Quidditch
START NOTES:
Here we go again!
ISTG I had to plan all four quidditch teams for all the seven years Pandora is there and it was so difficult because I'm going out from canon. Ofc I can’t follow canon 100% bc (if you’re a marauders ao3 author, you’ll understand what I’m talking about) JKR did NOT sit down and plan, there’s so many things about the marauders era that doesn’t add up, so even a canon compliant fic have to divert some places from canon.
I actually did not know if Dorcas should get on the team this year or not, so it’ll be a surprise for y’all if she gets on or not. I didn’t even know when I started, so it can go both ways.
Trigger warning:
Bullying, it's shown and talked about.
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Pandora makes sure to always be there for her friends, which in the moment means sitting outside by the quidditch pitch, watching the slytherin quidditch team try-outs.
Dorcas is in her second year, so she can finally try-out. Pandora has spent the last month helping her prepare.
She watches as the Slytherins fly around, warming up, when she hears a voice from the ground “Everyone please land, we will begin soon.” Pandora looks down and sees a blonde girl. Dorcas told her that the blonde girl is the team captain and that her name is Narcissa Black, she’s apparently Regulus’ cousin and she’s in her last year at hogwarts.
Dorcas also told her about what an amazing quidditch player the captain is.
Narcissa is stunning to say the least, her long blonde hair that goes all the way down to her mid-back. The slytherin green uniform, complementing her icy-blue eyes perfectly.
The students in the air, finally land on the ground and form a circle around the captain.
“So I intend to lead the slytherin quidditch team to victory this year, so if you know now that you don’t have what it takes or you don’t want to put in the effort, then leave now before you waste your own or my time.” She stops talking, looking around at all of them, waiting to see if anyone wants to back out before they even begin. When no one speaks, she continues “Great, then let’s start. I want all of you to stand by the side, until I call your name. When I call your name, I want you to show a dive, how fast you fly and last but not least, I will spell a ball to chase you and you’ll have to avoid it for 5 minutes. When everyone has had their turn we’ll try playing some games, with the players already on our team, to see who’d fit best in. If you have a specific position you want and you’re not willing to be in any other position, let me know beforehand, so I know to put you in that position during the mock games.”
When Narcissa finishes her instructions, everyone makes their way to the side and they get called one after another.
Pandora watches as everyone performs the three exercises that were told.
“Dorcas Meadows” The older girl finally calls out and Dorcas makes her way onto the middle of the pitch, before getting on the broom and flying into the air.
She flies up higher and higher before she makes a complete turn mid-air, diving towards the ground, Pandora lets out a gasp as she sits further out on her seat, but right before Dorcas can hit the ground, she grips her broom and changes direction, flying up again.
Pandora is in shock. She of course knows that Dorcas is amazing on a broom, but she was still scared and surprised, because a dive like that takes a ton of talent that only very very few have.
When Dorcas is a few metres in the air again, she doesn’t even stop before turning the broom around so she’s flying parallel with the ground, around the pitch, in top-speed.
When Dorcas has flown a few rounds around the pitch as fast as she can, she finally flies to the middle of the pitch, looking at Narcissa, waiting for her to do the last exercise.
“Ready?” Narcissa asks.
“Always” Dorcas smirks.
Narcissa seems to like that response, based on the respectful nod she sends Dorcas’ way, before spelling the ball to chase after her. Dorcas waits until the ball is close, dodging it last minute, clearly trying to show how good she is. Then she flies around the pitch for 5 minutes, avoiding the ball until it stops chasing her and Narcissa tells her to come back.
Dorcas quickly lands.
“Thank you, now stand by the side and wait for the last person to finish” she’s told and with that Dorcas makes her way to where Pandora is sitting.
“You did so good!” Pandora exclaims the minute Dorcas comes over to her.
“Thanks Panda, but it’s not over yet, I still have the mock games left”
“Well I know you’ll be amazing at those too! Like your dive was incredible! I’ve never seen you do that before! I was so sure you were gonna hit the ground! You were so good Cas!”
