Come fly away

[Riley McNeill]

Whenever Riley was free of lessons or otherwise out of or not yet in a detention, it tended to be a certain bet that she could be found at the Quidditch Pitch. As much as she loved the joy of soaring through the air atop her broom, it paled utterly in comparison to how much she adored this sport. She strode onto the pitch, broomstick held in her right hand as she tried to ignore the biting cold and huddle deeper inside her Slytherin Quidditch attire. Her breath formed weird patterns as it swirled and danced in the frigid air before vanishing as she gazed about the empty stadium. Few students would be brave enough, fool hardy enough or obstinate enough to watch anyone performing any practice with this cold. Not that Riley minded anyone observing her flying about the pitch, if anything it may result in her trying to either show off or talk to them.

She brushed a stray lock of fiery ginger hair from her face, it having escaped the braided ponytail as she mounted her broomstick before kicking off into the sky. Riley grinned with delight at the familiar sensation of being airborne as she zoomed about the stadium, performing the odd loop or barrel roll. She was the Slytherin Keeper, her skill in blocking the goals incredible, unlike her ability to serve as a chaser or seeker. Positions which though they provided far greater chances to zoom about the pitch as well as possible glory, Riley tended to be rather poor at best at. Her distinctly petite size might lead many to assume she lacked the ability to serve as a keeper well, but her performance the previous year put most of those voices out for good.

Riley eventually halted her pointless circuits about the pitch, coming to a halt near the goal posts, eyeing the sleeping stadium from the familiar position. Her mind wandered as she imagined the cheering crowds, the roar of voices, the blast of horns, the fans shouting her name after a particularly challenging save. She grinned, more than eager for the next game. She opened her eyes, wishing silently to herself for someone to throw the ball around with or otherwise race about the pitch with. Perhaps she should have found some of her fellow teammates or hunted down some of the players from the other teams to see if they fancied an impromptu game or challenge. Too late now, whilst it might be far quicker to fly up to the castle in order to search for them, somehow she suspected the teachers were not going to be best pleased with that particularly behavior. The last thing Riley desired or needed was to find herself in any further trouble. She might as well just have her own designated spot for detentions or her own room given how often she landed herself in them. At least, to her anyway that was what it felt like.

[Kyle Winters]

Broom in hand, Kyle finished the last leg of his warm-up run and arrived at the Quidditch pitch. He wasn’t too fond of doing laps on a cold day, but he didn’t want to make a habit out of skipping a training session just because of the weather. Besides, cold and dismal days like this were perfect for heading down to the pitch, because most people would rather stay indoors than be nithered outside.

To the teenager’s surprise, someone else had beat him to the pitch. Kyle recognised the petite figure clad in green robes and zooming around the stadium: it was Riley McNeill, their Keeper. Even though she had only joined the team last year, she had quickly proved her worth and earned the respect of her naysayers.

Not wanting to distract or pressurise Riley by revealing his presence, Kyle found a nice spot beside one of the stands from which he could watch her train without being seen. Every now and then she would pull up into a loop or perform a barrel roll, and he took the opportunity to observe her technique. She was clearly a strong and experienced flyer: as a Keeper, she had to be quicker than the opposing Chasers while wearing her heavy protective gear, and Kyle truthfully had no idea how she did what she did with such aplomb.

Before long, Riley stopped near the goal posts, and Kyle stepped out of his hiding place. Removing his prosthetic leg and leaving it by the stand, he hopped onto his broom and flew over to join his teammate. “That was right impressive,” he said once he was within earshot.

[Riley McNeill]

It appeared the world was in the mood to grant her wishes today, in which case she would have wished for far more than just some of her fellow teammates to practice with. The unexpected but entirely welcome voice of Kyle, the Seventh Year and one of the team's chaser initially caused Riley to jump, startled as she had entirely failed to notice his arrival. She mentally chastised herself for losing herself to her idle imaginings. It was one thing to day dream in classes, it would be another matter entirely if she lacked focus on the pitch. Somehow she doubted Slytherin House might be very pleased with her if her distraction caused her to miss and allow some goals to slip past.

If she stopped the ball, she was a hero, if she let them through the villain. At least it was not as bad as being a seeker or the team captain, those positions were ones she happened to be quite happy to let others deal with. She blushed at his words, her cold pale face turning almost as bright a red as her hair. Riley shrugged her shoulders at the compliment, trying and failing to pass it off as nothing. "Just flying around, weren't nothing fancy." She explained with a small smile, her thick Scottish accent easily noticeable. Practice with anyone else willing to fly a broom was fantastic, but with a fellow Slytherin, well teamwork made the dream work or something along those lines right?

