[1]

Keeping on top of her homework definitely had its advantages; bright Saturday morning normally called for students to lock themselves in the library to study and complete assessments, but Eleonor could freely roam Hogwarts' grounds, camera in hand, and enjoy the spectacular greenery around her. Compared to the weekdays, where Eleonor was developing a habit to do her homework so fast that leaving it made her feel uneasy, Saturday and Sunday were her photography days.

Like now – the dark brick towers of Hogwarts contrasted beautifully with the somewhat clear blue sky. The occasional cloud dashed across the sky, but Eleonor hadn't seen the sky so clear since she got here. The mystical scenery before her proved hard to capture; the bright sky overshadowed the towers that the majestic appeal of them faded away.

Eleonor lowered her camera and looked around the courtyard. There were a few students about, mostly younger students who would do their homework tomorrow. All older students would be locked away studying for exams. She moved across the open area, eyes jumping from one student to the next. She wasn't used to open area photography with several human subjects. Taking pictures of people wasn't her strong point; she liked to take more abstract pictures, like a gigantic building to the left of her picture and a wide lake expanding endlessly on the right.

Nevertheless, when she caught sight of a mail bird gliding down, a student in the middle of the open area with their arm raised, Eleonor raised her camera. It was difficult to take pictures, but Eleonor used the burst feature just in case. As she flicked through the results, she found one where the owl's wings were wide open and legs stretched out to their maximum. Damn, good pic, she thought, and took a quick snap of the preview with her phone to put on her Instagram story.

"Why isn't it moving?"

"Oh Jesus," the voice was so close to her ear her hands jumped at the realisation that someone was extremely close to her. Her phone slipped out of her hands, so she dropped her camera (which was attached to her shoulder strap) to nearly dive after it. "Please don't stand too close to me." She turned around and saw Fred and George eying her camera curiously. George was the culprit.

"Your pictures," Fred said, as useless explanation.

"I know your pictures move, Percy already explained it to me." Eleonor huffed, slipping her phone back into her pocket and removing one earbud. "We do have moving pictures back at home, but to have such a high quality camera and moving? That's way too expensive." She kept one hand on her camera and the other on her hip. It still felt weird to do so through the many layers of her uniform.

"May we see the pictures?" Eleonor pursed her lips. She didn't really feel like giving her camera over, they wouldn't know how expensive it is and she couldn't stop it from falling if they dropped it. So instead she gave them her phone and her Instagram page. After making sure they knew how to scroll, Eleonor sat by them, earphones still connected. She tried her hand at taking pictures of people but ended up zooming into the objects they held; a quill, a textbook, their wand. One boy carried a wizard camera, big bulb propped on the top, chunky middle and worn exterior.

"Isn't this breaking the secrecy?" George asked upon handing her phone back. The picture on the screen was when she took a picture of a first year practicing the levitation spell. The only supposedly illicit activity captured was the wand and floating feather.

"Well, for one, Australia doesn't have that, and two, everyone just thinks its photoshop." The phone returned to its usual place in her shorts' pocket. She was wearing her school robe over some simple graphic tshirt and cargo pants, in an effort to show that she was only slightly cold. It was true, but it helped that her magic was heating up the air around her.

"Miss Yindi," Despite her best efforts, all the teachers still called her by her last name, and reluctantly Eleonor assimilated to responding to her last name. The source of the strong voice was a young woman, barely 30s. Her stride was strong and assured, her hair cut close but standing up. As she got closer, Eleonor could see the yellow eagle eyes that jumped around everywhere. "I have been looking for you. Have you taken your flying lessons yet? No? Are you free right now? I know that Australians have a very different method of flying but here in Britain we have a more… secure method."

"Uh, yeah I'm free," she glanced towards the twins, unsure.

"This is Madame Hooch, flying instructor and Quidditch referee." Fred quietly explained as George politely but enthusiastically greeted her. Her face was still just intense but the warm smile seemed to loosen her upright structure. She was intense but enjoyable.

"I can come with you," Eleonor agreed, figuring that she had taken enough pictures for the morning anyway. "I brought my broomstick, do you want me to get it?" the sharp-eyed teacher turned her attentive gaze to Eleonor, a pleasantly-surprised grin breaking across her face.

