CHAPTER THIRTY: PRACTICE
Thursday, 11th March 1999
Blaise and Buffy sat in the stands surrounding the Quidditch Pitch, huddled together beneath their cloaks, sitting extremely close so they wouldn't freeze to death in the cooling afternoon air. They were seated at the far end of the field, behind one of the sets of goals.
"How are they not completely freezing out there?" Buffy asked.
"Layers," Blaise replied with a grin. "Besides, they heat up after flying around for a bit."
Buffy nodded and watched with great curiousity as Draco instructed the team in their warm-ups. They'd flown two laps around the pitch before they'd split into two sections, facing off with each other, practising ball skills whilst stationary.
"Have you ever played Quidditch?" Buffy asked.
Blaise shook her head emphatically. "Oh no, not me. I don't like heights."
"Uh, we're up pretty high right now, you do know this right?"
Blaise smirked and nodded. "Yes, but we're on a far more stable place than they are on their brooms," she reminded her friend. "Have you ever flown one of those things?"
Buffy nodded, remembering her flying lesson with Draco from the other week. He'd taken her out again, only she'd flown without him on her broom, and she'd been exhilarated for every second of it. The adrenaline rush was exhilarating, particularly for a Slayer who'd been inactive for so long.
"I loved it," Buffy said simply.
"Well, to each their own I suppose."
The Slytherin Quidditch team began moving through ball skill drills whilst flying around the pitch. Buffy had her eyes mainly on Draco, loving the way she could watch him and not be told off for it by a Professor. It didn't hurt that he looked particularly gorgeous in his Quidditch uniform as well. Her attention was drawn away from Draco as Pansy Parkinson, the only other Seventh Year player, fumbled the ball.
Blaise and Buffy looked at each other, smirking.
"How the hell did she get on the Quidditch team when she can't even catch the waffle ball?"
"Quaffle ball," Blaise corrected her, laughing at Buffy's lack of memory. Blaise was always amused by the way Buffy massacred the names of anything she couldn't remember. "And I don't know how she managed to get on the team. It may have involved some sort of bribery with the Captain before Draco."
"Well, if Drake's the captain, can't he, y'know…kick her off the team?" Buffy asked.
Blaise shrugged, not really knowing how it all worked. "He probably could, but…I don't think he could handle the whining once he did it."
Buffy grinned and shook her head, turning her attention back to the practice, which had moved slightly closer to where she and Blaise were sitting. "Good point."
Pansy threw the Quaffle towards the centre ring, but it was deflected by the Slytherin Keeper, a Fifth-Year player by the name of Noah Jackson. Noah threw the ball to another Chaser, Sixth-Year Clayton Banks. The chasers continued passing back and forth as they practised dodging the Bludgers that the two Beaters Andrew Keating and Blake Daniels were sending in their directions.
Draco was overseeing each of the different plays, shouting out directions and suggestions that neither Buffy nor Blaise could really understand. Buffy's eyes were drawn away from Draco and towards Pansy once more as she saw Pansy reach into her Quidditch robes for something. She squinted and saw that Pansy had reached for her wand. She knew very little about Quidditch, but she was fairly certain that magic wasn't allowed.
"I thought you weren't allowed to use your wand during a game," Buffy commented, pointing to Pansy.
Blaise looked and narrowed her eyes angrily. "You aren't."
Draco seemed to notice that Pansy's wand had come out as well. He flew towards her, shouting as he did.
"Parkinson, what the hell do you think you're doing?"
Pansy ignored him and aimed her wand. Buffy followed her line of sight and saw a Bludger travelling towards Pansy. She shouted something unintelligible, and before anyone could stop her, the Bludger redirected itself, heading directly towards the Slytherin stand holding their audience of two. Buffy caught Pansy's eyes and saw a smug smirk planted on her face.
Blaise quickly jumped out of the way, screaming Buffy's name to try and get her to do the same. Instead, Buffy stood her ground and caught the bludger with one hand with barely a half an inch between the Bludger and her face. Again, Buffy just looked at Pansy. Instead of the sneer, she saw complete and utter shock. Buffy just grinned and lowered the ball that she could feel struggling against her strength. The Slayer had no problems holding it back, making sure it barely even moved in her hand.
