The players flew through the air dodging hits, trying to block goals and not get knocked to their death in the process. That was the essence of Quidditch as far as Valentine could tell. The players zipped through the air around the field, Gryffindor fighting their hardest and Slytherin borderline cheating.

Valentine loathed watching Slytherin play. It seemed their tactics only got more underhanded with every game. Valentine wouldn't have cared so much if they went literally endangering lives with their behaviour and if one of those lives hadn't been Harry Potters.

"Wahoo! Go Slytherin!" Leah screamed and hollered along with the crowd as Slytherin scored a goal.

"Yeah, kill them!" Blaze cheered.

"It's Quidditch, Blaze." Said Liam, "ot an execution."

"Maybe we should start making that the penalty for the losers." Blaze laughed.

Olivia just bounced along beside them happily, waving a green and white flag. Valentine was thankful even if it was just one less person screaming.

"Another goal for Slytherin! They lead Gryffindor ninety to thirty." Came the announcer's voice.

"GO DRACO!" Leah cupped her hands and screamed as Draco flew past them, Blaze and Liam joining in.

"Take them down!"

"Heck yeah!

Valentine rolled her eyes at them for a split second before looking out over the field and hooking her gaze on Harry.

I hate quidditch. I hate quidditch. I hate quidditch. I hate it when Harry Potter plays Quidditch and almost gets killed multiple times in one day.

Valentine kept her hands hidden so no one would see how she clenched her fist until her knuckles turned pure white. She watched Draco pull to a stop and shout something at Harry that she couldn't hear over the crowd and Leah's screaming in particular.

"SLYTHERIN! SLYTHERIN! SLYTHERIN! SLYTHERIN! SLYTHERIN!"

A bludger narrowly missed Harry and Valentine's stomach did a flip. The bludger barrelled on past him as it made a sharp turn, it swung itself straight through Oliver Woods broomstick. The Gryffindor captain went down, shattered wood falling around him. Then the bludger continued on its route towards Harry. Valentine knew immediately that something was wrong.

Harry moved at lightning speed and he did his best to escape the bludger that was breaking through everything in its path to get to him. The bludger was hunting him down in a way that Valentine knew was completely unnatural.

First his broom, now a freaking bludger!

Valentine could her friends laughing at the scene as her mind whirled.

Clearly, the bludger has been jinxed but by whom? The purpose is probably easy enough to discover. They want to either hurt Harry or assure that he loses this match. But who is behind it all? Last year it was Quirrell and his little piggy backer, but this year? I'm not so sure our current Defense Against the Dark Art's Professor is even capable of creating and enforcing a scheme like this.

"Looks like the bludger feels the same as us." Liam laughed.

One of the things that Valentine particularly despised about this was that it was a whole school event. Everyone was here and she couldn't make a move without revealing herself. That's not to say that she wouldn't have done it if it meant saving Harry's life. That was the golden rule.

Harry twisted and turned across the field, doing his damn hardest to shake the bludger but it stuck fast and relentless. He ducked in between the towers, he brought himself as close to the ground as possible but nothing slowed or deterred it. Eventually, he'd seemed to have enough because he flew straight one of the Ravenclaw towers and reared up at the very last second. The bludger ploughed through the wood and fabric and Harry turned to make a quick escape.

Oh, thank God.

Only to be met by Draco, again shoutings something Valentine couldn't hear.

I'm I cursed?

However, she saw the same as Harry. A flickering of gold around her cousins head.

"DRACO!" Leah screamed, no longer in merriment.

"Watch out!" Added Blaze.

The bludger had resumed its course. Valentine's felt as though her heart had stopped altogether. Harry saw it coming and ducked his head in the nick of time. Draco did the same and Valentine had never been more grateful for their skills. She was sure that if someone could have seen her hands, they would have been white as fresh snow.

Then the two Seekers were off, chasing after the small golden glint in the air. Draco was on Harry in a split second. He slammed his elbow into the other boy but Harry served to be as resilient as the bludger.

Draco moved ahead of Harry, following the snitch down into the gap between the stadium walls and the field itself. Harry didn't hesitate to do the same, the bludger no more than a few feet behind.

