Merry as a School Girl
Author: Chyler Stratford
Date: 08-14-02 11:56

"Hello my lovlies!" Chyler said in a sing-song voice as she literally skipped into the book store.

Julian, leaning against a door jamb, cocked an eyebrow. "Well, look at the cute little pig-tailed school girl coming home for lunch." He and Lysander chuckled.

"Watch it!" Chyler punched Julian playfully in the gut. "Ouch. Damn, what you got in there?"

He flashed his dimply grin. "You don't want to know."

Chyler poked her tongue out and preceeded to hang up her cloak and sat behind the desk, putting her feet up on Lysander's, which were propped up on the desk, too.

"What in the hell is the matter with you? Look at that giant grin she's wearing, Lys! Chy, what have you been up to?" Julian came over and bounced the back rest of the wooden chair she sat in, startling her.

She took a swipe at him, sitting up before she could get tumbled. "I've got a secret."

Bewildered, Lysander and Julian stared at her, eager to hear more.

"I went to Briar's to get this," She held up the recipe in her hand. "And found out something else . . . "

Power 'Puff
Author: Kendra Beck
Date: 08-14-02 16:10

Kendra hovered a bit on her broom as she watched her brother, Toby, fly right into the Slytherin, Isolde Farnon. Oops. Not a good thing at all. The Hufflepuffs were docked for that one.

A fast whizzing noise let her know that a Bludger was coming her way. She ducked it, watching it speed in front of her. Whew. That was close!

"Y'all right, Lil' Sis?"

It was Toby.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Scared me more'n anything, really. Nice foul you got us." Kendra poked her tongue out, still watching her surroundings.

Toby sigh. "Yeah, I know. Sorry 'bout that."

"No worries. It's just a game. Let's split up. Things are beginning to hop again!"

And the siblings high-fived, speeding in opposite directions.

Patching up the Holes
Author: Fred Weasley
Date: 08-14-02 21:18

Hagrid lingered in the Hospital Wing only moments longer than Samantha, reluctant to go, but obedient to Pomfrey's wishes nonetheless. After he left, Madam Pomfrey busied herself with Majandra's aching knee, shooing George away from the side of the bed so that she would have ample room to work her magic.

Thoroughly angered by Samuel's mistreatment of his girlfriend, George slumped down next to Fred while casting furious glances to the blonde boy across the room. Daggers were being shot by both parties, and tensions were off the charts.

The deadly silence was only broken when Majandra let out a squeal of pain.

"There, there, Miss Fine. It shouldn't hurt again," said Madam Pomfrey soothingly, and a concerned George let out an audible sigh of relief.

After Pomfrey finished tending to Majandra, she turned her attentions to George's bloody nose. Tired of sitting, Fred got to his feet and started to pace the room while he waited for his turn to get treated for his injuries. It was only when he couldn't bear the silence any longer that Fred decided to speak. Despite his desire to leave Samuel be, he found himself addressing the very person he wanted to avoid.

"I don't think you two should leave in the middle of the semester."

Wow. I wasn't expecting to say that. Something along the lines of, what the hell possessed you to push an innocent girl down when she had no part in what I'd done, would have been more fitting. Or even a series of expletives would have been more suitable, I think.

Fred's thoughts were interrupted by Samuel's answer. "Funny. I figured you'd be the first to see me out of this school and out of this country."

Boy, is he ever rich in sarcasm. "Believe it or not, Samuel. I don't dislike you. Well, that held true until about 10 minutes ago..." Fred shot a glance at Majandra, who was watching the exchange between the two boys with avid interest. Then his gaze flickered to the back of Pomfrey's head, since she was still patching up George's nose.

"The same could be said for me, Fred," replied Samuel candidly.

Somehow, right then and there, the two boys found a mutual understanding. Although tension still ran rampant in the room, a great deal of it had been lifted.

Madam Pomfrey finished her work on George's nose and turned to call Fred back to the cot.

"I just think both you and Sammi should reconsider," Fred said, returning next to his brother's side. "But I suppose, if you leave my chances of getting out of here alive increase some, eh?"

Samuel chuckled. "You better watch your back."

"I've got my other half here to do that for me," Fred answered, smiling at George. Madam Pomfrey rubbed a salve under his chin as he added, "Like you've got your other half to watch yours."

