Again, really, really late! I'm so sorry! It looks like updating won't be as regular as I hoped but no worries, I'll keep writing. If I'm super, super late with chapters it's only because I physically CAN'T.
Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter despite the delay!
Chapter 10
An Abundance of Bludgers
Over the next two nights, James dreamt they had solved the Treasure Hunt from last year only to have it all turn out to be a conspiracy so that Professor Flint could expel him.
As he fought his way through Flying lesson on Monday, this conclusion became more and more believable.
After making him run laps for the first half of the lesson and nearly unseating him with a well-aimed Bludger during the second, Flint finally sent him to stand outside Professor Longbottom's office for the rest of class for 'cheek'.
The punishment didn't bother James. It actually offered him some relief from Flint's constant nit-picking. If James had thought Flying lesson would e better now that he was firmly established on his house team, he was wrong. In fact, it just seemed to make Flint more furious.
Instead of trying to prove James wasn't good enough for the team. Flint now seemed to be aiming to make sure James was unfit to play the Gryffindor-Slytherin match in November.
He knew Professor Longbottom would never believe this if he tried to explain. In fact whenever he mentioned it he was conscience that he sounded like an arrogant and paranoid child, so he stood by the office door calmly, waiting to take whatever punishment he was given.
Only a moment later, Professor Longbottom stuck his head round the door and invited James in. James explained why he was there as Professor Longbottom surveyed him across his desktop.
"And why were you cheeky to Professor Flint, James?" The teacher asked calmly.
"It was an accident! I didn't mean to sound cheeky." James explained quickly from his seat opposite the Gryffindor Head of House.
Professor Longbottom sighed, "Perhaps you should be more careful how you speak to your teachers James. Now I believe that was the bell for the end of class – I suggest you hurry to your next lesson and make sure to be more polite in the future."
James got up to leave. He couldn't believe his luck. Professor Longbottom hadn't even taken any points from Gryffindor. He swung his school bag onto his shoulder and hurried off to rejoin Alex for Divination.
The rest of the week proceeded without any great incident, Alex was quickly becoming Professor Trelawney's favourite student and Hagrid started bringing a young Acromantula to Care of Magical Creatures on a leash. Many students hid or clambered onto fences or large boulders whenever the spider came near them and there was an almost constant sound of girls screaming but Hagrid maintained that the beast was only a baby and needed to be nursed back to health before being returned to the forbidden forest.
The way Hagrid talked about it, it was just a cute cuddly baby but not even his loyalty to Hagrid could force James to help him with his new pet after his experience in the forest last year. In the end it was only Blue who would help and even then it was with a frightened grimace and a thick pair of dragon-hide gloves.
Their classes this year were harder and James just couldn't get the hang of Divination no matter how hard he tried. In fact, he was barely managing to keep awake in the warm, dark classroom. It was only because Trelawney kept visiting Alex at their table that James even bothered to make an effort. She constantly congratulated him on his sensitive aura and flimsy predictions. They had started reading tealeaves and when Alex had suggested James's tealeaf dregs looked like an octopus Trelawney had delighted in telling James he was in terrible danger.
James decided the only danger he was in was of falling off his chair when he dozed off again and began to spend his classes staring out the window at the continuously stormy sky.
Luckily, as they progressed towards the weekend, the weather began to brighten. James felt his spirits soar as he thought about his glorious return to the Quidditch pitch on Saturday afternoon.
He had seen Albus outside most evenings practicing with Philip for the Quidditch trial and though he would never tell Albus, he was looking pretty good. James knew from playing with his younger brother in the past that Albus had good aim though was more accustomed to playing Chaser rather than Beater. He would have to work on the strength of his hits to make the team.
Though each class dragged by slowly, James found himself surprised when the relaxing weekend suddenly stretched out before him. He didn't even have much homework and decided to get it out of the way on Friday evening then stayed up late playing darts with Alex.
After lunch on Saturday James hurried down to the Quidditch pitch where he met Rangi and the rest of the team. Rangi saw him coming and waved him over,
"What do you think, James?" Rangi called enthusiastically, motioning around with his arms.
James looked up. What he saw made him stop in his tracks and stare.
Over a dozen Quidditch supply trunks were lying open around the feet of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Oswin was there too, he was standing beside Rangi talking to him urgently,
"I thought you said you got clearance? I thought Professor Longbottom said it was allowed." Oswin asked anxiously.
"Well, 'allowed' wasn't the exact word he used. It was more something along the lines of 'perhaps do something safer' – so I provided safety equipment!" Replied Rangi happily pointing at a helmets, knee and elbow pads in a pile next to him.
"I don't think that's what he meant Rangi." Oswin warned him looking worried.
"Nonsense, Oswin! How are we meant to test prospective players if we don't put them in real, match situations?" Rangi laughed carelessly, thumping his friend on the shoulder fondly.