Dorcas laughs as a red blush covers her cheeks “Thanks Pan, I love you”
“Love you too! I’m sure you’ll get on the team”
“I know” Dorcas says confidently, but Pandora can see behind the fake confidence, that she’s really nervous. That’s a problem Dorcas have always had, she has a hard time admitting to be nervous or anxious, she always just pretends that she knows she’s the best, but Pandora has always been able to see right trough her.
The younger girl decides not to comment on it and talk to Dorcas about it later, now is not the right time.
At that moment the last slytherin finishes with the three exercises, which means the mock games will probably start soon. “I think you have to go back to the others now”
Dorcas turns around, to look at the last person walking back to the group, “oh yeah, you’re right!” She turns back to Pandora “Thanks, see you after”
“See you after, when you’re a part of the team. Now go kick their arses”
“Aye aye” Dorcas says with a salute, before picking up her broom and running back to the group.
Just like Pandora thought, the mock-games start almost immediately as Dorcas is with the others.
They play a few rounds, everyone getting to try the chaser and beater positions, since that’s the ones open. After a few games, it’s starting to get late.
There was a lunch break in the middle of the day, so people could get some food and recharge, there’s even a few snack breaks throughout the day.
When they’ve finished with the last round of the mock-games, the whole group lands, clearly very tired from a long day. Pandora instantly runs over to Dorcas “you were amazing!”
“Thanks, now let's see what Narcissa thinks.” Dorcas answers hopefully.
Narcissa clears her throat “great work today everyone, I can clearly see you all gave your everything, so I’m very grateful for that and I’m sure that those I’ve chosen will be a perfect part of the team. Remember that if you did not get picked, it’s not because you were bad, but since this is my last year as captain I need to find the best team I can, so we’ll win this season.” She holds a small break, looking at everyone, who’s anxiously waiting. “So as you all know, this year 3 positions have opened up. A chaser and two beaters. So one of the two beaters will be Avery.” everyone starts clapping, but Narcissa quickly interrupts them “If we’re gonna clap after everyone, it’ll be a long day and I don’t have the patience, so if I could say everyone and then you can celebrate” she looks around to make sure they understand “great. Okay the next beater is Mulciber” Pandora looks at Dorcas who’s clearly very nervous and anxious. Dorcas must feel her eyes, because she turns to look at Pandora, who gives her a wide grin and a thumbs up, Dorcas sends back an anxious half smile, before turning back to Narcissa. “Last but not least” the older girl continues “is our new chaser, Dorcas”
Everyone begins clapping for the three new team members, wishing them good luck and congratulations. Pandora instantly wraps her arms around Dorcas in a hug, while cheering.
“Yes, yes. Congratulations and all that” Narcissa interrupts and Pandora pulls away from the hug so her and Dorcas can turn back to look at her. “But do remember that now comes the hard part. I expect the three of you to put in your all, even more than your all actually. I expect this team to win this year, I do not wanna leave this school with a loss. I expect this team to be perfect”
“Of course,” Mulciber and Avery say.
“Yes Mam” Dorcas says with a salute.
“Good, now you can all leave and enjoy your afternoon. For Dorcas, Mulciber and Avery, the training will start tomorrow at 5 am. I expect you not to be late and yes, arriving at 5 am sharp is being late.”
With that Pandora grabs Dorcas’ arm and runs back towards the school with Dorcas.
“Where are we going, Pan?” Dorcas laughs.
“To my brother's dorm. My brother and Barty are waiting for us there”
With that they run to Pandora’s brother’s dorm, laughing the entire way.
When they meet up with Evan and Barty, they both congratulate Dorcas and then the four of them spend the whole afternoon and evening celebrating, with snacks, drinks, movies and games.
All in all a perfect day.
(two months later)
“You’re so weird!” The third year boy says as he spits on the ground where she’s lying “oh look she’s crying, pathetic” everyone starts laughing.
She quickly reaches up to her cheek and feels something wet meet her hand, proving that she is indeed crying. “Just leave me alone”
“Fine, I’ve had my fun. What do you guys say? Are we done?”
