Gardenia absolutely loved Quidditch.

She had never been a very sports enthused person in her previous life, finding most of them boring to watch and too difficult to perform herself, but in this life, she was obsessed with it.

She had received her first broom at age five, and after a month of being completely terrified about falling to her death from the five feet height the child broom rose to, Gardenia came to love the activity. There was something about flying that made her feel so carefree and happy, when she was in the air she forgot all about her responsibilities and the burden of knowing how some of the people around her would meet their end.

When she first became close with Fred and George, and consequently the whole of the Weasley family, Quidditch became even more ingrained in her life, the mock matches played with the red-headed kids a staple of her early childhood years. She even started teaching Ginny how to ride a broom and helped her break into the shed where the brooms were stored when her older brothers didn't want her to play with them(some misguided notion of protecting the youngest, which Gardenia knew would come back to haunt them in the future if Ginny went pro).

One thing she didn't know, however, was what position she was good at. Shed never felt drawn to any of them, not like Fred and George's eyes shone from the first moment they heard they could be a team within a team, or like how Charlie was a natural seeker, drawn to the snitch and liking the individuality the position brought. She usually played as a chaser, the most abundant position and one they always needed in the mock matches, but she wasn't a chaser, not in the way the twins were beaters and Charlie was a seeker.

Heidi, on the other hand, knew perfectly what position to play. The girl was a beater through and through, and in Gardenia's opinion, it suited her quite well. She couldn't beat people in her day to day life, so at least she had the opportunity to discharge her anger when beating a Bludger in a game.

The current captain of the team was Phillip Cadwallader, a sixth-year with dark hair and an olive complexion, along with an impressive physique, courtesy of years of training. He seemed nice enough, if not a little too easy-going, according to Nymphadora. Her cousin thought maybe a little more tough love could improve the team, but Phillip seemed to be of the 'as long as we have fun' mentality.

Gardenia was glad for that though, at least it seemed she and Heidi would not be laughed out of the field for being first years.

"So, the way tryouts work for our team is anyone who wants to try out for any position, even the ones already occupied, is allowed to," Cadwallader began, standing in the middle of the pitch facing the group of students from all ages hoping to join the team. "If there aren't any people trying out for a position already filled, the current team member stays by default. Otherwise, the performances will be compared against each other, today's stats for whoever is trying out against last week's stats for the team member."

His co-captain, a tall seventh year with pale blond hair and light green eyes named Archibald Beauregard, stood next to Cadwallader. "Whoever does better will get the position on the main team, while the others might join the reserve team," Beauregard explained, a contrast to his captain's sunny demeanor with an emotionless face and intimidating aura.

It was more egalitarian then Gardenia expected, she thought the team members would have guaranteed positions, but they were going for a more merit-based system, probably to increase chances of building a good team. She had no idea how the other houses went about their tryouts since Harry skipped that part, but she had a feeling each house had the liberty to choose, maybe she could grill Charlie on it later and hope he wouldn't mind.

"We'll begin with some basic flying, at least ten reps around the pitch," Cadwallader explained.

That seemed sensible, weed out the people who couldn't fly all that well before beginning with the more specific trials.

Gardenia, with her school-provided broom, Heidi by her side, flew into the air along with the dozen or so people who were her competition. Cadwallader also mounted his broom, probably to evaluate everyone's flying skills from above, while Beauregard stayed on the ground to provide a different point of view. The other members of the team, a girl with copper-red hair, less bright then what Gardenia was used to seeing, and a boy with short-cropped dark hair stood alongside Chiara a little further away, observing.

Now in the air, Gardenia awaited Cadwallader's sign. "On the count of three, you can start."

"One."

Looking around her, she saw most people were gearing up to fly fast, leaning forward in their brooms and making themselves the smallest they could. She saw Cedric, who Heidi had told about trying out, doing the same.

"Two."

Heidi grinned at her, her stance relaxed, and Gardenia marveled at how calm her friend was. Gardenia smiled back, grip on the old Cleansweep tightening for a moment in anticipation.

"Three."

