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It was a clear, sunny day. White fluffy clouds drifted across the clear blue sky. The sun shone brightly.
Feeling the grass tickle his feet, Quinn tilted his back to behold a field of blue that stretched far beyond what his eyes could track and where small birds cut across the air as they swooped, spinned, spiraled, and dived.
Quinn was lying on a corner on the ground of the Quidditch field, relaxing as he read a book.
He once again turned to his side and looked towards one of the goalposts and saw his two friends on brooms, flying alone in the field, playing a game of quaffle-hoop as practice for Eddie.
Quaffle-hoop consisted simply of one player trying to get a quaffle through the hoops while the second player played as keeper, that is, trying to defend against the quaffle going through the goal hoops.
Eddie was the one trying to score, while Marcus tried to defend against him. Quinn, on the other hand, was not playing with them. He was simply lying on the green ground, showing his silent support through his presence.
Eddie was training to get into the Ravenclaw Quidditch team as a chaser.
Chaser was a position in Quidditch. There were three chasers per team. The chasers controlled the quaffle and attempted to put it through the goal hoops and make it past the keeper. Each goal was worth ten points. This made the chaser position similar to the forward in football. The game generally started when the referee released the quaffle into the air and the chasers claimed possession of the quaffle.
Chasers were generally considered the most exhilarating players to watch by spectators during a Quidditch game, at least until the Golden Snitch had been spotted.
While the seeker attracted short bursts of attention from the spectators, chasers were always the center of attention. Competing against the other team, trying to score as many points as possible so that even if the opposite team's seeker caught the golden snitch it wouldn't matter, as they would've outscored the other team by a wide margin.
'Man, he is really putting in the effort,' thought Quinn as he stared at Eddie, who was trying to hurl the quaffle in a curve shot. 'If I didn't know what his real motivation was, I probably would have thought that he was interested in Quidditch.'
Eddie's motive to get on the team was to get popular and hope that would increase his chances to get a girlfriend, but the amount of effort he was putting in was like he was trying to be the best chaser in Hogwarts.
Quinn shrugged and turned to the opposite side to go back to reading on medical potions. The healing magic system in this world was half spells and half potions. Every healer needed to know his potions to be effective and be prepared for the job.
An unknown amount of time passed as Quinn continued to read. However, something broke his concentration. He heard some people talking in the distance.
Listening to the chatter, Quinn identified it to be coming from his back, so he turned to look and found that Eddie and Marcus were talking to some people.
'Isn't that the Gryffindor team?' noticed Quinn after giving the group a closer look.
Deciding to see why there was a commotion, Quinn stood up from the ground and started to walk towards his friends.
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"Look, I don't see what the problem is," said Eddie as he pointed at the other side of the field with his arm. "I don't see why you people can't practice on one half of the field. You aren't playing a game, so why do you need the entire field?"
Eddie was talking to the Gryffindor team captain, seventh-year student, Oliver Wood.
"You ain't a lion, so we can't let you witness our practice. We are at the top this year, and Ravenclaw is trailing in second place," replied Oliver as he eyed the two Ravenclaws. "As such, we can't risk our tactics getting exposed to you two, who are from Ravenclaw. I'll have to ask you to leave."
Eddie didn't like the reason Oliver was giving one bit and crossed his arms over his chest, "Not my problem, you can't make me leave. I was here first."
"Look, why don't we make some sort of arrangement. I'm sure we can come up with some sort of deal," offered Oliver, trying not to sound confrontational and aggressive. This year was his last year at Hogwarts, and he didn't want any mishaps that would somehow debar him or his team from playing Quidditch.
But it turned out that luck wasn't at his side, and his wish for a peaceful confrontation was crushed when his seeker started to speak.
"Let's just ignore them and play," voiced Harry, intervening in the conversation. He looked at the two Ravenclaws and shrugged, "Don't blame us if you get hit by a bludger. It won't be our problem if you spend a night in the hospital wing."
Marcus gulped in slight fear of getting hit by a bludger, but the statement did not scare Eddie; he took a deep breath and thought to himself, 'Calm down, Eddie. Don't get riled up. Remember what mum said: Count to nine, and everything will be fine.'
'One… two… three… four… five… what the hell is with that smile!'
Eddie saw Harry smirking and his attempts to calm himself down went down the gutter. He scoffed and retorted, "Of course you would know about hospital wings, don't you, Potter? Seeing that you practically live there."
The Weasley twins in the background laughed as they put their hands on their faces.
Harry frowned and gave Eddie the stink eye.
"What? Are you going to complain to your mum? Go on, mama's boy, I don't mind," smirked Eddie, delighted to see that his words did damage as he punched in another taunt.
Harry growled and stepped forward towards Eddie but was held back by Oliver, who could already feel a headache coming up.
"Let's not fight. Harry, back off," Oliver warned Harry and pulled him back with a jerk. He turned back to Eddie and said, "Listen, mate, we really want to practice. We need the field."
He made a hand gesture regarding the brooms and quaffle in the duo's hands and commented, "You can play your little game elsewhere. There are other free spaces, I'm sure you'll be able to find one where you can play, but we are a team and need to practice on the field."
