Chapter 202: July 31, 1995: War & Love

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"Okay, gather around everyone," said Ivy, calling for a huddle — Sirius had given them some time to plan and discuss before the game officially started.

Team Ivy, dressed in white jumpsuits with red stripes on their chest and upper arms for ease of identification, gathered around before Ivy stepped back and Hermione took the lead. It had been so ever since Hermione first attended Potter's birthday after Ivy and Hermione had become friends, and Ivy had invited Hermione after their first year.

It was necessary because before Hermione and Ivy had become friends, Team Ivy had always been a group filled with internal conflict, with Daphne and Ivy quarreling with each other and making teamwork difficult which was why before Hermione, Team Ivy had a losing record against Team Harry. Hermione had forcibly taken the reigns after getting frustrated by the two girls' nonsensical quarreling and, in her first year, came close to winning, just losing by a hair, but the next two years, she had led Team Ivy to victory.

"Okay, let's go over the rules once, so everyone is clear about them," started Hermione, "As you can see, we are wearing white, and so is the other team, and as Sirius said, the balloons are filled with colored liquid, which would stain our clothes. So make sure to only those with green stripes."

"Next, everyone gets three hits before they are out of the game. And every time someone gets hit, they are temporarily out of the game — this not only wastes a lot of time and puts the entire team at a disadvantage because our strength decreases by one for a couple of minutes that it takes to go back to the start point and wait out for half a minute. As such, please make sure to secure your safety before going in for a risky attack."

Everyone nodded.

"To ensure some additional safety, we will be moving in groups of two. Cover each others' backs, and if your partner gets hit, try to take out the one who attacked them because that will take them out so they won't be able to attack you.. . as I said before, it takes three hits to kick them out of the game, so it will take some time to get in thirty hits."

Hermione exhaled a bit and thought about what to cover next. "Alright, next is one of the most important things," she stepped back a couple steps, turned to see the buckets filled with the water balloons near her feet, and picked one, "these balloons will be the deciding factor to who wins. As Sirius said, these balloons have a pattern to their erratic path change — the team that figures them out first will be the one to win."

A balloon each was passed on to every member to see if they could see something. "Magic isn't allowed; that means there must be a way to figure the pattern out without it," she said.

"Can we take Sirius' words for it?" voiced Ivy. "He might be 'pranking' us, and there's no pattern making it purely luck-based."

"I wouldn't be so quick to discredit your bother's godfather there, Potter," everyone turned to see Daphne holding the balloon up in her palm, "there's a square mark on my balloon; see if there's one on yours."

"Found one." "I got one too." said the Weasley twins. "Mine's a triangle." "A circle for me."

"I have a star on mine," notified Tracey.

Everyone checked their balloons and found that there were only four markings (square, star, circle, and triangle.)

"I'm guessing that the four markings decide how the balloons quirk while thrown," said Sue Li, the sole Ravenclaw in the group, "if we can figure out how these patterns co-relate with how the respective balloons move, then we can exponentially increase our chances to hit our targets."

Sue raised her to throw the water balloon but was stopped by Ginny.

"Don't," said Ginny and pointed in the direction she was looking.

Everyone followed their gaze and saw Quinn tossing and catching a balloon as he watched them with a smile on his face.

"He's tossing the balloon," said Hannah, "he's tossing the balloon, and it's not doing anything weird — did he figure out how the balloons work."

"We can't be sure," said Tracey, "he's not throwing it high enough for us to be sure."

"He probably wants us to think that he knows how the balloons work," said Ivy.

Team Ivy saw Quinn stop tossing the ball and then squeeze it tight enough to burst it and taint his hand with green liquid. Then as if appearing out of nowhere, Astoria stepped out from behind Quinn and dragged her thumb across her neck.

"What the hell," uttered Susan.

"He's playing mind games with us—" "—trying to get into our heads before the games start—" "—so devious, so shrewd—" "—we absolutely love it!"

"I have a feeling that it's not going to be so easy to win this, is it?" commented Hermione.

"That's why Harry invited him and kept it a secret from me," said Ivy, "and looks like he's already doing it," she turned to her team, "let's ignore him and don't give him the satisfaction of thinking that he's succeeding."

Daphne nodded in rare agreement, "Yes, we should try to figure out the balloons before the time ends—"

A sharp whistle pitch sounded out. Both teams turned to see Sirius with hand in hand.

"It's time, children; preparation time is over," said Sirius. "It's time to start the fun and see you all getting pelted with balloons."

Team Ivy turned towards Quinn and saw him grinning. He had successfully wasted their time.

- (Scene Break) -

Ginny Weasley and Sue Li walked in the small area specified by Sirius as legitimate competition grounds. Everyone, including Ginny and Sue, had gone in different directions towards the areas populated with trees. Team had Ivy decide to test the balloons and communicate the findings when they came across others or met each other in the waiting zone after being hit.

"Let's find a good spot and test out the balloons with us," the pockets in the jumpsuits were expanded enough to hold an adequate amount of balloons to allow them to stay for a while without needing to refill at the party area.

"Yes, I have thought of a way we could figure out the balloons fastest," said Sue in reply.

