Kindred Spirits: A Dan and Phil Hogwarts AU {COMPLETE}

Flying and Failing

Wiping his sweaty palms on his robe, Dan walked onto the quidditch pitch, immediately repurposing his hands as shields against the sun. In contrast to the bright sky, chilling winds rushed around the field, causing chapped lips and dry skin. Dan pulled his robe tighter, in a weak attempt to find warmth. Noticing that many of the other students had taken the precaution of wearing scarves and mittens, Dan had a brief mental debate about going back to his trunk to grab his. Just as he was coming to the conclusion that he probably hadn't packed them anyway, a mop of familiar brown hair caught his eye.

Will turned his freckled face toward Dan and began to jog over.

"Finally decide to show up, huh?" he laughed, slapping Dan's back.

"Uh, yeah I guess," Dan chuckled, glancing around uncomfortably as if looking for a hidden camera. His focused locked back in on Will as he formed a question. "What are you doing here?" Realizing that may come off rude, Dan elaborated. "Sorry, I just thought you only recently learned how to fly. Like a month ago."

Smiling ear to ear, the boy nodded in response.

"Yep, and I'm a natural! All thanks to you really, I had no idea I was so good until I realized I was better than you, and you've been flying you're whole life." For a moment, his expression was mildly horrified. "No offense, of course, you're great!" A satisfied smile played across his lips, as if that was all it took for his words to mean no harm, and he quickly went off to practice more.

Dan took a shaky breath. Confirmation that a beginner was a better flyer than him was enough to push him off the edge. He blinked away the tears that threatened to form, and ran to the broom closet.

Minutes later, he stood in the line of potential chasers, his left hand clutching the most prickly and bent of the school brooms. As each name was called before him, he felt more sweat sticking his robe to his skin. With no idea how noticeable it was, and no intentions of finding out, the boy's terrified brown eyes remained on the loops at the end of the field. He tried to keep track of how many points each person scored, but he quickly lost count, deciding they were all more than he would get anyway.

When Will's name was called, Dan began to panic. He watched in horror as the nimble figure darted expertly around the pitch, scoring every single goal. He was so mesmerized that he hardly noticed when Will landed back on the ground and began his walk back. Quickly remembering where he was, Dan gave a small smile at Will as he walked back to the stands to await the results.

Even as his own name was called, Dan hardly believed where he was. His dreams of trying out for the team where coming true, but it felt more like a nightmare, He heard his heart beat pounding in his ear, and was very aware of how he was walking and talking, so every motion felt forced and awkward as he made his way to the center of the pitch, where the team captain was waiting. Dan realized with a start that he didn't know her name.

The words "Hey, coach," spilled out of his mouth as a replacement for a name, and he immediately cursed himself. Coach? She's a team captain, why would you ever say that?

"I'm Grace," she said with a smile. Dan could have sworn he saw the slightest hint of pity in her grin. "Okay, you're trying out for chaser, right?" Dan gave a small nod as a response. "Good, you made it to the right line. Now we are going to do some basic drills. John-" she gestured to an older-looking student who was flying overhead, "-will pass you the quaffle as you fly down the field. You're job will be to catch it, then when you get close enough, shoot. We'll run it five times like that, then five times with a keeper. Sound good?" she looked at him expectantly. Dan wanted to say that it most certainly did not sound good, but instead he just nodded again.

The first time running the drill, he missed the goal entirely. It went almost three feet short, and John darted down and caught it before it even hit the ground. On his second attempt, Dan dropped the ball as it was being tossed to him. He heard Grace shout from below.

"That's okay, you still have plenty tries! Lighten up, okay?" The captain reminded enthusiastically, giving a thumbs up. Dan took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. As he made the third shot, there was a moment he though it would make it- before it bounced off the side of the hoop. His final attempts without a keeper went no better, leaving him humiliated and terrified as he waited for the keeper to arrive.
The burly boy lumbered onto the field, holding a battered Nimbus 2009. As he flew to block the goal, Dan saw Grace give him a look as if to say "Go easy on him". As if this wasn't humiliating enough, he was being babied. Again, the quaffle was thrown nowhere near the hoops. The keeper gave him a sympathetic nod, before advising him to "keep his eye on the ball".
Finally, the ball soared through the ring, the keeper making no attempt to stop it. He was filled with a sudden surge of hope. There was no way he would make the team, but maybe he'd make more than one shot. His confidence faded again as he missed his eighth, ninth, then tenth shots.

A/N: Hey, I know it's a bit shorter than normal, I split a long chapter into two so the next one will also be a bit short. I am also making a little change that all of the previous chapters and and the one after this will be part of "part one", meeting and becoming friends etc, then it will move into part two, and jump to their fourth year where their can be friendship drama and such. As usual, let me know how that makes ya feel. Thanks for all the reads and comments! Every time I check and see the numbers have gone up, I feel really excited to look through and respond :).