Quidditch Practice
Apparently the word 'chat,' in Weasley, translates into 'feed the Malfoy to a set of irate Wolverines'.
Draco learned this only a few moments ago and was now fleeing for his life. He wheeled around a corner and practically shoved down a pair of third years as he cut them off and dove through the doors.
"What's his problem?" One of the third years turned to the other and asked. The other just shrugged and pushed the door open.
The two were once more forced out of the way by a pack of infuriated wolverines, the Weasley twins, Lee Jordan, and a small group of onlookers who'd joined in chasing after them merely for the excitement of it.
"Shall we follow?" The other third year asked the first and the first smiled.
"Absolutely."
And the two took off running after the group.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Just a stones throw across campus; Ginny was watching her brother practice for Quidditch team tryouts. He wanted to become the new keeper so he was having Harry toss the Quaffle and see if he could stop it. Ginny had been calmed down slightly when she arrived but watching Ron and Harry toss the Quaffle to each other for fifteen minutes wore thin on her patience.
"What are you two doing?" Ginny blurted out and they both shot confused looks at her.
"We're practicing Ginny," Ron said in a sort of important voice and Ginny stared at him.
"You're having Harry toss you the ball Ron. That isn't practice." Ginny stated and Ron frowned at her.
"Yes it is," He argued and Ginny eyed him.
"So the Slytherin chasers are just going to toss the ball to you," Ginny said flatly and Ron stared at her.
"She has a point," Harry agreed, Ron grumbled, and Ginny beamed.
"You think you could do any better?" Ron shouted down at Ginny and she stood up.
Much to the surprise of both the airborne boys Ginny simply walked away, leaving her bag back in her seat. They looked at one another for a moment and then heard a reasonable commotion over by the shed where the brooms were stored. They looked up only to see Ginny walking back with one of the school brooms in her hands and a smug look on her face. She moved out onto the field and got on her broom. She took off quickly and pulled up next to Harry with a smile.
"Err…would you like to try Ginny?" Harry asked and handed Ginny the Quaffle. Ginny took it readily and looked over at Ron.
"Bring it on baby sister." Ron challenged and put his hands out in a sort of stance that looked more like a muggle soccer goalie than a Quidditch keeper. Ginny just snickered, shook her head, and took a deep breath.
What ever Ron had expected, he didn't get it. Ginny swung her arm back and lobbed the ball straight at his head with as much force as she could muster. Ron dove down out of the path of the Quaffle and it shot through the goal ring. Ron gave his sister an incredulous look, but she just smiled.
"What are you trying to do?" Ron asked, aghast. "Take my head off with that?"
"What's going on here?" Alicia Spinnet, the recently promoted Gryffindor Quidditch team captain, asked as she flew up on her broom with the Quaffle under her right arm.
"I was just practicing…" Ron said lamely and glared at Ginny.
"Did you throw that?" Katie Bell asked while rubbing her forehead and flew up next to Alicia.
"No…well…it was Ginny!" Ron stumbled through his words and pointed at Ginny. Unfortunately Katie, Alicia, and Angelina had been preparing for practice when Ginny's throw nailed Katie in the forehead.
"Really?" Angelina asked as she brought her broom to a halt next to Harry.
"Show me." Alicia tossed the Quaffle to Ginny and watched her as she caught it.
"Um, alright." Ginny figured it was a command but she was willing to ignore that fact.
The three chasers moved back and watched, with mild amusement, as Ron took up his position in front of the goals. He had a pained and slightly frightened expression on his face as he held his hands up to block. Ginny snickered and pulled her arm back again. She threw the ball harshly in yet another display of her ability to lob large, heavy objects at male heads. Ron pulled his broom away sharply as the large red ball zipped past him with speed that rivaled a school broom on a good day.
"Could you please stop trying to decapitate me Ginny!" Ron asked and Ginny just shrugged.
"Well it's your fault for being in the way." Ginny ignored the fact that Ron was trying to become the player whose job was to be in the way.
"That was brilliant!" Alicia announced and everyone looked over at her. "How would you like to be a chaser?" Alicia flew over towards Ginny and grinned.
