"No, Ivy! Get down from their, girl!" Maddie reached out and took her cat from the long drapes. "You know better. Go play with Whiskers." Whiskers was Lena's cat. The girls both got the cats three years ago, today (9th birthday present). Maddie watched as the cats played carelessly.

Then her gaze wondered over to a few Slytherins in the corner. All of the Chan and Webster cousins were hanging out with Lena, along with her friends, in the corner. She eyed the butter beer their cousin Dough had sneaked in. She understood: Slytherins only.

Well, that left Hugo, Lily, and Maddie in the center of the room. Maddie looked around the room again. "Looking for something?" Hugo arched his eyebrows. "Well, yeah, actually. I invited Claire. She seemed pretty excited to come. But, I dunno. I did promise more than the Slytherins isolated from the rest of us. I thought my sister and cousins could put aside houses for, what, an hour? I, uh... guess not." Maddie tried to shrug, make it seem like she couldn't care less. But Hugo and Lily knew from the sigh, the exhausted arm rub, and glance at the ground she wasn't enjoying the party.

Hugo shook his head, "Let me handle this." Lily wasn't sure what he meant, so she just cast and arm around Maddie as Hugo marched off in the Slytherins' direction.

A few seconds later, the chatter and noise was broken by Hugo's heavily accented voice. "Oh, come on! Can't we all just... I dunno, have fun together?"

The Slytherins all burst into laughter. Lena, too. "Just beat it, Gryffy- Gryffindor." Maddie's cousin Patty spat. "Pat--" Maddie began to say. "Quite, Maddie!" He threw the reply at her.

"Seriously, let's do a game or something." Hugo suggested.

They laughed again.

Just walk away, Hug. Walk away, please!

But he stayed put. "Y'know, it's stupid we can't just stand in a single part of the room. You Slytherins are... you're just... arrogant jerks. Won't even stand with a Gryffindor."

Stop. Now.

"Dough and Matt aren't going to be too happy about--" But Maddie never got to finish her sentence, not before Dough and Matt both punched Hugo in separate eyes at the same time.

"Hugo!" Lily shouted and was at his side. Maddie wasn't far behind. "Dough! Matt! What was that for?!"

Matt spoke for the two. "Just get your boyfriend out before he says something else idiotic, will you?"

Maddie wanted to tell them that Hugo wasn't her boyfriend, but she should be more mad at them for punching him. So, she just turned to Lena.

"Happy Birthday." Maddie glared at her for a second and turned on her heal.

Hugo held his blood-stained palms to his eyes, and the girls led him out of the room. Maddie spotted Claire sitting on the edge of a moving staircase. Claire saw Hugo and dashed up to them. "What happened?!" "Uh, my friend Hugo was hit by my cousin at the party." Claire's small legs were stepping double to match the girls' pace.

"Sorry, but you never told me where to meet you. Happy Birthday, by the way."

Oh. Maddie told the Slytherins it was a surprise, so they reluctantly closed their eyes when they reached the 7th floor. But, Claire wasn't there at the time, so she searched the floor for a while, and left.

"Sorry about that." Maddie gave a half-grin to Claire.

---

"What happened? I'll say this one more time before I ask around."

Madame Pomfrey used a spell ("tergeo") to stop the bleeding and examined Hugo's eye. "Those'll both be black by morning." She had earlier reported. Maddie grimaced seeing Hugo hold ice to his eyes, and she knew he was holding it all in, all the tears, from pain. She also knew it was for her. She didn't doubt Hugo had cried in front of his cousin before, and knew he'd like to be right now. Some how, she also knew not to leave; that they didn't want to be in private.

The nurse reminded Hugo of her question and his face turned towards Maddie. He didn't want to blab on her cousins. "Go ahead, Hug." Maddie nodded, even though he couldn't see.