Harry potter - Next generation - Chapter I - A glorious life

A generation after the events of the 7 original books, the introduction of Jamie a terminally ill Muggle orphan who see's her acceptance into hogwarts as a chance of having a life.

CHAPTER ONE

A glorious life

Jamie woke with a peculiar, but familiar, sensation. A warm and sticky fluid was all over her pillow and face. She reached for the desk-lamp on the small bedside table, flicking the switch. Jamie closed her eyes to the sudden brightness, cursing her thoughtlessness as much as the light. It took her eye's a while to adjust and once they did to a satisfactory degree she turned around to take a look at her pillow.

It was covered in an obscene amount of her own blood. Touching her cheek and then holding her hand in front of her eyes she noticed that it was also covered in blood. Jamie also couldn't breathe through her nose, where the blood had already started to clod.

This was the third time in a week that she had woken like this. Jamie was more or less used to it, the torture like headaches she had gotten when she was younger didn't even wake her any more. But to her annoyance the disgusting stickiness and the smell of blood still did.

Well it would be worse if it didn't wake me any more I guess.

Jamie didn't mind Her Sickly condition as much as she once did, what really got on her nerves was the fact that it forced her body to gush blood out of her nose a couple of times each day.

She had learned at a young age that feeling self-pity only made it worse and that anger only increased her blood pressure and the number of times her nose was bleeding.

Jamie's situation had made her, what some would call a “sarcastic, bitter and cynical old Woman” at the age of ten. Jamie hadn't always been like this, but in her opinion the knowledge of dying fifty to sixty years earlier then most people was a reasonable enough reason.

She didn't have any friends, or had had any in the past, for several reasons; she was very pale due to the continuous blood loss; her steadily bleeding nose was really creepy and thirdly; her sarcastic and cynical nature didn't seem to appeal to people her age.

Picking up her blood-soaked pillow she left her bed for the little bathroom on the right side next to the entrance. It was the smallest bathroom imaginable, but somehow, someone had still managed to fit everything in there that was in a normal sized bathroom.

Jamie walked over to the mirror and studied Herself.

She had long blond, almost white hair, except the parts that were hardened by dried blood at the moment; and pale, ice blue eyes. It did not help that this made her look even more pale, she would look like an albino if it weren't for the blue eyes. For a moment she thought bitterly amused that the only colour she had was due to all the blood covering her face at the moment.

Not only did she look very sick because of her unnatural paleness, she was also very thin with hollow cheeks and dark rings under her eyes. Jamie had always been very small, she didn't know if it was because she hadn't grown properly because of her constant loss of blood or if she was just naturally small. She also wasn't very fit, her muscles where underdeveloped and didn't seem to grow like they did with other people. She exhausted very fast due to her crippled Internal organs. She got tired after short walks and running was an absolute taboo.

With a practised hand she started to wash her face and removed most of the blood, doing this at least once a day and sometimes even more often, she hardly noticed her hands moving until she had suddenly finished.

Jamie looked into the mirror, now considerably cleaner and able to breathe through her nose. Satisfied she picked up the pillow again and left her room. The corridor of the Hospital was dark and only the small speck from the nurses office at the far end spend any light for orientation.

Jamie wasn't scared of the dark, she often woke in the middle of the night with her face, and pillow, drenched in blood.

Knocking on the door to the nurses office she waited until a small, brown-haired woman with a kind face opened the door. The nurse looked her up and down “what's this then? Need another pillow again?”

“didn't like the colour” she answered.

The nurse smiled at her “What was it last time? Unsatisfactory resistance to moisture? you got to think of new excuses, or” she said with a small pause “you could just stop ruining your pillows”

Jamie looked at the woman blankly, she knew the nurse only wanted to encourage her, like most people Jamie's unflinching stare seemed to make her uncomfortable.

There wasn't really anything productive that Jamie could say so she just went for “I, suppose”

The older woman's smile seemed forced at Jamie's disinterested reaction, but really what was she supposed to say? That she would try to stop her lethal sickness, make a joke about her death sentence? start a philosophic conversation with someone who didn't know what It felt like to slowly rot and not being able to do anything against it?

The Nurse Gently took the pillow from her “let me get you a new Pillow dear one” and left the office for the laundry rooms behind it.

