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A/N: Sorry for another delay. Please don't give up on us! We still have heaps more to add to this story and we won't stop until we're done, even if it takes a while, so we hope you stick with us!

Chapter 13 - Faith, Trust and Draco's Lust... For flying

The next morning, after a quiet breakfast during which Draco tried to avoid looking at or talking to Hermione, they both headed down to the Quidditch pitch for the Slytherin Quidditch Team tryouts.

"Why can't I do my own thing, like he does when I have class? This is so unfair," Hermione mumbled to herself.

"What?" Draco asked, momentarily forgetting that he was supposed to be trying to ignore her.

"Nothing," she said quickly.

They walked in silence for a few more minutes before the pitch came into view and a thought occurred to Draco. "I haven't seen you on a broom since flying lessons in first year," he said.

"We rescued you from the Room of Requirement on brooms during the battle," Hermione stated.

"Dire circumstances, doesn't count."

Hermione didn't respond. It was true that she tried to avoid flying whenever she could.

Draco simply stared at her, expectantly.

"I don't fly," she mumbled, embarrassed.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, you know. You don't have to be good at EVERYTHING. I mean, we both know you completely failed divination," Draco snorted.

Hermione punched him. "So did you," she pointed out.

"True," he said, trying to remain composed after the short moment of contact they had had.

"So you don't fly at all? Not even during the holidays?"

"I don't like heights," she admitted, blushing.

"Have you ever even played Quidditch?" Draco asked curiously. He couldn't imagine a life that didn't involve playing Quidditch.

"Harry and Ron made me play with them over the summer once," she answered, screwing up her face at the memory of her dismal attempt at the sport.

"Only once?" he asked, laughing at her expression.

She punched him again, just as they reached the change rooms and Blaise rounded the corner. He greeted them and Draco immediately felt all the tension come flooding back, realising that he and Hermione had been having a normal conversation up until that point. For once, he was not happy to see his best friend.

"Wipe that scowl off your face, will you Draco?" Blaise said

Ignoring Blaise, Draco went into the captain's change room and was happy to find that the force expanded to allow Hermione to wait outside.

"What's wrong with him?" Blaise asked Hermione, who merely shrugged her shoulders in response. She was slowly becoming used to Draco's quick mood swings.

While Draco changed into his Quidditch uniform and went outside to meet the students trying out, Hermione took a seat in the stands. There were about thirty students trying out for the team. Most of them Draco knew, but some he only recognised from seeing them around the common room.

"Hey, Draco," Theo called.

Draco acknowledged his friend with a wave of his hand. It was time to get down to business and he wasn't going to show favouritism to his friends. He wanted to win the cup this year, which meant he needed a team good enough to beat that blasted Potter! If that meant Theo and Blaise didn't make the team, so be it.

"Alright you lot!" he called to the group. "I'm going to try out the chasers first, so everyone else go and take a seat."

He noticed that the people trying out for chaser included Blaise and Theo. Tracy Davis, the girl he had been teasing Theo about the night before was also trying out, as was Alfred McNair, who Draco had been friends with up until the end of the war, along with nine others.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Grab your brooms and get flying! Three laps around the pitch!" Draco told the group before him.

As they mounted their brooms and took off around the pitch, Draco's eyes drifted across to where Hermione was sitting in the stands. He caught her looking at him, and she averted her gaze when she saw him watching her. Shaking himself mentally, Draco jumped on his broom and sped off after the others.

Watching the group, he quickly realised that Theo was one of the best flyers. Draco had always known Theo was a good flyer, but he had already almost lapped all the others. Draco realised that the next best flyer was probably Tracy. She was not only faster than most of the others, but every now and then she threw in some sort of fancy flying trick and Draco had to admit she was putting on a pretty impressive display.

It took Draco all three laps to find his last Chaser. He had spotted Pansy, but she was a horrible flyer and he suspected she was only there to try and impress him, which she was failing to do. There were several other girls that were also horrendous flyers and were probably there for the same reason as Pansy. To annoy him, Draco thought bitterly.

It was hard for him to pick the next best flyer. There were three or four others that were reasonable flyers. In the end, Draco decided on Alf; he was back with the pack for the whole tryout, but he seemed to be flying better than most. He was swerving in and out of the others, managing to avoid any collisions by the smallest of margins. Draco had to give him props for his daring as well – Alf was flying closer to the others than even Draco would have dared.

As the group returned to the ground, Draco realised he hadn't spotted Blaise in the air. Looking for him, Draco saw his friend in the stand. Sitting with Luna, who had joined Hermione. Chatting. He hadn't even tried out! Furious, Draco flew over and hovered in front of Blaise.

"Oi, Zabini!" Draco yelled, angry that his friend hadn't even been able to keep his mind of Luna long enough to make the Quidditch team.

Blaise looked up, startled. "What?" he said innocently.

"What the hell, man? You didn't even try out!"

"Someone more interesting came up," Blaise said, winking at Luna and making her giggle.

"You do know that if you don't try out I can't put you on the team, don't you?"

"Course I do," Blaise said, mocking offence. "I decided to try out for beater instead. Now, sod off," he said, waving his hand in Draco's direction and returning to his conversation with Luna.

Exasperated, Draco flew off again and landed in front of the group. Though he already knew who he wanted for the three Chaser positions, Draco eliminated half the group – including Pansy and everyone else who's flying ability was worse than a three year old – and set the rest some quaffle exercises.

