I was halfway through writing this when I realised that in Chapter 4 I originally said Gryffindor had not yet played Slytherin… well, I'm changing that. They have. It's more fun this way :-)
Hogwarts Friends, Hogwarts Enemies
Chapter 5 – Bittersweet Victory
As usual, the Ravenclaw common room was a mess. Two days before the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw Quidditch match, Severus was picking his way through piles of the week's Daily Prophets and other assorted litter. He scattered some of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans on the floor and he pushed his way through to the dormitory. I've probably vastly improved the taste of them, he thought wryly to himself, having consumed a snot flavoured one the day before. It had been a confusing, troubling week… Somehow he felt he owed it to Greentrees, at least, to remember what Voldemort had done recently, and yet in so many ways, life seemd so normal.
There seemed to be more of an effort to forget than remember within Hogwarts' walls. Now even Voldemort's name wasn't mentioned. It was 'You-Know-Who'. Lessons were going as normal, and apart from the articles in the paper, the events seemed surreal to all who hadn't known anyone affected.
Severus got his Quidditch robes, and prepared to wade back through the mess. They'd be practising today.
*
In the Gryffindor common room, James and Sirius were playing chess. And talking.
"Nervous about the match Tuesday, Padfoot?" James inquired mildly.
Sirius smiled. "Not yet. Sure I will though – Severus gives the other Seekers a hard time, doesn't he? Hazel told me. Pawn, take bishop."
James chuckled as his bishop was taken from the board. "I should pay more attention… Still, some sacrifices…"
"Prongs – what do you think of Severus?" Sirius said. It sounded like he'd been thinking about it for quite some time.
"He's a good friend," James said, not even having appeared to have thought about it.
Typical James. Trusting, brave, caring. Of course, we wouldn't have him any other way, but still…
"Why?" James asked, mildly. "Queen, take that evil pawn and avenge my Bishop!" Sirius laughed.
"He's a bit… odd."
James looked at him, seriously. "This isn't just jealousy speaking, is it?"
"No! Well… I admit, he does seem to do well in everything. Like you – I bet you get voted Head Boy."
"Thanks, although that detention we earned from Samovar last week might just speak against me… It was fun earning it, though."
"Oh yeah," Sirius laughed. "I've no idea how he found out it was us… maybe someone…"
"It just had to be us," James said. "Samovar's not a total idiot, he guessed! What's your problem with Severus?"
"I guess – he's just too good. And too quiet… I mean, I'm still friends with him, but if I wasn't, I'd probably kill him."
But Sirius didn't sound serious, and James knew it. Could Sirius be serious? Probably not. "Honestly, Sirius," he tutted. "Is this how you'll treat me when I'm Head Boy and Lily's Head Girl?"
"Oh, dream on," Sirius teased.
*
Out on the Quidditch Pitch, Severus swooped over the other players as he watched them practise. As Seeker, he occasionally caught himself feeling left out during practice sessions, whilst Chasers, Beaters and Keeper all ducked around each other whilst he watched for the Snitch. But that feeling was nothing to the feeling he got when he won a match for Ravenclaw, and the other players bore him aloft. The match with Slytherin – it had probably been the best night of his life.
All of a sudden, a Bludger was hit from within inches of his face. Severus blinked.
"Wake up, Sev." Severus turned to face Richard McNally, one of the two Beaters.
"Sorry," he said. "I was just thinking about when we won against Slytherin."
Richard beamed. "Yeah, great. But dreaming about it isn't going to win against Gryff, you know. Sirius Black might be a bit wet behind the ears…"
"I know," Severus said. "Sorry."
"It's Olivia, isn't it?" Richard said, motioning to the Keeper. Severus looked uncomfortable – he didn't blush, but then he never did. He refused to admit he had a crush on Olivia Kimmel, with her long shiny mahoghany hair, regal stature, silvery-grey eyes. He didn't have a crush on her. Not at all.
He glanced at her, her hair tied back, and thought how wonderful she looked in blue. He had a hopeless crush on her.
"No…"
"It so is."
"All right, maybe a little bit," he admitted. Unlike so many girls he knew, she could be silent and not act like there was anything wrong… when she smiled, she looked like she knew dozens of secrets and she was just waiting for the right person to tell. In many ways they were so alike – they both knew the value of silence. They both saw a wonder in the simple workings of magic. They both excelled in Potions.
"You'd better keep alert for the Gryffindor match, though," Richard advised. "With Potter, Spinnet, and Fitzgerald as Chasers, they could probably score 160 points before Olivia's finished putting her make-up on."
"Shut up." All right, he hadn't meant to say that, but… "Olivia's not shallow, you know."
"You're a hopeless case. I'll see you in two days time, Severus."
