Can A Phoenix Love A Lion? (Hermione Granger x Male Reader)

25. Try-Outs

At the start of October, Y/N had yet another thing to occupy him, a thing way more enjoyable than the rest. The Quidditch season was approaching, and on a Sunday the trials for the Ravenclaw team came.

Today Ravenclaws occupied half the pitch, Gryffindors the other for their trials. He could see Hermione and Ron in the stands, and Harry with the Gryffindors. But mostly what he could see was the number of people here to try out.

He felt a knot in his stomach. It wouldn't be easy—not that he had thought it would be.

"Right!" Roger Davies said. Davies was the captain and a Chaser, which meant if Y/N wanted to be one too, it'd be even harder since there was one place less for this position.

First, Davies divided them into groups of ten and asked them to fly once around the pitch; with just that, already fifteen Ravenclaws were out. Then he asked them to stand in equilibrium on their brooms, to hang upside down, and so on.

After an hour of this kind of test, Davies divided them again between those who wanted to be Chasers, Beaters, Seeker or Keeper. Y/N found himself with the first group, the biggest. It seemed he had chosen to take the hard way.

Davies began with those who tried out to be the Keeper and the Seeker—the smallest groups. Then he turned to those who wanted to be the Chasers.

Y/N gripped his broom tighter—a Silver Arrow he had got from his mother last summer—and jumped on it, raising in the air with the others.

"Good," Davies said. "We'll move on to the real test, now. Form groups of five, please. Here's what you're going to do: I'm going to give a Quaffle to two of each group, then for ten minutes the three others will try to grab these Quaffles. At the end, the two with a Quaffle will remain, the others won't. You first." Davies pointed a group, gave two people a Quaffle for each and blew his whistle.

When the first two groups finished, Y/N could only sigh with relief; Jeremy Stretton and Randolph Burrow, the previous Chasers with Davies, had been in those groups, and they had sailed through the test. Had he been in their group, his only chance would have been the remaining Quaffle, and he didn't this test to be harder than it already seemed to be.

"Now your turn," Davies said, pointing Y/N's group, the last.

He flew forward and received a Quaffle to keep. First, he couldn't help but feel relieved—he would only have to worry about catching one. Then he remembered it meant he would have to worry about keeping it.

"One—two—three!"

The moment Davies blew his whistle, Y/N found one of his opponents in front of him, stretching his hand to grab his Quaffle. Horrified, he raised his broom, starting a back somersault with it, letting his chaser pass under him.

Still hanging upside down, one arm firmly around the Quaffle, he rushed forward.

Even though there were two Quaffles, at no time was he able to rest. He had seen it all before in a match, but having to do all the things Chasers did and he found impressive was another matter. Barrels, somersaults, pike descents, hedgehopping, rocketing to the air; so many moves to do and link together to avoid being caught.

There were only five minutes left when he felt someone grabbing his leg. Next moment, he lost his balance, and almost lost his grip on his broom. He managed to get back on it, but at what cost; the Quaffle wasn't anymore in his hands. Another Ravenclaw had it, and he was already racing straight across the pitch.

Catching himself quickly, but not quickly enough to prevent the gap from widening, he charged forward. It was now up to him to chase. And he realised that the stress of chasing was far greater than the stress of being chased. Knowing that if you couldn't catch the Quaffle, you'd simply be eliminated, was horrible, especially with such a short countdown.