A Harry Potter Fanfic by Didodikali
Rowling's characters do not belong to me!
However these pictures are mine.
Rated PG-13.

Chapter Three.
Quidditch Equipment
When you look at a garden, do you look at the thorns or the flowers?
~Rumi


Lily was supposed to meet me later on in the dungeons so we could work on our Potions labwork together. I arrived several hours early so I could work on my independent study project. Everybody does their Potions labwork at the last minute so I had the whole morning and into the afternoon all to myself to...

"You're playing. Oh, that's so cuuuuuute!" Lily had entered silently and was looking at me surrounded by scrolls and cutting boards and cauldrons and... Actually I'd made quite a mess. Over the course of the day, my project had taken over several tables. And I still hadn't gotten it to work.

I glared at her. "Sod off." I looked at the familiar clipboard she'd pulled out of her bookbag. "How's your project coming?"

Lily sat down next to me and grinned. "My Charms project has mutated. You want to help me for minute?"

Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. "Sure," I said. One day I will learn to trust my instincts. Just ...not yet.

"Okay, watch this. Nothing up my sleeves..." Lily stood, pushed up her sleeves to show me her bare arms and giggled. Strange girl. She pulled a bunch of grapes out of her bookbag and set them on the table. She rifled through the pages of her clipboard, took out a small square of tinfoil and showed me both sides; they were written all over with runes in red ink. They looked like the figures she'd had drawn around the chalk circle from the last time I'd had a glimpse of her final project.

She plucked a grape, wrapped it in the square of foil, set it before me and tapped it with her wand. I missed whatever words she said, entranced by the way the runes on the crumpled silver foil lightened and spread until the entire sphere was mirror bright. "All done," she said. Lily reached into the shelves under the lab table, pulled out a heavy granite mortar and pushed it towards me. "Squish it," she said, nodding towards her foil-covered grape.

I picked up the stone cup and slammed it down on the grape. It went TINK and did not squish. Interesting...

She marked something down on her clipboard. "Again."

I repeated the TINK a couple more times at her request and on the fourth TINK it failed, leaving grape juice splattered across the table. The foil disintegrated into flakes of silver light and was gone.

Lily leaned forward excitedly. "Hey, it didn't explode! Good to know."

"What! It might have exploded? And you asked me to test it!? Nice, Evans, real nice!"

"Relax, Sev. There was only a 0.000025% chance that the last hit would've made the universe collapse. Nothing to worry about. Here, have a grape." She nudged the bunch over to me and scribbled on her clipboard furiously.

I regarded the green fruitlets and then her with belated paranoia. "Are they poisoned?"

I swear, her laugh drives me right up the wall. She grabbed a handful of the grapes and crammed them in her mouth which mostly smothered the laugh, thank Merlin.

I started cleaning up my mess so we could get on with our lab assignment. Lily watched me box the leftover ingredients I had prepared. "You think you'll win the Potions award this year?" she asked.

"I don't know. I don't really care," I said. I didn't quite get the highest marks in Potions. I could have, but I didn't. The girl who did had a deft hand and great memorization skills, but she was quite happy just following the directions. Poppy was never tempted to fiddle with a recipe, whereas it pissed me off to just blindly follow a book when I already knew I could do it in my sleep and if I just changed some little thing it might maybe... Yes all right, my occasional classroom improvisations didn't always work, but sometimes they did. Poppy is a drone and I'm an artist. If the idiots who run this school weren't going to give the award to me then it was an empty honour anyway.

I poured my experiments for the day down the sink and started scrubbing the cauldrons. Lily was still watching me. She said, "You're going to continue with Potions after you leave school." It was not quite a question and it made me laugh.

"Yes," I said, grinning. It was like asking me if I was planning on doing any breathing later. "Of course."

"You're lucky. I still don't know what I want to do," she said sadly.

I stood there with my hands in the sink, looking at her out of the corner of my eye. Lily was my partner in Potions by default. Despite the extra points I pulled in for whoever got partnered with me, no one else was willing to put up with my experimenting that led to occasional eruptions and frequent cauldron meltings. And I did rather appreciate having a partner who didn't complain about what I just couldn't help doing. And she'd been my partner now for years. I said, "I bet you do know what you want to do, but it's just so bizarre that you won't tell anyone what it is."

She flushed a violent pink that clashed rather badly with her hair.

"Ha. You may as well just tell me. It can't possibly be any worse than being a sticky little Potions geek."

She looked at her feet. "I want to be a Quidditch coach," she said.

"Like Miss Hooch!? Merlin! No wonder you won't tell anyone!"

She looked rueful. "I told James. He said it'd be a waste, that I ought to be an Auror or something. But I think I'd make a great Quidditch coach. Or even a Quidditch commentator."

"Well, hell must be freezing over right now, but I have to agree with Potter. You'd make a great Auror."

Her brows came together. "It's so weird that you and James don't understand. I mean, you both play. Why can't you see the attraction of a job that has something to do with our favorite sport?"

"Quidditch is not my favorite sport," I said and went back to scrubbing the cauldrons.

"What is? Cricket? Footie?" she asked. I think she's trying to change the subject, poor girl.