At the end of this, Nott, Davis and McNair were still the best contenders and Draco congratulated them onto the team.

It was then time for the beater tryouts, and Draco was pleased to see Blaise tear himself away from the blonde and participate this time. Once again, Draco set the applicants flying around the pitch and then gave them some exercises with the bludgers. While he was supposed to be watching the tryouts, Draco had caught sight of Hermione, the sun bouncing off her hair, making her look so beautiful –

WOOSH! A beaters bat almost collided with Draco's face, hitting away a bludger.

"Now who's turn is it to be distracted?" Blaise asked smirking, having come to his friends rescue.

"Shut up and get back to work," Draco said, chastising himself.

He was quite surprised by how good a beater Blaise was. He had always known Blaise to play chaser, but it seemed he was just as good in this new position and by the end of the tryouts Blaise was in front. The other place went to a fifth year boy Draco had never spoken to before and only knew from seeing him around the common room and Slytherin table.

The keeper tryouts went much the same, with the position, surprisingly, going to Millicent Bulstrode. Draco didn't particularly like Millicent and he wasn't exactly happy to have her on the team, but she had been the best to try out by far and she gave him the best chance to beat Potter.

After the tryouts, Draco briefed his new team, giving them the time for the first practice session. He then went to meet Hermione, who was waiting outside the change rooms.

"I still don't believe you don't like flying!" Draco said as he walked up to her.

"Just because you're such a good flyer doesn't mean everyone else is," she said absent-mindedly.

Draco froze. "Did you just compliment me?"

"No…" Hermione said, realising what she had just said and blushing.

"Yes, you did!" Hermione ignored him, so he continued. "Well, there is no way I'm only going to fly during practice and games, and since we're, you know… that means you are going to need to get over your fear and come flying with me."

"Fat chance," she snorted.

"Come on!" he said, and grabbed her hand to lead her over to the broom shed.

Realising where he was taking her, Hermione dug her heels into the ground and tried to pull her hand out of his grasp. "Draco, stop."

He held her hand tighter. "Come on, Hermione! You have to come flying with me this year! Why not start now?"

"Draco, please. Don't," she pleaded quietly.

Draco could see the fear in her eyes and he let go of her hand. "Why are you so scared, Hermione? You weren't scared during our flying lessons in first year."

Hermione tried to look him in the face, but she couldn't. Looking at her feet instead, she said, "That was a long time ago, before…" She broke off.

"Before what?"

Hermione didn't reply for a long time. She didn't know how to explain to him how she felt about flying. Eventually she looked up. "Everything awful seems to happen when I'm in the air," she said quietly.

Draco could see the anguish on Hermione's face and finally he understood; the dots seemed to connect themselves as he looked at her terrified expression: she was attacked during the Death Eater attack on Potter and his friends; she escaped Gringotts on a dragon, which even he had to admit must have been quite terrifying; she almost died in the Room of Requirement when Crabbe set the Fiendfyre after them.

"All that stuff, Hermione, it was all during the war. I've had bad experiences in the air, too, but I don't let them stop me. You know what they say… when you fall off a broom the best thing to do is get straight back on!"

"Please don't make me," she all but whimpered.

Draco was at a loss. He thought being logical would have worked. After all, Hermione was one of the most logical people he had ever met. Well, maybe it's time to bring out my Slytherin side, he thought.

"So essentially, what you're saying is that you're going to ground me for the entire year?" he said, hating himself as soon as he said it.

"Excuse me?"

"Flying is one of my favourite things and you're going to prevent me from doing it outside quidditch practice and games."

Hermione stared at him, disbelieving.

"Don't look at me like that! You know that's what you're doing. I'm not going to stop you going to the library just because I don't like it there."

Hermione was too shocked to say anything. All her hate for the boy in front of her came rushing back as he reminded her that he was the conniving Slytherin she always thought he was.

Taking her hand once more, Draco dragged her the rest of the way to the broom shed. "Flying isn't as bad as you think it is. I promise. If you just get on a broom I can show you!" Draco paused to gauge her reaction. "Please," he added softly and she allowed herself to be led inside. Draco picked up an old Cleansweep 7 and held it out for her.

"Are you really going to force me to do this?" she asked.

"I'd never force you to do anything. I wish you would though because I'll be miserable if I can't fly. And trust me, you don't want to be stuck with me when I'm miserable and angry," he said, attempting to make her laugh.

The corners of Hermione's mouth tugged upwards. "Considering I don't want to be stuck with you at all, you're probably right."

Buoyed, Draco tried to reassure her. "We don't have to go high or fast. We can just hover in the air, and then, if you want, we can try a slow lap around the pitch, if you want."

"You said 'if you want' twice," Hermione said, grinning. She really didn't want to go flying, but he had seemed so sincere and she couldn't bear to make him miserable for the rest of the year – she tried to convince herself that this was because it was hard enough to live with him when he was in a good mood. Sighing, Hermione took the broom from Draco. As she did, he broke into a smile, the likes of which she had never seen on his face before. With his Nimbus 2001 over his shoulder, Draco once again grabbed Hermione's hand and guided her back out to the pitch. As Hermione followed him she wondered what had gotten into her – she found it slightly discomforting that she was doing something for, and putting her trust in, the boy she had hated for so many years.

A/N: Please don't forget to review if you liked the chapter! Constructive criticism is very much appreciated as well! :)