When Alex Tried To Teach Lysander Quidditch

[Alexandria Wood]

EARLY JUNE, 2023

"Learning to throw a Quaffle is an important part of life because if you don't learn then how are you ever going to learn how to defend yourself against... against beaters with Bludgers," Alex was explaining to Lysander as she tugged him onto the Quidditch Pitch by his hand.

It was early morning, probably around 7.30am, and the sun was had barely risen but Alex had been up early because she'd managed to crash on Bronson's bed last night reasonably early due to complete and utter exhaustion after the two had played a little one-on-one against one another, something they did quite often when they got the chance.

When she'd woken up in her bed (Merlin knew how she got there, Shelly had probably levitated her or something), it was completely dark outside. She'd sat on her bed, revising previous strategies by Puddlemere United she'd managed to sneak out of her dad's study drawer for about an hour before Lysander had drifted into her thoughts and she decided to get changed into an old Puddlemere jersey and a pair of jeans before rushing up to his dorms to shake him awake without a second thought, her broom and Quaffle hoisted under each arm.

And thus, the adventure of teaching Lysander how to properly play Quidditch had begun. She'd managed to filch an old broom from the shed on their way down to the Pitch, properly picking the lock like a ninja with one of the pins she'd shoved haphazardly in her hair to keep the loose bits pinned back. She released his hand before turning around to face him properly. "Now! Do you know how to mount a broom or do I have to teach you?"

((OOC: Sorry it's so long and shitty but hopefully it'll do!))

[Lysander Scamander]

ooc: it's not shitty it's fantastic!

---

Lysander had never been the sort of person who liked to sleep in late, but even he thought that being awake and doing things while it was still dark outside was verging on the ridiculous. He'd been shaken awake by none other than Alex Wood, and taken rather by surprise had needed a few moments to connect the Quaffle and broom under her arms and hopeful look on her face.

He still wasn't entirely sure what had happened in the intervening period, but he was now standing on the Quidditch pitch in the dawn holding a stolen broom in one hand and Alex's hand in his other. He was too tired to even get awkward about the whole hand-holding thing - he was just going with it, mostly wondering if she'd be cross if he just fell asleep right now. When she released him, he blinked a few times and did his best to focus on what she was saying. Merlin, it was so early. Stifling a yawn behind his now-free hand and then using it to run a hand through his hair, only rumpling it further, he took a moment to get her words to make sense.

"Um," he began eloquently, "Yeah, I can do that. I fly sometimes with my dad."

To prove the point, he swung a leg over his broom and got ready to take-off. Looking half-asleep, dressed in a too-small blue jumper which proclaimed "THE QUIBBLER" in huge orange letters, battered jeans, mismatched socks and a pair of trainers only just holding together at the seams, his hair all over the place and eyes a little unfocused, he did not exactly inspire confidence in the watcher. One almost expected him to topple off the broom and start snoring at any second.

[Alexandria Wood]

As Lysander proclaimed that, yes, he could mount a broom Alex was somewhat hesitant... for good reason, it seemed, when he mounted the broom and looked like he was going to collapse from sleep deprivation any moment. She wished she had her wand here so she could squirt water into his face but unfortunately she'd left it on her bedside table. So instead she settled for standing in front of him and resting her hands on her hips.

"Dude, are you sure you can actually fly?" she asked doubtfully, waving her hand in front of his face. "Because I don't have my wand with me and if you fall off then you're basically screwed and probably a bit paralysed for life." She took in his appearance besides the unfocused eyes, noting his rather strange clothes and she grinned a bit to herself before she clicked out of it and sighed hopelessly.

"Those school brooms are unpredictable as well," she muttered to herself thoughtfully before she pushed his shoulder a little. "Okay, get off. You're getting on my broom with me for a bit so the cold air and flippy-turney bits can wake you up. I'm not being responsible for you dying, man."

