CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: THE MATCH
Three weeks later, the entire school was either sitting on standing in the stands of the Quidditch Pitch, cheering for their favourite teams. Hermione stood with Fred and George Weasley on one side of her and Willow and Xander on the other side. The four of them were visiting to watch Buffy and Ginny's first Quidditch match. The Gryffindors were playing against Ravenclaw, and were confident that they would win with no real problems.
"Oh goddess!" Willow cried, seeing Buffy barely manage to dodge a flying Bludger that had been directed at her head. Buffy had managed to flip her broom upside down to avoid it, before straightening herself back out. She'd somehow managed to keep her grip on the Quaffle.
"She's good, eh?" Xander said enthusiastically.
Willow nodded, unable to tear her eyes away from her best friend as Buffy scored a goal.
"Another ten points for Gryffindor!" the new announcer, a Fifth-Year Hufflepuff, Rory Jenkins announced. "Gryffindor lead sixty to twenty."
"What have I m-missed?" a new voice asked quietly from behind the Gryffindor group.
Willow turned, and green eyes met light blue. The redheaded Wiccan found herself unable to turn away, though why she couldn't have said. The shy blonde Hufflepuff girl, Tara Maclay hadn't been sure why she'd wanted to sit with the Gryffindors, but she'd felt drawn to sit with them. With her eyes now locked with the redhead, she wondered if she had just found her answer.
Hermione turned to look at Tara.
"We're winning by forty points," Hermione explained. She saw Tara and Willow staring at each other and couldn't help but wonder what was going on. She shrugged it off and moved over so that Tara could stand between her and Willow.
Tara moved forward shyly, her cheeks beginning to burn bright red as she stood beside Willow. Willow swallowed nervously, unsure why she'd had such a strange reaction to the blonde girl beside her.
"I'm Willow," the redhead said, holding her hand out to Tara.
Tara looked at her and smiled softly. "Tara Maclay. Are you f-friends with B-Buffy?"
Willow grinned and nodded. "She's my best friend."
"You're from C-California then?" Tara asked, feeling her stomach clench uncomfortably.
Willow nodded once more. "I'm studying in England though," Willow informed the younger girl. "At Oxford."
Tara's heart lifted slightly, though she still had no idea why she was having such a reaction to the beautiful redheaded girl.
A sudden burst of cheering caught the two girls attention, and they turned to look at the Quidditch Pitch.
"Gryffindor Chaser Summers scores again! Gryffindor leading seventy to twenty!"
Tara turned back to Willow. "O-Oxford…can I a-ask…how old are you?"
"I turned eighteen in February," Willow replied. "How old are you?"
"I'll be seventeen next month."
"I thought I spotted one two many redheads over here," a new voice said.
Willow turned to see another familiar face, sporting a smirking smile. Willow grinned as Draco stepped forward to say hello.
"Hey Draco," Willow greeted.
"Willow," he replied. He gave a half-smile to Tara. "Maclay."
"Malfoy," she replied politely.
Hermione turned to join the conversation, surprised to see Draco in the Gryffindor stand. Then again, in the four weeks since Slytherin had exiled Draco, she should have known better than to assume that Draco wouldn't come and sit with the Gryffindors. He'd been in the Common Room often enough, challenging Ron to game after game of chess, or else teasing Buffy and Harry mercilessly.
"You've met Willow?" Hermione asked curiously.
Draco and Willow nodded. "When Buffy and I first saw each other that day in London, Draco was there with her," Willow explained.
Another burst of cheering took their attention. The Gryffindors all groaned when they realised that Ravenclaw had scored a goal. "Gryffindor still in the lead seventy to thirty."
Draco moved slightly closer and noticed that Tara was fidgeting nervously. He couldn't help himself. He knew that if Buffy had been there, she'd have pre-empted any mean comment he was about to say, but Buffy was in the air and nowhere near enough to stop him.
"Why so nervous Maclay?" Draco asked, a smirk on his face. "You afraid of me?"
Tara flushed bright red. She didn't exactly hate Draco, and she wasn't afraid per say, but there was definitely an intimidation factor.
"I…I, n-n-no…"
Willow frowned slightly, realising that the taller blonde girl was as shy as Willow herself had been in high school until she'd found her inner strength and confidence. The redhead brought her hand up to cuff Draco upside the head, mussing up his usually perfectly slicked back hair.
"You big meanie," she chastised.
