Morning. It was dark in the dorm; quiet, and laden with breath and the muted scents of waxy, unlit candle bodies, bottled perfume, and the usual stink - not that you'd notice, once you were familiar. On a bedside dresser a book opened by some unseen force, its cover flipping aside with sudden and certain decision. So too did its pages spring from where they lay, shooting through the air and pivoting on their binding, their edges thrusting aside the stagnant warmth which so wanted to keep them down. But yet they came, building on the opposite side of the binding until no more pages could come, at which point they shifted in their directives and returned, one side to the other, over and over and over again in a rapid, pouring cascade.
At any other time their sounds would have hardly been perceptible - the noise of their dry, fibrous surfaces scraping along each other from some unseen force so quiet as to go completely unnoticed. However, it was more than enough for one person. This one person, who was used to waking at such witching hours, found it sufficient, and so instead of buzzing robot mirrors or any regular musical morning charm, they found it enough. Consciousness came. It grew in their mind, loosening the cozy embrace of sleep and casting it aside, as a sprout would its seed housing. Sleep was let to fall away, and it left them unguarded and unburdened, unsheltered, to rise and burgeon into the oncoming day.
Ray opened her eyes. She lay still for a minute, the writer's continuously fanning pages generating the slightest of breezes in the warm, stinky dorm. But she could only lay there for a moment. With sleep gone, her thoughts got going, and once they did there was no stopping them. Her nerves came to life, as did her breath. She got up. She had no other choice. She threw off her covers, swung her legs out of bed, and stopped Kendra's writer, bringing the Alarm Page's mission to a close. She looked into the dim dormitory. Even though she didn't mean to, she glanced at the sleeping figures around her - many (if not all of whom) she considered her friends, and fellow Gryffindors at the very least. And yet, she thought about the mutterings she'd heard. Things about flying, or being loud, or hanging out with upper-year boys. She remembered Kendra saying it was only natural, and that she shouldn't let it weigh on her. But it did.
She moved around the giant four-poster she'd been allotted, tracing her fingers along the bed's edges and its wooden posts until she got to her own dresser on the other side. She pulled open the soft, heavy, wooden drawers and retrieved her jogging outfit, and dressed clumsily in the glow of torchlight coming from under the doorway. It was Friday. The last day before her race. The thought sent needles through her.
She went down to the common room and found it empty of people - even the occasional large, snoring, upper-year classmen named "Socks" hadn't taken up residence in one of his oddball couches. It was just empty. She looked into the dark space, standing still, heart beating uncomfortably in her chest. She didn't want to sit. Once a pair of cats ran by, romping after one another through the chair legs, but she had no desire to call them to her. She kept thinking of the team, and how nice it felt to go running and flying with them, and how good it would be to being accepted into their group - and yet, how fragile her odds were of it actually happening. It all depended on beating Potter tomorrow. She just had to beat Potter.
Within a quarter of an hour (Ray had gone over to stand in front of the glowing coals in the fireplace) the rest of the gang came down the stairwell: Kev, Ashley, Ben, Sada, and Daniel. They went out to the field. It was fucking cold, but she ran fast, and soon heat pumped through her. She listened to the few thoughts people had, laughed at the exchanges between the team and the other joggers from other houses. It was nice. Of course, with the Quidditch season so close at hand, it wasn't long until the topics returned to her worries.
"Tryouts this weekend, Firsty!" said Kev. "How ya feelin'?"
She heaved a breath of the cold, pre-dawn air.
"Good!" she said. "Feelin' good!"
"That's the ticket!"
"Think there'll be a lot of people at tryouts?" she asked.
"Oh, I'm sure there'll be a fair few! You'll have your work cut out for ya."
"Got a bunch of third-years interested," said Ben.
Ashley slowed into pace with her - "Think you're ready?"
Ray thought about the progress she'd made and how she compared to other flyers - both in class, at the stadium, and when she'd flown with the team itself.
