[open] For the love of quidditch

[Pandora Hazel Lennox]

The quaffle whizzed past her ear. Turning on a dime to follow it, she scanned the sky to find it again. It was heading straight for the arms of the enemy. Pandora Hazel Lennox silently cursed. Flying with skill and precision, she went under the catcher of her quaffle. Flying only about five feet below them, Pandora waited for the enemy to drop the quaffle or a beater to send a bludger their way. She hoped it would come soon; they were approaching the goal.

Her keeper looked at Pandora like, "Get the quaffle!” She waited a few more seconds to see if help would come.

Help came in a form she hadn’t expected. Her two other chasers came up next to the opposing team’s chaser. Creating a sandwich of chasers, the quaffle was dropped and feel into Pandora’s open hands. She laughed openly and tucked the quaffle under her arm and turned to fly back toward the other teams pitch.

They’d won that game. They had a pretty good team that year. Pandora loved being on the Syltherin quidditch team because they were good. She just loved being on any quidditch team in general.

The feeling of wind rushing past her, whipping her hair around behind her was the greatest feeling the world. When she thought of freedom, she thought of being on a broom. She could go anywhere; do anything if she was on her broom. Freedom is the greatest feeling in the world. People can’t live without being free.

Shivering with excitement, Pandora’s skin erupted with goose bumps. The smell of grass wafted up from the grounds as she sat in one of the stands. While she was excited and instantly came to life when she came into the filed, it relaxed her. Pandora loved being here; she did after all want to be a chaser on the Pride of Portee some day.

Letting a heavy sight escape her lips, Pandora closed her eyes. Even though this was her favorite spot to be alone and think, today was different. Memories of her one love long since pasted filled her mind. She’d never had a boyfriend and the one she wanted left her completely.

Trying to ignore the pain of being alone, she tired to let her mind fill with quidditch. She kept her eyes closed, letting the thoughts take over. While she wasn’t concentrating on the pain, it was still there, under the quidditch recollections.

Pandora was sick of being alone.

[Daniel 'Tiger' Thomas]

The sun rose into the sky. Early rose the form of a tall Slytherin. Getting out of bed he looked around. Life was lonely. But it was nothing new. This paticular seventh year was always alone, he was a loner. Always had been, and he always would be. He wasn't exactly popular and whenever he did try to make conversation how ever rarely everyone always gave him a strange look and walked away. Nobody cared about him. Just Bingo, Dose, and Lithium. The only ones that cared what happened to him. The only ones that would notice if he disappeared. As if on cue a snowy owl entered the dormitory, and Tiger's visage transformed in a very rare smile as the owl perched on his arm and he began to stroke her white coat of feathers.

Tiger sat on his bed caressing his owl for over an hour. He could sit there forever, but Lithium wanted none of that. Though she loved her owner, she wanted to sly free, just as Tiger did, so, he let her go, and with regret watched her vanish out of sight. As she left he felt part of him leave with her. Like part of her soared on the white wings. Like part of him was flying high above the ground. High above the disappointments of life. But there was nothing that he could do but watch.

After a while the Slytherin sighed. How ever inviting it might sound, sitting on his bed doing nothing was not a good way to spend his time. After all, how ever abnormal he might be, that was just strange. Not that it ws un him like. He had been known to skip classes and just lay in bed all ay, but he usually saved this behavior for weekends. Still, he was quite smart and even if he skipped classes he always managed to catch up. After all, he had top marks in most of his classes. It wasn't like he had anything better to waist his time doing.

Getting up Tiger walked over to his trunk and pulled it open. He pulled out the first things he saw and pulled them all. It didn't matter, his whole wardrobe was almost idenacle. Black, black, black, and more black. Pulling on a pair of black cargo pants and a solid black tee shirt. Slipping on a sleeveless black hoodie. His usual skull pendant hung around his neck like it always did. Nothing new there.

Tiger exited the common room. He headed outside towards the grounds. His clunky black boots making loud noises on the ground. On his was through the corridors. On his way out he got several glares and snide comments. But he hardly noticed anymore, he was well used to them by now as he rarely got anything else. It wasn't like anybody was ever really kind to him. What goes around comes around goes around.