I cocked my head at her. "What's footie?"

"You're failing Muggle Studies again, aren't you."

"I am not!" Bloody hell. One failing mark back in second year and the reputation sticks with you for the rest of your life.

"So, what is your favorite sport? Give me a clue," said Lily.

"Um.....Well, I've done six years of summer camp at Durmstrang."

She wrinkled her nose at me. "You call that a clue?"

"Forget Muggle Studies. You must be failing History of Magic. They only have one sport at Durmstrang. Well, besides ubiquitous Quidditch..."

"Are you any good?" she asked.

I looked down my nose at her. "What do you think?"

And then some other students came in to do their Potions labwork and Lily and I stopped wasting time talking and actually did our labwork, too.




"Is that a muggle elastic band?"

It was actually. I'd bought it at a Sainsbury. With a blasphemous Muggle tuppence even. "It's an elastic band. Why do you even give an airborne intercourse, Lucky? You need to get out more," I said.

Lucius purpled and disappeared behind a row of lockers. Merlin, I hate filling in for the regular team's Beater. There's no camaraderie on this team.




Remus was sick, but I decided to take practice with Sev without a spotter anyway. I was intentionally going to let a Bludger hit me today and why worry Remus by letting him see that.

Our practice hour was almost over. Time to do it. Even though he was my only opponent on the field, Sev is quite a good Beater. It was very intense to be the only focus of all that vicious energy. It wasn't a question of waiting for a likely ball to come near, just picking when I'd like to stop dodging. I moved so that the next incoming Bludger hit me right in the breast.

CLANG!

Sev's black eyes glared at me from across the Quidditch pitch. He swooped over to fly beside me. "I couldn't help but notice. ....Clang?"

"Yep," I said.

"May I ask? Are you carrying your wand or have you done some kind of transfiguration?" His voice was implacable. Wand use and most other assistive magics are illegal during a game and Sev plays Quidditch strictly by the rules.

"Neither. Aluminium undershirt. I made it myself with my new armouring charm. It just doesn't seem fair that it's only the boys who get to wear protective underclothing."

"Um...right," he said and blushed. Aaaw. Looks like Sev doesn't want to talk about whatever unmentionables he's wearing under his clothes.

I had no such qualms. I was quite proud of my invention. I hit my chest with my fist and made it clang again. "It makes me feel like such a Valkyrie, too. I'm telling you, all I need now is a big furry hat with horns. Dum dum dum! Dum dum dum!" I sang.

Sev, who, let's face it, looks like the kind of unfortunate bloke who's been force-fed German opera since he was a tot, almost fell off his broom laughing.

And then I saw a golden glint and I streaked past him. I grabbed the Snitch. "I win!" I screamed. I flew a loop-de-loop and followed Sev and the Bludgers down to the ground.

"Well, of course you win, you dingbat. In Beater versus Seeker, I can't score any points," he grumbled. He plucked the Snitch out of my hand and boxed it. Then he tried to pick up the Bludger box, the Seeker box, his bat and his broom. He didn't quite have enough hands.

I pulled Sev's broom out of his awkward grasp, slung both our brooms over my shoulder and followed him into the Slytherin locker room. His locker was in the corner and he stood so I couldn't see how he charmed it open. "What's on your agenda today?" he asked.

I smirked at him. "I am on the Planning Committee as a matter of fact. We've got in a shipment of fairies for Valentine's Day. We're going to charm them pink this afternoon. Want to go?"

I'd only invited him for the pleasure of listening to him decline the invitation and rant about the stupid, repulsive pinko holiday and for a second Sev looked like he was going to oblige. Then he said, "I don't suppose there are any extra? I hear dripping fresh faerie wings are much more potent than dried."

"Eeew. Forget it. I hereby uninvite you."

Sev opened his mouth to say something to that, but right then Malfoy walked in. Uh-oh. I don't have my wand on me. More snakes coming soon, I bet. I should leave.

Malfoy gaped to see a Gryffindor girl in the Slytherin boys' locker room. He turned to Sev. "You'd said you'd been taking some extra practice, but you didn't tell me it was with this -this thing. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Sev and I have been practicing together now for a while. It's been really great for both our Quidditch games. Not that it's any of your business," I said to Malfoy, even though I knew he was never going to talk directly to me.

"Snape, why are you wasting your time with this Mudblood mutt?"

"Um," said Sev.

That sounded like the perfect moment for me to jump in, so I did. "Didn't you hear me? He's trying to improve his skills so he can take your position, you inbred poodle," I said to Malfoy.

Sev's eyes bored coldly into mine. "Evans. Shut up."

"Ooh, ooh! Did I guess right?" I clapped like a trained seal. "When's the duel? Can I watch?"

Malfoy glowered at me. "Knock her off her broom next time, Snape."

"I'll do my best," said Sev, not looking at me.

Hmmph. "Well, it's been fun. Buh-bye, reptiles." I sketched a salute, grabbed up my broom and left before I could embarrass Sev more than was good for him.




