A/N:Hello, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while; it was the last week of school so I was busy, then I went away without wifi, But this chapter is longer, and hopefully a bit more exciting. Soon aswell the name of the story will make a little more sense. Please review:)
"Fine, I'm not going to force you then, but will you join the reserve team this year, and then play for the team from next year onwards? We lost some good players at the end of last year, and currently we have me, two other seventh-years and Fred and James. I presume James will be captain next year, and I am certain he will be harsh, but will need some good players. Please Clara, all you have to do is come to one training once or twice a fortnight and play if someone can't play, Please?" Charles reasoned; he had put up a good bargain. Clara thought over it for a few moments before answering. Everyone around her looked at her expectantly and it made her more nervous and more inclined to say no for some odd reason; she didn't know why. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but her lips closed again; she tried again with luck this time,
"If you promise that it will be no more than once or twice, not a lot of pressure is put on me and that I have to make no promises to actually join the team fully, I'll do it," Clara said as a sigh of relief washed over the others and Charles nodded happily as he clapped his hands together and excused himself for a minute.
"Well done Clara," Molly said.
"I didn't just play Quidditch you know, I only said that I would," Clara mumbled to confused looks, she just shook her head and returned to her dorm where she found a now sleeping Moira. She tutted slightly, as she rubbed Moira's neck softly and looked out onto the Hogwarts grounds, sighing as she saw the path that lead to the Quidditch pitch. She gave a sarcastic chuckle, as she slowly picked her book again and lay it down on the bed, as she gathered her towel and things, and headed to the bathroom.
Things at school started to know pick up, the homework load increasing by the day; not to the pleasure of the children, obviously. The Quidditch try-outs started, and the teams were picked. The Gryffindors team was picked the Tuesday following Clara's agreement to become the reserve.
They had come back from the worst day of the week, bags heavily strung over their bodies, weighed down by the many books they were required to have. The first-years quickly slumped themselves onto the sofas, not at all to the older ones delight, they tutted and murmured something about 'selfishness' and 'stupid first-years'.
"Flitwick was being so annoying today, four rolls of parchment. He's getting worse you know," Al said as he rested his eyes on the biggest sofa.
"You know he was probably just in a bad mood, you know how he gets," Rose said as she got out her homework timetable, that her mother had given her.
"Seriously Rose, we only just got back from work, and now you're doing more work. Rose just have some rest, like just for tonight," Clara pleaded, and Rose shook her head.
"Nope, this is due in in three days, guys you should be doing this as well," Rose said still shaking her head, as she set her bag down on the floor. Clara sighed and then went up to the notice board; Charles had mentioned something about putting up the sheet on Tuesday; the try-outs had been on the previous Saturday.
"Al, come over here, the sheets up," She called, beckoning the boy over. Al looked round and then got up. The sheet read-
Gryffindor Quidditch team 2017
Chasers- James Potter
Albus Potter
Charles Hornby
Beaters- Fred Weasley
William Clarke
Keeper- Chris Wood
Seeker- Catherine Wall
Reserve- Clara Lake (Seeker or Chaser)
Please Note that this is final, so don't argue or come complaining to me. Also Quidditch practice will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but excluding the matches. Please actually come or you are off the team.
"Well done, Chaser," Clara said as she hugged him.
"Same to you, Chaser or Seeker. So when are you coming to practice; have you spoken to Charles yet?" He asked.
"Err, yeah. I think I'm coming on Fridays and Saturdays, if I can, cause homework you know," Clara said shrugging.
"Yeah I know, we will be keeping up with it you know, as well," He said as they walked back over to the others.
That same week the practices started for all the houses; Scorpius was in his house team as well, so he had lost his evenings as well. A few years ago due to the frequency of Quidditch practices, the school had gained training areas and temporary scoring hoops for each house so that there wasn't an issue with double booking the match pitch anymore. However each house was allowed one day each week playing on the match pitch which was chosen at the start of the year, and couldn't be rescheduled, which also helped with the double booking issue.
The Quidditch practices were also getting gradually more intense, due to the oncoming match of Slytherin vs Gryffindor. Luckily for Clara and for everyone else, no one was injured or couldn't play. She had been doing very well in the practices and had ended up coming to every one of them; she enjoyed Quidditch a lot, but still kept by her agreement and still solemnly refused to go play in any of the matches unless it was absolutely necessary. She played exceedingly well, better than Catherine (she preferred Cath) at Seeker, despite Cath actually being the teams Seeker, even Cath said so. But she still kept by her word and was much happier to watch the match.
