Chapter three - The First Match

"What are they doing here?" Ginny wrinkled her nose as she flew past Harry. Harry looked down at the ground to discover what she was talking about.

The Slytherin team of course. They were standing right beneath them, making fun of the Gryffindor team. Harry saw Malfoy looking quite satisfied. He and the other players shared a laugh once in a while when Ron let a ball in or someone dropped the Quaffle. They even began to sing the song that they had made up years back when Ron had started playing for the Quidditch team.

Weasly cannot save a thing,

He cannot block a single ring,

That's why Slytherins all sing;

Weasly is our king.

Weasly was born in a bin

He always lets the Quaffle in

That's why Slytherins all sing;

Weasly is our king.

Weasly is our king

Weasly is our king

Weasly will make sure we win

Weasly is our king.

Harry wanted to yell at them, tell them to shut up, but he knew too well that it was exactly what they wanted him to do. They wanted to get on his nerve, distract the team during practice.

"Are you enjoying fooling around on a stick, Mudblood?" Crabbe yelled at Hermione, and the entire Slytherin crew burst into laughter. Harry looked at Hermione to see whether she noticed the comment or not, but she didn't. She continued playing – Harry envied how she could ignore such ghastly comments.

Hermione flew around, feeling freer than ever. But at the same time she was also feeling more angry – even bereaved -, like she was torn apart. She didn't like having rows with both Ron and Harry at the same time, and she hated herself for wanting to defend Ron when the Slytherins were singing that terrible song. She wanted Ron to be the one to apologize first. It was he after all who had made the mistake, not her. She didn't know what took him so long. She knew that he and Harry were having a row as well, so they were all three without friends at the moment.

She wished she could just walk up to Ron and tell him everything she had to say, but she was well aware that she couldn't do so. It would ruin it all - friendship, Quidditch, school… To a point were it would be not repairable, if it weren't already.

Hermione loved practicing Quidditch. She regretted not participating in the game earlier. It was fun, great exercise and also made her more aware of how a broom worked, which could be quite useful in an exam. She believed she had talent. She had, on the other hand, ripped the team completely apart by joining. And that she was not very proud of. She wanted to be one of the reasons they won the championship, not why they lost it. But in that moment it seemed nearly impossible that things could change. She ought to quit the team, retrieve to her stack of books and anticipated role as 'the nerdy girl'.

She looked down at the Slytherins. Why did they have to stand there and look so ridiculous? Were they trying to scare off the Gryffindor team by showing that they found them entertaining? If so, it worked. Hermione was so nervous about the weekend's match against them. She knew they had to win it. She, too, wanted to beat Malfoy, and shut his filthy mouth completely. But she knew for that to happen, she had to speak to Ron. Deep inside she knew he was not going to take the initiative; he could stay angry for years if she didn't budge. It all came down to her like always. She saw herself as the glue in the trio, the one that had to keep all of them together. And that was not always a lovely position to be in, especially not at times like these.

Hermione glared at her own team players. Ginny was flying closely to Harry. They glared at each other in secret, looking away when they caught one other's eye. Hermione knew Ginny had always had feelings for Harry, and now she started to think that Harry finally requited. She feared the outcome of those 'dangerous feelings'. Ron would get really upset if anything happened between them. She knew only too well how he reacted each time he saw Ginny with Dean in public. He thought they were 'gross', so just imagine his reaction if it was his best friend snogging his sister?

"Hey, mudblood, watch out!" Hermione heard some Slytherin yell. She was not sure which one, because in that moment a Bludger came flying straight towards her face in an extremely high speed, likely to smash her hard. She reacted quickly and dragged her broom down towards the grass. The Bludger flew by, just an inch over her head. Hermione, and the rest of the team whom had all been watching the accident waiting to happen, sighed in relief.

"'Mione, you okay?" a voice yelled, but she could not tell who it belonged to. She looked around at all of her team mates, but they, too, seemed to be unaware of the voice's origin. Discreetly she took a quick glare at the still present Slytherins. One of them was looking back at her. He had been looking at her for a while before she had looked back. Hermione all of a sudden felt very strange in her gut.

Why was Draco Malfoy sending her a petite smile?

Saturday morning the Great Hall was full of anxious Quidditch players and Quidditch fans having breakfast. Well, neither Hermione nor Harry was eating. They were both too nervous thinking about the upcoming match against Slytherin. They were seated apart as they had been for the past weeks. Harry was sitting with Dean and Ginny, Hermione with Neville and Luna, whom had found a way to sit with them at the Gryffindor table, and Ron with Lavender Brown. She seemed to be very into Ron, but he did not pay her much attention in return.

"I heard Zacharias Smith is commenting the match today," Luna Lovegood said in an attempt to break the embarrassing silence between them all.

"Really? That can never go any well," Neville replied. He didn't worry much about Quidditch, but he still liked to see Gryffindor win. He'd gotten to know Zacharias Smith the previous year when they both entered DA. Neville didn't really like him. Zacharias thought he was so good at everything and so damn entertaining. Truly, he was nothing but an obnoxious jerk.

