Flirting with the Quaffle

[Minoas Stratis]

Minoas had the best holidays of his life. Unlike people who had stayed in New Zealand, he had enjoyed the bright sun and the summer weather of Greece. He had missed his homeland and his family's old home after a year away in New Zealand. He also had the opportunity to see his grandparents and spend some quality time with them. His mediterranean tan was pointing out the long hours he had spent at the sea, under the sun. He was recharged, relaxed and ready for his second year at Hogwarts, looking forward fo the Quidditch teams tryouts.

Before the holidays he had agreed with his friend Briar to teach him some of her awesome moves she had demonstrated during the last Quidditch match. Unfortunately, there was no time for him because of his exams and Briar's O.W.Ls. With his yesterday return, he was happy to find out that his owl, Athene, was having a letter for him. It was from Briar, telling him to meet her in the morning at the Quidditch pitch for some action. And there he was.
Althought the weather was chilling, the sun was out, brushing with its warm touch the tree tops of the forbidden forest.
Flashes of his rescue from the acromantulas, filled his mind and his lips shaped into a smile. But as soon as he saw the Quidditch pitch's towers with the houses' banners, waving at the freezing breeze, he casted away any other thought and just concentrated on Quidditch.

He entered inside the pitch, thankful that no one else was there. He found a small sun-showered area in the middle of the pitch and waited there for his friend as he was trying to warm up his cold hands.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar had returned to the school after her holiday, it had been an interesting break. she was feeling a little better than the start of the break, the six weeks she had spent away from the school had helped her recover from the news she had received at the end of the previous year. she was still sad, but it had been put into perspective.
she had remembered her promise and to Minoas to teach him some quidditch skills. she had sent him an owl. the next morning she made her way down to the quidditch pitch early. she had spent a lot of time on her broom over the break but she was flying not playing sport she. took a quaffle out of the training shed and dod a couple of laps before practicing throwing it and shooting some goals from unusual positions. she then went into the change rooms as she had to go to the toilet before the training session. by the time she had come out she saw Minoas was sitting on the bench. she walked across the pitch her ankle a little stiff after her accident over the break. "hey Minoas. are you ready?" she said tossing the red ball to him to see how ready he really was.

 

[Minoas Stratis]

Minoas started shaking from cold. Six weeks away from cold and he was no longer used to the cold. Among the noises of his chattering teeth, he heard the familiar voice of Briar. "Hello Bri! No time no see!" beamed the second year. He was trying to get used to the fact that he was no longer a firstie. Briar looked better since the end of the year ceremony. Minoas hadn't the opportunity to express his condolence to Briar for her loss. He believed in the term of family whether is biological or not and he could understand the feelings she went through.

He decided not to refer to that yet. It was a new year, a new beginning and he didn't want to darken it by reminding her. "More than ready actually." he said catching the quaffle in the air and revealing his new broom, a scarlet streak. " I managed to get straight Os." he explained with a wide grin. It could be a possible anti-dementor memory, the day his father got him the broom. Minoas' efforts paid off and he was extremely proud for it. "So coach, how we'll get started?' he asked confident, leaning his new broom on his left shoulder.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar was glad that she had many things to to do this year it was a way for her to keep her mind off things that mattered. she saw that he had a bright red broom she admired it as she made her way across to him and took the quaffle back off him"well done on the straight O's. Streaks are the best" she said knowing what the condition was from his farther for him to get a broom "now lets see how well you can fly it, I'll do a few laps, keep behind me" she said. she then she mounted her broom and started flying slowly at first but speeding up quickly as she knew that he would have been practicing. after a lap of the pitch she wove around the goal posts the best way to test his handling.

