A Study of Strategy [Silver]

[Deleted]

10 June 2025

Quidditch!!! Aura had been impatiently waiting to attend the final between Yorkshire and Wimbourne since exams had ended. She’d been utterly depressed since the start of summer – cut off from Hogwarts, classes, and her Quidditch team. Going home meant long days without seeing Papa, unable to leave the manor for an extravagant vacation abroad thanks to Hag’s Fever. Of course, Silver had been her lifeline since returning to Wales, and the twins spent virtually all day every day together, but they could have done that in Hogwarts as well, no?

So Aura soaked in the excitement of the crowd and the suspension building before the start of the match. Papa had naturally found excellent seats to watch the match, although the seat to the left of Silver was empty as Papa had hurried off upon arrival to chat with some business associates of his, leaving the twins to their own devices. That suited Aura just fine. She’d come both to enjoy the pleasure of watching professional Quidditch players at the top of their game battle for the win, but also to study their plays and get some tips for her own games back at Hogwarts. It was the perfect birthday gift, only 1 day before her and Silver's 15th birthday.

She gasped with pleasure as the commentators announced the teams and 14 blurs shot out onto the field. “It’s starting!” Aura usually had a much calmer presence, with only a rare smile, but today she was quivering with excitement. She spared a glance from the field to her twin (who had naturally brought reading material to the match) and shook his arm excitedly as the Wasps circled the field. Aura was completely dressed in black and yellow, and she’d even forced a reluctant Silver into a black-and-yellow team jersey. “Look at their precision and speed! And their Keeper was just at Hogwarts!” He hadn’t been in Ravenclaw, so the twins hadn’t known him well, but it was still extraordinary that he was playing.

There was a small lull while the commentators introduced the referee, so Aura observed matter-of-factly, “The Wasps have won the League Cup at least 18 times, although the Montrose Magpies still hold the record. Both teams are rather unexpected finalists this year.” She frowned as she tried to recall how many Yorkshire wins there had been in the last centuries. She’d done plenty of research before the match, but as she had a clear favorite she’d rather focused more on the Wasps’ season. Her gaze quickly returned back to the pitch as her eyes darted between players to mentally record their flying styles.

@argentum  (after setting up claims!)

[Deleted]

At least one of the metallic twins loved quidditch. Hint, not Silver. He left the gathering of trophies and the following of sports to his better suited twin. He'd joined on this venture the day before their birthday mostly because she loved it. It was just a bunch of guys on brooms tossing balls around hoping not to get knocked off their broom. And then two guys being almost totally useless for most of the game until they went on the most excessive treasure hunt of the game. Going for Gold. Well, not his sister at least but the little ball. He smiled slightly as they took their places. If Aurum would start telling teachers about the illegal exploits of classmates then she simply had to date a seeker. They could say they caught themselves a golden snitch and that she was a keeper. He chuckled to himself slightly, by far too amused by his own puns.

In order to humour his sister (or mostly just shut her up) he'd gone in the not too flattering uniform of yellow and black, having brought several books with him just in case the game was going to last into their birthday or longer. It wouldn't have been the first time. He knew enough about quidditch to know it could last. He'd taken up his books on ancient runes for a bit of light reading and partially because it was the class he felt most inclined towards since he'd been doing more reading up on Viking culture of late. The idea that the Vikings had managed to do some form of magical divination based on runes was very interesting and it didn't take him long to completely ignore the stadium and just read.

"Of course." He said vaguely as Aurum started to be enthusiastic about the game while he was trying to read. He knew better than to try and ask for peace and quiet though. He jotted down a few notes in his notebook before turning the page. "Go team." He replied without much interest as she went on about the pre season antics. She loved this, he couldn't care less. He looked up for a moment, glancing at the pitch and more than that, his sister. Seeing her enthusiasm was wild and pleasant and brought a smile to his face. It was good to see her unwind, especially so close to their birthday. The yearly rotation of the sun that brought them new experiences and more knowledge and inevitably brought them closer to death. Such was simply the nature of life. At least she was enjoying it rather completely.

