The next few weeks have been headaches for the group of girls, that's for sure. Not only do they have to deal with homework and the looming new threat over their heads, but they have to keep Ethan safe from their own teachers. Hannah practically refuses to speak to professors, and only talks when spoken to. She's too afraid that she'll give away Ethan's position. Julia spends most of her time either doing homework or finding more places for Ethan to hide in the Gryffindor common room. Maria and Lauren do their best to keep everyone's spirits lifted and to keep them on track of their school work. Alana keeps a watchful eye out every time she wanders the halls to get to her classes. Agnes is the only one who seems to think this is a blast.

"Do you have any idea how many rules we are breaking just by doing nothing?!" Agnes bounces up and down in her chair at the Great Hall. Everyone is eating lunch between their second and third periods this stressful Friday. "I mean, honestly! We should sneak people in here more often!"

"Goodness, Agnes! You bring this up every day. Give it a break!" Hannah slams her book closed and marches out of the Great Hall.

"I'll go talk to her-" Julia sighs and is about to stand up, but Alana puts a hand on her shoulder and makes her sit back down.

"No, I got it. You need to eat today. You didn't even eat breakfast." Alana smiles reassuringly and nudges Julia's bowl of soup closer to her. "See you all in double Herbology."

Everyone waves to Alana as she leaves the hall to chase after Hannah. Julia grumbles and pushes her bowl further away, making Maria miffed. "Jules, you seriously have to eat! You aren't leaving until you finish at least a bowl of soup. I don't care if you're late to Herbology."

"Blame Agnes! She's the one who's making me do it!" Julia crosses her arms and plays with her french onion soup.

"You know you want to. I'm not making you do anything." Agnes blows some hair out of her face. She's getting tired of people yelling at her this morning. "I just know that even though you're a brave Gryffindor, you wouldn't have the courage to try out unless I told you to!"

Agnes slings her bag over her shoulder and speed walks to Herbology, not wanting to talk to anyone anymore. She's trying her best to help out, but everyone's just yelling at her. Can't they tell she's nervous beyond all belief too?

"I'm going to get my Herbology gloves from the common room." Julia rolls her eyes and leaves the table before she starts crying.

While Julia walks away, Maria yells, "Julia, come here and eat something!"

"No!" Julia doesn't even turn around to answer her friend. She leaves the Great Hall to get her gloves and check on her brother.

"Well, that was intense." Lauren leans her head on her palm and continues to nibble on her food. "Agnes and Julia are really nervous, but I never would have guessed they'd actually yell at each other."

"It's because of everything piling up all of a sudden, and Agnes is making Julia try out for Quidditch with her." Maria rubs her forehead and closes her Herbology book softly. "I wish they understood they are both good enough to make it onto the team."

"I sure hope so. Do you have any idea how terrible it would be if one of them made it and the other didn't?" Lauren finishes stating her worries just before the warning bell rings. Settling their nerves, the two remaining girls gather their things and head off to Herbology.

Right before class started, Julia was able to find her gloves and her brother. Even though she insisted on him staying in the common room, Ethan put on a Gryffindor tie and tailed her to class. It's like he is convinced something bad is going to happen, or he just secretly wants to go to class with her. Either way, now Hannah, Agnes, Maria, Lauren, and especially Julia are completely tensed up while they stand next to Ethan in the Herbology greenhouse.

"Why is he in class with us?!" Lauren whispers through her teeth. Despite the lowered volume, Julia's stature still shrinks when she hears Lauren's voice.

"He wouldn't stay put!" Julia says and glares at her younger brother. "Where's Alana?"

"She had an appointment with the Headmaster. She said it was about transfer classes from Ilvermorny because she doesn't need a double Herbology or something," Hannah explains. She is glad that Alana came to talk to her after she stormed off. It was nice to talk to someone who didn't know about her debacle with the death eater last year. However, she still feels bad for snapping at Agnes.

