Chapter 70 - Quidditch Tryouts.

 

[Chapter Size: 3400 Words.]

Third Person POV

Hogwarts.

...

...

Rabastan Lestrange noticed Severus entering the Quidditch pitch, while everyone turned their heads to watch him approach them, where they were all gathered.

Severus could see all the Slytherin eyes on him, while he approached without hesitation, everyone was gathered with brooms in their hands.

Lestrange, who was basically conducting the tryouts, narrowed his eyes at Severus. Severus, however, did not look away as he walked toward them with a piece of paper in his hands.

"Slughorn believes it would be interesting for me to participate in the tryouts. Even though I've never been part of the team before, I'm also interested in playing a little Quidditch.", he said calmly in front of Lestrange, as if no one were glaring at him while surrounding him, most of them already waiting to see whether a fight would break out or not.

Severus was certainly a name whispered on the students' lips. There had been a lot of tension in Slytherin over those last two weeks, but no one had made a move. Only a few mocking comments, whispers, and stares. Of course, there were also veiled threats through Lucius's letters, among other things, while they tried to pressure Severus.

"Of course", Lestrange said, seeming reluctant. "You can take one of the school's brooms."

Lestrange said that in a harsh tone, while some snickered, already expecting Severus not to even own a broom. But his movement, raising his hand as though he were about to grab something, quickly silenced everyone, as a broom suddenly appeared in his hand.

It was a well-crafted broom, one he had created himself. After all, during that month working at the reserve, since he couldn't buy one of the models available on the market, he had to research a cheaper model and easily discovered its runes after breaking through all the protections that concealed them. He applied his own runes himself, creating his own broom using the parameters of the most expensive ones on the market and, obviously, upgrading it to make it even better.

"I don't recognize that model", someone commented beside him. And Severus watched Regulus Black staring at the broom with a curious look.

"It's not something you can find on the market", Severus merely said.

"I hope that broom doesn't kill you halfway through, Snape", Sebastian said with a small smile, seeming to like the idea, while everyone's eyes returned to Severus.

"Don't worry about me. I'd like to try out as Seeker."

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "Of course, Mulciber and Miss Umbridge can compete with Snape", Sebastian said with a malicious smile.

Both nodded, although Severus noticed a certain desire for revenge, especially from Mulciber, because of some things that had happened over the past few weeks. He held a grudge over having burned his hand after trying to tamper with Severus's belongings on the first day of class, triggering one of his flame shields.

Severus merely looked at them and gave a suggestive smile, drawing a few scowls.

Having said that, he headed toward a corner while other students also joined the tryouts. There was even a boy from the Potions Club created by the half-bloods of the house, which Severus had also been attending, the boy kept looking at him, but said nothing.

The boy was certainly trying to maintain his image within the House while everyone around Severus isolated him and looked at him with superiority. Even though no one really had the courage to openly go against him. They simply continued watching him throughout the days.

Severus's eyes also turned toward the stands, where there were many Slytherins watching, especially the girls from the House who had come to watch the boys. There were also students from other Houses approaching, but they remained well away from where most of the Slytherins were.

That week would begin with the Quidditch tryouts, starting with Slytherin, so some students from the other Houses were watching to see who their future opponents would be in that year's Quidditch Cup.

"Then let's begin with the tryouts. How about we start with the Seekers?", Lestrange soon said, looking at Severus, Mulciber, and the other girl, not failing to cast a more meaningful look at the latter two.

He approached the box where the Golden Snitch was and tapped it. As soon as the compartment opened, he picked it up and made it spread its wings before releasing it. The Snitch began flying from his hand and simply disappeared from everyone's sight.

"Go. Start!", he said.

Mulciber and Umbridge looked at each other for a moment before mounting their brooms and propelling themselves upward, shooting into the sky, while Severus merely watched them for a moment.

"What's wrong, Snape? Doesn't your broom fly?", Sebastian mocked.

Severus didn't answer, ignoring a few snickers and taunts. He simply calmly placed the broom between his legs before adjusting himself and gripping it firmly.