"I wasn't expecting to find anyone else out here." Riley admitted, shifting her weight on her broom so she sat more comfortably. She never seemed to settle when in goal, her broom shifting ever so slightly left or right. Her fans said it was eagerness to make a save, her critics that she tended to be too impatient to sit still. Riley personally felt it tended to be a mixture of the two. "I came out here to get away from all the work and revision." She told Kyle, with him having been a Fifth Year once, she guessed he knew the problems she was dealing with. "All that homework, revisions, the mock exams and oh the odd detention..." She shook her head wearily. "But hey, I managed a week without getting into trouble for something, new personal best." Riley grinned at him. She knew it was only a matter of time till she found herself in trouble for something else, like being late as she got lost, or left the homework in their dorm or the library or because the day ended in y.

"I swear I need a map for the castle. Why do the stair cases move? It's so impractical. If I interrupt one more teacher meeting thinking I'm at the right classroom..." She trailed off realizing she was rabbiting on, the keeper could more than easily talk for England or just about any other nation, but preferably Scotland.

[Kyle Winters]

Kyle’s unannounced appearance made Riley jump a little, and he quickly apologised for the unexpected intrusion. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” He was prone to losing himself in his own thoughts during his solo practice sessions, and it was probably the same case for Riley. As the Keeper downplayed her flying, Kyle shook his head. “Nothing fancy? Come on, you gotta give yourself more credit than that.” Most people couldn’t even do a half-assed Immelmann turn, much less the proper loops that she had just pulled off.

“Neither was I,” Kyle replied when Riley mentioned that she wasn’t expecting anyone else to be at the pitch. “I suppose it’s just the two of us who are willing to endure a little cold to clock some laps.” As he had meant that as a compliment about Riley’s dedication towards Quidditch, he hadn’t counted on her revealing that her impetus for doing so was to get away from schoolwork. Nonetheless, he could resonate with that reason, and he nodded empathetically as she ran through the long list of things bothering her.

At her mention of detentions, he gave a mirthless laugh. “Oh boy, detentions…” He had more than his fair share of detentions over the past few years, and more often than not he wasn’t even the one at fault. Like it or not, as a Muggleborn in Slytherin, trouble tended to come looking for him. Admittedly he did fight back, but what was he gonna do when others picked on him? And there were times when he was the one to throw the first punch, but in his defence those bullies were targeting other Muggleborn students who didn’t dare to retaliate, and he was only standing up for them. “I’m in no position to say this, but try to stay out of trouble as far as possible, all right?” he said. “We all need to pick our battles, and some things just ain’t worth risking your hide over.”

“You find them a royal pain too?” Kyle asked when Riley began to spill her discontentment at the Grand Staircase. “All along I thought it was just me being an unappreciative Muggleborn and disliking all these quirks of the wizarding world, like quills and stuff like that.” He could go on and on about how those outdated writing instruments couldn’t compare with modern pens, but that would have to wait until he got all of his grouses about the staircase off his chest. “It’s troublesome enough that I need to take the stairs when I’m using my crutches. But moving staircases that don’t lead to where you want to go?” He threw up his hands in exasperation, recalling all the times when the Grand Staircase conspired against him, especially that particular incident where he arrived at a certain professor’s class by mistake. “I can live with it though, as long as I don’t accidentally walk into Professor’s Sigma’s class late again,” he cautioned, shuddering as the horrifying memory came back to mind. “She yelled out my full name, scolded me for being late and coming to the wrong class and for neither greeting nor apologising to her, and banished me from the classroom with a magical gust of wind. Never again will I commit that mistake.”

A random thought came to mind. “Hmm… couldn’t they install a lift or something?” he mused aloud. But as those words left his lips, he suddenly realised that it wasn’t a good idea after all. “On second thoughts, scratch that. Magical stairs are probably safer than a magical lift. I sure as hell don’t want to be stuck inside a lift when it acts up.”

[Riley McNeill]

"It's okay." Riley answered quietly accepting the apology, he was not to know she had lost herself in the privacy of her own imagination. She reddened some more but shook her head quickly. "It's just flying, nothing I can't do when I'm in goal... It's the other stuff that the chasers, seeker and beaters do that I'm not so hot at." Whilst she might be able to make incredible saves, in practice Riley would be the one to always drop the easiest of passes, especially so in warm ups. It was a good thing that she did not try out for seeker, since she had yet to actually see the Snitch in game.

