Astray

Chapter 17

It was the first week of November and the Gryffindors and Slytherins were at each other's throats more than usual as the first quidditch match of the season was just around the corner and Coralie's nerves were worse than usual.

"You'll be fine, trust me," James was attempting to calm her down and get her to eat something before the match started but she was having none of it.

"He's right, you know. Besides, you'll need the energy from the food if you want to win this thing," Phillip cane to check on her before the game and was also trying to get her to eat.

"Fine," she grabbed an apple from the basket of fruits in the middle of the table and took a small bite.

"Now come one the game's about to start," Phillip patted her on the back of the shoulder and she stood from the table.

"See you later," she gave the boys a shaky smile as she threw the rest of the apple at James who caught it and sat it on her empty plate.

Phillip, the rest of the Gryffindor quidditch team, and herself left the great hall and walked to the quidditch pitch in raucous conversation while she walked a few paces behind in complete nervous silence. Coralie collected her uniform, that had been fitted earlier that week, from her locker and went to an empty stall. She slowly changed from her oversized jean shorts and light pink sweater into her new red and gold quidditch jersey and pants. Her jersey was red with gold trim on the sleeves, neck hole, and bottom and her pants were a little baggy but stopped halfway down her calf.

She walked out of her stall and neatly folded her clothes in her locker. She started attaching her knee and elbow pads on before finally bending down to tighten the laces of her brown worn out sneakers.

"Do you need help with your hair?" A friendly looking girl came over to Coralie, who was sitting on the bench and struggling to tame her mass of curls into a tight ponytail.

"Please?" Coralie flushed in embarrassment as she pulled at the hair band in her hair.

"I'm Gwenog Jones, you're Coralie Dumbledore, right?" Gwenog straddled the bench behind her and introduced herself.

"Yeah, how'd you know my name?" Coralie sat still as Gwen pulled at her hair and braided it back.

"You kinda set a record with your 10.3 lap around the pitch," she snorted at the face Coralie made.

"Really? I was only on a Sinclair 5000, plus I did a few tricks that added to my time," she was shocked at the fact that she had set a record when she wasn't even trying.

"Wheet whew!" Someone whistled at this comment and suddenly her face grew red as she realized the rest of the team was listening in on her conversation.

"Dumbledore you have a package!" Arther, Molly's boyfriend ran in carrying a long thin box with gold trim around the lid. Coralie reached out for the box and placed it on the bench in front of her as Gwenog finished tightly French braiding her hair in two parts.

An audible gasp resonated through the room as she lifted the top to expose the shiny new Suncrash placed neatly in the box. She lifted the card attached to the handle of the broom and read it.

"Dear Cora,
Fleamont and I were told from Albus that you made the Gryffindor quidditch team, so we got you a little gift for congratulations. We know you could do just fine with your regular broom, but I could tell that it was very old and almost falling apart so I wanted to get you a new one.
Love,
Euphemia Potter"

"Alright team, we got this!" Philip broke the nervous silence the rest of the team sat in by announcing that the game was going to be staring soon.

They lined up with the captain, and keeper, in front, the chasers next, then the beaters, and finally Coralie at the very end.

"Introducing the Gryffindor quidditch team! Captain and keeper Phillip Wood, chasers Arther Weasley, Ethan Burns, and Dorothy Park, beaters Spencer Princely and Gwenog Jones, along with new comer, first year, Coralie Dumbledore who was put on the team for her record lap around the pitch at a time of 10.3 seconds. If I were Slytherin I'd be shaking in my scales!" Everyone on the team put on a face of false confidence as they were called out to the pitch by Roger Jordan, a third year Gryffindor that always did the commentary at the matches.

The crowd roared with cheers and applause for the team as they walked on the pitch waving at the people in the stands. Coralie spotted her friends in the stand and laughed as she read the signs they held above their heads that had a letter of her name on every sign to spell it out except James and Sirius had gotten mixed up so instead of reading "Coralie" it read "oCralie".

"Captains, shake hands!" Phillip shook hands with Lucius Malfoy, the Slytherin captain, although it looked like they were trying to break each other's hand rather than having a civil handshake before the game.

"Mount your brooms! Wheet!" Madame hooch blew the whistle and the teams flew into the air and took to the positions they were given during practice. Coralie flew above everyone else and watched the game from above while also keeping a sharp eye out for the snitch.

"Gryffindor has got possession of the quaffle, take that slimy snakes!" Roger had been doing "unbiased" commentary for the first half of the game while Coralie kept a look out for the snitch. So far she had only been slowly circling the pitch in hopes to catch a glimpse of the shiny flying object.

She did a final lap before coming to a stop and watched the game below when she finally caught sight of the golden ball hovering a few inches below her. 'Surely it couldn't be that easy right?' she thought to herself but slowly reached down to grasp the ball in her fingers but right before she could wrap her slender fingers around it, it darted from her grasp and she sped after it on her broom. Unluckily for her, though, the Slytherin seeker had seen it as well and was on her tail as they both sped towards the snitch.

"Dumbledore and Fuu have seen something!" Everyone's attention was turned from the chasers to them in a split second. Coralie could feel the eyes on her but she was focused on one thing and one thing only, catching the snitch.

"Out of my way brat!" Alexander Fuu, the Slytherin seeker smacked her broom to the side and threw her off of her broom and she hung by the tips of her fingers as her broom continued to zip forward. While Fuu was busy sneering at her, though, he lost sight of the snitch while she still had her gaze glued to it and moved to tilt the front of the broom forward into a steep and extremely fast descent. As she reached to were her feet were dangling only a few inches from the ground she let go of the broom and wrapped her calloused fingers around the small golden ball just as her feet touched the ground.

Before she could comprehend what was happening she was lifted in the air as the rest of Gryffindor house rushed on the field in loud cheers. That night they celebrated in the common room and all of the houses were invited to attend the celebration, other than Slytherin, of course.