Disclaimer: yes, I'm a genius, but I'm not THAT brilliant! The plot and
some characters are mine- the rest is JKR's. I'm really tired of saying
that *duh*
Author's Note: Here's Part II! And it's all about Quidditch! Nothing else to say. you Quidditch lovers will enjoy this chapter- all this stuff is from "Quidditch Through the Ages"-go out and buy it if you're a real Quidditch fan (like me). I've warned you- THIS CHAPTER IS ALL ABOUT QUIDDITCH!
Rating: PG-13 (definitely not in this chapter though)
Thanks to: ummmm, well, nobody in particular, actually. Jessie told me to thank my Seanus (Sean Biggerstaff= Oliver Wood) for being so cute. well, duh, even Sean himself knows how hot he is! Wonder if he knows what an inspiration he is to my work! And to my dreams *wink*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The Year After: Cho's Story
Chapter 4: Part II- Learning to Fly Again (continued)
The Saturday of the Ravenclaw team Quidditch trials came by faster than Cho had thought. She was too pre-occupied with her classes to think about Quidditch and it wasn't until Friday night while studying in the Common Room when Michael Blake asked to borrow Cho's broomstick polish that she remembered.
"Playing Quidditch sounds fun, but no way would I ever get up this early to play," Kiersten mumbled sleepily to Cho as Cho put on her Quidditch practice robes. It was still quite early in the morning but Landon had insisted that they got up a little after dawn to get an early start. It looked more and more like he was turning into another Oliver Wood.
"Heaven forbid that you'd even get on a broomstick again, Kiersten. Just watching you fly is dangerous enough," Cho heard Adelyn from underneath her bed covers.
Cho snickered, joined in by the laughs of Jessica and Tabitha, who appeared to be awake as well. During Madam Hooch's flying lessons that were given to all first year classes, Kiersten had a nasty accident. Never having been on a broomstick before, Kiersten's first time was chaotic. Long story short, by the end of the day, Kiersten's left ankle was left twisted and her right shoulder was dislocated and she broke her nose. Needless to say, Kiersten never left the ground on a broomstick again.
"Awww, shut it. Don't remind me." Kiersten put her pillow on top of her head.
Cho opened her trunk once again and took out her faithful companion, her Comet Two-Sixty broomstick. The Comet series was quite out of date but Cho had always had this broomstick since her father brought it for her when she was ten. Yes, it was cheap, losing it's speed, and out of date, but Cho loved it despite all its flaws. She didn't know what she'd do with it if she quit from Quidditch. Maybe it WAS time for her and her broomstick to retire from Quidditch.
"Have fun Cho. Make sure Landon lets you go for breakfast," Adelyn said as Cho opened the dormitory door.
As Cho closed the door behind her, she heard footsteps coming down the stone stairs behind her. It was two of the new players who were trying out, Sara Fawcett and Drewan Lisle. Drewan wore a black sweater with a silver bat in the middle, "Bellycastle Bats Quidditch" written around the bat, indicating that he was a Bellycastle fan. Sara simply on had a navy blue Ravenclaw turtleneck with a silver S knitted on it. Both had their broomsticks in hand.
"Hi Cho! Are all the returnees going to watch us play? Gosh I hope I do well!" Sara said nervously while they walked through the Common Room.
Cho smiled. "I'm sure you'll do fine Sara. What positions are you two going for?"
Drewan and Sara looked at each other. "Chaser," they said together.
Cho nodded. "Too bad we can't take all of you. There's always next year of course, since Landon and Julian are both seventh years," she added, stepping out of the Common Room onto the corridors.
When the three of them got to the Quidditch field, everyone except Landon was down there. Julian and Michael were sitting back to back on the grass, seemingly fast asleep. The two new fifth years were sprawled onto the grass, observing the shapes the clouds made and the young second year Hugh Rickett was reading "Quidditch Through the Ages", his hair sticking out every which way. Everyone seemed to be yawning in thirty second intervals.
They heard heavy footsteps on the grass and looked back to see Landon hurrying to them, which looked hard as he was carrying a very large wooden box, a megaphone, and his broomstick. He set everything down and gave them all a very wide smile, looking quite alert and ready to go. "Sorry I'm late- up, up now! We only have a few hours before breakfast and Professor Flitwick insisted that we end before then, since Gryffindor reserved the field next."
"You're late, Matts," Michael said suddenly as he woke up and stretched. Julian fell to the ground behind him.
"Owww, Blake you git!"
Landon cleared his throat. "Alright now, everyone on their brooms, five laps around the field."
