Author's Note: Written for Round 9 of the QLFC

Team: Pride of Portree

Position: Captain

Captain's Prompt: Goggles: Write about a witch or wizard seeing someone in a new light.

Word Count: 2,361

Additional Author's Note: Heidi Macavoy is listed as a Chaser on the Hufflepuff team during the 93-94 school year on the HP wiki. There's not a lot of information about her, but I'm going to assume that she's in her 7th year, since she's not on the Hufflepuff team in Harry's 5th year (and Quidditch was cancelled in his 4th year because of the Triwizard Tournament). Also, per canon, Marcus Flint does have to re-do his seventh year (which is Harry's third year).

Chasing a Chaser
"You can't be serious, Professor!" Heidi Macavoy, Hufflepuff Chaser and seventh-year prefect, exclaimed miserably. "Why should I have to tutor….him?!" She certainly hadn't expected this line of conversation when she'd been asked to stay after class.

Professor Vector sighed and fixed Heidi with a tired look. "You've been at the top of my class for the past six years, Miss Macavoy. You are also a prefect, and I happen to know you're incredibly reliable."

Heidi sighed. She knew that she'd already lost. 'Am I the typical Hufflepuff or what?' she lamented silently.

"I know that you can do this." Professor Vector smiled. "Think of it as practice. I happen to know that if you can do this, then your Arithmancy apprenticeship will be a cakewalk."

"Do you mean-?" Heidi's eyes widened as Vector held up a scroll with a very distinctive wax seal pressed against the golden ribbon that held it closed.

"It only came this morning, but I know an acceptance scroll when I see one," Professor Vector explained. "I hoped that it would soften the blow of having to attend to this...less pleasant task."

"Don't worry, Professor," Heidi said, taking the scroll with a determined fire in her eyes. "I won't let you down."

"If you can get into such an elite program on your first try, then tutoring that thick-headed lummox should be child's play," Professor Vector said, her lips twitching upwards in the tiniest of smirks.

Heidi shuddered as she thought of his thuggish face. She'd faced him plenty of times over the years on the Quidditch pitch, but unsurprisingly, hadn't had many classes with him. He'd always been a year above her in school, but after his poor academic performance the year before, he'd returned to retake his seventh year. Some of her teammates believed that he'd only come back to regain his honor on the pitch after having suffered such a terrible defeat at the hands of Gryffindor the year before, but Heidi prefered to reserve her judgement.

"You're being ridiculous, Heidi," she scolded herself as she walked slowly down to the Hufflepuff dorms. Her fingers tightened around the scroll in her left hand and she resolved to send an owl to her parents to tell them the good news. Still, she couldn't help but think of the folded parchment in the pocket of her robes that held the time and location of her first study session with Marcus Flint.

The classroom was empty when she arrived.

"Typical," she muttered under her breath, shifting the weight of her rucksack onto her other shoulder. "Oh well, I'm already here. Might as well start on my own homework until His Tardiness arrives."

She snorted at her own joke, then pulled out her books. Both Snape and Flitwick had assigned at least fifty pages of reading, and she had two essays due by Friday. Luckily, Lupin had assigned a fairly simple task—she was to draw the Dark creature of her choice and then write out five useful facts about it, followed by a list of strengths and weaknesses.

Fifteen minutes later, Heidi slammed her Potions textbook closed and slipped it back into her backpack.

"Ugh!" she sighed loudly, resting her head against her Advanced Charms book. She needed a break and it wasn't even halfway through the year.

"Hullo." She nearly jumped out of her seat at the sound of the gruff male voice coming from the shadows. When she looked up, she could see Marcus Flint's face. He was scowling, which was apparently his favourite expression. Heidi wasn't altogether sure if he was capable of anything else.

"Uh, hi," she replied, giving him her best superficial smile. "Professor Vector said that you needed...er...assistance with some of the concepts, so here I am!"

He mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that?" Heidi said, her smile wavering.

"Nuthin," he grunted, slouching over to the chair beside hers.

