Chapter Nine

Chasers and Keepers

The next day, after double Charms, which was the last lesson of the afternoon, Lily, Mia and Hugo headed down to the Quidditch pitch. Louis, who'd had Herbology last, met them down there, as he'd come to support Lily. There was quite a turn out for the tryouts – about a dozen prospective Chasers, ranging from a seventh year, down to Alexander's little sister, Ailie Abercrombie.

"Alright, Lily?" James asked, as she and Mia walked across the pitch towards him, the boys having gone to wait in the stands.

"Uh-huh," Lily nodded. "I'm gonna be the best."

"You better," James grinned. "Hey, which of you's that kid Emma's big sister?" he asked.

"Me," Mia said. "Why?"

"She's a natural flier," James said. "Just been teaching that lot now. She told me she'd never ridden a broom before – I didn't believe her. Future team member for sure."

"What about Matilda? – she's my little sister," Lily said.

"Rubbish," James said shortly. "And not very happy about it. Look, she's up in the stands, sulking."

Mia looked, and, sure enough, there were Emma and Matilda, sat in the stands, not far from Hugo and Louis.

"Right, Lily, you go wait with the other people who are trying out, and Mia, come with me to the rest of the team – we need to talk about how the tryouts are going to work."

Mia followed James over to where the rest of the team were waiting. The two of them joined the Beaters: Roxanne, another Weasley cousin, and Mary Cattermole, a fifth year who was friends with Hugo's sister Rose; and Roxanne's older brother, Fred, who was a Chaser alongside James.

"Who are we missing...?" James asked.

"Samuel," Roxanne said. "He'll be late. He always is."

"Well, I'll run though what's gonna happen with you guys, and then someone an fill and then someone can fill Sam in when he turns up," James said. "So, first I'm gonna get all those trying out for Chaser to try and put a penalty past Mia. Mia, I don't want you completely playing at 100% for that first bit – maybe about 70? – because if they can't score it, then they're out."

"So you want me to let goals in?"Mia asked.

"Ish..." James shrugged. "I mean, like obviously if they aim wide then they're not going to score, and if they throw the Quaffle really slowly then you're gonna have plenty of time to block it. I suppose I just want you to react in slow motion – give them a bit of a chance."

"Okay," Mia nodded.

"Then anyone who gets through that round, I'll put them in a bit of a game set up, get you two-" he nodded at Roxanne and Mary "-sending Bludgers at them, maybe use Sam as a second Keeper – it depends how many there are. I'll observe, and pick who I want on the team from all-round ability. If I really can't decide, then I'll do it on penalties again."

As James finished speaking, Samuel Wood, the team's Seeker, came running across the pitch.

"Sorry I'm late," he panted. "I was helping Hagrid round up some krups – lost track of time."

James rolled his eyes. "Well, Fred, Roxy and Mary can fill you in whilst Mia and I get started," he said. "Mia, you get up to the goalhoops whislt I go sort out the wannabe Chasers."

Mia kicked off hard from the ground, feeling the familiar rush of wind as the ground sped away from underneath her. She did a lap of the pitch to warm herself up, before taking up her position at the goalhoops, which had her squinting slightly into the sun, which was starting to sink below the horizon.

Ailie Abercrombie was the first to tryout. She mounted her broom, kicked off from the ground, and rose a few inches before she leant back too far and slid off the back of her broom, landing with a bump on the ground. After several more failed attempts to get airborne, James gently led her away and let the next Chaser have a go.

Mia recognised the fourth year boy who took the Quaffle now – his name was Kyle Caplan, and he'd tried out for Keeper alongside her last year, as well as playing as a reserve Chaser in a match in her first year. He flew towards her confidently, Quaffle tucked under his arm. Mia watched him steadily. As he entered the scoring area, he feignted right and shot left, and Mia waited a fraction of a second longer than she usually would have before diving, and so he scored.

As she faced prospective Chaser after prospective Chaser, Mia stole occasional glances down at Lily, who was waiting in the slowly dwindling line. Of the next four Chasers, two shot wide, one shot so slowly Mia would have had time to do a lap of the goal hoops and still block it; and the fourth, a fourth year boy, Reuben Goldstein, who's older sister was one of the Ravenclaw Chasers, flew towards Mia so fast that she reacted at her normal speed and still couldn't block his goal.

Then, it was Lily's turn. Mia really wanted her best friend to make the team, but, even more, she wanted the best Chaser so that Gryffidnor could keep hold of the House Cup, so she wasn't about to the house cup, so she wasn't about to go easy on her friend. Lily flew towards Mia, feinted left, then right, and then shot left. Mia flew left to try and block it. Her fingertips brushed the Quaffle, but it still went in. Lily, like Kyle and Reuben, was through to the next round.

