Chapter Ten: Quidditch
Australe Leo Black ~ Wednesday, September 3rd, 1975 ~ Hogwarts, Hogsmead, Scotland
When I woke up in the morning, I had a stupid, happy smile on my face. I stretched and rolled my covers to the bottom on my bed.
"You're up early." Alice said.
"Yeah, I just couldn't sleep any longer." I told her still with that same silly smile.
"Okay, you're hiding something, what happened?" Alice asked finding that I had something that I wasn't telling them.
"Okay, fine, but I want to tell you all at the same time, so I don't have to repeat myself. Mary get Marlene and Mackenzie. They need to wake up anyways, it's almost breakfast." I said and pointed at the two girls who were still snoring. Once all the girls were awake, and Lily had come out of the bathroom, they all took a seat around my bed.
"So, last night, when I went to the owlery, well I didn't end up going there." I told them.
"Where did you go then?" Mackenzie asked.
"Well, I intended to go to the owlery but I ended up going the wrong way because Remus came to walk with me."
"And?" Marlene asked excitedly. Any tiredness that she still had was now gone.
"Well, we talked and then we walked back. And, he kissed me." I told them shyly. Marlene squealed.
"Oh my Merlin! This is so exciting!" Marlene exclaimed. I rolled my eyes, but grinned.
"It's not that big of a deal. I mean it was just one kiss. Who knows what it will turn into, probably nothing." I told them.
"Oh, come on, he totally likes you. Now I want to hear all the details." Marlene pointed out. I shook my head.
"Speaking of details, you wouldn't even tell us about your first kiss or with whom it was with!" Marlene's face reddened.
"I told you that I didn't remember. Last year, we had that party after the Quidditch game and someone had spiked the pumpkin juice. I couldn't remember in the morning." She mumbled and I laughed.
"That's why you drink out of unopened bottles." I told her in a sing-song voice and walked into the bathroom for my shower. After my shower I looked through my trunk and pulled out my old varsity Quidditch jacket from last year. I slipped on my tights, long sleeve, white shirt and black skirt. But instead of putting my robes over top, I opted to stick on my varsity jacket.
"Alright, I'm off, see you guys at breakfast." I told the girls as I pulled on my boots and grabbed my book bag.
"Off to see Remus?" Alice asked with raised eyebrows and a knowing smile.
"As a matter of fact, yes. But I'm also going to wake up the other three nut jobs."
When I got to the boys room, they were all up and getting ready, which shocked me. Remus was buttoning up his shirt when I walked in and smiled at me, which made me blush. I wasn't sure what he had told the boys but I sure wasn't in any rush to tell them myself.
Sirius and James must have been in the bathroom because they weren't in the dorm bedroom. When he got out, I was hoping to talk to him about what he had said the other day. Speak of the devil, Sirius had just walked out of the bathroom. His eyes connected with mine and I held a stony gaze until he broke it off coughing. I raised my eyebrows. I sure wasn't going to apologize for his mistakes.
"Oh, would you two just say sorry so we can get bloody well on with our day!" Peter exclaimed as he walked into the bathroom. I smiled a bit and looked at Sirius expectantly.
"Aus, I'm sorry about the things I said, I'm not sure what I was saying, I just didn't think about it." He apologized and I gave him a small smile. He lifted an eyebrow and opened his arms, expecting a hug. I sighed and wrapped my arms around his frame.
"So are we okay?" He asked me. I pulled back a bit.
"Yeah, we're okay."
We left after to go down to the Great Hall and get a bite to eat. Remus came to walk beside me, giving me some company.
"Hey." He said and nudged me with a smile. I gave him a grin.
"Hello."
"So are we going to talk about what happened?" He asked me.
"What happened?" I asked him slyly. He rolled his eyes.
"Oh, Aus. You know what happened. I just wanted to know if you maybe, wanted to do it again?" He asked shyly. I giggled.
"I would like that very much."
The breakfast was pretty good. I sat beside Remus, feeling happier than I had all summer.
"Hey." Marlene said as she sat down beside me in our first class, Double Transfiguration.
