A/N: Needless to say, as more than two people reviewed this, Julie did not fall to her death, although it would have been a quick way to end this Story That Nobody Seems to Like. In fact, I am about to put in the most fascinating plot twist yet. So here you go.
Chapter Six: The Gryffindors' Seeker
"What do you mean she's just right for a Seeker? My daughter will not play for Gryffindor!"
"As I recall it, one of my teachers did break a cardinal Hogwarts rule. Rather than just firing you, Sev, why don't I merely put Julie on the Gryffindors' team? I think that's punishment enough."
"If she makes the team, Minister Albus."
"Minerva, she's my kid! How could she possibly not make it?"
"Well, if she has your tendency to make offensive fouls, I'm not sure I even want her on the Gryffindors' team."
"For crying out loud, she's never picked up a broomstick!" Hermione could really care less where all this argument was going. They were going to watch the Quidditch tryouts, and as she'd said, Julie'd probably never flown in her life, much less practiced up for Seeker or Chaser yet. But she was sadly and deeply mistaken when she got to the huge Quidditch stadium and sat down with the teachers. Ginny Weasley, a little taller but very much redhaired, handed her and Dumbledore each one of her goddaughters.
"Godparent's job, 'My-knee, leave the parents free to clap."
Out into the center of the field walked Hogwarts' professor of flying. Snape was seeming just a little less than pleased to see Harry Potter, but as Hermione had said, 'you can't teach everything, Sev.' The black-haired young gentleman whistled, and the three entrants for Seeker all took off. Most of them were good, catching the little gold balls within twelve minutes of their launching, but one kid was absolutely excellent. She had seven Snitches in her hands before the first minute bell rang, and brought them down just for releasing again. She had evidently trained with a master.
"Severus," Hermione inquired a little threateningly. He had the world's most sheepish look on his face as he gestured toward the flight professor.
"Aw, come on, just because I didn't like your friend in school doesn't mean I wouldn't ask him if he'd tutor our kid. After all, she's got five years' training to catch up."
"And you two kept this a secret?"
"It's the Slytherin side, dear, knew you'd have to cope with it," McGonagall explained as Hermione fumed at them. She was too busy goggling over her new Seeker to really care to take Hermione's side as she always did. In fact, 'for once,' she thought, 'old Severus may be right.'
At the end of the tryouts, Harry applied the Sonorus Charm to his throat and began to announce the winners. Thirty-four though he was, a crowd of younger girls still ogled.
"And our new Chaser for the Ravenclaws is…Sasha McMillan!" Another child of a school friend got up and had blue robes put on by fellow teammates. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw also each got a new Seeker, as the teams had held a boil-down tryout in secret to prevent anyone's being humiliated. This, the teachers did not, or were not supposed to know.
"The new Slytherin Keeper will be…Alexei Malgryevic!" A slouchy looking boy of seventeen took his place in the green robes, having just transferred over from Durmstrang due to his ambassador father's removal to England. Snape applauded heartily, though Hermione was quiet as she pointed out the looks Alexei and Julie were sending each other from the field to the auditioners' bench. Abruptly Snape stopped and sent the Bulgarian a glare of ice and daggers. Hermione and McGonagall both cheered like furies as Timothy and Thomas Weasley, cousins and absolute lookalikes, were given the positions of Beaters for Gryffindor, then held their breath as Harry drew out the last scorecard.
"And the new Seeker for Gryffindor is…Julie Starcatcher Snape! …As if anybody was surprised!" That last was meant to be a comment said under his breath, but the Sonorus Charm prevented anyone from missing just how proud Harry was of his honorary niece.
Severus was actually on his feet applauding for a Gryffindor before his daughter raised just a slight eyebrow and he remembered his duty to Slytherin. Still, it didn't stop him from permitting just a slight leniency afterwards, when all the Gryffindors came into Potions half-sparked from last night's mint coffee at the party. He usually managed to deduct an average of thirteen points from Julie alone a week in classes, as his philosophy was based on tough love and handicapping best potential to work harder. Having grown up in orphanage schools with just the same philosophy, Julie got along with it just fine.
