Harry Potter and the Black Grimoire

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - TRYOUTS

The following weeks in the Hogwarts Castle passed by without much incident. Classes went by and students learned all they could; particularly the fifth years, since their O.W.L. exams would be taking place at the end of the current school term. All of the teachers were busy getting their students ready for these exams as they wanted them to be as prepared for them as possible.

Potions class continued to be a very tense hour and a half, but no more outbursts were made by either Malfoy, or any of the other Slytherins. Sirius continued to endure the snide remarks about him made underneath the tables or in whispers from the Slytherins.

Divination continued to become more and more complex, much to the dismay of Ron, Harry and many of the others in the class. Soon though, Maddie's skill in the field began to rise more and more. She began to show signs more often of knowing just a little more than the average witch or wizard would know about the events to come. She would often finish sentences for people, many times saying the exact thing that that particular person was about to say. She could and did predict test subjects and future assignments, more often than not to an extremely accurate degree. Her abilities only helped most people though and many welcomed her suggestions and listened to her predictions with great interest. As for Ron, he had a girlfriend that always knew exactly what he wanted and was getting good grades on top of it. He was very happy to say the least.

Defense Against the Dark Arts class rapidly became many students favorite class. It surely was for Harry. With every coming day they learned more and more interesting curses that could come in handy one day. With every class and lesson Harry found himself more and more interested with the job of the Auror. It was in these days that he took Mad-Eye Moody's words most serious and often considered taking up the career after his graduation in three years from Hogwarts.

In Care of Magical Creatures the class continued to work with the Griffin and it took a lot for anybody to dislike the creature.

In Transfiguration, the students began with many larger objects than before. Professor McGonnagall was also perhaps the teacher that worked the students the hardest of all. She assigned piles upon piles of homework and kept the class working non-stop in class. But if this were a surprise to anybody, it would have been amazing.

The subject of Herbology began to get more and more complex and interesting as well as the lessons began to move into the more dangerous and rare plant life. Harry never knew that plants such as the ones that they were learning about could exist in the world. Many would terrify even the bravest muggle if they ran across it in the wild.

Charms class with Professor Flitwick was yielding several new and useful spells that Harry and his classmates learned and memorized. Everything from fixing quick meals to tying your shoes could be done by using charms.

History of Magic with Professor Binns was easily the most boring class of all. The ghost professor would drone on, class after class, about yet even more goblin rebellions, famous witches and wizards, the establishing of wizarding communities and magical breakthroughs in time; all things that would be much more interesting if anybody but the boring Professor Binns was teaching it.

Overall, the class life was the best it had ever been in Harry's time at Hogwarts.

But as the classes progressed, time did as well. Eventually the weather turned more on the cold side and the leaves began to fall from the trees. The students walked over colorful blankets of red, gold and brown on their way to Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. The days began to get shorter as well and there was less time to be outside after classes. The ceiling above the Great Hall looked more and more gloomy at meals as Autumn set in for good.

But everyone knew that when the weather turned colder and the leaves started to fall, that only meant one thing. And that one thing came very welcomed by Harry and his friends. The Quidditch season was about to begin. In a matter of days the individual house teams would be holding trials to fill the spots that had been left vacant by graduating students. Harry's house team, Gryffindor, was no exception. They would need to fill two spots to complete the team. One of their chasers, Angelina Johnson had graduated the previous year, as well as their former captain and keeper, Oliver Wood.

The excitement and buzz about the coming season was tremendous in the Gryffindor common room. The last season that had been played, in Harry's third year, had been dominated by the Gryffindor house team. They had played their best season to date with a culmination of a winning game over Slytherin and the winning of the Quidditch Cup. This year, they would be defending champions.

Harry and Ron took it upon themselves to make sure that anybody that wanted to try out would. They even convinced Ginny, Hermione and Madeline to try out. By the time the trials came around, Harry and Ron had talked almost everyone in the house above second year into trying out. Harry already knew that Ron would probably make the team and he wanted the team to have a wide selection to choose from for the other position.

The morning of tryouts could not have proved to be more perfect. The sun began to rise in the superbly clear sky as the frost on the Quidditch field began to melt. The crisp leaves blew across the grass, pushed about from a light breeze that came out of the North. The conditions for a good day of hard Quidditch play could not have been more perfect.

Both Harry and Ron woke up extra early on that immaculate morning in order to get the rest of the house up and motivated for the trials that were to be held right after breakfast. They went through the dorms and knocked on doors, yelling for everyone to wake up. Normally most people would have been more than angry at these actions, but on this particular instance. everybody was more than happy to get up and start the day.