"Woah this is cool! Did you guys know Mandrakes can be used to cure those who have been petrified?" Ethan talks in his normal pitch, making the five girls quickly shush him.

"This is going to be one long class." Maria mumbles and goes back to potting her Mandrakes.

The Hufflepuff girl wasn't kidding. The double Herbology class felt like it lasted an eternity. The only thing worse than that class is double Potions on Thursdays. Julia and Hannah did whatever they could to keep Professor Sprout's attention off of Ethan for the entire class. Maria just felt terrible being there with her head of house being so close to Ethan. Lauren and Agnes tried to act natural, which proved to be difficult for the latter. She is so nervous about Quidditch tryouts that she almost threw up in her group's soil pots.

When the class was halfway over, Alana came back and gave Professor Sprout a note from Dumbledore excusing her from the first half of class. She joined Agnes's table with Maria and Lauren. Now that the class is finally over, the girls can get ramped up.

"I am so excited for you two!" Maria squeals and wraps her arms around Agnes and Julia as the group walks to the Quidditch field. "You'll do great!"

Ethan promised to stay in the common room for the weekend if he was allowed to go to the tryouts and watch his sister. He leads the group over to the field with Lauren and keeps looking back at the other girls. "Agnes is gonna be the best Seeker ever, and Julia the best Chaser! Gryffindor is sure to win the Quidditch Cup this year!"

"I don't know who to root for when Gryffindor plays Ravenclaw! Ian is their best Beater and he's super competitive." Lauren complains, not knowing what to do when her brother plays against two of her best friends. "Maybe I'll just be neutral."

"Just root against Slytherin." Ethan points out like it's the most obvious thing. "Cheer for the team that'll make Slytherin lose if they win."

Alana laughs, a snort coming out with it. "All I know is that Hufflepuff doesn't have a great Quidditch team. Maybe we should join, Ria."

"Now that would be a sight to behold." The group halt their steps and turn to their right to see three Slytherins. Olivia, Max, and another boy whose name isn't coming to mind. "I for one would love to see you two airheads attempting to fly through a Quidditch match."

"Shut up, Olivia." Julia steps forward and puts a hand on her belt where her wand is kept. She knows she'd get a detention for cursing Olivia, but right now she doesn't care. Julia is way beyond nervous at this point and she doesn't need to hear any insults from one of her least favorite Slytherins.

"Yeah why don't you go suck up to Snape more." Agnes retorts and starts walking toward the Quidditch field.

"Why are you going to the Quidditch field anyway? Looking to get tossed in the mud some more, you little Mudblood?" Max recalls an event that happened last year, making Agnes's face turn red with anger.

Before Agnes can turn around and throw something at Max, Lauren holds up her hand and turns to the Slytherins. "Don't you have something better to do than to follow us around?"

Olivia nudges the third Slytherin and smirks. "This is Nick, but everyone calls him Peeps. He's trying out for Slytherin Seeker, and he's way better than anyone I've ever seen. He even has the latest and fastest broomstick - courtesy of the Malfoy family."

"First of all, since when has your word meant anything? Second, a nice broom doesn't mean the player is any good. And third," Maria takes a step forward and crosses her arms, "why the heck would some other family pay for his broomstick?"

"Maria, come on." Julia doesn't wait for a response before grabbing Maria's wrist and pulling her toward the field. Everyone is so confused at her behavior, but then they notice that Ethan is acting the same way.

When they get far enough away from Olivia, Max, and Peeps, Maria stops walking and turns to the siblings. "What's wrong? Was it something I said?"

"The Malfoy family..." Ethan's voice trails off and he looks up at his sister worriedly.

Julia turns to her friends and starts explaining, "The Malfoy family is very dangerous. They were followers of the Dark Lord and turned to our side because they claimed they were under the Imperius Curse. But that's hogwash. Our mum works with the father, Lucius, in the Ministry. She says he's secretly trying to gain power so he can free the Dark Lord's old followers or something. If he's involved in any way, we really might be in danger."

