Chapter 10: but she missed…

Previously:

The green ribbon tied in Ginny's hair twinkled merrily, matching the colour of the t-shirt which hugged the figure of good-looking, blond boy by the name of Draco Malfoy who had just casually walked onto the pitch, a smile playing on his lips as he intently watched the beautiful girl with flaming red hair fly.

She looked at one with her surroundings, he mused, and the way her long hair rippled through the wind like a flame, it was vibrant and fierce, yet enticing and rich –he just felt the immediate desire to pull her down towards him, to kiss her like she'd never been kissed before; to make her feel it, to make her want it, to make her live it.

And then there was that green ribbon around her face, acting as a headband; it looked to natural and at home outside, the light daintily flittering off it, as if it were just a piece of grass on the ground, it looked so innocent and organic. Draco pushed away the thoughts he was going all-prosaic; he had decided when it came to Ginny Weasley it wasn't such a bad thing. And right now everything just looked, seemed and felt so right.

So it seemed perfectly natural to jump on his broom and fly up to her, and perhaps enquire as to the health of the flowers he had given her.

Whilst down below Leila and Victoria had arrived on the softly singing the song "this old love" by Loir. Their voices were soft and sweet, Leila singing it in soprano and Victoria as an alto "yes yeah, we're moving on, looking for direction, mmm… we've covered much ground… " Their voice's floated around the pitch "Ooh and time moves on like a night sky…" as Ginny and Draco lazily flew around up above they caught a few wafts of the mellow music below them.

"We'll grow old together, we'll grow old together, and this love, this old love will never die…" they both flew closer together as they slowly descended whilst talking 'wow,' Ginny breathed 'they are really good! The song… it's so… 'Simple and serene' Draco offered 'yeah, and the lyrics….' Ginny shook her head in wonderment, and they both went back to peacefully listening to the girls' music.

"Yeah, so I never want to ever worry if you're going to stay around, so let's grow old together, we'll grow old together…" Ginny felt herself being acutely aware of Draco presence beside her as she fell in love with the lyrics, they made her want to just turn around and look at him –but to do so would be pointless, she tried to reason with herself.

But in the end she didn't have to make the decision as Draco spoke to her, his voice was surprisingly soft 'it's a beautiful song isn't it? I think Blaise said the girls' were going to be playing a bit at the Ball with Oliver accompanying them on guitar' Ginny's eyes widened and she looked up at him, slightly smiling 'yeah, it would be great to hear this song again' she responded. The girls' voices grew softer as the song dwindled to an end; "yes, yeah, we're moving on, right along." By this time they had both reached the ground and the two girls and were joking around with Blaise as they waited for Ron and Oliver to arrive.

Finally everyone arrived and settled down and Draco took charge of the team –but he didn't really give a big, long-winded speech with much bravado. Instead he said calmly to them all; 'I don't expect us to win every match, but I do expect us to play like a team; this means that we respect each other and kick ass together, it means we also show a respect for the games rules, even if our opponents don't –in which case we show them how playing by the rules wins.'

Draco smiled at everyone, meeting each and every one of everyone's eyes, before continuing. 'Now that I've got the main part of my speech out of the way, I'd like to say a few more things relating to this particular season. Now, we're all good, if not great or excellent players, but in a game like this it doesn't matter so much. I'm sure you can all remember the World Cup game where Ireland won, but Krum got the snitch?' there were murmurs of assent and recognition of where this was going.

'Well, as you all know, the game only ends with the catching of the snitch, and that's usually enough to win the game, but in this instance it just wasn't enough –the team, particularly the chasers, were just so in sync with one another that they were unstoppable.'

Draco paused, taking a breath and surveying the faces around him, everyone was sitting around casually, but and paying attention to his every word, Ginny in particular he noticed was avidly listening to his every word, she was leaning forward with curiosity and concentration –it made him feel oddly happy.

