Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter!
Practice Distractions
Harry frowned at the thread dangling from his Quidditch jersey. He'd caught it on the side of the door when he had left the boys dorm room in a hurry, he had slept in and as Gryffindor Quidditch captain he had to make sure he was down on the pitch early for when the team arrived. He wrapped his finger around the thread as he jogged down the corridor with his broom clasped tightly in his hand. He pulled the thread taught and snapped it one swift tug, he jogged down the steps and stopped as he caught a familiar black bob in the distance. He'd had very little to do with Pansy since she had returned the other day, he had purposely kept his distance from all three of them allowing them to readjust to normality once more. But as he stood and watched the woman, who he had known for the last several years and had never had a single nice word to say about her, laugh with her friends he now knew things were different, if he was asked to, he could right a list of her qood qualities. He watched Pansy for just a few more seconds as she smiled at what her friend had said before he turned and walked towards the Quidditch Pitch.
Harry groaned loudly as he saw the brooms in the sky, he had booked the Quidditch pitch and as the flurry of green and silver circled the grounds he knew instantly it was Draco's doing. He shook his head as he thought of the blonde but a smirk quickly graced his face, the Sorting hat had always said he'd have fitted well in Slytherin well now was a good time to test that theory.
"Harry!" Ron shouted as he entered the field, "Slytherin have received permission off Snape to practice now, something to do with the fact Zabini and Malfoy have been indisposed and the team need the extra practice..."
Harry groaned as Ron continued to rant, he loved Ron like a brother but he really needed Ron to keep his temper because he could see the Slytherins beginning to descend from the sky.
"I'll sort this," said Harry as he looked at his group of six team mates.
"Well you know Malfoy better than any of us." said Ginny "I'm happy for it to be you to deal with this,"
"I'm with Gin," said Dean with a large smirk on his face. "Let's see if the kiddies still respect you Harry."
The group chuckled and Harry rolled his eyes, he turned around and watched as the Slytherins neared.
"Potter, we have the field?" said Zabini, he was fully aware of the deal they had made back in the common room but this was Quidditch and friendships would be placed to the side for house honour.
"Didn't you learn anything Zabini from your time as a child, you must learn to share!" replied Harry with a smirk worthy of a Slytherin.
"You fail to remember it was Draco that wasn't very good at sharing," chuckled Blaise to which Draco rolled his eyes.
"What can I say, you didn't install it in us very well, and I'm too big for the naughty corner now Potter."
Harry rolled his eyes, it was true Draco had never understood the meaning of sharing. "It appears you two are as obnoxious as you always were but don't forget Malfoy, you only wanted to be a Seeker because I was a seeker! Right Gin?" Harry glanced over his shoulder at a grinning Ginny, who could tell she was remembering the afternoon at the Quidditch game where Draco declared to everyone who would hear that he'd grow up to be a Seeker just like Harry.
"And to think you Zabini you wanted to play Quidditch just like me and be one of those big birdies throwing balls through the hoops." The boys stared them down but Harry simply rolled his eyes.
"You two can't honestly think that a scowl will work on me now, but I'll ask you once and once only, give us the pitch we need to practice."
"As do we Potter, so back off!" snapped Crabbe and Harry simply ignored him. He looked at Draco and Blaise who were silently conversing with their eyes, he knew he had them beat. He had far many more embarrassing tales of them to tell and he could tell the smallest details were embarrassing to them, if he didn't get an answer off of them in the next few seconds he was going below the belt.
"You two can't honestly be thinking about letting them on!" whispered Goyle to Malfoy with wide eyes.
"Shut up idiot, I'm thinking."
"I didn't want to do this, but we really need the field." Said Harry and he turned on the spot. And headed off the field, leaving two very confused teams."
"Harry what you doing?" yelled Ron.
"Off to get Hermione, if I know anyone to persuade them two to do something it's Hermione. Only Hermione could get Malfoy in the bath and Blaise into bed." He winked at the two boys who to his delight had blushed furiously. "Was really cute, we'd always have a little chuckle of their crush on Hermione."
"Potter, how about a friendly game? You say you need to practice and so do we!" Yelled Draco. He waved off his team who tried to argue. The last thing he needed was Hermione Granger coming down and bossing them about, he was still getting used to everything and he was uncertain he'd be able to defy her.
