"I—" Lisa stumbled before she could even utter the next few words, her legs finally giving out from beneath her, which sent her crumpling down onto the grass, "I don't think I want to do this anymore."
She saw long red hair from the corner of her eyes, Ginny Weasley crouching down to help her as Angelina started blowing on her whistle maniacally, which was a signal for her to get back up. The fourth year girl offered her hand, Lisa taking it gratefully. Ginny helped dust off her clothes once she was up, a light smile on her face, "That looked like rough landing there."
"No, it's—" Lisa paused momentarily, trying to catch her breath before speaking again, "The grass is as soft as a cushion. I'm fine."
"Five more laps, ladies!" Angelina hollered from across the pitch, making Lisa huff, "I can't take it anymore!"
"Tough luck! You're going to have to."
She felt like crying. "What did I get myself in to? I thought were supposed to only race with brooms in Quidditch? Not run the whole bloody perimeter ten million times."
"Ten." Ginny corrected, "Ten times."
"Still feels like it." she muttered, moving to sit down on the grass when Angelina blew on her whistle yet again, "Five more laps!"
The other beater, Andrew Kirke, jogged towards them, flashing the two a sly wink, "You heard the captain. Off you go."
"Shut your trap, Kirke." Ginny retorted, "Lisa needs a moment."
"Aww," he said, "I didn't think Quidditch princesses needed a moment. The way Angelina boasted about you, I would have thought you were better than this."
"I said shut your trap," Ginny scoffed yet again, "Mind your own business."
"Looks like I have to be the competent beater now..." he sighed dramatically, before heading back his way. Lisa frowned, watching the boy grow out of earshot, "He's quite a pompous git, isn't he?"
"He did marvelous in his tryouts, though. Won Angelina's favor and all. Ofcourse nobody would have expected him to be such an ass." the youngest Weasley tutted, "Well come on, then. Let's finish our rounds. The next bit after's going to be fun."
She had a pleading look on her face, Ginny countering it with an encouraging one, making her cave in, picking her pace back up into a jog.
By the time she had finished all her laps, a water break was inevitable, despite Andrew adamantly insisting that there was absolutely no need. Lisa was parched, and couldn't help but feel loathing towards the boy that she was supposed to work with.
After water break, Angelina had delivered a fairly long speech about Quidditch. Though inspiring, it was also a bit too boring for Lisa's taste, and found herself wondering what dessert they were going to have for dinner. Once she had gotten the indication that the newest additions to her team were not listening, she cleared her throat, and decided to get everyone up in the air, the flying portion commencing.
Lisa had forgotten most of the flying tactics that she had been taught at little league, and comforted herself with the fact that it had definitely been years since, and, naturally, she would have forgotten how it was supposed to go.
Clutching the handle of her shimmering Comet 290, which her parents had so graciously gifted her over the school week (after she had told them over and over that she did not want them to buy them a firebolt, as she did not trust herself with a sodding expensive broom.), she kicked off of the ground, and felt herself hovering five feet in the air.
"Okay," she chuckled nervously, "I'm off the ground. I'm off the ground." she looked around, "That was much easier than I had thought—gaahhhh!" Lisa shrieked, as her broom jerked backwards, making her crash into one of the stands.
"Fuck." she cursed, rubbing her arm which impacted first against the hardwood, before her broom suddenly shot up higher into the air, completely taking her by surprise. She was thrown off of her broom, sending her tumbling down from Merlin knows how many feet into the air, screaming and fearing for her life, when she had felt someone catch her by her robes.
"I got you!" Angelina reassured as Lisa started hyperventilating, clutching the older girl's hand as tightly as she could until they had landed back on the ground.
"Godric's sake!" she wheezed, clawing at the grass, never wanting to leave it ever again.
"Lisa? You're okay." Angelina consoled, "Get up, you're alive. It's okay."
