Disclaimer: If you know it, I do not own it and it is likely from Order of the Phoenix by JKR.


Quidditch Troubles


Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Quidditch teams were given permission to reform, just as the weather took a turn for the worse. Angelina Johnson was as horrible as Oliver Wood for she dragged her team out to practice in the mists of a huge thunder storm. Draco sat waiting in the Common Room. Harry returned, with the rest of the sodden team, after an hour. Harry looked troubled and made a beeline for Draco the moment he entered.

"What happened?" Draco asked as Harry motioned for him to follow him to the dormitory. "Besides Johnson trying to drown you."

"Hardy har har," Harry dryly laughed as they made their way up the stairs, Harry dripping the whole way. "Our new keeper is terrible."

"Why?"

"He thinks he's the captain and knows all. He's a horrible team player. If only he weren't so damn good."

Draco snorted as they entered the empty dormitory.

"He's angry," Harry proclaimed the moment the door shut. "Like, really angry."

Draco didn't need clarification on who Harry spoke. Harry opened and closed his mouth a few times, looking a little bewildered.

"I didn't know that till I said it. I felt a huge pain in my scar, like I'd been having on and off all summer, but this time…he's so angry. And getting angrier."

Draco sat down hard on the nearest bed.

"I kind of want to laugh as I'm picturing him throwing a tantrum like a toddler," Harry weakly chuckled.

"Did you see anything?"

Harry was silent for a moment before he said, "He wants something done and it's not happening fast enough."

"Ah. Well, we know he hasn't gotten the prophecy and he's getting…"

"Antsy?"

Draco gave Harry a look. Harry shrugged.

"I'm tired of being his emotional radar," Harry grumbled, rubbing his forehead. "He's happy, he's furious, he's thrilled. Why do I feel these things? I mean, does he feel them for me?"

"No," Draco quickly answered. "I mean, I doubt it. I believe he was unaware of your connection until Christmas."

"When Ronald's dad was attacked by the snake."

Draco nodded. "I've already reminded Sirius of that. Hopefully…hopefully Mr Weasley won't be on watch that night to fall asleep and be bitten."

"Sirius will take the watch, won't he?" Harry sighed.

"Or Regulus," Draco offered. "So, emotional radar?"

"Well, Dumbledore did say something like this was happening last year…you know, when he feels something strongly, I could tell. Before, it was only when he was mad, but sometimes he is REALLY happy. God, I do not want to know what he's happy about."

"Nothing good. Unless…"

Harry looked over at Draco, a curious expression on his face.

"Unless what?"

"He's thrilled he's got a little bunny rabbit," Draco teased.

Harry threw a pillow at him.


"So, my coin is on fire."

"Excuse me?" Draco asked as they walked across the flooded vegetable patch the next morning to double Herbology.

"My coin. It's on fire."

Draco blinked blankly at Harry.

"Don't you have yours?" Harry questioned, glancing around. Draco also glanced and saw a few students, one being Ernie MacMillian, trying hard not to dive into their pockets for something.

"Oh. Well, that's not good."

"It's really not on fire," Harry amended. "But, our first real meeting!"

"Nervous?"

"No. Kinda excited," Harry said, jumping up and down. "I mean, Potter was clearly okay at this…Muggle Chess playing, so I should as well, right?"

Draco quirked an eyebrow as they gathered together at a tray, near a few students who were not in the club.

"True. And you do realize how strange that would sound to someone who doesn't know, right?"

"That I just referred to myself in the third person?"

"And spoke about something you'd done," Draco said. "What move do you plan on teaching first?"

"Disarming," Harry casually said.

Draco quirked an eyebrow. "Won't many of us already know that?"

"Can never be too good at disarming," Harry told him.


That night, Draco stood amongst the members of DMCC , while Harry awkwardly stood before the group, clutching his wand and looking as if he was under trial.

"Okay," Harry said, his voice a little squeaky. He cleared this throat. "We'll start with Expelliarmus."

"What?" several older kids asked in disbelief.