Once outside the castle Tiger stalked off toward the broom shed to fetch his broomstick. He might as well get some practice in. Tiger was a great quidditch player if he did say so himself, and he did not have a very high opinion of himself. Tiger played beater, and he was a good one at that. Atop his amazing broom. Onlocking the shed he pulled out his pride and joy, a firebolt. How ever much he hated his father, him being head auror had come in handy once, and only once, the fact that he had money to spare and had bought the best broomstick there was for his son. However, he couldn't just buy his son like he thought. Tiger wasn't so easily won over. He didn't care so much was inanimate objects.

Tiger stalked onto the pitch and kicked off into the air and began to swerve around. After ten minutes he pulled out his wand and with a simple, "Accio Bludger," summoned the case into the air. Releasing one of the balls he grabbed a bat and guided the box back to the ground. With a swing of his bat he sent the brown ball through one of the goal posts at the end of the field. He failed to notice that he wasn't alone. He wasn't exactly known for being observant.

[Pandora Hazel Lennox]

Sitting on her hands, Pandora got lost in her thoughts. Jude was good at being a Keeper. She laughed lightly, thinking of all the girls that admire him. She remembered him saving a few amazing saves. She smiled and leaned back as much as she comfortably could.

The wind momentarily picked up. She felt the cool air through her white thermal long sleeve shirt with multi-colored hearts on it. Wasn't that the point of a thermal, to keep you warm? At least the short-sleeved green shirt helped keep heat in around her torso.

Opening her eyes once the wind stopped, she saw she had company. The sound of her company kicking off on his broomstick must have been masked by the sound of the wind blowing past her ears and messing her scrunched air up a bit. Pandora grinned a bit as she watched Daniel fly on his broomstick.

How little she knew of him, other than he was good at quidditch. She thought back to previous games, admiring his skill. Other than his good hits, Pandora couldn't think of anything else she knew about him. That's sad, she thought. I should know my team mates better. She's the same with Jude. Well, now was as good of time as any.

Glancing down at her jeans with the flares a little larger than what was mainstream and a quick check of her white ballerina flats, she stood up. Holding in the urge to yell her team mate's name, she watched him for a while. His figure was nice against the sky, he looked at ease up there. He looked how she felt every time she would get on a broom.

Finally after he'd called a bludger to him and knocked it through the goal post, she had to cheer and congratulate him. Pandora had to make her presence known.

"Daniel!" she yelled, "That was a really good hit!" Her shouts were accompanied by clapping.

[Daniel 'Tiger' Thomas]

"Fuck,"

The word spit out of Tiger's mouth. But barely audible. There was no way that she could of heard it down in the stands. But there was someone there, and that was the problem. He was being watched. That bothered him. He hated people watching him. Ecspecaily without him knowing it. She had probably been there the whole time, he really needed to learn to be more observant of his surroundings. After all, he hadn't noticed someone watching him, but it was nothing new.

Tiger directed his broom towards the stands and stopped when he was hovering just a few feet above the stands. Jumping off onto the grounds he smiled at his house mate. It was sort of a fake fixed smile. A genuine smile was an extremely where sight. He was just being polite. After all, he wasn't in a very good mood, he didn't like being watched.

"Thanks,"

Though Tiger didn't know most of the names of the occupants of the castle. He did however recognize her right away. For him, this was saying something. It sounds odd to be such a rare occurance when you have lived in the castle for seven years, but it was true. He did recognize his team mate however. Tiger had been on the Quidditch team since is third year at school. Being in the same year, house, and team, you would think that he knew he realativly well, but he didn't. The only thing he could tell you about her was that her name was Pandora.

The Slytherin team was looking great so far, and Tiger was seriously loking foward to their next game. He loved quidditch. It was the one time he didn't mind people watching him. He still didn't like that aspect of the game. But his mind was so focused that he hardly even noticed. Of course, it wasn't as good as horseback riding, but really nothing could compare. Oh, even his firebolt couldn't compare to the sight of the 16.3 hand dark bay thoroughbred stallion standing in his stall. Ready to run, to leap over fences. Oh, nothing was better then that.

