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James looked at the line of brooms in the locker room and frowned, very underwhelmed with the choices before him. There were several Cleansweep Sixes, two Cleansweep Fours, and one Comet 220. James exhaled sharply from his mouth and ran a hand through his hair.
"How am I supposed to try out for Quidditch on these brooms?" he asked in exasperation.
"Well, first years aren't even supposed to try out for Quidditch," Sirius muttered and grabbed the Comet 220. "It's good enough for now. I doubt we'll even get a spot on the team. We're just messing around, aren't we?"
James looked at Sirius and the look, itself, said it all. He was serious about trying out and he was trying out with the intention of making it on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Sirius shook his head in fond disbelief, grabbed a Cleansweep Six, and tossed it to James.
"There," the eldest Black heir said and threw James a look over his shoulder. "Let's get going before we're late."
James sighed and followed Sirius out onto the Quidditch pitch. The stark discrepancy of light and darkness made the boys groan and throw up their hands to shield the sun from their eyes. It was a rather beautiful, sunny, day for Quidditch tryouts. Mostly students from Gryffindor were out to watch in the wooden stands, but there were a few from Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff as well.
The Quidditch captain looked about as tall as a mountain, standing before the others who were all mingling amongst themselves. James and Sirius did their best to blend in, trying to melt within the crowd.
"Take a look at that giant," Sirius said and pointed to a Gryffindor seventh year, whose name they did not know. "I bet he's going for Beater."
"No way," James said and narrowed his eyes, tilting his head to the side as he scrutinized the boy from afar. "He's got a Keeper's build. Good shoulder for throwing, not swinging a bat."
"How'd you reckon?" Sirius asked. "I'll go and ask then."
The raven-haired boy marched over to the older student while James hung back and watched. Sirius gestured wildly with his hands and arms, miming swinging a bat and pointing to the bludgers that were shaking the Quidditch set. The older shook his head and pointed to the goals; Sirius, too, pointed at the goals and the older boy nodded in confirmation. Sirius waved goodbye and James smirked smugly with his arms over his chest.
"Don't say a word," Sirius muttered and shook his head with an amused scoff. "How'd you know?"
"I just do," James said with a shrug and resumed a neutral stance. "If there is one thing, I'm good at, it's guessing who plays what position out on the pitch. I've been watching since I was four."
"What are you trying for then?" Sirius asked, unable to help but feel impressed at his friend's extensive knowledge in the sport. "Chaser?"
"Or Seeker," James added with a nod, eyeing up the broomstick in his hands with an unimpressed expression. "Whichever one I can get on the team for. What are you going for, mate?"
"Beater," Sirius said and picked up the nearest bat. He flipped it in one hand and nodded. "I've been told I've got a good arm."
"Hey, hey!" the Quidditch captain suddenly shouted, waving his hands over his head. "Oi, mates! Seriously, listen up!"
Eventually, the commotion quieted down, and the eager players all turned their attention to the captain. He pinched the bridge of his nose in slight agitation, sighing before kicking the shaking box beside his feet.
"I'm this year's Quidditch captain although everyone has been expecting it and it's been about time!" the boy said and even a few other players nodded in agreement. "But for those who do not know me, my name's Finn Royland. Call me Roy or Royland if you don't know me."
"Shut it, Finn! We all know you aren't like that," a player from the crowd shouted in a playful tone of voice. The amusement was reciprocated for Finn broke out into a grin. "Told you!"
"Fine," Finn said but grew serious once more. "But, it's my job as captain to have that cup in the hands of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, understand? I will take my job seriously and those who will not dedicate as much effort and time into it as I am will be off the team, is that clear?"
The players began to look at one another. James and Sirius watched a slightly familiar second year slowly back away from the crowd of players and make his way back into the locker rooms below the wooden stands. Finn grunted in displeasure but waved a dismissive hand.
"Better now than later," he insisted and folded his arms over his barrel chest. "Less for me to regret. Is everyone else clear with the rules and expectations?"
"Yes!" the crowd chorused in unison.
"Excellent, I'll be assessing each of you individually. Split off into your positions—I want Keepers to my left and Chasers on my right. Oh! Beaters, you're over here right in front of me and the Seekers will be behind me."
"What if you don't know what you want to try out for?" James called out, cupping his hands around his mouth so that he could be heard over the moving crowd. "Oi, Finn? What do you reckon we do then?"
"I'm sorry," Finn said and tilted his head. He narrowed his eyes at James and marched over to him with a frown on his face. "Who are you?"
"James Potter," James replied confidently, unwavering underneath Finn's judgmental expression. He stood his ground and squared his shoulders. "I asked you what you want to do with the players who would be willing to try out for multiple positions."
"Well, I don't usually have that because no one's good enough in more than one," Finn replied haughtily and cocked an eyebrow upwards with a bit of a degrading look. "What makes you think you're an exception, first year?"
