Scorpius prepared himself as Rose drew nearer and nearer. He had learned his lesson now; no niceties, no small talk. For the rest of this match, these weren't his friends. He was ready to take Rose on, but Albus came up from what seemed like nowhere and flew directly in front of Rose, so suddenly and so last minute that she had no option but to dive directly down to avoid a collision.
"And that's Potter A pulling one of his mother's signature moves—Granger-Weasley fumbles with the Quaffle as she tries to pull out of her sharp dive—Potter A with the Quaffle!"
"Yes!" Scorpius cheered. He squinted harder against the blinding sun and tried to watch what was happening. Albus zipping through players...Albus avoiding a reluctant Bludger from James...Albus taking his shot... "YES!"
"That's ten to ten as Potter A scores Slytherin's first goal of the match! Not bad timing, either, Slytherin needs to quickly gain those points as the search for the snitch continues...new Slytherin Seeker Rowle appears to be relaxing near the clouds, not sure if he's even looking for anything at all...Potter L is doing her signature prowling around the pitch, no sight of the Snitch yet, but Slytherin needs to—OI! Brutal Bludger sent close-range towards Thomas's head, looks like Avery's not playing by Stinton's strategies any longer—Potter J leaps in front of it....OH!"
The sun had moved into Scorpius's line of vision, so he couldn't see what happened, but he heard the horrifying smack. Urgent whistling followed from the ground.
"Potter J's bat snaps in half from the force of the full-on hit! He's lucky it was the bat and not his ribs or head! He was nearly knocked from his broom, but Thomas flew up behind him and caught him before he tumbled backwards, and Ginny Potter has signaled a foul for Avery's malicious Bludger, though the fact that her son nearly took a bat-snapping blow to the chest might possibly be influencing her anger—"
Scorpius dared to fly a bit lower so that the sun was partially blocked by one of the spectators' stands. He watched as Nora, James, Jacques, and Cyprus Avery landed in front of Ginny. There was furious gesturing, what looked like shouting, and it cumulated with Ginny awarding Gryffindor a penalty shot, much to the outrage of Avery. Scorpius took advantage of the continued distraction and turned his eyes to the staff stand. There were the commentators, the Headmistress, Harry—
Scorpius grinned. His dad, sitting somewhat uncomfortably between Harry and Hermione, squinting down at the commotion with his lips pursed into a thin line. Scorpius fought back the childish urge to wave his hands in the air and yell 'Dad! Dad! Hi!'.
"Looks as if the argument has finished up. Players are back in the air...the Gryffindor Captain is discussing which Chaser will take the penalty shot...Wood is given the Quaffle!"
Scorpius flew back up in front of the goals. As Ben drew nearer, Scorpius wrestled with what to do. His heart was telling him to do the moral thing and let Ben have the shot—because Avery should not have been as aggressive as he was—but his pride was telling him to block it. His dad was watching. He wanted his dad to see him do a good job. But he didn't want Nora or James to think he didn't stand by them—because he did. He did stand by them. He would always—
For better or for worse, he acted on instinct. Ben threw the Quaffle hard, pulling Scorpius roughly from his inner debate, and Scorpius felt himself throw his body forward on his broom in order to zoom over into the Quaffle's path. He caught it by the tips of his fingers. Afterwards, he was so stunned to find himself holding the Quaffle that he hardly heard the cheers of his teammates.
"Malfoy catches the Quaffle—that's that!"
Scorpius risked sinking down low again, so the sun was less of a vision hindrance. He sought his dad out. He was cheering loudly (along with Harry!). Scorpius beamed.
"Nice save!" Ben yelled over his shoulder.
He was vaguely aware that Ben might have let him intercept the shot because he was one of 'Evvie's Slytherins', but Scorpius still beamed in response. Ben was long gone, but he still yelled back towards him: "Really? Thanks!"
The game seemed to speed up after that point. It got very intense very quickly. James and Roxanne seemed to be more focused on deflecting Nott and Avery's Bludgers than going after the Slytherin Chasers actually making goals. After a Bludger nearly knocked Ben from his broom (he had to flatten himself to it to keep from taking a hit to his face), James gave up every pretense of actually trying to win, and decided trailing after the Slytherin Beaters to intercede every single Bludger was the better move. And it may've been for the wellbeing of his teammates, but it certainly wasn't for their score. Albus and Stinton took advantage of the Gryffindor team's frustrations and scored goal after goal. Nora and Ben scored one a piece, but Avery and Nott's brutal Beating was making it near suicidal to venture towards the Slytherin's side—even with James and Roxanne tirelessly deflecting.
