ink - sirius black

snitches and reminders

October 11, 1976
10:01
Quidditch Pitch

There was a heavy amount of stress in the quidditch pitch in the cloudy, late morning from everyone except Annelise and James. There was no question whether or not James would get the position he wanted, having been named captain by Dumbledore for a reason.

As for Anneliese, she was, well, Anneliese.

About two dozen others had gathered for tryouts, six of them for being a Seeker. They had been grouped into categories by Potter earlier, and he had given A the snitch while he was observing the other eight potential Chasers.

"You're good, Callaway," a boy with dark red hair and pale skin told her. "Play for Ilvermorny?"

"Yea, I did," she replied, turning to him as she snatched the snitch out of the air deftly. "And you are?"

"Fabian Prewett," he said as they turned their heads up to watch where James was drilling the Chasers with the quaffle. "I've been a Keeper since my third year."

There were a few moments of silence between them as the mid October breeze cut through their clothes and moved their fingers a bit against their broom handles to keep them from going completely numb.

Fabian looked over at Anneliese, saw she wasn't looking at him, and then quickly changed his gaze back to the sky.

"Alright, get out of here all of you except for Fletchy and Cresswell," James shouted against the wind, adjusting his glasses as he touched back down on the ground. "Maybe next year, the rest of you lot."

Anneliese grinned at him as she saw the exasperation in his expression. Half of the people trying out were just girls trying to get a chance with him that had never flown a broom, as if he wasn't madly in love with Lily.

"Prewett," James said with a nod to Fabian. "Beaters'll be next, but I need a break after that."

His hazel eyes caught on the broom Anneliese was using. There were quite a few splinters on the handle that could pierce through skin and get lodged their easily, and the twigs at the end were all askew and half broken.

"That's what you're flying on?" he asked, snatching it right from her hands. "Do you not have a broom? This is a school one, everyone knows they're horrid."

Anneliese's freckled cheeks flushed a bit, but she just shrugged and took it back from James.

"That's what I did at Ilvermorny, and I did just fine," she told him insistently. "Not all of us have the money to buy ones like you have."

"Yea, but don't your parents?" James prompted with a dubious expression.

Anneliese's expression turned as cold as the air around them as she grabbed the broom back from him. James looked surprised at her aggression, still not grasping the concept that he could have said something insensitive.

"We don't all have some rich daddy to run back to," she said, turning away from him. "Don't you have some Beaters to attend to?"

Potter looked to see that she was right, and that there was a group of seven people waiting a few yards away with vaguely annoyed expressions. He still couldn't quite get over her sudden mood change, but walked away knowing that he had duties to attend to if he wanted to get this team together.

"Can be a bit slow sometimes," Fabian said as a form of apology as they sat down on the chest where the balls were kept while not in use. "Whatever happened with your parents.. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Anneliese said quickly, her dark blue eyes narrowing at the hoops above them. "I'm not."

Fabian looked at her warily with this stark reply, and A started to practice with the snitch again, letting it flutter away for ten or so seconds before catching it from the wind without a hesitant blink of her eye.