Author's Note: Here's Chapter four! Please please leave a review!

Chapter 4

What Happens in the Changing Rooms Stays in the Changing Rooms

The Great Hall was buzzing with excitement when Janie and I entered it next morning. Three of the four tables were clad in red and gold and tittering excitedly about the coming match. As had been tradition for hundreds of years now, a majority of the students in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw had chosen to support the Gryffindor team. The two of us went to sit with the rest of the team, who were congregated in the middle of table. James and Albus looked perfectly at ease, both having played for Gryffindor since their respective second years. Rose, however, looked rather green which, with her flaming red hair, made her look as though she was celebrating Christmas a couple months early. Ferdinand was sitting over his porridge, rocking back and forth nervously. Donovan and Maria looked slightly jittery. I was absolutely panicked.

Don pecked me on the cheek when I sat down beside him, which did nothing to calm my racing heart. I barely ate breakfast, picking at my bacon and eggs until the seven of us left for the changing rooms. My hands shook as I changed into my uniform, rendering it so tangled that a sympathetic Maria had to come and pull me loose.

When everyone had changed, the whole team gathered around James for a traditional pre-match pep talk.

"Alright everyone. We've all been working very hard this year. With all that work and all this talent, I'm confident that we're the best team in the school. Now we just have to get out there and convince everyone else of that." He pounded his fist in his other hand in a very forceful, captain-like manner. "Now there are a few clouds overhead, but hopefully we can end the match before rain starts coming down. The real thing to watch out for is the Slytherin team. We all know they play dirty. They have ever since the first Interhouse Quidditch Cup. Don't let them distract you with their antics. They'll try, I assure you. But we have better players, and we sure as hell play a better game. So let's get out there, and show them. Hands in."

He held out his hand and we all gathered in a circle, sending out our hands into the center.

"On three, 'For Gryffindor.' One, two, three…"

"For Gryffindor!" We echoed, before leaving the changing rooms in a jumble of excited cheers.

The crowd cheered and jeered in equal measure as we came out on to the pitch. James shook hands with the enormous and hideous Slytherin captain when we reached the opposing team in the center of the pitch. A very ancient-looking grey-eyed witch named Madam Hooch exclaimed,

"Mount your brooms." We did so. "Let the game begin!" She blew her whistle, and fourteen brooms rose into the air.

Rose grabbed the quaffle the second it entered playing height and zoomed off to score a goal before Slytherin had even found their bearings. One of the Slytherin chasers took the quaffle next and sped toward the Gryffindor goal hoops. Donovan intercepted him midfield with a ferociously hit bludger. He dropped the quaffle and I caught it from underneath him. I tossed it to James as a Slytherin beater accosted me. Confused by the sudden change of direction, the Slytherin beaters tried to aim their wrath at James, only to find he had passed the quaffle to Rose, who had passed it back to me. I reverse passed back to Rose, who passed it to James. I flew under him just as he dropped the quaffle, knowing I would be there. The Slytherin defense in shambles, I flew straight on to the goal hoops, past a befuddled Slytherin keeper, and hurled the quaffle through the center hoop. Slytherin gained possession again, and narrowly scored a goal, making the score twenty to ten.

The score was sixty to fifty Gryffindor when I made my first mistake. Instead of passing the quaffle to James, who was being guarded by one of the Slytherin players, I had tried to circle past an oncoming beater, only to find a second beater in my path. I rolled to avoid the bludger that the second beater hit at me, but dropped the quaffle in the process. A Slytherin chaser grabbed the quaffle then and soared toward the Gryffindor goal post to score a goal. The beaters effectively pulled this maneuver on me twice until the score was sixty seventy to Slytherin.

Several minutes later, Albus went into a steep dive. Thinking he had spotted the snitch, the Slytherin seeker, Adrian Zabini, dove after him. Albus pulled out of the dive just before hitting the ground in a move called the "Wronskey Feint" made famous by the Quidditch legend, Viktor Krum. Zabini was not quite as quick on the uptake however. He crashed headlong into ground and was thrown ten feet away. He turned onto his side, vomiting and clutching a bleeding nose, before passing out cold in a puddle of his own sick. Madam Hooch called for a ten-minute timeout while the nurse and several teachers hurried onto the pitch to attend to Zabini. As soon as the Gryffindor team touched back down on the ground, James growled,

"Malfoy, may I speak to you in the changing rooms?" I could tell by his expression that it wasn't a question. He turned on his heel and stalked off in the direction of the changing rooms. I strode after him with tense shoulders.

