Chapter 4
I can't believe this is how my first Quidditch game is going. Gryffindor is twenty points up and Wood keeps preventing us from scoring. I noticed Lucius and Cissy in the crowd. I'm sure Draco wants to impress his father and I want to impress Cissy. We NEED to win. I flew over to Marcus Flint and so did my and Draco's first cousin once removed (though we just refer to him as 'cousin'), Evan Rosier (most people call him Evan Junior and Dray and I call him EJ). His dad was my Grandma Druella's brother. Marcus took EJ's bat and hit a Bludger right at Wood. Wood got hit in the stomach and fell down. Next, Marcus and Draco went after Johnson as she's the one who scored twice and put Gryffindor up by twenty points. I scored as Johnson fell down. One Chaser and the Keeper down... Marcus scores again and Potter looks pissed. His broom starts yanking about. I gesture for Draco to come over. "What?"
"Focus on getting out as many players as possible with EJ. Start with the Chasers. Without them, no Gryffindor can score. I'll focus on Potter. Let Marcus focus on scoring." Draco nodded and I flew over to Potter as Draco flew over to Spinnet and gestured for EJ to go on Spinnet's other side. "Hey, Potter! You're going to fall. You're broom's being fucked with."
"I can tell, thanks." Potter fell off the broom but managed to hold on. He's just dangling in the air now. "What are you doing!?"
"No Slytherin is fucking with you. Messing with brooms isn't our method."
"I've noticed what your 'methods' are."
"Look. I want you out of the game but I don't want you dead. I'll save you but then you're out of the game. Deal?"
"No way!" One of Potter's hands lost its grip. "Fine! Fine! Just help!" Potter let go but I grabbed his arm. His other arm grabbed mine as I used my second arm to hold onto my broom. Potter pulled himself onto my broom. His was still violently jerking about before it stopped and fell. It crashed into pieces when it hit the ground and Potter winced. I flew him onto the ground and felt something snap into place between us. "What was that?"
"A Life Debt... I didn't think... You owe me a Life Debt. I... We'll talk about this later, Potter. I've got a game to win." I flew up and told Marcus what had happened. "If we take out Bell and block the Weasleys from getting the Bludgers, we can just keep scoring until there's no chance of us losing the Quidditch Cup." Marcus grinned at my words.
"Why keep them in?"
"The rules state there must be at least two players on each team or the game ends. They don't say those players can't just be Beaters. We have to make sure the Snitch isn't caught until we've got at least a few hundred points. That means, even if we don't catch the Snitch in future games, we'll still win."
"But preferably as many points as possible."
"Yeah." Marcus nodded and flew over to the team's Seeker, Johnathon Rowle. Draco, Marcus and I scored three more times as EJ took out Bell. EJ and Gemma Fawley blocked the Weasley twins while our Keeper, Rebecca Rookwood, stayed flying in front of the middle hoop looking bored. I guess she would be now that she has nothing to do. Over the next hour, Marcus, Draco and I practised different Quidditch moves to wow the crowd while scoring. When we finally had Rowle catch the Snitch and end the game, we were at 990 points to twenty. The scoreboard only went up to 990 so we figured we'd just end there. That gave us a total of 1,140 points to Gryffindor's 20 points. There's no way we're not going to win the Quidditch Cup now and it seems the other Houses know it.
"Party in the Common Room, Mia," Draco said as we landed.
...
I walked into the Common Room with Marcus, Draco, EJ, Gemma, Rebecca and Johnathon. Everyone in the Slytherin Common Room cheered. "Quieten down, everyone," Marcus called. The Common Room fell silent. "The team did an excellent job today. There's no way, if we keep trying our hardest, we can't win the Quidditch Cup this year!" Everyone cheered again and Marcus held up his hand to silence them. "However, one player helped a lot. This player came up with the idea to take out everyone but the Weasleys and have them blocked by our Beaters. This player helped score and scored many times and took Potter out of the game whilst getting Slytherin 50 points for saving the life of a fellow student." Wait, I got what? "The player to be celebrated today is... Cassiopeia Black!" Everyone started yelling my surname over and over again and Draco leaned over to me.
"Mom told me when I wrote to her about us getting on the team, that, in Slytherin, the player who contributes most to the team's win is celebrated at the party. It starts with chanting the player's surname, then moves on to putting a mark on that player's column, then they get their picture taken and hung up until the next game on the Slytherins-to-watch wall." We had been shown the Slytherins-to-watch wall when we were shown the Common Room for the first time after our Sorting but they hadn't told us what you have to do to get on the wall. "And ends with the player being offered a place in The Slytherin Soldiers. Unless you already have a place. Then, you get to have an unlimited pass to the Restricted Section for a term." My eyes went wide.
"For that term?"
"A term of your choosing but usually it's that term or one in fifth-year and up to help with O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s."
"What are The Slytherin Soldiers?"