"Really I don't care who is commenting, I do care what they talk about." Hermione interrupted their conversation, but she was not looking at any of them. Her gaze was at her plate full of food that she in no way could get down her dry and sore throat.

"You will do great, Hermione, don't worry! If what Harry said about your try-out is any true, then there's no doubt we will win," Luna cheered. She coughed a bit as she realised she'd said 'we.' Luna was a Ravenclaw, but a true supporter of Gryffindor. She usually wore a lion head as a hat at Gryffindor's matches. Very smart, as the Gryffindor animal was a lion.

"Well, what has he been saying about it?" she asked. For what she knew, Harry never even mentioned Quidditch any more. Not that he had many people to mention it to.

"Not much. Always something about how great you are, and how he wish Ginny and Dean would break up or at least stop talking," Luna spat out. Hermione widened her gaze.

"He said he wanted them to break up?" she asked in surprise. Harry had really gotten great friends with Luna, if he would share that kind of information with her and not Hermione.

"Yes, indeed. Something about them constantly talking during practice. Not focusing on the game at all."

"Oh, I'm not sure that is the only reason why he would want them to split," Hermione smirked, talking in nearly a whisper.

"Really? You don't reckon...? But do you think he dares? I mean, with Ron and all that?" Neville asked, sounding very curious. It was obvious he didn't dare to take such a risk if he'd been in Harry's shoes.

"I don't know. He won't admit it to me. Well, actually we haven't been talking for a while, but I can just feel it. I know both of them very well."

Luna chuckled with hands covering her face, as had she just heard the biggest secret in her lifetime.

"Oh, I've forgotten my hat! I'll see you at the match, Neville. And Hermione, good luck!" And then Luna left the table in a hurry. Only a few seconds later Professor McGonagall showed up next to them to wish them good luck as well. Hermione thought to herself that perhaps Luna had seen McGonagall come, and had run off because she didn't want to be seen by a teacher at the Gryffindor table. Hermione knew, though, that McGonagall wouldn't have had kicked Luna out. She surely liked her; she wasn't bad company.

"Are you ready?" Neville asked. He looked more nervous than Hermione was. She checked the clock. Nearly go time.

"As ready as can be." Hermione got up, left the Great Hall all by herself, and walked down to the changing room by the Quidditch field. Her entire body was shaking. The only other time she'd ever felt this way was before exams.

"Let's do this, okay? Do your best no matter how great they play. Er..." Harry walked around in front of his team, not really aware of what to say. Oliver, their previous captain, had been so good at these pep talks before matches, but Harry's head was just empty for cheering phrases. "Just... try your best to win. If we don't it's just too bad. That doesn't make us losers, and doesn't assure us that we won't win the cup. Give it all you've got and be proud of yourself no matter what."

They walked out on the field, one by one, meeting the Slytherin team, and hundreds of screaming students and professors watching them. Over half of them were dressed in red and gold robes to cheer for Gryffindor. A few, though, were in green and silver. Hermione easily spotted Luna and her big lion hat in the crowd. Hermione giggled, but then reminded herself of where she was and what was about to happen.

Harry greeted the Slytherin Captain, both with disgust in their eyes, and the match began at the sound of a whistle blowing.

Hermione had no idea what was going on during nearly the entire match. She didn't know who was ahead, she didn't know who was cheering the loudest, and she had no idea what Zacharias Smith was talking about. She felt so lost that she wanted to bawl her eyes out. She didn't want to show that she was weak, though, so she didn't let a single tear escape. She'd made herself believe that the match would be a lot like practice, but it was so different in every way possible. She had no idea what to do if the ball came flying towards her.

Her fellow team members were flying around her in a high speed, and she constantly had Bludgers coming right at her. One had bruised her left arm, but not left any other damage.

"Gryffindor scores," Hermione made out of the cacophony. Zacharias had been going on non-stop about how Ron, Ginny and Hermione only were on the team because of their friendship with the Captain.

She'd lost track of time as well. They could have been playing for hours; it could've been minutes. The sun was still out, but it was very windy. Hermione didn't even dare to imagine what her hair looked like. She'd forgotten to tie it up before the match, so it would surely be all over the place.

After what seemed like another hour Hermione was a bit back on track. No Bludgers were after her any longer than a few seconds, and she'd realised that the score was pretty even. Gryffindor did everything in their power to change that. Hermione saw Harry constantly searching the air and grounds for the Golden Snitch. And then, all of a sudden, his eyes went wild. He had spotted it. He started to race towards the ground. Unfortunately Malfoy had seen it too and was now going to the ground faster than Harry.

Hermione watched anxiously with widened eyes. She was so used to being in the audience, that she even screamed "Come on, Harry, you can catch it!" That made Malfoy look up from the Snitch, and look directly at Hermione. She saw his eyes widen at the gaze of her. He stopped his action and lost track of what he was doing. It was like the Earth stood still for a little while. She could, for some strange unknown reason, not take her eyes off him again.

Then everything around her went crazy. Harry had caught the Snitch because Malfoy had stopped paying attention.

Was she the reason they'd won? And why had Malfoy looked at her like that? Why had she not been able to look away?

She forced her gaze off the silvery eyes, and went celebrating with her team back on the ground.