"Fuck off, Anderson!" Miles shouted at a very tall and very ginger girl. Half of the Slytherin team and fully armed Hufflepuff team clashed in the middle of the pitch both claiming the time to be theirs,this was a very usual occurrence as Quidditch players weren't the organised,responsible lot.

"Bletchley,this is our time you bastard!" Ruth Anderson, Hufflepuffs Keeper screamed back, her hands in fists.

"Anderson,keep calm,darling. Where's Fairthorne?" Peregrine asked in a silky voice looking up at the girl. He needed Miles alive.

"I'm here,Derrick. Where's Flint?" a stern voice behind him said. Dinah Fairthorne was looking up at him in turn, she was the shortest player in the whole league standing at the miniature 160cm but by far the most vicious Hufflepuff anyone has ever seen.

"Ah! Dinah, old friend and neighbour, I remember you stealing pears from my families garden back in Kent where you and I live! I must say your hair looks exquisite!" Peregrine babbled, looking terrified.

"Derrick, if Flint doesn't arrive in five minutes the pitch is ours."Dinah stated coldly and her black and yellow clad team nodded approvingly. Peregrine gave her a sour look.

"Team huddle!" he called. Nyx, Miles,Draco and Graham came to him,their breath was swirling up in clouds of steam. Hufflepuffs behind them jeered.

"Miles, where are Pucey and Flint?" Graham growled at a volume low enough for only the Slytherins to hear.

"Uh, I woke 'em up but I think they fell right back asleep." Miles sighed, mentally recalling the night and the items hurled at him in the Chasers were in a really bad mood for some reason.

" Shit, we don't have the time to fetch them. I think we lost the pitch." Peregrine spat,glancing at the triumphant dark skinned Hufflepuff Captain.

Then from a distance they heard shouting. Orlando Morton and Ravenclaw Chaser,his girlfriend Amanda were dragging Marcus and Adrian towards the pitch. Hufflepuffs howled with laughter at the sight. Orlando literally dragged Marcus by the shirt collar,Adrian came in a more civilised manner but with a large frown escorted by Amanda.

" Take 'em. Amanda knew you had practice this morning so there you go." Orlando huffed, giving Marcus a spectacular shove.

"Oi,Dinah! The pitch really is Slytherins today. The timetable says so." Amanda called to the angry shorty.

"No way! But the Gryffindors booked it last week!" came a high pitched shout, probably Angelinas. And the lions emerged out of the changing room too,Oliver at the back of the procession.

All three teams exchanged glares. Especially harsh visual battle occurred between the respective Gryffindor and Slytherin Captains, and that was taken as a sign that everything was going back to usual although Nicolette Wilson and Agnes Harris of Hufflepuff did giggle.

"I say, Badgers were here first, full stop." Dinah proclaimed switching her glare from Flint to Wood to Flint again.

" I say we have a fistfight for it!" George hollered merrily but Angelina gave him a kick.

"How about we just take turns?" Alicia proposed. Most Hufflepuffs nodded, the Slytherins who were much less enthusiastic were still forced to the stands with the Gryffindors.

Both teams took their seat on the same side,even without the usual bickering,Alicia even tried to get a seat closer to Adrian.

"Who has food?" Peregrine called, looking around,he was feeling peckish since they even skipped breakfast to be the first here,as it turns out in vain.

"Us!" the Twins answered in unison.

Peregrine pouted, "Fuck no! I'm not taking none of your sabotaging candy!"

"Good boy, don't take sweets from people you don't know." Adrian mocked,he was still moody and rubbed his eyes.

"Oi, Potter!" Malfoy barked, " Why didn't you use your awesome Chosen One powers to take over the pitch?"

Harry turned around,his green eyes displaying aggravation.

"Malfoy, you're an annoying prick, shut up." he snapped.

Draco just grimaced. He noted the not very supportive attitude of his teammates to his hatred of Harry, most of the time Slytherins didn't want any trouble, especially with all the Heir of Slytherin talk going around,more importantly, being so close in the presence of Wood unsettled Marcus distracting him from any jeers thus without the que from their leader to start bantering with the older Gryffindors none of the Slytherins joined in. Oliver was sitting at a slight distance from everyone, looking down at his knees, the epitome of heartbroken. Marcus nudged Adrian and nodded in general direction of Wood at which Adrian quickly returned Marcus' gaze to Nyx.

"You got to choose one,mate." he whispered into Marcus' ear so that Nyx didn't hear,for a second their cheeks brushed against each other.

