There was a rush of movement and a swirl of colour, and three people materialised in the front hallway of the Wintergreen household. Pax, who had landed sprawled on the carpet, jumped to his feet and shook himself off, then turned around to see if Mary Beth needed a hand, while his father went to set aside the old kettle they had used as a portkey. After some pondering on how best to bring Mary Beth over to practice broom-flying with Pax, they had settled on Pax and his dad collecting the young Hufflepuff from her home via portkey. Not as much hassle to set up as a floo portal, and a good deal less uncomfortable than side-along apparition. It was still a bit of a bumpy ride, though.

'Welcome to the Wintergreen house!' Pax grinned at his friend. 'Come on, let me show you where we keep the brooms--'

'Pax,' chided his father. 'Mary Beth's barely just got here, and she might be woozy from the portkey.' He shot Mary Beth a small, apologetic smile.

'Oh-- oh right.' Pax looked a little sheepish. 'Sorry Mary Beth. D'you you want a drink or a snack or to sit down or anything?' He bounced a little on the tips of his toes, trying not to look too eager to start practicing Quidditch moves, but rather failing. He couldn't help being excited; Eirene and Noriko weren't really all that into brooms, so he'd never had anyone his own age to fly with outside of Madam Hooch's class before.

Today was a big, huge, totally massive day for the pint-sized witch.

She had woken up around 4:30 AM, too excited to sleep, and gone through everything in her dresser three or four times trying to decide what to wear. In general, she dressed with very feminine clothes- all dresses and skirts and little jumpers. Today, however, since they were going to be roughhousing, she had landed on a white t-shirt with pretty, lacy ruffles on the sleeves and a pair of little brown canvassy shorts. She was even wearing tennis shoes, a novelty that was not lost on the Hufflepuff.

Having successfully completed her first year at a school intended for fictional characters- or so she would have thought only a year ago- she felt pretty good about herself. She had managed to mostly pass- mostly- and was still riding off the high.

But this was even more amazing than that!

She had her eyes clenched shut desperately through the entire process of the portkey. It had been her first time using such a device- devilry, as far as she was concerned- and it was mildly terrifying. All of a sudden, she became aware of a vertical wall of solid material hurtling for her, and there was very little she could do to avoid smacking into it. The impact knocked the wind from her, and she couldn't quite figure out why she seemed to be sticking to the wall.

As her senses came fluttering back, she put two and two together and realized that she was sprawled like starfish on Pax's hallway floor. Rolling onto her back, she took a few greedy breaths and felt a wide grin creep over her face. "Whoah! Good Jaysis!" she breathed, rolling into a sitting position. "That's a deadly ride, that is!"

Mary Beth shook her hair out and stood up, trying to find her sea legs again, so to speak. The solid earth felt absolutely wonderful.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Wintergreen, but I'm really totally fine." She, too, was trying to seem cool and collected, but the urge to get started was so insistent that she could hardly contain herself. "We've got a lot of work to do!"

'Yeah, we have!' Pax agreed, all grins once more. He gave his dad an attempt at an angelic look to which Mr. Wintergreen rolled his eyes a little, amused, and gestured them through to the kitchen, where the back door was.

Pax's mother waved at them from the kitchen table, where she had made a collection of various sizes of sports balls in a cardboard box. Footballs, basketballs, tennis balls, ping pong balls; Pax dashed over and picked up the box with a cheerful, 'Thanks, Mum!'

'No problem, kiddo.' She leaned around him, and added, 'You must be Mary Beth? Nice to meet you, I'm Viv. Don't let Pax tire you out with too much practice, okay?' she added, only half joking.

'Puh-lease, Mum,' Pax chuckled. 'She'll be the one leaving me in the dust! C'mon,' he added to Mary Beth, heading for the door. He nudged it open as his mother called after him that the brooms were out on the patio. Setting the box of 'practice bludgers and snitches' down, Pax turned back to Mary Beth.

'I haven't asked how your summer's been so far,' he exclaimed, surprised at how much of his manners he was forgetting today. 'What've you been up to?' Catching sight of the two brooms laid neatly side by side on the brickwork, he gestures towards them to indicate that Mary Beth should choose one.

Mary Beth skittered behind Pax with the excitement of a dog hearing a bag of kibble opening. Pax's house was very nice, she noted, impressed. There was no grouchy old man sleeping in the kitchen, so that was a bonus, right there. There were not seven people fighting over one doughnut (which had already fallen on the floor). And Pax's dad, well... he didn't surprise her in the least. He made perfect sense. Sweet as syrup.

