NOTHING HOLDING ME BACK

OUTFIT | Donald Leonardo Westwood

Their next match would approach before they knew it, and Caerus wanted to make sure that they would be victorious again. They had beaten Slytherin once and he wanted to do it again. It wasn’t that he thought they couldn’t give a repeat performance. He was sure they could, but there was no denying that Kim was a good seeker. He was practically professional back home—or so he had heard anyway. As much as he liked Quidditch, he didn’t know the exact details of teams in other countries, particularly ones so far away. But he knew that Donald going against U-Jin again was going to be just as much of a challenge as it had been before. The third year had pulled it off before, but Caerus didn’t think there was any reason they couldn’t attempt to even the odds, just a little bit. The broom that Westwood had was hardly… new. He wasn’t judging. Not everyone could afford to get the most expensive broom on the market at the snap of a finger. It just wasn’t in some people’s budgets. But as a seeker, Donald needed a fast broom. That was just common sense. He had first fooled around with the idea of straight up buying the boy a broom.

He knew that was a little over the top, even for him. His parents didn’t care too much how he spent his money, and they probably wouldn’t have blinked if he had bought a new broom. They would just assume that it was for him, or at the very least for one of his friends. They wouldn’t care. But if he told them that he was buying it for a third year that he hadn’t shared a single conversation with outside of practice? They probably would have second guessed the necessity of that purchase. And he couldn’t lie and say that he knew Donald well. He didn’t. There were victory parties after they won matches, but the kid was thirteen. He couldn’t really… enjoy parties, the way that the rest of them did. Even Caerus wasn’t about to give a flask to a third year, or offer him a shot of firewhiskey or anything else. He was sure that Westwood would be able to appreciate those parties in the future—hopefully, anyway, but right now? It was probably a little difficult for him, and that meant that Caerus had obviously not had the opportunity to bond with the kid.

And he didn’t really want to bond with him. He just wanted him to have a better broom. Caerus didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. It would make him faster, which would make him do better. He’d have to get used to the broom, clearly, but that wouldn’t take too much. By the time they played Slytherin, the odds would be evened. He had decided against actually giving him a new broom, though, and not just because of his parents. Caerus just knew that buying someone something that… extravagant could come off… in a certain way. People didn’t always like what they perceived to be charity. They didn’t realize that it wasn’t really anything to him, that his family was well off enough that he had never worried about money a day in his life. To him, buying a broom was just… not a big deal. But he couldn’t exactly vocalize that and make it not a big deal, to someone that had a Cleansweep. So he had figured out a compromise that worked out—in his mind anyway.

He would buy himself a new broom, and then play it off like he didn’t need his old one. And then offer that one to Donald. It was a Firebolt 2017. Hell of a lot better than what Donald was using, and he hoped the kid couldn’t turn that down. Caerus hadn’t quite known when he was going to talk to him about it, since he had wanted it to be casual. He’d spent most of the afternoon lazing around. He’d had classes in the morning, but had been done after dark arts. Until Astronomy, obviously, but there was still a couple of hours until he had to head over to the astronomy tower. He’d thought it was about time that he at least headed down into the common room, and when he did, he saw the very third year that had just been on his mind. Might as well give him the broom sooner rather than later—or at least bring it up. He didn’t have it on him or anything, but he thought that was for the best anyhow. He didn’t want to be presumptuous, when there was still a chance the boy would turn him down. “Hey Donald.” He said, with an easy grin, as he approached the table. “This seat taken?” He had his things for astronomy with him, so he could at least act like he hadn’t come here with a motive in mind.

((OOC: Donald's outfit))

Quidditch was one of Donald’s favourite pass times and he was still amazed that he was on the Ravenclaw team as the seeker. It was something that he felt the he could be very proud of, it was an achievement. The youngster also felt that he was doing rather well as the seeker. Ravenclaw had won a few games with him catching the snitch. He knew that there had been some scepticism about him being the seeker, that some people in Ravenclaw didn’t think he would be up for the job, but the third year hoped that the had managed to prove the naysayers wrong.

It did bug him that he seemed to have the worst broom on the team and probably one of the worst brooms in the entire school of quidditch players. Don was sometimes surprised that his broom didn’t break up with him on it some of the time. He was certainly pushing the broom to its absolute limits and almost certainly beyond them. The Welsh lad certainly did look after his broom very well and that probably had something to do with it lasting as long as it had been. However, he was certain that it couldn’t keep up and sooner or later it would end up either stopping working or falling apart entirely.

