A few days later it seemed that the troll incident had been all but forgotten. Draco had tried numerous times to get himself allowed access to the restricted section of the library to find out more information about this Nicolas flamel guy. All his attempts were thwarted by the librarian who was opposed to letting underage slytherins into the dark corners of magic.
He didn't understand how faith had been able to go in if that were the case, but he was continuously denied.
The four boys went to the great hall for breakfast. Crabbe sat right of goyle and opposite of harry. "First game of the year today. I hope it doesn't go on for too long." Crabbe remarks. He looks at harry. "Some games have been known to last for upwards of days."
"Well with potter looking for that snitch I'm sure it won't take long at all." Draco replies. "After all he could very easily be the greatest seeker in a century."
"You think so malfoy?" Harry says. There was a sort of hopeful, maybe I won't die today, tone to his voice.
Draco nods. "Well your dad was a seeker when he was in school. I heard he was pretty good." He pauses and then shrugs. "There is an old trophy in the display case that says james potter on it."
Harry smiles a little bit. "Really? I never saw it?"
"It's on the way to the field we'll look on our way to the match." Draco says.
After they had finished eating the group walked toward the quidditch pitch. They stopped and looked at the trophy case and crabbe pointed out that he had found the one they were looking for.
Draco crosses his arms. "See I knew it was here somewhere."
Harry looks at the trophy at first excited then he realizes both his mom and dad were gryffindor students when they were at school. "Do you think he would be disappointed in me?" He mumbles.
Draco glances from the case to harry. "What are you talking about?"
"My dad." Harry replies. "Do you think he would be disappointed that I wasn't sorted into gryffindor?"
Draco shrugs. "It's hard to say harry." He mumbles. He glances at the time and nudges the group. "We best get a move on. We wouldn't want to be late."
They go to the pitch and walk harry to the back room where marcus is trying to figure out where his seeker is. "There you are potter. You're late." He grumbles.
Harry apologizes. "Sorry." He notices a few adults in the room apparently they had been looking over the team for whatever reason.
Draco recognized one of the adults as his father. "Dad?" He questions.
Lucius malfoy turned toward his son. "Oh, good morning draco." He says as if surprised his son would be there.
"What are you doing back here? Draco questions.
"You know i take a special interest in quidditch. I wouldn't miss it." He replies. "I was speaking with mister flint about the team.
"We have mediocre equipment at best." Marcus says. "We should have no trouble winning though."
Mister malfoy slightly frowns at this news. "I have a lot riding on this turn out mister flint." He motions towards a guy next to him. "We brought this to ensure slytherin claims victory today."
The man beside Lucius hands a sleek broomstick to Marcus flint. "A nimbus 2000." Marcus mumbles. "But you only brought one?"
Soon the whole team was arguing over who should have it. Marcus believed he should because he was more important than everyone else. The chasers and beaters thought they would best have it because they were the point scorers and they wanted to go fast.
Draco couldn't take anymore fighting after only a few minutes. "Shut up!!"
Everyone stops and stares at the first year who had dared to yell at the older kids.
Draco felt the eyes shift to him and he stammered. "I ug... harry should be the one to get it. The faster he catches the snitch the faster our team wins." He tries to sound confident and it apparently works. The beaters agree to give the fast broom to harry."
Marcus realizes he is out voted so grudgingly he gives up the broom. "Alright potter. You get the nimbus 2000, but so help me potter you better not screw this up for us."
The adults seem to understand this is their moment to leave and they start for the door. Draco follows his dad and goyle and crabbe follow draco. "Good luck harry." Draco says as they leave.
Lucius glances at draco as they enter the hall. "Is he any good?"
Draco nods. "He caught a flying remeberal not that long ago. I have also seen him practice and he seems to have a pretty good grasp of the game."
His father nods and faces forward again. "Regrettably your mother couldn't be here but she said if I saw you to convey that she wishes you were home and that she misses you."
Draco rolls his eyes. "She isn't here and she is still trying to embarrass me."
His father chuckles. "Indeed." As they walk they continue to talk. "So how are things going with your school work?"
