Gemma sat at the breakfast table with her head slumped on the surface. The feast last night had been uneventful, and Dumbledore's speech had made her more convinced than ever that he was secretly evil and trying to hand the world over to Satan.

After the feast however, Gemma, Ted, Luke (very reluctantly) and Iz had snuck out of the school and drank firewhiskey by the black lake. It was the first night back, and tradition to break the rules (up until third year they did it with butterbeer), have fun and nearly get expelled. Only now Gemma was tired from lack of sleep, and she wasn't the only one. Luke sat opposite her, in a similar situation. Ted and Iz however, were completely lively, discussing the pros and cons of oral sex.

Gemma was only alerted when someone came and sat down beside her. It was Regulus Black.

'Hey,' he said while helping himself to a bowl of cereal, as though they'd been friends forever.

'Hi,' Gemma said carefully. 'Hope you didn't mind.. um..'

'You throwing me to the wolves yesterday?' Regulus joked. 'Nah, it was alright. Do you know when quidditch practise starts?' She frowned.

'Aren't you the captain?' She asked. He blinked a few times, looking slightly confused.

'Oh yeah,' he mumbled. Gemma couldn't help but laugh at him, while he gave her a sheepish look.

They began discussing the best techniques to use against Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, with Ted chipping in occasionally, until Mulciber and Avery slid in beside them. Gemma immediately became wary, eyeing Mulciber's smirk.

'Discussing quidditch, are we?' He mused.

'I seem to recall little Reggie made team captain, did he not?' Avery continued.

'Ah yes, that's right,' Mulciber mocked. 'Even though he's only just a little thing.'

'And there are other people on the team.'

'Older than him.'

'Better than him.'

'You reckon he slept with Slughorn to get himself promoted?'

They both laughed at their own taunts, but Regulus said nothing, focusing on his bowl. It was clear he was nervous though, because he didn't take another spoonful.

'You guys are on the team?' Gemma asked. Mulciber frowned.

'Yes,' Avery sneered. 'Maybe you should pay more attention to things around you'

'Maybe you should notice you're unwanted here and fuck off,' Ted snapped.

Avery was about to retort when Iz let out a shriek. Apparently she'd finally noticed Avery was present.

'What are you doing here!' She cried. 'Get him away from me! Oh my god, I'm having flashbacks!' Luke- who had woken up from her shouts- groaned.

'Would you tone it down a bit?' He said, and slumped his head back on the table.

'Flashbacks!' Avery replied, albeit a little anxiously. 'You're the one who threw a bookshelf at me!'

'Bookshelf?' Regulus whispered to Gemma. 'How on Earth did she do that?'

'She's freakishly strong,' she whispered back.

'You alright man?' Ted asked Luke, patting him lightly on the back.

'Only because you deserved it!' Iz practically screamed, attracting the attention of more than a couple Slytherins.

'Just tired,' Luke stated.

'All I did was get you a dress! I thought I was being nice!' Avery bellowed.

'Hey, Gemma, look what you started,' Mulciber said accusingly. Gemma didn't even have time to answer.

'IF YOU CARED ABOUT ME YOU WOULD KNOW THAT I LOOK HIDEOUS IN THE COLOUR RED!'

'YOU LOOK HIDEOUS IN EVERYTHING!'

'LUKE IS TRYING TO SLEEP HERE! EVERYONE SHUT UP!'

'I'm getting a headache,' Gemma said, in the midst of the screaming match. She picked up her bag, and stood. Regulus seemed rather amused by the entire ordeal, but he followed Gemma out of the great hall.

'What do we have?' He asked, as they left the Great Hall.

'Transfiguration first. Like we've had for the last four years,' she replied. His shoulder slumped.

'God, I am so not in it today. I don't even know if I want to be captain. It's just like, something I've always wanted you know? But now, what with my O.W.Ls and everything, I just want time to focus,' he rambled.

'Okay,' was all Gemma could think of to say.

'And since I lost most of my contact with Sirius I figured hey, maybe it's time to make some friends y'know? But then I got stuck with Mulciber and his lot and I'm just really, really trying to get away from them. Well, Snape's alright actually,' he continued.

'Does he ever shower?' She asked, genuinely curious. Regulus grinned. Then he stopped grinning.

'I actually have no idea,' he said, seemingly mortified. Gemma laughed, as they entered the Transfiguration classroom.

.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.

Gemma sat with her head slumped on the desk, glaring at the frog in front of her. She was sitting next to Luke, who had successfully turned his animal into a candle over fifteen minutes ago, and was trying to convince her to at least try.

She was at a table with Ted, Luke, Isolde and Regulus. They'd all managed to convert theirs, except Iz, who had turned hers into a hairbrush, claiming it was more useful that way.

'Miss Aston,' Professor McGonagall said, seemingly having approached her. 'Is there a reason why you are not attempting to perform this exercise?'

'No, Minnie, no reason,' she replied.

