Chapter 11- Quidditch Trial Dramatics

The week continued in the same manner as the first day. Annie receiving death threats from Niamh and Dom every morning, Lou giving her the cold shoulder, Fred Ignoring her (she had tried to talk to him about their duelling project one day after Defense). Looking back on it, it was almost funny that she had followed him, trying to talk to him all the way down the corridor as he ignored her, it must have looked amusing anyway- at the time it had felt awful. She continued to do all her homework, whilst balancing her dance training and also fitting time in for Quidditch Practice. Niamh had come down with her to the pitch the other afternoon to help her train, and after much begging Charlie had been allowed to come along too. Both were certain that Annie would make the team but knowing who her captain was… she wasn't feeling as confident as either of the others.

Saturday morning dawned and Annie was up, as usual, bright and early. This morning wasn't like any other though- the Quidditch trials were today and Annie's stomach felt like butterflies were gnawing her insides. She lay in bed and contemplated whether to train this morning whilst listening to her dorm mates relaxed snores and snuffles, as sunbeams started to spread through the dormitory through the latticed windows. Deciding it might ease her nerves, she grabbed her dance clothes and changed quickly before heading down the stairs and darting out of the portrait hole, not noticing a pair of sleepy chocolate eyes, following her movements from an armchair next to the the embers of last nights fire.

Annie pushed a piece of bacon absentmindedly round her plate whilst gazing out of the window of the great hall, not listening to the buzzing of conversation around her, instead only focusing on the upcoming Quidditch Trials.

"Annie… Annie? EARTH TO ANNIE!" shouted a ruffled Niamh into her ear, unhappy about being ignored, breaking Annie out of her reverie.

"Seriously, you need to chill out, you've got nothing to worry about, you're an excellent flyer, I don't get why you're so nervous" said Niamh busily stockpiling bacon and eggs in her mouth as if she wasn't going to eat for another month.

"Because funnily enough Nim I don't think the Captain likes me very much in case you hadn't noticed" said Annie shooting a furtive look across the table at Fred who was busy eating toast and laughing with James.

"Are you ever going to explain to me what happened with Fred? I mean you haven't seen him since you were 11 and everyone's stupid when they were 11… It can't have been that bad" replied Nimah who was now busy relieving Annie of her plate of food, since it was obvious that Annie wasn't going to eat anything else.

"Well most people wouldn't think it was bad, but for Fred, well I completely betrayed his trust and he was my best friend, I knew he wouldn't forgive me" she said wistfully glancing down at her now empty plate.

"So… what happened?"

"Now's not the time Nim, I need to focus on Quidditch, I can't dance forever and if I can't do that I want to fly professionally and if I wanted to be scouted this year I have to get onto a Hogwarts team… so basically I'm screwed" said Annie, now turning pale at the thought of how much she needed today to go well.

"You'll be fine Ann, the only person who will screw you over is yourself and your nerves so just relax, ok?" Niamh said reassuringly, giving her best friend a one handed hug, whilst still eating her breakfast.

"Ok thanks, look I'm going to head down to the pitch now and do a few laps before the trials, I can't bear just sitting here" Annie said as she rose from the table.

"I'll meet you down there then" Niamh called after Annie's retreating back, Annie waved her hand in response before quickly exiting the hall.

Niamh watched Fred's eyes follow Annie as she left the hall, before turning back to James and continuing his conversation. Niamh guzzled down the rest of her breakfast whilst keeping an eye on Fred, a plan forming in her head as she ate.

Finally Fred left the table ahead of the other boys, heading off to set up the trials. Niamh followed hastily but keeping her distance until they were out of the great hall and rushing to catch up as he headed off into the grounds.

"FRED" she shouted as she ran up to him.

Fred whirled round, clearly not expecting to have been followed and looked at Niamh suspiciously as she approached.

"What Niamh? You know I have to go and set up the trials, this better be important" he said distractedly, noting the amount of people heading to the pitch already.

"Look this is important, I wouldn't butt in if it wasn't" puffed Niamh as she came and stood next him.

