Like real people do

Harry's pov

Harry Potter knew he was good at football. Of course he was. Everyone at Hogwarts academy was good. However, he had never thought he was good enough to be called up to the Hogwarts team. Somehow, exactly that had happened.

He was currently on the train on his way to the training grounds and he could not have been more nervous. He had thrown on a jersey in the team's rainbow of colors and had rushed out of the door as soon as he got the call.

The train stopped at Hogsmeade much too soon for Harry’s liking and he quickly got off. It was a fifteen minute walk to the training grounds.

The walk itself was quite nice. The village was much nicer than any he had been in before. It had quaint houses and charming architecture and Harry felt hopelessly out of place. He kept walking until soon after he saw the sprawling training grounds.

He briefly considered turning back but he knew that he couldn’t. Not after he had spent his whole life working towards this. So with as much courage as he could muster he walked in. He went over to the receptionist and asked for directions before walking towards the locker room. He entered and he saw Sirius Black in the flesh. Sirius Black was world revered for his phenomenal career before retiring to become a coach.

Harry didn’t know if he should introduce himself or not but luckily Black made the decision for him by walking over and shaking his hand.

“Hello, you must be Harry!” Black said beaming, “I’m Sirius. Pleased to meet you!”

Harry smiled back before responding, “Nice to meet you too. Thank you so much for this opportunity!”

“No need to thank me. Your talent speaks for itself.”

Harry flushed as Sirius went back to reviewing his notes. Harry sat down on one of the benches and waited. He wasn’t sure when practice normally ended.

He didn’t have to wait long. A mere five minutes after he had sat down he heard someone storm inside the room and throw his water bottle at the wall. Sirius quickly rushed over to the person as he collapsed on the floor.

“Are you alright Draco?” Sirius asked worriedly.

“No I’m not fucking alright! Stupid Weasley tackled me and now I can barely walk.”

“I think you should get that checked out with the medics.” Sirius responded calmly.

“I don’t need the goddamn medics. I know it’s bad.”

Sirius sighed but seemed to decide against arguing.

The three of them sat in silence for several minutes before Draco kicked at the wall again. Harry flinched and hoped no one noticed. Evidently he wasn’t that lucky. Draco had clearly noticed and was now looking at him with a mocking smirk.

Harry ignored him and soon after the rest of the team walked in. They all stopped to talk to Draco but it was clear that he didn’t care.

Once the entire team was in Draco seemed to take that as his cue to start mocking Harry.

“Do you guys see what we have become? I can’t believe we are letting him on the team. It’s an outrage honestly.”

Harry continued to ignore Draco and his ranting but eventually he couldn’t.

“Do you guys see him?” Draco continued, “look at him. This is why we shouldn’t let fags onto the team.”

Harry saw red and before he could stop himself he had walked over to Draco and slammed his fist into Draco’s nose. Draco moved to retaliate but Harry quickly felt himself being pulled away.

“Stop!” Yelled an unknown voice. Harry turned to see who was restraining him and it was none other than Remus Lupin. If Sirius was iconic then Remus was doubly so. He had been the best striker of a generation before his famous knee injury. Now he coached with Sirius.

Harry was quick to anger but he was also quick to see that what he had done was wrong. “I’m so sorry Draco. I should never have done that.”

Draco was still clutching his nose and didn’t deign to respond.

Remus let go of Harry and walked over to whisper something in Draco’s ear.

Remus looked at Harry intently before saying, “you can go and train with the rest of the team.”

Harry didn’t know what he had expected Remus to say but it had certainly not been that. Despite that, he was in no mood to question his good fortune and simply walked onto the pitch with the rest of the team.

Draco’s POV

Draco was angry. He certainly felt that he had a right to be. It was a month into the season and he had gotten injured. He hadn’t gotten it checked with the medics yet but he knew it wasn’t good. It meant at least a month on the sidelines.

And now Potter had punched him. Yes, he might have said some things he shouldn’t have but still. Potter shouldn’t have punched him. Draco hadn’t meant to hurt Potter's feelings. Draco was just tired and upset and so incredibly frustrated. If his father found out that Weasley had managed to injure him then he would never hear the end of it.

What really pissed Draco off was that neither Remus or Sirius had said anything about Harry punching him. If Draco had done something like that then he would have been suspended for months but of course it doesn’t matter if someone else does it. It was always like that.

After the team had left, Remus had pulled up a chair in front of Draco. Remus reached up to remove the ice pack from Draco’s nose and prodded it a few times. “You’ll live,” he said.

Draco rolled his eyes and went back to staring at the wall. The two sat in silence for quite a while before Remus spoke, “I know you understand why saying such things is wrong so I’m not going to tell you again. However, I will say that we will never win if you can’t be a team player. You are talented Draco. Immensely so, but you will never get anywhere without your team and I hope you understand that.”

Draco nodded before looking away again. Eventually Remus helped him outside so he could sit and watch practice. He looked for Potter. He didn’t have to look long because Harry was everywhere. He seemed to be playing both offense and defense at once. It was mesmerizing and if Draco didn’t hate him so much he might have been able to admit that. Instead all he could think about was ‘what can I do?’ He needed to know how he could get Potter to help him.

Once again, Draco couldn’t help but hate himself, just a little but. He had only ever been good at one thing. That one thing was football.

Draco understood that just because another person was good at something that didn’t mean he was bad at it. Yet that seemed impossible to believe when Harry was clearly so much better.

Draco had been training for this since he was born and Harry played like he was made for this. As if God had given him one purpose in life and that was to play football.

Draco hated him for it. Maybe more honestly, Draco hated himself for not being it. Draco was good. Harry was better.