American Witch
A\N: Hallelujah! Umwhy did I just do that? I don't knowI guess I'm just glad to be writing! Yup, that'll be it!
So, here's the sixth chapter. Yay!
Oh, and something to redeem myself in my own eyes: Not chow, ciao. Okay, I'm done redeeming myself
I hope these different fonts show up on Fanfiction.net, because I think all that writing in normal fonts gets pretty boringif they doesn't, just dismiss this paragraph as one of my odd ramblings
By the way, happy late Valentine's Day, likely to be very late by the time I finish this chapterEven though I think Valentine's Day is kind of pointlessoh well.
Disclaimer: Okay, stuff belongs to me, stuff belongs to J.K. Rowlingbut not the same stuff. Hopefully, you'll be able to figure it out.
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Chapter six
The Quidditch Tryouts
9-30-02
So. Hello, journal. Haven't written in a while. I've had a lot of homeworkand I'm also just lazy. Anyway, I have something to tell you.
I found out when the tryouts were going to be yesterday. October 4th, Friday. On the Quidditch field. I think I'll try out for Chaser or Keeper, unless I chicken out at the last minutebut I only have a week until the tryouts. I have to practiceI've also got a broom now. Firebolt. I'm so rich now, since muggle money is worth so much more when you change it into wizard money, that I was able to afford it.
It would be so great if I could get on the teamI have a sudden vision of just flying through the airon a horse.
Okay, that settles it. I'm going crazy. No, I'm already crazy. The horse in my sudden vision didn't even have wingsMaybe I'll meet a flying horse and I'm a Seernah. I think I'm just crazy.
That might be the explanation for performing the Wingardium Leviosa spell on myself every time I eat a marshmallow and literally bouncing off the wallsThat hurts, by the way. I actually only did that once, because I got so hyper after eating a marshmallow that I wanted to see what it was like to bounce off the wallsI bruised my right knee. It hurt for two days.
SheeshI skin my right knee because I trip and fall on the sidewalk while walking my dog, I hurt it again in the same place, it heals and I get a scarI take a couple layers of skin off my right knee in a different place playing basketball, I skin it thoroughly in that place playing soccer, it healsAnd that's just my major injuries on my right kneeI've still got loads of minor ones that I haven't told you about. Everything happens to my right knee. It's annoying.
By the way, I've got a few more friends. Andrea, Stacey, and Kira. And Adair, Adela, and the boys in Ravenclaw are okay, but not my best friends.
I don't know anybody in Hufflepuff or Gryffindor besides Amanda, and of course Amanda's my friend. However, we're not as close as we used to be, since we're in different houses. It makes me sadWe can't even get together at lunch, since we sit at different tables
I don't really like the Slytherins much. Thankfully, they're in Slytherin, so I don't have to pretend to think they're okay to get some acceptance at this school. Everybody besides the Slytherins hates the SlytherinsI'm a bit milder than most people. Nobody but Arthur Wong's really been too mean, and I would even be ready to forgive him if he started being really niceI'm so weak.
Well, bye. Nothing I can think of to write anymore, and I have homework. And I have to practice my Quidditch sometime. I probably won't be writing again until sometime after the tryouts.
10-4-02
Guess what? I got called back for tomorrow in the Quidditch tryouts. At worst, I'll be a reserve! I'm so happy.
I like that word. Happy, happy, happy, happy, HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, I'm done with that now
See, this is what happened:
I met Elena, Kira, and Amanda in the main hall. We'd dragged Kira into it through endless begging and me telling her I would call her "Smallia" (my Latin name for her, cause she really is Smallia) unless she agreed. Then, we went out to the Quidditch field. Amanda left us to go to the Hufflepuff tryouts.
There was only 1 player left on the Quidditch team: Billy Small. He was desperately in need of six more players: a Keeper, three Chasers, one Beater, and a Seeker. Yup, he definitely needed the Seeker, for one thing, if he was planning to win any games. He's a Beater. Unlike his last name, he's tall and looks pretty strong. No wonder he's a Beater. That's one reason I'm not going to be a Beater. I'm not very strong. I'm stronger than I look, but not very strong anyway. You can guess that I look pretty weak.
Anyway, he wanted separate lines for the Keeper, Chaser, Beater, and Seeker positions, and said he would wait a few minutes for all of us to get organized. Elena, Kira and I had a discussion about what positions we should try out for.
"Fine. I'm trying out for Chaser," Elena said. "Who's with me?"
