Rays of Sunlight

[April Ward]

April loved Quidditch and being on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team a lot, especially because she had friends there. Norton was one of April's best friends, and the two shared their love for the sport. She also was starting to befriend Ethan, who she also thought was very nice. But today she had asked Norton if he wanted to train a bit more with her. As she was only an alternate, she didn't get the chance to actually fly during the matches. Aside from the one where she had gotten to play. Eager to get into the air, she had sent a note to her friend to ask him to meet on the Quidditch Pitch. She really hoped he could make it, as she was impatiently flying circles on her broom. Occasionally she went up higher to see if she could spot him approaching the pitch. She wasn't really sure how they would practice together, as April was a seeker and Norton a beater, neither of which were easy to do without the supplies. But she had brought her football just in case, maybe they could make up some sort of game together to play in the air. Or just race and see who was the fastest. She was excited to see her friend, to figure out what they were going to do.

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton had known from the first moment he'd seen the game and gotten upon a broom that he wanted to play quidditch, and he was just surprisingly lucky that he had actually managed it. He was on the team. The young hufflepuff took this position very seriously, even if he just loved every game, and he just loved playing. It was his favourite thing to do in the world currently. It brought him a light feeling, it made him feel good at something. It was just amazingly good. He was making his way on the pitch, having been invited to train a little with April, which the boy was more than excited to do. April was SO good at quidditch! He hoped to get hundreds of pointers from her. Or just to learn how to fly better as they practiced together. He spotted her in the air as he walked towards the pitch, he waved at her, not knowing if from such a distance she could see him, but he rushed forward, knowing that she was waiting. Dumping his stuff lazily as he grabbed a school issue broom and rushed into the air to join her, "APRIL!" he told her happily as he flew next to her, "I'd hug you, but I think we'd both fall!" he joked easily. In Min's absence, April had really helped Norton not feel as lonely, so he was very happy to spend even more time with her, she was amazing, "What do you want to play?"
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[April Ward]

From her position in the air, April spotted a figure approaching. She wasn't sure it was Norton until he waved, which made her grin. That was such a Norton thing to do. She zoomed closer to the ground, waiting for him to arrive. She was happy to see him, and grinned at him as he quickly got into the air too. She mirrored his greeting. "Norton!" She shouted back at him and she waved giddily."Maybe we can hug later!" She added with a giggle. April flew closer to him and lightly tapped his arm. "I don't know I brought a ball," she nodded to the football on the ground, " but maybe we can play tag to start?" She giggled. "You're it!" Then flew away from him, whooping loudly.

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton nodded at her excitedly, "Yeah!" he agreed, they could hug when it was all over, since they really couldn't up here in the sky, that would just be absurd. He looked at the ball on the ground and wondered on earth he'd missed it when coming on to the pitch. Clearly he hadn't been paying attention! Too excited to come meet up with one of his bestest friends! The young hufflepuff nodded at the game she suggested but definitely wasn't quick enough to tag her first. He laughed loudly and urged his broom forward to chase after her. He chased after her a while until he finally got close enough reached out and touched her quickly, "Tag!" he abruptly turned the broom around and with a laugh emitting flew in the other direction. he hadn't played all that many games when flying around, it had mostly been about learning how to fly and then improving upon that to fly better. He liked just playing while in the air. It felt so freeing and he felt 100% like the wizard he was supposed to be. Not one part of this felt like his old muggle life.
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[April Ward]

April was glad Norton agreed that this was fun, and that he seemed excited to play games with her on brooms. Norton was such a good friend, and he was always and excited like she was, and it was happy to be with him. He managed a good chase after her, and she loved flying as fast as she could to out speed him, and laughed with delight. When he touched her and yelled tag she gasped, turning around as fast as she could to speed after him too. She giggled as she approached him, but found it hard to focus on flying as she laughed. It took her a few tries but she finally managed to tag him. "TAG!" She shouted, then she paused. "Should we try something else?" She asked, already eager to try another game on brooms. "Though, if you wanna keep playing say it quickly so I can fly away again before you tag me!" She added quickly, creating a little bit of distance just to be safe. "We could do something with the ball?"

