A/N: Chapter beta read by Forty-Two Dreams. All remaining mistakes are mine.

CHAPTER 10
RAVENCLAW VS SLYTHERIN

It was early December when the second Quidditch match of the season was to take place, Ravenclaw versus Slytherin. Gryffindor had already played against Hufflepuff a month before, and the results had been largely in favour of Gryffindor.

As Snape entered the teachers' gallery of Hogwarts's Quidditch stadium he briefly looked up at the clouded sky. A light snow had been falling for several days already and it didn't seem like it would be over soon. Snape shivered a bit from the cold before giving a look around the gallery.

Predictably Professor Wilson had come early enough to ensure herself a place at the front rank to support her House's team. She was even sporting Ravenclaw's colours with her blue scarf and gloves. As for the other teachers already present, they were mainly sitting on the seats behind her.

An evil smile playing on his lips, Snape walked straight towards the Charms teacher and silently sat down in the seat next to her. She turned and glared at him as if he were infected with an extremely contagious disease she was very likely to contract just by sitting next to him, but he ignored her and kept looking ahead of him. She eventually looked away with a sigh of exasperation.

After a minute or two of mutual snubbing he eventually spoke up in a very smooth voice.

"What a very fine day for a Quidditch match, don't you think so Professor Wilson?"

The witch glared at him again, looking wary of him. "I suppose," she replied with a shrug.

"Yes, definitely a beautiful day for a Slytherin victory," he insisted purposefully.

Wilson looked back at him sharply and he knew he had hit a nerve. The poor thing obviously expected Ravenclaw to win the game… But with Cho Chang gone and a quite inexperienced Seeker replacing her, the Ravenclaw team had virtually no chance of beating Draco Malfoy and his Slytherin teammates… Holding onto any hope for Ravenclaw was thoroughly pitiful.

"If I were you, Professor Snape, I wouldn't be so hasty and would wait until the end of the game. You could be proven wrong," she warned.

"If you so strongly believe so, I have a little suggestion to spice up the game a bit, if you may hear about it," Snape offered.

She was on her guard, but she looked intrigued. She nodded him to go on.

"Since it has recently come to my attention how fond you are of bets…" he began with a wry smile.

"I'm not – " she tried to object but he went on anyway.

"I thought you might enjoy one about the outcome of this game," he finished.

She stared at him for a few seconds. "I never bet money," she eventually stated.

"Money wasn't what I had in mind," he retorted mysteriously.

"And, pray tell, what did you have in mind?" the Charms teacher asked, looking downright intrigued this time. "I suppose you wouldn't bet that book of yours?"

She was still after that book? Snape made a mental note to read it again some time to see what could be so interesting about it.

"I wouldn't," he confirmed. "But I noticed you weren't very keen on night watches. Maybe we could bet, say… two weeks of night watches."

She blinked at him repeatedly before shaking her head in disbelief with a slight chuckle.

Too bad, Snape thought. It would have been entertaining to see her up almost every single night to keep watch during the next fortnight, as well as to see her lacking sleep every morning.

"As you wish," he concluded. As he was about to stand up to find another seat she spoke up.

"Let's make it a month," she offered.

Snape looked back at her with surprise. "All right, a month of night watches. That will lead us to Christmas break."

She nodded and then crossed her arms across her chest, as if to ensure he wouldn't attempt to shake her hand to seal their agreement.

During the next minutes other teachers entered the gallery, and Professor Vector sat next to Professor Wilson. When Ursaglow arrived at last, Snape made sure to avoid the young wizard's gaze, all too aware that the seat next to him was still empty. But he hadn't counted on Wilson's mischievousness.

"Mizar!" she hailed. "Why don't you seat over there, next to Professor Snape?"

Snape turned to her sharply, hardly refraining from taking his wand out. If only there weren't so many witnesses… He was sure she knew about his aversion to the DADA teacher. She was doing this on purpose.

