Though he didn’t like to judge people on what was ‘usual’, Elias would admit that was rare rather than frequent to have a young woman step in (alone), even rarer when the woman in question was not a professional quidditch player. And Elias couldn’t say he recognised this woman as one of them, unless she was extremely new to the field. Well, until he knew a little more, he wouldn’t presume to hazard a guess as to what she was looking for.

“Oh, not at all,” Elias protested, brushing his hands against himself to rid them of dust, and then brushing off her question. “I was just fixing up a tail,” he said, and then gave her a daft grin to suit the next words out of his mouth. “Not mine, of course. Just a broom that’s taken a bit of a beating,” he explained.

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