Beautiful Midnight

"Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere, angel

Come get up my baby

Look at that sky, life's begun

Nights are warm and the days are young"

- 'Golden Years' by David Bowie

**

"Ready?"

"Ready to beat you,"

"Like that could ever happen. Now go!" The two shot down the hallway, clutching their Firebolt V's. They both leaned into the turn as they neared the end of the hall and sped past the secretary with lightning speed. They were neck-and-neck as they reached the finish line, or the main office. As they were barely ten feet from the door, it was suddenly thrust open.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" exclaimed Lucius Malfoy, enraged. Draco Malfoy and Badria Malcone promptly halted their brooms with such speed that they nearly toppled to the floor.

"What's all the fuss about - what's going on out here?" asked Hiram Malcone, making his way to the door. Draco and Badria hopped off their brooms and stood to face their fathers.

"Well you see, Draco and I made a small wager to see who was the better flier now that all of my therapy is finished. And this is the best hallway, with the hardest turns and all -" explained Badria.

"Badria, I would expect this from teenagers, but not from two twenty-four year old VPs! This is completely unacceptable behavior," exclaimed her father.

"It will never happen again, since we now know that my flying is far superior to Badria's." said Draco with a smirk.

"Excuse me, but as I seem to recall, I was ahead of you at the last turn, and would have beaten you if you father hadn't -"

"Stop this! Get inside, we're already behind on the meeting," said Lucius, turning to enter the office. Reluctantly, Draco and Badria leaned their brooms against the wall outside the office and made their way into the meeting.

**

After the meeting, Badria Apparated home to her flat. Living in her flat was so different from her old home, Malcone Manor. She didn't have to move out of her house, but she wanted her independence, and she would move back once she inherited it. The flat had been a mess when she had left for work seven hours earlier, but her maid, Sophie, had obviously come by. There was a stack of mail on her coffee table, and all of the dirty dishes had been washed and put away. She tossed her pocketbook and briefcase down on the kitchen table and went into her bedroom, where she found her laundry in neat piles on her king-sized bed. She turned her radio on to the WWW and she began to put her laundry away.

"Location Unknown will be playing tonight at the Emerald Room. The Emerald Room is located in North Diagon Alley, across the street from The Golden Wand. Admission is free before nine o'clock," said the announcer, before playing Location Unknown's newest song, a fast-paced tune that used a lot of drums.

"On and on, reckless abandon, something's wrong, this is gonna shock them, nothing to hold on to, we'll use this song to lead you on..."

**Brrring** Badria's MagiFone, which was very much like a Muggle telephone, but operated by magic, rang. She put down several of her skirts and went to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, what are you doing?" said the voice of Draco Malfoy.

"Putting away my laundry. Why, are you up for another race?"

"Actually, since you think that I lost, even though I know I didn't, I thought maybe we could go see Location Unknown tonight, my treat,"

"Your treat? I don't think I could pass that up. What time do you want to go?"

"I'll come get you around eight, okay?"

"Alright, I'll see you then. Bye!"

"Bye!"

Badria hung up the phone. She and Draco going out after work was not uncommon, as they had been friends for quite a long time. Only recently had her father told her that he thought this was because he thought Draco liked her. She didn't believe him at all; she and Draco had been friends for so long that dating him would be too weird. She thought the reason why her father was pushing this so much was because she was twenty-four, and not married or engaged.

**

**Knock knock**

"Come in! It's open!" shouted Badria from her bedroom. She had just finished getting dressed. She inspected herself in front of her three-way mirror. She was wearing a new pair of dress robes from Prada For Witches. The robes were light and silky, a mauve-ish color, perfect for September, since it hadn't gotten cold yet. Half of her long golden hair was pulled back on the top of her head. She grabbed one of her lighter cloaks and walked into the living room. Draco was reclining in one of her overstuffed armchairs, casually glancing through her mail.

"Draco, that's private, and for it to remain private, you would have to stop reading it," said Badria.

"Ah, you're ready. I was starting to think you had forgotten about me,"

"And to get back at me for that, you decided to read my mail?"

"You left it here, right out in the open,"

"I left in on the table, in my house. Where else am I supposed to put it?"

"Wow, look at the time! We better get going now," Draco said, tossing down her mail and opening the door.

**

The Emerald Room was packed; apparently everyone wanted to see Location Unknown. Draco and Badria sat at a small table on the side of the club, away from the crowds of people. The Emerald Room was one of Badria's favorite places to go out to. She and Draco had spent many a night there listening to countless bands, discussing school when they were younger, then Quidditch, and now work.

"I have absolutely no idea why they were so mad at us for something like that. We didn't break anything, and we weren't late for the meeting," said Draco.

"Yeah, well I don't really want to upset them too much, or they might not let me play Quidditch next season. I can only play if they grant me the time off. I'm going to have to do all of the Quidditch reporting this season, and hopefully that will be enough for them,"

"I wouldn't be too worried about it. I heard you father talking to one of the secretaries about you returning to Quidditch, and he was so excited. He loves to watch you play Quidditch, and he knows you're going to do well. That's why he doesn't mind giving you the time off,"

"I hope I do well. How embarrassing would that be, returning to Pro Quidditch, and having an awful season. That would be my last, too. But it's going to be so much fun. Remember when we played Junior Quidditch seventh year, and we got to get out of Friday lessons? All of the Gryffindors would get so mad about it, since that was one of the days we had Potions,"

"Oh yeah. Potter loved that. He was the only other one, right? And every Friday morning, we would board the Hogwarts Express, getting dirty looks from the entire Great Hall when we left during breakfast,"

"Ron would always complain to Harry on Saturday nights when we got back about how horrible Potions had been with Snape. But I really enjoyed that team. I'm glad both you and Harry were on it."

