"You're kidding..." Harry's sentence trailed as he stared across the ice rink at their apposing team. He hadn't checked the schedule prior to today's game, so he was both surprised and utterly disappointed when he saw the green and silver uniformed players. Their rivals: The Slytherins. Harry's best friend, Ron, slipped his keeper helmet over his shaggy red hair and chuckled.
"Mate, we'll be just fine. They have nothing on us. Well, nothing on me," Ron nudged his friend with the end of his hockey stick. Harry swiped at the stick and gave him an annoyed face. Harry muttered, "I'm not worried about losing. I'm worried about-"
"Malfoy? I'm sure Seamus is gonna take him out in the first five minutes, trust me," Ron assured him. Last time the Gryffindors played against the Slytherins, both team captains, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy got into... an altercation.
On the ice, Draco blatantly targeted Harry and shoved his shoulder into his face, knocking his helmet off and breaking his nose in the process. He had to have surgery! That wasn't all, though. After Harry was sent to the cold hard ice on his back, he jumped up quickly and threw off his gloves, ready to fight Draco hands on. Draco smirked and accepted the challenge, confidently peeling his gloves off and dropping them onto the ice and squaring up to fight his rival. They fought with swinging white fists and gritted teeth. The refs took their time stopping them. They wanted to see what was going to happen just as much as the rest of the audience did! And what happened was brutal. Harry knocked Draco's jaw of it's hinges and Draco head-butted Harry, making him fall to the ice again, but this time, knocking him out cold. Both teams were disqualified, but that was a whole season ago. The teams are back and better than ever. Harry was still nervous, even though he didn't want to show it. He had to beat Draco tonight. He just had to. If not, he'd be proving that he is a failure.
The announcer spoke loudly and with a jolly tone, "Our starting players from Gryffindor!" The crowd cheered as Harry and his teammates slide onto the ice as they were called.
"Number 3, Seamus Finnigan!" The short brown haired boy practically flew on the ice and skidded to a halt, sending little pieces of ice like snow into the air. Next, "Number 6, Cormac McLaggen!" A blond boy flexed his arms in his gold and scarlet jersey as he skated across the rink to the line that Seamus stood on. The announcer continued, "The twins, numbers 10 and 11, Fred and George Weasley!" he audience's cheers got louder for the two ginger boys as they entered the ice and performed an intricate secret handshake before waving and pointing to the crowd and blowing kisses to their fans. They were an obvious fan favorite. The next player who got a certain scream-like cheer from a frizzy haired girl was the team's keeper: "Keeping the goal tonight for Gryffindor, number 1, Ron Weasley!" He stepped onto the ice and winked at his girlfriend who was practically jumping up and down in excitement for her boyfriend's first game of the season. She mouthed to him from behind the protective glass, "Good luck!" The tall ginger mouthed back, "Thanks, Hermione." He skated to his spot in front of the small goal.
"And Gryffindor's captain, number 7, Harry Potter!" The announcer finished, drawing out his name to add excitement to the crowd. It worked, because as Harry hopped onto the ice, the audience cheered his name and others chanted for the team. He waved at the audience humbly and took his place next to his teammates on the line.
"And now for our starting players from Slytherin!" The announcer began and the audience's cheers were almost equal to the ones for Gryffindor. Since this was the first game of the season, both team's fans were sure to be present and loud; very loud. The announcer continued, "Number 17, Theodore Nott!" The boy slid onto the ice and circled Harry with a devious look on his face behind the metal face helmet. Next, "Number 2, Vincent Crabb!" A big, husky boy with buzzed black hair skated onto the ice and took his place on the line, not taking his eyes off of his rival team. He wore a mean expression that hardly ever changed.
"Number 6, Adrian Pucey!" The crowd continued to cheer as the green and silver uniformed players entered the rink. Up next, "Number 5, Graham Montague!" He joined his fellow Slytherins on the red line of ice.