"It takes more than a little cold to ground me, you know that." The redhead declared proudly, despite the fact she was freezing and felt as though ice were crawling through her veins instead of blood. Riley liked the fact that he simply listened to her vent, just listened, so few people actually did that. Especially with her, they tended to try and shut her up before she could finish.
She chuckled quietly at his comment about detentions. "Hey it's not my fault they don't explain the rules... Or I forgot about a rule." The teenage girl countered. She had largely avoided bullying in the Fifth Year, Riley suspected in part this came from the fact she kicked serious butt as a Keeper and her reputation as a rebel. That and unlike some of the students, she was not Muggleborn despite the name potentially being one. There was magic in her family no mistake, an old and proud clan, one much reduced and no longer pure blooded. Something which immensely bothered her father, but Riley never cared for blood. If people were nice to her then they were friends, if they weren't nice to her or her friends, then they were not going to get along well.

"You know how easily I get lost." Riley said with a rye smirk, but it vanished as he commented about his crutches. She looked awkward before tentatively saying. "Please don't get mad... But... Do you think there is a potion which might regrow the limb?" She flinched away on her broom as if expecting him to shout at her for it. "I don't mean to offend, but there's meant to be a potion which regrows bone so... Skelli-grow? Skelli-grew? Bone-regrow? Sorry I was reading through potions work before the urge to fly got too strong." The redhead glanced at him briefly, before determinedly looking away, expecting him to bellow at her for saying something so offensive. She did not mean to if she had, she wanted to help him, it was what a friend would do right?

"Wow that sounds really rough." Riley shuddered at the thought, by this point for her if she was even a minute late she automatically wound up with a detention. Even if she had real excuses, like getting lost in the castle and spending ten minutes going round in circles and wasting a further five having a panic attack as she got herself all worked up.

"Maybe you can learn to app... Appa..." She swore something fierce which would have left both parents wondering about her breeding. "The spell where you vanish and reappear in a different spot." Riley gave up on trying to pronounce the name and resorted to explaining the magic, it might help him, assuming he could actually learn it.

[Kyle Winters]

Right after Kyle asked Riley not to downplay herself, she did it again. “You’re a great Keeper, and that’s what matters most of all,” he said, trying to sound as encouraging as possible. “Nobody can be fantastic at everything. I’ll make for a bad Keeper or Seeker, but that doesn’t bother me as long as I can play my part as a Chaser well.”

He nodded when Riley declared how the weather didn’t bother her, though he wasn’t aware that she was feeling cold too. “Training must go on, rain or shine, snow or wind,” he remarked, borrowing a quote from one of his seniors. “That said, training can and should be fun too,” he opined. “I mean, didn’t we choose to be Quidditch players because it’s fun?” Since his first year at Hogwarts, he had loved flying with every fibre of his being, and the sport had been a good substitute for football. And as time passed his passion for Quidditch grew, and he had even once considered pursuing a career as a professional Quidditch player.

Riley’s justification for her rule-breaking behaviour was something Kyle didn’t fully agree with, yet couldn’t quite refute either. He let out a low whistle, unsure of whether to feel impressed by her confidence, or aghast at her audacity. “Well…” he began, only to find himself at a loss for what to say. “I–I can’t argue against that,” he admitted after a few moments with begrudging admiration. “I trust you're responsible enough to do what's right, so whatever floats your boat, I guess.”

As they griped about the confounding layout of the castle and its moving staircases, the mood changed when Riley looked as though she was unsure if she should speak her mind. Her unease was rubbing off on Kyle, and his mind began to race as he tried to anticipate what she was about to say. Out of the blue, she asked if there was a potion that could regrow a limb before turning away quickly, seeming bracing for his reaction.

The question caught him off-guard, but he was in no way upset by it. “There isn’t one,” he answered as matter-of-factly as he could. “Don’t worry, I’m not offended. I asked the healers the same question myself back then.” He flashed his usual lopsided grin to assure her that it was alright, although there was the barest hint of melancholy in his tone and a certain weariness in his upturned lips. “But it’s all right,” he continued as he gave his right leg a wistful glance. That fateful incident had turned his life upside down, but it had also allowed him see certain things more clearly, and helped him grow as a person. Would thing have turned out worse if he hadn’t lost part of his leg? He didn’t know, nor was there any way for him to know.

