Chapter Twelve: Welcome Back Malfoy!

They shut the door on Nancy before she could protest.

"Thanks, guys," Holly said gratefully.

Hermione and Ron smiled. "You're welcome."

"Though, we were wrong," said Hermione.

"At first," Ron corrected her.

In the distance, a clock chimed nine times.

Hermione straightened her blouse. "Well, we'd better get to bed before Filch comes around."

Holly nodded, and glanced at Draco. He was sitting on the ground with his head in his hands. "Um, I'll be right there."

Hermione glanced at Draco too, then gave Holly a suspicious look. "Alright, but don't be too long." She replied, and Ron and her went away to the common room.

Holly walked to where Draco was on the floor. "You okay?"

Draco lifted his head and looked at her. "Why do you care?"

Holly shrugged. "Well you're just sitting there like some sad little-"

"Yeah, thanks," he said sharply, and continued sulking.

"Come on, you're not really disappointed that we can't model anymore, are you?" Holly said.

Draco shook his head. "No, it's just that now I have nothing going for me, that's all." He said.

He said it with such distain that Holly couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. "But you're the seeker of the Slytherin Quidditch team? And what about your good grades?"

He rolled his eyes. "Those things all come naturally. I'm talking about things that I actually have to work at. Like… being the captain cheerleader…"

Holly frowned. Whether he works at it or not, he still stinks. She thought. But she also thought about something else. "…You really loved that job, didn't you?"

Draco nodded.

Holly pondered some more. Why shouldn't she help him? Yes, he had made her life hell… but that was Harry's life. Now he was Holly. Draco seemed to actually like Holly.

She shook her head. No. Fricking. Way.

As she debating the thought of helping him, Draco stood up to leave. "I got to go to bed. It's almost ten."

"Wait!" Holly exclaimed.

Draco turned around. "Yes?"

Holly paused, then looked at the floor.

"Thanks for the help, Palmer," He said sarcastically, not waiting for her reply.

Holly sat on the floor, deep in thought as she listened to his footsteps fade away.

"So," Hermione said at breakfast the next morning. "What did you and the ferret talk about last night?"

Holly shrugged. "Nothing. He left."

As you can see, our heroes were well over the whole Nude-Photography-thing-that-was actually-not-really-nude-but-close-enough-and-if-you're-still-reading-this-hyphenated-sentence-then-I-wish-to-congradulate-you-on-your-patience-but-anyways-on-with-the-story thing.

"Ew, she wanted to take pictures of you in your underwear!" Ron laughed.

Well, Ron wasn't over it.

"Holly?" Ginny addressed her. "Coach Grinder says we have a practice today."

Holly looked up at her confusedly. "But practice isn't until next week."

"That's what I thought too, but he thinks we need so much practice that he's making us have one every day." Ginny sighed. Then she laughed. "He still thinks Malfoy's name is 'Malfrey'"

Holly smiled politely. "When's practice?"

Ginny squinted at her watch. "Let's see, it's 8:15 now, so practice would be… in… around…"

Holly waited.

"… Thirty seconds." Ginny finally said. "See you at practice!" she chirped, and sped outside.

"What?!" Holly exclaimed.

"Actually, now it'd be about 25 seconds," Ron added.

Cue the Nutcracker music!

:::846,103.5 musical notes later:::

Holly was wheezing and puffing, speed-staggering to get outside and put on her sneakers at the same time.

"PALMER!" Coach Grinder shouted, making a few of the girls in the squad jump.

"Coming!" she cried.

"You're 846,103.5 musical no – er, I mean, 20 minutes late!" he yelled louder, even though she was right in front of him now.

"You can't expect to call for a practice at 8:15 in the morning at the last minute!" Holly protested.

"Literally!" Ginny's voice sounded from somewhere in the back of the group.

Coach Grinder stared at her.

Someone coughed, and a baby started whining from somewhere.

"That was odd…" Holly said to herself.

But the others were on a roll. "You also can't make us run in the mud!" Another girl chimed in.

"Or climb ropes!" someone added.

"Or crawl under barbed wire!"

"Or be really, like, mean about it too!"

"Like, yeah!"

"Or," Malfoy said, projecting his voice. "Take me away from my passion, and put my girls in unnecessary situations."

"What are you doing here?" Holly asked.

"Adding to the dramatic effect," Draco said simply. He walked up to Coach Grinder. "You'll have to resign, Grinder, because I want my old spot back."

Surprisingly, the coach didn't put up a fight. "All right." He said, smiling. "You look like you really do care about this bunch of girls, so… go ahead." And with that, he shook Draco's hand and headed towards the castle.

That went better than I expected. Malfoy thought smugly to himself.

"But that's really a shame, you know, because I was planning on taking the whole team to Hawaii for doing so well. As well as you, because you handled losing your position so well." Coach Grinder said to Draco, and shrugged. "But that's fine."

Everyone stared after him as he walked to the doors of the castle.

"And good luck to ya, Malfrey!" he called to Draco before disappearing behind the doors.

"We were going to go to Hawaii?!" Pansy exclaimed in disbelief.

"I can't believe it!" Ginny said.

But Draco was standing very still with his fists clenched. " – It's - Mal-foy-- " he said through his teeth.

A/N: Is it too late to say Merry Christmas? I guess it is, seeing how it's now January. Don't forget to review! Bonus marks go to anyone who can say 846,103.5 in words! Heheh…