Quidditch matches were coming up as I was so often reminded by my boyfriend, best friend, and everyone at the DA as Halloween approached.
And guess which match was first?
"Gryffindor vs Slytherin will be one hell of a start to the season," Ella mused next to me in the midst of Charms class. We were supposed to mute the frogs that stood on the opposite side of our desks. That is, if the frogs chose to stand still.
"Ron is just about rigid with anxiety over it," Ginny informed us before muting her frog with a jerk from her wrist. I copied after her but didn't see the fruits of my labor thank to my frog making a break for the classroom door.
"I didn't realize Ron made the team," Ella said. I too was under that impression.
"Yeah well, you would if you shared a common room with him. He won't stop talking about it. Fred and George seem to be the only two able to shut him up but that's only when they threaten him with a puking fancy."
"A puking what now?" I repeated, forgetting my frog entirely.
"Her brothers are starting a business with sketchy treats to get kids out of classes. Puking is one of them," Ella informed me with a wiggle of her brow. Her frog bellowed at her as she missed her casting and poked the animal in the side.
"Oh hush, you're fine Mr. Toad." I had never seen a frog give such a look of reproach.
Outside DA meetings, where each new scheduled lesson was constantly argued out by every Quidditch player, almost every conversation I had around Draco revolved around the sport.
"D'you hear Weasley made the team?" Draco asked one day after his shower post-practice.
"I hear he can't block a quaffle to save his life!" Pansy explained with a squeak of hideous laughter that made both Draco and I look at her with disinterest.
"It's true though," Nott added to her defense as he joined the group by the fire.
"I'm aware," Draco said with subtext. "That's why I've come up with a little side project for the incoming match."
"What is it Draco?" Pansy asked, looking up startled from her upside-down copy of her Charms text.
I watched as Draco leaned back on the couch and stretched an arm around me. Always so happy to have all eyes on him.
"Well?" I asked, after a beat.
"Remember those badges I made of Potter last year? Think that but angled after Weasley and his fat luck at saving goals."
"You don't expect us to wear badges of Weasley all around Hogwarts, do you?" Blaise inquired with distaste.
"Course not," Draco confirmed. "Slytherin would wear it just for matches against Gryffindor. I've even started a chant for the match."
"You didn't-" I said in dismay but Draco only smirked cockily at me.
"Want to see it?"
"Not particularly-" but I was drowned out by the others, xnay Blaise, who wanted to read it. Draco fashioned out one of his notebooks that was passed amongst the group while I watched with growing disinterest.
"Remind me again why we have to wear those badges?" I heard Blaise say from the chair next to me.
"You know you won't need to wear the badge while up in the air playing, right? Stop acting like this is a dilemma."
"Yet if you weren't dating the seeker you wouldn't be pressured into wearing it either." I cast Blaise a discarded glance before returning to my work without another word.
I found Hermione between classes working on another knitted haat that she had started to practice stars on. They looked far better than what she made in the beginning of the year.
"I've got a warning for you. Or rather, one for Ron."
"What of?" Hermione asked, stilling her needles.
"This one's tool of a boyfriend has had a moment of poetic genius with Weasley as his muse," Sam said from my side.
"Brilliant," Hermione muttered, dropping her needles.
"And in a similar vein, I am being pressured to wear one of these badges, though you know my response," I added seeing Hermione's look. "But I wondered if I could join you in the stands for the match. You don't mind I sit away from Slytherin, do you Sam?"
"I could care less."
"Grand. What say you, Hermione?"
"Of course. Just come find me."
The morning of the match, Slytherin was a mess of excitement that sent even the likes of me into a state of nerves.
"Wear one, won't you?" Draco asked, shoving a crown-shaped badge written out with WEASLEY IS OUR KING on the front.
"Seriously?" I said with a judgmental glance at the badge. He returned the look with growing irritation.
"What? You're going to choose a blood traitor over me? Wear it! Everyone is."
"It's not that, Draco and you know that. Stop causing trouble."
"Fine then be sour. I won't have you spoil my day."
I grabbed his arm before he could saunter off and kissed him on the cheek.
"Good luck." His icy demeanor melted a fraction but he still sauntered off without another word.
