Chapter 12: The new Riley

Despite the fact that she was waking up very early almost every day for practice, training very hard, and being yelled at by her captain at least five times a day, Riley couldn't be happier. Marcus Flint was being the same prat to her as always, but the rest of the team had already accepted her among them. Being a Quidditch player changed her life in a way that she would never have thought possible. Her popularity had grown immensely as a result and her Slytherin fellows not only treated her nicer but also looked up to her. For the first time in her life she was being esteemed for something of her doing, and not because she had a famous brother. She was almost admitting that she liked being a Slytherin.

One morning, she was walking down towards the Quidditch pitch with Adrian when they heard some people arguing.

"What's happening?" She asked Adrian. He shrugged and both hurried to where the argument was taking place. They saw some Slytherin players arguing with the Gryffindor team. They approached Terence Higgs.

"What's going on?" Adrian asked him.

"Marcus booked the pitch for us today, but the Gryffindor team is complaining because he also booked every other day of the week."

"Where's he?" Riley asked. The fact the Marcus Flint wasn't there was very odd. He was always the first and the last one on the pitch. Terence shrugged and turned his attention back to the fight. Riley glanced at the Gryffindor team and her eyes stopped at Fred, who wasn't looking back at her. Fred had been acting oddly lately, he rarely spoke to her and when he did, it was a very formal talk. She didn't understand what was going on with him.

"We booked the pitch, so sod off!" Lucian Bole said.

"You can't book the pitch every single day!" Finn Brandon, Gryffindor's captain widened his eyes in anger.

"Well we did, so I think we can." He mocked in disdain, the other Slytherin players laughed in support.

"Actually according to Hogwarts' rules, you can't!" It wasn't their captain who had said that, but Angelina Johnson. Riley was surprised to hear Angelina taking a stand, especially against big and intimidating Slytherins. Bole glanced at her amused while Derrick and Bletchley glared at the Gryffindor.

"Oh Really?" Bole took a step in her direction, but Finn Brandon put himself in front of her.

"You know what, it's not worth it. It's like trying to talk to a wall." He barked that last sentence. "Let's go. I'll talk to McGonagall." He said to his team.

"Yes sure, go crying to that old hag." Bole said snickering, being followed by the rest of the team.

The Gryffindor team left the pitch, and Riley who hadn't joined her teammates in their mockery, followed Fred with her eyes waiting for him to look at her, he didn't. Feeling a bit frustrated, she turned her attention back to her teammates, who were still mocking the Gryffindor team.

"According to Hogwarts' rules, you can't." Bole said in a high-pitched voice. The other boys started sniggering. "I swear, these little Gryffindors are more and more bold."

"We should teach them a lesson." Derick suggested.

"What do you mean?" Bole asked his friend.

"You know, an unfortunate Quidditch accident…" He said, grinning with one side of his mouth. Riley shook her head closing her eyes. They had already won against the Gryffindor team. What good would that do?

"Why?" She asked. "We already won, are you trying to get on detention before our game against Ravenclaw?" Both Bole and Derick turned to her.

"Oh yeah, I forgot your little boyfriend plays for Gryffindor. But, don't worry, we are going to spare him if you want to, a little bit." He grinned maliciously.

"He's not my boyfriend." She said rolling her eyes and folding her arms. "But it would be nice if we don't lose our game against Ravenclaw because our two beaters are in detention."

"Why would our two beaters be in detention?" Marcus Flint's inquisitive voice came from behind them. Riley turned around to see her captain standing there behind them.

"Tell your players not to do anything stupid before the Quidditch season is over." She said before leaving to the Locker room. Marcus frowned, half confused, half mad for being told what to do. He turned to his players.

"What's going on?"

"The Gryffindor team was here, accusing us for booking the pitch every morning." Bole explained. Flint snorted.

"It's not my fault if Brandon leaves everything to the last minute. But why would you be on detention?"

"Derrick and I wanted to do something against those wankers." He said grinning nastily. "But little princess right there wants to protect her boyfriend." Marcus raised an eyebrow questionably. "So she told us not to do anything." He chuckled a little as if what she said was absurd.

"She's right." Flint said.

"What?" Bole and Derrick asked in unison.

"The only thing that matters is to win! And I'd be extremally pissed if something gets on my way." He pointed his fingers at his beater in a threatening manner. Bole raised his two arms in surrender while Derrick sighed exasperated.