"Hey, Flint, we thought you were dating de Venette not Pucey!" George jeered at the proximity of the two Chasers, oblivious to his Captain burying his head in his knees at the words. Marcus just flipped the finger and rushed to the railing, unable to stand that figure drowning in emotional pain anymore.

"Fairthorne! I've got a proposal!" Marcus shouted at the petite figure wheezing by.

"I'm listening,Flint, but don't waste my time." she stopped by him,head high, for once she could look down on him.

"How about my team playing yours for practice?" Marcus stated with a look of sheer confidence.

"We up for a challenge?" Dinah asked her team, now grouped around her.

Approving exclamations from the badgers.

"Mount your broom, fucker. Your going to get pounded." Dinah snarled at Marcus.

"Sure thing,shorty." Marcus snickered as he and the Slytherins flew out like deadly wasps on their Nimbus they didn't wear the match robes so it didn't have the usual effect but the polished brooms were impressive nevertheless.

Adrian came up to Marcus' side.

"You went hard last night, I can barely sit on the fucking broom." he whispered, smirking,the closest he looked to happy for the last hour.

"Come on, lover-boys!" Dinah jeered as the balls were released. And with that distraction, she got possession of the Quaffle and zoomed to the Slytherins hoops.

Nyx and Peregrine both had an accurate shot at her with the fearsome Bludgers but she dodged. Nicolette Wilson and Lambert Dorn effectively had her back,blocking Graham and Adrian. Marcus chased Dinah, eyes on the Quaffle. He couldn't lose today with Oliver watching, his honour was on the line, he wanted to show how (in)effective Olivers flamboyant exhibition of heartbreak was. Finally, the faster broom took its prey, Marcus sharply cut Dinah off by the hoops neatly slipping the Quaffle out of her hands, the move was celebrated by Orlando and Amandas cheers. Diving under a Bludger Marcus passed to Adrian on the far right completely unmarked. Dinah shouted at Nicolette hoarsely and the poor blonde had to pursue Adrian in his complicated path of sharp turns and dives. When she finally came close enough, the burgundy Quaffle successfully left her range soaring up into Marcus' hands. Once the giant in height, redheaded Ruth blocked the middle hoop, Marcus hurled the ball under her and Graham sent it into the left hoop. Ruth scowled and the left-wing Hufflepuff chaser Lambert had to restrain the now scarlet Dinah. Marcus and his Chasers looked very smug returning to the middle.

"Guess the Slytherins will have a Quidditch triumph in my glorious last year." Marcus mused,making sure the Hufflepuffs could hear.

"Last year,Flint?That's if you pass NEWTs, not your strong suit I hear." Lambert Dorn, also a seventh year, scoffed venomously wiping Marcus' satisfied smirk right off, it was indeed not his strong suit,he bared his teeth in the infamous scowl.

This time Slytherin snatched the Quaffle from the middle since Marcus suddenly became serious. Graham Montague evaded Lambert Dorns many jumps at him,scoring another 10 points for Slytherin. Meanwhile,we must give Draco due respect for he is an excellent flier but very often distracted, therefore not much hope was bestowed upon him, usually. So as always Draco kept a closer watch on the opposing Seeker (the fabulous Cedric Diggory this time) rather than look for the Snitch.

Somehow Nicolette weasled around Adrian and dodged Miles scoring Hufflepuffs first 10 points.

The fight turned to chaos, with no proper judge, under the hood fouls dominated both teams play. The news of the game spread and pulled in half of the student body. The human carpet covering the stands roared. The score stood at 370:420 to Slytherin. The morning sun vanished leaving the sky grey and cold. It was starting to drizzle. The players slowed the tempo by much, completely fatigued. As Marcus made his way towards the hoops at a moderate speed he missed a bludger well hit by Agnes Harris. It hit him straight in the ribs, dropping the ball in general direction of Adrian, Marcus fell back on his broom. At the same time they heard a loud lonely cheer. Draco caught the Snitch. The crowd caught up on the cheer and the Slytherins rushed to Marcus. He had bitten his lip to blood from the pain. They landed him safely on the grassy pitch. Miles lifted Marcus' white T-shirt over his ribs,at the back of the crowd Oliver stoop on his tip-toes for a better look. A large reddish blue bruise glared at them biting into Marcus' olive skin.

"He probably broke a few ribs, but he'll live." Peregrine announced to the crowd. Gryffindor Quidditch team, Amanda and Orlando and a few other Slytherins (including eleven year old Ramona, Marcus' sister) surrounded them.

"Fuck you, Peregrine." Marcus grunted trying to sit up but being unable to do so.

