Chapter 3: This Is Why I Only Go To Games
It was the second weekend of the semester and I'm sitting on cold hard bleachers at 7 o'clock in the morning, on a Saturday. Why? Because I'm a good friend, a Hufflepuff. I tried to make Eliza come with me or even Garrett and Hettie, but they claimed it was too hard to wake up that early. Katie is not very happy at that. She wanted a whole crowd cheering her on. Instead she got a half asleep Puff who's munching on a bagel and plotting Aiden Wood's death. He reserved the pitch for four straight hours so that he could have tryouts and then instantly start practice with his new team. Katie has been a chaser for Gryffindor ever since we were third years and nothing is going to stop her this year. Not even her anger at being one upped by Wood for the Captaincy. It was almost eight before Wood actually gave anyone something to do. He had literally been talking for an hour about why this team was important. I could have slept another hour but no I had to witness the entire process in case something amazing happened. Note the sarcasm.
Finally Katie and the other potential chasers kicked off and flew around the pitch. I sort of zoned out. Don't get me wrong, I love Quidditch, but I'm not really too interested in the whole behind the scenes crap, I just want to see the freaking game. I finished my bagel, unfortunately, and looked back up at the goings on. Katie and Reggie Lee were easily better than all the other chasers. Reggie was a fifth year, and a pretty cool dude, he has dreads that makes him pretty awesome in my book. There was a smaller boy trailing not too far behind them. Well at least we knew who the better fliers were.
The tryouts went on and on for what felt like forever. Katie was on the team again, and very thankful to my crowd of one. Or at least she should be I screamed myself fucking hoarse for her. Finally Wood yelled out the names of the chasers.
"RAY, LEE AND COOPER! Congratulations you made the team." I whooped and Katie made her way up into the bleachers. Grinning like she just won the lottery. And I guess in her mind she had.
"Can you believe it?" She asked, well squealed when she got close to me, grabbing my hands and jumping up and down in one of those rare girly moments of hers. I grinned right back at her.
"Well I'd have to bitch slap Wood with a heavy dose of reality if he didn't put you on the team. You were great out there."
"Thanks Riles."
"So can we go now?" I asked standing up. She gave me a scandalized look.
"No we can't just leave. We still have beater and seeker tryouts to watch and then there's practice."
"Ugh!" I flopped back onto my seat and closed my eyes.
"Oh come on it's not that bad."
"Not that bad? Seriously? Imagine Hettie taking you to one of her Gobblestone tournaments at 7 a.m. and let's see how bad it is."
"Hey that's not fair I hate Gobblestones."
"And I hate watching practices. So there." I stuck out my tongue and she rolled her eyes at me.
"Why are you sitting so far back, come on let's get closer to the action." She didn't wait for a response, or even for me to stand up. She just grabbed my wrist and pulled me down the stairs to the front row so she could hear Wood as well as see him bitch out the seekers trying out. It was another hour or so before Wood had made up his mind on the rest of the team. Louis Weasley was one of the beaters the other was a stocky fourth year who's name escapes me and the seeker is Lily Potter, as always. She looked positively skanky in just her sports bra and booty shorts. Katie and I rolled our eyes at her, but none of the guys seemed to mind. Wood was too engrossed with plays to notice her state of undress. Katie left me in the stands to join her teammates. Wood was about to start handing out orders when a mass of green entered the field.
"POTTER WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON MY PITCH?" Wood roared.
"Oi bludger brains, your time's up it's 11 so pack up and get lost." Scorpius shouted back.
"Hey Albus why don't you speak up and take the attention off your girlfriend? I'm sure Malfoy's getting tired of sticking up for you." Lily shouted at her brother.
"Hey Lily, why don't you put on some actual clothes and try out with some talent, not cleavage and ass?" Malfoy retorted. I snorted. I tried to play it off as a cough, but I just suck at acting.
"What's so funny Hamilton? Who invited you anyway?" Lily spat.
"I did Potter, and she's laughing at you're dumb ass." Katie said, she never did have a problem with people hating her.
"Yeah seriously I don't think I've ever met a bigger slut than you Potter. Is there an Olympic event for skanks now?" I replied. I didn't really have a problem with people hating me either.
"Ooh you got burned." Eliza said walking up behind me.
"When did you get here?" I asked.
"I walked in with the other snakes." She replied.
