(This chapter was posted 1-10-2017 with some edits.)
Harry got up saw the time was past his normal wake up time, pulled on his robe, and ran down stairs. Classes today had been cancelled due to the Quidditch match so it was no surprise nobody had bothered to wake him up. He ran down to the great hall and over to Slytherin table. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were sitting with their backs against the wall, as always, so they could watch the Gryffindor table. Harry sat down next to Crabbe gasping for air "I haven't missed breakfast have I?" harry asked noticing that there was no food on the table.
"No potter, Dumbledore wants to make an announcement first." Crabbe replies nodding towards the front of the room.
Harry looked up as the old man walked to the podium "Children today as you all know is the game of the Quidditch house cup, but what you didn't know is that there will be judges here from the world cup. To scout for talented young wizards, and also to invite the winning team to play against the Bulgarians and have a chance to win the world cup for hogwarts this year."
there were many shocked and surprised reactions most coming from the Gryffindor table a few looked over at the Slytherin's only to be met with the sneers from the team members.
"Now that I've said what needs to be said, let's eat." The food appears and everyone begins to eat as if they'd never see food again.
Harry ate slowly while he let his thoughts race. "A talent scout, oh my, and a chance at the world cup. I wonder why they decided to come to Hogwarts and select students to play." he wonders, thinking too much about the news rather than the food.
"Potter stop mumbling and eat or you'll not be fit to win the house cup this afternoon." Draco had stopped eating to talk to harry then started cramming his face again.
"Slytherin takes the field! And what a day it is for a house cup match between Slytherin and GRYFFINDOR!" the announcer favored Gryffindor over all houses because she was a Gryffindor. Gryffindor also took the field and cheers erupted from everywhere as the game begins.
Harry flew as high up as he could and looked down at the stadium. "Where is it? There it is! The snitch!" harry looked down at a tiny moving speck flying along the field. He also saw that the Gryffindor seeker was chasing after it. Harry flew down after it and almost ran into the Gryffindor beaters. "They must be twins they look exactly the same?" Regardless of the beaters harry chased the snitch. He looked up at the hoop at one point and saw that the keeper of the Gryffindor's team was blocking every shot. He saw one of the chasers take the bat from a beater and hit a bludger right at the keeper hitting him and knocking him off his broom.
Harry had almost caught up with the other team's seeker when a bludger came at him from behind. He ducked down just as it came for his head. It went forward and smashed into the other seeker busting his broom in half sending him to the ground. Harry was gaining on the snitch and he almost had it when the bludger came back and almost hit him again. He ducked under it and grabbed the snitch holding it up for the announcer to see. "Harry potter has caught the snitch! Slytherin wins!"
Again there was celebration in the Slytherin common room as harry held the house cup up for the entire room to see. Faith walked up to harry and hugged him. "Congratulations harry I just heard the great news. " she smiled.
"What news... we won the house cup?" harry started to smile and now people were staring at harry to see how he would react to faith hugging him.
"No silly, the scoot saw you perform today he wants Slytherin to face the Bulgarians for the world cup." She wrapped harry up in a bigger hug and the crowd of Slytherin began cheering again.
Harry's face got red not only had he gotten a hug from A GIRL but had taken his team to the world cup! Harry was so excited that spun faith around, No he wasn't in love with the girl but he did like her and he was very excited. As soon as harry realized he was still holding faith he let go. He looked at her eyes it was almost as if they had stars in them harry noticed thinking it quite odd.
Draco came up and patted Harry's shoulder snapping him out of his daze. "Told you potter got yourself a girlfriend!" Draco yelled out and most of the crowd laughed.
"She's not my girlfriend!" harry yelled and pushed faith away "I was just excited..." harry retorts though he is silently in deep thought 'she is really cute though, and if she likes me that's just all the better right?'
Faith put her hands over her face and ran out of the room crying while harry watched her go. "Was it something I said?" he wonders.
"Oh potter, you've got a lot to learn about girls." Draco sneered and sent pansy to go cheek on faith.
"It's getting kind of late anyway let's go get some dinner." Goyle said from behind Draco. Crabbe looked up from the game.
"Yeah dinner sounds great." Harry replies walking past Draco and looking back at the stairs one final time before going to the great hall for something to eat. Harry walked in and saw sed sitting at the Ravenclaw table and walked over to say hi. "Hey sed what's going on?" harry looked at the door hoping that Draco wouldn't catch him talking to sed. It wasn't so much that it was an issue, but he didn't want Draco to make fun of him.
"oh, everything's fine harry. Great game today by the way. You played wonderfully." Sed said blushing a little.
