#twice spent comet

[ziggyschutz]

The fall from hopeful revolutionary to prison labourer is a hard one. Fer's world has shrunk from the whole damn universe to this anonymous asteroid and the four other convicts who share it with them. It's a fitting end, for someone who used to wish on stars but now can only seem to collect endings.

My first novella, TWICE SPENT COMET, is coming out December 3rd of 2024!

If you like space mermaids and found families, you might want to check this one out~

(and if you read an older version of this story, it is now about twice as long and so much better. reworking this was a lesson in healing, for me. i'm so excited and also so nervous for it to enter the world... i cannot wait to hear what you all think)

Goodreads || From the Publisher || Preorder the Ebook Paperback preorders are coming soon!

[gingeart]

moll from twice-spent comet by @ziggyschutz, which is out today !!! she's such a delightful character, i simply had to draw her <3

[siriuslygrimm]

Serendipity of Space

#BOOKREVIEW - Serendipity of Space - #TwiceSpentComet #blog

From wishing upon falling stars to being imprisoned on an asteroid the wonderous possibilities to be found in space collide in Twice-Spent Comet by Ziggy Schutz. Sentenced to imprisonment on an asteroid with hard labor to prepare it for future settlement by the rich, Fer’s world has changed drastically from what they recall of their Earth-bound life to a rather lonely existence with three other…

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in December 2024 🌈

Find these books and more here.

🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Happy reading!

❓What was the last queer book you read?

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Sugar-Coated Kisses - Echo Lark 🧡 Christmas at Watson Memorial - Clara Ann Simons 💛 Warm-Blooded - J Greene 💚 It Takes Three To Tango - Jem Wendel 💙 The Black Curse - N.A. Moore 💜 Heavenly Tyrant - Xiran Jay Zhao ❤️ Encrypted Hearts - E.V. Bancroft 🧡 Dangerous Devotion - Robin Jo Margaret 💛 Sew in Love - Rhea Fox 💙 Saint - Chani Lynn Feener 💜 Her Ladyship's Christmas Companion - Theresa Meiningen 🌈 A Sky of Emerald Stars - A.K. Mulford

❤️ Inked in Blood and Memory - Allison Ivy 🧡 The Key - Jo Morgan Sloan 💛 Home Between Homes - Flynn Woods 💚 A Kiss for the Holidays - C.S. Autumn 💙 Loving the Linebacker - Amaya Knight 💜 Close to Home - Allisa Bahney ❤️ Christmas Shelter - Eva Gonzay & Julia C. Brown 🧡 This Isn't Everything You Are - J. Marie Rundquist 💛 Keep It in the Dark - Justin Arnold 💙 Santa & His Elf - Bink Cummings 💜 On the Subject of Kittens and Mittens - Katie Silverwings 🌈 Winter's Whisper - M Bonneau

❤️ Boyfriends - refrainbow 🧡 Innis Harbor - Patricia Evans 💛 A Complementary Connection - Eskay Kabba 💚 Point of Sighs - Melissa Scott 💙 Bind You by Blood - Shepard DiStasio 💜 The Resurrectionist - A. Rae Dunlap ❤️ Fractured Dreamer - A.K. Adler 🧡 The Husky and His White Cat Shizun - Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou 💛 Becoming Disabled - Jan Doolittle Wilson 💙 A Caress of Water - Nico Silver 💜 How to Survive As a Villain 1 - Yi Yi Yi Yi 🌈 The Silent Concubine - Qiang Tang

❤️ Hadrian - Harlowe Savage 🧡 A Series of Rooms - A.J. Barlowe 💛 Inklings of Invisibility - S.L. Dove Cooper 💚 The Cobbler and His Elves - C.B. Wren 💙 A Nightclub for the Holidays - Arden Coutts 💜 Armor of Dusk - Jess Galaxie ❤️ Twisted Shadows - Allie Therin 🧡 A Deception of Courts - Ben Alderson 💛 Trial Run - Carsen Taite 💙 How to Flirt with a Witch - Tiana Warner 💜 Roughed Up - Kate Hawthorne 🌈 House of Crimson Curses - Ruby Roe

❤️ Sister Snake - Amanda Lee Koe 🧡 Roland Rogers Isn't Dead Yet - Samantha Allen 💛 The Rivals - Jane Pek 💚 Private Rites - Julia Armfield 💙 The Christmas Switch - Briar Prescott 💜 Ribbonwood - Ruby Landers ❤️ Shifting Lanes - Joanne Kwan 🧡 Twice-Spent Comet - Ziggy Schutz 💛 A Crush for the Holidays - E.L. Ough 💙 Resist - Lasairiona Lewis 💜 Free from Falling - E.L. Massey 🌈 The Legendary Master's Wife - Yin Ya

❤️ Tide Breaker's Curse - Ivy H. Marikova 🧡 Twist Her - Terri Ronald 💛 How to Fuck Like a Girl - Vera Blossom 💚 Dog Days of Christmas - Krystal Wolfgang & Kimberly Wolfgang 💙 Warmer, Colder - Alexia Onyx 💜 Salt in the Wind - Jenna Pine ❤️ What We Carry With Us - Joseff McKenneth Goodwin 🧡 Reinvention - Karol Yan 💛 Christmas Carols - Maxime Jaz 💙 I'm Not Your Pet - Fae Quin 💜 Something Extraordinary - Alexis Hall 🌈 I Might Be in Trouble - Daniel Aleman

❤️ Deck the Palms - Annabeth Albert 🧡 Don't Get It Twisted - Wren Taylor 💛 Ice & Sweet - Charlie Novak 💚 Speak EZ - Elle E. Ire 💙 The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish - Xue Shan Fei Hu 💜 Horns For Hell - Rafael Nicolás ❤️ Flamboyant Fictions - Ian Fleishman 🧡 Where the Heart Is - Jenni Simonis 💛 Sorry I Kissed Your Dad - Achilles King 💙 Merry Weihnachten - E.J. Noyes 💜 An Alpha for the Holidays - Emily Axon 🌈 The Blessed - Anne Shade

❤️ Our Sinful Love - Amy H. 🧡 Gambler's Conceit - Adara Wolf & R. Phoenix 💛 Fate and Flambe - Leena Metcalfe 💚 Figure You Out - Hannah Danielle & K.F. Starfell 💙 Amaranthine - Aricka Alexander 💜 Twisted Loyalties - Barbara J. Webb ❤️ Echoes of Us - Alex Cross 🧡 The Shadowbearer's Curse - Jasmyn Morning 💛 Too Many Beds - Various 💙 We Are the Beasts - Gigi Griffis 💜 Unspoken - N.N. Britt 🌈 Rainbows After Storms - Luka Kobachi

❤️ The Shutouts - Gabrielle Korn 🧡 Robin's Worlds - Rainie Oet & Mathias Ball 💛 What the Woods Took - Courtney Gould 💚 Rescue Me - N. Slater 💙 Seb & Ailin - Michele Notaro 💜 The International Love Story - Jonas Noelting ❤️ Waterlogged - Nance Sparks 🧡 The Guardians - Sheri Lewis Wohl 💛 The Changeling's Faerie Prince - K.D. Ellis 💙 Until at Dawn We Wake - Charlotte Dalwood 💜 How to Get a Life in Ten Dates - Jenny L. Howe 🌈 Hammajang Luck - Makana Yamamoto

❤️ The Rules of Royalty - Cale Dietrich 🧡 Tired of Waiting for Tomorrow - Allison K. Garcia 💛 One Last Run - Bryce Oakley 💚 Reckless Hearts - Jax Calder 💙 Christmissed - Blythe H. Warren 💜 How Could You - Ren Strapp ❤️ Blackened - Tyler Briggs 🧡 Gratification in Gluttony - Nik Knight 💛 The Mogul Meets Her Match - Julia Underwood 💙 How to Be Heard - Roxane Gay 💜 The Case of the Missing Maid - Rob Osler 🌈 Shades of Us - D.L. Sims

[sobblesources]

IF YOU BUILD IT , THEY WILL COME .

sentence starters taken from fall out boy's album ' so much for stardust ' . edited to fit rp needs , adjust pronouns as necessary .

