title: illuminated

summary: "There's a lot in the past—good, bad and obscure—that people shut their eyes to. Yet, there comes a time when they open those eyes and illuminate that past. Because more often than not, these are the moments that help make us." A companion piece to the Simplicity & Clandestine stories. [A series of One-Shots focused on characters' history.]

disclaimer: if you recognize it, it belongs to JKR. All OCs are mine!

03. everybody loves me

Summary: 'Feels just like I don't try…All I know is everybody loves me.' Draco's living large after a quidditch win and nothing can bring him down. (Year 3)

main characters: Draco Malfoy & Angeline Jensen

genre: friendship/humor

rating: K

Draco Malfoy had been ecstatic for a number of reasons. One, Slytherin had just beat Ravenclaw to stay in the standings at the finals. Two, if he hadn't caught the snitch before that Chang girl, Slytherin would have been out of the running completely, despite having won at a large margin over Hufflepuff.

He was currently seen as a hero in his common room and he absolutely enjoyed the attention. All that was left was to beat Gryffindor and he didn't have a doubt that they could, after all last time, Potty had just gotten lucky.

This was their final to win!

And all those people were counting on him.

No pressure.

The common room had gotten unnaturally stuffy after some time and Draco had managed to sneak out and into the castle corridors where he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his robes. In it, he found the game winning snitch.

It wasn't customary to keep it, but wasn't like Draco cared all that much. Rules weren't exactly his forte, now were they? He was rather proud of having caught this snitch, and why shouldn't he? He had worked hard to get it.

His feet had automatically taken him out onto the school grounds where he went down to the pitch which was surprising still littered with green and silver confetti. He could still feel the excitement that had been in the stadium when he had caught the golden little ball. It had been amazing with everyone watching in anticipation as he and Cho Chang raced head to head for the snitch.

He had been a little quicker or maybe his arm just a little longer, but he had gotten it first and that's what mattered.

"Entertaining game today, Malfoy," Draco snapped out of his fantasy to see Angeline Jensen strolling over to him. Her hands stuffed in the pockets of her hooded zip-up jumper. Around her neck was a Slytherin scarf and on her left cheek a small snake had been drawn. Then not to mention her hair which was naturally a bit wavy and brunette had been straightened and half of it was dyed green and the other silver.

For someone that didn't seem very happy with their house, she always seemed to have a lot of house spirit.

"Wasn't it though?" Draco smirked at her. He lifted his hand to show her the Golden Snitch. "Are you here to tell me how much you love me, Jensen?"

"Oh yes, it's undying," she deadpanned. There's a pause as the wind blew.

"It was a really entertaining game," Angeline repeated as she flicked her silver hair out of her face. "But you got lucky today, Malfoy."

Draco openly glared at her. Leave it to this childhood acquaintance to try to take away his good mood. However he suppose he had done that to her plenty of times before…but he was Draco Malfoy and no one took his good mood away!

"That wasn't luck, Jensen," he sneered. "That was skill."

She nodded, "From your perspective perhaps, but Chang had been struggling all game," Angeline said. "The winds were in your favor today."

"And you call that luck?" Draco voice raised slightly. Angeline studied him for a moment before shaking her head.

"I'm sorry," she said. She sound sincere and Draco was sure she might have been but hadn't they both had similar upbringings? He was able to sound sincere when he needed to be though it wasn't often he chose to be.

"You really did play brilliantly today, Draco," she said. "When you dove for the snitch ahead of Chang, I don't think I cheered louder for you, really. It was impressive."

Draco was waiting for the 'but' to come, however, it never did. He simply looked at the snitch and it's wings unfurled and it fluttered in his hand.

"Do you really mean that, Jensen?" he asked.

"I don't enjoy complimenting you, Malfoy," she said eying the snitch. "Don't question me on it."

Draco let the silence wash over them momentarily before he bounced a bit on his heel, "Your hair…" he started. "It's…Creative."

Angeline's eyes left the snitch and she looked at him as though in shock before a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. But she refrained from saying anything as the she let the silence continue on and her eyes fell back to the small golden ball.

This was a relatively calm ground they had found themselves on. They were usually irritating one another as it was what they seemed to do best, but he suppose he was mostly to blame. He did have a penchant of bothering those when they didn't want to be bothered.

Draco had let go of the fluttering ball and it floated toward Angeline where it circled her head. Removing her hand from her pocket, she snatched it from the air with much faster reflexes than Draco thought her capable. She studied it before meeting his stare.

"It must be exhilarating to be out there," she said and there was an air of wishfulness to it. Did she want to play a sport like Quidditch? "The sound of your heart beating in your ears, drowning out the crowd as you reach out," she stretched her arm holding the snitch, "Grabbing hold of this little. And for one glorious moment, you're the hero—Everybody loves you."

Angeline kept her hand there and Draco reach forward and allowed her to place the snitch back in his hand.

"I'm sorry for being rude earlier," she said dropping her hand back to her side.

"Whatever," Draco said.

He shook his head and looked across the pitch, "Hey, Jensen," he said as a thought hit him. "Want to play a seeker's match?" Admittedly, he was curious about just how quick her reflexes were while on a broom. Curious to know if she could actually play a game like Quidditch or was she just a fan and fascinated by it.

Surely, Pansy never talked about it the way Angeline just did. Angeline understood why he played.

Angeline's green eyes sparkled as she looked at him.

"Nah," she smiled. "I'm a terrible flier," she explained.

"You're better than decent, Jensen," Draco said recalling their first year in Flying Lessons. Longbottom was terrible and everyone was better than him by default.

"Is that supposed to make me want to do this?" she smirked.

"You scared?" he countered. Angeline's smirk widened into a grin.

"Of you?" she asked. "Never. It's just, I couldn't bear to beat you at your own position."

"Is that a challenge I hear?" he asked. He couldn't help the smirk that had crept onto his own face. "Grab a broom and let's see if you're as good as you claim you are."

Angeline snorted as she stuffed her hands into her pockets, "I am good," she said. "However, I have some place to be," she added as she started to back away from him. "I'll have to postpone for another time."

"That just sounds to me like you're scared," Draco called after her.

Her smile was bright as she began to turn away, "Never," she called back.

With her back to him, Draco watched as she left the pitch until she was just a speck. He glanced down at the snitch in his hand where it continued to flutter restlessly.

Hope you enjoyed that and the little subtle moments within. :)

I actually wrote this one-shot about a year ago so here it is finally!

Have you noticed that every chapter is named after a song?

Anyway, I've got more one-shots to come! But tell me what you'd like to see next! ^_^

Before I leave, thanks to: flamesofamonster, maralii, Guest, Selena07, MissLorraineScarlet and Nicky-Maree for reviewing that last one-shot! Thanks so much!

And of course to those that added to their favs and/or alerts!

Review me, maybe? ;)

Much love,
TR