Chapter Seven
"The new captain"
Well, the first week of class passed on slowly as most of the teachers were preparing the students for the O.W.L.s and the classes' difficulty had increased by quite a bit. Neville seemed perfectly ill, Hermione was studying more than usual if that was possible, though she still found time to bicker with Ron. Ron still seemed quite nonchalant about the O.W.L.s, but Harry wasn't taking them lightly, he wanted to score as high as he could. They all sat in the common room on Friday evening, all spread out doing homework and playing games. Professor McGonagall came in through the porthole and found Harry working on his Divination star charts with Ron. "Potter, I want you to gather your teammates and meet me down in my office, you'll do that won't you?" Harry nodded and she left through the porthole. Harry stood up and found Fred and George, Alicia and Katie and they went down to the transfiguration room where McGonagall's office was off to the side. They all sat down in chairs in front of her desk as she started. "As you know, Quidditch tryouts are tomorrow at noon, you all will be expected to be there of course. I wanted you to gather with me here tonight so we could name a new team captain. Now some of you already know the routine, some of you don't," she looked at Harry. "The two most likely candidates are named by the head of house, which is myself, and then the rest of the team votes on who they think will make the best captain. Now, I've thought long and hard about this all summer, and the two people I've chosen are Alicia Spinnet and Harry Potter." Harry's eyes bulged and his mouth fell open as he looked around at the others, they all seemed to be supportive, he didn't see any angry faces. He tried to swallow but the lump in his throat was too large. "Now, you will each write your vote on a piece of parchment and drop it in the sorting hat, once all the parchment is in the hat, the hat will shout out the name of the new captain." They each grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote down whom they wanted. Harry scribbled down Alicia Spinnet and placed it in the sorting hat. The twins grinned at Harry as they dropped their parchments into the hat. Harry smiled nervously back. Then Katie dropped her parchment in the hat, and finally Alicia. After a few red and gold sparks flew out of the hat, it shouted out, "HARRY POTTER!" Harry felt numb as all the rest of the team congratulated him with grinning faces. "Er, thank you." he sputtered. "Congratulations, Potter. Now please go back to your dormitories and get some rest." Said Professor McGonagall. As they all headed back to the common room, Harry and Alicia sped up a bit. "I'm sorry you didn't get voted in, Alicia.I voted for you." Harry told her in a hushed voice. Just then the twins grabbed Harry and lifted him up onto their shoulders. "Don't be thick, Harry! You're the most famous wizard ever, of course we'd all want you to be captain!" they shouted as they carried him toward the marble staircase. Harry blushed and wished he could run upstairs and hide until tomorrow. The twins put him back down as they continued up the stairs. Nearly Headless Nick was floating by and congratulated Harry on his way. Suddenly there was a loud crash behind them and they all spun around to see what happened. "POTTER IS THE CAPTAIN! POTTER THE ROTTER IS THE NEW CAPTAIN!" shouted Peeves the poltergeist as he spun corkscrews near the ceiling. "PEEVES! I'VE CAUGHT YOU THIS TIME!" they all recognized Filch's angry voice coming from the bottom of the stairs, and they turned on their heels and ran back to the common room. When they reached the fat lady and said 'Quaffle', she said, "Congratulations, Potter, news travels around quickly when you're a painting." She smiled and opened the porthole. Harry climbed in and walked over to Ron and Hermione feeling bemused. "So, who is it, Harry? Who's the new captain?" asked Ron. Harry looked up at him almost afraid to tell Ron that it was he. He smiled crookedly at Ron and said quietly, "It's me, Ron. They named me captain." Ron looked resentful for a moment but then smiled happily said, "Well, congratulations, Harry.that'll wipe the smile off Ol' Malfoy's face." Then he grinned down at Harry and clapped him on the back, "Won't hurt my chances of making the team either!" Harry smiled at Ron, relieved that they were still on speaking terms. Hermione congratulated him quickly as she rushed over to separate a pillow fight and then used her wand to clear up all the down from the pillows. The first years watched as though she had just done something amazing. She smiled proudly over them. "Don't worry, you'll learn that one in Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3, chapter four." She turned and said good night to Ron and Harry and went upstairs to her dorm. Ron and Harry went over to where Fred and George were playing exploding snap and watched for a little while. At eleven o'clock, Harry went to the center of the room and shouted, "Oi! For everyone who is on the Quidditch team or who is trying out for the Quidditch team tomorrow.you should all go to bed and get rested up. I want you all to get up early and get a good breakfast and be on the Quidditch pitch at noon sharp!" Fred smacked Harry on the back and told him, "Good job, you sounded just like Oliver!" Then they all went upstairs, undressed and drifted off to sleep. The next day at eleven thirty in the morning Harry had the rest of the team already dressed in their scarlet robes and flying around the field. Harry was circling around the three goals at one end enjoying the wind through his hair when