As the day of the Quidditch game finally arrived, William could barely contain his excitement. The night before, he had laid out a set of school robes so that they wouldn't appear wrinkled when he got to wear them for the first time in weeks. He spent the night tossing and turning, continually raising his head to stare at the digital clock on his bedside. The bright red numbers were changing with agonizing slowness as William's eyes were locked on to them. Finally, fatigue got the best of William and he passed out.
The sun was just slipping in through his bedroom when William awoke, the bell in the college's clock tower could barely be heard as it tolled the hour. William smiled as he just stared up into the ceiling, and as he thought about the magical world, he grabbed a hold of his wand and lazily traced it through the air above him. As always, William could feel the warm flow of magic resonating through him and his wand as he held it. William bit his lip and fought back the urge to mutter an incantation, setting the wand back down on his bedside table.
William understood that he wasn't allowed to cast spells outside of school, but the urge was almost too much some days. As he slowly rose out of bed, William began to wonder if he'd be able to cast spells once he was out of middle school. William knew it was against the Salem Code of Conduct for underclassmen to cast spells outside of school, and there were also laws regarding supervision and minors performing magic but when he turned fourteen a lot of those restrictions would be lifted. For kids in the magical community, he had the feeling that the 'restrictions' for people between the ages of fourteen and eighteen were little more than jokes but for him, trapped in the muggle world they were felt quite strongly. William sighed as he walked to the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day. Even if he was living with a witch or wizard, living around muggles meant that magic needed to be extremely low-key if noticeable at all. William pushed these thoughts out of his mind as he cleaned himself and let the warm water rush over him.
Once clean, William slipped into the navy blue robes he had set out, and slipped his wand holster around his waist. William turned to look at himself in the mirror, as he carefully sheathed his wand, and smiled at what he saw. To a muggle, he might look like a slight nerdy child with too-long blond hair that was most likely getting ready for some fantasy or science fiction convention. But in his own eyes, William saw himself as a young wizard, prepared to let loose any number of jinxes and spells that he might need to.
Finally, William descended the stairs to the family kitchen. It was still early on Saturday morning, so William knew that his older sister would be sleeping in having worked late the previous night, but William was not surprised to see his father sitting at the table. His father turned when he walked in, and smiled, "Mornin', son."
"Good morning, Dad," William said as he prepared himself a bowl of cereal.
"Excited to see your friends today?" Mr. Fraser asked, while William put the gallon of milk back in the fridge and moved to the table.
"Yes," the excitement nearly bursting out of William as he sat down.
Between his mustache and summer beard, William watched as his father's lips curled into a smile. "Good," his father offered, before continuing, "I'm glad you have friends at your school. Being away from home can be hard, and it's important to be able to share that with people."
William nodded as he began to eat. His father sipped his mug of coffee while reading through a few papers his students had undoubtedly wrote, the pair of Fraser men enjoying the companionable silence. As William ate though, his father's words hung over his head. When he was at school it's not that he didn't miss his parents, it was just that there was always something going on, sometimes it was easy to forget that if he wasn't a wizard he would see them every day. When he was at home though, William felt the unbearable emptiness that came from being away from things that were important to him; his friends, Salem, magic, the Dueling Club. Those were the things that filled his every day life, and it felt terrible to think that he perhaps missed them more often than his family.
While he washed out his bowl before putting it in the dishwasher, William let out a sigh as he began to wonder if there was something wrong with him for thinking like that. William shook his head, there probably wasn't, but that didn't just make it alright though either.
William returned to the table where his father was sitting, and the older man set the paper he was reading down and asked, "So what exactly is this Quidditch thing, anyway? Your sister's mentioned it before, when she's talked about that boy."
William was somewhat surprised by the edge in his father's voice when he said 'that boy'. Franklin Perry was going to be a senior at Salem this year, and William had never truly been clear on what his relationship with his sister was. Still, William never thought that his family had a problem with the older wizard but perhaps, he had been wrong. "It's a sport," William answered while he tried to grasp for an analogy, "It's sort of like soccer?"
"Oh," His father answered, "And this Perry kid, he plays it right?"
William nodded, "He's the Captain of the school team."
William's dad nodded, scratching the beard that he grew out every summer in thought. After a long period of silence, he asked, "You don't need a ride anywhere to get to this place do you?"
William shook his head, "No, like I told you earlier in the week, Sarah's grandfather is picking me up."
