Gah, finally done. It's a bit longer than the others, but Raven's friends have a lot to say.
I don't own Harry Potter or his world, but I do own the people I made up.
Enjoy.
Chapter 3 – Quaffles and Cameras
"Raven!" A short, blonde boy ran up to an equally small girl to envelope her in a tight hug. "How have you been?"
The red-head smiled at her best friend, "I'm great. And you?" She held out one of the two broomsticks in her hands.
The boy moved back and held the girl at arms length. He let go and took the broom. Eyebrow raised, he asked, "'Great'? You're never great. Usually it's good or fine. Why so happy?"
Raven rolled her eyes at the boy. "Thanks," sarcasm heavy in her tone, "Don't be happy that I'm happy, be cynical. Love you too." They walked towards the middle of the old, public Quidditch pitch they always played in.
"Easy, sarcastic. I'm just curious."
"Alright, alright," Raven looked around her, no one was near—barely any people came here this early in the morning. She leaned in and whispered, "You know how my dad's in prison?"
Sebastiaan frowned, "Yeah."
"Well, before my mum died, she said that when I turned seven, I could finally meet my dad.—"
"Did you?" the boy interrupted.
"No, let me finish! Remus didn't—well still doesn't—want me to go see him, because he doesn't think I'm ready. He told me to write to Sirius first, then I could meet him at the end of the month."
"So why are you so happy?"
"I'm not done. I wrote to him and I just got his letter yesterday. He says he's happy I wrote him and that he actually wants to be my dad! Bastiaan, I could have a real dad in less than a month!"
Sebastiaan frowned again, "I thought you already do?"
"Well, yes, in a way. But Remus sort of has to take care of me. Sirius wants to be my dad."
Sebastiaan shook his head, "No, I'm pretty sure Remus wants to be your dad. I mean, look at all the things he does for you. He doesn't have to be nice, or buy you things, or help you with your homework, but he does. I think that's what real dads do."
It was Raven's turn to frown, "I think he just does that to be nice, because he feels bad that I don't have a mum."
"I dunno..."
Raven was about to reply, but stopped as Remus caught up to them.
He smiled, "Hello, Sebastiaan."
"'Lo, Remus."
"Are you two ready for some Quidditch?"
"Yeah! Do you wanna play, this time?" Sebastiaan asked, bringing up the old fight of trying to get Remus in the air. Out of all the times Raven flew, she had yet to see her godfather on a broom.
"Oh, Sebastiaan, I'm too old for brooms. Benches are more my thing."
The hazel-eyed boy laughed, "You're not that old, Remus. You're only, what? Fifty? Sixty-two?"
Raven giggled, "Oi, Bastiaan! You know well enough he turned forty-seven in March."
"Hey!" Remus faked a hurt look.
Raven smirked at him, "Well you started it! You're only twenty-seven and you call yourself old."
"Alright, tell you what, if you—"
"Trying to get him in the air again? It's not going to work," a muscular teen interrupted in a sing-song voice. He held a broomstick over his shoulder with one, gloved hand. In his other arm was a wooden box.
Remus smirked, "You know, he's right. Thank you, Everett, for bringing me back to my senses. What ever was I thinking?"
"Oi!"
"Everett!"
"He was just about to negotiate!"
Everett looked sheepish, "Whoops, sorry."
"'Whoops,' he says," Sebastiaan scoffed.
"Shut up! I didn't know."
"Forget about it, we'll get him to fly one way or another. Let's just worry about Quidditch," Raven said, "Everett, who all's coming?"
"Teddy, Angelina, Damyan, and Liam."
"What about Jamie?" Sebastiaan asked.
"His mum found out about the Chocolate Frogs...so he won't be playing with us for a while."
Raven pouted, "What? He was supposed to bring me some!" Jamie Levitt was infamous for his certain charms. As in the magical kind. He could turn an ordinary Chocolate Frog into a very realistic one, complete with peanut bones, caramel blood, and gummy intestines. It even croaked and screamed as you ate it. It earned him many detentions at Hogwarts and groundings from his mother. She didn't appreciate her son taking money from students at school, nor the fact that he used underage magic outside of school to make them.
"Who was supposed to bring you what?" This came from a tall, handsome teen twice her age. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
Raven tried to shrug his arm off her shoulder (to no avail), and muttered, "Jamie; Chocolate Frogs."