Draco looked at Willow incredulously, completely bewildered. He couldn't believe that someone had just done that to him. He glared at her, but Willow had faced far scarier things than her best friend's cousin. She just smiled sweetly and subtly took hold of Tara's hand and squeezed it gently, before drawing away. If possible, Tara went even redder.
Draco shook his head in disbelief. He looked between the two girls and recognised the look that Willow was giving him. He wondered whether Willow had learnt it from Buffy or the other way around. It was the same steely resolve that Buffy had had when she'd made him apologise to Hermione the first day of term the previous year.
"Sorry Maclay," Draco said, not wanting to cause too much of a scene, especially in the Gryffindor stands when everyone had been incredibly supportive of him over the last few weeks. "I didn't mean anything by it."
He stuck his hand out as a sign of friendship. Tara hesitated, but returned the handshake.
Draco moved to stand with the twins, knowing that he'd be able to tease and banter with them slightly easier than he'd be able to do with the three girls.
"You okay?" Willow whispered to Tara, not wanting to draw attention from Hermione or Xander to the shy blonde girl.
Tara nodded softly. "Thank you," she replied quietly. "He uh…I know he doesn't m-mean anything by it, but…"
"I get it," Willow assured her. "Trust me, I've had a few years experience building up a resilience to bullies."
Tara looked at her new friend, not believing her. "Really? But you're s-so confident."
"I haven't always been," Willow replied. "Meeting Buffy, having her build up my confidence, that helped. But mainly, I realised I was better than them because I didn't have to make other people feel bad to make myself feel better."
Tara smiled slightly, and nodded, taking in Willow's words.
"I uh…I have to admit, I've never really met a muggle who accepted m-magic so well," Tara said shyly. Her mother had been a witch, but her father was completely muggle. It had taken many hours of pleading for her mother to convince her father to allow her to come to Hogwarts, and even then her father was always voicing his disapproval to Tara learning magic.
"I'm actually Wiccan," Willow explained. "So, yeah, I don't use a wand, but…I'm definitely into the magic scene."
"You study Wiccan?" Tara asked with interest. "My m-mom she studied Wiccan. She was t-teaching me about it."
"Was?" Willow asked, afraid of the answer.
Tara looked down for a few moments before glancing back up at Willow. "She uh…she died. When I was fourteen."
Willow reached out to touch Tara's hand. "I'm sorry."
Tara nodded, accepting the genuine sympathy from the gentle redhead. "I've been trying to teach myself a little bit," Tara confided. "But…there are some spells that need a second."
Willow grinned. "I've had the same problem. None of my other friends are Wiccan. Hey, maybe we could practise sometime."
Tara smiled widely and she nodded, her cheeks blushing bright red. "I'd like that."
Willow retrieved a notebook from her pocket and scribbled down her address. She handed it to Tara who took it gingerly. "You should owl me sometime," Willow suggested. "We could swap spells and stuff."
The crowd suddenly groaned in unison, and Tara and Willow turned their attention back to the game. Ginny Weasley was clutching at her shoulder, obviously in pain as a Bludger sped away from her. Buffy was flying frantically towards the injured Chaser, somehow aware that Ginny was hurt worse than it looked.
Draco, standing between two overly protective Weasley boys, was even paler than usual, his eyes locked on the small redheaded Chaser. His throat was constricting painfully and he felt as though he could barely breathe. He watched in horror and Ginny suddenly lurched forward and lost her grip on the broom.
"GINNY!"
The youngest Chaser fell from her broom, and Buffy quickly forced her broom into a dive, hoping that she had far more luck than she'd had the first time she'd tried this trick. The crowd was silent as the watched one Chaser plummeting to the ground and another trying to catch her.
On the Firebolt, Buffy's heart was racing in pure panic. She urged her broom on silently, praying to whatever Higher Powers that she would reach her friend before she fell to the ground. She gained on Ginny and her hand shot out to grab Ginny's robes, trying desperately not to strangle the younger girl. With barely a foot to spare, she pulled out of the dive, and jumped off the broom, cradling Ginny in her arms as several Professors ran across the Pitch to get to them.
Buffy gently tapped Ginny's face, trying to get her to awaken. The girl's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at Buffy with confusion.
"How'd we get down here?" she asked, completely confused.
Buffy couldn't help but laugh slightly, thankful that her young friend was alright.
"You decided to try sky-diving without a parachute," Buffy explained.
"What's a parachute?" Ginny managed to get out, wincing in pain as she tried to shift her position.
"Stay still Gin," Buffy whispered. "And I'll explain the parachute thing later."
"S'the game over?" Ginny asked.
