Play The Game

CHAPTER TWO

Harry rolled onto his side, still half asleep. During the course of the night he had managed to throw his red and gold blanket off his bed and across the floor and was now curled up shivering. 'Sleeep...' 

A snort from one of the other boys (most probably Ron) made him open his eyes in annoyance and he winced at the light streaming into the tower. He reached over to his bedside table and hit it feebly in search of his glasses as another snort shook the tower. He finally found the glasses and put them on, throwing his legs over the side of the bed and yawning. "Wake up Ron; we have to" - he yawned again - "get ready for Hogsmeade."

"I'm not going to catch it if you throw it at my nuts!" Ron protested loudly, sitting bolt upright. "What's that?"

Harry blinked, stumbling to his feet and looking around the tower blearily in search of 'that'.

"Go to sleep Ron!" Seamus muttered from where he was buried under his blankets, which only made his Irish accent even harder to understand.

"Seamus, you're a leprechaun," Dean informed his friend. "Go sit under a rainbow. It's the weekend, and you're already bugging me. It must be about four am. Harry, it's all your fault."

"My fault?" Harry asked, falling back onto his bed. "If Ron didn't make a point of trying to saw through his bedposts with the force of his snores we wouldn't be in this predicament."

"I don't snore!" Ron yelped heatedly, his ears reddening.

"You snore: live with it." Seamus pulled the covers over his head and tried to sleep again.

"And you're a leprechaun, also live with it. Now all go back to sleep. Harry, if you plan to keep talking, bugger off," Dean mediated.

"But I can't sleep with Ron snoring!" Harry protested, taking a moment to clean his glasses on his shirt.

"Then go away!" they all shouted.

"Fine," Harry shot back, staggering to his feet and grabbing his blanket off the floor. 'Maybe I can sleep on the sofa.' Walking out defiantly he immediately sought out the comfiest sofa and lay down on it, pulling the blanket over himself and attempting to sleep.

Hermione rolled her eyes and planted her hands on her hips. "Harry Potter," she began reprovingly.

'Oh god no...' Harry took a deep breath before sitting up. "Yes 'Mione?"

"You appear to be sleeping on the sofa," Hermione commented archly, raising an eyebrow and walking down the girls' staircase. "And you have nothing on but your underwear."

"I'm tired," Harry whined, taking his glasses off then putting them on the floor next to the sofa. "And Ron snores."

"Ron's always snored," Hermione said sagely, taking a blanket from another chair and draping it over Harry absently. "You usually manage. Besides, it's gone nine a.m.! I already finished my homework, so I'm off for breakfast. Fancy coming?"

Harry had no answer for Hermione on the 'Ron's always snored' part. How did you tell someone like Hermione that you hadn't been sleeping well for a long time now, waking up thinking about a certain person with uneasiness in your stomach without making her worry? Exactly. He dropped back onto the sofa and curled up into the blankets. "Maybe later 'Mione. Let me have half an hour."

"If you're not down in fifteen minutes, I'll do your homework all wrong," Hermione threatened ominously, standing up and walking out of the room, shutting the door gently behind her on her way to the Hall.

Harry sighed, throwing the blankets off him angrily. Did no one want him to sleep in this place? He grumbled under his breath and stood up, walking up to the Boys Dorm and leaving his blanket on the couch.

Throwing the doors open he grinned, "Wake up you lot. It's 9am, and breakfast is nearly over."

"Bugroff," Dean grunted bluntly, tucking his pillow around his ears.

Seamus jumped out of his bed with a yelp, pajamas askew and hair messed up. "9am?!"

"Get back in bed, you idiot," Dean pleaded, sitting up finally. He rubbed his curly hair and blinked hard.

Leaving the two best friends to argue it out Harry walked over to his bed and began rooting around for his toothbrush. Coming up triumphant as Seamus threw a pillow at Dean in retaliation he slouched into the bathroom to brush his teeth. "Someone jump on Ron to wake him up."

Dean shrugged and stood up, swinging his pillow menacingly, thwacking Ron over the head whilst yelling, "UP! GET UP you lanky ginger freckle-magnet!"

"What did you call me?" Ron snapped, suddenly perfectly awake. He leapt out of bed and started after Dean.

Seamus hopped over to the bathroom door, jumping from one foot to the other. "Hurry up Harry before I start calling you the boy-who-spent-too-long-in-the-bathroom!"

The sound of the shower turning on was Harry's only answer.

Ron stopped and pointed at Seamus, laughing. "See him dance!" he grinned.