"Some absolutely hostile Beating happening here, the sort that would be well-suited in a professional match," Zola Burke commented. "Avery and Nott have managed to take near complete control over their side of the pitch with little regard to human safety; the Gryffindor Chasers can't get close enough to even hope to make a goal. With the score at 180 to 30, Gryffindor needs another goal and the Snitch if they have any hope of winning this match, or the Gryffindor Beaters are going to have to abandon the defense and retake offense. A few Bludgers towards Stinton and Potter A would significantly change the tide of the match, leaving all of us wondering what Potter J and Weasley are waiting for..."
Suddenly, a red blur shot past Scorpius so quickly that his robes billowed up. Scorpius followed Lily's zooming motion around the pitch with a sinking heart. Well, so much for winning.
"POTTER L HAS SEEN THE SNITCH!" Nolan Carmichael cried. "She's on the trail! Rowle finally stopped cloud gazing and has set off in her path! Down she weaves—bit sharp left there—her hand is outstretched—Nott is aiming a hit—Potter J is trying to fly in front of her but it doesn't appear that he'll make it in time—oooh!" A sharp intake of breath seemed to spread around the entire pitch. "Nott sends a well-timed Bludger Potter L's way and it slams right into her outstretched arm, absolutely shattering it, sending her corkscrewing through the air—"
Scorpius forewent all pretenses of actually playing his position for a moment. He lowered back down and scanned the pitch. Lily was gripping her broom with one hand, her other arm held awkwardly at her side. It was clearly broken, and she was visibly grimacing and was possibly crying, but her eyes were still locked in on something...
"I think she's still got the Snitch in sight!" cried Burke.
Scorpius, like everybody else, was watching in mute trepidation as Lily continued her chase. Rowle was right behind her now, urging his broom further; he was flattened to it in his quest to gain on Lily. Lily's hair whipped wildly behind her. Scorpius caught the glint of gold in front of Lily and realized, with a sickening jump to his heart, that the Snitch was right there....and that Lily would have to take her hand off the broom to catch it.
The entire pitch realized that at the same moment Scorpius did. There were worried cries as she tightened her thighs around the broom and pulled her good hand off of it, leaving her flying without hands. She swayed alarmingly at the waist due to her eye-watering speed. She tried to use her injured arm to hold on, but quickly took weight off it seconds later. She'd rounded the pitch and she was flying closer and closer to Scorpius now. He could make out the determined furrow of her brow above her glinting glasses. She straightened her back, tightened her legs again, and reached her good hand back out towards the Snitch. Rowle gained a few crucial feet and came up beside her. Lily glanced at him, taking her eyes off the Snitch. Her body swayed alarmingly. She looked from Caden, to the Snitch, back to Caden—
"Did he just...!" Zola Burke broke off, incredulous. "AND THAT'S 190 – 30 AS POTTER A TAKES MACMILLAN OFF GUARD WITH A GOAL AS POTTER L NARROWS IN ON THE SNITCH—"
"NO!" Nolan Carmichael cried. "If Potter L catches the Snitch now, Gryffindor will lose by ten points!"
But Scorpius doubted Lily even heard them. She was so intent on catching the snitch before Caden that she was inching forward on her broom, her arm still extended, her broken one still clutched to her body. But it wasn't enough. Her unsteadiness was making her flight path a bit shaky, and that was slowing her down just enough to give Caden the upper hand. He was going to bypass her at any moment—
Scorpius let out a shriek that the entire pitch seemed to echo. His heart plunged.
"POTTER L LITERALLY THROWS HERSELF FROM HER BROOM MID-AIR LIKE AN UTTER MADMAN—SHE'S GOING TO HIT THE GROUND—GINNY POTTER IS SHOOTING THROUGH THE AIR—OH! THOMAS CATCHES POTTER L ONLY A FEW FEET FROM THE GROUND AND—UNBELIEVABLE!"
Excited cries echoed, but they weren't coming from the Gryffindors. Lily was leaning weakly against Nora's chest, the struggling Snitch held firmly in her upheld fist. She was beaming. Nora was not.
"POTTER L HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH, BUT SLYTHERIN WINS 190 – 180! Oh, that's absolute—" Nolan Carmichael broke off into vehement swearing.
Scorpius ignored his airborne, cheering teammates and dove straight for the ground. He spotted Albus doing the same from the corner of his eye.
