force of nature

“Hufflepuff has the best Quidditch team in the school, and I have four eyes and a pair of rainbow dragon wings. Hasn’t been true for a good while now, darling.” Vidia rolled her eyes, starting to get the sense that she wasn’t going to be able to make this annoying kid go away with just her usual attitude. “Whatever. If you insist on staying to look, it’s black with a gold trim. The broom is the new Starsweeper XXV.”

Vidia dramatically gasped. “Oh Fawn, you’ve discovered my secret! I do care, and all I really needed was to let some kind soul in to bring out my inner light.” She snorted derisively, entirely unflattering but seemingly appropriate. “Seriously? You think, what, you can make some heartfelt plea to my ‘nice side’ and we’ll suddenly be besties? Grow up, darling. That’s the kind of obnoxious nonsense only Tinkerbell buys into.”

“Oh, look what the Hippogriff dragged in.” Vidia rolled her eyes. “No, Gladstone, I don’t want to ‘borrow’ your broom- I want to actually win Quidditch matches, not plod along at a snail’s pace. If you want to spend your evening looking for my broom, be my guest- I don’t care either way.”

Vidia raised an eyebrow. “Uh huh. I’m sure that’s exactly how it happened.” She said, as deadpan as possible. “I mean, I’m not stopping you from leaving, darling. I wouldn’t be wasting my time looking if I had any choice, so if you want to waste your time as well, then stay. Your loss.”

“Well, no, not really.” She paused for a moment, crossing her arms. “It had my name on it. Picked up the case but left my bags? Seems pointless.” Vidia scowled. “Aren’t you Hufflepuffs supposed to be good at finding things? Or did- Oh, I get it. I knew that little nerd Haddock got himself and someone else kicked off the Quidditch team last year. Let me guess- that was you, darling. So you can’t play Quidditch and you can’t find anything. What can you do?”

“Did you try summoning it?” Vidia rolled her eyes, doing a poor imitation of Hiccup. “Of course I tried summoning it. But it’s got an anti-theft charm on it and it clearly hasn’t finished adjusting to me yet. Besides, the stupid damn stairs screw over summoning spells all the time.” She smiled- mostly with malice, but perhaps with a hint of sincerity. “It’s a fantastic broom, and if my team is half-decent at the game it’ll win us the house cup.”

Vidia rolled her eyes and sighed. “You’re an idiot, Haddock, and I think you fucked up royally by getting kicked off your team, but you know your brooms. Black case, gold inlay, it’s the new Starsweeper XXV.” She gritted her teeth- she was loath to ask anyone for help, but the kid was useful, if nothing else. “Just... let me know if you see it.” 

Vidia crossed her arms and raised one perfectly manicured eyebrow as the boy bowed dramatically- and smacked himself in the face with his robe. “Of course you’re a Hufflepuff, I never would have guessed. You badgers are all supposed to be good at finding things, yes darling? Vidia Morgan will be the name on my case.” She tried to at least tone down her annoyance at his exuberant smile- getting to training was more important right this moment.

Vidia rolled her eyes, deciding not to dignify the boy’s ribbing with an answer. “I just got off the train, put the damn case with the rest of my bags so I could take them down to the Common Room, left for two minutes, I get back and the case is gone.” She simmered, gritting her teeth. “So either some nitwit’s picked it up or an asshole with a deathwish thinks it’s funny to hide it. Either way, I’ll hex them to next week if I find out who it was.”

If she wasn’t so incensed over misplacing her broom case, Vidia would probably have laughed at Valka’s wild theory. “Gogo’s too busy trying to wrangle her team out of their books and onto the field, and my darling Tinkerbell has been trying to beat me for years. But that’s a cute thought.” Now that she’d mentioned it, Vidia mused it was probably the little Gryffindor twit that had hidden her case somewhere. Pleased to hear that she had a good reason to excuse herself from her coach’s ‘company’, Vidia summoned up her most vitriolic smile. “Oh then please, don’t let me interrupt. Enjoy your tea break, ‘teach. Ta ta.” 

“My teammates would only miss me because they’d lose every game otherwise.” Vidia ignored the insinuations she could hear beneath her coach’s words- she hadn’t worked her way to the top of her game by listening to idiots. “I could ask any Slytherin that wanted to win the house cup and I’m sure they’d give me their broom. It’s more that I’m not sure anyone in the castle can afford to replace mine, and I don’t have the time to be filling out insurance paperwork.” She crossed her arms. “And what are you doing wandering the halls anyway, Madame Valka? Surely you’ve got some group of scared little first years to be barking at.”