Malfoy couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that Harry and Ron were still at breakfast the next morning. They were looking rather tired, but cheerful. Calysta and her 'cronies', as Malfoy called them were nowhere to be seen. He held the false hope that perhaps they were caught by Filch instead.

Until she strutted into the Great Hall, accompanied by her friends, laughing loudly about something, uncaring of the world around them. Their appearance had caused everyone else to turn heads towards them as they made their way to their spot on the Gryffindor long table, Calysta falling into the seat next to her twin.

Indeed, by the next morning, Jeff, Regulus and Calysta were discussing the three headed dog with Harry and Ron, and they found it to be quite an adventure. They were quite keen to have another one.

In the meantime, Calysta whispered to Harry about her doubts with the strange package that moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, and the robbery, trying to figure out what exactly the dog was guarding and why it was so heavily guarded.

"It's either really dangerous or really valuable," Ron said, between bites of his breakfast.

"Or both," said Harry.

But as all they knew for sure about the mysterious object was that it was about two inches long, they didn't have much chance of guessing what it was without further clues.

Neither Neville nor Hermione showed the slightest interest in what lay underneath the dog and the trapdoor. All Neville cared about was never going near the dog again.

Hermione had refused to speak with any of them, save for Neville. She did not acknowledge Harry, Ron, Calysta, Jeff, Regulus or Felix, but because she was such a bossy know-it-all, they all saw this as an added bonus. 

Calysta hadn't forgotten how Peeves had nearly given them all away, and once again, she and her friends had paid him back and pranked him by putting glue on the soles of his feet and shoes. Peeves had been stuck in the first floor corridor for two hours now, and nobody was kind enough to give him solvent to let himself loose.

All they wanted now, was a way to get back at Malfoy, and thankfully, the exact opportunity came a week later, in the mail.

As usual, the Calysta was seated in her accustomed spot near Harry, and beside her were Jeff, Felix and Regulus, in that order. As the mass of owls flooded into the Great Hall in the morning, everyone's attention was caught by two long, thin packages carried by eight screech owls. Harry and Calysta were just as curious to figure out what exactly belonged in those large parcels as everyone else was, when much to their shock, the owls dropped the package right before them, knocking over both their plates. Two seconds later, and owl fluttered by and dropped a letter in Calysta's lap.

Calysta looked at the envelope, which was addressed to both her, and Harry.

She ripped open the letter, and as soon as she read it, she nudged Harry, a wide grin on her lips:

DO NOT OPEN THE PACKAGES AT THE TABLE!
They contain your new Nimbus Two Thousands, but I don't want everyone else knowing you two have broomsticks, or else they will all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you both in the Quidditch pitch at seven o' clock, for your first training session.

Professor McGonagall.

Calysta had difficulty hiding her glee as she passed the note round to Felix, Regulus and Jeff to read.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" moaned Ron enviously. "I've never even touched one."

"It's the latest broomstick," Regulus was telling her. "It's got a whole load of new properties that the Cleensweeps and the Shooting Stars don't have."

Calysta, Jeff, Felix and Regulus left the Hall quickly, waiting to unwrap the broomsticks in private before their first class. As soon as they reached the stairway, Calysta's path was barred by Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, to their dismay.

Malfoy snatched the package from her hands, causing her to scowl, as he felt it.

"That's a broomstick," he commented, throwing the parcel back to Calysta with a mixture of jealousy and spite on his face. "You'll be in for it this time, Potterette, first years aren't allowed broomsticks!"

"I know," Calysta said calmly.

Regulus couldn't resist it. "That's not any old broomstick, Malfoy. It's a Nimbus Two Thousand."

"Yeah, what did you say you've got at home, a comet two sixty?" added Jeff, grinning at Calysta. "Comets look flashy, but they're just not in the same league as the Nimbus."

Malfoy scoffed. "What would you know about it, Evans? You probably didn't even know broomsticks had a function besides cleaning only a month before. I suppose your muggle family can't even afford half the handle."

Calysta saw red. This was the second time he'd insulted her cousin and she hoped it would be the last. "You absolute prick!" she gasped. She narrowed her eyes, at him, taking a step closer, her voice full of malice. "Dommage qu'il n'y ait pas de manche à balai assez gros pour nettoyer ta sale bouche," she spat, loud and clear, her French accent rather pronounced. 

At this, Regulus gasped, and covered his mouth, fighting off his laughter at what she said, while Felix and Jeff merely stared, wondering what exactly she said.

Draco Malfoy, on the other hand, had gone bright pink, and was fuming. "What did you say?" he asked, his voice turning rather high pitched. 

