Harry woke the next morning, quite happy. Then he remembered what day it was. Today was the first quidditch game of the year. As usual, it was Slytherin versus Gryffindor. Harry had pretty much perfected his team but as always, he was nervous. He got up and had a shower, dressed into his quidditch robes and went into the common room to find Ginny and Ron already there, sitting in silence.
‘Why are you two up so early?’ he asked, breaking the silence.
Ginny jumped. ‘Oh Harry. You scared me! I was too nervous to sleep anymore. But I got the eight hours, before you start complaining!’
‘I wasn’t going to say anything about eight hours. I was just going to say that there was nothing to worry about. You both know we’ve got every move practised to perfection. And there’s no way the Slytherins know what we’re up to because I put that blocking spell around the pitch so that if anyone came within spying distance, they’d get thrown up to the school doors.’
‘Yeah Harry.’ Ron said. ‘It’s alright for you. You’re the best seeker Gryffindor has ever had, which means the best seeker the school has ever had! Me and Ginny are just…just… Weasleys.’
‘Ron, don't you dare.’ Harry pointed his finger at his best friend. ‘Don't you take anything out on me, and secondly, don't you dare put yourself or Ginny down. We all know that Ginny’s the best chaser we’ve ever seen on a house team, and Ron, you haven’t let one goal in since fifth year!’
‘Yeah Harry. I'm sorry mate. I just keep thinking that the Slytherins might have something sneaky up their sleeves.’ Ron said.
‘Ron you are so stupid! They can't hurt you! You’ve got the locket. Is that why you’ve been a bit scared? You don't think, do you?’ Ginny scowled.
‘Oh yeah. I forgot about that…I'm quite hungry now. Do you want to go and get breakfast?’ Ron perked up a great deal. ‘I'll go and wake Hermione.’
‘No need.’ said Hermione, coming down the stairs. ‘I'm ready.’
They all went down to breakfast to find the rest of the team sitting there, poking at bits of their uneaten breakfast. The team now consisted of Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan as the beaters, Parvati, Lavender and Ginny as the chasers, Ron as keeper and Harry as seeker.
There hadn’t been much of a choice for Harry because Voldemort had killed many of the Gryffindors last year. Dean and Seamus were almost as good as the Weasley twins. Harry thought that a couple more months of practise would bring them up to the twins’ level. It had taken almost a full month to get Lavender and Parvati to stop screaming when the ball came near them. Once they had gotten over their fear of bludgers and quaffles, they turned out to be pretty good. They weren’t as good as Ginny, though.
‘Everyone ready?’ Harry asked as he sat down.
They all nodded, although Harry knew that they were all scared. It was the first ever match for Dean, Seamus, Parvati and Lavender and the fact that they were up against Slytherin made it a lot worse. There were very few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws so Harry guessed that they would be no problem. But Slytherin. Slytherin still had their whole house to choose from and over the past few years, the team had been pretty good.
But that wasn’t going to get Harry down. He sat down at the table and looked at his team. None of them were eating except Ron, who was eating enough for all of them.
‘Come on, guys. You have to eat! It’s not like you Seamus. You always eat in the mornings. And you Ginny! What’s got into you?’
‘Sorry Harry. I'm just a little nervous.’ she whispered and then put a few bits of bacon onto her plate. She looked to her fellow chasers, ‘Come on, girls,’ she said. ‘We need to keep our strength up.’
Lavender and Parvati nodded and nibbled on a slice of toast each. About fifteen minutes later, the Slytherin team walked into the great hall, laughing loudly. Malfoy was the new captain and he had definitely gone for size rather than skill, as Slytherins usually did. He still had Crabbe and Goyle as his beaters. His chasers were three fifth years whose names Harry didn’t know. There were no girls on the team and Harry didn’t think this strange. In all his seven years at playing quidditch, there had never been a girl on the Slytherin team. Harry thought this extremely sexist but never expressed his views in case the Slytherins did put a girl on it and she turned out to be quite good. In the past, girls had always been good players.
Malfoy looked over to the Gryffindor table, directly at Harry. ‘Oy, Potter! Ready to get your asses kicked?’ he shouted.
‘Nah. We don't prepare for defeat because there’s no point in being ready for something that ain’t gonna happen!’
‘Yeah, Potter. Keep telling yourself that. We both know that we’re going to beat you so bad you’ll never want to play quidditch again!’
Harry laughed and turned his back to his arch nemesis. He knew that this would annoy Malfoy. It always did.