"I—I didn't mean to, Ange. I was just getting familiar with the broom. Let's go again—"
"No, no. I think it's best if you hit the showers now. We'll do the flying bit next week."
"But..." Lisa pleaded, seeing the revolted look on Andrew's face, "We still have loads of time, Ange. We can go again. Please. It won't happen again."
"Look, what happened, I know it wasn't your fault, okay? You're just getting started. So we shouldn't push it. It's best if you rest."
"Yeah, wouldn't want princess here to break a nail now would we?" Andrew scoffed, making Angelina throw a nasty look at him. "Lay off, will you?"
"He's been having a go at her repeatedly now." Ginny told Angelina.
"You're supposed to get along with her, Kirke. You two are partners on the playing field. Not competition. Lisa is your equal, and gender has nothing to do with it."
"I didn't say anything about gender," he chuckled hollowly, "How can she be my equal, when she can't even stay on her broom for five minutes."
"Cut her a bit of slack. No one starts off perfect. Not even you, Kirke."
"Whatever..." he scoffed, storming back towards the locker room, throwing down one of the school's brooms onto the grass.
"Didn't even bother to put away his equipment." Angelina grumbled, before helping Lisa up.
Can't even stay on her broom for five minutes.
Lisa knew Andrew was right. She was a flop, a total disaster. And suddenly she felt wrong standing in full body gear, looking down at her broom with a sort of disappointment. "I remember that I have homework to finish. I'll go on ahead." she told Ginny and Angelina, walking off the pitch without another word.
Even Noel had noticed how miserable she looked at dinner, raking her fork back and fourth a lump of perfectly good mashed potato. And when she was asked about how her practices had went by the time they were sitting down at the common room, doing their homework, she had suddenly bursted out into tears.
"Lis! What's wrong?" Noel asked frantically, seeing some people looking at the him warily, thinking that he had made him cry.
"You caught me off guard." she sniffled, "You should have warned me before you asked about it..."
"Why—why would I need to warn—? Oh..." he clamped his mouth shut, patting his bestfriend's shoulder, "That bad, huh?"
"Bad? Bad? I was a disgrace. I flung myself against the stands 50 seconds into riding my broom. And, and my partner. He's—" she paused, looking around the room for Andrew, deciding it was best if he didn't hear her badmouthing him, before she proceeded, "He's absolutely revolting. I loathe him already."
"Okay, calm down." Noel advised, "That sounds like a party of a team."
"A nightmare of a party." she muttered, before changing the subject, "Can we just do our homework? Please? Thinking about it is only going to make me even more upset."
"Okay, okay. I'll shut up about it now."
"Thank you."
Lisa had woken up especially early during Sunday morning. Her roommates were all still fast asleep when she slipped in to the bathroom to take a bath, tiptoeing around the room quietly as she changed, before heading down to breakfast.
She had never really seen the Great Hall during the early minutes of breakfast, only a few students present in each table, scattered around like specs. Minding her own business, she took a seat the farthest away from a small group of Gryffindors, consuming her breakfast as quickly as she could.
As soon as she was satisfied, she made her way across the castle grounds towards Madame Hooch's office, the Professor surprised to see her. "Miss Branson. What are you doing around here this early in the morning?"
"Well, I wanted to ask, Professor, if anyone's booked the pitch for this morning?"
"Pitch booking? Hold on, let me find my book." she dug around in her drawer, before pulling out the worn off Quidditch Pitch log, flipping through the pages, "Thursday, Friday, Saturday...ah, Sunday... Right. It's vacant until twelve-thirty p.m, Florence Price of Ravenclaw has it booked. Why—?"
"I was just wondering." Lisa said hurriedly, "Oh and Professor? Do you mind if I use the bludgers for a bit?"
"Why, ofcourse...as long as you don't lose it..."
"Okay, cheers, Professor." and with that, she ran out of the office, bounding towards the broom shed and then to the pitch.
