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Chapter Text

There was a dangerous tension in the air, and Matthew really hoped no wands would be drawn in the next few minutes.

Then again, he doubted anyone would be drawing their wands when Headmistress McGonagall was standing at the front of the Transfiguration classroom, looking seriously down at the dozen or so students assembled in front of her. But there was definitely something that spelled trouble, considering they’d just had a rather vicious friendly between several members of the Quidditch team, just a few hours before that had ended in a broken nose, a sprained wrist, and a few school brooms in need of great repair.

Thankfully, Matthew’s fears were quelled within seconds.

“Thank you all for coming on time,” the Headmistress began. “Now, I’m sure you are all wondering why I have gathered you here today?”

“If this is about the Butter Incident, that was Lukas’ fault,” Mathias, who was sprawled over his desk, called out. He yelped as Berwald elbowed him. “Hey, I’m right and you know it!”

“...Mhm.”

“No, this isn’t about butter,” the Headmistress said, looking quite resigned at the mere thought of trying to figure out what the Danish boy and his friends had managed to do this time. “This is actually about Quidditch, and a very exciting opportunity for which I have selected the ten of you.”

Immediately, everyone snapped to attention. Mathias even sat up properly, and on Matthew’s other side Arthur Kirkland stopped fidgeting with a qul to look intently at the Headmistress.

“As you all know,” she continued, “the three largest wizarding schools in Europe are Durmstrang, Hogwarts, and Beauxbatons, and due to our relatively close proximity, we often collaborate on hosting competitions and tournaments such as the Potion-Making Competition and the Triwizard Tournament we’ve held in the past—which, of course, the latter was abolished for good reason. But we were recently sent a proposal from Ilvermorny in America.”

“Ilvermorny, as I should think you all know, is located in North America and is quite similar to Hogwarts. Their current headmaster has requested that a cross-school event take place at the end of the Spring semester—a Quidditch competition, to be precise. I, along with the heads of Durnstrang and Beauxbatons, had talks with the Ilvermorny Headmaster, and we’ve agreed that this would be a wonderful opportunity to try a collaboration between the four schools. Muggles, you see, invented things called ‘airplanes’, and so between Portkeys and these Muggle inventions it is very much possible to do such things in this day and age.”

“And…you want us to compete in this tournament?” fourth-year Gryffindor Tolys Laurinaitis asked.

“Precisely.”

“Hell yeah!” Mathias exclaimed, nearly smacking Berwald and Yao in the faces with his flailing arms. “Hey Tino, you think Ahlgren—”

“He’s still there?” Tino asked. Mathias nodded, and Tino’s face broke into a wide grin, the spark in his eye promising nothing good. “Oh, this’ll be fun!”

Yao Wang was nudging Kiku Honda. “I told you! See? My information, always correct and accurate.”

“Creep,” Kiku replied, and Yao grumbled something about him being rather rude.

“Alright, settle down, all of you!” Professor McGonagall finally called, and order was restored. “Now, I understand some of you have other obligations, so if you have any concerns, please talk to me right after this meeting. Madam Hooch will be in charge of your training, and there should not be conflicts with the already existing Quidditch match schedule for the rest of the semester, as the tournament is to take place over a weekend in May. However, attending the practice sessions will be mandatory, and as this should not be interfering with your studies, I expect that anyone who takes up this opportunity will need to keep their grades up. Understood?” the Headmistress asked, to varying degrees of acknowledgement.

“Good. That is all for now. Please come see me if you have questions, and owls will be sent with further details by tomorrow morning. Dismissed.”

And the meeting was concluded.

.

The first practice session of the Hogwarts Quidditch Tournament Team, the exact name a work in progress, was held a week later, on a Saturday evening at the Quidditch pitch. The only spectator was Lukas Bondevik, who’d come along to support (read: laugh at) his friends Tino, Mathias, and Berwald, who’d all accepted the invite to the team. Mathias had called him clingy.

Luckily, the Danish boy had been called to go change before Lukas could pull out his wand.

Now on the pitch itself was Headmistress McGonagall, Madam Hooch, a Quidditch ball case, and ten students spanning all four Houses and five years.

“I will now call the positions you have been chosen for,” the Headmistress announced. “This is not the final lineup, so if you are unhappy with your position, come talk to me or Madam Hooch.”

“Indeed,” Madam Hooch agreed. “Right—Yao Wang, Tino Väinämöinen, Kiku Honda—the three of you will be Chasers. I want Matthew Williams and Berwald Oxenstierna as Beaters, Basch Zwingli as Seeker, and Arthur Kirkland will be Keeper and Captain. Miss Braginsky and Mr. Densen, the two of you will be subs in case of any incidents during the tournament. Tolys Laurinaitis has also stated that while he wishes to focus on his schoolwork at the present, but if any of you happen to leave the team at any point during the next few months, he will step in to fill in the space.”

“B-Beater? Did I hear her right?” Matthew whispered to Kiku.

“Yes, Mr. Williams. Don’t protest—I’ve seen you and Mr. Jones hitting Bludgers at each other. Poppy complains enough about how much bruise cream she goes through between the two of you alone. Since we don’t have Mr. Braginsky with us, and Mr. Jones is not yet versed enough in the sport, Minerva and I decided that you would make an excellent Beater.”

“O—oh, okay then...”

“Right, then! All of you, on your brooms! We’ve got work to do, and it’s time to see what you all can accomplish as a team!” And so the first practice began.

.

“They’re really working us to the bone,” Tino complained. He, Berwald, Arthur, Francis, and surprisingly, Luca, were in a corner of the study room trying to work through the piles of essays they’d been assigned. “How on earth are you writing so fast, Ber?”

Berwald shrugged, and Tino leaned his head back as he groaned in frustration. “This is why I deal with animals. They don’t ask for three feet on uses of moonstones or exact specifics of each and every Summoning Charm.” He threw down his hand, and then swore as his quill snapped. Berwald silently handed him a new one.

Luca, who wasn’t actually doing any work, snickered as he popped a gumball into his mouth.

“Mon ami, please say you are joking about the moonstones,” Francis begged. The poor Gryffindor was barely halfway through his seemingly endless essay on the Giant Wars, and he had yet to practice his rather sorry Vanishing Spell.

“He is not,” Luca said.

Francis flopped backwards dramatically. Arthur elbowed him out of the way, fully concentrating on writing as he squinted at Berwald’s already-finished essay.

