Quidditch was hard. It was so, so violent. Her aim was good, once she managed to get off the ground smoothly (that was an entire lesson in itself) and the first time she had chucked a ball into a hoop, passing right by Adrien's unsuspecting face she had giggled at his delayed reaction and he called her a natural!

The more difficult parts were remembering to be aware of her surroundings so she could avoid bludgers.

To her complete and utter surprise, Adrien had a completely horrible sense of humour that really came out when they were playing quidditch. When he first told her to slyther-into the correct position she almost choked with how bad it was. The puns continued as he started to teach her tricks on the broomstick e.g. how to fly with no hands (very important skill for a chaser who was often reaching or already holding the quaffle) - 'if say Rose,' he named a chaser on the Hufflepuff team, 'got hold of the quaffle you've got to chaser across the field Marinette, and that means no hands!' he paused after the punch line and when she groaned to let him know that she got the joke he grinned happily in response.

She loved spending this time with him, sweat glistening in his blonde hair and vivid green eyes brightened by the exercise. He seemed really happy while playing quidditch (or maybe, a little part of her whispered hopefully, maybe he was really happy spending all of this extra time with her!).

Her love for Adrien was more than just physical attraction. After all, he was a model and probably had plenty of people he didn't know professing their love and admiration of his physique on the daily. Adrien was really sweet to her, and really kind. When his team asked him why he was helping her, someone in another house, train for quidditch he had shrugged and said that she was training him too. In fact, she reckoned she could pinpoint the start of her attraction to him to his extraordinary kindness. After snubbing him on his first day of school due to a misunderstanding, he handed her his umbrella after their first prefect meeting outside the greenhouse and got wet while she was still processing his peace offering. Adrien always put others before himself. He was just really incredible. Even if he had a terrible sense of humour - he had held her hand over her broomstick to correct its positioning for an aerial tumble and brought back the slytherin joke. When she retorted - 'Slither your own hands into position, Adrien!' he cackled in delight.

At the end of the practice session, she helped trap the remaining oncoming bludger and wrestle it back into its case while he did the clasps for the quaffle. With each holding one side of the case, they carried the quidditch balls back to the store room.

He started to remove his keeper headgear as they walked together towards the change rooms. 'Great job today, Marinette! Your aim is so good I almost wound up in snitches.'

She rolled her eyes at him. 'If my aim was so good, the quaffle would clear you every single time and fly right into the hoops.'

He laughed, then said sincerely, 'You've come so far in only a few weeks. I'm really proud of my little protege.'

'Really, thank you Adrien. I feel totally prepared for the tryouts tomorrow!'

'You should,' he readily agreed.

'Are you still planning on coming to watch?'

They stopped at the separation between the gendered change rooms.

'I wouldn't miss the debut of Marinette Dupain-Cheng, world renowned chaser for nothing!' he swept into a ridiculous bow and though she rolled her eyes at his antics, the corners of her mouth tugged upwards into a smile.

'Thanks again, Adrien.' She reached up and kissed him on the cheek before disappearing into the change rooms.

If she'd chanced to look behind her, she might have noticed a spacey look on his face as his eyes followed her into the change room. She may have recognised the expression from his most recent interview when he detailed how a girl with an amazing patronus saved his life last summer. But she didn't look back, and she didn't see. Only the tall quidditch posts on the other end of the field stood witness to the tips of Adrien Agreste's ears going red because of a girl.

In potions the next day, Adrien approached her with a concerned look on his face.

'Hey Marinette, you haven't been your cheerful self today. I hope you're not worried about tryouts later this afternoon because you have no reason to be!'

She frowned then shook her head. 'That's not it. I was going to tell you after class. I just found out that tryouts have been cancelled.'

'What?' he echoed.

'Yeah. Kim got medical clearance to play again, and no-one was in seventh year last year so they've still got the whole team together so they decided to cancel tryouts.'

'I can't believe they'd do that!'

'I'm really disappointed,' admitted Marinette in a small voice. 'My house kind of plays by its own rules sometimes.'

'You really got the short end of the broomstick.' He said sadly. He reached over to pat her comfortingly on the shoulder. When she looked up at him, she realised that he looked absolutely crestfallen. Like all the sunshine in his soul had been sucked out of him.

'Maybe next year?' ventured Marinette.

He nodded then made an exclamation of frustration. 'This is so unfair! I'm so upset for you. You worked so hard.' He reached over to embrace her and she stiffened in surprise. 'You're right, next year,' he quietly spoke in his ear. 'You're amazing, Marinette. I really think you'll make a great quidditch player.'

'Th-tha-thank yo-ou for ca-caring about me,' with horror Marinette realised her stutter was back. It was the close proximity probably. Why was he being so affectionate? Is hugging a purely platonic thing in France?!

'I enjoyed spending time with you,' continued Adrien.

Marinette's heart stopped in her chest. Was this it? Did he know she only got into quidditch to get closer to him? Her cheeks went that tell-tale red. Was she that obvious? Had he caught onto her feelings? HAD SHE BEEN EXPOSED BY NINO?

Adrien then said, 'You're a very good friend.'

All of the panic building inside of her was expelled out of her body with that one sentence. She laughed awkwardly, then exclaimed as she noticed his potion in front of her was starting to overflow.

He smiled at her one more time - his usual gentle smile for her marred by furrowed eyebrows of concern and went back to attending to his cauldron with Nino.

She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She was still just a friend. A very good friend. Later, when she was relaying to Alya what happened during their own prefect patrol she did end up laughing and crying.

'There should be a word for that emotion,' said Marinette, sniffling into a tissue. 'The one that makes you laugh and cry at the same time.'

'There is!' declared Alya in a sing-song voice. 'It's called love.'

Marinette made a dismissive motion with her hand but Alya wasn't done yet.

'Well, at least all those practice quidditch sessions was able to confirm one thing at least.'

'Yeah, what's that?' replied Marinette blowing her nose into the already abused tissue.

Alya grinned, 'Adrien Agreste is a keeper.'

Marinette's sniffles gave way to a groan. 'Don't ever make that joke out loud in front of him, Alya. He would love it way too much.' Oh, the things this boy put her through.

Author's Note: So, back to the status quo! It's ok. Not every addition to my little HP/MLB universe is gonna change the world. I was on such a roll last night, I've actually got another idea for a fic involving a love potion (because if Marinette was in Hogwarts, honestly, how could she resist?). Stay tuned! And tell me more about what you want to see! If I can catch your vision it might appear in a fic.