"I'm really not sure about this, James," Remus murmured as he turned his new broom over in his hands. It was a Cleansweep Six, a model that had only been released a year ago, and a thousand times better than the old Comet he'd ridden before. James had bought it for him as an extremely early Christmas present.
"Well, I am very sure about it," James replied, slapping Remus on the back. He was decked out in a brand-new set of Quidditch robes, a shiny silver captain's badge gleaming from above his breast. "You're a fantastic Keeper, Moony; you've been practicing with me since second year. And now that Frank's gone, we literally don't have anyone else."
"You sure you can schedule all the practices around the full moon without making it seem strange?"
"Of course I can. I'm the captain—practice is whenever I say it is. No one will suspect a thing."
Remus nodded and nervously followed James out onto the Quidditch pitch, where Mary Macdonald and a few young Gryffindors had gathered for Chaser tryouts. Part of him had always dreamed of being on a Quidditch team, but he'd never thought it possible with his condition. But James had promised him he could do it, and James was desperate to make it work after everything that had gone on the year before. Remus, for his part, was more than happy to accept the distraction of Quidditch. So he swallowed back his doubts and jogged after James to the gathering of Chaser candidates.
"All right, you gits, listen up," James called, clapping his hands over his head to get the candidates' attention. "This here is my mate Remus Lupin, also known as Gryffindor's most brilliant prefect, and he's going to be our Keeper this year." Remus gave a tiny, self-conscious wave. "And before anyone accuses me of playing favorites, no one else signed up to try out for Keeper, so Remus won the spot by default."
"Oh, we weren't accusing you, James," a third year simpered. James frowned at him; he hated kiss-ups more than anything.
"Well, anyway, Remus is going to be helping out with tryouts today. Mary and I already have spots on the team, because I say so—" (Mary gave James a grateful nod at this) "—which means there's only one place open for a new Chaser this year. So I'm going to divide the five of you up into a bunch of different teams of three, and you're going to practice keeping the Quaffle away from Mary and me and scoring goals against Remus for a bit. Understand?" The candidates nodded eagerly. "Right, then. Give me a minute to organize things, and we'll get started."
James got to work organizing the Chasers and gestured for Remus to fly into position in front of the goal hoops. Remus mounted his broom and took off, relishing in how gracefully it dipped and swerved. He'd only ridden his new broom once before today, and he already thought it was the greatest thing he owned.
He hovered in place just in front of the middle hoop as James, Mary and the first three Chaser candidates took to the sky, the Quaffle resting in the nook of James's elbow. Once they were all in place, James blew his whistle and the game began.
The Chasers swarmed across the pitch, swooping for the Quaffle as James and Mary passed it casually between themselves. Eventually a fair-haired boy was able to intercept a pass and sped for the goal hoops and Remus, tossing the Quaffle to a dark-skinned girl named Nneka Achebe who lobbed the ball at the lowest of the hoops.
Instantly Remus dove right, throwing out his leg and kicking the ball away from the hoop. It plunged down towards the ground, and the Chaser candidates scrambled to plunge after it. James gave Remus a thumbs-up from across the pitch. He grinned in response.
Next time it was the fair-haired boy making the shot—he aimed for the tallest of the hoops while Remus was hovering beneath it, but Remus was able to yank his nimble broom up fast enough to catch the Quaffle and throw it out to Mary. Nneka attempted the next shot, a fast curveball through the left hoop, but Remus had seen her aim and was ready for it. It wasn't until the candidates' seventh attempt, again by Nneka, that a Quaffle actually made it through one of the hoops. Remus had never quite realized how good he was at this. And then James blew his whistle to switch up the teams, and Remus was confronted with a new set of Chasers to fend off. He loved every minute of it—at one point, when a deflection with the back of his broom left him spinning in circles like a top, he even started laughing, which he didn't think he'd done at all since before the Snape incident.
James didn't end the tryouts until sundown, by which time all the Chasers and Remus were covered in sweat and bruises. They gathered in a circle on the ground once more, where James announced that the new team Chaser would be Nneka, who had far and away scored the most points. Nneka cheered with delight, and one of her friends tackled her from behind while the other candidates clapped respectfully. Remus smiled at all of them. This was going to be his team. He had never appreciated how badly he needed something like this until now.
James gave Remus a cheeky wink. He'd known exactly what he was doing when he'd asked Remus to come to tryouts; Remus wondered if he'd even advertised for new Keepers the way he had Chasers and Beaters. But Remus realized he didn't care—he was going to be the Gryffindor team Keeper, and he would be great at it.
It was almost enough to make him feel like everything was going to be all right again.
