Chapter Twelve

The Reserve Team

"Mia, can we talk?"

Mia looked up from her breakfast on Sunday morning to see Reuben stood opposite her. The previous afternoon, Mia had tried not to think about him, unsure of how she felt, and slightly embarrassed at the thought of having kissed him – what if he didn't feel the same way? And anyway, how did she even feel? Mia's friends had been able to tell something was up, but she'd brushed off their questions and gone to bed early. But now it was morning, Reuben was out of the hospital wing, and he wanted to talk.

"Sure," Mia said, getting up and following Reuben out of the Great Hall. He led the way into a disused ground floor classroom and perched on the edge of a desk. Mia sat opposite him.

"How's your arm?" she asked, attempting to deflect the obvious tension between them.

"Good as new," Reuben said. "Madam Pomfrey gave me a sling to wear if I needed it, but she's given me the go-ahead for practice on Thursday. Mia, about yesterday..."

Mia didn't really know what to say. She hadn't really processed how she felt about The Kiss – in Mia's mind, it definitely had capital letters. "I do like you..." she said eventually.

"I like you too," Reuben said. "I didn't really realise it until you kissed me, but..."

"I don't know if I'm ready for a relationship, Reuben," Mia told him. "I... it..."

"Your first kiss too, huh?" Reuben asked.

"Yeah," Mia nodded. She hadn't expected it to be Reuben's first kiss – somehow, she thought that, as a fifth year, he would have had several girlfriends by now, like Mac.

"How about we both take some time to think about things?" Reuben suggested. "But in the meantime, let's stay friends, yeah?"

Mia nodded. Part of her wanted to kiss Reuben again – how was he able to be so sensible and mature about all this? – but she knew that wasn't the best course of action when they'd just agreed to take some time to think.

"Well, we'd better get back to breakfast, then," Reuben said, jumping to his feet and offering Mia a hand up.

Mia eyed the proffered hand sceptically. "That's not your bad arm, is it?" she asked warily.

"Nope," Reuben said, hauling Mia to her feet.

They walked back to the Great Hall together, and then Reuben went to sit with some fellow fifth years, and Mia sat back down next to Lily, opposite Matilda and Emma.

"What was that all about?" Lily asked. "With Reuben?"

Mia figured it was pointless trying to keep things from Lily. "I kissed him," she said. "Yesterday, after everyone else had left the Hospital Wing."

"You kissed him?!" Matilda said, loud enough that a dozen Gryffindors, and even a handful of Hufflepuffs at the neighbouring table, turned around to look.

"Matilda, shut up," Lily hissed. Then she turned to Mia. "And, Mia?"

"And we're gonna take some time to figure out how we feel about it," Mia shrugged.

"How do you feel about it?" Matilda asked, managing to keep her voice at a normal volume.

"Funnily enough, Matilda, she doesn't know," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "Hence the taking time to think about things. Honestly, Mattie!"

Mia grinned, aware that not so long ago, Lily herself would've asked that exact same question. Perhaps having Matilda as a 'little sister' had made her grow up somewhat.

Lily and Mia spent their Sunday catching up on homework they'd been neglecting due to extra Quidditch training in the lead up to the match. In fact, the only real reprieve from study they had in the next week was Quidditch practice on Thursday evening.

"Alright guys," Samuel said, once the team had changed into their Quidditch robes. "We all know how last Saturday went, so there's no need to hash over it again. But, now that we've got our whole team again, I see no reason why we can't win our next match, against Slytherin in January. So, let's get out there!"

He led the way out onto the pitch, and practice began. As she fended off goals from Lily, then Reuben, then Kyle (the Chasers were working together to set up one player at a time for several goals in a row), Mia wondered what would happen if one of the team were unable to play in the Slytherin match. The problem, she reflected, wasn't that they didn't have adequate substitutes to play – there had to be plenty of aspiring Quidditch players in Gryffindor – but that they didn't know who they were. Slowly, an idea began to form in Mia's mind, and she broached it with Sam as they walked back up to the castle.

"What if we had a reserve team?" she suggested. "It'd be a bit of extra work up-front, but-"

"-but we'd never have another situation like last weekend," Sam nodded. "It's an idea, Mia, definitely. Let me think about it, and I'll get back to you."

On Sunday evening, Samuel called a meeting of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and they met in a corner of the Common Room after dinner.

"What's this about, Sam?" Roxanne asked, as Lily and Mia, who were the last, arrived.

"Mia had an idea at practice on Thursday, and I took some time to think about it, and I think it's a good idea. But, since it'll mean a bit more work on all of our parts, I thought I'd better run it by all of you first. So – Mia thinks we should form a reserve team, so if we ever have the need to call on a reserve again, we'll know who we've got. That's the general idea, isn't it, Mia?"

"Yeah," Mia nodded. "And we could open it up to first years, so they'd be a sort of coaching element to it. But a reserve team would provide a team to play against in practices, and we could mix and match the teams so we weren't always playing Team against Reserves. And I don't think being a reserve would automatically get you a place on the team proper if your counterpart left, in case someone better turned up in the meantime, but it'd be a start."

"So, all of those in favour of forming a Gryffindor reserve team, raise your hand," Sam said.

All seven of them raised their hands.

"Okay," Sam said. "So, I'll make an announcement now, and we'll hold reserve team tryouts on Thursday. If there's anyone you want to personally invite, then go ahead. I'll be inviting JJ, and that Emma kid – she'll make a good Seeker."

True to his word, Samuel stood on a chair and announced the reserve team tryouts. Mia wrote out a notice and pinned it on the notice board, for anyone who had missed Samuel's message.

As she did her homework, Mia wondered who'd end up being a reserve Keeper. The only person she could think of was Josh Young, a seventh year boy who she'd narrowly beaten to the Keeper's spot two years ago. Although they'd talked about the reserve team being a way to train up younger players, surely in the event of having to use a reserve they'd want the best player, and so if that was Josh, that's who they wanted on the reserve team.

Mia put down her quill and looked around for Josh. She spotted him sitting at a table with a few of his friends, and got up and walked over. As she approached, Mia felt nervous. She and Josh had never exactly been on friendly terms – during his feud with James he'd often made snide remarks about Mia's Keeping abilities, insinuating that he could do better.

"Josh...?" she said tentatively.

Josh looked up. "Yeah?"

"Can I have a word?"

For a moment, Mia thought Josh was going to say no. Then he nodded curtly, got to his feet, and the two of them walked a few steps away from the table.

"Did you hear Sam's notice about the reserve team?" Mia asked, and Josh nodded. "Are you going to try out for it?"

"No," Josh said shortly.

"Why not?" Mia asked. "You saw how we were last weekend, without proper reserves. We need the best players on that reserve team."

"To be honest, Mia, I haven't got the time," Josh said. "What with my NEWTs and everything. If I was on the actual team, then fair enough, but I'm not going to train all year and probably not get to play. And anyway, there's probably a little first or second year who's better than me, or capable of being better with the right training. So thanks for thinking of me, Mia – but no thanks."

And he walked back to his table to rejoin his friends.

He did have a point, Mia reflected, as she went over the conversation in her head trying to fall asleep that night. She just hoped they found a really good reserve Keeper on Thursday.