„Blutcher on your right! " Sarah, one of the chasers in the Irish national junior team, instantly reacted to my warning and rolled on her back, purposely dropping the Quaffel and only narrowly avoiding the black Blutcher. Below her, my fellow chaser Jinx caught it and continued towards the rings on the other side. "Phoenix Fife" I shouted, a kind of code we had made up signaling the next move.

No further words were exchanged as we took a simple triangular formation. Jinx, clutching the Quaffel under her arm, on the top, Sarah, a little below her on the left and me on the right. Now every one of our adversaries had to cover one of us and seeing as they were less experienced as we were, that should not be a problem. Plus, if we were past them, the advantage of our speed would be crucial to outfly them. Sure enough, the 'bing' of the scoreboard counted up a few seconds later as Jinx scored. "Alright guys, that's enough" I groaned inwardly as our trainer's magical enhanced voice ended the training.

It was always the same: relieve when my feet left the ground and disappointment when they returned to it. But we knew better than to question our trainer and flew towards him. Willy Sommers was a hard and stern, but fair man in his early fifties who had been a well-known beater when he was young until, ironically, a bludger had ended his career. Now, he was teaching the junior Irish National team how to play and apparently, he did a pretty good job at that.

"Ok, guys, that was very good" Sarah, Jinx and I high-fived. Praise from our coach had to be earned and was the only treat we ever got from him. Not that we needed anything more. "Sarah, you need to work a little on your peripheral sight. Jinx, you picked up the Quaffel very fluently and Kiera, good team-work warning Sarah."

"Thanks, boss!" We were clearly all still on the adrenaline rush from the match as we jumped up and down earning us a glare from our Sommers. Half-heartily we listened as he continued to praise or improve my other teammates: The chaser and captain, William; the beaters, Kirk and Manny and the keeper, Wally. Our attention was more focused on the two people walking across the grass from the tribunes over to us.

I hadn't noticed them so far, they must have been watching from inside. But as they came closer, Jinx squealed in delight as she recognized them: They were Aidan Lynch, the captain of the Irish National Quidditch team and Troy, one of their chasers who will be playing in the finals this summer. She poked me in the arm. "Hey, look, they are…" Sarah gave her a look. "We know who they are Jinx, calm down, you don't want them to see you like that." With visible effort my teammate stood still and tried to look professional, which looked hilarious. By now, the others had noticed the two elder players as well and we all turned to them. "Oh, here they are…..Boys and girls, I am sure you know who those two guys are..." They nodded at us and were greeted by some 'hi's and 'hello's. The taller one of them, Troy, took over. "Hey, I am Troy, this is Lynch. To cut things short: The reason we are here is because we need a chaser. Mullet currently is…indisposed"

Jinx leaned over to me. "She is pregnant." Trust my fellow chaser to know all the gossip and news about celebrities. Judging by the slight undertone in Lynch's voice he wasn't overly happy that one of his top-chasers won't be available for the Quidditch finale. Then, my heard jumped as I realized what that meant: Mullet was a chaser and… they needed another chaser to replace him. Judging by the fact that Sarah let out a small "yes", she must have realized it, too. That could only mean they were going to pick one of us! "So, we've been watching your training lately" The way the coach smiled, he must have known.

Sneaky old man. "and we've come to the conclusion that Miss Hale would be a good addition to our team during the final's" Wait, what? I hadn't realized what he had said yet but the whole team was already hugging and congratulating me and thus, dragging me to the ground. Subconsciously, I held onto the long glove I was always wearing to conceal the dark mark. Our trainer, Troy and Lynch shared an amused look and gave us a few moments before couching quite obviously. "Thanks" I managed to get out while trying to get up, this has been my dream since I was young. Well, technically, I was still young.

"So, you know the World Cup is in two month…" Lynch was already back to business; seriously, I knew the tournament would be ending soon but this guy really needed to relax sometimes. Just a notch. "…and you know we will be playing against Bulgaria. That leaves us not too much time to prepare, so you will have to study our tactics and train quite often. Are you up to it?" I definitely wouldn't leave such a chance. Besides, I was ahead at the stuff other kids would be learning at school now and Lucius and Narcissa surely wouldn't be against it. "Definitely!" They both grinned and I don't think I've ever seen our trainer more proud. "Good, we've spoken with your trainer, he will give you our training schedule, so I guess…we'll see you in two days" They waved their goodbyes and left.

