The morning of Quidditch tryouts arose, Ambrosia left Elle a note before slipping into her uniform, and down to breakfast. She loved the solitude and peacefulness of Saturday mornings, when everyone was still asleep, and the only people down were her teammates, or the odd early riser. Not that she particularly enjoyed the company of anyone on her team (her mother had been right there-she had not made many friends in the six years she had been here), but in mornings such as these, they were almost tolerable. She was certainly more cheerful. Even the sight of Edwin Avery didn't bother her as much as usual. Ambrosia made the mistake however, of allowing everyone to share in her good mood and smiling at Avery, who then promptly joined her, wiping the smile from her face. 'Hello Brosia, how are you?' Ambrosia had to bite the inside of her cheek to refrain from telling him that that nickname was off limits to him. Instead she settled for a polite, 'I'm fine thank you, and you?' This was all the encouragement he needed to go off on a rant about how badly they needed a keeper, and how much he'd been practicing this summer and how it had definitely defined his upper body in a much more noticeable way and hadn't she seen? This comment was delivered with a wink, to which Ambrosia choked on her juice. As Avery patted her on the back (lingering with his fingers a bit too long for comfort) Ambrosia caught a glimpse of Nicandro, who was smirking at her. She quickly broke eye contact, but her eyes fell on her brother, in a heated quiet discussion with Lucius Malfoy; again. Her good mood soured, Ambrosia stood up and announced she was walking to the field. Avery offered to accompany her, but was fortunately held back by a rather green looking third year, asking about the tryouts.
Robes flapping around her, Ambrosia forcefully cleared her mind and lifted her face to the sky, it was a clear day, only a slight breeze. She couldn't wait to be up in the air again. It had cost her so much effort to be able to play.
Her mother had balked at the idea of a daughter on the team in her fourth year, and had expressly forbidden it. It took Ambrosia all of September to convince every Slytherin she knew to not tell her parents that she had joined the team anyway. Of course, all the chocolate frogs in the world couldn't hold up for longer than a year, and when her mother did find out she was furious. Wincing, Ambrosia remembered how she had turned red from head to toe and stormed to her room. Everything reminiscent of quidditch had been destroyed, and the owl taken away. That summer had been spent without Elle, without any respite from her house. Then the day before the end of the holidays, her mother had come in with a new broom, and told her she could stay on the team. To this day she didn't know what had changed her mind. She'd suspected Arnold at first, but he still swore ignorance. It couldn't have been her father, he had been more against the idea than her mother. Her mother didn't listen to Elle, and apart from her Ambrosia didn't really have any friends. Still, she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and had happily agreed to her mother's condition that if her grades dropped, or anything unladylike about her behaviour should reach her mother's ears, that she would quit. However, her mother hadn't been the only hurdle she had to clear, being the only female on the team had certainly been taxing, and no one but herself (she didn't discuss it with anyone) knew how much she had to still put up with just by being a member.
Still, the day was a good one, and she was back. That was all that mattered. Reaching the quidditch pitch Ambrosia strapped on her gloves and summoned her broom from her room (yes she had been too lazy to carry it to breakfast). Mounting the broom she took off, and did a few laps of the pitch before she could start to see people gathering below her. She halted in the sky, catching her breath. The sun was just beginning to stretch its fingers, leaving the larger task of illuminating the pitch to the floodlights, kept glowing with magic. Trees rustled with anticipation of the day to come, the birds just peeking out from behind the leaves, not quite ready yet to burst into song. Laughing out loud she raised her arms, and allowed the sky to embrace her. A light winked at her from below to come down, and smiling wider than she had since she'd left Hogwarts last year, Ambrosia let herself fall.
