CHAPTER 4
QUIDDITCH TRYOUTS
They received their schedule at breakfast that morning and Al asked, "Who's the Potions teacher this year?"
Rose looked and saw Potions marked with a name she had never heard before. "Selwyn?"
"Oh, bloody hell, that's another old pureblood family," James muttered, and Min groaned.
"Probably a tough grader then," Min said.
Emma looked confused. "Well, they wouldn't hire a teacher that wasn't competent, would they?"
James snorted. "Er, the last Potions teacher was evil and died, so it's probably not a popular job. He might've been the only applicant. Of course, Rosie will tell us to get to know him first, right Rosie?"
Rose rolled her eyes. "There's a difference between a teacher and Scorpius. For one thing, Scorpius is 12."
"Whatever, Rosie, I'm just joking. Wish I was in second year, I have Divination first. Harry and I have been making up every word of those assignments all last year. What've you got first?"
Al handed him his schedule while Rose studied hers.
BREAKFAST AVAILABLE 8:00-10:00
MONDAY, WEDNESDAY: 10:00—POTIONS (SELWYN) 12:00—Lunch 1:00—HISTORY OF MAGIC (BINNS) 3:00—DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS (RUDOMIN)
TUESDAY, THURSDAY: 10:00—CHARMS (FLITWICK) 12:00—Lunch 1:00—TRANSFIGURATION (MCGONAGALL) 3:00—HERBOLOGY (LONGBOTTOM)
FRIDAY: 10:00—POTIONS (SELWYN) 11:00—CHARMS 12:00—Lunch 1:00—HISTORY OF MAGIC 2:00—TRANSFIGURATION 3:00—DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS 4:00—HERBOLOGY
DINNER AVAILABLE 17:00–19:00
STUDY HALL OPTIONAL 20:00—21:30 in Great Hall
GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH PRACTICE Mon, Wed, Fri 19:30-21:00
"Ew, Potions first, that's tough. Well, I'll see you at Quidditch tryouts," he said, grinning, and Rose felt her stomach turn as James got up to go to Divination.
"We have to go, guys," Min said, and Rose got up and shoved the schedule in her bag.
"Er, guys, where's Transfiguration?" Emma asked nervously, looking very lost. Fred sighed and pointed her to the correct hallway, where Roxanne was already walking towards. Emma ran off, waving goodbye to Rose. Min, Al, Ana and Rose reached the Potions classroom as the first of their classmates arrived. Min sat with Ana and Al looked around for someone to sit with before Alana walked in and waved him over to her table. Rose sat down in her seat from last year, waiting for Scorpius. He appeared a couple minutes later, bickering with Lexa about something. She sat on the opposite end of the room in a huff and Rose sighed in relief. He sat down and sighed audibly as he reached in his bag for his textbook.
"All right, Malfoy?" Rose asked.
"I'm fine, Weasley. She won't stop following me, I swear. Who's the new professor?"
"Someone named Selwyn," Rose said, shrugging. Scorpius groaned.
"Seriously?" Rose nodded, confused.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"He's a friend of my mother's," Scorpius said darkly. Rose nodded slowly, deciding not to ask—for now. Then, a man with very dark hair and a small beard, dressed in navy blue robes, walked to the professor's desk. The man had small thin glasses and gray eyes and seemed to be looking down at whomever he saw.
"My name is Professor Selwyn. I will be your Potions teacher," the man said. "I will take attendance now, please say 'here' clearly when I call your name. We will be starting work immediately following this." The class groaned audibly and he slapped a book down on the desk, making such a loud noise that the class was shocked into silence. Rose and Scorpius shared a look of dread as he called, "Bletchley, Laura." He continued down the list, looking up at "Malfoy, Scorpius," briefly. When he called "Weasley, Rose," and Rose said, "Here," he looked up again, looked from her to Scorpius, and looked back down at his book as he said, "Miss Weasley, please switch seats with Miss Rae."
Rose glanced at Scorpius, surprised. "But, Professor Selwyn—"
He slammed the book again and she jumped. "I expect you to listen when I instruct you to do something, Miss Weasley," he said, practically spitting out 'Weasley'. "Switch seats with Miss Rae."
Rose gathered her things and stomped across the aisle, towards the Slytherin-dominated side of the classroom. Lexa looked quite smug as they passed each other, and just as they were directly next to each other, Lexa pretended to trip over something and stumbled. Selwyn looked up and Lexa complained, "Professor, Rose tripped me!"
"Detention, Miss Weasley," he said, without looking up. "Do not argue," he said before she could protest. "Tomorrow night, the Forest."
"Professor Selwyn, I doubt that Rose tripped Lexa—" Scorpius argued.
"You, too, Mr. Malfoy."
"Sir—"
"Don't argue with me, Mr. Malfoy, or I will write to your mother and tell her that you came into my classroom with a Weasley. Is everything settled now?" He looked up from his book as if daring them to argue. They all shook their heads and Lexa sat down next to Scorpius. Rose sighed and sat down in the empty seat next to Devon Goyle.