'Then could you please-'

'It's just,' Gemma began. 'Frogs are so much better than candles. Candles are so outdated. I was reading a book the other day, actually.'

'Miss Aston, if you would please-'

'It was basically about this thing that muggles use, called electricity,' she continued. 'It's pretty useful. And actually, I'm planning on starting a movement against the use of frogs in education. In fact, any animals in the use of education.' By now, she'd caught the attention of nearly the whole class, and McGonagall was not happy.

'Is that so,' she said, struggling to retain her calm demeanour. Gemma knew what all this would result in. But she carried on anyway.

'Yes,' she said. 'Actually, I'm starting that movement right now. All those in favour say aye!'

'Aye!' Ted announced, standing from his seat. When nobody followed suit, he sat back down, slightly red while Iz snickered. 

'Thank you for that, Mr Nott,' McGonagall snapped. She turned to Gemma. 'Well congratulations, Miss Aston. You may have set the record to be the first person to get a detention this year!'

'Actually she hasn't,' Pandora Lestrange said, in her dreamy voice. 'I believe Sirius Black was given one around seven minutes ago.'

'How do you even know that?' Ted asked incredulously. Pandora shrugged. She turned to Luke, and they both blushed when their eyes met. Gemma fought to hide her grin.

'Miss Aston,' McGonagall said, drawing her focus back. 'Would you perhaps be so kind as to attempt the spell for me?' Gemma groaned loudly as she pulled her wand out of her bag. She eyed the frog and levelled her wand.

'Fera Forto!' A loud bang noise echoed through the classroom, and the frog- which was still a frog- croaked angrily and hopped off the desk. Gemma sighed, and looked up at the sympathetic yet disappointed face of McGonagall as the bell rang. Gemma gathered her things and bolted from the classroom. The others practically jogged to keep up with her.

'Slow down would you?' Luke said. Gemma did, but not without making fun of him.

'Your just short,' she said, smirking. Luke glared.

'No, your just freakishly tall. Your probably taller than Ted, too.'

'She is, actually,' Ted interjected. 'The only person she's yet to beat is Black here. How tall are you, Black?'

'Six foot,' he replied quickly.

'Aw snap,' Gemma laughed. 'I'm three inches off.'

'I don't know what your talking about,' Isolde huffed. 'But this conversation is just so horribly boring that I don't want to know.'

'That's because it isn't about you,' Luke said, rolling his eyes.

'Correct.' Iz turned to Gemma. 'You alright babe?'

'Yes,' Gemma sighed. She was used to the feeling of pure disappointment by now. At first she'd thought it was a fault in the way she did things- so she pushed herself to work hard, spent many a night without sleep, just practising. All to no avail. At some point she'd given up, just accepted it was just something wrong with her, and her magic, and she would just have to live with it. At some point, she'd found a comfort in quidditch, and she enjoyed the way her skill in the sport excelled that of most.

She didn't realise she was lost in her thoughts until Ted interrupted them.

'Get this  bullshit Gem,' Ted said, shaking his head furiously. She'd clearly missed a rather heated conversation. 'This guy is limiting training to only once a week.'

'Once!' Gemma said. 'We'll never beat Gryffindor like that!'

'We can!' Regulus said, though his guilty expression gave away his real thoughts. 'I just... We have our O.W.Ls and I think-'

'Our O.W.Ls!' Gemma said incredulously. 'What about the rest of the team?'

'I'm sure they'll-'

'Your sure they'll understand. Wow.' Gemma could feel her anger rising. 'So your prepared to just hand the cup over to the Gryffindor team.'

'I already told you, we can do it,' Regulus said. 'I just.. I have a lot going on right now. Personal problems.'

'I don't care,' Gemma snapped. 'I don't care if your mother just died, or if your girlfriend dumped you. You're the captain, and you have a responsibility. If you can't handle it, then give it up.' She didn't wait for Regulus' reaction. She just increased her pace ahead of them, and Ted followed her.

'Little harsh,' he said quietly.

'Please,' Gemma said. 'He's lazy. I hate lazy people.'

'No,' Ted said, shaking his head. 'That's not it.'

'It is.'

'Not.'

'Is.'

'Not.'

'Is!'

'Not!'

'Okay!' Gemma said, throwing her hand up in exasperation. 'You win. Maybe I just don't want him to take away my chance of winning the one thing I can do.'

'You can do other things,' Ted reasoned.

'Please.'

'No, I'm serious,' he continued. 'You can roll your tongue. Oh, and you can burp the alphabet. That's pretty cool.'

'It is. But those things don't matter, do they?' She sighed. 'Nobody cares about anything except spells and potions and exams.'

'I know something that does matter.'

'Don't say it.'

'It matters very much.'

'I'll hurt you.'

'You, Gemma,' Ted said. 'Are the master of messing everything up. And failing. Oh, and pissing everyone off. But mainly failing.' Gemma hit him as hard as she could with her bag, but as they headed to the DADA classroom, she couldn't deny he'd made her smile.