Tryouts
It’s been a week since classes started. Since the last meeting with Professor Slughorn Andromeda was holed up in the library or her dormitory, the only exceptions were when she had to patrol the corridors. Narcissa had tried many times to convince Andy to leave the confines of whatever room she was in at the time to enjoy herself or spend time with her sister. It never worked, but still, she tried. Today it seemed increasingly more aggressive.
Narcissa barged into Andy’s room, her eyes desperate. In one hand, she carried a broom with scuff marks up and down the handle, and in the other, she held leather gloves. Her hair was a mess of tangles and forgotten- or failed attempt, elastics. Andromeda had barely seen her look so unkempt. She sat on the edge of Andy’s bed frustratedly and huffed.
“You look good,” Andromeda said.
Her head snapped back, “Shut it. I’m having a crisis right now.”
Andromeda let out a small, quiet, laugh at how absurd she sounded, “Yeah?”
“Steve is holding seeker tryouts today,” she dramatically dropped her broom and gloves, “Can you believe that!”
If her dormmates had been in the room she would have hurried to shut Narcissa up, but they were already out of bed. Andromeda was the one left out of their group. Every morning the four girls would have an early breakfast and then take a dessert to go while they sat by the lake. Even though she was lonely, she didn’t mind as long as she had her sisters.
Narcissa had been the seeker for Slytherin’s quidditch team since her second year. Before Stuart Craggy finished school, he announced to the team that Steve Laughalot would be filling the position of captain this year. Now that Craggy is gone, Laughalot has been renovating the team; so, they could be faster, stronger, and smarter. Today, he called for seeker tryouts, and Narcissa is far from happy. Her once secured spot was now threatened by Lucien Castawary- Laughalot’s top pick because he caught a runaway mouse in the common room.
Usually, the professor who is the head of the house selects the captains for their team. For Slytherin, Slughorn was often absent from their activities. He valued the academics and other curricula his students were part of more than quidditch. This left the decision up to the current captain and after a captain was appointed no one could dispute plays or calls. It wouldn’t matter how many times a player complains, the rules were final.
While Craggy was captain, he valued the player's input. He often looked toward them for plays, asking what they thought needed changing. Once the position of power was transferred to Laughalot, he changed how the Slytherin team was run. Steve vowed they would no longer be able to help make the plays, instead, they would have to learn his new plan. No one was a fan, but Slughorn wouldn’t listen to any arguments if they tried.
“Can he even do that,” Andromeda asked combing through her sister's hair, “I mean, just give away your position?”
“He already replaced one of our beaters because he knew him better,” Narcissa replied shrugging her shoulders.
Andy pulled her hair into a ponytail, “Well, I’m sure he’ll keep you. You’re the best seeker out of all the teams Cissy and I say that as your sister.”
Cissy giggled lightly. She pulled on her gloves and then picked up her broom, “Come watch Andy, please. As your sister.”
“Cissy I-” she began.
“Ah ah ah, no. You’re coming.” Narcissa grabbed Andromeda’s scarf, wrapped it around her neck, and dragged her out of the room.
***
It was early in the month, but the morning air was as cold as it would be in late October. The sky was gray and cloudy, but there was no rain, only the morning dew. Between the house pillars, the wind whistled through the wood creating a chilly wind tunnel. Before they left, Andromeda quickly grabbed her school bag along with her wand. It was a Saturday, but if she had the time, she’d rather be ahead than behind.
Unlike the other positions, the seeker gets quite a weak turnout. Standing in a line below her on the field, only three Slytherins came to the tryout. To Steve’s dismay, Lucien Castawary didn’t show. Narcissa on the other hand did, she was practically seething when she saw him frown. Andromeda couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she could imagine they were all urging Steve to begin the trials since they had been waiting fifteen minutes in the cold. One of the other students walked off when Laughalot refused. The tryouts didn’t start for another ten minutes.
Laughalot looked up at Andromeda, the only person in the stands, and announced, “First up, we have Alaric Fenwyn! Third year!”
Most of the seekers that play for Hogwarts never start young. It’s rare when a seeker is chosen from any year younger than fourth year, so Alaric’s chances were slim, but Narcissa did it in her second. Alaric was small for his age, which arguably would make for a faster flyer. He didn’t exactly have the physique of a quidditch player. His glasses and mop-top haircut didn’t give the impression of being tough and fearsome on the broom.
Andromeda was right. When Alaric mounted his broom, he struggled to take off, he ended up running on the field for at least seventeen seconds before his feet were off the ground. Steve was already curling his lips and staring with wide-eyed disbelief. Whichever one of his friends dared him to show up today did him wrong, he was embarrassing himself. When Steve released the snitch, the boy tried to go to the right where it flew, but he jerked to the left harshly. Again, he spotted it, this time further up, so he prepared to go higher. As his broom angled, it shot up so fast that Alaric Fenwyn fell off and landed in the sand pits below.
Steve and Narcissa ran to his side where the boy was sprawled out yelping in pain. He was holding his leg to his chest and sobbing. Andromeda rushed down to where they were gathered and knelt beside him, laying a hand on his leg signaling him to let her see the damage. She wasn’t a doctor or a nurse, but she was certain the tibia was supposed to be inside the skin and attached to his skeleton. Narcissa grimaced at the sight and Steve sighed, “Well, Narcissa I guess you’re up.”
“Are you serious Laughalot!” Cissy spat, “The kid is in pain!”
“What do you want me to do about it? I’m not a doctor!” He argued back.