Jamie looked around at the familiar room, she had been in here many times, so many times in fact that she knew almost the whole night-time staff.

Jamie had to spent one out of three weeks in a Hospital, she didn't see the point, why would she have to go to the Hospital if her condition was incurable?

But Jamie never voiced any of her complains. At least it was better than the orphanage, no bratty children making fun of her for her paleness or the sudden blood fountains from her nose.

Jamie did not have any relatives as far as she knew, her Parent's and twin-sister had died in a car accident when she was four, she only barely survived.

Jamie didn't remember any of it, neither did she remember her parents the Doctors assumed it was due to trauma.

Later she had been told by the people who found the wreckage that everyone was dead, except a small Girl who was impaled through the chest and the back ripped open in a bloody mess. Strangely enough she survived, something people later came to speak of as medical miracle.

Jamie had been in a coma for a few months when she finally awoke in a weak and broken body. Her wounds had gotten infected, which was the reason she had not woken so long. The infection had caused irreversible damage to her inner organs, mostly her lung and she was now having frequent nose bleeds and suffered from sudden exhaustion, muscle weakness and shortness of breath.

The doctors had never seen anything like the infection that had befallen her, they didn't know how to deal with it, they tried a lot of things but nothing ever worked.

Jamie was starting to get impatient. How hard could it be to get her a new pillow?

When the woman reappeared the skin around her eyes was swollen and her cheeks were still moist where she hadn't been able to dry her tears.

The Nurse seemed to want to ignore the fact that she had obviously been crying and handed Jamie the pillow as if nothing had happened “here you go sweetheart”.

Jamie took the pillow, looked at the nurse and her red eyes one last time and left the room. The woman seriously had the wrong profession if she was crying for every person who died, was dying, or who was a walking corpse like Jamie herself.

Once back in her room she already noticed the tremble in her legs, apparently the strain of walking down the corridor twice and standing in the nurses office was too much for her.

She fell on her bed and was unable to move, she couldn't even cover herself with her Blanket.

The muffling blanket of nothing enveloped her, she didn't feel self-pity nor anger, feelings where things for people who had something to live for.

Looking at it realistically, she really hadn't.

* * *

Jamie woke with a start, she was in a bed covered with warm blankets.

Frowning Jamie examined her surroundings, she knew she had collapsed in the hospital and this was definitely not a hospital. She was in a small old fashioned room, with old wooden furniture, a large window that was slightly opened letting in a mild breeze and the floor was covered with a heavy thick carpet.

The orphanage then. There wouldn't be a carpet in the Hospital, it would just be to difficult to clean.

Jamie relieved herself of the, for someone like her, much to heavy blankets and threw her leg's over the side of the bed. She felt good, better then she had in a long time, her muscles felt relaxed and for a change (mildly) powerful.

She jumped out of bed looking down at herself, she wore a blue pyjama with, disgusting frills at the end of each sleeve.

Jamie was speechless for a moment as she stared at the frills “what the fu...”

But she couldn't go on if only for the incredulity of the whole thing, disgusted she went to rummage the closet for something acceptable to wear.

Jamie opened the cupboard and took out a pair of old, light blue, jeans which had been ripped at several places but neatly sewn back together by non other then herself and a black shirt. Jamie really wasn't a person for skirt's or dresses in her opinion they looked quite silly, especially on her, her legs looked like shrivelled dry sticks when she tried wearing them.

Once dressed Jamie went to the window and looked outside.

The Orphanage was located south of Cambridge, quite far away of any kind of civilisation, it was a place for children to run, play and explore the forest. Not that she could do any of those things. It was her little Prison in Paradise.

Most of the time Jamie was just bored, there was nothing to do apart from reading books in the library, but she had already read most of them. It had been like this ever since she dropped out of school, she had been quite good really, top of her class, but after a very severe stroke she had decided to quit.

Everyone agreed that she should spend her time the way she wanted. She would have no use for an education anyway, she would die before entering secondary school, nobody said it but everybody thought it she was sure..

Jamie looked at the infuriatingly harmonic scenery one last time, noticing that it had absolutely no effect on her and turned away. No Matter how bright the sun shone some places where just beyond it's reach, it would always seem desolate and dark to Jamie. She went downstairs, not to the kitchen but to the library, in books she could forget herself, her condition and everything else.