 

[Minoas Stratis]

"Alright!" he said overwhelmed with excitement. As he watched Briar soaring through the air gracefully, he mounted his broomstick, tracing with his fingers its polished handle. With a powerful kick he shot into the air like a bullet, raising a small cloud of dust behind him. He slowed down as Briar did and followed her closely as he was trying to enjoy the touch of the wind. It was still quite chilling, although the sun was higher now. He speeded up and followed the Gryffindor prefect to a quick lap around the pitch. He maneuvered around some tower-stands when Briar wasn't casting looks behind her but then he started flying faster to keep up with her.

It was definately a different experience from the school's brooms. Minoas had the impression that the streak could read his mind. Every movement he chose to do was so flawless. It was the true meaning of freedom.
He was watching his shadow down on the pitch's grass until he noticed Briar, woving around the goal posts. He hovered for a while to enjoy her demonstration and then with a smirk, he lowered his body closer to the broomstick and accelerated. He started zig-zagging around the three, gold goal posts. He was in constant vigilance, steering the scarlet handle just in time before he was going to hit a goal post, avoiding at the same time to collide with Briar who continued adoing that as well. "So, everything okay with your O.W.L's?" he yelled to overpower the howling of the wind as he was zig-zagging now through the goal posts' rings.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar was impressed by minos broom handling and after a little while testing she flew over to the centre of the pitch and after a moment of hovering she smiled. "good job, you seem like a natural" she called throwing the ball into the air and catching it. "my OWLS went okay not as good as i wanted but given the situation" she shouted back she didn't want to discuss the the reason for her lower than expected
"so what do you want to do now. practice shooting, passing, or dodging" she asked she wanted to know what he wanted to work on.
"how did your holidays go? did your brothers behave?" she asked. she had been told how mischievous his four year old brothers were, she had spent her holidays in the mountains on the south island camping. it had been an unusual break. she had had a few problems but nothing she couldn't deal with.

 

[Minoas Stratis]

Minoas followed his friend, braking at the center of the pitch by turning the broomstick's handle slightly upwards.
"Thanks!" he muttered, grateful that his restless practices paid off.
Although Briar didn't mention it, the young Gryffindor could guess what was the obstacle to her proper OWL performance. "You can relax now a bit to ace next year's NEWTs." he said with an encouraging smile. He ignored the itching need to learn what exactly had caused the tragic death of the professor in the forbidden forest. He had heard rumours of centaurs taking part in the incident and he was wondering whether it was the truth or a lie.

"The truth is that my aim sucks, so it would be a better idea to start with shooting." he suggested remembering the day he shot the Quaffle on his Slytherin friend's face by accident. His eyes widened with the idea that the same could happen today.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar smiled as Minoas cm to a stop besides her at the centre of the pitch. "no worries" she said, she hadn't just said what she had said to boost his ego, she wasn't at all like that, if he had sucked she probably would have said something like we need to work on handling or something like that first. "Hopefully there wont be too much for me to have to do this year. "you just need a little practice. so i will go to the goal and play keeper. nor i want you to start about 15 meters away and ry and hit me." she said before adding "don't worry i will catch it. then i will start to move around slowly trying to dodge the ball. I want you to keep trying to hit me until i say so. it is soon of like playing in reverse. it should increase your aiming skills and ability to anticipate where the keeper will be" she said, wondering if this exercise will work, it was actually quite good to have a guinea pig to test these things on. she checked to see if he understood before flying to the goals and passing him the scarlet ball.

 

[Minoas Stratis]

Minoas listened carefully on the prefect's instructions. Briar seemed to be taking it seriously, right on bussiness. The task that she had set him sounded quite professional, like a training task that a professional Quidditch coach would have assigned to his players. Minoas agreed with a nod and grabbed the Quaffle that Briar threw to him.
Embracing with his left arm the ball and with his right holding the broomstick, he flew in a horizontal arc, gaining some distance from the goal posts that Briar was protecting. He wanted to be like a real Quidditch situation. In a real game he wouldn't be just hovering fifteen meters from the goal posts.