"Oh, please," the tall Hufflepuff seethed, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"I've used it against him," Harry quietly proclaimed, standing up taller and looking a little dangerous. "It saved my life in June."

The guy opened and closed his mouth stupidly for a moment, while the others all stood stock still.

Draco knew that. Voldemort had made sure all Death Eaters knew it was something Potter was going to use. While the Dark Lord thought it was due to Potter's lack of character or lack of being a proper wizard, Draco knew it was actually a trump card.

Draco cleared his throat, making everyone stare at him.

"Death Eaters can't kill you if they're wand-less," Draco pointed out. "You take away their weapon, you take away one of their methods to kill you."

"What are the other methods?"

"Knives. Their hands and feet."

"Like a—" Weasley stopped speaking before he said anything, turning beet red.

"My aunt happens to enjoy knives," Draco flatly stated.

Neville shivered and sunk into himself.

"So, we start with disarming— which works on wands and knives," Harry loudly said, shifting on his feet. "I reckon we ought to divide into pairs."

Everyone began to move. Draco grabbed Neville.

"I figured you'd want to partner with Hermione," Neville said, looking bewildered as Draco steered him to a spot where they could practice.

"Hermione can fend for herself," Draco replied as Hermione partnered up with Luna.

"Now, we all know the spell, so, let's just start," Harry suggested.

There were shouts of "Expelliarmus!" all over the room and wands flew into the air and in all directions, while missed spells hit various books and one blew up one of the bean bag chairs. Neville's wand went flying out of his hand and into Draco's smoothly. Draco and Hermione were the only people holding wands when silence fell.

"All right, try again. This time, I'll go around and help you out. There's some shoddy spell work going on, but it'll get better. It's why we're here," Harry assured. "Start again."

"Neville," Draco started, tossing the wand to Neville. "Aim the spell at my wand, okay?"

Neville looked serious and nodded. Neville tried again and managed to get Draco's wand to jump out of his hand a bit. His whole round face lit up.

"I did it!" Neville squeaked over the noise of the others.

Neville improved a bit as the night went on. By ten past nine, most of the members had managed to get their opponent unarmed. Harry dismissed everyone, remaining behind with Hermione and Draco.

"That was pretty successful," Hermione remarked. "I wonder how the others got along without Ronald?"

"Likely fine," Harry assured. "Let's get going. Will you be okay on your own?"

"Yes. I'm a prefect," Hermione sniffed, turning on her heel and leaving the little room.

"I best go get Tom. Unless Atlanta got him," Harry said.

"Tom's been spending quite a bit of time with her," Draco observed, watching Harry carefully. Draco was thrilled Tom wasn't around as much as he'd been the previous year, but he was wondering how Harry felt about it.

"He's worried about her," Harry said, his eyes going shifty before he all but ran out of the room.


Weeks went by. Draco found that now he was taking part in the DA (not known as such except in Draco's head when he didn't want to call it DMCC), he was getting better and better at DADA. It was amazing what a proper teacher could do. (A Squib could do well in Umbridge's class. Hell, a Muggle who knew nothing of the wizarding world could do well in her class.) While Draco was amazed at the progress everyone in the club was making, Neville impressed him the most. Every lesson, his self esteem grew and his spell work become less shoddy. He even managed to disarm Hermione one lesson. He'd yet to disarm Draco or Harry. Draco secretly thought Hermione let Neville disarm her, but he had no proof as she'd looked surprised when her wand had rocketed across the room and nailed Neville in the forehead. (His aim was still iffy, but when he wasn't terrified as he almost always was in class, he was okay.)

"I think Snape hates me."

"Harry, we concluded first year he wasn't a fan of yours," Draco said.

"Yeah, but Quidditch," Harry moaned. "Why did his assign this five foot long essay due the Monday after Quidditch?"

Draco looked up from said five foot long essay and rolled his eyes. "Because he wants you to suffer writing an essay he's given you a month to work on. He knew you'd wait till the last minute."

Draco was almost done with his five foot essay.

"Well, I haven't had time between Muggle Chess Club, practice, and Slytherins hexing us left and right."

