The sound of over two hundred students shouting and screaming went through the quidditch stadium as the fourteen players kicked off and soared into the air.
Shouts of "Go, go, Gryffindor," came from my end of the stadium where I sat with Scorpius cheering on my former teammates and some of my family.
Lorcan and Lysander Scamander were sharing the commentator's duties and one of them - it was impossible to tell which - was currently running through the Gryffindor team line-up. The seven players, each one in scarlet and gold robes, were hovering in a circle formation opposite the Slytherin players.
"And it's Potter, Seeker and captain of the team this year, stepping forwards to shake hands with Flint of Slytherin. Potter seems to have made some changes to the line-up this year. Replacing last year's keeper, John Smith, is none other than one of Potter's cousins, Louis Weasley. Another new addition to the team is Lily Potter, stepping into the shoes of Rose Weasley, as one third of the Gryffindor Chasers, with Fran Spinnet and Liam Thorpe. Lastly, as ever it's Fred Weasley, longest serving member of the team, and Mason Hunt as Beaters."
I picked up the binoculars hanging around my neck and examined the Slytherin line-up for myself as the other twin introduced them. It was easy to see that their tactics remained as they always had - strength and size rather than speed and skill. Hopefully, it would be an easy win for Gryffindor.
On the coach's whistle the quaffle, snitch and bludgers were released and the game began.
"I bet you," Scor said into my ear, "that Gryffindor will win by forty points."
"This is Gryffindor we're talking about. It'll be at least a seventy point difference."
"Shall we say ten sickles?"
Turning back to the game for a minute, paying close attention to the formations my friends were flying in and the wind speed, I smirked and replied, "You're on."
"And the first ten points go to Gryffindor. Lily Potter, a surprise addition to the Gryffindor team, has neatly put the quaffle through the hoop after a side pass from Spinnet. But can Slytherin equalize?"
It was an odd experience sitting in the stands rather than being out on my broom playing. I missed the feeling of the wind blowing through my hair and the joy of soaring effortlessly above ground. I found myself leaning forwards in anticipation and running through the moves I would have made in my mind.
"Miss it?" Scorpius asked, leaning forwards with his elbows resting on his knees, propping his chin up on fists, so that he could see my face.
One corner of my mouth twisted up into a smile. "Yeah, I do actually."
A collective intake of breath filled the stadium as James was knocked from his broom by a beater's bat to the ribs. Fred was soon coming to his rescue, however, and was able to catch him and help him back onto his own broom.
"So it's a penalty to Gryffindor and Thorpe lines up to take it, and he's drifting off centre towards the right hoop, which doesn't seem like a strategy that would guarantee success-"
"-Lorcan, shut up. You don't know a thing about strategy-"
-"Oh and you do?"
"As a matter of fact, yes!" Lysander asserted, trying to tug the microphone from his brother's grasp.
In the few moments when everyone's attention was fixed on the arguing twins, Liam was able to shoot the quaffle through the center hoop, past the Slytherin keeper's body.
"Oi!" shouted Flint, yelling at his keeper. "Pay attention to the bloody ball, Quinlan!"
Scorpius and I snickered as we saw Quinlan turn red through our binoculars. With vengeance, the Slytherin team threw themselves into a series of brutal fouls. Lily took an elbow to the face, while Louis was winded by two bludgers to the stomach. It was a wonder he'd even managed to stay on his broom. Flint even attempted to kick James from his broom. Not a single member of the Gryffindor team escaped a foul. Fran was nursing a bumped head as Lily lined up to take her penalty.
"And Potter scores! Another goal for Gryffindor. Slytherin are really trailing now as Lily Potter's penalty takes the score up to 100 to 20."
But there had been no sign of the snitch. After fluttering up near the Ravenclaw audience's tower, it had disappeared. Despite his best efforts and continued searching, James hasn't seen a trace of the little golden ball.
I watched in wonder as James suddenly dived towards the ground, only pulling up his top of the range broomstick - the Shooting Excalibur - up just in time to avoid plunging into the grass. No-one else on the Gryffindor quidditch team had ever been able to pull off such a maneuver. I'd tried it many times two summers ago and had just ended up totalling my broomstick. Dad had tried half-heartedly to repair it with Uncle Harry before deciding that it would be easier for himself if he just bought me a replacement. My Cleansweep XXI was still in my trunk as pristine as if I'd never opened it.
"And Potter's seen the snitch!"
"I told you it would be at least seventy," I sang to Scorpius.
