Finished Take off for Flight PV Aaron J.

Today was the day! The unofficial match against Gryffindor was in a few hours, and Aaron couldn't have been more excited. His friends kept asking in the days before if he was nervous, but he truly wasn't. In fact, he was super energized. Maybe even too energized. That's why he was outside now, hours before the match. He wanted to get a feel for the pitch, even though he had been there so many times before.

It was a rather dreary day, with rain clouds on the horizon and humidity in the air. April showers really sucked, but nothing was going to bring him down this morning. As he made his way to the Training Pitch, where he'd soon be playing with his teammates, he felt the squish of mud under his trainers. Once he reached the pitch, though, the ground evened and became firm again. This was a well-kept area, even if it was only for training.

Now that he was close, his eyes confirmed what he'd thought he'd seen from a distance. There was someone here! They were now sitting in the middle of the pitch, and it was a guy. A familiar-looking guy. Aaron started towards him, trying to figure out who it could be.

"Hey! You're Alan, right? From the birthday party?" he asked, a huge grin on his face as he approached. It was only then that he noticed the cat at the boy's side, who was incredibly pretty. It had very particular stripes. "I'm Aaron, one of Willow's friends. I brought the Yoohoo," he explained, hoping Alan would remember him.

"Are you a Quidditch player?" he asked, genuinely confused. Aaron had made it a point to know the names and faces of all of the Hogwarts players. Maybe Alan had just made it off the waitlist?

@Alan Vanes

As he was lazily patting Tiger, he could feel the cat tense up which in itself was quite suspicious. He would glance at the little cat and notice that its gaze was focused on a direction, so he curiously followed the feline's gaze and spotted a boy approaching the quidditch pitch. With a soft chuckle he would continue to scratch the cat under its chin as he awaited the kid and as he got closer he would recognize a kid from his birthday party; one that Willow had invited to their shared celebration. Alan had done his best to remember everyone's names, so he knew that this kid was called Aaron but that was about everything he knew about him.

"Y-Yeah, I r-remember y-you!", he explained with a light smile when the Hufflepuff introduced himself. "Th-Thanks again f-for th-the present," he mumbled as he pushed himself off the ground much to Tiger's disdain, who would quickly recover from the sudden loss of pats and go greet the first year curiously. Th-That's Tiger," he would point out quickly, introducing the feline who was glancing at Alan upon hearing its given name, before investigating the new person further.

When he was asked whether he was a Quidditch player, Alan quickly shook up his head and heald up his hand slightly. "No... n-no, I w-was j-just jogging- wh-what about y-you?", he would ask Aaron, after explaining to him why he was om this pitch. He assumed it must have been his reason to ask, anyway but perhaps he was wrong? He was glancing at Aaron a bit unsure, waiting for him to response before he could make any more assumptions.

"No problem!" Aaron said, brushing off the thanks for the birthday present. "Thank you for letting me come to the party! It was a lot of fun!"

Aaron's attention went to the cat that had approached him, and he beamed at it. His grandparents had cats, but he'd never had one for himself. He didn't think he even wanted one, considering all the responsibility they required.

"Hi, Tiger," Aaron said gently, crouching down slowly and offering the cat his hand. This was how he approached new pets, letting them get to know the smell of him before trying to pet them. He had no idea if it was the "proper" way, but he did it anyway! As Tiger interacted with him, he couldn't help but smile even wider. "The name really suits him!" Aaron said, lifting his eyes from the pet to the owner.

After a moment of getting acquainted with Tiger, Aaron stood back up to his full five foot height. Alan wasn't a Quidditch player, just a jogger. Aaron grinned at the information. Maybe they could be jogging buddies! Aaron had developed a habit of running the lake on his own pretty often. Not every day, but a couple times a week. His uncle had instilled in him that to be a professional athlete of any sort, he needed to have a routine and discipline. Aaron took his future Quidditch career pretty seriously.