Buffy looked up, surprised to see that the others were still playing. She'd thought they'd have called for a time-out while two of their players were out of the game.
"It's still going," Buffy said.
She cast a look over her shoulder thankful that the Professors had almost reached where she and Ginny lay.
Another burst of cheering broke out, and Buffy looked up to see what had happened.
"And Harry Potter catches the Snitch! One hundred and fifty points to Gryffindor!"
"Games over," Buffy said quietly. "Gryffs won."
Ginny nodded, and finally let herself pass out form the pain in her shoulder. Buffy looked up as she saw McGonagall and Giles finally reach where she and Ginny where. The others in the Gryffindor team had flown to meet them, and Buffy wasn't surprised to see Hermione, Fred and George racing towards them either.
The big surprise was Draco, who looked horribly panicked.
Giles knelt beside Ginny, carefully touching the girls shoulder to try and gauge the damage.
"Dislocated," he pronounced.
McGonagall quickly conjured a stretcher beneath the injured Chaser and began floating it up towards the castle. Buffy moved to stand beside her cousin, taking in his even paler than usual features.
"Drake?" she asked quietly.
He turned to look at her, a well of worry pooling in his eyes. She reached out to touch his hand, surprised to find it shaking.
"Are you okay?"
Draco shook his head slightly. He'd only ever been that panicked twice before in his life. Once when he'd seen Buffy being pulled from the Quidditch stands and being flown off Hogwarts grounds only to disappear, and again when he'd seen Buffy get hit by Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse.
"She'll be okay Drake," Buffy assured him quietly. "Madame Pomfrey can fix just about anything, remember?"
Draco nodded, still too shaky to even try speaking. Buffy smiled softly at him and pulled on his hand to get them to start moving behind the crowd of people who were following McGonagall and the unconscious Ginny.
"I don't think Ron's going to be too happy when he finds out that the ex-Slytherin bad-boy's got a crush on the youngest Weasley," Buffy said quietly.
Draco came to a sudden halt and looked at Buffy with wide-eyes.
"What did you just say?"
Buffy grinned and laughed lightly. "You like Ginny."
Draco went to emphatically deny the accusation, but his mouth just wouldn't form the words.
"I…oh god," he whispered quietly. That explained the panic at least, he thought.
She smiled at him and again tugged his hand. "It's okay Drake. She's a nice girl. Just make sure you treat her right. She's got six big brothers who would all volunteer to defend her honour if you even thought about hurting her."
"I've…I've never liked anyone like that before. I mean…besides you. Before we found out about the whole cousin thing…and…I think…I think I'm falling for her," Draco admitted.
"This isn't a bad thing," Buffy said reassuringly. "Just…get to know her. Ask her to go with you into Hogsmeade next weekend. Show her the real Draco Malfoy, not the big bad Slytherin boy that you try to make yourself out to be."
Draco nodded, taking in Buffy's advice, committing it to memory. He was distracted from his thoughts as Willow and Xander came racing across the Quidditch Pitch.
"That dive was incredible!" Xander gushed excitedly.
"Is Ginny okay?" Willow asked quickly.
"She'll be fine," Buffy replied. "Madame Pomfrey can fix just about everything. She'll probably just have a slight bruise from the Bludger, but apart from that, she'll be fine."
Buffy was suddenly lightly tackled from behind, strong arms picking her up around the waist and spinning her around. She yelped slightly and spun in the arms as soon as she was put back on the ground. She grinned when she saw Harry's smiling face looking down at her.
"You were incredible," he complimented her.
She smiled and placed a soft kiss to his lips. "You too. Sorry I missed your Snitch catching."
He shook off her apology. "Not to worry. You had far more important things to concentrate on."
Before Harry could kiss her, she was torn from his arms to be pulled into an incredibly tight bone-crushing hug from Ron. All the panicked redheaded boy could manage to get out was soft whispers of "thank you, thank you, thank you". She smiled and patted his back gently.
"Ron, she'll be fine," Buffy assured him. "I swear it."
Ron pulled back and smiled thankfully at her. He leant forward to kiss her cheek before taking off towards the mob surrounding his injured sister. Buffy couldn't help but smile at the closeness of the Weasley family.
"Well, that was abrupt," Harry commented dryly.
"He's just worried, Mr Insensitive," Buffy replied, hitting her boyfriend's shoulder lightly. "What would you be like if that had have been me who fell?"
Harry scowled and pulled Buffy close to him, not even wanting to think about what his reaction would have been lie had it been Buffy who had taken the Bludger and fallen from fifty feet in the air.
"Good point," he conceded.