“Maybe I can finish Flitwick’s essay tomorrow?” Tino proposed.

Berwald raised an eyebrow. “We ‘ave practice t’morrow.”

“Ivan can suck it up for one day. His Locomotion Charm is leagues worse than mine, and we’re reviewing those next class.”

“Not ‘ufflepuff. McGon’gall’s. Ye can’t miss that.”

Tino did some more extremely colorful swearing, and stabbed his quill against the parchment once more. Berwald silently passed him a blotting cloth and a Muggle pen.

“How’s that going, by the way?” Luca asked over the sounds of Tino’s distress. “Between House practice and School practice, I mean?”

“Hell,” Arthur replied as he finally reached the end of his Charms essay. “Oh, finally that’s done. Francis, where’s—oi, give that back!”

And he dove at the French boy, who laughed as he held a textbook just out of reach.

.

Somehow, they made it through the year without anyone smashing anyone else’s head in with a Beater bat. Quite a feat, considering Mathias and Berwald had gotten quite the nasty habit of throwing things at each others’ heads and Matthew was starting to catch that particular habit as well. Even more amazingly, Madam Pomfrey hadn’t had too many extra visitors, although that may have been due to Quaffles and Bludgers getting knocked off-course by an exasperated Lukas whenever someone got a bit too carried away during practice. His ability to sense the impending disasters-in-the-making did not go unnoticed by the Headmistress nor Madam Hooch, and he was officially given the title of “peacekeeper”.

When Basch found out, he thought it ironic, considering he’d had to issue the Norwegian more than one reminder that one should not be dangling from the ceiling like a bat solely to scare students as they entered the Clocktower Courtyard the day after.

Arthur, too, thought it rather ridiculous considering Lukas was an enabler, and outside of practice, did nothing to stop his friends from causing mass chaos. But for the sake of his skull because blimey, that boy had good aim with a wand, he kept his mouth shut. Besides, Lukas was extremely helpful to have around when it came to studying for O.W.L.S.

But at long last, final exams were over and June was upon them. The day that the American, French, and northern European students were due to arrive, Hogwarts was abuzz with rumors and excitement.

“I will die if we have fifty Alfreds roaming the school for the entire week,” Yao stated to Ivan over breakfast. “One Alfred and one Mathew is more than enough, aru.”

“They’re using those things Muggles love, the televisions, so there will be less Alfreds and Matthews crawling in the halls,” Ivan said. “Little Raivis and Little Eduard were talking about it. It sounds very impressive, I shall ask for one to be installed in my house when I return home.”

“You do that, and tell me how it goes. It looks rather complicated,” Yao told him. Eduard, sitting not far away, quietly excused himself to the bathroom where he proceeded to howl with laughter for so long at the thought of Ivan watching sitcoms that Moaning Myrtle came out of her stall to ask what the matter was. (She too found it rather humorous, her family having had a television when she was alive.)

Back in the Great Hall hoever, there was notice of Ivan and Yao's conversation.

“It ain’t really,” his brother Leon mumbled through a mouthful of bread. “It’s real easy now. Plug a wire here, a cable there. A gnome could do it.”

Yao immediately forgot about Muggle inventions to scold him for chewing while talking, while Ivan took some bites from Yao’s omelette.

Ivan had been right about the conversation he’d heard, however. The tech-savvy Muggleborn Eduard had somehow worked out an arrangement with assistance from Raivis’ astoundingly large number of contacts in order to livestream the event, so those who wouldn’t be making the trip to Hogwarts could still enjoy the show. The students, faculty, and castle ghosts all watched as Eduard’s figure was a blur, racing from one place to another in the week leading up to the event.

Eduard wasn’t the only one doing laps around the castle, though. Arthur had to spend about half the day scolding the Nordic quintet, for various reasons. They’d found out, through Mathias’ connections, that certain choice players would be on the opposing team, and almost immediately, Tino had started sharpening throwing knives he’d pulled out of his shoes in the middle of the study room. An hour later, the prefect had found Mathias with a box of matches, and half an hour after that, Berwald was caught smuggling all number of things forbidden in Quidditch matches in his oversized fur coat to a practice.

“You’re not even trying anymore, for heaven’s sake,” Arthur groaned as Berwald disappointedly emptied out his pockets. “The lot of you, really. How on earth did you even think you were going to get someone to use a black-eye telescope? This isn’t the time to try and break the record for most Quidditch fouls!”

Berwald shrugged, not looking sorry at all, and Arthur made a note to go down to the kitchens right after and find himself a good cup of tea.

Even Emil didn’t go unscathed when Francis saw him take packages of goods labeled with the telltale “WW” with a serious look on his face during the lunch hour. The only one of the group to not be caught that day was Lukas, who to Arthur’s chagrin was taking full advantage of his ability to disappear at will, and so there was no evidence whatsoever for Arthur to use against him, although the blond was sure the Norwegian was up to no good. But alas, he had to admit that Lukas had won whatever game the quintet were playing, and so Arthur went back to studying plays in his common room, grumpily sispping his lukewarm tea with great annoyance.

 

They all arrived one right after the other.

The French were the first to arrive via the horseless carriages, having taken the Express to Hogsmeade from London. They were followed not long after by Durmstrang, who arrived via their magical ship, looking quite grand with a gleaming new paint job and a large sculpture on the front reminiscent of ancient Viking ships. Clearly they’d been busy since the last time they’d brought it to Hogwarts.

The Americans showed up via portkey to Hogsmeade, taking the boats across the lake guided by Hagrid. The Kirkland brothers had been enlisted to help him keep order, and goodness knows that Hagrid needed it with the amount of students there were.

McGonagall was yelling over the crowds, her wand pointed at her chin to amplify her voice.

“Beauxbatons—to the empty classrooms on the third floor! Follow Flitwick, short professor at the top of the stairs waving his hand at you ! Ilvermony—to the West Tower, follow Professor Sinistra, professor in the neon blue robes with the giant star on her hat! Durmstrang, to the spare rooms on the first floor, follow Professor Sprout with the flowerpot in her arms! Hogwarts, do not confuse our guests, this is not the time to ‘accidentally’ let someone into places that aren’t their assigned rooms. Wang, you are a prefect and the guest rooms are not in the seventh floor bathrooms–”

“Aiya,” Yao grumbled, but redirected the Durmstrang Quidditch team to the correct floor.

.

