The Potter's Daughter

The Quidditch trials - part I

Lily's POV

I have this theory that me and my brothers learned how to fly before we learned how to run.
What no one knows though, is the actual natural talent hid behind the great chaser Ginny Potter and the youngest-seeker-of -the-century boy. In case you don't know it, "talent" means the natural aptitude or skill someone might or might not possess.
Since everyone has always compared me to my brothers I think I shall do the same. James is a freaking Quidditch bomb, his carefree and sneaky attitude seems to sink and blend with the way he plays, as if he was wondering around when casually hits a bludger right into a chaser's face. All of that with an annoying smirk stuck on his conceited face.
As for Albus, the things were a bit different. He can't play to save his life. No exaggeration. Seriously, the boy is dead afraid of heights, his balance isn't the best either, he can barely ride that muggle wheel-y thing... bicycles? He gave up trying when he was about nine and became the referee every time we played back at The Burrow.
And then there's one. The "Potter's daughter", oh my, she's so pretty, she shouldn't waste her pretty face up in the air with a bunch of sweaty boys. That's what they all say, until, modestly speaking of course, I proved to them all how awesome I am. Obviously I was a natural, but talent wouldn't bring me as far as I wanted to go so I trained, for so many hours, during so many summers... My favorite thing to do, once both my brothers were gone to school, was to pic up Roxy and go to my Mum's practices with her old team, the Holy Head Harpies. They'd let us play at the lower corner of the field while they warmed up and the whole energy their field had gave me goosebumps.
I've always been good. Always one of the best. I'd always play with people ten years older than me, so I would actually have to put some effort into it. But it all comes to this moment. As I laid in bed, completely unable to close my eyes for one second longer, I realized that it wouldn't matter how many times I had beaten Victoire last winter break, or how much I loved when people betted on me before the game started. To get into my house's team I'd have to earn it, and it would all happen today, in no more than two hours.
I beamed in excitement. No reputation, no surname, nothing, the only thing a certain blond haired Slytherin would take into account was the skill. And of those I had plenty.
The floor of the bedroom is slightly warm, for the heater in the center of the room where our towels lay, is still hot. Hoping towards my trunk, I choose to wear some simple denim shorts with one of my brother's Gryffindor stollen sweaters. It is still gigantically long, reaching down until knee and with sleeves surpassing my hands by at least 20 inches. Just the way I like it.
Socks, sports shoes, elastic band for a future ponytail and a book, "The Selection", in case I get bored at the bleachers while the others try. I head to the bathroom to brush my teeth quickly so I could have a good breakfast. But before I head out of the common room I sight a pair of cold grey eyes, of a certain someone who I wasn't in the mood to deal with right now. Quickly and decisively I slither out, through the silver door and head downstairs.
   The Great Hall practically glows with expectation. All the trials are being held today, the Slytherins in the morning, Ravenclaws during early afternoon and Gryffindors during the evening. Last but not least, the Hufflepuffs are keeping their team the way it is, which I find a quite stupid decision since they haven't won a house cup in a decade.
    Right beside where I'm seated, a blur of brown and blue swoons by and stops in a halt. I look at it and find Meg, her hair in a high ponytail and a denim blue overall, under a green t-shirt. She looks exasperated, breathing heavily with widened eyes. "What's up Wood?" I ask, smirking, I'll never stop annoying her with her surname..."I woke up late, and I thought I'd miss the trials..." she answers still trying to catch her breath. I grin slightly at her desperation, soon leading me to wonder over our similarities... If there was any parent more obsessed with Quidditch then mine, it was Meg's father. I just love how we're both extremely "hardcore" but nonetheless it creates a sort of pressure, we want to be in the team, both of us, together. 
   "Well don't worry sleeping beaut--" I answer her at last but stop on my tracks as a hand touches my shoulder. I immediately look up to see the head of our house, Jackson Abott.
    Now, before we go any further, allow me to enlighten you with a bit of information. The Abotts are what we call "traditional". They've always been sorted to Hufflepuff, every now and then a Ravenclaw would come out but Jackson was the first, for Merlin knows how many generations to be a Slytherin. I dare to say he is the only one, doomed with such traits. I've heard he skipped three years back at his school days and by the age of twenty-one he was a well known professor.
   Obviously, time passed and the head of the house seemed to be enjoying his 30's. He had pale skin, naturally browned by freckles here and there. His nose was strait and pointy, and he wore a military-short sand colored hair. His eyes were so black I sometimes thought I could feel the depth of the darkness inside them.
   Looking up, my green eyes flashed with curiosity. I haven't done anything, at least not yet...maybe they caught me, the previous night, sneaking through the corridors. Maybe they've even seen me enter the Room of Requirements. As steadily as I could, I spoke " yes professor?", his big black eyes wondered around, as if his mind wasn't actually there. "Please follow me Ms.Potter" he shortly and promptly responded, before walking quickly out of the Great Hall.
   It took me a while to unfreeze but Meg's shove on the ribs was enough to get me moving. I hurried after Abbott and decided to pay attention on the corridors, after all, I would have to learn them quite well if I intended to make my pranks work. After a unknown period of time, I noticed a similarity in the many corridors and patterns we were tracing. By the last turn, I knew to where I was being guided, to McGonagall's office.
   Last time I was there the headmistress gave me one of the best news I had ever heard, I was going to skip one year! Maybe the reason why she requested me wasn't bad at all.
If only I knew...
   "Ms Potter, please come in" said Minerva's strict voice. Slowly I opened the thick and dark wooden door, appearing into view the jaw-dropping study. Behind her desk and table, the wall was decorated by a black painting, with dark green framings around it. Quite foolish, I thought, why would anyone put a plain black piece of art into your wall. Then I
realized that someone probably stood there, an old headmaster or important wizard that,at that moment, wondered around the castle.
   Headmistress McGonagall scribbled quickly into a piece of parchment that I sneakily noticed to have the Hogwarts' emblem stamped in. Once I sat in those unfortunately familiar dark chairs she looked up and pushed her glasses further up her nose.
Minerva took a deep breath and said " Ms Potter, we'll be scheduling the extra classes today, some of the teachers--" "excuse me?" I interrupt bluntly. She raises her eyebrows questioningly, as if asking herself from where I had taken the right to interrupt. "Was I not clear enough? Perhaps if you let me finish my phrases you'd understand better don't you think Ms Potter?" Her voice is sharp and it seems to bounce over the walls, emphasizing its meaning. But I didn't care, I was trying out for my house no matter what. "Headmistress, I'm sorry for my outburst it's just that today are Quidditch trials and-" I spoke as politely as I could but was interrupted. I guess I got tricked by my own game, didn't I? "Oh, perhaps I was mistaken then. If you believe that an extracurricular event is more important than your academic future, maybe you shouldn't have skipped one year" her eyes are glued to mine, as if proving how serious she was.
There were so may things going through my mind. I was basically asked to choose between Hogwarts and Quidditch. I knew that if I chose the sport the headmistress would go back on her decision, my parents would be so disappointed. "Of course not, Headmistress. I'll be pleased to attend the extra classes". And as the words came out of my mouth, my pride seemed to have gone with them. I felt as if part of me felt disgusted at myself, and the worst part was that I had chosen that, I chose a stupid meeting over the thing I most love to do...