The Slytherin team had frozen in their spots, looking at Buffy who was calmly holding the oddly quiet Bludger. Blaise stood up and moved across to Buffy, touching the Bludger hesitantly as though to check that it was real.
"How the hell did you just catch that?" Blaise asked in awe. "And why aren't you pitching it back at the bitch?"
Buffy didn't look away from Pansy as she answered Blaise's question.
"Because…then I'd be sinking down to her level."
Buffy tossed the ball over the heads of all the Players, sending it all the way down to the other end of the field, and through the centre hoop. It flew another thirty feet before finally being able to redirect itself and head back towards the Quidditch Pitch. The Slytherins looked on in shock. Buffy just turned away calmly and began making her way down the stairs. Blaise was quick to follow her.
The Slytherin Team all looked at each other in shock, unsure of what had just happened. By the time the shock had worn off, the Bludger had finally reached the team once again. Andrew hit it with his bat, sending it flying again.
Draco looked to where his girlfriend had just been sitting, his heart still pounding rapidly. Buffy had nearly been killed, and he hadn't been able to do anything about it. He couldn't believe that Buffy had just caught a speeding Bludger, without even struggling with it. Not even the Professional referees could catch Bludgers without being severely winded, and then having to struggle with the ball.
Not to mention how far she'd thrown the Bludger. The Beaters could bat it away, usually only able to redirect it twenty feet before it could swing back around. Buffy had thrown the ball, one-handed, to the other side of the pitch, managed to score a goal, and the Bludger had kept going for another half-length of a Quidditch Pitch before coming back.
He shook his head in disbelief, wanting answers desperately, but knowing he still wouldn't get any, even if he asked. He looked at his team members, sparing a moment to glare with hatred at Pansy.
"Let's get back to it."
------------------------
"You do realise she was trying to kill you right?" Blaise asked, struggling to keep up with the fast pace that buffy was setting.
It wasn't as though the Slayer was trying to avoid talking to her friend, it was that Blaise would have questions that Buffy couldn't answer. She also wanted to get as far away from the Quidditch Pitch as possible. Somehow, she'd never really thought that Pansy would make good on any of her threats. She also couldn't believe that the other Slytherin girl had been stupid enough to attack her in front of so many other people, especially people she had met over the course of the last few weeks who actually seemed to like her.
"It wouldn't have killed me," Buffy replied. "It mighta done some serious head injury, but I doubt it would have killed me."
"With a spell behind it, as well as the usual punch those Bludgers give, it very well might have," Blaise told her.
"Well, it probably wasn't her objective. She was either trying to scare me, or make my nose as flat as hers," she quipped.
Blaise couldn't help but laugh. She couldn't believe how calm her friend was being. Blaise's heart was still racing, and it hadn't even been directed at her.
"I can't believe she would actually do something like that. She's still jealous. You and Malfoy have been together for weeks."
"A month on Saturday," Buffy said happily.
"A month in, and she still won't accept that she's got no shot with him," Blaise said with disgust.
"I get the feeling that Pansy won't be happy until he's hers, and according to Draco, he wants that to happen even less than I do," Buffy said.
Blaise sighed and they made their way into the castle, heading back to their Common Room.
"I wonder what it'll take to get her to back off," Blaise mused.
Buffy just shrugged and shook her head. Nothing short of a miracle would get Pansy to stay away from her, and Buffy knew that miracles came in very short supply.
-----
Ooo, an update. Many thanks for all your reviews! There's like over 600!! Colour me completely thrilled! As for the sequel to A Murderer's Daughter…I finally decided on a plot line that I liked. I've written 60 odd pages, so it IS coming soon. (How about I put up the first chapter when LISETTE bloody updates!! *grins* There you go, go and bug her now.)
And just cos I'm horribly mean, here's a sneak preview of one of the chapters in the sequel for AMD:
Dumbledore gave her a wry smile and inclined his head. "Consider it from this angle: your slaying powers were never really yours to begin with. It is something that you were given in order to aid you in learning the difference between good and evil. And now that you have firmly established what those differences are, returning the power that you were given should not be a problem."
*grins* Later!