Chapter 48. Quidditch Co-Captain

A few days passed, and I was sitting inside my own room. I stared down at the torn and burned pages piled haphazardly in the book left behind. I had grabbed it for myself to hopefully fix the pages to read more information at the location to the Chamber. However, no matter what I did, nothing could be done. The repairing charm couldn’t reverse the effects of fire. All I was left with was a warped shadow of the image I was trying to uncover.

A knock on the door woke me from my thoughts. I took a deep breath, trying to ease my mind before getting up. I slowly made it to the door, and opened it to see Draco dressed in his Quidditch uniform, holding his black broom beside him. “I see you forgot the match was today.” He scoffed, instantly the memory of a Quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor came flooding back to my mind. “Is it today already?” I asked in shock, the last few days being spent looking around the school grounds for any sort of other hidden room I could find.

Draco nodded with a slightly condescending look, before tossing me another uniform myself. “Get dressed!” I stuttered in shock, looking at the green robes he had given me. “Co-Captain XX Peterson?” I read aloud, my tone questioning the meaning behind any of the words I just spoke. Draco nodded, before closing the door on me, leaving me in my room alone. “Put it on, and I’ll explain on the way!”

I stood frozen for a few seconds, staring at the jersey, wondering if I could come up with some excuse to avoid this. “I wanna go too! I wanna go too!” Val yelled, having woken up, and now eagerly wanting to join me on an excursion. “It’s been too boring just walking around school, I wanna see people flying again!” I sighed at him, unable to go against his childlike wonder, understanding he needed some reward for looking around the castle with me quietly.

I got dressed in the jersey, and had Val slither up my sleeve, chirping once he was settled. Leaving my room, I glanced towards my right to see Draco leaning against the wall in wait, still staring at his new broom with a grin. He noticed me, and nodded, his grin widening. “It definitely suits you, Green is a good color for just about any Slytherin.” He chuckled, patting my shoulder before leading me out of the common room.

As we left, I had a strange feeling. One that I didn’t truly understand until I glanced at the other students in the common room. All of the Slytherin students here were all smiling and laughing. The stark contrast between the Slytherins and the rest of the school was alarming. Not one showed a hint of fear at the message left by Filch's cat. Nothing was wrong, or worried them about it. I gulped, my chest squirming with unease as we left the common room.

“So!” Draco started, getting my attention as we walked towards the Quidditch field. “You won’t be flying, but are still a part of the team, Victoria ordered another uniform for you.” Draco explained, glancing at my back to see the uniform better. “Is that why I don’t have any numbers?” I asked, stretching my head around to see my back, however I quickly noticed that plenty of other students we walked past in the crowds squinted in confusion at my uniform.

Draco scoffed at them all, and nodded at me. “That’s right, she’ll know more about what your duties to the team are, but it’s probably just what you have been doing before.” I held back a sigh, not wanting to do anything in the first place.

Inside the locker room, Draco and I were last, everyone else from the team already talking and planning with one another for the large match. After a few more minutes of team members greeting the two of us, a familiarly loud voice rang out above everyone. “Alright! Everyone, shut up!” We all stopped speaking mid-sentence, everyone’s eyes heading towards the voice. It was Victoria, dressed up and ready to lead us for victory.

She gave a single nod before taking a piece of chalk, and scribbling over the blackboard. “We’ve done plenty of drills, and tested out new techniques thanks to… Where’s Peterson!?” She glanced back, everyone parting to give an unobstructed view to me standing near the back. She motioned me to come closer and I nervously walked to the front, standing on the other end of the board beside her.

Her permanent frown stared me down for a moment, before moving back to the rest of the team. “We’ve had plenty of training thanks to Professor Snape giving us the field more often this year! But!! Just training ourselves is not enough!” She snapped, before anybody could so much as smirk. She then flipped the board around, a large photo of Harry Potter pinned to it, with tears and rips across his smiling face. “Because of this little brat! No matter how well we might outplay his team, he wins the match despite our superior tactics!”

Everyone grumbled and nodded, murmuring with one another about how unfair it was for most of his games to end in such a way. “Except today!” She announced, everyone freezing in confusion at what she was talking about. She then suddenly grabbed my shoulders, and thrust me forward, a nasty grin adorning her face. “Because today, we have this as our secret weapon!” I squinted in shock, looking back at her with disbelief.

