2023
~*-A-*~
~*-A-*~
Albus paced in front of the Ravenclaw team, twisting his broom in his hands. It was a new broom, a present from his parents, the newprototypePhoenixer. It had arrived with Womy on the morning of his seventeenth birthday, which had given him five days to practice flying it. It went like anything.
Wendy, Rose's fellow Chaser, had had one go on it and nearly thrown up her lunch. Thom, the third year Beater, had fallen off, two feet off the ground, though he was usually a good flyer. It was a mad little thing, and Al loved it. It did crazy things in the air that he still didn't expect after days of flying on it. Still, if his mum and dad had hoped it would do anything positive for his nerves in his first Quidditch game as captain, they were wrong.
"It's just Hufflepuff, guys," he said, realising this was a bit of a lame start to a pep talk. "Their Beaters are useless, the Chasers are all right but don't even get me started on the huge dude they've got in Keeper..."
"Maxie," Janey giggled, from where she was putting a final polish on her Beater's bat. "He's not as big as Warren, in Gryffindor."
"Bigness aside," Benjy muttered, his pride as rival Keeper looming its head. "He can't catch to save his life. If he stops any balls it'll be because they bounce accidentally off his tree trunk arms -"
"Right, which is why we're basically a shoe-in," Albus said, trying to regain control of the conversation. "Just try and score as much as possible so we've got a head start for the rest of the season. "Gryffindor's already about a hundred points ahead," he added ruefully. "Since they smashed Slytherin the other week. I know we're basically a new team and we've been working on a lot of new stuff, but just keep it simple, everyone. I'll have a good view, so listen out for me."
"You just concentrate on the Snitch," Rose said, standing up and shaking out her Qudiditch robes before putting her hand in. "We've got this."
Albus felt she had rather stolen his thunder with that, but he put his hand in with the rest of the team, and the volume of the seven of them shouting "GO EAGLES!" must have been heard out on the pitch, because a roar of applause followed.
"Let's go then," he said, swallowing the lump that had risen in his throat. They walked out to a standing ovation from the Ravenclaw stands.
"Smash it out!"
"Woop woop!"
"C'mooon you Eagles!"
"Go Potter!"
"And a relatively new side from Ravenclaw this year after the appointment of a new captain, Seeker Albus Potter," came the announcement over the loudspeaker. They had let Albus' cousin Louis do the commentary this year, which he couldn't argue with, the lad was the most well-spoken of his peers, even if he was only a fourth-year, and as Quidditch-mad as the rest even if he didn't play quite so much. He was a fastidious boy in many ways, and the mud and potential for injury that went with the game seemed to put him off flying competitively.
"Interesting choice from Potter, giving bats to a sixth year girl and a third year boy. Beaters have to work as a close team, so we'll see how that works out..."
No need to go easy on me, cuz, Albus thought as he shook hands with the seventh-year girl who was the captain of the Hufflepuff team.
"Potter and Reed shake hands and there's the whistle!"
Albus shot immediately as high as he could comfortably go to see the pitch. He needn't have worried. Rose scored three goals in the space of three minutes. Emerson scored the next one, but Rose the next two.
Al grinned and shook his head. Sometimes he forgot, when she was nagging him about practicing with non-verbal spells, how bloody good she was at Quidditch.
He was shaken out of this thought as a Bludger very nearly impacted with his head. He shot out of the way and darted away from the Hufflepuff Beater, who evidently was not as bad at his job as Albus had given him credit for.
"Potter moving like lightning there on the new Phoenixer - not yet available in stores! You'd have to be nuts to ride that broom, so it's a good thing Potter is!"
Albus rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure whether it was his mother or father's connections that had got them a prototype broom, and he hadn't asked. Still, it was a brilliant broom, and he wasn't going to just not use it.
He clung to the broom with his knees and flipped it, his heart jumping momentarily into his throat as it did a crazy little side-swipe and he ended up below and behind the pesky Hufflepuff Beater. There was a gasp of appreciation from the crowd.
"Potter dodges a second Bludger there with a fancy move - Hufflepuff with the Quaffle for the first time in the game! Reed heading towards goal - the Ravenclaw Keeper is distracted by a Bludger - Hufflepuff score!"
