Little Bird

Chapter Fifteen

Draco

            "Alright, there's the girls' locker room," I told Eve, pointing to the closed door. "Change as quick as you can and get back out here. I'll go get you a broom."

            "Fine," Eve said stingily, glaring at me as she reached for the door handle. "You could be a bit nicer to me, you know. I don't have to be doing this."

            I decided not to remind her for the third time that she was repaying me for what happened over a week ago. Instead, I smirked and said, "You already agreed. Hurry up and meet us at the Quidditch pitch when you're done, got it?"

            She rolled her eyes for a response and disappeared inside the girls' locker room. I turned away and crossed the short distance to the boys' locker room, knowing there were spare brooms inside.

            I found the smallest broom we had and carried it with me back down to the Quidditch pitch, tucking it under my arm and hurrying across the grass. Since Flint was the captain and he was currently in the hospital wing, he'd told me to take over for him. I'd told everyone to keep practicing while I found someone who could fill in as Chaser, but the likelihood that they actually were doing what I said was slim.

            When I finally reached the field, half the team was standing around talking and the other half was fooling around, tossing the Quaffle back and forth. I made my way over to them, and when I got closer Zabini looked up and called, "What took you so long?"

            "Nice to see you practiced while I was gone," I replied sarcastically, finally coming to a stop next to them and leaning my elbow against the broom I'd gotten for Eve. "Did you all just stand around here while I was gone? You do realize the match is in two days—"

            "Yeah, yeah." Ben Parkinson, Pansy's younger brother, rolled his eyes and asked, "You found someone, right? You must have, you were gone for an hour."

            "Watch it," I snapped, and he shrunk away from me. "Yeah, I found someone. The only Slytherin left who plays Quidditch."

            "Well, tell us," Zabini said, looking at me carefully. "Who is it? Don't tell me you convinced Goyle to do it. I don't think there's a broom out there that can hold his weight."

            As a few guys snickered at this, I shook my head and said calmly, "I got the Hawkings girl to do it."

            After half a second of silence, most of the team burst out into laughter, a few of them even shaking their heads as though they didn't believe me. Ben looked at me and laughed, "Wait, you're serious? She doesn't even play."

            "She does," I said smoothly, turning my cold gaze to Zabini—who was starting to look extremely uncomfortable. "She told Zabini she used to play, didn't she?"

            "Um," Zabini stammered. "Yeah, but I figured she was lying. You don't actually believe her, do you? She's the last person I'd think would wanna play Quidditch."

            "Yeah, of all people you asked her?" Christian Hunter asked in disbelief, looking at me as though I'd grown two heads. "I would've gone to Goyle before I ever asked a girl to play for us—"

            "Would you rather we be disqualified?" I snapped. "She's the only other Slytherin who's played Quidditch before, and she actually agreed. If you would all think about it for two seconds, you'd see that she's our only option. Believe me, I'd rather play one down than have her take Flint's place, but we don't have a choice. I'll just tell her to stay out of our way, so what's the difference?"