Disclaimer – All of the characters belong to J.K. Rowling and are a product of her wonderful imagination and creativity. Well except for Jaden – she's a product of my imagination and limited creativity.
A/N – Nattie88 – thanks for the feedback. I fixed the review thing and I know that Snape is a little OOC, but there is a reason for it.
Fly
Harry sat a table in the Gryffindor common room drawing up a schedule for the up coming Quidditch tryouts. It was the middle of September and Harry wanted to start early. Especially since the team had lost a lot of players the year before. Harry looked at the positions that were up for grabs and sighed. As team captain it was his decision as to who to let back on the team without a tryout and who would have to tryout again. This year it was only Ron and Ginny that would have for sure spots of the team. He knew that some people thought that he was biased, but the truth was Ron and Ginny were the only two players on the team that Harry had full confidence in. Ron proved himself to be an excellent keeper in fifth year and had only gotten better since. Harry had known all along that Ginny was quick on a broom, but had also just proved herself in her fourth year. Harry looked at the schedule once more before walking over to the bulletin board and posting the notice. As he walked past the window something, or someone rather, outside caught his eye. He stopped and watched as someone zoomed around the Quidditch pitch whacking a bludger with great force. But it was the gold and maroon scarf around the person's neck that had him flying out of the common room and down towards the field.
"Jaden!" Harry exclaimed in astonishment when he reached the field. Jaden was the last person, next to Hermione, that Harry would have ever expected to see on a broom, let alone beating a bludger.
"Hold on Harry!" Jaden yelled whizzing by him and catching the rowdy bludger. Then with some difficulty she managed to get it back into the box. When she turned around Harry was still in shock.
"Where did you learn to do that?" Harry asked walking over to her.
"Picked it up at my old school," she said with a shrug, her face flushed from the wind. "I'm usually a seeker, but I hear that Gryffindor already has a pretty good one." She winked at Harry who blushed. "I figured that if I wanted to get onto this team then I better get out the old bat and practice. Professor McGonagall was nice enough to let me borrow the balls."
"She'll do anything, well almost anything that will help Gryffindor win. We've won the past two years so she feels that she needs to keep it up so she can hold it over Snape." Jaden laughed.
"Rivalries run deep here."
"You got that right! So you are coming out for the team?" Harry asked to get the subject back onto her.
"Wouldn't miss it!"
"Good! I can honestly say that from what I saw that you are on the team, unless Neville improved hugely and someone else comes out of nowhere, you have nothing to worry about."
"Brilliant!"
"So you used to be a seeker?" Harry asked as he helped her carry the ball case back to McGonagall's office.
"I am a seeker, but as I said I figured that I wouldn't have a chance with that here, so I thought that maybe I could be a beater. My ex-boyfriend was one on my team at my old school and we would practice together during our free time. I would teach him some of my skills and he would teach me his."
"He was a good teacher. You know, even though I am the team's seeker, I am also the captain and being the captain means that I have to have the team's best interest in mind and not just my own. If you think that you could be a better seeker than me I'm more than willing to give you a tryout for that."
"Are you challenging me Harry Potter?" Jaden said looking at him and arching an eyebrow while Harry laughed.
"Seriously if you want a seeker tryout I'll give you one. I just want to win so I don't care who plays what position."
"That's good that you have the team's interest in mind. That's very admirable. How about this – I'll go for a beater position now and if for some reason there are three really good beaters then maybe I'll challenge you for your seeker position. I might do that anyways just for fun, once I'm on the team."
"Just let me know when. I love a good challenge." Harry said as the pair reached McGonagall's office. Jaden knocked.
"Come in! Oh Mr. Potter I wasn't expecting to see you with Miss. McAllister," Professor McGonagall said from behind her desk.
"I saw her practicing and had to go out and see who it was and force her to tryout."
"Always thinking of the team Mr. Potter, that's excellent. We've won the past two years. I'm hoping to make it three in a row."
"Same here Professor."
"Thank you for letting me practice, Professor," Jaden said as she and Harry placed the case down.
"I'm just glad that it paid off. From the sounds of it, I should be welcoming you to the team. But we will save that for after official tryouts." Jaden laughed as her and Harry left McGonagall's office.
"You surprise me Jaden," Harry said as they walked back to Gryffindor Tower.
"How's that?"
"You didn't strike me as the flying type and definitely not the Quidditch playing type!"
"Oh really? Well there are a lot of things that you don't know about me."
"Apparently," Harry said as they reached the Fat Lady.
"Password?" She said as she eyed the two.
"Quidditch," Jaden said as the portrait hole swung open. They walked in to find a huge group of people gathered around the bulletin board.
"I guess they saw my tryout poster. Hopefully we get a good turn out." Harry said as he walked over to where Ron, Ginny and Hermione were sitting working.
