Chapter Six ~Trials and Tribulations~
"All of you! Down on the pitch, now!" Montague, a seventh year and the Slytherin team captain yelled at the other potential team member from his broom while he clutched the quaffle under his arm. He had been the same boy that had made the announcement breakfast on the second day of classes. Adelaide flew her new Firebolt 460 to the ground ready to dismount amongst the others. Today was really her day to show her stuff. Adelaide had been flying most of her life and basically had a full Quidditch encyclopaedia inside her head due to her father and grandmother. "Alright," called the captain "Now we know that all of you can actually fly I want to see if any of you have any talent at Quidditch. We only have five first team positions available. That's a keeper, a chaser, two beaters and the seeker, we will also be choosing an entire reserve team." Quite a crowed had turned up to the tryouts, including Draco which made Adelaide nervous. They were up for the same position, among other students and he had been seeker for the past four years. The most Adelaide decided she could hope for was the reserve seeker position.
The crowed was divided according to the position they wished to play and they were all set into drills. The potential chasers were set into a complicated drill to test their skills with the quaffle with the hopeful keepers alternated defending the three hoops. The beaters were lined up in two parallel lines practicing their skills with a bat using a dud bludger, that is a bludger that no longer contains the vigorous flight path of its newer companions. Those trialling for the position of seeker, there were four of them, were asked to perform intricate manoeuvres that tested their skills in balance, speed and agility. Two of the seeker potentials, including Draco were sent soaring around the pitch after the snitch and Adelaide was left on the ground marvelling at Draco's performance. Never had she seen skills on a broom like his outside of the champion's league. Of course, her father had been this good, if not better but Adelaide hadn't seen him play in years and Draco truly had the potential to match him.
The snitch went whizzing past the goal posts and between the other hopefuls followed by two blurs of green close on its tail. Draco's competitor was a decent flyer, she had to admit but he didn't have the manoeuvrability needed for the position, nor was he eager to take the risks which were regularly required of a seeker. Draco on the other hand dove and twisted his way through other players to gain extra feet that the competitors safe flying didn't allow. Suddenly, the seekers' determination and bravery were put to the test. Obviously, the snitch had taken a turn towards the ground. Being far too far away for Adelaide to see the actual snitch she had to judge by the two boys hurtling down, supposedly in the snitch's wake. Faster and faster the space between the players and the pitch floor decreased. Draco's competitor eased his broom horizontal again far before Adelaide thought he should have if he truly wanted to position but Draco kept flying downward at a startling speed. Soon her respect for his determination turned to worry and then anger. Why wouldn't he pull up? He had, indeed proved himself to be the better flyer and yet he persisted in his pursuit despite his competition's surrender.
"You idiot!" she screamed, standing in her place on the bench, "Pull up, will you? Pull up!" Too many times Adelaide had seen near fatal crashes and fatal injuries caused but this same situation. Her outburst drew almost as much attention as Draco's erratic flying. As much as she hated to see Draco, her friend, plummet to his death willingly in the seat of a broom it was harder to look away then it was to keep her eyes trained on his rapidly descending form. At last, mere feet above the grassy pitch the broom and rider jerked suddenly to a safer, horizontal position. The entire crowed was stunned to silence at Draco's act of athletic brilliance. Bravery? Stupidity? Furiously, Adelaide exhaled the breath she held is anticipation. He could have been killed! And all for an act of pompously boasted Quidditch skills.
Before landing, Draco took his broom and flew the circumference of the pitch in victory –the captured and madly fluttering snitch held high in his gloved hand. Then, when they knew he was safe, the crowd cheered noisily, stamping and clapping their victor. Now, with Draco's feet planted firmly in the grass like a pair of daisies Adelaide's anger subsided to nervousness. Draco's spectacular, if not moronic display had wowed the team captain and his associate, surely her skills, though well practiced were no match for his confidence on a broom and natural affinity for flight. And what if she could beat him? How would he react? Would he still be her friend or would he decide she was an enemy?
This was it. Adelaide's chance to perform at her greatest. She mounted her broom, her shoes heavy with the weight of her sunken stomach. Both her and her competitor flew to the middle of the pitch and readied themselves for battle but for Adelaide the battle was not with her fellow Slytherin but with her stomach. Never had she been this nervous before. Not her first game of junior Quidditch, not her first time on a broom, not even when she arrived at Hogwarts! One glance at the crowed and Draco's smug smirk on the bench sent her stomach shooting from the depth of her shoes and onto the pitch. It was as if Adelaide had swallowed one of the Weasley twins' puking pastels. Any chance at a spot on the team was gone. Covered in the red coat of embarrassment and knots where her breakfast used to be, Adelaide took advantage of her mounted broom and shot off to hide her shame from the rest of the Slytherins, who, were not going to any lengths to hide their laughter.