"I'm going to pray that that was enough to start the break up process between you two," Sam said as she walked up to me from the stairwell of the dorms.
"Wow that's not nice," I replied, turning to her. She was already dressed in workout gear with her hair in braids.
"I won't apologize. You know my thoughts on you two." I chuckled at her resolved look before following her to the great hall for breakfast.
Every other Slytherin I saw (yet not all) wore those badges. A further sign of just how much leeway Draco has to his house. It got worse when we sat down.
"Are these chants?" Sam sounded incredulous as she gazed over sheets of chants with the subline of WEASLEY IS OUR KING at the end of each stanza.
"I told you," I said with side-eye. "He really outdid himself."
"As usual, that absolute tool," My brother said in passing as he walked by in similar warmup gear. He chose not to sit with us but further down with his friends leaving Sam and I too dismantle the chants we saw in writing.
"All this needs some sort of organization. Who'd you reckon is in charge of this when Draco's in the sky?"
"With me not involved? Take a guess." We looked around the table before landing on Pansy who was decked out in numerous badges down the front of her robes. She was in the midst of a conversation with a group of third years while pointing repeatedly at a chant sheet in front of them.
"Oh hell."
Hell was right. When I found Hermione in her seat at the Quidditch field, Pansy was already gearing the Slytherins up with cues of what verse to say when. It gave me flashbacks to embarrassing cheers Beauxbatons had me do less than a year ago.
"Enjoying the sight?" I asked as I joined her in her row. Ginny was already by her side, watching Pansy with growing fury."
"Remind me, what would happen if a Reductor charm was aimed at a person?"
"That's murder Ginny. Murder," Hermione said with little patience. "I hope you told Draco off for this, Ava."
"Of course I did. But you know his ego. There's not much I can do when the entire Slytherin house chants his work with pride."
"Well I chose not to tell Ron," Hermione informed me. "He already was a mess to begin with this week thanks to all the trash talking in the halls."
"That's not new, Hermione," Ginny reminded her friend.
"Oh I know. It's just Ron needs to calm down. He looked sick at breakfast."
"Well If I remember correctly he only needs to hold out long enough for Harry to catch the snitch-"
"Says the girlfriend of the other's team's seeker," Ginny reminded me with a raised brow.
"Shhh, you didn't hear me say that."
A roar of shouts and clapping was heard below from the Gryffindors just as the team walked out, shouldering their brooms in single file. I saw on the opposite side of the field as the Slytherins stepped forward in similar formation. Draco was easy to see amongst the group with his white blond hair amongst a pack of mostly dark hair except for Theo who rounded the back.
"Remind me, what position is Sam on the team?" Ginny asked.
"Chaser I think. Theo too."
"That's not a bad position to be in," Ginny said just as Ella walked up and sat next to me.
"What on earth is your house up to now, Ava?"
"Trying to nerve Ron. I have evacuated as you can see."
"As you should."
The two captains shook hands, or rather, played a game of mercy before Madam Hooch called them off and to their sides of the field.
At the same moment, the mic to the Quidditch field was turned on and Lee Jordon's voice echoed a welcome to the crowd under the supervision of McGonagall. This was new.
Theo, who I watched fly up with the rest of his team, flew next to Sam as they went around the field in practice. The pair looked thick as thieves and deep in conversation as they flew past us and paused only long enough for Theo to wave at Lee in the commenters box before returning to the Slytherin side.
"What does your brother have to say about all this that Draco's doing?" Ella asked as she too watched the pair make their back to the one end of the field.
"Same as Sam. Indifference. Though he still calls Draco a tool so I guess you can assume the bias."
"Nice," Ella said with a laugh before a whistle for the game to start resounded through the field.
"And they're off!" Jordon started before calling out names in order from where the quaffle was handed off from. He did so too with entertaining "fun facts" as he would later explain in great detail, sending all of us into laughter while the Slytherins tried to sound louder over the mic.
WEASLEY CANNOT SAVE A THING
HE CANNOT BLOCK A SINGLE RING
THAT'S WHY SLYTHERINS ALL SING:
WEASLEY IS OUR KING
"Gees," I heard myself say after the first verse managed to cut through Jordon's commentary.
