| Chizpurfle
Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: underwater
Posts: 10,319
 x9
|  Stuck inside with Sirius | *Splish-Splash* | bamBAM | ☁ Spooktacular ☁
3. Getting the Crew Together
Sat at one of the tables outside Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour, Nia gently pushed up the sleeve of her cardigan to check her watch. There was still another five minutes until the agreed meeting time, but Nia was getting edgy and slightly nervous about her plan. All of them had responded to her owl, so that was promising of course, even if two couldn’t actually make it today. But then she hadn’t really mentioned much, mainly meeting up for some ice cream in Diagon Alley and then hinting at the possibility of helping her out a bit. And despite the appeal of her buying them all ice cream, they might have better things to do with the weeks of their summer holiday that followed - like sleep, for example, or going to the seaside and building sandcastles. She sipped her drink, and glanced down the street once more. It was a lovely summer’s day out, and Nia had seized the opportunity to sit at a table outside. Not that she had been lacking in seeing the sunshine recently, having spent most daylight hours in the garden, but there was something altogether more special when sat outside on a gorgeous sunny day. Especially when it involved ice cream and good friends.
She was about to return to aimlessly twiddling her thumbs, when she caught sight of a familiar shade of red hair. A smile spread across Nia’s lips, and she gave the girl a wave. Standing up to give her a hug, Nia suddenly found herself tackled back into her chair by a rather overenthusiastic Ellie. “Miss me?” she asked with a light chuckle and a wink, as Ellie clung to the older girl’s neck. “Blimey, it’s only been a week!”
“A loooooong week,” Ellie replied, beaming at her former Captain. Nia couldn’t help but grin back, the enthusiasm contagious.
“Still only a week though...” she said with a knowing roll of her eyes. Probably more to cover up how much she was going to miss - no, already missed - everyone. Quidditch at Hogwarts had been a massive part of her life. Her teamies even more so.
“So, you gotten up to anything exciting ov-” She didn’t quite finish asking about how Ellie had spent her long week, as the sound of heavy breathing from behind caught her attention. Following Ellie’s dubious gaze, Nia slowly looked round. It seemed the enigma known as Jacob was approaching.
“Giant. Flying. Laughing. Hot Dogs,” he said on eventual arrival at their table. Each word was punctuated with a breath, and Nia eyed him curiously. She blinked at him a few times, before deciding it was simpler just to shrug.
“Hi Jacob,” she said with a slightly perplexed look at Ellie. Ellie seemed to be doing a good job of ignoring the whole episode, so obviously wasn’t following to know what was up either. Ah well.
It seemed there was more to it than giant hotdogs, however. After a few seconds bent over to catch his breath, Jacob looked back up at the two girls. “That Horrible Mustard, That Evil Ketchup, That Menacing Relish,” he uttered, his gaze jumping round all over the place. Between the two girls, up, down, behind, back to the girls. “So Much Sauerkraut.” Nia eyed him, biting her lip. The boy continued, continuing to look twitchy. “So. Much. Sauerkraut.”
After a quick glance around, Nia shook her head lightly. “No sauerkraut here, matey,” she replied, her voice just managing to sound vaguely reassuring over her confusement at quite why Jacob was so obsessed over condiments. “I mean, I know the range of ice cream here is diverse, but I don’t think it’s quite that diverse.” Ewwww. Pickled cabbage icecream? It just didn’t bear thinking about.
Thankfully, a distraction from that thought arrived in the form of JD. “Heya,” she greeted warmly, scooting her chair across to make a little bit more space for him to manoeuvre around the table. Well, she assumed he wanted to sit next to Ellie. He returned the smile with a wink, before doing that awkward thing of partly going for a hug, but stopping just short as he thought better of it. Standing up with a small shake of her head, Nia pulled him into a quick hug instead. Whether it was helping his embarrassment, she wasn’t sure, but she wanted a hug. She didn’t want things to change just because she’d graduated now.
“How ye doing, Nia?” JD asked, as he pulled up a new chair.
“Not bad,” she replied, wondering if he was intending to look awkwardly at the gap between her and Ellie. Ellie herself had shifted her posture away from him, slouching back from the table. Had something happened between them at the end of term she didn’t know about? She could have quite easily missed something, given the dark place her mind had occupied when she hadn’t been concentrating on her NEWTs.