The yellow and black quarter of the crowd roared with appreciation. Unable to stop himself, Al searched the stands quickly with his eyes to see Lizzie clapping politely next to Belinda. She had to sit in the Hufflepuff stands, of course, but he knew she was there for him.
"I'll wear blue underwear," she had said, making him blush. "Just don't get yourself killed. I'll allow some slight maiming..."
"How slight?" he had asked, making a face.
"Anything below the neck but above the waist," she had replied, making him blush even more. Luckily there was no one listening - as an inter-house couple they had taken to claiming common areas like the library to spend time together. Rose and Scorpius were doing homework on a nearby table, but they were too busy avoiding each other's eyes to listen to anyone else's conversation. Honestly, you could cut the sexual tension with a knife. If this madness went past Christmas, Albus had a good mind to just knock their heads together, lips first.
"So you'd be fine if I lost both my arms? How would I do this then?" He had reached over the table and pulled her gently towards him for a kiss. They only stopped when the old librarian coughed disapprovingly. Lizzie giggled.
He was brought back to the game as the crowd cheered again - this time for Ravenclaw, as Wendy had scored her first goal. Disappointed that he had missed it, but still not quite able to shake off the daydream, Al turned his broom upwards and returned to surveying the pitch for the Snitch. The Phoenixer zoomed upwards faster than he was expecting, and he almost went flying off the end of it.
"Behave," he muttered to it, as though it were a naughty puppy.
As he leant into the half-turn, a flash of gold caught his eye. It was hovering quite high up, not quite still but doing a little dance in the air. He hesitated. Catching it now must be some kind of record, they'd only been playing for about five minutes. And they would win the game, but they were doing so well that they might as well keep going and get a better score. So what, should he just ignore it? That seemed to go against all his instincts as a Seeker.
He could see the Hufflepuff Seeker, a girl called Quark, or Quirk, or something, on the other side of the pitch. The Snitch was behind her, but all she had to do was turn around and she would see it.
He patted his broom gingerly. "Please don't kill me," he said to it, and went into a dive. He hadn't planned on going very far, just far enough to distract Hufflepuff while the Snitch had time to get away. But the broom seemed to enjoying hurtling towards the ground at a hundred miles an hour. By the time he was able to pull up, he was dangerously close to the Ravenclaw goal posts, and the Pheonixer still refused to stop. He grit his teeth and grabbed the bottom of the far right hoop, hanging nearly horizontal in the air as the broom tried to fly off without him. Eventually it seemed to realise it was time to slow down, and he was able to grab the handle again.
"Penalty to Hufflepuff!" Louis shouted over the crowd's laughter. "Potter's touched the goal posts - to be fair, it probably just saved his life - someone better write to the makers of that broom and warn them of the incoming law suit!"
"Sorry!" Albus called to Benjy, who now had to defend against a clear shot from Hufflepuff.
"No problem!" the older boy called back, flexing his hands inside his gloves. "Just don't let that thing throw you off - we've only got one captain!"
Reed took her shot, but this time Benjy saved the goal, and the Ravenclaw stands went wild.
"Well it looks like Potter's stunt didn't lose Ravenclaw any points, and they still lead sixty-ten! Ravenclaw still well in the lead, not bad for an almost totally new team, so perhaps Potter's not quite as mad as we gave him credit for..."
Albus made a mental note to pay his cousin back for all this not-so-subtle jibes, but there was no time to consider his revenge just now. He gripped his broom firmly and flew back up to his surveillance point. The Hufflepuff Seeker had narrowly missed the ground, having followed him almost through the whole dive. She glared at him as she passed and he waved an apology. He hadn't actually been trying to kill anyone.
The Snitch seemed to disappear permanently after that. Al had planned on letting the game go for at least an hour, provided Ravenclaw kept up their lead. By the time three and a half hours had passed, the score was 340 to 120. On the one hand, catching the Snitch now would give them over four hundred points, making it difficult for even Gryffindor to catch up, but on the other hand, it was starting to get dark. When Thom accidentally swung his bat at Wendy's head, thinking she was a Bludger, Al had had enough. "Time out!" he yelled to the referee, making a T motion with his hands.
