Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(125) The Eagle and the Serpent

A week after that little fiasco with Slytherin, it was finally time to play against them. What Florence didn't tell anyone was that as the game grew closer, her confidence as captain started to falter. When she woke up on the day of the game, she felt as though she had to hurl out last night's dinner in nervousness.

She woke up extra early, nonetheless, running around and making sure that all her players were set, like a jittery mother hen. Nicolai and Xander had to hunt her down at some point, bringing her sandwiches from the Great Hall, since she had forgotten entirely that breakfast was a thing.

"Come on, Flo, it's just a sandwich," Xander said wearily as he sat on one of the locker room benches, Florence double checking on everyone's gear as a way to pour out her angst. "If you're anything like Nic, you'll be able to gobble it down in less than ten seconds."

"Hey," Nicolai scoffed, elbowing the blonde boy, "I'm right here, you know."

"Yeah? So?" he said pointedly, before averting his attention back to his jittery best friend, "Florence Magdalene Price. You have to eat. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

"If I eat that, will you two leave me in peace and shut up?"

"No promises." he flashed her a cheeky grin, before handing it to her. She sat down beside him, unwrapping it from the paper napkin before taking a bite. Nicolai couldn't help but stare at Florence's hair, noticing that it was touching the seat as she sat, "It's gotten real long."q

She chuckled, "I know. I'll probably get a haircut next summer before my Auror training starts. Julien says long hair would get in the way."

"What if she got a buzzcut, or shaved off all of her hair?" Xander said, "Would you still be her friend, Nic?"

"Ofcourse I would." She said almost immediately, "I dont care what her hair looks like..." Nicolai paused, leaning closer to Florence to whisper, "But seriously, though, it would be better if you didn't."

"I'm obviously not going to. Craft that into a prank to scare you, potentially, yes... But I love my hair too much."

"I'm going to try to remember this evil ploy of yours so you won't catch me off guard when you do it."

"Mm, we all know you'll only remember it up until the next exciting thing happens. You're welcome to try, though."

Florence stuffed the last bit of the sandwich into her mouth, before dusting the crumbs off of her lap and getting up, "Do you think it'll be really windy today? Ivy easily gets bothered with it blowing into her face too hard... Maybe I should go and borrow a couple pairs of those goggles from Madame Hooch's equipment storage..."

"Weather looks fine," said Nicolai, "Seriously, Flo, there's nothing you have to worry about...apart from Slytherin inflicting serious injuries on one of your teammates..."

"Not helping." Florence gave her a look.

"Just putting it out there."

"What Nic is trying to say is you'll do fine. You practiced, trained your team, and all you have to do left is wait for these next few hours to sail by, then kick ass at your game."

She flopped her arms back down to her sides, letting out a loud huff, "You're right. I'm just stressing myself out."

"Right. Okay. Let's head back to the castle then, yeah? We have...about four hours of de-stressing to do and lunch to eat."

The two beckoned her out the door, chatting animatedly about anything at all as they made their way indoors, in order to distract her thoughts from her worries.