Liam laughed at her attempt to push him away. He took his arm off her shoulder only long enough to pull a small box out of his back pocket and toss it to her.
The small girl caught the box and smiled up at him. "Thanks, Lili!" She opened the box and caught the smirk of a mini Jamie Levitt. The only differences between ordinary Chocolate Frogs and Jamie's were the cards and the frogs themselves. Raven rolled her eyes as she read the card:
Jamie Levitt
Known as one of the greatest charmers of his age,
Levitt is most popular for his life-like Chocolate Frogs.
When he is not spending his time working on a new product,
Levitt likes to relax with a nice game of quidditch and a night
of frolicking through meadows of lavender.
Raven held onto the frog as it tried to jump away. It croaked and squirmed in her hand. She nonchalantly bit off the head and licked any chocolate and caramel guts that nearly spilled.
Liam smirked, "Want one Remus?"
The amber-eyed man frowned at the teen's teasing. Those frogs disturbed him and Liam knew it. "No thank you."
The brown-haired wizard gave Remus a cheeky grin.
"So," said Sebastiaan, "how've you been?"
"Quite well, actually," Liam answered, "I'm thinking about asking—"
"...Dumbledore to marry him," Everett interrupted with a straight face.
The group stared at him before laughing hysterically.
"Evi, you're so stupid."
"Thanks, Ray, I feel so loved."
"Aw, did Waven hurt ickle Evee's feewings?"
"Shut up, Lili!"
"Oi! Only Ray, Bells, and my mum can call me that!"
"Whatever you say, LEE-LEE."
Just before Liam pounced on Everett, a hand came down on his shoulder.
"Is something wrong?" Liam looked over to Damyan. The Bulgarian boy raised his brow at him. Though three years younger, Damyan was taller, stronger, and could intimidate the older boy if he tried. Fortunately, he wasn't trying—he was grinning.
"Damyan!" Raven ran up to hug him.
"Hey! How come I didn't get a hug?" Everett whined.
Without facing him, the young girl replied, "'Cause you're not Damyan."
Liam laughed, "She got you there."
"Whatever, Lili."
Liam growled in response. Damyan laughed.
"I thought only your mum, sister, and Raven could call you Lili," said a boy Raven and Sebastiaan's age. He walked with a broomstick over his shoulder and an older girl at his side. The raven-haired boy walked up behind Everett and made his way into the circle forming.
"Hey, Ange. Teddy!" Everett smiled at the boy and ruffled his wavy hair, earning himself a glare.
"Kindly remove your paws from my hair," said the young wizard.
Everett snickered, "'Paws'? You're the only one with paws, Teddy Bear."
"Don't call me that," Teddy hissed.
"Whatever you say, little cub."
The shorter wizard growled.
"I see you're already pissing off the players," Angelina said.
Everett scoffed. "Please," he ruffled Teddy's hair again, "Teddy loves it. Don't you, Teddy Bear?"
"Quit calling me that!"
"Aw, does the little cub not like his name?" Everett cooed.
"I'm gonna kick you."
Raven giggled.
"Alright," Remus said, "now that the whole gang's here," ("Except for Jamie!" Everett reminded.) "except for Jamie—let's stop worrying about nicknames and start focusing on who's doing what. By the way, when is the other team coming?"
"I call Beater!" Everett shouted. Which wasn't really necessary, considering he always played beater and no one tried to stop him. "And they said they'd arrive around seven."
"Well that gives you an hour to practice. Who calls second Beater?"
"I do," Damyan said.
"I'll be Keeper," said Liam.
"Chaser," Angela, Raven, and Teddy called.
"Seeker," called Sebastiaan, then he muttered less enthusiastically, "but I guess you already know that."
Everett laughed and messed up his hair, "It's okay, little buddy. Plus, it is fun to yell. LIKE THIS! I LOVE YELLING!"
"SHUT UP!" Liam hollered.
"GOOD JOB! SEE, SEBASTIAAN, IT'S FUN TO YELL. EVEN LIAM DOES IT!" Everett smirked.
"YOU'RE RIGHT," Raven laughed, "IT IS FUN TO YELL!"
"I MUST TO AGREE WITH YOU, EVERETT," Angelina added, "I ENJOY THIS!"