There were a couple of days before the start of the first tournament, to allow the American students time to get over their jet lag and for everyone to get accustomed with the pitch. While those in the competing teams spent much of the time in scheduled practice sessions, there was also plenty of downtime and, as it happened, Hogwarts had an excellent selection of books filled with records of past tournaments, the most famous plays, and Quidditch players themselves. A good number of the visiting students could be found enjoying what the school based in the birthplace of Quidditch had to offer, a fact Madam Pince was only slightly annoyed by. Popular frequenters were, of course, members of the schools’ Quidditch teams.

Oddly enough, rumors about the Hogwarts Library Ghost suddenly returned around this time. Books people were looking at suddenly disappeared from tables, quills and bags moved from one side of the room to the other, and the book cart occasionally rolled past with no visible person pushing it. A couple of students began leaving out “traps” for the ghost, ranging from squeaky toys on the floor to mousetraps in their bags.

“It’s like, really strange,” Feliks Lukasiewicz commented over breakfast the morning of the first match, having elbowed his way into the Ravenclaw table to get away from a group of rowdy underclassmen. “What kind of ghost can’t be seen?”

“Plenty of them,” Heracles Karpusi muttered through a yawn.

Feliks ignored him. “You, like, work in the library, don’t you Lukas? Have you, I dunno, like, seen anything totally weird lately?”

“Nope,” Lukas replied, before taking a bite from a sandwich held up to his face by Mathias. Lukas’ hands rested in his lap, fingers bandaged from a work injury. Thankfully, some paste Alfred had gotten from a recent Hogsmeade trip meant that by late afternoon he would be fine.

“Anyways,” Mathias changed the subject, “did you see the postings on the board outside? Of the schedule. We're going to play Beauxbatons today.”

“Oh, good. I do not feel like being a punching bag today,” Kiku commented. The team’s Chaser hadn’t said a word up until then, too focused on the calming draught he was adding to his tea. “Durmstrang may not be happy about having their library time interrupted.”

“Sucks to be them, I guess,” Mathias shrugged. “Should have appeased the Hogwarts Library Ghost.”

“Or maybe they should be more quiet in a place that is not meant to be a party house,” Lukas suggested. Mathias responded by offering him more sandwich, which, after a moment of hesitation, Lukas accepted.

“Exams are over. You, Madam Pince, and the Hogwarts Library Ghost will be fine for one week. Let ‘em have some fun,” Tino offered as he joined them. “Anyways, we should get ready. The match starts at one, and Elizabeta threatened to drag Tolys out of retirement and replace the whole lot of us if she doesn’t like our warmup.”

“Can she even do that?” Kiku questioned.

Tino shrugged. “Probably not, but do you really want to make her mad? Also Kiku, she said to mention you in particular when getting everyone.”

“Fair point. Why’d she throw Kiku under the bus anyways? Doesn’t she usually like beating up dumb jocks?” Mathias asked as he and Lukas stood up.

“She said something about being a bit too busy between beating up Gilbert, beating up everyone else in House games, and being a Prefect,” Arthur offered as he joined the group. “I expect she’s decided on actually passing her classes, unlike certain people.”

“Hey! I heard that!” Alfred Jones yelled from the other side of the hall.

“You were meant to,” Arthur called back, before turning to walk out the doors of the Great Hall.

“Who’s going to tell him Alfred and I were the only ones to get the bonus questions on our History of Magic exam?” Matthew snickered to his classmates.

Mathias hid his laugh by ducking into Lukas’ shoulder. Feliks looked vaguely amused, while Lukas simply rolled his eyes. Kiku took the opportunity to finish his meal.

“Let him cook,” Tino advised. “It can be a nice surprise for everyone if your grades come back well. Now stop laughing and go. It’s much too early to have Liza come after you all with a baseball bat.”

.

The first match of the series was between Hogwarts and Beauxbatons, the schools closest to each other and therefore with students ready to get on the field. Eduard was only mildly annoyed at having to share his commentary box. But Louis Gardner, the Beauxbatons commentator, shared some pastries with him, and the next thing everyone knew the two were best friends. Francis Bonnefoy complained loudly that there was clear bias going on because he’d offered Eduard sweets before and had been turned down quite rudely, but few paid him any mind.

“From Hogwarts, the home team! Kirkland, Oxenstierna, Williams, Wang, Väinämöinen, Honda, and Zwingli!”

“De Beauxbatons—Gardner, Boucher, Roux, Richard, d’Albret, Blanchet, et Florelle!”

The ball was thrown, and then they were off.

Matthew knew French, both Canada and France versions. The other team did not know this. So it was to the Beauxbaton team’s great surprise when their pincer maneuver was interrupted by a Bludger smacking into Jean-Jacque d’Albret’s broom handle.

“Vas à gauche, Claire, I will confuse!” Jean-Phillip Blanchet called as their third Chaser tried to steady himself. Claire flew off, and Jean-Phillip flew straight, hoping to scare Kiku who had caught the Quaffle.

“On your left!” Matthew hissed, and Kiku swerved in time to avoid Claire’s attempt to grab the ball.

“Quoi?!” Claire yelled in surprise. “‘Ow in ze world—?!”

“Honda dodges Richards! Damn, where was that kind of perception in the last House Cup game?” Eduard called out. Kiku ignored him, choosing not to think about how he’d been bodyslammed by a distracted Luca Vissar in the final match between Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

He passed to Yao, who flew toward the goals.

“Wang enters the scoring area!”

“Gardner, Starfish-et-Stick! Starfish! Et! Sticke!”

“Quaffle is thrown—”

“-et il est bloqué! ‘Ogwarts does not score!”

Groans from the Hogwarts students were very audible. Tino gave Yao a consolation pat on the back, and Yao grumbled something in Chinese that probably had to do with eggs. Tino thought it was an insult of some sort, because he was pretty sure he heard him say it during a previous practice that hadn’t gone particularly well.

Kiku was first to grab the Quaffle and immediately flew off, not wanting to waste any time. Yao and Tino flew circles around him, until Matthew came up beside Tino and whispered something that made the Finnish boy suddenly fly up into the air as Matthew sent a Bludger hurling towards the French Beaters, Gabriel Roux and Isabelle Boucher.

“‘E knew!” Isabelle exclaimed with horror. “Est-il un Legilimens?!” Her teammate didn’t answer and smacked the Bludger back at the smirking Hogwarts student, who barrel-rolled out of the way. Berwald sent the Bludger spinning towards the French Seeker Peony Froelle, a girl with dark hair and a very determined look who was giving Basch a run for his money.

