During the summer, Nikolai had spent most of the time working. Firstly to get away from his parents and the stupid sickness thing his dad had going on still. He hadn't been all that fun with his silly runes to begin with, but now he was always ill and... well, Nikolai wasn't sure how to deal with that. Secondly, he had to save up enough money to buy himself a new broom, rather than the old battered thing that had either been a hand me down, or a cheap second hand one. The details weren't important to the Slytherin as he applied to work at Quality Quidditch Supplies over the summer.
He'd been successful in his endeavours, too!
So, where most of his friends had spent the summer gallivanting around the country -- or world as was the case for some of them -- Nikolai had spent his time working in the shop that catered to the sporty kind of guys and girls of the world. Not that he didn't enjoy sports, but with some of the people that came in to the shop, Nikolai truly felt his slender frame being questioned by some of the boys who he'd help to serve over the summer. Saturdays were the hardest day, Nikolai had found, because they were busy, and everyone wanted your attention and advice all at once. Though, he had to admit it wasn't all bad, when the girls came over asking for his advice on what they needed he would get to help them, flirt with them, and on the odd occasion one or two had flirted back.
Nothing had gone any further, though, the witch who owned the shop these days, Ms. Humphries, always seemed to be lurking before Nikolai could get any of the girl's numbers, or someone else would interrupt him and leave him put out. Most of the time, though, the job was boring. Stacking shelves was trivial work that numbed the brain more than Mimosa's incessant talking did, and even the fun of being so close to the latest Firebolt and Nimbus ranges or being able to polish them for the displays had lost its beauty when his hands had become raw from all the polishing.
But, by the end of the summer, Nikolai had worked so many hours that he'd managed to save up for a new broom. As much as he would have liked one of the latest Nimbuses, or Firebolts that he'd been polishing over the summer, you had to be Clement rich to afford those. Maybe... by the end of the year... he could convince Mimosa that he needed a new broom, and she would swan off to her Jacques with a silly girly smile, bat her eyelids and once again be given the world on a plate, Nikolai had decided as he purchased the older Nimbus model from two years ago. It was still a very good broom, of course, but it wasn't as good as the latest one, or Mimosa's, a thought that was vastly irritating for the boy.
Nikolai had woken up earlier than expected the day of the Slytherin Quidditch trials, a knot in his stomach that was vastly painful. He'd rolled out of bed with a soft groan as his hand moved to his stomach, rubbing at the pain to try and make it go away as he headed sleepily to the bathroom. After having a wash and brushing his teeth, Nikolai ran his hand along his jaw as he looked in the mirror, wondering if he was starting to hit the point facial hair would grow this morning. He wasn't, he found dejectedly as he turned away from the mirror, it had been one of those things he'd been picked up on during his summer flirt sessions. He could have her number when he could grow a beard. A little rude, the Slytherin had reflected later, but he'd been checking almost daily to see if it started.
Padding back to his bed, Nikolai retrieved his Quidditch gear, pulling on his reserve team attire with the hope that today, today he would make the first team. After all, if Mimosa could be on the team, why couldn't he? And Ozzy, well Ozzy was shit anyway, so he needed to go. ASAP.
Nikolai had turned up for breakfast the next morning, but he hadn't eaten. His stomach was still turning over in knots and the smell of the food was making him queasy. He remained at the table with the rest of the team, though, trying to chip in with the quips and jokes being passed around as they finished their breakfast. The Slytherin boy felt off, though, and gave in after a couple of attempts, instead simply following the group down to the Quidditch pitch when the time came, pausing only briefly because Bushrah had come hurrying over to them, opened her mouth to speak to him, then gone bright red and hurried off again.
Strange girl, Nikolai thought to himself as he continued on with the team.
Though, he was quite sure he caught sight of the Gryffindor witch again before he turned in to the stadium. Putting thoughts away from the somewhat muted entity of Bushrah, Nikolai tuned back in to the team talk currently being given by the new captain. Last year had been abysmal, blah, blah, blah. This year we are going to win the Quidditch Cup from those nerdy bastards, blah, blah, blah. All the positions in the team were up for grabs -- which if the boy speaking truly believed that he was in for a big shock if he thought he could take Mimosa Harrington-Clement away from the team without a fight coming from the Prince of France. Or, whatever he was.
But, after a speech that was way too long, and way too boring for Nikolai to truly regurgitate in its full capacity, but the previous year's vice captain, Maria Schürrle, had taken over in the position and was full of team spirit. Did it matter, really? No, what mattered was the team getting their team work together, which was going to be difficult if he ended up pairing up with Mimosa because everything had to be her way, or no way at all.
