A Common Enemy

When the Potters arrived in the stands of the Quidditch Pitch the Weasleys were already seated and munching on snacks.

"Harry!" called Ron from his seat, waving at them. "We're over here!"

Harry waved back and they made their way over to them. Hermione, Rose and Hugo were there as well and they all greeted Harry, Ginny, Albus and Violet warmly.

"Where's Lily?" asked Hermione.

Harry didn't answer but simply adopted a moody frown.

"She went to get Malfoy," mouthed Ginny in barely a whisper as she sat down beside Hermione.

Ron, oblivious to his sister's discretion, was busy making a bet with Albus. Ron bet against James' team while Albus, who knew that the other team had two of their usual players stuck in St Mungo's, bet twenty galleons that James' team would win.

So when Lily arrived with Draco, Ron was duly surprised.

"What's he doing here?" he blurted angrily.

"Ron," said Hermione just as angrily. "Shut up."

Ron looked quite flabbergasted by his wife's severity but surprisingly held his tongue. It wasn't his daughter after all. Thank Merlin, he thought to himself.

Everyone else, except for Harry, politely acknowledged Draco's presence but didn't enter into conversation with either him or Lily. Things were still very awkward, despite Lily's attempts to make it otherwise.

Not five minutes had passed when Anthony McLaggen and his father Cormac came strutting towards them.

"McLaggen! What's he doing here?" said Ron again, only a fraction quieter this time.

Draco, hearing Ron's exclamation, turned to see the two McLaggens approaching and rolled his eyes. Yet another two to add to the opposition.

"Be nice," whispered Lily, noticing this although she herself did not feel like dealing with Anthony today.

"Cormac," called Harry with delight. "And Anthony. So good to see you both and what a surprise." He glanced at Lily as he said it and felt a sudden surge of anger. She and Malfoy were sharing some secret joke, neither one taking a bit of notice of the McLaggens.

With Ron sitting beside him on one side and looking sulky, Harry invited Cormac to sit down on his other side.

"Hello Weasley," said Cormac with a smug grin.

Ron merely grunted and turned away.

Lily and Draco, who were sitting in the row in front of Harry and Ron and a little to the side, turned to see what the new arrivals were doing.

"Why don't you go and see Lily?" said Harry quietly enough so that Draco heard him but Lily didn't. He was also making ridiculous gestures in their direction, trying to be discreet.

Draco smirked to himself. So Potter was attempting to split him and Lily up by using McLaggen. He almost burst out laughing at the idea of it.

"Hi Lily," said Anthony, taking Harry's advice and sitting down on her other side.

"Hi," she replied sweetly.

Draco suddenly felt the smile fading from his face.

Anthony glanced at Draco and said; "Hello Professor."

Lily bit her lip to stop herself from laughing.

"No need to call me professor anymore," said Draco stiffly.

Anthony smiled weakly and turned back to Lily.

"So, how have you been?" he asked.

"Good," she said. "You?"

"Great," he said. "Although I could be better."

Smooth, thought Lily.

"You could be worse too," commented Draco offhandedly.

"I wasn't talking to you," retorted Anthony quickly. He immediately seemed to regret his outburst however because he suddenly looked quite scared.

"Anthony," said Lily indignantly. "Draco's here with me."

"Yeah," chimed in Draco. "I'm here with her, you're not, so I suggest you move before I blast you out of that seat."

Draco's hand had shot into his robes where it was undoubtedly resting on his wand while Anthony was trying to look tough but was evidently terrified.

"Draco," said Lily putting her hand on his arm.

Draco grinned as he retracted his hand and instead put his arm around Lily's shoulders. He glared blatantly at Anthony.

Anthony attempted to stare him down but didn't last long.

"I better get back to my seat," he said lamely. "The game's about to start."

"Good," said Draco once Anthony was gone.

"You're not doing yourself any favours, you know," said Lily quietly.

Draco gaped. He really was on his own today.

"Making an enemy of everyone," she continued. "You're only giving them what they want."

Draco just could not catch a break.

"Well it looks like I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't," he said. "None of these..." he reframed from calling her family idiots "...none of them are ever going to like me."

"You don't have to try to make them hate you either," she replied a little irritably although she was sympathetic, he did kind of have a point.

"Let's just watch the game..." muttered Draco.

Lily watched him for a moment before turning to face the game as the whistle sounded. This was going to be tough and she'd been kidding herself if she thought things might be different this time.