"Oh that's very nice of him," his father replied, as William watched him try to imagine various modes of wizarding travel there was a sound like a gunshot in the backyard, and William was up on his feet with a hand on his wand in an instant. His father was only slightly slower, but he was definitely watching the yard closely.
Suddenly the sliding glass door that looked into the backyard from the kitchen was filled by a tall, lean, old wizard dressed in a set of black and gold robes. He smiled broadly at both William and his father before rapping lightly on the glass door. William released his grip on his wand as he walked over to the door, opening it with a smooth motion. "Good morning," The old wizard said as he stepped into the house.
The older gentleman quickly walked over toward William's father and extended his firm weathered hand, "Eliot Klein."
"John Fraser," William's dad replied, taking the older man's grip with practiced ease.
After one smooth pump, the two men released their grasp of each others hands and stepped away from each other a pace. "Sorry if I spooked you both," Mr. Klein explained, "I forget how loud apparition can be on a quiet morning in a muggle neighborhood. Suppose I'll try to be a little bit quieter when we leave."
"Ah," Mr. Fraser asked, "You guys will be apparating to the game?"
Eliot Klein nodded his head, never a one of his shortly trimmed white hairs falling out of place, "It's the fastest and definitely cheapest way, especially since I know not all of Sarah's friends have access to floo, and portkeys just keep getting too expensive."
"Right," William's father said, nodding along as if he understood any of the words that Mr. Klein had said. "So are you going to be heading out now?" William's father asked, a little bit of his confusion showing in his voice.
Mr. Klein nodded, "If that's alright with you. Best to get to games early, never quite know when they're going to end."
William had moved to stand near the adults, unsure of exactly what was going on, and then his father turned to him and placed a hand on William's shoulder, "Alright, William, have a good day with your friends, and listen to Mr. Klein here. Sorry your mother isn't up to see you off, but I'm sure she'd tell you to be careful, alright?"
"Alright, Dad," William said, feeling somewhat embarrassed by his father's warnings.
Finally John Fraser smiled, and said, "Good, have fun."
William broke apart from his Dad and followed Mr. Klein outside. As they stood in the spacious yard, Mr. Klein extended his elbow to William, before asking, "You ever ridden side-along when someone disapparates before, William?"
Slowly, William nodded, "Once, but I don't really remember it."
Mr. Klein frowned, clearly puzzled by the response before nodding, "Well just be careful then, it can be a little uncomfortable."
William nodded, before hearing another loud crack, and then it felt like his body was being shoved through a very tight place, like a door that was barely open or a packed mall at Christmas time, far too quickly. Finally William's feet landed on solid ground, and he was standing in a massive forest glade. As he fought back a spell of dizziness, he spotted Sarah Klein and Alexandria Blair standing practically next to them.
"I'll be right back," Eliot Klein announced.
Sarah answered, "Alright, Grandpa." By the time she had finished her sentence though, Eliot Klein had already disapparated away. Once he was gone, Sarah let out a squeal of delight and wrapped William up in a hug, "You're here!"
William laughed as Sarah broke away and took a step back, before saying, "I wouldn't miss it, Sarah. You have no idea how boring being stuck in the muggle world is."
"I can only imagine," said a light, smooth voice from William's left. William turned his head to see Alexandria Blair standing there in a fashionable set of light summery robes that were a smooth layering of bright blues and greens. She stepped forward, and smiled, inclining her head just slightly, "William, it's good to see you again."
William smiled, inclining his head in return, never sure if he was allowed to hug the pureblood girl or shake her hand, or any idea what the protocols she expected people to follow were, "You too, Alexandria." Her lips barely turned upwards in a smile as a response, and William then turned back to Sarah.
Sarah had grown slightly taller over the summer, and William felt slightly uncomfortable realizing that she was now clearly a few inches taller then him. Sarah was dressed in a set of deep blue robes with red and silver trim on them, but William noticed a pair of jeans and sneakers poking out of the hem. William asked her, "Where's Nick?"
Sarah frowned slightly, "He'll be coming later I think, Grandpa said he couldn't get him or something."
William's brow furrowed in thought as he tried to think what made his best friend's muggle neighborhood any different from his, when Alexandria supplied, "There are restrictions about how Werewolves may travel. Until Nick passes his apparition exam, he will have to be accompanied by a Marshal."
"Oh," Sarah murmured in surprise.