His family couldn’t really afford a new broom and would probably struggle to get him another second hand one. Maybe he would luck out and they managed to find another second hand broom that he could use if that one broke down, but it would be a struggle. This was one of the reasons why the 13 year old was trying so hard to look after his broom. Anyone who saw his broomstick could tell that it was very well looked after, even if it was showing its age.

After all there was not a lot that the third year could really do about it and, if it came down to it, he could probably use one of the school brooms in the interim. If the team’s skipper, LJ, and the school would let him do that. It was certainly something that was worrying Donnie, even if he knew that there wasn’t much he could do about it. The young boy couldn’t male his family any richer, nor cold he magical up a broom. Transfiguration was his worst subject but even he knew that it was impossible to do such a thing.

In any case lessoned had finished for the day for the third year Ravenclaw but that didn’t mean he didn’t have work to do. Dressed in more causal clothes, as he didn’t want to get his school uniform dirty, the 13 year old sat at a table and attempted to do some Theory of Magic homework. It wasn’t really that difficult and Donald was pretty sure that, if he studied enough and concentrated enough, that he would be able to get the homework done in no-time at all. With a mug of hot tea next to him he was ready to get down to work. As he started he heard a familiar voice call out his name, he looked up to see a teammate, Caerus.

Don did like Caerus, even if they didn’t really talk at all outside of quidditch practice or the after match parties. He knew some of the older students drunk there and he did want to try some of the firewhiskey himself, but he knew it would be an extremely stupid idea to have some in front of his teammates, LJ would kick him off the team for sure if he did that, plus he would ruin the celebrations. So, he kind of hung around awkwardly in them, trying to talk to his teammates for a bit. So it was nice to see one of them making a bit of an effort to talk outside of such occasions. It did make the Welsh Ravenclaw feel a bit more like part of the team.

”Hey Caerus” Donnie said pleasantly to his teammate ”No, it is free.” he informed the 7th year with a small hand gesture towards it indicating that he would be more than welcome to sit there if he wanted to. Donald moved his items to the side a bit to make a bit of room for the older student to put down his equipment.

Quidditch was something that was important to him. He enjoyed it. Honestly, without it, Caerus didn't know how tolerable Hogwarts would even be. He didn't mind his classes, and he liked being around his friends, but without Quidditch… he thought the school would be even more boring. He was glad that he had it to focus on. It wasn't like he only thought about Quidditch. He cared about his classes too. Caerus was unsure what he wanted to do after graduation, so he wanted to make sure that all of those doors were open to him. He needed good scores on all of his NEWT exams, so that he could do whatever it was he wanted when he was done with school. He didn't want to lose out on something because he'd slacked off in some class, and hadn't gotten a good enough mark on the subject's NEWT exams. His classes were important to him. Caerus thought that he balanced everything pretty well. He had Quidditch, his classes, and his witches. Dating was something that was important to him too, and there was a decent dating pool at Hogwarts. Granted, it wasn't endless, but there were more than enough witches to keep him interested.

A lot of them were more or less the same, in some ways. They were easy to flirt with, easy to charm, because they all liked the same things. There were witches that had their types, of course, but he had been told that he was everybody's type. So he didn't have all that much trouble finding a witch to flirt with. If he couldn't, and everyone was boring him, then there was always Remy. She was absolutely never boring. She was in Slytherin, and that did make seeing her hard sometimes, but she was a good friend of his as well. He didn't think that he could ever date her again--they had broken up for a reason. Not that he honestly remembered what that reason was, but that was beside the point. She was always there if he got bored. But he had to admit that she had made some choices lately that he considered to be annoying. First, she had gone to the Solstice Ball with Athazaz Bones of all people. He hadn't understood that in the slightest. Caerus knew that she had wanted to go to the ball, and she hadn't had an invitation on her own, but he had an invite, and a plus one. Yet she'd agreed to go with Bones.

He'd stolen her away soon after they had gotten to the ball, but it was still something that he had thought was more than a little bit annoying. Then there was all this fuss with AJ. The boy was clearly smitten with her, more than was normal. Remy had her fair share of admirers. Somehow, blokes tripped over their feet trying to get a chance with her even when she was a complete bitch to them. It was funny, really. He should start framing all of the love letters that she got, and wallpaper her guestroom at his house with them. That would be rather amusing. The note that Macmillan had sent with his Christmas present would be front and center, obviously. Remy had tried to hide it from him, but he knew all of her hiding places. They had known each other far too long for her to be able to hide something embarrassing from him. He'd always figure it out. Still, he thought that it was a little annoying that she hadn't broken the Gryffindor's heart yet. He was counting down the days, really. It couldn't come soon enough.