Cho leap on her Comet Two-Sixty and pushed off the ground. It felt nice to be up in the sky again. After her last lap, Cho landed back on the ground and watched Landon reveal the Quaffle, two Bludgers, and the tiny Golden Snitch from the wooden box for the new players. "There are only three places left on the team, a position of a Chaser and two Beaters. Everyone will have a chance to try out the position that you want as well as my position, Keeper. Cho's the Seeker and she's planning to be around for awhile," with this Landon gave a meaningful look towards Cho, "so even if the position of the Seeker isn't open, we might let someone play reserve Seeker if I see you play well. I'll release the balls and the four of us will observe you from the highest stand."
With that, Landon released the Quaffle first. Landon, megaphone in hand, and Julian then took both sides of the wooden box, which now contained only the two Bludgers and the Golden Snitch, up the stairs to the highest stands, followed by Cho and Michael. They settled comfortably on the seats and observed the players from binoculars. "I want you all to watch Lisle- I've seen him play before. Small, quick, plenty of strength. Brilliant at handling the Quaffle. Watch!" They obeyingly all watched as Drewan Lisle streaked from across the field. They then saw something quite amazing, seen not too often in England. With two opposing Chasers in front of him, he leaned forward to make his broomstick go faster and expertly zigzagged left and right, up and down, confusing his two opponents to where he was going. As he reached the goal posts, guarded by Stephen Cornfoot, Drewan swayed Stephen left and then dived below and away from Stephen, putting the Quaffle through the goal.
"Right, well done Lisle!" Landon shouted. Drewan grinned down at then, waving in acknowledgement.
"Wasn't that the Woollongong Shimmy?" Cho questioned in a low voice, her eyes wide.
Landon smiled and nodded. "Yes, the famous Woollongong Shimmy. Do you know how difficult that move is, zigzagging up and down, right and left at an extremely fast rate?"
"He only scored a goal," Michael said, looking quite displeased at them. "You never praise me like that, Matts."
"He scored in less than 20 seconds into the play, Michael, with a Woollongong Shimmy! You're not jealous, are you?" Cho asked slyly, smiling.
"Merlin's beard, that was bloody brilliant. The Woollongong Shimmy!" Julian whispered. "Every time I try to get that fast, I tend to fall off my broomstick."
Michael scowled. "I'M still not convinced yet- need to see more to make a decision."
Landon nodded. "Right you are, Blake. Two other contenders for being a Chaser are Sara Fawcett and Nicholas Hartwhig. Oh, there's Sara now." From Stephen Cornfoot's side of the goal, Sara Fawcett had the Quaffle tucked in her arm. Out of nowhere, Nicholas punched the Quaffle out from her arm and zoomed back to Stephen's side of the goal posts. Drewan dived down from above Nicholas and stole the Quaffle away, putting the ball through the goal post which was guarded by Kevin Entwhistle.
Landon and Cho started clapping as Julian and Michael's mouths hung open. Landon and Cho laughed together. "Afraid you two are gonna lose your positions? You two never scored two goals in two minutes during practice."
"Bloody brilliant," Julian repeated quietly as Michael just shook his head.
"Alright, enough for the Chasers now!" Landon yelled into his megaphone. "I want the Chasers to just fly around the pitch in which ever way while the Beaters get out their bats. I'm going to release the Bludgers. Never mind if it's going to hit you- the Beaters job is to protect you! If it does hit you, well, Blake, Keats, and I have our wands so we'll slow down the process and Cho here will summon a mattress as she's good at all that."
"Ummm, Landon, I don't have my wand," Cho said confusingly.
"And what's this spell that slows you down?" Michael questioned, looking as confused as Cho. "Doesn't matter anyways, since I don't have my wand either."
"Shhh," Landon hissed at them. "Davies said that the day we tried out and it made all of us feel better, didn't it?"
Landon released the two black Bludgers from the box and they all watched as the Bludgers zoomed around, much like out of control cannon balls. "Now the Beaters then. Cornfoot, Entwhistle, and Rickett," Landon said, pointing to each of them. They were all flying around the pitch, knocking Bludgers around with their short bats. "I've never seen any of them play but they all have the height and built and they hit pretty well. Whoever I choose will do fine it seems."
The other three stared at Landon. "YOU choose?" Michael blurted out.
"I mean the ones that we choose."
"You know Matts, Cho and I are learning about Communism and Dictatorship in Muggle Studies. Doesn't this sound a tad bit like that, Cho?" Julian said, grinning.
Landon ignored them.
