Quidditch Team
Harry stood at the Quidditch pitch together with the other six members of last year's Quidditch team. Professor Peverell had discussed with Oliver how the try-outs would be conducted and that, to be fair, nobody had their automatic spot on the team. They would have to prove that they were the best ones for a position. Nobody really had any problem with that. They wanted to win the cup for Gryffindor and for that they needed a really good team.
He looked to the left, where all the new candidates were assembled and were currently sorted by positions by both Professors Peverell. Over the last two weeks he had found out that they were as nice as teachers as they were outside of the classroom. Their classes were interesting, even if they did demand concentration and that you actually did your work properly. Hermione had complained about being limited to short essays in both classes, but Harry didn't really see any problem with that. It was understandable to him that a teacher didn't want to be stuck grading papers all day. He was glad that the next four weeks they would be taught the way how to produce good essays and research papers, as he had never really learned that in primary school.
He knew the basics but being taught how the teachers actually wanted their essays to be, would be a great help in getting better grades. And the idea of a research paper per term was interesting as well. It would allow the students to really work on a topic for a longer period of time and determine a large part of their grade that way. So far, he knew that they would get about two months to work on the paper, but not what kinds of topics could be chosen. Hermione was going crazy over that. She already wanted to get started to not mess up this important part. Ron wasn't as happy, but Harry didn't spend too much time with him currently.
He had tried to not hold his reaction to Harry's refusal to take the car too hard, but after that Ron hadn't really done anything to apologise. Harry had at first thought that Ron's punishment would be enough to drive the lesson home, make him realise that Harry hadn't wanted to be mean to him, but actually just wanted to prevent that they both got into trouble. But Ron took a lot of things as attacks against him, like his still ongoing special diet and potion treatment. He hated not being allowed to have any sweets and being limited in what and how much he could eat each day. At first the others in the dorm had been sympathetic, but Ron was a drama queen. Really, two weeks of sweet ban, well, it sucked, but it wasn't as bad as Ron made it out to be.
And Harry also didn't accept that Ron thought he should be given lenience in his behaviour over being 'punished' like that. Harry would have thought that his health would be more important to Ron. He knew that taking potions sucked, but he hadn't been this bitchy about it when he had gone through the process at the beginning of August. At least the detentions every second day were over now, and Ron would be able to have more free time, if he didn't push all his homework back to the weekend to get it done. Harry had taken to making use of the study rooms regularly and was a regular participant in the brewing times. He loved the way Mrs Professor Peverell led that class now and it helped him regain his enthusiasm for the subject, which Snape had soured last year. It was also very cool that Ginny was sharing his enthusiasm for the subject.
They often worked on workstations next to each other, with Harry helping Ginny a little here and there, if she had a question. No matter how lousy Snape had taught, Harry had passed his end-of-year exams last year in the subject and had learned a thing or two.
Ginny was also standing with the ones that wanted to try out for the team, or at least win a reserve spot. As far as Mr Professor Peverell had told the current team, they would end up with a full starting and reserve team respectively. And both teams would get full training, as he intended to let them play training matches against each other. That would definitely be cool. In Harry's opinion, they had too few actual matches over the year and playing against the reserve team, or in mixed teams to try new formations, would be really cool. Then their head of house started to speak.
"Alright, everybody, welcome to the Gryffindor team's try-outs for this year. As you probably know, we are going to test you all to find the best players to have two full teams, one for reserve and the other as the starting team. Both teams will be training together, but the specifics will be told once the fourteen players are chosen. All of you in first and second year have been given the competency test by Madam Hooch and passed it, for that, congratulations. We also will later on form a cheerleading team, but my wife will inform those interested later on. Today is about the team itself," Older Harry informed the students.
"For the beginning, let's just see how good you are on a broom. Everybody has their own brooms or one of the school brooms, therefore the tests won't be impossible for anybody to perform. The task is simple. I want you to fly over to the other side of the pitch as fast as you can, turn at the hoops and then fly back, doing a slalom through the hovering poles. We will note the performance of everybody and those that in the end gave the best image will get the spots," Older Harry explained, "We will do this by years, thus the first years will begin, then the second years and so on. It doesn't matter if you were part of the team or not last year by the way."
