Draw The Line

A Good Kind of Tension?: Chapter 28

Harry and Draco had spent the weekend awkwardly shuffling around each other after Saturday and they had hung out during their free period in the morning so now Harry had the entire rest of the late afternoon and evening to himself. Because of this, he ended up in the common room with Ron and Hermione as they did homework - or more accurately, Hermione did homework. Ron and Harry had given up on homework a while ago and were engaged in a game of wizards chess. Hermione had stopped trying to get them to work after a few tries.

Harry had gotten better at chess since first year and could now actually have a game with Ron that lasted more than ten minutes, Ron still won every time though.

Harry was staring at the board intently and Ron studied him. If Hermione was right, and Harry did like Draco, what would that mean? Ron thought. He figured it wouldn't change much between Harry and himself, but would it mean he'd have to hang out with Draco more? He figured he would. He didn't want to hang out with Draco, but he supposed he would, if only for Harry.

"So, are you going to take any girls to Hogsmeade this weekend?" Ron tried to ask casually. Hermione shot him a glare over the top of her book that he tried to ignore. He didn't want to straight-up ask Harry if he liked Draco, he didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable, but he also wanted to help him if he could. "You've had a lot of girls ask you out lately."

Ron could see Harry stiffen slightly and he felt like he struck a nerve. "No, probably not."

"Why not? There must be someone you're interested in," Ron said, deciding to try and change tactics and use gender-neutral terms instead.

"Not really," Harry said evasively, avoiding Ron's eyes and moving his chess piece. It was a bad move and Ron won.

Hermione thankfully decided to interrupt then, "Do you know the quidditch schedule yet for this year, Harry?"

"Yeah," Harry seemed relieved by the change in subject, "Gryffindor vs. Slytherin is next weekend on the seventh of November and our first match is against Ravenclaw on the 14th."

"Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw is the 21st right?" Ron asked, picking up his chess pieces and putting them away into his bag.

"Yeah, and our last match for the year the 28th against Gryffindor."

"I'm excited for that one!" Ron said excitedly and then blushed when Madam Pince sent him a look from across the library and he lowered his voice, "You gonna come watch us beat Gryffindor, 'Mione?"

"You do realize that your house is Gryffindor and that everyone on that team is younger than both of you? It won't exactly be a fair match, plus I heard they have second years," Hermione laughed a bit at Ron's put-out expression. "I'll still be there though," Hermione finally said, and a smile broke out across Ron's face. Hermione turned back to her book, a small smile crossing her lips.

Harry watched them fondly.

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The next day Harry found himself on the quidditch pitch running through a practice game. They were playing a practice quidditch match but with no snitch and less players on both sides.

While everyone was playing fairly well though, many were distracted.

This distraction was caused by Harry and Draco sending each other awkward looks the entire time and seemingly avoiding each other. It didn't help the tension between them that everyone was staring ether and an hour into practice Harry decided to call an end for the day.

Once everyone was back on the ground and in the locker room Harry stood in front of them to hand out the quidditch schedule. "Our first match is against Ravenclaw in just over two weeks, so no slacking on practice. While it's just for fun, it's still good to play your best and make it a good match."

Practice was over as soon as Harry finished handing out schedules and people started heading back to the dorms. There were a couple stragglers who took their time to see if they could find out what the awkwardness was caused by, but they all soon left as well when Hermione came into the room and Ron and Harry followed her out.

Hermione watched Harry warily as they headed back up to the dorms. She had noticed the tension during the practice and was interested to know what had caused it.

"Man!" Ron said, cutting through Hermione's thoughts, "I can't believe that the first match is in less than three weeks. It's all going by so fast. Heck, Halloween is Saturday."

"Yeah, it's weird to think we won't be coming back here next year..." Hermione said looking up at the castle.

A/N: Hey guys I'm back. Sorry about my absence, it went longer than I hoped, but I'm back! I had my AP tests and wanted to study for them but now I only have one left and can get back to writing.

I wanted to post this today cause...

It's my birthday! Yay! I'm officially a legal adult, crazy right?

Anyway, thanks for your patience, and as always *image is not mine and it belongs to wizardnem on Tumblr.*