"Oy Harry!" Ron said looking up. "Have a bunch of people coming out tomorrow."
"That's good," Harry said sitting down. "We need a lot of people, then hopefully we will find some good chasers to help Ginny out."
"We also need two beaters," Ginny said. "Well one, if Neville has improved, which I think he has. He said that he practiced all summer long."
"That's good to hear, but we only need one now." Harry said shooting Jaden a smile.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked joining in the conversation.
"Well Jaden is one of our new beaters, unless for some reason two people are better than her and I highly doubt that." Harry answered.
"What!" Hermione said looking at Jaden. "You play Quidditch?"
"That I do," Jaden said with a laugh. "I'm usually a seeker, but that position is already taken," she said hitting Harry lightly. "So I had to come up with a new position to play and beater is really the only other one that I've had some experience in."
"Jaden that's wicked!" Ron said beaming at her.
"This is such good news!" Ginny said ecstatically. "I was nervous about our team this year, but this has definitely taken some of the pressure off!"
"I know what you mean Gin," Harry said leaning back in his chair. "I can honestly say that from what I saw tonight I haven't seen a better beater since Fred and George."
"That's some compliment," Ron said laughing, even though he was serious.
"Congratulations," Hermione said less than excited for Jaden. To Hermione this was just one more thing that Jaden had over her and that she could use to become closer to Harry and Ron with. She had already become too close to them for her liking. She was beginning to like this Jaden McAllister less and less each day. There was something that she couldn't figure out about her, but she was determined to find it out. Hermione tuned out her friends conversation and become consumed by her own thoughts as the conversation around her turned to Quidditch.
"How about a game of exploding snap?" Ginny said awhile later.
"I'm game," Ron said.
"Me too," Harry said pulling his chair up. "Jaden? Hermione? Either of you in?"
"No I think that I'm going to go upstairs and get some more of my work done," Jaden said getting up to leave.
"You sure?" Ron asked wanting her to stay.
"Yeah I won't get any work done down here. I get easily distracted."
"Oh ok. Well come on down later when you are finished."
"I will," Jaden said as she took off up the stairs to her room.
"What about you Hermione?" Ginny asked pulling out an exploding snap deck.
"I think that I'm also going to finish my work," Hermione answered looking back down at her half finished parchment.
"They almost make me feel guilty about not doing my work," Ron said shaking his head.
"Yeah, almost," Harry said with a laugh as he, Ginny and Ron started to play. It was a couple hours later when Jaden made her way back down stairs. She was in her pajama's, orange cotton pants with green turtles on them and an orange tank top.
"So who won?" She asked as she took a seat next to Ron.
"Ummm… Gin… Ginny," Ron stuttered as he looked at Jaden.
"Congrats Gin! Way to put these boys in their place."
"What can I say? I try," Ginny said with a light laugh as she cast a sideways glance at her brother who was still looking at Jaden intently.
"How's the work going Hermione?" Jaden asked looking over at Hermione whose head was down in concentration.
"Hmmm?" Hermione asked looking up.
"You almost finished?" Jaden asked again.
"Yeah, just have a couple more inches to go. Shouldn't take too long." Hermione answered.
"That's good. Well I just came down to say goodnight," Jaden said getting up. "Have to be rested for tomorrow."
"You better be! You two as well," Harry said looking at Ron and Ginny. "I'm expecting your best performances tomorrow." Ron looked at Ginny and rolled his eyes while she laughed.
"Yes captain," Ron said getting up and saluting Harry. "That means that I should head up now as well."
"I should head up as well," Ginny said. "You going Hermione?"
"No I think that I'm going to stay down here and finish this up."
"Oh ok," Ginny said following Jaden, Ron and Harry up the stairs. "Good night."
"Night Gin!" Hermione said turning back to her work.
"Well have a good sleep boys," Jaden said as she waved goodnight and headed into the girl's dormitory.
"You to," Harry said as he, Ron and Ginny stood on the stairs.
"I'm glad that we became friends with her," Ginny said out loud to herself.
"Me to," Ron said looking at the door which Jaden had just closed.
"It's kind of strange though," Harry mused. "How quickly we became friends. When I met her on the train there was like an instant connection between us. It was like I'd known her all my life. I felt instantly comfortable around her."
"I know what you mean mate," Ron said slapping Harry on the back. "There's just something about her."
"Well I'll let you two keep discussing Jaden, but I'm going to go to bed. See you tomorrow," Ginny said giving her brother a hug. "Love you."
"Love you to, Gin," Ron said hugging his sister back and placing a kiss on her head. In the past couple years they had gotten very close. Ron had always had a protective instinct over Ginny, more so than any of her other brothers, but that didn't stop them from being the best of friends, even though it led to the odd fight now and again.
When the morning came all the talk was about the days Quidditch tryouts. Ron and Harry walked into the Great Hall to find Ginny and Jaden already there and deep in conversation.
