Pluto Projector.

Chapter Seventeen.

(Y/n) learned quickly that nonverbal spells were a norm for all of the classes that involved magic. She was a quick learner, admittedly, and the teachers were giving her a bit of slack considering she was still academically behind her peers, but (Y/n) found that nonverbal spells were almost natural to her— She would accidentally cast a spell without at all meaning to. She, Parvati, Padma, and Dean had been trying and trying to find any bit of information on vampires that they could. When Hermione's birthday rolled around, two days before Ravenclaw tryouts, (Y/n) wound up spending the day with Hermione after gifting her a present.

"All right, we need to get this over with as quickly as possible, I think," Cho said, pacing before those present for tryouts. (Y/n) found that she was one of the only two girls present. "We'll start with testing your flying. Three groups of ten, please..."

Only half of the first group could actually ride and steer their brooms without crashing. Of the second group, there was a pileup halfway around the pitch, much to (Y/n)'s frustration. She merely soared right over them, resulting in a giddy thumbs-up to the biased Ravenclaw captain below. The third group ran into the same issues as the first two teams— By the end of it, Cho had eliminated ten of the auditioners, leaving twenty.

"Now I want you to divide up by what you're auditioning for," Cho said. "Chasers, here. Beaters, there. And Keepers, right here..." (Y/n) stepped over to the Chasers, where eight others had joined her. Three were auditioning for Keepers and seven for Beaters. Chija silently counted every one. "All right, this is perfect— Three groups of three, Chasers, and then up in the air!"

The two (Y/n) wound up getting paired with seemed very reluctant to work with her— Even though she had been on the Ravenclaw team for longer than Cho had. It truly was a tough decision for Cho by the end of things. She had already made up her mind about (Y/n), but (Y/n) had a chameleon effect, as in she was able to work well with whoever Cho paired her up with. In the end, Cho managed to put together a nice set of three Chasers and two stand-ins.
After another hour and a half, Cho also got her Beaters and Keeper in addition to their stand-ins. She was very pleased with the tryouts as were the spectators. On their way off the field, a light drizzle had started right in time for the tryouts to end. (Y/n) continued to the locker room and changed with Cho and the one other girl that had tried out and managed to become the Keeper. With their return to the castle, (Y/n) found Hermione already waiting at the entrance. Hermione abruptly whisked (Y/n) off, much to Cho's dismay.

"Slughorn dinner tonight, you're going, right?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah," (Y/n) nodded.

"Great. I won't be alone," Hermione breathed.

"Ginny's going too," (Y/n) said. "So is Harry, right?"

"Harry's got detention," Hermione frowned.

"Oh, that's right," (Y/n) murmured. "Well, I will see you soon. We ought to go get ready..." She walked off, muttering something about how she needed to style her skirts and dresses before it would be too cold to do so. Hermione, too, made for her own tower, smiling to herself whilst shaking her head.

(Y/n) was very pleasantly surprised to discover Hermione had also chosen to wear a skirt. She knew it was a step outside of Hermione's comfort zone and that Hermione had little to no skirts and dresses in her closet— Not that Hermione needed any to put together a formal look. Hermione wore a nice magenta maxi skirt into which she had a patterned sweater— one that (Y/n) was positive was one of her own— tucked. In contrast, (Y/n) had a flowy blue long-sleeved dress under which she had black patterned tights and boots. They both wore belts— (Y/n)'s was silver stars and moons while Hermione's was a wider brown one that separated the skirt and sweater.