Chapter Six

First Year

A week has passed since the night I heard that terrifying voice. Luckily, I never heard it again. On the plus side my detention average lessened thanks to all the gifts I got for my birthday. Dasha's hair and makeup spell book saved me from being late most days of the week. Eowyn's gift also saved me from having to loudly whisper across classrooms. Unfortunately there were a few days I got detention and I was always from my favorite teacher. Jake was extremely wrong when he said Snape always favored Slytherins and I was living proof of that. I've become about as equal to a Gryffindor in his class. He seemed to be hating me more and more each day.

The other day in class...didn't go so well. I don't know why  I did it. Snape was the one professor who gave me unnecessary detentions. One time it was because I didn't turn to the page fast enough. The next time was because I turned my head for a second to look at the clock. Snape went out of his way to find minor things to fault me on.  I decided to put Dasha's book to good use during class the other day. When Snape turned his back, I muttered a curling spell under my breath. Quickly you could see Snape's greasy black hair turning into ringlet curls just like Lockhart's.

I wasn't doing it as a prank necessarily, because that would have been pathetic for me. I just needed to practice a few of the harder ones and I wasn't going to test it out on myself. A few students began laughing under their breathes, mostly Eowyn. Dasha didn't seem to find it too funny. "Something funny?" Snape asked coldly turning around. "Would you like to tell me what is going on?" He asked looking at his favorite Slytherin, Christina Hammond, who was biting her lip from laughing.

"Er, your hair sir," she said while obviously trying to keep from laughing. Snape eyed the class dangerously, pausing on me for a second, and then he turned to the mirror by the classroom sink. Danger flashed in his eyes as he turned around. He was walking slowly towards me...crap. How did he know it was me? Time to put on my innocent act and act like I had no idea what was going on.

"Ms. Nyx," Snape sneered coldly. The calmness to his tone was even scarier than his yelling voice.

"Yes?" I asked innocently.

"Do you have something to say?"

"No sir," I said without a sign of guilt on my face. I've perfected lying over the years, or as I prefer to call it, 'acting'.

"Oh really?" Snape asked dangerously and knocked my potions book off the table to reveal the hairstyling book hidden underneath. My eyes widened. Rule number one when pulling pranks, hide all evidence against yourself and put the blame on an enemy. If only I had time to levitate the book over towards Christina... Damn. Missed a great opportunity right there. Snape picked the book up and held it far away from me.  "You can get this back from the Headmaster's office. And you can add another week of detention with Filch," Snape sneered.

He turned around and walked back towards the board, using a spell to put his hair back to normal along the way. Everyone was looking at me. Christina was smirking widely at my punishment while Eowyn looked like she felt sorry for me. Dasha was just giving me that motherly look of disapproval. I let my head fall onto the table and groaned, not another week with Filch! He's making up chores for me to do because I've done everything else so far. At my detention last night he made me ask all the portraits, every single one, if they saw anyone causing trouble.

I woke up that morning with the light shining in my eyes again. I hated when people left the curtains open. I looked over and saw Eowyn was out cold, clearly the sun didn't have any effect on her. Dasha was at the library as usual because it was Sunday morning and that's when she said it was most quiet. I looked to my left and saw Christina, Amelie, and Celina getting their weekend 'beauty sleep'. Our dorm was divided into two sides, and we did not get along too well. At first I thought we would have just ignored one another but they started making snide comments and I couldn't refrain from responding.

I got up and decided to go to the owl post. I wanted to send Silvius a letter, asking if my parents have gotten any letters about my detentions. I was worried. Snape has really been on my case lately. I wouldn't be surprised if he personally owled my parents home. He sure would save Draco Malfoy the trouble of doing it himself. I was walking up the stairs when they decided to change on me again, crap! My foot slipped and I started to lose balance. This was going to hurt. An arm grabbed me and pulled me back onto the steps. I sighed with relief, that could have been messy. I turned around expecting to see Jake, he was usually the one who saved me from my falls, but when I turned around I was face to face with cold gray eyes. "Watch yourself Nyx," Draco snapped annoyed.