“Just one more thing” A girl says. “Leviosa” she is pointing her wand at Pandora’s backpack, making it float up into the trees. The girl doesn’t let go of the spell until the bag is stuck there and when it is, the group walks away from Pandora, while laughing. When they’re gone she gets up from the ground, groaning because of how sore she is. They didn’t kick or hit her or anything, but they did push her around quite a lot.
When she’s standing again, she looks up at the tree. She walks over and reaches for the nearest branch, but it’s too high up. After trying to jump up to reach it, without success, she gives up and tries the leviosa spell since she still hasn’t learned a lot of new spells yet, but it’s too stuck, she can’t get it out.
She looks at the bag for a while and when she can’t find any other ways to get it down, she decides to finally go to her brother for help. She really hoped she didn’t have to do that, because she’ll have to tell him what’s been going on, there’s no way he’ll believe that she accidentally levitated her own bag into the tree till it was stuck.
Even if she tries to lie, he’ll be able to see right through her and when it comes to her being bullied, he’ll never let it go till she tells him what’s really happening.
She’s been bullied her entire life, so she knows very well by now that he’ll always figure it out.
With a sigh, she turns around and walks towards the slytherin common room and dorms.
When she walks through the common room, she keeps her head down so no one sees that her eyes are red and fluffy. No one even bats an eye at the Ravenclaw walking through the slytherin common room, they’re used to it by now. Pandora is in here all the time with her brother, Dorcas or Barty… or to visit them.
She knows they’d probably stop her or tell her to leave if she wasn’t with her friends, but everyone here knows not to fuck with her if she’s here to visit them.
When she finally gets to the right dorm, she knocks on the door. She used to just walk in, but one time Regulus was there and he was absolutely furious at her for just walking in without knocking, so she never made that mistake again.
Deep down Pandora knew starting at Hogwarts wouldn’t be all sunshine and happiness, she hoped it would be. She said it’d be a new chance, a new beginning. Will she ever learn? People don’t like her, never have, never will. They think she’s strange, weird. They bully her. They hate her.
“Panda? Is that you?” She hears her brother's voice as he opens his door, which makes her start crying again. “Hey, what’s wrong? Is everything okay?” he asks, instantly wrapping his arms around her.
There’s no place in the entire world she’s ever felt safer than with her brother. She knows he’d do anything for her and she’d do anything for him, there’s no lines they wouldn’t cross for each other
She can’t say anything, the words won’t come out, the only thing leaving her mouth is sobs and whimpers, so she just closes it and shakes her head instead.
How does she explain this to him, it’s humiliating. Sometimes she wishes she was normal. Why can’t she just fit in? It doesn’t even matter how hard she tries. No matter what she does, people find it weird. Sometimes, most of the time, she wishes she could be like her brother, he’s normal. Everyone loves him and wants to either be him or be friends with him. Why can’t she be like that?
Suddenly she’s sitting on Evan’s bed, with him kneeling beside her, looking worried. She doesn’t even know when they moved from the door to the bed. She looks around the room, making sure no one else is there. She doesn’t care much about people seeing her crying, but she knows Regulus is Evan’s dormmate and she doesn’t really feel like talking to another person who hates her. She finally looks back at Evan, drying her eyes. “I’m fine, sorry to have interrupted you”
“Hey, no. None of that. It's fine Panda. Just tell me what happened”
She shakes her head “it’s embarrassing”
“I know whatever it is, it’s not your fault. You’re Pandora Rosier, the day you do something bad is the day hell freezes over.”
The door opens and both twins look up, Pandora really hopes it isn’t Regulus. Anyone but Regulus.
Luckily it isn’t Regulus that walks in, but Barty. He stops dead in his tracks, the moment he sees them.
“What happened?” Barty asks.
“Can you come back later?”
“Like hell I’m leaving, she’s my friend too”
Pandora looks at her brother and sees him open his mouth to argue back, but Pandora talks before he gets the chance “It’s alright, he can stay”
Evan looks at her, You sure? he asks with his eyes and she just nods.