William just sighed and shook his head. He had tried to comprehend the prejudice Nick faced as a werewolf, but had never been able to find any actual evidence for why the wizarding world treated werewolves the way they did. The worst part though, William had realized, was that Nick was still better off in America than in most other countries.
These brooding thoughts were interrupted however by another loud crack, and a loud whoop of excitement as Chris Angeloni landed with both feet firmly planted on the ground. The gathered young teens turned to look at their friend, and William's roommate, as he unhooked himself from Mr. Klein. Chris had grown this summer as well, though not necessarily just in height; Chris's broad shoulders had gotten a little wider, and his heavyset frame was beginning to fill in with muscle and fat. William realized that Chris had seriously begun to redouble his efforts this summer to join the Quodpot team. The sport was brutal, and required lots of players that were big and powerful, and Chris loved it.
"Hey guys," Chris bellowed in excitement. William knew that Chris wasn't enthused to actually watch a Quidditch game, he considered it a laughable game, but Chris was always passionate and enthused about life in general.
As Chris made the rounds giving big back slapping half-hugs to Sarah, William, and even the surprised Alexandria, Eliot Klein's voice cut through the merriment, "Sarah, where's your brother?"
Sarah let out a sigh, "I don't know, Grandpa, he was just here a second ago. Besides you know that this isn't his sort of thing."
"Now, Sarah," Eliot Klein explained, "This is your brother's world too now, and I thought we'd been over this..."
"No I mean you know how much he doesn't like sports," Sarah replied with a little indignation present in her voice, "Mom and Dad could barely get him to play tee-ball when he was a kid."
Chris, Alexandria, and William had all stepped away from the family altercation that was developing. As Sarah and her Grandfather continued to discuss Sarah's younger brother, and his possible whereabouts, Alexandria leaned over to William and whispered, "What's tee-ball?"
"It's like baseball but for little kids, it's really boring," Chris said in his usual tone regarding muggle sports: incapable of living up to broom sports.
Alexandria then whispered, "What's baseball?"
William sighed, realizing Chris had created more problems with that answer than he solved, before explaining in a hushed tone, "It's an easier version of a muggle sport for little kids. Baseball involves hitting a ball with a stick and running around a field. Normally someone throws the ball at the guy with the bat, but in tee-ball, it sits on a...a..." William trailed off as he tried to explain the contraption.
"Tee?" Alexandria supplied with a soft laugh.
"Yeah," William said nodding with embarrassment for forgetting the word.
William's gaze then drifted back to the argument, as Eliot Klein now had his wand up to his throat as he said, "Sonorous." His next words came out like they were being spoken from a megaphone, "Adam El..."
Adam's middle name was cut off when a voice said, "I'm right here, Grandpa."
"Oh," Mr. Klein's voice still booming as he turned, "Where hav..." He then waved his wand while muttering the dispelling charm under his breath, "Where did you go?"
William watched as the small boy with pale blond hair explained, "I went to the bathroom, Grandpa, I told Sarah that I was going." Sarah frowned when her grandfather looked at her and then merely shrugged.
Mr. Klein then just sighed deeply, before turning to the rest of the group, "Alright, let's head in everyone."
William now finally turned for the first time and let out a low murmur of, "Whoa."
"I know, right?" Sarah said, having trailed behind the group to take in William's amazement.
Her grandfather and brother were leading the pack while Chris and Alexandria walked silently and a few paces apart behind them. The glade in the forest was starting to seem more like a meadow with woods built around it to William as he took in its size. A number of tents were pitched across the field, next to brooms, magic carpets, and a few most certainly magical cars, but they all encircled the most beautiful stadium William had ever seen. Like all Quidditch stadiums it was open to the elements, but this was barely noticeable due to the ring of towers tightly pressed against each other where the spectators gathered. The towers were draped in curtains of blue, red, and silver, which William was beginning to realize was the team's colors. Between a few of the stadium's towers William could make out stone walkways connecting everything, and finally his eyes drifted to the base of the stadium. The towers all sat on a wide ring of stone and wood, and all around it were floating billboards advertising various products and the game itself. William stood with a smile on his face, soaking in the wizarding world for a moment before Sarah tugged on his arm and they began making their way through what William began to realize was the equivalent to a muggle parking lot.