Louis turned to Tino, covering his mic. “Does Väinämöinen have…?”

“If he did, he wouldn’t be failing Arithmancy when he sits next to me,” Eduard replied. Louis snickered, before uncovering his mic to mention a rather spectacular spiral dive by Peony. Basch cursed loud enough as he flew past the commentary box a few seconds later that the microphones picked it up.

An hour in, the score was 50-20 Hogwarts, and the Snitch was yet to be caught. The Beauxbatons team was quite annoyed that the Hogwarts team appeared to be mind-readers, and the Hogwarts team was annoyed that Basch just could not stop being conned by Peony Florelle, Basch himself included.

“Time out!” Arthur yelled, and both teams breathed sighs of relief as they flew off the pitch.

The moment they were in the locker room, Arthur turned to a pissed-off Basch. “What’s up with you? You love money so much that you can usually spot gold from a mile away!” he hissed.

“I hate spending it,” Basch corrected. “And it’s that other Seeker! She’s worse than the time Francis subbed for Honda! Even the pasta-loving Mario plays more fair, and he can’t keep his ass on his broom half the time!”

He narrowed his eyes at Matthew. “And hey, why’s everyone else doing so well anyways? Every other time you pass someone, they shoot an impossible goal.”

Matthew’s eyes widened behind his glasses. “Woah, eh, don’t point fingers at me! They yell their plays in French. I live with Francis, remember?”

“Oh so it wasn’t mind-reading,” Tino commented. “I was kinda convinced for a minute there.”

“Well, now would be a really good time for you to learn Legilimency,” Arthur told him. “Or for Basch to get some glasses, because an hour’s about to turn into two and a record if this keeps on.”

And with that, the team returned to the field just as time as called.

Unbeknownst to them, the French beater Gabriel Roux had been behind a wall listening, and hurried back to his team with grave news.

“Take out Williams!” he whispered to the others. “Il parle français!”

The next part of the match began with Matthew frantically dodging Bludgers. The Beauxbatons team also refrained from saying much of anything when Matthew was nearby.

“I think they figured it out,” he panted to Berwald. “Cover me—I’m useless!”

Unfortunately, with the speed they were going at, Berwald thought Matthew had said he’d figured something out and to cover him while he went under. He sent the Bludger flying, and almost hit Kiku instead.

“Watch it!” Yao yelled at him, then nearly collided with a frantic Matthew who had a rather temperamental Bludger on his heels.

It was not going well for Hogwarts, and with the absolute turmoil going on with half the team, the Beauxbatons Chasers were able to score several times. Half an hour later, the score was 80-60 Beauxbatons, and Basch was looking rather pissed by everything.

It all culminated in the Hogwarts’ team attempt at a power play, during which Tino, at the front of the formation, had to do a twirl to avoid an oncoming Bludger. He lost his grip, knocked into Basch, who was headed the other way, and barely caught onto Berwald’s left leg. Berwald, for his part, managed to keep them both from slipping, but found himself mimicking the Sloth Grip Roll, Tino still hanging onto his ankle.

“Nice view,” the Finn gasped out. Berwald grunted, broom handle in a death grip.

In the commentary box, Eduard’s head was in his hands and Louis was patting his back. Just below them, Headmistress McGonagall and Madame Maxine were staring at the scene with identical looks of shock.

“This isn’t the Broomstick Acrobatics Show, you gits!” Arthur yelled from the scoring area, then swerved as Tino’s broom flew past him into one of the towers of the stadium. “Oi, time out!”

The signal was given, and both teams started to fly towards their ends of the pitch, the dangling duo of Berwald and Tino being helped along by Yao, Kiku, and presumably Matthew (though if he was there, he was in the middle of the group and out of sight).

“Get ahold of yer team, Englishboy!” Jean-Phillip Blanchet snickered as he flew past to rejoin the Beauxbatons players.

“Tell your Beaters to stop targeting mine!” Arthur retorted, before turning to yell at his team again when he noticed—

“Basch!”

Basch had one of his hands cupped over his nose, steering his broom one-handedly while seeming to concentrate very hard on his face. Arthur narrowed his eyes, and flew closer to investigate.

“Oi! Did you get a bloody nosebleed?” he barked at the Gryffindor. “Shall I call Madame Pomfrey?”

“Call—ref—” Bash managed, before going no-hands to keep whatever was up with his face from escaping, and oh, wait a moment—

“Ref!” Arthur yelled. “Quick—I think Zwingli got the Snitch with his nose!”

“WHAT?!” Yao exclaimed, and momentarily dropped the handle of Berwald’s broom, sending the two and Kiku crashing down the last few feet to the ground. “No way! When did he catch it? That—”

“The Snitch has been caught!” one of the three referees keeping an eye on the games announced. “The Snitch was caught by Basch Zwingli of Hogwarts!”

“HOGWARTS WINS! HOLY MERLIN’S POLKA-DOT UNDERPANTS! Please stop giving me heart attacks, I’m too stressed for this…” Eduard’s voice sounded over the stadium, repeated by Louis in French. Groans from Beauxbatons students were overtaken by the cheers of the home team’s supporters.

“Yay,” Tino called weakly from under Berwald, before looking to his left and blinking rapidly. “Oh. That’s a sight. That’s a really juicy—”

Berwald covered the Hufflepuff’s eyes with his large hand, face flushed red. “Not goin’ there.”

“You never told me how ripped you were! Where did you get those abs from—”

“And here I thought Berwald was the horny one,” Kiku muttered to Arthur. The Brit, for his part, merely sighed as Yao gushed about young love despite being only two years older and very much single.

.

While Madame Pomfrey checked over the Hogwarts players, the referees went over footage from Eduard’s livestream on the chance Basch had caught the Snitch after the time-out was called. But son it was announced that Basch had indeed caught the Snitch right before Arthur had called time, and thus, the point went to Hogwarts.

Lukas may or may not have spent the evening with his wand hidden behind a book, deflecting jinxes headed for various Hogwarts team members from salty students. Meanwhile, Eduard may or may not have spent his evening explaining how the livestream worked for what he swore was the tenth time in a week to curious students in an attempt to debunk the nearly-rising theory that Basch had been keeping a Snitch up his nose the entire game.

