Finder's Keeper || Oliver Wood [1]

Chapter 16: Trials and Triumphs

Angelina cheered for Jessica, not expecting a goal so early into their little match especially from a first-timer like her. Oliver flew downwards to catch the Quaffle he failed to curb before it hit the ground, now feeling the excitement start to run though his veins. He had an inkling that this was where things were really going to get interesting.

The Quaffle was thrown back to them, and this time, Jessica was the first to catch it. A Bludger came hurling her way, so she flew upwards to dodge it before dropping the Quaffle where she saw the other contending Chaser waiting below her. He caught it and went flying towards the goalposts, only for George to send a Bludger in his direction. He threw the Quaffle away from him, but not quite in any specific direction, which could mean trouble for them. Jessica hurried towards it and caught it right on time. Seeing as Angelina was already close to the goalposts, she sent the ball towards her. Angelina seized it and scored their second point for them.

This went on for a while longer. Jessica soon got into the rhythm of knowing when to pass the ball and when to take matters into her own hands. She was slowly also starting to anticipate Oliver's actions, just like she had done when they played at her backyard during the summer. He still blocked a lot of their tries with ease, which was to be expected from such an efficient player like himself.

Their time was running out, and the three competing Chasers had scored a total of seven goals so far: three from Angelina, two from Jessica, and another two from the former reserve Chaser. Oliver had just saved one shot attempted by Angelina, and he wasn't giving them time to recover at all. He used his broom to redirect the Quaffle right back at them. It took them by surprise, but Jessica raced towards it and mimicked his actions, hitting the ball with the edge of her broom as well. Before the others even realized what she was doing, it was sent soaring into the middle hoop, adding an eighth and final point for them. The buzzer, which Oliver created using a timed charm, sounded through the air right after that.

Angelina cheered yet again and sent Jessica a thumbs-up at that. George let out a low whistle and flew towards Jessica while Fred went to talk to Angelina.

"That last shot was wicked," George admitted, nudging Jessica. "I didn't know you could play like that."

"Thanks," she sent him a small smile.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you made the team."

Jessica wished he was correct, but she honestly wasn't so sure. She had scored the same amount of goals as Angelina in that second round, but in the first, she lamely ended up with the least amount. Then again, her group did do better than the first one during the quick match: they had a total of eight points while the other only had five, so that had to count for something, right?

Nevertheless, it felt like there was really no telling which of them performed the best. All Jessica knew was that Angelina and Katie were returning to the team for sure. They had done amazingly during the tryouts and were obviously assets to the team. It was really only a question of whether Oliver would take in one of the former reserve players or Jessica. She didn't want to get her hopes up, but seeing as the others hadn't done as well as her in the second round since most of them only scored one or two shots there, she believed she had a chance.

After a quick cool down, the Gryffindor Quidditch Team tryouts had come to an end. Jessica was tired but feeling both nervous and thrilled all at the same time after such an exciting time.

"That's it for today, everyone," Oliver announced. "The final list will be posted by the end of the week."

Jessica wasn't sure if she wanted that day to come sooner or never at all.

★ ★ ★

Patrolling Hogwarts at night was always one of either two things: extremely boring or extremely eventful. For the past few nights that Jessica had been doing it as prefect, it was the former of the two. She always just carried small conversations with whoever she was partnered up with for that shift, and they never saw anything intriguing around the castle, save for a few students still roaming the halls before curfew. But, there was never anything too drastic.