kiss with a fist — florence + the machine

"a kick in the teeth is good for some

a kiss with a fist is better than none."

Sofia had started playing Quidditch completely by accident. She hadn't been around for First Year, so she'd had no idea about Quidditch or flying when she had first come to Hogwarts. It had been the old Gryffindor captain, Turner, who had introduced her to the game.

She had always been a sporty person. Her parents were both active people, and her grandfathers on both sides had been very dedicated to each of their sports. One to baseball, and the other to hockey. But baseball had been the one to stick the most.

When she'd first come to Hogwarts, she'd had no idea if she'd be able to play in any way, but she'd still packed her baseball bat. She'd also been a very angry little thing back then, so when she had learned a levitation spell, she had immediately gone down to the Quidditch pitch and started batting balls by herself.

Turner had seen her doing it once and been thoroughly impressed by her swing. He told her she had to try out for the Quidditch team. Sofia told him she had no idea how to fly. And Turner had said they were so desperate for a good Beater, he'd teach her to fly himself. And he had.

And so, Sofia found one of her joys at Hogwarts. She still preferred baseball to Quidditch, but it was better than nothing.

Now, Holly, her fellow Beater for the last three years, had graduated and her position needed to be filled. James had decided to keep everyone who was already on the team so they were only searching for a Seeker and a Beater. Which meant that the rest of the team was excused from attending tryouts and it was just her and James.

Sofia stared at her prospects as James gave instructions. Beater wasn't exactly the most coveted position so there were only three people trying out for it, as opposed to the six trying out for Seeker. One was a big guy, a year younger than her. Other a scrawny but tall Fourth Year boy, and finally another Fifth Year, short but stout.

Most people's first instinct when selecting Beaters was to go for the biggest guys possible, but Sofia knew that was of zero use if the player didn't have a proper technique. Yeah, they could probably bat hard, but it didn't matter if there was no aim, no direction.

Beaters' bats were wider than baseball bats, and the Bludgers were bigger than baseballs, and the objective of hitting the ball was different but it was the same basic principle in both games.

James's great idea for the tryout had been to let a bunch of Snitches loose and watch as the prospects tried to catch them while trying to avoid getting hit by Bludgers from the prospective Beaters.

It looked a bit chaotic, but Sofia found it amusing and oddly kind of effective.

"Sweet Merlin, look at that little girl go, I think she's caught four Snitches already," James said from beside Sofia. They were hovering a few metres off the ground, watching the scrimmage.

Sofia tore her gaze from the Beaters to look at the girl James had mentioned. She was a blur of auburn hair zooming across the field expertly. "That's impressive. Think you'll pick her?"

"She's got a pretty high chance. What about you? See anyone you like?"

The three boys were clearly not very comfortable with a club. They were mostly very frantically trying to hit the Bludgers that came near them.

"They're kind of... sad. But I think there's one with some potential I could probably make something out of."

She had to make it work. The Gryffindor team had been one of the strongest in the school for years. They'd made the final the past four years in a row, and won the Cup twice. And she'd be damned if that stopped this year.

Once all the Snitches had been caught, James called everyone down to the ground. Sofia relayed her choice onto him. He addressed the prospects. "That was a really great effort from everyone. Don't be discouraged if you're not selected this year, because there's always the next. Today, we are proud to select Lydia Schrader as Seeker, and Carter Ellis as Beater."

There were disgruntled grunts and happy cheers from the kids.

Sofia approached Carter, the tall scrawny Fourth Year, as everyone started dispersing.

Before she could say anything, Carter spoke. "Thank you so much for picking me. I swear I'll do my absolute best."

Sofia nodded once. "Right. That's good because you're still a bit green, kid. We'll need to work on your swing, a lot. But you've shown some real potential today."

Carter smiled widely. "I really look forward to working with you. You know, you were the one who inspired me to become a Beater. I was in First Year when you won the Cup for the first time and watching you made me realise just how influential Beaters could be, and it made me want to try it."

"Well, thanks for making me feel about a million years old, kid."

Carter's blush was very noticeable against his pale cheeks. "Oh — I'm, I'm sorry."

Sofia shook her head with a laugh. "No, it's okay. I'm glad I... inspired you."

Carter smiled. "Let me just say, Miss Bessonova — may I call you Miss Bessonova? — it will be an honour to play alongside you."

Sofia smiled. She liked this kid.

Carter's eagerness was not enough though, as the rest of the team found out during their first official practice.

It was pretty obvious that the new kid needed some help. He visibly struggled to land Bludgers the way Sofia told him to.

One hour before the rest of the team was due to arrive for their next practice, Sofia led Carter to the Quidditch pitch. "Ellis, I'm going to let you in on something very important. It is the secret to my success. I, personally, would not care if people knew, but James and the captain captain before him have cared very much, so, you mustn't tell this to anyone. You understand?"