"They've not hexed me."

"That's because you're not on the team," Harry reminded Draco sourly. "Wish you were. Why couldn't you have gone out for Keeper?"

"Because I'm a Chaser."

"I thought you were a Seeker."

Draco glared at Harry, who smirked.

"Want me to knock you out and I'll take your spot Saturday?"

Harry stuck out his tongue and went back to his essay.

The boys remained in the library until they were kicked out at curfew. Harry pulled his jumper closer around him as they walked through the freezing cold halls towards the tower. The moment November hit, the world around them froze and the castle ceased to be warm.

"I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. It might be cold, but at least it's been clear lately," Harry muttered as they trekked up the stairs.

"I think it's too cold to rain. If anything, it'll snow," Draco said.

Harry shivered.

The next morning dawned bright and cold, but there were no clouds for miles. Draco woke to find Harry still in his bed.

"Why are you still here?" Draco asked.

"Too cold to leave bed," Harry replied, huddled in a mound of blankets.

After Draco put on as many layers as he could, he dragged Harry out of his bed. He cast several strong warming charms on Harry, as he couldn't wear too many layers or his Quidditch robes wouldn't fit and he'd not be able to move easily. After quick breakfast (which Harry oddly ate, something rather new for the boy before a game), Draco and Harry headed down with the others to the field.

"Well, hopefully your charms will last until the end of the game."

"If they don't, just call for a time out," Draco joked. "I'll recast them."

Harry gave Draco a look and trudged into the locker rooms. Draco made his way with the rest of the school to the stands, taking his usual seat with his fellow housemates. Neville sat down next to him, followed by Ginny and Atlanta, who had pulled her hair back into a bouncy ponytail and looked very…peculiar. Her hair was very, very, very straight and even while on top of her head hung down between her shoulder blades. Ginny also felt Atlanta looked strange as she kept staring at her hair as if it was about to do something.

"Hello," said a vague and dreamy voice from behind Draco. Draco turned around to find Luna, who wore a life-sized lion's head on her own head like a hat. "I'm supporting Gryffindor. Look what it does…"

Luna reached up and tapped the hat with her wand. It opened its mouth and gave an extremely realistic roar, which likely would have been really loud if they hadn't been outside.

"Good, isn't it? I wished to have it chewing on a serpent, then I remembered you were once a snake, but more so there wasn't enough time," Luna said, chuckling to herself.

"It's lovely," Hermione insisted, squishing herself between Draco and Ginny. Ginny rolled her eyes and moved over. Atlanta giggled.

Hermione did a double take, exchanging glances with Draco, who shrugged.

"Who was the Keeper last time?" Hermione whispered in Draco's ear, making all the hair on his neck stand on end.

"W-weasel," Draco stuttered. "He was horrible."

"Oh?" Hermione asked. "Did you hear Crabbe and Goyle were put on the team as Beaters?"

Draco gave her a look and she giggled.

She should not do that. Draco wasn't sure his stomach could take it.

"It is hard to surprise Draco," Luna offered and her hat roared.

Conversation ended, as the teams came out and the game got underway.

Draco remembered the game being a slight disaster due to the face Ron Weasley was a horrible Keeper. While the rest of the team likely would have been great, their distraction due to the song Draco had come up with cost them heavily. This time there was no Weasley failing to keep the Quaffle out and no song, but the Keeper was horrible. Draco had no idea who the lug was, but he kept flying away from the goals to shout at various players. No matter how many times Johnson screamed at him to go back, he always just missed the Quaffle flying into one of the hoops. Johnson called timeouts to shout at him, but it didn't matter. He simply shouted back.

"Who is that guy?" Hermione asked, looking horrified.

"I can't remember. Harry hates him," Draco offered. "Pretty sure everyone hates him."

"Except the Slytherins," Ginny muttered, looking murderous.

Johnson threw out her Keeper. Literally pushed him into the locker room and locked the doors with the wave of her wand. This caused the Slytherins to roar with laugher and the Gyffidnors to look miserable.