"James, don't be harsh with her." Rose called in a worried tone. James ignored her completely.

He was waiting in the changing room with his arms crossed when I entered. I stayed silent for several moments as he stared me down, trying to ready my defenses for what he was about to throw at me.

"What in the bloody hell do you call that?" He burst out suddenly.

"Call what?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Whatever the hell you were doing out there. You certainly weren't playing Quidditch! Unless you death eaters have created a new way to play the game."

I felt an angry blush rise in my cheeks at his words. "That was an accident!" I exclaimed, "They had me cornered and you and Rose were both covered."

"You deliberately ignored the play."

"I saw a window so I took it. There were no other options."

"No other options?" He bristled like an angry cat. "What about the two other chasers you're supposed to be working with? Or did you suddenly decide we're not good enough for you to pass the quaffle to us? Do you hate half-bloods now too?"

"I already told you! THERE WERE NO OTHER OPTIONS! And will you stop having a go at my family? We aren't bleeding death eaters!"

"History begs to differ."

"You're a right foul git, you know that? Going on and on about my family being pureblood supremacists! It's not true! You're discriminating against me because of my parentage! How are you any better than You-know-who himself?"

"What did you call me?"

"Voldemort! Everyone gets up in arms because he killed muggleborns and now you treat me like vermin because I'm a pure blood."

"That's completely different."

"How?"

"I don't murder people!"

"Be that as it may, you're a down right prat. A stupid git with a big head and a bad attitude. And I'm tired of the way you've treated me for the past six years. So why don't you do us both a favor and sod off alright?"

He simply stared at me, whether in disbelief of fury I couldn't tell. Then he was striding toward me, a blazing look in his brown eyes. He trapped my wrists in his hands and pressed me up against the wall of the changing room. For one terrifying moment, I thought he was going to try to kill me. That was before his lips found mine. Stunned, it took my mind several moments to comprehend what he was doing. He was kissing me. Kissing me so furiously that I was having trouble catching my breath. But I didn't resist. I kissed him back, matching his passion with my own lips. I had been kissed before, but never like this. My conscious thought shut down, and I was dropped into a sea of senses. I didn't think anymore, I just felt. I was lost in his smell, his taste, the way his body felt against mine… I didn't know how much time passed when the door suddenly slammed open and someone exclaimed,

"You filthy hypocrite!"

We broke apart. I looked over his shoulder. Standing framed in the doorway was Rose Weasley. My mind was racing as it desperately tried to reconnect itself with reality. It was a few moments before I realised that Rose was positively fuming with outrage.

"James you – " She struggled for a moment, but didn't seem to be able to come up with a word strong enough to describe him. "You're such a – " She struggled again before finally saying, "They're finishing up with Zabini right now. Get your arse back onto the pitch. Come here, Vera." She added at the end.

I obeyed quickly, hurrying over to Rose and taking her outstretched hand. As she pulled me out to of the changing room I glanced briefly back at James. He was leaning against the wall, looking thoroughly confused and as though someone had just forcefully awoken him from a deep sleep.

"That stupid git." Rose complained heatedly as she pulled me back towards the pitch. "Albus tells me to come check on you because he thinks James'll be giving you trouble, but then I walk in and he's doing quite the opposite." We were almost there now; I could hear the murmuring of the crowd. "I mean, honestly. I knew he hated Scorpius but I never thought he would sink as low as kissing you to get back at me."

Under my stunned demeanor, I could feel a tinge of irritation at her explanation that James was just using me. But that's not what I chose to focus on as I opened my mouth to speak,

"Please don't tell Albus."

"Why would I do that? I'm not a bloody idiot, Vera. Now get back in the air." She tossed my broom at me and I caught it without thinking. I kicked off into the air, and Albus zoomed over to me as I reached playing height.

"Vera! Are you okay? Did James – "

"I'm fine." I replied shortly. Below me, I could see James mounting his broom, apparently caught up with his senses by now. "Everyone gather round!" He bellowed at his team. We all flew over to him just as Madam Clearwater conjured a stretcher and levitated Zabini onto it. His replacement, Yvonne Carrolson, rose into the air to join his team.

"We're down by ten, but we want to get as high in points as we can before Al catches the snitch. Now, I'd like to be thirty points up, but Al, if you see the snitch, go for it. I don't care if we're behind. Let's just get this over with, alright? Rose, Malfoy, let's show them the attack formation we went over during practice Thursday. Alright?"

