Quidditch or Else

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Kuroh

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Comfort. That was the first word that sprang to mind; that and a promise of adventure to come. Another year at Hogwarts, the last one, and the journey had just begun. Adrian grinned to himself, seated cross-legged on a seat in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express. His shoes were already off of his feet and on the floor, despite his having just sat down minutes beforehand. In the corner lay a relatively large pile of sweets, the bag of licorice wands already open.

The train had only just left the station, but it was already out of sight. Adrian no longer watched it fade into the distance, his mother waving from the platform. In fact, his mother no longer stayed until it left, but that was alright. She was a busy woman, and he a 17 year old boy who had no time for pleasantries anymore. Or so his mother had said as she shook her head, looking her son up and down with a sigh. For some reason Adrian could not fathom, Mrs. Pike had been especially emotional upon this year's goodbye, so much so that it nearly rivaled that of his first year, in which she had burst into tears and refused to leave until the train had set off for its prestigious destination. Shouldering his trunk and travel bag, Adrian had rolled his eyes, leaned down to peck a kiss on the top of his mother's head (he had outgrown her at 14), and said a very cheerful goodbye.

It wasn't that he particularly wanted to leave home, but summer always seemed so boring in comparison with Hogwarts. Home was sad memories and quiet summer nights, while Hogwarts was Quidditch and dorm room pillow fights. This summer in particular had been so incredibly slow moving that Adrian had had a spark of rebellion and gotten his ear pierced, much to the dismay of his ever traditional family. In all honesty, the only exciting part of summer had been the Quidditch World Cup, which he had enjoyed with a few of his less austere cousins. He had wanted to go with Isaban, but his mother was all about spending time with family, so he had done as she asked, despite his many misgivings (which had mostly turned out to be false, but he wasn't going to admit that).

Adrian grumbled something about family gatherings under his breath, the words muffled yet some more by the licorice wand he was gnawing on. He leaned back in the empty compartment, glad no younger years had come to disturb the peace, and looked out the window at the green blur of fields going by. He felt… oddly nostalgic. This was, after all, his very last train ride towards Hogwarts. The very thought sent a pang through his chest, but he smiled. Just because one adventure was on its last legs, did not mean another wouldn't be coming his way. Adrian wasn't done with excitement, not by a long shot, and he had a long way to go before anything short of the very best would be acceptable.

Adrian breathed out in a sigh that rivaled one of Rosa Pike's, the exhale stopping when the sound of the compartment doors opening hit his ears. He turned, mouth wide in preparation to talk whoever it was into moving along, because he was waiting for someone, and nobody else was allowed to take the other seats in the compartment. Not anyone.
 
The summer of his seventeenth year had been... interesting to say the least. To start, he had gone to Italy, his home country, and had met up with all his extended family, the later he had not seen in half a decade. Then came the decidedly charming young ladies with a wish for romance populating Venice, his hometown, and a painful but fortuitous growth spurt that that saw his popularity with said young damsels skyrocket to all their joy and to the ladies' boyfriends, fiancee and suitor's rage and despair. Yes, that was an interesting an instructive summer. To top it off, he was able to go to the World Cup!

The only downside to it all was the tears of his dumped lovers, his mother's disapproval and the growth pains, really. Even the constant exhaustion of his various activities was not enough to stop him from smiling like a loon. The summer was over, however, but Isaban made sure to promise himself that the fun and excitement would not. He was to become a Star professional quidditch player, after all, and one did not become part of such an elite group by being the boring little floor mat he was in his first two years at Hogwarts.

Ah, Hogwarts, his second home, he admitted to have missed it, perhaps more than he should. But then again, his friends were there, as were Quidditch matches and the lovely and easily seduced witches of Great Britain... ah... but he had to focus, he had promised Adrian to meet him at their usual compartment, after all, and so that was with a slightly rueful smile and wink that he extricated himself from the lovely young thing that made it a point to greet him and exclaim their awe at his rather impressive physical changes.

Chatting was out of the question, but shameless flirting and greetings the occasional school friend was not out of line, and so Isaban had been a little later than usual to greet his long time best friend.

“Hey there, my friend, did you have a nice summer?” His voice, to his joy, had deepened a lot also during the summer, and he was now the proud owner of a positively sinful purr, if he said so himself.
 
The doors to the compartment slid open and Adrian was struck with a sight unfamiliar to his curious eyes. His mouth clicked shut and he stared for a moment or two before he bounded off of his seat, stumbling over legs that had already fallen asleep after so short a time. "Bloody hell, Isaban!" he shouted, stabilizing himself with a hand on the wall, his other hand over his heart as if he'd had a heart attack. "Where did… what…. Who are you and what have you done with my friend?" The person before him was no longer the boy Adrian had known. He'd become, for all intents and purposes, a man, and Adrian wasn't entirely sure what he thought of it. Everything, from his height to his voice, had somehow grown and improved. The strange feeling of his heart pounding in his chest was credited immediately towards the shock of seeing such a different person in his friend's place, although that wasn't exactly what it felt like.

In comparison with Isaban's obvious growth, Adrian's own voice had stayed the same, a clear tenor, but with his pierced ear and new haircut he seemed older. His reduced baby fat helped too, giving his face a leaner look than the years before, but he still felt eclipsed by the differences in his closest friend. He was pretty obviously shocked, too.

Once the initial surprise of Isaban's entrance wore off, Adrian grinned, clapping the young man on the shoulder. "I'm impressed, my friend. It looks like you had quite the productive summer." He recalled Isaban asking him a question, although he had been too distracted to acknowledge it, and he moved out of the way to sit back in his position on the seat in their compartment. "My own summer was surely less eventful than yours. I can count on one hand the moments that were even remotely memorable. Two out of the four occurred at the World Cup, if that tells you anything about how little I did. " He wasn't going to count the parts that he could definitely remember, but hadn't enjoyed, like his mother bringing a date home for the first time since his father's death, or his own horrendous experience of getting drunk to the point of vomiting the night after he got his ear pierced. He no longer wanted to go to go to a muggle party ever again. Granted, it had almost been worth it, seeing as he'd gone at the request of a muggle boy one year his senior who may or may not have been model-worthy, and Adrian's type, though nobody needed to know that.

"Since my summer is not worthy of any sort of retelling, unless I'm willing to give you blackmail material, I'd like to know how yours went! After all, you must have attracted quite the female following." Adrian winked, crossing his arms behind his head and leaning back against the wall. He was genuinely interested, and he could also avoid any uncomfortable questions about hook-ups this way. It was hopefully I win-win situation.
 
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