"Ginny, come on, we're going to be late!"
"Coming!"
Ginny whipped a comb through her hair and grabbed her jacket off the chair beside her bed, sneaking a glance in the mirror to make sure her make-up was applied perfectly.
"What takes you so long?" Ron had an irritated expression as he shoved his sister out the door, where Hermione was standing.
"We're girls, Ronald." Hermione rolled her eyes, looping her arm through his, nonetheless.
"Yeah, I want to take a look at these hot American Quidditch players, and I want to look good while I'm doing it." Ginny smirked.
"Gods, why did I bring you along?"
"Because I'm your sister and you wanted me to share this wonderful experience with you." She laughed as they walked through the hotel lobby.
She wrestled into her jacket when they stepped into the cold November air. A slick, black car was waiting for them and Ron held the car door open for them to slide in.
"So, what do you think of America so far?" Hermione asked her boyfriend.
"I dunno. It's good, I guess. I really don't find it too much different. Except for the accents and slang." He shrugged.
Hermione shook her head, rolling her eyes. Ginny giggled at them both. She was eager for them to get to the training camp.
Ron had been playing as a reserve for Puddlemere United, but two weeks ago he'd been offered a position of the England team if he excelled in their training program located in America. Ron would be training alongside players that were considered the best in the world, even though a number of them had never even seen the inside of a pitch during a professional game.
Ginny gazed out the window, excited; they were only a few minutes away from the camp. Ron had told her last night that there were rumors that they may get to meet Sky. Nobody knows his real name, or really much of anything about him, except that he was the greatest player any of them had seen. Apparently, he tends to stick to himself outside of a few choice friends. But they say when he does go out with the entire team, he's the wildest of them all and everybody just loves Sky.
"Ginny?"
"What?" She turned away from her daydreaming and saw Ron standing outside of the car, holding the door open and waiting for Ginny.
"Oh, sorry." She muttered, climbing out.
Her mouth fell open in shock; the camp was enormous. It looked as though it was sprawled out across hundreds of acres. She saw several large buildings and could point out at least ten full-sized, professional pitches.
"Wow." She gasped.
"This is incredible." Hermione gazed around, in just as much awe as Ginny.
"Let's go." Ron's grin stretched ear to ear as he grabbed Hermione's hand and led them towards the largest building.
"Hi, I'm Ron Weasley." They had gone into the office building lobby to check in, which was simply a giant room with standard chairs surrounding the walls, a few couches and tables stuck beside plants and other things. Photos covered the walls, of players scoring, saving and even several of seekers swiping at a snitch.
"Yes, Mr. Wilkins will be your guide. He should be out in just a moment, unless he got hit by another bludger." The receptionist smiled, her dark eyes twinkling.
"Er, thanks." Ron turned away to join Ginny in staring at the photos. "Maybe I'll be up here one day." He laughed softly.
"Better start working." Ginny gave him a small, half smile that he returned.
"Weasley!" A tall man, no older than Ron, with shaggy, brown hair and brilliant dark blue eyes approached them. He appeared to have raced to meet them after his practice. He had a bottle of water in hand and a small sweat stain was on the collar of his long-sleeved, dark blue shirt that matched his eyes. He wiped his hand on his dark jeans before shaking Ron's hand.
"Jack Wilkins." He smiled.
"I'm Hermione Granger." Hermione shook his hand, keeping herself firmly planted close to Ron's side.
"I'm Ginny Weasley, his sister." She smiled, nodding her head towards Ron.
"Bringing the ladies in your life, admirable." He smiled. "Come, I'll give a quick tour of the building and then show you my pitch, where you will most likely be if I like you enough."
Ginny could hear Ron gulp, which she laughed inwardly at; he didn't realize that Jack wasn't really being serious.
They listened as Jack led them through the winding dirt paths, pointing to specific buildings, saying what they were, weather they were clinics or equipment storage. The entire time Ron awed at the entire camp.
"This place is giant." Ginny stated after they had been walking for nearly a half hour.
"Yes it is. The largest camp in the world. You can't make them any bigger. It's too hard to hide from muggles." Jack told her.
"So where are the professional players?" She asked, still gazing around.
"The people you've been seeing walking around with brooms." He laughed. "At least most of them are, some are officials of course or they work in the equipment rooms. I'll take you to watch my team play."
"Who's on your team?" Ginny asked.
"It's made up of Americans, Englishmen, a couple of French and even a few Italians. There's Will Crobbs, Garen Tate, Patrick Keals, Adam Rainger, Daniel, Simon, Dieter and Sky, of course."
"Sky's on your team?" Ron burst in.
"Yeah, he's practicing right now." Jack grinned, leading them to a nearby pitch.
They walked through the entrance, finding it all lavishly decorated with marble floors and fancy furniture. He showed them the locker rooms, spacious rooms with lockers enough for at least fifty players per team. Then he walked them out onto the pitch, where several players were high in the air on brooms.
They were casually dressed, a few in jeans the rest in athletic pants while they worked their magic in the air. They all flew beautifully, as though it was effortless. They did things Ginny would never have thought could have been done on a broom and they did it flawlessly.
