Katie walked up from the dungeons with a merry spring in her step — which was not the attitude that most students had after a visit to Professor Snape's office. She was stopped in the Entrance Hall when Pansy grabbed her arm.
"Hey, no time to talk, we have to get to class, but you're telling me all about what Snape said later. Here's your timetable," Pansy thrust the timetable into Katie's hand. "They handed them out at breakfast. See you later!"
Pansy dashed off up the marble staircase, leaving Katie alone in the middle of the hallway. She scanned down her timetable and almost groaned (but nothing could truly spoil her high-spirited mood). Her first class was History of Magic, followed by double Potions, Divinination and double Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Luckily, she already had the materials she needed for History of Magic, so she took off towards the classroom.
As she arrived in the corridor where the classroom was, she saw that the students had not been let inside yet. They were all lined up against the walls and chatting loudly. Katie spotted Ron's vibrant red hair first, then caught sight of Hermione and Harry beside him. She continued on with a jog.
"Harry! Harry! Harry!" she called excitedly.
Harry spun around, grinning. "Katie, hi—"
Harry had barely uttered two words when Katie almost tackled him with a hug.
"Woah — good morning to you too." Harry laughed.
"Guess what!" Katie beamed, springing backwards. She was almost bouncing on her feet and her behaviour seemed to be startling Ron and Hermione, who were smiling uneasily at her.
"What?" Harry asked.
Taking a deep breath, Katie, who was bursting to share her news with someone, said, "I'm Slytherin Quidditch Captain!"
Hermione and Ron's uneasy smiles were replaced by grins.
"Really?" Hermione said, seeming just as excited as Katie.
"Yeah!" Katie replied, before straightening up and speaking in a voice that was scarily identical to Snape's ugly drawl. "As I am sure you are well aware, Miss Blair, Mr Flint is no longer with us, and I am also sure that you have already been told on countless occasions that you are quite the extraordinary Quidditch player. Therefore, it seems only fitting that I appoint you to the position of Slytherin Quidditch Captain."
Ron shivered violently. "You sounded just like him. That's disgusting."
"Do my ears deceive me?" Chris had been wandering the corridors and passed by just in time to hear Katie's announcement. "My little sister, Quidditch Captain?"
Niall, who was accompanying Chris, gave her a pat on the back.
"Nice one, Kat," he beamed. "We'll still beat you, though."
"In your dreams, Murray, in your dreams."
***
If there was one class that Katie certainly wasn't looking forward to, it was Defence Against the Dark Arts with Professor Umbridge. She entered the classroom with a scowl on her face, only to find that Umbridge was already seated at the teacher's desk, which somehow worsened Katie's mood. Umbridge was wearing the same fluffy pink cardigan from the night before.
Katie slipped into the seat next to Draco.
"Can't wait to see how this goes." Draco mumbled.
"Well, good afternoon!" Umbridge said, rising from her seat and pointing her wand, which was strangely short, at the blackboard. At once, words appeared on the blackboard.
"Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations, O.W.Ls, more commonly known as Owls," she turned to face the class with the same sweet smile that made Katie feel sick. "Study hard and you will be rewarded, fail to do so and the consequences may be severe."
With a wave of her wand, a stack of textbooks levitated from the desk behind her and began distributing themselves to the students. Katie looked down at her new book with a grimace.
"Defensive Magical Theory?" Katie whispered. "Theory?"
"Wands away and quills out, please."
Many of the class exchanged gloomy looks; the order 'wands away' had never yet been followed by a lesson that they had found interesting.
"Good," Umbridge continued as everyone shoved their wands into their pockets. "I should like you to turn to page five and read 'Chapter One, Basics for Beginners'. There will be no need to talk."
