LOVE OF THE GAME

We'll give this everything we've got

Count me in, but don't count me out

Quidditch was back on. That was exciting. She knew there were far more serious things to worry about--and her days were spent with those thoughts on her mind. But a few minutes could be spared for Quidditch. A few minutes could be spared to think of something fun and light--something that brought joy to the world and could unite strangers who otherwise had nothing in common. Adaline thought the season being held would be good for everyone. Surely, it would be good for overall morale.

Was it wrong to want something like that for the good of the people--when the muggleborns were still subjugated? She thought on that more than she wanted to...worrying the thought over in her mind. But with it, as with her coming to work for the Ministry, Adaline came to the same conclusion. A journey was made by taking steps. Revolutions were bloody and unstable, but progress could be sustained and built one proverbial brick at a time. She did not want violent change. There had been too much violence already. She wanted the sort of change that real people could support and be proud of. 

So, it was okay to be excited about athletics. It was okay to want fun and entertainment despite the state of the world. The good things cushioned the bad and they were reminders of what made life worthwhile. 

When the witch thought of Quidditch, obviously her father came to mind...but so did Viktor.  Both of the men had been central to the development of her skills as a flyer and as a seeker. Even while the Potters had been away, Viktor had come to Mermaid Isle to train with her. She had thought about Quidditch as a possible career then, but that had been in a world before the Epidemic. Now, she was too busy saving the world to play herself...but maybe the shortage of healthy players would serve to draw some infamous players out of retirement. Perhaps like the Krum. Forty-two was old, but it wasn't that old. 

The witch didn't think it would be too hard to convince the man to go back to the pitch. He was still a coach...and ran the Museum. It was obvious that the love for the sport was still there. She had seen it shine in him every time they played.

Finding Viktor in the museum was always easy. He was just so bloody tall. All smiles and curls everywhere, the Potter made a beeline for him. "Recruitment letters started coming in yet?" Adaline asked, bouncing up to the man with her broom slung over her shoulder. She had gotten out of class early and wasn't due back at the Ministry today...So, she had thought she and Viktor might be able to celebrate the good news with a bit of racing.  

@viktor  • 469  • outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

win or lose

not for money, or for glory

but for the love of the game

Trying to figure out what came next, and what they were going to do was a lot. He knew that Desirae was worried, but Viktor also knew that they would figure it out. He would figure it out. And he was going to meet with Graves tomorrow. They were going to talk about it. The Tornados, of all teams. But he thought that it was better to talk about it than walk away without even exploring the possibility. They needed quidditch. The country needed quidditch, and he thought that they were going to do what they could to give it back to them.

Of course, there were going to be obstacles in the way. They were going to have to find enough healthy people to fill the rosters. They were going to have to try and contend with what they already knew to be true, and what they were going to have to do to make sure that they were playing in the right leagues. Viktor wanted things to go well. He wanted this to work, and if that meant that he was going to play, well then that meant that he was going to play. And they would figure out the kids’ thing. And they would figure out what it meant, and how it worked.

It would mean finding a schedule and learning to prioritize. They would figure it out. He would figure it out. And he thought that that meant that they were going to have to try and do something about it. He was going to have to try and find someone that he trusted to run this place. The hotel was in good hands, he didn’t have to worry about that. But he had been running the museum himself since the leagues had ended. He was going to have to find someone to take care of that now.

And he knew that Desirae was worried. He knew that it was going to be hard to try and convince her that things were fine. They were just going to have to live it and see how it went from there. But they would figure it out. He was sure that they would. There was no reason not to, after all. He was Viktor Krum, and he still had his magic. He had been spared in all of this, he might as well use that for something good. Or really just use it at all. If he could play, he might as well play.

That meant that he was supposed to be fixing up the museum and getting it ready for someone else to take the reins here for a little while. He hadn’t found that person yet. But he had a feeling with all of the quidditch players that were currently out for the season, someone had to be looking for something to do, and Viktor thought that he would find the right person, in time. He had learned from experience that sometimes the right person turned up just when you needed them.

The mess of brown curls that came bopping up to him was indeed someone that he thought turned up at just the right moment. Today anyhow. “What have you heard?” There was a smirk on his face as he reached to wrap his arm around her shoulders in greeting. “Ears on the world up there in the Ministry, hmm?”

