Evie knew Harry was going to dive fore it even before he did. Just the look of determination on his face, the way he gripped the broomstick--and then, of course, the way he dove downward with one hand outstretched for the Remembrall.

But then, half asleep, Neptunia stepped from behind a corner.

Evie gave a half strangled gasp. At the rate he was going, he would crash right into Neptunia!

"Neptunia!"

With no other choice, she swung her leg over to mount the broomstick properly in one smooth movement and shot down after Harry, leaning forward to urge her broomstick faster--faster--faster--faster!

She swept past Harry, her left hand outstretched as she grabbed the half-asleep cat out of the way, clutching it to her chest as she curved her broom sharply upwards hardly two inches from the ground. Below her, Harry caught the Remembrall a foot from the ground, straightened his broom, and fell gently on the ground.

"What were you thinking, you stupid cat?" She hissed at Neptunia, turning a loop-de-loop in the sky expertly.

Neptunia yawned. "I don't think I was...mrrrrrow."

"Well, have a nice nap," Evie said sarcastically. "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be waking up. As punishment, you get to stay here until I have time to come back for you." She dropped Neptunia on the highest branch of the oak tree without pausing, swerving aside as soon as she did.

She didn't miss Neptunia's "Meow" and rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"That dumb ol'--"

She leaped from her broom about a foot from the air and landed on the floor evenly, her broomstick in her right hand. She dusted off her robe crisply and glared at the people staring at her in shock.

"HARRY POTTER! EVIE MYSTIC!"

And of course who else had to be running over but Professor McGonagall?

Harry climbed to his feet. He seemed to be trembling. Evie rolled her eyes. Seriously? Was he really that worried about being expelled? Heck, Evie couldn't care less. She folded her arms (as best as she could with a Firebolt in her hand) and watched Professor McGonagall skeptically.

"Never--in all my time at Hogwarts--" She almost seemed to be speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "--how dare you two--might have broken your necks--"

"Hey, I'm an experienced rider, and I thought you knew that," Evie put up both hands. "I've been riding since nearly two weeks ago."

"It wasn't their fault, Professor--"

"Be quiet, Miss Patil--"

Evie looked amused as she realized Professor McGonagall narrowly avoided using the words 'shut up.'

"But Malfoy--"

"That's enough, Mr. Weasly. Potter, Mystic--"

"I'd prefer you call me Evie."

"Follow me. Now."

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had triumphant looks on their faces as the two of them left for the castle, acting quite the opposite. Harry walked numbly after Professor McGonagall, trudging and looking as though he were dreading the results--which he probably was. Evie stalked inside, broomstick clutched firmly in her right hand, and she still had her usual slight sashay as she did. Her face was fierce and eyes narrowed, as if she were saying 'bring it.'

They headed along the corridors, Evie's heels clicking along the marble tiles, as Professor McGonagall wrenched open door after door until she finally stopped outside a classroom. She opened the door and peeked inside.

"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a minute?"

Harry looked bewildered, and Evie twirled the broomstick in her hand absently. Oh, goody.

A burly fifth-year boy came out of the classroom looking confused.

"Follow me, you three," said Professor McGonagall, and they marched on up the corridor.

"In here."

They entered a classroom--which was almost empty. Peeves was there, busy writing rude words on the blackboard. Scowling, Evie whipped out her wand and flicked it sharply to her left, and Peeves yelped when he vanished forcefully, the chalk dropping to the ground.

Evie leaned back against a shelf, in the shadows, as Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind her and turned to face the three students.

"Potter, M--"

"I told you already, it's Evie. Mystic just sounds plain weird."

"Evie," Professor McGonagall repeated reluctantly, the name sounding foreign to her tongue. "This is Oliver Wood. Wood--I've found you a new Seeker in Potter."

Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight.

"Are you serious, Professor?"

"Absolutely," said Professor McGonagall crisply. "The boy's a natural. I've never seen anything like it. Was that your first time on a broomstick, Potter?"

Harry nodded.

"He caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive," Professor McGonagall told Wood, and Evie wondered to herself, was that fifty feet? Wow, I didn't even realize. "Didn't even scratch himself. Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it."

Wood looked mystified. "Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Potter?"

"Wood's the captain of the Gryffindor team," Professor McGonagall explained.

"He's just the build for a Seeker, too," said Wood, now walking around Harry. "Light--speedy--we'll have to get him a decent broom, Prof--"

Blam! Blam!

All eyes turned when fireworks lit up in the middle of the room suddenly.

"Can I go?" Evie asked irritably. "I told Neptunia is get her down when I had time and I need to go back for her. She's probably sick of waiting in a tree. Insane cat can't get down by herself."

"Not yet," Professor McGonagall said sternly. "I believe you're fit to be the third Chaser on the Quidditch team." {A/N: Sorry, I don't know if someone's already got that...the first game in the book only mentioned two Chasers: Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell (right?), so, yeah, I just went with it. A lot of the action happens in Quidditch, so...yeah.}

"Me?" Evie said skeptically. "You're joking, right?"

"You hardly hesitated when dropping your cat--"

"Neptunia, it has a name."

"On a tree after dropping and then rising fifty feet," Professor McGonagall went on as if she had never been interrupted. "I believe that's the kind of skill we look for in Quidditch players, and you already have a very nice broomstick, so I'd say you should do it."

"We'll have to see," Evie said absently. "But I really do have to get Neptunia down from that tree now."

She leaped on her broomstick and zoomed out the door, down the corridors.

***

"You're joking."

Harry had just finished telling Ron what had happened, and he stared at the two of them in shock. Evie didn't even know why she sat by them anymore; she supposed she just felt compelled to do it. It was dinner time, and it wasn't like there were much better places to sit, anyway.

