Chapter Six
Quidditch Tryouts
Terry didn't remember the nightmare he had had the night before too well, but dismissed it. He woke up and stared at the ceiling. He soon found that boring and looked around him, everyone else was up and out of bed.
He sat up and hopped out of bed. He got lost in his robes but found his way though it eventually. He went down the steps to the common room. Midnight was sitting on the singed hearthrug by the remaining blue coals in the fireplace grate. He went over and scratched her behind the ears and she closed her eyes and inclined her head in an affectionate way.
Terry finally arrived in the Great Hall. Alia was painting her nails and Travis was reading the Daily Prophet he had borrowed from Jim.
"So, there is a wizard prison?" he asked in surprise after reading.
"Of course," said Alia absent mindedly. "Azkaban. Horrible place."
Travis looked up and saw Terry. His face lit up.
"Terry! Happy Birthday!" he said making room for him. "I have something for you." He pulled out a small box wrapped in green paper with a purple ribbon and handed it to Terry. Terry opened it.
A small golden ball rolled out. It was the size of a walnut and two wings were sprouting out of it. Terry recognized it as a Golden Snitch.
"Travis!" Terry said. "Where did you—?"
Travis smiled. "I got it from Quality Quidditch Supplies the day I got my wand. You told me your birthday was in September so I wrote your parents to get the exact date so I could surprise you. D'you like it?"
"It's brilliant! Thanks!"
"Here," Travis took out his wand. He jabbed the Snitch. It flew up in the air, but not very high. It hovered around Terry's head and he laughed.
"It doesn't work as well as a real one. It can only go so far," said Travis. The Snitch fell with a thud.
Terry looked at Alia. She had a sad look on her face.
"Alia, what's the matter?" asked Terry.
"I would have gotten you a present, butI didn't know," she said apologetically.
"It's alright," Terry told her. "You can just get me two presents next Year."
Alia smiled and gave a tiny giggle. "Thanks, Terry."
"We only have two classes today," said Travis. "Charms andoh no!"
"What?" asked Terry and Alia.
"We have Potions just before lunch. That's just what I want," he said sarcastically, "Snape two days in a row."
No one really smiled after that. They had only had one lesson with Snape and weren't keen on going to have one again. Alia especially wasn't eager to see Snape again. That first lesson seemed like enough for her.
At ten before half past eight, the three of them finished their breakfast and headed up to the second floor. Professor Granger continued with the Avis charm. Birds flew through out the classroom. Travis was able to get blue jays again and would try and inconspicuously show Professor Granger. He was able to conjure one right under her nose. She gave a small "Well done." And Travis seemed to glow.
Near the end of class Professor Granger told the class to put their wands away and told them to write an essay on the usefulness of the Avis charm.
Terry, Alia, and Travis were about to leave the classroom, but were stopped.
"Ollivander!" It was Professor Granger. She was sitting behind her desk with oval reading glasses on. "I need to speak with you."
The three of them went back to the front of the room.
Professor Granger took her glasses off and surveyed them. "Did you get my letter yesterday at dinner?" she asked Terry.
"Yes, Professor. I did," he told her.
"Very good. I spoke with Mr Fulton this morning. He said he would be more than happy to help you. But, I need to tell you one more thing." Her face went sterner. Her voice was much slower. "Don't overwork yourself. I did that in my third Year. Nearly finished me off."
"Alright," said Terry.
Professor Granger turned to Travis and Alia. "And you two: don't let him."
Travis and Alia nodded.
"Alright," she said. "Now, get off to class."
Travis, Alia, and Terry left the classroom and began to walk down the Grand Staircase. They made their way down the Marble Staircase and made a right toward the dungeons. Alia went from her happy, endearing self to a rather cold disposition. Snape so far was the least liked person by the trio. Alia, having her little run-in with Snape, disliked him the most.
At ten-thirty, they entered Snape's classroom. They looked around. Yesterday, they had had Potions with the Hufflepuffs. However, today they had it with the Slytherins. Terry's face fell.
"Good morning," said the cold voice of Professor Snape. "I trust we all had time to forget yesterday's lesson. We will be reviewing. But, this time," he hissed, "I will be pairing you up."
