Rose sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great hall as Al, James, and a few others on the Quidditch team chatted on about formations and prospects. Being the second weekend of the first term tryouts for all of the houses were today. What should have been a time of focus and inner-team rivalry went over Rose's head. The subject that had held her attention for the better part of the last few weeks was what she now dubbed the incident. She had only seen Wendell a few times if that over the last few weeks. He had been flying under radar even going as far as making excuses to Al and Scorpious as to why he couldn't make it to dinners with them. Albeit admitting it to the world was not something that she was privy to do at the moment, she was worried about Wendell.

In the whole he almost hit me with a stupefy at the least kind of way.

She was drawn from her thought with James snapping his fingers in front of her face.

She hated when he did that.

"Rose you there?"

She swatted his hand away.

"What do you want James?"

He sat back with his trademark smirk the git.

"Just wanted to know if you thought about what kind of Chaser we need? With Brown graduated we need a new left field placement."

She wracked her brain for a second before responding.

"Yeah I've given it some thought. We need some at midspeed, but with good accuracy if we want to stand a chance to the Puff's."

Al nodded and spoke.

"Especially after last years debacle..."

James stood up pointing at his brother.

"We will not speak of that event!"

The team groaned, but sniggered at their Captains behavior.

Rose rolled her eyes and chimed in.

"Besides with all of their starting chasers graduated minus their Captain, all the Puff's have is their beaters."

Al looked at her and spoke.

"And their start seeker who happened to catch the snitch in nearly record time during the house cup costing us..."

The group looked at Al with disdain.

"We remember!"

He just shrugged while Rose turned her attention away from the group and scanned the Hufflepuff table. No where in sight...

James again broke her train of thought.

"Alright Gryffindor's lets head to the pitch! We're first up."

The team ayyed in incision following James out to the pitch, including as Al noted a somber Rose.

Halfway to the pitch Al pulled Rose to the side continuing behind their team.

"Hey are you okay? You've been out of it these last few days."

Rose barely looked at her cousin.

"Yeah... Its just... Al is Wendell is some sort of trouble?"

Al's eyes widened before he broke his attention directly to her.

"What? No... Not that I know of... Why do you ask?"

It was Rose's turn to look at her cousin who was now suspiciously quiet.

"Well I mean the injury for one thing."

"He's a seeker Rose. He got hurt during prac.."

She quirked an eyebrow.

"In every match we've every played against him have you ever seen him fall?"

Al shook his head slightly.

"No! And something happened during class last week..."

"What was it?"

She let out a breath.

"Nothing major...just... is he okay at least?"

Al nodded.

"Yeah Rose he's okay now... From what he's told me... Look we should probably catch up."

With that Al picked up the pace to catch up to the group while Rose stayed back. Al told her everything... And she knew that he was lying... What was going on with Wendell?

-At the Pitch-

Rose swooped in and kicked away another goal. The tryout yelled in frustration missing yet another goal. James just shot her a thumbs up as she smiled at her cousin. As much as Rose excelled at academics her heart was fully into Quidditch. The strategy, the adrenaline, the feel of fresh wind on her face... Little could match the exhilaration when she was in a match going toe to toe with another team. She was a competitive person at her core, and Quidditch complimented her well.

Setting down on the pitch with the rest of the team James went choosing and cutting the positions that they needed. His voice drowned out when she saw Hufflepuff colors diving from the sky. Her heart clenched as she watched someone from the Hufflepuff team dive bomb at such a crazy speed. She was captured by the image of the player and his broom so in sync as they dove to the ground faster and faster. A meter before making contact with the ground and crashing in spectacular fashion the player pulled on a dime coming out of the dive to a leveled speed across the green of the pitch. She heard hooting from the other side of the pitch as she noticed that the Hufflepuff team was watching who she now noticed with disdain was none other than their start seeker.

"Speak of the devil! Wendell can you come over for a sec?"

James yelled from the other side of the pitch breaking Rose's near trance.

Said Seeker zoomed over before coming to stop before the crimson team, smile on face and snitch in hand. The younger players were in awe of the Hufflepuff before them.

James walked forward greeting Wendell.

"Still pulling crazy stunts like that in practice?"

Wendell shrugged.

"Not as crazy as taking a bludgeon to the head and still scoring."

James laughed throatally.

"Never going to live that one down am I?"

Wendell shook his head. As James led Wendell to towards the Gryffindor's new seeker he never once even acknowledged Rose. Her cheeks flared red as he passed and the hand holding her broom clenched making her knuckles go white. He wants to ignore me? Fine, not like I care anyways. Rose marched to the lockers missing the dark black eyes that followed her fleeting form.

-20 minutes later at the lockers-

Rose exited the locker room curly red hair tamed a bit in a pony tail. Not paying attention as she fiddled with her wand in her pocket she never saw the body standing in place. Her nose head made contact with a strong back as she was sent backwards onto her bum.

"Really you're just going to stand there?!"

The individual in question quickly turned and a groan escaped her lips. Of course it had to be him.

"Rose! Sorry I wasn't..."

She looked up at him with a scowl.

"Paying attention? Well who would've guessed Mr. Seeker has the attention span of a snotrat."

He quirked an eyebrow.

"What's a?..."

She shook her head.

"Lena... Never mind."

He reached a hand down to help her up, but she knocked it away getting up herself. When she finally looked at his face she felt her stomach flip. Oh it looked like she had just kicked a puppy. His expression was one of hurt, but somehow understanding.

"Look I'm sorry, I should probably go.."
Her eyes widened as he was turning around.

"Wait!"

That was definitely not loud enough

"Wait, look... Its just after the incident."

His expression grew sadder.

"I've just been on edge a bit..."

His hand came up to scratch the back of his head.

"Look Rose I'm seriously sorry about that... The last thing I want is to put you in danger.."

She looked at his expectantly.

"Are you in danger?"

His expression grew a bit more reserved.

"It's nothing to worry abo..."

She stepped forward closing the distance between them.

"You jumped out of your seat and were ready to send me flying across the classroom, and I barely even touched your shoulder. So don't tell me it's nothing to worry about."

For the first time that she knew him he flinched at her words. His head dropped breaking their eye contact.

"If I could go back..."

Her tone grew more serious.

"Wendell your injury, your reactions... Al told me you barely wrote him over the Summer."

He looked up.

"He said that?"

She paused and then shook her head.

"No, but I could tell... He's worried about you... So are Scorpious and Lena and..." She cut herself off looking away.

"Rose... Look everything will be okay. I just haven't been getting enough sleep and you just startled me.. It's not a good excuse, but its the best I've got right now.."

She tilted her head looking at him.

"Promise me something?"

His eyes met her own both really looking at the other.

"Promise you what?"

She took a deep breath.

"If you need to talk or anything, you come to one of us okay? You're not alone."

To her surprise she watched as multiple emotions came to the forefront of his features. Happiness, sadness, surprise, and something else...

He nodded slightly.

"I promise."

A tiny smile graced her lips before she took a step back.

"Now you just hit the shower, you stink!"

Wendell laughed and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Well I just spent the last hour playing Seeker for ten billion matches."

She smirked at him.

"Complaining?"

He nodded faked hurt.

"Of course!"

He chuckled as she pushed him slightly to the shower before walking past him.

"Rose?"

She turned her head as she continued to walk away.

"What?"

He stalled for a second before smiling to himself.

"Thank you."

She shrugged with her own slight smile.

"Anything."

With that she was on her way back to the Great hall for more food.

Well that wasn't so bad.