Alex hadn't flown with another person for a couple of years - the last one she'd flown with was her dad - but she had complete confidence that her top-of-the-range broom could hold the both of them without breaking in half. Plus, it was a challenge for her because it was even harder to control the broom for her with the additional weight. She threw her leg over her broom and mounted it before looking over her shoulder at him. "Get on and put your hands around my waist. I've got perfect control of my broom so this way you won't die."

[Lysander Scamander]

Lysander's eyes followed Alex's hand a little slowly, and he had to stop trying to cover another yawn with his hand, screwing his eyes shut so tightly they watered a little. "I can fly," he protested, mildly affronted, woken up slightly by the insult to his dignity, "I've had to escape angry dragons on a broom before. It's just early." He emphasised this last with a helpless shrug of his shoulders, as if to say, 'What can I do about it?'

He let her shove his shoulder back, almost falling off his broom, and for the sake of practicality just did as he was told. He liked Alex tremendously, but he was a bit scared of her bad side and didn't want to get on it if he could help it. So, dutifully, he got off - or rather, stumbled from - the battered old school broom, and traipsed over to her broom, pushing his sleeves up as he went since they barely came three-quarters of the way down his arms as it was.

He hesitated, however, when he got there, yet more awake at the prospect of getting on a broom with her. It wasn't that he didn't trust her or anything, completely the opposite, but the fact remained that she was a girl and even he wasn't oblivious enough to notice that she was a pretty girl at that, and he was like ninety per cent sure that putting his arms around her waist was not going to go especially well. He'd probably end up blushing so hard he set fire to her or something.

However, his reluctance was outweighed by his desire not to irritate her, so he gingerly swung his leg over the broom and settled down behind her. Three times he put his hands forward and three times he yanked them back at the last minute, before taking a deep breath, muttering something about manning up, and just going for it by winding one arm tightly around her waist and clinging on for dear life. He'd never been on a broom with anybody before, and he wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't fall off straight away.

"Okay," he said, his voice unnaturally high-pitched with apprehension, "Let's go."

[Alexandria Wood]

"Yeah, well, obviously not today because you look like you're about to fall off," Alex argued, crossing her arms over her chest and she rolled her eyes at his protests. "Dude, it's 7.30... it's not that early. If it was like 5.00am then I'd understand because that's early. But it's past 7.00am and you should be wide awake so snap out of it." She paused for a moment before she shot him another little grin. "You've had dragons chase your on a broom? That's so cool! What kind of ones? They better not have been little wussy ones otherwise I'll be a lot less impressed!"

Alex patiently sat on the broom, waiting for him to get a move on. She knew he was a naturally kind of awkward and nervous kind of guy so it didn't surprise her that it took him a few minutes (with a couple of inaudible words muttered under his breath) to actually put his arm around her waist. She glanced down at it briefly and was surprised to notice a long scar down his arm. Never one to shy away, she reached down and touched it (more like prodded it, actually) gently before looking over her shoulder - and wow, his face was right there - and she looked at him curiously. "Where'd you get that?"

His arm was nice and secure around her waist, she suspected he was trying to hold on as tightly as possible, and she let out a small laugh under her breath at the sheer pitch of his voice before she took off, a little wonky at first before she got the hang of the extra weight, flying them towards the goal posts. "Doing alright there, Scamander?" she asked him, this time focusing more on the flying than actually him.

[Lysander Scamander]

"7:30 is still too early," Lysander grumbled, but her smile when it came was so infectious that he just had to smile back. "Uh, I think that particular one was a Hebridean Black. For some reason he just decided he didn't want us around so we had to get out of there pretty quickly. It was fine, no-one got hurt. My dad got a bit singed, had to shave his beard off afterwards because bits of it got burnt off. It was a good thing, though, the beard looked ridiculous."

He was slightly surprised when Alex twisted her head around - wow, their faces were close together, how was this happening - and just about managed to focus on the question rather than her proximity. Pulling his arm back to take a look at the scar though, Lysander rolled mentally through all the injuries he'd received until he placed the one that had resulted in this particular scar. It was a wicked-looking thing, he thought, putting his arm back around Alex's midriff.