❛ you know i'm dying out here , ❜

❛ what would you trade the pain for ? ❜

❛ we were a hammer to the statue of david , ❜

❛ you were the sunshine of my lifetime , ❜

❛ i'd never go , i just want to be invited , ❜

❛ i just about snapped , ❜

❛ every lover's got a little dagger in their hand , ❜

❛ i'm falling in & out of love , ❜

❛ nowhere left for us to go but heaven , ❜

❛ is there a word for bad miracle ? ❜

❛ could we please pretend this won't end ? ❜

❛ don't dare stop , ❜

❛ heartbreak feels so good , ❜

❛ they didn't know , ❜

❛ we'll cry later , ❜

❛ when you ask how i've been , i know you mean well , ❜

❛ i'm just a cherub riding comets through the night sky , ❜

❛ i love my life , ❜

❛ i guess i'm getting older , cause i'm getting less pissed , ❜

❛ you put the 'fun' in dysfunction , ❜

❛ part time soulmate , full time problem , ❜

❛ hold me like a grudge , ❜

❛ if you put your heart in it , we'll do more than just get by together , ❜

❛ take a knife & cut through the darkness , ❜

❛ remember us just like this forever , ❜

❛ do you laugh about me whenever i leave ? ❜

❛ love is in the air , i just gotta figure out a window to break out , ❜

❛ my mood board is just pictures of you , ❜

❛ i didn't the love when i had the chance , ❜

❛ we did it for futures that never came , & pasts that we're never gonna change , ❜

❛ kiss my cheek , baby , please ? ❜

❛ will you read my eulogy ? ❜

❛ i will never ask you for anything except to dream sweet of me , ❜

❛ will you still love who i am ? ❜

❛ half your life you've been hooked on death , ❜

❛ i closed my eyes inside your darkness & found your glow , ❜

❛ twice the dreams , but half the love , ❜

❛ i know i've made mistakes , but at least they were mine to make , ❜

❛ i'll be whatever you need me to be , ❜

❛ i cut myself down for whatever you need me to be , ❜

❛ there's no point to any of this , ❜

❛ i take pleasure in the detail , ❜

❛ drop a bomb on all the things we dreamed about , ❜

❛ they never came , ❜

❛ let's twist the knife again , ❜

❛ i guess to you know i'm just a face in the crowd , ❜

❛ oh god , kindly please , would you kill me now ? ❜

❛ last night i dreamt i still knew you , ❜

❛ i carved out a place in this world for two , but it's empty without you , ❜

❛ i got all this love i've got to keep to myself , ❜

❛ i can't be who you need me to be , ❜

❛ no one will remember me when they look back , ❜

❛ what is there between us if not a little annihilation ? ❜

❛ i'm a hard pill to swallow , & i'm not your intended dose , ❜

❛ i spent ten years in a bitter chemical haze , ❜

❛ that's the way the world used to be before our dreams started bursting at the seams , ❜

❛ everything's lit except my serotonin , ❜

❛ baby please , i just need someone to hold me , ❜

❛ i don't wanna be with my own thoughts , ❜

❛ i just wanna be your cherry on top , ❜

❛ when i said 'leave me alone' this isn't quite what i meant , ❜

❛ what a time to be alive , ❜

❛ split me right down the middle , ❜

❛ we though we had it all , ❜

❛ i need the sound of crowds or i can't fall asleep , ❜

❛ i'm pretty positive my pain isn't cool , ❜

❛ ache it till you make it , ❜

❛ i think i've been going through it , ❜

❛ in another life , you were my babe , ❜

❛ i used to think it'd all get better , ❜

[shycroissanti]

IRINA'S PAST💙

Based on the drawings I posted earlier, now I'm going to talk a little about Irina's past and her family.

Irina was always cheerful, but much calmer before the comet incident. She lived with her mother - Yuliya, her father - Masato and her sister - Liliya.

Yuliya was part of the demon corps, she was always very kind and the most important thing for her was to protect her two daughters, she had the dream of defeating all the demons and making the world a safe place for everyone, especially for her family.

Masato is an architect (I think, that was the first idea that came to my mind) he didn't really like his wife being involved with the work of killing demons, and Irina wanting to be a hashira was a big disappointment for him.

Irina and Liliya always followed Yuliya everywhere when she wasn't on missions. Until one cold night, it was snowing a lot, Yuliya left for her last mission... She said goodbye to her husband and her daughters. Irina and Liliya said goodbye as always, they just didn't know that their mother wouldn't return from this mission alive.

A few years passed, Liliya spent more time with Masato as she liked to be safe, meanwhile, Irina was always out of the house, spending time with Kishin or training with Kyojuro.

(At that time, Liliya already knew that her mother had died, but Irina still believed that she would return, it was just taking time because it was a long mission... but that's a detail for the future🤫)

Now, after the comet incident, Irina was even more impulsive and noisy, until her father got tired and in a moment of anger went to Irina and told her to leave the house.

When Irina questioned why, he said it was part of hashira training and for her to return only when Yuliya returned home (yes, he is a horrible father😭)

Irina left without thinking twice, and on that exact day Kishin and Yuina became demons. Since Irina couldn't return home and Kishin and Yuina couldn't stay at the orphanage as demons, the three went together to the forest, where they eventually found their home.

As soon as Liliya discovered her father's cruelty, she soon ran away from home, but as she didn't see where Irina went, she ended up getting lost, so it took a long time for her to find Irina again, she only found her after a year or two🥺

(Yuina belongs to @larz-barz :3 💖)

(Forgive me for any writing errors and thank you very much for reading❤️)

[mysticstarlightduck]

Out of Context Line Snippet Tag!

Thanks for the tag, @the-golden-comet (here)! Not really an out of context line tag but rather using this as a Writing Share Tag for a snippet I really liked to write, but here we go!

Let's go with another excerpt from Scrapyard Boys, shall we? (:

There was the sound of a door slamming, followed by the shuffle of a backpack being dropped and a few unintelligible mumbles, as the lilac-haired young adult trudged into the apartment, turning on the light.

Rhys peeked around the corner of the cramped lobby, "Uh. Hi, Adrien!" He said, a bit louder than he intended to, but that on its own didn't really matter, because as soon as he opened his mouth, the other had scrambled away so fast it looked he'd practically somersaulted back towards the door will a yelp.

Rhys' mouth turned to a thin line, still smiling by the way, as he remained planted in the entrance of the room. Meanwhile, Adrien pressed himself against the farthest corner of the room, grasping at his own shirt like an old woman clutching her peals.

After a moment of awkward, wide-eyed silence, Adrien finally spoke, panting for air, "Ok, firstly-" He looked at Rhys, then at the other twin sitting on his couch like this was just another Tuesday, and brows furrowing as he tried to grasp what was going on, "What. The. Fuck?!!"