"Hey! I'm not playing a game," grunted Eddie. He didn't like the tone in which Oliver just spoke. "I have to practice to get on the team. You don't want to get on my bad side because if I make the team, I'll go extra hard against you, guys."
"Yeah, right," scoffed Harry in response and smirked at Eddie.
"Did you say something, 'Crash-and-burns-every-game' Potter?" mocked Eddie and put a hand next to his ear.
Harry wanted to say something but stopped when Oliver raised his hand.
"Look-" started Oliver but was cut off.
"Uh-oh." "Uh-oh, indeed."
The voices of the Weasley twins gathered everyone's attention and everyone looked at them.
"What?" asked Alicia Spinnet, one of the three Gryffindor Chasers.
The twins pointed in a direction behind them and spoke in unison,
" "Little lord West is coming." "
Fred and George had come to call Quinn 'little lord West' because of his mannerisms and their interactions with Quinn inside the A.I.D office.
Both the twins felt that inside the A.I.D room, everything was in Quinn's control. Despite Quinn's effort to make the office welcoming and comforting for the visitors, to the twins, the office was Quinn's territory, and he was its lord, who ruled every single thing that happened.
Everybody looked in the direction the twins were pointing and saw Quinn walking towards them. And it seemed that Quinn had seen them looking at him because he waved with a small smile on his face.
"Good afternoon, people. What a great day we are having today," greeted Quinn as he walked to Eddie's side. "What seems to be the problem here?"
"They want us to get out of here," replied Eddie, looking bored as he couldn't see why he was wasting his time here.
"I see," began Quinn before turning to Oliver. He asked, "Do you have a written permission that states you can use the field exclusively?"
"... Umm, no," replied Oliver, looking uncomfortable. He wasn't expecting Quinn to get straight to the point to ask whether they had permission.
This training session was a spur-of-the-moment thing and was set this morning after Oliver had seen that the weather was clear and no other team had booked it. So he jumped at the chance and gathered his team for practice. He didn't get permission that would grant him exclusive possession of the field.
"Then, Wood, you can't kick us out," shrugged Quinn. Wood had no authoritative power to kick Eddie and Marcus out of the field. "Also, why do you need the entire field? Just give us this scoring area, and you can take the rest of the field," suggested Quinn.
"No, they need the entire field," responded Eddie with a roll of his eyes. "They're scared we'll leak their tactics to the Ravenclaw team."
Quinn gave the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team a look and started.
He pointed at the Weasley twins and spoke, "Dopple-beater Defense and Bludger Backbeat for the Beaters."
"Checking and Power Play for the Chasers," continued Quinn as he pointed at the three chasers: Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet.
He turned to the captain and gave him a thumbs-up, "Double Eight Loop, and Starfish and Stick for the keeper. Those two are tough to pull off."
Finally, Quinn addressed Harry, "No hands and less than decent attempts at Wronski Feint for the seeker."
The Gryffindor team stood still, their jaws on the floor as Quinn rapidly fired the tactics they had been preparing for the second stretch of this year's Quidditch season. Those things were a secret, and no one except the team was supposed to know.
Even if someone knew a partial part of the tactics — they wouldn't be happy, but it wasn't impossible for that to happen. But here they stood, watching a guy with an innocent smile on his face revealing their entire bag of tricks and tactics.
"... H-How?" stuttered Katie in shock. She asked a question that everyone on the Gryffindor team wanted to ask. "How do you know all that?!"
Quinn raised his arm and flicked his wrist for an A.I.D card to appear in his previously empty hand.
Everybody there recognized the card as they had seen it at least a couple of times in their school years.
"Information is my bread and butter; I know what is going on inside Hogwarts, and that includes Quidditch knowledge," informed Quinn and then proudly smiled. "I was also hired permanently as the commentator for the Quidditch games, so I had to know what all four teams were planning to do for better commentary experience."
"You aren't going to reveal this knowledge to anyone, will you?" asked Oliver, sounding apprehensive.
The card in Quinn's hand burned to ashes, and all of them suddenly became aware that Quinn had his wand in hand.
None of them had seen when Quinn had taken out his wand. One moment both his hands were empty; the next second, he had a card in one and a wand in the other. And while this was happening, he kept a friendly smile on his face.
"Of course not. I'm not mad," snorted Quinn derisively. He humphed and pointed at the castle, "If it became known that I leaked information to a team, the entire student body would pelt me with spells. There wouldn't be any safe space for me inside Hogwarts. Plus, that would be bad for business, and I don't want that."
Harry looked at Quinn, a scowl prominent on his face.
Harry and Ivy Potter, the Potter twins, had spent a lot of time together since birth, as the majority of twins did. Both were their automatic best friends, study buddies, competitors, and confidants. There was never any worry about being alone.
Both had spent way too much time together and knew way too much about each other. When Ivy hid something, Harry knew that Ivy wasn't saying something and vice versa.
So whenever Ivy showed signs of unusual behavior, Harry noticed and knew that something had happened with Ivy that he didn't know about.
