Like A Flower Blooming

Chapter 11

Ron’s eyes popped as I told him at lunch. 

“ Seeker! You’d have to be the youngest player in, like....” he stammered.

“ A hundred years. Wood told me. Professor McGonagall said that she’d take care of getting a broom for me and persuading Dumbledore. I’m really excited... but nervous. Wood’s going to teach me the rules tomorrow, see how my flying is and then introduce me to the team,” I said, biting into a sausage.

Hermione handed me a book called Quidditch through the Ages.

“ I got this for you out of the library. I thought you’d like a little background info about Quidditch,” she said, blushing. I hugged her and said thank you a million times. No one had ever done that for me.

She went as red as Ron’s hair. My classes were getting pretty interesting. There was so much to learn that even Ron and other people, who had known from a young age that they were magical, didn’t have a head start.

I was working on my breakfast when the morning mail came in. The package that caught everyone’s attention was a big, thin one with five owls carrying it. I watched as they dropped it onto my lap. I barely caught it in time and another owl dropped a letter on my plate.

I ripped the letter open and was thankful that I did because it said:

DO NOT OPEN PACKAGE AT TABLE!

This contains your new Nimbus 2000 and I don’t want everyone coming up to me and wanting one as well. Your practice with Wood is at 10am. Practice is at 4pm. DON”T BE LATE!!!

-Professor McGonagall

I passed the letter to Ron, unable to hide my glee. Ron’s eyes popped and we rushed out of the Great Hall, our breakfasts forgotten. Malfoy grabbed the package as I ran up the stairs.

“ That’s a broom, Potter! You’ll get in trouble this time,” he sneered.

Ron couldn’t resist. “ It’s not ANY broomstick. It’s a NIMBUS 2000. What do you have at home? A Comet Sixty? The Comets are flashy but nowhere in the same league as the Nimbus.” Malfoy sputtered as Professor Flitwick came out of the Great Hall.

“ Is everything alright here?” asked Flitwick.

“ Potter got sent a broomstick, Professor,” said Malfoy quickly.

“ Right, Professor McGonagall told me about the special circumstances. What kind is it, Potter?” asked Flitwick.

“ A Nimbus 2000. And it’s thanks to Malfoy that I got it,” I told him. Trying not to laugh at Malfoy’s face, me and Ron walked upstairs to a brighter future. 

Since it was Saturday, I cleaned up my stuff, worked on homework and hid the broom in my empty trunk. It was a spectacular broom. Ron had gasped as I had rolled it out on his bed. I’d heard voices and ran into my room, wrapped it up in a blanket and hid it in my trunk. 

I opened my textbooks and started working on homework. At 12pm, I took out the broom and walked downstairs to the Quidditch fields. Wood was nowhere to be seen when I got there but I was too anxious to fly again so I mounted my broom and kicked off. 

The Nimbus turned with my lightest touch and I felt like an unstoppable force of nature.

“ Hey! Potter!” I heard a voice yell. I looked down and saw Wood waving his arms at me. A big box was lying next to him on the ground. 

I flew down and jumped off the broom and smiled nervously at him.

“ McGonagall was right, Potter. You are a natural!” he said, admirably.

“ Ari please. What are we doing today?” I asked excitedly.

“ I’m going to teach you the rules of Quidditch and then we’ll start with regular practices,” said Wood. 

“ Okay. So what’s in the box?” I asked. It looked like a regular box but I’d learned by now, things that looked normal could be dangerous. I’d nearly gotten a heart attack when I’d walked into the bathroom and had gotten told off by the mirror for my messy, scorched hair( Seamus Finnigan had sat next to me in class and since his wand had kept on making everything explode, I’d learned my lesson) . 

“ You might want to stand back,” he told me. I kept standing where I was and he sighed, mumbling,” It’s your life.”

He lifted off the lid and I saw three balls: a big red one, and two black ones that looked like they were moving against the bonds that tied them into the box. I gulped and took the largest step back I could. He picked up the big, red ball that wasn’t tied into the box. 

He passed it to me and said,” This is the Quaffle. You see those three hoops on each side of the ring. The Chasers pass the Quaffle back and forth and try to score through the hoops. A Keeper, that’s me FYI, guards the hoops. Got it?” 

“ Yea, Chasers, Keeper, Quaffle. Score through hoops... like in basketball,” I answered, tossing it back.

“ What’s basketball?” asked Wood, confused. 

“ Never mind,” I said, quickly. He shook his head like trying to shake off an annoying fly and continued with the balls. 

“ Those are the Bludgers. Here. You’ll need this,” he said, pointing at the black, moving balls.

He rummaged around the box and came up with a short wooden bat. I took it and raised an eyebrow at him.

“ Trust me, sweetheart,” he said and released the Bludger. 

The Bludger rocketed twenty feet in the air and then down towards my face. I swung my arm and hit the Bludger like I was playing baseball. 

The Bludger rocketed away from me and then back. Wood jumped up and caught it and wrestled it back into the box. 

“ Woah...” was all I could say.

“ The Beaters protect the players from getting hit from the Bludgers and hit them at the opposite team. Ours are Fred and George Weasley and they’re a pair of human Bludgers. More than a match for the Bludgers,” he explained.

“ If I don’t get hit from one of those nasties, I’ll be really lucky,” I answered. 

“ You’re the Seeker. You have the hardest job of all,” he said, opening a tiny secret compartment and taking out the tiny gold ball. 

“ This is the Golden Snitch. This is what I want you to focus on. When the Seeker catches it, they earn a hundred and fifty points and the game ends. Some Quidditch matches can be really long. I think the record is three months. They had to keep bringing on substitutes. Well, anyway, YOU have to weave through both teams’ Catchers, Beaters, the Quaffle, the Bludgers and the other team’s Seeker to catch this tiny little ball,” said Wood.

“ It doesn’t look fast,” I answered, picking up the light little ball.

“ Yea, right. It’s wicked fast and near impossible to see,” frowned Wood. The Snitch sprouted wings and flew out of my palm. I kept an eye on it and then caught it easily.

“ It’s not too bad,” I answered, handing him the ball back.

“ Well, since it’s getting dark, we’ll practice with golf balls. Mount your broom,” he answered, putting the Snitch in its cubby. 

At the end of the practice, I hadn’t missed one golf ball. Wood was excited as we walked up to the castle. 

“ You’re a natural. We’ll have the name on the Quidditch Cup this year! Definitely!” he said, jumping up and down in excitement.