I took a deep breath, adjusting my Quidditch uniform slightly. Thoughts raced through my mind as I moved around the locker room to grab my broom; Was Draco hiding something? Would this match go well? How was Harry doing?

"Hey, Y/n," Goyle, one of the Beaters, said, "uh, good luck out there."

"You too," I said, at least thankful to have been pulled from my thoughts. I grabbed my broom and walked out of the locker room, unprepared for the harsh wind immediately finding me.

The wind howled in my ear, drowning out the sound of the cheering crowd. I had to look at the stands to even see that they were there.

I walked up to Madam Hooch, who stood in the middle of the field awaiting the teams. We approached her, mounting our brooms at her command.

"I want a clean match, like usual," the professor stated, looking at Crabbe and Goyle. "Three, two, one!" she yelled. She threw the Quaffle up into the air, and we took off, racing for them.

Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Seeker, and I ascended straight above the field, looking around for any trace of the golden Snitch. As I was scanning the area, I noticed the other plays going on. The Beaters were hitting Bludgers with no problem, not caring what—or who—they hit. The Slytherin Chasers were doing their usual great job of scoring goals, helping to ensure our win even if I failed to catch the Snitch. And, of course, the Keeper was blocking any Ravenclaws from scoring.

I moved to the other side of the field, hovering in the air to continue looking for the Snitch. As I did, I followed more of the game, starting to finally understand why so many students came to watch.

Things began to take a turn for the worse for the Slytherin team. Crabbe took a hit from a Bludger, unable to block it in time. Dizzy, he slowed down, waiting behind Goyle while he regained control over his head and broom. Then Goyle was hit too, and both Beaters began tumbling around in the air.

The Ravenclaw Chasers stopped trying to score for a moment, giving me brief hope, but they doubled back after observing the Slytherin Keeper's methods. The Chasers began faking right and scoring left, or the other way around, as well as sending multiple Chasers in at once to score on our goals. The Keeper, a fourth-year named Charlie Buson, was unable to block all of the goals and the Ravenclaws had eventually scored multiple points.

The Slytherin Chasers were even beginning to falter. The Ravenclaw Keeper was doing an excellent job of blocking each of their scoring attempts, making it hard for my team to score anything.

Suddenly, I remembered that I, too, was a player, and took off, chasing after the Ravenclaw Seeker. She was flying around in circles, looking for the Snitch, and I followed her.

We passed the stands, and only then could I hear the cheering over the intense wind. Professor McGonagall was being the announcer since the usual guy had graduated last year.

"Another point to Ravenclaw!" she yelled. "That makes the two teams tied at 70!"

The students in the stands began cheering for their teams, eager to see how the game would play out.

Then, as the wind howled through my ears again and drowned out the crowd, I noticed a small, golden glint at the bottom of the arena. Instantly, I dove for it.

The Ravenclaw Seeker must have noticed my sudden movement or the Snitch, because she dove as well, racing me for the tiny ball. I was still reasonably ahead of her, but the distance was decreasing at an alarming rate.

As I got closer, I stuck my hand out, but then Cho was next to me, reaching for the Snitch too. I leaned forward to speed up, and in just a milisecond, the Snitch was gone, having suddenly jerked upwards. We followed it.

My hand outstretched, I zoomed toward the Snitch, reaching. I took a deep breath, and as soon as I felt it on my fingertip, curled my hand around it. It fluttered around, trying to escape, but I held on tightly, shoving it into the air victoriously.

The game ceased, and Slytherin was declared the winner. After returning the Snitch, I went into the locker room to drop off my broom, then ran out of the area to meet the Slytherins now exiting the stands.

"Congratulations, Y/n!" someone yelled.

"We're going to party hard tonight!" another said.

I smiled, walking over to Star and Draco, who both congratulated me. We walked with the crowd back into the castle, then down to the Slytherin House, ready for the party we always threw after a win. As soon as we entered, students began pulling out cases of butterbeer and firewhiskey, cheering for the team, and shooting mini fireworks from their wands. One student used a spell to make music, and soon, everyone was dancing and having a great time.

Not wanting to embarrass myself, I simply sat on the couch with Draco, his arm around my shoulder. I pulled him in and kissed him, happy to be with him. As he returned the kiss, someone wolf-whistled and yelled, "Aw, Draco, get it! Is Y/n your girlfriend?"

I pulled away from Draco's lips, instead looking at his eyes. What was he going to say?

He looked down, avoiding my eyes. Without answering the student, he stood up and left the common room, going up to his dorm.

Confused, I stood up, walking over to Star to ask what to do. She had a drink in hand and was dancing, obviously tipsy from all of the firewhiskey.

"Oh, uh," she said, looking over at the boys' dormitories, "you should probably go talk to him about whatever happened."

She began to stumble back into the party, but she looked like she was going to be sick, so I pulled the glass from her hand and made her sit. Then, I went up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.

When I reached Draco's door, I knocked, and he opened the door momentarily. He let me in, and I looked around, surprised to see how similar his dormitory was to mine. The main difference was that his was much darker and colder. I began to shiver, standing around in the middle of the room as he sat down on the bed, looking stressed.

Draco soon noticed how cold I was and patted the bed. I sat down next to him, cuddling him for warmth. My head against his chest, his body heat was enough to warm me up after a few minutes, and when I was feeling betted, I began to speak.

"Why did you leave the party?" I asked quietly.

Draco ran his fingers through my hair, rubbing my head gently. "I didn't want to be around all of those people," he answered softly.

"You seemed upset," I said, "after that guy asked if I was you girlfriend. Why?"

He hesitated. "I'm not entirely sure. I guess I just didn't want to give him an answer." His tone made it sound like a question.

"How come?"

"Well, I didn't have an answer."

