A/N: I know this was written for the winter drabble collection challenge, but I couldn't think of anything for my prompts. So this was just written for fun as well as for the lovely Danie who got me to ship Marcus/Katie. Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.


Katie was sitting in the bleachers with the rest of the Gryffindor quidditch team. They were all half expecting Oliver to give an hour long speech like he did last year, but he surprised them on the last word.

"All right, this is the last practice before Christmas break and we don't have any games until late January…so let's just have some fun."

"Fun?" Fred and George Weasley said together. "Do you know what fun means, Oliver?"

Oliver grinned and revealed a beach ball. "What does this look like?"

"DODGEBALL!" Katie yelled cheerfully as she leaped from her spot. She giggled as she ran forward to grab the ball from Oliver.

"Dodgeball?"

"Oh, come on. Work with me here," she said, rolling her eyes. Harry was the only one who knew how to play the game, but he reluctantly helped her go over the rules with him.

"Why aren't you more excited about this? This is the coolest game next to quidditch," Katie said, nudging Harry.

Harry made a face. "Bad memories…my cousin got the whole class to throw dodgeballs at me for a whole gym period. I wasn't "The Boy Who Lived" at my muggle school."

Katie stared at him before shrugging. "So we'll make some good memories. Come on, you can be on my team."

Harry hesitated before grinning. "All right," he said as they started jogging toward the middle of the field.

Everybody was actually having fun an hour later. Oliver was even grinning as he threw the beach ball in the air, but his smile turned to a frown when Katie caught the ball. "What?" she asked him curiously. Everybody else joined them with displeased expressions on their faces, and Katie turned around.

Her heart did a skip when she saw Marcus Flint standing there… along with the rest of the Slytherin team.

"You call this practice?" Marcus chuckled and the rest of the Slytherin team joined him.

Oliver walked closer and stood protectively next to Katie. "It's called having fun. Something I don't think you know anything about."

"I know how to have fun. I just didn't think that Oliver Wood actually did…you always drive your team to the ground. And now you're…" Marcus made a face at the beach ball as he took it in his hands.

"Playing dodgeball," Katie surprised herself by answering Marcus with a cold tone. She had to remember her place right now.

Marcus's eyes studied her, but his expression didn't change. "Right… well, it's time for you to take your Muggle game elsewhere and let the real professionals play now."

"We were here first." Katie surprised herself again by answering before Oliver did.

Oliver shot an incredulous look at her and nodded. "I booked the field for the whole afternoon, Flint. Do you really want a repeat of last year when this happened?"

Marcus took a step forward. "The question is…do you?"

The two seemed like they were having a staring contest, neither wanted to break eye contact first.

"We'll play for it," Marcus said finally.

"Excuse me?"

"We'll have a scrimmage game. The team who loses has to leave, and the team who wins gets the field for the rest of the day."

"That's ridiculous," Oliver said.

"It's actually a good idea," Katie said before she could stop herself. She couldn't seem to stop surprising herself today.

"You're taking his side?" Oliver asked, motioning to Marcus.

"No…but you have to admit that a scrimmage game is safer than getting into fights over names or throwing up slugs."

She heard a chuckle from Malfoy, and Katie ignored him.

"Fine," Oliver said coldly. "If we win, you will leave us alone too," he told Marcus.

"You have my word." The two shook hands.

Marcus winked at her as they mounted their brooms and Angelina nudged her. "Did Flint just wink at you?"

Katie scoffed. "Absolutely not!" she said coldly. She wanted to throw a smile his way, but she couldn't right now.

The game began and it quickly became violent. The Slytherin team was using moves they knew wouldn't be allowed otherwise.

Katie dodged a bludger being thrown her way and caught the quaffle in her arm. She flew around a Slytherin Chaser and made a goal. Fred flew by her side and gave her a high five.

Marcus was hanging around with another fifth year chaser, though she thought she saw a hint of a small smile play on his lips. She had to be careful not to act like she noticed, though her heart danced at the smile.

"We need to take Bell out," she heard Montague say to Marcus.