Rhys opened his mouth to reply, but behind him, Gwyn spoke up first, "Told you that we should've turned on the light." She said, nonchalantly.

The male twin whirled around, "But if we had turned on the light he wouldn't have even walked in! Then all this trip would be for nothing, wouldn't it -" As they began to bicker, the young adult cleared his throat.

"Um. Hold on." He speaks up like an awkward student about to ask the teacher a question, "Lights aside, are none of you going to address the fact that you literally broke into my apartment. On the third floor. And didn't you guys live half a country away, at that old fucker's house? How the fuck did you even find me?"

Rhys spoke up, "That's kind of a long story," He cringed, running a hand through his tousled hair, "And in short: you left the window open so we just made a little ice stair and climbed up to here; no, because Grandma-Dearest pawned us off to a lab where we spent out past three years, and Gwyn" She waved giddily at Adrien after the mention of her name, "- May or may not have found your address after hacking into your social media account." He said it all in one breath.

Adrien blinked once, then twice. On the third time, he pinched the bridge of his nose, sighed, and shouldered past the teen standing in the lobby, "I am far too fucking sober for this shit but a'right." He sighs again, "Whatever."

Noticing that the twins seemed to still be expecting some sort of confirmation, "Yes, that means you can stay." He said, with an exasperated roll of his eyes, lighting a cigarette, "There's pizza on the fridge. I think."

Tagging (gently): @sleepy-night-child, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @smol-feralgremlin, @oh-no-another-idea, @littleladymab,

@winterandwords, @eccaiia, @sarahlizziewrites, @illarian-rambling

@agirlandherquill, @anoelleart, @ray-writes-n-shit

@writernopal, @anyablackwood, @unstablewifiaccess, @forthesanityofstorytellers

@i-can-even-burn-salad, @cakeinthevoid

@lassiesandiego, @thepeculiarbird, @clairelsonao3, @memento-morri-writes, @starlit-hopes-and-dreams and OPEN TAG

[lifeadr]

So excited to for the release party for @ziggyschutz's twice-spent comet next Tuesday at 8:30pm EST. Been such a long time coming and I can't wait to celebrate!

www.twitch.tv/ziggyschu/

[lil-oreo-crumbles]

Hey, got any thoughts about Seth?

Oh, do I ever!!

Seth is an incredibly fascinating, dominant, and looming presence in the Magic Book of Spells with the potential to be one of the most intriguing characters in the entirely of SVTFOE… that was tragically underutilized, slapped in the face, and is who I believe to be the source of the biggest missed potential in the entirety of canon.

But I do not trust the writers at all to have handled him in the show proper.

The Septarians are notoriously treated like absolute dirt. Any and all of the Septarians we meet have either been humiliated, turned into a joke, villainized beyond any humanity, and overall treated awfully. They’re portrayed as this unfeeling, violent, monster species with no (biological? cultural?) ability to forgive or forget the countless atrocities the Mewmans committed against innocent people. GEEZ, It’s not like the Septarians have enhanced longevity and experience time differently than almost EVERY OTHER SPECIES ON MEWNI with most of them FIRST HAND experiencing the atrocities other species of monsters and ESPECIALLY Mewmans see as “bygone eras of the past!!”

And even with the book alone, Seth is also lumped into this stereotype, and may be one of the worst offenders. Globgor can’t stand him and has intense bias against him (I know he talked about “Septarians” but my god we all know he means Seth to some degree. Seth is very clearly a prominent figure if not the leader of the Septarians and he’s pictured/alluded to twice in Eclipsa’s chapter), bitch Crescenta smeared his name into the DIRT in a rigged election campaign and destroyed his reputation, and Comet refused to take him seriously whatsoever (but then again it’s Comet so what are we really expecting??). He was even on the Magic High Commission’s radar, labeled as an “extremist” (which just about anything is labeled “extreme” in the MHC’s eyes so they’re not reliable narrators). He’s spat upon and repeatedly villainized. He gets no breaks or even a glimpse of humanity and everyone in the fandom after the book came out was hyping him up as this huge villain.

So, yeah, I don’t think the show would have bothered to give him any humanity or depth if he was introduced in the show proper and would have made egregiously worse the show’s already bad problem of making monsters, the historically marginalized and colonized group of people, the bad guys. (Seriously, Meteora wasn’t a “real” threat until she was revealed to be half monster. That makes me frustrated.)

I love Seth. I think he would’ve had amazing potential if put in the right hands. There’s so much to do with him and I’m mostly glad he’s been left alone so fans can interpret him in any way they want.

Now… what are my opinions and headcanons about him? What’s the story I’ve concocted?

Thankfully Seth is a character I can talk about without worrying about AU spoilers… mostly (thank god).

In my mind, Seth is someone who actually didn’t see the Great Monster Massacre first hand, hatching about 200 years afterwards (due to my timeline and how I’ve designed Septarian aging). But that doesn’t mean whatsoever that he hasn’t seen the atrocities of Mewmans. In fact, he’s been put in several situations where— while not Moe levels of genocide— he has seen the cruelest and most inhumane levels of Mewman aggression against monsters. He’s a victim of it first hand and spent 80+ years through torture after being ripped away from his homeland before finally uprising against it with his sister (oh yeah he has a sister in my AU)

He is someone who wholeheartedly earned the respect and adoration of his people. He was a leader that they wanted, not because of blood or any ties to the throne he had. (He’s by blood the Prince of Septarsis, but by the time he came back to Septarsis not many people remembered him since he had changed so much). He completely changed the governmental system and put Septarsis into its golden age.

Now this is what may get me in trouble, but stick with me… I don’t think the reputation he’s acquired is completely unfounded and blatantly untrue. YES the Mewmans and MHC are incredibly biased and we can’t take what they say at face value. They have villainized him beyond comprehension and made lies about him, but some things he’s known for have some truth to them. Seth is someone who I see as extremely trigger happy in his youth.

While a great leader and delegate, he actively seeks violence and war against Mewmankind. He is NOT, I repeat, NOT genocidal… but if Mewmans happened to disappear one day you wouldn’t see him complaining. This makes him a fun foil for Toffee’s mother in my AU, Mylanie, who’s someone who strives to end the conflict and seek lasting peace.

In the early days he was active in battle and loved fighting against his adversaries. In fact, he was the one who killed Solaria with his bare hands, dismembering her and spreading her was far as he could while keeping her head. He’s not afraid to get messy when protecting monsters or his homeland, and the stories about his violence is NOT unfounded. If anyone is perpetuating ideas about Septarian stereotypes, it’s our buddy Seth.

But here’s the important distinction, he is not going out of his way hurting innocent people. He’s not this bloodthirsty monster who’s trying to commit genocide, he’s not Solaria AT ALL, he’s just someone who sees violence as the solution and thinks peace is a waste of time.

It wasn’t until the election that his priorities changed and he actually calmed down.

However, the smear campaign with Crescenta was a huge blow. It really got him to think and consider how his actions were affecting monsters as a whole but especially his own people. He knows how much influence he has over how his people are perceived… and that’s when he pulled back. He was still active, don’t get me wrong, and gets along diplomatically with the few surviving monster civilizations, but he took a lot less of a widespread role than he used to. He took a backseat and focused on his people first and foremost, and even if he was always great at strategy, he focused on playing the long game rather than just jumping into violence. Peace with Mewmans was still firmly off the table though and is still that way to this day.