Chapter Text

The next game was Durmstrang against Ilvermorny. Most of the students stayed to watch, though a large portion of the Hogwarts and Beauxbatons teams went to get themselves patched up or simply rest from the exhilaration and adrenaline.

For example, the Nordics and Eduard, who gathered in the hospital wing, around a bed Madame Pomfrey insisted Tino stay in for a few hours after cushioning Berwald’s fall. Originally she’d wanted to kick his friends out, but after some arguing had decided it wasn’t worth it when Tino would be out soon enough. It was crowded enough in the Hospital Wing though, considering it was both Tino’s entourage plus some Beauxbatons students on the other side of the room.

Well, most of Tino’s closest friends were there.

“Where’s Lukas?” Tino asked midway through Eduard’s dramatic retelling of his point of view.“ of the match.

“Oh, him? Still in the stands, said something about wanting to make Ahlgren nervous,” Mathias said with a snort. “I think he’s making up for not getting to do that all of last semester…”

“He needs better hobbies,” Emil grumbled.

“Could be worse,” Berwald said. “Y’ could be Tino.”

“Huh? What’s that s’posed to mean?!”

“We all saw you ogle Berwald’s ass—” Mathias started, and then winced. “Ow, chillax, Big Guy, I was just joking!”

All five of them ignored the nasty glances the Beauxbatons students were giving them. d’Albret wasn’t very happy about the extreme bruising he had from some particularly rough late-game plays and a tumble post-match, and Jean-Philip Blanchet had played half of the match with what he was finding out was a sprained wrist, thanks to some Bludgeres from Ivan Braginsky and frantic maneuvering.

On the other side of the castle, in the study room, Francis distracted Arthur from his failings as a Keeper by picking a fight with him over toast. Kyle Kirkland and Lorenzo Vargas watched in fascination as Arthur changed from being a pouting mess to snapping at Francis with fury like a lion, the two taking notes for the next time Arthur was in a Mood and they needed to distract him. Broody Arthur was a scary Arthur.

Kiku had returned to the stands to watch the next game with Feliciano and Ludwig, and Yao had done the same to avoid Ivan, who was being weirdly friendly again, to Yao’s great discomfort.

And in Gryffindor Tower, Erika had been let in to try to pry her brother out of his dorm room where he’d barricaded himself, because Gilbert Beilschmidt needed to get to his trunk and find birdseed for his pet canary.

(Somehow, Ilvermorny won. Lukas seemed a little too happy about the fact that two of the Durmstrang Chasers had collided with each other, though, since his idea of “enthusiasm” was a miniscule twitch of the lips, none of his friends brought it up. It was probably just a side effect of seeing one of his bullies get some karma tossed their way.)

.

The home team had some time after that, during which Feliciano Vargas was found carrying questionable candies by an exasperated Elizabeta. When questioned however, he burst into tears and went on for ten minutes about being peer pressured…and then claimed Kiku was behind it, though he wouldn’t elaborate.

Which was taken as Feliciano getting played because Kiku? The guy who had tried to set an April Fool’s joke but only finished preparations on the 2nd? Who folded to Alfred’s persistent nagging? Who went to an Italian restaurant and somehow came out “corrupted” after a single bowl of pasta? That Kiku?

Unbelievable. So it was chalked up to Alfred, the biggest buyer of Weasley products and Gilbert convinced Ludwig to keep his mouth shut about the real culprit via a gift edition of Grimm fairytales.

The Hogwarts Library Ghost returned with a fervency that was truly astounding to the Durnstrang Quidditch team. But there was some pushback–one of the Durmstrang Chasers managed to order in gloves that repelled any jinxes and one or two of the backup players would hide out in hidden passages or keep a look-out when the team was reviewing playbooks, and the more petty tricks became almost nonexistent.

Eduard also learned just how many sweet treats he could eat before collapsing from a sugar high, but at least he’d managed to get assistants in the form of Alfred and Mathew to help run all the hardware. The twins were chaotic, but they were also decently good with Muggle tech so Eduardd was able to get a little sleep before the next Hogwarts match.

.

Francis ended up with a flowerpot stuck to his head, but it was worth it for Arthur to not sulk all day and all night. The team captain needed to be fired up for the next few days somehow.

.

The second day started with a match between Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. The entire Hogwarts team came out to watch, half of them to see if Durmstrang got more karma and the other half to get a better view of the Beauxbatons plays and strategies.

And then there was Basch, who was still refusing to come out of his dorm room, but had graduated from barricading the door to making the curtains around his bed impervious to being opened.

Beauxbatons’s Blanchet finally admitted he couldn’t play with a newly-sprained wrist despite protests he was fine, and was replaced halfway into the match.. Durmstrang won five minutes later, and then it was Hogwarts versus Ilvermorny. Arthur ushered his team together, bribed Basch out of his bed with the promise of monetary payment, and set to work ordering everyone about.

 

Daniella Patricks was the Ilvermorny commentator. She didn’t bring snacks, but she wasn’t too horrible, in Eduard’s opinion. And Tino had brought him coffee from the kitchens, so Eduard was pretty sure he could survive an hour or three in the box. Especially after getting more sleep then usual the previous night.

Daniella insisted that he call her “Dani”.

“Heh, that’s funny, I know a guy whose friend nicknamed him Dan,” he chuckled, before taking another sip of his coffee.

“Oh really? Is he here?” Dani asked with interest.

“Yeah, right across from us—he’s the one with spiky hair trying to rizz up your classmate,” Eduard said, jerking his chin out at the crowd. Dani leaned forward to look, and yep, there was indeed a spunky-haired blond Gryffindor batting his eyelids at a giggling black-haired girl from Thunderbird House.

“Of course Celine fucking fell for the British boys,” Dani sighed.

“He’s actually from Denmark. From one of those well-off families, too. You might have some trouble getting your friend back…” Eduard chuckled, then took another sip of coffee to hide his yawn. Maybe he’d pop down and bother Alfred for a Monster during the first timeout…

Dani groaned, her braids flying backwards as he leaned back. “Any tips?”

“Oh don’t worry. He might be the most extroverted of the Nordic Five, but the others will probably scare her off. You’ll see Berwald and Tino on the field, they’re quite intimidating if you’ve never met them before,” Eduard reassured. “A shame they still haven’t decided if they’ll let me join their little group officially, I could use the help with one of the Slytherin girls after me and they’re loads more fun than—”

He stiffened as two people cleared their throats from behind him. Dani turned to see two boys, one a tall fourth-year with a mop of brown hair and the other a shorter boy who didn’t look a day over 12. How they’d gotten up there without anyone noticing, Dani didn’t quite know, but neither looked pleased about Eduard’s comments.

