Chapter 6

As happens when the days are filled with pleasure, time passed with

lightening speed and the three of them settled into a comfortable routine:

mornings that were sunny were spent at the park training for Quidditch. Then

they'd have a long lunch break, during which Agnes would usually try to convince

them that they should read the Lord of the Rings. Afternoons depended on the

relative success of Agnes' arguments: if Colin and Dennis distracted her from

her obsession, they practiced more or went over to the Creevey's and tricked

Agnes into doing their homework for them. If they failed, they ended up at her

house and Agnes would put in the DVDs or open one of the books and read her

favorite parts, sighing all the while and saying, "Isn't that beautiful?"

These days were the worst for Dennis, especially if the weather continued

to be good in the afternoon. "You know," he told Colin as they left her house

one evening, "if it meant she would never, ever bother us about reading that

ruddy book again, I'd read it faster than you could say 'hobbit.'" Colin nodded

his agreement; although he himself remained unconvinced that reading it would

get Agnes to stop talking about it.

The next day was sunny and warm with a gentle breeze and Dennis happily

loaded up the bag with their chosen balls. To start off there was a tennis ball.

It could be easily hit back and forth with little effort while giving them time

to warm up. Then a regular cricket ball, rubber but heavier and bigger than a

tennis ball and, finally, a soccer ball. This ball was closest to a bludger's

size and lacked any sort of natural bounce. This was the ball that always

brought a glare of defiance to the Creevey brothers' faces and a smirk to Agnes'

lips. They had yet to keep that ball in the air for more than four or five

swats, and that was on a good day. Aim was another issue. Agnes proved

surprisingly adept at dodging, but as she was fond of reminding them, their aim

made dodging rarely necessary.

That day, they headed out and met Agnes in the park at ten am. She was

already pacing out the boundaries of what they would use as a miniature

Quidditch pitch. It was about forty feet long and thirty feet wide, the boarders

marked by four cones Agnes claimed she had found lying around her house. "Hey,"

she greeted cheerfully, wiping her hands on her pants. "Did you remember to

bring the water this time?"

"No," Colin said, setting down the heavy jug on the ground. "I just

thought I'd carry a large empty thermos all the way out here for the sheer joy

of it."

Agnes gave him a very calculating look and then shook her head. He was

trying, really trying, to be friendly and nice but they were training on a very

tight schedule and Colin had yet to get used to the strains this placed on his

physique (and Agnes' irritating personality wasn't helping). So far, he knew he

had pulled a muscle in his shoulder and was pretty sure his leg was not supposed

to be bruised like that but Dennis and Agnes had ignored his complaints and

called him a ninny. Since then, Colin kept his aches and pains to himself,

letting it out only in bouts of bitterness and sarcasm. Usually, he tried to

save it for beating the ball.

"Okay," Dennis got out the cricket bats and passed one to Colin, which he

took comfortably into his hands. Agnes got out the tennis ball. "We'll do the

same thing we did yesterday. Fifteen minutes with the tennis ball, keeping it in

the air the entire time, unless we hit Agnes, of course."

"Not likely," Agnes said, confidently.

"In which case we get to quit early and move on to the cricket ball, where

we do the same thing. Then-"

"We attempt to reach some sort of accord with the soccer ball but should

that fail, we curse it to oblivion." Colin brought out his wand and pointed it

threateningly at the soccer ball.

Agnes' eyes grew wide. "Oooh, you brought that with you? But I thought you

couldn't do magic outside of school!"

"We can't. It's just that, with things as they are, we figured it would be

better if we brought our wands with us." He exchanged dark looks with Dennis.

"Oh, you mean with Lord Vol-"

"Shhh!" The fact that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's name was taboo was a fact

both brothers had quickly grasped in the wizarding world and it bothered them

that Agnes did not seem to understand this nor show the slightest concern over

it.

"Sorry!" She said irritably. "Sheesh. You'd think he was god or something

the way you go about it."

"Can we -not- talk about this here?" Dennis suggested, his voice taking a

strained note.

"Great idea. Let's play." Colin moved out and Agnes threw the tennis ball

up in the air a few times, a thoughtful look on her face, as Dennis moved

opposite Colin. Then, suddenly, she gave her arm a twirl and flung the tennis

ball towards Colin. He was ready, moved up towards it, took a swing, lopped it

towards Agnes, who quickly dogged it. Dennis ran up towards it behind her and

hit again but she spun agley out of the way. They finally got her near the end

of the fifteen minutes, during which they spanned the entire length of the

pitch. Agnes congratulated them on their hit and pushed her bangs off of her

sweaty forehead. Of the three them, Agnes was the only one who was routinely

covered in grass stains and marks that looked like they should sting terribly,

but she never complained.