“Alright” he says before turning back to Barty “but I know you Barty and I know you say stupid things in situations where you should just keep it shut, so one unnecessary word from you and I’ll make you sleep in the common room for a week.
Barty pretends to sip his mouth shut and throws away the invisible key, holding up his hands in mock surrender afterwards. Which makes Pandora let out a small wet laugh.
He makes his way over to them and sits down on the floor in front of Pandora. It takes a while for Pandora to explain, but they don’t rush her. When she does, she explains how some students have been bullying her since she got here and that she hadn’t come to Evan before now because she thought she could deal with it and that she thought it would all be fine, but today it was just too much.
When she’s done explaining, Evan is absolutely fuming and Barty is not much happier either.
“I’m gonna fucking kill them” Evan says as he stands up and walks towards the door. Barty and Pandora exchange a look before they both rush to stand between Evan and the door.
“Ev, no stop!” Pandora says “You’ll just make it worse”
“How Pandora? How can I possibly make this worse, I won’t just stand and do nothing while they’re tormenting my sister!”
“I know mate, but just think before you go on a rampage” Barty tries.
Evan lets out a sarcastic laugh “that’s rich coming from you! You never think before you do anything.
“Evan stop putting your anger out on your friend! He’s just trying to help you” Pandora scolds him and that seems to get through to him, because he walks backwards all the way until the back of his knees hit the bed and then he sits back down again, putting his face in his hands.
“Sorry Barty, sorry Panda. I just hate that people treat you like this and that I can’t do anything about it”
Pandora walks over and sits down beside him, putting her head on his shoulder. “I know Ev, but there’s nothing you can do about this. Plus it’s fine, I’ll be okay”
“It shouldn’t have to be fine. This shouldn’t even be happening!” He says, whipping his head around so he’s looking at pandora. Pandora lifts her head.
“I know, but it is and I’m okay because I have you and Barty and Dorcas. I promise you that everything will be okay”
He nods. “Okay, but if you ever need me to deal with them, just say the word.”
“I will,” she laughs. “Now will you help me get my bag down.”
“Of course, lets go”
The three of them make their way down to the edge of the black forest where Pandora was sitting and reading when the bullies came. Then Evan climbs up in the tree with a hand from Barty and retrieves her bag.
When he gets down, they go back to the dorm, where they spend the next hours talking about everything between heaven and earth, to distract both Evan and Pandora. They laugh and have fun and for a moment, Pandora doesn’t care about all the people who hates her, because she has people who love her and that’s worth so much more.
Suddenly Evan turns to her, all laughter erased from his face, now only a serious look covering it. “It’s okay to hate them for how they’re treating you Panora!”
“Hate is just such a strong word”
“Not if they deserve it”
“But do they really?”
“Yes, they do! They treat the most kind, wholesome, amazing people like garbage. They do deserve it”
Pandora lets out a small laugh “Thanks Ev, I love you”
“I love you too, baby sis”
She hits his shoulder with a laugh “hey I’m only 7 minutes younger than you” yet the smile doesn’t disappear from her face. She’s so grateful for her brother, she doesn’t know what she’d do without him.
“Exactly. Just a little baby” Evan ruffles her hair and she tries to squirm away from him, still laughing.
“God I hate you”
“No you don’t” Evan says with a smirk. “Plus I thought you said hate was a strong word”
“Yet I hate you, I’m going to give you away”
“Nah, you just told me you love me. You can’t take it back now”
She grabs his pillow, puts it over his face before pushing him down with it so that he’s lying on his back, with the pillow over his face. Pandora makes sure to not press the pillow down hard enough so that he won’t be able to breathe. She hears Barty laughing in the background.
There’s a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” Pandora yells, still holding Evan down with the pillow. Evan is no longer trying to get free, now he’s just laughing.
“Dorcas, you know your best friend”
“Okay, come in”
“But be prepared” Barty wheezes.
Pandora hears the door open and then Dorcas’ voice again “what’s going on here? Why is Panda trying to kill her brother with a pillow. Not that it’s anything new, but why this time?”
