H'okay! Time for another installment. Thank you for your two wonderful reviews!
Disclaimer: See the Prologue.
And…. HERE WE GO!
Chapter Three
Scorpius hovered above the Quidditch pitch. Below him screaming masses of green and red convulsed- each cheering for their respective teams. The other players rushed around the field hoping desperately to score for their team. Scorpius and Gryffindor's seeker, Lilac Coote, watched eachother and watched for the Snitch. Scorpius rose above the girl for just a bit- he wanted a better view and perhaps a bit of colder air. The game had been going for about forty minutes and so Scorpius found his mind lagging.
This simply would not do.
But, without fail, his mind would recede to plots concerning Violetta Pritchard. And so he would find himself watching her blur on the field. Then his mind would escape to the assignments he had waiting for him in his room. So, he would start writing papers long before they were due. The smallest part of his mind- as it had slowly become accustomed to- was always thinking about Albus Potter. What he had overheard on the train, and Albus's actions towards him, were always at least captivating some small portion of Scorpius's mind.
This also would not do.
Then Lilac was diving. Scorpius threw aside his thoughts and followed her- urging his broom to bring him to her side. He had not seen the Snitch- but he would he was certain. Unless of course, she was attempting a Wronski Feint- but that was unlikely; Scorpius was a far better flyer than Lilac was and she knew it. And suddenly he was beside her.
They dove together as two streaks of red and green in the sky. Scorpius saw the Snitch before him and reached for it. It was just outside the reach of his fingers- barely a hairsbreadth away from him. Scorpius willed with all of his body- just a bit more, he told himself, just a bit more.
But the ground was growing close and so the two Seekers pulled out of their dive. They did not miss the Snitch- instead they followed it closely. Around the field they flew nearly brushing the heads of their classmates.
The Snitch was almost within reach.
And then Scorpius blacked out.
The Infirmary was actually not a comforting place to wake up into. At first, Scorpius could only feel his cold toes and had the faintest impression of dull light. Then he slowly started to hear the murmuring of the crowd surrounding him and his body presented him with a painful dull pain. Then finally he nearly whimpered as a pain in his head shocked him fully back into consciousness.
"Oh, Scorpius! You're back. I'm so glad. Everyone was so worried."
That was Violetta, Scorpius decided. He could tell by the ringing her voice left in his ears. She did sound truly upset however, and that reassured Scorpius. Wouldn't do to have a girlfriend who didn't care about you.
Immediately after Violetta spoke, many other voices started speaking. They blurred together and Scorpius wondered if they knew he simply couldn't understand them. It was somehow reassuring though- as if they had faith that no matter how badly he was injured, he would recover just the same.
"What happened?" He asked. That's truly all he was concerned about- the injury on the back of his head was not helping him focus at all. In fact, it was like he could barely focus on anything at all. His head was pulsing uncontrollably with pain and Scorpius forced it through pure will-power to recede.
"One of the Gryffindor Beaters- I didn't see which- knocked a Bludger at you. It hit you in the back of the head. You were launched forward and caught the Snitch- but obviously you were knocked out and injured." Pullox explained. The other students had mercifully fallen silent.
Scorpius nodded to show that he understood. Part of him laughed at the irony- he had managed to move those couple of inches forward to catch the Snitch but not without help. He wondered how the stupid Gryffindor felt- and he smiled at the thought of the poor fellow's housemates reactions to him. Scorpius's friends took his smile to mean that he was pleased to have won and so they launched into praising the game. He listened quietly- nodding at the appropriate moments.
"Now, dears, you need to scurry of. Mr. Malfoy will be rejoining you in a few days- but he needs his rest." Madam Pomfrey said, coming up to Scorpius's group of friends. She sternly watched the group leave and then she turned quickly to face Scorpius. Scorpius resisted flinching away from her intense eyes.
"You'll need a few days bed rest here to make sure you didn't get a concussion Mr. Malfoy- but you'll be quite alright in no time."
He wished she hadn't called him Mr. Malfoy. Scorpius was not his father and he certainly wasn't old enough to be called a Mr. But, as it was, Scorpius grunted and Madam Pomfrey seemed to take that as agreement. She left quickly, rushing over to another bed to help treat a girl who was breaking out into sores which spelled some rather nasty words.
Scorpius relaxed onto his pillows and wasn't long there before he started to doze off.
He dreamt of his mother and father waving goodbye to him at the Kings Cross Station again- but this time he was leaving for his first year. Then his dream melded into his first Herbology class where Professor Longbottom had stumbled over his name. After that his dream sped him through his first year- but it was a darker year than what he had remembered. The dream terrified him but a detached part of Scorpius didn't much care. The year he was dreaming of wasn't outrageous enough to be completely impossible.
"Why is it that every time I see you- you are injured?" A voice asked. Some part of Scorpius recognized the voice and he tried to wake himself up. Blinking he looked up.
"Potter?" He asked- he sounded indignant and shocked because he was. What in the world was Albus Potter doing here? It's not as if he would come to visit Scorpius.
"Malfoy?" Albus said. He was, by the sound of it, mocking Scorpius for sounding shocked. Scorpius resisted hitting the other man because he was already injured and some part of Scorpius wouldn't put it past Albus to retaliate as if Scorpius wasn't injured.
"Why are you here?" He asked instead.
"Where you hoping perhaps that I was Ms. Pritchard?" Albus said. Scorpius only got more annoyed. "I volunteered to help Pomfrey out in the Infirmary. I'm somewhat interested in medicine. Now, can you sit up so that I can rebandage your head?"
Recognizing that Albus was most likely telling the truth and that this wasn't some plot to somehow kill him, Scorpius sat forward. Albus slowly started to unbind the bandages around Scorpius's scalp. Scorpius hissed when he saw the amount of his blood covering the bandage.
"How'd you do this?" The other man asked. Scorpius wondered how daft Albus really was.
"There was a Quidditch match today, perhaps you heard?" Scorpius said. He turned a bit to look at Albus.
"I forgot actually. Was in the library writing a paper." His eyes flickered and Scorpius wondered if he was lying. "Who won?" This convinced Scorpius that Albus was lying even though there was nothing there to really tell him that this was the case.
"We did. What was the paper about?" The best way to uncover a liar was to question the lies for details. If the person slipped up then they were lying. If the person paused for to long they were lying. If they didn't- then they were either well practiced or they weren't lying. Scorpius watched Albus's face closely looking for any clues.
"It was a Herbology Paper. Very advanced. You probably wouldn't understand." The insult to his intelligence simply would not do. The slightly unneccarsy pressure on Scorpius's bandage would not do either. Scorpius resisted the urge to hit the uncommunicative young man in front of him.
"I'm sure I would understand. What was the paper about?" As Albus sat back from his bandaging; Scorpius leaned forward slightly- it showed aggression from what he knew of body language.
Albus swallowed hard. He was looking at Scorpius- but not at his eyes. He was looking somewhere on Scorpius's face- and then Scorpius realized where. Albus was staring at his lips.
"You need some rest." Albus said- and then he tore his eyes away from Scorpius nodded and left quickly.
Scorpius was, quite simply, bewildered.
So… I was gone for couple weeks and I really appreciate the notification/favorite adds HOWEVER- I really ADORED the reviews I received. Tell me what you think!