Shaking his head as though to dislodge certain unhappy memories that had been roused from their slumber, he abruptly changed the topic to the first thing that came to mind: him accidentally walking into Professor Sigma’s class when he was late for another lesson. He doubted that Riley had had the same misfortune as him, but even the thought alone was sufficient to make her shudder. The elderly professor was notorious for being very strict and impossible to please, and always found fault with the students regardless of what they did.

“Apparition, you mean?” he offered when Riley stumbled over a word. “It doesn’t work though. Not in Hogwarts anyway. There are anti-Apparition and Disapparition charms placed on the school grounds.” He wasn’t sure why the school would be placed under those protective charm, and what he had heard from his peers didn’t seem logical either. “I suppose it’s for the safety of the students, so dark wizards can’t simply Apparate into the school and start killing students. Not that it helped, given what happened during the Second Wizarding War. Or maybe it’s meant to stop students from sneaking out of school.” He was out of ideas now, and he shrugged. “Well, whatever the reason is, I guess we’ll just have to get our shit together and not be late for class.”

“That said, Apparition is really useful outside of school,” he added, recalling how troublesome it used to be for him to travel back to Bradford for his medical appointments. “It’s not that hard once you get the hang of it. As long as you’re careful and stay focused, you shouldn’t splinch yourself.” Pausing for a moment, he tried to recall which year Riley was in. “You’re in your fifth year now, right? You should be able to take the Apparition classes next year.”

[Riley McNeill]

"I kinda have to be since I'm on the smaller side of tiny." Riley chuckled quietly, though she did secretly wish to be much taller. She was relegated forever to being the short one in any friendship group, forced to look up to everyone. If she were taller she may be an even better keeper. "So long as you score the goals against Gryffindor I think our fans will be happy." She told him with a smirk, for many Slytherins defeating the Lions was all that mattered when it came to Quidditch. Whilst Riley might enjoy ensuring that their arch rivals lost, for her winning the cup was all which mattered. She needed that win, to hold the trophy and the bragging rights which came with it... It was a dream.

"Yeah that and because we get to fly." She added, she supposed she would have had much less interest in the sport if she were not allowed to soar through the air like a majestic bird. "I was simply lucky you guys needed a new keeper when I turned up in Fourth Year." She said smiling, to choose her had not been a popular one at first since she was an unproven rookie and tiny to boot. In her first game however, many of those voices soon fell silent as they realized, that she had great talent or skill for the position.

"I always do what's right." She argued quickly. "I mean... Sometimes you have to know why a rule is in place you know? It's not my fault if I am curious or forgetful. Plus there are so many out of bounds areas in the castle. If I am not meant to enter they could at least lock them securely right?" The redhead did not know why she was telling him all of this. He did not decide the rules or the barriers after all, nor did it matter if he bought her justification or not. "I'm going to get another detention at some point anyway." She added in a quieter tone as she leaned back on her broomstick, staring up at the cold sky. "Might as well just ask for them at this point and get them over with." The young teenager laughed to herself, amused by her own joke.

She sighed relieved to hear that he was not offended by her question. After all to learn was to know and without questions, how could anyone hope to learn? "Glad to hear I've not offended you." Riley spoke listening to him silently without talking or trying to talk before he finished. She did not do quiet very well, sitting still and not talking were concepts which probably needed to be patiently explained to Riley before she attempted either. "Maybe we can find something one day which will? Though it might not be from a potion I make..." She tried to encourage him, who knew what was possible in this magical world after all.

"Aye that." Riley confirmed. "Aye I suppose that makes a wee bit of sense... Guess they are right to be worried about dark wizards given everything which has happened." It made sense to her to stop Dark Wizards or hostile powers from getting it to or quickly out of Hogwarts. Yet she failed to see the logic in it preventing the students from getting out, many of them possessed access to a broom. It they wished to escape, they need only fly away. Riley sighed heavily in defeat at that. "Aye alright I guess we have not got much choice."

She listened again as he talked about the class to learn how to apparate. "I just have to make sure I don't end up in too much trouble this year. My parents threatened to pull me out as I'm shaming the McNeill name etc etc, massive disappointment and all that. My father loves the fact I'm a Keeper for Slytherin though. He was a Slytherin too and my mother. He said he was a Seeker though so I think he's a little disappointed that I'm not following in the same shoes." She explained in a characteristic rush of words.