Andromeda sighed annoyingly. She looked up at Alaric and nodded to let him know that what she was about to do would hurt. The injured leg was swollen around the exit point of the bone, but luckily there was minimal blood. For the spell to work, she would have to straighten out his leg enough for the splint to settle correctly. She placed one hand by his knee and the other down by his ankle then gently pulled it toward her. Alaric let out a few groans, but he let it happen. Once she got his leg into the right position, she set his foot on the ground and grabbed her wand. Andy hovered her wand a few inches away from the wound then conjured, “Ferula.”
A splint enveloped itself around the leg. On either side of his calf, two thick materials pressed against his skin as a bandage wrapped around the side pieces and over the top of the leg to secure the splint in place. She had never used this spell before, she didn’t even know if it would work, all she knew was that she’d seen Madam Pomfrey do it once. The two others stared at her in shock. Andromeda slipped her hands underneath his armpits and helped him to his feet. “Cissy come help me, won’t you.”
Narcissa and Andromeda wrap one of his arms around each of their shoulders. Laughalot stood there looking helpless, “What am I meant to do?”
“Wait there,” Andromeda said as the two girls started walking toward the castle.
Alaric felt like a dead weight as they practically dragged him into the castle. The air bit bitterly at their skin, but they could only go so fast. They had to take three breaks for the boy to rest his leg as he had been holding it in the air so it wouldn’t hit the ground as they moved. She was kind of glad it was still early in the morning because Alaric would be spared the embarrassment of hobbling between two girls. Not that it was their fault he was an idiot or unathletic, but it really was pathetic.
As they approached the entrance, Andromeda caught a glimpse of her roommates. All four sat beneath a large tree laughing about something that Andromeda wasn’t a part of. She never made an effort with them, or anyone, to become friends, it just wasn’t in her nature. Her entire life revolved around deep-rooted relationships placed there by her parents. Andromeda didn’t know how to make friends herself. Sometimes, she wished she had known how to make some.
The castle's layout was terrible considering most student-related injuries come from playing quidditch. From the entrance nearest to the pitch, the hospital wing was on the opposite side of the castle. They would have to drag him across the whole school for another ten minutes. Ten minutes was probably an exaggeration, but this was not her problem. Steve Laughalot should be dragging an injured boy to the nurse, but instead, it’s Andromeda. She always found fascination in healing magic, but this was not part of the healing process. It was part of watching the stupidity of the Slytherin quidditch captain.
About halfway there, while the three of them were resting against a wall, Professor McGonagall was hurrying down the hall to them, “What happened!”
McGonagall helped Alaric up, scooping him into her arms. Narcissa told her, “Quidditch accident professor.”
“Who conjured the splint?” McGonagall asked.
“I did,” Andromeda responded. She held her head high, feeling a bit proud of herself.
The professor smiled, “Twenty points to Slytherin. You may leave, I can take him from here.”
***
Steve was sitting on the field doodling on his clipboard when they arrived at the pitch. He shot up immediately when he saw the girls and ran over to Narcissa, “Are you ready?”
Cissy grabbed her broom from where she left it and instantly took off. She was zig-zagging between all the stands to the point she was just showing off. Steve said the snitch was never caught in Fenwyn’s attempt, so Narcissa had to search for it. Right now, the stopwatch Laugalot started the moment she left the ground read thirty seconds. Andromeda glanced at his clipboard. In big bold lettering, he circled Two minutes. If this were a regular match it would take much longer than two minutes to catch the snitch, but he was using a practice one, making the chase easier- which is what she thought.
Andromeda remembers Narcissa coming to her last year complaining about Laughalot. They were disqualified from the Slytherin versus Gryffindor match because Steve swapped the game snitch with the practice one. The entire team was given a week of detention. She said the only way they were able to tell was because the practice snitch was bronze not gold, so when the seeker showed it off everyone could tell.
The stopwatch now reads one minute and eighteen seconds. Narcissa is higher than Andromeda had ever seen a seeker go. Her flying became stressed and rigid. Cissy loved quidditch, if Laughalot didn’t let her on the team she’d be heartbroken. It was her sister's way to escape the family pressure.
Andy examined the area where Steve sat reflecting on the story her sister told her the year before. She quietly backed away from Steve's side and crouched over by the sand pit that was behind Steve when they got back from the castle. There was a small pile of sand that looked touched among the unbothered sand. Andromeda speedily dug around the pile finding a bronze snitch. There was no snitch at all, at least not one Andromeda could see.
She looked back at Steve, still focused on her sister, and pulled out her wand. The stopwatch would be close to hitting two minutes, so she did the only thing she could think of and whispered, “Tempus Mutare”
A spell that would set the time back enough that Steve wouldn’t notice and give her enough time to release the snitch. The wings sputtered to life as she held it between her fingers. She let it go and it flew directly toward Narcissa. Steve glared at the blonde girl as she chased after the snitch through the goalpost and caught it in her fingertips. When she landed in front of them, her triumphant smile stretched a mile across her face, “What was my time?”
“One minute and fifty seconds,” Steve said monotone, his smile fading and only adding to Narcissa’s, “Congratulations, you made the team.”
That night Narcissa couldn’t stop talking about how she proved Laughalot wrong. The joy in her tone was the only thing Andromeda needed. She might have not gotten anything done, but she did make her sister happy and nothing can replace that feeling. Steve on the other hand had been sulking all evening. That didn’t stop Narcissa from following him around the common room asking him how his morning went. Word around the house says he skipped dinner just so he wouldn’t have to see her.