Chasing Love

Chapter Seventy-Three - Captain

As soon as Eliza woke up, she knew what she had to do. Now that she was the Captain of Gryffindor she had to do everything herself, she hadn't realised how much stress it was. Her plan was to find all of the team and tell them again about try-outs.

Making her way down to the hall, she caught sight of Harry, Ron and Hermione, so she marched over to them. "Hi, Eliza."

"Hello," She replied, "Good Summer?"

Harry stared at her confusedly, "You were with us -"

Cutting him off, Eliza told him, "Listen, I've been made Gryffindor Quidditch Captain."

"Nice one." Harry grinned at her.

"Yeah, well, we need a new Keeper now Oliver's left. Tryouts are on Friday at five o'clock and I want the whole team there, all right? Then we can see how the new person'll fit in."

"Okay." Harry smiled at her before she turned and walked away over to the girls.

Angelina grinned at her, "Weren't being too forceful, were you?"

"No, of course not. I just told him to go to try-outs on Friday."

Alicia stared at her, "Why? We don't have to try-out again, do we?"

"No, no. I just want to see how the new keeper will fit in with the rest of the team."

The girls visibly calmed down, "Good! I'm not losing my spot in my last year!" Angelina told her.

"ELIZA! WAIT FOR US!" The twins shouted loudly as they ran down the stairs towards her, "Excuse me, sorry, sorry." They pushed past a couple of people and stopped right next to her. "Morning, how are you?"

Rolling her eyes, she replied, "Come on, let's go and have breakfast." The three walked into the hall, "Why are you two so excited?"

"We've had a lot of takers!" Fred told her, "It's going to be so much fun."

They walked past Ron, Harry and Hermione where they overheard Ron say, "I wish Fred and George'd hurry up and get those Skiving Snackboxes sorted."

"Do my ears deceive me?" Fred said as he squeezed onto the bench beside Harry. Eliza and George sat down beside him. "Hogwarts prefects surely don't wish to skive off lessons?"

"Look what we've got today?" Ron said grumpily as he slid his timetable over to them, "That's the worst Monday I've ever seen."

"Fair point, little bro," Fred replied, "You can have a bit of Nosebleed Nougat cheap if you like."

"Why's it cheap?" Ron asked him suspiciously.

"Because you'll keep bleeding till you shrivel up, we haven't got an antidote yet." George told him.

"Cheers," Ron said as he put his timetable away, "But I think I'll take the lessons."

"And speaking of your Skiving Snackboxes." Hermione stared at Fred and George, "You can't advertise for testers on the Gryffindor noticeboard."

"Says who?" George looked astonished.

"Says me," Hermione told them, "And Ron."

Ron quickly said, "Leave me out of it." The twins sniggered loudly.

"You'll be singing a different tune soon enough, Hermione." Fred told him as he buttered a crumpet. "You're starting your fifth year, you'll be begging us for a Snackbox before long."

"And why would starting fifth year mean I want a Skiving Snackbox?" Hermione asked them.

"Fifth year's OWL year." George replied.

"So?"

"So you've got your exams coming up, haven't you? They'll be keeping your noses so hard to that grindstone they'll be rubbed raw." Fred told her whilst smiling.

"Half our year had minor breakdowns coming up to OWLs. Tears and tantrums. Patricia Stimpson kept coming over faint." Eliza informed them.

"Kenneth Towler came out in boils, d'you remember?" Fred remembered.

"That's 'cause you put Bulbadox powder in his pyjamas!" Eliza told him.

"Oh yeah," said Fred, grinning.

"I'd forgotten... hard to keep track sometimes, isn't it?"

"Anyway, it's a nightmare of a year, the fifth." George said to Hermione, "If you care about exam results, anyway. Fred and I managed to keep our grades up somehow."

"Yeah, you got, what was it, three OWLs each?" Ron asked him.

"Yep," Fred replied without a care in the world, "But we feel our futures lie outside the world of academic achievement."

"We seriously debated whether we were going to bother coming back for our seventh year, now that we've got- " Fred cut himself off.

" - now that we've got our OWLs." George added quickly, "I mean, do we really need NEWTs? But we didn't think Mum could take us leaving school early not on top of Percy turning out to be the world's biggest prat."

"We're not going to waste our last year here, though," Fred looked around the hall, "We're going to use it to do a bit of market research, find out exactly what the average Hogwarts student requires from a joke shop, carefully evaluate the results of our research, then produce products to fit the demand."

"But where are you going to get the gold to start a joke shop?" Hermione asked skeptically. "You're going to need all the ingredients and materials - and premises too, I suppose..."

"Ask us no questions and we'll tell you no lies, Hermione. C'mon, George, if we get there early we might be able to sell a few Extendable Ears before Herbology." The twins both picked up a stack of toast each before walking away.

"I'll see you in a bit." Eliza told them before making her way over to the girls again, "Alright ladies?"

"Where are the twins off to?" Angelina asked her, "They are acting suspicious."

"When aren't they?" Katie said while grinning.

Eliza shook her head while chuckling, "They've got some invention thing going on. As per usual!"

"They are obsessed!" Angelina told her.

"They'll make it work though." Eliza replied, "They'll open their own joke shop and I'm certain it will be a big success."