Chapter Two: Quidditch

A.K.A. What!

"Did you hear? Harry Potter's the new Gryffindor Seeker! Look, there he is! What the…?"

Margaret whirls around, and sees Harry Potter walking down the corridor with his sidekicks. Upon closer inspection, she sees that Alison is walking along the side, bombarding him with questions.Alison runs her own newspaper (The Gray of the Silver Lining), although it's a shock that it's not banned. It's incredibly biased.

"So, Harry," Alison says deviously, "you must be pretty good to be a Seeker in your first year. Youngest Quidditch player in over a century, yes... But isn't it true that you disregarded Madame Hooch's instructions? That you flew without any experience and risked your safety?"

"Yes, but-" He was doomed.

"Well, don't you think you should be punished then? Do you really think you're so special? That you should be rewarded for breaking the rules? You are not talented, Harry; you are merely privileged. Do you have any idea why you're so good at magic, even though you've been raised by muggles? Oh, I suppose not. You don't have a clue—" She suddenly stops. "Hi, Marcus. Where are you going?"

"Quidditch practice," he states simply, walking toward the field. Alison follows, completely forgetting about Harry.

Margaret walks up to Harry and says, "You're lucky, you know. She could've ruined you. And you deserve it, too. But no matter. Once Flint goes away for a little while she'll get you; she'll destroy you."

Margaret then turns and walks toward the Quidditch pitch as well, disregarding the whispers of Harry Potter and His Followers of Gold. 'They're blundering idiots, anyway.'

Arriving at the field, Margaret finds that Marcus and Oliver are having a confrontation which is about to become a full-out brawl. She is about to step between them, when Alison punches Oliver and Marcus, which is a complete shock, even to Alison.

"Shit," mutters Marcus, rubbing his jaw. "You got an arm on you…"

"Yeah," agrees Oliver, "why aren't you on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team? You'd make a good—bloody hell!" He suddenly grabs his chin and mimics Marcus's motions. The pain must have just hit him.

"Right," says Margaret, "what the hell was that about anyway?"

"Quidditch practice, Seeker training, very important," Alison sneers. "Stupid reasons to fight, you know. Utterly pointless."

"Yeah, well, just a second ago you—" yells Marcus, becoming livid.

"I know I was the one who actually struck a blow. I didn't think that… I thought you… what I mean is…" Alison begins to walk away. "Sorry," she mumbles.

"Damn. You got her to apologize," Margaret says incredulously. "She must really fucking love you."

"No way! That's ridiculous!" Alison's screams were audible over everything else in the stadium, as usual. "Lee, you better take back that call…!"

Alison is renowned for exacting her revenge when you anger her, no matter what the cost. (After all, she had 'punished' Percy Weasley for accidents caused by his 'lack of focus' and 'pure stupidity,' despite him being 'one intelligent fucker.')

It is also a well-known fact that, ever since he became commentator, Lee Jordan was undeniably afraid of Alison. So, of course, he changes the score back to what it was previously, but comments that he is not scared of Alison, he merely "made a mistake about the actions on the field, okay!"

"Miss Thornewell, if you continue to threaten Mr. Jordan I will—" McGonagall stopped in mid-sentence, watching as "Marcus Flint grabs a club from one of the Slytherin beaters and hits a bludger viciously toward Oliver Wood—Foul! Foul!"

As Margaret was overly, albeit unnoticeably, concerned about Oliver being hurt, whispering quietly "Oliver, please be okay…" She began ringing her hands together nervously.

Alison, however, was undoubtedly happy about Marcus "murdering" Oliver, and wasted no time letting the world know that she thought it was brilliant.

Despite all of Marcus's attempts at winning, whether by fairness or cheating, mostly the latter, and Harry's jinxed broom, which Alison was delighted to see, Slytherin lost to Gryffindor when Harry nearly swallowed the snitch. Marcus kept moaning about losing and was definitely going to punish Terrence Higgs, the Slytherin Seeker, for their defeat.

Alison and Margaret shook their heads. "Poor Terrence," Alison says forlornly. Margaret nods her head in agreement, although she is more worried about Oliver than anything.

A few weeks later in Potions, Alison and Margaret sit in the back, hoping to avoid the other students. Both being very advanced in Potions, they have the class with sixth year students. Marcus, too, was in this class, although he was not known for his intellect, because, hey, it's Potions, and he's in Slytherin. Besides, he is in his sixth year.

Everyone knew that when Professor Snape arrived they would be assigned partners, as usual. They never got the same partners, it seemed. However, Snape seemed very fond of having Alison work with Marcus on everything they did and today was no different.

It's not as though Alison minds, it's just that sometimes she wants to work with Margaret, who is better at Potions than Marcus. Besides, Margaret always gets paired with some pervert who continuously make passes at her, and Alison is getting tired of knocking sense into people when class is over. And sometimes, even though Alison is 'madly in love' with Marcus, she just doesn't want to be around him.

But there's no sense in trying to talk Professor Snape out of something, because, no matter how brilliant he is, he's still a "fucking git" to everyone. So Alison doesn't bother, hoping that no one will be stupid today. Hoping that she won't "accidentally" brush her fingers against Marcus's.

And wanting, for the first time ever, for Potions to be over, because, suddenly, Marcus is brushing his fingers against hers and she can't breathe, and she needs to get out so it can be over because she's blushing and she hates it but it won't stop.