Everyone got up earlier the morning of the match, for two reasons; firstly because of the match, and secondly because of Teddy arriving. The Potters and the Weasleys were very excited about the prospect of seeing him again, Victoire the most of course. He had arrived with Al and James' father, who had been teaching a lesson at the school on the Friday; Teddy had arrived the previous evening. They were very excited to see him when they came to breakfast on the Saturday morning, their smiles were wiped off however when they saw him caught up with Victoire at the Gryffindor table.
James walked down the aisle to them,
"Seriously mate, in front of the whole family," James said as they stopped and Teddy got up and hugged his friend, who was basically his brother, they had grown up together. Teddy laughed at his comment and then went on hugging the rest of his family.
"Hey Teddy! How's Auror training?" Rose asked amongst the greetings.
"Great! It's a bit boring though, and I've got three more years of it," He said as he sat back down, the rest siting opposite and around them. Clara, Eliza and Poppy were sitting a little awkwardly at the end.
"Oh sorry, this is Clara, Eliza and Poppy. This is Teddy," Al said when he realised how awkward and misplaced they looked. The girls waved at the blue haired young man.
"Hi," he said before the conversation turned to the Quidditch match, obviously pro Gryffindor and Scorpius wasn't currently at the table as his Quidditch captain was very strict and had got him up at six and they were already warming up. Soon after they had leave though as the hall was filling up and Fred, James and Al needed to get ready. The others left to wrap on the cold morning; it was October.
A bit later Eliza, Poppy, Rose, Clara and Louis all walked down to the Quidditch pitch, all wrapped in coats and Gryffindor Scarfs. The morning was cool and overcast, a cold breeze sweeping across the rolling Scottish hills. Hair blowing in the wind, wrapping across their faces, hands neatly placed in pockets.
The stands were fast filling up, the cheers already quite loud. The pitch was a sea of scarlet and emerald, flags waving and shouts for their house very loud. The teachers grim faces, with rolled eyes at the excitable and very loud pupils. There was also Harry Potter sat next to Professor Longbottom, they were smiling and chatting happily as the rest of the school reached the stands. There were some strange glances and quiet whispers in his direction, he took no notice though, he was there to catch up with his old friends and see his sons play the first Quidditch match of the year.
Gryffindor had been the champions of the Quidditch cup for many years, and it looked even before the match had started that their reign was set to continue. They had good players this time around, and they were worked very hard by Charles, who was also an exceptional player. But despite James Potter only being in third- year, he was the best on the team and would most likely take captaincy the following year and would go on to have a career in Quidditch like his mother. Chris Wood was also a brilliant player, the child of two former Gryffindor players who went on to do Quidditch as well, Katie Bell and Oliver Wood, good friends of Harry Potter also. Chris had always played Quidditch as a kid and wanted more than anything to get to play for Puddlemere United, his favourite team.
The match started ten minutes later, the players lined up, a cold stare and a reluctant handshake was given by the Slytherin captain Augustus Pinthon to Charles; he returned the look before he went back to his place among his team mates. There was another cold stare between the Seekers, where the most intense rivalry was usually anyway. Catherine was a very competitive girl, so was Jake Harriashaw, they were in the same year and had been Seekers for the team since third-year; they had been rivals for years, but were best friends anyway. Them competing was a highlight in the calendar for them, they didn't carry their friendship onto the pitch and would do basically anything to win.
Al wasn't very confident at all; his brother was the opposite however. Al was very worried about all the eventualities he had created in his head, no matter what anyone had said he was still very nervous for the match, where he could drop the Quaffle or something and they'd then blame him for losing the match. The truth was the opposite obviously. James was basically certain of their victory, he had a plan. A plan that had won them loads of matches. He would breeze through the match, without fault or injury.
Before Al could decide what to do Madame Blackwood blew her whistle and the players set off. James was the first to catch the ball, and he held it under his arm as he sped through the other players towards the goal posts. No one was shocked by his strong start, the commentator Jade Newbury of Ravenclaw, commentated on it being the usual.
"Oh and here goes Potter, straight away with the Quaffle, dodging a bludger sent from Roade. He is going for the top post, he throws and Snow tries to get the ball, but ooh he fails 10 points to Gryffindor," she called among the cheers and chants from the Gryffindors and they roared when he threw the ball. After the ball was thrown the game went on the snitch not in sight, well the seekers hadn't seen the small golden flying ball. Half an hour later the score was at 70-10 to Gryffindor. It had been unlucky when Chris had missed the ball that shot passed him, naturally the Slytherins were in very poor moods at this point, just hoping for Jake Harriashaw to spot the snitch and for them to win. However a lot of them had realised that it was a lost cause since the Gryffindors were the reigning champions and had a strong team.