'And yeah, I know what I'm about to say is kind of typical, and you've heard it all before, but the fact remains, singularly were good, but it's when we work together, and it's when we play like a team, when we work like a team, when we fly like team, that we truly show the people in those stands that we can definitely kick-arse.'

Ginny found herself grinning broadly and unabashedly –the speech had really started to make her think, and, although it was kind of lame, she liked those slightly motivational "we are a team" speeches when it came to Quidditch, because it was becoming more rare, and many teams were turning around and focusing it more on lone talent –and that was really only half of playing.

Ginny, like the rest of the team knew that really getting to know one another and being able to come together would be what would give them an advantage over everyone else. Ginny started to laugh, and everyone turned to look at her.

'Well,' Ginny started 'you've got to realise how well we can do this? I mean, part of our success depends on how well we come together and understand one another, and lets face it, one of the things that made the Gryffindor team was that they were friendly with one another, and Fred and George weren't just good beaters they were good because they had talent, sure, but they were like one being, split in two. And with this team; well, the majority of the people on the team are with a member of their family, you've got to admit this is going to help us.'

'Gosh Gin,' Ron said jokingly 'you'd think your glad to have me as a brother right now!'

Ginny laughed, 'well you better not do anything to change that perception, then' she said before poking her tongue out cheekily at him.

Oliver chuckled at them and added 'well Leila's been our neighbour since forever so she's pretty much part of our family anyway.'

'Well, seeing as everyone's stating their family alliances, I feel obliged to say that Draco is like once of my cousins, and as I think my mother once married one of his second uncles, we are kind of family' Blaise proclaimed.

'I think that was stretching it a bit mate' a smirking Draco came back with.

'Perhaps' Blaise stage-whispered as Ginny rolled her eyes at him.

'Can we just get on with it?' Ginny sighed in half real, half mock exasperation.

'Right you are ma'am!' Draco shouted imitating a loud, obnoxious drill-sergeant, 'come on troops, out to the field! Left-right-left-right-left…' Just as he started his call for them to march out, Ginny jumped, cackling all the while, on to her broom, and swiftly flew out of the locker room, carefully making sure to hit Draco playfully over the head as she zoomed out, turning around to wink cheekily at him.

'Why you little…' Draco started to say, his eyes wide, alight, and intent as he chased after her.

Since the first practice, days had turned into weeks, and those past few weeks would soon be called a month. In that time everything had been pretty steady for everyone; Harry had made up with both Ron and Ginny, and everyone had been part of the hectic lull that is school.

For Ginny, Quidditch practises and prefect duties had become a welcome relief from the relentless and mundane tasks that made up school; it was like a breath of fresh air, giving her a moment of sanity. And it didn't hurt that she got to spend all that time with Draco.

But it was tonight, the evening before the first Quidditch match. The Quidditch match where Draco's team versed Pickering's (it was once the Hufflepuff team), and only one team could win, the question was, who would it be?

It was morning, and the match was to begin in an hour. Ginny felt as if her stomach was filled with a bunch of wriggly spaghetti, which had just decided to tie itself into knots, but having done that, had realised perhaps that wasn't quite right, had therefore decided to go through trying out all the different kind of knots it could think of.

Ginny knew this game meant quite a bit –it was the first game of the season, and would determine if they versed what had been the Ravenclaw team, or the Gryffindor team, and just that thought of versing Gryffindor, and knowing that if they won this match –then went on to beat them, that they would end up in the finals for sure –after all, even with the teams changed round, Gryffindor was still one of the strongest teams.

So Ginny waited anxiously, staring at her glass of pumpkin juice, while she impatiently looked at the clock to see if anymore time had passed before the match was to begin. As she scanned the room, trying to kill the nerves and restore (or pull out of thin air) the feelings of calm serenity; until she unwittingly caught her breath as she locked eyes with Draco.