"Well... I learned levitation, and I just about figured out transfiguration." Draco says.
"Fought anymore trolls?" He says.
"You heard about that?" Draco asks quietly.
"Snape told us everything. Your mother wanted to pull you out of school." He replies. "Why would you do something so reckless?"
Draco frowns. "It won't happen again." He mumbles.
"There's a good boy." His father smirks. "There are bigger things at play here."
The match had begun by the time draco and his father had gotten to their seats. Harry was having a little trouble adjusting to the speed of the new broom and nearly crashed into the bleachers on a couple of occasions, but he was determined not to fall off his broom in the first match if he could help it.
Eventually he gained control and began looking for the snitch. The hufflepuff team, the first match for slytherin, was trying to score a point but Marcus was signaling to his beaters to knock the bludgers toward them to scare them. The bludger hit the tail of a broom from the hufflepuff side and knocked the player for a bit of a loop but she was able to get her grip back without much trouble.
Harry noticed the seeker from the hufflepuff team wasn't doing much of anything. "He must not see the snitch either." Then it appeared in front of his face. Hovering in front of Harry out of reach in a way that sort of appeared to be mocking him. He reached out and missed the catch and the golden ball took off. He began the chase.
The hufflepuff seeker saw harry lurch and realized potter had seen the snitch so he began the chase.
The snitch was fast and harry was doing an ok job of keeping up, the problem was the snitch seemed to be going faster than him and was just out of his reach. He figured if he stood on his broom very carefully he might be able balance himself and grab the little ball.
He could hear the slytherin crowd roaring and cheering for him and he heard the roar grow louder as he took his hands very slowly from the broom and began to stand up. He reached out for the snitch just inches away and stretched as far as he could. The broom began to tilt forward and suddenly he was spilling off his broom onto the ground landing face down on the ground.
At first he was filled with dread. He heard Marcus yell something from the other side of the field. But something was in his mouth. He spit it out and realized he had caught the snitch. He didn't know how to react.
The announcer declared slytherin the winner of the match and as the brooms landed around him harry realized he had done it. He had won the game. The first time ever in hogwarts history that somebody had caught the snitch in their mouth.
There was a celebration in the slytherin commons that night as many students were excited over the victory. There was candy and soda and somebody thought they were funny by casting a charm on a can of pop and making it spray soda all over the team as people were celebrating.
Draco nudged harry with his elbow. "Looks good on us all when you win. Good on you potter."
Harry has to fight for space as people kind of crowd around, but eventually they all have other things to do and people start leaving.
Faith watched from the sofa as people congratulated harry for catching the snitch. She had clearly misjudged potters incompetents upon their first meeting. She waited to approach him after the crowd had died down. She walks over to harry who is sitting with draco and the rest of the quidditch team. "I may have been too haste in judging you." She hands harry a card. "Keep this up and the house cup will practically be ours." She walks away.
Harry looked at the card. "What's this?"
Draco looks at it. "Looks like one of those library cards that tells you a book location."
"Oh." Harry nods. "So then I wonder what book this is?"
"Well we will have to find out." Draco says. They go to the library and look around. When they have just about given up, Hermione enters the library. "Maybe granger knows." Draco mumbles to harry.
"Maybe, she is pretty smart. If anyone could find this it would be her." They decide to ask her.
"Oh that book location is in the restricted section. She scans the number on the card. "Well I was looking for something new to read."
"We need to see the book." Draco says. "But we can't get in there."
She shrugs. "I'm sorry I would get it for you but if I was caught I would lose my privilege and I don't want to be locked out of the library." She goes into the restricted section and shows a permission card to the lady inside.
Harry frowns. "Man getting in there is nearly impossible."
Draco nods. "You'd have to sneak in at night when nobody is around just to get in there."
"But with filch stalking around you would also have to be invisible." Harry replies.
They keep trying to get a permission card. They even ask snape, but he says they have no business going there. Draco was tempted to explain to snape why they need to get the book but he knew that it was very likely Snape might tell his father and he couldn't have his dad figuring out that he was investigating whatever this was.
