Diving Into You | Fred Weasley

1 | The Chaser of Thunderbird

Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had never seen a player fly as fast as Naia Vance.

"Thunderbird's in the lead with 70-40, and Vance has got the quaffle! She dodges Rhodes - oof, Rhodes is hit by a bludger from Pierce! That's got to hurt. Vance closes in on Andrews, she shoots- 10 points to Thunderbird!"

If her ego wasn't big already- it was the size of a troll now. Her first year on the team and already carrying two wins. Naia was never one to brag. Alright, perhaps very subtly. Her mother had always told her to never be shy about her quidditch accomplishments. This was because Emmaline loved to boast about quidditch herself since she was a chaser for Gryffindor in her younger years. Naia may not be her daughter by blood, but she likes to take credit for the quidditch skills, thank you very much.

"Keep it up, Vance. We'll need three more balls in if Smith doesn't get his eyes on that snitch soon!" Yelled Moore, the Thunderbird team captain. It was his last year, and he desperately wanted a win. Discovering Vance this year was his greatest gift from god, or so he likes to tell her.

"You got it, Cap." She saluted. A shift in the air alerted her of the incoming threat, and before it could hit her, she successfully dodged another bludger sent to her by the Pukwudgie beater, Maria.

"Sorry, Vance! Didn't see ya!" Yelled the beater. Naia rolled her eyes and smiled, sending her a rather rude hand gesture. Maria laughed and zoomed past to send another bludger to Smith.

The game went on as fast-paced than ever before Naia spotted the other Thunderbird chaser, Jessie, fall off her broom from a dangerous height.

Every bone in her body screamed to help, but she was too far. She could manipulate the winds to ease her fall, but she had to be careful in case she cast it too strongly for fear of looking suspicious. The last thing she needed was her secret being discovered by the hundreds of people in the stands.

We can do it. The familiar voice said to her, and always only to her. Naia always found her conversations with herself to be quite a normal occurrence. She didn't think much of it at first, that was until her mother informed her it wasn't all that normal to speak to a voice in her head.

She always thought it to be quite comforting anyways.

It'll be too strong. Naia argued worriedly, still zooming around the pitch to try to get to Jessie.

We've been training. You can control it.

And with deep concentration, Naia focused on Jessie's falling form. She felt the magical energy within her shift, and with a twisting movement of her hand, she shifted the air around Jessie like a gentle force, breaking her fall. Jessie still landed on the ground painfully- but not strong enough to break any bones like she originally would have.

She did it! Naia beamed, and then she was off the steal the quaffle back. Her energy levels were running lower than normal after the use of her gift. It was controlling it that took more energy off of her than the power itself.

The game went on for another twenty minutes. Smith didn't end up catching the snitch, but Thunderbird scored more points to win even when Pukwudgie's seeker had caught it. It was a victory long-awaited by Moore, and the first final won by Naia.

"That's my girl! That's my baby!" Emmaline screamed from the stands. Naia looked over from the ground as she landed and smiled at her mother. Not once did Emmaline miss the chance to watch Naia's games throughout the year. Partly because she didn't want any accidents happening in case her daughter got too emotionally worked up. Naia had a tendency to overreact -unknowingly of course. She did her best to keep her gift under control, and did so successfully for the most part.