Quidditch Lessons

It was fall and the leaves were changing on the Hogwarts grounds. The students relaxed or studied on the cool Saturday morning and a few were even bundled up in order to get some time out of the castle, but there was one student who seemed to think spring had already come. Luna Lovegood sat by the lake with her feet dipped in the water. She had a book opened on her lap and read like it was just another warm day. Those who passed her shivered at the thought of doing the same. She didn't seem to notice any of their looks, as her book was taking all of her attention that morning.

Sitting by the entrance to the castle a small group of Slytherin boys played a game of Exploding Snap. One of them sat apart from the rest, he didn't seem very interested in playing the game, but was more amused when the cards exploded in one of the other boy's faces. Soon he bored of their silly game and got to his feet. "I am going for a walk," the boy announced to the group casually, which enacted a sudden change in the rest of the students sitting there. Two of the large ones got up as well, and the rest packed up their cards and headed into the castle, as if the lack of their housemate made it pointless to stay outside.

"See you at lunch Draco," one of the boys going inside called before following the rest.

Draco Malfoy and his two lackeys made their way down the grounds around the castle. "Let’s go find some first years and push them in the lake," he suggested to his two sidekicks. They both smiled dumbly at the idea, rubbing their fists together.

Unfortunately for them the younger students knew to stay out of their way by this time in the school year. When the gang got down to the lake the only found the strange girl Luna. "Should we throw her in?" Goyle asked slowly, as if the words took a great amount of concentration.

"She is already half way in, what fun would that be?" Draco snapped, feeling annoyed that he had been deprived of his sport. So he had to think of a new sport to amuse himself with. Looking around the landscape he decided Luna would be the victim of his next game. What should it be, he wondered to himself as he watched the blonde fifth year.

It all came down to what he knew about the odd girl; and all he really knew was that she was odd. "Go steal her book," he ordered Crabbe with a wave of his hand. He would see what she was reading, thinking that would give him better insight into how to torture her best.

Crabbe stalked over to the girl and grabbed the book she was reading out of her lap. Luna looked up at him with a dazed frown. "I don't think you would like it," she said motioning to the book and Crabbe's hand. "It is muggle book about a man named King Arthur," she informed him politely.

Crabbe shrieked from touching a muggle thing and dropped the book in the lake, then ran up the hill to tell Draco what had happened. "It was… muggled…" he said looking at his hands as if they would soon fall off.

Draco rolled his eyes at his stupid companion. "If you're that worried about it have Goyle take you to the nurses office," Draco snapped, and walked away from them both. He really needed to get himself smarter henchmen. He would have to keep himself amused with this Luan girl, alone.

Luna was now drying out her book with her wand, not even looking up when she heard Draco draw near. "Are you going to throw my book back into the lake, because that is only funny the first time," she informed him mater-of-factly.

He rolled his eyes and picked up the book to look at the front. "This is a book about Quidditch," he said with an annoyed sigh.

"Is it my fault your friend can’t read?" she asked with a shrug as she kept her misty eyes on him. "Can you please give it back now?" she repeated, thinking he was planning on throwing it in the lake again.

"This is a book about playing Quidditch," he announced after a stunned moment as he studied the book. Dropping the book on the ground he stepped on it to look at the girl more closely. "Why would you want a book about playing Quidditch?" he asked narrowing his eyes as if the idea insulted him.

"The Ravenclaw Keeper graduated last year so there is an opening on the team," she said as if it was just common sense for her to be trying out for the position. "Can I have my book back now?" she asked, looking down at his foot.

"You can't learn to play Quidditch from a book," he said, taking a step off of it, and kicking it away from them. "You need a teacher," he informed her as he crossed his arms over her chest. Luna followed the book, leaned over to pick it up, and brushed the dirt off of it. She had a nice ass Draco had to admit to himself. "How about this… I'll teach you… for a price," he smirked at the ideas now flying through his head.

"What price is that?" Luna asked, looking back up at him again. She knew of his reputation enough to know he was up to no good.

"I do a favor for you, you do a favor for me," he said, making it sound simple enough.

"What favor would that be?" she asked, wanting a bit of clarification before she agreed to such a deal outright.

"I don't know yet," Draco said rolling his eyes. "Let’s just say… I won't ask you do to anything against school rules," he said sincerely to make her feel better about the unknown deal. "Look I won't even make you decide now. If you're interested then meet me tomorrow afternoon by the Quidditch Pitch," he said, and pointed to it off in the distance.