Quidditch Pitch
The Quidditch
Pitch at Hogwarts is quite impressive; it looks as if it could seat the whole
school, and more.
Hundreds of seats are raised
in stands around the stadium, which are positioned very high so that the
spectators may view the game at its full potential. At both ends of the field are tall, golden
poles; three to each end, with hoops attached to the ends of them. Usually the field is empty, except for the
case when the houses of Hogwarts may be playing against each other, or a team
may be practisting.
Below the airborne pitch is a well kept field of green grass. A distance away from here lies
the
Night has fallen, it's dark blanket reaching out with long, glittering fingers
over everything, as far as the eye can see. Above is the moon, full and silver,
beaming with all its glory down onto the pitch below.
Though it is not exactly wise and against regulation, he has little care for
such things at this precise moment. It is his second time out on the pitch, in
all honesty, and those numbers don't include practices, either, for even with Quidditch back up, the Slytherin
team still has not practiced. Above the field, way up, just a shadow in the
light of the moon, hovering high above the pitch, is Draco
Malfoy, perched neatly on his Nimbus 2000. With no
distinct markings, other than his hair and features, the Slytherin
looks like a rather unremarkable dot in the sky, even though he's not exactly
TOO far up, still visible. What's he doing there? One can only guess, but being
up here at this hour... well... he can be alone, he can think, and he doesn't
have to worry about Potter hexing him. Potter wouldn't break curfew and all
that to fly around in the dark. Even Draco wouldn't
do that. This isn't considered flying about, after all. It's just.. sitting there.
It hasn't been that long
since Cho was last at the Quidditch
Pitch. The Ravenclaw team has had a few practices
since permission was returned, but earlier today they did not have one.
Earlier, she had come out on the pitch alone for a couple quick laps on her
Comet 260, just for the sake of relaxation and regaining her focus. Flying is
rather good for that, and after the recent events, she needed to do something
to get it back. Unfortunately, while laying in her bed at the sixth year Ravenclaw dorms, she realized suddenly that she wasn't
wearing the pendant that she normally has around her neck, tucked into her
robes. She only takes it off for Quidditch practice,
so she immediatly figured that must be where it ended
up. If it wasn't something so important, she would have left it there until
morning, but her mind still isn't quite in rational thought patterns, and she
couldn't bare to lose that on top of everything else
that's happened. It took her a while to get down from the Ravenclaw
dorms, having to carefully dodge ghosts and shh
portraits that happened to be awake, but she's been getting used to sneaking
out this last year, so it wasn't as hard as it could have been. She steps into
the pitch, moving towards the broomshed, cloak firmly
wrapped around her. While the speck in the sky isn't really doing anything that
might draw her eyes, she does look up and stare at it for a moment. Looks like she isn't the only person up and about at this hour.
She can't recognize the person all the way up there, so she speds
up her stride towards the shed, hoping to get the pendant and get out before
the ominous figure in the sky notices. It could be a teacher, after all.
He closes his eyes for a
moment, taking in a deep breath of the sweet night air. How long has he been up
here, just hovering in place and doing nothing else? Probably
a bit too long. Perhaps it's time he should start packing up for the
evening, head back to the dorms to at least get some sleep before classes,
tomorrow. So, with this in mind, Draco adjusts his
placement on the broom to achieve better comfort, leans forwards and causes the
Nimbus 2001 to descend from the sky smoothly and skillfully, hardly in a hurry
to get to the ground. That's when, out of the corner
of his eye, he catches a dark figure making their way towards the shed. From
behind, that kinda looks like... Nah.
It's not. He's just seeing things. It's probably an animal. Or... a... The
breath in his throat hitches. It better not be a dementor.
He's safer up here, then. @.@; The boy purposely
steers himself closer in order to just make sure. Better knowing than not,
after all...
Well, unless you're that
kind of person, Cho certainly isn't going to be
sapping away all your happiness with her mere presense.
Unless she has some kind of effect on Draco
that she certainly never intended. She continues over to the broom shed
carefully, sure that she left the pendant in there, still moving at a rather
quick stride. The slight change in sound, wind rippling against clothes, causes her pause for a moment on her journey.
Sometimes a Seeker has to listen for the Snitch as well as look for it, so
she's not completely unattentive, and the way the
sound is makes it seem as if that person is getting closer. Whoever they are,
she might want to hurry, but still, she does look up. Her eyes can't make out
much, in this darkness, but based on the distance and body size, it's probably
not a teacher at least. She doesn't move back towards the shed just yet,
waiting to see what the person is going to do now that it's likely that she's
been spotted.
The closer he gets, the more he
is able to make out the figure on the ground below. It certainly isn't a dementor. They tend to be taller and hooded, for one. Plus,
at this distance, he would already begin to feel the effects of their
wonderful, special ability. His other suspicion as is confirmed. It's not an
animal. Most animals that he's familiar with don't tend to stand upright on two
legs much the same way a human does. Finally, it's not a
teacher... not tall enough. Even from this distance, Draco
can tell that the one below can't be taller than himself and it's no Professor Flitwick. That narrows things down. He gets close, but
keeps his distance as well, stopping in midair to hover, releasing the broom in
order to brush back a loose strand of white blonde hair, a smirk crawling
across his lips, "Out a bit late, are we, Cho?
