Millie opened her eyes to see blurriness, something that often occurred in her dreams. She wiped her tear-stained cheeks and got up. Early dawn sunlight peeked into the 'Girly Dorm,' making the tall Quidditch girl squint and cover her eyes.
Yawning numbly, Millie staggered over to the bathroom, where she washed her face and checked the calendar. "Oh sh-" she began to swear before she realized that everyone else remained in their slumbers.
Quidditch match today! CRAP! Millie had forgotten all about it- yesterday she had ditched practice to go on a photography spree and had brought back pictures that even she admired.
Sato had gone off on his normal rant, and it was the same argument every time Millie skipped practice. She didn't know why, she just felt that Quidditch shouldn't run her life.
She pulled her wand out from her bathrobe and flicked it, causing her hair to suddenly sweep back in a messy but cute bun. She swished the wand again and her toothbrush suddenly cleaned her teeth faster than five seconds and more efficiently than the cleanings of a two minute long scrub.
Millie knew that the Quidditch match against Bulgaria wasn't until around 7 P.M., so she dressed normally in her blue jeans and soft pale meant-to-be-pajama-top shirt with a blue jacket tied around her waist and flicked off the light, ready to go downstairs for a quick breakfast.
She noticed the other girls stirring and stared at them, wondering, not for the first time, how long it would take her to snap and get out of the Quidditch career forever. It shouldn't be long now, she thought with dismay.
It seemed that no matter how hard she tried, Millie's rebellious attitude made her the least favorite roommate. She knew that, she accepted that, but still she couldn't stand that for long.
"Millie?" Miyu appeared beside Millie like magic, hair already neat and tied back. Millie ignored the short teenager and stalked out of the 'Girly Dorm' and into the narrow hallway. She took a shortcut through a loose panel in the wall and climbed down three stories, coming out of the Janitor's closet on the bottom floor and almost running into Kato.
"Yo, Millie." he said kindly. And together the two friends walked to breakfast, and in different worlds completely.
XXX Miyu's POV XXX
Miyu was nervous, and it wasn't just the fact that Sato had informed her that last time Millie was in a fight with someone, she had 'accidentally' hit them in the back of the head with a bludger. Today was her first Quidditch match ever. These weren't moronic kids on broomsticks like the ones at her school. These were the pros, the best, and they would most likely beat her down like a fly.
She had changed with a flourish, but her vibrating hands made it so that it took her much longer than the others to change into her professional green and white Quidditch robes, that had been enchanted to fit her perfectly.
She emerged from the changing rooms to find all of the team in groups. Izumi, the keeper, had checked in with the chasers for a moment before doing her job by making sure all of the balls were as the should be and unhampered with.
The chasers, Sato, Ro, and Suzuki were huddled together, exchanging tactics, while Millie and Kato talked loudly to one another. Miyu wasn't sure what to do; this was very different from the normal procedure where the Quidditch captain explained everything.
Miyu drifted over to Kato and Millie and listened in on their conversation.
"I cover this side, and you cover that side- keep an eye out for Miyu, she's so tiny she'll be hit by other players who don't see her coming!" Kato was saying, neither of them realizing that Miyu was standing, indignant, a foot away from them.
"We'll slay them!" Millie cried, intending to punch the air but accidentally smacking Kato on the nose. "Oh my gosh!" Millie gasped, leaning over the swearing beater. "Are you alright?"
"Are you okay, kid?" Miyu turned to see Izumi holding out Miyu's broom, which she realized she had forgotten in the locker room.
"Oh...uh, thanks!" Miyu squeaked, trembling nervously.
"Hey, don't worry about it, Miyu." Izumi said bracingly, patting her on the shoulder. "Just don't fall for the Wronski Feint and you'll be fine!"
"The what?" Miyu asked, but then Sato yelled, "Come on, they're calling for us."
Pale and feeling like she was about to be sick, Miyu followed at the back of the line as Millie and Kato both punched each other in the shoulder (obviously some sort of good luck thing) and lined up.
The doors swung open, cheers and yells flooding into the room caused Miyu to stiffen.
"Nervous?" Sato asked. Miyu wasn't quite sure when he had walked up, but nodded none the less. "Don't be. It's just Bulgaria."
