It was one of the biggest quidditch games of the season. Gryffindor Vs Slytherin, as well as the second to last match of the year.
Avery enjoyed watching quidditch, but she wasn’t excited to help convince all the excited or disappointed first years to go to bed later in the Slytherin common room. Luckily Grayson, the other Slytherin prefect, happened to be very good at scaring the younger students into doing what he said.
Avery watched as Xander maneuvered a complex set of two bronze cameras into the stands. Xander was a genius of mechanical and magical inventions. As a keeper on his house’s quidditch team, he got distracted and let the quaffle that decided the game slip through the scoring rings during the previous match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. The rest of the Ravenclaws forgave him quickly when he created a giant flatscreen for the common room that disappeared if a teacher walked in.
Jameson, the Gryffindor seeker, didn’t let Xander off so easily. He bragged about winning the whole week.
The Hawthorne brothers were particularly close despite all being in different houses. Slytherin Grayson, Gryffindor Jameson, Ravenclaw Xander- Even the oldest brother, Nash, was a Hufflepuff before he graduated (head boy, too). It made it so their friend group was very varied. Avery and Thea were Slytherins, Max was a Gryffindor, and Rebecca was the sole Hufflepuff. Other students were always surprised when they saw all seven of them hanging out together in their respective house colors. Well, wearing their respective house colors assuming none of them had switched for the day. Today, because of the game, Rebecca was wearing green in support of Slytherin. This was also because her girlfriend always liked when she wore green, and Thea was still a little bitter she wasn’t chosen as Slytherin Seeker. Obviously, this led the Thea constantly flirting with Becca in the bleachers and Becca blushing a dramatic shade of red. Avery scooted a little further away from them, cursing herself for sitting with them in the first place. Xander also wore a color in support of one of the teams, but he wore red because he lost a bet with Jameson.
Speaking of Xander, Avery actually knew what he was currently setting up as he had explained it to all of them before the game. Apparently, inspired by a conversation they had a while ago where Avery’s and Max’s were asked to describe muggle sporting events as the only two muggle borns in the group, he had taken upon himself to create a kiss cam. This kiss cam as different than a muggle one, because it specifically targets the people with the most chemistry. Xander had somehow gotten the go ahead from the heads of house to test it at todays game, most likely by pleading “scientific experimentation” and “the noble pursuit of intellect”.
It was mid game, Slytherin had a slight lead, and the teams were huddled together on timeout when Xander decided to launch the invention. A screen unrolled like a scroll and began showing the images of the two cameras which started hovering.
Immediately, the cameras started flying around the stadium like they were acquainting themselves with it. It drew everyone in the crowds attention, most of which turned to look at the screen now flashing “KISS CAM '' at the top in red and white text. Even some of the players' eyes were drawn away from the pitch and to the commotion in the stand. Avery noticed the way Jameson smirked knowingly at the confusion. She smiled to herself about it before catching it. She did not have feelings for Jameson Hawthorne despite whatever Maxine would say to the contrary.
The kiss cams seemed to finally find their target, which was a bright eyed Hufflepuff girl sitting in a pack of other Hufflepuffs, and a shy looking Ravenclaw boy at the other end of the bleachers whose hair kept falling in his face.
The bottom of the screen flashed with two numbers.
“COMPATIBILITY: 71%
Chemistry: 89%”
“That’s Liana.” Becca said, “We have some classes together. I think she tutors the boy, but I couldn’t say who he is.”
It looked like the Hufflepuff girl’s (Liana’s, Avery supposed) friends started to push her further down. The cameras also put in the work, with the one on the boy nudging him towards the hufflepuffs. Eventually, they met in the middle, both looking down at their feet. One of the other girls started saying “Kiss Kiss Kiss!” And soon the surrounding stadium joined in. Liana looked down at the boy, as she was slightly taller, and smiled. She brushed the hair out of his face and leaned in slowly, as to give him time to move away. Instead, he surged forward, pressing a quick but caring looking kiss to her mouth. They both blushed heavily as everyone began to cheer, but they were all smiles. The kiss cams returned to the screen and stopped, seemingly satisfied.