Buffy smiled and leant up to brush Harry's ear with her lips so she could whisper something quietly to him.
"Drake's got a crush on Ginny."
Harry's eyes widened in shock, and his gaze shot immediately to the worried Draco Malfoy who was talking to Willow, but still fidgeting quite badly with worry as he glanced towards the people walking up to the castle, Ginny in the centre of it all.
As Draco turned back to Willow, he caught sight of Harry's panicked gaze. He rolled his eyes and sighed. He should have known that his cousin wouldn't be able to keep anything a secret for very long.
"Summers, are you completely unable to keep anything from your beloved boyfriend?" Draco called out to her.
She grinned at him cheekily. "Yup."
Draco sighed once more and shook his head in mock-disgust. Before he could comment, a group of Slytherins caught up to them, and walked past, sneering and scowling at the group of Gryffindors and the ex-Slytherin student.
"Hey Summers, too bad it wasn't you that got splattered!" one of the girls yelled out. She couldn't tell if it was Blaise or Millicent who's said it.
"You better watch yourself Summers. You're perfect little life isn't going to be so perfect for much longer," another called out.
Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes. She really hated the Slytherin students. And of course it was too much to hope that if she ignored the Slytherins, they would get bored of taunting someone who didn't rise to the occasion and would then go away. She sighed as she saw the Slytherins walk closer to where she and her friends stood.
Crabbe and Goyle came to stand directly in front of Buffy, leaving barely a foot between them. Buffy swallowed, once more wishing that she still had her slaying abilities. She'd have been able to push them away without a second thought, but with the strength of a regular girl, she felt intimidated.
Unconsciously she sized up her opponents, visually checking their stance and where their wands were. Neither of the two large boys had drawn their wands but she could see them pooching their robes.
"Get away from me," she warned them, glaring at the two boys who had acted mainly as Draco's bodyguards over the last few years, until he and Buffy had become friends.
Draco and Harry flanked the blonde girl, with Willow and Xander hanging in the background, wondering why Buffy was being targeted by bullies. It seemed so very unusual considering they were had seen Buffy stand up for both of them when she'd still been at Sunnydale High.
"What are you going to do about it Summers?" Goyle asked snidely.
Buffy just rolled her eyes and turned away from him. There was no way she was going to give into her urge to hit the arrogant Slytherin boy.
Goyle grabbed her arm and spun her back to face him, gripping her arm tightly. Buffy looked at him, glaring at the taller boy. Harry and Draco shifted forwards, but Buffy glanced at them subtly, silently imploring them to leave her to fight her own battles. They didn't like it one bit, but stepped back slightly, keeping their eyes on Goyle, waiting for any sudden and threatening movements.
"Get your hand off me." Her voice was quietly threatening, and Draco recognised the tone. He'd heard it often enough from Buffy at the beginning of the previous year.
Goyle moved his hand from Buffy's arm and brought it up to touch her face. She flinched away from him before he could touch her cheek. He tried again, and Buffy pushed him away forcefully. Goyle glared and quickly reached out to grab Buffy's arm once more, pulling her forcefully forward. He bent closer to her to whisper in her ear.
"We're going to make your life hell Summers. Revenge is always sweet."
He pulled back before Harry or Draco could step forward and hit him. Goyle turned and began walking back up to the castle, leaving Buffy silently fuming.
"You okay?" Willow asked, stepping forward to touch Buffy's shoulder gently.
Buffy turned to face her best friend and nodded. "I'll be fine."
"And we thought Harmony was bad," Xander commented, his eyes narrowed in the direction of the group of Slytherins who they could still hear laughing in the distance.
"I really hate them," Buffy commented.
"It'd be nice to see them get taken down a notch or two," Draco added. "And as thick as they all may be, they're Slytherins, so we can expect whatever they have in store for us to be cunning and manipulative."
Buffy glanced at her cousin, the serious look in her eyes scaring Draco slightly.
"I say, bring it on. We've faced far scarier things than the Slytherins and we came out on top. There is no way I'm going to give in to a group of pretentious snobs trying to intimidate me."
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Sadly that's the last of Xander for this fic. Willow will be back, honest.
Ooo, and someone just KILL ME! I promised myself I wouldn't do it, but I just can't help myself. At this point in time, I'm tentatively saying that there is gonna be a sequel to this fic. Which will make the whole damn thing a Trilogy (sorry to be a big ole copykat Lisette, but…I couldn't pass it up.) It's in the planning process, but will start being written as soon as I get these last three chapters out.
Toodles.
DKG.