Draco
"Alright, there's the girls' locker room," I told Eve, pointing to the closed door. "Change as quick as you can and get back out here. I'll go get you a broom."
"Fine," Eve said stingily, glaring at me as she reached for the door handle. "You could be a bit nicer to me, you know. I don't have to be doing this."
I decided not to remind her for the third time that she was repaying me for what happened over a week ago. Instead, I smirked and said, "You already agreed. Hurry up and meet us at the Quidditch pitch when you're done, got it?"
She rolled her eyes for a response and disappeared inside the girls' locker room. I turned away and crossed the short distance to the boys' locker room, knowing there were spare brooms inside.
I found the smallest broom we had and carried it with me back down to the Quidditch pitch, tucking it under my arm and hurrying across the grass. Since Flint was the captain and he was currently in the hospital wing, he'd told me to take over for him. I'd told everyone to keep practicing while I found someone who could fill in as Chaser, but the likelihood that they actually were doing what I said was slim.
When I finally reached the field, half the team was standing around talking and the other half was fooling around, tossing the Quaffle back and forth. I made my way over to them, and when I got closer Zabini looked up and called, "What took you so long?"
"Nice to see you practiced while I was gone," I replied sarcastically, finally coming to a stop next to them and leaning my elbow against the broom I'd gotten for Eve. "Did you all just stand around here while I was gone? You do realize the match is in two days—"
"Yeah, yeah." Ben Parkinson, Pansy's younger brother, rolled his eyes and asked, "You found someone, right? You must have, you were gone for an hour."
"Watch it," I snapped, and he shrunk away from me. "Yeah, I found someone. The only Slytherin left who plays Quidditch."
"Well, tell us," Zabini said, looking at me carefully. "Who is it? Don't tell me you convinced Goyle to do it. I don't think there's a broom out there that can hold his weight."
As a few guys snickered at this, I shook my head and said calmly, "I got the Hawkings girl to do it."
After half a second of silence, most of the team burst out into laughter, a few of them even shaking their heads as though they didn't believe me. Ben looked at me and laughed, "Wait, you're serious? She doesn't even play."
"She does," I said smoothly, turning my cold gaze to Zabini—who was starting to look extremely uncomfortable. "She told Zabini she used to play, didn't she?"
"Um," Zabini stammered. "Yeah, but I figured she was lying. You don't actually believe her, do you? She's the last person I'd think would wanna play Quidditch."
"Yeah, of all people you asked her?" Christian Hunter asked in disbelief, looking at me as though I'd grown two heads. "I would've gone to Goyle before I ever asked a girl to play for us—"
"Would you rather we be disqualified?" I snapped. "She's the only other Slytherin who's played Quidditch before, and she actually agreed. If you would all think about it for two seconds, you'd see that she's our only option. Believe me, I'd rather play one down than have her take Flint's place, but we don't have a choice. I'll just tell her to stay out of our way, so what's the difference?"
Christian was rolling his eyes, and Ben was clearly trying to think of another excuse. I looked around the small circle of players, waiting for another person to challenge me or laugh about the decision. I didn't like it any more than they did, but what choice did we have?
"Well," Christian said finally, looking around at the rest of the guys with one eyebrow raised. "Maybe this won't be so bad. She's pretty hot."
About half the team laughed and nodded in agreement, and Zabini started to join them but glanced at me awkwardly instead. I shook my head and snapped in a tight voice, "Are you shitting me? She's not even hot. Anyway, just ignore her when she gets here. I'm gonna tell her to stay out of the way, alright? Now get up there and start while I wait for her to get down here."
The rest of the guys shook their heads, laughing and pushing each other's shoulders, but they still mounted their brooms and kicked off. Zabini turned to me instead and asked quietly, "Couldn't you have gotten someone else? The last thing she'll want is to be around me."
I watched the players above me instead of giving him a glance, replying coldly to the air, "It sounds like you're the one who's scared to be around her, Zabini."
I couldn't see his expression as he laughed, but I knew that if I turned to face him I'd end up with my fingers around his neck.
"Yeah right," Zabini laughed. He swung one leg over his broom and kicked off, saying over his shoulder, "I don't give a shit. I just didn't want her to cry again."
"That's nice of you," I said coolly, but my knuckles were white around the broom I was holding. I could care less if he heard me, but as Zabini took off I snapped, "Asshole."
Eve came down to the pitch nearly ten minutes later, coming over to me and trying desperately to disguise how nervous she was. I handed her the broom and asked with annoyance, "What took you so long? Never mind, I don't care. We've only got about two hours until dark, so we're gonna get in as much as we can. When was the last time you played?"
"Last spring," Eve said quietly, looking up at the players instead of at me. "I played at Beaubaxtons."
