The Slytherin Thorn

Chapter 38 - Drinks

Rose was freezing. It was still the first week of September but the weather had gone unusually cold. Her booted feet swung back and forth, her jean clad legs bouncing up and down on the cold wooden bench, her hands wrapped in woolen mittens were shoved beneath them in an attempt to keep warm. The top half of her body was wrapped up slightly warmer. A grey knitted jumper, a dark blue duffel coat, a green bobble hat. Her nose, poking out from where her Slytherin scarf had fallen, freckled cheeks and small brown eyes were bright red from the cold.

Her eyes were trained on the broomsticks soaring about the air in front of her. Strictly speaking, her nor Indie and Scorpius, who were sat on either side of her, were meant to be there. They'd been bored and, with only a few preparations for later that night, had nothing to do so they'd ventured down to the Qudditch pitch, wrapped up tightly, to watch the Gryffindor teams tryouts. After their places on the team for another year last night Rose and Scorpius had wanted to see who they could be up against in a match.

So far, Rose had spotted several good players and hoped James's arrogance was large enough not to add them to the team. At the moment, the only praises he'd handed out was to her cousins. Every single one of them, which were in Gryffindor, were there including Lily and Roxanne who weren't even allowed on the team. She was just about to point this out to Scorpius when they heard a shout behind them.

"Morrison!" All three Slytherins turned to see Jack climbing down the stands followed by Sam. They both sat down on the bench besides them. Sam turned his eyes to the mini game of Quidditch. Looking at him Rose wondered how he wasn't cold, he was only wearing a pair of trainer, shorts, a hoodie and supposedly a t-shirt beneath it, although she did notice that his nose was slightly pink. She was about to ask him where his coat was when Jack spoke.

"I made the Fatiguing Fusion for you." He said, removing a small glass vile from his pocket and handed it to her. "It works. We tested it on Sam's brother, Ollie. He became so tired he almost fell asleep."

"Is he okay?" Rose asked sounding worried. She knew who Ollie was, a small blonde boy in the year below, also in Slytherin. Although she hadn't realized they were related, apart from their pale skin, they were extremely different in appearance. She hadn't talked to either of them enough to know whether their personalities were similar but they both seemed nice enough.

"Yeah, fine. Took ages to wake him this morning though." Jack answered.

"Are you coming tonight?" Indie asked.

"Might as well. Sounds like it could be a laugh." Jack said. He pushed himself up. "Well we'd best be off. See you around." He gave a short of smile/nod before striding off, Sam at his sides, hands in his pockets. Rose waited until they were out of shot and rounded on Indie.

"You got him to make it for you as well?" She hissed, her scarf fall past her mouth. Rose was pleased to note that Indie at least had the decency to look ashamed.

"He offered." She replied sheepishly with a shurg of her shoulders. Rose glared at her and she changed the subject. "Shall we go down to the kitchens now?"

"Nah. Let's wait and see who made the team." Scorpius said, joining in on the conversation for the first time. "The tryouts are almost over." Although both Rose and Indie were cold and wanted to go inside but they were desperate to see the outcome of the Tryouts so they both agreed to a few more minutes of cold.

Finally the many broomsticks landed on the ground and the large group of Gryffindors huddled together. James hovered in front of them, his voice magically magnified, a sheet of parchment in his hand.

"For those of you who haven't been chosen, I don't want you to be angry. This is about the team. I've chosen who I thought would be the best players. Okay, here's the list.