Giddy, she made no move to pull up, the ground getting nearer and nearer. Her hair, which she had forgotten to tie back, streamed around her, rippling like water, marking out the path of her descent. She could see the expressions on her teammates' faces now: Avery looked nervous, Arnold was clutching his broom a tad too tightly and Nicandro...Nicandro looked almost bored. An eyebrow was lifted in lazy amusement, his eyes one step from rolling. As if he knew exactly what she was doing, as if he knew her inside out. Shaking this annoying thought, Ambrosia deftly pulled up just as her head grazed the ground, inciting thousands of gasps, and landed with a flourish. 'Are you crazy?' Avery yelled, his eyebrows working up and down furiously. 'What on earth were you thinking? What if you had been killed? What if one of them,' he gestured to the cluster of hopeful candidates who were too anxious to pay much attention to them, 'Decides to copy your little stunt and kills themselves?' Casting a glance over the crowd, guilt squirmed in her stomach.
'Please don't do that,' she said to the crowd. Behind her there came a snigger. Whipping around she turned to see Nicandro quickly turn it into a cough. 'Morning air,' he explained at her glare. Shaking his head Avery projected his voice, 'Alright everyone.' Everyone fell silent. 'If any of you try that you'll be out of here before you can say Salazar Slytherin. Got it?' There were a couple of nods. 'I said GOT IT?' the rest of the gaggle quickly fell in line and nodded along with the rest of them. Avery rolled the tension out of his shoulders, 'Alright then, we need a chaser and a keeper today. Everyone first form one line for warm up drills, later we'll separate you.' Without looking at Ambrosia, he kicked off into the air. Moodily Ambrosia did the same, and joined Edwin, Arnold, Regulus and Nicandro in the air. 'READY?' Avery roared. 'FIRST CANDIDATE'.
If it weren't for her Head duties, Lily would have stayed in bed all day. As it was, she had to be up to meet with Potter about their first official prefect meeting. After prodding Marlene, who covered her face with a pillow and point blank refused to accompany Lily to breakfast at the 'asscrack of dawn', Lily made her way downstairs, muttering about ungrateful friends. The Gryffindor breakfast table was empty, leading to Lily wondering where on earth Potter was-and if he was going to stand her up again. If he did she would march straight to McGonagall, no hesitations. She would tell her that it was impossible for her to work with someone who never showed up, and would she be so kind as to reconsider the male's posiiton. Satisfied with her game plan, Lily let her eyes drift across the hall. There were a few straggly Hufflepuffs spread along their table, but most of them had the good sense to stay in bed. The Ravenclaw table didn't bode much for excitement either, apart from the fact that William and Kai had very obviously gotten up early for a morning walk and were not-so-subtly playing footsie under the table. Suppressing a smirk at the blush on Kai's face when he saw she had noticed she waved cheerfully and left them to their date morning. Glancing over at the Slytherin table her stomach clenched for a moment, before reminding herself that this was Hogwarts and they were students, and just because they were rather elitist didn't necessarily mean they were in league with the people murdering in the papers. One of them choked on her juice, drawing Lily's attention. As the girl wiped her face Lily struggled for her name, of course she knew this girl, but she always seemed to fade into the background, as if she didn't want to be seen. Studying her closely Lily marvelled that she was able to inspire such invisibility, seeing as she was incredibly beautiful. She had the exact shade of hair Lily had always wanted. A kind of dark auburn, barely red at all. It was more than that though, it was in the way she held herself, the elegance of her movements. Lily couldn't help but feel inferior for a split second; the girl dripped good breeding and grace. As if she were more powerful and better than everyone in the room and knew it. But she shook it off, being jealous was ridiculous, she needed to work on her self confidence. Ambrosia Flint, that was it. She had laughed once when Parkinson had fallen onto his face in Potions. Speaking of Parkinson, he was openly staring at her, but she wasn't looking at him and had risen to leave. Interesting. As she left his eyes followed her, but then they dropped to his plate, almost as if he could sense Lily watching. Blushing at the idiocy of this, Lily turned to her food, and as her eyes fell on her watch she saw she only had ten minutes before she would be late.
Panting, Lily reached the door to the office and leaned against the wall for support. 'Well well well Evans, cutting it a little close aren't we?' Turning to glare at the lopsided grin that was directed at her she snapped, 'An eye for an eye Potter, thought we'd get even.'
