After a long search I found them: the strange horses I had "seen" were called thestrals . Oddly enough they are only visible to people who have ever seen death and as far as I know I have never witnessed it.

A week later, Charlie suddenly stormed up to me: 'Belle! Bell! Guess who's in the Quidditch team?'
'Omg Charlie! I knew you could.'
'It's all thanks to you, that Cleanweep is so much faster than my last broom.'
'Charl, almost all Quidditch players are in 5th, 6th or 7th year. The point that you can already make it in the 2nd proves much more than just a new broom. What position do you have, by the way?'
'I may be a seeker.'
'Oh wow, a lot of pressure on your shoulders. Hopefully you still have time to hang out with all those practices.'
'Don't worry, I always have time for you, Belle.' This made me secretly blush.
'I have yet to report the good news to the others. Bye belle.'
'Bye'

I also had something to arrange myself. During the holidays I had plenty of time to practice occlumency and I felt I was ready to confront my head of house. One evening I knocked on the door of the potions master.
'Come in', was said.
'Good evening Professor Snape. I was wondering, euhm... well, compared to last year, I've made very good progress with occlumency.'
'And now you want me to test you?' he finished my sentence.
'It would be an honor to be taught by such a great occlumens, I would like to prove myself and erm... well there are also those books in the forbidden department.'
'Sure, take a seat', he pointed to the chair in front of his desk where I sat. "Ready, Miss Brown?" I nodded. Snape pointed his staff at me and said, " Legimens ." I felt him enter my mind. But it was empty. There was nothing. No sight, no sound, no feeling, no thought, no taste: nothing. The potions master sought and forced me to feel, to see something. But I didn't fall for that anymore, there was only this moment, no past and no future. After what was maybe a minute, I wouldn't know, Snape gave up. "Well, Brown, I must admit I'm impressed." I couldn't suppress a small grin. He took a piece of paper from a drawer, wrote his consent and signature on it, and handed it to me. 'Mrs. Rommella will make explicit that you only bring books on occlumency . We will see each other again in two months. You can go.' Overjoyed I walked out the door: 'Thanks professor!'

With the permission slip in my hands, I walked straight to the library. And guess who was there: Charlie desperately trying to do his homework. Proudly I walked over to him: 'Hey Charlie, guess what Professor Snape gave me.' "Grumpy insults?" he answered ironically. ' No ,' I showed the note, 'Permission to enter the restricted area!' 'Wow that's cool. Then your confrontation has now gone better than last year', he concluded. 'Much better. He didn't stand a chance to get into my head.' "Good for you Belle, but I really need to get on with my Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. It's due tomorrow and it's about almost everything we haven't seen yet, so I don't get it.' 'I'll help you when I get back, it's one of my best subjects. At least last year.' Professor Montgomery was great compared to the new one we have now. Professor Dawson may be pureblood, but he could see more than he could teach.

When I came back from the forbidden ward, Mrs. Rommella did indeed check that all my books were about occlumency . Then I joined Charlie. Tomorrow I had Defense Against the Dark Arts so I would have to write that essay anyway. So doing some research didn't hurt.

Within a few weeks it was already the first Quidditch match: Gryffindor against Hufflepuff . "Are you stressed?" I asked Charlie just before his very first game. 'Am I stressed? Belle I almost wet my pants from the stress.' 'It will be fine. You win easily against Hufflepuff . All that stress is unnecessary.' "I hope you're right."

And if I was right: Gryffindor won and Charlie had caught the Snitch . After the game I congratulated him. Because when Slytherin wasn't playing I was a Gryffindor supporter.