Hogwarts Host Club

Sunday morning was rather slow for the Host Club students, Rachel had returned to find a party in full swing, the Gryffindor common room crowded and noisy. She had gone straight to bed, and woken up the next morning feeling rather tired and confused. She dressed and went down into the common room, and collapsed face-down on the couch before the fire. She heard a round of applause, and turned her face to see Harry Potter come down the spiral staircase, looking utterly miserable. His sad eyes swept the common room, and without a word he headed for the portrait hole. Rachel sighed, clearly he had not put his name in that goblet.

Annette and Michael were already at breakfast when Rachel finally decided to go and get something to eat. Brie was at the Slytherin table talking with Jesse, Kristie was chatting with Ashley and some other Hufflepuffs about Cedric Diggory. Lindsay was more than likely still in bed, and would probably stay there all day. Rachel looked over at the Slytherin table, but noticed Edward wasn’t there. She was spotted looking by Malfoy; he gave her an appraising look before frowning slightly and returning to his cereal. Rachel smirked and shook her head; he was a bloody tart sometimes.

Saying she wanted to go to the owlery to send her parents a letter, Rachel left the table and exited the Great Hall. She made her way then to the paved courtyard, where most of the Slytherins spent most of their time. Edward wasn’t there either. She did however find Professor Kellie, telling off the Weasley twins for putting Sticking Charms on doorways, so that anyone who walked through it would get stuck in the doorway and block traffic.
There was also the added hilarity that anyone who tried to push through the doorway would get stuck as well, causing a build up of bodies until someone removed the charm. Rachel slowly made her way over, and waited until Kellie had chased off the twins before greeting her.

“What happened to you last night? You didn’t come to the Grand Opening.” Rachel pointed out, watching the twins pelt some Slytherin first years with Dungbombs. Kellie sighed, with a half smile.

“I was in Professor Snape’s office all afternoon, actually.”
“What on earth were you doing in there ALL afternoon?”
“Um... cleaning to tell you the truth.”

Rachel was not convinced. Kellie looked somewhat sheepish, and held up her hands. She had several bandaids on her fingers, and patches of her skin looked burnt. Rachel’s eyebrows shot up.

“He was teaching me a new way to brew difficult potions, and I melted the cauldron... I was in there for the whole afternoon manually cleaning everything, because the potion prevented me from doing it magically.”
“I can imagine Professor Snape was not too pleased that his office was flooded with melted cauldron and potion.” Rachel said, trying not to laugh. Kellie scowled, and tucked her wand away up her sleeve. A group of Beauxbatons students crossed the courtyard, their posture perfect, their noses upturned. Rachel rolled her eyes, muttering about ‘fairy princesses’.

She bid Kellie farewell, telling her there was going to be a guest-free Host Club meeting this afternoon at three. She made her way through the doorway that led to the shortcut to the Transfiguration courtyard, and then she went through another shortcut to get to the Grand Staircase. Eventually she returned to Gryffindor tower, and found Annette reading by the fire.

“Hey, wanna go play some Quidditch?” Rachel asked, smiling evilly as Annette regarded her through narrowed eyes.
“Okay, who else is gonna play?” Annette asked, setting her book aside and looking around the common room. Michael bounded down the spiral staircase looking thoroughly pleased with himself. From the smoke now issuing from the boy’s dorm, he had set something on fire. The smoke subsided, and Lindsay appeared, covered in ash and looking livid. Everyone laughed.
“Let’s go and find everyone, we’ll have a full game if we’re lucky!”

***

Sure enough, the entire host club turned up to play Quidditch. Even Kellie decided it would be fun to have a match or two. Teams were drawn out of a hat, and the results were –

Annette, Ashley, Lindsay, Jesse, Lauren, Ruby and Renee on the Black Team, and Rachel, Michael, Kristie, Brie, her younger sister Pieta and Kellie on the White Team. Rachel’s team was one short, and they were debating what to do when Jesse spotted a spectator, and went to see if they wanted to play. She returned within minutes.

“Lookie what we have here. I went and caught myself a Von Rüch.” She said with a smirk. Sure enough, Edward followed close behind Jesse, his Firebolt tucked safely under one arm. He smiled at the crowd, Rachel smiled brightly in return. The two teams split up, to sort out who would play which position.

