Chương 25: Quidditch PT. 2

Hermione had fought her way across to the stand where Snape stood and was now racing along the row behind him; she didn't even stop to say sorry as she knocked Professor Quirrell headfirst into the row in front.

Hermione looked towards Draco first then quickly rushed towards Snape. She believed that Draco wouldn't do something like this even if he hated Harry and according to what Hagrid said, this was very dark magic since most ordinary magic won't be able to affect the Nimbus 2000.

While this was happening Draco, was in a fight of his own. The snitch was getting harder to influence by the second. Draco's jinx seemed pitiful against the jinx placed on it since he could barely push it around.

Theodore and Daphne were so into watching the match that they didn't even notice Draco's chanting.

Hermione finally reached Snape, she crouched down, pulled out her wand, and whispered a few, well-chosen words. Bright blue flames shot from her wand onto the hem of Snape's robes.

It took perhaps thirty seconds for Snape to realize that he was on fire.

A sudden yelp told her she had done her job. Scooping the fire off him into a little jar in her pocket, she scrambled back along the row -- Snape would never know what had happened.

Draco who was concentrated heard the yelp but didn't turn back, he knew it must have been Hermione who set fire on Snape's rope causing the crowd to yell.

But the distraction was enough. Up in the air, Harry was suddenly able to clamber back on to his broom. Harry was speeding toward the ground.

Pansy finally saw the snitch and went towards it as well. Pansy was so concentrated on catching the snitch that she didn't even notice Harry falling towards her.

*Crash*

Both of them crashed and fell to the ground, luckily they were near the ground so no major harm was done. Everyone was looking at them nervously when suddenly Pansy stood up,

"I caught the snitch." Pansy said holding the snitch in her hand.

Everyone from the Slytherin side started cheering but Harry stood up holding his lips which had a cut in it, "No, I touched it first." he said

The cheering died down and everyone was confused as to what was going on but Draco on the other hand knew.

Madam Hooch walked towards them and the other player's from both side landed as well.

Pansy was glaring at Harry, she knew that she caught the snitch first; so how can Harry be the first person to touch it.

Luckily for these kinds of situation, The snitch was enchanted with Flash memory and it remembers the touch of the first person who handled them, in case of a disputed capture.

Madam Hooch looked at the snitch and after confirming with magic she found the real winner.

"The person, who caught the snitch first is Harry Potter." She announced.

The Slytherins face turned dark and the Gryffindor's started cheering loudly.

"He didn't catch it, he just touched it with his lips," Flint was still howling twenty minutes later, but it made no difference-- Harry hadn't broken any rules and Lee Jordan was still happily shouting the results.

Gryffindor had won by one hundred and seventy points to eighty. (Snitch are worth 150 points.)

Draco, Theodore, and Daphne went over to the locker room; to cheer Pansy up.

"Hey Pansy, it's okay." Draco said, "You played very well and Potter only won due to a mere coincidence."

Draco was angry at his own weakness, He couldn't get the snitch to be in his control like the other party did. Draco was sure that this other person was none other than Dumbledore. In Hogwarts he is the only powerful wizard who can have such control over the snitch without even being present and the only one sly enough to do so and Voldemort the other powerful wizard present there was too busy trying to kill Harry than making him a winner, so it was without a doubt the work of Dumbledore.

"Yeah! Pansy cheer up." Daphne said, "We all know that you caught the snitch first but that Potter managed to accidentally touched the snitch with his lips."

"Pug-face, if we are considering skills then you are a lot better than Potter." Even Theodore chimed in, "But sometimes stuff happens like Potter's broom suddenly went out of control causing him to fall. I am sure that luck will not be with him all the time."

Pansy looked at up at her friends who were trying to cheer her up, "I am fine guys, I just feel a little upset that's all and as Draco told me before the game, I put my all into it, but still ended up losing due to an accident so I can't help but feel a little sad."