His dislike for the Gryffindor meant that it was that much more satisfying when they beat them in Quidditch. Especially since he'd been captain--though there were whispers that he was stepping down. He thought that there was an interesting story in that, and wondered if Remy would figure out those secrets. He hoped she exposed the reasons, if they were worth telling anyhow. It wouldn't stop Caerus from being pretty pleased with himself any time they beat Gryffindor. He wanted to ensure more victories, now that their matches with Gryffindor were done with. It was why he wanted to give Donald this broom to begin with. It was all a matter of making it seem like it wasn't all that big of a deal. Or charity at all. Just that he had an extra broom now that he'd bought himself a new one, and someone might as well use it. "Great, thanks." He said, before setting his bag down on the table, and dropping down into the seat across from the younger Ravenclaw. "Just trying to pass the time before Astronomy." Caerus added, offhandedly, as he pulled his textbook out of his bag. That was true. There was quite an awkward gap between dinner and his astronomy class. Still, he couldn't complain. It was much better than having to wait until midnight like he had when he was younger.

Donald did like Caerus, from what little he spoke to him. He did like all his quidditch team mates come to that. It was sad for the 13 year old that he wasn’t quiet as close to them as they were to each other and sometimes he did feel a little outside the group if he was honest. But it was something which he supposed was to be suspected. He was the youngest one on the team after all. But still, Don did sometimes wonder if his teammates really did appreciate the hard work and effort that he put into the team. It wasn’t easier winning those games on his old broomstick. Feeling left out was just a bit painful sometimes for the youngster.

So having Caerus sit next to him really did make him feel a bit better, it made the youngster feel that he was more part of his team and his teammates did want to talk to him outside of practice. He guessed that maybe Caerus really didn’t have anywhere to sit, but the Welsh wizard was sure that the Ravenclaw common room wasn’t really that busy. If Caerus really wanted to, he could find somewhere else to sit. The young lad couldn’t help but wonder if there was any ulterior motive to the seventh year giving him the time of day? It occurred to him that LJ might have asked Caerus to tell him that his services as seeker were no longer required? It was an unsettling thought, but Donnie felt that if that was the case LJ would have the backbone to tell him himself. It was just Don’s own worrying nature getting the better of him he supposed.

Seeing his team mate made the third year think about quidditch again, not that the game was off his mind that often, and the broom that he owned. It wasn’t that the Ravenclaw seeker didn’t like the old broom he had, by the way. It was a reliable broom for what it was, and he had managed to get some success on it. He certainly did look after it well. But it just made his job as seeker 50 times harder than what it would be. Maybe he would be able to get a slightly more recent second hand broom for his birthday? It was certainly something he would ask for. Then again, he didn’t think that he would get one that was much newer than the one he already owned. It was something that he would just have to live with. So far, Donald had managed to do alright on it. A small sigh left his lips.

”You are welcome” he said politely to his housemate as he sat down. Regardless as to why Caerus was sitting by him, he was glad for the company, glad to feel part of the team outside of the pitch. He gave the Ravenclaw chase and prefect a bit of a grin. Then it occurred to him that the older student was a prefect and might be about to tell him off for something. A guilty look crept on the pale boy’s face as he thought about something he might have done that might get him into trouble. Don wasn’t really a mischief maker, perhaps him trying to help the house elves might have gotten him into trouble? It was a possible reason. He also had gotten into an argument with his sister recently, but they didn’t come to blows over it, nor did it result in a duel. Amy wasn’t likely to grass on him for an argument either. She wasn’t that vindictive. Or at least, if she was to be vindictive she would find another way to do it than telling on him. After a couple of moments, Donald decided that he wasn’t about to get a telling off and looked relieved.

”I love Astronomy!” the young boy exclaimed. He was about to launch into a tirade on the subject when he caught himself. He was sure that the seventh year didn’t want to her a 13 year old rabbit on about such things. Besides, Donnie did want to try and look cool in front of the older boy. Whatever little street cred he had with his team, he wanted to try and keep it. "But you are right, the waits between Astronomy class and other classes can be a bit long." that was true, however in all honesty the spikey haired lad didn't really care that much. It was one of his favourite lessons after all.

Donald decided to try and move the topic along, lest he start to get too excited over astronomy. ”I am trying to do some Theory of Magic homework myself” he said waving his wand to indicate his parchment and book, almost but not quiet knocking over his mug of hot tea as he did so. He managed to study his mug, and decided to take a sip of tea from it, in an attempt to try and play it cool and make it look like that is what he meant to do all along. He didn’t want his teammate to think him foolish after all. 

