Chapter Thirteen
Futball
Hermione's POV
I have a new love. Not that Ron isn't perfect. But I love painting. There was something so relaxing about it. The thrill of creating a new thing from pigments and blank canvas.
Still, Ron likes pyshical sports and even I need a break from painting once in a while. I get into dry spells and it's hard to keep the idea flowwing. An hour or so on the feild wouldn't hurt any of us.
Then Harry showed up. To see Luna, of all people.
I never really thought about it, but I guess I always believed that Harry and Ginny would always end up together. But Ginny quite obviously could never feel that way towards him again. In both their minds they saw him as the reason it had happened to her. Which was ridiculous of course. But still, if she hadn't been dating him at the time, Maybe it wouldn't have happened to her.
I put all that from my mind and looked to see how Malfoy was taking this new development. He looked surprised. Understandably so.
He recovered pretty quickly, squaring his shoulders and walking over to Harry.
"Mr Potter. What can I do for you?"
I mentally congradulated him. Only Malfoy could be perfectly civil whilst insulting someone.
"Um...I'd like to talk to Luna... if that's ok?"
"Well, I was taking them out for well needed psychial therapy..." Malfoy drawled.
He was setting Harry up. I glanced around. There were only five of us. If Malfoy bribed Harry into playing, we'd have even teams. And if I knew him, he'd insist on girls vs boys.
"Um... what do you mean?" Harry asked.
Malfoy smiled. "Futball. Now if we must, I'll leave Miss Lovegood here with you and we'll continue on without her." Malfoy turned and made as if to leave.
"Wait!"
Malfoy looked back.
"Well... if it's important to Luna's well being, then she'd best go with you."
Malfoy nodded graciously and turned once more.
"Um... I don't suppose you have room for one more?" Harry asked.
I almost smiled. Well played Malfoy. Malfoy glanced around. "Well, I suppose we could. After all, I would prefer even teams."
888
I was right. We divided into teams of three. Girls versus boys.
Ginny was the best experienced of all the girls, so we made her captain. We huddled, making our plans.
"Ron has a trick right knee and Harry thinks he's better than he is. Don't underestimate Malfoy. He may seem a frufu, but he probably knows what he's doing. We'll come in hard. Hermione, you stay back as defense, Luna, you take the offense. Hermione, you'll have to goal guard as well. I'll do what I can to help you both out.We ready?"
I nodded, marveling at how good Ginny was at this. She was a born leader.
We split. Girls got the ball first and Luna took it exuberently. She carried it past Ron who was defense. Draco darted in, taking the ball easily from her. He slipped past her and towards me.
Ginny slid, feet first into the ball. Draco jumped to avoid hitting her. Ginny regained her feet, blood trickling down from her leg, where she had scrapped it.
She passed the ball neatly to Luna. The field was nowhere near full lenght, so it was less then fifteen yards from the half line to the goal. Luna got the ball and headed it past Ron. Harry caught it and threw it towards Draco.
The game lasted about an hour. By the end we were exhausted, grass stained and sweaty. Ginny's leg was still bleeding. She smiled at Malfoy then winced as she put her full weight on her leg. Malfoy narrowed his eyes and crossed swiftly to her. He hefted her into his arms, despite her protests, carrying her elegantly into the manor again, calling for his house elves as he did so.
I smiled. He had it bad.
I turned to say something to Ron, in time to catch Harry and Luna kissing softly. I took the idea to heart and pulled Ron to me.
(A/N: Yeah! Back to normal updates! Go me!
Also, I'm working on my new book and I need someone to beta it. The more the merrier. The book is written so you don't have to have read the first one to get a good idea what's going on. I'd like someone who can help me with any plot holes I might have. Let me know if you're interested.