When Comet sent the invitation, he genuinely planned to ignore it. He had no intention of going to the banquet— as last time he played along with Mewman rules he got screwed— but did allow Toffee to be a representative after Toffee offered to go in his place.

Under one condition: No harm was to come to the Queen

And we see how that went…

I’d gladly go into his relationship/dynamic with Toffee but this post is long enough :). Maybe in another post!!

His “death” was a stunt to fully get him out of drama and focused on the homefront, and he was especially glad he perpetuated that lie because of how pissed he was at Toffee after Comet’s death. He’s alive and well and still in charge of Septarsis, he’s just out of the public eye because everyone thinks he’s dead (except close allies).

Overall I see him as someone who reflected what his reputation said he was until he got a huge ego blow and actually matured enough to stop being so trigger happy. He was always a great leader over Septarsis and did whatever it took to protect his people, but he had some growing up to do as well.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. My AU goes into him a lot deeper and really fleshes him out. He’s a four dimensional character with layers and depth to him. While he seems like a Mewman hating “radical” on the surface, he’s humanized and he has layers and reasonings for his beliefs and actions.

I just love Seth. A lot. He’s so silly. He’s so fascinating and I love that everyone has a different perspective of him.

Also he is Rasticore’s dad you can’t change my mind !!

Dude I could literally make a whole other post on him I love this character so much—

[otunnicliffe]

Chloe + Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone

Chapter 10: Halloween.

'Miss Evans is quite right, and if we continue on you can find out faster,' McGonagall says, breaking up the chatter immediately. 

'Let us continue on then,' Dumbledore announces.

'Mr Longbottom would you like to read?'

Frank sighed, and stood up before taking the book carefully and examining the next chapter. 'This chapter,' he announces. 'Is entitled 'Halloween.'' 

Malfoy couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that Harry and Ron were still at Hogwarts the next day, looking tired but perfectly cheerful as they sat beside the three girls. Theodore, Mattheo and Lorenzo seemed to not think twice about it. Indeed, by the next morning Harry and Ron thought that meeting the three-headed dog had been an excellent adventure, and they were quite keen to have another one.

'Bad idea,' Gwendolyn muttered. 

In the meantime, Chloe and Harry both filled Ron, Clemensia and Catherine in about the package that seemed to have been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, and they spent a lot of time wondering what could possibly need such heavy protection. "It's either really valuable or really dangerous," said Catherine.

"Or both," said Harry.

But as all they knew for sure about the mysterious object was that it was about two inches long, they didn't have much chance of guessing what it was without further clues. Neither Neville nor Hermione showed the slightest interest in what lay underneath the dog and the trapdoor. All Neville cared about was never going near the dog again.

'Poor boy,' Alice lamented.

Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron, but she was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw this as an added bonus. She was still speaking to the girls, with whom she seemed to be getting along with alright.

'That's good, I quite like this Hermione,' Gwendolyn told James.

All they really wanted now was a way of getting back at Malfoy, and to their great delight, just such a thing arrived in the mail about a week later.

As the owls flooded into the Great Hall as usual, everyone's attention was caught at once by two long, thin packages carried by six large screech owls. Chloe and Harry were just as interested as everyone else to see what was in this large parcels, and were amazed when the owls soared down and dropped the packages right in front of them, knocking Harry's bacon to the floor. They had hardly fluttered out of the way when another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel for each of them.

Chloe and Harry both ripped open the letter first, which was lucky, because it said:

DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE.

It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everybody knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one.

'Gryffindor favouritism at its finest there,' Lucius scorns.

Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your first training session.

Professor McGonagall

Harry had difficulty hiding his glee as he handed the note to Ron to read, Chloe handing the girls hers.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron moaned enviously. "I've never even touched one."

'Insane!' was all that Catherine could say, as she stared at the broom in shock. 

'That's the fastest broom available!' Clemensia then added, also looking envious. 

They left the hall quickly, wanting to unwrap the broomstick in private before their first class, but halfway across the entrance hall they found the way upstairs barred by Crabbe and Goyle, behind them were the three Slytherin boys. Malfoy seized the package from Harry and felt it. "That's a broomstick," he said, throwing it back to Harry with a mixture of jealousy and spite on his face.

"You'll be in for it this time, Potters, first years aren't allowed them." Lorenzo spoke up.

'But these ones are!' James said proudly.

Ron couldn't resist it. "It's not any old broomstick," he said, "it's a Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you've got at home, Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty?" Ron grinned at Harry. "Comets look flashy, but they're not in the same league as the Nimbus."

"What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn't afford half the handle," Mattheo snapped back.

"I suppose you and your brothers have to save up twig by twig." Theodore added, his accent adding to the harshness of his words.

Before Ron could answer, Professor Flitwick appeared at Malfoy's elbow. "Not arguing, I hope, boys?" he squeaked.

"Potter's been sent a broomstick, Professor, both of them" said Malfoy quickly.

"Yes, yes, that's right," said Professor Flitwick, beaming at the twins. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potters. And what model is it?"

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," said Harry, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Malfoy's face, matched with Mattheo's, Theodore's and Lorenzo's.

"And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that we've got it," Chloe added, smiling at Malfoy, fiening innocence.

Sirius laughed at this. 'Sassy!'

Harry and Ron headed upstairs, smothering their laughter at Malfoy's obvious rage and confusion. Chloe was about to join her brother when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle had already strode off annoyed, but Mattheo, Lorenzo and Theodore were still there. 

'What's this special circumstance then?' Theodore asked, speaking for the three boys. 

Chloe, Clemensia and Catherine all looked at each other, unsure. 

'I really don't know how I feel about those Slytherin boys,' Kimberly mumbled to Remus. 

'Ummm... because me and Harry are on the Quidditch team,' Chloe said, feeling Mattheo's stare once again on her face.

'Got a bit of a staring problem, that Mattheo,' Amos remarked. 

The three boys all looked at her in shock. 

'Wait what?' Lorenzo announced. 

'How?' Theodore asked, staring her down in jealousy. 

'Well... McGonagall saw us grab Neville's rememberall, and she took us to see the Quidditch captain,' Chloe recounted to them.

'What position?' Mattheo asked, still staring into her soul.

'Harry's a seeker and I'm a chaser,' 

Mattheo let out a low whistle at this, the other two boys still looking shocked. 'Chasers tough, can the little lion handle it?' 

'The little lion will be just fine,' Chloe retorted back, sticking her chin up a little more.

'Well we will see about that,' Mattheo said, and with that, the three of them left. 

'I'm getting a bad feeling too,' Remus told Kimberly.

The girls turned around and walked, where they quickly caught up with Ron and Harry. "Well, it's true," Harry chortled as they all reached the top of the marble staircase, "If he hadn't stolen Neville's Remembrall I wouln't be on the team...."

"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?" came an angry voice from just behind them. Hermione was stomping up the stairs, looking disapprovingly at the package in Harry's hand, she didn't even look at Chloe's.

'Yep, he's a Gryffindor that's how it works,' Severus retorted quietly.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" said Harry.

"Yes, don't stop now," said Ron, "it's doing us so much good."

Sirius couldn't help but snicker at this.

Hermione marched away with her nose in the air.