Quidditch wasn’t the only thing that mattered to him, by any means. It was something that he enjoyed, and something that he was extremely competitive about when he was at school. When he was home, it wasn’t uncommon for him to play pick-up matches with his friends or siblings, or some of his cousins. But that was about it. It wasn’t something that he was considering pursuing after graduation--and not just because his father would likely kill him for trying to play Quidditch professionally. It wasn’t as if every single person in his family had chosen boring careers--neither of his uncles had, but his father had been the responsible one. He had chosen arguably the most boring job in the Ministry, and so his son deciding to be a professional Quidditch player would just be entirely frowned upon. That wasn’t the only reason that Caerus wasn’t considering it, but it was definitely something that he’d kept in mind. It was something that he loved and had an interest in, but not something that he planned on turning into a career.

Of course, he also had no idea what he wanted to do after graduation. If someone scouted him, he wasn’t entirely sure that he would be in a position to say no. If he didn’t know what he wanted, and a team wanted him, then that was a different situation entirely. But it wasn’t something that he had any plans of trying for and while he was damn good… he didn’t think he was that good. Not the kind of good that had teams scouting him without him even trying to go into professional Quidditch. No, he didn’t think that was something that was going to happen for him. Caerus was just sort of hoping that what he wanted to do after graduation would just come to him at some point. There was still time for that to happen and if it didn’t, he was just going to have to figure it out. Maybe he would travel for a while, if he could convince his parents. That was what his uncle had done, and Malcolm had been the middle child too. Ophion was the oldest, he was the one that had all of the expectations on his shoulders.

Caerus thought that meant that maybe he’d have a bit of leeway too. He could hope, anyhow. If he talked to his grandmum about it first, he thought it would be even more likely. Then she could talk some sense into his father, and make her see that it was all right if he didn’t jump right into a job after graduation. Uncle Malcolm hadn’t, and he was fine now. His life had ended up relatively normal and appropriate. Then there was Uncle Dorian, and he was… not the best example of that. But they just weren’t going to bring him up. Every family had a black sheep and he just so happened to be theirs. Caerus not going directly into a job didn’t mean that he was going to end up like Dorian. He wasn’t going to be a screw up that was constantly being bailed out of trouble. He couldn’t claim to know what was always going on as far as that was concerned, but he did know that he got into plenty of trouble that his father or Malcolm always had to get him out of. Caerus wasn’t going to be like that.

But he didn’t have to worry about what happened after graduation until he actually got there. He didn’t know what he was going to do, or what was going to become of him--and there was no reason to think all that much about it. Even if he wasn’t planning on going into Quidditch professionally, he still cared about the house team and how they were doing. He was competitive. He did not like losing. It was why he was doing this, assuming he could get Donald to accept a new broom anyhow. He hoped that it didn’t offend him, and that his desire for a better broom trumped him being offended in anyway. As he was getting settled in at the seat across from him, Caerus realized that Donald seemed like he was worried about something, and he wondered if the boy thought there was some other reason that he’d come over to him. He didn’t comment on the expression though, or the relief on his face after a few moments had passed. Caerus supposed it made sense for him to be a little wary; they didn’t really speak all that much off of the pitch.

He grinned when the younger Ravenclaw said that he loved astronomy too, and started flipping through the pages of his book rather aimlessly as he looked for the subject matter they were currently on. “Right. Better than midnight though--I don’t miss those days.” Caerus didn’t know when Donald had astronomy. He couldn’t quite remember the time he’d had it in his own third year, or even if it was the same now. But he did vividly remember his first year, and how hard it had been to have a class at midnight. At first he had thought it was cool, but it had gotten pretty tiring after a while. “Theory’s interesting too. I’ve always enjoyed it.” It was a subject that he’d taken into advanced as well, and something else that he hadn’t regretted keeping up with. It always made for an interesting class in his opinion. Not too many people agreed with that--some compared it to being as boring as history of magic but he disagreed. “Looking forward to our next match?” He asked, curiously, finally stopping on the page of the astronomy textbook that he’d been looking for.

The young lad started to return to his work while Caerus talked, the young boy thought that he could probably multi-task, that he could talk to Caerus, listen to what he said and do his work at the same time., and do them all to a good standard. His older sister teased him sometimes that only girls and women could multitask. In Amy’s opinion that was one of the many, many, many things that made females better than males. Donnie knew he could multitask though and he was determined to do it now as well, if only to prove his sister wrong in his own mind.