She was like a little legless deer caught in the headlights. She didn't move, she couldn't. She was too shocked, and really she didn't know why. It wasn't as if they'd never exchanged a glance at one another over the tables as they had become friends, but this… this was different, it made her nervy –but in a different way to I'm-just-about-to-play-Quidditch nervy… it was the faint, soft, jittering of the: crap-the-guy-I-fancy-caught-me-looking-I-wonder-what-he-thinks kind of nervy.

It terrified her even more than the Quidditch match.

Ginny got up from the bench and began to make her away across the hall, leisurely heading towards the pitch, when she felt a arm casually swing itself friendlily over her shoulders. She jumped in surprise and looked up to see who the arm belonged to, she was pretty sure it wasn't Draco, he usually had more precision in his execution, no, as she looked laughingly up in to guys face she wasn't at all surprised to find it was Blaise.

'This game today,' Ginny shuddered outwardly 'why do we have to play first? Gahhh--- the pressure to win!' Blaise simply smiled.

'If you think this is going to be bad, wait until we have to play Harry's team… now that will be a match of nerves!'

'I'm trying not to think about it, but this is the first game, Harry would always say the first game sets the scene for the season!'

Blaise winked and smiled 'well it's a good think Harry isn't the captain, isn't it? Draco always knows it not too bad a thing if we don't win this game, it just means we have time to regroup and sort out any kinks before we royally kick the Harry's teams arse'

Ginny laughed, Blaise really was one of the best people to be around when you needed tension released, she cocked her head to the side, thinking.

'Did Draco send you over here to de-stress me?'

'Perhaps, he seemed pretty concerned about your state of mind…' Ginny laughed quietly, as Blaise smiled serenely next to her.

'Ha!, it would seem you've picked up that serene smiling technique from Luna then?' She poked her tongue out cheekily 'ah, but the dear Draco the charmingly concerned male…' Blaise raised his eyebrows.

'Oooh! So he is charming now, huh?'

She poked him.

'Ah, well perhaps I have taken on a few habits of the wonderful girl that is Luna, but if that has happened I would have to say you have taken one or two off the one and only Draco Malfoy…'

Ginny scowled up at him 'See!' Blaise called out in playful and mocking excitement; whilst getting ready to dodge the whack that would soon be aimed for the back of his head, 'you've managed to capture him perfectly!'

Half of Ginny couldn't believe it! They had WON! They hand actually won! And Draco had superbly caught the snitch, snatching from right under Smith's nose. She found herself grinning and screaming loudly in sheer joy as she spun around in mid-air on her broom (it was just so fun!), before she noticed that an ecstatic looking Draco Malfoy was speeding towards her.

When her reached her, much to her delight, she found herself being roughly drawn into his warm embrace, and that she was being pulled off her own broom and onto his. She laughed, and cast a spell to return her own broom safely down to the ground, from her perch in his warm arms. \

She slowed the beating of her heart, the dizzy rush from the game as she made herself comfortable in his arms, as he brought them both back down to the ground. She pulled her arms around him, holding on tight he started the descent, on arm holding onto his broom, the other wrapped protectively around her.

He breathed in the flowery scent of her hair, allowing it to fill his senses –this was how it was meant to be he thought, the two of us, holding on to one another, laughing, playing Quidditch, inhaling the flowery smell once more before their feet touched the ground, he placed a soft, delicate kiss, it was barely perceptible, on the top of her head. But Ginny felt it, and it sent a tingle through her entire body.

Ginny turned around, facing him, still wrapped in his arms, eyes dark and wide as she reached up to kiss him on the cheek. But she missed, and ended up getting the left hand corner of his lips instead.

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter :) let me know what you think of it, please, and constructive comments are welcome, also :)

And thanks for those people who left reviews; twilightfan1994, I'll be missing you., -RoraxJack-, The Elegant Egotist, Aiyoku Saotome, purplegabby123 and oxymoron8 :) I love knowing what you all think, and would like to see, it's great :) so thanks a bunch!