50 REVIEW CHAPTER! Woo!
When Charlie woke the next morning he found his new timetable on his bedside table.
'Eurgh, double Potions with the Slytherins first,' he grumbled, reading the parchment with blurry eyes.
'And Transfiguration with them after,' Reg added, also awake. Fergus was still snoring and Buck was stirring.
Charlie reached behind his back for his pillow and threw it at Fergus. Fergus snorted as he jerked awake.
'Wassat for?'
'You snored all last year; I'm not going to let you carry on this year.'
Soon enough the Gryffindor second year boys were down in the Great Hall for breakfast. It was back to a routine of meals, owl post, lessons and free time for Charlie, but one thought kept popping up in his mind. Should he try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team?
Last night he had dreamt of flying for Gryffindor, and as he munched his way through a stack of buttered toast and scrambled eggs he decided that it was worth a shot. But before he tried out he would need to find himself a decent broom. Having experienced the quality of the school brooms in Flying lessons last year he wasn't hopeful.
The bell rang for lessons soon after Charlie had finished breakfast, and he headed down to the chilly dungeons with the other Gryffindors and Slytherins.
'Move it Weasley,' grunted Rowle as he shouldered his way to the front of the line, followed by Gibbon, Bozo, and Shunpike. The other Slytherin boy, Scabior, loitered away from the rest of his house mates at the back of the queue. Charlie had never spoken to the long black haired boy before – he'd always been too preoccupied with disliking all Slytherins on principle.
The door to the Potions classroom opened and the second years all filed in.
'Weasley! At the front!' Snape barked from the front desk. Charlie sighed; Snape was starting his reign of terror early this year.
'I want you where I can see you,' the greasy haired potions master hissed at him. 'You won't be sneaking Babbling beverages out of my classroom this year.'
Charlie swallowed hard as Snape's hooked nose was only inches from his own freckled face. He had hoped that Snape would have forgotten some of the pranks he and Tonks had pulled on the Slytherins at dinner times. How naïve he was to think such a thing.
Snape pulled away from Charlie, who exhaled a deep breath, and spoke to the entire class.
'All of you have proved that you have the tiniest ounce of potion making ability by being allowed to return to Hogwarts this year. Though some of you possess more potential than others,' Charlie didn't need to look up to see that Snape was glaring at the Gryffindor side of the dungeon, probably even at him. Charlie was busy unpacking his bag to focus on Snape's disapproval of his house. Not a good move.
'Weasley! Is your bag so interesting that you don't have to pay attention to my class?'
Charlie snapped his head up. 'No sir, sorry sir.'
'Five points from Gryffindor!'
The Slytherins snickered as the Gryffindors huffed at Snape's obvious bias.
'We will be brewing the Pumpion potion today. If brewed correctly the potion should have the effect of temporarily turning the drinker's head into a pumpkin.' Snape sneered at Charlie, showing his yellow teeth. 'Mr Weasley here has just volunteered to be the lucky drinker, not that you could tell if the potion had worked with that pumpkin coloured hair.'
The dungeon echoed with the Slytherins' laughter. Charlie knew better than to back chat.
'Ingredients and procedure are on the board. Begin!'
Two hours later and Charlie was not in the best mood. Fergus had tipped over Charlie's cauldron in an effort to recapture a bouncing bulb and Charlie's almost complete Pumpion potion tipped all over the floor, causing Snape to take a further ten points from Gryffindor. Snape had then made Charlie drink the freshly brewed potion. After his brief spell as a pumpkin head, Charlie was feeling nauseous and hungry; and he had now gained the nickname 'pumpkin head' from the Slytherins.
So all together, Charlie was relieved to get out of the castle at break time.
'Not a good first lesson I gather?' Tonks asked when she saw Charlie's face. Charlie shook his head while Annie and Buck recounted the whole lesson.
'Wow, Snape's upped his game this year,' Don commented once they'd finished. 'I thought he couldn't get any worse than last year.'
'Who wants to bet he'll take more than fifteen points from Hufflepuff after my first lesson with him today,' Tonks winked. Snape seemed to hate Tonks more than any other student and nobody knew why.
