Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has to do with Harry Potter… some characters have come from my own imagination!
Chapter 5 – Hidden Talents, Hidden Voices
"Are you sure you posted the flyers?" Ron asked. Harry had appointed Ron Captain of the team since he couldn't exactly be there.
"Yup!" Ginny said. "I posted them up all over the Gryffindor common room as soon as Dean and Hermione had finished. Dean had drawn another lion like the one he drew for me on Christmas." Over the summer Ginny had started to fancy Dean. Ever since she broke up that fool, Michael Corner, she quickly moved on to the next best thing in her mind. Dean and Ginny had started dating soon after school had started.
Ron had reserved the Quidditch pitch as soon as he could soon the team could start tryouts so they could find a new seeker.
"And you're sure you put the right date on them?" Ron asked. He started pacing the Quidditch pitch. No one had arrived yet, and Ron was apprehensive no one had gotten the flyer, or that no one sought to be seeker.
The rest of the Gryffindor team were all inside the Gryffindor change room trying to keep their selves warm. It was just the beginning of February but it was still freezing outside. It had started snowing that morning and still hasn't stopped. The snow was gradually pilling together making it appallingly uneasy to walk through. Luckily for Ron, Hermione had made a little clearing in the pitch making it easier for everyone to get around the pitch.
"Ron, calm yourself!" Ginny smiled, rubbing her hands together for warmth. "I put the right date on it! They're all probably just… just having a hard time walking over here."
"You better be right!" Ron grunted. Ron turned around, facing his sister. He could hear people approaching the pitch.
Around the corner of the pitch, Gryffindor students started to file their way onto the pitch. They were all wearing layers and layers of clothing, trying to keep their selves warm outside in the cold.
Most of them were holding the schools brooms, which were slow and very jumpy. Among them stood Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Colin Creevey, and Neville Longbottom. Ron marched slowly through the snow, towards them. "Where the hell have you people been? Tryouts started 15 minutes ago." Ron demanded walking towards of them.
A forth year girl slowly step forward and spoke. "Well the broom cupboard in the school wouldn't open so we had to wait half an hour for it to open. It kept yelling out foal names at us and said it wouldn't open unless we gave it the magic words." The girl stepped back. She stood there wondering whether or not she should have said "Sir" at the end of her sentence.
Colin Creevey nodded. "It's true; the cupboard said we had to say the magic words!"
Ron cried. "You people are bloody witches and wizards! How do you not know the magic words!"
"Lay off, Ron. We're here now." Dean chuckled. "Besides it kinda to a while took us a while to get through all that snow."
Ron looked around at the snow. The snow made it up to Ron's elbows. He shook his head. "Still it isn't an excuse for not coming on time!" Ron left the pitch and walked over to the Gryffindor change room to tell the rest of the team to come outside soon. Ron returned to the field with a bucket full of gold balls.
Ron looked around at his fellow Gryffindors. Neville's broom flew out of his grip so he spent a couple minutes chasing the broom around the clearing. Dean and Seamus were throwing snowballs the size of a bowling balls at each other, while the fourth year girl was struggling to pull out a seventh year boy who had fallen into the wall of snow behind him and couldn't get out. "Well this is gonna take a while… OKAY!" He muttered. After a short pause, he raised his voice so everyone could hear him. "I'm just gonna want you to fly, and show me what you're made of. Then I'll pair you up with the Gryffindor team, and—"
"WAIT! Wait for me!" Jessie came running onto the pitch with Draco's Nimbus 2001 in hand. "Sorry I'm late, I kinda just decided to tryout and I wanted to use Draco's broom so yeah… Did I mention I was sorry I was late?" Jessie's tan face was pink from the cold. Her dark strawberry-blonde hair that went past her shoulders were scattered with little snowflakes.
The rest of the Gryffindors waited for Ron to start yelling at Jessie too for being late, but it didn't come. Ron just nodded and motioned her to join the rest of the group.
Dean frowned. "Aren't you gonna yell at her too for being late!"
