The roar of the stadium filled Scorpius' ears. Beside him, Alan Brightman screamed foul and on the other side, Al Potter yelled something indiscriminately anti-Gryffindor. Scorpius' mouth remained shut, his jaw set, as he watched the newest member of the Gryffindor team hover high above the game. The seeker was lithe and limber, as much a part of the broom as it was a part of the game. She was too far up for him to see her face but he knew her blue eyes would be smoothly scanning the players below. The search for the snitch never stopped and Slytherin's three goals had them two ahead of Gryffindor. The wind caught her and her red cloak fluttered, but she moved with it, never letting it distract her.
You're doing good, he thought at the girl. Don't let anything distract you.
A bludger, courtesy of Mathew bloody Walton, zoomed towards her. She hadn't noticed it yet- his heart jumped in his chest and he held his breath. Samuel Smithers, a poncy guy but a damn good Beater, caught up with it a hairs' breadth from the seeker and bashed it back into the gameplay. The seeker high fived him and he sped back into the melee.
"And Casey Godwin of Slytherin has the quaffle, look at him go!" The announcer called out. Scorpius spared a glance at the Chaser, who was yards ahead of the competition, and paid him no mind. A louder roar indicated a goal. "Let's hear it for Slytherin!"
The seeker gently lowered her broom until she was just above the gameplay. Twenty yards away, the Slytherin seeker watched her. He was a sixth year, an experienced player, and Scorpius knew he didn't see his Gryffindor opposite as a threat. He'd only spent the last week bragging about how easy it was going to be to defeat her, as it was her first real game. He'd been playing Seeker since his second year. Scorpius knew it would be a close game, regardless of what the Slytherin seeker thought.
Don't stop looking. Look outside of the game, it won't be right in the middle, not until you've spotted it, he thought furiously. Somebody bumped into him and Scorpius, distracted, turned to look at the offender. Alan bumped him again, deliberately. "Chill, it's just a game," he said. Big words for somebody who just a minute ago was claiming the Gryffindors were a cheating bunch of slime balls, Scorpius thought. There was no real malice in it though- Alan understood what was at stake, despite his staunch anti-Gryffindor stance.
Scorpius returned his gaze to the field, but the Gryffindor seeker was gone. Panicked, he sought after the girl, and found her neck in neck with the Slytherin seeker, going straight up. "No, no, no!" He murmured. "You know that's not safe!"
On his other side, Al Potter gave him an odd look. He followed Scor's gaze, then pointed and yelled, "Look at the seekers!" Around him, the crowd quieted for a brief moment before the rising voices came together. "Slytherin, Slytherin!" They screamed. The Gryffindors, a beat behind, started their own chant. Over it all carried the voice of the announcer. "And the seekers are after the snitch, ladies and gentlemen!" He said, his voice magically amplified to outdo even the entire crowd. "Let's hear it for..." He paused, waiting breathlessly to see who would get it.
Still, the seekers rose in the sky. They were tiny dots now, too far away to see besides being smears of red and green against the overcast sky. On either side of Scorpius, Alan and Al exchanged a look; Scorpius was so intent on the seekers, he hadn't blinked in over a minute. Is he okay? Alan mouthed. Al shrugged and jerked his head at the sky.
Then, it was almost too hard to tell, the two smears of color were returning, both brooms pointed straight down and going faster every second. They're both riding fire bolt mk 7s, Scorpius' mind prompted unbidden. They can't outrace each other. They're gonna hit the ground!
Scorpius couldn't even see the snitch. It had to be going faster than any other snitch ever had, he thought, at the speeds they're going it can't possibly do anything but go in a straight line!
At the last possible second, both seekers in unison jumped off their brooms. The Slytherin seeker managed to get his broom pointing upwards before abandoning it-it skittered along the grass before coming to a rest several yards away. The Gryffindor seeker, on the other hand, launched herself forward, curled up into a ball, and rolled right off the pitch and into the space between the stands and the pitch. The broom plowed into the earth and stayed there, wobbling.
As one, Alan and Al grabbed Scorpius' arms as the boy tried to go over the stands. "Let me go!" He ordered. His words were lost in the screams of the crowd. Instead, the boys dragged him through the roiling crowd to the stairs. Scorpius tore himself free and ran down the stairs as fast as his shaking feet could carry him.
On the pitch, the Slytherin seeker stood up and shrugged at his team- the snitch was not in his possession. Teachers and students swarmed the field, to Scorpius' frustration. "Move!" He screamed at the yellow and black clad students ahead of him. There was nowhere for them to move to, and he was stuck.
"It looks like..." The announcer faltered. "Gryffindor...has the snitch?"
Finally, too slowly for Scorpius' taste, the captain of the Gryffindor team rose up above the crowd, with the seeker on the back of his broom, and one hand held triumphantly in the air. Something gold fluttered between her fingers.