"Fine."

"Good." Flint said, still with a threatening voice. He left to the Locker room, being followed by the rest of them. Bole was the last one, he walked muttering unintelligible words. Flint was in a very bad mood – more than usual – and spent the entire practice yelling at them. When practice was over, they were all gathered inside the Locker room. Bole and Derrick were talking – in a very improper and explicit way – about a Ravenclaw chaser, Morgane Rivers. Adrian was busy trying to show Bletchley how to polish correctly his broom and Higgs had already left, since he had to go to Charms Club. Riley glanced at Flint, who was arranging his stuff.

"You should be careful you know." She said quietly, so only him could hear her.

"What?" He asked, not looking at her.

"It's one thing to piss off the Gryffindor team, but if you keep that way, we'll have the entire school against us."

"So?" He asked again, still not looking at her. Riley raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you care?" She asked him. Marcus turned his face, finally looking at her.

"I know you have problem understanding that. But when you're a Slytherin, you only care about Slytherin. The other houses aren't important, and aren't worth our attention."

"So you're ok with them hating you."

"They already do, with you wanting it or not."

"That's not true, I've friends in the other houses too!"

Marcus' teeth flashed in a wicked grin. "It won't last."

"What makes you say that?" Flint looked around him, making sure no one was paying attention to them.

"When I was younger, before Hogwarts, I had a neighbour who was also a friend of mine. We used to play Quidditch together and all, but he was sorted in Gryffindor and I was sorted in Slytherin and now we can't stand each other." He said shrugging, as if it didn't bother him. Riley frowned slightly, pondering his words. She came to the conclusion that Flint was a jerk, so it was irrelevant.

"If you say so." She grabbed her broom and started removing the dust from the bottom.

"Are you worried about your boyfriend?" Riley quickly turned her face back to him.

"What boyfriend?"

"The Gryffindor Lucian told us about."

"I don't have a boyfriend and Bole's an idiot."

"Good." He paused and stared seriously at her. "Cause if it was the case, I'd be forced to kick you off the team." He grabbed his things and left the Locker room. Riley watched him leave perplexed. Marcus was the most bipolar person she had ever met. One second he could talk to you like a normal person, and the next second, without warning, he was back to his obnoxious self.

That same day, after a boring History of Magic class with Hufflepuff, Riley was heading alone to the Great Hall to have lunch, since Adrian had to do his Potion homework. When she was in front of the Great Hall entrance she bumped into Fred.

"Hi." She smiled at him.

"Hi." He said a bit coldly. Riley frowned and was about to ask him what was wrong when George called his twin from the Gryffindor table. "I have to go." He said before quickly walking away. Riley stood there for a few seconds. Flint's words coming back into her head. This was getting ridiculous, they really needed to talk.

Riley walked towards the Slytherin table and sat down with Lauren, April and Melinda.

"Hi Riley." April and Lauren greeted her.

"Hi." Riley said in a small voice.

"What's wrong?" Lauren asked.

"Nothing." She said forcing herself to cheer up. It wasn't like she could tell her friends about her problems with Fred. "What's up?"

"Not much. How was practice this morning?" April asked.

"Fine." Riley shrugged. "Flint is still the same arsehole as always…" She stopped talking when she heard Melinda snort. Riley looked up at her amused. "Yes?"

"He's not an arsehole, if he's yelling at you is probably because you deserve it!"

"Hmm yeah, cause usually he's a real charmer."

"Well, he is with me."

"Have you ever talked to him?" Riley asked lifting an eyebrow. April giggled receiving a glare from her friend.

"Yes, just yesterday I held the door for him and he thanked me!"

"Wow, when's the wedding?" Riley asked mocking her. The other girls started chuckling whereas Melinda was turning red with anger.

"Riley has a point Melinda, you never had a proper conversation with him!" Lauren added.

"Well, I'm just waiting for the right moment."

"Do you want me to put in a word for you?" Riley asked her. Melinda looked at her suspiciously.

"Why would you do that for me?" She asked. Riley shrugged.

"I guess it would be fun."

"Very well, but if you embarrass me, you're going to regret it!"

Riley didn't say anything, instead she smiled at her supposed "friend". The real reason why she was doing that was to get both Melinda and Flint out of her hair. Two birds, one stone.

