A thin stream of light shone through the arched window, illuminating the whole common room. Evelyn sat by the window- glancing out at the morning sunrise. The sunrise wasn't grey, it was a soothing lavender, a twinkling amber. The colours merged forming pinks and peaches, Evelyn adored watching the sunsets, after all, nobody ever knew how many more they would see.
Beautiful birdsong could be heard faintly through the window and the grey clouds of yesterday had finally disappeared. Her eyes waltzed around the common room, falling upon her best friend asleep on the couch, her blonde hair in tangles sprawled across it. With a loud yawn, she awoke from her slumber, stretched her whole body as she swung her legs off the couch. "Morning," She beamed, her eyes still fluttering shut.
"Good morning, excited for Quidditch trials?" At the sound of Quidditch, Lily suddenly shot up.
"Oh, I wonder who's signed up!" She sprung from the couch towards the parchment-covered notice board in the centre of the wall. Her fingers picked at the pieces of parchment stuck awkwardly on the board, until she eventually found the sheet and pulled it from the board.
"Lily Blake, Evelyn Rivers, Daniel Harvey, Markus Trent, Jolie Markson, Estella Jones, Roger Knotts, Bradley Stretton, Mary-Grace Prewett"
"We don't exactly have much choice for who we want on the team," Evelyn sighed looking at the brief list before her, "Hopefully we'll get some more turn up otherwise I'm not sure how well we'll do this year." Evelyn knew how unlikely this was, the majority of Ravenclaw had no interest in Quidditch, especially those with exams looming. Those without exams in the coming few months were involved in too many extracurricular activities to even be able to consider doing Quidditch.
"Let's go-to breakfast now so we can get to the trials on time." Lily smiled, pocketing the signup sheet and making her way out of the common room, Evelyn following closely behind.
Sliding onto their usual table, the two girls joined Sara who was already sat, happily munching on her breakfast.
Evelyn stared down at her meal, the steam floating off of it and dispersing around the hall. She shivered as the cold metal cutlery touched her skin, shaking and almost dropping it on her plate on instinct. She gently cut a small slice of her tower of bacon and syrup pancakes and devoured it with little elegance. The bacon broke over her tongue, perfectly crisp, perfectly salty. The flavour was like a bomb in her mouth, exploding in all the right ways. It was the way she started trial and match days, a sort of edible party to prepare herself for the exercise.
Evelyn was quickly finished with her meal, washing it all down with a tall glass water. Her fingernails anxiously tapped against the wooden table, a repetitive motion that gave her comfort in times of anxiety. Before long, Lily had also finished her meal, traces of syrup still left dripping from the corners of her lips.
With one last reassuring look from Sara, the two girls were ready for trials. Even though they were almost guaranteed a spot on the team, they both felt their anxiety growing louder with each step towards the pitch. Once they had their broomsticks firmly in their hands, all the worries in the world slowly drifted away. Nothing else mattered when they were flying, all they had to do was win.
Evelyn adored her broomstick, before her parents had passed they had bought her the newest Comet 220. She had used it for every Quidditch match since and even when she didn't win, she still felt victorious. When she stepped onto the pitch, she felt as though every fibre of her being relaxed, despite the adrenaline coursing through her veins, she felt calm. Evelyn and Lily weren't alone for long, within a few seconds of their arrival, a gaggle of Ravenclaw students filed onto the pitch, stopping in front of Lily who would be running the trials.
As soon as the group arrived in front of Lily, her entire persona shifted. "Shut up!" She called out, silencing the students before her. "You lot had better be ready to play for your lives, I don't let just anybody on to this team. Warn yourselves up and be back on the pitch in ten minutes!"
Instantly, the students dispersed into small groups around the pitch and began warming up. They all did simple stretches or short flights across the width of the pitch but Evelyn and Lily preferred a little bit more friendly competition to warm up.
Every year at Quidditch trials, Lily and Evelyn raced around the pitch, with the loser facing no real consequences other than the humiliation of being beaten.
"Ready to lose again?" Lily teased, clambering onto her broom and readying herself to race.
