RP: Bowling with the Boys

[shh_kingsley]

Date: 22 June 2005
Characters: Kingsley Shacklebolt, Ernie Macmillan, Ron Weasley
Location: Five Alarm, then Exeter
Status: Private
Summary: Kingsley, Ernie and Ron on bowling, beer and birds.
Completion: Complete

Comments

[shh_kingsley]

"Not those ladies. The ones in the corner behind you." To be fair the group Ron was looking at were whispering too, but they were almost all old enough to be his own mother. The ladies in the opposite corner looked to all be in their early to mid-thirties. He rolled his eyes.

As they reached the Megabowl, he explained a bit more. "The gutters are little troughs that run on either side of a wood lane. There's no water involved. They have balls there you can use. You can either rent shoes..." at their looks, he chuckled, "or there are a few discreet corners where I can transfigure your own. They even have a machine that keeps score if you don't want to do it yourself. You get two chances to knock down all the pins. If you do it on the first try, it's called a strike. If you do it in two, it's called a spare. A lot of times, you only knock down part of them, but you get credit for those too. We'll watch a frame or two or someone else bowling before you try, alright?"

[shh_ron]

Ron listened closely as Kingsley explained about the gutters, the lane and the shoes. "You can transfigure my shoes, thanks," he said quickly. "I had enough of used shoes growing up. I mean, people's feet have been sweating in them, right?" He pulled a face. His reputation for being a slob was a bit overdone, Ron thought; he'd been messy enough but he wasn't dirty. He showered, he shaved, he changed his clothes, and he did not want to wear shoes that didn't fit and were full of other people's sweat. The only person he ever wanted to trade sweat with was Lavender. Better to hold that thought for much later.

"Okay, let's watch some bowling."

[shh_ernie]

When Kingsley explained about the gutters, Ernie was relieved that there wasn't any water involved. He made a face at the thought of wearing someone else's shoes. That sounded...unsanitary. "Transfiguration works for me, too," he agreed in a quiet voice.

Kingsley led them toward the...lanes? And they positioned themselves where they could watch several lanes without being overly obvious. Ernie watched very carefully as one person after another walked up to the line--wearing someone else's shoes!--picked up their ball, stuffed their fingers into it, and threw it toward the pins. Which sometimes flew apart with such a tremendous force that Ernie wondered how they didn't break. Other times, the ball would veer into the gutter and roll harmlessly down the lane, usually evoking laughter and ribbing from the other bowlers. He hoped to Merlin that didn't happen to him.

[shh_kingsley]

It was great fun watching the looks on their faces, but he held back his amusement. "Transfiguration it is. I sort of figured that would be the case." Kingsley directed them to an out of the way space and it only took a moment to have the fitted up properly. "Mine are in my bag. I'll put them on while you two pick a ball. But first we have to buy a game and get an alley. The first game's on me

[shh_ron]

Ron was relieved when Kingsley agreed to transfigure their ordinary shoes into bowling shoes, which were a bit weird looking and sort of slick on the bottom but he had to hope Kingsley knew what he was doing, because he was the only one of the three of them who had ever bowled before. Kingsley then went to a service counter, bought a game for the three of them and got them set up on lane 4. The bowling balls weren't quite what Ron expected either; they were as big as a Quaffle but they had holes in them where he was supposed to put three of his fingers. Kingsley suggested he try a 13-pound ball, so Ron looked for one marked "13" and, as luck would have it, found an orange one that seemed to fit his hand well. Once he'd got the feel of the ball, he went back to the lane and joined Ernie and Kingsley, who had put all of their names up on some sort of computerised scoreboard

[shh_ernie]

These were perhaps the ugliest shoes that Ernie had ever worn. However, everyone seemed to be wearing them. So Ernie decided to, in the words of one Cedric Diggory, 'go with the flow.'

He hunted up a ball, taking Kingsley's suggestion of an eleven pounder. The first one he found had very narrow finger holes and Ernie nearly got himself stuck. A great deal of pulling later, he freed his fingers. The next ball had enormously wide finger holes. Perhaps someone of Hagrid's stature had designed the ball. Although an eleven pound ball would be like a marble to Hagrid. Finally, finding a ten pounder that had the proper holes, he carried it over to Lane 4.

Kingsley was typing their names into a...computer? And then Ron strolled up with an orange ball. Ernie smiled at his Cannons comment. "Was always a Ballycastle fan myself."

Thankfully, Kingsley went first and Ernie watched carefully as he stepped to the line and released the ball.

[shh_kingsley]

Ron's selection of an orange ball tickled him. "Can't fault team or house colors. Mine's Ravenclaw blue after all." He held up his beautiful, 15 pound bright blue ball with a smile. "The balls go here in the ball return. See this line? You want to make sure you stay behind it when you roll the ball down the lane

[shh_ron]

Kingsley's ball was a bright, Ravenclaw blue. Ron listened and watched carefully as Kingsley explained where the balls came from (it was either magic or a Muggle invention his father would have loved) and how to roll (not throw) the ball down the lane. It seemed to him that being tall and having long arms (which he did, like Kingsley) might give him an advantage. He watched, fascinated, as Kingsley briefly held the ball up in front of his chest then, starting on his right foot, took four long steps toward the line, swinging the ball behind him with his right arm (on which, Ron noticed, he wore some sort of brace on his wrist). As Kingsley almost reached the line, his right arm swung forward like a pendulum and he released the ball, which rolled quickly down the lane until it struck not directly on any pin but in between two pins near the front of the triangle formed by the 10 pins. (Which, of course, had to be why the game was called 10-pin bowling, Ron realised.) Kingsley must have thrown it either hard enough or in the right spot,

[shh_kingsley]

"Nah. That was great. Can't tell you how many times I sent it into the gutter when I first started playing. And the big thing was you got the ball going the right direction. I've seen new blokes, let go on the back swing and the ball ends up coming this way instead of going toward the pins."

"Ernie, you're up, mate."

[shh_ernie]

The pressure was on Ernie. Kingsley had gotten a spore. No, a spare. And Ron had knocked down eight pins. And now it was Ernie's turn. He was crap at sports. An image of Robbie mocking him for not being able to catch the Quaffle when he'd thrown it to Ernie, who was completely unawares, came to mind

[shh_ron]

As Ron discussed his first two shots (were they even called shots?) with Kingsley, he kept an eye on Ernie, who seemed a bit nervous as he went up to the line. Ernie's ball wobbled down the lane, finally knocking down two pins. Ernie seemed somewhat daunted and released his ball the second time from a different location. That seemed to work better for him, as he hit four pins that time.

"Hey, mate, that's not bad," Ron said consolingly. "You and me've never played this game before. We ought to expect to be pants at it at first, right?"

Turning to Kingsley, he asked, "So what's the score so far? By my reckoning it's Kingsley 9, Ron 8, Ernie 6. What happens in the next round?"

[shh_kingsley]

"That gentlemen, was bowling a frame. Nice job both of you. My first frame ever I knocked down 2 pins and had a gutterball. You both topped that. Ernie, you're releasing the ball a little too soon. Your legs aren't as long as ours, you'll want to move up a little bit to get the stride right

[shh_ron]

So he'd bowled a frame. Great. Ron thought he knew what was going on until Kingsley started to explain how to keep score. Obviously this game was harder than he'd thought. "So how many frames are there in a game? It sounds like you'd want to get as many strikes in a row as you could, just to get a higher score