@ ads • 565 • viktor's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

LOVE OF THE GAME

We'll give this everything we've got

Count me in, but don't count me out

Adeline loved Quidditch. She always had. Since the days when she and Liam played around on toy brooms half a foot off the ground, chasing around the slowest snitch that the toy makers sold, she had loved it. It struck so many chords for her--drawing on her competitive nature, leveraging her love of family and association of them with the sport, and of course, the sheer delight that came from a well executed dive. She loved those adrenaline rushes. 

She could have made a life dedicated to the sport. But the world had other things in mind for her. Ad just could not push aside the needs of society as a whole to indulge in this as a career path. There were way too few people with magic. Some she understood pursuing athletics--there were some who did not have the brains for medicine or politics. There were some who did not have the stomach for either, as well. She had the capacity, the will, and the gumption. Adaline Potter had to stay the course she had committed herself to. 

She would still see a few matches, though, if she could...and fly when she had the time away from her other duties, because work-life balance was important. She was too young to have no life outside of her responsibilities. She had lived two years with no social life to speak of. She had to change that.

...not that hanging out with forty-year-olds was a very good start. But at least it was a start. Adeline could not help that she was out of touch with all her old friends. And really, it was more that she'd always favored the company of older people probably influenced her choices now. She'd been on Andromeda's robe hems for years early on.

As for coming to visit Viktor today, these last two years, if she wasn't flying with Liam, she'd been practicing Quidditch with him. He was really the only person she knew out and about in the world who was fun to fly with. Because whether he was old or not, he wasn't her dad, so it wasn't that pathetic. Two years of just having family to spend time with had not actually been as bad as she thought it was some days out on the island, but Ad was really ready to surround herself with people who did not have the last name Potter. 

Leaning into Viktor's side as he embraced her, she answered the question he had asked in response to her question with a little dose of sass: "Well, rumors are just flying about how teams are getting really desperate." She drawled out the word really stretching it over several seconds for dramatic effect. A wide grin was on her face and tone of voice clearly gave away that she was just teasing him. Sure, what she said was true: teams were desperate for players. But that would not be why they reached out to him. He was still up on the meta of the sport since he coached. He was still fit. He still trained. He was a really solid choice when looking for a seeker for a season or two.

He poked fun at her about the Ministry and she put on a smug expression. "That's it exactly. I'm part of Big Brother now. We see and hear everything." She rolled her eyes at that. Working at the Ministry had given her a lot of perspective on the real state of things. The country and the government were barely getting by. No one was monitoring anything that wasn't crucial to the operation of the country anymore--even things that were legitimately important were still falling to the way side. There just weren't enough people with magic who were trained to do all the things that needed to be done. It was a mess.

old man  • 643  • outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

WIN OR LOSE

NOT FOR MONEY, OR FOR GLORY

BUT FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME

Viktor didn’t quite know what to think about everything that was going on now. Going back and playing quidditch was going to be hard to juggle, and he knew that, but he did love it. And it would be easier now than it would have been when he had been on his own with Vzá. He didn’t think that he would have been able to do that. But he had Desirae. And they had Jack now too. And he knew that he couldn’t make the decision on his own, but he also knew that it was something that could be good for them.

It could be something that was going to help. It would promote the museum. It could potentially mean more guests flooding into the hotel. And Viktor thought that quidditch in general could help the entire population. It could help them with moral, and with everything else that they hadn’t been able to keep a handle on lately. They were going to end up crumbling, and he knew that quidditch wasn’t the answer, but it was something. It was a large chunk of the economy that they had just shut down. And he knew why. They couldn’t risk people just falling out of the clouds.

But they had to do something, and this was better than doing nothing at all. Viktor didn’t know if there was going to be anything that could finally fix it. He didn’t know what it was going to take to make that sort of change happen again but bringing quidditch back couldn’t hurt. All he really had to do now was sell it to Rae. And, according to Narcissa, not take whatever contract Olivia Graves tried to give him outright. He thought that he knew that part, but she had been very insistent that he not just take whatever he had given, and he had ‘Thank you, Mother”d her a few times before she had relented.

He knew that she was just trying to take care of him, and he appreciated it. He thought that it was going to be okay though. He thought that he was going to go and talk to Graves, and he would see if it was even something that he was seriously going to consider. He wasn’t going to do anything without at least talking it to Desirae first. There had to be something that they could do. To learn to balance all of this. Because he had to admit, he did want to go back.

