The next day couldn't pass quick enough for Harry and his team. No one could figure out what this elusive 'surprise' could be. Everyone had a totally different idea.
'Maybe Dumbledore sprung for cool, new brooms,' said Colleen Ruxbin, a 5th year chaser.
'Yeah right! I'm sure that'll happen... when Snape gets laid!' Amare Bell said, wondering what the hell Harry and Ron were laughing at.
By the time the Gryffindors got to the quidditch pitch, the kids were almost fighting over who's idea about the surprise would be right.
'Hey, who's that?' Harry, who despite his glasses, had really good long distance vision, and saw a familiar figure standing with a broom on the pitch.
'Wood! Omigod, its Wood. (Seeing blank looks on the others' faces.) Y'know, Oliver Wood?' screamed Harry.
'Oh, Wood! Yay, Wood!' everyone screamed as they ran towards him.
'SURPRISE! Hey, Harry! And no one else I know. OK. What, Ron, you're on the team now? Ok, whatever. As you may have guessed, I am the surprise Professor McGonagall may have been talking to you about. Why am I here? For Quidditch. I have been called here by Albus Dumbledore to coach your house team in Quidditch. Why do you need a coach? You may think you don't need one, because I have heard that you have won the House tournament for the past 5 years in a row. I'm here to coach you for a special reason. What is that? Well, that's another surprise for another day.' The team groaned. They'd had enough surprises to last them a long time.
Wood spoke louder to make him heard over the groans. 'All right, I know Potter's been teaching you some stuff, and he's one of the best, but I'm here to teach you the rest. Some of you may think you know everything about Quidditch but I can assure you that I will teach you something new.' Wood looked around at the team. Most of them were itching to start. 'Ok, everyon-...' A sharp whistle and a blur rushing past them at an amazing speed cut him off.
In the blur, Harry could discern a girl on a broom. Suddenly, she twisted the broom into the most amazing tricks. Loop-D-loops, somersaults, and then she started speeding towards the ground in the fastest dive bomb any of them had ever seen. A foot before she hit the ground, the broom suddenly pulled up and sped away. The blur slammed to a stop right in front of the group, and the rider got off. She was pretty with brown hair and brown eyes. She had a great body (as the guys immediately noticed), and looked strong but gentle at the same time.
'Whoa! That was the coolest thing I have ever seen. I'm...' Harry started, reaching out to shake hands.
'I know who you are. You're Harry Potter. It's a great honour to meet you,' the girl replied, shaking his hand, while never taking her eyes off the scar just visible beneath his messy hair.
'Thanks, but who are you?'
'Oh team, this is my girlfriend Felicia Ledger. She's here to help you all out with your flying techniques,' Wood said, pulling her forward.
'How'd you learn to fly like that?' Ron asked, voicing the questions on everyone's mind. With that, the Gryffindors formed a circle around Felicia and moved in.
'Whoa! Whoa! Give me some air. I can't breathe. Thank you. Well, red-haired boy...sorry, if I don't know your name, I'll call you something weird. Nothing personal. Ok, I'm just going to call you Rusty. Rusty, to answer your question, I learned to fly as soon as I could walk, really. I know you're not allowed, but I was picked really young to be on the England National Broom Acrobatics team. So I've been training all my life to do tricks like that. But the things I just showed you were pretty ordinary easy things.' Felicia said as she threw her broom up in the air, and leapt on it as it sped by.
'What? Easy? Never, in a million years will I be able to do the stuff you just did. Sometimes, I can hardly stay on my broom!' Ron was getting excited. His hair started to stick up, and he started to flush a deep red.
'Slow down, Rusty! You will be able to do it. I swear, I'm going to teach you and the rest of the team how to do all that. And then, I'm going to break out the hard stuff. In your next game, you will be pulling moves that your opponents have never seen before. But right now, I have to go talk to your Headmaster.' And with a seductive wink at Wood, and a friendly wave at the rest of the team, Felicia did a backwards handspring and somersault, landed on her broom, and sped away towards Dumbledore's office.
'Ok, everyone on their broom. We're just going to play a fun game so I know what I need and don't need to teach you. Show me what you can do. Lets ride.' AS soon as Wood said this, the kids were on and up. Wood let out the balls and they were off. The Snitch seemed to be a bit sluggish (if it could be sluggish), and Harry caught it easily within ten minutes. Wood re-started the game but the Snitch never perked up. Harry caught it three more times before Wood called the practice to an end.
