It had been a few weeks from the day the two had met and nothing had really improved since then, driving the blonde male mad with anger as he kept trying to talk to her and get her to believe that he wasn't out to hurt her. He was trying so hard to get her to at least get her to tell him how she was doing every day at least once or twice, but nothing he offered her to begin the conversation really went well as she would always either brush him off or run away from him as he approached her. This never really gave him the opportunity to talk to her besides during practice for the upcoming Quidditch match they had against her brother and his sister, but he could never casually talk to her then. He was always yelling at the other team members and reminding them that they had to play better if they wanted to win against the red and gold team. She never really needed to be yelled at and with her being a her, he couldn't talk to her in the locker room after the game as the girls changed separately from the boys. This left him with little to no opportunity for him to talk to her and get her to open up just a little bit about the things she was going through, not to mention earning him a thorough tongue lashing from his sister who was mad he was constantly trying to bug her as she put it. This made every night harder and harder to sleep, knowing something was wrong with her every night as he tried to sleep and he simply couldn't knowing that she wasn't okay. This leads us to now, the last night before the big game and the chilling autumn air unable to nip at him as he sat in the dorm room for the sixth year boys with his 'friend' Blaise Zabini and unable to focus on his work as he tried to come up with yet another way to talk to her. This constant sighing though annoyed Blaise who finally looked up from his book with a glare casted at the only other boy in the room.
"Alright Malfoy! What the bloody hell is bothering you so much that you can't just sit there and do your work?" The other male asked annoyed, earning a soft scoff from the other as he looked up from his book and looked at Blaise with tired eyes. He wasn't expecting Blaise to talk to him, but he was thankful at least to have someone to bounce ideas off of at this point as he had no idea what else to do now.
"If you must know Zabini, I'm having a hard time talking to someone…one of the girls on the team." He murmured out, pushing his blonde hair back with a soft hiss of annoyance leaving his lips as he did so. This earned an amused chuckle from the other male and in turn earned a glare from the blonde boy as he tried to calm down his slight embarrassment at how that sounded coming from. He, the Draco Malfoy, was having a hard time talking to a girl that was on the same team as them. This was a ridiculous thing and he knew it, but he needed all the help he could get at this point. Once Blaise had stopped chuckling the other continued, rolling his eyes as he did so.
"She's having a hard time at home and her sibling isn't treating her much better here at school. I've been trying to check in with her, but she won't talk to me and keeps avoiding me when I try to give her the time to talk to me. Nothing is working though and I'd hate for something to happen to her when she could just confide in me instead of keeping her emotions bottled up all the time." He explained with a tired tone, thinking of how slowly everything was going so far and how much it was pissing him off that he wasn't able to help her right now because she wouldn't go near him. It was pissing him off and needed the help, but Blaise was the only one to offer advice right now and he needed all the help he could possibly get right now with this little problem of his.
"So, why not try talking to her after the game? After all, we'll be having a party after the game if we win tonight and if we don't win we'll be going over how we lost. When you do your little one on one sit down with her, talk to her about her performance and ask if she's not doing that well because something bad is going on." The other offered, catching the blonde male off guard at the profound usefulness of that advice and how helpful it truly was. He had never thought to try approaching her like that, instead going for the more subtle method of trying to approach her with work that needed to be done from their head of house and her avoiding those duties like the plague. It had been wearing him down so much and seemed so much like a time sensitive matter that he hadn't even thought about waiting to approach her after the game and talk to her then. It made perfect sense to do so then and was one of the few ideas he had gotten so far that didn't make him want to pull his hair by the time he had fully thought it through.
"That's actually…pretty bloody brilliant of you Zabini. Thank you." The blonde hummed out, turning back to his book as he tried to get back to work and finish everything up before they had their game tomorrow. It was the first game of the year and it was against their siblings, making this one of the biggest matches of the year as it was every year before that. This meant the team needed to get as much sleep as they could for tomorrow. They had to do their best and win if they wanted to show Gryffindor they weren't going to be put down this year like they were every year before that.
