anything worth having... ;; andy & then open

It was no secret that Orlaith fell into the ranks of both late bloomer and newcomer when it came to Quidditch. Not when it came to flying, since Broomstick races were a guilty pleasure that the blonde and her father often indulged in when they wanted space from her mother and Sinead, but Quidditch. Orlaith loved flying, and she knew she was good at it. So good in fact that she was looking into picking up Artistic Flying as a hobby - outside of Hogwarts. Unfortunately Artistic Flying wasn't something offered in the school, but from the few times the blonde had played in the seeker position, she had felt that the seeker position incorporated a lot of the skills she needed to be successful in the other sport. Unfortunately, the seeker position in the schools main games wasn't available to her. It was held by one Aideen O'Bannon, co-captain of the Slytherin team, and Orlaith was quite sour about it - even if she never said it out loud.

Instead, Orlaith found herself delegated to the position of keeper and, as far as she was aware, this was the position she was most likely to be playing in the upcoming games. It wasn't her favourite, but then she hadn't seen very many good fliers in the position. Most of the keepers she had seen were content to just sit and watch the game until the quaffle came their way, and then it was a case of them punching the quaffle out the way or using some other body part to block the ball. There was no elegance in the position that the blonde could appreciate. And yet, here she was, facing the prospect of playing keeper herself.

Let it not be said that just because the sixteen-year-old bore no love for the position of keeper, she was going to be content with halfheartedly playing the position. Until Aideen relinquished the position Orlaith truly wanted, the Slytherin was going to be keeper. She was going to be the best keeper she could be, and hopefully the best keeper Slytherin had had in a while. She just... needed some help, and practice.

It was this mission that brough the young Irish lass out to the pitch in December. There was some time before the next game, but not enough. If she wanted to be a keeper worth her lot, the time to start practising was now. Despite the chilly air burning her lungs, and the frost making the grass slippery to walk on, despite these trainers having the deepest grips on them out of all the pairs she owned. At least Orlaith wasn't going to be walking for long, she just needed to make it to the pitch. Speaking of, what was the time? Was she late?

Broom in hand, the youngest Dewar started to pick up the pace. She had decided to wear the thickest black and white hoodie and jogging bottoms she could find, rather than her quidditch uniform. Firstly because she thought it was going to be warmer than her uniform and dry quicker, secondly because it was the time of year and the kind of weather that indicated the heavens were going to burst open at any second, and her hoodie had drawstrings to help the hood stay up. Orlaith was not looking to catch a cold or do anything to her person that would put her performance at risk in this upcoming game.

"Hello?" she called out as she stepped onto the pitch. It was very weird being here when the stands were completely empty. It was very weird being here and not planning to meet Ben. "Hellooooo?" she called out again, her voice a bit more sing song. Another disadvantage about the keeper position? It wasn't exactly a position you could practice playing on your own.

Andronicus felt like he was on top of the world. He was the Slytherin Quidditch Captain, his girlfriend @Jacqueline MacClelland was Head Girl, he was finally doing better in his classes (thanks to said girlfriend, of course), and the icing on the cake was the perfection that was his tousled brown hair. The newest lineup of hair care products from the Lovecraft Apothecaries was really doing the trick. Even when it felt like it had been raining and slushy snowing for days now, his hair was still shiny and manageable. Most boys his age probably weren't as concerned with their hair and skincare routines, but a family of professional beauticians had raised Andy, so naturally, it was high up on his list. The seventh-year finished styling his hair, an extra dollop of mousse to keep it in place despite the nasty weather the Hogwarts Pitch would most likely throw at them, and headed out the door.

"Practice is at four, don't be late!" He called out to another of the team members and hoping no one would miss practice this term. Last term, the team was a disorganized mess, but this year the prospects were a lot better. Most of the same students were still playing, with a few new underclassmen joining the ranks, but everyone seemed to be more motivated than they were last year. Andronicus hoped it was his 'natural leadership qualities' but figured it was because the Captain was the seventh year, and soon enough, his position would be open. Ambitious to the end, Andy didn't hold it against his Slytherin housemates.