"I guess not a lotta people know, but there's gonna be an unofficial match of sorts between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff today," he explained, turning his eyes on the rest of the Training Pitch. "They're letting second-string and waitlisted players have a shot, so I get to play as chaser! I just wanted to - I dunno - scope out the place I guess. I mean, I've been here a thousand times before, but I just wanted to see it again," Aaron smiled. The first year was clearly ecstatic about the upcoming match. He really wanted to prove himself to the people actually on the team, considering he was only on the waitlist.

@Alan Vanes

"W-Well t-technically Willow invited y-you, but I a-am r-really glad th-that she did!", he corrected him keeping the mood light. He did not mind that he had been at his birthday. More than that, he was glad that Aaron had been invited by Willow because then he at least had been able to meet the other student. "Th-That drink you brought, d-do you have m-more of th-that?", he wondered with a hint of curiosity as he had found that it tasted amazing and he would like to get another chance to drink it.

He watched as Aaron interacted with Tiger, a pleased smile on his lips. "I-It does, d-doesn't it?", he chuckled as he watched Tiger do what he usually did and as soon as Aaron stopped giving him the desired attention and went to pace around Alan's legs. Alan at this point was used to this, but reached down anyway to pick the feline up and gently hold it in his arms as he continued his chat with the Hufflepuff in front of him.

Alan nodded in understanding. "Th-That's amazing, i-it's nice th-that you get a ch-chance to play! Are y-you a second st-string? O-Or are you o-on the waitlist?", he questioned curiously. He would like to watch said game and kind of wished he had known sooner about it. Being around Aaron and his excitement was contagious apparently as the third year was growing excited for the other kid too!

Aaron couldn't help wondering about this boy's stutter. He wasn't going to ask about it, because that'd be rude, especially since they hardly knew each other. But it didn't stop him from wondering.

"Yoohoo?" Aaron's eyes lit up when Alan asked about the drink. That must mean he really liked it! "Oh, yeah! See, my Hufflepuff dorm is stocked full of muggle snacks, and ever since the Ilvermorny students came at the beginning of term, it magically restocks with Yoohoo, too! I have an unlimited supply here! If you ever want some, I can bring some to meals and stuff for you," he offered, his dark eyes twinkling at the idea of a fellow Yoohoo enthusiast.

Tiger seemed to lose interest in Aaron once he stopped patting him. The cat moved back to its owner, which was fine. Aaron wasn't a huge cat person, but he did think they were cool. Alan picked up Tiger and continued to talk.

"I'm only on the waitlist," Aaron admitted, feeling a little chagrined about it. "But I'm going to prove today that I belong on the team! I hope that by next year I'll be chosen!" He was passionate about Quidditch to the point where he wanted it to be his career. If other people had to fall off from the team in order for Aaron to make it, then so be it! Flying was the only magical thing he was good at, and he intended to exceed people's expectations, even if he was only a first year.

"Think you'll stick around and watch?" Aaron asked after a moment, still smiling at the guy. "My best friends are coming to the match to cheer me on, and they're really nice! You could probably sit with them if you wanted."

@Alan Vanes

The third year nodded when the other kid named the beverage again, "Th-That's the one!", he affirmed it just to make sure, grinning a bit as he did so. He listened to the explanations and his eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Really? A-And that w-won't mess w-with Gamp's Law at a-all?", he asked curiously, now wondering how exactly it would work, but he would let him know that he would love some of that chocolate drink every now and then as it was a delicious addition to foods and a yum snack for in between lessons.

"Th-That's great! I'm s-sure you can p-prove yourself today," he encouraged the Hufflepuff in his pursuits and wished him the best luck in the following game. Surely he would do great since he seemed to be quite ambitious about being an actual part of the team and Alan could not help but to admire that about the younger student. "Good luck!"

When he was asked whether he would stick around to watch the game he had to think for a second. As far as he could remember he had nothing else to do that day and was free to do as he pleased, so this could be something fun! If he were to stay he could possibly meet some new people and as it sounded Aaron wanted him to watch the game, after all he had ask whether he would like to watch it, right? And Alan of course had nothing to do so he nodded. "O-Of course I'll w-watch the game!" he promised and meant to keep it.

