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“I want to warn you,” Lily said as she sat down next to me in Potion, “I just overheard a few girls planning your death,”

It was the beginning of October and the news of James and Sirius both being excluded from this year’s Quidditch team had spread around faster than the plague.
No body agreed that James wasn’t up for the job because he had Head Boy activities to deal with, expect for Lily, and people blamed me for Sirius’ outburst – apparently I was having my period and let it out on him. Not even Professor McGonagall was supporting me, she kept asking me if I knew what I was doing and had even mentioned a few past Head Boys who had been on the Quidditch team as well. I then asked if any of the teams had won which she had to deny, so I rested my case.

“Let me guess, they wanted to drown me in the lake?” I asked. Remus and James sat down at the table in front of us.

“These were more original,” I found it hard to believe “They wanted to poison you,”

“Yikes,” I said and threw my hands up to my mouth dramatically. Lily rolled her eyes.

“They aren’t serious, they are just angry,” She reassured me. Serious or not, angry girls were never a nice thing to have on your back. It wasn’t just the girls held a grudge against me; it was everyone else too, even the other houses except for Slytherin who broke out in applaud when I entered a room. Lily and Remus seemed to be the only ones not mad at me, and then the Quidditch team who just thought it was awkward being around me.

“You do know that if someone wanted to kill me, they could do so with a single curse,”

“Not everyone can do the killing curse,” Lily lectured “Besides; it is your own fault,”

I stared at her with my mouth hanging open.

“You could just have let James on the bloody team,”

Great, now my best friend had turned against me too.

“I thought you agreed with me,” Remus and James had turned around in their seats and were listening in on the conversation.

“I did, until the entire school wanted you dead,” Lily told me.

“Except for Slytherin,” James added with a smirk.

“Butt out. If I die it is your fault,” I sneered at him. All three rolled their eyes.

“This is all your own doings,” Lily said knowingly.

“So I should die just because someone was a better seeker than James,”

“This is not just about James,” Lily had raised her voice slightly.
I looked at Remus for help but he suddenly seemed to be interested in a something behind Snape.

“Sirius has an attitude problem,” I reasoned.

“He was defending me,” James argued.

“He called me a bitch,” I glared at James. Our discussion had got the attention of the entire class, even professor Slughorn seemed to be in no hurry to begin the lesson.

“That was hardly an excuse to throw him off the team,”

I stood up as James said the sentence, and threw my bag over my shoulder with such force that it hit Victor Peterson in the face.

“I do not need this,” I nodded towards the three “from any off you,”

And with that I stormed out of the classroom.

-*-

Quidditch practices were going better than I could have hoped, except for when Addens decided to voice his opinion on my substation of James and Sirius, but whenever I mentioned that he could be the next one to get the boot if he didn’t leave the captaining to me, he silenced. Miranda flew as well as she had at the try-out but seemed less relaxed on her broom, I thought it was just nerves as it was her first time on a team.

“Okay team,” I announced after another successful practice later that week, “You are all looking in good shape and if we keep this up we are going to kick some serious Slytherin arses next month,”

The team left to get changed but I stayed back, putting away the equipment. I hadn’t lied, I thought for sure that we were better than Slytherin I was just worried that they had some dirty tricks up their sleeves. The Slytherin Quidditch team wasn’t the best team, and even Hufflepuff would be able to beat them with their left hand, but the Slytherins were cunning and their biggest advantage was their ability to get away with cheating. Sirius had voiced my biggest worry at the try-out; the Slytherins could destroy Miranda quite easily. She was half the size of the Slytherin seeker, and the beaters were even bigger and stronger.

“Do you need help?” I looked up and found Remus standing in front of me. I gave him a smile and shook my head.

“I’m okay, just finishing up,” I threw the last golf ball in the leather bag and handed it too Remus, “Of course you can carry this if you are so insisting,”

He took the bag and grinned. I picked up my broom and the rest of the equipment and walked towards the locker-rooms.

“The team looks good,” Remus said after a few minutes of silence.

“You think we stand a chance,”

He nodded “Just tell Griselda that the Slytherins tend to score on the right,”

“Any thing else Sirius want to let me know,” I frowned.

“No, but James wanted to say that Miranda should focus more on her diving,” Remus smirked.

We had reached the locker-room and had both stopped walking.

“Will you tell them to mind their own business,” I groaned and took the leather bag from Remus, and went inside. I threw the equipment on the floor and stepped outside again.

“Remus,” I yelled at the dark figure walking towards the castle. He turned around. “Thank you for telling me,” I said and gave him a kind smile.

“That’s what the messenger is for,” He joked and turned around again, I watched him and didn’t go inside again until he had disappeared from my view. Only one other player was still inside.

“Oi, Griselda …”

Authors Note: I apologize for the short chapter, this and the following chapters are fillers which just have to be there.