"I'm curious to know how many people come out for the team," Jaden said sipping a glass of water.
"I'm sure a lot will," Ginny said. "Quidditch is huge here and everyone wants to be on their house's team."
"It was like that at my old school. It got to the point where each guy player had their own group of fans, like groupies for a rock band. They would come to everything, practices included, and follow them around the school."
"You didn't have any groupies?" Ginny asked with a giggle.
"Nah," Jaden said with a laugh.
"The only people here who really have any groupies are the two walking up to us now," Ginny motioned towards Ron and Harry. "And Draco Malfoy of Slytherin has some. For some reason the girls find him "irresistible" or something," Ginny said rolling her eyes.
"Why are you discussing Malfoy?" Harry asked as he sat down.
"Ginny was just explaining to me which Quidditch players have groupies here," Jaden said with a light laugh.
"Groupies?" Ron asked in confusion.
"Fans, that follow you everywhere."
"Oh I see. I don't think that anyone except for Harry really has those."
"You do to apparently," Jaden said nudging him.
"Oh really?"
"Ron you know that you do. That group of fifth years that come to every practice with the "Weasley is our King" sign and the... "Ron is the keeper… of our hearts" sign." Ginny said through laughs as her brother's ears went bright pink.
"Oh yeah… forgot about them."
"Harry's the one with the real groupies though, has had them ever since first year." Ginny explained.
"Well who wouldn't be a groupie of the infamous Harry Potter if given the chance?" Jaden said batting her lashed at Harry.
"Oh shut it!" Harry said blushing.
"You should be happy to have groupies. I wish I had groupies!" Jaden said laughing.
"I'll be your groupie," Ron said laughing.
"Wicked!" Jaden said throwing her arms around him and giving his cheek a kiss. Ginny and Harry stopped laughing and looked at the look on Ron's face, which was a mixture of shock and pure happiness. This however, Jaden didn't seem to notice as she continued to eat her breakfast.
"Why is it so quiet?" Hermione asked as she sat down. "I would have thought that the conversation would have been filled with Quidditch talk, not that I'm upset that it isn't mind you."
"We were just discussing groupies," Ginny explained to Hermione. "Apparently at Jaden's old school Quidditch was such a huge deal that almost each player had their own little fan base that followed them around everywhere."
"Oh really?" Hermione said looking over at Jaden.
"Yeah it was only the male players really. You know how girls can be, all love struck and crazy," Jaden said with a laugh.
"Amen to that!" Harry said lifting his glass, as he did he caught sight of his watch. "Shit!"
"Harry don't swear," Hermione hissed.
"I'm sorry, but we are late!" He said jumping out of his seat. The other's minus Hermione followed suit. "Come watch when you are done if you like!" Harry shouted at her as they bolted out of the Great Hall and towards the Quidditch pitch. "Sorry everyone!" Harry called as they reached it and noticed that everyone was there. "Got a bit caught up in breakfast and such. Anyhow everyone gather round. So today as you all know we are looking for a couple chasers and beaters. First we are going to try out the people who would like to be chasers first and then move onto the beaters afterwards. Ron is going to go up to the goals and Ginny and I are going to put you into teams of three and see how well you work together as a team as well as your skill level. This year I'm going to stress the importance of unity on the team. We really need to make sure that we are all there for each other at all times. Remember that there is no "I" in team. With that, is everybody ready?" Harry looked around and everyone nodded. "Alright then let's do this!" Harry said as he organized the people trying out into groups.
The tryouts took a couple of hours to run. Harry wanted to make sure that he knew exactly what everyone trying out was capable of doing so he gave everyone more than one try and by the end of the day he felt that he had a good grasp on who would be best suited for the team.
"Ron, Ginny can I talk to you two for a minute?" Harry called as everyone was leaving the dressing room.
"Sure Harry, what's up?" Ron asked as he walked over towards his best friend.
"I just want your opinion on who should be picked for the team, especially you Gin since you have to work so closely with two of them."
"Jaden and Neville were by far the best beaters. I mean those fifth years weren't bad, but Jaden and Neville were better," Ginny said thinking about who had tried out for a position as a beater.
"I agree," Ron said nodding. "I can honestly say that I did not expect Jaden to be that good. She didn't strike me as the type that would fly around on a broom, but she's very good and Neville has improved a lot."
"So those two as the team's beaters and what do you think of Seamus and Dean filling out the chaser positions?" Harry asked looking down at the list of names that he had on a clip board.
"I think that they are the right ones to chose," Ginny said as Ron nodded.
"So I guess we have our team then!" Harry said with a clap. "I don't mean to sound cocky, but I think that we have a winning team this year, at least from what I've seen so far we do."
"I'd say that we do as well!" Ron said as the trio walked out of the change room.
Title Song – Fly by Sugar Ray