The pale skinned lad returned the grin to Caerus. He wondered if he should try to talk to his teammates more outside of the matches and practices, it would be nice if they made the effort to talk to him but he guessed he understood why they might have felt awkward trying to talk to a 13 year old, but he did feel that they might have made the effort. If they ere not going to make the effort to talk to him, Don decided, that he would go and try to befriend them off the pitch instead. Besides, he was a third year, he was hardly a child. At least he wasn’t in his own opinion.

But he supposed that was beside the point now, Caerus seemed to be making some sort of effort to be friends off the pitch with Donald and the young Ravenclaw did not want to throw that back in his face. While Donnie was still a bit suspicious of his intentions, but he felt that was probably his own paranoia getting the better of him. His teammate didn’t seem to want to do him any harm, nor did the youngster believe he had any ulterior motive.

”Well, it is 11pm when we have astronomy, still nice to be out of the common room after curfew…” he told the older boy with a small smile, before realising that Caerus was a prefect and might take Don’s statement as a confession of sneaking out after hours ”…not that I would ever leave the common room after curfew that is…” he added quickly. He hoped that his reputation as being a goody two shoes would his him credibility on this statement. And it was true, he had not snuck out after curfew. He wondered if that was unusual. ”But the midnight classes were a bit much, especially when you are younger.” he hoped that would distract attention aware from any awkwardness that might come.

” I do like theory.” he informed the older lad. ”It is interesting learning about the background and the ideas behind magic. Sometimes it can be a bit….dry to get into though” he told him with a shrug. Perhaps that is why he was having a bit of trouble focuses, he certainly didn’t think that it was because he was trying to do more than one thing at once. His stupid sister would say that it was though.

The spikey haired boy’s face lit up when they started to talk about quidditch ”Yes, I am. I am a bit nervous though. I think I am doing a good job as it goes, but the other teams are good too I think they under estimated me a bit at first, seeing that I am a third year but I think they have started to cotton on to the fact that I am actually somewhat capable, so I think they will give me a tougher time…” he didn’t want to raise his broom again. To be honest the Welsh Ravenclaw was a bit embarrassed that his broom was so bad. Donnie was sure that his team mates and probably the rest of the school were talking about how rubbish the Ravenclaw seeker’s broom actually was. ”…how about yourself?” he asked trying to take his mind off his own problems. ”Oh, do you know when the next practice is?”

Caerus knew that what he had planned was… well, he didn’t really think it was manipulative, per say. Not really. He just wanted Ravenclaw’s chances of winning the Quidditch Cup to be as good as they could possibly be. If that meant that he got their seeker a new broom, then that was what he was going to do. Sure, he had thought a far bit more into it than he was going to let on. He had been contemplating buying him a new broom outright for a little while now, before coming to the conclusion that it might not come off all that well, and he didn’t think he needed to deal with buying a broom that the bloke didn’t even take because of pride or something like that. He had made a calculated decision to buy himself a new broom instead, and that way he could offhandedly bring up having an extra broom. If he played his cards right, Donald wouldn’t even realize that it had been anything more than a random idea that he’d come up literally while talking to him.

That was the hope anyway. He didn’t think that it was manipulative of him to calculate how he wanted this conversation to go, and do what it took to get them there. He still didn’t know for sure if it was even going to work. There was a chance that he would turn down the new broom still, even if it was technically a hand-me-down, and someone might as well get some use out of it. He didn’t have anyone else to give it to. Ophion wouldn’t want a broom that wasn’t as good as the one he currently had, and Rhea would never let him hear the end of it if he tried to give her a used broom. It was safe to say that Donald was the only person that could use it, so he might as well. That was logic that he would use if he absolutely had to, but he hoped that he wouldn’t have to do all that much convincing. A Nimbus that was released last year was a hell of a lot better than what Donald was using. But he had to admit that he didn’t know the boy well. He didn’t know if he was going to put up a fuss about this.

It was worth a shot though. That was all there was to it. Best case scenario, their seeker got one of the better brooms in the school. Worst case, he was offended by the entire situation and kept his crap broom on principle. Caerus hoped that didn’t happen, but it wasn’t a bad enough outcome not to try. They were still doing decently with the broom that he had now. It just wasn’t going to be as easy for them to keep that up if he frankly couldn’t be as fast as some seekers with better brooms. He might as well even the odds a little bit, otherwise he wouldn’t keep winning forever. He knew it wasn’t all about the broom--and he knew that Donald was a good seeker, especially given his age. He was only going to get better, but so were his opponents, and they had better brooms. It wasn’t an insult, it was just the truth. It was just a matter of getting him to see it like that.

