Cinnamon Curls

"Ok here's the plan" Oliver had joined the Hufflepuff table during breakfast Saturday morning. The tables were decked with bread, buns, jams, eggs, sausages and other delicious things. The enchanted ceiling showed a relatively clear sky, illusionary but colorful autumn leaves flying by. Oliver and Paige had spent the evening before planning how to make this quidditch game happen.

"We obviously can't use the quidditch patch, as there is something being grown there at the moment? But, we can use the spot right by the front gates, next to the forest and Hagrids hut. Sure, the ground is a little uneven, but we're gonna be flying so it doesn't really matter." Paige was nodding enthusiastically in agreement.

"As for the actual supplies we need" Paige took over "We obviously have to ask Professor Hooch if we can use the school brooms for periods of time, and those who have their own broom can use those" She looked over at Oliver "You lucky bastard"

"Hey, getting that broom cost me two birthdays and a Christmas" He smirked at her.

Paige turned back to me "As for the balls, we don't have hopes of Professor Hooch letting us use the snitch and bludgers, as they could easily end up missing. But the quaffle is a reasonable ask, right?"

"Yeah, I think so" I nodded.

"We were also thinking of making it more soccer like, since there won't be a need for beaters or seekers" Paige continued.

"We don't know how many we'll be, or how to devise up the teams tho, probably have around five on each team or something" Oliver chimed in, his fork with a big piece of pancake lifted half-way off his plate.

"Well, I've secured at least two players and a commentator and / or player" I said smugly.

"Oh great! Who is it?" Paige asked excited.

"The twins and Lee"

A weird coughing sound came from Oliver who was now a mouthful of pancake.

"Jeez, Oliver, heard of chewing before?" Paige laughed at the boy, patting his back. I don't think Paige noticed, but Oliver was clearly struggling not to smile, and he shook his head at me amused.

"But how are we gonna do it with the goals?" I asked

"Haven't really figured that out yet, but we could use specific trees, or set up some planks, I don't know"

Because it was Saturday, people filtered in and out of the great hall, depending on the time they woke up. And as there were no classes, there was no rush to finish breakfast early. At one point, when we were about to leave, Fred, Lee, Giorgia and Angelina walked into the hall, Angelina walking backwards in front of the other three.

"But Georgia, what on earth happened to your jaw?" Angelina asked.

I turned to see if I could get a glimpse of how bad it had turned out. And as I had suspected the evening before, it was now a reddish, purple color with hints of yellow. An uneasy feeling of guilt began knotting itself in my stomach.

"Did you get in a fight? Was it that Malfoy git?" Fred chimed in excitedly.

"If you did, when did you have time for that?" came from Lee.

"Or, did you fall or something, like a moron?" Fred continued.

"Perhaps I fought a giant spider? Perhaps I beat up you know who single handedly? who knows?" Georgia caught my eye. I stood behind the bench to our table, about to tie my shoe before leaving the hall. She then winked as only the Weasley twins could. I barely caught a confused expression on Fred's face, he had followed his sister's gaze, before I quickly turned my head away, now unsure of what to do with myself. The knot in my stomach eased its grasp a little. I never understood how they both managed to be so effortlessly charismatic. If I were to try to wink it would look like I was caught in a sneeze that wouldn't come. The four Gryffindors found their table, and quickly began to talk about random relevant things, like the "obviously unnecessary" transfiguration homework McGonagall assigned them, speculation on what's going to happen further with the Triwizard Tournament, and other things.

"When are we going to ask permission from the teachers tho?" Oliver asked as we walked.

"Well, you have a free period when the second years have flying lessons on Tuesdays, and before you ask, yes I know your schedule by heart." I started before continuing "So, you can ask Professor Hooch about the quaffle and the school brooms then"

"Did you intend to memorize my schedule?" he asked with a confused and impressed expression on his face.

"Well, no, I was looking at it to find what classes we had together, and it just kinda stuck. My brain works in mysterious ways"

"It's really handy tho, I never have to keep track of those things anymore!" said Paige cheerfully.

"And I" I continued "I'm the only one of us that still has care of magical creatures, so I can ask Hagrid if we can use the space near his hut on Wednesday."

"Perfect! Is there anyone else we need to talk to?" Oliver asked.