"I think so," she said. "Pretty ready. I'll do my best."
"Make sure ya do!" said Kev.
"Nice you found robes," said Ashley.
"Yeah!" she smiled.
She thought about Ashley's healing charm. Even with the flying robes yesterday, another dose could still probably do her good. But she was hesitant to ask… from what it seemed, it'd been a generous favor on Ashley's part.
"Might be nice weather for it," said Kev.
Ray shook off the line of thought and watched the sky. Dawn was coming on in bands. It was starry directly above, then a slow fade to navy blue, turquoise, and a pale green by the greenhouses and forest. Shadowy clouds blotched here and there like gray smudges of mud, and every time they did a lap the castle sparkled with a few more torches.
After half an hour, they ran up through the corridors and hit the showers. She then went down to the already-bustling Great Hall and had a big breakfast of eggs and sausage with the rest of her year, where Zach conducted the majority of conversation. He was oddly excited about the new Transfiguration topic; worms to tea spoons, going on about how things looked from the worm's side of things - she listened half-mindedly, coming to attention everytime Kendra or someone else butted in with an idea or comment. She made one point, about how worms didn't have enough going on in their heads as it was, and started to tell a story, but then started to hear how cobbly and insubstantial her words were and let them peter out. But other people sprang up with their own ideas and she let them. She had enough on her mind. It was all she hoped for to just have a nice, easy day ahead.
But Hogwarts (as more and more often seemed to be the case), didn't seem to care.
"This upcoming ingredient is of special importance!" announced Professor McDonnell halfway through Potions. She was standing before a colorful list of the four elements on the blackboard and the chosen ingredients so far. "It plays a key role in determining the quality and potency of your brews!" she said. "That's why it's called the key ingredient!"
Thankfully, by 'upcoming', it was meant as the ingredient after the next one, so there was still time.
"But that doesn't mean you should take it any easier!" said Professor McDonnell. "The faster you get this one done, the sooner you can start on the key! And you'll need all the time you can get, believe you me... time management skills, everyone!"
Fucking. Great.
When class ended, she hurried to pack, but Nate came up from the back of the class and caught her.
"Zuwaldt, I was wondering if you'd like to begin working on the project this evening," he said. He stood with one hand around the strap of his side-bag, his posture stiff and composed. "We could schedule for after classes, if that's convenient for you. I'd also be open to working on other homework if you're interested."
Ray paused - other homework?
"Can't," she said, stuffing her quill and ink bottle in their pocket. "Busy. Practice."
"That's right," he said, eyes on her. "Your flying practices. For team tryouts."
She looked at him.
"You remembered."
"What about after?"
She thought about it.
"I'd be pretty late," she said, spreading her backpack contents and stuffing in her notes. "I really don't think I'll have time today. Besides, it's not due until next Wednesday right?"
"Yes, but it's worth a lot of points," Nate said, as if she hadn't heard that. "Normally I'd be fine with it, but it's best if we got the scales out of the way as soon as possible. And if we did a little better on our report than last time."
She went upright, searching for accusation.
"You don't think we did okay?"
"I think we did okay," Nate said. "How do you think we did?"
She held his gaze and found a tired, sort-of general agitation there that she was all too familiar with. She softened.
"I think we did okay," she relented. "There just wasn't enough time."
"Exactly," he said. "So, tonight?"
She heaved a sigh and looked past him. The Gryffindors were gathered at the door waiting for her. She was holding them back.
"I could meet you at your portrait," he pressed. "Does 7:30 work?"
Son of a bitch.
"This is so stupid!" she groaned. "Professor Donarko must love cramming the whole school in the basement."
"Do-nark-o," said Nate. "But yeah. Be glad you're allowed to leave, it's nearly a sweatshop."
She must have said it like "Darko". And she didn't know what a sweatshop was, but let out half a laugh anyway.