“Right, certainly not.” Caerus said, with a chuckle. Honestly, he didn’t much care if Donald was out after curfew. From what he knew of him, he imagined that he probably wasn’t the type. But Caerus didn’t pay much attention to curfew, really. He did to an extent, because he was a prefect and he couldn’t just flagrantly break the rules, but sometimes--depending on his mood, he ignored it. Usually it was for a very good reason, in his opinion anyway, but that was beside the point. “I remember that I thought it was cool being up that late for… about a month, and then it got tiring… literally.” Being eleven and having class at midnight had sounded pretty cool until it hadn’t been, but he had never regretted keeping up with the subject. He loved it. And as he got older, the classes got earlier, which was ironic since it was also not a challenge at all for him to stay up to midnight these days. “Same problem with history of magic sometimes.” Theory and History both could be considered boring by some people--he had dropped history, because he thought there was only so much he could learn from a history book, personally.

Caerus didn’t know if it was a risk to bring Quidditch up so soon, but he thought that they had been talking about classes for long enough for the subject to reasonably turn to Quidditch without him thinking anything of it. “That’s true. Had to lose that advantage eventually, I guess.” People did take Quidditch seriously, and they weren’t likely to take it easy on a third year once they realized that they shouldn’t risk losing the match. “Oh, always. Last year here--gotta leave with a win.” That was the hope anyway--and probably the reason why he was meddling about this broom thing to begin with. He didn’t want to graduate without the Quidditch Cup, and winning it was not going to be all that easy. There was plenty of competition. “Friday, I think--good thing too. I need a couple days to break in my new broom.” Caerus thought that was a casual enough way to bring up the subject of brooms, anyway, but there was no way of knowing until he got a gauge on his reaction.

Donald was still slightly anxious as to why Caerus was talking to him, he didn’t seem to be in trouble nor was it any bad news from him in regards to him being on the quidditch team. The 13 year old could tell that much but it was still odd for an older year student to talk to a 3rd year one, even if they were in the same quidditch team. Maybe this was Caerus way of leading up to discuss quidditch tactics? Or perhaps the pale skinned lad was being a bit disingenuous and the older boy genuinely wanted to get to know him better and perhaps felt bad for Donnie, that he was sort of the outsider of the team.

At least that is how Don felt at times. He wondered if he should express these feelings to Caerus, or not? If truth be told he did consider talking to LJ about them but felt that the captain might not understand. Besides, the Welsh lad didn’t really that comfortable talking to the skipper in general, and even less so about things like that. To Donald, the team’s captain didn’t seem that approachable, if anything the 13 year old felt a bit intimidated by LJ. He wondered briefly if that was part of the problem.

Maybe it was the broom he was using that made him an outside. It was a pretty crappy broom that he had, he knew that. But it was not his fault, his family really couldn’t afford to get him a new broom and he knew that. They would struggle to get him a decent second hand broom. He was stuck with what he had and he wanted to make the very best of it. Sure it was slow, its handling was like wrestling in treacle and it was generally showing it’s age, but he knew the broom and he knew how to use it. Not everyone would be able to have world class brooms. Then again, it was possible that it was simply down to the age difference. At 13 he was one of the younger players in the team.

A look of relief swept across his face. It looked like Caerus knew that Donald was not the kind of boy to sneak out after hours. However, he again wondered if that was odd and if he really should be getting up to more mischief? Perhaps being less straight laced and causing some trouble occasional might do him some good? No, maybe not. He didn’t like getting into trouble, and he wasn’t really one for being naughty. There was really no denying his nature on that he guessed.

”I think you get used to it myself. Then again, astronomy is a hobby of mine and I do go stargazing if I can at home. The universe is fascinating, there is so much going on up there, so much that has happened, so many stories and it is forever changing….” before he could get into a rant about how amazing the universe was he managed to catch himself. He was there to try and study, not to start gushing about his love of space, and about the mysteries of life, the universe and everything. Besides Caerus and himself had plenty of work to be getting on with and he was sure that the older student did not want to be distracted by 42 reasons why the universe is amazing.

”Well…” he starting to sound a bit shy and sheepish ”…I sort of like History of Magic as well mind…” he was sure that was weird, even amongst Ravenclaws. ”…I mean I think it is important to know where we came from as it can tell us a lot about where we are going. Plus, if we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.” as soon as he said that he began to wonder if that was really true? Surely different circumstances meant that history could never truly repeat itself. Suddenly he felt as if he said something incredibly stupid and cliched. He started to turn a bit red from the embarrassment of this realisation.