Professor Longbottom came first. He somehow seemed to be ecstatic to teach
me that Saturday at eight in the morning. I didn't know herbology was that complicated, with Acroplatulas, Acromantulas-rhy and a bunch of complicated names they apparently had learned in two weeks. By the end of the excruciatingly boring lesson I had taken some notes with a borrowed quill and piece of parchment. Professor Neville excused himself and declared that we should have one more lecture next Sunday. McGonagall finally looked up from the book she was reading all throughout the lesson and nodded her head at the teacher, who soon left the room.
"Ms Potter, your Defense Against The Dark Arts Teacher, Mister Abbott will arrive soon, you can leave for a couple minutes if you'd like...", "oh, ok, thank you Headmistress McGonagall" I answered and wiggled myself out of the room.
As I stepped in the center corridor something took over me. One moment I looked through the windows in front of the office's exit and the next I found myself running. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a great Quidditch player but we play on top of brooms, I can't run for my life!
By the third corridor my lungs ached and my legs longed to a halt, if I stopped running I would never get there in time, if I kept running I'd probably faint... My head urged for a solution, my hands trembling nervously. In a swiftly movement I grabbed my wand and hoped for Merlin's sake I'd make this work. Beaming loudly through the empty corridors I said "Accio Broom" and waited. I knew the brooms were at the field for the first years that wanted to try out for the team but it was my only idea, so I waited, I lost track of time, it could have been a minute, ten seconds or half an our but when I saw it, the old version Nimbus 1220z flying towards me my feet once again moved by themselves.