'I reckon he's jealous of your hair,' Charlie laughed, feeling better as they headed back into the castle for transfiguration.
'Who isn't,' Tonks shrugged with a grin, 'well, if I don't survive this lesson, I'll see you in the afterlife!' She gave a backhanded wave as she and Don headed down the spiral steps to the dungeon. Charlie, Annie and Buck headed up the Grand Staircase to Transfiguration instead.
'We will be revising the spells that we learned last year, as students usually forget everything they have previously learned.' Professor McGonagall announced once they were all seated.
Sure enough, Charlie could barely remember how to transfigure his beetle into a button. By the end of the lesson Charlie's brain felt like porridge, but at least he hadn't lost any house points from McGonagall. Annie had even gained back ten of Charlie's lost points by producing a whole row of perfectly formed buttons.
'Nice one pumpkin head!' Gibbon boomed as they headed down to lunch. Charlie felt a button bounce off his head.
'Ignore it,' Annie urged, seeing Charlie's hand flex towards his wand.
Charlie was fuming when he sat down at the Gryffindor table for lunch.
'Today has been such a rubbish day! It can't get any worse!' he complained, stuffing roast chicken into his mouth.
Thunder rolled across the enchanted ceiling as though in reply.
'Fantastic,' Charlie groaned through his mouthful of chicken, 'Fan-bloody-tastic.'
Thankfully, the rest of Charlie's week passed without being worse than Monday. After his appalling Potions and Transfiguration lessons Charlie found himself on the floor of Greenhouse Two, having been knocked out by the piercing cry of a particularly ugly and fat baby mandrake.
'Bad luck Weasley,' Professor Sprout shrugged as Tonks and Buck helped him to his feet. Sprout was holding Charlie's earmuffs in her hands. 'Looks like you got the only earmuffs with a hole in them.'
But by Friday Charlie was feeling much happier: he had put his name down on the try outs for Gryffindor Seeker.
Now he just needed to find himself a decent broom. Having used the school brooms for Flying lessons last year he knew how much of a challenge that could be.
So Saturday morning, Charlie and his friends headed down to the Flying grounds to find a broom. They pulled out a selection of brooms in a variety of battered conditions.
'Okay, just get a feel of the brooms – if you get one that goes too far in one direction when you're flying then put it in a pile over here,' Charlie motioned to his left. 'If you think it's decent put it over here,' he pointed to his right. 'I'll then go through that pile and find a good broom.'
By lunchtime they had discounted most of the brooms from the broom cupboard and had only a dozen brooms in the good pile.
Charlie quickly settled on an old Cleensweep that only veered slightly to the left when in flight, and it had most of its tail twigs too. He took the broom up to Madam Hooch's office for it to be kept aside until the try outs.
'Ah, so you managed to find a decent broom in there? Well done,' the hawk-eyed Flying teacher took the broom from Charlie.
Madam Hooch's office was small, but it held a number of trophies in the clear glass case to the left, including the large silver Quidditch Cup. In the opposite corner of the room, beside the desk, was a cupboard where Madam Hooch kept brooms, and judging by the rattling from within, she also kept the Quidditch balls in there too. On the desk was a faded picture of an all female Quidditch team, the Holyhead Harpies.
'I didn't know you used to play,' Charlie said, spotting Madam Hooch in the left of the middle row, indicating that she played as a Chaser.
'Many years ago, Weasley,' she put his broom away, 'many years ago.'
Charlie signed his name on a little piece of parchment and turned to leave the office.
'Good luck Weasley,' Madam Hooch called as he closed the office door on the way out.
The next week passed quickly. After lessons Charlie and Buck spent their evenings down on the Quidditch pitch practising for the try outs. Charlie was able to coax some speed out of his school broom, but it was nothing compared to Buck's newer Cleensweep model.
Charlie went to bed early the Friday before try outs, in the hopes that extra sleep would help calm his nerves.
'You'll do great,' Tonks reassured him, 'we've seen you fly, so just relax and you'll be fine.'