The Keepers went up first, resigning those looking to be Beaters, Chasers or Seekers to withdraw to the stands. Nikolai could feel the knot in his stomach growing tighter as he watched the rigorous trials given to the Keepers, leaving Stacey with a blooded nose after taking not one, but two Quaffles to the face with much too much enthusiasm to be sane, and Tobias looking thoroughly put out because apparently Stacey had won the place through 'sheer beginners luck'. One of the Seventh Year girls had moved to help Stacey to stem the flow of bleeding, before instructing Tobias to take her up to the Hospital Wing to get it properly looked at. But even through all of that, the witch looked ecstatic for making the team.
Then, it was the turn of the Chasers, and a whole eleven players entered the pitch to go up with the captain. To get that many people down to the three needed -- well, two after you took Maria out of the question -- was going to take some time. In the periphery of Nikolai's concentration on the pitch, he could muster the energy to just about catch what Mimosa was saying, excitedly talking about what was going on up on the pitch, but also how she was definitely still on the team, despite what the captain had said. She wasn't going to let her Jacques down, apparently.
Nikolai wasn't really listening, only putting in 'mmhmm's when it seemed like they were necessary. His focus was on the Chasers zipping around, but he didn't know all of them. Ji Hyun was up there, but he was truly awful, he wouldn't be making the team with the way he was flying so erratically around the pitch, trying to be everywhere, and leaving Rita out wide, completely free. Which, to the other teams credit, they were exploiting massively, and had scored twice from that much already. It was over an hour that they'd sat waiting by this point, and even when Maria and the other eleven Chasers had landed back down, they weren't finished. A drill on flying formations was ensuing on the ground by the looks of the Chasers moving around in teams of three to move in to what they believed were the right positions, but a number of times, Nikolai could see from here that many of those trying out didn't know some of the most famous moves in the Quidditch textbook.
Another half an hour passed before finally the announcement came up. Maria, Rita and Freddie would make up the Chaser trio, with Julian and Theo going in to the reserves in case of injury. Nikolai made ready for his own trial in that point, thinking it logical that Beaters would come after the Chasers, but Maria had instead waved to the Seekers to come out on to the pitch. Sitting back in his seat a little resigned, Nikolai folded his arms across his stomach and held himself hard, trying to dispel the knot in his stomach as once again Mimosa's incessant stream of monologue continued on beside him. Surely you got bored of your own voice eventually, didn't you?
The Seeker try outs were less invigorating to watch. Nikolai could not see the tiny golden ball flying around without the help of omnioculars, which meant he'd tuned back in to Mimosa talking about herself once more. Thankfully for Nikolai's sanity, though, Karan caught the Snitch only five minutes later, performing a Wronski Feint -- minus the Feint -- and catching the Snitch just before he hit the ground head on, though he didn't pull up quite in time, and the fifth year went tumbling away from his broom along the pitch a good twenty metres before he finally stopped, and held his closed fist concealing the Snitch up in the air triumphantly.
"That... is commitment." Nikolai commented aloud, grabbing his broom and hurrying down to the pitch without waiting for Mimosa to join him. It was there go now, Mimosa didn't even have to fly for her place to be sealed, but Nikolai imagined she would get in the way anyway.
"Right, last but not least. You guys will be trying out for the Beater positions," Maria spoke, looking around for their affirmation. "Good, good. So, today what I'm going to do is let the Bludgers lose, and set up some dummy targets for you to hit. We need to see a little of the Bludger juggling between two Beaters, too, because last year's team work wasn't very good at all." There was a pointed look to Mimosa and Ozzy, and Nikolai couldn't hide the smile that touched his lips as someone dared to tell Mimosa she wasn't good at this, but it left a moment later when Maria shot him a glare for the look on his face.
"Pair up, and we'll get going."
"Squid Boy, you're with me!" Mimosa told him happily not a moment later, and Nikolai managed to contain a groan as the only other possibly decent Beater paired off with Ozzy and they took to the skies. He'd been hoping to avoid this situation, but Mimosa Harrington-Clement always got what she wanted to, didn't she? Kicking off from the ground, Nikolai steadied himself as he readjusted to the feel of his new broom, the wooden, battered beater's bat of his in hand as he waited for the Bludgers to come up.
"Okay, first things first, individually I want you to each take three shots at the targets, whilst body shots are going to injure our opponents quite well, they're more likely to be temporary. So, try to aim for the head as much as possible, even if its a small target." Maria called up, almost too excited by the potential bloodiness of such actions.
Mimosa shot forward first when they were asked who was going to go first. Insisting she would show him how it was done. As if he didn't know how to do this when he was already on the reserve team, and ten times better than she was. But, they all sat back and watched as Mimosa took on the targets, heaving her bat at the Bludgers with much too little force, which seemed to smash the ball in the other direction with all too much force. The pink bat was custom made, and Nikolai could bet his life on it that it had come from her Jacques, but he'd neglected to listen to that much.
