After the holidays passed I was more than happy to return to Hogwarts. Everyone there raved about their Christmases and all the fun things they did during our break. Fred and George had told me of all the snowball fights they had gotten into and all the time they spent with their brothers, Ron and Percy, and with Harry. "I still don't know what they have against these jumpers. I think they are lovely!"

"Yeah, you look comfortable" I had told George as I watched him hug himself in his jumper. We continued to share stories and I left out the fact that I was alone for most of my time at home but it felt as if they could tell I was hiding something. Whether they did or not they didn't bring it up. We thanked each other for our gifts and I had to repeat myself several times as they thought that theirs wouldn't be enough. Personally I had thought their gift was perfect.

During that time I saw Draco wearing my jumper a few times but he always pretended that it wasn't anything special. He was asked by a few people where he had gotten it but he always insisted that he had gotten it handmade specially for him and no one else would find one like it if they tried, it was unique. While that was technically true I still thought he could've just told them I made it, then again Pansy would probably find another reason to hate me in that. Even if he acted like it wasn't anything special I knew that it was as he was very careful to not get it stained or ripped. I did the same with his bracelet and, besides the few times that it showed under my robes, I kept it hidden, because it was special.

Some more time passed and sooner than expected came the day of the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Draco and I, followed by Crabbe and Goyle as per usually, made our way to one of the stands to watch the game. We looked around and found enough space for all of us behind Ron, Hermione, and Neville. We sat down but only Neville noticed us as the other two kept muttering something under their breath and staring at Harry. I looked out into the field to see that not only was Professor Snape refereeing but Professor Dumbledore had come to watch the match. Strange…

"Ouch!" Ron said as Draco accidentally poked him in the back of the head. I nudged Draco but didn't say anything else. He either didn't notice me or decided to ignore me as he then went on to tell several jokes about Harry and Ron. I turned to talk to Hermione, trying to ignore Draco, but she seemed a little distracted. She kept turning to the field and looking nervously from Harry to Professor Snape. It was true that our professor was biased towards our house and against Gryffindor's but was she really that concerned about a game?

"-you should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains." Draco mockingly told Neville. Of course, I didn't find this funny. I still didn't understand why Draco insisted on being so mean to Gryffindor students when, to me, he acted just like a little puppy dog; he even had the big sparkly eyes of one. Draco and the two Slytherin boys laughed at the joke and were completely unaware of my stare as they did. I was about to scold all three of them when, to my surprise, Neville spoke for himself.

"I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy," he stammered. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle all laughed even harder at this, howling even, but I was proud of him. Neville was such a shy little boy and to have the courage to stand up for himself like that was rather impressive. I gave him a smile and I saw him get just a little redder than he already was.

For some reason Draco looked bothered by the fact that I was being nice to him and decided to mock both him and Ron just a little more. Seeing as Ron and Neville could stand up for themselves I turned back to the game where Harry seemed to have picked up speed and was in the chase of something, most likely the Snitch. I was so focused on the match that I almost missed Ron jumping from his seat and landing on top of Draco. At first I was so shocked that I didn't think to do anything and was even more so when I saw Neville jump back towards Crabbe and Goyle. Standing up I tried to find a way to break them up but couldn't seem to find one. It was kind of hard to stop the fight from happening as not only was I the only one trying but they kept moving around making it hard to even stay standing.

"We've won! Gryffindor is in the lead!" Hermione screamed and hugged some girl in the row in front of girl while I still tried to stop what was going on next to me. Crabbe and Goyle were easily overtaking Neville and Ron and Draco had managed to punch each other a few times. I was just about to separate those two when Hermione reached over to me and put me in a big bear hug. Her face was turned the opposite way from the fight so she still didn't see it. I tried to get her to stop hugging me or at least turn her a little so she could see what was happening but nothing worked, she was too excited.

"Neville!" I gasped as I saw him being knocked out by Goyle. That finally caught Hermione's attention enough to see what had been going on behind her. She helped me break up Ron and Draco as I kept Crabbe and Goyle away so they couldn't do any more harm. It appeared as if those two were the only ones who hadn't gotten hurt as Neville had been knocked out and among the few punches Draco had gotten a black eye and Ron a bloody nose.

We were able to go get Madam Pomfrey, our school nurse, to come get Neville shortly after. As he was carried away Hermione and Ron took the time to cheer for Harry while the rest of the Gryffindors rushed to him. Ron still had a pretty heavy nosebleed but we were able to calm it down a bit; it was pretty impressive that Draco had been the one to do that, not that I thought that justified the act. Maybe it was due to the fact he grew up with so many brothers but Ron took his injury in a very mature way. Draco on the other hand kept complaining about his black eye and didn't stop until I hugged him.

"I can't believe that runt weasel did this to me!" he grumbled as he leaned against my shoulder in the Slytherin common room. I was a little surprised too; both Ron and Draco were stronger than I had given them credit for.

"It was your own fault" I replied but patted his cheek as a sort of consolation. He went on to complain some more but I wasn't listening too well. The little fight had surprised me and not just Draco's with Ron but Neville's with Crabbe and Goyle. Neville was braver than he was given credit for. While I always did think of him as a somewhat delicate boy he had certainly proven himself today. He took on Crabbe and Goyle alone who were not only big and strong but maybe even scary. Contrary to what many may think, maybe what he himself thought, I believed that there was more to Neville than he led on to believe. He may be a little boy now but even a cub becomes a lion eventually.