Sparks Fly || A George Weasley Story

Year 4: The Pitch

The rest of the week had blown by without anything particularly interesting happening. I went to class, learned some stuff, ate a lot, and did a lot of homework. But now, it was tryouts week, which meant that someone had to cover the quidditch tryouts so we could feature them in our first copy of the magazine that we'd decided to call, Hog-Gossip. It's like hot gossip but about Hogwarts. 

We thought it was funny, and it was better than a lot of the other names we managed to come up with. Plus, it made Heather happy and that, in turn,  made the rest of us happy because seeing Heather upset isn't something you'd want to do twice in a year much less a month. It was like a sign of the apocalypse. 

So, on a sunny Monday morning, while I was supposed to be in one of my double Charms classes, I was making my way to the quidditch pitch, a very happy Colin Creevey by my side. So far, he'd managed to keep our secret, and the only issue I'd found with him was how he didn't really know how to be quiet. 

"Okay, so, what's the game plan," I asked, "Run it by me so I know you're in the loop!"

"We arrive. We take names and we take pictures. Then, we disappear to the stands to keep up with everything that's going on. You take notes on the players and I take pictures of them." He recited.

"Good job," I said, high-fiving him, "Now, remember, we need to draw-"

"As little attention to ourselves as possible because we're keeping the magazine a secret!" He finished my sentence.

"Exactly, and I was thinking that our cover story, you know to explain why we're together even though we've only ever been seen together like once, is because I heard that you didn't know a thing about quidditch and I couldn't stand for that, muggleborn or not." I explained as we got closer, "I don't think anyone will ask, but you never know."

"Got it." He nodded, and with that we stepped out onto the field. 

There was a crowd of people there, ready to try out, even though Oliver Wood would definitely keep the same team as last year. Oliver knew that he had a good team, and there was no chance that he would be giving any of that up. Also, I heard that Oliver was only holding tryouts because McGonagall was forcing him and that he wasn't even planning on looking at any new players. 

I had heard this from Colleen, who after we made up, started to inform me on everything he told her when they'd sneak off together at night, which was still a little weird to me. She'd been the one to tell me that the tryouts were today and that he adored the twins, even though he talked a lot more about Harry than he did the two of them. It wasn't helpful for the magazine, but I tucked that bit of info away for the odd chance that the twins need a pick-me-up.

I walked straight up to the group, which was made up mostly of boys, but I did see the occasional girl. I pulled out my notepad and pen out of my pocket and began writing down the names of the students I recognized: Alicia, Angelina, Katie, Fred, George, Lee. And then I had to move on to those I didn't know. 

"Hi, there, can I ask your name?" I asked the first person I saw, the boy with the accent from the Herbology class. 

"Seamus Finnigan," He said, "What's it to you?"

"Just wondering," I nodded, not having thought up a real reason to use for this, "Can I get a spelling on that surname? I wouldn't want to mess it up"

"F-I-N-N-I-G-A-N." he spelled out and I confirmed what I had written. 

"Thank you, darling," I said, resisting the urge to pat him on the head. 

"Well, then I'm Dean Thomas, if you were wondering about me too!" Another boy, whom I didn't recognize said, stepping up beside Seamus and planting a hand on his shoulder.