Switching up from the Ravenclaw dormitories to the Headboy Suite was definitely a step up.
Every morning Quinn would open his eyes on a King-sized bed that he got to use all by himself, which was great even though he still used the same amount of space as he did on his dorm's small-double bed. He was on the fourth floor, meaning that he needed to climb one less flight of stairs to get to his room; however, that also meant that now his office and room were no longer on the same floor and that the Room of Requirement was a floor higher than before. He didn't need to vacate the bathroom in a set amount of time for his roommates' use, though after bathing in a shared bathroom for years had made Quinn uncomfortable to take any more time than he was used to. In his new living quarters, he had all the space he needed... which didn't matter as Quinn had his briefcase. The Headboy Suite provided a personal space for Quinn's use alone where he could relax without worrying about Luna and Astoria coming into the AID Office, Eddie and Marcus coming into the dorm room, a DA member trying to illegally access the Room of Requirement, or the ever-present concern of someone messing up with his briefcase while he was inside... but that also meant that Quinn couldn't walk down to the Great Hall for breakfast with his friends (the Slytherin Headgirl wasn't much of a talker.)
... Switching up from the Ravenclaw dormitories to the Headboy Suite was somewhat of a step up — maybe.
Like every day, Quinn walked out of the Headboy Suite and gave a good morning to the First Headboy of Hogwarts' portrait. He jogged across the halls in his workout clothes as he enjoyed the morning air. On the Grand Staircase, he played the game of predicting the directions and destinations of every moving staircase that he could get his eyes on. The Entrance Hall outside the Great Hall was empty like every early morning, with only a couple of ghosts that would exchange morning greetings with Quinn every day.
Like clockwork, Quinn's stride lengthened, and his legs started to gain speed as he exited the castle into the grounds outside. The sprint would continue until he reached a specific greensward on the castle grounds. Quinn looked around and saw that his partner hadn't arrived yet, so he started to warm up on his own while thinking about whether he could cause an isolated artificial earthquake using vibrations and how that would hold up compared to Earth magic.
"Mornin'."
Quinn was doing slow push-ups on his knuckles when he heard Eddie's voice from the back. He turned his head and caught half of Eddie on his peripherals.
"Good morning," said Quinn. He got up and dusted his hands off the grass as he turned; however, his hands stopped mid-dusting when he completely faced Eddie.
"Tracey?" he said, bewildered.
Standing in front of him was Tracey Davis... dressed in non-magical workout clothes. Quinn squinted his eyes at the clothes; he recognized them.
"These clothes..." They were one of the many sets that he gifted Eddie.
"Eddie asked me to wear them... he said that you said they're made for exercising," Tracey asked as she turned around. "Do I look strange in them? I feel a little strange wearing them."
Quinn turned his eyes to Eddie, looking at Tracey from the side. He turned his eyes to Quinn and said, "A little resizing charm and they look they were custom made to fit her." And the way Eddie was looking at Tracey showed that he was pleased about his work.
"So... Tracey, what made you wake up so early in the morning just to come down here?" asked Quinn.
"Eddie was telling me about his day, and he said that both of you train here every day," said the girlfriend as she hugged her boyfriend's arm. "I wanted to see what both of you exactly do every morning."
"Ah... I see," said Quinn, eyeing his best mate. "Well, we basically just train. Eddie works on his physicals so he can fly on the broom better."
"Flying a broom takes physical training? Isn't it just sitting and controlling the broom?" asked Tracey tilting her head.
"Oh no-no, there's much more to the art of competitive flying than just sitting on a broom," said Quinn, feeling his trainer side come up. "Quidditch players are some of the fittest athletes in the world and adhere to unique physical and mental preparation strategies. There is a lot of misconception regarding a Quidditch player's physical exertion, so I don't blame you for knowing; after all, they are just sitting on a broom and letting magic do the rest, but believe me, there's a lot more.