"Remind me that we need to work on your cardio this season" said Fred noting Niamh's puffing with a mocking eye.

"Not... funny!" she said as she half heartedly hit his shoulder.

"Look, I know there's some sort of long standing issue between you and Annie, and she won't tell me what it is and I don't expect you too either, but you can't let that history or you're prejudice stand in the way of not giving her a fair trial! She's an amazing player, she's played internationally for Merlin's sake and she needs this team place more than you will understand so please assess her fairly" said Niamh, looking Fred squarely in the eye and watching his previous relaxed posture become more tense.

"Look, if there's someone better than her then there's someone better than her, I can't believe you'd doubt my ability as a captain! I will do as I see fit!" said Fred angrily before turning away and marching off to the pitch.

Niamh watched him go with a mixture of frustration and pity, before rushing off to find James knowing full well that as Co-Captain, James had some say, and hoping that her argument wouldn't be rebuffed by him as well.

There was a large turnout at the Gryffindor Trials but thankfully there appeared to be quite a few groups of giggling girls that had come clearly to see Fred and James, because any time they walked past them, it would send the girls into fits of giggles. Annie was relying that most of them weren't strong at Quidditch. She wished that maybe she'd been sorted into Ravenclaw because there trials were much smaller, and she might've had more of a chance to make the team. She'd watched every trial to assess each of the teams, so she knew what she was up against.

The team assembled in front of the hopefuls and they looked formidable. Lilly Potter, with her hair pulled into a high ponytail and her normally grinning face, was for once, serious. Fin stood still watching the crowd with an assessing gaze and Niamh flashed a quick smile at Annie before turning serious again.

"Right everyone" Fred called out over the crowd silencing most of them, apart from the groups of giggling girls that went into hysterics as soon as he spoke. A look of annoyance flashed over Fred's face before he continued.

"Today we are only looking for two players to complete our team, one chaser and one keeper. These trials will test your stamina, speed and skill and if you are lacking in any of the areas then you're not the right person for us, and don't think that just because you know us outside of Quidditch that we'll go easy on you, if anything we expect even more from you." Fred said, his chocolate eyes meeting Annie's cornflower blue eyes fleetingly before looking round at the rest of the crowd.

"Right, everybody split into groups of who's trying out for keeper and who's trying out for chaser!" James hollered, mimicking a drill sergeant, and everyone leapt into action, quickly splitting into two groups. There were significantly more people trying out for chaser than keeper.

"Chasers, come forward, Keepers, sit in the stands for now, you'll have your trial after the Chasers." James ordered, before turning to the group of Chasers in front of him.

"Right Chasers, to start off with we're testing your stamina. Your first task is that you have to fly as many laps as possible in 12 minutes around the stadium, which sounds easy enough, but on both long sides of the stadium you'll have to fly through a tight slalom which is where you'll feel the ache after about 6 laps."

Annie clutched her broom tightly, she knew she was fit enough to do this and she was blessed with a fast broom, the latest Firebolt, thanks to playing for France last year. Annie put her hand in the air, hoping that people couldn't see it was shaking and fixing a steely look on her face.

"What's the record for the amount of Laps in 12 minutes?" She questioned, and people around her looked at her whilst James just smiled.

"24 Laps, so that means 2 Laps per minute Annie if you think you can manage that" Fred said with a slight sneer to his face.

"And who set that record?" Annie asked refusing to back down from Fred.

"I did." Fred responded with equal steel.

James coughed loudly to interrupt Annie's retort and throwing Fred a look which clearly said 'Shut up'.

"Ok everyone mount your brooms and I'll call you out one by one, if you need to pull out because you're tired please do so safely so that you don't fly into other players, and equally if you want to over take be aware that you're not the only flyer on this pitch." James warned.

"Team, please fly to your monitoring positions" and with the word from Fred the team flew off immediately. Lilly's red hair flying out like a banner behind her.

