Disclaimer: I do not own Dead Poets Society nor Harry Potter

He's a Keeper

There's a very good reason Hufflepuff never wins at anything. It's because, although their house is built on ideas like friendship and loyalty, there's also a little clause that states they'll take 'all the rest'. All the kids who aren't brave, ambitious, or intelligent enough to fit in any other house end up in Hufflepuff, even if they aren't particularly nice or loyal. So in short Hufflepuff is the Island of Misfit Toys. And Neil Perry had never been so aware of that fact than while sizing up his quidditch team.

"Okay folks!" He shouted trying to get everyone's attention from where they had assembled on the pitch, but despite the natural leadership qualities Keating is always telling him he has no one even bats an eyelid at his shouting. Charlie and Cameron are already arguing, something to do with the worldcup...again. Knox is doing some sort of strange stretch on the ground, either that or he's having a hard time getting up because he's pulled something again. Ginny's disappeared and Steven's off talking with Gerard. Only Todd is sort of paying attention to him but whenever Neil looks back at him he turns away.

"Guys!" He shouts "Come on! We need to practice, our game against Gryffindor is only two days away and we haven't even tried out our new formations!" He must sound a little desperate because it actually seems to get everyone's attention, at least momentarily.

"What's the point?" Cameron says, "Everyone knows they're going to win no matter how much we practice. They've got Charlie Weasley."

" And Oliver Wood." Charlie adds grimly.

"And Chris Noel!" Knox says, to which everyone groans.

"Just because you won't hit any bludgers at her because you're in love doesn't make her a good player Knox." Charlie said rolling his eyes. "It's just another advantage over the other dozen they already have. I mean they're going to have like 3 just for not having Cameron."

"Hey!"

Neil sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, he had been excited about being quidditch captain why? "Charlie shutup. Look I know Gyffindor has some really good players, but we do too! If we practise and try our best-"

"Look, Neil, not to rain on your parade but we never win anything. Especially not against Gryffindor." Steven said adjusting his goggles on his forehead.

Gerard nodded, he wasn't on the team but as the commentator he attended a lot of practises anyways, "It's true. It's like if this was a book series Gryffindor would be the authors favourite house and they'd win everything, even when it totally wasn't fair."

"Riiiiiiight." Neil said, "Well as interesting as that assessment was we're still a team, I'm still captain, and I still want to run all of our new plays."

Everyone groans but they tromp half heartedly to the middle of the pitch and do the group bonding warm up Neil insists on. They may just be humouring him but he thinks it might actually work a little bit because once they finally get to practising everyone seems quite sharp. Steven's finding the snitch in 6..7..8 minutes, Charlie's not leaving his left hoop unguarded anymore, and the new chaser plays are freaking awesome. He watches as Todd and Ginny move smoothly around one another while he swoops into position catching the quaffle from where it appears out of thin air.

They're fucking awesome.

They still lose though. Badly. By the end it's 370 to 40, Knox is bleeding profusely from his left ear and Charlie limps off the field with Steven half carrying him because he refused to get on the stretcher. Ginny shrugs and pats him on the shoulder on the way to the locker room. "Gryffin-bloody fucking-dor eh? Hey, we'll get 'em next time Captain." Which just makes him feel like more of a failure. He spends an more time than is strictly necessary in the shower so he won't have to face anyone else on the team.

Only his plan fails, just one more for the day, because Todd's waiting on the bench for him. He's half pleased that he's there and half disapointed that he'll have to put on a brave face for Todd.

"I think maybe Gerard's right," He says, "Gryffindor has some sort of higher power on their side."

Neil forces a smile because he knows Todd's trying to be nice, "Maybe. Or maybe I'm just a bad captain."

Todd shrugs. "You can't be any worse than Marcus Flint." Which isn't exactly comforting but it's something.

"I think he likes Oliver Wood, all of their fights are just repressed sexual tension." Neil whispers conspiratorially and it makes Todd laugh and that's something too. Especially because Neil can count on one hand the number of times he's seem him laugh. They don't talk for a few minutes, Neil changing into his regular robes but out of nowhere Todd speaks again. "You're not a bad captain Neil."

And when he turns around Todd seems very close and his eyes seem very large and blue. Neil's never really noticed his eyes before but it suddenly seems like something very important and notable.

There are things Neil prides himself on being good at like sneaking out late or creating a patronus or knowing what hoop to aim at. And then their are things he's just okay at like being a good captain or potions class. And then their are things he's not good at like pulling all nighters or knowing when to kiss someone. So when he leans forward and kisses Todd he really hopes that he's aiming for the right hoop so to speak.

He knows though when Todd sighs into his mouth and grabs at his biceps and he's still wearing his gloves -and oh that's kind of a turn on. Kissing Todd is like riding a broom for the first time, new and exhilerating but also a little bit familliar like he's done it before in a dream or a past life. And maybe kissing Todd could be one of those things that he becomes good at.

"You're looking better." Ginny comments when an hour later Todd and himself tumble into the common room laughing and joking. "I was afraid you'd drowned yourself in a moment of quidditch inspired dramatics."

"No listen, I've got a bunch of new ideas for plays for the game against Ravenclaw." He says hopping into an oversized armchair and leaning close to Ginny and detailing his latest elaborate plan for quidditch domination while Todd sits on the armrest . They'll tell everyone. But not yet.

Though that plan gets totally derailed the next day during Keating's Defense Against the Dark Arts class when instead of his usual Patronus -an excited puppy of unidentifiable breed- a sleek silver fox explodes from his wand and wraps itself around his ankles. Patronuses, defintely something he's good at.

A.N. QUIDDITCH FLUFF! It will dominate I tell you. This all just sort of exploded onto the page and turned into this Teil fluff piece rather than being mostly about quidditch. But hey, I'm not complaining. Also I do realize that not all the Poets REALLY should be in Hufflepuff but it seemed to be the easiest house to put them in because of the 'all the rest' thing. And they couldn't all be on the team if they were in different houses. So yeah.

-C

P.S. In case you didn't get the patronus thing, Todd means fox. See what I did there.