Needless to say, my mood was very good for the rest of the time, to say the least. I was lucky to have such teammates who weren't jealous but happy for me. Jinx couldn't stop squealing during showering and while Sarah was usually almost driven mad by it, she couldn't help but going along. After showering we said our goodbyes. As I would train with the senior team at least for the next few weeks, the next time we would see each other was at the World Cup. The whole team wished me luck and promised to come and support me there. Besides, it was kind of unofficially compulsory for them to go there anyway.

As always after training, I went to the fireplace in the trainer's office and after he had handed me the schedule, I picked a handful of green powder, got into the fireplace and threw it down. "Malfoy Manor!" Within seconds I stumbled out of the fireplace in the manor, careful not to drag too much ash onto the floor. Narcissa always got mad when I did. "Hey, I am home!" I shouted.

"There is no need to shout" Lucius' voice came from the dinner table from around the corner. It looked they were in the middle of eating dinner when I had arrived. "Sorry" I said, not really meaning it and judging by the looks on his face, Lucius knew it. Usually, I was a little cooler around him, but not today. "Guess what happened…" I looked at them. "You met a guy today?" Narcissa suggested and I scowled at her.

For some reason, she was always asking about those things. "No, but the chaser of the Irish National Team is pregnant and won't be able to play for the next couple of month!" Draco looked at me, realization slowly dawning in his face. "And I will take his place!" I burst out, not being able to hold the news any longer. "Hey, that's great" Draco and Narcissa stood up and hugged me while Lucius smiled. It didn't reach his eyes.

He's always been quite cold and odd around me, not like he was around Draco in private. I then explained the whole situation to them and had to collect myself not to hug Lucius when he allowed me to play as a chaser. As always, the last call was his and while I had been confident that he wouldn't deny it to me, it felt good to have the last doubts erased. After all, a famous Quidditch player in the family couldn't be that bad for his reputation. Then it hit me. I was going to be the youngest player ever being part of the finals in, what, like 200 years? I couldn't sleep that night.

-Time skip-

Two days later, Lucius brought me to the training and promptly managed to get seats in one of the best lounges in the stadion while I was meeting the team. Apart from the stick-in-the-ass Lynch, Moran and Troy were sort of the twins in the team: inseparable and always good for a laugh. The two beaters, Connolly and Quigley paid their positions respect and like almost all beaters, their bodies were far from thin.

That left the keeper, Ryan who didn't talk much. They all welcomed me into the team and soon treated me kind of like a little sister or protégée which made things a lot smoother for me. I wasn't as fixated on celebrities like Jinx but hey, they have been kind of my role-models since I was a little girl and now I got where I wanted; and it sure made coming into a completely new team easier.

Needless to say, the next two months were the hardest and most challenging in my Quidditch career: Muscle training, agility training, theoretical lessons, additional chaser training and I few things I'd better not mention. The trainer even let us run and crawl through the mud after it had rained once. A true boot-camp, but it was also fun! Sort of. Nevertheless I couldn't express how glad I was that the last week was not that intense; He didn't want us to play against Bulgaria with sore bodies after all.

The big day for me came faster than expected. One day prior to the match I met up with Lynch and the rest of the team to travel to the site of the tournament. And it was impressive, I've never quite seen such a huge arena, it was bigger than anyone I've ever played in.

At the end of the day, we had dinner with the Prime minister, an old beater I vaguely remembered from discussions in the changing rooms, a few other officials and the Bulgarian team. I talked to some of them, they were really nice given they technically were my enemies. And of course, Lucius was there as well, he'd never let an opportunity like that pass.

When I asked Troy about my thoughts afterwards, he just explained that it the rivalry belonged to the field and not to the rest of the life. That was new to me; in my prior teams, there'd always been some sort of competitiveness and rivalry between the teams before and after the game. Nothing serious but not harmless either. It was good advice.

- Time skip -

Then it was time, we stood on a ramp hidden from the sight, waiting for our clue to come out. I shivered from nervousness. Troy next to me noticed and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, calm down, this isn't your first match!" he mocked. I glared at him and shrugged his arm of playfully. I wasn't that little anymore!

"Well, sorry, but it isn't every day that you play in the Quidditch finals!"

He laughed and patted me on the back instead.

"Don't worry, just give your best, remember the training and everything'll be fine!" Of all the guys, Troy had somehow grown on me like a brother and I was pretty sure he saw me kind of as a little sister as well. In the background I faintly heard the announcement for the Bulgarian team; then it was our turn.

"And now, Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome the Irish National Team…." This was it, the moment I've been waiting for.

"Ok, here we go!" Lynch called and we mounted our brooms. "Let's do this!"

As soon as it started, all the nervousness faded away. I was good at this. Lynch flew first, directly followed by Conolly, Quigley and Troy. Then it was my turn; quickly I pushed myself from the ground and sped after them. "Troy, Hale, Moran, Connolly, Quigley, Ryan…aaaaaand Lynch!" I heard the moderator shout.