Valentine leaned over the railing, straining to see the two but they were gone. Now she knew her heart must have restarted because she could feel it pounding in her ears, almost drowning out the roaring crowd.

"Be careful!" It was Liam's voice and his hand on her shoulder that made her snap.

"Don't touch me!" She shoved him into Blaze.

"I'm sorry, I just-" Liam blinked in fearful surprise.

"I don't need your help!" She didn't want him to feel how tense she was.

She turned back over the railing as far as she possibly could.

Where the hell are they?

Valentine had never seen that part of the stadium but taking into account what she had seen of the structure, it would be all cross beams in triangles and squares. An image of broken bones and cracked skulls filled her mind.

"Where's Draco?" Olivia shouted over the crowd.

"I can't see him," said Blaze.

"Is he going to be okay?" Leah had calmed down a little, her excitement giving away to fear.

"Hey, don't worry," Olivia assured her. "Draco knows what he's doing."

"Yeah, Potter should be the one who's worried!" Blaze insisted but Valentine could have smelled his hidden concern from a mile away. Blaze had always been an easy book to read.

"Draco's father is here, right?" Said Liam. "I mean, he'll definitely on the top of his game. Draco wouldn't shut up last night about how he was going to impress his father."

"Yeah." Leah tried her best smile but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "He's always trying to do that."

Valentine spared a single second to glance up at the Slytherin staff tower. If Lucius Malfoy was anywhere, that's where he would be.

Within that second, everything changed. Valentine looked back down into the arena just in time to see Draco sprawling out into the open no longer on his broom, twisting through the air and hitting the ground violently.

"DRACO!" Valentine screamed and was forcing her way through the crowd before she could even think. "Move! Get out of my way!"

The other students scrambled to make room for her as she showed no signs of slowing down. She went straight for the tower without a single hesitation.

Valentine had spent her whole life going up and downstairs at Malfoy Manor and now here at Hogwarts as well. Never in those twelve years had she ever flown downstairs so quickly. She took them two at a time and knew that if she lost her footing she wouldn't have time to catch herself.

Snape, you better pull your weight and have your damn eyes on Potter.

She burst out from the bottom of the tower and tore her way out on to the field not even thinking about the match still going on above her.

She was the first at his side, falling to her knees beside him, scanning him over for blood or obvious injuries.

"Draco." She grabbed his face carefully. "Draco, where does it hurt?"

"Every...where." He forced out, face twisted into a pained grimace.

She could have either hugged him or slapped him right there and then

"Val..." Draco peered up at her through glassy eyes, lifting his head as high as he could.

"Yes?" She leaned closer over him.

"Father..."

"He would have seen everything, Draco."

Draco let his head fall back a little too hard and grimaced in pain.

"Harry Potter has caught the snitch." The announcer's voice echoed around them. "Gryffindor wins!"

Valentine looked across the field at where Harry now lay on his back. She could hear the joyous cries from the crowd above and watched Draco furiously blinking away tears, glaring up at the sky.

"It's a pointless game anyway. I don't know why you bother with it." Valentine said with her typical air of arrogance.

"It matters to me." Draco spoke with such a small voice Valentine couldn't be sure he had spoken at all.

"Draco!"

"Is he alright!"

Valentine turned to see Leah, Olivia, Liam and Blaze rushing towards them. In her hurry to get to Draco's side she'd forgotten all about them.

Then the other Slytherin players were swooping down and dismounting as well.

Leah was there first.

"Oh, my, god! Oh, my, god! Oh, my, god! Draco! Draco! Are you OK? Is he breathing? Val, is he breathing? Draco are you breathing?" Leah babbled on and on, only getting louder. "Someone tell me he's breathing!"

"How can she..." Blaze arrived at her side, utterly breathless. "...run so quickly...and still...be able to talk..."

"Is she...part cheetah?" Liam arrived next, chest heaving.

"Is it...because she's...a...girl?" Blaze gasped.

"What...does that...have to do...with anything...?" Liam looked at him incredulously.

"Is he alright?" Olivia was then on the other side of Draco. "We need to get him to the hospital wing."