The students got started. There were three first-years that had managed the competency test, which also got them out of the flying classes that continued for those that hadn't passed the test yet and were now here to see if they might get onto the team. For the first-years the general education classes were separate from the flying classes after all. It took about fifteen minutes to have everybody finish that part. Older Ginny was writing down all the results and her observations. It was a great thing now that she had played professionally. She knew what to look out for. A few candidates were sorted out after the second test, simple passing of a quaffle around. Those that weren't stable on their brooms while doing that were told that they needed to train a little more and that they should try again next year, or perhaps, look into being cheerleaders for the team, as they already liked Quidditch.
The tests then continued with position testing, where Older Ginny took to the air, testing the chaser hopefuls, while Older Harry worked with the beater hopefuls. Then the seekers and keepers were called up, seekers with Older Harry and keepers with Older Ginny. Once the most promising candidates were found out, Ron had to return to the stands, as there were three other keepers, including Oliver, that were better than him in the try-outs, but Ginny and the twins were still among the ones that were in the running for positions of both teams. Ron grumbled a good deal about Ginny being allowed to continue, but nobody really took him seriously, as he grumbled a lot these days.
And with two teachers being present, he wouldn't act out, as he didn't want to get detention again. He was glad to be done with his two weeks.
"We will now take a break of fifteen minutes. The remaining candidates will be getting numbers to play scrimmages. I will call upon a few numbers and those will then play for five minutes, showing how they play together. Then I will call new numbers," Older Harry explained the next step, "During the break you can get some snacks and drinks. We arranged for tea and apple juice to be ready for you, as well as some fruits."
The students nodded and went over to the tables with the snacks and drinks.
"So far it is going well. There are some talents that weren't on the team before, right?" Older Ginny asked, knowing this already, but she had a role to play.
"Yes. When I discussed this with Oliver, the captain from last year, he was all for finding the strongest team and was actually relieved to have some help in training the team. He does his best, but he never actually had any training in how to train other players. He's mostly self-taught with some input from his father, who played Quidditch at Hogwarts back when he was attending," Older Harry answered.
He was calling all Gryffindors by their given name, outside of the classroom that was. There he acted professional. But if your house was to be your family, it was only normal to use given names when in private. Well, the first and second years were generally called by their first names. They were young enough to not require formality. He wanted them to be relaxed in his classes and have some fun while learning his subject. The older years got the option what they wanted. The majority vote decided. Most chose first names.
"Well, we will see who wins the spots once we have had the scrimmages," Older Ginny concluded, and both joined the students to also get something to drink.
Older Harry stood in front of the students that still had a chance to win a spot for the team.
"Okay, now that you have had a small break, we will continue. We will start with chasers and keepers. This will be a test of possible combinations, as, for a chaser, not only personal skill is deciding, but also how you can cooperate with the other chasers on the team. And a keeper needs to be able to quickly find a strategy to deal with certain traits and skills of the attacking chasers. First up will be the one, seven and fourteen, those being Katie, Jake and Ginny as chasers against number eighteen, Jeremy, as keeper."
The four went up into the air and took their positions. Then Older Harry gave the signal and the chaser line started passes on the way to the hoops, following Katie's lead, who had had a year of playing practice already. Jeremy managed to hold one of the three attempts they made in the five minutes they had.
"Good, come down you four and then number four, Oliver, for the hoops, and numbers nine, six and thirteen, Angelina, Eric and Victoria for the chasers."
The scenario repeated until all three keeper candidates and nine chaser candidates were done and Older Harry then switched around the teams to get an idea who could play best with which others. Then it was time for the beaters.
"Okay, the chasers and keepers get a break, I want Fred and George as well as Kirk and Erika in the air with their bats," was Older Harry's new command.
Next to them Older Ginny also took to the air with a quaffle.
"Your job is to attempt to prevent that my wife can score a goal. First Kirk and Fred."
The two nodded and the one bludger they were playing with was directed at Older Ginny while she used her experience to easily dodge, but this was a good way to find out how well the beater candidates could control the bludger in a real situation. George and Erika were next and Older Harry wrote down how each candidate fared in the play.