"I'll meet you down at the Quidditch field." She turned her gaze to George. "You're welcome to join." She stalked off, robes, which Eleonor now realised where cut to suit athletic activity, flowing out majestically behind her. Eleonor watched her march off, amazed.

"I – wow. She's -" Eleonor felt her face heat up, and quickly dashed away to the Gryffindor tower. "I need to get my broom." She mumbled to no one in particular, twins still left in the courtyard.

[2]

When she reached the field, a massive structure with eye-watering bright towers opposite the lake, she was surprised to see the twin's fire red hair across the open space. Madame Hooch crouched over some sticks on the ground. As she got closer she saw her hand two broomsticks to the twins.

"I'm here," she announced, dropping the pastel blue foot platforms and complimentary flying shoes. Her broom floated by, staying by her side like a well-trained dog. She looked up to see the twin's confused stares as they stare at the platforms. Meanwhile, Madame Hooch grinned something fierce.

"I take it you like to do some broom skating?" Eleonor dropped to the ground, switching out her normal sandshoes for the skin tight shoes. They had a strong sticking spell for not only the platforms but also so she would stay in the shoes. "How skilled are you?"

"Eh? I can't maintain my sticking spell for too long." She slid the platforms onto the broomstick making sure they could move up and down the wood easily. As soon as they rested at good pacing and tightened so they wouldn't move, Eleonor's broom dipped so she could click her shoes into the platform, finding her balance easy.

"Mr and Mr Weasley, why don't you join her?" Madame Hooch gestured to the sticks they had in hand. At her request, they saddled the stick, the small twigs at the end jutting out behind them. Oh, this is what Madame Hooch said by 'different styles.' The British used the traditional (and frankly, stereotypical) method of flying a broomstick.

Eleonor preferred the street skating version, where they treat the broom stick as a skate board. While it could be used as transportation, it was mostly used for tricks. At resting point, the broom stick was tilted to the sky slightly, although not to the degree the twins were holding them. Madame Hooch gave them a wave and Eleonor lent the stick forward until it began to smoothly glide forward. Gaining confidence, she began to crouch down. Her magic naturally began to encourage the broomstick to accelerate. Soon she was feeling the wind whip through her robes and hair, somethings she needed to get rid of before doing more extreme tricks.

Eleonor followed the curve of the field, leaning her body into the circle slightly. The broom sped up more and more, her magic following her wishes. Soon she had done a lap, Madame Hooch standing where she had been in the beginning. There wasn't enough space between them for Eleonor to slow down naturally, so she spun the broom a 180, moving backwards until the broom's need to move forward cancelled out her momentum. By the time she came to a standstill, she had crouched down low, one hand on the stick to steady herself.

As she stood up to remove her robe and tie her hair back, she spotted the twins floating maybe two stories higher, watching.

"DAMN ELEONOR." One of them yelled, even though loudly talking would've been enough.

"THAT WAS AWESOME." The other continued.

"I haven't seen broom skating in forever." Madame Hooch grinned, one hand on her hip as another one held a sleek broomstick upright. "That was amazing."

"It's basics," Eleonor could've thought up ten more tricks that would've made the twin's eyeballs pop out of their head, but just by having the platforms and shoes any other broom skater could see that Eleonor could only do the bare minimum. It was like having elbow and knee paddings on skates.

She flew up to where the twins floated, looking out across the field. At each end giant sticks with hoops proudly stood. Eleonor knew Quidditch vaguely; they played it in Australia, but her family wasn't really into the sports scene.

"Want to race?" Eleonor quirked a smile at George's request. Before she learnt how to stop, Eleonor learnt how to speed skate. And well, that was never really a good combo.

[3]

It was almost dusk, the sun taking its last gasp before the clouds smothered the sky. The pitch was already brilliantly lit by floodlights, strong enough for each blade of grass to cast its own shadow.

The broomstick felt alien and unsteady between her legs; she couldn't feel the wood, rather a rather beaten and tired throw pillow for her arse to sit on. The cushioning charms on the school brooms were old and almost gone, but it was better than nothing. Australian brooms lacked the comfort, and the spell was too complex for Eleonor to cast. Madame Hooch insisted on using the school broom anyway, despite any chance of Eleonor replicating the charm with Aboriginal imagination.