Before Calysta could answer, or Regulus could translate what she said, Professor Flitwick appeared at Malfoy's elbow. "Not arguing, I hope, Miss Potter, Mister Malfoy?" he squeaked.

"Potterette's been sent a broomstick, Professor," said Malfoy quickly.

"Yes, yes, that's right," said Professor Flitwick, beaming at Calysta. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?"

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," said Calysta, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Malfoy's face. "And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that I've got it," she added. 

The four then headed back up the stairs, laughing at the look of shock on Malfoy's face.

It was incessantly difficult for Calysta to keep her mind on classes that day. Her mind kept flitting up to the broomstick that currently lay in the boys' dormitory. She'd left it there because she wanted them to be there when she opened it. Her stomach bubbled with excitement as Professor Binns droned on about the Goblin Wars, thinking of her first Quidditch training session that evening. Finally, after classes ended, she rushed up to the boys' dormitory, where her broomstick lay under Jeff's bed.

The Nimbus Two Thousand was finally had its wrapping off, and Calysta admired it. It had none of those twigs sticking out of its handle, unlike the school brooms, and the handle was sleek, and shiny.

"Whoa," Jeff breathed, running his hand across the handle. 

"It's even better than how it looked in Diagon Alley," Regulus was saying.

Calysta's eyes gleamed as she looked at it, admiring it from every single angle. Sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Nimbus Two Thousand written in gold near the top.

As seven o' clock drew nearer, Calysta left the castle with Harry and set of towards the Quidditch field. They'd never been inside the stands before. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the field so the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the field were three golden poles with hoops on the end.

Too eager to fly again to wait for Wood, Calysta mounted her broomstick and kicked off from the ground. What a feeling — she swooped in and out ofthe goalposts and then sped up and down the field. The Nimbus Two Thousand turned wherever she wanted at her lightest touch. 

Harry was flying beside her, and the two did a couple of laps around the field. The wind rushed through Calysta's hair, and she flew high, much higher than she'd ever dreamed of, higher than the clouds, before swooping in down, covered in the moisture from the clouds. She flew downward, flying down to Harry's level, then speeding past him, laughing as the adrenaline pulsed though her.

"Hey Potters, come down."

Oliver Wood had arrived, carrying a large crate under his arm. Calysta flew down with Harry, landing beside Oliver.

"Very nice," said Oliver Wood, his eyes glinting. "I see what McGonagall meant. You really are both naturals at this. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you can join the team practices three times a week."

He opened the crate. Inside, there were four different-sized balls. 

"Right," said Wood. "Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers. That's you, Calysta. You are one of our chasers.."

"Three chasers," Harry repeated, as Oliver took out a bright red ball the size of a soccer ball. 

"This ball is called the Quaffle," he told them. "The chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try to get it through one of those hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time it goes through one of those hoops. Follow me?"

The pair nodded. 

"So I just have to pass the ball and score?" Calysta asked. "The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score," she recited. "So — that's sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, isn't it?"

"What's basketball?" Wood asked curiously. 

"Muggle sport," Calysta muttered.

"Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper — I'm Keeper for Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring."

"Three Chasers, one Keeper," said Harry, who was determined to remember it all. "And they play with the Quaffle. Okay, got that."

"So what are they for?" Calysta pointed at the three balls left inside the box.

"I'll show you," said Wood. "Take this."

He handed her a short club, much like a baseball bat. 

"I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do," Wood said. "These two are the Bludgers."

He showed Harry and Calysta two identical balls, both jet black and slightly smaller than the red quaffle. They seemed to be straining to escape the straps holding them inside the box.

"Stand back," Wood warned the twins. He bent down and freed one of the Bludgers. 

At once, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Calysta's face. She swung at it with the bat to stop it from breaking her nose, and sent it zigzagging away into the air — it zoomed around their heads and then shot at Wood, who dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground. 

"See?" Wood panted, forcing the struggling Bludger back into the crate and strapping it down safely. "The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team —the Weasley twins are ours — it's their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So — think you've got all that?" 

"Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle; the Keeper guards the goal posts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team," Harry reeled off.

"Very good," said Wood.

"Er — have the Bludgers ever killed anyone?" Harry asked, hoping he sounded offhand.

"Never at Hogwarts. We've had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that. Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker. That's you. And you don't have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers —"

"— unless they crack my head open."

"Harry, I'm sure there are tons of other seekers that were here before you at Hogwarts. If anyone had died, Quidditch would be banned."

"Fair point, there," Wood nodded. "Don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers — I mean, they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves." 