Both Chloe and Harry had a lot of trouble keeping their minds on lessons that day. It kept wandering up to the dormitories where their new broomsticks were lying under their beds, or straying off to the Quidditch field where they'd both be learning to play that night. They both bolted their dinners that evening without noticing what they was eating, and then rushed upstairs with Ron, Clemensia and Catherine to unwrap the Nimbus Two Thousands at last. 

"Wow," Ron sighed, as the broomsticks rolled onto Harry's bedspread.

Even Chloe and Harry, who both knew nothing about the different brooms, thought it looked wonderful. Sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Nimbus Two Thousand written in gold near the top. 

'I just know you'd be so jealous if you saw those brooms, James!' Arabella remarked. James just nodded, trying to imagine the broom in his mind, and how much better the brooms would be in the future. 

As seven o'clock drew nearer, Chloe and Harry left the castle and set off in the dusk toward the Quidditch field. They'd both never been inside the stadium before. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the field so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the field were three golden poles with hoops on the end. They reminded Chloe and Harry of the little plastic sticks Muggle children blew bubbles through, except that they were fifty feet high.

Both too eager to fly again to wait for Wood, the twins mounted their broomsticks and kicked off from the ground. What a feeling -- they swooped in and out of the goal posts and then sped up and down the field. The Nimbus Two Thousands turned wherever they wanted at the lightest touch.

"Hey, Potters, come down!' Oliver Wood had arrived. He was carrying a large wooden crate under his arm. Harry landed next to him, Chloe behind him. "Very nice," said Wood, his eyes glinting. "I see what McGonagall meant... you really are both naturals. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll both be joining team practice three times a week."

'Aka... the best times of the week,' James said, happy that his favourite sport was mentioned so heavily in the first book alone. 

He opened the crate. Inside were four different-sized balls.

"Right," said Wood. "Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers." He looked at Chloe as he said this.

'I can't believe one of them plays the same position as me as well! I'd be so proud of her,' James gushes to Gwendolyn, who smiles at his enthusiasm. 

'Shut up!' Severus scorned, though quietly as he was not quick to forget how mad James was at him for this book.

"Three Chasers," Chloe and Harry repeated, as Wood took out a bright red ball about the size of a soccer ball.

"This ball's called the Quaffle," said Wood, mostly talking to Chloe at this point, but with Harry still listening eagerly. "The Chasers, that's you Chloe, throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops. Follow me?"

"The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score," Chloe recited.

"So -- that's sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, isn't it?" Harry remarked. 

Arthur added 'Basketball' to his list.

"What's basketball?" said Wood curiously.

"Never mind," said Chloe quickly.

"Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper -I'm Keeper for Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring."

"Three Chasers, one Keeper," said the twins, who were both determined to remember it all.

"And they play with the Quaffle. Okay, got that. So what are they for?" Harry pointed at the three balls left inside the box.

"I'll show you now," said Wood. "Take this."

He handed Chloe and Harry a small club each, a bit like a short baseball bat. "I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do," Wood said. "These two are the Bludgers."

'I really don't like bludgers,' Gwendolyn remarked, worry painted across her perfect face. 'I've dealt with enough injuries form them with James alone!'

He showed the twins two identical balls, jet black and slightly smaller than the red Quaffle. They both noticed that they seemed to be straining to escape the straps holding them inside the box.

"Stand back," Wood warned them. He bent down and freed one of the Bludgers.

At once, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Chloe's face.

Gwendolyn's breath hitched slightly. 

Chloe swung at it with the bat to stop it from breaking her nose, and sent it zigzagging away into the air -- it zoomed around their heads and then shot at Wood, who dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground.

"See?" Wood panted, forcing the struggling Bludger back into the crate and strapping it down safely. "The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team -- the Weasley twins are ours

'To be fair, from what I've heard so far that sounds like the perfect position for them,' Arthur remarked to Molly. 

-- it's their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So -- think you've got all that?"

"Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle; the Keeper guards the goal posts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team," Harry reeled off, then Chloe did the same straight after. 

"Very good," said Wood.

"Er -- have the Bludgers ever killed anyone?" Harry asked, hoping he sounded offhand.

The room erupted into giggles at this. 

"Never at Hogwarts. We've had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that. Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker. That's you, Harry. And you don't have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers unless they crack my head open. Don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers -- I mean, they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves."

'Sound just like my brothers,' Molly lamented at the idea. 

Wood reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball. Compared with the Quaffle and the Bludgers, it was tiny, about the size of a large walnut. It was bright gold and had little fluttering silver wings. "This," said Wood, "is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot.

'Indeed it is,' James agreed. 

It's very hard to catch because it's so fast and difficult to see. It's the Seeker's job to catch it. You've got to weave in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers, and Quaffle to get it before the other team's Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win. That's why Seekers get fouled so much. A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages -- I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so the players could get some sleep.

'What's the longest we've done?' Regulus asked the room.

'The Gryffindor Slytherin last game of third year was nearly a day wasn't it?' Remus answered thoughtfully. 

'Around that, yeah...' Kimberly remembers.

''Well, that's it -- any questions?"

Harry shook his head, Chloe following soon after. Harry understood what he had to do all right, it was doing it that was going to be the problem. 

'That's fair, the snitch is the hardest one,' Kimberly says.

"We won't practice with the Snitch yet," said Wood, carefully shutting it back inside the crate, "it's too dark, we might lose it. Let's try you out with a few of these." He pulled a bag of ordinary golf balls out of his pocket and a few minutes later, he and the twins were up in the air, Wood throwing the golf balls as hard as he could in every direction for Harry to catch. Harry didn't miss a single one, and Wood was delighted. He also threw some to Chloe, who then slotted them nicely into the goals every single time. After half an hour, night had really fallen and they couldn't carry on.

"That Quidditch cup'll have our name on it this year," said Wood happily as they trudged back up to the castle. "I wouldn't be surprised if you turn out better than Charlie Weasley, and he could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons."

'Another Weasley,' Lucius scorned. 

'My son could have played for England!' Arthur remarked happily, proudness all over his features. 

'Could though, gave up to mess around with dragons,' Lucius said, a mean look on his face. 

Perhaps it was because they were both now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all their homework, but Chloe and Harry could hardly believe it when they realized that they'd already been at Hogwarts two months. The castle felt more like home than Privet Drive ever had.

'I'm happy they've got somewhere that feels like home now,' Gwendolyn sighs. 'I just wish it would never had had to be that way.' 

At this, James grabbed her hand in support. 

Their lessons, too, were becoming more and more interesting now that they had mastered the basics.

On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they'd seen him make Neville's toad zoom around the classroom. Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Harry's partner was Seamus Finnigan (which was a relief, because Neville had been trying to catch his eye). Chloe got partnered with Catherine, and Clemensia was with Dean Thomas. Ron, however, was to be working with Hermione Granger. It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this. She hadn't spoken to either of them since the day Harry's broomstick had arrived.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too -- never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

Pandora giggled at this. 

It was very difficult. Chloe so far had been the only one to have levitated the feather, about three centimetres off the desk.

'That's my girl!' Gwendolyn said happily. 

Professor Flitwik had made everyone in the class applaud, and the feather went back on the desk as Chloe's face flushed in embarrassment. 

Harry and Seamus swished and flicked, but the feather they were supposed to be sending skyward just lay on the desktop. Seamus got so impatient that he prodded it with his wand and set fire to it

More giggles surfaced at this. 

-- Harry had to put it out with his hat.

Ron, at the next table, wasn't having much more luck. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.

"You're saying it wrong," Chloe and Harry heard Hermione snap. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.