"YOU LOT ARE CRAZY," Teddy yelled.
"ENOUGH!" Remus roared.
Everyone froze in shock and stared at him.
The man snorted in laughter, "What? I can't do it too?"
Raven and Everett were the first to laugh and soon, everyone followed along.
Once the chuckles died down a bit, Remus tried—again—to get them on track. "Alright, we lost a few minutes to that," ("WORTH IT!" Everett shouted. "SHUT IT!" Liam yelled.) "but there's still time. Everett, you know what to do."
"On it." Everett moved to the middle of the field a few paces away from them. He set his broom down, along with the box. He opened the box and pulled out a small ball full of golf balls and two Beater's bats, then unstrapped a Quaffle and two struggling Bludgers. He tossed the bag to Remus, a bat to Damyan, and the Quaffle to Angelina.
The team spread out then mounted their brooms and flew into position. Remus stepped back. Liam made his way to the hoops—Angelina, Raven, and Teddy not far behind. Malkom and Everett took turns hitting the Bludgers at each other. Sebastiaan waited high in the air, waiting for Remus to start throwing the golf balls.
Adrenaline pumping, and sweat dripping, the team stopped practice to fly down and greet the arriving team, Sparrow's Arrows, and their guardian, Mr. Brandon.
Everett reached them first and shook hands with the captain, Phillip Brandon. "Hey, Phil, how are you?"
"I'm good. How are the Feathers?" This was his nickname for anyone on Everett's team, the Black Wings.
"We're great," Everett smiled, an animalistic glint in his eye.
"We'll see," Phillip smirked.
"Ha! Yes, we will," Everett turned to Phillip's twin sister, Lillian, "And how are you, Lil?"
"I'll tell you after the game," she smirked.
Everett laughed heartily, "Then let's get started."
"Let's."
The rest of the Arrows nodded at the rest of the Wings, the Wings nodding back. Friendliness was left for long before and long after the game. During only had time for competitiveness.
Each team quickly made their ways to the sky and found their positions.
Remus held the Quaffle in his hand and the box with the unstrapped Bludgers and Snitch inside shut. Mr. Brandon took a whistle out of his pocket—along with a notepad for keeping score—and blew. Remus took his queue and threw the ball into the air and releasing the others from the box.
Angelina wasted no time grabbing the Quaffle and raced to the opposing teams' hoops. Lillian struck a Bludger in her direction. She dodged it and tossed it to Teddy, who caught it and threw at one of the hoops. He scored.
One of the other team's chasers caught the Quaffle and sped her way to the other side of the pitch, only to get hit by a Bludger sent by Damyan. Raven caught the Quaffle and quickly turned back to the hoops.
From the stands, Remus took a picture of her scoring another ten points for her team. Next to him, Mr. Brandon wrote '20' under the initials, BW, in his notebook.
The Black Wings made several more goals, frustrating the Arrows. The Beaters became more aggressive, nearly knocking Angelina off her broomstick. She dove just before the Bludger struck her in the head. Everett sent a Bludger towards Phillip in retaliation, missing, but hitting his shoulder.
Flying above most of the players, Sebastiaan watched the game and searched for the Snitch. Near him, the Arrows' Seeker—a surly boy with hooded eyebrows—searched the pitch and kept an eye on Sebastiaan. As the other team scored their first goal, Sebastiaan caught a glint of gold at the other end of the pitch, near the bottom of Arrows' hoops. He went in the opposite direction, diving towards the ground. The Arrows' seeker followed him (as expected). Just before Sebastiaan hit the ground, he looped backwards and raced towards the Snitch. The other Seeker tried futilely to catch up, but Sebastiaan got too far a head start.
Raven scored one more goal before she heard the whistle blow and Bastiaan scream, "I CAUGHT THE SNITCH!"
She saw a flash from the stands as Remus took a picture of Sebastiaan holding up the tiny, winged ball. He took another picture of her flying to congratulate her friend with a huge smile on her face. He took another of the Black Wings landing on the ground, still cheering. His next one was of Everett strutting over to Lillian Brandon and asking, "So, how are yah?"
Thank you so much for reading! More of my gratitude goes to those that reviewed, alerted my story, and/or made it one of their favorites. Please, succumb to peer pressure, and do what they did. ;)
Next chapter: Raven's letter and Sirius' thoughts.