A/N- So, due to a request all author's notes and review replies have been moved to the end of the chapter.

"The Chronicles of Fayt"

Chapter Eight: Butcher's Hook

Jason Black's POV

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

I groaned as I looked around the room. The game was in three hours and as of yet I still had no broom other than 'borrowing' Nick's again. This would really suck if I had no broom that was mine. I fixed my clothes and headed to the common room and down to breakfast. I walked into the half-full Great Hall and sat down next to Nev and Hermione. "Mornin'." I muttered as I grabbed a slice of toast and smeared jelly on it.

"Hey Jason. Look a bit worked up. Is it about the match?" I threw Hermione a glare.

"Naw, I fine! Feeling just peachy actually. I mean, it's not like I'm playing my first game and I'm the youngest member on the team and if I screw up then the team loses and to top it all off I don't even have a broom. I feel great!"

"You are a piece of work when you're stressed. Very snippy and sarcastic."

"Gee, I wonder why?!" I threw her a glare before angrily munching on my toast, it tasted like cardboard. Dry and gross. I threw down half a glass of orange juice. It was disgusting. I almost choked as somebody smacked me on the back.

"Loosen up Jason!" James said as he plopped down next to me and grabbed two pancakes. "If we lose horribly I swear you won't end up hanging off the Astronomy Tower." James poured syrup on his pancakes. "I made the team lose, and the worst that happened to me was that they hit a lot of bludgers at me during practice. Didn't even end up in the hospital wing!" James threw me a cocky grin. "But really, you're better than me, and I'm amazing! Don't sweat it!"

"Is the promise of not ending up in the Hospital Wing supposed to cheer me up?"

"Mmm-hmm!" James said threw a big bite of pancakes. He swallowed and pilled some hash browns on my plate. "Eat food." I stared at the food before picking at it. "You don't want to eat a ton of food but eat something. You don't want to be running on empty."

I continued to pick at the food as the rest of the team came down and started talking about beating the Hufflepuffs. "Really, they don't stand a chance. They think that we are going down but they don't realize our two wild cards are going to be wiping their faces on the pitch. With Mike and Jason on our side we are going to kill the 'Puffers." David was apparently very over confident. "Hey, Jason." I looked up. "Watch out for Diggory, he's probably going to try and knock you off your broom, just try stay away from him, me and Chris will keep him from getting too close to ya." I nodded weakly. We were going down. Mike may be a trump card, but I was the handicap. I knew it.

I started as the owl post came flooding in and the owls started to drop packages and letters off, and more than a few Witch Weekly's and Daily Prophet's off. I looked down at my plate and stuffed another bite of tasteless hash browns in my mouth. I almost jumped when a large rectangular box was dumped on my plate knocking about half the remaining food on my lap as well as knocking the orange juice all over, I had to jump out of my chair to avoid getting wet. Several other team mates and Nev jumped out of their seats as well as food and drinks went flying.

"Stupid owls!" I yelled as I wiped off the hash browns and juice. I grabbed a napkin and tried to dry my pants.

"Hey, Jason, it's for you." Ashley shoved the large box towards me. I grabbed it and ripped the letter off.

Mr. Black-

It seems I've recently come into the possession of a broom and I just don't have the space to keep it in my office, so I was thinking that you might be able to store it for me. But, keep in mind that every broom wants to be ridden and I wouldn't mind if you took my broom out for a spin now and again, I doubt I'll have much use for it and I'd hate to see it go to waste.

Professor Flitwick

I read the letter again before grinning and taking the box and going back to the common room. "HEY! James stopped me in the common room as Nev and Hermione came running in behind him. "What's up?"

"This." I said handing him the letter.

"I always knew that Flitwick was my favorite teacher." James said as he grinned and handed the letter to Nev and Hermione. "What model is it? Cleensweep? Comet? Or is a foreign make? Maybe a Tornado or Flamestrike? Hurricane?"

I shrugged and ripped off the packing paper and opened the unmarked brown box. I gaped at the broom inside. "A Nimbus 2000…" I gently lifted the broom and turned it over in my hands. "No way…" My voice was barely above a whisper as I held the broom. I was cradling it in my hands. I wasn't about to scratch it or get smudges on it. It was… a Nimbus 2000.

