Beat Them Back (A Harry Potter Fan Fiction)

Yule Jinx Your Eye Out

Mmmmmm, waffles. Waffles had to be the best invention in the history of awesomeness. If the house elves decided to make waffles every day, then I would certainly weigh about a thousand stone, and definitely would not be able to get my broom off of the ground.

"Colby?" Malcolm gave me a curious look over the edge of his bowl of porridge. I raised my head from my plate and narrowed my eyes at him. If he was going to go off on me about diet, then he could shove it. I was eating whole-grain waffles with banana's and vanilla yogurt, hardly a heart-attack inducing meal. "The amount you enjoy those waffles boarders on inappropriate."

"But enjoying it, none of the less" I grumbled through a rather hefty bite. He shrugged his shoulders and bit down on a piece of bacon, looking away quickly.

"Your moaning is making us uncomfortable" Anthony laughed and nudged Tilley in the side. "Don't you agree Tills?"

"Its a bit like walking in on your parents" she said nonchalantly as she peeled her orange.

"There is nothing wrong with having a healthy relationship with your food" I shoved another piece of waffle into my mouth before relinquishing to the growing feeling of fullness in my stomach. I began to push away from the table, only to be shoved back into my seat by the distant sound of owls hooting.

"Why do we even have birds delivering our post? Does nobody else find that unappetizing and unsanitary?"

"Why would that seem unappetizing when we get to stare at you all meal, practically snogging with your food?" Tamsin quipped.

"Funny, real funny" I said dryly and looked to the birds overhead. It wasn't uncommon for the messengers to leave us presents, white, stinky presents that stained our uniforms and took forever to wash out of our hair.

"YES!" the Scottish git screamed from the Gryffindor table. The whole school turned around to see what was going on, and he didn't seem to notice. He was too busy grasping onto a navy blue piece of parchment and doing a tiny jig.

"What Wood, finally hit puberty?" I laughed from across the room. He stopped to smirk at me, waving the piece of parchment under his nose. Intrigued, I pushed away from the table and stomped over to him. "What are you all excited for then?"

"You mean you didn't get one?" he laughed, at the exact moment a large bird dropped a letter into my open hand. "Oh, never mind" he said dejectedly and glowered at the matching piece of parchment I now held.

With narrowed eyes, I looked at the mailing address of the letter. It was from River Piddle, in Dorset, England..... That could only mean....

"YES YES OH YES!" I screamed and ripped open the envelope with haste.

Dear Ms. McCormack,

It is a pleasure to have received a letter from you, though it would be a lie to say that this was expected. Most of the Quidditch teams in the world would have expected for your first choice to be Pride of Portree, not us. We would like to say that it is an honour to have a Quidditch legacy such as yourself consider playing with us and we are excited to see you at our try-out week in April.

Congratulations and best wishes,

Duncan McDougal

Head of Recruitment and Training for Puddlemere United

Another, smaller piece of paper fell out of the envelope and I caught it before it could flutter to the ground. My hands shook in excitement. I had made it, I was one step closer to being on the team that I had dreamed about playing since they crushed the Prides when I was three. Sure, I had made it to other team's try-outs, but they weren't this team. My greatest dream was to one day wear the navy-blue robes, embellished with the crossing golden bulrushes. One day, I would be the captain to lead them to win the European Cup, again. And then, I would be drafted onto England's National team and we would win the World Cup.