It was like the start of a horse race, but instead of the sound of hooves on the ground, it was the blast of air from the brooms, a girl with light brown hair shot up straight to the front, Cedric not far behind her. Two boys, a gangly one and a rather stocky one, were at the back, the gangly one holding on to his broom rather precariously, while the other one seemed unable to make his broom go faster.

Heidi, although not fighting for first place as Cedric and the girl were, was speeding a fair bit, probably not liking that Cedric was in front of her. Gardenia was never a fan of racing, but she wasn't sure what exactly Cadwallader wanted from them, and she wasn't about to fail during the first part because she preferred to leisurely do her laps.

People were treating this as a race, sticking mostly to the same altitude and creating a concentrated area of flyers. There were people in front of her and on both her sides, so she decided to go up. They had the whole pitch at their disposal, and she decided to take advantage of that, now flying above the rest but still behind those in the front. By now a whole lap had gone by, and most had noticed what she did and decided to do the same, some going up and others down.

Not wanting to be upstaged, Gardenia decided to play up her advantages, the biggest being the small frame that allowed her to be more agile than most. She'd been told before it was the perfect build for a seeker, but if there was one position in Quidditch she couldn't play for the life of her, it was that one. She and the snitch did not get along, trying to find it in the pitch during a game was the same as trying to keep up with a fruit fly in the Great Hall, and Gardenia had a hard time doing that and being aware of the other players flying around her.

The one time she played in a mock match as a seeker, she had been up against Charlie, and while he didn't tease her, he looked a bit too smug for comfort afterward.

She skirted around those that had flown upward, not trying to get ahead, but wanting to show her flying abilities. As she skirted around a boy with strawberry blond hair, she startled him into initiating a brake and almost losing his balance. "Oi, watch it!"

Gardenia glanced over her shoulder, he had recovered from the loss of momentum and was back to speed. She smiled apologetically and mouthed a 'sorry'.

The laps went by rather quickly, especially for those that were going as fast as they could. Cadwallader signaled for them to land as soon as they finished, and did so himself after most people had completed the ten reps. Only those two boys that had been at the back still hadn't finished, but Cadwallader asked them to land either way.

"That was better than I expected," he said with a smile. "I never said it was a race, though."

Cedric rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, while the brown-haired girl that had stayed in the lead for the whole time showed no reaction.

"We had you do the laps to assess your flying skills, as well as your style of flying," Cadwallader explained. "As you know, seekers have to be fast and agile, chasers fast and aggressive enough to make it across the field, beaters must be well balanced to manage to fly and swing the bat with force simultaneously, and keepers quick and with strong reflexes."

"The second part of tryouts is more specific, we'll start with chasers," he stated. "A simple passing the quaffle exercise, each of you will be doing that with Lobusca, and all the ones that manage not to drop it will be trying to score against our current keeper. Meanwhile, whoever wants to try out for beater will be batting this," Cadwallader held up what looked to be a bludger. "It's a modified bludger, it won't fly around as much, and it tends to come back to the beater rather than go after chasers."

"Keepers will be defending the hoops from Lobusca, a total of ten tries to block the quaffle," he continued. "As for seekers, after all of the others finished, the snitch will be released, and one at a time, you'll be timed until you catch it."

The brown-haired girl, who looked to be a fourth year, Gardenia, and a third year boy made their way toward Chiara, as instructed. The boy was the first one to go, passing the ball with Chiara around the pitch, but even from the ground Gardenia could see his throws were not very accurate, Chiara having to dive after them, and when he caught the quaffle, he became unbalanced and his grip was not strong.

"He has weak arms," the girl, who was standing next to Gardenia, commented. Her voice held no malice, it was simply an observation.

"How can you tell? Maybe he just has bad aim."

The girl shook her head. "He's aiming at the right spot for Lobusca to catch, but because the throw doesn't have enough force behind it, it ends up falling short, and she has to go after it," she explained. "If it was just a bad aim, he could hold the quaffle with one arm and still manage to fly well, but he needs both of them to catch it."