All around him, William found his head twisting and turning as they passed by the various tents. Children ran around them, shooting jets of water at each other with toy wands, or just playing games like tag. At the tents or around the carpets and brooms, wizards and witches were having cookouts, debating the upcoming game, and just generally having a good time. William noticed at least one wizard tent shaded a fully stocked bar with a classic dark wood frame, and brass trimmings, so he realized that wizards and witches probably enjoyed sports in the same way that many muggles did: under the influence.
They all reached the gates at roughly the same time, and as they were passing through them behind Sarah's grandfather, William heard a voice he recognized instantly call out, "Hey, guys, over here!"
William rounded quickly to see his best friend Nick standing besides a rather dour wizard in a blue uniform with a tight blue cap that had a shiny black leather brim over the wizard's eyes. As William approached his werewolf friend, his eyes were drawn to the symbol of a wolf howling at a crescent moon that was stitched into the frowning wizard's robe. Nick and William immediately gave each other a half-handshake/half-hug and the others, with the exception of Alexandria who kept her formal distance, followed suit.
Eliot Klein shook the Marshal's hands and they exchanged a number of words under their breath that William couldn't hear, but as they drifted away the Marshal merely hung back with his eyes trailing the knot of young teens as they moved through the crowd. William fought the urge to glare back, but instead followed Nick's lead and completely ignored the angry looking wizard.
As they moved up the long set of stairs to their seats, Nick asked, "So has been being stuck in the muggle world been as boring for you as it is for me, William?"
William nodded, "Yeah, I guess." Turning to his friend as they moved upward, "At least I can avoid the locals."
"Yeah, that's true," Nick said and then added in a lower tone, "It's so weird, everywhere I go, I see my old friends and we don't even know what to say to each other."
The rest of the group passed out of the stairs into the stadium, and William turned to Nick and asked him seriously, "Nick, do you ever think about telling them about it?"
"About what?" Nick asked, his face growing somewhat darker than normal.
"About the wizarding world, I mean, I just sometimes...I want to tell people, you know?" William explained.
Nick shrugged his slight shoulders and then spoke in a grim tone, "They've already been obliviated once because of me."
William sighed and nodded as they stepped out into the sunlight, the serious conversation being quickly forgotten as they were greeted by the cloudless sky and the thunder of the crowd. William settled into his seat with Sarah on his right and Nick to his left. William looked at Nick for a moment in the bright light, and fought back a frown. Nick had grown slightly taller as well, but he was still thin, and his arms and hands were still scarred from transformations and the times he hadn't taken his Wolfsbane potion. William wasn't able to reflect deeply on this though as the teams were zooming into the stadium.
The crowd was on their feet in an instant as the two teams burst across the sky. The local team were in a different cut of robes but with the same color scheme that Sarah was wearing, whereas the opposing team was in bright orange robes with a sky blue trim. "Welcome, Ladies and Gentleman, to the match between the New England United, and the Pittsburgh QC," the announcer's voice seemed to not so much boom across the stadium as actually reverberate from it.
The teams reined up hovering across from each other and the crowd remained standing as the national anthem was played, and once more the sound seemed to conduct through the stone of the stadium itself. As William lowered back to his seat along with everyone else, the two team captains shook hands and returned to their positions. The instant both team captains had turned back to face each other, the balls were released and the game began in earnest.
As soon as things began, William realized the vast skill difference between the games the students played at Salem and professional Quidditch. The New England pair of beaters were actually blasting a bludger back and forth between themselves before a target presented itself. At the same time, one of the Pittsburgh beaters had already knocked the New England seeker down, and the player was being attended to on the field. While all of this happened, the chasers were constantly zooming across the field; covering each other with expert skill, making hair pin turns, and passing to each other without even looking. With every shot made on the goal, the crowd would either be on the edge of their seats or actually standing and releasing howls of enthusiasm.
William found himself shouting along with the rest of the crowd even though he truly had no idea who these teams were. There was something about the roar of the stadium, and actually being surrounded by so many people that filled William with a desire to just see the New England team win. At some point, Sarah's grandfather had bought everyone a bottle of butterbeer and some kind of sandwich. William was surprised, for some reason he had been anticipating a hot dog like at a baseball game, but instead he was handed a strangely proportioned sandwich. Everything seemed to taper toward the end facing away from him, but when he bit into it William discovered that the bread actually formed a pocket rather than an open end so none of the contents spilled out.
The game was reaching a fever pitch by the time the sun was high above the stadium. The score was only 50 to 30 in Pittsburgh's favor despite the fact that the teams had been playing for several hours. "Essentially," The announcer said as he seemed to be speaking William's thoughts, "This is still anyone's game."
