Chapter 1
“And they’re off!!” The announcer’s voice boomed across the quidditch pitch as the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor teams kicked off from the ground, soaring into the air. The keepers were immediately in position in front of their respective goal hoops, and within minutes, one of the Hufflepuff chasers had possession of the quaffle. One Laura Hollis soared high above the other players on her slightly dinged up Nimbus 2001, keeping her eyes peeled for that blasted little tiny golden ball amidst the snowflakes, as flashes of yellow and red darted about below her. Laura was determined to catch the snitch this time. Hufflepuff had lost their last match to Ravenclaw when a bludger had taken out Hufflepuff’s keeper, Wilson Kirsch, sending the poor guy right through the middle hoop. In getting thrown off his broom, Kirsch’s booted foot nearly hit Laura square in the face, which distracted her long enough to lose the snitch to the Ravenclaw seeker. Laura was not going to let that happen again. She’d ranted to Carmilla about it all through breakfast that morning while Perry tried to get her to focus on her eggs.
Laura huffed in frustration as she brushed a few stray hairs that had escaped her braid out of her eyes, and leaned forward, leading her broom in a slow circle around the pitch as she searched for the snitch, glancing over at the Gryffindor seeker occasionally. The Gryffindor seeker was circling as well, but lower, and seemed a little distracted. Laura smiled, circling the pitch a bit faster as she kept an eye out for that little golden ball. Below her, the Hufflepuff beaters zipped around at lightning speed, attempting to fend of the two bludgers that seemed a little more aggressive than usual. She tuned out the announcer’s voice and continued her careful search for the snitch.
Down in the stands, Carmilla watched the match, keeping her eyes trained on the tiny little black and yellow clad seeker, and her well-loved black broom with the three painted yellow stripes near the front end of the handle. (Laura had painted them on one night when her and Carmilla were sitting on the back porch of Laura’s home in rural Surrey, after she’d polished the handle and trimmed the twigs.) Carmilla watched as she circled the pitch, nimbly sweeping around the other players and ducking out of the way when a bludger came just a little too close. Laura had joined the Hufflepuff quidditch team back in her fifth year, taking the school’s more avid quidditch lovers by surprise. Nobody expected tiny little clumsy Laura Hollis to be such an airborne force to be reckoned with, but that’s exactly what she turned out to be. ‘Tiny’ suddenly became an asset. Laura had nearly bowled Carmilla over when she came running into the Great Hall that year for breakfast the morning after she was accepted onto the team, clutching her new quidditch sweater. She’d saved up the entire summer between fifth and sixth year and bought a used Nimbus 2001 from The Broom Shop, and a few repairs later, it was good as new.
Hufflepuff matches were the only matches Carmilla ever got excited for. She really couldn’t care less for quidditch in general. As far as she was concerned, all it did was generate loud, obnoxious crowds, and she found the entire experience quite abrasive and needless. But, it made Laura excited, and Laura being excited got Carmilla excited, even if she didn’t show it. She glanced over at LaFontaine, who sat beside her, and rolled her eyes. They’d painted their face up in black and yellow in support of Perry, who was one of the Hufflepuff chasers, and Laura, and were currently waving both arms, hands gripping a pair of pennants. (Their hair wasn’t flashing obnoxiously from black to yellow though, which Carmilla was thankful for.) Carmilla made a face as she ducked out of the way of LaFontaine’s swinging arms, and turned back to the match, searching for Laura amongst the players.
Just as Carmilla’s eyes fell on the tiny seeker, Laura shot off towards the Gryffindor goal hoops, her robes billowing and her braid whipping behind her. The Gryffindor seeker was hot on her tail and quickly gaining, deftly zipping around the other players on his Silver Arrow. Laura glanced back at him and grinned, before setting her eyes on the little golden ball once more. Silver Arrows were good, comparable to the Firebolt even, but she was considerably lighter than him, and smaller. She leaned forward, pressing nearly her entire body to the broom handle, and gained a few more feet.
Carmilla held her breath as she watched as a bludger came careening straight for Laura’s head, but at the last second, Laura pulled up, narrowly missing a hit that would have surely knocked her off her broom. Carmilla let out a sigh of relief, but chewed on her bottom lip as the Gryffindor seeker inched closer to Laura. Her encounter with the bludger had cost her precious seconds, and her and the Gryffindor seeker were now jockeying for position, shoulder to shoulder as they sped in a wide ark around the perimeter of the pitch, constantly banging into each other. Laura inched forward on her broom and stretched her arm out, face screwed up in concentration and her eyes squinted against the snow as she reached for the snitch that was whizzing along just out of reach.
A cheer of “Hollis!! Hollis!! Hollis!!” started among the crowd of Hufflepuffs, and as the two seekers drew closer, Carmilla pressed herself up against the barrier, watching them with a worried look on her face. Laura was so close to catching it...
“Come on Laura!!!” Carmilla cheered, “Catch it!! Catch it!!!”