"A manticore," he explained, grinning at the memory, "I was thirteen and I got a bit too close. The manticore wasn't especially impressed about it. It was kind of cool, actually, there was blood everywhere. That was my forty-fifth trip to St Mungo's," he added proudly. He liked to keep a tally of these things. "There's a chemical in the skin of manticores that means the Healers can stop the blood flow and everything, but they can't prevent it scarring. That's why I've still got it."

Lysander's stomach dropped to his feet as they took off, wondering if it would completely invalidate his man-card to hide his face in her hair so he didn't have to watch what was sure to shortly be a trainwreck. Regretfully deciding that it would be, he clung on as tightly as he could without hurting her, and tried not to panic. "I'm fine," he replied to her in an impressively normal tone when she inquired, already fully awake from the adrenaline now coursing around his system.

[Alexandria Wood]

"The sun's up so it's not that early," Alex protested, shaking her head. "You're just being a wuss. Man up, Scamander. Stop being such a pussy." She'd never had a clean mouth and though she knew that Lysander was probably one to blush around swearing, even something as minor as the word pussy, she wasn't about to censor herself. Mainly because that would take a lot of effort on her part. "Oh, that's so cool! Did it have red or purple eyes? Because it it had red then I bet it looked like the devil and if it had purple then it looked like an alien and both are totally awesome."

Alex couldn't help but notice the fact that, in comparison to her midriff (which was fairly small considering she was only 5'2"), Lysander's arm was quite large, and not to mention warm as well. It definitely made her feel safe - something that made Alex cringe inside, just thinking she needed a guy to protect her always made her feel indignant because she did a pretty bang-up job with protecting herself.

"That's so badass!" From memory, Alex knew that a manticore was one of the wizarding world's most dangerous creatures. Classified a XXXXX by the Ministry of Magic which everybody universally knew meant shit was serious. "Oh! Did the blood like spurt? Like a fountain? That's so awesome! I'd high-five you if it didn't mean I'd have to let go of the broom! Forty five fucking trips to St. Mungo's by the age of thirteen is wicked! Are you friends with all the Healers there by now?"

As they flew up further into the air, with Lysander clinging on from behind, it made her insides feel all jittery. Probably because they were about thirty feet up and that was an awfully long way to drop. Spontaneously, she swooped, the sheer adrenaline keeping her from thinking about the possibility of death."Do you want to do a swirly one? Go upside down?" she asked, grinning dangerously. "I promise we probably won't fall!"

[Lysander Scamander]

"Don't tell me to man up, shorty," Lysander retorted in a very mature fashion, assuming an air of injured dignity. He was actually incredibly impressed at the dirtiness of her mouth - he didn't think he'd ever met a girl so little with such a vocabulary of swearwords! - and made a mental note to tell Dominique next time she swore at him that he'd met somebody just as good as her. Swearing had used to bother him intensely, but he'd been friends with Dominique Weasley for too long to be truly affected by it any more. Thinking that he was sure he'd promised to have lunch with Dominique some time this week and beginning to panic because he couldn't remember when, he rather absently replied, "Red eyes. Yeah, the devil," and drifted back into his internal panicking. Dominique would kill him if he forgot.

Quickly dragged out of his meltdown by the excited tone of Alex's voice, Lysander accidentally squeezed her waist more tightly than he'd intended as he looked down and got a reminder of quite how high up they were. He didn't have a problem with heights, not at all, but it was very different being up there on a broom under your own control than depending on somebody else.

