Chapter 28

It was finally the end of the week in the beginning of March, and everyone was looking forward to the weekend. Especially the Quidditch players on the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams, since their game was coming up in just a week. But the work that the teachers were piling on all the fifth year students with the coming of the O.W.L.s in the beginning of June was making it very difficult to arrange practices. Harry, Ron, Violet, and Hermione thought that maybe McGonagall might have a bit of mercy on them since she was the head of Gryffindor house, and so she definitely wanted them to win over Slytherin, but this was not the case. She was just as hard nosed as ever, much to the chagrin of her fifth year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws in her class.

"Alright, since we just have half an hour remaining of class, I just want you to all finish the rest of chapter twenty six in your books." McGonagall said.

With quite a few grumbles, the class did as they were told and took out their books.

"You would think she would end class early if we're not doing anything but reading the chapter!" Ron said indignantly to Harry, who was sitting next to him.

"You know McGonagall. She would never do that." Harry replied.

"Stop complaining! It's good review!" Hermione said, breaking into the conversation.

"Review?! I haven't even read it once yet!" Ron said in surprise.

"Well, then, you should get started, shouldn't you? I bet a lot of this stuff is going to be on our O.W.L.s." replied Hermione, in a slightly know-it-all voice.

Ron rolled his eyes and Violet, seeing this, stifled a laugh. Harry just stuck to shaking his head, quite sure that his friends would never change. Everyone sat reading for about five minutes, when they were interrupted by a sudden announcement. It was Dumbledore.

"Would all the teachers please come to the staff room." he said.

A concerned look crossed McGonagall's face as she said, "Everyone, continue reading. I will be back shortly."

She quickly left the classroom. After the class exchanged some confused looks, they did as they were told. Except for Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Violet.

"What do you think that's about?" Violet asked Harry, Hermione, and Ron quietly.

"I don't know. Dumbledore usually doesn't make announcements like this unless something is going on." Hermione whispered back.

"I think we should sneak over the the staff room and listen in on what Dumbledore is going to tell them!" Harry whispered suddenly.

"No, Harry! You can get into a lot of trouble!" Hermione whispered.

"What if it's something really important? Especially to us. Like something about Snuffles?" Harry replied.

"Yeah. I think we should go. That's worth bunking class anyday." Ron said in agreement.

"Look, guys…I don't know…I think that McGonagall would tell us later if it was important." Hermione said, still hesitant.

"What's wrong with you, Hermione? You know that teachers tell us everything except what things we want to know in situations like this. They think that keeping us clueless will keep us safe for some bloody reason…" Ron replied.

"I think Ron's right. We should go. If it's about my uncle, I really would like to know about it." Violet said.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to, Hermione." Ron said.

"No, I'm coming. Someone has to be around to keep you all from doing something stupid." Hermione said.

"Well, let's just leave our stuff here. We'll just sneak back before the meeting is over to beat McGonagall here." Harry said.

Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Violet tried their best to attract as little attention as possible as they edged their way out of the classroom. Then they made their way as fast as possible to the staff room, hoping they didn't miss anything. Finally when they got there, they tip toed right by the door to make sure they weren't heard.

"What is it, Albus?" they heard McGonagall ask.

"Severus has finally woken up." Dumbedore replied.

"What had happened to him?" asked Flitwick.

"He had been in a duel with a group of Death Eaters and had definitely come off worse. It was about five to one. They cursed him to stay locked in a sleep in which he was forced to relive the worst moments of his life. Luckily I had interrupted them during the curse, else he would not have woken up as quickly as he did." said Dumbledore, gravely.

"He didn't tell them anything about us, did he?" asked Sprout.

"No, I do not think that he did. I have full faith in his loyalty to us." replied Dumbledore.

"What did he find out?" McGonagall asked.

"He has told me that there is a possiblility that there is a student at Hogwarts acting as an informant to Voledmort." Dumbledore said.

This caused a shocked silence to settle in the room.

"What can we do about this?" Flitwick finally asked.

"All we can do is keep a closer eye on all the students. We should not cause a commotion or else we will alert the possible spy to the fact we know of their presence." Dumbledore replied.

"You're right." McGonagall said, "Where is he now?"

