Chapter 9 – Revenge

For some reason, despite Bellamy warning me that our practice would begin at sunrise, I didn't think he actually meant the moment the sun broke over the horizon. But I'd been awoken by him banging on the door to our dorm room when my clock read 6am – shouting that everyone else was already up and waiting. I'd scrambled to get dressed as quickly as I could whilst apologising to my dorm mates who'd been woken by the noise. I apologised a final time as I slipped out of the door and into the common room where the boys were all waiting for me.

"Nice of you to join us, Nina." Bellamy smiled and I apologised profusely again but he held up a hand to stop me.

"I'm kidding, don't worry. Sleeping beauty here slept through his first practice. I looked to the boy Bellamy was gesturing to a felt a blush crawl across my cheeks as Alfie Harrington siled and reached out his hand to shake mine. He was a year above me, but somewhat of a celebrity in our house and across the whole school and it was not only for his impressive Quidditch skills. Alfie was incredibly popular with the girls of Hogwarts, me and Mia included. He excelled in his studies and was often seen tutoring our house mates in the evenings. He was also incredibly good looking and Mia and I were both in agreement that of all the boys we'd known in our lives (most of whom were family members anyway) Alfie was certainly the most handsome. He had a kind smile and curled brown hair that fell into his eyes when he was reading, and I'd been unable to ignore the fact that he'd read a lot of the same books as me. Mia and I had resigned ourselves to the fact that neither of us would ever appear on Alfie's radar but that hadn't prevented us from insisting that we needed his help with our studies, not that either of us retained any of the information he told us.

"Right, well we should probably do formal introductions before we get out there." Bellamy stated as we all sat in the chairs and sofa opposite the fireplace. It was so early it hadn't been relit from the night before, so it was just a pile of glowing hot embers. I sat in the armchair with my broom leant against the side as I fingered the emerald green fabric of my robes.

"So, the official team roster for this year reads as follows; keeper is of course, yours truly Bellamy Cavett. Your three chasers are of course, Marcus Flint, Alfie Harrington and Nina Rosier. Beaters; Cassius Warrington and Peregrine Derrick." I looked to the two unfamiliar boys sat across from me, Cassius was very large, not in fat but more in bulk. Thick eyebrows framed sage green eyes and his equally thick black hair was swept back in carefully moulded waves. Peregrine was slightly smaller in stature, dirty blonde hair that was compacted in tight curls. His eyes were such a dark brown they were almost black.

"And last but certainly not least, our seeker Draco Malfoy." Bellamy took the roster and pinned it to the notice board, and I grinned, matching the portrait on the sheet of parchment.

"Now, just one more thing before we get out on the pitch." Bellamy gestured to Draco who had been silent so far, all morning. He suddenly got to his feet and gestured to seven large, black boxes with silver ribbons.

"A gift." He said simply as everyone got to their feet to inspect them. "From my father." I hung back as the first Nimbus 2001 was pulled from its box. Everyone was patting Draco on the back as Bellamy came to stand beside me.

"Not impressed?" he questioned, I answered with a simple shrug as I clutched the handle of my own broom tightly.

"It's the latest broom on the market." I muttered.

"Outstrips anything else by a country mile." Bellamy agreed.

"For speed." I added and Bellamy nodded in agreement before turning to me.

"You know, this really famous Quidditch player, Joscelind Wadcock said that you shouldn't measure an athlete by their equipment but by their passion." I nodded in agreement, I was familiar with both Joscelind and the quote Bellamy was referring to.

"That if you are passionate enough and have enough faith in your strength and your opponent's weaknesses, a broom is simply a tool. It does not define your ability as a player." Bellamy patted me on the shoulder as he pulled a broom from its box, a nice gesture more than anything else, I suspected.

We all began the long walk from our common room down to the quidditch pitch. The early morning air was cold, and I found myself wishing I'd brought my cloak with me for warmth.

"You didn't take a broom." It wasn't a question but a statement as Draco fell into step beside me at the rear of the group.

"No. It's nothing personal but Mum and Dad got mine for me specially. It wouldn't really be fair to not play in it." He simply shrugged in response as though my reason made little sense but we both knew I wasn't going to change my mind.

As we approached the Quidditch pitch, my excitement began to build but it quickly dissipated again when I spotted a group of scarlet – clad Gryffindors heading straight for us.

"Cavett." The Gryffindor captain, Oliver Wood, called.

"Wood." Bellamy replied simply, clearly having anticipated a confrontation of some kind.

"This is our practice time, we got up specially. You can leave now." Bellamy held up a hand before pulling a small scroll from inside his robes.

"Steady on. I've got a note." Oliver Wood snatched it from Bellamy's hand and read it aloud;

"I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch pitch, owing to the need to train their new Seeker." Wood looked up from the note and glared at Bellamy.

"You've got a knew seeker? Who?" Our teammates parted like an emerald sea and Draco sauntered to the front.

"Malfoy?" Harry Potter questioned as though the idea of him as a seeker was a ridiculous one.

"That's right." Draco confirmed as he flicked his broom handle from one shoulder to the other. "That's not all that new this year." I watched as the Gryffindors jaws dropped at they took in all six sleek brooms my teammates displayed.

"Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones!" One of the Gryffindor chasers exclaimed. "How did you get those?" She questioned.

"A gift…from Draco's father." Bellamy stated and he was smug, of course he was – I'd met three out of four of our schools Quidditch Captains and winning the inter-house cup was one of the most important things that occupied their minds. If Draco's father's 'contribution' to the team helped us win then Bellamy would take it, and if I were in his shoes, I would have too.

