A/N: Not a direct continuation of the last one. We jump ahead a bit here.

"Chloe, you hate Quidditch." Aubrey Posen has been Chloe's best friend ever since they ended up sharing the same train car during their inaugural journey to Hogwarts. Best friends, right from that first 'Hello', because Chloe had just known. She has sort of a sixth sense about these things.

"I've never said I hated it." She points out, fiddling with the ends of her hair in an attempt to get them to lie properly against her robes.

"You've never said you liked it." Aubrey shoots back, stalking over from her side of the bedroom and batting Chloe's hand away. "The second you step outside the wind is going to mess it up and it'll still look amazing, so for the love of God, please stop." There's a hint of genuine ire to her voice and Chloe pouts at it, turning to take the blonde's hands in her own.

"Bree," she whines, "why are you so grumpy?" Aubrey's mouth falls open with a scoff of disbelief.

"I don't know, Chloe." She barks, but doesn't pull her hands away. Chloe tries not to smile. "Could it possibly be because I'm being dragged to a Quidditch match against my will by someone who doesn't even enjoy the sport, when I'd much rather-"

"Be making out with Jesse?" Chloe interrupts, mischief sparkling in her bright blue eyes. "Or Stacie?" She frowns, feigning intrigue. "Did you decide who you're going to ask to the Yule Ball yet?" Aubrey's face turns beet red and she snaps her mouth closed with an audible click. Chloe squeezes her hands with a triumphant grin and, knowing she's won this round, lets go. She walks over to her bedside table and opens the drawer to pull something out.

"Absolutely not." Aubrey gasps, outraged, when Chloe turns back to her. She throws out a hand, pointing a furiously accusatory finger in the redhead's direction. "Chloe, this is unacceptable and I must- oh my God, it glitters?!" Chloe can't help but laugh at the way the pitch of Aubrey's voice devolves into a squeak at the end and she lays the scarf on the end of her bed to admire her handiwork.

It's a typical Slytherin scarf, all dark green and twin lines of silver, but there is one thing that is going to make it stand out even more than the fact that it's a Slytherin scarf; the bold, shimmering letters that appear when Chloe lifts it up. The ones that spell out 'MITCHELL'.

"Isn't it awesome! Hermione helped me find the spell for it." Chloe beams, watching the name come to life as she flicks the end of the scarf to make it roll in a haphazard kind of wave across the bed.

"It..." Aubrey is shaking her head in a way that Chloe knows usually precedes a meltdown of some sort. "You can't wear that! I forbid it!" Chloe raises her eyebrows, grin still teasing her lips.

"You forbid it?" She scrunches up her face and Aubrey has enough grace to at least appear sheepish. To be fair to her best friend, Aubrey is a fiercely loyal Gryffindor, it's actually been quite problematic in the past, and Chloe knew this wasn't going to go over well. She'd just hoped that her obvious enthusiasm and excitement would win the blonde over.

"If you walk into the stands wearing that, you're going to be hexed. And I'm going to be standing next to you!" Chloe laughs, carefree and easy, and ignores the way Aubrey bristles at her easy brush off.

"No one is going to hex us, Bree. It's just a dumb scarf, who cares?"

"You've really never been to a Quidditch match before, have you?" Chloe shrugs at the question.

"My dad took me and my brother when we were little. But not since then, no." Aubrey sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. After a few deep breaths, she releases the hold with a flourish of her fingers.

"You are going to owe me big time." Chloe squeals and throws her arms around her best friend. Aubrey accepts the exuberant hug with an audible 'oof' and another, slightly less exasperated sigh. "She better be worth it, Chloe." Chloe only hugs her tighter.

Beca had only tried out for the Quidditch team because Jesse had badgered her obsessively until she'd finally given in and agreed to go. She was never supposed to actually make the team.

But then, things rarely go as planned for Beca Mitchell.

This is supposed to just be another match. Granted, any meeting of the houses of Sytherin and Gryffindor are never just anything, but in the grand scheme of things this match isn't special. It's not supposed to be. But when Beca turns her broom around, pointing it towards the Gryffindor stand to find Jesse and give him her customary pre-game middle finger wave, suddenly all that changes.

It's the glittering that first catches her eye, easily visible but by no means blinding – because the person holding it would have taken something like that into consideration, Beca can just feel it – and the green and silver stand out with painful clarity amid the sea of scarlet and gold. The red hair is next and that's just about when she nearly falls off her broom from shock.

Because she'd know that shade anywhere.

Chloe Beale is sitting in the Gryffindor stands, waving a Slytherin scarf with Beca's name on it above her head, like it's something she does at every game. It is not. She's probably being glared at by everyone else around her and Beca can see the redhead's smile from halfway across the field; Chloe doesn't care.