[Kyle Winters]

The way Riley talked about how she needed to be a great Keeper because of her size – or more accurately, her lack thereof – made Kyle feel a bit bad. He was pretty tall and had definitely used his longer reach to his advantage, so he didn’t feel that he was in any position to say that size didn’t matter. But he did have something to say when she talked about how their fans would be happy as long as he kept scoring goals. “So long as all of us play our part well, and work as a team.” he corrected her, but stopped shy of the clichéd “there is no ‘I’ in ‘team’”; there definitely was one in ‘Slytherin’, as someone cheekily pointed out a couple of years ago to general amusement and the then-team captain’s chagrin.

“I’m not saying this to make you feel better,” Kyle replied when Riley said that she had been lucky to be made Keeper, “but you outperformed all the other Keeper-hopefuls at the tryouts.” It hadn’t been a unanimous decision, but ultimately the team chose to put their faith in an untried and untested newcomer because she had shown enough talent and – more importantly – determination and potential for further growth. “Trust me, Riley, you’ve definitely earned your spot on the roster.”

He hadn’t counted on Riley to defend her position so firmly, even when he wasn’t entirely disagreeing with her. However, his poor choice of words might have made him sound a bit too flippant. “I’m sorry,” he quickly apologised, “I wasn’t insinuating that you did anything wrong.” For a few moments he carefully considered his stance and how best he could convey it, but ultimately it was an iffy topic with lots of nuances. “Yes, there are areas where the school can and should do better…” he began, but his voice trailed off as he decided to change course halfway through the sentence.

After reorganising his thoughts, he continued. “You know what? Maybe we should convince the school to do more to protect us students. Be it forbidden sections of the school or dangerous artifacts, they should be sealed away more securely.” Not too long ago, he had stumbled upon an abandoned old cabinet down by the Great Lake, and ended up releasing a boggart and starting a huge fire that had spread all the way to Hogsmeade, and that brought him to the counterpoint of his argument. “That said, it’s not always good to learn things the hard way. Do you remember the huge fire that broke out at the Great Lake last year?” he asked. He hadn’t faced any disciplinary action for that on account of how traumatised the episode had left him, but he was sternly reminded to never investigate any suspicious objects on his own again, lest they turned out to be “more dangerous than a boggart”.

Riley’s joke about asking for a detention got a chuckle out of Kyle. “Glad to know I’m not the only one who thinks that way,” he said. Just then, a strange thought came to mind. “Hang on… if we serve a detention beforehand but never end up actually getting one… can we get a ‘refund’?”

It felt strange to Kyle that Riley seemed rather invested in getting his leg healed, even more so than he was. “Maybe,” he nodded tentatively, not quite sure how he’d feel if he woke up one morning and found that his right leg was whole again. As far as he was concerned he was perfectly fine in his current state, and he has never allowed his condition to slow him down in any way. He doubted Riley would understand it, but that didn’t stop him from explaining it to her. “But really, I’m fine with the way I am now,” he concluded with a smile, not an overly happy or bright one, but one that showed that he was genuinely content with how things were.

A surge of indignant anger rose up within Kyle as Riley revealed how her parents felt that she was bringing shame to the family name and being a disappointment. Relax, he advised himself mentally, forcing himself to calm down and not project his own anger towards his father onto her situation. “I believe all parents want the best for their children,” he reasoned as calmly and diplomatically as he could. “I’m sure they really do love you a lot, but they don’t express it the right way sometimes.” Even his father, for all his numerous faults, had at some point in time genuinely loved and cared for him, before things slowly and irreversibly went wrong. “At any rate,” he continued, “I know it’s hard, but if you wanna keep playing Quidditch and staying at Hogwarts, then you’ll need to keep your head down sometimes – if not for your your parents' sake, then for your own.”

[Riley McNeill]

She nodded in agreement with that. "At least as a chaser it's a beat easier. As a keeper, if I save the ball I'm a hero, if I miss I am a villain." Riley laughed loudly at this however. "It is the nature of the fans, they want us to win and if I cost them the match well... It's motivation to do better next time and learn." Of course, she was not the kind to ask if any of them could do better, since she was not about to surrender her position on the team to anyone, not witch or wizard would take her place. Not if Riley McNeill could do anything about it at any rate.

Her face split into a wide grin at his words and from the memory of the try outs. "Yeah they were all pretty terrible." She shrugged her shoulders. "I remember thinking when I dropped the ball after making all those saves that I was going to be booted out or worse, be one of the other positions on the team." The redhead looked sheepish, then quickly added on. "No offence meant I'm just not good as any of the other positions. I've yet to even see the Snitch once the little devil is released." Riley had absolutely no idea how the Seekers managed to perform their role, it can't have been easy needing to watch for the tiny glimmering dart, whilst also avoiding bludgers and beaters.

