Among the Stars

    Ravenclaw’s first Quidditch match of the year was, as usual, against Hufflepuff. Wisteria sat in the stands with her friends and they all cheered loudly as Shannon was announced. The Hufflepuffs entered the pitch second and Wisteria momentarily stopped paying attention to listen to a comment Christine was making about a cute player she had been talking to before the game.

Halfway through the comment however, she is interrupted by the announcer introducing the Hufflepuff team members. “There are three new players on the Hufflepuff team this year. Fifth year Abraham Grimblehawk taking the place of the Keeper, Sixth year William Alderton taking the place of a Beater, and the only one every girl in the school cares about, Second year Michael Alderton taking the field as the new, and extremely attractive, Seeker!” The entire stadium seems to erupt with excitement, but Wisteria hears none of it as she numbly watches her old friend fly onto the Pitch.

Her friends looked at her with concerned written on their faces, but she waved them off and cheered for Shannon again. A few moments later the game began.

Ravenclaw was destroying Hufflepuff throughout the entire game, but in the end it was Michael who caught the Snitch, not Shannon. The game ended with the score being 180-170, a Ravenclaw victory. The stadium roared with lasting excitement from the match as Wisteria and her friends fought their way down to the pitch to congratulate Shannon on the victory. Along the way they ran into Lily and her friends, who were fighting their way down to congratulate the players as well.

“That game was amazing!” Lily yelled above the noise of the crowd.

“I know! That was the best game yet!” Christy agreed.

“Who knew that Michael could play like that?” Marlene questioned. “I mean, on top of a beautiful face and being the smartest kid at the school he’s also good at sports? I’ve never met a more perfect human being.”

“Speaking of which, I heard you guys aren’t talking any more. What happened?” Alice asked Wisteria.

“He’s being an idiot.” Penelope says. “I mean really, look at Wisty. Only an idiot would walk away from that.”

    “Don’t listen to Pen. He’s just got some problems in his own life he needs to work through and wanted some space to do that.” Wisteria explains

    Penelope laughs. “Yeah right.”

    Finally the group had finally gotten to the field and found Shannon who came running up to them, face flushed.

    “We won!” She yelled. “I mean, I didn’t catch the Snitch, but we still won!”

    “We know!” Jane says, laughing.

    “You looked good up there, better luck with the Snitch next time.” Lily said.

    “Thanks!”

    “Hey, Shannon was it?” William Alderton asks as he approaches. Shannon looks up and nods her head. “Don’t feel too bad about not getting the Snitch this time, my brother is just naturally amazing at everything. You’ll get it next time, I’m sure of it.”

    “Thank you.” She says, flustered. As soon as he walks away her friends start squealing at bugging her about her obvious crush on him.

    As the other girls fawned over the sixth year Beater, Wisteria slipped away until she found Michael making his way towards the school.

    “Michael!” She yelled as she ran up to him. He didn’t turn around, but he did stop walking so she could catch up. She ran around the front of him, but he refused to meet her eye. “You played great out there. Good job catching that Snitch.” He doesn’t respond beyond a little bit of mumbling. “Anyway, I hope you liked your birthday present. I’ll see you around, maybe we could meet up in the Kitchen sometime?”

    Wisteria walks away from him to get back to her friends and sighs. He hasn’t gotten any better yet, but she held onto her hopes that he would come around soon. As she pushed him out of her mind, the Prewett twins ran out of the crowd and up to her.

    “Hey Wisteria!” Fabian yelled to her.

    “Boys!” She waves to them as they come to stand on either side of her.

    “If I’m not mistaken you and Lily have a birthday coming up.” Gideon says.

    “You are not mistaken.”

    “Perfect. In that case we’ll be giving you your present soon.”

    “How soon?”

    “Right now if you’d like.”

    Wisteria considers for a moment whether she wants whatever it is now, or on her actual birthday. “Okay. You wouldn’t happen to have it on you, would you?”

    “No, but we can move up to the Gryffindor common room for a few minutes so I can run to our room and grab it.” Fabian says.

    “Am I allowed in your common room?”

    “I don’t see why not. Come on, I’ll lead the way.”

    Wisteria and Fabian start walking, but both quickly stop when they realize Gideon isn’t following.

    “I’m going to stay out here a while longer.” He tells them.

    “Okay. We’ll catch up later.” Fabian says as he and Wisteria continue on their way.

    “I don’t think I’ve ever been with only one of you. It’s a little strange.” Wisteria tells him.

    “I suppose so. It’s not a bad thing is it?”

    “What?”

    “Being alone with me.”

    “Oh, no, not at all. I was simply stating the fact that I never had been.”

    “I saw you trying to talk to that Michael kid early. It didn’t look like he was responding much.”

    “Yeah. We were friends last year and we wrote to each other throughout most of the summer, but then one day he just… stopped responding. And now he wont talk to me at all.”