"Yeah, get him to the Hospital Wing, you stupid pwick." Ramona lisped stepping forward,glaring from under her dark fringe,she was the type of little girls that very well portray Satan.

"You heard Miss Flint. Heave!" Adrian grinned and he and Miles lifted Marcus' limp body by the limbs. Marcus grimaced in agony,with the crowd following them they made their way towards the grim castle.

Luckily, before he knew it he was safe in an impossibly clean bed. The throbbing pain on his side remained with him though, to top that off Madam Pomfrey smothered it with thick yellowish balm and placed his torso in a vice of some sort. The ribs she fixed (she had to knock him out for that and escorted his team out for the procedure) and they would finish growing back within three hours.

The Hospital Wing was a unique place with a brilliant postbox, all you had to do was lower your letter into a box outside the doors and it would appear on the bedside table of the patient (Adults are very creative when it comes to their peace and so this invention saved Madame Pomfrey the bother of having to put up with noisy teenagers.)The kids loved the novelty as much as adults did and abused the postbox at first chance.

Marcus' bedside table was littered with small notes, the paper looked like it was from the same notebook but the handwriting and ink colours came in a large variety. Here are the notes:

Sorry for breaking your ribs. It looked pretty bad and we lost anyway so I don't know why I bothered. Great game.

Regards,
Agnes Harris

Hey, imagine this, so I was being all worried about my buddy Marcus and then this great looking lady, Kimberly Palmer comes up to me and starts complimenting me, my awesome Quidditch skill, my hair and what not. So now I'm kind of dating her,you know how I can't resist flattery. She's the fifth year Ravenclaw with blonde dreads, if that rings any bells.
So get better and shit,
Peregrine
PS: Nyx is worried and stuff but we gave her a little whyskie for the nerves (that she ended up finishing) and she went hyper/drunk. Sorry.

You're mighty brave to take the pain, and you were fantastic out there today.

I Love, You,
Nyx xxx

Wood can't seem to find himself a place, it's crazy. And Peregrine probably told you all about him shamelessly getting Nyx drunk. And Wood is being a loner. And you should seriously reconsider Wood. He's got it bad. But remember you've got to choose just one (one of them + me should be satisfactory enough Mr Male Nymphomaniac).
And get better soon. It's boring without you.
Cheers,
Adrian
PS I sent you a flask of the strong stuff to get you through the next three hours.

Thanks,man! We won 15 galleons from your awesome play. You're definitely the man of the match.
Sincerely,
Orlando and Amanda
P.S. If you need academic help, I'm up for tutoring. I'm not a Ravenclaw for nothing ;) Amanda x

What a spectacular thoroughly enjoyed every second up till the hospital bed. Don't get better until our game on Saturday, savvy? ( take that as a compliment).But next time you wont steal our time!
Respect,
Fred, George, Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Harry
(not Oliver 'cause he's sulking and refusing to talk,we don't even know why.)

There was still a crumpled note on the bottom of the pile. Curious, Marcus carefully opened it. Two messy lines of joined writing in red ink.

We need to talk. Quidditch pitch,7pm. You don't have to show up but please do. Oliver.

That was soon, Marcus thought. But he was definitely going to go see for himself what Oliver thought now. He couldn't help but feel satisfied. He looked at the bronze clock in the middle of the Hospital Wing, it was noon. Sunday lunches where unfortunately at half past two and Marcus was starving but still unable to sit up. An hour passed, Madame Pomfrey poured a spoonful of whitish foul smelling potion down his throat which increased the hunger pains. And another agonising hour passed, no visitors were allowed into the hospital wing due to a young Gryffindor with dragon pox contaminating the place, so Marcus out of sheer boredom was levitating his jumper making it wave the sleeves expressively, mentally picturing the upcoming talk with Oliver. Just as he was dozing off Madam Pomfrey came up, she felt his side with her cold fingers then handed him a t-shirt.

"Flint, we had your friends bring some clothes for you, and it took them three tries to come up with something decent, but I'm sure they'll fill you up on that later. Now go. You should be only a little late for lunch." she said collecting his bedsheets as he tied his shoelaces.

"Thank you!" he called while running out of the door. Madam Pomfrey rolled her eyes, she was sick of all the Quidditch players in the school.

Quidditch is one of the main themes of this story and it would be bland disrespect to not have a Quidditch centered chapter,so here you become aquainted with my little Hufflepuffs which I earned a lot of respect for,before writing this I never pictured them so tough :P some of them will play a decent part in the next few chapters (especially Lambert Dorn but is that name too weird?).Anyways,thank you all the followers!I love you.

Acid