Magical Encounters

Chapter eleven: Quidditch

Disclaimer- It's been a while since I put this up so just so it's clear, I don't own Harry Potter. I wish I did but nope. Sad. =[

Ariana's eyes opened to the bright fluorescent lighting of the Hospital wing. She blinked and squinted, attempting to adjust to the brightness, only to be foiled as seven heads clambered all around her. As she looked up at the faces she saw the familiar mix of red, black, and even mousy brown hair that signified that her Weasley and Potter friends had come to see her. Albus, Roxanne, Rose, and Fred were to her left while to the left stood James, Lucy, and a girl Ariana assumed was Molly, due to the extreme resemblance she held to her sister.

Ariana lifted herself up and propped her head up against the backboard. "Hey you guys. Thanks so much for coming to visit." She turned to the girl she had not yet been formally introduced to. "You must be Molly, hi I'm Ariana."

Ariana held out her hand and Molly nodded as she took it. "It's nice to meet you as well seeing as I have heard so much already. James refused to shut up about you yesterday and once he got the news that you were hurt, oh my gosh he acted like the sky was fa-"

Her words were halted as James loudly cleared his throat. Ariana glanced at him to find that his face had gone red and he was averting her eyes by becoming very preoccupied with his shoes. Ariana looked toward her friends and smiled. She felt like as long as she had some people that cared for her, then she could deal with the Slytherins. When this thought came to Ariana's mind she realized that the person she most wanted to see was not around her.

Ariana cleared her throat and attempted to sound tough. "So um, was anybody here when you guys came in?"

Albus tried to answer but Roxie beat him to it. "Professor Longbottom was here actually. Lucky for you he was free yesterday since it was raining so hard. When everything happened yesterday he was passing by on his way up to the staffroom and he was the one who brought you up here."

"Oh, okay." Ariana responded disheartened. "So how were the flying lessons?"

"Weren't you paying attention?" Albus asked, chuckling at Ariana's confused expression to his reaction. "It was raining really badly yesterday, so lessons were postponed till today."

"Yeah," James added, finally finding his voice. "We talked to Madam Pomphrey and everything; she says you are free to go whenever you are ready. Actually someone even brought you a change of cloth-"

"Who was it?" Ariana blurted instantly before catching herself and calming her voice. "Who brought my stuff for me?"

"What does it matter anyway?" James said flipping his hair out of his eyes, oblivious to Ariana's disappointment. "Some Slytherin kid, I guess. Whatever though, get dressed so you can eat before we head down to the Quidditch Pitch. We brought you some food."

Ariana smiled in appreciation as her friends handed her her clothes and pulled a curtain around her hospital bed. Ariana threw her feet over the side of her bed and got up quickly. She roughly pulled on her clean robes and knocked aside the curtain to find a seemingly empty room in front of her. Except that it wasn't empty because before Ariana had taken two steps toward the door Rose Weasley had stepped out from behind her to cover her path.

"Listen Ariana," Rose began tentatively. "I don't mean to be a pessimistic patty but you shouldn't get your hopes up about Scorpius. " Rose took in the hurt and surprised look on Ariana's face and continued quickly. "Look, I noticed how much you seemed to care that a Slytherin brought up your clothes and I'm guessing you wanted it to be him but you should not rely on him. I don't want to hurt your feelings because I can tell by the potions class yesterday that there is definitely something going on between you two. But I have to tell you that whatever it is, it is never going to be shown to others."

Rose took a breath and looked at Ariana's sad face before continuing. "I heard him yesterday at dinner talking about the whole thing. He twisted the story Ariana. He told all his friends that he only helped you to get in Slughorn's good graces. He said that he wanted to look like a hero so that the teachers in the school would like him. Ariana, I don' really know if that is true or not but it's obvious that Scorpius just wants to be just like his father. Cool, cold, and unconcerned with those he considers beneath him."

Ariana was almost in tears, but Rose continued nonetheless. "I'm sorry for dropping this on you but I thought you deserved to find out and none of my cousins heard what I heard. If you want to be his friend in secret then cool, that's your choice, but don't expect much. As for any feelings of affection, you should know that James is really into you and I know he is a little rough around the edges but he is a very nice guy."

Ariana wiped at her eyes as she and Rose made their way toward the door and as she put her hand on the handle, Ariana turned to face Rose. "I understand where you are coming from and I appreciate you telling me these things but I think I'm just going to let the chips fall where they may."

