Second Year

It was a fine autumn day as Rose made her way across the grounds of Hogwarts towards the Quidditch Pitch. She was slightly reluctant; Quidditch was certainly not her favourite pastime; it wasn't even in the top five. While her father and brother had an interest that bordered on obsession, Rose, like her mother, tended to cultivate a respectable indifference; and yet here she was, devoting her afternoon to the sport. Because she had promised, way back in the summer holidays when school seemed a long way away, that she would accompany Albus for try-outs when the time came. As a second year, he was entitled to compete for a spot on the Slytherin team, and he had sworn not to waste any time in gaining a position. Rose's smile faltered somewhat at the thought of him competing against Gryffindor and her cousins, James and Fred, who were Chaser and Beater respectively, but she squared her shoulders and walked on.

It had taken her a long time to come around to the idea of Albus as a Slytherin. For the first few months after their sorting, Rose had held onto the thin hope that perhaps there had been some kind of mistake, and Albus would be resorted into his rightful House, Gryffindor. Or perhaps he would hate it so much in Slytherin that he would go to the Headmistress and beg for a swap. Rose would, of course, welcome him back with open arms. But such an event never occurred. Rather, Albus seemed to settle in comfortably, content to forge a new identity for himself outside of the shadow of his father and brother. By his side the entire time was Scorpius Malfoy; the two had become inseparable, best of friends, much to Rose and the rest of the family's dismay.

When it began to dawn on her that Albus wasn't going to come crawling back, Rose had tried the well-worn technique of the cold shoulder. For several weeks she hadn't even looked his way in class, and had sped up whenever he tried to approach her in the corridors. But after a while she abandoned this plan as a failure, for it achieved little but to make her miserable and deprive herself of Albus' company. And so, they had reached an uneasy truce. Rose tolerated his Slytherin-ness, and in return they went back to being best friends.

With a small catch. The presence of Scorpius, ever Albus' double, was a constant thorn in her side. It quickly became apparent that the price of her cousin's friendship was going to be regular interaction with Malfoy, something Rose found hard to accept. She felt somewhat like she was betraying her father by spending so much time around the son of his arch nemesis. To rectify this, she adopted a policy of ignoring Scorpius entirely, as if he simply wasn't there, which proved quite successful. This angered Albus, and several arguments ensued, although as Rose pointed out, Scorpius didn't seem particularly perturbed by her attitude, and in the end that was all that mattered. Albus had eventually given up on trying to get his two best friends to talk, and so spent a lot of time juggling conversations between them. Rose would have felt sorry for him, but then he had brought it on himself by being sorted into Slytherin and making everything difficult, hadn't he?

The sound of laughter jerked her out of her thoughts and Rose realised with surprise that she had nearly wandered onto the pitch in her daydreaming. It was only the excited chatter of a few would-be Quidditch stars that finally got her attention. A little way away she spotted Albus, looking like a younger version of his father, his dark hair vivid against the green of his robes and pallor of his skin. He was tossing his broom from side to side, nervously. Beside him, as ever, was Scorpius Malfoy, his blonde hair windswept and messy. He looked up as she approached, an unfathomable expression on his face.

"Good luck Al," Rose said brightly, pointedly ignoring his companion. "When do they start?"

"Soon," her cousin gave her a small smile. "We'll go up in pairs to catch the snitch, and every time the loser gets eliminated, until there's only one left." He glanced sideways at Scorpius, who was staring off into the distance, looking bored. "Pretty tough competition this year."

"Hardly," she drawled, then blushed. Scorpius' eyes had snapped to her like magnets, and there was an intense defiance in their steely greyness that unsettled her. She couldn't help but feel like she had just issued him with a challenge he was determined to meet.

Albus was looking at her with a troubled expression. "Yeah, well, we'll see. James is up in the stands too if you want to sit with him."

"Okay, good luck," she pecked Albus on the cheek and turned away, feeling a little ashamed of herself. That had been a low blow, and she had a feeling her mother would be disappointed in her if she heard it.

"Heya Rosie," grinned James when she reached him. His eyes were narrowed on the players down below. "Pretty good turn-out this year, I reckon Slytherin might end up with a half-decent squad. Technically I'm not supposed to be here, what with being on the Gryffindor team and all, but I asked Flint for an exemption, cause of Albus, and he said it was okay."

Rose was hardly listening to him, watching the small figures of Albus and Scorpius down below. They appeared to be deep in discussion about something, and she had to swallow the ball of resentment that welled inside her.

"Be interesting to see Malfoy fly as well," something James was saying caught her attention and she looked at him. "Heard he's not half bad. And of course, our Dads were rival Seekers, back in the day."