"Being a twin is something special, isn't it?" George piped in, and then winked impishly at Majandra. "Too bad you don't have an identical twin sister." His eyes glazed over as he imagined the possibilities, prompting a round of chuckles from all present in the room.

Flying over Britain
Author: Dierna ní Cíaran
Date: 08-14-02 21:33

I laugh as the Scaithmor flies over the Irish countryside towards Britain. I didn't realize just how much I missed riding winged horses until now. Maybe I'll bring Scaithmore back to Hogsmeade with me, my back garden is big enough for him. And I wouldn't have to worry about disillusionment charms since it's a wizarding village like Dunsidhe.

We land in a field in Devon and I perform a charm to make Scaithmore seem like an ordinary stallion. I can ride him around on the ground. This is farm country, and some Muggles do ride horses around the towns. First, though, I want to find a nice pub for lunch. There are several in the area and I pick one.

After a brief meal, and receiving several comments about how great my "horse" is (Including a particularly amusing one about "he must really FLY) I ride off once more. Eventually I find a patch where I cast the secretive visibility charm and fly away.

Nothing Funny Here
Author: Majandra
Date: 08-15-02 15:46

Majandra laughs along with the boys though in actuality she doesn't find any of this amusing. With Fred obviously still feeling something for Samantha, what use would there be of Majandra having a twin sister? To date Samuel? Ha! Not likely! Not only has he not apologized for pushing Majandra as he did but the oaf doesn't even seem sorry about it...

Suddenly more upset and angry than when they'd arrived at the hospital wing, Majandra stares at her aching knee. Thanks to Madame Pomfrey, the swelling's already begun to subside and the pain isn't as great. It still hurts though and it will take the better part of the day, if not into the night as well, to be completely healed.

Listening to the continued banter between Fred, George, and Samuel, Majandra waves at Madame Pomfrey, who by this time is attending Samuel, to gain her attention. The nurse, looking at Majandra over Samuel's shoulder, arches her eyebrows in acknowledgement of Majandra.

Majandra points towards the door and indicates she'd much prefer to recuperate in her own room. Frowning slightly, Madame Pomfrey narrows her eyes at the girl as if ready to say no. Something in Majandra's face must have changed her mind though because with a slight tilt of her head, Madame Pomfrey nods towards a pair of crutches leaning against the wall. With a quick flick of her wand, the crutches zip the short distance to Majandra's bedside.

Majandra smiles her thanks to Madame Pomfrey then makes sure the crutches are correctly adjusted to her height. Without a word to the boys oblivious in their joking to notice she's even gotten up, Majandra makes her exit. Once in the hallway, she ignores Samantha sitting against the wall and moving as fast as she dares on the crutches, heads straight to the Gyffindor tower.

Once there, Majandra passes through the deserted common room and goes up to her dorm room. She slides the crutches under the bed, out of the way, grabs a book to read and gets comfortable on the bed. Majandra's last though before losing herself in the pages of the books is that Fred and George are not going to get a look at her Hilari Tea creation anytime soon.

Go! Fight! Win!
Author: Hermione Granger
Date: 08-15-02 21:07

As it currently stood, Hufflepuff and Slytherin were tied with twenty points each. Nearly every spectator in the stands was sitting on the edge of his or her seat, eagerly anticipating who would make the next score. Naturally, three-fourths of the fans were rooting for the Badgers. Who, other than those vicious Slytherins, would cheer on the other team?

Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat together in the stands, keeping their eyes focused on the action on the field. All three were silently hoping that Hufflepuff would cream the Slytherins, and it looked like the friendly team was on the path to success.

Chaser, Amerah Patterson, suddenly gained control of the quaffle and darted across the skies like an arrow whizzing towards its target. In an attempt to block the hoop Amerah was aiming for, Pyrrhus jerked sideways, only to realize too late that Amerah had tricked him. Right before the quaffle left her fingers, she adjusted her arm so that the ball would shoot through a different hoop.

"Hufflepuff scores! An excellent fake-out by Patterson! How do you like that, Slytherin!" Lee bit his tongue on sending forth any further jibes against Slytherin when McGonagall sent him that stern look.

The majority of the crowd rejoiced, giving each other high-fives and bear hugs. Now if only Hannah Abbott could catch that snitch before Draco could get to it. Then, there would be even more reason to celebrate!