'They really don't like each other, do they?' Alice remarked to Molly. 

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads. "Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"

'Knew that would happen,' Xenophilius said to himself. 

Ron was in a very bad mood by the end of the class. "It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Harry as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly.''

Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. Harry caught a glimpse of her face -- and was startled to see that she was in tears.

'Poor girl..' Molly said, feeling angry that it was her son that made the girl cry. 

"I think she heard you."

"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."

'She's got friends, you dimwit!' Catherine said, looking at him harshly. The look was mirrored on Chloe's and Clemensia's faces.

'You're an arse, Ron... you know that?' Clemensia scorned, and with that the girls jogged to try and find Hermione. 

'At least the girls are there for her,' Arabella mentioned.

The girls quickly lost sight of Hermione however, and encountered a different sight. 

'Well well well, where is the triple C girls running off to?' An Italian accent asked, making the three girls stop and look around.

'Slytherin boys,' Kimberly rolled her eyes.

They were met with the sight of three Slytherin boys, Theodore (the voices owner), Lorenzo and Mattheo, who's eyes had yet again found Chloe's.

'What do you want, cousin?' Clemensia asked, clearly annoyed why they had been stopped. 

'Just curious as to why you called Weasley over there an arse, dear cousin,' Theodore remarked, a smug smirk present at his lips. 

'He made Hermione cry,' Chloe answered.

'And we were trying to find her until you three stopped us,' Catherine added, looking at Theodore, annoyed. 

'I thought I heard the sound of tears,' Mattheo remarked, a snide grin on his face. 

Chloe rolled her eyes. 

'Don't know why you're bothering with that girl, to be fair,' Lorenzo spoke up. 

'Why? What's up with Hermione?' Chloe asked, her brow furrowing. 

'Calm down little lion,' Mattheo jeered. 'He just meant that she's a bit of a loner.'

'I'm so glad you don't call me little lion,' Gwendolyn says to James.

'Well I'm a Gryffindor too, so I don't think it would have much weight,' James added.

'She's our friend,' Clemensia pipes up. 

'Is she now,' Lorenzo asks, not looking like he believed them. 'Then how come we see you, its just you three?'

'There's a difference between friends and best friends, Lorenzo,' Clemensia sneered, the name 'Lorenzo' coming out as if it were venom in her mouth.

'Feisty today, aren't you little lion?' Lorenzo asked, stepping closer to her so they were only a fingers length apart. 

'I swear to Merlin, she better not get with a son of a deatheater,' Sirius scorns to Arabella.

'I think you don't really have a choice in that unfortunately,' Arabella said back. 

'What did the Weasley boy do to make her cry anyway?' Theodore imputed. 

'He was being a knob because she managed to get her feather in the air and he couldn't,' Catherine explained to him. 'Her and Chloe were the only ones, and Chloe did it first anyway.

'Is that so, little lion?' Mattheo asked Chloe, a look of impression sneaking its way onto his features. 

Chloe nodded, 'And he was being mean about her.'

'Well unfortunately we've got a lesson now, so your search will have to be postponed,' Theodore says. 'We've got potions with the unfortunately greasy Snape.'

James burst into laughter at this, as did Sirius. 

The three girls burst into surprised laughter. 

'You don't like him?' Catherine asked him quizzically. 'I was under the impression that all Slytherins liked him.'

'Well Catherine, we don't' Theodore answered her, staring down at her with his intense gaze. 

'Should we go?' Lorenzo enquires the group and they all leave, speaking casually and all the tension momentarily subsiding until they reached the vicinity of Draco Malfoy and his minions, Crabbe and Goyle, when the three left the girls.

'I know I sound like a broken record, but I really don't like how close Chloe is with the son of You-Know-Who,' James saysto Gwendolyn.

Hermione didn't turn up for the next class and wasn't seen all afternoon. On their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Harry and Ron overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and wanted to be left alone. The three girls sat away from the pair, clearly still mad at Ron for his words.

'I'm mad at him and he doesn't even exist yet!' Molly remarks.

Ron looked still more awkward at this, but a moment later they had entered the Great Hall, where the Halloween decorations put Hermione out of their minds.

A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.

Harry was just helping himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll -- in the dungeons -- thought you ought to know."

'WHAT?' James shouts, sitting up straight.

'A troll?!' Arthur adds. The room erupted into loud noise from the student.

'Why in Merlin's name is there a troll?' Kimberly asks, voiced raised to be heard.

'Quiet!' Dumbledore boomed and the sound vanished almost immediately. 'You will find out, if you are quiet.'

He then sank to the floor in a dead faint. There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.

'Just like he did here, except he didn't need firecrackers,' Peter remarked to Remus. 

"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

Percy was in his element.

Arthur chuckled at his future son.

"Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders!

'Oh yes,' Arabella remarked, sarcasm clear in her voice. 'The troll won't go near them because he's in charge!'

Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through! Excuse me, I'm a prefect!"

"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked as they climbed the stairs.

"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid," said Ron. "Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."

'Not even Peeves would go that far surely.' Sirius wondered.

They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Harry suddenly grabbed Ron's arm. "I've just thought -- Hermione."

"What about her?"

"She doesn't know about the troll."

Ron bit his lip. "Oh, all right," he snapped. "But Percy'd better not see us."

Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off toward the girls' bathroom.

'Where are you going?' A female voice hissed, and three pairs of footsteps were heard. The voice, the boys found out after turning around, belonged to Chloe, with Clemensia and Catherine standing next to her.

'Talking to us now are you?' Ron snapped, clearly thinking this the perfect time to let out a snarky remark.

Clemensia's face coloured, and she looked as though she was about to say something, but Harry butted in to stop the situations boiling over, 'We're looking for Hermione, she won't know about the troll,'

'Oh my merlin!' Catherine said. 'We have to find her!' And the group of five set off without another word to do just that.

They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them. "Percy!" hissed Ron, pulling Harry behind a large stone griffin, the three girls following/

Peering around it, however, they saw not Percy but Snape.

'Why me,' Severus said, slinking back down into his bean bag. 

He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view. "What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"

'Good question, why wasn't he?' Remus asked.

'Patience, one again Mr Lupin,' was Dumbledore's only response.

"Beats me." Ron said. Quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor after Snape's fading footsteps.

"He's heading for the third floor," Harry said, but Ron held up his hand. "Can you smell something?"

Chloe and Harry sniffed and a foul stench reached thier nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean.

'The troll,' Gwendolyn said, her voice monotone, but her face showing worry. 'Of course they're gonna run into the bloody troll!'

And then they heard it -- a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. Catherine pointed -- at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight. It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite grey, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible.

'Not quite the word I'd use,' Narcissa remarks. 

It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long. The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.

"The keys in the lock," Chloe muttered. "We could lock it in."

"Good idea," said Ron nervously.

'NO, bad idea!' James said. 

'Very bad idea!' Arabella agreed. 'Leave the troll and run away!'

They edged toward the open door, mouths dry, praying the troll wasn't about to come out of it. With one great leap, Harry managed to grab the key, slam the door, and lock it. 'Yes!"

All the soon-to-be-parents of the kids in the book breathed a sigh of relief. 

Flushed with their victory, they started to run back up the passage, but as they reached the corner they heard something that made their hearts stop -- a high, petrified scream

'Oh no Hermione!' Alize said, hand covering her mouth. 

-- and it was coming from the chamber they'd just chained up.