On their way down to the Quidditch pitch Ariana walked a couple of paces behind the others and very ungracefully stuffed the sandwich that the others had given her into her mouth. By the time they reached the pitch Ariana had caught up with the others (Only Albus, Roxie, and Rose) and they were all discussing their expectations for the lesson when they joined the crowd of first years gathering in the middle of the pitch.

An older woman walked into the crowd of first years and blew a silver whistle loudly. "Listen up everyone. I am Madam Hooch and I must ask all of you to make your way to one of the brooms on the left side of the pitch."

Ariana scampered across the pitch and took her spot beside a seemingly ordinary, beaten down old broom. Madam Hooch walked among the first years until they had all settled comfortably beside one of the brooms that had been previously lain down. The brooms had been set so that there were two long lines that were facing each other and when Ariana looked across from her she saw Scorpius looking around anywhere but across him. Ariana drew herself up and attempted to look tough, but stopped when a girl standing beside her told her she was turning blue and asked why Ariana was holding her breath.

Feeling down hearted, Ariana turned her attention to Madam Hooch who was standing in between the two lines and yelling out to her students. "Alright then. Now that all of you have settled on a broom I want you to put your right hand over the broomstick and firmly say up."

Ariana cleared her throat and strongly ordered the broom to come up and the results were instantaneous. Before Ariana had even fully finished the command the broomstick zoomed up toward her hand and she closed her hand around it firmly. Ariana looked around her expecting o see the same results occurring all around but she was very wrong. All around her kids were saying up again and again at broomsticks that remained still on the grass beneath their feet.

Ariana dared herself to sneak a peek at Scorpius. When she looked across at him she saw that he was looking at her with an impressed expression. Scorpius then winked almost too quickly for anyone to see and then looked down at his broom and called it up to him. Ariana watched as the broomstick rushed into his hands the same way it had come to her and when Scorpius had wrapped his hand around the broom he looked up and met Ariana's eyes meaningfully.

Madam Hooch walked around helping the students who were having difficulties and then briskly walked into the middle of the lines of students. "Now I want everyone to mount their brooms." She waited until everyone had done so. "When I am finished speaking I will blow my whistle and all of you will push off the ground and hover for a moment before touching back down. Now all you have to know is that you have to will yourself to fly but the rest will happen naturally. In the real magical world it's not happy thoughts and pixie dust that get you up. Its magical power and your will and knowledge that you can do this."

She looked around at everyone and smiled. "And you can do this. Now on my count and whistle. One, two, three."

She blew the whistle. As soon as the piercing sound rung out among the first year there was a flurry of activity. Ariana shut her eyes tightly and pushed off the ground expecting her feet to slam back onto the ground. But they didn't. Ariana opened her eyes to find that she was floating gently about two or three feet above the ground. With a feeling of satisfaction Ariana touched back on the ground and looked around.

All around her she saw people jumping and attempting to get into the air without much avail whilst others had managed to get in the air but landed heavily and clumsily around her. She looked across to Scorpius to see that he was on the ground and grinning at others around him smugly. Ariana looked away quickly and remembered what Rose had told her. He really is a snob Ariana thought a big one.

Madam Hooch went around to those who needed help for another fifteen minutes and then she allowed those that had managed to succeed to coast around for a while. Ariana coasted for a while but soon enough the bell rang signaling that their lesson was over. Ariana touched down and swung her leg off her broom before looking around for her group of friends.

Ariana had just spotted Albus when Madam Hooch's voice rand out in the pitch. "The Slytherin house team will be out here tonight for their tryouts. First years don't usually make house teams but if you want to see how the game is played then you should come after supper."

Ariana sat at the Gryffindor table again that night. She tried to anyway. Unfortunately, about twenty minutes into supper Professor Slughorn trotted down to her from the staff table and alerted her that she is to eat with her house unless instructed otherwise. Feeling dread encompass her body Ariana got up solemnly and waved a down-hearted good-bye to her friends. She walked slowly across the great hall and tried as hard as she could keep the tears that had welled in her eyes from falling.

When Ariana reached the Slytherin table she caught sight of Scorpius with his gang of friends at one end of the table. Instantly she turned away and headed in the opposite direction. Ariana reached the very end of the table and sat down. She had just begun shoveling mashed potatoes onto her plate when she felt someone slip into the seat beside her.

"Hey Ari," Drake said calmly, smiling his one thousand watt smile in her direction. "What's up?"

