[Match, Seeking] Hi, Val! on Quidditch Pitch

The Coach

April 16, 2022 7:47 PM

Mini Match! by The Coach

The Quidditch roster hadn’t quite worked out to two full teams. But it had worked out to a very strong starting line-up, and more than enough new players coming up the ranks in the positions that had been vacated. The chasing squad was a little on the green side, but fortunately all the incoming kids seemed well versed in the sport. Not that the coach had anything against Muggleborns or other new players—far from it, everyone was welcomed with boundless enthusiasm—but given that these kids needed to be thrown straight onto the starting line up, it definitely helped. Val was leading the Chasing squad, with a rotating combination of Freya, Fortune, and Xander. There really wasn’t enough between them to choose without resorting to something arbitrary like a coin toss, so it made more sense to give them all a shot. There hadn’t been much love for playing Keeper on the sign up sheet, but they'd had a walk on at try outs in the form of Mab. She'd done the same and opted for Chaser last year, but had plumped for Keeper this time.

Today though, it was a home game, just for fun, and practise, and perhaps a little bit of advertising too. The Coach hoped that seeing the sport for real might inspire a few of those in the stands to give it a go. As they didn’t have a full fourteen, they were doing five by five, with a Seeker, two Chasers, one Beater and a Keeper per team, and only one Bludger. The two that were losing out the most were the senior beaters, who were relegated to filling in spots that needed filling in. But, they got all the proper matches, and it would be good for the two new junior beaters to play in front of a crowd, and also be a fairer fight pitting them against each other. They had nine players total, and the coach had made it very clear (both by word of mouth and posters) that if anyone wanted to pull a friend in, they’d be welcome to give it a go. It might be a bit of a baptism of fire as a first match, but maybe someone would be keen, or one of the players who’d been on and off over the years would decide this was a fun, low-stakes way to get involved. If not, the coach would fill in the blank spot, and Professor Skies had kindly agreed to referee.

The day was sunny, almost to the point of inconvenience, as there was a large amount of glare. It was early enough in the year that it wasn’t too hot yet—it was one of those crisp, bright breakthrough days, that hinted warmer weather was on its way, but which would probably be interrupted by another flurry of grey days before spring properly got going. There was a steady breeze, which would need a little accounting for, but wouldn’t throw things wildly off course.

For the spectators, there was ample seating, a few concessions stands serving free snacks like popcorn, and giving out flags which would switch between the two teams’ colours upon request, so that they could support their friends. Today, would be orange versus purple—pretty much the only two colours not claimed by the school or house system.

“Alright, today is all about showing your friends what fun it is to play Quidditch,” the coach greeted the players once they had assembled, got team rosters and had their robes charmed to match their team’s colour. “I know it’s new for some of you to play in front of a crowd. It’s just a game. We have fewer players on the pitch today, so in some ways the match might feel a little slower—there won’t be quite so many bodies flying around or big, dramatic hits. That’s okay. In some ways, you might have to work harder, because there aren’t as many of you. Again, this is a chance to showcase your hard work to your friends, to get used to playing in different ways with different people, and to have a good, fun game. Let’s go.”

OOC: Hi, welcome to our Quidditch posting event. You may post as a spectator, a player in the match, or in post-match if you're more interesting in socialising with your team-mates. In order to be able to have multiple separate threads for each topic, reply is direct (like with class) rather than in subgroups. Please use the tags [match], [post-match] or [spectator] in your title to help people find what they're looking for.