"I think you're taking this way out of proportion." Alana shakes her head and says her thoughts right before Lauren can. "I mean, they bought Peeps a broomstick. It's not like he's here waving his wand about and trying to kill us."

"But, what if he's in cahoots with those death eaters Maria and I saw in Hogsmeade last year?! Why else would he buy Peeps a broomstick?" Julia still doesn't feel good about the situation. It all seems too coincidental to her.

"Like Alana said, they bought a broomstick. Maybe they're just close friends with Peeps's family or something." Hannah tries to make Julia feel better, but she understands her concern. She's also heard stories about the Malfoys, Lucius in particular. "For now, just focus on tryouts."

"Fine..." Julia sighs and walks with her friends up to the field. Once they enter, her and Agnes break off to go change into some practice gear while the others go into the stands to watch.

Some other Gryffindors are just finishing their tryouts when Julia and Agnes finish putting on their flying robes. Agnes puts her head in her hands and feels tears rimming her eyelids. "What if they already have a Seeker better than me?"

"From what I've seen last year, they could really use a talented Seeker like you, Agnes." Julia pats her fellow Gryffindor's back and smiles.

Agnes laughs and quickly wipes her eyes. "Yeah, remember our first game when Hannah was attacked? We couldn't sit through a whole game after that because something would happen."

"Exactly. Well, I'll see you after my tryout! And you'll do great!" Julia grabs her broom and takes a deep breath before walking out of the tent.

Julia swallows her fear, literally and figuratively with fear tasting a lot like bile, and walks to the center of the field. There are two tall Gryffindor boys standing there with broomsticks and parchment. Julia timidly walks up to them and says, "Julia Copper. Trying for Gryffindor Chaser."

"Year?" The light brunette boy of the duo asks as he checks his piece of parchment.

Julia shifts to her other foot and looks down at her broomstick. "Second."

"There you are, Copper. Alright, let's see what you got! My name is Jeffrey Alkin, but just call me Jeff, and I'm the Keeper of Gryffindor. This guy is one of our Beaters, Kyle Crown." The brunette holds out his hand and Julia shakes it.

"You're David's cousin, right?" Kyle asks, gaining a nod and a smile from Julia. "Nice, then I won't have to go easy on you."

Kyle winks and hops on his broomstick. He grabs a Beater club and takes off into the sky, leaving Julia to stare worriedly at Jeff. The boy chuckles and gives Julia the red Quaffle before mounting his own broom. "He's joking, don't worry. What I want you to do is try to score on me while Kyle occasionally tries to throw you off balance. Got it?"

"Yeah..." Julia nods slightly, marking Jeff beam and fly to his post. "Okay Julia, you got this you got this you got this." Julia looks at the stands to see all of her friends minus Agnes there waving frantically at her. The girl smiles and takes off to the sky.

The breeze clears Julia's thoughts and she gets in the zone. She zips right by Kyle and fakes a throw at the lower hoop, making Jeff dive to cover it, but Julia swerves upward and scores in the top hoop instead. Wasting no time, Julia dives to catch the Quaffle and return to the field so she can try to score again.

It feels just like playing Quidditch at home with her family's broomsticks, but with a real Quaffle and real hoops. Once they realize Julia is in it to win, Jeff and Kyle up their game. Kyle gets a Bludger and starts beating around with it, actually trying to hit Julia as if she was really an opposing Chaser. Jeff does his best to learn Julia's patterns, but she knows she has to be unpredictable and manages to keep scoring with Jeff only blocking two of her shots.

When the tryout is finished, Jeff and Kyle are smiling like maniacs. Kyle touches the ground and runs up to Julia, patting her back with a hard smack. "That was amazing! You're definitely going to be on the team."

"Seriously?!" Julia covers her mouth and her heart hammers in her chest. "I'm qualified enough to play?"

"The thing is, after last year no one really wants to play on the team. With the Bludger going rogue nearly every game and all," Jeff explains. "We lost two Chasers and our Seeker. We only have one more person who's trying out and no one has tried out for Seeker yet. If we can't find someone, then we can't play."

