I will never forget you

The next morning I woke up early. It took me a few moments before I realized where I was. I got out of bed and saw everyone else in my room was also already awake.
'Big game today.' One of the girls said.
I frowned, it was hard to imagine that they played something like football here.
'Oh hey you're up!' Rose said. 'You have to get ready. The big game is after breakfast.'
'Big game?' I asked. 'Like soccer or football?'
Several girls In the room chuckled.
'No of course not!' Rose grinned. 'Something way cooler. I'm sure you'll like it.'
'Okay but what is it?'
'Gryffindor against slytherin. And we play quidditch here at hogwarts.'
'Quid what?'
'You have to see it. That's easier then explaining.'
'Yeah and muggles don't understand it anyway.' A girl said.
'I'm not a muggle.'
'Technically you are. You're not a witch, so that makes you a muggle.'
'Well you're a mortal then.'
'I know and you are too. You can die right?' The girl grinned.
'I didn't mean it like that.'
'Sorry, is there another definition of mortal which I didn't know of?'
'In my world it means you have no special powers.'
'Actually the same as a muggle but they call it different.' Rose said.
'What makes you different then?' The girl asked.
'She's related to the Greek gods.'
'Shut up. Really?'
I nodded. 'Yeah.'
'That's pretty awesome!'
'If you say so.'
'She has amazing water powers!' Rose said excited.
'Rose maybe-'
'Show us!' Another girl said. 'I really want to see that.'
'I really think now isn't the best time. We have to be in time for the ehm quidditch thing.'
'She's right. But you have to show us later, okay?' The first girl said.
'Okay.'

I couldn't believe how the people here could get used to all the amazing things. A bowl of cereals was nothing compared to the breakfast here. I almost forgot to eat because I was too amazed by everything around me.
Then James waved his hand in front of me and I focused on him.
'Hey!' He said.
'Hey.'
'Big game today!'
'Yeah everyone is talking about it.'
'Guess who's playing?'
'Al?' I asked.
'Well yeah, but I'm going to play too!'
'So you're going to play against your little brother?' I grinned. 'I hope slytherin wins then.'
'Ohh you really can't say that! You're part of gryffindor now remember?'
I shrugged. 'So?'
'You can't cheer for slytherin. It's our biggest rival! Gryffindor will hate you if you cheer for the slytherins.'
'I don't really care actually. It's not that I go to this school.'
'You're impossible.' James sighed. 'Anyway, I have to go now. Prepare and everything. Wish me luck!'
'I'll think about that.' I said grinning. James smiled at me and then left with a few others who were wearing the same outfit as he, apparently the others in the gryffindor team.
'Common.' Rose said. 'We need to go too if we want to have good places.'
I nodded and followed her into the hallway. It was so busy everywhere.
'So many people.' I said to no one specific. Then I spotted him. He was wearing the same kind of outfit as his brother, but then green.
'Al!' I said happily, walking over to him.
He turned around. 'Hey!'
I gave him a quick hug. 'Nervous?' I asked. 'People keep saying its a "big game".'
'Yeah it sort of is. Gryffindor against slytherin and all.'
'Well I don't get anything of that game of yours, but good luck.' I kissed him quickly on his cheek and heard people grin. Without saying anything else I turned around and went looking for Rose again. She was standing not far away from me, smiling.
'Let's go.' She said. 'And I hope for the slytherin team that you didn't distract Al too much from the game.'
'Why would I have distracted him?' I asked.
She gave me a meaningful smile. 'You know what I mean.'
We walked together with everyone else towards the quidditch field, or however they might call it, and took place on the tribunes. I tried to figure out how the game worked but nothing made sense. What could rings on super high poles have to do with the game?
Then the players appeared on the field and they all had large sticks in their hands, no wait, not just sticks, broomsticks.
I turned to Rose. 'Pleas don't tell me those things can actually fly.'
She grinned. 'Just like the ones in the fairy tails, but then better.'
'No way. This is... Unbelievable.'
'I want to see your face if you see them playing.'
'I thought I was prepared but now I'm not sure anymore.'
'Look! They're about to start!'
The two teams waited for the signal and then all flew in the air. I gasped and Rose laughed. Then suddenly they started to kick flying balls with baseball bets.
'Isn't that dangerous?!' I asked.
Rose nodded. 'True! But we don't have normal medicines here, but I guess you thought of that yourself already.'
'No not really.'
I looked around, feeling like I needed two pairs of eyes more if I wanted to see everything that was happening. I spotted two boys flying far above the others, it was like they were looking for something.
'Why aren't Al and James joining the game?' I asked.
'Oh they are! Don't worry! They're seekers.'
'What?'
'They're amazing with their broomsticks and their only goal in the game is to find the golden snitch, a tiny golden ball with wings. If you catch it, you win the game.'
'Funny that both the potters are seekers.'
'Not really. Their dad was a seeker too, and his dad was also a seeker. Must be in their blood.'
'Oh.' I said wondering how much I actually knew about Al and his family.

