Author's Note: Thanks so much for the reviews on the last chapter! They really do mean a lot! :) Don't worry, things will start to pick up in the story soon. :) For now, why don't we enjoy a bit about our favorite magical sport huh?

The Tragedy of a Hero

Year One: Tragic Curiosity

Chapter Five: The Tragedy of Quidditch

The next few weeks passed by slowly, but as each day passed Skylar started to feel better about her house. She found herself making spending a lot of time with Astoria Greengrass and Claire as they seemed to have formed a sort of study group and would spend their nights in the common room working on homework or talking amongst themselves about events that happened in class. The others in Slytherin seemed to have backed off of berating Skylar and even Malfoy seemed almost nice to her.

It was a Friday night when the three girls sat at a table in the common room talking about events of the week… mostly about their Potion's essay on the effects and composition of a sleeping draft they would be making the next week. But, as more people piled into the common room, the air turned with excitement over the next day's Quidditch practice. Skylar sighed longingly as she watched several of the boys throwing a quaffle back and forth. She had become the best student in the Flying class and was already a week ahead in Madam Hooch's lessons.

Claire had been excused after the second day when she fainted and fell off her broom at six feet in the air. She now spent her flying lessons working on homework for other classes. "I bet they would let you on the team if they saw you fly." The brown eyed twin said as she followed her sister's longing gaze.

Skylar sighed and shook her head as she looked back at the other two. "Not a chance. Girls haven't ever been allowed on the Slytherin team." She informed before putting up her books, having finished her essay.

Astoria snorted, "Rubbish that is." She said glumly. "Daphne told me that they think girls can't play Quidditch."

Claire glared back at the boys, "Morons. If they knew what was good for them, they would let Skylar on the team. She's one of the best flyer's I've ever seen… not to mention our father was a Chaser for six years while he was here."

Astoria nodded, "She's a better flyer than any of them from what I hear… though, we're supposed to have a new Seeker this year. Flit's keeping it hushed on who it is though."

"How do you know so much about them?" Skylar asked, trying not to let a large grin plaster itself to her face as she was feeling quite good about herself.

"Daphne fancies Flint and tells me everything she hears about him." Astoria answered as she too put her books away.

Skylar looked at the captain of the Quidditch team. Marcus Flint was a boy with the face of a troll, large teeth and shifty eyes. "How could anyone fancy him?" she asked with a wrinkled nose.

Astoria shrugged, "My sister has strange taste in guys." She said simply.

"Hey," Claire said as she slammed her potion book closed, "I have an idea… why don't we go to the Quidditch field tomorrow while their practicing and try and show them what they're missing?" Unlike the other two at the table, Claire's essay wasn't even close to being done as they had to write a foot of parchment and there was barely three inches written on hers.

"But," Astoria started looking rather nervous, "first years aren't allowed to fly outside of class."

Claire rolled her eyes, "Stupid rule if you ask me." She said simply.

Skylar couldn't help but grin now, "You know," She said as she leaned back in her chair, "I've never been one for following rules."

Claire nodded in agreement, "Mum's always having to punish her for something or another."

Astoria shook her head and stood, gathering her books in her arms, "Well, if you're going to be breaking the rules, I want no part in it." She said as she started to walk towards the girls' dorm, but Skylar grabbed her arm.

"Alright, we won't break the rules. But, I want to watch the practice anyway. Come with us?" The green eyed girl looked hopeful.

"Alright." Astoria said with a sigh. "As long as you promise not to break any rules…"

Skylar beamed up at her, "We promise." Both she and Claire said at the same time.

"G'night then." The black haired girl said before continuing her trek to the girls' dorms.

Skylar found herself quite surprised when Claire woke her up the next morning. "Come on!" The brown eyed girl cried desperately as her green eyed counterpart pushed the covers away. "Flint and the others left for practice ten minutes ago!"

"Ho'd'ya'oh?" Skylar asked through a yawn as she tried to understand why Claire was awake before her when Skylar had always been the early riser.

"Because I got up early to work on my Potions essay and saw them leave." Claire answered with a frown as she pulled her sister to her feet, "Now get dressed while I go wake up Astoria."

Skylar dressed quickly after her sister left the room, her body becoming more responsive and her mind clearing of the fogginess of sleep. When she emerged from her room Pansy Parkinson was coming down the hall with Astoria's older sister. Skylar quickly ducked back into her room as she didn't want to have anything to do with them that morning.

