Chapter 4: The Fun In Quidditch

Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.

AN: Here's the fourth chapter. I may work on the fifth chapter tonight as well. I will try to post a chapter tomorrow as well, but I can't make any promises about it. I have to get my wisdom teeth removed, so who knows what the day will be like.

After walking with Severus as she had, Tabitha seemed to float through the rest of her classes that day. She and the rest of the Marauders had the rest of their classes together, save the class of the day, since Remus and Peter had Magic of History that hour. She smiled when she walked into the last class she had that day, Advanced Potions. She saw that Severus was had the class with her. She also saw that Lily was in the class as well and was sitting with Snape, like they had every year in Potions class. Even this didn't diminish Tabitha's good mood at all, though it meant that she was stuck with sitting with Sirius and James, which was a danger in itself in this class. James had dashed to get a seat behind Lily, which also enabled Tabitha to have a seat near Severus. This unfortunately meant that Sirius was sitting near him as well, which probably wasn't a very good thing.

"Good afternoon, class." Professor Slughorn greeted as he walked into the classroom, looking as much like a walrus as ever. He started talking to the class about the potion that they would start the school year off with. Tabitha listened carefully, wanting to make sure that she wouldn't mess anything up when they brewed it. The hour went by relatively fast, in her opinion, since they were kept quite busy with their potions. She thought she had made her's correctly and was proven correct when Slughorn came to check before class ended. She walked out of the classroom with Sirius and James, glad that they would have some free time now that classes were over for the day.

"Did you guys get detention for the firecracker?" Tabitha asked, knowing there was no need to ask. She looked over at the two pranksters, waiting for them to reply.

"Yeah. We have detention with Filch and eight o' clock tonight." James answered, giving Sirius a mischievous grin. Tabitha rolled her eyes bemusedly, knowing that the two would drive Filch off the wall during their detention. They walked up the stairs from the dungeons to meet up with Remus and Peter. The group met up and walked out of the castle to enjoy the weather while it was still nice. They walked to an area by the lake that was shaded by several trees. Tabitha took her cloak off and spread it out before sitting down on it, straightening her skirt out. The four boys plopped down around her, getting comfortable.

"Did Binns give you guys any homework?" Tabitha asked, looking over at Remus curiously. He rolled his eyes, pretending to be annoyed that she hadn't checked with Binns earlier. She stuck her tongue out at him playfully, making him chuckle.

"No, he didn't give any homework today." Remus told her, smiling lightly. She smiled back happily.

"What put you into such a good mood today, Tabby Cat? It was being around me and my good looks all day, wasn't it?" Sirius playfully asked, grinning.

"In your dreams, Padfoot. And I believe that it is none of your business at all." Tabitha replied, laughing lightly. She knew not giving him an answer would bug him, seeing as he liked to know everything that happened to any of them. He pouted a bit and then grinned again, not wanting to appear childish.

"What should we do today?" James asked, leaning back against a tree trunk boredly. The group thought about it for a while, not sure what they should do yet.

"I have no clue." Sirius yawned after a few minutes, unable to think of anything to do right now.

"Yeah, I've got nothing." Tabitha sighed feeling lazy.

"We could always get a head-start on studying." Remus suggested. The others wrinkled their noses at the idea and looked at him as if he were crazy.

"At the very least, we should do something that isn't destructive, like making a map." Lupin sighed. James and Sirius glanced at each other before grinning at him.

"Moony, you're a genius! Let's make a map that only we can use." James said, Sirius nodding his agreement.

"Really? You guys want to make a map?" Tabitha asked, thinking it sounded like a lot of work. Sirius and James nodded vigorously.

"All right then. I guess we know what we're going to be doing for quite a while then." Remus said, relieved that they had chosen to do something that wouldn't land them all in detention for the rest of the year. The map was what all of them focused on for the next couple of weeks, studying about different spells they could use on it in the library every chance they got. The only thing that interrupted their work was quidditch tryouts. Tabitha was walking to the quidditch pitch when Severus joined her.

"Good afternoon, Severus." She greeted, surprised to see him outside right now.

"Good afternoon." He answered, looking a bit uncomfortable. He was still getting used to being friends with her, even though it had been about two weeks.

"Is something wrong?" The blonde asked, looking up at the much taller student with concern.

"Nothing's wrong. I just... I just wanted to tell you to be careful." Snape told her, looking straight ahead as they continued to make their way to the pitch. Tabitha grinned, happy about finding out that he cared about her safety.

