With Ginny's tryout over, this meant that all chasers had now had a go, and the results were ready to be announced. However, with Ginny being the only Gryffindor applying, the results actually held little interest for Harry. The only thing one might still hope for was for no Slytherins, but then that was unlikely to happen.
Dumbledore announced the scores, with the result being a Ravenclaw boy, Alexander Powers, Milliard Shanks; also a Ravenclaw, and Blaise Zabini; whom we have already had the displeasure of meeting. After a few photos and the reports taking down some notes, on what must surely be a slow news day, they moved on to the Beater tryouts. Thankfully Snape was not involved in this, and so things progressed smoothly, without the need for biscuits.
Two players stood out from the rest, Phillip Bane, a fourth year Hufflepuff with dirty blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, and Serenity Fidget, a seventh year Hufflepuff, who seemed timid and quiet, but quite capable.
Harry sat with excitement as this signalled the start of the Seeker tryouts, which also happens to be the point which is of most interest to us. The reason for this is that this book is entitled "Harry Potter", and not "Ron Weasley and the Trial of Indigestion", though you would be forgiven for desiring to read such a book.
"Ryan Collins." Dumbledore called out. A third year Hufflepuff boy with ginger hair and a jaw several sizes to large for his face walked over. He carried his broom in one hand. He stopped next to Dumbledore and stared at him expectantly, waiting for instructions on what to do next. "You will have three minutes in which to catch as many Golden Snitches as possible. Each one you catch, you shall deposit into this leather satchel." He said as he held up a small brown leather bag with a strap. "In order to make this slightly easier we shall be confining the area in which the Golden Snitches may go."
Dumbledore pointed his wand towards the pitch and gave a series of complex flicks. A Shimmering white pyramid appeared in the middle of the pitch. It had a square base, each side measuring about seventy-five foot long. The sunlight glistened off the semi transparent walls, causing many to admire the misty creation in front of them.
"This is a magical shield which will stop the Snitches flying away. You will be able to pass through it, but it will slow you down. That means that if you want to get the best score possible it is advisable not to make contact with it!" Dumbledore paused as Professor Flitwick had appeared. He was skipping along the ground, while levitating a large wooden box in front of him. Harry watched in amazement as the floating box touched the shield. The box seemed to find resistance in passing through and so it slowed down as though passing through treacle.
After a few moments and a strange series of slurpy noises, followed by two brief pops, Professor Flitwick and the trunk had made their way through to the inside of the pyramid.
He knelt down, which didn't make him see at all shorter, and opened the latch on the box, swinging the lid open. After a few seconds in which nothing seemed to happen, dozens upon dozens of Golden Snitches flew out of the chest, moving in every direction. Professor Flitwick fell on his back as one Snitch flew out and hit him straight in the left eye.
A few flashes could be seen as a photographer took photos of the amazing pyramid filled with sparkling golden balls. To the untrained eye it would appear to be a golden looking storm, or possibly a swarm of large insects. To Harry it was a challenge. He watched as one of the Snitches had apparently malfunctioned. It started chasing Professor Flitwick round. Professor Flitwick tried to swat it away as it kept thumping into the back of his head like a miniscule Bludger.
Professor Flitwick quickly pulled out his wand and levitated the wooden trunk. He jumped into it and sailed out of the white pyramid as fast as he could. The Snitch gave chase, but whilst he passed through the barrier, the Snitch bumped against it, unable to pass. Once in the safety of the outside world, professor Flitwick climbed out of the wooden box and dusted himself off.
"All is ready sir!" He reported to Dumbledore as he gave a small salute.
Dumbledore nodded in acknowledgement, as he gestured for Ryan to make his way forwards to the pyramid. Dumbledore cleared his throat.
"The three minutes shall start from when you enter the area. They shall finish as soon as I send sparks into the air. Whenever you're ready." Ryan didn't hesitate as he made his way over to the pyramid barrier. He paused by the barrier for a moment as he prepared himself, before reaching out towards it. He passed through in what appeared slow motion, before jumping back to normal speed on the other side.
As soon as he was inside he jumped onto his broom. He hastily grabbed hold of the handle and forced the broom up and away, flying round in a figure of eight. His hands flew out in every direction grasping for Snitches. Every now and then one of his hands would travel to the leather pouch attached to his waist. This meat that he had caught a Snitch.