Julia does her best to contain her smile and flips her broomstick to stand up on its end. "Since that's the case, you might find this last person quite the Quidditch player."

"I hope so. Well, practices start next week Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at five. See you there, okay?" Jeff shakes Julia's hand one more time before she nods and heads back to the tent.

"How was it?" Agnes jumps out of her seat and asks.

Julia pretends to be distraught and sighs as she sits down on a bench. "That was tough, but I know you'll be able to do it. Just play, and you'll get on the team."

"If you say so." Agnes groans and heads out the tent, not wanting to keep the captains waiting. When she gets to the center of the field and pounds the end of her broomstick onto the ground. "I'm Agnes Higgins, and I'm trying out to be a Seeker!"

Kyle and Jeff's eyes light up when she says her position and Jeff asks, "What year are you in, Higgins?"

"Year two." Agnes grips her broomstick as hard as she can without breaking it.

Jeff checks something off his parchment and rolls it up, putting it in his pocket. "Great! My name is Jeffrey and I'm the Keeper. That's Kyle, he's a Beater. So, I'll release the Snitch and I'm going to time you to see how long it takes you to find it, and then how long it takes to catch it. Kyle here will be disrupting your path and attempt to get the Snitch before you while also hitting a Bludger around. Okay?"

"Got it. Piece of cake!" Agnes confidently mounts her broom and takes off into the sky. Jeff takes the Snitch out of the Quidditch supply box and releases it.

Agnes gasps and dives downward quickly to avoid getting hit by the Bludger. Kyle chases her around the sky, not allowing Agnes to stop and look around for the Snitch. However, Kyle doesn't know that Agnes has a very keen eye. Right as she makes her first turn, Agnes spots the Snitch and speeds off toward it. She does something risky and pulls her broomstick straight up, performing a backflip in the air and making Kyle completely pass her. When she levels out, Agnes makes a sharp left and snatches the gold ball in her fist. Jeff hits his timer and Agnes's friends cheer in the stands.

"No way! Six minutes! That's a new record since I've been here!" Jeff's mouth hangs open and he takes big steps back and forth, not believing that it only took Agnes six minutes to find the Snitch. And she didn't even get hit by the Bludger! She bypassed Kyle like he was an annoying fly. "We have a Seeker! We have a Seeker!"

"Wait, does that mean I'm-" Agnes is cut off by Jeff once she lands.

"You're on the team, Higgins!" Jeff yells. Kyle touches the ground and raises his broom and his Bludger bat in the air while yelling in victory.

"I haven't had a chase like that in years! The Quidditch Cup is ours!" Kyle gives Agnes a hug, but then realizes what he did and quickly lets go, blushing. "M-maybe I should wait to celebrate until after we win a game."

"Good idea." Agnes laughs and flings her bushy hair behind her shoulder.

Julia runs from out of the tent and pumps her fists in the air. She waves at her friends in the stands and they all cheer, Alana giving a loud whistle through her fingers. Julia jumps on Agnes's back and hugs her. "Told ya we could do it!"

"What are you talking about? You were just as nervous as I was!" Agnes rolls her eyes and turns around to try to get Julia off her back. When she does, she spots a black and green figure by the entrance of the field. When she blinks, the figure is gone. "Who was that?"

"Hmm? I don't see anyone." Julia looks over Agnes's shoulder but doesn't see anyone.

"First practice is next Tuesday, don't forget! You'll meet the rest of the team then." Jeff says and takes the girls' brooms to put them back in the shed for them.

"Till then, enjoy the weekend!" Kyle waves at Julia and Agnes as they walk off and the girls wave back. Maria, Lauren, Alana, Hannah, and Ethan run down from the stands and congratulate their friends. With all the tension gone from this morning replaced by the cheerfulness, Agnes completely forgets about the figure she saw by the exit, any negative thoughts vanishing from her mind.