Terry was paired with Robby Letterman, a tall skinny boy with one eyebrow and a scowl on his face. Travis and Davis were put together. Unfortunately, when Snape came to Alia, his face contorted into an evil, face consuming grin.
"Since you could not complete the potion yesterday, I think I shall pair you, Clavereaux, with Miss Malfoy. That will be prudent."
Alia's eyes grew to three times their natural size. Terry had a feeling that Alia disliked Snape even more now.
Ethilina came and sat down with Alia.
They both glared sideways at each other.
At while, Alia said, "Look. I can tell that you don't want to be paired with me, right?"
"Right," said Ethilina.
"Neither do I. So, why don't we just make the potion and get this over with. Agreed?"
Ethilina thought hard. She gave Alia a glare and said holding out her hand: "Agreed."
They shook on it.
As the class moved on, Alia and Ethilina didn't say much. An occasional "Now put the nettles in," or "Take the cauldron off the fire," could be heard. But that was about it.
Terry soon learned that Robby Litterman was stupider than anyone he had ever met. He would ask the difference between the dried nettles and porcupine quills. He would ask if five minutes was over when it had only been a minute since he had last asked Terry the very same question.
Finally, at the end off class, Snape swept the room. He had obviously enjoyed looking at the Ravenclaws' the most because they were the easiest to criticize. Poor Ellistris Kanteroff burst into a fit of tears when Snape came to her potion as it churned and bubbles with green sparks flying from it. When Snape finally wheeled around to Alia and Ethilina's potion, he gave a weak smile.
"I see that Miss Malfoy has had a positive effect on you, Clavereaux. Five points to Slytherin." The bell rang.
Alia left the classroom red in the face and storming. Terry and Travis kept well behind her as to avoid being walloped if she got mad enough.
First Years had Friday afternoons off at Hogwarts. Most would spend it on the grounds by the lake. But Terry, Travis, and Alia were found in the library.
They decided to go there after lunch. So, when Travis had finished his last gulp of pumpkin juice, they headed for the fourth floor.
When they entered, they were amazed. Tens of thousands of bookshelves piled high with books covered just about every inch of the floor. There were tiny aisles between them so students could pick out the books comfortably. The shelves radiated off a circular area with tables where students could sit and read. To the right, was a circular circulation desk with a small oil lamp, an ink bottle with a quill sitting in it, and piles and piles of books. A tall man with very short gray hair and semi-circular spectacles sat there stamping in books that had been returned.
Terry, Travis, and Alia approached him timidly. They stood in front of him for a minute. They were waiting for him to look up and see them. Eventually, Travis became impatient and cleared his throat loudly. It had broken the tranquil silence so much that the man jumped and looked wildly around. He spotted them.
"Oh, hello," said the man in a hushed, hard to hear voice. "May I help you?"
"Yes," said Terry. "By chance, would you be Mr Fulton?" He felt uneasy in the stuffy stillness of the multiple volumes and tomes on the many shelves. He always thought his father's wand shop was stuffy and it was a freezer in comparison.
"I would," said the man over his glasses in a distrustful way. "And who are you?"
"I'm Terry Ollivander. Professor Grange—"
"Oh, yes!" said Mr Fulton with comprehension. "I have a few books picked out for you." He bent over and disappeared behind his round desk. He popped back up with three books in his arms. "Let's see. We have Charming Charms for the Charmed. You might like the Standard Book of Spells Grade 2 and 3. Let me just stamp them." Mr Fulton took a large violet rubber stamp off its pad of ink and tapped it with his wand. It stamped "T. Ollivander – 9-17" in the fronts of the books. He handed them to the trio and Terry, Travis, and Alia scurried out of the library.
"Blimey!" said Travis loudly once he was safely out of earshot of anyone in the library. "He seemed a bit suspicious of us, didn't he?"
"I thought so too," said Alia. "But, no matter. Let's go to Professor Granger's classroom on the third floor."
And so they went. Down one flight of stairs and down the third floor corridor. They had just reached the door to Professor Granger's classroom when a voice ranted the corridor.
