Splatters of Red and Gold

Qudditch Tryouts

Aravyn sat in the desk of the Defense against the dark arts class, listening carefully to what the teacher said about defensive magic.
Sirius scribbled furiously on a piece of parchment for a moment before folding in, carefully into squares and flicking it to Aravyn.
She unfolded it and read: you ever had to use defensive magic?
She dipped her quill and scribbled back: rather not talk about it, before turning back to the teacher.
"And for your homework, I want one foot of parchment on when to use defensive spells, with examples of each!" The teacher said. "You are dismissed," the whole class stood and grabbed their bags, walking towards the door.
Sirius caught up with Aravyn.
"Why don't you want to talk about using defensive spells?" He asked. James and moony and Peter had joined behind them.
"You wanna see a defensive spell?" She asked twirling her wand in her fingers.
Sirius put his hands up in surrender and the other boys laughed. "Shove off!" He joked, elbowing James.
Aravyn, Remus, and Sirius all had potions together, with the Slytherins.
Aravyn stood outside of the potions room waiting for Slughorn to let them into the dungeon.
A greasy, black haired kid with a big nose glared at Sirius and then Sirius, then looked longingly at Lily Evans.
"Who is that Lily?" Aravyn asked standing next to her.
"Who, him?" Her eyes wondered over to the direction Aravyn had pointed. Her eyes suddenly hardened. "That is Severus Snape, a Slytherin and he despises muggle borns," she said with a disapproving sniff. Aravyn nodded and walked back to Sirius.
"Come on come in!" Slughorn said opening the door and beaconing the children in. Aravyn pushed her way in, looking over her shoulder to see Sirius trip Snape, before taking his seat next to her.
Slughorn looked around at all of the witches and wizards, his eyes landing on Aravyn.
"And who might you be?" He asked looking at her quizzically.
"Aravyn Andonovski, gryffindor," she replied thickly.
"Alright, Aravyn, how proficient do you consider your potion making skills?" He asked.
"It's none of my business to say how good or bad I am, that is for you to decide!" Aravyn shrugged, getting her books from her bag.
Slughorn's mouth curled into a smile. "I guess it is isn't it?" He walked up to the chalkboard. Flicking his wand instructions sprawled themselves into steps.
A list of ingredients were above the instructions. Aravyn grabbed all of her ingredients and carefully following the instructions.
Wit Sharpening Potion:
• add 500 mL of water to your cauldron, bring water to a boil.
• add 2 coarsely ground scarab Beatles to boiling water and stir five times, clockwise.
• allow draught to simmer for 5 minutes.
• add ginger and, without stirring, allow simmer for 2 more minutes.
• allow solution to cool, stirring 7 times every 3 minutes, switching clockwise and counterclockwise.
• when heat is no longer felt from above cauldron add 9 drops Armadillo bile.
• allow potion to sit for 3 minutes. (realize potion will smell quite foul)
Aravyn pushed her braid back from her face, wrinkling her nose at the smell coming from her cauldron and some of those around her, like Lily and Snape.
She looked over at Sirius' potion which was now bright orange.
"Oh my, you really are hopeless aren't you?" Aravyn laughed, pushing him out of the way and looking at the cauldron. "Padfoot, go get me two porcupine quills please!" She asked. He returned and handed them to her. She cut them in half and added them one at a time, stirring four times clockwise between each one.
It returned to it's normal purplish/brown color.
"Better?" She asked him. He just nodded dumbfounded. She rolled her eyes and jokingly tapped him in the cheek.
"That was impressive!" Slughorn said from behind her. "Your potion is phenomenal, too! How would you like to join me this afternoon for a dinner with a few other choice students?" He asked eagerly.
"I would love to, but Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts are tonight and I'm afraid I won't make it," she she with a hint of apology.
He looked disappointed but said, " I guess I will have to get you next time then!" With a cheeky smile he walked away. Lily gave her an encouraging smile and Remus winked at her.
Bellatrix growled from her pot, accidentally stirring it to many times, causing her cauldron to release a thick smoke into her face.
Slughorn released them with two feet of parchment on potion corrections for homework.
Aravyn's day was uneventful, she had last class off and decided to get ready for Quidditch. She pulled on the long Gryffindor robes and grabbed her broom.
She met with Sirius and James at the pitch and smiled, greeting them.
"I hear Evans'll be there!" Sirius winked at James, who immediately tried to tame his wild hair. Aravyn laughed.
"So you fancy her, do ya?" Aravyn asked smiling. James went red. "And anyway I thought she had that thing with Slughorn, the dinner!"
"They cancelled it tonight," Sirius told her.
"You'll do fine!" Aravyn said patting hid shoulder before walking into the locker room.
Inside there were around thirty kids. Four of them held beater bats. She rolled her eyes. Having a genius brother bewitch flying coconuts to fly at my head while I was flying got me pretty into shape as a beater.
"Alright! Today I'm gonna be observing you, the way you play, the way you react to pressure, your skill in a game, all the fun stuff!" Matt Bell said.
Aravyn hovered above the ground and then took off a little higher, doing a lap around the hoops before gathering around Matt.
"Just start with some passes! Get a group of three or four and challenge each other! " he called.
Aravyn flew to the corner of the pitch and passed a quaffle to each other. Aravyn winged it at James who easily caught it, being a chaser, and sent it whizzing towards Sirius.
"Good work you three!" Matt yelled to them. After about ten minutes of warmup, Matt split up all of the positions. The keepers flew to the hoops, the beaters were in the middle, the chasers were sent to shoot on the keepers.
Sirius, being a long time beater for the team ran the beater's training. Rain began to patter down onto Aravyn's head.
"Alright beaters! I'm gonna release some bludgers, if you get knocked off of your broom, you are gonna have a hard time on the team!" Sirius snapped sarcastically. Sirius released the bludgers and a third year boy went white, a bludger flying right at him. Aravyn leaned as far forward as she could and zoomed in front of him, swiping her bat at the bludger, sending it in the opposite direction.
"Nice save Aravyn!" Matt shouted. A cheer erupted from the stands and Aravyn blushed. She had just realized the turnout! Half of Gryffindor was in the stands! The rest of the tryout went very smoothly and when they finally scrimmaged Sirius and Aravyn stayed in the whole game as beaters for one team. The other team couldn't keep up! When the practice ended the rain was still thundering down.
Everyone rushed to the locker room, where a few other Gryffindor spectators were standing with warm towels.
A tall thin Gryffindor boy, with high cheekbones and dirty blonde hair wrapped a towel around Aravyn's shoulders. He wore a Gryffindor quiddich uniform. 
Sirius glared at him and James put a hand on his shoulder.
"Wow!" She said walking over to the boys. "That was fun! You did great tonight Sirius!" She said hugging him. "Ugh! Your soaked!" She laughed wrapping her towel around his shoulders.
Matt came in, his black hair, plastered to his forehead. "Alright, good work everyone, the roster will be out by Friday and then we will have two weeks of training before our first game against Hufflepuff!" He said clapping. Everyone joined and Aravyn smiled.
James, Sirius, and Aravyn walked through the rain up to the castle, their arms around each other.