A/N: Many thanks for hufflepuffsmoke's review. I already picked out a love interest for Cassia, but I will consider a Cassia/Ron romance.

Chapter 10: A Game of Quidditch

The weather turned very cold when November came, followed closely was Cassia's allergies.

The mountains around the school became icy grey and the lake looked like chilled steel. Every morning the grounds was covered in frost and sometimes Cassia spotted Hagrid defrosting broomsticks out on the Quidditch pitch, through the windows. Hagrid was always bundled up in a overcoat, gloves, and enormous boots.

One good things, despite the allergies and cold weather, the Quidditch session has started. No one had ever seen Harry and Cassia play, because their captains wanted it to be kept secret. However, somehow, word spread anyway.

Cassia wasn't sure what was worse; people saying that she'll be brilliant or people saying that they'll hold a mattress under her because the Bludgers were going to knock her off her broomstick. Someone had said that it was a shame because the Bludgers were going to mess up her 'pretty' face.

On the day of the Quidditch match, Cassia, Sally-Anne, and Lily were about ready to walk in the Great Hall, Harry had pulled her aside.

"Harry!" Cassia said cheerfully. "I was going to wish you luck."

"Never mind that," Harry said. "Listen I went down to Snape's dungeon to get Quidditch Through the Ages—"

"That's a good read," Cassia interrupted. "I still can't believe that there's seven hundred ways to commit a foul and they all took place during that World Cup match in the 1700s."

"I know," Harry said.

"I think there's a World Cup match coming up," Cassia said. "I think we'll be in our fourth year by then. Maybe we might be able to find a way to be able to see it."

Harry nodded, "If the Dursleys would let us." He realized how off topic they had gotten, "Never mind that. I just saw something horrible."

"Worse than seeing Dudley naked?" Cassia asked. They both shuddered.

"No, worse," Harry said. "I went down to get Quidditch Through the Ages and I saw Snape and Filch down there."

"Doing what exactly?" asked Cassia.

"Well, Filch was patching up Snape's leg," replied Harry. "It was bloody and mangled. Hermione, Ron, and I think that he was trying to get past the three-headed dog."

"How do you know?" asked Cassia.

"He asked how you were supposed to keep an eye on all three heads at once," said Harry.

"So, that explains why he's been limping," said Cassia thoughtfully. "Lily thought it was because of some weird potion-mishap and Sally-Anne was going for some weird stairs incident." Harry chuckled and shook his head. "You better get in there and eat."

"I'm not hungry," replied Harry.

"You need strength. You don't want to faint off your broomstick because you haven't eaten," Cassia said. "That would probably kill you."

"When you have your match, you won't be saying that," said Harry.

"I don't have to worry about falling off my broomstick from lack of food," Cassia said. "I just have to worry about getting my 'pretty face' broken by Bludgers."

Harry groaned, "I can't believe they've been saying that to your face."

"More like," Cassia started. She held up her hand and held up her hand to her face. In a loud whisper, "'Such a shame they're letting her play. She's sure to ruin that pretty face of hers.'" She lowered her hand and looked at Harry.

"I've had it worse. They said it to my face," Harry said. "I almost hexed them for that."

"Yeah, well, Lily tried to hex them, which is why it stopped and we lost ten points," Cassia said as they walked in the Great Hall.

"That explains why you had ten less points," Harry said.

"Well, I'm cheering for you," Cassia said.

"You better," replied Harry as they went to their respective tables.

At ten-forty, they filed out to the Hufflepuff stand that overlooked the Quidditch pitch. There was four, one for every house. Some Hufflepuffs brought binoculars with them, including Sally-Anne, which she took out of her shoulder bag. Cassia tossed her Hufflepuff scarf over her shoulder. The scarf was yellow-and-black, in the house colours.

"Did you see what the Gryffindors made for Harry?" Lily asked. She pointed and Cassia looked where Lily pointed.

There was a red banner that said: H. Potter for President that was flashing different colours. Right underneath the slogan was a large Gryffindor lion.

Cassia scowled, because she hadn't thought of something to make to support her brother. "I should've done something like that."

Sally-Anne was looking through the binoculars, "If you make something for him, make sure it doesn't like it has been chewed on."

