Harry honestly had no idea how he managed to make it through his Friday classes – Quidditch trials were scheduled for after dinner, and he was so excited to fly again that he could barely concentrate. He veritably catapulted himself from his chair the instant the bell rang at the end of his last class and raced upstairs to Gryffindor Tower, where he spent a full hour before dinner giving his broom a thorough examination and cleaning.
After thinking long and hard about it, Harry had decided not to tell anyone about his detention with Umbridge for the time being. While it probably wasn't the best idea to keep his friends and family in the dark about it, he knew that nothing would come of it if he did tell. His mum would be furious, of course, and would probably go straight to the headmaster, but Harry couldn't see any sort of positive progression beyond that point. Umbridge had already proven that she had a serious foothold, and Harry highly doubted that a complaint from a single student would change anything, especially when that particular student was himself, someone the Ministry had been doing their utmost to discredit all summer. No, the only thing that would happen if he told would be that Umbridge would know that she'd unnerved him, and that just wouldn't do. With the situation as precarious as it was, Harry suspected he – or any of the students, for that matter – would only have one shot to get rid of Umbridge, and he didn't want to do anything until he had an undeniable case against her.
The sun broke through the clouds as Harry walked across the lawn, its rays illuminating the water droplets left over from an earlier rain, and he grinned broadly as the Quidditch pitch came into view. Unable to resist temptation any longer, Harry hopped onto his broom right then and there and flew the rest of the way to the field, where he found Angelina waiting for him.
"Excited much?" she called, flashing him a cheeky grin as he circled her head. Harry coasted to a stop and hopped off his broom, returning the smirk.
"C'mon, Ang," he said. "Can you blame me?"
"After how little flying we did last year? No," she replied with a laugh. "Now, get up there and warm up, we'll be starting right at seven." Needing no further encouragement to fly again, Harry mounted his broom and kicked off.
By seven o'clock, there was a small crowd of people standing in the center of the pitch, and Madam Hooch was ready to oversee the trials from her spot at the front of the stands. Angelina motioned for Harry and the few others who'd joined him to come back down, and once they'd all done so, she began to explain.
"Right. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Angelina Johnson, and I'm the Gryffindor Quidditch captain this year. By decree of our illustrious new Defense professor" – here Angelina stopped and scowled, and a number of the hopefuls mimicked her expression at the mention of Umbridge – "it is now mandatory that Quidditch captains act as if all positions on their team are now available, not just those vacated by graduated students. Furthermore, all captains are required to choose at least two new players for their team." Harry and the other returning players deepened their frowns at this statement – that addendum was a direct shot at the Gryffindors, who were the only team with only one vacancy.
"All captains must choose at least two new players," Angelina repeated. "However, there's no rule that says those two new players must be part of the starting team, and whether or not you've been on the team before will not affect my choices – I only want the best for my starting seven, and that's final. In addition to the starters, I plan on choosing one reserve for each position for a total of eleven players, including myself. All of my decisions are final. Any questions?" There were none, and Angelina had them break into groups by position before telling them exactly what she was looking for from each group. After quickly explaining the first drill, she sent the Chaser candidates into the air.
"Trying to steal my spot?" Harry joked as he turned to the very familiar face beside him.
"Possibly," Hermione replied with a smirk. "My one stint with the team was actually rather fun, once I got over the whole 'this-is-the-championship-game' pressure." She paused and glanced up at the Chasers. "I'm really just looking to be a reserve, though – we both know you're the better Seeker, and I've got prefect duties to consider as well."
"Well, good luck, then," Harry said sincerely. He looked around at the hopefuls again and chuckled. "Looks like the Weasleys are trying to make Quidditch the family business, eh?" He definitely had a point – in addition to Fred and George, who were preparing to defend their Beater positions, Ginny was currently in the air with the other Chasers, and Ron was biting his nails as he paced back and forth near the Keepers.
"Charlie played too, didn't he?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded.
"Yeah – could've played for England, from what I understand. Wood was always going on about how amazing he was. Oh look, I think the Chasers are done." And indeed, the Chaser hopefuls were slowly returning to the ground, some looking much happier than others.
"Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, Ginny Weasley, and Demelza Robins, please stay," Angelina instructed. Apparently, she had yet to make her final choice. "The rest of you, thanks for coming out. Now, could I see the Beaters, please?"
