Innocence

Chapter Twelve

Later that evening Sophia and David were sat in the stands surrounding the spacial quidditch pitch, as far away from the Horned Serpent team as possible. David insisted.

Sophia grumbled. "I can barely see what's going on. I can't even tell which one is Adam." She squinted at the ant sized blobs across the grass from them. "Are you sure we can't get a bit closer?"

David sighed. "Look, even you admitted to not knowing what the attitude at this school is towards competitive sports. If the team see us here they might kick us out, thinking that we are trying to determine their team tactics or something." He scrunched up his nose in disgust and Sophia giggled.

"Not a fan of quidditch, I take it?"

"No. But I hope to make Daniel play."

"Wait... So you were asking about him getting onto the team and he doesn't even play?"

"How can he? We only found out a little bit ago that he was a wizard." He continued when he saw her shocked expression. "Trust me, he'll be good if he gives it a chance. I've never known Daniel to be bad at a No-Maj sport, and I expect it to be the same when it comes to the magical variety."

Sophia said nothing as she realised that she had no idea what David meant when he referred to No-Maj sports. She supposed she knew they would have such things, but had never actually considered what those sports would consist of. She realised that while she new a lot about the magical world, she knew next to nothing about the non-magical world.

After all, why should she? Her whole life she knew about the people who she would grow up to be a part of. She'd never not known about the truth of her abilities and had always known that the stories considered only fiction to No-Majes were completely true to people like her.

Everyone in her family was magical.

But then again, didn't her Dad grow up with No-Majes? Although they were terrible people from what she had heard and they in their own way appeared to at least theorise about the existence of magic.

She felt bad about all of this, although she didn't really know why she felt like that.

Turning her attention back to the pitch, she waited in hope to see whether Adam would be awarded the position that she knew he deserved.

- - - - -

After a short while which mainly consisted of the two first years squinting at blurry figures zooming around the air, it appeared that the new captain had been chosen.

It was the Head of Horned Serpent who was choosing the captain, and when the six team players who had continued from last year's team landed in a line before him, it took a minute before he pointed at one of them.

Sophia saw with a sinking heart that it couldn't possibly have been Adam, as the one who had been chosen was far too tall. He was most likely a student studying for his NEWTs. She understood that this was probably the last time this guy would have a shot at being captain, and that Adam could always try again once this other student had left school, but she hoped that Adam would think about it that way as well.

She would hate for him to be too disappointed, although the more she thought about it, the more crushed she realised he must have been feeling. After all, he had basically talked about nothing else in the last few weeks of the summer holidays.

She heard a shout coming from the players and looked around confused. It was not unknown for her to get lost in her own thoughts and not realise what was going on around her until it was too late, and in this instance she cursed herself for it.

Across the pitch she could see a small figure of someone new talking to the quidditch team, or, more specifically, the new captain of the quidditch team. He didn't appear to be welcome amongst the crowd.

Sophia turned to David to comment on the matter, when the pieces finally clicked together in her head and saw that she was now sat alone, after David had apparently stood up and marched himself across the pitch, intent on starting a conversation- although now it looked much more like a confrontation- with other human beings. This was new, all things considered, seeing as David rarely liked other people to know that he even existed, or he himself rarely liked to know that other people existed. She sighed and stood up, resolving that she would have to try and save him from himself.

When she made it within hearing distance, she could make out that while David was attempting to have a hushed conversation with the captain, everyone else was trying to get him to leave. Apparently, the adoration the rest of the school had for David didn't extend to opposing quidditch teams. She looked for Adam for help, amongst the shouts and locked eyes with him over the shoulder of David.

Sophia quickly ran forward and pinched the cuff of David's cloak, easily turning him away from the crowd and back towards where they had been sitting, while Adam jogged to catch up with them.

"What's the issue?" He asked calmly. He was staring at David very intently.

"I was just putting in a good word for my cousin." David explained. "I have wanted him to be on the team. I just thought I could ask the new captain if he could give him a chance."

Adam stiffened when David spoke about the new captain, but his voice remained calm and unwavering. "He can try out like everyone else next week. I'm sure the captain will make the right decision and choose who is best for the team. If it were me, I'd bring your cousin on the team if he turned out to be anything like you."

Sophia blinked at Adam, not quite understanding what he said.

David sighed. "Okay, thank you. I'll make sure he turns up."

- - - - - - - - - -

Another chapter published. I'm so far forward with writing it now that I'm almost surprised by these older chapters. This probably isn't a good thing.

Anyway it's 5 in the morning and I feel sick so I thought I should get this sorted.