-and Pax's mom, as it turned out, was much the same! Mary Beth waved enthusiastically to the woman, eyeing over the box of sports equipment excitedly. She giggled at the woman's half-joke but she genuinely wasn't sure which of them would be able to go longer. They were both champing at the bit to get going, and although she figured she was more used to exhaustive physical activity, she wasn't able to even guesstimate. Shooting a little grin at Pax, she shrugged. "I'll do me best to make sure we take a juice break if things get out o' hand."

With another cheery wave to Viv, she followed her also-small friend outside and immediately felt the need to stretch. The warm sun made her muscles feel amazing, and she found herself wanting to lie down and stretch like the old barn cat that laid in shafts of sunlight.

"Straight deadly," she replied, kneeling down to look into the box. "Me sister's got engaged to her massive nob of a boyfriend, so it'll be only two in our room, then." That, to Mary Beth, would have been a huge coup. "Why, how was yours?"

She held up a snitch while she waited for his response and rotated it, examining it from all sides.

'Um. Congratulations?' Pax ventured, not sure if she was congratulating Mary Beth's sister on getting engaged, or Mary Beth on having one less person to share a room with. 'Mine's been okay so far. Studying and stuff, flying... Oh, went to Diagon-- bumped into Noriko there. And I've been writing to Ruby Flickwick, you know, who graduated this year? She's in America,' he said impressively. Despite how much easier magical transportation was than muggle, Pax had never travelled outside of Europe, and going somewhere as far away as the States sounded like a massive adventure to him. 'And, um... Mum, um, got some good news, but um...' He trailed off, a little sheepish. He still hadn't mentioned to a number of people that he was expecting a new sibling come winter, but Mary Beth was up to her elbows in brothers and sisters; that kind of news was probably old hat to her. 'Don't know if... Um. Anyway.'

Studying the two brooms to distract himself, Pax selected the slightly newer one, remembering that it handled a bit better, and held it out to Mary Beth. 'Here, you can use the Cleansweep,' he said. 'It accelerates a bit fast, but it maneuvers really well. You'll just need to watch not to go up too high-- Dad keeps a Disillusionment Charm or something on the garden, y'know, to keep the muggle neighbours from seeing if we're using the brooms, but it only extends about ten feet above the trees.' Although, in Pax's case at least, flying above the treeline wasn't terribly likely to happen without a great deal of encouragement; a fall from ten feet back in autumn still had him a little skittish when it came to heights.

She grinned at his well-wishes and kept looking through the  sporting goods. It was very similar to the reaction her parents had expressed when Marian had told them. And they had known her boyfriend for years. He was a dopey sort of guy, with ears that stuck straight out and a mop of dark curls that defied any means of control. If you asked Mary Beth, she'd have no qualms about letting you know exactly what she thought of the guy. He was well-meaning but about as interesting as a bowl of oatmeal. "Thanks," she giggled.

She looked up, excited. "You saw Noriko?" she asked. "How was she?" Mary Beth liked Noriko. She was very nice, even though she seemed to really expect Mary Beth to try and eat her. She supposed idly that she was a little scary if you didn't know her very well. "Ruby.... Rrrruby. She was in our house, wasn't she?"

His tiny foray into his big personal announcement wasn't lost on Mary Beth, who squinted at him and didn't stop squinting at him even as he handed her the broom. "She get a job or somethin'?"

Gripping the broom handle, Mary Beth straddled it nervously. She hadn't been on a broom since leaving for the summer, and she certainly hadn't ever done it outside of school. "Are you sure it's okay?" she asked in a hissy litlte whisper.

Pax bit back an amused grin; he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Mary Beth nervous on a broom. But then, he supposed, if she didn't have one of her own, she might be a bit out of practice. Plus she'd never ridden this particular broom before. Trying to be reassuring, he told her, 'It'll be just fine, just take it slowly until you're used to it. Which'll probably be no time,' he added. He wasn't just being kind, either; Mary Beth was one of those kids who struck him as a natural at flying.

Picking up the spare broomstick, an old Comet that was a little slow at turning, Pax cast back to their conversation. 'And um, my mum-- well she-- she kind of already has a job, really, but um, but I guess she'll need to be taking some time off soon, seeing as, um--' He gave Mary Beth a nervous sort of smile, then looked away again, self-conscious. It had been much easier to tell Ruby; he'd only had to write it down in a letter for her, after all! 'Seeing as she's pregnant.'

It didn't sound quite as impressive as it felt to him when he said it out loud, so her quickly busied himself checking the tail twigs of his broom, and said, a little louder than he meant to, 'And um, Noriko's doing well! Um, a bit worried, because, um, her brother might be coming to Hogwarts too in the autumn, but, y'know, I'm sure it'll all be okay whatever happens.' Now painfully aware he was just rambling, he hastily positioned his broom in midair and hopped on.