"What?" Cassia asked bewildered. Sally-Anne handed her the binoculars and Cassia looked through them. She focused on the banner and sure enough, she spotted what looked like little teeth-marks that looked like it came from a rodent. "I think Ron's pet rat chewed on it."

Lily shuddered, "Ew. I hate rats."

Cassia didn't have time to respond because the teams emerged.

The Gryffindors wore red and gold uniforms. It looked like they wore protective padding. The Slytherins wore green and silver uniforms, with the same protective padding.

The two captains shook hands and mounted their brooms, as Madam Hooch spoke. With that, Madam Hooch blew on her whistle and fifteen broomsticks flew in the air. It looked like the Quaffle was overtaken by a Gryffindor Chaser.

Lee Jordan was doing commentary, "And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor—what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too—"

"Jordan!" shouted Professor McGonagall, who was closely watching the commentary.

"Sorry, Professor," replied Lee Jordan.

"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good friend of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve—back to Johnson and—no, Slytherin have taken the Quaffle and off he goes—Flint flying like an eagle up there—he's going to sc—no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and Gryffindor take the Quaffle—that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and—ouch—that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger—"

Cassia cringed when she saw Bell get hit in the back of the head. She reached off and rubbed the back of her head. That was going to be her when it was time for Hufflepuff's match against Ravenclaw on the third week of November. Then after that, the second game would take place in March against Gryffindor. After that the last game was in May against Slytherin.

"Gryffindor score!" Lee Jordan shouted.

Cassia clapped and cheered along with the rest of the Gryffindors. Her cheering was interrupted by a sneezing fit. She wiped her nose on her robes and rubbed the tears from her eyes. "How many was that?"

"What?" Sally-Anne asked confused.

"How many times did I sneeze in a row?" Cassia asked, looking back at the game. Harry dove but ended up going back in the air, so she was sure that it was a false alarm.

"I didn't bother to count," Sally-Anne stated slowly, sounding confused.

A Bludger flew to Harry and Cassia gasped. Harry dodged it and one of the Weasleys went after it.

"Slytherin in possession," Lee Jordan continued, "Chaser Pucey ducks two Bludgers, two Weasleys, and Chaser Bell and speeds towards the—wait a moment—was that the Snitch?"

"The Snitch?" asked Cassia, perking up. "Where is it?"

"Right by Pucey's ear," Lily said.

Cassia grabbed the binoculars from Sally-Anne and looked at the Snitch right as Adrian Pucey dropped the Quaffle to look over his shoulder.

She found the Snitch along with Seeker Terence Higgs, who looked to be a year older than her. She couldn't help but find the blond boy a bit attractive. She looked between Harry and Terence who were neck-and-neck for the Snitch. It looked like Harry was going faster and Cassia held her breath in anticipation of the Gryffindors winning.

However that didn't happen because Flint rammed right into Harry, sending Harry spinning off course.

"That's a foul!" shouted Cassia, handing Sally-Anne her binoculars.

There was a roar of anger from the Gryffindors, as they screamed, "Foul!"

Cassia shouted, "that little b—"

"So—after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating—" Lee Jordan ranted, cutting Cassia off from finishing her sentence.

"Jordan!" growled Professor McGonagall.

Cassia watched as it looked like Higgs and Flint got into a small argument over what happened.

Lee Jordan ranted, "I mean, after that open and revolting foul—"

"Jordan, I'm warning you—" Professor McGonagall interrupted.

"All right, all right," Lee Jordan said. "Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession."

Cassia spotted Harry and watched as another Bludger flew at him, which he dodged. It looked like Harry lurched the broom. Cassia squinted at that, wondering what her brother was doing.

Harry lurched again and Cassia frowned. What was he doing? Was it some sort of game plan that he and Oliver Wood cooked up? If so, what kind of game plan was that?

It looked like Harry was now zigzagging through the air. Cassia wished that twin telepathy existed so she can ask him what the hell was doing, because it looked like he had lost control of his broom, but he shouldn't have, because very Dark magics can break through the powerful charms that the broom had.

"Slytherin in possession—Flint with the Quaffle—passes Spinnet—passes Bell—hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose—only joking, Professor—Slytherins score—oh no…" Jordan kept commentating.

The Slytherins were cheering, but Cassia didn't care because her brother was slowly rising in the air, and away from the game. Harry was jerking his broom along the way up.