Professor Umbridge returned to her chair behind the desk, observing them all with those pouchy little toad's eyes. Katie turned to page five of her copy of Defensive Magical Theory and started to read. It was desperately dull. She felt her concentration slipping away from her; she had soon read the same line a dozen times without taking in more than the first few words. Katie looked to her right and received a surprise. Hermione had not even opened her copy of Defensive Magical Theory. She was staring fixedly at Professor Umbridge with her hand in the air.
Several silent minutes passed. The chapter that they had been instructed to read was so tedious that more and more people were choosing to watch Hermione's mute attempt to catch Professor Umbridge's eye rather than struggle on with 'Basics for Beginners'.
When more than half the class were staring at Hermione rather than at their books, Professor Umbridge seemed to decide that she could ignore the situation no longer.
"Did you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" she asked Hermione, as though she had just noticed her.
"Not about the chapter, no." Hermione answered.
"Well, we're reading just now. If you have other queries we can deal with them at the end of class."
"There's nothing in here about using defensive spells." Hermione said, ignoring Umbridge's previous statement.
"Using defensive spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "Why, I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom."
"We're not going to use magic?" Ron exclaimed.
"Students will raise their hands when they wish to speak in my class!" Umbridge snapped. "Mr—?"
"Weasley." Ron said, immediately putting his hand in the air. Umbridge turned away from him and addressed the entire class.
"You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way."
"What use is that?" Harry said loudly. Everyone turned to look at him. "If we're going to be attacked, it won't be in a—"
"Hand, Mr Potter!" Umbridge sang.
Harry's hand shot into the air. Like she had done to Ron, Professor Umbridge promptly turned away from him. Despite being told not to speak out of turn, Harry continued on anyway.
"How is theory supposed to prepare us for what's out there?"
"There is nothing out there, dear," Professor Umbridge countered in a horribly honeyed voice. "Who do you suppose would want to attack children like yourselves?"
"Hmm, let's think..." Harry said in a mock thoughtful voice. "Maybe... Lord Voldemort?"
Katie winced, Ron gasped, Lavender Brown uttered a little scream, Neville slipped sideways off his seat. Professor Umbridge, however, did not flinch. She was staring at Harry with a grimly satisfied expression on her face.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr Potter."
The classroom was silent and still. Everyone was staring at either Umbridge or Harry.
Professor Umbridge leaned towards them, her stubby-fingered hands splayed on her desk. "Now, let me make a few things quite plain. You have been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead—
"He wasn't dead," Harry said angrily, "but yeah, he's returned!"
"Mr-Potter-you-have-already-lost-your-house-ten-points-do-not-make-matters-worse-for-yourself," Umbridge said in one breath without looking at him. "As I was saying, you have been told that a certain Dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie."
"It's NOT a lie!" Harry shouted. "I saw him, I fought him!"
"Detention, Mr Potter!" Umbridge snapped. "And now, will you kindly continue reading. Page five, 'Basics for Beginners'."
Professor Umbridge sat down behind her desk. Harry, however, stood up. Everyone was staring at him.
"So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?" Harry shouted, his voice shaking.
There was a sharp intake of breath throughout the entire class, for none of them, apart from Katie, Ron and Hermione, had ever heard Harry talk about the night that Cedric died. Even Draco visibly stiffened. They stared avidly from Harry to Professor Umbridge, who had raised her eyes and was staring at him without a trace of a fake smile on her face.
"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident." she said coldly.
"It was murder!" Harry yelled. "Voldemort killed him and you know it!"
Professor Umbridge's face was quite blank. Then she said, in her softest, most sweetly girlish voice, "Come here, Mr Potter, dear."
Harry kicked his chair aside and strode up to the teacher's desk. Professor Umbridge pulled a small roll of pink parchment out of her handbag, stretched it out on the desk, dipped her quill into a bottle of ink and started scribbling. Nobody spoke. After a minute or so she rolled up the parchment and tapped it with her wand. It sealed itself.
"Take this to Professor McGonagall, dear." Professor Umbridge told Harry, handing the note to him. He took it from her without saying a word and left the classroom, slamming the door shut behind him.
