Innocence

Chapter Thirteen

David held true to his word. The following Friday, Sophia left the common room and found him and Daniel Kowalski waiting for her outside of the mirror. They walked in silence down to the pitch.

They were a bit early, but the already existing members of the team were already warming up. Adam landed and came over to them when he saw that they had arrived. David explained the situation as Adam reached out his hand for Daniel to shake, but before Daniel could return the favour, Adam's hand suddenly shot back as if he had been electrocuted. The three of them stood looking puzzled while the older boy composed himself.

"You say he's from a No-Maj family... So he's never even played Quidditch before?" Adam asked, looking taken aback.

"No." David said curtly. "I said he came from a family which expected him not to be a wizard, and so therefore he's never flown before."

Adam looked as if he was going to faint. "I'm putting my reputation within the team on the line to support this?'

Sophia leant forward and smacked her brother on the arm, though not with enough force to hurt. "Don't be rude, Adam." She said. "Of course you don't have to risk your reputation if you feel uncomfortable about it, but just don't be rude." She ignored the death glare from David.

Adam sighed. "I'm sorry, Daniel, but I can't help you. You're perfectly welcome to still participate today, but I can't put in a good word for you."

Daniel nodded silently and followed Adam as he walked back onto the pitch towards the team. By this time, about three other hopefuls had turned up, and Sophia and David took their seats to watch as the auditions began.

Sophia bit her lip and turned to her friend. "So... What's the situation then?" She elaborated when all David did was raise an eyebrow at her, questioningly. "I mean... How much does he know going into this?"

"Well like I said, he's never flown before, but as we were waiting outside of the common room for you earlier I gave him a quick run down of the rules of the sport and let him know what position is vacant on the team."

Sophia suddenly realised that was a bit of information she had completely forgotten about, although it was one of the most important things in such a situation. After all, she doubted Adam would've had any chance getting onto the team if it hadn't been for the fact that his position was free. He would never have made it if he was going for the position of Chaser or Seeker.

"So what position is he going for today then?"

"Beater."

- - - - -

"But I don't understand, Percy." Credence said, a little bit disappointed. "Nothing else has happened, Professor Blackrose told us himself in his letter that his believes the issue has sorted itself out."

Percival sighed, though not through frustration at his husband. "Do you not see how this is the best time to do what I'm suggesting? If I go up to the school now and hold an assembly or do a presentation or something along those lines, and spread the message of magical and non-magical cooperation, I may be able to crush any prejudice before it even starts, and potentially fully extinguish the intentions behind anyone who posed the initial threat that Blackrose told us about to begin with. Of course I am happy that he thinks there is no issue now, and I'm not trying to suggest that anyone knows any more about what is going on in his school than he does, but wouldn't it be better just to make sure?"

"Of course. You're right, I'm sorry." Credence said a bit timidly. "I'm just upset because it will mean that you'll be gone for a while."

"I only plan on staying three days. And like I said before, I plan on taking you with me if you wanted."

A huge smile slowly made its way onto Credence's face. Percival continued.

"You didn't think I'd leave you alone if you didn't want to be, did you? I can't stand being apart from you."

The shadow of the unspoken word "again" hung in the air between them like a dead weight, and although neither knew the other was doing the same, both men stood silently, thrusting memories of Grindelwald down again to the back of their minds.

"When do we leave?" Credence asked after a minute, in an attempt to lighten the mood again.

"Tomorrow."

- - - - -

Sophia soon realised that David had been right. Daniel was very good for the level of experience he had. In fact, she thought that it would be hard to determine who would get the position in the end, as out of the three others that he was competing against, only one of them seemed able to keep up with his agility and accuracy.

However, when Daniel came walking back to them later in the afternoon, he was shaking his head and dragging the school broom he had been leant behind him. "They gave the place to Paddy." He said. Sophia assumed this was the boy who was also good. She glanced over Daniel's shoulder and saw that Adam was also walking over to them, although slowly. Sophia pointed this out to the other two.

"He must be feeling bad." She said quietly.

"Good." David said, not quietly. Sophia threw a glare at him, before turning to her brother and smiling.

"I'm sorry." Adam started. "But John, the new captain, said that he wouldn't give the place on the team to Daniel because it was only beginner's luck. He wanted someone who's grown up with the sport."

"But that's terrible! You've written off every No-Maj born student in the school that way!" David yelled. Adam and Sophia both flinched at his words.

It took a while to calm David down as Sophia and Daniel dragged him away from the pitch and towards the school again. He was yelling profanities at the Horned Serpents quidditch team the whole way back. By the time they got back to the Wampus mirror he was in a good enough state to say goodbye to his cousin, though Sophia noted that the scowl on his face was the worst she had ever seen so far.

- - - - - - - - - -

Thank goodness I write these in advance otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get this one out in time.