"Gamp's Law?" Aaron questioned, wracking his brain for the unfamiliar term. Sounded like something from science. He tried to use context clues. They were talking about the Yoohoo, and Aaron had said he had an unlimited supply. "Oh! Are you asking where it all comes from? Because I don't think it's actual magic - I'm pretty sure the house elves keep our dorm stocked. I think I saw one in the middle of the night once," he explained, grinning. "It's just more fun to think it's magic!"

As the older boy encouraged him, Aaron beamed. "Thanks, Alan," he said. He was already feeling pretty good about the upcoming match, but Alan's words were nice to hear. They didn't know each other well, but he was very genuine with what he said. And when he agreed to come to the match, Aaron's smile grew tenfold.

"That's awesome! One of my best friends is Lydia, who was at the birthday party too! And another first year named Sean Hearth. I dunno if I'll have time to introduce you guys before the match, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind you sitting with them," Aaron explained, bouncing on the heel of his foot. Staying still was not his strong suit. He looked at the sky, acting as if he could tell the time by the position of the sun. Spoiler alert: he definitely couldn't. But what he could tell was that his friends might be up soon, and they had wanted to eat breakfast with him before he met up with the team. Not to mention he was a little sweaty from his Taekwondo practice and he didn't want to enter his first game anything less than refreshed.

"If you're done jogging, wanna head back to the castle together?" Aaron asked. "The game's not for another couple hours, but I still gotta shower and eat breakfast."

@Alan Vanes

His mouth shaped into an "oh" when Aaron began to explain and nodded quickly in understanding. It still sounded very much amazing though and Alan could not help but wonder whether they had no such cool thing in their own dorm but he assumed he also could not explain about it. They had a pretty cool door at their dorm which in itself made it stand out so he assumed each dorm had something that made it special and if it was only the people living in the said dorm room. Alan was happy about his dorm, it had made him learn about a creature he had never heard before moving into that dorm and on top of that it was a pretty cool creature as well; a Demiguise.

"Th-That sounds so cool!" he would finally speak out his thoughts loudly as his eyes sparked with excitement and curiosity. He wondered slightly before he glanced at the Hufflepuff with a slight tilt of his head. "Does your family have no house elves?", he asked on top of that and glanced at Aaron; there would be not the slightest hint of judgement in his voice just mere curiosity and the desire to learn more about a fellow student. "Oh, I remember her! She gave me th-the book with the exotic muggle animals. Th-there are so many, I wish I could meet th-them all!", he said as a slight grin was forming on his lip while he was warming up to the Hufflpuff he was speaking to.

"Sure let's head back, I got t-to shower to," he muttered before he dropped his gaze to Tiger and grinned "And you could use an encounter with th-the brush as well!", he said with a snicker before he began to head towards the castle in a slow pace so that he could make sure that the Hufflepuff was following right next to him so they could continue their small chat on the way.

Aaron nodded enthusiastically when Alan mentioned that the dorm was cool. It was actually a lot cooler than just unlimited snacks. It was modelled after a sports bar - completely Quidditch themed and with a bar of snacks and bar stools. It was a very cool hangout spot, with the beds out of the way on a platform up above the bar. It was called Diggory Diggs because it honored Cedric Diggory, a Hufflepuff that Aaron had learned to respect and look up to.

"No, actually - um, my family's all muggles," he said, a little hesitant to share the information. He had learned back in December that some people were not a fan of muggle-borns. He didn't fully understand why (he hadn't really bothered to research it after his encounter with a blood purist, figuring she was a rare breed), but apparently some people with only wizard heritage hated people with Muggle ancestry. Alan didn't seem like that type, though, so Aaron tried to relax a bit. "Do a lot of wizard families have house elves? I don't really know much about them, aside from the fact that they work here as cleaners," Aaron added.

The twelve-year-old fell into step with Alan as they made their way back to the castle. Aaron laughed a little when Tiger was reprimanded for having a messy coat as well. "I think Tiger looks amazing," Aaron commented, smirking at the cat knowingly. Not that he thought the cat would understand - but it was funny to think he might.

"Have you had him for long?" Aaron asked, turning his eyes back to the owner with a smile.

@Alan Vanes