His niece was a great distraction from thinking about what his wife was going to think about all of this though. He was quite sure that she was going to have something sassy to say. A quality that Viktor honestly wasn’t sure which parent it had come from. There were times when he saw quite a bit of his best friend in Adaline, but there were more times when she reminded him of Harry. He chuckled at her words and shook his head a little bit. “I don’t know about really desperate. No one’s called your dad yet.”

At least, he didn’t think that they had, but Viktor was sure that Harry Potter was not going to all of a sudden take up professional quidditch either. There were far greater causes for the man to start to support these days. “And just what is Big Brother, or Big Sister I suppose, doing in my museum, Ads?” She was here for a reason, he was sure. Coming in just to browse would have been done quieter, and she had come bopping up to him bright enough, he thought that he just might have been her goal in coming here at all.

@ ads • 618 • viktor's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

LOVE OF THE GAME

We'll give this everything we've got

Count me in, but don't count me out

There were benefits to resuming professional Quidditch. She could see that easily enough. She was not going to be taking to the pitch personally. She believed her work at the Ministry was more important that participating in a professional sport. She could have gotten on a team. She was sure of it, if she had decided to try. She had been training and flying with Viktor regularly over the two years in exile. It just wasn't the path she was on now though. That could have been her life. In a different world, she could have chased after that sharp golden glint. She could have had the name Potter emblazoned across the back of some professional team's jersey. The Fates had something  else in mind for her, though. Her attachment to Andromeda had opened another door for her, and the path laid out before her was one that made good sense. It was one that gave her opportunities few her age could even imagine.

Be that as it was, she could still take to the air when she had the chance. She was glad to have this to share with Viktor. It had been a life line when they had been on the island. Exile there had made for an abundance of excess energy, a desperation for socialization--and training and flying with her uncle had helped with both of those things. She poked fun about the team's being desperate. That desperation grew the further down the divisions you went. He made a joke about her father, and Ad decided to play off it. "You sure about that?" She countered, arching one of her brows up toward her curls. "When I was leaving Grimmauld Place this morning, an owl was flying in with a god awful orange and red envelopes. Between other teams poaching and the Epidemic, I'm pretty sure the Cannons are having to replace their entire team." She kept a straight face as she spoke, even though it was all just for show. The thought of her dad going to play for Chudley was absurd. They were so bad. So, so bad. They hadn't won a division cup since the 19th century. 

The witch rolled her eyes when Viktor asked what Big Sister was doing in his museum. She tapped her broom in a show against her shoulders. "Well, uncle, all players are obliged to go through a physical if intending to play in the league. I'm here overseeing a special preliminary evaluation." She spoke very formally, taking an exaggerated air of ceremony and bureaucracy. She dropped that for a sympathetic expression and a stage whisper, as she told him: "It's because of your age." Viktor really was not that old, though he had retired for a reason. The man was a bit past the prime age for a professional quidditch player. Adaline knew he was still brilliant on a broom, though. If he hadn't been, she would have had no interest in learning from him. She was a witch who really only sought out the best. Not that she had particularly sought him out during the time on Mermaid Isle, but the things she had asked him to do with her and teach her, they were things he was a Master of--like his native tongue and the wondrous sport they stood amongst the memorabilia of. 

old man  • 563  • outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

WIN OR LOSE

NOT FOR MONEY, OR FOR GLORY

but for the love of the game

He hadn’t thought that he was going to have time to actually miss playing, and in the beginning, he hadn’t. But now he had more than enough time to miss it, and he had more than enough opportunities to go back to it. If the Epidemic wouldn’t have happened, he knew that he wouldn’t be talking about playing again now. But it had. And they needed players, and they were talking about him. Offering things to him, actually. There were offers on the table, and he was going to take one. The Tornados one, if tomorrow’s meeting with Graves went well. And he thought that it would.

He had every reason to think that things were going to turn out okay. He knew that Rae was worried about all of it, but he also knew that they were going to be just fine. He didn’t expect that she was going to change anything about herself just because he was playing quidditch again. That was ridiculous. But he thought that her not wanting to be that public with her life was understandable. She didn’t have to be though, and he thought that she was kind of not seeing that. That she didn’t have to change a thing, for him to go back to doing something that he loved.

Was it a risk? Yes. There was always going to be some risk to it. Now more than ever before. Magic was not as stable as it had once been, and that made things trickier, but they would work through it, and he thought that things were going to be fine. There was no reason to think that they were going to drastically change their lives in any way, just for this. He had done this before, and he had retired from doing it before, and he would retire from doing it again. But not right now.