The next moment, he simply exploded off the ground with a gust of wind that startled everyone. Everyone was struck by the enormous blast of wind created by his takeoff, with some shouting in surprise while others raised their hands in front of their faces. Severus simply shot through the sky at a speed no one had expected.

Even Mulciber and the other boy, who were still ascending while searching for the Snitch, were caught by surprise when Severus shot past them, putting more and more distance between them as he continued toward the sky without hesitation.

He first needed to figure out where the Snitch was. He knew it had flown in that direction and his eyes certainly hadn't caught any movement heading back down, so it should still be ascending somehow.

Severus continued forward, rising beyond the level of the stadium, until his eyes narrowed.

He had extensive experience flying on dragons at high speeds, so obviously his eyes were far more trained than those of Quidditch players, perhaps even the best in the world. Dragons flew much faster than any broom, reaching speeds four or five times greater.

Tracking movements at high speed was something Severus had needed to do for 2 centuries, that had certainly left his eyes extremely well trained, even if it had been in another life, he could understand a great deal with these less experienced eyes.

Severus saw a movement cutting through the air. The Golden Snitch seemed to react and began descending with a swift movement. Severus also leaned to the right, letting his body tilt slightly to the side. He didn't fall off the broom, merely used the weight of his own body to curve downward before turning upside down and performing a spin, finally settling back onto the broom and advancing toward the ground.

With that maneuver, he gained even more momentum, following the Golden Snitch while Mulciber and the girl merely watched, still trying to find it until they realized Severus was already chasing after it. They had no choice but to race after him, but the problem was the distance Severus had already covered. He had the advantage over the two of them, advancing after the Golden Snitch, which headed straight toward one of the most complicated parts of the Quidditch pitch: the wooden structures beneath the stands and between the towers, where people could move through.

"Smart little thing", Severus couldn't help but murmur.

Seeing the Golden Snitch enter there, he simply turned, once again using the weight of his own body, and advanced into the structure without hitting anything. His broom stabilized itself perfectly with every movement, better than any other.

He had created it precisely for that. It was more unstable than any other broom, but it also gave him the ability to turn and perform movements that no one else would be capable of doing, as long as he could master it.

And so he followed the Golden Snitch, passing between one wooden structure and another while Severus pursued it through the same openings without hitting anything, remaining perfectly in control. His opponents simply watched from a distance, not really having the courage to advance into that place, knowing how dangerous it would be.

But Severus didn't care. He quickly caught up with the Snitch, grabbing it as he turned his body out of the structure and emerged performing a spin through the air, until finally stopping in front of Mulciber and Umbridge, who did nothing but watch Severus do all of that.

"Looks like I won", he said, showing the Golden Snitch.

The two could only stare at him, shocked.

"How did you do that?", Mulciber asked immediately.

"It's simple. I took the risk, while you stayed here where it was safe. There isn't much to say. You simply stood there watching."

Severus shrugged, making Mulciber look as though he had swallowed a lemon while glaring at him angrily.

"You cheated, you half-blood!", Dolores said beside him.

Severus stared at her with a smile. "And how did I cheat, Miss Umbridge? Tell me, how can a half-blood deceive you without exposing himself?"

"With tricks, of course. Typical of your kind", she said angrily.

Severus merely shook his head. "And a pure-blood who can be deceived so easily means they're incompetent, don't you think? After all, aren't you supposed to be superior?", Severus asked, making the girl look as though she had swallowed a lemon as well. Or rather, she clearly looked like a toad at that moment.

Mulciber stared at Severus with an utterly dark look. "Watch your tongue, Snape. Things aren't looking good for you and they certainly won't be anytime soon. You'd better be careful. You're standing out too much and seem to have distanced yourself from the cause. That's drawing the attention of even the Dark Lord."

"Really? Voldemort is interested in a student? It certainly shows that his domination of the wizarding world is giving him so much trouble that he has to hear about Hogwarts students? And he calls himself the Dark Lord?", Severus hummed, displaying a surprised expression, yet seeming quite amused by it.

