-CHAPTER SIX-

"AND SLYTHERIN ARE AHEAD BY 100 AFTER ANOTHER BRILLIANT GOAL BY ALBUS POTTER – I WOULDN'T EXPECT ANY LESS FROM A BOY WHOSE MOTHER PLAYED FOR THE HOLYHEAD HARPIES!" The smooth voice of Kyle Jordan broke the freezing January air as I circled the pitch high above, with the wind buffeting my air, and my fingers practically falling off they were so bloody cold.

So far, after playing for about 30 minutes, I was already so cold I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to hold on to my broom any longer, and then I would fall about 60 feet onto a freezing cold icy pitch. Ouch.

One hundred. That is currently how many flaming points we are losing by, and we are only thirty minutes into the bloody game. In fact, if I didn't catch that blasted snitch within the next, oh, twenty minutes or so, then we would most definitely lose the match. And I cannot lose this match.

Not when weeks of constant mocking from Al, Scorpius and Guilliano rides on it. I cannot lose. Our team would lose any hope of every even touching the Quidditch cup.

"AND SLYTHERIN SCORE AGAIN!" came Kyle Jordan's voice from the podium. You have got to be kidding me. Again! Is there no end to their incessant scoring! I bet it is Al who is scoring all these goals.

I continued to circle about the pitch, getting steadily more frustrated and Malfoy certainly wasn't helping matters. Every time his team had scored so far, he had flown over to me and made some kind of gloating remark about the Slytherin team's general amazingness, or how loserish the Ravenclaws were. Which, after the first couple of times you can imagine, got pretty annoying, so as he flew towards me after the Slytherin's most recent goal I had the urge to punch him in the face. Or push him off his broom.

"Having fun embracing your failure?" he smirked at me, looking a lot more confident than he was earlier on at the breakfast table. He raised his eyebrows as I gritted my teeth. I must not dive bomb him.

Ignore the incredibly frustrating blonde idiot. Ignore.

"At this rate," he continues, drawling on pompously as though he is under the impression I am clinging to every word he says, "even if you catch the snitch, which you won't, you'll still lose. Now that takes some doing." He took both hands of his broom as he said this, so he was hovering in mid air with his arms loosely folded, giving the appearance that he was the epitome of calm. I sniffed derisively. Because, let's face it, what is more annoying than someone being completely relaxed about something that you yourself are worked up about.

Exactly. Nothing.

Sod Lily's stupid revenge plan – I am actually halfway to sticking his precious Nimbus 4000 up his arrogant pompous –

Hold on. Do you think he's realised that there is a tiny golden ball with minute wings fluttering just above his head?

"But, because I'm just generally nice, I'll invite you to the Slytherin after-party. You'll need cheering up after we thrash you," he laughed arrogantly at his own apparent wit.

Evidently he has not noticed the snitch less than 5cm from his oh-so-precious hair. My heart was pumping rapidly somewhere around my ears, as the adrenalin kicked in and I shot forward, covering the ten feet between us in mere seconds.

"What the hell, Rose?!" Scorpius screeched, as he swerved his broom out the way so that I didn't collide with his head. But his confusion turned to a mingled look of shock and irritation when he noticed the small feathery wings fluttering on either side of my clenched fist. Oh yes, I had caught the snitch! I held it up to him and smirked.

"Al is going to fucking kill me," he managed to splutter out, as the crowd finally realised that I had caught the snitch and started cheering loudly – well, everyone except for the Slytherins of course. No doubt they had assumed this game was in the bag for them.

"AND RAVENCLAW WIN 160 TO 120! ROSE WEASLEY HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH – NO DOUBT MALFOY WILL BE ANNOYED ABOUT LOSING TO A GIRL!! HA HA!"

"Mr Jordan! No direct attacks on the players!"

"Sorry, Professor."

Yes! I punched the air, ecstatic. I had actually got one over on Scorpius and Al! Result! I flew back down to the ground with the rest of my team, where we congratulated the Slytherins on a good game and they half-heartedly reciprocated.

"Oi! Rose!" Al called to me as the teams divided to go to the showers, and the stands started to empty. I spun around in the mud to see Al gesturing dejectedly to me. Quickly I jogged over, and he clapped me on the back in a brotherly fashion. "Good game. Even if you did win by luck." He grinned.
"Oh, shut up. We won fair and square!" I grinned back.

"Whatever," he replied, twiddling his broom around in his hand. "Will you come to the Slytherin tent when you're done? I want to walk back to the castle with you – Scorp is sulking."

I couldn't help snorting. "Scorp?" What a ridiculous nickname!

"Yes, Scorp…" Al said, giving me an odd look as though he didn't understand why I was commenting on it. "So, can I walk back with you?"

"No," I said sarcastically," I only walk back with family."

"Oh, ha ha," Al said in a dry tone, heading off to the Slytherin tent.

*
"Your saviour has arrived!" I announced to the seemingly empty Slytherin dressing room. Al better not have left without me, otherwise this situation will be fairly awkward if one of those huge body-guard-like Slytherin beaters finds me here.

"Is that you, Rose?" I heard Al's voice from around the corner.

"Yes, and are you dressed? Because I don't want to walk in on you changing, like some people we know," I said loudly, slamming my eyes shut.

"It's safe." I cracked my eyes open and Al was in front of me winding a scarf around his neck. "And who is it that watches people changing?"

I gave him a 'look'. "I'll give you a clue. He's tall, blonde, and oddly perverted for a 17 year old boy."

