Caleb was sprawled on the ground with an odd look on his face like he was frozen in time.

"Rennervate," Lux said, leaning over and extending his hand out toward his body. Caleb stood up and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Ouch." he replied with a slight smile on his face, "You're getting good at canceling the spell non-verbally."

Lux grinned at him in return, "I've got a good punching bag to practice on."

By accident, Lux had found out he could non-verbally cast almost with ease. And by found out, he found it in the previous Sorcerer's notes. Her theory said something about not needing the wand to hear anything, that the power comes from within ourselves, so why would you need to say the word aloud to achieve the same effect?

He got excited at the possibilities - new spells, spells without words at all... really anything he could imagine. Her notes, however, said she was met with little success in this regard. She only had notes for her first year at Hogmorn, so he was sure this was due to experience and time restraint. Also, she didn't have a friend to help her experiment.

"It feels like your spells are moving faster too... last week when we started this, I could dodge in time usually."

Lux shrugged while he picked Caleb off the ground, "I haven't noticed, but I'll take your word for it. I can feel the magic responding quicker and easier too."

Caleb straightened his robes out, "Okay, now let's move on to wand duels using your technique."

"Ugh," Lux sighed and fished out his wand, "This isn't fun for me." He still hadn't gotten very good at coating the wand and moving the spell quickly, although the power was at least average now, it was twice as slow to cast.

"It is for me," Caleb said with a smile.

"You need to quit hanging out with Lindsey," Lux said.

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Lux, Caleb, and Lindsey stood in the stands of the first quidditch game of the season. They didn't know any of the players on Hufflepuff, none of them were first years and they didn't really interact with them much, but it was a weekend and they had deserved a nice break. The mid-semester tournament was coming up soon, and Lux was looking forward to a little relaxation tonight. Between normal school activities and practicing nightly with Caleb, he was getting pretty worn out.

This was the first time Lux got to witness quidditch first hand. The sport was played on broomsticks as they flew over a field with three hoops of varying heights on each side. There were three chasers, two beaters, a keeper, and a seeker.

The chasers tried to score by throwing a brown ball into the hoops, while the keeper blocked like a goalie in soccer. The beater's job was to make the chaser's and seeker's life difficult by hitting bludgers toward them with a brown wooden club, reminding Lux of baseball in this regard. Apparently, the bludgers used to be made of iron but were replaced with a dense rubber material. They still hurt like hell but reduced the rate of injuries pretty significantly.

The seeker had to chase around a "golden snitch". This was a tiny ball with wings that was barely visible, at least not to Lux, and it flew around the field of play. If the seeker caught it, it awarded the team 100 points. Each chaser goal was worth 10 points, making the seeker more important than the chasers sometimes.

"Woah!" The crowd gasped as a particular gruesome play with a Ravenclaw beater hitting a solid shot at one of the Hufflepuff chasers, causing him to veer off course and soar high above to recover.

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"So, what's our plans this weekend?" Lindsey asked while taking a sip of her alcoholic beverage - The Hufflepuff Badger. When you burped, a small yellow smoke in the shape of their mascot would appear for a moment before disappearing. Lux had to admit, besides that being really cool, it also tasted excellent.

"Try to avoid you," Lux said while taking a sip of his own drink.

"Yeah, trying to avoid you," Caleb replied, eating some popcorn while trying to copy Lux.

"Oh please, Caleb, you don't even know why he said that." She responded while giving Lux a sarcastic look.

"You're right, why are we avoiding her?"

"She's the worst and teases us constantly," Lux said, keeping the ruse going.

"Oh come on, when was the last time I teased one of you?" she asked.

"This morning, you told me if I said potato one more time, you would potato my face. Does that count?" Caleb asked sincerely.

"Seriously, Lindsey? Teasing him for his tick?" Lux admonished.

Lindsey clenched her heart like she had been shot, "Jeez, Caleb, I thought we were just sharing a moment this morning. Potatoing your face is a good thing, my man!" She clasped him in the shoulder in friendship.

"It is?" Caleb said, "Because I thought you were teasing me for saying potato."

"She was."

"I wasn't." Lux and Lindsey responded at the same time.

Caleb glanced back and forth between the two of them. "I don't get it."

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After the game, which Hufflepuff lost 240-190 after leading the whole game because of the Golden Snitch, the group headed down to Hogsmeade along with most of the school. Quidditch game weekends were always good business for the stores and bars, drunk students spending their money on dumb things they didn't need, something muggles and wizards had in common.

The three found themselves in one of the taverns, enjoying another drink.

"So, tell me, Lindsey, what's it like to be the child of wizarding royalty?" Lux said, his words a slight slur to them as intoxication began to set in.

She stood up on her chair and bowed theatrically, "It feels amazing, being so high above thee, you are blessed to just be in my presence."

Lux pretended to get on one knee and bowed his head respectfully, "Of course, m'lady." Caleb just stared at the two as they laughed loudly.

Lindsey took a drink as the chuckles died down, "Honestly? It kind of sucks."

Lux raised his eyebrow, "Oh come on, no way."

She nodded while raising her hands up, "I know, I know how that looks. Poor rich girl getting everything she wants." She took another sip of the drink, "My parents are just... well, they're sort of dicks."

This made Lux spit into his drink a little.

"What! They are. My dad goes on and on about genetics and improving our wizarding genes, while my mom makes rich on renting out Bodyguards to rich muggles and wizards. I don't even know about my grandpa, he's got his hand in so many different pots, I'm sure he's not much different."

"So... does your dad like..." Lux trailed off, realizing where the alcohol was taking him.

"Hate muggles?" She asked. "It's okay, it's a logical question to ask. A lot of people in that department aren't very shy about it, so it makes sense to make the connection." She shrugged her shoulders, "I don't think he hates them necessarily. I think he just wants wizards to continue growing, and we aren't. And it started when we began to help muggles, so I think analytically, he thinks it's the logical conclusion." She thought about it and shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe I'm just making excuses."

"And what do you think?" He said, trying to play it off as nonchalantly as he could.

Lindsey blew out a raspberry, "I could give a crap. I didn't want them to just die, and from what history has said, it looked like they were on their way to burning out the whole planet, which wouldn't be good for anyone. If we can help, we should help, end of story." She finished off the last of her drink, "Everyone judges me from where I come from, and it fuckin' sucks. 'Oh Lindsey, I want to be an Auror, put in a good word with your mom! Lindsey, your grandpa is soooo cool'" She went up and down in different pitches, pretending to be different people. "If I were to judge someone else's heritage, kinda would make me a hypocrite don't you think?"

Lux nodded and finished his drink too, "Glad to see you aren't completely heartless." he said with a grin. She smiled half-heartedly.

Lux was taken aback at her response, "Hey, just was teasing Lindsey. Really, it's cool you can distance yourselves from some of the beliefs your parents may have. It would be much easier to think otherwise."

She looked at him and smirked, "You like me."

Lux sighed heavily, "Ugh, I fell right into that."

"Even I saw that one," Caleb replied, which made Lux and Lindsey die with laughter.

The three of them finished their time at Hogsmeade late into the night, spending money on a few snacks and props at the joke store, talking about this and that. The buzz beginning to fade, they said their goodbyes and went off to their respective dormitories. Lindsey, Lux, and Caleb all went to sleep that night with a smile on their face, having spent a good day amongst friends.