I never thought it would go like this [RPG]

From the outside perspective, Nicolas Carter didn’t look like much – he had slightly darker skin than most Europeans usually because of his African American ethnicity with dark brown eyes and curly hair to match, cut short from the neck and sides, left little longer from the top. He didn’t even seem that overly muscular for a Beater but those who underestimated him would certainly see exactly how wrong they were when they met in Quidditch pit when the match started.

Unlike some of his teammates, Nicolas was still trying to sleep on the morning of the second day. He made some inhumanly sounds while waking up, tossing his extra pillow towards the people already making noise so early inside their tent.

“Oh, Carter is up! FINALLY! We were just gonna go explore without you, bro!”
Nicolas could almost hear his friend smirking and this 16-year-old growled in response, opening his eyes and pulling himself up and about. There was no point in trying to sleep anymore and if the team was already heading out, he wanted to join too.
“Ugh, what time is it?”
“Nearly 9. Hurry up already!”

After getting quickly dressed – most notably he had put his Quidditch team robes’ outermost layer on, which was blue with cranberry-colored details and showed Ilvermorny crest in the back with his last name on it – Nicolas joined the others and yawned loudly without bothering to cover it up with his hand.

---

Ilvermorny Quidditch representatives were all following the start of the official matches, Hogwarts versus Italy. Nicolas took his place amongst his teammates as they all followed the players who played at the same position as them – Seeker followed Seekers, Keeper Keepers and so on – trying to understand their strategy, skills and gameplay in general.

After the match was over, Nicolas noticed that he had spent most of his time tracking Hogwarts’ Beaters, more specifically that brown-haired witch who seemed to be at the same age group as him. And they seemed far superior to Italy’s Beaters, so might as well follow the best possible ones.

---

After the match and the lunch break team started to get ready for their own training slot. Official games were already done for today and Ilvermorny would play tomorrow morning against Beauxbatons as their first game of the series. There was still over an hour until their training started but Nicolas was already in full Quidditch gear – other than protective gear and his personal bat.

“Really, for someone so sleepy in the morning, you really are excited, huh, Carter?”
Nicolas glanced his teammate who he shared the tent with – luckily all those rowdiest ones were somewhere else – and smirked.
“Yup. I’m gonna go grab some air, see ya.”
“Don’t be long or Cap’n will kill ya.”
The Beater just waved his hand as he exited the tent, exhaling into the air that started already get a bit chilly because the temperatures hadn’t really rose during the afternoon due to slight rain earlier.

After walking a few tent-lengths towards the stadium Nicolas noticed someone in Hogwarts uniform walking towards him. Dark brown eyes kept their gaze towards this brown-haired girl from Hogwarts and he smiled in a friendly manner, remembering her from the match before. This seemed like a perfect chance to strike a conversation with a fellow Beater, with no teammates around.

“Hey.”
Nicolas took a few steps forward towards the girl with that friendly smile still on his lips, while pushing his hands into his pockets.
“You’re from Hogwarts, right? I saw you play today, pretty impressive.”
Nicolas spoke with a wide American accent, which was an obvious telltale from which school he was in, even if one didn’t recognize the robes.

// Ilvermorny Quidditch robes, in international matches (such as this game) they have jacket same color as trousers.

Nicolas allowed his eyes to examine the girl better with this close proximity. Her self-ironical words made him smile wider and he even let out a small laughter, eyes squinting with true enjoyment.
“Yup, I was. Gotta check out the competition. I’m sure you’ll return the favor later.”
Simply implying that Hogwarts would sure be watching Ilvermorny play tomorrow, Nicolas tilted his head slightly to the left and grinned.

“Yup, all the way from USA. Can’t tell by the accent?”
Brown-haired boy laughed at his own words, then shaking his head and getting slightly more serious with the next response.
“Yeah, practice today and first match tomorrow against those French people. I don’t speak French so I won’t bother pronouncing the school – I don’t want you to choke when laughing too much.”
The seriousness of the sentence seemed to plummet to the ground as quickly as Seekers after seeing the Golden Snitch at the ground level but Nicolas didn’t seem to mind that much as he just shrugged slightly.

“Anyway, I’m Nicolas Carter. Pleased to meet a fellow Beater.”
Nicolas extended his hand for a formal handshake, though still almost cheekily grinning.