"I am sure you will win next time," Draco said.

"Yes, coincidence doesn't repeat every year," Theodore said.

Pansy cheered up a lot by now but Draco was still feeling a bit sour, the taste of losing wasn't a good one. Draco didn't know why but his pride hurt a lot. Most people would be okay with losing against Dumbledore since everyone literally calls him the greatest White-Wizard of their time, so losing against him is not a shameful thing but Draco felt different. He had the urge to go to Dumbledore's office and question him about why he did what he did. It was just a game but why did he have to be involved in this, Just to make Harry win? Why are things always about Harry?

'Since you want to play with fire, you have to know that you could get burned. Dumbledore since you want to control everything, I would make you lose the very thing you desire.' Draco had enough of the manipulation and control.

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Meanwhile, in Hagrid's hut, Harry was being made a cup of strong tea back in Hagrid's hut, with Ron and Hermione.

"It was Draco," Ron was explaining, "Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

"No, Ron I told you he wasn't doing anything." Hermione said, "It was Snape."

"Rubbish," said Hagrid, who hadn't heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another, wondering what to tell him. Harry decided on the truth.

"I found out something about him," he told Hagrid. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."

Hagrid dropped the teapot.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" he said.

"Fluffy?"

"Yeah -- he's mine -- bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year -- I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the..."

"Yes?" said Harry eagerly.

"Now, don't ask me any more," said Hagrid gruffly. "That's top secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to steal it."

"Rubbish," said Hagrid again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"Its either Draco or Snape." Ron said again, "I can tell you that for sure."

"Why would Draco do something like that." Hagrid asked again, "Yeh know, even if he's one of the Malfoys, he's a kind boy... he invented an' modified potions that could help people and even magical creatures, he shared those potion recipes for free without any profit too. Yeh know-- he could have made a fortune out of it, but he gave it all away."

"Well, it all might be a lie, a false pretense Hagrid." Ron said, "I suspect that he is as kind as he pretends to be."

"Ron, I have already told you several times before, Draco wasn't doing anything." Hermione started getting angry with Ron, "Ever since school started you were the one who keeps making trouble, you insulted him and his parents in the train after he left, then you accused his friend of stealing and then you went ahead and insulted his father in front of his face. If I were to chose who is a bad guy between you and him, it would be you."

"I.." Ron wanted to say something back but couldn't, she was right ever since he saw Draco that day on the train, he's the one that's been acting like a bad guy, not Draco.

"Okay, stop it guys." Harry said seeing both of them breaking into a fight again after finally becoming friends, "Ron, Hermione is right, we can't keep blaming Draco because of his parents since he hasn't done anything to us and Hermione, I believe Ron wasn't trying to blame Draco either but he saw him jinxing something, didn't he? So we can't ignore that fact either and Snape is still our main suspect."

"I am tellin' ya kids... Its impossible, Professor Snape wouldn't do something like that."

"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" cried Hermione.

The afternoon's events certainly seemed to have changed her mind about Snape.

"I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"

"That's what Draco was doing too." Mumbled Ron earning a glare from Hermione

"The Broom Jinx is a very powerful dark magic Ron, do you really think Draco can do it even if he wanted to." Hermione tried to calmly explain Ron again.

"But he is a genius, isn't he?" Ron said, Harry pushed him a little and looking at Hermione's face he quickly added: "And I also believe that Snape did it, I am just taking Draco into consideration."

"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! neither would Draco, in front of all the Professors there. Now, listen to me, all three of yeh -- yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel--"

"Aha!" said Harry, "so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?"

Hagrid looked furious with himself.

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Draco was in his suitcase taking care of his plants. The magical plants were very weird from normal plants since some of them had sentience, some fought back and some just destroyed. Today Draco was cleaning up Bouncing Bulbs.

