DISCLAIMER: THE BOOK BELONGS TO J. I HAVE ONLY BORROWED BOTH CHARACTERS AND PLOTLINE.

CHAPTER 25

One week later, Harry found himself standing on the quidditch pitch holding his broom with one hand and shifting his weight from one leg to another looking nervously. Looking into the stands he saw Draco and Blaise sitting waving at him. Darren unfortunately had had an astronomy class the previous night so he was still sleeping in, as today was a Sunday.

"Right midgets, divide yourselves up and decide what position you want to try for. There is one spot up for grabs for the chaser position and one for seeker. Make up your minds quickly and line up."

Harry had opted for chaser and Cho for seeker. Wishing each other best of luck, they went out on to the field. The seekers had their tryouts first and Cho had caught the snitch in fifteen minutes, much ahead of the others. Looking approvingly at her Roger wrote down something on his clipboard.

"Okay those who want to try out for chaser line up."

Sending two beaters, the other chaser, Roger himself flew up as goalie. One by one each potential chaser had to score five goals against the odds. Harry was the last person to try out. After gracefully mounting his broom and kicking off he caught the quaffle thrown at him and flew with such ease and skill in his movements that the beaters watching him forgot to attack. He spun, swerved looping in at out between the other players and dove steeply as if the broom was an extension of him.

The other chaser, Jeremy had dropped the quaffle he had been holding and Harry noticing it out of the corner of his eye flew hurtling towards it, flying almost vertically downwards at great speed and from a great height catching it in the last minute and pulling up flew towards the goal making an easy goal since Roger had seemed too stunned to do anything.

Having finished his turn they alighted on the ground and every one of them looked at Harry in complete awe "You'll see the list of the selected two on the notice board in the common room in the evening" Roger said and walked away.

After gathering his stuff Harry and been helping Cho who had punched him on the arm and looked very happy for him "Wow you've improved drastically, I've never seen flying like that in real life before."

Harry just hid his shamed expression sorry to strung her along for making her believe that he had been bad before. They waited for the two Slytherins who had been watching, come jogging towards him. Draco had been sporting a rather big grin and Blaise had his mouth opened wide "You were simply amazing" Draco said thumping him on his back. Blaise just shook his hand and said "You flew badly on purpose before didn't you? That was stellar, Harry, simply stellar!" Ruffling his hair Harry smiled embarrassed and walked back with them for a late breakfast.

In the evening Roger put up the notice in the Ravenclaw common room. The aspirants came running over to see if they had been chosen but there were only two names on the board. The first one read Harry-seeker; and the one below it Cho-chaser. Looking at each other surprised they went over to their Captain to tell him he'd made a mistake.

Roger only laughed and patted Harry on his back "No it was a deliberate decision. Harry, there is no way that a kid like you that can fly like you belonged in the air could be anything but a seeker and Cho I saw how you communicated with the other team members whit flying. It is the mark of a good chaser to put his team first before himself so you will be our new chaser.

Great! Harry thought in his head now he had to go up against Draco and Darren this year both excellent seekers. Darco had only become seeker on the second day of school when the Slytherins' had held their tryouts.

Cho was happy to just be on the team, so she went up to Harry and hugged him in congratulations. Harry returned the hug and smiled, no matter what, he'd fight fairly on the field and this time, throw away all pretenses that he couldn't fly. Both Darren and Draco were good players in their own right and Harry respected that. It was competition that they sought so it was competition that they'd get.

Going down to the great hall to tell Darren and his friends of his success he bumped into none other than Draco himself.

"Going somewhere Potter?" Draco asked with mock derision.

"Malfoy," harry said grinning "wipe that smirk of your face it doesn't suit you."

Draco dropped the act and grinned. Remembering what he had come to say Harry told him about the selection, Draco pumped his fist up in the air and said "I knew it! You outstripped everyone by a mile."

Suddenly his face took on a funny twisted expression and he groaned "Oh bollocks! I'm going to have to go against you, dammit harry resign. Resign, now!" Squabbling with each other they had been walking over to their tables when Harry saw Darren.

"Darren" he called out excitedly "I'm in the quidditch team playing as seeker!" Ron and Darren beamed at him and thumped him on his back "You're okay Harry" Ron said "at least you're better than vampire boy here, who had to buy his way into the team to become seeker."

Last week after the Slytherin trials and after Draco had already been made seeker, his father had gifted the entire team with brand new Nimbus's. Only Harry had known how mortified Draco had been and for nearly three days had been muttering about faith and pride darkly under his breath. "Whatever Weasley, whether I bought my way in or not is none of your concern. What is important however is that you're not on any team, you can't even play and I'm better than you even Madame Hooch said so last year. So go find someone else to piss off and don't waste my time."

This was the first time Draco had openly given back and he looked all snooty and arrogant while doing so. Ron looked shocked and obviously couldn't think of a fitting retort. Gently leading him away Darren turned his head back and looked at Harry mouthing "Idiotic friends!"

Turning to Draco, Harry asked him slyly, "So how long have you waited to do that?"

"Since the moment I saw him." Draco said growling.

"Now, now, Dray, there is a very fine line between love and hate. Be careful." Harry said backing away slowly. Draco looking amused chased after him to his table and wacked him over the head and said "Don't worry he'll be dead by then. I would have fed him to a Quintaped, the beast that loves to eat human flesh."

"Yikes! Dray, remind me never to get on your bad side."