Poor Alexei Malgryevic, on the other hand, was pounded so properly into the ground for forgetting his homework that the Slytherins thought their teacher was possessed. Another four points off for glancing in what may have been Julie's direction convinced them he'd gone utterly mad and they decided to go ask Professor Granger. She got students at least every other week protesting that her husband was evil or biased or crazy, and she usually admitted to the second two.
("Yes, of course, he's very biased. How bright of you to notice.")
Julie on the other hand, had just gotten used to her dad's odd teaching tactics and deliberately made mistakes to take the rap off Alex. It took a spill and several small fires before she finally just gave up and worked with Alex on their Polyjuice Potions, a Defense Against the Dark Arts standard stand-by. That drove Snape perfectly crazy.
"Dear, I think you'd really have a talk with her about that stupid Keeper. Every time I pick on him, she just goes and takes his side."
"Well, of course she does, you idiot. The more you block Alex away, the nicer she'll view him as. And you remember me with Neville, Julie always goes to help the picked-on." Hermione kissed her Severus, but he still seemed very worried.
"This Bulgarian's not a thing like your friend Neville, dear."
"True, but he's a lot like Viktor Krum was. These foreign athletes tend to pass, and besides, it's Gryffindor against Slytherin tonight. She'll foul him brainless and the whole thing'll be over."
"The Seeker can't foul on the Keeper!"
"I'm sure Julie'll figure out how. Now tell me this, can the Seeker score if the Quaffle gets thrown at them? I've never been sure."
"Well, it's rarely done, but it is quite legal."
"Oh, good. Then all she does is score too closely and she'll ram him off the goal."
"You aren't helping."
"I'm trying to remind you that he's still on your team. I don't want you defecting to like Gryffindor just because our little girl is their Seeker."
"It does seem like she's been our little girl much longer than just three months, two weeks, and six hours."
"You're keeping track of time again, aren't you?"
"The same way I keep track of the five hours, ten minutes and-" he checked his watch-"eight seconds since I last kissed you."
"Nine, dear."
"Oh, well, then!"
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The air was crisp, and smelled strongly of autumn. Chloe Davies had brought Julie a lion sticker that roared nicely on her broomstick, and some word about the stories that the younger kids were telling. One had even been so clever as to remark:
"Throw a box of Every Flavor Beans in the air and Starcatcher'll nail just the cherries."
It sounded brilliant if really over-flattering to Julie, and she made up her mind to try it after her next trip to Honeydukes'. But Chloe told her next that the remark had been made in the hearing of a second-year Slytherin, and the little Gryffindor had gotten a bad hex for his trouble. She got the names of the two kids involved, that is, Lester Bulstrode and Kenny Longbottom, and made up her mind to get even after the game. It was the sort of thing the orphans did, and old habits really died hard, especially since Kenny was the son of her nicest professor.
"Thanks for telling, me, Chlo'. I'll take good care of it."
"But what are you going to do? I don't think you should hurt Lester Bulstrode. They say that his mother's part Troll."
"Oh, I won't hurt him, just listen." Julie outlined her plan in brief to the young half-French student, whose eyes glittered with delight. "So could you find me the materials needed?"
"Absolutely. I've got some in my pocket."
"Great! I'll do it right after the match." Julie looked at her new wizards' watch, which had the alternate halves of the watchband in bright red and green. "Cripes, I've gotta go. Could you help me tie this, Chloe?"
"No problem, Jule." Having once been an ignored little child herself, Julie knew full well what the odd friendship meant to the little first-year, and wouldn't have denied it for the world. It was also nice to keep a well-placed spy in every facet of her new Hogwarts life, 'just in case,' as she thought with a tiny hint of mischief.