"How many matches have you played with around thirty Bludgers?" Oswin asked incredulously.
"A surprising amount actually…" Rangi replied thoughtfully.
"Molly! Talk some sense into him!" Oswin begged Molly as she strode past Beaters Bat in hand.
"Actually, I'm totally in favour of this." She told a desperate looking Oswin, "In fact, I'm rather looking forward to it."
James approached the group as Molly continued,
"Don't look so horrified Oswin. People have got to be ready for this kind of thing. If you can't take a few bruises, you shouldn't be playing. Quidditch is a dangerous game."
Oswin continued to look nervous as Rangi called over the rest of the team.
"Okay! Here's the plan everybody." Rangi started, grinning around at them all, "Those who wish to try out will form a line outside the stadium. As each player enters, they will be given their instructions. We will be test these candidates and I will pick one to join our ranks. The instructions are simple. Here, we have twenty-eight Bludgers. When I blow my whistle, we will release them all. Then, we will each levitate one of the dummies on the far side of the pitch. The player will defend these dummies while Molly hits Bludgers at them. This should give us a fair idea of how good these players will be when defending us! To make sure they try hard, I have bewitched each dummy to look like a player of the team as a baby-"
"What?" James frowned.
"That's right!" Rangi continued, " Your parents were all kind enough to send me some baby photos of each of you in order to make this trial extra effective!"
"Wait, WHAT?" James asked again staring around at his teammates who all looked lost for words except for Molly who appeared to be simmering with fury.
"Listen," Rangi said hotly, eyeing James, "When we are in the sky, in a match, we need protection. The best protection. We already have one amazing Beater, we need another one. When we're playing, Bludgers shouldn't even be an issue. Our Beaters should be keeping Bludgers away from us and hitting them at our opposition so the rest of us can carry on scoring, saving and seeking, got it?"
James nodded, too nervous to object again.
"We need a Beater who can protect us from harm – and if that means levitating baby-versions of our players into the air for these Beaters to protect, so be it." Rangi finished looking at them all with a seriousness he usually reserved for their matches.
The team grumbled a bit but nobody protested. James still had a hard time imagining Rangi writing a letter to their parents explaining why he needed their baby photos.
"Now, there are people gathered outside already. Molly, go organize them into a line while we finish setting up in here." Rangi commanded.
James made his way over to the dummies apprehensively; he began blushing furiously as he spotted his own dummy-baby sitting atop a tiny broom, five-times life size with a mop of dark hair and cherub-like cheeks. He was even quite sure he knew what picture it was from, the one of himself on a toy broom at the Burrow when he was about two.
The 'dummies' were more like large dolls than anything else, Fred, Benito and Paddy, the Chasers, had already started ramming their dolls into each other in the air. It looked like the babies were jousting on their baby brooms.
Rangi blew his whistle and James hurried back over.
"Ready team?" Rangi asked, grinning.
James was sure that, despite his serious talk, Rangi was really quite enjoying this.
"Molly! Call in the first player!" Rangi called and Molly returned with a confused looking fourth year. No doubt Molly had already explained his absurd instructions to him outside.
"Release the Bludgers!" Called Rangi merrily and James bent to let the Bludgers free from where they were strapped in the nearest Quidditch case.
"Defend the babies from the Bludgers..." He heard the fourth year muttering to himself as he strapped on some safety gear and took off.
Once the Bludgers were all released. James and the rest of the team pointed their wands at the dummies and began levitating them. Each player levitated their own dummy except for Molly who was high in the air with the fourth year. Oswin had taken charge of hers.
The fourth year wasn't actually too bad. By the end of his trial, none of the babies had been too drastically injured, except for Benito's, whose head was dangling off in a Nearly Headless Nick fashion. Luckily, Banito found this extremely funny and started laughing hysterically while Rangi made a few quick notes and the fourth year made a rather quick exit.
The trial went on in this fashion. Some of the Gryffindors trying out were absolutely dreadful. The team were not allowed to dodge the Bludgers and James found it quite disconcerting to see his two year old self getting bashed and disfigured in the sky above. Between each round Rangi restored the dummies with a flick of his wand while Molly caught her breath, drank some water and fetched a new player. It looked like hard work up there and they hadn't found anyone nearly as good as Molly or the Beater from last year, Astra Hughes, who had finished school in June.
Though it was rather early, a few spectators had begun to gather around the pitch. James hoped none of them had eyesight good enough to see the dummies too well from across the pitch.
He spotted Will watching, sitting alone at one end of the stands and Sora Wood watching with another first year who looked rather uninterested and was shivering a little in the cold breeze. James also saw Philip, Rose and Albus's other friend Amanda sitting near the center looking excited.
