20th February, 1891 — Chudley stadium, Cannons v. Howlers, after the match

He was glad Cee was here to be sociable enough for the both of them, because Theo had spent the whole match sitting in this box and he couldn’t remember a thing he’d said to anyone. It was fine, at any rate; it was his job to care about the match’s outcome, after all, and they had been losing horribly until - Lestrange.

There would probably be journalists who wanted comments now, and their coach and the team, so he caught up with his sister on their way out from the boxes, relieved that Cecily would also have caught everything about the match that he hadn’t, in the moments his head had been elsewhere.

And he should... “I’m going to give Lestrange the captaincy,” he declared to Cee, in a low, confidential tone. A bit abrupt for an announcement of this sort, particularly to her, since they usually talked about all their Cannons moves together; or rather she did hours of research and brainstormed and brought suggestions to the table and he sometimes agreed to pass them onto the coach. (But, similarly, since he and Cee usually talked about the Cannons together, he figured that I’m going to was a softer admission for her sake than look, I already did.) 

But the win Lestrange had just snatched for them was - well, more than a little convenient for the purposes of selling the decision, thankfully. He glanced sideways to gauge her opinion. “What do you think?”

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   Cassius Lestrange

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Not even having Mr. Prewett sitting next to her for the duration of the game could make Cee feel better about losing. She had been fidgeting with her binoculars because she didn't want to see how the Howlers were scoring one goal after the other until - Lestrange.

Cee had celebrated with great zest, clapping and cheering loudly. It appeared that the victory had touched the usually unphased Theo, who, upon their departure from the box, announced he was giving Cash Lestrange the captaincy.

Don't get Cee wrong, Cash Lestrange would be her favourite human for the remainder of the day, but he wasn't her first choice for captain. Mostly because she didn't think he would have wanted it. He was a great seeker, but somewhat... antisocial. Not the best team player. Which didn't really matter given his current position, but would get in the way of being the captain of the team.

"If we were purebloods, I'd think you'd give my hand in marriage," Cee teased. "I do agree we should reward him in some way, but do you think he'd even want that?"

  

I’m not sure he’d be interested in your hand in marriage, Theo thought dryly, but mercifully did not outwardly react to that remark, besides a short laugh.

She was skeptical though, rightly skeptical. Theo’s mouth quirked at the corner, frustrated with himself for somehow getting himself into this mess. 

“He’s expressed his interest,” he told her, and that was perhaps stretching the truth but he did sometimes talk to their players without Cee around to hear it, and it wasn’t unthinkable that a player like Lestrange, who had been on the national team before and had a good track record, might want to advance his career, or want additional assurances to stay on their team rather than be scouted by another. “And since he’s our best player at the moment, we can’t exactly afford to lose him,” Theo admitted, thinking darkly about their chasers’ lacklustre performance today and the score they would have settled for without seekers. “I think he’d manage. And I think we need some changes this season.”

(They had been talking about starting to care this season, before. He would just have to hold Lestrange to that, to prove that he could. And - here he was, at least pretending to care about the Cannons’ chances. Maybe if he kept it up he would even get to a point where it was habit.)

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   Reuben Crouch

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"Oh," Cecily made in surprise. That changed things, if Cassius had expressed interest in the position. She didn't have him as interested in this sort of position. He was a great seeker and Cecily liked him very much, for being their best player and a fellow Ravenclaw, but he didn't strike her as the captain type.

"We did talk about that and I suppose every player has something different to offer as Captain," she began diplomatically. She had been Ravenclaw's captain for a year and her style had been different from Theo's or from those of the other captains. Cassius Lestrange was certainly a smart man and passionate player and perhaps the best from their team, but something didn't sit quite right with Cee.

"I'm just worried he may not... Get along with the other players that well. That he may not have the patience to understand them, individually. The seeker is a very individualistic position, after all." Where chasers and beaters needed to cooperate with each other and keepers interacted with the other players, seekers did their own thing. They had to be smart about when to catch the snitch, in some instances, like when the score was 500 to 100.

  

Cee had been just as surprised as he had to hear it - and as usual (unlike him) she had a balanced outlook on it, was full of common sense. Maybe... well, he couldn’t exactly back out by saying my sister said no because she was not actually the Cannons’ sponsor, but... No, but he couldn’t back out just because he didn’t know what to think of Lestrange now. That was precisely as stupid as having agreed to it in the first place, and maybe he ought not factor how much will I have to see him professionally into his reasoning. Cee would probably prefer to hear the facts.

“He was captain at Hogwarts,” Theo put in with a shrug, as if to say he’ll be able to do it again. Lestrange was - not exactly the same person he had been, then, and so maybe Theodore didn’t have much confidence of this as he was pretending, but... He had been very adamant about trying.

“And maybe being captain will give him the opportunity to actually care more about - the rest of the team, I thought.” Like a keeper, the seeker was witness to the rest of the game, weaving in and out, could see everything going on from the outside - and though Humphrey-Mavis had made the national team too, Lestrange had seniority; Idrissi, though a chaser, was far too new. “He’s been on the Cannons long enough, he knows them.”

