Draco spent the next few weeks playing cricket and practising in the nets. There was a bit of down time between the matches, which was full of practise and rests, despite the comparative shortness of the cricket season at Hogwarts, Lee was no less fanatical than Wood when it came to Gryffindor winning and it showed. What was a quick cricket practise went on for four times as long as any of the quidditch sessions Draco had been to. No-one on the team begrudged Lee this though, they all burned with a desire to win, and it wasn't just the cricket shield that hung in the balance, the house cup competition was so close, that the points for winning the shield could make any of the houses win the competition. Hufflepuff soundly beat Ravenclaw by two runs in the other of the first round of matches in the league, Gryffindor where due to play Ravenclaw next and Draco and the team practised hard. Too hard, perhaps, for when they did play the match, they seemed over-tired. They still managed to win, but by the smallest margin imaginable, winning off of the last ball of the match with only one wicket in hand. George Weasley sent the ball for six, making up the five run deficit and taking the lead in one of the closest fought matches of the season. That night Gryffindor partied hard, but the next morning the team was doing fitness training, before getting the afternoon off.
For once, the Gryffindors forgot their rivalry with the Slytherins. Hufflepuff may have been in fourth place and Gryffindor in first, but with less than forty points separating them, whoever won the cricket match would take the house cup.
The match started well for Hufflepuff. Lee had won the toss, and deciding that the conditions for batting would improve as time went on, put Hufflepuff in to bat. It was a terrible decision. The opening pair entrenched themselves and had both scored centuries by lunchtime. They racked up the runs and looked to be dominating the game. Then Lee gave himself an over. Whether the batsman were looking to play all of his balls for six, he never knew, but soon the Hufflepuff opener had launched the ball into the air, where it came down neatly into the waiting hands of Percy Weasley. A few more wickets fell that day, but when Hufflepuff reached the mid three hundreds, Cedric Diggory, the captain, declared. Gryffindor were in to bat, needing 387 runs to draw level in order to win the game. That night in the common room, the whole house was disconsolate. The match was going terribly, and with it Gryffindor's chances of winning the House cup for the second year running. Harry, Ron and Hermione couldn't bear going to watch, so they stayed in the common room and listened on the radio to the commentary.
'And this is a surprise, with a huge change to the Gryffindor batting order, Percy Weasley has come out with Draco Malfoy, who has been promoted up the order from number five. What is Lee Jordan thinking?' The squeaky voice of Professor Flitwick asked.
'I have no idea, Flitters, old thing, it really is most unusual. Jordan must believe that Malfoy has the staying power needed to base the team's innings on. Perhaps he is looking for the draw. Then again, he may be experimenting for the future, given the hopeless state of the match for Gryffindor.'
'Yes, I see. Geoffrey Browning comes in to bowl form the Pavilion end at Percy Weasley, who deftly tickles the ball back past the bowler and takes a quick single. Malfoy is now on strike for the second ball of the innings. Browning comes in to bowl. THE STUMPS GO FLYING! The umpire, Professor Dumbledore hasn't raised the finger yet, instead sticking one arm to the side, it was a no ball. A lucky escape there for Malfoy. Could that be a sign that the balance of the game is changing? I doubt it, but one can never tell. Perhaps Hufflepuff will come to rue that chance.'
In the common room Hermione's fist came slowly out of her mouth. That had been close. Too close. Slowly Percy and Draco began to accumulate runs, settling down to begin with before opening the taps. By early afternoon, the runs were coming almost every ball.
'Once more Malfoy takes three paces down the wicket, before despatching that ball for six.' They heard over the radio. Perhaps they could go and watch? No. They might be unlucky- they'd gone yesterday and the match had gone terribly. The last thing any of them wanted to do was bring bad luck to the team.
By the time they broke for lunch, Gryffindor had taken a commanding position. They were not yet actually in the lead, but that didn't matter, they had 210 runs on the scoreboard, for the loss of not a single wicket. So far so good.
Within minutes of the resumption of play after lunch, both Percy and Draco had scored their centuries, although they were once more being more cautious, there was no sense letting yourself get out when you only needed to be a bit careful to play yourself back into the game, after all.
Suddenly, an amazing ball from Justin Finch-Fletchley swung in and knocked the bail off of Percy's wickets. He was out. Gryffindor's first wicket partnership had come to an end for 230 runs, a school record, Professor Vector announced via the radio. Draco was still in though, and the milestones kept coming. By the first drink's break he had made 150, and by the second he was on 198. Gryffindor had caught up with Hufflepuff sometime in between and were now beginning to build a commanding lead. Draco gratefully took a swig of the water bottle when it came out and wiped his forehead, which was drenched in sweat. This was going okay. If he carried on like this, he might save the match, even if Hufflepuff had claimed the scalps of Fred and Lee in two short overs. Parker was in at the other end, and all was going well, they had a nice partnership going and before long Draco became the first double centurion Hogwarts had had in thirty years. He wasn't going to stop there though. A clumsy ball from Parker saw him dismissed for 49, just short of his fifty, Draco would knew that would wrankle. He walked with Parker back towards the pavilion to meet with Andrews, in order to brief him on the conditions.
'Pitch is playing fairly true and the ball's doing practically nothing, keep calm and play sensibly and you'll score. Professor Dumbledore has looked slightly keen to give LB decisions, so try and keep the ball of your pads, Snape's fair as anything, believe it or not, so don't worry about him so much. Try and enjoy yourself and we'll see how it goes.'