Carter's eyes were wide. He nodded eagerly. "Yes, yes. I–I promise."

Sofia produced a bucket full of baseballs from the equipment cupboard. "Baseball."

Carter frowned. "Baseball?"

"Yup."

"I... I don't know what that is."

Well, at least the kid had the decency to look ashamed about it. "That's okay. Most wizards don't. It's a Muggle sport. Which I had played for years and years before coming to Hogwarts. It's not like Quidditch at all, but it does involve batting a ball in a very similar manner Beaters do for Quidditch."

Sofia broke down the basics of the game quickly for Carter and showed him how to position himself to bat. "Lift your back elbow higher. Higher, higher. That's it. And don't drop it."

She swung into the air. "And then you swing, putting your entire weight into it. That's how you get the ball far."

Sofia used magic to throw a few balls Carter's way whilst shouting instructions. Yeah, their team would be just fine.

Coach had made a big show out of revealing the Hogwarts Quidditch team a couple of weeks into the school year. Sofia had been unsure when he'd first asked her to participate since she didn't like to do more than required to at school and she wasn't too keen on the idea of being on the same team as Slytherins, but she'd ultimately agreed because she liked Coach, and he was going to be there the whole time. Plus, she did like to play Quidditch.

The criteria for choosing the members of the Hogwarts Quidditch team had been left to Coach's discretion. But Sofia didn't think that the criteria were too hard to figure out; good players who wanted to be on the team and might be considering a career in Quidditch. Sofia wasn't personally thinking of a career in Quidditch but Coach knew she was too good a player to pass up.

She was only grateful that James had declined the invitation to the team because of his busy schedule and Chloe had been called up. In fact, all the non-Slytherin players were alright people, whom Sofia didn't mind. The two Slytherin players on the other hand... well, Regulus Black, she didn't mind so much per se, because he didn't speak much and therefore didn't share any of his bigoted views with others, it was Maxwell Travers that was an issue.

Sofia had seriously considered just deserting when she found out who was going to be her partner as a Beater. Travers was easily in her top five people she hated at Hogwarts, he was prejudiced and a straight-up blood purist and wasn't afraid to admit it. So, Sofia didn't know how the hell he had accepted to be on the team with her Muggle-born ass.

Sofia watched in disgust from the Gryffindor table as Travers not-very-discreetly used his wand to perform some light hexes on unsuspecting Hufflepuffs, laughing rambunctiously with his dumb friends every time he got someone.

She started standing up from her seat. "I'm gonna go tell Coach I can't do this."

Chloe took a hold of her arm before she could leave. "Come on, calm down, everything will be fine."

Sofia looked back at Travers and then at Chloe again. "You sure about that?"

Chloe considered this, looking in the Slytherin table's direction too. "Well, you should at least give it a chance, do one practice and then decide."

Sofia huffed but gave in. Either way, she was never not in the mood to punch a blood purist in the face.

She finished her breakfast, still in a sulk.

Then it was time.

Sofia didn't even spare a look at Black and Travers as she and Chloe reached the Quidditch pitch. Thankfully, Coach was already there.

"Hello everyone and welcome to the very first official practice of the Hogwarts Quidditch Team!" Coach said excitedly as soon as everyone had arrived. "I have put out feelers for various schools that might be interested in playing some friendly matches. Since there is no official league for magic schools yet, friendly will probably be all we can do for this school year, but we're rather hoping we can get a proper tournament going for next year. Our first match will be in mid-October against the folks at Colegio de Magia in Spain, who will come to us. Sadly though, they won't be able to host us until February."

Sofia held back a cringe at Coach's Spanish pronunciation. There was a tiny flicker of excitement in her though, that would be cool, playing against foreign schools. If he'd opened with that, Sofia wouldn't have agonised so much over her decision.

Coach smiled widely at them. "So, I hope everyone is as excited as I am and ready to show the rest of the world that Hogwarts plays the best collegiate Quidditch there is."

Coach got some very mild responses from the team, but he didn't let that bring down his enthusiasm. Soon enough he was delegating tasks and running drills.

Sofia was immediately paired off with Travers and she could feel her stomach churning even at the sight of him. They didn't speak at all as they started passing a Bludger back and forth, slowly increasing the distance between them.

Sofia would even have said that things were going not horribly when Travers batted the Bludger with enough force so that Sofia had to dive out of the way at the last second instead of risking it hitting her head-on. "What the hell, Travers? You're not supposed to hit me with it!" She yelled across the pitch.

"Not my fault you're scared of a Bludger coming at you, Bessonova. What kind of Beater are you?"