"Yeah, but your Dad didn't have to bribe his way onto the team. His did," she hadn't meant to sound so catty. James raised his eyebrows at her.

"Sheesh Rose, I was just trying to pay the guy a compliment. Sometimes I forget what a little Gryffindor you are," he ruffled her hair as if this was a good thing, and she forced a smile.

There was indeed quite a lot of competition. Rose found it hard to believe that this many people were interested in playing Seeker for Slytherin. Admittedly, some of them were terrible. Albus' first opponent almost fell of his broom chasing what turned out to be a butterfly, and a ridiculously tiny third-year had to be taken back to the castle after he ran straight into a goalpost. But mostly they were good, and Rose was hard put at times to keep up with them. Albus was particularly skilful, although James by her side kept muttering about his turning. So too, she reluctantly admitted, was Scorpius.

"Wow, that kid can really fly," whistled James, as Scorpius completed a difficult dive and pulled out just at the last minute, the golden snitch clutched in his fist. The burly sixth year he was paired against kicked out wildly at the air, clearly furious at being beaten by a scrawny kid. "Albus'd better watch out, he's got some tough competition."

Rose blushed, thinking of her thoughtless comment earlier. Eventually the crowd of competitors was whittled down, Albus very narrowly defeating his last opponent and Scorpius covered in mud from a rather desperate nose dive, until the two second years, much to the astonishment of the spectators, were the only two contenders left. Still, no one could say they didn't deserve it. The Quidditch Referee, Madam Howler, directed the two boys to shake hands, which they did, exchanging crooked grins and a few words Rose would have liked to overhear. The air around the ground tensed noticeably as they readied themselves to fly, and even Rose found herself getting excited. Several of the more fancied Slytherin competitors were staying behind to watch and there were a fair number of neutrals in the stands as well; Rose even heard a couple of bets being placed on who would emerge victorious.

"There'll be a bludger too, see Rosie," said James, pointing to the ground where Madam Howler was preparing to release one of the fearsome balls. "And they get a Beater each. Now, this should be interesting."

A shrill whistle pierced the air, and Madam Howler stepped back, releasing both the bludger and the snitch. Albus and Scorpius pushed off from the ground together, their robes billowing around them, eyes peering into the afternoon light in search of a glint of gold. Rose chewed her fingernail.

She wasn't sure if it was because they were using a faster snitch, or the bludger was interfering with their efforts, or they were just particularly adept at blocking one another's movements, but neither boy seemed able to spot the snitch. Now and again one of them would jerk forward as if he spotted something, but either it would be a false alarm, or the other would get in the way and distract them long enough for the snitch to be lost again. At the same time, the bludger charged between them, harassing them. More than once Scorpius was forced to perform a difficult mid-air manoeuvre in order to avoid being flattened. Rose thought his Beater, a sullen looking boy she didn't recognise, was quite a lot more incompetent than Albus', who had barely had to worry about the bludger at all. Scorpius seemed to share her opinion, for after hanging upside down and nearly getting his head taken off, she saw him yelling angrily in the direction of his Beater, half a pitch away.

Then, mid-yell, Scorpius' face changed. He was high above them, but Rose could clearly see the wild look of excitement which flashed in his eyes. He had seen the snitch, and the look of determination on his face told her that this time he was going for it.

She opened her mouth to cry out to Albus, but James put a hand on her arm. "Don't Rose," he said. "Let them do it by themselves." She nodded and bit her lip instead.

Scorpius hurtled towards the snitch, moving so quickly through the air he was nothing but a blur of green. Below him, Albus noticed and began speeding in the same direction. As he had been in a better position to start with, he was not all that disadvantaged by Malfoy's head start. The two of them were practically neck and neck, hurtling so fast towards the stands Rose was sure they were going to crash. Yet she couldn't tear her eyes away.

Then, at the last minute, just when Rose was about to duck her head into James shoulder, unable to watch her cousin injure himself, Albus yanked his broom upwards with a violent tug, missing the collision by a hair's breadth. Scorpius, however, charged toward the stands as if he didn't see them, and Rose just had time to see a glint of gold disappear inside his fist, before he collided against the side of the podium at full speed, barely managing to turn enough to shield his face from the impact. There was a sickening crunch, and bits of splintered wood and torn fabric exploded into the air around him. Clinging to his broom with one hand, Scorpius wobbled slowly toward the ground, his left arm hanging uselessly out of its socket. He landed on his knees in the mud, white faced and shaking, but Rose saw a triumphant grin plastered on his face nonetheless.

"I got it," he declared, his voice travelling up to where she and James sat in shock, trying to process what had just happened. Albus landed next to his friend, his face a mixture of disappointment and concern. "I caught the snitch."

Then, still grinning like a madman, he collapsed face first into the mud.