After his arc-pattern flying, he started zooming towards Briar who had taken the Keeper's post. He increased his speed, feeling the rush of the wind like slaps on his cheeks. While he was approaching the goal posts approximately fifteen meters, he slowed down just a bit to aim and shot the Quaffle towards the ring that Briar was protecting. He made quickly un upward arc after his attempt to score, just not to exceed the distance limit that Briar had set and dove back into position to see what he had managed with his first try.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

briar positioned herself in front of the centre goal hoop. she was glad that she didn't play keeper, it seemed like a lot of pressure and not much to do if the rest of the players did their job right. was glad that Minoas seemed to think her drill was a good one, she had made it up over the break along with a few others.
As Mioas game to wards her she watched as he slowed down at around 15 meters away. the ball came flying towards her, however it was a little high and managed to fly over her right shoulder. "Good try. maybe next time you don't need to stop, just fly as close as you feel comfortable" she said realising how far 15 meters was. "next time i will start to slowly cover all three loops, you still have to try and hit me, and i wont change my path to dodge it" she said throwing the ball back at him. she could feel her shoulder was filly back to normal, but it was now her ankle that was stiff, which to be honest in the world of quidditch was a much better part of the body to injure as you didn't really need it much, but in the roll of chaser the shoulder was necessary for throwing the ball which was a major part of the job (even though she had been called a ball hogger before), that was because none of the other chasers were around when she had it and to throw would have meant almost certain loss of possession.

 

[Minoas Stratis]

Minoas shrugged apologetically as his shot was a bit higher than it should have been. He watched as the quaffle flew above Briar and listened to her advice closely. "Right! This time there will be no stop." he reassured her as he grabbed again the quaffle. He spinned it on his index floor while he was flying away from the hoops. He almost dropped it but he managed to retrieve it awkwardly in time. Setting his position on the centre of the pitch, aligned with the hoops, he accelerated. His chest almost touching the handle of the broom, the quaffle imprisoned in his tight grip.

Regardless the high speed, his eyes focused on Briar moving in a triangle from goal post to goal post. Almost ten meters away from her he gave another shot, the Quaffle went through the air in a spiral way, whistling against the wind. He couldn't reduce quickly enough his speed so he got through a hoop before turning back to face Briar.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

briar was glad that the boy listened to her advice, it was a lot easier to train someone who followed your advice than someone who thought that they new best. she saw him stumble a little with the ball, but he kept it tight in his grip which was in the end all that mattered. This time the ball followed her and would have hit her square in the chest if she hadn't caught it first. "that was a perfect throw. next time try and not end up going through the goals yourself, either stop of urn and fly in front" she shouted throwing the ball back. now try that again a couple more times. I will go a little bit faster."[/b] she said speeding her circling up a little more. he could take as many shots as he wanted and she would throw the quaffle back after each one. practice makes it a lot easier but it could get boring.

 

[Minoas Stratis]

Returning back into position, the boy saw Briar holding the quaffle. The gryffindor prefect proved to be a quite good keeper as well. He offered her a smile of embarrassment when she mentioned how he should have ended after his attempt to score. It was the quaffle that it was supposed to get through the goal posts, not him. He got again possesion of the ball and made a short lap to the other end of the pitch. From the opposite goal posts, he charged like a scarlet arrow. High speed wasn't really helpful, as he attempted his next try with watery eyes, because of the freezing wind. The quaffle was launched, lower than Briar, a pretty bad attempt.