Al grinned. "He is, isn't he?"

"What? Perverted? I am NOT!" Scorpius – sorry, Scorp – exclaimed, rounding the corner, still completely dressed in his muddy Quidditch attire. He leant his broom up against the wall as Al gave him a disapproving look.
"Get dressed, you fool," Al told him, chucking him a towel that hit him expertly in the face. Scorpius gave me a significant look, and judging by the nudges of his head towards the door, I would imagine it was a look telling me to get out…or else.

Al picked up on his indiscreet head nodding, "She's your girlfriend, mate," Scorpius rolled his eyes, "and I am straight, so get dressed, or you're stuck at Malfoy Mnor all summer on your own. I will refuse to visit you."

Scorpius rolled his eyes obviously. "Bribery is illegal, you know," he stated, hooking his fingers under the bottom of his Quidditch shirt and lifting it slightly. I quickly averted my eyes and pretended to be extremely interested in one of the posters on the wall which said: SLYTHERINS ALWAYS WIN. WE ARE NOT LOSERS. FIGHT!

How…patriotic.

"I'd say it was more blackmail," Al corrected him thoughtfully.

Do not look away from the poster, I told myself firmly. Look, the poster is very nice…it has lots of green on it, and pretty silver writing that is telling Slytherins in no uncertain terms to basically kill their rivals. How delightful. Keep your eyes focused on the poster.

"What's so fascinating about that poster?" Al asked, peering round me to look at the aforementioned poster in confusion.

I regret to say that the most intelligent to pop into my brain at that point was: "Um."

"Isn't it obvious?" Scorpius inputted, looking as though Professor McGonagall had just announced that Ravenclaw had just been forced to forfeit the match, so Slytherin had won by default. Al shook his head in reply to Scorpius' outburst. "She's looking at that poster to prevent herself from seeing my heavenly abs."

"If your abs were so heavenly as you so delicately phrased it, then wouldn't I want to look at them, and not at some dumb poster?" I inquired, making the fatal mistake of looking round at him.

"Maybe your worried that, Merlin-forbid, you find someone who is not a self-confessed bookworm attractive," he snapped, rubbing his hair with the towel to…well, actually I'm not sure what he was trying to achieve. Maybe that's how you get the effortless windswept look – you rub your head with a towel so your hair goes static.

I narrowed my eyes at him in irritation. "I've found people attractive who aren't bookworms, I'll have you know."

Don't look below his neck. Do not even glance below his neck.

"Really? Really? Or is that just a lie to make me consider the impossibilities of that statement and therefore not realise that you are staring at me," Scorpius said, raising an eyebrow and smirking simultaneously.

I snorted unattractively. "I am not staring at you!" Though I think he could tell I was lying as I could feel the blood rushing to my face. He turned back to his pile of clothes and started looking for a shirt.

For once the big-headed prat was right. His abs were heavenly.

Give me strength! One look of his toned upper arms and chest and I've managed to get a full-blown crush!

I honestly thought I was a bit deeper than that.

Actually, no. Stop, right there. I cannot have a crush. I mean, so what if he is insanely gorgeous and I am fair tempted to faint right now on this disgustingly muddy floor? He's still an arrogant arse who regularly has about a zillion girlfriends at the same time. And he's still annoying. And pompous. And shallow. And…

Oh, who am I kidding? I like him. Bugger. This calls for drastic action. I'll have to find Lily the second I get back to the castle and she better know what to do about this.

"Well, if you two have stopped flirting…" Al said, with a dramatic pause, as he looked between the two of us with raised eyebrows. Scorpius continued ruffling through his clothes but I didn't fail to notice the slight reddening of his cheeks.

"We are NOT flirting!" I snapped, giving Scorpius a sickened look. He shrugged and started laughing. AAARGGHH! "Albus Potter, we are leaving now!" I twisted around, and grabbing Al's arm, I tried to pull him towards the exit, but him being significantly stronger than I am, I just ended up nearly falling over when he remained glued to the spot.

"Aren't we going to wait for your lovvveerrr…" Al laughed, but his smile faltered when he saw the I-will-owl-your-mother-right-now-if-you-utter-another-word look on my face. "I guess not," he added awkwardly.

"It's OK, I'm ready," Scorpius said, to my immense frustration. And let me just tell you, he was not ready. The boy wasn't even decently dressed and it was a freezing January day outside! He was wearing a pair of jeans and a shoe. One shoe.

"You're not going to bother dressing then?" I snapped sarcastically. "Too complicated for your dim-witted mind, is it?"

"No," he said, displaying a look on his face that I just knew meant he was thinking of something incredibly witty to say to me. Joy of joys. "I just thought I'd be nice, I mean some of you are clearly enjoying the view, and I wouldn't want to let you down, now, would I?" he sniggered. I clicked my tongue in fury. "You can call it payback for the other day when I walked in on you in the shower." He strode past me as Al burst into laughter and I stood there spluttering in shock.

"You did WHAT?!" I screeched, almost hysterical.

"I was kidding! Merlin, it is so easy to wind you up!" he grinned, and high-fived Al.

"Nice one, Scorp!"

Eurgh. That is so not funny. So incredibly not funny.

Hey guys! Happy new year to you all! I know I've been a bit delayed, but I had written out this chapter and then I couldn't get access to the internet for days thanks to our yearly holiday to the middle of nowhere :)

Anyway, I hope you like it! Let me know what you think in a review - and if you have any suggestions, it would be great to here them.

Thanks,

G X