“Care to elaborate on that?” The taller boy asked, leaning down over Eduard’s shoulder. Eduard gulped.

“Er—I mean, I’m sure—”

“We won’t be The Trio anymore,” the younger boy told him, in a voice that reminded Dani of a wounded puppy, complete with wide eyes and trembling lower lip. If he was acting, he was damn good at his job.

“I—no, Raivis, don’t cry, guys c’mon, even if I did join the Nordics ‘the Duo’ has a nice ring to it—” Eduard tried to reason. This was the wrong thing to say, and the next moment, Dani found herself with a new commentary partner.

“Sorry about that. Eduard really needs to take a good nap, he hasn’t slept well in weeks and barely fixed his sleep debt when we tied him to the bed last night. I’m Tolys, by the way,” the older boy introduced himself, ignoring the noises of protest coming from the tower’s exit. Raivis was a lot stronger then he looked, it seemed. “I hope you don’t mind me taking over?”

“No problem. Who knows how long this game will be,” Dani laughed. “It might be a good thing if my co-commentator doesn't fall asleep on me.”

“Nope. Oh, is this the coffee Tino brought him?” Tolys cracked open the lid and wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“Gross,” he declared, before leaning out of the box slightly. “Oi! Feliks! Incoming!”

Dani watched as Tolys levitated the coffee out of the commentary box, down into the stands where, presumably, someone caught it, if the way Tolys looked pleased with himself meant anything.

“An overenergetic Feliks is probably my problem for later, but I don’t think he’s got any death threats over his head at the moment, so I’m sure it’s fine,” Tolys said. “Alfred will probably keep him in check. So, how long have you been a commentator?”

“Oh, me?” Dani asked, quickly shaking off the odd happenings as some strange Hogwarts quicks. “Just this past year. I didn’t quite make it on the team for Pukwudgie, but they needed a commentator, so here I am. You?”

“I play for Gryffindor,” Tolys said. “I had far too much on my plate this semester, though. The Headmistress asked, but it was just a bit too much…Oh, the professors are here–the game’s beginning.”

He quickly pushed the button on the panel in front of them labeled “On”, and tapped the mic to test it as behind and below him and Dani, a number of professors settled into their seats.

“Hello, everyone! Welcome to the second half of the second day of the tournament! I’m your Hogwarts representative, Tolys Laurinaitis, standing in for Eduard von Bock. Don’t bother him for the next twelve hours unless it’s an emergency, please. And welcoming my co-host from Ilvermorny…”

“Dani Patricks! Hey, y’all! I hope you’re all just as pumped as we are to see who comes out on top today! So let’s meet our players!”

“From Hogwarts—Kirkland, Oxenstierna, Williams, Wang, Väinämöinen, Honda, and Zwingli!”

“From Ilvermorny—Long, Hernandez, Lacrosa-Marienx, Ramos, Maxwell, Scotte, and Alzeroq!”

“For commentary in French and Swedish, please tune in to the radio lines set up or to the livestreams any Ministry official standing about should be able to direct you to! I know we’ve got quite the international audience today, so a special welcome to you if you managed to figure out how those Muggle inventions work.”

“You got that right, Tolys. And now, the players are circling up, the ref throws the ball—and they’re off! Ramos of Ilvermorny has the Quaffle, with half of Hogwarts on his tail!”

“Looks like Väinämöinen is closing in, but Ramos does a lovely reverse pass and...—”

“—caught by Scotte! They’re headed for the goalposts, but those Hogwarts beaters are on top of their game today, and aiming those Bludgers like no tomorrow!”

“Seems Oxenstierna and Williams have recovered from yesterday’s fumbles. It’s good to see that the rather adventurous tumble at the end of yesterday’s game wasn’t too serious. Oh, that was a very nice Dopplebeater Defence by Oxenstierna and Williams!”

“Scotte dodges, but drops the Quaffle!”

“Honda’s got it now! That Yajirushi broom of his is quite something!”

“Oh, that’s what that is? Impressive! But is Zwingli on one as well?”

“Don’t think so. I believe Zwingli’s on a Cleansweep Twelve. In the twenty-first century. No idea how he does it.”

On the field, the Hogwarts chasers had performed an almost clean Parksoff’s Play, though Yao had to reach over a distance to grab the Quaffle and nearly fell off his broom. But the commentators didn’t notice, as Dani had grabbed the shared player info sheets to fact-check Tolys, who was watching her with amusement.

Then she shoved the papers at Tolys with a loud, “What the fuck” that echoed throughout the stadium. Tolys’ laughing was also picked up by the mics.

“Our greatest apologies to any families tuning in,” he gasped out through laughs. “My co-host has just found out that the Hogwarts Seeker does in fact use a Cleansweep Twelve and is competing against Ilvermorny Seeker Catherine Alzeroq, who is using a Thunderbird VI. Again, Zwingli defies all known laws of theory as he spirals–and fakes out Alzeroq.”

“Told you it’s time to upgrade, you git!” Arthur yelled at Basch, who looked like he was seriously debating abandoning his search for the Snitch so he could fly up to the commentary box and give Tolys a piece of his mind.

Dani finally managed to collect herself enough to return to her job, Tolys still snickering a bit every so often between his commentary.

“Wang’s got the Quaffle, but Maxwell snatches it after a Bludger from Hernandez. Y’all, it’s getting tense on this pitch, Ilvermorny’s close to scoring, and Kirkland—”

“Kirkland blocks! Ilvermorny does not score, and the game continues!”

“But it looks like Ilvermorny’s got a trick up their sleeve, and Ramos has the Quaffle, pass to Maxwell, pass back to Ramos, aaaand score, hell yeah! Ilvermorny-Hogwarts, 10-0!”

“Alright, someone get Francis out of the stadium,” Arthur demanded.

“You can’t just blame everything on your boyfriend, Artie,” Matthew called.

“I can and I will—HEY! Get back here, you little—”

But Matthew was long gone, zipping past the others in his glee. In fact, the Quaffle was actually thrown before Matthew could even get into position, and the poor Hufflepuff had to turn and fly the other direction on a point to keep up.

