Harry woke up excited about his last full day of camp. The whole morning was dedicated to become a pro seeker with pointers as well as lectures and then concluding with a mock pro tryout. Then after lunch was the charity game and he had his referee testing after that. It promised to be another exhausting but amazing day at The Farm.
The lecture on the responsibilities of a professional seeker to their team was interesting. The seeker from the American national team was the speaker and she covered the differences between being a school seeker and a professional. They had an hour after the lecture with 8 different pro seekers giving them pointers on how to quickly improve before the tryout. The mock tryout as they called it was amusing to Harry. The first thing the scout for The Farm said was that most seekers' tryouts were for show and that the scout was really interested in how they played in a game setting. He said the best way to guarantee a spot on a pro team was to play against a pro player and clobber them, proving yourself as the superior seeker. Everyone looked at Harry enviously at that point.
The amusing part to him was that everyone thought this was a mock tryout when he saw scouts from every major team in the stands. He knew that many had been invited to the charity match since they were likely to show for the mock tryout anyway. Victor had said that he received his offer to play less than a week after getting back from camp and without ever attending a real tryout. He had a good time at the tryout anyway since he was able to show off all his best moves and make the rest of the student campers look like first years.
He ate a very quick lunch and said bye to the rest saying he had promised David he would help set up for the charity match. He headed into the Staff team's locker room and grinned at everyone assembled. David tossed him a white uniform with black lettering and The Farm logo on the front. It had his name and number 7 on the back, indicating he was the starting seeker. David was already wearing his matching uniform with his number at 17 as the back-up seeker. The pants for the uniform were thankfully black, as was the shirt that went under the white robes. He smiled as he put on all his equipment and he and his team chatted on their strategy.
"OK everyone listen up," Oliver said and Harry groaned along with the rest of them as they sat down to listen to a legendary Oliver Wood pre-game pep talk. "We are going up against the top professionals in the world. In everyone in the stands opinion they have the superior team, but we all know that is codswallop. We will go out there today and prove once and for all that any staff member from The Farm could take their spot. Ree, John, Harris you are going up against the chasers from Ireland. Everyone thinks they are an unbeatable scoring machine. Between you and I we are going to make them eat their words. Colby, the American keeper is good but I know you've all seen him and know his weaknesses. I expect you to outscore the Irish. Max, Leo you're up against the fearsome Canadian duo. You know they are twins and can basically read each other's mind so be on top form and try and protect Harry. Harry, you've never competed against a full team of pros before so be wary of the bludgers as they hit a lot harder than what you are used to. Your only mission is to keep Krum away from the snitch. I know you beat him yesterday so that means he is going to try twice as hard today to get back on top. We will win today, we will make money for Ash and we will earn the respect that once belonged to all Farm staff." Oliver finished and they all cheered and Harry grinned at the felling of having Ollie prep him for another game.
Harry stood next to Oliver waiting to be announced as the two reserve teams were introduced to the very loud and excited crowd. Up in the stands his friends were looking everywhere for him and couldn't believe he was going to miss the beginning of the match! As the visiting team the Professionals were wearing all black with white lettering so as to be easily distinguishable from the Staff. Harry realized the house elves must have been working long into the night to get 28 full uniforms ready for them to use the next day. The crowd went wild when they saw that not only were they going to be watching professional's play they were the best of the best. Each of the visiting team were the current leaders of their field or the best of each position and all were on not only a club team but a national team as well.