Oliver narrowed his eyes and he started to fly forward, but Katie held a hand out to stop him. She didn't want another fight between the two captains.

"No," she heard Marcus say.

Katie stopped flying around, surprised.

"Why not?" the boy argued.

"I'm the captain, that's why. Don't even thinking about laying a hand on Bell."

Katie grew suspicious. They were friends, but why was Marcus acting protective over her? He shouldn't be acting like this. She had to say something before he blew their cover.

"Thanks, Flint, but I can take care of myself."

Marcus's eyes widened when he realized she had actually spoken to him in public. "I wasn't implying you couldn't," he said coldly.

"Good. I don't need a knight in shining armor." Katie hadn't meant to use those choice of words, but a flicker of emotion flashed in his eyes. It gave Katie another reason to wonder what secret he was hiding from her lately.

"Fine," he muttered angrily. He flew off to the other side of the field, and Katie sighed. She hoped he wasn't really angry with her, but it was hard to tell with him sometimes. He had to know that she was trying to keep their friendship a secret, right? That had been what he wanted.

Oliver was suddenly next to her. "You ok?" he asked, placing a hand over her shoulder. "Yeah," she said quietly.

"Don't let them get to you. We won't let them hurt you."

"I'm not worried," Katie lied. She was worried, but not about being hurt. What was going on with Marcus?

She was about to score another goal when a Bludger hit her hard on the arm. She winced in pain as she felt her arm snap.

"Katie!" Marcus was the closest person nearby and he flew to her side immediately. "Are you ok?" He reached for her arm to examine it, and she shook her head.

"My arm…I think it's broken." Tears rolled down her cheeks and she rested her head on his shoulder and immediately pulled back. She expected Marcus to be furious with her for doing that, but instead he was throwing his chaser a furious look.

"Katie!" George and Fred appeared next to her. They gave Marcus a curious look, but he flew off before they could say anything.

"Marcus didn't do anything," she said quickly.

"We know. He started yelling at his friend, it was so strange really. He normally is in favor for his players to attack us-"

WHAM!

Their heads whipped around in surprise when they saw Marcus scowling. He had apparently hit Montague with a beater's bat.

"I thought I told you to leave Bell alone," they heard Marcus say as he tried pushing Montague off the broom. Adrian Pucey had to pull him off in order to leave him alone.

Harry had caught the Snitch in the midst of all the chaos, causing them to win the game.

"Come on, let's take you to the hospital wing," George said as they flew toward the ground. Katie nodded as she rested her head against his shoulder.

She peered around his shoulder to look for Marcus, but he had already walked off the field furiously.

She was at the hospital wing getting a huge lecture from Madam Pomfrey. "An unofficial scrimmage match? That's unheard of. What if one of you died?"

She sighed as she healed Katie's arm. "You got lucky this time. Now go, I don't want there to be any more quidditch injuries.

Katie walked out of the hospital wing and nearly ran over Marcus. She stumbled and he caught her by grabbing her arms. "Are you ok?" he asked, looking down into her eyes.

"Yeah, it was just a broken arm. I've got a nasty bruise though." Marcus cursed when he looked at it.

"I'm sorry, Katie. I told them not to go after you-"

"I know. I'm sorry I got close to you like that earlier. My arm was just in so much pain…"

"Its fine," Marcus said, cutting her off with a hug. When he pulled away he held out a yellow daisy.

"What's this?" Katie asked as she stared at it suspiciously.

"It's a bomb in disguise," Marcus said sarcastically. "It's a flower, silly."

"But…why are you giving me a flower?"

"Am I supposed to have a reason?" he questioned her.

"Guys usually do."

"I'm just… glad you're ok. I also want to be pen pals over break. Is that ok with you?"

Katie was about to answer when George came around the corner. He stopped suddenly when he saw the two of them together. Katie quickly hid the flower behind her back and hoped he hadn't seen it.

"I'll see you around, Bell." Marcus nodded to her and then to George.

George's eyes narrowed skeptically as Marcus walked past him. "You ok?"

"Never better," Katie said, having trouble keeping her smile to herself.