"Yeah, it was like gushing," Lysander explained, lifting both hands to demonstrate before remembering where he was and clinging back on, "My dad did a quick spell on it to stop me dying and then we went straight to St Mungo's. They said I ought to have a loyalty card," he added with deep pride in his voice, continuing, "And, yeah, I know quite a few of the healers. There's one, Smethwyck, he specialises in creature-induced injuries so I see a lot of him. And, there's this girl, do you know her? She's in Slytherin, in third year, I think. We're friends," he added proudly, delighted to be able to announce that he had a friend, "She's called Becky Dashwood, her dad runs St Mungo's. We met when I was in St Mungo's a while back. She bandaged me up. She's really good. She's cross a lot of the time though," he added absently, "It seems kind of exhausting."

Suddenly aware that he was rambling and probably boring Alex to death, he hastily shut himself up and tried to pay attention to the flying. The problem was that without his thoughts and his own voice to keep him distracted, he was suddenly incredibly aware of the fact that Alex was, in fact, a girl, and he was sat awfully close to her. Fortunately, distraction came in the form of a swoop, and Lysander left his stomach somewhere up behind them as Alex dived out of nowhere. At the offer of going upside down, Lysander made a face and replied, "Do I have a choice?," lack of enthusiasm clear in his tone.

[Alexandria Wood]

"Dude, don't call me short because I can totally bring the pain," Alex threatened though her voice was more joking than anything else. She suspected that Lysander, like every other guy who was around her age, was probably stronger than her. Judging from the size of his arms, he was. Not that she'd admit it out loud ever. But unlike most of the lumbering, tall guys her age, she was agile and quick on her feet and not to mention more intelligent. As he replied, sounding like he was off with the fairies, she reached down and pinched the arm around his waist. "Hey, I'm just kidding... well, I could bring the pain, no doubts about that, but I wouldn't bring the pain to you. You're too cool."

As his hands squeezed her waist, she let out a small squeaky noise (that she'd never ever own up to making!) and glanced over her shoulder. "I'm not going to kill you! Man, relax. I'm good at this, remember? Best player in the school?" she reminded him, not modest at all. Some could say she was too cocky because of that but flying was one of the areas in her life that she actually had faith she'd succeed in.

A moment of panic set it as she felt the hands disappear sudden and she didn't know what to do - but thankfully, that was only fleeting before the hands returned to their rightful place. "Becky Dashwood? What, Marko Dashwood's little sister? She's really -" She went to say bitchy but cut herself back as he mentioned they were friends. From what she'd heard, Becky Dashwood was a little horror, constantly terrorising her older brother. "Cool. I didn't know that her dad worked there... is he nice? The only Healer I know who works there is some perky blonde one... something Robinson? Last time Bow got hurt, she fixed him up real good."

There was a moment of silence as they simply flew, something that Alex would have considered disastrously boring if she wasn't distracted by how warm Lysander's hands were against her waist. She tried to focus more on the flying but it seemed like swooping wasn't the best move as he fell forward against her. There was only three layers between him but yet she swore she could feels his entire chest as it pressed up against his back and man, it was a pretty good chest, a thought that immediately perturbed her. She tried to shake it off, change the topic when his reply broke through her thoughts. "Oh, um, well... yeah? I guess so... we could take a break or something. Sit for a bit so you don't vomit or whatever."

[Lysander Scamander]

Lysander would have argued with Alex quite intensely about that - she was short, no two ways about it - but the pinch made him jump so much he nearly fell off the broom and he was far too preoccupied for the moment with rearranging himself to insure he stayed airborne and not splattered against the ground far below. He got himself sorted in time to hear her last sentence, and a big beam lit up his whole face. "Wow," he said in a tone of deep surprise and delight, "I don't think anybody's ever called me cool before. Thank you." He squeezed his arms a little tighter - purposefully, for once - to communicate how grateful he was. He really liked Alex. She was one of the nicest girls he'd ever met.

He caught the small noise she made but decided not to comment on it - she'd been awfully kind about his nerves so far, and besides she'd probably hurt him if he did say anything - and instead concentrated on what she was saying next. "You are an excellent player," he agreed, grinning though she couldn't see it, "And it's honestly not faith in you I'm lacking, it's faith in myself. I'm quite likely to just fall right off with no warning."