"Magnificent example of hubris here today—we'll certainly be talking about this match all season," Zola Burke said, indifferent to Nolan Carmichael's nearby cursing.
Scorpius landed a bit too hard. His arches expanded painfully. He stumbled and nearly toppled forward. As soon as he'd righted himself, he darted over towards where Lily was. She was draped across Nora's lap, gripping her broken arm and moaning what sounded like fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck—
"Lily!" Ginny shouted. She dropped from her broom before she'd even landed, landing hard on her feet as Scorpius had done. She fell down onto her knees beside Nora and Lily and reached out, but she didn't need to touch Lily's arm to tell anything. It was clear that it was broken from the puffy, swollen skin and peculiar angle. Scorpius hurried over and sank down beside Ginny. He vaguely registered James and Albus joining them.
"What were you thinking?!" James yelled.
"Fuckfuckfuckfuck—I didn't—fuckfuckfuck—know that Al scored again!" Lily shot back through gritted teeth.
"Is it broken?" Albus asked. He leaned over Lily and poked her swollen arm. She let out an almighty shriek. "Yeah, it's broken."
"YEAH?!" she shouted in his face, her eyes streaming. "REALLY?"
"I WAS NOT TALKING ABOUT THE SCORE, LILY!" James fumed. "You can't play Catapult Lily during a real Quidditch match! And you especially can't play that without warning Nora and me ahead of time that we're playing! What if she'd been further away and hadn't caught you?!"
"I—knew she'd catch me," Lily choked out between whimpers. She caught sight of something over Scorpius's shoulder. Her face opened with relief and hope. "Dad!"
"LULU!" Harry fell to his knees a bit early and went literally sliding across the grass, probably hard enough to give himself friction burns. Lily collapsed into his opened arms at once. He smoothed her hair. "Are you okay?"
"Nooo," Lily moaned pitifully into Harry's shoulder. Ginny shook her head and mimed snapping something to inform Harry that Lily's arm was indeed broken.
"Where's Madam Pomfrey?!" Scorpius worried. He looked around for her, but he didn't see her. Instead, he spotted Caden's blond head weaving towards them.
"That was brilliant," Caden greeted. He stopped in front of Harry and Lily. Lily leaned back and looked up at Caden, her face hard and threatening. His smirk didn't waver. "I think I developed about three more crushes on you just from watching it. Daring, provocative, and my team still won—how do you do it?"
"Get out of here!" Harry roared at once. He tightened his arm around Lily protectively. "Not the time, Rowle! She's INJURED! Flirt later!"
"Fine, fine, injured, right...I'll go and get chocolates," Caden said.
"Ooh, yeah, get me some chocolate," Lily agreed, between groans of pain. Caden shook his head and walked off snickering.
"Scorpius, you can fix her!" Albus said suddenly.
Scorpius shook his head. "No, no, no no no—"
"You can! You've mended a bone before!"
"A finger!" Scorpius squeaked.
"So an arm's like a really big finger!"
"No, Albus, it's not!"
"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck—"
"Where the hell is Madam Pomfrey?!" Ginny exploded. She looked around them. "Did anybody even think to send for her?! James! Nora! Will you go figure out where she is?"
"Yes, on it!"
Albus was still on the a-finger-is-like-an-arm argument.
"It is like a finger, it's...bendy!" Albus persisted. He lifted his index finger and bent it at the middle knuckle. He lifted his arm and bent it at his elbow. "See?"
Scorpius was overcome with mind-shrinking anxiety at even the thought of trying the bone mending spell on a major bone for the first time on Lily Potter.
"No, I do not see! An arm is an arm, a finger is a finger, a head is a head, a neck is a neck, a penis is a penis—!" Scorpius halted his anxious explosion a few seconds too late. Oh no.
"Whoa!" Lily shrieked. She clapped her good hand over one of her ears. "Whoa! I'M THIRTEEN! NO PENISES!"
Scorpius shot a horrified look at the Potter parents, but Harry was too busy looking proudly at Lily to notice Scorpius's slip up, and Ginny looked like she was genuinely considering mending Lily's arm herself. She was murmuring underneath her breath and staring hard at Lily's arm, her wand in hand.
"SORRY!" Scorpius blurted loudly.
"I never said a penis is like a finger, Scorpius," Albus defended. "Of course it's not."
"We do not need another visual example!" Lily warned. She hissed as Ginny gently lifted her broken arm. "Owwww, ow, ow! Merlin's shitty cat—OW, MUM!"