"Johnson's just locked up her Keeper. Not sure what she's thinking," Lee Johnson narrated, sounding worried. "But, they're off."

The teams kicked back into the air and the game got under way. The twins took position near the goals and played (somehow) Keeper and Beaters. They weren't the best, and Slytherin managed to get several goals in before Harry dived, quickly followed by Nott. Draco held his breath as the pair of boys re-enacted the close catch Draco and Potter had had in the same game so many years ago. Draco couldn't see exactly what happened, but Harry pulled up, holding the struggling ball in his hand.

And like before, Crabbe hit Harry in the back with a Bludger. Hermione gasped in outrage and worry as Harry flew forward off his broom and fell five feet to the ground.

"Is he alright?" Hermione asked, getting to her feet and trying to see over the hoards of spectators letting the world know how they felt about the bad sportsmanship of Slytherin.

"Yeah. Let's head down."

By the time Draco and Hermione had fought their way onto the pitch, Harry and a twin were on their backs while the girls on the team were all holding the other twin while Madam Hooch screamed at the pair of boys on the ground. Harry and the twin on the ground jumped up and tried to get at Nott again, only to be hit with another jinx that sent them to the ground. Madam Hooch continued to shout, while holding Crabbe by the ear. (How she managed this was a mystery, as she was a good foot shorter than Crabbe.)

"Go straight to your Head of House! Go! NOW!" Hooch bellowed.

Harry and the twin marched off the pitch, panting and red faced. Hermione gave Draco a worried look.

"What was that about?"

"Nott being a sore loser. He'll have a black and blue jaw later."

Nott was moving his lower jaw around gingerly, while giving the stink eye to Pansy who was trying to help him.

"Oh, no. What's going to happen?"

"Well, even though Umbridge hasn't been terrorizing Harry due to the fact he's a perfect student, I think she's going to take too much pleasure in banning Harry for life from playing Quidditch."

"For life? Honestly. How can she even do that?"

Draco shrugged.

"Let's go and wait for Harry. He'll likely not want to go to the Common Room," Hermione suggested, turning and heading towards the school.

The pair waited down the hallway from McGonagall's office. They'd been waiting less than a minute when the door flew open and a smug looking Umbridge left the office. The door remained open and it was silent for a long time before McGongall dismissed the pair of boys. The twin (George if McGonagall was right) stormed out and in the direction of the Common Room. Harry came out slower, looking shell shocked. Draco and Hermione hurried to intercept him on his way to the Common Room.

"Come on. Let's go to the kitchens. I think you could use some smothering," Hermione said, taking in the state of Harry's knuckles. Draco rubbed his jaw, remembering how much that had hurt.

"Were you really that horrible?" Harry whispered, looking up at Draco. "What Nott said about…"

"Well, I spent the whole time bashing the Weasel's family," Draco admitted. "I'd written a whole song about how horrible the Weasel was at Keeping and was going on about his parents to Potter and the twins when a twin and Potter jumped me."

"Nott…"

Whatever Nott said was never explained as Harry fell silent. The silence lasted till they reached the kitchens and the House Elves took over and proceeded to ply Harry with ice for his knuckles and hot chocolate for his soul. Hermione and Draco gratefully accepted their own hot chocolates and various puddings.

"Did she ban you?" Draco asked when they were seated at a small table.

"Yes. For life. She banned Fred too, even though he didn't do anything. Wanna bet she's not going to ban Crabbe for nailing me with a Bludger after the game was over?"

"Not worth your time to bet," Draco said miserably.

Harry seethed.

"So you're out of Beaters and a Seeker?" Hermione asked.

Harry and Draco nodded.

"I hate Time," Harry muttered, draining the rest of the mug before slamming it onto the table. A House Elf hurried up and refilled it. "Well, now what?"

"You feel miserable for a while then move on," Hermione suggested. "We'll stay here till dinner time then go to the Common Room. It'll be empty when it's dinner time and we can quietly sit and work on our essays for Potions."

Harry gave Hermione a very dark look.