Chapter 17: Quidditch Blue

DEDICATION: My phone, with the greatest music app of all times.

THE SECOND DEDICATION: To my greatest friend Safije, a girl with a confusing name and a wicked streak, nothing is worse than her, and nothing could be better. And also she lets me play with her laptop and her ruler so...

Quidditch has been a long and hard tradition of Hogwarts, ever since the sport's evolution from wizards whacking each other over the head with stone rocks.

There has been many highlights of Quidditch events over the centuries, many of them cannot be listed here today. Either from being too long, or too tedious.

This author is trying to keep this PG.

Just to name a few:

There's the famous match between Hogwarts, Beaubaxtons and Dumstrang. Which did not finish well after three days, and when it did all of the players and reserving players had all lost a limb or two in sacrifice to the honourable sport. Nobody had died of course, but the two bludgers and half the students body was in dire need of replenishing and repairing.

There's the ill-fated match between the Chudley Cannons and the Montrose Magpies, when the field they were suppose to use flooded with water and became the suddenly venue to a mermaid trading festival. The match was cancelled and never restarted when the mer-people started throwing crabs at everyone in sight.

Then there's the absolute chaotic mess of thestrals and transfigured wings of Gryffindor vs Slytherin when the brooms went on a rebellion. The match was the prime reason the two houses started to hate each other. When Minerva Mcgonagall crashed straight into Tom Marvolo Riddle to wretch the quaffle from his grasp, thus winning the game.

Riddle repaid in kindness, and hexed Mcgonagall's wings off. Minerva threw a jug of pumpkin juice at Tom when she got out the hospital wing.

And lastly, let's not forget the never before seen, never before tempted, never before conceivable, Professors vs Marauders quidditch match.

A round of applause and mouldy eggs to Mr. Sirius Black for his wonderful suggestion. And for dragging his mates and mates' mates and brother into it just because he wants to get out of detention.

It was one of the worst things that has ever happened in Severus Snape's life and also one of the most anticipated event in the history of Hogwarts.

To Sirius Black, it was a chance to drag the always moody Severus up from whatever dark hole he has dug for himself. A habit he still couldn't break after five years being surrounded by crazy and/or insane people that's cheerful 24/7.

To Remus Lupin, it was a precious way to stop Sirius and James from causing more harm than good, as usual. Even with the prospect of N.E.W.T hanging over their heads.

To James Potter, it was another chance to show off his amazing quidditch skills and wonderfully messy hair. To impress a lovely lady of fiery disposition of course. Lily flower is less hell bent on Severus, and if not for the Death Glare n.250: please just drop dead. James would've believed that Severus felt much the same.

To Regulus Black, it was just a rare opportunity to reconcile with his brother and not having a door slammed into his face. His brother is defiant and complicated, shirking his responsibilities that came with an heir and a head of house just because he doesn't like it. But he is still family, and family always stuck together.

To Lily Evans, it was just another chance to get closer to Severus, and in turn, be turned further away.

To Frank Longbottom, to was just a chance to play quidditch for gosh sake. To have fun, to be a little boy that cared too much for plants before forcing to grow up with the bile rising up his throat at his father's mangled corpse.

To Severus Snape, it was an endless stream of nightmare that did not end until much much later.

It was especially difficult to get the seven extremely diverse and complicated people with even more complications when their head machinations was concerned. Two Slytherins, one with people issues and one with brother issues. Three Gryffindors, one with arrogance issues, another with even more arrogance issues, and the last one with too much to worry about issues. One Hufflepuff with confidence issues. And one Ravenclaw with shutting up issues.

It will be a miracle to stop Sirius from annoying his brother, Lily from walking off in the middle of a practice match, James from showing off his hair, Remus to speak up and not hit anyone with his broom, Regulus from urging his brother on even more, Frank from wandering off to his plants just because he's afraid they're going to die and Severus from killing the lot of them.

It was three practices and four detentions later, two weeks after Sirius declared his challenge in the middle of breakfast, that the seven of them saw what they were going up against.

Sirius and James had to be carried to the hospital wing because they almost got a concussion when they laughed too hard and too fast.

