A Season Warm-Up

Jack walked out onto the Quidditch pitch, her trusty Comet 260 shouldered over her right shoulder, her Beating bat in her gloved hand, an array of tennis balls in her pocket. She did not want to have to go check out the actually balls, but she knew she could warm up just as well with the tennis balls.

She reached the middle of the pitch and mounted her broom, kicking off powerfully and rising into the air. She bent low over her broom and shot off, corkscrewing to release some of her pent-up excitement she had because of her joy in flying again.

It was nice to have a reminder that she had some sort of freedom and control in her life, and she was able to win some of that freedom and control when she was a hundred feet up in the air, hanging upside down and doing tricks that had the possibility of paralyzing her for life.

She hung in midair and extracted a tennis ball from her pocket, testing it by tossing it up and catching it. She braced herself and chucked the ball as hard as she could, grabbing the neck of the broom to keep herself balanced. She gave it a head start and chased after it, wielding her Beater's bat.

Ravenclaw's Quidditch team was in poor shape. There were no two ways to think of it. James was forced into the captain's position for simply being organized. Even then, trying to gather the whole and train them took far too long to keep any hope of victory afloat. James Wake hated to accept it, but he wanted to win. It was a competativeness that he rarely experienced. The contestation of skill and luck... he had often watched from the sidelines, but he had never really trained for such an event. It was once pick-up games and the like. But not anymore. He was the actual Captain now, and now he had a chance to recover that.

First off, he needed some serious practice, particularly against his infernal broom. Alan, of course, had never thought to replace the rebellious broomstick during his infernal summer of wasted time, but lo and behold, the old man barely let him practice. So, what better time to practice than now?

James entered the stadium with his somewhat calmer broom clutched tightly in his faux arm, with every intention of just riding. As he entered the stadium, a bludger whished by his head. He then saw Jaqueline Dyllan chase after it, the back wind from her speed whipping across James face. He squinted slightly, but then remembered his goggles. He quickly fitted the goggles over his eyes and boarded his broom. Might as well have a bit of fun with this.

"Hey Jack, knocked the bludger here!"

(It's a tennis ball. She's ghetto like that XD))

Jack was intent on her prey, but out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure. She turned her head, keeping the tennis ball in her peripheral vision and squinted to make out the figure. She could not tell too well, but she was fairly sure that it was James Wake, a boy that Jack had only ever messed with, never actually interacted with.

She smirked when he asked her to knock the ball towards him. She wondered if he was captain and if he could go grab the balls and stuff, seeing as she had no idea where they belonged when they weren't practicing or actually playing a game. She hefted her bat higher and chased after the ball.

She had hit it quite hard and she began to overtake it. Finally, she flew abreast it and swung the stout little bat. It connected with the ball and headed straight for the Ravenclaw boy, a green whir in the clear air.

((James perception: Flying ball that nearly collides with his face=Bludger. But yeah, my bad))

James had at least expected her to reply in kind, but before he knew it, the ball was being batted towards him. Now that he got a clearer view of the ball, he managed to discern that it was a tennis ball. He raised his Alchemic Arm, allowing the ball to enter his open palm and rest there, conveying the force of its flight to his body. He swung his broom to expel the energy, spinning upside down once. His alchemic arm gripped the tennis ball tightly, but it didn't destroy it.

"Hey, Jack, do you want me to bring out the balls?" he asked, looking disdainfully at the tennis ball. It was far too small to practice with, and he felt like he needed to practice with a real bludger. To get used to feeling... of dodging the ball, of course.

Jack wheeled her broom around to watch him, see how he reacted, but instead of taking aim at the small ball, he caught it, having to spin to release the energy. She grumbled and flew over to him. "You're no fun," she teased. She flew a loop around him, a feat she knew irritated most people... and that was why she did it now.

She stopped when asked if she would like to bring out the actual balls. While, in truth, it would be much better to practice with real Bludgers, she was not one to agree easily with anyone about...well, anything, really. She smirked and said, "Is it too intense, using tennis balls?" She grinned widely at him and then let out a sigh. "Fine, if we must."

'We're all in this together'. It was Lucy's byword at the moment, but the way things were going, it would soon be everyone else's too.

The way people thought of Hufflepuffs, as the rejects, the ones who couldn't get into a better house, was usually only a small irritation. After the first month or so of teasing in first year, you got over it. It also helped that anyone who'd been sorted there knew better. However, today Lucy was afraid that little irritation would blow up in her face. Nobody wanted to be a reject.

If brooms could screetch, Lucy's would have screetched to a stop beside Jack's.

"So, I heard you're not talking to Andrew Thompson," she said by way of greeting.

Sometimes, Lucy could be a bit blunt. Well, most of the time, really.

Jack looked up and saw that she had been joined by Lucy Weasley, a member of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Add in a Slytherin, and they would have quite the diverse little party. She glanced over at James quickly and said, "Hey can you grab the trunk with all the balls, James? Thanks."

She looked back at Lucy and felt a jolt in her stomach. Had rumors really spread about the dissolvation of Andrew and Chase's friendship? She knew people with Quidditch prospects must have found the fact that the Gryffindor captain and Beater weren't speaking as good news. But they had recently spoken and things were... better... She said, "We weren't for awhile, but we sorted things out now."

James threw the ball in the air and caught it with his real hand. He judged the weight and the possible acceleration. He smiled (gasp!) as he hefted the ball towards Jack. "Neither of us are seekers, and a tennis ball doesn't really hurt that much. I might just consider this a simple game, rather than practice." As the ball sailed languidly towards the girl he pulled out his wand. "So, I guess we could change a few things." James cast ENGORGIO! at the tiny target. It struck the ball almost perfectly, though the ball's trajectory was altered. It expanded to the size of a decent sized bludger.

"Try knocking that around."

Jack turned when she heard James begin to speak and she grinned at his words and when he smiled, it being the first time she had seen the guy lighten up. He threw the ball towards her and she hefted her bat, pulling it back ready to swing. Suddenly, it grew larger and she braced her broom, saying to Lucy, "Sorry to cut this short."

The ball had been given a spin from the spell and she flew sideways towards it. It spun towards her and she adjusted her grip, drew back her bat, and swung. Her arm muscles strained pleasantly as they contracted and then snapped back, and the bat hit the ball, sending it sailing towards James with increased ferocity. She whooped with excitement.

I just had to be chaser, James chuckled internally. He turned to the Hufflepuff, Weasley and asked her to wait one minute while he began to back his broom up. He need to keep moving in order to avoid the ball from damaging any part of his body. He clutched the speeding tennis ball in the crutch of his Alchemic arm, allowing its momentum to spin him about. He managed to right his broom with a counter spin, but his broom didn't like that too much. It bucked against his movement, and flew up. But by now, James had grown used to the broom's absurd tantrums. The only way to get it to care again was to act even worse to another object. It was a "grass-is-always-greener-on-the-other-side" revelations.

How odd it was- Alan's advice about women was more helpful with a broomstic than with actual women. Then again, Alan never had a girlfriend anyways.

James leaped off his spasming broom as it climbed high above the stadium. It would circle down eventually, and even if it did not catch him, he would catch it. He proceeded to spike the engorged tennis ball at Jack, whipping out his wand in case his broom still felt embittered about the awkward brake. He had no need to worry though- the broom was there, and James managed to seat himself upon it once more. He finally settled down beside Lucy.

"You could- *cough*- say that- *pant*- Andrew and I were never *wheeze*- really the best of *exhale* friends."