Let's Not Think

outfit

It was always important to keep practicing., to keep on different pitches. She knew Wright well enough, knew the pitches the Harpies and England played at. Their home pitches were all too familiar to her-- she'd mapped them with her body, with every broken arm and every concussion, until she could find an old hurt and roughly sketch from which part of the pitch had caused it.
She'd thought about doing Edinburgh, but she was at the same time unsure how that would look when she wasn't with the team. Wright had to do.

She was young still, she knew. Not yet thirty-five, in what should be the prime of her life, if not her career. Quidditch perked early, and what would be the bitterest potion to swallow was that she couldn't coach her own teams after she retired. After all, Alicia was Coach, and unlikely to retire soon. To continue with Quidditch out of forced retirement from the skies? She'd have to betray her players. No, so--

When something happened, it was over for her. She didn't have nearly enough experiance for England, and she'd heard a rumor that Flint was being eyed for it. She had what she hoped would be enough money put away for maybe a decade, if she budgeted well. After that--
but coaches were difficult. Alicia was only around five, six years older, and by the time she retired, Demelza would be out of practice. And the Ministry?

Forget it. That had been an option once, but she'd crush her own bones and make herself earth-bound before she'd do it now. She never liked thinking, not about things like that. It was one of the reason she fell into beds so easily after matches and practices in the Quidditch circle, so when she didn't have to Aello-damned think.

She kicked off the ground, swooped up and dropped. It was a Chasing-then-Beating day, to make sure aching arms could still hit. As someone headed into the pitch, she twisted her fall into a barrel roll.

"Here for practice?"

"Hell yeah," Ginny responded, her lips pulling into a wide grin. It was supposed to be a surprise; it was a simple plan, after all. Show up at the Harpies practice, make her old team grin, and then absolutely destroy Melza in a race before they went off for their usual gossip lunch. Of course, nothing that involved the Harpies was ever normal. Nothing was easy. She had been sidetracked no less than five times on her way to bother them, and that wasn't even involving the Harpies themselves, that was just involving Gwenog. She had talked to her all morning discussing tactics, the new year, and how everything was going.

They spoke for such a long time that most of the team was already out on the pitch when Ginny got there, and she had caught Melza on her way down from a rather overdramatic swoop. But she couldn't fault her friend. Flying made both of them extremely dramatic. The love of being in the air rivaled that of their competitive spirits. Things were often filled with drama around the two of them. They had, after all, been friends for a while.

Since Hogwarts... It was so odd. They had been friends since Hogwarts, and now it had been a million years later. She gripped her broom, laughing. "Did you miss me?" 

She angled her broom at the height of the roll, twisting her descent to a level line some six feet above the grass. "Did I miss the nosiest reporter I've ever met?"She tilted her head, considering. Her hair crawled, scratching at the helmet. This one lasted slightly longer, she thought wistfully. Pity she'd grabbed it for today and not a match.

"Not one single bit, and don't you dare say a word, Spinnet." She leveled a glare at her coach, which she was sure looked very intimidating. She'd only gotten the Most Charming Smile Award once, and she was pretty sure that had had more to do with Skye smoothing over very many ruffled feathers sort of after Demelza had threatened everything about the boy she'd been with. It had turned out to be some sort of cousin-friend, but it had been spun out to seem sweet. Demelza did not do sweet. She was intimidating! She was a Harpy and had a glare to match it! Her hair ate small animals, for Gwenog's sake!

On the other hand, that might have had more to do with the shoot Demelza had done, when she'd became the Harpies captain because Alicia became Coach because Gwenog brought the team. Demelza had been wearing rather less clothing than she liked, and her comments that she was unlikely to successfully fly in them had been laughed off.

Alicia snickered, whispering something to Ginny, and Demelza whirled to give her a glare. "You, Miss Weasley-- you're gonna fly with weighted robes as a penalty for lateness!" She gave a triumphant laugh. "Sweet revenge for your year of Captaining."

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let's not think

"Me, nosy?" she shot, letting out a laugh as she looked at the twisting mass of curls on top of Demelza's head. The locks were eating at her damn helmet again, and it was hysterical, but she didn't draw attention to it for the moment. She loved Melza's wild hair, though she did feel bad. At some point they would fine a counter-curse. And if it was Ginny she would hold it up above her head and demand that she say a million nice things. 

Clearly, Melza had missed her. She saw it in the way that Alicia was trying not to laugh, and Ginny blew her friend a kiss. She needed to spend more time with Alicia and Katie. She missed them loads. "You missed me! A lot. You missed me more than anything in the world. I bet you're still running drills that I helped come up with." She said it like a chant, throwing her arms in the air. She knew that the Harpies missed her, but it still felt good to see it. She loved them, and they loved her. 

When Alicia confirmed that they did in fact run her drills, she pointed a triumphant finger at Melza. "Ha! You do! You do miss me!!" It was interrupted by Melza's insistence that she was going to have to wear weighted robes, and she stuck out her tongue. "Bet you I'll still fly faster." 

# Demelza Robins  | # 237 | # yeet

♕fai