At 5’oclock in the morning the alarm clock rang. You shut it off before it could wake anyone. You got up, put on a pair of soccer shorts, a sports bra and a tank top. You tied your cleats on and put your hair in a pony-tail. You grabbed your soccer bag filled with cones, soccer balls, a pair of goalie gloves and a goalie net and headed to the Black Lake. When you reached the Black Lake, you put down your soccer bag and started running laps around the lake. You loved to run. Every time you ran you felt so free. When you were little you thought that if you ran fast enough you would fly like a bird. You’ve been running on the muggle track team every summer since you were 3. Your mom even said you learned to run before you could walk.
Just as you finished your 5th lap your brother came outside with nothing but a pair of soccer shorts and a disassembled soccer net in his hands. He loved soccer as much as you loved track and he understood how important it was to you. In fact, Alex wanted to become a professional soccer coach since he was eight. But for now, he had to settle with being your coach.
Alex started assembling the net and you put out the soccer cones. While you two were doing that, Viktor Krum and ten or so of his classmates went outside to see what you were doing and sat down on a bunch of rocks that were clumped together. They had been up since 5am, because they weren’t use to the time difference, and had watched you run. They thought you were so fast that some even joked that you were faster than Krum on a broom.
When everything was set up Alex came over to you and said, “Looks like you have an audience today.”
You just nodded. You were used to having people stare at you when you were on the field but you just ignored them.
“Just ignore them, ok. Pretend they’re not even the-…” but you cut Alex off.
“I know!” you snapped. When you got nervous you acted like a horrible witch. You didn’t want to mess up in front of the boys.
Alex, sensing your nervousness, just said, “Okay, let’s start with dribbling around the cones.”
You dribbled the soccer ball around all fifty cones rapidly without missing a beat. When you were done Alex said,” We have ten more minutes. I’ll be goalie.” With that, he put on the goalie gloves and stood in the middle of the net. You made 53 shots, never missing once. At 6 ‘o clock you started to pack up. When you were about to leave you heard applause from behind you. You turned around and saw every boy applauding for you, including Viktor Krum. Then, you surprised yourself by bowing to your audience and afterwards leaving with Alex trailing behind you.
Alex asked you in a surprised voice, “What was that!?”
“I don’t know,” you shrugged, “I just felt like doing it.”
…………………………………………………
You showered and then went down to breakfast and met up Carrie and Hermione.
“Anabele,” Carrie said. You looked up from your book. It was called Hogwart’s, A History.
“Viktor Krum and about 10 of his friends are looking at you,” Hermione said, finishing for her. Carrie nodded. So you told them what happened, ending with you bowing.
“You bowed?” Carrie and Hermione asked in disbelief.
“Yeah. I mean, I’m not that type of person to do that but I just felt like it.”
“Wow,” was all Carrie said.
You looked towards the Slytherin table to see that Hermione and Carrie were right. Viktor and his friends were staring at you. Viktor, seeing that he had your attention, motioned for you to come over. You shook your head no and motioned for him and his friends to come and sit at the Gryffindor table. Viktor and nine of his friends got up and sat around you, Carrie and Hermione.
“Hello. My name is Viktor Krum and these are Vladimir, Ivan, Demitri etc.” Viktor said, introducing himself and the others.
“My name is Anabele Lee and these are Hermione Granger and Carrie Ortiz,” you said, pointing them out
Viktor nodded and said, “ve saw you running and playing futebol. You are very good.”
“Wait. I thought you said you were playing soccer, not football!” Carrie exclaimed.
“Carrie! You’ve told you a hundred times!”You and Hermione shouted at the exact same time.
“In Europe, soccer is called futebol,” Hermione explained for the umpteenth time.
“Oh!” Carrie said embarrassed.
“Oh what would Alex say right now?” You whispered teasingly in Carrie’s ear.
“You wouldn’t!!!”Carrie screamed, causing people to look at your table. The Durmstrang boys looked at her strangely.
“Anabele vouldn’t vat?” Viktor asked confused. You felt an uneasy feeling in your stomach when he said your name.
“Oh nothing! Nothing at all!” Carrie said flustered.
“Anyway…” you said looking at Carrie from the side of your eye before training your attention back at Viktor. “How is it that you saw me running if I ran before you guys came outside to watch me play?” you asked with an eyebrow raised.
All the boy’s faces turned to one of guilt, but Viktor kept his face composed, looked down and spoke.
“Vell… ve all voke at 5 o’clock because ve veren’t used to the time difference. Ve looked outside and you vere running. You vere very fast.” Viktor looked up at that point and smiled. The boy’s all nodded their heads.
“V even teased Viktor,” Dimitri said, laughing. “Ve said that you vere even faster than him on a broom.” Viktor frowned at this.
“You don’t think so Krum?” Viktor looked up but relaxed when he saw you were just teasing.
“Well?” you asked.
“No. I don’t,” Viktor replied with a smile.
You leaned in until you were merely inches from his face. “You’re on! You,” you poked him in the chest, “me, the Black Lake, tomorrow at 5am. First one around the Lake wins.” You leaned back into your chair.
“Deal”, he said after he regained his composure and you both shook hands.
“We better go or we’re going to be late” Hermione announced. The three of you got up and said, “Bye guys,” at the same time and walked away.
“Looks like you’ve got a bet, Krum,” Ivan declared.
But Viktor wasn’t listening. He was too busy staring after you.
