Damn, I really outdid myself this time! Longer than ever(again! is this gonna become a regular thing?) and also slightly earlier than usual! It took me less than a month yay! Enjoy, don't hate me for all the boring Quidditch stuff, and review pretty please! Kisses, Bunny
On Friday, Hermione didn't bother with going to lunch in the Great Hall. She was so eager to get up to her room and finish the potion that she made use of the house elf assigned to her personally for the first time since becoming the Head girl.
"Minny!" The little creature popped into existence immediately and bowed deeply to the brunette, at which she blushed deeply. "Please, none of that, Minny. You are my equal! I usually wouldn't do this, but it is quite an urgent situation. Would you mind bringing me lunch to my room?" The light green house elf smiled widely and nodded in and enthusiastic non-verbal reply before a loud pop signalled its departure.
Feeling disgusted for exploiting the poor thing like that, Hermione willed herself to focus entirely on the potion. Reaching the portrait, she breathed the password and nearly ran the short distance to her bedroom, slamming the door wide open and whipping out her wand to perform a few diagnostic spells. Everything seemed to be in order so the brunette consulted the book propped open on her desk one last time before adding the final ingredient and stirring the clear, odourless liquid ten times anti-clockwise. With great care Hermione then moved the cauldron off the fire and cleaned the entire desktop, setting a single glass in the middle.
Suddenly, nerves gripped her insides. Did she truly want to remember? Was she even ready to? What if she actually suppressed the memory because it was so bad? Maybe it was just her mind protecting itself?
Her rapid downward spiral was interrupted by Malfoy knocking and leaning through her door. "That potion of yours ready?" Since that talk about Ginny, the two had slowly slipped into a comfortable familiarity. They had a long way to go before Hermione would dare call their relationship a friendship, but they were on a good path and Draco was surprisingly pleasant when he wasn't being a sarcastic asshole.
"Yeah, just took it off the fire. All set and done!" He had been prodding her about the potion all week but she didn't let up, never letting him know what she was brewing. "Well, good luck with it, whatever you need it for. I'm heading out to the try-outs for the team." He had already turned around, but then apparently remembered something else, because he looked at her over his shoulder. "Want to join me?"
Surprised at his invite, Hermione threw a nervous glance back at her potion. Maybe she could let it sit for an hour or two more… "Can I? I mean, I'm not a Slytherin." Draco shrugged and threw her a relaxed smile. "It's just try-outs, it's not like the team makeup is a secret after all the players are chosen. Besides, I trust you not to go mouthing off to the Gryffindor team." The blatant show of trust on his side completely threw her for a loop, not sure with what she had earned it, but flattered by his display anyway. "Okay, just let me grab my stuff."
She cast a swift stasis charm on the potion so it wouldn't get contaminated in any way while she was gone. With the corner of her eye she noticed a sandwich and a glass of pumpkin juice on her bedside table, clearly the lunch she had asked the house elf for but forgot about. Throwing on a warm cloak and wrapping the vibrant red and gold scarf around her neck, Hermione picked up the still slightly warm sandwich and joined Draco.
Their walk to the Quidditch pitch was pleasant, spent small-talking and discussing some changes in the patrol schedules that Malfoy had come up with. Before she knew it, they were already at the big wooden stands and he left her to go change into his gear.
Not in any kind of rush, the brunette climbed the many stairs that led onto the stands and took a seat near the edge where she had a clear view of the pitch, munching on the remnants of her now-cold sandwich. As a few more spectators trickled onto the stands, she was spared a few questioning looks, what with her glaringly obvious Gryffindor appearance, but no one voiced a complaint.
The cold air whipped at her face as she exited the changing rooms. Despite having clasped her hair into a ponytail, the red tresses were long enough to fly all around her face as the wild wind blew all around her. She fell in line besides a burly boy who was taller than her by almost a head and took in all the other competition. There were roughly twenty people on the pitch, males outnumbering females by far. In fact, there was only one other girl besides herself, which wasn't all that surprising, since many Slytherin girls turned their noses up at Quidditch. Their loss, honestly.
Ginny wasn't intimidated by her numerous competition in the least. She knew she was damn good and no-one was going to steal the spot on the team she deserved. The murmur of people talking quieted and the redhead knew it to be a sign that Blaise had stepped out onto the grass.
The lean team Captain slowly strolled over to them and stopped right in the middle, taking in each and every one. As his eyes passed over her there was the slightest twinkle of a smile that was gone in the next instant and Ginny knew full well that he wasn't going to cut her any slack just because they hung out. She needed to be good to make his team and she knew it.
"Quite a few of you have showed up on this fine autumn afternoon. You all think you've got what it takes to make the team, huh? We'll see about that…" Very quickly, he divided them into groups based on the position they were trying for, barking orders that couldn't be overheard despite the strong wind. The chaser group, a part of which was Ginny was the biggest one, while there were fewest keepers.
"We're going to do these try-outs in three parts; first the keepers and chasers. The chasers each get to throw three shots at each of you, so we're looking at both at the same time. After we're done with that, we move on to the beaters. Since there are four of you, this is going to work perfectly. We divide you into two teams and watch what you are capable of, after we've reached our decision, we add the seekers into the mix and they get to play in an actual practice match while the rest of you are actually already training. Any questions?" No one spoke up and Blaise barked at them to get their asses into the air.
Ginny was impressed with the way Blaise conducted his try-outs, since the evaluation was much more wholesome than when she had tried for the Gryffindor team. All she had had to do was land a few shots and she was in.
She watched her competition as she was nearing her turn to take shots at the keepers. The chaser that had been part of the team last year, Riley, stood out with his sheer arrogance, boasting at the others how one of the spots was surely his. We'll see about that, Bighead.
