Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Harry Potter, I'm not making money with this story, etc.
Harry noticed Cho avoided him for the next week, but Harry had his mind on other things. The Gryffindor Quidditch team started practice the next Monday under the supervision of Madam Hooch. Fred had been right, Angelina made a great team captain. By the end of practice, the team had run through all the plays Oliver had taught them, plus several new ones Angelina had devised. After practice, Madam Hooch called the team over and was joined by Professor McGonagall.
"We haven't found anyone to play Keeper yet." McGonagall told the team, "but we will be holding a tryout this Saturday for anyone who wants to play Keeper. So we'll need you all here, Saturday morning. The tryout will start at noon."
Saturday came quickly and Harry found himself, along with the rest of the team, down on the Quidditch pitch at noon. Brooms in hand, the team faced nearly a dozen nervous looking Gryffindors, listening to Professor McGonagall's instructions.
"When I call your name, step forward. You will each take your place in front of the goals. You will have ten shots taken against you. The first five will be by the three Chasers. For the next five shots, the Beaters and Seeker will also be flying around, along with the Bludgers. Let's go!" she shouted as Angelina, Katie and Alicia pushed off from the ground.
Harry and the twins watched a very stricken first year miss the first Quaffle, stop the next two, and nearly fall off his broom on the fourth shot. The boy was shaking so badly he couldn't finish his tryout. Harry and the twins exchanged a look. "I don't know why they're even letting first years try out." George muttered. "Most of the time they can barely fly." Harry nodded, knowing he had been one of the exceptions.
The next four tryouts were better, but not by much. Harry sighed nervously; none of the tryouts had made it through five shots yet. He knew if Gryffindor wanted any shot and winning the Quidditch Cup, they needed an amazing Keeper.
"Weasley." called Professor McGonagall. Harry and the twins looked up in amazement as Ginny stepped forward, mounted her broom and pushed off, flying towards the goals. Harry turned to Fred and George, who look more shocked than he felt.
"Since when does Ginny play Quidditch?" Harry asked. Fred shrugged, eyes upward, watching his sister block shots with ease. Ginny had the build usually seen in Seekers, but she used her small frame to shift from one goal to another and blocked the first five shots. Harry, Fred and George took to the air. The twins immediately went after the Bludgers, but Harry, feeling he had no real purpose since the Snitch wasn't being used, flew around near the goals for some added distraction. None of this had any affect on Ginny at all. It was clear she had inherited the Weasley talent for Quidditch. She made five more spectacular saves and landed on the ground to applause from the other tryouts.
After the tryout ended, the team met with Professor McGonagall in the locker rooms. "Alright," Professor McGonagall addressed the team, "you've seen the tryouts. The choice is up to you; I will give you my suggestion, but you as a team must make the final decision." The team nodded seriously. "My recommendation for Keeper is Ginny Weasley. I believe her playing style will mix well with the rest of the team. And I must know your decision by tomorrow night. Keep in mind; our first match against Hufflepuff is in just over a month. You'll want to be ready by then." McGonagall nodded to Angelina and turned to leave the locker room.
"Thanks, Professor." Angelina called and turned to face the team. "Let's try and figure this out today. First off, is anyone opposed to Ginny becoming the new Keeper?"
All heads turned toward Fred and George who still had looks of surprise on their faces, and for the first time in their lives, were speechless.
"Where did Ginny learn to play Quidditch anyway?" Katie asked the twins. "I know all you boys can play, but I didn't think Ginny knew how."
Fred shrugged and George shook his head as Angelina spoke again. "Ginny was by far the best. There were a couple other tryouts that weren't too bad;" Angelina tried not to grimace, "what did you guys think?"
Alicia and Katie both voiced the opinion that Ginny was the best candidate and Harry had to agree with them. He had watched the seven tryouts following Ginny's and while some of them weren't bad, none of them were very good. He knew if they wanted to defend the Quidditch House Cup they didn't need a good Keeper, they needed a great one. Ginny was the only one that came close.
Harry looked at the twins sitting next to him and they both nodded slowly. "Okay then." Angelina smiled. "Ginny is it. I'll tell McGonagall tonight. Do you guys want to tell Ginny?" she asked Fred and George. They nodded again.
"Good. Now we're going to keep this as quiet as possible. We're going to need every advantage we can get this year, and if we can make the other teams think our new Keeper will be someone with Oliver's playing style, that will give us a bit of an edge." Everyone nodded and began the walk back to the castle and the Gryffindor Tower.
Harry, Fred and George stayed a couple paces behind the girls and the twins regained their voices.
"Where did Ginny learn to play?" George asked. "Especially that well."
"I didn't think she even liked Quidditch." Fred added, shaking his head.