"No way Flitwick got you a Nimbus 2000. It must've cost him a fortune! That is amazing! This is a way better trump card than you and Mike. This… my god! A Nimbus 2000! I can't believe it!" James held one hand out like he was going to touch it before he drew back. "You've never flown it… But I don't want to tire you out or let anybody know about it…" He paused. "I know! Go to the locker room, I'll shrink it down for you, so you can put it in your pocket." James whipped out his wand and I hid my new broom. "Fine, put it in the box and I'll put a notice-me-not charm on the box, keep the broom from being messed with." I consented to that. I put the broom gently in the box and closed the lid. James whispered under his breath and my eyes slid away from the box. I tried to look at it, but my eyes kept passing over it and going out of focus. I reached out and grabbed it and stuck it under one arm.

"Trippy."

"I know man. Kind of weird if you know it's there." James and I walked through the halls and into the locker rooms. "Finite." He muttered and the box reappeared, well, I could see it again. "Kay, test it in here, turning reflexes, that kind of thing. Don't move around too much, you'll scratch it." I excitedly, but carefully extracted the broom and summoned it, it flew into my hand with a firm and solid smack. I mounted and pushed off a little, I almost smacked my head on the twenty or so foot ceiling, I had to duck. "WHOA! Little man, cool down and take it easy!"

"You kidding?! I barely pushed off! I would've maybe gone ten feet on a Cleensweep!" I was almost laughing with giddiness. "This thing is amazing. You gotta try this baby out later." I leaned forward and moved it slowly, I mean like puttering around. Instantly I was going about, oh, fifteen miles per hour over the tops of the lockers. I barely twitched my hands, half the pressure of what I'd use for the same maneuvers on a Cleensweep. I couldn't keep the massive grin off my face. "This is incredible!"

"Oi!" I heard people coming down to the lockers. "Why'd you run off on us! What was the big box you got Jason! Better have been worth getting my shirt wet!" I heard Ashley yelling and saw her looking oddly down into the guys section of the locker room. "Where's Jason?"

"Right here." I said landing in front of her using my come in fast and yank the broom vertical maneuver. "And you do know girls aren't allowed here, right?"

"Holy fucking hell." She whispered as she looked at my broom. "A Nimbus 2000…"

"Flitwick just happened to have one and had nowhere to keep it. Decided that I might look after it for a bit. Said I could take it out for a spin every now and then." I was all but laughing as the other guys came in and gaped.

"I love Flitwick." Ashley mumbled.

"We're going to make the Puffers into seven yellow and black smears on the pitch."

"ALRIGHTY! All you, get changed. Ashley, you're welcome to stay over here and change with us guys. We won't gape too openly. Promise."

"You're welcome to bend over so I can shove my foot up your-"

"Now, no need to be mean." James threw her a cocky grin. "But, I like it when the girl denies my charms, makes winning so much more sweet."

"I'd like it if you jumped off a cliff."

"I'll win in the end, always do."

"Better get used to losing."

"I think not."

"I didn't know you were capable of intelligent thought." She paused, "Of course, you being delusional enough to think I'd ever, in a million years even consider going out with you isn't exactly intelligent thinking."

"We'll see about that. Anyway, suit up. We've got a match to win." James grinned and we all quickly threw on loose fitting clothing and pulled on the blue robes with bronze trim. I looked at the carefully embroidered Black on the back. I'd never really had something that was undeniably mine like that. All my stuff was hand-me-downs and used in some way. Having robes like that meant a lot in a really weird way. I pulled them on and buckled the arm and shin guards and elbow and knee pads before pulling on the gloves. I had to admit, I felt pretty awesome.

James sighed. "Everybody good to go?" There was a collective yes and we went to the unisex part of the locker rooms. "ASHLEY! MOVE IT OR WE'LL FIND SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T TAKE TEN MINUTES TO PUT ON ROBES!"

"And you wonder why you can't keep a girlfriend?"

"You wonder why the sport is dominated by men?"

"You really are a sexist jerk."

"And you're a typical woman who takes forever and makes those stereotypes true. So there!" James stuck his tongue out and then tried to look professional. "Alrighty then!" James then used his wand to illustrate our main plays and I zoned out, I really could care less about stupid chaser plays. I was good at zoning out, look at the person whose talking, nod occasionally, don't drool or let your eyes get too unfocused.

"Jason?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't get too worked up. Seekers have a lot of pressure on them, if the team loses they always take the heat. It's really a collective team loss, and they get glorified for the wins, when it's a team win. So ignore them hating you and don't let the praise get to your head, both lead to getting unfocused on the field. Keep your head little man."

