Chapter 3- Classes and Quidditch Try-Outs
The first two weeks of term brought about several revelations.
The first was that Hogwarts teachers were all very different. Personalities varied greatly. McGonagall was strict and professional and the closest thing to favoritism she ever showed was a like for her more diligent students, whatever house they might be in. Flitwick, the diminutive Charms teacher was soft spoken and kind. Then there was Professor Sprout who was quite motherly, and she quickly took to Taryn and the twins. Quirrel was frightened and mousy and…well, a joke really. His stuttering got irritating and he had trouble holding the class's attention. There was Binns, the only ghost professor at Hogwarts. Fred and George found his class a wonderful place to catch up on sleep they missed during their nighttime exploration of the castle and grounds. There were many teachers… and there was Snape.
Within their first few Potions classes Fred and George lost about fifty points for Gryffindor. It would have been far more if Taryn was as class-clownish as the twins. Which brings us to the second revelation:
Taryn was a model student.
While she was just as troublesome as Fred and George outside of class she was an absolute teacher's pet within the classroom. Her hand shot up at every question, her wand was the first to correctly perform every spell. She won about as many points for Gryffindor in class as she, Fred and George lost outside of it. All her professors (except Snape of course) absolutely loved her and were amused by the Weasley twins. She came into class every day looking different, which occasionally confused roll call, but otherwise, she was an angel. Fred and George teased her about this constantly. But, as I mentioned, she was still a troublemaker.
And that brings us to the third revelation: Sneaking around Hogwarts and its surrounding grounds and pulling pranks and jokes on everyone you can is a lot of fun, until Filch catches you.
Argus Filch was tied with Snape for the troublesome trio's least favorite person. He and his unpleasant cat Mrs. Norris did occasionally manage to catch them in the act of causing mischief and mayhem in the halls and grounds of the school. They caused enough of this to be called the new Marauders by some of the staff who remembered and the students who had heard the old stories. Detentions were never fun, though they managed to lighten the mood by plotting to exact revenge upon the caretaker. They rarely did everything they thought up, but sometimes the plans were just so brilliant they had to be carried out.
Taryn, Fred and George had quickly become popular, even with the older students of not only Gryffindor but Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw as well. They also found a good friend in fellow first year Lee Jordan. This was because of Potions. Snape had prohibited the trio from working as one team. George had instead moved to the cauldron behind him, where the young black boy had been sitting. They immediately got along rather well and soon, though not as tightly wedged into the group as Taryn or the twins, he was still a close companion.
Lee, like many others, always tried to guess which twin was which. And, like everyone that wasn't either a Weasley or Taryn, he rarely got it right except by chance. Taryn was always amused by this. To her Fred and George were as easy to tell apart as night and day. Though physically identical ,their personalities varied. It was not so obvious that everyone in Hogwarts would be able to figure it out, but when you'd grown up with them at your side, it seemed that way. Perhaps at the end of this tale, you'll be able to tell the difference as well.
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Fred George and Taryn had eagerly awaited the end of the second week of term. Now they quickly scarfed down a large breakfast and made their way to the Quidditch Pitch. Try-outs today. They were going to see if they would be on the Gryffindor team. The butterflies in their stomachs seemed to become ever more irritating as they got closer to the pitch.
Gryffindor had the first try-out period of the day. The remainder of last year's team was already on the pitch, and consisted of two players. One of these, obviously, was Charlie. His short and stocky build was in stark contrast with the tall but muscled build of the boy standing next to him.
Charlie caught the attention of the chattering students with his commanding voice. "Alright you lot, quiet!" he called out. "For those of you who don't know, I'm Charlie Weasley, captain and seeker of this Quidditch team. And this her is Oliver Wood, he's our keeper and will be taking over from me as captain next year, while I'm still here to show him the ropes. What that means is, he has as much say in the team line-up as I do."
Most of the pitch looked at Wood with a new respect. Taryn had already been looking at Wood. The handsome and well built fourth year had caught her eye the moment she walked onto the pitch. She therefore resolved to fly better than she ever had before. If she wanted him to take any notice of her, she'd have to be on the team.
Charlie continued. "So, this is going as follows: those who want to try-out for the position of chaser, stand over there." he pointed to a corner of the pitch.
"Later." Taryn said to Fred and George as she walked off to the area indicated with the other chaser-hopefuls. She stood with about a half dozen others, a few of them first years. She refused to let anything get to her, she merely focused on flying to the best of her ability.
"Beaters!" Charlie called out. "over there!" he pointed to a piece of pitch not too far from the where the chasers were standing. Fred, George and four others walked to the spot Charlie had pointed out. They looked at their competition, some big burly oafish looking boys in fifth and sixth years. Then they grinned at each other.
"No problem." they said together.
With that, Charlie turned his attention to the chasers. "Alright then, here's how this works. Oliver is going to get on his broom and in the air in front of the goal posts. You are each individually going to have five tries to score on him. The three with the highest scores out of five will be our chasers. A tie will be settled by having you all those tied redo the exercise. This will also get Oliver back into Quidditch condition." He shot the fourth year a grin. Wood responded with something akin to a smirk of amused irritation. He got on his broom and kicked off into the air.
"Order will go by year, and within year it will be alphabetical by last name. Organize yourselves." they all rushed to do this with some confused chatter and then the try-outs truly began.