"Hey, doll." I told her as she rubbed my arm. I bit into the apple that I had gotten at breakfast. I settled into the before class conversation after a while, McGonagall started the lesson.
"Good morning class." McGonagall said as she walked into the class and trailed her way up to the front, "Today we will be learning vanishing spells. No doubt, they will come up in your Transfiguration O.W.L." She told us. Of course Professor McGonagall would start off the year with talk about the tests we would be taking at the end of the year. After she explained what we were doing she set us with snails and made us start on vanishing them.
"Hey guess what." I told Marlene as we started on our snailed.
"What?"
"Well, you know how Remus kissed me yesterday?" I asked her.
"Yeah."
"Well, he told me that he wanted to do it again." I told her excitedly.
"He what!?" She almost yelled, but excitedly. A lot of people glanced in our direction and McGonagall gave her a sharp look. She quickly apologized and stated the question again but in a whisper.
"Isn't it so exciting! I'm so happy." I said with a grin on my face. Then Professor McGonagall walked up our aisle and we quickly focused back on our work. Only, McGonagall didn't continue walking, she stopped at our table.
"Miss Black, what are you wearing?" Professor McGonagall asked and I smiled politely.
"Clothes, Professor. Oh no, did I forget socks again?" I asked and pretended to be surprised that I wasn't wearing socks. To be honest I had actually forgotten socks today. She didn't seem to find my jokes funny though.
"Miss Black, I know that you are wearing clothes. I mean why aren't you wearing the uniform?" She asked sternly. I didn't want to get in her bad books already, but the shirt that was part of our uniform was itchy and the socks were hideous.
"Awe, Professor McGonagall! I'm wearing the dress code. See, black skirt, white top and house colours! I've got my Gryffindor Quidditch jacket on! And I am wearing black shoes. I'm sorry that I've forgotten socks but we can't all be perfect like you!" I said adding in the compliment to the end, hoping that I wouldn't get detention. But no such luck was on my side.
"Well, you can read about the proper dress code in detention on Friday and Miss McKinnon, you still have half a shell." McGonagall said and walked off to critic someone else's work.
"Uh, well thank Merlin I can still go to Quidditch tryouts. James would kill me if I missed it." I said as the class ended and we grabbed our stuff and walked to the greenhouses for Herbology.
"That he would do." Marlene said and gave me a few shakes of her head.
Australe Leo Black ~ Thursday, September 4th, 1975 ~ Hogwarts, Hogsmead, Scotland
Thursday couldn't have come sooner. I have had the most boring school days so far and couldn't wait for the Quidditch Tryouts because I hadn't been in the air to try out my new broom yet. The tryouts were at five in the evening, so I had a little bit of time before I had to head down to the pitch. In that time I decided to hang out with Remus and the boys and help them with the search about the last parts we needed for the Animagus transformation. We were so close and soon Sirius, James, Peter and I would become animagus. Well, that's if we could teach ourselves to do a patronus charm in time. We really wanted to help Remus.
"Alright. Aus, Sirius, we better head down to the pitch now so we're there early enough for me to set up." James said and put down the notes that we were looking over, trying to figure out where were left off last year. Sirius and I nodded and I went to go get my stuff from my dorm. Remus was the only one waiting for me when I got back down. He and Peter were going to watch the tryouts. We headed down to the pitch together, enjoying the little time we had alone.
"Have fun." Remus told me. I turned to him and gave him a smile. A few seconds later, he planted his lips onto mine. It was my second kiss and it was as heavenly as my last one.
"Thank you, Rem."
"Okay, I'll be watching from the stands." Remus said and kissed me on the forehead before joining Peter in the stands. I went to the change rooms and just slipped my Quidditch robes over top of my other clothes. I grabbed my broom and beaters bat and headed out onto the field. James and Sirius weren't out of the boy change room yet so I decided to go and tell them to hurry up. When I got into the change room, I found James and Sirius horsing around with their ties tied around their heads, play fighting. I silently laughed to myself and watched them for a few minutes before Mason came into the change room and stood beside me.
"How long have they been doing this for?" He asked and I told him it had been roughly fifteen minutes since I had gotten there. I decided to break up their fun after a little while.
