You And I In Unison || Addie

Looking up into the soft featured face of the Giovanni girl, Grayson gave her his signature crooked grin and finished lacing his boot before standing up. "Oh, Addie... I was here at the crack of dawn this morning. That's how on time I am today. If it weren't for classes I'd have been here all day!" He was frantically shoving his hands into gloves as he gathered up his things. Adeline Giovanni was one of the few girls he did not try to date. Not that she wasn't pretty or interesting or anything. Just that they were partners and he could not risk losing that.

Tossing up his bat and catching it with the same hand, Grayson grinned at the girl and walked out past her. His eyes instantly scanned the sky, his brow furrowing at the site of the impending clouds. He felt like begging them to stay away from this practice. "Right. In the air then, Short Stack." Throwing a leg over his broom, Grayson kicked off from the ground and was soon circling over head. One thing he would never, EVER do, was beat a girl at flying. And he had learned a long time ago not to challenge Addie to any sort of competition. That girl always had to win.

Today was going to be awesome. The air was crisp and calming. "You know the drill, Ads." Grayson liked to start every practice by doing laps. Surely she'd already been working on that, but he was a beautiful flyer, and loved being in the air. He loved flying with people even more, and Addie was no exception to that. She was skilled in this sport, there was no denying that, and Grayson was as giddy as a child on Christmas that she was on his team. Primarily because he'd hate to be on a team that won against her. Down right scary, he imagined.

"Seriously?! No! I don't care how great your marks are, Adeline, No cutting classes. I hear you cut class without a REALLY good reason and..." he couldn't exactly play down one beater. "anyway...." Grayson rolled his shoulders but just as his guard had fallen, his head felt the bonk and it shook him out of a minor daze he'd fallen into. Turning over his shoulder he looked back, the sight of her twinkling blue eyes was captivating. While a smile threatened to tug at the corners of his lips, Grayson dared it show. Instead he licked his lips and nodded once stretching.

"Trust me, I want to beat Slytherin just as bad as you do. And we will. We will. We're just going to have to play their game. Not ours. We aren't going to win this thing like proud proper Gryffindors. Though that beater of theirs has one hell of an arm on her." There had been an immeasurable amount of joy filling the boy when Marlene McKinnon had bludgered Rod half to death. "We're going to have to play dirty. It's obvious that they could never play a fair game. So we'll just have to level the playing field. Which means not only does Eden have to get that snitch and get it fast, you and I have to be at the very top of our game. With the Dopplebeater Defense, we'll be twice as powerful, but there is something else. If we're twice as powerful, they are going to want to take us out pretty damn quick. After we practice a little of the Dopplebeater, I think we'll move on to dodging okay? I promise I won't kill you with a bludger or anything. But I want to know you can hang upside down and not fall off and die."

With a shrug he grounded, and let the bludger out. They only needed the one for now. "We're hitting that ball... together." He was looking up at her now as he took to the air again. Man she was pretty. It was a shame Addie saw right through him. She'd never see him as more than a prick she had to share a dorm with and play quidditch with. Ouch. That definitely bruised his ego a little. "You think you can handle it...Short Stack?"

Excused. Oh, Adeline had a way out of everything. That hardly surprised Grayson. He was sure Ads had a slue of excuses lined up and completely valid, just waiting for the right moment of deployment. He laughed giving her a crooked smile, "Alright alright... I know we all want Slytherin to basically eat dirt and worse, but lets just ignore them and work on us." Us. Bloody word. It meant so little and so much all at the same time. Gray was choosing to ignore this now but was going to grumble over it later no doubt.

Turning his broom away a little, he looked over the sky. He needed a good set up for the move. It was only a split second or two that he was turned away, when she spoke again. "What's gonna su...." before it could get to her, Grayson put himself between them. It was more instinct than it was logic. If he'd have used his brain, he would have realized that Adeline could have taken care of herself and either moved or hit it out of the way. Thinking about it might not have left him gasping for air like an idiot. But his first thought was to protect her and he wanted to kick himself for it.

"Oh Holy Shit." He coughed and doubled over his broom, still holding the raging bludger. "Damn it Ads." It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't knocked the wind out of him. As he descended, he threw the ball back in the trunk and kicked it shut, laying in the grass for a moment to catch his breath. "Get shots off like that every time and we don't need the dopplebeater." Coughing again, Grayson sat up. Now he looked like a sissy boy in front of the girl he liked. Great. Just bloody perfect.

What a schmuck. How could he have been so stupid? That had to be the single dumbest thing he'd ever done in his Quidditch career. And in front of the prettiest girl in all of Hogwarts too. He was such an idiot. Pulling himself up from the grass, Grayson sighed angrily and grabbed his broom. Now that his playful good natured mood was ruined, he just wanted to practice and get out of there. ”Yeah, white knight to a princess that never needs saving. How bloody useful am I?!” smudging dirt off his hand and onto his pant leg, Grayson clenched his jaw and forced himself in check. Flying off the handle right now would be ten times worse than well… actually flying off the handle of his broom.

”You’re right, let’s do work.” He planned on drowning himself in tea and sorrow later. ”Alright, try this again..” The boy took to the sky once more and tried desperately to shake off his embarrassment.

As his feet his the grass once more, robes drenched in sweat and the smell of hard work, Grayson was feeling a bit better. There was nothing like a good work out to erase a shitty mood. He strong armed the bludger back into the box and kicked it shut. Looking back at Adeline he gave her a half smile. The girl’s hair was a mess now and her skin glistened. Gray had seen her like this a billion times, but it never got old. One of his favorite things about the girl was her hard work and determination. ”Now that’s how a practice should go all the time. If I could just get the others to kick their asses into gear…” His grip clenched around the handle of the chest as he dragged it back toward the lockers.

”So Ads… I heard from Kellin Gallagher that his brother was going to be in town for parent’s weekend. If you aren’t too busy that weekend I was hoping we could get in like a.. hour or so flying session with him. See if he’s got any pro-tips for us.” He shrugged and looked around as he pulled off the sweaty robes and stuffed them into his bag. ”Adds… uhh… I was going to sneak down into Hogsmeade for a little while… Get something to drink…You…You wanna come with? Blow off some steam and just… hang… you know… outside of quidditch for once. Like normal people do?”