"Ollivander!" it said. Terry wheeled around to see the woman he had been told was Madam Soan. She approached them. Terry thought he was in trouble but realized this was only his second day at Hogwarts and couldn't imagine what he had done.
When Madam Soan was standing directly in front of the group, she smiled, wide and broad. "We have not been formally introduced. I am Madam Soan, your flying teacher and I'm also head of Ravenclaw house." But Terry already knew that from talking to Gary. "I noticed that you turned in a flying permission slip. I need to give you the time you will be trying out."
"Alright," said Terry.
"You will be required to be at the Quidditch pitch on the eighth of this month at approximately six o'clock. Is that alright with you?"
Terry nodded. "Yes, ma'am, Professor."
"Good. And don't worry. You will have a flying class or two before then to give you a good handling for the school brooms. See you then." She gave them one more large smile and whisked off down the corridor.
"So, you're trying out too," said Alia five minutes later. They had started practicing in Professor Granger's room. Professor Granger had to leave; her son, James, was in the hospital wing for an injury he got after throwing a rock at the giant squid in the lake, so they had their privacy. At the moment Terry and Travis were practicing the Levitation Charm were having a sword fight with two canes they had found. Alia was racing a pencil around the room with the Locomotion Charm.
"What do you mean 'too'?" asked Terry. "You're trying out?" He never thought that Alia might try out.
"Well, of course! I love Quidditch. I plan on trying out the Beater position. Their missing two of them on the house team. Their also missing a Seeker, Terry. You should try out!"
"Maybe." He moved his wand vigorously and was able to poke Travis in the stomach with his cane. "I win!"
"Honestly" said Alia, rolling her eyes. She made her pencil stop directly in front of her and made it do cartwheels.
Terry soon began to get bored with the Levitation Charm and began to rummage through Charming Charms for the Charmed. As he passed page 65 (Summoning Charms), something caught his eye. On page 66, he saw a charm he wanted to learn: Auto-Tasking Charms.
"Alia, Travis, look at this!" said Terry. "Let's try this one!" He pulled out his wand and pointed it at a book. "Unofruor!" The book began to say the words printed on the page. "one of the more complicated charms wizards can learn," it said. "Auto-Tasking Charms are able to make object act on their own accord, usually used make it do what it was made to do by itself. Examples being making brooms sweeps, quills write, balls bounce..."
"Cool!" said Travis. "Let me try!" He pointed his wand at a quill. "Unofruor!" he said. The quill did a sort of jiggle, dipped itself into an ink bottle, and began to write swear words on a long roll of parchment on Professor Granger's desk. Travis dived at the mad-profanity-writing-quill and scribbled out all the swear words. He looked over his shoulder at Alia and Terry with an embarrassed smile. Alia, who had been laughing so hard she was clutching her sides, collapsed sideways off her chair.
Terry, Travis, and Alia spent the rest weekend practicing Charms in different places. Professor Granger's classroom, the Ravenclaw common room, the lake side, and the library (but were kicked out when Terry accidentally hit an entire bookshelf with an Auto-Tasking Charm and all the books began to read themselves at one time) were some of their usual spots.
Monday they had their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson with Professor Ferrotte. Professor Ferrotte began the class by writing her name with her wand in the air and taking roll. From "Abbon, Drew" and "Weasley, Cole," Professor Ferrotte read all twenty names very dully. Then, she asked them to take out their quills and they all took notes for an hour and a half.
At lunch, Terry received a letter from the same barn owl that came from his mother.
Dear Terry,
How's your first week at Hogwarts? Your father and I are very proud. We don't know when your Quidditch tryouts start so, good luck when ever you have them. If you have, congrats if you made it. Your father is doing fine. He had to go to St. Mungo's because he got a bad bite from a phoenix he was plucking for a wand. Hope you're enjoying Hogwarts!
Love from,
Mum
Terry had to laugh. His father had always had a habit of being accidental. After Herbology (they were repotting their Love-in-idleness plants), Terry, Travis, and Alia had their first flying lesson with the Gryffindors.