"Don't be too sure," he replied with uplifted eyebrows, nodding towards where Louis was dangling between two Slytherin players holding him in mid-air between two of the Gryffindor goalposts.
The stadium gasped, watching in horror.
"I didn't think Slytherin were that dirty," Roxie said behind me.
I turned to stare at her. "You've heard Uncle Harry's quidditch stories, haven't you?"
"Yeah, but that's much worse. I mean, look at Louis," Dom replied, looking worried for her younger brother. "He's only five foot tall, he'll be flattened. He shouldn't be playing quidditch."
Madam Hooch's whistle blew and she made to fly angrily towards the offending players, but before she'd even reached them, James had flattened his body against his broom handle and was soaring towards Louis' helpless form as he yelped.
Swear words flew from James' mouth, mixed into a stream of unrecognizable words. Wands were drawn from the inside of players' robes and beams of light flew past James' ears as he flew forward, taking Louis' arm and pulling him onto his broom behind him.
Dom breathed a sigh of relief, and I grinned as Gryffindor were given a penalty. But the snitch was gone again.
Spurred on by that foul on Louis, the Slytherin's were kicking, barging, elbowing and hitting the Gryffindor team at every opportunity. Every time the quaffle touched Lily's hands, she was attacked with bludgers that caused her to drop the ball into the waiting hands of the Slytherin chaser marking her. It was a brutal game tactic that somehow managed to allow Slytherin to finally draw ahead.
"And Puke-face-I mean Pukeman scores again for Slytherin. They lead Gryffindor 140 to 130."
"But hang on a minute," Lorcan or Lysander excitedly called, "the quaffle is back in Gryffindor possession. Rose-I mean Lily Potter - they look too similar-"
"No they don't," argued his brother.
"Yeah they do - they've both got red hair, haven't they? Anyway Potter's really picking up the speed and making her way through the Slytherin players. A dodge and dive lets her pass Flint. Only one more Slytherin player to beat and that's the keeper. She lines up. She shoots. And she SCO-misses."
Scorpius and I groaned.
"You could have made that shot," he commented, still stood up from preparing to celebrate Lily's goal.
"Maybe," I replied, sitting back down.
"There's no doubt. You're the school's second best chaser, Rose."
"Who's the first?" I asked, turning to look at him.
"Me."
"No seriously, who is it?"
"Me," he repeated. "Honestly, Rose, don't you remember last season?"
"I've tried not to," I told him, wincing as I remembered Gryffindor's defeat by Ravenclaw.
"You don't remember my totally awesome goal? The one where we lined up and Josh passed back to Hayley who passed back to me and then I lobbed it backwards through the hoop?"
"It was pretty impressive," I conceded.
"Yeah but then James caught the snitch," Scorpius said with disappointment.
"Well let's hope he can do it again today then."
"I get 'House Pride' and all," he said, putting air quotations around house pride, "but why are you so against Slytherin? We other houses manage to get along with them okay."
"Some wounds are too deep to be healed," I answered absently as I focused on the game.
"So are you going to explain that or just let me be baffled?" Scorpius asked after waiting a few moments.
"Let's just say that grudges don't disappear with a few words, and everyone knows my parents were some of the most vocal against Volde-"
"-Don't say the name!"
"mort," I finished, making a point. "And some people, particularly the sons of Voldemort's supporters, can't bury the hatchet. Life just isn't that simple. And I don't know why you can't get over the name thing, Scor."
"'Cause he's He Who Must Not Be Named, isn't he? Plus it gives me goosebumps," Scorpius replied, sounding uncomfortable.
"Yea-oooh!" The stadium shouted as James dived after the snitch, where it was zigzagging along the ground, about to grab the golden ball, just as Flint used his foot to shove James, sending him and his broom diving into the ground.
Sounds of annoyance reached my ears and I turned to find Hugo pushing through the crowd of Gryffindors to come and sit next to me.
"Oi! Mind my foot," Dylan Finnigan exclaimed from my side.
"Sorry, Dylan, I just wanted to sit with Rose for a sec."
Still annoyed with Hugo for his actions towards Scorpius, I grumpily asked, "What is it?" My mood hadn't improved when, true to his word, Uncle George had sent a congratulatory letter by owl to my brother who had then delighted in showing me. Needless to say, that letter ended up ripped to shreds and thrown into the fire. It seemed that Uncle George had put Hugo on what he termed 'Scorpius Watch'; to make sure that nothing happened between us.
