Chapter 22: Slytherin Tryouts
It was a good thing I could sleep in on Thursdays, because it definitely wasn't an option on Saturdays. I was scheduled to supervise breakfast, after which I had a three-hour long hall patrol and then another shift in the Great Hall supervising lunch. By the time the afternoon rolled around, I was exhausted.
The castle had a completely different feel to it now that it was filled with students. Everywhere I went now, I would run into different groups of them. Sometimes they were simply on their way somewhere. Sometimes they were loitering in the halls. Sometimes I ran across a group doing magic, and I'd stop and take a minute to just marvel at it. The other professors didn't use it much around me, but I came across students using it all the time. It was fascinating.
But, with so many more people around, it also reminded me of my friends and family back home. It was easy to forget to miss them when there had been so few of us in the castle. But watching the students interact with each other on such a familiar basis reminded me that I hadn't talked to any of my friends since I'd been here.
I considered writing to them. I had the afternoon free, and I did miss talking to them. But as I stared at the paper and pen before me, I realized I didn't have anyone to write to. If I'd had my phone, I might have shot off a quick message to any number of my friends, but none of them were people I would sit and compose an entire letter to. What would I even say? Even if there wasn't a restriction on what I was and wasn't allowed to talk about, I couldn't imagine my friends wanting to hear about my first week as a teacher.
Instead, I got up and headed back out into the corridor. I didn't want to be alone in my quarters, I wanted to be out among people. It was a strange new feeling for me, having always been one to prefer staying in than going out to party. But stranger still would be sitting alone in my room while so much was going on outside.
Glancing out the window, I saw a great deal of movement over by the quidditch pitch. It looked like a bunch of people flying, and I felt my curiosity piqued. I'd watched Skye fly of course. Cameron and Alex as well, the day we'd sorted through the school brooms. But this looked like something different.
It didn't take too long for me to get downstairs and across the grounds. I had reached the point now where I knew how to get almost anywhere, and I had a strong enough rapport with the paintings that they were willing to help direct me when I got lost.
When I reached the quidditch pitch, I didn't see Skye anywhere, but I did see a lot of students in green and silver. One older student appeared to be in charge of the group, and I realized that this must be quidditch tryouts. I slipped into the stands unnoticed, eager and curious to see them play out.
Lucky for me, I seemed to have arrived towards the beginning of the tryout. From what I could tell, the captain was currently holding tryouts for the position of goalie. One after another, students flew up to guard the three huge hoops, and the captain would attempt to score on them by throwing a ball towards one of the hoops. The prospective goalies were seemingly being ranked based on how many goals they were able to save, and despite the fact that I'd never seen this game played before, I felt that I was following along rather well.
That is, until the goalie tryouts were done and they began tryouts for a different position that involved trying to hit two balls that could fly around on their own with bats.
"Hey." Skye slid into the stands next to me as I watched the students zoom around the pitch at top speeds, still marvelling a bit over the fact that they were flying and that this was considered normal. "Enjoying the tryout?"
"What are they doing?" I asked, pointing to the players holding bats and hitting the zooming balls back and forth at each other.
"Beater tryouts," Skye said, as if this explained anything. Seeing my still confused expression, Skye quickly explained to me about beaters and bludgers and how they fit into the game of quidditch.
"So basically, you want to take a game that could have been simple and just make it super dangerous," I surmised a little judgementally. What would be so complicated about a game with one ball where players attempted to score on the other team's goalie, racking up points until the game's end, when the team with the most points would be the winner? Why did they have to add extra elements that not only complicated the game, but made it life-threatening?
Skye shrugged. "Danger looks different from a wizarding perspective than from a muggle one," she reminded me. "With healing spells and potions, an injury sustained in the muggle world that might require weeks to heal could be taken care of within minutes or hours."
I nodded, thinking of my sixth-year curriculum on health and wellness. I'd would be teaching my students about the differences between magical and nonmagical medicines and treatments for various kinds of ills, but I hadn't thought about how that would relate to our perceptions of danger. I made a mental note to remember this and to write it down the next time I was in my office.
"So, do you want to do something after this?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Can't," Skye said apologetically. "I have to supervise free fly when the Slytherins are done here."
"Too bad," I commented, trying to figure out what I could do.
Now that I'd gotten my curriculum sorted, I didn't have all that much left to do in terms of lesson planning. In fact, all my lesson plans for next week were already finished, and I didn't want to get too far ahead with them because I wanted them to be flexible. And since my first homework assignments weren't due yet, I didn't have any marking do to either.
We watched the Slytherin tryouts for a little longer in a comfortable silence, and then as if out of nowhere, Skye blurted out, "I know you were in Hogsmeade the other day."
I froze. I didn't know how to respond. I'd all but filed what I'd learned that day away into a drawer in my mind to be closed and not looked at. I had never expected Cameron to bring it up to me again, and certainly hadn't expected to be talking about it with Skye.
"Oh," I said, caught off guard. "Well that's – yeah alright."
"I know you know I was meeting Cameron," she said very directly.
"Right," I nodded. "You were probably just having a business dinner and wanted to get out of the castle for a – "
"We were on a date," Skye interrupted me.