There's not many strange and wonderful things they haven't experienced in the magical world. Voldemort braiding his black hair into a bun would be one. Dumbledore flying around on a weak broomstick almost as old as himself, with his long white beard blowing like a curtain into his face.

At least Professor Sprout saved the rest of Dumbledore's dignity by shoving a bludger right at Sirius, who was rolling around on the grass with tears in his eyes.

All that it mattered on a battlefield, is victory.

:):

"A bright and sunny day today, perfect for a teacher vs student quidditch match!" Rolanda Hooch hollered out with her megaphone, the seat next to her empty, as a Gryffindor lioness is currently in one of the terminals wondering what is the best way to rip an arm out of a human body with the most amount of blood.

"Now I know everyone's super duper excited for this unusual turn of events so I won't bore you with how wonderful Snape's hair looks today." A good round of boos erupted from all over the stands as most of them knew how greasy Snape's hair looked when he first came to Hogwarts.

Hooch screeched into her megaphone, "Let's give a round of applause and loud cheering for the Professors, with a capital P because they are now a proper team!" All the noise erupted the same time the elder team tore through the terminal on the left side of the pitch one by one.

"Leading them with Captain ALBUS DUMBLEDORE!" The long haired professor finally had the sense to tuck his beard into his ghastly coloured robes to avoid another incident, decorated with giant pink ribbons.

Mcgonagall came next, looking magnificent in soft green robes framed with bright gold and dull bronze. Followed closely by Irma Pince, whom already started scanning the pitch for any signs of the quaffle and any abandoned books, and Pomona Sprout in warm yellow and sharp blues, hands clean for once.

Because of the known enthusiasm of the various professors (not), Severus pulled a few strings (scared into) and forced many a teachers into a game unwillingly.

He did it with a wan and an excuse of going back to the past so you can understand the future.

Seriously, Severus can do almost anything if he sets his mind to it. He followed Sirius' ultimatum of FIND ME A WAY TO AVOID DETENTION BECAUSE MY DARLING MOTHER IS ANGRY AT ME FOR NO REASON AT ALL, and would no doubt one day make Voldemort fall in love with him and let Dumbledore bless them happily ever after.

All of them were prepared to cheat however. Using magic or limbs or fire balls or squirrels or what have you to gain the upper hand while pretending that they are not doing anything wrong at all. Though the Marauders were at a distinct disadvantage since the wards around the quidditch pitch blocks all animals from entering and there is nothing gained from Sirius turning into Lucius Malfoy in the middle of grabbing the quaffle!

The only thing in the youngster's favour was that they have no qualms of head-butting the teacher to get them off their back and have the arm strength, the illusions and the mind power to do so. The teachers all have the advantage of knowing some sort of wandless magic, even though most of them can only do so much as knock only one broomstick two inches off course.

I remind you that it is not cheating if you don't get caught.

Understandably, for half the team is Slytherin.

"For the aging Beaters! Aurora Sinistra and Septima Vector!" ]

Aurora Sinistra and Septima Vector were best friends when they were still in school. Sinistra was a fantastic seeker when she was not running everywhere and flirting with everything else. Vector was the one that pushed (threatened) Severus into quidditch in the first place and has trained everyone's dodging skills since they were barely five feet tall with a pile of homework and a beater's bat.

"And lastly, surprisingly, with Madame Pomphrey as the professor team's Seeker!" Hooch screamed the loudest as the lovely but stern matron flew through last, nearly toppling over her commentator stand in shock and glee. Indeed, for today the school nurse forgone her usual attire of hospital dress robes and cap, instead clad in soft greens and red and white, eyes hungry for the golden glint of the snitch.

It wasn't much, but at least the professors won't be embarrassed by their dismal numbers and not very uniformed uniforms.

"Now for the uniformed uniform team of our resident Hogwarts Marauders, impossibly trained by no one in particular because they are all crazy, Noxavis!"

A wild gong boomed throughout the stadium, the blast knocking half of everyone off their feet. Severus' team flew in some form of order and formation, not like the angry-bird thing the professor's team had made.

First the seekers and keepers, James Potter and Remus Lupin. Glasses glinting and canines flashing as they rcketed out to the open field, their black dress uniform secured with the required quidditch gear and other bands and straps, likely added just to look cool.