After another hour of direct orders from Landon, trials were over and positions were to be posted Monday during lunch as instructed for all the other teams as well except for Gryffindor, which already had a whole team due to the fact that Ron Weasley immediately was put in as Keeper during the summer. They had all decided that Drewan Lisle was the best Chaser at Hogwarts they've seen in years (even Michael admitted it in the end). They also agreed that the best friends from the fifth year, Stephen Cornfoot and Kevin Entwhistle, were more experienced and knew the basics of being a Beater. Besides, being a Beater required communication with your fellow Beater, and never have there been two Beaters on the same team that couldn't read each others mind. Which probably explained why the Gryffindor Beaters, the Weasley twins, played so well.
Cho stayed back on the Quidditch field alone, insisting everyone to go on to breakfast without, her excuse being that she hadn't flown for a long while and wanted to try a bit. She kicked off the ground and once again felt the air go through her hair. She had forgotten how great flying was. When she was up on her broomstick, nothing else seemed to matter. Cho thought back to the idea of her quitting the team and realized how absurd it was. Yes, flying and Quidditch did remind her of Cedric, but in a wonderful way. She couldn't let this feeling get away from her. No, she couldn't quit the team- Cedric would be furious at her.
Cho flew back down to the ground, touching down. She then laid down on the soft grass, her brown eyes looking up at the blue sky.
"Did you find your answer in the sky?"
Cho, hand shielding her eyes from the sun, looked to her right to Landon approaching her, the wooden box at hand. She smiled. "Yes."
"And you now realize how ridiculous it was to even suggest quitting the team?"
Cho's smile grew wider. "Yes, Landon. You were right. I was born to play and that's the end of it."
Landon breathed a sigh of relief, dropping the box down on the ground, and sat down next to Cho. "Blimey Cho, you had me worried there that I had to train one of those players to be Seeker. They're all pretty good, but they aren't you."
Cho sat upright and looked at Landon. "Landon, work us hard. Keep me busy. I think too much."
Landon laughed. "Oh, now you want me to be a Wood?" he asked teasingly.
Cho shook her head. "No, be a Cedric. He was a great captain, because he worked his team hard but was understanding-"
"-and good, kind, and brave," Landon interjected, remembering Dumbledore's speech from last year.
Cho turned away and wiped her eyes with the end of her robes. "Yeah, all that." She sighed.
Landon stood up, pulling Cho up with him. "C'mon, my famous Seeker, you must be hungry. Let's go to breakfast."
Author's Note: Here's Part II! And it's all about Quidditch! Nothing else to say. you Quidditch lovers will enjoy this chapter- all this stuff is from "Quidditch Through the Ages"-go out and buy it if you're a real Quidditch fan (like me). I've warned you- THIS CHAPTER IS ALL ABOUT QUIDDITCH!
Rating: PG-13 (definitely not in this chapter though)
Thanks to: ummmm, well, nobody in particular, actually. Jessie told me to thank my Seanus (Sean Biggerstaff= Oliver Wood) for being so cute. well, duh, even Sean himself knows how hot he is! Wonder if he knows what an inspiration he is to my work! And to my dreams *wink*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The Year After: Cho's Story
Chapter 4: Part II- Learning to Fly Again (continued)
The Saturday of the Ravenclaw team Quidditch trials came by faster than Cho had thought. She was too pre-occupied with her classes to think about Quidditch and it wasn't until Friday night while studying in the Common Room when Michael Blake asked to borrow Cho's broomstick polish that she remembered.
"Playing Quidditch sounds fun, but no way would I ever get up this early to play," Kiersten mumbled sleepily to Cho as Cho put on her Quidditch practice robes. It was still quite early in the morning but Landon had insisted that they got up a little after dawn to get an early start. It looked more and more like he was turning into another Oliver Wood.
"Heaven forbid that you'd even get on a broomstick again, Kiersten. Just watching you fly is dangerous enough," Cho heard Adelyn from underneath her bed covers.
Cho snickered, joined in by the laughs of Jessica and Tabitha, who appeared to be awake as well. During Madam Hooch's flying lessons that were given to all first year classes, Kiersten had a nasty accident. Never having been on a broomstick before, Kiersten's first time was chaotic. Long story short, by the end of the day, Kiersten's left ankle was left twisted and her right shoulder was dislocated and she broke her nose. Needless to say, Kiersten never left the ground on a broomstick again.
"Awww, shut it. Don't remind me." Kiersten put her pillow on top of her head.
