Chapter Twelve: Tryouts and Sellouts

The story of the adventure that James and his friends had gone on the night before had circulated around Gryffindor Tower by the next morning, and James and the others spent the next several weeks getting claps on the back from some of their older House Mates on their success in eluding Filtch on their first night out.

If Zach had been surprised to see that the other three boys hadn't been caught, he didn't show it. However, he could not resist one little 'I told you so' which he was sure to make the moment that the others returned that night. "It was a whole big setup wasn't it?" Zach asked them. They didn't answer, they didn't need to.

Some weeks later, by which time the hubbub surrounding their escapade had begun to die down, there was a flier posted in the Gryffindor Common Room announcing that Quidditch Tryouts would be held the upcoming Friday. James had not taken more than a fleeting, regretful glance of the flier, but Jeremey had been staring at it nonstop for the last hour, as though if he looked at it for long enough he'd have a better chance of making the team.

"Are you gonna tryout?" he finally asked, out of the blue, as he finally dragged his gaze away from the flier. James thought about it, he could not deny that it hadn't captured his imagination at least once or twice. Making the team in his First Year, just like his father had done, and leading Gryffindor to victory! It was a thought that had dominated his mind for some time, but at the same time he was uncertain.

"I don't know." He said finally. "I don't really have a broom, and I don't think First Years have much of a chance at making the team anyway." It pained him to say it, but he knew that his age was going to be a factor in the decision of who made the team and who didn't.

"I've been thinking about it myself." Andrew said, entering the Common Room through the Portrait Hole. "I mean, Teddy Jay, Alex, Brittney and Lena are all returning from last year, and they've pretty much got their spots locked up. But that leaves two spots totally up for grabs!"

In the end, the three boys had decided that they were going to make an attempt of it, even though the odds were highly stacked against them. Jeremey, at least, had a bit of an edge over James and Andrew. His cousin, who had been a great Quidditch Player in the American League, had recently been forced to give the game up after a bad bludger injury, and so he had given Jeremey his Nimbus 3,000!

James and Andrew had both gaped at Jeremey when he told them that he was in possession of such a great broom, but Jeremey had jokingly shrugged and said "I'd rather have a Firebolt, but you know. Beggars can't be choosers."

James and Andrew were going to tryout on old school brooms in the hopes that, if they made the team, their parents would be amendable to getting them better ones. James, however, was not very confident on this score. He knew that his mother would never let him get a broom in his First Year. It would be 'too big a distraction from his studies'.

But still, the three boys were rather optimistic about their chances of making the team, although their spirits were dampened somewhat when Zach got a bad dose of some kind of poison in Potions Class, and wound up in the Hospital Wing the day before tryouts. Try as they might, they had been unable to convince the kind but overly-protective Nurse, Madam Palumbo, to let Zach out a day early.

Jeremey had offered to skip the Tryouts if Zach couldn't go, but Zach insisted that they go ahead without him. Though they could all hear the suppressed bitterness in his voice. "There's always next year buddy." Andrew had said as they left the Hospital Wing, leaving Zach alone.

There were more people than James had expected to see at the Tryouts for the Gryffindor Team. In addition to the holdovers from last year's team: Teddy Lupin, Lena Roberts, Jay Carpenter, Alex Dellapina, and Brittney Rothman there were a large number of new players trying out for those two open slots. And Teddy had made it very clear that they were competing for those two spots. "The job of everyone behind me is safe and locked up!" Teddy had announced, "I've seen them play long enough to know how good they are. You guys are competing for two slots on this team, and that's all. We need a Chaser and a Seeker, and that's it! So any Beaters and Keepers here can clear out now."

There had been some mixed grumblings, and some players had left, but most simply stayed, resolving to tryout for a different position than they had intended. There were a lot of students, from all different ages too. There was Mitchel Gate, a tall light-skinned 4th Year with long black dreadlocks. There was Nicholas Hayden, the tanned 6th Year Prefect from the Common Room, and the ultra-competitive Kenneth Skyland, who was also in his 4th Year. Also trying out was Chelsea Gordon, a 4th Year girl who looked more like a Cheerleader than a Quidditch Player, and of course James, Jeremey, and Andrew the lone First Year tryouts.