He sat down heavily, and Heidi was struck by how fragile the chair looked underneath him. With his wide shoulders, bulky build, and long legs, Flint was much bigger than he seemed on the Quidditch pitch. Even though they were both Chasers, Heidi mostly hung back near their Keeper, Sonja, and volleyed the Quaffle down the court to the other Chasers. Cedric, their captain, trusted Heidi to reliably steal the Quaffle, avoid the Bludgers, and work with Sonja to create a nearly impenetrable defensive stance while Cedric focused on the Snitch. This tactic had led Hufflepuff to victory more than once. Flint, on the other hand, was not only the Captain of Slytherin's Quidditch team, but was well-known for his aggressive playing style.

"So, what would you like to start with?" Heidi asked politely as Flint spread the materials out on the table.

"Ehhhhhh," Flint murmured dismissively, staring balefully at the pieces of paper in front of him as though they'd personally offended him.

"That's ok," Heidi said, even though it wasn't. She was beginning to get annoyed at how flippant he seemed to be about his school work. No wonder he was redoing his seventh year! She couldn't believe his laziness.

She turned his textbook to the first page of the reading. "Ok, then. So as you can see here on page thirty-two—"

"You mean page twenty-three," Flint interrupted.

Heidi looked down at the page number. The three and two stared back up at her. She frowned, remembering something from her time at Muggle elementary school. A few boys in her class had to go to a special reading class in the late morning before lunchtime because they had a similar issue.

"Um...Flint?" she asked tentatively.

"Marcus is fine" he replied.

"Very well, Marcus. I want you to read this paragraph to me," she said, pointing her finger at the top of the page.

He stared at it and squinted, his scowl returning. When he began to read, she noticed that he kept stuttering and mispronouncing words. When he finally finished, he looked up at her, his eyes filled with shame. "Bet you think I'm stupid."

"Not at all!" Heidi surprised herself at the level of vitriol in her voice. "I'm not completely sure, but I think I know why you're having problems reading."

He stared at her in shock.

"In the Muggle world, we call it dyslexia. It's when your brain messes up how you see letters, words, and sometimes numbers."

He looked down at the table and then looked back at her suspiciously. "So...this diss...thing-"

"Dyslexia," Heidi corrected him.

"Yeah, whatever, so this dyslexia thing…" he trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

"It's ok, Marcus," Heidi said, placing a hand on his shoulder without thinking. As a prefect, she'd often found that reassuring touches could go a long way with a teary-eyed first year or a fellow seventh year caught up in an anxious depression spiral.

He flinched slightly, then stared incredulously at her hand as she squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

"You...you're not afraid it'll rub off on you?" he asked.

Heidi shook her head. "No, that's not how it works, I'm afraid. But I think that you ought to talk to Madam Pomfrey about it. If dyslexia affects wizards and witches, I'll bet there's some sort of spell or potion you can take to help you. Perhaps a pair of charmed glasses…"

"Hmph," Marcus grunted. "Can't wear glasses."

"Why not?" Heidi asked, puzzled.

"They fog up when it's cold or get all blurry when it's raining on the pitch," he replied, deadpan.

Heidi laughed out loud at this. "Just cast the Impervius charm on them, and they'll be fine! Sonja wears her glasses at every match and she rarely has trouble blocking a shot."

Marcus looked relieved at this new line of conversation. He even smiled somewhat shyly, revealing a row of crooked teeth. "Yeah, well our team may have better fliers, but your team does have solid defense."

"Oi! You take that back!" Heidi roared, and after a few minutes bickering about the virtues of their teams, they fell into easy conversation about the upcoming Quidditch game.

By the time their study session had ended, he'd actually completed the homework, though she still had to help him with some of the letters. She'd read the assignment aloud and he'd frown a bit, and then ask for clarification. Heidi began to think that he wasn't such a blockheaded jock so much as someone with a learning disability. It made her wonder if she'd misjudged him all this time. Sure, Slytherin was known to cheat at Quidditch, but she'd also nearly knocked a Ravenclaw off his broom before in the heat of the moment.

"I'll walk you back to your common room," Marcus said, as they packed away their books. "I've heard that the dementors already tried to attack someone walking alone."

