Potter, the Legacy
Arianne never liked giving interviews.
She grew up in the public eye, but giving an interview was different, more focus on her. She did it, because she had to, but she tried to minimize her involvement in post game press conferences. They always wanted to talk about her, not the game, but her. She didn’t like that, because in recent years she didn’t have a lot to say.
She was not like her family in a lot of ways, Sebastian was probably the closest to her in terms of experience. They lived in their parent’s shadow’s in a way that Liliane had somehow managed to avoid. To be completely fair, the Potters had managed to raise three wildly different children, so it wasn’t like she was overly othered.
It was just…
Liliane had managed to capture that indefinable essence that made the Veela stand out so far beyond mere humans in grace and beauty. It went beyond simply a beautiful face, which Arianne and even Sebastian shared. Yet it was also not simply just allure, Liliane used her genetics and her determination like a weapon to climb high into the world of fashion. She followed in their aunt's footsteps, walked fashion weeks in New York, Milan, and Tokyo. Partied on billionaires yachts and dated celebrities and lived as the muse to designers and photographers alike.
It was a quality that Arianne had always admired in her mother, and never acquired herself, that something that elevated them beyond beautiful to stunning. The thing that stopped a room when they entered it, and had everyone present glancing from the corner of their eyes as long as they graced them with their presence.
Arianne was a Veela, she had her mother’s hair- her father’s eyes- and she was beautiful but she’d always been firmy in the realm of fit, athletic. Make no mistake, she was happy with that. She was not self conscious, definitely not bitter or jealous, it was just something that always distanced her a bit from the ethereal beauties in her family.
She was content with her broomsticks, and quidditch. Her journey might seem like foothills at the base of the insurmountable mountain that was her father’s legacy but she didn’t see it that way, not really.
She loved the sport, and she cherished the years she spent perfecting it, in her little fairy tale cottage in the south of France. Before she knew anything about the world, and quidditch was this grand game of flying chess her father taught her to manipulate. Most of all she loved flying, the true Potter legacy Harry Potter had managed to pass on to at least one of his children.
It wasn’t about snitches and quaffles, it was about flight, a chaser flew different from a seeker, and they all flew different from racers. It was mastery of flight, the interplay between magic and the laws of the natural world, at the heart of her passion.
That made it easier, in moments like this, when the uncertainty and doubt crept in. It grounded her to remember that the right move was whichever presented the best flight pattern.
The press conference had been going for several minutes.
She tried to find her father in the crowd, but the lights were too bright. She was seated back in her chair further than the rest of the team, most were preening under the attention. Well deserved attention, the World Cup only came around every four years, it was a big deal.
She really wished she could see her father.
She sat forward, because she was just stalling at this point, and Arianne was not one to dither. People had been trying to get her to answer questions regularly thus far, but the press knew how she handled them by now, so things had been moving along in her absence.
When she sat up it renewed their interest though, and a few called out to her, she picked one at random. He was young and handsome, and she was pretty sure she recognized him from her early years at Beauxbatons.
“Arianne, three years in the leagues and already a World Cup, that’s got to feel good.” He opened, not really needing an answer, but she leaned in to agree. “With a clean career to date, people are starting to talk about a new Potter record, what's the next season look like for you?”
She stopped looking for her father, and the oddest thing happened, her face split into an uncontrollable grin. She knew in that moment that what she wanted to do was right.
“I’m retiring.”