@aurum

[Deleted]

Aura rolled her eyes at her twin’s sad (but still appreciated, she supposed?) attempts to feign interest in the match. Over the years, he’d gotten rather good at saying a sufficiently bland thing at the correct time to fool others into thinking he was paying some sort of attention, but he was being fairly transparent now and didn’t really bother with the pretense when it came to his sister anyway. Still, Aura could respect that her brother had come to the match despite having negative interest in Quidditch, and had even allowed her to dress him in a jersey. It looked rather comical on him (which she’d been quick to share), but she’d kept the teasing light as a sign of her appreciation.

There was a general round of applause for the referee, so Aura quickly lifted the cover of the book on Silver’s lap to peek at what he’d chosen. She gave an amused snort that he was reading about Viking runes during a match, but lightly dropped the cover back to its original location as the countdown began. It was just like Silver to prioritize his obsession with Vikings during the summer holidays when there was no coursework to complete.

The action was incredibly fast and Aura’s eyes darted around the pitch to follow the Quaffle’s progression among the various Chasers. The commentators were brilliant and Aura thoughtfully nodded at some of the insights scattered throughout, even as 90% of her focus was on tracking the current play at work by the Yorkshire Chasers. She groaned at the right moment for Yorkshire’s goal, but Wasps fans had enough to cheer for soon enough. Two goals in such quick succession! Brilliant!

As the commentators discussed Wimbourne’s odds, it seemed the right moment to tease her brother who likely hadn’t registered any of the exciting gameplay on the field. Aura gave a theatrical gasp and clutched at Silver’s arm again to ensure she had at least his partial attention. “Look, Silver! Nightshade just scored a goal with a bludger! All while keeping the Yorkshire Keeper in a headlock and chanting the Swivenhodge Incantation!” There was no such thing, of course. Aura was curious to see how far Silver was going to let her go before he started listening. It was impressive how focused he could be on ancient runes in the middle of such a noisy and crowded stadium, but her brother had always had that ability to block out the outside world. Aura could respect that in most circumstances, but this was Quidditch. All bets were off.

@argentum

[Deleted]

While Argentum realised that there was purpose to social activities, he found them to be a far lower priority than his studies. He wasn't certain of much but he knew that he wanted to become a great, influential and powerful wizard. He had ambition, but far above that a thirst for knowledge that seemed impossible to quench. He wanted to make a difference but he hadn't figured out how yet. Helping people was something he was interested in, that much was certain. He just wanted to use his brain to do so. Perhaps he could explore alchemy at some point? He just knew he wanted to be on a chocolate frog card one day. It seemed like a rather impressive thing to achieve.

As he made his notes he realised that his sister was getting rather enthusiastic about the entire game. He just wanted to get ahead on his studies. Before long she was like a stone hanging around his neck, blurting quidditch nonsense in his ears and generally doing her very best to distract him from what actually mattered, his school work. He was trying to ensure he'd gotten a head start with matters mostly to be certain that the insane work load he'd brought upon himself would not become too much to handle. He didn't know a lot about quidditch but right now it seemed like she was just saying things to get under his skin. It wasn't completely ineffective. "Rummy, buzz off. There is no Swivenhodge Incantation and you bloody well know that!" He pushed her off in some annoyance before fixing his hair and shooting her a murderous glare. "If you're not careful I'll find a way to give you a Thurisaz tattoo." He said, glaring at her with ferocity. "And the best part is that you can't even know what that means as you failed to study runes!" He bit at her in annoyance. "Go do your things but for the sake of the Gods, let me do mine. Or I'll set my jersey on fire." He said, plucking at the silly yellow and black jersey with a threatening glare for Aurum. He had far more love and patience for his sister than his current behaviour suggested, but it wasn't like she didn't know that. Still, it was fine to let her know that she ought to give him a little bit of space. He was getting worried about his grades already, as wasn't uncommon during this stage of the summer vacations.

