meant to be (1)

18

As seven o'clock drew near, Harry and I left the castle and set off towards the Quidditch pitch in the dusk.

"Got a problem, Jules?" Harry asked as he looked at me walking next to him. Obviously I was kind of nervous for our first training session, but i didn't want to show it.

"No, Potter. I think I'm going to be amazing." I answered him.

"Woah, you meant to say that I am going to be amazing, weren't you?"

"Well, I bet I'm going to be way better than you." I said, teasing him. 

"We'll see" he said amused as we reached the quidditch pitch.

Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the pitch so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the pitch were three golden poles with hoops on the end.

We both were too eager to fly again to wait for Wood. We both mounted our broomsticks and kicked off from the ground. Flying felt great. I decided that this was my favourite part of being in Hogwarts so far.

"Race to the other end of the pitch, Potter!" I yelled over to Harry. He smirked and then we both flew in the same direction. The Nimbus Two Thousand turned wherever I wanted with lightest touch.

"Hey, you two, come down!" Oliver Wood had arrived and was carrying a large wooden crate under his arm. Harry and I landed next to him.

"Very nice" said Wood, his eyes glinting. "I see what McGonagall meant... you really are naturals. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a weeek."

He opened the crate and inside were four different-sized balls. "Right" said Wood. "Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each team. Three of them are called Chasers, on of them being you, Julie."

"Three chasers" Harry repeated, as Wood took out a bright red ball about the size of a football.

"This ball is called the Quaffle" said Wood. "The chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score goals. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes trough one of the hoops. Follow me?"

"The Chases throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score" I recited. "So that's sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops isn't it?

"What's basketball?" said Wood curiously

"Never mind" I quickly 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."

"Three chasers, one keeper" Harry said.

"What are these balls for?" I asked as I pointed on two balls who looked identical.

"I'll show you now." said Wood. "Take this."

He handed us both one small club, a bit like a rounders bat.

.The bludgers were jet black and slightly smaller than the red Quaffle. I noticed that they seemed to be straining to escape the straps holding them inside the box.

"Stand back" Wood warned us. He bent down and freed one of the Bludgers.

At once, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Harrys face. Harry swung at it with the bat and sent it zigzagging away into the air - it zoomed around our heads and then flew at Wood, who dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground.

"See?" Wood panted, forcing the struggling Bludger back into tge crate and strapping it down safely. "The Bludgers rockst around trying ti 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 towards the other team. So- think you've got that all?"

"Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle, the Keeper guards the goalposts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team" I reeled off.

"Very good" said Wood.

"Have the bludgers ever killed anyone?" Harry asked.

"Never at Hogwarts. We've had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that. Now, the last player is the Seeker. That's you, Harry. And you don't have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers."

"-unless they crack my head open."

"Don't worry the Weasleys are more than a match for the bludgers - I mean they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves."

Wood reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball. It was a tiny bright gold ball with little fluttering silver wings.

"This" said Wood. "is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot. It's very hard to catch because it's so fast and difficult to see. It's the seekers job to catch it. Whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred fifty points, so they nearly always win. A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught. Well that's it any questions?"

"Yes" I said while Harry shock his head "When are we going to start practicing?"

"Now" Wood said as he mounted his broomstick and gestured for us to do the same.

We flew high and basically just threw the Quaffle around, none of us dropping it once. After half an hour, night had fallen and we couldn't carry on.

"The Quidditch Cup will have our name on it this year." Wood said happily as we trudged back up to the castle.