It took her barely any time at all to strap on her gear, running to the center of the field where she had parked the bludger trunk and her broom. Lisa took a breath of fresh air, looking around the calm and serene scenery, taking it's magnificence before she got to work.
The bludgers were squirming as soon as she popped the lid open, making her feel uneasy. Neither of her parents were Beaters, and thus she had never encountered an actual bludger before, not even in little league, where they played using artificial balls which mimicked a bludger's actions, but was more lightweight and did minimal damage to whoever it barreled in to.
"Here we go." Lisa mumbled to herself, slipping on her gloves and picking up her bat, positioning herself atleast a foot away from the trunk. Hesitantly, she unclasped one of them from it's case, sending it hurtling into the air, Lisa watching in awe as it went up further and further.
Until it stopped, suspending itself in the air for a split second, before it descended in a rapid motion. Lisa positioned her bat, ready to hit upon impact. As soon as it was close enough, with all her upper body strength, she swung the bat as hard as she could, a loud clank filling her ears as it collided with the metal ball.
It ricocheted off of the hardwood bat, flinging to an opposite direction, heading for the hoops. She flinched, anticipating a much louder sound from it's collision with the metal rings, however it had sailed directly into the hoop, as if scoring a goal.
"Yes!" she pumped her fists in the air. So she could hit a bludger, that made her feel atleast a tad bit better. The flying bit is what she needed to take care of. The bludger was still flying around loose above, and she needed to be able to get up in the air to round it back up.
"Okay...Now please, please cooperate with me now, yeah? I beg of you..." she told her broom silently, before mounting on top of it and kicking off the ground. She floated upward uneasily, before steadying herself. The bludger now seemed closer. All she had to do now was learn how to steer it to the direction that she wanted.
She tried jerking it forward with just the right force, which seemed to do the trick. However she was unprepared as the bludger came bounding towards her, threatening to knock her off. She dived down, but with doing so, she was again shaken off of her broom, landing five feet from the sky, and onto her back, making her groan in pain.
Lisa tried again and again, learning how to steer precisely, and tried to catch the bludger in her arms. She had fallen about five more times when she finally had a firm grip on the metal ball.
"Ha haa!" she laughed in victory, but was jerked along as the bludger thrashed around wildly in her grip, but she did not let go, no matter how many times it was flinging her back and fourth.
Again, she had crashed into the stands as the bludger threw her and her broom against it, Lisa hearing a sickening crunch as she dropped down onto the ground, the bludger still in her arms.
"I—still—got—you..you little son of a—ooof!" she grunted, the bludger refusing to give in. Lisa looked back at the stands, thinking that she had made a hole in it's exterior, but it remained intact. Much to her horror, her Comet 290, only a few days old, lay crumpled on the ground, now nothing but a pile of broken up wood.
"Oh shit." she gasped, but still kept a firm grip on the bludger.
With much force, she dragged the ball back to it's trunk, struggling to fasten it in.
"Lisa?" She heard a voice call, despite the ball's buzzing. She whipped her head around only to find Florence, a questioning look on her face, "What are you doing here?"
Panic shot through her, completely forgetting to mind the time. Had she really been in the pitch for that long?
"Oh! Florence! I was just about to leave. I know you booked the pitch for this afternoon, so I hurried here while no one was still using it... I was training."
"Training?" she chuckled, "Training for what?"
She looked mildly embarrased, telling Florence about everything. She was an amazing Chaser, Lisa dared to admit, since she was from an opposing team. Agile, alert, strong arm, physically fit. Probably the kind of athletic daughter her parents would have wanted. Lisa left out the part about smashing her new broom. She didn't want her to think that she was that much of a loser.
But Florence was Florence, which meant that she was kindhearted too, helping Lisa with the bludger and giving her a well needed pep talk, which boosted her spirits.
"Thanks, Florence."
"No problem." she smiled, probably seeing how much distress she was in. "Here, let me help you put this away..."