"Okay, enough dilly dallying, it's an amazing day outside and we've got Quidditch tryouts remember?" I said and they looked up in horror. They hadn't realized that I or Mason had been standing there. I burst out laughing at their faces and walked out onto the pitch where a large group of potential team players were standing.
"Sorry about the wait, everyone! James and Sirius are having a little fun in the change rooms." I said with a smile and James came out of the change rooms to direct the tryouts.
"Okay, everyone, if you don't have a broom then you can borrow one from the broom cupboard. But if you make it on the team, I'd advise you to get yourself a broom. Please go change into your more athletic attire. Girl's on the right and boy's on the left." James said and everyone left to go change. Once everyone had changed and the broomless people had gotten brooms we finally started tryouts.
"Alright, chasers in one group, and seekers in another." I stated and everyone moved into their preferred group. James then took over and directed people into the air. We started with the seekers.
They went into the air one at a time and Sirius and I flew around lightly tapping bludgers at them to see if they could avoid them. While we were hitting the bludgers, the seekers also had to try to catch the bewitched tennis balls that we were using instead of the snitch. The first couple of people were awful. I had accidentally hit the bludger at a small fourth year too hard and it hit him in the stomach where he toppled out of the air. It wasn't until the tenth person did they start to improve. One guy and a girl were particularly good at flying and catching the tennis balls but Sirius and I hit them both a couple times. The last girl that went was actually the best in my opinion. Next it was time for the chasers and guess who was trying out.
"Hey Baby Doll." A drawling voice called out and came up behind me. You have got to be kidding me. Of course Nathan would be trying out. I really hoped that James wouldn't pick him for the team. So I turned around and faced him with a sweet, fake smile.
"Nathan." I said and James blew the whistle for the chasers to go up in the air. Now Mason had something to do and Sirius and I just could just lob bludgers at the players. The first batch of players trying out were fine, some needed some work and one player was down right awful. The next batch was better and worse than the last group but there was one person, a girl, who was particularly good. Then it was time for the last group of chasers and Nathan was up. I really hoped he sucked.
He didn't of course and James was probably going to put him on the team. So, I decided to try my best and see if I could hit him with all my might. I saw the bludger coming for me and I swung.
-WHAM-
The bludger connected with his head and he dropped the Quaffle. Oops, I didn't mean to hit him in the head.
"Sorry!" I called out to him and he turned around smiling.
"No, I'm sorry love. I must not have been paying attention." He said and I was shocked. I think he might have gotten a concussion. After that, I payed close attention to him because it was my fault he had gone funny in the head. Soon the tryouts were over and I thought I had a pretty good idea of who was going to be on the team and who wasn't. I quickly took off my Quidditch things and met Remus to go to dinner.
After dinner was over, we all went back to the common room to enjoy some time in front of the fire. The first week was almost over and boy was it a stressful one. We had tons of talks about our O.W.L.s exams and were given a load of work due the following week. Today was one day we felt we needed to take off from constant studying and homework completing. I had my head on Remus' lap and my feet were on James'. Remus was holding a piece of my hair, fiddling with it. James looked like he was concentrating really hard.
"James, you look quite constipated, what's got your wand in a knot?" I asked him and James smiled when he looked at me.
"I'm deciding who I should put on the team." He told me and I sat up a little straighter.
"Maybe I could help you. I think that the Kate Marren girl was the best out of the seekers." I said, trying to be helpful.
"Yeah I have the seeker position already filled, Kate Marren was my first choice too but it's the chasers that I'm still having trouble." He told me.
"Well, I can help you there. There was this one girl that I really liked, Darcy Tane, but what ever you do, Nathan Hiemer is a bad choice."
"Knew you were going to say that."
"But it's true, he has an awful personality."
"Actually, he's very nice, charming to the ladies."
"That's the point, he's a player and he's nice to everyone but me."
"And what? Your brother's not one? Besides, he said sorry when you were the one who hit him in the head with a bludger."
"No, I think that's called brain damage, James."
"Fine, maybe it is, but he is still a good player."
"Okay, fine. Put him on the team, I don't care. But for your other chaser, please consider choosing Darcy Tane. She was amazing." I said and went up to go to bed.