“I'm going to throw a party tomorrow night. Ya know, to kick off this whole 'sober until we win the Cup' thing.”

“I thought you were going to abstain from sex?” Nicholas asked, hoping that he wouldn't have to walk in on Lonan this year. Yeah, there were curtains around all the beds, but just hearing someone have sex in the same room you're in is...disconcerting.

“Yeah, that was my original plan. And then I saw Zelda walk past two or three times and it has given me serious pause about that. Have you [b]seen[/b] her ass?”

There was a slight awkward pause, the kind that always came up the first few weeks of school until people readjusted to how Lonan spoke and behaved after a summer away from him. And then Lonan remembered what Nicholas was talking about, and trundled on like nothing had ever happened.

“I don't want to go to the feast. I'm just gonna stare at that Quidditch Cup all night, up there with those damn gold and red ribbons when anyone with half of a goddamn brain stem knows that [b]we[/b] should have won that Cup, but...”

And he stopped and took a few deep breaths because he could feel the anger churning around his stomach, and he didn't want to start screaming about Quidditch until the first practice of the year, or at least until the team was in the Slytherin common room later that night. He changed the subject.

“What have you all been up to this summer?”