@aurum

[Deleted]

Aura grinned broadly at her twin and gave a theatrical gasp as he snapped back at her. “Tumzy, you were listening! I might swoon, be sure to catch me.” She snorted as he smoothed back his hair and threatened her with a rune tattoo – when had he gotten so vain? She didn’t bother trying to pronounce the name of the unknown rune and launched right into her retort. “Does it mean something impolite? It might give me a rather edgy look. 5th year seems like the right time for a little textbook rebellion!” Not that she would do any such thing, of course. She was a stickler for the rules and a firm believer that any distraction at all could very well cost her the future she’d been working towards for years. And besides, they would soon be entering their OWL year. There’d hardly be any time outside of their classes and studying anyway.

She rolled her eyes at her brother’s dramatics. “You know very well my study philosophy. Jack of all trades, master of none,” she recited, as she had many times before when she and Silver had first started taking their electives and argued over the proper number of subjects to take. “It’s loads more valuable to take fewer electives and truly master the subjects than attempt to even remember the basics of so many different fields. I don’t even know how you retain so much useless information in your wooden head anyway.” The academic competition between the twins was relatively well-known to anybody who knew them, but the insults were all good-natured. They could never stay angry at each other.

Her grin turned into a smirk as he threatened to set the jersey she’d jokingly bought for him on fire. “Do you want help with that? I’ve gotten rather good at Incendio. Here, I’ll even get your book out of harm’s way!” Silver was currently fidgeting with his jersey and Aura seized her opportunity – if nothing else, Quidditch had taught her speed and given her quick reflexes. She snatched the book from his lap and quickly jumped to her feet. “I’ll get some snacks! Move, please!” It would be no good escaping from her twin with his book through his side, so Aura quickly edged past other seated witches and wizards (who were all rightfully watching the players in the air) and squeezed out the end of the row, clutching the heavy book to her chest. She giggled to herself as she zoomed down the aisle to follow through on her promise/excuse to get snacks – she could still see the pitch well enough, and these games had a habit of dragging on. She’d be sure to get back before anything too thrilling happened, but the opportunity to mess with her twin always took a higher priority.

@argentum

[Deleted]

It wasn't so much pride or vanity that got Silver annoyed when she messed up his hair. It was the part where that also messed up his concentration. She was all excited about the game but he personally felt that there were more interesting things in his book. He'd watch when this got properly interesting. Maybe when somebody started chasing after the tiny little gold ball. For now he mostly just wanted to study, which his sister naturally wouldn't allow him. She was going to stress him out excessively this year. At least he could watch her games without her being the one the steal his books at school. But naturally they felt similar in several aspects. Where she thrived he was good and where she was good, he managed to thrive. He learned a lot about many different subjects and his social activities were pretty much non existent outside of the club they had together. On the other hand, he was going to have a lot broader knowledge, even if his grades could possibly be lower than those of his sister. The idea made him want to retch in disgust. He hated it when Aura won, even though he was more than used to being second fiddle.

He rolled his eyes as she asked about the rune. "You'd know if you'd read up on it now that you stole my book anyway." He replied to her rather tartly. "And yes, burn the jersey! I'm sure dad would love a public indecency charge!" He yelled after her as she went for snacks. "And I want a pretzel!" He shouted over the crowd, getting some hard looks. He chuckled as he sat down again and pulled a different book from his bag. It was thinner and lighter but still unread so it was bound to keep him entertained for a while.

He hadn't been paying much attention so when everything went to hell, he had been in the middle of a sentence. He looked up as he heard a sudden collective gasp and scream, only in time to have a larger piece of wood hit his head rather hard. He instantly felt nauseous and dizzy and in the turmoil people started milling about. He tried to get up but the crowds seemed to be running. Why were they hurrying? He blinked a few times as she picked up his book and dusted it off, a strange ringing in his ears. He had a massive headache and something wet was dripping over his face. Nothing else had decided to blow up so he sat on a chair, puzzled and dazed. He figured it was probably better to wait for his sister there, right? Or should he head out? He didn't want to risk his books getting stolen. Wait here it was. He grabbed his wand, mentally shouting out towards his sister, even though he knew that she couldn't exactly hear him. Still, they were twins and very close. Maybe that meant something? Maybe she'd know he was fine or needed to get checked out? He wasn't sure, all he knew was that he needed his sister. He needed Aura.

