Quidditch Bread

[Ruby Maeve Louw]

Ruby was thankful that the previous captain had now left school. He didn't seem to know what he was doing, or have any respect for his fellow-Quidditch-Loving Gryffindors. Ruby had definitely watched the matches of the previous year, and knew they would have done better if she was in the team. The now Second Year girl had spent a lot of her break making her dads play some sort of quidditch with her, and taking her to games so she could pick up on tips and tricks, and spectacular things she could do to impress the new captain, whoever it was going to be. Now that Ruby was back at Hogwarts, it was time to try her tricks out on the field, so that she would be ready when it came to Try Out day.
Standing with her Scarlet Streak, Ruby looked up into the sky, taking a deep breath in, before mounting her broom and flying up, ready to practice the Sloth Grip Roll.

 

[Niall Corvus]

Kellen had been right. Niall was bothered that after first year, there were no more Quidditch lessons. Was that meant to be it? They were taught how to take off from the ground and now they were ready to take a six year break, before using it in public as a mode of transport? Even if Niall didn’t have any intention of playing Quidditch before gradation, it was disappointing how little Hogwarts seemed to value the sport and the talent. With the broom his parents gifted him in one hand, he’d headed out to the pitch. He didn’t expect to make it into the Hufflepuff team this year, but it didn’t hurt to try nor keep practising, unlike most of his classmates. He looked up into the skies above to see there was already someone here, someone he recognised from his classes last semester. Ruth maybe? Rebecca? “Got some sky to spare?” he called out, mounting his own Amethyst streak. After the drama he’d had with students last year, he didn’t expect to make too many friends while he was studying.

 

[Ruby Maeve Louw]

Ruby turned around at the sound of a voice, un-surprised to see someone else on the pitch; but she wasn't going to let them take over the pitch and her practice. It took her a second before she realized that he wasn't asking her to leave, and she didn't have to prepare herself for a fight mid-air. Though, that would have been good training for Quidditch. "Depends on how fast you can keep up." Ruby said with a grin, before shooting down to the other side of the pitch, hoping with all her might that she had beat him there.

 

[Niall Corvus]

Niall had flown up into the air, hovering a short distance away from the blonde. He hadn’t been anticipating a race, heck he hadn’t even been anticipating having to interact with another student at all, but she seemed happy to have company, immediately challenging him and flying off in the opposite direction. Before Niall had a chance to decide whether or not he wanted to be involved, he’d lent forward on his broomstick and shot after her. He was a few feet below her, so he couldn’t see until they’d reached the end who had arrived first, but he’d figured he’d been trailing just slightly behind.

“Are you on the team?” he called out when the finally both stopped. If she didn’t want him around she wouldn’t have turned it into a game, surely?

 

[Ruby Maeve Louw]

If Ruby had lost to someone who started after her, she would have been livid, so she was glad that she was the one that was calling when the race was ending, seeing as they hadn't even set a finish line yet, so even if the boy did trail in front of her - which he absolutely did not - she could have told him the race finished awhile ago. Instead, she did a small loop in the air to celebrate her success, before turning to face the boy, a grin on her face. "Yes!" Ruby replied excitedly, with all the conviction in the world. "Well, I will be soon. They'd be super stupid to not take me on." She replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "I'm Ruby. You're in my year, aren't you?"

 

[Niall Corvus]

Whoever she was, she was definitely confident and Niall liked that. He smiled when she said she was on the Quidditch team, although his smile faded a little when she admitted she wasn't quite yet. She was probably a Gryffindor. "Yeah I think so. I saw you in class" he knew he hadn't spoken to her before but he'd definitely seen her around. "Do you think you're good enough to be on the team?" Niall didn't mean for the comment to come across as arrogance or sarcasm, but he did genuinely wonder why she believed she was ready. "Not that you're not, probably," he didn't really know the standards either, he just wondered what she thought and then he could compare it to his own abilities.

 

[Ruby Maeve Louw]

The fact that the boy remembered her from class made her beam, and she wasn't even sure why - maybe she just liked the feeling of being remembered, it made her feel famous. Her face dropped, though, when the boy questioned her ability to be on the team. He quickly covered his statement, which made Ruby straighten up again, feeling her confidence swoop in, once again.
"I mean you just saw like, ten seconds of my flying and already assumed I'd be on the team, so I figure that would be proof enough, but if you're unsure, I can show you my bludger hitting skills? You can be the target." Ruby teased.

 

[Niall Corvus]

The girl wasn't wrong. It wasn't as though Niall had just witnessed her flying and couldn't possibly think there wasn't a chance she was on the team. But that also meant that he'd been able to keep up, so maybe he wasn't so bad either. He knew he wasn't the worst in his class; to be fair his parents probably wouldn't let him be bad at flying, but it was a nice confidence boost to himself too that he hadn't been far behind her. Luckily for Niall, the girl suggested she practise the role of a Beater, which as it happens was the one he was most familiar with. "Fine. But I get a bat," he said, whipping out his wand to summon the tools they needed. "A bat each. Whoever ends up in the hospital wing first, loses." He shot her a somewhat cold smile. He didn't really want to put anyone in the hospital wing, but if someone was going to be on the team they did need to make sure they had what it took to avoid taking a bludger to the body.