Valentine glanced over to another huddled group of people across the field.

God knows Harry's probably bloody injured too because of course he is. What else would he be? Safe and happy? No, never. That just could never happen.

Valentine spent a moment very seriously contemplating ways to ban the entire sport from Hogwarts at the very least.

"Come on, mate." Liam was helping Draco stand.

"I'll go get his broom." Said, Olivia.

"Bloody hell, the broom." Draco groaned as he suddenly remembered it. "It better be in one piece."

"You are the one lucky to be in one piece!" Valentine snapped at him but he was too busy trying to stand with both Liam and Blaze now helping him.

"Lestrange!" Snape called out as he approached from the bottom of the tower and for once not in anger but to do his actual job. "Get him to the hospital wing immediately. Everyone else will be preoccupied with Potter."

"What the hell does it look like we're doing?" Valentine snarled and looked to the Slytherin still standing there looking concerned but doing nothing to help. "Make yourself useful and get a damn stretcher!"

-----Pretending To Hate-----

Draco was lying in the bed groaning although Madam Pomfrey had only needed a full ten minutes to mend him. A fractured right wrist and elbow, a decent-sized lump on his head and enough bruises to turn him black and blue by the time they got to the castle. Despite all this Valentine knew Madam Pomfrey had him giving him enough pain-relieving potion that he shouldn't have been able to feel a damn thing.

Leah was crouched on the floor at his bedside sniffling, poking at a quickly fading bruise on his hand. Olivia was getting him a drink, the helpful angel that she was and Liam and Blaze were reassuring him that his new broom was still entirely in one piece.

Valentine leaned against the wall beside his bed, watching the large group that had clamoured around Harry's bed. From what she had heard, the bludger hadn't relented even after Harry caught the snitch which typically halted all Quidditch balls immediately. Hermione had nullified the spell before it could do more damage but Harry's arm had already been broken.

Now, a broken arm wasn't exactly what Valentine would consider a failure but not really a victory either. Harry was alive, that much she could be glad for, however...Hermione hadn't been the only one who decided to help. Lockhart, the great moron had, for whatever reason, seen fit to mend Harry himself. First Harry had had a broken arm and then he had a boneless arm. Valentine couldn't imagine how spectacular his screw must have been to achieve that. She was sure that even Leah couldn't have managed that.

It made her eager to pull another prank on the idiot but she was already back on probation and serving out two weeks worth of detentions with whatever teacher was unlucky enough to be landed with her. She'd only been permitted to attend the Quidditch match because of Snape knew how much she hated them.

"Mr Malfoy, stop making such a fuss. You can go." Madam Pomfrey came bustling into the hospital wing.

Harry's boneless arm issue was certainly much more pressing then Draco's whining fit and they all knew this except Draco himself.

"Out of my way." Madam Pomfrey broke through the crowd around Harry. "Should have been brought straight to me. I can mend bones in a heartbeat, but growing them
back?"

Draco continued to groan dramatically. Liam gave Blaze a look that said 'don't say anything'.

"You're not going to die, you know." Said, Leah.

"Weren't you the one crying the whole way to the castle?" He stopped to glare at her.

"Well, you could have been but you're not and I didn't know that then!" She sulked. "Besides, you and Val always bruise so badly at the littlest things it freaks me out."

"We can't help being pale, Leah."

"Maybe you should go out in the sun more!"

"We live in England, Leah."

"Here." Olivia returned, passing Draco a goblet of water. "Um. I...I saw your dad. Mr Malfoy, I mean. I thought he might have been looking for you and I told him you were in the hospital wing but..."

Draco tool the goblet without a word, acting as though he couldn't even hear her.

"That bastard," Valentine growled under her breath.

"Val?" Olivia blinked at her.

"Mr Malfoy isn't always nice," Leah whispered into the side of the mattress.

"Shut up!" Draco snapped at her, flicking at her head.

Valentine stepped away from the wall and started around the bed.

"Val?" Draco's eyes grew large and worried. "Val, just leave it. Val!"

"What's wrong?" Blaze glanced back and forth between them.

"Leah, stop her." Draco hissed.

"But...but mama said I'm supposed to stay out of it!"

