Ah, yes. The beauty of being a second year is that I can finally tryout for Quidditch. I've waited twelve years for this day! Okay, perhaps not twelve years, but close enough.

I've practiced flying for as long as I could remember, and often Father would throw a Snitch into the air and have me catch it. If I didn't catch it, I would not be able to have any dinner that night. It was a cruel form of punishment, yet it was, of course, helpful.

And thus my confidentness for the tryouts at Hogwarts. There was no doubt I'd get onto the team.

"Good luck at tryouts," Sue cooed, leaning in and giving me a kiss on the cheek. Beside her, Christine made a face. Sue pointedly ignored Christine's attitude problem and added, "I'm sure you can get the position!"

No longer feeling hungry, I set my fork down on my plate. "Hopefully," I said darkly. "If I don't, Father will disinherit me for sure."

"We can't have that, now, can we?" asked Christine, her voice filled with horror. "You've practiced all your life, Scorp. I'm sure you'll be fine!"

Somehow, Chris's words did not affect me as much as Sue's had. "Come on, let's go." I got off the bench, beckoning to them. "I want to get a taste of the conditions before tryouts start."

"That's the spirit!" Chris praised, her eyes shining with excitement.

The tryouts this year were "slightly" different—they had changed the rules so that all Houses held tryouts at the same time. Father hadn't thought that this was a good idea, and I agreed with him to no end. What if the other Houses learned of your secrets? Wouldn't that give them an advantage?

Huh.

Sue and Chris followed me as I stopped by the Gryffindor table. I was rather curious as to whether my archenemies would go try out for the Gryffindor team. "Going to Quidditch tryouts, Potter?"

"Why, of course I am," Potter responded, seemingly in a good mood. As he spoke, he (purposely) waved his fork around a little too strongly, and it went flying straight at me. Luckily, with my quick reflex, I caught the fork with my hand. Weasley raised her eyebrows at me. "Will you mind giving me back my fork, Malfoy? It seemed to have slipped from my fingers by accident!"

Yeah, right.

No doubt that Albus Potter would be trying out.

Wealsey? Bah. She couldn't even get off the ground, for Merlin's sake!

"Come on, Scorp," Sue whined from next to me, "Let's go! I wanna get a good seat in the bleachers to watch!" It was her way of saying that she didn't want to spend any time with the Potters and Weasleys.

Not that I minded leaving.

I flung Potter's fork back at him with an equal amount of force. Chris smirked at him as he jerked out of the way.

"See ya, Scorp," Weasley mocked Sue's voice, waving at me.

"Shut up, Weasley," I growled, "If I end up not getting on the Slytherin team, it'll be your fault." It will be her fault if she angers me to the point of not paying attention during the game.

Come to think of it, I still haven't decided on what her favor for me should be. Something very nasty...

"Am I that big of a distraction?" Wealsey asked Potter, genuine curiosity in her voice.

Yes, she is. She was just too much of a prat to notice.

"Oh yes," Potter told her helpfully, "You're the cutest girl here! With curly hair—"

Potter was an idiot, too. Her hair's obviously bushy. And any girl at Hogwarts was cuter than her.

"I told you! My hair's bushy! There's a difference!" Weasley objected, hitting Potter in the arm.

Not paying attention to Weasley, Potter continued on his list-of-Weasley's-qualities: "—a gorgeous smile, extremely smart, trouble-attracting—"

Her smile was hardly gorgeous. She may be smart, but not as smart as me. She probably gets into trouble only around me, so I could be blamed for whatever she was doing.

"Malfoy's hardly going to see me as a cute, gorgeous, extremely smart and curly-haired girl, is he? N-Not that I'm saying I want him to." Weasley fretted as Potter took a breath between words.

She's certainly right.

No longer wanting to listen to Potter, I scoffed at them and stalked away, pulling Sue and Chris with me.

Potter was hopeless. Anyone listening would think that he was in love with Weasley.

"Your broom is amazing!" Sue exclaimed, watching as I fetched my broom from under my four-poster bed.

"The fastest," I said proudly. "You two go ahead. I'll be there in a moment." I had just noticed Screech waiting impatiently on my bedpost, a letter tied on his leg.

With a nod, Sue and Chris hurried out of the common room, chatting avidly to each other.

I untied the letter from Screech's leg, and recognized Father's neat handwriting, something that was common between us.

Scorpius,

Knock your enemies off their brooms if you have to.

Father.

Typical. Father would never wish me luck; he would only give me suggestions and helpful information. The thought of knocking Potter off his broom to give him a disadvantage was very tempting, but then again, that may end with my disqualification.

Better not take the chance.

Tearing off the ends of a spare piece of parchment, I scribbled,

I'll keep that in mind. Tryouts start soon—I should be going.

Not even bothering to sign my name, I offered my reply to Screech, who gave me a hoot and took off into the night.

"Well, good luck," I said to myself as I left for the Quidditch pitch, wondering what was waiting for me outside.

A/n:

Sorry, sorry for the lack of updates! I've been focusing on I'm In Love With a Potter, and with so much school work in the last month, I haven't had much time to write.

Hope you enjoy this chapter! Special thanks to team hedwig for being the 100th reviewer! Drop a review?

(this is the start of their second year)