Laura automatically looked towards the crowd when she heard Carmilla’s voice, and the Gryffindor seeker saw his chance. He crashed into Laura one more time, but the motion, instead of knocking her off her broom, knocked her forward a few inches.
Just enough to wrap her small hand around the snitch.
“Laura Hollis has caught the snitch!!” The announcer roared, and was nearly drowned out by the din of the crowd.
Laura raised her hand in triumph and maneuvered her broom to prepare to land, but she stopped when she saw Carmilla in the stands, cheering and waving alongside LaFontaine with the rest of the Hufflepuffs. Carmilla’s mouth was open in a wide grin, and Laura could hear her cheering her name. Laura beamed and enthusiastically waved back, her other hand still gripping the snitch. Laura’s grin suddenly disappeared and a shriek escaped her lips as a particularly vicious gust of wind barreled down the pitch, knocking her off balance.
“LAURA!!” Carmilla screamed, her excitement turning to terror in a split second as she watched Laura slide right off her broom. She plunged her hand into her robes to pull out her wand, but at the last second, Laura grabbed onto her broom with her free hand, catching herself before she plummeted to the snow-covered turf below.
A collective cry went through the crowd as Laura precariously swung back and forth, dangling from her broom by one hand. Carmilla held her breath, not even feeling the tight grip LaFontaine had on her upper arm. Kirsch and Perry came barreling towards Laura from across the pitch, but Laura managed to climb back onto her broom herself before they reached her. She gripped tightly to her broom with a shaking hand, waving with the other briefly to signal that she was okay. The tiny seeker took a deep breath to steady herself and started towards the ground, flanked by her teammates as Carmilla and LaFontaine rushed towards the stairs that would lead them to the turf.
“Good game, Hollis,” Danny said, walking over to Laura as she touched down. Her flaming hair was disheveled and dusted with snow, as were her burgundy and gold robes, and she clutched her Starsweeper XXI in one hand and her beater’s bat in the other. Laura could tell she was crestfallen at her team’s loss, but Danny smiled anyways. “Though maybe try and tone down the heart eyes, hm?” She laughed, nudging Laura’s shoulder once she dismounted her broom. “can’t have you completely falling off your broom,”
Laura blushed deep red. “That is not why I slipped!” She said indignantly, despite the fact that the red tips of her ears were not at all due to the cold.
“Come on Hollis, you’re a lovesick puppy,” LaFontaine said, coming to a stop beside Laura as Mel stalked off towards the Gryffindor locker rooms, beater’s bat in hand.
“And what is wrong with that?” Laura huffed, her neck uncomfortably warm.
“Not a thing,” Carmilla drawled, coming up behind Laura and sliding her hand into Laura’s. She kissed Laura’s cheek, not at all helping with the seeker’s blush. “well done, sweetheart,”
Laura couldn’t help the grin that spread over her face, and leaned over to peck Carmilla gently on the lips. “Thanks, Carm,”
“We gotta head to the locker rooms,” Danny said, gesturing over her shoulder to the doors behind her. “I’ll see you in the Great Hall for diner, yeah?”
“Yeah, see you!” Laura grinned, starting to turn toward the Hufflepuff locker rooms herself, just as Carmilla mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like ‘if we must.’
Laura and Carmilla walked across the snow covered pitch towards the locker rooms, trailing behind Kirsch, LaFontaine and Perry. Carmilla had her arm wrapped around Laura’s waist as they walked, and she kissed Laura’s cheek as Laura hefted her broom onto her shoulder.
“Y’know,” Carmilla started out, “as impressive as your little monkey impression was, I’d really rather not watch you put a Laura-shaped dent in the turf and snap every bone in your body,”
Laura chuckled and looked over to her, but her face fell slightly when she saw the seriousness in Carmilla’s eyes. She leaned over bumped her head gently against Carmilla’s, and then kissed her cheek. “I’ll try not to,” She promised. “You’re very distracting, though. You really can’t blame me for getting sidetracked.” Laura said, eliciting a chuckled from Carmilla.
“I suppose not,” Carmilla said, giving the tiny seeker a look that had her ears burning in a second.
“And hey,” Laura said, her head shooting up again and a smirk on her lips. “you can’t talk to me about my flying skills when you slid right off the end of your broom during flying lessons your first year,”
Carmilla rolled her eyes. “That broom was possessed,” She said seriously, glowering at the memory.
“Well...maybe,” Laura said thoughtfully. “I do remember LaFontaine saying they did something with their wand.”
“What?” Carmilla asked, looking at Laura with narrowed eyes.
Laura smiled at her sheepishly. “...I probably wasn’t supposed to say that,”
Carmilla looked affronted, her mouth gaping open. “That little weasel,” She hissed, shaking her head.
“Oh come on, I think that is adorable,” Laura said, grinning. “Carmilla Karnstein, the epitome of grace, even at eleven, sliding right off the end of her broom. Wish I had been there to see it,”
Carmilla grumbled under her breath as they entered the Hufflepuff locker rooms, but all it did was cause Laura to laugh, her honey-brown eyes scrunching up in delight, and the most blinding smile Carmilla had ever seen gracing her lips.