Chapter 1: Unexpected Victory

Draco had the golden snitch between his fingers, and a shocked expression on his face. No one would dare to say a word, even the Slytherins. The Gryffindors had stopped their early celebration. The Quidditch field was completely silent, until Blaise recovered his voice:

"DRACO CAUGHT THE SNICH!" he screamed from the depths of his lungs.

"I caught the—oh God," Draco whispered to himself, as he stared at the golden snitch fluttering in his palm, while the rest of Slytherin began commemorating loudly.

"We won! YEAH! " Blaise shouted, laughing maniacally. "IN YOUR FACE, GRYFFINDORS! " He wasn't the only one shoving the victory at the adversaries. The entire Slytherin side was doing the same. The field quickly turned green and silver as the Slytherins poured onto the field, lifting Draco up onto their shoulders while singing a stupid victory song.

Harry and his team quietly made their way off the pitch. They left looking so miserable that no one (except for the Slytherins) would have been tactless enough to criticize them.

"Don't worry, mate… these things happen sometimes," Ron said, attempting to comfort Harry, but Harry knew that the defeat was his fault. The team headed for the changing room, where Ron left them, before eventually making their way back to the Gryffindor common room.

"Man, I never thought that this could happen. The game lasted, what, thirty minutes?" Oliver asked sullenly, when they were almost to the school.

"Ten, Oliver," Fred mumbled, looking like a kicked puppy.

"Yeah, whatever! Crap, Malfoy was just lucky today, huh?" Oliver grunted. "I mean, to find the golden snitch in the middle of a friggin' snow storm…"

The rest of the walk back was filled with silence. No one wanted to talk about what had happened… except for Luna Lovegood, that of course, was of no help.

Inside the common room, the rest of Gryffindor was already waiting for them, though they were not quite as unhappy as the Quidditch team itself. Everyone seemed to be silently saying, "Don't worry Harry, we don't blame you for losing the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup, we know it was Malfoy's fault."

It was a only a matter of minutes before the crowd quietly left the common room, some off to sneak around the corridors, obviously up to no good (Fred and George), leaving behind Harry, Ron and Hermione, who was asleep with her face against the essay.

"Hey mate, do you think we should move this parchment that Hermione's sleeping on?" Ron asked softly, trying not to wake Hermione.

"Um, I don't know. Is that the Herbology essay?"

Ron gently shifted her arm away to read the header. "Yeah, I completely forgot about this one! Here, help me out."

Harry was carefully leaning Hermione back into her chair when Ron shot her a startled look, and then shouted, "What the hell!"

She woke up, surprised and quite confused.

"What? What happened! Is everyone okay?" she blurted worriedly.

"Well, you're not…" Ron said while pointing at her face and looking quite disoriented. Hermione's face was covered in ink! Half of her face looked like burned bread.

"Huh?" she said, lightly touching her face. Pulling her hand away, she started at her now ink-stained finger. "Is that…its ink, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

The scene made Harry's day. After such an overwhelming loss at Quidditch, Harry would normally be brooding for a few days, but it seemed that the picture of a puzzled and ink-covered Hermione cheered him up, as he was now shamelessly chuckling.

"Oh, shut up! Argh, it's in my hair!" Hermione growled as she moved quickly to the girl's lavatory. The silence was so thick in the tower that the boys could hear the valve squeakily turning, but the expected rush of tap water was not coming. After a moment, they heard her grumbling in frustration before she stomped back out to the common room. She passed by them, grumbling fiercely.

"Iforgotthetap'sbrokenwegottousethebathroomoutside," the girl garbled rapidly, ignoring the comas. "GogetthecloakHarryI'llbewaitingbythepassage"

Ron and Harry looked at each other, a bit frightened by her non-Hermione-like conduct. They agreed to simply obey her orders. Once in the dormitory, Ron worked up the courage to ask.

"Harry, what did Malfoy say to you?" Harry gave him a confused look as he rifled through his trunk for the Invisibility Cloak. "Before the game?" Ron clarified.

"The usual, 'I'll get you this time, Potty,'" He replied, mimicking Draco like he's a retard.

"Oh."

"Why, what did you think it was?"

"Uh, nothing, I was just curious…I mean, he always threatens you, but he's never right! So…I was just thinking that… maybe he—"

Harry interrupted Ron's rambling. "Are you suggesting that he cheated?"

"Hmm…Yeah…but, but it's just because he—" Harry interrupted Ron once again…

"Because he won? Look Ron, I'm not the almighty 'God of Quidditch' or something. He was simply better this time; I don't think he'd need to cheat to beat me. "

"ok…If you say so," Ron replied without any sign of conviction.

"Here, I found it."

"Lets hurry or Hermione the baby eater might pull our legs at night."

Downstairs, they found a fuming Hermione still waiting by the portrait. When she saw them, she snapped, "What took you two so long! The ink's drying out!"

Once they had her covered in the cloak, they quickly made their way to the nearest lavatory. They waited for Hermione by the door, hiding under the cloak. The only sounds they could hear were footsteps, but that wasn't a big problem, since they were invisible. Soon, Draco Malfoy stepped into the corridor, with Pansy and Zabini trailing him sycophantically, laughing like drunken trolls.

"Did you see Potter's face when you won the game? It was remarkable! He was like this, D8" Blaise said, imitating Harry's expression perfectly. Pansy and Draco laughed shamelessly while Ron tried to hide the upcoming laugher, more because they'd be spotted if he didn't.

"That's what he gets for underestimating Draco," said Pansy, trying to buy Draco's affection once again.

"That brat" Malfoy stated, still laughing "Oh, look at me, I'm the chit who lived!" his acting made Pansy and Zabini laugh loudly and Ron suppress, once again, his upcoming laughter "I'm better than every-fucking-one in this Hogwarts school, because I lived!"

Giggling piercingly, Pansy grabbed his hand and started moving on through the corridor, saying vibrantly "Come on! Snape doesn't know yet! Let's go tell him!"

"Yeah, he had to apply a detention to that Hufflepuff kid," Blaise said, still chuckling.

Once they were far enough away not to hear him whispering, Harry turned to Ron and asked, "Did I really make that face?"

Ron snorted before stating, "I don't really remember."

"And I don't really act like that, do I? I mean all brash and…" Harry trailed off with a questioning frown on his face.

"Oh, come on! You didn't really buy that, did you?"

"You did…"

Ron gave him a confused look.

"You laughed!"

"No, I didn't!"

"C'mon, you laughed."

"…All right, I did. But Malfoy's acting was just so… I don't know, amusing… But it doesn't mean you're like that!" Ron hastened to add.

"Right" Harry smirked.