Avacyn Lily Potter

Trolls

A week later As the owls flooded into the Great Hall, as usual, everyone's attention was caught at once by two long, thin packages carried by six large screech owls. Harry and I were just as interested as everyone else to see what was in these large parcels and were amazed when the owls soared down and dropped it right in front of us, They had hardly fluttered out of the way when another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcels. Harry ripped open the letter first, which was lucky because it said: DO NOT OPEN THE PARCELS AT THE TABLE. It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everybody to know you've both got a broomstick or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you both tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your first training session. I took the package with my name and went to hide it under my bed.  

After classes and dinner, the twins came with me up to my room so I could open it. I unwrapped it and the boys gasped George said "Thats a nimbus two thousand!" it was Sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs, and Nimbus Two Thousand written in gold near the top. I nodded "Wood said since McGonagall told him I'm the fastest person she's ever seen I needed to have this broom, Harry also has one. It's pretty." Fred said, "Oh I talked to Wood and I'll be coming with just to watch." I said "Ok." at seven Harry, Fred, and I left the castle and set off in the dusk toward the Quidditch field. We'd never been inside the stadium before. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the field so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the field were three golden poles with hoops on the end. Too eager to fly again to wait for Wood, Harry mounted his broomstick and said "Come on Ava." Fred and I mounted our brooms and kicked off from the ground. What a feeling it was to speed across the field. I swooped in and out of the goalposts and then sped up and down the field. The Nimbus Two Thousand turned wherever I wanted at my lightest touch. I squealed as Fred chased me I glanced at Harry who nodded once, Harry flew over Fred taking his attention as I flipped upside down and flew under him, he noticed I was gone and looked around. I giggled as he found me and chased me through the gold rings, Harry said "Ava! Dive." I dived right as Fred tried to grab me. I landed on the ground as we were all laughing, Wood came up carrying a large wooden crate and he said "Hey, Potter, come down!"

Once Harry and Fred were on the ground Wood said "Very nice, I see what McGonagall meant... you really are a natural. And Ava, I don't think anyone will be able to catch you. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week." He opened the crate. Inside were four different-sized balls. "Right, Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers, Ava that would be you." Wood took out a bright red ball about the size of a soccer ball and tossed it to me. "This ball's called the Quaffle, The Chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops. Follow me?" I said "The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score," Harry said, "So... that's sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, isn't it?" Wood said, "What's basketball?" Harry said "Never mind," Wood said "Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper. I'm Keeper for Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring."

Harry said "Three Chasers, one Keeper, And they play with the Quaffle. Okay, got that. So what are they for?" He pointed at the three balls left inside the box. Wood said "I'll show you now, Take this." he handed Harry and I each a small club "I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do, These two are the Bludgers." He showed us two identical balls, jet black and slightly smaller than the red Quaffle. Wood said "Stand back," He bent down and freed one of the Bludgers. At once, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Harry's face. Harry swung at it with the bat to stop it from breaking his nose and sent it zigzagging toward me so I also swatted it away. It zoomed around their heads and then shot at Fred, who dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground. Wood said "See?" while Fred forced the struggling Bludger back into the crate and strapped it down safely. Wood continued "The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team... the Weasley twins are ours... it's their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So... think you've got all that?"