Chapter 4
Quidditch Tryouts

The first week of school was already over and in Jamie's opinion, it hadn't been very exciting. Unfortunately the Slytherins were in two more of Jamie's classes which meant that Romeo was with them. In Care of Magical Creatures class, Romeo had quite the fear of Crups, which is what Hagrid assigned for the students to take care of. The first sight of them, Romeo bumped into Jamie nearly knocking her over. This had caused a very awkward moment between the two, ending with Romeo giving Jamie his trademark smirk and Jamie walking off in the other direction toward Alice and Jane, both who had been laughing at what had happened and stopped as soon as Jamie had walked toward them.

In order for Jamie to forget some of the moments that had been happening, she had decided it was about time for Quidditch try-outs to take place. So she had announced that on Saturday at ten-o-clock in the morning, the try-outs would happen. The only spots that were available to try out for was one Chaser spot, the Keeper spot, and a Beater spot, which she had announced the previous day.

The morning of the try-outs, Jamie woke up and dressed in her Quidditch robe, her new Quidditch Captain badge gladly pinned on the front. Jane and Alice were already in the common room when Jamie arrived. Richie, James, and Joseph were also there. Richie was polishing his broomstick, getting it ready for the try-outs. The others were deep in conversation about something that had James laughing.

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it when I heard," said James, still laughing a bit, "I thought those two were meant to be."

"What are you talking about?" Jamie asked her brother.

"Oh, you didn't hear?" James asked, "Jasmine Nott dumped Malfoy."

"Really?" Jamie asked, "No, I didn't hear about that."

"Yeah," said James, "Now, I don't know if this is true, but I heard that Jasmine was eavesdropping on Malfoy, and she heard him talking to or about someone else... a girl. I hear he seemed to fancy this girl too. So, I guess Jasmine broke up with him..."

"That is a really stupid reason to break up with someone," said Jamie.

"Yeah, well, when has Jasmine ever shown signs of being smart," said James.

"Good point," said Jamie, "Well, I am going to go down to breakfast. I am kinda hungry."

"Oh, Joseph and I will go with you too," said Jane, "We do have to fulfill our Head Boy and Girl duties."

"I will catch up with you later, guys," said Alice, "I want to finish this last bit on the essay I have to do."

"Have fun," Jane said sarcastically, as she, Joseph and Jamie walked out of the common room.

As they walked down the hall, Brooke Longbottom walked around the corner with a couple of her Ravenclaw friends.

"Oh, hey Brooke!" Jamie called to her.

"Oh, hi," said Brooke, "I know who you guys are. Alice talks about you all the time."

"Yeah, are you looking for her?" asked Jamie, "She is in the Gryffindor Common Room working on homework. She will be down in the Great Hall in a little bit."

"Oh, thanks," said Brooke, as she walked off with her friends.

"She is nothing like her sister," Joseph said as Brooke and her friends walked around the corner, "Alice is... you know, kind of weird, and well... Brooke isn't."

"That is why she is in Ravenclaw, though," said Jamie.

Jamie, Joseph and Jane walked down the hall toward the Great Hall, deep in conversation.

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Around ten-o-clock, Jamie and the rest of the present Gryffindor Quidditch team, including Joseph, were at the Quidditch Pitch waiting for the students who would try-out. Jane and James were in the stands as spectators. This was a really surprising move with James. He didn't like Quidditch that much, but he decided he would support Richie.

Richie, as well as the other students who wanted to try-out started to come down to the field with their brooms. There were about thirty in all. Jamie could tell right away who the students were that wanting the vacant Beater spot, because they were tall and looked very strong. When everyone took a seat on the Pitch, Jamie stood up in front of them.

"Well, first of all I would like to say thank you all for coming down," she said, "We only need three new players, a Beater, Chaser and Keeper."

Richie pointed to himself in a "that will be me!" kind of motion.

"You will get your chance, Richie," said Jamie, "All of you will. Right now, we are going to find a new Beater. So all of you wanting to be Beaters, come up here."

Around ten of the students stood up and walked over to where Jamie was standing.

"All right," said Jamie, "One at a time, each of you will fly up into the air and chase the Bludgers with Creevey, the other Beater, and show us what you can do. Creevey knows more about being a Beater than I do, so he will judge you and tell me who is the best."

One at a time, the ten hopeful Beaters showed off their skills and thirty minutes later, a new Beater, Dawes, had joined the team.

Jamie decided that the students who wanted to try out as Chaser would go next.