"What's Harry doing?" Lily asked.

"I don't know," Cassia said shaking her head.

Sally-Anne was looking through her binoculars at Harry. "If I didn't know any better, I would say he lost control…of his…broom." She spoke slowly, as if confused.

Cassia covered her mouth as Harry's broom rolled over and over. Luckily Harry was holding on as it did so. The broom jerked and Harry was thrown off. Cassia closed her eyes and then opened them. Harry was now holding onto the broom with one hand.

"Did Flint do something when Harry got blocked?" Cassia asked.

"I don't think so," Sally-Anne said. "He has to get be practically a master of the Dark Arts to have done something like that to Harry's broom."

Cassia watched as the Weasleys flew up to Harry and she muttered, "Good idea." However, when the Weasley twins tried to grab Harry, the broom flew out of reach.

Lily started muttering something under breath and was holding tightly onto the guardrail.

The Weasleys were circling Harry, hoping to catch him if he fell.

Cassia looked at the teachers, but the only ones who seemed to be focused on Harry's dilemma was Snape and Quirrell. Quirrell must've been terrified because he dove headfirst into the seat in front of him.

Cassia looked back at Harry, who was still holding on the broom. If Hufflepuff was playing against Gryffindor, she would've been up there helping the Weasleys.

Whatever curse was placed on the broom was lifted, because Harry climbed onto his broom. He sped towards the ground. Cassia didn't blame him because after an experience like that must've made him want to be on solid ground.

Harry got on all fours and coughed. Cassia closed her eyes. She didn't want to see him be sick. It was bad enough that one year, where she had the stomach flu and was stuck in the broom cupboard while Harry got the living room. Harry had walked in her on being sick.

"I've got the Snitch!" Harry shouted, holding up the Snitch.

Gryffindor had won with one hundred and seventy points to Slytherin's sixty. Cassia was confused. Does nearly swallowing the Snitch count as a win?

They ran onto the pitch where Hagrid was leading Ron and Hermione to Harry. Cassia ran over to Harry, almost running into Terence Higgs. She shouted 'sorry' over her shoulder, missing the slight smile that he made.

Cassia ran over and hugged Harry tightly. "You did it! You caught the Snitch! In your mouth! But you still caught it! Either way, you won!"

Harry chuckled, "Yeah."

"Let's go to my hut," Hagrid gruffed and then they were on their way to Hagrid's hut. When they got there, Hermione and Ron forced Harry into a seat, while Cassia greeted Fang, who proceeded to lick her face, leaving slobber all over her front. Hagrid had got to work on setting a teapot over the fire.

"How are ye feelin'?" Hagrid asked, sounding concerned.

"Yeah, are you all right?" asked Cassia.

Harry nodded, "I'm all right, Cassy." Hagrid passed him some strong sweet tea.

"Especially after what happened to your broom?" Cassia asked. "What was up with that? Who cursed your broom?"

Harry shrugged, "I don't know."

"It was Snape," Ron explained. "Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

"Rubbish," stated Hagrid. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"

Cassia stared hard at the Gryffindors. "I have to agree, with Hagrid. Why would Snape try to kill a student?"

"You're a Hufflepuff," Ron stated. "I doubt you would understand."

"Cassy being a Hufflepuff doesn't mean that she doesn't understand hatred," Harry said flatly.

"I know hatred pretty well, thank you very much," Cassia said crossing her arms.

"Anyway, we also found out something about him," Harry said. "Snape tried to get past that three-headed dog on Hallowe'en. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."

Hagrid dropped his teapot, "How do you know about Fluffy?"

"Fluffy?" the four first-years asked in unison.

Hagrid explained, "Yeah—he's mine—bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year—and I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the—"

"Yes?" asked Harry eagerly, leaning forward slightly.

"Now, don't ask me any more," said Hagrid in a gruff voice. "That's top secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to steal it," Harry insisted.

"Rubbish," repeated Hagrid. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So why he just try and kill Harry?" cried Hermione. "I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"

"Maybe loads of people were keep eye contact," Cassia said. "And they saw that Harry's broom was cursed and a few others were trying to countercurse it. One of them could've possibly been trying to curse Harry's broom."

Hermione started, "I'm just saying—"

"I read a lot on curses and countercurses too," Cassia said. "It doesn't mean that I'm an expert on them."