It seemed the Americans were there for a good and fair fight, and wouldn’t back down. They were able to score once more before Kiku managed to land a shot in the highest goalpost, and then Tino with another Parksoff Play with Wang. Ilvermorny then scored twice more.

It was the Ilvermorny captain, Seeker Catherine Alzeroq, who called a timeout, the game having gone on for a goof forty-five minutes at this point and Ilvermorny chaser Loki Maxwell having started choking over a dry throat. While the Ilvermorny team dealt with their own problems, the Hogwarts team huddled up.

“We need to up our game. We can’t be bloody beaten like this!” Arthur snapped. “They’re putting us on the defensive. We need to get the upper hand, not bloody lose to a bunch of silly Americans!”

“We could try that thing Ber and I—” Tino started, but five people immediately protested, and the Finnish boy stopped that particular line of thought that, while a potential option, involved some very risky plays that Arthur was sure would get someone killed on top of giving Tino a return to the infirmary; Considering the number of tryhard daredevils on his team, it might be possible, but he was putting his foot down on standing on one’s broom while it went at a ripe eighty miles an hour, magic or not.

He decisively looked away from Berwald, whose ever-present glare seemed to intensify after Arthur shot that idea down.

“We could try the Thimbeling Shuffle.” Yao suggested.

“All offense intended, but that only worked with Tino, Berwald, and Mathias, and that’s only because those three share a braincell,” Arthur retorted. “We save that play for a last resort, unless you’d like to become good friends with the pitch floor?”

Tino immediately protested the idea that he and Berwald shared any braincells with Mathias, while Yao complained that Arthur wasn’t thinking outside the box. While they argued, Berwald quietly prodded a Nimbus 2000 that had “Tolys Laurinaitis” engraved on the handle into Basch’s hands. Matthew nibbled on crackers in the corner, quietly watching the commotion.

And then Kiku spoke up.

.

“Hey, wait a minute…That’s my broom!”

While Tolys tried to figure out how Basch had ended up on the former’s Nimbus 2000 (though he wasn’t complaining, the guy’s Cleansweep was seriously kind of sad), Dani cheerfully took over the commentary for everything with a wide grin on her face. Behind them, even the usually stern Hogwarts headmistress was hiding her quiet laughs behind a handkerchief.

“Hogwarts seems to have regained their drive! No Quaffle is getting even close to the goalposts—this is going to be a close one, folks! Wang passes to Honda, Maxwell steals, but a Bludger from Oxenstierna stops that line in its tracks. Quaffle drops to Ramos, and then—oh, that was a fake punch. Good reflexes there! Quaffle is swept up by Väinämöinen, and it seems like we’ve got something happening here, Williams and Oxenstierna are flanking Väinämöinen now.”

“Bludger incoming from Lacrosa-Marienx—”

“—deflected by Williams, Väinämöinen throws Quaffle to Honda, and that’s a nice spike to Wang, I did not know we were playing volleyball here.”

“Neither did I. They’re at the edge of the scoring area now, Wang JUMPS UP AND KICKS IT INTO THE GOAL! LONG REACHED OUT BUT TOO LATE AND—OH MY GOSH—”

“HONDA CATCHES THE REBOUND AND KICKS IT BACK THROUGH THE HOOP! Both teams are tied, 40-40! Aaaaaand Honda’s down, oh Merlin someone please go check on him—”

Kiku had indeed managed to kick the ball back through the hoop as planned, but after landing on his broom had decided to strike a pose, in an attempt to perfectly mimic his favorite Quidditch player, Yoshihiro Suzuki. He’d almost succeeded, were it not for the rogue Bludger that hit him off balance and down into the sand where he’d landed heavily.

A timeout was quickly called, and Madame Pomfrey announced a few minutes later that Kiku was not to play any further, having broken a couple of bones and sprained his ankle on top of having a concussion. The Japanese exchange student was lucid enough to ask if the Tsunami had caused a flood, which prompted a scolding from Headmistress McGonagall about taking unnecessary risks.

The Hogwarts team huddled up in the locker room once more, Mathias having run down from the stands upon seeing Kiku’s crash.

“You’re in,” Arthur sighed, though Mathias was already pulling on his uniform. “Thank Merlin they changed the rules about subs…any luck with the Snitch, Basch?”

“Saw it a few times, couldn’t get to it.”

“Alright, go right for it if you see it. As for the rest of you—”

“Can we do the Thimbeling Shuffle now?” Tino asked. Matthias nodded eagerly.

Arthur bit back a deep sigh, and wished Tolys was there in the locker room and not up in the commentary box.

.

“Oh, this should be fun! Mathias Densen will be replacing Kiku Honda as Chaser for Hogwarts!” Tolys said enthusiastically. “We should be expecting some good plays coming up.”

“Oh really?” Dani asked. “Wait, isn’t he…?”

“Yup, everyone’s favorite Apollo wannabe is about to take the field! He, Oxenstierna, and Väinämöinen have been flying together for years—I’m quite excited to see them competing in the same team today. Ah, here they are now—Kirkland, Oxenstierna, Williams, Wang, Väinämöinen, Densen, and Zwingli!”

“Ilvermorny’s roster hasn’t changed, still got the same gang back for more! I’m real interested to see how they react to the newest player on the field,” Dani added.

“Names, Dani!” the Ilvermorny Headmaster reminded. But the game had already begun, and Eduard was already talking, though the Ilvermorny Seeker yelled at Dani to use their names the next time as she flew past a minute later.

“Wang has the Quaffle, and boy does the Hogwarts team seem to have regained their spirits after that last bit of action and a fresh Chaser! Pass to Densen, and he’s off to the races, what a blimey clean maneuver between the opponents that was!”

“Ramos and Maxwell are hot on Densen’s tail, looking for an opening to snatch that Quaffle. Densen seems pretty unbothered being separated from his teammates though, is—is he laughing?”

“That sounds about right,” Tolys, who had had to suffer Mathias’ antics on more then one occasion, sighed heavily. “Here comes Väinämöinen and Oxenstierna from behind, and check this out, folks—we get to witness a rare instance of the trio’s favorite flying formation: the Nordic Pointer. Densen throws the Quaffle right over the heads of his opponents, while Oxenstierna sends a Bludger cracking towards Densen. Densen flies up, that Bludger clears a perfect path for Väinämöinen to score, and he does! Ten points to Hogwarts!”

