Crescent Moons ; J.S. Potter

58. mad for quidditch.

At six o'clock on a Saturday morning, the only people who didn't want to smack the hell out of Daisy Wood on the Quidditch pitch were Daisy Wood and James Potter.

Daisy was used to this. Being the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, she had taken it upon herself to always be overprepared, which meant dragging the rest of her team out of bed to practice at dawn. To be fair, the finals against Slytherin were in two, short weeks.

It would be her last game at Hogwarts and she had to make it count. Who cares if everyone was glaring daggers at her? She stared straight back at them with a wide smile.

"Alright, knock it off, you guys," she said. Marlee groaned. Thomas looked like he was about the fall asleep. Lily yawned. Rose continued glaring. Alice sighed loudly. James blew her a kiss. "You, too, James. I love you, but I would also love the Quidditch Cup."

"That's nice to hear from your girlfriend."

"James, can you talk quieter?" begged Lily. "I'm so tired."

"You're tired?" asked Thomas incredulously. "You're a third year! I've got N.E.W.Ts in a month!"

"Yeah, and I've got the O.W.Ls!" yelled Rose.

The team burst into chaos, as Chasers, Beaters, and the Keeper talked over one another about who had it harder. Daisy couldn't have this—especially not now.

"SHUT IT!" she shouted.

Silence. Utter silence. Daisy didn't yell much, if at all, but this was serious. She needed the team that eagerly came to practice, not the one that complained.

"You will all zip your lips until I finish explaining the procedure," she said, in a dangerously calm tone, "and you will not complain until I am done. If you do, that's five laps around the pitch. Got it?"

Marlee nodded stiffly. Thomas' eyes had widened. Lily was shaking. Rose and Alice were gripping each others' hands for dear life. James winked at her.

"Got it!" he said cheerfully. Daisy felt the corner of her mouth lift up, but she suppressed it.

"As you all know," she began, "we're going to be practicing until eleven o'clock, which is five hours away. Some may think I'm 'crazy' or 'too intense' or 'downright psychotic,' but if we don't practice as hard as the Slytherins, we will lose to them and if we lose, I will burn the Slytherin common room to the ground, and if I do, I'll go to Azkaban, which I don't think is a great way to start adulthood.

"So today I was thinking we could go over some plays," she continued, "and run some drills where I pretend to be Slytherin and see how you handle the pressure."

Her entire team still seemed to be worried, but she didn't really feel like assuring them that she would calm down, because she knew she wouldn't.

"Um, Daisy?" squeaked Alice. Daisy nodded at her. "I think there are Slytherins spying on our practices like we did. Rose and I saw them."

"Seems like they took a page out of your book," said Thomas. Daisy let out a hollow laugh.

"I set a spell on their binoculars to block our practice from their view," she smiled. The rest of her team looked a mix of horrified, impressed, and concerned. "We can't have Slytherin knowing our plays. Speaking of our plays, do you guys all remember our five main plays?"

"Yes," said the entire team simultaneously. Daisy smiled.

"Good," she said. "We have to be full energy the entire practice, and that includes warm-ups. So, everyone, we're doing five laps around the pitch today."