portentous ✧

'Ravenclaw VS Hufflepuff'

"Um, would you want to practice with me, Hunter?" Amira asked, breaking the silence that had been sat in.

"That would be great, Amira! Thanks."

The two flew down towards the hoops where Tayo and Zeus had just finished practicing. Tayo stayed with his fellow chasers whilst Zeus went over to join Amos and Hai.

"Okay, let's just pass it between us all again. Anything that we need to work on can be our focus tomorrow morning." Hunter instructed as she retrieved a quaffle using wandless magic.

The three chasers all sprung into action, throwing the quaffle between one another and taking it in turn to score. Hunter had put in time ensuring that she'd be able to outfly the Ravenclaw chasers, and she was thankful that she could easily outfly Amira, who was incredibly fast on her broom.

After a few minutes, Hai's voice calls out that it was the end of practice. The now sweaty Tayo and Amira flew down, congratulating each other. Surprisingly, there weren't any identifiable flaws that they'd have to focus on tomorrow.

Hunter-Rose, who wasn't nearly as sweaty as the others, flew to put the quaffle away.

"Hunter!"  a familiar voice cried from the stalls. She looked around to meet Regulus' gaze, who was sat in the Slytherins stalls.

"Reg!" she replied, instantly mounting her broom to go and meet him.

"Lucius told me you practice in the mornings, so I decided to come and watch you! Knew you played, but I wasn't aware that you're so good." The Slytherin Prince seemed elated that he and Hunter shared a common interest.

"Yeah, I've played as chaser since last year.  I was the reserve the year before that. Didn't got a chance to play, though." Hunter replied, tucking a loose piece of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear.

"Well, you're bloody brilliant." Regulus responded, in awe of the girl that sat before him.

"Thanks, Reg! I really appreciate it. Merlin, we're going to be late to breakfast." she cursed, a slight panic in her eyes. She needed to be well regarded in the minds of Regulus' companions if she was to figure out his true intentions, which she still couldn't put her finger on.

Regulus furrowed his brows. "Hunter, breakfast lasts for ages. No need to rush, I'll cover for you."

Hunter nodded, scratching her cheek. Her finger made contact with a small pimple, and she suddenly burned red when she realised that she wasn't wearing any makeup in front of her boyfriend.

The entire Hufflepuff team looked rough in the mornings, so they were all accustomed to seeing the others bare, tired faces. Hunter-Rose was a little more uncomfortable with this, but knew there was little point in caking her face for practice.

Her Veela nature graced her with looking put together, but her ridiculously high standards meant that she couldn't accept this fact.

She never walked around the school without makeup at any other time. Not even when she was just hanging out with Hai; her makeup was like a security blanket.

"I look really rough, Reg, sorry." she mumbled, taking out her ponytail and allowing her hair to hide her face.

The Slytherin felt his heart drop slightly. He both felt bad for Hunter - that she felt uncomfortable showing her bare face to him - and guilty that she felt embarrassed around her boyfriend. Had he done something to upset her?