The entire corridor stayed silent for a few seconds as the boy was gasping in exertion for some reason. Harry, who honestly didn't give a damn about Quidditch, put on a smile on his face, "Oh, that's great news. Which position did you get in?"
"Seeker," the boy answered in a confused tone.
Yeah, Harry knew that the boy had bought himself a spot in the team, well, his father did. It was what happened in the stories, and it didn't seem to be any different there, especially because the tryouts were in a week.
"And such an important position, too. Now that's very impressive indeed," Harry nodded.
"Yeah, but unfortunately, that means that you can't be on the team too," the boy answered with a solemn tone that was completely proven to be fake by the wide smile he was wearing.
Harry simply shrugged, "I wasn't even planning on playing. I didn't even bring a broom with me, although now that I think of it, I should get one. I like flying; it relaxes me."
"Wait, you weren't going to try out for a spot on the team?" Malfoy asked incredulously.
"I don't really like Quidditch all that much, to be honest."
"HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE QUIDDITCH?"
"People have their preferences," the Potter scion calmly answered, "just like you don't like eating vegetables, but I do. People can just not like things. I just find Quidditch to be needlessly violent with too many senseless rules that don't really mean much, and that's too hard to follow because there are four balls in the game. But that's just my opinion, I'm sure there are merits to the game I'm not seeing, but it's a personal preference. Quidditch isn't for everyone, I guess. Although, now that I think about your situation, if you're going to be the seeker, what's going to happen to Warrington?"
The boy held himself from exploding from the fact that Harry just didn't like Quidditch and calmed himself the more he explained it, "Well, Flint practically threw him out when he saw the brooms my father offered the Slytherin Quidditch team."
"And what kind of brooms were those?" Harry asked while already knowing the answers.
"Nimbus 2001. My father bought seven for the team. He likes to do things for me like that. It's a shame that you don't have anyone like him in your life, and even if you did, you'd probably end up broke. I heard the Potter finances were in a very bad shape after the war, so even if you had parents, they wouldn't have been able to do this," the boy's confused look turned triumphant at that.
It was a petty dig and Harry wasn't particularly bothered by it. Yeah, he didn't have a parent, but he didn't really need one. As for the Potter finances, they didn't really look that great. It was enough for him to get by, but Harry had a few things planned to fix that.
Still, the boy wanted to anger him, but Harry was a little above that. Instead, he put on a smile, "I think I have enough to buy a few brooms, right? But you're right that it's a very expensive purchase. The Nimbus is like what, 200 Galleons, right?"
"More like 350," the boy corrected.
"Alright, 350. That means that your father paid 2450 Galleons just to help your team. And as admirable as that is, it looks from the outside that you bought your way into the team, while I'm sure that you have enough skill to back it up. It looks like favouritism, like what happened to Longbottom last year."
The blonde nodded, still not getting Harry's point, "Yeah! Why should he get special treatment."
Harry shook his head, "You're not seeing the point. Do you remember what happened to our precious Boy Who Lived when he lost that Hufflepuff game last year? His teammates utterly hated him. People made fun of him when he spoke, calling him a hack and a cheat. You'll have to work a lot to make sure that no one thinks you're unworthy of your position like Longbottom is his own."
The boy paled finally understanding what Harry was trying to get at. Yeah, the Potter scion understood how to make Malfoy tick, and that was to throw Longbottom in his face and let the boy's obsession and jealousy do the rest.
"But my father…" the Malfoy scion protested.
"Your father is a very powerful man, Draco dear, but he's not a god. He'll do his best to help but even he can't just stop people from thinking that you just bought your way into the team, that you're just a rich boy with money that likes to think he's good at Quidditch while he's horrible at it. Isn't that what they said about Longbottom? That he used his fame to get on the team when he was just mediocre. Do you want people to call you that? Or do you want to prove to the entire school that you're better than him?"
"I want to show them that I'm better!" the boy practically shouted.
"Well done. You have the passion, now you need dedication. Train like your life depends on it. For every hour Longbottom trains, you'll do two on your own. I want you to show the entire school that you're the best seeker around. Make them understand that the brooms are just tools and that you're just that good. You are that good, aren't you?"
"I'm the best seeker in the school," the blonde answered with a proud smile on his face.
"Then I look forward to seeing you play, Draco Malfoy."
The Malfoy scion gave him a wide beam and practically ran to the Quidditch field, followed by his two minions who hadn't said a word after their greetings at first. Sometimes messing with that boy was too much fun. Draco was, at heart, a spoilt brat that wanted people to acknowledge him but didn't want to do enough effort to make it happen.
Harry just gave him a little push to dedicate his time to Quidditch a bit more. For all the boy wanted to brag about his father bribing the Quidditch captain with an absurd amount of money for something as asinine as a Quidditch team position, one that the blonde didn't even need since he sure as hell wasn't going to play professionally, he was being quite foolish by talking about it so openly.
However, Harry just scared him and motivated him at the same time. A boy with such a large ego would do his best to not be humiliated by the public, and that's not even counting his competitive desire to defeat his rival. Yeah, the boy was going to train night and day to make that happen.
This was how Harry was able to give the entire castle a vacation from Malfoy for at least a couple of months. Yeah, you're welcome, Hogwarts.
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