“You mentioned it’s been a while since they’ve flown together—how often do they do this maneuver?” Dani asked over the cheers of the crowd.

Tolys shrugged as he replied. “Eh, only a couple times, when some of us were having some friendlies. They play for different House teams, so it’s a real treat to see them pull this off.”

“You got that right!” Mathias yelled as he flew past, laughing into the wind and nearly smacking into Basch, who didn’t even seem to notice he’d almost been part of a hit-and-run, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

“Interesting. Scotte’s got the Quaffle now, and playing cat-and-mouse with literally everything for the hell of it, by the way. They’re sure giving Wang and Densen a workout there,” Dani commented. “I wonder if they and Maxwell will pull off something similar, they’ve also been flying together for quite some time…”

Emily Scotte made a loop, straight towards Mathias, and just before colliding threw the Quaffle and veered left. Tino and Loki Maxwell proceeded to wrestle for the ball, both in rather precarious positions until Mathias used one of his obnoxiously long arms to grab the Quaffle out from under them. He flew off towards the goals, the other Chasers in hot pursuit.

“That boy better not give the opponent any penalties again,” Headmistress McGonagall muttered in exasperation as Mathias came a little too close to kicking Ilvermorny Beater Yvette Lacrose-Marienx in the face.

“I see why he was on second string,” the Ilvermorny headmaster agreed, flinching when Mathias did a barrel roll and would have crashed headfirst into Seeker Catherine Alzeroq were she just a bit slower. “A little bit of a liability, huh?”

“—Densen sure is giving the refs a run for their money, alright,” Tolys said into the mic, his eyes fixed on the blond sixth-year. “He’s now in the scoring area, he aims, he throws—aaaaand his hand goes through the hoops, that recent growth spurt did not do him any favors.”

The stands filled with groans as Mathias sullenly flew back to his team, the referees calling a penalty shot for Ilvermorny. Arthur looked rightly annoyed, though both Tino and Matthew were snickering to each other.

“Well, at least that was entertaining,” Tolys grimaced.

“You can say that again! Looks like Scotte will be taking the penalty. They look quite concentrated, as does Hogwarts Keeper Arthur Kirkland. Hmm, I can only wonder why.”

“Considering Kirkland is Hogwarts team captain, he’s probably putting all of his frustration into this.”

“That would check out for sure, for sure. Scotte lines up, and sends that Quaffle whirling! Kirkland doesn’t block it, but his fingers nudge it just enough that it misses the goal by inches!”

A cheer for Arthur went up, though a couple of Hogwarts students booed, most prominently Matthew’s twin, Alfred, who was still mad he’d gotten cheated over some tea Arthur had promised to owl-order the week before and also still very much rooting for his home country.

“GG Hogwarts, now back to the fun stuff!” Dani called out. “Aaaand they’re back! Quaffle to Ramos, then Maxwell.”

“Steal by Wang, and a very nice pass to Väinämöinen, who just avoids a Bludger from Hernandez. Densen’s circling, looks like he might be aiming to pick up the Quaffle from Väinämöinen. Oh, looks like Zwingli’s seen something! He’s gone from tense to focused!”

“You can tell from here?” Dani asked in surprise. “All looks the same to me.”

“You learn after watching him chasing after people who annoy him enough times. It seems Alzeroq’s also noticed something, and the two are now neck and neck, oh there’s a glint there, the Snitch is in sight!”

“Väinämöinen just passed to Densen, by the way.”

“Both Seekers have their hands outstretched, Zwingli faux-punches Alzeroq, anD THERE WE GO! ZWINGLI’S CAUGHT THE SNITCH! HOGWARTS HAS WON TWICE NOW AND WILL BE PLAYING THE FINALS!”

Basch made a round with the Snitch held high in his hand, the rest of his team cheering. Mathias, who’d been close to scoring, tossed the Quaffle away as he threw his arms up in celebration (it went flying and Hufflepuff Chaser Raivis Galante caught it in the stands, to his own shock and his friends’ admiration).

“YES! Hey Alfred, you owe me and Feliks!” Tolys cheered, forgetting he was still on the mic. “Good game Ilvermorny—you all put up quite the fight.”

“As did you. Any plans for celebration?” Dani asked with a grin, as below them Madame Maxine turned the mic off with her wand with a grumble about “English boys with no manners for one’s ears”.

“Yo, broski! Come on, we’re like, totally gonna party! Alfred, like, completely owes us so much butterbeer!”

“Feliks Lukasiewicz, please do not block the exit to the commentary booth!” Headmistress McGonagall scolded the blond. “And no getting your friend drunk! You’re both underage!”

“And Mr. Laurinaitis is a terrible drunk,” Professor Flitwick added helpfully.

“Filius!”

“Don’tcha worry, Headmistress,” Feliks grinned. “C’mon, Liet—I wanna beat the crowd!”

“I have a weak stomach—”

Feliks was the Slytherin Quidditch captain, and despite Tolys being taller, could easily pick up the brunet with one arm and shimmy down the ladder with the other. Then again, Tolys didn’t fight back whatsoever, and Dani had a feeling this wasn’t the first time, if the Hogwarts professors’ sighing meant anything.

.

That evening, Gryffindor Tower was abuzz with a party. Or rather, it had started in the common room but eventually spilled out into the Viaduct Courtyard. Yao Wang, Elena Santiago, and Francis Bonnefoy were at the center of it all–a truly amazing sight considering the three didn’t usually have the best relationship.

Maybe it was because they were keeping the party under some control while also having an agreement to keep Alfred from going too crazy with excitement.

“Get off the railings!” Yao shouted at some Beauxbatons girls. “I know you all very pretty and photographic aru, but that is dangerous to stand like that!”

“¡Necesitamos more punch, Francis!” Elena yelled over the sound of Arthur doing riffs on a guitar. Where had he found an amp? “And chips. So much chips. Las papas fritas ya han sido comidas.”

“And napkins,” Antonio added.

“And napkins,” Elena sighed, looked at the almost-empty basket she’d put on the table just a minute prior. “How did we get to this point?”

The answer was simply: the snowball effect. Thankfully, by ten the heads of each of the schools and multiple professors ahd come out to sho everyone back into the castle for the night, and so the majority of the students were able to get a good sleep.

The few that didn’t included the Prefects, who had to do night duties, and a few particularly rowdy partiers who snuck into the dungeon after hours to pass around some Firewhisky.