'All right, this is good. You guys are good. Really good. But I see some things to work on. Don't worry, nothing major. I'll see all of you bright and early tomorrow morning for practice. Just kidding, I'm not like that...anymore. But we do have practice tomorrow evening.' With that, Wood sent them all back to finish their homework.
'Harry? Ron? Can you guys stay and help me put the equipment away? We can talk about some tactics or techniques,' Wood called out.
'Ya, sure. But Wood, you already put the stuff away.' Ron said, looking confused but cute like always.
'I know. I just wanted to talk to you guys. It looks like you guys are really only ones I know on the team, and I wanted us to catch up on things. It's weird, but this place seems like home. Whenever I'm away, doesn't matter where I am, I always feel like I'm just away for the holidays.'
'I know what you mean. I don't know what I'm going to do next year,' Harry said sadly, knowing that he'd soon be away from Hogwarts, and Ginny.
'Anyway, no talking about sad things. Harry, I heard about the Tri-Wizard Tournament a couple years back. Sort of bittersweet. You won, but with Cedric Diggory... well y'know, I guess you couldn't enjoy,' Wood finished lamely. The boys stood around awkwardly, not know what to say. Suddenly, Harry spoke up.
'So Wood, I heard about you getting a spot on the English National Quidditch Team. That was so cool! Someone from Hogwarts, a Gryffindor, on the National Team! You couldn't imagine what everyone was saying! Last I heard, you were doing great. But the season started 2 weeks ago. What are you doing here? Harry looked really confused. The last time he checked, Wood was the best Goalie the English had had in years. The previous conversation was all but forgotten.
'Well, at our first practice, I got hit by a stray Bludger accidentally, and fell off my broom. I woke up in hospital, and they told me I wouldn't be able to play for the rest of the season. Turns out I got a bad concussion, and even someone like Nurse Pomfrey wouldn't be able to fix it. But now I have to go through this 'no serious Quidditch' time. When Dumbledore called me up and asked me to help you guys out, I couldn't turn him down. He... hey, who's that?' Wood pointed across the Quidditch pitch to where a running figure was coming, yelling Harry's name.
'Its Ginny. I wonder what's so important?' Harry took off towards her.
'Harry!' Ginny gasped as she reached him. She struggled to get her breath, and after a few minutes, was able to speak again. 'You and Ron have to come back fast. Dumbledore has called an emergency Feast. Hey, is that Wood?'
'When is the Feast?' Harry asked, wondering why Ginny looked so excited.
'Now!'
'Maybe Dumbledore sprung for cool, new brooms,' said Colleen Ruxbin, a 5th year chaser.
'Yeah right! I'm sure that'll happen... when Snape gets laid!' Amare Bell said, wondering what the hell Harry and Ron were laughing at.
By the time the Gryffindors got to the quidditch pitch, the kids were almost fighting over who's idea about the surprise would be right.
'Hey, who's that?' Harry, who despite his glasses, had really good long distance vision, and saw a familiar figure standing with a broom on the pitch.
'Wood! Omigod, its Wood. (Seeing blank looks on the others' faces.) Y'know, Oliver Wood?' screamed Harry.
'Oh, Wood! Yay, Wood!' everyone screamed as they ran towards him.
'SURPRISE! Hey, Harry! And no one else I know. OK. What, Ron, you're on the team now? Ok, whatever. As you may have guessed, I am the surprise Professor McGonagall may have been talking to you about. Why am I here? For Quidditch. I have been called here by Albus Dumbledore to coach your house team in Quidditch. Why do you need a coach? You may think you don't need one, because I have heard that you have won the House tournament for the past 5 years in a row. I'm here to coach you for a special reason. What is that? Well, that's another surprise for another day.' The team groaned. They'd had enough surprises to last them a long time.
Wood spoke louder to make him heard over the groans. 'All right, I know Potter's been teaching you some stuff, and he's one of the best, but I'm here to teach you the rest. Some of you may think you know everything about Quidditch but I can assure you that I will teach you something new.' Wood looked around at the team. Most of them were itching to start. 'Ok, everyon-...' A sharp whistle and a blur rushing past them at an amazing speed cut him off.
In the blur, Harry could discern a girl on a broom. Suddenly, she twisted the broom into the most amazing tricks. Loop-D-loops, somersaults, and then she started speeding towards the ground in the fastest dive bomb any of them had ever seen. A foot before she hit the ground, the broom suddenly pulled up and sped away. The blur slammed to a stop right in front of the group, and the rider got off. She was pretty with brown hair and brown eyes. She had a great body (as the guys immediately noticed), and looked strong but gentle at the same time.
'Whoa! That was the coolest thing I have ever seen. I'm...' Harry started, reaching out to shake hands.