Snape froze when he felt a hand patting his shoulder. He turned to glare at the offending hand before looking up to glare menacingly at its owner. Even the thick wizard that Ursaglow was soon understood he might have made a mistake, and quickly withdrew his hand with a tense smile. Snape could even hear Wilson stifling a chuckle behind him.

"Good afternoon, Professor Snape," Ursaglow greeted as he sat next to him.

Snape only stared ahead of him with a long sigh.

"What a wonderful day! I love snow!" the young wizard went on. "It's a pity there isn't much snow yet, but there'll probably be more later during the winter. I was three years old when I saw snow for the first time, you know. It was when my parents – "

"Welcome to the second Quidditch match of the season, Ravenclaw versus Slytherin! This is Jeffrey Needle, your commentator today!"

Merlin be blessed the game was about to begin, Snape thought, wondering how much longer he would have been able to endure Ursaglow's chattering before casting a Silencio spell on him - or worse. More likely much worse actually - the range of possibilities was wide. Hmm, maybe it wasn't too late to ask the Slytherin beaters to send a Bludger Ursaglow's way some time during the match.

There were cheers when both teams entered the stadium and took off into the air, each player taking his position. Soon after Madam Hooch blew her whistle as the Quaffle and Bludgers were released.

"Millers takes the Quaffle for Ravenclaw! Pass to Carrington, Millers again, pass to Davies, and score! Ravenclaw leads 10 to nil!"

Applauses erupted from all around the stadium, except from the Slytherin gallery.

"I'm sure you all remember Davies' older brother Roger," the commentator went on, "an excellent Quidditch player himself! Today is John's first game in Ravenclaw's team, but it looks like he's already found his place!"

After a few more minutes of game Ravenclaw was already leading 60 to 10.

"Everton passes the Bludger to Nott, the Slytherin chasers enter the Ravenclaw scoring area and - no! Carrington tackles Nott and flies back towards the Slytherin goals!... Yes! Ravenclaw scores again! 70 to 10!"

"Oh, that was a fantastic move!" Ursaglow told Snape. "Those Ravenclaw chasers are talented, aren't they?"

Yes, they were talented, but not as much as Draco Malfoy was as a Seeker, Snape thought while looking for the Slytherin player over the Quidditch pitch. The boy was flying high above his teammates, hoping for a glimpse of the Golden Snitch.

"90 to 10! Ravenclaw is taking a large lead, but - oh! Malfoy just took a dive towards… yes, that's the Snitch! Malfoy is closely followed by Rellinger!"

Everyone in the teachers' gallery stood up to look down at the two Seekers - all but Snape. The Potions Master was sporting a very confident smile - the game would be over in a couple of seconds.

"Oh no! Too bad, Malfoy missed the Snitch by a couple of inches only and now it's gone again! In the meantime Ravenclaw scored again, it's now 100 to 10!"

Snape heard Wilson's sigh of relief as she sat back, while the only indication of his own frustration at the missed opportunity was his clenched fists. The Slytherin chasers had better wake up very soon. And the Keeper had better take some action if he didn't want his position in the team to be reconsidered.

"Oh… It's looking bad for Slytherin, eh?" Ursaglow told Snape and elbowed him.

Snape instantly turned to give the DADA teacher a very nasty and menacing glare. But as always the young man didn't notice anything and kept commenting the game.

"My, Ravenclaw scored once more! If they keep this way, catching the Snitch won't save Slytherin!"

"Professor Ursaglow," Snape called softly.

"Yes?"

"Touch me just once more," he began with a silky voice, "and it will be my pleasure to make sure you never have any opportunity to ever do such a foolish thing again."

Again, Snape heard Wilson's stifled chuckle behind him.

"What do you mean?" Ursaglow asked lamely.

"I mean that if you don't – " Snape began more menacingly, but was interrupted by an overexcited DADA teacher.

"Oh look, Ravenclaw scored again! It's 120 to 10 now, is it? Wow, it's a real slap for Slytherin!"

Ursaglow shouldn't give him ideas such as slapping, Snape thought while the young wizard went on talking, commenting that the repeated fouls from Slytherin didn't seem to help them score.