He ran from the dungeons through the castle and out the door, nearly slipping on the slick steps that led down the side of the hill and toward the pitch, broom in hand. By the time he reached the pitch for the impromptu personal practice session with the team's keeper, Andy felt like the tip of his nose was frozen. Thankful it was just a practice and not a sanctioned game, the teenager cast a quick warming spell on himself (and another waterproofing one, just to be safe) before mounting his broom. The captain did a few warm up laps around the pitch and then began practicing some maneuvers he'd read about in Quidditch Weekly and had been trying to perfect.

Hearing Orlaith calling out to him, Andy stopped on a sickle and turned to fly down to her. "Morning!" Andy called, waving his beater's bat in the sixth year with a dimpled smile on his face. Hovering just above where she was standing for a moment before finally touching the ground, Andy returned to Quidditch supplies' chest. He replaced his bat for the quaffle and turned back around to face her. Orlaith was a killer seeker, she was fast and acrobatic about it, but Seeker had been Aideen's spot for as long as he had been on the team. Andy had been thankful when Orlaith seemed interested to train up her keeper skills. Should anything ever happen to the cocaptain that kept her out of a game, it was a relief to know they had a skilled second, though. "Ready to keep?" He asked his cheeks and the tip of his nose bright red from the cold air.

Now the blonde Slytherin was never disorganised, and whilst she normally never minded being the first one to things like class, quidditch was a recent addition to her limited list of things she enjoyed doing. As such, when the realisation dawned on her that she might be the first one to arrive to the scheduled quidditch practice session - the lean-framed teen suddenly wished she had been less eager to get up and get practicing.

'No, absolutely not!' came the knee-jerk thought in response to the Slytherin Captain's question; as he joined her in her corner of the quidditch pitch, quaffle in hand. However, it wasn't as though Orlaith expected the team to just give her the seeker position. Not when Aideen had been playing it for as long as she had, and demonstrated greater commitment to the sport, than Orlaith had during the entirety of her Hogwarts career thus far. She had to earn that priviledge - so at least being the first to arrive at practice would work in her favour in that respect.

"Yes cap'n!" the young Irish lass straight up lied answered with a smile and a salute. Though she was worried about the effects of the weather on her once she got in the air, if Andy's reddened cheeks and nose were anything to go by.

The sixth year considered her peer for a moment, wondering if she ought to utilise the fact that they were alone to be honest about her concerns. Aideen was the co-captain, so there was a possibility that if Orlaith was honest, he would immediately share her disclosure with the one person on the team that Orlaith would have preferred didn't know. However, perhaps if she asked for his confidence? They weren't Gryffindors, but that didn't mean all the snakes of Slytherin were duplicitous by nature. Andy seemed fairly... genuine. So, standing her broom upright in front of her and using it as the third leg of a tripod for a moment, the blonde's smile faltered and her expression turned a bit more serious.

"Actually... could I share something with you--" Orlaith paused, looking around to make sure there were no inbound team mates, or other students, for a moment. Then her gaze returned to the captain. "--in confidence?" she said, her voice considerably quieter despite being sure they were alone.

Andronicus smiled brightly, his dimples pocketing his cheeks, as she answered him and saluted. Returning the cheeky gesture, the Slytherin had been just about to fly off to his side of the pitch when Orlaith stopped him. As her tone began to shift, Andy's smile faded until there was nothing left but confusion on his face. Puzzled as he was, Andy didn't shy away from the question and nodded quickly. "Yeah, of course, just between us," Nothing good ever came out of secrets and lies. The Pureblood Slytherin knew this from experience, from all the years he'd spent buying into the madness and blood mania. Still, he was the captain, and she asked for help, so of course, Andy would oblige.