“Wait, she has done this before?” Barty asks with a laugh.
“Of course she has. Have you met them”
“That’s genius. just genius”
“Pandora, stop trying to kill your brother. You’ll be sad if he’s dead you know” Dorcas says, now laughing too.
“Doubt it, but fine” she says, removing the pillow. She knows she would. She doesn’t know what she’d do if he ever died, but she’s his sister, she’s supposed to be annoying, it’s her job.
“Dorcas, my hero” Evan says in an overly dramatic voice. He turns to Pandora and sticks out his tongue at her, she does the same towards him as all four of them start laughing. Salazar, Pandora loves these people so much and she knows they’ll always be a part of her life forever, no matter what the future brings.
They spend the rest of the afternoon just joking around and having fun. At some point Dorcas gets told what happened, but right after the explanation is over, they instantly go right back to joking around so that Evan won’t be arrested or kicked out for murder.
When it’s dinner time everyone leaves, but Dorcas grabs Pandora’s arm before she can follow them “hey, can we talk real quick?”
Pandora sits back down on the bed “Of course, Cas. What’s up?”
“So about what happened today, I’m so sorry!”
“Why? It wasn’t your fault”
“Well no, but it’s my fault I haven’t been there for you lately. I’ve put all my focus on quidditch and I’ve been a shit friend”
“It’s okay, really, don’t worry about it” Pandora assures her.
“No, it’s not. It’s really not… And I promise that from now on, I’ll be a better friend, I’ll be there more for you and you can always come to me about anything”
“Thanks Cas”
“Of course, you’re my best friend”
“And you’re mine”
“Well that was basically what I wanted to talk to you about, lets go get some dinner”
“Yes, I’m famished!” Pandora groans.
Both girls get up from the bed and walk out of the dorm, towards the great hall. What Dorcas said was true, she hasn’t really been there a lot lately, but Pandora doesn’t blame her, she knows how important quidditch is to her. She also knows that when Dorcas promises something, she always keeps it, she never breaks a promise.
Pandora is honestly so grateful to have a Dorcas in her life.
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End notes:
There you go, hope you liked it. This is actually two chapters that I decided to just put together, but they were too short to make two chapters.
Oh also! A little teaser for the next chapter: It’s called “detention with the marauders” I'm so excited!!
Shoutout to my friends who had to listen to me tryna make 4 house teams for all 7 years ahaha.
I actually just learned today on tiktok that apparently some people are trying to change the name of the slytherin skittles group, I also someone it doesn’t make sense bc they wouldn’t call themselves that, buuuut I do have a headcanon about that, so I’ve now decided that them finding that group name will be a chapter in this fic
Okay lets dive into the chapter.
Poor Pandora, Istg, she does NOT deserve to be bullied. I feel so bad even tho I’m the one who wrote it.
“and she knows they’ll always be a part of her life forever, no matter what the future brings.” Since we all know how the story ends, I’m just gonna say, ouch this line hurt.
Also no one in the slytherin common room fucking with Pandora because she has scary dog privileges is so funny to me. The Slytherins and their adopted little Ravenclaw.
This sentence “You’re Pandora Rosier, the day you do something bad is the day hell freezes over.” will be seen again, but in a MUCH sadder context.
Barty “acting before he thinks” Crouch Jr saying “Don’t act without thinking” is so funny to me.
“Are you trying to kill Evan again?” Barty: “Again?” he’s literally so confused because up till now he’s only seen her as pure sunshine and rainbows.
I fucking love to see some focus on Pandora and Dorcas friendship, love them both sm!
Dorcas kind of neglecting Pandora the last few months, breaks my heart, but don’t worry Dorcas will keep her promise.
Another shout-out to the same friend as I mentioned earlier who helped me actually edit bc I kept procrastinating today. “Are you editing?” “Um… Well… No… Oops. My computer isn’t even open right now” “Open your computer and edit” “But” “Now” “fine” It’s my friend I met at boarding school, love them, they’re amazing.
Anyways, I think that was it. Have a great day and remember to leave a comment if you want, I love them sm.
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