Wood reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball. Compared with the Quaffle and the Bludgers, it was tiny, about the size of a large walnut. It was bright gold and had little fluttering silver wings.

"This," said Wood, "is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot. It's very hard to catch because it's so fast and difficult to see. It's the Seeker's job to catch it. You've got to weave in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers, and Quaffle to get it before the other team's Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win. That's why Seekers get fouled so much. A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages — I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so the players could get some sleep."

Calysta nodded. 

"But that doesn't mean that the chasers aren't as important. The chasers are usually mostly targeted by the beaters, and the opposing team's chasers," added Wood. "Calysta, you have to pass the ball, weave in out of the rest of the players to score."

"Got it!" she exclaimed.

"Well, that's it — any questions?"

Harry shook his head. 

"Calysta, I want you to practice throwing and catching the quaffle up and down," said Wood, throwing her the Quaffle, which she caught effortlessly.

"We won't practice with the Snitch yet," said Wood, carefully shutting it back inside the crate, "it's too dark, we might lose it. Let's try you out with a few of these." He pulled a bag of ordinary golf balls out of his pocket and a few minutes later, he and Harry were up in the air, Wood throwing the golf balls as hard as he could in every direction for Harry to catch. He didn't miss a single one.

Calysta, on the other hand, could catch the quaffle with a single hand now, coming from any direction. She was tested to score against Wood, and she managed to score eight of the ten tries she took.

Wood was delighted. After half an hour, night had really fallen and they couldn't carry on.

"That Quidditch Cup'll have our name on it this year," said Wood happily as they trudged back up to the castle. "I wouldn't be surprised if you turn out as professional Quidditch players in the future."

Perhaps it was because she was now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all her homework, but Calysta could hardly believe it when she realized that she'd already been at Hogwarts two months. The castle felt more like home than Privet Drive ever had. Her lessons, too, were becoming more and more interesting now that they had mastered the basics.

Calysta was getting better at performing magic as time passed. They were much more interesting than all the rubbish she'd learnt in muggle school. The reason why she focused closely on her classes was to build a strong enough foundation to study on her own, so she could learn more, and thus, use her new knowledge in pranking Peeves, and perhaps the Slytherins.

She had also been spending a whole load of time in the boys' dormitory more than she had in her own. They had also spent one of their nights following Avery down the secret passage in their dormitory, discovering that he knew a path to the dungeons. He would sneak out every night to they dungeons, where he would meet up with Malfoy.

Calysta was disgusted when they figured this out. 

"Who in their right mind would willingly meet up with Malfoy?" she scoffed.

"Avery, apparently. He's such a Slytherin, I wonder what the sorting hat even saw in him that he landed in Gryffindor," Regulus spoke, distaste on his features.

"Maybe the sorting hat was wrong?" asked Jeff.

"Please, the sorting hat is never wrong!" Felix spoke. "It's been doing its job for centuries, and is nearly always right when it comes to sorting students into their houses."

Avery didn't know the other four knew his secret. In fact, they pretended they didn't even know there was a secret passage leading from their dorm leading out into various places in the castle.

Two nights before Halloween, Calysta had snuck out of bed into Jeff's dormitory, at around midnight, a piece of chalk in her hand, which she had nicked from Professor Binns' classroom. 

Avery was once again, out of bed, most probably with Malfoy. 

"Where should be go today?" asked Jeff.

"Let's see if we can find the kitchens," Calysta suggested. "I saw Fred and George on the fourth floor with a plate of chocolate eclairs that looked really delicious."

"Good idea, I'm starving," spoke Felix, spraying himself with that strange perfume his father had sent him.

"Why do you wear that perfume?" asked Jeff. "No offense, but it stinks."

Felix was silent for a while. "It wards off evil spirits," Felix responded quietly, his voice sounding rather high pitched.

Nobody knew what to reply to that.

And so, the four tried to find their way onto the fourth floor, marking up the walls of the labyrinth using the chalk Calysta had stolen, noting carefully which way they were going.

Until Regulus screamed, tripping to the floor, bumping into something, or rather someone.

There was another yelp, a voice nobody else knew who it belonged to, possibly belonging to the person Regulus had bumped into.

"What happened, are you okay?" came Jeff's voice, flashing his wand at Regulus on the floor, gasping when he saw what Regulus had bumped into.

"Avery?" Jeff's startled voice came, as Calysta pulled Regulus to his feet. "What are you doing here?"

At this, everyone's attention was on Avery, who had bumped into Regulus.

"What're you guys doing here?" Avery questioned.

