After Practice While It's Raining

Alicia Spinnet had been born on a Quidditch pitch. At least, that was how her father liked to tell it. Her mother would swear that she'd made it to St. Mungo's before the actual birth, but there was no dissuading Mr. Spinnet from the story.

Alicia tells Katie this as they're trudging back to the locker rooms in the rain, four steps behind a depressed Angelina. Katie's covering her mouth with that hand not holding her broom, trying to muffle her laughter enough that Angelina won't hear. "My dad tells this story to everyone he meets," she says in Katie's ear, "so when you come visit this summer, be prepared. My mum will just shake her head and roll her eyes, but watch, no less than five minutes later she'll be telling you they bought me my first practice broom when I was four."

Angelina heads immediately for the shower to drown her practice woes, but Katie and Alicia hang up their brooms and collapse on the bench between the two rows of cupboards. "How many years of this and I still don't like these showers," Katie sighs, tugging off her mud-caked shoes before turning to help Alicia with the horrible wet knots in her laces. They kick the shoes across the aisle, and Alicia points her wand at them. "Scourgify!"

Alicia looks at Katie and laughs. "You and your Muggle water pressure." Katie holds out her arms for her to unbuckle the forearm pads. "Wait, my hands are still too cold. These gloves are worthless, really."

"I'll get you a new pair for your birthday," Katie promises. "Here, I'll do yours first." She wiggles her fingers for a moment and then works the stiff leather free of the iron buckle. Alicia's pads drop to the bench with a wet, squishy noise. "So much for being waterproof."

"They've softened up too much, I'll have to order a new pair of those as well." Alicia flexes her hands and tackles Katie's pads; they fall onto to the bench with a plunk.

"Christmas," Katie says, smiling, and reaches for the laces on Alicia's practice robes. "God, I can't believe the amount of mud we're covered in."

"You're telling me." The water drones on in the shower room. "Angelina's going to drown."

"She's just following Wood's example." Katie leans down to unbuckle her shin pads as Alicia strips off the sopping robe. "Suffering for the cause and all that."

"She should save it for the next match," Alicia replies, and removes her own shin pads. "How are we going to get back to the castle without getting soaked again?"

Katie shrugs. "Wait it out in here?"

Alicia unlaces Katie's robe and helps her peel it off. "We might be in here all day, you know."

"Someone will come get us with umbrellas," Katie insists. She wrinkles her nose at the wet mass of gray. "At least the mud doesn't show up that much," she says, but it's more of a question and Alicia laughs. Katie sighs. "Maybe not."

They spell the robes clean and dry, and hang them up. "How many Galleons you want to bet that the boys just leave theirs in a heap until the next time?" Alicia asks.

"None, are you bloody insane? You know they leave them in a big pile!" Katie replies dramatically, and nearly trips over the stack of pads on the ground.

"Klutz," Alicia chuckles, picking them up; she drops Katie's into her hands. "Ugh, we're still all wet."

Katie looks into the mirror above the sink and makes a face. "And I've got mud in my hair. It's official, I'm braving the horrible showers. Once Angelina stops trying to flood the place. Hey, Angie!" she shouts, "you had to've gotten the mud off by now, I reckon!"

Angelina shouts back something they can't quite make out but which sounds rather obscene and Katie collapses against Alicia in a fit of giggles. "I should be more serious about this," she hiccups, "but we've done so awful so far this season that I almost don't care."

"It was only practice." Alicia's voice is muffled as she pulls off her sweater. "And there's more than a month until the next match."

"I could make some horrible comment about Ron Weasley right now," Angelina says darkly, coming into the changing room wrapped in a towel, a cloud of steam following her, "but I'll save it for the next time I have to scream at him."

"Did you save us any hot water?" Katie asks, and Angelina raises an eyebrow at her. Katie grins. "C'mon, Alicia, let's go get this dirt off before I scream."

The water is blissfully warm after the cold rain, and they let it pour down on them for a full five minutes before Alicia squeezes some shampoo from the bottle and starts working it into Katie's hair. Katie sighs audibly above the roar of the water, and Alicia can practically see her muscles relaxing. "Should we stay in here all day?" she asks, her mouth close to Katie's ear.

"Oh yes. Much better than a rainstorm." Katie leans back into the water and her hands join Alicia's in rinsing out the lather. The tile is slick beneath their bare feet; the soapy water swirling around the drain before disappearing. Alicia picks up the Halford's Hair Smoothing Conditioner (With Anti-Frizz Charm) and shakes a glob of it out. "Where's the comb?"

Katie finds it in one of the soap dishes built into the wall and hands it over. "You're too sweet to me, really," she says in Alicia's ear.

"You say that after every practice," Alicia replies, but she's smiling. "At least out here there's not a dozen other girls coming in to use the showers and thinking we're odd." She works the Hair Smoothing Conditioner into Katie's dripping hair and then combs it through to the ends. "Did you see that article in the Prophet about Oliver's first match?"

Katie makes an excited noise as she grabs the shampoo. "I did! I can't believe that Cormack got injured badly enough that they had to pull him out. It was that bloody Wimbourne Beater's fault and he didn't even get a penalty!"

"Madam Hooch never would have let that one slide by," Alicia agrees, tipping her head back into Katie's hands and sighing. "That feels fantastic, Katie."

Katie starts to say something but she's interrupted by Angelina hollering from the changing room. "I'm going back to the castle!"

"Bye!" Alicia and Katie shout back. Alicia wipes away the shampoo that's sliding down into her eyes and moves under the spray to rinse. "What were you saying?" she asks Katie.

"Just that I almost like it when it rains during practice."

"So that we quit early?"

Katie laughs and starts combing the conditioner through Alicia's hair, her fingers working out tangles as she goes. Matter-of-factly, she says: "So that I get to spend this time with you."