A few minutes later the score was 160 for Ravenclaw to 20 for Slytherin. Snape noted that all Slytherin players were Death Eaters children. Their main occupation during the summer had probably been all but Quidditch training, which would explain this soon to be disaster if Malfoy didn't catch the Snitch very, very soon.

"Oh, nasty Bludger attack on Millers!" Jeffrey Needle commented. "She lost the Quaffle and fell off her broom!"

Everyone in the gallery stood up again to follow the fall of the Ravenclaw chaser - all but Snape once more. He didn't need to get up to know what was going on for he had his own personal live commentator standing right next to him.

"Ouch, that must have hurt!" Ursaglow remarked as the chaser probably hit the ground. "Oh wait, it's a Ravenclaw chaser that picked up the Quaffle and she's heading towards the goals now! Hey, looks like Ravenclaw's going to win today!"

It took all of Snape's willpower not to push Ursaglow over the railing of the teachers' gallery. Pushing away his idyllic vision of a Mizar-shaped pancake on the Quidditch field - maybe he could also meet a Bludger on his way down? - Snape focused his attention on the match again.

Carrington had just scored, which meant 170 to 20 for Ravenclaw. Oh, would the Slytherin Quidditch team hear about him after this game.

As Snape was mentally preparing his admonishments, Malfoy took a new dive towards the Snitch. This time Snape stood up along with the other teachers to follow the action.

If Malfoy caught the Snitch now the match would end in a draw - 170 to 170. But the Ravenclaw chasers were already heading towards the Slytherin goals with the Quaffle. If Ravenclaw scored before Malfoy caught the Snitch, Ravenclaw would win the game.

All the players on the Quidditch pitch seemed to have understood this as well. The Slytherin chasers were multiplying their efforts to tackle the Ravenclaw ones, while the beaters were sending as many Bludger attacks as they could on the Ravenclaw chasers. In the meantime, the Ravenclaw chasers were dodging and hurrying towards the goals while the beaters were protecting their progression.

Snape's gaze was alternately going from Malfoy to the Ravenclaw chasers. Malfoy was very close to the Snitch and the other Seeker was far behind. But the Ravenclaw chasers were also dangerously close to the Slytherin goals…

The Quidditch stadium became oddly silent, as if the entire audience was holding its breath.

"YES! Ravenclaw scored!" the commentator yelled, erupting with joy along with most of the spectators. "And Malfoy just caught the Snitch! The game is over and it's a Ravenclaw victory, 180 to 170!"

There were cheers all around the pitch - except from the Slytherin gallery from which boos could still be heard.

"Well, it seems Slytherin lost today. Maybe another time!" Ursaglow told Snape enthusiastically. And patted him. Again.

Snape turned to him angrily. That man never understood anything no matter how much you insisted, did he? If a look could kill, Snape's would have Avada Kedavra'ed Ursaglow twice already during the last few seconds.

"Would you like to go to Hogsmeade for a drink?" the DADA teacher invited cheerfully.

"No," Snape replied.

"Oh, then maybe just – "

"No," Snape insisted grimly. As McGonagall walked past them to leave, Snape called her. "Minerva? If you have some time to baby-sit, maybe you could look after Professor Ursaglow for me?"

McGonagall stared at him questioningly as he began to leave the gallery as well.

"Professor Snape?" he heard behind him and froze.

Wilson. The bet.

When he turned round he discovered the Charms teacher grinning broadly at him. She looked as though it had just been announced that Christmas would be celebrated every day until the end of the month.

"My first night watch is tonight," she told him merrily. "It was a pleasure to take bets with you," she concluded and walked past him.

Snape glared at her from behind. She was enjoying this way too much. So much it was a call for retribution.

A sardonic smile suddenly played on his lips. He could use tonight's night watch. He was a spy for the Order after all; his life often relied on his abilities to turn even the worst situation to his advantage… And as a Slytherin he excelled in such activities…


Coming next: "Revenge"