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runaway dragon
Disclaimer 1: Draco, his parents and teachers all belong to JKR. (As if you didn't all know that.)
Disclaimer 2: Severus Snape owning a raven belongs to J.L. Matthews. (Go read her story everybody. It's great.) I found a new name for him this time though.
Disclaimer 3: The gang name Sharks is borrowed from the musical West Side Story of course. I don't remember where I found the name Rakers, but I know I read it somewhere.
Disclaimer 4: The idea for Snape having a family comes from Al's fic Time of Trial. (Thanks Al. I always seem to get the best ideas when reading your fics.)
Disclaimer 5: The Glizzard family and Gringolf Glizzard belong to my friend Pega Pony. Thanks for letting me borrow them!
A/N - I'm terribly sorry this is so late, but my computer decided not to let me open Word last Tuesday and then to have a complete breakdown on Friday. And I can't spell check without Word, so I couldn't finish the chapter. (I can do German spell check in Outlook, but it won't switch languages.)
Chapter 24: Three Little Wannabes
They got back from America early enough that Draco could still join the Rakers on the Soccer lawn. The little wannabes had already left and they were in the middle of their player discussion when Draco flopped down on the grass beside Mike.
"So how'd it go?" he asked them casually.
"How was America?" Charlie immediately asked back. "Didn't they want you there?"
"America's odd. They don't even have proper wizarding supplies shops there. Can you believe they buy wands by mail order?"
"But what's the country like?" demanded Sammie. "Are there lots of skyscrapers all over?"
"Yes, and it's all regular and their tube is all dark and dirty, but they don't call it tube at all. And they don't have fences around their gardens. The people are nice though. They've got the strangest names and a weird accent, but they're really nice."
"So why didn't they keep you then?" asked Jack glaring. He hated it when important business was interrupted.
"They've already got eight kids. Didn't have any room left for me." Draco sighed.
"So now you're going to live with Gringolf Glizzard?" Mary asked dreamily.
"Oh, that's so exciting!" exclaimed Charlie.
"No, it's not." Draco grumbled. "Hopefully he won't want me either though and then I'll be here for the big game."
"That'd be good." Jack said to everyone's surprise. "We could really use you."
Draco laughed. "For what? I can only play keeper and you've already got Mary for that job."
"You're better than Mary and we could use her as a defender as well." declared Mike.
"Mary as a defender?" Draco asked surprised. The idea had never occurred to him before. "She's never even tried that."
"It's not that hard." commented Matt.
"She's big and scary." explained Jack. "Beth is pretty good at that as well, but the others are all way too small. They might be good against kids their own size, but none of them will impress the Lions."
"So you haven't picked your team yet?" Draco asked him curiously.
"Beth is a given and Susie wasn't bad either. It's the third defender that's giving us trouble." Jack summarised their discussions.
"I'm for Luke." Mike stated. "He isn't really scary, but he's good with the ball."
"Cedric is much more talented though." interjected Sammie. "He'll be great someday."
"Yeah, someday, but not now." Mike rolled his eyes. "He's only seven, Sammie. He'd never be able to stop Steve, no matter how hard he tries."
"Maybe we won't need him anyway. If Dragon plays, that'll free Mary to play defender and we can do with only two of the little ones." Jack decided.
"I can't promise that. I really don't want to live with Uncle Gringolf, but if he wants me, I don't think I'll have much choice. We'd better train a third kid even if we don't need him anyway." Draco suggested. "We can always use him to watch the dog."
"In that case I pick Beth, Susie and Luke. I don't even want to be seen with Cedric. Beth at least looks like she's already out of primary school."
"What about Susie?" Draco grinned.
"Susie's actually already eleven. She just doesn't look the part." Cathy told him. "The Lions will know that."
"And Luke's ten." Matt added. "They'll both start West Hogsmeade this year so they're technically no longer in primary school."
"Well, that's a decision then." said Mike. "It's time I got home, too."
"I'll tell Beth we expect her, Susie and Luke to join us for training on Tuesday." Mary promised getting up as well.
"Make sure they know only two of them will actually play." Jack told her. "That ought to give them some motivation to work harder in training."
"I thought we already knew which ones are going to play, if Dragon's here for the game?" Mary returned puzzled.
"Yes, but that's no reason to actually tell them." Jack grinned brushing the grass off his jeans.
Draco trudged up the stairs with Mike and the girls. "So did you have fun with the little kids today?"
"It was okay." shrugged Cathy. "All in all a little disappointing though. I expected them to be better."