Fortunately for them a few minutes later the Seekers spotted the snitch; the two very fast players set off immediately. Not caring for the cool breeze they sped to the other side of the pitch where the small ball was fluttering, it was already moving though. Cath had the better broom so was ahead of Jake as they reached the other side. The ball swerved left and the boy and girl followed, hands outstretched reaching for the ball which suddenly went bolt upright. Annoyed they followed diving up wards, vertically. They had tucked their arms in and now were holding firmly to their broom as the ball fell to the ground once again. They nose-dived to catch the ball.
They had almost got to the floor when they pulled away, and the Snitch fell to the ground before it stopped, and lay motionless in the grass. Cath and Jake gave each other a look before they lept back down hands out once again as they tried to grab it, and failed. The ball moved again and sped off it the other direction, they tutted before they followed the ball. They were both very irritated by this point and just wanted to get the Snitch.
Slytherin hadn't gained any more points since the snitch had been spotted and Gryffindor had though the score was now 100-10. So far James had scored five of the goals, Al had scored the last and Charles had scored two. The crowd was still roaring.
The Seekers sped off Cath now quite far ahead; Jake's broom wasn't fast enough. She was reaching out as the ball tried to gain speed but failed. Finally she clasped her hand around the ball and lifted it up in the air, to cheers of happiness and sighs of disappointment. Jake looked a little lost as he saw his friend clasping his way out of the match. Scorpius, who had scored the only goal for his team, was smiling at Al who had scored a goal. He was upset they hadn't won, but it was the first match of many.
The Gryffindors were now screeching as they sang their chant, when the players were walking off the pitch. The Slytherins however were quite the opposite and had sullen faces as they walked out of the stands and back up to the castle. A few of the teachers were smiling, Professor Longbottom especially, as he was the head of Gryffindor; the headmistress was also rather cheery as she'd been Quidditch player for the house many years ago, and despite her efforts to not be biased she was a little more happy when Gryffindor won something than if the other houses did. Harry, who was walking back with Neville Longbottom, was very cheery as well, because his sons had both scored some of the goals, he was eager to see them face-to-face again after about two months. Talking via letters and the Floo network was good and all but it just wasn't the same. He met up with his sons in the entrance hall minutes later.
"Well done in the match!" Harry said as he patted Al's back awkwardly.
"Thanks, I guess," Al said as they started to walk back out into the grounds, still in Quidditch gear. He was a bit like his dad in the way he was with modesty, and really didn't know how to answer to a compliment.
"So how's school?" their dad asked trying to make some sort of conversation, and failing; sometimes they all needed Molly there.
"Really, Dad? You don't see us for like two months and all you ask is how's school?" James exclaimed; he was in a little bit of a sulk about the one goal Slytherin had scored, but would never have a go at Chris or anything, but still had the mind set to think that he could do it all himself and didn't need anyone else to win the match. This trait or habit would be his downfall. Harry laughed as they walked on through the trees outside the castle.
"So how's mum?" Al asked after a while.
"Fine, she would have liked to come up you know and see the match, but she had to work," He replied.
"Didn't she say the last time we spoke that someone called Jane at work was making her do loads and stay really late or something?" Al asked. Their dad replied, and they soon all got chatting about random stuff. They walked around for a while, still chatting, but Harry had to get back to the ministry as his work was pilling up as he had taken two days off already. He had to leave, Teddy also. They walked back into the school where they found Victoire and Teddy hugging in the middle of the entrance hall, then they kissed just before Teddy and Harry had to walk back down to Hogsmeade to Disapperate back to the Ministry. The boys walked back to the dorms; they were by this time actually still in their Quidditch gear and rather hot and sweaty.
The Gryffindor Quidditch team didn't have another match till the following term, but that didn't mean that the intense practices would stop. If anything it meant they had more of them. It was now November and everything was in place as if everyone had been there for years. Nothing noticeably strange had occurred during this time, apart from a particularly mean first-year, of the name Violet Clive hexing Anna, from Rose and Clara's dorm. It was a particularly nasty Jelly Legs Curse, where she'd learnt it no one knew, but still it had meant that Anna had to be sent to the Hospital wing for a few days. It would seem that Violet would be the bully in their year. Of course this debarcle meant that the majority of the Gryffindor house was now on the defensive about Anna. They were the sort of people that when one small thing happened that was slightly bad they would do literally anything to make it not occur again. Well, they were the courageous and chivalrous house, but not always were they loyal.
