Disclaimer: As always, I don't own it.

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Chapter 10: "Fighting"

Hope went out to quidditch practice and had to sigh. Harry was up in the skies training with Ginny. He showed her some tricks on his broom and Hope felt her heart clench. She heard movement behind her and saw her brother coming with a couple more members of the team.

He looked up into the sky and shook his head before mounting his broom and kicking off. Hope did the same with her broom and caught up with him just as he stopped in front of the two.

"Excuse me, but Slytherin has the pitch reserved until eight. I suggest you come back after that."

"Gee, Malfoy, we were just messing around. We'll leave you to your practice. Merlin knows you need it more than we do," Ginny said as she rolled her eyes. "Come on, Harry, let's go to the common room."

Hope glared at the redhead as she landed her broom and grabbed Harry by the hand. Harry threw her a hidden sympathetic look before grasping Ginny's hand and following her into the common room.

"Okay, guys. Now that we've gotten rid of the pathetic lions, I want to try something new tonight. It's come to my attention, that some of us aren't playing the correct position. Therefore, we are all going to switch up our positions for the night. I want Hope to play seeker, all other positions are fair game."

Hope watched as Draco made changes to the positions. The other two chasers ended up becoming beaters, while one of the beaters became keeper and the keeper and other beater became chasers along with Draco.

"Okay, now I've made a few calls and have arranged to have some of our old players come in and play. We're going to have a quidditch match right here and now. Hope, you may be playing seeker, but I want you to help out the chasers and beaters as well. This idea could be completely worthless, but I need to give it a try."

Hope nodded. Draco flicked his wand and the balls flew into the air. Hope watched the snitch fly off before losing track of it. She flew down and grabbed the ball from the air and tossed it toward Draco, while turning around and looking for the snitch.

Thirty minutes into the game, Hope was extremely worn out. She flew down where her brother was and called a time out. "I can't play more than one position, Draco. It's too challenging and I'm losing focus of the snitch."

Draco nodded and told her to switch to full time seeker. Hope let out a sigh of relief and began scanning the pitch for the little golden ball.

After flying around a few times, she spotted it near the ground. She flew off full speed and caught the ball before flipping off her broom.

"Hope!" Draco yelled, almost jumping off his broom before it hit the ground. "Are you okay?"

Hope rubbed her head and sore arms. "A little tired. But I got the snitch!"

Draco shook his head. "It's not worth your life. Sit out the rest of practice. Everyone else prepare for another game."

"No way! I have practice after this with the Gryffindor's anyway. It's not going to hurt me."

Draco watched his sister carefully. "I'm the captain and I make these calls. I'm sorry, sis, but you just smacked your head on some pretty hard ground. I'm not letting you get back on a broom."

Hope glared at him and sat down on the bench. "Fine," she muttered.

Draco gave her a sympathetic look. Her replacement for Gryffindor games flew up to take her place and she watched the game be replayed. Finally, right as the Gryffindor's were coming out, the girl caught the snitch and the entire team flew down to the ground.

Draco made his way over to where Hope was. Hope was rather glad to be on the ground. Her head was pounding and when she went to stand, she got a bit lightheaded.

Draco gave her a worried look as he leaned forward to touch her forehead.

"You got yourself a nasty bump there, sis. But you did make an excellent seeker. Catching the snitch in one hour while playing all positions; that's better than me."

Hope sighed. "Great, but now I have to practice with the Gryffindor's and I can't say I'm exactly happy."

Draco gave her a sympathetic look. "Boyfriend or headache?"

"Both."

Hope winced as he brushed his hand across the bump on her head. "Are you okay to play or do I need to get Severus to excuse you from practice?"

"I'm okay. I'll never live it down if I practice with Slytherin but not with Gryffindor. But can you send Hermione out? Just in case something does go wrong?"

Draco nodded and went inside. He stopped and pulled Harry aside for a moment. Harry shot a worried look in her direction before nodding to Draco. He made a beeline straight for her after Draco walked away.

"Hope, are you okay to practice? If not, the team would understand."