All Patched Up
Author: George Weasley
Date: 08-15-02 22:13

After George stopped chuckling, he suddenly felt exhausted. His nose was even more sore, too, because he smiled so big.

"Man, you sure do have a good right hook, there, Samuel." Fred flexed his jaw only to flinch and cease the action.

Samuel grinned. "Thanks. Um, George, I think you lost your girl."

George gasped, turning around so fast Fred had to move out of the way. "Where'd she go? What happened?"

"Now, now, now. Calm down, dear. She just went up to her room...And I don't want you to bother her. She needs some rest, as do the rest of you! Rest for the rest of the afternoon, have a bit of supper, then go to bed. Is that clear?" Madame Pomfrey ordered, giving them a stern stare.

The three Gryffindors nodded.

"Now. Off with you. Go straight to your dormitories and get some rest! If you have any problems, please come and see me."

With that the three were out the door. Once in the hallway, the three guys spotted Samantha sitting against the wall, her head buried into her knees. She looked up abruptly.

"Hey, guys." George thought she might have been crying, but wasn't sure. "Y'allright, Sammi?"

Samuel offered her a hand up, and she gratefully accepted. She shrugged a shoulder. "Yeah, I guess so. What about you guys?"

"We'll heal." Fred said, putting an arm around George's shoulder and smiling. The guys had some to a mutual understanding. That is, Fred and Samuel had.

"We're supposed to go up to our dormitories and get some rest. Then, go down to get a bit of supper, and then back to bed. Kinda dull, eh?" George asked, trying his best to lighten the mood, but his nose began to throb a bit. "I'm actually looking forward to a bit of a nap."

Quaffle, Quaffle: Who's Got the Quaffle?
Author: H Potter
Date: 08-15-02 22:22

Harry has barely begun to lower himself back down to his seat after cheering on Amerah's goal when a spectacular sight at the other end of the pitch captures everyone's attention.

Apparently so busy cheering on his teammate Amerah that he momentarily lost concentration, Prote slams into Clara Devaki. Both are sent spinning towards the ground which results in all three Slytherin chasers making a mad dash to snatch the quaffle and get it to the Hufflepuff goals before Prote is back up to block.

In response, Douglas and Neo, quickly followed by Amerah, join the fray for the quaffle to stop Slytherin from scoring on untended hoops. In the melee that ensues, Neo ends up with the quaffle only to have it grabbed right out of his grasp by Azaelia who, in an effort to dodge a bludger, ends up passing the quaffle off to Isolde.

With all six chasers practically on top of each other, Isolde has trouble gaining ground towards the Hufflepuff goal. Her efforts aren't helped any when the two Hufflepuff beaters and the one Slytherin beater converge to help out their respective chasers. For the next few minutes frenzied chaos reigns on the pitch, allowing Prote to regain his position. Clara too is back on her broom by this time and after the dogfight that took place over the quaffle, Madam Hooch emerges from the pack with it signaling for a Slytherin chaser to take a foul shot for Clara.

Isolde's miss of the foul shot seems almost anti-climatic at that point.

Harry, finally seated again, thinks this is getting to be a great game.

The Near Hit
Author: Shayna Ryan
Date: 08-16-02 15:26

The frenzied mess and foul shot had proven to interesting to turn away. Shayna couldn't walk to concessions to get something to drink, or she thought that she would miss something.

Prote slammed Clara, and himself into the ground, and he was able to get back up and block the foul shot by Isolde. The whole thing rooted Shayna to the spot.

Shortly after normal play resumed, Clara hit a bludger as hard as she could towards Prote. Prote heard the bludger coming, and he narrowly missed getting hit. He turned to see who hit it, and saw a hateful glare from Clara.

The glare was the last thing Shayna saw before rushing to get a drink.

A Rose by Any Other Name
Author: Julian Valentine
Date: 08-16-02 21:49

Julian can't stop smiling. Not that the female customers in the store today have minded that one bit.

Chyler's little secret turned out to be jaw dropping news of the most excellent, though wholly unexpected, sort. Earlier today when Chyler breezed in happier than a Puffskein whose owner has a cold, neither Lysander nor Julian were prepared for what she told them. However, they did recover quickly.

Chyler went to Briar's in hopes of getting a recipe or two. She left with information akin to a grail. And all because she accidently looked in the wrong bureau drawer.

