NOX° SIRIUS BLACK

Chapter Thirty-One

      Calypso was forced to postpone Quidditch trials since she was put in the hospital, so it had to be moved until her birthday. Sixteen. Now, she was only counting down the days until next year when the Trace would finally leave her and she would be able to practice magic outside of Hogwarts.

       She held her bat in her hands and watched as about fifty people filed onto the Quidditch pitch. Her brows rose at the sight. She didn't think she'd ever seen so many people going to trials in the four years she'd been on the team before and she wondered what that was about. Calypso glanced at the stands and saw Aerin, Dorcas, and Pandora up there to cheer her on for her first official day as Captain.

      "I'd like to welcome everyone to our first of two trials. I have pretty big shoes to fill with Hestia gone, but I want everyone to understand that some things will be different this year because I'm not Hestia." Calypso said. Her blue eyes swept over the faces of the Ravenclaws who had come to tryouts. "With that being said, I want to see how well everyone does with flying first. No one's going to be cut today, that's what tomorrow's trials will be for. Today, I'm going to be teaching everyone the basics and giving tips and pointers before we start cuts tomorrow. This is for me to see how well you can take criticism and apply it."

     Trials commenced and Calypso watched to figure out what people needed to work on. She had a piece of parchment and quill in her hand to write down the people that stood out. She was, of course, paying attention to her previous players — Calen, Antoine, Ignatus, Mira, and Cassandra — but she also needed to focus on the new players as well and find another Chaser to replace Hestia.

        When everything wrapped up, Calypso left the field with a smile on her face as she walked up to her friends.

        "Happy Birthday," said Aerin. He gave her a quick peck on the lips. "I have to go find the band because we're working on a new song, but I wanted to see you before I disappear for the next few hours."

       "Bye." Calypso smiled at him. She turned to Pandora. "What have you been working on, Pandora? Someone mentioned that we can't go back to the common room for the rest of the day."

          "I'm trying to create a potion that allows you to transform into a frog, but it ended up creating an explosion in the common room." Pandora admitted sheepishly as they started to walk off the pitch.

        Calypso furrowed her brows when she noticed Peter lingering by the entrance.

       "Pete? What're you doing here?" Calypso asked. Peter jumped at the sound of her voice and turned to her like he had been caught red-handed by something.

        "Oh — I was waiting for you!" Peter said. Calypso narrowed her eyes at him.

       "Very convincing." Dorcas said sarcastically.

      "Do you want to try again?" Calypso asked.

      Peter sighed and nodded his head to someone behind Calypso. She glanced over her shoulder at Cassandra. Cassandra stayed behind on the pitch to chat with Mirabella.

     "You were here to watch Cassandra?" Calypso asked before gasping. "Oh, you like Cassandra!"

     "I-I don't even know her! She's just . . . she's very pretty." Peter said nervously.

     "You should go talk to her. Or, I could set you two up." Calypso offered. Peter shook his head furiously.

     "No! Just don't do anything. I don't want to embarrass myself more than I already have." Peter stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned around.