Lysander didn't really understand the tone of Alex's voice as she spoke of Becky, and totally missed the slight hesitation. Deeper meaning usually went right over his head and he tended to take things as people said them without worrying about what they might really be thinking. "Yeah, her," he replied, "She is cool. I sit with her at lunch sometimes. And her dad seems pretty nice, yeah. I haven't actually met him, just seen him in St Mungo's and stuff, but everyone seems to like him a lot. He looked awfully tired last time I saw him, though, down a corridor. Probably needs a holiday, must be hard running that place. And yeah!" he exclaimed suddenly, "Arta Robinson! She's dead nice, she is, I like her a whole lot. She doesn't even mind that I'm in there practically every few days during the holidays. I think she knows who I am now," he added proudly, "I mean like puts my name to my face and stuff. A lot of them forget you pretty quickly, they have so many patients."

Even Lysander, however, chattering away most uncharacteristically, couldn't fail to be oblivious to the lack of space between them now. There was very little he could do about it save falling off, so he tried incredibly hard to concentrate on something other than Alex and the heat of her body up against his front. "A break sounds excellent," he informed her hastily, terrified he was about to embarrass himself, not even caring if he sounded like a wuss, "I'd hate to get sick on you."

[Alexandria Wood]

Alex couldn't catch the expression on his face from where she was seated but she could just tell from the warmth in his tone how happy he seemed to be about her off-handed 'cool' comment. Next thing she knew, she was fairly certain she was being hugged from behind which, yet again, did funny things to her stomach. She really should have had breakfast before she decided to fly. "You're welcome? But you are cool. I mean, you take care of dragons. You've been to St. Mungo's over forty-five times. Anyone who doesn't think that's cool is a douchenozzle."

"I know," she said proudly, grinning a little herself. It was nice to hear somebody actually agree with her for a change. Usually she only talked to other players about Quidditch and they always insisted they were the best instead, an assessment Alex always ended up disagreeing with. "You better not fall off this bloody broom otherwise I'm going to be mighty pissed when I have to lug you up to the hospital wing!"

"Yeah?" she asked absent-mindedly as she listened to him speak. He had a nice voice, she realised. It wasn't too deep to be off-setting and it wasn't oo high to make her wonder if he was actually a dude. It was just a nice kind of medium which she liked. "Probably, yeah. Healers at St. Mungo's work heaps long hours. It's a wonder they don't end up collapsing from exhaustion everywhere." She let out a small laugh, shaking her head. "I reckon if you've been there as much as you have then the Healers are just weird if they don't know your name!"

As Lysander agreed about a break sounding excellent, Alex angled the broom towards the ground and slowly pulled up until her feet were firm on the ground. Mostly, the break was for her benefit. She didn't want to get too distracted by the feel of his hands on her waist and send them crashing. She knew that Bronson would never let her live that down. As she dismounted, she turned around and sent him a small grin. "You want to go sit up on the stands or something while your stomach settles down?"

[Lysander Scamander]

"Well you're really cool too," Lysander said firmly, unable to wipe the grin off his face. He didn't think he'd ever been called cool before - he knew he wasn't, really, but it was so nice of her to say. Feeling very pleased with himself and the whole situation, Lysander decided that actually coming out here had been a good idea - provided that he didn't throw up, of course - and that he might even like to do this on a more regular basis. That surprised him so much he nearly fell off then and there, but saved himself by tightening his grip on Alex.

"I won't fall off," he promised, still clinging on for dear life, thoroughly delighted that they were now heading towards the ground. It was a nice slow descent too - good for his stomach - and so he loosened his grip somewhat to try to retain some of his masculinity. He felt it had rather slipped away from him this morning.