"Oh thanks. That really means alot coming from you Sed." Harry looked up and saw Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle and knew he had to go or risk being the target of their girlfriend based jokes later. "I'm sorry I have to go just now, but we'll talk again soon ok." Harry walked over and sat at the Slytherin table and waited for Draco to have a seat before talking. "Is faith ok?" harry tried to start a conversation but Draco had a new topic in mind.
"I'm sure she's fine, but she wouldn't be if she saw the way you oggle at that Ravenclaw girl potter. I think you'd be able to handle both, but you can only have one potter." Draco sneered and looked at his empty plate then floated a thing of sandwiches over with his wand, so he could grab a few.
"I... I'm not interested in girl's Malfoy." Harry tried to explain to Draco that he hadn't meant to hug faith it had just sort of happened. Problem was he was having a hard time trying to convince himself that it had been a mistake. Harry looked back to the moment again in his mind, his memory locked on her sparkling eyes. He couldn't help but smile as he remembered how he felt.
"Potter? Is something wrong with your head potter? Why are you smiling?" Draco poked harry in the side.
"sorry ... I was just thinking... you know about what happened in the common room. Maybe I should apologize to her I hadn't meant to be rude to her I just got excited." Harry started to ramble about how he was sorry. He was talking with such concentration that he hadn't even seen faith sit down at the table. "I mean I hadn't meant to hug her, but it was wonderful, and scary, and I don't' know, I just got surprised."
Draco tapped Harry's shoulder and pointed at faith who had heard everything harry just said. "I forgive you harry. It was my fault. I should have asked first or given more warning, or anything I could have done. I'm sorry." Faith looked into Harry's eyes they both nodded and then silently agreed to forgive and forget. Then they both filled their plates and started to eat.
-Later-
"That could have gone better." Draco said putting in his two cents at the end of the match on the Wii they had been playing. Slytherin had only won by 1 point and Draco noticed that harry seemed to be often distracted by faith. "potter keep your mind on the game or we'll lose. If you do this at the world cup next week we'll lose for sure. Now please for the love of Merlin pay attention."
The next round started off great Slytherin VS Hufflepuff and their keeper was already down leaving their goal wide open.
Draco scored a few points and was knocked off his broom by a bludger he hadn't seen coming which cause him to swear and get angry. "Oh how is that even possible!?"Draco screamed throwing the controller down onto the couch and huffing loudly. "I need to go find something to amuse me Crabbe! Goyle! Come." Draco said and left the room pulling his wand out.
"Hm? wonder where he's going?" harry got up set his controller down and followed Draco. He saw Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle looking down the hall then Crabbe and Goyle turned and ran back to the common room.
"What's going on Malfoy?" harry said sliding up next to him. "Granger and weasley are roaming about with Longbottom." Draco pointed and sneered "let's follow them."
"Malfoy it's late it will be after hours soon what if we get in trouble?" harry said getting a worried look on his face.
"Potter your too soft, grow a backbone." Draco started after them and harry followed behind careful not to be seen. "Looks like they are going down to Hagrid's?" Draco said standing behind the door until they went in the hut.
"Why to Hagrid?" harry said moving forward.
"I don't know. What do i look like to you the fountain of knowledge? let's go find out." Draco ran forward so fast harry could almost not keep up with him. They got to the window and looked in.
"what's that?" harry pointed at a small creature on the table and it breathed fire lighting up Hagrid's beard.
"A dragon? that's nearly impossible." Draco replies. "their illegal and very dangerous we should tell a teacher about this." Just then everyone inside looked up at the window. "We've been spotted run potter!" Draco got up and ran back to the castle harry right on his heels. Draco turned into McGonagall's room
"potter! Malfoy! What's the meaning of this! You shouldn't be in bed?!" she said when she saw them.
"Professor, Weasley and granger are outside the castle with Longbottom, and Hagrid's got a dragon!?" Draco yelled.
She walked out of the room and in just a few seconds came back with the other three. "30 points from Gryffindor and you all five of you will get detention."
"aww I miss the good ol' days when detention meant you were hanging by your thumbs in the dungeon... aww I miss the screaming." filch said as they walked again down to Hagrid's hut. "Tonight children you'll be going with Hagrid into the forest." Filch said handing the children over to Hagrid.
"The forest I thought that was a joke. we can't go in there. there are. werewolves." Draco said in a whining voice his eyes getting big as he looked at forest.
Hagrid walked forward the children grouped around him Draco was the only one that was so scared he was shaking.
"We're looking for something tonight. you see this?" he bends down and sticks his figure in some silver goo. "This is unicorn blood this one's been hurt bad and we got to find it. Ron, Hermione, and Neville come with me Harry and Draco you go that way." Hagrid started to walk away.