‘Don't turn your back on me, Potter! And what, pray tell do you find so funny?’
Harry sat eating his breakfast, still laughing. This infuriated Malfoy.
‘Potter! Answer me! Answer me now or I'll come over there and curse you so bad - ’
‘So bad I'll do what?’ Harry stood up and began shouting. ‘I really don't think that you’ll curse me at all. I think you’re shitting yourself that I'll come over there and curse you! You know what I'm capable of so don't test my patience, Malfoy!’
Malfoy remained silent and Harry turned his back to sit down and smirked at his team mates. They loved it when a Slytherin got cut off. Especially Malfoy.
‘We’re ready to go down now Harry. If you want to get a little bit of practise before the match?’ Ginny said.
‘Yeah, good idea.’ He got up and led his team past the Slytherin table and out to the quidditch pitch. He remembered that he had left his broomstick in his dorm so he told the others to go on and get started. He doubled back and Ginny followed him.
‘Forgot mine too.’ she smiled.
On the way back down they got talking about Malfoy.
‘He’s such a dickhead!’ Ginny said. ‘Really. He knows how powerful you are, so why does he start on you every time?’
‘I don't know Gin. It’s so fucking annoying as well! I mean, it was fine before because I was trying to prove something. That I was better than him. But know it’s a well known fact that I am and he still goes on about it!’
‘It’ll be alright, hon. He’s just jealous.’
‘Yeah, only because I'm going out with you. I heard Pansy Parkinson crying a few days ago because Malfoy dumped her because he wants you so bad.’
‘I thought he was sleeping with that other one, you know the blond one?’
‘Yeah, he’s still sleeping around but only because he can. You’re the one he wants.’
‘Shit. I hate him. He probably only wants me because he knows that I'm about the only girl who has said no. forbidden fruit kinda thing.’
‘Or because you’re really hot?’ Harry teased.
Ginny grinned. ‘Yeah, there’s that.’ She joked.
‘Yeah, Weasley.’ Malfoy’s sickening voice came from behind them. ‘Even you know it. You’re hot!’
‘Shut up, Malfoy. I don't know why you’re still on about me? Isn’t it time for you to be changing your girl?’ Ginny sneered.
‘I'm not giving up on this one, Weasley. I'm not settling for anyone else. I want you.’
‘Well, what you want and what you get are two totally different things. Now, fuck off.’ Ginny said and started to walk off.
‘You’ve kept quiet, Potter. What’s wrong?’ Malfoy sneered.
‘I think Ginny handled that fine herself. She doesn’t need me to be her personal bodyguard.’ Harry said.
‘I think she will, because from now on, I'm going to be waiting. Waiting for the moment she can bear to tear herself away from you for a few seconds, and then I'll pounce. I'll get her, Potter, don't doubt me.’
‘I could easily kill you, you know?’
‘I know, but you won't.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you’ll get expelled and that would mean being away from the mudblood, Weasel-bee and this little angel.’
‘Fuck off, Malfoy. I'm far from being an angel. You know that.’
‘Ah well. I like ‘em fiery too. You know that.’ he winked.
‘Look, you don't have a chance. You never will.’
‘How certain are you that you’ll win this match, Weasley?’
‘One hundred per cent, why?’
‘Let’s make a little bet, eh? I win this match and you have to spend one evening with me. What do you think?’
‘No way, Malfoy!’ Harry shouted.
‘Why Potter? Because you know you’re going to lose?’
‘No! Because I'm not even going to chance that, even on a certainty!’
‘Wait a minute Harry.’ Ginny said. ‘I'm going to agree to this.’
‘WHAT?’
‘To show that I'm not a bit worried that we’re going to lose, ‘coz we’re not.’
‘I know we’re not but there’s no need to do this.’
But Ginny was already shaking Malfoy’s hand.
‘Great. Weasley, prepare yourself for one hell of a night.’
‘No need. We never prepare for things that aren’t going to happen.’
Malfoy turned and walked away, smirking at Harry. As soon as he was gone, Harry turned to Ginny.
‘What were you playing at? Do you want to spend one minute with him, let alone one evening?’
‘No Harry but I couldn’t let him win like that. And now if we win, we’ll win the bet as well. I mean, lets face it, we can't lose!’
‘Yeah, but now he’s going to be playing better than ever on the thought of spending time alone with you!’
‘Sssh Harry. We’re going to win. Now come on before we’re late!’