The two stared at him in horror.

"You've gone mad. There's no other explanation", Mulciber said, staring at Severus in disbelief.

"Let's stop this nonsense and get back to the others. They're already wondering what we're doing here." Severus spoke as though he hadn't said anything unusual before. But he continued past them.

"Maybe they'll start suggesting that the pure-bloods are crying because they lost to a half-blood", Severus said, mocking them as he moved forward and left the two behind.

Neither had any choice but to follow him, despite their foul moods. Severus had even expected Mulciber to simply draw his wand and start casting some curse at his back, but he didn't. It certainly wouldn't have been good for him if something like that happened there, but the desire was there.

Either way, they reached the others, who looked at the Golden Snitch in Severus's hand as he arrived first, receiving incredulous looks and quite a few suspicious ones.

"You caught the Snitch? Is that true? We saw you enter the stadium structures. That was kind of crazy", Regulus said, looking at Severus as though he were standing before a riddle.

"I have quick reflexes and my broom allows me to do that", he said calmly.

"We saw the maneuver you did in the sky, spinning your broom like that. I have to say, it was brilliant...", Rosier said with acknowledgment, despite seeming reluctant to say it. Even he had to admit it.

Lestrange also stared at Severus. "We'll do another Seeker test", he said, then looked at Rosier. "You also said you wanted to be a Seeker, right?"

That wasn't true, but the question implied many things.

Severus merely shook his head, accepting that those idiots wouldn't accept the result so easily, especially considering that he had caught the Snitch in only three minutes at most.

Even the people in the stands were whispering at that moment about what had just happened.

"All right, be my guest." Severus tossed the Golden Snitch to Lestrange, who caught it and drew his wand.

"I just want to check that there's nothing here", he said.

Severus narrowed his eyes as he watched him cast a spell.

Severus had been acting normally during those weeks. He hadn't had any problems serious enough to need to retaliate or attack any of the Slytherins, but from that moment on, when Lestrange cast a spell to alter the Golden Snitch just to prevent Severus from catching it, everything changed.

And he was treating Severus like an idiot, using a spell on the ball right in front of him.

At that moment, a war would begin in Slytherin for which neither side was prepared. They could hate him, they could dislike him. As long as they didn't touch his friends or directly interfere with him, Severus would always see them as nothing more than spoiled little children. But the moment they started sabotaging him or went after any of his companions, things would be different.

And at that moment, the youngest Lestrange had taken the first step toward starting a war that would eventually extend even beyond Hogwarts.

Severus saw everyone's malicious laughter, but couldn't help mocking them internally. In fact, he would make some of them pay for that later.

For now, however, he had a challenge before him: a Snitch enchanted to prevent him from catching it.

And that made the game even better, in his opinion.

It was a challenge.

He would repay Lestrange's act later. At that moment, he would focus all his attention on searching for the Snitch.

"Let's restart the test", Lestrange said, raising the Golden Snitch as it began to spread its wings again and simply disappeared, shooting into the sky.

All four of them watched it, and Severus, this time, didn't wait. He quickly leaned forward and shot off, his takeoff creating another enormous gust of wind and giving him a certain advantage over the others as he soared upward at high speed.

His eyes caught sight of the Golden Snitch even better this time, moving rapidly in a straight line as soon as it reached a certain height, far above the stadium.

His hand was already rising, about to catch it, when the Golden Snitch dipped downward. Severus immediately leaned to follow it, but the Snitch performed another unnatural maneuver, making a 180-degree turn as it passed beneath him and headed in the opposite direction.

"So that's it", he realized immediately.

Severus turned upside down with the broom to follow the Snitch and spun his body again to settle back onto the broom, hearing a few gasps from the audience as they witnessed that maneuver. But he continued pursuing the Snitch, which was heading directly toward the other Slytherins.

"So he enchanted it to go directly toward them as well. Very well", Severus said, narrowing his eyes as he leaned his body to make his broom gain even more speed.