'Just Bulgaria' didn't sooth Miyu's nerves. Bulgaria had nearly won two years ago, Ireland just narrowly defeating them, and had one last year. She was almost sure Viktor Krum was the best seeker in the world, and even more positive that there was no way she'd catch the snitch this time.
Still, Miyu followed the team onto the field, taking her spot in the circle of players that was beginning to form as the announcer called out their names. It suddenly occurred to Miyu that this was the first time she had seen the stadium in a game, and she glanced around, taking in the hundreds of cheering people and gigantic black boards hovering near the stands with JAPAN: 0 BULGARIA: 0 written on them. The Bulgarians wore scarlet head-to-toe with fur belts and hats, though Miyu wondered why they would wear them when it was exceedingly hot today.
Miyu finally realized the announcer was talking as the referee walked onto the field, broom in hand, and kicked open the chest of balls. Two black blurs burst off into the air followed by the scarlet Quaffle and the golden winged ball that Miyu spotted just before it vanished into the air. The referee gave a sharp, piercing blast on her whistle before following the balls into the air.
"THEY'RE OFF!" roared the announcer.
The chasers burst into motion, Sato and Levski (read the silver letters on the back of his robes) each snatching out at the Quaffle. To Miyu's dismay, Levski got it first and-before Sato could even think about tackling-had thrown it to another chaser.
Miyu would have sat there watching all day had she not remembered that she, too, was a part of this match. She had to catch the snitch. So, with this in mind, Miyu sped off on her first lap around the stadium, eyes scanning it for golden. No luck. Again, Miyu circled the stadium and again found nothing.
Scowling, Miyu halted and assessed the game thus far. The announcer was screaming out names-"Yokoro! Daisuke (Tenharo)! Demitrov! Back to Yokoro! Etsuko (Suzuki)! Levski!" The Bulgarian shot toward the hoop and threw, but luckily Izumi intercepted and threw it back to Sato.
Focusing on her job, Miyu strained her eyes to search for anything gold, and instead found something black rocketing at her head. Miyu managed to duck out of the way as the bludger plummeted towards her and sped off behind her.
Of course, the Bulgarians weren't done yet. A beater shot up in front of the bludger and slammed it back toward Miyu. The seeker, focused on the snitch, was oblivious to this and turned just in time to see it just feet from her head and TWACK!
"Take that!" Millie cried out victoriously, puffing out her chest. "It'll teach you to mess with Japan!"
It took a minute for Miyu to register what had happened. She figured that Millie had had to come up and hit it away, but how she couldn't quite think of. Finally she called out, "Hey Millie! Thanks!"
The girl's joyous expression was replaced with on of distaste, and she simply answered, "It's what I do."
"Look, I'm sorry about earlier-" Began the small girl but she was abruptly cut off by Millie.
"And why should I believe you?" Miyu opened her mouth to respond, but closed it again. She had only known the girl a few weeks, and hadn't quite come up with a reason the beater should trust her.
"Uh hun. That's what I thought." She said.
"You should be apologizing to me! Those things you said hurt!" Miyu shot back.
"Oh really? And you think you didn't hurt me?"
Miyu scowled and decided she would save the discussion for later. Right now, she needed to find the snitch and get her team 150 points. It was now forty to sixty, Japan behind, and Miyu could see the chasers were worn leaving Izumi to keep Bulgaria from scoring.
Again, Miyu searched the field for gold and this time, to her surprise, found some. The minuscule gold ball was hovering in the middle of the field, contently zooming around in circles. Miyu dove after it at full speed, the announcer's voice booming out. "And Katono's seen the snitch!"
Crap, Miyu thought, snatching out at the snitch. Why'd he have to yell that out? Now its only a matter of time before Krum catches up! Scowling, Miyu again attempted to grab the snitch, but it dove right in order to avoid. Viktor Krum swooped down into it's path, he and Miyu packed so tight together that their shoulders were pressed against one another. Krum extended his arm, as did Miyu, and they were both surprised when a bludger shot from Kato rocketed into Krum's side, the seeker slamming against Miyu and both of them knocked off course.
Miyu recovered quickly, searching for the snitch but found she had lost it. Krum had done the same, but was now cursing loudly. Miyu had to resist the urge to follow his example. Luckily Millie had swooped down right next to her; otherwise her self control might not have been enough.
