Romuald · Rants

Well that was bloody brilliant! I should never have doubted handing over my position as Beater to Trengrove. She and Blaire absolutely dominated the field with their bats. The match was long, and bloody, but in the end we won, 160 to Nothing. I even managed to score a goal, which quite surprised me as I've never had much confidence in myself as a Chaser. MacGlory, of course played as well as he always does. He spotted the snitch early and kept after it until it was in his hand. Scrounge was right, I will do whatever it takes to win. One down, two to go.

Dear Mum,

The term ended well. Slytherin won the House Cup, due in no small part to the essays that Scrounge and I wrote. And, I managed to get myself elected Captain of the Quidditch team. Not a bad way to end the year at all.

I'll working for professor Carrigan again this summer, but I' going to spend some time in London first. I finally saw Georgiana. I won't write about that now, but need to talk to you about it soon, in person.

I ate a scoop of every flavor that Glacier Mountain has to offer. Having tried them all, I still like vanilla best. But I think I've had enough ice-cream to last me a while.

Hope to see you soon.

Love always,

Romuald

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Dear Mum,

I'm sure by now the school staff has let you know that I've lost a few points for Slytherin house. Please don't be overly concerned. I have gained more points than I've lost, and my grades are better this term than last, so far. I'm sure you can tell from the enclosed picture that I've grown quite a bit since I saw you last. That's to be expected, of course. I'm not as tall as Dad, but I think it won't be much longer.

Georgiana and I are as close as ever. We've been making plans for the future along with our mutual friend, Alfie Scrounge. I don't want to say too much about it in case this owl is intercepted, but I think you'd be impressed. I'd like to tell you all about it in person this summer.

Both the Daltons and professor Carrigan have extended an open invitation for you to visit, or I could come home if you think that would be alright. I miss you terribly and we have so much to talk about. I know that you would love the Daltons. They are among the kindest people I have ever met and they've taken very good care of me other the past year or so. So well, in fact, that I can afford to send a bit of money home. I hope it will help.

I think about you everyday, and try to do my best to make you proud of me. As always, I love you dearly and hope to see you soon.

Romuald

My quidditch skills continue to improve with each practise. This time last year I could barely catch a quaffle if it was thrown straight at me, and I was a bit scared of bludgers. This year the quaffle seems to just fall into my hands, and the bludger and I have become sanguine partners.

I knocked Rhian off her broom so hard I thought I'd killed her. Since I learned in my first aid class this summer that ice was good for blunt injuries, I dumped a bucket of ice on her, and it worked! She revived immediately. But ice has unexpected side effects as well. She was NOT at all happy.. hinted that she might toss me off the team. So.. from now on I'm leaving first aid to the upper year Healing Arts students, at least until I learn some anesthesia spells.

Georgie and I played a bit of a bludger duel just for fun. She's really a very talented beater if she only knew it. She nailed me hard a couple of times, and wanted to keep playing after she took a bludger to the face. I insisted that we stop of course. I didn't want to split her other lip as well.

After Georgie went in for some bruise balm, Scrounge and I started up a game of Monkey-in-the-Middle with Est Howell. I could tell Scrounge's heart wasn't in the game though. Distracted by his girl troubles I guess. Being stuck in the middle for the greater part of the game didn't improve his mood at all. I took the opportunity to observe Howell's strengths and weaknesses. I'm sure we'll be discussing those at our next practise.

I need to talk to Prof Carrigan about getting bloodstains out of linen hankies. I seem to be going through them rather quickly this week.

Well.. I've been so busy I haven't had time to sit down and collect my thoughts.

Astronomy class was interesting. It seems the new crop of firsties are of the same mind as me when it comes to constellations.. why limit ourselves to the ones the Greeks described. It was encouraging to hear them coming up with new names for the old patterns. Even Soong seemed to be getting into it. Maybe there's hope for this subject yet.

