Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is not meant to infringe upon copyrights.
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The next day was the weekend, no classes.
As soon as Kyle opened his dorm room door, he was greeted by Cedric with his arms outstretched.
"What's with that pose..." Kyle asked, puzzled. "Trying to imitate a lucky cat?"
"What cat... never mind, it's not important."
Cedric lowered his arm. "I came to wake you. Did you forget today is Quidditch Selection? Why are you only coming out now?"
"No, I just woke up..." Kyle rubbed his face, speaking matter-of-factly.
It was a rare weekend with such good weather; it would be a shame not to sleep in a little longer.
Cedric rubbed his forehead. "Selection starts at ten, it's already nine-thirty... how could you sleep?"
"There's still half an hour, plenty of time."
Kyle grabbed his Nimbus 2000 and followed Cedric out of the common room.
Kanna was with them; she had been waiting outside when Cedric went to wake Kyle.
The group crossed the field and arrived at the Quidditch pitch.
The selection process hadn't officially begun yet, but the area around the pitch was already bustling. Even Professor Sprout, who rarely left the greenhouse, was there, standing in the middle of the pitch talking to Mrs. Hodge.
Many people sat in the stands, some from Hufflepuff, others from other houses.
Judging from their tense expressions, at least half of them were there to gather information.
But Harris, the team captain, didn't seem to care and made no attempt to shoo them away.
When Kyle and his friends arrived, he even enthusiastically explained the basic rules of Quidditch to some of the younger wizards.
"Quidditch is actually quite simple. The Chaser is responsible for throwing the Quaffle to score, and the Beater is responsible for protecting players from the bludger with their bat and hitting them towards opposing players," Harris said to a bespectacled boy sitting in the stands. "But you don't need to worry about any of that. As a Seeker, Potter, your task is to catch the Golden Snitch in the shortest amount of time."
"What's the Golden Snitch…" Harry asked curiously.
"A very troublesome little guy," Harris said. "But catching it will end the game and add 150 points to your team."
"Golden… Snitch…" Harry muttered to himself.
But he quickly realized something and looked at Harris blankly, "Wait… how did you know I'm the Seeker!"
"It's simple," Harris shook his head. "Wood has been grinning from ear to ear these past few days, even adding extra spoonfuls to his food. We noticed something was off a while ago.
And the only thing that could make him so happy is the Seeker problem."
"So Wood told you?" Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness, it wasn't a leak from him.
"It has nothing to do with him."
Harris shook his head. "That Wood kid wanted to keep it a secret from me, saying he was only happy because his owl had a second litter.
So I went straight to Professor McGonagall, and she's the one who told me you've become Gryffindor's new Seeker."
"Professor McGonagall?" Harry sat there blankly, and for some reason, he felt a pang of sympathy for Wood.
He had initially planned to use himself as a secret weapon to catch the other teams off guard, but less than a day later, his opponents had openly gotten the news from Professor McGonagall.
What kind of secret was that…
"Good job, Harry, you'll be great." Harris stood up, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile, "I'm looking forward to the day we compete."
After saying that, he left the stands and walked towards the center of the field, greeting Kyle and the others who had just walked over.
"Looks like it's about to start."
Kyle, holding his Nimbus 2000, casually found a seat near the front of the stands.
Kanna glanced at the field and asked, "How many players are being selected this time?"
"Two, one beater and one chaser," Cedric said. "Kyle is participating in the chaser selection."
"Okay."
Kyle nodded beside him.
Compared to spending the whole game battling the runaway ball or searching for thieves, he preferred the feeling of scoring.
Although a ball was only worth ten points, if you scored a lot, you could get one hundred and fifty points... or even more.
At ten o'clock sharp, the selection began.
First was the beater selection, with three people in total.
Under Harris's arrangement, the three rode flying broomsticks to the center of the field.
The beater selection mainly tested accuracy and the power of the swing. Harris had already brought over the box containing the bludger beforehand.
All the three of them needed to do was stay on the broom as long as possible; the last one knocked off would join the team.
As Harris opened the box, two Walkers shot out like cannonballs, hurtling through the air.
The three, armed with bats, tried to deflect the bludgers flying towards them.
Having passed the preliminary rounds, they certainly had some skill; it was unlikely they'd be eliminated at the start. But things changed as time went on.
Everyone watched silently.
Five minutes later, the first elimination occurred.
It was a second-year student, the youngest of the three.
Perhaps seeing no clear outcome, he grew impatient and tried to hit the bludger towards the other two.
However, due to excessive force, he lost his grip, throwing the bat as well.
Needless to say, the next second, he was knocked off the broom by another flying bludger.
"Oh…that must have hurt."
Harry involuntarily gasped upon witnessing the scene, instinctively reaching for his shoulder as if he too had been hit.
"That's how it is with batters,"
Ron explained from the side. "George told me that when he first joined the team, his arm was broken three times by the bludger.
Fred did almost the same, but he broke his leg."
Kyle, sitting nearby, looked at Cedric with a puzzled expression after hearing Ron's words. "Fred and George broke their arms with the bludger?"
"No, never!"
Cedric stated firmly. "Other beaters have all been injured to some extent, only Fred and George…as far as I know, throughout the entire school year, the bludger never even hit their clothes.
In fact, they were like two bludgers themselves."
[End of the chapter]