Other than that though nothing much happened. The days went slowly, like when you drink a thick smoothie and the mixture seems to just go on forever. To make matters slightly worse they had been told that at the end of the term they were going to have the delightful joy of some new exams; you can imagine how ecstatic they were, not. This though, excited Rose Weasley greatly; her mother also sent new stationary items for her. And even though the tests were a month away she was already revising as if they were OWLs and making all her friends do the same. It was a big joy to everyone when they got a Saturday off for Poppy's birthday on the 23rd November. Rose had given them the day off. They had spent the day outside with a picnic of food they'd gotten from a particularly lenient house elf from the kitchens. They had also snuck some balloons and things from Flitch's office. No one was sure how Al had managed to get the party items; he brushed them off whenever they asked.
They basically spent the day chatting, laughing and playing underneath the big willow tree outside Gryffindor Tower. During the past three or so months Eliza, Poppy, Clara, Rose, Louis, Al and Scorpius had all become close friends. Eliza and Poppy however were still best friends and Eliza had gone to the huge effort of getting something related to a muggle thing that they both loved as a birthday present. No one else knew what it meant, but obviously it was really cool as Poppy was over the moon. Overall it was just a really nice break for everyone; their moods had been lifted substantially. They stayed out till rather late, and only went in when Professor Longbottom came outside to suggest that they went back inside, because the prefects were about to start their patrols, and he didn't really want them to get detentions. They reluctantly sauntered back in to the dark castle, where Scorpius left to go to his dorm and the rest settled in front of the dying fire in the Gryffindor Common room.
"Well, It's been a good day, I think," Eliza said as she threw herself onto the sofa. They all murmured in agreement as they all sat down
"Thanks Poppy," Rose said amongst yawns, it was getting rather late, the common room was basically deserted, if it hadn't have been they would have been getting hard looks from the seventh-years anyway.
"I didn't do anything, thank Al. He was the one who got all the stuff," Poppy answered rather slowly, her eyelids battered heavily, she was finding it hard to stay awake, " Please tell us how you got all the stuff, we won't judge if you say you had to kiss a house elf."
They all laughed at Poppy's remark,
"No way am I telling you, and before you ask again I didn't kiss a house elf. It's nothing like that I swear," Al exclaimed. They all laughed once again, and then they finished all the sweets Al had collected and things. And slowly one by one they all retired to their dorms as the dark night drew in. The fire was now just glowing embers and the school was silent. The air was a lot cooler, and by this time, the only ones still awake were Louis, Eliza and Al, sort of. Al was sort of half- asleep on the sofa, but the others dared not wake him so they just left him on the sofa, and thought it better to wake him in the morning, like Rose had done when Clara had fell asleep.
Louis wasn't really one for being enormously tired at night; he found it hard to sleep sometimes, and even at this hour wasn't tired at all. Eliza was tired but still pushing through; she was too kind to leave Louis alone in the common room. But she felt her eyelids softly shut, and Louis decided it was time to do the same. He grabbed some blankets from the chest on the other side of the room. He put one over each of his friends, and he too drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
Even the very next day Rose got everyone up early so that they could revise for the tests that were three weeks later.
"Come on get up we have 12 hours of work to do. Wake up!" Rose shouted as she threw back the curtains in her dorm early on the Sunday morning.
"Rose it's like eight on a Sunday morning, and we went to bed late. For god's sake just give us a moments rest," Clara said sleepily as she sat up and rubbed her eyes as they tried to adjust to the bright light.
"No come on down for breakfast ten mins," Rose called as she left the room, in search of Eliza who wasn't in her bed. Clara and the others groaned heavily as they heaved themselves out of bed, still half-asleep. Rose walked down the steps into the common room to find three of her friends asleep around or on the sofa. She laughed to herself for a moment before she woke them up.
"Guys, you need to wake up. We're going to breakfast in ten. Have you really all slept here in the freezing cold," Rose asked as she shook them awake. Al groaned heavily and turned the other way, trying to go back to sleep. Rose decided that it was a lost cause she shook all three of them once more and then sighed. She walked back over to the window, looked down on where they'd spent the previous day, she sighed once again and checked whether the others had gone back to their dorms, thankfully they had. Five minutes later everyone was back down and they all walked back to the great hall for breakfast. They spent the whole day in the library, with Scorpius as well, looking over what they'd learned so far. They were incredibly bored however when it reached about three, they all decided to abandon it for the time being, Rose reluctantly obviously.
The next two weeks passed incredibly quickly, with the lead up to the tests they had barely any spare time. The castle now looked like it had been coated in icing sugar, the whole castle was a lot cooler and even the care of magical creatures lessons had to be taken inside, it was one of the coldest winters for a long time. Even though the exams were minor ones they still had to have them in the great hall over four afternoons in the penultimate week. It was rather daunting for the children as most hadn't done any exams at all or hadn't done any important ones ever. Though all the children that had gone to muggle primary schools had to take SATs, but they didn't mean anything in the big scheme of things.