For clarity, the positions on the overall school team are:
Anya - Seeker
Chasers:
Val, Fortune, Freya, Xander (rotate and will be decided based off performance this year)
Beaters - Oz and Billy
Keeper: Mab

Positions for today's mini match are:
Orange:
Seeker: Anya
Keeper: Oz
Chasers: Fortune, Xander
Beater: Cole

Purple:
Seeker: Val
Chasers: Freya, Billy
Beater: Yarielis
Keeper: Mab

Subthreads:

Game on! [Match, Chasing] by Billy Cobb with Oz Spellman

[Match, Seeking] Hi, Val! by Anya Delachene with Valentine Duell

[Stands] Cheering on someone special by Xavier Lundstrom with Hansel Hexenmeister

[Match] Beating out of synch by Yaniel Ayala Velez

13 The Coach Mini Match! 0 The Coach 1 5

Billy Cobb

April 17, 2022 5:45 PM

Game on! [Match, Chasing] by Billy Cobb

Billy thought it felt really weird to be flying around the pitch without his Beater Stick in hand. He felt oddly vulnerable, and he didn't much care for it. He was just supposed to dodge out of the way if the bludger came his way? That didn't seem right. Oh well, the coach was right and the alternates could use the practice. At least he was better off than Oz. He still got to fly around the pitch, poor Oz just got to sit in front of the goal hoops until someone got over near him.

On that end though, Billy planned to help Oz out. Oz was playing for the Orange team and they needed to be soundly defeated by Billy's own noble Purple team. So, it was his job to make Oz's life during the game as exciting as possible, and he sure aimed to do just that. He'd also made sure to let Oz know that after the teams were divided up with a friendly grin.

So, when Billy intercepted a pass from Fortune and left the first year eating his dust, he cheered in triumph as he barreled down towards Oz's goals. Now this is where he got to show his clever bits. Oz would be expecting this, so.... he reeled back with his arm and threw it to Freya! Hopefully Oz would be completely fooled by his awesome and cunning plan!

OOC: Interception from Fortune approved by his author... who is me.

2 Billy Cobb Game on! [Match, Chasing] 1519 0 5

Oz Spellman

April 18, 2022 7:06 AM

/Keeping/ my thoughts to myself by Oz Spellman

Thank goodness for Quidditch. Between Xavier, Xavier, and, oh yeah, Xavier, Oz was really grateful for the chance to repeatedly smack metal balls with all his might. As well as working out his various frustrations, it was also something that required his concentration. Slipping up meant himself getting hurt, someone else getting hurt, or Billy getting one up on him, none of which were consequences he wanted to take.

The time he spent on the pitch, especially in the air, nothing else existed. It was when he came back to earth that it was there waiting, and things started to suck again. It was his only current consolation that no one knew, but it also drove itself in like a wedge between him and all the normal people who hadn’t made a series of exceptionally stupid decisions lately. If someone else knew, maybe he wouldn’t feel so alone. Maybe he’d at least be able to talk about it or get some advice, but that would involve admitting it to someone. And no one knew. Not even Xavier.

Today was going to be different, because he was being forced to play Keeper—the position no one wanted because it was the dullest thing in existence, but had everyone mad at you if you screwed it up. Great. Billy was making threats/promises about making his life interesting, and Oz hoped so. He needed for his mind not to drift into the stands.

As he took his position, he realised one other flaw with this—besides leaving his mind vulnerable to attack, his body was also far more exposed too. He was used to being the one hitting the Bludgers around, which meant he was in relatively little danger from them coming towards him. This sucked.

He did a few loops of the goals, trying to make sure he wasn’t a sitting duck, and to give himself something to think about. Billy got hold of the ball quickly, and Oz tensed, really not wanting to lose to his roommate, and pretty sure Billy would come and have a crack at him. But he passed it to Freya. Who might actually be more of a threat, seeing as—unlike Billy—she actually played that position. Well, at least he had plenty to think about.

13 Oz Spellman /Keeping/ my thoughts to myself 1514 0 5

Anya Delachene

April 18, 2022 9:08 AM

[Match, Seeking] Hi, Val! by Anya Delachene

Prior to heading down to the game, Anya put her crystal ball back onto its shelf with a sigh of mild irritation. "Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future," she muttered, not pulling off a Yoda voice as she quoted him, but not really trying either. She wondered if snitches in particular had some kind of anti-divination protections on them as well that made them as hard to spot in crystal balls as they were on the field. Even when she did spot one, there wasn't enough context around it to say where it would be at what point in time. Entirely not helpful for using her talent to give her an advantage in a game.