"Severus is now with Sirius and Remus. I did not want to leave him alone after his ordeal, and I felt that I had spent enough time away from Hogwarts myself. I also did not want him back at Hogwarts until we find this spy." replied Dumbledore.

"He did not find out who the spy is exactly?" asked Sprout.

"No. All we know is that there is one." Dumbledore said.

Silence settled in the room once again. Harry thought that they had found out enough. He signaled to Ron, Hermione, and Violet that they should leave now.

There's a spy for Voldemort in Hogwarts? A student spy?! Harry thought as they quickly walked back to their Transfiguration classroom, And Snape is staying with Sirius and Remus?! I really feel sorry for them…

They all made it back to their seats just in time, because right when they sat down, McGonagall walked into the room.

"Class is dismissed. Go back to your Common Rooms until your next class." McGonagall said very seriously.

Harry, Hermione, Violet, and Ron all had a lot to say about this, but they waited until they could reach the Common Room to say anything. They quickly found the most private corner in the Common Room and then Harry started to talk quitely.

"This spy…It has to be Malfoy! I had those visions of Voldemort talking about needing Malfoy for something, so this has to be it!"

"Do you think we should go to Dumbledore and tell him about Malfoy?" Hermione asked.

"But we don't have any proof! And don't you think Sirius would have told Dumbledore already himself?" Violet said suddenly.

When Harry, Hermione, and Ron gave her a strange look, she realized that she probably sounded more adamant on defending Draco than she wanted to.

"Look, I just don't want us to look stupid, okay? What would we get out of that?" Violet said a little hastily.

"Yeah, I guess you're right…" Harry said, "But then what should we do? Just wait around while Voldemort's spy gives him all kinds of information about us?"

"What else can we do? We're in no position to do anything, and telling Dumbledore won't really solve anything since we don't have any proof." replied Violet, "All we can do is to watch each other's backs."

"That's true. We'll just have to do that until we have solid proof that it really is Malfoy." said Hermione.

Then everyone heard the bell sound, indicating that they had to go to their next class. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Violet complied, getting ready to go to Potions.

It was the night before the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch match in the middle of March, but all the fifth years on the Gryffindor team were stuck staying up late studying due to the coming O.W.L.s. Around midnight, even Fred and George had decided to call it a night.

"We're going to tuck in. Good night Harry, Hermione, Violet." said George.

"Don't study too hard now, Ickle-Ronniekins…we don't want to risk getting another Percy in the family…" said Fred, giving a little shudder.

"Aww, shut up." Ron said slightly distractedly, not looking up from his Divination book.

"Oh, alright. We'll stop interrupting your precious study time." George said in a babyish voice while pinching Ron's cheek.

George let Ron's cheek go before Ron could bat his hand away and started up to the boy's dormitories.

"We're going to kick some major Slytherin butt tomorrow! You guys better not get to sleep too late…It won't help us any if half our team is zombies. Night all." Fred said, following George up the stairs.

"Yeah, they're right…we shouldn't stay up too late tonight." said Harry.

"But we really should get through the last chapter we covered in Potions! There was some really complex stuff there that I really thought we should go over!" Hermone protested.

"Potions is the last thing I want to be up late studying." said Violet.

"Look, let's just study one more hour, and then we can all get to bed." Harry suggested.

Violet agreed with Harry, so Hermione reluctantly agreed as well. Ron was quiet during this whole thing since other matters were on his mind.

"Wow, you're rather quiet, Ron." Hermione pointed out.

Ron quickly snapped out of his thoughts and said, "Oh. Well, I just…want to finish this chapter in Divination…"

Everyone found this rather weird since Ron despised the subject of Divination, but they didn't say anything about it. For that, Ron was grateful.

Looking down at his Divination book, Ron thought, I wonder who this other guy could be? Well…it doesn't do me any good to sit here wondering who it could be when that guy could take her from me anyways…

Ron absentmindedly flipped a page in his book, not really reading anything.

I'm not going to just wait here and lose my chance with her! I'll ask her to go steady tonight…If she likes the other guy better after that, then fine. At least I won't always wonder what if…And at least I won't just sit here waiting while she makes her decision. Ron thought, already feeling nervous about what he was going to do.

Ron went over and over in his head what he might say to Violet as time went on. Ron was startled when Harry suddenly spoke.

"Wow! It's already after 1! We really need to get to sleep…" Harry said, stifling a yawn while he spoke.