"How many is that now?" asked Harry as the boy added another Snitch.
"I don't know, I think five." Said Ron as they struggled to keep up with the movement of his hands.
"Don't worry Harry, his broom isn't very fast." said Hermione as she tried to reassure him, although Harry knew that within the confined space, having the fastest broom around wasn't going to make a huge difference.
He continued watching, as gradually his confidence slipped further and further away with each Snitch he added to the leather pouch. After what seemed like an eternity, Dumbledore let off a loud bang as a shower of green sparks filled the sky. Ryan landed his broom and removed the leather pouch that was practically hovering with the movement of the Snitch's. He strode over to Dumbledore where he handed over the Snitches, before returning to his spot on the bench.
To Harry's surprise, as Dumbledore counted them, they seemed entirely life less, and moved not on inch. Once the Snitches had been counted up, they were put back into the leather satchel and passed to Professor Flitwick, who ran back to the pyramid where he returned the Snitches. Harry waited expectantly for Dumbledore to announce the score, though it turned out this would all be done at the end.
"That has got to be somewhere around twelve." Harry said to no one in particular.
"I counted thirteen." Came the voice of Draco, who ha been listening in. "For an amateur like you I think it will be a challenge, but I think I can manage twenty no probs."
"Well Harry can manage twenty one." Ron countered, quite childishly.
"Draco Malfoy" Dumbledore called out. Harry let out a sigh of relief as Draco got up and made his way over to Dumbledore, who held out the leather pouch for Draco, who grabbed it off him and then made his way towards the pyramid. Apparently Draco was eager to prove what he could do. After this it would be Harry's turn over, and that would be the end of all the tryouts. He hoped he would be able to accompany Hermione and Ron, but for now all he could do was hope that Draco fell off his broom.
And possibly break his nose whilst we are at it, if we are being hopeful that is.
Just before stepping through the barrier, he turned to Harry a final stare. Harry didn't need to use Legilimancy to know what was being said.
"Beat this Potter" was the meaning. Draco jumped onto his Nimbus and flew straight through the barrier, starting the three minutes.
Draco Malfoy immediately started flying round grabbing at Snitches. From the look of it, he wasn't managing as well as he had boasted. Harry caught sight of some of the Snitches slipping out of his grasp or narrowly avoiding his fingertips, but he did still managed to pocket some. Harry watched in annoyance as Draco caught two more when they flew up his sleeve.
"Just his luck, he catches them without even trying." Harry complained angrily.
"Consider yourself lucky he hasn't opened his big mouth yet, he could catch half of them in there alone." Hermione tartly.
Draco managed to grab three more snitches within the next minute and add them to his collection.
"Well he looks like he is doing about the same as that Hufflepuff boy doesn't he?" Ron hazarded as he peered at his watch.
"Maybe a little better." Harry suggested. The remainder of the time seemed to tick on slowly as Draco slipped more Snitches into his leather satchel. Finally after about what seemed like a year, Draco was signalled to stop, just as he grabbed one last Snitch. He flew out of the Pyramid and landed on the ground beside Dumbledore. He thrust the bag of snitches at the headmaster roughly.
"Thank you Mr Malfoy." He said as he took the bag from under his nose. After they had been counted Professor Flitwick once again returned the Snitches to the magical pyramid. "I'm next!" Harry said as he tried to calm his nerves. He wasn't knock kneed but he understood that he had a lot to loose in the next three minutes.
"Don't worry Harry, you can do it?" Ron said in an attempt to encourage him. The questioning tone did little to reassure.
"Harry when you're ready." Dumbledore said as Harry realised he had been so deep in concentration that he had missed his name being announced. "Here you go Harry." Said Dumbledore softly as he handed Harry the leather satchel. He took it and tied it round his waist. "Whenever you're ready Harry." He said, with an equal measure of care.
Harry took a deep breath as he turned to face towards the enormous white pyramid, and made his way forward to the barrier. He could distantly hear the cheers of Gryffindor and the boos from Slytherin which were no quieter, but it all seemed far away. He was aware of the flashes of cameras as the reported got what they came here for, yet the only thing he was aware of in full detail was the Snitch's before him. He had emptied his mind of everything else, and focused on this single thing.