As it was a practice match, though, this time she'd been mostly looking to see who would win, but even that was hard to pin down because nearly any kind of foreknowledge would change the outcome anyway when she was one of the players. (She would never try this for a real match because the repercussions of any kind of foresight could range anywhere from crushed morale, to damaging overconfidence, to just simply being blinded to what was actually happening by expecting something else; but for a practice match, the stakes were low, and she already knew the two sides were going to be as evenly matched as the coach could make them, so it was more an exercise for her divination talent than anything she expected would be useful for the game itself anyway.) As expected, she'd seen both herself and Val catching the snitch, but couldn't say for sure if any of that would happen today, or later this year, or when Val was lead Seeker, or if they were all possible futures that could happen today depending on factors she couldn't see, but who knew which, if any, would actually come to pass. This was why Divination was so hard to make practical and useful in normal every day situations.

Anya collected her quidditch gear, put on her lucky quidditch shoes, and headed out for the pitch. Once there, she did her normal warm-up routine, starting slow and building up: stretches, splits, backbends, back walk-overs, twists, windmills, straight jumps, jumping jacks, straddle jumps, cartwheels, handsprings, and finally the flips. Then she waved to the early arrivals in audience, and did a fun tumbling run: roundoff, back handspring, back handspring, forward flip to change direction and then back the way she'd come with a front handspring, front handspring, aerial, back handspring, and then a backward roll up into a handstand.

Feeling she was nicely limber now she put her feet back on the ground and stood, smiling and waving again to the smattering of applause, then went to don the orange robes that denoted her temporary team for the day. She then checked over her broom, examining it for loose or bent bristles or minor damages. She'd done some basic care and maintenance for it just last night, so she didn't expect to find any, but double checking her equipment was very a good habit to be in.

Looking up at the sky, she assessed the weather as an overall boon - it was nice outside, and the sunny glints would probably distract Val more than her since she was the more experience seeker of the two of them.

The coach soon called them all over and gave a pep speech, and then the game had begun! Anya took to the air with glee. She never felt so free as she did when the ground held no claim on her. There was little point in looking for the snitch in the first minute or two of the game - even if in the unlikely event it showed itself, it would be no fun for anybody if it was over that quickly, so she started by flying lazy circles around Val, keeping the other Seeker close, both for protection as the inexperience beater on the other team might not dare fire a bludger at her with their own Seeker so close by, as well as for the strategy of distracting her opponent, both with movements that were designed to draw the eye to her (a tactic conveniently aided by her bright orange robes that couldn't be easily ignored) rather than on the rest of the pitch where the snitch might be hiding, and with conversation (a sure lure for as social a Teppenpaw as Valentine Duell was). "Good luck, Val!" she called to the other girl cheerfully. This was not the first mini-game they had played against each other, thought it was the first with an audience, and it was a much more friendly competition than she'd ever had with Jeremy.

She was rather excited to see how it went.

1 Anya Delachene [Match, Seeking] Hi, Val! 1453 0 5

Valentine Duell

April 20, 2022 4:16 PM

Hi yourself! by Valentine Duell

Val was excited for this game! She was going to be a Seeker for an official game! She hadn't been surprised when Anya took first string, not did she begrudge the older girl. The way she looked at it, she had this year to whip these green chasers into shape so she could take over as Seeker next year. They had to be good enough so they didn't need her at all any more.

They'd get some good practice this game, but she wouldn't be watching them. She had more important things to keep here eye out for. She was going to grab that snitch just to make sure the Coach knew she was up to the task next year.

Val made her way down to the pitch, apparently after Anya. She watched the seventh year go through her 'warm up routine' plus some. That was certainly not something Val could duplicate, so she did her own warm-ups out of the limelight. Despite her excitement she took care to check her gear thoroughly before donning it. The process was calming, and she was all ready to go when the coach called them together.

