Masquerade¹ → Tom Riddle [Rewritten] ✓

CHAPTER SIX

A thin stream of light shone through the arched window, illuminating the whole common room. Evelyn sat by the window with her book, glancing out at the morning sunrise. The sunrise wasn't grey, it was a soothing lavender, a twinkling amber; the colours merged forming pinks and peaches.

"Morning," Lily said with a yawn.

"Ready for Quidditch trials today?" Evelyn asked.

With that Lily shot up from the sofa with a grin. "Oh, I can't wait! It's always so much fun!"

"I don't know exactly how fun it will be this year, we've never had Aiden as a Captain before and you know how seriously he takes his Quidditch!"

"He takes it just as seriously as it should be taken!" Lily moved from the sofa over the notice board beside the fireplace, "Quidditch is important!"

"Go on then, who signed up for trials..."Evelyn wanted to know who her competition would be so she knew if she could beat them easily, or if it would require a little bit more effort than she usually put into her matches.

"Well, there isn't many of us," Evelyn had expected this, Ravenclaw wasn't particularly notorious for its Quidditch team, in fact, there was rarely and opportunity in which they would win a match that wasn't against Hufflepuff. "There's me, you, Daniel, Eloise, Markus, Jolie, Aiden, Estella, Bradley, Roger and Mary-Grace."

"So pretty much everyone will be making the team then..." She wasn't too sure how she liked that, as much as Evelyn appreciated that the trials would be easier than usual, she didn't want to feel as though she hadn't earnt her position.

"Let's go-to breakfast now so we can get to the trials on time." Lily smiled, pocketing the signup sheet and making her way out of the common room, Evelyn following closely behind.

Sliding onto their usual table, the two girls joined Sara who was already sat, happily munching on her own breakfast. "Will you watch the tryouts, Sara?" Evelyn asked as she piled up her plate.

"Oh, well I wasn't sure that was something you two would want..." She trailed off, "I sort of made other plans for this morning,"

"Oh," Lily tried her best to hide her disappointment. "It's fine..."

Evelyn stared down at her plate, not wanting to make the situation any more uncomfortable than it already felt. She gently cut a small slice of her tower of bacon and syrup pancakes and devoured it with little elegance. The bacon broke over her tongue, perfectly crisp, perfectly salty. The flavour was like a bomb in her mouth, exploding in all the right ways. It was the way she started trial and match days, a sort of edible party to prepare herself for the exercise. When she was finished, she washed it all down with a glass of water.

Lily and Evelyn received one last reassuring look from Sara and made their way to the pitch. Every step they took down the path causing the anxiety to grow inside them, gnawing away at their stomachs. Once they had their broomsticks firmly in their hands, all the worries in the world slowly drifted away. Nothing else mattered when they were flying, all they had to do was win.

Evelyn adored her broomstick before her parents had passed they had bought her the newest Comet 220. She had used it for every Quidditch match since and even when she didn't win, she still felt victorious. When she stepped onto the pitch, she felt as though every fibre of her being relaxed, despite the adrenaline coursing through her veins, she felt calm.

Evelyn and Lily weren't alone for long, within a few seconds of their arrival, a gaggle of Ravenclaw students filed onto the pitch, lead by Aiden. The duo joined behind the rest of the students ensuring they were still stood somewhere where Aiden would be able to see them.

"Everyone shut up!" He bellowed across the pitch. "Now, I don't let just anybody onto this team so you had better show me your absolute best of I will hex so you far you will never fly your broom again."

Lily chuckled quietly, "Merlin, are we sure he isn't in Slytherin?"

"You will all be warming up by yourselves, do whatever gets you ready to play and then I want to see 110% effort from all of you!" He looked them all up and down before mounting his broom and zooming off around the pitch.

Whilst the other students had gone for simple stretches, Evelyn and Lily preferred to opt for a little bit of friendly competition to warm themselves up. Every year at Quidditch trials they would race around the pitch with the prize of knowing they were faster than their opponent.

"Ready to lose again?" Lily teased, clambering onto her broom and readying herself to race.

"I'll be hotter on your tail than last year, I can promise you that." Evelyn knew she likely wouldn't beat Lily, but that didn't stop her from trying. Despite being much better at flying than she was in previous years, Lily was still much better; she had flying in her genes.

"Ready," called Evelyn, tucking a final strand of hair behind her ear. "Steady. Go"

And with that, they were off. Evelyn took an early lead, hovering a few feet ahead of Lily. Just as Evelyn began to get cocky, turning around to see Lily with a taunting smile plastered on her face, Lily began picking up speed. Lily came flying up beside her on the inside as though her body was on fast forward.

By the time they were on the home straight, a crowd of students had gathered beneath them, watching the race intently in various stretching positions. With just seconds left in their race, Lily pulled ahead of Evelyn with a smile. As she passed her, Evelyn could hear her sharp, restricted breaths, each one getting shorter as shorter. As their broomsticks ground to a halt and their feet touched down firmly on the ground, it was clear that Lily had won.

"You've definitely gotten faster," Lily smiled at Evelyn, still panting from the race, "but I still won!"

"Well deserved Lily." There was always next year.

"Right, everyone pay attention to me now!" Aiden shouted as he swooped back down to the ground, "We will play a half-pitch game, everyone will play the position they are trying out for unless we need extras for any reason. Chasers, it's every man for themselves..."

Evelyn slid on her gloves and took to the skies. She positioned herself on her broom, watching the Quaffle in Aiden's arms, watching and waiting for it to be released. As soon as the Quaffle was released, she darted forward, flying across the pitch in an instant, her fingers only just missing out on it as it dropped into Jolie's hand.

She cursed under her breath as she turned, tailing Jolie on her way up to the goalposts. As soon as she was hovering beside Jolie, she reached out, grasping the Quaffle with one hand and pushing her broom away with the other. Once Evelyn had possession, she sped up, making her way to the goal post and launching the Quaffle straight through the goal post.

With a cheer, she made her way back to her starting position and prepared for another round. After several rounds, Aiden blew his whistle and the players all made their way down to the grounds of the pitch.

"Right, gather around everybody!" He beckoned them forward with his hands, "So I have finalised the team. Our Keeper will be Lily, Estella and Daniel are our two Beaters, Evelyn, Marcus and I will be the Chases and Eloise, it is your job to find the Snitch." He held up the small Snitch in his hand. "Practice times will be posted on the noticeboard, fail to attend practice without valid reason and you will be replaced. I will not let our team come anything below second place this year!"

"As if..." Evelyn heard Daniel mutter from behind her.

"Well, thank you to everybody for coming, now go!" He took off down the pitch to the exit, the students all following behind him slowly.

Evelyn turned to her friend, "what do you think?"

"Well...." Lily paused, furrowing her brow, "it is definitely an improvement from last year but I can't say by too much.

"Yeah, I would say we have a good lineup but certainly not Slytherin good yet!"

"You never know, we might do better this year, this could be the year our luck changes"