Harry reached the white shimmering wall in front of him. He stared up at it as it towered over him. After mentally preparing himself he stepped forwards through the barrier. As he cleared the other side he quickly hoped onto his broom and flew up and away. He couldn't help noticing that this actually seemed more difficult than normal Quidditch. In a proper game there was just the one snitch to concentrate on. Now there were hundreds and it was difficult to know which one to go after.
As he flew his Firebolt he realised that moving from one side to the other was a very quick process, and if he wasn't careful he could easily end up flying into one of the walls. As he learned to control his broom in the small space, he suddenly realised that twenty seconds had passed and he hadn't caught a single snitch.
"Come on Harry, you can't let Malfoy beat you!" He said to himself as he dived down to nearer the base where he had more space to fly around and manoeuvre.
He flew forwards towards one of the snitches. As it flew away from him Harry suddenly spotted one hovering to his right Harry quickly reached out and grabbed for it. He felt his fingers close around the struggling Snitch as he quickly put it into the pouch. He watched in surprise as for some reason, no matter how much the snitch tried, it didn't seem to be able to fly out of the leather bag.
He didn't have time to ponder this however, as the time ticked on. He pulled his broom round as he reached out for two more Snitches. He found, that if the Snitch seems to think you are chasing it, then it will fly away. He made this discovery as the Snitches in front of him flew away while those at the side remained relatively stationary. Harry managed to pocket four more Snitches before a problem began emerging. It seemed that all the Snitches were working their way up to the top of the pyramid. He flew higher and higher, all the while being very careful to avoiding contact with the wall.
Harry looked straight above him and saw a Snitch hovering just above his head. Hr reached out for it, his fingertips just scraping it as it flew a few inches higher. Harry moved forwards, and then it happened. The front of his broom made contact with the shimmering white wall. Harry felt the front end sink down as it met resistance in the wall. As he was reaching for a Snitch, he didn't have a firm grip on the broom when this happened, so he to fell forward. His shoulder fell into the shimmering wall as well, and he found himself stuck, like a fly in a web, or a bug in syrup.
He reached to pull the front of his wand out of the wall, and slowly made progress. As his arm came free, and finally the end of his broom, he was free to continue. However this had cost him fifteen seconds which he could hardly afford to loose. If he was going to beat Malfoy and the Hufflepuff boy he would have to pull off a spectacular. Harry focused his mind on the Snitches. He tried to watch every single one at once, where it was moving, how it was moving, and where it would be moving to next. He flew forwards and then shot out both arms.
Harry closed his hands, and to his surprise found that he had just caught two Snitches at once. "Wow that must be a first." Harry thought with surprise at his own luck. Harry quickly put them in his pouch and darted off for the next. He very carefully steered his Firebolt round. If there was one thing more important than catching the Snitches then it was avoiding that wall. Getting stuck again would finish off any change he had of winning.
He clutched the handle tight in his hands as he darted forward and managed to bag another Snitch. Harry did a quick calculation and figured he probably had about a minute and a half left. He desperately searched for a Snitch that wasn't too near to the sides or the corners. After a few moments of hovering in mid air he spotted a Snitch hovering near the ground. "Perfect" he thought as he pointed his broom down and began to dive towards it.
He felt the wind blowing in his eyes just before he pulled out of the dive in a controlled fashion. He suddenly felt half a dozen cameras flash. The light reflected of the snitch and burnt into his eyes. He blinked a few times as his eyes recovered. However, it was too late; the Snitch had disappeared from sight. He quickly swerved round and headed off in the direction of a cluster of Snitches that had appeared right in the very centre of the pitch.
"Damn." He cursed to himself as he had wasted some of the few valuable seconds he had left. It seemed not only did he need to catch the Snitch's; he also needed to do it without doing anything too impressive, less the photographers get carried excited. He concentrated on the task at hand, and reached out and grabbing Snitch after Snitch as he shoved them in his bag. He grabbed one last Snitch just as Dumbledore launched sparks form his wand.
The longest and the shortest three minutes of his life were now over. He let the snitch go because he had caught it outside of the time. He had a glance at the leather satchel. It was hard to see exactly how many he had caught but Harry guessed it was about a dozen. He gently touched down and climbed off Firebolt.
