My Father's Only Rule {DRACO MALFOY X SNAPE'S DAUGHTER}

Chapter Seventeen: Quidditch Rookie

February 1995 - Hogwarts

"Celestial Sphere," I said, quizzing Jane at lunch before our Astronomy quiz.

"I don't know," she said, quick to give up. "Just tell me."

"At least try," I insisted. She groaned.

"The brightest star known to man," she said.

"That's Sirius," I said.

"Yes, I am serious. I don't know," she said, frustrated.

"No, the brightest star known to man is called Sirius." She threw her hands up.

"I'm going to fail!" she said. "I hate this class. It's the only A I've ever had."

"An A?" Blaise interrupted. "You're worried about one A?"

"Listen, Blaise," she said. "I'm not Grace, okay? I'm not a straight-O person. I like to be a little more realistic with myself. But I've never gotten an A in my life. And I'll be damned if I let Astronomy be my first A."

"Draco, we've got a problem," we heard a voice say. We turned to see someone from the Quidditch team walking towards us to talk to Draco. "We're down a beater and we have a match tomorrow. Goyle failed the Astronomy quiz and isn't academically eligible to play anymore. You're captain now. What do we do?"

"Is the quiz that bad!?" Jane exploded. Then the guy from the quidditch team gave her a strange look. "Sorry. Quidditch. Obviously more important," she said, rolling her eyes.

"What's the difference?" Draco said. "It's against Gryffindor. We weren't going to win anyways.

"But Harry's not at his best right now, remember?" he said. "He's stressed about the tournament. If we beat Gryffindor, we've got a great shot at the Quidditch Cup."

"There's no point," Draco said. "Goyle was our only good beater. Roberts is terrible, we can't rely on him. So where are we going to find another beater?"

"I'll do it," I said. The boy scoffed. "What? You could let me do it or you can lose to Gryffindor without a fight. You pick." The boy looked at me, then at Draco, who was actually considering it.

"Do you even know anything about Quidditch?" he said.

"Draco could teach me," I said, looking at Draco.

"Before tomorrow?"

"Oh, he knows I'm a fast learner," I said, never losing contact with Draco. He choked on his water, then smiled. He liked the Idea. The boy panicked.

"Blaise?" he said, looking for help.

"Absolutely not," Blaise said without hesitation.

"I don't know, I think you'd look kind of sexy in that quidditch uniform," Jane said to Blaise.

"You won't think that when I'm falling off of my broom," he said.

"True," Jane sighed. "Plus, I think Grace would look sexier."

"Grace will do it," Draco said. I smirked at him.

"Really?" the boy said.

"Oh piss off," Draco said. And the boy did just that.

"So you're going to teach me how to play quidditch?" I asked.

"We have practice after school today," he said. "It's going to be a long practice. Our match is tomorrow and I have to teach you everything."

"Well like I said," I said. "I'm a fast learner."

*

I felt unwanted when I walked onto the quidditch pitch. The whole team looked at me, surprised. But I had Draco with me, and that was all that mattered. Draco had given me a broom, but it felt so strange in my hand.

"Alright," he said. "Go on and mount your broom."

"Right," I said. "How do I do that?" His eyes widened.

"Oh my god," he said. "I completely forgot you never took a flying class."

"You said you were going to teach me to play," I reminded him.

"I can teach you how to play quidditch," he said. "But I can't teach you how to fly! Especially not in one lesson."

"Just try," I said. "Don't give up on me before we've even begun." He sighed.

"Alright," he said. "Hold your hand over your broom and say 'up.'"

"Up," I demanded. And the broom rose straight to my hand. He took a step back.

"Wow," he said. "That was- wow."

"Isn't that what it's supposed to do?" I asked.

"Yes but it usually doesn't happen on the first try," he said. "You must be a natural."

"I told you I'm a fast learner," I said.

"Oh, trust me, I know you are," he laughed. "Go ahead and mount it." I sat on my broom. "Now kick off the ground." I did just that, and shakily, my broom lifted off the ground. Draco was amazed, I was terrified. "Amazing!" he said. Then he grabbed his own broom and mounted it.

"Draco," I said. "I don't like this!"

"Hang on," he said. "Don't freak out. I'll come up there with you." My broom kept rising up, higher and higher.

"Draco, I changed my mind! I don't want to play quidditch! How do I get down?" I was now nearly a hundred feet in the air, absolutely petrified. I wanted to cry. I'm not afraid of heights. But I'm a little afraid of balancing on a broom from a hundred feet in the air.

"You're doing amazing," he said. Then he came closer and saw that I was freaking out. "Hey," he said. "Look at me." I did. "You're not going to fall. I'm not going to let you fall. Just follow me. Ready?" I nodded, and slowly we started doing laps around the pitch. And after a few laps, I got comfortable being on the broom. I got so comfortable, I zoomed right past him.

"Are we gonna play quidditch now?" I said. He smirked.

"If you're ready," he said. We flew down to the rest of the team.

"Oi, Roberts," he said, addressing the other beater. "Grace is filling in for Goyle. Hand her a bat." Roberts tossed me the bat.

"What is this for," I asked Draco.

"I'll explain as we go," he said. "Alright let's go ahead and start. Release the quaffle!" he yelled down to the first years who were on standby. They threw a ball up from off the ground, and two other balls burst from a box on the ground. All around me, everyone was playing a game I didn't know. "Follow me," Draco said, as he lead me around to a less busy part of the pitch.

"Alright, see those three?" he said, gesturing to three of the players. "Those are chasers. They have the quaffle, the ball that doesn't fly on its own. Their job is to score the quaffle in one of those three hoops. The keeper, see her over there? She defends the hoops. See those balls that are chasing everyone around. Those are bludgers. Your job is to use that bat of yours and hit the bludgers into the other team and knock them out, and protect your own team from being hit."

"So I have to intentionally hit people with those awful things?" I asked. "That's barbaric."

"That's the sport," he said. "The bludgers are trying to attack people anyways. You just have to make sure it's not us. Now listen. Roberts has never hit a bludger in his life. I don't even know why he's still on the team. We get the most injuries after every game because he just can't defend us properly. So we're relying on you. You've got to be able to protect an entire team by yourself. That's a two-person job. Can you do it?" Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a bludger flying straight at Draco.

"Look out!" I said, swooping in front of him and whacking it as hard as I could. I turned to look at Draco, who was bewildered. "What's my strategy?" I asked.

"You're so hot," he said. "For now just get used to playing the game. But for tomorrow, the best strategy is to try and take out the other team's beaters. Then they have nobody to defend them." I didn't like the idea, but Draco said that was how the game worked. I spent the whole afternoon whacking bludgers while everyone stared in amazement. It felt so natural. I loved quidditch. And I loved playing with Draco.