Seamus stuck two fingers up at Ron, still fidgeting and hopping from one foot to the other anxiously. Ron rolled his eyes and pulled on his paisley dressing-gown, heading into the common room and out of the portrait hole for the prefects' bathroom.

"Right, Se--"

"Thanks Harry!" Seamus rushed past Harry and into the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking it. Harry raised an eyebrow then shrugged, walking over to his bed and pulling out some robes from his trunk.

"Are you and Seamus going to Hogsmeade later?" He asked Dean, while pulling on a mouldy looking T-shirt which was three sizes too big.

"Yeah, gotta go to Zonko's," Dean nodded, pulling a long-sleeved T-shirt over his head, having untangled it from its short-sleeved partner. "You?"

"I think Hermione needs some new books or something." Harry rubbed his nose then belted up his pants, sitting down to pull on some socks. "And Ron wants to check out some stuff out of Honeydukes."

Dean grunted. "He'll only get taller if he eats more," he sniffed.

Harry chuckled and continued to pull his socks on, forcing them into small holey trainers once that was done and putting a black robe on to complete his look. "I promised to meet Hermione in the Great Hall, see you later?"

"Yep," Dean nodded, attempting to comb his hair and giving up. "At Hogsmeade, my friend."

Harry grinned at Dean and nodded his head before turning and leaving for the Great Hall. The Gryffindor Common Room was pretty much empty of life, with one small first year curled up on a sofa, her head propped up on her hand, half asleep. He slipped out quietly, enjoying the peace as he walked alone down the halls and staircases into the Great Hall. He spotted Ron and Hermione at the top of the Gryffindor table and sank into a seat opposite them both. "Morning," he offered weakly.

"Meh," Ron said half-heartedly, earning himself a severe look from Hermione.

Two giggling Gryffindor first year girls announced the arrival of Blaise and Draco and Harry propped his head on his left hand, the other reaching out for a piece of toast mechanically.

"Harry, I think you'd better look over your charms homework again," Hermione said loftily, taking some parchment from her bag. "The second paragraph seemed totally disconnected. 'And if I had the use of this charm in every day life, I would use it to stop him from making me do this to myself. It could be useful for cleaning ovens...'" Hermione rolled the page and tapped it pensively against her bottom lip. "What's wrong, Harry?"

Harry plucked the piece of parchment out of Hermione's hand, spreading it out on the table in front of him. "Oh. Right. Yeah." He cleared his throat, "I wrote that at around 3am one morning when Ron woke me up with his snoring." 'Liar'.

"I did not," Ron said, but in a puzzled tone rather than a defensive one. "You were doing that at midnight, I remember. You wouldn't come and go to sleep. I was telling you about Malfoy so you told me to go forth and multiply."

"Yeah. That's what I just said." Harry blinked.

"But I didn't wake you up... Never mind," Ron said, shaking his head. He peered around Harry to where Malfoy and Zabini sat. Parkinson was advancing on them. "But you weren't listening to a word I said. I had some real good dirt on him and now I forgot it."

"You had dirt on Malfoy?" Harry looked over his shoulder at what - or rather who - Ron was looking at.

"Plenty, and when I started talking about him you groaned, so I stopped," Ron said, screwing up his face in an attempt to remember.

Harry opened his mouth to reply but was saved as a petite figure with dark red hair appeared and sat down next to him. "Hi Harry!" greeted Ginny Weasley cheerfully.

Hermione and Ron both smiled and as Ginny sat with them. Ron's face, however, melted into a frown. "Are you still going out with that ugly kid?" he asked strictly.

Ginny blinked as she reached out a hand to pick up the milk jug. "Who?"

"Michelov something," Ron said stiffly.

"Mickey Lovell," Hermione corrected, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, no. We broke it off last week." She poured herself a glass of milk.

Now it was Harry's turn to blink. "You went out with the Ravenclaw keeper?"

"Traitor!" Ron emphasized, pointing a quivering finger at Ginny. "Consorting with the enemy!"

"Oh please, Ron. He's a nice guy." Ginny drank the milk in her goblet in one go, without pausing to take a breath. "You wouldn't have minded if he was a Gryffindor."

"No, but he's a Ravenclaw," Ron said exasperatedly, spreading his hands in despair.

Harry laughed and ran a hand through his messy hair. "I don't know, Gin. Ron wasn't too fond of Dean when you went out with him, and he's a Gryffindor."

Ron stared shrewdly at Harry, trying to decide if Harry was supporting him or not.

