House: Gryffindor
Position: Potions
Drabble
Prompt: Alicia Spinnet
WC: 719
Beta: Ash Juillet, bea writes. TheMajesticDolphin
"Angie, I swear, I can't go any faster," Alicia said, gently stopping her broom next to Angelina.
"What if you tried to modify the Wronski Feint? I know it is a seeker move, but we need you to be faster."
Alicia bit her bottom lip hard. Marcus, Alicia had long stopped referring to him by his surname, stopped right next to her. It was weird being on the same team as him. "C'mon, Spinnet, we don't have all day. Just trust yourself for five seconds and go faster. Otherwise, you're slowing our passing patterns." Angelina said.
He pulled out a thin journal from one of the inner pockets of his Quidditch robes. They all had playbooks like this, but Flint's was one of the most detailed Alicia had ever seen.
"Here." He ruffled through the journal, and opened it to a wide spreadsheet that held a set of gameplays. Alicia recognised the names of the dots and crosses that moved across the page. This journal was probably the same one Marcus had used when he had played in Slytherin. "I know you know how to fly, but try these sets of grips for your broom. Maybe you aren't communicating with it well."
Alicia looked at Angie, but her friend only nodded. "I want to go all the way to the World Cup with this line of Chasers, Alicia. So maybe we can try it his way."
"Fine!" Alicia said, "but don't expect instant results."
Alicia didn't really know why she hadn't thought to come back to Quidditch immediately after the war had ended. The war had been exhausting. Alicia hadn't fought in the thick of it for most of the war, but the experience of living through one had been traumatic enough. She had convinced herself that as long as she was surviving every day, that would be enough.
Angie had asked her if she wanted to show up at the Falmouth Falcons game, and before she could make an excuse, Alicia had found herself agreeing.
She hadn't been to a game in forever, and the Falmouth Falcons were a decent team.
The game had started on one of the warmer days. Alicia had bought herself a mug of butterbeer and settled on the Falmouth side of the stadium. She had told herself that she would only stay an hour just so that Angelina could see she had made time to come.
What she had not expected was to be up on her feet screaming from the Chaser's first pass. She knew that she would fit in with their team dynamic. If she was up in the air with them, they (as a group of Chasers) would be unstoppable.
Alicia trained for six months after that game, and she barely made it in time for the combined Quidditch open trial. She was older, by a few years, than most of the players around her. Before the trial, teams asked them to rank where they wanted to go.
Alicia knew it was asking for the moon, but the only option she wrote on her ranked list was: Falmouth Falcons.
She wanted to play with Angelina and Marcus or not play at all. The team itself wouldn't go easy on her, and that was what she wanted from her Quidditch experience. She wanted the ease of fitting in with a group of Chasers, but the sore muscles and mental exhaustion of working on a high-calibre team, the way she, Angelica, and Katie had fit together. A machine where a missing part meant that the soul of the team couldn't cope.
If Alicia had a word for it, she would use: Indispensable. She wanted a place where replacing her would feel painful.
Training with Marcus Flint and Angelina was difficult. She forgot how exhausting it was to live, breathe and survive only for the sake of Quidditch. But, her decision to play did leave her more satisfied than her ghostly existence before she had made the decision to start playing Quidditch again.
She warned Marcus not to expect instant results, but they both knew that tomorrow, she would come back perfectly executing the manoeuvres. After all, Alicia wanted to go all the way to the World Cup Finals with Angelina and Marcus, and that was a pursuit that demanded perfection from her.