Aesthete | George Weasley

Chapter 19

Tia and Leanne accompanied Katie down to the pitch where the Quidditch trials would take place. Katie had hardly slept, but she kept herself awake on her feet and was constantly running up and down. Tia hadn't even seen her so nervous before the exams at the end of the last year, so Quidditch had to be really important to Katie, as Tia suspected, and in fact many stories about Katie and her family were about Quidditch.

"You can do it." Leanne wanted to cheer up her friend. "Tia and I sit on the benches and cheer you on."

"I'd probably prefer you not to come." Katie sighed.

"Too late – we're coming." Tia said.

There weren't that many people gathered at the pitch yet, but the current Quidditch team stood together and looked critically at the candidates.

Oliver Wood, the keeper, had been appointed captain after Charlie's graduation, and apparently he took his job quite seriously. He also had Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, the two chasers, who had been on the team last year, and Fred and George, the beaters, who still wanted a place in the team.

The team was still looking  for a chaser, as well as the most important player – a seeker, as far as Tia had understood, but she hadn't quite grasped the principle of Quidditch and was only here to support Katie.

Katie, like everyone else, who wanted to apply for the team, had brought her broom – it wasn't the best, as far as Tia had understood, but it had once belonged to her father, so it was important to Katie.

"Okay! Guys! Come closer!" began Wood, and Katie gave Tia and Leanne one last nervous smile before she went to the others.

"And now?" asked Leanne, who was probably already bored, but Tia had thought ahead and brought her sketchbook with her. She began to draw with coal, and Leanne sighed and stared at the players, who until now had only been talking.

There was a decent wind, which prevented Tia from hearing what Wood was saying to the players, but  eventually, they all got on their brooms and started flying rounds. That was the moment when Wood began to send the first ones off the pitch.

They were surprisingly few, and the choice was small, but Wood didn't hesitate to send someone away at the slightest mistake.

After half an hour Katie was still on the pitch and Leanne snored next to Tia in her seat and drool dripped from the corner of her mouth in her lap.

Tia was engrossed in her drawing when suddenly someone jumped from a broom onto the benches right next to her, startling her.

She flinched and looked up, but in front of her stood only a shy, smiling Alicia.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that." she said quickly. "I hope I didn't scare you too much?"

"No, no." Tia waved off. "I was just so engrossed, I didn't hear you."

"You're drawing." It wasn't a question, it was a statement, and somehow Tia thought that was better than asking an unnecessary, obvious question.

"Oh, yes." Tia blushed a little. "Somehow I drew you during training... Otherwise, I have nothing to do."

"May I see?" asked Alicia, almost shyly, and Tia hesitated for a moment, but then she gave in and passed the sketch block to Alicia, who took it carefully and almost gently before sitting down on the bench next to Tia.

Tia smelled that she was sweating, but she still found that smell more pleasant than Quirrell's garlic stench.

Her reddish brown hair was braided into a braid, as Tia did every day, but individual strands had come loose from it and hung in her face or stood wild and untamed.

Her blue eyes flitted over the drawings Tia had made, and with a quick glance, she asked permission to leaf through the pages, which she did.

"Why don't you fly on?" asked Tia shyly, and Alicia looked up from the drawings, but didn't seem to be bothered by the question at all.

"Wood has sent the old team off the pitch – we are firmly in the team. Now he's just looking for a new Chaser." Alicia explained.

"And a seeker?" asked Tia, confused.

"No one had come forward – if we don't find one, we probably won't be able to play this year." Alicia sighed. "It's always so difficult to find new seekers, and Charlie was the best."

"I'm sure you'll find someone." Tia wanted to cheer her up.

Alicia smiled and nodded.

"Certainly." she agreed. "But until then, Wood will have a lot of stress and work – he takes his job very seriously."

"I'm not sure if that's good or bad."

"No one knows." Alicia sighed. "But maybe that's how he leads us to victory."

Alicia continued to look through the sketchbook, and Tia watched as Wood sent two more candidates off the pitch, leaving only Katie and a boy.

Wood talked to them, and they nodded, but Tia couldn't understand what they were saying. Suddenly, they all turned around and left the pitch. Katie came up to the stands, but her face didn't  show whether she was on the team or not.

"And?" Tia jumped up and startled Alicia, who was also looking curiously at Katie.

Katie looked serious for a moment, but her serious expression quickly turned into a smile and then a grin.

"I'm in." she admitted, and Tia let out a cry of joy and fell around her friend's neck. The scream also woke Leanne, who grunted a few times before she was completely awake.

"Wha- What happened?" she looked around in panic until she saw Katie. "What happened? Are you in?"

"I'm on the team." Katie said happily. "I'm a chaser on the Quidditch team!"

"I'm happy for you." Alicia got up and came to Katie. "I'm sure it's going to be cool to fly with you."

"Likewise." Katie gasped. "I still can't believe I'm really in! This is the best day of my life!"

"Then we have to celebrate." Tia said. "We meet in the Great Hall – I get the drinks."

|~|

Tia came back with a tray of cups of hot chocolate and placed them on the table in front of Katie and Leanne.

"The house elves have made a lot of them – sometimes they are too overzealous." Tia apologized.

"That's not so bad – we're happy to take some too." Suddenly, Angelina stood next to them and reached for a cup.

"You don't mind, do you?" Alicia asked to be on the safe side, smiling at Tia, who suddenly blushed and adverted her gaze.

"O-Of course. No problem." she stammered shyly, and the two girls sat down with Katie and Leanne at the table to enjoy their cocoa. Tia sat down next to Leanne, but stared at her hands and avoided eye contact.

Leanne looked at her with amusement, but also with interest, and her gaze wandered back and forth between Alicia and Tia.

"A party? Without us?" Suddenly, Fred and George sat down with them.

"No one invited you, either." Angelina remarked, but she said nothing more when the twins also treated themselves with a cocoa.

"Do you know Katie Bell – the new chaser in the team!" exclaimed Tia enthusiastically and Katie grinned proudly.

"We've already heard that we're dealing with a third creepy female person on the team from now on." Fred waved off. "Luckily, we still have Wood; otherwise we would probably become invincible – it would be unfair to other teams if our team consisted exclusively of competent women, wouldn't it?"

"Not bad, Weasley, but your flattery won't save you if you decide once again that you have to detonate a stink bomb in the girls' locker room."

"We'll keep that in mind." George quickly assured her. "No reason to tear out our limbs right now."

Angelina looked at him and his twin. "I'm still thinking about that – if you're lucky, you'll survive until tomorrow."