Gardenia nodded, understanding, and not soon after their conversation, the boy tried catching the quaffle with only one arm and let it fall to the ground when he lost his balance. Chiara dove to catch it, and with the quaffle, she landed. Chiara motioned to the fourth year girl to fly up, and once they were in the air, Gardenia observed her.

All of the critiques she made toward the boy could not in any way be applied to her, she caught the quaffle with ease, sometimes with both her hands, but even with only her legs for support, she was still flying expertly. Her throws were precise, Chiara having no trouble catching them, and the two girls made the passing exercise look like child's play. After a few minutes without having the quaffle fall, they landed, and it was Gardenia's turn.

She didn't do as poorly as the boy, but she was nowhere near as good as the girl. Gardenia managed to catch the quaffle, but she wasn't very good at aiming, finding that keeping up with where Chiara was, balancing herself on her broom while holding the quaffle and throwing accurately was a bit too much.

Gardenia didn't drop the quaffle, but she had a few mishaps, where the toss was short and Chiara had to go after it and Gardenia managed to lose her balance when throwing.

"Fairchild, Fawley," she heard Cadwallader call after her turn was over and Chiara had talked to him. "You two will be trying to score against Beauregard, ten tries each."

Fairchild, the brown-haired girl, went first.

She had no doubt Beauregard must be a good keeper, but Fairchild managed to score seven out of ten, and the ones that she missed were because Beauregard went above and beyond to stop her. He had to use the end of his broom to block a throw to the left hoop, using it almost as a bat, which impressed Gardenia, but she was also impressed with Fairchild. The girl was great at feints, and she threw the quaffle in a way it spun, so it went in a fast curve, seemingly going to enter the middle hoop but going into the right or left on at the last second.

Gardenia was less than confident when it was her turn, but Cadwallader gave her a thumbs up and Chiara smiled encouragingly. It must be a rather cute sight for them, a slip of a first-year girl trying to score against their keeper, and after the performance Fairchild had given.

It might've been amusing, but Gardenia found it rather sad.

Zero out of ten.

Even Beauregard looked sorry for her, but honestly, she couldn't tell. The guy had a great poker face, even when he didn't manage to defend the seven goals Fairchild had made, he looked as calm as ever.

She resigned herself to her fate, going to where the others that had failed, the ones waiting for their turn, and the rest of the current team members who weren't participating in the tryouts were. The beaters were currently also trying out, that boy she had almost made fall was flying with a bat in hand, gaze focused on what she assumed was the modified bludger. The pitch had been divided for this part, on one half the chasers, on the other half the beaters, but now he had the whole pitch at his disposal since the chasers had finished.

Taking note of that, he twirled the bat in his hand, as she had seen baseball players do before, and waited for the oncoming bludger. As soon as it was withing hitting distance, he flew toward it and hit it with so much force the sound of the bat making contact with the bludger could be heard across the pitch, and he was thrown back a bit due to the sheer force he put into it.

One of the current players, the tall guy with short-cropped hair and arms that could probably rip a piece of wood in half, whistled in awe. "That one was impressive."

The red-haired girl, who was about as tall as Gardenia expected to be one day, scoffed. "Of course the way to impress you is to hit something very hard, why am I not surprised, Ward?"

"Oh, c'mon Mack, don't you tell me that kid isn't a damn good beater," the guy, Ward, replied.

Mack, crossing her arms, shrugged. "He's alright I suppose. It's about time we get someone that's competent with a bat on this team."

"Hey! I take offense to that."

"Sounds like a you problem," she replied, smirking.

Ward was scowling, but after about five seconds he broke into a smile and ruffled Mack's hair, which she didn't like if the way she grabbed his hand, twisted his arm, and held against his back was any indication. "Hands off the hair."

"Are you two scaring away our potential teammates with your infantility?" Beauregard, who had been standing not far from them, asked, his tone serious.

"He touched my hair, Archie!"

"She insulted my skills and is now taking very poor care of my moneymakers."

"Your arms are your moneymakers, Ward? No wonder you're always complaining about being broke."