*********************************
Julie lined up beside the other Gryffindors, next to Kevin Wood the Keeper, (little Carrie's older brother and her parents' friend Oliver's son,) Tom and Tim the Weasley Beaters, as well as the three Gryffindor Chasers, a seventh-year boy called Donaghan McPhersen, a sixth-year called Aldous Howard, and another seventh they called Mack, short for MacAndrew J. Shannon. It occurred to her just then that not only was she the youngest, but the only girl on the entire team. True, the Weasleys were fifth-years, too, but both of their sixteenth birthdays had passed in September. It felt a little odd to be so young and a girl compared to all these tall, strong guys, and she wondered why she'd never noticed it at practice.
"Hey, Tim," Tom called, "think we're gonna win?"
"No, I'm Tom and you're Tim. For God's sake, get it straight, coz." It was a running joke that never failed to crack Julie up, but today it simply stiffened her ice smile.
"Say, Julie, what's up with y'?" Captain Donaghan inquired. "Y' look as if y're bout to spit a slug."
"It's just my first game and I'm nervous, y'know?"
"It's our first game, too, Jule," Tim-or-Tom Weasley told her. "Don't worry about first-game jitters."
"But at least you guys played Quidditch at home before. This is my first game, ever."
"Now, then, you didna tell me that, Julie," Donaghan protested. "I'd never a'known just a-seein' y' fly as if y'were born wi' a broomstick."
"Naw, Professor Granger's too kindly, she had to have been given it later." Sometimes Mack had just a really filthy mouth, and the Weasley boys slapped him upside both sides of his head. "Sorry, Jule."
"That is the most genuinely horrid thing I ever imagined," Julie said, holding her head to the end of her broomstick. "Kindly wake me when the Quidditch game is over."
"Naw!" Donaghan exclaimed, tapping her shoulder like a big brother before turning to Mack with a vengeance. "Look what y'done now, yeh great ugly mick. Yeh've given our Seeker the gut wambles." It was joking and funny, but Mack still tried to defend himself.
"I was only tryin' to make her laugh."
"Aw, amazing! Yeh can actur'lly tell she's a girl. Took yeh bloody stinkin' long enough."
"Donaghan, you don't have to defend me against the smutmonger. I've been a Muggle, I can talk filth worse than all of you."
"Really?" Mack was curious. "Do share some!" Obediently Julie whispered into Mack's uncovered ear, causing the poor Irish boy to go redder then the Gryffindor colors.
"Aw, neat, Julie! Yeh've made him match his robes!" Julie realized a little wistfully that Donaghan's Scottish accent made her name sound like 'jule-ay,' which was all in all not a bad way to say it.
"I think she got her firs' broomstick from her dad." Aldous observed a little dryly. "As I remember it, her mum didn't even think she could fly until the tryouts. And now look at 'er. Julie Starcatcher Snape, Seeker for the Gryffindors."
"Ow'd they pick that name, Julie?"
"What d'you mean?"
"'Starcatcher,'" Kevin explained it. "There isn't a Seeker on this planet who wouldn't sell blood, bones, and broomstick for a nickname like that, and here it's your real one! I'm guessin' you got that from your father as well."
"Well, guys, actually…"
Suddenly they heard a horn, indicating that they were to take their places inside the Gryffindor fly tower. Nervously Julie ascended the stair. The Weasleys each tapped her shoulder with a broom for good luck.
"Break a leg, little coz," they whispered in unison, acting on the belief that since she also called their uncle Ron 'Uncle' they were in effect her honorary cousins. She also felt another tap, this time closer to her neck, and it was Donaghan.
"Luck, only-girl-here."
They heard the annoucer read off all of their names, and then the horns blew. Flying out as fast as they bloody well could, Julie found herself across from her friend Alexei in the startup. He gave her a smile naively.
"Not-hing personal, Julie?" She nodded with a grin and neatly zipped beneath his broom when Harry Potter blew the whistle. She didn't see behind her, but if she had she would have seen him almost fall off. In pursuit of the Snitch, she dodged a Bludger and a Weasley, or maybe it was two Bludgers -no, she really couldn't tell.