As soon as he left, an outbreak of nervous whispers erputed in the classroom.
"So, is he really back?" Draco asked in a hushed voice.
"Shut up, Draco!" Katie hissed back. She was glaring at Professor Umbridge, who was looking very proud and paid no attention to the steadily growing noise in her classroom.
"Hey, it was just a question."
Katie redirected her glare to Draco. "You know he is."
***
Katie dropped her books off at her dormitory before going to dinner that night. Her mind was racing as Harry's confrontation with Professor Umbridge played over and over in her head. That vile woman had barely been inside the castle for twenty four hours and Katie somehow already hated her with a burning passion.
Katie had been so caught up in her inner rage that she didn't notice a blonde girl round a corner in front of her until they collided. Both of them stumbled backwards but neither of them fell. A handful of books and strange coloured quills did topple from the blonde girl's hands, however.
"Merlin's Beard — I'm so sorry." Katie said quickly, bending down to help the girl collect her things from the floor.
"That's all right." the girl said in a dreamy, airy voice.
Once all of the books and quills were back in the blonde girl's arms, both of them stood up. The blonde girl, who Katie could now see was a Ravenclaw student, smiled. She had wide, silvery eyes that gave the impression that she was in a constant state of mild surprise.
"I'm Luna," she said in the same dreamy voice. "Luna Lovegood."
Katie smiled back at her. "Nice to meet you, Luna. I'm—"
"I know who you are."
Katie blinked at her, pleasantly bewildered. "You — you do?"
"Sure," Luna nodded. "You're the girl that everyone says killed her dad."
Katie's heart plummeted. She was hoping that Luna would say she knew her for being a good Quidditch player, or maybe even as Harry's girlfriend — anything would be better than being known for supposedly murdering her father.
"I don't believe it, of course," Luna continued casually. "I always thought you seemed quite friendly from afar."
Feeling a considerable warmth growing inside of her, Katie allowed herself to smile.
"Well, am I everything you thought I'd be?" Katie chuckled jokingly. Luna, however, did not seem to pick up on the joke, and nodded cheerfully.
"Quite," she began. "You are very friendly. I should be going. I hope there's pudding at dinner. It was nice talking to you, Katerina."
With that being said, Luna skipped off down the corridor and out of sight. Exceptionally cheered up by that strange but warm encounter, Katie arrived at the Great Hall with a smile on her face. She sat down next to Pansy, who greeted her with a smile.
"Where were you?" Pansy asked as Katie began stacking her plate with food. "We thought you died or something."
"I was just talking to someone." Katie replied, taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.
"Yeah? Who?" Draco asked from across the table.
"I don't know if you know her. Her name's Luna."
Both Pansy and Draco snorted, causing Pansy to splutter orange juice all over her food. Draco covered his face with his hand to stifle roars of laughter, meanwhile Katie eyed them both sceptically.
"What?" she asked.
"You mean you were talking to Loony Lovegood?" Draco cackled.
Katie frowned. "Hey, don't say that. She's actually really sweet."
"Yeah, sure," Draco said sarcastically, still laughing. "Eat your steak, Blair."
Katie ate in silence for many minutes until she remembered — she was Slytherin Quidditch Capatin.
"Oh, Draco, I forgot to ask," she began. Draco looked at her enquiringly. "Are you trying out for the Quidditch team this year?"
Draco quirked an eyebrow. "Why would I try out? I'm already on the team."
Katie smiled a smile that was half smug, half mischievous.
"Ah, no, you see," she leaned forward slightly, resting her chin on top of her entwined hands, "you were on the team when Flint was captain, but now that Flint is gone there's a new captain, so you're going to need to try out."
