Sunday morning came with eager feelings. Mae was excited to lead her first practice, even if she wasn't sure how well it would go. Her players weren't exactly the dream team, but she was confident after some thought that they would be able to make her proud-more importantly, they would be able to make Cedric proud. Mae got up and actually ate that morning, because she'd felt miserable sitting in the hospital wing for half an hour while Madam Pomfrey thoroughly checked her over to make sure she didn't have a concussion still. She hadn't been allowed to eat the sandwich that Fred had given her until close to two, and while she'd enjoyed it, she'd mostly been focused on going to bed.
Even though she was tired, Mae was happy. Quidditch was something she could do in any mood; she played well whether she was angry or sad or elated. Considering that her current mood was better than it had been in a while, she was confident that she'd be able to pump up the team and get them all working well together. She couldn't help but think about that as she ate breakfast by herself. She was one of the first ones in the great hall, which was unusual for her, so she was trying to stay quiet to avoid irritating the others. Thoughts were a good way to feel quiet, though every now and then she would snort as she thought back to a particularly bad toss one of the chasers had made during the trials.
Mae went down to the quidditch pitch once she'd finished eating. She wanted to get everything set up before the other players got there, and she had to decide what she was going to say to them when they arrived. Every quidditch captain she'd had made good, short speeches to encourage the team, and Mae wanted to do it too. "Thank you all for coming...sorry it's early…" she muttered to herself, shaking her head almost immediately. She was busy hiding small golden balls around the pitch that she was going to have the seeker try and find within a certain amount of time. She hoped that it would help her seeker, a girl named Rose, learn to really look around the pitch for them. She was well aware that Rose would never beat Harry Potter when it came to seeking, but she was hopefully that Rose would at least prove a challenge for him.
She didn't have to wait for her team to come down and join her on the pitch. They were all there before eight, which was a relief because then she didn't have to deal with yelling at someone for being late. "Well," she said, feeling a bit awkward. "Let's get started, shall we? Today's just about getting used to each other, and used to your roles. So, Zacharias, Ellie, Mark, I want you to start tossing the quaffle back and forth to get used to the way you move on your brooms, and to how you interact. Luke and Ely, I'm going to send out one beater for today-keep it away from the rest of us. And Rose, I've hidden twenty-seven gold balls all around the pitch. Find them."
Her team nodded and set off to work, and Mae took off on her broom to watch them and, on occasion, block the shots that Zacharias attempted to throw through the goals. After an hour, she was sure that they were all used to each other and used to watching out and making sure they weren't about to collide. She called the team over to her and changed up the exercise so that they were all practicing together, and not in separate groups. She didn't want them to feel divided, or like they weren't all a part of the same team, and that meant she needed to work them together.
They worked for another two hours after that, with breaks here and there to get water or to just sit and collect themselves. Mae worried that her first training session was a bit too long, being three hours total, but she's only scheduled it that way to know that her team was committed to the sport. She couldn't have them complaining about a practice that lasted two or so hours, and they wouldn't do that after enduring three hours of hard work.
It was finally noon, and Mae called her team down. "Thank you," she said once they were all standing before her. "I know this sucked, practicing being this long, but it won't happen again. I appreciate all of you coming here on a Sunday. Now go do something fun, okay? I'll get everything packed away here."
There was a chorus of replies that Mae didn't catch. Her attention had shifted to the figure that was flying above her, and his striking red hair. "Go on," she said. "I'll take care of everything. See you in the common room later."
Her team filed off the field and into the changing rooms. Mae watched them with a slight smile before turning to look up at Fred. "Are you coming up?" he yelled down to her.
"Come down here!" Mae replied, gesturing to the pile of golden balls beside her. "I've got some cleaning up to do!"
She was confident that he rolled his eyes, but he was too far away and she couldn't really tell. "To think," he said once he landed and climbed off his broom, "that I wanted a nice fly on a Sunday morning and all I get is to clean up after your team."
Mae frowned at him. "You're free to leave. No one's holding you here."
He smirked at her. "And miss out on an opportunity to see you? Why would I do that?"
"We're not really friends, Fred," Mae said, turning her back to him. "No one would blame you for not spending time with me. I wouldn't even be offended."
"What do you mean we're not friends?" he asked, his voice raising slightly as he tried to sound upset. "This is news to me, Mae. I've been operating under the idea that we're friends for years." "You do realize that this is the first year we've even really talked?"
