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Quidditch Try Outs


“So - did you have a good snog, then?” Sirius asked Remus as soon as he stepped into the dormitory a little later that night. He was laying across his bed, feet up on the headboard, grinning absurdly as he rolled over, eager for details. James buried himself even deeper into the essay for Defense that he was working on, trying not to hear any details about Remus and Lily’s together-ness.

Remus shook his head, “We didn’t snog.”

“Well what did you do?” Sirius asked.

“Homework,” Remus replied with a shrug. He dropped his books onto his desk and grabbed his pyjamas out of his trunk, “I got a good bit of it done, too.”

“Can I read your Defense essay?” Peter asked, “I’m not sure I understand what Professor Blythe wants…” Remus handed over the essay without a single protest, even though he suspected Peter planned to plagiarize most of it for his own essay. Peter settled over the parchment eagerly at his desk.

Sirius studied Remus for a long moment. “You really didn’t snog? You aren’t just saying that because James might get all bent out of shape again?”

“I’m not bent out of shape,” James said, looking ‘round at Sirius, “I told you - both of you - all of you - I don’t fancy Evans, I don’t give a damn who she sees or does homework with or whatever.”

“Okay,” Sirius answered, grinning, “And I said I don’t believe you.” He turned to Remus, “Nor do I believe you. You and Evans were alone down there for -- how long? Had to be at least a couple hours! -- and all you did is study?” He shook his head, “Not even a quick wee snog or two?”

Remus shook his head, “No snogging of any time or length. None. We did homework.”

“Bloody hell,” Sirius muttered and he flopped back onto the bed. “Well aren’t you lot just boring as a flobberworm.”

“Flobberworms aren’t entirely uninteresting creatures, they’re very interesting if you consider that they’re ---”

“Newt Scamander rated them X - BORING,” interrupted Sirius, not wanting to hear Remus go on and on about the history of the Flobberworm, which was not interesting, regardless of whatever trivial fact Remus had been about to tell them about.

Remus flushed and hastened to pull on his pyjamas. James for one looked a lot brighter, however, having heard there wasn’t any snogging involved in Remus’s evening with Lily and he actually started being more of his usual self again after that.




Next morning, the entire Gryffindor table was a buzz in the Great Hall, all speculating about that afternoon’s Quidditch try outs. Eyes were cast in the direction of James Potter as people whispered and hissed amongst each other, telling the first years about the amazing gumball catches James had made during flying lessons the previous year. There was a lot of excitement generating among the students as they talked and ate, preparing for the excitement to come that afternoon.

When it was finally time, James grabbed his broomstick and his Quidditch gloves that Charlus had given him as a going-back-to-school gift the month before and the four Second Years headed down to the pitch. Sirius was hoping to use one of the school brooms to try out with, and wanted to get there early enough to get one of the better brooms the school owned, at least, to increase his chances.

Peter and Remus were only going along to watch from the stands. Remus wondered whether Lily would be there and if she’d want to sit with him if she was. He was queasy with excitement at the thought of it. At the pitch, though, there was no sight of Evans in the stands, so Remus sat with Peter a couple rows up in the box, and the two of them chatted quietly while they waited for the try out to start.

Derek Bell had set up quite a nice try out with various obstacles meant to eliminate obvious non-contenders, like a group of giggling fifth year girls who had come along just to admire Derek himself and a couple of first years that had tried sneaking onto the field. “Guess they would’ve caught us last year, if we’d tried it,” Sirius muttered under his breath to James.

“Guess so,” James agreed.

Finally, Derek decided to split everyone up by year and go on that way until he’d selected the ones he wanted to do some further try out moves with. “Evans, over there with the other second years,” he called, pointing to Sirius and James, and to their surprise, Lily came out among the others to join them.

“I thought you were kidding about playing Quidditch,” James said.

Lily shrugged.

“I mean, she was good during that pick up game,” Sirius ceeded, but James was still skeptical.

Year by year, Derek Bell had them flying laps ‘round the pitch, weeding out the poor flyers. A couple third years and one fourth year were eliminated this way. Then he had them passing about the quaffle while moving about the pitch, trying to see who had poor aim or bad catching skills. A couple more were taken out of the running as they dropped the quaffles or had terrible aim. At one point, a third year nearly hit Remus in the head in the stands with their poor aim; he was only just able to leap out of the way in time.

Finally, they’d narrowed it down to what was basically what remained of the team from the year before, the three Second Years, two Fourth Years, and a Fifth Year - a total of ten people for seven positions. James was fairly confident, looking ‘round himself, that he should be able to get one of those positions. Especially since only three of them needed to be cut and he was fairly certain Lily Evans would be one of the first. She’d done well so far, but he couldn’t believe she would actually make the team.

“I s’pose the best way to do it would be to play a bit of Quidditch. We’ll play short on each side… So… uh.. I’ll be a Keeper, and Woodhouse, you be Keeper. Tinnamin, Potter - you lot are the Seekers. Black, Blaize - Beaters. That leaves Evans, Longbottom, Saltzmann, and Weasley to be Chasers.”

Bilius draped his arm ‘round Lily’s shoulders, “C’mon Evans, you’ll be on my team,” he said excitedly, pulling her over, “We’ll score loads of goals on ol’ Bell, no problem. He’s usually a Chaser, totally out of his element as a Keeper.” Bilius winked, grinning evilly over toward Derek.

“Don’t go underestimating me,” Derek chided him, “I’m not half bad as Keeper.”

“Half bad is still half worse than good,” Bilius pointed out.