"And who's the new captain?" Draco asked casually, returning to eating his food. Clearly he had not picked up on the roguish tone of Katie's voice. He awaited an answer, but when he didn't get one, he glanced up at Katie to find her staring at him with an expression that was telling him the answer was obvious. Katie saw the exact moment that the realisation hit Draco. He choked.
"You?" he gasped.
A grin split across Katie's face. "Me!"
Pansy let out a squeal of delight and hugged Katie awkwardly from the side.
"Katie, that's amazing!" Pansy cried happily, making Katie giggle.
"Great," Draco grinned. "Now I don't have to tryout."
He returned once more to eating. Katie raised an eyebrow at him.
"Any why, may I ask, do you not have to tryout?"
Draco gave her an are-you-serious look.
"Because I'm like, your best friend — you're obviously going to give me a spot on the team." Draco said, as though this were the most obvious thing in the world.
Katie placed down her knife and fork. "First of all, Pansy and Hermione are my best friends," she said coolly. "We've been over this — we're acquainted enemies. Second of all, I'm not just putting you on the team because we're friends."
Draco looked mildly offended for a moment, but soon, his signature smirk was growing on his pale face.
"If you don't give me a spot on the team, I'll give you a detention." he threatened proudly, jabbing the prefect's badge that was pinned to his cloak.
Katie snorted in amusement. "I think I can handle a detention, Malfoy."
"I could put you in detention for a week."
"Still worth it."
"Is there really no winning with you?"
"Nope."
"Fine, I'll do the stupid tryouts."
Katie smiled triumphantly. She then turned to Blaise and Theo, who were both seated beside Draco, and said, "Are you two trying out?"
"No, I'm dead awful at Quidditch." Theo said.
"Crabbe and Goyle with tryout, won't you?" Draco announced, clapping Crabbe on the back. Both of them nodded quickly. Katie forced a smile onto her face.
"Great." she said. It was a great effort to try and hide the sarcasm in her voice — she didn't much like Crabbe and Goyle.
***
"Nervous?" Draco asked Katie as the two of them made their way down to the Quidditch pitch for tryouts on Saturday morning.
Katie shook her head. "More excited, really. I haven't flown in forever. Come here, help me carry some brooms down to the pitch."
Katie extracted a key from the pocket of her Quidditch robes and opened the door to the broom shed. As soon as she stepped inside the damp shed, she made a violent gagging noise.
"Bloody hell, it smells awful in here," she grumbled with a grimace. "Here."
Katie handed a handful of the school broomsticks to Draco, and each of them carried, with great difficulty, a stack of said brooms down to the stadium.
"Do we really need that many?" Draco huffed, throwing his stack of broomsticks into the mud. No one else had arrived at the Quidditch pitch yet.
"Better to be safe than sorry," Katie told him. "We don't know how many people won't have their own brooms."
"I suppose," Draco shrugged. "Oh, look who came to watch." he added with a sneer.
With furrowed eyebrows, Katie traced Draco's gaze into the stands, where she found Harry, Ron, Hermione, Chris and Niall beaming and waving down at her. Katie let out a chuckle and grabbed her broom.
"I'll be back in a minute. Call me down if anyone gets here." she said to Draco before kicking off from the ground. She flew towards her friends and hovered in mid-air in front of them.
"I still can't believe you're the captain." Chris said, sounding very proud.
"You better believe it. My team is going to crush you." Katie smirked.
"Still riding a Nimbus 2001? Weak." Harry said smugly.
"Oh, so we're doing this again?" Katie replied.
"Oh, we are so doing this again."
Making fun of each other when it came to Quidditch had always been Katerina and Harry's thing. Their comments were often ruthless, but each of them knew that the other didn't mean them... most of the time. Nevertheless, it was only friendly banter.
"Whatever, Potter, I'm going to sweep the floor with your Firebolt." Katie shot back.
"And I'm going to mop the floor with your team." Harry quipped.
"Oh, it's so on."
"Katie!" Draco called up from the ground. "Katie, they're here!"