Perhaps you should consider going inside before you get caught sneaking about.
Attempting to sabotage the brooms, are you? I never thought you'd sink so
low." Since when did he have the authority to order the other girl around?
Since now, it seems, judging from his tone of voice.
Oh... of all the people it
could have been, Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs,
fellow Ravenclaws... it just had to be him, didn't
it? At least it seems as if she's managed to pull herself together enough that
the sight of him doesn't stun her too bad, or cause her to burst into tears.
Which it probably would have just a day before. Especially with what he's saying to her. Cho
takes a breath and pulls the cloak more tightly around her, turning away and
moving towards the broomshed again. She does respond,
just loud enough that he can hear it, but no louder. Her voice almost sounds
hollow. "I forgot something while I was practicing earlier. I didn't want
to wait until morning to get it. That is all." She doesn't mean to sound
cold, but she doesn't quite have the strength to act normal around him just
yet. She takes another calming breath and adds, a more natural tone emerging,
but not near as friendly as she would have been before, "Sorry to interupt your flying, Draco."
Sorry to interupt
his flying, indeed. The last remark goes without acknowledgement. "Oh, you
forgot something and decided to pick it up before morning? It's worth that much
to risk house points? Aw, how touching." Draco
replies nastily, jeering for a moment before slipping one of those free hands
into the pockets of his robes, pulling out a small disk from one after a few
seconds of searching. "Speaking of forgetting things, I'll tell you what, you forgot something else, too." He runs a thumb
over it, over the dots engraved upon it, before holding it so that the light of
the moon reflects off it. Should look rather familiar.
What a bastard.
Okay, perhaps she's not as
composed as she'd like to think, because when he says that she has to turn
around and glance over her shoulder... And see the disk. Cho's
takes in a quick breath, eyes immediately beginning to water so that the light
shines on it. She turns away, and continues walking, letting the tears fall
where he can't see them easily. Her voice is hollow again,
and somewhat strained, but it manages to be clear, "Some things are
important enough that you don't want to risk losing them. I suppose you wouldn't
understand that though." Perhaps that's a little cold, but... she takes a
breath again, adding somewhat softer, "I don't want it back. It was a
gift, and it is yours to do with as you please, but I do not want it." It
hurts that he would want to get rid of it, but she won't say that. Right now
she just wants to lock herself in the broomshed for a
few hours. But there's still some distance to go before she can get there.
With the disk in one hand, Draco presses the palm of his other against the end of the
broomstick, once again descending to the ground until he's able to hop off from
the Nimbus and stand with his two feet upon the pitch. The blue eyes flicker
over the surface of the disk, over the markings, his smirk remaining firmly in
place as it does with in most situations. "Oh, but I do think you want it
back. It would probably hurt much more if I, say, tossed it away or perhaps
gave it to someone else. This is something important, something that shouldn't
be lost and little do you know, but I do understand such a concept VERY
well." Not that giving the disk back isn't cruel,
but he knows that doing one of the other two would be even worse. The Slytherin begins to follow after, abandoning his Nimbus
without much care behind him, not that it really matters, anyways. If it gets
swept away or stolen, that means he can get a new one.
The footsteps continue for a
while, and Cho feels the urge to apologize for having
said what she did, but she restrains it, pushing it down. She feels sorry too much
when he's involved, and she needs to stop that if she's ever going to manage to
forget. It takes a few moments, but as he starts to follow her, she stops, face
tilted to the ground and hands finding their way into the pockets of her robes,
releasing the cloak to let it flutter behind her. "Did you hate it that
much that you can't stand to keep it? Or do you just want to get rid of all
reminders of our friendship?" Again, her voice sounds rather hollow, and almost distant now. The strain from the tears can
also be heard, but it's less so now. "If it hurts too much to keep, I'll
understand, and you can return it." She's willing to hold the burden of
the pain for him, if she has to. She does like him too much to want him to feel
pain over this, "But if it isn't causing you pain and if you don't hate
it, then I want you to keep it."
"I never said that, did
I?" He mutters absently, as though more talking to himself than anyone
else, but in the same tone he was using before. "In fact, I remember
stating that I actually liked the thing upon receiving it. I even now still
like it. Simple, yet beautiful, all the same, despite what it happens to
represent." Pause. "But this has absolutely nothing to do with
it." Added on with a bit of a mysterious air.
Does Draco even care at all about what he happens to
be doing? It certainly doesn't sound like it. "I'd like to... return
it." Again, with the same voice used just seconds ago. As the girl stops,
he walks around, stepping about to face her rather than remain behind. Makes him feel inferior. His hand extends and the pale
fingers slowly, possibly agonizingly, peel away from the disk held in his palm.
