A/N: yes, I know, I have not updated in a really long time, and I don't want to spend time saying why when I could just get to the story faster, but I have to thank you reviewers first!
Lost In A World Of Pain: thanks so much for the review, and the words of encouragement, they were really nice.
Chips challenge: I have to say for the longest time I was contemplating on what that game was you made your penname out of, and then it finally clicked and I remembered playing that game so many times when I was younger on the computer, sadly none of the computers in my house have the game anymore, but I just had to tell you I now know of the game 'chips challenge' (well I have all along, but I forgot) and it totally does rock! And thanks a bunch for the review!
OctoberSkye: thank you for the review!
Xylem: (it is easier to type then all of your changing names) thank you for your reviews and always reading my story! I got your email thing, haha but I am cursed I guess because I did not forward it, I shall be watching for my safety and that of others, because that dreaded chain letter may be the end of me, lol.
Disclaimer: I do not own and of the characters in this story or pretty much any of it, it is all copyright of J.K. Rowling, though I do think I own the plot :) since it was of my own thought.
Chapter 16
The next morning Harry woke up to find Seamus standing over his bed. "Oi, Harry! Didn't you hear what I just said?"
Harry who was still half asleep, rubbed his eyes, and put on his glasses to see Seamus more clearly, "W-What were you saying?" he asked stifling a yawn.
"McGonagall told me to tell you that she is getting nervous, we don't even have a Quidditch team yet, and the next match is in two weeks! She said if you don't get a team together soon she will have to find 'a more responsible captain'" Harry mentally scolded himself, how could he have forgotten about the Quidditch team?! Then he remembered, George's death had pushed a lot of things back, but this was really important, the whole Gryffindor house was pretty much in his hands right now. He quickly thanked Seamus, and got dressed. He then ran down the stairs to the common room to see if anyone had written about trying out. Nothing. The sheet was still as it was left. Quickly he grabbed another sheet of parchment and wrote in large bold letters, 'THE GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH TEAM TRY-OUTS WILL TAKE PLACE TONIGHT AT THE QUIDDITCH PITCH, IF YOU HAVE ANY CONFLICTS PLEASE LET HARRY POTTER KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE'.
"It's about time you posted that; I really want to try out!" Harry turned around and saw that Ginny was standing behind him, "really, Harry I thought that you of all people, wouldn't forget about Quidditch" teased Ginny, "I'll need a broom, I will have to owl Fred or G--, I um, w-well I guess I'll use a school broom."
Harry could tell Ginny was trying to just forget about the recent events, but she must have tried too hard and forgot what even happened. He quickly tried to just put the subject back on Quidditch. "We'll need some decent beaters this year."
Crestfallen, Ginny asked, "Oh, um, well I was thinking, would you mind if I maybe tried out for Chaser instead?"
"Oh, it's not a problem, we need those too!" said Harry reassuringly.
Harry headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast wondering which of his classes he would have that day. His thought was quickly answered when Hermione handed him his timetable for the day, Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. "Well, at least it's not something too hard" muttered Harry, more to himself than to anyone else. Ron came down a bit later, looking rather disheveled, it was quite obvious he didn't get a good nights sleep.
Herbology went by quickly, it was with Hufflepuffs, so Harry was paired with Justin Finch-Fletchley, the two of them just had to keep their plant alive until class was over, they barely succeeded, the only pair that truly kept their plant alive was Hermione and Neville, in which they each got five house points awarded to them.
Harry and Hermione were about to go on to Care of Magical Creatures, when Ron stopped, "You guys go ahead, I forgot my book, I'll be there in a bit" he said as he searched through his things to make sure he didn't have it with him after all.
"Alright, we'll tell Hagrid that you'll be right there" replied Hermione to Ron, who had already started to head towards the castle. When Harry and Hermione got there, Hagrid seemed quite happy to see them.
"Harry! Hermione! It's great ter see ya! Where's Ron?" the half giant suddenly asked noticing the missing pupil of the trio.
"Oh, he forgot his book, he'll be right here though" replied Hermione.
"Blimey, I feel bloody well awful, a death like tha' will take time ter get over, tha's for sure" replied Hagrid grimly.
Harry who wanted to change the subject quickly said, "Sorry, we haven't visited in a while Hagrid, how's-erm, Grawp doing?"
Hagrid immediately brightened at the mention of his half-brother, "Oh Grawpy, he's doin' grea' he's alo' calmer, an' learned more English, Dumbledore even said tha' he migh' help in the war against You-Know-Who, grea' man Dumbledore is." At this Hagrid then looked around and realized more and more students were starting to show up, so he ended their conversation and went towards the front of the class, while Harry and Hermione went towards Ron in the back.
"Erm, I thought today tha' we could jus' get in groups an' all yer have to do is, make sure your Clabbert is happy, an' as long as its pustule doesn' glow, you get full points for the day"
Harry, Ron and Hermione worked together to keep their creature, (which looked a lot like a cross between a monkey and a frog) under control. It kept trying to get hop towards the trees to climb them. Some students ended the class with their Clabbert's pustule a faint pink, but Hagrid didn't have the heart to take away points.
At dinner Harry approached Katie Bell and asked her if she would be able to attend Quidditch try-outs tonight, she accepted. Harry felt better, he didn't know who would be showing up tonight, but at least he knew that Ron and Katie with him for help. Though he wished that he wouldn't have to reject anyone, that seemed like it was going to be the hard part.