The tests continued with the seekers having to deal with enchanted rubber balls imitating the bludgers, as Older Harry didn't want them too badly injured during a try-out. That was also why he had the beater candidates aim at his wife. She was used to much higher-level attacks of bludgers than any school child could ever manage. He also had the seekers chase a practice snitch that he had programmed with certain moves to see how they could handle fast changes of direction. Then he had them play short rounds with two full teams, each only lasting five minutes, then changing positions around. They were done with all tests just before lunch was about to start in the Great Hall.
"That was very good work, everybody. Ginny and I will look over our notes after lunch and tell you who won the spots on the team at three o'clock. Please come back to the field then. The time until then should be enough for you to take a shower and eat in peace. I suggest something light, as your stomachs won't be too happy with heavy fare," Older Harry commented.
The students nodded and trooped back to the castle, talking excitedly about the try outs and who might get the coveted spots for the two teams.
"And, what are your thoughts on the teams?" Harry asked Ginny.
"There were many good candidates. It won't be easy to decide. But I was never aware that we had that much potential in our house before the team was changed around," Ginny stated.
"Wood had one flaw, once he had a good team, he didn't look anymore. That's not smart, but to cut him some slack, he isn't a professional trainer. He is a student and has other things that he has to coordinate with Quidditch training. In his first year as captain, he had to build a team he could work with, but it was also his OWL year. He had to feel how difficult it was to do both parts justice when the workload increased for him. Probably he didn't want to invest the time in sixth and seventh year, when the team was really working well, both in personal skill and cooperation of the players. Meanwhile I don't have those limitations," Harry pointed out.
"Very true. Well, I think Katie, Angelina and Alicia will certainly have a spot, they did do great try-outs," Ginny stated.
"They did. But your younger self, as well as Jake and Patrick did too. I think the other three need more time," Harry replied, looking over the notes he had made.
"Yes. Especially Victoria had trouble with the coordination of passing when we had real situations. And Patrick definitely surprised me how good he was in dodging bludgers while keeping the quaffle secured. He would definitely be a candidate for the starting team. He would make a good player for fast-paced plays and his ability to switch from offence to defence was impressive," Ginny complimented.
"Very true. I can see a lot of strategies profiting from that. And, as a sixth-year, he wouldn't be intimidated by other teams as much as the younger players," Harry nodded.
"Do you know why he wasn't on the team last year?" Ginny asked.
"According to his file he was forced to take a year-long break to pass his OWLs by his parents," Harry answered.
"Ah, yes that's a shame, but understandable. We will need to make sure that the other players will have enough time for their studies," Ginny accepted.
"With a set schedule for training times, which doesn't include Oliver's crazy ideas, it should be easily manageable. I'm not going to force my students to get up at five in the morning for strategy sessions that don't stick," Harry shook his head exasperatedly.
"So, which ones for the starting three and which ones for reserve?" Ginny asked.
"I think Patrick, Angelina and Katie for starters, they showed the best coordination among them, and Alicia, Ginny and Jake for reserves. And I'm going to implement your strategy ideas for the games, meaning that all of the chasers will get playing time this year."
"Yes, you do well to listen to my Quidditch experience," Ginny grinned, teasingly.
Harry grinned back and made the notes. Next he pulled up the beater names.
"Fred and George are a given, their coordination has been the best among all of the ones. But who for the reserves?" Harry asked.
"I would suggest Erika, as she is in fifth year already and has great aim and then possibly Kirk. While he wasn't the strongest, he had good awareness where the bludgers would fly to and could interrupt a number of plays that way. Not to mention that he's a third year and it would give the team more players not in the same year. I remember how you had to rebuild a whole team, thanks to no reserves from other years that could step up when the twins, Angelina and Alicia graduated," Ginny pointed out.
"Yes, that's good to keep in mind. Well, Oliver was the best among the three keepers, but Ashlyn was very promising to be a replacement, I think. She's also in third year, meaning she would be able to take over fully, if things continue like this, when Oliver graduates after next year. And if he's knocked out of the match, she can adapt to any kind of chaser group quickly. I just wonder why she didn't try anymore when we needed a new keeper in my fifth year," Harry wondered, "She would have easily surpassed Ron."