Cho opened her trunk once again and took out her faithful companion, her Comet Two-Sixty broomstick. The Comet series was quite out of date but Cho had always had this broomstick since her father brought it for her when she was ten. Yes, it was cheap, losing it's speed, and out of date, but Cho loved it despite all its flaws. She didn't know what she'd do with it if she quit from Quidditch. Maybe it WAS time for her and her broomstick to retire from Quidditch.
"Have fun Cho. Make sure Landon lets you go for breakfast," Adelyn said as Cho opened the dormitory door.
As Cho closed the door behind her, she heard footsteps coming down the stone stairs behind her. It was two of the new players who were trying out, Sara Fawcett and Drewan Lisle. Drewan wore a black sweater with a silver bat in the middle, "Bellycastle Bats Quidditch" written around the bat, indicating that he was a Bellycastle fan. Sara simply on had a navy blue Ravenclaw turtleneck with a silver S knitted on it. Both had their broomsticks in hand.
"Hi Cho! Are all the returnees going to watch us play? Gosh I hope I do well!" Sara said nervously while they walked through the Common Room.
Cho smiled. "I'm sure you'll do fine Sara. What positions are you two going for?"
Drewan and Sara looked at each other. "Chaser," they said together.
Cho nodded. "Too bad we can't take all of you. There's always next year of course, since Landon and Julian are both seventh years," she added, stepping out of the Common Room onto the corridors.
When the three of them got to the Quidditch field, everyone except Landon was down there. Julian and Michael were sitting back to back on the grass, seemingly fast asleep. The two new fifth years were sprawled onto the grass, observing the shapes the clouds made and the young second year Hugh Rickett was reading "Quidditch Through the Ages", his hair sticking out every which way. Everyone seemed to be yawning in thirty second intervals.
They heard heavy footsteps on the grass and looked back to see Landon hurrying to them, which looked hard as he was carrying a very large wooden box, a megaphone, and his broomstick. He set everything down and gave them all a very wide smile, looking quite alert and ready to go. "Sorry I'm late- up, up now! We only have a few hours before breakfast and Professor Flitwick insisted that we end before then, since Gryffindor reserved the field next."
"You're late, Matts," Michael said suddenly as he woke up and stretched. Julian fell to the ground behind him.
"Owww, Blake you git!"
Landon cleared his throat. "Alright now, everyone on their brooms, five laps around the field."
Cho leap on her Comet Two-Sixty and pushed off the ground. It felt nice to be up in the sky again. After her last lap, Cho landed back on the ground and watched Landon reveal the Quaffle, two Bludgers, and the tiny Golden Snitch from the wooden box for the new players. "There are only three places left on the team, a position of a Chaser and two Beaters. Everyone will have a chance to try out the position that you want as well as my position, Keeper. Cho's the Seeker and she's planning to be around for awhile," with this Landon gave a meaningful look towards Cho, "so even if the position of the Seeker isn't open, we might let someone play reserve Seeker if I see you play well. I'll release the balls and the four of us will observe you from the highest stand."
With that, Landon released the Quaffle first. Landon, megaphone in hand, and Julian then took both sides of the wooden box, which now contained only the two Bludgers and the Golden Snitch, up the stairs to the highest stands, followed by Cho and Michael. They settled comfortably on the seats and observed the players from binoculars. "I want you all to watch Lisle- I've seen him play before. Small, quick, plenty of strength. Brilliant at handling the Quaffle. Watch!" They obeyingly all watched as Drewan Lisle streaked from across the field. They then saw something quite amazing, seen not too often in England. With two opposing Chasers in front of him, he leaned forward to make his broomstick go faster and expertly zigzagged left and right, up and down, confusing his two opponents to where he was going. As he reached the goal posts, guarded by Stephen Cornfoot, Drewan swayed Stephen left and then dived below and away from Stephen, putting the Quaffle through the goal.
"Right, well done Lisle!" Landon shouted. Drewan grinned down at then, waving in acknowledgement.
"Wasn't that the Woollongong Shimmy?" Cho questioned in a low voice, her eyes wide.
Landon smiled and nodded. "Yes, the famous Woollongong Shimmy. Do you know how difficult that move is, zigzagging up and down, right and left at an extremely fast rate?"
"He only scored a goal," Michael said, looking quite displeased at them. "You never praise me like that, Matts."
"He scored in less than 20 seconds into the play, Michael, with a Woollongong Shimmy! You're not jealous, are you?" Cho asked slyly, smiling.
"Merlin's beard, that was bloody brilliant. The Woollongong Shimmy!" Julian whispered. "Every time I try to get that fast, I tend to fall off my broomstick."
Michael scowled. "I'M still not convinced yet- need to see more to make a decision."