Harry got dressed with the rest of the fifth-year boys in their dormitory. They jumped around excitedly and pumped each other up for the coming hours. Each one of them would be trying out, including Neville. The boys got dressed and Ron and Harry met up with their girls before going down to the Great Hall.

The atmosphere in the hall was almost intoxicating to anyone who entered it. It was even more charged than on the morning of a good Quidditch match. It was this way because in this instance, everyone was invited to play. The amount of broomsticks that could be seen in the hall was amazing. Harry had not seen so many Quidditch brooms in one place at the same time. Everyone was talking about the trials. They talked about the current members, who they thought would make the teams, who they thought wouldn't, and how they thought the season would turn out. Quidditch strategies were discussed and certain moves were worked out by prospective players.

Soon enough, the breakfast plates were empty and students were piling out of the castle and making their way through the bright, sunny Saturday morning to the Quidditch pitch. Whether you were trying out or not, everyone was permitted to come and watch the tryouts.

Soon hopeful players began to pile onto the field for the beginning of the tryouts. This was when Harry, the Weasley twins, Alicia and Katie went down to the locker rooms to put on their uniforms. Even though they weren't actually playing a real game, they felt they should at least be in their playing robes.

"So guys," Katie said, standing up,"who do you thinks gonna make it for the team."

"Hopefully not ickle Ronniekins. He'll cramp our style. Right George?"

"Oh yeah Fred. Like you have any style to cramp."

"Oi, Alicia. That hurts," Fred replied, falling backwards off the bench in mock pain.

Harry just sat on and enjoyed the show, laughing along with the twins' antics.

"Ok. Well, now that Fred's dead, we can go and start the tryouts."

"I'm alive again!" Fred said, jumping up.

"You really are nutters, you know that Fred?"

"Oh, but I get it from you brother."

"You're damn right you do! Now let's go check out all the fresh meat!"

With that the team rushed out of the locker room, making as much noise as they could.

Madam Hooch was making her way out onto the field, sorting out all of the prospectives into sections. Each house had a separate bench where the tryouts sat to await their turn. One was at each corner of the pitch. Each house would take turns in putting their tryouts through the paces. The team members could do whatever they wanted to them, as long as it had to do with the position they were trying out for and whether or not they thought it would help the final judgment. After all of the houses had tested all of their applicants, then each house would announce their choices. The decision was completely up to the house team. Gryffindor would go second since they had the second least amount of spots to fill. Hufflepuff would go first.

The Gryffindor team sat with the tryouts while they watched the Hufflepuffs try out different seekers. They basically did some drills and released the snitch, seeing how fast each person could catch it. They added in the bludgers and quaffle to make it more difficult for the seeker to try and do his job. One person did exceptionally well, something that made Harry just a little nervous.

"Don't worry Harry. You're still the best!" Alicia said to him.

Harry smiled back at her and continued to watch the Hufflepuffs. Finally they were done with their applicants and it was Gryffindor's turn. First they would be testing keepers. Alicia and Katie stayed in the air while Fred and George flew around hitting the bludgers at one another in hopes of distracting the keepers. One by one the prospectives took their position in front of the three giant sized goals while Katie and Alicia pelted them with the quaffle. Harry soared around above them just watching how the different keepers were doing. He didn't really have much to do.

Finally it was Ron's turn and just as Harry expected, he did pretty good. He caught all of the shots except for one, but it was close; he had only missed it by a hair. Ron would also be trying out for chaser.

Besides Ron, Dean did a very good job, as well as Colin Creevy surprisingly and a seventh year student Harry didn't know very well. Maddie was also trying out for this particular position. She didn't do to bad, but she did miss a few shots. Overall, Ron had done the best. Not one of them had caught every one of the shots.

Next was the tryout for the chaser position. Ron again tried out and didn't do too bad. He looked a little shaky working with the girls though and was a bit distracted by his brothers whizzing past him and trying to hit him with bludgers. Hermione also tried out for this. Harry couldn't wait to see it. He didn't really expect her to do very well, although he thought it would've been great if she did. And she did better than he expected. She seemed to work well with the girls but she didn't quite have accuracy when it came to making the goals. She made a couple, but nothing spectacular. Harry clapped the hardest for her as she made her way back to the ground. She had held her own and did her best. He was immensely proud of her.

