PV / Avery Chen Golden Closed

It was only the third week of summer vacation, but the Chen family was already in Diagon Alley, getting Avery's school supplies early. His father, ever organized and over-prepared, had decided that they needed a head start to their Hogwarts-related tasks. Which was tooootally fine by Avery, who was glad to spend a day back in the magical world, where his bottled-up energy finally had an outlet. And, of course, this fun field trip meant a much-needed break from practicing violin in preparation for his exam in August, and from the mountain of muggle coursework that his parents had assigned him over the summer -- the main reasons why he wasn't attending summer camp this year.

The small (but growing) boy was wholly disappointed when his parents said he had to stay home over the summer. However, it was kind of what he had expected. His violin exam had already been delayed from winter to Easter to summer. His muggle math and science workbooks were pretty much untouched during the school year, whereas his friend Hui Ming had somehow managed to keep up with his own workbooks (and Avery's parents would not let him forget it). So, as he stepped through the moving walls into Diagon Alley, the boy could not contain his excitement in being back in the magical world, where he felt he truly belonged.

"Mom, dad, you remember Gringotts Bank is that way, right?" he asked his parents in Mandarin, pointing to the columned entrance of the bank. "Well, I'm going to check out the quidditch supplies shop over here while you guys sort out your bank stuff -- see you at the shop later!" he waved and disappeared into the crowd, hardly giving his parents a chance to protest. He would probably get a scolding later, but this chance was too good to give up.

The bell dinged cheerily as Avery pushed open the door to Quality Quidditch Supplies, matching his jovial mood. Immediately, he made his way to the wall of brooms. There, near the center, was a glorious Firebolt. The boy looked at the red shaft closely; its silver stirrups glistened under the light; the inscription on the shaft shimmered, and he almost wanted to reach out and touch the broom... His fingers hovered over the handle for a second... This was the broom of his dreams.

However, a strange whooshing noise distracted him from the beautiful broom. Was there a new display that he'd missed as he bolted towards the broom wall? Curious, he turned around, only to see a girl with quidditch goggles over her eyes -- and what was that? -- she was pretending that she was flying. He stifled a laugh of amusement, just in time. Well! Didn't she know how to have fun!

The fact that he couldn't recognize the girl with her goggles on didn't bother him in the least. Nothing could deter him from what he would do next. However, by her short stature and the idea of what she was doing, he guessed that she wasn't his senior, so that made him a little bolder.

As he left the wall of brooms, he grabbed a quaffle off the shelf, feeling its weight as he tossed it from one hand to the other with familiarity. With a grin upon his lips, he speedily approached the girl down an aisle, making whooshing sounds of his own. "Keeper Chen blocks the shot, and what a save! The crowd goes wild!" he hollered in a dramatic voice, as if he were a sports commentator. "Who will he pass to? He scans the pitch for an open teammate..." At that, he raised the quaffle behind his head to make a toss, just as he was a few meters away from the girl. "Think fast!" he whispered loudly, before launching the red ball straight at her. Hopefully, this flyer in the goggles had good vision and even better reflexes, or he might be in for a beating.

It was only when he wound his throwing arm back that he began to feel a slight twinge of nervousness. Had he taken this pretend game too far into the land of make-believe? What if the girl didn't catch the quaffle? What if she wasn't ready to think fast like he'd warned her, and it hit her in the face? Or, what if the girl decided to dodge -- thinking that a crazy boy was using the quaffle as a bludger -- and the wooden ball toppled the shelf behind her? He would not only suffer a barrage of insults and a possible beating from the girl, but also the wrath of the shopkeeper.

But, somehow, Avery Chen decided that he would brave the thrill of the unknown, and his unquenchable thirst for a little bit of mischief needed some satiating. It was certainly too late for any words of protest to stop his arm from unwinding its planned toss, so the red ball sailed through the air...

…And right into the firm clutch of the girl. "Hooray!" he called out, pumping a fist into the air just as the girl grinned, undoubtedly proud of her own achievement. Not bad! "It's a successful pass! She rounds up the goalposts of the opposing team, and it's 30-0!" He laughed in both relief and joy. She did have good reflexes, after all. "Plus, Keeper Chen doesn't get disqualified for taking out his own teammate, which is a bonus," he added with a grin.

However, his relief was short-lived. Soon enough, the unknown girl reached up to remove her goggles, and he found himself face-to-face with none other than upperclasswoman Lucinia "Lucky" Thawin. “Y-You!” he gasped, eyes wide and jaw dropped as if he had just seen the boggart of his nightmares, stunned that he had almost pummeled Lucky Thawin with a quaffle. Seriously, how dumb was that? The fiery older girl seriously could’ve socked him in the jaw (because she had that much spunk despite her small frame), while simultaneously berating him with words that would make anyone other than Merciless Ming and Fearless Vale cower, until his existence fizzled into dust – and he was no more. Lucky could be scary as hell, and he’d seen it first-hand. This was not just a random girl his age in an innocent quidditch shop. The trepidation in his expression was difficult to hide. He felt his heartbeat and shallow breath quicken. Man, was it getting hot in here or what? In his panic, he completely forgot – momentarily -- that he’d received two beautiful cupcakes with hand-drawn guitars from Lucky several months ago.