    “Do you have a crush on him?”

    “I did. We haven’t talked in so long now though… I really just want my friend back.”

    “I’m sorry.”

    “It’s fine. It’s not as if you had anything to do with it. Anyway, how’s school going for you two?”

    “It’s going fine. We’re still getting detentions at least once a week, but we aren’t failing any classes yet, so there’s that.”

    “You know you could always just stop pranking people and speaking out in class. Then you wouldn’t get as many detentions.”

    “We can’t just stop having fun. I mean, what is it that you do for fun? There’s no way you just sit there and study all the time.”

    “I sneak out a lot actually.”

    “What? But you haven’t ever had a detention.”

    “Why would I get a detention if I’m never caught?”

    Fabian laughs. “I never would’ve thought of you as rebellious.”

    “I wouldn’t really consider it rebellious.”

    “Well I don’t think that I believe it. I might need some proof of that rebellious streak.”

    “I told you, I wouldn’t say that it’s rebellious at all.”

    “I still don’t believe you. You should meet up with Gideon and I after curfew one day.”

    “What?”

    “Yeah. That would be proof enough.”

    “And what do think we would do? I’m not helping you with one of your pranks.”

    “Who says we need help with any pranks?”

    “I didn’t mean that, I just… Why would you want me to sneak out with you anyway?”

    “So that we can learn all of your secrets obviously. You say you’ve never been caught before.”

    “I don’t know if I wanna sneak out with you two.”

    The two reach Griffindors common room and Fabian says the password to open the portrait. “Well if you decide you do want to meet Gideon and I by the Black Lake at 11 pm next Friday. Now I’m going to grab your present, you can just hang out here in the meantime.”

    Fabian walks up a flight of stairs and Wisteria takes in the Griffindor common room. It isn’t insanely different from the Ravenclaw one. Everything is red and gold rather than the blue she’d grown used to and it’s more cramped than the Ravenclaw one. She plops herself down on one of the comfortable chairs near the fireplace and glances around the room again. A few minutes later Fahian comes back down the stairs with a long box in his arms.

    “Here, you don’t have to open it right now if you don’t want to.”

    “Thank you guys so much! I’ll wait to open it on my birthday.”

    “Of course we were gonna get you a present. What kind of rubbish friends would we be if we didn’t? Anyway, I’ll walk you back to Ravenclaw tower if you want.”

    “That would be great, thanks.”

    Friday night rolled around and Wisteria spent her birthday night in her dorm with her friends. She got a new quill and more parchment from Shannon, a pocket watch from Jane that was charmed to buzz when she was late for something, Christine got her a new shirt with the Ravenclaw emblem on it, and Penelope gave her some wizard money to use as she saw fit. She finally opens Fabian and Gideon’s present to her to find a broom. As far as she knows its not anywhere close to the newest model, but the present means a lot to her nonetheless. Around 8:00 at night Deedee stops by and drops off a pie.

    “Master Alderton told me to make sure you got this.” She told Wisteria who smiles to herself at the thought of his slow return to normal.

    Finally 11:00 rolls around and the girls fall asleep, allowing Wisteria to sneak out unnoticed. Along the way there she runs into Sirius, James, and Peter who are practically carrying Remus through the halls.

    “Oh my gosh! Is he okay?”

    James looks a little panicked and Peter almost falls over, but as usual Sirius keeps a cool head, showing no emotion other than confidence.

    “We think he might have eaten something he was allergic to at dinner today. Don’t you worry about a thing love, we’re taking him to the infirmary right now. And if we weren’t in a rush I might ask you why you’re out this late, but alas, we must be on our way.”

    “O-okay. Tell Remus I hope he feels better soon.”

    “Of course. Goodnight.”

    With that the three of them whisked Remus away and after allowing herself a brief moment of worry, she hurries off to the Black Lake. She can feel the new pocket watch vibrating against her, letting her know that she’s running late.

    As she approaches the lake Wisteria looks up and smiles at the full moon. The twins run up to her and hug her tight.

    “I know we said it earlier today, but happy birthday Wisteria!” Fabian says.

    “Thanks guys, but one of the best ways to avoid getting caught is not talking.”

    “A little adventure never hurt anyone. Besides, how boring would it be if we didn’t talk.” Gideon asks her.

    “Fine, but just so you guys know, if you get caught, I’m not letting myself get dragged into trouble with you.”

    “Little miss goody two shoes doesn’t want to ruin her reputation?” Fabian asks.

    Wisteria glares at him. “Are you making fun of me?”

    “N-no! Of course not!” He says, panicking. “I would never make fun you.”

    Gideon and Wisteria laugh at him and the three friends spend the next couple of hours sneaking around the school, joking, laughing, and trying their best to not get caught.