'I know who you are. You're Harry Potter. It's a great honour to meet you,' the girl replied, shaking his hand, while never taking her eyes off the scar just visible beneath his messy hair.
'Thanks, but who are you?'
'Oh team, this is my girlfriend Felicia Ledger. She's here to help you all out with your flying techniques,' Wood said, pulling her forward.
'How'd you learn to fly like that?' Ron asked, voicing the questions on everyone's mind. With that, the Gryffindors formed a circle around Felicia and moved in.
'Whoa! Whoa! Give me some air. I can't breathe. Thank you. Well, red-haired boy...sorry, if I don't know your name, I'll call you something weird. Nothing personal. Ok, I'm just going to call you Rusty. Rusty, to answer your question, I learned to fly as soon as I could walk, really. I know you're not allowed, but I was picked really young to be on the England National Broom Acrobatics team. So I've been training all my life to do tricks like that. But the things I just showed you were pretty ordinary easy things.' Felicia said as she threw her broom up in the air, and leapt on it as it sped by.
'What? Easy? Never, in a million years will I be able to do the stuff you just did. Sometimes, I can hardly stay on my broom!' Ron was getting excited. His hair started to stick up, and he started to flush a deep red.
'Slow down, Rusty! You will be able to do it. I swear, I'm going to teach you and the rest of the team how to do all that. And then, I'm going to break out the hard stuff. In your next game, you will be pulling moves that your opponents have never seen before. But right now, I have to go talk to your Headmaster.' And with a seductive wink at Wood, and a friendly wave at the rest of the team, Felicia did a backwards handspring and somersault, landed on her broom, and sped away towards Dumbledore's office.
'Ok, everyone on their broom. We're just going to play a fun game so I know what I need and don't need to teach you. Show me what you can do. Lets ride.' AS soon as Wood said this, the kids were on and up. Wood let out the balls and they were off. The Snitch seemed to be a bit sluggish (if it could be sluggish), and Harry caught it easily within ten minutes. Wood re-started the game but the Snitch never perked up. Harry caught it three more times before Wood called the practice to an end.
'All right, this is good. You guys are good. Really good. But I see some things to work on. Don't worry, nothing major. I'll see all of you bright and early tomorrow morning for practice. Just kidding, I'm not like that...anymore. But we do have practice tomorrow evening.' With that, Wood sent them all back to finish their homework.
'Harry? Ron? Can you guys stay and help me put the equipment away? We can talk about some tactics or techniques,' Wood called out.
'Ya, sure. But Wood, you already put the stuff away.' Ron said, looking confused but cute like always.
'I know. I just wanted to talk to you guys. It looks like you guys are really only ones I know on the team, and I wanted us to catch up on things. It's weird, but this place seems like home. Whenever I'm away, doesn't matter where I am, I always feel like I'm just away for the holidays.'
'I know what you mean. I don't know what I'm going to do next year,' Harry said sadly, knowing that he'd soon be away from Hogwarts, and Ginny.
'Anyway, no talking about sad things. Harry, I heard about the Tri-Wizard Tournament a couple years back. Sort of bittersweet. You won, but with Cedric Diggory... well y'know, I guess you couldn't enjoy,' Wood finished lamely. The boys stood around awkwardly, not know what to say. Suddenly, Harry spoke up.
'So Wood, I heard about you getting a spot on the English National Quidditch Team. That was so cool! Someone from Hogwarts, a Gryffindor, on the National Team! You couldn't imagine what everyone was saying! Last I heard, you were doing great. But the season started 2 weeks ago. What are you doing here? Harry looked really confused. The last time he checked, Wood was the best Goalie the English had had in years. The previous conversation was all but forgotten.
'Well, at our first practice, I got hit by a stray Bludger accidentally, and fell off my broom. I woke up in hospital, and they told me I wouldn't be able to play for the rest of the season. Turns out I got a bad concussion, and even someone like Nurse Pomfrey wouldn't be able to fix it. But now I have to go through this 'no serious Quidditch' time. When Dumbledore called me up and asked me to help you guys out, I couldn't turn him down. He... hey, who's that?' Wood pointed across the Quidditch pitch to where a running figure was coming, yelling Harry's name.
'Its Ginny. I wonder what's so important?' Harry took off towards her.
'Harry!' Ginny gasped as she reached him. She struggled to get her breath, and after a few minutes, was able to speak again. 'You and Ron have to come back fast. Dumbledore has called an emergency Feast. Hey, is that Wood?'
'When is the Feast?' Harry asked, wondering why Ginny looked so excited.
'Now!'
