A/N It seems that no one else wants to review last chapter (sigh), so here is the next one. Thanks to those kind enough to take a few seconds to tell me to continue. Or even to tell me that they hate it (although no one did)- I still like to know that people are actually reading...
Sorry, I'm whining a lot. I'll shut up now... on to the story!!!
During the last few weeks, Mac's observations had proven correct. Severus kept getting swarmed by girls and, with the first Hogsmeade weekend approaching, numerous offers of dates. A few girls even offered "no strings attached" meetings in broom closets, all of which Sev refused. Some of the girls, to Mac's delight, she recognized from Black's fan club. They were switching over, as she had predicted, and it made her want to giggle with glee, but she thought that would sound too much like on of them.
Her radical change had been much less noticed, since no one had actually looked at her in the first place. She didn't really care though, and was happy for Sev. Not that he wanted the girls, or the newfound attention, but no one had picked on him this year, except the Marauders. The girls weren't right for him, anyways: much too blonde and ditzy.
Mac had managed to mostly avoid notice, although some of his new fangirls were giving Mac death stares when they saw her eating lunch with Sev. They didn't know it, but she thought it was quite amusing, and persisted in pointing out their stares to Sev, who, as a secretive person, found the attention annoying.
"So, Sev," she began, piling chicken onto her plate, "What do you think of me trying out for the quidditch team?"
"Really? Do you think they'd let you on? I mean, Malfoy is the captain, and he hates you," replied Sev. "What position would you want?"
"Beater. And if I'm good enough, they'll let me on, because they want to beat Gryffindor so badly. They'll just ignore me and not admit to anyone that I'm on the team," she answered as she began to eat.
"You're probably right," conceded Sev as he stole a roll off her plate.
She tried to smack his hand but was too late. He grinned. "There weren't any left."
She rolled her eyes and kept eating, digging her fork into a mound of mashed potatoes. "The tryouts are tonight, so I can't hang out."
"That's fine. Just tell me afterwards how they go. You know where I'll be." She nodded. Sev always stayed in the corner of the common room. The library, in fact, anywhere outside of the Slytherin dorms, was unsafe for him when the Marauders had chosen him as their main target. "We should probably get going. I don't want to be late on the first day."
Mac nodded again. They headed to their first class of the day, potions, which they had with the Gryffindors. She knew how much he liked potions, although she had never really understood the fascination, so she allowed him to lead them to class quickly.
Mac was relieved when Professor Slughorn, the large, walrus-like man who taught the class, said that they could choose their own partners for the year. Obviously, Sev and Mac choose to be partners, for which Mac was grateful: Sev was a potions genius, while she was merely adequate. And this year, for once, they could admit to friendship and work together in more than one class.
However, she was not so grateful for the fact that Black and Potter had chosen to set up their cauldron directly behind hers. Figures that they would have to try and ruin the first class of their seventh year. And the other students said seventh year was supposed to be fun, Mac rolled her eyes. Sev went to go get supplies as Black and Potter started whispering about something. Mac didn't like having her back to them. It went against her suspicious nature. She wanted to look back, but resisted the urge. Knowing those two, she would never hear the end of how she was one of their fangirls.
So when Sev returned, she acted normal, as they began mixing the complicated sleeping draft. However, Mac was not surprised when she heard, "Hey, Snivellus, is that why you got a makeover? For your girlfriend? 'Cause if that's the case, we all want to thank her."
Sev stiffened slightly but didn't turn. He didn't want to get in trouble in potions, it was his favorite class, so he simply continued stirring the clear blue liquid, pausing only to add a small piece of unicorn hair. Mac, on the other hand, turned around with a deceptively friendly smile, wand in hand. "If you don't shut up, I'll curse your tongue out of your head. Then everyone would have a real reason to thank me."
Sirius, who had made the original comment, opened his mouth to retort, suddenly found himself unable to speak. Mac smiled, knowing she had won. She already knew that he couldn't do nonverbal spells, so there was no way for him to get revenge, at least not until after he visited the hospital wing. She pointed to the ground. "If you're looking for your tongue, its right over there. And I would suggest closing your mouth. Open mouths are unattractive, even if they're empty. Literally."
Sirius stared at her in shock, then leaned over to pick up the pink, slimy strip that was, apparently, his tongue. He picked it up, nudging James. After a moment of frantic gesturing, alternating between the thing in his hand and his mouth, James finally understood the problem. He asked Slughorn to be excused and the two headed to the hospital.
When the class ended, Mac was unsurprised to be approached by Potter, Lupin, and Pettigrew, although he was hanging back somewhat. Potter, always the ringleader, demanded, "What did you do to him? Now, Rush."
"So you suddenly know my name?" she asked, her mouth quirking up at one side. "I'm flattered."
"Just tell us now, or… or I'll hex you!" This wasn't the sort of thing Potter usually said to a girl, especially while actually drawing his wand. It made Mac feel special. That she could get so under their skin.