"They're pretty good against each other." Mike amended. "It was quite obvious that we were too big for them though. The smaller ones are no good at all and the bigger ones aren't used to playing against bigger opponents. They were too scared of us to try most of the time."
"Sounds like we have some hard work ahead of us next week." Draco shrugged. "The Lions can't have that many excellent players either though, can they?"
"They've got eleven ready to play or they wouldn't have asked for full teams." Mary stated glumly.
"They usually see to it that they have a full team. That means they often take in kids very early though. Some of their members might actually be Beth's age, but they're used to playing with the team." Cathy explained.
Draco felt a little confused at that. If the Lions had such young members why was Jack worried about the three little wannabes' performance? They'd be just fine playing against kids their own age.
During the visit to the market the next day he kept his eyes open for green tshirts and shorts. There ought to be eleven of them? All right Draco would see how many he could find.
Big Babs was the first one he spotted. She was once again engaged in conversation with Jack and for a moment Draco considered slipping over to them and disturbing their flirt. If Jack didn't admit to liking Babs Draco had no reason to leave them alone, did he?
But then again Jack might probably not be too happy with him if he tried anything like that and he wasn't done with his shopping yet. Sarah definitely wouldn't be happy with him if he didn't bring her the tomatoes she'd wanted.
By the time he had spent all the money the Snapes had given him Jack and Babs had disappeared and there were no other Lions in sight. He did spot Robin though who was glaring daggers at him from one of the other stands. She no longer had any blue spots, he noted with a slight feeling of regret, but her hair still held a few blue stripes.
Draco grinned back at her and disappeared into the crowds. Maybe he'd have better luck if he looked for Lions in another part of the market.
The toy stands didn't yield any results either though there were lots of little wannabes of all gangs about around there. They all regarded him with caution and Mely and Toby took off the moment they caught sight of him. There wasn't even a single spot of paint left on either of them, but obviously they weren't going to take any chances.
Draco just shrugged and turned his attention towards those little wanabes wearing green. He had no proof that the two he saw were actually Lion wannabes. There might well be another gang that wore green as well somewhere in the better parts of West Hogsmeade. Still he watched them for a while trying to determine if they behaved like Merlin park kids or not. He certainly hadn't seen them around ever before, but then he'd never seen some of the Black Ring members either and the Lions didn't even share a border with the Rakers.
Their behaviour didn't really give him a clue and watching them gaze longingly at some plastic animals that didn't even move grew boring after a while. So Draco decided to take a little stroll past the clothing stalls before meeting up with the Snapes for lunch. Still no Lions. Was that even possible? There were supposed to be eleven of them somewhere in the marketplace and he'd only found one?
But then with these crowds they might be only a few metres away and Draco would never see them. Especially the smaller ones would be invisible in this mass of adults.
Uncle Severus wasn't too happy about Draco's wish to take off on his own again right after eating.
"If I catch you with anything you shouldn't have, you'll be cleaning the flat for the entire week." he informed Draco calmly. "And you'd better be home by five."
Draco knew his teacher and head of house well enough to know that that was no idle threat despite the casual tone. He'd make sure he left the marketplace with ample time to get back to Merlin Park by five. The first comment confused him for a moment though. Something he shouldn't have? Then he remembered the way Severus had looked at him when Sammie had given him that stolen carrot. Did he actually suspect him of being a thief? That thought hurt more than it should have. Why was it so important what Snape thought of him all of a sudden?
The moment he left the side alley Munin dropped onto his shoulder. "Watch!" the raven stated when Draco asked him what he was doing there.
"Great," he grumbled half-heartedly while he scratched the bird's head. "Now I've got a bird for a baby-sitter."
Munin just cocked his head so Draco could reach him better and didn't comment.
Draco continued his search for Lions at the bread stands they squeezed through the milk stands and searched the meat section just to get away from all the people for a bit. After the tight crowds in the center of the marketplace he was feeling slightly crushed and had to reassure himself that he wasn't actually hurt. Only his toes hurt a little after someone had stepped on them. He wasn't even sure who it had been so tight packed were the people at the bread stands. If there were any Lions in there he'd never see them unless he got shoved right into them.
The meat stands provided more breathing room, but they still stank terribly and he soon had enough of that and decided to take a look at the place where Charlie and her ballet class had been dancing the week before. Maybe they were there again and he could watch them for a while. Or maybe Charlie would even take a short break and talk to him for a bit.
But Draco was disappointed. There were no dancers there at all. Either they hadn't performed at all this time or they'd grown tired and gone home. Probably the later. They wouldn't want to miss out on the money their performances had brought in, but dancing had to be hard and exhausting work so they'd probably only performed for a short time.