"That's true," he replied to her comment about the Healers, still looking pleased with himself as they landed and he hopped off, incredibly relieved to feel his feet on solid ground. Resisting the urge to drop down and kiss it or something, he turned to watch Alex dismount - she did so so smoothly and gracefully that Lysander found himself kind of entranced. She really was a fantastic Quidditch player - you could see that just from the way she flew, and the way she got on and off her broom. He thought even if he didn't know her he'd realise how good she was. Or maybe that was wishful thinking. He was not exactly the most perceptive guy on the planet.

He returned her grin when he caught sight of it, and nodded in agreement. "Yeah," he said happily, "That sounds great." Now that he was not way up in the air and worrying about eight different things at once, his mood was improving enormously. The morning was nice, Alex was really excellent company, and he had breakfast to look forward to later. All in all, the day was shaping up.

He set off towards the stands, checking to see Alex was following, and before long had plonked himself down in the Gryffindor stands, feeling very daring.

[Alexandria Wood]

Alex felt somewhat glad that Lysander was seated behind her so he didn't see the dorky grin that crossed her face when he called her cool which she didn't consider herself to be whatsoever. He was so different to the rest of her friends... they'd have probably just socked her one on the shoulder hard enough that she'd end up tackling them. As Lysander tightened his arms, Alex found herself leaned back slightly into his embrace, a movement that felt completely and utterly safe because it was Lysander who was way too polite to even mention it. Besides, he felt all nice and warm.

Something akin to disappointment hit her when his grip loosened around her as they pulled in tight to the ground but that quickly faded as he grinned at her. As he set off towards the stands, she tucked her broom underneath her arm before following suit. Being with Lysander... it felt bizarre. But a good bizarre. It was like something was different inside her than it usually was when she was just hanging around Bronson or Dhruv or Allie.

Shaking off the weird feeling, she joined him on the stands, placing her broom delicately on the chairs next to her. After all, it was her baby and it wouldn't do too well to get thrown on the ground. Especially after she'd spent so long polishing it with the kit her dad had bought her for Christmas. "So..." she started awkwardly, unsure what to say. "Looking forward to holidays?"

[Lysander Scamander]

Lysander watched as Alex set her broom down as gently as if she was depositing a baby - she clearly loved that thing far more than he could imagine. He had never understood quidditch, nor those who played it, but just being with Alex he was sort of starting to see why some people loved it so much. It obviously made her feel good, which was why he hunted new creatures - so they weren't that different, really. Both sort of obsessives in their own way.

Folding his arms and leaning back comfortably, Lysander found his gaze moving of its own accord between Alex and the prettiness of the sky, which really was very blue today. Usually he'd be totally encompassed by the beauty of the day, but there was something funny happening that meant he just couldn't seem to keep his attention away from Alex. Obviously she was really pretty, but even that wasn't usually enough to distract Lysander.

"Um," he said, clearing his throat, trying to shake the odd feeling off, "I think so. My Dad and I are going away. South America," he clarified, shifting a little on the bench, trying to seem nonchalant, "The rainforest. What about you?"

[Alexandria Wood]

Alex only vaguely registered that Lysander's gaze kept flickering between the sky and her but she just shrugged it off because, after all, maybe he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words? She didn't quite know but she found herself struggling to keep an eye on the sky until he started talking when she turned herself in a bit to address him fully. She pulled her legs up so she was sitting cross-legged comfortably.

"Rainforest?" she repeated, a bit taken by surprise. Usually it was France or Australia or something people answered with, not the rainforest. "Are you guys looking for more magical creatures then?" She shrugged a little at his question. "I don't quite know yet... they don't play many games in the summer holidays because they're all really just kind of training for competition season. I'll probably be doing nothing at home. Bronson might come over, I guess, but he's been a bit shitty lately so I don't really know for sure."

He really was handsome, Alex noticed. Though she supposed Shelly would have been more likely to describe him as 'hot'. Even as awkward as Lysander was, he still managed to look good, attractive. Before she could stop herself, she all but blurted out, "Have you ever been kissed?"