"You have no room to talk Redding, you slept with Dillon Myers last year." Lily spat back. Eliza gave me a tired look.
"Why does everyone think I slept with Myers? I have higher standards than that."
"Hey he's a nice guy." I said.
"Yeah nice but have you seen his face recently, he has that nasty pubic hair beard and a really messed up nose." She said scrunching her face up in disgust.
"His nose got fixed over the summer, the healers managed to straighten it out, and he can always shave." I replied. Dillon Myers was hit in the face with a bludger last year, they thought his nose was going to stay sideways for the rest of his life. I guess his parents found a decent plastic surgeon.
"Hey go bitch amongst yourselves somewhere else we need to have our tryouts." Scorpius yelled. Begrudgingly Wood packed up and stalked into the Gryffindor locker room, the rest of the team following. Eliza pulled me down into a seat and started to get comfortable. Albus got out the Slytherin practice equipment and started to count the number of people who showed up. He opened his mouth to speak, but changed his mind and closed it. He looked in our direction and shook his head before walking over to Scorpius. The blonde started laughing before making his way over to us.
"Redding, come here." He demanded waving her over. I looked at her curiously.
"Why do I have to come to you?" She spat crossing her legs and wiping imaginary dust off of her jean clad thighs.
"Stop being to so bloody difficult." He glared at her. She rolled her eyes.
"Fine." She huffed and stood up walking to where he stood. She leaned over the railing and he whispered something in her ear. She looked over at me and smirked. "I guessed as much." She said. I could see that she was holding back her evil laugh. You know the kind that goes Mwahahaha. Yeah she does that perfectly, scares the crap out of me when I'm not expecting it. She straightened out and looked up at Albus winking. He audibly groaned and turned away. Scorpius grabbed her arm and pulled her back down whispering something else in her ear. She scowled and nodded. Scorpius pushed her away and she made her way over to me and grabbed my arm. "Come on it's a closed practice." She said annoyed.
"But there are like twenty other people in the stands." I was confused to say the least.
"Yeah they're all Slytherin."
"Rose isn't" I said pointing to the mass of red curls a couple feet to our right.
"She doesn't count she's dating Malfoy. Now come on." She kept tugging at my arm.
"I'm confused."
"Here's something you won't be confused about. Do you want to miss lunch as well as breakfast?" That started me power walking back to the castle. However even in my deprived state I didn't miss the thumbs up Eliza threw back to Scorpius as she hurried to catch up with me.
"So I saw Louis Weasley made the team again. That is a fine specimen if I ever saw one." Eliza said looping her arm through mine and pulling me forward. I shot her a look "What?" She asked.
"Since when are you all touchy feely? The only one who links arms with me is Hettie." I said staring at her. She rolled her eyes at me.
"Can't I be affectionate towards my bestest friend in the whole wide world?" she asked batting her eyelashes.
"No" I said simply. She huffed and dropped my arm.
"Fine I didn't like you that much anyway." We continued walking to the castle.
"So what was that back there?" she widened her eyes in fake innocence.
"Whatever do you mean?" she asked twirling a strand of her hair.
"Stop that." I demanded.
"Stop what?" she asked beginning to walk backwards.
"Twirling your hair and acting coy, I feel like you're trying to flirt with me." Her face dropped the innocent look and she scowled.
"Whatever." She turned around and started walking. I quickened my stride to catch up with her.
"So what happened?" I asked again.
"What?" I rolled my eyes and stared at her.
"What was the thumbs up to Scorpius about?" I asked cocking my head to the side looking at her.
"That's for me to know and you to find out."
"You're not screwing around with him are you?" she scoffed at me.
"Do you always think so little of me?" she asked exasperated.
"No, not always." I said grinning.
"That was a rhetorical question." She glared at me. At this point we had made our way into the Great Hall. She looked back at me. "Where are we going to sit?" she asked her eyes sweeping over the hall. Her question was answered when Hettie waved from the Ravenclaw table. Eliza walked around to sit on her right while I sat across from the two.
"Hey guys what are you doing here? I thought you were going to watch Slytherin's tryouts?" Hettie asked while creating a wall of mashed potatoes on her plate so none of her food would touch.
"We were going to but we had to leave due to certain conditions." Eliza said giving Hettie a pointed look.
"Oh you mean Albus having a major cru-" Eliza slapped her hand across Hettie's mouth.