Almost immediately, James tried to sort out who he was going to have to go up against. Jeremey, Kenneth, and Chelsea were going for the Seeker Spot, which meant James was going to have to beat out Mitchel, Nicholas, and Andrew if he wanted to make the team's remaining Chaser slot.

He was silently relieved that he was not going to have to go up against Kenneth, who was most certainly the best athlete, and fiercest competitor out there. Though he didn't say so to his friend, he had no doubt that Kenneth had the Seeker position locked up as surely as the carry-overs whose spots Teddy had guaranteed before Tryouts.

Mitchel was definitely his biggest threat in the competition. He was strong, big, and could probably hurl the Quaffle a lot better than James could, as well as out-muscle other players in a way that James could not hope to match. If he was going to have a chance, he was going to have to prove that his small, agile approach would be more effective than Mitchel's run-and-gun approach.

Teddy split the applicants into two teams and had then run a scrimmage so that he could watch everyone in a game setting. James tried to make himself look impressive. Pushing the beaten up broom from the 1400s as fast as it would go, throwing himself into stunts and moves that he would ordinarily never dare to do. He came very close to falling several times, but he was able to keep his grip on the broom.

After some time of this, Teddy sent all the older players off the Pitch so that he could focus on the newcomers. He also booted Nicholas and Chelsea, telling them that they just didn't have the style that the team was looking for.

The final test was to be a shootout against Teddy, who was filling in as Keeper temporarily. They would each get 5 shots, and James had no doubt that whichever of them scored on more of them would be given the Chaser spot.

James and Mitchel both scored twice on their first four shots, and Teddy made a ridiculous save on a bullet from James that would have given him a third. So when Mitchel missed his fifth shot, and Andrew scored only one time, James had a wide open chance to score on his fifth shot and, in his mind, bag the Chaser spot.

Holding the Quaffle loosely in his hand, James stared Teddy down, knowing that he was going to have to earn this one. Egging whatever speed he could from the battered broomstick, he sped towards the hoops and hurled the Quaffle for the far left Hoop…

Everything seemed to pause, the Quaffle was too fast, Teddy too slow…he was going to score. No doubt about it, there it was, the third goal, and it was all in the bag!

Except he was wrong, it wasn't in the bag, as he had underestimated Teddy's quickness. With a speed that he could never have foreseen, Teddy swept down and kicked the Quaffle away.

"I've seen all I need to see, you can all go inside, I'll post the results tomorrow." Teddy said, looking at James in disappointment, James knew that Teddy had expected better of him. That he was going to have to give the spot to Mitchel because of his age.

Jeremey's tryout had gone the same as James', about as well as could be expected, but would it have been good enough to secure a spot? They would find out the next day, but in the meantime all three boys were quietly discussing their chances. After his nervous performance in the shootout, Andrew had written himself off, and was jumping on James' bandwagon.

"You totally out-flew him James; you've got that spot in the bag!" Andrew said eagerly, but James was not so sure about his chances of making the team. He had known that he needed to be absolutely perfect in order to have even the slightest chance of making the team, and he hadn't been. And he could tell from the look that Teddy had given him that his effort hadn't been good enough.

James was, however, rather confident in Jeremey's chances. "Teddy was watching you the whole time Jer, you're a shoo-in! You caught the Snitch twice as many times as Ken, and if we're being honest here, he doesn't have your flair. Plus, he's a prick!"

But like James, Jeremey was not taking any compliments. "He's bigger than me though, tougher. I think Teddy reckons he'll hold up to Bludgers better than me, and I can't blame him. Besides, he's such a competitor, and you know that Teddy'll love that. He doesn't care if you're the biggest jerk on the planet so long as you can win!"

James disagreed with Jeremey's assessment of Teddy, but Jeremey was just as adamant as he had been, and so all three boys went to sleep thinking that everyone had done well but him.

When morning came, no one wanted to be the first one to look at the results sheet, so all three boys dressed very slowly. As it happened though, they still arrived in the Common Room just moments after Teddy had posted the sheet. Refusing to meet their eyes, Teddy walked straight past them and out of Gryffindor Common Room towards the Great Hall.