Albus stood in the queue of Gryffindors patiently awaiting their turns to try-out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He felt sick as he reached the front and clutched his broomstick tightly with both hands.
He hadn't been able to see anybody else's trial but most of the other students here were older and much taller and stronger than he was.
His cousin Molly emerged. She had been bringing each player onto the pitch one by one for their turn. She had also scared away any of those who weren't taking the trial seriously and all the first years who had tried to sneak in. She had warned them all the trial was dangerous and Albus had been pondering this the whole time as he waited. Maybe he hadn't been too far off with the dragon.
"Ready?" Molly demanded, it was clear that she wasn't going to show any favour towards him just because he was his family.
Albus followed her.
"Your task is simple." She informed him as they walked back the way she had come, "I hit twenty-eight Bludgers at you, you deflect them to defend yourself and the babies."
Albus could tell from her bored voice that Molly had already explained this more times than she had wished and yet he felt sure she had made a mistake. 'What babies?' He thought to himself but he wasn't going to bother asking, Molly's expression was enough to say she was sick of answering questions.
"If you want safety equipment, there's some available for you to use." She gave him a quick look up and down, "You'll need it." She added as they emerged onto the pitch.
Albus didn't reply, he was too busy thinking that twenty-eight Bludger shots was an odd number to finish on, why not do thirty, or even forty, twenty of each Bludger? That was when he noticed the Bludgers already flying around the sky. Molly hadn't meant deflect twenty-eight Bludger hits, she had meant deflect twenty-eight Bludgers at once.
Albus tried to hide the alarm on his face and quickly made his way over to the safety equipment, it looked like Molly was right. He was going to need it.
Albus was one of the last students to try-out. James saw him looking scared but bracing himself as he drew nearer. After strapping on a helmet and some elbow, knee and shin pads, Albus took off.
James wanted to wish him luck but knew Rangi would tell him it was unprofessional. Rangi took Quidditch rules so seriously it almost made up for his complete disregard for rules of any other kind.
Anyway, James could congratulate him after his trial as Fred had done for him last year.
He could hear Rose and Albus's other friends cheering in the stands as he prepared to levitate his dummy yet again. He ducked as a Bludger swooped near his head and then heard the sound of the whistle – and they were off.
Albus could feel his heart beating so hard in his chest he felt like he'd already been flying for hours. Hopefully all that training he had been doing with Philip all week was finally about to pay off. He could hear his friends cheering in the distance. He didn't want to look at them though, not now, not when he was feeling this nervous. He needed to focus.
He took up his position. He could finally see what Molly meant about the babies as they floated up behind him. He almost laughed when he saw the baby-James-dummy and it made him feel a bit more relaxed. He took a deep breath as the whistle blew.
A heartbeat later and Albus found a dozen Bludgers hurtling towards his charge. He darted around on his broom deflecting the Bludgers as rapidly as possible. Through the continuous stream of hard, black balls he could hear Molly sending them back at him vigorously, a 'twack!' noise echoing through the air with each hit. He sped from side to side trying his best to defend all the babies at once. He could feel his forehead tingling with salty sweat and his arms ached but he kept going.
If this was what being Beater for theGryffindor team, he wasn't quite sure if he was ready for it yet. Panic clouded his head and he missed a couple of Bludgers. Then he shook his head - he needed to focus. He knew he could do this if he really tried. He'd been training for this moment all summer, he couldn't give up now.
Albus felt spurred on as determination took over. He focused on Molly and where she was sending each Bludger - left, right, left again, far left, far right - he could feel his heart pounding but his head was clear and his mind alert. He barely dodged a Bludger to his head then it crashed into baby Paddy behind him. He was distracted for a moment and another Bludger crashed into his left leg. He yelled out in pain.
He clenched his broom tightly in one hand and his bat in the other. He could do this! He could work through the pain. He shook it off. Focused again. Deflected a particularly difficult hit, rolling in mid-air. His confidence grew. Another Bludger soared towards him and he swung into it, sending it back the way it came. He saw the surprise register on Molly's face as she dodged it. Then she grinned and Albus grinned too just as Rangi blew the whistle for time up.
Albus sank to the ground, relief flooding him, solid ground meeting his feet, and he was exhausted but oddly satisfied. He knew he had impressed Molly by fighting back and despite everything, he was proud of his performance. He glanced behind him at the dummies, some seemed to have received minor injuries but all were still intact. He almost laughed when he saw James's arm hanging limply at its side but other than that he appeared to have done a pretty good job.
'James will probably say I let that one through on purpose.' Albus thought to himself still grinning.
Albus heard his friends cheering, he wondered if they had been cheering the whole time, he hadn't heard them. He dismounted as Fred appeared at his side,
"Not bad shorty! Guess we'll have to wait and hear what the Captain says, eh? Who knows, you could be the fourth in the family to make this team!"
Albus grinned.