Finally she spied a glimmer of gold flitting just beside the Slytherin goalpost, flying over just in time to see her Donaghan get fouled by Alexei. He dropped the Quaffle, but she was quickly right beneath it. She dodged Matt Flint in time to catch it and throw it hard, unwittingly bagging a goal with her right hand as her left one tightly closed around the fluttering Snitch. She looked at the thing in her hand only momentarily before straining to see down at Donaghan. He was hurt somehow.
"Game!" the announcer called, letting Julie go to fly down to her Captain's aid. In spite of a clearly broken wrist, her Scottish friend seemed fine and grinning broadly.
"We've won the game, an' in, like, twenty bleedin' seconds! This has got ter be a school record, Julie! And this is your bloody firs' game, girl!"
"Are you alright, though? It looks like you've-"
"Broken your wrist again, Donaghan? I swear that's the third time, now, could you please take better care of things? And you!" Professor McGonagall was looking at Julie with an unidentifiable expression. "Nineteen point two-five seconds, do you know what that means?"
"Uh…I'm really sorry about the-"
"Sorry? You've just broke the Hogwarts record, Julie! You mother's going to be so incredibly pleased…and your father will not." The Professor seemed to relish that above all news. Julie looked a little frightened by the thought of that.
"Does that mean she gets the Seeker's Medal?" Donaghan was asking, as Madame Pomfrey's helper tried in vain to bandage up the broken arm before they took him to the hospital wing. Professor McGonagall grinned.
"Yes, Mr. McPhersen, she does. This is the only one we've had here in more than a decade."
"Oh, hold still, now, Donaghan. The game can wait another second." Madame Pomfrey had appeared and held out her wand. Donaghan's arm was set and mended right before their eyes, twisting and settling back with a sickening 'pop.' It was a good thing she had fixed it, because Julie went pale and fainted right there on the spot. Her Quidditch captain caught her just before she hit the ground. "Oh, dear, there goes another one!"
Fortunately for the Seeker, there were so many fliers coming in and landing that nobody saw her fainting. All anybody in the audience part really saw was Julie looking startled as Donaghan helped her stand straight. From her father's point of view, his daughter was being reassured by her captain and not that Malgryevic. This was good news. He glanced back over to the scoreboard and sighed just as the Ravenclaw boy at the megaphone announced the new record and the winning of the Seeker's Medal for the first time since 1991. Despite the winner's still being a Gryffindor, he felt his heart leap with pride. After all, she was his daughter.
The Weasley boys were past comprehension with delight, being the second generation of Weasleys to be on the team responsible for a Seeker's Medal match, except that their own uncle Charlie had personally won the last one. Mack and Aldous were shooting fireworks out of their wands from their broomsticks, and Kevin was doing swooping minor backflips. At the referee's final instruction to land, they all flew down in formation, spinning a circle above the head of their quite-dizzy Seeker before finally landing to walk to center with their other four teammates.
"Julie-girl, y'did it!"
"In four heartbeats!"
"How'd you fly that?"
"Guys, I don't know what I did or why. Just please, get this broomstick away from me."
The Slytherins, who were even more disgusted with Alexei than ever, slunk slowly off to go change in their dungeon. In the green, they looked like wounded dragons, and the ceremonial shaking hands with the Gryffindors seemed a little more than usually strained for them. Alexei did ask Donaghan about his arm concernedly, however, and several mumbled compliments to Julie, who still looked just a little gobsmacked. Usually the teams also met with their House Professor before leaving the field, but Snape had very little wisdom to imapart to them except for:
"Double practice from now on. If a fifteen-year-old partial-Muggle could shut you down that easily, you don't deserve to play for Slytherin." He tapped Malgryevic on the shoulder, intimidating him quite neatly and giving him a look of purest hatred. "And that's triple work for you, boy." With that, he left them to their grumbling- or so they thought. "Excuse me, Flint, but what was that remark?"
"I- I- I just said that it was your fifteen-year-old girl, so maybe that didn't quite count as- maybe quite so bad, then?" The professor shouted louder than they'd ever heard:
"Are you implying that my daughter is incredibly harder to defeat than the others?" Severus gave them the blackest of dark stares before abruptly switching natures. "Well, I suppose she is quite good, then." And with that, he walked off, leaving them then to their grumbling.
