QUIDDITCH LEAGUE FANFICTION COMPETITION: ROUND 3 ENTRY FOR CHASER 2 OF CHUDLEY CANNONS

TASK: Chaser 2: The Choliya of Uttarakhand; write about a character who is superstitious. The superstition must be a key element of the story and influential in the character's life.

PROMPTS:

5. (word) robust

10. (movie) Top Gun; Quote from movie: "Talk to me, Goose."

13. (setting) on a farm

Word Count (Microsoft Word): 1153

Chad shuffled himself out of bed and reached for his cane, grumbling to himself as his bones protested his upward movement. His little home was quiet, his granddaughter still asleep at the early hour of dawn. Chad couldn't break the habit of rising with the sun, no matter how much his body cracked and popped in displeasure.

The old man made his way into the kitchen to fix himself a cuppa and some breakfast, which, to his surprise, was already waiting on the table. His chapped lips tilted into a soft smile as he lowered into the rickety chair and picked up the spoon beside his porridge bowl. Perfect, precisely the way his wife used to make. His granddaughter was such a lovely girl, despite her fears about his beasties.

He savored his tea as the golden sunlight tip-toed through the window; Irish Breakfast was a lovely robust tea to start the day with. Chad carried his dishes to the sink and gave them a quick rinse, and then headed over to the mudroom to put his wellies on. Once the black rubber had been pulled over his thick wool socks, the old man shuffled out the door and onto the porch, fondly breathing in the air of his beloved farm.

Two barks grabbed his attention from the open barn door, and he headed over to the large black dog as fast as his aching joints would take him.

"Talk to me, Goose." He told the dog, who's fluffy tail thumped against the hard floor of the barn. He barked three times, spun in a circle, and then headed for the last stall on the left of the ample space. Chad followed the smart canine and was incredibly surprised at what he found there.

His granddaughter, Vanessa, had never been fond of the thestrals he bred. Her mother had raised her when Chad's son had died in a Grindelwald attack, a terrible superstitious woman who refused to let Chad see his sweet Nessie. Vanessa had been placed in him and his wife's custody when she had just turned eleven when a neighbor of Nessie and her mother owled the Ministry Child Services and reported the horrible woman for abuse. Poor little Vanessa had been welcomed into their home, bruised and malnourished, and absolutely terrified of the curious thestrals. Her mother had convinced the child that being near a thestral would bring her bad luck, and she was the cause of every bad thing that ever happened in their lives because she had been the descendant of a thestral breeder.

She'd gone off to Hogwarts not long after arriving at the MacDonald farm. She still hadn't been comfortable around the thestrals two years ago, when she had popped by to tell her grandfather that she had gotten a job with the Falmouth Falcons for the summer, just assisting the team with water and laundry, but she wouldn't be there for the summer, and she'd make sure to keep in touch. They'd had dinner before she'd left for her seventh year, and she'd just returned home from graduation.

She still hadn't been happy around the thestrals, but when the herd leader had come to greet the teen, she hadn't flinched away.

Now, however, Chad was staring down at his granddaughter on the floor of a stall, and he was watching as she coaxed a newborn thestral to its feet for a piece of sausage. Chad's live-on vet was helping the mother thestral through the last parts of birth and was watching the teen with a small smirk, throwing a wink in Chad's direction.

"Come on, little baby." Nessie cooed, smiling at the baby thestral. The tiny skeletal equine stumbled into her outstretched arms and nibbled at the breakfast meat in her fingers.

"Nessie?" Chad whispered, watching as her hands stroked along its nose gently.

"Morning, granddad." She replied, blushing red at the attention.

"You're touching a thestral, sweet girl." He said, leaning heavily on his cane.

"I know." She replied, turning her eyes – his son's eyes – to the foal. "I… Granddad, I need to apologize."

"Why?"

"I lied to you. Last summer, I didn't have a job with the Falcons." She sighed, rising to her feet and snickering when the foal followed after her. She scratched between the little guy's ears as she faced him. "A friend of mine from Hogwarts, Miranda, she suggested that I see a Muggle therapist."

"A therapist?" Chad furrowed his brow, trying hard to remember what his Muggle Studies professor had told him about the subject. "Those are Muggle doctors for feelings, right?"

"Pretty much. Miranda's aunt is a therapist, so she knows about magic, and I was able to talk through a lot of stuff about mom and work out some things."

"Okay." Chad nodded, shuffling into the central area of the barn and reaching for his wand. The food troughs were still empty, and the herd of thestrals was getting antsy. Humming to himself, the old man floated several large carcasses into the broad trough and motioned with his wand to open the stalls of his beasties.

"Are you mad?" Nessie murmured from behind him, running a finger over the newborn's ear. Chad sent his darling granddaughter a soft smile.

"No, sweet girl. I'm not mad." He shuffled back to the teenager and placed a hand on her cheek, forcing her to look at him. "I am proud of you."

"You are?"

"Your mother," He shook his head and sighed. "Your mother was not a nice woman. I don't know how she grew up, but your grandmother and I knew that she was awfully superstitious and put a lot of credit into Divination. More than she should have; she though Goose was a Grim, and while she couldn't see them, the thestrals terrified her. She refused to come here, ever. But my son, silly boy, he thought he could help her; he loved her ferociously. And then, there you were, and I'll never know if it was my boy's death or the sickness mothers get after having baby's sometimes, but your mother got worse. She blamed you, and I wanted nothing more than to snatch you away from that horrible woman. Your grandmother and I were so happy when you came to live with us; my darling Josephine always wished we could have done more to help you in the aftermath, but you were heading to Hogwarts."

"I'm glad you saw this Muggle therapist, Vanessa." He drew the girl in to plant a kiss on her forehead. "You are so much happier since last summer."

"I am." She agreed, looking out at the thestrals that filled the barn; horribly misunderstood beasties that she had wanted nothing to do with for years.

"Well then," Chad huffed, pulling away and leaning heavily on his cane. The newborn thestral stumbled over to his mother. "What're we going to call him?"

"Tenebrus."