Year One - Chapter 20

You could feel the excitement and the nervous all over the Gryffindor Tower; today was the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff and everyone was nervous that my father would do something on purpose to make Gryffindor lose. And everyone was letting me know.

I was on my way to the Quidditch pitch when someone grabbed me from my arm and pushed me against a wall. After rubbing my head where I hit against the wall, I opened my eyes and saw Cormac McLaggen standing right in front of me.

—What do you want, McLaggen?

—I suppose you know your dad is going to be today's referee.

—If you think he's going to let Gryffindor win just because I ask him to do it, you're wrong. Now, leave me alone.

I tried to keep walking, but he pushed me again against the wall.

—Then you don't deserve to be in Gryffindor, are you really going to let Slytherin win when only you can change that? No wait, don't tell me, you want your precious boyfriend Davies to win, right? I heard from the twins how great you get along with him and Ravenclaw it's so close to Slytherin in points right now. You should be ashamed that you support every house but yours.

—What is going on here?

I looked to my right and I saw Roger aiming his wand to McLaggen.

—Defending your girlfriend, Davies? But it's none of your business, so you better leave.

—I won't leave until you leave Eileen alone.

McLaggen chuckled and started to pull out his wand, what kind of idiot thinks it's a great idea to try to duel against someone a year older than you? Looks like Roger also saw that, because McLaggen didn't even have time to say something when Roger cast a spell.

—Furnunculus!

McLaggen's face started to break out with boils and he tried to cover his face with his hands, I took advantage that he wasn't paying attention to me and walked away from him until I was next to Roger.

—You're going to pay for this!

He left running to the infirmary, after that, is he really that dumb to think he can win against Roger? Maybe my dad was right and we Gryffindors can be such dunderheads sometimes.

—Are you all right? —By the tone of his voice, you could note he was really preoccupied.

—Yeah, my head hurts a little, but it's nothing… Thanks for helping me.

—Why didn't you do anything against him?

—I wasn't sure if I could…

—Are you kidding? You probably know more spells than someone from seventh year!

—That doesn't necessarily mean that I'm good at duelling. Besides, I have the feeling he would've tried to have a physical fight and there's no way I could've won against that. —He chuckled and I just smiled, I grabbed his arm and started to walk.— Come on, the match with begging at any moment and I don't think you want to miss this.

—And what did he want, anyway?

—What everyone wants, for me to ask my dad to let Gryffindor win.

—Oh… I'm sorry…

—Don't be, you only asked if I could talk to him, he was basically trying to force me to do it. Two completely different things.

—Still, I shouldn't-

—No, there's no problem, Roger. —I Interrupted him— Oh! We can sit over there!

We walked up the stairs in the stands and sat next to some Ravenclaws and a big number of Hufflepuffs. I felt like an intruder being surrounded by so many people that didn't belong in my house or that they were people I didn't even know, but there wasn't a set available close to the Gryffindors.

—Hello, Roger.

We both turned our heads to see who was talking, it was a girl that I think it's a year older than me, she had reddish curly hair. I think I've seen her sometimes in the library, but I have absolutely no idea what her name is.

—Oh, hey Marietta.

—Don't you prefer to sit with me? —She said that in an extremely sweet tone, but when she looked at me her face changed and looked like she had step on Hippogriff dung.

—Ahm, no, thank you. —He looked like he was kind of uncomfortable and this situation wasn't that pleasant either, so I just decided to see the match; my dad had given Hufflepuff a penalty for some reason, Harry was still looking for the Snitch.— I promised Eileen we would watch the match together.

I turned my head to see him, with a raised eyebrow and a smirk, he never promised me that, does he feel that uncomfortable being with her? He noticed my look and smiled at me, hoping that I would follow with his lie. In the meantime, my father had given Hufflepuff another penalty; I guess he wasn't lying when he said he wasn't going to let Gryffindor win.

It looked like Marietta wanted to say something, but you couldn't hear her over the excited screams of everyone around us, apparently Harry finally saw the Snitch. Marietta tried to talk again, so I put my hands around my mouth and started to shout.

—COME ON, HARRY!

Roger and all the other Ravenclaws (and even some Hufflepuffs, surprisingly) started to do the same, yelling stuff to support Harry, Marietta gave up on trying to speak so she just kept sitting with her arms crossed in front of her.

I felt my blood run cold when I saw Harry flying at a high speed towards my dad and I was scared they would crash with each other, but luckily, he moved just in time so Harry just passed next to him by a couple of inches, after that, Harry was raising his hand, holding the Snitch.

We won.

I can't believe it! We won!

I jumped in my seat screaming and clapping, Roger was also clapping next to me. I grabbed him by his arm and quickly walk down the stairs to the field, the first players I saw were Fred and George and I ran towards them, hugging Fred with such force that I almost knocked him into the ground.

—We won, guys! You were great!

Fred hugged me tightly and after a couple of seconds he let me go, so I hugged George next, but his hug was quickly, and he didn't hug me tight like Fred did.

—We didn't do much. —Fred said.— Harry's the one that was amazing.

—The match lasted like 5 minutes! —George said.

—Congratulations, it was a great game. —Roger got close to the twins and gave them a handshake to both. — See you later, Eileen.

I said goodbye to him while waving my hand and smiling, he started to walk back to the castle, and it didn't take long for him to see his friends and they started to walk together.