"You already ignored her when you opened your damn mouth five seconds ago! Val!"

"I'll be back." Said Valentine, eyes expressionless as she walked out of the hospital wing.

-----Pretending to Hate-----

"Wait! Uncle wait!" Valentine raced down the hall towards Lucius's retreating form.

He ignored her and continued walking.

"I said wait, damn you!" She growled, picking up speed.

She rounded him swiftly and cut him off and coming face to face with him.

At first, he refused to look her in the eye, staring somewhere over her head.

"Get out of my way." He tried to move past her, but she quickly blocked his path once more.

"I don't care if you ignore me but do not ignore your son!"

"You insolent..." His cold gaze fell upon hers. "How dare you speak to me like that!"

"Your only child is lying in the hospital ward and you are turning your back and walking away! I won't pretend to be a leading expert on childcare but something about that seems off to me!"

"You have no right to even stand in my presence after the trouble you've caused!" He howled. "Do you know how many complaints we've received about your behaviour? Your actions reflect on all of us. When will you understand that!"

"This isn't about me!"

"Of course, it is!" Lucius growled and roughly grabbed hold of the front of Valentine's robes. "It's always about you, isn't? The great and terrifying Valentine Lestrange. Doesn't follow the rules. Doesn't respect authority. Doesn't show a single glimmer of gratefulness to the family that has given her everything. Just hearing your name makes me sick to my stomach. Between you and Potter it's wonder I haven't died."

Valentine who had been watched him with a bored expression smiled sweetly.

"I would be glad to help you with that."

"Well, don't get your hopes too high. I won't be felled by the likes of you."

"As I said before. This isn't about you." Valentine spat through gritted teeth. "What am I supposed to tell Draco? That as well as being a spineless bastard, you're also don't care whether he lives or dies?"

"You can tell Draco that he has disappointed me. Through your influence no doubt."

"My influence is the only reason that Draco has a spine to keep himself standing at all."

"Shut your mouth, you ungrateful child." Lucius shook her fiercely.

There was a brief moment of silence as Valentine open her mouth to spit obscenities back at him but it was shattered by the sound of approaching footsteps.

Lucius must have realised that their current positions were very telling and he shoved her away as though she was something vile.

McGonagall then stepped around the corner down the end of the hall, catching sight of them immediately.

"Ah, Miss Lestrange. And Mr Malfoy."

"You are lucky." Lucius hissed his breath. "If we were anywhere else...well, let just say you won't be enjoying your holiday."

"What about Draco?" She glared daggers up at him but he didn't reply.

"Professor." Lucius smiled cordially. "I was just about to take my leave, good day to you."

Then he turned and walked away, leaving Valentine boiling with unbidden rage. She very much wished Snape was around to scream at or maybe Lockhart.

She thought about Draco lying on the quidditch pitch in pain thinking about how he had disappointed his father with his failure. How he should have done better, fought meaner. How he would probably never be enough for his father or the name of Malfoy. She thought about Draco lying in the hospital wing, the physical pain numbed but that constant reminder of how he had failed to stand all around him with concerned faces and sitting across from him with far greater injuries. How he would think his father was too ashamed to come see him.

She imagined taking out her wand and using the most harmful spells at her disposals but it didn't make her feel any better.

"Miss Lestrange?"

Valentine had forgotten that McGonagall was standing there. She'd probably inadvertently saved her from a slap or two.

"Is everything alright?" McGonagall frowned. She pursed her lips slightly and stared at where Lucius had been standing.

Valentine could see the concern flickering in her eyes. She was far too smart a woman to not see this all for what it was.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Valentine cocked her head lightly, brows furrowed as though she was confused.

-----Pretending to Hate-----

"Kreacher's master is upstairs as he was when you left. Is there anything Kreacher can do for you?"

"Was that Lockhart looking like a rainbow reject?"

"It's too early in the day for my brain to be forced to comprehend the words 'graceful noodlage'."

"I always wanted a wife."

"I mean, if you do the math, she was only a baby when they locked up her parents so I doubt she even remembers them. If that's the case, who could they influence her at all?"

"Do you really wish to anger me