chapter 12
16 09 1988
For the past two weeks, Kinsley and Oliver had been practicing as much as possible for the dreaded trial.
Bodie and Indie had talked Marjorie into letting them trial for the Ravenclaw team on the same day, which meant that they had joined in on the Lions’ nightly training sessions.
Oliver had even taken to joining Kinsley for her morning runs, which was hilarious because he had almost no levels of endurance, and Kins left him in the dust every single time. She doubled back for him, of course, what sort of friend did he think she was?
On the 16th, Kinsley woke up at the very late hour of 5 am. She quickly got changed into running leggings, a Sirius Black hoodie, and threaded earrings from Marylin Rosier into her ears for luck. Then she ran over to the Gryffindor boys' dorms and was pleasantly surprised to see not only Oliver but Percy as well, wide awake and getting dressed. “Let's go, let’s go, let’s go.” She chanted, ushering them out of the Common Room.
“Goldy!” Kinsley spoke, as the three were walking down a corridor. The little elf appeared suddenly and asked “Yes, Mistress Kinsie?” in his signature squeaky voice.
“Can we have some breakfast please, Goldy? Just whatever you can find would be great.” Kinsley asked him.
“Of course, Mistress Kinsie. Goldy would be happy to.” Goldy dissaparated away and reappeared a couple of seconds later, holding a napkin stacked with toast and a paper bag.
“Here yous are, Mistress Kinsie. Good luck with your trials!”
“Thank you, Goldy. I’ll see you later.” Kinsley smiled, and took the toast and bag,
“What’s in there?” Percy asked, trying to peek into the paper bag,
“Condiments. We’ve got butter or all kinds of jam.” Kinsley replied, pulling small coloured tubs out of the bag.
“Tell Goldy I love him,” Oliver murmured as he grabbed a slice of toast and began lathering it in strawberry jam. He shoved half of the piece straight into his mouth.
“MMM, this is so good.” He said, muffled through bites.
“Close your mouth when you eat.” Kinsley reprimanded, putting her hand under his chin and snapping it shut.
After making their way out to the Quidditch pitch, Kinsley and Oliver wandered over to the broom shed and Percy wished them luck before walking over to the stands.
“We’re quite early, so let's just practice until more people rock up,” Kinsley told Oliver, and they both grabbed their brooms.
Kinsley and Oliver both had semi-new Cleansweeps and had been overjoyed to be able to bring their beloved brooms to school with them.
“Go grab a spare quaffle and we’ll 1v1,” Oliver told her, before practically jumping onto his broom and shooting out the shed door into the slowly lightening sky. Kinsley grabbed a quaffle and imitated Oliver, pushing her broom as fast as she could toward the nearest goalposts. Oliver had already made his home in the middle of the three, and Kinsley sped toward him while contemplating where to throw. She faked towards the far left hoop before throwing right, but Oliver read her intentions all too well and grabbed the quaffle securely in both of his hands.
“You know exactly what I’m going to do, now,” Kinsley complained. “All that practice together hasn’t really worked in my favour.”
“You’re just too predictable, Kins. Especially now to me. The simple fakes might work on some Keepers, but once they fall for it they won’t make the same mistake. Mix stuff up a bit more.”
Kinsley rolled her eyes but she knew he was right, and so she batted the quaffle out of his hands and flew in the other direction.
Mix things up… She thought. Turning around quickly, Kinsley shot back at the goalposts at a fast pace, locking eyes with Oliver and grinning. She threw the quaffle up, spun her broom in a circle, and used the back of it to hit the ball toward the left hoop. Oliver, having no clue where this was going, reacted too late and let the quaffle through.
“HA!” Kinsley yelled, grinning.
“That was great.” Oliver conceded. The two continued practicing until Kinsley threw a goal and heard clapping from underneath her.
“Well done, Kins. Good shot.”
“Charlie!” She cried, flying quickly to the ground and hugging him.
“I reckon you’re a shoo-in for Chaser. But we’ll have to see.” He whispered in her ear.
“Bad luck, Wood,” Charlie then yelled up.
“That’s the first one she’s got in five minutes,” Oliver complained.
“Two minutes.” Kinsley rolled her eyes.
“How long have you guys been out here?” Charlie asked.
“Erm. Since quarter-past-five.” Kinsley replied. “We wanted to warm up.”
“I admire your commitment. And you’ll need to be able to wake up early if you want to be on the team.” Charlie nodded. “It’s almost half past six, so everyone should be out soon.”
Surely enough, lions started wandering out to the pitch and grabbing their brooms. The usual suspects - the Gryffindor quidditch team - were all to one side, and a gaggle of hopefuls stood on the other. Charlie stood in front of everyone.
“Morning, folks. Thanks for waking up and coming out here. This is a trial for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team this year. I want it to be clear that having a previous place on the team does not guarantee you a place now, and I also want to be clear that there will be no gender or age discrimination or any bias. I’m choosing a team that will win.” Charlie announced. Everyone nodded.
“I’ll be taking the role of Seeker, so the first position we’ll trial will be Chaser. Anyone interested in the role, move to the left. If not, stand to the right.”
Oliver squeezed Kinsley's arm and moved to the right, leaving Kinsley to walk left by herself. She took a deep breath, looking at nine others who were also trying out for her dream position.
“To begin, fly a lap around the Pitch. Around both sets of goalposts, please, and no cutting the corners. I’m watching. This is a race. Go!” Charlie yelled, and Kinsley threw her leg over her broom and shot off, flying as fast as she could.