he noticed Hagrid in the stands. He flew over and landed next to him and sat down for a few minutes before he had to meet McGonagall down on the field. "Hiya, 'arry, 'ow ya doin' this morn'n'?" asked Hagrid. "I'm all right, Hagrid, how are those new flacksquid doing?" Harry asked. That is what they were learning about in Care of Magical Creatures. Flacksquid were a sort of underwater creature that Hagrid had in a big clear tank outside of his hut. They were about ten feet long and they were red and black with one large bulging purple eye. They had three tentacles with two suckers on each tentacle that would stick to the glass of the tank and make loud slurping noises that made everyone nauseous. The first day they began to study them, Hagrid had dressed down to his giant shorts and jumped into the tank with the creatures. The students were horrified, especially when Hagrid would giggle that the suckers were tickling him. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had decided that they were much better than blast- ended skrewts. Hagrid had just finished telling Harry that they were doing just fine and that Harry ought to come down to visit them at feeding time. Harry smiled politely and agreed then said goodbye and flew down to the field to meet Professor McGonagall. Harry stepped up next to Professor McGonagall who was also wearing red and gold Quidditch robes, with a scarlet witch's hat that had a gold ribbon around the base of it. Behind them stood Fred, George, Alicia, Katie, and Madam Hooch. McGonagall addressed all of the kids who had come to try out, there were about fifty in all to show up. Harry looked out at all of them, they all had a broomstick over their shoulders, he swallowed hard when he thought that he would have to choose only two of these students for the team. "Good afternoon, Gryffindor." McGonagall spoke to the new comers. "There are many of you present here this afternoon, so I'll be blunt. The only positions that we have open for the team this year is Keeper, and one opening for a Chaser, that is all. For those of you hoping for a different position, you are out of luck and should try back next year." After saying this, about half of the kids left mumbling about how there should be reserve positions open. Ron looked rather relieved at this outcome though. McGonagall continued, "Now, Madam Hooch will be flying with the captain for the overview, and I shall remain in the stands to sum up your totals, now please sign this parchment before we begin so I know who I am watching." She put the parchment on a clipboard and passed it around with a quill. "After you have all tried out, the captain, Madam Hooch and I will meet and discuss who we think are the best qualified to play for the house team.Harry, I'll let you take it from here." Harry looked up at McGonagall stunned, he had no idea what he was supposed to do, so he thought he'd better just play it by ear. After all, they had faith enough in him to name him captain. "All right, um. I need all the chasers to stand over here and all the keepers to fly up and hover 'round those goal hoops." Harry waited for them to accomplish this small task, and then he gave everyone the once-over. There seemed to be about twenty chasers and four keepers. "All right, um.Madam Hooch will work with half of you chasers and two keepers at one end, and I'll work with the rest of you lot down there at the far end. then we'll switch and see what we have here." Harry thought that sounded fair enough, and to his surprise the entire try out seemed to go very smoothly. After about an hour and a half of chasers trying to score goals and keepers trying to stop them, Harry called everyone down to the field level again. "Oi, thanks for trying out today. Madam Hooch, Professor McGonagall, and I will be meeting now to discuss who will make the team, and then I'll post it in the common room as soon as we know." Harry turned to Madam Hooch and McGonagall, as the rest of the players cleared out and they all headed back up to the castle. "Okay," McGonagall said as they reached her office again. "We will each write down our number one choice for chaser and our number one choice for keeper, then we will negotiate the winners of the positions." Harry and Madam Hooch nodded and sat down at the desk. Harry tore apart a piece of parchment and wrote down Seamus Finnegan for keeper and on the other piece he wrote Ron Weasley for chaser. After a moment the two women looked up with their choices written down as well. McGonagall asked Harry for his choices first. Harry nodded and said, "Finnegan for keeper and Weasley for chaser." She smiled slyly and said well that is at least one position which is won, as she laid down her parchment that said 'Ronald Weasley- chaser', then Madam Hooch smiled and put her parchment forward too, it also said 'Weasley'. Harry grinned so wide, he couldn't hide it, and he didn't care who would be the keeper now, as long as Ron had made the team. Madam Hooch and McGonagall had both agreed on Dennis Creevey for keeper. Harry wasn't thrilled about having one of the Creevey brothers on his team but he didn't mind so long as Ron was on the team and he had to admit that Dennis did have some nice moves for a second year. McGonagall wrote down the two position winners and handed the parchment to Harry to take back to the common room. He went directly back to the common room and posted the parchment. Then he went over to Ron with a large smile and said, "Congratulations!" Then they went to pinch some food and a couple of butterbeers and they celebrated down in the kitchens until they were so full they felt sick to their stomachs.