Riley had already learnt how to brew her own sleep potion, so the fact that Snape wasn't helping her anymore wasn't that problematic. However, she was over-consuming it and even if, at first, she wasn't having nightmares anymore and she wasn't having any side-effects, something new happened.

It was during the Ravenclaw vs Slytherin match. It wasn't a good weather to play Quidditch. It was raining very hard and she was trying to concentrate on the game and at the same time trying not to slid off her broom. Riley grabbed the Quaffle and stormed off to the goal posts when suddenly her head started spinning, forcing her to slow down. Despite the fact that Marcus Flint was yelling at her, she could barely hear him. Her head went fuzzy, and the vision of the Quidditch pitch was replaced by a vision of a cemetery. She quickly recognized it, it was the same cemetery of her dreams. But the scene she was witnessing was a bit different from the one in her dream. It had the same little creature. It was being carried by someone she didn't recognize, who dropped it into a cauldron. Riley couldn't move, her arms were stuck. She watched as the little creature transformed itself into a tall, thin and scary man, a man Riley had already seen before. A sudden pang of pain hit her whole body. She couldn't breathe. She heard distant voices calling her name, and then all went blank.

When Riley woke up, she wasn't in the Quidditch pitch anymore, but inside the infirmary. Her entire body was hurting. The pain increased as she tried to move, she cringed and sat up with difficulty. Once she was well adjusted, she took the time to see who was there with her. Much to her surprise, it wasn't Adrian or Fred who she saw, but Marcus Flint. He was sitting on a chair lazily.

"Did we lose?" Riley asked him in a throaty voice.

"What do you think?" He didn't look mad, but even if he was, Riley was too tired to deal with it.

"What happened?" She asked, whimpering in pain. He raised an eyebrow.

"You fell from your broom." Then she remembered everything. This was the first time that something like this had happened to her. "But don't worry, your broom is intact."

"Thanks, that was my biggest concern." Riley said, rolling her yes. He sneered. "I thought Adrian was here with me." She confessed in a whisper.

"He was here, everyone in the team was here." She opened her eyes wide in surprise. So they did care for her after all. "But you wouldn't wake up, so they left. I've been waiting for almost three hours."

"Why are you still here then?"

"I had to be sure you'd be able to play the next game." He said shrugging.

"Oh." She said dryly.

"Anyway, now that you're still alive. Are you going to be able to play?" Riley couldn't believe what she was hearing, was he serious?

"Seriously? Are you asking me this now?"

"Don't be overdramatic." He rolled his eyes. "I have to know if I'm going to have to replace you."

"Why are you being such an arse?" She raised her voice a bit. That clearly irritated him.

"I'm being an arse!? We lost the game because of you! I should be scolding you right now!"

"Then kick me off the team, if that's what you want."

"I-" He stopped abruptly, studying his words carefully. "That's exactly the reason why I didn't want a girl on my team. You're so sensitive."

"Well, Montague's a boy." She said folding her arms. Riley didn't know why she was acting like that, she had never been the kind that gets offended easily. Maybe it was the pain. Marcus stared at her, his brows knitted together. The silence that followed made Riley regret her words. Why was she asking him to put Montague in her place?

"Are you asking me to put Montague in your place?" He asked as if he had just read her mind.

"No." She sighed tiredly.

"Didn't think so." He spat at her. They both stood there, staring at each other when suddenly Riley burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" He raised an eyebrow defiantly, his arms folded.

"Nothing, it's just that of all people, the one who's standing by my side is the meanest Slytherin." Riley expected Marcus to scowl at her, but instead he grinned.

"Is that what you think of me?"

"It's what everyone thinks of you." She grinned back at him.

"You don't seem to be scared of me, though."

"I'm not."

At this moment, Lauren and April entered the infirmary, being followed by Melinda, who looked indifferent until she saw who was in the room with Riley. They approached Riley's bed.

"Oh Riley, we came as soon as we could." Lauren said to her. Riley raised an eyebrow. How long did Flint tell her he waited? "How are you feeling."

"In pain." She simply said, giving her a half smile.

"Oh, poor thing, I told you Quidditch was dangerous."

"Hi, Marcus." Melinda gave him a toothy smile. Marcus looked at her surprised and nodded his head awkwardly.

"Well, now that you're in good company I'm going." He raised his hand saying goodbye to Riley and started walking to the exit.