The game went on and on, several times I was scared to death because one of those creepy crazy balls almost hit someone from his or her broomstick.
I really couldn't believe that people did this for fun. To me it looked more like suicide.
After two hours it was getting a bit boring, though most of the other students still seemed to enjoy every seconds. I get bored easily so maybe that has something to do with it.
'How long till the end of the game?' I asked Rose. I hoped I wasn't bothering her with all my questions.
She shrugged. 'It ends when one of the seekers catches the snitch.'
'Are you serious? That could take forever!'
'Yeah but most of the time it doesn't take forever.'
'And the one who catches the snitch wins?'
'No the one with the most points, which is actually always the team that caught the snitch.'
'Makes sense.'
We watched the game in silent for a while before another question popped into my head.
'Can you get something to eat here?'
Rose laughed. 'You're really enjoying the game, aren't you?'
'I don't get it so it's not really interesting to watch. And every time I think someone is going to die, and I don't want to see someone die.'
'You're funny. You can buy some food over there, oh and here is some money, you can't pay with your muggle coins here.'
'Using US dollars in England wouldn't work anyway.'
I took the money from Rose, weird big coins, and walked in the direction Rose had pointed to. There was a guy standing behind a desk.
'Hey you're the girl who's not a witch right?' The guy said.
'Yeah, how do you know?'
He shrugged. 'A lot of people know.'
'That's weird.'
'Well it doesn't look like you're trying to hide you're different.'
'What is that supposed to mean?'
He shrugged again. 'Nothing... Something. Would you like to buy something.'
I raised my eyebrow at him. 'Yeah that's why I came here for.' I looked at the food on the desk, mostly candy. I'd expected m&m's or popcorn or snickers, anything except this.
'What is this?' I asked.
'Candy.' The guy answered.
'Yeah I can see but what kind of candy.'
'If I were you I would buy this and this.' He pointed two sorts of candy out, something that looked like chocolate frogs and weird looking jelly beans.
'Okay I take both.'
'Great choice!' He said handing me the candy.
'Here's some money, take how much you need and give everything else back. I trust you okay?'
He nodded. 'Don't worry. I'm not going to betray someone who doesn't understand this world.'
'Thanks, I think.'
I walked back and sat next to Rose again.
'What did you buy?' She asked me.
'This.' I said showing her the candy I bought.
'Well what are you waiting for? Try it!'
Something about the smile on her face told me I should watch out for what was about to come.
'Okay...' I looked at the candy and decided to start with the jelly beans. How bad could they be? I put one in my mouth and chocked, then spit it out.
'This is disgusting! What the hades is this stuff?!'
Rose only laughed. 'What did it taste like?' She managed to ask.
'It was gross. Really gross. I think something like snot.'
'Oh my god!' Rose laughed even more now. 'I'm so glad I never had one with a taste like that.'
'I'm not going to eat that stuff anymore.'
'They're not all bad.' Rose picked a jelly bean out of the box and put it in her mouth. 'This one tasted like banana.'
'I'm still not going to eat it.'
'Good. More for myself. You should try the chocolate frogs, oh and hold them tight. They might jump away.'
'What?!'
'Just try it.'
I hesitated for a second, but then pulled off the plastic around the frog. It immediately started to move and I almost dropped it.
'What do I have to do now?' I asked looking at the struggling chocolate frog in my hands.
'Eat it!' Rose said putting another jelly bean in her mouth.
'But it's alive!'
'No it moves. That doesn't mean it's alive.'
I looked at her. 'Are you serious? It's a moving frog! Sure it is alive!'
'Just eat it! It's only chocolate.'
'No more surprises?'
She shook her head and I slowly put the frog in my mouth. It stopped moving and melted on my tongue. The chocolate was delicious and soon I finished three chocolate frogs.
'Look! I think James saw the snitch!' Rose said excited. I focused on the game again and saw both James and Al chasing a small ball.
James could almost touch it when it suddenly made an unexpected turn and flew away from the two boys. They both started chasing it again and this time it was al's time to lead. He reached out his hand and his fingertips touched the snitch, then it disappeared in his hand. Al had caught the snitch.
I jumped up and cheered but Rose pulled me down again.
'Are you crazy?' She asked. 'We lost! You can't cheer for Slytherin.'
'Oh right. I forgot about that. Sorry.' I looked at the field again where all the players were standing on the ground. The slytherin team was cheering, giving Al high fives. I looked at the gryffindors and specifically at James, who looked a bit annoyed. He'd lost from his little brother.
'Common.' Rose said. 'We're going to welcome the Gryffindor team back in the common room.'
'But I want to tell Al he did a great job!' I protested.
'You can do that later. Let's go.'
I followed Rose back into the school, up all the stairs and into the common room. Everyone was talking to eachother, discussing the game, no one said something to me, not that I understood what they were talking about but it would still be nice to not feel alone. I wished that I could be with Al practicing at the river again. Those were good times. Just me and him.

Notes