Us and Them

Chapter Three

Lucy

Soon enough, the day I had been waiting for all summer came; quidditch tryouts. I couldn’t bring myself to focus all day. It wasn’t that I was nervous seeing as it was going to be my fourth year on the team and I was fairly positive that I would make it. I just wasn’t sure how much I wanted to go back to the team. Let me rephrase that, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend much time with James Potter. One more rephrase, I didn’t want to spend any time with James Potter.

Quidditch tryouts always meant only half a day of our usual studies, as each house needed the field for a substantial amount of time. For this reason, the festivities began right after lunch. For those few students that had no interest in quidditch, the day simply held more time for socialization. Everyone else in the school saw the tryouts day just as entertaining as an important game. It was always a point of gossip to bet on who would make the team, and who should have never even thought of trying out. While this caused first timers to be extremely self conscious, the rest of us enjoyed the speculation. It brought people to the stands and weeded out the people that couldn’t handle the pressure.

Lunch was quiet, as it had been the day before, and the day before that. It wasn’t that we weren’t talking, the talking was just reduced by 75%.

“So how are you feeling about the tryouts?” Maya asked in a reserved manner. That summed up our group at the moment; reserved.

“Pretty good, I mean, I know I’ll make it. I just hope that we don’t get any cocky first years.” I shrugged, remembering Charlie Vole from the year previous, who was our third Chaser.

“I don’t know what you are talking about!” said Will, more reserved than usual, but still dramatic. “I thought Charlie was a fine addition to the team.” He smiled to himself.

“I’m pretty sure that makes you a pedophile.” John said.

“He’s only four years younger than us!” Will said in his defense.

“He’s twelve!”

“That’s not even a teenager!”

“I was only saying he was attractive, not that I was going to seduce him.” Will finally grumbled.

The rest of lunch went the same way, with little conversation and nothing important being said until finally it was time for the tryouts to begin.

****

The stands were filling up quickly when I came into the stadium with my friends. Gryffindors got the field second this particular year, so all of us that were on the team the previous year had planned to sit together and watch the Hufflepuffs be decided. I quickly located everyone and left the awkward foursome to sit with them. There was Charlie the second year, Larissa, a seventh year beater and the only other female member of the team, and Drew, our seeker and seventh year captain. I took the empty seat on the end of the group, next to Drew, who was next to Larissa. Drew and Larissa were easily my closest friends on the team, and had been since I got on the team in second year.

“I haven’t missed anything have I?” I asked the two.

“Nothing, just Gold strutting around.” Drew rolled his eyes. Evan Gold was the captain of the Hufflepuff and was known for his overly cheery and condescending demeanor.

“I heard Hufflepuff hasn’t got a chance this year.” Larissa  added. “After all, half of their team graduated last year.”

“How else would Gold get captain?” I chuckled.

Soon the tryouts began and we watched the potential team members fly around and compete for Gold’s favor. Let me say, boy was Larissa right. The lineup was half first years, and even those that were older showed little to no potential. Just as the final decisions were being made, I felt someone sit down next to me.