metanoia

Chapter Thirty-three

"Hey, what's wrong with you? Shouldn't you be in a better mood considering it's Saturday, which means no Marauders and there's a Quidditch match?"

Narcissa followed the blonde's dark eyes across the large room, finding that they were fixed on the same group of people from the day before. Every morning for the past week, Alex would abandon the Gryffindor table and seat herself with the Slytherins. Though she hated pretty much every single person who sat at the long wooden table, she found solace in the fact that Narcissa Black didn't ask why she was upset with Sirius and would treat her like a friend rather than an interrogation subject.

Alex blinked out of her latest scheme to exact revenge against Sirius Black for his stupid, arrogant, so-called "Prank", letting her eyes drift further down the Gryffindor table at Remus as he turns the page in his weathered novel beside Letti, Fabian and Gideon, "Other than the fact that I want to kill him, nothing is wrong. Can we leave before I give in to my murderous impulses and set your cousin's precious hair on fire?"

"Oh, but I would love to see that," whined the blonde Slytherin as she arose from the table, following shortly behind the five foot Gryffindor as she shoved her balled up fists into the deep pockets of the creme cardigan she'd been wearing.

Waiting for the Quidditch Match for the afternoon; Ravenclaw versus Slytherin, Narcissa and Alex sat in the courtyard, in and behind Narcissa's favorite tree. The younger of the two perched herself on the lowest reaching branch, swinging her feet impatiently as she listened to Narcissa recount the latest argument she, her sister and Lucius had had about her eldest sister being in cahoots of the Order of the Phoenix.

"Why do you care about what your sister thinks? From what you've just said, you miss your sister and you want to meet your niece. So what if she's disowned by your parents, you only have so much time to spend with the people you love before they die."

The new voice startled the pair, nearly causing the perched one to fall from her seat. Narcissa looked up through her hair as the wind made it dance about her, seeing that Nicholas Parker was standing a few feet away, making it quite obvious that he was eavesdropping on their conversation.

The Black looked through her eyelashes, tucking a stray hair behind her ear, "Because, Nicholas, though her many many faults, she's still my sister and I still love her. And if I start talking to or seeing Dromeda again, my family will think that I'm just like her and they'll disown me too."

"And would that be so bad?" Alex prompted, dropping down off the tree and led her companions towards the Quidditch Pitch.

"You wouldn't understand, Lex, you had a great family. Now enough of this talk, let's go watch some Quidditch."

The stands filled with students and staff, all bundled up tightly in their sweaters and school colored scarves as they watched the Ravenclaw team, led by Mary MacDonald, take a warm up lap around the Pitch. Nicholas led the two blonde's up the stairs and into the Slytherin student section, waving at his sister as she passed, "Is it bad that I don't want Slytherin to win at all?"

"Nope," the blondes chimed as the seven green and silver adorned students fly out onto the pitch to start the Match.

Timothy Jordan drums his hands against the table he was seated at, the sound getting picked up by the microphone, "Welcome back everyone to this match on this windy February afternoon, it's bound to be a good one: Ravenclaw versus Slytherin. The lovely Madam Hooch blows the whistle and.... they're off. Dolohov wins the Quaffle, pitches it backward to Lucius Malfoy, who's beautiful blonde hair is blowing in the wind."

"Weirdo," Nicholas chuckled as Malfoy fumbled the Quaffle as he was taken aback by the compliment.

"Oh, Malfoy dropped the Quaffle. Too bad for Slytherin but Ms. Mary MacDonald caught the ball out from under him. She takes the shot... Only to have a bloody brilliant save by Slytherin's Keeper, Crabbe, who pitches the Quaffle back out to Dolohov. Cece Edgecomb, Ravenclaw Beater, takes a shot and beams the Bludger into Dolohov, who's both dropped the Quaffle and barely holding onto his broom."

"Is anyone sitting here?"

Alex tore her eyes from Emma Parker as she viciously shot put the Quaffle into the goalpost, whizzing past Crabbe, to see Remus smiling down at her. She shook her head, returning the smile as she scooted her body closer to Narcissa as she and Nicholas cheered for his sister's goal, "No. What brings you here, to the Slytherin section?"

Remus shrugged, pulling his cardigan closer around his body as the wind started to pick up again, "Maybe I missed my friend. Seeing as you disappeared after..."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I needed time away before I killed him."

Emmeline Vance beamed the Bludger at Lucius Malfoy,  her smile widening at the satisfying sound of his femur snapping in half. Remus wolf whistled at her shot, nodding grimly, "Imagine how I feel. I have to share a room with him."

The Quaffle gets passed around quite a bit, each team fighting to get possession from the other, until Mary MacDonald finally scored her first goal, giving Ravenclaw a larger lead than before.

Slytherin quickly came back from the small lead Ravenclaw had on them, with Malfoy and Goyle scoring two goals each on Ravenclaw's Keeper, Winston Clearwater, to take the narrow lead from them.  The game of course came with injuries: the worst of them being Lovegood, who took two Bludger hits back to back and got knocked off his broom.

"Has anyone seen the Snitch yet?"

Alex shook her head no, her blue eyes scanned the Pitch and not seeing any sign of the sacred Golden Snitch, "I haven't seen it all game, I have a feeling we're in for a long match."