There is no other thing that Lalisa Manoban loves except for Quidditch. Sure, she loves her little Luca, but she loves her broom more (quite unfair for the kitty's side, to be honest). For her, the feeling of the Golden Snitch's beating wings in the palms of her hands and the sudden pop of scarlet and gold confetti are more glorious than anything combined in this world.

(Namjoon, her Quidditch captain, thinks she's a teeny tiny bit obsessed, but she thinks otherwise.)

"The skies are unusually bright today," says Jeongyeon, one of the Gryffindor Chasers, from beside her. "Maybe the odds are on our side."

"The odds have always been in our side, Yeon," says Namjoon across from them, drizzling more and more maple syrup to his pancakes with a small smile in his face. His mood seems to radiate since they left the common room moments ago--he'd given teachers dazzling smiles and greeted them with utmost sincerity, something that he rarely does.

(Lalisa wonders if it was because Hyejin gave him a kiss on the cheek last night after he'd done her Potions homework.)

"Not all the time," Seokjin, one of the Beaters, retorts from beside him. "We almost lost against Hufflepuff last year. Lalisa nearly died."

"Yes, but we still won, did we not?" asks Namjoon, blatantly ignoring Seokjin's last statement.

Lalisa visibly rolls her eyes. The match against Hufflepuff was excruciating the year before. The rain poured its heart out into the Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch, and thunderbolt after thunderbolt and lightning decorated the skies that the scores would have been 0-0, if not for Lalisa who chased the Golden Snitch up and up to the clouds, nearly getting electrocuted.

(Namjoon was ecstatic, of course. The boy did not even seem to realize that she'd almost sacrificed her life to obtain the Snitch for him. Lalisa wondered if she was the obsessive one... or if it was the other way around.)

"Anyways, team, we've got a game to finish tomorrow. We should all make sure to practice our arses off tonight, or else the Cup would be claimed by those snakes over there." Namjoon pointedly seethes at the table at the other side of the Hall, where the Slytherin Quidditch team were rolling in laughter while the great Jeon Jeongguk sits there, smirking teasingly with a mocking wave of his hand as her eyes lands on him.

She turns back around to Namjoon faster than lightning.

(Asshat, Lalisa thinks.) 

"Just let them be, Joon, they're just a bunch of headless idiots," says Lalisa. The tension between both Houses had been so thick that the rival House had tried their absolute best to sabotage each of the players in the Gryffindor team through useless gags. Pranks after pranks after pranks, Slytherin would have gone on and on, if not for the fact that 50 points were reduced from their House points. "I'm better than Jeon, you know that, so you don't have to worry."

Namjoon's grin returns, "Of course you are."

Lalisa beams at him and and aims to grab a piece of bacon from the bulking plate in front of her when numerous hoots filled the Great Hall, the school owls swooping down while carrying posts, as per usual. She dismisses them and instead starts a conversation with Jongdae, the other Beater.

"Oh, that's a big one," says Jihyo out of nowhere. Lalisa looks up and her words stops abruptly from her mouth as she sees a long package, wrapped in brown paper and seeming to be shaped like a broom.

(Whoever packed that broom was not inconspicuous enough.)

The Hall falls into hushed whispers, but Lalisa tunes them out. Her hands suddenly feels too clammy, her heart threatening to leave the comforts of her ribcage.

Because the package... the package was heading to her.

The broom indeed landed in front of her with a thunk in the midst of scrambled eggs and sausages, glasses of milk and orange juice tumbling down as the package settles itself in the table. Lalisa brushes off the snowy white owl that started to ravage her eggs and gulps at the sight of the wrapped item in front of her.

"To Lalisa Manoban," Nayeon reads from the card beside Jihyo and stares at her. "Well, go on. Open it, it's yours."

She raises a brow, "Who sent it?"

Nayeon holds up the small card and turns it upside down and back to back. "Nothing else is written."

"Well," mutters Lalisa, "alright."

(She is still wary about the package, but curiosity kills the cat, don't they?)

With shaky hands, she slowly takes off the wrapper starting from the handle as a small crowd gathers around her and the rest of the Quidditch team. As soon as she rips of the brown package, however, Lalisa's hand flies to her mouth in surprise.

"Lali, what's wrong?" asks Jeongyeon, concern etching her face. The girl's reaction emanated a few whispers from the people in the front, and traveled to the back of the crowd.

Lalisa shakes her head and says, tone shaky and voice trembling, "Nothing... it's just- look." She opens the package wider and Jeongyeon almost chokes on her waffles.

"That's..."

"A Firebolt Supreme." A dramatic gasp ripples through the Gryffindor table.

The Firebolt Supreme is the fastest and most advanced broomstick in the entirety of the Wizarding World. It is the same broomstick that Viktor Krum used back in the Quidditch World Cup that lead them into victory... and with it in Lalisa's possession, they might have an advantage over Slytherin in the Quidditch Championships tomorrow.

"Lali, do you know what this means?" exclaims Namjoon, appearing out of nowhere (Lalisa doesn't want to admit it, but he scares her sometimes and only appears whenever the word Quidditch is mentioned). "This means that we have a great chance of winning tomorrow! Slytherin will easily be defeated, with the Firebolt Supreme-"

Lalisa disregards him along with the cheering Gryffindor team around her and rips the entire package away, her eyes stinging for no reason at all (gratefulness, immense joy, she doesn't know). A bubble of confidence surges within her, deep in her stomach and travels to her throat, the unknown sender almost forgotten, and by the time she's unwrapped the entire glory of Firebolt Supreme, she is grinning.

It's not that she doesn't trust herself whenever she plays in the pitch (she knows she's good, of course), but her Nimbus 2000 broom had long gone lost its spark, and with Jeon using his own Nimbus 2001, he was a bit ahead of the game. With the Championships tomorrow, she cannot afford to break Gryffindors winning streak, something that she treasures for years ever since she stepped into Hogwarts.

Lalisa's grin widens as she grabs the handle of the broom and stands up, eager to flaunt the Firebolt Supreme to those imbecile snakes. Her features shift into a smug look as she turns to the Slytherin table, only for it to fade as she sees Jeon Jeongguk harbouring a mischievous grin...

...and holding the exact same broom.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

this au is giving me life whaaaaaaatttttt my motivation is up there bddhhs