The Beater trials took hardly any time at all, as it really was no contest – Fred and George were practically a pair of human Bludgers themselves, and each read the other's intentions seamlessly as they pelted the Bludgers around the field. Unlike the Chasers, it was very clear who the starters were when Angelina read the names from her clipboard.
The Keepers went next, and Harry was dismayed to see that none of the candidates were very good. In fact, the only two who weren't downright terrible were Ron and a tall, broad-shouldered boy Harry didn't know. As with the Chasers, Angelina seemed to have trouble deciding, and so she told both boys to stay while she dismissed the others.
The five Seeker hopefuls went last. Just as Harry remembered from his first tryouts four years ago, Angelina threw a number of ordinary golf balls for the candidates to catch, and once she'd exhausted her supply, she released a real Snitch and sent them after it. It was the simplest and most straightforward of the trials – whoever caught the Snitch first would make the team, and whoever caught it next would be the reserve. In the end, Harry and Hermione came up victorious.
"As you can see, we've got twelve people still here," Angelina said once those who hadn't made the cut had left. "I'm only allowed to carry eleven, so I'm afraid one of you ladies will have to go." She nodded towards the Chasers. "However, whichever one of you ultimately ends up cut had better try out again next year, because you're all excellent – I'm not just trying to make you feel better when I say I'd take you all if I could. Now, I want to have a quick pick-up match to help me finalize the roster – I'd like Alicia, Ginny, Fred, Ron, and Hermione on one team, and Katie, Demelza, George, Cormac, and Harry on the other. Jack, you'll serve as the second Beater for both teams – got it? We'll use just one Bludger, plus the Quaffle and the Snitch. Chasers and Keepers, I'm looking at how you perform both individually and as part of your team, so keep that in mind. You've got fifteen minutes or until the Snitch is caught to show me your stuff. Alright, on my whistle, then!" Angelina let loose a shrill blast as she released the Bludger and tossed the Quaffle skyward.
Angelina had done well in making evenly matched teams, and Harry put off looking for the Snitch in favor of watching the others. As Angelina had said, the Chasers were all very good, though Alicia and Katie had a slight edge – Harry had a feeling that unless Ginny or Demelza did something spectacular within the next fifteen minutes, the starting Chaser trio would remain intact. Ron and Cormac, however, were another case entirely – Ron got incredibly flustered every time the Quaffle came his way and made a number of easy mistakes, while Cormac was entirely too fixated on loudly 'correcting' his teammates instead of focusing on his own job. Both teams' Chasers scored several goals they probably shouldn't have as a result, and the score was tied at a whopping sixty apiece when Harry finally spotted the Snitch thirteen minutes into the scrimmage. Hermione caught sight of the little gold ball as well, and Harry only just barely beat her to it, the two of them breathing hard as they coasted to a stop.
"Good work," Angelina said approvingly as the others came to land. "Final cut: Katie, Alicia, and myself as Chasers, Ginny's our reserve. Demelza, I really do wish I could take you, and I hope you try out again next year." Demelza smiled in spite of the situation.
"I'm just happy to have made it this far," she said honestly. "Thank you."
"Beaters and Seekers, you already know – Fred, George, and Harry are the starters, Jack and Hermione are the reserves. Keepers…" Angelina turned to Ron and Cormac. "Keepers, it wasn't an easy choice, but Ron, you're in. Cormac, you're reserve." Cormac immediately made to protest, but Angelina silenced him with a look.
"I said at the beginning of tryouts that all of my decisions were final – you can either accept the reserve spot or nothing at all," she said bluntly. Cormac glared at her but kept quiet.
"Right, then. Team, we'll start our regular three times a week next week – I'll let you know the days and times as soon as I've met with Madam Hooch and the other captains. Reserves, I'd like you to come to practice twice a month for now, and that might bump up to once a week when we get closer to a match. Again, I'll let you know exact days and times." Angelina glanced at her watch. "That's all I've got for you now, so you're free to go. Congratulations to all of you."
"Nice job, you lot," Harry said as he caught up to Hermione, Ron, and Ginny in the entrance hall. "And thanks for telling me you were all trying out!"
