A/N: Special thanks Hurricane Rachel and Rurouni Ken-ouki for reviewing, and correcting my spelling! ;) Sorry it took so long, but here's the next chapter, for what its worth. It'll be more of a filler, but enjoy!
That day's main course was a variety of different sandwiches on silver platters sitting between bowls of soup and other side dishes. Although not Aloria's favorite fish and chips, she sat down happily to eat on an empty bench.
"Tuna, egg, and ham. Excellent selection." She was halfway through her fifth sandwich when Lynk slid into the seat beside her.
"G'day, Lori."
"G'day, Lynk. And don't call me that."
"Whatever you say, Lori." He smiled at the scowl on her face. "Anyways, are you trying out for the Quidditch team?"
"Of course I am!"
"Really? Good. I'll put in a good word with good ole Drakey. But-- Aloria!" She had fallen off the bench in shock.
"You're on the Quidditch team?"
"Well, yeah. I'm a Chaser." For the rest of the meal Aloria bombarded Lynk with questions about the practice schedules, players, and other things, an expression of childish glee painted on her face; Lynk answered them patiently with a picture of amusement on his. They kept on talking until they went their separate ways to classes; Lynk to Transfiguration, and Aloria to Potions.
Aloria skipped down the slimy steps to Professor Snape's equally slimy classrooms, her head in the clouds. She was brought back down to earth when she slammed into a well built back. She recognized the blonde hair, and sighed. Draco Malfoy peered over his shoulder at the smaller violet-eyed girl.
"Aloria Krym. Long time no see. Actually, I believe the last time I saw you was when you came visiting me in the hospital wing to apo-"
Aloria's eyes widened as she realized Draco was going to announce her apology to the packed corridor, but a high-pitched squeal interrupted his declaration.
"Drakey-poo! You're out of the hospital! How's you're forehead, darling?" While Draco was occupied with a clingy Pansy Parkinson ("Geroff me Parkinson! You're ripping my robes!"), Aloria slipped away into the Potions classroom. She wasn't so keen on the idea of having other people know about her apology; her uncle had once told her that apologizing was a weakness, and it stuck.
She was sitting in the middle of the classroom, and Draco was sitting in the back on the other side. He was glaring at Pansy hanging off his left arm and trying to shake her off when Snape whirled into the room.
"Get out your textbooks and turn to page 235. You will be brewing Veritaserum (A/N: I'm not sure if they do make this in fifth year potions...) and there will be no talking. Ms. Krym, I believe you are here today? Good. You will be working with partners. Being new, Ms. Krym, I believe you should work with one of my stellar students. Draco," Aloria slammed her forehead loudly on the wooden desk, earning herself a scowl from Snape and Draco and a few barely hidden snickers from the Gryffindors. "You will be her partner. Now hurry up, Veritaserum won't brew itself."
Draco smirked at Aloria's thunderous face.
"I thought Lynk said Snape didn't have a sense of humor. If this is his version of a sick, twisted joke, it's not very funny. Tell him to lay off the humor next, will you? Stellar student." She snorted. Draco rolled his eyes and headed off to the storage cabinet to gather the ingredients, leaving Aloria alone for a few minutes.
Pansy Parkinson stormed over.
"Stay away from Draco, bitch. He's mine, and mine alone. You better not think of stealing him away."
Aloria looked up and raised an eyebrow.
"Sure thing. I wouldn't want to touch him anyway." Pansy turned a wonderful shade of puce and and lunged, her long fingernails at the ready.
"Don't insult my Drakey-poo that way!"
Aloria's hands automatically came up and punched Pansy in the eye. She howled as stars dotted her vision. A low voice mixed with amusement and annoyance interrupted their brawl.
"I do believe that, although I am incredibly irresistable, there is no reason to fight over me. There is plenty of Draco to go around." Pansy let go of Aloria's hair to whimper in Draco's shoulder. He smirked at a livid Aloria.
"Draco! This slut came up and punched me for no reason!" Pansy was practically screaming in a voice that reminded Aloria of dying cats. Aloria was prepared to protest, except Draco beat her to it. His attention had snapped back to Pansy and his lip had curled in disgust.
"Parkinson, that's disgusting! You're getting my robes wet! You ladies should be glad Professor Snape was called out."
Aloria just childishly stuck her tongue out and sat back down in her seat, the ingredients Draco had gotten sitting in a pile in front of her. Without bothering to look at her book, she threw some things in and stirred. Draco's eyes widened.
"No! You're doing it wrong," he yelled.
"Are you sure?" Aloria just smirked confidently. He flipped to the recipe in the book and scanned the page, alternating between looking at the instructions and at the simmering liquid in the cauldron.
"Oh...you are doing it correctly..."
Aloria smirked again and just resumed tossing in different withered looking plants carelessly. Draco had started out in a panic, not trusting her potion making skills, but soon gave up and just sat back in his seat and watched.