 

[Ruby Maeve Louw]

Ruby was surprised when the boy took up her offer to be a target, but she stopped herself from saying that she was just teasing, supposing it was going to be an even better training session with someone else to actually practice with. "Fine." She said in response, a small smirk growing her on face, hoping the boy was ready to be put in a world of hurt. Ruby imitated the boy's smile and sent her own one back, before grabbing the bat as it came zooming towards her. "You didn't say what your name was." Ruby said, hoping to distract the boy, as she sent a massive thwack of the bludger towards him. To be fair, she also wanted to know who he was, he who was so eager to challenge her.

 

[Niall Corvus]

Niall imagined that sometimes if the son of a professional quidditch player had a name that was recognised, it would have been easy to place them. However Niall's mother wasn't married to his father and as such, Niall didn't share the same name. "Niall." he said finally, not letting his eyes leave the bludgers on the pitch. It would have been a big mistake indeed to not pay attention when those balls where in the field. He decided to leave out where he knew about Quidditch from, instead just focusing on bettering his skills. "You?" he returned the question in the same way he returned the Bludger; quickly and with precision.

 

[Ruby Maeve Louw]

Niall. Ruby let the name stick in her head as her new friendly rival. She narrowed her eyes at him as he asked her name, when she had clearly already told him her name, but with the bludger coming towards her, Ruby thought it was a good time to practice her sloth grip roll. Swinging under her broom, Ruby kept in a squeal of delight at how fun it was to be hanging upside down on a broom, as the bludger zoomed over where she was just sitting. Managing to fling herself back the right way, Ruby tried to keep her cool, not showing how much fun she just had. "If you're trying to distract me, Niall, you're going to have to try better than that. I'm pretty much ready to go pro." Ruby boasted, whacking a bludger at him again.

 

[Niall Corvus]

Niall watched, pretty impressed as the second year hung upside down. He knew you had to had strong arms and stomach muscles to be able to not just hang, but to be able to right yourself the other way up too. She'd been quick to hit another bludger straight back at him, and truthfully he felt as though he were too close to Ruby to be finding over bludgers. The closer you were to a beater, the less time you had to react to their swing. Niall immediately flew higher in the air, the bludger flying under his legs, before he moved over the top of Ruby and levelled out once more. It wouldn't be long until the bludger was coming back his way, but now it would be in his favour to stay close. "If I was going to try and distract you," he began, smacking the bludger back at Ruby, "it wouldn't be with words." It came out his mouth much more threatening that he'd intended, but if she wanted to play professionally then she'd have to forget using words to communicate on a pitch. "You won't be able to hear anyone in a real stadium," he added, unsure if she'd ever been to one.

 

[Ruby Maeve Louw]

Ruby really wanted to try swinging underneath her broom again, but Niall hit the bludger way sooner than she expected, and all she could do was quickly zoom to the side to avoid it. His words were distracting, however, especially when they were served up with a bludger. She narrowed her eyes slightly and lifted her chin, trying to not let him get to her. "I know that." Ruby replied, her eyes glancing around the pitch, waiting for the bludgers to come back. "Have you ever been to a real game before?"

 

[Niall Corvus]

Niall wasn't sure whether or not to believe Ruby, although surely he wasn't the only one with a parent that played professionally so maybe he should have just given her the benefit of the doubt and not assumed he was the only one. The way she was trying to convince him though that she knew what she was talking about, made him wonder if she was trying too hard. "I've been to a few," he lied. In truth he'd been to loads. Niall and Kellen had travelled all around the world for their mums games, and it's one of the ways he'd grown up learning so many languages. Of course too it helped that his parents also spoke a couple, but getting to use them in the real world had improved his own drastically. "My mum plays for Pride of Portree," Niall admitted eventually. Why would it hurt if some students knew? The second year was too busy chatting to notice the bludger that was coming his way, and it smacked into his side at such a violent force that it almost knocked him off his broom. He was going to need to get used to that.

 

[Ruby Maeve Louw]

Ruby gasped loudly at the boy's admission, then gasped again as he got hit with a bludger. That wasn't important though, it just came as a shock. Both bits of news, actually. "Your mom?! Wow! How did you score that deal?!" Ruby asked, excited but extremely jealous, feeling bummed she had been done out of Quidditch player parents. "I've probably seen her play! Oh my lord, is that why you think I'm a good player? You've obviously been around the best, so can see the best, right? Do you think you're going to play professionally? Wow, can I meet her?"