Ariana sighed with relief and smiled back at Drake. "Nothing much, just contemplating about if I should go down to the Quidditch Pitch after dinner or n-"

"You have to!" Drake yelled, interrupting her. "I'm trying out for keeper and I need some support. Please come?"

Ariana nodded and received another beautiful smile in return. She and Drake talked about school for the remainder of dinner and once they were both pleasantly full they made their way out of the great hall and outside toward the Quidditch Pitch.

Scorpius was absolutely furious. He had seen Ariana sitting at the Gryffindor with her little friends and she had been talking to that stupid James fellow. Without even caring how it make her feel he had then told Professor Slughorn and insisted that she be sent back to her respective table. But now that this was done, Scorpius found that he was still not satisfied. He had expected that Ariana would not sit with him, but he had not thought she would very bluntly avoid being anywhere near him. Nor had he thought that some other undeserving prick would move in to talk to Ariana, but Drake had stepped up to that plate quite quickly and now it was all Scorpius could do to stop himself from going over to them and giving Drake a piece of his mind.

Attempting to rid his mind of his thoughts of jealousy, Scorpius turned his attention to the girl beside him. Her name was Matilda and she was very obviously infatuated with Scorpius. She was pleasant looking with dark brown hair that contrasted her porcelain skin and nearly translucent jade green eyes. Scorpius began to talk to her throwing some compliments in her direction in return for the praises that were rife in almost every sentence she uttered. Scorpius had just begun to forget Ariana, when suddenly she and Drake were walking past him.

Matilda followed Scorpius's eyes and instantly twisted her face into a scowl. She stuck out her leg and caught both Ariana and Drake causing them to stumble. Drake and Ariana turned around and Drake opened his mouth as if to speak, but before he could Ariana grabbed hold of his arm and dragged him out of the great hall.

Matilda turned back to Scorpius triumphantly. "So pathetic, huh? She doesn't even try to fight anymore, kind of ruins the fun of it but whatever. Anyway, I think they might be headed down to the tryouts, you want to go?"

Scorpius thought for a while. Truth was he did want to go, but not with Matilda. He decided to tell her that he was going to go talk to a teacher about a grade and meet up with her later. She believed him without question and headed to the common room as Scorpius headed to the Quidditch Pitch. He walked quickly to the pitch and made sure none of his so called friends followed him. He wanted to be alone. Or, he at least wanted to be away from them.

He entered the pitch to see that the tryouts had already begun. Most of the old players had their positions back but there were three positions open. Two for chasers and one for a keeper. Scorpius neared the stands and made his way up a large set of stairs to get up to the seats. Once he was up there he realized that other than himself there was only one other person in the stands. Ariana.

"Uh," He began, timidly. "Can I sit next to you?"

Ariana looked up at him and took a deep breath before answering. "You sure you want to be seen with me? What will your posse think?"

"Who says they have to know?" Scorpius answered, the corner of his mouth lifting into a smirk.

Ariana looked away from him and leaned forward in her seat to watch as Drake, who was apparently trying out for keeper, blocked another would-be goal. After watching her for a few more seconds Scorpius lowered himself into the seat beside and turned his attention to the game. One of the chasers that seemed to know what they were doing was Tyler, the boy from the train, and Scorpius knew form gossip around school that he was on the team last year. Brooke seemed to be trying out and Scorpius could tell that she was pretty good but by Scorpius's standards the girl trying out for the second chaser position didn't know anything about what she was doing.

Ariana avoided Scorpius by keeping her eyes on the try-outs. She had to admit, Drake was awesome. He definitely knew what he was doing and seeing as he was the only one trying out, he was obviously going to make the team. It looked like Brooke and the other girl trying out were the Slytherin teams only hope as well, and for that, Ariana deeply pitied the team. Brooke was great but the other girl was horrible. Every time the ball was passed to her she either dropped it or nearly fell off her broomstick. In fact, at one point she tried to shoot a goal and came up so short that when Brooke caught the ball the girl tried to pass it off as just another pass.

The try-outs continued and Ariana and Scorpius sat in utter silence. There was more than one time where Ariana saw Scorpius looking at her but she didn't pay him much mind. She knew that the second his friends showed up he would refer back to his superiority complex and she didn't want to have to deal with that anymore. With that in mind it was pretty easy for Ariana to completely ignore Scorpius and focus on the scene in front of her.

