InsaneJournal

Katie wasn't usually quite as quiet when she got home from practice as she was that night. She said hello to Angelina and Alicia, of course, pet the cat, then retreated into the bathroom for a while as she scrubbed her face and tied her hair back. Then she headed for the kitchen.

She looked up when Angelina poked her head in. "You hungry?" she asked. "I was thinking of making a rice and veggie bowl. I think I have some leftover curry sauce from the last time I went out to the market." The Muggle market, she meant, the one a few minutes' walk from their flat, where she could find a lot of spices and sauces that she couldn't find anywhere else.


Though she had been out of the league for some time now, quidditch still wasn't something that Angelina always wanted to talk about, and she wasn't usually the first one to broach the topic, even if it was painfully obvious that it needed to be. That was her own issue, and she knew that, but it was... well, it was difficult. Quidditch had been such a central point in her life, something she'd thought would never go away- and yet, it had been pulled out from underneath her without so much as a fare thee well.

But that didn't matter, right now. Right now what mattered was that there was something wrong with Katie- even if it was something unspoken or even just guessed at- and it was Angelina's duty, as best friend, to find out what.

Food also sounded good, which was a nice bonus, all things considered.

"Famished," she replied, at Katie's question, stepping into the kitchen properly. "If you've got enough for two, then, yeah. I'd be daft to say no." Angelina moved to the fridge, retrieving two bottles of butterbeer- uncapping them both, she set one on the counter near Katie in silent invitation.


"I always like cooking for someone else besides me," she said, accepting the butterbeer with a light smile and taking a sip before moving to dump a bunch of vegetables on a cutting board and getting to work on slicing them up. Katie could have invited Fred over, she thought, but that would have turned into an overnight and not that that was a bad thing, but she just wanted to be home and not worrying about entertaining or whatever else would happen with a guest, even if that guest was just her boyfriend.

"Have a good day at work?" she asked quietly, humming a bit as the veggies got chopped and put into a bowl to be set aside.


"Luckily for you, then, I am a dutiful flatmate who will always eat your food." Angelina grinned, finding a place against the counter to lean- somewhere that she would at least be mostly out of the way of Katie's dinner preparations. She held her butterbeer bottle up, resting it against her chest between sips.

"Managed to make it through another day without getting-" she glanced over at Katie, preparing food, and amended her words, "-anything on me that shouldn't have been, so I'll call it a win. How about you?"


Katie considered for a moment, the knife held above the onion, then began slicing again. "Fine, fine," she said distractedly. "Do you mind getting the rice on? I always forget that takes the longest." She glanced back over her shoulder and gave Angelina a smile.

"Actually," Katie said a moment later. "I was offered a trade option today..."


Angelina found the rice in the cabinet, getting it and the requisite water into the rice cooker before resuming her previous position against the countertop. At the mention of a trade, she raised an eyebrow- well that was interesting. "Yeah? Which team? Starting position?"


"The Catapults," Katie said. She didn't know much about them. "It would be starting, yes, but …" She hesitated for a moment and dumped the veggies she'd just finished slicing into a small bowl before starting on the next. "They want me to move to Caerphilly if I accept."


That took Angelina by surprise, which showed clearly on her face. "What? Why?" Of course, Katie likely didn't even know why- or, if she did, it was a stock answer from Caerphilly that wouldn't be acceptable for Angelina. "It's not like you can't apparate. Or Floo there, at the very least."


She shrugged, just a little bit, pursing her lips before responding. "It's one of their requirements. They ask all players to live in Caerphilly. They have a row of flats there. I think the contract is two years or something, the living there I mean, then it's up to the player but strongly encouraged to stay. Team camaraderie or something like that."


Angelina gave a faint snort- it might have been a laugh, but a disapproving one at that. Her arms were crossed over her chest now, another sure sign of resistance to this idea. It wasn't that she didn't want success for Katie- she did- but she also didn't want to lose a flatmate in the process. "Is it really camaraderie if you force it?"


"I don't know. Apparently there are a few teams that ask this, especially of new players. The Arrows just weren't one of them."


"And you're..." Angelina hesitated, taking a drink of her butterbeer instead, then finishing, "you're considering it, yeah?"


Katie nodded and glanced at Angelina over her shoulder. "Yeah, of course I am. The Arrows can't guarantee me a starting position. Not even for next season. And the Catapults won't even bench me. One of their chasers got hit with a bludger in their last match and is out indefinitely. They're using a reserve but … they want me."


Angelina was quiet for the next several moments. She wanted to be selfish and fight against this, but that wouldn't win her any points- with anyone. She'd dealt with enough change over the last year, what was one more thing? Finally, she nodded once and offered, "Well, when do we start packing up your things?"


The knife slipped a bit in surprise at Angelina's question, but it thankfully just knocked into the cutting board. Katie set it down and looked at her best friend and flatmate. "I haven't accepted the trade yet," she said, though the two of them both knew she was leaning more towards the yes than the no.


"I know," Angelina replied, easily, "but- well- it couldn't hurt to get a head start on that sort of thing." Even with magic, packing up the whole house wouldn't be an easy task. She wondered, idly, if Alicia would still want to stick around here, or if this was the tipping point that meant they'd all go their separate ways. (Merlin, she was nearly twenty-one years old and she'd never lived alone.)


She returned to chopping. All she had was the onion, which stung her eyes. Of course it did, right in the middle of this kind of conversation. "So you're not going to try and talk me out of it? To wait for something else to come along? So I can stay here?" Maybe it was Katie that wanted talking out of it. Or maybe she wanted the encouragement that she should do this, even if it meant leaving her friends here without her.


"What kind of friend would I be, if I did that?" It was a facetious question, of course- and Angelina would have been lying if she said she wasn't tempted to do just that. "You've been working your arse off to get a starting position- you shouldn't have to turn it down when it finally comes along. Certainly not because of me."


"Well," Katie drew out as she finished with the veggies and set a pan on the stove to heat up. "It's a huge change. I don't know anyone in Wales. I don't think I've ever even been to Wales. Changing teams is one thing when nothing else changes, you know?"


"Huge changes aren't always bad, even if they seem like a bit shite at the time," Angelina offered. It had taken her some time to get used to not playing quidditch on a near-daily basis, but- though she still held on to some bitterness toward the Harpies- she was generally happy with her lot, these days. "And it's not as if you won't be able to come see the rest of us here in London, either. You know Fred would be staging a coup d'état if you even thought about avoiding us altogether, Caerphilly or not."


A smile spread and she leaned against the counter. "I know. I know." Katie tucked her hair behind her ears. "You're the first person I brought this up to, Ang, because I knew you wouldn't BS me or anything. I appreciate it." She dumped all the veggies into the pan. They hissed and crackled. "I have until Wednesday to make a decision. I -- guess I'll probably say yes."


"Well, at least I'm good for that much, anyway," Angelina replied, laughing a bit this time- the laugh sounded more genuine now than it might have, before. "This'll be good for you, Katie. I really think it will. And if you need me or Alicia, well, we'll only be a Floo-call or journal note away, yeah?"


"I know," Katie said. She took in a deep breath and stirred the veggies. "Thanks, Ang. You're the best."