He was just about to turn away and visit the muggle shop again when he noticed the two boys in green. One looked even older than Jack and had short blond hair while the other had dark hair and looked about Sammie's age. Perhaps a little older than that. Yes, he might be closer to Matt's age than Sammie's, Draco decided. They were most definitely Lions.
Draco tried to look as casual as possible as he walked closer to where the boys were talking. Maybe he could overhear their conversation? The older boy ... Could he even still call him a boy? ... had his back to him which might give him a chance.
Carefully he edged closer.
"... just like Babs." the blond boy was saying.
"Well, I guess so." said the smaller one. "Hey! Who's that?"
Damn, they'd spotted him. Well, at least now he could see the blond one's face. Draco looked up at him pretending to be unimpressed.
"He's been watching us, Steve." the dark-haired boy said accusingly.
So this was Steve, the mysterious leader of the Lions and ex boyfriend of Big Babs. Draco grinned.
"Actually I was just looking for my friends." he drawled in his best rich kid accent. He'd lately adopted a more Merlin Park style vocabulary, but he could still do the proud noble if he wanted to. "I thought you might have seen Jack? Last time I saw him he was with your Big Babs."
He had to suppress a fit of laughter when he saw the Lions' confused faces. Steve looked him up and down very slowly taking in the slightly grassy jeans, blue t-shirt and Rakers cap, the old backpack and quivering nose of 'That Dog' peeking out and over the boy's shoulder. Then his eyes rested on the raven for a while. Munin cocked his head, looked back at Steve and decided he was unimportant. He settled back onto Draco's shoulder and watched the proceedings through half closed eyes.
"Snape's little Dragon." Steve finally stated. "The kid we've never seen, obviously. They teach you to talk like that at Hogwarts, eh?"
Draco shrugged which resulted in some displeased muttering from Munin. "So, do you know where Jack is or not?"
"Think he's any good?" the dark-haired kid asked his leader.
"They say he beat up the Shark." Steve answered still looking at Draco.
"I'll take that as a no." Draco informed them. "And I guess you haven't seen Babs either, have you?"
"Why should we care where the Ripper goes?" the smaller Lion asked.
Steve shot him an angry glance that probably meant 'Stay out of this.', but it was too late. Draco decided not to give them a chance to regain their footing.
"I thought so. Well, thanks anyway." he turned away with the comforting knowledge that he had completely confused the Lions' leader.
By the time he reached the muggle shop Draco was smirking openly about the incident. So Snape's little Dragon they called him? Well, if he managed to avoid being left with Gringolf Glizzard he'd show them just how little he was.
He spent some time looking around the muggle shop then made another trip around the marketplace hoping to meet either some of his friends or some more Lions, but the crowds had gotten so dense by now that it got really hard to even find the stalls and so he finally decided to head home. At least he knew what the Lions' leader looked like now. He could always ask Mike about the rest of the team.
He was home early enough to do some Math before he had to help Sarah with her cooking and Munin's report had to have been positive as well as Severus asked him to help him with some brewing after dinner and Draco soon discovered that it was no ordinary recipe that they were working on.
They weren't using any books for reference. All they started with was a roll of parchment with some hastily scribbled down notes, that made absolutely no sense to Draco at all.
"What are we brewing anyway?" he asked Severus when he started pulling out various ingredients, then putting some back and getting out others.
"Nothing really." was the surprising answer. "Just an experiment that I hope might someday lead me to discover a cure for vampires ... or werewolves."
"A cure? But is that even possible? They're dark creatures."
"The existence of the wolfsbane potion shows that their condition can at least be influenced by potions so there might be a way to cure them with them as well." Severus explained. "I've been wanting to try this ever since I first heard about the wolfsbane potion."
"But that only influences werewolves. What makes you think that you could cure vampires as well?"
"The two conditions are very similar. I'm actually hoping there might be a way for one potion to cure them both, or at least two very closely related potions."
"And you really think this is going to work?" Draco stared doubtfully at the ingredients on the table. There were a lot more of them then he usually worked with, but not nearly as many as Severus had used for the wolfsbane potion.
"Of course not. This is only a first test to see how certain combinations turn out. It might take years before I'm ready to put the whole potion together safely and see if it works. Right now I'm just checking which combinations cancel each other out. Then the next step will be to find replacements that have the same effect without conflicting with the rest of the ingredients and then I can start on the actual potion." Severus explained as he dropped some little flowers into the cauldron. "Now give me one dragon tooth."
Draco quickly searched through the jars for dragon teeth. "I thought you know how any two ingredients affect each other?"
