For dinner that evening there was no difference. Emma sat in her usual spot beside Sabrina who would sit beside Pansy or some other girls Emma didn't know. This time it was a fourth year named Astoria, Daphne's younger sister, who would not stop staring at Emma no matter how many times she blinked at her.
"...and so I had to throw my library book at him just so he'd get the hint that I absolutely hate his guts. I got kicked out and I'm banned for a week unless I have a permission slip," Sabrina was explaining about her stalker, a boy in their year named Theodore Nott who had been crushing on her ever since their first year.
"I know all about him, you know..." she continued, Astoria Greengrass listening with wide eyes. It seemed she hadn't heard this story before. "His mother's dead and his father's a death eater. Poor bloke, but it still doesn't give him the right to creep up on me whenever I'm alone."
"Yeah, that's so true," Astoria said in a dreamy voice. It could have actually been her normal voice, but Emma didn't know. Astoria craned her neck with wide eyes. "Blaise, where's Draco?"
Blaise who had been sitting on the opposite side of the table a few seats down looked over at her and shrugged. "Coming back from practice, I suppose."
"But he's been out there all day," she huffed, flicking her hair over her shoulder. She was definitely the opposite of her sister. "I didn't know he was practising today."
"Should have read the notice board," Emma mumbled, poking at her food with a fork.
Astoria didn't appear to have heard Emma as she was still complaining about missing Draco's Quidditch practice.
"Hair blacker than night," a wispy voice spoke from in front of Emma, and she looked up to see Draco had taken a seat beside Blaise, his eyes on her as he spoke. "Lips red as roses. Eyes bluer than the stars -"
"Stars aren't even blue," Sabrina snorted before bursting into a fit of laughter. Emma couldn't help but join her, but she, Emma, tried not to as Draco had started to narrow his eyes. "And Emma's hair is brown, Merlin."
She picked a bit of the food in her plate and tossed it in Draco's sweaty hair. "You're a right cheeseball, you know?" she laughed. "Plenty of poetic skills."
He grinned and shook his hand through his hair.
"Hello, Draco," Astoria said in a voice that was much higher than her own, and that was saying something because her normal voice was already quite high and odd.
"Hey...?"
"Astoria," she rolled her eyes. "Why do you always forget my name?"
He shrugged and fixed himself a plate of food. "I'm no good at remembering names. Sorry."
"That's all right. I forgive you."
Over the course of the next few weeks, Halloween, as boring as it was, had passed and gone, and the chilly season of November had arrived. The first Quidditch match was nearing and Draco had been teaching the Slytherins a whole bunch of lyrics to chant at the game that'd make Ron Weasley all nervous, and allow the Slytherin Chasers to score much easily. Emma did tell Draco that it was cheating, she'd told him a hundred times, but he insisted it was a great idea and it was not physically considered cheating. He called it 'Weasley is our King.'
At breakfast the day of the first Quidditch game, Draco had been handing out silver 'Weasley is our King' crown-shaped badges for the Slytherins to pin on their jumpers, or anyone else who wanted to support Slytherin. But it was obvious everyone supported Gryffindor. And quite frankly Emma didn't blame them. This was Draco giving Slytherin a bad name.
"One for you, and one for you m'lady, oh and you, kind sir," Draco was talking in a very strange tone on the way down to the Great Hall, handing out the badges as he went. He appeared to be confident on Slytherin winning this match."You're wearing one too, Freckles."
"You can't make me," Emma poked her tongue at him, rushing off into the Great Hall.
Daphne joined her a second later with a badge pinned onto her jumper and she wrapped her green and silver scarf around her neck. Seeing as Emma didn't have anything Slytherin related, Daphne had a spare green and silver scarf for her to wear.
"You know what would make the game much better?" Emma said as she wrapped the scarf around her neck. "If all the players got to fly around with wooden swords in their hands and knock players off their brooms. I wouldn't miss a single practice."
"That makes two of us," Daphne grinned, fixing up her silver badge. She proceeded to sing under her breath, "Weasley cannot save a thing, he cannot block a single ring, that's why Slytherin's all sing, Weasley is our King."
When Ron Weasley and Harry passed, Emma beamed, ready to jump up and wish them good luck but all the other Slytherins beat her to it and laughed and waved and such. Ron stared at the ground looking horrified as he walked past, and Harry stared curiously at the badges pinned on people's chests.
"Everyone got a badge? You want one too, Granger?" Draco asked as he walked down the row of the Slytherin table. His eyes found Emma's and he asked, "Where's Sabrina and Pansy?"
"We're right here," they panted from behind him, almost making him drop the box from how much he jumped. Draco handed them a badge, and then he walked over to Emma.
"You sure you don't want to wear one, Freckles?" he offered politely, holding a shiny badge between his two fingers.
Emma smiled. "I'm sure. Besides, if I were to wear one Fred and George would hate me for it."
Draco's face pulled into a sour frown. "So? Who cares? The blood-traitors will know you're only supporting your House, so come on, just wear one."
Emma shook her head and he gave up, deciding to just sit down beside her and eat breakfast. He was all dressed in his Quidditch uniform so all he had to do now was fill his stomach. When Emma finished eating, she pushed her plate aside and picked out one of her subjects books to read whilst she waited for everyone to finish up and make their way down to the Quidditch pitch, but, unfortunately, she didn't get very far as the book was snatched out of her hand.
"Draco!" she exclaimed angrily, reaching for her book that he was holding far out of her reach. "Give it back, please!"
"Only if you wear a badge, Freckles," he said softly, flicking through the pages of the book.