There had been several close calls for the snitch after New England had been allowed to put in their reserve seeker, but nothing seemed to be happening right now. Unlike in other games William had seen, the seekers hadn't spent all their time watching from high above. They would get down into the action and zoom around, constantly searching for that flicker of gold. There was near constant feinting between the two seekers, and each time it was clearly intended to cause harm to the opposing seeker. William's eyes were drifting along on his own, wondering if he could spot the elusive golden ball but then shook his head. As he gave up hope though, Sarah nudged him in the side and used her chin to gesture to a spot above one of the nearby towers.
William's eyes focused on a light glittering in the sun, at first he thought it might have just been the heat or someone wearing a strange set of robes, but then he finally spotted the tiny ball flickering back and forth above the stands. Sarah, of course, was not going to be the only one to notice it, William could see several people trying to stealthily point it out to their friends.
When William turned his attention back to the snitch, he spotted both seekers making extremely hard turns over that particularly tower, hurtling after the ball at full speed. Both teams' pairs of beaters rushed to get a handle on bludgers and begin knocking them toward the seekers who were already rushing into the knot of chasers. One chaser in orange immediately fell like a brick from their broom letting out a call of pain as they clutched their torso. There was a shattering of wood and falling along with a number of splinters was another Pittsburgh chaser. When both were caught by cushioning charms, William turned his view back to the seekers who were now neck and neck. They were shoving into each other as often and hard as they could without drawing any attention from the referees.
At the last second the Pittsburgh seeker turned and slammed their fist into the New England seeker. The New England crowd let out a roar of rage, but the seeker was still staying aloft, and the snitch turned down quickly allowing the already descending New England seeker to race after it. That's when William watched as the New England seeker turned their head and spat blood and spit into the Pittsburgh seeker's face. There were several boo's from visiting fans, a few claps from the New England section, and a large chorus of disgusted groans. All of this was replaced instantly though by a massive roar as New England caught the snitch.
The game ended, and while at first William thought everything was over, he noticed the tension in Sarah. He turned but before he could ask for an explanation, a referee's voice boomed across the stadium, "Having discussed the actions of the two seekers in this game. It is the decision of the referee committee for both players to be suspended for one game, and to penalize the New England United 100 points. Game goes to New England with score standing at 80 points to 50 points." A huge sigh of relief came from the crowd, and then people began to file out of the stadium.
As they descended, William could barely comprehend the complicated penalty rules that Sarah was complaining about as she stated, "I'm just saying one hundred points and a one game suspension? I mean really, that could have been a complete accident. I hope Pittsburgh knows they got lucky."
William shook his head, unsure exactly who Sarah was complaining to as they reached the base of the stadium. As they headed off toward the gates, the group was once more met by the dour faced Marshal. Nick broke off slightly from the group, and they all exchanged their goodbyes. As William and Nick shook hands, Nick said, "Hey, save me a seat on the train, alright, man?"
"Definitely," William nodded.
Once out in the fields, Chris sidled up to William and whispered as he looked at Sarah and Alexandria who were talking surprisingly animatedly with each other, "Hey man, don't tell Sarah but I thought that game was pretty cool."
"Alright," William chuckled at Chris' need to keep himself distanced from Quidditch, though he had no idea why Chris thought he'd pass anything along to Sarah, "It was a pretty awesome game."
"Eh," Chris said somewhat louder this time, "If you thought that was a cool game, William, wait until I take you to a Quodpot game."
William laughed and shook his head, Sarah only looked back and shook her head at Chris.
Soon enough the merriment was over for the day, and William realized that he had to return back to the muggle world. With a soft pop, William was returned to the backyard of his parents' house in suburban Connecticut where everything was quiet in the twilight hours of late evening. William's parents were so happy to meet Mr. Klein though William felt the conversation was strangely awkward, rather than when his parents had spoken to Megan's father back in elementary school. It was as Mr. Klein said goodbye, and William headed up to his room to change out of his robes, that he realized: the adults didn't have anything to really talk about. His father hadn't even known what Quidditch was until that morning, despite the fact that William's sister was somehow involved with the Captain of Salem's Quidditch team, and the only thing William had ever seen his mother read about on shopping trips was the Dark Arts because of what had happened at the end of William's first year away from home. As William got out of his robes, he sighed, realizing just how big the rift between his parents' lives and his was getting.