When Jamie opened the door to the library, nobody beside herself was there, like always, most other kids where to busy running around and bothering each other to read, Jamie wasn't sure if some of them actually could read..

With the other children in the orphanage never reading anything in the library, Jamie sometimes asked herself why they even had this room when no one ever used it, but then she decided it was irrelevant as long as she could read all she wanted.

Jamie sat down on one of the cushioned chairs and opened one of the few books she hadn't read. It was a Fantasy book in a medieval time period, with a plot revolving around a thief rescuing a prince and receiving a title of nobility and from there gradually working his way up to one of the most powerful men of the Kingdom.

She had already read several of the same kind and she enjoyed them quite much, she didn't only read Fantasy books she had also read books about history, medicine, philosophy and science. Putting it simply; she just really loved to read.

She was so focused on the book that at first she didn't notice the person who had entered the library, she looked up in time to see him hit the book out of her hands, making it spin and land underneath a desk at the other side of the library.

Jeremy was another orphan like herself, but unlike her he was a bully with the belief that his misery would decrease if he increased the misery of others, he hardly ever got to her, though he often tried.

“Well if it isn't little miss nosebleed, spending your last few days on this world with something useless like reading? Too bad you can't do anything actually fun without kicking the bucket, eh?” he asked with a smile as fake as his bravado.

“I guess a person like you wouldn't even like to read if he was able to, but who knows? maybe you'll actually enjoy it once you've learned your letters, you'll come back to me once you did won't you?”

It didn't seem to affect him, intelligent people disliked being called stupid, simple people loathed it, but people on the edge of retardation didn't even seem to notice.

"I can read just fine" he replied apparently confused through her statement.

She doubted it very much, when she had still been in class he had asked which letters to use to spell "Apple". He was giving her a headache, she had small patience for fools, even less then for normal people.

She wasn't exactly sure how to get rid of him the only idea she had was to send him to fetch something, it worked with dog's so why not with semi-intelligent humans?

"Hey Jeremy I heard they're making pancakes today if you don't hurry, they'll eat them all without you"

He smiled "nice try"

Surprised she muttered "huh, I underestiMated you, who thought that, that was even possible"

His face turned red "hey, shut up!"

"whys your face so red Jeremy? there's no reason to be ashamed of your limitations, noone will think any less of you, although that's more because I don't see how someone could still think any less of you"

Jeremy's face turned purple and his whole body began to shake "I SAID SHUT UP, YOU B***H!"

"why did you come here Jeremy? I know it can't be because you thought you'd get the better of me, even you are not that dense, do you like being made a fool of Jeremy? are you a masochist Jeremy?"

Apparently that was as much as he could take, since the next thing Jamie saw when the world came back into focus was Him sitting on her chest with his fat fingers around her throat.

Not that he sitting on her chest wasn't already enough to squeeze all air out of her lungs, he wasn't the lightest fellow in the orphanage.

She tried to get his hands of her throat, but it was useless, for someone like her it was like trying to uproot a tree with the only tool at hand being a fork.

She was already beginning to feel light headed

Weird, she had always assumed that she would choke to death on her own blood while she slept, or from a particularly heavy stroke. But she certainly never imagined being strangled by a fat Jerk in a library.

Not that it Mattered she had been living with a death-sentence since she was five, perhaps it was even better to finally get it over with, this way she wouldn't have to live only to anticipate her death.

Then again being killed by Jeremy was degrading, he couldn't even tie his own shoes for Christ's sake, and he thought he could kill HER? Jamie Saunders?

Fury bubbled to the surface of her mind, the first emotion she had felt in years, her eyes popped open and focused on a surprised looking Jeremy.

She felt... electrified, like a red-hot lightening bolt was bottled up inside of her.

With a wrench it left the barriers of her own body.

Jeremy flew back so sudden as if he'd been hit by a truck, swirled through the air and hit a shelf with enough force so that the building shook, half the books fell onto him as he unkindly crashed to the floor.

What the hell was that?

She had no idea what just happened, she only knew that she had just flung someone double, if not triple, her size across the room without breaking in sweat, with something she could only think of as telepathy.