Everyone’s attention quickly returned to the game as the players huddle finished and they quickly retook to the skies. The points kept going back and forth, but the snitch was only spotted once when the Slytherin seeker did a quick dive. She quickly lost it and went back to circling the field like Jameson.
Avery kept her eyes on the seekers, both hard to see from their height but looking very focused. Jameson, always brimming with energy and what he would call charm, calmed down when he was flying. She liked watching the way the wind rustled his hair and his dark gaze as he scanned his field of view back and forth.
A cheer went up when Slytherin scored twice in a row. It took Avery a second to join in, but when she did it stopped her from noticing the cameras whirring back to life.
Well, it did until one of them started flying onto the quidditch pitch.
“Huh,” Xander said, a little too far away to be heard properly if she couldn’t read his lips. “I guess I forgot to consider they might go for a player.”
Avery watched as the camera gained height, flying above most of the players. So it was going for a seeker, she thought while ignoring the swoop in her stomach.
It landed firmly on Jameson. On the screen, he could see his confused look at the camera before it turned annoyed. He tried to shove it out of the way so he could play. This is fine. Everything is fine. Sure, Jameson is going to get a magical suggestion on who to kiss and she will probably be wonderful and he will probably take it, but that has nothing to do with me. Right then, the second camera decided it had been in inaction for far too long and firmly took off before very quickly stopping, and turning directly to Avery.
Thea shot her a smirk and Becca squealed. Avery was glad she couldn’t see Max from where she was sitting since she was sure that would be a fun “I told you so”. She tried to save the camera away, panicking, but it wouldn’t budge. She looked to Xander and mouthed “Do something!”, but he simply shrugged as if to say “The Kiss Cam wants what the Kiss Cam wants.”. He looked far too gleeful about it.
And the kiss cam clearly did want it.
“COMPATIBILITY: 94%
Chemistry: 99%”
The screen flashed. As she looked up at it, the version of Jameson on the screen glanced down. From the way his eyes widened, he obviously saw where the second camera had landed. He hovered in the air a moment and she wished she could tell what he was thinking, but when the other seeker whistled pass him he shook himself and returned to the game.
She let out a breath, not sure if it was a sigh of relief or disappointed. Pointedly ignoring the eyes on her, she covered her face with her hand and went back to watching the game, eyes now glued to Jameson like half the audience.
Jameson was fighting his own battle, trying to dodge and weave the persistent camera. The fact that the ref hadn’t called a timeout made Avery seriously consider the rumors that he gambled on one team and then was biased to them during the game. At one point, the Slytherin seeker stopped to laugh when Jameson had to literally take both hands off his broom and try to shove the camera out of the way. Finally, he seemed to give up, swooping down from the clouds and towards… her.
“Hi.” She said quietly, even as the crowd grew louder, when he landed and dismounted in front of her. His red quidditch robe ruffled in the breeze.
He huffed a laugh. “Hi.”. Then he laced his fingers through her hair and pulled her lips to him.
She went willingly. This was no paltry peck for the cameras. He kissed her firmly, and left no room for complaint. When her bottom lip slipped between his, her toes curled and the crowd's cheers faded away. It was just the two of them in the whole world. He kissed her like she was everything.
When he pulled away, he rested his forehead on hers, eyes still closed even as hers fluttered open.
“Oi! The cameras gone! Stop kissing the enemy and get back to the game!” The Gryffindor captain yelled as he dodged a bludger.
“Duty calls,” Jameson said, looking as red as she felt. Despite all his joking flirtation, she had never seen Jameson Hawthorne blush before today.
“Good luck,” She replied as he mounted his broom and returned his eyes to the game, sparing a glance back at her as he flew off. He looked as if he couldn’t figure her out but wasn’t sure he wanted to.
Luckily for Avery, she didn’t have to endure too much ribbing from Thea and Rebbecca during the rest of the game, since ten minutes later, Jameson found the snitch and won the game.
And if Avery and Jameson didn’t make it to the victory party that night and instead found themselves alone in the astronomy tower, well, then they must have just made a wrong turn.