In the distance, I saw Harry being carried on the shoulders of some seventh-year Gryffindor and behind him, I saw Hermione and Ron… Bleeding?

—What happened to Ron? —I asked the twins, they both turned to look for Ron and when they saw him, they ran towards him and I didn't want to stay alone in the middle of the field so I walked towards them as well.

—What happened, Ronnikins? —I heard George asked Ron.

Even though he was bleeding, Ron looked extremely happy and couldn't stop smiling.

—I fought with Malfoy! Neville even fought with Crabbe and Goyle!

When I heard Draco's name, I walked closer to hear him. Fred and George were both smiling and patting his back, congratulating him for beating Draco up.

—Draco? Where is he?

—Probably in the infirmary. —Ron said still smiling. Idiot.— I gave him a black eye! Neville fought with Crabbe and Goyle all by himself! Sure, he's unconscious now but it was awesome!

I started running towards the castle, I bumped into someone and almost fell to the ground, but I didn't stop to see who it was, I only said I'm sorry and kept running to the infirmary.

When I was on the ground floor I stopped running and walked up the stairs, trying to catch my breath. I opened the door to the infirmary and the first person I saw was Neville in a bed, still unconscious like Rod said, so I didn't bother to go and talk to him

A few beds ahead I saw Madam Pomfrey pointing her wand to someone and doing some spells, I couldn't see who it was because the curtains were covering the person but when I got close I saw Draco sitting in the bed, surprisingly without his gorillas of Crabbe and Goyle.

—That's all, Mr Malfoy, your eye should be back to normal in five minutes so I'm going to ask you to stay here to make sure that happens, if after the five minutes your eye is still black, come talk to me in my office. I see that you have visitors, so I'll leave you alone.

Draco turned around to see who Madam Pomfrey was talking about and his eyebrows got so high up that they seemed to disappear in his hair. Looks like he wanted to see someone else.

—I came here as soon as I heard what Ron did to you, are you all right? —I walked closer and sat down next to him in the bed.

—Ha! Never better. It was worthy to have a black eye for leaving Weasel with his nose bleeding.

—I know, I saw him… But that doesn't matter, what matters is that you're fine. Where are your gorillas? I thought they were always glued to you.

—Who? Crabbe and Goyle? —I nodded.— I told them to wait in our common room. There is a limit to which a person can be so close to such idiocy. Speaking of idiocy… I'm sorry.

—Sorry? Draco Malfoy saying he's sorry again? I must ask for a wish. —We both laughed. — But what are you sorry about?

—Well, yesterday… In potions… After Uncle Severus took you and Schlongbottom out of the classroom, he told us how dangerous it can be not to follow the instructions or using the wrong ingredients. Obviously, at that moment I was so worried about you, thinking that something had happened to you, but I forgot about it as soon as I saw you walk inside the room again.

I was looking at the bed we were both sitting on and playing with the folds of the sheet, I looked at him when he stopped talking, confusion written all over my face.

—I don't get it… You're sorry because… Because you were worried?

—No, later in the day I realized that Schlongbottom's potion was ruined because… Because someone had changed the labels of the ingredients. I knew you were fine, but… —His voice started to break a little and he was doing a great effort not to cry. Oh no, Draco, what are you trying to tell me?

—But, —Draco continued.— I couldn't avoid thinking about what Uncle Severus told us and that if it had been another ingredient or another potion that we were working on, something horrible could've happened to you because of me… I-I was the one who asked Goyle to change the label of the ingredients, I thought it was going to be funny to see the potion of someone from your house to get ruined but it never crossed my mind that it could affect you. You're like my cousin, no, you're like a sister to me and I don't know what I would do without you. Even worse, knowing that if something h-happened to you it would've been my fault.

Draco wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his robe, trying to hide the fact that he was crying, it wasn't until he did that that I realized some tears were falling on my cheeks.

—Draco, you… You… You're an idiot!

—I know…

—I could've died!

—I know…

I hugged him tightly while my tears kept falling, wetting my robes. Draco was surprised that I was hugging him and finally hugged me back.

—I hope you learned your lesson and never do something like that again, prat.

He laughed and hugged me with more force, but we stopped when I heard someone moving the curtains, when I turned, I saw my dad, and he was extremely angry.

—I am sorry to interrupt this… Lovely moment. —He said, clenching his teeth.— I would have been here sooner if someone hadn't bumped into me in the Quidditch field.

—Oh, it was you? Sorry, dad.

—But it looks like I heard something I have been trying to find out all day yesterday. Would you like to repeat what you said to Eileen, Draco?

Draco was so pale; I think you could even see through him.

—I'm so sorry, Uncle Severus… I wasn't thinking when I decided to do that.

—Clearly, you weren't. I am very disappointed in you, Draco, I thought you knew better than to be doing something so stupid. I will write to your parents and you will be in detention.

My dad turned around and left the infirmary, I turned to see Draco, he was already recovering his normal colour on his face.

—I'm sorry, Leen. I promise I won't do anything that puts you again in danger.

—I hope it's true. —I got up from the bed and grabbed my bag, lying down on the floor.— By the way, your eye already turned to normal.

I left the infirmary and made a beeline towards Gryffindor Tower; I knew everyone would be celebrating Gryffindor's victory and I wanted something to distract my mind from thinking that existed the possibility of Draco killing me by accident.

How is it possible that Draco Malfoy, the Draco Malfoy, who never apologizes, apologized today, but Hermione can't apologize for everything she said about my dad?