To provide some context, a Quidditch player's equipment weighs a lot — they're padded all over their bodies to protect themselves against the hits from a Bludger, and because of rules, the weight can't be reduced through magic. Unlike when someone casually flies a broom, Quidditch players regularly rise up to speeds during games that get difficult to follow with the naked eye and require Omnioculars to enjoy the game. All the twists, turns, air maneuvers, and sudden breaking puts an immense force on the riders. To combat this, players require the highest degree of robustness, stability, and lower body strength. At the professional level, the games can get intense enough that it's not strange for players to lose a couple pounds through the game, which can be dangerous for health if not trained for."
Quidditch, even compared to the non-magical sports, was up there on the physical training requirements scale. It involved intense Endurance training to enable through games run on a system with no time limit on the play. The sport demanded Strength training — lower body training, upper body training, posture and stability training, and the strengthening of the neck to take the brunt of the force felt during flying, and because....
"And you're no stranger to the physicality of the sport. Bludgers are always crashing into the players. Players are crashing into players, there are intentional head-on collisions... crashes into the pitch below or the stands around the stadium are common sights," Quinn touched the back of his neck as he turned his neck. "Which is why every Quidditch player needs to be on the top of their physical training game to play effectively.
You remember Victor Krum, right?"
Tracey's brow furrowed for a split second before her eyes showed the light of recognition, "The Durmstrang Champion, Victor Krum?"
"Yes, him. He's a Quidditch player, and more importantly, he plays as a Seeker." Quinn could see the confusion in Tracey's eyes. "Seekers need to be agile and light to fly faster than other position players as the Snitch moves at high speeds with sharp angles. Now, the archetypical Seeker physique would be Harry Potter's physique — lean and lightweight. But Victor Krum? That guy had big muscles. At the pro-levels, even the so-called lightweight Seeker needs to train their body to even stand a chance to play."
There had been cases of Quidditch players fracturing their necks and spines from high-speed collisions. So every player on every team made sure to train themselves to not get injured. Even if injuries could be healed without lingering damage, no club wanted a player who would get injured mid-game and be out for the rest of the game, and maybe even the next game. It was a competitive sport, and players worked for their livelihood.
Tracey turned to Eddie with a watery gaze and clung to him.
"It's not as bad as he makes it sounds," said Eddie, in a placating manner. "I have been training regularly a few years now. I don't even feel the hits from other guys these days; they're like light bumps to me, and even that's on a bad day."
Eddie gave Quinn a glaring side-eye. Quinn shrugged with his brows. She was the one who asked... well, not really, but what he was to do, it came out.
It took a while to calm down Tracey's worries before they could start their workout. And while Quinn went on his workout as usual, Eddie played around with Tracey, acting like a trainer to the new girl at the gym.
"Why did you bring her here?" Quinn asked Eddie as they watched Tracey lying on the ground, covering her eyes, starfish mode, with her chest heaving up and down.
"Didn't she say? She wanted to see what we did in the mornings," said Eddie, sipping from his water bottle.
"If she asks, you refuse," said Quinn, snatching the bottle. "That's obvious."
Eddie placed his hands on his sides, "And why would I do that? I got to see my girlfriend first things in the morning, in workout clothes — which I must say, she looks stunning in, and she's so cute when trying to do exercises she isn't used to."
There was another expression on Eddie's face that made Quinn's face scrunch up ever so slightly. He knew his friend enjoyed getting all handsy with Tracey while trying to 'teach' her.
"What if she decides to come every day?" asked Quinn. "I don't know if you noticed or not, but you essentially relaxed all the time today. If Tracey comes every day, you won't be doing anything in the morning. And I don't think you have time this year to regularly cover-up later in the day — you have to prepare for NEWTS, you're the Captain, so you have to prepare the lead the practices, formulate the playbook, then there are tryouts coming and that responsibility also falls upon you.
This year is crucial for you, Eddie. Scouts will be coming to every game you play in, and if your performance suffers this year, your stock price will fall. If you end up signing with a lower club, you'll be stuck with them for the duration of your contract — and that's going to delay your career position.
You know how the leagues work."