"The new captain"
Well, the first week of class passed on slowly as most of the teachers were preparing the students for the O.W.L.s and the classes' difficulty had increased by quite a bit. Neville seemed perfectly ill, Hermione was studying more than usual if that was possible, though she still found time to bicker with Ron. Ron still seemed quite nonchalant about the O.W.L.s, but Harry wasn't taking them lightly, he wanted to score as high as he could. They all sat in the common room on Friday evening, all spread out doing homework and playing games. Professor McGonagall came in through the porthole and found Harry working on his Divination star charts with Ron. "Potter, I want you to gather your teammates and meet me down in my office, you'll do that won't you?" Harry nodded and she left through the porthole. Harry stood up and found Fred and George, Alicia and Katie and they went down to the transfiguration room where McGonagall's office was off to the side. They all sat down in chairs in front of her desk as she started. "As you know, Quidditch tryouts are tomorrow at noon, you all will be expected to be there of course. I wanted you to gather with me here tonight so we could name a new team captain. Now some of you already know the routine, some of you don't," she looked at Harry. "The two most likely candidates are named by the head of house, which is myself, and then the rest of the team votes on who they think will make the best captain. Now, I've thought long and hard about this all summer, and the two people I've chosen are Alicia Spinnet and Harry Potter." Harry's eyes bulged and his mouth fell open as he looked around at the others, they all seemed to be supportive, he didn't see any angry faces. He tried to swallow but the lump in his throat was too large. "Now, you will each write your vote on a piece of parchment and drop it in the sorting hat, once all the parchment is in the hat, the hat will shout out the name of the new captain." They each grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote down whom they wanted. Harry scribbled down Alicia Spinnet and placed it in the sorting hat. The twins grinned at Harry as they dropped their parchments into the hat. Harry smiled nervously back. Then Katie dropped her parchment in the hat, and finally Alicia. After a few red and gold sparks flew out of the hat, it shouted out, "HARRY POTTER!" Harry felt numb as all the rest of the team congratulated him with grinning faces. "Er, thank you." he sputtered. "Congratulations, Potter. Now please go back to your dormitories and get some rest." Said Professor McGonagall. As they all headed back to the common room, Harry and Alicia sped up a bit. "I'm sorry you didn't get voted in, Alicia.I voted for you." Harry told her in a hushed voice. Just then the twins grabbed Harry and lifted him up onto their shoulders. "Don't be thick, Harry! You're the most famous wizard ever, of course we'd all want you to be captain!" they shouted as they carried him toward the marble staircase. Harry blushed and wished he could run upstairs and hide until tomorrow. The twins put him back down as they continued up the stairs. Nearly Headless Nick was floating by and congratulated Harry on his way. Suddenly there was a loud crash behind them and they all spun around to see what happened. "POTTER IS THE CAPTAIN! POTTER THE ROTTER IS THE NEW CAPTAIN!" shouted Peeves the poltergeist as he spun corkscrews near the ceiling. "PEEVES! I'VE CAUGHT YOU THIS TIME!" they all recognized Filch's angry voice coming from the bottom of the stairs, and they turned on their heels and ran back to the common room. When they reached the fat lady and said 'Quaffle', she said, "Congratulations, Potter, news travels around quickly when you're a painting." She smiled and opened the porthole. Harry climbed in and walked over to Ron and Hermione feeling bemused. "So, who is it, Harry? Who's the new captain?" asked Ron. Harry looked up at him almost afraid to tell Ron that it was he. He smiled crookedly at Ron and said quietly, "It's me, Ron. They named me captain." Ron looked resentful for a moment but then smiled happily said, "Well, congratulations, Harry.that'll wipe the smile off Ol' Malfoy's face." Then he grinned down at Harry and clapped him on the back, "Won't hurt my chances of making the team either!" Harry smiled at Ron, relieved that they were still on speaking terms. Hermione congratulated him quickly as she rushed over to separate a pillow fight and then used her wand to clear up all the down from the pillows. The first years watched as though she had just done something amazing. She smiled proudly over them. "Don't worry, you'll learn that one in Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3, chapter four." She turned and said good night to Ron and Harry and went upstairs to her dorm. Ron and Harry went over to where Fred and George were playing exploding snap and watched for a little while. At eleven o'clock, Harry went to the center of the room and shouted, "Oi! For everyone who is on the Quidditch team or who is trying out for the Quidditch team tomorrow.you should all go to bed and get rested up. I want you all to get up early and get a good breakfast and be on the Quidditch pitch at noon sharp!" Fred smacked Harry on the back and told him, "Good job, you sounded just like Oliver!" Then they all went upstairs, undressed and drifted off to sleep. The next day at eleven thirty in the morning Harry had the rest of the team already dressed in their scarlet robes and flying around the field. Harry was circling around the three goals at one end enjoying the wind through his hair when he noticed