Annie waited nervously, her hands fiddling with her bracelet, as players were called into the air one by one. As she had hoped, not everyone that had turned up to the tryouts were strong players and some were woefully weak. Many people started to tire after the 12th lap and no one so far had reached the record.

James called out Annie's name and she mounted her broom and prepared to kick off, she knew that she had to get at least 24 laps or more if Fred was ever going to take her seriously. She gripped her broom handle with renewed determination and as the whistle blew, kicked off into the azure sky.

Her heart soared as she took flight and she felt her nerves drop away now she was in the air, and as her body relaxed she set about the task at hand. Lapping many of the stragglers she flew as if her life depended on it, throwing her body into every turn and using her weight to angle the broom to get a clean line through the slalom, pushing herself faster and faster, the wind whipping her face so strongly that it made her face sting and her eyes water.

Fred and James watched from the ground, the latter with a look of admiration on his face, whilst Fred watched her intently.

"She's good Fred" James murmured, watching Annie soar through the air with ease and power.

"Let's just see if she can keep it up, who's keeping count of the laps?" Fred inquired, never taking his eyes of the blonde hair whizzing round the pitch.

"Fin is, you know he won't miscount" said James reassuringly.

Fred scowled but continued to watch her progress.

Meanwhile, up in the air Annie's muscles had begun to ache, she could hear Niamh cheering her on as she overtook another straggler. She knew she couldn't give up, not if she wanted to gain a spot on the team. The minutes ticked by and she lost track of time, and finally the whistle blew on her time and she pulled up. Her muscles screaming in agony and her breath nearly coming in gasps, which she tried to hide, and slowly turned her broom round and flew back towards Fred and James on the ground.

"Well done Annie, you flew really well" James called to her as she landed a few metres from them.

"Thanks, any idea on how many laps I managed?"

"You'll find out at the end of the trial" Fred replied stonily as James looked at his best friend with a hint of worry in his features.

"Ok well thanks."

As Annie walked over to the stands, her muscles started to progress to a dull ache and a tear escaped through her lashes and rolled down her cheek at the effort that it took to mask the pain.

The rest of the trials went well, more and more chasers were whittled down by the task, leaving Annie and only a few others by the end. Her favourite part had been when they'd been asked to showcase a move, and Annie had pulled out a nifty trick on how to steal the ball from the opposing Chaser, managing to fool both Fin and James.

The keepers trial went well, and undoubtedly the strongest flyer there was a 5th year called Jack Walters, who saved every goal bar one which was a particularly tricky throw from James that had a spin on it. She was sure he would make the team. As to the chasers she wasn't sure of the results, she had flown well, she knew that, but there were other good fliers. Charlie had spent most of the keepers trials sitting next to her in the stands, exclaiming dramatically that if she didn't make the team then he would fly around the pitch naked. Dom had sat with her as well and was more quiet in her reassurance, throwing Charlie annoyed looks as he got progressively louder.

Finally the trial ended and a significantly smaller group this time huddled round the team players.

"Well done everyone, you all flew well, I will post the new team lists on the Gryffindor notice board in the common room tomorrow morning, thank you all for coming." announced Fred to the crowd.

And just like that the Quidditch trials were over.

The team immediately relaxed and as people started to disperse, Niamh barreled over towards Annie and thundered into her giving her a big hug.

"Jeez Niamh i'm starting to feel sorry for those Bludgers" Annie said whilst rubbing her ribs and laughing.

"You were amazing Ann, knew you'd pull it off! All that practicing in the summer with dad I expect" Niamh said whilst winking at Annie, and laughing.

Dom and Charlie headed over from the stands and Charlie bounced over to the boys and excitedly started talking, whilst Dom made her way over and gave Annie a big hug.

"I'm impressed Annie, normally quidditch isn't my thing but even I know enough that you're a good flyer, when you get on the team can I improve your team uniform, Niamh wouldn't let me alter hers, apparently she prefers to look like she's wearing a big bulky bin bag!" Dom babbled excitedly and the three of them turned and made their way up to the castle, Annie laughing, Dom chatting and Niamh scowling, but with a twinkle in her eyes.