"Crutch! Albus has a crutch!" I looked back and forth between the two as they stared each other down.
"What are you two on about?" I asked. They looked between each other and me for a good minute.
"Just tell her." Hettie said. Cutting into her turkey like a proper lady and eating tiny bites.
"Scorpius threatened me not to. And I don't know about you but I really don't want to be on the bad side of a Malfoy." Eliza said glancing repeatedly at the doors as if said Malfoy would walk in at any moment.
"Fine I'll tell her and you can honestly tell the little grease ball that you didn't do it." Hettie said. She looked to me and leaned forward. "Riley, what do you think about Albus Potter?" What the hell are these two on about? What about Albus Potter?
"He's quiet. I don't really know anything about him, other than some of his family members are annoying and skanky. Why what do you think about Albus Potter?" They rolled their eyes at me.
"I think that Al Potter fancies the pants off you." Hettie said matter of fact, sitting straight up.
"You have got to be kidding me?" I jeered. They just stared at me. I started to get nervous. Eliza shook her head and my jaw dropped. "You cannot be serious."
"Oh we're serious my little Honey Badger. So you might want to get used to it." Eliza said beginning to pile food on her own plate.
"This is preposterous Albus doesn't like me. He doesn't like anyone. If anything he's gay for Malfoy." I said panicking slightly. He couldn't like me. It's absurd. A Potter could not like me, should not like me. Hettie and Eliza burst into laughter.
"Don't let either of them know you said that, they'd probably kill you in your sleep." Eliza said trying to stop her laughter.
"Yeah and Rose would help." Hettie said snorting into her plate.
"It's not funny guys. He doesn't like me." I said gripping my fork and pounding down on the table, as if in finality.
"Who doesn't like you?" I turned my head to the left and watched Katie slide onto the bench next to me.
"According to her Potter doesn't like her." Eliza said pointing her knife at me. Katie started laughing as well.
"Riley, Albus Potter watches you like Eliza watches her reflection." Katie said chuckling and gathering food. That shut Eliza up for a second. "I mean honestly Riles, how could you not know?" She looked at me as she took a bite from her turkey sandwich. When I didn't answer she continued, with her mouth full none the less. "Seriously Riley, the whole school knows. Why do you think no guys ask you out? Why do you think other girls hate you? It's because the most powerful boy in school wants you. No one is going to go against Albus Potter." Somehow I understood her sloppy chewing filled speech. But that didn't really make me feel better.
"Not to mention the fact that Albus absolutely hates Garrett because he makes you laugh, and gets to spend all his time with you." Hettie said eating her mashed potato wall.
"How do you know though?" I whispered. I was so confused. Why would he like me? He had hundreds of girls to choose from why would he like me? And how do I know if he really does? My friends are notorious for trying to trick me, but they wouldn't try something like this. Would they? No they couldn't. They said the whole school knows. Does that literally mean everyone, teachers, underclassmen, even those spacy Scamander twins? I looked around the room. I suddenly felt like everyone was looking at me, laughing for being so oblivious. No one was however, it was just my imagination. I've never felt smaller in my life, and I've had some moments when I've felt pretty damn microscopic. I looked back to my friends Hettie looked concerned while Eliza smirked. Katie just continued to eat. I think I appreciate her reaction the most. I followed her lead and started to eat my turkey sandwich.
"So, believe us now?" Eliza asked smirking.
"No." I said and continued eating. My life has never been that complex, well at least in my mind. I have some family issues, but at school everything is footloose and fancy free. I know what is going on with me and the people around me. I know where I stand in life. Well at least I did before my so called friends dropped this atom bomb on my head. I don't want to admit it but I'm scared. What else are people keeping from me? Do my friends have other secrets? Does my mom? Or my brother? Is the world conspiring against me? Okay I'm getting carried away. I'll just ignore it, pretend that this conversation never happened. It's not like Albus talks to me. He just gets that glazed over look whenever I talk to him and he becomes slack jawed. Oh damn it, this is going to be harder than I thought.
AN: Okay please, review I'm not quite sure what to do when I don't have feedback. El beggo please-o I'll buy you a chocolate covered pony and send you on a space vacation to the moon I don't care!...well actually I'll just say thanks but it's the thought that counts right? Oh and I don't own Harry Potter or anything that sounds familiar.