At a quarter till three, the three of them went out to the grounds. They found twenty or so broomsticks lying in two lines on the lawn. The Gryffindors were already there and Davis and Benjamin were busy looking at the Nimbus Two Thousands and laughing. Eventually, four Ravenclaw girls and Jim arrived and Madam Soan came not long after.
"Hello, class!" said Madam Soan with enthusiasm. She grinned at them with a huge smile. The class returned a "Good afternoon, Professor."
"My name is Madam Soan. Welcome to your first flying lesson. Now, just so you know, this will be one out of two lessons you'll have before tryouts for your Quidditch teams. I will teach you all you need to know, the basics. Now, I will ask you to step up to your broom—go on—don't be shy! It won't bite! Place your right hand over your broom handle and say "Up!"
Terry said "Up!" and the broom came half way up and dropped. He tried again. "Up!" It just merely flopped this time. Terry was starting to feel angry "Up, you stupid prat!" The broom shot up so quickly it almost knocked him over. He risked a glance over at Travis and Alia. Travis was glaring at the broomstick. Travis looked at Terry and waved. As he did so, the broom started to glide toward his hand. He looked back and the broom fell quickly. Travis turned red.
Alia was doing better however. She had said "up" only once and it had leapt into her hands and she was beaming. She gave Terry a wave with her fingers curling and uncurling, like wiggling worms.
"Good work, everyone! Now, I will ask you mount your brooms—that's it! Oh, Miss Boler! No sidesaddle. Now, when I blow my whistle, you will kick off the ground and fly around the grounds. Not too far, though," she frowned, "or I'll have to speak to the headmaster." Everyone gave an uneasy sway at these words.
"Alright! Threetwoone!" The class all kicked off the ground and hovered ten feet. Travis' eyes were wide and he was leaning over to hold on to the broom handle firmer. Alia had ascended very gracefully and was smiling. Terry thought this must be second nature for her. Terry was flying next to James Potter. He was the best of them all. Kids were having races and James was challenged by his best friend, Cole Weasley. James outstripped him very badly.
Alia flew over to Terry. "Alright there, Terry?" Terry nodded. "Want to race?" asked Alia. Terry said yes and hollered at James and Cole to race. They all agreed to start at a pine tree by the gamekeepers' hut and end thirty yards off where Karinthia Potter, James' sister, was holding a flag that Madam Soan had conjured, who was trying to have a bit off fun too.
"Ready!" shouted Karinthia. "Set! GO!" The four of them shot off. James in the lead, then Alia, followed by Terry, and finally Cole. Cole passed Terry and Terry put on a burst of speed, passing Cole and Alia. He continued to go faster. He shot off again and was neck and neck with James. They looked sideways at each other. Terry went back to looking in front of him and James sneezed. James had to double back and there was ten feet left. Five feet to go. Three feettwoone
"Finish!" yelled Karinthia. Alia, James, and Cole flew up and congratulated Terry. He was looking around smiling and he looked back over to Madam Soan. Five or six students were congregated around her, floating only five feet off the ground. Travis was one of them.
"What's up with them?" asked Terry. Alia flew up beside him.
"Oh, those are the students who are scared to go to high," said Alia. "Yeah, those are mostly Muggle-born students. They've never been on a broom before."
The class continued for at least five minutes and Madam Soan called them back. The rest of the lesson was about acceleration, deceleration, braking, ascending, descending, and finally, landing.
"We'll be reviewing tomorrow, students. Gryffindors will be learning with Slytherins," there were groans from the Gryffindors, "and the Ravenclaws with the Hufflepuffs!" The bell rang at that exact moment.
The next day was another good flying lesson. They were really only critiquing the techniques the students had learned the day before. Of all the students Terry had seen fly, no one could beat four people: James Potter, from the day before; Logan Renfield, a Hufflepuff boy; Alia; and himself. He didn't point out he thought he was a good flyer for fear of people judging he enjoyed to boast.
"Well, that was a good lesson," said Alia. She had been racing again and had totally beaten Ellistris Kanteroff and Lilly Williand, a Hufflepuff girl.
"I didn't think so," said Travis. He had to have Jim Lunomen help him from falling off this broom five times and did fall off once.