"I even heard some Slytherins calling it the Lesser Hall last night," said Nate.
"Ha. Like the Great Hall?" she said. "That's kinda true."
He raised his white eyebrows. "Indeed..."
She snorted, then covered it by bundling up her spare parchment and sticking it in whatever open spots she could find around her books. Even if Nate was odd, the truth was, she was feeling guilty about the lack of effort she was putting in. But with the race and Quidditch tryouts, the timing just didn't work out.
"I'll think about it," she said. "I might wrap up early. It wouldn't be good to overdo things right before tryouts."
Nate encouraged the idea, then asked if she could update him when she reached her decision.
"Perhaps you could send me your owl?" he said.
Her eyebrows raised. He'd remembered she had an owl, too. She hadn't even seen Turing once this year, and would probably have to go all the way up to the owlery to find him. And she didn't even know where that was...
Nate took her silence as an answer and told her he'd meet her at the portrait if he didn't hear from her. At the portrait.
"Okay. Fine," she said. "Send the Fat Lady for me, and she'll let you know if I'm in."
"Alright."
Ray tugged up her zippers and hefted the pack on.
"If you don't mind, I might go ahead and get started beforehand," he said.
He was looking across the room, and she followed his gaze to Monica. She was talking with Professor McDonnell, who had a hand on her hip and looked deep in thought, no doubt putting together an answer for whatever bizarre question Monica had come up with. Ray's eyes went to the yellow of Monica's uniform, and felt a pang of sympathy for Nate having to share a House with her. She grimaced.
"Okay. I've got to go," she said.
"Alright."
"I'm going to put a load more time in once I find some," she said. "Promise."
"Alright."
She could tell he didn't believe her.
"Really," she said. "Hopefully by next Monday, I'll be on the team, and I won't have to practice flying every night."
"Is that so?" he said. "Well, I hope it goes well. Good luck."
"Likes and prayers?" she said.
He gave a smirk, and that was good enough for her. She said bye and went for the door.
The classes went by one after the other. She went to Care of Magical Creatures, where they were starting on toad-handling. Then Crafts & Artistry, which was an enormous waste of time (just painting wooden animal cut-outs). As dull as they were, they seemed to go by twice as fast.
She only ate half a meat pie at lunch and Riley caught her on the way out of the Hall.
"Why does it have to be a race?" he said.
Dismay wove in with annoyance.
"That was Potter's idea," she said.
"You could do something else," he said. "Like make hoops. See how many points you score in five minutes. I've got a Quaffle -"
"I'm sure he's done that," she said. "The point is to do something he hasn't done, isn't it?"
She felt sour.
"What about Bogie Ball?" Riley pressed. "That's not a common game. Borrow a Nose from Philip and do that, that'd be fun, even."
"That's still not good enough," she said. "He can out-maneuver me! I'm sure of it. I'm still a beginner. It has to be a race, in the trees, where there's obstacles I'm practiced around… the point is to slow him down."
Mouth tight, Riley relented and went off. She went to Fitness tense and showed up late to the ready-room.
"Are you wanting your robes back?" she asked Kendra.
"No," she said, swapping the top of her uniform for her exercise shirt. "Too much trouble. You keep it."
Ray's eyes went to her chest - "You got a bra."
"It's one I've had," said Kendra, straightening out her shirt. "Figured it was time to start."
"Right," she said. "Right. It's nice. It's cute."
The words were awkward in her mouth.
Kendra flashed a smile - "Thanks!"
Ray turned to her locker. A spark caught her insides smouldering. Thoughts burned in her head - what was Kendra doing, wearing a bra? She didn't even have boobs yet. What did she think she was, twenty years old?
But at the same time, she knew Kendra wasn't the only one with the idea. Abby had been wearing one all year. Her anger weakened, curled, withered and twisted to unease. She didn't have any bras at all. And she doubted very much her Mum would have any for her. What was she going to do? Would that be a weird thing to ask Rachael?
