The Pieces Fall Into Place

The first quidditch match of the season is always intense. The students are all excited about their house teams and the teams are excited about playing for the first time in a year. The intensity of this year was no different. The students were out on the field in throngs cheering as the players warmed up above them. Gryffindor was playing Slytherin. Harry and Draco are the seekers, and Draco's Lightning 666 is an even match for Harry's Firebolt.

Madame Hooch stepped out onto the field and the players lined up in the starting formations. Draco and Harry squared off above the other players. The snitch is released and disappears in a golden flash. The bludgers are next followed by the quaffle. And the game begins. Harry circles around above the action, searching for the snitch. Below, the score is 30-20 in favor of Slytherin. Draco was searching for the snitch as well, but he is lower to the ground and more actively dodging the occasional bludger sent his way. The snitch had seemed to vanish into thin air. Harry had no idea where it had gone, although he could usually find it fairly quickly. Draco had no idea either, and he had more talent that Harry was willing to admit.

Draco was the first to see it, flashing golden next to the last Gryffindor hoop from the left. He shot off after it with Harry hot on his tail. The snitch apparently sensed the two brooms shooting after it and began to zoom off. The two seekers zigged, zagged and swirled after it, narrowly missing other players.

Harry was almost deaf from the air whooshing past him. He couldn't hear anything except his heart racing in his chest. Draco smirked as the faces of his peers blurred into flesh coloured blobs. He loved the thrill of the chase. The golden glimmer was still racing away from them.

Then all of a sudden, the snitch reared up and it was gone again. Draco pulled up to scan the stadium for it. Harry slowed to a stop and looked around. Although Gryffindor had been in the lead for a while, Slytherin was winning with a score of 70 to 50. Cursing in his head for losing sight of the snitch, Harry began the search again.

Several eternities passed while Harry searched. Then, out of the corner of Harry's eye, a golden glimmer that could only mean... the snitch! There it was, hovering by the Hufflepuff banners, barely visible against the yellow. Harry raced for it, egging his broom to fly faster than he had ever gone before. He could almost swear that he heard the boom that meant the speed of sound had been broken.

*Haha! Gryffindor wins! Always last Malfoy.*

The snitch was within his grasp, a few more inches and victory would be his. Harry began egging his broom to go even faster when suddenly, out of apparently nowhere, a flash of green came shooting down and ensnared the snitch.

"AND DRACO MALFOY, IN A BRILLIANT PLAY, HAS JUST CAUGHT THE SNITCH!!!!! SLYTHERIN WINS!" Harry swirled down to earth in shock. Out done by... by Malfoy?! He could hear the Slytherins cheering and yelling. At least there was no singing this year thought Harry numbly. Harry walked without seeing, without actually knowing where he was going until he found himself miraculously in front of the showers. Harry stood under the steaming water for a long time. The hot water prickling him seemed nonexistent. His mind still blank from everything except that Malfoy had beaten him. How could this have happened? He was Malfoy after all! Malfoy! Harry banged his head against the walls hoping that he could give himself amnesia.

*~*~*~*~*~*

When he finally emerged from the showers, Ron and Hermione were waiting outside. Both looked relieved that he hadn't really tried to drown himself. Harry slunk down the halls towards the Gryffindor tower and without a word, slumped into the dormitory and shut the door. Ron and Hermione knew better than to try and talk to him just yet. None of their words would help. They could tell him over and over again that it was just a quidditch game, that it wasn't that big a deal, that there were plenty of other times for him to beat Malfoy. But all Harry would hear would be, "Harry, you were beaten by Malfoy."

Harry lay on his bed and stared off into oblivion. His mind lost within itself. It really didn't bother him so much that they had lost. Or even that they had lost to Slytherin. It was the fact that he was about to catch the snitch and Malfoy made a brilliant play. A play that won Slytherin the game. Proof in a way that Malfoy was better than him and that ate at his insides. *Malfoy is better than me.* Harry lay there on his bed with the curtains drawn, not moving even when it was time for dinner. Ron stuck his head into the dormitories, shook his head at the dreadful silence that resounded throughout the room and quietly closed the door. Ron gave Hermione a shrug and they went off to dinner without Harry.

At Hermione's insistence, Ron snuck back a flask of pumpkin juice and some food for Harry, which he left on his trunk. The night continued on and the other boys in the dormitory slowly filtered in and soon the silence was shattered by their snores. Harry got out of bed and saw the food at the foot of his bed. Harry gave a small smile towards Ron's bed. Harry placed the food off to one side, reached inside his trunk and brought out the invisibility cloak. Wrapping it around him, Harry summoned his broomstick and snuck out of Gryffindor tower. The astronomy tower would be empty tonight and that was where Harry was headed. To walk to the Astronomy Tower was a little too dangerous for Harry's mood right now. He walked into the courtyard, making sure that the cloak covered all his parts. After ascertaining that no one was around, he brought out his Firebolt and flew up towards the highest tower in the school. Harry glided upwards towards the top, alohamora-ed the large windows open and settled himself against a windowsill. The moon was full and shining down cold rays of light. Glancing at the moon, he saw a bird flying across it. It seemed that Hedwig could sense where Harry was and when he needed comforting and she landed down quietly next to him, offering him support and some sort of quiet understanding that very few humans seemed to possess.

Harry stared up at the moon. It was so lonely in the sky and its pale complexion seemed to be silently crying. Seeing the moon in the sky brought back memories of Sirius, but most of all, memories of his father. Harry wrapped the cloak all the more tightly around himself, not for fear of being seen, or for fear of the cold but merely because the cloak had belonged to James.

Without knowing it, Harry began to drop off. For the first time since the summer, Harry dreamt of something other than the battle. He dreamt of Prongs. In his dream, his father was silver like the patronus and his form was ever changing between that of a human and that of a stag. James Potter trotted across the lake without a ripple and stood before Harry. Harry reached his hand out to touch the patronus, and found it solid. Yet he could see right through it. Then James walked closer to Harry and spoke softly into his ear. The words were calming, reassuring, comforting. Harry felt his spirits lift and in his dream he really was lifting. He was soaring on a cloud next to his father. Surveying castle, he saw someone on the rooftop with white blond hair and a smirk on his face. The cloud circled closer and closer towards the roof. Draco was lying there on his back staring up at the stars with a smirk. The smirking face that Harry loath was changing. Suddenly Harry was looking at his own face on Draco's body. Looking at his father, Harry saw in the reflection off of James' glasses that he now had Malfoy's face. In the dream world, Harry accepted this as normal. Harry stepped off of the cloud and lied down on the rooftop as well, watching James float around. The light from the moon refracted off of the patronus and shone in his eyes....

Harry woke up because the warm, rosy fingers of dawn were shining in his eyes. He was still up in the Astronomy Tower. Looking around him, he saw that Hedwig was still there and everything looked the same yet something seemed different. The three years of divinations had rubbed off a bit and Harry could swear he sensed another person in the room. But that would be impossible. Hedwig would know if anyone else was there, and the shadow of a person seemed so familiar to him. Shrugging it off, Harry headed back to the Gryffindor Tower, still depressed but determined to never let Malfoy beat him ever again.