Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries

62) Keeper Tryouts - and Seeker Tryouts - Are Boring

Throughout the week of Harry's detention, he kept his secret of the quill from us. It was obvious to me, since I'd experienced it first hand, but Ron and Hermione had no idea. Harry and I would make eye contact the morning after his detention, and his eyes would flit to my hand — still covered in the glove.

Neither of us said anything.

On Thursday, his marks had stayed — the words I Must Not Tell Lies engraved on his hand. He kept his hand mostly hidden, and no one noticed.

Mostly, he seemed stressed about the amount of work we had to do. I was able to finish most of mine fairly quickly — Draco was a big help. I also didn't have to spend most of my time with Umbridge — every time I talked back to her (which was most of the time) she just assigned me more lines to do, which I turned in without complaint. He was falling asleep in classes.

Strangely enough, Ron was also having a rough time with work. He never seemed to have it done, always asking to copy mine during lunch.

One night, as I was walking down the corridor with Draco, we ran into Ron. He had his broom with him, and wouldn't tell us what he was doing. I was suspicious of naughty behavior, but Draco just raised an eyebrow, as if he had figured out what my red-headed friend was up to. I figured that maybe he had figured it out.

I figured it out myself on Friday when I arrived at the Quidditch pitch. After bewitching several walnuts with the help of Angelina, everyone else had arrived. The Stolls (already itching themselves like crazy) and the Weasley twins (looking pleased at the misfortune of the Stolls), along with Sally-Anne Perks (our Keeper), held the walnuts, preparing to throw them in the air and time the potential Hufflepuff Seekers.

I was to help with the potential Keepers for Gryffindor, as I was a Chaser, and I found Ron among the group trying out.

Angelina stared at him painfully for a moment, then turned to me, "Percy, if he isn't good, I'm not going to choose him."

"Cool," I shrugged.

Angelina blinked at me, "It's just — I know he's your friend, and I know he's Harry's friend, too."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't choose him if he were bad, either," I paused for a moment. "Well, maybe I'd choose him if I thought he could improve a lot. I've seen him adapt, and he's actually pretty good at it, even if he's got a slow start with it."

Angelina nodded, then said, "I want you with me when we test the Keepers out, okay? You're the better Chaser, but I need to make sure you don't go easy on anyone. I also want the Katies together — they're pretty balanced. The other two can go wherever."

And as the other two went wherever, we officially started tryouts.

Gryffindors ranging from years two through seven sat nervously in front of the goalposts. There were about eight in total, and none were very good. Some weren't able to block any shots, some couldn't block but had potential, and some blocked a few. There was one girl, I didn't know her name, but she wasn't bad. She blocked quite a few shots, and was even able to perform a chancy maneuver, but she was annoying. Angelina and I shared a look after she said something pompous about how great she was, and immediately marked her name off. After her came Ron.

He wasn't bad. I'm not even saying that just because he's my pal. He wasn't that good, either, but as his tryouts went on, he did seem to improve. He didn't know any good maneuvers other that 'grab the ball', but I figured he could learn some, and Angelina said the same thing. The boy after Ron was terrible, but the boy who went last was pretty good. Better.

In between tryouts for Keepers, the Stolls brought me the stats of the people they had zooming around the pitch. Most had a rough time finding the Snitch, but number 5 (the Stolls refused to name the potential players, saying they would get attached) was actually doing really well. I told them to keep an eye on 5, and they said ew.