Charlie wished he could believe her, but his stomach felt like it was filled with angry bees buzzing around faster and faster as the try outs got closer and closer.
Finally, after a fitful sleep Charlie decided that it was time to get down to breakfast. He was a couple of hours early, as the sun hadn't even begun to rise, but he felt better to be doing something.
Barely anyone was in the Great Hall when Charlie arrived but there was already food out. As Charlie mulled over a bowl of cereal the Hall slowly filled up. Tonks and Don came over to wish him good luck once the Hufflepuffs started arriving from their basement dormitory. Next to arrive were the Ravenclaws, more often than not clutching books to read over breakfast. The Slytherins and Gryffindors arrived last and made their way to the opposite ends of the Hall to their House tables.
'Didn't sleep so well?' Buck asked Charlie as he took a seat opposite.
Charlie shook his head. He still had half of his cereal left.
The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall showed that the weather outside was cloudy, normal for September in Scotland.
Bill came by as well and sat beside his younger brother.
'How are you feeling Charlie?' he asked, looking concerned at his sibling.
'Not so good,' Charlie confessed, lamely stirring his soggy cereal.
'Nervous?'
Charlie nodded.
'Don't worry about it,' Bill urged, knowing that it was hard not to worry. 'You're a better flyer than me, and you know it.'
That brought a smile to Charlie's face, remembering when Bill and Charlie would play against each other at the Burrow's orchard and Charlie would beat his older brother easily.
'Everyone's better than you Bill,'
Bill pretended to look shocked. 'Not everyone.' He pointed over to the Ravenclaw table, 'see the lanky one over there? Bernie Pillsworth, he's a rubbish flyer. Even worse than me – couldn't get more than a couple of feet off the ground without being sick.'
Charlie raised his eyebrows.
'How're you feeling now?' Bill asked again.
'Surprisingly better,' Charlie almost grinned. Bill was actually a pretty fair flyer, but the two brothers got on far too well to ever admit that. Especially not after it had been a joke between them for so long.
Charlie managed to take a couple of bites of a bacon omelette before he saw Gwenog Jones, the sixth year Gryffindor Captain, take to her feet and leave the Hall, shortly followed by the rest of her team.
Charlie lost his appetite once more.
'C'mon, let's do this,' he said to Buck, and the two of them headed down to the Quidditch pitch. Annie and Bill bid them a good luck as they went.
'We'll be down in a bit, okay?' Annie called. Charlie's stomach churned at the thought. He hoped he wasn't going to be sick. That would be a terrible first impression to give to the intense Gryffindor Captain.
So Charlie stood, clutching his broom, among a dozen other hopefuls. He was watching the Chaser try outs where Buck was weaving in and out of the other players on his flashy new broom.
The Seeker try outs were kept until last.
In the stands, Charlie spotted Annie, Don and Tonks cheering Buck on. It wasn't too much of a surprise that Buck was chosen as new Gryffindor Chaser, despite his competition being older and more experienced. The simple fact was that Buck had some decent skills as well as a more than decent broom.
'Well done mate,' Charlie said to Buck, clapping him on the back.
'Piece of cake,' Buck bragged, 'I've got to go and see about getting some old robes from the locker room. See you in a bit – and you'd better have been chosen alright?'
Charlie forced a laugh as Buck sauntered off after fourth year Chaser Jon Roberts.
After Jones had reinstated Barry Ryan as Keeper, Jenkins as Beater and Dent as the remaining Chaser, it was time for the Seeker to be chosen.
'GO ON CHARLIE!' he heard from the stands, it had to be Tonks, Annie wasn't that loud and no other girls would be cheering for Charlie.
Gwenog Jones lined all the hopefuls up. She gave them a right talking to about what commitments she expects from her team and if they couldn't be sure of that commitment they shouldn't bother trying out. Charlie hadn't noticed quite how strong Jones' Welsh accent was until he heard her talk for a length of time.
A couple of fifth years decided that they couldn't commit and sheepishly slipped out of line.
'Right then,' Jones barked, 'the rest of you – mount your brooms and do a lap of the pitch!'
