Secrets and Lies

As November dawned the first Quidditch match of the season seemed a lot closer than it had any right to be. So Harry had increased the number of practices dramatically. It did little good.

Ginny seemed to be pretending that nothing had happened with Matthew. She hadn't mentioned him to Harry since before their trip to Hogsmeade, and Harry wasn't one to question too much of a good thing. She'd apparently made up with Megan as well, because they seemed to be speaking to each other again. But her flying was suffering.

The other member of the team running through a spell of poor form was Seamus, who tended to duck any pass Ron threw at him, kept looking over his shoulder to see where Ron was, and generally couldn't score through a metre wide hoop only three feet in front of him.

Ron seemed to be getting better and better, but the two of the Chasers seemed to get steadily worse and worse. Harry had to take drastic action. With only a week until the first match against Slytherin Harry decided that the only course of action was to replace at least one of them. Seamus was the obvious choice.

For obvious reasons.

This led to another dilemma; just who could he get to replace Seamus? The first choices would always have been Dean and Matthew, but their rocky relationships with Ginny might lead to conflict in the ranks. Not to mention he didn't know how they would react to being invited to join the team.

But in the back of his mind something was lingering. Megan had mentioned Draco Malfoy when she was crying, and had even implied that Malfoy was in the castle. This looked like a job for the Marauder's Map.

"Sorry Harry, I think I lost it," Hermione said, clearly lying through hers and Ron's teeth. Harry was not-so-quietly furious with Hermione. But it only confirmed his suspicions that someone didn't want Harry to see their name on the map.

Then he asked Ginny if she had any idea who had the map. She claimed she didn't, but Megan sat there the whole time looking guilty. Harry questioned her, but she refused to give the answers. Harry was about to push the matter further whenever Ginny shot him a warning glance.

With no clues to the current owner of the map, Harry confronted Matthew.

"I need you to replace Seamus on the team," he said bluntly in front of the entire Common Room.

"How nice," Matthew muttered as if he couldn't care less. He continued to read one of his textbooks as if Harry wasn't there. Neville was sitting beside him, looking nervously from Harry to Matthew.

"Come on Matthew. Gryffindor needs you."

"Oh, Gryffindor needs me?" Matthew said in what was possibly the least sincere tone of voice ever used. "Well in that case, I simply must play for you."

"Oh come on you prat! You wanted to play at the start of the year."

"Ah, so I would have you believe. But in fact it was just part of my secret plan to sneak Death Eaters into the school and murder everyone in their beds."

Harry summoned up the most powerful glare he could, but Matthew seemed unfazed.

"That's not funny."

"Because you believe it's true," Matthew replied. "And until you apologise for all the nasty things you said about me I will not play for your team."

###

As Draco sat down to breakfast on match day he could not help but grin. Oh it had been beautiful watching Potter apologise to him in front of the entire Common Room. It had almost made Draco wish he'd told Potter he had to beg him whilst wearing a dog suit, but that might have been pushing it a bit far. Draco glanced at his team-mates.

There was the Robins girl, who seemed to be handling the pressure all too well for Draco's liking. And Peakes, who looked relatively unfazed. The weedy one Coote looked like a light breeze might kill him of shock.

And there, over beside Potter, were the two Weasleys. One was idly helping herself to more breakfast whilst the other wasn't eating at all. Maybe he was finally full.

Then Potter pompously announced that it was time for the team to make their way down to the pitches. Draco smirked, and sat there whilst everyone else stood up, even Peakes who was only halfway through his bacon. Draco whipped open the Daily Prophet.

"Baird?" Potter questioned, sounding annoyed.

"I'm terribly sorry Potter," he began, but then paused. "Actually, I'm not really that sorry. But I am still reading the newspaper."

"What?"

"A newspaper," Draco said as if talking to a child. "You see, it's this wonderful thing that grown ups get everyday to let them know what's happening in Britain at the moment. You on the other hand have no idea what happens in the real world. Probably couldn't find Bristol on a map." Potter turned red and stomped over to Draco.

"Listen Baird, if you don't get moving then you're off the team!" he growled.

"Oh dear," Draco replied in his less-than-sincere voice. "Now I can't be on the team. On the plus side I can check my horoscope now." He pretended to read from the paper. "Today you will not take part in a Quidditch match. Oh, how does it always know?" Potter growled at him, and stormed out of the Great Hall, nearly knocking Ginny flying in the process. Draco smirked after him.

"Are you coming?" Ginny demanded.

"I'll be there in five minutes," Draco replied, not taking his eyes off the newspaper.

Draco made sure to take ten, before sauntering in the general direction of the Quidditch pitch. Whenever he arrived in the changing rooms the team were already sporting their red and gold robes. No one said anything to Draco, but they remained focused on Harry, who was explaining some last minute strategic plays. Fighting back the urge to vomit, Draco put on his Gryffindor colours.

"I'm still a Slytherin," he thought to himself, before throwing an obvious wink at Demelza Robins, making sure that both Potter and Ginny saw it.

"Alright team, let's go!" Potter announced. Draco grabbed his Nimbus Two Thousand and One and followed the rest of the team out. Whenever they stood out onto the pitch the whole stadium seemed to roar, save for a small section at the other end, which had gone green.

As the two teams lined up against each other Draco made a special point to go over and shake hands with everyone. Crabbe and Goyle were quite clearly holding back the urge to hug him to death, but he gave then each a firm handshake. He then hugged Harper.

Several Gryffindors were booing, and Potter looked furious. The rest of the team just looked perplexed, except Ginny who was starring at him in horror. With the benefit of ten seconds hindsight Draco saw that he maybe had overdone it a bit. For one thing, his shady past was starting to unravel.

She obviously knew he was a Slytherin, not that that wasn't painfully obvious to begin with.