"I don't usually let someone's blind eye judge my skills," James said coolly, suddenly mirroring the older student's frown as he took a brave step forward despite being a head shorter. "You won't be the exception. Where would you like me to go? If you don't give me an answer, I'll make one up myself."
Unexpectedly, Finn broke the frown and scoffed with the smallest of smiles. He gripped James's shoulder and gave him a bit of a shake.
"Start in any position you'd like," he said and returned to his stone cold look. "You better be able to back up that attitude of yours, boy. I don't like it and you're not in my good graces—"
"You said it yourself, mate," James said and tightened the wrist guards on his forearms, looking rather smug for a first year trying out for the first time. "I'm not here to get in your good graces. I'm here to help Gryffindor get that trophy. Isn't that what you want?"
Finn looked at James with reluctant impress, trying to disguise it as he looked away quickly, pointing to the Chasers.
"I usually don't allow first years on the team so don't cry when you don't make a spot," the captain scoffed and walked off with a disbelieving shake of his head.
James scoffed in return, but relaxed when he saw Sirius hurrying over to him with widened eyes. James knit his eyebrows in confusion.
"Are you barking mad, you lunatic?" Sirius asked, but he was smiling the whole time. "Why are you talking to the captain like that? Are you trying to get yourself in trouble, mate?"
"It's how Quidditch players talk, Sirius," James said with a bit of an amused laugh, gripping Sirius's arm and giving it a quick squeeze. "Relax and go play."
The captain mounted his broom and kicked off the ground rather aggressively, looking more sour than usual. He blew his whistle loud and shrilly, pointing to the Keepers and Chasers. James, looking up at the sky, mounted his broom and immediately fell right into position. His knees bent and his hands gripped the stick within perfect distance of one another. With relative ease, he kicked off the ground and aimed his hands to the sky, taking the broom and himself with.
The feeling of his feet leaving solid ground felt more liberating than anything. He kept his face angled upwards; his eyes locked onto a single spot. James came to a smooth stop not too far from the other Chasers now hovering in the air. His head rang with anticipation, epinephrine shooting through his veins and coursing right down to his fingers and toes. It kept him alive.
Finn exchanged looks with James before pointing to the Keepers.
"It's your job to block the upcoming goals," he said and pointed to a smaller girl with curly, black hair and sharp brown eyes. "Yvonne, you're up."
Yvonne, a fourth year, took the position right in front of the goal posts and came to a halt before the middle one.
"Arden, you're against her," Finn instructed. "I'm going to have to sweep in and try to shoot; you're goal is to make eight out of ten shots. If you can manage, you have earned yourself a spot on the team. You can get up to ten points, but you can get bonus for any tricks or special maneuvers. Eight of those ten points must be from the goals. Am I clear?"
"Crystal," Arden said surly and flew over to the goal posts. He stopped and stared at Yvonne for a few moments as if the stare down would be intimidating enough. However, she remained unfazed.
"Last thing," Finn said and motioned for the rest of the team over or into the air. "You've got the added pressure of everyone watching you and judging you silently…or not so silently. I don't care either way. After all, you'll have your entire house and then some watching you during the games."
Arden did not reply. Instead, he waited for Finn to release the quaffle, which was the largest of the balls. Finn signaled to Arden, who pulled straight up and away from Yvonne, putting distance between them.
Arden performed a medley of tricks; he did a perfect, upward spiral and broke it off into a steep, nosedive. He dodged imaginary obstacles and performed a triple barrel roll, ending it with a horizontal twirl. Finn threw the quaffle up in a random direction and without any effort, Arden managed to catch in during mid flip. He took another steep dive, toes skimming the sand and kicking it up.
"Nice move," James whispered to himself, taking note. Kicking up sand would create a mess for anyone trying to catch him from behind.
Arden pulled upward and with the same upward spiral, he threw it at the bottom-most goal. Yvonne was not able to catch it and it soared through with the goal with a high-pitched whistle. Everyone was very impressed, and Finn grinned as he gave the other boy a high five.
"How was that mate?" Arden asked as if they were close friends.
James had a suspicious feeling that they were.
"Excellent," Finn said then shoved his apparent 'not-friend' away with a huff. "Not here. You've still got to make seven more to be on the team and at least six to be considered."
Unsurprisingly, Arden was able to make nine out of ten shots, earning himself nine points out of 10. However, Finn let him know his tricks and moves earned him an extra five points, giving him 14 out of 10 total; it was going to be very hard for anyone to beat that.
There were five more Chasers (Magnus, Petra, Zephyr, Theodore, and Vivian) who tried out after Arden but before James. Magnus scored 9 out of 15, Petra scored 12 out of 15, Zephyr scored 10 out of 15, Theodore scored 13 out of 15, and Vivian had 11 out of 15.