After that, as expected, Anya was off like a lightning bolt. Grinning wildly, Val shot off into the sky, hot on her tail. She was going to do her best and have a blast doing it! Once in position, high overhead of everyone else, Val began a sweep of the area with her eyes. The first thing she noticed was that Anya was nearby and didn't seem overly concerned with finding the snitch. At least at the moment.

"Thanks!" Val responded, "Good luck to you as well!" It was fun to play against Anya. She squinted against the sun as she tried to take another look around. Anya always seemed to be in range of her vision though, it was a bit odd. Suddenly she realized that Anya might just be trying to distract her! What a dastardly tactic! Well, two could play at that game. She gazed toward the opposite end of the pitch for just a moment longer than before. "It's been lovely," She said hastily, "But I need to run!" With that she shot off quickly hoping that the snitch didn't pick that moment to show up at the spot she'd just vacated with Anya right there.

2 Valentine Duell Hi yourself! 1490 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

April 26, 2022 6:01 AM

[Stands] Cheering on someone special by Xavier Lundstrom

Xavier glanced at his watch, and hastily dropped his quill. He’d already spent the previous day inking little hearts inside one of his notebooks with a biro, but he’d realised he was supposed to try being more wizardly and… well, okay, he could actually write fine with a quill already, but he wasn’t going to pass up an excuse to draw more little hearts, and fill them in with ‘OX’ or ‘XO.’ He wasn’t sure which he liked better. ‘Ox’ was a kinda cool nickname for them, but ‘XO’ was a kiss and a hug. He supposed OX could be a hug and a kiss, but no one really said it that way. Either way, their initials being the cutest thing together was just the latest in a long line of things he was obsessed with when it came to the thought of him and Oz.

But speaking of Oz, if Xav didn’t get a move on, he’d be late for his match. Xav couldn’t say he was really into Quidditch. A broomstick sport sounded kind of cool, but the flying metal death balls were really off-putting. Still, showing school spirit felt like familiar ground, and he’d dug a green t-shirt out of his closet for the occasion—even if he didn’t want to get behind the whole game, or even his actual school, he wanted to support his boyfriend.

Okay, so he and Oz hadn’t actually put a label on it yet, but they had kissed. The stupid, impossible, unfortunate attraction to his best friend that had been plaguing him for months was actually going to work out. Oz had feelings for him! Oz just needed to admit them, and tell Xavier about the kiss, seeing as he allegedly had no memory of it. It wasn’t all sparklingly crystal clear, but he was sure it had really happened.

The first time, after taking the juice, he’d come back to himself deeply aware that he had gushed out his undying love for his, as he thought, incredibly straight best friend. He’d feigned fuzzy headedness, and asked if he’d said or done anything weird. Oz, clearly equally mortified, had told him nothing had happened, and Xavier had been going along with that pretense ever since. A lot of what he said was crap, and it was probably less embarrassing to just play it like a blank slate. It was just sort of inconvenient now, when he wanted so badly to sit Oz down, and talk about how it had felt to kiss him, and pull him in to do it again, and ask to be boyfriends. But that would come. Oz liked him. Xavier didn’t think you could feel like that about someone and keep it to yourself forever—not when you could be happy, and snuggly, and making out.

He was grinning to himself as he made his way to the Quidditch stands, thinking of all the ways he might encourage Oz to tell him. A real, giddy grin that he couldn’t have wiped off his face if he was asked to. It was a stark contrast to his usual demeanour around school, and he couldn’t actually remember the last time he’d felt this way or smiled this way. Maybe he’d never smiled this particular way before. Someone capital-L-Liked him! Someone who he capital-L-Liked too! And the sun was shining, and it just felt like the closest thing to perfect that life had felt in a long time.

He could even push aside the bits of unhappy things that Oz had said. Just for today. Those problems wouldn’t last forever anyway.