'And the whole world went blind.' Eyes popping Lily gasped,
'DId you just quote Ghandi at me?' Potter tapped his head,
'There's a lot more up here than you know.' Straightening Lily grabbed her bag and tugged at the handle to the door she had been blocking, 'Right, well I'll remember that the next time I sign up for a guided tour of the inner workings of Potter's mind.' Cheerfully dodging the door that was about to swing shut in his face Potter answered, 'Non-refundable Evans, you'll have to stick to your original timing.' Lily was about to respond, but stopped short at the sight of the office. It was-well, it was small. So small in fact, that there were two chairs on opposing sides of one desk in the middle, and whoever inhabited those chairs would certainly be knocking knees. A large window occupied one wall, with a view of the forbidden forest and the whomping willow, shaking off its summer leaves. The two other walls (apart from the one the door was set in) were covered in a bookcase respectively. One with the initials HG carved into the top and the other HB. 'I wonder which one's for me,' Potter mused, and at Lily's look he cracked a grin, 'C'mon Evans, I was kidding.' Pulling out a chair on one end of the desk he took a seat, and rested his head on his arms. Looking at her imploringly from under his dark eyelashes he asked, 'So what did the love of my life cover with you that night in the meeting I was slightly late to?' Lily scrunched up her nose, 'McGonagall,' Potter clarified. Rolling her eyes Lily crossed her arms,
'Well, in the meeting that you missed,' She ignored his mutter of 'rude' and continued, 'Professor McGonagall said how our role is very important and how we have to keep our grades up and all that. She also explained how to run the pefrect's meeting and how we have to patrol once a week and file out any reports of misconduct.' Potter's eyes sparkled,
'How very fascinating it all sounds.' Scowling, Lily continued,
'And she told us about this office, which now that I think about it, you shouldn't know how to find, seeing as you missed the meeting and all.' She could have sworn she saw Potter shifting uneasily in his seat, but his crooked grin dominated his face once more and Lily wondered if she had merely imagined it, 'You have so little faith in me Evans? I'm hurt. After six long years of blowing the public's minds with our caprices and light vices I still haven't managed to convince you of my talent for witty capers and penchant for mystery and adventure?' A crease formed between her eyebrows, he was already giving her a headache 'The only thing you've convinced me of is your talent for ridiculousness.' Shrugging his shoulders, he leaned back and shook his hair out, letting his fringe fall in his eyes. His stupid hazel eyes that looked rather melancholy, as if there were someone waving frantically at her in the pupil, begging for her to see, to understand. But this was a stupid thought, no one was waving at her from his pupil, he wasn't looking for some deeper meaning. Shrugging off the feeling that she was disappointing him somehow she just moved to her bag and pulled two sheafs of parchment. 'We have to start dividing patrols.' She dropped them on the table and took her seat, immediately feeling her legs slide against Potter's. Her face flaming, she shoved her chair back just as Potter did the same, and both of them sheepishly bent forward to be able to reach the desk. Picking up the first Potter nervously cleared his throat, 'Shall we?'
It was not going well. So far out of the nine candidates six had narrowly missed flying into the other team members and only two keeper candidates had even managed to stop one goal. Cutting across her path Avery slicked back his already gelled hair, 'Nice throw Brosia.' Ambrosia, who's arm had begun to get sore and wasn't even trying anymore to catch the keeper off guard just nodded and rolled her eyes when he was out of sight. Flying back behind Nicandro, who's throw could better be described as an egg toss that the current keeper still couldn't stop, Ambrosia turned to watch the chaser candidates on the ground passing to each other. A few of them had to duck to avoid Regulus, who was doing laps whilst Arnold hit bludgers at him; it was easy enough for them, no one was relying on them to carry the entire tryout, and they still had the chasers to go. Groaning Ambrosia took the Quaffle from Nicandro, and gave another half hearted toss. The keeper managed to stop it, but barely, and nearly fell back from the effort. His silvery blond hair caught the light and she reeled back in surprise. 'Lucius?' Without realising it, she had spoken aloud.
'He's better than the rest.' Avery was next to her, leaning back warily.
