The Potion Princess

Quidditch

A.N: the time line might be a little off here, but that's alright.

Audra doesn't like quidditch.

She never really got the point of it, why someone would want to waste hours every day flying around and throwing things at each other, searching for one tiny speck of gold in the great open sky and dodging. Why the twins would be willing to practice late into the night, even if they came back dripping with sweat and so sunburned they have to see Madame Pomfrey, or soaked to the bone and covered head to toe in mud, or so frozen they couldn't even bend their fingers to fasten the bludgers back into their boxes. She would much rather stay inside than try to remember what was worth what amount of points, and who had to win by how much to take the lead in the house tournament.

Hermione, thankfully, felt much in the same way, which is why it was perfect for them to sit beside each other when watching the try outs for Keeper. (Hermione was there for Ron, Audra was there as an excuse to watch Fred and George. Mostly Fred. She can admit that now.)

"Is he doing okay?" Hermione asked fretfully after the third time the group flew around the pitch. They were tossing the quaffle back and forth to each other. "Are they going to pick him?"

"Well he hasn't dropped it yet, so I guess he's doing okay." Truthfully, there wasn't much to watch at the moment. It seemed like the team was just trying to weed out the ones who showed up thinking that they were much better than they were, or too inexperienced to expect to join the team as a full time player. They'd already gotten rid of a group of fourth grade girls who had tripped all over themselves to get onto their brooms and could barely even fly in a straight line, and were now sitting in the bleachers with Audra and Hermione. From their conversation, it was clear that they had only shown up for the chance to talk to the twins. Audra could sympathize.

It didn't take long for the two girls to get bored, considering they knew nothing of quidditch and didn't really care to pay attention if it wasn't Ron. Even the twins must not have thought the try outs worth watching, since they were now playing an incredibly dangerous version of monkey in the middle with a bludger, with Colin Creevey as a monkey. So maybe it wasn't that much of surprise when they turned to abusing Umbridge, which is quickly becoming the schools favorite topic. "We're not even learning anything! We're just reading that stupid book, which is entry level at best. Who's she kidding about the dark arts not posing a danger to us thing? Even if she doesn't believe that the Dark Lord is back -which I doubt, I just don't think she cares- she must know that there are still bad things out there, ancient curses and vampires and magical creatures. It's not like we're going to be in the middle of a grindylow attack and it's going to say, whoops, dearie me, it's an underage wizard here, better let go!"

Hermione's voice had gotten louder as her rant went on, causing a few of the students trying out to turn up towards them and stare. Audra could see Ron shrugging his shoulders in a half fond gesture of exasperation, probably accompanied with an eye roll. "So teach yourself. Aren't you already doing NEWT level magic? It's not like you won't be able to learn a basic shield charm."

"But what about everyone else?" Hermione fretted, twisting her hands around in her lap. "They're in so much danger, and they don't even know it. They just sit here and worry about.. about boys and homework and quidditch."

"Then teach them, too. Teach the ones who want to be taught. Isn't that what Hogwarts is about?" It was, really. There was always room at Hogwarts for those who need help finding some sort of knowledge, whether it can be taught in the classroom or found somewhere else. "They'll come."

"I don't know. I'm not sure people would listen to me." She was still twisting her hands around, but now there was that look on her face that meant she was just dying to run off to the library. It was her problem solving face. "I don't think I can do all that."