They started playing, James was very glad to be on his broom in the fresh air above the pitch, the smell of grass in his nose. He could see his friends zooming about below, and Remus and Peter watching from the stands with the rest of the house, cheering the lot of them on. He kept his eyes open for the snitch, eager to beat Tinnamin to it. After all, Tinnamin was good - damn good, really, he’d been Gryffindor seeker for years - and to get the position, James going to have to do a really fine job of it at the try out. The realization of that made him nervous and he gripped the broom stick tighter, his palms a bit sweaty. He had to be good - his dream of playing on the Gryffindor Quidditch team absolutely relied on it.

Sirius below was doing alright with the Beater’s bat, though Blaize was doing quite a lot better and Sirius missed blocking the bludger from knocking Bilius so hard he was nearly thrown from his broomstick, upsetting the aim he’d had at throwing a quaffle through one of the gold rings. Derek easily blocked the Quaffle and threw it back into play. Lily sweeped ‘round Frank Longbottom easily, though, and caught the quaffle before he could and doubled back to sink it past Derek Bell. She spun ‘round in loops with her broom in excitement, hooting quite loudly as she went about like a corkscrew in the air. Then, to James’s horror, Alex Tinnamin went zooming by, arm outstretched, and he realized with a sinking feeling in his guts that Tinnamin had spotted the snitch. He hurried to catch up, but Tinnamin had already caught it before he could get any where near.

“Bloody hell,” he muttered.

“It’s alright mate,” Sirius called, flying up beside James.

James shook his head, and dodged away, too frustrated with himself to talk about it with Sirius. Since they weren’t playing a regulation game, catching the snitch didn’t mean the end of play, only that Alex was ahead of James in the bid for the position of Seeker. But James had another chance. He clutched the broom even harder, more determined than ever to go after the snitch and beat Alex Tinnamin to it this time. Derek blew his whistle, resuming play, and Lily Evans managed to sink another goal in the next few minutes, followed closely by one from each of the other chasers, other than Saltzmann, who was quickly proving his inability to stay focused during actual play.

At least that was one of the three that would be cut, James thought. He just hoped he wouldn’t be the next one out.

Remus was standing up, watching as Lily zoomed down the pitch, quaffle carefully tucked beneath her arm. He hadn’t cared much for Quidditch before, but the way the braids of her hair looked in the sun and her determination was quite good, and Remus thought he might actually become a fan this year. Well, that and also his best mates were also playing - and he remembered then to cheer for James and Sirius.

“Don’t think you’re fooling anyone, Lupin,” called Sirius as he flew by, waving the beater’s bat. He missed the bludger he was going after, though, and the thing slammed into Derek Bell’s stomach rather hard. “Sorry!” he called, blushing. “Damn.”

Derek rubbed his stomach, “Alright, that’s enough… Let’s switch up the positions a bit, shall we? I think I’ve seen what I need to.”

James felt sick. He hadn’t caught the snitch during his time as Seeker. Surely that would count against him when Derek assigned the positions. He felt miserable. He wasn’t going to make the team after all, he realized, after all the bragging he’d done and the built up expectation of it. He couldn’t believe it. What would Charlus say? He’d be right disappointed, James knew that much, and Lily wouldn’t ever let him live it down at this point if she made the team and he didn’t. He felt a sweat break out across his forehead as Derek called out who would be playing which positions this time. Sirius would be in the hoops as Keeper, while Derek and James were to be Chasers as Lily Evans moved to Seeker and Bilius became the new Beater, which was his usual position. Tinnamin remained a seeker, James noticed, and his hopes were dashed even further.

What was worst was that the more James fretted about Tinnamin being better at being Seeker than he was, the worse he seemed to play at any other position, too. He fumbled the quaffle when it was thrown to him by Derek soon after play resumed and there was a moment where he was so busy looking over at Sirius blocking a rather good shot from Longbottom that he nearly flew right into Bilius and derailed him from blocking a bludger headed for Lily.

It seemed hopeless to James, especially when Bilius blew his whistle and announced he’d made his choices and they could all land to be appointed official roles on the team. James took a deep breath as his feet touched down on the grass and, despite Sirius’s enthusiastic slap across his back, James was feeling anything but confident. He grimaced at Sirius and they joined the little group of students that had gathered around Derek Bell at the foot of the rings.

“Alright you lot, there was a lot of great playing just now, I wish I could keep all of you, you’re already the best among the best who came to try out, but I’ve got to make cuts some place, as you know, and, well, I’m sorry for those of you who aren’t picked but next term will be another chance and you should all try again as three of us will be leaving Hogwarts next year.” He pointed at Alex Tinnamin, himself, and Bilius Weasley as indicators. He took a deep breath, “That said… Our Gryffindor Seeker will be Alex Tinnamin.”

James clapped politely with the others gathered ‘round Derek, but his heart was in his toes. It was official, then. He’d failed. He stared down at his toes, unsure he could take this. He pictured the shell-shocked look on his father’s face when he found out. Charlus had prepped him for all his life to play for the Gryffindor quidditch team. It was the only dream for the future he’d ever had.

“Keeper is Andrew Woodhouse,” Derek Bell continued, and they all clapped for Woodhouse before he continued on, “Beaters will be the exceptional Mr. Weasley and Mr. Blaize, once more. You two are quite the duo at it. Congratulations.” Derek grinned.

“Captain, my Captain,” grinned Bilius.

“That leaves our Seekers,” Derek said, “As you might’ve guessed, I’ll be one of the three Seekers, so that leaves two positions left with five people.” He looked ‘round at Lily, James, Sirius, Frank, and Chris Saltzmann. “Evans, you’re in.”

Lily squealed with delight.

James looked over at Sirius, Frank and Chris Saltzmann and he felt his stomach knot up. He hoped that if it had to be anybody it would be Sirius that Derek would pick, at least Sirius was his mate and of the three he’d done best.

Derek’s eyes traveled over them. Then, finally, he said, “Potter. Welcome to the team.”