14

Evie

Quidditch matches were always my favorite and least favorite event at Hogwarts. I usually compared them to football games at normal high schools where there were rowdy teenagers and no one really paid attention to the game until it was over and their team had either won or lost. And with the obnoxiously enthusiastic fans, you had your slightly bored outcasts. I, of course was the latter.

I trudged out to pitch, a headache already forming from the cheering and screaming and singing. Quidditch games had their moments of exhilaration and excitement but today was not one of those games. It was the annual Gryffindor versus Slytherin match that always started off the season and it was already determined that Gryffindor would win whether or not they cheated in some way.

I was just glad that it wasn't Hufflepuff playing because after my Ian incident on Wednesday I wasn't ready to have another event based off of the boy next door. It always took me a few days to get over something Ian related and this was no different, maybe even worse. I had no explanation for it.

Ever since I decided to blame Ian for my immense crush on him, I had tried my hardest to bottle up every feeling I had and throw it away. When Ian tried to talk to me I would make up excuses or act bored so that he would go away although eventually it became futile because Ian never went away. He was a constant, always there and never ceasing.

After pining for so long, it had become second nature to slip into that version of myself. The straight faced and slightly rude Evie that had no feelings or thoughts. But that didn't cover up the fact that I still got butterflies when he talked to me or got in my general vicinity. It seemed to me that liking someone for so long and trying to hide it didn't fix the problem but only made it worse but there was no other option. It was either be in love with Ian or just not exist at all.

So I made do. I went to Quidditch games and distracted myself and agreed to do interviews with Ravenclaws that thought I had mental issues. It was all very exhausting and time consuming. My motto was, if you're screwed up this much you might as well leave it as it is. And trust me, I was totally screwed up.

I made my way to the Ravenclaw section which was pretty mellow compared to the Gryffindors or Slytherins. I mean, there were still ear splitting screams and cheers all around but at least we didn't make up songs or chants. I took a seat at the very top of the stadium so that I could see everything and everyone below. Surprisingly not many people sat up here which left me alone with the bitter breeze and a pair of binoculars used for spying on people.

I squinted through them and surveyed the scene below me. The game was starting in a few minutes which meant by now the entire school was in the stadium. Each house had a section in the stadium and with everyone wearing their house colors it looked pretty cool. Across from the Ravenclaws were the yellow Hufflepuffs and on either side were the green Slytherins and red Gryffindors. I scanned the faces through my binoculars, finding familiar faces that probably wouldn't find me very familiar.

I found Ian without even realizing I was doing it and let myself pause on him for a minute. He was surrounded by his usual crowd, girls that doted on him and got too close and guys that offered high fives and had brains the size of peanuts. In the middle of it all Ian threw around smiles and made comments but even across the stadium I could tell his heart wasn't in it. I frowned and looked away.

In the Slytherin section I stopped on a girl and a boy sitting at the very top of the bleachers just like me. The girl was talking animatedly and I vaguely recognized her. The thing about going unnoticed is that you start to notice everyone else and one of my few skills was knowing just about every person in my year. I thought her name was Olivia.

The odd part about the two was the boy sitting next to her. He had his arms wrapped around himself and a Slytherin scarf around his neck. I could just barely see his face but I knew without doubt that it was Draco Malfoy. He was looking at the girl beside him with a weird expression on his face. It was something I had never seen before, not on Malfoy's face at least. I couldn't place it but I suspected it was the opposite of his usual arrogance or meanness.

"Hey Evie." Wes and Maggie had come to stand beside me, wrapped up in their cloaks and rubbing their hands together.

"Hey guys." I replied, my tone of voice joyful but my eyes still glued onto Olivia and Malfoy. I watched as Olivia frowned and shook her head and Malfoy looked away. I could feel their awkward silence from all the way across the stadium.

"What are you looking at?" Wes asked, squinting his eyes in the direction my binoculars were facing. The sight of him pushing up his glasses and scrunching his nose like a pig made me pry my eyes away from the Slytherins and laugh at how ridiculous he looked. Maggie rolled her eyes and sat down, gracefully crossing her legs and surveying the crowd like she was the queen of them all.

"Oh not much." I shrugged, my mind thankfully floating away from Malfoy and Ian.

"I've never really liked Quidditch, you know." Wes mused as the players filed onto the field and the crowd roared. "Especially at Hogwarts. It seems like it's all one big set up to give the Gryffindors even more fame because they seem to win the cup almost every year."

"I'll bet you 10 galleons Gryffindor wins." Maggie offered us with a smug smile as the red and green clad players soared into the sky and the game began.

Olivia

"Rule number one is the basics." I said in as professional a voice as I could muster. "We'll start with something simple like introductions."

"Introductions? If you don't know who I am by now I'm pretty sure we're going to have some more problems." Malfoy cracked a smile and my stomach did I flip which I pointedly ignored.

Malfoy and I were sitting at the top of the Quidditch stadium as the annual Gryffindor versus Slytherin game was being played. The day was cold and the crowd was buzzing but up in the stands it felt like we were the only two people there.

"Since you're starting over we need to fix all the little things you didn't notice before. Like introducing yourself. You never introduced yourself to me personally but I can vaguely remember how you talked to the other kids in the Slytherin common room on our first night."

"Wait, you remember that? Remember me from first year?" He looked amazed.

"How could I not? You were the brattiest kid in the whole House." I joked, feeling a prod at the fact that it wasn't exactly a lie. We all kept an eye out for Draco Malfoy from first year all the way till last. Now he just seemed to stop existing.

"How did I introduce myself then?" He asked looking both curious and worried.

I straightened my back, puffed out my chest, and narrowed my eyes threateningly. "My name is Draco Malfoy and I'm the richest, snobbiest, rudest jackass in the whole world." I drawled, "Do you want to be my friend?"

"They didn't say no though." Malfoy groaned, rubbing his hand over his eyes. "I can't believe how horrible I was."

"Well here's how to change that." I continued. "Introduce yourself to me."

Malfoy gave me a suspicious look but I knew I didn't have to tell him what to do. He knew exactly what to do but the thought scared him and I knew it. The snotty child wasn't what he used to be but he definitely wasn't gone entirely. It was like his good side and his bad side we waging war and the bad side was putting up a nasty fight.

"Hi," He started, putting out his hand. "My name is Draco Malfoy." His voice got higher with each syllable and he looked like he had never had human contact in his life. I stifled a laugh before shaking my head.

"I think that's the most uncomfortable I've ever seen you." I said as he slouched in his seat and smiled nervously. "You can't just say it. You have to mean it. Get out of your own head, pretend I'm someone you've never met and I've never met you and we have no idea what the other is like. It's a fresh start."

"Simple as that, huh?" He said with a roll of his eyes.

"Seriously, we can start all over." I reasoned, liking the idea already. "Forget every rumor and lie we've ever heard about each other and just... Be who you want to be I guess."

Malfoy nodded, his eyes scanning the stadium like he was just realizing they were there. He seemed to straighten up a little and when he looked at me his eyes didn't flick to make sure no one was watching or could see us. He had a new gleam in his eyes that made my heart flutter.

"Hi, my name is Draco Malfoy. Most people call me Malfoy but I think I'd like to be called Draco."

"Hi Draco." The name felt different, almost personal. "My name is Olivia Tellson. You can just call me Olivia."

"Nice to meet you."

And all of a sudden I wasn't conversing with the notorious ex-Death Eater Draco Malfoy, but the shy and sweet new Draco Malfoy and I knew that this whole thing was probably a bad idea and seemed totally impossible but there I was and I started to realize that maybe he wasn't the only one changing.