Beauregard sighed, looking tired. "Mackenzie, let go of Ward." Mackenzie didn't look happy about it, but she complied. "Ward, you know better than to touch Mackenzie's hair, stop antagonizing her."

Gardenia was looking at their interactions with interest, but as soon as Beauregard's gaze fell on her, she looked away, feeling the tip of her ears warm at being caught.

The boy who had done the equivalent of a home run had finished after hitting a few more times, demonstrating he could control the direction of the bludger and not just sent it to oblivion, and Heidi was the next one up. She watched as her friend hit the bludger, not as strong as that boy had, but with a force that made her pity whoever picked a fight with Heidi in the future, or insulted Hufflepuff in her vicinity when neither Gardenia nor Annabel was there to hold her back.

Heidi was the last one to try out, and as she landed, a bright smile on her face, she headed toward Gardenia.

"You did great," she told Heidi.

"Thanks!" Her face was sweaty and her hair had come out of the ponytail it'd been on, sticking to her neck. "You did well on the passing exercise, but Beauregard is a great keeper," she said. "I bet with some more training you can score a few against him!"

"It's alright, I'm not really good at being a chaser," Gardenia shrugged. "Maybe next year."

Next were the keepers, and to her surprise, only one boy was trying out for the position, the stocky one that hadn't finished the laps. She supposed flying fast wasn't as much of a big deal when you were a keeper since you didn't have to go much further than the hoops, but he needed to be quick enough to stop the quaffle.

"Oh, that looks like a disaster about to happen," she heard Ward say.

"He probably thinks his size is a good thing for a Keeper, but being big enough to block a hoop is worth nothing if you can't move quickly from one to the other," Beauregard commented.

"There's the Keeper gear too, it adds a few pounds doesn't it?" Mackenzie asked, receiving a nod of confirmation from Beauregard.

Their predictions were correct because out of the ten tries Chiara had to score, she did so nine times, and the one she didn't was probably a fluke because it was slower than usual, even her passes to Gardenia during her own trial were faster than that one.

"Great, no reserve keeper once again," Ward said.

Beauregard didn't respond, looking at Cadwallader while he talked to the prospective seekers. Chiara seemed to be consoling the boy who'd done poorly as a keeper, patting his shoulder and talking in a low voice to him.

Cedric was the first of the two people to try out for seeker, and after sixteen minutes, he had the golden snitch in his hands.

"What was your best again, Mack?" Ward asked.

"During training, empty pitch?" Ward nodded. "Six and a half minutes."

"You won't be substituted by a firstie, then."

Mackenzie scoffed. "Af if that was ever a possibility."

After Cedric, it was the turn of a fifth-year girl, who after half an hour, landed and said she gave up.

That concluded the tryouts, and Gardenia was about to head to the locker rooms along with Heidi when she heard a voice calling for her. Stopping and turning around, she was met with Archibald Beauregard.

"Fawley, right?" Gardenia nodded, confused.

"Are you dead set on being a chaser?" he inquired.

"Not really, it's just the position I think I'm best at."

He looked toward where Cadwallader was talking with Chiara and motioned for her to follow him. Giving Heidi a puzzled look, she told her to go change without her, but Heidi said she'd stay. So the two first years went after the co-captain.

"Phillip," Beauregard called, catching his attention. "I have an idea."

Cadwallader's eyebrows rose, and he looked at Gardenia and Heidi. "Are you sure? She tried out for chaser, after all."

"She's not set on it."

Gardenia was pretty confused, but there was no harm in waiting to see what this was about.

Giving her a considering look, Cadwallader nodded. "If you think it's a good idea, sure."

"What are you talking about?" Gardenia decided to ask.

Beauregard turned to her. "I'm graduating this year, and we'll be left without a Keeper. I was hoping someone would be good enough to join the reserve team and substitute me next year, but no such luck."

"He wants to know if you'd be willing to be a keeper, and train as part of the reserve team with us," Cadwallader explained.

To say she was surprised was an understatement. "What? Why do you think I'd be a good keeper? Why not ask the boy who tried out for it?"