She tried to keep it off her mind. She went through the flying lesson (they were only just starting rolls, which was incredibly frustrating, as half the period went by waiting for Mr. Vola and Kingsley to cast Slow-Falling Spells on everyone). Then it was Charms - they had their Lumos tests, which she passed with full marks, thankfully enough. But it didn't do much to improve her mood. She'd overhead Cole getting the same marks as her.
But on the way up to the common room, her mood lightened. The success of the Lumos tests had put everyone in a cheery mood and they all talked and laughed. Samara's father had gotten hired as an Analyst and was being sent to Greece, and everyone talked about the places they'd like to go someday, and what kind of work they'd like to do. Ray said she wanted to visit New York, which everybody agreed with.
They got to the common room and sat at a table below the enormous sunny windows, and she rushed through the important bits of her homework. She was eager to get out to the stadium. She went up to the dorm and readied for the stadium with Abby, Samara, Kate, and Anna, and on the way back into the common room she bumped into Riley.
"Hey," he said.
"Hi," she said back, stuck between excitement and apprehension.
"Are you going out?"
"Yeah! Did you - did you want to -"
"Let's talk up here," he said, and nodded up the boy's stairwell.
"The balcony?"
"Yeah."
Abby and Samara gave her interested looks.
"I'll meet up with you guys in a second," she said.
A ghost of a smile crossed Abby's face. Ray felt her cheeks go red, but she rolled her eyes and went up with Riley. Sure enough, the balcony was empty as always. He went to the guard wall, where he leaned on the rail and looked out over the countryside. The sunlight made his hair glow. She found herself watching him. His skin was peachy, and the transparent parts in front of his eyes were visible. The wind blew around them and she could smell his deodorant.
"So," he said, turning to her.
Her heart thudded. He just wanted to talk, she told herself. He probably wanted to discuss the forest again. Annoying, but no big deal.
"I was thinking about the race."
"Right," she said.
"We should do it somewhere else," he said.
She heaved an exasperated sigh.
"There's a valley in the nearby moorland," he went on. "It's perfect - close by, but completely blocked from view." He had one elbow rested on the railing. "Nobody goes there. Plenty of hills and shrubs, so you'd be slowed down if you kept close to the ground -"
"No," she said, shaking her head. That fit all the things she said, but it wouldn't work now. "No, no no."
"Or there's a park in town," he said. "Plenty of trees. I know a passage out through the wards, we'd go after curfew -"
"No!" she said. "We can't. Maybe we could have, if I'd known about those places a while ago, but it's too late - Potter and I would be on the same footing. I'd be completely unfamiliar with the area, never mind a route, which I'd need to make all over -"
"Routes don't take long," Riley said. "We could go tonight."
Her thoughts jammed.
"Tonight?"
"Yeah."
"Just me and you?"
"Yep."
She stared at him.
"Listen," he said. "You're a good enough flyer to learn an area in a few hours. We go tonight, right now if you want, and sneak back in before curfew. Nobody needs to know."
She felt her nerves sparking. Just her, and Riley? Ben's warning floated up in her mind, but she ignored it - she knew Riley well enough. They'd hung out a few times now. And he wanted to hang out with her? He was suggesting it, just the two of them?
"I - we -" she suddenly thought about everyone waiting for her. "We can't," she said, crestfallen. "I'd want to. I do want to. But we can't. We're about to head out to the stadium. People are waiting for me."
"Tell them you've changed plans."
"I can't do that…"
"What about after?"
After? she thought. She might be able to do after...
"People would still wonder where I went," she said. "I'd have to say something." Zach's and Kendra's faces appeared in her mind. Then she thought of Potter, and Riley's suggestions fell down, plummeting out of the sky like deadweight and sinking immovably into the ground. Stupid Potter.
"We can't," she said. "I can't. It's too late. Potter won't agree. He'd never. He'd think something was up, and he'd call me out on it. And I can't. A one-night practice isn't good enough..."