"Uh oh, pitch invasion." Alfie suddenly commented and we all looked to see Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger marching across the damp grass to apparently see why we were all stood around and not actually doing any practicing.

"What's going on?" Ron questioned. "Have you finished already? What's he doing here?" Ron was looking Draco up and down, visibly disgusted to see him wearing the Slytherin Quidditch robes.

"I'm the new team Seeker, Weasley." Draco sneered. As I watched the altercation unfold, I caught the eyes of Fred and George Weasley who were gesturing to the fact I was still carrying my own broom. They both nodded in silent approval as if to say they were impressed that I hadn't been drawn in by Draco's less than subtle tactics to impress our team.

"Everyone had just been admiring the broom's my father brought for the team." I could see the clear jealousy on Ron's face as he admired the polished black handles and delicate gold lettering.

"Good, aren't they?" Draco continued, clearly enjoying seeing Ron so openly envious. "The Gryffindor's could raise some money and get some brooms too. I expect a museum would bid for those Cleansweep Five's." A few of our team members and a number of onlookers who normally watched the practices laughed loudly from the stands.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in." Hermione chimed in. "They got in on pure talent." I hoped she was only talking about Draco with that remark. Not that she would have been entirely right even if she was. Draco was a good flyer, there was no denying that. But the 'gifts' had undermined him and made him look like less of a player than he actually was. But whether or not she was right, Draco certainly did not appreciate Hermione's input on the matter. His expression had flickered before his mouth contorted into a cruel sneer.

"No one asked for your opinion, you filthy little mudblood."

The subsequent events happened in a very fast blur. I saw Bellamy shove Draco back and step into his place as Fred and George threw themselves at him. One of the Gryffindor chasers shrieked in shock and I saw as Ron's hand plunged into his pocket and pulled his sellotaped wand out, trying to find Draco in the middle of our teammates.

"You'll pay for that one, Malfoy!" he shouted as he shoved his way in, pointing it dead in the centre of Draco's face. I stepped back as a large bang echoed around the stadium and a jet of green light erupted from the wrong end of his wand, hitting him in the stomach and sending him flying backwards with considerable force. Harry and Hermione rushed over to him as a sickening green tinge appeared on his skin. We'd all been silenced by the event until Ron rolled over onto his front and vomited a giant green slug onto the grass.

My teammates descended into full blown laughter and whilst I too had found Ron's wand backfiring funnier than I probably should have, my humour had quickly vanished by the time the second slug hit the ground and began to slowly slither away. He had been hurried away by Harry and Hermione who were then quickly followed by the small blonde Gryffindor with the large camera.

With their Seeker gone, the Gryffindors surrendered the argument and left the pitch. Bellamy turned to us, though it looked as though he was already exhausted for the day.

"Come on, then. Everyone get into your positions."

I was glad when practice was finally over. Bellamy had pushed us all to our limits and I think it was partly because of Draco's little display earlier. I'd had to find where I fit in between the other two chasers and they'd had to adapt their style of play to accommodate me, all in all it had been highly exhausting. When Bellamy finally called it a day, I was verging on ravenous and practically ran to the Great Hall only to see the breakfast banquet was already gone and lunch wouldn't be served for another hour. To kill time, I headed down into the dungeons and had a shower before changing into some much comfier clothes. My dorm was empty, so I figured the girls would be out on the lawn or in the common room.

As I made my way into the main hall I was suddenly waylaid by both Mia and the twins who had serious and yet mischievous looks upon their faces.

"I hear there was drama at practice this morning." Mia commented as we slowly made our way to the great hall to wait for lunch.

"Hmm, yes you could say that." I agreed quietly. Fred and George sat opposite the two of us as I stared at the empty plate in front of me, willing food to appear to satisfy my increasingly large appetite.

"They told me everything." Mia confirmed and I nodded silently.

"Well, it certainly wasn't pretty. Ron vomiting slugs everywhere, actually kind of made me glad I didn't have any breakfast this morning."

"What?" Mia questioned, shaking her head. "No, we're talking about Draco calling Hermione," she dropped her voice.

"a mudblood."

"Oh yeah. I figured that." I stated quietly.

"I mean – who does he think he is?!" Fred hissed angrily.

"Disgusting behaviour. I mean, I never liked him anyway, but I thought he was at least more civilised than that." George agreed.

"Even I'm shocked." Mia declared. "And Nina and I know him better than most."

"Maybe not. Even I didn't think he'd openly use that word." I muttered.

"Well either way, he has to pay for it." Fred said.

"That sounded rather hostile." I said with an arched eyebrow.

"Well, he deserves it." George agreed with his brother.

"I'm sorry." I interjected. "What exactly is happening here? It sounds like you're plotting revenge?"

"No. Not revenge," George disagreed. "We're not looking to end up in Azkaban anytime soon."

"But some mild payback in the form of a prank…" Fred suggested.

"No." I shook my head. "Can't do it. Won't do it. I promised my Dad I wouldn't get in trouble this year." I stated.

"We can guarantee you won't get caught." George offered but I shook my head.

"No. If you guys want to, you can and I fully support you and you know I'm more than happy to conspire with you all day but as far as actually doing it, you're on your own. I will not commit to physical involvement in the pranking. Not this time."

"Well, that sounded rehearsed." Mia smirked.

"It is. But I will keep repeating it. I am not changing my mind." Mia shrugged and turned her attention to the two boys as food finally appeared on the table between us.

"Ok, so Nina's out for actual commitment. I'm in – all the way." She grinned. I shook my head again as I reached for the sandwiches between me and George and bit into it hungrily.

"You're going to get caught."