Only Alex didn't grumble. He was far too busy wondering if this preferentially bad treatment was because of his being friendly with Julie, and whether the father's protectiveness of his little girl had any merit to it. He finally decided to find out if Julie liked him that very same night at the feast. They always threw a feast for broken records, and he figured maybe Julie'd be in a holiday mood.
He was to prove sadly mistaken.
********************************
"Are you alright, Julie?" The knock and words belonged to the captain. "I don't think anybody saw you fainting."
"It isn't that, Donaghan."
"What?" The mahogany door was much too thick. "I couldna' hear you."
"Oh, just come on in!"
Tentatively, the Scottish boy turned the knob and entered the girl Seeker's room. While it wasn't precisely unlawful for students of opposite genders to meet and talk in each other's dormitories, it almost definitely wasn't very common. He half expected to find Julie huddled in a corner and crying, but as it was she was just sitting on her bed cross-legged, with her back almost perfectly straight. It was only her bushy-dark head that was bent down and hiding her face.
"I was jus' wonderin' if you were okay, Julie," he explained, unsure as to whether to pull the door shut behind him or not. He decided to just leave it a little crack open, and moved over toward Julie's spot on the bed. "Are you nervous about tonight's feast, then?"
"Yeah, just a little bit. You can sit down, y'know." Donaghan joined her on the bed, timidly putting an arm around her as if she were a little sister. "How's your arm, by the way?"
"Oh, fixed an' better. I've done that a sight more'n once, y'know, and Madame Pomfrey just zaps 'em fixed no problem."
"It doesn't hurt you?"
"Naw, I'm really just used to it. There's a little sting as the bones fuse together, but then it feels fine. Was that really what made y'pass out there?"
"Yeah, it was the sight of your bones just…twisting. I just couldn't bear the thought of that kind of pain for you."
"Really, only-girl-here?" It was the only affectionate term Donaghan felt really safe using, and Julie was beginning to grasp how he meant it.
"Really, Captain McPhersen."
"Y'know, y're 'lowed t'call me Don or Donnie or somethin'?" the young captain inquired. His bright and cheerful blue eyes went so nicely with his deep burgundy hair that Julie stopped herself just short of sighing.
"I suppose so." Julie suddenly didn't feel the half as nervous…well, not for the same reason, anyway. "Are these feasts usually long or embarrassing?"
"How d'you mean?"
"Am I going to have to talk in front of everybody?"
"Well, I'm sorry, Julie, but y'do. If'n it makes y'feel any better, I have to stand up and talk first, tha'."
"Since you're the captain?"
"Yeah, and I get to give you the medal. There's some tradition says that I'm supposed to kiss you on the cheek, but we can skip that if you really don't fancy."
"No, that's okay." Hoping she had not seemed over-forward, Julie clarified by adding: "Best to adhere to tradition and all that."
"True."
"What happens if the captain also happens to be the Seeker when they get the medal?"
"In Charlie Weasley's day they just chose the most senior player or the next one down that was a girl to do it…if the Seeker was a boy. If the Seeker is the captain and a girl, I guess they'd just have the oldest boy do it. It's a matter of state and propriety."
"Oh, I get it. So if you'd've been the Seeker they'd have just chosen me?"
"Naw, if I'd've been the Seeker they'd be cleanin' off the goals with a scrub brush. But yeah, I suppose that they'd've just have chosen you, then."
"Would that seem alright?" Julie asked him, as the tone of his response had been so very half-ambiguous. Donaghan looked at her, the daughter of Professors Granger and Snape, easily the wrongest girl to ever have a crush on, and made his decision to answer.
"I would love it if y' had the nerve to off an' kiss me." Julie went absolutely crimson.
"By-uh, nerve, do you mean in front of everyone?" She still had her catching gloves on, and Donaghan put both of her small hands in his large ones.
