A/N: I'm back! It's been awhile since I've written although I do have the outline for this story and several chapters in the works that I haven't finalized yet, so I haven't been able to post in awhile! My goal is to spend some time this summer catching up on my fics starting with this one! This chapter is a bit of fun, only slightly relevant to the overall plot but I couldn't resist writing about water quidditch after the idea popped into my head! Enjoy!
P.S.: Since I started writing this before I really read a lot of ff I wanted to give some notices. This story has only cannon ships and will have little to no smut. It's not a romance. I try to stay close to cannon for magics and such, although sometimes I add things to help my story or make it more interesting.
Chapter 3: Water Quidditch (Harry)
September passed quickly as Harry, Hermione and Ron settled into their new "American" routine of school, work and helping Ron assimilate into muggle culture. Harry and Hemione hung out with Renesmee and Jake often on campus and they were soon becoming pretty good friends.
The first week of October Ryan invited Harry and Ron to play water Quidditch with him and his friends out in the Sound. Harry was worried about being cold from getting wet but Ryan let them borrow waterproof Quidditch robes from his parents' store.
"They're made of a special material that's like seal skin." Ryan was explaining to Harry and Ron when he came over to drop off the robes that week. "They totally keep you dry and warm and the material is so soft and comfortable!"
Hermione huffed from the living room. "This is seriously bad judgement. Honestly, playing quidditch out over the water! You will most certainly be seen by muggles and then we'll all be in major trouble."
"The no-maj never see us because we go right out to the middle of the Sound far enough from land and the ferry routes. Besides, as a safeguard, the pitch is magically enchanted to be invisible to anyone who doesn't know it's there," Ryan explained patiently with an easy smile. "Relax Hermione, I've been playing there for years, everyone does!"
Harry wondered how the goals stayed up in the water, but he figured it was just magic. Ryan had already explained to them how the game was played, which was very similar to regular quidditch except the pitch extended 3 feet down under the water. You could dive under with the ball to try to evade the chasers or bludgers hit at you. The water slowed the bludgers down, but they could still go through it if hit hard enough by the beaters. The snitch, on the other hand, had special wings that could both fly and swim. Therefore, you had to search both over and underwater to catch it, and Harry was glad he had learned the bubble head charm years ago.
On Saturday Harry and Ron woke up super early. They pulled on their new waterproof robes and were gulping down cups of coffee as Ryan came to pick them up. Harry felt super excited as they threw their brooms in the back of Ryan's jeep. He had offered to drive them to the spot on the shore where the boat would come and pick them all up to go to the water quidditch pitch.
The boat ride was cold but quick and they were to the pitch in no time. Harry could see the slight shimmer in the air where the muggle proof area started. There was a floating dock big enough to hold some picnic tables and a small set of bleachers. On either end there were the three ringed quidditch goals, floating just about 15 feet above the water. The three of them jumped off the boat onto the dock, brooms in hand. A dozen witches and wizards were already there, standing around chatting while they waited for everyone to arrive.
"Hey guys!" called Ryan. "I brought my new friends with me today! They're from England. This is Ron and Harry," he pointed them out as everyone chorused back their hellos, smiling and waving.
One of the witches stepped away from the group and peered at them with interest. She was very pretty with long brown hair. "Harry?" she said. "As in, Harry Potter, the wizard who defeated the evil Voldemort in the British Wizards War a few years ago?"
Harry and Ron shifted uncomfortably as everyone on the dock turned to stare. They were still surprised to hear people using Voldemorts name so freely, as most people back home still just called him You-Know-Who. Harry felt his face turning red.
"You didn't tell me you were THE Harry!" exclaimed Ryan "Dude, you're like, a legend!"
"Yeah, I'm him," Harry replied with a sigh. He didn't really enjoy talking about it and felt uncomfortable with the way everyone was looking at him. Ryan gave him an apologetic look.
"Sorry for calling you out like that." said the witch, giving him an apologetic look. "I just recognized your face from the newspaper articles and was surprised to see you in person! I'm Lorena, by the way. This is my brother Justin. And this is Cameron, Spencer, and Jayda."
Ron stared at the last girl introduced with his mouth agape. "Jayda? As in Jayda Smith, the famous American chaser? As in the best chaser in North America?"
"Ron, mate, you're staring!" Harry laughed and Ryan joined in.
"I can see you keep up with your Quidditch news," Jayda said with a chuckle. Ron continued to stare like an idiot.
Harry elbowed him. "It's not like you've never met a famous quidditch player before, get it together man."
Ron shook his head as if clearing it and turned red all the way to his ears. "Sorry, I just get star struck around quidditch players sometimes."
"Yeah in our fourth year we met Viktor Krum and Ron practically asked him to autograph his underpants!" Harry said. Everyone burst out laughing and Ron had a second to collect himself and glared at Harry, muttering some choice words under his breath. He cleared his throat, obviously trying to rise about the ribbing.
"Uggh that Krum guy is such a moron!" Jayda said as she pulled her long braids up into a ponytail. Harry noticed that although her hair was very dark, one of her braids was a bright silvery blonde, all the way to the root. Maybe she was part veela, Harry thought. That would explain Ron's idiotic staring at least.
Ron nodded fervently, no doubt recalling Hermione's short lived season of dating Krum. "Yeah he is!"