"I got it!" he said and went to retrieve the Quaffle from the ground. He grabbed it like a falcon grabbing with its sharp talons, its potential victim. He then turned the tip of the broom's handle to the sky, gaining again height.
He followed a bow like course to the middle of the pitch and then without stopping, zoomed himself towartds the goal posts that Briar was guarding. This time his speed was idealic and when he was close enough, he threw the Quaffle into the air and shot it towards the girl by hitting it strongly with his fist. Minoas felt an acute pain on is knuckles and the spot's skin that made the violent contact with the ball, aggravated, turning redish. Minoas bit his lip as he was shaking his hand in pain. He rubbed his sore knuckles as he watched the quaffle following its course, right on target.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar watched him head for the hoops a third time, however she was that the ball was short and too the right. she was just about to go fo the ball, when she saw him dive for it. "too bad Better luck next time." she called as he came again. this time the ball cam directly at her, hitting her square before she was able to catch it. she flew towards him and offered a hand for a high five. "perfect. now I will try and guard the goals, and you have to get it in, do the same but backwards. the way it will be done in a game, you can come up to about two meters of the goal you don't have to but you can if you want. and you can use any techniques you want to try and confuse me." she said giving him the ball and heading back to the hoops. She hoped that he made the team this year, it would boost her confidence as a coach if she was to become the captain the next year, and it would be good for her to have someone she knew on the team to.

 

[Minoas Stratis]

Minoas accepted the girl's high five with his unharmed hand. He hoped that his shot didn't hurt her as it hit her right on her chest. Now was the real deal. A real situation for a chaser. He knew that Briar wouldn't just let him score. She was going to be fierce with her keeper duties, making sure that he was going to put some effort. He catched the Quaffle once more but with his right hand. His left was still soring and Minoas was unfortunately a lefty. He was going to try anyway even with that sort of disadvantage.

As Briar was returning back to her goal posts, he was scheming in his mind to come up with a smart way to score.
As soon as she was ready he went for it. He started flying on a zig zag pattern, trying to make Briar dizzy. He evolved his technique by not only zig-zagging but also by flying upwards and downwards. As he was flying closer to the hoops, he decided to name his new technique dragonfly. When he was no more than five meters away from the goal posts, he tried to score, throwing the quaffle to the right hoop.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar saw Minoas head towards her again she realised as he came towards her that the ball was in his other hand. the ball came out squiff he zig zaged and she tried to keep up. where he was going and she realised how a keeper felt when she used the same technique. when he threw the ball she saw it was way out. she went and caught it she then flew over to Minoas. "are you okay?" she asked wanting to check if he hadn't hurt himself. she had recently started realising how easily people could get hurt. she just hoped that she would never hurt anyone. she waited to see if he was okay or wanted a rest. she then realised something interesting about the boy. "you're left handed too? its often a good way to confuse a keeper or the opposing team, especially if you use both hands." she said. It was odd, not many people were left handed but she seemed to be, but she had trained enough to be able to use both hands.

Out of Character:

as you can see I got approved

 

[Minoas Stratis]

Minoas cursed at the wind as he saw his great technique turning into a pathetic throw. Briar caught the quaffle and flew towards him, asking him if he was alright. "Yeah I'm fine. My knuckles are hurting a bit from my previous attempt but I think they are getting better now." he said as he was opening and closing again and again his left hand to see if there was any pain left. Minoas hadn't really thought of the difference between using different hands. He was using both of them for different tasks but his stronger was his left. "I'm afraid there's no 'yes or no' answer to this. I'm eating with my right hand, I can write with both but I can only use my wand with my left." he just then realised how weird that was. "I guess I prefer my left one for Quidditch too." he indicated as all his previous tries were shot from his left.

"I think it's better now." he said as he took the quaffle from Briar's hands and tested if he could handle it with his left hand. "Let's try it again." he said full of determination.

Out of Character:

congrats! i'm wondering how you are going to use that now

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar nodded sympathetically when he said he hurt his knuckles and when he said he was fine she believed him. "well i'm glad you didn't hurt yourself too badly. the zig zaging was good, using different length and directions of zig zags was certainly a good idea, however you cant let that interfere with your shot because no matter how much thought and technique you put into the approach it is the shot that matters." she said, she didn't want to seem like she was drilling him too hard, it was meant to be more for bun than hard training, that would surly come later when he had gotten on the team. "interesting, i mainly use my left hand for things, however i can generally use both except for righting and wand work." she said. she had had enough trouble learning to right that she was happy using just one hand for that. she let him take the quaffle from her and then headed back to the goal again ready for his next try.