"I have to say, that's the nicest thing that's ever come out of your mouth, but, thanks bro." James really wasn't that bad.

"No problem little dude." James got an overly serious look on his face. "Move out." I almost laughed, but restrained myself. The team threw their brooms over one shoulder like soldiers with guns and swaggered out onto the field just before the announcer started to call off names. As soon as he started to call of positions and players everyone got on the brooms and took off. I followed and started off last but in half a second was neck and neck with James at the lead. I threw him a grin but held back a bit, Ashley could've beat him too if it wasn't for the fact she was letting the captain take the lead. We flew in a lap around the pitch and through the whistling of air I could hear the crowd, which was currently a bronze, blue, yellow and black blur, screaming loudly. I was pretty sure they were caught between booing, the yellow and black part, and cheering loudly, the bronze and blue section.

We landed on the pitch next to the referee and the Hufflepuff team. "Alright, clean game, got it?" James and the Hufflepuff captain were in a glaring match but nodded. "Shake hands." I was pretty sure they were both trying to break each other's hands. "Mount up." The Puffers and James got on brooms, our team had stayed mounted. "Three," Hooch held out her balled fist. "Two." She opened her hand and the little gold ball unfurled its wings and took off, she then grabbed the quaffle. "One." Quaffle was held out… "GO!" She tossed the quaffle up and Ashley and a boy from the other team rushed for it as the teams took off. I didn't see who caught it but I could hear the announcer, Lee Jordan, say that we had the ball.

We could've darted over and scored, but there was a common courtesy rule that no shots counted before both keepers were ready to go. Also, no rushing chaser with the ball. I was pretty sure that to prevent jerk players from doing both they were now both illegal moves. Might not be though. Either way, I started circling the pitch, keeping an eye on the other seeker as I looked for the snitch. I wasn't supposed to catch it unless we were down and had no chance of catching up easily or had a firm lead.

After flying around for ten minutes I spotted the snitch, we were twenty points up and gaining, too early. I looked to my right and jerked in a steep dive away from the snitch. I didn't look back to see if he'd followed, but if he didn't he was an idiot. I briefly wondered if he could dodge the stands I was firmly flying towards. I better test this Diggory boy's flying skills. I aimed for the stands and dodged at the last second. I turned just in time to hear a ripping of fabric and several thumps.

"Did Black catch the snitch? Is Diggory dead?" I peered into the large hole in the yellow and black stand to look at Diggory who was lying on the ground, groaning a little. He'd be fine. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around, dazed. Several teammates landed and helped him to his feet. At that I flew off and James went to my side.

"What was that?"

"I saw the snitch on the other side of the pitch and we're only up by twenty."
"So you caused a distraction?"

"Yep, and I was wondering if Diggory could dodge a stand, just curious you know, testing the other seeker. Turns out he can't dodge stands." James laughed and pounded me on the back.

"Nice little man! Keep pulling stunts like that and you'll go pro!" James was still laughing as he flew to talk to Mike and Ashley. I started to absent mindedly lap the field and started to look for the snitch once the quaffle was rereleased and Diggory was flying around and looking more than a little worse for wear. Stands and the ground must really hurt. Whoops. I was totally innocent though, not my fault he was following me too closely.

It was almost an hour later by my watch's time, when I saw a glint of gold on the other side of the pitch. I took off and pressed myself flat on my broom as I rocketed after the snitch, it moved and I tracked it and followed its every little twitch. I stretched forward and closed my fist around the little gold ball. I barely pulled out of the dive in time and had to pull my knees and toes up in order to not hit the ground. I pulled up and threw my fists in the air and barely landed before I was all but tackled by my team. The crowd was deafening in the triumphant cheers. First Ravenclaw match of the season and was won by two hundred and thirty points, it was a great feeling as the crowd poured onto the pitch and I was lifted onto James and Chris's shoulders. I laughed as I saw Cedric Diggory once again getting hauled up off the ground. The first crash affected him a lot.