Harry was thoroughly exhausted, and he ached all over. Now that the adrenaline rush was wearing off he felt tired. He could hear the crowd cheering, which meant that he had done well, or at least he hoped that's what they meant. Harry, after much effort, made his way through the white shimmering wall. Harry was surprised at how loud the yelling was from outside the pyramid. "Was it this loud for the others?" He found himself wondering as he met yells of "You're the best Harry!" from some of the Gryffindors.
"We love you Harry." From the Ravenclaws.
"Make love to me Harry." Screamed several excitable fifth year Hufflepuff girls, and possibly Ginny.
He made his way over to Dumbledore and several other teachers. Remus was anxiously waiting, along with Tonks and professor McGonagall.
"That was brill Harry!" Tonks beamed excitedly. "You were awesome." Harry untied the leather satchel and handed it to Professor Dumbledore.
"Thank you Harry." Said Dumbledore, as he sneaked a peek inside the satchel. He raised his eyebrows, which could be a good thing.
"If you would like to take a seat we shall announce the winner momentarily." Harry gave a weak smile and nodded. He trenched back over to the long bench to the vacant seat in between Ron and Hermione. They offered words of praise as he settled down.
"The waits a bitch isn't it." Ron commented rather astutely.
"Yes it is." Harry concurred. Whilst he had played important matches before this was different. He couldn't let Malfoy represent Hogwarts. That would be like Hull representing England.
Nobody wanted that.
But not knowing was the hard part. Harry looked at the teachers who were very carefully counting the Snitches. Once they were finished Dumbledore cleared his throat one last time and spoke to the anxious students.
"We have finally come to the end of our tryouts. We will now find out who our seventh and final member of the team shall be. I know you are all very anxious to find out, so we shall now take a brief pause." Dumbledore stopped talking, and started humming to himself as he became very interested in the air around him. Various students started murmuring to themselves, while Harry just laughed. Dumbledore always managed to find humour in the most sensible situations.
After about thirty seconds of relative silence Dumbledore continued. "Oh yes now for the winner." Anyone who had been talking stopped. "The total number of Snitches caught, are as follows. Ryan Collins, twelve Snitches. Draco Malfoy, fourteen Snitches." The Slytherins howled with delight as Draco received hearty slaps on the back. Good show Draco. Wouldn't daddy be proud! "Finally, Harry Potter, thirteen Snitches!"
Harry listened. Everything was quiet. Nobody spoke. Nobody breathed. An eternity of silence seemed to pass Dumbledore's statement, although this was actually just in Harry's mind. In the real world a tidal wave of mild surprise and half hearted cheering erupted. The Slytherins cheered louder than Harry had ever remembered, though this was largely due to the fact this was the first time he could remember them winning.
Deep down no matter how much Harry doubted his own abilities, he always had thought he would win. It had become a Hogwarts tradition. A rival team would come out and play Quidditch and he would catch the Snitch. That's how the story should have gone. Harry was experienced in the art of winning but very knew at losing, he didn't like it much.
"I lost?" Harry asked, seeking confirmation from his friends that indeed the universe was being torn apart.
"You lost?" Ron replied, equally flummoxed. Harry was vaguely aware of Hermione trying to comfort him.
"Silence!" Dumbledore suddenly called signalling that he had yet more to say. The cheers suddenly stooped, as did the strange mutterings from people that thought somehow fate had cheated them. "If you will permit me to finish." He continued in a calmer tone as he raised his eyebrows and peered at the crowd. "My dear Slytherins, I never would have dreamt of depriving you of your moment of triumph. Alas, a moment was all I could spare. As I said before, Mr Malfoy caught a total of fourteen snitches, however although he caught fourteen Snitches, the last one was caught after I signalled the end of the three minutes. I am afraid to report to all the Slytherins, that this constitutes a breaking of the rules, as outlined earlier today."
"The price for this trespass, I'm afraid to say is to have any points obtained wrongfully, deducted, rather than added to the total score. That means that Mr Malfoy's score stands at twelve, while Harry Potter is the true winner with a total of thirteen." Harry listened for a moment before his brain caught up.
"I'm the Seeker!" Yelled Harry as he jumped to his feet.