Charlie thought that was a pretty routine task, smoothly mounting his broom and kicking off from the ground. A third year couldn't even get off the ground on their broom and was unceremoniously dismissed by Jones at once.
The group was narrowed down even further when Jones started calling them out halfway through their lap. Charlie was praying that his name wouldn't be called as he came to the end of the lap. His name wasn't called.
'Land!' Jones ordered.
Charlie landed as though his life depended on it.
'You,' Jones said, pointing at one of the four remaining hopefuls. Charlie was third in the line, feeling self-conscious that he was the youngest and the shortest. 'Poor broom control on the dismount. No.'
Charlie resisted the urge to look around at the person's face. He was more than a little bit intimidated by Jones' harsh measures.
Then, with only three of them left of the original dozen, Jones got them in the air and threw some Muggle golf balls at them. The idea was that they were a similar size to the Golden Snitch and they had to catch as many as they could.
One more hopeful was quickly let go after missing three balls in a row.
Then it was just Charlie versus a third year girl.
Jones lined the two up and scrutinised them for a couple of minutes, until, after what seemed like forever…
'Weasley!' Charlie heart sunk, the thought that had been plaguing him all day popped into his head: you didn't make it.
But that's not what Jones said.
She said: 'You're in.'
The third year girl threw her broom on the ground and stormed off. Charlie felt like his lungs were about to collapse, he honestly hadn't thought he would make it.
'Welcome to the Gryffindor Quidditch Team!'
From the stands Charlie heard Tonks, Don, Annie and Bill going wild.
'GO CHARLIE! GO CHARLIE!' they chanted. Hearing them, Jones raised an eyebrow.
'Quite a fan club you've got there,' she even smiled. After the morning of strictly ordering around half of Gryffindor House, it was hard to think of Jones as being quite a nice person. But, as she explained to Charlie in the locker room, she only acted so harsh to weed out those who couldn't take the pressure.
'I'll have no weak-willed players on my team.' She growled, opening the door to the locker room for Charlie.
Charlie found Buck in the locker room with the rest of the team.
'YEAH! Well done mate!' Buck cheered when he saw his red-headed friend, echoing Charlie's earlier congratulations.
Jones took Charlie over to a large pile of Gryffindor Quidditch robes and tried a couple on against him.
'This one will do,' she said, handing Charlie the scarlet and gold robes. 'We'll get your name put on later.'
'Team!' Jones barked, somewhat friendlier than she had been before, 'congratulations! Now, let's work hard and keep hold of that Quidditch Cup!'
They all cheered, Charlie felt a bit dizzy. He probably should have eaten more for breakfast.
'Training will start next on the first Tuesday of October…' Jones continued, launching into the new programme she had designed for the year.
Charlie's thoughts wandered to the future, imagining himself holding the silver Quidditch Cup aloft in front of the entire school.
'Okay team, dismissed,' Jones finished. 'Well done you two,' she said to Buck and Charlie.
Together, the two friends headed back out to the stands to see their friends.
Thank you all so much! 50 reviews is such a great milestone! Huge danke to livininthesky, runeaglerun, ShadowedPuppeteer, abnormalities, withaballoon, verliebtindich, .Emmazing, themusicfiend, CossetteLune, fo'got te loooorg een, Lady Elizabeth of New York, huggie101, chelseyb1010, Angel-of-vampires, degree of awesomness, sportz8806, KitKat, Bonnie Moonstone, MockingjayPaean, couriouserby2, NaylaWood, NymphaTonksLupin, Scarlett and Phoenix-Core7!
Congratulations toBonnie Moonstone for being my top reviewer! And to withaballoon for being runner up reviewer, and to ShadowedPuppeteer, verliebtindich, Lady Elizabeth of New Yorkand chelseyb1010 for being third place reviewers! You guys are so awesome!
Next milestones are:
- 100 reviews! (50 to go!)
- 5,000 hits! (only 1,749 left!)
- 50 favourite stories! (25 more!)
- 50 story alerts! (just another 20!)
Keep up the good reviewing guys! And remember, if there's any suggestions about what I could put into this story, or any improvements then just let me know in a review! :)
LittleGuitar94