Landon nodded. "Right you are, Blake. Two other contenders for being a Chaser are Sara Fawcett and Nicholas Hartwhig. Oh, there's Sara now." From Stephen Cornfoot's side of the goal, Sara Fawcett had the Quaffle tucked in her arm. Out of nowhere, Nicholas punched the Quaffle out from her arm and zoomed back to Stephen's side of the goal posts. Drewan dived down from above Nicholas and stole the Quaffle away, putting the ball through the goal post which was guarded by Kevin Entwhistle.
Landon and Cho started clapping as Julian and Michael's mouths hung open. Landon and Cho laughed together. "Afraid you two are gonna lose your positions? You two never scored two goals in two minutes during practice."
"Bloody brilliant," Julian repeated quietly as Michael just shook his head.
"Alright, enough for the Chasers now!" Landon yelled into his megaphone. "I want the Chasers to just fly around the pitch in which ever way while the Beaters get out their bats. I'm going to release the Bludgers. Never mind if it's going to hit you- the Beaters job is to protect you! If it does hit you, well, Blake, Keats, and I have our wands so we'll slow down the process and Cho here will summon a mattress as she's good at all that."
"Ummm, Landon, I don't have my wand," Cho said confusingly.
"And what's this spell that slows you down?" Michael questioned, looking as confused as Cho. "Doesn't matter anyways, since I don't have my wand either."
"Shhh," Landon hissed at them. "Davies said that the day we tried out and it made all of us feel better, didn't it?"
Landon released the two black Bludgers from the box and they all watched as the Bludgers zoomed around, much like out of control cannon balls. "Now the Beaters then. Cornfoot, Entwhistle, and Rickett," Landon said, pointing to each of them. They were all flying around the pitch, knocking Bludgers around with their short bats. "I've never seen any of them play but they all have the height and built and they hit pretty well. Whoever I choose will do fine it seems."
The other three stared at Landon. "YOU choose?" Michael blurted out.
"I mean the ones that we choose."
"You know Matts, Cho and I are learning about Communism and Dictatorship in Muggle Studies. Doesn't this sound a tad bit like that, Cho?" Julian said, grinning.
Landon ignored them.
After another hour of direct orders from Landon, trials were over and positions were to be posted Monday during lunch as instructed for all the other teams as well except for Gryffindor, which already had a whole team due to the fact that Ron Weasley immediately was put in as Keeper during the summer. They had all decided that Drewan Lisle was the best Chaser at Hogwarts they've seen in years (even Michael admitted it in the end). They also agreed that the best friends from the fifth year, Stephen Cornfoot and Kevin Entwhistle, were more experienced and knew the basics of being a Beater. Besides, being a Beater required communication with your fellow Beater, and never have there been two Beaters on the same team that couldn't read each others mind. Which probably explained why the Gryffindor Beaters, the Weasley twins, played so well.
Cho stayed back on the Quidditch field alone, insisting everyone to go on to breakfast without, her excuse being that she hadn't flown for a long while and wanted to try a bit. She kicked off the ground and once again felt the air go through her hair. She had forgotten how great flying was. When she was up on her broomstick, nothing else seemed to matter. Cho thought back to the idea of her quitting the team and realized how absurd it was. Yes, flying and Quidditch did remind her of Cedric, but in a wonderful way. She couldn't let this feeling get away from her. No, she couldn't quit the team- Cedric would be furious at her.
Cho flew back down to the ground, touching down. She then laid down on the soft grass, her brown eyes looking up at the blue sky.
"Did you find your answer in the sky?"
Cho, hand shielding her eyes from the sun, looked to her right to Landon approaching her, the wooden box at hand. She smiled. "Yes."
"And you now realize how ridiculous it was to even suggest quitting the team?"
Cho's smile grew wider. "Yes, Landon. You were right. I was born to play and that's the end of it."
Landon breathed a sigh of relief, dropping the box down on the ground, and sat down next to Cho. "Blimey Cho, you had me worried there that I had to train one of those players to be Seeker. They're all pretty good, but they aren't you."
Cho sat upright and looked at Landon. "Landon, work us hard. Keep me busy. I think too much."
Landon laughed. "Oh, now you want me to be a Wood?" he asked teasingly.
Cho shook her head. "No, be a Cedric. He was a great captain, because he worked his team hard but was understanding-"
"-and good, kind, and brave," Landon interjected, remembering Dumbledore's speech from last year.
Cho turned away and wiped her eyes with the end of her robes. "Yeah, all that." She sighed.
Landon stood up, pulling Cho up with him. "C'mon, my famous Seeker, you must be hungry. Let's go to breakfast."