AS SEVEN O'ClOCK DREW NEARER, and dusk began to fall across the landscape of the night sky that surrounded the castle. Aria rushed down the stairs, attempting to avoid any maneuver at the same time. Her broom was gripped in her hand as she rushed down the staircase to the front doors.
She couldn't contain her excitement.
Just a few moments ago she didn't even know how to ride a broom and now she was on the team as a chaser.
Her mother was incredibly proud of her when Aria told her the news, as she always seemed to be --which was one of the many things Aria admired about the woman. Which made Aria even more giddy for this upcoming opportunity. All she could think as she racked her brain of the knowledge that was poured into her brain from her and Hermione's long nights of studying and preparing for this game as well as the moves the twins had described and painted very descriptive pictures of in the girls head, all she could think about was how she better not screw this up and disappoint Oliver or even McGonagall.
She wanted to be brilliant and she wanted to prove herself.
Coming to a pit spot in the stadium, Aria looked around taking in her surroundings as she inhaled the innocuous air into her lungs and exhaled, a small smile forming on her lips and a small giggle escaping them along with the air.
Suddenly she felt a rush of wind fly by her in brisk movement which caused her neck to snap in the direction in surprise her eyes tracing to Harry on a broomstick waving his hand at her as he floated in the air high above the ground a welcoming smile plastered on his face.
"get up here!" Harry declared in a sort of salute before pulling his broom towards the direction of the hoops taking off in a speed of lighting causing Aria to shake her head laughing softly before grabbing her broom and mounting it.
The two raced each other around the field, through the hoops and sped up and down the field until they heard their names being called from down below.
"Hey, Potter, Anderson, come down!"
the two exchanged glances before tilting their broom down and swooping to a pit stop landing on the grass.
"Very nice," Oliver noted, "I see what McGonagall meant . . . you two really are naturals. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week."
Oliver opened the crate and Aria looked at it, inside were four different - sized balls.
"Right, Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers, that's you." he gestured to Aria who nodded.
"three chasers." Harry repeated
"This ball's called the Quaffle, The Chasers --" Oliver was cut off by Aria who piped up unable to contain herself.
"-- Throw theQuaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops." Aria finished before realizing she completely interrupted the boy causing pink to form on her cheeks and her ears as Harry and Oliver stared at her. Harry with surprise and Oliver with a hint of amusement.
"That's right." Oliver stated a grin on his face as his eyes glinted. "I thought you never played Quidditch?"
Aria went to speak, opening her mouth when Harry looked at her with slightly furrowed eyebrows and a glistening of acknowledgement in his eyes. "You studied Quidditch, didn't you?"
"Yup." Aria answered under her breath looking at her feet as she rocked back and forth on her heels.
"Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper — I'm Keeper for Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring." Oliver explained redirecting the attention to him.
"three chasers, one keeper." Harry recited. "And they play with the Quaffle. Okay, got that. So what are they for?"
As he pointed to the other balls in the case Oliver hummed and handed Harry and Aria a small club like bat which they grabbed. "I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do," Oliver informed the duo before showing them two identical jet black balls. "These two are the Bludgers."
They struggled to escape the box desperately so Oliver spoke up, "step back." he warned and the two did as told.
Suddenly, the black ball rose high in the air and pelted towards Harry's face to which he swung the bat whacking it against the ball sending it zigzagging through the air towards Aria who swung hers roughly. The impact caused it to swerve around their heads and towards Oliver who managed to collapse over it and force it back into the box and strapped it down.
"See?" he panted hinting towards Aria, "spunk."
After successfully latching the ball in it's place he continued, "The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team —the Weasley twins are ours — it's their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So — think you've got all that?"
"Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle; the Keeper guards the goalposts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team" Harry repeated.
"Very good." Oliver agreed
"Er — have the Bludgers ever killed anyone." Harry asked uncertainly.
"Never at Hogwarts. We've had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that. Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker. That's you. And you don't have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers —"
"--unless they crack my head open," Harry finished.
