The Family that Chooses You

Chapter 114: The Rising Tide

"This is favoritism!" McClaggen angrily shouted.

Harry rolled his eyes.  "How is it favoritism?  Please tell me."

"Ron's your friend and in your year!  Of course you'd pick him over anyone else."

"Ron saved five goals out of five!  You saved three out of five!  Two of the other try-outs saved four out of five.  By sheer simple math, you'd still be out even despite any sort of imagined favoritism."

"Well what about his sister?!"

"What about her?  She scored well as a Chaser, second best after Katie.  Now you're just trying to paint me as some kind of arse when I'm doing everything by the book.  You lost McClaggen, deal with it."  He held up a warning finger.  "And if you even try to insinuate that I am showing Katie any kind of favoritism, I'll let you try out again only with no pads and letting her take all the shots she wants!"

Harry resisted the urge to draw his wand and do something unprofessional with it.  Try-outs for the Quidditch team were as stressful and hard as he thought they would be.  He held it the first full weekend during the term and there had been a deluge of people trying out.  In all his years, there were never that many people interested in playing for the House team until this year.

It had taken him a long time to weed out the people who could fly from the people that pretended they could.  He even had to throw out people from different Houses.  He started with the Chasers and Katie had been glad that he still had her try-out, though he knew no one would be close to performing better than her.  He then relied on her to help figure out the other two for the position as well as some reserves.  Ginny was an easy second.  Demelza Robins, a year mate of Ginny's, had flown very well and became the third starter.

Much to Harry's relief, Ron had easily taken the win as the best try out for Keeper.  He had grown less anxious at playing and had done the best.  Which led to this current shouting match with an irate McClaggen.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever heard Harry this irritated before," Ron said with a grin.

"Seriously.  It makes you wonder with all the shite he's gone through, somehow McClagarse is the one that pisses him off enough to shout," Ginny giggled.

"Almost makes you hope he tries to provoke Harry so he'd do something," Ron laughed.

"No, it doesn't," Katie said sharply.  "You know what happens when people provoke Harry."

Ron blanched.  "Right, sorry, forgot."

Katie huffed and looked away.  She felt a prickle of shame for snapping at Ron.  It was not his fault, her current mood that is.  She was very irritated and it was starting to show.  She felt even more ashamed that her outburst had been caught by Harry.  He looked over in mid-tirade, looking worried.  Katie plastered a smile on and waved him away.

"I'm sorry," she said shortly to a relieved Ron.  "Been on edge."

"Nah, it's fine," Ron said.  "You're not wrong.  That stuff isn't always funny."

McClaggen saw the irritated Katie and thought it was directed at him, finally conceding defeat and he ran away from the pitch.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Harry continued tryouts.  After several spirited demonstrations from the hopeful Beaters, Jimmy Peakes and Mirabelle were selected.  They were not at the level of the twins of course, but they played well.  Harry had been very surprised to see Mirabelle try out but she had played incredibly well, hitting the Bludger very accurately.  Harry finally decided on his starter roster and said he would determine the final reservists later, sending most of the people on the pitch away.