I was riding on more than my broom now that I had made the Quidditch team.
I was on a wave of euphoria. I finally felt accepted, truly accepted, by my housemates. Those who had ignored me at best, or glared at me, were now smiling at me at the table. Some even came up and congratulated me. It felt really nice.
"At least one of us has a shot at popularity." Scorpius commented one day over breakfast.
"Of course it would be Lils." Albus popped a sausage in his mouth. "No history." He said around the bit of meat.
"Chew that first please, you bohemian!" Ewww, boys!
He looked at me confused. "What is a bohemian?"
Not wanting to explain my grandfather's prejudices I just said "Never mind, just chew."
Just as we were finishing up Nigel stopped next to me. "Oi, Dursley, meet me on the training grounds in half an hour, I have some plays I want to show you."
I finished swallowing, I do have manners! "Right, I will be there!"
"Practice hard!" Jason Farley our prefect called out as I stood up to go suit up.
"I will!" I waved to him.
A bunch of the other Slytherins also called out, some asking how I thought we would do in the upcoming game against Gryffindor, others just wanting to say hello.
It felt really nice. Like people really liked me.
Oh, I knew how shallow it all was. They didn't like me for ME, they liked me for the Quidditch player I was becoming, but it beat being glared at.
Plus they weren't saying as many bad things about Scorpius and Albus now and that was definitely a plus.
I hadn't realized how important seekers were to the game until I got the position. I wasn't exactly a super star, more like… I don't know, super star adjacent… but it helped.
Nigel was definitely still the one everyone looked to in order to win the game, but they all knew that next year the win would be on my shoulders.
I full intended to get in every minute of practice I could. I wish I could practice at home during break.
Later with Nigel he was explaining some of the moves I would need as a seeker.
"That was a brilliant move with Lofthouse." He praised. "But there are so many more."
He released the snitch.
"For instance." Flying past he scooped the snitch into his sleeve. "That is known as the Plumpton Pass. You fly along and sweep the snitch into your sleeve. Handy because you don't have to try and grab it."
He cast a slight extension on my sleeves and we practiced that maneuver for a bit until I had it down pat.
Next we practiced spiral diving. Nigel threw the snitch at the ground and I went into a tight spiral dive after it. I actually got really good at this.
"I feel pretty confident leaving my position to you next year, Dursley!" Nigel called after me.
I pulled up alongside him. "I keep hearing about the Wronski Feint." I really wanted to try that one!
He shrugged. "The Wronski Defensive Feint. Yeah, you and every other seeker. The problem with it is it has been done to death ever since Viktor Krum performed it at the 1994 World Cup. It is expected."
"Oh." I said, disappointed. "I should have known…"
"Ah, don't beat yourself up over it." He grinned. "I have an even better maneuver. One I wouldn't have suggested… but your spiral is so good I think you can manage it… but I will only describe it here. I have a special place out in the forest I want to practice it. It is going to be our surprise tactic for the next game. Think you are up for it?"
I nodded and smiled enthusiastically.
Maybe a little too enthusiastically. I was part of a secret us!
"OK, part of this is a little dangerous, so if you don't think you can do it, that is OK, it may be better to leave it up to me until you have more experience…" He sounded a little worried. I wasn't offended I was a pretty new flyer.
"OK. If I don't think I can handle it I will wait." I assured him.
He nodded, satisfied. ", OK to do this when you see the snitch behind the other seeker you will make a tight, 180 degree change in direction while covering the shortest amount of distance possible. The maneuver begins by making a quarter loop, bringing the broom up into near-vertical climb, letting your speed slow. At the apex of your climb you will drop change positions dropping into your spiral dive towards the snitch."
He drew a pattern in the air with his wand. He was right it did look difficult. "I will give it a shot in practice, but you are right, in game it might be right in game it might be better to leave it up to you."
"There is nothing wrong with knowing your limitations." He assured me.
As we continued practicing I was worried I was coming down with something. I couldn't stop sneezing.
Nigel pulled up alongside me. "You OK Dursley?"
"Yeah…" I sneezed "I think I am just getting a…" achhoooo! "cold… or something…"
"Maybe you should go see Madame Longbottom." He suggested.
I nodded. "After practice."
"Ok." He looked worried. "But see that you do. "We are playing against Gryffindor this weekend and we need you well."