"Fine but we get fang!" Draco said stand by harry.
"Fine but just so you know he's a bloody coward." Hagrid turned and walked off into the woods. Harry and Draco turned and went the other direction.
"Bloody oof that guy potter. Wait till my father hears about this!" Draco continued to ramble on about Hagrid and his father for several minutes before harry got feed up.
"Yes Draco, I'm sure your father is going to back you up when he hears that you've gotten yourself sent into the forest." Harry said "what's the big deal being out here anyway it's not like we are going to find anything." Harry rolled his eyes
"That blood Hagrid found potter. it's not some animal running through here killing things. It's Voldemort. he is uses the blood to keep himself alive potter, but we can't tell anyone. A lot of things that the others believe to be true. My dad says I must be careful to not let slip the details that i know, and i'm definitely not suppose to be out here."
Harry looked at Draco he was so scared harry was sure that if they did find something he would pee in his pants even if it was just a mouse.
Then Draco screamed and ran the other way. "Wait Draco where are you..." harry saw a hooded figure it looked up from its meal of unicorn blood dripping down its face. "Voldemort!?" harry said backing up and tripping on a tree root. Staring at the cloaked figure as it seemed to glide across the ground towards him
"harry potter!" a deep almost inhuman voice spoke the dark figure grabbed his arm. "I heard you want to be one of us." The dark voice said again.
Now that harry had thought about it he wasn't sure he wanted to be a Death Eater. He was so Terrified at this moment, and he wondered why did he ever even want to be one of them in the first place?
"Don't worry boy you won't regret it." Voldemort pressed his wand against Harry's arm skin his scar began to burn as if someone had been ripped it off and had salt dumpedon it. The figure looked up and then glided away leaving harry lying on the ground. Hagrid had showed up with the others and Draco.
"Harry are you ok?" Draco said running over picking harry up off the ground. Draco caught a small glimpse of Harry's arm and pulled Harry's sleeve down.
"Give me him here Draco I can carry him back." Hagrid said bending down.
"NO! I mean Harry's fine I can take care of him." Draco screamed then stood in front harry so Hagrid couldn't touch him.
Harry had to lean on Draco's shoulder but for the most part he was ok.
When Draco and harry got back to the dorm Draco had to drag harry up the steps because he couldn't walk anymore. And by the time Draco got him to bed harry was asleep.
"What's going on here is harry ok?!" faith ran in and sat by harry bed then she saw the mark on Harry's arm. "DRACO how could you let him do this?" faith glared at Draco. "How could you let him get a dark mark?"
"It's not my fault." Draco replied staring at the wall wondering if he had stayed if the dark lord would have given him a mark to.
Faith looked back at harry "poor harry. he has no idea what's going to happen now. He'll never be free of this mark." Draco and Faith exchanged a glance and looked at harry arm again. "We have to hide it Draco." Faith pulled out her wand but just as she was about to do something to hide the mark it vanished. "What?" She said sitting down by Draco on Draco's bed. "Is it supposed to do that?"
"No, maybe there wasn't enough time to fully make it before he got interrupted. He still looks like he is in a lot of pain though." Draco said again starting to ramble.
"Others? You mean other people in school know he had the mark?" faith looked worried
"No, granger, weasley, Longbottom, and Hagrid were out with us in the forest but they didn't see the mark. I made sure of it."
Draco looked at harry then over to faith. "I know what you're thinking Draco. You've got a surprisingly soft shell when you're in the common room among other Slytherin." Faith took Draco's hand.
"Now I can see what potter likes about you." Draco said smiling "and the reason I'm so open to other Slytherins is because dad always said your house is family so I learned to be open and trust them a bit more and be honest I didn't think I could trust harry at first but he seems pretty cool. hey um, faith does it seem like he might be sick?" Draco got up and put his hand on Harry's head. "HE'S BURNING UP!?" Draco yells waving his hand because it was hot.
faith got up and grabbed a trash can and brought it over to his bed side just then harry sat straight up and looked at them. They stared at him as he gazed forward without actually looking at anything. Then suddenly reached for the trashcan and threw up.
Harry lay back down "Malfoy. what happened? in the forest?"
"Relax harry he'll explain it tomorrow go to bed." Draco replies with a small frown. 'This is my fault... i should have refused that order... watching my friend suffer is incredibly painful.'
Harry's eyes closed one more, Faith stood to leave. Looking back one last time at Draco she giggled a tiny bit then went to the girl's dorm.
Draco lay back in his bed thinking about faith. "What does she even see in that potter anyway? I'm sure she'd be much happier with me anyway." Draco rolled over and closed his eyes. "Maybe she does like me but she likes harry too. maybe if I'm nicer around her then she might like me more?"