❛pretty good offense, keeper chen.❜ Even though she laughed it off, Avery somehow felt guarded. Was she pissed that he had chucked a ball at her out of nowhere? You’d never know. Maybe if they didn’t have such a poor first encounter – if their first-year study group hadn’t been so loud, and hadn’t been so provocative -- she could’ve been more open to this little game of make-believe.

“Haha, yeah… Thanks,” he responded hesitantly and sheepishly. His eyes darted from Lucky to the shelves around them. Where was the door?

❛getting ready for the season next year or...do you throw quaffles at just anyone nowadays?❜ “Everyone!” he blurted instantaneously, almost shouting, and certainly without thinking. “I throw them at everyone who passes me by – in the ice cream shop, the bookstore, you know- random people I pass by on the street! No discrimination whatsoever! I treat all passersby equally! So I was definitely not going for you because you’re Lucky Thawin,” he felt the need to stress. Of course, this was only the first time he launched a quaffle at a passerby, but he felt a raging desire to make Lucky feel like he wasn’t just singling her out, because that would be bad news bear. His words only started to sound ridiculous once he blurted them out, but it was too late to take them back, so he only dug himself deeper.

“You just happened to be in the quidditch shop while I was here, so, what could I do? Not throw a quaffle at you? Pffft!” he scoffed, as if that were the most crazy idea ever, and completely immoral/discriminatory. “What was so important about being in a quidditch shop that you had to show up while I was here busy chucking quaffles?” he asked, a bit more softly now, and genuinely curious, as sweat beaded on his forehead.

Fortunately, Lucky didn't seem to question his useless, maniacal ramblings about shooting quaffles at passersby, nor was she at all mad that he had launched one at her in his deeply sunk-in game of mischief and make-believe. He would've been so wholly embarrassed if she had teased him about it before nervously laughing it off, or something. Calm down, Avery, he told himself. Maybe he could relax a little. Somehow, Lucky Thawin didn't seem to be here to make his life miserable, or anything of the sort. Instead, she was strangely not looking for a fight. (The image he had of Lucky was quite blown out of proportion with our boy's overly-active imagination at this point.)

He glanced back at her in anticipation, after asking her why she was here, and his question even seemed to make her smile a little. No, it wasn't they type of smile that was laughing at him -- it was a genuine smile that stemmed from happy thoughts. It was a new side of her that he hadn't really expected to see, considering the barbed words and sneers that had been exchanged during their first encounter. "Oh, a cat?" he repeated, feeling his nervous heartbeat begin to regulate a little. "Is it a he or she, and what're they like?" he asked, finding himself somehow eager to carry on the conversation like this a little more. It was a bit more pleasant than he had expected, and he was curious about her. Was she normally like this when she wasn't snapping at first-years? "I actually have a Pygmy Puff, Eddie, but he gets nervous in crowds, so he's at home right now," he offered, the words slipping out before he thought twice, as they usually did.

Wait, did she just say she made the Slytherin quidditch team? Avery paused, and several conflicting thoughts popped up in his head at once: 1) WOW, he's gonna have a new teammate to dominate the skies with!, and 2) Was he going to be nervous about seeing Lucky more often? However, he couldn't just stare at her in surprise as the seconds ticked by, so he responded immediately with his gut, as he usually did. "Oh wow, congrats! That's a pretty big accomplishment! How do you feel about that?" She did seem quite proud about the news herself, and Avery knew what it took to get onto the team. "Second string definitely counts! We train as a team the entire time, and nobody really distinguishes between first string or second string, and whatnot." He put his fists on his hips and grinned widely. "And you're talking to a quidditch brooms and equipment pro, so if you want any recs, I'll know a thing or two!" he couldn't help adding proudly, finding that the deeper they got into the quidditch discussion, the more relaxed he got. The usually chipper Avery was returning, bit by bit.

It seemed that Lucky could tell he wasn't totally comfortable, and that their first encounter had lingered at the back of his mind like a fly he just couldn't swat away. Somehow, she seemed a little nervous herself at times, which he hadn't expected. So, when she finally asked him about cupcakes, a bulb went off in his head. Yes! Those very carefully-decorated cupcakes were delicious, and wasn't there there even a note of apology? He remembered that Vale and perhaps a couple others had received cupcakes and notes, too. How could he have forgotten? It seemed that his instinctive emotions upon seeing her had fogged his memory. "Oh...yeah, actually!" he mused, thinking back to the cupcakes he had been so pleasantly surprised to see, with little hand-decorated guitars. "The really cool guitar cupcakes? They tasted really good, too -- I loved the flavors you chose!" He was a little surprised by her apology, and smiled a bit, fumbling with his sleeve while continuing. "Well, I guess we were quite loud, and some of us were being a bit obnoxious, so I can see how you'd get annoyed by some first-years with no manners. I'm sorry, too. For being immature." He offered an apologetic grin, before it was replaced by one with an open laugh. "But I'm actually starting to realize that you're not that scary! So why don't we put all of that behind us and be quidditch teammates who are cool with each other?" Oh boy, did he actually say that he thought Lucky was scary, out loud?