"Yeah, even though I only got to play half of the games. We did really well, since we had the some of the best players in the league,"

"I was talking to Chris Broadmoor at practice yesterday -"

"Practice?"

"Oh, I had forgotten to tell you. I've been practicing with the Magpies, in order to get back in shape before the draft next year,"

"And what did Broadmoor say?"

"He wants to get everyone from the team together. He thinks that we should all get together sometime soon,"

"Really? Do you think everyone would go?"

"I think so. Everyone else from the team is on one of the Professional teams, so I am sure they would have time to get together at one of the league functions,"

"That would be fun. I haven't seen most of them lately. Except Potter, he just never goes away,"

"Draco, I don't understand why you still have that childish grudge against him. He is so nice, he's one of my good friends, too."

"Lets just watch the band, okay? I don't want to talk about him," Draco turned to watch Location Unknown who had just started their set. Badria sighed, wondering, why couldn't they just get along? Harry tries to be nice to him, but Draco acts like being civil to Harry would kill him. They need to learn to get along; otherwise they'll cause another scene somewhere. She turned to watch the band, letting her worries casually slip away.

**

Badria arrived home after midnight. They had had a wonderful time at the Emerald Room and had ended up going to the Golden Wand afterwards for dinner. She flicked the light on as she entered her flat and spotted an envelope on her table.

Dear Miss Malcone.

You are cordially invited to the annual Start-of-the-Season Quidditch

Ball. Even though you aren't playing, this would be a perfect opportunity

to make connections for your upcoming return to Quidditch. The Ball will take place on October 10, 2005, and will be held at The Golden Wand, in North Diagon Alley. Appetizers will be served at seven o'clock.

Sincerely,

Derek Stevenson,

President of the Professional Quidditch League

Badria had forgotten all about the Balle. She realized with a start that it was only two weeks away and she didn't have a suitable gown or a date. As she moved around the apartment getting ready for bed, she wondered whom she would like to go to the Balle with, if given a choice. Seamus Finnigan wouldn't be so bad, she thought with a smile.

**

The next morning, Badria sat in her office, looking though her paperwork and occasionally taking a sip from a mug of coffee. She sat at a grand mahogany desk in a high-backed swivel chair that she could heat with a touch of her wand. This all sat in front of a large bay window that looked down upon the business district of Diagon Alley. There was a roaring fire in the fireplace at her left. She had one of the much-coveted corner offices, so there were some smaller windows to her right.

The entire room seemed to have a rich glow to it, at least compared to the other offices nearest to it. Draco's office, for example, was filled with deep emerald and silver. This one was decorated in beautiful shades of burgundy and gold. One of the smaller windows was open to let in some air, and to allow mail in. The ruby-colored velvet curtains billowed in the wind. Next to the window rested a golden, jewel-encrusted perch for Badria's owl, Yule. Yule, short for Yuletide, had been a present for Badria from Hiram last Christmas.

Along the walls hung various pictures, paintings, awards, and certificates, among them a diploma from Hogwarts. Many of the pictures were Quidditch-related. One dated from seventh year, when Gryffindor had won the Quidditch Cup, and it showed the entire team standing together, the cup raised above them in the middle. Another was the team picture of the 1998 Montrose Manticores, and as the caption underneath it read that it featured Hogwarts students Badria Malcone, Draco Malfoy, and Harry Potter. There were other teams too, one from Beauxbatons showed a first year Badria with six seventh years, all wearing deep green Quidditch robes.

Badria heard a click, and looked up in time to see Draco sweeping through the doorway.

"Did you get one of these last night?" he asked, holding up an invitation to the Balle.

"Yes,"

"Are you going to go?"

"Yes,"

"With who?"

"Whoever asks me? Why?"

"Oh-I just wanted to know if you were going,"

"Are you?"

"Maybe."

"You should. It will be fun,"

"Are you almost done? We should work on the designs for the Magpies' new uniforms. They need them in two weeks."

"I have to be at practice in ten minutes," replied Badria, as she began to put her things away in her desk.

"Oh, well we can do this tomorrow. I better go now anyway," Draco put the invitation into the folds of his robe, and turned to leave.

"Bye," said Badria. Draco swept out of the room, his cloak swishing as he walked.

She collected her things, and left.

**

Practicing with the Magpies always proved to be interesting. Badria had played for many teams and none of them practiced the way they did, their quick drills were posed around games she had played as a child, and they kept you entertained while you worked.

She arrived at the locker room before most of the actual players. Oliver Wood, the captain, and Richie Plumpton, the assistant captain, were the only people there. They were sitting at one of the tables in their practice robes, reviewing plays for their upcoming game against Puddlemere United. When they saw her, Oliver jumped up.

"Badria! Just the person I wanted to see! Can I ask you a really big favor?" he asked.

"Sure, Oliver. What is it?"

"Well," he began, "since you're a Quidditch reporter for the Daily Prophet, I assume you must have access to certain Quidditch events, right?"

"Yes, most things. Why do you ask?"

"Puddlemere United took two rookies this year – both Chasers. No one's ever seen them play, and since you can get into Quidditch practices-"

"Oliver!"

"It would be such a big help for the team, Badria. No one knows that you're practicing with us, so they wouldn't assume you were helping us. I obviously can't go in there, and no one else can either, but if you're writing about the season opener-"

"Fine. I'll do it. But you're going to owe to until the day you die, Oliver."

"I love this girl!" he exclaimed, as he wrapped her in a hug. "You're the best, love."

"All right, all right. I'll have to talk to the people at the Prophet later."