"Well, Draco's told me all about it you know." Pansy's annoyingly high pitched voice said as the two walked closer. "Said something bad is gonna happen to Mudbloods and those that side with them this year."

"If he's told you all about it then you must know what's supposed to happen." Daphne answered smoothly as their footsteps stopped in front of the door next to Skylar and Claire's room.

"He didn't say what was going to happen to them… just that something would. Personally I hope something happens to the entire Weasley family. They're nothing but a black mark on this school. My mum didn't even want me to come here when she found out they-" Pansy's voice cut off as a door closed signaling that the pair had gone into the room.

Skylar slipped back into the hall and shook her head in disgust. She quickly walked down the hall to the common room wondering if what Parkinson had said was true… if something bad was going to happen to Muggle-borns, but all thought of that left her when she stepped into the common room and was greeted by her sister and Astoria.

"Where have you been?" Claire asked hurriedly.

"We're going to miss the practice!" Astoria added as both girls grabbed onto Skylar's arms and pulled her from the common room.

By the time the three girls made it to the Quidditch field the Slytherin team was already there… standing in the middle of the field with the Gryffindor team. The three girls stayed on the sidelines watching the encounter with great interest.

"I expect a museum would bid for them." A familiar, smooth voice rang in around the girls.

"Is that Malfoy?" Astoria asked looking between the twin girls and the Slytherin team.

"He must be the new Seeker." Skylar and Claire answered at the same time as a bossy, female voice reached their ears.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in. They got in on pure talent."

"No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood." Malfoy's voice answered and instantly there was an uproar in the Gryffindor team as they all moved to jump the posh blonde.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang and one of the Gryffindor boys was hit with a flash of green light.

"Ron! Ron! Are you all right?" the bossy voice asked.

Instead of answering the boy seemed to be vomiting. Skylar recognized the boy as the one who had received the howler. The Slytherin team was howling with laughter while the Gryffindors gathered around their fallen friend.

"Weasleys really aren't the brightest bunch are they?" Astoria asked as she tried not to laugh at the boy's misfortune.

"Let's go find somewhere to sit." Claire said as she watched the vomiting boy and two others leave the field. "I expect both teams are going to practice today."

Much to the girls' surprise, the Gryffindor team left the field and let the Slytherin's have free reign. Skylar watched with great interest while Astoria and Claire talked about their Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts homework that neither had started… Skylar had finished both and had the weekend free to do as she pleased.

The next day when Skylar woke up, she dressed quickly and made her way outside. She was glad that she had woken before her sister as when Claire was awake before her things just didn't seem right.

For a few hours Skylar wondered around the lake until finally she decided to see if she could get into the broom closet and fly for a few minutes. Much to her surprise, the broom closet was open. Skylar grabbed the first broom she saw which happened to be one of Slytherin's Nimbus two thousand and ones and ran to the Quidditch pitch.

The second she hit the field, she mounted the broom and flew high. Thankfully it was a very cloudy day and most of the field was hidden behind clouds. For several minutes Skylar simply flew in circles around both sides of the field, but stopped when she heard something not too far from where she was flying. It was the sound of air cutting as something really fast and really large was flying towards her.

Skylar looked in the direction that the sound was coming from, but due to the fact that she was surrounded by clouds, she could not see anything until the last minute when a rather large ball was about to hit her in the face. Acting as quickly as she could, Skylar flipped on her broom just in time for the ball to fly over her. The green eyed girl didn't have time to react to the ball as another, larger shape was coming towards her. She leaned forward on her broom and lowered just enough for a green blur to fly where she had just been.

Skylar stared after the shapes as she took it all it. The person flying on the broom had been someone she had seen before in the common room, sitting near her in breakfast, and most recently on the Quidditch field yesterday. Marcus Flint, captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team. Panic stuck Skylar as she realized that she had stolen one of the Slytherin broom and she moved quickly to land and run back to the castle with any luck that Flint hadn't seen her.

All hope that she had remained unseen was gone when she landed and Flint was standing not far from her, leaning on his broom with a quaffle under his arm and a raised eyebrow. "What are you doing out here first year?" He asked darkly.

