There was cheering from the outside, and most of it was "GO GO GRYFFINDOR! GO GO GRYFFINDOR!" Elvira took hold of Draco's hand, he looked down at her, kissed the top of head and gave her hand a little squeeze.
They heard the game commenter, Ann Ford, a sixth year Gryffindor, over the loud speaker. "Welcome to the first Quidditch game of year. Today is Slytherin versus Gryffindor. And now here is the Gryffindor team flying out, Captain/Seeker Harry potter, Keeper Ron Weasley, Beaters Seamus Finnigan and Jack Connell, and finally the Chasers Hermione Granger, Leelee Johnson, and Luna Nott. Lets here if for Gryffindor!" There was a massive cheering from the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs, as each member of the team flew out when their names were called. The doors opened in front of the Slytherins and they all mounted their brooms, "Now here's the Slytherin team, Captain/Seeker Draco Malfoy, Keeper Alex O'Neil, Beaters Galvin LeStrange and Gregory Goyle, and Chasers Marcus Flint, Adrian O'Neil, and new teammate Elvira Rosier. Let's here it for Slytherin!" there was yet another eruption of cheers only from Slytherin House.
The two teams flew around the pitch getting cheers when they passed their houses. The teams took position after a few minutes, in a circle above Madame Hooch and the trunk holding the balls. Elvira was positioned directly across from Luna. Draco and Harry landed and shook hands a little to tightly then what was needed, mounted their brooms and went to their positions. Harry about twenty feet above Luna, and Draco twenty feet above Elvira.
"I want a nice clean game. From all of you." Madame Hooch said looking sternly at them all, mostly at the Slytherins and especially at Marcus.
"The players take their positions, and the two captains shake hands, they too take their positions. Madam Hooch releases the Bludgers, and the Golden Snitch. Remember the snitch is worth 150 points the seeker who catches the snitch ends the game." Ann said as the snitch circled around both Harry and Draco and took off. "The Quaffle is released and the game begins! Slytherin takes possession of the ball and Marcus passes it to Adrian. All the chasers are heading down towards Gryffindors goals. Adrian flies behind the hoops, turns around, flies past them, hands it off to Elvira who throws and scores! Ten points to Slytherin."
There was a mixture of cheers and boos from the crowd. Elvira flew past Adrian and gave him a high five.
"Ron passes the Quaffle off to Hermione who zooms past the Slytherin chasers who are on her tail. She narrowly misses a bludgers, passes it off to Leelee, Leelee shoots, but its blocked by Alex. Elvira has the quaffle and heads down to the other end of the field, she dodges a bludgers aimed at her by Jack. She throws the quaffle to Marcus, who kicks Luna out of the way and shoots. Ron nicely blocks it with the tail end of his broom. Score stands 10 - 0, Slytherin."
"We are an hour into the game and the score stands 100 - 70, Slytherin, and the snitch has yet to be seen. Neither Draco nor Harry has taken off in any kind of pursuit. And it is beginning to rain a little which is yet another challenge for our players. The quaffle is in possession of Gryffindor with the Slytherin chasers on Luna's tail. Luna shoots and scores! 10 points to Gryffindor, 100 - 80, Slytherin. Slytherin chaser Elvira backs off and heads higher and hovers by a high stand. Slytherin chasers and beaters are flanking Luna on all sides as the race down to the Slytherin goal hoops, she has no where to go except forward. Leelee and Hermione are powerless to help her. What is Slytherin up to? Where are Gryffindor's beaters?"
Elvira scanned the field. She had positioned herself at the middle high stand. She was about to do the move Draco had made her practiced over and over again at practices, Draco had called it the Chaser Death Dive. She had to have perfect timing and fast speed. Draco had told her that no Quidditch player had ever tried the move she had tried to perfect it at practice, though she had never tried it in the rain. She looked over at Draco and saw him and Harry circling the pitch looking for the snitch still. She put her concentration back on the task and hand. Just about as she was gonna move she was hit in her left side. There were hundreds of gasps all about the pitch from everyone, all their eyes where on her.
"And Elvira is hit extremely hard with a bludger, by beater Jack, and knocked off her broom. She is struggling to hold on with one hand though." Ann shouted over the audience.
Some of the players had looked up to see her. There she was holding onto her broom with one hand for dear life, and the rain wasn't helping her at all she could feel her hand starting to slip from the handle, "Damn the rain" She said and saw someone stand up in the stand she was next too in the corner of her eye.
