THE PINK UMBRELLA

A/N: Here'e the Quidditch game! Hope you enjoy. :D

Disclaimer: I don't, and won't ever own HP.

CHAPTER TWENTY: QUIDDITCH

We travelled by side apparition courtesy of Fred and George. We arrived at an empty field that looked so familiar.

"Ahh...welcome home, Weasleys." Fred grinned.

Right. I searched for a certain place from the field and sure enough, the Burrow was standing not so far away.

"Where, in the name of Merlin, are we?" Malfoy asked after arriving with George, Ron and Harry.

"Welcome, Malfoy, to the little paradise of the Weasleys" George announced.

Malfoy's forehead creased and looked around, spotting the burrow. He pointed at it, wrinkling his nose. "Don't tell me that hut there is your home?"

"That's not a hut! And yes, we live there. Any problem with that?" Ron splattered darkly.

Malfoy looked away from the burrow. "Isn't it too small?" he asked.

"No, idiot! That's perfectly spacious for all of us!" Ron sneered at him.

Malfoy nodded. "If you say so. I won't argue since I know how poor your sense of definition of 'space' is." he shrugged. "Well, I couldn't blame you about that. You lived your whole life believing your little house was big enough, when truly, that's just the size of my bathroom."

Ron marched towards Malfoy with balled fists and was stopped by me. "I thought we're here for a game?" I sent him a sharp look telling him by my eyes to just let go of it.

Ron sneered and walked away again. Fred and George took two needles from their pockets and bewitched it. The needles grew so big it looked exactly like the Quidditch hoops. The two needles stood firmly on the opposite sides of the wide field.

"There are our hoops. Now, let's decide on the teams." Fred said.

Just seconds after he spoke, we heard a dreamy voice not far away. We all turned our heads on the direction of the noise and found Luna Lovegood, hopping towards us while holding her broomstick.

"And what is she doing here?" Malfoy demanded.

"She'll play with us." Ginny replied, not looking at Malfoy.

"What?!" he howled.

"Hi, guys. Did I arrive at the right time?" she asked gracefully.

"No, definitely not." Malfoy answered before anyone could. "The right time was supposed to be after the game. You may come back later." Malfoy said sourly. "Or may not, in fact."

Luna looked at Malfoy, not affected by his remarks. "Hi, Draco. I thought they were lying when they mentioned you're going to play with us in their letter."

He snorted. "I thought no more ridiculous surprises. And here you come, proving my thought wrong."

"Shut up, Malfoy. If I were you, you have to be treating her right." Harry said.

I and Malfoy looked at him. "What do you mean, Potter?"

"Luna will be on your team." Harry answered.

"Just, what the hell are you on?!"

"Ginny and Hermione will be on your team too. Me, George, Harry and Ron will be the opposing team." Fred said.

Malfoy looked horrified after hearing what George said. Even I felt sorry for him. Not only he'd be on the team full of girls but because, 2 of us weren't Quidditch players. Our team would be very pathetic and Malfoy wouldn't get the revenge he craved so much.

I thought he was going to complain further about the obvious unjust, but instead, he smirked. "Okay. That's better, since I don't plan on working with any of you. And, I believe we have fat chance on winning. I have faith in them."

Luna looked at Malfoy, finally displaying some expression of slight surprise. She smiled, "Thank you, Malfoy. We won't let you down." she said dreamily.

Malfoy looked at her with a hint of distaste but after a second, he sighed, nodded and smiled lightly.

"Okay. 5 minutes to plan. Good luck." George said and his own team gathered together below their hoop.

Malfoy walked determinedly to the other hoop with us, girls, trailing behind him. When we reached our place, he immediately spun around and exhaled.

"Okay, so...I'm going to appoint the members."

We nodded. I was rather nervous now. I would be on Draco's team. But what if, I'd become the reason we'd lose? I don't want him to get mad at me!

"I will be the seeker." We nodded in agreement again. He was originally a seeker and he played well. It was just that, Harry was better.

He transferred his gaze on Ginny. "You will be keeper, Weaslette."

"Ginny." she corrected him.

"Weaslette." he pushed.

"Ginny!"

He rolled his eyes. "Weaslette!"

"Ginny!"

"Weaslette!"

Luna and I stared at them. They were arguing like kids.

"Ginny!"

"Weaslette!"

"GINNY!"

"ALRIGHT, GINNY THEN! Happy?" he yelled.

"Better," Ginny smiled.

He rolled his eyes again and continued. "So, Ginny will be keeper. Granger and Loony will be chasers."

Luna nodded gamely, while I...I gulped before nodding.

"Okay. We can do this. I believe you are a fair keeper Weas -Ginny and you Granger and Lovegood can do well as chasers."

He extended his right hand. Ginny followed, extending her hand above Malfoy's. Luna followed and I did it last.

"I know we don't get along, Ginny, Loony, but right now... I'm putting my faith in you. This may just be for fun...but this means big to me. I need to beat them...for once, please, be on my side." he desperately begged.

Luna and Ginny looked flabbergasted but nodded and smiled, nonetheless. The two girls were staring at Malfoy as he explained tactics his team used during games. He surely was taking this seriously.

They smiled absentmindedly at Malfoy who didn't notice. I was beginning to worry now. Yes, I wanted them to see the real Malfoy, but I didn't want them to become my rivals. Pansy was enough!

I elbowed Ginny softly and she, getting the hint, swiped her smile away immediately. As for Luna... she was still smiling at him dreamily. I was about to reach for her hair when she spoke, cutting off Malfoy's rushed ranting.

"Draco, I didn't know you were very good-looking before."

My jaw dropped making holes on the ground. Ginny looked at her with wide eyes and Draco creased his forehead.

"Now is not the time to fantasize me, Lovegood. We have a game to win." he said.

Luna nodded. "I just can't help noticing." she shrugged.

Malfoy sighed and continued telling us tactics. George finally called us after 5 minutes and we mounted our brooms and flew.

Ginny positioned a little below our team's hoop and Ron did on the other side. Malfoy flew higher above us and so did Harry. Fred and George were smirking at me and Luna. I slightly shivered in nervousness and looked at Luna. She was as calm as ever. What was wrong with this creature? Wasn't she in the tiniest bit possibility, nervous? I knew this wasn't a real game...but they all looked really serious and it was just freaking me out.

I looked up at Malfoy and found out he was also staring down at me. He gave me a toothy grin saying, "You can do it." I smiled back and placed my attention back at Fred who was bewitching an egg he stole from Mrs. Weasley's pantry. He made it big enough as the size of a real quaffle and George bewitched a small pebble. Two dark wings sprouted from each side of the pebble making it look like a dark version of the golden snitch.

The pebble started flying around, moving swiftly from side to side. Fred released the egg-quaffle, signaling that the game finally begun.

Luna unexpectedly snatched the quaffle and no one really saw it coming. Even Ron froze, making it easy for Luna to throw the egg-quaffle inside the hoop he was guarding.

"Yes! Good job, Lovegood! That was so quick." Malfoy said jubilantly.

Luna smiled at him and to me. I couldn't help but stare at her amusedly. That was honestly unexpected. But, it made me realize that if Luna could...why couldn't I? She gave me hope and I nodded at her, "We can do this, Luna. We don't need to be in the house teams to be good players."

And so, the game continued.

A/N: The rest of the game on the next chapter. REVIEW please.