'Thanks.' Andrews replied, taking guard at his end. Draco was no sooner back in his ground than the bowler was bowling again, and Andrews carefully dabbed at a good length ball, sending it into the covers. They didn't run, because it had gone straight to a fielder.
Andrews and Draco played out the remainder of the beautifully sunny day, bringing Gryffindor to a total of 512 for 4. They had a small lead.
Coming out the next morning, they batted for half an hour, until it became a bit cloudy. As Andrews brought up his fifty, Lee Jordan waved at them to return to the dressing room and declare. They had enough of a lead now to hope to bowl Hufflepuff out quickly and then slog the deficit to win the match. That would depend on good bowling though.
Today was notably different to the rest of the match in one vital aspect however. Today the cloud was making the ball swing and Gryffindor's bowlers capitalised this to bowl Hufflepuff out by tea for 178. Gryffindor needed 54 runs to win, but didn't have long in which to do it, not to mention the deterioration of conditions for batting making it fiendishly difficult. This time, Lee stuck to the normal order, Fred and Percy going in first, and gave them instructions to slog the runs for a quick victory; after all, time was rapidly beginning to run out. There were only ten overs left. They managed quite well, as the ball began to move more and more with every ball, until suddenly Fred was out. Gryffindor needed 43 runs off of eight overs. Easy. Sort of. Lee Jordan came in and was out immediately, trying to slog the ball over the long on boundary and missing. Parker stayed for a bit longer, before getting out to a nasty ball from Francis Martin, a Hufflepuff swing bowler. Gryffindor were 38 runs short of their target and needed to get them off 35 balls as Draco marched to the middle. He started well, firmly playing a wide ball to the boundary for four, 33 off 34 balls. The rest of the over was dry, and Percy was out to the first ball of the next. Gryffindor needed 33 runs of 29 balls, with only 5 wickets in hand. Andrews came in and sent his first ball sailing over the boundary for six. The next ball, buoyed by the success of his previous shot, he duly proceeded to edge the ball to the keeper, who took it. 27 off of 27 balls, four wickets left. Richards could bat a bit though. It would all be alright. Richards drove the ball four a single off his first ball, and Draco took the strike. Wielding his bat like a weapon of war, Draco sent the next two balls flying to the boundary for fours. 19 runs off 24 balls.
Trying to imitate Draco, Richards got himself out next ball. What was happening? Would Draco run out of partners before the score was reached? Who knew? Alicia came in with great determination, and managed not to get out before an ever more ferocious Hufflepuff attack. 19 runs needed off 18 balls. This was beginning to look doubtful. Would they make it? Draco pushed the next ball and they scored two runs. He did the same thing, but this time they only managed a single. Alicia did well, but fell to the last ball of the over. George Weasley came in and Draco had the strike, 16 runs off 12 balls. A quick four and a six saw the match begin to look winnable again, with only 6 runs needed of the final ten balls. Then the unthinkable happened, Draco was out playing a reverse sweep. Huge cheers went up from where the Hufflepuffs were sitting. With Gryffindor's tail end exposed to such an extent, surely they had won the match, and therefore the house cup. John Roach was in next, and Draco was pleased to see him still in when he had joined the team on the balcony outside of the changing room. He was less pleased when he saw the score, no more runs had been scored and the over was over. George was on strike and needed to get six runs. By some miracle he managed to score a four. 2 runs off of 5 balls. That was doable. The next ball, George took an almighty slog at the ball and connected. Both batsmen immediately started to run. They then returned for a second. George was yards out of his ground when the ball wiped out his stumps. He was run out. Towler was in next, the last man and they needed to get a single off of 4 balls to win. A wicket would hand victory to Hufflepuff. Towler stayed in for the next three balls, blocking everything that came his way. The final ball of the match, and either a run or a wicket would see the match won for either side. Draco couldn't bear watching, and watched from between his fingers. What would happen? Hufflepuff were not going to let this one go, and the bowler took a longer run up for one final, hopefully devastating delivery. Towler got his bat to it, and edged the ball away. Roach set off at a run, and Towler did the same. Then he must have heard the ball coming in, because four yards out he desperately dived to make his ground. He fell short. The bowler fumbled the incoming throw, and Towler crawled along the deck. What would happen first? Towler stuck his bat over the crease at nearly the same moment as the bowler whipped off the bails. HOWZATT! The Hufflepuffs appealed. What had happened? The whole ground fell silent as Dumbledore whipped out his wand to get a replay. He drew a large box, which was suddenly filled with an image of what had happened. Dumbledore moved it forwards, split second by split second. The tension in the stadium was unbearable. Dumbledore moved the image on again. A huge cheer erupted. This didn't come from the Hufflepuffs however, Gryffindor had won! Towler had gotten his bat down just in tme, for in the next segment, the bails had gone flying off. As Professor Dumbledore confirmed that Towler was not out, the crowd went wild. Gryffindor had won! They'd won the cricket, they'd won the house cup!
In the common room, thirty Gryffindors who had been nervously listening to the radio stopped biting at their nails and gave out shrieks of delight. They had won.
The rest of term passed in a fun-filled fog. In years to come, Draco would remember nothing more of that year until he had arrived at King's cross.
Sirius Black was there, talking vividly with his uncle. Already he seemed healthier. AS Harry left with Sirius and Draco with his uncle, Draco caught a few last words from his friend.
'You'll have to come round over the summer.' To which Draco had simply replied.
'I'll hold you to that!'