"Don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers — I mean, they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves"
"Yeah," Aria chimed in a hint of sarcasm in her voice "Unless one of them gets sidetracked by the other or something else and then they end up smashing the bludger directly towards us. In which case I will take that Quaffle and throw it right back towards them --"
"This" Oliver adjured holding up tiny bright gold ball with fluttering silver wings as his glance moved from Aria to Harry dramatically "is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot. It's very hard to catch because it's so fast and difficult to see. It'sthe Seeker's job to catch it. You've got to weave in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers, and Quaffle to get it before the other team's Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win. That's why Seekers get fouled so much. A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages — I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so the players could get some sleep. Well that's it, any questions?"
Aria rose her hand to which Oliver sighed and acknowledged her.
"Has anyone accidentally knocked someone off their own team by I don't know.... simultaneously deciding it was a good idea to pull a prank on say team player during a game?"
Oliver tilted his head at the girl his eyes squinting as Aria raised her eyebrows waiting for an answer.
"The twins will not in any circumstance knock you off your broom in a game landing you in a hospital wing. Okay--"
Aria raised her hand again. "What if --"
"Why do you have such high assumptions that the twins around going to pull your leg during a game?" Oliver asked
"The paintings talk, Oliver." Aria spoke through her teeth, "and so does peeves and they have a lot to say about the twins."
~~
Between Quidditch practice, the twins pranks that were constantly being pulled on her as a test subject, and homework, Halloween rolled around quickly.
Aria swept through the air one evening with the twins; letting herself relax as she breathed in the night air.
Suddenly the twins swooped around her in a circle, wind wrapping around her quickly causing her to laugh as she pushed her broom down and dove towards the ground, flipping in a circle before lifting herself onto the stick, using her feet as support as she let go of the broom and hopped off when she got closer to the ground; landing perfectly on her feet a giggling mess.
"that was bloody fantastic!" George complimented as he swooped in next to the girl, his twin by his side.
"It was a risky move." Fred deadpanned, seriousness laced in his voice.
"Are you kidding Fred? George was right that felt phenomenal!" she lightly squealed as she hugged George's side in excitement.
"It was unpredictable!" Fred's voice raised dramatically causing Aria to become taken back.
"I-I don't understand, this was your idea! You said I need to take a break from all that studying and just have fun. This is me having fun!"
"You may be having fun Ace, but you are being reckless. What if your foot slipped or your broom went out of control. We haven't even practiced flipping! yet you did it anyways! You could've gotten hurt and I would've been held responsible!"
"Since when are you held responsible for anything?" Aria asked honestly "You can just find an excuse like you do for everything else when you get in trouble! I would've been fine Fred. I don't understand why your making a big deal out of this? It's Halloween! It's a holiday we are supposed to be happy and having fun!"
"You don't know if you would've been fine, Ace. Quidditch is a dangerous game and quite frantically I don't think a girl like you should be playing it."
Aria stepped back in astonishment, a girl like her?
What the hell did that mean?
"Fred, maybe you should walk it off --" George began noticing the shocked expression on the girl's face.
"That's a little sexist don't you think?" Aria inquired with a small scoff "a girl, could easily play Quidditch as good as you any day of the week and a girl like me, could beat you right now, this moment. You know what, George?" she exhaled attempting to calm herself down, "i think i'm going to walk it off so that Fred doesn't have to wear out his self-esteem before the upcoming game because he might just need all the help he can get."
Aria stalked off to the castle feeling her heart beat pondering against her chest in irritation.
Fred watched the girl walk off, her head held tall as he felt his shoulder being shoved backwards causing him to stumble slightly out of his heavy breathing trance.
"What the bloody hell is your problem mate?" George scoffed at his twin brother. "We finally find someone who is willing to put up with our pranks and ridiculous nonsense we throw at her along with a strong appreciation of Quidditch and you chase her off with some unusual rubbish about being safe? Since when do you care about being safe? We create pranks that quite literally blow up in peoples faces!"
"She could've gotten hurt, George!" Fred argued passively.
"So you've said," George paused dramatically "a hundred times!"
There was a short pause as for the first time in years, silence lifted around the twins as they stared at each other. Suddenly, Fred looked away from his brother staring at the ground indecisively.
"Bloody Hell," George spluttered out "You fancy her, don't you?"
"How couldn't you?" Fred asked suddenly "she's brilliant, really."
"You barely know her!" George declared
"On the contrary, these past two months I've discovered more about her then I have with other people in years. She's an open book."
"To you maybe." George rolled his eyes "I can't even get past the cover."
