Chapter Six:
Despite it being a Friday, it was early enough that as I sat having my breakfast there were only a few other students present. This meant that there were few to witness as Seraphina came storming into the hall. Looking at her frustrated expression and the scrunched up piece of parchment she held I hid my smirk. I'd wondered how long it would take her to discover her tryout list had been screwed with, she'd been a bit nervous about how many, and who, would sign up with an unknown person as the captain. She needn't have worried.
"Have you seen this!?" She asked, slamming the list down on the table just in front of my food. She slid into the seat across from me and quickly poured herself a mug of coffee, adding cream to it before inhaling its aroma deeply.
I turned the offending parchment around and perused the list. Now I really can't keep the smile from my face. The list is about three times the size of any I'd seen before and it looked like apart from over half the house putting their names down, quite a few Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors had put their names down too. "Well, it's a good thing that you booked the pitch for two days."
I deftly caught the apple that was coming towards my head. "Thanks," and bit into it, looking at Sera over my apple. She seemed just a little too pissed off for my liking. "You know it's not like you actually have to let them fly in your tryouts."
She sent me a filthy look from over her coffee. "No, but Gryffindors in particular may be inclined to demonstrate their pigheadedness and still try to force their way onto the pitch just to disrupt the proceedings."
A fair enough point. Although they've left, the Weasley twins would have done just that. "So invite Snape. They wouldn't dare to do something disruptive with him there." This actually got her attention. "He's got a vested interest in the team; his rivalry with McGonagall over the Cup and the fact that Gryffindor's won it the last six years. He put you as captain, he trusts you'll do a good job and he won't want any threats to our win this year, he'll come. And make the Sunday a closed event. Make it so that only Slytherins can attend."
"Yeah," finally she's smiling. Admittedly it's the smile she gets when she's planning someone's downfall, but a smile is a smile. "I've already done that for the Sunday, don't want too many stickybeaks around to see my strategies."
I nodded and we both fell silent, turning our attention to breakfast and our own thoughts. I don't know how long it was until I felt a hand on my shoulder. Pansy was sitting down next to me and Blaise next to Sera.
"Right, we're all here!" Oh dear, here Sera goes, full initiation-of-best-plan-ever-to-be-seen-by-man mode is activated. "Listen up, I'm only going to run through the full plan once. Firstly, we are to observe all the tryouts of the other houses."
"First Phase: Complete," says Pansy, putting milk and honey on her porridge.
"Not much that we weren't expecting there." Blaise added, cramming toast into his mouth.
"Secondly," Sera continued, "during our tryouts all family and political alliances and strings are to be ignored. We are looking purely at the flying ability of the individual. We are in this to win the Cup, that alone should act as a better 'string-former' than satisfying the desires of self-centred wannabies." We all nodded at that. It was a vital part to forming the strongest, most proficient team of the year.
"Thirdly, once our team is formed, we will practice all the manoeuvres I have planned until each and every team member is able to do them in their sleep." I must admit, it's interesting watching Sera go into her captain mode when the main outcome we're all striving for is the downfall of Potter's reign of 'Quidditch King'. "We'll also drill it into them that, under no circumstances, are they to use the moves to show off. That way, when we come up against Gryffindor, we'll be able to use moves which haven't been seen and so haven't been prepared for."
"Fourthly, all practice sessions will be closed, house-only events. No one is to invite friends from other houses to watch. And no one will speak of what they see at the practices. In other words, your task is to ensure all Slytherins know that they will die a painful, agonising death if they dare to bring someone along to my practices. I mean it, threaten them with all the curses, hexes, potions and spells we know." There was an unmistakable gleam in my sister's eyes. They same one that I got when I discovered something that was worthy of my effort. Sera is sure fired up about this, and I'm not going to complain. It's about time those Quidditch-crazed Gryffindorks had a good thrashing, and Sera is just the one to give it to them.
"Ah," I sighed prettily, gazing lovingly at my sister. "Sera, dear, it is always so refreshing to see that despite your loveliness, you did have the same upbringing as me and possess some of the characteristic Slytherin cunningness and ruthlessness. Don't worry, we'll make it known that you are as deadly as the three of us if crossed."
"I never claimed I was otherwise," was her only reply, coupled with a deadly smirk. "Now fifth, and finally for the plan; we smash all the other teams into the ground and basically get the cup handed to us on a gold platter."
We all lifted our glasses to a toast. My and Sera's coffee, Blaise's pumpkin juice and Pansy's tea. Oh this is going to be such a good year.
_ 786_
Saturday morning dawned bright and clear and apart for a slight breeze, perfect weather for Quidditch. Not that there were any windows that would be able to confirm this in the Slytherin rooms. However a closely guarded secret that was only a rumoured myth among the other houses, was that the Slytherin common room had its entire ceiling and one whole wall open to the depths of the lake. It was of course created by magic but had the same effect of being in a muggle aquarium. All the dorms too had these types of windows and even in my short few weeks of living here I had become just as adept as any at being able to tell the weather from looking back up at the surface of the lake.