The White Team decided to have Michael as Keeper, Brie and Pieta as Beaters, Rachel, Kellie and Kristie as Chasers and Edward as the Seeker. The Black Team chose Jesse as their Seeker, Annette as their Keeper, Lauren and her friends were the chasers with Ashley and Lindsay as Beaters.

The entire Host Club knew Ashley was about as much a fairy princess as Professor Snape was, she had broken bones with her Beater’s bat before.
The Teams put on the spare robes they had made for their games, and took to the air. The Quaffle, Bludgers and Snitch were released, and the game began. They didn’t even notice that the Weasley Twins had come with Ron and Ginny to watch, they had magically made their voices louder to commentate for the match. Within minutes a small crowd had come to watch, cheering on the Host Club members as they began the game.

“The Quaffle is taken immediately by Lauren Aster, a young Ravenclaw Fourth-Year. A neat pass to Ruby Sterakoff, back to Aster, stolen by Rachel Aster, older sister of Lauren and Gryffindor Sixth-Year. Don’t underestimate her, she might look innocent, but get on her wrong side and – Ahh Ten points for the White Team! Rachel scores!”

The crowd cheered as the Black Team gained possession of the Quaffle. Rachel signalled to Kellie and Kristie. They, along with Brie and Pieta, formed a tight arrowhead formation and swooped around the stadium, confusing the Black Team and effectively gaining possession of the Quaffle. Lindsay whacked a Bludger at them, but it was easily deflected by Pieta.

This time Kellie scored, after dodging another Bludger and effectively getting the speeding Quaffle past Annette. The crowd was still growing, and cheering loudly at the same time. Even some of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students had come to watch. Ashley and Lindsay rocketed the length of the pitch, chasing the Bludgers and bashing them towards the White Chasers. Rachel had to hang upside down on her broom to avoid the first one, and shrieked as the second missed her head by a hair. Edward dropped down beside her to pull her back onto her broom.

“Thanks.” She said breathlessly, running a hand through her hair with a shaky smile. Lindsay was laughing, doing loop-da-loops in the air before zooming around the pitch again. The score was now Black 90 – 30 White. The Black Chasers were working in tight formation, followed by Jesse as she watched out for the Snitch.
Then it all happened. Very, VERY quickly. There was a flash of gold to Jesse’s left, but before she could even tell what had happened Edward rocketed past her in hot pursuit of it. She urged her broom forward, but Edward was already too far ahead. The Black Team scored twice more in that small amount of time, but it made no difference. Edward seized the Snitch, and the game was over. The crowd was on its feet, roaring with applause. The White Team had won, 180 to 110. Both teams landed on the grass and shook hands, Rachel was practically bouncing up and down in delight, hugging Edward as he was thumped on the back by everyone from the Host Club. It was smiles all around, they seemed to have finally decided he was alright – for a Slytherin.

***

Edward joined the Host Club in their room for their meeting, sipping sweet tea and munching on fresh cakes as the Host Club debated on the theme for their next party. The first task of the Triwizard Tournament was taking place on the twenty-fourth of November, they had now – twenty three days before the task. Everyone was chattering and arguing, Annette and Kristie writing all valid suggestions down to keep track of everything. Edward sighed, and set down his cup. Rachel soon came over and sat down beside him. She looked at him through narrowed eyes.

“Edward...?”
“Yes?”
“Have you ever considered actually joining the Host Club?”

Edward nearly choked on his cake. He looked at her with what he could only imagine to be a very alarmed expression. She laughed, helping herself to a cake.
“You’d be really good, I know. You’re really good looking, and would do really well. Only if you want to, that is...” she added, looking away. Edward stopped to think about it for a minute, before setting down his cake as well.

“You want me to join? To become... a Host?” he asked in a low voice. Rachel turned to look at him. His eyes were downcast, he looked... afraid. Afraid that the others wouldn’t accept him as one of them. Rachel smiled, and rubbed his shoulder. He looked up at her, and then at the others. They were all watching him, smiling, laughing... They didn’t look hostile anymore. Jesse came and sat on Edward’s other side, Kellie stood behind him.

“We would love it you would join us.”Jesse said, and the other Hosts agreed. Kellie ruffled his hair, laughing. Rachel reached into her pocket and extracted a small badge, one that matched hers, and every other Host’s.

“Welcome to the life of a Hogwarts Host!”