When they reached the Gryffindor Tower, they found Ginny sitting at the far end of the room, discussing something with Hermione. George grabbed her by the arm and pulled her from her chair.
"Hey!" protested Ginny, trying to shrug him off.
"Come here." George said, leading her to a corner of the common room, followed by Fred and Harry.
"Where did you lean to play like that?" Fred asked Ginny quietly, trying to avoid drawing attention to the four of them. Ginny blinked at him. "What?"
"Ginny, in all the years we've known you, we've never seen you on a broom, let along near a Quidditch pitch. How'd you learn to play?" George asked.
"I've only wanted to play since Charlie started." Ginny said exasperatedly. "But you guys would never let me practice with you, so I taught myself."
"How?" Harry and the twins asked in unison. They knew that Quidditch was a sport that wasn't easily self-taught.
"You guys don't think I went to the Quidditch World Cup for no reason, did you? I've been watching as many matches as I could, trying to learn the moves. And Hermione's helped me." She nodded to the chair where Hermione had been watching them intently, but quickly turned back to her book. "She helped me over the summer, throwing apples and lawn gnomes at me for practice."
Ginny stopped and looked at Harry and the twins suspiciously. "Why are you making such a big deal about this?"
"You made the team. You're our new Keeper." Fred told her, looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening.
"What? Really?" Ginny looked shocked and began to blush furiously.
"Yeah, we're gonna keep it quiet until the first game, so not a word to anyone, okay?" Ginny nodded, still blushing and obviously trying not to grin. "But what about Ron and Hermione?" she asked, looking over to where Ron had joined Hermione in staring at their group huddled in the corner.
Fred and George glanced at Harry, who shrugged. "Fine," sighed George, "but no one else besides Ron and Hermione, and they've got to keep quiet too."
"And Ginny," Fred added, "I don't know how Ron's going to take the news, so…just be prepared, ok? He may not be too happy." Ginny nodded. Harry guessed Ginny had a pretty good idea of how Ron felt, the two of them being the youngest in the Weasley family and could easily get lost among the many acheivements of their older brothers. But he too, wasn't sure how Ron would react to his little sister making the Gryffindor Quidditch Team before him.
Harry followed Ginny and the twins back over to Hermione and Ron, both of whom wanted to know what their meeting in the corner was about. Keeping her voice low, Ginny told them.
"That's great!" Hermione tried to keep her voice down. "I told you those books would help."
Ron, following the reaction of his brothers, looked shocked. "Since when-" he started.
"Since I taught myself." Ginny interrupted him, smiling.
"Wow," Ron said slowly, "congratulations. That's great."
As they headed to the Great Hall for dinner that night, Harry and Hermione exchanged worried glances. Ron had been quiet all day, and the prospect of food, which was normally a good way to cheer Ron up, wasn't helping. Harry knew Ron was bothered by Ginny making the Gryffindor Quidditch team, but he didn't know what to do.
"Ron?" Hermione ventured quietly. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," he replied, sitting across from them at the Gryffindor table. "I'm just a little…" he paused, looking down the table at Ginny, who was talking excitedly with her friends. "…surprised." he finished.
"I think we all were." agreed Harry.
"Most of us." Hermione corrected him.
Ron's eyes narrowed. "When did Ginny ask you for help? And why didn't she ask me or Fred or George? Or Harry, for that matter?"
"She asked me when I came to stay with you for the last part of the summer. And don't glare at me like that! You and Harry and the twins were always off practicing Quidditch and you never once thought to ask Ginny if she wanted to play. So she asked me to help her practice. She was already very good, mostly from watching the game so much."
Ron started to reply, but closed his mouth when Dumbledore stood to make an announcement.
"Before you begin to eat, I have a very important notice. Professor Snape will not be returning to us this week. Therefore, all Potions lessons have been canceled until further notice. The allotted time for Potions class will be filled by additional Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons. To aid me in the increase in classes, Professor Moody will resume his position from last year as a second Defense instructor. Now," Dumbledore finished, clapping his hands, "we shall eat."
Food appeared on the tables and the students, surprised at Dumbledore's notice, quietly began to eat. The Great Hall soon grew louder, however, as the students began to voice their opinions about Dumbledore's announcement.
"Something happened." George said quietly. "Something big." He and Fred had sat down next to Ron.
Fred nodded. "But what could be big enough for Dumbledore to cancel Potions and add more Defense lessons? And bring back Mad Eye Moody on top of that?" he asked.
Hermione shrugged. "Whatever it is, it will probably be in The Daily Prophet tomorrow." she said calmly, but Harry could tell she wanted to know what happened just as much as the rest of them.
R/R!