[Pandora Hazel Lennox]

Pandora nodded her head, acknowledging his thanks. He was good. It was encouraging to see someone else out there practicing outside of regular practice time. Maybe this year they'll have the best team at Hogwarts. That would be amazing.

"Looking forward to the season? I know I can't wait," she said, excitement in her voice as the topic turned to quidditch. It made her shiver to think about a game. It was the most amazing time.

She thought about suggesting practicing together. Pandora would enjoy that but she wasn't sure how a beater and a chaser would practice together. It would be odd because the only one getting in practice would be Pandora. Daniel didn't have much use to practice with a quaffle.

A smile came to her face as she waited for the reply from her team mate. She tilted her head to the side and admired his features though she try to not let on. Oh well, she might be lonely but she wouldn't fall so easily.

[Daniel 'Tiger' Thomas]

"Yeah, I am," said Tiger a real smile contorting his face. How he loved Quidditch. It was the only thing worth while in this dump of a place. Thankfully it was his last year. Soon he would be able to leave and go do something useful with his life, what that was he had no idea, but it was something that wasn't related to the school, or by any chance the ministry of magic. Tier knew he could get almost any job he wanted to between his grades and his fathers connections, but it didn't matter to him, he wasn't the cocky type.

The only thing that wasn't so humble about him was the fact that he pittied the person that had to take his place on the quidditch team. He had been playing since he was six and was pretty darn good at it. Not the best there ever was, but he was certianly a key player. Besides, he knew how to work as a team, though not good at socailizing, tiger had mastered the art of staying out of peoples way, not to mention the the balance he had developed from riding. He was also prepared to keep his calm in any situation after being ontop of a highstrung thoroughbred ready to buch him off in any minute.

"Wanna practice with me?" he asked her, his smile had faded once again, it never lasted long. He knew she loved flying as much as he did. Though he wasn't really one for company, he guessed while flying there wasn't that cpnversation involved, so he'd survive. After all, they had been team mates for years, and they should be able to get along just fine. But of course, with Tiger, nothing was the way it should be.

Tiger had never been good at making friends. he had always been an outcast, and he knew that that wasn't about to change, after all, you couldn't change who you are. Frankly, Tiger was born an outcast of society, he just wasn't mainstream, and the sooner he truelly accepted that fact the beter it would be on everybody. Him, his family (or what was left of it), the few he could call friends. He was just not meant to blend in, but stand out.

[Pandora Hazel Lennox]

When he smiled, Pandora's heart felt a little bigger. It was a true smile, those you could tell no matter what. If you were the dumbest kid, if you didn't pay attention to people, you'd still know. It was nice to see him smile. It kind of made her feel like a good person on the inside for some reason.

Huh, that's nice, she thought, mentally smiling.

The second it faded though, a question came out of his mouth that was equally as exciting, if no more. "Heck yes I want to practice with you!" she said excitedly.

Practically jumping with excitement, Pandora had to hold back the strong urge to hug him out of pure joy. Anyone offering to let her practice with them is her new favorite person. The thought of flying got her so worked up it was unbelievable. No one understood it, not unless they too felt the way she did about flying.

"Let me go get my broom!" she said, a huge smile on her face and joy in her eyes.

As she started down the stands, she stopped. Pandora turned back to look at Daniel and said, "Wait, I'm a witch... I can use magic... Duh." In moments of excitement, she lost her intelligence and had a few blonde moments.

She laughed it off and went to her handmade black "emo" bag that went over her shoulder and across her chest. She pulled out her wand and said, "Accio Nimbus!"

As the broom was coming to them, Pandora smiled at Daniel in an almost apologetic way for her lapse of stupidity. When the latest model of the Nimbus line got to them, she put her hand on her broom, put her wand back in the bag that was behind the place she was sitting and look at Daniel.