But then they heard a rustle of leaves and came out in the view were Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, and Lee Jordan from another direction, making both parties freeze when they saw each other. Almost immediately, both parties took out balloons and exchanged a round of fire on instinct before Team Harry took cover.

"We should keep attacking them," said Ginny.

"I couldn't agree more," nodded Sue.

Both girls took some cover of their own and started to throw balloons at each other whenever they got a chance, with Team Ivy being substantially more aggressive despite being a member less than Team Harry. Both parties eventually moved closer to each other to get better opportunities, and the end result of the heated exchange was Ginny and Sue taking out Seamus Finnigan and Lee Jordan in exchange for getting hit themselves.

When the exchange was over, the four people who were hit decided to walk to the party area for the thirty-second respawn area together. But not before Seamus and Lee transferred some of their balloons to Dean, leaving him alone to wander among the trees.

"That's got to be against the rules," said Ginny in a complaint against the balloon transfer.

"Sirius said nothing about the balloon transfer after getting hit; he neither denied or allowed it, so we can do whatever we want," said Lee in smug justification.

.. .

In another part of the competition zone, Hermione and Ivy tested their balloons together.

"Hey, Hermione," said Ivy.

"Hmm?" said Hermione throwing a balloon and noting its trajectory.

"There's something I want to tell you," said Ivy, and Hermione noticed the tones of hesitation and a bizarrely out-of-place shyness in her straightforward best friend.

Hermione stopped throwing her balloons and asked, "What is it?"

Ivy pursed her lips and paused a bit before speaking, "I have a bit of a crush on Quinn."

"WHAT?!"

"Shh!! Not so loud, do you want to get found?"

"Then why would you say something like that so abruptly?!"

"I mean.. . I just thought this was the right time.. . ." said Ivy, aimlessly kicking the ground.

"When.. .. did this happen?" While Hermione knew that things had approved exponentially between Ivy and Quinn to the point that both had danced with each other at the Yule Ball, but she hadn't thought things had improved so much that Ivy had developed a crush on Quinn.

"I don't know. I can't put a date on it, you know," said the birthday girl, "it just happened."

Even Ivy couldn't believe that she had developed on Quinn — the guy she hadn't liked so much in the first couple of years they had known each other. If Ivy could go back in time and tell her younger self that she would come to like Quinn, then the younger girl would suggest getting checked for a love potion.

"Okay.. . so, what are you going to do?" asked Hermione.

"That's something I wanted to ask.. .. well Quinn kissed me today, sort of."

"WHAT?!!"

"Shh! Shh! Pipe down, will you? I want to win this and establish the three-peat."

"Then why are you dropping bombs on me, girl?! And what do you mean he kissed you? When did that happen?"

".. . Well, he had just arrived and sort of kissed me on both cheeks. Quinn said he had just returned from Italy and apologized."

"Oh," was all Hermione said at first. What else could she say; she had no experience in the romantic business. "Then what do you want to do? I mean, it could be just as he said — a mistake. I mean, are we even sure he doesn't have anyone he likes.. .. he was involved with Fleur Delacour last year."

Ivy Potter didn't like the French Veela. Her opinion had deepened after she had come to the realization about how she felt. "He said that there wasn't anything between them. That the. .. . kiss was just a thank you."

"Yeah, but we heard it from someone who had heard it from someone else who had supposedly heard Quinn say that."

Ivy didn't like Hermione's reasoning, no matter how much sense it made — the Hogwarts rumor mill wasn't the most credible of sources.

"You can feel him out, or maybe ask Carmichael or Belby if he's interested in someone. After that, you can let him know that you're interested."

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"How do you do that?" asked Ivy. "Let someone know that you're interested."

"Maybe tell him directly or.. .. write a letter."

Ivy turned to her best friend, "Write a letter, really?"

"I don't know. I haven't done this before," said Hermione.

"Ugh, this is frustrating!"

*Splash*

Both girls jumped when they heard the voice and saw Terry Boot fishing out a balloon out of his jumpsuit, standing in the shadow of a tree.

"We will talk about this later," said Ivy, as Hermione and she stepped back, taking out balloons of their own.

"Sure, whenever you want."

- (Scene Break) -

Neville Longbottom came through a bush into an area enclosed by a thick growth of trees and the dense overhead canopies. There he saw Quinn sitting with his wall against a tree with Dean standing.

"Welcome, Neville. How did it go?" asked Quinn.

"Terry got hit by Hermione and Ivy, but he took out Hermione," replied Neville. He was feeling guilty about leaving Terry behind and sneaking away even though he was doing as asked.

"Hermione has only two hits left? That's excellent news," smiled Quinn. "What about the other thing I asked you to do?"

Neville took out some burst blue balloons and showed them to Quinn. "I did ask you asked and picked up the balloons of which I could remember the path of," and started to tell Quinn what he remembered.

"I also did that same," pointing at the similar burst blue balloons on the ground near Quinn's feet.

Quinn nodded after hearing both Dean's and Neville's testimony. It was as he had thought. Quinn had already figured out Team Harry's balloons, and he had sent out Dean's squad and Neville's squad to figure out the pattern of Team Ivy's blue balloon pattern. It turned out that Sirius Black had been clever, and the similarly marked balloons of Team Harry and Team Ivy moved differently. But now he knew which one was which, and he could start phase two of his plan.