Skylar avoided looking at him directly as she tried to hide the broom behind her, but seeing as the broom was taller than she was it was a frivolous attempt. "Nothing." She answered simply in the hope that Flint would just let her walk away.

Flit threw the quaffle into the air before catching it again, repeating this action as he spoke, "Didn't look like nothing to me." He eyed Skylar closely his eyes drifting over her appearance before resting on the broom held limply behind her. "Is that one of our brooms?" He asked as he let the quaffle fall to the ground and stepped forward dangerously.

Skylar froze, her eyes on the quaffle as it rolled to her feet, "It… I mean… I only wanted…" She let her feeble attempt at coming up with an excuse die and simply nodded.

"Well then," Flint started as Skylar still refused to look at him. "That is something isn't it? A first year with enough guts to steal one of our brooms."

Skylar was shocked to find that Flint's voice wasn't filled with anger but rather he seemed impressed. Slowly she looked up at him to discover he had a slight smile on his face. "You – you're not upset? I – I mean… I'm not supposed to –"

Flit laughed loudly then, "Upset? With the way you dodged that quaffle up there? I mean it was right on top of you, but you managed to get out of the way at the last second! Bloody impressive is what it is."

Skylar couldn't stop the smile spread on her face, "I… I only…" But the words wouldn't come. Skylar was speechless as she looked at the captain of the Quidditch team for her house and a small amount of hope rose in the pit of her stomach. If only she could show him more of how she flew… he might let her on the team!

"If girls were allowed on the Slytherin team I would give you a chance to get up there and show me more, but our sponsor would never allow it." Flint said as he reached out, "Now, if you give me the broom, I won't tell Draco you took it."

Skylar froze as she pulled the broom out from behind her and looked at it, "This is Malfoy's broom?"

Flint nodded, "I expect he'd be downright vicious if he knew a first year had stolen it."

Skylar quickly thrust the broom into Flint's waiting hand and turned on her heel and ran for the field. She was halfway to the castle before she slowed to a walk. What had she just done? She had stolen Draco Malfoy's broom and got caught by the captain of the team flying illegally… but then Flint said that he wouldn't tell Malfoy that she had taken the broom. Could she trust him on that? And what about when he said he would have given her a chance to try out for the team if their sponsor would have allowed it? Who was their sponsor?

"Hey!" A bright voice said as a shape joined Skylar, pulling her from her thoughts.

"Uh… hi." She said, glancing at whoever was next to her and was shocked to find Ginny Weasley.

"Listen… about what I said in Flying… well, I mean, I'm sure that you were put in Slytherin for a reason, but I shouldn't judge you just because of the house that you're in…" Ginny's face was redder than her hair and she seemed to be looking anywhere except at Skylar.

Anger bubbled in Skylar's gut, "No. You shouldn't." She said shortly, "But, I suppose that's how you Weasleys are isn't it? I mean you aren't very bright."

Ginny snapped her head to Skylar, her face now red in anger, "How dare you! You know nothing about me or my family!" She snapped.

Skylar snorted as all of the emotion she had been feeling since coming to Hogwarts raised in her, "I know enough don't I?" She snapped as she remembered the way Ginny's friend had laughed after Ginny told Skylar they shouldn't be friends and the way her twin brothers had laughed when they had put boils all over Flint and the way her other brother had cursed himself instead of Malfoy. "I mean you're all very barbaric if you ask me. The way you –" But Skylar was unable to finish what she was saying as she suddenly found Ginny's wand pointed at her face.

Skylar raised an eyebrow, expecting Ginny to say something or do something, but when that didn't happen she shook her head, "Bet you can't even think of a hex to curse me with." She said, "Though I doubt it would do much good, I mean look at the way your brother's jinx came out."

Ginny's face was slowly turning back to its pale color as her eyes stared, unblinkingly at Skylar. "You don't know anything." Ginny said before lowering her wand. "Not worth my time." She added.

Skylar rolled her eyes, "More like you aren't worth my time." She said grimly.

Ginny suddenly became very still and her eyes turned foggy and without saying another word she turned on her heel and made her way across the grounds. Skylar watched her for a minute before returning on her own walk back into the castle to see if her sister and Astoria were done with their homework.

Author's Note: Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Come on people reviews make the author happy and a happy author means more updates! Besides, I'm quite anxious about this chapter. Hearing what you all have to say about it will make me feel better I'm sure :)