"Sure you will. Feel free to try," Mac commented happily. She could see Potter getting madder by the second, and Lupin trying to calm him down, but she couldn't resist. She had been dying to try out her new defense skills on someone.
But at this instant, Sev entered the picture. Potter needed to take out his anger on someone, and, while he had hesitated to do so on a girl, he had no problem cursing "Snivellus."
So he went ahead and yelled out a curse, meant to cause the unlucky person being cursed's hair fall out. Sev had been facing Mac and utterly defenseless: he hadn't noticed Potter was there. So Mac cast a shield charm so strong Potter flew back and bounced off the wall.
She stared for a second, rather proud, until Potter moaned from his position on the floor. Lupin quickly helped him up and, with a backwards glance at Mac, helped Potter stumble away. Too bad that Lupin wasn't up for a fight. He always just stood there. Why couldn't he make a decision? She decided to be helpful and called after his back, "I used a severing charm on Black's tongue, if you still want to know!"
Their plan had worked: they had beaten the Marauders in their first fight of the year. The train hadn't really counted as a fight: no one had been cursed. Sev, however, was disappointed that he hadn't participated, but Mac assured him it would happen again. After all, the Marauders, everyone knew, did not learn from experience.
The rest of her classes were not very eventful after that.
That night Mac headed down to the quidditch pitch alone. When she got there, it was quarter to eight. Tryouts didn't begin until eight, so she flew laps until the other players arrived. Malfoy yelled for all the players to gather on the field. When he saw Mac, his face twisted into a sneer. Mac thought that was a shame, as he could have been relatively handsome otherwise, with his pale blonde hair and aristocratic features, and well toned body from years of quidditch. She wasn't too disappointed though; he was a jerk, and blondes weren't really her type anyways. She returned her attention to him as he said, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the little mudblood. Here to humiliate yourself?"
She felt uncomfortable with his stare; there was something behind those cold blue eyes other than hatred. Whatever it was, she knew it wasn't mutual, but he probably didn't care. "Actually Malfoy, I was here to tryout. But if you're afraid of being shown up by a mudblood…"
She gestured, indicating that she could leave. "Fine, stay. At least you'll be good entertainment for the rest of us."
With that, he gave the order for all of the want-to-be team members to take a lap around the field. Mac was the second one back, after a small, blonde fifth year trying out for seeker. Malfoy stared at her, his look a combination of shock and anger. Next, he started tryouts for different positions. They needed a seeker, a beater, and a chaser. They already had one beater, a keeper, and two chasers. There were three others trying out with Mac for the beater position, all boys. Mac thought she was better than them, but was waiting for the beater tryouts to decide for sure.
The chasers were the first to try out, with a series of complex drills and then an opportunity to attempt to score against Slytherin's keeper of two years, Anson Bowne. Most failed miserably, and Malfoy was obviously impressed with the ones that scored on even one of their three attempts. A few even scored twice, and Mac thought that one of these would make the team.
After the chaser tryouts, Malfoy ordered the beaters into the air. Mac flew up, relatively confident in her skills, but also desperately hoping that she didn't make a mistake because she knew that the Slytherins would never let her forget it. But then she forgot her worries as the first Bludger flew towards her. She drew back her bat and swung with all her strength. Perfect timing, she grinned: the bludger flew all the way to the other end of the field.
Malfoy yelled to aim for the hoops, and Mac flew in front of a solidly built fifth year, stealing the bludger he had been about to hit and sending it flying through the middle hoop. In revenge, he hit the next bludger he saw at her, which she skillfully dodged, internally laughing that he would waste a chance like that. When it doubled back at her, she slammed it as hard as she could. Again, the bludger went through the hoop. It felt so good, so right, hammering the bludgers. Mac could just forget the world and all her problems, of which there were quite a few.
When, a few minutes later, Malfoy called to switch to seeker tryouts, Mac landed and hopped off her broom with ease. She was almost positive she was on the team, despite Malfoy's dislike of "people like her." She watched the seekers with interest, wondering which would make it. Only two appeared to be that good, a curly haired fourth year girl and Regulus Black, a sixth year and ex-brother of Sirius Black. She guessed he would make it, as Malfoy, on top of being prejudiced against non-purebloods, was completely sexist.
Malfoy dismissed the players soon after. As Mac picked up her broom and turned to leave, he grabbed her arm. "I just want you to know, if you make the team, you are not allowed to associate with us outside of practice. You will not talk about the team. You will not be mentioned in anything involving the team. Clear?"
She nodded, and he said, "Results will be posted in the common room the day after tomorrow."
She nodded again and walked away. If she hadn't been in Slytherin, she would have been whistling, maybe even dancing around in complete and utter joy (although her dancing was rather hideous and not meant for the light of day). That little speech meant that she had made the team.
Therefore, the two days later, she wasn't surprised to see the notice pinned to the Slytherin common room's notice board:
Chasers- Lucius Malfoy
Dmitry Lestrange
Micah Kraler
Beaters- Damian Zariken
Mackenzie Rush
Keeper- Anson Bowne
Seeker- Regulus Black
New players underlined