Tryouts

The next three days went by a blur as Chris dedicated all her free time on dark arts books. Umbridge was planning something against Chris, she was sure of it. Umbridge's evil smile boiled her blood every time she saw her but she kept her calm. Chris wanted to be prepared for Umbridge. If she could hurt students then Chris could payback her too.

Other than Harry, Cedric was having a hard time too as Umbridge had clearly indicated that Cedric is either Confunded or the Triwizard Championship had a bad effect on his mental health. Cedric Diggory, the boy who was the most popular boy from Hufflepuff was now avoiding people. The school was buzzing with the news of an attention-seeking Harry and a mentally ill Cedric's story. Unfortunately, Chris didn't go unnoticed either, everyone was curious why Chris wasn't claiming anything, why wasn't she fighting with Umbridge. So they started to make their own theories about Chris's silence.

"Why do you think she is acting like this?"

"Of course she is silent now. She had done her job."

"Because of her Potter and Diggory are lying."

"Maybe the boys are under the imperious curse."

"Possible. She could do it."

"She is using them for her dirty work."

"That's it." Ginny snapped at a group of Slytherin girls Friday afternoon, who were talking about Chris.

"Gin, leave it," Chris said calmly.

The group was of a few fourth and third year Slytherin girls. Chris was a little surprised to see Astoria among them.

"No, wait," Ginny turned towards the girls. "Don't you have better things to do rather than gossiping all day and night? Don't you all get tired of it? I think you all should put effort into your studies so you can actually do something other than gossiping."

A fourth-year girl was about to give a nasty reply when Chris pulled Ginny back.

"We've our tryouts Gin, let's go," Chris said then glared at the group. "Like you said they've nothing better to do but we have. C'mon."

Chris stared at Astoria before leaving and she suddenly looked very uncomfortable and looked away from Chris.

Dozen of people showed up for keepers tryout. Angelina was looking very relieved by this. Whereas Fred and George both looked very shocked to see Ron there. Chris had already told Ginny about him. 

Soon Angelina signed all of them to take their positions. Chris and Ginny will be the one, who will try to goal and Angelina will observe the keepers.

Angelina called a tall sixth year Gryffindor boy, first. Chris did the first goal and he couldn't stop it, then Ginny gave an easy shot but again he failed and almost collided with George's Bludger.

Next one was a seventh-year girl, who saved a goal but didn't see the Bludger coming. Then a fourth-year boy dodged a Bludger exceptionally well but then fumbled an easy save. Then came Geoffrey Hooper, who saved all the three goals from Chris and Ginny but started criticizing them. Angelina wasn't impressed by this behaviour so she asked him to go. It was Ron's turn, who saved two goals but missed one and got a hit from the Bludger. 

Katie Bell also tried but she admitted that keeping wasn't really her thing.

The sky was darkened as players after players tried to save goals. Few were good, few were average but no one was close to Oliver Wood. At the end of the tryout, Chris and Ginny were more exhausted than anyone. Angelina asked the others to wait as she called the team members for their opinion.

"Vicky Frobisher is the best among them," Ginny said at once.

"I agree, but I've talked to her. She's involved in all sorts of societies, and if our schedule clashed with her Charm Club she'd put Charms first." Angelina replied. "What about Hooper? I know he's a little bit —"

"A real whiner and a git." Fred supplied.

Angelina glared at him but then sighed.

"Who else then? Rodriguez was nice, so was Ron. What do you think?" She said.

"Well it's your call, Angelina," George said. "I think they both were quite same."

Angelina looked at Ginny and Fred.

"We don't want to select Ron just because he's our brother," Ginny said bluntly.

"Hmm. What do you think Chris?" Angelina turned to Chris.

"Both of them needs to practice, that's for sure," Chris said. "Now the other thing is the team effort. So who do you think will be easy to work with, it's your decision."

"Ron." Angelina declared. "Call them, Ginny." 

An hour later Chris, Ginny, Fred and George had smuggled loads of butterbeer and food from the kitchen. They celebrated their new team before going to bed. 

Next morning Chris decided to meet Jason before breakfast as Angelina called them for practice that afternoon. She promised Jason that she was going to spend the afternoon with him but now she had to postpone it. She was feeling really bad but Angelina's mood wasn't good either. So in the end, Chris walked towards the dungeon to apologize.

Just as she crossed the potion classroom, she realized she didn't know where the Slytherin common room was exactly. Chris wandered around hoping to find something or someone. Few Slytherin girls and boys did pass her but everyone evidently ignored her. 

Chris checked her watch and saw it was nearly breakfast time. Disappointed she turned around the corner to go back to the great hall when she literally ran into Theodore.

"Hey, hey, watch out," Theodore exclaimed before looking up.

"Sorry, and hey, hi," Chris said awkwardly.

"Oh hey, Chris! What're you doing here?" He looked surprised but then guessed. "Jason?"

"Yeah, actually I wanted to meet him before breakfast but I just realized I've no idea where the Slytherin common room is," Chris confessed.

"That happens when you date someone from a different house." Theodore joked but Chris clearly saw the strain on his face. There were dark circles under his eyes. Something was badly off about him. Last year his father was one of the death eaters who joined Voldemort after his rebirth. Chris had seen him. A surprising thought shot threw her: what if Theodore's weirdness had something to do with his father and Voldemort?

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To be continued...