"You're welcome Malfoy. Just keep my name out of it when you do finally talk to her since I don't want to hear about it. It's none of my god damn business from now." He huffed out, finishing up his chapter before he closed the book and decided to go to bed. Within an hour or so from there the other boys came up and went to bed, Draco finishing up his work as each one climbed into bed before the lights were put out once he was curled up under his own sheets and comforter with a hum. He thought maybe now that he had a plan that he would be able to get a solid night's worth of sleep, but that still didn't happen. He stared at the ceiling of his four poster bed, looking at the dark brown wood which had emerald green curtains linked to it as he thought about her. He did his best to keep his eyes closed, but he didn't really sleep well until about midnight rolled around. By the time morning came around and they were woken up by the head boy, he had gotten about maybe six hours of sleep which was okay yet he had wished he had gotten more sleep than that. The morning routine went the same as always, getting up and changing into some more acceptable pajamas alongside his green robe and slippers after having brushed his teeth and brushed out his hair. Everything still felt off though as they were escorted to the Great Hall for breakfast, making him worry more as he looked around for her in the crowd. He couldn't find her though, not in the crowd and the more he looked around the table he could find her yet couldn't go to talk to her with his stomach constantly growling and needing food before the game today at one o'clock this afternoon. Just like the rest of the team, they stuck to a strict food regimen about what they ate the night before and meals before the games to ensure they're proper performance. They all filled up their plates with eggs, sausage or ham, a banana with peanut butter if possible, and water to follow up a shot of orange juice for breakfast to ensure they were high in energy and had plenty of protein in their system. It was a rule to be one Quidditch team for Slytherin house and Draco made sure of it. He could see her eating that pre-meal game, knowing they would all skip lunch and would probably just have snake before they hit the field to ensure they were full and not sick on the field. By the time he was done eating, by the time he could even think of approaching her to talk to her, she was gone without a trace that he could find. He didn't know where she had gone and in all honesty he was worried about it, but he knew he didn't have the time to go looking for her throughout the monstrously sized castle converted school. He had to finalize the plan for today's game against Gryffindor and knew it would take the rest of the day to do so before the game began. Neither team could practice today, so it was finalizing plans and making sure everyone was ready for the game today before one o'clock got here that mattered the most. So that's exactly what he did before the game began today, summoning the rest of the team into the common room after breakfast to finally finish coming up with their plan for the game. They all figured out the plan without Denver, just like every time before and despite how much he wished she had been there to give her input on how to cater just ever so slightly to her skills as a beater. She hadn't shown up though and as such this meeting went down without her, making him a bit more nervous about the game than he'd like to admit.
"Alright. So, this is the final plan, yes?" Draco asked the group, pointing to the drawn out diagram that he had drawn in the air which the rest of the team nodded to. This earned a happy sigh from Draco, who gave a tired wave to the diagram to get rid of the display.
"Great. Then you're all dismissed. Spend the rest of the day how you like, but don't tire yourselves out. We need all the energy we can get in order to make this plan work." Draco explained, earning a yes captain from the rest of the team before the rest of them went off to do what they pleased for the day. Draco plopped down on the couch next to Blaise who chuckled at him, knowing the other must still be tired from not getting the best sleep he could. In all honesty, Draco hadn't been sleeping well for the past few weeks as he hadn't been able to talk to Denver since her little break down in his arms. It worried him and no matter what he did he couldn't get her words out of his head.
"Are you sure we're ready for today? I didn't see your so-called 'mystery girl' here for us to discuss the plan with." Blaise hummed out, looking at the blonde who looked too tired to fight with the male next to him. He pushed back his hair in an exhausted manner, tired from the lack of good sleep and the high excitement of planning everything out for their game this afternoon. He was too tired to fight back, knowing Blaise would figure out who it was as soon as he called the team meeting and Denver hadn't shown up. So he simply nodded his head and looked up to the ceiling with worried eyes as he did so, biting his lip as he laid there.
"To be honest with you completely Zabini, I'm not entirely sure I am. She's the best beater we have and she once again wasn't here for the meeting. I know she's missed every meeting since I joined the team, but that doesn't make things easier on our end. We need to make sure these plans play to all of our strengths, but she never comes in to commentate on them. What are we going to do…?" He asked the other, earning a small shrug from the other who looked just as confused as the other was about the matter.