Ron quickly turned to Dean and blushed. Seamus snorted.
"Anyways… Where was I?" Ron asked trying to get his face back to its normal colour.
"You were going to pair us up with the team!" Colin said proudly remembering what Ron had explained before.
Ron looked down at Colin, who was a lot shorter than Ron, although he has grown quite a bit since he first came to Hogwarts. "Err… Right. So yeah, you'll get paired up to see who good you lot are at catching the snitch. The only problem is, is that we don't want to use the actually snitch's since I reckon we'd lose them all. So the team and I'll be throwing these small tiny, umm… golden balls," Ron pulled out a small gold golf ball out of a bucket full, which Hermione had changed gold from their original colour white, so everyone could spot them easier in the snow.
"Golf balls." Jessie corrected.
Ron turned to look at her, confused. "What?"
"That," she pointed at the small gold ball in his hand. "Is a golf ball! Muggles use them to play Golf. It's a game in the Muggle world where muggles would hit that ball trying to get it into a little, tiny hole miles away."
"Right… Why would any one want to waste their time doing that?" Ron muttered. "Well then, with this… erm… golf ball… you will catch them while flying up in the air. The team and I throw them in various places looking to see if you can quickly catch them before they fall in to the snow. If you pick up a golf ball from the snow on the ground it won't count."
Ron directed the people into the air as the Gryffindor team came out onto the pitch.
Ginny watched as Dean and Seamus raced each other down the pitched. She clapped every time Dean made it the other side first.
"NEVILLE! WATCH OUT!" Katie Bell yelled. Every one stopped for a moment watching Neville fly into the middle goal post on the other side of the pitch. Neville fell into the mound of snow below. Katie and Colin rushed over to his side. He yelped in pain as Colin and Katie both carried Neville back to the clearing where every one else stopped to watch.
"I'm going to take him to the hospital wing; Madam Pomfrey's going to want to take a look at his arm." Katie conjured up a floating stretcher and moved Neville onto it before heading to the castle.
Jessie was still standing down at the ground. She still hasn't mounted her broom. She looked up at the sky apprehensive about going up with out Draco for the first time. After a while she took a deep breath she mounted her broom and slowly pushed off the ground slowly flying up into the air.
Seamus laughed. "You sure you know how to handle that thing?" He playfully nudged Dean, twenty feet up in the air.
Jessie forced a smiled; she crouched down closer to the broom mimicking Draco, speeding faster and faster right at Seamus Finnagan. Just feet away, Jessie pulled a quick turn causing Seamus squealing, thinking she was going to crash right into him. Dean, who had the brains to fly away, was laughing his ass off down below on the ground with Ginny hanging onto him for support.
Jessie slowly turned back to Seamus and smiled. Her soft curls were now messy and were all over the place but she still looked great. Seamus was sweating still in shock thinking he could have died colliding with Jessie. Jessie continued to laugh on her way back down to the ground. "That was fun!"
Ginny paused laughing and looked at Jessie, then up at Seamus, who was still heaving like a baby, then back to Jessie. "You're the new seeker!"
Jessie and Dean turned around. "What!"
"Jessie that turn you made was incredible! No one here's able to pull a stunt off like that... Didn't you just learn how to mount a broom?" Ginny asked. "Bloody hell you're a natural!"
"I can't I just learned how to get on a broom. I was just fooling around up there. I probably won't be able to do that again!" Jessie said.
"Yeah she can't do this!" Dean agreed.
Ginny smiled. "And why not, I don't think you can do that without falling off your broom!" Ginny knew how much her boyfriend wanted to be seeker, but she also knew how much he sucked on a broom. "Jessie just needs to practise and she'll be fine."
Jessie just stood there thinking about what Ginny was trying to explain. She had called over the rest of the Gryffindor team telling them about her theory. Dean walked away knowing he doesn't really have a chance any more at being seeker. The rest of the Gryffindors seemed to have completely forgotten about trying out for Gryffindor seeker, they were having a snowball fight, and were all pushing each other into the snow.
