Broom Upgrade

Harry saw the astonished look on the keepers face. With a bit more training for trick shoots from a broom he would get that trick down. His next try was a power-play move. He feinted right, Pomarel saw the feint, Harry threw at the left hoop, the quaffle rebounded from Pomarel's broom-tail but Harry had counted on that, was ready to take the rebound and placed the quaffle in the centre hoop. Third goal.

"Is he really just a firstie, Daniel?" Quentana asked awed.

"Yes, but I've heard that his father was one of the best chasers Gryffindor ever had. He must have inherited the talent. That's great, especially as he only had his first flying lesson last week. Imagine how good he will be with proper training." Daniel said grinning.

"Huh, he never before sat on a broom?" She asked shocked.

"Yes, he is muggle raised. Fantastic performance. We just need to see if he can play in a formation of three." Daniel said ecstatic. How Wood would curse that Harry hadn't been sorted into Gryffindor like most assumed he would be.

Harry got his last shot in, which made four goals for him.

The next thing Daniel had them train was passing the quaffle in formation. Here Harry's school broom proved to be a disadvantage as the faster brooms of the other aspirants made him look worse than them.

"This doesn't do. Potter, get down here." Daniel shouted and Harry flew down.

"Take this broom. I want to see what you can really do and not what the snail of a school-broom lets you do." He said holding out his broom.

"You really let me use your broom?" Harry asked disbelievingly.

"Don't disappoint me." Daniel said and Harry nodded, taking the Comet 260 and went back up. Now that he had a chance to match the speed of the other chasers he managed to get into formation without problem and passed the quaffle with precision. All his football training was now a big advantage.

Daniel sent the keeper aspirants up and let them test their abilities against different chains of chasers. Lisa did well, but the others were simply better. After the tryout was over Daniel called all those he hadn't yet sorted out together.

"Okay, thanks to all of you for coming to the try-outs. I'll just tell you who got the free spots and who was chosen for reserve. Beaters are Steven Remmons and Tod Gellan with Willow Fassix as reserve. Chasers are Quentana Pollianore, Roger Davies and Harry Potter with Denise Thompson as reserve. Keeper is Pomarel Oustabler with Releena Selwyn as reserve and I'm seeker with Cho Chang as reserve. Those that didn't make the team, don't take it too hard." Daniel said.

Harry was grinning happily. He had done it. He was on the Quidditch team.

"Potter, make sure you quickly get a proper broom, you can't train with the school-brooms." Daniel reminded Harry.

"Will do, Barkaim." Harry responded.

...

Harry went to Madam Hooch, returned the school-broom and told her he had been accepted as chaser for Ravenclaw. She congratulated him and told him she would inform Professor Flitwick.

"Do you have an idea what kind of broom you want to get?" She asked.

"Yes, a Nimbus 2000. It has the best performance for the chaser position." Harry answered.

"Good choice. Well, I guess you'll want to tell your friends the good news." She said and shooed him away.

When Harry returned to Ravenclaw tower, Lisa had already spread the news of him making the team. The other first years, which saw him as something akin to their leader, assembled and congratulated him. Harry thanked them and donated a box of twenty chocolate frogs to them. They sat together and Harry and Lisa retold the tryout. When they went down to lunch around one, other Ravenclaws also congratulated Harry, which he accepted with a smile.

....

By Monday morning the whole school knew that Harry Potter, a first-year, had made the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Harry tried to just politely sit it out, but sometimes he couldn't help but proudly tell about some of his successful shoots. He had found out that Quidditch and flying was something that gave him an exhilarating feeling. He had loved playing football at primary school, but this was even better. And it had the double effect to have his housemates like him even more. Some others were noticeably jealous about him being accepted into the Quidditch team, but nobody could say he wouldn't be able to combine the training for the team and the workload from classes. It was a well-known fact that he was ahead of his peers. The ones who stood out mostly with their criticism were Ron Weasley and Zacharias Smith. Both were the generally jealous types and Harry had the impression that Weasley took it as a personal insult that he hadn't been sorted into Gryffindor. Smith was just nasty and didn't like if others were better than him. And Harry excelled at everything.

Much to the frustration of Hermione Granger, Harry was the top of class in his year. She was used to being at the top of her classes, but here Harry was, the Boy-Who-Could-Simply-Do-Everything-Without-Problem . But she still couldn't dislike him. When she had asked how he did magic so easily, he had just told her his method. He had told her which books she should get for potions to get the best possible results. And his advice for getting to know people had got her her first real friend in Miranda Lillowe, her roommate in Gryffindor. They were five girls in their dorm, herself, Miranda, Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown and Cecilia Robards. The last three were more interested in fashion and cosmetics than their studies, but they were okay. Miranda was more outgoing than herself, but still didn't neglect her work. She didn't do the amount of extra work Hermione did, she wasn't interested in being the best, but she wanted to do well in her classes.

She informed Hermione about her secret. Time management. Miranda had learned from her mother how to best organize her time so she could have fun with the rest of it after her homework was done. Miranda was perfectly content with getting over eighty per cent in her classes and that was it. While Hermione couldn't yet accept that for herself, she was too competitive for that, she had taken up a more relaxed attitude. Both girls had also connected someway with Neville Longbottom, whom Miranda had decided had potential that just needed to be coaxed out of him. And she had been proven right, Neville had potential. With the attention from Hermione and Miranda, he gave away that he was really knowledgeable in Herbology. His main problem was his insecurity his family had instilled in him.

But despite all Hermione's and Miranda's coaching Neville had problems with the wanded subjects and Potions. He did well enough in Astronomy and History of Magic. Hermione had even managed to get him into Science and Literature where he was doing well too. Therefore Miranda one day after dinner pulled Neville after her, followed by Hermione towards the Ravenclaw table.

"Hi, Potter. I'm Miranda Lillowe; I think you already know Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom?" She asked.

"Yes, I do, nice meeting you, Lillowe. What can I do for you? I guess there is a reason why you were pulling Longbottom after you." Harry said.

"Indeed. Well, as the acknowledged magical genius of our year, I wanted to ask you if you could help us finding out why Neville has so many problems in the wanded subjects. Potions I can understand, he's too afraid what Professor Snape would do if he messed up and then messes up really badly. But we have tried different methods of explaining him a spell and it just doesn't help." Miranda explained.

"I see, come on, let's go to one of the unused classrooms and I'll see if I can spot the reason. If you really put so much effort in your work it should at least have had some effects." Harry said. "Terry, would you mind taking my bag with you to Ravenclaw tower?" Harry asked his seat neighbour.

"No, no problem, Harry." Terry answered, taking another portion of apple pie, today's dessert.

Harry led them towards the Transfiguration corridor. He knew that two doors behind the classroom was another, unused one.

"Why are there so many unused classrooms here by the way?" Miranda asked.

"The main reason is the war against Voldemort. During that time many young witches and wizards died before they had children or only had one child like in Susan Bones' and my cases. Other families, mainly the pureblood ones, tend to only have one magical child. Good examples are the Malfoys, the Parkinsons, the Crabbes, the Goyles and so on. That reduced the number of children born immensely. Hagrid told me that the year after next a massively higher number of first years will start. There has been a baby boom after Voldemort fell." Harry explained.

....

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