"They have a team?" I laughed, trying but failing to picture all those girls playing Quidditch.
"They do, actually," Eve answered coldly, glancing over at me like she knew what I was thinking. As though she needed to defend herself, she snapped, "I was captain, if you must know."
"You...you were?" I asked. Then I shook myself, figuring that didn't mean much because all the girls at Beaubaxtons probably couldn't play Quidditch anyway. "Whatever, we just need you to be a Chaser because Flint's out. I'm not gonna sit here and explain all the rules, but it's probably best if you just try to stay out of the way."
"Right," Eve said sarcastically, looking at me like I'd gone mad. "Like that's possible in Quidditch."
Despite myself, I couldn't help but agree with her. Trying to hang in the background at a Quidditch match was nearly impossible. I shook my head and told her, "Look, just get up there. We've got to get going."
"Fine," she snapped, mounting the black broom I'd given her. She rolled her eyes slightly as she added, "I'll try not to step on any toes, don't worry."
I exhaled in annoyance and kicked off after her, pulling myself up into the air. I raised my arm to Christian and he tossed me the Quaffle.
"Alright," I yelled over Ben's bickering with one of the Beaters. "Shut up, Ben. We're gonna scrimmage until dark, got it? Split up like usual—Hawkings, you're on my team. Stop complaining, Hunter, I can hear you. Let's go."
I tossed the Quaffle into the air and automatically backed away to let the Chasers at it. It was too close to dusk to let the Snitch out now, so I planned on just sitting around the edges and watching the guys to make sure they weren't making any stupid mistakes—and to see how Eve was going to do for the first time. Zabini caught the Quaffle first and sped around a Beater to make his way down to the goalposts, and I watched carefully as Christian blocked his shot.
It was about two minutes into the scrimmage when Eve decided to stop hanging back and jump into the match. Ben whipped the Quaffle to the other Chaser, but before he could catch it, Eve shot in and grabbed it midway, rolling in a blur out of the way. I expected her to crash into someone at the speed she was going, but Eve ducked in between the opposing players with the Quaffle tucked under her arm, her small size making her seem like a bird darting past everyone else. Even Ben stopped for a moment, pointing at her and laughing in shock.
Eve shot the Quaffle for the middle goal post, but Christian just barely blocked it. She scarcely looked fazed as she sped to the center of the field when the Quaffle was tossed back, ducking beneath any of the guys that got in her way. I watched from my place by the goalposts almost in shock as Eve caught it from the Beater on her team and sped back for the hoops. This time, Christian couldn't block it.
Damn, I thought as she whipped it across to the same Beater, the Quaffle narrowly missing Zabini's shoulder. I hadn't been expecting her to be that good.
It was clear that none of us had expected Hawkings to be even halfway decent at Quidditch. I would never admit it, but as the scrimmage wore on, there was no denying that Eve was just as good as the rest of us. Watching her play almost made me dizzy; it didn't seem possible for someone to fly that quickly in such narrow spaces.
When the sun went down and it got too dark to keep playing, I called it quits and we all touched back down on the field below. Eve's team had won, and I'd even seen her steal a couple of passes from Zabini, and his expression was still full of confusion as we dismounted our brooms.
"Alright, same time tomorrow," I said, tucking my broom under my arm and looking around at them. I didn't let my gaze linger any longer on Eve, and I tried to ignore the fact that she was barely even out of breath. "I think we're gonna kick ass on Saturday."
"Hell yeah we are," Christian smirked, and the rest of the guys slapped each other on the backs in agreement. I found myself glaring at him heatedly when I realized he was practically staring at Eve.
As the rest of the players started to head back up to the locker room, I found my bag near the stadium and began to pack up. I heard someone behind me, so I turned to see Eve standing awkwardly with the borrowed broom in her hands.
"Um," she said uncertainly, looking at the ground. "Do you still want me to come back tomorrow?"
"Yeah, of course," I said, standing up and throwing the bag over my shoulder. I didn't want to let on to how much she had impressed me, so I added smoothly, "I mean, it's not like there's anyone else who can fill in for Flint. Just come back tomorrow so you can get ready for Saturday's match, and then that'll be it."
"Okay," she nodded. For half a moment it looked like she wanted to say something else, but then she turned quickly and started back up for the locker room.
Now that I was alone, I finally allowed myself to watch her as she walked up the hill, the dusk lighting making her shape seem blurry the farther she got away from me. I shook my head, tucking my broom under my arm and breathing a quiet, "Well, shit."
I headed back up alone in the growing darkness after the rest of the team, smirking to myself and trying to ignore the fact that I was impressed she had shown them all that there was more to her than she let on.
For some reason, I couldn't stop picturing her as she ducked and rolled past them in the air as though she weighed nothing.
Nicely done, Eve Hawkings. Nicely done.