Mimosa's efforts had all landed in the body region of the dummy -- the first only just nicking the side of the dummy, but Nikolai supposed that in a real situation it might have been enough to dislodge a rib or two on it's way past. After Mimosa, Ozzy had taken his go, but the lacklustre performances from the year before followed on to this year. The first Bludger had barely caught the foot of the dummy. The second had missed clearly, and the third had glanced off the shoulder of the dummy. Not very effective at all, which had been costing them dearly over the last two years.
Before Nikolai could move forward for his turn, though, Shay had pushed his broom forward. The sixth year was quite well built, reminding Nikolai of one of the many guys who'd been in to Quality Quidditch Supplies over the summer. He had an arrogance about him as he stepped forward after seeing Ozzy's abysmal efforts, but that didn't help him. His first hit had been a mirror image of Mimosa's, nicking the dummy's side on the other side. The second had been a chest shot that had sent the dummy careering to the floor -- Maria had reinstated it after a couple of moments -- before the last shot had clipped the ear of the dummy.
A performance better than Ozzy's, so Shay was now going to be joining Mimosa on the team.
Unless Nikolai could come up with something better.
The boy moved forwards a little nervously when he was called upon, his hand feeling a little sweaty now it was his turn. He reaffirmed his grip on the bat, though, telling himself that he was not going to let himself down. As the first Bludger flew his way, Nikolai flew forwards to meet it knowing he needed the momentum to help him get the force behind the Bludger as it came towards him. The bat connected with the Bludger with a resounding thwack before it hurtled towards the dummy, connecting well with the side of the dummy that Mimosa had hit, but with less of a glancing blow, and more of a well connected thunk sounding as it connected.
Not deviating from his concentration, and knowing that they needed headshots to impress Maria, Nikolai readied himself again as the Bludger flew back towards him. Coming in to the ball at a slightly sideways angle, Nikolai's bat connected with the Bludger once more, sending off a curving Bludger ball. It looked for a moment as if it would miss the dummy, but the flight of the ball switched at the last moment, deviating from its straight look with the curved edge Nikolai had offered it, connecting instead with the sternum of the dummy. Suppressing the grin threatening his lips as he heard something of a positive comment from below him, Nikolai turned back around ready to face the third Bludger coming his way.
This time there were no tricks, no slight of hands, just a straight swing, a clean connection from bat to Bludger, and the ball was careering towards the dummy. Nikolai held his breath, his eyes growing wide in that moment as he saw where the Bludger was coming. Time seemed to slow as he sat back in his broom, until the connection came, and the dummy's head went tumbling away to the floor.
A cheer came from behind him, and Nikolai turned just enough to see Mimosa looking thoroughly pleased with his performance, much to the disdain of the others waiting for their opportunity to get a go on the pitch. A shrill whistle came from down below a moment later, Maria waving them back down to the pitch. A confused look between the four of them before they returned to the ground, wondering what was going on.
"Right, I've seen enough for today-"
"We've only just started, and you've seen enough?" Shay shot back, already looking angry despite Maria only just starting to explain what was going on.
"Yes, I've seen enough." Maria fired back, before continuing on so that she couldn't be interrupted again by the larger male. "I asked you to aim for the head, but it seems only one of you is capable of doing so properly. And, based on what I know of each of you... I've decided Mimosa and Squi- sorry, what was your name again?"
Nikolai looked stunned for a moment as Maria looked to him rather than to Shay. Just because he'd managed to hit the head clean off the dummy, Nikolai hadn't expected for Maria to be so sure of what she was doing. And... the witch was now looking at him, expectantly? "Uh... Nikolai... Nikolai Kessler." He supplied, still stunned.
"Great, you and Mimosa are our first team Beaters. Shay, you're in the reserves. Ozzy, you're off the team." Maria explained, before turning on her heel and heading off. Apparently having finished with everything they needed to talk about today, the captain was not waiting around.
"Is she ser-"
Shay's complaints were muted by the excited squeals erupting from the youngest member of the Slytherin team before she bowled Nikolai clean off of his feet with her overexcited -- and unexpected -- hug on him joining the team. From the new vantage point on the floor, Nikolai simply patted her shoulder before rolling her off of him.
"You're on the team!" Mimosa pointed out unnecessarily as he sat up, dusting himself off. "With meeeeeee!"
But even the last part couldn't wane Nikolai's smile in that moment. Mimosa was right, for once, he had just made the Slytherin Quidditch team, and nothing in the world was going to take that joy away from him!
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Thanks to Kitty for the signature! <3
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