None of the professors would give them permission because of the incident with the troll. They were told they would need to be older before they were allowed in because they needed to respect magic and have a better understanding of the consequences that magic could bring.
Days passed by and things didn't get much better. It seemed like they had hit a dead end.
Fall rolled into winter and eventually Christmas began to approach. Harry sat watching some students levitate ornaments onto the tree in the common room. He hadn't thought about going home for the holidays.
Draco saw him there and walked over. "Why so down potter?"
Harry shrugs. "Well I figure I will probably be alone this year. Seems like all anyone is talking about is how they will be going home for the holidays to spend time with their families."
Draco shrugs. "There will be a handful of students left behind. You won't be alone. You could always go home if you were worried about it."
Harry looks at the tree again. "I wouldn't want to go back there. My aunt and uncle can't stand me anyways. They didn't want me to come here. I don't imagine they will be happy to see me."
Draco hadn't thought of that before. If harry left would his crazy aunt and uncle treat him any better than they previously had? "Well let's not think about that." He mumbles. He gathers a boards game from the table and brings it over to the end table by the sofa. "Let's play wizard's chess instead."
"Wizards chess?" Harry questions.
Draco spends the better part of an hour trying to teach harry the wizards chess rules. Then they play the game. Harry manages to take a decent lead and doesn't realize he won. "Oh! Check mate!" He declares.
"Beginners luck." Draco says. He turns slightly and spots faith lingering nearby. "What are you staring at?"
She shrugs. "Not much." Then she walks over and sits next to harry across from draco. "I want next game."
Draco frowns as the pieces reset. "I don't think that a good idea."
"We used to play all the time. One more for old times." She replies.
Draco frowns. "Neither of us take the loss well. You remember what happened last time."
She smirks. "Are you afraid of losing to a girl?"
Draco huffs. "Alright but I warned you. I will not hold back." Harry watches the game between the two and with every move he feels a tense air around him. Everytime draco takes a piece faith gets more and more frustrated.
Harry gets up just as her frustration begins to manifest outwardly. "What..."
Faith is shrouded in a dark aura which circles around her.
Draco stands up. "Now look at yourself. I told you this was not going to work."
Faith stands up. "I'm not finished yet! We will finish this." The darkness goes away but there is still a tenseness in the air.
Draco crosses his arms. "Alright... have it your way."
She takes a deep breath and after a moment she moves a piece and once draco takes his turn her eyes light up. The tense feeling is gone and her frustration evaporates. She declares herself the winner. "Check mate." She chuckles.
Draco huffs. "I'm just having a bad game day I guess."
She stands up and trots off towards the dorm happy as a clown. She had finally bested draco at something.
After she is out of earshot harry turns to draco. "What was that?"
Draco shrugs. "Last time we played she started doing that. I think it's her magic. She gets so stressed that her magic kind of takes a form around her. Like a sort of intimidating shield. Last time we played it attacked me." He mumbles. "It lashes out. I don't think she has control of it.
"Well hopefully we never see her that mad again." Harry mumbles.
The very next day faith joins them for breakfast. "Morning fellas." She declares. "How was your night?"
Harry and draco share a look.
"Oh right." She holds out her hand for draco. "I realized that i have been selfish trying to win every game and I would like us to be friends again."
Draco raises an eyebrow in a curious way.
"Forgive me." She says.
"Um..." draco doesn't seem to know how to respond.
"We can go back to how things used to be." Faith says.
"Not gonna lie I would like to have our friendship return to how it used to be." Draco replies. "Alright I will accept on the condition that we not compete against one another until you are under control."
She nods in agreement and the two shake hands.
From then on like she had nothing better to do faith started joining them for stuff. She went to quidditch practice, and helped with homework, and even ate with them every day.
What draco didn't know was two weeks before she had played chess with him, faith, had a falling out with her friend pansey and they got in a huge fight. Now down to no friends she was determined to not have to talk to anyone new.
Harry figured something was up but as long as she wasn't causing trouble for them he didn't care.