Right now, he wanted to do this. And he shook his head at his niece when she claimed that the Cannons had started looking at her dad as a replacement. He didn’t think that anyone was quite that desperate. Harry had always been good, there was no doubt about that. But he had never played professionally, and Viktor didn’t think that now was really all that great of a time to start. “I would have thought that letters to Grimmauld would have been coming to you.” His own eyebrow arched to match hers, but there was a little note of seriousness in his voice.

He didn’t think that she would have left the Ministry for anything now that she was there, but he thought that someone would have at least tried. The Cannons, maybe, but he thought that there were better teams that Adaline could have gotten herself on if she wanted to. The desire simply wasn’t there, not when there was so much that she could do at Andromeda’s side. And he understood that. That was where she could make a difference. And if anything, she was her parents’ daughter. They always ended up doing what was right.

“A preliminary examination huh?” He tipped his head to the side and headed back in the direction of his office as he continued, “And just what might be on this preliminary examination? Rigorous drills? Some expert flying maneuvers? Or do I just have to beat you around a pitch like always?” She was fast, he knew that. And there had been more than a few times over the last couple of years that she had managed to beat him around the island. But he couldn’t help teasing her about it a little bit as he spun the dial on the cabinet that held his own personal broom collection. Or at least part of it.

@ rotten niece • 627 • viktor's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

LOVE OF THE GAME

We'll give this everything we've got

Count me in, but don't count me out

Adaline certainly intended to attend as many matches for Quidditch season as she was able. She earned an impressive wage--and the teams always were offering tickets to the Minister of Magic. Maybe Ad could get Andromeda to accept a few on her behalf...or they could even go together. It would probably make her regret not trying to play. She just didn't have time. She could not play professional quidditch AND work in the Minister's office. She had a role to fulfill--a part to play in the grand scheme of UK reconstruction. But she still did love the sport. Flying was so freeing. And the witch really was quite competitive. 

Her lack of experience with relationships was betrayed by the fact that Adaline had not even spared a thought for Desirae. She did not know the woman incredibly well--not as well as she knew Viktor, obviously. But how the demure, quiet mouse would react or feel about Viktor returning to professional quidditch had not even crossed  Adaline's mind. It was not callous or cruel. It was just not something she had considered. She was someone who really struggled to understand how anyone couldn't love Quidditch. It was only the greatest sport in the world. Viktor obviously loved the game, as well. He coached Scotland's national team--he had been a professional seeker for years; he would be one again soon... and then, he, also, ran this place. He owned the freaking museum dedicated to the sport.

And Adaline did not even know if Desirae liked Quidditch. She assumed that the woman did. It only made sense to her that something that was that big of a part of Viktor's life would be something he would want to share with the person he had chosen to spend the rest of his life with. Spouses needed things in common. It was important to have shared interests, so surely Desirae loved the sport. Surely. Adaline would definitely want the man she married to love the sport. They did not have to be a professional player, but she was quite open to that possibility. But they had to not just like it or tolerate it. They had to love Quidditch, because she loved Quidditch. She would want to go to matches and travel around to see world championship games. The person she settled down with would need to want to do those things, too, because it would be miserable to have someone sulking along to all those wonderful events. 

Adaline laughed and rolled her eyes about the possibility of recruitment letters coming to her. No one really knew that she could play as well as she could. She had been decent at Hogwarts, maybe even more than decent--but she had been gone for two years. The only one who really knew how good she had gotten was standing right in front of her. "I don't think too many recruiters are aware of my quidditch prowess," She countered, lifting and dropping her shoulders in an unfussed shrug before an amused expression took over her face as a memory crept back into her mind. "Well there was one..Sort of. Not to me, just about me. I dunno if Mum told you. Aunt Gin wrote a scathing letter about my decision to go work for Meda. Oh Merlin, let me think--there was this one line. It was hilarious." Her face twisted up in thought as she rummaged through her mind. As soon as the line came to her, her eyes shot wide and she grinned: "Oh yes--it was aren't you a bit worried that she didn't choose something more sensible like Quidditch?" She laughed, rolling her eyes at that. "Because clearly Ministry work is so very mercurial. She even brought you in on it--talking about smuggling my broom about." Another ring of laughter rolled off her tongue. She got that not everyone understood her decision to join the Ministry, but it was hardly a foolish decision. Even if Andromeda rotated out of the Minister's office after awhile, being assistant to the Minister of Magic was quite the impressive resume bullet.  She wasn't going to waste this launching pad for her future. 

