Closed Inevitable Change

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko was glad that Gryffindor didn't have the first game of the season this year. It gave them plenty of time to practice before they would face of against Slytherin, and it was time they would definitely need. His mind was racing with all the possibilities of what could go wrong when he entered the great hall looking for something to eat. He was slowly getting lost in his own head again when he noticed Chloe and decided to join her. Nikko figured she had also been thinking a lot about how their first game would go too. After all she had lost two of her fellow chasers. It felt strange for him to be on the pitch with out them and he could only imagine how she felt. "Hey." he said with a small wave as sat down across from her. "How's it going?" he asked casually, not wanting to unload all of his thoughts and feelings on her right away as he served himself some food.

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë would be lying if she said she wasn't at least a little nervous for the upcoming quidditch season, a feeling that was influenced by multiple factors. For starters, it was her last year on the team and if she had been bent on winning before it wasn't hard to imagine how much more she wanted to win this year. To go out in a blaze of glory. Then there was the fact that her friends were gone and she had to play with two completely new chasers. They were nice and she already felt like they had potential, but they weren't Sully and Noel. She wasn't able to predict their moves or communicate with them with just a look like she had been able to do with her friends. Chloë had been staring at the pages of her defence against the dark arts book when she noticed Nikko sitting down across from her, shooting him a smile. "Hi." She greeted, closing her book since she was sure she wasn't going to get any reading done today anyways. "Pretty good, just busy with anything and everything." She responded with a light laugh. "You?"

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko felt silly for interrupting her while she was reading when she mentioned how busy she was. How quickly he forgot she was named head girl, not to mention the NEWTs all seventh years had to deal with. He had managed to survive his OWL's last year but only barely and he wasn't keen to do it all again next year. But he shook his head. He didn't have to deal with that yet. He just nodded and gave her a sympathetic smile. "Practice went....pretty well." he offered positively as his subtle way of bringing up quidditch. "It's not the same, of course." he added quickly. "But I'm sure you've noticed more than anyone."

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë wasn't sure if she would've gotten any reading done if Nikko hadn't arrived but she had to admit she was glad for the company. Staring at the pages had only allowed her to get lost in her thoughts and she was happy to be distracted from that. Or at least she thought she was, untill Nikko brought up practice. "It did." She responded with a nod. "I don't know, I think we've all noticed." She shrugged as she gave him a small smile, not wanting to make it seem like she was the only one on the team who might miss her friends' presence. They had all been teammates for quite a while after all and she was sure they'd all need to get used to missing Sully's jokes or Noel's encouragements. "But yeah, it's uh.. definitely different. The new chasers are promising though."

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko paused when she mentioned that the whole team noticed the difference. She was probably right. He sometimes felt a little isolated in front of the hoops all by himself so it wasn't surprising he missed what was going on with the rest of the team. "I guess so. It's kind of hard to miss." he admitted once he thought about it for a moment. "They are." he agreed. "I didn't realize Stan had so much potential this whole time." he said before picking at some of his good. "It's a shame you have to spend your last year with a whole new chaser squad." he added with out thinking before freezing. "Sorry, I guess you didn't need me to tell you that." He shot her an apologetic look.

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë eyed Nikko curiously when he kept quiet for a second, almost wondering if he missed having Sully and Noel around during practice as much as she did. After herself she figured Nikko and Ronald were the ones who were most impacted by her friends having graduated. They had to work with the chasers after all, try to figure out their plays and how to block them. Having new chasers around changed that. "I guess you guys never talked too much?" She asked carefully when Nikko mentioned Stan. Having shared a dorm with Emma for seven years it was hard to imagine people not talking to their dormmates but also knew not everyone's as talkative as they are. "But yeah, his skills are pretty promising." Chloë added with a small smile. One that clearly faltered at what Nikko said next. "Nah, you're fine." She ensured with a small shake of her head when he apologized. "You're also right." She added honestly after a second of silence. "It's not that I don't like Zee and Stan, they're cool, but I guess it's a little disappointing to know it'll likely be them against me for most practices to come so we can make sure they work well together. And yet when we have a game I feel this huge pressure to perform because they're only just getting into it." Chloë finished with a small smile. Bothering Nikko with her problems hadn't exactly been on her agenda today but since they were talking quidditch anyways she figured she might as well be honest about it.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

"Not too much." Nikko admitted when Chloe Stan. "He's always been nice just a bit of a loner. Not that I can really talk." he added with a small laugh and busied himself with his food. He wasn't the most social person and was usually perfectly content to do things on his own so it wasn't like they ever had reasons to cross paths until now. He was relieved that she didn't mind talking to him about all of this. It had been all he could think about and he was relieved to have someone to talk about it with. Maybe he needed to branch out more? "Oh right." Nikko said with a sympathetic nod. He could imagine that only practicing against the others would make it hard to really work as a team, and that as the oldest chaser on the team they had to look up to her a lot. "Well if anyone was going to whip them into shape, it's you. I would know I can bare block anything you throw at me." he added with a shrug to try and sound encouraging.

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë nodded when Nikko admitted that he and Stan had never talked much during their time as roommates. She realized not talking with a roommate that much wasn't as unimagineable as she had first thought it to be since she didn't talk to Rose much either. "Still plenty of time to hang out more, right?" She offered. Now that Stan and Nikko were on the team together it would certainly give them more reason to talk after all. "We'll see." Chloë responded with a soft chuckle when Nikko mentioned her whipping the other chasers into shape. She mostly just hoped she could teach some things before she left, encourage their teamwork enough. Having great skills was certainly useful as a chaser but without teamwork there wasn't much to go on. "And sorry." She added apologetically. While she was glad things often went well for her during practice she couldn't help but to feel bad for the keepers sometimes, hoping her shots didn't discourage them too much. "I guess the positive is I'm not the one going for your hoops during the games." She grinned. "I mean I'm confident those other chasers got nothing on you."