Marlene:

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Marlene's alarm clock beeped far louder than any object had a right to so early on a Saturday morning. But this was no ordinary Saturday morning. It was the Saturday morning of quidditch tryouts. That didn't mean Marlene wanted to get out of bed though. She groaned and pulled her pillow over her ears in protest.

"Marlene McKinnon!" Lily did not sound pleased. "Turn that thing off before I hex you!" Lily had never been much of a morning person.

"Ugh!" Marlene exclaimed. "Why did that bloody prat have to schedule tryouts so early?"

Muffled laughter came from the direction of the window. "Marley," Emma's voice called out, "you love quidditch. Now get up and go before you get Lily in any worse of a mood." Of the three, Emma was the only real morning person. She usually got up and read by the window while she waited for the other two to wake up on the weekends.

With another groan, Marlene dragged herself out of her comfortable bed, got dressed, grabbed her broom, and made her way out onto the grounds.

It was a rather windy day, not quite ideal for quidditch tryouts in Marlene's opinion. She hoped this didn't take too long. Most captains scheduled tryouts for the afternoon, but for some reason James Potter thought that first thing in the morning was best. There was a decent size crowd for 7:00 on a Saturday morning. But then, she supposed looking around at the eager younger students and older female students not entirely dressed to withstand the chilly wind, it probably was less quidditch that drove some of these students from their beds than the popular and handsome new captain. James Potter himself stood looking - in Marlene's opinion - far too awake and energetic next to his rather sleepy looking friend Sirius on the edge of the pitch.

"Morning," she greeted James as she stifled a yawn as she approached him.

"Morning Marley! Isn't it a great day to play quidditch?" Oh no. The boy was practically bouncing. It was far too early for this.

"It's cold. My bed was warm."

"But quidditch!" At that exclamation, a growling Sirius smacked his best friend on the head.

"Alright. So what do you need me to do?" At Marlene's question, James shoved some papers into her hands, detailing how she should record each player's skills on a variety of tactics: ball handling, evasive maneuvers, blocking skills, passing ability, and several others. Looking over the papers and the gathered crowd, Marlene noticed one particular skill James had left off his sheets. "Uh James?"

"Yes?"

"You forgot to put general flying ability."

"Oh come on Marley, they're trying out for quidditch." James explained in a rather dismissive tone. "We're not going to waste time and paper documenting the fact that they can get a broomstick in the air."

Marlene was so dumbfounded by this that she seemed to have lost the ability to speak for a moment. James took that moment to gather the attention of the crowd and begin his first quidditch tryouts.

A few minutes later, Marlene's suspicions proved true. Many of these students could not in fact fly. Normally the practice lap around the pitch weeded these students out. However, James, intent on optimizing the skills portion of the tryout, had opted to forgo the simple exercise. Students who had clearly only flown once or twice in their lives were 30 feet off the ground attempting to pass a quaffle while flying. Some, too terrified to let go of the broom to catch the ball, just let the quaffle hit them. A few even got bloody noses after getting hit in the face. Others tried to dodge the ball, with varying levels of success. Others, faced their fears, released their brooms, and tried to catch the quaffle. And that is how a 3rd year boy fell and broke his wrist 5 minutes into the Gryffindor quidditch team tryout.

Remus and Peter, not members of the team themselves, had come to support James in his first real test as captain, volunteered to be the team medics with Remus fixing the bloody noses and Peter walking students with more serious injuries to the hospital wing.

Three hours and several students with broken limbs later, a frustrated and incredibly hungry Marlene made her way back to the castle to meet her friends in the Great Hall for breakfast. Reaching the Gryffindor table, Marlene collapsed on the bench with a huff and hit her head on the table repeatedly.

Lily and Emma looked up from their conversation at their friend's rather dramatic arrival. "Yes Marley?" Emma inquired.

"James. Potter. Is. A. Moron."

Lily and Emma exchanged bewildered looks and waited for Marlene to explain.