Adaline followed Viktor back towards his office, a little skip in her step. They would be in the air soon and she was really looking forward to it. Balance was good in life. She worked hard; she deserved a bit of play--plus, it was a good outlet for all her competitiveness. Viktor kept playing up the little joke. She was fine to keep going with it. But his final words earned a glare at his back. She scoffed. "You wish. Maybe it should include a visit with shrink to get your head examined." She was all grins as she sassed him, with that mischievous playful glint in her eye. "Just try to keep up--and we'll take it from there." She was still teasing and joking with him, but the man's question had drawn out that competitiveness in her. She was determined to make sure he was starring at her broom bristles. That was always the goal, of course, but she definitely wasn't going to go easy today. It was going to be max velocity and hairpin turns to sling-shot her back the other direction. It really was probably a good thing she had not gone in search of a spot on a professional quidditch team. Adaline was reckless enough on a broom that she could easily get herself hurt or killed. Her Gryffindor side really came out when she was flying.

old man  • 923  • outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

WIN OR LOSE

NOT FOR MONEY, OR FOR GLORY

but for the love of the game

Viktor knew that he was going to have to prove that he could do this if he wanted to play. He was going to have to prove that he still had what it took. But he coached from the air, and he had spent the last two years training the witch that was standing in front of him now. She was better than even her father had been. At least in Viktor’s opinion she was. He thought that she had the natural talent that you needed to survive in this industry. And he didn’t know when he had officially started thinking about it like that again, but he was. He was going to take a deal with one of the teams. He was going to go back to quidditch.

And he was pretty sure that she would end up there too. It was nearly impossible to ignore her talent. If she would have lived in Scotland, he would have eyed her for the team. But she didn’t, and she was too young to actually play on a National team anyway. But the talent was there. The potential was there, and it was something that he had a feeling he could get Harry to bet him on. Adaline was focused on her job at the Ministry, and he could respect that. But he thought that he knew his niece. Viktor didn’t expect her to sit idle for long.

She was too talented. And he knew that she was going to laugh at him when he had suggested it. But there was a little bit of truth to her words. Did he think that she could go from not actually playing at all to starting? No. But he thought that she had the potential. That with training, she could be one of the best. Harry had been good, Adaline was better. He was sure of that. He had seen Harry fly over the years, and he wasn’t unimpressed. But no one was going to argue with him about who the better flyer was.

If he didn’t know any better, he would have teased that she wasn’t Hermione’s at all. None of her mother’s fear of flying had crept into her in the least. And Viktor knew that that existed. He had tried many times over the years to get Hermione on a broom, and every attempt had failed. “That seems like their loss. We should get you in front of them. If you want…” The Ministry had become a sort of passion for her, and he knew that. But he also couldn’t let the opportunity to suggest it go. Even just to put the idea in her head that she was good enough.

If nothing ever came of it. At least he could say that he had mentioned it. That it had been an option that they had spoken about, once or twice. Something that she could think about. He laughed at her recounting of what Ginny had told him. Yes, they had smuggled Adaline’s broom to Ireland. But Viktor was quite sure that ‘sensible’ was not a word that either Hermione or Adaline would use to describe a quidditch career. Not that working for Andromeda Lestrange was exactly ‘sensible’ either. But where would life be without a little adventure?

“I only smuggled it because I thought your mother might kill me for bringing something other than books.” He looked down at her with a grin. There was a collection of brooms on display in his office, his own personal collection. The old one that he rode around home with Vzá was fine. But for racing Adaline he was going to need something with a little more speed and power to it. A newer model. Something newer than what Adaline was carrying over her shoulder. Though not by much.

“Oh, you and I both know that I can keep up.” He figured that they were headed for the pitch at the park, and that was fine by him. He didn’t much mind where it was that they were going to have this little race. Competitiveness had always been a part of his nature, but there were things that brought it out more than others. And quidditch would always be one of those things. He would always have a little more fire in him when it came to beating someone else, even his niece, at the thing that he had been given such a natural talent for. “The question is whether or not you’re going to be upset when I don’t take it easy on you?”

@ niece • 763 • viktor's outfit

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