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton flew as quickly as he could, but eventually April caught up with him. He stopped and laughed with her, "Yeah, we can do some throwing and catch practice?" he suggested. Norton played in a beater position so he didn't need much practice of that, but he could see the advantages of being able to better catch and see something like a quaffle. It was bigger than a bludger but he was sure it would help him in hitting things, if he could better predict where it might end up. He flew down to the quidditch supplies they practice with and flew back up with the quaffle in hand. "We could play a version of monkey? We throw it back and forth and if you miss it, and it falls to the ground then you get a letter, so first m, then o, then n and so on," Norton wondered if she knew this game, it was like a muggle one, though obviously now tailored to magic and flying, but he thought it would be good. Though he would be open to any suggestions that April might have about the game, or if she had a better one they could play. Norton was just happy to hang out with her.
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[April Ward]

April nodded as Norton suggested throwing and catch practice. Neither of their positions had much to do with throwing or catching balls in the air, but the training couldn't hurt. She was sure it would help them both. She was very glad Norton was on the team with her. April hovered as she watched Norton get the quaffle and fly back up. "That sounds great!" She said, grinning. "Maybe we could start somewhat close together and increase the distance to make it more difficult." She added, moving some distance away. "Let's see how well we can do this." She said, a happy grin on her face. It was so much fun to practice with Norton. It hardly even felt like practice.

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton enjoyed playing different games and he was happy that she agreed to play that game that he suggested to her. The boy kept a hold on the ball and then took up a position, throwing it to her, since they were fairly close at this point it wasn't difficult to throw it or catch it. But he knew it would grow more difficult. He tried to focus on the ball but his mind started going elsewhere. "How've you found the semester? Have you picked electives?" the boy asked his friend, since light conversation wouldn't really distract them too much from what they needed to do in this little game, throwing back and forth was of course not that hard until they got much further apart, and he wanted to talk during it, he figured it would help him concentrate, though perhaps to some it would be a distraction. It wouldn't be something they'd be keen on. The hufflepuff hoped that April was the same, he figured she would be, they were so similar in other aspects this just had to be one of the aspects of it. The hufflepuff hoped it, or he didn't know how long he could stay in this game, despite him being the one to suggest it.
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[April Ward]

April hoped the game they played would get more challenging soon, but she did enjoy just hanging out in the air and chatting with Norton too. He was one of her best friends, and their shared love for quidditch and both being on the team had only brought them closer recently. "It was fine, I'm sad we didn't win the quidditch cup though. I would have liked to play against another school!"She said as she tossed the ball back at him and moved back a little. "And I'm honestly not sure about electives yet! There's so many, and the only one I sort of want to choose is Care of Magical Creatures. Just because I like that we get to be outside for it. What about you?" She wasn't all that interested in Divination or Runes, and Muggle Studies seemed sort of unnecessary as she lived in the muggle world and had a muggle mother.

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton nodded in agreement, it wasn’t great that they hadn’t won the cup, but he was confident that they would only get better and better at it, and they’d be an awesome team by the end of it. ”Yeah, but there’s always next year, and maybe we’ll play a different school,” he said, perhaps they would, or perhaps they wouldn’t regardless, Norton loved quidditch, ever inch and moment of the sport. To him it was incredible. It was why he was so happy and keen to practice with April. And as they were getting wider apart it was proving to get a little more difficult with every throw. As she said that she’d thought about picking care of magical creatures, Norton nodded excitedly, ”Me to! Care of magical creatures seems AWESOME!” he couldn’t help the excitement in his voice, ”There so much for me to learn in that class, and if we get to see lots of magical creatures I’ll be happy!” the boy was excited for that part since he was excited for learning all new magical things, ”And I think I’m going to do Divination as well, Arithmancy just sounds like maths, muggle studies is pointless to me as a muggleborn and ancient runes just seemed boring,” the boy listed them off, clearly that though he was still a little on the fence he had largely made a decision. ”I do wonder what they teach in muggle studies,”
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