"Yes, but some react with each other to gain completely different properties. That's mainly what Chemistry does and Potions relies on it to a certain extent as well, but when you start adding ingredients to such combinations you sometimes get unexpected results. Knowing Chemistry helps to predict some of that, but not everything is predictable where magic is involved. For a complicated potion like this one, you need to put several such combinations together and some of them will once again react with each other. If you don't check those reactions in advance tracing the cause of a failure to the responsible ingredient becomes almost impossible." Severus dropped the dragon tooth Draco handed him into the potion and it suddenly changed its colour to fiery orange and started hissing. "Back!" Severus yelled and pulled Draco away just in time.
A huge flame burst from the cauldron singeing the ceiling and only the quick fire extinguishing spell Severus cast saved the furniture from catching fire. Draco suddenly understood why having the burner in this house was practically illegal.
"What ... What happened?" he gasped when he saw that Severus was calmly correcting his notes.
"The dragon tooth must have reacted with the seagull feather which increased the power of the fire caps. We'll try to use dragon hair instead of fire caps next time, but I'm afraid we don't have any at the moment so we'll have to try another component of the potion right now. I think the one that's supposed to block the transformation would be a good idea. It requires an entirely new development and will therefore take the longest to figure out. The rest of it is mostly variation on the wolfsbane potion."
"Dragon hair? But isn't that extremely rare and dangerous?"
"Yes, that's why we don't have any at the moment. I will have to order it specially, but it's a lot less likely to create any problems with the dragon tooth since both come from the same type of creature. Dragons don't have any probems with seagull feathers so hopefully there won't be another such reaction. ... Still adding a cooling agent might be a good idea. Check the shelf for ice flower seeds, Draco. I want to see how those react with the dragon tooth - seagull feather combination."
Draco dutifully handed Severus the jar of seeds and watched him repeat the experiment without adding those strange flowers. They had to be the fire caps then.
With another loud hiss the potion on the fire froze.
"Oh no, now it's too cold!" Draco exclaimed in dismay.
"No, it's not. We didn't add the fire ingredient this is supposed to balance. It'll work once we add the dragon hair."
"Why didn't we just try this with the fire caps?" Draco asked peering into the cauldron.
"Because that would just have gone up in smoke." Severus suddenly grinned and walked over to the window. He opened it wide and said. "But do try it if you want to. Drop a fire cap in."
Draco looked at Severus a little uncertainly, but then took one of the strange flowers out of its jar and threw it into the cauldron. A puff of black smoke burst out, filled the entire room within less then a second and then gradually drifted out of the window leaving Draco to stare incredulously into an empty cauldron.
"Fire caps don't react too well with ice flower seeds. The smoke is harmless and will dissipate within the next three hours." Severus stated calmly.
"You could have warned me." Draco growled. "It almost gave me a heart attack when everything went black."
"I told you it'd go up in smoke." Severus grinned. "These are just the little surprises you get when experimenting with potions. Happens to Neville Longbottom all the time."
"Okay, but can we please try something with a little less spectacular results next? I think I need a little time to calm down."
Severus laughed. "Sure. We can't continue with the modification of the temperature regulation before we get the dragon hair anyway. If I order it tomorrow we ought to get it sometime next week. So do you want to experiment on the transformation blocker or test out the poisons next?"
"Poisons?!" Draco yelped.
"The wolfsbane potion contains several powerful poisons, but they are all balanced out so they won't harm the werewolf. We need to check if our modifications will affect that balance in any way and figure out a way to restore it. The ice flower seeds are a little poisonous as well by the way. We'll need to add them to the balance."
"I think I'd rather we start with the transformation blocker. You said that would take the longest too, didn't you?"
"Indeed it will. The poisons and temperature regulation will be more important during the early experiments though. The transformation blocker is highly unlikely to actually work the first time we actually put the whole potion together. It'll require a lot of changes and fine tuning before the potion will really work. All right, put the ingredients for the temperature regulator back on the shelf and lets get started."
Even though there were no more grand eruptions it was a very exciting evening. Draco had never known a potions master's life was filled with so much adventure. Still it was also a great feeling of accomplishment when the transformation blocker was finally balanced out and looked like it might work. Severus even declared that he wanted to check the batch they'd made for poisons the next day since he was considering actually using this exact combination in his first attempt at brewing the whole potion.
"If this passes the test we can start checking it with the poisons next week. We might even brew a first version of the complete potion sometime this year."
Did Severus mean that he was going to let Draco continue to assist him with his experiments when school started again? Draco could hardly restrain his excitement. He was actually part of a real scientific project now.
