Oak Trees

A Chat, and Breakfast

"I thought you'd be up here!" Riley said to Severus as she climbed the oak tree. She perched a branch below him and off to his right.

"Good morning, Culver." He said glumly, then turned to look at her. His face twisted. "What happened to you?"

Riley looked confused for a second, then down at her clothes. Her sweatshirt and denim pants were horribly coated in mud and various debris. The heals of her hands were skinned where she had forgotten her gloves. She had a red marks on her face from her goggles, which here now sat atop her head.

"Oh... uh, early quidditch practice today." She smiles sheepishly. "Game is at 11! Are you gonna come?"

"I don't typically go to quidditch games." He said bluntly. Riley's face fell a little. "D'you want me there?"

"Well, I... I know it's a little silly but, yeah..." the dirt on Riley's face didn't do much to hide her blushing. "If you don't want to go, that's fine. It's not everyone's cup of tea."

"You're playing slytherin." He hadn't looked at her again since pointing out how filthy she was. He was looking out over the lake.

"Yeah, we are."

"I've heard some grumbling from the guys on the team during meals. How are you feeling about it?"

Riley blushed harder at this. Grumbling about it? Did Riley dare to ask what they were saying?

"I feel okay about it..." she said shyly. Severus looked down at her. She sighed. "I'm terrified."

"Yeah. The way they were talking, you ought to keep an eye out. They don't know you're the seeker this year - they were talking about knocking whoever the seeker was off their broom first chance they got." He grumbled. "They were also talking about you being a chaser. Said that the school shouldn't allow girls on the teams, and that they were gonna "take care of it.", whatever that means." Severus looked back out onto the lake.

"Wow, you hear a lot, don't you Severus?"

He shrugged. "Guess so. No one ever really thinks I'm listening. They all talk like I'm not there."

Riley chuckled. "They treat me the same way."

"Guys on the team nice to you?"

"Nice enough. Treat me like a kid though. Potter messed with you anymore?"

"Nope." Severus smirked a little at the corner of his mouth. "He has been finding very oddly placed frogs, though. Looks pretty angry at me every time one turns up."

Riley smiled up at him. He looked down for a split second. The bluebird from two weeks ago fluttered down onto her shoulder.

"He's been missing you plenty." Severus said. "Ive started bringing seeds and such out for him. Cool guy. Think he likes muggle books too."

Riley laughed. She didn't think Severus had the least bit of humor in him. She looked at her wristwatch. "Oh dear, I should go eat and get cleaned up. It was nice seeing you, Severus!"

Riley climbed down in a rush, nearly falling along the way.

As she ran off, the bird fluttered over to Severus, landing on his knee and looking up at him curiously.

"Yeah, guy. I feel the same way."

—

After a quick shower and change into her sweatshirt and jeans, Riley met the rest of the team in the Great Hall.

Riley piled up a big plate.

"Merlin, Riley, how many stomachs have you got to fill up?" Jackson asked with a laugh.

"Yeah, eating like that you'd think you'd be as big as the great old Turrett!" Elroy laughed and Ballooned up his cheeks like a pufferfish, miming a waddle in place. The whole team laughed.

Jackson Watts and Elroy Lock were quite the pair. They played off eachother so well you'd think they'd be brothers. Connected at the hip, those two.

"Oh shut up," Riley said covering her mouth with her hand as to hide the cheeks full of porridge.

"Yeah," David chimed in. "Running for your life for 3 hours has to work up an appetite."

Riley blushed as everyone laughed harder. She ate silently as they discussed the match, their homework, their families.

"Culver!" Jackson proded her with a fork.

"Wha?" She said, he had picked another time that her mouth was full.

"Daniel asked you about your parents." He said pointedly. Daniel was blushing.

"Oh." Riley said flatly. "Mom owns a bakery, dads a handyman."

"They're muggles?" Daniel asked. "I wouldn't think you're a mud-"

Charles reached over and put him off with a swift knock to the back of the head. "Don't." He said as a warning. Daniel blushed harder.

"I'm not. They're not muggles, I mean..." Riley blushed. "They are both magic, they were Ravenclaws. They just chose to work muggle jobs. Another conversation, please?"

By this time, Riley was exhausted of defending her pure-blood status. She wasn't from the Noble House of Black, or a Malfoy, or a Bones. No one knew the Culver's, and that was on purpose.

After graduating from hogwarts, her parents decided that they wanted a simpler life than was offered to them by the wizarding world.

It was only following the arrival of letter that the Culvers even told their daughter just exactly how stuff gets done around the house so quickly. It was magic to thank for the fact that Mrs Culver was never behind on cake orders, to thank for why ger father finished work early nearly every day. It was magic, plain and simple.

They told Riley of Hogwarts, of the wonderful people that taught there, the interesting people to be met. They took her to the amazing Diagon Alley, where they let her browse books and knickknacks, treats she had never heard of. Kind people, in what she thought were funny robes, doted on her everywhere she went. The man at olivanders was excited to see her, reminiscing with her parents as her wand chose her (oak with Phoenix tail).

But to this day, she didn't know how she felt about hogwarts. Her first term was terrible, she was horribly homesick and no one seemed to like her. Just when she thought it was getting to be alright, a slytherin prefect started to taunt her. Her classmates were offput by her quiet demeanor.

But then she started thinking of the quidditch team. She tried out on her parents instructions. She was alright at sports back in grade school, never the best and never part of a team. Alright at it, none the less. The then-captain and keeper, Argon Wilks, was amazed by her. Before she knew it, she had a home at Hogwarts on the quidditch team. Like having 6 brothers, all overprotective.

Once they all had finished eating, they returned to the hufflepuff common room.