He took one of the flags, finding out as he did so that apparently green wasn’t the colour to be in. He guessed that made sense, given that everyone playing was from their school. He felt a slight stab of resentment at the tiny little flag, so carelessly imbued with a charm that he still struggled with about half the time. Sure, it was great that he didn’t have to change its colour himself, because he’d probably set something on fire, but the way people threw around magic so casually, charming it onto things like it didn’t even matter… Whilst all the while, it still failed to flow through his fingers, it was—not what today was about. Today there was popcorn, and he was going to cheer on Oz.

He took a seat in the stands, turning his flag orange when he saw the teams. It was weird seeing Oz without his Beater’s bat. Xav hoped he wouldn’t be too bored—or that he wouldn’t get hit in the face. Xav’s vision of their wedding day didn’t include Oz having a broken nose.

“Go orange!” he called, trying to get into the spirit, but still wincing as one of the bludgers went towards his boyfriend.

13 Xavier Lundstrom [Stands] Cheering on someone special 1529 0 5

Hansel Hexenmeister

April 26, 2022 8:47 AM

This is kind of weird by Hansel Hexenmeister

Hansel headed up into the stands, carrying a tall narrow red striped box filled with popcorn and a flag that was currently orange. He enjoyed watching Quidditch more than playing Quidditch which is why he wasn't on the team this year, but it was going to be weird not seeing Hilda on the Pitch. His brain sort of associated Sonora Quidditch with Hilda and Hilda with Sonora Quidditch and not having his sister playing today was going to be an adjustment to how he thought about the whole sport.

He looked around and spotted a seat next to someone he knew, so he headed over that way, claiming the spot beside Xavier. "Hi, nice day, right?" he asked brightly, and was delighted to see that Xavier wasn't looking as gloomy and closed off as he had been recently.

As the teams came out and Hansel got a good look at who what on each side, he found he didn't really have a strong preference either way. None of the players were anyone he was particularly close to. He knew Val - everyone knew Val - from her being his House's new perfect as well as her just being Val, and from Chasing with her in previous years, so he was kind of tempted to switch his flag over to purple, but Xavier was changing his to orange, and he hesitated, and looked over the orange group again.

He knew Oz from class, kind of (but no better than Billy, who was on Purple). Cole was another Teppenpaw, though not one he knew well, but neither did he know Val especially well, so maybe they balanced. He kind of knew of Anya, though he'd had no personal interactions with her ever, but he just as equally knew of Mab, over on the Purple side. Both were somewhat infamous in different ways, and both were people Hilda had spoken of as co-Pecari-Prefects. Billy was also Hilda's protégé so he kind of felt like he should be backing him for Hilda's sake, though Oz had also trained under her, too, and neither were playing beater in today's game.

Overall though, he still thought he leaned vaguely toward the purple side, and he wasn't sure he was close enough to Xavier to change his own allegiance based on Xavier's. If he was making decisions based on someone else's opinions, he'd sooner take Hilda's, especially if it pertained to Quidditch in any way, which this obviously did. "Purple," he instructed his flag and it promptly switched colors. He waved it around as the teams took to the air.

"It's weird," he remarked during a slight lull in the action, "not having Hilda out there. I don't even know who to cheer for." If Hilda had been playing, it would have been a very simple choice - whichever side she was on.

"Whoo! Go, Val!" he shouted suddenly, waving the purple flag, when the purple robed seeker suddenly took off for the other side of the pitch. Hansel didn't see any flash of gold, but he wasn't a seeker, so she probably had better trained eyes for that than he did. "I chased with her last year," he added to Xavier, by way of explanation, to justify why he was cheering for her when he'd literally just said he didn't know who to cheer for. "But we're not exactly close."

1 Hansel Hexenmeister This is kind of weird 1524 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

April 27, 2022 5:38 AM

I stick out that much? by Xavier Lundstrom

Hans had come to sit with him, and Xav was pretty happy about that. Hans had been pretty nice the times they’d worked together, and they’d had a decent time together in Tumbleweed. That was the sort of thing that felt like it should have cemented them as friends, but Xav still felt like they were in that awkward halfway place where they were friendly but he wasn’t sure if they were friends. It was probably his own fault. It was one of the many unfortunate side effects of Xavier’s condition that a lot of his social time got swallowed up by hanging out with Professor Wright. Thank goodness he had Oz! It would have been so pathetic if their sad, middle-aged charms professor was Xav’s most significant relationship here at school.