Katie looked down and, sure enough, a small number of Slytherin players had gathered around Draco, and some were still on the lawns making their way towards the stadium.
"See yous later!" Katie called to her Gryffindor friends as she soared back to the ground.
Once she was sure that everyone had arrived, Katie cleared her throat, but found herself at a loss for words. She hadn't exactly prepared a speech, or devised a plan for the tryouts, for that matter. At first, the prospect of being team captain was exhilarating, but now, as she stared into the hard faces of the sixth and seventh years who were older and much taller than she was, she was suddenly feeling very nervous.
"Er — hi," she began uncertainly. The older students did not react, but the small number of first years, second years, and a handful of third years waved enthusiastically. "OK — so — uhm... if you could just write your name and your year here," she took out a clipboard and a quill and handed it to the person nearest to her. "Thank you."
Draco leaned over to Katie and whispered, "Very smooth, Blair."
"Watch it, Malfoy, or I won't put you on the team." Katie smiled maliciously.
After everyone had signed the parchment, a second year girl with a very long braid handed the clipboard and quill back to Katie, and she placed it in her bag.
"OK, all right, so, I'm kind of new to this sort of thing, so just bear with me while I get used to it," Katie kicked open the ball crate (she felt rather cool as she did so) and then faced the trainees once more. "So, I was thinking we'd start off with a couple of laps of the pitch to get ourselves warmed up, then we'll split into groups and go from there. Sound good?" No one answered. "Great, well, there are brooms over there for anyone who needs one. Great. Now, get going, I want three laps, no injuries, please."
A few people, all of the first years included, shuffled over to the pile of rickety old broomsticks, while others mounted their own and raced away. Katie rounded on Draco, who hadn't moved from his spot, and was instead still smirking at Katie.
"That includes you, Malfoy." Katie told him.
"Oh, come on, Katie, you're obviously going to put me on the team anyway." Draco said smugly, his smirk only growing.
Katie complacently folded her arms. "You just earned yourself an extra three laps, Malfoy. Go on, then."
The people who had not yet taken off guffawed loudly. As the grounds were still and quiet, sound echoed throughout the stadium, and the Gryffindors and had obviously heard Katie's comment, because they all cheered and clapped loudly — all except Hermione, who rolled her eyes disapprovingly at the racket they were causing. Draco glared at them momentarily before swinging his leg over his broomstick.
"I'm so giving you a detention for this." he said sharply to Katie.
Katie, who was now the one wearing a smug grin, replied with, "You wouldn't dare."
Draco took off and called back, "I hate you!"
Many minutes later, everyone had returned to the ground except for Draco. Even the first years who had evidently never ridden a broom before arrived back before him.
"Hurry up, Draco, we're all waiting for you!" Katie yelled triumphantly as Draco started his sixth and final lap. Katie couldn't be sure, because Draco flew by in blue of green, but she could've sworn that she saw him flip her off.
When Draco finally touched back down, shaking his head at a Katie, whose shoulders were shaking with suppressed giggles, Katie turned back to face her team. Feeling much more confident now that she knew everyone was willing to listen to her orders, she gave out clear instructions.
"Right, I want you in four groups. Chasers over there," she pointed in front of her, "Beaters over there," she pointed to her left, "Seekers over there," she pointed to her right, "and Keepers over there," she pointed behind her. The possible future players sectioned off towards the groups assigned to the position which they wanted to play. It was evident that most people preferred the Chaser position, next was Keeper, to Katie's surprise, followed by Beater, and finally, Seeker, which only three people were trying out for.
"Excellent," Katie said, rounding on the Chasers and Keepers. "You lot, take the Quaffle, fly about twenty feet up, spread yourselves out and start passing the ball amongst yourselves while I get the rest set up."
Katie tossed the Quaffle to a tall seventh year girl with black hair and, doing as they were told, the Chasers and Keepers rose into the air. Katie then rounded on the Beaters and Seekers.