Bouncing bulbs were magical plant's that jumped around if it is not restrained. Bouncing Bulbs' main stem is a disproportionate purple bulb, with a bunch of leaves growing on the top. Young Bouncing Bulbs are small enough to handle, but mature ones can reach the size of doorways. Bouncing Bulbs can be aggressive when they feel threatened; they jump towards the possible attacker and try to hit it.

Draco had grown them to experiment on it, but these plants turned out to be pretty much useless. Bouncing Bulbs are a necessary ingredient in the Pompion Potion, a potion which encases the drinker's head in a pumpkin, but other than that it had no uses. Draco being the person who hates pumpkin, wasn't really pleased by the only use it had and it was a troublesome ingredient since it smelled a little like pumpkins as well.

Draco had only grown a couple of them for an experiment but somehow it managed to release its seeds in secret hidden places, causing a lot of them to grow up. Draco hadn't noticed them at first but after they started causing destruction's to his other plants, he began noticing them after a few investigations.

The Bouncing Bulbs were very troublesome to take care of, especially when they are a lot of them. The smalls one's could be stopped by using a knock-back Jinx but the bigger one's needed to be burnt down. Since Draco was still in his garden, he couldn't recklessly use fire spells or any other spells carelessly as it might destroy his garden. So, Draco was dealing with them one by one, with a new spell he learned that made things wither, it wasn't a very powerful spell but was enough for a magical plant.

So, Draco spent the rest of his evening taking his anger out on these plants which surprisingly managed to multiply to a number of 70. After killing them, the next part was to clean their rotting bodies from the garden and remove the smell. Draco found a new property of Bouncing Bulbs, they smelled exactly like baked pumpkin's after they rot, which might be not a bad smell to some but Draco hated the plant even more now. After cleaning up he left the suitcase and walked towards the common room, all of the Slytherin student's were celebrating, to cheer Pansy up. All the Slytherin's believed that Pansy was the real winner and Potter only won due to a coincidence and the favor of other professors especially Dumbledore. Even some Ravenclaw students believed that.

Ravenclaw and Slytherin have always been close and similarly, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor have been friendly with each other. Ravenclaw is all about intelligence and they would rather do things that benefit them rather than harm then which coincides with Slytherin's believes, and since they're a lot of pure-bloods and Half-bloods in Ravenclaw, being friends with them is natural and harmless. Similarly, Hufflepuff is about hard-work which coincides with Gryffindor's believes and since both of their houses have the most Muggle-borns in them, they have no problems with each other.

Everyone at the party was cheering for Pansy, complementing her about how great she played and how she will definitely win the game next year. Draco went over and joined them in their celebration. After a while, the party ended and everyone went back to their dorm. Only Pansy and Draco were left in the common room.

"Draco, do you think I will win next time?" Pansy asked looking at the fireplace.

"I don't think so, I believe so." Draco said, "Don't get caught up on what everyone says. Expectations are a heavy burden that people put onto you and not even realize it. So don't try to live up to their expectations, do what you want to do!"

"Easy for you to say." Pansy said smiling.

"Hey! I have and will always have your back." Draco said, "Even if next year you decide to stop playing Quidditch, I will still support you in that decision."

"Why are you so kind to me?" Pansy asked, "Sometimes, I feel that you are the only one that puts effort into our friendship. I feel useless since I haven't even done a 10th of what you have done for me."

Draco reached out and caressed her hair, "Then why don't you take it as a debt?"

"Debt?"

"Yeah! Just pay me back when I need you to." Draco said, "Like maybe taking a curse for me or something along that line."

"You want me to take a curse for you?" Pansy said making an annoyed expression and punched Draco's arm.

"Why not? Why does the knight always has to take a sword for the Princess, why can't the Princess do so for the knight?"

"Hmph! you consider yourself a knight?" Pansy snorted, "But since you called me a Princess, I will consider taking a curse for you when the time comes."

"When did I.." Draco wanted to ask, when did he call her a princess, but looking at her happy face he closed his mouth.