v. Blue Hair and the Snitch

Hogwarts Second Year

It was a lively sight for game day, but as she walked inside the Great Hall, everybody was staring at her. The most irritating stare was of James Potter. He had looked smug as he eyed her green beanie, sloppily munching his breakfast.

If it wasn't for him, she would not be wearing the headpiece. She would proudly flaunt her soft, platinum blonde locks that every Malfoy inherited. Now, she just looks funny.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team had huddled and at breakfast together in the end of the table, and the Slytherins were doing the same thing, a little farther than the Gryffindors. Don't want to risk strategy leaks. It was a sight to see. Lyarra had walked through both teams. James Potter had given her an annoying, smug-looking smirk which Lyarra ignored (she could feel her hair turn red), and rolled her eyes at the Slytherin team.

As she sat with her group both Blaise and Christophe had given her curious looks, even after Sarah and Jemma had explained to them early on what had happened. The Slytherins had their lips shut as they didn't want other people to find out what was happening to Lyarra.

Lyarra ate breakfast grumpily that day, as she had a hair problem and a Quidditch team problem. She just can't wait for the day to end and get rid of the hair color. She silently prayed that the Slytherin team wouldn't lose against the Gryffindors.

Lyarra gaped as she stared at the sky. Jemma was next to her in disbelief. Blaise and Christophe had been in a state of shock, and Sarah was cheering on who knows what.

Slytherin had lost their Seeker Montague to a flying bludger, courtesy of Fred Weasley. So, their reserve Seeker was out on the pitch, and he nervously searched for the golden ball.

It was no more than five minutes that he had flown into the Keeper and Captain of Gryffindor, flinging both of them into the goalpost and hurling down to the ground the reserve Slytherin Seeker had broken his broom. They had called a timeout since both teams had lost a member due to injury and the Slytherins had no Seekers left.

The Gryffindors had a reserve Keeper though, and Danny Wood beamed as he was going to play replacing the Gryffindor team captain. Slytherin on the other hand was in a state of panic as they were stalling time on who to place as Seeker, since the rest of the reserve members were in a different position.

"Where is your Seeker, Rawles?" James Potter mocked. He was pretty ballsy for a second year. "Have you got no more? Well, you did lost two."

Rawles looked like he was fuming as he turned around from his discussion with the Head of Slytherin House. The Slytherins were losing, and they were losing bad. Even Slughorn got concerned and was thinking hard on what to do. Both of them came out with nothing, and if they don't present someone that can play as their Seeker, Slytherin would lose or worse be disqualified.

Funnily enough, James Potter was the one with the brilliant mind for this situation. The Gryffindors didn't try to stop his taunting as it was obvious he was their star player, even if he was still a second year. The next few sentences that came out of his mouth not only shocked Lyarra, but the whole stadium as well.

"Why not bring out Malfoy over there? Wasn't she trying out for the Seeker position?" He suggested with a smirk. Lyarra felt her gut clench. Jemma looked at her worriedly from the side.

"She tried out for the team?" Slughorn asked Rawles in disbelief. "Mr. Rawles. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Um, she was underqualified, Professor--"

"Bullshit. She flies faster than all of the Slytherin team combined." James crossed his arms. Rawles even sputtered.

"E-Even if she does, she hasn't been practicing with us so she wont know how we work--"

"Malfoy's been practicing in the pitch almost every night, alone. Hell, she had been practicing last night." James defended uncharacteristically, making even Lyarra's eyes widen. The crowd turned into whispers at his statement, wondering if the world ended and why James Potter was trying to bring Lyarra Malfoy out to the pitch.

Lyarra knows exactly why, and she dreads what was about to happen next as she saw Slughorn striding closer to her.

"Ms. Malfoy! Would you kindly please help us?" Slughorn pleaded.

Oh boy.

No matter how much Lyarra tried to reject, Slughorn was very persistent. She wasn't feeling to play? Slughorn pointedly said that she was playing in the pitch last night. She has no broom? Slughorn gave her Montague's. She tried to give several reasons and arguments but in the end, she lost.