Taking a sip of her drink, Nia sat up, before resting her hands lightly on the table in front of her. “So, I know I invited you here under the pretence of ice-cream,” she started. “But before we get to that, I want to ask you all to help me with something.” She paused, nervous though she knew she shouldn’t be. It was enough time, however, to see the curiosity spread across Ellie’s face and for the young girl to sit up attentively, totally ready for whatever Nia had to say.
“You’d have to come over to mine for a few days in the next couple of weeks or so,” Nia explained mysteriously. “To help me focus. And practice. And you’d all be welcome to stay over.” She smiled, not quite wanting to give it all away yet. Almost building up the same excitement she’d kept to herself for so long...enjoying the moment she’d missed through being wrapped up in something else. And anyway, they were all Ravenclaws. It shouldn’t be too difficult to guess, should it?
JD spoke first. “Practice session? Fer what?” He too, was now curious. “Quidditch?” Nia stayed quiet, watching the other two. Amusement played on her lips. Ellie had taken to just staring at her, whilst Jacob finally plopped himself down into a chair and leant forward.
“Help?” he asked. “Would you like to be a tad more specific as to what we will be helping with?” Ellie nodded vigorously. “Elaborate. Go on.”
Nia took another deliberately slow sip of her drink. JD had got it, of course, but she couldn’t help but laugh at the others’ eagerness. “Definitely Quidditch,” she said with a grin. “What else would it be? Flobberworm racing?” She shook her head with a roll of her eyes.
“Hey!” Jacob quickly retorted. “Don’t diss flobberworm races...those things can get intense.” With the serious look on his face, Nia wasn’t going to disagree. She knew what he was like with a beaters’ bat in hand, for one.
“Obviously, we’ve not played properly for a year...and...” She faltered momentarily. She hadn’t told anyone outside her family, and to be fair they’d just guessed. And whilst she couldn’t think of a better group of people to know first officially, perhaps except Raiden, it made the whole thing seem more daunting. She really did only have three weeks. And they’ll all want to know how she got on. What if she failed? “And, well, I need to get my eye back in. Big time.” She gave them a small smile. “You saw me doing fitness stuff at school, but nothing is quite as good as actually being in the air under pressure, practicing. And I need to be on top form, if I want to impress the selectors.” Finally, she broke into a broad smile to break the news. “I’ve been offered tryouts for the Bats’ and the Harpies’ Reserve Teams.”
“Oh Nia!” Ellie shrieked, launching herself at Nia for the second time that day. Seemingly Ellie didn’t require a broom to fly at her former Captain. Any kind of excitement was enough. Nia laughed, and as a result, jiggled the younger girl up and down on her lap.
“It’s only tryouts,” she insisted, worried that Ellie might have got herself a little over-excited. Nia really didn’t want to get everyone’s hopes up. She just knew she needed to people to fully test her skills before the day to give her the best possible chance. “It doesn’t mean I’ll get in straight away. Getting into a Pro team is notoriously hard. But the experience will be good.”
Had Raiden been there, he would probably be telling her off for not being confident in herself. And the fact that she had some awesome teammates that absolutely wouldn’t let her get away with being rusty. And that she’d work so hard it’d be impossible for the selectors not to pick her. She could almost hear his voice in her head. Almost. Because this was Nia, who only ever showed self-assurance when actually in the air.
It turned out she didn’t need Raiden to give her a boost. These three were more than enough. “And ye were on about me not having confidence,” JD commented, giving her a pointed look. Ellie nodded. “They want you. You’ll be fantastic. And you’ll make it.”
Nia nodded, suddenly overwhelmed by their support. She bit her lip, unsure what to say. As always though, it was Jacob who punctuated the moment, finally catching up with the conversation so far. “So, you don’t think you’ll get on...so you’ve sort sought the help of amazing Quidditch players? Nah, can’t help you there.” Nia snorted, a grin spreading across her lips.
“So, you’ll come hit some bludgers at me to help?” Nia clarified. In unison, her teamies nodded.
“Anytime,” Ellie said with a wicked grin.
“...so who’s for some ice cream...?”
Thanks to Nina, Andy and Liz for the original scene, and letting me use a bit of artistic licence to make it fit here ^____^
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Last edited by hermygirl; 07-19-2011 at 09:48 AM.
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