Nothing Holding Me Back

Caerus really just needed to decide if it was worth the earful that he’d get from his father, to play Quidditch after he graduated. He thought that maybe he did enjoy it enough to do it for a living. He was figuring out how to give a third year he’d barely talked to a broom just to increase their odds of doing well this year. Surely, that was proof enough that he was passionate about Quidditch. There was no harm in at least giving it a shot after he graduated. The worst that could happen was no team being interested in him playing for them and he thought that he at least had a chance of someone needing a reserve chaser or something. He personally thought that he was one of the better chasers in the school. If not the best. Maybe he was biased, but matches didn’t get won with a lack of confidence. That was just a fact, in his mind. But he didn’t need to focus on what was going to get him onto a professional team after he graduated. Right now, what mattered more was getting through this term and ending the year with a win. The chances of that happening would be much higher if their seeker wasn’t flying on a broom that… sort of a piece of shit, honestly. At least, he thought that it was. Caerus admittedly preferred to have the best of the best, so his opinion of a shit broom was probably different than most other people. But he still thought that it was pretty safe to say that his broom was shit. Not to his face, though. He didn’t think that telling him his broom was awful was going to win him any favors. There were better ways of going about this conversation. Caerus might have been sorted into Ravenclaw, but he was a Nott. And the Slytherin side of him was coming out as he figured out the best way to get what he wanted out of his conversation. He knew that he couldn’t just go right into it. It would be too obvious. At least a bit of small talk would be better, and he didn’t mind that. Caerus thought it was pretty easy to talk to just about anybody. It was just a matter of finding out what they were interested in and going from there. “Suppose that’s true. Fair point.” There was always something that could be learned about the successes and failures in someone else’s past, but he still didn’t necessarily think that they were doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again. Something changed every day. Nothing was ever the same. They were just always moving forward. It was just the way that the world worked, in his mind. Every day, they were all growing and changing, and that was changing their world bit by bit. But he wasn’t here to get in some kind of debate with Donald about the importance of history. That was not the point of this conversation. Caerus really didn’t have a problem with the seeker at all. He was just a competitive person and he thought that there was definitely some measure of risk in putting such a young player in such an important position. But they were all young at some point--and at some point, they gained more experience and got better playing, and not just being in a reserve position. He had started as a chaser in his third year, after all. So really, he shouldn’t doubt Donald’s abilities at all. And he didn’t. He doubted his broom, which was a problem that he would hopefully be solving by the end of his conversation. “Yeah, I guess it is pretty cool. I didn’t really need a new broom, I just couldn’t pass up the chance to have a custom one.” He said, before lifting his shoulder in a casual shrug. It was then that he furrowed his brow, as if he was considering something in that moment--instead of this just being incredibly planned out. “Speaking of, my old broom’s upstairs gathering dust… which is a damn shame, really. You wouldn’t want it, would you?”

Donald really did want to get back to his work, the 13-year-old did not want to risk falling too far behind on his school work, but the chance of speaking to a teammate outside of the Quidditch training session was also important. Besides the conversation was fairly interesting and it was not like the young boy was seriously behind on his school work. Far from it actually, he liked to be ahead as much as he possibly could be. So he wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to try to get closer to a teammate before the school year ended.

In some ways, it had been bugging the third year that he wasn’t close to them and he didn’t really realise it until now. While he supposed, he understood the reasoning why they were less interested in him, after all, he was pretty young and by far the youngest player on the team. He still wanted to feel that he fitted in and was included, he still felt that he was an important part of the team’s cogs and, sometimes, he felt that he didn’t get that recognition from his colleagues. This was, still, something that the young lad was fairly hesitant to bring up. Gaining a reputation as being a whiner would likely make his situation a lot worse, rather than any better after all.

It was a bit if a relief when Caerus said that Don’s point was fair. The last thing the Ravenclaw seeker wanted to hear that he was talking rubbish, especially with someone that he was attempting to impress. He was eager to try, and further this debate but Caerus had rather killed off it off with nothing for him to come back on. All he felt that people had to learn from their mistakes and errors and failure to do so would mean people would keep repeating them over again. Wasn’t the entire point of life to learn, to evolve and to develop as a person? It was certainly something that the pale lad wanted to ponder.
 
”Must be so cool to be able to get a custom broom. I would love one of those” he knew that it was an empty dream. It was probably that one would end up with his crappy old broom for the rest of his days. It was certainly showing its age, and Donnie felt that it was only through sheer will power and a lot of luck that his current broom was holder together at all. One of these days he was sure that the whole thing would digitigrade into a pile of splinters and twigs, and when that day came he certainly hoped he wasn’t too high, otherwise he would be in for a very nasty fall and accident.

The spiky-haired Welsh wizard listened as the older lad talked that his old broom was gathering dust. Don’s mouth dropped open when the 7th year asked if he wanted to use it. It took a while for it to register with him that Caerus and talking to him, so much so that Donnie had to check behind him first, just to make sure that the other boy was not talking to anyone one. ”M…mee?!? he said, placing his hand upon his own chest in a sort of pointing manner ”.r…really?!?” he tried not to sound too excited by this, after all, it could still be a massive joke or a misunderstanding. Maybe the rest of the team were playing a rather mean prank on him? Don looked at Caerus daring to hope that it was actually a genuine offer but clearly excited by the prospect of it being such.