' You have to be kidding. He's a seventh year, plus he barely caught that.' Rubbing his eyes he moaned, 'What's my other option? Besides, it's better to make peace with people in our year.' That. That was why she hated her year and the hypocritical circle she had grown up in. All this politics and granting favours magnanimously when really there was an adder waiting in the basket, biding its time until needed the most. It was how she had been raised and how everyone around her lived, even at Hogwarts there was no escape. It made her wonder why she had made the team. Flinching she gripped her broom tighter; it had been talent. Avery hadn't even been on the team then and they certainly weren't looking to employ any women, she had just beat out everyone else. But then again, technically so had Lucius. Fuck this, fuck stupid Avery and his simpering idiotics and the way everyone bent over backwards to conceal their agendas and thoughts. 'You ok?' Ambrosia realised she was clenching her jaw and quickly let it go, pain laced her head.
'So chasers next then?' Nodding, Avery flew off, leaving Ambrosia a few minutes before the chasers would come up. 'Your hair's coming undone again.' She jumped, she'd forgotten Nicandro was still here. Reaching her hands up she redid the makeshift bun she'd made after Avery had yelled at her, tucking errant strands behind her ears and into the mess on the back of her head. He wasn't saying anything, just staring at her curiously. It irritated her to no end, she didn't like stares, much preferred to slink back into the shadows where no one would criticise her or scrutinise her every movement to check that she was aligning herself with their expectations of her. 'What is it?' she snapped, unable to stop herself. Nicandro's eyes narrowed for a moment, before he sat nonchalantly back on his broom, with nothing but the sky supporting him. 'I'm just trying to figure out why you hate me.' The matter of factness with which he delivered this statement caused guilt to seep through her veins, hot, sticky guilt that weighed down her organs as it ran through them. Unable to meet the depths of his eyes she turned and fiddled with her bun, 'I don't hate you,' she murmured. Her hair lifted in the breeze that he left flying to face her head on. A bitter, sad sort of smile was on his face. 'Oh no?' Her stomach was squirming, and every breath she took was to combat the cramping, 'I don't.' But she refused to meet his gaze. 'Then why don't you call me Nic anymore?' Ambrosia whipped around too fast at this, the name setting her alight that she lost her balance, and fell.
The ground wasn't very far away, luckily her bun took the extent of the hit so the worst she got was a few scrapes and a bump, but for a while she lay there stunned, staring up at the swirling mass of clouds that were converging, covering up the sun. The whorls of smoke invaded the just blueing sky, the bottom still painted inky black. A head appeared above her and she was accosted by the night sky condensed into two eyes blinking nervously at her; Nicandro. 'Are you ok?' Opening her mouth to reply, she was about to take the hand offered her- past awkwardness be damned, when blond hair shoved black hair out of the way and Avery fell to his knees in front of her. 'Brosia, are you ok? Were you pushed? I saw Nic near you...' Trailing off, he seemed to connect the dots and he got up, narrowing his eyes at Nicandro, and started to advance, his hand on his wand. 'What kind of coward pushes a woman off her broom when they're in the air?' He roared, raising his fist. Before Nicandro had the chance to draw his own wand, Ambrosia sluggishly pushed herself into a seated position and grabbed hold of the back of Avery's robes- not incredibly graceful or elegant but it was all she could do at the moment- 'Edwin stop, I fell. Nic...andro was helping me.' Shooting him a look of distrust, Avery stuffed his wand back into his robes and without bothering to ask, took her arm and heaved her up. 'I feel like that's enough excitement for you, we'll finish the chaser tryouts another day.' Ignoring the groans from the remaining candidates he turned and yelled, 'Everyone clear out. It's over.' As she hobbled away, still attached to his arm Ambrosia was the victim of many baleful stares, and heard more than a few whispers of '-captain's girlfriend', '-little slut.'