"Well anyway, I'm with no one at the moment. That should please you Ron," Ginny said icily.

"Yes," Ron said proudly, then looked down at his cereal.

Ginny scowled and butchered her piece of bacon with her knife ruthlessly. Poor thing never had a chance.

"Are we still up for Hogsmeade?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione, moving away from Ginny slightly.

"I certainly am," Hermione smiled. "I need that new textbook on Animagus Suspension."

"Is that like animal porn?" Ron asked suspiciously. Half of the Gryffindor table snorted into their breakfast as Ron voiced that aloud.

Harry cleared his throat, grinning. "Somehow I don't think so Ron..."

"Ah, all right," Ron said, satisfied. "Well, I'm coming because I have no other friends."

"Can I come?" piped up Ginny.

Ron opened his mouth to speak, but Hermione nodded enthusiastically before he could say something along the lines of 'No you should be rolled up in cotton wool and put in a padded room'.

"I want to go to the robe shop, and I need your advice!" Hermione beamed.

"So it's settled then?" asked Harry. "You and Ginny can go robe shopping while Ron and I meet Dean and Seamus."

"Sounds good to me!" Hermione smiled. "So long as Ginny'll carry my bags with me."

Ginny pulled a face, "Do I hav--" Her words were cut off as two more girls joined them at the table, giggling.

"Have you seen Draco this morning?" asked Parvati Patil eagerly.

"Or Blaise," Lavender added.

"Or Blaise," Parvati giggled.

"In fact, both of them together would be great."

Ginny raised an eyebrow at the two girls. "No, now sod off. Giggling makes me nauseous."

"Ooh, get YOU!" Lavender sniffed.

Parvati clicked her tongue. "We weren't asking YOU. We were asking Harry." She turned to him with a simpering smile.

"Er..." Harry looked confused as Ginny made gagging noises. "Why would I know?"

"Because you and Draco, well... aren't you..." Lavender bent down to whisper conspiratorially. "An item?"

Harry's eyes nearly fell out of his face. "What?!"

"You and Draco, aren't you together?" Lavender pressed, eyes wide.

Ginny started choking in the background, making her gagging more realistic. Pansy shot her a withering look. "Yes Harry, you and Draco. We know these things."

Lavender nodded righteously. "It's pretty obvious," she said deprecatingly.

Harry looked panicked and sent a pleading glance at Ron and Hermione. Hermione and Ron both shook their heads, moving their chairs back. Harry distinctly mouthed, 'thanks guys' and stood up quickly. "I really have to go now girls, bye." He ran out of the Great Hall.

Parvati looked blank for a second then turned to Lavender. "He's in denial."

Lavender shook her head sadly. "They're so sweet together."

"She clearly missed the brutality and palpable animosity," Hermione murmured to Ron.

Parvati sighed, clasping her hands together. "True love."

Harry strode out of the school tightening his dark red scarf around his neck to fight off the cold. He balled his hands into fists at his side and continued to walk in the direction of Hogsmeade.

Lavender wrapped her pink-gloved hands around her arms and nestled into her pink woolly scarf as she trotted after Harry.

"Are you sure?"

Ron growled loudly, stopping in his tracks. "GO AWAY!" he snapped, turning round so that his scarf whipped him in the face.

Harry turned around with his green eyes blazing. "I am perfectly sure. If you don't believe me then we can go over there and ask him!" he yelled, pointing in the direction of the Slytherin Quidditch Team practice.

"OOOH can we?" Lavender asked excitedly.

"That's a wonderful idea Harry!" Parvati exclaimed, wrapping her arm around Harry's and beginning to walk.

"Fine," spat Harry. The quicker they got this over and done with the better in his opinion. That wasn't to say he didn't like Draco, oh no, far from it. Harry found himself pushed closer and closer toward the blonde haired Slytherin Prince in nearly every aspect of his Hogwarts life.

"Great!" Lavender exclaimed, leading the way. "You'll need your broom, right?" She almost salivated at the prospect of watching Harry Potter 'in action'.

"Ooh!" Parvati exclaimed excitedly, letting go of Harry to dart ahead to the broom shed. She found his broom quickly and handed it to him with a wide smile. Lavender clapped excitedly.

"Uh, thanks," Harry said carefully, taking the broom off Parvati. He glanced around at the equipment the Slytherins had left on the floor of the pitch and bent down to pick up what looked like a model of a snitch.