Riley's tone shifted.
"The forest is too dangerous."
Her eyebrows went together.
"Again with this?" she said. "We're not even over the forest. Just over jogging trails. And the part we fly over, it only takes a… well, a minute -"
"Doesn't matter. It's enough."
"For what?"
He didn't say anything. She bristled.
"For what? Tell me! How do you know?"
"I know," he said.
"But how?"
His lips went tight. She huffed..
"I've never seen what the problem is!" she said, throwing out a hand. "I really don't get it! It's just trees! Everyone's so freaked out about it! I've been out there loads of times - loads of times. There's never been anything! Nothing's come after me, nothing's roared at me, or chased me down, or tried to eat me up. It's just a big, silent, creepy wood, with a few pixies and thornbushes -"
"There's more than that."
"Says who?"
"Everyone," he said, voice rising. "And it doesn't matter. It only takes once. It's forbidden, doesn't that mean anything to you? It's got werewolves. It's got monsters. Do you want to get bitten? Have you seen the sorts of nightmares lurking out there, do you know what kind of horrible things something like that could do to you, how it could affect your life? You said you were just half-blood. Have you ever even seen a monster?"
Her ears pounded.
"Look," she said. "I know people say there's things out there. And there are, I'm sure. But I've never seen any. I don't think they'd come anywhere near where we are." Bears never did. Mountain lions and wolves never did. They always steered clear of populated areas, why would monsters be any different? "Plus we're on brooms! And Professor Byron said Hogwarts is one of the safest places in the world, isn't it? And there's wards and things!"
He didn't say anything.
"So it can't be that dangerous!" she said. "Right? We're only along the jogging trail, which people go on all the time, so it's got to be protected! And that one... that one section is surrounded by developed areas. It's got the gouge on one side, and - and - trails on the other," she said, realizing she didn't know what was on the other end by the lake (but with the booming, it had to be construction or something, didn't it?) "So I don't see what you're so worried about. Werewolves and whatever other horrible things could never get anywhere near here."
He stood upright, eyes flashing with anger. Eyes widening, she wondered if she'd angered him for a second, but then he was relaxed again and she wondered if she'd imagined it.
"What if you fall off your broom?" he said.
She groaned.
"Nobody's going to fall off their brooms," she said.
A moment passed. She felt disappointment unfolding in her chest.
"Look, if you really don't want to go, that's okay," she said. "I don't want to, but like I said, I've got another friend I can ask if you don't want to come..."
"No."
"What does that -?"
"I'll go," he said.
Again, her thoughts tumbled.
"You're okay with it?"
"No, I'm not. But it's better me out there than some other first-year who doesn't know what they're doing."
She watched him. Muted laughter came through the doorway as some upper-year boys went up the stairwell, and it broke the mood. Riley looked past her, down to the grounds, and she watched his face.
"Are you sure?" she said.
"Yeah."
"Well. Okay then. Thank you."
"Yeah."
He stuck his hands in his pockets.
"So we have to decide on a time, don't we?" she said. "How early do they serve breakfast?"
He looked up at her - "What?"
"For the race. We should probably do it when people are eating, right?"
"Yeah. Right. Er, seven. But you can go down to the kitchens before that."
"Perfect," she said (kitchens, she thought?). "And hey, tThat way you can get a snack in so you don't have to go on an empty stomach!"
He didn't smile.
"Right."
The wind blew.
"Well, I've… I better get going," she said. "Thanks again."
"Sure."
"Maybe I'll see you later?"
"Yeah."
"And thanks for offering to show me those other spots," she said. "Really. I appreciate it. Maybe we can - er, go another time?"
He looked at her. Her heart beat, but his expression remained unreadable.
"Maybe."
Not knowing what else to do, she said bye one last time and left, meeting everyone at the table and going out to the field. Potter, she saw, had his fingers stuck up in his hair and was staring down at his homework with stiff shoulders, like he'd just been looking at her.