"You almost had it," She told her. "Had Krum not come in you would have-" But Millie did not get to finish for Miyu rudely snapped.
"What do you want now?" Millie had again turned angry and was preparing to yell something at Miyu, but the tiny girl spotted Krum take off again, zigzagging through the field.
"The snitch!" She gasped and took off, despite hearing Millie cry, "No, wait! Don't go! It's a tra-"
Miyu quickly sped up, catching up to Krum in record time as he turned into a dive. Miyu followed, eye searching ahead of her for the snitch. She saw nothing gold or tiny, just grass. Confused, she turned to Krum, hoping to see where he was looking, but the Bulgarian was looking back at her with a smirk all over his face as he pulled out of the dive.
It suddenly occurred to Miyu what was happening and she tried, desperately, to pull out of the dive. She almost succeeded, too. The tip of her broom was now pointed at the bottom of the stands, but the ground was approaching too fast for the broomstick to kick into motion, and Miyu crashed into the ground with a loud impact that rang throughout the stadium.
"Oh!" the announcer cried. "And she hits the impact! That's a time out from Yokoro
"Miyu! Miyu, are you okay?" Miyu groaned and lifted her head to see Sato beside her. He was like her personal angel to take her to Heaven.
"G'night," she said, beginning to fade into unconsciousness but suddenly something collided with her stomach and she sat bolt up right, eyes wide open.
"Hey now, you're the only way we can win the game- you can't die until after it's over!" Millie exclaimed, punching Miyu in the stomach again.
"Stop!" Miyu yelled, aggravated, as Millie drew her fist back again for a third blow. Mediwizards began to swarm around Miyu.
It was her legs that were in bad condition. She had nearly broken to pieces her right leg while her left had numerous scratches and rips.
The mediwizards repaired her scratches quickly, but it took ten painful minutes to repair all of the bones broken in her right leg. Finally, she sat up on her broom, which had amazingly been unharmed.
"Ya better yet?" Millie asked, swooping over. "They're about to put us in time-in again. Are ya ready?"
"Leave me alone, Millie! Stop acting like a child and be more mature, you're older than me, you do know what the word mature is, right?" Miyu snapped, pain in her legs making her short-tempered.
Millie's jaw snapped up, making her nose upturned- a sign that she was furious. She hurried over to Kato, who smiled at her and the two friends talked animatedly, Kato obviously not realizing Millie's upturned chin or hands, which were placed on her hips.
"Come on, guys, back on your brooms!" Sato yelled, smiling encouragingly at Miyu.
The Quidditch players began the game yet again, and Miyu continuously had to dodge bludgers that were sent careening her way from the other team. Then suddenly the bludgers stopped coming. Miyu looked around and saw Millie and Kato back to back knocking bludgers so ferociously it seemed impractical. For some reason the bludgers seemed to swarm around the two, Millie taking delight in whacking Victor Krum on the back as many times as she could see him and Kato preferring to murder the other beater's hard to reach feet.
"And Editors has the quaffel yet again!" The announcer roared. Miyu watched as Millie and Kato exchanged a glance and waited until both bludgers were rocketing towards them, at which time they whacked them as hard as they could. This eliminated Tenharo and Levski temporarily as they rocketed down on their brooms. Millie sped after the rocketing bludger, dropped down so she was hanging with one hand on her broom. With her other she hit the bludger, screaming,
"Present for Victor Krum- world's KRUMiest seeker!" The bludger zoomed forward, hitting Krum in the side, causing Viktor to collide into one of the goal hoops. Millie, while hanging on handed from her broom, couldn't steer well, and she accidentally ran into Demitrov, who dropped the quaffel with a strange cry of, "BETTY!"
"uhh…" Miyu said, not sure whether to laugh or not as Sato smugly grabbed the Quaffel (or … Betty) and scored.
She finally decided to mutter "whatever," and take off again, watching Krum closely as she searched the field.
Nothing. Miyu didn't even see a bludger as it shot across her face and straight at Sato, who was hit squarely in his chest and knocked backwards off his broom. The game went into another time out, Bulgaria being fouled, and after a few seconds of being lost in a crowd of Mediwizards Sato was back on his broom good as ever.
