show me show me show me how you do that trick

Outside of games, it was very difficult for Lovelace to hold a grudge or feel like she couldn’t spend time with the opposing team. This was especially true for her fellow housemates, but even more true with anyone that was willing to practice with her. She thought it was a bit ridiculous to hide strategy unless it relied on surprise. Unless the other team was just that much better, it seemed to her that winning by surprise was a bit unsporting. Sports were better than reality, more fair and willing to jump in to balance unfair tactics, and if you didn’t win fairly in a fair game, what were you even doing?

Lovelace was rarely shy, so thought she must’ve broached the subject with everyone that showed any remote interest in Quidditch. The only exceptions to this were her fellow classmates that had already asked her about practicing with them. She couldn’t honestly remember if she or Maevie had suggested practicing with the other first, but as she got her gear on, she couldn’t help feeling excited about the prospect. Her parents were always telling her that she could learn as much by watching and staying quiet, but that always sounded like another way of saying that children should be seen, not heard. It made much more sense to her to learn by doing and maybe in that process seeing what Maevie was doing. If she could focus anywhere aside from her instincts and the balls, maybe she could even notice the ways Maevie did things differently, even the why if she was really attentive!

As she dragged the chest with all the balls they would be practicing with to the pitch, her broom on top, she tried to get an idea of the weather as well as the direction of the breeze. She knew both could change on a dime, purely based on her mother’s utter distaste of northern weather. Although they technically lived in northern England, she still seemed to feel it was superior to Scottish weather. As with most of what her mother communicated to her, this was entirely unfathomable to Lovelace. So, when they weren’t around others whose opinions mattered to her mother, Lovelace quite enjoyed asking endless questions to try to annoy her. As far as she was concerned, this was a requirement to living with posh people; someone had to take them down the pegs they seemed to feel they deserved to be on to the detriment of everyone else.

Getting the feeling Maevie was nearby, Lovelace continued looking out at the sky and dragging the chest but started speaking, “I reckon it’ll be a good time to fly, for the next hour at least, maybe two. Whattya think?” she asked, finally letting go of the chest. She picked up her broom, then wondered if she should’ve brought an extra just in case. She had assumed everyone above first year would have their own, if only to avoid that one school broom that gave her a blister, which she always accidentally picked when she wasn’t paying enough attention when picking a broom. “I can run back in and getcha a broom if you need it.” she added, finally turning to look for the other girl as she opened up the chest, “D’ya wanna practice with the bludgers in play? I know they’re heavy as, but it does seem like they’d still do less damage without any beaters to aim ‘em at us.”

Maevie had never played a real Quidditch match. She had never even seen one unfold. With the ban on the sport, all she had ever really done was fly—circling the pitch, racing up and down its length with a couple of friends, weaving around the stands’ towers.

Sometimes there were scrimmages. Organised by a couple of students, they were fun, but they hardly compared to the atmosphere she had read about in the papers or seen in moving images. Players in fancy uniforms, racing across the pitch with roaring crowds in the background. And since proper practices had finally begun after the Headmaster’s announcement at the start of term, Maevie could almost physically feel herself inching closer to experiencing what Quidditch was actually supposed to be.

Still, she wasn’t about to pass up any opportunity for extra training.

Because beyond all the fun and the excitement lurked an almost crippling fear of failure.

What if she sucked? What if she walked onto the pitch on match day and had no idea what she was doing? What if she fumbled, or didn’t spot the Snitch at all?

You couldn’t always win. Her mum said that to her all the time, and Maevie understood. Still, she worried she’d mess up in a way that couldn’t be chalked up to bad luck or an off day. Lucky for her, Lovelace and she had somehow agreed to practice outside their scheduled sessions, and Maevie intended to use every minute.

Her broom was clamped between her shoulder, chin, and forearm as she tightened the last strap of her forearm guard. Maevie jogged up to the younger girl dragging the chest containing the balls onto the pitch.

“I reckon it’ll be a good time to fly, for the next hour at least, maybe two. Whattya think?” 

Her gaze drifted to the sky for a moment before returning to Lovelace.

“Well, the weather here seems to do what it wants,” she mused, a light grin on her lips. “Could turn within the span of a minute. But we should be fine. If it starts raining, I guess it’ll help us prepare in case it rains on game day, right?” Hopefully, it wouldn’t, but Maevie supposed it was better to be ready for anything.

With the strap finally secure, Maevie held up her broom in answer to Lovelace’s question, then looked toward the now-open chest and the Bludgers inside. Her head tilted, lips pursing thoughtfully.

“Hmm, yes.” A mischievous curl crept across her lips as her eyes flicked back to Lovelace. “With no one to beat them around, we don’t risk dying, I suppose. But we can still practice avoiding them.” As apprehensive as Maevie felt about the iron balls, there was no playing Quidditch without the risk of being hit. Might as well make the practice as immersive as possible.

“You wanna do some passes first?” she asked, swinging a leg over her broom and pushing herself into a hovering position a couple feet above the ground. “I don’t think releasing the Snitch is a good idea, right? We might end up searching for the thing all night.”

Maevie chuckled.

“Besides, I can use the Quaffle practice, too.”

It was impossible for Lovelace to disagree with Maevie’s thoughts on the weather, so instead of responding, she grimaced her agreement. The other player’s next words also rang true, but Lovelace hadn’t thought of them, so felt compelled to respond, “Good point!” she agreed, raising her eyebrows with a smile. She was liking Maevie so far, which made sense, since she was the same age and house as her sister, even if her sister was much better than basically anyone. “Meanin’ we don’t have the excuse of the weather gettin’ excessive to send us in!” she pointed out, a grin forming on her face.

Finally spotting Maevie’s broom, Lovelace nodded with a smile, “Good, I’m glad.” she responded before also turning her head to look at the Bludgers. They looked a bit bloodthirsty, but Lovelace thought that had to just be because she knew what they were for. “I’ve yet to die.” she agreed, folding her arms, “Plus, I think I need the practice.” she agreed, frowning at the Bludgers. “When I can see ‘em, I know to avoid ‘em, but outta sight, outta mind.”

Although she knew she probably shouldn’t agree so readily to helping herself over Maevie, Lovelace nodded again eagerly at the other player’s question. “Oh, yes please!” she approved quickly. Then, feeling slightly bad at probably being rude to someone who was so nice, thought about the girl’s next words carefully as she got a leg over her broom and looked at the balls they could loose. “I mean, we could not,” she hedged as neutrally as she could. She didn’t want the other player to feel pressured into being on the pitch for longer than she wanted to be. Still, she couldn’t help feeling incredibly curious about the snitch. She knew it was an important position, the most important role any Quidditch player could have, which is why she hadn’t wanted to consider it for herself just yet.

“But we could check out the snitch after, if you wanted to… I mean, even if it takes all night, it still sounds like fun to me.” she offered with a shrug. It was hard to get an idea of any element of Quidditch just from what she’d been able to glean from newspapers and magazines, and she couldn’t help thinking they must sometimes exaggerate, if not lie about just how long things could take. “Plus, we’d be working together, not against each other!” she added, then crouched to grab the Quaffle. “Look alive!” she warned, then tossed it to her. “Bludgers next, I’m gonna zoom up so they can’t get me, I’d suggest you do the same.” she said, pausing for a moment removing the restraints on both bludgers as quickly as she could, then doing as she’d said, aiming for the height of the hoops.