"We asked you first," insisted Felix. 

"I'd gone to visit Malfoy," he sighed sullenly. "How did you find the passage?" 

Jeff shrugged. "We found it two months ago, it was sort of an accident. How did you know there was a passage here?"

"I didn't," explained Avery. "I just dropped one of my quills in the dorm, and when I went to look for it, I discovered the passage."

"What I don't understand is why you would waste your time going all the way to see Malfoy, of all people," Calysta grimaced.

"My parents said I have to," he mumbled.

"But why? It's your choice to decide who you want to be friends with," Jeff said adamantly.

"Yes, but.."

"But we can continue this conversation in the dormitory," Felix interrupted. 

They all made their way in the opposite direction, heading back into their dorm. Closing the secret passage off, and covering it up with the carpet, the four turned to face Avery.

"Who else knows of the passage?" asked Jeff.

"No one else," Avery responded. "I'm not that foolish to give any Slytherins that information. Next thing you know we'll have Slytherins mucking up our common room."

Calysta realized Avery wasn't as bad as the others thought he would be. After all, she believed in second chances, and she realized that they had gotten off the wrong foot with Avery.

"Okay, spill," Felix said, placing his signature red lollipop between his lips. 

"My family members have all been in Slytherin," Avery began. "They were all supporters of You-Know-Who," he added in a whisper. "I grew up with Malfoy. Our fathers are best friends, and naturally, we were supposed to start Hogwarts together, both be in Slytherin, and be best friends."

"Ugh, who can be best friends with Malfoy?" Jeff spat.

"When we were kids, it all worked out alright, until Malfoy started bullying the other kids whenever we had a ball to attend or something. He'd show off, and boast, and I couldn't take it. We grew distant as the years went by. When I got sorted into Gryffindor, my parents sent me a really horrid letter, claiming that I disappointed them by getting into Gryffindor."

"That sucks," admitted Regulus.

"Do you like Gryffindor?" asked Jeff, after being silent for a while.

"I was brought up to hate it. But now I realize, it's not so bad... I don't mind being in Gryffindor. The Slytherin common room is so dark and gloomy, and there are snakes everywhere... The people are nicer here anyway," Avery shrugged. "I'm not saying Slytherins are evil, I'm just saying that I don't share the same views as they do."

"So you don't hate me?" asked Jeff. "For not being a real wizard?"

"You are a real wizard, Evans," Avery said with a small smile. "My parents just expected me to maintain my friendship with Malfoy, but today he said I've changed, and I'm not the same as I was when we were kids... He says Gryffindor has changed me. That's why I was coming back to the dormitory."

"I'm sorry," Regulus said softly. "We can be your new friends, if you want.."

"Yeah, we'll be stuck sharing a dorm for seven years anyway," Felix added.

They all turned to Calysta to hear her thoughts. "Welcome to the crew," she grinned.

Avery gave them all a small smile. After understanding how hard his life was, the other four swore they would help him get through his troubles.

"Does this crew have a name?" Avery asked, raising a brow.

"Not yet," Jeff admitted. "We're still thinking up one."

"I appreciate this," Avery said quietly. "It already feels like a huge burden carried off my shoulders."

"That's what friends are for. We'll share your burden, Avery, don't worry."

"Raymond," Avery spoke. "Call me Raymond."

"That's too much of a mouthful," Jeff waved it off. "I'm calling you Ray."

"Only if I get to call you Jeffie," Raymond said with a sly smile.

"Absolutely not!" Jeff protested. "That sounds like a girl's name!"

"Ray is cool," Regulus spoke. "Raymond is such a long name."

"How is it long? It's got just two syllables. Look at your name," Avery snorted. "Reg-u-lus."

Regulus shrugged. "I'm still calling you Ray."

"If I can call you Reg."

"Fine," grumbled Regulus. "At least it's better than Reggie or Jeffie."

Calysta burst out laughing. "I'll call you Jeffie," she told her cousin.

"Don't you dare," snorted Jeff. "Or I'll call you Potterette like Malfoy does."

That caused her to shut up and scowl, while the rest of the boys laughed.

Instead of four, they were now five. Calysta, Jeff, Regulus, Felix, and Ray.

translations: Too bad there's no broomstick big enough to clean your filthy mouth. 

{ it's the 30th of november, it's been exactly one year since i started writing this story. i had originally written in on my backup, but only recently published it here, and since then, i've been updating everyday, or every other day. anyway, let me know how you find it. if you have any suggestions, let me know.  i have also published a new draco fic called fireproof. it's on my profile, if you want to check it out. love, jasmine. }