"I know that one. Ashlyn got into a major row with Angelina the year before the new keeper was chosen and refused to play under her as captain. Thus, she never even tried out for the position," Ginny answered.
"A true shame. Ron wasn't a good keeper at the beginning, and we needed to work around his mental blocks to get him to play great. I would rather not have him on the team, if there are alternatives. He can play fantastic, but the time and circumstances it needs to get there are not worth it," Harry stated.
"That's true, I mean, only playing well when nothing is at stake anymore or when you trick him into believing he took felix felicis? That's really not suited for that position. And I'm sure with you training the team from now on, you can make sure that there won't be the situation where it matters and we don't have a choice," Ginny pointed out.
Harry nodded and wrote both Oliver and Ashlyn onto the list for players.
"Your younger self as seeker is set, as he was the best among all those trying out. But the reserve will be difficult to decide. The others were far behind him," Ginny sighed.
"There was a reason why I got the spot in first-year. Oliver found no suitable candidate when he held try-outs that year. I think it will mostly be up to me to train the reserve to be able to step in, in case my younger self ends himself in the hospital wing again. And with my typical kind of luck, it wouldn't be that strange to happen," Harry sarcastically stated.
"Yes, you had an unfortunate number of stays there. But we came back to also reduce the problems that led to those stays. I'm also going to see if I can convince Albus to make the events of 1994 / 1995 more interesting for the students. Triwizard Tournament good and well, but we can further friendships among the schools better in other ways. The tasks the Ministry idiots came up with were much too dangerous for students. I'd rather convince the ones in charge to have a tournament for Quidditch and different subjects in form of an obstacle course and treasure hunt to be held. That could allow more students to participate and really, not following up on the Quidditch World Cup held in England for the first time in forever was stupid to the extreme," Ginny scoffed.
"I'm fully with you in that," Harry nodded and kissed her cheek, "Well, back to the reserve seeker, how about Stella?"
"Probably as well as Zoe. Both weren't great, but they would manage in case they needed to. And if everything goes south, my younger self could still play in their stead," Ginny decided.
Harry nodded and wrote down the seeker names.
"Now that that's done, how about some relaxation until we need to tell the students the results?" Ginny suggested coyly.
"Definitely a very good idea," Harry replied grinning and lifted Ginny up bridal style, to go over to their bedroom.
It was time to announce the new Gryffindor Quidditch team as well as the reserve team. Not only the ones that had been in the last round of the test, but also most of the ones that had tried out were assembled at the pitch again, this time in casual clothes.
"I guess you are all curious to find out what decision was made about the new team. Well, first off, returning captain and starting keeper is Oliver Wood, reserve keeper is Ashlyn Price," Older Harry read out.
There was applause from the others and a cheer from Ashlyn. Older Ginny handed both Oliver and Ashlyn their new jerseys with their names. She and her husband had decided to get them ready to give them to the chosen players as a symbol.
"Next up, our beaters in the starting team will be Fred and George Weasley with Erika Cooper and Kirk Waterflower as reserve beaters," Older Harry continued, and Older Ginny passed out the jerseys while the others applauded again.
"The starting chasers will be Angelina Johnson, Patrick Jones and Katie Bell. Reserves will be Alicia Spinnet, Jake Randell and Ginny Weasley," He continued, and he grinned when he saw Ginny doing a fist thrust at getting the coveted spot, especially as a first-year student, and the six stepped forward to also get their jerseys.
"And last but not least, starting seeker is Harry Potter and reserve seeker is Stella Moon," He finished and the two walked forward, smiling at having made the team, "Everybody else, I want to thank you for coming to the try-outs and don't forget, if you continue practicing, you might have a chance for a spot next year."
The students that hadn't been chosen were mostly good sports and congratulated the others for getting onto the team but told them they better won the cup for their house this year, they were after all the best they had. The response was positive with some jokes from the twins.
"I would like the new team and reserves to follow me into the meeting room next to the locker room, the others can go back to the school," Older Harry stated and the fourteen chosen players moved towards the locker rooms, with the players talking among themselves, with Oliver already pondering what kind of strategies they would be able to play and train.