"Don't assume things always are what they seem, with me, Cho." Draco begins, his
voice adopting a tone of the utmost seriousness and with good reason, too! Upon
the disk, indentical to the one he received upon his
sixteenth birthday, rather than being marked with the constellation of 'Draco', it's decorated with that of 'Capricorn', instead.
"I didn't think there was a pattern named after you so I went with the
next best thing and got your Zodiac, instead."
You know, here her heart was
starting to break, and then he goes and does something like this. Shouldn't he
just make it a clean break and leave it alone? Especially if
he doesn't return the feeling at all. Cho
continues to look down, so that puts her eyes at the perfect level to see the
disc, and it takes a few moments for her to realize what happens to be on it.
It's very apparent the second she does, cause she lets
out a startled gasp and continues to stare at it as he talks. No, there
certainly aren't any star patterns with her name, but..
She looks up, moonlight reflecting on the tears in her eyes on and her cheeks.
"I thought-- I didn't--" She cuts off. Yes, she thought he was
returning her present, and almost everything he said until now seemed to
support that. It's almost as if he was trying to surprise her again. "I-- Sorry." Now she just feels stupid (why does
he often make her feel that way?) and she's apologizing again, even though she
promised herself she'd stop doing that. And this gesture certainly isn't
helping her squash down those pesky feelings towards him. "I shouldn't
have.. jumped to conclusions.
I just--" Well, she had good reason to think that's what it had to have
been. She pulls her hands out of her pockets, slowly raising them to accept the
disk.
And as she reaches out to
accept, he moves to slip the disk into them. "Consider this to be my
apology." Because he's not going to come right out and say it, at least,
not this time. "Things ended the way they weren't supposed to." He's
also not going to say something as trite as 'I said some things that I didn't
mean' because that would be lying. Draco did mean
quite a bit of it. The part about thinking less of the girl, however, was a
lie... Saying that he didn't return the feelings was partially one, too, but,
he's still in the process of figuring it all out. The blonde Slytherin is, after all, an emotional retard. "I know
that this doesn't make everyting all better, but at
least..." The more he has to admit, the harder it is to say. Eventually,
there will be twenty minute pauses between each word, at this rate. "At
least... you'll know that, despite what I said, that I..." Argh. Why
is it so easy for others but when it comes to him, it has to be so difficult?
It's not hard to tell his mother that he cares, or that he respects his father,
but swallowing his pride and admitting something similar to another whom he
considers to be his inferior... there's a feat. You have to better than him and
have him acknowledge it for Draco to admit something
cleanly and openly without any hitches. "That I..." She feels stupid?
He sounds stupid... and boy, is he aware of it,
because his cheeks start to grow red with embarassment
because of it. "That I care about you." Wow. So few
words. So difficult to say. Who would've
thought?
He thinks it was easy for her
to say? Weird. Only because she
could manage to say it without losing the already broken friendship. It
was the time to be honest, but she could have said it weeks ago. It's actually admireable that he can manage to say it so soon after he's
been hit in the face with something like that. Cho
doesn't try to say anything at all until he's finished, and still she stays
silent, looking down at the disk, now resting carefully in her hands. It's
almost as if her brain is trying to think of the appropriate response, and her
heart certainly isn't helping things. Finally she reaches a single hand up and
wipes off her face carefully, trying her best not to rub too hard, but also
trying to get rid of the moisture. "Thank you. For
telling me." She knows it must have been hard for him to do so,
but... what is she supposed to say now? Does this make everything okay again? Are
they going to go back to the way they were before? Or is he just letting her
know because he still plans to keep their.. assosiation broken off.
Who knows how things are going
to be, now. He's not saying anything like 'Let's just forget this and go back
to being friends', however. No. Returning back to the way things once were
would probably be the most difficult thing to do at the moment, especially when
it comes to how he feels about Potter and that dratted boy's involvement in the
manner. Funny how this all started off with a desire to irritate the boy who
lived but mutated into something else, entirely. Seeing her defend Potter,
confide in Potter... well... it gets his goat and that's putting it lightly. Draco doesn't like the other boy knowing about his
associations, about his interactions, so this means that a friendship... now...
well... the future possibility of even start anew is looking rather bleak in
the Slytherin's eyes. Anyways, he's said what he
needed to say, what he's been thinking about. Now that it's off his chest, who
knows. "You're welcome...." Let's see who can be quiet the longest!
Confiding? Ah, but she honestly
didn't tell Harry anything more than that 'Draco
isn't going to be friends with me anymore'. She didn't tell him the
circumstances of the decision, or anything about why she was so upset, so it
wasn't as if she told him everything. "I... I'll let you get back to your
practice..." She doesn't know if she should stay any longer, this is
rather... well... awkward at the moment. She honestly didn't expect a response
like that. But then, when has she ever gotten what she expected from this Slytherin. "Thank you, again." She gently tucks
the disk into her pockets, offers him a smile that manages to touch her eyes
for a moment, and then slowly starts to move around him, towards the broom shed
again.