She sighed. "I'm sorry to lad, I get a wee bit fired up from time to time. It's just frustrating, knowing I'm gonna get another detention again." She apologized and shook her sadly, shivering from a particularly cold blast of wind. "Shall we get moving before we both freeze to our broom sticks?" Riley suggested, hoping that such an event had not already taken place.

Riley listened intently to his story, though fidgeted restlessly on her broomstick, with aforementioned broomstick moving from side to side. She struggled with the whole concept of staying still. "Aye I'd start with not storing such objects at a school." The redhead suggested laughing at her joke. "Yeah I remember that one." It had been a shock to see from the window of the castle that was for sure. She laughed again at his next comment. "I'll let you know when I don't get a detention." If she ever did not get one she mentally amended. Honestly, Riley hoped to make it through this year with at least a few less than last year.

"Sorry I did not mean to imply that you weren't... I..." Riley began hastily then brought herself to a screeching halt. She sensed, rightly or wrongly that she might be on a precipice. Better to drop the subject entirely than accidentally upset her friend with her words move faster than her brain. "Sorry." She decided to add on just to be on the safe side.

"Yeah... I guess you're right there." Riley responded, she was dead set against having an children. McNeill name or no, she would be a terrible mother, she could barely make it through a day without getting under someone's skin or landing herself in detention. Plus it meant getting a boyfriend and boys, outside of being just friends were gross. All that hand holding, kissing, hanging out, dates, triple yuck for her. They would get in the way of Quidditch, which in the grand scheme happened to be the only thing which mattered. His choice of words, well meant made Riley burst into a fit of laughter. When, she eventually recovered, largely helped by her almost laughing to the point she nearly fell off of her broom, she said breathlessly. "Sorry, that tickled me... I... I mean it's hard for me to get my head much lower, if I get any smaller I'll disappear between the gaps in the arm chair cushions."

[Kyle Winters]

As much as Kyle wanted to make Riley feel better, the Keeper was right: Quidditch fans were a difficult lot to please. “Yea,” he agreed as she shared how she would turn their fans’ displeasure into a source of motivation. “That’s a good way to look at things.” Having played Quidditch for so many years, he had his fair share of highs and lows, and sometimes it was difficult to get out of a downward spiral of despair. Hopefully Riley’s mindset would prevent her from getting caught up in the bouts of depression and self-doubt that plagued him.

Riley hit the nail on the head when she said that she hadn’t even seen the Golden Snitch during a game before, and even called it “the little devil.” “None taken,” he replied. “I’d make a terrible Seeker too.” As a Chaser who could move freely around the entire pitch, he had only seen (or thought he had seen) the Snitch a couple of times as a golden coloured blur. For Riley, who hadn’t played Quidditch as long as he did and couldn’t afford to stray too far from the goalposts, the odds of her catching a glimpse of the Snitch was far lower. “Not that I want to be one,” he continued matter-of-factly. “Quidditch is a team sport, but the Seekers always seem so lonely doing their own thing by themselves. It’s much more exciting to fight for the Quaffle, innit?”

A cold gust of wind interrupted their conversation, and Riley shivered before suggesting that they move somewhere else warmer. “Good idea,” he nodded in agreement, and pointed at one of the nearby stands. Though naught could be done about the chilly air unless they went indoors, at the very least the tall structure was wide enough to shield them from the worst of the wind.

When Kyle mentioned how Hogwarts should have done more to protect its students by sealing away all those forbidden areas of the school and dangerous artifacts, Riley suggested that the school shouldn’t be storing those artifacts in the castle grounds to begin with. Her idea was so straightforward and obvious that he stared at her in stunned silence. Why did that not occur to him earlier? It made perfect sense, and he began to clap slowly. “Brilliant,” he conceded. “Absolutely brilliant.” Nonetheless, that wouldn’t have prevented the boggart incident, since at least one boggart was kept in the school for teaching purposes. And that brought Kyle to his main point. “Ultimately, it’s up to us to keep ourselves safe,” he concluded. “If anything looks suspicious or out of place, it’s best not to mess with it. Had an Auror not shown up that day, I might have died in the fire.” Though the incident was behind him now, just thinking about it was enough to make him shudder, and he squeezed his eyes shut for a couple of seconds to clear the memories from his head.