They trudged up to the castle with the Hufflepuffs. The Hufflepuffs, once in the Entrance Hall, went to the smaller door on the same side as the Great Hall, and the Ravenclaws made their way to their common room. Once inside, Terry pulled out his books, a roll of parchment, and a quill and began to work on his Charms homework he had gotten from Professor Granger last Thursday. He wrote at the top of the roll:
The Avis Charm and How It's Useful
Terry wasn't looking forward to doing this assignment. He sat there for five minutes, just staring at the parchment, when Alia and Travis said they were going to lunch. Terry decided to join them, and together, they went back to the Great Hall and sat down next to Gary. Once again, Gary was engrossed in a book.
"Bloody little know-it-all," muttered Travis under his breath. He helped himself to some chicken legs.
Alia was busying herself with her course schedule. She looked up. "We have our first Astronomy class after lunch."
"I guess that'll be—," said Travis through a mouth full of chips. He swallowed and said, "—interesting" Alia looked at him with disgust.
A little to one, the three of them said their partings to Gary and went up the Marble Staircase and made a right towards the Grand Staircase. They went up a couple staircases, went into three different passageways, found a secret trap door in a broom closet on the sixth floor which put them on the third floor, up more stairs, down another passageway, made several turns, and found them self in a tall tower. They could see the mountains to the west of the castle and had a feeling they were above the Entrance Hall.
They went into the only door and found themselves on a large wide balcony with telescopes lined on the edges with chairs behind each. Terry, Travis, and Alia all sat down in the relative middle of the telescope line and heard the one thing they didn't want to hear.
"My father will be furious if he hears that they are making respectable students like me climb all those stairs. I'll have him write Potter."
Ethilina Malfoy and her three cronies had just walked in the door. When she saw the three of them, who were all rigid, her pointed face cracked into a crooked, malicious, smile.
"Oh, hello, Clavereaux. Ollivander." She turned to Travis. "Morron. I see we have class together."
The three of them said nothing, but Travis was fuming.
"What? Not going to say 'hello?' How impolite." The three other Slytherins sniggered, the other black haired girl laughing the loudest.
Ethilina went on and on, eventually taking her seat beginning to get bored of Terry, Travis, and Alia. Soon, the rest of the class filed in and the last student who entered was closely followed by a woman with a drawn out, thin, pale face and black untidy hair.
"Good afternoon, class," said the woman in an exasperated voice. The class chanted back a "good afternoon" back. "I am your teacher, Professor Mourn. Today, we will be studying in the moon. We are lucky the moon is sometimes visible during the day, or else I would have to have you all come back tonight. If you will all peer into your telescopes and look toward the moon. It's over those two mountains, there. That's it." The class all stuck on eye to the lens of the telescopes.
"Today, the moon is almost a new moon. Just almost there but not quite," said Professor Mourn, glazing up into the sky. She was right. Terry could just see just a sliver of the moon. Nothing more.
"Howmuchcanyouteachabout a ruddy moon!" said Travis through gritted teeth, as they got out of the classroom. They then went down five flights of stairs and went to Professor Dannersham's classroom.
After that class, they went to dinner. Tonight, it was stew. Travis spooned stew into his bowl and began to devour it in the usual way. Gary joined them shortly, and bored them all stupid explaining about Jabius the Jumpy, a historian he had just learned about in History of Magic.
"Anyway, he was always very on edge. So, one night, he went to bed and his wife came home and just kind of haphazardly dropped her traveling cloak on him without meaning to. Well, he went berserk. He thought it was a Lethifold and started shooting Patronuses everywhere. One hit his wife and she was in St. Mungo's for a week."
Everyone around Gary stared at him; mouths wide open in bored astonishment.
"Well, I thought it was funny," said Gary and he ladled some stew into his bowl in a stiff manner. Gary didn't say much to them for the rest of the night. Instead, he decided to start talking to Naria Webster.
When Terry felt full, he asked Travis and Alia if they wanted to go practice more charms out of the books he had gotten from the library.
