The Chronicles of Sasha Leone & Trials of the Curse-Breaker (Hogwarts Mystery)

Chapter Three: Quidditch Tryouts

At a quarter to eight, Sasha went down to the common room and saw the first-years listening to Professor Flitwick. Sasha sat down on one of the chairs and listened to the end of the speech. The Professor Flitwick started handing out the time-tables and many of the older years had waited to get theirs as well. Contrary to Hufflepuff and Gryffindor who got their time-tables from Professors Sprout and McGonagall at breakfast, Ravenclaw and Slytherin preferred to get them before then.
Sasha looked at her schedule. Four hours of each subject with a double lesson of Astronomy on Tuesday evening for the practical part of the subject. She saw that the theoretical part was on Thursday afternoon this year. Today, they would first have Defence Against the Dark Arts, then Transfiguration and in the afternoon History of Magic. Not a bad day. Transfiguration and History of Magic were interesting and he could spend the other double period for reading up on material that was useful.
On Saturday morning, the tryouts had been placed on the weekend where no muggle classes were held, Sasha, Skye, and Naomi went down to the Quidditch pitch at ten for the tryout. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the field so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the field were three golden poles with hoops on the end. They reminded Sasha of the little plastic sticks Muggle children blew bubbles through, except that they were fifty feet high. There were about twenty others that also wanted to get one of the open positions in the team.
Sasha and Skye moved to the Chaser group, while Naomi went to the Seeker group. Unknown to Orion, Sasha had asked Madam Hooch if she could get one of the school brooms and work on making it fit for the tryout. She had shown the finished result to Madam Hooch the previous evening, she had used the spells in the book mom had given her for her birthday, and she had declared the broom safe to use. Sasha had clipped the twigs, exchanged a few twigs that were too damaged to correct and had renewed the hover charm. More she couldn't do yet, but she guessed she had done her best to get a better broom. The hover charm was a second year charm, but after four tries, Sasha had got it right.
Orion let the group of Chasers fly three laps around the field first, then the Seekers did the same. He made short notes on every person on a clipboard. There were six people trying out for Chasers. Each of them got five shoots on the hoops which were protected by Jack. First up was Roger Davies, a fourth year. He got two of his shots in. Skye Parkin was a really good Chaser, since she got three of her shots in. It continued. Sasha was last of the ten to try out for the Chaser position. When it was her turn, only one fourth-year, Quentana Pollianore had managed to get three goals in. Roger Davies was still second best. Sasha flew up with the quaffle. She shot towards the goal and treated this like a penalty shooting in football only with three choices for goal. She slightly shifted her body to the left, seeing that Roger had taken the bait, she threw the quaffle through the right hoop. First goal. Her next try she knew Jack would be more aware of her possible fainting attempt, so she would get out another trick.
She raised her hand to throw the quaffle to the centre hoop, Jack reacted appropriately and was in position, but the ball got a spin from Sasha's hand, which let it go through the left hoop. Second goal. She again started his attack on the hoops. Sasha could see Jack was annoyed now that a second-year had already got two goals in against him, a seventh-year. Sasha now decided to use speed position changing. Jack was forced to always change position. Sasha shot. The throw looked like it would miss the hoop and go through the space between the centre and the right hoop, but the last moment, the quaffle turned and hit the metal ring, not going through the hoop, but falling down, where Jack caught it.
Sasha saw the astonished look on the Keeper's face. With a bit more training for trick shoots from a broom she would get that trick down. Her next try was a power-play move. She feinted right, Jack saw the feint, Sasha threw at the left hoop, the quaffle rebounded from Jack's broom-tail, but Sasha had counted on that, was ready to take the rebound and placed the quaffle in the centre hoop. Third goal.
The next thing Orion had them train was passing the quaffle in formation. Here, Sasha's school broom proved to be a disadvantage as the faster brooms of the other aspirants made her look worse than them.
Orion sent the Seeker aspirants up and let them test their abilities against different chains of Seekers. Skye and Sasha both done it greatly as Chasers while Naomi was a talented Seeker. After the tryouts were over, Orion called all those he hadn't yet sorted out together. "Thanks to all of you for coming to the tryouts. I'll just tell you who got the free spots and who was chosen for reserve. The Beaters are Steven Remmons and Tod Gellan with Willow Fassix as the reserve. While the Chasers are Sasha Leone, Skye Parkin, and himself with Devin Thompson as the reserve. The Keeper is Jack Oustabler with Releena Selwyn as the reserve. And the Seeker is Naomi Jones with Robin Williams as the reserve. Those that didn't make the team, don't take it too hard."
When the three Ravenclaw girls returned to Ravenclaw tower, Naomi had already spread the news of the three girls making the team. The other second-years, which saw her as something akin to their leader, assembled and congratulated her. Sasha thanked them and donated a box of twenty chocolate frogs to them. They sat together and the trio retold the tryout. When they went down to lunch around one, other Ravenclaws also congratulated the three girls, which she accepted with a smile.

As the owls flooded into the Great Hall as usual, everyone's attention was caught at once by a long, thin package carried by six large screech owls. Sasha was just as interested as everyone else to see what was in this large parcel, and was amazed when the owls soared down and dropped it right in front of her.
They had hardly fluttered out of the way when another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel.
Sasha ripped open the letter first, which was lucky, because it said: DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE!
With a smile, Sasha gotten up and started reading the letter with a smile.
"It contains your new Comet 260, but I don't want everybody knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll start bugging me about it. Orion Amari wants to meet the team tomorrow on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for our first training session.
Skye Parkin."
Sasha blinked in surprise and glanced at Skye, who winked at her playfully. Sasha smiled at Skye gratefully for her new gift that has been sent to her.
Once their classes and dinner were done, Sasha returned to the dormitory with Rowan eagerly. Sasha wanted to unwrap the broomstick in private with Rowan's help, and then rushed upstairs with Rowan to unwrap the Comet 260 at last.
"Wow," whispered Rowan, as the broomstick rolled onto Sasha's bedspread.
Even Sasha, who knew nothing about the different brooms, thought it looked wonderful. Sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Comet Two Sixty written in gold near the top.
"Like your gift teammate?" Sasha spun around to a smirking Skye. "I couldn't leave one my teammates use those outdated brooms."
"Thank you Skye!" exclaimed Sasha excitedly. "Thank you! I can't wait to try it out tomorrow!"

If there was one thing Barnaby knew how to do besides magical creatures and plants, and Quidditch, it was spy on the other team's practice sessions. Whether he went himself or got some first years to do it, the strong Slytherin always made sure to see what at least one or two of his opponents was planning for game day. Considering how easily the team had crushed the Hufflepuffs the year before, he wasn't all that worried about what Orion tried to arrange for this season.
However, that was before he heard about Leone becoming one of the new Ravenclaw Chasers, and as a second-year no less. That hardly seemed like good news.
The first Saturday practice had been reserved by his rivals in blue and bronze, so Barnaby made sure to have himself hidden in the base of one of the viewing stands well beforehand. He intently studied each of the Ravenclaw players as they came onto the pitch, Sasha was smiling as she walked along between Orion Amari and Skye Parkin.
He was also more than willing to believe Slytherin would have a hard time winning the Cup this year when Sasha took off from the ground, moving so fast that Barnaby could have blinked and missed it. Sasha's speed was matched by Skye's agility and Orion's leadership and strength. The trio will be a dangerous force to be reckoned with.