"I'll be hotter on your tail than last year, I can promise you that." Evelyn knew she wouldn't beat Lily, but that didn't stop her from trying. Despite being much better at flying than she was in previous years, Lily was still much better. She had flying in her genes.
"Ready." Called Evelyn, tucking a final strand of hair behind her ear. "Steady. Go"
And with that, they were off. Evelyn took an early lead, hovering around one broomstick ahead of Lily. Just as Evelyn began to get cocky, turning around to see Lily with a taunting smile plastered on her face, Lily began picking up speed. Lily came flying up beside her on this inside lane as though her body was on fast forward.
By the time they were on the home straight, a crowd of students had gathered beneath them, watching the race intently instead of doing their warmups as Lily had instructed. With just seconds left in their race, Lily pulled ahead of Evelyn with a smile. As she passed her, Evelyn could hear her sharp, restricted breaths, each one getting shorter as shorter. As their broomsticks ground to a halt and their feet touched down firmly on the ground, it was clear that Lily had won.
"You've definitely gotten faster." Lily smiled at Evelyn, still panting from the race. "But I still won!"
"Well deserved Lily."
After a short bow the students, Lily was back in teacher mode. "Well I'm glad you all got to see my victory, but I didn't see much warming up whilst we were flying! Ten press-ups each!" She commanded onto the crowd.
Evelyn watched on as the students began dropping to the floor in a sweat. Once they had finished, she joined the crowd and stood before Lily who was ready to begin the trials.
Lily stepped forward glared at the crowd, giving each student and once over before she began to speak. "We will have three makeshift teams during these trials and each person will play their chosen position. I will be monitoring you for every game you play, remember this is a team sport!" Lily wouldn't usually have to repeat this point but after the injuries during last seasons trials, she knew it was better to be safe than sorry.
Quickly, the crowd fell into three groups of players. Evelyn found herself in the third group as she slid on her notorious Keepers gloves and stood beside the other students. Luckily for her after such an intense warm-up, her team would be watching first allowing her time to catch her breath.
"Nice flying back there." Daniel emerged from the crowd with a smile on his lips.
"Thank you. I haven't seen you at trials before." She noted, taking a seat on the grass beneath her.
Daniel joined her, "I guess I never had the courage until now."
"What position are you going for?"
"I like the idea of being a Beater, but I'll just be happy if I make the cut honestly, I know that the other students here are team regulars so I wouldn't want to intrude in that." Evelyn smiled at how considerate he seemed, he looked like the kind of person Evelyn could see herself becoming good friends with.
"I'm sure you'll get on, we could probably do with some more muscle on our team." The Ravenclaw team never exceeded at Quidditch, although they weren't as bad as Hufflepuff, they couldn't even consider competing with the other houses.
"Time to swap, team three you're up!" Lily gave Evelyn a reassuring pat on the back before sending her up to the pitch.
Once in the air, Evelyn lost sight of Daniel in the crowds as she positioned herself in front of the three goals posts behind her. The September air was so thick that Evelyn had to squint to even begin to make out who was who on the pitch. As soon as everyone was in position, the game began with the hoot of a whistle and the Quaffle was released. She could just about make out her team gaining possession of the Quaffle, whoever was carrying it weaving their way across the pitch and making a shot. By the sound of the cheers, Evelyn could tell that the shot had gone in, meaning that possession went to the other team.
Evelyn blinked and by the time she opened her eyes again, there was a silhouette rushing towards her. She saw the Quaffle resting under their arm as she sped towards the goalposts. Evelyn could tell where she was going to try and score simply by tracking her eyes and as she saw the Quaffle begin to move through the air, she darted in front of the goal, smashing it away with the front of her room.
Evelyn watched on from her post as the Quaffle floated between the two teams, never coming close enough for her to move in preparation for an attack. The game ended the minute Eloise Carrow's fingers grasped the notoriously small snitch.
"Good game everyone, look out for the official team sheet as I will be posting it in the common room tomorrow morning." Lily clapped the students as they flew down from the pitch, smiling as Evelyn walked over. "I think we've got a good team this year! Not Slytherin good, but definitely better than last year"
"You never know, this could be the year our luck changes"