"Oh, no," said Ron, pale as the Bloody Baron.

"It's the girls' bathroom!" Clemensia gasped.

"Hermione!" they all said together.

It was the last thing they wanted to do, but what choice did they have?

'Leave the mudblood to die, I would,' Bellatrix remarked to the other Slytherins. 

Wheeling around, they sprinted back to the door and turned the key, fumbling in their panic. Harry pulled the door open and they all ran inside. Hermione Granger was shrinking against the wall opposite, looking as if she was about to faint. The troll was advancing on her, knocking the sinks off the walls as it went.

"Confuse it!" Chloe said desperately to Ron, and, seizing a tap, she threw it as hard as she could against the wall.

'Ahh yes, piss the troll off,' Amos said sarcastically. 'Splendid idea.'

The troll stopped a few feet from Hermione. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Chloe. It hesitated, then made for him instead, lifting its club as it went.

"Oy, pea-brain!" yelled Ron from the other side of the chamber, and he threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its ugly snout toward Ron instead, giving Chloe and Harry time to run around it while Clemensia and Catherine ran straight to Hermione.

"Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled at Hermione, trying to pull her toward the door, but she couldn't move, she was still flat against the wall, her mouth open with terror. The shouting and the echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started toward Ron, who was nearest and had no way to escape.

Molly looked at Arthur worriedly.

Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid:

Gwendolyn and James both sat up, faces paling. 

He took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind.

'Well to be fair the book described it perfectly,' James said, sounding worried and pleasantly surprised at the same time. 'It was very brave and very stupid.'

Gwendolyn whacked his arm lightly for this, and he shut up.

The troll couldn't feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry's wand had still been in his hand when he'd jumped -- it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.

Sounds of disgust filled the room.

Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Harry clinging on for dear life; any second, the troll was going to rip him off or catch him a terrible blow with the club.

Gwendolyn shut her eyes, and her face paled even more. 

Hermione had sunk to the floor in fright; Chloe, Clemensia and Catherine not far behind her; Ron pulled out his own wand -- not knowing what he was going to do he heard himself cry the first spell that came into his head: "Wingardium Leviosa!" The club flew suddenly out of the troll's hand,

James and Gwendolyn both let out a sigh of relief. 

rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over -- and dropped, with a sickening crack, onto its owner's head.

A few grimaces were made accross the room.

The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble. Harry got to his feet. He was shaking and out of breath. Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, staring at what he had done. Chloe ran straigth over to her brother, hugging him closely, as Clemensia and Catherine stood there in shock.

It was Hermione who spoke first. "Is it -- dead?"

''I don't think so," said Harry, I think it's just been knocked out." He bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue. "Urgh -- troll boogers." He wiped it on the troll's trousers.

'Yummy,; Kimberly remarked, clearly not meaning it. 

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the three of them look up. They hadn't realized what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roars. A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart. Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Ron, Chloe, Clemensia, Catherine and Harry. Chloe and Harry had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white. Hopes of winning fifty points for Gryffindor faded quickly from Harry's mind.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice.

'We know that voice don't we, Prongs?' Sirius whispered to James.

Harry looked at Ron, who was still standing with his wand in the air. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitories?"

Snape gave Harry a swift, piercing look.

'Course he did,' James remarked, staring down Severus again. 

Chloe looked at the floor. She wished Ron would put his wand down.

Then a small voice came out of the shadows. "Please, Professor McGonagall -- they were looking for me."

'Awww Hermione's standing up for them!' Alice realised. 

"Miss Granger!"

Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last. ''I went looking for the troll because I -- I thought I could deal with it on my own -- you know, because I've read all about them."

Ron dropped his wand. Hermione Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher?

"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. The girls were helping me try to get away from it. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."

The other five tried to look as though this story wasn't new to them.

"Well -- in that case..." said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"

Hermione hung her head. Chloe and Harry were both speechless. Hermione was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here she was, pretending she had, to get them out of trouble. It was as if Snape had started handing out sweets.

Many burst into chuckled at this. 

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses." Hermione left.

Professor McGonagall turned to the remaining five. "Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."

They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they had climbed two floors up. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.

"We should have gotten more than twenty five points," Ron grumbled.

"Twenty, you mean, once she's taken off Hermione's." Catherine remarked. 

"Good of her to get us out of trouble like that," Ron admitted. "Mind you, we did save her."

"She might not have needed saving if we hadn't locked the thing in with her," Harry reminded him.

'And if you hadn't made her cry we wouldn't have been in this situation at all,' Clemensia reminded him, but there seemed to be no snideness to it this time.

They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Pig snout," they said and entered. The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. Hermione, however, stood alone by the door, waiting for them. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, none of them looking at each other, they all said "Thanks," and hurried off to get plates. But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend.

'Aw I'm glad,' Gwendolyn says. 

There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.

'That's the end of the chapter,' Frank remarked. 