Her throat was burning like hell and her ribs were sore and felt kind of splintered, which was probably not a good sign.

Slowly Jamie got up, she didn't feel too good, but she expected Jeremy felt downright awful, well he wasn't moving anyway. Jamie used her foot to turn him around to see if he was still breathing and the smell of burned flesh filled her nostrils there was a hole burnt in his shirt and underneath the skin was red and teaming with blisters, but the low moan coming from his throat told her he was still alive.

Not that she cared, the b*****d had tried to kill her. She looked at him for a moment and kicked him between the leg's for good measure. His only response was a tone somewhere between a cough and a whine.

She was just considering what to do next since it would be quite probleMatic if someone found her next to a boy who had obviously been burnt and beaten, when suddenly there were a couple of popping sounds behind her, much like the sound it makes when one puts their finger in their mouth on the inside of their cheek and flops it.

Jamie turned around to see seven people who where dressed in a quite misMatched fashion, who seemed to ha appeared out of thin air.

"Great, now I'm going insane"

* * *

One of them belatedly noticed her and... "Hey, who the Hell are you"

"Who am I? aren't you supposed to know when you're only a figment of my mind?"

He narrowed his eyes in confusion "wha...?"

"will we all please remember what we came here for?" A particularly bearded fellow said "She's obviously the one who did it, what are you? a first year? come on lass speak up"

A woman with Scarlett hair spoke before she could even draw a breath "Are you sure that's her? she looks a tad too confused for my sake, I think she's a Muggle"

There was another pop and an eighth person stood in the room.

The sandy haired man with a three-day beard looked at everyone in the room and said "sorry I'm late" he didn't sound sorry at all, just very tired.

"Finnigan" one of the initial seven people exclaimed "what are you doing here?"

The hook nosed woman who had been silent up till now replied "use your head Doug, where does Finnigan work? that's right he works in the department for accidental magic"

Jamie lowered her brows, she must have surely imagined it, the woman couldn't possibly believe in magic, but then again she had just seen a man Materialize out of thin air.

"but that would mean she's not a student yet!" The man exclaimed as if the very notion was ludicrous

"she isn't" Finnigan supplied.

Everyone looked at her surprised and awed.

Jamie looked back at them for a whole minute before she shouted at them "Who the hell are you people, did a field trip bus from the Special-people society break down near the compound? how come nobody's saying anything about the half-dead prick over there?" she pointed at Jeremy "how come you're all wearing dresses? and how come you" she pointed at Finnigan "just Materialize and nobody but me is surprised?"

"That's because we are all wizards" Finnigan said "and witches" he added with an apologetic look at the women in the room.

"They're all from the department for under aged magic reversal" He continued "while I am from the department for accidental magic reversal"

They were all insane, but then again he just had Materialized and then again she had just catapulted a boy three times as heavy as herself across the room, for her that definitely wasn't possible, she remorsefully looked at her bony arms.

"so that would make me a witch" already accepting the reality of the improbable insanity.

She looked at the still smoking Jeremy and pointed at him "am I going to get into trouble for that?"

Finnigan waved his hand as if to chase away a fly "it's okay I'm sure you didn't really mean to"

"oh but I did" she said "and I still think it was the right thing to do"

He looked a little disturbed by this but he said nonetheless "your intentions are as insignificant as your action here, since you fall under that jurisdiction of the Department of accidental magic reversal, you can't be held responsible for your actions since you weren't aware of your magical potential, but now that you know you're a witch, you also know that you have certain abilities, which is enough to put you on trial for under age magic."

While he had been talking the other Wizards had started moving towards Jeremy brandishing small wooden sticks, seeming to examine him.

Suddenly Mr. Finnigan stood next to her "they're going to take care of everything, why don't we have a chat while they're at it? you thirsty?" she shrugged her shoulders.

He touched her lightly on the arm and everything went black; she was being pressed very hard from all directions; she could not breathe, there were iron bands tightening around her chest; her eyeballs were being forced back into her head; her eardrums were being pushed deeper into her skull.

* * *

Lily woke with a start at the sudden brightness that tried to penetrate her closed eyelids in vigorous attacks. Moaning and thrashing in the blanket that ensnared her she tried to hide in a spot the light wouldn't disturb her any more. But her Mother seemed to have different plans for the morning.