Captain Baldric thinks that part of being the reserve team's captain is coming up with ... interesting ideas. He hands out incomprehensible diagrams and tells the team, "This is what we're gonna do."

Yeah, right. The plan always falls apart five minutes out of the locker room and is forgotten. Baldric and I end up just bludgeoning the other team's Keeper to death as usual. Then our Chasers go to town and when our trainee Seeker gets around to it, we win. Again.

So maybe we've got no finesse, but our morale is good! If you want a good stomping, play us!

If you can't learn to do something well,
learn to enjoy doing it poorly. ~ Despair.com




"Good morning! Happy Valentine's Day! May I borrow your invisibility cloak for an hour?"

From the shocked expression on James's face, he had not known that I knew he had an invisibility cloak. "Uh....What do you want it for?"

"I wish to walk around the school unseen," I said. James opened his mouth, no doubt to ask for more details. I raised my eyebrows at him. He paused and seemed to realize that that vague answer was all he was going get.

"I'll be right back," he said and he gently shut his door. I'm in Gryffindor, he should know I wouldn't stoop to blackmail, but either he hasn't logicked that out yet or he doesn't mind doing me a favor. Hmmm. Rather hard to tell how he's taking this. He's getting me the cloak, but he's not showing me where it's stored.

James re-emerged holding a glistening heap of cloth. I took it, threw it about my shoulders and pulled up the hood. "Thanks, James," I said. I kissed his cheek. "Back soon."

James touched his cheek and looked blindly through me. "Yes. Sure."

I hurried off. No one saw me as I slipped out of Gryffindor tower and ran across the common. There was no one in the owlery. I sat on the floor with a scrap of parchment, alone except for the staring owls. I uncorked my bottle of ink, and giggling, began to write.




Valentine's Day dawned, evil and pink. Merlin, save meeeeeeeee...

My stupid roommate spent far too long primping in front of the mirror. "How do I look?" he asked.

"Like a complete dick. Why not add pink robes, platform boots and an unnecessary walking stick to complete your pimp ensemble?"

"Not an ounce of romance in your soul, is there," said Lucius, but he charmed the pink ribbon in his hair back to Slytherin green. He stuck the pink flower Narcissa had given him defiantly in his button hole though and said, "I'm ready."

"Great. Let's get it over with."

"And here I'd thought that Durmstrang girl dumped you because she couldn't hack long-distance relationships. Nice attitude, Severus."

We walked through the dungeon and into the dining hall. "Aaaaaaagh," I said. The hall was blindingly pink. Ow. I don't know how the headmaster manages to outdo himself every year like this. Quite honestly, I think he eats a lot of mouldy rye bread. Hideous little enchanted fairies, pink of course, flitterered about delivering vile paper hearts.

I ate my breakfast with my eyes mostly shut against the nauseating goings on. I was almost finished and preparing to make my escape when a school owl landed on the table before me. I fed the owl a kipper and untied the parchment off of its leg. It flew away and I unfolded the parchment.

Dear Sev,
You grew up sort of handsome
IF a bit of a you-know-what.
I can't quite pin it on the nose,
You're just the kind of arse I like. BUT
It seems the point is more than moot.
Alas, I'm probably not your kind.
It's enough to just admire you,
Especially from behind.

Happy Valentine's Day anyway!
love
The Invisible Girl

Whoa. I reread the remarkable epistle several times, flipped it over and looked at the back. No address, no watermark, nothing. Of course. I flipped it back over and looked at the script again. Girly purple ink. And it didn't quite scan. And no Slytherin would ever dot their Is with little hearts, even for a joke. Well, maybe Malfoy would. It looked genuine though.

I looked over at the Gryffindor table. Lily did not look at me, did not turn her head even one iota in my direction. Heh.

Nice try, Lily. I can count the number of girls who call me 'Sev' on one mutilated hand. You're not invisible to me.




I really thought I would get away with it. I really did. Severus left the dining hall without looking at me and several minutes later I gathered up my books and set off for History of Magic with James.

Severus was standing out in the hall. When he saw me, he moved into the doorway I was planning on passing through. He smiled at me all the long way across the marble floor.

Aaaaaagh! What am I going to say?! No, I didn't write that Valentine poem. No, It wasn't me. No, I don't know what you're talking about.

"Hi, Lily," he said.

"No!" I said.

Sev grinned even more. "Excuse me? I said 'Hi' not 'Can I be your love slave?' What's with you today?" he asked.

Aaaaaaaaah! Now would be a good time for the earth to open up and swallow me. Now? How about now? ...Now?

James snarled at him, "Back off, Snape! You're not wanted here!"

"Shove it, Potter. See you later, Lily." Sev let us go past and he disappeared down the steps to the dungeons.

James looked at me suspiciously. "What was that about?"

"No idea. ....Um. So, you ready for the history exam?" I said.

"I suppose. It's always the same old thing anyway," he said, still staring at me. I wonder if my face looks as hot as it feels. Oh, dear.



*


Goooooooooooo Lions!


Next Chapter: Strategy and Tactics

Lookie! Angel Maxwell made fanart of my fic! How cool is that! Eeeee! I'm just thrilled! Isn't it cute!