An American at Hogwarts

Chapter Sixteen

After another day of trying to memorize the layout of this insane castle, it was finally Monday. That only meant one thing: Quidditch tryouts.

Well, actually, it also meant the beginning of actual assignments for online school. But I was trying to ignore that part.

I saw Oliver that morning, and he made sure to remind Angelina, Alicia, and I to show up as soon as possible after our last class.

"Don't worry, we'll be there," I said. "We've been counting down the minutes until we get to score on you at will."

"Still think you're gonna be able to pull that off, do you?" asked Wood.

"Oh yeah. We've been practicing," I said.

"Studying," added Angelina.

"And strategizing," finished Alicia.

"Well, I guess I'll have to be ready for anything. I'll see you girls after class."

"Later Oliver!" I called over my shoulder as we all split off for first period. My group started our day with the Slytherins in Transfiguration, which could be perfectly fine or absolutely terrible. It just depended on how much sleep everyone in the room got the night before.

McGonagall was strict enough that no one stepped out of line this morning. I worked through the rest of my classes, finally sitting down in double History of Magic to start on my muggle homework.

I managed to get through all of my math and part of my science, which I was pretty proud of. English and history might take me a little longer, but overall this system should be pretty easy. I still needed a PE credit, which would probably mean a lot of running, but let's be real. I could just strap on a heart monitor during passing periods and it'd be like I jogged a mile.

Finally, class ended and it was time to hit the Quidditch Pitch.

"Let's go!" yelled Fred, leading the charge out of History of Magic. George yelled and ran after him, closely followed by Lee.

"Well, we don't want to get left behind," said Angelina with a shrug. She, Alicia, and I took off after the boys, the six of us racing down to the Quidditch pitch.

"I though Lee didn't play!" I called between breaths.

"He doesn't! People who are interested can still come down to watch tryouts!" Alicia replied.

"Dang, okay!" I wasn't expecting anybody to show up to watch today. I mean, it didn't make me any more nervous to think about. People had been watching me my whole life. I just had to take a deep breath and adjust to the change.

We got to the pitch just in time to see the boys disappear into their locker room. The three of us followed suit, racing into our locker room and changing as quickly as possible. I was surprised by the number of girls there; apparently most of Gryffindor house was interested in Quidditch.

"Katie!" Angelina turned and called to another girl adjusting her robes a few feet away from us. "Come and meet Alexa!"

The girl turned and started heading over, and Angelina filled me in as she did.

"Katie's the other Chaser for Gryffindor. She's a fourth year and she's wicked good."

"Good to see you Angelina, Alicia! And nice to meet you Alexa, my name's Katie," said Katie, reaching out to shake my hand once she got over to us.

"Nice to meet you, too! This seems like a really good group."

"Yeah, Gryffindor House has the greatest Quidditch team," agreed Katie with a smile.