A Waffle with a Quaffle [Open, come play! Come spectate and chat!]

[theboywhodied]

It's a beautiful day for soaring in the sky. At least....it's a beautiful simulated day, Cedric corrects himself. He stands in the center of a grassy field, hoops standing tall on either side. Racing brooms that will soon take to the sky with their riders are laid out in neat rows on either side of him, and a case containing the many balls of Quidditch rests at his feet.

He's exchanged the loose-fitted clothing he'd taken up after his injuries for loose-fitting yellow and black robes, and even that small change brightens his mood. Cedric Diggory is in his element. His cheerful, dangerous whirlwind of an element, the finest sport the wizarding world has to offer.

This should be a fun one to watch!

((And go! Use the subthreads, or start your own threads to chat and trash-talk and have a good time! Threadjacking is totally encouraged.))

Comments

[myboggartisthemoon]

"It isn't as tricky as wandmaking, if that helps," he said with an amused smile. He knew perfectly well how unlikely it was that they could work out just how to make a broom of respectable quality. Oh, perhaps they could piece together the various Charms that made a broom perform, but to cast them all onto one broom and turn it into a sleek racing vehicle? Or even a simple transport?

[theboywhodied]

"It helps, slightly. I still don't think I'll be a successful broom maker, though." Cedric heaved a sigh, picking up the simulated broom and tapping it.

"Is everything all right with you?"

[myboggartisthemoon]

"If you wanted to be, it isn't too late for you to learn. Actually learning is another matter, here and now, but never mind that." He held out a hand, and in response a broom jumped into it, to his satisfaction. Lupin knew more about broom flight than likely anyone who knew him had guessed.

"I'm fine, of course. You mustn't worry about me."

[theboywhodied]

"It'd be something to do in the quieter times," Cedric agreed, "but I'm focusing on combat first. I have to learn to fight without magic somehow."

That was high on the priority list. Also high on the priority list were the older wizards. They weren't close like they were with Harry, but there was a small common thread between them.

"You know that sounds even more suspicious, right?"

[myboggartisthemoon]

Lupin chuckled to himself quietly. "What I mean, Cedric, is that I have lived through a war before. While in my head I know that this war is much worse, the truth is, my friends have not died in this one. Harry may be gone, but only back to the pods we all came from. He may even be safer there. So no, you mustn't worry about me, Cedric, because whatever worries or pains I may have, I have felt, much worse, before."

[theboywhodied]

Cedric's fist clenched. War. Sorrows, losses, the things they've been thinking about all this time. There was more going on now, of course, but maybe the professor was right.

"...He could be safe, but. You two must be missing him." Cedric was too, but he really had no right to that, did he? The two men clearly loved Harry.

[myboggartisthemoon]

"I would rather have him safe than dead, and the fact that he is safe is what matters. I miss him, but frankly my time with him had passed anyway, save for perhaps the occasional letter, so I've really lost nothing."

Lupin was not the emotional sort, and not prone to working himself up. He had the advantage of age and experience here, after all.

"I should be more concerned with how you yourself are doing."

[theboywhodied]

'That's not nothing', Cedric wanted to say, but this was hardly the time for that. Every minute of time with someone you cared about was something important, you never knew if you had the chance again.

Cedric didn't think he would. But that was for another day. Now they're on the difficult part, and confessing is an inevitability. Might as well start now.

"...I'm alive. I'm sure Sirius told you about how I hurt him."

[myboggartisthemoon]

"Nothing of the sort, actually. Sirius... has many things bothering him," he said carefully. There was after all no really polite way to point out that his old friend was quite understandably a wreck.

[theboywhodied]

"...I think I might've guessed that," Cedric whispered. But he knows it's not his place to interfere there, not at all.

"So he didn't need me to add to them. Did you at least hear about Howard and Orc, professor?"

[myboggartisthemoon]

"Yes. I certainly did." A shadow passed over his face for a moment, recalling what he'd heard of the event. All the better that he had avoided it, thinking it less important than it was.

[theboywhodied]

Cedric looked down, feeling quite guilty. "I was there. Howard's...a good friend of mine. I couldn't believe they'd do that to him, we were never told that leaving was a crime."

He clenched one of his fists. "I tried to free him. Sirius knew I wouldn't be able to---he followed me, tried to protect me, but all I managed to do was hurt Sirius before they broke my wand hand."

[myboggartisthemoon]

"And you're feeling guilty over this, I imagine," Lupin said, already framing a response in his mind.

[theboywhodied]

Cedric nodded shamefully. "Of course I am! He told me I wouldn't be able to save him. If I'd just listened...I promised I would next time."

[myboggartisthemoon]

Lupin's smile was tired, but genuine. "If I know Sirius at all, he probably enjoyed the fight. Even if only a little and he wouldn't admit it. He was looking out for you, you were looking out for the others. Don't fault yourself for following your heart any more than you would fault him."

[theboywhodied]

"So he likes fulfilling aggressive urges?" Cedric wondered aloud, wondering just how wise it would be to let the man play.

"...that would explain why he seems to want to play Beater, wouldn't it."

[myboggartisthemoon]

"When James was on team, Sirius just had to try out. Couldn't let himself be outdone, you know," Lupin said in fond remembrance. "He was too aggressive for the position."

[theboywhodied]

Cedric shot a very worried glance at the Quidditch field, where the sounds of Bludgers being whacked could be heard.

"Define 'too aggressive'. Did anyone get hurt?"

[myboggartisthemoon]

"Quidditch is a rough sport, particularly when a Beater is... enthusiastic," Lupin said, by way of not actually answering the question directly.

[theboywhodied]

Cedric saw this question-dodging, Professor Lupin.

"Someone ended up in the hospital wing, didn't they?"

[myboggartisthemoon]

"I did tell him he might have gone a bit too far," Lupin said fondly, "but I'm not sure he heard me over his own anger with the 'unfairness' of it all."