After this, the game grew more brutal than Miyu had ever seen before. The Bulgarian chasers had stepped into over-drive, and threw the Quaffle more than ever now, not seeming to care whether it went through the hoop or made contact with another player. On top of that, Japan's chasers were beginning to tire. Tenharo had lost all of his usual bouncy speed, Suzuki's passing had grown sloppy, and Sato most of all seemed as if he was going to fall off of his broom any moment from exhaustion. This left Izumi to keep the Bulgarians from scoring, and they were shooting the Quaffle so rapidly that many times Izumi missed, making the green-haired keeper short temper. They were losing now by 50 points.
The beaters mostly seemed to have lost their minds. Bludgers zigzagged across the field, knocking down every player. Miyu found herself spending more time dodging bludgers than actually seeking. Their aim had grown sloppy as well. A few minutes ago, a Bulgarian beater miss aimed and hit Krum rather than Miyu in the face, causing Millie to fall off her broomstick from fits of laughter. Unfortunately for Miyu, she had been close to the ground, and the Mediwizards had fixed her up along with Krum before the game resumed.
Frustration caused Miyu to scowl as she circled the field. The cheers from the crowd didn't help either. As she passed the Bulgarian's side, she had to avoid being hit by tomatoes and other rotten fruits thrown from the crowd before the ministry stepped in and stopped them. As she flew by Japan's territory, the cheers grew so loud that she had accelerated in order to not go deaf, nearly flying into one of the stands.
This game needed to end, and in order for that to happen, that snitch had to been in Krum or her hand. So Miyu too worked as fast as her Firebolt would move without her completely losing control. Still, she found nothing at all.
Finally Miyu spotted something down near the ground-a flutter of gold. She knew better this time than to be spotted and have the announcers screaming that she found the snitch, so she approached it slowly and found it had just been a bird pecking at the ground. Miyu felt like screaming out to the heavens, but somehow resisted and resumed her search.
A sudden eruption of cheers from the crowd nearly caused Miyu to jump, and the announcer's booming voice followed; "Krum's seen it! Krum's seen the snitch!" Miyu's eyes instantly shot toward the scarlet-clad seeker to see him in a dive, eyes narrowed in concentration and the usual scowl painted on his face.
It was a trap. It had to be. Krum was trying the Wronski Feint again. Well, too bad, Miyu thought bitterly. It's wouldn't work on her again. But it was almost second nature to her that, when another seeker found the snitch, you pursued them, and she found herself stopped near the goal hoops, debating on whether to follow or not.
She was there for a few seconds before Izumi, Quaffle in hand, screeched at her, "LOOK YOU MORON!" Miyu's gaze shot towards the keeper to the Bulgarian seeker and she saw, indeed, a glint of golden before him.
Miyu, normally, would have cussed but decided she didn't have time for it now. Her broomstick accelerated, kicking into motion, and leveled her out with Krum. They still had a good distance until they reached the ground, but none the less Miyu felt uneasy in a dive because of her last encounter.
All too gleefully, the snitch quickly darted right, Miyu and Krum close behind. It turned again, left, then back downward and right. After it took one more jeer right the tiny golden ball decided to head upward, both seekers still in pursue. Its wings flapped rapidly and repeatedly, carrying it much faster than the seekers top-of-the-line brooms.
Krum snatched out, Miyu doing the same, but the snitch speed up slightly, avoiding both their grasps.
They were high up now, Miyu could tell because the rowdy cheering had faded into just a faint clapping sound. Wondering just how high up they were, Miyu took her gaze off the snitch for just a moment and looked.
She could still make out the vague, shifting blurs of the other players, but the goal hoops had vanished from sight, and the stands looked like colorful blocks put together by a two year old.
The snitch then decided that it missed the ground and shot right, directly in front of Miyu's face, then downwards, Krum taking off after it with Miyu close behind. Idiot! Miyu cursed herself, if you had just paid attention you would have caught it!
It was too late now. They were back in a dive, and the snitch now favored Krum, flying contently just in front of his crocked nose. On top of that, the ground was fast approaching and the snitch didn't seem to be moving in another direction. Krum snatched, snitch but inches from his clutch but it moved again, this time hovering in Miyu's grasp.
This was it. It was hers. She reached out, her hand moving painfully slow, and she could almost feel her fingers around it before she, again, was flattened into the ground at full-speed, and sent flying into unconsciousness. But Miyu didn't need to be conscious to know what would happen.
That was it. The game was over, she had lost.