"See the guy with goggles, with short black hair and the bandana tied around his forehead like a head band? He's also got the black pants on with the stripes down the sides and the white West Ham football shirt? That's Sky." Jack told them proudly.
The majority of the players drifted to the sides, allowing Sky the use of the entire pitch. He sped around the outline of the field, flying faster than Ginny had ever flown. He suddenly tore into a rapid dive, pulling up the moment before he hit the ground, sending himself upwards into a loop so he hung upside down. He released his grip on the broom and hung upside down, dangling his arms, when the broom reached the very top of its loop. Then he let go entirely. Ginny's breath froze as he fell through the air, spinning and shouting in joy.
Just as he was about to hit the ground, he landed on his broom.
"How did he get his broom to keep going in the right direction like that?" Ginny gasped, still in shock while Sky hollered in the wind and sped through the pitch, doing handstands on his broom as he went.
"Who knows? Who cares for that matter? He's the best seeker we've ever seen."
Sky dropped down and shouted to Jack, twenty feet away in the air. "Oi! Jack, who's the new meat?" He was British by his accent, Ginny noted to herself.
"Possible new Keeper. From Puddlemere." Jack shouted back.
Sky grinned and craned his neck to try and see them through his tinted goggles. "How's Wood?"
Ron blinked, shocked by Sky's question. "He played England for a while and then he came back and played with us for a season. He's retired now from what I heard."
"I always liked Wood." Sky leaned on his broom, watching the trio oddly.
"Say, what's you name, I can't see you well, but you sound familiar?"
"Er, Weasley. Ron Weasley and this is my girlfriend, Hermione Granger and my sister, Ginny." Ron told him.
Sky's mad grin faded and his face turned stony. "Hope you do well, Wesley."
"It's Weasley." Ron snapped, angered by Sky's sudden attitude change.
"Whatever. We still on for tonight, Jack?"
"Nine o'clock, be there and dress nicely, no sweat pants, girls don't like it." Jack ordered.
"'Cause I have issues getting girls." Sky mocked.
"No you don't, but you turn every one down."
Sky shrugged before pulling his broom around and shooting off towards the other players.
"Prat." Ron snorted.
"Sorry 'bout Sky, he has kind of a split personality. Nobody makes him mad; we're afraid he might be able to kills with looks." Jack laughed, walking them back through the locker room.
"How come we've never seen him play for England?" Ginny asked.
"He doesn't want to give up personal information. Which is stupid. The League's ready to just put him on the team and put 'Sky' on the back of his jersey."
"He's definitely an amazing player. I wonder how he knows Wood."
Jack shrugged. "Who knows? Sky knows more things than the entire team combined. He's also the greatest wizard here, hands down. He can do nonverbal and wandless even. He also knows more about magic in general, whether it's about how to do something or where a spell originates from, Sky knows it."
"Do you know anything about his life?" Hermione broke in.
"We've pieced some things together, but not enough to really know everything. We know he has little family, just an aunt or cousin or something like that. He's from Surrey England. His favorite color is red, he hates cheap beer, he has more clothes than most chicks do, and avoids women like the plague. We think it's from a past girlfriend, because we're positive he's not into men, we tested him." Jack winked at Ginny, making her laugh. "He also loves music, plays about every instrument in the world and the crazy thing is that he didn't learn how to play anything until he was almost eighteen. He went to a magical school in England and when he came here he went to the American Academy of Magic, which is where I met him actually. Oh and he wears contacts."
"That's all you really know?"
"Pretty much, unless you want me to discuss his hobbies and shopping habits which are actually rather disturbing? We all have bet going on who or when his identity will be discovered. It's up in the hundreds. I've got one hundred and fifty that it's going to be someone from his nonexistent past. I didn't want to risk when."
"He's an odd guy." Ginny remarked.
"Yes, but he's: brilliant, the best time you'll ever have and he's the best seeker in the world, as far as I'm concerned. He's like my best friend here at the camp if you could call it that, seeing as he's not very social all the time. He comes out of his apartment every two weeks or so and lets loose at the clubs and bars with us."
"He certainly is a strange guy." Ginny muttered, having an eerie feeling about Sky. His voice was just too familiar…
***
Stepping out of the shower, Sky wiped away the steam from his bathroom mirror. He dried himself off quickly and found a clean pair of boxers and jeans that he wrestled into. He glanced at the clock: 8:45. Jack was probably already at the bar.
He hummed to a slow song he had heard on the radio, something about being a hero, he really wasn't sure, as he dried his hair with his towel. He went back into his bedroom and slid his long necklace over his head, the charm landing over half-way down his muscular chest. He pulled on a black, flannel shirt with a black and white plaid pattern, and swiped his already folded bandana. Going into the hallway, he quickly tied it up around his forehead, pushing some of his short hair up in the air.
He sprayed some cologne on himself and pulled his shoes on, the dirty Converse the Jack had given him when they first met. He grabbed his car keys and checked himself in the mirror. He adjusted his bandana, making sure it hid his scar; he didn't want anyone recognizing Harry Potter.