Lastly, it was James's turn. Finn and the other Chasers watched carefully as he lined himself up before Yvonne, who was giving him a very calculating stare. James waited patiently for the whistle as his mind focused solely on what his body was doing. He shifted his weight experimentally, carefully gauging his balance on the broomstick.
"Potter, are you ready?" Finn asked loudly.
"Whenever you are," James replied.
On Finn's whistle, James began his going straight up. He tilted his chin and chest up to the sky, aiming his broom in a 90 degree angle. At first, it looked nothing impressive, but the moment he reached the top of the highest goal post, he dove into a downward spiral that would make any flyer dizzy. He pulled out of the dive at the last second, barrel rolling horizontally and to the left, picking up handfuls of sand and dust and creating a cloud.
"Sharp, mate," Sirius said with an approving nod while the other Beaters agreed.
James, from the cloud of dust, emerged like a firework, exploding into view. Finn threw the quaffle in the opposite direction and with wicked spin and curve. James, however, was not fooled by the trick throw and caught it when he did a broomstick tail flip. He weaved in and out of imaginary obstacles and grabbed the quaffle with one hand.
"Get it, James!" Sirius shouted, hands gripping his broomstick tightly—so much so, his knuckles were turning white.
James, however, had the quaffle locked in his sight. The first year pulled out of his tail flip and went straight into speed mode. He had grabbed it in one hand and made a sharp turn towards the goal, twirling to avoid whatever obstacle he had put there in his mind. With all the tricks, one would have thought it would be impossible to reorient in time to see the goals clearly, but James kept his eyes focused on one point. With that, he was able to come skidding to a halt, throwing the quaffle into the air and hitting it precisely with the tail end of his broom. Yvonne predicted it would have gone into the top-most goalpost, but it curved at the last minute, spinning aggressively off to the middle. It soared through the hoop.
Cheers erupted from the team; even Finn could not help but drop his jaw. James gave Finn a little flick of his eyebrow as if to say "I told you so", but he did not move his mouth. Sirius was the first to fly over to James and throw his arms around his best friend's neck. James laughed heartily and returned the hug with equal enthusiasm.
"That was brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed, breathless from all the excitement.
"Thanks," James said earnestly, giving his friend a grin. "I told you I watched loads of Quidditch growing up."
"That was amazing," another player said, coming up to them. "I haven't seen that fancy flying from a first year ever."
"I can't believe it," another player said, shaking her head. "How often are you in the air practicing?"
"Does it come naturally?"
"Could you teach me?"
"Oi," Finn snapped, interrupting everyone with a bit of a glare. "Relax! He's still got whatever other positions he wants to try out for."
James stared at Finn evenly.
"Well?" Finn prompted impatiently.
"Seeker," James replied.
"Fancy that," Finn drawled as he clapped. "Our first year here wants to try out for Seeker."
"Why not?" Arden said, the flyer who went first for the Chasers. "It's clear he's got the skills and moves to make it as any position on the team, mate."
"Besides, we've got no one trying out for Seeker," Petra pointed out.
"We'll have you do that last then," Finn said directly to James. "Sound fair?"
James merely nodded. Finn turned his attention back to the team and pointed at the Keepers. There were three in total who were trying out, including Yvonne. She managed to block more than three quarters of the goals thrown at her, earning her the top qualifier for the Keeper's position. The other two Keepers (Beatrice and Thorin) came in second and third respectively.
Finn turned his attention to the Beaters; there were four Beaters, including Sirius, who were trying out. Marlow, Imogen, Desmond and Sirius had all been waiting for their turn. Finn came over to them and directed them into position.
"It's easy. Hit as many moving targets as you can," Finn explained, conjuring the moving targets, each with a bullseye in the center. "The closer you get to the bullseye, the more points you get. You can earn yourself up to 15, so try your best. You're cut off if you get less than ten. In other words, you cannot miss more than five!"
Sirius went first this time. He seemed to be staring off into nothing in particular, but the moment a target appeared in his peripheral, he swung the bat as hard as he could and sent the bludger, a small, aggressive ball hurling towards the target. It went straight through the bullseye on impact. He did this twelve more times, missing only two; the level of difficulty increased as the targets grew smaller and moved quicker.
"Nice one," James said supportively, clapping as Sirius hit his twelfth target. He had managed to get a bullseye in each one despite only getting 12 out of 15.
Desmond was the second best. He had hit all 15 targets. However, he had only hit the bullseye in nine of them, meaning he had hit the blue or farther out in the rest. It had put him in second place while Sirius was in first. Imogen came in third, hitting 13 targets and 10 bullseyes. Marlow came in last, hitting 11 targets and only seven bullseyes.
