Healing

Phys. Ed.

Draco decided that Wednesdays were definitely going to be the best day of his week. After Professor Fungbury's double DADA class, he had double potions again. Then, after lunch, the whole of the year eight had a new addition to their timetable. McGonagall had decided that it was vitally important that they all had some downtime from their studies and the general stress of their week. So, for both their wellbeing and their health, Wednesday afternoons was dedicated purely to what was described as Phys. Ed. on their schedules. McGonagall made it quite clear that the subject was compulsory and anyone caught skipping it would be put into detention. They were to take their brooms and were to go to the Quidditch pitch because she had arranged for Oliver Wood to take time out of his busy schedule with Puddlemere United to spend the afternoon with them. Neville had blanched, openly admitting he suffered from vertigo, Hermione scowled - she hated flying, but McGonagall assured them they would not be flying high because they would not be playing Quidditch. Despite the confusion, there was a buzz of excitement as the year walked down to the pitch.

When Draco reached the pitch, Harry was already there, his Disillusionment Charm dropped once more. Draco was pleased that Professor Fungbury's words seem to have had an impact on Harry; although he had not been visible outside of class, he had dropped it during potions and he sat unobtrusively at the back, partnered with Susan Bones for a reason Draco couldn't fathom. Remembering Hermione's intonation, Draco scowled slightly when he saw how close Harry and Oliver Wood were stood, the tall Scottish man with cropped reddish-brown hair was stooped slightly over Harry, his hand on Harry's arm, his brown eyes looking into Harry's green eyes rather too intently for Draco's liking. The two men came together into a brief bear-hug, good-naturedly patting each other on the back twice. Then Oliver strolled towards the rest of the class. Draco's mood deepened when he resignedly admitted to himself that Oliver was actually rather good-looking: besides the kindly, warm brown eyes, he had the tracings of a stubble over his defined jaw; a small cleft, well, more of a cute dimple, in his chin; there was the shadow of a furrow between his eyebrows above a handsomely straight nose; and just to add to the overall mix of rugged-slash-vulnerable, he had a recent injury just above his left eyebrow that was begging for some TLC. As he watched Harry staring after the handsome man, a slight smile quirking on his face, Draco wondered if Oliver wasn't just simply a former school rival on the Quidditch pitch, but a definite rival for Harry's affections: Oliver was not only openly gay but single too, according to the latest Witch Weekly interview.

Despite the initial concern at the start of the lesson, Oliver was a fun and attentive teacher, Draco noticed he gave everyone the same intense and concerned look, even if it did seem to linger on Harry a bit longer than on anyone else. He spent time with Neville, reassuring him as he gradually got the man more than a foot off the ground; and was attentive and patient with Hermione, causing Ron to openly scowl, as he tried to teach her some techniques which would steady her nerves. They played a low-level game, their brooms enchanted so they could fly no higher than three feet off the ground. They were in two teams of six and had a single ball like a Quaffle, it was far slower paced than Quidditch but the game called for strong flying techniques, balance and control as they had to stop moving as soon as they caught the ball, hovering on the spot, before throwing the ball on. If their brooms moved, they wobbled, or fell, then they had to swap with a person on the sidelines. The aim was to get the ball through a small Quidditch-like hoop at the end of the temporary pitch that was set up. It turned out that Hermione was the best at scoring because of the games' similarity with muggle netball which she had played before she came to Hogwarts. However, the balancing and wobbling and tumbles that went on caused much hilarity as people called them out and they kept swapping sitting out and coming back on. Draco was amazed as the afternoon came to a close that everyone had smiles on their faces. He wondered at McGonagall's clever little strategies, this had worked both in terms of creating unity in the year and as light relief from their work.