'Thank you, Mr Longbottom... shall we continue?'

~~~~

@helendeath

[paeliae-occasionally]

OC questionnaire.

Thanks @honeybewrites for the tag.

I will be answering for Kell, Paeliae and Zahra

Cake or ice cream?

Kell: Hmm. I have never had ice cream. It would melt before it got to Daliva. I could never afford cake, but the tavern sometimes has spare food that we can eat, and once they bought a cake. It was delicious. I love cake.

Paeliae: An important question. I have to go with ice cream. It gets quite warm in Laith’Emeris and that makes cold food lovely in the summer.

Zahra: Cake. It’s more substantial. Ice cream is mainly water and it melts quickly, whereas cake you can savour and eat slowly. It is also more solid and filling than ice cream.

If you were given the choice to read minds, but you could never lie again, would you?

Kell: No. I lie a lot. It is a good skill to have. Also I wouldn’t want to see inside people’s heads. If it is important they can say it to me.

Paeliae: Yes. I think so. I can deceive in other ways than lying, besides I am mainly truthful, but seeing into someone’s mind, their intentions, loyalties. That could be invaluable for politics.

Zahra: That feels a bit invasive. I think I would still take it though, but I would ask before using it on anyone I care about.

You’re given immortality, but if anyone finds out you die. How are you keeping it a secret?

Kell: I don’t think anyone would notice. Maybe I seem to have a stronger constitution than others, so what. The only person who would question would be Xaeren, but he hasn’t known me that long. I am sure I could convince him it was normal for me.

Paeliae: If I had a choice I would never take this power. I have spent the last few years of my life arguing against immortality, the hypocrisy would not escape me. I would just live out my normal days and then tell Ander or someone, so that I may die on time.

Zahra: I would travel. Make sure no one knows me twice in their lifetime by constantly moving around the continent. They would not realise that I am the same person who came through 100 years ago.

Your Questions:

When were you most tired?

what would it take for you to give up on your goal?

What is a flaw that you have?

Tagging @saturnine-saturneight, @aintgonnatakethis, @fortunatetragedy, @fourwingedwriter and @the-golden-comet

[ziggyschutz]

So! Tomorrow my novella comes out!

Which is just wild to think about. I'm so excited I don't know what to do with myself?

But I do know what I'm doing tomorrow! I'm doing a digital release party at 5:30pm PST, over on my twitch! I'm gonna do a reading, a Q&A, maybe play some silly fun games, and do a giveaway or two, too.

I've love if you could come!

(and if you can't come but wanna talk about the novella, or my writing in general, maybe check out my discord server?)

[mishalitoforyou]

{NEVER ENOUGH}

— USELESS...YOU'RE JUST USELESS!! — That imposing figure said while hitting the table violently, making that defenseless cookie tremble, he tried to hold back his tears but it was useless...

— I-I'm sorry...I-I did my best to take care of her...I-I swore...B-But she just...j-just... — That cookie had in his hands small remains of star dust, a star had just died...due to his lack of attention...A star died because of his incompetence...AGAIN.

— IT'S THE FOURTH STAR THAT DIES IN YOUR HANDS!! I CREATED YOU SO THAT YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THEM, TO UNDERSTAND THEM, TO TAKE CARE OF THEM!! AND LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!! — That wizard hit the table again, very close to that cookie, who simply broke into tears begging for mercy.

Moonlight Cookie and the other wizards simply watched that heartbreaking scene, Moonlight Cookie wanted them to do something, but the wizards simply refused to intervene... It was none of their business... And certainly... They also agreed that Space Comet... WAS INCOMPETENT... Which tore Moonlight apart... How could his creators be so cruel to him?

— Listen to me well, useless cookie... If another star dies again... I WILL CRUMB YOU... — Said that wizard with a terrifying tone... Walking away with the other wizards, leaving Moonlight and the cookie already known as Space Comet alone.

— Space Comet-... — Moonlight tried to give her friend a hand, but he flatly refused to accept her help... He didn't deserve it... Not at all...He just run away from her...ignoring her calling...

Moonlight was just perfect... She was everything the wizards wanted... He couldn't do his job as well as she did... At this point he should be discarded... Erased...

It didn't matter what he did... It didn't matter if he spent days without sleeping or eating taking care that those delicate stars didn't perish in his care... He did the best he could... Those stars were like his children... And if seeing them die was devastating... Being scolded and blamed for it was twice as horrible... It was as if he had let his children die...

And even with all that sacrifice... With all that pain... IT WAS NEVER...NEVER ENOUGH...

Nothing he did seemed to satisfy the wizards... his creators... unlike everyone else...

HE WAS NEVER ENOUGH...

(Space Comet is Wish Comet deadname, he just suffer so much abuse and was very insecure in the past...And even when he became Wish Comet Cookie...Bad things keep happening to him)

[lboogie1906]

Gale Eugene Sayers (May 30, 1943 - September 23, 2020) was a former football player who earned acclaim both as a halfback and return specialist in the NFL. He spent seven seasons with the Chicago Bears, though multiple injuries effectively limited him to five seasons of play. He was known for his elusiveness and agility and was regarded by his peers as one of the most difficult players to tackle.

Nicknamed the “Kansas Comet”, he played college football for the Kansas Jayhawks, where he compiled 4,020 all-purpose yards over three seasons and was twice recognized as a consensus All-American. He set a league record by scoring 22 touchdowns, including a record-tying six in one game, and gained 2,272 all-purpose yards en route to being named the NFL’s Rookie of the Year. He continued this production through his first five seasons, earning four Pro Bowl appearances and five first-team All-Pro selections. A right knee injury forced him to miss the final five games, but he returned to lead the NFL in rushing yards and be named the NFL Comeback Player of the Year. An injury to his left knee, as well as subsequent injuries, kept him sidelined for most of his final two seasons.

His friendship with Bears teammate Brian Piccolo inspired him to write his autobiography, I Am Third, which in turn was the basis for the movie Brian’s Song. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and remains the youngest person to receive the honor. He was named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary Team as a halfback and kick returner, the only player to occupy two positions on the team. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame the same year. His jersey number (40/48, respectively) is retired by both the Bears and the University of Kansas. He began a career in sports administration and business and served as the athletic director of Southern Illinois University. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #kappaalphapsi

[scotianostra]

June 12th 1843 saw the birth of David Gill, the Scottish astronomer.

David Gill was born at 48 Skene Terrace in Aberdeen the son of David Gill, watchmaker and his wife Margaret Mitchell. He was educated first at Bellevue Academy in Aberdeen then at Dollar Academy, he spent two years at the University of Aberdeen where amongst his tutors was the great James Clerk Maxwell. After his education he joined the family business, but his heart was elsewhere and he later sold it to take up astronomy more professionally. Gill was one of the great astronomers of the late 19th century, and was universally recognised as such.

He made significant contributions to many areas of astronomy, including the measurement of the sun’s distance and the completion of a successful photographic survey of stars in the southern hemisphere, known as the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung. Gill is credited, along with fellow Scot, George Washington Wilson with being the first person to take a photograph of the moon in 1868 and the first photo of the Great Comet of 1882 from Cape Town as seen in the pics.

David Gill appears to be the only Scot to have been awarded the Bruce Medal for lifetime achievement in astronomy; the only Scot to have been awarded the Watson medal for outstanding astronomy by the US National Academy of Sciences; and the only Scot to have been awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society twice.

Unusually though Gill was never astronomers royal for Scotland, indeed of the 10 appointed to this post only three were Scots, quite an alarming statistic seeing as we had so many eminent men hailing from our shores.

Back to David Gill, His meticulous observation coupled with precision instrument design was Gill’s forte, in what nowadays would be known as astrometry. Gill provided a number of definitive astronomical constants used to create nautical almanacs throughout the world, constants such as the mass of the moon, the scale of the solar system, the wobble of the Earth’s axis. This led to better almanacs, helping to make navigation at sea more accurate.

In particular he spent years working out the average distance from the Earth to the sun, which is vital for calculating the scale of the solar system. This distance is the yardstick used to measure all stellar distances. He took it from having an accuracy of +/- 4% at the start of his career to within 0.1% of modern values. There is no point n just throwing numbers up there that most of us wont understand, but if I tell you that he predetermined the distance to the sun with such precision that his value was used for almanacs until 1968 I think it will put it more into perspective.

He may never have been our Astronomer Royal, David Gill did however hold the post of President in the Royal Astronomical Society, President from 1909-11. Gill passed away in 1914 aged 70 and was buried in the grounds of St Machar’s Cathedral, Aberdeen.

[iamthecomet]

Comet, when you've got the time/chance to get around to this ask, I must know how the concert was!!! I need all the details, spill the tea, please? I couldn't make it to the Milwaukee ritual so I'm living through a ritual through others and dying to know!

SCOUT. Scout, I'm so sorry you didn't get to go to Milwaukee. But, since you asked, both of my rituals were fucking incredible. I've made a couple posts about it already. But long story short. Amon Amarth is amazing (they were the first death metal band I ever REALLY liked). Ghost ruined my life (positive) twice over. Getting barrier in CT was otherworldly and I will never go back to just GA pit, or seats, again (sorry to my cousin who hates the pit, he'll be sitting alone). Not just because of my interaction with Dew, or the pick I got. The people around us were so fucking happy to be there, and we were so happy to be there, it was like being part of a big party. Could not have been better. We were off to the side so we had room and weren't crammed together, and just got to rock out with each other and with Ghost and Amon Amarth. Dew was extra bendy, extra gremliny, and extra sweet for both shows. Made eye contact with Papa a couple times which is WILD. Had a great view of Mountain for the first show--which was really sick. Got to meet a handful of tumblr friends, and also trade bracelets/other stuff with a LOT of very sweet people. Just all in all it was basically perfect. It was so good that my partner and I spent half of yesterday trying to talk ourselves in and also out of going to another one (there was serious consideration about flying to LA). It was so fucking good, and I will never recover from it and I really don't want to. ♥