"What about Astoria?" asked Quinn.

"Umm, about that.. .. we accidentally came across Greengrass and Davis," said Neville, "Astoria decided to tail them and ran away before we could stop her."

"That girl can be so reckless," sighed Quinn. "Let's hope she follows them quietly."

"What about Harry's group?" asked Dean.

"No news from them yet," said Quinn. Harry, Ron, and Katie had gone after the Weasley twins. He got up and dusted his backside, "Let's start with the second phase and get the real fun started.. .. you two have your next task, go find the others and tell them about the Team Ivy's balloon patterns and then join the fun."

"What are you going to do?" asked Dean.

"It's time to start the hunt," said Quinn with a beaming smile.

- (Scene Break) -

Daphne and Tracey were walking towards the party area to refill their balloon supply when Daphne caught a glance of white and stopped Tracey. Daphne pointed at the back of the white jumpsuit, but then both girls noticed the big splash of green squarely in the middle. They sighed in relief because it meant that it was their own team.

"You should hide better, you know," said Tracey, "we can clearly see you."

The person quickly got up and hid behind a tree.

"It's okay, it's us."

Then the figure stepped out, and both of their eyes widened when they saw Quinn's smiling face. And before they could say anything, Quinn threw balloons which he already in hand at odd angles and speeds — the slow balloon suddenly sped up and hit Tracey in the shoulder while the second balloon threw left to Daphne suddenly curved and hit Daphne in the side.

"Well, that's one for each of you," smiled Quinn as he walked towards the stunned girls. "Seeing that you stainless before tells me you got Astoria."

"Yeah, she wasn't quiet at all," said Tracey.

"That's unfortunate," said Quinn and winked before running away without saying another word. Leaving the two girls alone, still staring at the paint on their jumpsuits. It didn't feel good.

.. .

"We should ask others about who they got," sighed Ivy. "It's not fun, isn't a good reason to not tell us the tally."

"He did say that he will put up the tally board after fifteen hits from any team," replied Hermione before glancing at Ivy, "So, what do you like about him."

Ivy blushed a little at the question. "He is different. He isn't like other guys, you know."

"Well, that is to say the least."

"Not like that," said Ivy. "He can be manipulative, but I've seen times he had been kind and times he had been genuine." During the time Quinn had been training Harry — Ivy had seen Quinn having fun, and he was different; she had seen how Quinn's eyes sparkled, and to her, Quinn seemed to be glowing when he talked about magic.

"And he's brave," she said, knowing the times he had saved her and Harry — including the time he refused to enter the Chamber of Secrets.

Hermione gazed at Ivy's face, and a smile bloomed on her face, "This is so exciting! My best friend has a crush~."

"Oh, stop it," said Ivy, feeling the embarrassment creeping up.

Splat, Splat.. .. out of nowhere, the two girls were hit with green water balloons — Ivy on the thigh and Hermione on her arm. The girls froze in their spots and gazed around their surroundings to see Quinn jump out from a tree and could only watch as their assailant immediately ran away while laughing like a madman.

"So him," said Hermione, not sounding impressed.

Ivy could only muster a nod with incredible difficulty.

.. .

When Ivy and Hermione arrived at the penalty point, she saw more than half four of her team members (Daphne, Ivy, Susan, and Hannah) picking up their refills and exchanging details. They also noticed that the tally board was up and could see they had already suffered fifteen hits on their team.

"What happened here?" asked Hermione.

"We got deceived by Quinn," sighed Susan.

"Same for us as well," said Tracey.

"And he used the same trick," told Hannah.

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione. She wanted to know to ensure they didn't get hit by the same tactic.

"He had a green splash on his back that he used to deceive us and hit when we put our guards down," Daphne explained.

"That doesn't sound right," said Ivy. She turned to the tally board, and there Quinn hadn't been hit even once. "If he was hit with a green balloon, it should've been there."

"No, it's something friendly fire, and it isn't counted as a hit, at least not in this game," said Daphne, "do you remember when Quinn was tossing up the balloon up and down before the game?"

"Yes, to waste our time," said Ivy, recalling the attempt at mind games.

"That was only one part of the act," continued Daphne, "when he burst the balloon, he was testing his friendly fire theory."

"That's right." — Team Ivy turned to see Quinn, Astoria, and Neville step out of from behind the tally board with balloons in their hands. "I was waiting for the half a minute period to get over."

"Sorry," said Neville before he, Astoria, and Quinn raised their hands and pelted the present Team Ivy members with green balloons.

That day, Quinn-led Team Harry dominated Team Ivy. Even the Weasley twins, who had accounted for ten hits on their own, couldn't win against a five-people ambush without magic and their items.

< - - (Volume Six: Year Five, Ends) - - >

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Quinn West - MC - If they want war, they will get defeat. — Sun Tzu.

Ivy Potter - Girl-Who-Likes - Quinn saving her from imposter-Moody.

Hermione Granger - Great Captain - The dream for a three-peat is gone.

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