"I want to curl up and die," Alicia moaned with a sniffle, as she made small circles around the end of the pitch that they were using. Fred watched her closely from his broom. Drumming his fingers on the broom handle, he leaned close to George, who was watching Katie and Angelina talk to the Keeper hopefuls with rapt attention.

"Oi, George." Fred hissed, and George looked up. "Has it been two hours yet? You have the watch, man." There was impatience in his voice and a hint of sarcasm.

In reply, George stuck out his arm just long enough for Fred to catch a glimpse of the time. He glanced back at the small crowd of people, before turning back to Fred. "It's only been about thirty minutes. Don't complain, at least you didn't have to do your shift of suicide watch first thing in the morning."

Katie picked up the quaffle,tossed it from hand to hand and, in a spectacular show of strength, threw it heartily at the next person. The lanky youth managed to fly in front of the quaffle but his skill ended there. The ball hit him right underneath his rib cage and he slumped onto the handle of his broom.

Cupping a hand to his mouth, George called out to him "Walk it off, Manly. Walk it off." before sharing a chuckle with Fred at the boy's expense. Katie gave a loud and exasperated sigh. Fred was unclear as to whether the sigh was directed toward Manly, or the sniveling Alicia.

"Where is the talent I was promised?" Angelina screeched her position near Katie. Ron was the only person who had intercepted anything so far, besides Evan who flew an excellent trial. However, he was quite the whiner and had to be assured that games would never be called off due to the weather. Fred cringed in response, but Alicia's only reaction was to sob harder, and then to take a sharp breath and begin to talk in a rather reserved tone for her current situation. Tears were still coursing down her cheeks.

"Angelina, maybe they're just having bad days. Maybe their quidditch teams just chucked them off the handle of their brooms like they were nothing. Maybe their captains just woke up one day, and decided that they weren't good enough. Seniority just went out the window. Maybe he just had an epiphany and decided that the past year hadn't meant a thing to him, even if she was a little afraid at first to sneak off campus, it didn't matter. Nope. Because he was just a cold, heartless bastard who made a lousy captain. But even if he is a lousy captain, they still want to be on the team because it's safe and they know what to do. Maybe they're just lonely, and sad, and scared."

Throughout her ramble, Alicia's cheeks had begun to turn red. Her tone became wilder and wilder, and she spoke with more abandon. Finished, she began to weep even more loudly than before, this time accompanied with loud, unladylike hiccups.

Fred looked at her with unease, his mouth falling open, and then he glanced to George for help. All George did was shrug, and incline his head in Katie's direction. Her upper lip was curled up in disgust. Straightening her face, she did a quick loop to pat Alicia on the back before joining Angelina on the scoring line.

Scrambling for something to say, Fred followed Katie's lead, patting Alicia on the back before adding, in a quite convincing voice, he was sure: "Er. That sounds possible. Sounds like something that Oliver would do, prat that he is."

"Too right." George added. Using the tips of his fingers, he prodded the sobbing Alicia toward midfield so that he and Fred could discern what was happening. Not that Fred looked as if he cared much. He was wistfully watching Lee as he lounged, spread-eagled, in the bleachers along the Gryffindor side of the field. Lee had his dreadlocked head bent low over a radio that was set on a national Quidditch game, no doubt.

Manly hadn't even been led off of the field before Angelina called out "Frobisher, Vicky?" in a slightly agitated voice. A tall girl with dark brown hair took the hoops.

"I believe that I'm the talent that you've been looking for." Vicky announced confidently, sticking out her chest and pursing her lips. Angelina's jaw dropped and she looked upward.

"If this is who we resort to putting on our team…" She mumbled to Katie's bark of laughter. Angelina peered sideways to her friend, who mouthed 'She's a harlot', and looked down as she snickered. Not really because Vicky was a harlot, but because it was Katie who was saying so.

"All right, then," Angelina said, and exchanged the clipboard for the quaffle. Katie tossed the clipboard to a bored looking Fred. Sighting the hoops down the field, Angelina shot forward on her broom and Katie followed at a parallel angle. Angelina ducked down, pulled even with Katie, and faked passing her the quaffle. Quickly stopping in a slide, Angelina lobbed the ball toward the farthest hoop. It was neatly caught by Vicky, who had, the entire time, been watching them with her even gaze and staying perfectly in the middle of the scoring area.

Angelina's eyebrows shot up and she looked at Katie, who was pouting, her eyes narrowed toward the girl. Vicky put a hand on her hip and jutted her head to the side. "Do you girls want the quaffle back?" she asked sweetly.

"Give it here," Katie grunted, and received the quaffle gracefully, immediately going into a charge. There were several more shots like this, and all of then ended up in the hands of Vicky.

"That's enough!" Angelina called after the basic repertoire of shots, and beckoned for Vicky to come to her and the rest of the team. "You're good," Angelina told her, ignoring Katie's deep frown, Alicia's quiet sniffles, and the twins' disconcerting silence. "Do you have any other commitments that we would have to work around? Clubs and such?"

