Chapter 17

Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ginny found Harry sitting by the fire making the flames go up and down with his hand. They made their way over to him and sat down.

"Are you alright Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Yes." Harry said with a sigh. "It's just that last year ninety-eight percent of all my new 'followers', believed that I was a lying attention seeking prat,and now they want to be my best friend." Harry said. His friends just nodded.

The five friends sat in silence for a half hour before the rest of the Gryffindors' returned. Everyone was to busy watching an argument to even care wether Harry was alive or not. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ginny all moved over to the group to see what was going on.

"But we don't want to go to bed yet!" Complained Andrew Kirke, one of the Gryffindor beaters.

"If you want to play on my team you will go to bed right now!" Katie replied her face turning red.

"Why?" Jack Sloper, the other beater, asked.

"Because we have an early team practice and tryouts tomorrow." Katie growled. Ron decided to step in.

"It wouldn't look very good if you two fell asleep on your brooms tomorrow, would it?" Ron asked.

"Plus you two are getting off pretty easy." Harry said.

"What do you mean?" Kirke asked.

"Well when Oliver Wood was Captain the whole team would already be in bed." Harry said laughing a little at the memory Katie joined him. "You're not going to be bad as Wood are you?" Harry asked Katie.

"So what if I am?" Katie asked with a playful smile.

"I just want to know what I'm in for, that's all." Harry said.

"Just for that, Harry, I'm going to work you extra hard tomorrow." Katie replied.

"I better get to bed then. Are you coming Ron, we wouldn't want Katie to be mad at us. You've seen what she's done to the Slytherins' before." Harry said. Katie tried to look upset but failed miserably.

"Yeah mate. It's no good to have the Captain mad at you before the season even starts." Ron answered seriously.

The fact that Harry and Ron were doing everything Katie said made Kirke and Sloper head up to bed grumbling. Katie glared after them, then turned to Harry and Ron said.

"Thanks. Those two are already getting on my nerves."

"Don't mention it." Harry said.

"Now I want both of you to get up to bed." Katie said imitating Wood. Harry laughed.

"Mam, yes Mam." Harry and Ron said while saluting which made Katie give them a fake glare.

"If you're still planning on trying out, Ginny, you should get to bed too. You know so you can get used to it." Harry said.

"Got it." Ginny said as she headed up to bed.

Hermione followed her muttering about Quidditch. Ron and Harry headed up to their dorm followed by Neville. When the got to their room Neville asked.

"Can I come watch the tryouts?"

"Sure." Ron answered. "The more the merrier.

"Unless they're Slytherins'." Harry said.

The next morning Harry was the first person up. He quietly went down to breakfast. Harry was to excited to be flying again that he didn't wait for Katie to get to the pitch. Harry spent almost a half hour just flying around, doing loops and dives. When Harry pulled out of a dive he came face to face with Katie.

"Well it's nice to know that one player is willing to show up early." Katie said as Harry pulled his broom to a stop. "Let's see if anything happened to your skills. I'm going to release the Snitch."

Harry caught the Snitch five times before Katie called him back to the ground. He landed to find the rest of the team staring at him in awe.

"How could you take almost a year off of Quidditch and get better?" Katie asked.

"Just luck I guess." Harry answered.

"Well since you obviously don't need to hone your skills I'm going to have you work with Kirke and Sloper, while Ron and I do some drills." Katie said.

"Got it."

Since Kirke and Sloper were afraid of the balls and had horrible aim, Harry took out two shrinking balls. They were a new invention of Fred and Georges'. Every time the ball got hit it shrunk a little. After two hours of practice Kirke and Sloper were both able to return a ball no bigger then a golf ball to Harry.

Katie praised them and then invited the six people who were trying out on to the pitch. The people trying out were Seamus Finnigan, Dean Tomas, Colin Creevy, Parvati Patil, Ginny Weasley and a fourth year girl named Skey Johnson.

Katie started the tryouts by seeing how everyone could handle a broom. Needless to say everyone could handle a broom just fine. Then she moved on to some passing drills. Seamus, Dead, Ginny and Skey preformed this task without a problem. Colin was a little to overenthusiastic and kept sending the Quaffle into the stands. Parvati was to busy trying to catch Harrys' eye to even know what was going on.

Finally Katie divided the six into teams of two so she could see how the two new players would gel with her. First up was Colin and Parvati. Katie brought them back to the ground five minutes later thanking them. When they turned their backs to her, Katie made big gestures that meant no. Harry was laughing so hard Ron had to help him stay on his broom.

The next pair that Katie chose was Seamus and Dean. They weren't that bad. The two of them even managed to get two goals against Ron. The only problem was that they totally ignored Katie. Needless to say that didn't go over to well with Katie at all.

Finally only Ginny and Skey were left. Katie had them mount up. Almost immediately Harry could tell this was a winning combination. Katie, Ginny and Skey looked as though they had been playing together for a long time. They were almost as good as Angelina, Alicia and Katie had been. When they made their way to the ground Katie shrieked-

"You two are brilliant! You made the team!"

"Really?! Thanks!" Ginny and Skey said at almost the exact same time.

It was almost time for dinner before Katie let them head back up to the castle. Ginny was positively bubbling over with excitement. Harry couldn't help but notice how pretty she looked.

"Wait this is Ginny I'm talking about." Harry told himself.

At dinner Hermione and Neville congratulated Ginny and told Ron and Harry how good they looked. Even Hermione seemed excited about Quidditch for the first time which was saying something.