"Don't you already have three chasers?" Ginny asked and stared at Alicia like she was mad. Ginny loved Quidditch, and she loved throwing things at guys; she didn't think she could combine them and still keep up her ploy.
"Yeah, but Katie was just saying how she'd like to be the Keeper if we didn't find anyone." Angelina cut in and Ron stared at them with a crushed expression.
"But I was going to try out." Ron said but was ignored.
"You've all gone daft." Ginny shook her head and flew down to land. Alicia and the other two girls followed her down and tried to convince her.
"You've got an arm!" Katie pleaded and rubbed her forehead.
"Come on, don't you want to see the game from the inside?" Angelina tried but Ginny just ignored them.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
As Ginny was trying to get out of actually playing Quidditch, Draco was entering the pitch in a 'last ditch' effort to escape the pack of infuriated animals and the excited mob chasing after him. Draco wasn't really paying attention to where he was running, or who was around him, or surely he wouldn't have done what he'd done.
Somewhere in Malfoy's panicked brain the image before him got divided. What he physically saw and what he saw were two different things. What was physically there was Ginny Weasley, on a broom, hovering a foot off the ground, and talking with three other people on brooms (whom were currently landing). What he saw was some girl, on a broom which he could easily jump onto and take (thus solving every one of his fleeing problems).
"I can't play Quidditch—." Ginny argued, and would have made it through her sentence had she not been pushed over the front end of the broom. She wasn't even given time to recover because then the broom took off.
No one was really sure how it happened exactly but when Malfoy had taken off with Ginny's broom he'd taken off with her still attached to it. Her necktie, it seems, had been hooked onto the broom and had caught itself on the twigs. Now, rather than just ripping off as most normal articles of clothing would have, Ginny's tie had held true and was now trying to strangle her as she flew along behind the stolen broom.
"I've made it!" Malfoy shouted triumphantly as he flew over the Quidditch field as fast as the broom would carry him. "I've escaped those beastly Weasleys!" He laughed and fell silent. He could have sworn he heard one of those Weasleys….
"I'm going to kill you!"
Draco felt something grab his leg and he nearly yelped. He instantly looked down and paled considerably as he saw what exactly it was. It was Ginny Weasley, hanging from the broom with one hand gripping his pant leg and the other holding onto her tie in an attempt to keep it from twisting and causing her to pass out from lack of air.
"You!" Draco shouted and Ginny's fingers wound around his ankle. "Oh Merlin!" Draco stared at Ginny in horror and she growled.
"You!" She snarled back though she didn't sound quite as surprised as Draco was. She tightened her grip around his ankle and, against her better judgment, looked down. She paled considerably and looked back up at the shocked blonde. "What are you waiting for?" She shrieked and snapped Draco back to reality. "Land already!"
"Are you kidding?" Draco asked dumbly, all he could imagine was the pack of wolverines.
"Of course not!" Ginny sounded absolutely terrified but she had good reason for this. Her tie was no longer strangling her as it had finally given way and left her hanging on to Draco's ankle for dear life. Ginny stared at him and watched, as he seemed to ponder whether to land or not.
"You stupid sod!" Ginny shouted and used what strength she had to swing her arm up and grab Draco's collar. "I can't bloody believe you'd let me fall!" She screeched and tried to asphyxiate him with his own tie as hers had been doing to her only a few moments earlier.
"You're choking me!" He complained as he lurched forward and the broom ride became considerably more turbulent.
"What do you want me to do? Let go?" Ginny asked in a shaky voice and Draco looked down at her.
Now on normal occasions Draco would take solace and enjoyment out of watching people wearing an expression as terrified and angry as Ginny's was now, however this was not a normal situation. Draco turned away from her and looked down below—they were passing directly over the astronomy tower. He moved the broom down quickly and Ginny shouted.
"Don't you knock me off Malfoy!"
"Shut up Weasley! I'm trying to land!" Draco snapped back at her and slowed his decent.