"What's on your mind?" He asked again, shifting his weight where he was standing and resting the beater's bat on his hip. Andy wondered if this had something to do with one of their classes, or if she would confess to not wanting to be keeper anymore, and a few other possibilities. Either way, he hoped it wouldn't be bad news. The team had already had too many people quit between this term and the last, and he wasn't sure they could take losing upper classman anymore. Sure, the younger students were eager to join, but Andy didn't want to spend his last year as Captain babysitting many second years and losing any shot at the cup. Andy wanted to go out on a higher note than that.

Perhaps it was because this was the first time Orlaith had ever really spent time alone with her team captain, but the blonde had't realised she and the captain were dimple twins until that very moment. Then again they weren't in the same year and when the whole team was there, Andy was definitely not the first person who caught Orlaith's eye. However, it wasn't something worth mentioning aloud. Not when Orlaith was fairly aware that Andy was not single, and even if he was, she was not... available. Though the Slytherin appreciated that her house mate entertained her rather straightforward sense of humour.

The problem with dimples in Orlaith's experience however, is they added whole levels of expression to a person's face that those without dimples would never understand. As such, the change in his expression was especially noticeable, to the point where Orlaith considered if she had worried her captain with the change in the tone of their exchange. The blonde shifted, it wasn't that serious was it? What if she divulged her secret to her captain and, given that the keeper position was the only one available, it resulted in her completely losing her place on the team? Then again, if she wasn't honest and she completely messed up in her first real game... she was going to lose the position anyway. "Well..." the sixth year began, biting her lip contemplatively before beginning. "I'm worried I'm going to mess this up." she finally admitted, shrugging her shoulders at the annoyance of feeling like she had to come clean.

"I'm not especially strong. I don't think I can spend the whole game punching the quaffle out the way of the hoops--" Orlaith was going for broke as she spoke. If she was being honest about the real reason she wasn't looking forward to keeping, she was going to be completely honest. Then... at least... if she messed up, it wasn't entirely her fault. Andy was going into this, her first game, with his eyes open about her capabilities. "I'm worried about... I don't know... hurting my arm and being of no use to the team in the game."

From the moment Orlaith began, Andronicus started to understand where she was coming from. Despite being a Slytherin and having quite a few years of being a jerk under his belt, the teenager was somewhat empathetic. It was one of the many reasons he had eventually stood up to his elitist cousins and stopped believing in their supremacist doctrines. And it was part of what made him a good friend to the few he had left, and Andy liked to consider Orlaith as one of them. At the very least, they were teammates, and he was determined to help her.

Staying still and remaining silent, Andy waited until he was sure that she was finished speaking before he replied. He was careful not to minimalize her worries, because they were valid, and to respond to both points that she had made. "Well, there are other ways you can defend the hoops, and we can practice those. You don't always have to punch it, though; it is on occasion quite fun." Andy wasn't a keeper, but he'd practiced the position enough times to know that taking a jab at the quaffle was good for stress now and then.

"You can also catch it, and we both know you have killer hand-eye coordination," Orlaith was a genuine seeker, but unfortunately, the team only needed one seeker. His co-captain had been playing that position long enough that he couldn't rightfully take it from her. So, Andronicus was desperate to keep Orlaith on the team and hoped the idea of using her catching skills in another position would be attractive enough. "You are more useful than the next seven wizards put together; trust me, you are going to do great."

Andronicus smiled again, feeling the words as he said them and genuinely meaning them. But wishing for something and making it so weren't the same thing, and Andy knew that it was all up to Orlaith at the end of the day. She'd have to decide, it would be her playing, and in the future, it would be her reputation on the line. "I would not have asked you to be a keeper if I didn't think that you could do it, but, ultimately, it will be your choice." Andy wanted her to keep playing, but he wasn't going to coerce her into doing so.

"That being said, I would like you to stay on the team, but I'll understand if you decide otherwise..."