A few days later, it was announced on the bulletin board that Hufflepuff would have classes with Ravenclaw for flying in a few days. Nic was rather excited, for she had often heard Cedric, who was a seeker for the team, talking loudly about wanting to beat Slytherin at last in Quidditch. She had even thought about potentially joining the team in a few years time. Once they got to their lesson, it went as smoothly as it could have.
Nic was one of the first to get her broom in her hand and when they had all mounted and taken off, Nic found herself feeling more at home than she could have ever imagined. The wind ran through her hair and she seemed to become one with the broomstick as she swiveled and dove around the field. "Oi! Potter!" a loud voice called. She instantly landed as if she'd been doing so for years. The girl who had called her was a Hufflepuff she recognized from the common room.
"Nala, right?" Nic asked.
"Yeah," she replied with a small smile. "So listen, I'm the Quidditch captain for Hufflepuff and I think you've got some potential. What do you say to maybe coming a trying out in a few days? Tryouts are on Friday."
"I don't know how to play," Nic admitted. "I'd like too, but..."
"You're friends with Cedric, right?" Nala interrupted. At Nic's nod, she finished, "I'll talk to him. He can take you out to the field and teach you tomorrow. He's a seeker. I'm one of the chasers, and based on what I just saw there, I think you'd make a fine chaser."
"Okay," Nic agreed. "I'll try out, but, uh, I thought first years couldn't have brooms?"
"I'll talk to Professor Sprout," she replied. "Worst comes to worse you use my spare one." The next day, Cedric met with Nicki out on the field and began to teach her the game. Afterwards, they took some brooms and played around some. As it turned out Nala seemed to be right. Cedric was acting as Keeper to try and block her shots. Despite being rather good at it, Nicki got in almost every shoot.
A few days later at tryouts, most of the team members were reestablished. Cedric was instantly given his spot back and the same beaters and keeper from last year. The only difference was the chasers, which were last. "All right, folks," Nala called, stepping to stand before the group of wannabe chasers. "So as you all know there are three chasers. I am one of them. We are now going to determine who gets the other two spots. I want you all to get up there and split into teams. The two that display the most skill get the spots." The keeper got into place and a quaffle was thrown up.
The match began. Nicki managed to get the ball before the other four people and was streaking towards the goals to make her shot when she was rammed by another player. After every ten minutes or so, Nala would take a player off the field and soon it was only Nicki and the other girl who had rammed into her. They both played completely fair, but managed to get the ball from one another in such sneaky ways the other one often had no idea it was gone until the other one scored. Finally they had both scored a totally of a thousand points and Nala called them down.
Only the rest of the team was left and all of them looked very happy. "Well boys and girls," Nala said, smirking slightly. "Slytherin doesn't know what's about to hit them with these two. Practice starts tomorrow at exactly five p.m."