"Do you want me to be your girlfriend?" I asked before thinking. I pulled away from his chest to look up at him.

Draco paused again, thinking. "I . . . of course I do. You're such an amazing person, and I adore having you around me like you are now. But," he said, hesitant to continue, "I don't know. A lot is going to happen this year, and I'm scared that if you're around me you'll be in even more danger than you would be otherwise."

"I can deal with danger," I responded quickly.

"I know you can, love. I just don't want to be the one to put you in those situations." He paused again. "You're going to be in enough danger as it is. I think it would be unfair to put more on top of that."

I was confused. "What are you talking about?"

"You know that Voldemort's back. He's . . . getting more powerful. From what I know, he wants to kill you and your brother."

A flurry of thoughts ran into my brain, but one prevailed. "Draco," I said, sitting up to look him straight in the eyes and grabbing his hands. "I need you to tell me something." I didn't understand why I was asking this, but I needed to know. If I was right, how was I even supposed to react? "Are you a Death Eater?"

Draco winced at my words, a pang of sadness and guilt twinging in his eyes. Slowly, he nodded. "I'm so sorry," he said, his voice shaking like he was struggling not to cry. "I didn't have a choice. My parents—if I didn't join, Voldemort would kill them—"

I squeezed Draco's hands. "It's okay. I understand." I pulled him into a hug, taking a deep breath to calm the both of us.

Draco pulled out of the hug, instead looking at me. He smiled weakly, and I kissed him quickly.

"Thank you, Y/n," he said. "You're perfect."

Draco kissed my hand, then wiped away the tears that had gathered in his eyes. Even though no words were spoke, his eyes said everything for him: He was guilty, but grateful.

Soon, we fell back into each other, resting against the bed frames as we cuddled. My head on his shoulder, and his arm was wrapped around me, holding me close to him. I felt safe and protected, despite the distressing thoughts running through my head. With Draco, nothing could hurt me.

As we sat together, I listened to the quiet sounds filtering into the room from the party. Slowly, I began to drift to sleep, my eyes falling closed and my thoughts dispersing. Enjoying Draco's warmth, I slipped into unconscious, my breaths slowing down as I fell asleep.

~~~

I jerked awake as the door slammed open. I quickly sat up, yawning and looking around to remember what had happened. As the memories came back to me, I glanced at Draco to see him sleeping soundly against the bed frame. His arm was still around my waist, holding me gently.

I looked back up, suddenly remembering that someone had come in. I looked up to see Blaise Zabini and Goyle, gawking at us. Crabbe followed them in, laughing and goofing off before realising that his friends were stopped. Silence overcame him too, momentarily, but then the three began snickering. Crabbe and Goyle were about to start something else, but Zabini shushed them, pointing to Draco.

"He's asleep," he explained quietly. The other boys seemed to understand, and they spread out in the room, ready to sleep.

"What time is it?" I whispered.

"That's a good question," Blaise answered before using his wand to see. "It's half past midnight."

I cursed under my breath. The game had ended at six, so we had been here for almost seven hours.

Another question entered my mind. "Is Star okay?"

"You mean his sister?" Blaise vaguely gestured to Draco. "She's fine, I think. She's zoned, though."

I cursed again. I needed to find her. "Thanks."

Slowly, I removed Draco's hand from my waist and stood up, careful to not wake him. As I tip-toed to the door, Draco began stirring in his bed, and I sighed. I had woken him.

He sat up, and after regaining his bearings, stood up and walked to me. "Why'd you get up?" he mumbled, a yawn interrupting him.

"It's nearly one in the morning. I need to go make sure Star's okay."

"Can I come?"

"You need to sleep, you're exhausted."

"So are you."

I gave in, and we left his dorm for the common room. Immediately, I noticed that the House-elves were running around the room, cleaning the leftover trash. A few students were passed out of the couches, bottles of butterbeer and firewhiskey spread across the tables.

I observed the students, searching for Star. Her blonde hair stood out against the dark colour of the couch she was sleeping on. I ran to her, Draco close behind me, and when I reached her, shook her awake.

"Star!" I yelled as quietly as I could. "Star!"

Slowly, she awoke, looking around, her eyes bloodshot. "What's up?" Instantly, she slammed her hand against her head. "Ow," she whined.

I sighed. "You're hungover." I spelled a cup of water to me and handed it to my friend.

She chugged it quickly. "Thanks. Now, what's so urgent that you had to wake me up?"

"I needed to make sure that you're okay," I said, looking at Draco.

"I also wanted to tell you something," he added.

"Oh, okay."

His voice dropped to a whisper. "Y/n . . . knows."

"You told her?" Star whispered, her tone angry.

"Yes. It just happened, okay? That's not the point, though. We need to tell her about how dangerous this is going to be for us:"

"Do we really? Why do you think I drank so much?" Star complained. "It was because I didn't want to think about it."

"Sorry. But still, it's important."

Hesitantly, Star agreed. "I'm assuming you know that we're with You-Know-Who. He's having us do jobs for him in the school; I can't tell you what they are, but they're dangerous. I really don't think its wise for you to be around is very much this year, or you're going to get hurt. I'm sorry, Y/n," she said, "that's just how it is, I guess."

"I know," I said quickly, "and I'm prepared to get hurt. I don't want to have to lose you guys just because of Lord Volde—"

"Don't say his name," Star said. "Anyway, we're going to have to be careful. If we get caught being friendly or, uh, more than that," she said, tossing an accusatory look at Draco, "You-Know-Who won't hesitate to hurt us."

"I would expect nothing less from the Dark Lord himself," I responded. "And I'm prepared."

I looked at Draco and he gave a soft smile. He mouthed a thank you and stood up. I followed suit, grabbing Star and pulling her up to our dorm as Draco went to his.

"Goodnight, love," he called before he disappeared down the hallway.