The pair had a finished vial of Veritaserum before the rest of the class was halfway finished (except for Hermione Granger, the know-it-all Gryffindor. She was good at everything, according to Keah.) Professor Snape had returned somewhere in the middle of class, and returned to his office immediately. Aloria took this opportunity to talk to Draco about a subject that had been on her mind since before lunch; Quidditch.
"Um, Draco?"
"Hm? Finally come to your senses, have you? Realized what a prime piece of manhood is sitting in front of you and decided to take advantage of it? Ow!"
His little speech earned him a whack upon the head.
"No, you dolt! I was wondering when the Quidditch trials were." She played with her fingers absentmindedly, while Draco's eyebrows shot up.
"You? Play Quidditch?" He burst out laughing, while Aloria's face comically darkened. "Do you even know what a Quaffle is?"
"Of course I know what a Quaffle is, moron! And stop laughing!"
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Tryout if you want, but you'll probably humiliate yourself. We need people like Flint to be on the team, not people like you. Come if you wish, but I'd advise against it."
Aloria wasn't happy that Draco had mocked her like that, but at least he hadn't said downright that she couldn't tryout. This little chance was enough for Aloria, and she sat quietly in her seat with a chuckling Draco sitting beside her.
***
"All right! Chaser tryouts are over on the other side of the field. The Keepers will stay on this side, and Beaters are in the middle. Get moving, " Draco shouted.
The hordes of younger students and a few older ones moved to their designated spots.
Aloria, running on the three cups of coffee she had this morning, sprinted all the way to the other end of the pitch. She was sitting on her broom and five feet in the air before the others had even reached the spot. Draco raised an eyebrow when he saw the tiny speck with flowing black hair in the air from his spot on the bleachers.
"Hey Flint. Take over the Beater trials for me, and tell Goyle to watch the Keepers. I'm going over to see how the Chasers are doing." Before Flint could protest, Draco left.
When he arrived at the far end of the pitch, Lynk, one of his best chasers, had gone through half of the hopefuls. By the looks of it, most of them hadn't moved past the first round.
Draco was surprised Aloria was still amongst the ranks of people who had passed.
Lynk was busy comforting a small second year when he saw his captain approaching. He straightened and let the younger student go back to the locker room.
"So who's showing the most promise?"
"There's this one girl, my friend Aloria, but I think you guys are already familiar. She's got wonderful control and her accuracy is excellent." Lynk was looking between his friend and his captain, worried that Draco just might turn her away because of the misdemeanors in their past. Instead, Draco was smirking.
"Let's see what she's made of, shall we?"
Lynk motioned for Aloria to come over. When she saw Draco standing their with a small smile plastered on his face, she scowled.
"Draco here wants to see you on your broom. Do you mind?" Lynk was waiting for a reply, but Aloria just mounted her broom and kicked off, with Lynk and Draco close behind.
Aloria faced Lynk, while Draco watched.
"Alright. We'll start with a couple of passes, then shots, then see how you'll do head on against someone else."
Five minutes into the tryouts, Draco's smile slipped a bit. Five minutes after that, his smile was just a thin line on his face. Another five minutes, a frown was tugging upon the corners of his mouth and was threatening to show.
Aloria was good. And not just any old good. She was really good, captain worthy good. And she knew it. As she flipped and twisted and cork-screwed through the air, passing and shooting effortlessly, a small smile played on her lips. Her violet eyes danced, happy for the first time in a while.
They had spent twenty minutes on Aloria alone, when the whole tryout was supposed to only last thirty. She had managed to get past Lynk, score fifty points, and pass seventeen perfect plays. Draco was speechless. He hadn't seen anyone as good as her in forever. When they landed amongst the impatient Chaser-wannabes, Lynk moved to the side to converse with his captain.
When they broke apart from their little two person huddle, Lynk shooed the other people away, ignoring the protests. Draco faced the now alone Aloria.
"Practices are every other day, except on holidays. Game schedules are posted in the common room a week before the game. All players are to report to all practices, unless they are sick. Any questions?" He paused momentarily. Aloria was standing there with her mouth hanging open. "Good. First practice is next week on Thursday at five. Be there." He turned away to leave.
"Draco?"
"Hm?"
"Does that mean I'm on the team?"
"Of course." He turned away again, but Aloria ran over to him before he could leave and tackled him in a big hug. A pair of soft lips met his forehead before she pulled away, beaming.
"Thanks, Malfoy."
Before he could respond, she skipped away happily towards Lynk before she attacked him in a similar manner.
For the first time in his short life, Malfoy flushed. The place where she had kissed him burned slightly hotter than the rest of his body. He watched her from afar as she was swung around by Lynk, his lips curved upwards slightly.
"You're welcome."
A/N: Hur-dee-dur. It was going to be longer, but I felt this was an excellent place to stop. Sorry it's short.
PLEASE REVIEW!! :)
Q. Mika