Heidi glared at his extended arm. "I am not a damsel in distress!"

Marcus shrugged, but he lowered his arm. It may have been the shadows playing tricks on her eyes, but Heidi noticed that his cheeks seemed to have gone a bit red and blotchy. "All I'm saying is that it's safer in numbers."

Heidi looked up at him, weighing her options. He was awfully large and intimidating. She doubted that anyone would bother them in the halls. She did have patrols to do, but they were mostly of the kitchens and Hufflepuff common areas. Besides, Professor Sprout already knew about her study session, so Heidi was fairly certain that Cedric had probably already completed her duties for the night. He was a good captain and a great prefect partner, but Heidi felt a vague sense of guilt at taking advantage of Cedric's good nature. Still, she did have to say that there was a certain...alluring quality about M— She shook her head. What was she thinking?

Marcus tapped her on the shoulder, startling her out of her reverie. "Are you finished deciding? If we stay out much longer, Snape might catch us in the hallways, and I don't know about your Head of House, but ours takes points for breaking the rules and posts them on the wall of the common room so that everyone knows who screwed up."

From the look on his face, Heidi could tell that he'd gotten his name on that list more than a few times, and the experience had not been pleasant.

"Nah, but she does give us long, boring speeches about working together as a team, which is almost as bad," Heidi replied, trying to cheer him up. "I nearly fell asleep standing up last time."

Marcus let out a bark of laughter as she pretended to keel over.

They walked back to the kitchens together as quietly as they could, though they kept sniggering at each other from time to time. There was something so deliciously forbidden about walking around in the empty halls late at night, even though they were both technically adults.

"You know, Macavoy, you're not so bad...for a Puff," Marcus said, running his fingers through his wavy black hair as they stopped at the rounded wooden door to the Hufflepuff Common Room. Heidi could see that his face had gone all blotchy and scarlet again, and felt her face grow warm as well.

She snorted with laughter in reply, trying to play off her own nervousness as amusement.

"Heidi. If we're going to be on a first name basis, then you have to call me by mine as well," Heidi replied, eyes blazing with an unspoken challenge. Then, before she could over-think it, she stuck out her hand. It was the first thing she could think of, especially since it was common for Quidditch teams to shake hands before and after matches.

"Ok, Heidi," Marcus said slowly, as though testing out the sound of her name on his tongue. Slowly, he placed his hand in hers and shook it firmly. "Next week, same place same time, then?"

He was trying to sound nonchalant, but Heidi could hear a slight tremor in his voice. The pressure on her hand sent a pleasant shock through her arm, and tingled down her spine. They shook hands awkwardly, holding on quite a bit longer than a proper handshake ought to, and when he finally let go, she could tell that he was also reluctant to release it.

"You've got soft hands for a Chaser," he muttered, his eyes widening with panic as he seemed to finally realize that he had said it aloud. "Er...I mean...maybe we ought to practice alone together sometime. You know, Chaser to Chaser. After all, you are helping me with my...dis...lexer thing."

Heidi could feel her face growing hotter as she realized that he had a hand on the back of his neck and was staring at the floor shyly. He was asking her out on a date!

"S-sounds like funokthankshaveagreatnightgoodbye!" Heidi said, rushing all her words together. Before he could react, Heidi stepped forward on her toes and placed a kiss against his cheek and then raced through the door to the Common Room, slamming it shut behind her and pressing herself up against the wood. Her heart pounded in her chest and her mind was screaming with uncertainty at the impulsive thing she'd just done.

"Goodnight, Heidi." She could feel the vibration of his deep voice through the door in her chest, and she had to catch her breath. For a long moment, she heard nothing, but then, she heard his heavy footsteps moving slowly down the hall towards the dungeons.

Looking around, Heidi was relieved that the Common Room was deserted except for Cedric, who'd nodded off on one of the plush golden sofas on the far side of the room. He'd probably been waiting up for her. She sighed deeply and shook her head at her fellow prefect. He really did have a heart of gold. Still, as she steeled herself and strode over to wake him up, her mind was still stuck on the hulking shape of Marcus Flint and the way his pupils had blown wide when he'd said her name.