Of Quidditch and Broomsticks.
by: Lovelyrubberboots
Disclaimer: if you recognize it I don't own it.
Thank you in advance for reading and reveiwing.
Lucy was seated at her desk in History of Magic. She was one of only seven students in the sixth year NEWT level subject. Of them there were three Ravenclaws, two Hufflepuffs, one Gryffindor and one Slytherin. They'd all picked their seats fairly easily. Paul Longbottom and Maya Allen, the Hufflepuffs sat together on the left side of the room. Isabella Davies and Matteo Zabini sat together as well - Lucy was fairly certain they were the only Ravenclaw-Slytherin friendship of all the Seventh years at Hogwarts. This left Lorcan Scamnder as the third Ravenclaw and Lucy as the fourth. He and Lucy were good friends and had it been up to her she would have sat next to him and nobody else for the entire year. Colin McLaggen, however, had other plans.
The only Gryffindor in the class, Lucy occasionally wondered why he wasn't brave enough to sit by himself. Mostly, however, she wondered why he was annoying enough to sit next to her.
They weren't friends. If anything they were enemies. To make matters worse, Colin spent almost every minute of almost every lecture passing her little notes, asking her about the Ravenclaw team. Quite frankly she was insulted - did Colin really think she, of all people, would be willing to give him information on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team?
The week before the first Quidditch match, Ravenclaw verses Slytherin, Colin once again passed her a note.
"Colin!" she turned to him, practically hissing with anger, "I'm the captain. Do you really think there's any point at all trying to find out what my seeker's working on?"
Professor Binns did not notice her outburst, nor did her notice when Lucy left the room.
----
"James." Lucy said, as she sat down next to James and across from Roxanne. It was the Gryffindor table, but she honestly didn't care. She grabbed an apple and took a large bite out of it before she continued talking.
"James, you have got to do something about McLaggen. I'm sure you didn't put him up to it-"
"Put him up to what?" James asked, with his mouthful of whatever it was he was having for lunch. Lucy didn't care and hadn't bothered to look.
"He keeps talking to me about Quidditch. He keeps trying to get me to tell him what the team's doing. Honestly James, if you don't get him to stop I'm going to hex him so badly that you'll have to find a new beater," Lucy said.
"Don't worry Luce. We'll take care of it," Roxanne said, having been listening in on Lucy's conversation with James (not that Lucy had tried in any way to make it a private conversation). James nodded in agreement. Before he could say anything else Lucy had stood up and left for the Ravenclaw table.
It didn't take Roxanne and James too much time to figure out the reason she'd left so abruptly. Colin McLaggen sat down in the spot Lucy had just been in. James had gotten used to Colin over the years, and actually found him to be fairly nice and a reasonably good friend. Nevertheless James understood perfectly well why Lucy was annoyed by Colin.
"I'm starved. What was Lucy doing here?" Colin asked, piling some food onto his plate, "Was she going to join you for lunch?" He asked, picking up an apple on the table that had a bite taken out of it.
Before James could say anything, Colin asked - in his typically quick way, "Whose apple was this? Do you think it's ok to finished it?"
But, before James could answer Colin had taken a bite of the apple.
"This is a really good apple,"
"Colin," James said, as he turned to look at his beater, "Lucy told me you keep asking her about Quidditch. You need to stop. She told me she'd hex you and trust me you don't want to be hexed by her. She's really good. I think my mother's given her lessons. And that's her apple. I don't think she'll be back for it, but that doesn't matter much now. Honestly, McLaggen, why do you ask if you're going to eat it no matter what I say?"
The morning of the first game Lucy was no where to be seen. This was nothing new. Lucy was always the type to wake up early and she generally woke up even earlier on days when her team was playing Quidditch. Thirty minutes before the game was set to start she entered the Great Hall and rounded up her team to take them out to the pitch.
-----
The game was intense. Paul Longbottom was playing the role of announcer, and he found it hard to keep up with the game. Both of the teams were older. On the Slytherin team there was three seventh years, two sixth years and three fifth years, all of whom had been playing for the team from at least their third year. The Ravenclaw team was in a very similar situation. The Quaffle was passed quickly, and as skilled as the keepers for both teams were they had missed several times, due to well placed bludgers and amazing shots by chasers. To make matters worse - or perhaps more interesting - the snitch was particularly fast. Neither of the seekers had show any evidence that they knew where the snitch was.
By the fourth hour of the game, the score was tied at one hundred and forty points for each team. The crowd was starting to get restless, except for the extremely and truly intense Quidditch fans.
