Chapter 76  

Alex turned towards the tall guy and said, "You did pretty well back there so why are you here for the beaters test?"

"Well…. That fourth year called Roger Davies did the best among all of us and I feel like my other two classmates Randy and Jerry did better than me, you and Su Li if we talk about pure technical skill. My name's Jason Samuels by the way." He said as he put out his hand, waiting for a shake.

Alex nodded as he shook Jason's hand, "…. You're a bit too tall for a first year, don't you think so?"

"Um… maybe I am, but aren't you a bit too short for a second year? All of your classmates are taller than you from what I've observed."

Alex smiled in response and tried to crush the guy's hand only to end up embarrassing himself.

"Tch. Height isn't the main thing you need to win duels, first year."

"Oh true. But a good body is surely needed to be a good beater. After all, you need power to hit the bludger effectively."

Alex turned back to the front, muttering to himself "We'll see about that. I don't know why professor Flitwick wants to bring first years into the team but if you really are good, I wouldn't mind having you on the team."

One by one the kids at the front of the line went forward and took their turns hitting the bludgers that shot at them from random directions. Their only task was to not miss their hits and most of them did the exact thing they weren't supposed to.

Finally, after almost thirty minutes, Alex mounted his broom and took off into the air and before positioning himself as per Flitwick's instructions, he put his right hand inside his robe, took his wand and pointed at himself.

With the meagre knowledge on blood magic, he cast a few spells and almost five seconds later, felt like he was on fire. Before he could reverse the effects, a barrage of bludgers flew into the sky.

A dozen bludgers shot at him from different directions but they all had different speeds and were shot from different distances, making sure that only one of the bludgers was in the Alex's striking range for only a second.

Only after he hit the first ball did he realize that the so called bludgers that were used for the tests were actually balls made of stone. He also felt better every time he hit the balls with all his strength.

'So... this is how it works… does the exact opposite of sloth but atleast it's less work compared to being a chaser.' He thought as he hit the last ball before continuing on with the next test which didn't happen. He turned down to look at Flitwick who motioned him to go down, to which he complied.

When he got near, Flitwick said "Stand in another line if you want to try for other spots or go join the others in the stands until all the tests are complete. I'll announce everyone's results after everything is done."

Alex nodded and headed towards the stand, giving the broom to Aman as he did so.

Jason did pretty amazing compared to the other participants as he hit ten of the twelve balls while the other two hit him instead. Unlike Alex, Jason was given more trials like stopping the balls from hitting a specific target or to catch up to a moving ball based on his positioning.

After all of it was done, he joined Alex in the stands to wait for the goal keepers' tryouts to end.

He looked down at Alex who was sitting beside him and said, "You… did pretty amazing. Looks like a good build isn't really that important…"

Alex simply nodded, smiling as he paid close attention to the test which was pretty different compared to the usual trials conducted by the team captains like it had been for the previous three tests.

Two keepers flew at two different ends of the field and waited for the red ball in the middle to fly towards them. At first, the ball flew at a speed of 20 miles an hour, but slowly the speed increased after every three attempts to block the goal.

Out of the six participants, four of them failed at the thirty mile speed mark while Aman and a guy called Grant Page held on until forty. Grant did better than Aman at blocking straight shots as he could hit the 45 mile mark but Aman was way better overall as he was able to predict and block curved shots.

"Hey Jamon, if you had to pick between a keeper who has a pretty good instinct and a keeper who has an amazing observational skill, who would you want as you keeper?" asked Alex, not moving his head away from the two best keepers who were currently taking their extra tests from Flitwick who, like Alex was also having problems with picking one of them.

"The name's Jason. Not Jamon. Also, the answer to your question will be…. Let me see… instincts are hard to train but it's a pretty important thing for a professional keeper while observational skills… are also important. Aaagh, why is this hard?

Well… If the player's instincts are like really good, I'll go with that but if it isn't, then there is no consistency so I'll pick the other. Yep, that's what I'll do." He said, while confirming his choice at the end.

Alex simply nodded while he waited for the whole test to end as the sun was almost completely down and the sky was going dark. Luckily, he didn't have to wait for too long as Flitwick told them to get down and dismissed the students from the field with an announcement that basically said that the last trial will be held the next day.

Aman and Alex headed to their common room together along with Jason, Su Li, Cho Chang, Roger and the others after Alex borrowed the Nimbus from Harry for a day, only to find a new notice stuck on the notice board that had the names of fourteen candidates on it with seven on one team each.