Ron Weasley wasn't happy. He could deal with the twins winning back their spots on the Gryffindor team. They had been on it for two years now and the competition hadn't been too strong. Harry, well, there was a reason why he had been given the seeker spot last year, even if Ron was really envious that Harry, who hadn't known anything about Quidditch before coming to Hogwarts, got to be on the team, when he, Ron, had known everything there was to know about the sport for years, could name all kinds of famous players or moves, and still didn't even get chosen for the reserves. He was realistic enough to not expect to replace the team captain Wood, who was definitely a great keeper. But he had really thought he could get the reserve spot. But he hadn't even been in the final round.
What really angered him was that Ginny had got a reserve spot. As a first-year. It was so unfair. Why did she get to play when he didn't? If he could have become reserve keeper, he could have trained with Wood and been ready to step in once he graduated in two years. But he really hated that he would now have to wait for at least a year before he would get a new chance. It was only more proof that everybody had it in for him. He shouldn't have got that much detention over the car incident. Nothing had happened after all. The invisibility booster had prevented that the muggles spotted him. And if only Harry, the traitor, had come with him, it wouldn't have ended in that much detention.
Not to mention that the change in food sucked. While he would admit that it didn't taste bad, he didn't get as much as he needed to not be hungry anymore, and the no sweets rule really sucked. He had tried to get around it, but the stupid bracelet always thwarted his genius plans. He needed more food, dammit. He was a growing boy. There wasn't anything wrong with him. But he was singled out and had to take those nasty potions. And his Mum also wasn't sympathetic when he complained to her in a letter. She told him that he needed to follow the healers' instruction and that it would be over soon enough.
And he could only eat more food, if it was vegetables or things like the beef soup from last Thursday's lunch. He didn't know why the kind of food had changed, but he missed the opportunity to eat as much meat and desserts as he wanted to. He had noticed that real meat was mostly served on the weekends now, with Fridays normally being days for fish in some kind. He really wanted things to go back to what they had been. He still had half a week of the potion and no-sweets diet to go through and then Madam Pomfrey would examine him again to see if he was finally free of that torture again.
He was truly in a bad mood and became more and more convinced that he could only rely on himself anymore. The teachers and his traitorous friends simply didn't understand what he needed and deserved.
Older Harry stood in front of the Quidditch team that he would train from now on.
"Alright, let's get down to some basic information on how the training will commence from here on out. We will do two evening sessions of two hours over the week, plus on Saturday afternoon two practical hours plus one hour of strategy and move theory. I want you all to expand on your skills over the year. We might put in an additional session directly before a match, but I don't want you to neglect your studies over team training. Instead I expect you all to start general fitness training in the mornings. That means, I want you all to either run or swim for forty-five minutes at least, better would be one hour," Older Harry stated.
"Swimming? I hope you don't expect us to jump into the lake in the mornings, sir," Alicia protested.
"No, the lake won't be needed for that and I don't want Madam Pomfrey after me if you come down with pneumonia," Older Harry chuckled, "No, Hogwarts has an indoor swimming pool at the ground floor, which is where you can do the swimming. You probably all know the annexe to the south wing, which is mostly hidden from sight, thanks to the greenhouses being there."
"Yes?" Fred asked.
"You can enter it by citing the Hogwarts motto, 'Never tickle a sleeping dragon'. The portrait of jumping dolphins at the end of the corridor leading there will fade and let you enter the indoor swimming pool area. There are two locker rooms, one for each gender, which are warded against those of the opposite gender getting in there. The pool is quite large, fifty metres in length and forty metres in width. That should be more than enough for all students that want to swim at a time to fit in and don't get into the way of others. The only times when you won't be able to use it will be when the new swimming team uses it. Which will be in the afternoons, but I don't know the exact schedule, but it will be pinned to the notice board there."
"I never knew that the school had an indoor swimming pool," George commented, looking at his brother strangely, which Older Harry knew was because of the Marauder's Map, which didn't have the pool on it.