Finn marked up the paper on his clipboard and dismissed his Beaters from formation. He turned to James again and tapped his clipboard with his pen, a rare change from the usual quills. James waited for him to say something first, but it seemed like the captain was doing some hard thinking.
"Okay," Finn said after a very long pause. "This one's the easiest to understand but hardest to do. I will release the Golden Snitch; you must wait a full two minutes. Your goal is to find and catch the Snitch in less than six minutes."
"Easy," James said.
"But," Finn continued, holding up a hand to silence the first year. "It's you against the rest of the players. That means you need to get the Snitch before anyone else does, understand?"
"One hundred percent," James said and mock saluted the captain.
Finn growled but released the Snitch, a tiny, golden ball that moved with the speed of a fly. Within a second and a half, it had disappeared from sight. Finn blew his whistle and the game began. Every player soared into the air or zoomed off in some direction, creating chaos like no other. James, however, was not overwhelmed in the slightest. In fact, the more people there were on the pitch, the easier it was for him to focus on where to go. His eyes would follow the clusters of people, laughing silently to himself as he watched the other players struggle.
Finn stopped in mid-flight, taken aback by James's lack of motion. In fact, the first year was merely sitting there as if he did not know the drill had begun. Finn opened his mouth to shout at him, but the first year suddenly took off in a blur. He must have seen something for he was going in a very particular direction with his arm outstretched.
Finn looked at his watch; it had only been two minutes since he had released the Snitch and the first year had already spotted it. With one quick motion that was too quick for Finn to see, the first year had thrust his fist into the air. Gleaming, shimmering in the sun's light was the Golden Snitch. Finn could not help but feel extremely impressed by this first year's talent. It came so natural for him, it was unnatural.
Finn blew the whistle, catching everyone's attention. James looked at the mass of players skidding to a halt…some were messy while others were concise and clean. James grinned as Finn came over to him and stopped, looking at him wordlessly.
"So, how'd I do?" James asked to break the silence.
Again, Finn had nothing to say.
"Pity you don't take first years," James said and shoved the Golden Snitch into the older student's chest very pointedly. "You'd be losing a great asset to the team."
James gestured towards Sirius and curled his lip back at Finn before veering off. Sirius, shocked into speechlessness, could only stare (like everyone else on the pitch) as James hit the ground and disappeared into the locker room. Finn stared after James, too, although his expression was very hard to read.
He merely gave the rest of the team a wave and he, too, broke off from the crowd and down to the locker room.
James, fuming silently, could hear someone approaching from behind. His spine stiffened as he sensed it was someone he did not particularly like at the moment. As predicted, Finn came walking up to him slowly, clearing his throat.
"I could already hear you," James pointed out.
"I'm making the announcements, Potter," Finn said curtly. "Every player needs to be up there to hear. It's mandatory."
"I'm sorry," James said and whipped around with a hard glare, hazel eyes piercingly angry. "I believe you said you don't take first years so why would I waste my time up there so you could run your mouth against us even more? I would have thought you would have been embarrassed enough by now, but you're just so thirsty for more."
Finn's jaw set but he did not give in.
"I won't repeat myself again, Potter."
James sighed loudly in evident agitation but followed the rude captain back out and into the air. James stopped and slipped in with the rest of the crowd while Finn stopped before everyone, pulling out his clipboard and taking one last look over it.
"For our Beaters, we have Desmond and Sirius," Finn started, giving the two boys a nod of approval. "For the Keeper, we have Yvonne. For the Chasers, we have Arden, Petra, and Theodore. And for our Seeker…James."
James did not look happy nor did he look excited. Instead, he merely stared at Finn before nosediving back to the ground. Sirius watched his friend sadly before giving Finn a bit of a nod.
"Thanks," the eldest Black heir said and gestured to James's retreating figure. "He accepts."
Finn merely nodded in return, allowing Sirius to follow his friend. Sirius's feet touched the ground inches away from James's back. The silver eyed boy reached out and put a hand on James's shoulder which was and felt tense.
"Hey," he said a bit softer this time. "Well done making the team, mate."
"Thanks," James replied, turning to give Sirius a ghost of a smile. "You, too."
"What's wrong?" Sirius pressed, ignoring the compliment in order to stay on track with the conversation they so desperately needed to have. "You're really off."
"I don't care much for people like him," James said bitterly as if the words left a foul taste on his tongue. "Rude like that and have no respect for his own teammates."
"I reckon you're right," Sirius said and shrugged his shoulders. "I just chalk it up to a severe superiority complex probably stemming from something more than just Quidditch."
"Well," James huffed irritably. "Whatever the case may be, I hope he treats you better than how he did today. If not, you let me know, mate."
Sirius laughed.
"What are you going to do?"
"Something he won't forget," James said without a moment of hesitation. "No one disrespects my friends like that and gets away with it."
Sirius laughed again, unable to hide a smile.
"You, too," he said. "The same goes for you, too."