"For me to train someone to substitute me they have to have at least some talent, and unfortunately, that boy's not it," Beauregard said, and Cadwallader looked exasperated by his lack of tact. "You did decently on the ten laps, you just suck at throwing the quaffle."

"Right," Cadwallader interrupted. "What he means is, you have potential."

"So, do you accept?"

Gardenia looked at the two boys, and then at Chiara, who didn't look the least surprised by the situation, and finally to Heidi, who had an excited smile and whose eyes were practically screaming 'accept, you idiot!'.

"Um, sure," she answered, a little taken aback by the offer in the first place.

Cadwallader smiled, dimples forming and teeth showing, while Beauregard nodded, and without a word, left. Heidi gripped her arm and jumped in place, showing all the excitement Gardenia was still to shocked to demonstrate.

"The official results will be on the common room board this weekend," Cadwallader told them before leaving to follow his teammate.

Gardenia was left with Heidi and Chiara, wondering what the hell had just happened, and managed to not process a single word said between mentor and mentee until they went to the change rooms.


Gardenia tried to be positive about all the subjects she was learning but had a hard time when it came to Astronomy, mainly because it was late at night(midnight!), and sleep was very precious to the girl.

She never had the phase of hating bedtime in this life, mostly because after a certain age, you actually liked sleeping, and having that mentality when you were a child made for the best nighttime behaviors.

Not to say she didn't ever stay up late, but if she had to, the reason would be more compelling than studying the stars.

You could probably find any of the ridiculously complicated stat charts they were made to draw in an astrology magazine with horoscopes of the week, and the point of the whole activity was lost upon her.

Maybe to centaurs reading the night sky could prove useful, but to wizards? Hardly.

She could understand some aspects in which the affairs of outer space affected magical life, some potions were more potent when brewed during certain moon phases, certain magic plants had to be planted when the sky had a certain formation, but making students draw star charts and record their movement didn't have anything to do with that aspect of it.

This was the useless subject, not freaking Divination.

It was also a bummer how archaic the study of the stars was when you're from a time when the colonization of Mars is an actual possibility in just a few decades, looking through a telescope and tracking the movements of the Astros is just not that exciting.

"People are always saying muggles are retrograde but at least we've been to the moon," Gardenia heard a grumble coming from a boy with glasses and a mess of brown curls on his head, gold and red tie around his neck.

Gardenia glanced at him and grinned, she wasn't the only one to think wizards could be a bit backward. The boy, feeling eyes on him, looked at her and blushed, embarrassed at being caught.

"I mean no offense, of course, it's just so baffling how wizards have all this power and instead of going to the moon or even other planets they just study star charts and leave at that," he rambled, while avoiding to look directly at her.

"No need to explain yourself, I agree," Gardenia said after the boy stopped talking. She felt a little bad making him nervous like that.

He looked at her then, eyes wide. "You do? Are you muggleborn too?"

Gardenia shook her head. "I'm a half-blood, but I know a lot about muggle culture, and I also think wizards are a little behind when it comes to this."

The boy grinned at that, and suddenly the nervousness was gone. "Right? I mean, NASA is going to launch a freaking space telescope next year, an observatory that can help us understand star birth and death, and might even prove the existence of black holes!"

She smiled at his excitement, it seems she had found a genuine space nerd.

"Hubble, right? I think I read an article about it," she commented, Gardenia wasn't very knowledgeable about such things like the Gryffindor seemed to be, but she knew enough to manage a conversation about it. Future knowledge and various sci-fi movies also helped.

He looked positively giddy at her comment, probably not having found any other first-years who knew about NASA and space, much less actually knew what he was talking about, especially if he didn't have any muggleborn year mates.

"Yes! Can you imagine the types of pictures we'll get? I bet that with magic we could build a telescope that could capture images with the same accuracy as the Hubble, or at least, something close," he wrinkled his nose. "But all we have are these ones that look straight out of the 19th century."

She smiled, letting the boy ramble on about the topic, nodding and responding when necessary. "Oh, I'm Sebastian, by the way."

