SUMMER LOVIN' ✯ FRED WEASLEY

xxxiv. Quidditch Queen

"We're missing three, not including me," she said. "Smith's over there, I can make out his bad hair... and that's Rickett, next to him, he's a Beater... he's alright, he's a good laugh,"

"He's not a very good Beater, though," said George. Kaya snorted.

"He's alright!" she said.

"No he's not!" Fred agreed with George. "He nearly had Alicia's head off in our game with Hufflepuff, two years ago. Then you lot won anyway, because the ref decided to be unfair,"

"Hey, we wanted a rematch!" said Kaya. "Cedric even offered one, and you two got all assy like it was our fault,"

Fred grinned at her sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. He remembered the match all too well - and the aftermath.

"We were annoyed..!" George said slowly in an attempt of defence.

"Fucking hell, if going off on one like that is 'annoyed' I'd dread to think what you two being actually angry is,"

"It's because they're ginger," said Lee. Jaeden nodded.

"Exactly, ginger people get angry ten times worse than anyone else, it's a scientific fact,"

Maisie raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Excuse me!" she said. "I never lose my temper, because I actually have a sense of control-"

"-Ooh, a sense of control!" George mocked. She pulled a face at him, which he reflected back.

"Yeah, but Maisie's not ginger, she's strawberry blonde," said Milo.

"Same thing!" said Fred.

"No-"

"Ah shit, Smith's yelling at me," said Kaya. "I'm gonna go,"

She gave Fred a quick kiss on the cheek - ignoring Jaeden and Milo's retching noises - and stood up.

"Have fun, cutie!" Maisie called over to her as she began to walk off, before glancing at Fred with a teasing grin.

"Oi, I'm supposed to say that stuff," he frowned.

"Chicks before dicks, Fred. Chicks before dicks."

Kaya stood next to Anthony Rickett as Zacharias Smith gave a really unnecessarily long speech to those trying out for the free positions. She knew Anthony considerably well, since he'd been a Beater for the same amount of time she'd been a Chaser, and so the two had gotten to know each other through their Quidditch practices, and games. The two got along quite well, since they shared the same sense of humour, and Anthony was one of the few players who wouldn't take it to heart when the lion in Kaya jumped out and she yelled at them during playing.

Yet, the two didn't often speak outside Quidditch, unless it was related to the game. It was a purely sport-based friendship. But Kaya didn't mind - she was just glad she still had somebody to talk to after Cedric... left...

"Bloody hell, can we just get on with it?" Anthony muttered, and Kaya let out a snigger. Merlin, could Zacharias rant - almost as badly as Umbridge could.

Finally, they were set off to help those trying out. Kaya and Zacharias were to work with those trying out to the the third Chaser, flying around and passing the Quaffle to them from different angles, making sure they could catch them and proceed to score. The first to begin was Cadwallader, a stocky boy the year below Kaya, who was surprisingly quite good. He stumbled a bit when catching the Quaffle and proceeding forward, but other than that, he was pretty good at scoring.

She could make out the figures of her friends and her boyfriend sitting and watching her, shouting things over, like,

"Go on, K, you bloody zoomer!" and "I see you, twirling around like a ballet dancer!"

And then, Kaya (though secretly knowing they were right from the beginning) was reminded of the fact that Fred and George had called Rickett a shit Beater when a Bludger came flying towards her - she'd only just ducked in time for it to swoop past where her head had just been.

"Shit," said Smith, stopping, as Kaya peered through the mist at the figure of Anthony, hovering a few metres down the pitch, holding a bat and having looked guilty for where he'd accidentally hit the Bludger.

"Woah, watch where you're hitting the Bludgers, Rickett, you twat!" she yelled at him. "That nearly had my head off!"

"Sorry, Bennett!" He called back.

Apart from nearly being beheaded by a Bludger, Kaya was having the time of her life flying around the Quidditch Pitch with her team again - even if she caught herself of guard a few moments, because she'd expected to see Cedric flying around, looking for the Snitch which had been let loose for practice.

And Fred soon learned that Jaeden was right when it came to her speed, as he watched her with a huge beam zoom around the pitch like she was the Snitch herself.

After a while, Kaya and Zacharias finished working with all of the new potential Chasers, and so began going through them all - after all, there can only be one.

"Who do you reckon?" the blonde asked. "I think we can both rule out Turner, he only scored about two,"

"Yeah," Kaya agreed. "He wasn't very fast either - but Grazer said he's in lots of different clubs, and if a game or tryouts clash with his Herbology Club then he'll pick that over Quidditch, so..."

"Did he?" Zacharias raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know that, I was gonna pick him... ah, that's a shame, he was the best player..."

"I know,"

"So I guess we go with Cadwallader?"

"I guess. He's quite good though," Kaya said. "Fast. More swift than Turner,"

Zacharias nodded in thought.

"Yeah, we'll go with him, then," he said. "I'll see how everyone else is doing, and then we can round the team up, yeah?"

"Yeah, alright, then," said Kaya, giving her arms a stretch after being in the same position on her broom for so long.

Her face fell a little, when he walked off. This time two years ago, she'd been having the same type of conversation with Cedric.

Zacharias might be an alright captain - but Cedric always has been, and always will be, the best. No doubt about it.

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