CHAPTER NINE
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-: sixth year :-
── IN WHICH IT'S THE FIRST DAY BACK
. . .
"Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Glad to see none of us passed away in our sleep." Erin slipped into a seat besides her four friends, who had decided to breakfast at the Ravenclaw table.
"See you've survived the night. When will you stop embarassing us?" Cleo asked, with an air of utter boredom that had Erin threatening to throw her glass of orange juice over her. "Cynthia told us you got up the same time as her, so where have you been?"
"I've been up at the professors' table. You lot are blind as bats, honestly you would think at least one of you would have taken a good look around the hall or at least taken notice of which direction I was coming from." Erin replied, getting a piece of toast and buttering it.
"Sorry I'm not Mr Observant." Theo said. "But, dearest Erin, do tell why you were up at the professors' table when it's first thing on a Wednesday morning?"
"Well, I was talking to Madam Hooch and Snape about the Quidditch pitch. So just a warning, I'll be late to lunch because I need to go and talk to him about it." Erin said, taking the piece of parchment that Cynthia thrusted at her as she sat down.
"Timetables." The Parkinson girl said. "I'm pretty sure we have the same one as usual. Except you have Care of Magical Creatures and I have Arithmancy. First thing is Transfiguration though. Oh and 'Rin, your cousin is doing dementor impressions."
"How lovely. I'll write him a note about getting him kicked off the team." Erin said, and her four best friends stared at her. "I'm kidding, Merlin - there's a few positions that I'm not holding tryouts for and seeker is one of them. Draco's a little shit but he's a good player. There's nothing I can do about his impressions."
"And his father brought the team Nimbus 2001s." Daniel pointed out, looking rather knowingly around. "Can't upset Lucius Malfoy by getting his son off the team and having your brooms revoked."
"Lucius, may I remind you, is married to my mum's sister. If I kick Draco off the team it will be for good reason, and I'm sure Aunt Narcissa will see that." Erin said, finishing her toast. "I'm thinking about coming up with a strike system though, Slytherins are all absolute arseholes when they want to be."
"Rude." Cynthia mumbled, choosing to ignore the Tonks girl rolling her eyes. "Do you think they'll listen? What if Draco goes over his amount of strikes."
"On that note, maybe I should just hold tryouts for everyone.. come up with a team of alternates." Erin considered, as the bell rang as the five of them got up, swinging bags over their shoulders. "Did you say we have Transfiguration first?" Erin asked, picking up her timetable.
"See you at lunch." Theo called, him and Cleo heading for their doors to the Great Hall, beginning their walks to Professor Binn's classroom, preparing for a lesson of listening to the ghost professor to drone on about the history of magic.
Erin, Daniel and Cynthia made their way up to Professor McGonagall's classroom, discovering that they had joint Transfiguration that year - somewhat of a rare occasion.
"Reckon we could get seats at the back? I need to write a list of my Quidditch ideas." Erin said, pulling a dark green notebook out of her bag. "I found this at the bottom of my case at like three this morning."
"What were you doing up at three?" Daniel asked, looking disgusted. "Don't tell me you didn't go to sleep and spent four hours thinking about Quidditch until Cynthia woke up and you deemed it a suitable time to get up?"
No.." Erin said, wincing as Daniel reached over and grabbed the notebook off of her, opening it and going through the first through page, which were covered in diagrams and notes.
"Holy- Erin." Cynthia gasped, pushing open the door and into the Transfiguration, looking across the classroom to try and find seats. "Don't tell me you did what Daniel's suggesting you did - and he was being sarcastic."
Erin shrugged, pulling the notebook out of Daniel's grasp and hugging it to her stomach as they walked over to some empty seats near-ish the back of the class.
"Well, well, Tonksie-Wonksie." A voice appeared above the girl, who only side, looking down at her bag, pulling out her book. "What's in here, huh? All your love letters for me?" The notebook was tugged out of Erin's hands once again.
"In your dreams, Adler." Erin replied. "And I suggest you give it back, unless you want me to make you one of the alternates and stop you from attending tryouts altogether. I can see it now, writting in bold across the bottom of the poster. 'Tyler Adler banned from Quidditch, indefinitely'."" Erin gestured with her hands, a smirk on her face.
"You don't have the power to do that." Adler scoffed, but the few friends behind him shifted nervously on the spot, and Tyler turned around to glare at them, his eyes widening as it all seemed to click. "You can't mean that they took Flint off as captain."
"You're free to go and ask Snape for yourself - I'm going to see him at lunch about tryouts and booking the pitch if you're doubting it." Erin said it with an air of confidence but she hadn't exactly realised that through her becoming captain, the position was taken away from Flint. "If you have any problems, take it up with Snape. But as of now, there will be no automatic places on the team. You're all going to have tryouts, and you're all going to have alternates, who could easily replace you."
And with that, Erin pulled the notebook off of Tyler and slammed it on the desk. Things would be a little different that year for the Slytherin Quidditch team. Erin was determined to win, and if that meant an entirely new team line-up, so be it.
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