when i met you

110

With Valentine's day on February fourteenth, also came quidditch practice. Angelina had been insisting for weeks that they'd be doing a full day of practice on the Hogsmeade visiting day. Alexis, Alicia, Katie, and Ginny had all spent hours trying to talk her out of the decision, claiming that it was Valentine's day and a Hogsmeade weekend! But Angelina didn't seem to be giving any signs of letting up... or so they thought.

Finally on the thirteenth, Angelina confessed that she would let them have the afternoon to go out to Hogsmeade if only they spent seven hours from 5 AM practicing. Begrudgingly, the team agreed.

So, here's where they found themselves as early as 10AM on Valentine's day of all the cursed days. They'd already been at it for five consecutive hours, and right about now they could spot a few students gathering in the stands to watch them out of interest. Perhaps they were the younger students who weren't permitted to go to Hogsmeade yet, or the older ones who just didn't want to.

Among those now seated in the stands, Lexi could see Lee, Fred, George, Cedric, Amber, and Rolf all there watching. She smiled internally as she continued to perfect Jack Sloper's form with the beater's bat and how he flew. The whole team was already tuckered, and the thought of Lexi going out with Cedric to meet Hermione and Harry later seemed exhausting.

Eventually though, Angelina called practice off an hour early due to "good work". Lexi then raced off with the girls to shower and change before meeting Cedric and their friends in the entrance hall. Of course, there were eight of them, Rolf and Katie wouldn't be joining them.

The afternoon was nothing too special, just the big group of friends laughing and dancing their way through Hogsmeade, enjoying their time together before they all left soon. When Lexi saw her brother walking into the Three Broomsticks, she and Cedric left the group to follow him inside.

Hermione was waving at them from the other side of the room, Harry, Luna and another woman were with her too. Rita Skeeter, ex-journalist of the Daily Prophet was sat at the end of the table. As the two seniors approached the table, they could hear the end of a strained conversation between Hermione, Harry, and Rita.

Lexi narrowed her eyes as she sat beside Hermione and Luna, Cedric with Harry, "Rita."

"Alexis, dear, oh good to see you!" the sarcasm in her voice was dripping so thickly that the Gryffindor was surprised it wasn't pooling on the table.

"Can't say the same, Rita," said Alexis as she a Cedric sat—Cedric beside Harry.

"Do you have an obsession with my name or something?" asked Rita.

"Funny. I should be asking you that considering how many times you've printed it," Lexi fake smiled.

"Anyway!" cut in Hermione. "You're here to interview Harry and Cedric, not hit out accusations at each other."

Rita rolled her eyes and turned back to Harry.

"So you actually stick to it, do you, that He Who Must Not Be Named is back? You stand by all this garbage Dumbledore's been telling everybody about You-Know-Who returning and you being the sole witnesses?"

"We weren't the sole witnesses," snarled Harry. "There were a dozen-odd Death Eaters there as well. Want their names?"

"I'd love them," breathed Rita, now fumbling in her bag once more and gazing at him as though he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. "A great bold headline: 'Potter Accuses...' A sub-heading, 'Harry Potter Names Death Eaters Still Among Us'. And then, beneath a nice big photograph of you, 'Disturbed teenage survivor of You-Know-Who's attack, Harry Potter, 15, caused outrage yesterday by accusing respectable and prominent members of the wizarding community of being Death Eaters...'"