The crowd burst into cheers and it was an overwhelming feeling. "Get your act together, Hale and concentrate on the game" I mumbled to myself and flew to my position in the cycle, adrenaline pumping through my veins.

As soon as I heard the whistle, I pressed myself flat onto my broom and shot forwards, my eyes on the Quaffel that was thrown upwards from down below. And, due to my smaller size and weight, I got there first, grabbed the ball and barely managed to avoid one of the Bulgarian chasers by frantically turning upside-down.

Quickly, I threw the Quaffle to Troy who himself handed it to Moran. We sped towards the hoops, barely avoiding a blutcher swung at us. Time for our first trick. Shortly before we were in range, I had the Quaffle. I pretended to try to score it, but instead just threw it a little up into the air and dove below. Behind me, Moran caught it, did the same thing and dove as well. Finally, Troy caught it and hammered the ball into the right hoop. The Bulgarian chasers hadn't been fast enough to rearrange themselves to stop us.

"And after an impressive trick, the Irish team leads with 10-0!" A cheer went to the crowds but there wasn't any time for us to do so. The game didn't stop and we were already on our way backwards in our own half before the Bulgarians could get there. The following 20 points were scored by Moran and me after I'd managed to intercept two passes. I loved doing that and it seemed to rile up our enemies. After just a few minutes, it was clear that Troy, Muran and me were just faster and it was a thrill!

We passed and threw the Quaffel faster than we'd ever done, clearly influenced by this being the World Cup final; the moderator even gave up saying our names after a while! The only time Bulgaria managed to score was when Krum pulled off the Wronski-Feint and Lynch crashed into the ground, distracting us for a moment.

I cringed inwardly, both out of anger that I let this distract me and because I wasn't Lynch at this moment. Instead, I scored 3 further goals, a result of brilliant cooperation between us three when things started to go a little south.

Two penalty shots were awarded to us when Mullet was fouled. Mullet scored them both. 150-10 for us. And after a second crash into the ground, I honestly hadn't much hope in Lynch to be able to catch the snitch. But that just urged me to go on. And it seemed it did the same to my teammates.

Now, bludgers were literally raining down on us, but Quigley and Conolly did a brilliant job in keeping them away as best as they could; Troy scored the next goal, me the one after that. Then the referee whistled. Another foul? Honestly, the last 15 minutes had been chaos. I looked around to see what was going on when my eyes fell on Krum.

More specifically on his hand or what was in it. He'd caught the snitch and my heart stopped for a second. After all the work and goals we'd lost. I felt disappointment arising in my chest.

"And Ireland is the winner of the 1994 World Quidditch Cup!" Wait, what? I looked on the scoreboard. 170-160. For us! We'd won. I felt tears coming into my eyes. We'd won! I couldn't believe it, it was so surreal. Usually the team whose seeker caught the snitch won. I noticed that my teammates were flying towards me, cheering.

They couldn't believe it either! Romania had caught the snitch, but we'd won! Then, out of solidarity, we flew towards the Romanians and congratulated them for their performance. But the best moment came when we stood on the tribune shortly afterwards. "1...2…3…" Lynch held up the cup and the crowd erupted in cheers once more! It seriously was the happiest moment of my life.

Needless to say, the celebration afterwards was awesome. We were in a secluded tent only the players and their families had access to but sadly, my family wasn't there. I didn't mind Lucius being absent but I'd at least expected Draco to attend. I've always suspected that he had a crush on one of my teammates. But it didn't matter for long, because I was hugged by Jinx and Sarah who'd come to congratulate me, which meant that Jinx couldn't stop cheering and hugging me and very unlike her nature, Sarah joined in as well.

Unfortunately, our party was cut short when a few security guys came barging in and told us there was a riot outside and that we had to get away from here. Still in the daze of the party and truthfully, a little alcohol, it all happened in a blur hindering me from thinking straight. When I tried to get out of the tent, Troy grabbed my arm. "Where do you think you are going?" I tried to wrestle my arm out of his grip but it was useless. "I have to get to Draco and…"

"Nonsense" he interrupted me. "Trust me, if there is a riot out here and the security guards say it is so intense that we have to get away from here, we really should do that!" I forced myself to calm down. He was right and I scolded myself for not thinking this through. "There are several places to go in case something like that happens. Don't worry, they'll be fine" Troy continued. Then, after I had nodded my approval, everything went black.

Thanks for reading, I hope I made the Quidditch scenes so you could imagine how it went. Please, rate and review. Thanks