"Oh, shut it, Harry," Ginny replied, though she was grinning. "You don't like a good surprise once in a while?"
"Draco tried to do that in our second year, and Hermione punched him for it," Harry recalled.
"No – Draco didn't try to do it, he did do it," Hermione corrected him, causing both Harry and Ginny to laugh. Ron merely rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, so surprises aren't a good idea when Hermione's involved," he said dismissively. "What matters is that we're all in, yeah?"
"It does," Hermione agreed, "though I'm glad Angelina only wants the reserves there a few times a month – we have so much homework already!"
"Trust you to worry about homework," Ron said with a snort.
"Of course I'm worried about homework – it's O.W.L. year!" Hermione cried. "I've been working late every night and it's only September – it's only going to get worse."
"I think the other important question," Ginny interrupted, sensing Ron's desire to argue and cutting it off as quickly as she could, "is what we're going to do about Defense."
"What d'you mean?" Ron asked. It was Ginny's turn to roll her eyes.
"Surely even you've noticed that Defense classes are useless, Ron," she said. "She assigned everyone the same book, and I dunno about your year, but she just makes us read from the book the entire period."
"Same here," Harry said. "And it's probably the most boring book I've ever read – considering everything we've read for Binns, that's saying something." He gave the password, and the Fat Lady's portrait swung open.
"It really is an awful book," Hermione agreed as she climbed after Harry into the common room. "And I can't imagine how we're going to pass our Defense O.W.L. without ever practicing any spells…"
"Oh come off it, Hermione," Ron scoffed. "We all know you could get straight O's tomorrow with your wand arm tied behind your back."
"That's hardly true, Ron," Hermione insisted, though she did turn pink at his words. "The point is, we're learning absolutely nothing, and since Defense is probably our most important subject given the whole Voldemort issue, that's a huge problem."
"But remember, Maya," Harry said, "Umbridge insists that we don't need to know how to defend ourselves coz there's nothing to defend ourselves from."
"And we all know that everything that woman says is complete and utter bullshit," Ginny said bluntly as she flopped down onto the sofa. "Are we really going to put up with this rubbish all year?"
"Well, what else are we going to do?" Ron asked exasperatedly. "It's not like we can just magically make her go away, you know."
"We can't," Hermione acknowledged, "not without good reason. But just because we aren't learning anything from Umbridge doesn't mean we can't still learn."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, leaning forward with his chin in his hands and his elbows resting on his thighs.
"Well, we could always teach ourselves," Hermione suggested. "We already practice dueling anyway – what's the difference if we add in some new spells?"
"That," Harry said with a nod, "is a brilliant idea."
"More work is what it is," Ron muttered. "Hermione, you already said even you are swamped with homework, and yet you're suggesting adding even more work to that?"
"Ron, shut up," Ginny snapped. "This isn't about homework, this is about the fact that we're wasting an entire year if we don't do something. It's pretty safe to say that Voldemort's forces are getting stronger again, and we'll be in big trouble if we don't act on that." Satisfied at Ron's embarrassed expression, she continued, "I think it might be a good idea to let other people in on this – people we know we can trust, obviously. If this is about learning to defend ourselves, don't we want as many people on our side as we can get?"
"That's a good point," Harry said, nodding again. "But how are we going to go about organizing this? It's not like we can just put up fliers or something, Umbridge definitely won't approve."
"First Hogsmeade weekend is coming up soon," Hermione said. "We can have a preliminary meeting then – we'll pass it along by word of mouth."
"Sounds as good a plan as any," Ginny said with a shrug. "Merlin knows it's better than doing nothing." The clock on the mantle chimed nine times then, and they all jumped.
"Damn – I still have to finish the last eight inches of my Charms essay," she said. "Keep me posted on the meeting time and place, yeah?" Harry and Hermione quickly agreed while Ron gave a noncommittal shrug in his sister's general direction, and Ginny quickly scampered up the girls' staircase and out of sight.
A/N: Don't worry, Umbridge will get what's coming eventually. D.A. coming soon!
Thank you for the follows/faves/reviews, & for reading! Might even have another chapter for you soon - 3 day weekend, huzzah!
JKR owns all things Potter, I just play. Please R&R, & enjoy! AFC championship tonight - let's go Pats! :)