"There goes Flint with the Quaffle. We'll see how the Ravenclaw keeper reacts and… oh! The score is still tied - say, Professor MacGonagall, how long do they play until the game is called for the night?"
"Mr. Longbottom," MacGonagall said in the microphone, "They play until the snitch is caught or someone concedes the match. No exceptions."
"Well, folks, better get comfortable because I don't think either thing is happening toni - wait! The Slytherin seeker's moving! I think he's seen the snitch!"
Suddenly, the whole crowd was again fully engrossed in the game. The Slytherin seeker had indeed seen the snitch. The Ravenclaw seeker was right behind him.
"It seems Weasley had ordered her beaters to follow the seekers," Paul paused in his announcing, as Flint blindly threw the quaffle in the direction of the goal posts. Quickly he turned around on his broom and headed toward the seekers and Ravenclaw beaters.
"Now Flint's headed for the seekers as well - oh no, this can't be good." there was no need for Paul to announce what was happening. All the players from each team, except for the two keepers was headed for the seekers. The seekers were in hot pursuit of the snitch, but their attempts to get it were both helped and hindered by the mass of players around them. Paul had completely stopped announcing now. The whole pitch was virtually silent, watching what was going on. No one was entirely sure, at any given moment, what exactly was happening. Occasionally a beater would soar out of the mass, in search of a rouge bludger, but other than that there was no indication of what was happening.
After seven tense minutes, there was a sudden burst of movement away from the match. Someone had obviously caught the snitch. Who it was, however was not evident for several moments, as the crowd took in appearance of the bloody, dirty and sweaty player emerging from the clump. After the initial moment of taking in their overall appearance the broad smiles of the Ravenclaw players, and the look of fierce anger from the Slytherin players, told the crowd what had happened.
------
Two days later when he was supposed to be in History of Magic, Colin McLaggen was standing outside the room. Two minutes ago class had started. He'd arrived one minute ago, only to find that Professor Binns had ordered someone to lock the door. Even alohomora wouldn't work. Just as he was about to leave for the library, Lucy Weasley turned the corner.
"Why aren't you in class?" she demanded.
"He's locked us out. Alohomora won't even work,".
Lucy slumped down against a wall. Colin slumped down next to her. She gave him a look, and both scooted a few inches further away.
"That Quidditch match was amazing," Colin said after several moments.
"Thanks," Lucy said.
"Not just the swarm - some of that riding you did was truly excellent. Some of that stuff I'd never even seen a chaser do before. Really excellent broom work,"
"I do pride myself on what I'm able to do with a broomstick." Lucy acknowledged.
"It must have taken a while to learn how to maneuver like that,"
"Definitely. But I'm sure you remember how bad I used to be on a broom,"
"Well, broom riding does take a lot of practice. I know you really have no reason to teach me anything, but I was wondering if made you could give me a little help with my maneuvering,"
"What sort of help?" Lucy asked, warily.
"Well, I noticed you were going straight up and then went straight down without even turning your broom stick around."
"Oh yeah, that. I have no idea how I did that," Lucy laughed, and Colin joined in, scooting a little closer to her, filling in the gap left from earlier.
"Well, there were still some other things I'd like you to show me," he said, "Or tell me, rather. We have the same broom, but I've never really figured out how to do that thing where you slide left or right a few feet… what's it called again?"
"I can't remember. It starts with an 's' I think. But all you need to do is stroke the handle at little. Which ever side you want to move. It won't go more than a two feet and it's almost always easier to just turn normally. But it's really nice if you want to straighten the broom out,"
"That could be really helpful. Sometimes after I hit a bludger it's hard for me to get mine straight again,"
"You should definitely try the stroking then,"
"I think I will. Can I come to you for help if I have trouble with it?" Colin asked.
"I guess I could help you, but we'd have to set up a time and place, because I'm pretty bus-"
Lucy paused, looking at Colin.
"Colin," Lucy asked, "are we still talking about Quidditch?"
"Oh um," Colin paused. Lucy got up quickly.
"I'm going to go back to my common room," she said, gathering her stuff before she headed quickly toward Ravenclaw tower.
-----
"Merlin's beard Lucy," Isabella Davies said, after Lucy had finished telling her and Lorcan what had happened.
"So, do you think you were talking about broomsticks or…" Lorcan paused.
"Lucy, he's very attractive," Isabella said, interrupting Lorcan's pause.
"He might have just been talking about broomsticks. It's a difficult broom, sometimes."
"Lucy." Lorcan said, giving her a look.