Several other students tried out for the chaser position but there wasn't really anyone who was mind-blowing. There was a lot of talent, but Harry didn't really see any of the feel and emotion that Angelina always had when she was playing. That was until the final tryout came up.

Ginny Weasley blew the crowd away. She soared through the air on her broom like a pro, weaving in and out of the other players and making every goal she went for. She worked seamlessly with Alicia and Katie and almost seemed to anticipate their moves. They worked like a well-oiled machine. As she came back down to the ground and the crowd cheered for her, Harry knew his mind was made up. She had to be the one.

Finally when all of the applicants were done, the rest of the team came back to the ground. They made their way back into the locker room to make their decision while the other teams had their turns.

"Ginny!" shouted Katie.

"She was amazing!" added Alicia.

"Well come on. Look who she learned from!" the Weasley twins said together.

"Yeah, guys. Sure."

"What do you thin Harry?" Katie asked.

"Ginny. Definitely. You three looked like you worked perfectly together. She was the best out there hands down."

"Ok. Guess we found our new chaser then!"

"Now to keeper. Anybody got anything?"

"It's tough," Harry said. "Ron was really good, but so were Colin and Dean."

"I'd have to pick Ron though from the group. He looked the most comfortable."

"Well I should hope so," George said. "With everything we throw at him at home he should be quite used to things flying at his head by now."

"Good point George," Katie said. "So let's vote then. Everyone for Ron raise their hands."

Everyone raised their hand except for Fred.

"Why not Ron, Fred?" Alicia asked.

"Oh, no reason. I was just being difficult."

Harry laughed at how 'Weaselyish' that was.

"Well I guess it's the Weasleys then. Man guys, what do you think about that?" Katie asked the twins.

"As long as they don't cramp our style, were cool."

"Yeah. Sure ya are guys."

"Alicia girl, you're just trying to break my heart today aren't you?" Fred said, toppling over again.

"Ok then, we've made our decisions. Let's go back out there."

The Gryffindor team made their way out of the locker rooms and back out onto the field. The Slytherin team was just going down to make their decision. They were the last team to go.

In a matter of minutes the Slytherin team reappeared on the field and Madam Hooch made her way out.

She would be asking each team who they picked for the positions and announce it to the crowd.

It turned out the hufflepuffs had indeed chosen the seeker Harry had been watching.

"Gryffindor." she yelled. "Who do you pick for chaser?"

"Ginny Weasley!" they all yelled at once.

"The new Gryffindor chaser is Ginny Weasley!" she said to the crowd, her voice amplified.

Mostly everybody went nuts, even the players who didn't make the cut. But they all knew though, that Gryffindor was getting the best chaser they could get. Ginny Weasley just stood up quickly walked over to the team, her cheeks and ears almost as red as her hair.

"And who do you pick for keeper?" Madam Hooch asked.

"Ron Weasley!"

"The new Gryffindor keeper is Ronald Weasley!"

Ron went nuts. He jumped up and ran around hugging everyone and making a lot of noise. He ran up to Maddie and planted a deep kiss right on her lips and ran off, leaving her there quite startled, but pleased nonetheless. Finally he ran over to the rest of his new teammates and hugged them all individually. Fred and George ended up batting him off with their beaters, although he did try very hard to hug them too.

The new Gryffindor team stood in a circle talking excitedly while the Ravenclaws and Slytherins announced their new members. It seemed that Slytherins again preferred size over skill as all of their new players were big, burly seventh years. They were all looking at Harry very menacingly. He didn't worry too much about them though. As Lee Jordan had once said, you had to get up pretty early to beat a Firebolt.

After everyone was done, the teams made their way down to the locker rooms to change and shower. Ron kept announcing how great it felt to finally be showering in the Gryffindor House Quidditch locker room. Ginny was also obviously quite excited and pleased with herself, but she was quite a bit more restrained than her older brother.

After everybody else had left, Harry and Ron stayed behind in the locker room, sitting in their towels and talking about how great it was to play with each other when the season officially started.

The door of the room opened and in walked Hermione and Maddie.

"Hey are you guys still ---" Hermione cut off, catching site of Ron and Harry in nothing but towels.

Wicked smiles played across the girls faces as they looked at their men in towels, both wearing very embarrassed faces.

"Well, well. Look at this Hermione. Theses two strong, handsome Quidditch players in nothing but their towels. What do you say we do about this?"

Hermione said nothing but made her way over to Harry who embraced her with a smile.

The fogging up of the mirrors in the bathroom was her only answer.