“out of bed lazybones, we have a long day ahead of us” She said while pulling away the comfortable blanket.

Eyes still closed Lily fought vehemently for her right to sleep in, but the blanket was never returned to her. Opening one eye to spy on her surroundings she found her room empty of any other human being, her mother had already left and had taken the blanket with her to prevent her going to bed again. “good morning to you too” Lily mumbled miffed, She never had been good in the morning and always slept longer then anyone else in the house. Throwing her legs over the side of the bed she sat up with droopy eyes and ruffled hair, her pyjamas hanging askew. Lily scratched her back and yawned.

The form of her mother hushed outside her door and called “that's not very lady-like. Come on get dressed and join us at the breakfast-table”

yap, yap, yap, yap, not even a single moment of peace in the morning, Lily exhaled with a great sigh.

Resigned she undressed and moved to the cupboard, not being vain by nature she just picked the next-best underwear a pair of jeans and a black shirt with a skull on the front. Closing the door of the cupboard Lily studied herself in the mirror, She had bright red hair and a lot of freckles from her mothers side of the family and glowing, emerald green eyes from her father, he claimed his mother, her Grandmother, had had the same eyes and that it was the single dominant trait in his family. Her hair almost reached her hips and she was now pulling it back into a ponytail behind her head, Lily seemed to be an early developer she was tall for her age and even her breasts had started to grow a little, people always said she had to be at least two to three years older then she claimed.

After brushing her teeth and another, more impatient, call from her mother to join breakfast, Lily

sulkily moved down the stairs. Entering the kitchen she noticed her father and mother were already sitting at the table, so she dropped into the chair opposite of them. Lily looked a lot more like her mother then her dad, from whom she only had the emerald green eyes.

Her dad had Dark hair, round glasses and was ever so slightly smaller then his wife, which didn't seem to bother him, he was surrounded by a strange air of authority and power that demanded respect from most people. It was rare for her father to join meals this time of the year because he had to visit about half a dozen families a day, so Lily guessed there was a hidden reason behind the cosy family meal.

Her mother was the first to break the silence “Good morning sleepyhead, you may have wondered why I woke you up so early”

“not really” Lily replied dryly, it was the truth, she didn't really care she only knew she hated to get up early for whatever the reason.

Her mother smiled and told her the news anyway handing her a piece of paper “your Hogwarts letter arrived today”

Lily's brows knit together and looked at her father “I thought you wrote the letters?”

He grimaced at her “oh no, I only pick them up before I meet with the family. Write them ha! I don't think so”

Lily narrowed her eyes, there was more behind this then the letter “so that's it? That's why I was

rudely awakened so early in the morning?”

With a fake comforting tone Her mother told her “oh we know how much you need your sleep

pumpkin, but it's almost the middle of the day, your father has already taken care of two of his

errands” she added more seriously.

“we have to tell you something” her father said with for him uncommonly serious expression.

“Oh my god, you're breaking up and I have to decide who I want to live with right?” She asked only half joking.

Her father dismissed her concern with a wave of his hand “of course not, it's actually pretty obvious if you try not to get yourself worked up in a hysterical rant” he chastised her “because with you now entering Hogwarts all of us are going to be there, I accepted the position as caretaker during the summer holidays. Meaning the next seven years Hogwarts is going to be all our homes, so well be renting this house since we won't be needing it”

Lily gawked at them speechless and that didn't happen very often “y-you mean I have to spend the next seven entire years there? I might not even like it there!”

Her father frowned “it's Hogwarts. Why wouldn't you like it?”

“oh excuse me if I don't share your love for cold, dark, old buildings where every hallway actively tries to get you lost” she spat at him.

Her Mum laughed while her dad frowned “let me tell you that Hogwarts is neither cold, nor dark and for getting lost, okay I give you that but with practice you get everywhere all-right and you won't be alone like here. There will be at least two other children I know of who'll be there the whole time”

Lily wasn't satisfied “why would anybody stay there the whole year of their own free will?”

