Title: The Reason II
Author/Rating: combined because their self-explanatory; Loonynamelass/PG
Word Count: 328
Prompt: Quidditch
Warnings: This one is largely internal. Read at your own risk. Not necessarily connected to the other Cormac McLaggen drabble. Also, it has being Confunded from a first person point of view! How exciting, right?
Notes: I like this one because of the last line. I never thought about that event like that before (I'm using demonstrative pronouns because you've yet to read it). Oh, and finally, in reference to the first line- anyone else forever wondered how Harry could have somehow never encountered a person in his own house with that large an ego?
Gryffindor is compact- about ten kids per year, seventy altogether- and yet it is seldom that students communicate outside their year, close family, and clubs.
Harry Potter was isolated as any in this respect. No family to speak of, sans the Weasley clan, and the only campus organizations he endeavored to participate in were the Quidditch team, 1991 to present, Dueling Club, 1992, and his famously led Dumbledore's Army, 1995 to 1996. That had to be it, thought Cormac to himself. Otherwise, there was no way he could have missed the bird hanging by Potter's side.
Cormac didn't care for politics or history. His family was safe- purebloods, all, and moving to Switzerland until the whole deal was straightened out- and finances secure. What Cormac did care about was Quidditch. His life was structured around it: His presence on the Gryffindor team would culminate in Captain Potter handing him the Quidditch House Cup. He would have a respectably sized family, with a loyal and moderately beautiful and witty wife, without any scandals to sully his name. Finally, he would retire, he immortalized in the annals of sports fame and swimming in galleons.
The odds were on his side. Handsome, buff, confident, and proficient in Keeping, achieving his ambitious goals would be no problem.
The odds were against him. Oliver Wood was the only keeper whose skill could surpass Cormac's (and only just, he added). His Gryffindor bravery (and lack of Ravenclaw cleverness) resulted in an inconvenient Doxy poisoning during the tryouts afterward. Finally, the girls in his year (the Gryffindor ones- Merlin forbid any other unworthy house!), through thorough testing, did not meet his expectations for a Quidditch wife, being rude, and unfaithful. He adapted for these extenuating circumstances: He'd try out for a different international team than Wood did, make it in seventh year, and cast his eye toward the lower years for an acceptable girlfriend.
Then it landed on Hermione Granger, and he missed the quaffle.