Taryn was third, behind a boy named John Ackerman who made one goal out of five, and hen a girl named Katie Bell, who made four out of five. And then it was Taryn's turn. She mounted the school broom, a Cleansweep5, and took the quaffle from Charlie, who gave her an encouraging wink. Then she kicked off hard from the grass.
She was allowed a few moments to get the feel of the broom before Charlie shouted "Begin!" as he had with the others. And at this signal Taryn put on an intimidating spurt of speed, looking s though she was going for the center hoop. Suddenly she feigned left but, at the very last moment she shot for the center goal post. Wood's finger's missed the quaffle by less than an inch as it flew through the golden hoop. Taryn couldn't help but smile as she retrieved the quaffle for her next shot.
This time she zigzagged back and forth, getting Wood to predict her every move. Then, she suddenly pulled up and flew so fast that Wood had no time to react as the quaffle flew over his head and through the goal-post. The shot afterward involved Taryn flying a loop and making the goal upside down, holding onto the broom like a monkey. Her goal after that was achieved by an interesting cork-screw like maneuver that even she had not expected.
At this point she had a fairly good chance of making the team, but the fifth goal would put it over the top. She retrieved the quaffle one last time and brought her broom back high into the air. She at first lazily moved from side to side, appearing indecisive. Then she shot forward, a blur in the sky. She pulled right at the last moment and threw the quaffle right through the hoop. Perfect five!
The Gryffindor students on the pitch whooped and hollered. She touched back down to cheers and applause. The rest of the chaser try-outs went relatively uneventfully. And it ended that there were three first year chasers. Taryn, Katie Bell and a girl named Angelina Johnson who was the only other contender to make all five goals.
"Well done you three and welcome to the team." Charlie said beaming at the three girls. Taryn smiled back.
"Charlie, I'm gonna be thanking you every day for the next two years for letting me work with this team. It's shaping up to be pretty impressive." Wood told him loud enough for everyone to could have sworn that the grin on his face was for her.
"Right then, on to beaters." said Charlie. He saw his brothers' smirking faces from where he stood. He wished he could just tell the other four to get off the pitch. Fred and George were very talented Quidditch players and the oafs that stood on either side of them looked as though they had only come to try-outs for the opportunity to hit things with clubs. Charlie barely managed to suppress the grin that threatened to appear at how appropriate an accessory a club would be to any of those burly boys.
"Beater try-outs will go as follows." Charlie continued. "Bludgers will go for anything in the air, so, we are all going to mount brooms and fly around. In pairs you will be given the beater bats and it will be your job to defend the fliers from the bludgers. Any questions?"
The more oafish looking of the two sixth years asked "Are we going to get into trouble if a bludger hits someone.?"
"Well, you won't be getting on the team." Charlie replied.
Fred and George exchanged a look that plainly said "we are definitely the most competent Quidditch players here." They already knew how this was going to turn out. They didn't expect the ensuing hilarity though.
"This time we'll be having the eldest go first." Charlie said. "Team, mount your brooms." Taryn, Katie, Angelina, and Charlie all mounted their brooms, as did the two sixth years. "Oliver, release the bludgers!" Charlie called as he and the other kicked off. Oliver did just that and then kicked off on his own broom.
The bludgers sped off wildly in two different directions. They hurtled like miniature cannon balls through the air. It was quickly proven how terrible these beaters were. As a bludger came flying at Katie one of the beaters came by and hit it ferociously just before it smashed into her. However, the bat-wielding moron had not looked at where he hit the bludger. It's new found direction and momentum launched it straight into the side of Charlie Weasley. He was thankfully only about ten feet off the ground, watching the other beater when it knocked him off his broom.
Taryn, seeing this dove to his side. Charlie was relatively unhurt, though little bruised. He looked up irately at the apologetic beater.
Meanwhile, the other beater got himself hit with a bludger. He did not fall off of his broom but he would not stop whining. They both landed at an irritated Charlie's feet.
"Next!" He shouted. Fred, George and Taryn were in stitches. Charlie rarely got mad, but when he did, you immediately knew he was Molly Weasley's son.
However, the next pair of beaters was as sorely disappointing as the first. A very sad display of poor flying ended as one sent a bludger flying into the other, who in turn had a midair collision. His broom jabbed Wood in the back so hard that he nearly toppled off his broom, which would have ended catastrophically as they were nearly thirty feet in the air.
And so finally it was Fred and George's turn.
"Well George, shall we show them how it's done?" Fred asked his twin with a grin on his freckled face.
"Yes Fred, I think we shall." George replied, with an identical grin.
The team took off one more time. And one more time Oliver released the bludgers. They were in the air for fifteen minutes and, not only hadn't the Weasley twins let a bludger touch anyone on the tem, but they themselves were not tired. And when Charlie called out that they were the new team beaters, Fred and George gave each other a mid-air high five before helping to wrestle the bludgers back into the case.
Taryn pulled both of them into a tight hug. " We're on the team!" she squeaked excitedly.
They hugged her back, chuckling a bit. It was a rare occasion that Taryn acted girly. When she did they couldn't help but laugh at how cute she was as compared to her normal, tom-boyish self.
Charlie addressed the new Quidditch team. "Alright, you are the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and you will win us the cup this year." They all cheered and applauded. "But before we can do that, we need to practice. Tomorrow after lunch, you will report for our first tem practice. Now you can all go about your business. See you at practice."
Alright, another chapter is up! Please review!!