"Well, should we play?" interjected Ryan before Ron could go off about Krum. "Looks like the other team is here!" They went over to greet the other players, a group up from Portland, smiling and shaking hands. They were all friends or acquaintances from their Ilvermorny years and clearly hung out all the time. One of the Portlanders eyed Harry with speculation, but didn't say anything about his scar so Harry relaxed. He guessed hanging out with famous quidditch players on the weekends helped the others know how to act around so-called "famous people." (unlike Ron)
Ryan began dividing the team up in their positions. Obviously Jayda would play chaser, along with Lorena and Ryan. Spencer and Cameron were their beaters, Ron the keeper and Harry, of course, was to play seeker.
That left Justin sitting out, but he explained to Harry and Ron that he preferred to ref anyways and he usually sat out or reffed the games regardless of how many people were there. Apparently he had taken a bad bludger to the ribs while they were in school and ended up in the hospital wing for two weeks. After that he was pretty much scared off from playing unless it was Keeper.
"It's very casual out here though," he explained as he transfigured Harry's glasses into swim goggles with the tap of his wand. "A lot of times we switch positions around to try different things. Not everyone can show up every time so we keep it fun and relaxed!"
Everyone was putting on their goggles and quidditch gloves before they grabbed their brooms to start the game. Justin blew the whistle and released the snitch and bludgers. He threw the quaffle up over the water and they were off! Ron zoomed off towards their goals and Harry did a few laps around the pitch to get comfortable.
Riding a broom again was exhilarating! It had been a long time since he'd played quidditch and he did a couple of loops and dives just for the fun of it. A bludger came cracking towards him and he quickly changed direction to avoid it, the beater from the other time flew past him with a smile.
From his position above the action he saw the chasers from his team passing the quaffle back and forth. Jayda threw it to Lorena who then passed to Ryan as he pulled up into their formation. The three chasers then switched spots, passing the ball around in a perfect Thimblerig shuffle play. They shuffled and passed the quaffle so fast that Harry knew they must have practiced this play together many times. They didn't even have to talk or look at each other, it was instinctual. Finally, Ryan passed to Lorena who feigned right and then scored through the middle hoop. Everyone, including the other team, cheered and high-fived.
Harry was impressed. These Americans clearly knew just as much about quidditch as they did in the UK. As the other team took the quaffle Harry continued to watch, almost forgetting what he was supposed to be doing. He also forgot they could play in the water until one of the other team's chasers took a dive straight into the ocean with the quaffle. He popped back up right in front of the goal, startling Ron and taking a shot. Ron, not being used to players appearing in front of him without warning, wasn't quite fast enough and though his fingertips brushed the quaffle he wasn't able to make the save.
"10 - 10!" yelled Justin, blowing his whistle and everyone cheered again. "Quaffle back to the Seattle team," he added and tossed the quaffle back to the middle of the pitch where Ryan grabbed it. Ron looked embarrassed but Harry was happy to see he quickly seemed to recover and cheered with the rest.
Then he saw it - a golden sparkle glimmering right under the water. He dove down, crossing his fingers that the water wouldn't be too cold, and plunged in. With his goggles on he could see clearly around and he searched for the snitch. Unfortunately, the sparkle he had seen was only a small fish, the sunlight reflecting off it's gold scales.
Feeling disappointed he turned his broom back to the surface to rejoin the game.
"Just a fish!" He called out to no one in particular and the seeker for the other team laughed knowingly.
"Happens all the time," she said. "Don't worry, I did that about five times in our last game! We call them tricky snitch fish!"
Harry laughed and turned to resume his spot over the chaser's action, patrolling around for the snitch while the chasers and beaters did their thing. Each team scored several more times, drawing cheers and good natured banter from both sides. While he was circling around the pitch he saw a small boat out of the corner of his eye. A guy with blonde hair was sitting in the boat watching the game.
Harry did a double take. The guy looked like a muggle according to his clothes but Ryan had said no-maj couldn't see the pitch. But, he was sitting in the boat staring at the quidditch game as if he was watching the action, clear as day. The more he stared the more he was sure the blonde could see them. He caught Harry's eye and smiled, but not in a friendly way. It almost reminded Harry of how Draco used to smile when he was about to pull a prank on someone or make a rude comment about Harry's family.
Suddenly everyone was cheering, louder than when the chasers had scored. Harry looked away from the guy in the boat and back to the game. The seeker for the other team had caught the snitch and the game was over. Final score 200 - 80.
Ryan flew up next to Harry and clapped him on the shoulder. "Tough break man!"
"Yeah…" said Harry. "Sorry about that! I got distracted by that guy in the boat over there." He pointed but the boat was speeding away, almost too far away now to see it.
Ryan frowned. "That's weird, people don't usually come out this far this late in the season, especially on small boats like that. Most recreational boaters prefer the summer. But don't worry, like I said, the no-maj can't see the pitch. He was probably just lost or something. The no-maj repelling charms encourage them to turn back towards shore anyways."
"I dunno. It seemed like he could see us. He looked like he was watching the game and I think he even made eye contact with me." replied Harry. "I'm not sure he was actually a muggle, but if he was a wizard why wouldn't he have come to the pitch to say hi?" He was feeling more and more paranoid about the whole incident. He had tried really hard after the war to not see threats everywhere.
"We may never know," said Ryan with the ease of someone who hadn't spent years fighting dark wizards. "He's far away now anyways so I'm sure it's no threat, no-maj or otherwise!"
"Yeah I'm sure it's no big deal," Harry agreed. He was done trying to investigate mysterious strangers and solve mysteries. He put it out of his mind and followed Ryan as he flew down to join the others for butterbeers to celebrate the Portland's team win.