I was carried off the pitch and finally put back on the ground. "You rock little man! First game ever and you trick the other seeker into crashing and catch the snitch and cause the seeker to crash again!" James picked me up and all but crushed me. "You are amazing!" I couldn't help it but my already huge grin got better. "Y'know what? Screw showering and changing. You an' me are gonna go party in the common room. You all are welcome to join us. Butter beer is guaranteed to be there and I haven't had one in months. Come little dude, time to party." James threw an arm over my shoulder and lead me back to the common room amidst a huge group of Ravenclaws, including Hermione and Nev, both of whom jumped on me and told me how amazing I am. It's a damn good feeling to win. Damn good feeling. Hopefully I'd get it a lot more, because being out on the pitch is fun. A whole lot of fun. But this, this I could get used to.

I laughed and joked as we walked back to the common room. I had one arm thrown over Nev's shoulder as entered the Common Room to a huge amount of cheering and I was pulled away to recount me making Cedric Diggory crash twice and to talk about how yes, the Nimbus truly was amazing, and the only reason they believed me when I told them exactly how much better it was than a Cleensweep is because they saw me on the pitch, and I was almost a blur out there. Nev seemed to enjoy the fact that because he was my friend, people thought he should play on the team, and he was able to tell them that he was considering Keeper and Beater. That lead to more talk of brooms and the game.

I was still talking to them when James pushed inside our little group and shoved a warm bottle in my hand, it looked like a brown muggle longneck, but the label proclaimed it to be Butterbeer.

"What's butterbeer?" I asked looking at it oddly.

"Only the bestest drink in the whole wide world. Try it." James nudged me and took a drink of his own bottle.

I looked at it suspiciously. "This better be good. You said that pumpkin juice is good." James laughed again and only answered by nudging me again. I sighed and took an experimental swig. It was, well, kind of buttery tasting in a good way, and it sent a warm tingly buzz through my chest and the warm feeling was slowly spreading through my torso and limbs, all the way to my toes and fingertips. "Its… damn good. Really good, actually." I took another swig and the warm feeling was maintained.

"Told you so, but if you drink too much you will get drunk. It's called butterbeer for a reason. Alcohol and all, does funny things to you, so try and keep it to a couple of bottles, or I'll beat you up. Brotherly duties require me to do large amounts of bodily harm to you if you're an idiot and get drunk at eleven."

"I'm twelve in three days."

"Still, it's the principle of the matter. No getting drunk."

"I'm not that dumb."

"I'm not sure, if you say so though. Same goes for all people third year and below. No drunks in Ravenclaw. If you're older than that, you're dumb and somebody, trust me on this, you will get caught by Flitwick, and drunkenness isn't acceptable. There is a reason he turns a blind eye to these parties, we're expected to be responsible."

"Really? He knows about all this?"

"How could he not? He knows when it goes too far, so how can he not know when we're good little Ravenclaws?"

"Good point."

"Now, be good and I'm going to go get a girl drunk and get some." James threw me a sarcastic grin and walked over to get a second butterbeer, pop the cap off and flop next to Ashley who took the drink, took his arm off from around her shoulders and walked off. I laughed along with Nev as James pouted at the rejection.

"He's smooth."

"Super smooth."

!#$%^&*()_+

Well, after an obscenely long hiatus I'm back.

Review Replies: Saricella- Thank you, as always, I enjoy a nice ego boost from incredibly cool reviewers! And for the record, the concert I went to was amazing, I got to punch this one guy like, ten times because it was hot and he was all sweaty with no shirt and he kept bumping into so I punched him a lot. It was fun. : ) AnnF- I'm sincerely sorry for all my spelling/grammar/word mix ups. I'm in AP English in California. What can you expect? Anyway, I read through this twice instead of my once over before I posted. Hopefully I'll get it right. Also, A/N have been moved to the bottom and shall remain here for the remainder of chapters. ThEgoLdEnCoMpAsS- I didn't post ASAP, and I should've, but I did update, so I got half of it right. shadow lupus- That's a whole lot of questions… here it goes: Sirius breaking out later/earlier than in canon/ getting a fair trial- Undecided as of yet, but I'm deciding soon because I'm weighing the pros and cons of such a descion, it would definitely have a big affect on the plot. Jason revealing himself to Sirius in event of him breaking out/ getting a trial- More than likely (Not a sure yes though) if Jason would go through the trouble of getting him a trial he would reveal himself to Sirius at least, breaking out is iffy, because how would Sirius know to look for Jason instead of Harry? That path is a tossup. The Griff's seeker- OC? Random Griff from book? Yet another undecided factor, it is to be revealed soon, probably in one, possibly two chapters. But, your praise was much appreciated! Magician of the light- This chapter was a little late, but here none the less.