Part I
3rd September 1996
The halls of Hogwarts were always cramped between classes but none more so when everyone was headed in the same direction for lunch, today it would be sausage meat pie one of Hannah’s all-time favourite meals. This fact made her even more desperate to the great hall as she was already ravenous coming out of her first NEWT transfiguration class she shared with Clary.
“Merlin that was that was hard!” Hannah exclaimed
“Easier than beating Gryffindor in the quidditch.” Clary replied, “I have that do try this year, try and beat Harry fucking Potter who by the way is not only seeker but quidditch captain too, if I’m to do one thing this year it is to beat him.” That year Clary had been made Slytherin Quidditch Captain and this was what Clary had been working towards ever since she made it on the team in her second year as a chaser this had been a phenomenal achievement for her in Hannah’s eyes. As it was extremely rare for second years to make it on (Well unless your name is Draco Malfoy and you pay your way on to the team).
“Good luck with that Clary.” Hannah said, “I’m sure you’ll do amazing, but Gryffindor has been on a two-year winning streak.”
“And who won the cup for seven years in a row well us!” Clary responded to Slytherin’s defence.
“And guess who hasn’t won the cup since 1983, Hufflepuff,” Hannah said bluntly
“That kind of sucks not going to lie.” Clary grinned, but then turned more serious again. Hannah noticed she did this a lot when she was this passionate about something “But Slytherin has to win, we were on top for seven years and if I’m going to do one thing it’s going to be to get that cup back in our common room by the end of the season. Therefore, I am going to need to put together a strong team tomorrow at try-outs. In fact, would you help me with something?”
“Depends on what it is?” Hannah said
“Well over the past week I have been drafting some drills I can get everyone to perform, and I would really appreciate if you could test them for me? And erm well Nev hasn’t touched a broom in years and you’re easily the best flyer out of us that doesn’t include me, and I cannot let anyone in my house try them out as I’m sure you’ll understand.”
“I won’t tell Jem you said that.” Hannah laughed
“He’s the better prefect though,” Clary replied, she was right, but Hannah would not take it.
“Fuck you, Clary, I won’t help you know.”
“Please, Han!” Clary begged
“I’m joking, of course, I will help you.” Hannah smiled; Clary looked somewhat relieved after this was said. Right after lunch, with some additional time to digest their food, they made their way over to the training grounds with their broomsticks in hand. Clary had her fancy nimbus 2001 that their seeker Draco Malfoy had “donated” to the team back in their second year, it had been Clary’s trustworthy broom for the past 3 Hogwarts quidditch seasons. Hannah’s broom wasn’t a nimbus by any stretch of the imagination it was the Cleansweep five, which was rarely used in quidditch more for recreational purposes. Luckily it was a clear September day that did not involve any rain or wind, perfect flying conditions.
“So, our first drill will be an agility test for everyone to make sure everyone is a confident flyer because no matter dodging enemy bluders is a major part of every position, for Keeper I will cast a spell on a few quaffles that will fly at the keeper in timed intervals to test their defence of the three hoops, seekers that will try out…”
“Wait your thinking of replacing Malfoy?”
“No, just he should have to earn his place like everyone else and it’s not like “his father will hear about this” because he’s not going to hear about much in Azkaban is he.” Hannah laughed rather loudly at this joke. “Anyway, seekers will be timed on how long it takes them to find the snitch, Beaters will be tested on their aim, how far they manage to hit them and how many times they hit them and finally Chasers will be tested on catching skills and goal scoring.”
“That all sounds great!” Hannah said honestly
“Awesome, to be honest, I only really need to test the keeper one and the agility test because I’ve seen the others in previous years, and they work just fine.”
“Ah that’s good,” Hannah said, she was sort of relieved she didn’t have to try the beater one, as that seemed really hard, and she was absolutely terrible at muggle rounders. Her family had played it at the beach one day and she barely hit the ball once. Clary smiled “Fantastic Shall we begin.”
***
Zacharias Smith’s notepad
Mackay testing some drills for try out. Date: 3rd September 1996.
• Mackay describing drills to Hannah Abbott. Abbott trying out what appears to be an agility test and some kind of keeper drill? Potential for trials?
• Abbott appears to be excellent at the drill (could potentially be reserve for keeper)
• Mackay doesn’t try anything else
• See further pages for full notes on Slytherin.
16th May 1997
Hufflepuff vs Slytherin would be one of the last quidditch games in the season and the one where Hannah would have to make the decision between supporting her best friend or her house though she would as always support her best friend. In fact, in their group there seemed to be an unsaid pact that even if their house was playing against Slytherin they would always support them, for Clary’s sake. The match would be in a week, but that fact was not very important to Hannah because she had a lot more pressing things on her mind, as Hannah was still grieving her mother’s death.
A few months after Hannah had agreed to help Clary test out her drills her Herbology class with Nev had been interrupted by Professor McGonagall who whispered something to Professor Sprout. Then her head of house asked Hannah to come for a walk with her when she told her after that Hannah’s world fell apart. After she left Hogwarts that day, Hannah would not return until the start of the final term. During her second term, she studied at home via owl post but her incredible friends wrote to her every day, helping her miles throughout this horrible time. She was so happy to be back at Hogwarts with everyone again she had missed them so much however once in everywhere she would simply think about her mother and how much she wished she was still here, tears pricked Hannah’s eyes once again.
“Oi, Abbott.” Hannah quickly wiped her eyes of tears and turned to where she heard someone call her name. It was Zacharias Smith the head of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
“Yes, Smith.” She answered
“So, I’ll get straight to the point, I need you to be my Keeper.” he said bluntly
“What?!” Hannah blurted, this was the last thing she expected to happen.
“Look Hannah, we really need you. Tomlinson cannot play on Saturday, they have got themselves injured; we have no keeper and I saw you play in Michaelmas Term if you had tried out, I would have put you as my reserve for the keeper.”
“What about your other reserves?” Hannah asked surely there were others that were better than some amateur, she had only ever played non-competitive quidditch.
“None of them is as good as you, trust me I’ve seen them today, they were shit, to be honest, their skills definably lie in Chasing that’s for certain. It’s just for one game, please!”
“But Clary.” Hannah protested; how could she possibly play against her best friend, what if Hufflepuff won and Clary could no longer win the cup, as she had always dreamed.
“Abbott, no matter what Mackay is playing a Hufflepuff team she won’t even care who is on it, her head will be in the game. She will only see you as the opposition Keeper.” His desperation made her take pity on him just for a second and he was right, Clary had described feeling like this once when Neville had asked her.
“Okay then.” Hannah agreed though she regretted it immediately after she agreed. Smith embraced her and repeated “thank you” probably over a thousand times. Now she wondered how she was ever supposed to tell Clary.