All a Dream

Chapter 10

Breakfast being finished, Mae led Harry to the back yard. The sky today was so blue it was comical, and little puffs of cloud dotted the horizon. Mae and Harry found Stew setting up the goal hoops for Quidditch. These were different than Harry had remembered, because they did not require poles to hold them up. The six hoops merely hovered in mid air, way above the ground, no apparent support beneath them. Stew was just finishing using a Hovering Charm on the last one as Harry and Mae approached him from across the large field that was the back yard.

"Hey, Stew," said Mae. "Who's coming over today? Harry and I want to play, too."

"Um, Phil and Bobby Cruickshank," Stew began, " 'Haggis' MacAlistair, Dave Olson, Alexis Tessier, all the Weasleys except for Bill and Charlie, both had to go back to work today, and Andrew Collins will if he can borrow a fireplace."

"I should ref, since Haggis and Phil will be here," replied Mae. "They don't enjoy rules."

"Yeah, that'll be okay."

"Right, then. You need any more help with setting up? Any brooms need repair or polishing?"

Stew walked over to a large crate and opened it up. "Uh, yeah, your Cleansweep has a few bent twigs." Judging by his tone of voice, Stew seemed to be at fault for the twigs.

Mae took her broom, slung it over her shoulder, muttering about how she would never leave her broom in such horrible condition, and, stealing one last glare at her second eldest brother, jogged back to the house.

"Doesn't annoy easily at all, does she?" said Stew, rolling his eyes with sarcasm to spare.

.:. :.: .:.

At around 10 that morning, everyone playing Quidditch had arrived, including Andrew Collins, who arrived about half an hour early. He looked like a punk. He had a little silver hoop through his earlobe; his hair was spiked in all directions, most erratically at the front; he wore a black t-shirt with the same band name as on one of the band posters in Stew's room, and his dark jeans were cut off just below the knee and were beginning to fray. The only thing that betrayed his gloomy style was his enormous grin.
The Cruickshank brothers arrived second, and couldn't be more different from each other. Bobby was tall and lanky, a mop of untidy brown hair framing his thin face and grey eyes. He looked old for only sixteen. Phil was at least 10 inches shorter, and rather bulkier. He was completely bald. Although Phil looked about 17, he said he was really 21. His eyes were round, but deep-set, and they always seemed to have a mischievous shine around the dark blue iris.
Dave Olson arrived just a few seconds later. He looked...well...you couldn't say anything except Swedish. He was blond, blue-eyed, tall, and had a rather strong accent. He seemed a rather serious person at first glance, but he always had a little smile on his face, as though he'd just thought of the perfect one-liner to say to his boss to get him very close to being fired.

The next person to arrive, Henry 'Haggis' MacAlistair, was red haired, loud, jovial, and had a thick Scottish accent. His eyes were a dark brown, and seemed to have very little white around the iris. He was wearing a plaid shirt, jeans, and no shoes.

Alexis Tessier was African. She'd had to change her full name because no-one could pronounce it, and she was Stew's age. She was tall and athletic, and wore clothes that most people would probably wear in late fall, instead of late summer. After complete introductions, Harry found out that she was Stew's girlfriend. So that's what he meant by "definitely not from around here", thought Harry. It certainly made sense.
The Weasleys arrived last, due to "a small explosion. Nothing to worry about."

Each person drew the positions they would play from out of a hat, "just to shake things up a bit", according to Mae. Team 1 consisted of Alexis, Harry and Andrew as Chasers, Dave and Ron as Beaters, Anthony as Keeper, and Fred as Seeker. Team 2 had Ginny, George and Percy as Chasers, Stew and Phil as Beaters, Haggis as Keeper, and Bobby as Seeker.

.:. :.: .:.

The game started off immediately with light teasing between Haggis and Dave, along the lines of the classic (but rather immature) 'our team is way better than yours is'. This seemed to be a regular occurrence among the group of friends, and was never taken too seriously.
After about five minutes, Mae ended the teasing, and released the Quaffle, Bludgers, and Snitch. Andrew almost immediately had possession of the Quaffle, and soared down the pitch. Harry raced behind him on a borrowed broom. As they approached the other end, Percy and George attempted to flank Andrew, but he dropped dramatically, and tossed the Quaffle up to Harry, who caught it. Harry found that he hated Chasing. The Quaffle felt uncomfortable under his arm, and he found it rather hard to hold onto. Somehow, he managed to get most of the way to the end of the pitch before he got a Bludger hit towards him by Phil. Harry ducked with both hands over his head. He shortly realized he'd dropped the Quaffle, and Ginny had caught it. She was really good. She sped past him in the opposite direction, laughing, and promptly scored a goal.

"Ten points to Team 2," announced Mae.

All of Team 2 cheered for a few seconds, gaining Fred enough time to spot the Snitch and race after it, Bobby right on his tail. Alexis and Harry then quickly scored two goals for Team 1, while George and Bobby tried to reach the Snitch. Unfortunately for Team 2, Bobby sneezed violently enough for him to nearly fall off his broom, letting Fred get the Snitch.

"Ref! Ref, rematch, unfair advantage!" complained Haggis, landing his broom.

"It was a clear win, Haggis, Team 1 wins the pick of ice cream flavour," Mae said, wiping away tears of laughter.

This made Haggis freeze with his mouth open about to say something else. "Ice cream flavour? That's all we were playing for?"

"Yeah," Mae replied.

Another pause. "Oh, okay."

A/N: Yeah, I hate having to write descriptions of Quidditch. I'm not really big into football (and by football, I mean soccer), and it's the closest thing to Quidditch I can think of.

Dave Olson just so happens to be a guy I met last summer. Exactly the same. I only realized this just after I finished writing this chapter.

Oh, thanks very much to the reviewers, especially Amelie de Lorraine and siriuslives394 for all the questions. I love answering questions, and some of the questions asked were things I didn't even think to consider, and a few actually changed the content of the chapters and the direction in which I was going, plotwise. Thanks!