After all of the Chasers landed (Kinsley in first, with a couple of sixth-year boys behind her, and then the rest of the crew), Charlie set them to scoring goals and then a five vs five match. After they all landed, Charlie nodded them to the side.
“Thank you, Chasers. Next up, Beaters.”
The beaters all took to the skies, testing for accuracy, strength, and coordination in hits. Charlie tried a couple of different combos before nodding and calling the Beaters back down. Finally, the Keepers were up.
“McGonagall. Bailey. Carter. You three will throw two shots each at every Keeper trying out. I’ll be counting how many the Keeper blocks and how many they let in. Keep in mind that I’m still looking at you three as well, and going easy on the Keeper you’re hoping will make the team will just make you look worse.” Charlie announced. “Bobbins, you’re the first Keeper up.”
Bobbins took to the skies and it became obvious that he wasn’t the best flier. Kinsley thought he simply looked awkward on the broom. She decided that a boy who looked so uncomfortable on a broom had no reason to be on a Quidditch team, and threw both of her shots with such ferocity and accuracy that he missed them by a mile. Bobbins managed to save one of Elijah Bailey’s and one of Bryce Carter’s, but Kinsley smiled to herself knowing that 2 saves out of 6 wouldn’t entice Charlie in the slightest.
Some blonde-haired kid was up next and he made an absolute fool of himself, missing the quaffle every single time.
The third competitor was a fifth-year girl who did better than Bobbins but only blocked three goals. Kinsley was proud of herself that none of the three were her own shots.
Finally, Oliver was up. He steadied himself in the middle of the three posts and Kinsley saw his shoulders rise and fall heavily, signifying a deep breath.
Elijah went for the first goal and threw the quaffle to the left with no fakes or deception, and Oliver snatched it straight up. Kinsley grinned. Bryce popped in a fake left before throwing right as well, but Oliver was not so easily fooled and he blocked that one as well. Kinsley went for a more aggressive tactic and flew as close as she could to Oliver before letting the quaffle go, which meant that he didn’t have time to predict the direction of the ball. It flew unblocked into the far right goal. Kinsley winced at Oliver apologetically, but he only shrugged and mouthed, “Good one.”
Oliver blocked the next two of Elijah’s and Bryce’s, basically guaranteeing him a spot on the team by saving more goals than any other competitor. However, Kinsley knew Charlie would be watching her attempt to see if any of the Keepers could block one of her shots. She threw the quaffle up and went to hit it in with the back of her broom, knowing that it was a move Oliver had seen before but hadn't been able to block. It was also a very rare move in Quidditch because it was complicated and required a fair amount of coordination, so she knew that if Oliver missed it, Charlie wouldn’t dock him too many points. Thankfully, Oliver flew straight to where the ball was going and caught it with both hands.
“Well done!” Kinsley cheered, flying over and wrapping him in a hug. The two heard cheers from the ground as well and looked to see a number of the other people trialing clapping, as well as Charlie himself and Percy, Penelope, Indie, and Bodie.
Everyone flew back to the ground and Charlie announced that the final team would be announced the next day.
“You both did great!” Bodie congratulated them. Percy, Penelope, and Indie all rushed in with their praise as well.
“So great.”
“You guys are awesome.”
“If you don’t make the team then Weasleys an idiot.”
“Awww thanks, guys.” Kinsley laughed. “What time is your trial, again?”
“After dinner,” Indie replied. “I’m so nervous. I’m shaking.” She held up her arm and her hand was indeed shaking quickly.
“Try not to think about it. Get through today and then give trials your all tonight.” Oliver said wisely. “Now cmon, I bet you guys haven’t had breakfast.”
The rest of the day went by quite fast. Kinsley spent her entire potions lesson giving Tatum a blow-by-blow of her Quidditch trial in between researching uses for a blood-replenishing potion and ended up disappointed when he informed her that both he and Marcus Flint had made the Slytherin team as Chasers.
“Bugger.” Kinsley sighed. “That means if I don’t make it, you’ve one-upped me.”
Tatum just grinned.
In Transfiguration, Kinsley sat with Claudia and they both successfully turned their butterflies into hair clips within the first couple of minutes. Kinsley had always been good at Transfiguration and managed to turn her hair clip back into a butterfly as well. She didn’t show anyone, though, because turning inanimate objects into animals was much more advanced than the reverse. She really ought to look into something more challenging for her spare time, though.
Dinner rolled around and Kinsley and Oliver did their best to tame Bodie and Indie’s nerves. They forced some food down their friends' throats and walked them out to the Quidditch pitch.
“You’ve been practicing so much that you’ve more than earned your spots,” Kinsley told the duo. “Now go out and prove it.”
And prove it they did. After an hour of grueling trial, Bodie and Indie were announced as the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team’s newest Chaser and Seeker respectively.
“Now we just gotta wait for tomorrow to find out about you two,” Bodie said happily.
“I have no doubt about it, you’ll both make the team,” Indie said confidently.
Indie turned out to be right. A notice on the board in the Gryffindor Common Room was posted with the names of the Quidditch team, and it was as follows.
Team List
Keeper: Oliver Wood
Beaters: Lucas Elke & Riley O’Brian
Chasers: Kinsley McGinagall, Elijah Bailey & Bryce Carter
Seeker: Charlie Weasley (Captain)
“We did it!” Kinsley cheered, wrapping a bleary-eyed Oliver in a hug.
“We did it.” He repeated, just as excitedly, holding her close.