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The rest of the week seemed to pass by without incident. Buffy was firmly planted into the group, the four of them rarely seen without each other. Malfoy continued to avoid them, looking the other way whenever the group walked by. Saturday came, and Buffy was glad for the break from schoolwork.

She lay in bed, stretching luxuriously over the large mattress. She really loved the Hogwarts beds.

“Are you coming to the tryouts?” Hermione asked from her own bed.

“Tryouts?” Buffy repeated.

“For Quidditch,” Hermione said. “They’re being held in an hour.”

Buffy sat up in her bed and looked over at her friend.

“Just to once again prove my ignorance about all things magickal…what exactly is Quidditch?”

Hermione’s eyes widened. “Oh, it’s the best game. It’s a lot like basketball, except in the air on broomsticks. There’s three hoops that you can score in, with seven players on each team. Harry’s on the Gryffindor team and Ron wants to try out to fill in the vacant position.”

Buffy just shrugged. “I guess so. Sounds kinda cool.”

“It is. It’s really dangerous though,” Hermione said. “And I think the only reason Ron’s even trying out s because all of his brothers have been on the Quidditch team at one stage or another. Well, except Percy, but he’s just stuffy, so he doesn’t count.”

“How many brothers does he have?” Buffy asked curiously.

“Five,” Hermione replied. “And Ginny. He’s the second youngest. You haven’t met Ron’s brothers yet?”

Buffy shook her head. “I didn’t even know his brothers were at Hogwarts.”

Hermione laughed a little. “There’s only two of them at Hogwarts. I don’t know how you haven’t seen them. Fred and George. They’re twins, in their seventh year. They’re absolutely hilarious. Pranksters, both of them.”

Hermione threw off her bedcovers and hopped off the bed, padding over to her trunk to remove a pair of jeans and a sweater. Buffy sighed and reluctantly rolled off her mattress, shivering a little as her bare feet hit the cold ground.

She rummaged through her trunk and picked out a pair of fitted denim jeans, a white turtleneck and a half-length leather coat. The girls changed quickly and Hermione eyed the small blonde.

“You’ve got a real fascination with leather, don’t you?”

Buffy grinned and linked arms with the girl who was becoming an incredibly good friend.

“I’d wear the pants, but I don’t want the boys to crash.”

“Modest too,” Hermione said with a grin.

“I could lend ‘em to ya,” Buffy said. “Make Ron go crazy.”

Hermione went a brilliant shade of red.

“Why would I want Ron to go crazy?” she asked, trying to sound innocent.

Buffy just rolled her eyes as they made their way through the Gryffindor common room and out into the corridor.

“You two could not be more obvious,” Buffy said. “I swear, if you don’t get together soon, I’m going to lock you in a room together until you get your smoochies.”

Hermione giggled a little, reminding Buffy sorely of Willow. Hermione suddenly stopped giggling and turned to look at her new friend.

“I thought you liked Ron,” Hermione said.

“Not like that,” Buffy replied.

“But…he keeps putting his arm around you.”

“Once!”

“And he keeps mentioning your leather pants,” Hermione argued.

“He’s male,” Buffy replied. “Hermione, he’s completely a smitten kitten over you, trust me. Although…seeing as you don’t like him…”

“Alright, so…maybe I do like him,” Hermione conceded. “But…I couldn’t make the first move. It’d be too embarrassing.”

“Alright, so we’ll get him to make the first move,” Buffy said.

Hermione nodded and then paused. “How?”

Buffy grinned. “Make him insanely jealous.”

“How am I meant to do that?”

“Flirt with Harry,” Buffy replied easily. “Trust me, it’ll get his attention.”

Hermione pondered the suggestion for quite some time. They’d reached the bottom floor before she could think of something wrong with that idea.

“What if Harry gets the wrong impression?” Hermione asked.

“I’ll talk to him. Don’t worry. He’ll probably go along with it as well,” Buffy said. “I think he’s just as eager for you guys to be together as you are.”

“Speaking of Harry,” Hermione said with a sly grin on her face. “What’s with you two?”

“Nothing’s with us two,” Buffy replied. “We’re friends.”

“You like him though,” Hermione said.

Buffy sighed. It was the truth. She did like him. More than liked him. But…it couldn’t happen. After Angel and what had happened with him, not to mention the fact that her father was the man who had cold-bloodedly murdered thousands of people including Harry’s parents…romance wasn’t a road that Buffy wanted to take. Harry was slowly slipping through her emotional barriers though, even though she was trying not to let it happen.

“I do.”

“But?”

“But…the last relationship I had ended badly,” Buffy explained. “I’m just not ready to start anything with anyone right now. Or ever again for that matter.”

Hermione sighed. She’d learnt that stubbornness was a definite character trait in her new friend.

“And if he asked you to be more than friends?” Hermione asked.

Buffy shrugged. They began heading across the large rolling lawns towards the Quidditch pitch, the sun beaming down on them brightly.

“I really don’t know.”

They took a seat in one of the stands, surprised at how many people had come to watch as well as to try out. They could see Ron standing in the centre of the pitch, looking incredibly nervous. The six Gryffindor players were decked out in their uniforms, ready to see who would become their new Keeper to replace Oliver Wood.

“Is that…Neville?” Hermione asked, a slight giggle escaping her.

Buffy squinted and saw that, yes, Neville was standing on the grass beside Seamus Finnigan. There were also several second, third and fourth years waiting to try out as well.