He and Hans seemed to be on different teams—another metaphor for how his social life had been going. He’d had some previous thoughts that Hansel was kind of cute, but obviously wouldn’t look at him that way now that he had Oz.

Hansel brought up one thing that they did have in common. Hilda. In some ways, Xav felt that he knew more about Hansel than he should, given how not close they were. Not that Hilda had ever disclosed anything specific beyond living with her uncle but… Well, he’d had glimpses into Hans’ life but not via Hans, which he always felt sort of weird about, and Hilda knew more about Xav than anyone at school except Oz. Except, as Hansel pointed out, she wasn’t here any more.

“Yeah. It’s sort of weird not seeing her around the common room,” he said. Admittedly, he’d transferred a lot of what he felt for Hilda onto Mab—older person who kind of seemed interested in him not exploding. Hilda was more talky and smiley, whereas Mab frowned at everything but was at least willing to go rollerblading, not that he’d taken her up on that a lot. Partly because he sensed that taking her up on it a lot would be pushing his luck, and partly because he’d been… busy.

“Not into it enough to play without Hilda?” he guessed, when Hansel brought up the fact he’d been on the team last year, but wasn’t now. “How is she?” he asked.

13 Xavier Lundstrom I stick out that much? 1529 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

April 27, 2022 5:59 AM

[Match] Beating out of synch by Yaniel Ayala Velez

Getting used to playing in front of a crowd was a good thing, and a logical expectation, and thing to want, given the ultimate goal of ending up on the first string eventually. Still, Yarielis could have quite happily put it off for like… ever? At least with proper away matches, you just left afterwards and never had to see the people again or hear what they thought of you. This evening, whatever happened out here today, Yarielis would have to sit down to have dinner amongst these people. It felt weird.

Just to nicely up the pressure, the mini team format meant that Yarielis was the only Beater on the team, and also up against Cole. That probably would have happened even if Billy and Oz had been playing their usual positions (Yarielis really hoped they weren’t mad about not getting to) because of the need to balance the teams, but that also felt weird. The two of them were usually bench buddies, staying grounded whilst everyone else got their shot. Now they were rivals. There was just time to offer a ‘This is gonna be weird,’ and ‘good luck’ to Cole before the coach called them together.

It was game time, and time to put game faces on! Not that Yarielis had let that slip, or let any of the worries show on the surface, even before the huddle. Freya was already a first string player, so being nervous about a silly little school match would probably make Yarielis look pathetic.

Then it was time for them all to walk out. The distance didn’t help. The fact that there were nine other players on the pitch didn’t help. It felt like every pair of eyes was crawling over Yarielis, evaluating every detail. A wave of something swelled. It wasn’t nausea. It was like something crawling all over and under Yarielis’ skin—like the sudden desire to rip it all off and run. Being looked at had never been something the first year liked and—

And they were mounting up. And the whistle was blowing. And Yarielis was stumbling into the air, feeling at least a beat out of synch with everyone else.

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez [Match] Beating out of synch 1554 0 5

Hansel Hexenmeister

May 02, 2022 9:09 PM

Not you. Hilda’s empty space. by Hansel Hexenmeister

Hansel nodded in understanding at Xavier’s claim that Pecari was weird without her. He fortunately did not have any associations with his sister in his common room, having been sorted into a different House, but he could well understand the weirdness of her not being where she used to be. Hilda took up a lot of space, and not just in physical dimensions. She was just hard to miss. If she was around, she would be noticed, and if she wasn’t around, well, that was all too noticeable, too. He’d experienced it when she first went to Sonora and her absence was everywhere at the ranch, and he felt it again now, here at the Pitch, and when he looked around the Cascade Hall at mealtimes.