Fred grinned at his brother's words shaking his head before his face fell to a sudden seriousness, "You can't tell anyone. Not Ron, Not Gin, Not Harry, or lee and especially not Mum or Aria."
"Do you think i'm a bloody idiot?" George rolled his eyes as they began their adventure to the castle a small laugh escaping his lips, "Of course I wouldn't tell Mum, knowing her she'll send a howler just to exaggerate how excited she is."
~~
On Halloween morning, after skipping breakfast, Aria headed to charms.
Flitwick had declared that they were ready to begin learning how to start making objects fly.
Ron and Hermione were partnered together. Aria however got partnered with Neville while Harry got partnered with Seamus.
"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" Professor Flitwick squeaked out. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too — never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."
It seemed like most of the students were not having much luck, Seamus's feather got caught on fire which Harry had to put out with his hat and Ron was waving his arm like a manic while Aria just spaced out her chin on her palm attempting to put together the pieces of the puzzle on why Fred was acting so weird last night.
She debated asking Ron if he had gone down with some illness but went against it. Figuring that was quite a stretch as he seemed fine before. She just felt like she was missing something, something big.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron shouted waving his arms causing Aria to look over after snapping out of her trance.
"You're saying it wrong." Hermione snapped "It's Wing-gar-dium Levio-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."
"You do it, then, if you're so clever." Ron challenged.
Hermione accepted the challenge and rolled up the sleeves of her gown and flicked her wand and with diction in her tone she enunciated the spell perfectly causing the feather to rise off the desk and hover above their heads.
"Oh, well done!" the professor cried happily clapping "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"
After class, the students piled out of the room and Hermione approached Aria.
"Are you doing okay?" Hermione asked suddenly "You seem off today, I mean you didn't even try the spell and you weren't at breakfast"
Aria awkwardly rubbed at her arm as her eyes drifted to her friend and she swallowed, "Yeah. I'm fine Hermione, just a little bit distracted."
"Well get it together." Hermione barked surprising the girl causing Hermione to let out a short sigh, "Look I'm sorry, but it's the sad truth that you are truly the only competition in this class that I have for the top spot and it's not a fair win if you aren't even trying. I mean what could be so possibly important that could have you so distracted?"
"Believe me Hermione," Aria sighed as the two girls traveled down the corridor. "If I knew an answer to give you, I would."
"It's no wonder no one can stand her." Ron's irritated voice told Harry as the girls approached them from behind, in earshot distance. "she's a nightmare, honestly."
As realization hit the girl when she heard Hermione sniffle and her bump into Aria by accident a she took off.
"Hermione!" Aria called after her as Hermione knocked into Harry and down the corridor vanishing in the crowd of students.
Aria huffed and picked up her pace her hands tightened into a fist as she twisted on her feet coming to a sudden stop in front of the duo, specifically Ron.
"Honestly Ron, it's like you have not one bone of respect in your body! Hermione has done nothing to you, you are just an incredibly sensitive child who doesn't know how to show some courage and get over it! You and your idiot of a brother!"
Aria glared at Ron who flinched slightly at the words and she turned on her heels and pushed through the students running in the direction Hermione went.
After what felt like hours of searching Aria pushed open the door to the bathroom hearing a soft sniffle in the stall causing her to frown and let the door shut behind her.
"Occupied!" Hermione called out from the stall.
"Hermione it's me." Aria replied walking to the bathroom stall she was in.
"What do you want?" Hermione sniffled
"What makes you assume I want something?" Aria asked
"Well apparently i'm a nightmare that no one can stand."
Aria pressed her lips together in a pause furrowing her eyebrows. "So what am I then? an ordeal or deranged?"
there was another short pause as a sniffle echoed the bathroom surroundings bouncing off the walls.
"what are you going on about?" Hermione asked
Aria smiled softly "Well I mean if you're a nightmare or someone no one can stand then I must be full on bonkers because you are my best friend."
As silence fell between them, once again, it was a comfortable one, before a bunch of shuffling and the door opened.
"You are pretty unhinged, I mean you completely skipped the first halloween breakfast at hogwarts and spaced out in charms."
Aria chuckled softly.
"I mean, tell me -- as your best friend, what had you so distracted?"
Aria felt heat rise up to her cheeks, "it's just some stupid argument I had with a friend."
"Fred Weasley?" Hermione acknowledged with a short nod.