"Luce - why don't you ask Roxanne. She knows Colin much better than you. Maybe she'll have more insight," Suggested Isabella. And, as much as she didn't want to, Lucy got up and headed towards Gryffindor tower.
------
The Fat Lady looked at Lucy with suspicion.
"I don't want to break in - I just want to talk to my cousin. All I need to do it knock. I don't have to go into the common room at all, but I can't talk to her unless she knows I'm here and-"
"Lucy?" a voice interrupted her. It was James, arms full of sweets and pies. It was obvious he'd just been to the kitchens.
"Oh. James," she said, "I need to talk to Roxanne."
"She's not there - I passed her when I was coming back here. She said something about meeting someone. I'm decided not to pry, but I think I'll probably write to Fred about it. What's up?" he asked,
"She's meeting up with Lysander - don't tell her I told you. And I really needed to speak to her. There's not much I need from you," she started to turn away.
"Colin told me what happened." James said simply, "I went to the kitchens to get this for him. He likes to eat when he's in a contemplative mood. Why don't you come in?"
"No James, forget it. It's fine. I have some homework I need to do. Just let Roxanne know I stopped by,"
"He said that he doesn't know the answer to your question, by the way," James called after her before stepping into the common room and heading over to Colin.
------
"Colin," Roxanne asked sweetly the next morning at breakfast, "Do you want to date my cousin?"
Colin nearly choked.
"James?" he gasped, after he took a large sip of water.
"No. Merlin you are really dumb in the mornings, aren't you? I mean Lucy," Roxanne asked, looking intently at Colin, who looked over to the Ravenclaw table where Lucy was seated between Lorcan and Isabella. She was in the middle of a conversation with Isabella and few of the other Ravenclaws and didn't seem to notice him. Colin, however, did notice that Lorcan's glance was shifting between him and Roxanne.
"Lucy's nice enough," Colin said coolly, or so he thought.
"You know that's not what I mean."
"I don't know. Maybe. She's very good at Quidditch," Colin said.
"Was that supposed to be sexual?" Roxanne asked, rolling her eyes.
"I don't know," Colin sighed, as he got up and left the hall. He did not notice that Lorcan jabbed Lucy in the ribs and pointed at him leaving. He did not notice Lucy and Roxanne get up. He did not notice Roxanne quickly whispering something into Lucy's ear. However, he did hear the door to the Great Hall open and he did hear footsteps following him. He managed to get to the second floor before curiosity got the best of him and he turned around to see who it was.
"Lucy." he said, surprised.
"Colin. We need to talk."
"Ok. You first," he said, stubbornly.
"Fine. We had that conversation. About broomsticks. And you're always sitting next to me in History of Magic. And Isabella is probably right that you're attractive. You've always tried to talk to me in classes. James said once you being weird in the common room after we talked about brooms." Lucy stopped, and looked at him.
"And?" Colin asked, slightly angry.
"And it's your turn to say something." Lucy shot the words right back at him.
"What do you want, Lucy?" Colin asked, "I guess I like you, but I don't know. What do you want from me?"
"I'm pretty sure that I don't know what I want as much as you don't know either."
"Then I guess we better not do anything," Colin said stubbornly. He was about to walk away when James and Lorcan turned the corner and entered the hallways where Lucy and Colin were.
"No." James said. "Honestly, you two are so stubborn and arrogant, I'm surprised you aren't Slytherins. So here's what you two are going to do, because Lorcan and I haven't spent so much time listening to you two moan and complain about each other for the last six years to have this happen. You two either need to duel or you two need to kiss, because this is getting ridiculous."
Lorcan just nodded in agreement.
All four stood there for almost three minutes, before both Lucy and Colin turned and when their separate ways. No duel. No kiss.
"Now you've done it," Lorcan said to James, as they turned and headed back to the great hall.
----
Colin had stomped his way to the third floor before he decided to go to the library - maybe a book would take his mind of things. Lucy, meanwhile had gotten to the trophy room before she realized she had no idea where she was going. Angrily she turned around out of the room and headed I the opposite direction. She wasn't sure where she wanted to go, but she knew for certain that it wasn't the trophy room.
By the fourth floor she was so lost in thought that she barely realized she was going into the library at the same time that Colin was heading out. He'd spent a grand total of two minutes in the library before he'd been kicked out by Madame Pince for 'seething over the books'. Apparently, that was no longer allowed in the library.
Without looking, Colin swung the door open, missing Lucy's nose by less than an inch.
"Lucy." he said. She didn't respond, "Lucy, I'm sorry," He gestured to the door.
"Colin," she murmured, "Colin, we-"
She was interrupted as Colin swooped forward and kissed her.
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