"I'm always careful. Since I've always played as a beater, I feel that I have to watch out more than one would while playing a different position, since the bludger is my main concern during the game." She said, letting him know that she knew to be aware of her surroundings. The Slytherin was unable to stop himself from grimacing slightly, imagining the sorts of things that could go wrong for his new friend.

"You can watch, if you want. I wouldn't let James or Sirius bother you." Tabitha said, knowing that he trusted himself more than her to keep her safe. He frowned at her comment about her keeping her friends from bothering him, but gave a small nod. Tabitha was the only actual friend he had other than Lily, so he fully intended not to let anything happen to her. She grinned at him, slinging her broom across her shoulders. They walked the rest of the way to the quidditch pitch in companionable silence.

"Why'd you bring Snivillus with you?" James called from the middle of the pitch, glaring at Snape.

"Leave him alone, Prongs, or I'll beat you senseless with your own broom!" Tabitha yelled back. She walked with Severus to the stands before jogging over to James and the other people who were trying out for the team. She saw Sirius watching from near the stands and waved at him. He grinned and waved back. She waited with the others for the last few people on the list to arrive for tryouts, impatient to get on her broom. She glanced at the Slytherin stands, wanting to see if Snape had really decided to stay and watch. She smiled, seeing that he was still there.

Tabitha mounted her broom as soon as James gave the OK. The tryouts mostly went quite splendidly for her. It was easy to tell that she and the other beat from last year would get their positions again, seeing as they were more experienced and not at all intimidated when the bludger flew at them. Things continued going well until she noticed that Sirius was no longer watching from near the stands. She swore softly to herself and looked over the stands for him.

"Don't you dare, Sirius Black!" She angrily shrieked, seeing him in the Slytherin stands, sneaking towards Severus with his wand out. His head shot up and he shot her an irritated look for bringing attention to him. Snape looked back at Black, his own wand in his hand now. Tabitha grunted as she felt the bludger hit her left shoulder painfully, sending her flying off of her broom.

Severus was about to hex Black when he heard the loud thump and a grunt of pain. He immediately turned around and saw Tabitha falling towards the sand-covered pitch. He left the stands as quickly as he could, Black at his heels. He felt cold hatred bubbling up in him for the boy behind him as he hurried to his friend's side. He thought that this was all the other boy's fault. If Black hadn't been about to use some sort of spell on him, Tabitha wouldn't have been distracted, he, himself, wouldn't have become distracted, and most importantly, she wouldn't have gotten hurt.

He crouched down at the injured witch's side, unsure if she was conscious. She groaned in pain and tried to roll over, not liking having sand in her face. She hissed and stopped moving; a sharp pain preventing her from moving her left shoulder or hand from where they were. She took a sharp intake of breath, feeling cool hands move to her back and stomach, helping her roll over and sit up. She blinked her eyes rapidly for a couple of minutes, not wanting anybody to see her cry from the pain. Severus looked her over grimly for any other injuries than he had already noticed. James and Sirius were spewing out questions to her about how badly she was hurt, but she tuned them out, looking around frantically for her broom.

"My broom.. It's okay, isn't it?" She asked. All three of the boys stared at her blankly for a moment before Snape rolled his eyes.

"It's fine. Potter and Black will take care of it for you." He told her, helping her up and leading her away from the pitch and to the hospital wing in the castle. When they got to the hospital wing, the school's new nurse, Madame Pomfrey, clucked and had him take Tabitha to one of the beds in there. He sat down in the chair next to the bed the blonde girl was currently sitting on, waiting while the nurse looked over her injured shoulder and wrist. Pomfrey told them that she had fractured her left shoulder blade and broken her wrist. She then had the girl take a pain reducing potion and another potion that would mend her bones. Snape waited for the first potion to reduce Tabitha's pain before he let her know of his displeasure about what had happened.

"I was under the impression that you were going to be careful?" He asked, his tone letting her know of how unhappy he was.

"I was being careful... I just got distracted." Tabitha softly complained, looking over at him.

"If you were being careful enough, you wouldn't have allowed yourself to get distracted." Severus scolded, scowling. Tabitha smiled a little, knowing that his mood was from worrying about her. She reached out with her uninjured arm and placed it on his shoulder.