"WOULD YOU ALL JUST CALM DOWN?!" Ginny finally shouted. It was loud enough that it got everybody's attention. All eyes landed on Ginny. "Thank you! I can't think straight with you lot shrieking and swearing and bickering about penises—ferula."
Scorpius watched as bandages appeared out of thin air and magically secured Lily's broken arm to a splint.
"A bit better?" Ginny asked.
Lily sniffed and nodded. "Yeah."
Ginny reached forward and gently wiped the tears from Lily's face. Scorpius felt a severe, sickening surge of longing for home and his mum. But he had to push that thought away (he was always pushing it away). There would be no end to it.
"One of us could probably mend it," Harry said to Ginny, his arm still tightly around Lily, "but maybe we should wait for Pomfrey."
"We are waiting for Pomfrey!" Lily said sharply. "This is my Snitch arm! I can't risk losing all my bones!"
"Your dad and I wouldn't vanish your bones, we're not Lockhart," Ginny scoffed. But she made no move to try and mend Lily's arm, either. "I suppose we could start walking towards the Hospital Wing, we're bound to cross paths with her..."
They all began clambering to their feet, but it was unnecessary. A moment later, James and Nora came sprinting towards them, Pomfrey in tow. As Scorpius turned back around to glance at Lily, he spotted white-blond hair. He turned back around and scanned his eyes in the same direction. His dad was standing on the edges of the pitch with Hermione, both talking quietly together, their worried eyes directed on the grass. If they were worried about Lily, why weren't they over here seeing how she was?
Scorpius nudged Albus.
"Look," he said.
While Pomfrey tended to Lily, Scorpius pointed towards his dad and Albus's aunt.
"They look upset," Albus noted.
"Yeah, I thought so, too. About Lily?"
"No way. They've both seen way worse than a broken arm," Albus said. "Let's go ask."
"They won't tell us. They never tell us anything anymore," Scorpius complained. But Albus tugged on his arm and pulled him over to Hermione and Draco, anyway. Scorpius noticed his gait seemed even stronger today; soon he'd been completely better, and that thought made Scorpius have to bite back a grin (he didn't think it'd look good to onlookers if he was beaming while Lily Potter was injured).
"Hi, Aunt Hermione," Albus greeted. "Hi, Draco."
They stopped speaking at once. They straightened and looked to Scorpius and Albus.
"Hello boys," Hermione greeted.
Scorpius's dad stepped forward. With a smile, he opened his arms questioningly, clearly unsure whether a brief hug would be okay with Scorpius while they were in front of all his classmates. Scorpius answered the unspoken question by stepping into his dad's arms and hugging him tightly.
And then:
"I'm so proud of you," his dad said quietly.
Scorpius felt his heart widen so much that it felt like it might burst up his throat. He didn't let go of his dad until he was certain he wouldn't tear up.
"Did you see Albus?" he asked Draco, once he'd stepped back. "Sneaking in that goal, I'll bet all the Slytherins are so....happy."
He ended his sentence on a weaker note, because it'd just occurred to him that this would not do much to discourage all the girls who'd developed crushes on the Boy Who Survived.
"It was great, Albus," Draco said. Scorpius glanced to Albus; he'd smiled in response to Draco's compliment. "But the Gryffindors are going to want your head, you know."
"Yeah, I know," Albus assured him. "I don't care."
Draco arched an eyebrow. "No?"
"No. I've already died. What else could they do to me?" Albus said.
Scorpius's dad smiled, but it was a sort of strained smile. For a moment, he was looking at Albus like he was seeing somebody completely different.
"You're a lot like your dad," he told Albus finally. "In more than just looks."
Albus sighed, but he still had a smile tugging at his lips. "Yeah, I'm told."
Albus turned his focus towards harassing Hermione for information, but Scorpius was still watching his dad. Judging by the soft, concerned way he was watching Albus, Scorpius guessed that, in his dad's mind, being a lot like Harry wasn't necessary a great thing.
The Gryffindors, as it turned out, didn't want Albus's head. They wanted the Gryffindor Keeper's. Scorpius was certain they wouldn't have been that logical about it had it been any Slytherin but the Potter Slytherin that had made the goal. He couldn't see them easily forgiving it if it'd been Martes; he'd have been burned at the stake by the Gryffindors even if the fault did rest on Macmillan's shoulders.
"Nice goal," a passing Gryffindor told Albus. "Don't know what Macmillan was thinking, not watching the goals with the score so close..." he walked off shaking his head and murmuring underneath his
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