Tryouts
Disclaimer: I do not own the series of Harry Potter or any of its characters. To my knowledge, everything belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Watching Quidditch tryouts had never been very exciting for her, but Hermione would always go and watch to support her two best friends. The sport, itself, may not have been very high on her list of priorities, but Ron and Harry were very close to the top of that list, right along side other people important to her like her parents. So, she really didn't mind giving up her morning to watch a bunch of people fly around the pitch and play a game she had only ever understood on a purely intellectual level. And despite Harry's obvious annoyance, it had been fairly amusing in the beginning to watch first years who couldn't fly, girls who couldn't stop giggling, and even people from other houses try out for the Gryffindor team.
However when the Keeper tryouts finally rolled around at the end of the session, Hermione's good mood was soured by two things; the first of which could summed up in two words: Cormac McLaggen. Being in the Slug Club had either given him a very high opinion of himself and helped to feed an already large ego, or he had assumed that she and Harry were in the boat with him, paddling down the stream of praises Slughorn sung. His personality was horrible, and the way he treated two of the people she cared about most, Ron and Ginny, was absolutely vile. If he got on the Quidditch team, well, she didn't want to think about how much worse he could, and most probably would, get.
Unfortunately, that was looking to be a very distinct possibility. He'd already saved four goals, the best record so far, and while she knew that Ron was perfectly capable of doing the same, he had always had a horrible case of nerves. Fingering her wand lightly as she toyed with an idea in her head, Hermione watched as the last Chaser zoomed toward McLaggen, quickly made her decision, forced herself to squash the feelings that arose at her soon to be actions, and cast the spell that had him flying off in the direction opposite of the one he needed to go. With that settled, she just had to hope that Ron wouldn't let his nerves get the best of him. Maybe, she should give him a shout of support. Nodding to herself, Hermione sucked in a breathe of air, but someone beat her to the punch.
"Good luck!" a voice cried out from the stands not too far from her as Ron mounted his Cleansweep Eleven – at least, she was pretty sure that's what it was called. Still, that wasn't what had her attention. That voice coming from her right bothered her. Turning her head, she saw Lavendar Brown cheering for her friend…friend. A dreadful pang resounded in her chest at that thought. For a long time, she had known she wanted to be more to Ron than just a friend, and now, she had some very unexpected and quite sudden competition. Well, they would just see about that.
After Ron had saved five goals and officially secured his place as Keeper, Hermione saw Lavender Brown shoot up to congratulate him out of the corner of her eye. Too bad for Lavender that Hermione had anticipated her actions and was already running past the stands, across the field, to her friends. For Harry and Ron, she had painted a smile on her face, but on the inside, she burned with guilt for cheating Ron out of an honest win and was barely keeping afloat in a sea of jealousy and anguish with the knowledge that some day soon Ron might be taken away from her by Lavendar Brown.
A/N: So, in my first Harry Potter drabble "If Only", I said I would be putting these out every few weeks, but then life happened. So, I'm just releasing them all at once. I hope you enjoyed them. Please read and review.