With a sharp crack his head shot up, narrowly missing being hit by a Bludger. He followed the path it was taking with his eyes and saw Draco running his hands up a Slytherins arm, unaware of the Bludger.

Parvati yelped, grabbing onto Lavender for dear life. "What was that?!

"OH DEAR!" Lavender exclaimed, putting her mittened hands to her mouth. She pointed at the heavy Bludger whistling towards Draco in horror.

Ignoring the two squealing girls Harry grabbed hold of his broom and threw his leg over it, grabbing a beaters bat off the floor and jetting up into the game.

"What a hero!" Lavender squealed. Parvati swooned.

Harry held onto his broom tightly, as the wind dug its fingers under his hands and tried to throw him off. He'd question why he was doing this later, but all that was on his mind at the moment was one thing: 'get to Draco'.

He sped past a green figure with black hair that wobbled on their broom as he passed. Holding the beaters bat as tight as he could he drew level with the Bludger, reached his arm back and hit it with all his energy. The Bludger careened off course and Draco was saved. Harry, breathing heavily, dropped the bat to the floor.

Draco sat stiffly, eyes wide. His hair blew about in the slipstream, and it had settled long before he spoke.

"I smell a rat," he said loudly, back turned to Harry still.

Parvati cheered from her place on the pitch, and jumped up and down excitedly. "Well done Harry!" she yelled, waving her arms about.

"I think I'm bored of Blaise," Lavender said in an awed tone.

"Malfoy," Harry said through gritted teeth so no one else would hear. "Aren't you going to say thank you?"

Draco pretended to consider it. "Probably not, because then I'll acknowledge owing you something."

Harry gripped his broom handle tightly. "So much for saving you from a cracked skull."

"Yes," Draco agreed mildly, finally turning around. "Alright Potter, thank you. Happy now?"

Harry glanced over his shoulder at Draco, he shrugged slightly. "Yeah, I guess." He pulled into a dive and landed on the floor with his broom in hand.

Draco sat still for a while before flying down more slowly. He put his broom down carefully on top of the ball crate and pulled off his leather gloves. He jogged after Harry and reached out to tap him on the shoulder. Draco held out his hand to the black-haired boy, looking at him warily through half-lidded silver eyes.

"What do you think he's saying?" Lavender whispered to Parvati. She was too far away to hear clearly.

Harry turned to face Draco and looked down at the outstretched hand. Draco wanted to shake his hand for saving him from the Bludger? Harry started to wonder what had happened to Draco over the break since Lucius had been put in Azkaban. Slowly, he reached out an ice-cold hand and slipped it into Draco's.

A shiver ran through the blond boy's body as he gripped Harry's hand too hard. He could pass it off as aggressiveness, he hoped. Draco shook his hand curtly, dropping it and pulling his hand up inside his sleeve. He could still feel Harry's fingers around his own, and finally understood not wanting to wash one's hand ever again.

"Could you see the sparks?" Lavender asked dreamily.

Cien dropped down from her place in the sky as Harry withdrew his hand and put it into his pocket. She stalked over to Draco and pulled his shoulder back, forcing him to step away from Harry slightly. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Draco wrenched his eyes from Harry's and looked at Cien's hand on his shoulder. "Can I help you, Mashuga?" he asked distastefully.

"Yeah, Mashuga!" Lavender hissed bitchily.

"What are you doing?!" screeched Parvati, rushing over to pull Cien away from Harry and Draco.

Cien wrenched herself out of Parvati's grasp, "Draco, if you haven't forgotten, that is Potter. A Gryffindor," she spat. "Why are you shaking hands with him?"

"Because he probably just saved my life," Draco explained. "If you'd rather I didn't touch him, then I'll go and hit myself with something heavy."

"Yeah, Mashuga! Would you rather he was dead?" Lavender demanded.

"Not saved your life as such..." Harry said quietly, wondering if this would cause Draco to look at him again.

"He's a Gryffindor! They save and rescue people every day; he didn't do it because it was you. He did it because he's a Gryffindor and they do stupid pathetic things like that every day," she snarled.

"I'd rather be a Gryffindor than a Slytherin like you," Parvati said, wrinkling her nose.

Draco looked up from Cien's hand finally, into her dark grey eyes, and then into Harry's green ones. "But it's my life, and therefore my right to thank him." He held Harry's gaze, feeling lava boiling up inside his chest as he watched him. "Have you ever seen someone take a Bludger to the head Potter? You did just save my life, trust me."

"Yeah, Mashuga!" Lavender hissed. She was rather fond of that phrase now. It gave her a connection with the beautiful Draco. "Stinky Slytherin."

