History of Magic was, as per usual, boring as hell. Fred had placed his protean on his book and had been conversing with his mystery penpal for a few minutes now, George peering at it every once in awhile. The other twin would huff, frowning upon the piece of wood that kept his brother entertained. "Can I have a turn?"

"What is this? A toy? Ofcourse not." said Fred, grinning as he read the reply that he had gotten from her,

You can't alter an anti-cheating quill during exams even if you sold your soul for it.

He chuckled, before wiping the wood of words and replacing it with his own,

Well how do you know that if you've never even attempted to cheat in your whole life?

"I wonder if she's as irresponsible as you are." said George as soon as his brother detached his attention from his Protean. Fred chuckled, "I hardly doubt that. She's afraid of cheating. Can you believe it? She's afraid of getting in to trouble... kind of like Price if you think about it."

"Kind of like Price..." he repeated, his eyes immediately going wide in realization, "Freddie, what if it really is Price?!"

"Rubbish," he replied promptly, pulling his Protean out once more to read her reply, "Price wouldn't be as reckless. I heard him tell the blonde bloke and Penelope's sister once to not trust anything that can think for itself if you cannot see where it keeps it's brain when they got bitten by this educated plant in a pot."

"Yeah but, it's a protean charm. She's supposed to know that someone's on the other line... Otherwise it wouldn't be replying to her." George pointed out.

"But it isn't Price, George. It just doesn't make sense if it's her."

"Would you kill me if I found out who your mystery person is?" George asked Fred, who looked at him dead seriously, "I'd bury you alive and dance on your grave while belting out tribal chants so that I may offer your soul to the evil in exchange for eternal glory, more like."

"You wouldn't."

"I would. And to answer your question: yes, I would most definitely kill you so don't you even dare think of doing it behind my back, George Weasley."

"But... Aren't you at least a little bit curious?"

"Don't get me wrong, I am. But, I don't know. I'd like it to stay anonymous for the time being. It's really entertaining, you know? It's like having a pen pal that could reply to you at any given minute"

George looked hesitant, "Well... Alright, I'll leave you to it. You won't be writing on the desk anynore, now that you have your Protean, right?"

"I still will be. This thing's just an alternative when I want to talk to her about some random thing that would pop up in my head."

"Go on," said George dramatically, "Replace me with her, why won't you? You don't need a bloody twin now that you have that sodding Protean charm of yours." he mumbled exaggeratedly, making Fred chuckle. "Oh Georgie, nothing beats a best friend who looks exactly like your self, you know? You're the only one who understands me on a personal level, my brother."

"Aww, glad to hear that I'm irreplaceable." George gushed, making Fred give him a look, "I never said that, mate. I only said that you understand me on a personal level. Ofcourse Jordan could replace you on that, I'll have him drink polyjuice potion so that he'd understand how satisfying and at the same time tiring it is to be this attractive."

"Git."

-----
"We told you that you needed to cut your roots in to even parts." said Alexander, helping her friend wipe off the black dirt that exploded on Nicolai's face. Her brew had gone terribly wrong during Potions that it exploded in her face—for the first time. Snape didn't look all too considering, as he had immediately taken points from Ravenclaw for wasting ingredients.

"They looked even to me! I can't believe I got a P at that." she grumbled, continuing to scrub the cloth all over her face until the black dirt was gone. "Well, if you made it explode rainbows and fireworks instead of black puff, Snape would of had reconsidered." joked Florence, Nicolai rolling her eyes at her, "Go on and make fun of me then. I'm having the worst luck and my friends are being such toerags—"

"Priceeeeee!" came the loud holler of Davies as he rushed forward through the many other students who walked in the corridor, practically shoving them out of his way by the looks of it. "Why does Davies keep popping out of nowhere?" Nicolai whispered to Alexander as they watched the team captain scurry over to them.

Florence gave him a look which he had disregarded, promptly excusing her from the two other Ravenclaws who looked just as bewildered as their friend. "Have you heard?" was the first thing he had managed to say coherently, Roger breathing fast as if he had spent the last hour roaming the castle in search for her.

"Heard of what?" she frowned, slipping her Protean into her school bag. Davies raised a hand, as if gesturing her to give him a minute to catch his breath. "The Gryffindor team has a firebolt."

"WHAT?!" she shrieked, loud enough for almost everyone to turn their heads to look at her. "How—but—what, who gave it to them? How did you know?" Florence felt the jealousy pinching at her gut. A firebolt, just like Adrianna's—International standards. The broom that she's been asking for her whole life, was with the Gryffindor team.

"I know, right? I was at Madame Hooch's office, booking a few afternoons for practice when I saw it just leaned against a file cabinet. I asked her what the Firebolt was for and he said it was Potter's Christmas gift. McGonagall reckoned that it was from Sirius Black since Potter didn't even get a card to go with it. So they're stripping it down to the core to see it was jinxed or something."