About a half hour later, Harry, Ron and Katie bell all headed down to the Quidditch Pitch, brooms over their shoulders as the sun was slowly setting, on the crisp fall eve. Harry immediately hopped on his broom for a quick lap, the adrenaline pumping through his veins, about a quarter of an hour later he landed to see people were starting to arrive.
Seven people showed up, and in Harry's opinion he thought that was a pretty good turn out considering the short notice for the four spots, Harry explained that first they would to the chaser try-outs in which the person would go up with Katie and would have to try to make a goal as Ron blocked the hoop and Harry would chuck a few bludgers in their direction, just to see how they would react.
First up was Ginny, before they took off, Harry and Ron made an agreement to not treat her any different just because they knew her, and Ron made it clear he would not let a goal go through because of her. Katie and Ginny threw the quaffle around for a bit, and Harry noticed that they worked well together, Harry hit a few bludgers straight at her and Katie and Ginny dodged them all with what seemed to look like ease, Katie threw her the quaffle one last time, and she went for what looked like the left hoop, then threw into the center hoop with extreme force and Ron hardly missed it. Harry let Ginny fly around a bit more to show her skills, and then finally called for an end to her try out, they all landed and told her good job.
The next flyer, Victoria Frobisher, was according to Katie, 'the Charms club girl'; who had tried out for keeper last year, she greeted Harry and Katie with a smile and just nodded at Ron, she was apparently still mad for loosing to him last year. Harry had to admit she was a good flyer, but she seemed to stumble a bit each time she caught the quaffle, like she was about to loose it, but would grab hold of it in the last second, she did throw it at the hoops with an extreme force (though Ron said it was just because it was him blocking the rings) yet didn't have the greatest aim at all times. Victoria flew around, showing her sharp turns and acceleration, they all once again landed and waited for the next applicant.
The third and final chaser applicant was a third year named Natalie McDonald, she seemed very quiet and polite, so Harry assumed that she would be a weak Quidditch player, but quite the opposite happened when she got up in the air, she flew fiercely and threw the quaffle with such power Ron stopped mid-air and gaped at her, Harry threw some bludgers at her but she dodged most of them, one hit her square in the elbow, but she shook it off and still kept flying. She flew around a bit and they all landed, almost immediately she went back to her old self.
It was then time for the beater try-outs, Harry didn't really know how to test them all being beaters, so he just had himself be seeker like normal, and then have Ron and Katie be chasers to have things going on, then the person trying out would try to use the bludgers against them, but only at the appropriate times.
The first person up was Andrew Kirke, Harry knew he was a beater last year, but he still wanted him to try out, because he was only on the team as a replacement. Andrew did a good job at hitting the bludger when someone made a move to gain points, and right as Harry made a dive for the snitch he felt the bludgers in his presence, he knew that Andrew would do well with always making sure nobody was getting to successful on the other team. He let Andrew fly around for a bit, before they all landed.
The next on up was Geoffrey Hooper, he had tried out for keeper last year and Harry remembered Angelina had called him 'the whiner'. Nevertheless Harry let him try out, he started out hitting the bludgers trying to hit them, and in the middle of the try-out he threw a fit, complaining that they were moving too quickly for him to aim at them. Harry ended his try-out there.
The final person to try out for beater was Jack Sloper, who also took over for the twins last year. Jack did a good job with his aim and Ron got his with a Bludger right under his eye, Harry could already see a black-eye starting to form there, which was when he ended his try-out also.
They thanked all of the applicants for trying out and asked for a few minutes to decide who made it, Harry, Katie and Ron all went to decide who would make it.
"That Frobisher girl better not make the team, I swear I don't know how long I can take of her glaring at me" cried Ron once they were alone.
"I agree, but only because she just didn't work well with me, and to be successful chasers we need to be able to work well."
"So then it's decided that Ginny and Natalie will be our chasers?" asked Harry and Katie and Ron nodded.
They talked for a bit more and decided to just have Andrew and Jack be the beaters again. Slowly Harry made his way back to all of them, he didn't want to tell the other people that they didn't make it, but he knew it had to be done, he would just do it in the nicest way possible.
"Erm, we talked for a bit and all of you did a great job and really impressed us, but not everyone could make it, so-erm, our chasers for this season will be Ginny Weasley and Natalie McDonald, and our beaters will be Jack Sloper and Andrew Kirke."
Ginny hugged Natalie and they both smiled, Jack and Andrew gave each other high fives and Geoffrey and Victoria started to head back towards the castle, Harry felt bad, but he knew they had made the right decision.
"Alright, we'll pull out the old robes and see if they fit you guys and then get them altered and change the names on them, and I'm sure Harry will let us know when practices start up, once he gets the schedule made for when the pitch is open" said Katie to all of the new teammates, she then looked at her watch, "It's getting really late, we should probably all head up so nobody ends up with detentions."
A/N: I apologize for the long wait and really don't blame you if you didn't read it or if you don't review, 'cause this story has taken a turn for the worse and just isn't going as smooth as I was hoping it would, ah well. I doubt chapters will ever be coming out quickly any more, since my summer will be cut a month short with marching band starting up, woo! I get to stay at cabins with no air conditioning with 4 other girls and be marching the whole day! I know I'm excited (that was sarcasm). Actually it's not that bad. Hope everyone has a good rest of summer if I don't get another chapter up, though I hope to.
Also just a note, I got the information on 'Clabberts' from the book 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them' and I did not make up those characters name who tried out, I found them all scattered in the Harry Potter books, if you feel the need to know the truth behind them you can go to the hp lexicon which I found very helpful in the writing of this chapter. And, sorry if Hagrids accent was a bit off, I kept going back and changing it, I just couldn't seem to get it.