Ironic Love

Chapter XXI: Conflict

~Blaise POV~

With only a week left before the Easter break, Hermione is trying to convince us all to study with her. Our NEWTs are two months away but she's acting like they're tomorrow. Draco studies with her partly because he likes getting good grades but mainly to keep her happy I think.

Me and Ginny aren't such big fans of exams and prefer to spend our time playing Quidditch or doing... other things.

Draco's back on the Slytherin Quidditch team and I'm starting to feel more confident about us not coming last. Our other players are good but he's the best, although I'd never admit it to him.

The other thing that's been taking up a lot of our time is trying to find out who hexed Hermione. The memory charm is no longer in effect but she still can't remember what happened in the moment. Draco thinks his dad did it and the rest of us agree but Hermione seems less certain. We're hoping to get some answers when me and Draco go back to Malfoy Manor.

The week before Easter break, we have a Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. We've been training incredibly hard to try and beat them after our annihilation against Gryffindor.

Me and Draco walk up towards the castle as the sun is setting, brooms over our shoulders, talking tactics for tomorrow's match. We've just finished a particularly long and tiring practice and are both eager to get some dinner. When we make it into the Great Hall, we find Ginny and Hermione sitting at the Gryffindor table and flop down next to them. They both remark on what a disgusting state we're in, scooting away from us slightly, laughing.

"Feeling confident for tomorrow?" Ginny asks. I'm about to answer before I realise the question is more directed at Draco.

"Yeah, can't wait." He says with a grin, shovelling casserole into his mouth.

After dinner, me and Draco go to take showers and when we come back downstairs we see the girls once more hard at work. They're looking through every book Hermione could find on memory charms and when they see us they beckon us over. So we spend yet another evening working on that.

After a while I start to get bored and fidgety. Noticing this, Hermione shuts her book and declares that we'll stop for the day, not having found anything useful. After an hour of talking about Quidditch, the wedding and some unimportant things, Draco brings up Emily.

"Hey, Gin?"

"Mmh?"

"How's Emily doing these days?"

Everyone seems to hold their breath when he asks this.

"I'm not sure, haven't seen the bitch." She shrugs uninterestedly and kisses me before saying goodnight to everyone and trudging up to her room. I follow suit, telling Draco that we should get some decent sleep before tomorrow. He agrees and says he'll be up in a minute. I leave him alone with Hermione and go to get ready for bed.

The next morning, I awake with the usual pregame jitters. It's quite late when I look at the time and I jump out of bed, walking quickly into the bathroom. Draco's already dressed in his emerald green quidditch robes and is brushing his teeth by the mirror. I say good morning and start to get ready.

When we reach the common room, dressed and holding our brooms, Ginny and Hermione are stood waiting. They're both wearing Slytherin jumpers and scarfs, belonging to me and Draco, and grin when they see us. I kiss Ginny's cheek and tell them that they look great. We walk down to breakfast and see that the Great Hall is buzzing as it usually is before a match. The room is divided; half the school is wearing blue and the other half green.

There's a mixture of cheering and hissing as me and Draco make our way to the Slytherin table where the rest of the team is sitting. None of us eat much, the nerves are starting to set in. We all get up and walk down to the pitch together, waiting in the changing rooms for the match to start.