A small group of Ravenclaws were walking by when I flew above them, just before reaching the door and feeling the slightly chilly autumn wind. The garden's grass was still green and the trees weren't yet naked by the absence of leaves. I head north west and see it for the first time, the late morning Sun spraying a delightful golden stream upon the perfectly trimmed field. The goals stood tall, in each side, as if they were kings and queens, fighting for their kingdom.
   I could see some people sat down by the bleachers. Meg wasn't there, at least it could see her, which meant she was still trying out. My assumption lit a fire inside my chest, I still had a chance! My green eyes desperately searched for a certain someone, and when spotted I flew quickly towards it. "Malfoy!" He was flying high, a tactic to observe the chasers better but the with the sound of his name, his fancy broom turned and he looked at me.
   Malfoy's face transited from curiosity, to surprise and finally an annoying grin, that somehow always seemed to find it's way to the boy's face. "You made it, Potter!" He answered, "yeah, I figured that. When can we start? Who against who?" I said, trying to do it all as fast as possible. McGonagall would notice soon my absence. Instead of answering, Scorpius waved his hand as if saying "wait a minute" and whistled a high pitched, extremely annoying sound. Soon enough, some people mounted their brooms and joined us in midair. With the confusion of the motion it took me a while to find Meg but, when I did, I hurried myself beside her.
   "You are so lucky!" She whispered, "am I?" I questioned, "I was going to kill you if you didn't show up" Meg answered, "I'll explain later..." I concluded and turned around to pay attention to the instructions. "Guys, let's get this done" he started, "you might be the team's future chasers, you might not be the heart of it, like the seeker but you're the soul of the team, you are skilled, quick, agile and ambitious players, remember that. The team captains that I have preselected beforehand will choose their teams. No beaters or bludgers, just you, the keepers and the quaffle. You will have five minutes, and if there's a draw, which I doubt, " he paused, and I swear he looked at me, smirking. " you'll have one more chance to declare the winner team. Wood, as a first year, I'll let you start. Pick your team". I tried not to show any emotions. I was happy for Meg, obviously, is just that, I'd love to be the captain and shove our victory in Malfoy's face.
   Meg's brown hair wandered after her as she flew forward and pointed at me; "Potter". Our eyes then moved to Scorpius as I moved closer to Meg. "Well, I'll get Levi" said the blonde, and with that a senior player (I suppose) transferred to the captain's side. Levi was a nice guy from a muggle family. He had black hair, dark olive skin and these beautiful light blue eyes, that seemed to shine through his brunette natural colors. "Krum" said Meg again. My dorm mate approached us as well, and like that, they kept going.
   By the end of it we had: Wood, me and Krum, against Malfoy, Levi and Gregorovich.
    We positioned ourselves at each side of the field. Our friend, Lorcan was about to  throw the quaffle. The countdown started.
Three-
Two-
One--

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Hey guys! I hope you liked this chapter. I put a quite bit of effort into it since it's a very important chapter considering it's Lily's passion. The next one however, is where the action actually happens, as you might have guessed. It will be published by the end of next week. (Sorry if I'm taking a decade, is just that we are having finals and, as always, school has been consuming 99% of my time)
By the way, I wanted to ask you which option you'd like to read about first:
-the mirror of Erised
-the characters' Patronuses
A shoutout to Lilypottergreatness for being awesome and keeping up with the story! You go, girl! Also, go check her Scorlily fanfics, they're great!