"I don't have a broom!" Jessie finally said.
Ginny turned away from the team. "That's okay, you could barrow one from the school."
"If I use a school broom I won't have a chance against Draco's Nimbus 2001." Jessie explained. "Gryffindor's next match is most likely against Slytherin, so if I'm seeker, I won't have a chance against Draco. I could ask my parents for a broom but my mom might not approve. She's kinda afraid that if I get a broom I'll fall off and die… She's a muggle, right, so she isn't exactly sure how a broom even works… but I can try my dad, he's all for quidditch!"
Harry sat in bed listening to Ron, who was yelling at the Gryffindors who were fooling around down below. Neville had just left the Hospital wing, after Madam Pomfrey had mended his arm. Harry was angry with himself having to stay in the Hospital wing with Hermione, and not being able to go down to the pitch practising for Gryffindor's next quidditch match. It wasn't like Harry didn't liking spending more time with Hermione, he just felt useless just sitting there on his bed, while his Gryffindor team mates practised for the Cup.
"It's not your fault you're here." Hermione said, reading Harry's expression. Hermione's been spending all her free time with Harry, but every time she visits he's always depressed about quidditch, and for being stuck in the Hospital wing alone with nothing to do. "There's nothing you can do, Harry. Madam Pomfrey said it's going to take awhile before you get all your strength back."
"I feel fine." Harry muttered.
"No you don't!" Hermione retorted. "You can hardly get out of bed your self to go to the washroom, or even sit up straight with out anyone's help. There is no way you'll be able to get up on a broom stick and play Quidditch. You'll get knocked off your broom before you even make it off the ground!"
Harry sighed. He knew Hermione was right but he still didn't feel too happy about having to sit in bed waiting for someone to come around to help him to the washroom or for anything else.
After a while, Hermione had started talking about their exams that were coming in a couple of months. Harry stopped listening as soon as Hermione had mentioned exams. He didn't feel like talking about exams yet since they weren't even starting them yet. He continued to listen to Ron who was yelling at the other Gryffindors, who were lying on the ground laughing at Ron who had been pushed into a pile of snow and couldn't get out.
Mwahaha…
Harry quickly jumped back to reality. He looked around the Hospital wing looking for who could have made that horrid laugh. Hermione who had continued onto how hard the exams would be, stopped. "Harry? What's wrong?"
"Did you hear that?" He quietly whispered, after a long pause. He looked around the Hospital wing once more, hopefully finding something or some one who he could have overlooked for the thing that was making the laugh.
Mwahaha!
There it was again. Hermione said she still hasn't heard anything, or anyone laughing. To Harry the laugh was getting stronger and louder. His scar started to throb with pain. Harry let out a scream. His body shot up into the air then landed forcefully back onto the bed, where Harry laid motionless.
Hermione screamed. She jumped off the bed and quickly ran off to find Madam Pomfrey who told her to go find Dumbledore. Madam Pomfrey quickly rushed over to Harry who was panting, like crazy. Madam Pomfrey tried to wake Harry up but he wouldn't open his eyes. Pomfrey quickly conjured up a bowl full of warm water and a towel which she dipped in the water. After placing the towel onto Harry's forehead, Dumbledore quickly walked into the Hospital wing with Hermione following closely behind.
Harry had completely stopped panting; small quiet wheezes were heard coming from Harry's body. Dumbledore examined Harry looking over his half moon spectacles. He looked different. Dumbledore was worried. "What's wrong with him?" He asked himself.
Dumbledore placed his hand onto the railing of the bed, and looked down at Harry. "He seems to be fine for now—"
Dumbledore stopped. Hs arm was turning white, from the lack of blood rushing through his veins. Harry had placed a firm grip on Dumbledore's arm and was refusing to let go.
"Harry what's wrong?" Dumbledore asked trying to ignore the pain coming from his arm; it was starting to hurt more and more.
Harry's eyes shot open. They were red; tears were falling from them soaking his face. "Make him stop! MAKE HIM STOP!"