"So, this is what's going to happen," she began, taking the Snitch out of the box. "I'm releasing the Snitch with a ten second head start, then all three of you," she pointed between the Seekers, "are going to try and catch it, while you lot," she gestured towards the Beaters, "are going to be firing Bludgers at them. Got it?"
"Yes ma'am!" a small first year boy exclaimed enthusiastically. Draco sniggered, meanwhile Katie gave the boy an appreciative grin.
"Ready?" Katie called. She released the Snitch. The three Seekers, Draco included, mounted their broomsticks, and after ten seconds, Katie shouted, "Go!"
The Seekers took flight with a gust of wind. Katie distributed bats to the Beaters.
"Stand back." she warned them as she let the vibrating Bludgers loose. As soon as they were free of their restraints, the Bludgers shot into the air like bullets.
"Off you go, then." Katie said to the Beaters, who blast off just as eagerly as the Bludgers.
From above, their was a howl of pain, and Katie turned to see a second year girl in the Chaser's ring slip from her broom. Adrian Pucey and Cassius Warrington caught her and brought her gently to the ground. Blood was gushing from her nose and drenching her robes. Tears were prickling her green eyes.
"Merlin's Beard!" Katie cried, grabbing a box of tissues from her bag and rushing over to the girl. "Here, take these. What happened?"
"Montague smashed her in the face with the Quaffle." Warrington explained without hesitation. Graham Montague, looking very pale and regretful, landed softly on his feet.
"Graham, what did I say about no injuries?" Katie scolded.
"It was an accident, I swear!" Graham said in a panicked voice. His eyes were flashing between his new captain and the girl who was covered in blood. All of the Chasers and Keepers had returned to the ground now. One first year girl caught sight of the second year's blood soaked robes, went ghost white in the face, then toppled over.
"For the love of—!" Katie proclaimed in exasperation. She sat the girl with the bloody nose on the ground and rushed to the first year's side. She pressed two fingers to her neck.
"Weak pulse. She's after fainting," Katie announced. "Harper, Crockett, take her to the hospital wing, will you?"
Two wizards who were trying out for Chaser nodded, dropped their brooms and, with their combined strength, picked the unconscious girl up off the ground and started carrying her away. Katie turned back to the second year, whose nose had stopped bleeding, and she was now making an effort to mop up the blood.
"You all right, love?" Katie asked, crouching down and pulling out a few tissues herself. She helped clean the blood off the girl's face.
"M'fine," the girl said weakly. "Just a little dizzy."
"Yeah, a Quaffle to the face will do that to you, all right," Katie said with a subtle scowl in Graham's direction. "You'll be all right. Here, have some water. What's your name?"
"Lucy," the girl said. "Lucy Burton."
"OK, Lucy, you just stay here, all right? You let me know if you need to go inside."
Once she was sure that Lucy wasn't going to pass out like the first year had, Katie blew her whistle and waved the Beaters and Seekers over. They landed quickly, Crabbe and Goyle wrestled the Bludgers into their restraints, and Katie turned to the Seekers. She frowned when she realised that none of them were clutching the tiny golden ball.
"Where's the Snitch?" she asked them.
"We didn't catch it." Draco told her.
Katie let out a sigh of exasperation. "You didn't—"
"It's small and fast!" Draco defended firmly. Katie rolled her eyes so far back that she was surprised they hadn't gotten stuck in the back of her head.
"You're going to be the death of me, Draco Malfoy." she grumbled, mounting her broom, and kicked off from the ground.
"Where did you see it last?" she asked the Seekers.
"It just flew past your head!" a fourth year told her.
Katie's head snapped to the right and, sure enough, the Snitch was twittering a few feet away from her face, as though taunting her. As soon as she made a dive for it, the Snitch swerved aside, but the sky was clear and the pitch was empty, so Katie caught the ball in no time and returned to the grass smoothly, welcomed by the impressed applause of first years who were staring at her admirably.
