"Kessler," Maria's voice broke over the excited chatter of the team as it always did when their captain spoke with such sharp undertones, denoting that she wasn't overly happy. Nikolai's features schooled in to a grimace in the rest of the team's direction as they quickly grabbed their bags and headed towards the door with more speed than had previously been in their plans before. Leaving Nikolai to the mercy of the Slytherin Chaser. "You got a minute?"
"What's up?" The boy replied to the seventh year, his eyebrow quirking slightly as she made no move to start speaking as she waited for Stacey to sluggishly collect her stuff from the side before shouldering her bag with a small grunt.
"You okay?" Maria asked the red headed witch.
"Yeah, few cuts and bruises, nothing new! Kessler's a bitch to play against sometimes!" Stacey replied before ducking out of the changing room without another word.
Maria moved across to the door, checking -- weirdly -- to see if anyone was around before shutting the door firmly behind her. The no nonsense vibe was growing steadily in the room, but Nikolai didn't know what was going on. It wasn't like he'd done anything during their last training session which would land him in any kind of trouble with the captain. Not to mention it was Maria's final training session in charge, so did she really care about what was going to happen next year?
Too many questions...
"Going to cut to the chase," Maria started, clearly not quite ready to jump in, despite her words trying to show that she was not going to mess around. "I've got good -- and bad news for you." That still didn't help, Nikolai retorted in his head, still waiting for something more concrete.
"Wanna start with the bad news?"
"Can't." Maria replied bluntly, before letting out a soft sigh. "You're going to be Quidditch Captain next year."
The statement was not as enthusiastic as it should have been, Nikolai found himself frowning at the almost defeated posture of the current captain as the news finally made itself known more clearly in his head. The smile started to bloom on the fourth year's lips as the realisation hit... he was going to be Qu-
"Stop that!"
"Stop what?"
"Stop grinning, this isn't a good thing!" Maria replied to the boy, making him sober slightly in the moment.
"What do you mean this isn't a good thing? I'm going to be Quidditch Captain, how is that not a good thing?"
"Mimosa."
It was only one word, but it was enough to make Nikolai realise in that moment exactly what she meant. Mimosa. Of course, how could he not have realised that in him gaining the captaincy of the Slytherin team that it would cause trouble with the younger witch. The notion that she would not receive the captain's badge would be one that she wouldn't be able to fathom, let alone accept. The way she kept on and on about being the best, and needing to teach him how to play the sport that she clearly did not understand in the slightest was easy to conjure up in that moment.
"Oh..."
"Exactly." Maria replied, looking at ease for the first time since the conversation had begun. Well, as at ease as Maria ever did look, the witch always seemed to highly strung to ever actually give in to relaxing. "You're going to have to work out a way to keep Mimosa on your side, not go to the professors and demand that the decision I've made is changed. You know she can do that. My Jacques, my Jacques!" The French accent was in poor taste from Maria, but the point was made despite Mimosa never having sounded French for a day of her life. If Mimosa kicked up a fuss...
"How... would I even..."
Another sigh escaped the seventh year in that moment. "You make it so that the position doesn't carry so much value. Make it boring, make it a lot of work, do whatever it takes to make it unappealing to Mimosa. You know her attention span isn't big enough to care about the position for long if it doesn't sound fun." Maria pointed out, almost sounding exasperated that he hadn't caught up to that idea sooner. Nikolai just looked back at the witch with admiration, the plan already so clearly thought out by Maria had him more than impressed in that moment. But, then, she'd had time to think about it, process it, and make her decision of who should take her place.
He'd only just found out, and was still stunned to have been picked, ahead of Mimosa of all things.
"The announcement is going to be made via letters this summer, so you need to get your plan straight in your head by the time you get back to Hogwarts, or else you're going to lose your captaincy before the first training session." Maria moved to her own bag, throwing it up on to her shoulder. Her eyes scanned the locker room once more before she moved to the door, leaving Nikolai in a somewhat thoughtful (but mostly disbelieving) trance. He... had been chosen to be Quidditch Captain.
"Kessler!" Maria interrupted once more, making the lanky framed male jump slightly on the spot. "Do the whole team a favour, too."
"What do you..."
"Pick a new Beater, for Christ's sake. If the Slytherin team have to go another year with that spoiled little... make her Seeker. She'll be out of everyone's way, then. Kid's used to following shiny things around, so this might actually make her useful."
For the first time, the smile that broke on to Nikolai's lips was allowed to stay. The laugh that followed was joined with the softer tones of Maria's laugh as they gave in to the fact that the older witch was quite right about the Clement ward. She was useless, and now that Maria wasn't in a position to worry about her own tactics and decisions, she could bash the ones that truly hampered their team throughout every match they'd played.
"I'll make it my first point of business." Nikolai replied to that, shouldering his own bag and following Maria to the door. Both of the Slytherins would head up to the castle with a quiet conversation that was punctuated mostly with Nikolai's questions on how to manage the Slytherin team the next year. Any tips, pointers, or things to look out on. Who was going to be the most difficult to manage -- aside from Mimosa -- and how to get them to work as you wanted. The most amusing of which was Stacey's fondness for sweets -- of almost any variety from Honeydukes. Apparently her loyalty could easily be bought with a bag of sweets or two -- something that was easy to say when you had more cash that was free to use, but Nikolai didn't point that out.
Their conversation was cut off as they reached the dungeons though, neither one of them wanting to give away the secret of the summer news to come.
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Thanks to Kitty for the signature! <3
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