"Joseph is going to help you guys and make sure we pick someone who he and Johnson can work with," instructed Jamie.

It turned out that this was going to be a hard decision to make. Three of the ten Chasers were superb when working with Johnson, but it turned out one of them had a grudge with Joseph that Jamie didn't know about.

"I don't know what his problem was," said Joseph as he landed back down on the ground, "Probably jealous of me."

Jamie smirked and said, "So, Joey, who do you think would be right for the team?"

"Well, we could always pick Wood," said Joseph.

"You mean Oliver Jr.?" asked Jamie, "Joey, he is the son of my Dad's old Captain. People would call favoritism or something of that sort just because my Dad knows his Dad."

"He is the best Chaser of everyone who has tried out," said Joseph, "Richie is lucky he didn't try out for Keeper. Knowing his Dad, he would have been great."

In the end, Jamie agreed with Joseph and Oliver Wood, Jr. was the new Chaser. Then it was time for the Keeper try-outs. Richie would be one of the contenders for it, but he had competition. Garret McClaggen was one of the students trying out and Jamie thought he could block anything that could come his way. Ten minutes into the Keeper, try-outs it was Richie's turn. Richie flew into the air over to the hoops.
"Wood, I want to see how you can score some goals with a Keeper in the air," Jamie called from the ground, "Let's see how you work with who might be out future Keeper!"

Wood agreed and took the Quaffle. He flew through the air, weaving through the stands, toward the hoop. Wood threw the Quaffle toward the hoop, which Richie caught just in time.

"You're good, Wood," said Richie, "But let's see if you can do better!"

"Easy, Richie!" Jamie called from the ground, "Wood is already on the team. You are the one trying out, remember!"

"Sorry, cuz!" Richie yelled.

Richie threw the Quaffle back through the air and Wood sped toward it and caught it. He flew back toward hoop, circled the hoops and threw the Quaffle toward the middle one. Richie caught it again.

"You will have to do better than that to get past Ron Weasley's son!" yelled Richie.

Wood did do better. The next two shots, Richie only caught with his fingertips, but would have missed if he was a second too late.

"All right, last chance, Richie!" said Jamie, "Wood, this time I want to see some passing with Joseph!"

"Yes, mam!" said Wood, taking the Quaffle again and flying toward the hoop. Joseph came up beside him and Wood threw the Quaffle to him. Joseph caught the Quaffle and circled the hoops, then threw the Quaffle back to Wood, who threw it to the hoop. Richie caught it just in time.

"Five out of five," said Richie, as he landed back on the ground a minute later, "Beat that, McClaggen!"

McClaggen was the only contender left, and the only person that could take the Keeper spot from Richie. McClaggen flew into the air toward the hoops. McClaggen caught the oncoming Quaffle one... two... three... four times.

"Jane," said James, up in the stands, "We have to do something or your little brother isn't going to be on the team."

"Oh no," said Jane, "I am Head Girl, I am not doing a thing."

"Fine," sighed James, "Then I guess McClaggen is just going to get a little taste of what James Harry Potter can do!"

Up in the air, Joseph, with Quaffle in hand, was speeding toward the hoop and McClaggen. Right when Joseph threw it, James yelled "Hey McClaggen, you stink!" which McClaggen heard and looked to see where this rude insult had come from. The Quaffle flew past his head through the middle hoop.

"Well, congratulations, Richie," Jamie said on the field, "You are on the team... thanks to my little brother."

"That is what best friends and cousins are for!" Richie smirked.

Jamie congratulated the new members of the team and stayed behind while the others left, promising she would be up at Hogwarts in a few minutes. What she really wanted to do was get up in the air. She hadn't been flying for a while, and she wanted to feel the rush of it again. Besides, she needed some practice with the Snitch. So, Jamie released the snitch from its holding case and watched as it flew into the air. She then climbed on her broom and sped into the air.

She stopped in the air and looked for the Snitch, which she spotted flying around the middle hoop. She sped toward it, but noticed something off to the right... or someone. A tall blonde-haired boy was watching her. And he had a big smirk on his face. Remembering she was up in the air, Jamie tried to get her concentration on the Snitch. The Snitch headed for the ground, and Jamie flew toward it. But for some reason she couldn't pull up. She was headed straight toward the Pitch...

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All right, I admit, it was a cruel cliffhanger... but I wanted it to end that way. I hope you liked this chapter. I won't be cruel and leave you hanging though... I will try to get the next chapter up soon.

I would love feedback, as always