A/N- Chapter 2, each chapter is a year of school

You are a fair flier, you don't have any siblings but you've got more cousins than you can count and they all play quidditch. Naturally they teach you in their summers home from school and by the time you go to Hogwarts you like your chances of making your house team.

You do in your second year as one of the old chasers graduates. You are the only new member this year and the whole walk down to the field for your first practice you try to talk yourself into staying calm.

It doesn't work.

You arrive a jittery mess of nerves and it's a miracle you manage to open the door of the team's changing room and enter without tripping over your own two feet. But then you do trip because I looks like you're the last one there and everyone else is in some halfway state of undress, and they all turn to look at you when you walk in the door. Your captain Julia Isles thankfully takes charge- she's the seeker and was captain last year as well. She was all business at tryouts but seems nice enough so far, "Your practice robes are in your locker, over next to Lexa and Raven." She directs with a smile, "We wear crimson for Monday and Thursday practices and black for Tuesday and Friday." She's already changed and after addressing you she goes back to her small office to look over some bits of parchment. The office has a window which overlooks the locker room, it is decorated with a few photos of what must be past Gryffindor quidditch teams.

You nod and move numbly to the old wooden locker which bears the shiny nameplate 'Griffin'- you're in the corner beside Raven. You note that the changing room is coed and the only distinction seems to be the showers which are marked with 'witches' and 'wizards' placards. For a moment you just marvel at your practice uniforms, and the fact that you've really made it here and you are a part of the team. Then a voice brings you out of your wonder.

"Isles, I've only got black practice robes in here! My red must have gotten stuck in laundry somewhere." It's Raven and she's strutting across the locker room to poke her head into the captain's office.

"They're crimson, not red." Julia says before looking up at her, and when she does, he rolls his eyes. Raven is in her bra and underwear, and nothing else, "I guess we'll all have to swap to black for the day."

Fred who's already got his red robes on pulls a face, "Come On, does it really matter if we're all matching?"

"Yes! We have to present a united front, how we practice sets a precedent for how we will play." She lectures.

"Sorry I asked." He mutters.

Julia follows Raven across the changing rooms to swap for her black robes. On the way she stops to smack George on the back of the head- throughout the whole exchange he had been staring blatantly at Raven in her underwear. You distinctly hear Julia mutter something about 'damn ogling Weasley boys' and you connect the dots that she must have been on the team when the older Weasleys were still in school but all thought of the redheads is driven from you mind a moment later because you turn back towards your locker and there is Lexa.

She's just whipped off her crimson robes and is folding them up while just wearing her sports bra and a small pair of shorts and those Hogwarts robes do not do her justice because the planes of her muscles are so much smoother than you ever imagined they would be. And what you always thought were narrow shoulders are accentuated by muscles that flex and contract when she reaches up to drop her red robes back on the shelf in her locker. Her arms are corded with biceps and you find yourself wondering if her skin is as soft as it looks.

You are only drawn from your musings when Raven comes back to her locker and blocks the other brunette from your sight. You hurry to change, getting caught and trying to pull your head through an armhole until Raven grabs your robes and rights them for you.

You hold up much better in practice, able to lose yourself in the ease of flying through different patterns with the chasers. You think you may have finally found your place here at Hogwarts- which isn't to say that you hadn't made friends with the other Gryffindors in your year and even a few Ravenclaws- but this feels different. When you all land at the end of practice you are windswept and exhausted but you feel lighter than you have in months. The team gets dinner together and talks loudly joking through the meal, when Fred teases you for a particularly bad fumble you made during practice which had resulted in you narrowly avoiding crashing into one of the student spectating stands, you wonder if this is what siblings would feel like.

But then Lexa has this thin smile when she chuckles and looks at you with those dark eyes and you know that this feels different. Exhilarating and scary and wonderful all at once and you wonder how it is that you can feel all these things from just a simple look.

You might never figure that out.

You throw up before your first game. It's just against Ravenclaw and they're definitely not your biggest competition, but they're still better than Hufflepuff. You are wearing your match robes for the first time and you are bent in half beside the changing room.

You are alone because all the students watching the match are already in the stands and your team is all in the changing room. You feel the nerves knotting the pit of stomach and you can't help it when you contract in half and spit bile into the grass at your feet.

A hand sweeps the curtain of your blonde hair out of the way and holds it securely back while you feel another rub soothing circles into your back. You startle, not having heard anyone approaching, but the reassuring had at your back doesn't stop and it is accompanied by a low voice.

"Easy there, just get it all out."

You spit one final time, trying to get rid of the taste in your mouth as much as you can before you stand back up properly. Lexa is there, letting your hair go and still rubbing your back. She hands you a water bottle from the pocket of her robes and you accept it gratefully, rinsing your mouth out.

"I'm sorry." You say reflexively, and you really need to stop apologizing to her.

"It's alright. I yaked before my first match too."

Something in the way her smile is a little thinner than normal and the way you can very acutely feel the heat of her hand through your robes makes you smile and quip back, "You mean to say the amazing Lexa Woods has nerves too?"

She chuckles a little bit, "Don't tell anyone, you'll ruin my street cred."

"Of course."

She doesn't sass back like you've grown accustomed to over these past few weeks getting to know her and the rest of the team. She just stares at you for a moment like she's stopping herself from saying something. Then her hand on your back disappears and comes to instead sweep some hair off your face and behind you ear. She lets her hand linger cupping your chin and you revel in the soft- rough against your cheek. Finally she breaks the thick silence that has settled over the two of you, "You're going to fly really well out there. I know it." The words feel heavy like they're being pushed out around something Lexa would rather say but can't quite bring herself to.

You try to take them at face value because she's your teammate and she believes in you and you look up to her which is why your heart is practically leaping at her statement.

Then Julia's voice is yelling that the match is about to start and that you all need to be lined up to enter the pitch in two minutes.

Lexa drops her hand from your face but let's her fingers link with yours, leading the way back into the locker room. You memorize the way her hand feels holding yours. Her grip is strong and you try to believe you can be too when you mount your broom and kick off into the air.

A/N- Thanks for reading, tell me what you thought.