Slytherin's Quidditch Team
September 1, 1972
Even though Lily and I had seen each other only a week earlier, it didn’t stop me from running when I spotted her on the platform.
Now though I wish I had just waited for her to board the train.
Lily’s parents were wonderful. Kind and proud.
Petunia however, looked absolutely disgusted at her presence on the platform.
The first words out of her mouth when she saw me were, “Another freak. Lovely.”
I’d risen above and ignored the comment.
Except Lily wasn’t as willing to forgive and forget, and so now the two sisters were shrieking at each other on the platform.
Spotting Potter and Black entering on the other end, I pull on her sleeve and she stops yelling.
“Thanks,” she mumbles as her parents calm down her sister.
“Thought you would want to avoid their attention for as long as possible.”
We say goodbye to Lily’s family, or at least her parents as Petunia seems to be giving everyone the silent treatment.
Once on the train, Dorcas and Marlene find us and we settle into a car towards the front of the train.
We all reminisce on our recent trip to Bath until a knock at the door startles us.
“Anything off the trolley dears?”
I use this as the perfect example to pay all of my friends back for their kindness last year and buy everyone their favorites. Marlene and I split a box of candied pineapple and Lily and Dorcas each have their own Pumpkin Pasties.
“Do you think they’ll let a second year on the team?” Marlene asks, excited at the prospect of playing for Gryffindor.
“They’d better,” I think of the beautiful Cleansweep I had packed in my trunk.
“You are going to try out for Slytherin?” Dorcas asks.
I nod.
“But they almost never let girls play.”
“That’s not true,” Lily says. “Narcissa Black was a chaser for two years.”
I smile, grateful for Lily’s support.
Although Dorcas has a point. They might not ever let me on the team, even after my second year.
I’d been practicing all Summer though. Mrs. Yarborough had thrown quaffles in the air for me for hours. Using magic of course.
“Besides, Connie is brilliant. They’d be daft not to want you,” Marlene smiles.
“And Gryffindor would be daft not to want you,” I elbow her gently.
Severus stops by for a few minutes to say hello, but then gets angry at something Dorcas says and storms off.
He grew this Summer. Even though he had promised to write, I’d only heard from him once.
Sitting through the Welcome Feast is a lot different this year. All of the first years look so young, and I have to tell myself I am an idiot when I remember they are less than a year younger than me.
Valeria actually offers me a compliment when she sees the brand new cerulean blouse I am wearing. Apparently news of my inheritance had reached her ears.
Sadie and Patricia are downright friendly. I’m sure things won’t remain the same, but it is nice not to be immediately on guard.
Sev warms up by the end of the meal as well, talking with a boy in our class who is also interested in potions.
This year, I feel like my feet are firmly underneath me. Like one small thing won’t send me careening out of control. I feel like I belong here in this castle.
Nearly three weeks into the term, Slytherin holds their Quidditch tryouts. After three seventh years graduated last year, there are three open spots on the team.
Slytherin tryouts, unlike Gryffindor’s, are closed. Except Lily had learned a camouflage spell that allowed her to hide on the bleachers. Or at least that is what she had written in her note that had appeared over breakfast.
“We’ll start with flying and then move on to individual skills. We need a chaser, a beater, and a keeper. Plus, we could be looking for a new seeker,” the captain, Miles Burke explains with a glare at their current seeker, a sixth year.
I push down my nerves and put my all into the tryout, receiving several backhanded compliments from the players already on the team. By the time we finish, I am soaked in sweat and grinning from ear to ear. My practice this Summer paid off. While I had been hoping to be a chaser, Burke puts me in as keeper for the last half hour of the tryout.
I block every shot they try to put through the hoops, earning me several glares.
After landing on the pitch, Burke calls my name.
“Yes?” I ask.
“Where did you learn to fly?” he asks.
“Here,” I say, confused.
“You’d never flown before last year?”
I shake my head.
“Fawley, that’s a pureblood family right?”
I nod.
“Results come out Friday.”
“Right,” I nod again, wiping my face on my sleeve.
He doesn’t say anything else to me, calling some other kids name.
Walking out of the broomshed, I shriek when Lily jumps out from an actual bush.
“You lunatic!” I yell, holding my chest dramatically.
“Oh come on. If three hours on a broom didn’t kill you, I doubt I could.”
“I’m starved. Walk to back to the castle so I don’t collapse of exhaustion?”
She nods and we link arms, laughing at the poor boy who had caught his pants on his broom and ended up flailing upside down in the air.
When Friday rolls around, I have thoroughly convince myself that there is no possible way I;ve made the team.
So when random Slytherins start coming up to me to say congratulations, I dumbly think it has to do with my perfect charms work. I’d managed to light Sirius Black’s desk on fire without burning it to a crisp.
Only when Sev reminds me results come out today do I realize I must have gotten a spot on the team.
Not wanting to get my hopes up, I walk to the Slytherin common room thinking I made the reserve team. Impressive for a second year student.
Connie Fawley- Keeper
My name is right under Burke’s. I made the team.
There is a practice schedule posted below the roster.
“Welcome to the team, Fawley. Don’t make me regret my decision,” Burke says with a rare Slytherin smile.
“Thanks. I won’t.”
I go to my room and have a fairly embarrassing freak out over having made the team. Then I hang the practice schedule and realize I am going to have to drastically change my study schedule.