"If yeh'd like, I do mean anywhere." It was that moment Julie realized he was letting her choose whether any new developments occurred to change their relationship, and she was positively frozen. "But only if y're a-wantin' to, only-girl-here." Donaghan tapped his chest just above his Gryffindor patch, and Julie found herself just senselessly kissing him for what felt like hours on end. Donaghan hugged her close as they were doing this, and the sudden warmth was almost addictively comforting. Thoughts like 'seventh-year,' 'turns eighteen,' 'dad will kill,' and 'aw, but he's so handsome,' began to race like gerbils through Julie's already out-of-sync mind. The frantic kissing began to slow down, and Julie felt Donaghan slowly letting them slump onto her bed far more horizontally than she was sure that she was comfortable with. "Are you okay, Julie?"
"Yeah, Donaghan, just…slower."
"No problem, Starcatcher." Julie began to unlace her glove and, pulling it off, she showed the scar to Donaghan for the very first time he had seen it.
"You know that's the reason why they called me that?"
"Oh, I see. A family birthmark or somethin'?"
"It's not a birthmark, it's…a scar."
"Tha's na so bad. I heard y'grew up in a orphanage w'Muggles, an' then Professors figured out you were their kid with some kind o'potion."
"That's true."
"Your dad would kill me if he ever found out, wouldn' 'e?"
"Most probably, yes."
"An' yer mum would just smile and say we make a cute-ish kind of couple?"
"I suppose she'd-how do you get that?"
"I had to ask her t'straighten up 'bout all the stories and rumors, just to get the real story of y'. I think she's quite okay wi'it, don't you?" Donaghan noticed another visitor and abruptly changed voices. "That way, when you come up from underneath 'Lexei, you could just go around the third post and be ready for the quaffle throw from Aldous." Donaghan was miming out a little Quidditch play with his hands on the imaginary miniature court formed by their chests and Julie's taken-off glove. "Then when I come around from back court, you can just snap off and get the Snitch before that Flint does. So, does 'at sound okay?"
Julie noticed her father's heavy breathing and began to contradict the captain outrageously, suggesting a completely different play than the one that Captain Donaghan had spoken, miming it furiously with her hands as if her fingers were real players, and finishing it out with a bold and broad dramatic ending.
"I think that would work much better." she asserted belligerently, knowing that that tone of voice would make her father angry.
"Listen to your Captain, Julie, he knows far more about Quidditch than you do." She and Donaghan feigned surprise as Snape ducked through the heavy doorframe. "And as for you, McPhersen, you're being quite bright about the whole matter." For a split second they were convinced that Severus Snape had finally been fooled by a student, but the shock was later on. "You're damned right I'm going to kill you if you ever mess around with my little girl like this. If you're going to talk to each other, please do it in the library or else- well, never alone! I don't like the ideas that Muggles get." He was clearly just referring to his daughter. After all, her mother had wound up involved with a teacher while at school, why wouldn't her daughter be even if not more plain dangerous? Julie shot him a annoyed look that in it's resemblance to her mother's really didn't help things at all for her. "And don't you even start to look irritated with me, girl, I know full well what you're thinking of doing!"
"Locking my door next time?" Julie inquired rhetorically in the face of one of her father's worst glares in years.
"So you're going to let me see her?" Donaghan asked very hopefully.
"On the condition that you two remain chaperoned and not just by the paintings. If you can handle those conditions, then I suppose you two can stay…friends."
"By that, Dad, do you mean just friends, or…"
"I don't care what you call it, just…stay out of trouble."
"Thank you so much for permitting it, sir, I would have asked your permission, but…"
"Well, I wouldn't have let you. Better you went sneaking around interrogating my wife, it shows better intelligence. Now both of you, clean up for the feast!"
Donaghan kissed Julie quietly on the cheek, shook Professor Snape's hand, and was gone to his dormitory faster than a Bludger flew. Julie, a brilliant red by now, sat up and laced her glove back on. Her father sank into the opposite chair.
"I'm sorry, but we really weren't sneaking around, Dad, honest."