Potter shook hands with Urquhart, before the two teams mounted their brooms.

"The two teams mount their brooms," the commentator, that Smith boy from Hufflepuff, announced. "Slytherin's team is exactly as expected, a rather large group, save for the smaller, nimbler Harper as Seeker. Gryffindor however have chosen to go with Baird over Finnigan. A risky strategy shaking up the team at this late stage. We'll see if it pays off."

Madam Hooch blew her whistle and tossed the Quaffle into the air. Draco was in there, quick as a flash, to snatch it out of Vaisey's reach. He quickly ducked under another challenge from a Chaser, before trying a quick pass to Ginny.

The ball just sailed right past her. She was just floating on the broom, staring at him with a look that suggested she was at a loss as to what to do.

"What a terrible pass by Baird!" Smith told the crowd. "It just left Weasley hovering in midair, with no idea what to do with it. Slytherin in possession..."

Draco leaned forward on his broom to send himself hurtling forward. Weasley had just pulled off a spectacular save, knocking the ball into the path of Robins, who punched it solidly to Draco. He caught it deftly, and streaked towards the Slytherin end. Then, he calmly tossed the ball past the Slytherin Keeper.

"Ten-nothing Gryffindor!" Smith's voice boomed around the stadium to the delight of... everyone who wasn't a Slytherin. Draco scowled at what he had done, before shrugging towards the Slytherin fans. Blaise was in the front row, staring him down.

It was really end to end stuff, with Smith's scathing remarks about everyone ringing around the stadium. About everyone except Ginny, who just drifted back and forth, nor really taking much notice of when the Quaffle came her way.

Apparently even Potter noticed this and he quickly called a time out.

"What's going on out there?" he demanded, clearly aware that every second he wasted on the ground was a second longer than him Harper had to look for the Snitch.

"I've only got two Chasers in front of me!" Weasley snarled. "Ginny, what are you doing out there?" Ginny looked up at him.

"I'm trying Ron!" he said hotly.

"No, you're not," Robins hissed. "You're just floating around. What's with you Ginny?" Everyone was looking at her, but she was determined not to look at anything except her shoes.

"I'm sorry Ginny," Potter said. "But if you're not going to play then we'll just have to ask Seamus. Or even Dean."

"No," Ginny murmured. "I'll try harder. I promise." Potter took a long look at Ginny. The fiery determination had suddenly returned to her eyes.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Ron demanded, before he mounted his broom and took off towards his goalposts.

As the match started up again Draco passed the ball to Ginny, who wasted no time in fumbling it and allowing the Slytherins another chance to attack the goalposts. Draco sighed, and didn't even bother tracking back. Slytherin scored.

"Seventy-Forty Slytherin," Smith boomed. "Gryffindor are really falling behind due to Baird's inaccurate passing."

"What, is he in love with Ginny?" Draco thought furiously as Ginny's simple pass to Robins smacked Coote in the face, causing him to drop his bat. This gave Crabbe and Goyle an opening with which to hammer the two Bludgers, one at Weasley and one at Potter. Peakes took a moment to decide who to protect, but it was too late. Potter swerved to avoid his Bludger, but Weasley was not so nimble. He took it square in the chest. Madam Hooch blew her whistle.

"Penalty to Gryffindor!" Smith announced. "Illegal Bludger attack on the Keeper!" However the Gryffindor end's joy suddenly turned to horror when it became quite clear that Weasley wasn't getting up. To make matters worse -

"And Harper's seen something!"

Everyone turned to watch Harper, who was half the pitch away from Potter. His hand was outstretched, and could be seen grasping for a small flash of gold.

"And Slytherin win," Smith said, sounding shocked. "Slytherin win."

###

All the Slytherin players came over to congratulate Matthew, which only served to infuriate Harry further. He stormed over to where Matthew had landed.

"What the hell was that all about?" he shouted. "You deliberately lost us the game."

Harry knew he shouldn't have said it, and it was probably just his frustration speaking out, but he could tell instantly that he'd made the wrong move.

"I lost the game?" Matthew growled. "I lost the game did I? Well what about you not even trying to find the Snitch? You were too busy watching your boyfriend Weasley that you didn't see it." By this point the rest of the team had made their way over to the argument. Several other students had found their way over as well. Matthew seemed to hesitate for a moment. "You lost us the match Potter!" He said triumphantly. Several people gasped, and Hermione stepped across Harry as if expecting him to lash out.

"You're off the team Baird!" Harry barked. But he knew it was a futile effort. Matthew was just about to retort when Harry shoved Hermione out of the way to grab his collar.

"HOW DARE YOU?" Harry roared in his face. "How dare you stand there and spout such accusations? We would be fine if it weren't for you and Ginny!" He practically spat the last word out of his mouth. "Yeah, I saw you and her at Hogsmeade. You lousy, Slytherin-loving traitor!" He shoved Matthew roughly to the ground. However his view was obscured them by a mass of red hair.

"Don't do that!" Ginny shouted at him. "It's not his fault!"

"Of course you'd defend him!" Harry exclaimed, his temper rising further with every passing moment. "Don't think I didn't see you, with him. In Hogsmeade. I'll bet you two were getting right and comfortable then!"

"How can you say that?" she hissed. "Megan told me what you said to her! And you stand there and accuse me of -"

"Don't try and make out like I'm the bad guy. I'm Harry Potter! I defeated Lord Voldemort. You people should be bowing down to me!"

Ginny stared at him for a moment, before she drew her hand up and slapped him. Enraged, he shoved her. Matthew tried to catch her, but she shoved him off.

She cast one angry look back at Harry, before storming back up to the castle, leaving Harry to clutch his reddened cheek as everyone else milled away from him.