As time passed, Harry observed her sister and came to realize that those unusual signs only showed up when Quinn West was nearby.
At first, Harry thought her sister liked Quinn, but after further observation, he noticed Ivy didn't show signs of liking Quinn but instead showed slight discomfort when Quinn was nearby.
Ivy had a problem with Quinn, was what Harry concluded.
He decided to confront Ivy about the subject, but Ivy denied having any problems with Quinn. She didn't fess up even after he pestered for an entire day.
After seeing she didn't want to reveal anything, Harry decided to wait for the day she would tell him about the matter, and till that day, Harry would always have his sister's back.
When Harry saw Quinn, he decided not to talk to him because he didn't know what happened between Quinn and his sister. But after Quinn rapid-fired his team's tactics, some of the 'dislike' he had developed for Quinn slipped out.
"Yeah, you better not," harrumphed Harry, slightly scowling at Quinn.
Quinn tilted his head as he turned towards Harry, straightened his back, smiled, and was about to speak, but Eddie spoke up before him.
"Huh?! What did you say? Speak up louder, 'Mr. Coming-to-school-in-a-flying-car-and-once-again-crashing-and-burning' Potter," thundered Eddie, a mocking smirk plastered on his face.
'He is so annoying!' thought Harry as he gritted his teeth and glared at Eddie. He was starting to dislike Eddie more than Quinn.
Quinn looked at Eddie with a surprised expression. He wanted to know what had happened between Harry and Eddie. Eddie was in full-on aggressive mode and Harry was somehow on the back foot.
He took out his pocket watch and glanced at the time. Turning to Eddie, he said, "You have been here for a while. Why don't we go back to the castle? Don't you have a Charms assignment to complete?"
Eddie looked at Quinn's pocket watch and saw that they indeed had been practicing for a while, more than he had planned to practice.
Glancing at the Gryffindor team, Eddie clicked his tongue before speaking to Quinn, "Yeah, let's go back."
As they walked past the Gryffindor team, Eddie pulled on his best delinquent punk face towards Harry.
Marcus politely nodded in their direction, while trying to end the conversation in a calm way.
Quinn, on the other hand, smiled and waved towards Katie as he walked away. Katie waved back with an apologetic smile.
After they were at a distance, Marcus spoke up, "Didn't you want to just get popular? Why would you pick a fight with them?" Marcus was a member of the trio that didn't like confrontation and fights.
Eddie stomped on the ground and hollered, "Screw that, I have decided it; I'm going to join the team as soon as possible. And when I'm on the team, I am going to play against that arrogant prick and score so many points that a snitch will not help."
He was feeling pissed because of the Gryffindor team.
Quinn wrapped his arm around Eddie's shoulders and added, "I'm surprised that you didn't back off and give them the field."
"Huh?! Why in the world would I do that?!" spat out Eddie. "I won't lay down and let them walk over me!"
Quinn nodded and then explained his statement.
"What I meant was that I was surprised that you didn't take the chance to leave a good impression on Katie. I remember you asked me to introduce her to you, so I thought you were interested, and wouldn't this be a perfect chance to establish an impression. Instead, you clashed against her team, so I was just wondering..."
Eddie's entire motivation was to get a girlfriend, so it surprised Quinn that he didn't jump on a good opportunity.
Eddie blinked a couple of times and suddenly squatted on the floor.
"Danggumit!" groaned Eddie with his hands clutching his hair. "How could I let the opportunity get past my grasp?! How?"
"That damn four-eyed Potter screwed me over," he looked up at Quinn and Marcus and hissed, "Why did I have to get all riled up?!"
"NO!" howled Eddie towards the sky.
Marcus shook his head with a hand on his temple. While Quinn cackled.
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[
A/N: So when I was preparing for this chapter, thinking how this interaction should go. In my mind, I went through events like; Quinn dunking on Harry; Quinn having a polite talk with Harry. I even thought of a duel between the two.
None of those fit the situation and feel I was going for. I thought that if I made Harry and Quinn 'fight,' then Harry's image would dip too low. I wasn't confident in keeping Harry's image afloat to the level of an arrogant kid (James Potter level) and thought that his image would plummet to a level below Draco's (at least his image in the earlier books where he was an outright bully.).
But then a thought struck me: Even though Quinn is the MC, he doesn't have to do everything. So, I decided to pit someone else against Harry. The character I could think of in such a role was Eddie Carmichael.
Now, I had mixed reviews for Eddie's behavior. Some said they liked him and others said they didn't like it. To me, Eddie here is a normal teenager who doesn't want to lose and back off. He tried to negotiate at first, compromise, but then things went as you saw.
Do tell me what did you guys think about Eddie and this chapter in general.
This was fun for me to write. Yeah~, This was fun~.
]
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Quinn West - MC - Little Lord West.
Eddie Carmichael - Chaser in the making - No! My chance to get a girlfriend!!
Marcus Belby - Practice Keeper - Let's talk it out peacefully.
Oliver Wood - Gryffindor Quidditch Captain - Sought-after young Keeper prospect.
Harry Potter - Seeker - Defeated in the battle of words.
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