Catch The Snitch

Devereaux hastily ran through the Hufflepuff common room and straight to his dorm room. He placed his bag on the table next to his bed then began ripping his robes off. “Freaking lunatic…. Gonna kill me…. How do I get myself into these messes….” He could be heard muttering under his breath as he hastily found his flying robes and pulled them on. After putting his flying goggles on his forehead, he grabbed his broom from where it rested at head of his bed. Finally, he grabbed his wand off the bed as he left his room in a rush. “Excuse me….sorry….excuse me…” He muttered as he sped back through the common room and out into the hallway. It had taken him a few minutes to get to his room from the library, plus at least a minute to change, and now he was worried he would miss his ten minute window. Missy seemed like the kind of person to hold him to it too.

In a manner that was really quite unusual for him, Devereaux began jogging through the hallways hoping beyond hope that no professors would spot him. He was momentarily grateful for all of the time he had spent working out as he repeatedly half-shouted “Excuse Me!” and saw people hurry to get out of his way for fear of being ran over.

After what felt like an eternity, Devereaux emerged from the doors. He began to speed up now that he was out of the school and, after taking a cursory glance to make sure no one was near him, he jumped and whipped his broom underneath him. He might not be a quidditch player, he thought to himself, but he hadn’t taken three years of flying for no reason. He loved being on his broom!

With a grin he gripped the broom and took off towards the pitch. It didn’t take long before he spotted Missy standing on the field. He dropped the nose of his broom and landed softly about ten feet from her.

“I’m holding your responsible if I get detention for running through the halls.” He said with a huff as his breathing began to even back out.

Missy had been pacing impatiently, hands on her hips, her Firebolt slung casually over her shoulder. She knew she’d given Devereaux a ridiculously short window to get changed and get his arse down here, but that was part of the test. If he wasn’t willing to commit, what was the point?

She had just been about to start tapping her foot dramatically when a streak of movement caught her eye.

There he was.

She smirked as he zipped through the air, making a rather clean landing about ten feet away. She had to admit—not bad.

The moment his feet touched the ground, she pointed a finger at him. “Ten minutes exactly. I knew you’d make it.”

Then, her smirk widened at his breathless complaint. “Oh, please. If you get detention, that’s just proof you need to be faster. Consider it part of your training.” She spun her broom in her hands and twirled it once before planting it firmly on the ground. “Now, let’s see what we’re working with.”

She tilted her head as she took in his broom. “This is what you’ve been flying on?” she asked, giving it a critical once-over. “Wow. No wonder you’ve never played Quidditch before.” She stepped closer, reaching out to run a hand along the handle, testing the weight and grip. “This thing is fine for getting from A to B, but Quidditch is fast, Dev. You need a broom that listens to you—responds to you.” She patted her Firebolt affectionately, as if it were a trusted companion.

Then, she grinned at him.

“Alright, show me what you’ve got.” She swung her leg over her broom, hovering just a few feet off the ground with practiced ease. “Let’s see you fly.”

With a wicked glint in her eye, she shot upward, climbing higher into the air before circling back around. “Catch me if you can, Hufflepuff!” she called, laughing as she darted toward the other end of the pitch, waiting to see if he’d keep up.

Devereaux smiled when Missy confirmed that he had made it in time. He was relieved that, at the very least, his running through the school had not been a complete waste. He observed her Firebolt briefly as she did the same to his much older broom.

The polished ebony handle and perfectly manicured twigs, he couldn’t quite tell from this distance if they were birch or hazel, came together to create a flying device of immense quality. If he could remember correctly, the advertisements used to play all the time, it could go from zero to one hundred and fifty miles an hour in ten seconds. All of the ironwork was goblin made, and each broom was hand numbered with its unique registration number. He couldn’t quite remember when it was released, but he knew there hadn’t yet been an anything to surpass it on the market. It was truly a magnificent broom!

That last thought caused Devereaux to have a brief mental image of a witch riding a broom with an assortment of animals riding with her while holding a wand and a cauldron. He shook his head, trying to focus.