As the topic of discussion moved on to his leg, the atmosphere became increasingly awkward as the conversation went on, and their attempts to reassure each other kept backfiring. “No, I should be the one apologising,” Kyle said finally, hoping to clear up the misunderstanding. “I’m happy that you’re concerned about me, and I know that you weren’t implying anything else. I’m sorry my words made it seem otherwise and I made you feel uncomfortable…” His voice trailed off as he searched in vain for the right thing to say, and for a few moments he fell silent as he organised his thoughts as best as he could. “Gods, I’m really not good with words… but what I’m trying to say is, it no longer matters to me whether I get my leg back. When I lost my leg, I gained something else. I found out who truly love and care about me, and w—“ Abruptly he cut off that sentence, deciding at the last minute not to mention his estranged father and burden Riley with that knowledge. “I’d like to think I’ve become a better and stronger person too. If my leg is the price I need to pay in exchange, then so be it.”

When Riley suddenly burst out laughing, Kyle was taken aback. What did he say that could possibly be that funny? A million things crossed his mind, but his train of thought was derailed when Riley almost fell off her broom. “Careful!” he cried out in alarm as he reached over to steady her, but thankfully she managed to maintain her balance.

As it turned out, Riley had taken his words quite literally when she said she’d disappear into the gaps between the cushions. Not that they were meant to be, but – perhaps due to their height difference – the phrase “keep your head down” must have conjured a very different image in her mind. As he visualised the scene, he too burst into a guffaw. “I’ve never thought of it that way,” he admitted as he wiped a tear from his eye, his shoulders still shaking with laughter. “Now I can't say that phrase with a straight face ever again.”

Whatever tension from the previous awkward and heavy subjects of their conversation had been well and truly dispelled by that unintentionally funny moment, at least for Kyle. Not wanting to dwell on them any further, he decided to change the topic. “Should we get some practice in?” he asked. “Laps, drills, scoring and defending, or anything else? Your call.”

[Riley McNeill]

"Yeah it does not make it any easier to deal with, losing, accepting defeat." She sighed and gave a small shrug of her shoulders. "Still rather win if I... We can manage it, especially against the lions." Whilst she had nothing against that particular house, indeed some of her best friends in the school were among their number, they were the ultimate of rivals. Beating them in Quidditch happened to be the best of all things, similarly losing to them ranked among the worst experiences.

"Aye you're right there. Though in my case it is more to prevent someone from putting it through the goals." She chuckled quietly to herself. Riley briefly considered what it might have been like to play as a chaser or a beater, but she still could not imagine seeing herself in such a position. "It looks good to me." Riley said, trying to prevent her teeth from chattering, next time, particularly in case for a match set during the winter she would look for some manner of warming potion. Assuming it was allowed legally, she was not about to cheat. She would win fairly, or not at all. She followed his suggestion and moved to a more sheltered part of the pitch, she instantly felt a little bit warming being more out of the wind.

"I mean you survived right?" She told him with a small smile. "But you are right, we need to keep ourselves safe, no touching anything or bothering anything which looks unfamiliar or otherwise strange." Something which was a lot easier said than done in her case, Riley forever curious, forever not seeing the purpose behind the rules and restrictions place upon her in school would probably end up in trouble by messing with something she shouldn't.

The redhead for once was at a loss for words, what could she say in response to any of that. Instead, she reached out and put a hand on his shoulder as a gesture of comfort. "That is what friends are for." Riley gave him a reassuring and encouraging smile. He was a good friend, a valuable member of the team and someone she believed she could rely upon.

"Don't worry. I'll be okay." She promised, grateful that he was going to attempt to protect her, to prevent her from falling off of the broom from her laughter. "I have that skill." She declared, beaming at him. Riley enjoyed making others laugh or otherwise be happy. "Yeah that would be a great idea, before we freeze to our broomsticks." She shifted on her broom, ready for the off.

[Kyle Winters]

Kyle nodded encouragingly at Riley’s words. “I’m sure we can,” he said with an outwardly confident smile. Beating the Gryffindor Quidditch team was easier said that done, and they both knew that. However, it was for that exact reason that they shouldn’t worry excessively and instead keep their morale high. The Slytherin players were no slouches themselves, and as long as they trained hard and believed in themselves, victory would be well within their grasp.