"What on earth are you doing up there?" Rose demanded when they had all landed, breathing hard. "Just catch the damn thing already."
"Thank you, I hadn't considered that," Al sighed. "I'm looking for it, all right? It's buggered off somewhere. Quirk can't see it either."
"Even if she does, we'd still win," Thom yawned.
"Look, this is nothing," Al told them. "The longest Quidditch game ever went on for days, right?"
They all groaned.
"I'm not saying I want that to happen," he said, rolling his eyes.
"I'm starting to get blisters," Janey complained, rubbing her hands where the Beater's bat and her broom handle were pinching the skin through her gloves.
"I am not forfeiting," Al said sternly. "Not when we've got a two hundred and twenty point lead. Neither will Hufflepuff, I expect. Look, they're turning the lights on."
Big magical lamps were being lit around the pitch. It was hard to light a sports field that was so three-dimensional, without blinding the spectators, so it was a bit spotty, but at least there was light.
"Right. Beaters, try not to hit any of us, or each other, or any Hufflepuffs unless absolutely necessary," Al said quickly, seeing the referee waving them back onto their brooms. "Emmerson, Wendy, keep doing what you're doing. Rose, you're going to help me look for the Snitch."
"What?" She frowned at him.
"We've got enough points," Al told her. "I have to catch it, but there's no rule that says you can't help me look. Two sets of eyes are better than one. You want this to end, right?"
She still looked hesitant, but he knew her arms and legs were just as tired and achey as his were - more, because she had to cling to the broom with her knees when she had the Quaffle. "Oh fine," she said, mounting her broom. "But if the ref calls it, I'm blaming you."
The referee did not call it. There was no rule against other players joining the search for the Snitch. The Hufflepuff stands were not impressed, however, and a murmur of disapproval echoed towards them as soon as it became clear what they were doing. A hasty discussion between the Hufflepuff captain and Seeker led to all three Chasers trying to play the Quaffle and look for the Snitch, with the result that Emmerson and Wendy scored another four points in a row between them with hardly any opposition, bringing the Ravenclaw lead to 250 points.
Albus and Rose were hardly paying any attention to this, however. They took opposite ends of the pitch and started a methodical sweep, flying in grids towards each other. They had almost met in the middle, and Al was starting to wonder if this plan had not been the best after all, when Rose, over by the spectator stands, whistled loudly and waved to him. Instantly he kicked the Phoenixer into full speed and followed her pointing finger to the very top of the Ravenclaw stands, where the Snitch hovered, tiny and golden, above the top row of seats. The Hufflepuff Seeker had seen it too, at Rose's whistle, but she was miles away.
It was so easy, Al thought, even as he plucked the tiny golden ball out of the air and landed with relief in the stands, the first years who had been sitting there scrambling to get out of his way.
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of the game, the score is five hundred to Ravenclaw, one twenty to Hufflepuff, and I think, correct me if I'm wrong, that has to be the most points scored by any team in a Hogwarts game! Five hundred points to Ravenclaw! Potter may use some strange tactics and fly a crazy broom, but he must be doing something right!"
Albus only just heard this over the roaring of the crowd around him. The Ravenclaws were cheering and jumping up and down, making the stands tremble. He grinned and kicked off the stands to fly back down to the pitch, where the rest of the team was waiting for him. They all descended on him as soon as he landed, pounding him on the back. Rose pushed through them to give her cousin a hug, and he laughed. "Couldn't have done that without you, you know," he said. "Maybe you should be Seeker from now on."
"No fear," she said, making a face. And then the team parted, and Lizzie was running towards him across the pitch. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him enthusiastically.
"That was amazing," she said, ignoring the catcalls and whistles from those watching them, which was almost the entire school, though the stands were already emptying as people wanted their dinner. "Amazing."
"Oh get a room," he heard Rose sigh as Lizzie kissed him again.
Al could see the teachers start to emerge from their stand. Professor Longbottom was looking over at them with great interest. Luckily more Ravenclaws were beginning to surround them with congratulations and plans for the biggest celebratory party ever to be held in Ravenclaw tower, and they were quickly blocked from view.