Mary Beth hovered above the ground, doing little loops and dips to try and get loose. It felt a little strange to be back on a broom, but good, at the same time. She was very small, but she was quick and deft on a broomstick and could maneuver well. It felt like returning to a comfortable bed that she had not slept in for a long while. "This one's a lot nicer than the old feather duster I rode at school," she said appraisingly, testing the turning capabilities of the broomstick.

She wavered slightly when Pax finally spilled the beans about his exciting news. "Are yis serious?!" she squealed, zipping over to her friend and punching him lightly on the arm. "That's deadly! Boy or girl? What are they callin' it? Are you sharin' a room?" And a few more loud and frantic questions escaped her before she gave poor Pax a rest.

"Noriko has a brother?" she cocked an eyebrow. She had never heard of him before. Of course, she had shared very few actual conversations with the Slytherin girl, who had ended half their interactions by running away from Mary Beth at full speed. "Why would she be worried about him coming to school?"

She hovered low, over the box of balls, and selected a quaffle with ginger hands.

Pax couldn't help but grin as he watched Mary Beth take to the broom like a fish to water. He all but forgot to fly himself, simply drifting along with his toes scuffing the grass as he left the patio. Eventually, he picked up some more height and started on a small circuit of the garden to warm up.

'Noriko has two younger brothers, I think,' he replied when he passed close by. 'And a little sister. But I think maybe they don't get on too well? I'm not sure.' Pax still had a hard time understanding the concept of not getting along with family. 'I'm sure it'll all be okay though. Noriko's more-- what's the word?-- adaptive than she thinks she is.'

Pax slowed his broom a little and held out his hands, indicating Mary Beth should throw him the quaffle. If they were going to work on their Quidditch moves, it made snese to start with some straightforward passing. There'd be time yet to start pelting the wannabe Beater with practice bludgers!

'I love having a sister though. I can't wait to have another one. Or a brother.' He smiled shyly; he found it difficult not to show how pleased he was that Mary Beth was enthusiastic about the prospect of a new baby too. 'We don't know which it is yet, Mum wants a surprise. So I guess we won't decide on the name until it's born, but I bet it'll start with a P, like with me and my sister Poppy. And I guess... I guess maybe it'll share with one of us, I mean unless we use the spare room...' Pax furrowed his brow a little, realising he hadn't thought yet about where the baby would go.

Mary Beth shared her room of course, but then she had, well... Hm. He knew she had s a lot of siblings, but he couldn't remember the exact number. 'Hey, how many do you have, again? Brothers and sisters, I mean.'

"Huh," she replied, doing a tight loop in the middle of the yard. "That kinda surprises me! For how skittish she is I always assumed she was an only child."

Mary Beth had been forcibly integrated into the world by her older siblings, who would knock her into walls and smush food in her face. As a result, everyone who attempted to bully her was met with a kid whose impregnable optimism quickly squelched their meanness.

"I think it's more fun to have both," she speculated, meandering onto the broom so that both her feet were perched on it. "That way, if you have boy questions you ask the boys, and for girl questions you ask the girls."

She grinned, and pulled the nose of the broom up. "Have fun with a baby in the room," she said cryptically. "Louder'n sin. Do you want a boy more or a girl more? You've gotta have a preference."
 
"I'm the sixth," she replied. "Marian, Imelda, Tommy, Cathal, and Peter, and then me. Impressive, huh?" she said, in a voice that absolutely radiated unimpressiveness.

'Well sure it is!' Pax said, and meant it. 'I'd love to have older siblings. I mean, being the oldest is okay and all, but it must be nice having people who've already gone through all that growing-up stuff and can tell you about it.' He flew a lazy loop-the-loop, and continued, 'I mean, some of the older Hufflepuffs, like Fauna and Ruby, they're a bit like big sisters, but it's not quite the same, y'know?' Especially now that they'd graduated, he thought sadly.

'I dunno if I do have a preference for it being a boy or a girl,' he added thoughtfully, trying to mimic the way Mary Beth had perched on her broom. He wobbled a lot. 'Both would be nice. But I guess... if it's a boy, then I get one of each, and sister and a brother, which would be cool. But then... if it was a girl, Poppy would get one of each.' He frowned, weighing up the possibilities. 'I guess I'll just have to hope for twins! One boy and one girl. Only don't tell Mum I said that,' he laughed, and swayed on his broom. Quickly, he lowered his legs down over the sides again.

Scooting over to the ball box, he scooped up a quaffle-sized plastic football, tossed it up in the air, and caught it. Then he sped back to the lawn and threw the ball lightly in Mary Beth's direction. 'Heads up!'

