fall into me | t. scamander

an aggressive tactic

The echoes and cries of the audience was muffled against the locker room walls as Mei pulled on her Quidditch uniform. It was— as expected— decked in green and silver, the signature Slytherin colors that their house wore with pride. There was a knot in her stomach that wouldn't allow her to eat since last night and she woke up this morning wishing to be sick. While Kevin and Raina had forced her to eat some kind of toast and some mandarins for more energy, Mei had done her best to keep it down, all her thoughts focused on the first match ahead of her.

Zipping up her bag, Mei made her way out of the girl's locker rooms only to have someone shove her shoulder, followed by Jamila's voice that sneered, "don't you screw us over today, newbie."

Mei rubbed at her shoulder, annoyed and slightly irritated by her childish behaviour, but decided not to say anything back. She didn't have time to deal with this right now.

She felt a hand on her shoulder a few moments later, head turning to see the Slytherin seeker Damien, steely grey eyes blinking down at her. He was already decked in his uniform and about ready to go out.

"Don't take it to heart," his voice was deep and gravelly, with a tinge of what sounded like an Australian accent, "Jamila enjoys tormenting people when she's irritable or stressed. She'll get over you soon enough."

"Maybe she should get over me faster then," Mei grumbled, causing him to chuckle before beckoning her out into the stadium.

Thankfully, the weather seemed to work in their favor today. The stalls were filled to the brim — no surprise there since this was the first match of the year — and multicolored flags of all four houses were being waved in the air. Trumpets and saxophones played in the background with such obnoxiousness it made Mei's ears hurt, and as she made her way to her teammates huddled in a circle, she couldn't help but feel the toast she'd eaten that morning threaten to crawl up her throat.

Her grip on her broom tightened. She swallowed down bile, and tried to steel her focus.

"—have a very aggressive attack strategy," Adriana was already giving the pep talk when Damien and Mei came close enough to hear, managing to get into the small huddle to listen in, "so we'll have to put up our defense. Beaters should be on-guard at all times because these Gryffindors love hitting the bludgers straight at us. Especially at Damien," she nodded towards the said young man, "Raphael, you'll be the beater assigned to Damien. That might make things easier, but that means that Mei will be the one protecting all of us chasers—"

"That's fucking suicide, Adriana," Jamila scoffed, "you want her to defend our backs while we're out there chasing the quaffle?"

"I agree with Jamila, isn't that a bit much for Mei on her first match?" Eugene, the curly brown-haired wizard with the green eyes and five o'clock stubble, added, "maybe Raphael can do that one."

"Raphael works best when there's one specific person to target," Adriana threw the said wizard a pointed look, "you remember what happened last year?"

At that, silence swept over the team. Mei could only guess something had happened with Raphael and the bludger. It was always the bludger's fault after all. In the distance, the sound of a whistle was blown to signal the start of the game.

"Right," Adriana took a deep breath and exhaled, "let's do as we said for today. If that doesn't work, we'll try and change our strategy. But remember, Gryffindor plays offensive, so no—"

"—no stupid moves or selfish whims," Eugene finished with a roll of his eyes, smiling slightly even when their captain swatted the back of his head, "we get it captain."

"Jamila?" Adriana turned to the dark-haired beauty, who only scoffed and rolled her eyes before she stormed to the middle of the field.

"She really doesn't like me, does she?" Mei murmured out to Damien, who chuckled, "well, she doesn't really like anyone in particular, so don't take it personally."