After the ball ended, no one in the entire school was ready to go to sleep. The party continued for most of the night in the Common rooms of each house, waking up those students who were too young to attend the ball.
The next morning in Gryffindor Tower, the Fifth year boys were woken up to a loud scream. Dean was standing next to Seamus’s bed, staring at his best friend in complete and utter disbelief. Seamus suddenly realized that Colin had actually fallen asleep in his bed.
“I told you that you were gay!” Dean yelled at Seamus as Colin quickly snuck downstairs to his own dorm room.
“I’m not gay, Dean!” Seamus yelled back.
“Not gay my ass! What the bloody hell was that then?”
“I’m…I’m…uh…experimenting.” Seamus said it more like a question then an actual answer.
“You ought to face the music, Seamus,” Ron said as he realized only too late that Hermione’s panties had somehow found their way onto his pillow. “You are most definitely gay.”
The detentions for those who took place in the Great Hogwarts Battle (as Luna Lovegood was calling it) were to take place some time before Christmas, but after the first Quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. The two teams prepared in their customary ways. Harry booked the pitch nearly every day, while Draco tried to scare the other team out of showing up for the match. However, he was unsuccessful, as usual. By Saturday, both teams were in their respective changing rooms getting ready while the assembling students cheered loudly outside.
Ginny sat clutching her broomstick nervously as she watched the others put on their robes. She was slightly nervous, but not because it was the most important game of the season. Draco was on the other team. It seemed really juvenile and childish, but she really wanted to impress Draco. Every night since the ball, Ginny dreamed of the time they spent together in the garden. She never felt quite like this when she was thinking about Harry, and Harry didn’t make her feel even close to the way Draco made her feel. Getting Draco to realize that, however, might be another story.
Draco was in his own changing room, eager for the match. He had not once caught the snitch before Harry, and he felt sure that he could do it today if he concentrated hard on the match. Those, however, were his famous last words.
The pitch was screaming loudly with excitement for the match. Draco walked purposefully towards Harry, his Nimbus 2001 clutched in his hand.
“Shake hands!” Madame Hooch ordered.
Draco reached out and grasped Harry’s hand. He was just about to pull his hand back when he saw a very distinct flash of red hair. He cautiously looked past Harry, and confirmed that the fiery red head of hair belonged to the feisty girl he was thinking about.
Ginny gulped as she briefly made eye contact with Draco. For a split second, she thought that Draco knew that she was the girl in the white dress. But Draco’s searching eyes left hers almost as quickly as they came, and Ginny sighed in relief. Of course, she thought. If he knew it was me…I don’t even want to think about what could happen.
Ginny mounted her broom and pushed off the ground hard as the whistle was blown. All fourteen players shot into the air. Draco flew up high above the pitch and began to circle in search of the snitch. He could do this. He could pay attention to the game instead of…Ginny.
But just then, Ginny snatched the quaffle and raced towards the Slytherin goalposts. Draco couldn’t help himself. He decided he would just watch her until she scored, and then he would go back to looking for the snitch.
That didn’t take very long. After Ginny reverse passed to Natalie McDonald, Natalie skillfully performed the Porskoff Ploy and thus Ginny took the quaffle and immediately scored. Draco didn’t care that his Keeper, Theodore Nott, was kicking the air in frustration. He simply watched in amusement as Malcolm Baddock attempted to take the quaffle down towards the Gryffindor end of the pitch, but failed after Ginny kicked the quaffle out of his arms (no penalty was called because she did not make any contact with Malcolm’s body). The crowd started cheering Weasley is Our Queen.
“Thirty-nothing Gryffindor!” Draco heard the commentator shout. He didn’t care. And he didn’t even know who the commentator was. He kept his eyes glued to Ginny. Draco couldn’t help but notice that Ginny bit her lower lip when she concentrated really hard. It was so cute.
Suddenly, both bludger’s were headed in Ginny’s direction. From either side, too, were Crabbe and Goyle. Ginny had no means of escape as she twirled around, trying to find a way out.