The spikey haired lad nodded. He hoped that was not the only advantage he had and that, now that was starting to go, he was going to struggle. Then again, if he wasn’t good enough then he would have never made the team. He supposed that he shouldn’t doubt himself so much. ”Hopefully, I will still be able to keep up….” he said, trying to pass it off as an offhanded comment. But in reality, he was seeking some re-assurance. ”…I think I will though. In any case, I will try to do my part in helping the team achieve a win this year.” he gave the older student a small grin. He didn’t want to come across as lacking confidence in his own ability too much, of course. ”I am looking forward to the training…it be nice to seem some of our teammates, I don’t get much of a chance to talk to them outside of training…” he trailed off for a moment, ”…and training is always important.” his face lit up with interest when Caerus said he had a new broom ”You have a new broom? That is awesome. What model is it?” any thoughts about studying had now left Donnie’s head. The news of a new broom on his team was exciting, he had to find out more. His homework could wait. It really wasn’t due for a few days.  

nothing holding me back
tag: donald	1,000 Words

For as much as Caerus loved Quidditch, he had absolutely no idea if it was something that he was going to pursue after he graduated. He had thought about it, but not in any kind of serious way. He knew that he needed to. Graduation would be before him before he knew it, and he had to have some idea what he was going to do afterwards. His father would expect that of him. As much as he thought he would prefer doing nothing for a while, Caerus knew that just wasn’t exactly an option. Ophion was the oldest, so he was the one that had to be the most responsible and all that… but he knew that he couldn’t go off the rails or anything. His father liked plans. There was a reason why Lester was arguably the most boring of those three brothers. It was nothing against his father--he loved him, obviously. Uncle Malcolm and Uncle Dorian were just way more interesting. If he’d had one of them as a father, maybe he wouldn’t have to know his life plan the second that he graduated, but his father would want him to have some kind of plan. He’d want him to know something, and right now Caerus just didn’t have a damn clue. He knew that he could go to university. A lot of people that he knew were thinking about going to Lufkin, but that just almost seemed too easy for him. He thought that he would at least go to a smaller university after he graduated if he did decide to go with that route. Caerus just didn’t even know what he would study. He loved astronomy, but there wasn’t much of a career to make out of that. Not really. He knew that that didn’t necessarily need to stop him. He had family money. He had that kind of security, which meant that he didn’t need a job to pay the bills. Another option was Quidditch. He didn’t know for sure, but he could certainly try to go for a professional team. He knew that it was a longshot. There were only so many teams, and only so many positions, but he thought that it might be worth a shot. He loved matches here, and a professional match would just have… much higher stakes, which he thought would be exciting. He liked the adrenaline rush after matches and in front of that many people… he just thought that it would be a lot different than just playing at Hogwarts. Of course, that was assuming that he’d ever even get to play. He’d have to go to a reserve position first and there was just no telling how long it would take to get any playing time during an actual match. But still. It would be fun. Exciting. It was definitely an option, he just still wasn’t sure. He knew that his father wouldn’t approve of that choice as much as he would approve of joining the Ministry or something but that just wasn’t even an option. Ophion had been a good son and was doing what he was supposed to, majoring in the right majors and all that, but Caerus was at least going to pick a job that he was actually going to like. He wasn’t going to run off and join the circus or anything, but he wasn’t going to work at the Ministry. Merlin, the prospect was so boring that he could hardly even think about it. Quidditch would be much more exciting. He was passionate enough about it--that was pretty telling since he was trying to figure out how to give a third year that he’d barely spoken to outside of practice a broom worth hundreds of galleons. It was only last year’s model. A 2017 Firebolt was a hell of a lot better than what Donald was using. Caerus grinned when the third year started going on and on about astronomy. He understood it, honestly. It really was one of his favorite subjects. Some people really didn’t get that at all. Plenty of people got bored at staring up at the sky but he just didn’t relate. It was peaceful. Donald seemed like he wanted to avoid such a rant happening though, so Caerus let the subject change. “People do say that, don’t they?” He shrugged. He saw the logic behind it, but he also wasn’t sure that it was necessarily true. “I just think nothing ever happens the same way twice. So can anything ever really repeat itself exactly, even history?” He knew that people liked to use that kind of saying when it came to blood status and purebloods being on top, and then Muggleborns, and how it just kept going back and forth, but it was never the same. Not really. He didn’t know how Donald was taking starting on the team this year. It was a lot of pressure to be the seeker, especially when he was the youngest member on the team. That was another reason why he was doing this. He just thought that it was probably hard enough being so young and having no one really taking him all that seriously. “You can talk to me anytime. I’m around.” Sometimes anyway. He supposed he got rather bored of the common room sometimes, and it wasn’t uncommon for him to find a few friends, or a girl, and go off and drink somewhere. He’d gotten a little… lax on the no-alcohol-at-Hogwarts rule since he had turned of age. Before then, he’d had to be more careful. But now? He was legally allowed to drink! Surely, he could talk himself out of trouble if a professor caught him drinking here. That was his logic anyway. “It’s an 2018 Iskra C.” He knew that it was incredibly likely that Donald had never heard of it. “LJ’s… brother’s girlfriend’s mum--that was a mouthful, sorry, is a broom-maker. Hooked me up with a custom model.”