Just like English Football (soccer), the Quidditch professional scene was also divided into different leagues. Major Quidditch playing country had a league that had divisions and worked on the parity and relegation system, which meant that the winner of a lower division would be promoted to a higher division while the loser of a higher division would be demoted down to a lower division. Only the clubs in the highest division were allowed to play for the Championship Cup.
Then there were inter-league tournaments that featured national champions (and runner-ups for some countries) to play in an International League Tournament.
Eddie's current stock as a prospect was sky-high because of Quinn's Quidditch Tournament and his performance in the last year's Hogwarts Cup. If Eddie wanted to sign with a professional club, he would've started playing while in school like Victor Krum, but it was the Carmichael family's decision that Eddie wouldn't start playing before graduation, and even the negotiations for signing would only start after his graduations.
If Eddie was selected by a club in the highest division of the English League, then even if he didn't play right away, he would get training and resources to improve himself and begin his professional journey at a higher starting point. If he started in a struggling club, Eddie would need to play out his contract with the struggling club as England was one of the countries where player transfer/trade wasn't popular.
"This year for you is probably more important for you than any other student in Hogwarts," finished Quinn with serious insistence in his words. One of the most important things on his docket for this year was to make sure that Eddie didn't slack in his training — the Ravenclaw Chaser and now Captain, was already outplaying his Hogwarts peers last year and seemed to be in a different league.
It was Human tendency to slack when complacent, and Quinn feared that Eddie would decrease his training with his current competition. And Quinn was going to make sure that those fears didn't become a reality.
As unfortunate as it seemed, Tracey's presence in the morning training sessions was highly detrimental to Eddie.
"You worry too much," said Eddie sighing. "She's not going to come here every day."
"Are you sure?" asked Quinn, feeling hopeful. He preferred not coming between the couple. "Davis family technically are a farming family. They are one of the largest agricultural landowners in the country for their Herbology business. From what Daphne has told me, Tracey's used to waking up early in the morning, a typical farm girl — she might not mind getting up early in the morning and coming to the grounds with us."
"I am sure she won't come. I mean, look at her," Eddie pointed at Tracey, who was still panting on the grass. "She's got really poor stamina; no way she would be willing to go through this every day without some serious motivation."
It wasn't that Tracey had zero stamina. No student in Hogwarts had zero stamina; they, on a regular, walked through long hallways and climbed long and confusing staircases. It was just that Quinn had skewed Eddie's perception of what was considered a light workout, and poor Tracey was the victim.
Quinn gazed at Tracey, who didn't look like she would get up anytime soon.
"..."
"..."
"Maybe, you're right..."
"I'm right."
Eddie wrapped an arm over Quinn's shoulder. "Thank you, Quinn, for worrying so much. It means a lot that you care so much... I probably wouldn't be here in my current position if you didn't pull me out of my bed in the morning all those years ago." He chuckled, "I probably would've already left Quidditch and would have been looking for another way to get a girlfriend."
Quinn chuckled. He sometimes forgot about Eddie's primary motivation.
"Everything turned out well, didn't it? You did get a girlfriend."
"Uh-huh, a beautiful one at that."
"Not more beautiful than mine."
"No way, mine's much more pretty."
"Keep dreaming, buddy. You're convincing no one."
Quinn then softly touched Eddie's chest with his fist and said, "And you know the most important reason I'm doing this, right?"
"Most important reason? What's that?" asked Eddie, confused.
Quinn raised both his hand in front of his left peck and made a heart shape with them. "Exercise Bros For Life. I won't let a hussy break our beautiful bond."
This time it was Eddie's turn to scrunch up his face.
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
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Quinn West - MC - Exercise Bros For Life <3.
Eddie Carmichael - Top Prospect - Living the dream high school jock life.
Tracey Davis - Heir to a large Herbology agro-business - "Eddie, carry me to the common room... I can't mov...e..."
FictionOnlyReader - Author - This chapter was purely Quinn's perspective. I didn't write a single Eddie and Tracey thought. Third-person semi-limited.