"Their keeper, Number 20, Gregory Goyle!" Another large man entered, just a little taller than Crabb and he took his place at his goal. He looked at Seamus and pounded his fist into his other palm to threaten him. Seamus scoffed. The announcer dragged out the vowels of the last player, revving up the excitement of the audience, "And Slytherin's Captain, for three years running, Number 9, Draco Malfoy!" The white-blond haired boy slid onto the ice and skated around the rink, waving to the audience and sending finger guns to them which made Harry roll his eyes. Draco took his sweet time basking in the glory of the cheers and claps before he skidded next to his team on the line.
"Captains, meet in the middle for the coin toss!"
Butterflies fluttered inside of Harry's stomach as he glided from the red line to the center of the rink. He kept his eyes on his opponent. Draco spat on the ice before skating over to join one of the refs and his rival. The black and blond haired boys stood just a foot apart from each other and stared each other in the face. The ref said, "Gryffindor's call." He tossed the coin in the air and Harry quickly replied, "Heads." The ref caught it and flipped it onto the back of his hand. "Tails!" He called out and gestured his arm to the opposite side of the rink. Draco smirked, didn't shake Harry's hand, then turned away swiftly to meet his teammates. Harry snarled quietly and did the same.
He slid to his red team and stated, "We have to win. Fred, George, on offense." He then turned to his blond teammate who was already staring down their opponents, "Cormac, don't be afraid to use your stick, just don't make it obvious." He didn't need to give any direction to Seamus, all they needed to be on the same page was nod and add a devious smile. Seamus was the team's notorious hothead and he used his aggression to their team's advantage. Most games. Ron and Harry didn't need to say anything either. They had been friends for so long that they could practically read each other's minds. All six boys put their gloved fists in front of them and they chanted loudly in unison, "Go, Go, Gryffindor!" They raised their fists to the ceiling and swiftly took their positions around the center circle of the rink. The other team shouted, "Slytherin!" Everyone skated to their spots on the ice and hunched over, leaning on their sticks, preparing to smack the puck with all of the strength they could muster.
The ref blew the whistle and dropped the puck in the center of circle and Fred Weasley made first contact with the puck, hitting it square on with his stick and sending it to the wall with a loud ping. The crowd cheered for their teams as they played, rather aggressively at that. Fred and George passed to each other and George hit the puck right at the Slytherin keeper, who caught it without breaking a sweat. The whistle was blown and the play stopped. The boys stretched their necks as they readied for the next play. In the corner circle of the rink, they took their positions again.
The first period went by rather slowly for the players, since each shot was blocked by both keepers: Ron and Goyle. Both team's energy replenished after the 15 minute break in between periods and they entered the ice ready to pummel the other team. Both team's boys skated with focus in their concentrated eyes. Draco scored a shot on Ron and basked in the cheers he received from the audience. Ron shook his head at himself, disappointed. Harry skidded over to him and said, "It's not over yet, mate. We can still take them." Ron smirked at him in agreement and they fist bumped their padded gloves. George performed an immaculate pass to Cormac and he sent the puck into Slytherin's goal in a way that made it look easy! The boys joined together and exclaimed in triumph. Draco cocked his head back in annoyance and skated in a few circles before taking his place at the center circle to begin the next play.
The third period began with the score 1-1. All of the boys were playing great, especially Ron. His saves were amazing which earned him loud cheers from his girlfriend, Hermione. Seamus spent an accumulative 6 minutes in the penalty box throughout both the first and second periods. Each of the teams were ready to end this once and for all.. and hopefully without going into shoot-outs or over time.
Harry hunched over the center of the circle where the black puck sat on the ice and he kept his eye on it. Draco did the same, but glanced up at the black haired boy. Sweat dripped from his brow and his lip was already a little bloody. Draco's icey eyes pierced Harry. He knew it without even looking at him! He could feel his stare from a mile away. Harry's eyes shot up and he scowled at his enemy.
