Learning to Love a Lion

chapter 2

Chapter 2.

Cayley's Pov

"Finally." I grumbled as I climbed out off the train. Scorp laughed loudly from in front of me. We walked to the Thestreals and carriages. Scorp walked into them, once again. He did this every year, since he hadn't seen death yet.

I had. My little sister, Sophie, had died of cancer at the age of 3. I was only five at the time, but Marcus and Sebastian had explained to me why she wasn't waking up, why mum and dad were so upset. She'd died in the lounge, right in front of me.

We climbed into a carriage and Greg quickly joined us, my other best friend, Jasmine, in tow and Lucy Lloyd following closely behind them.

"Hey Cay!" Jasmine said to me. Scorp scoffed. Greg plopped down next to me, with Jas sitting next to him and Lucy taking the open spot next to Scorpius.

"Oh hi Jasmine! No, I'm fine, how about you?" He said sarcastically with a grin.

"Ah, Scorp! Didn't see you there mate!" she winked at us and grinned at Scorpius.

"Hi Scorpius," Lucy fluttered her eyelashes, "how was your summer?" He grinned smugly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and squeezing tightly.

"At least someone cares about me." He teased her. She was eating it up with a spoon. I don't think I could have rolled my eyes any harder.

"Oh, spare me," I pleaded, Greg and Jasmine laughed. "What's our first prank for the almighty lions?"

"Well, I might have a few ideas. But they're just so mean! Potty might get upset!" Scorp fake pouted. Lucy giggled at his baby voice and I grimaced. Seriously? It wasn't as though he tried to hide the fact that he was a player.

Scorp obviously noticed my unfavourable look and winked at me. He placed his pale hand on Lucy's tan leg and whispered something in her ear.

I knew Scorp didn't like her that much; she wasn't much help towards the group. Too nice and too shy to be a Slytherin. We all thought so.

We tended to keep the planning between the four of us, not that we particularly tried to hide the fact that it was us. Just plausible deniability. With only us three and occasionally Jasmine helping out, we were much less likely to get ratted on.

While I pondered over that, I didn't notice the Castle gates coming into view.

"Ah, home sweet home." I called out sarcastically as we passed Headmistress McGonagall and Professor Slughorn.

"Miss. Jones, may I have a word?" McGonagall called out. I nodded, walking off the path to the side of the gate.

"Andrew Davies has sustained a lasting injury concerning his arm and a bad hex. He will be out for the quidditch season." She looked at me expectantly. Andrew was our goalie and captain. I chewed my lip nervously, not quite getting where she was going with this. She sighed. "You, Miss Jones, will be new captain of the Slytherin house quidditch team." She handed me the captain's badge and my mouth fell open.

"Er, thanks Professor." I nodded and turned to walk away.

"Just remember, I want no, zero, dirty tricks from you on the field." I chuckled. It wasn't the tricks on the field she was going to have to worry about.

***

"So, you're captain?" Greg asked for about the thirteenth time as we sat in the great hall for dinner.

"Yes Greg! For god sake..." I muttered the last part while shaking my head.

"Well done, Cay. This could be the leg-up we needed. Potter's captain for the pansies, this'll be good." Scorp congratulated me.