Hope rolled her eyes. "Whatever my exaggerating brother just told you, Potter, I assure you I will not let it interfere with your practice."

Harry grabbed her and pulled her to the side away from listening ears. "I don't care about our fight right now, I care about whether you are going to kill yourself if you get up on that broom."

Hope rolled her eyes again. "I will be fine, don't let little old me worry you."

Harry was confused. "Hope, are you seriously mad at me?"

Hope sighed. "We'll talk later, after practice, in my father's quarters."

Harry nodded and stormed off. Hope sighed and mounted her broom to join the rest of the team.

They practiced for awhile until Hope began to get lightheaded again. She landed on the ground and saw that there was only another ten minutes of practice left anyway.

"Hope, what are you doing? Get back up here!" One of the players yelled.

"I can't," Hope said as she fell against the bench. "I need a break."

Hermione came over from where she was sitting and looked at her best friend. "You okay?" She asked worriedly.

Hope locked eyes with her best friend. "Just a little tired, lack of sleep catching up with me."

Hermione watched as she went to take a step and was off balance. She grabbed her best friend's arm and led her toward the school. "More than a little tired."

Hope muttered something under her breath about her broom. Hermione rolled her eyes and looked up to find Harry.

"Harry, we're going inside. Grab Hope's broom and bring it to me after practice."

Harry nodded, but looked upset at having to do such a task. Hope smiled, knowing it was all part of the act before she allowed Hermione to lead her down to the dungeons. Hope said the password to get into her father's quarters and was surprised when she saw Draco down there reading a book.

"What are you doing down here?" Hope asked as Hermione led her over to sit next to him.

"It's technically still the weekend, so I figured you'd come down here after practice."

Hope laid down on the couch, using her brother as a pillow. "Since you're so kind to wait for me, want to go get Dad for me?"

Draco gave her a sympathetic look. "Headache?"

"Major one. The ground wasn't as soft as it looked."

Draco laughed. "If I get up, you lose your pillow."

Hope made a face. "Never mind, I'll live."

Hermione volunteered to go get him, so the two let her, neither wanting to move from their comfortable spot. Sometime in waiting for her father, Hope drifted off to sleep.

Severus came out looking slightly worried. "Hope, I thought you said Quidditch wasn't worth getting killed…" He trailed off looking at his sleeping daughter.

"Sorry, Dad. She was bored to sleep," Draco said from the couch.

Hermione giggled and Severus gave the boy a sharp look. He went over to Hope and inspected the bump on her head. He rolled his eyes and set two pills on the table for her to take when she woke up, before going back to the lab while muttering about children who take stupid risks.

Hermione was about to sit down in the chair across from Draco when there was a knock on the door. Rolling her eyes, she went to answer it. She smiled at Harry standing in the doorway, holding a broom in his hand.

"Ginny took mine back to the common room. Is Hope alright?"

"She's sleeping on her brother's lap. I think she's just overly tired."

Harry raised an eyebrow and entered the room to see the sight and started laughing. "Got a camera by chance?"

Hermione laughed. "I do! In my bag! They used it to take a picture of the two of you sleeping together and gave it to me to get developed since Colin uses magical cameras."

Harry laughed as she dug through her bag and got it out. They took a picture and watched as Severus came back through.

"Hey, Dad?" Draco ventured.

"Yes, Draco?" Severus said, turning around to face his son.

"Can Hermione and Harry sleep over tonight? We'll all stay in the living room, that way nobody has to move Hope, and she doesn't wake up feeling stupid for falling asleep."

Severus looked like he was about to shoot down the idea before he shrugged his shoulders and said sure. The teens all celebrated quietly. Eventually, Draco and Harry switched spots.

After talking about everything they could think of, the other three teens eventually fell asleep, content just to be able to hang out with those they care about the most.

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A/N: Okay, guys. I'm officially in my school now. My dorm room is pretty neat, though its cold and the beds are uncomfortable. :( OH well, I guess I'll have to live, huh? Well, I'm not sure how soon I'll get the next chapter to you with my horrible schedule, but I'll work on it.
Kayla