Harry Potter and all its associated material is copyright to JK Rowling, I do not own any of it! I'm thinking of doing a series of little mini-stories revolving around the next generation of Hogwarts students (likely focusing a little more on one in each story), so if you like this, please follow or favorite or whatever! Comments/reviews are HIGHLY appreciated!
"Oi, Weasley! We don't have all night for you to fix your hair!" A cold voice drawls out, traced back to a pointy-faced youth with white-blonde hair. He smirks, grey eyes fixed on the skinny frame of Rose Weasley, seeming unconcerned about the glare she shoots him, the thought if looks could kill running errantly through his mind. A slim, dark-haired boy claps him on the shoulder, hazel eyes bright with mischief as he leans down to whisper in his ear. "And we don't have all night for you to stare at my cousin, Malfoy. Let's go play, shall we?" He laughs, and Scorpius scowls, stomping off, face pink.
"All right, all right. Settle down." A sensible voice calls out, and a tall boy with bright-blue hair steps out onto the Quidditch Pitch, broom slung casually over his shoulder. "Rose, you can fix your hair later. Scorpius, stop staring at Rose, and James stop heckling Scorpius." The Weasley girl huffs at him, crossing her arms over her chest, resisting the urge to smooth back one last flyaway hair, a biting remark clearly on the tip of her tongue, but she swallows it back. Scorpius's face has turned an even deeper shade of pink by this point, but he merely ducks his head, peeking over at Rose subtly from the corner of his eye.
"Hufflepuffs and Slytherins vs Ravenclaws and Gryffindors tonight, yeah?" That same blue-haired boy continues to address the mass of students, close to 90 of them, about a third with brooms on their shoulders, the rest carrying armfuls of snacks and blankets. A murmuring of agreement spreads through the crowd, heads bobbing agreeably, and Scorpius can't help looking over at Rose, smirking a little, knowing she would understand his unspoken words as she always did. "Ready to lose?" his face says, but he quickly averts his gaze when he sees James sling an arm around her, tousling her hair affectionately and scooting away as she swatted at him, brown eyes narrowed fiercely.
"Alright, break off into your teams and pick the first 7 to play, then we'll rotate in 15 minutes, and a third time in another 15, if no one's caught the snitch. And then, well, hopefully someone will just catch the snitch, yeah?" The rules were always the same, and students had already started clumping together, a large mass of them diverting off into the stands, taking friendly bets and talking amongst themselves.
Scorpius sighs a little, trying not to show his disappointment at not being on Rose's team- not that he wanted to be, he just didn't want to risk losing to her, of course. But he doesn't have time to dwell, for the blue-haired boy, who's appointed himself Captain, being a seventh year (and Head Boy) is divvying them up into rounds. As a first year, Scorpius knew he was likely to get stuck in second string, along with the other first years, including Rose, Albus, and one of the Scamander twins (he wasn't sure which). Much to his surprise, however, the Captain turns to him, eyebrows raised. "Did you hear me Malfoy? You're up for first string this time." Scorpius blinks, nodding. "Sure Teddy. Wow. Thanks." He fumbles over his words for a minute before straightening up, trying not to look too pleased with himself, shooting a furtive glance over at Rose, wondering if she too would be in first string, given that Ravenclaw and Gryffindor would have three first years in total as she and Albus were in Gryffindor, and the Scamander twin was in Ravenclaw.
The rest of the organization passes smoothly enough, and Scorpius finds himself shivering a little in the cool night air, pulling his cloak more tightly around his shoulders, turning towards Teddy who had started to speak again. "Alright, I'm Keeper, Malfoy you'll be seeker in this round, Finch-Fletchly, you and Jordan will be beaters, Macmillan, Zabini, and Patil will be Chasers, and we'll take it from there. That okay for everyone? Longbottom is refereeing this round, so who knows how it will go." There's a bit of laughter at the end of that statement- everyone was fond of Frankie, but he often fumbled his words and had a tendency to call a lot of fouls, but he was better than Gideon Percival Weasley, who always complained that people weren't following the rules and would get hung up on small technicalities.
After a few more minutes, the starters are in the center of the field, and the second string and third string players are off to the sides, eagerly hoping they'll get a chance to play. Teddy goes forward to shake hands with the captain of the other team- a very pretty girl with strawberry-blonde hair- and then Longbottom kicks open the crate of balls, tossing the Quaffle into the air and giving a short blast on his whistle. Scorpius rockets up into the air and immediately finds himself face-to-face with Albus, who grins at him. "Take a look at Rose- she's not happy I got picked for first string over her." He laughs, pointing at the Weasley girl who even in the dim glow of the Pitch was obviously angry. Scorpius rolls his eyes. "I don't think she's ever happy."
And then the two friends are reminded that they're opponents as the snitch flashes in the darkness a few feet away. They glance at each other and grin, before rocketing off after the little golden ball, Charmed to glow brightly every so often so as to prevent them losing track of it entirely. It's a brutal game, full of laughter and shoving and fouls and players falling off their brooms. The snitch isn't caught till the end of the third round, by Goldstein in Hufflepuff, making it so the Slytherpuffs- as they'd called themselves for the night- not only ended, but also won the game.
There's a lot of name calling and laughter as everyone lands, stealing each other's brooms and the Scamander twin- who Scorpius discovers is Lysander when someone calls it out- and Freddie are playing a game of keepaway with Frankie's whistle, much to the round-faced boy's distress. "C'mon, give it back! Guys!" There's much laughter as people catch sight of the game, and soon there's a whole crowd playing, much to Frankie's exasperation. It lasts much longer than it should, for Teddy's nowhere to be found (and, strangely, neither is the pretty Ravenclaw who'd captained the other team, Victoire) and it's only when Rose finally takes pity on the heavily- breathing Hufflepuff that the game ends.