He then went charging after a Bludger, as Olivia and one of the Chasers started packing the balls away. The Golden Snitch was eventually coaxed from underneath one of the seats with some Pumpkin Pie.
*
Two days later, the air was tense with the Quidditch match looming. Possibly on account of Hazel Redwings' illness, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were matched for points. During their match against Hufflepuff, Gryffindor had only won, arguably, because the Hufflepuff Seeker Gerald Tockley hadn't been paying attention to the score and caught the Snitch after Gryffindor were 170 ahead. Poor Hazel had been so under the weather during Slytherin's match, and James and a fellow Chaser, Robert Spinnet being still in the Hospital Wing after a particularly difficult occurrence in Care of Magical Creatures, that when Slytherin were 150 points up, and Hazel had spotted the Snitch within easy grasp, she had settled for a draw rather than a humiliating defeat. Ravenclaw, on the other hand, had lost to Hufflepuff on account of what Severus called 'lucky' for their Seeker, but had won against Slytherin so drastically they had beaten Hufflepuff for points, as Hufflepuff had only scored thirty points against Slytherin.
After eating a miniscule amount of breakfast, Severus rushed for the Ravenclaw changing rooms, nearly crashing into Mandy Farrell on the way.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
"Hi Severus – good luck!"
"Thanks," he called after her as he charged on.
"I'll be cheering for you!"
He found the other players in equally tense moods. Once they had all changed, the Captain, Samantha Keys, got up to give a pep talk.
"This is it, guys. Even if we beat the Gryffs by ten points, we've won the cup. Now we know that Potter, Spinnet and Fitzgerald are a hard bunch of Chasers to beat. We also know they've never been the same since Arthur Weasley left their ranks." Some of the Chasers laughed out loud. "Now I believe we can beat them. They have good Chasers – we have better Chasers."
"Yeah!" The other two Chasers put their fists in the air.
"They have a good Keeper – we have a better Keeper."
"Thank you," Olivia said smoothly, in her wonderful voice.
"They had mediocre Beaters, and we have a pair of the best Beaters who ever played at Hogwarts. And their Seeker is Sirius Black, who's greener than a seasick Slytherin – our Seeker is Snape." She put her arm around him. "Who caught the Snitch in front of Avery's face when we trashed Slytherin last week." She spoke with a voice full of pride for her team, and they all cheered. She hi-fived them all in turn. She glanced out, and looked at the dejected Slytherins, whose draw with Gryffindor had been the closest thing they'd had to a victory against their arch-rivals in years.
"We are gonna make those Slythies so jealous."
They all joined hands and raised them to the air in a victory pose, whooping loudly, drunk on the adrenaline. And Severus, suddenly, uncomfortably, remembered the news he'd heard the day after that victory. Then he looked at the cheering crowd and tried to forget all about it.
Outside, the scoreboard glittered, to remind them of the previous games.
Games played so far-
Gryffindor/Hufflepuff – 180/160
Gryffindor/Slytherin – 170/170
Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff – 70/150
Ravenclaw/Slytherin – 290/0
Hufflepuff/Slytherin – 30/160
Total so far-
Gryffindor – 350
Hufflepuff – 340
Slytherin – 330
Ravenclaw – 350
"…And here at last are the teams for the '76/77 Quidditch Cup! Both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor have 350 points already, putting them ahead of both Hufflepuff and Slytherin. This game decides which of them will go on to win the Cup…" Barry Jordan, commentating, was a Gryffindor, and quite plainly excited.
"Captain and Seeker Hazel Redwings still has 'flu, so Sirius Black will be playing Seeker for Gryffindor. He has a tough match in Ravenclaw Seeker Severus Snape, who caught the Snitch after a phenomenal Ravenclaw game against Slytherin last week. Ravenclaw Captain Samantha Keys and Gryffindor Stand-in Captain James Potter come down to shake hands. Tension is high on both sides. Professor Bulwark will be refereeing this match."
Severus swooped around above them, hoping to ease the butterflies. Sirius looked even more nervous than he did.
Half an hour into the match, several goals had been scored, and Gryffindor was ten points ahead of Ravenclaw. It had been a surprisingly clean match, both teams being run by conscientious captains, and Bulwark, darting around like a hawk, seemed almost disappointed at the lack of fouls.
"Ravenclaw now in possession, the Quaffle goes soaring past Gryffindor Keeper O'Halloran – that's ten points for Ravenclaw! The score is now forty all… No sign of the Snitch yet."
But no sooner had he spoken, than Severus saw the flutter of white little wings right behind Sirius's head. His heart leapt up. What if Sirius caught it?
Wronski Feint, he suddenly thought.
"And Seeker Snape goes diving towards the ground like a man possessed. Is he after the Snitch? Black in close pursuit and…"
Severus pulled up within the nick of time, and soared towards the Snitch.