"Elvira!" they screamed and Elvira recognized it as Narcissa.
Elvira struggled and finally had a hold on her broom with both hands. She tried swinging onto her broom, but it was too painful. She knew that she was hurt, but needed to continue the game.
"Elvira seems to be still struggling, it looks as if she is hurt." Elvira closed her eyes and breathed a calming breath, trying to block out the pain. She tried again, but screamed out this time because of the pain. "I'm not sure but I think Elvira just screamed. It looks as if Draco has stopped looking for the snitch and is flying fast over to Elvira. Draco reaches her and helps her back on her broom."
"You alright there Eli?" he asked her, as he came under her and got her sitting on his broom then going next to hers so that she could climb over onto hers.
"I'll be alright. Just a little hurt though. I'll live." she said smiling at him. "Now get back out there and look for the snitch." Draco smiled at her and took off, and Elvira put her game face back on. Elvira looked back down at the chasers and saw that they were in the formation again for her to do the Chaser Death Dive. Her side hurt terrible and she hoped she could pull the stunt off, she wasn't going to quit now.
"It seems Elvira is ok and will be continuing the game. The Slytherins have now forced Leelee in between them and the others can't help. What are they doing?"
Elvira waited, they were relatively close to the ground, which meant she had to pull up quick. She waited for them to come closer and then dove at full speed.
"Elvira is going into a dive, heading straight toward the group of chasers. I think they're going to collide. She's almost there. She's right in front of them! They're gonna hit!"
As soon as Elvira was in front of Leelee she reached out as fast she could and grabbed the quaffle from her. She was about twenty feet from the ground and pulled up as fast she could.
"Yes" she said to herself and then started racing off to the Gryffindor goals two feet off the ground.
"Elvira nearly missed getting hit and running into the ground. She some how managed to get hold of the quaffle and is now racing at full speed to Gryffindor's goals. She shoots and scores! 10 points to Slytherin! 110 - 80, Slytherin still in the lead. This is any ones game. Hermione has possession of the quaffle, Slytherin beater Goyle aims a bludgers at her, and she barely misses getting hit, though she drops the quaffle in the process to Luna under her. Luna shoots at Slytherin's goals and scores! 10 points to Gryffindor! 110 - 90, Slytherin."
"This is a close-- and there go Draco and Harry in a nosedive straight to the ground. There neck and neck, neither looking to back out. They are getting closer to the ground, closer still, they both pull up at the same time racing each other near the ground around the pitch. Draco hits Harry, Harry hits Draco. Neither is backing down. Draco reaches out a hand towards the snitch, but it looks as if it's just out of reach. Harry tried the same thing and it too seems it's out of reach for him. They start flying up, over the teachers barely missing them and down into yet another dive, closer to the ground, closer, about ten feet from the ground. The two keep going. They're neck and neck. They pull up inches from the ground, and still following the snitch. Draco stands on his broom handle and reaches out. He jumps off his broom, Harry jumping off too and they hit the ground hard, flipping and turning. I can hear the crowd gasp."
"Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter are lying down on the ground not moving what so ever. Wait a minute Draco starts to stand up, he seems to look ok. He's got it! He's got the snitch! Draco Malfoy has caught the snitch and ended this close game. The final scores are Gryffindor- 90, and Slytherin- 260. Slytherin wins!"
"Bloody hell that hurt." Draco cursed the ground, his robes were semi-dirty and he could feel that he had a few cuts and scratches on his face.
"Well, maybe you shouldn't try and catch the snitch." Potter said from behind him.
"Oh, but it's so much fun Potter." Draco sneered at him, and Harry walked away defeated with the rest of his team. Draco handed the snitch over to Madame Hooch and leaned over to pick up his broom, wincing in the process.
The rest of the Slytherin team flew down towards him, sneering and glaring at the Gryffindor team as they headed for their lockers. Elvira walked up to him and gave him a gentle hug. "You did it Draco!" she said smiling, but noticed he tensed. "Are you all right?"
"Yea, that just hurt a bit." he said smiling back at her.
"I bet. That looked horrific from up there. Surprised you didn't break your neck." Adrian said patting him on the back, he had some red marks and bruises forming from going one on one with the other chasers, the others looked the same too, red marks, bruises, traces of blood.
"And I'm glad you pulled off that stunt Eli. I knew you could do it." Draco told her.