"I'll try for Seeker. Aren't small ones better? That's one good thing," Kira said.
"Um" I said. "Um"
"Come ON, Kara! Make up your mind!"
"Stop nagging me," I snapped worriedly. "I'm trying. UmEeny meeny minie moe"
"KAAAAAAAAAAAARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
"Okay, okay! And really, OKAY! I've got it. Chaser!" I said triumphantly.
"Okay. Now, pray that we all make the team"
"My mom says that's a sin."
"What? Praying?"
"No, of course not that. I meant praying about such insignificant things."
"WELL, IT'S NOT INSIGNIFICANT NOW, IS IT?!?"
I gulped and started praying. "Um, no." I never knew that Elena could be so fierce about a SPORT. Sheesh.
Billy Small was calling for the lines now. Elena and I got into the Chaser line, and Kira got into the Seeker line. I saw that it was much shorter. I guess that was partly because they only needed one Seeker, and more because it was such a hard position that most people weren't that daring. Cool, Kira. Cool.
Then, Billy started with the tryout. We were supposed to do tests to see how good at flying we were. The Beaters flew around the Quidditch field while having baseballs shot at them, and used there bats to fend off the baseballs. The Keepers flew around the Quidditch pitch while having baseballs thrown around for them to catch, since the Quaffle didn't go very fast compared to the Bludgers. When the Seekers' turn came, I gave Kira a thumbs-up and mouthed, "You can do it!"
She smiled nervously, then got ready to fly. The Seekers had to fly around and do pretty much the same thing as the Keepers, except they had to catch golf balls instead of baseballs. I watched Kira as she was tested. She flew pretty well, and caught all of the golf balls except one. And she almost caught that one. She was certainly better than I had hopes of being.
Then, it was time for the Chaser's test. I watched as a fifth-year named Lindsa Weasley (I thought she must be a daughter of one of the Weasleys in the Harry Potter books), who was first in line, flew around the Quidditch pitch with the person behind her, a sixth-year named Richard Hamilton, defending and trying not to let her get around the Quidditch pitch. She got around in less than five minutes. She knew some useful tricks for getting around Richard, and I watched her use them so I would be good when my turn came.
A fifth-year and Elena, who were just ahead of me, flew around a few minutes later, with Elena defending. Elena was pretty good at defending, and the fifth-year was pretty good at offense. It took the fifth-year about 4 minutes to fly around the field, because she was pretty fast and all the offense got a head start, but Elena prevented her from going anywhere for about a minute at one time. After they finished, they got to sit down in the seats around the Quidditch field. Lucky things. I was nearly sweating and my legs were shaking slightly from nervousness.
I was offense. I got onto my broom, glad that Professor Chant had taught me how to mount without sliding off the end, because I would have looked pretty stupid otherwise, and zoomed off.
To my surprise, I was going pretty fast, and gaining height every moment. I must have had a strong takeoff. Strange, with my shaking legs. I leveled my broom out so I could stay at the same height, then flew as fast as I could. I could hear the third-year, Anton Fiskits, flying just behind me. In a second he would be in front of me. What would I do to get past him?
Suddenly, I thought of a trick of my own invention, not Adela's. I suddenly braked to a stop in mid-air. Anton was surprised, and flew past me. He turned around and stopped too. We spent a few seconds just staring at each other. He was bigger than meWas this really going to work? I decided it was going to, and told myself to stop being a coward.
We rushed at each other, him coming in for defense, or for the kill, as I thought of it at the moment, and for me to try my trick and hope it would work. As I got close to him, I knew he was going to try and knock me off my broom. It would give him points with Billy, since there were no fouls in Quidditch, and it would show skill. When I got almost near enough for him to knock me off, I dived.
Down, down, down. I was losing him. Yes! I hadn't felt so exhilarated in a while. I leveled my broom again, and put on a great burst of speed for the last half of the test. He was getting even further off, but not much, because he was really trying to catch up. I slowed down a bit when I saw the lines again, and let my toes skim the grass as I landed gracefully. I'd done it! Yes!Yes!YES!!!!!!!!!! I was screaming inside my head. I couldn't believe it. I'd done so well. I stood stunned for a minute, and someone had to pull me out of the way when Anton Fiskits landed.
"Great job," the person told me. It was a girl who looked about the same age as me.
