Hey, chapter 4! For the 5 of you reading this, please enjoy!

Chapter 4: Fourth Year, Quidditch Pitch.

Scorpius grinned as he zoomed after the quaffle. He'd never felt so alive.

It was the final quidditch match of the season, and thanks in part to Scorpius' seemingly innate ability to coax a maximum turn of speed and handling out of almost any broom (and on a fast broom, he was uncatchable!), Hufflepuff was playing in the final for the Inter-House Championship for the first time in years.

It seems that Viktor Krum's eye for talent was not as cloudy as Scorpius had originally thought. Now in his second season as one of Hufflepuff's Chasers, Scorpius Malfoy had grown to be one of the finest players the school had ever seen, thanks to a little coaching from Krum and a few friendly Hufflepuff players.

Unfortunately, Rose Weasley's crushing, brute-force approach to her position as Beater for the Slytherin team had also brought the infamous house of serpents to the forefront of this year's quidditch competition...and also brought Rose Weasley to the forefront of Hogwarts quidditch players as well.

And Slytherin wanted the win. Badly, judging by how furiously they were playing.

Unfortunately, they weren't scoring many goals.

Nearly the whole school was watching. Hufflepuff hadn't played Slytherin for the Inter-House Championship in more than a century. Gryffindor hadn't been eliminated from the tournament in nearly 70 years. This was an event.

'Oh Helga!' thought Scorpius as he was nearly decapitated by a bludger that was traveling at about mach 3. A rather sluggish diving roll, sluggish due to the size of Scorpius' broom, was enough to keep him from certain injury.

Scorpius watched as the bludger sailed harmlessly past him and instead hit Elizabeta Flint's small frame square in the shoulder, peeling her right off of her broom.

From the Hufflepuff bleachers, Nancy Longbottom screamed her approval.

"Time out! Ze healers, bring zem to ze pitch right now!" yelled referee Krum as he rushed down to Flint's prone form.

"Oh no! Rose Weasley, my only Slytherin cousin, by the way, has just injured her own seeker! This will definitely hurt Slytherin's chances at taking the victory today!"

At hearing announcer Roxanne Weasley's commentary, Scorpius looked over to see a noticeably agitated Rose Weasley. He then looked down to see Elizabeta Flint being helped shakily to her feet, before being hauled off the pitch and most likely to the infirmary for a checkup.

'Well, Flint isn't dead. Might as well pay my least favorite snake a visit.' thought Scorpius with a small grin as he decided to take advantage of the lull in the action to cruise over to where Rose Weasley was hovering on her Nimbus 7001 'Ginevra Edition', the signature broom of the Holyhead Harpies' most famous player.

Scorpius leaned forward to maneuver his own Bristlelet Broom-Aire 225 (Made of sugar maple, coated in an aerodynamically-advanced blue polish, with heavy chrome accents, an anti-buffeting charm, and a tail of classic unbound corn husk. A top speed of 225 mph with a tailwind!) towards Rose. It was a bit of a challenge at such slow speeds, given the size of Scorpius' mount.

Scorpius' small frame looked absolutely ridiculous perched upon the giant, flashy broom. But it was that same small frame and Scorpius' well-learned flying talent that made up for the gigantic American broom's utter inability to turn. And the sheer speed of the broom combined with his own skills meant he was untouchable most of the time anyway.

As Scorpius drew his chrome-laden broom to a stop, drawing a scoff from Rose in the process, he painted on the infamous sneer and began to speak.

"Tell me, Weasley. Unless I'm mistaken, isn't the beater's purpose on a quidditch team to keep the bludger away from her teammates?" Rose scowled and blushed at the same time.

Scorpius was finding it more and more amusing, the way her freckles turned a darker red than the rest of her face when she was angry or embarrassed.

"I'm surprised you were able to avoid being hit yourself, Malfoy, considering that dreadnought you fly around on." disdainfully kicking the chrome plating on the head of his broom as she said it.

Scorpius chuckled. These days, being a Malfoy wasn't ideal, but it still had some perks. Like being able to purchase the fastest broom galleons could buy.

"I'm curious, Weasley, how do you intend to win with the only good seeker Slytherin has currently broken into pieces thanks to your ineptitude? The only other seeker you have is Raven Higgs, and I'm certain she couldn't find her own arse with both hands, much less a snitch." finished Scorpius with a wink.

He knew the winks always unsettled her.

Rose simply growled and grew even more flushed.

Viktor Krum's voice suddenly rang out.

"Players! Rezume your positions! Time out has ended! Begin to play!"

