The Fifth Marauder

Chapter Eight

Saturday came quicly, and I was having doubts about trying out for Chaser. I knew that James wouldn't laugh at me, but still, if I was terrible, I didn't want to be embarrased. The tryouts were just before lunch, so I had all morning to decided.

Lily came up to me while I was sitting in the common room, working for once.

"Hey, good luck today Gwen!" she said brightly. Alice looked up from where she was across the table and asked, "Good luck for what?"

"Oh, Gwen is going to try out for Chaser," Lily replied while I frantically shook my head at her.

"Wow, really?" Alice asked. "That's great! It'll be cool to have one of my friends on the team."

"Yeah, well, I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to try out after all. What if I'm not any good?"

"I'm sure you're amazing! You have to try out. If you don't, you'll just regret it," Lily said wisely.

"That's true, but..."

"No. No buts. You're going to try out, and that's final! Even if we have to march you there ourselves!"

So that was how I found myself standing in the midst of Quidditch tryouts with my broom, Lily and Alice keeping an eye on me from the stands. James was walking up and down the rows of students trying out, and stopped short when he saw me.

"Gwen. What on earth are you doing here?"

"I-I'm going to try out for Chaser," I said, and he burst out laughing. My mouth dropped open and I slapped him.

"Hey! Ow! What was that for?"

"That was for laughing at me!"

"You-you're serious?!"

"Yes! Why, do you not think I'm good enough?"

"No, no, not at all! I was just-"

"Well, save it James, because I'm going to try out whether you like it or not!"

"I never said-"

"Shut up! I'm trying out now."

Looking bewildered, James got onto his broom and took off into the air. I got onto my broom and followed him, now determined to get the position just to prove him wrong. Jerk.

Someone passed a ball to me, and I caught it with ease and went speeding off towards the goalpost, scoring easily. The ball was thrown to me six more times, each time getting harder to put it through the posts, but I managed it with ease. When I was finished scoring the last goal, I landed on the ground and James landed next to me.

"Well?" I asked, scared of the answer.

"Gwen, you're amazing!"

"I told you so, didn't I, James?"

"I never doubted y-"

"Stop! Just tell me, did I make the team?"

"Yeah, you made it," he replied. I screamed and threw my arms around his neck, jumping up and down. I pulled away and ran up to the stands, screaming to Alice and Lily, "I made it! I made it! I'm on the team! I'm a Chaser!"

They screamed as well and jumped up and down with me.

"Can you believe James laughed at me?" I said once we had calmed down a bit.

"What a jerk," Lily said and shook her head.

"All right, for the record, I didn't say you couldn't do it," James said behind us, defending himself. I scoffed and he put his head in his hands. "Look, Gwen, I thought you were joking. You had never mentioned before about wanting to be on the team, so I thought you were kidding."