"Emily Bell. Third year," she said. "I tried out for Keeper. You beat Anton Fiskits! From what I've heard, he's pretty goodand I don't really like him much anyway." She smiled, and the corners of her blue-gray eyes crinkled up. Nice girl. I liked her at once. And I'd heard that last name somewhere
"Thanks," I said. Then, a bit hesitantly, "Umdo you want to sit with my friends and me? They're up there," I said, pointing at Elena, Kira, and also Amanda, who had joined them after her tryouts.
"Oh. Them. They were pretty good too."
I looked at her in amazement. She'd actually bothered to watch every student?
Seeming to read my mind, she laughed. "You're probably wondering why I'd bother to watch everybody. I'm just very observant. I can't help it, and actually I haven't seen the black-haired one..."
"She's in Hufflepuff. Amanda Bustamente."
"Oh...Why not sit with you? Okay."
Making small conversation and telling her how absentminded I was, and receiving some laughs (OH JOY!), we walked through the seats to my friends.
"Kara, you were GREAT!" Amanda said, jumping up and down, and upand downand upand downand up
"Stop! Please!" I pleaded. "You're probably weakening the seats with all that bouncing around, and I want something solid to sit down on. I'm still shaking! How'd you do?"
Amanda laughed and said it would be for the judges to decide how well she did, and then I introduced them to Emily. Then, I sank down in a seat, for I was indeed shaking uncontrollably.
"Emily Bell? That's your name?" Elena said. "Are you related to Alicia Bell?"
So! That's where I'd heard that name! I said, "Oh yeah! Alicia Bell on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. I was wondering where I'd heard that nameSo, are you?"
"Well, actually yes," she said. "I'm her daughter. Muggle-borns? I'm guessing you got that from the muggle books about Harry Potter. That sneaky Rowling witch! She wrote a whole story about the wizarding world, and the Ministry dismissed it as harmless and said that the Muggles would just say it was fiction!" she fumed.
"Well, that's exactly what Muggles didand J.K. Rowling's a witch?" I said, astonished.
"Oh, of course. How else did you think she knew about Hogwarts?"
"UmI don't knowI never really thought about it since I found out Hogwarts was real," I said.
"By the way, I'm a pure-blood," Elena explained. "I just like reading Muggle books. Personally, I think the books about Harry Potter are a great way to teach muggle-borns about the wizarding world."
"Well, yeah, I've never seen it in that light before. But you're right, the muggle-borns don't seem that confused about anything" Emily mused.
We spent a while talking until the Chasers were done trying out, and then Billy Small announced who he was calling back for another tryout tommorow.
"Okay, I want some people to come back tomorrow to try out again and narrow it down to the team and the reserves. For the Keeper, I want Christopher Kelly and Emily Bell.
"Good job!" I said to Emily.
Seeker: Kira Henry--"
I cart-wheeled.
"--and Arnold Lee. Beater: George Smith and Arthur Walt. Chasers: "Elena Greenweld--"
I yelled in joy and hugged her.
"--Katie Seal, Adela Myers, Nicole Mead, Belle Wray, and Kara Ramirez."
No burst of joy. I simply sat down weakly and stared ahead in shock.
"Hello?" Emily said, waving her hand in front of my face. "You just made the next tryouts!"
"But I was soGOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled, coming back to life and cart-wheeling, yelling in joy, hugging people, clapping my hands, and twirling in the air. It seemed quite natural to me at the time, but I can't believe at the moment that I was so crazy
"Is she always this insane?" Emily asked Kira, who was, after all, the sanest of the group at the moment.
"Ah, she's much worse with sugar. You give her a marshmallow and she's doing this on the way to her most hated classes," Kira said, shaking her head in a way that said It's a shame'.
"Hey! I don't do all of it! I don't hug people all the time!" I protested, dancing around with Elena. Amanda wasn't available to dance with, having gone back to the Hufflepuff tryouts to see if she made the team.
Then, I went back to my craziness. "Happy, happy, happy, happy, HAPPY!!!" I cried.
Emily looked down and started laughing uncontrollably. "Do you realize that everyone is staring up her from the field?" she gasped. "Apparently your voice carries"
I looked down, blushed, and promptly stopped dancing with Elena.
Elena yelled down, "What? We all made the second tryouts! Back off!"
Everyone looked away and started walking off, no doubt muttering about our sanity.
"There goes my reputation as a smart and sane person," I muttered. "What shreds that were left of it, anyway"
"What?" Elena asked. "You think your reputation is ruined? How?"