Everyone got up and stretched after sitting down for so long. Ron felt very anxious now that his time to talk to Violet had finally come. As they all began to go to their dorms, he knew this was the time to approach her. They all walked up the stairs to the point where more stairs separated the boys and girls dormitories. Harry gave Hermione a hug and kissed her on the cheek before they parted at the stairs. As Violet began to follow Hermoine, Ron knew that it was now or never.

"Violet! Wait a second…I have to talk to you." Ron said nervously.

Hermione looked at Violet and Ron questioningly for a second, but then continued up the stairs. Violet walked up to Ron with hesitation, not knowing what he might say to her.

I still don't know how much of Lydia and Arian's letter he read! All I know is that he read something that made him act a bit different around me…I wish I knew what it was…Violet thought nervously while looking at Ron and waiting for him to say something.

Ron was just as nervous as Violet but for different reasons. He wanted to make sure everything went just right, and that he wouldn't make a fool of himself.

Okay…well, here goes nothing! Ron thought, trying to give himself a bit of encouragement before he said anything.

"Umm…well…I wanted to talk to you…" Ron started hesitantly, "…about us…"

"Yeah?" Violet asked, not sure where he was going with this.

"Well…I kinda want to know…what you think…because…sometimes you seem like you fancy me, but other times you don't…" Ron said hesitantly, hoping that she didn't think that he was stupid.

"Oh…of course I like you, Ron…" Violet said awkwardly, trying desperately to bury all her feelings for Draco.

Ron visibly relaxed when she said that.

"Really?" Ron asked.

It doesn't matter what I feel for Draco…It just wouldn't work out…how could it? He's involved with Voldemort! His dad is one of the people that framed my uncle and got him in Azkaban for thirteen years! Violet thought, trying to get angry at Draco.

"Yeah." Violet said, giving Ron a little smile.

"Well…that's good…because I was wondering…if you wanted to…umm…to go steady…" Ron said very nervously.

Violet looked at him in surprise.

Should I say yes? Maybe I can put the whole thing with Draco behind me then…Violet thought, hoping very much that would work.

Ron looked at her, getting slightly worried since she was taking so long to answer him.

"Umm…yeah. Yeah, sure." Violet said, trying to sound happy.

Ron cocked his head slightly trying to figure out what her reply meant.

She didn't sound overjoyed or anything when I asked her…does this mean that she doesn't really want to? Ron thought, still worrying slightly.

"I don't want you to think you have to say yes…If you don't want – " Ron started saying.

"No, no. Of course I want to." Violet cut him off, sounding more sure this time.

Suddenly, she reached up, grabbed Ron's head and kissed him. Then she quickly stepped back and gave him a half smile.

"Good night, Ron." Violet said.

Without waiting for much of a reaction from Ron, she began to walk up the stairs to the girl's dorms. Ron stared at her trying to make sense of what just happened.

Well, at least she did say yes…man, girls are so weird…I give up trying to figure them out…Ron thought as he also ascended the stairs to the boys dorms.

When Ron got to the dorm, he saw Harry was waiting up for him.

"So what happened?" Harry asked, "Did you tell her that you knew about the other guy?"

"No…I actually asked her if she wanted to go steady…" Ron replied.

"What?! Wow…how'd that go?" Harry asked with some surprise.

"It went well…I think…" Ron replied unsurely.

"You think?" Harry asked, confused.

"Well…she did say yes, but it still felt weird…almost like she didn't want to say yes, or felt like she had to. I'm not sure what to think about it." Ron replied.

"I bet she was in some weird mood…girls are like that sometimes." Harry said.

"Yeah…well, I guess we should get to sleep for the game tomorrow, huh?" Ron said, deciding to deal with this tomorrow.

"Yeah. Good night, Ron." said Harry.

"Good night." Ron replied.

They both got under their covers. Harry fell quickly asleep, but Ron lay in bed wondering if Violet really did like him, or if she just said yes for some other reason.

I just hope I did the right thing…maybe she was just acting funny because I surprised her or something…and she did kiss me an all. I'm sure it was just a weird girl thing. All that matters is that she said yes, and now is with me…I hope…Ron thought as he fell into a troubled sleep.