Slytherin House is coming together in a way we haven't really done before. We're determined not to place last in the House Cup this term. The real benefit for me though is in Scrounge's tutoring. I need to see if I can pin Arche down about the French lessons as well. I'd like to continue where we left off last term, if he isn't too busy with NEWTs of course.

The Harvest Fair was amusing. I feel like I should have spent the day working on my essays instead, but Georgie wanted to go, and I didn't want to disappoint her. We get so little time together as it is. She fell asleep during the hayride and missed the stories. She woke up in time for the spooks though, which gave me an excuse to hold her tight, even with the prefects watching.

Defence class was an interesting experience today. I could tell right away that the extra tutoring and practice are having results. I wish Scrounge could have been there to see me levitate that desk so I could disarm Fionnuala. I thought it was rather clever myself. Unfortunately Mme Cleaver decided it was against the rules, so I was disqualified for it. But I was still the last one standing, and in the real world, that's what counts.

It would have been nice if the third year team had been rooting for me, but at the end they were cheering on Fin against me, because she's in their same house. I guess I should get started on that essay about team-tactics in dueling. First tactic: remember which team you're on; no one likes a turncoat. No fault to the firsties, they put up a good fight, and in the end, their team was stronger than ours, because they acted as a team.

I shouldn't have been surprised to find Georgie in the Greenhouse when I went to work on my Herbology studies. It's the first time we've had a chance to be alone since the new term started. We talked about the special plans we made last summer, where and how and when. And then she wanted to talk about costumes for the Halloween party. I don't know why my idea made her sad, but it did. I'm sure we'll come up with something clever. There's still loads of time.

When I got back to Slytherin Commons I realized I still had all the gillyweed grubs in my pocket, so I put them in a jar, which seemed to catch everyone's attention. I guess they thought the grubs were for a prank, and I let them go on thinking that. It doesn't hurt to keep the housemates on their toes now and then. I bet Rhian will be up all night worrying about what I'm up to.

Scrounge seems pleased with the results of my defence practise so far. I still need to work on the fancy stuff a bit more, but its the basics that really matter, and I'm doing well with those, I think. He and Taylor and I had a long chat about dating in and out of house. They gave me a bit of teasing about seeing a Hufflepuff girl, but they both seem genuinely happy for me. I don't think I could date another Slytherin like Scrounge and Ciarra are, and I got the hint that Taylor may have her eye on a Gryffindor. Eeew!

I settled the deal with Scrounge. He's going to tutor me in Defence Against the Dark Arts. So I have sent to Dervish and Banges for a practice-wand as similar to my own as possible, and I will spend some time every afternoon repeating basic drills over and over until he thinks I'm ready to move on to the next lesson. Quickness come from familiarity, and familiarity comes from practice, practice, practice.

So, first quid practice of the new term and Rhian invited Scrounge and me to take shots at her with the bludgers. He wanted to wager on it, so I put my new bat against a promise of "Nothing more than ten hours' labor ... whatever it is. And nothing life-threatening ... or embarrassing." Nor Astronomy essays either, because Rhian heard the whole deal. I won with a solid hit that sent her to a hot bath. Now how can I best torment make use of Scrounge within the bounds of his agreement? Must sleep on it. Maybe Taylor will have a suggestion.

Well, that's the end of a busy summer. I thought I'd be bored until school started up again, but this has been the best summer of my life. I rode the train back with Georgiana, just enjoying the last few hours of freedom together. At the sorting ceremony we had to go to our own house tables of course. I could see Meslana and Mollie looking toward the Slytherin table and whispering, but I don't know if they were looking at me or Kamarov. The wave from Georgie was for me though. After the ceremony I walked her to the Hufflepuff commons and then went on down to the Slytherin dorms to get my things unpacked. Rhian was holding a meeting in the commons, trying to encourage everyone to work harder for the House Cup this year, and recruiting for the quidditch team. Saoirse was trying to catch my attention. I need to make it a point to talk with her soon.