Though there was probably nothing so sinister behind it, the boys immediately took it as a bad sign. "He's sorry he couldn't put us on the team, that's why he won't look at us!" James said immediately, looking away from the roster sheet as though he couldn't bear to see the words that were printed upon it.

In the end, it was Jeremey who finally brought himself to look at the board first. "I'll do it then if you two are so afraid." He'd said as he strode up to the Bulletin Board to find out what had happened.

Jeremey stood there for a second, not speaking as he scanned the sheet. "No!" he exclaimed a few moments later, and looked away from the board immediately, covering his eyes as though he'd been blinded.

Trying to be sympathetic James patted Jeremey on the back and said "Relax Jer, there's always next year right?" But Jeremey refused to answer him, or even look at him.

"James!" came Andrew's voice from behind him. "I think you should see this." Andrew said, staring at the board in shock.

James halfheartedly walked over to the board muttering "Why, so I can see that I didn't make…" but the words died in his throat as he read the notice.

2016-2017 Gryffindor Quidditch Team:

Returning: T. Lupin/ L. Roberts (C), J. Carpenter/A. Dellapina (B), B. Rothman (K)

New Tryouts: J. Potter (C), J. Hall (Seeker)

"No way!" James murmured as he stared at the notice, and then back to Jeremey who finally lowered his hands from his face long enough to say "We made the team…" his voice a hushed tone of shock.

"Hey congratulations guys!" Andrew said, high-fiving both boys, and reminding James that Andrew must be feeling absolutely terrible right now. After all, of the three of them, only Andrew had been left off the team. "Andrew I'm sorry man…" James began, but Andrew cut him off.

"Save it James. I can try again next year! Besides, so long as you guys win that House Cup this year, I'd say that I can deal with the shame of not making it!" he said with a grin. And finally, it all began to sink in for James.

"Oh my god! I made the team!" he shouted, at which both Andrew and Jeremey laughed, "I told you from the start didn't I?" Jeremey asked, "I told you that you were a shoo-in to make the team!"

"Yea well, I said the same about you, so I guess that makes both of us Seers of something." James said, punching Jeremey on the shoulder as the three headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast where they would spend the rest of the morning discussing the chances of the new Gryffindor Team to win the Quidditch Cup that year.

Later that day, James went to the Owlry to write a letter to his parents telling them that he had made the Quidditch Team. At first, he had been hesitant to tell them, for fear of how his mother would react to hearing that he had disobeyed her orders, but in the end he decided that he would be better off getting the unpleasantness over with in a hurry. Besides, he was too proud of his achievement not to share it with his family.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I know that I just wrote to you guys the other day, but I had to tell you guys something. Mom, please try not to get mad, but I tried out for the Quidditch Team yesterday. I know that you told me not to, but I couldn't stop myself. I just had to give it a try, I'm sorry.

That's actually why I'm writing, I MADE THE TEAM! Can you believe it? Now I'll be on the House Team in my First Year, just like you dad! My friend Jeremey, remember I told you about him in my last letter? The Canadian kid who's standing on the far left in the picture I sent you guys. Yea, he made the team too!

The other reason I'm writing is…well, I know that you said I couldn't have a broom my First Year, but I'm trying really hard in class…and I think that this is a special circumstance isn't it?

Victoire turned 17 the other day, you guys probably already knew that seeing as you sent her that present. I tried to think of something nice to give her but I couldn't come up with anything. Not that it would have mattered anyway, she spent the whole day off somewhere with Teddy. What do you reckon they get up to together?

Halloween was a lot of fun. We had a big Feast, but other than that nothing much happened. I was kinda expecting more in a way.

I hope that you guys are alright, and that Albus and Lily haven't driven you guys crazy yet.

I know I already said this, but please don't tell Al that I write you guys so often. He'd take it the wrong way, you know.

Write back soon, I love you guys!

Sorry again mom,

James

Calling his Eagle Owl, who he had finally decided to name Stella, down from the rafters of the Owlry, he tied the letter around her foot and said "I just hope that when you come back you're carrying something a lot bigger than just a letter."

Stella looked at him curiously, and nipped at his shoulder before soaring out the window of the Owlry and vanished over the horizon of the Forbidden Forest.