“Well, I know it’s pretty outdated. But I never really had need for anything faster. I doubt my parents would dole out for a fireboat, but I might be able to get an upgrade to something a little faster, if I needed. I bet I could find a used iteration in the Nimbus Line” He shrugged, not too concerned.

With a grin and a challenge, she mounted her broom and was off. Devereaux quickly snatched his broom and practically leapt on. With a little pressure from his feet the broom took off. Well, compared to Missy’s Firebolt, it was more like one of those vehicles that really old people would bring into his dad’s shop. There was a just-noticeable delay and then he began to pickup speed.

With a tug against the handle, Devereaux directed his broom up and then quickly leveled out to follow Missy across the pitch. He pushed his broom harder than he had before, and for the first time he found that he was disappointed in it’s performance. Most of his flying to this point had been for personal fun, he had never really had need to push his broom to it’s limit. It turned out, it’s limit was not particularly fast.

Shrugging to himself, Devereaux adjusted his grip and continued flying after Missy. Ignoring the fact that he felt so slow compared to her, he realized it had been a few weeks since he had flow, and he had missed it a great deal. He let a whoop as he performed a barrel roll and relished the momentary sensation of weightlessness.

Missy glanced over her shoulder mid-flight, grinning as she saw Dev following after her. He wasn’t bad. A little slow, sure, but he handled his broom well enough. And more importantly—he liked flying. That was half the battle won already.

She heard his whoop as he rolled through the air, and she let out a laugh. Finally, he was getting into it. “See?” she called back to him, banking left sharply before flipping into a quick spiral. “Flying is meant to be fun! You’ve been holding back this whole time!”

Still grinning, she slowed just enough to let him catch up, flying alongside him. “Alright, so you’ve got control, and you’re not afraid to throw yourself around up here. That’s good. But if you’re gonna play Quidditch, you need to think faster. You don’t have time to just react—you have to anticipate.”

Without warning, she twisted suddenly and shot upward at a steep angle, challenging him to follow. If he was serious about learning, she was going to make sure he earned it.

“C’mon, Hufflepuff, you wanna learn or what?!” she teased, hovering just above him. “First lesson—agility. You need to be able to change direction fast. No lazy turns, no slow pivots. Quidditch isn’t patient.” She let out a whoop and dove downward, pulling up at the last second before zipping past him again.

Missy wasn’t taking it easy on him, but she could already tell—he’d keep up.

Devereaux followed Missy around the pitch with a grin on his face. For the moment, his studies were forgotten, replaced by the wind rushing around him and the broom in his hands. He also found great delight in seeing Missy looping and wheeling ahead of him. She was, in fact, a fantastic flier, and it seemed to him that she was elated to have someone flying with her.

"Holding back?" he yelled back to her, "I've never had to follow an adrenaline junky through the air before!"

She allowed him to catch up so she could say a few words, but then she was off again. He drove down with his feet and pulled with his hands, following her in her steep climb. She was quick, her ability to turn the broom in an instant with no loss of balance was incredible.

They continued to climb, Devereaux’s slower broom causing him to fall behind continuously. Finally, Missy pitched forward and shot for the ground. Devereaux followed suit and felt the wind tearing across his face as his picked up speed, his vision narrowing until all he could see was the ground rising steady before him. He tried to mimic her actions and got as low as he could before finally yanking up. He felt the twigs of his broom just barely brush the ground as he struggle to match her agility.

“You certainly seem particularly skilled for chaser. How long have you been playing?” Her words rang true in his head as she pushed him to his limit around the pitch. He had never been forced to manhandle his broom the way he was now. Without playing a game like quidditch, he doubted he would have ever been in a situation that required these types of maneuvers, so he had never practiced them before.

“I’ve never had to fly like this.” He yelled to her as he tried to regain his breath. “How are you able to turn so quickly? I feel like I might rip my broom in half trying to get it to turn like this.” His heart was pounding in his chest and he felt a little sweat on his brow. Damn this is fun. He thought to himself.