Kicking and Screaming

[Austin Branning]

"I...I'm not sure about this," Austin protested weakly as he was led down the street by his sister. After staying in the shadows for most of his first year his sister seemed to be taking it on herself to push him into the spotlight. She now had some crazy idea that he should by a broom and tryout for the Quidditch team. She was crazy, sure after his flying lessons he was decent on a broom but it was a whole other story to join a sports team, he wasn't that type of person. I'm not sure I'll be any good," He said hoping to convince her to change her mind, Austin just wanted to spend his free time in his dorm with the curtains shut on his bed.

 

[Autumn Branning]

Autumn genuinely worried about her brother. She barely saw him during the school year which could only mean he spent most of his time in his common room, or in the dorm knowing Austin. She didn't want his school years to pass him by without him making any strides in conquering his social awkwardness. Perhaps throwing him in the deep end wasn't the best strategy but it was the one she was going with. The only thing she could think of for Austin to improve his social life and to get him out of his comfort zone was sport. Autumn loved Quidditch, she would be picking a broom up for herself too while she was out, sport was universal from the muggle world to the magical one, once you forget about the flying part. "Austin you are not spending second year in your dorm again, I'll take you to the tryouts if that's what it takes but at the very least you will try. I just want you to have some happy memories of school, I don't want you looking back and only remembering the inside of your curtains,"

 

[Reuben Pendleton]

Reuben sighed. He'd been staring wistfully through the Quidditch shop window for the better part of half an hour, now, trying to find some justification for spending two hundred galleons on a Scarlet Streak; but no matter how he searched his mind, there was nothing. That was the sort of money that could buy Remy his wand and robes - and what was a broomstick, really, in the grand scheme of things? The Hufflepuff sighed again, turning his head to look down the street for Rudolf, or his parents. In an hour or two they'd be back in New York again, and the Scarlet Streak would be thousands of miles away. Oh well. Remy would be ecstatic when he and Rudolf gave him the money for his supplies, he was sure of that much.

The Hufflepuff was just about to start down the street when he caught, quite by accident, the end of somebody's conversation. "Tryouts?" Reuben repeated, now that they were close enough to respond to. He recognised the boy, Austin, as a fellow Hufflepuff, and with the team seriously in need of new players, it was too good an opportunity to pass by. He turned to address him. "Are you going to join the team?"

 

[Austin Branning]

Austin listened to his sister talk and was touched by her concern but he didn't see anything wrong with how he went about his time at the school. He was ok, he was as happy as he felt he could be. Austin didn't feel comfortable around people and that was just who he was, the idea of being forced out onto a quidditch pitch where everyone would be looking at him expecting him to do something good terrified him. Why was his sister so determined to put him in a situation where he could potentially humiliate himself. "What if I'm no good? What if I fall off? I've only flown in lessons, I've never even played quidditch, which position would I play? Austin was rattling off every excuse he could think of in the hopes his sister would think again.

The two were soon interrupted by the arrival of someone Austin instantly recognised as Reuben Lagowski, the Hufflepuff captain. Austin could remember reading and hearing a fair amount of criticism of Reuben during the year which he thought was unfair. Reuben had always seemed like a cool guy to Austin, although he hadn't attended any of the games so he didn't know what he was like as a captain but he was sure what he heard was way off the mark. Austin looked at Reuben then back at his sister who nodded slowly. "Yes," he said quietly.

 

[Autumn Branning]

Autumn hated rolling her eyes at her brother but she did so as he tried to squirm out of trying out. "Austin, if you'd ever actually been to a game you'd like it, you like sport, for some reason you like rugby right? Well quidditch is nothing like it, but you'll be part of team, you'll have friends, you'll be liked and respected, that Ravenclaw girl might even notice you if you make the team," Autumn looked at her brother with a smirk. The odd time they had spoken during the year Austin had mentioned a girl he shared classes with. Autumn had done some investigating, while she didn't get it, she was glad to see that on some levels Austin was like every other boy.

While she had more to say to her brother they were soon interrupted by an older boy. He was cute by unimpressive, but she knew who he was from seeing him in action. It was fate that they had run into Austin's future captain. She remained quiet as Reuben spoke to Austin. Austin's reply to the boy was almost inaudible so she decided to step in. "Yes he is, we're just going to get him a broom now,"

 

[Reuben Pendleton]

Reuben looked at Austin, and the girl beside him, and back again. He didn't know so much as the girl's name, but it became quite clear quite quickly that she was of some familial relation to the Hufflepuff. It was also fairly evident in Reuben's eye that she was trying to convince him to join the team against his will; and whilst the team certainly could have used a few more players, Reuben was not one to pressure anybody into doing anything they didn't want to do. He knew from having a twin brother how it felt to be coerced into things lest he be made to feel like a loser, and it wasn't pleasant.

He smiled politely at the girl before looking at Austin again. "Cool. Maybe see you at tryouts," he said. "Don't worry if you haven't flown much before. I actually got a D in flying, soo..." Reuben grinned. "Everyone's welcome to try out. And if you don't feel like it when you get there, you can always just watch. See you later, yeah?" With that, Reuben headed off to look for Rudolf.