The boy watched his teammate was some curiosity, still wondering why he had decided to speak to him. He really hoped that it was out of friendship, or at least comradely behaviour between teammates. Donald loved being on Ravenclaw team, he really did. Being the seeker was something that Don was extremely proud of, and he felt with some justification. Although, of course, he was never one to blow his own trumpet. Sometimes, though, he was wished he could feel that he was more part of the team, to feel a connection with his teammates beyond that of the match and training.

He guessed that it didn’t matter, he was on the team and that was the important thing. Besides, he also needed to concentrate on his studies. Training, matches and socialising were all very well, but that would mean nothing if he got bad grades and fell beyond on his lessons. Transfiguration, as ever, was giving the third year particular grief. For some reason, the Welsh wizard could never quite get the hang of the subject. His attempts at spells usually ended up with some kind of complete disaster happening. It was something he felt a bit ashamed off if he was honest with himself.

If only he was as good at transfiguration as he was at flying, then his life really would be sorted. But he knew no-one was good at everything, that would make life extremely dull and boring. Although a dull, boring life was tempting in some ways. Especially if he didn’t have to suffer another humiliation in Transfiguration class.

The 13-year-old nodded when Caerus talked, it was more or less confirming what he already was starting to believe. ”You are right about that, I guess…” he responded with a small, awkward little shrug ”…but still, there are at very least lessons we can learn from the past” he was at least sure that was right, wasn’t it? He certainly hoped that there were lessons to be learnt from history, about to do better and keep improving the human race. Then again a quick look around showed that things were awfully slow to change. Maybe humanity was just slow learners?

Donnie now worried that he sounded dumb in front of Caerus, he liked Caerus, he thought that Caerus was sort of cool. The last thing Donald wanted to happen was to look foolish in front of the 7th year and for the older boy to report back to his teammates about how stupid a third year Don was. It was his paranoia speaking again, and it was something that he drove out of his mind. Caerus was not like that. He wouldn’t mock Donald, and the seeker was pretty sure that his fellow teammates would not do so either.

A fairly big and grateful grin came on his face when Caerus informed him that if Donnie wanted to talk to the 7th year, he could any time. It was nice to know that one of his teammates did want to listen to him and that did want to hear him out. The 13-year-old did have a lot of things he wanted to say; he had a lot of anxiety about his place on the team and about how his teammates perceived him. If they were even comfortable with someone so young being on the team? He decided that he would need to collect his thoughts first. Especially as if he started asking now, there was a protentional for either the night to get away from them and for neither of them to do their homework, or for one of their teammates to overhear and get deeply offended by Don’s worries. Even if they were only natural for someone of his age.

Unfortunately, the night would be about to get away from them anyway. The topic had moved onto quidditch and brooms. The Welsh Ravenclaw lad knew that there was no coming about from this. Once they went down this rabbit hole, they would end up talking all night about brooms and quidditch positions. Not that it was something that would bother Donald, he wasn’t behind on his homework, and it might allow him and his Ravenclaw teammate to bond a bit, whether Caerus wanted to bond with him or not.

Donald was shocked to hear of a broom model he had never heard before. He thought he had a reasonable grip on the most well-known brooms at least. Perhaps this was a foreign broom that he had never heard of? It was very possible he supposed. However, the older wizard soon entered into an explanation that cleared up the situation. ”Oh…,” he said with his face lighting up with understanding. ”...that is so cool” he said awestruck. He wanted to see this broom, but he didn’t want to ask the older student. It might look a bit presumptuous, same about asking what happened to his old broom. The last thing the pale youngster wanted to do was sound like he was begging for a broom. As for seeing Caerus new broom, well, he was sure that he would see the 2018 Iskra C in action at the next training session.