portrait hole was anyone's guess, because his legs had been stuck together with what I recognized at once as the Leg-Locker Curse. He must have had to bunny hop all the way up to Gryffindor tower. We all fell over laughing except Hermione, who leapt up and performed the countercurse. Neville's legs sprang apart and he got to his feet, trembling.

"What happened?" Hermione asked him, leading him over to sit with Harry and Ron.

"Draco Malfoy." said Neville shakily. "I met him outside the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on."

"Go to Professor McGonagall!" Hermione urged Neville. "Report him!"

Neville shook his head.

"I don't want more trouble." He mumbled.

"You've got to stand up to him, Neville!" said Ron. "He's used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier."

"I can get back at him." I said darkly. "I know all his secrets, his desires, his dearest wish."

"You'd be scary if you had black hair, black eyes, and wore black clothes." Hermione told me randomly.

"Ew, I don't want to look like my Aunt Bellatrix." I wrinkled my nose. "Neville, you can't let my douchebag of a brother push you around like this!"

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor. Malfoy's already done that." Neville choked out. Harry felt in the pocket of his robes and pulled out a Chocolate Frog and handed it to Neville.

"You're worth twelve of Malfoy." Harry said.

"That's not hard to be." I said. "He's not worth much in the first place."

"The Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor, didn't it? Andwhere's Malfoy? In stinking Slytherin." Harry said.

Neville's lips twitched in a weak smile as he unwrapped the frog. "Thanks, Harry... Jinx. I think I'll go to bed.... D'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?"

He handed Harry the card. As Neville walked away, Harry looked at the card.

"Dumbledore again." he said, "He was the first one I ever -- "

He gasped. Dumbledore... I had about a thousand of those. I had read the back of every one! How could I have so stupid?

"I've found him!" he whispered, confirming my stupidity. "I've found Flamel! I told you I'd read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here -- listen to this: 'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!"

Hermione jumped to her feet. She hadn't looked so excited since we'd gotten back the marks for our very first piece of homework. I got a 120% out a possible 180%. Guess which one of us got full marks.

"Stay there!" She said, and she sprinted up the stairs to our dorm. I followed.

She opened her trunk a pulled out a book.

"I can't believe you were right. Remember a few weeks back --- "

"Yeah. I remember. Perhaps I should take up Divination." I joked. She rushed back down stairs.

"I never thought to look in here!" She whispered excitedly. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

""Light?" said Ron, but Hermione told him to be quiet until she'd looked something up, and started flicking frantically through the pages, muttering to herself. At last she found what she was looking for.

"I knew it! I knew it!" She said.

"No, I did."  said randomly.

"No you didn't."

"I just wanted to be smart."

"Are we allowed to speak yet?" said Ron grumpily. Hermione ignored him.

"Nicolas Flamel, " She whispered dramatically, "is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!"

"The what?" said Harry and Ron. Hermione pushed the book over and they read. I took a sip of water from the pitcher by the fireplace and did a spit-take.

"OMIGAD!" I shouted. People looked over and stared. "It's not nice to stare, you know."

"Shut up, Jinx." Hermione said.

"Okay." I said. "So, Snape's after the stone so he can be all powerful and immortal and stuff."

"See?" said Hermione, when Harry and Ron had finished, totally ignoring my mindless jabber. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Sorcerer's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!"

"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!" said Harry. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it."

"I wouldn't." I said.

"You are crazy." Harry decided.

"Took you long enough to realize." I said.

"And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry." said Ron. "He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he?"

"And neither are your comments." I said.

The next day, Harry and Ron kept talking about stuff until they got to the subject of Quidditch and Snape refereeing the next match.

"I'm going to play." Harry told us. "If I don't, all the Slytherins will think I'm just too scared to face Snape. I'll show them... It'll really wipe the smiles off their faces if we win."

"Which we are." I said.

"Just as long as we're not wiping you off the field." Said Hermione.

As the match drew nearer, however, Harry became more and more nervous. I told him to chill, that it doesn't matter if he didn't win. The rest of the team wasn't too calm, either. The idea of overtaking Slytherin in the house championship was wonderful, no one had done it for seven years, but would we be allowed to, with such a biased referee? Potions lessons were turning into a sort of weekly torture, Snape was so horrible to Harry. I almost yelled at him one class, but I held my tongue. The next afternoon, was the match.I was practically buzzing with excitement.

"You sure love Quidditch, don't you?" Ron asked me.

"More than anything else." I grinned. "What's your favourite team?"

"Chudley Cannons." Ron replied.

"Pfft. They're horrible." I said.

"Are not!"

"Are too! You ought to be cheering for a REAL team, like the Holyhead Harpies."

"It's an all girl team!"

"And they'll own the Cannons any day!"

Someone grabbed me from behind. A girl with bright red hair and green eyes was grinning at me. She looked familiar, put I couldn't set my finger on it. A boy stood beside her. He had blue eyes and black hair. I immediately recognized him as Alexander Noble.

"Alex! How's it going? Who's your friend?" I said.

"Jinx!" The girl said. "It's me!"

"Azalea?" I asked. "I swear, the last time I saw you, you had brown hair."

"Like this?" Her hair and eyes changed back to the colours I knew them as.

"Yes! You never told me you were a Metamorphmagus!" I exclaimed.

She shrugged. "I forget."

"Obviously. And you made friends with Alex!" I said.

"Yeah... Who knew we would become friends?" Alex said.

"I did!" I said. "So are you guys coming to the match?"

"Yeah! I hope Gryffindor will win!" They said simultaneously.

"So do I, my friends. So do I." I said. "C'mon, I want you guys to meet Hermione, Ron, and Harry. Yes, Azalea, Harry Potter."