They took up cricket ball was next and it proved to be a lot more fun. The

tennis ball was lighter, 'but it lacked the satisfying THWACK sound when you hit

it,' Colin thought as he whacked it towards Agnes. She ducked; Dennis moved to

hit the ball back at her but a man grabbed him from behind. Maybe it was the

earlier mention of You-Know-Who that did it but Colin felt his heart go stalk

still, dropped his bat, reached into his pocket and pointed his wand at the man

before he realized that he was not threatening one of Voldemort's cronies but a

muggle policeman. "What do you lot think you're doing?" He rasped at them. Colin

saw Agnes' eyes go wide visibly winced upon hearing his voice and even wider

when she saw his face. "Running around like that and ruining the grass?" Dennis

squirmed in the man's grasp. "Been having complaints about you, we have."

Colin forced his heart to start beating again. "About us? Why?"

"All sorts of people saying some hooligans," he glared darkly at each of

them in turn and stopped abruptly when he saw Agnes. "Well, well, well, fancy

seeing you here again. I thought after last time I had made it perfectly clear

you weren't supposed to come back."

"Er, no sir, I just-" she stammered.

The officer glanced around the park and narrowed his eyes cut her off

sharply. "Right, I banned you from the park. Yet here you are with some more

deviants stealing more traffic cones, whatever it is." Colin shot a worried look

at Dennis but Dennis just shrugged his shoulders helplessly and they both looked

to Agnes for some explanation. Sweat ran down her forehead and Colin knew it

wasn't from the heat or all that running around.

"I did not steal those traffic cones! It was-" But he cut her off again.

"You've been causing a ruckus on the green. Tearing up the grass, ruining the

peace." He looked at Colin severely and Colin realized he was still aiming his

wand at him. He moved to shove it back in his pocket but was not fast enough.

"What you think you're doing with that stick there, lad? Going to poke my eye

out?" He released all of Dennis except his hand and strode over to Colin.

"Spread your legs, arms in the air!"

Colin's mouth dropped open in surprise, "What?" He asked, staring at the

uniformed man.

"I said, spread your legs and put your arms in the air," the bobby said,

then more to himself, "Hooligans. Pointing things at people. Running all around

like they are...I'm goin't put a stop to this, I will." Colin looked over at

Agnes and Dennis for any sort of help. Dennis shrugged his shoulders again,

while Agnes seemed to be doing some quick thinking.

Feeling more than slightly ridiculous, Colin did as he was told. The bobby

frisked up and down his sides, around his legs and down his arms. He found

nothing and looked extremely disappointed. "Right, then. What's this thing here

you had leveled at me?" He demanded, taking the wand out of Colin's grasp.

It's not a wand, Colin thought, it is anything but a wand...his mind spun,

looking for a logical not-wand object it could be. He looked pleadingly over at

Dennis and Agnes for help. Dennis was completely at a lost, Agnes was mouthing

something at him but what was beyond Colin. He looked back at the policeman.

"It's a, an-er, I mean, er-," his voice trailed off and the bobby's face filled

with disgust. "I want an answer, boy, and I don't mean this hemming and hawing

you've been giving me. Maybe I'll just confiscate this here thing and take you

down to the station."

"Sir!" Agnes interrupted and the bobby whipped his head around to glare at her.

"Quiet, I'll deal with you later."

"It's a wand!" She shouted in desperation. Colin felt a surge of hatred and

irritation burst inside of him, all of it directed towards Agnes. She promised

she wouldn't tell anyone! She said that no one would know, which, presumably,

also included any muggle police officer but here she was, shouting out the

secrets of the wizarding world right in front of hitherto happy, unaware

Muggles. There was going to be-

"Yeah, a wand," the bobby scoffed. "Indeed." Colin's eyes bulged at this. What?

Dennis caught on. "Yes, it is, sir. I've got one, too." Dennis pulled out his

10-inch holly wand and held it firmly in his hand, for all to see.

"What are you, some kind of cult?" The Bobby sneered at them. "Constable Dent

doesn't deal with cults like you-"

"We're not a cult!" Colin interrupted, feeling it was high time he said

something. "We're just-" He had no idea what they were. Crazy came to mind.

"Role-players!" Agnes supplied.

"Role-players? What a load of-You can't be role-playing every bloody time you go

to the park and make a mess of things!" Constable Dented shouted, his garlic

breath spraying all over Colin.

"Well, where else do you expect us to practice?" Agnes pressed, stepping up

firmly next to Colin. "We would have stayed away but we don't have any room at

home, our parents want us out of the house, where else are young fantasy

enthusiasts supposed to gather? I suppose you have some idea."

"Practice!" He scoffed, "right. As though you needed to practice for a bunch of

made up codswollop. Bloody waste of time if you ask me. I told you once and I

won't be telling you again: you can practice anywhere but here. Scuffing up the

grass, scaring all the birds, it won't be had. In my day we'da 'ad two weeks

hard labor for that, we would have." He let go off Colin, but still eyed them

all suspiciously. "Go on, get out of here. Scarper!" The three of them didn't

need to be told twice, they quickly gathered up their dispersed Quidditch

training equipment and ran out of the park before Constable Dent could find

another reason to detain them.