"Ron, calm down, darling!" Hermione begged, looking nervously at the boys dorm door hoping, for Harry's sake, that he did not emerge.
"Calm down? Calm down? Hermione, I am calm. I just saw my best friend and my sister-" He said, seething and blushing, the tops of his ears were turning characteristically red in anger "fucking, and it's fiiine! No big! No big that she's a year younger than him, and he's making her do...THAT!" He exploded and Hermione cut in in Harry's defense.
"He isn't making her do anything, Ron! You know your sister! You can't make her do anything, she's Ginny, one of the strongest willed girls I know! Please just think about it and sit next to me, okay? Besides, it's nothing the two of us haven't done before" She soothed quietly and blushed, but he wasn't done yet.
"Okay, we have- we do- we do that too, I guess, but not IN THE FUCKING DORMS, right?" Ron boomed Hermione looked mortified as a couple of first years snickered and bounced off to the girls dormitory.
"Ron! Sit down, NOW." Hermione commanded in an unusual high-pitched voice. He reluctantly sat down next to her. "Now you and Harry are best friends, and you two can't fight, because I refuse to take sides. I think you're over-reacting just a tiny bit. Oh, poor Ginny, she must be horrified! I'll go talk to her" And she ran into the girl's sleeping quarters to try and calm down the other Weasley.
Harry was in for a long night of silence from Ron.
The following day was the day of the Quidditch match between two rival houses, Gryffindor and Slytherin. Hermione was wrong in saying that now that Voldemort was gone, the rivalry had disappeared as well. Harry, who in his final year at Hogwarts wanted more than anything to leave his mark in the Quidditch House Cup. And of course, to show Slytherin up.
Ron, who was Keeper, and Ginny who was covering for a Beater who was sick, were still not talking to Harry, which made things a bit difficult. He did a morale-raising speech, mostly Slytherin-bashing jokes, and they set out onto the field.
He saw Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin team Keeper, his opposition and his eyes widened as memories of the previous day flashed in his mind and couldn't meet Malfoy's eye. Malfoy looked at him tiredly, lacking his usual expression of distaste and his proud grimace, but looked interested in Harry's inability to look him in the eye. Madame Hooch began the game in her military voice:
"Team captains shake hands" she commanded and looked from Harry to Malfoy. Malfoy did his signature smirk, but Harry thought it looked more now like an actual expression of happiness than ever before. The Slytherin extended his hand to the Gryffindor with the same vigour Harry imagined a snake would have as he constricted around a defenseless mouse. Harry wrinkled his nose at the thought that he was the mouse instead of the lion who would pounce on the snake. Hmmm. He reluctantly accepted Draco's hand and the blonde Seeker squeezed his hand almost to the point where it hurt. The opposing teams looked on with intense concentration. Harry's mind wandered momentarily to the face full of sexual pleasure and intense seduction and felt himself burn with redness. Great, he thought, I'm blushing for this idiot. He put on a fake narrow glare on his opposition and returned the strong grasp and felt the soft white skin on Malfoy's hand send electrical currents up through his arm and spread warmly and sharply throughout his body, jump-starting the feeling in his jock-strap. His eyes widened as Malfoy broke his grip and sauntered off to join his team.
Harry swallowed visibly, and the team took this to mean that he thought the team was going to lose. Madame Hooch broke the thick silence.
"Now we're not going to have a repeat of last time, Mr. Potter? Mr. Malfoy?" Her small, narrowed eyes looked from one boy to the next, her voice stern..
"No, Madam Hooch" Malfoy purred in his quiet drawl voice. These simple words washed over Harry like a cooling wave. Harry begged his subconcious to focus on his hate for the taller boy.
"Potter!" Madame Hooch seemed impatient for his answer.
"Oh, uh, yeah, Madame Hooch, not like last time" He gave a nervous laugh remembering the bloodbath that the last Gryffindor-Slytherin game became.
"Good" she enunciated curtly, "Begin" She launched the quaffle into the air, along with the two bludgers, and finally the snitch. Harry launched himself into the air and began to scout the pitch for the little winged gold ball. Goyle, who for some reason that was beyond him was one of the Beaters, decided he fancied whacking a bludger straight at Harry's face, that was intercepted, to Harry's relief by a flash of Gryffindor robes, a Beater's bat, and a stream of fiery red hair. Ginny did not look at him as she diverted the stubborn bludger and thought he heard her swear under her breath, he scowled.
"The snitch! Manky Malfoy's seen it! OW, SORRY, PROFESSOR" Lee Jordan boomed into the loud speaker and was hit on the head by a rolled-up copy of the Daily Prophet by a fussing Professor Flitwick, who, while not interested in the game itself, did not appreciate Jordan's bias.
Harry looked up to find that Lee was right, Draco was streaking through the air upwards and a glint of gold caught Harry's eye and he steered his broomstick in the same direction, almost completely felt the cold wind whipping him, pushing him down, he was only inches away from Malfoy, he saw the green tails of his robes flapping behind him and he willed himself forward, his broomstick reaching its top speed and he was at Malfoy's side, bashing him to the side, which was met with a shout of: "Fuck off, Potter!" and a push from the blonde boy. They were both hurtling to the clouds, both arms outstretched for the snitch until Harry felt a shift under him, his broom. His broom suddenly stopped soaring, mid air, and fell from below him limply. It seemed to Harry that the following events all happened in slow motion.
He flailed his arms out as a reflex.
His mind caught up with his situation and he had to stop himself from screaming.
He looked up at Draco, who he saw look down out him, his mouth opening and shouting down at him.
Malfoy swore loudly and looked up at the snitch in disgust.
He saw Malfoy dive down in his direction.
He collided with the flagpole of the house banner.
Malfoy caught him.
He lost consciousness.