“Good on him,” Buffy said enthusiastically. “He needs something to boost his confidence.”

“You are aware he’s got a serious crush on you,” Hermione said. “Although, I think most of the boys in this year and the years above us are in the same boat.”

Buffy rolled her eyes but didn’t reply. She was aware of the stares that she got at lunch, she knew of the rumours that had spread about her after the incident with Malfoy on the first day. And it wasn’t just the Gryffindor boys that had their eyes on her. She’d seen boys from all the other houses, including Slytherin, sizing her up.

“Oh, hey look, it’s starting,” Buffy said, pointing to where something was finally happening on the pitch.

Hermione recognised a diversionary tactic when she saw one, but let it pass. She pointed to the two red-haired boys in the Quidditch robes. “That’s Fred and George there. Ron’s brothers. I’ll have to introduce you to them. I swear, you’ll never laugh so hard in your laugh than when you’re around those two.”

A booming voice surrounded the stadium, startling both Gryffindor girls.

“Welcome to the Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts!”

Hermione looked across the stadium to where Lee Jordan, a good friend of Fred and George’s, was seated in the commentator’s box.

“Today, we’ll be selecting a new member for the team to take on the position of Keeper. This year’s team so far consists of Fred and George Weasley, the terrible two, the best of the bludgers, who beat those Bludgers into bloody submission. They’re the Beaters that no one can beat.”

Hermione giggled, but the words coming from Lee weren’t making any sense to Buffy at all.

“Next we’ve got Katie Bell. You can ring my bell anytime you like Katie.”

Buffy groaned. Obviously wizard boys weren’t all that different to muggle boys after all.

“Katie’s a Chaser both on the field and off. This year, she’s got her sights set on George Weasley.”

“I wonder if she can tell him apart from Fred,” Hermione whispered with a giggle.

“Next up is Angelina Johnson, Chaser extraordinaire. She and Fred Weasley have been something of an item since last years Yule Ball, and from the looks of things they’re still going strong. C’mon guys, break it up, this is Quidditch, not tonsil hockey.”

Buffy looked down and saw that two of the robed people were indeed wrapped in an embrace and kissing. Buffy watched as they stepped apart, looking slightly embarrassed.

“After that, there’s Alicia Spinnet. She’s the third Gryffindor Chaser, though she’s defying house spirit and has lately been seen socialising with Ravenclaw’s Justin Waters.”

“Are you sure this is tryouts, or is it just a colour commentary of everyone’s love lives?” Buffy asked.

“Last, but definitely not least, we’ve got the famous Gryffindor Seeker, Harry Potter. Harry’s been on the house team since his first year at Hogwarts. He’s only ever missed the Snitch once, and that was only due to a case of really rotten luck. Harry’s been seen hanging around the extremely gorgeous new girl, Buffy Summers. Buffy’s well known for bringing Draco Malfoy off his self-built pedestal on the first day of term. Kudos to you Buffy.”

Buffy had gone red the second she’d heard her name. Hermione couldn’t contain her giggling, and had been hit across the arm by Buffy when she’d accidentally snorted in her laughter.

“Alright, let’s get down to business,” Lee said. “We’ll begin with the seventh years and work our way down.”

They watched as the six Gryffindor Players took turns throwing the Quaffle towards the hoops as the people trying out tried to stop them from scoring. Buffy could see why this was an extremely dangerous game. She’d watched in fright as one of the sixth year girls had very nearly fallen from her broom from fifty feet in the sky.

“Why didn’t you try out?” Buffy asked.

Hermione just shook her head. “I don’t fly.”

“What about Ron?” Buffy asked. “Is he any good?”

“He’s alright. Not as good as Harry though.”

Buffy turned her attention back to the tryouts, suddenly far more interested now that they were down to the fifth years that she actually knew.

“Next up is Ron Weasley. Ron’s the fifth Weasley to try out for the Gryffindor team, so let’s see if he’s got what all his other brothers had. Except Percy of course. We just hope Ron doesn’t have whatever Percy had.”

Hermione giggled and crossed her fingers. Ron flew up towards the goals and the tryout was on. Buffy watched, her heart racing empathetically. She could tell that Ron was nervous, but he seemed to be doing well so far. Alicia aimed at the goal, but Ron managed to keep the Quaffle from scoring. He threw the ball back to Alicia who passed to Angelina.

Angelina aimed it at the last goal, hoping that Ron would miss, seeing as it was the goal farthest from them. Ron somehow managed to only just keep the ball from scoring. He grinned in relief and threw the ball back.

Angelina passed to Katie who faked going right, actually went left and tried to score in the centre.

Ron managed to clip the Quaffle with the tail of his broom.

“I think it’s safe to say that this Weasley’s inherited the Quidditch genes,” Lee crowed. “Three amazing saves from Ron that would have had Oliver himself proud.”

Ron grinned and after saving ten out of ten goals, he lowered himself to the ground, Fred and George bursting into excited applause and ruffling their younger brother’s hair affectionately.

They watched the other fifth year boys try out, Neville managed to save three of the ten goals, but missing the other seven by a long shot. Seamus and Dean did a little better, and by the time they’d tried out the second year people, the crowd of spectators had thinned out completely to consist only of Buffy and Hermione.

“And that’s the final contestant in today’s game of Quidditch. The results will be out next Friday evening after dinner, so let the speculation begin. The betting pool is being run by Fred and George, as always. See you in a few months when the Quidditch Games begin.”

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