Learn to Love » Draco Malfoy x Reader

XXIV

Like most quidditch games, I was struggling to keep my attention on the actual sport for most of the time. I liked quidditch, it was fun enough, but it could get tedious watching twelve people try to score or defend against goals while two chase a tiny golden ball around at top speeds. Sometimes the games were quick, and others were much longer than I thought necessary.

This was somewhere in between, but I still felt my attention span lessen with each minute passing. Every "ding" of the scoreboard counting another ten points made me look up to see who scored, then I mindlessly returned my gaze back to Draco and Cho Chang.

It was more of a ritual thing, my eyes following the seekers, but a person could only watch a green figure and a blue figure chase that ball for so long. It got tiresome.

Daphne, on the other hand, seemed amused more than ever. In fact, it was uncharacteristically attentive of her to watch so closely. I turned to look at her, and scanned where her eyes were following.

It was a brunette boy, clad in green which meant he had to be a Slytherin. I wouldn't expect her to like anyone outside of our house, anyway, but it was like her eyes shone as she watched him move about. He must have been a chaser, by the nature of how he moved about and handled the quaffle.

That meant it had to be either Theo, Marcus, or Adrian. I could rule out Marcus Flint right away, seeing as I knew she'd said to me many times before he was the worst looking on the entire team, but I couldn't pinpoint whether it was Theo or Pucey. She'd liked Adrian in years past, so that wouldn't surprise me, but Theo was handsome too, and they certainly had a good relationship as friends.

I took a second gander, this time closer and more intent on trying to differentiate. It was harder than I thought, actually, since they were both tall and lean brunettes. Unlike Draco who was easy to spot as seeker and with his platinum hair, Theo and Adrian sort of blended together from far enough away, considering the speed of their brooms too.

Once one chucked the quaffle through the goal post, I heard the voice of Lee Jordan exclaim, "Theodore Nott scores ten points for Slytherin!"

My attention on Daphne was fixated so I could judge her reactions. She seemed unaffected, her eyes still on someone else.

And so, I deduced, it was Adrian after all.

"Pucey? Really, Daph?" I asked.

She looked at me, eyebrows raised and confused as ever. "Wh- what? How did you know? I never even said anything!"

I chuckled, shaking my head. "You really thought you could hide that? You looked like a lovesick puppy, for Merlin's sake."

"Hush! I don't need our whole house overhearing," she quieted, looking around nervously. In her defense, we were in the Slytherin stands packed together like sardines. Anyone could have heard if she didn't prompt me to quiet.

"But come on," she continued, "you know it's always been him."

"When you were fourteen and fifteen?" I mused.

"Some crushes never die."

She was certainly right about that, but I just couldn't fathom how she was still into Adrian after all this time. I remember she allegedly got over him sixth year after he was rude to her on a few occasions, and he had gone out with our friend Tracey. That meant he was off-limits; you couldn't like your friend's boyfriend.

"Do you plan on speaking to him anytime soon?"

She shrugged dismissively. "Don't know, it's not much of a priority. I'm fine with admiring from afar. Wouldn't be anything new."