"Bye Marcus." Melinda said, he turned around feeling more awkward than before and nodded again. Riley fought her urge to laugh, not because she didn't want to hurt Melinda's feeling, but because it hurt pretty badly.

"Did you told him about me?" Melinda turned her head back to Riley.

"No, I was busy falling off my broom." Riley said sarcastically. Melinda rolled her eyes.

"It was terrible seeing you fall." April said to her. Riley smiled at her, genuinely this time.

"It felt terrible."

"What happened to you?" She asked curious. Riley didn't respond, she wasn't sure if she should tell her friends that the reason why she fell was because she was having a vision of Voldemort.

"Hypoglycemia?" She mused, shrugging. The girls stayed there with Riley until dinner time, after that she received the visit of Adrian, Warrington – which in Riley's opinion was very weird – Tonks and Terence who had brought her broom. But Fred hadn't come, Riley didn't know what she could have had done to him, but she was certain that he was mad with her. She sighed deeply before allowing her eyes to close.

When Riley was fully recovered and ready to leave the infirmary, the first thing she wanted to do was to see Fred. They had to clarify things with each other. She saw him heading to the Quidditch pitch and called his name. He turned around and when he saw that it was Riley who had called him, he hesitated for a moment, but then decided to wait for her.

"Hi." She said.

"Hi. How are you feeling?"

"Better." She said dryly. 'Of course you would've known if you had bothered showing up.' She thought. He nodded and started walking again.

"Listen, can we talk?"

"I'm late for practice. We're playing against Hufflepuff in two weeks."

"Well that's Hufflepuff, it's like playing against small kids." Riley said it half laughing, in an attempt to lighten the mood between them but Fred's reaction wasn't what she expected. Instead of laughing with her, he shook his head.

"What's going on with you?" Riley asked, frustrated and losing patience.

"With me? Nothing, you're the problem!"

"What?" Riley widened her yes. "You're the one who've been acting weird since I made the team."

"Yeah, well..." Fred diverted his eyes from her and directed them to the ground. Riley waited for him to finish his sentence but he didn't say anything else.

"Are you saying that you have a problem with me being on the team? Is that because we beat you?"

"No! Of course not, it's just that-" He sighed loudly. "It's just that since you made the team, you've been acting just like them!"

"What? Like who?"

"Like the other Slytherins." Riley's mouth opened slightly, she pondered his words carefully.

"That's not true, I'm still the same me."

"Maybe you don't realise it yet, but that's not exactly true. Look, just a few minutes ago, you insulted the Hufflepuff team."

"It was just a joke Fred!"

"If you think that way, maybe you're just as bad as them." Riley was taken aback by his words. Although a part of her knew that maybe he wasn't all wrong, she wouldn't admit it to herself. She nodded slightly.

"If that's what you think." She turned around and started walking away.

"Riley!" Fred called after her, but she didn't turn around. Riley decided to skip breakfast and went directly to the common room. Inside the common room, Marcus was on the couch talking with Magnus. When he saw Riley, he quickly stood up and went towards her.

"You're back." He said. She nodded confirming it. "Can you play?"

"Yes, Marcus." She said, sighing.

"Good." There was an awkward silence between them. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

"No. I'm not hungry."

"Well, you need to eat to regain strength. Let's go."

"What about him?" Riley nodded her head to indicate Magnus. Marcus turned around to look at his friend.

"Magnus, I have to take Potter to the Great Hall, she's feeling too weak to go on her own."

Riley frowned "Wha-"

"Just play along with it." Marcus muttered, cutting her off. Magnus nodded and Marcus grabbed Riley's arm and leaded her out of the common room.

"What the hell was that?" She asked when they were outside the common room.

"Just wanted to get rid of him." He shrugged, his hands in his pockets.

"But now how are you going to get rid of me?" She joked, making Marcus laugh.

"I'll figure something out." He winked at her. Riley smiled and followed him to the Great Hall. Of all weird things that had happened to her lately, this one was the greatest one.

Hello again!

I don't know how I feel about this chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it. Anyway if you thought it was a bit confusing, every detail that happened will make sense in the further chapters.

But what's important to know is that Marcus is appreciating Riley more and more, in his twisted way of course, and that something happened that made Fred be like that, it will be explained, so don't worry.

Oh, and maybe you've guessed who Marcus' mysterious gryffindor "friend" is ^^