"Can we crash in the Hufflepuff dorm tonight? I don't want to hike all the way up to Ravenclaw." Complains Smith, leaning down to rub his knee, which is quite swollen from getting a Bludger to it, courtesy of Leah Jordan. There's a murmur of agreement, even from the Slytherins, who also had dungeon dorms. "Yeah, and you guys are closest to the kitchen, and I'm starving!" Complains a freckly-faced boy. "Patrick Finnegan, you're always hungry!" Scolds a tall, dark-skinned girl, elbowing him in the ribs playfully. "I'll have you know, Miss Thomas, that I'm a growing boy, and need to eat at regular intervals." He huffs, though he grins slyly at her in a way that suggests he wasn't unhappy with her teasing.
"Hufflepuff it is then!" Declares Rose, stepping out from the crowd, hands on her hips, as if daring someone to contradict her. Naturally, no one does, and the muddy Quidditch players trudge up to the castle, shushing each other jokingly. The spectators had already dispersed, but theres still almost 30 of them trying to sneak through the hallways without getting caught by the caretaker, an incredibly old, grouchy man named Filch, aided by his equally old and grouchy cat named Mrs. Norris. The man was nearly blind and more than half-deaf, but it seemed he'd learn to smell the students, or something of the like, for he had a knack for finding trouble-makers, even with his nearly non-existent sight and hearing. Still, this was not the first Friday Night Quidditch game these students had played, and they were quite good at avoiding him and the teachers on patrol (or so they thought- little did they know that Headmaster McGonagall was more than aware of what went on, and simply chose to turn a blind eye, along with the rest of the professors). If they'd run into Hagrid, it wouldn't have been a problem- he was fully supportive of their late-night playing, and often turned up to cheer them on, but Percy Weasley would have been a different story, regardless of the fact that half his cousins were in the bunch (in fact, he'd been even harder on his relatives than the rest).
But they make it to the Hufflepuff Common Room without incident, and Scorpius lets out a sigh of relief as the portrait swings forward to admit them, the chubby man in the painting giggling at the sight of all the muddy students. As usual, there's a host of snacks awaiting them- James and Freddie had darted ahead to inform the kitchen of their arrival. Scorpius eagerly helps himself to a Pumpkin Pasty, and goes to sit by Albus and both of the Scamander twins- Lorcan had also waited behind for the players, rarely going anywhere without his brother. "Great game, eh? I hope I get to play first string again next week; that was awesome!" Crows Albus delightedly, taking a huge bite of his éclair and getting chocolate on his nose.
Which Rose doesn't hesitate to point out as she strolls over to them, a bowl of non-melting ice cream in one hand, spoon in the other. "You've got chocolate on your nose, Potter." She informs him brusquely, taking a seat on the floor beside him and digging in to her ice cream, determinedly avoiding Scorpius's gaze. "And you've got Pasty in your hair!" Albus laughs in response. "No I don—" Rose begins, words cut off by a screech as Albus snags a piece of Scorpius's Pumpkin Pasty and flicks it into her curly red hair. "ALBUS! Ugh!" She shoves him with her freehand, tossing her head back. Scorpius leans over suddenly and wordlessly plucks the bit of dessert of her hair, tossing it away, before quickly sitting back and looking in the opposite direction. Rose's face turns pink as she hurriedly busies herself with her ice cream once more, and then the Scamander twins pick up the conversation, effortlessly easing the tension as they take turns blathering on about plimpies and Crumple-horned Snorkacks.
Eventually, everyone grows full and tired, and there's some scrambling as people push together couches and chairs and arrange the numerous blankets and pillows so that everyone has somewhere to sleep. A few wander off to shower, and the Hufflepuffs offer pj's to anyone who wants to change- some of them are quite muddy- but even once everyone's settled and comfortable, no one goes to sleep. Instead they all sit around the fireplace, leaning on each other or resting against chairs and tables, taking turns telling stories about everything from the game that night to something strange Professor Longbottom had shown them in class. Freddie Weasley wins the night with a perfect impression of Professor Weasley lecturing them on the importance of his Wizarding Business class, and they all erupt into laughter as he wags his finger at Smith for "upsetting the ratio of pasties and canary creams by taking two pasties and no creams, and thus ruining his business model." Eventually, Teddy and Victoire make it into the Common Room, and Teddy's hair has changed from blue to brown, though when he sees everyone, it turns a bright shade of pink in embarrassment at being caught with the Head Girl in tow. James wastes no time in teasing them heartily, making cat-calls and whoops as they hurry across the floor, Victoire giggling and Teddy's hair growing redder and redder.
Somehow, Scorpius ended up beside Rose, but surprisingly, they don't start bickering, too focused on listening and watching each student that gets up to talk. James, Albus, and the Scamander twins are in the middle of a skit in which James and Albus are supposed to be blibbering humdingers, or something, when suddenly Scorpius feels a weight on his shoulder. He turns to see that Rose has fallen asleep leaning against him, wild red hair tickling his cheek. He doesn't know quite what to do, and opts to stare straight ahead, trying to pretend that his heart wasn't beating a hundred kilometers an hour. In the morning, they'll pretend it never happened- Rose will fervently deny it- but for now, the first year boy is content to let her sleep.
It had been an exhausting (though terribly fun) night for everyone. And they couldn't wait to do it again the next Friday.