"Oh please," he said, "Did you think I missed all of the smiles you sent me? We're both funny people. Funny people have a connection."
"Right," Mae said, not really listening to him anymore. "That's what this is. I do seriously have to clean up though, so if you're upset by that then you should probably go."
He picked up one of the golden balls that she'd had Rose train with. "How long do you think it'll take for us to get bored?"
"Considering the fact that I already am, probably not long."
"Want to do something fun?"
"I really need to clean up, Fred."
"I have a way that we could clean up and have fun."
"I highly doubt that," Mae said, rolling her eyes. "You should really go find George or Lee and do something with them; they'll be more accepting of something than me."
She leaned over to put the quaffle back in the case of balls for quidditch, and gasped when she felt something wet hit the back of her neck. Mae straightened up and was about to yell at Fred when she saw that he was holding what looked like a gold sponge soaked with water. "If you don't grab some, I'm going to win this war."
"What war-Fred!" she yelled when he chucked another one and caught her in the chest. She'd expected it to hurt because she knew he'd just transfigured the balls, but the blow didn't really phase her except for the fact that it was wet. She looked at him in shock and watched as he grabbed another water-filled sponge to launch at her. "No, don't you dare-it's not warm enough for this!"
He didn't seem to care that it wasn't exceptionally warm. He let the next sponge fly and Mae dodged it easily. It took her a second to decide if she was going to dive for the sponges near her to get some to throw back at him. He grinned when he saw what she was doing, and half of her wanted to yell at him for making her do this. But then, after a moment's hesitation, she knew that he hadn't actually forced her to do anything. This was something that she would have done with Cedric-similar to how they'd spent a lot of summers, actually.
Fred was right; once Mae started throwing wet sponges back at him, the quidditch pitch turned into a battleground. Mae couldn't stop herself from getting into their game and throwing as many sponges as she could at Fred, trying to hit him anywhere. She managed a few good shots to the side of his face and his chest, and he caught her quite a bit in the arms and legs. She shocked herself by laughing loudly, but that just seemed to prompt him to throw the sponges harder.
It took twenty minutes for Mae to finally call a truce. Her clothes were soaking wet and Fred's hair was dripping, and she was starting to feel chilled. "Okay!" she yelled. He was a ways away, but he heard her and perked up. "Okay, let's call it a tie! Please?"
"I'd say I won," he retorted, creeping closer to her with a sponge in hand. "Admit it!"
"Fred!"
"Mae!" he said mockingly.
"You're a jerk," she yelled. "Fred, stop!"
He ran toward her at full speed, and Mae took off. She had a sponge of her own, and she was bound and determined to end the war. Mae threw her sponge and managed to hit him in the forehead, and she ducked under his throw. She ran towards him again and he laughed joyfully before flopping onto the grass. Mae, in a much better mood than she'd been in for a while, threw herself down next to him. "I needed that." she admitted softly, not looking at him.
"I know," he said. "I figured the first attempt to cheer you up ended badly, so I should give it another shot. Did this make up for it?"
"Make up for a concussion, you mean?" she asked. "Yeah, it probably did. Merlin…" She paused, feeling the corners of her mouth tilt upwards. "I...I've been…"
He turned onto his side and rested his head in his hand. "You've been what? Forcing yourself to be miserable?"
She blushed. "It just feels wrong, being happy when he's gone. I know that he wouldn't want me to be upset like this for so long, but…"
"You're right. He wouldn't want that. So cut it out, yeah?"
"Easier said than done," Mae muttered. "I don't know how I'm supposed to get over this. He was like family. It's...Imagine if you lost George; that's what it would be like."
"That won't happen," he said confidently. "George and I are together until the end."
"That's what I thought too."
"I do know," he said slowly, "that if I lost George, he'd find a way to come back and haunt me if I did what you're doing."
Her face became redder. "I imagine that Cedric would want to haunt me too."
They fell into a silence that didn't last more than two minutes. Fred quickly got off the ground and pulled her with him. He used a spell to gather all of the sponges and turned them back into the golden balls. Together they cleaned up the quidditch pitch from Mae's practice and from their game. After that, they mounted brooms and flew. Mae couldn't help but feel free, even freer than normal. And it was at that moment that she realized she was turning a new page; a page without Cedric. She knew it wouldn't be particularly easy, but she was confident that she was going to have a certain Weasley there to help her through it.