"Don't do that," she told them briskly. "It's easy when there's no one else up there."
The Snitch was fighting hard to escape Katie's grasp, its tiny wings beating hard against her closed palm.
"Right, so clearly splitting into groups wasn't a great idea," Katie said with a glance towards the bloody second year, who turned as red as he blood soaked robes and looked down sheepishly. "So, let me count here. Eight Chasers, six Keepers , five Beaters, three Seekers. OK, we're going to split into two teams, seven on each, of course. We'll roll players on and off so everyone gets a shot, since we've got too many for only two teams. I'll stand by and do markings. No more injuries please!"
To Katie's great pleasure, by the end of the session, no one else had received another injury, and she was pleasantly surprised by how well everyone, even the first years, played. A few first years definitely struggled with their brooms and needed tips from Katie on how to grip it properly and other things along those lines, but once they got going, each and every one of them were at least fair players.
"Not bad, everyone, not bad at all," Katie announced as everyone gathered around, eagerly awaiting the reveal of who would be playing on the Slytherin Quidditch team this year. A few people were looking proud and snooty, as though they were sure they had made the team (most of them had not). "Unfortunately, of course not everyone can make the cut, but I want you all to know that each and every one of you played very well today," People stirred uneasily on their feet. It was clear that they were becoming desperate now, the anticipation killing them. "With that being said, here is my decided line-up."
Katie stared down at the notes and markings she had made next to the names of each of the players. At the bottom of her parchment, she had made a list of the six players that she felt were best and worked well together.
"Chasers: Warrington and Montague," Graham looked rather surprised. He propapbly suspceted that he would not make the team after he busted poor Lucy's face, but Katie and Graham had always made an excellent pairing on the Quidditch pitch, and this was his last year at Hogwarts, so she may as well have made the most of it. "Beaters: Crabbe and Goyle. Keeper: Bletchley. And Seeker," Katie paused and, feeling a prickling sensation on the back of her neck at the sight of the complacent grin Draco was wearing, she said, with utmost distaste, "Malfoy."
Draco gave her and I-knew-it look, to which she responded with a playful sneer. A third year boy let out a loud groan of disapproval.
"Why do you just get to be on the team without trying out?" he snarled, pointing at Katie.
"Because she's the captain, Robinson, you right gormless git." Draco shot back.
The boy looked very taken aback by being addressed this rudely, and although Katie told Draco to stand down, she couldn't help but feel mildly amused by the expression of horrified shock on the boy's face.
The people who hadn't been picked to play on the team slumped off the pitch gloomily, and Katie turned to her six new players, all of whom were grinning broadly. It definitely helped that Katie was friendly with most of these players — Draco was (recently) one of her closest friends, she had been playing Quidditch with Graham since first year, although she didn't particularly like Crabbe and Goyle, she knew them well enough to be comfortable carrying a conversation with them, and despite the fact that she didn't know much about Warrington, they had at least spoken before and were friendly with each other.
"Great, so here's our team," Katie said grinning broadly. "I was thinking we could have our first training session on Wednesday at five o'clock," There was a hum of agreement amidst the team. "Excellent. Now, help me carry these brooms to the shed, will you?"
Once the school broomsticks had been returned to the shed, the team returned to the castle. Katie told Draco to go ahead and she would follow him in a few minutes. She locked up the broom shed, and when she turned around, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Chris and Niall were all standing behind her, grinning.
"That went on for hours," Ron spoke first. "I thought it was never going to end.
"I loved the way you handled Malfoy that time!" Niall said proudly.
"You were brilliant, Katie," Hermione beamed. "You'll make a great captain."
Harry crossed his arms. "Eh, you were all right, I suppose." he shrugged nonchalantly.
"At least I made captain, Potter." Katie quipped.
There was a ringing of laughter that followed the group of friends all the way back up to the castle.