"You're right. I got distracted when I should have been paying attention to what was going on in the pitch. I'm sorry for being too careless and upsetting you." She apologized, knowing that arguing would only make him angrier and make it seem like she didn't appreciate his concern for her well-being. His black eyes searched her face for a moment, making sure that she wasn't being sarcastic about the apology. He then gave a small nod. He was now thinking of ways to get back at Black for causing Tabitha to get hurt. The witch watched him, able to see that he was quite angry still. She hoped that he and Sirius wouldn't be at each other's throats even more than usual because of what had happened, but had a feeling that that was exactly how things would go. She moved her hand from his shoulder and slid it into his, hoping to calm him down.

"Do you think that I still made the team?" She asked quietly. Severus looked at their hands and then at her face, unsure what to think of her question.

"Undoubtably, Potter is the captain, after all. Though, I don't understand why you would want to participate in the sport." He answered, disapproval lacing his words. He didn't want her to get hurt again. The blonde giggled and flashed him a grin.

"Quidditch is great! What fun would it be, if there wasn't any danger in it?" She asked, tilting her head slightly. The Slytherin simply rolled his eyes at her carefree attitude towards dangerous pass-times. He stayed there with the Gryffindor, waiting for her bones to finish mending completely. The Marauders piled into the hospital wing all too soon, fully intending to smother their friend with their concern. James and Sirius came to a halt as soon as they noticed that she was holding Severus's hand. They looked both shocked and thoroughly grossed-out, obviously thinking that she and Snape had been flirting or something of that nature. Peter looked at the other boys, not knowing how he should react. Remus merely looked amused at the whole scene. Tabitha gently squeezed Severus's hand, having seen that he had started to get up. He settled back into his seat, understanding that she wanted him to stay. Sirius glared at Snape, having seen the small exchange that had taken place just then. The Slytherin smirked, easily able to see that Black was jealous about Tabitha giving him such attention.

"You shouldn't be so nice to Snivelly, Tabby Cat. It might make him think that he means something to you." Sirius told the witch, grinning maliciously at the dark-eyed boy. Tabitha sucked in a small breath, not understanding why her friend was so cruel to Severus.

"I'll do whatever I want, Sirius! Severus is my friend, so he means quite a bit to me. That's why I've become really sick and tired of hearing you say things like that!" She angrily answered, glaring at him. Snape discreetly gave Black a triumphant smirk, seeing that it had hurt the shaggy-haired Gryffindor's feelings that Tabitha had sided with him and had gotten mad.

James frowned, unhappy about his friends not getting along. He didn't like that Tabitha seemed to be becoming such good friends with Snape, but knew better than to say anything about it. He gently patted Sirius on the back, seeing that he was feeling pretty down already about Tabitha being mad at him. He walked a bit closer to her, still wanting to make sure that she would be all right.

"How badly were you hurt?" He asked, looking her over for any signs of her injuries.

"Not badly enough to stop me from playing." Tabitha answered, grinning at him. He grinned back, glad to see that she was obviously feeling better.

"Good, because you have your position again as a beater on the team." He told her. Remus and Peter walked over to talk to her as well, Sirius hanging back sulkily.

"We're all very relieved that you're all right." Remus said, smiling lightly at her. She smiled back happily, relieved that he hadn't shown any signs of being bothered by Severus being there.

"Yeah. We're all really glad that the nurse was able to fix you up." Peter added, giving a quick grin.

"Thanks, you guys. I'm glad that you came by to check up on me." Tabitha said. The Marauders left soon after that. She giggled a little, able to see that Severus was quite relieved that they had left.

"James and Sirius aren't bad at all most of the time, you know. I'm sorry about them going after you like they do." She told him, wishing that they'd all just treat each other civilly at the very least.

"There's no reason for you to apologize. They're the ones who act like prats." Snape answered, not seeing why their actions gave her a reason to feel guilty. She smiled lightly at this and gently squeezed his hand again, glad that he was willing to be her friend even though she was also friends with his main bullies.

"How long do you think Pomfrey will want to keep me here?" She asked, wanting to sneak out now, since Pomfrey was busy back in her store room.

"All day, I would imagine." He replied, understanding. They both got up and quietly left the hospital wing. They walked with each other to the main hall, both knowing that they should return to their common rooms.

"See you at dinner." Tabitha said, smiling at him.

"Yeah, I'll see you then." Severus answered, feeling his lips tug up in the barest of smiles.