We both nodded. So I'm still 'Malfoy' am I? I thought savagely as we all dispersed ourselves across the pitch. I felt fury and humiliation boiling up inside of me as I realised that Rose may have been correct in thinking that James had been using me by kissing me. For the moment, however, I decided to turn my anger back toward the opposing Slytherin team. This turned out to be a good strategy. Throwing the quaffle seamlessly between the three of us, Rose, James, and I managed to pull our points up to a round one hundred, while Maria blocked Slytherin's goals repeatedly. Albus saw the snitch just as I scored our tenth goal, and plucked it easily from the sky with the Slytherin seeker far behind him.

The Gryffindor spectators roared in triumph as the seven of us zoomed back to the ground. I threw my broom aside and flung myself into Albus' arms. He hugged me tightly and spun me around. It was only after he had released me that I realised I had thrown myself into the wrong Potter's arms. James' face turned stone as his senses caught with his actions. Trying to cover my confusion, I turned swiftly and grabbed the real Albus. The rest of the team gathered round in an enormous group hug. Other Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws joined in, and I soon found myself in the middle of my first hundred-person group hug.

The atmosphere in the Gryffindor common room that night was thick with excitement. As was tradition, someone had broken into the kitchens and delivered hundreds of bottles of butterbeer and other delectable foods prepared by the house elves in the kitchens. Half way through the celebrations, Donovan pulled me off to an empty classroom and kissed me for a good half hour. It was enjoyable, but I felt a powerful pang of guilt as I realised that I was longing for a different pair of lips.

James didn't appear to reciprocate this feeling however. Don and I returned to the common room to find James and Viola Toledo entwined in an armchair and snogging so furiously it looked at though they were locked in some kind of mouth to mouth wrestling match. I felt a wave of some powerful and unidentifiable emotion crash over me as I watched them thrash around in the corner. Turning away, I saw Albus at the food table and went over to meet him. He was holding the hand of a heavily blushing Delilah Wood, and looking extremely pleased with himself.

"Hey Delilah, I need to talk to Vera real quick. I'll be back in a second." He pecked her cheek and skipped over to me.

"You kissed her!" I stated enthusiastically.

He beamed at me. "Sure did! I figured I had the whole 'hero of the match' thing going for me tonight."

"Don't forget about the whole 'my dad is extremely famous thing' either."

"That too. But anyway, I was wondering if you were alright."

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"When you disappeared with James earlier I thought he was gonna yell at you."

"Oh yeah he did." I said, trying to fight the memory of James' kiss away.

"And Rose said he wasn't being gentle."

I snorted into my butterbeer as he said this, understanding the double meaning in Rose's words that Albus, for obvious reasons, had missed.

"What? What's so funny?" He asked, bewildered.

"Nothing." I replied, pulling myself together. "Did she say anything else?"

"No…just that he was being an arse."

"That's also true."

"Why were you laughing?" He persisted.

"No reason. Where's Rose?"

"Probably off snogging your brother. Why?"

"Just wanted to chat with her."

"But – "

I slipped away before he could question me further and joined Janie, Mark, and Don in the corner. The party went on until two in the morning. Professor Longbottom had tried to break it up around mid-night, but he was lured into the festivities with the promise of butterbeer and good conversation. It was Professor McGonagall who finally had to step in. She waited as each Gryffindor filed up to their respective dormitory. As I closed the door to Janie and my dormitory, I distinctly heard the sounds of her chastising Professor Longbottom.

I tried to keep the memory of James kissing me out of my mind as I fell asleep. My dreams were not quite as obliging however.

We were sitting on the banks of a river. He was trying to teach me to skip stones, and I was asking him why we didn't simply use magic. He was laughing and saying,

"Because that would take the fun out of it, Malfoy."

I was throwing a rock in the river. It was dropping heavily beneath the surface of the water. He was laughing and pulling me around to press his lips to mine. He was kissing me, and it was so intoxicating I didn't resist. He was pulling away. I was reaching for him, trying to bring him back. His kiss was not like none I'd had before. It was as though I had never breathed properly, and now that he had shown me how, I wanted to do it again. I wanted to be free. I wanted to lose myself in his presence.

He was chuckling in my ear.

"Don't be like that, Don." I was opening my eyes. He was gazing at me blissfully.

"I love you Vera Malfoy." I was staring straight into the face of James Potter. I was screaming…

"Vera what in the bloody hell are you – "

I opened my eyes. The light in the dormitory had flicked on. Janie was standing over me, shaking my shoulders. Ava, Elena, and Alicia were peering blearily at me between gaps in their hangings.

"What are you on about?" Janie demanded.

"Nothing." I said, catching my breath. "Bad dream."

Or a good dream. A VERY good dream.