Draco, who was making his rounds around the field, his gaze directed at any sudden movement of gold, had a large grin on his face as his writing resonated from the Slytherins.
But there was an interesting catch to that.
Draco was staying on only one side of the field. The side closer to the Slytherin box where the cheer could be heard from best.
Hermione wasn't looking to Draco but rather at Ron who was having trouble blocking the Slytherin chasers coming toward him.
"-and its Spencer with the Quaffle, she's heading for the goal, and she passes to Fountaine just as he dodges a bludger angled from Fred Weasley, oh wait, sorry mate, you're George. Oh, but there he goes, Fountaine is coming for the goal-"
My brother made the goal without a problem while Ron dashed up too late and raced after the falling quaffle.
"Come on Ron!" Ginny yelled while I clapped for my brother. Sam high-fived Theo in passing before the pair returned around to tail Angelina who was coming in the opposite direction with the quaffle.
"And its Johnson, Johnson with the Quaffle, what a player that girl is. I've been saying it for years but she still won't go out with me—"
Off mic you could hear McGonagall yelling at Jordon, with him making apologizes on the mic citing it as a fun fact. But even with Lee Jordon's antics, the Slytherin's chant continued to grow in volume.
WEASLEY IS OUR KING
WEASLEY IS OUR KING
HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN
WEASLEY IS OUR KING
"- Gryffindor's Katie Bell has the Quaffle and is coming for the goal. Tanked left and right by Montague and Zabini, will she make it?"
Montague aimed a hit at Katie but she dodged beautifully and threw the quaffle through the goal.
"GRYFFINDOR SCORES!"
Theo caught the quaffle from the other end of the pitch before Nott could catch it and shot through the field with Sam above him. They worked in sync as they dodged the twins coming head on, with Sam psyching Ron from the goals in time for Theo to score another win.
WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN
HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN
WEASLEY WILL MAKE SURE WE WIN
WEASLEY IS OUR KING!
"What's with Sam this year? She wasn't like this last time she played." Ella said more to herself than as a question but it made us all watch her and Theo pass the others playing with ease and wicked speed.
"It looks like Theo has been working with her," Ginny said at last, seeming to know the subject. "See how she is always tailing him? Or he does the same when she's with the quaffle. They're tag teaming."
A sudden movement from Harry followed by Draco made all of us freeze and watch with growing tension as they both dived down in a sharp arch for the lower part of grass.
Come on Draco. Come on Draco.
But it was Harry who grabbed the snitch. Hermione and Ginny shot off their seats to cheer while Ella and I clapped along. But then Harry was hit square in the back by a bludger aimed by Montague. Boos were echoed through the audience and everyone stood up to get a better look, including myself.
Harry was up, showing no sign of injury which was good at least, but one look at Draco and I knew something bad was happening.
He was white with rage and his mouth was moving. I didn't need to hear what was happening to know he was taunting them.
Lee Jordon was saying his closing remarks to the stadium when it happened. One of the Weasley twins followed by Harry of all people raced over and tackled Draco in what could only be explained as a dog pile while the other Gryffindors held back the other twin who looked more than ready to join in.
"Shit! What are they doing?" Ginny reacted, standing up on her seat to get a better look. Hermione only watched with a solemn look while Ella shook her head in disappointment. Sam and Theo had stopped next to their teammates to watch but did nothing to stop nor help Draco.
Now that was interesting.
After Hooch had gotten them separated, we watched as the three boys were escorted out of the stadium. I would later hear that they were sent to their heads of houses. Draco, was let off with barely a warning from Snape. Any injury he received was quickly bandaged up at the hospital wing with little sympathy from Pomphry before returning with an inadequate story of what happened.
Sam and I listened with little interest but Draco was too busy with the others around him to notice.
As for Harry and the Weasley twins, they had it worse.
Harry and both twins were banned from the sport for their rest of their time at Hogwarts. Everyone who heard the news knew that such a punishment could not have been given out by someone like McGonagall who loved the sport as much as those boys.
No, Umbridge had gotten involved. And thanks to the Minister of Magic, she now had power to override all teachers.
Gryffindor team was now short three players from their team while Slytherin walked away scot free.
And this was all because of Draco.