She slowly glided alongside the twins, having gathered enough confidence to fly higher than along the ground. Madame Hooch stood below, hands on hips and radiating approval. Fred was oozing laziness. He had one leg propped up on the front of the broom, arm resting on the knee. He leaned back, most of his weight on the back. Despite that, the broom was steadily moving forward. George was less obvious about his skill, preferring to just ride one handed and swinging his legs as they went.

Ignoring the cushion charm, the broom also showed signs of age. The stick was chipped and worn down. There was a certain patch around where Eleonor's hands where that was a touch smoother than the surrounding areas, someone had taken a little chunk out of the top and there was something at the base that looked like someone was trying to engrave their initials. To top it all off, the broom seemed to steer itself down. Correcting it was easy but Eleonor was still shaky on taking off.

"…he likes to believe himself as the next greatest Seeker, but between us three? Ron's more suited to be a Chaser, or a Keeper." Fred's voice dropped to a hush at his secret, a great difference in volume from the previous five minutes of rambling between the two twins. The change in tone shook Eleonor out of her concentration zone and the next words registered in her mind. "Is Qudditch popular in Australia?"

She considers the question. Eleonor wasn't sporty, preferring to ooh and ahh over whatever Jenny had or listen to the stories of her parent's latest hunt. The wizarding community didn't come together often, but the biggest gathering would have to be the matches. Eleonor gave a mental rundown of the shit Fred and George had talked about the entire afternoon – namely, Quidditch and their family. "Yeah, it's big, I guess."

"I've heard stories about Australian Quidditch teams." George pipes up, flying just a touch faster to allow his face into Eleonor's eyesight. He looks pleased.

"Well, uh, I guess things do get intense." Like any team and their fans would get intense in a match. Yeah, there might be a few stories of loose dragons but honestly there hasn't been a sports team that does stupid actions to hype up the crowd. "Although, I must say, I don't really follow that scene."

"You should come to our game next weekend!" Eleonor gave Fred a sharp glance, quickly returning her gaze to sweep the ground below them. It doesn't look like the ground got any closer in the time Eleonor wasn't looking.

"I didn't realise that there's a match so early in the term." She began to guide the broom higher, the twins adjusting their weight minutely to follow her upwards. "Are you in the team?" Despite her lack of knowledge about Quidditch, the Hogwarts; A History book had made it clear how important the matches were. To be on the team certainly justified their easiness with flying.

"Yeah! We're Beaters!"

"The match is on next Saturday, at 10am." George pointed towards the gold and red towers. Beside the structures were far more low-lying rows of seats, also decked out in the same colour.

"That's Gryffindor seats, Percy should be somewhere in the back corner. He says he hates it, but he shows up every time." Fred's grin is cheeky, and Eleonor finds herself grinning back. It was strange to hear of Percy from the twin's perspective, just like it was to interact with them after hearing of Percy's long sufferings at their hands.

"Alright. I'll come." I probably won't enjoy it, she thinks, despite the promise she says. The words aren't allowed to leave her mouth though, because Fred and George seemed to think the world of Quidditch. She looked down at the ground, now shockingly distant. She looked around, noticing the sun had completely disappeared below the horizon; the castle's lights were glowing strongly behind the Quidditch Pitch's towers. Madame Hooch was waving to them, voice lost in the distance between them.

Eleonor's magic wavered, heating spell almost breaking apart in the onslaught of colder weather. It had been alright when the sun was up, but now her magic wasn't going to hold. She glanced once more at the ground.

"Last one to the ground is a rotten egg!" she says, throwing them a smirk and pushing the point of the broom almost perpendicular to the ground, feeling her whole body being thrown back at the sudden wind pushing her back. Working with her magic, the broom smoothly transitioned to a curve and, keeping in mind that she needed to angle the broomstick a little high, she speeds along the grass, just a head above the solid compact earth. Madame Hooch was approaching rapidly; she couldn't do a 180 in traditional method let alone on a wonky broom, so very slowly she loosened her speed until she completed the flight with a slow, smooth curved around Madame Hooch. "Hey Miss!"

"So much for not being very comfortable with traditional style," she laughed, one gloved hand over her mouth to hide her smirk as the twins come zooming in, complaining about the head start the Eleonor had.