“What?” I asked, but she grabbed my head, and pointed it back forward, forcing me to face the rest of the confused gazes. “What have you been doing for the last few practices we’ve had?” She asked me, silently ordering me to answer for everyone in the team to hear. I stuttered a bit, and shook my head. “N-Nothing, just remembering the runs and plays you-” She smacked my head, the stinging pain made others wince just looking at me, but Victoria urged me on. “Not that, you fool. You’ve done something else, the other thing I asked you to do.”

I thought back to the ending of Quidditch practices, when all the balls would be put back into the box. “I helped Draco find the Snitch to put back in the box?” I asked, wondering if that was what she was leading me on for. She hit my back, pushing me forward as she yelled. “Indeed! This little kid has some good eyes! He can find the snitch and direct our newest seeker there to run defense, long before Scar-head gets it!” Everyone cheered in excitement, my stomach sinking at their expectations of me.

Once the game started, I was connected to only Draco, and vice versa. As he was the team’s seeker, with only one goal, it would only hinder him to have all the extra voices in his ear. All the other players faded out from my vision as I focused. Nothing else needed my attention, all my eyes had to see was one small snitch.

As I watched the sky, I noticed a small glint, reflecting the bright sun directly into my eye. I winced in the pain, but stared intently at the small blinding object as it almost hovered in the same spot of the air. I then noted the golden hair of Draco hovering on his broom in search, just above where the snitch was located. The snitch was hiding just underneath his broom, taunting him with a hiding spot just under his nose. “Draco! Just below you, straight down!” I ordered, watching as Draco flinched to attention, before looking just below his feet.

He instantly darted down, and swiped at it, his hand smacking the snitch, flinging it away. “Shoot!” He yelled, letting the golden snitch slip right through his fingers. Like a small bird, it rushed off away from Draco, forcing him to chase it while I kept my eye on the snitch as a backup. After a few seconds, Potter descended down, clearly using Draco as a human compass to see the snitch for himself, and as both Seekers rushed through the air, Draco and Potter bumping into each other, a bludger whipped across the field.

“Draco! Bludger! Go up!” I yelled, and he quickly complied, just in time to see the bludger rocketing into Potter, slamming into his arm and smacking the guard off of it. As Potter was flung away, screaming from the pain, I studied the field yet again, avoiding focusing on the distractions of moving flying players, and loud noises of the crowd.

At least, that was my attempt, however much I tried to ignore Potter, a rogue bludger began chasing after him indefinitely. I watched him as he flew away with just one arm, darting through our players in attempts of getting the bludger to switch targets. The most it did was run into our players on its flight for blood. However as I wondered what jinx was used on the bludger for such an effect, and who was the perpetrator, I noticed another glint from the bludger.

I squinted my eyes to see the snitch flying just behind the bludger, almost like it was latched onto the bludger’s backside. “Draco! The bludger! It’s on the bludger chasing Potter!” “Are you serious!?” He instantly yelled back in disbelief, but flew over regardless. Draco descended down, and I watched his gaze light up at the sight I had seen before.

With his superior speed, Draco reached his arm out, just as they all ducked down into the scaffolding, disappearing from sight. I held my breath in wait, my hand clamped into a tight fist as seconds turned into minutes. “Draco, what-” I was about to ask, unable to hold back my worry from the silence, but a sudden green clad wizard flew directly upward into the center of the field, and everyone slowly understood what he held in his hand. “Draco Malfoy has caught the golden snitch! Slytherin wins!!”

I was instantly grabbed by Victoria, who was standing right beside me, giving out orders to the rest of the team throughout the match. “YYEESSS!!” She screamed, and now, to my shock, she grabbed me, and held me high into the air over her shoulders while the rest of the team gathered around. The stands all cheered and green team colored items began falling like rain over all of us. “Take him up!” Victoria ordered, flint quickly nodding before grabbing my arm, pulling me up to ride on the back of his broomstick, before dropping me on the back of Draco’s broom.

I was a bit unsteady, but smiled regardless. “Grab on!” Draco yelled over the crowd, holding up the snitch by one wing, offering me the other portion. My smile grew as I took the other wing, and held the snitch high into the air together with Draco, the crowd screaming even louder at our success. “Draco!” “Draco!” “Draco!” “Lucas!” “Lucas!” “Lucas!” They began chanting our names. ‘I suppose this portion isn’t so terrible.’ I thought, my smile widening as Draco and I cheered in victory. For now, at this small moment, everything was okay at school.