Slughorn had ordered Rawles to get her the Slytherin Quidditch team outfit and told her to change, hurriedly.

When she came out of the changing rooms as fast as she could, the crowd (especially the Slytherins) wasn't sure to cheer her on or not. Her friends did though, and Jemma along with Sarah were the loudest ones. She smiled appreciatively to them.

She then mounted her broom and flew up of the pitch and gotten ready in position. Just before the whistle blows, the referee told her to take off her beanie, and that she wasn't allowed to play until she did. The rules didn't allow the usage of hats, and both James and Lyarra knows this.

Lyarra glared at a smug looking James and reluctantly took off the beanie. She flew quickly to the Slytherin stands to give it to Jemma and the crowd noticed her change.

Her platinum blonde hair turned from red for anger to a pinkish orange because she was embarassed.

James Potter let out a boisterous laugh as he saw her hair, hoping that everyone would find it funny. To his surprise, it backfired since everybody was looking at Malfoy in a different light, and that made him frown. It didn't work, he cursed himself. He needed to find something else to prank her with! He was so deep in his scheming that he didn't even realize that the game had continued, but he did recognize the currently blue haired Slytherin.

She zoomed past everybody. She was fast, and she currently had blue hair. She was excited as she did a few warm up laps around the pitch as she assessed everything.

She avoided bludgers and had the gall to make James Potter stumble in revenge as she purposely flown too close to him. At that, James gave a sign to Fred to aim the bludgers at Lyarra.

Lyarra didn't mind. She found it fun and exciting. She was playing Quidditch now, and she would show how she would dominate it.

Her blue hair turned purple at the tips as she got the Snitch, signalling the end of the game. The crowd roared at how fast she was.

But Sadly, Slytherin had lost by 10 points in the last seconds as Danny Wood blocked the goal, and the Quaffle rebounded and James Potter scored 10 points. They were already hopeless even if Lyarra had gotten the 150 point Snitch.

The Slytherin team looked like they already expected it. The Gryffindor team were elated and had cheered both Danny and James because of their combo move in the air.

Lyarra stayed in place as she calmed herself down. Her hair had turned blue again as she slowly went down to the ground and landed.

Slughorn quickly rushed to her and held her shoulders.

"You are a genius, my child!" He praised her, "From now on, you are the Slytherin Quidditch team's official Seeker. Not reserve, but the main team."

Lyarra gaped in shock as she processed the news. Her friends had caught up to her and enveloped her in a hug, congratulating her. She had returned the hug and smiled happily.

She was on the team!

She laughed in disbelief and eyed her surroundings, her eyes quickly finding James Potter as he and his friends talked.

He caught her eye and smirked. He mouthed something like "I won," which Lyarra rolled her eyes to. She raised the Snitch in her hands up for him to see. Her eyebrow raised pointedly.

"I still got the snitch," She mouthed. James actually looked thoughtful at that, thinking what to reply. Then he eyed her hair and touched his as he mouthed, "Your hair looks great. It's neon yellow now."

Lyarra rolled her eyes again and turned around with a smile, knowing that the cause of her neon yellow hair is her happiness.

And the cause of that happiness all started from James Potter's crazy idea and how he really want to fight her on the pitch. He had pointed the Slytherins into the right direction. To her.

Lyarra was kind of thankful, even if he did prank her hair. But the colors actually look nice on her, and she knows his prank had backfired.

Her opinion on him changed a little bit though. He may be a git, and he may be annoying with that smug smile of his, but he was a lawful Quidditch player, and Lyarra could respect that.

But he was still a git though, and Lyarra just couldn't forget what he did in the first year ever so easily.

Lyarra Malfoy now detests... James Potter. Yeah, maybe they can have a stalemate for once.

Then Hogwarts can live in peace.

A/N

Changed some Quidditch rules regarding stand-ins! Hope you all can accept it! Thank you for reading my story. Please read and Review guys! Really means a lot.