"I could tell by your whole conversation. And I myself apologize for spying on you. I merely wished to make sure it wasn't that Slytherin Bulgarian. McPhersen's alright-if you like the redheaded type-and I only wished to make sure you both knew I approved of things…within reason."
"I appreciate your tolerance. I also realize that it's not easy for you to approve of any relationships for fifteen-year-old girls." Snape looked up, startled. "I kind of get the idea that you and Mom could easily have gotten yourselves into a lot of trouble back before the fall of the Dark Lord, and it might seem that I'm a lot like her sometimes."
"Well, do you not consider yourself trouble enough?" Snape asked sarcastically, rubbing his hands. "I had to clap for the Gryffindors today, do you know what that feels like?"
"I guess that Dumbledore's imposed a brutal punishment?"
"Oh, honestly, and I thought the man would never rebuild Azkaban. He's moved it to the bleachers!" At that last remark, Julie finally cracked up, and her dad roughly accepted her enthusiastic hug. "I really was proud of you, today, though."
"I suppose we Snapes win this one all the time," Julie shrugged off, just as sarcastically. "Even if it still is with the Gryffindors, it's a proper Snape rite of passage and I had to go through it."
"Oh, I suppose!" Snape was actually looking genuinely proud of his daughter the Seeker. "And after all, the Seeker's House never goes on the medal. I can still boast about you in pubs like all the other wizard fathers."
"Dad!"
"And they'll probably run a little tidbit about it in the Daily Prophet, one of those things that the mothers like to cut out. All in all, little Starcatcher, I'd say you did well. And so about that…" Snape had his daughter hold open her hands and he aimed his wand at her gloves. They turned from old brown leather in a second to shiny dark black leather, and the old ones reappeared on the bed. "You'll need the old ones just for practice, but I daresay you could wear these in a game now. I've made all the proper modifications, see?" Sure enough, from the backs of her knuckles to the bottoms of the gloves raged an emerald serpent rampant, only a crimson lion had been added right beside it. Instead of fighting, they seemed on the same side. "You can guess just whom these old gloves once belonged to." Julie hugged her dad and sniffled, as the thought behind the gloves was overpowering. She had suspected dimly that her father was just joking about the whole business about hating all the Gryffindors, and these gloves were the first thing that proved it. She could scarcely wait to show her mum and her Quidditch team. In fact, the dual-House gloves gave her such a feeling of invincibility, she could also scarcely wait until she saw a Slytherin that crossed her.
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"Hey, you," Chloe called to Lester Bulstrode, a disgusting loafer of a boy that really bugged her. Even standing next to little Kenny Longbottom, it was clear that Chloe was no match for the revolting second-year, who grinned and cracked his knuckles. He moved closer for the fistfight, only to be silenced by a striking sharp roll of a dozen-odd cracks, all in sync and perfect unison. He spun around.
Sure enough, there was Julie and a small contingent of Gryffindors on their way to the banquet. What Lester had arranged to be a private beating had now turned into a shutdown. There were enough Gryffindors here to make pulp jelly of his bullying ripeness, and he paled as one by one he saw them all crack knuckles, wrists and necks in order. It sounded like chalk breaking. Julie leaned down very close so that he could clearly hear her speaking at a very soft whisper.
"I understand you did a hex on one of my friends, Lester Bulstrode. You should probably have realized that was quite a big mistake."
"Uh- uh, I didn't know that Kenny was your friend."
"He's wearing red for the Quidditch game, isn't he?" Lester meekly nodded and prepared to meet his maker. "But then, you're in green, so I should probably let you keep breathing. What do you say, Kenny? Should I get him?"
Kenny, who had been coached quite skillfully by Chloe after the match, took on the appearance of deciding at leisure before releasing a self-satisfied:
"Nah. You'll mess your robes up." Julie sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
"Too true, Ken. Well, we'd best get to the feast." Kenny, Chloe, Julie and the Gryffindors gave the appearance of leaving, but Julie stopped and turned on Lester. "Oh, and by the way, I've brought you something." She held up the Slytherin/Gryffindor glove like a fist, showing him the picture of intertwined snake and lion, before opening her palm to show a single, red bean. "Cherry. Your favorite."