Hagrid in the stands. He flew over and landed next to him and sat down for a few minutes before he had to meet McGonagall down on the field. "Hiya, 'arry, 'ow ya doin' this morn'n'?" asked Hagrid. "I'm all right, Hagrid, how are those new flacksquid doing?" Harry asked. That is what they were learning about in Care of Magical Creatures. Flacksquid were a sort of underwater creature that Hagrid had in a big clear tank outside of his hut. They were about ten feet long and they were red and black with one large bulging purple eye. They had three tentacles with two suckers on each tentacle that would stick to the glass of the tank and make loud slurping noises that made everyone nauseous. The first day they began to study them, Hagrid had dressed down to his giant shorts and jumped into the tank with the creatures. The students were horrified, especially when Hagrid would giggle that the suckers were tickling him. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had decided that they were much better than blast- ended skrewts. Hagrid had just finished telling Harry that they were doing just fine and that Harry ought to come down to visit them at feeding time. Harry smiled politely and agreed then said goodbye and flew down to the field to meet Professor McGonagall. Harry stepped up next to Professor McGonagall who was also wearing red and gold Quidditch robes, with a scarlet witch's hat that had a gold ribbon around the base of it. Behind them stood Fred, George, Alicia, Katie, and Madam Hooch. McGonagall addressed all of the kids who had come to try out, there were about fifty in all to show up. Harry looked out at all of them, they all had a broomstick over their shoulders, he swallowed hard when he thought that he would have to choose only two of these students for the team. "Good afternoon, Gryffindor." McGonagall spoke to the new comers. "There are many of you present here this afternoon, so I'll be blunt. The only positions that we have open for the team this year is Keeper, and one opening for a Chaser, that is all. For those of you hoping for a different position, you are out of luck and should try back next year." After saying this, about half of the kids left mumbling about how there should be reserve positions open. Ron looked rather relieved at this outcome though. McGonagall continued, "Now, Madam Hooch will be flying with the captain for the overview, and I shall remain in the stands to sum up your totals, now please sign this parchment before we begin so I know who I am watching." She put the parchment on a clipboard and passed it around with a quill. "After you have all tried out, the captain, Madam Hooch and I will meet and discuss who we think are the best qualified to play for the house team.Harry, I'll let you take it from here." Harry looked up at McGonagall stunned, he had no idea what he was supposed to do, so he thought he'd better just play it by ear. After all, they had faith enough in him to name him captain. "All right, um. I need all the chasers to stand over here and all the keepers to fly up and hover 'round those goal hoops." Harry waited for them to accomplish this small task, and then he gave everyone the once-over. There seemed to be about twenty chasers and four keepers. "All right, um.Madam Hooch will work with half of you chasers and two keepers at one end, and I'll work with the rest of you lot down there at the far end. then we'll switch and see what we have here." Harry thought that sounded fair enough, and to his surprise the entire try out seemed to go very smoothly. After about an hour and a half of chasers trying to score goals and keepers trying to stop them, Harry called everyone down to the field level again. "Oi, thanks for trying out today. Madam Hooch, Professor McGonagall, and I will be meeting now to discuss who will make the team, and then I'll post it in the common room as soon as we know." Harry turned to Madam Hooch and McGonagall, as the rest of the players cleared out and they all headed back up to the castle. "Okay," McGonagall said as they reached her office again. "We will each write down our number one choice for chaser and our number one choice for keeper, then we will negotiate the winners of the positions." Harry and Madam Hooch nodded and sat down at the desk. Harry tore apart a piece of parchment and wrote down Seamus Finnegan for keeper and on the other piece he wrote Ron Weasley for chaser. After a moment the two women looked up with their choices written down as well. McGonagall asked Harry for his choices first. Harry nodded and said, "Finnegan for keeper and Weasley for chaser." She smiled slyly and said well that is at least one position which is won, as she laid down her parchment that said 'Ronald Weasley- chaser', then Madam Hooch smiled and put her parchment forward too, it also said 'Weasley'. Harry grinned so wide, he couldn't hide it, and he didn't care who would be the keeper now, as long as Ron had made the team. Madam Hooch and McGonagall had both agreed on Dennis Creevey for keeper. Harry wasn't thrilled about having one of the Creevey brothers on his team but he didn't mind so long as Ron was on the team and he had to admit that Dennis did have some nice moves for a second year. McGonagall wrote down the two position winners and handed the parchment to Harry to take back to the common room. He went directly back to the common room and posted the parchment. Then he went over to Ron with a large smile and said, "Congratulations!" Then they went to pinch some food and a couple of butterbeers and they celebrated down in the kitchens until they were so full they felt sick to their stomachs.