At this point Scorpius cleared his throat, causing Ariana to look at him just as the red ball that the team had been passing around landed at her feet. Ariana looked down toward the ball bent over and picked it up. When she lifted herself up and out of her seat she looked toward the team to see that the new girl was apologizing vehemently and flying over to her and motioning for her to throw the ball. Ariana, wishing to save the girl of some embarrassment that would come to her for dropping yet another pass, threw the ball to Brooke instead.

The red ball whistled through the air as it made its way to Brooke and fell perfectly into her arms. Well, sort of. It turns out that Ariana had thrown the ball way too hard and when Brooke tried to catch the ball, it slammed into her stomach and threw her body backward. Brooke pulled herself up so that she was properly seated on her broom and then she looked at Ariana along with the rest of her team. They all looked stunned and Ariana sank back down into her seat and smiled awkwardly back at them.

"Sorry," Ariana yelled out to them. "Sorry Brooke. I didn't think I had thrown it so hard."

Tyler flew over to Ariana and coasted to a stop near the stands. "Sorry for what? That was amazing." He lowered his voice. "Listen, Ariana right?" He didn't wait for her to nod. "Look I'm captain this year and I have a pretty good team together here, but that one chaser is killing us. So how about you give it a go huh? You have one hell of an arm and we could definitely use you."

Ariana looked over to Scorpius to see his stunned face and then looked back to Tyler. "Look, I appreciate the offer but even if I have a good arm, I'm not the right person for the job. I don't know how to play, or what a chaser is, so I might not be as great as you think I am."

"That's fine," Tyler said quickly. "I can teach you. Just please, get yourself on a broom and fly up here so that I can replace this girl."

"Ok," Ariana said quietly. "I'll give it a shot."

Scorpius was amazed. First years were almost never on house teams but he had to admit that Ariana had the talent for it. The second the other chaser left and she joined the team in practice, everything got ten times better. Ariana was a little rusty on the rules but as the team cleared them up for her it became clear that she was going to become part of this team. By the end of practice Scorpius had seen Ariana score three times and lessen the power of her passes so that the team could effectively make plays involving the three chasers. The other girl waited dejectedly on the ground waiting to be called back in, but her call never came.

After some time Scorpius saw the team come together and start toward the ground. As quickly as he could he bounded down the stairs and rushed to catch up to Ariana who, to his dismay, was walking toward the school with Drake. He dashed up to them and fell into step behind Ariana making drake and Ariana drop their conversation and look at him quizzically.

"So you're still here?" Ariana began. "I was sure you would have left to be with your posse by now."

Scorpius was about to answer her with a rude comment when someone came up behind them and very rudely bumped into Ariana, hitting Scorpius as well. The girl murmured something under her breath and glared at Ariana as she walked away. It was the other chaser who had tried out. The three of them watched her stomp up to the castle and then kept walking in silence.

Scorpius bit his lip and was the first to break the silence. "So, I'm guessing you both made the team."

Ariana nodded but Drake was the one who answered. "Yeah we did. But why do you care anyway?"

"Curiosity I suppose." Scorpius answered.

They were very nearly at the castle by now but nonetheless Drake stopped walking and forced Scorpius to face him. "You know what? That's a load of crap and you know it. I don't know what you're playing at but you can't just switch sides like this all the time. You can't be super nice when no one's looking and then an arse when your friends are around, it's not right. And I'm not going to let you do it anymore. If you mess with Ariana, you mess with me, ok? She doesn't deserve to take this from scum like you."

"And how do you know she doesn't want me to talk to her, huh?"

"I don't." Ariana said staring up at Scorpius Defiantly. "Honestly, Scorp, you are giving me whiplash and I'm pretty sick of it. Talk to me, don't talk to me, I don't really care, but pick one. Choose to be my friend or not but do it quick."

Ariana walked ahead of the two boys in a fury and entered the castle. Scorpius watched her go and began to walk up the path as well. Drake followed beside him cast him a curious glance.

"So, uh, what are you going to choose?" Drake asked as they reached the castle doors.

Scorpius looked at him as the doors opened magically for them. "I don't know yet."

"Well, who are you going to see right now? Them or her?"

"Them."

"Then that's your choice." Drake Shrugged at Scorpius and walked inside the castle, leaving Scorpius alone to follow behind him.

Hey everyone. I hoped you liked the chapter. Reviews are very welcome and appreciated so you should click the button down there that says review and make me a happy girl. Thanks for reading. Till next time.

Becca