"I can't believe the girl just did that," Nearly Headless Nick exclaimed, to which the Bloody Baron snickered and said:
"I can." The two House ghosts had been observing from within a wall of limestone.
"Would you believe we got a mixed-House? Think of it, the two of us becoming friends. Ridiculous, isn't it?"
"Not really, good Sir Nicholas. On our way?"
"Oh, yes. Yes, of course, your Bloody Baron-ness. Truly."
"Did you just see your daughter?" Professor McGonagall inquired, looking on as Professor Granger watched the shutdown through the All-Show, a kind of two-way painting of the whole school. "It was Slytherinish, wasn't it?"
"And just like Severus, except that Kenny's dad is Neville and that was Millicent Bulstrode's son." Hermione actually seemed pleased with what had gone on, to Professor McGonagall's exasperation, but not shock.
"She just issued a death threat to a much-younger student!"
"No, her words were simply 'get' and 'keep breathing.' She might have threatened to turn him into a statue with the words of that challenge."
"True," Professor McGonagall sighed and breathed in heavily, then brightened. "But at least she's broke a record for the Gryffindors this afternoon. That might be well to send to Ron, you know, a Daily Prophet picture of your daughter's winning catch."
"You think it's going in the paper?"
"I know so, right in the middle of page three. I just talked to a reporter a few minutes ago." Hermione's brown eyes narrowed
.
"Which reporter was it?"
"Dennis Creevey. His brother Colin got the picture-would you like to see the proof?"
"I suppose so-cripes!"
"Now you're sounding like her father again-"
"Julie did it with crossed arms! Snitch in her left and Quaffle with her right. That means she's-"
"-An ambidextrous catcher!" McGonagall sighed in a breathless state of ecstasy. "I've wanted one for several years…I think it's fifty come next week. This is such a windfall for the Lions team…I can't thank you enough for convincing her to be a Gryffindor."
"Could you do me a small favor, though? Don't mark down her House with her name when you engrave the Seeker's Medal. It's partly Severus's victory, 'cause he and Harry taught her how to fly, y'know, and it's really an important thing to Julie, pleasing her dad, y'know."
"Oh, I've already thought of that. Besides, the House name never did go on the Seeker's Medal. The first recipient was a young man of mixed-House parents, too, and it's still a kind of Hogwarts tradition. And it seems the ribbon is always done in all four of the Hogwarts colors, so if Severus has any problems, they've been nipped out in the bud."
"That's reassuring. I noticed Julie's wearing black gloves now-are those tradition that you get with your first medal or first game or something?"
"Oh, cripe, 'Mione! They're Severus's old ones!" There was a moment of stunned silence as Professor McGonagall realized what she'd said and how she'd said it. "He must have given them to her 'cause she won her first game."
"Most likely."
Everything was seeming perfectly alright just then; the game had been won fairly and well, Julie hadn't been killed in the process, and Severus wasn't on the warpath after Gryffindor. Hermione wondered what Harry thought of how the game had gone, and just as she was about to suggest asking him to come there, he burst into McGonagall's window.
"Julie's just threatened a Slytherin!"
"We know, Harry, Lester Bulstrode." Professor McGonagall told him. Hermione couldn't help asking:
"Don't you think that he deserved it?"
"Not Lester Bulstrode, 'Lexei Malgryevic! She told him if he ever fouls a player like that again, then she'll quit working as his partner in her father's class. Malgryevic said alright, it wasn't sportsmanlike and he'd try not to do it again, but then Flint got involved and he just shoved her up against the castle wall. It looks like a fight's breaking out down there!"
"Go try and stop them!" McGonagall told him, as Hermione picked up a broom at once. "Don't be ridiculous, you couldn't fly to save your life in this state. I'm going down, now you go get your husband! We need him to break it up if these are Slytherins." A moment's mounting and professors flew from windowpanes. Tossing a little powder into the fireplace, Hermione yelled for Severus to help her with the fight outside, just before she raced down all the steps she could to get there, too.