They flew a lap around the pitch and stood by their set of goals to wait for their team-mates. Resigned and happy faces showing to the world.

Second were the beaters, the two Black brothers, with their handsome faces and for once true smiles, they shot out of the gate as one and flew towards the stands. They were brothers, brothers that helped each other, fought each other, hated each other, followed each other, maybe even loved each other. No matter how much trifle things stood in between them, blood is always thicker than water.

Sirius and Regulus shared a secret grin at the surprised faces all around them when they did not try to kill each other, actually acting like a pair of brothers that grew up together.

They flew in perfect sync, one slightly behind the other, bats sheathed but ready to go, able to defend their own team-mates and knock all others.

Lily Evans, with her fiery hair pulled into a ponytail that whipped and slashed like a hydra behind her. Frank Longbottom, with his burly frame and muscled arm, ready to snatch a quaffle or sock someone in the face.

Severus Snape finally worked up his nerves and readied his Occulumency shields, his eyes vacant of all emotions, his head empty of everything except winning as he shot out to the open air. His long hair pulled into a braid and tucked inside his robes, completely different from the way he usually wore his cascading down his back. Thick padding all around his body as with everyone else, his wand tucked into the gloves on his left arm.

Both team flew one last lap around the field, earning many curses and middle fingers along the way, and waited for the referee to release the different playing balls.

Lelouch R Kuran kicked open the chest controlling the heart of the whole game and hollered out, in his loudest possible voice: "LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"

As one the stadium exploded, James and Pomfrey both dove for the snitch that disappeared in an instant, the two bludgers knocked Regulus' broom astray as they shot themselves off the ball chest to hit someone and the quaffle just slowly teasingly fell to the ground and into Mcgonagall's waiting arms.

Frank'll get that kick back later.

Mcgonagall immediately whipped herself to the left to avoid the James barrelling past her and set off straight towards the enemy goal, a cold glint in her eyes as she felt Flitwick and Sprout coming behind her. The famous hawk glare shot itself towards Remus like a bullet, daring him not to move away.

Remus didn't move, merely waited quietly in front of the three hoops, as if knowing the trio wouldn't get far.

He was right, unsurprisingly.

A bludger whipped past Mcgonagall's left ear, causing her to shriek and barrel into Flitwick, she only got the catch a glimpse of a Sirius Black behind her before all three of them had to duck to avoid the other bludger in front of them sent from a Regulus Black.

The trio of chasers quickly spun off course and when they managed to straighten themselves, the quaffle is no where to be seen.

It was not hard to spot Severus Snape speeding past them a blink later, with the red quaffle in his arm and Frank Longbottom guarding his back.

Flitwick cursed along with Mcgonagall, and spurred their broom.

The significant age gap between the sixteen year old Severus Snape and the thirty something Mcgonagall is that the latter's side vision isn't all that great. So it's not much of a surprise when they didn't see the Lily Evans that was shooting their way.

I will remind you it is not cowardice if you found a redhead suddenly in front of your face, causing you to scream your head off.

40-0 was the score ten minutes later. Mcgonagall is ready is ready to spit fire, Dumbledore is sulking, James is getting a bit annoyed with the snitch and Kuran is just watching the whole thing with a twisted expression on his face.

The Marauders is cleverly using the age old technique of annoying the crap out of everyone and diving and flying everywhere in a chaotic and insane and actually highly organized mess.

When Mcgonagall tried to fly on the left side, there's a bludger in her face. When Flitwick tries to dive, there's a Lily Evans to in front of him. When Dumbldedore even tries to move more than fifteen feet away from his hoops, Severus is whipping towards him like a black panther trying to rip the senile headmaster's beard off.

Maybe I'm not giving the professors much credit. Vector and Sinistra is giving the beaters a run for their money and if it weren't for Frank Longbottom always trying to kick them in the shin, they would have knocked Severus off his broom ten minutes in.

The whole of England knows that Severus Snape is not a quidditch player, even though he is agile and lean and good at running and kind of sporty if you are willing to test his ire by describing him like that, but he hates the racing broom's very existence and often wished to exterminate them from the face of the earth.