Emma huffed and crossed her arms, giving Draco a very sour look. "Are you really going to sit there, read my book and blackmail me into wearing your pathetic little...whatever?!"
Draco grinned. "You're catching on fast, Freckles."
"You're being a real git right now, you know?"
"I've heard worse," he shrugged, continuing to flick through the book. "So, do you want your book back or not?"
"Well, duh."
"Then wear the badge or you aren't getting it."
Draco didn't wait for Emma's answer as he had plopped her book down on the table, grabbed a shiny badge, pulled her closer by the jumper she was wearing, and pinned it on the left side of her chest. In an instant her book was back in her hands.
Moaning, Emma's head dropped down onto the table to rest.
"Want to know what else will get you moaning?" a voice whispered in her ear.
Emma jumped up and wiped her ear since Draco's breath had tickled it on the inside. She groaned loud. "Ohhh! Get out of it, Draco!"
"You won't be saying those exact words, but it's a start," he winked.
Emma looked over her shoulder at the sound of Hermione and Harry's voices, but it wasn't quite audible. Hermione leaned up and kissed Ron on the cheek and wished him good luck before drifting out of the Great Hall.
"Do I get a good luck kiss, too?" Draco asked, leaning his cheek over toward Emma's lips.
"No, Draco," she rolled my eyes, using the palm of her hand to push his white-blond head away.
"Oh, I get it," Draco said, facing her completely, a smug look present on his face. "It's not my cheek you want to kiss, is it?"
"Draco, just leave her alone," Daphne rolled her eyes. She stood from her seat. "Come on, Emma, we can go now."
"Besides, Draco. You don't need good luck. Cheating has done you enough, hasn't it?" Emma teased.
Draco didn't have anything to say, and Emma left the Great Hall with Daphne and tread down to the Quidditch pitch.
"Hopefully they win this match," Daphne shivered, hugging her jumper tighter against her body. "We always lose to Gryffindor. Never won a single match."
Emma bit her lip as she now let Draco's perspective of Quidditch against Gryffindor sink in. All he'd wanted was to win at least one game against Gryffindor. Emma would sing his lyrics along with everyone else and wear the badge with no complaints if Ron wasn't playing as the Keeper. It was obvious this was his very first game and she'd feel really bad if she was part of the reason if he lost this game.
"You all right?" Daphne asked after some time, and when Emma looked up from the grass she noticed they were much closer to the Quidditch pitch. "You're awfully quiet."
"Sorry - just thinking."
"I'd ask what you're thinking of but I don't really care."
Emma laughed slightly as they walked up the stairs toward the top of the stands. Loud cheers were already audible even though the game hadn't even started. When they reached the top, they found a good spot at the front.
The game went on for ages, balls were flying everywhere and people were whizzing by. Draco and Harry both seemed to have had trouble spotting the golden snitch, and Ron was giving into the Draco's lyrics that all the Slytherins were chanting. Although Emma wasn't going to lie to herself; she was quite excited that Slytherin was in the lead by a lot.
Harry and Draco both dived at the same time for something she couldn't see.
"Go, Draco!" Emma shouted brightly when she noticed he was close to grabbing the snitch. She leaned over the stands as though it'd give her a better look. Daphne started screaming for Draco from beside her.
Draco and Harry were right beside each other, their arms extended as they soared around the pitch. But Harry had caught the snitch and Draco flew hopelessly away from him. He held the snitch high in the air for everyone to see. The Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws all screamed their approval.
A bludger hit Harry right in the middle of his back and he flew forwards off his broom and landed on his back. He was lucky to have been a few feet above the ground otherwise he'd have serious injuries.
"Is he OK?" Emma asked nobody in particular, concerned as she watched Harry struggle to stand on his own. A few of his team had to help him up.
"Who cares?" Daphne mumbled. "I'm sure he's well. They did win, as usual." She then pulled Emma by the arm to descend the stands, and they headed towards the middle of the pitch.
"I should have given Draco that good luck kiss, huh?" Emma told her, though really she was just trying to lighten the mood.
"It wouldn't have made much of a difference. Let's just wait here for him, unless you want to go?"
Emma decided against telling Draco he had done well. He was too busy taunting the Gryffindor players and it went right up to the point where Harry had ran over to him and punched him repeatedly in the stomach, and Fred or George - one of them - flung over to Draco as well, ready to get a few good punches in. Draco must have said something horrible.
"Impedimenta!" A shrilly voice yelled, and Harry and George went soaring away from Draco.
Draco was hunched over, clutching his stomach. Emma, horrified, could see a few bruises on his face and a busted lip left by George.
"Oh my god!" Daphne yelled and rushed over to Draco.
Emma followed her. Draco was now curled up on the ground, moaning and whimpering. She felt bad for him this time, and she helped him up with Daphne. Madam Hooch continued to yell at Harry and George and sent them up to Professor McGonagall. Crabbe was still cackling as he watched Harry and George leave. Fred was still being held back by his team mates, and he gave Emma a look of betrayal at the sight of the badge pinned to her chest. She gave him an apologetic look in return.
"Are you all right?" Emma asked Draco, swinging his arm over her shoulder as Daphne did the same with the other.
He looked over at Emma with a small groan leaving his lips. "Much better now, Freckles."
"Are you girls all right with helping Mr Malfoy up to the hospital wing?" Madam Hooch asked quickly as she tried to calm Fred down, who was still reaching his hands out to grab Malfoy.
Daphne and Emma nodded and helped Malfoy up to the hospital wing.