"I need to talk to you."
"Then talk," I said, growing more annoyed when Hugo looked pointedly at Scor.
"I almost forgot, I said I'd give Tom back his notes on levitation potions. I'll just go-" Scorpius said lightly.
My hand clamped around Scorpius' wrist, stopping him as he was halfway out of his seat. "Anything you want to say to me you can say in front of Scorpius."
"Fine," he sighed. "What have you got Dad for Christmas? Could I go halves with you because I can't think of anything?"
I frowned, wondering why he hadn't wanted to say that in front of Scorpius. "Hugo! It's less than a month till the holidays start and you haven't got Dad a present?"
"Well if I had I wouldn't have asked, would I?"
"No need to be sarcastic. Why can't you just get him the new Chudley Cannon's jumper?"
"I've sort of got no money," he mumbled, looking down.
"Hugo, Dad gave you ten galleons at the beginning of term! What have you done with it all?"
Hugo didn't answer, but Scorpius shifted in his seat to look down into the crowd of Gryffindor students. I ignored him and stared at Hugo, hoping to force him to answer with what I hoped was a Mum-like glare. Finally, I gave up and told him he could share the large tub of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and the screaming 'do it now' post it notes I'd mail ordered.
As soon as Hugo was gone, I turned back to Scorpius.
"Sorry about that," I muttered.
"Don't worry about it."
"No really. I have no idea what's gotten into him. Hugh's usually so laid-back and he seemed really stressed just now."
"Look, don't tell him I said anything, but I sort of heard a rumor going around the fourth years that someone was running a betting ring-"
"-Hugo wouldn't do something as stupid as that," I said instantly.
"-and Josh Hollins - you know, from my house - was laughing about how much Hugo lost...I'm really sorry, Rose."
"What are you saying? That's Hugh's some sort of gambling addict?"
Scorpius winced and shifted uncomfortably. "Not quite, but I reckon he had a lot of money riding on this game."
"Well, thanks for telling me," I replied sadly, at a loss for what to do. Hugo wouldn't appreciate me barging in and telling him what to do, nor would he want me to tell our parents. I owed him that at least. After all, he'd never mentioned anything about Scorpius to any of my family.
"I can do one better than that," Scorpius told me, getting to his feet and disappearing into the crowd of people that suddenly jumped to their feet as Gryffindor scored, putting them back in the lead.
As the minutes passed, I worried over where he had gone and debated over going to look for him. In the end, I carried on watching the quidditch match, thinking that at least that way he knew where I was. But by the time, James caught the snitch and ended the game with Gryffindor winning by eighty points, Scorpius still had not returned.
Sighing, I got to my feet and followed Dom, Molly and Lucy out of the stadium. While the three of them chatted happily about Gryffindor's victory and the party we were sure to have that evening, I walked behind, occupied over Scor's disappearance. I assumed that he had gone to see Hugo, and only hoped that he didn't make the situation between my two favorite boys worse. Just in front of the Entrance Hall doors, I paused and scanned the crowd of students, searching for him. I couldn't see him, but that's probably because he was suddenly next to me.
"Who are you looking for?" he asked, scaring the life out of me.
"Scorpius!" I scolded, playfully swatting his arm. "Where've you been? I was worried."
"Aw, Rose, you were worried about me. I just took care of some business."
"Oh please tell me this 'business' did not involve you beating a student up," I groaned.
"No! I just use my prefect status to destroy the betting ring...and some gentle persuasion to make sure that everyone got their money back..."
"Scor, you're the best!"
"Why thank you," he said, smiling and cocking his head.
"I could kiss you right now," I told him, feeling elated.
"What's stopping you?"
I gasped, shocked by how bold he was being. We hadn't talked about...well anything of the sort since our detention together. Sure, we still played twenty questions when we did rounds together, but we never asked anything too personal.
"Forget I said any-" Scor tried to say, as if he too couldn't believe the words that had come out of his mouth and regretted them, before I silenced him with my mouth.
His lips remained open and frozen from surprise, while I kissed him in front of practically the entire Hogwarts student body. In my head, I imagined a collective intake of breath at the sight of two prefects kissing in broad daylight.
"Rose!" someone exclaimed, dragging me by the shoulder away from him.
I found myself tucked under Dom's arms, as her eyes were wide in what looked strangely like anger.
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ARGGGGG I HATE SCHOOL DONT MAKE ME GO BACK, PLEASEEEEEEE