Heart thumping loudly in her ears and hands feeling a little numb where they're gripping her broom handle, Beca's flying towards the stand before she's conscious that she's moving at all. Chloe's eyes are already on her when Beca gets close enough to catch them and her approach makes the redhead wave the scarf even more exuberantly. The blonde at her side grabs at the arm closest to her, trying to drag it down to Chloe's side, but she won't be deterred. Beca pulls up at the front of the spectator house and Chloe jumps down from the bench she's on, skipping over the two in front of her with the scarf around her neck and catching herself with her hands at the barrier. Her fingers curve around the ledge, one on either side of Beca's hand where she's resting it to steady herself and close enough for Chloe's thumbs to brush against her skin.

"Hey!" The greeting leaves Chloe's lips as a breathless giggle and the grin lighting her face is more than enough to make Beca mirror it. Or attempt to, because no one else can smile quite like Chloe. In a way that spreads warmth through Beca's chest and makes her feel a little dizzy. She tightens her grip.

"What are you doing here?" She manages to ask after what feels like an embarrassingly long time spent staring at Chloe with her mouth open. Her eyes flick to the scarf. "And in that?" Then back to Chloe's face. "Do you have a death wish?" Chloe rolls her eyes in a manner that absolutely delights Beca.

"You and Aubrey aren't so different, you know." But the delight is short-lived, then she's back to gaping at Chloe, sputtering her offence.

"You take that back!" But Chloe only laughs and some part of Beca hates how much she loves the sound of it. Because it means she's in deep, and while she can admit to herself that she's sort of had a thing for Chloe for, well, forever, this whole burgeoning friendship thing happening between them is definitely turning that 'thing' into something more specific. Chloe covers Beca's hand with both of hers, eyes the same colour as the cloudless sky overhead staring unabashedly into ones that match midnight.

"You know, she's not so bad once you get to know her." Chloe squeezes her hand, making no effort to move them away, and Beca tries valiantly to tamp down on the Cornish pixies that have just decided to take up residence in her chest. She tries to mask her nervousness with an eyebrow raise.

"I'll just take your word on that one." Chloe tuts her disapproval and Beca's attempt at bravado sways violently when she considers her next words, swallowing convulsively and resisting the urge to pull out of Chloe's grasp. "Are you... um, I haven't seen you here before." And immediately wants to fly into the ground because wow, that sounds like a line. Chloe doesn't seem to notice though.

"Well, that's because this is my very first time attending a Hogwarts' match." She picks up Beca's hand then, glancing down as she idly plays with her fingers and Beca's grip on her broom handle turns deathly.

"Did-" her voice cracks and she feels heat scorch a path to her cheeks, lighting them up like Christmas, and of course Chloe's attention is brought back up by that, of course it is, "uh, why are, why now?" Chloe offers her a small shrug and wrinkles her nose as she shakes her head, and Beca thinks her hand might be sweating.

"Because now I have a reason to come." Her tone suggests that this should have been obvious to Beca. It might in fact be the least obvious thing Beca has ever encountered. Maybe she fell off her broom and she's actually unconscious right now. "After all, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't show up to support the best Chaser in the school?" She winks at Beca then, and the brunette doesn't know which makes her more embarrassingly giddy, that or the fact that Chloe just called herself her friend.

"Um..." Beca trails off, blinking stupidly at Chloe's smiling face and trying not to think about how knowing that smile seems. Somewhere behind her a whistle blows, an attention-grabbing sound that signals an imminent start to the match and serving as a call to all players to take their positions. Beca turns to watch her teammates fly towards the sound and feels an unexpected tug on her arm. When she twists her head back around, there's an instant where her eyes widen as Chloe's face swims out of focus, and then the press of lips against her cheek pulls an honest to god squeak from her. One which Chloe obviously hears because when she pulls back, it's with a laugh. But it's pretty and pleasant, rather than mocking, and if Beca's cheeks weren't burning before, they sure are now.

"For luck." Chloe explains easily and, with a wink, lets Beca's hand go with one final squeeze. "You might want to close your mouth though. All the luck in the world won't help you if the snitch flies in there." Beca immediately snaps her jaw shut, teeth clicking almost painfully, and then Chloe's waving her away with a smile that Beca's going to feel for days.

She has to tell herself to turn three times before her arms pay any kind of attention, tilting the broom down and to the side, and once she's a good few feet away she turns back to find Chloe once more sitting in her spot. Waving a small Slytherin pennant in front of her.

And if Beca makes a few mistakes, if she fumbles the Quaffle a bit more than usual and still finishes the match with a dumb smile on her face, no one could really blame her.