"Okay because I totally did that on purpose," I replied sarcastically. I took a few steps back, far away from the edge. I really did need to be more careful on these stairs.

"I never knew that your talent was falling," he responded in the same tone he always uses.

"Oh please," I replied rolling my eyes. "I have more talent than you." My comebacks were slacking. It was way to early for an argument with Draco.

"Oh really?" he scoffed with a laugh. "And what might that be?"

"Quidditch," I said quickly without thinking. Crap...crap, crap, crap! I should not have said that, but it was the first thing to come to my mind. All I was thinking of was sending a letter to Silvius which made me think of my broom. I decided to go along with it, there was no going back now. I didn't let it show on my face that I knew I just made a big mistake.

"Quidditch, are you joking?" he laughed sarcastically. "Alright, well why don't you try out for the house team if you're so talented?" I really should not have said Quidditch...now he's never going to let that go.

"I can't I'm a first year," I replied in fake disappointment, hoping to get myself out of it.

"I'll talk to the captain, you see, my father has made a very generous donation to the Quidditch team, so I'll probably be able to pull a few strings," he smirked at me and then turned around. "Try-out's are this Wednesday," he said walking off. "Don't be late."

It was Wednesday afternoon, the day I was going to embarrass myself to death because of my big mouth with Draco. The team agreed to let me try-out, although I'm not sure the point of it because the same seven players from last year were all trying out as well. I'm pretty sure they were doing it for a good laugh, which I hope they didn't get because I really don't think I'm that bad. I'm definitely not the best player though. I've been practicing with Gabe almost every free second when I should have been doing my homework. If anything, I wish I could've gotten detention today but no such luck. Gabe said I've improved miraculously in the past few days. When Gabe is Quidditch captain for Gryffindor soon, he joked that he's going to force Dumbledore to put me on their team. So I guess that's good then? I was heading out of the common room with my broom when I bumped into someone. "Sorry," I looked up and saw big brown eyes. Jake was standing in front of me with Nico, Gabe, and Cal. "What are you guys doing here?" I asked.

"We're coming with you to your try-out," Jake said like it was an obvious fact.

"Why do you have your brooms with you?" I asked confused. If they were just coming to watch why did they need to bring everything?

 "Oh, you'll see," Gabe said with a smirk.

 We made our way down to the Quidditch Pitch. I saw the white-blond hair of Draco standing with his back to the entrance. He was dressed in full Quidditch gear. Marcus Flint was the first to see me and my friends, "What are they doing here?" he called out. Draco spun around with a flash of jealousy, but it quickly turned to anger, maybe it was just my imagination.

"I didn't think you'd bring an audience Nyx," Draco shot at me. "That's a lot of people to embarrass yourself in front of."

"We're not her audience," Jake shot back. "We're going to help her try-out."

"What, Draco did you know about this?" Flint asked confused, even I looked at Jake and the rest confused.

"Well," Jake started before Draco could say anything. "We were thinking that you would somehow make the try-out unfair. So we came up with a plan, tell him Gabe." He said patting Gabe on the shoulder.

"Us," Gabe said motioning to the five of us. "Against you."

"Seven against five?" Draco asked with a laugh, "Almost too easy, but it's not part of the tryout."

"Make it five against five. One keeper, two beaters, one seeker, and one chaser." Gabe said. "Then it will prove that she is the better chaser than whoever you select, so pick your best." I looked at him like he lost his mind. Some of these chasers have been playing for six years. I've been playing for maybe a good six days at most.

The Slytherin team huddled together and then Draco turned around with a smirk on his face, "Alright then. Mount your brooms."

Nico was playing as seeker because of his quick eyesight, Cal and Jake were playing as beaters, Gabe was obviously keeper, and I was the only chaser. On the opposing team there was Draco as seeker, some sixth year girl with black hair that I've never met as keeper, two burly looking seventh years as beaters, and Marcus Flint as chaser. The game began, the Quaffle was released into the air. Luckily I grabbed it, but on the downside Flint was coming full speed at me. I ducked quickly out of the way with the Quaffle still intact and made my way towards the rings. I was so close when I noticed a bludger flying my way, even if I ducked it wouldn't have mattered because it was coming so fast, then suddenly someone flew by me on a broom and hit it towards Flint, nearly knocking him off his broom. Jake turned around and winked at me. I smiled and then shot the goal. To my amusement it actually went it. It took my a second to process that I scored. Gabe gave me a thumbs up. I looked over at Draco who looked shocked, I smirked at him and then we continued to play.