"You're only standing up for him because he likes you," Ron accused.

Cassia sputtered, "He doesn't like me."

"Then why doesn't he criticise your potions?" accused Ron.

"That's because I put in effort," Cassia said. She looked at Hagrid, "Thank you, Hagrid for inviting me over and giving me tea, but I have homework to catch up on." She looked at Harry, "See you at dinner." With that she turned and walked out of the hut.

As she way closing the door, she heard Harry, "Can you please be nicer to her?"

Cassia stomped back to the castle. She didn't know why she got defensive about Snape, but she did. Maybe it because everyone was ganging up on him and it wasn't fair. Sure it was suspicious that Snape had gone straight to Fluffy, but then again, there was Quirrell who said that the troll was in the dungeon, but it was on the floor with the toilets that Hermione was in, too.

It was around six, after dinner that Cassia decided to fly her Nimbus Two Thousand. At the Great Hall, Hermione and Ron both apologized to her, she apologized back for snapping at them and apologized for implying that Ron was stupid or lazy. They said that there was someone named Nicolas Flamel because Hagrid said that whatever the dog was hiding was between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel.

After dinner, she decided that she can practice Quaffle throwing as well, and to burn off the rest of her anger towards Harry and his friends, even though it was fading. She turned around to come face-to-face with Terence Higgs. Well, more like eyes-to-chin with him.

Cassia felt her face warm up at the sight. Pull yourself together, she thought. "Can I help you?"

"I was going to fly around to clear my head, but it seems like I was too late," Terence said.

Cassia looked at him, "You can stay, I don't own the Quidditch pitch." She set off towards the pitch with Terence following her.

"So, what are you up to?" Terence asked.

Cassia shrugged, "Just going to practise Quidditch." She held up the Quaffle.

"I'll help you," Terence said and grabbed the Quaffle. "Try getting this from me." He mounted his broom and took off on it.

Cassia stared after the second-year and mounted her broom and chased after him. She caught up to him when he threw it through a goalpost.

"And I score," Terence said.

Cassia dove and grabbed the Quaffle, "That's because you cheated."

"I never said I'll play fair," Terence said. He flew over and grabbed the Quaffle.

"Hey!" Cassia shouted and went over to grab it back. Terence flew in the other direction, with Cassia chasing him. "You never said, but why are you out here?" She caught up to him and grabbed the Quaffle.

"I figure that I might as well enjoy playing Quidditch this year, before Malfoy's dad kicks me off the team," Terence said.

"Why?" asked Cassia, as she turned around and went in other direction.

"I heard him complaining about how if it was him, he would've gotten the Snitch," Terence said. "And I bet that he's going to talk to his dad about bribe—I mean buy—I mean manage to get his way onto the team next year with pure talent."

"That's bold talk from someone who was flying wrong for years," Cassia said as she threw the Quaffle through the goal post. Terence laughed at that. "Do you know why Snape has been limping?" Cassia tried to sound conversational.

"Why do you want to know?" Terence asked.

Cassia shrugged, "I was just wondering. I thought it was odd."

"He said that he had a run-in with some really bad Crabgrass," Terence said.

Cassia nodded. In the common room, Professor Sprout had told them all about Crabgrass, which was in the shape of crabs and the pincers hurt like hell. She had showed them a spell that made them harmless so they can tend to them without getting pinched. "Right, I suppose that makes sense." Some Crabgrass had three or four crabs on them.

Maybe Harry exaggerated Snape's injury.

"Although, I don't see why he just didn't go to Madam Pomfrey," Terence said.

"It is embarrassing," Cassia said. "Getting hurt by Crabgrass." However, she kind of doubted that story.

Two hours later, they were putting up their broomsticks and the Quaffle. Terence had beaten her at the game, but that was because Cassia had been distracted with her allergies.

"Here, keep this," Terence said, handing Cassia a handkerchief.

Cassia looked at it, which had the initials T.H on it. She looked at Terence, "Do you want me to bring it back?"

"No, keep it," Terence said. "I could get more."

Cassia couldn't help but smile, "Thank you." She hugged him, taking the second-year by surprise. He awkwardly patted her back twice, before Cassia pulled away. "Well, I better get going." She walked back to the castle, feeling better than she had after the argument at Hagrid's.