So Severus often relied on his strategies and his wandwork to achieve success. Even though it can be tiring once in a while to keep such a team on track and not trying to smash each other in the face. He's the leader only because he is the dangerous one and have the means necessary to exterminate them with his glares and potion bombs if they don't shut up this instant!

He does not like it one bit when things did not go his way. By the rate their going, nobody is going to stop until somebody gets seriously injured.

It looks like it's going to be Sprout, after she willed Sirius' broom to start growing radishes just as he was charging towards Flitwick. James willed them to explode into carrot rain after Vector started to flung them towards him.

This is completely normal by the way.

No one on the stands is caring about anything at all when Slytherins and Gryffindors started having a go at each other on whether or not Vector accidnetlycurse Dumbldedore's eyebrow off. (AN: What?!)

Severus Snape was having the time of his life.

Not.

He never told anyone, and it wasn't wholly possible since he's technically a bird, that he really doesn't like broomsticks. Especially broomsticks used for flying.

He's a raven for Merlin's sake, a freaking bird! A bird that could take werewolves head on, had tamed werewolves, destroyed and disrupted a whole cohort of first years and mermaids alike, a bird that could rip a centaur to shreds and he's afraid of heights.

James did occidentally knock him into the Black Lake once upon a time in his second year, with his broom trailing actual fire behind him. The Incident of the Famous Flaming Beater's Bat had caused quite a great war in between Slytherins and Gryffindors, as Malfoy and Bellatrix had already taken him under their wing.

Slytherins are stubborn idiots, let's leave it at that.

He wanted nothing more right now than to get down to the ground and hack his lung out, or transform into Ruelux in front of everyone, in the middle of a game, and shred the stupid bloody quidditch balls into oblivion.

Including the bludgers, especially the bludgers.

But he's a Slytherin, and Slytherins are all stubborn and does not know the meaning of giving up, even though Severus' instincts were screaming at him, human and bird, to get the hell out of the air.

He ignored it, because quidditch is everything left to the people of Hogwarts, the only time of the day and year and month that they could laugh without feeling the repercussions. Besides, this was the only time Lily stood side by side with him without all the excessive innocent but still hurtful attempts to control everyone's lives. And they were actually winning, because of their teamwork or age or brooms or whatever, and Slytherins loves to win.

But he still felt cold, which was the strangest thing of all because he's sweating. He could literally see the water droplets flying off James' enormously wild hair as he dove head first and did a loop-d-loop of sorts around their own quidditch hoops.

Severus strained his arm back ad cocked his head, ready to throw the quaffle again, to either Lily or through Dumbldedore's defence yet again. In his peripheral vision, half blocked by the fringe of his hair, he saw something coming from the other side of the field.

No bird, actual birds, could penetrate the wards around the quidditch pitch during a game, so Severus didn't give it much thought. He just dipped his head to avoid the fury that is McGonagall, veered left to avoid whatever that is, and released his quaffle.

Something slammed into him with a blinding force, just as the quaffle entered the quidditch hoop on the right, just as Flitwick's hands closed around the golden snitch.

Severus started falling in a stream of black and white light, light that was staining his hair and robes and eyes and skin and shoes and gloves a blinding shade of white. White, a colour of blinding sunlight that burned his skin, his mind and his soul as he streaked towards the ground, mouth open in a silent scream of agony.

Severus Snape had never been afraid of light, nor of darkness, especially darkness. But in that moment of wind rushing through his broken limbs and turning his long hair into fiery whips, Severus had never been more afraid.

Afraid of the colour white, of falling, of a pair of cold crimson eyes that looked down at him with pity and rage. Through all of that blinding white.

) | (

Severus Snape woke up that very evening, surrounded by darkness, dimly lit candles and worried faces of his friends and teachers and peers alike.

"Who am I?" He asked quietly.

It was another three days before his eyes regained its darkness.

I suck at writing action scenes. I am more of a person that writes back stories and character inner conflicts. Which obviously did not show in this work. I have never used more exclamation marks in my whole entire life, I am going to go dig a hole and bury myself now.

I will dedicate a chocolate cake and a chapter to anyone that understood where the names from the last chapter came from. My medications are off so I am slightly insane. Not slightly, more like very insane.

Pay attention to detail, is my advice to all of you reading.

Review please! I need something to stop me from jumping off a building.