"Seeker?" Ron said in disbelief. "You two must be like the youngest House players in--"

"In the century," Harry filled in. "Wood told me."

"That's beautiful," Evie sighed sarcastically. "But he also mentioned it being a secret, so snap it shut."

"I start training next week," Harry nodded when Ron looked at him curiously.

Then two of Ron's brother, who were twins, came down the hall, saw Harry, and hurried over.

"Well done," said one of them--a scan of the wand told Evie it was George Weasley--in a low voice. "Wood told us. We're on the team, too--Beaters."

"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch Cup for sure this year," said the other one--ah, Fred Weasley. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us.

Then George spotted Evie sitting across from Harry and Ron. "Oy, you must be Evie Mystic, right? The new Chaser for our team?"

"You must be pretty darn good for McGonagall to replace a Chaser," Fred agreed.

"Whatever," Evie flipped a braid over her shoulder. "I've only been riding for about two weeks--that was when I borrowed the Firebolt."

"Dude, you borrowed a Firebolt?" Fred said in surprise.

"That's sick!" George agreed. "Who lent it to you?"

"Ah, it was a permanent borrowing factor," Evie said with a frown. "Five-finger discount and all that. Put it in more basic words, I stole it, yeah. Whatever. Why do you care? And Neptunia--stop trying to eat Pluto! For the last time!"

She stormed over and plucked the cat up by the scruff of its neck. Neptunia hissed, swore quietly, leaped down from Evie's grip, and padded off.

***

Evie entered the chamber with the three-headed dog, Neptunia following with apparent reluctance.

"Why are we back here?"

"There's something I need to clarify."

"With the dog?"

"Yes, Neptunia, with the dog," Evie said in an exasperated tone. She held the squirming cat in front of her. "You speak dog language. Translate."

"Excuse me?" Neptunia looked horrified. "I look like some kind of sacrifice."

"You will be if you don't talk," Evie snapped.

"Fine," Neptunia huffed. "The dog said its guarding an important package that mustn't be touched."

"What important package?"

"It doesn't know," Neptunia shrugged. "It was just said to never let anyone past at any cost. Oh, and it's name is Fluffy."

"Wonderful," Evie said sarcastically. "Like that's going to help us. Whatever." She dropped Neptunia and pulled out her wand. "Let's--"

The door slammed open and then closed.

Startled, Evie forgot to put on her invisibility as she looked over her shoulder. She was even more startled to see Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville.

"What are you doing here?" She asked in an annoyed tone.

"What--what are you doing here?" Hermione asked, surprised.

Evie wrinkled her nose. "Just for some fun. But--"

At the word fun, the other four had looked up above her to the three-headed dog, who was snarling and howling. "Great, now you've pissed it off," Evie said in annoyance. "Well, I guess it can't be helped!"

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville slammed the door open and closed again as they ran back down the hallway.

Evie sighed, holding Fluffy off with one wand, curved with a purple shield. "They're so boring."

***

She was late for her first Quidditch practice the next week. This was because Neptunia had gotten itself stuck in a tree chasing Pluto (much to Evie's annoyance; she even threatened to leave it up there) and was forced to bring it back down.

By the time she stormed down to the courtyard, Wood had just finished explaining to Harry the rules and equipment of Quidditch. Both heads swiveled around to face her when she entered, scowling, tears and rips in her clothes.

"Stupid cat," She muttered, waving her wand and fixing her clothes easily. "Sorry I'm late. I know the rules--I've watched it once or twice in my life."

"Good," Wood nodded, satisfied. {A/N: If you don't know the rules of Quidditch, look in the book. I'm too lazy to write them all down. :) }

"Okay, Potter, you first. I'm going to throw these golf balls at you and see if you can catch them. Mys--"

"God dang it, why does everyone insist on calling me by my last name?" Evie complained. "It's Evie. As I said before, Mystic just sounds plain weird."

"All right then, Evie, take the Quaffle--" he handed it to her and she took it reluctantly. "And practice shooting the hoops."

"Ahhh...like this?" She pulled her arm back and pitched the ball as if it were a dodgeball (in your Muggle language) and it rocketed forward, straight and true, and right through the middle hoop. She frowned, flexing her hands and ignoring Wood's and Harry's stunned looks. "That was lighter than I thought. The way they play it on TV makes me think that thing was a hundred pounds, to say the least."

Wood broke into a grin. "We're definitely going to win the Quidditch Cup this year!"

Evie pointed her wand at it, and the Quaffle came zooming back into her hands. This time when she threw it, she tried to generate a little bit more of a spin. The Quaffle slammed through the goalpost like a mini tornado, and Evie said, "Huh. I didn't even think that was going to work. Well, whatever."

She hopped on her broomstick and zoomed around the court just for fun. Once she turned a loop-de-loop, another time she rode in zigzags--she hardly knew what she was doing anymore. But it was fun to just be in the air riding a broomstick.

She froze, her broomstick coming to an abrupt halt. Wait, fun? When did she ever think like that?

Oh no.

She dropped off her broomstick, storming across the grounds, ignoring Wood's confused shouts, over to the castle, and slammed open the door. She ignored the Fat Lady's call for the password, slipping through the door easily and slamming the door open to her room.

Hermione had just been helping Aurora on her homework, and both girls jumped when she entered.

"Evie!" Hermione scolded. "You could break the door--"

"Suck it, Princess," she snapped, grabbing a sleeping Neptunia and heading back for the door. "I don't have time for your ridiculous nonsense."

The door slammed behind her, and Evie made her way towards the forbidden forest.

There was someone she needed to talk to.

A/N: I just realized all of these chapters are remotely boring. I really need to put something to just...spice it up a bit. I don't know. If anyone has any ideas, please tell me!

~Princess_Fairytale

Word count: 2266