~*-S-*~
~*-S-*~
When given the opportunity, Scorpius had learned, Ravenclaws could party with the best of them. He had done his bit by using his House Elf connections to supply them with more food than a herd of elephants could likely have eaten. And he had helped enchant the volume of the wizarding wireless in the corner to what some might have called a slightly ridiculous level, but people seemed to be enjoying it, anyway. Al, Rose and the other Ravenclaw players were the heroes of the hour, Al especially, for captaining the team to the greatest victory in Ravenclaw Quidditch history.
"That'll give Gryffindor something to think about," Scorpius said to his friend, when the crowd around him had thinned out just enough for them to have a brief conversation. Albus grinned. Scorpius couldn't help but feel a little pang of jealousy as he was forced to the back of the crowd again. Al really did seem to have it all at the moment. Perfect family, Quidditch captain, hero of Ravenclaw, and a girlfriend. Lizzie hadn't let go of his hand the whole evening, or so it seemed. Belinda had also been invited to the party, despite being a Hufflepuff - and a Hufflepuff Prefect, to boot - and she seemed to be hitting it off with Peter, the Ravenclaw fifth year Prefect. They were certainly sitting very close together.
"Ew, gross." Scorpius turned to see the Scamander boys pointing at Al and Lizzie, who were snogging again.
"Isn't it about bedtime for you boys?" Scorpius said pointedly.
"We don't have a bedtime," Lorcan (or was it Lysander? Scorpius still couldn't tell them apart) said quickly. "You're not my dad."
"Thank Merlin," Scorpius muttered. "Go on, Lucy and all the other first years went up half an hour ago. You need your sleep if you're to continue terrorising the student body with your menagerie."
"We don't have a menagerie," said probably-Lysander.
"Yet," said probably-Lorcan, with a cheeky grin.
Scorpius sighed. Go to bed," he said firmly. "Before I find all your little pets and report them to Professor Flitwick, right?"
Lysander's eyes widened. "You wouldn't!"
"I might, so bugger off."
The dark-haired twins grumbled to one another before grudgingly making their way up the stairs towards their dormitory.
Rose appeared suddenly at his elbow. It was weird, he kept forgetting he was taller than her now. "That was nicely done," she said.
"I'm glad you approve."
"You'd have made a good Prefect, you know."
He snorted with laughter. "Uh-huh, that would gone well. Too much responsibility, if you ask me."
Rose gave him a look that suggested he could probably do with a little responsibility. "Noisy in here, isn't it," she said after a moment. It was true that they almost had to shout to be heard over the music. It was lucky that Ravenclaw tower was so far away from the rest of the castle, or they would almost certainly have been told to shut the party down, by now.
"Sorry," he said. "I might have overdone the volume charm. I'm used to doing them on myself, so..."
"I wasn't blaming you. Want to go outside for a bit?"
He raised his eyebrows at her. "After hours? Daring."
"We won't go far, just so I can hear myself think. Up on the roof, maybe. Coming?"
He shrugged. He didn't have any particular desire to continue watching Al and Lizzie's dance of the adolescent tongues, either.
They slipped out of the door, careful not to disturb the enchanted knocker, and went up to the roof. There was some fairly advanced magic on the trap door, to stop students going up there and falling off - or jumping off, it had to be said - but they had started doing advanced security spells in Charms, and Rose was able to unlock it fairly easily.
Ravenclaw tower was not as high as the Astronomy tower, but there was still a wonderful view of the stars from up here. Being November and almost midnight, it was very chilly out in the open air. Luckily Scorpius had brought his cloak, having not had a chance to change since the match, and he pulled it off and gave it to Rose to wear over her Quidditch robes.
"Are you sure?" she asked, giving him an odd look.
"What d'you mean?"
She didn't answer him, but took the cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders. She went to the parapet and folded her arms on it, leaning out to look over the grounds. It was a very clear night. Moonlight sparkled on the lake, and in the distance they could see a flicker of orange light from Hagrid's hut.
"It was a good game," Scorpius said, coming to lean on the merlon beside her. "You were great. Keep it up and you've basically got the cup in the bag."
"Mmhmm."
"People will be talking about that one for ages. Just so long as the next one doesn't go on quite so long - my backside was getting seriously numb from those seats."
