A cloudless blue sky stretches across the great hall which is buzzing with excitement.

The students are wearing scarves and hats in the colours of their preferred team. Numerous banners and flags have been placed on the tables, right next to plates loaded with bacon, toast and scrambled eggs.

Even the teachers have waved every bit of fake neutrality Goodbye and are either dressed in all green or all yellow.

The big day has finally arrived. Today is the Quidditch final!

"I can promise you the full support of every single Gryffindor, Marcus!" Elliot says sternly while angrily staring at the Slytherin table. "Honest to god, the whole school is counting on you to beat these arrogant snakes."

,,We'll do that, don't worry!" Marcus manages to say in between two bites of toast.

Elliot nods, wearing a deeply serious expression on his face. "We're counting on you. Best of luck!"

He turns around and goes back to the Gryffindor table, which is completely covered in yellow Hufflepuff banners and hard to tell apart from our own.

Marcus is the captain of our Quidditch team and also my boyfriend. He has been so for nearly two years now.

He plays as a seeker even though he does not actually have the ideal dainty Seeker figure. Instead Marcus is broad - shouldered, blonde and just a little bit chunky. Still, he obviously does a really good job as a Seeker since he managed to bring our Team into the final. Hufflepuff has not been in a Quidditch final for nearly a century. Our desire to win this match is understandably big so.

I gaze at my boyfriends side profile. "Are you nervous, Marcus?"

He shakes his head. "No! Why would I be?! I know that we'll win like."

I smile and lean in to kiss his cheek. "That's right, honey."

"Uh - Uh! Nope! Be careful with that." My best friend Nancy chimes in. "It's never good to be overly confident. The Slytherin team is a really difficult opponent and-"

"Bullshit! They play like a bunch of first years. Also, a little bit of confidence can go a long way when it comes to Quidditch. See, you wouldn't know that because you play like a-" Before I can make an attempt to reconcile, Marcus rant gets disrupted by loud booing.

"Oh Shit, here they are." I murmur and stare into my cup.

Accompanied by loud cheers and even louder boos the Slytherin team prances into the great hall. Their captain Theodore Nott is leading the way. The Slytherins are already wearing their gloves and green Quidditch robes. They seem to enjoy all the attention.

"No surprise they waited till the last possible moment to get down here. I bet they wanted to make an entrance!" Marcus growls. He is staring at the Slytherin team incessantly. Nott notices and a cocky smile curls the corners of his lips.

"Marcus." I whisper anxiously. "Don't stare at them like that." I put my hand on his arm and try to turn his attention back to his plate. No success.

"Oi Slytherins!" He yells. "We'll strip you off of your snake skins today, ya hear me?!"

Every single head in the great hall turns to look at us. I shut my eyes for a second.

"Marcus, what are you doing? Stop it." I tell him quietly. He doesn't listen.

"What's the matter? Someone cut your parsel tongues off?"

The silence in the hall is so great you could hear a unicorn hair beeing dropped on the floor. The Slytherins exchange a few glances as they slowly make their way to our table.

I feel deeply embarassed by my boyfriends unsporty behaviour. If only a hole in the ground would open up and swallow me!

Marcus is not the type to usually pick a fight. It's just that he hates Slytherins. Especially the ones that are on the Quidditch team. He's had fights with them that have escalated into duells and ended in the hospital wing.

I obviously don't approve of that, but try to mind my own business. Marcus is a seventeen year old adult and responsible for his own actions. He doesn't need his girlfriend to meddle with his affaires.

On any usual day I would have ignored him, but today is no usual day - it's the day of the final! And if Marcus gets into a fight now then the teachers might not let him play!

"Look at you all cocky, Nott! You think your lot's got a chance to win, don't ya?" Marcus yells mockingly. "We should put a matress on the pitch. That way you won't hurt yourself falling off the broom when I catch the snitch before your lousy excuse of a seeker does so!"

"Hey, it's enough! You can show them later on during the match how much you despite them, but now's not the time nor the place!" I hiss.

"Listen to your girl, Catterick!" Ian McCartney sneers loudly. "She's much smarter than you! Much prettier also!"

By now the Slytherins are standing right behind us. As I breathe frantically through my nose I can smell trouble. Marcus gets up, ready to smash Ian's face in. But before he can even get close to doing so Nott steps forward and blocks his way.

He is a good bit taller than my boyfriend. Every single strand of his black hair is perfectly styled. Nott is wearing a smug expression on his face and is seemingly enjoying every second of this.

"Why don't you sit down, Catterick," he points to Marcus' chair with his chin without breaking eye contact. "And you and I have a little chat before the game. How does that sound?"

If it wasn't for a whole table of teachers angrily staring our way while gripping their wands, I'm positive that Marcus would have broken Nott's perfectly symmetrical nose right then and there.

But since he finally seems to notice that all of the teachers are right here and watching, he sits down.

"Good boy!" Nott mockingly says. He leans against the edge of our table and slightly lowers his chin, looking down at Marcus.

Nott has very unusual eyes. It's hard to describe but they're greyish - blue and cold and almost hypnotizing. Once he locks eyes with you it's damn near impossible to look away.

"You are totally sure that you'll win today, huh?" Nott asks. His low voice is deep and just a little bit husky. It gives me goosebumps. Notts whole presence gives me goosebumps.

"Yeah! That's right!" Marcus says, angrily meeting Nott's gaze.

Nott smirks. He pulls his wand out and starts to play with it, twirling it in his fingers.

"If that's so, Catterick..." He stops twirling. "Are you up for a bet?"