The New Trio and the Madness Within

Chapter 9: Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw

Notes: I think only one more chapter after this one, then book 3 is done, and I'm taking a four-week break to do uni stuff and write some new chapters for book 4, then come back on the 24th of October with the first chapter. Enjoy!

~~~~~

Draco was absolutely ecstatic when he found out his mother was pregnant. In fact, it was difficult for him to talk about anything else for about a week afterwards, until he started to worry about the things most prospective older brothers worry about: if the baby would like him, whether he would make a good big brother, and most importantly, if this would mean he'd have less time with his mother and father, and if this meant they'd love him less. Logically, he knew they loved him, and that the new baby would simply be someone else to love, but he couldn't help worrying.

Two days before the Christmas break ended, Harry helped him see that he needed to talk to his parents about his worries, or he'd just get more and more worried as time went on. He did as Harry had said, and had a seemingly long-overdue conversation with them. He felt so much better afterwards that he wondered why he'd been so afraid of asking them in the first place. Being the good boyfriend, Harry didn't say 'I told you so' and simply congratulated him again.

The return to school was difficult for Draco, who felt protective of his mother, but he managed amidst Harry and Neville successfully distracting him with wondering what they'd be doing in Care of Magical Creatures the next day, and plans for which movies to watch in History.

As it turned out, they learned about salamanders in COMC, and in their first lesson of History, they watched Back to the Future, rationalising watching it as technically History related, and if not, then it was a good way to introduce time turners and the problems with using them and meddling with the past. The next three History lessons were taken up with finishing the trilogy they'd started, and George told them about how everyone was talking about how different America's hisory was to Britain's. This led to the first History lesson that year that wasn't taken up by watching movies, as Myrtle talked each year group through the differences between several popular countries' magical governments and their laws.

That weekend was the Slytherin-Ravenclaw Quidditch match, and Oliver was disappointed when Slytherin pulled through and barely beat the other house. Slytherin had a chance to get into the final now, because if they won against Hufflepuff in six weeks, they'd have won two games, just like Gryffindor had. The next game was Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, and if Gryffindor won, it would make it almost impossible for Slytherin to win against them in the final because of Gryffindor having won three games, giving them a large amount of points, which would mean Slytherin would likely need to get between three hundred and four hundred points in the final to win the Quidditch Cup.

Three weeks of gruelling training later, the clear, cool day of the Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw match dawned. It seemed to be a perfect day for a match, with only a light breeze in the air. Oliver lamented that the weather hadn't been like this for their first match, but when Draco reminded him in a falsely light voice that he'd caught the Snitch for them, so in reality it didn't matter what the weather was, Oliver took one look at the look Draco was giving him and hurriedly changed the subject to the plays they'd be using.

The team hurriedly finished their breakfasts and set out to the change rooms, where Oliver mentioned Percy had taken up a bet with fellow prefect Penelope Clearwater. "For ten galleons," he continued. "He left with me then, and said that I'd better win. When I asked him why, he said it was because he didn't have ten galleons, and that he'd only taken the bet because he was sure we'd win, and then he'd be able to use the money for our anniversary in two weeks."

"Aww," said Angelina. "He really is a romantic at heart! He's so cute with you."

Oliver's ears reddened as the other girls agreed with her, then when the twins joined in, saying they were sure Percy was going to be planning the most adorable wedding before long, he cleared his throat loudly and broke up the conversation. "Right. Let's go over everything we're doing today one last time. The game starts in half an hour."