I certainly hadn't been expecting this kind of blunt honesty, and quite frankly I didn't know what to do with it. Skye was looking at me expectantly though, and I felt obligated to say something.
"That's… great," I said. "How long have you – "
"It was only our first date," Skye said. "We didn't tell anybody because we weren't sure whether it would go well, and we didn't want things to be weird with our co-workers if we decided just to be friends."
"So, you're telling me now because…?"
"Well you saw me. Cam told me he ran into you and you saw me coming into the pub. I didn't want there to be any awkwardness between us," she said.
"Right," I nodded. In my discomfort, I kept my eyes trained on the tryout instead of looking at Skye.
As a result of my spending most of my life staying home and watching TV instead of going out with friends, I actually didn't have all that much experience with these sorts of conversations. I didn't know what the appropriate thing to say was, and I didn't want to mess things up by saying something wrong, so instead I opted for not saying much of anything.
The silence between us stretched to uncomfortable lengths and I realized that it was possible that it would be more awkward if I didn't say anything, so I searched my mind for something to say.
"So… how did it go?" I asked, honestly curious about the answer but worried I was prying too much. Though I considered Skye one of my best friends, I realized that for her I was just a girl she'd met little over a month ago. She may not want to pour out her emotions to me. I certainly wasn't ready to tell her every one of my innermost thoughts and secrets.
There was a terribly uncomfortable moment when Skye didn't say anything and I feared I'd messed things up by asking. But then she spoke.
"I think it went really well," she confessed. "I mean, we've known each other for a while, and we've always been really good friends, but I think I'm starting to see him differently. There's definitely something there, I just don't know what it is yet."
"That's great," I smiled. "I hope it works out. You two would make a really cute couple."
"And hey, maybe if it does, we could go on a double date sometime," Skye said with a grin.
"Double date?" I frowned, sure that I was missing something.
"With you and Alex of course!" Skye said.
I immediately felt my face heat up and turned back to watching the Slytherin tryouts.
"For the millionth time, Alex and I are not dating," I insisted. "We barely know each other."
"You're not fooling anyone," Skye rolled her eyes. "I don't care what you tell yourself. You like him, and he obviously likes you. It's only a matter of time."
I self-conscious muttered something unintelligible and Skye just chuckled, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.
"You'll be fine," she assured me. "Just go with it. Let it happen however it's meant to happen. Don't fight it and everything will work out the way it should. I've got your back."
The Slytherin tryouts lasted a while longer, and then they vacated the pitch and Skye headed off to get things ready for free fly. I headed back up to the castle and decided to head in the direction of the teacher's lounge to see if anyone else was just hanging around.
As I stepped off the Grand Staircase and into the corridor, I heard voices that indicated that there were students in the corridor. From the sounds of it, some sort of an altercation was taking place, and I paused before rounding the corner to assess the situation.
"I don't think you're listening to what I'm saying," one voice called out. "The next time you try to talk to my girlfriend, I'm going to hex you into next week."
"I wasn't hitting on her," a second voice spoke up. "We're doing a project together. How are we supposed to do that if I can't talk to her?"
"Find another partner," the first voice insisted. "I don't want her working with someone like you."
"The partners were assigned," the second voice retorted. "It's not like we had a choice in the matter."
"Then talk to the professor," the first voice said angrily. "Or I will, if you're too pathetic to handle your own affairs."
I felt like I should intervene. As a teacher, it was my responsibility to break up these kinds of things. Though they weren't technically breaking any rules, I wondered if a deduction of house points would be warranted in a situation like this.
"I can handle my affairs just fine on my own," the second voice cried. "You're just going to have to deal with the fact that Lisa and I are doing this project. And we're going to be doing this project all term long."
Before I had the chance to step in, a bright purple light filled the corridor and I heard the slam of a body hitting the wall. I ran forward and then froze when I came upon the scene to find two seventh year boys squaring off, wands out and pointed directly at each other.
"Hex me again," the boy with the second voice challenged.
The first boy snarled, and without saying any kind of incantation, a red jet of light shot out of his wand, but the second boy dodged out of the way.
The second boy took the offensive next, sending a spiralling jet of blue light in the first boy's direction.
I was frozen where I stood, mesmerized and terrified by what I was witnessing before me. I'd seen magic being cast before, of course. I'd been living in a magical castle for over a month. I'd seen people levitate things, create fire where there hadn't been any before, cause objects to turn into other objects. I'd seen people open doors with a flick of the wand, cause broken teacups to mend themselves, and summon all manner of objects from across rooms. But this was the first time I'd seen people attacking each other with it in such a malicious way and I didn't know what to make of it.
I knew of course that magic could be used as a weapon. I knew that wizarding duels were a thing that happened, and I knew that an entire wizarding war had been waged only two decades ago. But knowing and seeing were two vey different things.
A jet of orange light shot past my cheek, missing me by mere inches, and it pushed me into action. Running forward, I put on my strongest and strictest teacher voice and stepped in between the two students.
"I demand that you stop this fight immediately," I ordered.
And a jet of light hit me square in the chest.