Rosier was caught by surprise with the Golden Snitch coming toward him and couldn't grab it as it passed him before rising again. Severus saw that and shot into the sky. The Snitch seemed even faster as it climbed higher and higher, reaching close to some clouds.

The chase continued through the sky, with the clouds greatly hindering visibility, even so, his ears could pick up the Snitch nearby.

He heard Lestrange shouting at Rosier down below through one of his other ears keeping track of the field, and at the same time, the Golden Snitch suddenly dove at high speed, with Umbridge and Mulciber following behind it. Severus quickly angled downward, entering a high-speed dive as he saw Rosier hovering farther below with the Snitch heading straight for him.

"No, that's not going to happen", Severus said.

He simply made his broom shoot forward at high speed. If before his bursts of acceleration reached around 140 to 150 kilometers per hour, at that moment he surpassed 250 and continued accelerating until exceeding 300 kilometers per hour, practically twice the speed of any other broom on that field.

The other two behind him could only watch as Severus increased the distance between them more and more. Rosier, on the other hand, couldn't help becoming a little worried when he saw him heading directly toward him, with the Golden Snitch also coming his way.

He knew things would get quite ugly if Severus hit him. He quickly backed away, unable to remain there and try to grab the Snitch when there was a madman hurtling toward him at high speed like a meteor.

Severus quickly caught the Golden Snitch before even reaching the line where Rosier was, indicating that he would have won even with the rival Slytherin there.

But now there was another problem.

How was he supposed to stop?

He was only a few dozen meters from the ground, moving at high speed.

"This is bad", he said, watching the ground draw closer and closer. "Articuno!", Severus shouted.

A white flash appeared beside him before Articuno's talons emerged and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him off the broom as it spread its wings and shot upward.

The broom crashed directly into the ground, creating an almost explosive impact as it was completely destroyed. That drew exclamations from the small audience, while at the same time, everyone pointed at Severus, who was now floating through the air, carried by Articuno as the creature flapped its wings.

"You saved me, my friend", Severus said with a laugh.

"You were reckless. But that was nothing you couldn't have handled yourself", Articuno said.

And it was true.

"I don't want to draw that much attention. At least a phoenix is a good explanation", Severus said as Articuno moved toward the group of Slytherins waiting for him.

Everyone still looked incredulous at what they had just witnessed.

"I think I won again", Severus said calmly, tossing the Golden Snitch against Lestrange's chest.

The Slytherin merely stared at him with colder eyes, while Rosier, Mulciber, and Umbridge arrived. The others shifted their curious gazes between Severus, the hole he had left in the field, and the blue phoenix on his shoulder.

"You can stay in a corner, Snape. We're going to continue the tryouts. Or you can leave, after all, we're only choosing the team tomorrow", Lestrange said.

Severus wasn't guaranteed a place on the team, even after catching the Golden Snitch twice, they would try to sabotage him if they had the opportunity, after all, he wasn't welcome there. Even with that last attempt of his, demonstrating that he was crazy enough to put even his own life at risk to win.

"Damn, that was incredible", Regulus was the only one who approached to make that comment.

"Well, it was fun", Severus said to the boy.

"And your broom? You don't have it anymore."

"I'll make a new one", he simply said. "Or I'll just use one from the school. After all, I doubt they won't start saying I was cheating."

Regulus merely nodded in silence, seeming to understand what he meant. Either way, Severus still wanted to watch the other tryouts, also interested in the other Quidditch positions.

But he didn't remain on the field. He disappeared and reappeared where his group of friends was gathered in the stands, since they had all come to watch.

"Oh, what happened there! You went all the way from the sky to the ground and then!" said a little Hufflepuff boy as Severus approached and sat beside Heloísa.

"I thought you were going to get hurt", she murmured before looking at Articuno on Severus's shoulder.

"I had to borrow him", he said, already picking up the other phoenix, Solaris, who was also there with the group, and placing her on his lap as if she were a chicken. "But I'll tell you one thing: that was fun." Severus couldn't help but laugh.

To be honest, playing Quidditch was fun. If he had the opportunity, he would certainly play.

And so they continued talking while watching the other players.

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