'You'll be ok from here?' Nodding eagerly, Ambrosia let go of his arm in the opening to the girls locker rooms, which in her case were private. 'Thank you so much for your kind help, really you're too generous.' Spreading it thick yes, but he had just cancelled the tryouts for her, besides she wanted to get rid of him. Avery looked pleased, and he puffed out his chest, 'Yeah...well.' With a hand run through his hair he bid her adieu and sauntered off, nose in the air. Rolling her eyes she was about to go inside, when something caught her ear. Turning around for the source of the sound she caught a flicker of Lucius' blond hair, and saw his lips form a word she couldn't quite catc- Jake Constince's hair answered her question. Taking a few steps closer the scene unfolded in front of her.
Jake was on the ground, his books spread across the grass whilst Lucius, Thaddeus and Magnolia stood around him. All three had their wands out, Jake's lay discarded on the floor at Magnolia's feet, no doubt the outcome of a disarming spell. Magnolia's face was twisted in disgust as she clutched at her cloak, shivering and Thaddeus stood next to her protectively. 'What do you say?' Lucius's voice was high and taunting, the tip of his wand pointed at Jake's throat. The boy in question swallowed, and a few red sparks flashed from the wand. No answer came. Letting out a mock gasp Lucius turned to his crowd, 'I see, our little mistake here needs some lessons in manners. Alright then. I'll explain it to you nice and simple, so that even a magic stealer like you can understand.' His tone was venomous, 'When you put your filthy, muggle stenched fingers on a witch, you say excuse me.' The wand was back at his throat, digging in to the flesh. 'You say excuse me and you beg,' with a swift kick he made Jake double over in pain, tears dripping down his face, 'Beg for forgiveness.'
'I put my hand on her arm to stop her, she had forgotten her notes,' his voice came out in a whisper but Thaddeus just roared. 'You don't have the right you filthy MUDBLOOD.' Magnolia's face was blotchy with fury, shivering as if he had molested her. 'Beg.' Nothing. Snarling Lucius grabbed hold of his hair and forced his head up, 'BEG BEFORE I MAKE YOU.' Still nothing, Jake's eyes were alight with a furious fire, equal to all the stares directed at him. Lucius seemed almost pleased with the way the events were turning out. 'Alright.' Stepping back, he started rolling up his sleeves, 'If you can't learn it the easy way, I'll give you a lesson you won't forget. I want you to remember this everytime you salivate over a pureblood girl. Everytime you see something far superior and get the audacity that you can go near it.' He raised his wand, a spell on his lips and sick to her stomach at the tears and blood divulged on his face, Ambrosia turned away, just in time before Jake screamed. It was quickly muffled, but she fled into the changing rooms before she could hear the 'muffliato' and Magnolia getting a turn.
Lily didn't know what was more uncomfortable, the fact that she couldn't move without brushing her legs against Potter's or the fact that they were currently arguing about a Hufflepuff's breakup. 'Look Potter, I'm not going to put Boot with Lockhart-we both know how that would turn out.'
'But it would be so funny though,' Potter protested, leaning forward and narrowly missing bumping her knee in his eagerness. 'Besides, you'd think they'd be over it by now.'
'They broke up two months ago because Lockhart was cheating, and you saw what happened at the feast.' His eyes gleamed,
'Wouldn't it be fun to have a repeat?' Lily scowled at him as he laughed and rubbed out their names, 'I was joking Evans, I'm just saying it would be good for them to work out their issues.' 'Because Lockhart is so reasonable,'
'Honestly I'm shocked they ever dated.'
'Are you?' Lily squinted uneasily, 'I mean, I can imagine why.' Potter stared at her for a moment, not comprehending, before a slow grin spread across his face, 'I'm so sorry, please continue. Tell me why.' Blushing furiously Lily muttered something under her breath and Potter placed a hand to his ear, cupping it. 'Please repeat that, I didn't quite catch it,' he said sweetly. Stabbing the pencil to the paper Lily didn't answer, until the sheet was pulled from under her-'Hey!'
