The World, Biscuits And Sirius Black According To Nellie O'Neill

Moments, Jealously, Hogsmeade And Me

"Nellie, are you feeling alright?"

"Yes. I am. Thank you Mummy Sirius." I rolled my eyes. This would only have to be the thousandth time I had been asked this question since trials have started. I've only been up here for a few minutes; I couldn't stay on the ground for much longer, so I had taken a little flight.

"No problem," Sirius grinned, "James needs to ask you a few things,"

I nodded as Sirius whizzed off.

I flew to the ground, next to James, since nobody is trying out to be a seeker, my job is quite safe and so James is making me help him with picking the team, well, asking what I think of each person every so often. Sirius is in the air working with a few new wannabe beaters to see who he works best with or something along the lines of that. I've learned that James can half babble on when it comes to Quidditch. For hours probably if someone let him. I didn't.

"Which one do you think he works with best?" James asked, holding his little clipboard. Who knew James was this organized?

"Well, it depends on what sort of dynamic you want." I replied, watching them fly through the air.

"What do you mean?" James asked, looking at me.

"Well, Sirius is kind of violent, which is good I guess, considering his job, he whacks it far." I paused for a moment, "Look, what I mean is that, if you want two beaters who will whack it far, go with Danny," Danny is a sixth year boy, he has rather nice hair, "He has the strength to match Sirius, beater wise anyway. If you want someone to balance out Sirius strong blows, with softer but clearly aimed ones, go with Joey," Joey too was a sixth year. I've never talked to her, but she always seemed nice enough. "And Aiden, well his are somewhat in the middle of both." Aiden was only fourth year, but he was a good beater for his age.

"Hmm. Choices, choices."

"Being captain is hard isn't it?" I laughed.

"Don't mock. It is." James paused, "I have four spots to fill." He looked around, about thirty or so people were sitting around, they had all tried for a spot in the team. "You, me and Sirius are the only original ones."

"Least I won't be the youngest anymore." Being born in August made me the youngest on the team. I didn't mind though, but it was annoying when everyone else was of age and I had to wait until August.

"I didn't even know Gryffindor had this many students."

"Well have you seen the chaser and the beater? Of course there would be a big turn out." I put on my girly voice.

James laughed, "True. Oh how True. Should have realized."

"Now your job is to discover who actually likes Quidditch, to the ones that will just sit around watching you."

"You sit around a lot." James pointed out.

"That's because I find it easier to look for the Snitch when I'm situated in one place and once I spot it, I can then fly around looking for it. I'm too busy to look at you two." I gripped my broom in my hand, it was the latest, and my parents are very serious about Quidditch. They called my job one of the hardest and as I had to chase the snitch, they made sure my broom was good quality.

It was then Sirius flew down to join us.

"Once you've picked the team, we have to have a team photo don't we?" I asked; I just remembered the dreaded Quidditch team photo.

"Yes. We do." James grinned.

"How lovely." Sirius replied. "We've tested out everybody now haven't we?"