Tuesday was just as exciting though. Severus left early in the morning to order dragon hair in Diagon Alley and check up with his informants there.
"The dragon hair really is the perfect excuse to hang around the Leaky Cauldron and Knockturn Alley." he explained when Draco asked him why he didn't just go to the potions shop on the marketplace. "It might be a little more expensive, but the headmaster will pay for it and he needs the information from his spies more than a cure for vampirism."
Draco didn't mention his suspicion that Dumbledore would be highly interested in a cure for lycantropy which Severus' potion was much more likely to be anyway. Somehow he felt Severus didn't like the thought of being accused of searching for a cure for Remus Lupin even though ... Well, Draco had decided to humour him in this.
When he arrived at the Soccer lawn he found that not only Jack but also Mike and Larry had brought their balls and Matt was looking slightly offended that he hadn't been asked to bring his as well.
The three little wannabes stood there wide eyed and Susie was hopping from one foot to the other excitedly. All three of them were much too nervous to sit down in the grass with the older kids.
'That Dog' saw Susie hop about and immediately decided that he loved her. Jack grinned at the sight of the dog trying to jump up and lick Susie's constantly moving knees.
"That's an idea. Give Susie the lead, Dragon." he suggested "She can give your dog a little exercise."
"He's not my dog!" Draco protested out of habit, but handed 'That Dog' over anyway. "There you are, you little dancing mouse." he laughed when Susie grabbed for the lead eagerly. She seemed to like 'That Dog' almost as much as he liked her.
"Dancing mouse?" Charlie asked momentarily confused.
"Dancing mouse." Cathy pointed at the still hopping girl with a little grin. "Obviously."
Draco however found Luke much more interesting at the moment. He'd met both Susie and Beth before and the others had all agreed on them as their temporary partners while Luke had only been one kid among many so far. He was about the same size as Susie, which was a problem for a defender. Matt might not be particularly big and scary, but he was tall enough to be noticed and much more agile than Mary which gave him an advantage against evasive manoeuvres.
Luke might have the same agility, but did his size give him a chance at all?
Jack too regarded his new team for a moment then decided it was time to get started. "Charlie, take Sammie and the dance mouse running." he ordered.
"Running?" Charlie repeated incredulously.
"Yes, you're supposed to be good runners and I have no use for you here today. So train running."
"You could check our borders for us while you're at it. Just run around our territory once, then take a break and we'll see if there's still enough time for another round after that." Mike suggested.
"And you could try making sudden turns or running around obstacles." Draco interrupted. "Of course it would be better if you each had a ball to practise with, but I guess for today that has to be enough."
Charlie shrugged unconvinced, but did as she was told. Draco wasn't entirely happy with the decision to send those three away either. Susie was supposed to learn how to play with the team. She already was good at running anyway. Then again maybe it would do some good to establish Charlie as their leader.
"Dragon, you take the goal." Jack continued and Draco got up and headed for his usual position. "Not that one. The other goal."
"What? I've always played in this one. I'm used to it." Draco protested.
"Exactly. You're not used to the Lions' goals though." explained Mike and Draco once again wondered whether Jack asked Mike's advice secretly before making strategic decisions. Using the other goal for training sounded suspiciously like a Mike plan.
"Okay, Mary, Matt, Beth and Luke. You try to stop us while we'll try to get through to the goal. Whenever you manage to get a ball send it to whichever attacker doesn't have one at the time since we have only three balls." Jack continued.
Draco grinned. "I've got a better idea. Matt, go get your ball and give it to Cathy."
Jack stared at Draco. "Matt has a ball?"
"Sure, didn't you know that?" Draco shrugged. "We've been using it for training me and Sammie for weeks. It's a good one too. Almost new."
Jack glared for a moment, then relented. "Very well. Go get your ball, Matt. And you, Dragon, get your defenders organised. They're your invention anyway."
His invention? Somehow Draco was convinced that there had been defenders in Soccer long before he'd ever heard of the game, but he had to admit that he'd been the first to use them in the Rakers' games.
Three pairs of eyes focused on him curiously. Two of them looking very eager and clueless. Well, with Jack obviously unwilling to work out how to train defenders and Matt already gone, Draco was the only one who could do the job anyway.
"Mary, you start with Mike. He's probably the most dangerous, because he'll keep his head and try to outsmart you. Watch him closely and try to keep up." Mike would most likely outrun Mary until she tired. Matt would be a better opponent for him, but Matt wasn't here at the moment and when he'd get back somebody would have to deal with Cathy who could be almost as difficult as Mike. "Beth, you take Larry. Remember that he tends to get impatient if things don't go as planned. He'll try to overrun you rather than evade you. Don't let him scare you. Stay in his way and try to get the ball."
