A/N: Hey people! This is a companion piece to my other story, Summer of Disasters and Discoveries. You don't really need to read one for the other, but it's probably a good idea to. This had a bit of Ron-bashing in it (sorry, Ron-lovers!)
There is also a little bit of New Prince of Tennis referenced in here, specificallychapters 84- about 90-ish, I think. It's the doubles game with Bunta and Kite.
As usual, read and review, please! I treasure each and every review!
Ari
"So you play tennis," Ron stated.
Bunta looked over at his fellow redhead, mentally rolling his eyes. That had pretty much been the first thing that anyone had mentioned when he was introduced. "Yes, I do. I'm pretty good at it, actually." Understatement of the year, that was. He was better than good. He was one of the regulars on the Rikkaidai team. That meant that he was one of the best.
He'd come to England for the summer to get away from the situation in Japan. His father's cousin, Sirius Black, had agreed to host him for the duration of his stay, although he did have his godson, the Chosen One, Harry Potter. Now he was stuck here in the drawing room with Harry's idiot friend, Ron Weasley. The guy made even Takashi Kawamura-kun from Seigaku look smart, and that was saying something.
"Maybe we should try it out sometime. Can't be too hard if a kid can play it. No offense." Ron looked over at Bunta, who restrained himself from rolling his eyes again. "Oi, Harry, whaddaya say to trying tennis?"
"While I may not be the Boy Who Lived to Listen to Idiots, I can tell you from my own experience that it is not one of the simpler Muggle sports," Draco Malfoy drawled, coming out of the Floo. He was closely followed by Hermione Granger. The two had been getting rather close lately, which annoyed Ron to no end. Harry seemed okay with it, to the point of even getting together with Draco without Hermione, though Bunta didn't know why that was such a big deal. Apparently Harry and Draco used to be rivals or something like that.
"One, stop calling me that, and two, Ron, he's right. I've seen tennis on the telly, it doesn't look that easy." Harry set the tray of sweets on the table, jumping back to avoid Ron's snatching. "Okay, and three, that's disgusting. You can wait five seconds."
"He can't, Potter, it's quite against his nature." Ducking behind Hermione, Draco dodged Ron's blow. "It's the truth, Weasel."
"Draco…" Hermione warned.
Draco sighed and rolled his eyes. "'Mione, dearest, I simply can't help myself sometimes. He just opens himself up to it."
"Control yourself, th-"
"The Party King is here!" Blaise burst through the Floo, along with Pansy, Luna, and Ginny. "The party can now begin!"
"Blaise, shut up." Draco threw a pillow at him, catching him square in the face. "Up for a game of tennis against Weasley? See 'Mione? I can do it if I want."
"Yes, dear. Of course."
Bunta watched the exchange with horror. Oh no. No way was he going to play tennis with a bunch of eighteen and nineteen year old amateurs. Draco, Blaise, maybe. But Pansy? If the woman so much as broke a nail she practically fainted. An actual tennis game was far more painful. Even Ron would be dangerous. Lord knew that the in the U-17 camp he'd been hurt by a flung tennis racket. Ron with a racket was a scary thought.
"Then it's settled! As the only two who know how to competently play this Muggle game, Hermione, you can captain the Red Team while Draco, you'll captain the White Team. I" Blaise said with a flourish "shall be the referee. All in favor?"
"Sounds good. I get Bunta." Draco immediately latched onto the redhead's arm.
Ron screwed up his face. "Isn't that a bit unfair? I mean, you getting the younger kid?"
"Malfoys can win even with a disadvantage. You'll see." He turned to Hermione, who gave her boyfriend a smirk. She knew very well what he was thinking. "You can pick next."
In the end, it was Bunta, Pansy, and Luna on Draco's team, and Harry, Ron, and Ginny on Hermione's. It was decided that the games would be played the next afternoon, giving Draco and Hermione some time to figure out what in the world to do with the eclectic group of players (and giving Blaise a chance to figure out what the heck a referee did aside from keep score. Oh, and how many points you needed to win. Four, right?).
The next afternoon came way too soon for Bunta. Draco claimed that he'd taught Pansy and Luna how to play tennis well enough to crush the other team, but Bunta did not trust that promise one bit. The two captains had decided that it would be best if they played as one doubles team and two singles. So Bunta and Draco would play singles, while Pansy and Luna would play doubles. If it were up to Bunta, he would've put himself with Luna, Draco as singles two, and Pansy as singles one, the throwaway game. But it wasn't up to him, after all.
Hermione had chosen to divvy up her team according to Bunta's strategy, balancing everyone out a little. She'd chosen to play with Harry, since he actually knew which end of the racket was which (apparently at the first practice, Ron had tried to hit the ball like a Bludger), with Ron as the throwaway singles one and Ginny as singles two. Hopefully it wouldn't come to singles one, Bunta did not want to get stuck with Ron.