"Scorp..." Rose pulled the cloak a little tighter around her. Her long red hair fell in tumbling waves over her face, still ruffled and frizzy from flying. "I don't want to talk about Quidditch right now."
"Oh." Scorpius shrugged. "What do you want to talk about, then?"
There was a long pause. "Al and Lizzie," she said eventually. "They're so... happy."
"I know, it's annoying, right?" Scorpius said with relief, glad he wasn't the only one.
"What? Well... yes, it is a bit, but that's not what I meant."
"Rosie," Scorpius sighed. "You know I love you, but you're not making a great deal of sense right now. Can't you just say what you mean?"
She looked up at him, with wide, surprised eyes. "What did you say?"
"I said you're not making sense," he said, very slowly in case she had missed it.
"No, before that."
He flushed. "I said - well, you know what I - I meant - as I friend, I just - sorry."
"Don't be sorry." She was still staring at him.
"I didn't mean - I'm not trying to - it just came out!" he said miserably. "I would never - "
"Why never?" she said quickly, challenging, turning away from the battlement to face him. "Why would you never? What's stopping you?"
He stared at her, flabbergasted. "Because... you're... my friend," he said lamely. "Al's cousin..."
"So? You're not my cousin."
"Yeah, but Al..."
"Oh, forget about Al for a minute! Do you love me or don't you?"
"Rosie!"
"What?"
Scorpius did not understand what was happening. The idea of being with her... like that... was a strange, foreign concept, only because since he was eleven she had been like his family. Better than his own family, certainly.
"Why are you doing this to me?" he asked eventually. He was starting to get a headache.
"Because, you git, because.... because..." she seemed at a loss for words, all of a sudden. "Because you're the only one who doesn't seem to think... because Lizzie said you talk about me all the time, because... look, everyone thinks we're a couple! But you're the only one who doesn't seem to realise!"
"But we're not a couple!" he protested. He didn't think he deserved to be yelled at.
"But you treat me like your girlfriend!" she burst out. "You pull out chairs for me, you're always carrying my things, you gave me your cloak..." she stroked it for a moment before sticking her hands under her arms against the cold. "And you just said," she added triumphantly. "You love me."
"Yes, but..." Scorpius blinked. He did do all those things, it was true. But only because he was trying to be a gentleman. And maybe he had talked about her a lot over the summer, but only because he was excited to see her again. Only because. Or was it, only because? The more he looked at her, brown eyes shining in the moonlight, he wanted to say yes. Yes, I love you. I've loved you since you rescued me from rogue Gryffindors when I was eleven. Since you made friends with me when no one else would. And I know you talked Al into it, too, though he'd never admit it. Without you I wouldn't have had any fun. I wouldn't have the Longbottoms. I wouldn't have music.
"But Rose... we can't. I can't."
"Why?"
He flinched. "You know why."
Her expression hardened. "Scorp, I don't care about Uncle George. I don't care what people think about you."
"What about your father?" he shot back. "What about... Rose, what about my father? You don't know him, you don't know what he'ddo..."
"I thought you didn't care about him either!" she flared. "You've lied about your NEWTs, about where you spent last summer, about wanting to play music when you leave Hogwarts, and this you don't want to lie to him about?"
"If he found out - and he would eventually - he'd disown me," Scorpius said flatly. "That would be it. No house, no money, no family, not even a last name..."
"Then let him!" Rose tossed her hair back over her shoulder. "You don't need him, Scorp!"
"You don't know what you're asking me!" Scorpius exclaimed. "How would you feel if I asked you to leave your family, to never see them again?"
"It's not the same -"
"Why not?" he demanded. "Because your family are good people? Because your father is better than mine? Do I not deserve to have a family?"
There were tears sparkling in her eyes now, tears of anger and disappointment. "You deserve to be happy," she said.
"I was," he snapped, and then instantly regretted it. She turned away from him, and he knew she was crying.
"I'm sorry," she said, low. "I won't bring it up again." She pulled off his cloak and tossed it back to him without looking, so that it fell unceremoniously on the stone floor of the tower. "You can have this back," she said, and went back to the trapdoor. She was through it, and down the ladder, before he could even think to call her back again.