"But, Roger— a bloody firebolt, against Cho's Comet 260! I know that that girl's a bloody brilliant seeker but her broom's dust compared to Potter's! This, this is unfair. I—we should ask our parents to chip in a few galleons so that we could buy Chang and the rest of us a Firebolt—"

Roger snorted, "Fat chance that that would ever happen. But right now, we don't have to dwell on that Firebolt. Maybe it would be in Madame Hooch's possession until our last game with them for the season, maybe Potter won't get to use it during our game with them."

"But what if he does?"

"Well then, it's not just about the Snitch, is it Price? We'll have to train harder—the whole team. If we could get Grant to block every goal Johnson, Spinnet or Bell tries to make, and we just get the Quaffle in and get more than two hundred points... It could be two hundred to nothing, or two hundred to a hundred fifty if Potter catches the snitch. We'd still win the match then. It's only Potter who has the firebolt, not Wood and his whole bloody team." Roger scowled at the last part.

"Don't need to stress about it too much, Capt," said a voice from behind, Jeremy and Duncan both flinging an arm on either of Roger's shoulder. "We'll get those Gryffindors."

"But we have the Slytherins to worry about first you know?"

"Ah, right. Which leads me to my next agenda. We have practices this afternoon." he said, smiling brightly as the others groaned in displeasure. "What?" he said, frowning at the negativity, "You blokes said it yourselves. We have Slytherin to play for next. And as you know, they are a bunch of cheating, good for nothing scums. So we better get our game on, right?"

"Right," mumbled Duncan, "I'm going to go and fatten myself up since I'm going to get all beaten up this afternoon, then." He walked to the direction of the Great Hall, "Yeah, well me too. See you capt, Florence." said Jeremy, following after Duncan.

"I am quite hungry myself... I'll see you at practices then, Price?"

"Alright," she said, before returning to Alexander and Nicolai who was in the middle of a row as she stopped in front of them. "BUT YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO— oh, Flo, what did Davies want?" Nicolai's voice transitioned from a loud scream to a much softer voice as soon as she saw her friend.

"Potter's gotten a Firebolt for Christmas..." she muttered glumly, fixing her book bag which hung lazily on her shoulder. She could feel her Protean heating up through the material of her bag, choosing to ignore it as it wouldn't be too wise if she replied to it infront of her friends.

Florence didn't know why she was hiding it from them, but she decided that there was a perfect time to tell them about it, but now wasn't it. Nicolai almost tripped because of her own feet at her words, Alexander simply gaping in response.

"Is it—Is it like Dri's broom? The sodding fast, expensive one?" he asked, while Nicolai took her turn at gaping, "But, how? I know he's the Boy who lived but surely his parents weren't rich enough to leave him a pile of gold that could afford a Firebolt and four more years worth of expenses at Hogwarts."

"I don't know, Nic, the Potters were one of the richest pureblood families. Well, half blood now since Harry's mum was a muggle-born."

"But it wouldn't make sense. Who bought it for him? Didn't he stay at Hogwarts the whole christmas break?"

"Roger said that Madame Hooch said something about it arriving to Potter anonymously... They reckoned that it was from Black, so they have it confiscated for the time being. Roger's crossing his fingers and praying to every mighty being in the heavens that it would stay like that until after our game with Gryffindor."

They had found a seat on the Ravenclaw table, fixing up their plate as they listened to Luna Lovegood mutter things about Nargles beside Alexander, shooting her a weird look snd deciding on not saying anything, as the girl was quite defensive with her imaginary creatures.

"I'd doubt that McGonagall would hold on to it for too long. She'd want her team to win too, you know."

"Yeah, but she cares much more for Harry's safety rather than some big, shiny silver cup."

"Not if it's a beautiful silver cup." Nicolai pointed out, making Florence shake her head. "I don't think so, Nic. Anyways, I can't be at group study after class. Roger's booked the pitch for practice..."

The two promptly glared daggers at Davies who sat a few seats away from the trio, Nicolai letting out an irritated groan, "Oh I could just strangle him—"

"We're playing against Slytherin next," she said, silencing the two. "Really? Malfoy's arm is better then?" asked Nicolai.

"I guess..."

"Well, excuse me for awhile so I could go and break it for him again so Ravenclaw would win against Slytherin by default ." She said, standing up from her seat, only to have Alexander yank her back down, "Don't be ridiculous, Nic. Winning by default's worse than loosing."

"Yeah," agreed Florence, who consumed a spoonful of sautéed spinach. "Allow me to kick Flint's arse a few times. I owe him one...or five, for ordering someone to hit me with a bludger on my first game." she muttered darkly.

Florence turned towards the Gryffindor table, seeing Oliver Wood with a brighter smile. She frowned at this, nervous about the prospects of loosing against them at their game. They needed to beat Slytherin in order to at least get second place during the tallying of points.

Ravenclaws hadn't had the chance to win the cup for a few years, and Florence planned on changing that.