How could she ruin this? Not only her place on the Quidditch team but her reputation. It was only her first week of school and she had embarrassed herself so profusely, the story of her... escapade had spread through the school like an infestation of Cornish Pixies. This resulted in names such as "up-chucker" and comments suggesting she swapped her broom for a mop. Adelaide mentally reprimanded herself as she flew the pitch again and again. Try outs for the Slytherin team were long over and Draco had been named seeker. Predictable. I bet he gets everything else he wants, too she thought high above the goal posts. I know I could be better than him! She knew she could if she tried. Well, there was always next year, she supposed. But still, she would have to live the rest of her school years in the shame of today's events. Exasperated, Adelaide sighed loudly and swung one leg over her broom handle, hovering in mid air, so that both her legs were on the same side. Then, in a practiced manoeuvre flipped herself backwards and hung, swinging. Shaking her borrowed Quidditch robes off her top half, they fell to the pitch floor, she grasped her broom handle with both hands, either side of her hooked knees. Then in a show of fearless acrobatics (more so in the style of school children on monkey bars) her legs came free and Adelaide hung limp and dangly in mid air. "What are you doing?" Startled by the voice Adelaide let go of her broom. Losing its controller, the broom shot a short distance before tumbling to the pitch floor. Adelaide fell, but not far before she was hooked around the waist and pulled to the safety of another, foreign broom.
"Merlin, Draco you frightened me! Well, go on then get my broom." She snapped, still a bit angry at his display and embarrassed by her... scene. He scowled a bit at Adelaide but did as she said, supposing he had earned her mood by sneaking up on her. Once close enough to the pitch not to kill herself, Adelaide jumped off the front of Draco's broom and stomped, yes stomped, towards her own broom, snatching it from the grass. Draco stood awkwardly, picking at and grooming the bristles of his broom while she huffed and puffed.
Finally he gained some courage. Courage, he needed all he could get. "Are you upset or something?" Good one Malfoy. "Because you know I have been Slytherin's seeker the past 4 years and I earned that spot..."
"No. No, Draco." She stopped him, turning around she looked ashamed. "I'm sorry. You really were brilliant. Beyond brilliant, really. You were really magnificent and... and.. I'm just embarrassed."
"About your...?" He made a rather realistic mime of gagging.
"That and that I yelled at you. It's just I've seen a lot of people get very hurt doing what you were doing. Remember that Cannons seeker a few years ago? Marko Weber? He died from his fall. Didn't pull up soon enough and his opponent collided with the tail of his broom. I was... well, scared. You know?"
Draco nodded. No one had cared enough to reprimand him on his foolish Quidditch stunts before. Well, his mother cared but he didn't risk it around her at the risk of having his broom incinerated. It was weird. That is, knowing someone besides his immediate family that cared if he died. Weird and albeit a little comforting. Another person to read my obituary in the profit.
"Ah.. So, how are you feeling? Still unwell?" it was the least he could offer.
"No, I'm a bit better. It was the nerves. I'm so frustrated with myself. It was my chance!" Adelaide sighed sadly. "Who got the reserve position?"
"No one." He looked at her squarely "Well, not yet. Captain gave me the option and I said that I'd think about it. So, why don't you show me what you can do?"
Adelaide's eyes went as wide as saucers. "You mean it?"
"Yes, I mean it. Neither of the others stood a chance in hell. Go on, then. Impress me. It's no easily done but give it your best." He smirked at her excitement.
Reaching into his Slytherin Quidditch robes he pulled out a snitch and rested it in his flattened palm, waiting for it to take off. And it did, with Adelaide close on its tail. Soaring through the air Adelaide pulled trick after trick out of her arsenal, swerving around the hoops, tumbling in the air and stopping up short only to fly backwards, catching the snitch within minutes. Flying low to the ground, Adelaide stood on her boom handle and bowed low to Draco's applause. "Thank you! Thank you!" she said and jumped down, plopping the dormant, golden snitch in Draco's outstretched palm.
"Well, that was certainly something..." Draco said, scratching at the back of his head. "Why couldn't you pull that out in the trials?"
"Nerves, I suppose."
"About being in front of people? You know there is going to be plenty more people watching you in an actual game than there was today."
"It wasn't all the people. It was you actually." Draco was shock at this. What did she mean?
"You have been the Slytherin seeker for four years, how could I compete with that? And even if, in some strange reality I did get the position over you, how could I handle that? You have earned that spot five times now. If I had taken that from you do you really think we could have stayed friends?" Draco was silent. Even more shocked now than before.
Adelaide continued "So, you can see I was a bit conflicted and... well it made me nervous."
"We're friends?" Draco spoke up, a confused look on his face. Yes, he supposed they were friends.
"Oh, uh. You don't want to be...?"
"No, no." Adelaide shrank a little. He was the first friend she had made at Hogwarts. Well, she thought he was "I just mean I... well, I didn't realise. You know, that we were friends"
"We don't have to be." She stared awkwardly at the grassy pitch.
"Adelaide..." he started. He wasn't quite sure how to proceed. "Well, I'd like to be your friend. You don't seem too pathetic and clearly I'm not going to be losing my team position to you any time soon." He smirked, then.
She smiled then, glad for an ally in her own house. "Come on," She said "You can show me how to do that somersault over the goal hoops." They both took off quickly and were at the goals in no time. Yes, they were friends.