Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, Petunia would have got accepted to Hogwarts.
"Quidditch!" I yelled and ran onto the pitch, spinning around with my broom in my hand. James and Sirius followed me sluggishly.
"You have way too much energy in the morning, Ell," James groaned, running a hand through his already messy hair.
"But it's Quidditch! You've got to be excited about Quidditch!"
"Yeah, I'm excited about Quidditch, at a nice 5:00 in the afternoon, as opposed to 8-bloody-o'clock in the morning." Sirius mounted his broom in a half daze and rose a few feet.
"Wimp." I stuck my tongue out at him and rose to the same height. "Aren't you supposed to beQuidditch Captain? Buck up, will you?"
"I swear, I think I'm going to fall asleep in the air." James flew up to meet us.
"Don't do that!" I pressed a hand to my heart in mock shock. "You might fall off and hurt your pretty face! Oh wait, that might be an improvement." I shrieked as James went to throttle me. "Bloody hell," I swore, suddenly serious as I looked towards the entrance of the Quidditch Pitch.
A legion of girls were pouring into the field, each holding a broom for probably the first time. Giggling at each other ridiculous, they filed into their seats and looked up starry-eyed at Sirius.
"This one's yours, mate," James grinned, patting his friend on the back.
I smiled deviously at him and wiggled a couple of fingers. "Toodle-oo!" And James and I sped off to the seats. "Let's see how he handles this, Prongsy," I muttered, an evil grin on my face.
"Ah, well…" Sirius searched for something to say, "how are all you people today?"
A girl fainted dead away - and it only got worse from there.
It took 30 minutes for poor Padfoot to send out all the girls who didn't know how to mount a broomstick, much less ride it. Another 15 minutes went to weeding out all the girls from different houses. Finally, an hour after tryouts started, the people who actually liked Quidditch were left.
I saw Sirius spitting out swears by the dozen as he rose. "Okay," he snapped grumpily, "Why don't the Chasers come up? And I swear, if you tell me you don't know which ball is the Quaffle…"
James grinned and flew up. "How's your day been, Padsy?"
"I am going to hit you with my broomstick," the dog seethed. "Alright," he raised his voice, "You'll all get five chances to chuck the Quaffle through the hoops. I'll be Keeper. The top three scorers are in, got it?"
"Got it," came the chorus from the excited players.
The Chaser tryouts were always a bit boring. Danielle Robins, a 4th year, managed to score all 5 shots, and was secured a spot on the team along with Lauren Bell, a 6th year, and, of course, James.
"Alright, Keeper tryouts next!" Sirius bellowed, pleased with having finally done something useful. "Your new chasers will try to score 5 times. Again, whoever stops the most goals is in. Okay?"
If the Chaser tryouts were boring, the Keeper tryouts were even more so. Finally, Sean Wood, a 5th year, was chosen.
"Alright, we'll have Seeker tryouts, then Beater tryouts last," Sirius yelled. I mounted my broomstick giddily and flew up, almost knocking Padfoot off of his broom.
"At your service, Monsieur Capitaine!" I shouted, saluting. There were only 4 other people trying out with me. Great, I thought, less competition.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "I'm going to use these Muggle things called golf balls, are you listening? I'll throw a bunch of them up at you, and you'll have to catch them. Once you catch them, they've been charmed to turn a certain color for each of you - red, gold, blue, green, and silver. Finally, we'll count up how many were caught by each person, and the highest score gets the spot."
"Let's do this!" I punched the air with my fist, then leaned down on my broom, narrowing my eyes. I was smaller than most of the other Seekers, which was a big advantage for me.
As Sirius started pitching the golf balls, I weaved through the others to catch them. They turned a bright gold as I dropped them to the ground and searched for others. Slowly, the balls stopped coming and I gradually stopped.
"Let's see…" Sirius waved his wand and separated the balls into groups by color. "Out of the 50 balls I threw, blue got 5," a slightly peaky boy hung his head in shame, "green got 5," a small girl looked extremely angry - she looked to be a 2nd year, "yellow got 10," a tall boy shrugged, "silver got 13," another boy puffed out his chest arrogantly, then drooped as he did the math, "and gold got 17."
I gave out a triumphant whoop and did a spin in the air as the stands cheered.
"Now it's the Beaters' turn!" Sirius said and the prospectives applauded and screamed appreciatively.
Sirius loved the Beater tryouts. First, he got everyone into the air in a circle. He would start by hitting the flying Bludger to another person. Then that person would hit it to another person. You were out of the game if you missed the Bludger, and the last person standing would be Sirius' partner. After a nail-biting 20 minutes, Sirius proudly held up the hand of the 6th year Jenny Pine, who looked exultant.
"Alright, thank you to everyone who came today, and to all of you who got in, practice starts tomorrow!" Sirius announced, coming down to the ground.
"So," I started impishly, walking with Sirius back to the common room.
"So."
"That Pine girl fancies you, doesn't she?"
"Ell, darling, everyone fancies me."
"So Snivellus fancies you."
"I meant every person, not every little slug that has the misfortune to be born on this Earth."
I laughed. "I don't fancy you. In fact, I don't fancy anyone"
Sirius snorted. "Silky, everyone fancies someone. It's impossible not to."
"Well, I can do the impossible then."
"You must have some sort of crush on someone," he insisted, tugging my black hair as we walked into the portrait hole.
I sat in the plushiest armchair and looked over at Padfoot, who was sitting on the sofa. Hesitating for a second, I said slowly, "I… I do."
I don't think I've ever seen anyone's eyes widen so far. "Who?" the dog demanded sternly.
"Um… well…" I shifted under his inscrutable gaze.
"Well c'mon! Tell me! I have to approve!" He crossed his arms for added effect and I gulped.
Biting my lip, I whispered, "Promise you won't tell anyone?"
Sirius shrugged. "It depends. I mean, you are Ell "I don't fancy anyone" Carrick."
"It's… he's…" I sighed dreamily and fluttered my eyelashes, "Paul McCartney."
An awkward silence rang between us. Padfoot looked like he was choking on raw spaghetti. He tried to say something, then something else, but his voice refused to work."
"I think I may be in love with him."
I glanced into his gray eyes and couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"I was worried there for a minute!" he cried in anguish as I chuckled.
"You dense…" I managed to gasp out before submitting to another fit of giggles.
I continued smiling every few minutes as we walked to dinner. Sirius glared at me, which only made me grin more broadly.
"What's got you looking so happy?" Remus asked once we had sat down across from him. I tried to speak, but I was already laughing too much.
"Mr. McCartney must have proposed," Sirius muttered darkly to a confused Moony before skewering a carrot with his fork.
A/N: If you don't know who Paul McCartney is, I will beat you with a wet noodle. A very long wet noodle. Go find out who he is, listen to all his songs, and then agree that his voice is super sexy. :)
Till next time, her Majesty, the Queen, Violet ^_^