The Chaser's Heart

Year 5: Start of Term

'So, what are you going to do?' Rowan hissed in my ear as we made our way back to Ravenclaw Tower directly following the Start-of-term feast.

Very similarly to the year prior, Professor Dumbledore had issued a warning to all students not to go looking for anymore Vaults. He'd looked quite pointedly in my direction and I tried not to look guilty. It wasn't as if it were a secret that I was the one breaking into the Vaults and that the warning was mainly for my benefit. I sort of wish it were a secret, I hated that everyone at school took me as some sort of amateur Curse-Breaker out for whatever treasure was in the Vaults, or worse, glory.

I really just wanted to find out the truth behind what had happened to Jacob.

But I'd spent a good deal of time reflecting on it over the summer. The only truth I knew was that I didn't really know Jacob at all. Not like others did. Not like my mother did, or my father, but I couldn't ask him because he had been missing for nearly as long as Jacob had been. And because of that, I'd been questioning everything.

I would search for the next Vault only if it seemed like Rakepick wasn't getting anywhere on her own. And only because I'd heard Jacob's voice telling me he was trapped in the next Vault. If I hadn't, I would have given up on the whole thing. Whether or not his attempts to break into the Cursed Vaults were foolish, he was still my brother and he owed me an explanation for everything I'd been through since he'd gone missing.

'I don't know,' I told Rowan truthfully. What I did depended on how well Rakepick could do her job.

Another thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to focus more on Quidditch this year than the Cursed Vaults.

Shortly after McNully's holiday to the Isle of Wight, I'd dragged Mum to Diagon Alley to buy my new Comet 260. We'd also bought all my new school books and supplies for the year, but I wasn't bothered about any of that. I hadn't had much time to practise on it on my own before I left for Scotland to visit Skye.

It was fast. A far cry from my old Shooting Star and even Skye's Comet 240 that I'd been borrowing since the accident. It could turn on a Knut and the brakes were unbelievably sensitive. I nearly threw myself from it the first time I went flying. I'd never had a new broomstick before. The Shooting Star had belonged to Jacob and was at least a decade old by the time I was ready for it.

As I knew she would be, Skye was ecstatic with the Comet 260 when I arrived at her house with it. Within five minutes of my arrival, we were airborne and she spent the entire week showing me how to ride it properly and to my advantage. We ran through drills and were frequently joined my her older brothers Kash and Neil when they had breaks from their training schedules. They both played Quidditch professionally for the British and Irish League, Kash for the Kenmare Kestrels as a Beater and Neil for the Caerphilly Catapults as Keeper. They were both brilliant, and while I'd initially been a bit starstruck, they quickly put me through my paces and I felt we were all friends by the end of the week. Neil had even told me I was a cracking Chaser, I'd positively swelled with pride at that, even if he was only saying it because I was his little sister's friend.

'I just...' I hesitated. Rowan might be brilliant, but she just didn't understand much when it came to Quidditch and broomsticks.

'What?' She pressed when I didn't say anything further immediately.

'I just really want to focus on Quidditch this year,' I told her.

'Quidditch?' She repeated, aghast. 'What about Jacob? What about the OWLs?'

'Those are still ages away,' I scoffed.

'That's the spirit, Knight!'

Skye had appeared behind us as we climbed the steps towards Ravenclaw Tower. She draped an arm around my shoulder tightly.