Game of Survival [HARRY POTTER and SHADOWHUNTERS]

Toward the end of September, Kavya had something entirely new to worry about.

Quidditch trials were approaching. And fast.

She spent every spare second with Theo or Enzo or Draco or the other Slytherins who had decided to help her practice.

It wasn't that she was bad, but Ilvermony didn't have a team and the only time she played was when she was messing about with her friends. It meant that she was good at almost every position - but she wasn't great at any of them.

There were seven people on a Quidditch team: three Chasers, whose job it was to score goals by putting the Quaffle (a red, soccer-sized ball) through one of the fifty-foot-high hoops at each end of the field; two Beaters, who were equipped with heavy bats to repel the Bludgers (two heavy black balls that zoomed around trying to attack the players); a Keeper, who defended the goal posts, and the Seeker, who had the hardest job of all, that of catching the Golden Snitch, a tiny, winged, walnut-sized ball, whose capture ended the game and earned the Seeker's team an extra one hundred and fifty points.

Slytherin was down a Chaser and a Keeper now that Graham Montague, a seventh-year, quit the team so that he could focus on his studies (something that everyone had tried convincing him against) and Miles Bletchley had graduated.

Assuming everyone who was on the team, stayed and kept their original positions, and Theo assured her that they probably would, she focused on training to be a Chaser. Being a Keeper had sounded appealing until she saw just how seriously Hogwarts took Quidditch, and Marcus Flint had to spend a night in the infirmary with Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, nursing his 'areas' after a particularly grueling practice session.

Marcus Flint, the Slytherin Quidditch captain, divided everyone who wanted to try out into four groups with ten people in each. She was in the last one and had to wait all morning at the edge of the pitch with Theo who kept trying - and failing - to distract her.

"There's no need to be nervous." He stated simply, elbowing her softly in the ribs. "You're really quite good."

"I'm not." At his raised eyebrow, she rushed to clarify, "Nervous, I mean."

"Good. You have nothing to be scared about," said Pansy coming up behind them with Daphne in tow.

"Good luck, Kaye," Daphne smiled when her group was called to the pitch.

It was time.

>>>

Kavya was, in fact, very nervous. She wasn't sure of how she did, so when Marcus called her name for the newest Chaser, she was pleasantly surprised.

"Now introducing," Theo began, drumming his hands across a wall for suspense, once they entered the Slytherin common room, "Slytherin's newest Chaser!"

"At least, you didn't put all our practice to waste." Enzo congratulated her. "Good job."

She beamed at him, and was instantly cut off by Draco throwing her a box. She barely managed to catch it before it hit her square in the face.

"At least we know you'll never be Keeper," be laughed, and she rolled her eyes, looking at the sealed box.

"What's this?"

"My mum sends chocolates every so often. These rascals," Draco referred to the rest of the Slytherins who either got mock-offended, protested, or laughed at his use of word, "tend to fight over every single piece. You got Chaser, so you get first pick."

"Wow. I'm honored." She peeled open the plastic cover of the box and opened it to see an array of sweet treats as well as an ornate card detailing how each sweet had a different flavor. It was clearly super expensive.

She chose a raspberry cream chocolate - a combination she had never even thought of. Kavya bit into it and almost moaned at the delicious rich taste, and passed the box over to Blaise who stuffed three different ones into his mouth and then grimaced at the taste.

"Oh, that was quite possibly the worst decision I've ever made."

>>>

Kavya's favorite class quickly became Potions. Professor Snape seemed to like her and he never liked anyone. There were a couple potions she hadn't learned before so she did have to spend a few sessions with him during her free periods to catch up.

Nobody really liked Care of Magical Creatures, which, after the action-packed first class, had become extremely dull. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence. She was now spending lesson after lesson learning how to look after flobberworms, which had to be some of the most boring creatures in existence.

Transfiguration was fun, although she knew Minnie was watching her with a hawk's eye and giving her extremely protective father detailed reports of everything she did.

She also spoke to her Ilvermony friends on an almost day-to-day basis and when, one morning during breakfast, Snowy dropped a decent-sized package into her lap from Ava, her absolute bestest friend in the whole world, she opened it right there.

What was that?

She pulled out a dark-green walkie-talkie that came with absolutely no instructions or context whatsoever. She hadn't used one since she was seven but obviously she was meant to talk into it, but she doubted the signal would work so far away from its partner.

"What's that?" Asked Pansy.

Kavya held the device up for everyone to see. "My friend from my school sent it. It's like a radio that you can talk into and someone with the matching set can hear you and talk back."

"Hogwarts is your school." Draco scowled, suddenly annoyed.

"What?"

"Hogwarts is your school now. Ilvermony's your old one."

She raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, that's what I meant." She turned to Pansy, "Anyways, if I press this button and talk into it, we can both talk to each other despite not being together." She pressed the button and spoke, "Hello?"

There was a crackle and then a voice she hadn't heard in a month responded. "Hello? Kavya? Over."

Kavya gasped. "Ava? Can you hear me? Over."