"Gardenia Fawley, a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, I forgot my last name, sorry, I'm just not used to introducing myself with it, but everyone here seems to do that, some even start with it!" Sebastian rambled. "There was this boy in my dorms that I though was named Sullivan because he introduced himself like that, but his name is actually John, and—"

Gardenia couldn't help a chuckle, and Sebastian must've taken it the wrong way because he stopped talking and blushed. "It's Grayson, my last name. I talk a lot sometimes, sorry."

She shook her head, nudging him to look at her. "Don't worry, I don't mind," Gardenia said, smiling to reassure him. "You're American, right?"

"Did my accent give me away?" Gardenia nodded. "I've been trying to adhere to the slangs here but it just sounds weird when I say it."

"I thought about trying out a fake English accent before starting here, but it was too much of a hassle," he said. "I probably would've given up halfway through the first day and then people would just be really confused."

He didn't seem like he was joking, so Gardenia refrained from laughing.

"Do you think Professor Sinistra would mind if instead of using the recommend material from the library for the essay, I use the Astronomical Journal I brought?"

"You could use both, I think she wouldn't mind information from a different source, but if she does, using a magical textbook as well will make sure she doesn't completely disregard it."

Sebastian's eyes sparkled and he grinned at her. "That's a good idea, thanks Gar!"

Astronomy was a bit more enjoyable with the constant chattering of the Gryffindor, and she learned more from his random facts about space then she had so far from class.


"Are you trying to spy on my Quidditch team?"

Gardenia sported a look of outrage at the accusation, looking at Charlie like he'd committed a great offense.

"What? How dare you suggest such a thing?"

Charlie chuckled, recognizing the expression for what it was. "You're in a rival House's team, and you're asking me about how the tryouts of Gryffindor work."

"I'm just curious!" Gardenia exclaimed. "And how do you know I'm in the team?"

Sitting at the Gryffindor table during the early hours of a Friday, the Great Hall was all but empty, only a few early birds had made their way to get breakfast. Gardenia liked to wake up early, she was more of a morning person, but Wednesday's Astronomy classes were taking a toll on her, and it was becoming a rare occurrence for her to wake up before any of her dormmates.

Charlie, also an early riser, had absolutely no issue with waking at the crack of dawn, and Gardenia pitied the Gryffindor team, who endured plenty of very early morning training sessions with him as captain.

Seeing the redhead already up and eating breakfast, coupled with the fact she didn't know anyone currently at the Hufflepuff table, Gardenia had decided to sit next to Charlie and sate some of her curiosities.

"Dora told me," he answered, adding more scrambled eggs to his plate. "Congrats on making reserve, by the way."

Gardenia smiled. "Thanks, Charlie. I can't believe it, to be honest."

Gardenia was still in disbelief about the whole thing, she had played as a keeper before, but she didn't think she was any good at it. And truthfully, she probably wasn't. Beauregard chose her because she has potential, not because she's a good player. She wondered how the hell he could tell something like that, but it was far from Gardenia to question the guy. It wasn't that he intimidated her, it was more that she couldn't read his expression at all.

And yeah, she admits he can look a bit intimidating, but he seems nice enough. Or at least, him being friends with Cadwallader makes her think he can't be that bad.

"So, how did Gryffindor trials go?" Gardenia asked, changing subjects.

"It went well, we have a new Keeper, a friend of Percy's," he said. "Everyone else was already on the team but we're hoping to add some reserves next year since half the team is sixth years."

"Did the twins not try out?"

He shook his head. "I forbade them from trying out, I want them to focus on their studies for at least their first year," Charlie put a few scrambled eggs on Gardenia's plate as well, after noticing her's was empty. "They're already using a lot of their free time for pranks, and I know they'd sacrifice studying time."

He wasn't wrong, she had little doubt Fred and George would skip doing an essay before skipping executing a prank.

"I'll let them try out next year, one of our beaters is graduating anyway, and I have a feeling Samson would rather focus on N.E.W.T.s."