"What if I do get it? What do I do with it?"
"Shoot it as far out into the field as you can. He'll have to run back and get it for another attempt. In a real game you'd have to try and pass it to a runner who'd be waiting in the center of the field. So try to shoot far and precise. Just pick some spot you imagine to be Charlie." Draco explained, but he wasn't sure this was going to work. Beth was huge for her age, but still no match for Larry in size. Maybe she was faster though. He'd have to wait and see. "That leaves Jack for you, Luke. Jack's damn good as long as he keeps his head, but if you make yourself a constant nuisance he'll lose his temper and make mistakes. That's your chance to get the ball."
Only a few moments after they'd started Draco realised that his strategy hadn't been too good. Beth was doing fairly well against Larry, but Mary simply had no chance against Mike's superior speed and endurance. She was already panting heavily. And Luke was always behind Jack instead of in front of him. Draco doubted that the gang leader had noticed him at all.
"Enough! Stop!" he yelled angrily when two balls came soaring at him at the same time. He couldn't possibly stop both at once. "This isn't working at all."
Larry and Beth the only ones who still had their ball stopped in surprise and turned towards him.
"Mary and Beth, I want you to switch opponents." Draco announced.
Beth scowled at him and he sighed. "I know Beth, you were doing fine against Larry, but Mary isn't used to running this much and Mike is too fast for her. She'll also have it easier against Larry because she's bigger than him. You're faster, so you might have a chance to keep up with Mike. Mary, I think you ought to train running. And Luke, you're supposed to stay between Jack and the goal! Try to get in his way! Got that?"
Luke nodded eagerly, but somehow Draco didn't feel very hopeful. The boy was just too small. Maybe if he tried to set him on Cathy instead of Jack? But they had to wait for Matt to return with his ball and when he did it was simply easier to let him and Cathy join in without stopping the training again.
Mary and Larry worked pretty well and Beth wasn't too bad either even though Mike managed to trick her repeatedly. That wasn't too bad, Draco decided. That way Beth would learn to recognise the tricks and not fall for them so easily. What worried him more was that she too seemed to lack stamina. Well, the training would improve that in time.
Matt of course proved to be way ahead of the other defenders. His experience against Jack and Mike showed against Cathy as well. He knew his part and wasn't easily tricked. Larry would be too easy an opponent for him, Draco thought, but maybe he should set him against Mike next time and give Beth or Mary a chance against Cathy.
The only real problem was Luke. Despite Draco's earlier advice he was still running after Jack instead of getting in his way. Had it been a bad idea to let him go up against the oldest and tallest opponent first? But aside from Larry who was way too massive for Luke to handle, Jack was the easiest opponent. Cathy and Mike made a lot less mistakes, because they just didn't let their temper get so out of controll. Still maybe Luke had a better chance against Cathy? She'd probably seem less scary to him.
When the others let themselves drop onto the grass for a break Draco went over to where Jack and Mike were discussing the training.
"We have to get the runners involved with the rest of the team." Mike was telling Jack as he arrived. "Their job is to pass the ball from the defenders to the attackers so what they need most is to practise with them."
"I might have a few ideas for that." Draco interrupted Jack before he could protest. "And I'd like to send the defenders running instead of them a few times. "Matt probably doesn't need it, but Mary and Beth are both having the most trouble with being too slow and tiring too easily."
"What about Luke? He's fast enough as far as I've seen." Jack asked surprisingly not angry at Draco's intrusion into their conversation.
"Luke seems totally hopeless this far. Did you even notice he was there? This is doing nothing for him and all you're doing is practising your aim. I'm considering to try how he does against Mike or Cathy, but I fear they'll be too big for him as well. If he can't handle you, how do you expect him to go up against Steve. I saw him in the market yesterday and at first I thought he had to be well out of school already."
"Luke won't have to face Steve." Mike stated calmly.
Draco turned towards him in surprise. "He won't?"
"No, we will, but the defenders won't." Jack explained. "Steve's the Lions' keeper, so let me worry about him. You'll have to handle Babs , though. Think Luke can manage her?"
"From what I've seen so far, Luke can't handle anyone at all, but I'll give him a chance to prove himself against Cathy or Mike, before I give up on him officially. What are the rest of their attackers like? Anyone small enough not to tower over Luke the way ours do?"
"I don't know. There are four small kids in their gang, but we have no idea what positions they play. They might have had the same idea we had and use them as runners," Mike speculated. "Maybe Babs would give something away if Jack asked her the right way."