Gazing out at the creatures of the lake was a great way of putting me in a calm and peaceful frame of mind while dressing for the tryouts today. Once dressed in a pair of short, navy blue exercise shorts, a white polo top with yellow and navy double striped edging around the collar and sleeves and a pair of sneakers, I pulled my hair into a high ponytail and pulled a navy blue cap on (which had the crest of Malfoy embroidered on it in gold at the front).
Ready, I turned to survey my dormmates. I'd assured Millicent and Daphne that today's tryouts would be exceptionally average and to only bother with tomorrow. And really, it's a Saturday! Who in their right mind would want to get up early if they're only going to be watching others exercise? Both girls were sleeping heavily apart from Pansy who was finishing up getting ready herself. She'd chosen a black exercise skort and a golden yellow polo top which had the Parkinson crest embroidered on it in black over her heart and sneakers. Her silky hair was subdued in a French brain and she'd also pulled on matching golden-yellow wrist sweat bands.
Once Pansy was finally ready we headed down the girl's corridor to the common room. Here in Slytherin we don't need to deal with even more stupid stairs to get to our dorms at the end of a long day. Salazar was on to something there. No, really I mean it saves us from extra exhaustion. I think he created the best house rooms there are. The entrance is behind an elaborate floor-to-ceiling wall carving that depicts Salazar in a forest with numerous magical creatures and plants surrounding him. But like with portraits, the carving changes, something will disappear and when it does, another something will appear. You press down on the newest carving and hey presto! You're in.
So the common room is in traditional black and green colours. But unlike popular belief it's not dark. We have all shades of green ranging from almost pitch black to pale green. All the chairs and sofas are expensive and comfy. All wood polished to a high sheen. And an overall peacefulness resides here. Bookshelves cover all of the walls with spaces in between for fireplaces, paintings and ornaments. It's not crowded and is tastefully decorated. You've got the boy's corridor leading to their dorms from the east wall, and the corridor for the girl's in the west wall. It's home for all of us.
"Over enthusiastic brats." Pansy muttered, scanning the nearly empty room. The only other occupants were students from the first or second years, all dressed ready for sport. Pans isn't normally the best morning person but when you add the pressure of tryouts or tests she becomes one tetchy little witch.
"Hey," I said. Slinging an arm around her shoulders and pulling her towards the door away from the younger years, not quite trusting that she wouldn't jump them. "Some of them could be good enough for the team. If so, who gives a damn that they're enthusiastic? Now let's get you some Green Pearl Jasmine tea. It'll help you relax."
Pansy just remained silent for the rest of the trip. When we got to the table and saw that Blaise had already got her tea ready for her Pansy practically threw herself on him. But she didn't. Shame. They would be really cute together.
Grabbing some french toast and having Draco pass me the coffee pot I settled in and analysed the list of participants for yet the hundredth time. Excluding the applicants from the other houses I still had thirty applicants for a seven person team, six excluding my position. Oh well, I don't really care about cutting people from the list in my quest for the best. And besides, I bet at least half, if not more, won't be anything other than average.
Finally we got down to the Quidditch Pitch, and I'm not surprised to see quite a crowd already gathered in the stands to watch, separated into four main groups, each of the other house's Quidditch Teams & their friends and then the Slytherin supporters and friends of those trying out.
I'd already culled five from the list before I even let anyone in the air. I'd just asked for basic stretches and to run one lap of the pitch and those five (all firsties) had collapsed half way… they'd tried to sprint the whole way. The adorable little idiots made me smile, they were so cute being so enthusiastic!
Anyway, just after lunchtime I'd had everyone flying an intermediate level obstacle course, dodging some Bludgers, passing Quaffles, attempting to shoot goals, trying to hit the Bludgers and also kept an eye out on their manoeuvrability, acceleration, reaction speed & attentiveness to orders. Calling them all in to land I wasted no time in announcing the ten that were to come back tomorrow.
_ 786_
The closed session went well, there were no annoying stickybeaks and practically the entire house showed up to watch Sunday's session. I'd just arranged the hopefuls into different combinations and had them flying practice 'matches' against each other, rotating people to test out different combinations and to see how the dynamics worked.
But I had decided. I didn't even need to think about it I was so convinced on who would be the best for the team. Calling everyone down, I cut to the chase.
"Keeper: Blaise Zabini. Chasers: Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy and Alice Medina. Beaters: Leon Alvarez and Juan Guerrero. Congratulations to those who made the team for this year, you all show the talent and skills that we're going to use to take the Cup back this year. I'll post a notice on the common room board as to when practices will be held. Those of you who tried out but didn't make it, don't be too sad, a number of you are great flyers, and in the case of injuries may be called on to fly for us. And all of you! Take a note of that bunch there!" I turned pointing to the five first years who had failed first of all yesterday but had come back to watch. "They have the enthusiasm that leads teams to the top. I expect you to all strive to be like them."
And that was that. I had my team. My perfect team, ready to strike like a hidden snake and take the prize. We were going to the top this year and no amount of skill or luck from Harry Potter or his friends would be able to stop us.
_ 786_
So sorry that I haven't updated in ages! As I mentioned I'm now on my last prac for the year & that, coupled with numerous assignments just took up all my time for a few weeks. But now I have a bit more time as I don't have many assignments. Yay!
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That is all I ask for. & who knows, maybe I'll update faster? ;)