"How friendly?" Harry asked with uncertainty.
"Come now Potter, you wiped my arse when I couldn't the least you could do would be to participate in a friendly game of Quidditch between two teams?" taunted Blaise and Harry winced remembering the bum wiping incident well.
"Alright, sounds good to me." Harry glanced to his right and silently asked his team, it wasn't what he had in mind when he set off for training this morning but it was a start. It was decided that they would play and each player mounted their brooms and flew into the sky.
The quaffle was passed back and forth, Blaise dodged the Bludger and threw the Quaffle to the goal posts only for Ron to block it.
"Damn Fire head!" he cursed under his breath. The ball was back in possession of his old friend the Fire Girl, he watched as she weaved around the players her red hair blowing in the air and grinned as she scored past their keeper. He could vividly remember watching the Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw match with Ginny and listening to her tell him about her role on the Quidditch team, he stared at the grin on her face, the way her eyes lit up when she scored and he couldn't deny she was pretty, and the Quidditch uniform on her was very appealing but as she narrowly missed a Bludger from Goyle he realised he there was another who he found far more appealing and she was nowhere in sight and hadn't been since they went their separate ways, with a sigh he dived back into the game glancing towards Draco who was determined to find the Snitch before Harry.
Maybe he should have been a Chaser Draco thought as he sat stationary on the outskirts of game searching for the Golden Snitch.
"You know I only told you to be a Seeker because you were one already," said a voice behind him, he whipped his head around to see Harry slowly coming towards him. "Would have been weird that your childhood dream would have been to play in the Chaser position but only to be a Seeker when you were old enough to play."
"Yeah I guess it would, anyway that day taught us something else as well, Pansy and Granger discovered something they had in common."
"A dislike of being on a broomstick?" Harry chuckled and Draco nodded.
"Crazy how much has happened over the last couple of weeks," said Draco as he continued to survey the sky for the Golden Snitch.
"You're telling me, you were a cute child Malfoy. Though Hermione was always your favourite,"
"She's prettier than you Potter," Draco admitted with a shrug but Harry caught the smirk.
"You wound me Malfoy!"
"Always a pleasure Potter,"
"You know Malfoy, you were a cute child don't forget that. No matter how nasty you've been throughout the last 7 years she realised that it was a cover, just remember you were cute!" Draco looked at Harry confused and Harry just smirked at him before flying away.
Draco watched him go only to see the golden snitch twinkling in the distance, cursing Draco shot after Harry but his words were replaying over and over in his head. You were cute… just a cover… she realised… what was Potter getting at? He was unable to catch up with Harry and wondered if he had said all those things to distract him but as he heard the Gryffindor team cheer in succession he questioned whether it was a distraction. Was he telling him that he had a chance with Hermione? Did he even want a chance with her? He wasn't even certain he had feelings for the bushy haired bookworm but as he thought about it more and more a niggling feeling in the back of his head told him yes. With a groan he jumped off his broom and turned to Zabini.
Blaise was still sat on his broom in mid-air staring towards the castle. Draco followed his friends gaze but didn't see anything that would cause the Italian to be distracted.
"Oi Zabini, you ready?" Draco watched him return to his senses before acknowledging his question, he silently flew to the ground. "What's up with you?"
"Doesn't matter, we lost didn't we?" Draco not believing him simply nodded and followed behind his team as they left the Quidditch pitch.
Harry watched the team go with a grin, they'd won the match and he hoped Draco had taken the hint about Hermione's affections towards him. He wasn't sure whether it was simply for Draco or for Zabini as well, but he knew Hermione saw things very differently since the accident, he just hoped they did too.
"Oi Harry you ready to practice or not?" Harry nodded and boarded his broom, he'd think about Draco and Blaise at a later date, now he had Quidditch practice!
Really wanted to focus on the boys for this chapter, I realised they didn't have too much screen time when they were toddlers, it's not my favourite chapter so far but I think it's okay! A big thank you to everyone who has reviewed, I'm awfully sorry if I never got back to you but all reviews have been read and appreciated! Sorry for the mega long wait, the year has just been a crazy one! Hope all had a lovely Christmas and will have a great New Year!
