An American At Hogwarts: Book Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

A/N: I just wanted you guys to know that I wrote a lot of this chapter during an absurd lecture/discussion class. It's not really relevant, but I wanted to share lol

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The twins and I had incredible success for the rest of the week with our blackboard messages. After the first day, Darcy had apparently convinced Umbridge that she was telling the truth, because Umbridge was on much higher alert during class. Fortunately, with the training from my family combined with a little help from Ana, we managed to sneak messages past her in every period.

I could tell she was getting more and more frustrated already. We had to be careful not to ramp up too much, lest we bring her to some breaking point that rained consequences down on everyone, but for now seeing her just slightly losing her mind was absolutely perfect.

The weekend after the fateful Quidditch banning, Angelina had already scheduled emergency Gryffindor tryouts for a new Beater and a new Seeker. They were set to be held all day Saturday, and everyone still on the team would be there early and leave late. I tried to keep my spirits up, which wasn't too hard with the twins helping me find something to look forward to:

Operation Stubby Boardman.

"Alright, so after tryouts we'll head to the same passageway as last time, right?" I said, whispering to the twins in the corner of the Common Room. They both nodded. "Great. Then break."

The three of us clapped in unison, then went our separate ways. I headed for Angelina, who had already gathered Alicia and Katie. As soon as she saw me getting close, she nodded and motioned for us to follow her out to the Pitch. I tried to psych myself up as I caught up to them. I'd made a coffee in my dorm before ever coming downstairs, and right now, it was the only thing keeping me going.

"Alright, it's up to us to sort out the best backup players we can find from Gryffindor house," said Angelina as I finally caught up to her. She was clearly in full Quidditch-captain mode. "Ron's meeting us down at the pitch where we'll have a meeting about the kinds of things we're looking for, and how to best put the new people through their paces."

"Is that why we're up at this ungodly hour?" whined Alicia. "Just so we can talk for hours before tryouts start?"

"Yes!" cried Angelina. "We need to be prepared if we want any chance at finding anyone half decent at this point in the season!"

Katie and I shared a side-eye look, but neither of us said anything.

We made it out to the pitch in the early morning light. The grounds were peacefully silent, since the rest of the castle was still waking up. A light layer of mist coated the ground, and I took a deep breath of the damp morning air. It woke up my whole body, and I smiled.

I conjured a sling portal to drop my coffee cup back at my dorm as the four of us made our way to the center of the pitch. Angelina put her hands on her hips, surveying our surroundings as the rest of us looked on.

"Alright, it's not perfect weather, but that might actually work in our favor," she finally decided, turning back to us to report out. "This way, we can get some idea of who's tough enough to deal with some of the rougher aspects of Quidditch instead of a perfect, sunny day."

Katie, Alicia, and I nodded. Angelina seemed to mostly be talking to herself, but I wanted to support her in any way I could.

Angelina kept talking about the different field conditions, possible ways to run tryouts, and anything else she could think of while we looked on. After a few minutes, Ron made it down to join us, and he fell into line next to me. It took Angelina a while to notice him, but as soon as she did, she jumped into action all over again.