"I really have no idea Malfoy. The best advice I can give you is to just trust in her and know she'll do her job right just like you and I do. There's really nothing else I can tell you besides that because you and I both know she'll never come in to talk about a strategy at this point." Blaise pointed out, earning a small sigh from the blonde next to him. He knew he was right, but that didn't change the fact that he wished the other would have been here to help with the planning. He just had this feeling, deep down in his gut really, that something bad was going to happen at this afternoon's game and he knew that feeling wouldn't go away until he talked to her about the game plan or about anything in general at this point. It wouldn't happen though and he knew that, not with the threat she had made the night they met. He knew she wasn't bluffing, but that didn't stop him from wanting to help her with the feelings she was having thanks to her family and lack of a support system that was bigger than one person. He thought about it the entire time he was reading his book the last hour they had before the game, munching on an apple to keep his stomach from growling yet not eating a proper lunch due to the game being so close at hand. When the game time did come was the first time that entire day that Draco saw her and it was only for a brief moment as she went into the locker room to change into her Quidditch gear. The rest of the team was doing the same thing, changing into their gear to ensure they were safely protected when they stepped out onto the field when game time began. When the girls finished they joined the boys in their locker room, going over the plan once more before they grabbed their brooms and were guided into the hall that led into the Quidditch pitch. They were given the same rules they were given every time by Madam Hooch as she was still the referee of the game, the two teams standing across from each other as they awaited the cue to go into the air. When the whistle was blown, the game began and Draco wasted no time in getting into the air and looking for the cursed golden snitch that he needed to catch in order to win. Naturally when he saw his sister in the air, he gave her a brief nod of recognition, but so after he saw what he was after. That little zippy ball with wings. The golden snitch. As soon as he saw it was off, soaring and zipping through the air to try and catch the damn thing as he dodge the other team members in hopes of their plan actually working which was more of a divide and conquer strategy than anything else. He hoped that while he went after the snitch, the rest of the team would play their part to focus on getting them points. The only position that was split in half was the beaters, having to ensure both him and the rest of the team stayed in the air. It wasn't the best tactical plan, but it was the one they were using to just try and keep their points even with Gryffindors for as long as possible. Naturally it would only go unnoticed for so long that Draco was chasing the snitch, Harry soon flying beside him as he went after the snitch. This naturally pissed off the blonde who only pushed his broom to go faster as he tried to get even ever so slightly ahead of the ravenette behind him. Harry on the hand seemed to be pushing himself just as hard, but ducked himself under Draco. It was as if the other was trying to catch the snitch from below him, only earning an annoyed look from Draco who hissed in displeasure at it all. Before he knew it Harry was pulling back, seeing the quaffle go right under him as one of Slytherin chasers had thrown it at him. This game wouldn't last too much longer though and Draco knew that as soon as the quaffle had been thrown at Harry. What he hadn't expected was what happened next as reached out to try and catch the snitch while Harry straightened out his broom. It happened in such slow motion that it startled him, making him lose focus to what was actually happening with the snitch. One of the Gryffindor Chasers had retrieved the quaffle and was now flying backwards in front of him, poised to throw it right at his head. Before he could even think of doing anything to dodge it, to move out of the way or at least lay back against his broom to avoid it, someone had flown in front of him. He recognized the red hair and the jersey number just in time to see a beater's bat be raised while the quaffle was thrown. Denver Potter, their best beater, had taken the blow as the bat hit her head and a sickening snapping noise could be heard from her wrist. The quaffle fell with her and before he knew it, Draco was zipping down to try and catch her as her broom came out from under her. The whole pitch erupted into chaos as the game was told to stop yet more tragedy ensued still, but Draco didn't see what it was. He, as swiftly and carefully as he could, dived down and caught her before carefully pulling her into his broom and brought her down to the ground. He laid her down, the adults all running out and seeming to divide and conquer between the rest of the chaos and this moment alongside separating the two teams who were fighting in the background. She had a forming bruise around a nasty gash on her forehead, not to mention a broken nose that was bleeding rather bad and bruising pretty bad itself. Her wrist was limp, no bone sticking out yet it was clearly broken from how limp it was behaving. It was clear she was out cold, her body weak as she lay there with Professor Snape and Professor Flitwick kneeled with Draco and her. The blonde looked absolutely horrified by what had happened, shock holding his features as he looked up at Professor Snape and Flitwick who were standing over her. Snape was taking her pulse before checking how receptive her eyes were, showing that she was still alright and wasn't flat out dead. She was unconscious though, that much was obvious as Professor Flitwick scanned her over for any other injuries besides what they had already determined her to have.
"She's merely concussed with a broken nose and broken wrist. We need to bring her to Poppy at once." Flitwick murmured, earning a nod of agreement from his colleague. Professor Snape gently and carefully picked her up, carrying her off with the smaller man motioning for Draco to follow him. He swiftly did, following the other teacher into the room as he did his best to keep up with the two of them. It wasn't until they were in the infamy that he found out what the other bit of chaos was, seeing his sister on a bed with her own set of nasty bruises and cuts. He felt a growl build up in chest as he saw Harry sitting there next to her, waiting for her to wake up as his own sister was laid down in the bed next to Heather. This brought a growl out of Draco as the two men were escorted out, allowing Madam Pompfry to do her work. He was at least going to try to be civil though as they sat outside the Hospital Wing doors, looking at them with anxious eyes as he was worried about both girls in the end. This didn't seem to be the same idea that Harry had though, the other male letting out a small 'tch' noise as he glared at the blond boy down from across the hall.
