Lincoln's School of Magic - Lost Treasure

Quidditch

I am so nervous to try out for junior quidditch this year. Our school has two quidditch teams, junior and senior. Junior is for first to fourth years, and senior is for fifth to seventh years.

    The main purpose of the junior team is to prepare you for the senior team. In junior quidditch, we only play friendly games with other schools in the U.K. In senior quidditch, you get to play competitively against teams all around the world.

    All the schools divide up their students in any way they want. Some schools have a boys' team and a girls' team, others have an advanced team and a mediocre team, which can lead to highly unfair matches, but that's what makes it interesting.

    I am sitting on the dark wood bench that wraps around the girls' change room, getting ready for tryouts. There are lots of girls in here, much larger and stronger than me. As I'm tying my laces, a girl sits next to me.

    "Are you sure about this?" A familiar voice asks.

    I look to my side to see Lucia looking at me with concern in her eyes.

    "Yeah," I answer while looking back at my laces. Once I finish tying them, I continue, "what are you doing here?"

    "Just came to wish you luck. These girls play rough."

    "I know," I give her a reassuring smile. "I've seen every quidditch match last year, I know how they play."

    "Just making sure," she says. "I don't want you to get hurt."

    "Thank you."

    She pulls me into a hug to wish me luck. Even if I don't make the team, I'll be happy to at least make it through tryouts without losing a limb.

    Once we pull out of the hug, I notice that a lot of girls are beginning to make their way to the pitch. Lucia and I stand before finding an opening in the crowd of athletes. I follow them onto the pitch, but Lucia splits from the group to go onto the stands where Anna and Daniel are sitting.

    There are about ten girls and twenty boys trying out, and a lot of them look like they're way more experienced than me, even the few first years. I look up at the stands to my left and see Anna, Daniel and Lucia looking down at David and me on the pitch.

    The quidditch captain begins clearing his throat, which causes the crowd to fall silent and look at him.

    "I am pleased to see how many of you are interested this year," he begins. "I am seeing a lot of new faces."

    His brown eyes meet with my green eyes. Bloody hell. We break contact and he continues his speech.

    "I am Omell Grayve. But you all knew that already."

    I large smirk grows across his face. I can tell that he is very arrogant.

    "I am honoured to be your quidditch captain, but that does mean that I have to make the hard decision of cutting some of you from the team."

    He casually tosses his broom from his right hand to his left while speaking.

    "Just so you know, if you were on the team last year, that does not guarantee you a spot this year."

    Can we just get on with it already?

    "I am the junior seeker. I am looking for a keeper, two beaters and three chasers, along with a spare athlete for every position, in case of... you know. Injuries."

    He says that last bit with almost a bit of sorrow in his tone. He has probably seen some brutal injuries in his previous three years of quidditch.

    "On your brooms," he says while mounting his. "Let's play!"

    I mount my broom and start flying slowly around the pitch. This is very disorganized. There are five keepers on one side, and three on the other. The quaffle and bludgers are being tossed all over by many players, and the six seekers are high above everyone else, chasing the golden snitch. I am here for chaser, so perhaps I should begin chasing the quaffle.

    After what feels like an eternity of flying around aimlessly trying to score, Grayve has managed to narrow down the team to the best ten players. He gathers us all down to the grassy bottom of the pitch, which is when I realize, I have made the team.

    I look up in the nearly empty stands to see Anna, Daniel and Lucia cheering us on. I look around at my new team to find that David also made the team. We pull in for a hug to congratulate each other. I am surprised I made the team. I haven't played much quidditch before, and I only scored once.

    "Congratulations to the new 1999-2000 school year quidditch team!" Grayve announces.

    The group begins cheering and clapping. Omell then goes around the group and tells everyone what their position will be. I am of course a chaser, and David is the primary keeper.

    "I just need you all to write your names down next to your position," he pulls out a piece of parchment from his pocket and holds it up. "I don't have a very good memory," he jokes.

    We all follow our captain to a wooden beam holding up one of the stands, where he hangs up the parchment for all of us to write on. He then takes a blue quill and a small bottle of ink from his pocket and hands them to the first person in line.

    After waiting behind my whole team, I come up to the list of teammates and briefly read it to know whom I'm playing with.

Seeker: Omell Grayve

Secondary Seeker: Quinton Lowe

Keeper: David King

Secondary Keeper: Chelsea Portland

Beaters: William Bolt, Jack Bonson

Secondary Beater: Lana Daley

Chasers: Rowan Virtue, Christopher Black, Audrey Mitchell

Secondary Chaser: Reid Adams

    I hardly know anyone on the list, but it leaves me a great opportunity to gain friendships.

    I turn around to see that the whole group has left, except David and Omell. Omell looks over my shoulder to the sheet and smiles once he sees my name.

    "Audrey Mitchell?" He asks.

    I nod my head.

    "Welcome to the team, chaser."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Published January 13th, 2022