"I don't think so" answered Paige "I guess we'll find out once we begin" She was smiling from ear to ear. It was refreshing to see her this excited about something. Paige, like many others, relied on the thrill of the quidditch practices and games to keep her going during the academic everyday life. Paige shared some of that charisma the Weasley twins possessed, easily talking to anyone. She got fired up from being around many people, and quidditch had become one of those meeting points for her. Paige lost some of her charm when she got too bored though, she got all grumpy and gray. So I was glad we had this project going. Also because I perhaps could redeem myself from my previous quidditch experiences. Who knows, maybe I'm a talented chaser waiting to be discovered?

Much of the remaining weekend was spent joking around outside on the school grounds or trying to get ahead on their already piling up homework. Oliver, Paige and I spent some of our time studying with Adrian Jones, another Slytherin from our year. If we ever had to work two and two in any classes the Hufflepuffs had with the Slytherins, one of the three of us usually paired up with Adrian. He was very small in stature and could easily pass as at least one or two grades lower. He was extremely good with words, twisting and turning them. You would want to believe anything he said, but he was a nice guy. He was well aware of his skills, but seldom used them to do harm purposefully. And therefore I often sought out his advice on my wording and sentence structure of my essays. Repaying him with some help in herbology.

Sunday afternoon came, and I met up with Cally to head over to the greenhouses, to take a look at her Fanged Geranium. It was raining outside, but the raindrops made for a very pleasant background noise, tapping lightly on the glass above us. Surely enough her assigned plant was drowning in slugs. These slugs however, were not your common garden slugs. Gray and blue in color, and moved with a concerningly fast pace. And to make things worse, they possessed an unpleasant hook, that would cut you given the chance, at the back end of their tiny body.

"Alright, we need to find a way to convince the slugs to leave your plant alone" I started rummaging through the supplies present in the greenhouse. "Somehow give them a better option" We searched together for a while, before settling on a plan.

"So, if we can lure them away, we could trap them in this jar and get them out of the greenhouse." Cally suggested.

"That could work! Just place the jar sideways there by your Fanged Geranium, I'll put in some of these mandrake leaves" I laid some leaves inside the jar, but kept some in my hands. I then tried to get the slugs attention with the leaves, guiding them to the jar. I underestimated the speed their tiny mouth could chew, because by the time they were in the jar, my finger was bloodied. The slugs seemed to react to the blood, the previous blue coloration seemed to shift towards an orange instead and the slugs began expanding, making an unpleasant sloshing sound as their form grew.

"Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods" I exclaimed "What on earth?"

Cally quickly grabbed her wand and with precise movements of her wrist cast a spell.

"Reductio"

The slugs, who were now oozing out of the jar, quickly reduced in size. I quickly grabbed the lid, and screwed it on the jar. Sighing in relief.

"I didn't expect that to happen"

"Neither did I" Cally nervously chuckled.

"Well, at least we now know what they're capable of"

"Yeah" Cally picked up the slug filled jar "Come on, let's dump them by the forest"

And that we did, after tending to Callys Fange Geranium. We made sure to apply a fatted salve to the damaged areas of the plant, while trying to avoid its teeth. These plants don't usually bite unless they feel poorly taken care of, or if they feel threatened. So I guess in this case it was justified. It was a bit of a struggle to get the slugs to leave the jar, but eventually we managed. By the time we reentered the castle we were cold and soaked right through our clothes. Filch sent us some dirty looks as we walked by, leaving muddy spots on the newly cleaned floor. We just smiled as apologetically as we could manage and hurried further into the castle. Back in our dorm we each took a nice warm shower. Before comfortably finding our way to bed.

"Thanks for the help" Cally said from her side of the room.

"Oh, no worries"

"I owe you"

"Nono, as long as I can get those teeth later I'm happy" I said gesturing to my jar of oddities.

"Alright, but don't hesitate to ask if you need anything else in the meantime"

"Will do"

"Good" she smiled again, before nestling down into her blankets. Sure enough, it didn’t take long before I heard the slow and steady breathing sound of a sleeping Cally. Some time later Paige carefully entered the dorm, mindful of the possibility of her dorm mates sleeping. She looked tired, but I wasn’t sure what she’d been up to while Cally and I were in the greenhouse. She’d probably been planning more with Oliver. I made a mental note to ask her what more they had come up with, at a later time. Instead I settled for giving her a “welcome” smile, before tucking myself in and officially going to bed.