"We can't trust anything Babs says. She'll try to feed us lies or simply give us her usual tall talk." Jack countered. He was most likely not feeling like using his new girlfriend against her own gang.
"Then we'll have to spy out their training." Draco decided. "What are the chances one of our wannabes can get close enough to watch them on the field?"
"Slim." said Jack.
They'd either have to get into the Lions' territory itself, which means they'd have to cross the Sharks' or the Black Rings' territory first or they'd have to watch from the Sharks' territory. Either way they're in trouble if they get caught." Mike elaborated.
"Why? Angel Anna and her gang wouldn't harm a little kid just passing through, would they?" Draco asked confused.
"Probably not, but their wannabes would react less tolerantly and the Lions will definitely not tolerate any spies on their ground." Jack explained. "They'd not want to invade the Sharks' territory, though and there's that one place there that gives you a really good view of their field."
"Maybe so, but I doubt any of our kids would dare go in there. With the situation between us and the Sharks as it is at the moment Mark might actually attack our wannabes on sight." Mike argued. "Bad idea. We should wait at least until they've hit back for the potions attack."
With a sigh Draco leaned back onto his elbows to look up at the sky. Not a single cloud in sight. How boring! Maybe he should return to his suggestion for the afternoon training? He turned his head slightly to take a look around. The rest of their team was still sitting in the middle of the Soccer lawn now rejoined by the runners and a very exhausted dog. A few people were walking on the path. An old couple and some unemployed neighbour. and over there were two mothers with their baby buggies. Mely was kicking a tin can around on the Sharks' side of the border. Somebody had just opened a window on the second floor ...
Mely! Draco abruptly sat up straight again. Was it possible to use another gang's little wannabes to spy on a third gang?
Mike and Jack started at Draco's sudden movement. Following the line of his stare they saw nothing except for a lonely little girl plying with a tin can.
"That's only Mely, the little rat. She often watches us play. I though you knew that." Jack flopped back into his former position flat on the ground. "We have more important things to worry about."
"No, wait!" Draco insisted. "Mely loves Soccer, but she's a Shark wannabe and the sharks don't play."
"Of course, that's why she's always watching us." Jack rolled his eyes.
"And you said yourself that there's a place in the Sharks' territory where one has a great view of the Lions' field. So Mely probably watches them as often as she does us." Draco concluded.
"She's perfect, Jack." Mike backed him up. "The Lions are used to her watching them and don't connect her with us in any way and she'll know what she's looking for just as well as or own wannabes."
"We only just spray painted her." Jack commented calmly.
"But we could still try." suggested Mike.
Jack nodded slowly and turned to Draco. "Call her. Lets see if she'll come."
Draco looked back at Jack, trying to analyse his reaction then leaned back into a more comfortable position and yelled "Hey, Mely!"
The little wannabe jumped at hearing her name called out by a Raker and turned to face them very slowly.
"Come over here for a moment. We want to talk to you." Draco called
Mely hesitated for a moment staring at the group then over to where the rest of the team were sitting. They'd stopped all their conversations at Draco's shout and were staring back at her. Mely turned and ran.
"See," said Jack. "That's what I thought. She'd make a great spy, but she won't talk to us."
Mike shook his head. "We still might convince her. She was just scared, because there are so many of us here. Maybe if we didn't bring the whole gang."
"She won't show up again for a while after this." Jack reminded him.
"So we'll send her an invitation. One that's harmless enough not to scare her." Mike grinned.
"What do you have in mind?" Draco asked intrigued. He knew that look by now.
"Your little dance mouse." Mike's grin grew even wider.
Jack gave him a short, very serious nod and Mike turned towards the rest of the team. "Susie! Come over! I've got a job for you."
Susie bounced over eagerly followed by 'That Dog' who seemed to have recovered from his complete exhaustion enough to walk after her.
"You know where Mely lives?" Mike asked her calmly.
"Sure, same house as I, second floor, third door on the left." Susie beamed.
"Good. I want you to go over there after lunch and tell her that we want to meet her Just the three of us, nobody else around. We'll be waiting for her right here tomorrow morning." Mike instructed her. "Can you do that?"
"Sure! Sure! I'll tell her! I'll tell her!"
"You don't have to repeat everything you say, you know." Jack sneered at her. "Just give her the message."
"Yes, I'll tell her. What do you want with a Shark kid?"
"That's none of your business." Jack told her getting up. "Okay, everybody! Once more, same as before and then we'll go to lunch!" He shouted out to the team. "And you two work out what you're going to do with the runners before I get back here afterwards." he told Mike and Draco more softly.
