Chapter Nine

Dark thoughts and distractions

Tom looked up from his book. For once he wasn't able to concentrate. He had just had History of magic, where Professor Binns had droned on. However, he had droned on about the founding of Hogwarts. It had reawakened unpleasant thoughts that Tom believed he had buried. His thoughts drifted back to the account in Hogwarts: A History.

The heir, he prophesised, would one day come to Hogwarts, open the chamber and use the power within to purge the school of those he considered unworthy to study magic.

Tom screwed up his eyes to push these thoughts to the back of his brain. 'The prophecy could be wrong,' he thought to himself. 'Maybe there is another descendant of Slytherin out there.' 'Maybe I'm destined to have a child that was the one to fulfil the prophecy.'

These excuses sounded horribly unconvincing in his head. In order to give himself something to do, he headed out to the Quidditch pitch. There was a game going to start in about fifteen minutes. It was the first game of the Quidditch season: Slytherin against Gryffindor. He hadn't intended on going, but it was better than been left alone in Slytherin tower with these dark thoughts.

The sun was shining brightly, but the air was cold. The ground was hard, which would ensure a fast kick off from the ground. There seemed to be a disproportion of colours in the stadium: three quarters were wearing red and gold, while only one quarter supported Slytherin colours. No one supported Slytherin, it seemed, except Slytherin.

Tom watched as the green robed figures made their way out to meet their opposites in red. The commentator was a forth year Hufflepuff, who made snide comments about all of the Slytherin players.

"First we have Captain and Keeper, Kyle Malus. Is that a new broom? Obviously daddy's pampering him again. Seeker Nero Malfoy, a seeker who couldn't catch the snitch if it had a broken wing." Boos from the Slytherin side increased with each insult. After the rest of the introductions were made, the captains shook hands and the players kicked off from the ground. The referee, Professor Plank, threw up the Quaffle and the game began.

Slytherin chasers grabbed the Quaffle out of the air and flew towards the Gryffindor hoops. The chaser with the Quaffle performed a Reverse Pass at the last possible moment to a chaser behind him. The Gryffindor keeper was momentarily distracted and the Quaffle sailed through the centre hoop, making the score 10-0. Gryffindor quickly recovered. Their chasers went on the offensive, scoring twice out of three attempts. Slytherin had a penalty called on them when one of the Beaters, performed a Beater backswing and accidentally struck the Gryffindor Seeker's broom tail. The chaser who took the penalty feinted left and sent the Quaffle through the right hoop, making the score 10-30.

Both Seekers were novices, Tom thought. He had spotted the snitch twice now; neither seeker had seen it yet. Now the Gryffindor chasers were tearing up the field towards the Slytherin hoops. Bludgers weren't a problem now: both beaters were flying alongside the chasers, repelling any of the metal balls. A few minutes later, both teams had scored twice, making the score 30-50. Just then, the Gryffindor seeker spotted the snitch. He flew towards it as fast as he could, but was moving too slowly, because Nero Malfoy had grabbed hold of his broom. The snitch had disappeared.

"Penalty," shouted Professor Plank, while the commentator shouted abuse and obscenities.

The shot was played and blocked by the keeper. A moment later, a Slytherin chaser had been fouled when a beater had deliberately flown into her. The chaser who took the penalty scored, making the score 40-50.

After numerous fouls on the Slytherins behalf, the Gryffindor team had secured another three goals in penalty points. Then Tom saw it again; the snitch was hovering in the dead centre of the Quidditch pitch. And both seekers had seen it at the same time. Unfortunately the Gryffindor seeker was closer. He was closing on the snitch with a look of triumph on his face, then the snitch disappeared… in Neros' hand. The Gryffindor seeker had not taken into consideration the speed of Malfoy's top of the range broom which his father had bought him before term began. It took even the commentator a few moments to recover from such a catch.

"The Slytherin seeker caught the snitch. Slytherin win 190-80," he stated dryly.

The Slytherin supporters went wild. The team were now doing a lap of honor. They flew up into the air and started performing complex aerobatics. Then Tom saw that they had charmed the tails of their broomsticks to leave a trail of green sparks behind. The whole team was now in the process of writing obscenities about the Gryffindor team. If anything, it seemed to make victory all the sweeter.

The Quidditch match had done the trick: it had taken Tom's mind off things. He was now able to concentrate on his work again and enjoyed the position of star pupil in all his classes. In Charms, they were studying simple household charms with their diminutive professor. In Transfiguration, they were learning how to turn Rabbits into bunny slippers. In Herbology, they weren't doing much, besides pruning the Black roses and re-potting the fanged geraniums. But the most interesting lesson, in Tom's opinion was Defence Against the Dark Arts. They were looking at simple dark creatures, mostly from books, but their professor brought in the occasional live specimen. They looked at spells to ward of these creatures, curses and counter-curses and Basic Dark objects. These are what interested Tom the most. Most of the things were harmless (hence they were called basic). Just muggle baiting equipment, such as biting tea cups and books that screamed insults at a muggle reader.

Unfortunately, the bullying in the common room hadn't decreased. Nero Malfoy was the head of the bullies as he had a personal score to settle with Riddle. Not only the humiliation of loosing to a half blood in a duel and being forced to take muggle studies as a result, he was performing poorly in the subject. The remarks and attempted hexes caused Tom to return to the pattern of the previous year. He should almost thank Nero: if he didn't force him into the library so often, he wouldn't spend as much time reading up on advanced magic.

I'm not very good at Quidditch scenes but I think it was OK. Be back soon.