Her father considered his words for a moment before answering solemnly “not all people have

families to take care of them Lily, some of them simply don't have a choice while for others the

alternative is much worse then staying on there own” Lily deflated “well not on their own since they'll be having us” Her father added as an after-thought

Now Lily started to smile “oh no, can we really torment those poor souls like that”

Her parents shared her smile and her mother said “I think they will grow used to us”

Lily looked at her parents her morning grumpiness finally clearing up “I hope they will, or else the next seven years are going to be very long. Anyway where's my letter I want to read it”

Her father answered “your mother will give it to you, which reminds me we will have to go to

Diagon alley soon, but we'll talk about that later I have to go and speak to the next Family”

With those words he had already vanished with a popping sound leaving Lily to shake her head “I so hate it when people do that”

* * *

“Look out!“

Mat turned around when he heard the warning and received a hard hit in the right side of his face, his neck felt like it was breaking, which it would he knew if he couldn't keep himself on the broom.

- Why do bludgers even exist?

But then he thought it would probably be very boring without them.

Descending on a wobbly broom Mat had to dodge the bludger, that was coming for him again and shouted “can somebody please keep tha' ball from killin´ me?“

His voice sounded weird to him through the ringing in his ear's and he didn't like the feeling of the warm liquid accumulating inside his mouth. One of his team-Mates came to his rescue hitting the bludger towards the other beater on their team, since it was only a fun Match they had no problem with stopping for an injured player, a few other people landed with him.

“are you all-right?“ one of them asked.

Mat shrugged and touched his face “I schink ma ja isch brok...“ but he couldn't finish because there was to much blood in his mouth, he spat and received a choir of “ewww“'s.

One of his team-Mates winced “you should go inside and show your mum, before you pass out or something“

Mat, who's face was beginning to swell at a alarming speed, looked at them with his left eye (since the other one was already swollen shut) and not being able to make the sarcastic comment he wanted to throw at the boy's head. So he shrugged trying not to sigh because he just knew that was going to hurt, he was pretty much used to pain but he wasn't keen to experience more if he had to. He had often broken bones while outside, alone in the last year he had broken his right arm and leg, a few ribs and his ankle. The fast mending remedies didn't help to infuse caution in him, it actually had pretty much the opposite effect.

He started for his house at the edge of Hogsmede. Originally created by merchant's trying to sell

there ware's to the student's coming down from Hogwarts, Hogsmede had grown into a seizable

town as more and more wizard family's had started to live there due to the convenience of having their children near them when they attended Hogwarts, it deferred from the actual purpose of a boarding school but nobody seemed to care.

The settlement of a lot of new family's had also attracted many other merchant's who were selling more 'honourable' ware's then sweets and toys. There was now a whole new street of shops containing a Tailor, a book store (a smaller Flourish & Blotts), a Wand shop that received most of the Materials from Hogwarts Forbidden forest and the creatures living in it, and a dozen other shops specialising in the supplies needed for school work, it was the only place where you could get everything you needed for Hogwarts in one place apart from Diagon Alley.

The two places where so much alike that the locals had started calling the street by the nickname “Diagon´s little sister“ although when proposed the name was officially rejected by the village council.

- Why am I thinking about this? Did I hit me head or something? Oh wait right I did.

Confused and growing more worried by the minute he opened the door leading into the kitchen, he called for his parent's but his shattered and swollen jaw just wouldn't produce the sounds he wanted so he searched the house manually.

He hoped he would encounter his dad first since he was usually more easy-going with this kind of stuff, Mat's mother would probably try to confine him to his rooms before sending him to the

infirmary. Trying not to get to much blood over the kitchen floor he walked quickly through the rooms and found his father taking a nap on the sofa in the living room snoring softly, relieved Mat poked him on the shoulder.

“hmm? Whazze Matter? lemme sleep“

then he actually saw his son and was suddenly wide awake “Good lord, what happened to yer face?“

Mat rolled his eye's, well his left eye since the other one was now completely concealed by the

swelling.

“Can't ye start thinking about yer poor father when ye decide to go of and try to get yourself killed? Yer mum is going to have a fit?“ he groaned “yer mum, She'll have my head for this I just know it, right we need to get you to the infirmary fast without yer mother noticing anything.“

Then he realised something and shouted “WHICH IS BLOODY UNLIKELY BECAUSE SHE WORKS AT THE RECEPTION!“.