The Chaser gave a sheepish shrug as Riley reminded him that she was supposed to stop the Quaffle from going through the goalposts, instead of fighting for the Quaffle. “That’s true,” he nodded as he conceded the point.

Riley pointed out that Kyle had survived the encounter with the boggart by the Great Lake – or more accurately, the consequences of his stupid decision to investigate the abandoned cupboard alone. “Whatever doesn’t kill you can knock you out cold for days on end and make you miss Quidditch training,” he noted before continuing with a twinge of guilt, “and cause your teammate to injure her ankle.” Just one day after he had landed himself in the Hospital Wing, Nixa had ventured out to the Forbidden Forest to see for herself the aftermath of the wildfire that he had accidentally started, and ended up falling and hurting herself by accident. Consequently two out of three Chasers on the team had been out of commission at the same time, all because of him.

As Riley placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and told him that that was what friends were for, he nodded. It was very, very true: he might have lost his best friend back then, but he was blessed to have other friends. Anwen had kept vigil by his bedside when he was in the Hospital Wing, and others like Trent and Sam had left letters (and in Sam’s case, even some cauldron cakes) to express their concern. “I’m bloody lucky to have all of you,” he said, “and I can only hope I’ve been as good a friend to y’all as y’all have been to me.”

Right after giving him a huge scare by almost falling off her broom, the Keeper beamed at him and proudly declared that she was skilled enough to keep her balance. “You’re skilled at giving me heart attacks too,” Kyle said as he shook his head in mock exasperation, but ultimately gave in and cracked a smile.

“Let’s warm up again with some laps first,” Kyle suggested. “Two laps around the pitch, then two more laps in the other direction. Sounds good?”

[Riley McNeill]

"You know it. Can you imagine their faces when we defeat them?" The redhead grinned at the thought happily, she was amused by the dream of hearing the sounds of victory, the cheering crowd, the excited Slytherin fans. It would be glorious. Of course, there was just the small problem of winning. If they wished to win, then they needed to both train hard but also play well together.

"It's part of the fight for it however." Riley ceded to him, if she let it go through then that was points lost to the enemy team and if the goal cost them the game? Well... She would not be particularly popular amongst her own house, but such was the fate of all keepers.

She nodded in agreement with him there. "Yeah it is far better to play it safe." The redhead remembered losing the two players in rapid succession and it was not a particularly good memory. Especially since the reserve players were no where near as skilled as the usual pair. At least she had yet to set fire to anything in school, save for her feather in a failed attempt to perform some spells in class.

The redhead blushed at his words. "You are a good friend." Riley encouraged him, he had been a good friend to her at any rate. She tended to have quite a few friends, the redhead's natural chattiness tended to lead towards her forging many friendships. She laughed at that. "I'll try to not put you in the hospital wing." Riley promised, though she stopped fooling around on her broomstick, just in case she did fall off. "Aye that sounds good!" She yelled as she shot off. "Race you!" She called over her shoulder as she raced away.

[Kyle Winters]

The thought of seeing the Gryffindor team defeated brought a stupid grin to Kyle’s face. How he’d love to experience that again. Not that he had something against them – on the contrary, there were some awesome folks on that team, such as Sam and Quinn – but the long-standing rivalry between their teams had brought out the competitive streak in him.

Riley said that she was still involved in the fight for the Quaffle, and he nodded. It was the most important of the three balls in Quidditch after all, even if the scoring system seemed to suggest otherwise. He never quite understood why the Golden Snitch would be worth so much more than a goal; perhaps it was a wizard thing that he, as a Muggle-born, would never understand.

He gave a relieved smile as Riley agreed that it was better to play it safe after all. At least he had adequately conveyed his concerns to her, and hopefully she wouldn’t repeat his mistakes.

As someone who didn’t have that many friends and seemingly more than his fair share of haters – even amongst his own teammates – Riley’s words were most encouraging and comforting to hear. “Thanks, that really means a lot to me,” he said, his face reddening a little, though it might not have been that noticeable given the light flush he was having in the cold weather.

No sooner had Kyle explained the flying route when Riley yelled her agreement and shot off without waiting for him. “Hey! That was sneaky!” he called after her as he gave chase. She was fast, he had to admit, but in an all-out sprint he had a few tricks up his sleeve that he could use to turn the tables. Pulling upwards into a gentle climb, he traded some of his speed for altitude and tightened his grip on his broomstick when they approached the first bend. He wasn’t planning to overtake her. Not yet, anyway; he’d keep up the pressure and let Riley take the lead for now.