"The kind that whooped your team's asses at the Cup Final last year, that fucking kind."

Travers's jaw set. Oh, he was mad now. "That was a stroke of luck from your Seeker and you know it. If it were up to me, Mudbloods shouldn't even be allowed to touch brooms."

Sofia didn't actually think that Travers would take that kind of low shots here, in the presence of a teacher, but it seemed he was still bitter enough about Gryffindor's victory over them — a victory that had very much been mainly orchestrated by herself and Rhea, another Muggle-born witch — last year to not even care about getting detention. "Wow, how does your blood purist overlord feel about the fact that two Mudblood witches have been living rent-free in your mind for the better part of a year? Can't imagine he's too pleased about that."

Travers's face was getting beet red and he was about to retort when Coach flew towards them, blowing his whistle madly.

"Stop it, you two! You're supposed to be a team! And this kind of behaviour will not stand, I don't care if you aren't the best of friends outside the pitch, but inside this pitch, you are supposed to work together and be decent to each other. If I find you yelling at each other like that again, I will not be so lax. So, now apologise to each other and get back to work because no one here has time for this."

Sofia's jaw dropped. "Coach, he literally called me a Mudblood!"

Coach lowered his eyes as if ashamed but he didn't reply. "Travers, you apologise for using that kind of language with your teammate and Bess, you apologise for shouting at your teammate instead of using your words to calmly resolve a conflict."

Sofia wasn't entirely pleased by this outcome, but she guessed she would have to take it.

"That's detention for three weeks for both of you if you don't," Coach added.

Sofia felt a lump in her throat but figured she could be the bigger person for once. "I apologise."

Travers glared at her but didn't speak until Coach nudged him. "I'm... sorry." He looked like he wanted to throw up.

Sofia flew back to her spot so they could continue passing the Bludger and she realised most of her other teammates had stopped to see what was going on but all quickly went back to their stuff when she looked at them. Except for Black, who just looked at her with a blank look on his face, Snitch forgotten.

"What? Want to hurl a slur at me too?" Sofia huffed.

Regulus scoffed but he didn't reply. He took one last look at her before flying off.

Sofia truly didn't get that guy. She supposed he wasn't the very worst of the lot of Slytherin assholes, but she knew how he had been raised, she knew his parents' beliefs. He might not lose his temper and hex and call people Mudbloods to their face but that didn't mean he wasn't the worst of them. God only knew what was going on inside that little brainwashed head.

Sometimes Sofia even thought he might not be that bad. After all, he had been raised in the same environment as Sirius, and Sirius had turned out fine. Surely, there was a small possibility Regulus might turn out the same way. But it would be too coincidental, that not one, but two of the kids of the most prejudiced family in the wizarding world to somehow turn out to be decent people. Nah, the probability of that was just way too low. Impossible, one might even say.

Regulus was just... weird. Sofia couldn't help but think back to the hours they had spent confined in the potions lab together. They had barely spoken a word to each other the first week after they had made their arrangement, and Sofia was never going to be the one to break the silence.

Each day they would each work on a separate potion, then when Slughorn checked on them, they would pretend to have worked together and one of them would talk to the professor about their respective potion.

It had been on the second week that Regulus was the one to break the silence. Sofia could feel his eyes on her as she peered down her microscope. She didn't usually bring it out during class because she didn't want people to ask questions. But she'd figured it would be fine with just Regulus, especially with their not-talking and never-acknowledging-this-arrangement-outside-this-room thing.

She sat back in her chair and sighed. "Just come over here and I'll show you what it is, I can practically feel you burning a hole into the side of my head."

She heard him scoff. Then a few seconds passed and she heard his chair scrape against the floor.

Regulus walked over to her work station and stood a foot away from her silently.

Sofia glanced at him momentarily. He looked like he'd rather be anywhere but there. Sofia resisted the urge to smile. "It's called a microscope. It's like a magnifying glass but like... times a fuck ton. You put a little piece of whatever you want to look at in between these bits of glass," she pointed them out, "and put in a drop of water. Then you look in this little eye hole."

She leaned away in her seat so that Regulus could look into the lens. He hesitantly stepped up to the apparatus and looked into the peephole.

"I... I was just looking at doxy wings right now and..." She took a vial from her desk. "This is how they react when you mix them with Doxy blood."

Regulus watched for a few more seconds before taking a step back. He stared at the microscope like it would tell him all its secrets by looking at it. Then he said, "Huh," and he went back to his seat.

Sofia had no idea what to make of that.

AN: I've been thinking about face claims and honestly I don't care that much, you guys can do whatever but for Sofia I imagine Ariela Barer or Margarita Mamun and for Regulus, Chase Hill.