"You're cute when you're mad," Draco murmured to him just a moment before the ref blew the whistle and the play began. Harry's eyes widened. What did he just say to him? Cute? Why would he possibly say that to Harry? It was just a tactic to get inside Harry's head, right? Just rivalry pokes and prods, right? That had to be it. What Draco said to him rattled Harry and made him slow to catch up to the movement of the puck. Draco knew what he said would get to him. Even if he secretly meant it.
Theodore Nott scored an impressive goal by flicking the puck into the top left corner of the goal just before Ron could snatch it. Some of the crowd cheered and others booed. Harry was getting mad. He performed some illegal plays without getting caught by the refs and Seamus sent him the puck which Harry hit straight through Goyle's legs which tied the score again: 2-2. With just three minutes left in the first game of the season, Harry and Draco met in the center of the rink again, face to face. Practically helmet to helmet. Harry had to prove that he was better than him once and for all. And without getting disqualified.
The whistle blew once more and the puck dropped in between them. Harry took possession and skated to the right side of the rink, preparing to take it all the way! To his surprise, Harry was knocked into the wall and he bumped off of it and landed face down on the ice. He groaned and got up to his feet. Draco made an innocent face and shrugged his shoulders at him before returning to the play.
Both boys knocked each other around during the play, giving each other bloody noses and new bruises. In the last minute of the game, Draco tripped Harry without a fowl being called on him. Harry jumped up swiftly and didn't hold himself back from pummeling Draco. Harry threw his gloves to the side and yanked off his helmet. Draco scoffed and was about to do the same, but Harry was already swinging wildly on him. Their fists flew at one another creating purple bruises and black eyes as they did. The refs pulled them apart and kicked them off the ice. No need to throw them in the penalty box with less than a minute left of the game. Both boys frustratedly skated off of the ice and to their respective sides to watch the rest of the game from behind the glass.
In the last few seconds, Fred scored a goal which made Gryffindor the winner of the game! The boys grouped together and hugged each other while shouting indiscernibly. The crowd excitedly clapped and cheered for the winning team. Harry pumped his fist to the air alone off to the side of the rink. He spied Draco across the rink with a disappointed and upset look on his pale face. Harry thought to himself, "What did that prick mean by cute?"
Harry didn't wait for his other teammates to join him in the locker room after their victory. He went straight to the opposing team's locker room to talk to Draco. Harry plucked his round glasses off of the bench and stuck them on his face on the way there. In the opposing locker room, Draco sat on a bench untying his shakes with his, now purple lips, pursed. He didn't hear Harry enter because when Harry spoke, he jolted.
"Malfoy," Harry spoke. They two boys were alone in the smelly room with dim lights, staring at one another. Draco stood and turned to face him.
"Potter," He replied. He uncharacteristically decided not to poke fun at the boy, but to ask instead, defeatedly, "Come here to gloat? You can do that later." Harry shook his head silently and took a few steps closer.
"What- what was it? What you said out there earlier. Did you mean that?" Harry asked him, his green eyes looking from Draco's blue ones to his red and purple cheeks and bleeding nose. Draco scoffed, "Oh, that? Of course I didn't mean it." Draco quickly turned away from the boy, to not give away the look on his face that showed he certainly meant it. Harry could sense that Draco wasn't telling the full truth, even though Harry wasn't normally good at reading context clues. He dropped down on the bench next to Draco and Draco lifted his head to look at him.
"What the hell are you doing?" He spat, looking at Harry confused and a little bit nervous. Harry leaned in close to Draco's ear and whispered, "I think you're cute too." Draco's cheeked blushed redder than they already were from their previous fist fight. Harry stood without saying anything more and left the locker room. He didn't stop on his way out, he just slightly turned to look back at the boy sitting on the bench bewildered. Harry was good at playing confident, but when he got back to his own locker room, he almost had a heart attack. His own cheeks began to blush and he smiled at the thought of his rival Draco Malfoy.
"Harry! Mate!" Ron called to him and Harry excitedly joined the rest of the team's loud triumph and celebration.