“No!” yelled Draco in fear. Draco was two seconds away from plummeting down to rescue Ginny, when she suddenly swung her legs to the side and jumped off her broomstick.
“Ginny!” Draco yelled. He was in panic mode for all of two seconds. Ginny landed gracefully on the back of Harry’s broomstick. She wrapped her arms around his waist as he took her back up to her own broom. In one fluid motion, Ginny swung herself up onto her broomstick and soared after Christopher Nott to steal the quaffle from him.
“Damn you, Potter,” Draco muttered to himself as the crowd started singing Potter is our King. However, he was relieved that Ginny was safe. He watched her pass the quaffle to Gabrielle Delacour, who promptly scored.
“Seventy-nothing Gryffindor!” Draco heard echo through the stands. He didn’t care.
Down at the Gryffindor end of the pitch, Ron was very bored. He was singing 99 Bottles of Butterbeer on the Wall to himself, since he hadn’t seen any action the entire game. The Creevy brothers were doing an excellent job of keeping the two bludgers aimed at the Slytherins, and thus Ron had nothing to do since no one could get past the center field mark. The closest anyone came was Agatha DeLamya. It was a very funny story, Ron mused, how she had gotten on the team, since Slytherins don’t normally play with girls. Agatha had threatened the boys with magical breast implants had they not allowed her to play. In fear of his manly pride being wounded, Draco had caved and allowed her a spot on the team.
Ron couldn’t take the boredom anymore. With a burst of energy, he shot all the way across the field towards Malcolm and easily snatched the quaffle from his hands. He tossed it hard past Theodore, sending it soaring through the center goalpost. Ron was back covering his own goalpost before the cheering crowd could complete the first stanza of Weasley is our King.
It didn’t even faze Draco that his team was loosing by so many points, and possibly the only way they could win was if Draco caught the snitch (which he wasn’t even looking for). The only thing that mattered to him was watching Ginny as he hummed Weasley is our Queen to himself. She passed, dodged, and zoomed with such amazing grace that he was completely mesmerized by her.
Down below, Ginny was hoping that her efforts would impress Draco. She felt so stupid for thinking that, but she thought if she played Quidditch really well, Draco would like her. She thought that the night they spent in the garden didn’t even faze him (not that he knew it was her) because he appeared to be the exact same Draco that Ron was always complaining about; arrogant and big headed. As she dodged another bludger easily, she tossed the quaffle through the left hoop and scored another goal.
“150-nothing Gryffindor!”
All of a sudden, it dawned on Draco that if he didn’t catch the snitch that very instant, he would loose all hope of winning the game. Draco furiously looked for the snitch, hoping he would see it soon.
“MALFOY!!!”
Draco looked up to see an annoyed looking Harry staring back at him.
“What the hell do you want, Potter?”
Harry pointed to a spot about two inches in front of his right shoulder. It took Draco a couple of seconds to realize what was there. Draco made a snatching motion to grab the snitch, but it suddenly plummeted straight downwards. Draco dove.
It only took a second for Harry to catch up with Draco. Soon, they were shoulder to shoulder, racing to catch the snitch before either of them hit the ground. Ten feet from the ground, Harry spurted forward and snatched the snitch from the air, skillfully pulling out of the dive. Draco, however, crashed into the ground.
“What’s with you, Malfoy?” Harry asked after Draco regained composure.
“What are you talking about, Potter?”
“Well, usually you put up a really good fight, and I was kind of looking forward to that. But today you were a little…distracted.”
“Oh, what is it to you if I’m distracted, Potter!” Draco snapped as he glanced at Ginny quickly.
“Nothing, Malfoy. Chill out, will you?”
“Fuck off, Potter!”
While all the Gryffindors were celebrating their 300-0 victory over Slytherin in the Common Room, Ginny was in her dorm room, staring silently at the ceiling. She knew she should be happy about winning the game, in fact she was the reason they won by so much, but she was depressed instead. Draco had completely ignored her at the end of the game by shoving her aside in his haste to reach the castle and snapping, “Move it, Weasley!” Not that he had any reason to actually pay any attention to her. But she was hoping, just maybe…
It didn’t matter. Ginny decided right then and there that she might as well just forget about Draco Malfoy.
