Chapter 10: A Plot for Sweet Revenge

When we entered the common room the next morning there was a crowd around the message board. Pushing my way closer so I could see, I stood on tip-toe to read the new message.

Quidditch Try-Outs

All Quidditch try-outs will be held this evening down on the Quidditch field from 3-6 PM. Please arrive promptly at 3. Try-outs are open to all of the school. First Years are reminded that they rarely make the team and not to be discouraged. There is always next year.

Sincerely,

Fleur Delacour

Deputy Headmistress

Head of Gryffindor House

"What does it say, Riley?" Lauran asked me eagerly.

"Quiditch try-outs are today!" I replied happily. Then, getting an idea, I smiled evilly. "Yes, we have an idea. An evil plot to get Lilly back for all she's done since we got to Hogwarts. Mwahh haa haa," I laughed my evil laugh. Okay, okay I tried anyway.

Spencer ran down the stairs at that moment. He nearly ran over some 3rd year girls. "Sorry. Hey, Riley what's that about? That's a lot of people it is."

"Only what I've been waiting for the whole year. Quidditch try-outs! I'm going. Anyone else want to come?" I replied excitedly.

"No duh, we're coming. All of us." Celeste replied like it was the most obvious question in the world, "Now what's your 'evil plot'? And how will we not get caught?"

"Oh, it's simple really. Lily has been bragging all year about being able to fly really well. We all know that's not true. So, here's the plan…" I explained it to them in hushed tones.

As 3 'o clock neared I started searching everywhere for Lily. Most of the time I avoided her, but today I needed to find her. I checked the Great Hall, Library, upstairs classrooms, and the nearby grounds. I was getting tired of looking when I finally saw her come up out of the dungeons with a lot of other Slytherins. It was perfect. Now she couldn't refuse.

"Lily! LILY!" I screamed as I ran towards her. "Lily, are you trying out for Quidditch tonight? You're such a great player. Come on. Your house needs you, right?" I knew she was lousy, but if I said that my plan would backfire.

"Um… I don't think I will. No, definitely not. I don't want to have an unfair advantage over the others," She tried to weasel her way out of it nobly, but I would make her fail miserably.

"But since you have such a natural talent it wouldn't be unfair. It would be even fairer." I insisted.

"Yeah," some kid spoke up. I recognized him as Logan Malfoy. "It wouldn't be unfair. And since your so good and everything, or is that all talk?"

Nice job Malfoy! This kid wasn't as bad as I thought he might be. Wait… did I just say that about a Malfoy? Never mind, I take it back, all of it!

"Come on Lily. Or are you chicken? Oh, my poor sister is scared." I continued to bug her about it in a mock sympathetic voice.

"I don't have a broom though," She knew this was her last chance. Oh, but did I bust it!

"Lily, don't be an imbecile! They have brooms for you to use. You have to go. Come on!" I told her. She had no way of backing out now. I had won.

"Fine I'll go, if I must. But I bet that I get on my house's team and you don't get on yours." She bet stupidly. She always had.

"It's a deal. See you later. I've got to go find Spencer. Where could he be?" I had struck a nerve. She must have liked Spencer or something. And she was mad about the Quidditch try-outs. Anyway she glared at me. If looks could kill, then I'd be dead and buried right now. My blood seemed to freeze, but I met her glare without blinking.

"See you loser." She spat at me, breaking her gaze. I had won twice in five minutes! That had to be a record. I LOVED school!

Chapter 11: Quidditch Try-outs

Celeste and Lauren were in the dormitory when I walked in. I was smiling bigger than ever before.

"Did she fall for it?" Celeste asked eagerly, "Wait, no, don't tell me. The look on your face says it all."

"Hook, line, and sinker," I said happily. The truth was that I didn't quite get that expression since I had never gone fishing. But one of my muggle teachers had used it often.

"Um, right, so we have to complete the plan now?" Lauren asked me.

"No duh. What else would we do? I need to get my broom and then we can go." I started over to my trunk when the latches undid themselves and the lid flew open. My broom went flying across the room and into my hand. The smile fell off my face. "Oh, shoot. Not again. Why must I do that? Wait, why can I do that?"