"That was totally sick. You did it better then at practice even after you were hit with a bludgers and in the rain." Galvin said to her.
"DRACO! ELI!"
"Bloody hell", Draco mumbled, "I knew she wasn't gonna like that."
"Now Draco, that's no way to talk about your mom." Elvira said teasingly to him.
Narcissa ran up to them and practically hugged them to death. "Jesus lord, are the two of you alright? Draco, you have cuts and scratches on your face. Is anything broken? Are you dizzy? How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Yes, no, no, and 3" Draco said answering her questions, before she yet again pulling them into another hug. "Mom, this is a little embarrassing." Draco said turning red, and seeing the rest of the team starting to snicker.
"I just wanted to make sure the two if you were ok. I mean Eli almost fell from her broom, you almost killed yourself. I should be very worried, which I am. But I am proud of you all. I told you that you could beat them didn't I?" she said to them.
"Umm, Mrs. Malfoy, if you don't mind we kinda want to head to the locker room and get out of these robes and into some clean ones." Elvira said saving Draco from his mother.
Narcissa looked them over again and deemed that they would be all right. She gave them one final hug, "Well I'm proud of you both and I can't wait 'til break to see you. I miss you." she said and left the pitch.
"Thank you so much Eli." Draco said to her when his mother was out of earshot.
"Anytime."
"Yea Draco, we don't want your mommy to embarrass you now would we." Galvin said imitating his mother.
"Shut up!" Draco said pushing him jokingly.
The team headed for the locker rooms, to shower and change into some cleaner cloths. When they got inside they put their brooms in their lockers and sat on the benches for a few to regain some strength. Draco pulled Elvira off to the side and gave her a kiss. "Are you sure you ok? You seemed to be hurting a lot in the game after you were hit, and when my mom attacked us."
"I'm ok, don't worry about me I'll be fine."
Draco wasn't convinced, his mom had hugged her by the shoulders and Elvira looked tensed then, and when they were playing she was a bit stiff, which wasn't the way she played. Her movements were more fluid and graceful on the broom. He put his hand over where she got hit and she gasped and fell to her knees, Draco going down with her. The team heard her gasp and ran to see what had happened. The found Draco supporting Elvira, she was clinging onto him for support and with some blood on Draco's hand, and some on Elvira's robes.
"Jesus Christ Elvira! Why didn't you say anything?" Adrian shouted to her. She remained silent, a grimace plastered on her face.
Galvin ran to the locker room doors and opened them. He held them open as Draco helped Elvira out. "This isn't going to work. You need to get to the Hospital Wing now." Draco picked her up so that her wounded side was facing out, and she put her arms around his neck. "Galvin you go ahead and clear the halls" Draco said running after Galvin.
They ran off the pitch and up to the school, the halls were crowded with students. "Everyone out of the way! Someone's injured!" Galvin said running through the halls with Draco coming behind him. The students started making to the sides clearing a small path and watched as three people in emerald green Quidditch robes ran by.
Whispers started flying around at once:
"Isn't that Elvira?"
"The one that nearly fell off her broom?"
"Is she bleeding?"
"Was she hurt that bad and still played?"
Galvin opened the doors to the hospital room and started panting, Madam Pomfrey rushed out of her little office to see who had come in so loudly. She saw three Slytherin players, two leaning up against the walls panting, while one was being carried.
"Goodness, I thought she said that she was ok." she said running up to Draco and Elvira. "Bring her over here, she needs to lay down."
Draco carried her over to a bed and gently sat her down. Madam Pomfrey pulled over a set of curtains and pulled them closed so the two boys couldn't see them. They two sat down on the bed next, to it, and listened to Madam Pomfrey talk to herself. "Oh poor dear. This is worse then I thought. Now this is going to hurt a bit." she told Elvira. The two heard a constrained whimper, and Madam Pomfrey came out, some of Elvira's blood on her hands. She ran over to a supplies cabinet and pulled out some bandages and some sort of potion. She went back through the curtains, muttered a spell and started wrapping up Elvira's torso.
"She's seventeen right? And how much does she weigh?" Madam Pomfrey asked through the curtain.
"Yea, and she's exactly 110 pounds." Draco answered her. Ten minutes later Madam Pomfrey pulled back the curtains. Elvira lay on the bed sound asleep.