The first test was Transfiguration, in which they had to perform what they'd done during their first practical lesson. Most of them performed it successfully with the first try, it was a basic transfiguration. They just had to say the spell in front of a teacher and the mouse they had to transfigure. They had their lessons in the morning like normal so they had been allowed to practise everything they could possibly be tested on earlier that morning. That evening they had their astronomy test which was mapping a small section of the sky. It was rather easy and only a few had problems, their end of year test would be the whole sky, which was a lot harder.
The following day they had Charms, where they had to make a feather float, which was actually a rather tricky spell to master. They also had their Potions test which proved to be quite hard, and unfortunately for Al he had to do the test in front of Professor Slughorn, who said that he had specially requested to test Al. Al wasn't at all pleased as during the whole test the Potions professor had kept saying about his pure talent that he'd got from his grandmother. Al was in a pretty bad mood when he left the hall.
On the Wednesday they had their defence against the dark arts exam, which was a very hard one, but Professor Kirk had warned them that it was going to be tricky but that the exam was only to see how everyone was getting on, and was a lesson for the end of year exams. Defence against the Dark Arts however was the majority of Gryffindors favourite subject, so they all fared well.
On the last day they had their Herbology exam, which was quite easy, but Professor Longbottom didn't like tests that were just for the ones that did well in his lessons, he wanted everyone to do a test where they could see their strengths. They didn't have an exam in Care Of Magical Creatures as they hadn't covered enough material yet, so they would have to wait until the end of the year.
Despite the tests not being as bad as everyone had feared, everyone was still exhausted by the weekend. They hadn't been given any homework and were going home on the next Friday. The next week anyway they probably wouldn't do much lesson stuff just fun Christmassy things. So that weekend was for messing around and packing as there really wasn't anything better to do.
"What are you doing in the Hols?" Al asked as they all sat in an empty classroom chatting about random things, well mainly Quidditch.
"Umm, nothing much. I spend Christmas with my grandparents, other than that I just play with Katie. What about you lot?" Clara answered.
"Family stuff. Christmas dinner is now for about thirty of usThe washing up would be hell if it wasn't for magic," Rose laughed.
"Skiing with my parents and sister. We go every year I have never had a Christmas at home, It sucks," Eliza said as she reached over for a Chocolate frog.
"Wales… Camping," Poppy said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Well you lot should come for New Year, Clara it would be nice if Katie met Lily, Hugo and Lucy, as they're the same year as her. It'd be nice if she knew someone when she comes next year," Al said before he stopped himself and his face looked ashen, "Oh sorry, I forgot you're muggleborn. Is Katie coming next year? It'd be good even if she wasn't but-"
"Al its fine, I'm sure she is. I once caught her brushing her teeth with levitating toothpaste. If you'd mind having us over We'd love to come," Clara said. Eliza was still in Austria at New Year but Poppy and Scorpius were both around, so they settled that they'd have a sort of New Year's party at the Burrow.
The next week, as expected passed quickly, and amongst cheers. They were going to be getting their results on the Thursday, when they didn't have any lessons, the day before they left to go back home, they were to leave for Hogsmeade station at 11 on the Friday. The received their results at Lunch on the Thursday, but there were seven that hadn't, Clara, Al, Rose, Scorpius, Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, the twin sons of Luna and Rolf Scamander, the boys were rather good friends with Al and the rest of them; also there was another Ravenclaw called Nathaniel. Moments after everyone else had received their results a prefect called to the seven and asked them to go to McGonagall's office in half an hour. Confused they promptly left the Great Hall and got to the staircase that lead to the Headmistresses office. Moments later the stair case started moving upwards, and they all stepped on and were climbing upwards towards the Professor office.
The aged, but kind lady sat at the desk at the end of the room, half-moon spectacles perched on her nose. She acknowledged their presence and ushered them in further before addressing them,
"I brought you in here to congratulate you personally in your achievements in the tests that you had last week. You seven did the best in the year, and I thought it would be nice if you came up here, do help yourself to a sherbet lemon," The teacher spoke gesturing over to a small ball filled with small yellow fizzy sweets. They took one and then Professor McGonagall called them up one by one and gave them their results.
"Well done 98% overall, only one mark lost in Defence against the Dark Arts," The Professor said to Rose who was smiling sheepishly.
"Clara Lake," The professor called," Here yours is, very well done. You're doing as well as your father did."