Celeste and Lauren played dumb. "Do what?" Lauren asked like nothing had happened. I knew they had seen though.

"Oh, never mind. Let's go!" I slid down the stair rail. And when I reached the bottom Spencer was there and saw me coming. He dodged out of the way before I went sailing into him.

"Nice, Riley. You may want to tone it down a bit though. Save your energy for later." He was laughing as he helped me up off the floor. Unfortunately I hadn't perfected my landing and was sitting on the floor on my butt.

"I need to work on that landing." I said sadly rubbing where I had smacked my back on the ground, "That hurt. Oh, well. I'm ready. What about you?"

"Yeah, let's go." He replied still laughing. Celeste and Lauren had gotten down the stairs, in the normal walking way, unharmed.

Celeste rolled her eyes at me as if to say how immature I was acting. But she could barely hold back a smile. I knew she would dearly love to go sliding down a stair rail.

I rolled my eyes back and we left to go down to the Quidditch Pitch. The Quidditch Pitch was filled with hordes of students with brooms and it wasn't even three yet.

"Holy crap, look at that. How're we going to beat out all of those people?" Lauren asked awed.

"Well," I started, "They are doing one general try-out for the whole school. We only have to beat out a fourth of them. I assume we'll separate into houses as soon as try-outs start. But we'd better go in now."

No sooner had we gone into the pitch then four robed figures walked into the announcer's booth. They were the Quidditch captains. A fifth or sixth year girl, the Ravenclaw captain, with raven black hair was dressed in blue robes. The green robed figure was a sixth or seventh year boy who looked quite dumb. He was the Slytherin captain. The purple robed figure had curly brown hair. She was the Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain. The final figure was the one my eyes were glued to. He was the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. Dressed in red robes, he had brownish-blonde hair and was only a second year. However, he seemed to hold the most respect. All he had to do was raise his hand and the whole Pitch fell silent.

"He's kind of cute, don't you think?" Lauren whispered to Celeste.

"Cute? He's downright hot!" Celeste whispered back, "Now shut up! He's going to say something."

Sure enough he started talking. "May I have your attention please?"

"THIS GUY IS EITHER POLITE OR AN IDIOT. HE ALREADY HAS OUR ATTENTION," I couldn't help thinking.

"Thank you. As you can tell we don't have enough room to hold all of your try-outs right here. So we are going to split you up into houses. Hufflepuff will be down by the lake, Slytherin on the practice field, Ravenclaw by the games keeper's hut, and Gryffindor right here. Each house goes out a separate door. Then when you've all gotten to the proper place we can hold try-outs." He explained.

The students started filing their way out of the Pitch. We pushed our way to the center of the pitch. I caught a glimpse of my sister glaring at me. I made a face at her as she was pulled off into the crowd.

"Um, okay. I think we'll have a very interesting year, especially if some of you get on the team." The Gryffindor Captain said looking pointedly at Celeste and Lauran who both had drool coming out of their mouths. "By the way, my name is Colby Seaworth. I'm the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. Let's get started!"

First years were the last to try-out. All the older house members had already gone when my turn came up. I was slightly nervous but was very confident of my self. I knew I could make the team.

"Name plea…" Colby had started to say when we heard a scream and some shouts, "What the heck was that?"

I, of course, already knew. It was my sister attempting to fly. Trying not to smile or laugh I replied, "Must be some poor person attempting to try-out, sounds like it's coming from the practice field. I'm going to see if I can do anything."

I hopped on my broom and soared off. Within seconds I heard someone flying right behind me. Looking back over my shoulder I saw it was Colby. He looked concerned. I spied an object way over my head flying out of control and going higher every second.

"Oh, shoot. If she goes any higher…" I said to myself trailing off. I soared higher than I ever had before. The climb was steep but if I was going to reach her in time…

"Go back down!" Colby shouted from somewhere below, "I'll get them."

"No way," I shouted back, "I have a suspicious feeling that's my sister! You go get help, NOW!"

"Fine," he said going into a steep dive and zooming down to the ground.