After introductions were over, Nicolas continued almost instantly. He was kind of pressed for time at the moment and there was something he wanted to say.
“Hey, are you free later today? Like in two hours?”
Nicolas sounded suddenly – in a lack of a better word – almost anxious as if he was about to ask something more serious than before. He lifted his right hand up to his neck, scratching it a little before continuing.
“I kinda need to go soon but I’d like to talk to you some more, maybe over some butterbeer… if you like that? Or something else, whatever you prefer.”
Nicolas didn’t seem to want to miss this opportunity to get to know a fellow Beater from another school – after all, connections were important – and well, she wasn’t bad to look at either.

”Wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Nicolas laughed when Maya told how she’s going to make a plan to destroy all the others. This was just friendly banter after all – there was no need for hostilities outside Quidditch pit, and even inside it was all just sportsmanship and not actual threats or evilness.

Maya’s revelation how she was also born in USA got Nic smiling slightly more cheekily than before. He shook her hand in good spirits, firmly but not bone-crushingly so.
“I’ll be sure to remember that name.”

Nicolas was also happy how the girl seemed to be open to his suggestion about meeting again later today.
“Oh, you really don’t want to! It’s bad.”
Brown-haired boy laughed when she teased him about French and put more weight on some words to really emphasize how he clearly sucked at that specific language.

“But uh… great. Let’s meet back here in two hours and let’s find that place where they have butterbeer. I need to go now, for some reason my Captain is really really really into keeping schedules.”
Even though most of Nicolas’ words were just friendly banter towards his Captain, he was still sometimes slightly annoyed how schedule-driven Ilvermorny’s Captain was. Of course, it was good to keep schedule and stuff like that, but this wasn’t any official match or anything just yet.

Managing to agree their next meeting Nic then waved a goodbye for now and returned back to his tent to put the rest of his Quidditch gear on, before they moved into the arena with his teammates to start practice round.

---

After the training Nicolas managed to get into his tent and switch to something more comfortable – jeans and hoodie were perfect for the first date, right? Hoodie still had Ilvermorny logo in it, apparently school wanted to let everyone know all the time where these people belonged to. Besides, Nic was just eager to get going, so he didn’t give a second thought about what he wore.

“Now wait a minute, where do ya think you’re going, Carter, rushing out like that?”
Teasing voice made Nicolas raise is eyebrows as he turned his gaze towards his friend. He shrugged avoidantly.
“Just… somewhere.”
“Oh? Might if I tag along?”
“Actually, yeah.”
“Oh – hey, wait!”
But Nicolas was already gone, not wasting another second of his time trying to make his teammate believe that this was a solo trip.

When Nicolas was getting close to the meeting location, he slowed down his steps and started looking around to see if she was already here. When a familiar voice reached his ears, he turned his gaze towards Maya with a friendly smile.
“Hey!”
Nic took final steps forward to reach the girl, his smile getting even wider.
“What makes you think I told him? He’s only my captain, he doesn’t need to know everything about my personal stuff. But yes, practice went well. We’re more than ready for tomorrow.”
The boy glanced around and once again turned to look at Maya.
“I’ll get us some butterbeer.”
With those words, Nic took a few steps to the left and went to fetch some butterbeer for two. He paid with coins from his pocket and return to the table with two mugs of butterbeer, placing them to the table. He sat opposite side of the table from Maya.
“Sorry, hope you hadn’t waited for long.”

Carter allowed himself to glance unapologetically towards Maya as he smiled while listening to her. He also followed her lead and took a sip of the butterbeer, looking almost thoughtful for a second as he was determining if he liked it or not.

“I haven’t but I’ve been meaning to.”
Boy said truthfully and took another sip of the butterbeer, clearly warming up to the taste. It also made him feel oddly warm inside, which felt good as the air otherwise was fairly chill. He didn’t want to dig too deep into why he hadn’t already visited United Kingdom, since poor financial situation and strained family relations were hardly a topic for a first proper encounter.
“I’m assuming this Hogsmeade doesn’t have No-Majs then? I mean, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense, making excursions there and just exposing everything...”
Carter didn’t even notice the term he used about non-magical people, commonly known as Muggles in UK, as he almost mumbled to himself those last few words.

Realizing that he was getting lost in thought, Carter quickly regained his senses and focused his gaze back to Maya with an apologetic smile.
“So, uh… Is this your first time here?”
Brown-haired boy clearly tried to make up his lost-in-thought moment with a question, so that conversation would flow seamlessly.