"The secret duelling club for Slytherins only. First and Second years are only allowed if they're on the team or have done something to really impress the seventh-years in charge. There are currently three seventh-years in charge of The Slytherin Soldiers. They're Jonathon Rowle, Rafael Lestrange (Rabastan's son) and Raven Avery. There are five tiers in The Slytherin Soldiers. The first is the Leaders. That's Rowle, Lestrange and Avery. Lestrange is the one who's in charge out of those three and Avery's next. The second is The Champions. They're the ones who are rarely beaten in a duel. Typically, you have to beat three Champions to become one yourself. If you get beaten three times by fellow Champions, you fall down a tier. However, being beaten by a Leader doesn't count."
"So, how many people are Champions?"
"There are only five Champions at most at any time. If someone wants to become a Champion and there are five Champions, then they all duel each other and whoever loses the most duels is knocked down a tier. That opens a space for the person who wants to become one. If you get knocked out of The Champions, you have to wait two terms to become a Champion again. Being a Champion or a Leader is something you can put on your CV as long as you specify when you became a Champion/Leader, how long you were a Champion/Leader and if you were knocked out of The Champions. You also have to enchant your CV so only Slytherins can read that you were a Slytherin Soldier."
"Can Leaders get knocked out of their position?" I asked him.
"Leaders don't get knocked out of their position. The Champions will have a duelling competition at the end of the year. Only sixth-year Champions can compete. You have to be a fifth-year or above to be a Champion. The three who are ranked highest become Leaders unless there aren't at least four sixth-year Champions. Then, there isn't a competition and all sixth-year Champions become Leaders whether that's three Leaders or one. Any Champions that become Leaders will leave a space open. That allows an open duelling competition at the end of the year for those in the tier below. Anyone who reaches the top spot will get a place on The Champions but they have to be in fifth-year or above. If there's more than one open space, the top two or three (depending on how many open Champions spaces there are) will become Champions."
"Who are the current Champions then?" I asked him.
"Marcus, Gemma, Rebecca, EJ and Alina Shafiq. Alina, EJ and Rebecca are the only current sixth-year Champions. So, unless someone knocks them out or Marcus or Gemma get replaced by a sixth-year, they're going to be The Slytherin Soldiers Leaders next year."
"Okay, what's the next tier?" I asked him.
"The next tier is The Masters. It's really the same as Champions only one tier down. The rules of being knocked down are the same and the rules of becoming a Master are the same as the ones of becoming a Champion. However, if a Champion gets knocked down a tier and there are five Masters, the Masters have to do the whole battle-each-other-and-whoever-loses-the-most-gets-knocked-down-a-tier thing. Masters can be of any year. The current Masters are Malcolm Bulstrode, Jason Travers, Antoinette Avery, Cherry Davis and Dexter Leason."
"The next tier is The Learners. Exactly the same as Masters but a tier down. Same rules if a Master gets knocked down as if a Champion had. Only allowed five at most and for any year. The current Learners are Baxter Grey, Caius Boot (his brother, Terry, is a first-year Ravenclaw), Athenadora Swan, Lysander Johnson (apparently, Angelina Johnson's twin brother) and Cenred Dragonmir (apparently, his brother goes to Durmstrang and is in his fourth year)."
"The last tier is The Firsties. Which is what you'll be. I think it's to mock people. Most Slytherins mock first-years by calling them ickle firsties because we're only in our first year and don't know much magic. I don't know who's a Firstie other than you. There are a lot of them... About ten including you, I think? That is a lot since many people don't get into The Slytherin Soldiers. There are only seventy-three Slytherins currently. There used to be more but the current Slytherin generation and the next year and the year after were the last few born or in the pregnancy stage during the war. I expect, when we're in fourth-year, there will be quite a few more Slytherins. Maybe even up to twenty. This year, we only had ten."
"So, including me, there are about twenty-eight Slytherins out of seventy-three that are in The Slytherin Soldiers?"
"Yep. But the seventh-years just left so anyone in our year could try to get in. If we all got in, that'd be thirty-seven out of seventy-three." I snorted at Draco's words.
"I know for sure Crabbe, Goyle, Davis and Bulstrode won't be good enough. I know Zabini, Nott, you, Greengrass and Parkinson will be, though... I guess with some help Davis might be able to in a year or two." Draco chuckled at my words.
"Maybe."
...
"What is a Life Debt?" Potter asked. "How does it work?" I sat down next to him with my trunk before I leave for the train for the holidays.
"It's hard to explain but to put it simply... I saved your life so now your magic has formed a Life Debt bond. The first chance you have to save my life, the bond will alert you and you will feel obligated to do it. Once you have saved my life, the bond will dissolve and we will no longer have any obligation to one another."
"That's it?"
"Yes."
"Okay. The way Ron was going on about it, you'd think it was a much bigger deal than that."
"It is a big deal, Potter," I scoffed.
...