Gardenia started eating the scrambled eggs, not wanting Charlie to feel bad she wasn't eating them and refrained from complaining at the added toast on her plate. "And what exactly were tryouts?"

Charlie sighed, resigned. "No babbling about it to Cadwallader, alright?"

Gardenia giggled at his secretive tone. "It's not state secrets Charlie, it's Quidditch."

"Here at Hogwarts, it might as well be," he said and winked at her.


Saturday couldn't come fast enough for Heidi, who ever since the Tuesday of the tryouts had been excitedly waiting for the results.

She woke up hearing the voices of Heidi and Caroline bickering, or more accurately, Heidi doing something Caroline doesn't like and the girl scolding her for it.

"It's disgusting!" Caroline exclaimed.

"It's hair, Caroline, we all have it," Heidi countered.

Gardenia opened the curtains to her bed, finding that Annabel was silently braiding her hair, Maxine was asleep, and Caroline was in front of Heidi's bed with her arms crossed while Heidi tied her shoes.

"But I don't leave mine in the shower wall! It's common sense to throw it in the bin."

"I forgot! I wanted to get ready as fast as I could, it slipped my mind."

Gardenia tuned it out, getting up to grab some clothes and making her way to the bathroom, where she shut the door and thanked whatever architectural magic that made the bathroom practically soundproof. She had tried to be the peacekeeper between her two roommates for two weeks, giving up after realizing it served no purpose other than to make Caroline annoyed and make Heidi feel self-righteous.

It was mostly inconsequential bickering, so Gardenia didn't feel bad for not interfering. She, Annabel, and Maxine usually left them to their own devices when it became obvious they weren't going to listen to reason, and so far it was the best strategy.

Preferring to take her showers in the evening, Gardenia just brushed her teeth, put her hair up, and changed into jeans and a pastel pink knitted sweater with a G in white(courtesy of Mrs. Weasley for her birthday this year) and left the bathroom.

By the time she'd returned, Caroline was gone, Maxine was still asleep, and Annabel and Heidi were waiting for her.

"Let's go Gar, the results for tryouts are probably already out," Heidi said, practically jumping in place due to excitement.

The three girls left the dorm and went into the common room, wherein one of the walls there was a board with various pamphlets, some about the Hogwarts clubs, others with information on tutoring lessons, and some inspirational phrases. The newest addition to the board was the list of the Quidditch team, informing who was in the main team, and who was in the reserve team.

Gardenia, when first hearing about the reserve team, had thought it was something like substitute players, which made sense if one of the titular players was injured or indisposed. While that was one of the purposes of the team, it also existed to serve as a way for players who had potential to train with the team and increase their skills, eventually moving on to the main team if they managed to improve enough. Some players, if they were in the last year at Hogwarts, scouted a younger year to enter the reserve team to substitute them, as not to leave the team hanging in case of not finding a good enough player in the next year. It also improved team relations, since if someone had been training with the team for at least a year before actually joining, there would be a greater camaraderie.

Heidi squealed in excitement, pulling Annabel, who had been standing next to her, into a hug. "I made reserve!"

Annabel looked squished and slightly uncomfortable, but she pat Heidi's back and let the girl hug her. "Congratulations."

HUFFLEPUFF QUIDDITCH TEAM 1989-90

RESULTS OF TRYOUTS

Chasers:

Phillip Cadwallader

Aurea Fairchild

Chiara Lobusca

Beaters:

Nicholas Murphy

Gunner Ward

Keeper:

Archibald Beauregard

Seeker:

Charlotte Mackenzie

RESERVE TEAM

Tamsin Applebee

Cedric Diggory

Gardenia Fawley

Heidi Macavoy

"Who's Murphy?" Gardenia asked, not having a face to put to the name.

Heidi, having let go of Annabel now hugging Gardenia, let go of her as well and scowled.

"It's that guy who hit the bludger with so much strength it cracked the bat."

Annabel's eyes widened. "Cracked the bat?"