"You're the Seeker!" Ron and Hermione both yelled as they also got to their feet and congratulated him. Hermione gave him a friendly hug while Ron settled with a formal handshake. That's what men did. Harry was only vaguely aware of any background noise. The Gryffindors, Ravenclaw's and the Hufflepuff's were all cheering. The Slytherins were in utter protest and fuming anger. Harry glanced over at Malfoy who threw his Nimbus on the floor before storming over to the teachers. Harry couldn't hear what Draco was saying over the cheers and boo's of the crowd, but it involved a lot of arm movement and ended with Malfoy being marched off to the school by Remus.
Over the next few minutes a lot of things happened. The first thing was Harry got hit on the back no less than two hundred times as people congratulated him. The next thing that happened was that some of the angry Slytherins started throwing socks at him. Harry laughed as he imagined that Dobby's idea of heaven was probably something very similar to this. Ron anxiously ran round picking up the socks.
"Ron that's so sweet, getting all those socks for Dobby." Hermione said in a tone of deep respect. Ron looked up from picking up a nasty grey sock that seemed to be about five foot long.
"Are you crazy? Have you seen how much my dad gets paid? I can't pass up on good socks like these!"
Ron continued to run round as he pocketed every sock for himself. He did so at the expense of what little dignity he had. After the Slytherins pathetic attempt to annoy Harry had stopped, and Ron had picked up enough socks to keep the entire British army form foot rot, they sat back down on the bench. Harry let out an annoyed sigh as he saw a swarm of reporters all anxiously making their way over to him.
"Oh god not this." Harry muttered to Ron and Hermione as he braced himself for a barrage of questions and comments.
"So how do you feel Harry?"
"Did you believe you would win?"
"If you could choose your team members who would you choose?" The Reporters continued asking stupid questions for the next few minutes. Harry occasionally answered some of them, if they weren't too awkward.
"So Harry, do you think you having a Firebolt had anything to do with you winning?" Asked one man who looked rather like a bean.
"Well I don't think it helped at all really. It was too fast to fly around in such a small area really. If anything it made it more difficult." Harry said truthfully. He very carefully looked round for Rita Skeeter, and was surprised to see that she wasn't in the crowd of people interrogating him. If anything this was disturbing. Harry wasn't sure what could be so important that she would miss asking him questions and then rearranging the answer so she got at least some words he said, some where in an article, even if they weren't in the right order, and had other made up words in the middle.
"So would you like to consider Quidditch as a profession?" asked the bean man as he grinned at Harry. The questions continued for the next half hour until Harry was finally dragged away by an impatient Ron, who couldn't put off lunch any longer. That afternoon passed by quickly. Harry was congratulated a second time by just about every member of Gryffindor that afternoon. Over dinner he exchanged nods with a few members of the school Quidditch team. Although he didn't know them yet, after hours of practice they would end up being friends. Either that or just get on each others nerves.
That night a party was held to celebrate both Harry and Ron making it onto the team. No one seemed bothered that Ginny had a very bad experience as Chaser. She was easily forgettable, and two out of three was pretty good. Several large banners were hung up around the common room. They had messily drawn pictures of brooms and Quaffles, Bludgers and Snitches. Harry observed that up over the fireplace one particular sign said in big gold letters "Quidditch Kings".
On one side of the room a few tables were laden with trays of food. "Ron must have been busy." Harry thought as he considered that whatever was bought back here had probably been half eaten by Ron.
"I'm impressed." Harry admitted when Ron asked what he thought of the party. "So who did what?"
"Well Hermione and I snuck over to Hogsmeade and bought some snacks and sweets while Ginny went down to the kitchens to get some." Ron said while grinning. He looked like a dog, a ginger dog that had just managed to dig up the entire garden lawn and now looked at its owner expectantly awaiting praise.
"Good boy."
The party continued into the early hours of the morning, gradually becoming quieter, as people went to bed, or simply grew more tired. The music stopped shortly after midnight, and Harry spent the best part of the evening trying to stop people getting too carried away, and tidying up some of the mess they were making. Ron and Hermione had gone up to bed a few minutes earlier, and so Harry was the only one left in the common room.
He glanced at his watch, which said it was twenty minutes past one. He was busy picking up plastic cups which were scattered over all the flat surfaces. After ten minutes more work he plonked down in front of the fireplace. He was tired. Thinking about today, and how he had so nearly not made it, thinking about what would happen tomorrow, and what he might do. It was with these thoughts that he fell asleep right there, on the sofa before the dying embers of the fire.