I thought how stupid I had been tricking her to try-out. Another plot, ruined and blown up in my face, I really need to think these out more…

"Help, Riley. Someone, Anyone, HELP ME!" Lily cried out, "I don't care who you are just help me!"

"Hold on Lily, I'm almost to you!" I yelled back at her. Now my stomach was in my throat. I'd get blamed for this if my parents found out, even if I hadn't made her try-out. I'd be in big trouble.

I finally got within reaching length of her. I saw that she had passed out from lack of oxygen that resulted from flying too high. I pulled her safely onto my broom and fought to keep consciousness myself. I was going to pass out too if I wasn't careful. I had to get lower quickly. Grabbing the broom I shot in to a vertical dive fighting to keep conscious.

I neared the ground, pulled out of the dive and let go of my sister, rolling off the broom. Then my vision blurred and I blacked out.

I woke an hour later in the hospital wing. My head hurt and I felt like I had been sat on by an elephant. I ached horribly all over, but my ribs back hurt the worst. My vision was slightly blurry and I struggled to sit up.

"She's awake Lauran, or I think so." Celeste said softly. Or to her it seemed softly. To me it sounded like a trumpet blast in my ear. At least it cleared my vision, and my head.

"Oh good lordy, don't talk so blasted loud, Celeste. I hurt enough already." I said crossly.

"Yup, she's awake," Spencer said laughingly.

I strained to sit up but gave up because it hurt so badly. Instead I rolled my head around to look at Celeste.

"What happened to Lily? Is she dead, wait that's not possible! It would bring me too much joy." I demanded Celeste to give me information.

"She's fine, came right to after you hit the ground and walked away without looking back or asking to see if you would be okay. Honestly, though that was a spectacular dive if I've ever seen one! Oh, you made the team, Seeker. Colby seemed impressed. He'll probably come in any minute now checking to see if you're up. He seemed pretty keen on you getting better." She looked at Spencer pointedly as she said this. If he had any reaction I didn't see it since it took a lot of strain to move my neck.

"Yes! What about you guys? Did you make the team?" I asked excitedly.

"We're not sure yet." Spencer said. "Most of the team will be posted tonight. We'll find out then. How do you feel?"

"Like I hit the ground at ninety miles an hour and then was sat on by an elephant!" I exclaimed meaning every word.

We all laughed. Well, they laughed and I started to, but it hurt do badly that I stopped very quickly.

"So when can I leave?" I asked them hopefully. I hated anything to do with hospitals.

"As soon as you can walk out of here, dear." A voice said. "Just get up and go. It's a long walk up to Gryffindor Tower though. You may want to be careful." The voice belonged to Madam Samina, the school nurse.

"Okay I'll go now then," I said and sat up.

Spencer and Celeste helped me climb all the stairs to the common room. Lauran led the way looking important. I went to sleep and slept for a few hours. When I woke up I was still quite sore.

Chapter 12: The Second Attempt

I was excited to find out who had made the Quidditch team. I woke up early and went downstairs. (Slowly because I still hurt all over.) I looked at the board and saw that the results hadn't been posted. Confused I went back upstairs to attempt to wake up Celeste and Lauran since they hated getting up early. Surprisingly enough they had just woken up and were getting dressed.

"There you are. Why are you up so early?" Celeste said sleepily, "You don't have to get up at the crack of dawn you know."

"I was checking on the Quidditch team post. Looking to see who had made it. It wasn't there. Do you know why?" I replied confusedly.

"Yup," Lauran said unhappily. "We won't know until today who is on the team since none of the rest of us tried out after your little adventure. We didn't want to leave you. Colby said we could try-out today."

"But you told me that… Oh, never mind." I was still thoroughly confused, "I need to try-out too, right?"

"No, Colby said you didn't have to. You automatically made the team. You were the only one left trying out for Seeker and were a billion times better then anyone else was."

"But, that's not fair, is it? I didn't have to try-out officially or anything. Maybe I could have really bad eyesight or something. I am going to try-out anyways." I informed them.

"And waste your time?" Celeste asked me rolling her eyes, "You and your fairness. You're already on the team. What's the point?"