Pansy, Luna, Hermione, and Harry stood at their sides of the court, which had been transfigured by Charlie Weasley in the field behind the Burrow. He'd also included some bleachers, so there were a number of spectators in the stands eagerly awaiting the games. Bunta felt sick when he realized that Seiichi-buchou and Genichirou- fukubuchou were there, too, along with Akaya- kun and Jackal- kun. Great. Just great. More humiliation.
The first match began pretty well. Luna was surprisingly good at tennis, though that may have been because she kept talking to things only she could see, startling the other team. This left Pansy in charge of the defense, which she was incredible at. Bunta couldn't believe it, until Draco explained it to him.
"See, Pansy doesn't want to get dirty or bruised, so I told her to simply hit all the balls back. Relying on Luna to keep Potter and Hermione off kilter pretty much cemented that strategy." Draco turned back to the game and yelled to Pansy and Luna, "Win or die!"
"Ah, Draco, I don't think that-" Bunta sighed and fell silent, seeing that the older boy wouldn't listen to him. This was nearly as bad as that Quidditch game they'd insisted on taking him to.
Although Draco's strategy had been brilliant, considering what he was working with, he still didn't have players with the skills he needed. Once Luna ran off the court to chase a Blibbering Humdinger, the game was pretty much over. Pansy raced to Ron to avoid the 'awful balls', and that was it. Harry and Hermione were winners by default.
"The idiots! Why couldn't they listen to me just once!" Draco groused, getting ready to go out on the court.
"At least you're playing Ginny. She doesn't seem to be too hard to beat," Bunta commented.
"Yes, but she's on the Quidditch team. She just may have the skills needed." Taking a quick drink from the water bottle Bunta was holding out, Draco turned to the court. "Thanks. I'll win this one, but good luck with the Weasel then. And don't tell Hermione I called him that."
"Of course not."
Draco's game with Ginny wasn't nearly as funny as the doubles game. They were each pretty good, especially once Ginny became comfortable with playing tennis. The end result was 6-4, to Draco.
"Well, Malfoy, I suppose you deserve to gloat, then. You did win me," Ginny ceded.
"Yes, but you were a good opponent. I should like the pleasure of challenging you again." Draco bent over her hand and kissed it.
"Oi, Malfoy, she's mine! Go kiss your own!" Harry called from the bleachers, eliciting laughter from the audience.
Bunta was too nervous to laugh. "Come on, you'll be fine. You are on Rikkaidai, you're good enough to beat an idiot like him," Jackal said quietly, coming up behind him.
"Thanks, Jackal-kun." Bunta gave his usual double partner a soft grin and grasped his racket. "After this, we'll go out to fish and chips. Your treat, of course."
"Oh, seriously, you couldn't have changed at all over this summer?" Jackal clapped him on the back and pushed his friend to the court. "Go on. You have a redhead to crush."
Bunta walked out onto the court, Ron approaching from the other side. "One set, um…Go!" Blaise shouted. "Right! Weasley, you throw first."
"Serve, you idiot, it's called serve!" Akaya yelled from the stands. Bunta stifled a laugh and turned his attention to the game.
Aside from the odd scoring of Blaise (according to him, it was ten, twenty, twenty-five, forty-five. No one was quite sure how he got those numbers), the game was going well. Bunta had successfully returned every shot, except for two, which were purely accidental. Ron had somehow managed to lob them over his head and they just barely hit the line for the court. There wasn't even any point in showing off any of his cool moves, except to, well, show off. Which he did, because he knew Akaya and Jackal were watching.
During the sixth game, when he was one point from winning, what he'd feared finally happened. Ron was overzealous with his shot and accidentally let go of his racket. As if in slow motion, Bunta saw the racket flying towards his face, exactly as it had in the U-17 camp, with Tohno- san. He couldn't avoid it quickly enough, and the sensation of the hard racket hitting his face was the last thing he felt before everything went black.
He woke up to find the Rikkaidai representatives sitting beside him, along with Sirius, the 'tennis teams', and Madam Pomfrey, who was standing over him. "He's awake!" Akaya shouted. Bunta groaned and shut his eyes.
"Quiet. He's still a bit sensitive. How are you feeling, love?" Madam Pomfrey gently cupped his cheek, making Bunta blush. "Head hurts?"
"Y-yeah. A little. What happened?"
"Er, I got a little carried away and accidentally threw the racket thingy at you," Ron admitted. "Sorry about that. I promise you, I didn't mean to."
"I know. It's fine. And Draco," Bunta rounded on the blond. "Next time you say that 'oh, no one will accidentally hit you with a racket, they're not good enough' think twice. I'm pretty sure I just got hit by one."
"Yes, I know, sorry. Trust me, I didn't think anyone could be that clumsy." Draco shot a dirty look towards Ron, who turned away from him.
"Now that you've all seen that he's all right, would you please allow my patient to rest? Out. Everybody out." Madam Pomfrey shooed everyone outside, leaving only Sirius behind. "Make sure he rests. I took care of the concussion, but he'll still be a little out of it."
"Of course, Poppy. Thank you so much." As soon as she left, Bunta turned to his cousin. "Anything good come out of today?"
"Well, I certainly learned something."
"And what was that?"
"Never play tennis with amateurs."