@aurum

OOC: eeeeeeeeeeh, sooo horrible, I'm so sorry!!! >.< ):

[Deleted]

Aura grinned over her shoulder at her twin as she tucked the book under her arm and navigated her way up the aisle. For all his theatrics, he’d be fine – she’d seen the bag of books he’d brought to the match, and she estimated it would be no more than 30 seconds before he’d start another book and quiet down. Aura didn’t want to miss too much of the match, but there was more to attending a match than simply watching the players. There were all the concessions (obviously, one of the biggest draws after the Quidditch players themselves), and running into all the people you knew. Aura took one second to grimace at the thought, which sounded like it could have come from her father, before she ran into someone she knew from Hogwarts (a fellow Quidditch aficionado) and stopped to chat for a couple minutes. She was stopped another time or two after that to catch up with Hogwarts students, primarily fellow Ravenclaws, before she finally spotted the line for Silver’s pretzel and her preferred churro.

As she stood in line, Aura idly flipped through the book. It was a combination of runes she didn’t recognize and commentary on the runes that was dense and almost impossible to decipher. She rolled her eyes as she continued to scan the pages and slowly inch forward in line. It seemed exactly like the type of arcane knowledge her brother liked to pursue. There was nothing wrong with that branch of magic – it was fully necessary for some careers, and the potential to learn ancient secrets of magic was a compelling reason to study it. But she preferred the more practical applications of magic herself, and only seriously pursued something if there was a clear or tangible benefit. Magical Theory was the only elective she’d chosen that was purely theoretical – the rest were much more applied and relevant to her daily life.

Aura was only a few people away from the front of the line, and squinting at a particularly complicated-looking rune when it happened. Her head erupted in a sharp pain (the same kind as when she tried to read too long without her reading glasses) at the same time as her stomach dropped. She experienced one moment of confusion before a low rumbling filled the air and Aura watched in horror as part of the stands collapsed amid wild flames. She stood frozen in shock for one second of pure mayhem before the screams around her and some flyaway debris forced her into movement. She didn’t fully understand what was happening as she lost the book in the confusion and felt the crowd pushing and shoving to get away from the stands.

She began to push back as it finally computed that Silver was still in the stands. “Move, move! Move!!!” Aura wasn’t the kind to get hysterical, and she never lost her head. But the panic of not knowing what had happened to her brother, to her other half practically, was starting to envelop her. She quickly covered her face with her arms (although she barely felt the shower of glass as she finally broke free of the crowd to fully enter the stadium), and the adrenaline pumping through her meant she certainly didn’t notice the thin trickles of blood running down her forearms. There was a clear stream of logic flowing through her head now, and Aura fixated on it completely to swallow her panic. She needed to find her brother, and then find a mediwizard. There were plenty here for the match already. Silver, then a medic. Silver, medic.

“Silver!” Aura screamed through the chaos as she continued to push past people. “SILVER!”

@argentum
[D:]

[Deleted]

Everybody else was in panic or disarray, injured and looking like they were terrified. While there was a part of Silver that understood and wanted to run along with them he somehow managed to stay relatively calm. Panic meant a racing heart and a fast pacing of blood. If he was bleeding, that wasn't going to help the blood stay in his body. There was the part where the adrenaline helped a lot but he could feel that coursing through his veins without the encourgament of his feet. He blinked a few times as he glanced at his book again. It had gotten damaged and it looked like somebody had been bleeding on it. Was that him? Such a waste of a perfectly good book. He felt the throbbing in his head get worse and he pressed a hand to his temple. The non-wet one. It didn't really relieve the pain much. It was a lot more silent than he'd expected.