The nurse looked at the two boys. "She had a mild compound fracture. Two of her ribs were starting to break through her skin. I pushed them back into place, wrapped them up, and did a healing spell. It will take about a week or two for them to fully heal. I gave her a sleeping potion so she could rest more comfortably. She should have stopped playing as soon as she was hit. By playing she made her injuries worse. I'll let her leave tomorrow night for dinner, but she will need someone with her at all times, until she heals fully. Are either of you in all of her classes?"
"I am." Draco said.
"Well you must help her out with carrying books the best you can, and I'll give you a pass so that the two of you can leave early from each class to get to the next, ok?" Draco nodded. She conjured up two chairs next to Elvira's bed and walked back to her office and closed the door. Draco sighed and sat down in one of the chairs and took Elvira's hand into his own, Galvin sat down in the one next to him.
"Why didn't she say she was hurt that bad?" Draco asked him, staring at Elvira's sleeping face.
Galvin shrugged, "I don't know. Girls are strange and tend to keep things hidden."
Galvin stood up and put a hand on Draco's shoulder, he could tell that his best friend was worried and that was probably the scariest thing he had ever lived through. "I think I'll leave, I think you might need to be alone with her for awhile. Don't worry Draco, she'll be fine."
Galvin walked out of the hospital wing and saw the Quidditch team, plus Blaise and Angel heading towards him. They stopped when they reached him.
"Is she gonna be all right?" Blaise and Galvin asked at the same time.
Galvin then proceeded to tell the about Elvira's injury. He told Blaise and Angel that they would have to help her in the girls dormitories and that Draco would handle the rest. The group then headed back to the common room and told the rest of the house. Some of which felt bad and others that didn't really care.
"So what, if she's hurt. Who really cares? I knew she couldn't play Quidditch. You should have made me part of the team instead of that whore." Pansy said, after Galvin had finished telling them what had happened to Elvira.
Blaise went onto the aggressive side. She ran at Pansy, launched herself onto her and pinned her to the ground. "For your information Parkinson, I was at tryouts and practice and Elvira deserves to be on the team. She did all the routines with flying colors and today she pulled off the Chaser Death Dive that no one has ever done, with broken ribs and in the rain so I don't want to hear another insulting word from you, or trust me I will kill you in the most painful way I can think of. And I know for a fact that you aren't smart enough to know when you would need to dive. So shut your fat face right now and leave! And I will keep my promise if I hear your insulting voice even whisper anything about her or any of my other friends. Now get out of my face you cow!" Blaise said turning red in the cheeks.
"Fine I will. Come on Millicent." the two girls walked out of the common room.
Galvin looked at Blaise with wide eyes, "Damn girl! I've never heard you talk like that."
"Well someone else had to teach that pig a lesson since Elvira isn't here." Blaise said smiling.
A few hours later the students headed off to lunch. The group of Slytherin friends sat at their end of the table. It seemed odd not to have Draco or Elvira there.
"I guess Draco won't be at dinner?" Angel said.
"Guess not", said Alex.
A few minutes later though Draco came into the Great Hall, still in his Quidditch uniform, and sat down, stern faced.
"We thought you weren't going to show up." Marcus said to him.
"I wouldn't of, but Madam Pomfrey kicked me out saying that I needed to eat dinner since I didn't leave for lunch." Draco said rather angry. "I won't be in the common room though, I'm staying with Eli tonight." they all nodded.
"You missed it Draco. Blaise went and starting yelling at Parkinson in the common room. She had her pinned to the ground. I've never seen her go all crazy that way before. I swear Pansy was gonna break down into tears, you would have laughed your ass off." Galvin said, which made the group laugh, and Draco too, which was what he wanted.
The group started talking through dinner, laughing about jokes, about their Quidditch match and of course making fun of people, like Pansy. Though it didn't feel as right with Elvira not sitting there next to Draco laughing with them. When dinner was over Draco walked with his friends back to the common and room and he made Blaise and Angel get an outfit out for Elvira for him to take to the Hospital wing, while he changed out of Quidditch robes and into some black baggy pants and t-shirt. They came down with some baggy navy blue pants and a band t-shirt for Elvira. He thanked them and headed back to the Hospital Wing. When he got there he walked into the dark room and laid Elvira's cloths on the bedside table. He took her hand in his once again and reached up to her face and brushed a few loose strands of her hair out of her face. He laid his head down on her bedside looking up at her sleeping face and he too started to fall asleep.