In a few minutes the sneezing stopped. I gave Nigel a thumbs up. But then a a whole new problem started.
I started feeling hot.
Like really hot.
"DURSLEY!" Nigel shouted. "Your ruddy broom is on fire!"
We flew towards the ground in a hurry and Nigel cast "aguamenti" on my broom and we studied the damage.
"Good thing it was a practice broom." He sighed.
It was a total loss. The brush was completely blackened.
"Yeah, I would hate for that to have been my own broom." I agreed.
We both heard giggling and looked up to see Polly and Yann peeking over the bleachers.
"Chapman and Fredricks." Nigel growled.
I nodded. "They have made it their mission to torment me."
"They took it too far. You could have been really hurt." He glared at them "When Professor Slughorn hears…"
"Oh don't do that!" I pleaded. "It will only make things worse!"
"How?" He almost shouted "If you had fallen off your broom you could have been killed! I can't keep this to myself!"
Nigel looked furious. I guess I couldn't blame him. I hadn't really thought about how I could have actually been injured.
"I guess you are right." I gave in.
"Damned right he's right!" I heard someone's angry voice.
Looking up I saw Rose and Cissa stalking on to the field.
"Rose… Cissa…" I sighed.. "Really… it is…" They both ignored me, veering off towards the bleachers.
"Polly! Yann!" Rose called out.
Both of them stood up laughing.
"What Rose?" Polly giggled. "We were just watching your joke of a cousin fail at being a seeker."
"Yeah." Yann said, but a little less sure of himself. "She is so bad she set her own broom on fire."
"Oh? Did she now?" Cissa asked. Clearly furious.
"It was absolutely hysterical." Polly smirked. "Just one more reason why their kind shouldn't be allowed to be here with us. Hogwarts should be for old magic families."
I just put my head down. No matter how much I tried there would always be those who believed I didn't belong.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up.
It was Nigel. "You are one of us, Dursley. No matter what those idiot Gryffindors think. And Slytherins take care of their own. So do Quidditch players."
I nodded. But I still felt bad.
"Know what I think Polly?" Rose sounded so sweet. That was never a good sign.
"What is that, Weasley?" Polly sounded smug.
"I think you need to be introduced to my Aunt Ginny's favorite spell." I didn't quite hear what she cast but something that looked like bats was flying out Polly and Yan's noses and they looked like they were made out of… bogey's?
Cissa was laughing as they both ran away. "That was mean Rose. Funny, but mean."
"They had it coming." Rose shrugged. "Are you OK, Lils?"
"Yeah, I am OK." I assured her. "Only the practice broom was damaged." I looked sadly down at the broom. "Why were you two here?"
They looked at each other and grinned slyly. "Spying." Rose confessed.
I was shocked but finally laughed. "You two are terrible."
They shrugged and walked off.
Nigel talked to Professor Slughorn who talked to Professor Longbottom and Polly and Yann were once again given detention.
This did not seem to make any difference to them. Except to make them hate me even more.
And it made the rest of Gryffindor house no like me. Not that I really cared about that. Except we were supposed to be forging bonds of house unity. After the last wizarding war the last thing anyone wanted was more separation of the houses.
No, I was a special case.
So, yay me, I guess.
Nigel and I went out the next day into the forest to practice his special maneuver. He was right. It was very difficult. I was OK at it in practice but I wasn't sure I was going to be comfortable executing that in an actual game.
After an hour in the forest we went back to the training ground to work on some more common maneuvers.
On our way back we had a conversation about upcoming practice sessions.
"You have to be ready to learn other positions as well." Nigel was explaining. "If any player gets hurt seekers have to be able to step in."
"Does that happen often?" I asked.
"No, thankfully." He assured me.
When we got back I was surprised by what I saw.
The entire Slytherin team was sitting in the bleachers.
I landed on the grass. "Hey guys." I looked at Xander in confusion. "What are you guys doing here?"
"We heard about what about yesterday." Xander explained.
"Yeah." Elizabeth Lofthouse frowned. "Damned those Gryffindors trying to shake up our seekers before the match."
"Don't worry, Dursley." Damon cracked his knuckles. "We got your back."
I didn't bother to tell them that Polly and Yann probably weren't after me as a seeker but as a muggleborn. It felt nice t just finally feel like I was accepted.
That was a great word.
Accepted.
...