It was the morning of the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch game. Draco had gotten up early and was waiting for the rest of his team in his Common Room. He was not nervous about the actual game, he was nervous because he would be seeing Violet there.

I think I should try to catch her after the game some how…I can't leave things like this! Draco thought, determined to set things right.

As he paced around a bit more, the rest of his team finally decended from the dormitories. Flint stepped in front of of everyone and then began to speak.

"Today we're playing that Gryffindor scum for the Cup. We have lost for the past four years to those Mudblood loving gits. I do not want to add another loss to our list." Flint said, very threateningly, "I expect everyone to do whatever they have to do to win. Let's go."

Flint led the team out to the Quidditch field.

In the game prep room, Katie also gave her team a talk before the game, but hers was very different than Flint's.

"Alright everyone. This is the last game of the Quidditch season and we are playing for the Cup. If we weren't good, we wouldn't be here right now, so everyone had better play their best today to keep up this winning streak we've been having. As everyone knows, Slytherin will be hard to beat, not because of talent, but because of their underhanded schemes. They will stop at nothing to win, so we need to be especially wary of them when we're out there. But I know that whatever they have in schemeing, muscle, and brawn, we can easily top with our talent. So let's get out there and win the Cup!" Katie said, trying to give everyone a boost right before the game.

The team cheered in agreement. With that, she led them out to the field. She saw the Slytherins were already out there, waiting for them. The Gryffindor team looked around them and saw that basically the whole school had come out to see the match.

"You think you're ready for this, Harry?" Ron said slightly nervously, looking around him at the crowd above him.

"Teams may take their places. Captains, come to the center." said Madam Hooch.

Harry gave Ron a smile and said, "I'm always ready, Ron."

Then all but the captains got on their brooms and took to the air to wait for the Quaffle toss. Once in the air, the Keepers took their places at the goal posts. Draco looked for Violet amongst the people in the air and found her just a few rfeet away. As he stared at her, their eyes locked and she gave him a look of sadness mixed with confusion. It looked like she was trying to ask him a question, but quickly she looked away. That look made him change his mind about approaching her after the game. He would try to talk to her during the game itself.

"Now I want a nice, fair game. Captains, shake on it." Madam Hooch said.

Draco looked at Harry and gave him a look of scorn and determination. Harry did not flinch, and just returned the look. Soon the Quaffle was thrown up, the Bludgers and Snitch were released, and the game began. Right off, one of the burly Slytherin Chasers snatched the Quaffle from Ginny and flew off towards the Gryffindor goal. Ginny and Violet took off after him right away, while Draco and Harry began to look for the Snitch. Harry used his usual strategy of rising above the rest of the game and looked for the Snitch as the game continued below. Draco eyed Harry, using him as an indicator as to where the Snitch was. But there were much more pressing matters on his mind, such as getting Violet by herself during the game without attracting too much attention. He watched her flying around after his team's Chasers. Soon Lee announced the score was 60-20 Gryffindor. The Slytherin team now felt that this was the time to resort to drastic measures. When Violet had the Quaffle, a Slytherin Chaser elbowed her hard in the stomach causing Draco, along with the Gryffindor team, and all sections of the Pitch except for Slytherin's to cry out in protest, but Draco quickly shut himself up so his team would not see his outburst.

Still searing with anger, Draco thought, I really have to keep myself in check! If my team saw that, I would have a lot of questions to answer to later…

But Violet was tough. She quickly recovered and continued her chase for the Quaffle. This made Draco feel a lot better since he was pretty close to cursing his team mate that had hit her. Soon Draco had forgotten all about looking for the Snitch, and was only looking for chances to pull Violet aside. Shortly, Draco found his chance. When Violet and Ginny were tossing the Quaffle back and forth to get to the Slytherin goal posts, one of the Slytherin Chasers sort of pushed her aside, causing her to careen to the side and narrowly miss one of the audience boxes of the pitch. Draco quickly flew to her as inconspicuously as he could and grabbed her from behind to keep her from flying away from him. Violet turned around and looked at him in surprise and shock, thinking that the whole school had probably seen them, but as she looked around, she realized they were behind the audience box she had just nearly hit, and so out of view for the moment.

"What do you think you're doing?! Everyone can see us out here!!" Violet said when she finally found her voice.

"I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. Sorry that I didn't tell you everything about me or what I knew." Draco replied.

