Carlton normally studied out by the lake when the weather permitted, and was joined the day before the match by his girlfriend. She managed to break away from the fervent pack of Quidditch fans and teammates and decided to calm her nerves about the match. As captain of the team, she was feeling the stress more than anyone.

"Secretly, I'm rooting for Ravenclaw," Carlton told her, barely glancing up from his textbook. She was sprawled out in the sun next to him, fiddling with a tassel on his bag. "Slytherin can't take the Cup for another year, especially not with all the foul play they use."

"And because Shawn's on the team," she pointed out with a sly grin.

"And you're on the Ravenclaw team," he added, kissing her forehead. "That's what's most important, really."

The peaceful moment was ruined by a voice shouting at them from across the grounds. "Lassie!"

"Speak of the devil," Marlowe groaned, and sat up. Shawn approached, his head held high and wand in hand.

"A lovely afternoon, isn't it, my fellow Chaser?" he started casually, and Marlowe rolled her eyes. "It's a shame we'll have to destroy you in tomorrow's match."

"Did you really come to talk trash, Spencer?" She raised an eyebrow at him, her fingers edging towards her wand. "Because I'd better not be hearing it after that last match against Gryffindor."

"That foul was not my fault," Shawn defended. "The other Chasers, they play dirty. Not me."

"Really? Then what was that Quaffle thrown right at the Keeper's head?"

"Declan had it coming!"

As the arguing continued, Carlton rolled his eyes and tried in vain to focus on his work. It escalated quickly, and soon there were wands being pointed. Carlton's Head Boy instincts kicked in, and he was quick to stand.

"We don't need to hex each other," he said, regretting his decision to put his wand in his bag for safekeeping. "Not over this."

But he was too late - a hex flew from the end of Shawn's wand, Marlowe's Shield Charm went up, and there was a flash of light. Shawn and Marlowe were both untouched. Carlton had reflexively covered his face with his arms, and slowly pulled them away. "What the hell just happened?"

The Quidditch players stared at him. He furrowed his brow, looking back and forth between the two. "What, did the ssssssspell hit..." His hands immediately clapped themselves over his mouth. "What did you do to me?" he demanded, sounding outraged, but from behind his hands it came out as mumbling.

"F-Forked tongue..." Marlowe told him quietly. Gently, she pulled his hands from his face, and the tongue flicked out, much like a snake's. He glared at Shawn, but before he could act on any sort of punishment, he was ferried away by Marlowe to the hospital wing.

Carlton ended up being late to the match, because Madam Pomfrey was sure that she had seen his tongue flicking earlier. Though he was forced to watch the match from the ground, as the stands were stuffed to the bursting, he could tell it was a nasty match from the commentary. Both team were pulling fouls left and right, to Madam Hooch's extreme impatience.

At some point, a Ravenclaw Chaser was nearly knocked clean off of his broom by a Bludger, and the Seekers were so intent on finding the Snitch that they weren't watching where they were going and crashed into each other. Both Keepers looked exhausted, slumping down their brooms and holding on for dear life.

After two hours of this back and forth, the Ravenclaw Seeker finally grabbed the Snitch - only to find that her team was too far behind to win the match. The Slytherin portion of the stand erupted into deafening cheers and cries, while the rest of the school grumbled quietly about it. Ravenclaw needed to win by at least 20 points to claim the Cup, so it went to Slytherin for the fifth year in a row.

Carlton greeted the Ravenclaw team coming from the pitch. (The Slytherins were still showboating in front of the crowd.) As soon as she saw him, she shook her head.