Mary Beth held up her hands in surprise. "It's 'okay'?? C'mon, Pax, don't you know how awesome being the oldest is? You're your little sister's hero, like, even more than your parents are. That's so super special. Being the youngest is shite."

She whistled at his suggestion and found herself giggling. She couldn't have even imagined living with twins- hell, even just the regular siblings were confusing enough for her parents. They often cycled through three or four names before coming up with the right one. "Can you imagine having twin toddlers nippin' at your ankles while you're tryin' to study for OWLs?" she raised her eyebrows. "I'd stick to the one if I were you!"

She had to scoot forward quickly and awkwardly to intercept Pax's throw- which caught her slightly off guard- but she managed to grab it nonetheless. "Well, it's a damn good thing we're practicin', or there's no way I'd be up to snuff by September," she laughed, tossing it to herself a few times before flying clumsily backwards for a few dozen yards. She then lobbed it back at her friend. "Heads up, shorty!"

'Shorty?!' repeated Pax as he reached out and caught the football, his expression somewhere between indignation and amusement. 'Who're you calling short, half-pint? I'm like a whole foot taller than you!' Actually, Pax only had a few inches on Mary Beth, but he had been growing a bit over the past couple of months and liked to think it was more.

Throwing and catching the ball a couple of times himself, he threw his friend an encouraging grin. 'Anyway, don't sell yourself-- um, short,' he chuckled, realising the unintentional pun. 'You're pretty much a natural at this stuff. Just give it enough practice, and Mairead and Keegan and Tynan will have to watch out!' In Pax's mind, Mary Beth was already on the team; with her ability (and the Hufflepuff team's admitted desperation for players in the previous school year), he saw her soaring through the try-outs and holding her own against the Gryffindors' disproportionate wealth of talented fliers.

He served the ball high into the air, then twirled his broom around, catching the ball with the tail of his broom in a clumsy sort of pass. If was off course enough that he wasn't sure Mary Beth would be able to catch it, and he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

'Eheh. Maybe I should get you a bat, let you practice Beatering instead of passing.'

"That may be, but I'm like two feet shorter than everybody else," she joked, sticking her tongue out. "Nah, I'm just kiddin'. Yis look a lot taller than you did last month!" she conceded. "I bet all the first-year girls will be hangin' all over ya!"

She giggled at his pun and did another few little loop-de-loops. "Jaysis, it'll sure be fun playin' against all our friends! No matter who wins we'll get to celebrate with 'em!"  This prospect seemed entirely thrilling to her. If she won, obviously it'd be awesome. But if her friends won, well, she'd still get to rock out because her friends would have won something.

That, of course, didn't mean she wouldn't totally bludger one of them in the face when the time came. Hard. With a smile.

She dipped forward, missing the pass but catching it on its first hop. Mary Beth cocked an eyebrow. "You want me to hit you?"

'Hahahano,' Pax chuckled, trying not to sound nervous. (Mary Beth was a rough-and-tumble sort of girl sometimes, but he was fairly sure she wouldn't actually hit him with a Beater's bat. Probably.) 'We've got some practice bludgers, I think, I can throw those at you and you can Beater them away. Easy.' He gave Mary Beth his own lopsided version of a winning smile. 'Let me just take a look--'

Scooting over to the ball box on the Comet, Pax smiled a little at the fact that Mary Beth had agreed he was getting taller. He did know, really, that height, like the rest of one's physical appearance, really shouldn't matter, but there was a very small, very self-conscious part of him that wondered if he'd be a bit more confident if he looked a bit more grown-up. Not that he was after the affections of any of the younger girls that Mary Beth mentioned. But if a certain other second-year were to notice he was becoming a young man rather than just another boy...

Suddenly concerned over the possibility of Mary Beth spontaneously developing Legillimency, Pax shook himself a little and finished digging a couple of practice bludgers out of the box. They were docile things, not magically enchanted to beat the living daylights out of everything that crossed their path, and roughly the same size as real bludgers, though maybe about half the weight. Once they were out of the box, Pax was pleased to note that one of his parents had had the foresight to put a bat in with the balls as well. He pulled it out and flew over to Mary Beth with it.

'Here you go! Ready to defend your teammates from the Gryffindor Beaters?' Handing the bat over to her, he looked thoughtful. 'I wonder who that'll be. What position do you reckon Mairead and the others will end up as, if they make the team?' If Pax was remembering correctly, Gryffindor wasn't as short on talent as Hufflepuff when it came to Quidditch, so he realised there was a bit less certainty about them playing matches next year, but with their talent for flying, it would still be hard to imagine them not playing for Gryffindor. Much as Mary Beth seemed thrilled about that, the notion of playing against them actually made Pax a little nervous. He still wasn't sure where he stood with Mairead, Keegan and Tynan, even off the Quidditch pitch.