The players quickly assembled again and Draco decided to rearrange his troops. "Luke, you try playing against Cathy this time. And please try to at least let her know you're there. She isn't as tall as Jack. Maybe that'll help, but she won't make it easy for you either. Mary, you take Jack. Try not to let him exhaust you the way Mike did. Beth, you take Larry again and Matt gets Mike."
Matt sighed. "My favourite opponent."
"This is training, Matt. It's not supposed to be easy, it's supposed to teach you to handle more difficult tasks." Draco reminded him. "And besides, you're our best defender so it's only fair that you get the best attacker as your opponent."
"Hey, I heard that!" growled Jack, but there wasn't any real malice in his tone this time.
"You're the best shot." Draco informed him. "That makes you the most difficult opponent for me, but Mike's trickier for the defenders."
It wasn't entirely true, though. As long as he had a good defender trailing Jack, he feared Mike a lot more, but he wouldn't have any defenders to help him out this afternoon if Mike agreed to his plan.
Beth managed to seriously impress Draco. Except for the fact that Mike had managed to tire her pretty well she was almost as good as Matt and once she gained a little more experience would be a great addition to their team.
Her sister was clearly not up to playing against Mike, but then she'd always played keeper before and probably found it hard to adapt to a different role. She fared a little better against Jack and despite the several fast shots he got past her in the beginning managed to frustrate him after a while. Draco saw room for improvement there. He'd have to concentrate on giving Mary some experience, which meant not to let her face Larry too often in training.
Maybe he should let Luke have a go at Larry after all? It might help Larry to rebuild his confidence after his almost completely unsuccessful attempts to get past Mary and Beth. Luke seemed hopeless anyway. He'd made a few brave attempts at getting between Cathy and the goal, but that had hardly slowed Cathy down. Luke against Larry didn't seem much more hopeless than Luke against Mike.
Draco was beginning to seriously consider suggesting to test Luke's potential as a runner and using Sammie or maybe even Charlie as a defender instead. It wasn't their thing of course, but he knew them well enough to be sure they'd at least get no worse results than Mary.
He wasn't feeling too hopeful when they trudged back up the stairs afterwards. 'That Dog' had refused to go another step and he was forced to carry him once again even though he was exhausted himself and wished someone would come and pick him up and carry him home.
"Well, that went much better than I expected." Mike said to his surprise. "Beth was very hard to shake sometimes and Matt's real trouble."
"I didn't do too well, though." sighed Mary.
"It was the first time you tried a new position and Mike is the best attacker we have." Draco tried to console her. "You were much better against Larry and Jack, definitely worlds better than Luke."
"I didn't feel like I was doing well against Jack. He still got through a lot." Mary glared at the corridor lamp as if it could have done anything about that.
"You did fine." Draco assured her. "You're just inexperienced and you got tired too soon. We can work on that."
"Yes, if our runners are any good, we've got a great team." Mike confirmed.
"No, we don't. Larry's shooting isn't too good and Luke is simply catastrophic. I really don't understand why you chose him at all. Even Charlie would make a better defender than he does." Draco complained.
"Charlie could be pretty good at anything, if you gave her a chance to learn it. She's just too shy to make you give her that chance." Mike told him. "You've already made her a runner though and she's the most experienced at that job we've got."
"I know. I just think there must have been someone better than Luke we could have chosen." Draco sighed again. "I want a look at the runners after lunch. We need to know if Susie and Sammie are any good.""
Sammie will do fine." Cathy reassured him "He's done the job before, remember?"
"Yes, right. Can't use him as a defender either and Susie was never picked for that job, so why should she be any good at it." Draco could only hope that they wouldn't need Luke in the game.
Severus didn't come home for lunch and Draco could see that Sarah was worried even though she told him that he'd probably been invited to eat with one of his contacts.
"But wouldn't he have owled?" Draco asked her feeling a strange fluttering sensation in his stomach "He has Munin with him after all. It couldn't be too hard to write a short note."
"He wouldn't. Especially not in front of anyone with connections to the dark arts." Sarah shook her head wearily. "He doesn't want them to know that he has a family."
"But how can he hide that?" Draco asked confused remembering all the contacts his father had kept just to get at that kind of information.
"Oh, they could find out, if they bothered to actually seek information about him, but as long as they all think they know him anyway, they won't look for something that they never got a hint exists at all. He thinks that even if Voldemort found out he'd conclude that we don't mean anything to him, if he never mentions us at all.
Draco didn't eat much this meal. Suddenly he wasn't very hungry anymore.
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