"Well, I just made a fool of myself."
"Oh, come on. No you didn't," Kira said. "It was funny."
At least I have a good chance of making the Quidditch teamYAY! Bye
10 PM
Oh God, you'll never believe what Elena did at dinner!
I was eating my chicken happily, glad about the Quidditch tryouts, when Elena magicked a megaphone. She stood up and spoke into it, saying, "Okay, I'm going to hold a survey everyone. Who thinks Kara Ramirez is dumb, and who thinks she's funny?"
I stopped and stared at her with my fork halfway to my mouth.
"I will place two papers on the High Table. Write your name clearly on either one, depending what your opinion is. For those of you who do not know Kara Ramirez, I will place a picture taken during theshe did after the Quidditch tryouts next to the papers.
I stared at her furiously as she came back from putting the papers and picture on the High Table.
"Are you insane?" I whispered furiously.
"No, just curious to see if the thought will enter your brain that almost nobody hates you, however much you think your social skills are zero."
"Oh God," I moaned. "Save me from the endless signatures on "She's Dumb".
"Oh, please," Kira said. "Lighten up."
"Where did you get a picture anyway?" I asked.
"You know that that walkie-talkie looking thing on my bag?"
I nodded.
"It's a camera."
"Ah. You could have told me!" I complained.
"Too bad. So sad."
I strangled her until Kira restrained me, which was quite hard for her, since I'm a fair bit bigger.
I left the survery downstairs for tonight.
So, do you think I should kill Elena or rip the papers and photo to shreds?
Toodles!
9-5-02
I just finished the second tryouts--but I'll keep you in suspense for now.
When I woke up (and woke Andrea, Stephanie, Kira, and Elena by pulling wizard crackers in their ears), I went down to the Great hall with all the people mentioned in the parentheses.
Then, I went over to the High Table with Elena and Kira to look at the papers and then pull their hair mercilessly. I anticipated the shrieks with evil happiness.
To my surprise, only the Slytherins' signatures were on the "Kara's Dumb" paper. On the other paper, the "Kara's Funny" paper, there were signatures from the other three houses, and some of the signatures even had little moving doodles of people doubling up in laughter. There were even a few Slytherin signatures! I stared in shock and refrained from pulling Elena and Kira's hair.
A couple of Slytherins came over to the High Table. I glared at them. They'd said I was dumb.
"Oh, see, look," one of them said. "I told you they'd be in favor of funny'. Now, hand over the 30 galleons."
The other Slytherin sulkily handed over the money.
We had our breakfast of toast (it was quite good; I had a whole stack) and then we went to the Quidditch field. Everyone was already there, including Emily.
"Ah, here you are," Billy said. "We've been waiting for you. Let's get started."
"What are we going to do?" Emily Bell asked.
"I'm going to see how well you play on a team. You'll split into two teams, and we'll have a practice-game. I'm going to see how well you work together."
Oh boy, I thought. I hate practice-games.
We had 12 people trying out, so we put 6 people on each team (1 Beater each). I was on a team with Kira (the Seeker), Emily (the Keeper), and Elena (Chaser). I was the second Chaser.
And, of course, we also had a Beater and another Chaser, Arthur Walt and Belle Wray.
I jumped onto my Firebolt and flew off into the air when the game started, more confident than yesterday.
When I went to the common room, my first new for Andrea and Stephanie was "WE MADE THE TEAM! ME, ELENA, AND KIRA!!!!!! WOO-HOO!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", which caused half the common room to laugh.
And by the way, Emily Bell, Belle Wray, and George Smith made the team too. And Amanda made the Hufflepuff team.
Wellthere's really nothing to write about anymore, so BYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow. That was way too many exclamation marks
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A\N: Yippee! I'm done! And, as I predicted, long time after Valentine's Day! March 2nd! And it'll be even longer before I actually find time to post this Oh well.
So, did you like my new character, Emily Bell? She's based on a friend of mine. Of course, the real person is much more meekIt is "more meek" or "meeker"? I don't know. Oh well. I'm rambling.
And don't ask me where I got the idea. I really have no idea. These things just pop into my head. It's really annoying, because I never know what I'm going to think of and feel obligated to write down next
This is just a slight bit longer than Chapter 5. 28 KB, while Chapter 5 is 27 KB.
By the way, you know what? I don't think this story really has a point...The characters really aren't even that interesting...somebody comfort me! ^_^
Well, bye-bye!
Hermione2
^_^