Out of Character:

i have a few ideas. but i will on the whole just muddle it out when i get there.

 

[Minoas Stratis]

Minoas made a mental note of what Briar had advised him. She was right. He had to balance the approach with the shot to have a satisfying result. After telling him that she was as well mainly a lefty, she made her way back to her goal posts. When she was ready, guarding again, he flew up high at great speed. He was approaching the position of the goal posts but at the same time he was gaining more and more altitude. His strategy this time was completely different. He wanted to align himself with the sun so it would be difficult for her to watch him coming down to score.

As he had gained the position he wanted, high but with the goal posts not far if he was going for the dive, he hovered for a split of a second and then let himself to be gravitated by the power of the earth. He almost attached his body on his broom for a more aerodynamical performance and closed his eyes for an instant to listen to the howling sound of the wind, being slashed by his broom's tip. His dive was bringing him closer and closer to the goal posts. He was guessing that Briar was having an uncomfortable position now, watching for him in the skies while guarding at the same time. With some luck, the sun would be blocking his arrival to her. Now the goal post were closer than ever. When he was at the right altitude, he threw the quaffle like he was tossing a bowling ball right at the hoop that it was more exposed than the other two. Moments before crashing on the ground from his fall, he pulled his broom's handle upwards and with a great, sideways maneuver, he took back a position at the same level with the goal posts.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar was ready for minoas to come and try and score. she started circling and watched as he climbed higher and higher in the sky. it took her a moment to realise what he was doing. it was a pretty smart technique, one that she herself hadn't thought of much to be honest. he vanished in front of the sun and although she was anticipating his approach she wasn't sure when it would come. suddenly out of the blue a figure came aiming for the goal furthest away from where she was now. she tried to catch it but it managed to get there before she reached it and she was briefly left reaching for empty air, she then turned and went after the ball whilst minoas regained altitude. "that was brilliant. a good technique, but it con only be used when the sun is out, and you are shooting the right way. but i think you have got the hang of shooting." she said. "do you wan't to have a break, and then work on passing" she asked starting to descend. she could do with a bit of water and some food. she was starting to feel a little ill, she knew that there was a full moon coming, but she didn't say anything. There was no way she was going to tell anyone exactly what happened during the holiday, at least not yet, and it was just something that she would have to get used to. She didn't want to tell Madlyn as she didn't want to cause her any more trouble and she couldn't tell anyone before her sister.

 

[Minoas Stratis]

Minoas hovered back to his position and celebrated his score by flying in a vertical circle. He couldn't believe it that he had managed to score successfully. As Briar was approaching him to congratulate him, he was thinking of names for his new technique. "Indeed! I came up with it pretty randomly!" exclaimed the young gryffindor, glad that the experienced prefect was finding his technique a good one. "I'm gonna name it helios' dive!" he continued with his grey eyes radiating excitement. "True, the sun is necessary for this but I think that charging from above puts the keeper in a vulnerable position as he has to look up and can't calculate with precision which goal posts are safe." he pointed out the advantage of that technique whether the sun was an ally or not. "It can be also a disadvantage for the performer. I could have easily crashed on the goal posts or in the ground." he referred to the main drawback. He didn't care though.

Still excited he accepted the break that Briar offered. "Yeah let's have a break. I could use some water. Zeus I'm thirsty!" he exclaimed as he followed Briar to her descention. As he feet touched again the ground, he noticed that Briar was looking worned out. "Are you okay? Was I hard on you?" he wondered if it was the fault of his determination to score.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