For a long moment, Violet looked at Draco and could see that he was really sincere, but that didn't change the fact that she had already told Ron that she would go steady with him. She knew right then that she had probably made a mistake saying yes to Ron.

"Draco…it doesn't really matter if you're sorry or not. You're connected to Voldemort and so I cannot be connected to you. In any case…I'm with Ron now." Violet said sadly, going against everything she was really feeling.

With that, Violet quickly flew off, leaving Draco in a daze.

She's gone steady with that good for nothing moron!? I don't believe that she really would pick Weasely over me! But I guess she has…Draco thought, slowly flying back out to the field, I'm not going to give up without a fight! I will not lose to Weasely!!

But Draco knew that there was nothing he could do about the situation at this moment. He tried his best to look for the Snitch, but his thoughts and his eyes kept straying to Violet. Harry, on the other hand, was completely focused on his task to finding the Snitch, but it just seemed completely out of sight. He continued flying around, dodging the other players and bludgers, but to no avail. As he kept looking, he saw that Draco was on the other side of the field. Suddenly a glint of gold in front of him attracted his attention. Realizing that it was the Snitch, he took off after it. Draco realized that Harry must have found the Snitch, so he took off after Harry. He had almost caught up with Harry, but on the way, he came upon Violet and the Beaters on his team. He was about to just fly past to get to the Snitch, but then he saw that his Beaters were setting her up for a horrible fall. As one of the Beaters hit a Bludger towards Violet's head, Draco flew to protect her faster than he could think. Violet thought for sure the Bludger was going to hit her, so she covered her head in defense. Draco got right in front of the Bludger just in time. He saw Violet looking at him in shock. He then felt the Bludger hitting him really hard in his back and thought he heard something crack. The grip he had on his broom began to loosen as he fell towards the ground, until the broom completely slipped from his hands. He scarcely had enough time to think of the searing pain that was spreading through his back since he was free falling to the ground below. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he slammed into the ground on his back. Draco had never known pain like this in his entire life. As he looked up at the sky, extremely dazed, the pain slowly became overwhelming enough to make him lose consciousness. Since it took everyone a while to realize what exactly was happening, Harry had already grabbed on to the Snitch, causing Gryffindor to win the game in spite of the Slytherin Seeker being incapacitated. Everyone on the Gryffindor team was celebrating their win, except for Violet who was looking down to where Draco fell in horror. Soon the Gryffindor team realized something was wrong when they all saw Violet flying quickly to the ground. This caused them to look down, and this is when they realized Draco had fallen. Madam Hooch ran out to the field to find out what had happened. Both the Slytherin and Gryffindor teams rushed down to see what had happened to Draco, although many of the Gryffindors secretly felt like Draco got what he deserved after being so nasty to so many others. Violet felt extremely guilty since it was her fault that Draco was hit by the Bludger and had fallen.

Oh God…I hope he didn't die! Violet thought, feeling tears begin to well up in her eyes.

She tried to get up close to see what happened to Draco, but Madam Hooch stopped anyone from getting too close. Madam Hooch then got down on her knees and inspected Draco carefully. After a few moments, she suddenly got up.

"We need a stretcher down here! Immediately! He must be taken to the Infirmary!" Madam Hooch said to the nearest teacher.

As Draco was being levitated on to the stretcher by the other teachers, Madam Hooch announced the results of the game and what had happened to Draco.

"It appears that Mr. Malfoy has broken a lot of bones, but he is alive, so there is no need to worry since Poppy can fix him up with no problems. Since Mr. Potter caught the Snitch, Gryffindor wins the game and the Quidditch Cup." Madam Hooch said slightly morosely before she accompanied the other teachers up to the school with Draco.

This caused there to be a lot of grubling and booing from the Slytherins, but the Gryffindors, along with the rest of the pitch, cheered. This put what happened to Draco far out of the minds of the Gryffindors, except for Violet.

"Let's get up to the Common Room and celebrate!" Katie yelled, leading the way back to the school.

Everyone cheered and followed her. Violet quickly wiped away the tears in her eyes, so no one would see them. Ron took Violet's hand and they followed as well. Violet tried her best to push the horrible event out of her mind, but was failing miserably.

I can't believe that he did that for me! He could have died! I really hope he will be alright…Violet thought, feeling increasingly guilty.