Aria's face twisted in confusion, "how did you --"
"being the smartest of our year has it's perks."
Aria hummed.
"So what happened?"
Aria went to speak when a disgusting smell hit her nose.
"Do you smell that?"
Hermione paused before cringing.
"Check the stalls." Aria told her which she nodded and the rushed over checking each stall only to find nothing, when they poked their heads out after hearing the door open and loud footsteps they both looked to see a giant troll standing near by them with a wooden club.
Hermione and Aria let an ear piercing scream escape their lips causing the troll to slam the club into one of the stalls causing them to dart over to the opposite wall, Aria kept her arm out in front of Hermione. Their backs pushed up against the wall as the troll walked towards them.
The door pulled open and Harry and Ron sprinted inside. Their eyes landed on the girls.
"Confuse it!" Harry desperately told Ron who seized a tap and threw it as hard as he could against the wall. The troll stopped in front of the girls and looked around confused. It's eyes landed on Harry and it hesitated, then went after him instead, lifting it's club ready for action.
"Oy, pea-brain!" Ron yelled as Aria tried to get up to help the boy but Hermione's hand dug into the girls arm. Aria looked at Harry hopelessly who managed to get around the troll to the girls.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked in a whisper
"Besides the leach stuck to my arm and the troll about to consume Ron as his next snack? yeah, i'm fantastic!" she whispered back sarcastically causing harry to send her a quick look. With the help of Harry, Aria managed to get unglued from Hermione and she maneuvered behind the troll and noticed a pipe on the ground she picked it up and chucked it at the troll, but the troll didn't seem to feel it.
"What was that supposed to do?!" Ron exclaimed his voice cracking as the troll began to turn to Aria who gulped as it began to walk towards her.
"I don't know? Got a better idea? Because I could really use some help!"
In seconds Harry took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind shoving his wand up the trolls nostril causing Aria to cringe as the troll howled in pain twisting and flailing his club.
Ron pulled out his own wand and exclaimed, "wingardium leviosa!" with a short cry of desperation.
The club flew suddenly out of the troll's hand rose high and up into the air, turned over and dropped onto the troll's head.
The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face.
Aria was quick to rush over to Harry and help him up.
"Is it -- dead?" Hermione asked
"I don't think so." Harry replied "I think it's just been knocked out."
He bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose.
"Urgh- troll boogers."
he wiped it on the troll's trousers when suddenly a loud slamming and loud footsteps made them all look up. Professor McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell came marching into the room.
Aria had never seen McGonagall look so angry causing her face stomach to drop.
"What on earth were you thinking of?" she asked furiously. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"
Snape gave Harry and Aria a piercing look causing the two to look down.
"Please, Professor McGonagall -- they were looking for me." Hermione spoke up.
"Miss Granger!" she stated surprised while Hermione managed to get to her feat.
"I went looking for the troll because I — I thought I could deal with it on my own — you know, because I've read all about them."
Aria looked back up and at Ron who held the same subtle expression, Hermione Granger was lying to a teacher?
"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club while Aria distracted it from me. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived." Hermione explained as Ron, Aria and Harry all attempted to look like this wasn't the first time they heard this story.
"Well — in that case . . ." said Professor McGonagall, staring at the four of them, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"
Hermione hung her head in disappointment.
"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," Professor McGonagall informed. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their Houses."
Hermione left while the professor turned to Harry, Ron and Aria.
"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have takenon a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."
They headed off to the gryffindor tower, Aria a few feet ahead of the boys as she walked quickly her stomach rumbling because she barely eaten at all today.
As she approached the portrait of the Fat Lady she presented the password and stepped in. She walked directly over to Hermione.
"You lied." Aria taunted a grin appearing on her face as she grabbed her plate causing Hermione to roll her eyes.
"It was not my brightest moment if I do say so myself." Hermione replied shivering.
"Yeah well, I wouldn't think defeating a troll in the girls bathroom would be up there for you. However, I do believe I am becoming a bad influence on you."
Ron and Harry soon entered and there was a pause of silence between them as they didn't look at each other and muttered out a quick 'thanks' before hurrying off in different ways. Unaware that this was just the beginning to a new founded friendship filled with exhilarating adventures just like this one.
[Edited: yes! (10/03/20)]