briar laughed when he said that he came up with it randomly. "well it was a good idea, i think i may use it occasionally, and that is an interesting name for it" she said, personally she didn't name most of her moves as she felt like that would make them feel separate and not one big move, but she knew many people who did. "yep crashing into the floor, or goals isn't a good plan as even if you score then points there is a chance you could be out of the game for injury" she said. "I will be down in a minute I just want to see if i still have my eye in" she said taking the quaffle for one final attempt at a goal before going to land. she headed in from the side from the height of the centre goal making it look like that was where she was heading, however at the last minute she leaned sideways rolling her broom upside down and tossed it into the side goal nearest to her. that was her favourite goal technique to pull off, it usually confused the other players like crazy why sly liked it but for her it was fun, she quite liked flying upside down. she shot after the ball and then landed by the benches.
she sat down and reached for her water bottle. she took several large mouthfuls of the liquid before answering her friends question. "I'm fine, I just haven't been sleeping that well. you played hard but I am used to it after years of training sessions and i did a lot of flying over the break." she said reaching into her bag and pulling out a couple of steak sandwiches, "do you want one?" she asked offering one to him.

 

[Minoas Stratis]

Minoas went for the benches. Only when he sat down he realised how much tired he was as he was trying to catch his breath. He watched Briar using one of her own techniques to score. It was really impressive as well. Minoas wondered how much time the girl had spent on practising to become that good. As Briar was coming towards him, he made a pact with himself to visit the quidditch pitch several times per week and practise as much as he could. Regardless if he was going to make it into the team or not.

"I can totally understand you. I have trouble sleeping as well. I guess is the change of climate again, I'll get used to it." he nodded as he had the same problem. Right after his return from his holidays, he had trouble sleeping. He used to star gaze until the dawn to get sleepy and then sleep until noon. He had to fix that if he wanted not to miss any lessons in the near future. "Yeah, sure. Thanks!" he accepted kindly her offer and took one sandwich, not really knowing what it contained. He took a bite and when he made sure that there was no boiled egg, he started chewing before talking again. "So, except from flying, what else did you did during the break?"

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar was glad that minoas didn't ask how she wasn't sleeping well. "yep, something like that. where did you go? did you have a good time? she asked he looked like he had been the sun. se gave him one of the sandwiches hoping that he liked it. when he asked about her break she smiled, she had enjoyed her holiday, well most of it. the stay in the hospital was the worst bit. "despite the bad weather I went camping in the mountains, totally living off the land, it was pretty good, similar to what i did when i was a kid." she said. she was pretty sure he would ask her about her childhood, and now she didn't care. she trusted the boy, and her sister had told another student about her past anyway, she had been lucky that it was one of the two students who knew already, but even so she didn't see why she had to keep it s secret when Aspen didn't. even so she would only tell those she trusted. she took a bite of her sandwich it was pretty nice.

 

[Minoas Stratis]

Minoas couldn't help but smile when he realised that Briar was studying his tan. He swallowed first the big bite he was chewing and answered. "My family decided to see relatives back in homeland so we went for a tour at the Greek islands. I met again my grandparents, my uncles, my cousins, we even paid a visit to my mother's muggle parents." he said still surprised for that as they had to speak with their witch daughter for years. His muggle grandparents were always looking oddly at him and his brothers. Like they were expecting that their grandchildren were going to do something catastrophic. Which wasn't really wrong if you had for grandchildren Theseus and Perseus, Minoas' younger brothers. "Unfortunatley, we couldn't visit again the island where my father was born, where the Stratis family originates." he said and thoughtful took another bite. He had visited the island of Aeaea only once. And that happened illegally as his father was banished for marrying a muggle-born.

Minoas shook his head to cast away his thoughts. "Generally I had a blast. I really like the sea and we were all the time near beaches. We visited our old home, we had some hiking by the gorge near it. I also learnt surfing with my older cousin. It was absolutely great!" he said, nodding as he was finishing his sandwich with a large bite. He just then realised how much hungry he was. His holidays sounded so nice but Briar's were also interesting and adventurous. However, something that she had just said was keep echoing in his head like gong's sound. "I think you have told me that you never met your parents right? With who you used to go for camping when you were younger?" he asked curiously as Briar never mentioned with who he grew up. The word 'relatives' she was using was broadly generic.