He shrugged at the question regarding his Quidditch interest. “Only really joined because she wanted me to and I thought I could make friends there. I never did get close to anyone on the team though, and now she’s not there so I don’t see the point. Never really saw the point of the game myself.” He abruptly remembered Hilda had seemed fond of Xavier and he didn’t know if they were still in contact so he hurried to added, “Don’t tell Hilda I said that though. I try to like it for her sake. It’s very important to her.”

His eye followed the quaffle across the pitch, tracking Billy now because he was probably the one Hilda would be most interested in hearing about though he supposed he should take some notes on the new kids playing beater, too.

“She’s doing well for the most part. English is still hard for her. She’s getting actual English as a Second Language classes now though, with a teacher who speaks German, and I think that’s helping a lot. She loves college level Quidditch and most of her letters are about her games and her teammates. There’s one called Dannie she talks about the most.”

If Hilda had actually been present he might have given the words a teasing gleeful tone of a little brother trying to embarrass his big sister, but she wasn’t, and there was no sport in it if there was no chance of being threatened with bludgers. “So she’s made at least one new friend anyway.” Probably a friend. Clues in her letters were inconclusive about whether or not Dannie was just a friend, more than a friend, or a friend she wanted to be more than friends with but Hilda had no idea how to go about changing that. (Hans was honestly torn between thinking Hilda would be utterly hopeless if she tried dating and thinking she absolutely had the brash confidence to just go up to Dannie and state simply but clearly ‘I like you. We are girlfriends, ok?” And that would be that.)

“She’s surprisingly good at making friends,” he added in mildly jealous confusion. Hansel himself was doing better in that department now, but he’d had a slow start at it and he could speak English just fine. For as direct as she was, with such a strong language barrier, it was somewhat baffling to him that she been the one of them to get the largest and closest group of fast friends.

And all of them seemed only able to make friends with girls. Hilda had her German Tent girls. Heinrich had Evelyn. Hansel supposed Xavier and Alexei were both fine, of course, but he would definitely say he was closer to Liesl and Lydia. And Iris was nice, too.

“She’s happy,” Hansel concluded the summary of Hilda’s current status with its most important point.

1 Hansel Hexenmeister Not you. Hilda’s empty space. 1524 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

May 13, 2022 8:42 PM

Ah. Yes. That. by Xavier Lundstrom

“Uh. I won’t,” Xavier confirmed, his tone questioning enough that it was pretty clear he didn’t envision having any conversations with Hilda in the near future. Did Hans think he wrote to her? Should he write to her? He figured she’d only cared as a matter of proximity and responsibility, and he couldn’t imagine they really had a lot to say to each other. Especially given that his free time was descending into things that were very much not prefect appropriate. Or things he planned to tell anyone.

“Yeah, it’s not really my thing either. But… Oz,” he gestured with his flag, giving a vaguely hopeless shrug that said he was stuck going wherever the older boy went. He didn’t think that was revealing any secrets, given that everyone knew the two of them were best friends. Someone who was inclined to notice and to care about who Liked who might have noticed the softness with which he said Oz’s name, the absence of any real annoyance at being dragged out to Quidditch if it meant getting to watch him. But it could have just been ‘friendly.’

“Sounds good,” he smiled, as Hans filled him on what Hilda had been doing. It was also mostly Quidditch related, unsurprisingly. But Hilda was happy, and that was good. “Tell her hi from me,” he said.

“Yeah. She’s not shy, I’ll give her that,” he acknowledged, when Hans said Hilda seemed to make friends easily. He tried to register whether there was something more to the way he said it. Hans had friends. Probably. Xavier didn’t actually manage to keep up a lot with who hung out with who, because he was too busy going to remedial classes or dosing himself up with pain potions, but Hans never seemed stuck for someone to work with or eat with. He spent a lot of time with Liesl, the girl with all the weird outfits. Maybe Hans was just being a youngest sibling. They were usually annoyed about what the older ones had. “I’ve heard Teppenpaws don’t have much trouble in that regard,” he added, gently poking the issue.

13 Xavier Lundstrom Ah. Yes. That. 1529 0 5