Krum threw the quaffle into the air, and play resumed.

Scorpius began making mid-field passes, waiting for his chance to get the quaffle. One of Hufflepuff's most successful maneuvers involved getting the quaffle to Scorpius at mid-field, which gave him a chance to use his incredible speed to charge the goals and score.

The quaffle reached Scorpius' hands.

He immediately spun around and accelerated hard towards Slytherin's goals, keep his broom close to the ground. Scorpius was idly aware of Rose Weasley screaming at her team to stop him.

As he entered the scoring zone, Scorpius violently picked up altitude, streaking straight up towards the goals...and directly towards Slytherin keeper Remo Zabini. Zabini looked positively ill as he sat on his Cleansweep 23. He'd already allowed several goals past due to Scorpius' rather unorthodox playing style.

It was hard to maintain composure when a small blonde man on a giant blue and chrome broom was hurtling directly towards him at nearly 200mph, after all.

As he streaked upwards towards the goals, Scorpius released the quaffle. It flew straight up through the middle goal, barely missing the upper edge of the hoop. And Zabini never got close. Another 10 points!

'Yes!' Scorpius cheered inside.

"Wow, another incredible play by Scorpius Malfoy! People laughed at him when he brought that giant broom onto the pitch, but it seems to be working well for him today! Poor Zabini...perhaps it is time for Slytherin to find a keeper who has more than just a sexy bod..."

"Ms. Weasley, that is quite enough!" yelled an annoyed Headmistress McGonagall.

"Sorry, Headmistress! That's 10 points for Hufflepuff! The score is now 100-30, in favor of Hufflepuff!" finished a slightly sheepish Roxanne Weasley.

Scorpius zoomed past the Hufflepuff stands pumping his fist, spurring them to cheer, which they did.

He then buzzed right over the heads of the people in the Slytherin stands, earning him several boos and a couple of angrily thrown chocolate frogs and butterbeer bottles.

As the action resumed, Scorpius noticed that Nigel Whitby, the Hufflepuff team's fifth-year seeker, had zoomed off, clearly in pursuit of the snitch.

Thankfully, Higgs had not noticed. Not that Scorpius was surprised. That girl wasn't a very good seeker, even on her best day.

"Look at that! Whitby has spotted the golden snitch! He's pursuing it on the Slytherin end of the pitch!"

Well, now Higgs was aware.

'Thanks a lot, Roxanne. I guess all Weasleys are troublesome, regardless of their house.' grumbled Scorpius to himself as he zoomed after the quaffle, hoping to expand on Hufflepuff's lead should Higgs somehow manage to get the snitch.

As he threw the quaffle in for another goal (110-30) Scorpius noticed that Rose Weasley had responded to the threat of imminent defeat by smashing the bludger at his teammates every chance she got.

She was mesmerizing, Scorpius had to admit. It was the same sort of savage beauty displayed by a lioness running down her prey, he thought.

The way her eyes seemed to glitter more the harder she played.

The way her hair flew wildly about.

The stretching of her quidditch gear against her muscles and skin and....breasts. Scorpius still hadn't forgotten the eyeful he got last year.

The look of fierce determination on her face.

The grunts as she smashed the bludger with all her might.

The way screaming came from the bleachers.

Wait...that wasn't Rose.

"SCORPIUS, LOOK OUT!" shrieked a panicked female voice from the Hufflepuff stands.

POW!

Scorpius' world erupted into pain as his vision flashed white and his balance left him completely.

He'd been so absorbed in watching Rose Weasley that he'd completely forgotten about Slytherin's other beater, Ellis Goyle. And Ellis had just smashed him over the back of the head with the bludger.

As he fell, Scorpius didn't even hear Roxanne Weasley's commentary.

"And Nigel Whitby has caught the golden snitch! Hufflepuff wins the Hogwarts Inter-House Championship for the first time in nearly 100 years, with a score of 210 to 30! What a blowout!" she yelled as the banners all around the quidditch pitch switched to Hufflepuff colors.

As he fell, Scorpius had one final thought.

'I hate Rose Weasley. And her beauty.'

The last thing Scorpius saw as he fell was Rose Weasley streaking towards him, a look of sheer panic on her face, screaming something he couldn't make out.


Okay, I promise. This is the last chapter where something physically damaging happens to Scorpius. From this point on, he's safe from harm.

I like how Scorpius says 'Oh Helga!' (as in, Helga Hufflepuff) instead of 'Oh Merlin!'. It kind of sounds like 'Oh hell!'

Don't forget to leave a review if you read all the way to the end!