Open Ambitious Goals

[Louis Alcott]

Open after Claire posts with Van

Lucas had been fascinated by Quidditch ever since he was old enough to grasp the concept of it, so he had really enjoyed the matches at Hogwarts. He had watched them all eagerly, cheering for Gryffindor the entire time. So it was a bit disappointing that his house team had lost every match. But maybe that just meant they needed new people, new good people like himself. Louis had no doubt he would get on the team, it was honestly a shame first years couldn't even try out. Louis had gone out with his ball today so he could kick it around the lawn, but when he hadn't found anyone to play with he had taken it to the Quidditch Pitch. It wasn't too far off from a football field, after all. But once he looked up at the hoops, high up in the sky, Louis got an idea. He wondered if it was possible to get the ball through those hoops from the ground. The boy grinned and started trying to kick the ball up as high as he could. He was getting nowhere near the goals, but it was fun to try.

 

[Van Voclain]

Van had finished all of her homework - or at least, she had finished all of the homework she wanted to do - and so, looking for some entertainment to while away the remainder of the afternoon, she shrugged on her jumper and headed to the Quidditch pitch. She very well knew there were no matches on today, but every now and then her visits were lucky enough to coincide with a team practice, which was almost as exciting and just as educational. In a little over two months, she had familiarised herself with all of the rules and picked up a number of tricks for every position without ever picking up a single book. Now all she had to do was figure out how to ask her dad to buy her a broom so that she could practice whenever she pleased. That was the hard part!

The sky above the stands was mournfully empty, but Van had walked too far to turn back without at least running a few laps of the pitch. Since giving up muggle sports, she'd felt her calf muscles tightening, and that wouldn't do. No sooner had she arrived, however, than she spotted Louis by the bases of the hoops, kicking a ball into the air. She laughed out loud and jogged over to meet him. "You're not even close!" she said. "Watch, I bet I can do it. Give us the ball."

 

[Louis Alcott]

Louis looked up when he heard someone laugh. He glanced around and spotted Van, who ran over to him. Louis frowned at her words. "I'm still warming up." He said. "I can get closer." He kicked the ball up high again, though it still wasn't nearly high enough. Louis scowled, but he was sure Van couldn't do any better than him. He kicked the ball over to her. "Fine, show me then." He challenged. "I bet you can't get nearly as high as me." He added for good measure.

 

[Van Voclain]

"Wanna bet?" Van asked, trapping the ball under her foot and stooping to grab it. She took a few steps back and looked up at the hoops, as if mentally calculating the strength of her kick. Really, she was mentally rehearsing a cunning plan. It ought to work, if she was quick enough...

Without further hesitation she drop kicked the ball with all her might. As anybody with a brain cell could have predicted, all of her might was nowhere near enough to send the ball through the hoops. But as it approached the apex of its ascent, Van whipped out her wand, thrust it into the air, and yelled, "Depulso!" A light struck the ball and propelled it further upwards. It was working! "Depulso," she said again; but the target was reducing in size, and this time her aim was off by several inches. "Depulso! Depulso! DEPUSLO!!!" Her frantic attempts made for a beautiful light display, but failed to hit the ball again. It bounced on the grass with a series of sad thuds.

Van watched it roll to a stop. After a moment she said, "Nearly," which was, perhaps, her greatest overstatement of the year; but she said it with all the smug conviction of someone who has at least done one better than their opponent.

 

[Louis Alcott]

Louis shrugged and watched the girl closely as she started kicking the ball. He laughed when it didn't get nearly high enough and opened his mouth to tell her so. But then the girl took out herwand and started using spells on the ball. "Hey!" Louis called, running over to her to push her arm down. "No fair, that's not- arrêter- stop!" He yelled, glaring. As the ball landed back on the ground, Louis ran over to it and quickly picked it up, holding it almost protectively against his chest. "That was cheating." He told her, frowning. "We never agreed magie- magic was allowed." He said, French words slipping out because he was flustered.

 

[Van Voclain]

"Ooohh la la!" Van said, clutching her stomach. "Magie! Bonjour! I wasn't cheating. You never said magic wasn't allowed, neither, did you? So keep your pants on. Bet you can't get it higher than I did, anyway." She folded her arms, eager to see Louis try - and inevitably embarrass himself. If either of them was going to get that ball through those hoops today, it would be Van for sure.

 

[Louis Alcott]

Louis scowled at the girl. "What, making fun of my French now?" He asked her, irritated. "I speak two languages, how many can you speak?" He asked her with a sneer. "I can so get it higher than you." He then told her, though it was tempting to simply kick the ball at her head. Instead, he focused his attention on kicking it as high as he could. Of course, it didn't get even near the goalposts, but he definitely got it higher than Van had before she started cheating with the magic. He gave her a smug grin. "See?"

 

[Van Voclain]

Van rolled her eyes. Some people couldn't take a joke. And Louis clearly didn't know how to have fun, either. "You're well boring," she said, as his ball fell back to the ground. "If you use magic, you might actually get it in. Why don't you try?" Despite her growing dislike of Louis, she was quite invested, now. She wanted to know if it was actually possible to get the ball through a hoop - by any means.

 

[Louis Alcott]

Louis huffed as the girl called him boring, glaring at her. "No I'm not." He said angrily. If he was honest, he had kind of been mad that he hadn't thought of it first. "It's no fun if you do it with magic." He said instead. "Of course I can do it with that." He paused. "Easy." He said, though he looked a bit doubtful.

 

[Van Voclain]

"'It's no fun doing it with magic'?" Van repeated. "Everything's fun doing it with magic. That's the whole point. Go on, then - you start it, and I'll help. Do you think Wingardium Leviosa would work all the way up there? We could invent our own new sport, doing this. Quidditch for people who're scared of flying! Wand-ball. We might be onto something."

 

[Louis Alcott]

Louis snorted at Van's words, raising his eyebrows a bit. "Are you muggle-born?" He asked her, wondering if that was what she was so fascinated with magic. He scoffed. "I'm sure it'll work." He said though he sounded a little uncertain. "But it wouldn't be a good replacement for Quidditch." He added, frowning. "The fun part of Quidditch is flying." He said, gesturing to the sky. "Why bother standing on the ground, levitating a ball into a hoop? I'd fall asleep."