"Oh shut up you pink floozy," Cien shot back, rolling her eyes. "If you can't think up a better insult you're not worth our time."

Parvati's eyes widened and she took a step towards Cien. "What did you call her?!"

"Oooh, FLOOZY, am I? Well, I'd rather be a pink floozy than a sallow snake!" Lavender retorted. "Yeah, Mashuga!" she added as an afterthought.

Cien let out a cold laugh, moving away from Draco and Harry who seemed to be frozen in time, looking at each other. "Alliteration, ooh scary." She flicked the end of Lavender's slightly pointed nose with a long fingernail. "Go back to mummy."

"Did you bring them out here?" Draco asked Harry heavily. "I thought you were better than that."

Lavender mouthed in shock. She pulled off her mitten and slapped Cien hard across the face.

"Oh here we go," Draco murmured. He stepped back and picked up his broom, putting it over his shoulder and starting to walk back to the shed, whistling.

Parvati cheered from her place on the sidelines and waved her Gryffindor scarf in the air. "Wooh! Go Lavender!" She was met by a punch in the face from an extremely angry Cien, an angry red mark on her cheek.

"You BITCH!" Lavender screeched, backhanding Cien viciously.

Harry blinked at the screaming girls and walked backwards slowly, in the same direction of Draco, carrying his Firebolt.

"Ever had girls fight over you before, Potter?" Draco asked with genuine curiosity.

Cien froze and reached a hand up to where Lavender had hit her. She scowled and turned her hand into a fist, getting ready to knock Lavender out. Something covered her hand and she stopped, turning around to come face to face with Blaise Zabini.

Harry, strangely, blushed. "Not really..."

"It's rather scary, isn't it?" Draco commented, glancing back. "Oh, Blaise is here. That'll wind them up like clockwork monkeys." The young Malfoy returned to walking nonchalantly.

Cien opened her mouth to say something but Blaise silenced her with a smirk and a finger on her lips. "You, have done enough damage already today, LaCienega."

Parvati, mouthing wordlessly in the background suddenly burst into tears. "That's not fair!"

"I KNOW," Lavender snapped, skipping back out of reach.

Harry winced as he heard Parvati burst into tears and looked over his shoulder, "I should go back and..." He tried to think of something to say. "Do something..." 'Oh, smart move Potter,' he scolded himself.

Draco bit his tongue inside his mouth. "You do that," he said stiffly. "Go and save the day."

Blaise looked over the top of Cien's head to see Draco and Harry walking toward the broom shed together. He raised an eyebrow and looked back down at Cien, dropping his hands to his sides. "Go sort the team out. I'll talk to you later."

He turned away and looked at Parvati and Lavender out of narrowed eyes, "Shoo."

Lavender mouthed angrily, before storming away with her nose in the air. Parvati followed suit, hips swinging as she left.

"Looks like Zabini's already saved it," Harry commented, shifting his broom to his other hand.

"Oh, hell," Draco spat vehemently. "I can't let those two get together. Think what they could do to me if they joined forces!" He hopped onto his broom in a fluid motion and soared back to them.

Harry reached a hand up to shade his eyes as he watched Draco fly off and caught sight of the time. 'Oh hell, I'm late' He quickly threw his broom into the shed and took off at a run back to where he had left Hermione and Ron at the same time Cien moved away from Blaise and sent the team to clear up their stuff.

"Blaise, I need you to come to Hogsmeade with me," Draco said loudly, gazing at him through meaningfully wide eyes.

"I've been waiting for you there for quite some time already," Blaise replied normally, refusing to take the bait.

"I've been busy," Draco said. "I was just on my way."

Blaise shrugged lightly. "Didn't look like it," he pointed out.

Draco was about to point out heatedly that he was heading for the broomshed, but he rolled his shoulders back. "You're right. Would you accompany me now, though?"

Blaise thought about it, he'd already sat in the Three Broomsticks for long enough by himself. He glanced around Draco at someone before looking back at his best friend, "Fine."

"Don't feel that you have to," Draco said lightly, pulling his leather gloves back on.

"I have nothing to keep me here," Blaise said, putting gloved hands into his pockets.

"You sure?" Draco asked with a smirk.

Blaise raised an eyebrow, once again refusing to take the bait. "We'll have to go now if we want to be back before dinner."

"Fair enough," Draco said, buckling his cloak and putting his broom back on his shoulder, walking to the shed without a backwards glance and no acknowledgement of Cien's existence.