Name Game (completed)

Chapter Two

AUTHOR'S NOTE: edited 27-05-14

Scorpius stood on the damp, misty Quidditch pitch in his blue-and-bronze robes, and surveyed the hopefuls.

He cleared his throat, hoping to get their attention.

“Okay, everyone who’s trying out for Beater, could you go and stand by that goalpost; Keeper by that one, and Chasers over there. Has everybody got that?”

There was a flurry of nods in quick succession, and most people ran off to their allocated positions on the pitch. A small boy raised his hand anxiously.

“Where should we stand if we’re trying out for Seeker?”

Scorpius sighed quietly.

“I’m Seeker, okay? Much as I would like to give everyone the opportunity to try out for their favoured position, I’m afraid the captain can’t really leave the team.” He paused. The small boy didn’t move. “So, um, if anyone was else was hoping to try out for the position of Seeker, could you either leave or decide on another position to try out for.”

The small boy seemed finally to have registered the situation, because he ran off and a fair-haired girl, whom Scorpius recognised as a fourth-year, sprinted over to where the Chasers were standing.

“Alright. We’re going to test the Keepers first.”

Half an hour later, Scorpius had managed to select a Keeper; Sam Jones, a gangly fifth-year, could fly surprisingly fast on his battered Comet Five Eighty, and was remarkably instinctive when it came to blocking shots. Satisfied with his decision he moved his attention to the matter of choosing Beaters.

“This is a hard position,” he told them, “particularly because I’m pretty certain Gryffindor will have James Potter and Fred Weasley as their Beaters; Roxanne’s the Captain this year, and we know for sure she’ll be looking for the cream of the crop. Not only are they her brother and cousin, but both played remarkably well last year, and I think we can assume they’ll be back on the team. They are, if you’ll pardon the pun, hard to beat. So what I’m looking for today is not only dedication and skill, but also the ability to apply strategic thinking to a situation while under pressure. Lots of great Quidditch teams have been let down by their Beaters being reckless. You need to be able to plan things in advance, and, if that fails, think quickly – not just act on the spur of the moment.”

The aspiring Beaters all nodded earnestly, but Scorpius suspected the majority of them had been lost by his long speech. Nevertheless he resolved to give each and every one of them a fair trial.

The first three were an unmitigated disaster; Cameron Ross looked impressive with his expensive Golden Arrow and polished style, but he failed to hit a single Bludger he swung at, Alex Richardson was poor from the off, and almost fell off his broomstick, and third was a second-year, whose name Scorpius hadn’t the chance to catch, as he burst into tears and fled the pitch the moment it was his turn.

The following four were equally disappointed, and by the time the eighth prospective Beater had crashed into one of the stands, Scorpius was distinctly disheartened.

The ninth was more promising, however; Camilla Spring, a petite yet surprisingly strong third-year with a long yellow braid and determined expression. Scorpius was extremely pleased with how she had flown – agile and swift, with very precise hand-eye coordination and an innate ability to predict where the next Bludger would come from – but a handful of the rejected players insisted that she was too small and too weak, and that the position of Beater should be played by a boy. Scorpius, however, was adamant; Camilla was exactly what he wanted – and he could hardly wait to see Fred and James’ expressions when they saw her in action. Having dismissed their claims as misogynistic (a word which Rose was particularly fond of using, and which had an almost instantaneous effect on the rejects, who shut up at once), Scorpius returned to the task of finding someone to pair up with Camilla.