"Sure, why not?" said Alia. She had to drag Travis by the shoulders to get him away from his bowl. He eventually got up and went with them to the common room.
Terry decided to try Locomotion Charms tonight. Midnight, like she had done with Alia's eraser, chased the beetle Terry had found and was making scuttle around the room. Terry eventually became uninterested in the Charm and pulled out his pack of Exploding Snap cards. He used the Auto-Tasking Charm to shuffle them and Alia, Davis, Jim, Benjamin, and Travis (who had no clue what Exploding Snap was) all joined the game.
Travis soon learned what Exploding Snap was. He was the first one to get the first explosion of the game. His face was covered in black ash and soot. He looked surprised with his eyes wide and the whites of his eyes so visible compared with black.
Around eleven, Davis and Benjamin turned in. Jim went off around midnight. At around twelve-thirty, Terry, Travis, and Alia went to bed. Terry put on his pajamas on crawled into bed once back in the dormitory.
Terry lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking. He realized that it was already Wednesday. The Wednesday he would be trying out for the Quidditch teams that evening. He all of a sudden felt a feeling of anxious, stomach dropping, nervousness sweep over him. He felt the butterflies in his stomach. One of the feelings he hated the most.
So he sat there for half and hour. What position will I try out for? he asked himself. Maybe Chaser. Fraton always let me be Chaser. "No," said another voice in his head. I never really liked being Keeper. And my arms are sticks. I could never hit a Bludger. Then it hit him like a Bludger. Seeker! I'll try out for Seeker.
He turned over in bed. He slowly drifted off into sleep.
He didn't remember the dream much later when he thought back on it the following morning.All he remembered was the colors blue, yellow, and gold, wings, and the number 200. He thought nothing of it and crawled out of bed.
He shuffled sleepily to his trunk and pulled out his robes and donned them. His eyes were still heavy with slumber and his vision was fuzzy.
He went down the stairs and, in his blurry vision, he saw a gray blur sitting in the lap of a black slender something with golden yellow on the top of it. Terry rubbed his eyes and realized what he had seen was Midnight sitting in Alia's lap. Alia was holding three rolls of parchment.
"'Morning!" said Alia when she saw him. Midnight jumped up and scuttled over to him. She wove in and out of his legs, purring. "This came for you." She handed him one of the three rolls of parchment.
Come to the Quidditch pitch at six o'clock this evening. If you will, wear some light weight clothing as to help you to be quicker on a broom.
Braile Soan
Terry folded the paper and put it in the inside pocket of his robes. He noticed that Alia had the same letter and another one, an extra one, was in her hand too.
"What's that for?" asked Terry.
"Oh!" said Alia. She folded the paper and put it in her robes like Terry had. "It's for Travis. He's trying out too."
Terry was dumbstruck.
"Travis? Our Travis? Travis Norron? That Travis?" he asked.
"Yes, that Travis. He's going out for Beater. He finally mastered balance on that broom yesterday. He said he was always good at some Muggle game where you hit a ball with a bat so I told him Beater would be perfect," said Alia matter-of-factly.
Just then, a disheveled Travis hobbled down the stairs, stiff legged and dull faced. His mouth was hanging open and his hair was in his eyes.
"Ah, I slept—" he yawned "—like a baby last night." He came and sat down by Terry.
Alia rummaged in her robes and found the letter for Travis. "Here you are. This came for you this morning." She handed it to him.
Travis read it and it took him a minute to have a handle on what it meant. "The tryouts are tonight? I was hoping to get more practice by then!"
"Sorry, mate," said Terry. He hoped Travis wouldn't make a fool of himself on the Quidditch field.
After their lessons and an early dinner, the three of them walked down the sloping lawn to the Quidditch pitch. The stadium was guarded by a rot iron fence. Terry, Travis, and Alia went through it and went into the stands. Fifteen other people were there. A single Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw and four Hufflepuffs. Terry recognized four people there. James Potter, Logan Renfield, and to his horrible discomfort Ethilina and her black haired friend.
Terry looked down at the field. It was lush and green and the goal posts looked like they had just been polished because they gleamed brightly.