"Professor," she croaks, "I need to go to the Hospital Wing." She suddenly slides down onto the floor. Margaret jumps up immediately, rushing to Alison's side. She lifts Alison onto her back and runs all the way to the hospice, disregarding Professor Snape (who seems very intent on having Marcus take Alison to the infirmary.)

When they finally arrive, Madame Pomfrey reacts calmly. "Dear," she says, "could you open your mouth? You need a drop of this"—she held up a vial of something thick and purple—"to calm your nerves."

Alison follows Madame Pomfrey's instructions and soon falls asleep. Within an hour, she is awake and feeling better. All of the sudden, she shakes her head and gasps out, "Did you see, Margaret? Did you see what he did? That was really weird…"

Margaret nods, letting her continue. "Wait, did anyone hit on you? I'll kill them if they did. Filthy buggers. Oi, I know just what to do! Front page of Silver Lining: 'Perverted Gits, Stay Away From Margaret Hillsworth!' How's it sound?"

Margaret laughs. "You don't have to do that. No one hit on me today. I was barely in class at all… You've been in here most of Potions, you know."

"I have? How long have I been here?" Alison looks surprised, stumbling out of bed. "If Marcus messed up on the Potion, I swear I'll murder him." She staggers toward the door, mumbling about her foot being asleep, and makes her way down the hall with Margaret hurrying after her, ignoring Madame Pomfrey's protests.

Arriving in the Potions room, they realize that today was Double Potions, so they had a longer class time. Rushing over to Marcus, Alison checks the potion, discovering that all is right with the world and Marcus already got their grade, a one hundred percent, and was just about to go check on her in the Hospital Wing.

Margaret goes to her seat and sees that her partner had messed up terribly and heard from her that Professor Snape had taken points from Hufflepuff because of Margaret's "disrespect toward a teacher," but she doesn't care. In two days, the Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff game will be here and she has no time to worry about anything else. She only has time to practice, practice, practice.

It's really too bad that the rest of her team sucks.

"Margaret! Careful!" Alison yells as Margaret smacks a bludger away. Alison's eyes widen suddenly, and she waves her arms frantically in the air. "Marcus! Look out!"

Marcus dodged the oncoming bludger just in time. It whizzed past him, ramming into the arm of the Slytherin Keeper, Miles Bletchley, allowing the Hufflepuff Chasers to score.

"Good shot, Margaret!" Alison continues to scream loud enough for the entire stadium to hear. Suddenly, Marcus and Adrian Pucey, another Slytherin Chaser, ram a tiny Hufflepuff Chaser, a second year named Zacharias Smith, into the stands. "Alright, Marcus! Murder that Hufflepuff!"

It continues like this for a while, Slytherin and Hufflepuff each scoring and Alison cheering and getting herself confused. "Go Margaret! Kick some Slytherin arse! I mean… oh, fuck it. Look, would somebody just catch the bloody Snitch!"

Marcus (after flying at full speed toward them) knocks both Seekers away from the Snitch and grabs it. He smirks at Alison, who is blushing slightly. She starts to have that feeling again, when Marcus grabs the Slytherin Seeker by the scruff of his neck and shoves the Snitch in his hands.

"Um… thanks…?" says Terrence uncertainly.

"It seems, ladies and gentleman," Lee buts in, "that Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint is trying to impress Alison Thornewell—"

Alison stares for a second. 'What…?' She then decides to ignore him and starts walking off the pitch. Marcus follows suit; Oliver pauses to wait for Margaret to catch up.

When they catch up with her, Alison sighs. "I can't play Quidditch. Somewhat because my Mum and Dad won't let me; they're afraid I might get hurt," she says casually. "But mostly because I'm afraid. I know I can't play Quidditch right. I can't stand heights. I can barely control the broom."

"Besides," she continues, "I hate most sports, anyway. And I get distracted. I wouldn't be able to concentrate. With, um, being afraid and all." She looks away. 'More like getting so caught up in trying to win to impress Marcus that I end up losing instead.'

"Yeah, well, we better hurry up. We have a trip to Hogsmeade in an hour," says Oliver calmly, staying as far from Marcus as possible. Margaret nods in agreement, walking a little closer to Oliver. Marcus doesn't say anything, just keeps walking.

Alison stares. "What!"


A/N: I forgot the disclaimer in the last one, so here it is. We do not own Harry Potter. All characters belong to J.K. Rowling. Well, except for Margaret and Alison because, one, they're MY (I mean, OUR) characters, and, two, that'd just be really creepy. If there any misspellings grammar mistakes, blame Green Kitty, she's been rushing me.

To the only reviewer whose name I forgot (sorry!): No, they're probably not gonna f- um, I mean, have sex. First of all, I really, really suck at sex scenes. And, no, I will not get Green Kitty to write it. And, anyway, it's not allowed here and I'm too lazy to post it somewhere else.

About the story: Margaret had to catch up because she changed into her school robes and showered and what not. I don't really see Marcus as caring too much about smelling bad or being in uniform, so he didn't need to 'catch up' as you can see. Also, any slang or anything that you don't get, tell me about it and I'll try to explain it to you. Well, except for "that feeling" because I have no idea what the fuck that's supposed to be… If you have any suggestions about that at all, tell me. Please!