"Some team there you have Malfoy. I thought you knew how to control your hell spawn teammates." Harry growled at the other, earning an eye roll and a hiss of anger from the blonde who would gladly return the glare. Fine. The Potter boy didn't want to be civil, then neither would he. He knew Denver wouldn't care anyhow with how rocky their relationship was as brother and sister.
"Oh please Potter. You say that, but your team struck first. If not for the amazing woman that is your sister, I'd be smeared along the walls of the stadium and you know it." He said in an annoyed hiss, earning a small snarl from the ravenette. Clearly he struck a nerve somewhere with that, he just wasn't entirely sure where.
"You say she's wonderful like she's some kind of Saint, but we all know she's nothing more than a two bit traitor. Your sister is the real amazing one. She dove off her broom to catch the bludger headed my way after a timeout was called on the game because of that stupid teammate of yours." Harry barked out, practically spitting vitriol at the blonde and his own sister in the process of denying her skill. This earned a snarl from Draco who, even though he didn't know Denver very well, knew at least two things about her. One was that she wasn't a traitor to her brother in any way shape and form. Yes; the duo didn't get along and she was in Slytherin instead of the 'perfect' red and gold that was Gryffindor, but that didn't make her a traitor. The other was that she had just saved him from some painful or even life threatening injuries if the Gryffindor player had hit him with the Quaffle in the wrong way. That was pretty Saintly to him and for that alone she was a great woman. Thus it would be to no one's surprise that Draco was ready to punch the male after hearing those words.
"You keep my sister and your own out of your filthy mouth then. You clearly have no idea how amazing they both are if you're willing to say that one is superior to the other just because one sports green and silver over red and gold." Draco hissed out, earning a small look of shock from Harry who was perplexed by what he had just said. It wasn't too long after that the other male growled at Draco, but when he went to speak back Madam Pompfry came out to talk to the two of them once more.
"You both are very lucky that it was nothing highly serious! A set of concussions, a pair of broken wrists, bloodied broken noses, and nasty bruises on their heads! They could've been very seriously hurt and you two need to get a better hold of your teams! THESE GIRLS are YOUR sisters! Put this stupid petty rivalary aside and get your acts together!" She scolded the two of them, looks of happy shock on their features while anger filled her's. She was so mad at the two of them, but Draco honestly didn't care at this moment. The two of them rushed into the hospital wing and dashed over to Heather's bed first, but this was only for a brief moment. Once he was certain she was okay, Draco dashed over to Denver and gave the girl a confused look as she looked away from him.
"You saved me from pain…maybe even life threatening injuries. Why would you do that after avoiding me all this time beforehand?" He murmured to the other, earning a small eye roll from the girl who looked to be in awful shape. She had a cast on her left arm and bandage on her nose and forehead, doing her best to keep her calm as she slowly turned to face him to speak to him.
"What can I say? Your sister, my one true friend, would've killed me if I didn't protect you when I should…" She murmured out, biting her lip as she laid there with a small frown on her lips as she didn't like to admit these things. She liked playing with her cards close to her chest, having secrets and other such things was how she preferred to live her life, yet here she was being confronted with his question and she knew if she didn't answer him Heather would have her head. She had been avoiding him for so long to test a theory of her own however, to see if he really did want to befriend her at this time in the world or not. She knew they were on two separate sides of the war, him a death eater and her a former member of Dumbledor's Army and now a member of the Order of The Phoenix. Naturally the two of them would be fighting when the war did come, but she had been willing to give Heather that chance. Why not give it to her brother as well now that he looked like he wanted to try to befriend her?
"And…" She murmured, gaining his attention as he had stared at her a bit sulkingly from the idea she hadn't done so to try and protect him of her own accord as he would have.
"I wouldn't let a potential friend get killed just because I'm still on the fence whether or not I believe we can be friends…" She murmurs out, looking away from him as she did so. She didn't want to openly admit it, but when she saw his crest's fallen appearance she couldn't keep herself from doing so. This phrase though only lifted his spirits, making the male smile as he looked down at her with a wide smile and a wide set of blue-gray eyes as he looked down to her as they silently agreed to be friends from this day forward.