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   Reuben Crouch

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"I suppose, you have a point," Cecily agreed. He was a senior player and he had proved his talent and skill on numerous occasions. If he had asked for the promotion, that could mean he was determined to give his all to the team. The fact that he seemed somewhat... Miserable in his personal life shouldn't have to do with Quidditch. Perhaps that was the escape he needed to improve his life.

"Alright," Cecily said, sighing. "We don't have anything to lose at this point. And he was a Ravenclaw, so he'll have a creative and intelligent outlook on things."

Cecily believed in some House prejudices. Ravenclaws were the visionaries and the creative geniuses.

"Perhaps we should invite him over for dinner, to celebrate."

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   Reuben Crouch

She sighed, and it was not, perhaps, the most magnificent seal of approval, but at this point Theodore would take it. Desperate times, desperate measures and all that. The tension hadn’t exactly lifted from his shoulders - there were other things still to get his head around - but maybe a fraction of it had loosened, which was progress.

House pride was something easy to agree about, anyway. “And if he doesn’t you can always give him some coaching,” he said with a teasing grin, because Cee had had her own turn at Ravenclaw captain once - not to mention seemed itching to be back on the pitch again herself, some days, “- but, uh, I don’t think we need to do that,” Theo added swiftly, trying not to let his grin falter at the dinner suggestion. Not that it was that odd an idea - Nathaniel Gallivan certainly might have done that, to be supportive and amiable - but privately Theodore felt like inviting all the Hogsmeade Howlers to dinner instead would probably be less awkward than that.

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First Theo was uncharacteristically passionate about giving Cassius Lestrange the captaincy and now he didn’t want him over for dinner. It was only polite to invite him over after a promotion - that was what people did in such cases. Besides, Cassius Lestrange was someone they were both on friendly terms with and Theo more so than Cecily. It should have been his idea to have him over.

She supposed it was Theo’s hate for anything social speaking. This was the man who wouldn’t even celebrate his birthday if left with the choice.

“Nonsense, Theo, we can’t just not invite him for dinner,” Cecily insisted. “You won’t have to do anything. Veronica and I will take care of it. But it’s only polite. He’s our friend.”

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   Theodore Gallivan

Please do not make me think about this right now, Theo willed the sky, trying to find a sliver of light here. “Yeah, alright, you’re right,” he agreed with a sigh of surrender, purely to get her off the topic. “I’ll ask him.” Or, well, seeing as that was very far down the priority list of things he needed to bring up with the seeker (‘um, you kissed me, what was that’ being the first), more likely he would conveniently ‘forget’ to ask him, or possibly pretend that he had passed on the invitation and Lestrange just couldn’t make it... and presumably Lestrange would not hold this against him, given the circumstances.

Feeling a flush rising on his neck, and hoping desperately to prevent it from creeping up past his collar, Theo fished for a subject that was literally anything else. “Were you showing Mr. Prewett your quidditch notes earlier?” he asked hastily; he was sure that he remembered seeing the book in her hands at some point today, despite having barely registered it at the time. Quidditch, quidditch was her favourite topic, they had just won the game. “What did he think?” Maybe Prewett with all his Ministry and quidditch connections had given her some discreet insights the other teams and their tactics - or their money troubles, who knew.

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   Cassius Lestrange, Cecily Gallivan, Reuben Crouch

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It was Cecily’s turn to flush. She and Mr. Prewett hadn’t doing anything nearly as incriminating than their kiss at the muggle museum and, part of Cee felt that it wouldn’t be repeated. It had been flirting, for the most part, it with no promise that that anything more scandalous would follow. She had tried to see if he might join her for a flight, but he hadn’t given her a concrete answer. In all honesty, it seemed to her that Mr. Prewett wasn’t the sort to a actively seek out a tryst, it rather take any opportunities that came to him spontaneously, like that time at the museum. Part of Cee was annoyed he didn’t seem to want to pursue her, but that annoyance d would surely melt away the moment he was charming to her again.

Back to Theo’s question. Even though nothing had happened, a part of Cee felt a slight panic that he had realised something had happened between them. Which could mean that other people might have gotten the impression. She didn’t want any rumours to start about her and Fitzroy Prewett — it would give the Cannons bad rep! Everyone would assume she was sleeping with him to give her brother’s team an advantage and favourable treatment by the Department of Magical Games and Sports!

“He hoped the match wouldn’t last as long as I predicted,” Cecily replied honestly. “And,” she leaned closer to him. “He admitted to favouring the Cannons above all teams! But I suppose he’d tell any sponsor the same, if he was asked.”

  

If Cecily went a little pink, Theo missed it entirely, too caught up in his own relief at having successfully steered the conversation away. Now all he had to do was keep it there, which should be a cinch.

“Well, he didn’t play for every team, he’s allowed to be a little biased,” Theo put in, less impressed by this, but in agreement that Prewett probably would tell anyone the same, just to be charming. (Hopefully he had not been too especially charming to Cee.)

“But, hm, maybe don’t mention that to the press,” he added, with a slight snort. The last thing they needed was for that to get twisted into Prewett carrying old team allegiances into his day-to-day work as the head of his department. But Theo was teasing Cecily now, mostly; not least because if anyone said something stupid to the press today, it would probably be him.

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