Practice

The school broom cupboard held old brooms for first-years to use in Flying Class. Most were from the Shooting Star series, a cheap model suitable for official matches, but with a short lifespan. After enough use, their speed and climbing ability dropped sharply.

Quidditch players bought their own brooms after their second year and brought them to school. Most used Cleansweeps or brooms from the Comet Series.

Saturday afternoon was clear. Looking out from a window in Gryffindor Tower, Rose could see the mountains for the first time in a long while. In the distance, some had already shed their white snow and donned green.

Rose changed into a lightweight, sky-blue tracksuit she had inherited from Marge. It had faded a little in the wash, and the cuffs showed some normal wear, but overall it was still a good outfit, and Rose liked wearing it.

Just before heading out, she put on the scarf Black had given her for Christmas. Thanks to it, she had been a little more comfortable during the two months since Christmas.

By the time she reached the clearing outside the castle, James Potter and Sirius Black were already there. It was just the two of them; the other two who were usually inseparable from them were nowhere to be seen.

Sirius Black yawned, standing lazily with his hands in his pockets.

"Did you get the brooms?" Rose asked.

"Piece of cake." James Potter beamed with pride and handed her a broomstick.

"Madam Hooch said we needed a note from Professor McGonagall or something. How did you get it?" Rose straddled the broom, adjusting her position over and over to get a feel for it.

"Er-" James Potter hesitated. "All right, let's get started!"

"You didn't get permission?" Rose exclaimed in shock. She hesitated, starting to get off.

"All right!" Sirius Black urged. He slapped each of them on the back, making Rose grimace as a stinging pain spread across hers.

"You should come with us, Black. You'd make a good Beater," Rose complained, glaring at Black several times.

"Oh, come on. I'm not interested in a sport where you run around foolishly chasing balls." Black waved a hand and produced a metal helmet from who knew where.

"Is that the helmet from the suit of armor in the third-floor corridor? Did you steal it?" Rose asked curiously. "He was just stopping every student who passed by, demanding to know who'd seen his helmet."

"Give us a break. Who are we doing this for?" Potter said irritably, and Rose giggled.

"Hurry up, friends. We still have to go to Hagrid's at six-" Black urged them again. "Remus is still waiting for us."

"What position do you want to try out for, Claude?" Potter got down to business. "Chaser? Seeker? You're not really suited to being a Beater. You're too small and skinny."

Rose nodded. Those were the two positions she had in mind as well.

"In that case, you could try for Seeker. McGu will be in his seventh year next year, so you could take his place after he graduates," Potter reasoned.

"Seeker is an important position, but I'd rather be a Chaser!" Rose recalled the scenes from the match, her eyes shining.

Potter nodded in agreement. He wanted to become a Chaser too.

"In that case, maybe we'll even be teammates someday!" He began to take the practice more seriously. He could get used to working with a teammate ahead of time.

"Sirius, sorry for the trouble!" Potter shouted.

Sirius Black could only resign himself to walking over to the big tree, putting on gloves, and acting as goalkeeper for his good friend and Claude.

"Thanks!" Rose flew into the air on her broom and waved to Black, shouting.

The practice went smoothly. Potter first had her fly two laps around the clearing, pointing out minor flaws in her movements.

"Not bad, but you're still not as good as me!" Potter said proudly from his broom. This time, he really wasn't boasting. He could tell at a glance that Rose was squeezing her upper arms too tightly, causing her broom to bob slightly up and down.

"Next, throw the ball at the tree trunk." Potter held the silver helmet in one hand and gripped his broom handle with the other. "I'll pass you the ball first."

Rose nodded, concentrating and readying herself.

They tried passing the ball to each other, with the second person throwing it toward the beech tree. Potter scored seventeen times, and Rose scored twelve.

"Not bad!" Potter circled in the air on his broom and gave Rose a thumbs-up. The wind swept his hair back, revealing his smooth forehead.

Rose looked at the spirited black-haired boy, whose amber eyes were full of happiness and pride. Over the past six months and more, even though they often picked on Snape and had some troublesome little faults, even though he was still a somewhat conceited little boy at this moment.

But Rose had to admit that James Potter was tremendously charismatic, and she also believed that what Peter Pettigrew had said in the third installment, "James would have forgiven me," must have been true.

Over the next two months, they arranged to practice together a few more times. Sometimes Black and Potter came together, and sometimes Lupin came.

Remus Lupin was a quiet, pale-faced boy, a few centimeters taller than both Potter and Black. Every time, after exchanging greetings, he would stand quietly under the tree, sometimes reading and sometimes simply looking up at them as they flew.

At their fourth practice, Rose told them she had only acquired the surname Claude less than six months ago and still wasn't used to hearing it. Black also said he didn't really want to hear people call him by that name, because it reminded him of his mother and older female cousin.

So they exchanged first names.

Friendship was like a sudden, light rain, so sparse it was barely noticeable, but by the time you realized it, you were soaked through.

Rose had never deliberately tried to befriend the Marauders since school began. She had once entertained the fanciful notion that she could rewrite fate and change history, but who could say for sure?

What if her involvement caused more deaths and tore more families apart? What if it ended with Voldemort not losing?

She couldn't bear that kind of pain, so she had instinctively chosen to avoid it.

But after nearly a year among them, Hogwarts was no longer just words on a page or images on a screen. She was right there before Rose's eyes; Rose lived and studied here every day. The names that had once existed only on paper had now become her friends, and they shared memories!

She flew happily through the sky, casting everything to the back of her mind and devoting herself to the wind, with its scent of cold mountain woods peculiar to the Scottish Highlands.