Quicker than what we had anticipated, the Quidditch match finally arrived.
Lydia, Crabbe, Goyle and I thought we were going to have fun, celebrating and being encouraging, but we were wrong. Draco had all the encouragement he needed.
"Stupid Potter and his Mudblood friend, they think they stand a chance!" Draco scoffed on our way to the Great Hall for dinner.
"Yeah," Crabbe agreed half-minded, "Stupid."
"I have everything I need to beat him to the Snitch." He continued boasting, as Lydia rolled her eyes and covered her ears.
"I have the fastest and best broom out there," Draco began listing, "We're winning for the House Cup, I have the best friends at Hogwarts, not to mention I have the best girl at my side..."
I slapped my forehead and became a dark shade of red, continuing to walk while looking down at the floor. He never missed an opportunity to compliment me or embarrass me. I admit, it did make me happy to know he thought all this, but at the same time it eventually got annoying.
"Draco," Lydia finally hissed, walking besides me. "I am so done with you. I'm taking Vanice so her ears don't bleed anymore."
She dragged me to the Slytherin table and sat me down besides Millicent Bulstrode, then took her seat to my left. There was no more room anywhere near us, and I could tell Draco was annoyed. At the moment though, I was glad I wasn't hearing anymore of his cocky comments.
"I'm glad you fancy him because I would have like, hit him by now." Lydia sighed, taking some Pumpkin Juice.
An hour before noon, the whole school walked down to the stadium, all anxious and ready for the rival Quidditch match.
It was a muggy sort of day with a hint of sunlight through the clouds. Lydia, the boys and I were walking with Draco to wish him good luck as he entered the locker rooms.
"Don't need luck." Draco boasted for the last time, puffing out his chest.
"Right." Lydia said, rolling her eyes.
I saw the rest of the team begin to walk towards us and I quickly turned around, wishing them well.
"Good luck Flint, Felix."
Flint nodded at me, smiling slightly, then walked into the locker room, but Felix stayed behind, grinning at me.
"Thank you." He took my right hand and lifted it to his lips, kissing it gently before smugly walking into the locker rooms.
My face must have looked disgusted afterwords because Lydia came up immediately and grabbed my wrist, shaking it off and rubbing the back of my hand on my robe in attempts to sanitize it. Besides me, Crabbe and Goyle were holding Draco back as he was yelling at Felix.
"Rower!"
Crabbe tightened his grip on Draco and shook him slightly. "Calm down, Draco."
"Let's go. The match is about to begin." Lydia told me, pulling me away.
As we made our way up to the stands, Lydia was muttering angrily under her breath until we were at our usual spots.
"The nerve of Rower...he clearly knows that Draco is totally your boyfriend." She spat, crossing her arms in agitation.
"Boyfriend?"
Lydia began muttering again, and I could tell that she wouldn't say more on the subject until she calmed down. Minutes later, the boys joined us, shaking their heads and sighing.
"Hopefully when we win the match, Draco won't be mad anymore." Goyle said, taking out his emerald and sliver flag.
"Why is he so mad though?" I asked, not knowing what was strong enough to cause that much hate.
"He thinks that since Felix is a year older, you'll like Rower more than him. And he is just so possessive in general." Lydia explained, finally speaking. "I can't even talk to another person that doesn't seem to meet his standards, but like, thank Merlin we have the same taste in people, or we'd be fighting ten times as much as we already do."
"Sounds like Draco." I agreed, shrugging.
A roar of noise suddenly began and I saw the Slytherin team walk out onto the pitch, mainly hisses and boos, because Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were anxious to see us beaten, but we cheered, yelling out in excitement, and I was fairly sure I saw Jean whip a bag of Chocolate Frogs at Patil. Even from high up, Draco's smug smirk was clearly seen again, yet he and Felix were quite a distance apart.
When the Gryffindors walked out, we made our boos and hisses loud and clear, receiving dirty looks from the other houses.
Madam Hooch, the Quidditch teacher, asked Flint and Wood to shake hands, which they did, giving each other threatening stares and gripping rather harder than was necessary. I smirked as Wood flinched in pain.
"On my whistle," said Madam Hooch. "Three ... two ... one. . .
With a roar from the crowd to speed them upward, the fourteen players rose toward the leaden sky. Draco flew slightly below Potter, squinting around for the Snitch.
"Please don't get a big head..." I heard Lydia pray, and I stifled my giggles. "Oh Merlin please..."
"All right there, Scarhead?" yelled Draco suddenly, shooting underneath Potter as though to show off the speed of his broom.
"Draco, stop it!" Crabbe moaned, and we all had the same thought.
If Draco doesn't focus, we lose.
At that very moment, a heavy black Bludger came pelting toward Potter, and to our dismay, he avoided it narrowly.
One of the Weasley twins smacked the ball towards Adrian, but it changed course midway and shot at Potter. We cheered, and I looked at Lydia in confusion.
"I don't know, but it's a good thing!" She exclaimed, clapping and whistling in joy.
Again, one of the twins managed to hit it hard towards Draco, but like before, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and shot at Potter's head. The crowd roared, watching as our Slytherin Chasers, bent low over their new brooms, jet past the overmatched Gryffindors.
"Look for the Snitch!" Lydia, Crabbe and I hollered at Draco, and he saluted us before speeding off towards the other end of the stadium.
"I actually hope the Bludger hits him." I mumbled, and Goyle laughed, nodding his head slightly. "Just a small whack."