"The point is to make me feel better. I don't want to feel like I got on the team because I did something stupid and then fixed it. I want to feel like I earned it." There was no point in arguing with me because I had made up my mind.

"Okay, whatever you want to do, Riley." Celeste rolled her eyes again and we headed down to breakfast.

"And you want to try-out because?" Spencer asked me on the way down to the Quidditch pitch, "Honestly Riley, you can be pretty stupid sometimes."

"Oh shut up. Sure I have my fair share of mistakes. FINE! I have more than my fair share of mistakes." I corrected myself after a look from Lauran, "But I am NOT stupid! Might I remind you that I am currently the top of our year? THAT DOESN'T SOUND STUPID TO ME!" I hated when anyone called me stupid. It went back to the days of Lily taunting me during our childhoods.

"Spencer, back away slowly." Lauren told him quickly. "Might I suggest you never call Riley 'stupid' or 'slow' again. Stubborn is a better word."

"Okay." Spencer looked at me apologetically. He had never seen me very angry before. "Sorry, Riles."

"I'm sorry. I do have a stupidity when it comes to common sense. I know you didn't mean it. It's just that I've been called stupid all of my life by my sister, muggle kids, even my parents. I just started proving them wrong." I felt very bad about blowing up slightly okay I basically blew a gasket but whatever.

We walked the rest of the way to the Quidditch pitch in silence. And not content silence either. No this was that horrible awkward silence you get when everyone is afraid to talk. So, all in all, I was relieved when we got to the pitch. Colby seemed oblivious to any awkwardness, poor guy.

"Okay, let's get started. Riley what are you doing here?" Colby asked just noticing that I had come too.

"Well, since I never properly got to try-out, I figured I'd give it a go." I said shrugging.

Colby looked at me then said, "Okay whatever floats your boat. I can tell you love flying. You go first." He pointed at Spencer.

Spencer shot him a weird look and then took off. I looked at Celeste questionably, but she pretended to be absorbed in the try-out. Glancing over at Lauran I figured it best not to bother her. She had turned a peculiar shade of green from nerves. I didn't want to make it worse.

"Okay you next Lauran." Colby said once Spencer was on the ground again.

Lauran took a deep breath and grabbed the club Colby was handing her. She was trying-out as a Beater. She was perfectly fine after taking off and preformed perfectly. Celeste got increasingly more nervous as Lauran's try-out neared the end.

Soon it was her turn and I stood by myself. Spencer was being sulky and had gone into the stands to 'get a better view of my try-out'. Lauran had to go to the bathroom and Celeste was up in the air with Colby throwing stuff for her to hit. All too soon Lauran had come back and gone up with Celeste into the stands. I stood on the ground waiting for Colby to get the snitch out of the box. I wished he'd hurry up.

"Okay I'll release it now. Give it thirty seconds and then go after it. Ready? You can try as many times as you like, and you're still on the team. Go!" Colby shouted.

I gave the tiny zooming object a half minutes head start then mounted and zoomed after it. I saw it within five seconds and had caught it within ten. I loved this game. It was so easy but it was fun at the same time.

"Wow! That's impressive. Okay let's see a dive. Catch the ping pong ball before it hits the ground." Colby called to me.

He threw it across the pitch and I watched it start to fall. I had calculated where I would reach it and was off in less then a second. I reached out my hand and swerved at the last second to avoid crashing into the stands. I threw it back to Colby and he dropped it straight down. I dived for it and once again caught it and swerved, this time a foot from the ground.

Colby landed and I threw him the ball. "Wow. You are the best Seeker I've ever seen. You should play professionally. You're good enough to now. You were already on the team, but now I'm not letting you go off the team. You have no choice. You are our new Seeker." He was beaming as he said this.

The others came down from the stands. Spencer looked at me in disbelief. Then I saw him shoot another look at Colby. He didn't like Colby, but why?

"Nice Riley. But you've done better. That last dive was a bit shaky. You need to keep your head down more." A familiar voice said behind me. I whirled around to see my dad walking across the Quidditch Pitch.

Oh snap. Was I in trouble!