Well, it wouldn't, as it was one part that he had only found out after reading Albus' journals in the future. The teachers had mostly forgotten that it was there too, but Older Harry had decided to make use of it, especially as it would allow the students one more way to be active in their free time. Not to mention that children normally liked going swimming and having fun there.
"How would running work in winter?" Stella asked.
"There is the option of running along the path that surrounds the inner gardens. It is roofed and a ward prevents that snow, rain and strong wind can get in there. While it might be a bit colder than you are used to, it works out. If you think it would be too cold, there is still the option of swimming, and the pool is heated," Older Ginny pointed out, "The intention is after all getting you in a general good physical form. All the professional teams do the same. The players have to keep in good shape, the way it happens is up to them. Otherwise lasting in long matches can be a problem."
"I think checking out both the pool and the path would be a good idea to know how they look like," Oliver stated, "And as long as the weather is still good enough, we have other options as well. I think it would be quite the challenge to manage running around the whole lake."
Others chuckled, seeing his enthusiasm to progress more like the professional Quidditch players. The previous members of the team were just glad that he couldn't force them to do it. It would take far longer than the forty-five minutes that they had to run.
"The next point I would like to mention before we start with training is that I will train you all to be ready to play in any kind of combination of players. This will have two advantages. First, if one player is ill or injured, be it during a match or before, the others won't have to first find their new rhythm when they play. The second one is that it will confuse the hell out of all other teams if we constantly switch players around. For example, the three girls that were the chasers last year like playing an offensive style, while leaving most of the defence work to Oliver. There are no rules that forbid switching players during a match and we can do it as often as we like to. Now think, the other team gets a handle on the chasers and we can't get any goals, or they fly very fast counters and overwhelm Oliver with numbers before the chasers are back. We could switch Patrick and Jake in, who both are very good at switching from offence to defence. It would be a whole different game," Older Harry explained his idea.
"That would be incredible. And it would work in so many variants," Oliver exclaimed excitedly.
"Correct. We have many different kinds of styles among our six chasers and we will train all kinds of formations with all of you. The same is true for the other positions as well. We will have everybody ready to play at all times. It can also happen that we simply use the chance to switch to give a player a break. Like, if Oliver had to work for forty minutes on end, as the other team constantly managed to break through, he would be liable to be worse than at the beginning of the match. Then we could switch to Ashlyn, simply to mess up their ideas of how our keeper will act, next to letting Oliver recover for a while."
The players saw many advantages of this kind of thinking.
"And the other teams probably will be totally caught on the wrong foot, as I don't think they have as many reserves as we do," Angelina added.
"Probably not. As far as I know, the training of the other houses is still up to their captains. Though I think that the other heads of houses will think of something once our new ways prove successful, and I'm convinced it will be like that. But I would like to see what the other heads can come up with. After all, it's a lot more fun if the other teams have to become creative as well. The best matches are those that had great skill shown on both sides in a hard but fair match. While easy wins can be fun too, over time they will become boring," Older Harry pointed out.
The others nodded. They would be able to enjoy it for a while, but they would certainly become bored if all teams were easy to beat and then probably also make more mistakes than if they had to be on guard.
"Okay, the last point for now, the next training units. I had a look over your timetables and nobody has classes beyond half past four. We will start Monday evening at six thirty, so be ready after dinner. The other unit over the week is on Wednesday, also at six thirty. The third unit will be on Saturdays at two and then for three hours. I also want you to make sure that you keep up with your studies, as I will have to only let those play in actual matches that manage to get passing grades in their classes. You get one joker, as it can happen that you simply don't have a lot of talent in one class. But I won't have my team slacking off. I don't expect that you all get top grades in all classes, but you have to pass them," Older Harry said sternly.
"But what about History and Potions?" Fred protested.
"I said you had one joker. And honestly, while I know that Professor Binns is said to be really boring in his class, you have your textbooks to cover what you can't learn in class. As I said, I don't demand all O's or something, that would be unrealistic. I want passes, which means for the ones that are familiar with the OWLs grades, an A, meaning at least sixty percent correct answers. That isn't too much to ask for. Hogwarts is a school first and as much as I am competitive at Quidditch, it is secondary to you getting a good education," Older Harry stated firmly.