"Oh, thank Merlin," he breathed.
"Gryffindor wins, one hundred and sixty to forty!"
Gryffindor raised a chant but their words were lost in the general screaming of the crowd on the pitch.
"That is NOT how to do a Wronski feint," Alan observed, having just barely caught up with his friend. "You should discuss that with her," he added. "For your sake."
The Gryffindor team took a victory lap around the pitch, then flew off in the direction of the locker rooms. Scorpius was stuck in the crowd, since they were all trying to move in that direction as well, and his patience was quickly dwindling into that negative space easily filled by anger and violence.
"Give it a minute," Al said. His patient push and shove had brought him altogether too close to the other two boys but in the excitement of the crowd, there wasn't much of a choice for personal space. "They'll start clearing the pitch here in a minute. Let's go see if we can't get her broom pulled up, eh?" Alan and Al took hold of Scorpius and with Alan leading the way, they pushed through until they got to the space where the seeker's broom had penetrated the earth.
About a foot and a half of the stick had plowed into the soft dirt of the pitch. Scorpius grabbed hold of the footrests and wiggled it, but the stick didn't budge. "You think accio would work?" Alan asked.
"Worth a shot," Al said. "Scor?"
"Go for it."
Alan pulled out his wand and, after a moments thought, backed away. Al and Scorpius followed his lead. "Accio broomstick!" He ordered. The broom trembled for a long few seconds before pulling out and launching at Alan. The boy screamed and hit the earth. "I hate this spell," he muttered.
By unspoken agreement, Scorpius took hold of the broom and hefted it onto his shoulder. The crowds were thinner now, and easier to walk through. Scorpius lead the way and eventually found his way to the Gryffindor locker room. Miss Jenkins, the charms professor and Quidditch referee, stood outside the locker room, ferrying adoring fans away from it. "What do you three want?" She demanded.
"Actually, miss, I'm not a part of 'you three'," Alan said. "'You three' is Potter, Malfoy, and Weasley-"
"Shut it, Alan," Scorpius and Al said together.
"We thought we'd return her broom," Scorpius said.
"I'll take it, then," Professor Jenkins said, one hand outstretched. Alan, following Al's lead, melted back into the crowd.
"I'd prefer to return it in person, miss," Scorpius said.
"That's not an option," The professor said. Have I done something recently to make her angry? He wondered.
"I'll hold onto it, then," he said firmly.
Professor Jenkins gave him a look of impending detention, then opened the door and hollered something.
Soon after, the seeker bounded through the door. "Scor!" She squealed, throwing her arms around his neck. He dropped the broom and returned the hug, arms wrapped tight around her back.
"You scared me," he whispered into her hair. "Please don't do that again."
The seeker pulled back, her face all smiles. "But did you see it? Did you see me get the snitch?"
Unable to be angry, Scorpius sighed. "Yes, I saw you fall off the pitch."
"Oh, enough of that," she said. "Everybody else is gonna lecture me anyways." Her smile dropped for a second and she frowned.
"What's the matter? Are you hurt?" Scorpius asked, his voice edged with panic.
"Huh? No. I'm fine, I swear. I just realized something."
"What's that?"
Calista Malfoy, Gryffindor House's newest seeker, bit her lip and looked up at her older brother. "I just beat Dad's house. What's he going to say?"
"I'll tell you what he'll say," Scorpius said. "He'll say, 'good for you, beating those nasty Slytherins! They deserve to be put in their place.'"
Calista grinned again. Her round fourteen year old face hinted at beauty to come, and Scorpius knew there was no way anybody could be angry at her for playing as hard as she did. "It's what Dad would have done to win," he said.
Calista hugged him again. "You know what?"
"What?"
"I'm really glad you're okay with me beating your house. I don't think I could play if I knew you weren't happy with it."
Scorpiu grinned. "It just means I'll have a reason to cheer for Slytherin, because I know they'll need the encouragement more than you do. Now run off before you're mobbed by all your new adoring fans." With a gentle shove, Scorpius pushed his sister back towards the locker room door. "I'll see you at dinner. Go!"
Calista grinned back, her adoring smile the last thing he saw before she ducked back into the locker room.
Alan and Al strolled nonchalantly around the corner; both pretended to be surprised to still see Scorpius there.
"Hey Scor," Alan said, as Scorpius fell into step. "I know where you can hide the bodies."
Scorpius stared at Alan, baffled. "Bodies of who?"
"All her future boyfriends." Alan snickered at Scorpius' expression.
Al bumped Scorpius' shoulder. "Personally, I recommend the Forbidden Forest."
"That was my idea!" Alan shoved Scorpius into Al. "Idea-thief!"
Scorpius sighed. Boyfriends were something he had been trying not to think about. At least he had his best friends to help him out on that score.