Then it slowly dawned on him. Maybe everything was more quiet than expected for other reasons than it not making the impact. Looking around he saw faces that were contorted in screams as people ran and rushed past, all but ignoring the boy as he was calmly seated on his chair. Some had screams that were far away and much softer than they should be when they were so close. As the horror began to settle in, he slowly dropped his book and brought his freed hand up to his ear, touching to see if his fears were reality. It seemed as though his ears were bleeding, which suggested damage that could easily result in hearing loss. He could feel tears well up in his eyes as some of the impact began to dawn on him slowly. If he was going to be hard of hearing it would be so much more difficult to attend classes and not miss out on the teachings! How could he go to lectures in the public libraries or enjoy the audio tours in musea when he couldn't properly hear them? He was shocked and awed.

Then he heard a muffled scream that could only have come from his sister. He looked up and quickly found her racing in. He felt relief, even though he was still in shock and highly concerned. She was fine. He stumbled to his feet and closed the remaining distance between them in a few strides, hugging her tightly. "Rummy..." It came out hoarse and painful. "Are you okay? You're bleeding!" And with that observation, everything about his own health concerns flew out the window. He felt the drums in his head get louder and the headache increased but he completely ignored it. He gingerly touched his sisters arm where tiny pieces of glas had embedded themselves. "We need to get you help. Who knows how deep those splinters have gone." Their dad was going to have a field day. He then looked up at his sister with concern. "Are you okay?" He ignored the brief spell of dizziness as he straightened him and focussed on the one that was clearly more important now. He just hoped she hadn't answered already in a voice too soft for him to hear. It was hard to distuingish noises at this moment, at least without the headache getting worse.

@aurum

[Deleted]

It was getting harder to push against the flow of people as Aura inched closer to the stands. There was no clear path forward – people were screaming and stampeding towards the exits, but there were also stragglers like her wandering around the area. Aura could taste her fear, like iron in her mouth, and feel it clenched around her heart. It was a stupid observation to make in the moment, but she wondered if this was what true fear tasted like. She’d had bouts of nervousness, a bitter taste in her mouth before exams or a Quidditch match or a particularly difficult endeavor she was about to start.

But the thought of losing her brother – and the immediate fact that his location was still unknown – was terrifying in a heart-stopping way. She needed him like she had never needed anybody else in her life. They did almost everything together, they had been through almost everything together, and they knew each other in a way most people never achieved. Losing Silver would be worse than losing her own arm. Aura continued to call for her brother, shouting his name as she pushed past people. And when she finally made it to their corner of the stands and saw him sitting stock-still, she felt one moment of trepidation followed by the most palpable relief she had ever experienced.

It hadn’t occurred to her that the fear had prevented her from crying up to that point, so it shocked Aura when she felt tears begin to stream down her face. A rare occurrence, but the sight of Silver (sitting still as if nothing was wrong when she could see the blood) was enough to cause it. “Am I okay?” she repeated in disbelief as her eyes tracked the blood flowing from his ears and his obvious head injury. She’d been enrolled in Magical First Aid since her third year, but any dummy could see he was more injured. She was still crying, but huffed as she watched her twin ramble about her arms and finding a medic. “Argentum du Lac, you are the biggest idiot in the world! The head is more important than the arms, and yours is bleeding!” It helped to be angry, so she focused on it. “Honestly, do you even hear yourself? Merlin, yes, we’ll find a mediwizard, but for you. Try not to throw up or pass out.”

Aura forced herself to focus on the plan to avoid crying any harder or become paralyzed with fear. Find a medic, find a medic. She dragged her brother behind her as she searched for help, and yes, she began to cry again when she finally saw signs of St. Mungo’s ahead. She kept her vision straight ahead, and refused to look to either side to take in the full damage of whatever the hell had just happened. God, how was she ever going to enter another Quidditch pitch again?

@argentum
[End thread!]