53

Alyssa

The last few days of September passed fairly quickly; Seeing as the House Mix-Up had lasted pretty much all month, there were only a few days left until we hit October. With the new month, came chilly winds and fall leaves. Some days, if you looked out the window, you could see Filch raking the huge lawn, grumbling to himself. Of course, you couldn't hear him; But I'm sure the way his mouth was moving could be applied to muttering lowly words about whoever had given him the horrible job in the first place.

You could also feel the buzz of excitement in the air at the prospect of a coming Quidditch game. Being that it was Gryffindor versus Slytherin, everyone was talking about it. Many Ravenclaws were betting against Slytherin, but some Hufflepuffs had been bullied into supporting Slytherin.

'Twas the Slytherin way; Bribing and blackmailing people into supporting you.

Bringing up Malfoy, he hadn't exactly… changed. Since that first day, he'd been acting the same way he had, being under Taylor's protection. He still hung around his friends; But the taunting had faded pretty much into non-existence. Obviously he hadn't turned into my best friend or anything over night, but we weren't tearing at our hair every time we saw each other.

And seeing as we were both on the Slytherin Quidditch team, I saw him a lot.

It was on one particular practice one night, that made me blink in surprise.

"Let's go, people!" Flint was yelling in his usual annoying voice, flying around the pitch as he watched us practice hard.

"Shut it, Marcus! I don't see you doing anything!" I yelled at him, causing chuckles from everyone else.

"No attitude, Anaya! You're lucky to be on the team!" His face was beat red.

"I'm surprised you are, ass wipe. You don't have any talent, other than sitting around and ordering people around," I argued, gripping the handle of my broom. Bickering was a normality when holding a practice; You never knew who was taking a visit to the Hospital Wing.

"I- You- Get back to practicing! We have a match to win in a few days! And Malfoy; Eyes on the Snitch! Not Anaya!" He roared, before taking off to the other side of the Pitch.

Taken aback, I twisted around on my broom to see what he was talking about. Malfoy was looking away from me, but I could tell his face was slightly red.

"What's up?" I asked him, as I flew towards him.

"I- ugh- Nothing. I just thought I saw the Snitch near you're area and he thought I was staring at you." He sputtered, trying to keep calm.

"Okay than…" I gave him a reassuring smile, and watched him go off into the air, his form a blur of silver and green Quidditch robes.

I wasn't stupid, but I could see a lie when I saw one.

And Flint was right about one thing; the game was in a few days. And wow, did they ever go by fast. It was like one moment, we were holding a last minute practice, and than we were in the change rooms, waiting to go out on the Pitch.

"Come on, team; we have to win this. I swear, if we lose again to those Gryffindorks… I'm going to kill one of you. I won't be happy."

"..Never happy period." I muttered under my breath, earning a chuckle from Adrian Pucey.

Flint kept going on, not hearing anything. I drowned him out, not really wanting to hear his speech on how 'disappointed' he would be if we lost.

Finally, everyone was getting up. I followed suite, my broom over my shoulder. We walked through the short passage in silence, and than…

The doors to the Pitch opened, revealing several hundred screaming people. My stomach twisted a bit in anticipation.

I threw a leg over the broom, and took off, feeling the wind blow my bangs back(I'd tied my hair in a ponytail).

We all gathered in a circle, each half one team. Taylor looked at me from the other side of our circle, gripping her bat easily with one hand and holding onto her broom with another. She grinned, and it was easy to tell what she was saying.

"You're going down." Flint and Wood shook hands, eyes never leaving the others' face, and the whistle was blown. The Bludger was released, and the Quaffle was thrown up. Pucey caught it first, and was off like a rocket towards Gryffindor's goal posts.

I followed suite, keeping up formation and tactics as best as I could. Knowing I was right behind him, he tossed the Quaffle back over his shoulder, and I caught it easily. Flying forwards, it went over to my left to Flint, who whipped it into the left hoop, barely missing Wood's hand.

"10 points to Slytherin!" Jordan Lee called far below us, as some cheered and others Booed.

Twenty five minutes into the game, and the score was 10-130 for Gryffindor. I took a quick moment, and scanned for Malfoy.

Where are you? I thought, hoping he would catch the Snitch and just get it over with. As I'd thought this, One of the Chaser's from Gryffindor scored yet another ten points, bringing the score to 10-140.

I swept the field again, and thought I saw Harry dive towards the ground.

Shit! Malfoy, where the f*ck ARE you? My internal voice yelled loudly, panicking. If Gryffindor won again, Taylor would never let me live it down. Last match, it took a three weeks for her to get tired of telling me I'd lost to Gryffindor, again.

And there he was; Malfoy was inching ahead of Harry, his arm outstretched.

"Another ten points to Gryffindor! And it looks like Harry might have seen the Snitch!" Jordan yelled into the microphone.

And just like that, it was over. I hadn't seen who caught it. My mind buzzed with anxiety for a few seconds.

"And… Slytherin catches the Snitch! The final score is 150-160 for Slytherin!"

Holy crap, they'd gotten close. If they'd sent the Quaffle through our goal posts again just before Draco had caught the Snitch…

I landed on the ground, sand billowing to fit the form of my shoes. I went running to the kid who still had the Snitch his closed fist.

"Party tonight in the Slytherin Common Room!" Someone yelled, and we all exclaimed in happiness, drowning out the unhappy cries of the Gryffindor team and its fans.