Terry, Travis, and Alia all noticed Ethilina and sat as far away from her as they could. As soon as they sat down, Madam Soan came out onto the field with four other students. She was carrying a clipboard large purple megaphone and she spoke into it.
"Good evening, students," her booming voice said. "Thank you for deciding to try out for your house Quidditch team. May I introduce the team captains for the teams? Taylor Kinsburn of Gryffindor." A tall boy with sleek brown hair waved up at the crowd. "Michael Colphford of Slytherin." An almost pencil thin pale boy with rings under his eyes smirked and nodded. "Harold Gatric of Hufflepuff." A pudgy boy smiled and waved. "And Marigold Raymond of Ravenclaw." A girl with brown braids winked at the crowd.
"We will see you alphabetically. Starting with" she looked down at the clipboard she was carrying "Blaire Blecman! Who is trying out for Chaser for Hufflepuff." Blaire scored eight out of ten goals.
After Blaire came another student and then...
"Next we have, trying out for the Ravenclaw Beater, Alia Clavereaux!"
Alia was fantastic. Harold Gatric and Taylor Kinsburn, who were both Beaters, shot Bludgers at her and she hit each one with great force. Once, she almost hit Ethilina with a Bludger and claimed it was an accident. She got away with it.
Nine tryouts later, Travis was up. Terry had to give it to him. He was pretty good. Not pretty good. Exceptional! He was able to hit most of the Bludgers and had good aim when he was supposed to try and hit a moving target with it.
"Very good, Mr Norron," said Madam Soan when he had finished. "Next we have Terry Ollivander trying out for the Ravenclaw Seeker."
He went out onto the field and took the broom Marigold Raymond handed him.
"Terry, correct?" asked Marigold.
"Yeah" said Terry absentminded.
Marigold smiled. "I'm going to charm these walnuts we've painted gold to fly around the stadium. Catch as many as you can in a minute. Ready?"
Terry nodded.
"Alright, then." She pointed her wand at a piled of golden walnuts and used a very advanced Levitation Charm. They all shot up, hovered in the air for a second, and they all zoomed off in opposite directions. "Mount your broom." Terry did. "We'll start the timer in threetwoone!"
Terry shot off from the ground and went twenty feet into the air. It was delightfully cool. He felt the wind whip past his face in a slow breeze. He looked around. He could see little glints of gold everywhere. He saw one three yards away from him and shot after it. He was a foot away when he clamped his fingers on it. He opened his hand. The walnut was brown again. Now Terry got it. If he caught a walnut, it would return to normal so Madam Soan could calculate properly.
Terry didn't waste time after that. He got a firmer grip on his broom and rushed around the stadium. He saw anther walnut and caught it. Then another. Then there were four walnuts. Five. Eleven. Fifteen—no—sixteen. Terry lost count. After a tiny while, all the walnuts dropped out of the sky and landed on the grass. Madam Soan used a Summoning Charm to round up all the walnuts and counted them all out.
"Eighteen out of twenty!" exclaimed Madam Soan. "You may go, Ollivander."
Terry made his way to the stands. He sat back down next to Travis and Alia.
"You were great, Terry!" squealed Alia.
"That was cool!" said Travis.
When it was Ethilina's turn to get on a broomstick, Terry, Travis, and Alia all stared intently at her. She was taking a stab at Seeker for Slytherin. She caught nineteen walnuts out of twenty. Terry hated the fact she was better than him. Near nine o'clock, the last student tried out. Madam Soan pulled out her megaphone again.
"Thank you! I have made my decision. I will post it up outside the stadium. Look at it on the way out. You may go."
There was a rush to get to the rot iron gate. When Terry, Travis, and Alia made it there, they read.
Gryffindor
Rhonda Haroldman – Chaser
James Potter – Seeker
Slytherin
Carol Densor – Chaser
Jacelyn Goyle – Chaser
Ethilina Malfoy – Seeker
Hufflepuff
Blaire Blecman – Chaser
Vincent Abberly – Beater
Logan Renfield – Chaser
Ravenclaw
Natasha Skile –Chaser
Alia Clavereaux – Beater
Travis Norron – Beater
Terry Ollivander – Seeker