In all, six of the prospective Chasers managed to score against Mia. James arranged them into two teams, and set them up in a game, with Samuel as a second Keeper, and Fred helping him observe. After about twenty minutes, James declared that Reuben Goldstein and Lily Potter were through to the third and final round.

Instead of having the two finalists just attempt penalties on their own, James and Fred set up the goals, with the prospective Chasers each trying to score five times, on the back of passes from the current Chasers. As well as testing the Chaser's technical abilities, this allowed everyone to see how well the new Chasers fitted in with the existing team, and this proved to be Reuben's undoing. Whilst Lily, possibly somewhat due to the fact that she'd been playing with them since she'd first learnt to fly, immediately gelled with James and Fred, Reuben was a glory-hunter, determined to win on his own merit, and far too slow at catching the Quaffle and passing it on.

The result: Lily scored two goals out of five, and Reuben didn't score any. James declared Lily the new Chaser, and the team, tired and hungry, headed up to the castle for a late dinner.


That evening, the gang congregated in the Inter-House Common Room. Lily, Mia, Hugo and Louis went up there after dinner, and found most of them already there, watching Mac make some badges with his badge maker. They all watched as he drew the Gryffindor house crest on a circle of card, coloured it in, and then tapped it with his wand to duplicate it. Then he fitted it into the badge maker, tapped it with his wand, and pushed down a leaver.

"There you go," he said, taking out the completed badge and handing it to Alice. Then he did the second one and handed it to Frankie. "That'll be a sickle each, please," he said, as the twins pinned their matching badges to their robes.

"Since when were you charging for them?" Louis asked.

"Since I'm getting through the badges that come with the maker really fast," Mac shrugged. "I'm gonna have to write home to get my dad to get me some more, and my pocket money won't stretch to cover all that."

"Hey, Mac, can you make me one that says 'I love Frankie?'" Kieran asked.

Mac rolled his eyes. "Tell you what – I'll sell you one of the cardboard circles for a sickle, you can design the badge yourself, and then I'll turn it into a badge for you."

"Can I do one that says 'I'm the new Gryffindor Chaser'?" Lily asked, grinning. Mia could tell she'd been bursting to tell everyone since they'd got to the Inter-House Common Room.

The congratulations came in from all sides:

"Well done, Lily – knew you'd do it."

"Way to go – let's hold onto the Quidditch Cup."

"Go, go, Gryffindor!"

Mia heard slow clapping, and looked up to see Josh Young walking across the room towards them.

"Well done," he said sarcastically. "In an act of pure favouritism, James Potter appoints Lily Potter to the Quidditch team over older far more qualified candidates."

"How would you know what the other Chasers were like?" Mia demanded, coming to her friend's defence. "You weren't there."

"I didn't have to be – none of you did – it was a foregone conclusion that Potter would pick his baby sister.

James strode across the room towards them, evidently having spotted Josh.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

"Nothing," Josh said airily. "I was merely congratulating your sister on becoming the new Gryffindor Chaser. Doubtless she will be abysmal, but we couldn't really have expected you to choose anyone other than her, could we?"

"I chose Lily because she was the best person there James told him shortly. "If you think you could've done better, why didn't you tryout?"

"Because one, I am a Keeper, I can't just chop and change positions whenever I feel like it... unlike some people-"he glared nastily at Kyle Caplan, who was buying a badge from Mac "-and two, I wouldn't be on a team that you're in charge of if you paid me!" And with that, he stalked off across the room to rejoin his friends.

"Idiot," James growled, making a rude hand gesture at Josh's retreating back.

Chlo, who'd been hovering nearby, came and hugged James' arm. "Come on, leave it," she told him.

"I don't give a damn if he has a go at me," James said. "I just don't want him having a go at other people because of me."

"I know," Chlo sighed. "Now come away, and don't let him rile you – he wants a reaction out of you."

James allowed Chlo to lead him away, still grumbling about Josh.

"Hey, Louis, I made you a present," Hugo grinned, breaking the silence. He handed his cousin a badge which he'd just drawn and had Mac make for him.

"What does it say?" Lily asked, quickly forgetting about Josh.

" 'The girls only like me because of my Veela hair'," Louis read, scowling. "Not true!" he said indignantly.

Then he ran his hand absent-mindedly through his silvery blonde hair, and everyone laughed.