To say that Vicky was involved was an understatement. As she listed her clubs, Angelina's eyes grew and she stopped writing on her clipboard, recently received from Fred. Instead, she watched the pretty girl explain what she did, and wondered how she was going to have time for quidditch after all of this.

Vicky's list ended with, "However, I absolutely cannot miss Charms Club. If there's a conflict, I'd pick Charms Club any day."

Angelina took a deep breath. "I don't know why you even bothered to waste our time then. Quidditch is a priority for everyone here, we can't have a less than dedicated player on our team. You're dismissed."

"Don't you dismiss me," Vicky hissed, with all the venom of a veela. Her transformation had been as quick as one. In seconds her expression had darkened and she had glared at Katie. It occurred to Angelina that Vicky and Katie may have had a conflict in the past. "Who do you think you are?"

Angelina drew herself up on her broomstick and glared daggers at the girl. "Well, it's my pitch until noon, isn't it?" Alicia's crying stopped, and she looked to Vicky. Fred and George had landed near Lee and were whispering to each other. Fred was drawing a map in the air with his fingers. George was nodding vehemently.

"Why you--" Vicky started, but never got the chance to finish.

"What are you still doing here?" Katie snarled and a finger rose to point the way back to the castle. "You heard the captain. Get off the bleedin' field."

The people who had tried out in the past couple of hours squinted into the sky at the girls hovering above them on their brooms. A few leaned closer, as if that could aid them in hearing the chasers who were at least thirty feet above the ground.

Vicky's mouth set in a line. "Fine." Her voice came out rough, and Alicia jumped. A sickly sweet smile came over her mouth and she leaned closer to Katie. "But can I just tell you something about your friend here?" Vicky gestured to Alicia. "You know why Stephen chucked her? He found someone new. Someone that he liked much better. And he wanted to go after her." Alicia gasped, and her eyes seemed even more red-rimmed. Katie pulled away from Vicky, a deep look of loathing on her face.

"It's true," Vicky sneered. "And you'd be surprised, Alicia. Truly surprised." With one last superior glance back, Vicky dove downward. None of the three said anything as they watched her gather her bag and leave. It wasn't until she had left the pitch that Alicia broke out into a new sobbing fit.

"Oh, it's okay," Katie cooed, putting her arm around her friend and leading her off the field on her broom. "She's just a harlot. What does she know, anyway? I bet she doesn't even know Stephen, just heard that awful rumor through the mill, you know. C'mon dearie, tryouts are over, and I think I have a chocolate frog that I can give you to make you feel much, much better."

Angelina looked at her watch and sighed in relief. It was 12:05. About time for Hufflepuff to take the field from her. Frankly, she couldn't have been happier about the timing. She could not have handled one more awful trial.

Walking over to the people who had tried out, Angelina made a quick speech about the value of teamwork, dedication, and the ability to thump heads, before ending it abruptly. "You've all done excellently, and we'll announce our new keeper tonight. Remember, as we're Gryffindors, we party quite hard and even if you're not chosen, pick up a goblet of butterbeer and join in on the festivities. Don't forget that next year, our team will be down quite a few players, so try out again!"

She stood and watched as the keeper hopefuls all headed for the castle. It was then that Fred and George decided to amble over.

"Where are our other girlies, then?" George asked, broom slung over his shoulder.

"In our dorm, eating chocolate," Angelina answered bitterly, angry that Alicia hadn't told Vicky where to go. A week ago she would have done this without thinking.

The twins looked at each other, and Fred threw his arm around Angelina's shoulders. "So, have we decided on a new keeper, then?"

"I've decided it's going to be Ron, none of the rest of you helped much." Angelina told them.

"What?" Fred sputtered.

"Why?" George asked.

"What happened to that girl? The last one? She had a good trial." Fred pointed out, squinting to make out the hopefuls who were still trudging up the hill. "Ickle Ronnikins is…well…He couldn't possibly be as good as her."

Angelina shrugged Fred's arm off of her shoulders and sped up her pace. "Never mind that." With her arms around her broom and with no reason other than annoyance, Angelina put as much distance between herself and the twins as she could manage without sprinting. She didn't want to be the one to explain that she would rather risk the cup than risk the friendship of Alicia and Katie. She was sure that neither of the twins would understand their bond, and even if they could, she wasn't sure that sure that she could explain the complexity of it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I found out what "leering to a man" means! It means that all of the members of the Slytherin team were leering at the Chasers. Enigma no more!

Also, how does everyone think that the POV in this chapter flows? I know that it jumps a ton but since the beginning of this fic I've tried to create a limited omnipresent POV. In this chapter, it's just way more evident because I couldn't do without some of the character thoughts.

One more thing. Yes, I know that the roles of Fred and George are rather limited in this fic so far and that they're not being their usual cocky, explosive selves. Leering to a Man is a story about the friendship of the chasers and I'm trying to highlight that since most stories tend to have the personalities of the chasers overshadowed by the exuberant twins. Plus, over the years I'm certain that they would have gotten used to the twins and would have gotten rather good at just ignoring their antics ( :) ) But don't fret! The twins will play a much larger role later on in the fic.