"Yeah, he's freaky strong," Heidi confirmed, not looking very pleased with that. "I know he's better than me, he's a third-year and no one can deny that cracking a wooden bat is badass, but he's an arse."

"Is he really, or are you just saying that because he got the beater position?" Annabel asked, making Gardenia smile. One month ago she would've never dared to suggest Heidi was petty, but after spending more time with her and Gardenia, she'd become more confident around the two of them. She still was as meek as a mouse around most people, it'd taken a week for her to stop getting nervous around Nymphadora enough to ask her questions, but she was improving.

"Bit of both," Heidi replied.

Gardenia hoped he wasn't one to hold grudges, the last thing she wanted was someone that could crack a bat as an enemy.

She wondered who Applebee was, the name didn't ring any bells, and she didn't think she'd seen her during tryouts.

"What about Applebee?"

Heidi shrugged. "No idea, she wasn't at tryouts."

"Reserve team members needn't secure their positions," a voice came from behind them, making Annabel jump in surprise.

Beauregard stood in front of them, and Gardenia had to wonder if he used a Notice Me Not charm on himself, the guy moved like a ghost. Annabel, losing all of the confidence she had when around just her two friends, looked as spooked as Gardenia felt by his sudden appearance.

"She's a second year, made reserve last year," he explained.

"What position does she play?" Heidi asked, being the only one out of the three girls who seemed entirely unaffected by Beauregard's presence.

"Chaser, we try to have at least one reserve for each position, as you might've noticed."

Gardenia nodded, not sure what to say. She was starting to dread training with Beauregard, mostly because she had no clue how to interact with him. She was used to being around either people her age(because in a way, Gardenia was only eleven), or if they were older, usually a Weasley or her cousin. It was an easy-going way of interacting that was familiar to Gardenia, and so far, all the upper years she'd interacted with were as sweet as pie and made her feel very comfortable in their presence.

You could say she'd been spoiled by being around so many amiable people(Percy might not fit that description to most people, but when you didn't antagonize him, he could be quite mellow).

Beauregard, on the other hand, was going to require a different approach.

"Training is twice a week, Tuesday and Saturday mornings, seven and eight o'clock respectively," he told them. "Don't be late."

And with that, he was gone.

"Is he the captain?" Annabel asked.

"Co-captain, and Gar's mentor," Heidi answered.

"He's not going to train me directly," Gardenia said, and then she turned toward her friend, eyes wide. "Wait, is he?"

Heidi shrugged. "No idea, but good luck if he is, I hear Beauregard is a hard-ass."

Just her luck.

"Let's go get breakfast, and you two can tell me more about Quidditch. I still don't get the point of a seeker, what if they catch the snitch after five minutes?"


I must've changed the layout of this chapter three times while writing it, only the first scene was originally supposed to be in it, but I decided that the ones that were supposed to follow fit better in the next few chapters

I love Sebastian, and let me tell you, some characters have a will of their own because suddenly he was American and had a whole backstory instead of being a random gryffindor nerd

I researched quidditch way too much for this chapter, I wanted to find something about how the tryouts were conducted, but no such luck. I know some people might be skeptical of the three of them making the reserve team, but I think of it as a sort of a little league of Hogwarts Quidditch, minus games, if that makes sense. The reserve team is less for substitute players, and more to collect talent that isn't yet good enough to play in actual games, but with training and experience, they'll get better. Basically, anyone who has potential, in you go into the reserve team. Not to mention Cadwallader is a softie and he doesn't want to reject anyone.

Also, some things about Hogwarts Quidditch are nonsense, like only six matches per year, and the no substitute rule, so that's out the window here. I had a headache thinking about how to change things, but I'll go into detail in the future chapters ;)

Apparently, Katie Bell made reserve team in her first year, which is mostly due to JK not being good at math and so having to fill a plot hole, but I took that little info and made it into an actual thing here.

Thank you bored411, akagami hime chan, HPuni101, Paintedquinn, evan17w, and EclipseNightClub for the reviews! They really make my day, and inspire me to write 3

Anyway, thank you for reading, and hopefully, the next chapter doesn't take as long sz