After a while of dangling in the air Ginny's feet contacted with the stone that made up the terrace of the astronomy tower. She looked around and could have kissed the ground beneath her, however, instead of rejoicing she took the opportunity to yell at Draco.
"What is wrong with you?" Ginny shrieked and Draco looked up at her as he dismounted the broom.
"Honestly, setting yourself up for a fall aren't you?" Draco asked and Ginny narrowed her eyes.
"You…!" Ginny growled and put her hands to her head. "I was just going to leave you alone! Perhaps then we could just go to the Yule Ball and then never speak to each other ever again! But no! You have to go and pull what ever in the name of Merlin it was you just pulled!
"You had one up on me, I would have forgiven and overlooked the stealing of the broom—even the ripping of my tie, but you—you dragged me up into the air by a thread! Then you contemplate letting me fall! The only other person who ever came that close to killing me was Tom Let's-Hide-In-a-Diary-For-Fun Riddle!" Ginny looked like she was going to start tearing her hair out.
Draco would have probably been able to come back with some witty insult but Ginny moved directly into his face and finished her rant.
"You are going to leave me alone! This castle now has an invisible line painted right down the center of it! Weasley over here, Malfoy over there! You understand?" Ginny didn't give him time to answer. "Good!" Ginny growled, shoved him to the side, and stalked off.
"Women!" Draco sighed.
"Poor Draco, I never thought I'd see the day." Blaise, whom had been seated in a very well hidden spot, commented.
"Great." Draco rolled his eyes but Blaise didn't get up.
"The day Draco Malfoy…oh what's the term…got told." Blaise emphasized her words in a way that made her sound quite a bit like Pansy.
"Oh bug off." Draco grumbled and stalked down the stairs. He was so preoccupied with the Ginny Weasley fiasco that he had forgotten all about the wolverines.
Today was not turning out to be his day.
Author's Notes:
"Now, for the review bribery!" Isis said chipper-ly as she pulled back the red curtains and revealed the two Slytherin boys dressed in black suits for the dance number.
"Release me this instant Muggle!" Draco snarled and tried desperately to move his hands but was unable.
"Honestly! We're in Slytherin, you can't do this to us!" Terence…well, whined, and gritted his teeth.
Draco and Terence continued to shout and yell at Isis who started making hand-signals to someone up above the stage curtain.
"Good work Harry, just pull that wire and Draco's left hand goes up—There you go! No Ron, you may not punch Draco through Terence. Nor kick him!" Hermione shouted up as she walked out on stage with Anthony Goldstein.
"Why did you let those two work the wires?" Ginny walked up beside Isis and stared up at the sinisterly euphoric pair of boys that had the puppeteer-ing wires to 'work' Draco and Terence on stage.
"Because the only other options I had were Fred and George." Isis answered simply and hopped back off the stage into the front row. "Places people! Strike up the music!" Isis motioned to Bill Weasley and he struck up the band.
"Ready? Go!" Isis flopped back in a chair and the dance extravaganza began.
At first everything was spotless, perfect, top-notch—then things went downhill. Ron couldn't resist using his control over Terence and making the boy punch Draco. When he'd done it he'd knocked Harry and Harry had dropped Draco's wires. Ginny couldn't jump on Draco before he'd drawn his wand and shot out the catwalk supports with some strange hex. Ron and Harry had landed right on Hermione and Anthony then Terence had his wand out in a flash and was throwing curses left and right. A stray curse hit the band and the whole room went 'to hell in a hand-basket'.
"Folks, we're experiencing some technical difficulties!" Isis shouted over the madness from her spot under the chair. "Please try again next time—."
"There she is!" Draco shouted as Isis was pulled up out from under her chair by the collar of her shirt.
"Oh…hello Mr. Malfoy, sir." Isis laughed nervously and stared at the angry expression on Lucius Malfoy's face. "Goodnight everyone—the next extravaganza will, hopefully, be less painful."
And lo, Isis was dragged off to suffer the fate of many a D/G fanwriter. The next chapter should come to you from the Hospital Wing.
Read—
Apologies to Cassandra Sisenta for her lack of liking in the character with her name. Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers and my absolutely resplendent Beta.