Julian well remembers the doll. His mother wanted to give special birthday gifts to the daughter of one of her two best friends. Claudia's daughter. Her goddaughter at that. The gift she selected for Julian to give at the birthday party was unique. Crafted by hand and by magic, made of a variety of woods, with real hair, and high quality clothing, the doll's blend of features were found on it and it alone. As individual as a fingerprint.

Chyler had thrown an absolute snit fit to have the doll. It didn't matter that on her birthday she would receive her very own, one of a kind, special doll. She coveted that one. The one whose owner had promptly christened the doll Her Royal Imperial Highness, the Princess Gertanella Drusillianna Orchidiadaphodil Valentina. Followed seconds later with a shortening of the whole thing to just Gertie.

Rosalyn carted that doll around everywhere. On the rare occassions she didn't, she hid Gertie in her bedroom. When the Burnshires were so viciously murdered, either Rosalyn would have had Gertie with her or Gertie would have been in Rosalyn's makeshift safe. If the doll had been with Rosalyn, like the Burnshires, Gertie would have been reduced to a charred pile of ash. If hidden, someone would have to know exactly where to look in that old cottage. The hiding place was such that it wouldn't have been found by mere chance.

Chyler had reached her conclusion within moments of seeing Gertie in Briar's chest of drawers. Upon hearing Chyler's secret, both Lysander and Julian just as quickly reached the exact same conclusion.

By some miracle, Briar Rose is Rosalyn Burnshire.

It would be quite the coup for the three if Rosalyn was brought back into the fold.

If Briar is willing, Julian plans to start wooing her again. And if she's not, he'll use friendship to charm her to the point where she's receptive to his advances again.

He'd walked down to the bakery immediately after talking over his plans with Chyler and Lysander. Julian hadn't gone in though because he could see through the shop window that the Weasel brothers were there. After waiting awhile, Julian had strolled that way again only to see Helena entering the bakery.

Knowing what a disaster it would be to go in while she was there, Julian had prudently decided to wait. In fact, waiting until later today gave him a chance to send off an orders for a gift and a grand bouquet. Roses of course.

And the Winner is...
Author: Pyrrhus
Date: 08-16-02 22:35

The rest of the game is played just as fast and furious as the first part had been.

The way the bludgers are being hit, at times it almost seems as if there are more than two of them in the game. Simon and Toby had been gotten into a virtual king of the bludgers competition. Each tried to out race the other to reach a bludger. At times, Simon beats Toby but just as often Toby gets there before Simon. At one point, each is so intent to simply be the one there to hit the bludger that each sent it flying towards one of his own team members. Simon sending it straight at Pete and Toby thwacking the bludger right at Amerah.

Much to Toby's embarrasment his screw up causes Amerah to lose her grip on the quaffle. Azaelia then manages to grab the quaffle and after zig zagging across half the pitch, she passes it to Isolde who in turn hands it off to Pete.

Pete gets in position for a goal attempt but Toby, in an effort to make up for his mistake, slams a bludger right at the quaffle causing it to fly out of Pete's grasp. With skillful flying and quick hands, in a blink Pete recovers the quaffle. He goes to pass it off to Lia who's in a perfect goal position only to have that other Beck, Kendra, send a well aimed bludger his way.

Angry at losing the quaffle twice in rapid succession like that, Pete purposesly sideswipes Kendra prompting Madam Hooch to call yet another foul. Before someone can be chosen to take the foul shot for Hufflepuff, Hannah Abbott makes her move.

No one had even realized she'd spotted the snitch. Yet, there the little winged ball is in her hand, pretty as you please. The entire pitch is suspended in silence broken only when an exuberant Lee Jordan screams, "Hufflepuff wins!" Way to go, Hannah Abbott! Hufflepuff 180! Slytherin 20."

Re: And the Winner is...
Author: NeferSekhmet
Date: 08-17-02 18:09

I sit and watch this wonderful match. I amazes me how agile these players are. I learned to ride a broom at an early age, as well as a magic carpet. But, the magic carpets are forbidden to be used. Against Ministry of Magic rules.

Then the end of the game comes.

"HUFFLEPUFF WINS!" The announcer yells.

We all cheer for Hufflepuff. Slytherin team seems to be very disappointed. What a slaughter on the score. I never could be able to get the nerve to play Quidditch. I probably wouldn't last 1 minute in there. Oh well.

Now, it's back to my studies.