It was her turn and she felt Zabini's eyes on her as she accepted the big leather ball. Having watched the first keeper before, she noticed he was lacking when it came to blocking the left hoop. Leaning down against her broom, she shot towards the right one and the keeper dashed in that direction. The moment he moved, she made a sharp turn and scored easily through the left hoop. Retreating to the starting position, she caught the quaffle as it was passed back to her and got ready for her second shot.
The keeper was clearly pissed and she could see his determination, but he was gripping his broom so tightly that his knuckles turned white and she knew he wouldn't be able to react in time. Like a rocket, she shot towards the middle and could see his surprise; after all, she was flying right towards him. When she was almost in the forbidden area, she suddenly dropped and the quaffle flew right between the keeper's legs and through the middle hoop. Ginny thought she heard a faint whoop from the stands and whipped her head around, zeroing onto where she knew Pansy was sitting and waved to the girl.
A grinning Blaise passed her the ball and she got ready to tackle keeper #2. This was the guy who had played on the Slytherin team for the last three years and she knew he'd be much tougher to fool. She tried to outmanoeuvre him with her first shot, but he was fast enough and deflected the quaffle with a smug smile. Refusing to let herself get frustrated, she readied for the second shot. Deciding to try to just go with brute force, she shot forward and hurtled the ball through the right hoop as hard as she could. The keeper threw himself at it, but it had enough momentum that his fingers simply gave way to it and it scored.
Ginny pumped her fist with a triumphant cry and accepted her quaffle for the last two shots with a shit-eating grin. The last keeper hadn't really been doing well before, but after seeing her in action he looked pretty intimidated and managed to block one of her shots by pure dumb luck while the other one went by uninterrupted.
She joined the group of chasers that had done their part, feeling confident about her performance and waited for the others to finish. They were done pretty quickly and Blaise announced keeper #2 was going to get the spot for the fourth year in a row and keeper #1 was going to be the reserve. The third candidate left the pitch looking pretty miserable while the Captain called a five minute break before they moved on to the chaser/beater try-outs.
Ginny flew down to the stands, landing next to Pansy, who was cradling a mug of tea with a warming charm on it, so the liquid wasn't affected by the chilly wind blowing all around them. Stealing it from her and taking a few long sips, she flashed the older girl a brilliant grin. "So am I awesome or am I awesome?"
Pansy laughed in earnest and replied in a mock-serious voice that she was awesome, naturally. "Did you notice Granger came to watch the try-outs?" She motioned to the left with her head and Ginny raised her eyes in surprise, only to meet with the Gryffindor's chocolate ones. The other one immediately averted her gaze and the redhead, too, turned back to her friend. "What is she doing here?" She couldn't for the life of her figure out what the brunette was doing in the stands and her presence made her feel more receptive to every little thing.
"Well, I'd say she came to watch a certain hottie in action, but I'm just guessing, of course…" Pansy winked at her. Ginny threw another glance to her left, but Hermione was focused on the action on the pitch, which reminded her she should get back into the air. She mounted her broom again and leaned down to peck her friend on the cheek. "Keep an eye on her for me, would you? I'm really curious why she came." As she kicked off, she could hear Pansy's mocking 'Yes, ma'am' and in a second, she re-joined the group of chasers in the air.
Fifteen minutes later found her sweaty but grinning like an idiot as she flew towards Blaise to hear his verdict. "Good job, most of you did pretty well! Not all of you get the spot though, of course. Ginny, Thomas, you two are first string, Riley and Victor second. Anyone got anything to say?"
The redhead could fly without the help of a broom, she was so happy, but she settled for crushing Blaise in a bone-shattering hug, to which he responded with a chuckle and 'You deserve it, kitten'. An added bonus to her new spot on the team was also the seething, purple face of a pissed of Riley. He had been cast as a reserve and clearly wanted to strangle something but knew better than to stand up to the Captain. Said Captain then announced the two beaters and the reserve, which only left the seekers to be selected. Blaise ordered another five minutes of break and Ginny made a beeline for Pansy.
"I got the spot!" She dished out another bone-crushing hug for her friend before taking a seat next to her and stealing her mug only to find it empty. "How are you doing with the stalking?" Pansy giggled and obliged her. "Well, what can I possibly tell you? She was watching the game. It's not like I can pinpoint exactly who she was following with her eyes. She did smile a lot every time you scored or did a really cool manoeuver, though. But so did I, so I'm not really sure that means anything. You are one crazy girl when there's a broom under you, Ginny. Makes me wonder just how you are when there's a person there instead."
The redhead felt her cheeks grow hot and elbowed the older girl who was grinning like an idiot. "I still think she came to watch you, though. You shagged her, for Merlin's sake! And Granger doesn't seem like a one-night stand type to me." Ginny shrugged, not ready to deal with her feelings about the whole thing just yet and grabbed her broom in favour of a reply. "Gotta get back up there, darling."
The last part of the try-outs dragged on and on, but after forty minutes the Snitch finally showed its shiny ass and Draco snatched it out of the air right in front of a competitor's nose. Both having won a spot on the team, they high fived and hugged, flying off into the changing rooms in high spirits, Blaise not far behind.
As they came back onto the pitch showered and changed, Pansy awaited them and they headed past the stands when Hermione joined their group and congratulated them on their success. Ginny was shocked into silence as she proceeded to fall into easy conversation with Draco as they continued towards the school.
The realisation that Draco and Hermione got along filled her with an unsettling mixture of incredulity and joy and instead of reading into why exactly that was, she just kept paddling on down the river of De-Nile.