CHLOE
My papers splayed over the ground in front of the fire, hours and hours worth of research, and I was still so completely confused. I rolled my eyes and pushed my hair back out of my face.
"Okay okay okay…" I mumbled to myself and began to reorganize all the information.
"Horcruxes, prophecy, muggle born…who would care?" Sliding different papers into different piles, lining up things that matched.
"I still don't...UGH!" I smacked down a particularly old weathered letter down onto the ground, the fire flickered and I stared into it.
"I don't know what to do." I admitted to myself hopelessly. These were dark dark times, and they were about to become a whole lot worse.
"Quidditch tryouts!" Pansey croaked into my ear fervently, "I think I am going to go just to watch. Gryffindors' was plenty entertaining. It's today right?"
That week had flown by, partially due to the fact that I was so incredibly nervous for quidditch tryouts I would give anything to slow time, and partially because I was so busy with homework and practicing I didn't have any time to be bored.
"Yeah today, can't wait..." I mumbled back to Pansy, feeling like I was about to pass out and throw up all at the same time. Sensing my anxiety she gave me what was supposed to be reassuring pat.
"You're going to do great, just don't think too much about it."
I nodded back and shoving the rest of my lunch into my mouth I made a break for the girls dormitories to get changed.
Shouldering my broom I began to make my way down to the pitch, my stomach doing flipflops over and over again in my stomach. The pitch was sprinkled in green and sliver, kids engaging in excited whispering as they anticipated tryouts to start.
"Fullmer!" A voice called behind me,
"Jack!" I laughed and ran to hug him, "Are you Captain this year? Congrats!" Jack Taylor was a tall seventh year with a toothy smile. He had played since my first year and was one of the best chasers the Slytherin team had ever known.
He tossed me a quaffle, "Ready to win the cup?" He smiled at me, but I could see the determination etched in his face.
"Slow down mate, I haven't even made the team yet." I replied tossing the quaffle back to him and mounting my broom.
"Well then you better make this a bloody good tryout!" He shouted, I kicked off the ground and he chucked the red ball as hard as he could straight into the air. I blasted after it catching it smoothly and arched back to the goal posts making a clean shot in. A loud whistle sounded and everyone hurried to gather round Taylor, I retrieved the quaffle and floated back down above the crowd.
"Alright! We are going to make this simple. Seekers here! Keepers here! Chasers here! And Beaters here!" Everyone grumbled and split into their areas. There were a dozen or more seekers, half a dozen Beaters and Chasers, and only a handful of fourth and fifth years going for Keeper.
"Fullmer, if you could round up the Chasers and Keepers, have them form groups of two on one. And Just practice one per goal that'd be great!" Taylor shouted at me, I nodded and began to walk to the other side of the pitch.
"Alright you heard him, Keepers and Chasers this way! Pair off, two to three Chasers per Keeper!" They began to split and I had gotten them each a turn at the pitch when Taylor finally had come to join us.
"I have us our Beaters and a Seeker, scrawny kid but he's actually pretty good." He whispered to me, I glanced at the group and my heart sunk.
"Crabbe and Goyle? You chose those two lunkheads?"
"Didn't have much a choice did I? They're not that good at aiming but when they hit it, they hit it hard… plus we got some mean complaints from Goyles father last year when he was cut. Made some promises that if he should be cut again I don't want to see him follow through with. So what do we have here?"
I pointed out the lousy first years that I had paired first so he could ignore them,
"Just some first years trying out flying for the first time I think… But then a couple of decent Chasers and a Keeper that's worth looking, but then Holland-er I mean Colin of course." I laughed, he nodded grimly and shouted everyone down. Colin was our keeper from last year, and a good one at that.
"Okay, there will only be one Keeper needed and two Chasers because I myself will be the third. Cosewell and Holland, I want you two by the goal posts. Brown, Thompson, Davis, and Fullmer," He nodded at me, "on the ground. The rest of you are dismissed sorry, maybe next year. Cosewell you first against Davis and Brown please, You each have three separate shots to make, Cosewell your job is to stop them. Go!"
The three of them shot into the air, Davis made his first shot but the rest of them air balled, Brown however gave Cosewell a run for his money making two out of the three shots, but partially because Cosewell had almost fallen off his broom when he snuck the shots in. Taylor gave me a sort of pleading look and I kicked off into the air along with Holland and Thompson.
"You first!" I nodded at Thompson and tossed him the quaffle. Watching him he was actually quite good, swerving to cause a false sense of direction and them pivoting back. He ended up making one of the shots, but Holland was good at what he did and quite skilled at keeping the balls out of the goal posts. He gave me back the ball looking a bit crestfallen.
"You did good, really!" I tried to reassure him. Then I turned in the air back to face Colin who grinned at me dauntingly. He was tall with a mop of dark hair, dark brown eyes and cute dimples that showed themselves when he laughed, we were really close friends on the team but never saw each other during classes because he was a year older than me.
"Scared?" He jeered at me, grinning.
"Only a bit." I winked back at him, and dove straight at him but he was ready, I pretended to slip, dropping the ball, Colin relaxed laughing, but right before the quaffle had quite fallen out of range I kicked it as hard as I could sending it straight into the left post.
"Lucky! That was so lucky!" He cried back at me.
"Ready for the other lucky two?" I laughed at him, retrieving the quaffle from the ground, and scoring twice more on him we glided back down to the ground together laughing.
"Well I had to let you get the most didn't I? Don't you want to make the team?" He teased, I rolled my eyes back.
"Alright so Colin, Chloe, and um-Thompson?"
"Archie." Thompson added breathlessly smiling from ear to ear.
"Alright and Archie, everyone else, you're good to go." Taylor added.
After receiving our robes we all headed back to the castle discussing strategies, completely starving, covered in mud, and buzzing with excitement for the upcoming season.