"Loud and clear, over."

She let out a squeal. "Oh my god!" She got up from the table and then looked back at everyone who was staring at her. "I'll join you guys in a bit."

She didn't wait for a response and hurried away from the dining hall and outside into the field.

"Ava? How is this even working." There was a long pause and then she remembered what she was supposed to say. "Over."

"You better be grateful." Her friend's voice came over the speaker. "I spent my pocket money for the last two months and all the birthday money I had saved up. Turns out, asking someone to spell something they don't know how to, is expensive. Over."

"Oh my god. I swear I'll pay you back. This is the best thing I've ever gotten. Why are you still up? Isn't it like midnight in your time? Over."

"Three am." She could hear the threat in Ava's voice loud and clear. "And if you even think about giving me money for a gift, I'll feed Pinky to Bubbles."

Pinky was Kavya's bright pink plushie. Needless to say, she wasn't great at naming things.

Still, she gasped. "You wouldn't."

"I would and you know it."

They both laughed at that, and moved on to talk of more trivial things, like the latest R-21 horror movie that Ava had snuck into and was promptly kicked out of, who in Ilvermony was dating whom, and if Zeke - a boy who Kavya had never ever in her life had ever had a crush on or felt any kind of romantic feelings for - had asked about her.

>>>

“What’s happened?” she asked Gregory and Vincent, who were sitting in two of the best chairs by the fireside and completing some star charts for Astronomy. 

“First Hogsmeade weekend,” said Enzo, pointing at a notice that had appeared on the battered old bulletin board. “End of October. Halloween.” 

“Excellent,” said Theo, who had followed her through the portrait hole. “I need to visit Zonko’s. I’m nearly out of Stink Pellets.”

"What's even at Hogsmeade?"

"There's a sweetshop that's rather good, and Zonko’s Joke Shop’s frankly dangerous and amazing. Oh, and the Shrieking Shack’s always worth a visit. It'll be easier to say what's not at Hogsmeade." Pansy answered.

"But you have to get your permission slip signed. Your dad did it, didn't he?" Daphne asked and Kavya nodded. "Good. Rumor has it that your aunt and uncle didn't sign your brother's and now he's stuck at school."

Kaye frowned a bit at the 'your' aunt and uncle and 'your' brother. "Really? Why wouldn't they?"

Daphne shrugged. "Beats me. At least we get to have fun and he doesn't."

>>>

Pansy was right. Hogsmeade did have everything. It looked like a postcard with the little thatched cottages and shops, and Halloween decorations on every available surface.

They all piled into Honeydukes first, shivering slightly from the cold. There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizbees, the levitating sherbert balls that Blaise had mentioned; along yet another wall were “Special Effects” sweets: Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps (“breathe fire for your friends!”), Ice Mice (“hear your teeth chatter and squeak!”), peppermint creams shaped like toads (“hop realistically in the stomach!”), fragile sugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons.

When they left, buying as many Fizzing Whizbees, Jelly Slugs, Acid Pops, and so many other sweets - including a disgusting-looking Cockroach Cluster that Theo bought and ate on Draco's dare and promptly threw up -  they could hardly carry everything. And it was just their first stop!

They headed up the street, Pansy and Theo introducing everything.

“That’s the post office-” 

“Zonko’s is up there-” 

“We could go up to the Shrieking Shack-” 

“Tell you what,” said Blaise, his teeth chattering, “shall we go for a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks?”

So they crossed the road, and in a few minutes entered the tiny inn. 

It was extremely crowded, noisy, warm, and smoky. A curvy sort of woman with a pretty face was serving a bunch of rowdy warlocks up at the bar. 

“That’s Madam Rosmerta,” said Theo. “I’ll get the drinks, shall I?” he added, a little smirk on his face. 

The rest of them made their way to the back of the room, where there was a vacant table between the window and a dancing skeleton. They pulled up several empty chairs and crowded them around the small table.

Theo came back five minutes later, with six foaming tankards of hot butterbeer floating in the air behind him. “Happy Halloween!” he said happily, raising his tankard. 

Kavya drank deeply. It was the most delicious thing she’d ever tasted and seemed to heat every bit of her from the inside.

Unfortunately, they spent far longer than they thought they would at the Three Broomsticks and by the time they finished their butterbeers and almost half of all the treats they had bought, it was time to go back to Hogwarts for the Halloween feast.

The Great Hall had been decorated with hundreds and hundreds of candle-filled pumpkins, a cloud of fluttering live bats, and many flaming orange streamers, which were swimming lazily across the stormy ceiling like brilliant watersnakes. 

The dinner was delicious; Kavya who was full to bursting with Honeydukes sweets, managed second helpings of everything.

The feast finished with an entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts. They popped out of the walls and tables to do a bit of formation gliding; Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, had a great success with a reenactment of his own botched beheading.

It had been such a pleasant evening that when Draco shouted through the crowd as they all left the hall, “The dementors send their love, Potter!”, she laughed with everyone else.