speak now | regulus black

2

kiss with a fist — florence + the machine

"a kick in the teeth is good for some

a kiss with a fist is better than none."

♡

Sofia had started playing Quidditch completely by accident. She hadn't been around for First Year, so she'd had no idea about Quidditch or flying when she had first come to Hogwarts. It had been the old Gryffindor captain, Turner, who had introduced her to the game.

She had always been a sporty person. Her parents were both active people, and her grandfathers on both sides had been very dedicated to each of their sports. One to baseball, and the other to hockey. But baseball had been the one to stick the most.

When she'd first come to Hogwarts, she'd had no idea if she'd be able to play in any way, but she'd still packed her baseball bat. She'd also been a very angry little thing back then, so when she had learned a levitation spell, she had immediately gone down to the Quidditch pitch and started batting balls by herself.

Turner had seen her doing it once and been thoroughly impressed by her swing. He told her she had to try out for the Quidditch team. Sofia told him she had no idea how to fly. And Turner had said they were so desperate for a good Beater, he'd teach her to fly himself. And he had.

And so, Sofia found one of her joys at Hogwarts. She still preferred baseball to Quidditch, but it was better than nothing.

Now, Holly, her fellow Beater for the last three years, had graduated and her position needed to be filled. James had decided to keep everyone who was already on the team so they were only searching for a Seeker and a Beater. Which meant that the rest of the team was excused from attending tryouts and it was just her and James.

Sofia stared at her prospects as James gave instructions. Beater wasn't exactly the most coveted position so there were only three people trying out for it, as opposed to the six trying out for Seeker. One was a big guy, a year younger than her. Other a scrawny but tall Fourth Year boy, and finally another Fifth Year, short but stout.

Most people's first instinct when selecting Beaters was to go for the biggest guys possible, but Sofia knew that was of zero use if the player didn't have a proper technique. Yeah, they could probably bat hard, but it didn't matter if there was no aim, no direction.

Beaters' bats were wider than baseball bats, and the Bludgers were bigger than baseballs, and the objective of hitting the ball was different but it was the same basic principle in both games.

James's great idea for the tryout had been to let a bunch of Snitches loose and watch as the prospects tried to catch them while trying to avoid getting hit by Bludgers from the prospective Beaters.

It looked a bit chaotic, but Sofia found it amusing and oddly kind of effective.

"Sweet Merlin, look at that little girl go, I think she's caught four Snitches already," James said from beside Sofia. They were hovering a few metres off the ground, watching the scrimmage.

Sofia tore her gaze from the Beaters to look at the girl James had mentioned. She was a blur of auburn hair zooming across the field expertly. "That's impressive. Think you'll pick her?"

"She's got a pretty high chance. What about you? See anyone you like?"

The three boys were clearly not very comfortable with a club. They were mostly very frantically trying to hit the Bludgers that came near them.

"They're kind of... sad. But I think there's one with some potential I could probably make something out of."

She had to make it work. The Gryffindor team had been one of the strongest in the school for years. They'd made the final the past four years in a row, and won the Cup twice. And she'd be damned if that stopped this year.