Mat pointed at his face urgently, indicating that this was no time to get hacked of at him, and his

father seemed to get the message.

“Right ye are, right ye are, just let me think for a moment“ He paced around the room thinking and then stopped as if hit by lightening

“we'll use floo-powder to call directly into Stan's office then he'll come 'ere and take a look at ye, er... ye should probably sit down and look like yer in pain“.

- Really! that part of it was going to be so difficult. He thought at his father sarcastically.

His father moved over to the fireplace and flicked his wand, instantly there was a blazing fire as if it had burned for a good long time, he then grabbed the urn containing the floo-powder and threw a handful into the flames, they turned green immediately and his father said “Stan Fibbing's office“.

Suddenly the head of a middle-aged man appeared, looking startled at first, but then sighted exasperated “how many times do I have to tell you not to call me in my office except for emergency's, David?“

His father reddened slightly “well this time it really is an emergency“ looking doubtful but apparently willing to give him the benefit of a doubt, asked “what is it?“.

Mat's father moved out of the way so that Stan could now see him “Good lord, you look like you took a Bludger right to the face!“

Mat tried to nod vigorously but could only manage some sort of spasm, the family doctor looked even more concerned “I'll be right there“ he said before the fire snuffed out, man of his word he almost instantly stepped through the door and strode over to Mat and knelt before him examining his face putting a few healing spells to good use. When he was finally finished examining him the swelling was still there but at least the searing pain in his jaw was gone and things felt not so out of place once again.

“nothing I can do about the swelling with my wand, though I have just the right potion, it will be

better by tomorrow morning” Stan turned to his father “I think you want to keep this from your wife again David?” He asked disapproving.

Squirming he replied “well since she has night-shift at the infirmary, I thought it would be unwise

to, eh... agitate her”

“Really? I bet it has nothing to do with the fact that she'll have your head on a plate if she ever found out” His father squirmed again “but, since it isn't my family I will not tell her about this”

That doesn't prevent you from throwing disapproving frowns though, but Mat decided to not saying anything before he actually had his medicine.

“Mat go into your room for the rest of the evening and think about how good life can be, so that you might stop trying to end it! And also don't think I'll forget about this you'll get it tomorrow”

Mat who had, and still was, thinking that his father would forget about it, left the two arguing men behind and moved to his room.

It was on the second floor, not very spacey, actually rather small (in a comfortable way). There was almost not enough room to walk, only the small Column that allowed him to open his window between his bed to the left and desk to the right, on the wall's were poster's of his favourite Quidditch team, with the flame haired, almost legendary chaser Ronald Weasly, who unfortunately had stopped playing after winning the world cup almost two years ago, without explaining himself.

Mat guessed he just wanted to remember the moment forever and didn't want to lose the memory if he wouldn't have won the next world cup. Which was unlikely since nobody had ever stopped a single Quaffle in the whole Game.

Mat walked over to the other door next to his desk that would have led him fall from the side of his home if it wouldn't have been enchanted to hold a cupboard. He dismissively threw his broom in one corner of it and peeled out of his Quidditch gear also throwing it into another corner, he let himself fall backwards on his bed, looking at the moving poster again.

- How nice would it be to play for England?

Falling rapidly asleep thinking about Quidditch, not even remembering his Jaw being crushed by a bludger half an hour before, Mat fell asleep.

Sharp claw's dug into his chest and his eye's snapped open, only to see another pair of eyes directly in front of him. He screeched and so did the owl, pecking him sharply in the swollen side of his face, as punishment for startling her.

- Stupid owl! If someone deserves punishment it's you!

But Mat apologized anyway, it was never smart to get hacked of with things that delivered your

mail. When he realised it had in fact mail for him he quickly removed the letter from it's leg. As soon as he was finished it shot him one last stern glance and flew out of the open window, scowling after the owl he closed the window and returned to his bed examining the letter. He almost dropped it in shock, but then a huge grin spread over his face. He had forgotten that with eleven a important part of his life was about to start. Placing the letter on his desk, he went back to bed and fell asleep again, this time not thinking about Quidditch, but the letter with the Capital ´H´surrounded by Animals.

Author's Note

Do your worst. (unfortunately during the transfer from the original text some of the layout has been affected, fixing it when i feel like it)