 

[Austin Branning]

Reuben's words actually made him feel a little better about his abilities and trying out. If the captain got Ds in flying then maybe he would be ok, and maybe he wouldn't fall off. "Thanks Reuben," He said quietly to his fellow Hufflepuff. "See you later," He smiled shyly and nodded. Once he was gone Austin turned to his sister who turned to head into the quidditch supplies shop. Once inside Austin didn't know what he was looking for, the whole thing was Autumn's idea so he assumed his sister would be taking the lead in picking out a broom. "What now?" He asked turning to Autumn. While Austin was largely unimpressed by the shop, the expression on Autumn's face looked like she had died and gone to heaven, that must be the difference between someone who had been to a quidditch match and someone who hadn't.

 

[Autumn Branning]

Autumn watched as Austin managed to speak to the boy and actually have his words heard. It was good to see, and exactly the kind of thing she hoped to see more of if he joined the quidditch team. Once Reuben left she led her brother inside the shop. It was like something she dreamed. Autumn hadn't been in the shop the previous year and if she had it wouldn't have meant anything to her, but after a year of falling in love with the sport seeing a store dedicated to it was truly a magical experience. Once her brother began talking Autumn snapped out of her daze and turned to him. "Now we find you a broom obviously, and me, I want one too," She said looking around spotting the brooms at the other side of the shop.

 

[Margo Ellis]

Margo knew there wasn't any point asking her mother about Quidditch, and yet there she found herself anyway, hardly pausing to take a breath for all the opinions she was attempting to draw out of her. "Should I get a Nimbus 2000? Or just use one of the school brooms? What if I don't make the team? But what if I do?" she asked in very quick succession, finally closing her mouth and looking at her mother, who couldn't have looked more baffled if Margo had asked her to recite the periodic table. The Ravenclaw sighed, her shoulders dropping. It wasn't fair, having nobody to ask about these things. There was Odette, but somehow she didn't quite feel comfortable talking about her feelings with the Slytherin. And her feelings at the present moment were that she would never be any good at Quidditch anyway, so she might as well not even bother trying out.

Not knowing which position she wanted to play certainly wasn't helping, so finally Margo turned to cross to the equipment area, stopping dead in her tracks as she caught the eye of a certain Hufflepuff she'd been doing her best to avoid all year. She spun immediately back around, a deep flush rising to her cheeks. "Omigod, Mum, that's him," she whispered. "We need to leave, like, right now." Pulling slightly on her mother's sleeve she turned once more and headed swiftly for the door, keeping her head down and praying Autumn wouldn't interfere.

 

[Austin Branning]

Austin was looking at some of the brooms in the store but he didn't know the difference between any of them. He was hoping Autumn would know which broom he should get. He could see Autumn looking up at the brooms, no doubt she was deciding which one she wanted to get for herself. Since they were discussing a broom for him Austin so he allowed his eyes to wonder around the store where they laid eyes on the familiar busy hair of a familiar Ravenclaw. Austin felt his mouth go dry as he saw her, he looked back at his sister frantically, and tapped her on the arm to get her attention. "It's her, she can't see me!" His voice was hoarse and panicked. Austin hoped Margo didn't see him, he wouldn't know what to do with himself.

 

[Autumn Branning]

Autumn was lost in a sea of potential broomsticks, though she was pretty sure the scarlet streak was the broom for her. Surely with that she would be a shoe in for a spot on the team. Before she could draw the attention of a shop assistant to actually buy the broom she felt a tapping on her arm. She turned to see her brother with a panicked expression on his face and just saying, it's her. "What are you talking about?" She asked before she looked up and spotted the bushy haired Ravenclaw that was the only thing that seemed to get her brother to light up. Though apparently seeing her in person left him a bumbling mess. "Wait here," Autumn said and quickly made her way across the shop trying to cut off the blonde haired girl. "Margo!" She yelled catching up to the girl.

 

[Margo Ellis]

This was terrible. Trust Autumn to yell Margo's name right across the shop. "Oh no," Margo whined, briefly trying to hide behind her mother before realising it was futile. Blushing fiercely, she emerged, throwing on a shaky smile. "Hi, Autumn," she said, as enthusiastically as she could manage - which wasn't very. Don't look at Austin. Don't look at Austin. Don't look at Austin. Why had she come into this stupid shop to begin with? "What a... nice surprise!"

 

[Autumn Branning]

Autumn beamed at Margo once she turned and acknowledged her, though she doubted the sincerity in calling seeing her a nice surprise. She didn't care, she wasn't the one with a crush on her, in fact she wasn't really sure what her brother saw in her, but he light up when he talked about her so she would do her part to try and get them together. "You know my brother Austin right? He's over there," She said pointing out her brother, he would be mortified but he wouldn't exactly yell at her for it so she was happy to embarrass him a little. "You should come and say hi, I know he'd love to see you,"

 

[Austin Branning]

Austin couldn't believe his sister had darted across the store to corner Margo. It was already bad enough that she was speaking to her but when Autumn pointed to him Austin wished he could disappear, just not be there when Margo looked over. How could she do that to him, first quidditch now this. Austin couldn't hear what his sister was saying to Margo but he had a feeling he wouldn't like, he just wanted her to stop, he wanted to run away but he couldn't leave without walking past Margo. He was trapped and being pointed at like a trapped zoo animal.

 

[Margo Ellis]

Margo couldn't believe her ears. Autumn was terrible! Did she know Margo had a crush on Austin? She couldn't think of any other reason for her being so insistent they meet - unless she made a habit of introducing random students to her brother. "Actually," Margo said, backing onto her mother's foot, "Ireallygottagosorrybye!" With that she grabbed her mum's hand and dragged her out of the door, wishing the pavement outside would open up and swallow her. Oh no, she thought, as the door closed behind her. Now Austin would think she really hated him! Urgh - she just couldn't win.