The Girl Who Lived

Celestine woke up and the first thing she sensed was the silver necklace around her neck—specifically, the one with the key pendant gifted to her by Hecate with dried blood. Why there was blood in the first place, she did not know, and frankly, she did not care.

“Hey, wake up,” Rebecca, one of her roommates, shakes Celestine intending to wake her up, “It’s Saturday!”

“And it’s also the last day of Quidditch tryouts and I want to see which deadbolts fail to make the final cut,” Another one of their roommates, Yutaka, grabbed her scarf and kicked Celestine’s blanket from her.

“This is inhumane,” Celestine groaned as she got up from her bed and scratched her head, “You’re fixing my bed.”

“As long as you get your clothes and wash up in a bathroom on our way to the Quidditch pitch,” Yutaka sang as she began fixing Celestine’s bed and made sure Celestine herself was picking out clothes that suited the chilly weather outside.

The three girls then left their dorm room as soon as Celestine got her clothes, and they walked into a bathroom nearest the Quidditch pitch.

As Celestine headed to the first empty shower stall, Yutaka and Rebecca talked about what was currently going on around Hogwarts. After all, who said you can’t be smart and nosy?

“So, I heard from some first years at Hufflepuff that we’re being called ‘the vowels’,” Rebecca told Yutaka, “That’s when I was borrowing something from Cedric, and yes, it’s us roommates.”

“We can’t help that we’re all so pretty,” Yutaka rolled her eyes as she applied lip gloss, “But what kind of freaking first years are those? We’re more like The Breakfast Club, you know?”

“What’s The Breakfast Club?” Celestine asked, patting down her jeans as if she were looking for something in it.
“It’s literally one of my favorite movies of all time. Ooh, we should watch it during the summer when you guys come over to my house!”
“How could I say no to that?” Rebecca smiled.

“Okay, okay. Are we going to watch the Quidditch tryouts now or what?”

The tryouts were something: cute, but something. Each House had its own space in the Quidditch pitch with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff having the space farthest from the Castle, and Ravenclaw and Slytherin having the nearest.

As Yutaka explained the gist of Quidditch to Celestine, the unexpected happened. Well, only to Potter, at least.

“Do my eyes deceive me or is that Draco Malfoy wearing Quidditch uniform?”

“Oh, yeah. He’s been Slytherin’s Seeker since last year, although that’s only because he bought the team Nimbus 2001s,” Arjuna said as a matter of factly before sitting down on the bleachers that were going around the pitch.

“Slytherin is also known as the most shallow House when it comes to this,” Yutaka continued and sat beside Arjuna, “But don’t let that fool you—they’re the richest House since Hogwarts was founded.”

“To summarize,” Yvonne interrupted as she reached the bleachers where the three were, “Slytherin houses the rich but corrupt families. Who are those again?”

“The Slytherins, the Malfoys, The House of Black, House of Gaunt, the Lestranges, Rosiers, and more,” Rebecca continued, “It’s always the families that have been here for a long time.”

“It all makes sense now,” Celestine jokes, “Their animal’s a serpent and it’s adorable how their background matches that.”

“I thought we were going to watch the Quidditch tryouts, not talk about Slytherin,” Yutaka jokes back, and the five roommates begin watching the tryouts for each House.

Out of all the four Houses, Celestine and Yutaka were definitely rooting for their own House, as Arjuna and Yvonne were predicting that Gryffindor was going to win the Quidditch Cup this year, and Rebecca with Hufflepuff.

“Why are you always rooting for Hufflepuff?” Yvonne asked Rebecca as the Hufflepuffs were circling the Quidditch captain, “Is it because of Diggory now?”

“Hey, there is nothing wrong with supporting your cousin’s House, okay?” Rebecca retaliates with a smile.

As the two were talking, Celestine gazed at the Slytherin Quidditch team to see who Ravenclaw’s Quidditch team was competing with this year. Nothing new about the current members and the ones trying out because they all looked the same to her: rich kids who don’t need to have worries about the world around them.

Until a Slytherin her age entered the Quidditch pitch, and something in her sensed that he was a familiar face. She only realized who it was until he grabbed his broom and flew around the air—the guy who crashed on her dorm room window!

“Warrington looks cute today,” Yvonne teased as she noticed Celestine gawking at the fifth-year Slytherin.

“Who?” Celestine snapped back to reality as she stopped looking at the Slytherin, “I was just looking to see who’s Ravenclaw’s competition this year.”

“Sure, sure.”
“Okay, I admit that he’s pretty cute,” Celestine said in defeat while Yvonne raised a fist bump in the air out of excitement, “But that does not mean I am in the mood for dating.”
“Of course not! It’s merely admiration.”
“Precisely.”

Just then and there, it was as if fate listened to their conversation when Warrington flew past them, but not without eye contact with Celestine.

A spark of excitement jolted through Celestine’s body as she saw the Slytherin land down the pitch and head to his friends, who cheered for him. It might’ve been because of his light game of Quidditch with the ones who were trying out, but Celestine was sure she sensed something more about those cheers.

She also saw that Malfoy was staring, and he did not look pleased. Could he be into her? If he was, it’d be cute, but Warrington was cuter, by a lot.