"Can you believe it? He pulled a Wronski Feint! Black is stopped short by the ground… Snape has a clear run at the Snitch… And he's caught it. Ravenclaw win 190 to 40."
Looking down far below, as he held the Snitch triumphantly aloft, Severus watched Sirius pick himself up. He looked livid. I hope he's all right, Severus thought. As they darted down to the ground to dance around the pitch, Severus did want to go see if he'd hurt him. But there wasn't time… Within minutes, he was on top of the two Beaters' shoulders, the Ravenclaws making a glorious procession back to the changing rooms, and he couldn't help grinning with delight. Olivia Kimmel smiled at him, her bewitching eyes twinkling.
The Quidditch Cup was presented in the Great Hall, the Ravenclaws sounding ecstatic. They had had a couple of close calls with the Quidditch Cup the past couple of years, and now they had won, the house was celebrating with all its might, various members sending off sparks, Honeydukes sweets covering Ravenclaw table and Professor Flitwick looking quite delighted – too delighted to reprimand any of his students for mischievious bending of rules.
The Gryffindors were mostly taking the defeat with good grace. When the now changed players came in, their table clapped, and all seemed reasonably content despite their loss. Except Sirius.
"I can't believe he had the nerve to…"
"Calm down, Padfoot," James whispered. "It's a Wronski Feint – a well-known move."
"It's a bit… Slytherin, isn't it?"
James looked at his friend, shocked. "Why do you say that, Sirius?"
"I don't trust him," Sirius whispered back. "You know that. That little move was rather typical of that old Slytherin cunning, don't you think? It's not like he even checked to see if he'd broken anything."
"What are you getting at?"
"Wait here…"
"Sirius…"
But Sirius, still wearing robes proclaiming 'Seeker Redwings' as he hadn't had time to change whilst the nurse had been checking for injuries, was a man on a mission. He got up, and marched towards the Ravenclaw table, a scarlet figure bright among the hordes of black robes.
"Severus, I'd like to talk to you."
Severus glanced at his carousing teammates, and then said, "Yeah – all right then."
Sirius led him back to where he, James, Remus and Peter were sitting.
"I'd like you to answer this where we all can hear you," Sirius said menacingly. "Did you tell Malfoy the password?"
Severus was surprised – or maybe disturbed would have been a better term. "What?"
"Remus's birthday, in the third year. Malfoy must have got the password somehow, and seeing as he never bothered us again, it can't have been from a Gryffindor. It was you, wasn't it?"
Sirius's voice was dangerous. He's a maniac, Severus thought. He's well and truly cracked. He felt his skin prickling, becoming hot with anger.
"No I didn't. You're my friends, I wouldn't do that."
"Then who did tell Malfoy?"
"I don't know!"
"And then why is it, you look and act just like a Slytherin? After you helped Lily with her Potions, she managed to ruin Samovar's robes…"
"That's hardly evidence," James cut in. "When you consider it was actually the correct potion…"
"Exactly," Sirius hissed. "If it was the right potion, it shouldn't have exploded like that…"
"I didn't do it," Severus said in a low voice. "And it was years ago…"
"So we should just forget about it, huh?"
"The real culprit was Malfoy, and he left. There's no way you can prove who told him now."
"Isn't that convenient?"
"Calm down, Sirius," James interjected. "Severus is right. I think you need to cool off."
"James, don't you see?"
James stared at his friend in a fit of indecision. He glanced back to Severus, then back to Sirius.
"Why don't you just sit down, Sirius?" he said. "Have some butterbeer…"
Severus walked back to the table, feeling empty inside. He'd watched James's face, and he realised, James wanted to believe Sirius. If Sirius had any proof, James would hate me too. And as he sat down, surrounded by admirers, he felt like the loneliest person in the world.
***
A/N – Luna Rose, your wish is my command :-)
A/N2 – Lataradk, I'm glad you like it. I realise it is a bit fast-paced, sorry… The thing is, ever since… Chapter 2, maybe… I've known almost exactly how this story will end. It might change along the way a bit, but I'm a rather impatient person. Ah well :-). Recently I decided to add in a few years of Severus's life I wasn't planning on including, so that will make this story a little longer, and I hope a little better.
A/N3 – Yay, I wrote about Quidditch! As the author's note above says, this wasn't originally meant to be the last match in the season, but I couldn't resist it.
A/N4 – I did say um… somewhere, in the summary I think, that there wouldn't be much romance but I figured there was no way Severus could get through Hogwarts without a crush on someone.
A/N5 – I forgot to mention, I'm in love with James Potter. If Lily figures more, she might be cast as me :-)
A/N6 – Apologies to any Sirius fans, this definitely wasn't his finest moment.
A/N7 – This chapter was originally entitled 'Quidditch Quarrels'… I like alliteration but I think 'Bittersweet Victory' fits better.