Halfway through the class, Rose was measuring out snake fangs and Devon said, "I think you'll do better if you cut them in half first, it helps them dissolve." She looked up at him, slightly confused as to why he was helping her. He shrugged. "Hey, even I know that wasn't fair."
She smiled a little. "Thanks, Devon," she said, cutting the fangs in half and dropping them in the cauldron.
Rose couldn't focus during most of the afternoon. She wasn't worried about missing much, though, because neither Binns nor Rudomin actually started their lesson plans in any depth, but she wished she wasn't so scared of the Quidditch tryouts. It had gotten so bad that during their Defense class, Scorpius turned to Rose and whispered, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" she whispered back quickly, trying to take notes on Rudomin's course objectives.
"Your hand's shaking," he replied and Rose looked down to see that yes, it was. "You aren't nervous about the tryouts, are you?"
"Shut up, Malfoy, of course I'm not," she said defensively. "You didn't get in last year."
"Neither did you," he said, smirking. She hated that smirk.
"Tom fancied Alice. James told me."
"Sure."
"He did!" Rose insisted.
"Miss Weasley, Mr. Malfoy, don't make me separate you," Rudomin said, and Rose looked up in fright before the Defense teacher smiled and she relaxed, though she was embarrassed. She caught Lexa rolling her eyes dramatically across the room and sighed.
"Sorry, Professor," Scorpius said, as Rose tried to calm her still-shaking hand. She had been incredibly embarrassed last year when she hadn't made the team, and she definitely didn't want to be Alana's scorekeeper again and sit with all the teachers.
At the end of Defense, Rose could hardly walk as she made her way to the pitch, holding her broom tightly in both hands. Al caught up to her and was practically skipping. "I'm so glad it's Quidditch season again," he said.
"Yeah," Rose muttered.
"Cheer up, Rosie, you'll make it," he said, running up towards where Rose could see that James was. When everyone was seated, Tom Wood called them to attention.
"Hi, everyone, I'm Tom Wood, I'm Gryffindor Quidditch captain. Uh, we'll have Chaser tryouts first, so if you all could come down to the pitch." There were four people that came down to the pitch, including Daniel Logan, who was on the team last year. Rose didn't know any of the rest of them, which surprised her; she thought she knew pretty much everyone in Gryffindor. Tom made them all fly three laps around the pitch. Despite how nervous Rose was, she always felt on top of the world when she was flying, and this time was no exception. She was so happy to be flying on a real Quidditch pitch that she almost forgot to come down after the third lap. As she did, however, she saw a small flash of something moving in the corner of her eye. She squinted and saw that it was coming from the nearby Forest. There was someone down near the edge, holding something that was shining in the sunlight. She shook her head and landed on the pitch. Then, they all tried to score three points against James as Keeper in five minutes; Rose and Daniel were able to, along with another girl, but the other boy trying out could not. Rose hoped it was a good sign that she had flown the three laps faster than the other girl. She watched Al's formality of a Seeker tryout and then they had to give up the field to Slytherin. She saw Scorpius go down to the field for the Chaser tryouts and groaned. The last thing she needed was more competition from Scorpius Malfoy. Though on the field, she felt all right about her tryout, once they had eaten dinner and gone to study hall she was convinced she had failed. "Rose, you were incredible, I was watching you," Al insisted, while Min tried to explain Quidditch to a completely confused Emma.
"But—but it doesn't make any sense! If the Snitch is all that matters—" Emma kept saying.
"No, it isn't all that matters, see, in this game in 1972…" Min tried to tell her, flipping through her copy of Quidditch Throughout the Ages, as Rose watched the memo board anxiously for the arrival of the list of teams. Suddenly, she jumped up as Rudomin appeared with four lists and stapled the parchment to the board. It was suddenly swarmed with people and she fought to the front, reading the lists.
HUFFLEPUFF— Seeker: Stephanie MacMillan, Keeper: Jenny Grey, Beaters: Jeoff Vincent and Tim Donovan, Chasers: Dominic Allan, Adam Finch-Fletchley, Jane Thatcher
RAVENCLAW—Seeker: Gideon Grey, Keeper: Ryan Belby, Beaters: Sydney Boot and David Corner, Chasers: Lucy Weasley, Maria Goldstein, Zoe Chang-Li
SLYTHERIN—Seeker: Harvey Flint, Keeper: Gemma Farley, Beaters: Devon Goyle and Ajax Rosier, Chasers: Scorpius Malfoy, Alex Chang-Li, Ben Burke
GRYFFINDOR—Seeker: Albus Potter, Keeper: James Potter, Beaters: Fred Weasley and Harry Longbottom, Chasers: Daniel Logan, Tom Wood, Rose Weasley
"I got in!" Rose exclaimed.
"Me too!" Scorpius said from behind her. Rose turned around.
"I saw," she said. "Nice job, Malfoy."
"You, too, Weasley," he said. "It'll be nice to prove I'm better in and out of the classroom."
"Oh, hush," she said, smiling, and went back to the tower feeling amazing. But when she lied down in bed that night, she couldn't stop thinking about the figure near the Forest.