She flew through the treetops, wind streaming over her flying robes. She looked down at the forest floor, trying to spot anything worrisome. But there were no nightmarish creatures. No pits filled with tongues and teeth, no enormous explosive scorpions (the Skrewts Kev told her about), no weird, shadowy horrors. It was just fallen branches, saplings, decaying leaves, and creepy darkness. Everything normal. The sense of forebodance was even lighter, and again, she knew Riley was just being paranoid. The forest might be a real bastard to walk through, but monsters were probably as likely as any other huge predator. And if they got caught up in plants, there was that Diffindo spell someone had mentioned in herbology. And that was another thing - they had magic! If something came after them, they'd just use their spells to blast it away. Riley for sure knew some defensive stuff, and Potter had some jinxes for sure, he'd even used some on her!
And there might have been the gouge. She pulled up to a stop, the Tailwind carrying her a bit further out in the open than she'd wanted, so she had to fly back a bit. The gouge was just a big, muddy, messy mystery. She was sure it was man-made, and had wards - half the time, she saw it in her mind with big ruddy tire tracks. It had to have something completely ordinary explaining it, otherwise it'd be making headlines, wouldn't it?
She got to the intersection and started doing runs. But even with the thought of the race being tomorrow she couldn't help but feel it was all more old news. Maybe she had done enough. Maybe she was ready. Dodging all the branches and bushes closer to ground level gave her more of a challenge, but it was slow going, tiring, and they wouldn't be that far down anyway, so she stuck to the canopy.
She thought about her classmates. She thought about Potter. And she kept thinking, over and over again, about Riley. She'd been able to keep from worrying while at the stadium (they'd had a game of "Fumball" with a ball Trip had brought, which was a lot of fun) - but now that she was by herself again, the thoughts kept coming. She would seek him out, she decided, when she got back to the common room. They'd talk things out, and she'd reassure him, and they'd make a plan. Maybe they'd even carry the brooms along the forest's edge until they got to the trail - they could go quickly, and hope to just not be spotted. Or Riley might be able to transfigure them, or they could hide them somehow. Maybe he had one of those invisibility cloaks he'd mentioned. They'd think of something.
The bells boomed, and her nerves sparked. Time had flown by. Her last practice was officially over, and she made for the stadium, looking at all the treetops - had she familiarized herself with them enough? Did she really feel like she was at Potter's level? She felt she was ready. They'd been seconds apart on the aptitude test. Seconds. And with the branches there, it'd be enough, it had to be.
Nervous, but excited, she flew up one last time to make sure she was as close to the stadium as possible. Then something bright caught her eye and she stopped. A flashlight? Alarm stabbed into her chest - was someone standing by the abandoned tunnel with a flashlight? She drifted closer, peering through the branches. But it wasn't a flashlight at all. It was the ghost eagle… Riley's ghost eagle. Perched on a stone carving. Waiting for her.
== Interesting Facts of Modern Magical Sports ==
The "Fumball" was originally created as a practice ball for Quidditch games. Although balls bearing its likeness in enchantments have been around for centuries, it wasn't until the mid-1900s that it became officially recognized and given its own proper name and sport. This took the form of Fumble Rumble, which can be played either on foot or in the air on broomsticks. It is likened most to the Muggle game of American Football, only it is played in a pit of mud (or above a pit, filled with Giant Mud Scamps that squirt heavy streams of mud at players), and with the Fumball itself constantly trying to squirm free of players' grasps.
Although never making it into the world of mainstream sports, its comedic potential and lively commentary has helped it climb in popularity on late-night Looking Glass streams. So if you find yourself awake at 1am with nothing better to do, you will find few things better at putting your mind at ease than plopping down on your sofa with a large bowl of popcorn, and switching to a game of Fumble Rumble.
Attendees are advised to bring rain ponchos.