"Hey, it isn't that bad," Angelina commented, "It wouldn't be any different than before. We have had to do the work for History on our own since we started here, if we didn't want to fail that class. And ever since Mrs Professor Peverell took over Potions, it has become much easier to get a passing grade. Even if catching up on all the things Snape didn't teach us sucks."
"True, okay, it can't be helped," George sighed.
The others also nodded, knowing that only one subject really had a teacher where they had to put in a lot of self-study to get by. Older Harry and Ginny were happy to see that this would be another step into an important direction.
The Gryffindor team was greeted in their common room by the other members of the house and most were called over to their friends to tell them more about the plans their new head of house had for the team. Harry walked over to Hermione, as Ron, for some reason, had stormed off when the team returned. Not to mention that he was secretly relieved to not have to deal with his complaints about not being chosen for the team, like he had hoped to be. But Harry had to be honest, the other three that had been in the final round for the try-outs were clearly better than Ron, who had missed a number of shots and hadn't been giving a solid show. Well, he still had some time to make the team in the future.
"And, how did it go?" Hermione asked, as she had stayed at their common room to get her homework done.
"I got my starting position back and Stella Moon is the reserve for the seeker position. All other former members of the team are back on it, even if Alicia was switched to the reserve chaser position, as Patrick Jones got the starting position. I heard from Oliver that he was on the team before last year, when he took a break for OWLs. The other two stayed starters. Ginny made the reserves, the twins are still starting beaters and Oliver captain and keeper," Harry listed the people she would know most about.
"Congratulations. I only noticed that Ron didn't get into either team, but he wouldn't really say anything, being too angry and probably disappointed," Hermione stated.
"Well, he will need some more practice and work on nerves, I think. He didn't have a solid try-out. He had good moments, but he didn't do well with being watched all the time," Harry analysed.
"Ah, well, at least he will be able to concentrate on his homework properly. Thanks to his detention, his first essay grades weren't too good," She commented.
"I doubt that will cheer him up," Harry snorted.
"He should take his schoolwork more serious. Especially after the trouble he got into with the car that ended in the lake," She insisted.
"He will calm down and be in a better mood once the treatment is over with. I really hope that he can get off the potion, or at least be allowed to eat sweets occasionally when they do the next examination with him. He's real grouch otherwise," Harry commented.
"As if not being allowed sweets for two weeks was as bad as he made it out to be," Hermione shook her head, not really seeing the problem with it.
But then again, her parents never allowed her a lot of sweets, being dentists, and thus she didn't mind not eating them regularly. She was among those that liked the new way of what was served for meals and was more than happy to know that practicing magic would do the rest and that she didn't have to exercise beyond travelling through the school to classes to keep her figure.
"The problem is that he annoys everybody else with his complaints. I'll be glad when it is over. Well, I can tell him how to better his chances for a spot next year. Though I doubt he will like it," Harry pondered.
"Oh, which way?" Hermione asked.
"Our head of house has told us that we need to keep a general good shape and therefore have to exercise in the mornings or at other times when we don't have training. We can either go running or swimming. We found out that Hogwarts even has an indoor swimming pool in that annexe that his covered by the greenhouses," Harry told her.
"That would be a good way to keep in shape," Hermione nodded, "But I doubt Ron would want to get up early to run."
"That's why I said I doubt he would like it. But with the whole current team being made to do it, others either work on their own fitness to have a chance to win a spot in the future, or they stay in the stands. Though I'm curious what they plan to do for cheerleading. They encouraged those that wanted to support the team, but couldn't get onto it, to meet with them after the try-outs are done," Harry explained.
"Like those girls in short skirts that dance before muggle sport events?" Hermione asked surprised.
"Perhaps," Harry shrugged.
"I hope they don't do it like that. I think it's demeaning for the girls to be ogled like that," She frowned.
"Well, the ones doing it would be volunteers and I doubt they would dare wearing what muggle cheerleaders wear. I mean, look at how our school uniforms look like," He pointed out.
She still wasn't convinced, and Harry left to sit with Neville, Seamus and Dean, who wanted to know more about the try-outs and the new team.
I hope you liked the new chapter. Until next time.