The game was coming close to an end. We played for over an hour and a half, it was getting more intense by the minute. Quidditch was so much fun, I loved the adrenaline rush and energetic atmosphere. I lost track of the score, either their keeper was really bad or I was actually improving. Who knew practicing would help? Maybe I should try studying. "Game over," someone yelled, I looked quickly and saw that Draco was holding the snitch. I sighed, so much for winning. I landed my broom near the guys who were looking extremely happy.

"Why are you happy?" I asked disappointed. I was hoping that we had a chance to prove them wrong. "Malfoy just won the game."

"So," Jake laughed. "Take a look at the score board." I quickly turned around to see a glance of the Slytherin team looking extremely disappointed, They were huddled in deep conversation. I looked at the scoreboard. It was one hundred and fifty for the home team and one hundred and thirty for the visitors. Malfoy caught the snitch and won the game, but our score was still very close to theirs. Jake waved his hand in front of my face

"How were we that close?" I asked shocked. We nearly tied them.

"You scored more than enough goals. Even though they won, look how close we were!" Gabe laughed and then we looked over at the Slytherin team. Even though Draco caught the snitch, we were a mere twenty points a way from beating them. I can see why they were unhappy.

Draco and Flint were making their way over towards us, looking angry and disappointed all at the same time. Somehow, they were still smugly walking towards us. The rest of the team followed closely behind and were glaring at me angrily. I suppose that's a no to joining their team then. "We want to talk to her," Draco sneered up at Jake and Gabe. They didn't move. "Alone," he snapped. I nodded at Jake that it was fine, the four of them backed away towards the bleachers. I turned back around. "Alright Nyx," Draco said coldly. "You're in." I looked at him confused.

"In what...?" I asked glancing around confused.

"The team," he replied annoyed. "You've made the team, happy?" Shock took over me once more, but then I snapped back to reality.

"Thanks, but no thanks. There is no way that I'm playing on this team," I said motioning towards the Slytherins with a smirk. Well, at least I proved my point. I turned to walk away, hoping Jake and the rest of the guys would follow me. Draco grabbed my arm to swing me around.

"Come with me for a second," he said pulling me aside towards the bleachers so no one could hear what he was going to say. I followed him, interested to what he had to say. Maybe he was going to apologizing for doubting my 'talent'. "Alright, listen here. You either join the team or I write a little letter to my father and get you sent back home." I glared at him furiously. So no apology then? "I'll take that as a yes." We walked back over, well, I dragged myself back over. Draco was going to keep carrying this out. I couldn't be mad, because I actually liked playing Quidditch but they were going to suck all of the fun out of it. Plus I hated Draco telling me what to do. "Okay, she's on the team," he said to them.

"Donald's you're out," Flint said pointing to one of the girl chasers who filled up with tears and stormed out of there. She practically dislocated my shoulder during her exit. I regained my balance and put a hand on my likely bruised shoulder. "We practice every Wednesday, possibly more nearing games. We have a game against Gryffindor on Saturday," Flint said and then walked away with the rest of the team, most of them glaring at me. I could already see the fun. Draco turned to give me one more satisfied look. He was the one wanted to bet that I wasn't going to be good enough to make the team. Somehow I managed to prove him wrong but even when he loses he wins!

Bitterly, I turned on my heel and walked back towards the guys. They were smiling and Jake was even laughing. "What is so funny?" I asked them not seeing the humor in any of this.

"We knew you'd make the team," Gabe said. "I told you they only cared about winning. They'd find a way put Neville on their team if he could score a goal like you!" I couldn't help but laugh, I suppose they were right all along. The five of us left the Quidditch pitch.