Notes: Written for lj "writers_rock"'s February Frenzy to week 1's prompt #21: character hides a success from others.
The characters and settings belong to JK Rowling.
The owls swooped into the Great Hall at breakfast and all the young Quidditch players grasped their post eagerly.
"No!" yelled Scorpius on the Slytherin table.
"You didn't get in either?" Albus called over from Gryffindor.
Scorpius walked over to him, saying, "I can't believe it! I did everything right. I saw your trial Albus. You didn't get an apprenticeship either? It doesn't make sense."
"Could be worse," said James, tearing up the scroll with his name on it. "It could be your second year rejected in a row. I don't know what I'm going to do now; that was my last chance. So, Rose, are they taking on witches, are we suffering from some quota thing?"
Rose was approaching them from the Ravenclaw table.
"Maybe. But not this witch." She sighed. "I don't know what they're looking for. This sucks so hard."
"I don't know why they bother holding the trials if they're not offering any apprenticeships," Scorpius grumbled. "Well it looks like it's the Hog's Head tonight for drowned sorrows all round. Who else tried out? Do we know whether anyone was taken on?"
"There were a few from my team who went for it," Rose said. "None of them got a place."
"Can't we make it the Three Broomsticks?" Albus asked Scorpius and they started arguing about pubs.
Hugo slipped his acceptance scroll into his pocket. He'd thought he didn't stand a chance: trying out a year early. In two years' time he would be starting a professional Quidditch apprenticeship. He hadn't told anyone he'd applied because he didn't want to have to face them when he failed and they succeeded. This was worse, though. So much worse.