An American at Hogwarts

Chapter Eight

He opened the chest, and inside were the four Quidditch balls Angelina had told me about. From her descriptions, I could easily tell which ball was which. The Bludgers were literally trying to jump out of their holders like sentient murder-balls, and I had to force myself to move closer.

"This is the Quaffle," said Oliver, pulling out the red ball. "This is what we're trying to get into those hoops."

"Right. We don't have to practice with Bludgers today, do we?"

Oliver smiled. "No, we won't worry about those on your first day out.  You'll have to be careful of them if you ever play for real, though."

"Trust me, I'm not going to be able to think about anything but avoiding those things when I play."

Oliver chuckled. "Hopefully you'll be able to ignore them long enough to score a few goals, too. Let's get some practice in."

We rose through the air to where Angelina and Alicia were waiting, soaring around the pitch like massive birds.

"Woo! Good job Alexa!" yelled Alicia.

"You're doing amazing!" Angelina agreed.

"Alicia, start on defense," Wood called, heading for the goal. "Alexa and Angelina can try to score, and of course I'll take Keeper. Let's see what you've got Alexa!"

I didn't think it'd be too hard to score against Oliver, but I was quickly proved wrong. He blocked every shot I threw at him, and most of Angelina's. It was like he was reading my mind or something!

"Your aim is good!" he called after a while. "But you're looking right at the goal you're aiming for, which makes you easy to block. Try to trick me about which goal you're going for."

I nodded, then took a deep breath. Time to get in the zone.

It took me several more runs down the pitch (and a TON of zig zag moves and complicated, last minute passing), but finally, I managed to get one past Oliver.

"Yes!" I shouted, soaring around the goalposts in glee. "If I can get one past you, I can get one past anybody!"

Oliver smiled at the compliment, but insisted that we should keep practicing. We put in another hour or so before we all convinced him we needed to go to dinner.

"Great job today Alexa. It's a shame we don't have another Chaser spot on the team," said Oliver as the four of us started the walk back to the castle.

"That's okay. I honestly am not a school sports person."

"Hold on! What if she was a sub?" asked Angelina.

"A sub?"

"Yeah! If one of us or Katie Bell got hurt, you could play in our place!"

"I don't know... I don't think I want the time commitment..."

"Oliver, if we just played with her every so often outside of practice, she'd be fine! Look at her, it's not like she needs that much practice," argued Angelina.

Oliver considered for a minute, then said, "Show up to tryouts. We'll see how well you work with everyone, and if it goes well, you can sub."

"Alright, I could get on board with that idea. I'm in! Oh, and I'm gonna waste you at tryouts," I said, looking at Wood. "It's officially my goal to score on you at least ten times."

Oliver raised an eyebrow as we all strolled into the Great Hall. "Well, good luck to you. I'll see you later."

He waved and walked off to go sit with some of his seventh year friends. I waved back, then plopped down across from the boys with Angelina and Alicia.