While everyone in Slytherin was in their dorm rooms trying to recover from their mortifying 300-0 defeat, Draco sat in the common room with a roll of parchment. He had decided to do something about Ginny in the form of writing her a letter or two.
It had taken him a while to come about this conclusion. After the humiliating defeat, he shoved Ginny aside (something he didn’t mean to do at all) and ran all the way across school and up to the astronomy tower. Once he got all the way to the top, he screamed at the top of his lungs. After screaming himself out and realizing that he didn’t feel any better, he had kicked the wall, which only aggravated him more because his toe hurt. Like a bitch.
Draco sat down on the plush black carpet then, thinking. He was annoyed with himself for getting distracted by Ginny, but he couldn’t help it. He really cared about her; he couldn’t deny that, he now realized. No, he loved her. He really did. What he didn’t know was how he came to fall in love with Ginny Weasley, of all people in the entire school. It could never work between the two of them.
He knew now that he couldn’t just toss her out of his life like an old t-shirt. He had to do something, at least. But something discreet, so that she won’t figure out that it was him whom she had kissed in the rain.
That is how he came to be sitting in the Common Room with a scroll of parchment. He was going to anonymously write to her. It couldn’t hurt anything, and then he would be able to forget about her completely. So as he crumbled up another piece of parchment and missed as he attempted to toss it into the burning fire, Draco felt that he had finally made the right decision. Well, maybe…
Heart-stopping broom chases! Flying balls! Rivalry, conflict, and lots of damn good other stuff! What could it be?
Yes, my friends, I am talking about the Quidditch game of the century “ GRYFFINDOR VS. SLYTHERIN!!!
As we all know, Gryffindors and Slytherins have been fighting since before there was such a thing as Gryffindor and Slytherin. After the Great Hogwarts Battle earlier this year, most members of these prestigious Houses went about their business quietly, seeming to avoid conflict and, while not actually trying to get along, not looking for a fight either.
But this assumption is totally WACKY! In fact, the faithful students of Gryffidor and Slytherin have just been biding their time until TODAY, when they face each other on the pitch!
However, as nasty as the Slytherins were, they were no match for our brave Gryffindors. In fact, Gryffindor won the match 300-0! WHAT A WIN! Such statistics have never been seen in all of Quidditch history, let alone Hogwarts!
Perhaps the credit goes to the star captain of the winning team. Harry Potter, one of the most famous young wizards in the world, is now a Seventh Year at Hogwarts School (though you probably already knew that). He has always been a star player, making another name for himself as the youngest seeker to join the House Team since Charlie Weasley. However, as he has had seven long years to refine his inborn abilities, I don’t believe anyone will dispute that he is, indeed, the best Seeker in our Hogwarts memory.
And to top that off, he’s a bloody great captain, too! Dennis Creevey, a Gryffindor Beater, says, “He’s such a great leader. We really admire him. He’s such a Gryffindor... brave and honest and stuff. The whole team, we all love him to death.”
This will be Harry’s last year as Captain of the team. He hasn’t chosen a successor yet “ no one wants to live up to such an honorable name. “I want this to be the best year,” he said before the match. “After this... no more Hogwarts.”
AW! Such a great guy, no wonder the Gryffindors won!!!
- Luna Lovegood, Reporter for the Hogwarts Unlimited
“Luna... I never said that.”
“You would have.”
“Just because you're my girlfriend doesn't give you the right to...”
Luna snuggled up to Harry.
“.... fine. Whatever.”
Silence.
“You know, you're right, I would have said that.....”
A/N: JaX would like to take this time to thank Transcendancer for finally giving me this chapter, after bugging her for nearly a month. We would both like to, once again, thank our lovely beta JJ for saying things such as, "hahaha...it says, 'Fuck off, Potter!'" And of course, thanks to Jo and Willy for writing their wonderful stories so that we could write this fan fiction. hopefully we'll have chapter four out soon, but it depends on whether or not Transcendancer decides to write it up this weekend.