Below us, it seemed that the Bludger was magnetically attracted to Lightning Bolt.
Then it started to rain.
From the intercom, we could hear the score: "Slytherin lead, sixty points to zero..."
"Someone's tampered with the Bludger." Theo exclaimed, clapping and pointing to the twins that were protecting Potter from the Bludger, which kept coming back to him in attempts of smashing his head.
Madam Hooch's whistle abruptly rang out and the players dived down to the ground. Irritated, I grabbed Lydia's hand and sprinted down, pushing and shoving people out of my way to the Slytherin team, who were in a small group, waiting for the whistle again.
"Draco." I snapped, crossing my arms in annoyance.
He turned around and smiled, walking to Lydia and I in a proud manner.
"Yes, Vanice?"
"Stop being thick and look for the Snitch!" Lydia hissed, stamping her foot.
Draco raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes. "Thick?"
"Oh yes, very much so." I said, then walked up to him and held his hand.
Bright red splashed across the bridge of Draco's nose.
Lydia growled and began walking back up, shoving Longbottom out of her way and making Zabini jump in surprise.
Looking up around the stage and glancing at Madame Hooch, I sighed. "We can't lose, alright?"
Then, gently, I pecked his cheek, knowing that I was actually OK with him being just slightly big headed.
I turned around and jogged back up to the crowd, hoping that Draco would get himself together and catch the Snitch in time before Potter.
The rain was falling more heavily now. Instantly, the Bludger rammed towards Potter, and we all laughed despite the thick tension. He looked incredibly stupid; dancing around on his broom, then began a kind of roller-coaster ride around the edges of the stadium, where Millicent was trying to pelt him with Bertie Botts Beans.
"Stop it!" Zabini warned, pointing at McGonagall, who was watching us carefully.
"Training for the ballet, Potter?" yelled Draco as Potter was forced to do a stupid kind of twirl in the air to dodge the Bludger.
As Draco turned around to keep looking, he abruptly stopped in mid spin and dove down, making us all freeze. The sudden announcement confirmed our thoughts.
"It seems that Draco Malfoy has caught sight of the Golden Snitch!"
All the Slytherins screamed. The Gryffindors roared in anger, and Draco dove down and down, flying up and down through the stadium. He chased the plummeting Snitch, with Potter in hot pursuit. We stretched our necks to see them race downwards neck in neck, trailing the Snitch deep into the trench circling the pitch. In the small gaps between the trench, we could see them diving and dodging the wooden support beams that crisscrossed their path. Directly behind them, the Bludger followed.
"Catch it!" screeched Lydia, and they both flew lower under the stands, where we could hear all the wood they were smashing, (more so the Bludger that was still on Potter's tail).
Seconds later, Draco spiraled out of under the stadium and front flipped onto the ground, his broom bouncing out of his reach and splattering himself in mud.
We all stayed silent as Potter flew back out, looking around wildly, and as Draco struggled to stand, he raised his left hand, which held the Golden Snitch.
"WE WON!" Lydia and I screamed, hugging and jumping, and the whole stands seemed to shake as the Slytherin's roared with triumph.
"Wait, Draco's hurt." Crabbe said into our ears and we glanced down to see him on his knees, clutching his stomach with his right hand.
Behind Draco, the Bludger finally came in contact with Potter. It smashed into his arm and flung him back onto the pit under the goalposts.
I winced, remembering my first Quidditch math, feeling the pain from the Bludger all over again.
We raced down towards Draco, who was on his back and covered in cold rain, sticky mud and slight blood. Crabbe and Goyle ran to his sides, lifting him up slowly. Lydia gasped and took the Golden Snitch from his hand and ran to Rower, shoving it in his hands quickly before catching up with the boys who were heading to the infirmary.
The Slytherins stayed quiet as Draco passed by, but cheered loudly once he was close to the castle. I looked back and saw through the thicket of Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs that the rogue Bludger was putting up a terrific fight to get into the box.
"Stupid Bludger...didn't even get the job done right..." I hissed under my breath, lifting up my hood robe and sprinting to catch up with Lydia, Draco and the boys.
He was already in the hospital cot when I got there, and Madame Pomfrey had given him a goblet with steaming liquid, which gave off a green foam.
"We won, though." Crabbe told him, and they turned to see me as I stepped in, the drips of water falling off my robes giving me away.
Awkwardly, I shook myself off and sat to Draco's left, where Lydia was at the foot of the bed and Crabbe and Goyle were on his right.
"Hey, you alright?" I asked him, smiling slightly. Lydia tilted her head lovingly and the boys smirked, rolling their eyes as Draco struggled to sit up.
"Fine, fine." He huffed, shaking his head. "Doesn't even hurt-"
He winced and fell back down, turning pink again.
"Mhm." I giggled, taking his hand. "Sure."
He smiled and held my hand.
"Do I get another one?" He asked smugly, smirking and raising an eyebrow.
"Another what?"
He tapped his cheek with his other hand and I immediately shoved him off the cot, turning red and letting go of his hand in embarrassment. Crabbe and Goyle jumped out of the way and Lydia giggled loudly.
My blush burned pinker as Lydia imitated kissing someone's cheek.
"Draco!" I hissed, crossing my arms.
"Ow!" He yelped, getting back on the bed painfully. "What did I do?!"
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Did you guys like that chapter?(: I hope you did!
Well, sorry for the delay on updates. Hope you guys enjoyed! R&R, F&F and Never Tickle A Sleeping Dragon!