Limited Edition (Sirius/OC)

Trying Times in Reds and Golds

6. Trying Times in Reds and Golds

One year earlier...

How did James expect me to find a new Beater in less than 24 hours? Especially when he hadn't managed to find one himself. Did he think I was a miracle worker? He'd been on the lookout since before the summer hols. We'd all known that James would be our new commander-in-chief once Roger left the fold. There are rumours that he's currently training for the Cannons, and a small part of me wondered if my future lay there.

Not with the Chudley Cannons because everyone knew that those players in orange hadn't won the League Cup since 1892. Maybe the Holyhead Harpies though. They were the second oldest team in the league and only hired female players.

McGonagall wouldn't want to hear it, of course, since a future in sports is no future at all. My father would strongly agree. Come to think of it, my father and McGonagall would probably hit it off right away. They were both practical and had a stern look on their faces.

I remembered when the girl next door refused to come play with me and my brother as long as my father was home. "Is he gone yet?" she would ask us. If we replied negatively, she'd just shook her head and ask if we came over to her house instead.

It was a real bother, but something my father had always been able to laugh about. I did secretly suspect that it hurt his feelings somewhat that the kids in the neighbourhood thought him some kind of monster that would eat them alive if they came over to play while he was at home. In their defence, though, whenever my Dad got angry, he had the lung capacity of a Roman general readying his troops for the oncoming battle. That man could yell like nobody's business.

I stared bleakly at the parchment in front of me. I'd been thinking about any potential, female Beaters to join our team and so far hadn't gotten that many girls on my list. There was Anita Broker. She was a third year and would be able to play for the first time this year since younger students generally weren't allowed to practice Quidditch. And rightly so. Quidditch could be a dangerous and exhausting game. Especially under James' command. He'd been helping Roger last year with our training schedules and that year had been the roughest one so far. The best one we'd played, sure, so James' tactics were, in fact, working and I'd gotten more muscled and lean since he shared his expertise. But still.

Anita was a blond-haired, green-eyed, soon-to-be beauty that I'd seen playing Quidditch over the summer. Her house was adjacent to Marlene's, and Leeney's bedroom terrace had a perfect view of their garden. Anita, apparently, had a lot of male cousins - one of which broke Marlene's heart over the summer and is never to be mentioned again - that liked to play Quidditch. Anita had been good enough to stand her ground against her older cousins - the youngest was eighteen and the oldest somewhere in his mid-twenties - so I was definitely planning on asking her to join us.

Ciara Darrow was the other girl on my short list of two. Ciara was more ordinary looking and built a little lighter than Anita. She was a fifth year, and thus a year below me. I'd gotten to know her through Bass, who generally liked and knew everyone. We hadn't talked as much, but we were on a first name basis, I supposed. At least we nodded in the hallway to one another, and I had a feeling she was the kind of girl I might one day be friends with. Anyhow, it was Bass that had given me the idea that she might have some Beater potential. He was always going on and on about how she had a tactical mind and was a lot stronger than she looked.

Not that I think she looked weak, but I did wonder if she'd be able to hit Bludgers for hours on end. Bass did say that she was a decent flyer since they flew to Ireland last year to spend the weekend in Kilkenny. I had been a little jealous, but they'd never really dated. Bass always seemed very adamant to let me know that he wasn't dating anyone. I couldn't imagine trying to compete with someone like Ciara.