'You're being uncommonly rude, ignoring me like that.' He pouted, clutching the sheet to his chest. 'How about I fill in the gaps for you? Oh Potter, he is so incredibly dreamy, with those big blue eyes and flowing golden locks.' Managing to snatch it back, trying not to let on how right he was, Lily retorted, 'You're just jealous.' Somehow this hit a nerve. The smile slid off Potter's face. 'Of him?' His tone was laced in disgust, and he dragged a hand through his hair- up until now she hadn't realised how little he'd done it this year. 'Do you really think he's attractive?' His voice was edged in something bitter and Lily back-peddled furiously, 'I mean, he's ok. He's got nice hair.' Blushing, Potter dropped his hand from his hair and cleared his throat, 'I mean, I've always had messy hair so I guess I'm a little wounded that as your housemate and lifelong friend-' Lily snorted at that, '-you don't think my hair is more roguishly charming.' She didn't want to hurt him so she just nodded, 'Like a pirate.' This made him crack a grin,
'I hope you're not thinking of Padfoot Evans.' He was right, Sirius's hair was more like a pirate, crap. 'A pirate with shorter hair, a first mate.' He raised one eyebrow at her,
'That didn't really make sense Evans.'
'Well neither does your jealousy of Lockhart's hair. Let's be honest, who's jealous of Lockhart?' She hoped he would sense she was teasing him, and it did cause him to loosen the tension in his shoulders, 'Well he seems to be getting everyone, it stung a little. I miss the days where the ladies would swoon over the marauders.' Lily tried so hard not to roll her eyes they ended up tearing up a little, 'Ok Potter, whatever you say.' Rubbing the back of his neck he flashed her a smirk and the pen slipped out of her hand. Crap. 'So…let's finish these then yeah?', at his nod they both bent over the sheet again, bickering about pairings and 'no Potter, you're not going to put people together on patrol because you think they'd be a cute couple'.
It was lunchtime by the time they finished, so it made sense to just walk straight to the Great Hall, Potter was telling her an anecdote about his summer and a lizard and Sirius and Lily was trying and failing not to look amused when they came across a boy standing stock still on the stairs. The staircase was deserted, and his eyes were large and pale, unblinking. Blood splattered his blue and bronze tie and his fists were firmly clenched, so hard the veins were showing. 'Dirk Cresswell.' Potter was at his side in two strides, touching his shoulder. 'Dirk, can you hear me?' Dirk snapped out of it, blinking heavily before glancing around himself owlishly,
'Where am I.' his voice was hoarse. Sharing a concerned look with Potter, Lily said softly and gently, 'You're in the stairwell Dirk, just a few steps away from the charms corridor. Do you know why you're here?' Dirk shook his head, then raised one of his hands to his head, apparently to stop the pounding that the movement had brought. In his doing so a piece of paper fluttered from his now unclenched fist. Dropping to her knees Lily caught it before it hit the floor, and held it up to the light. It was a picture of Dirk and another boy. They were hugging and laughing, only when Lily looked closer she saw the second boy had his arms tightly around Dirk's neck, who looked more nervous than happy. The boy was generously handsome, but there was an air of insolence, or arrogance around him, something in the glint of his eye that didn't sit quite right with Lily. She turned back to him, who was being questioned gently by Potter, and who suggested the hospital wing, ;Dirk.' her voice sounded far away, there was something very very wrong with the picture. 'Who is this boy?' Dirk glanced at the picture and his face grew white, 'No one,' he stammered, then snatched the picture back and started walking hurriedly up the stairs. 'Dirk wait. The hospital wing-'
'I'll be fine,' Dirk called back, 'Must have been sleepwalking.' Frowning Lily stood up and crossed her arms, 'In the middle of the day?' Potter's eyes were narrowed after Dirk.
'Tell you what, we keep a close eye on him. Did you see his tie?' Lily nodded,
'Full of blood,'
'Yes but it wasn't.' Lily stared at him.
'It was, and then when I checked again it was wiped clean, as if he'd performed a scourgify with all of us watching.' Biting her lip, she frowned harder. She didn't like this at all. 'If he does anything else weird in the next couple of weeks, we go straight to McGonagall.'
'Why can't we go now?' Potter scratched the back of his head,
'Thing is Evans, he hasn't really done anything.'
'Not yet.' Her voice was surprisingly dark.
'No,' Potter agreed, 'Not yet.'