Chapter 8

"Do you really have to bring the entire Quidditch team with you just to talk to Professor Howell?" I asked Frank. This whole thing seemed really pointless. I didn't see why Frank couldn't just talk to Howell himself. He was the captain, after all.

"Yes," Frank says. "Just in case he says no."

"You're as mad as rabbits Frank," I said.

It was near the end of the day, but we still needed to talk to Professor Howell about doing unofficial Quidditch. We followed Frank to the Defense Against The Dark Arts classroom, and then he knocked on the door.

"Hello Frank. What can I help you with?" Professor Howell said.

It started with an alright scene. "Professor, we'd like to ask you about something," Frank began.

"Well, what is it?" Professor Howell asked.

"Well...um...we'd like to talk to you about..." Frank said.

"Quidditch!" Hayley interjected. "We need to talk about Quidditch."

"There's no Quidditch Cup this year," Professor Howell said. "You know that."

"Yes, but we were wondering if we could do an unofficial match or two," Frank said. "It would be really easy. It's just a practice or two and maybe a game if one of the other teams agrees to it."

Professor Howell thought about it for a while. "I don't see why not," he finally said. "Just make sure you get it done before the Triwizard Tournament starts."

"We will, Professor," Frank said.

"You know, I could see one of you competing in the tournament. Hayley, Frank, maybe even Gerard. You're all such talented students."

"Thank you Professor," Hayley said, smiling.

No matter how much I wanted to compete, I knew that there were too many other students that deserved it more. Frank especially was far more talented than I was. "So when can we practice?" Frank asked.

"Whenever you want," Professor Howell said.

"Can we practice right now?" Frank asked. I could just see his face light up when he talked about Quidditch. It was obviously something that he was really passionate about.

"Sure," Professor Howell said.

"YES!" Frank shouted. "Come on everyone! Let's get ready for practice!" We all started running back to the common room and Frank shouted, "Thanks Professor Howell!"

"No problem Frank," Professor Howell said.

We approached the portrait of the Fat Lady and when she asked for the password, I said, "Bulletproof Heart." When I entered the common room, I grabbed my Firebolt Supreme and my Quaffle. Once everyone was ready, we headed out to the Quidditch field, but there was one problem.

Someone showed up at exactly the same time as we did.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Frank shouted.

"Practicing," Andy said. "Isn't that what you're doing?" Andy Hurley was the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, and he was just as obsessed with Quidditch as Frank was. The rest of the Ravenclaw team was there too. The Ravenclaw Quidditch team worked harder than any other, and it always paid off. The year before, they had crushed us, even though Hayley caught the Snitch. Andy was an amazing Keeper, so it was difficult to score on them, and their Chasers were good too. I won't go so far as to say that any of them were better than Frank, but they were better than me.

"Yeah, but this is our turf," I said. "We got here first."

"Fine," Andy said. "We practiced this morning anyways."

"Hey, any chance you could play against us later though?" Frank asked. "We could do a Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw match, and then ask Slytherin and Hufflepuff if they want to join in on the fun."

"That sounds great, but I already talked to Hufflepuff and they said that they weren't doing Quidditch this year. I don't know about Slytherin," Andy said.

"Okay," Frank said. "We'll ask them. See you soon Andy!"

Andy and the rest of the Ravenclaws headed back into the castle. We finally had the Quidditch field to ourselves. "This is going to be impossible," Joe said. "Those Ravenclaws are really good."

"Sugar, we're going down swinging," Pete said.

Frank chuckled. "Come on, we should probably start practice." Frank hopped onto his broom and started flying around the and the rest of the team quickly followed him.

We had a pretty good team this year. Hayley was one of the best Seekers that Hogwarts had ever seen. According to Professor Lester, Harry Potter was the only one who was better, but none of us had ever seen him play, so we found that hard to believe. Joe and Pete were definitely good Beaters, despite the fact that Pete was quite possibly the emo-est emo ever to exist. Is emo-est even a word? I don't think so, but if it did exist, it would be the perfect word to describe Pete. Spencer was the Keeper, and he was the only reason why we didn't lose to Slytherin last year. Then there were the Chasers: Frank, Maggie Chang, and me. Maggie was only a third year, but she was a fast flyer. I wasn't that good, and I had no idea why I was still on the team. Frank...well, I could go on for a while about him. He was incredible when it came to Quidditch. He scored more than any of us. Even at that moment, his flying was far better than mine could ever be. Not only that, but he had the most mesmerizing brown eyes...

"Gerard! You've literally been staring at me for the last two minutes!"

"Sorry Frank," I said. "I kind of spaced out." I took out my wand. "Accio Firebolt Supreme!" The broom flew into my hand and I hopped on it and took off. Frank was right. This broom was speedy.

"Gee, you're going too fast!" Joe shouted. "You might go out of control."

"If my velocity starts to make you sweat, then just don't let go!!!" I screamed. I flew higher and Frank tossed the Quaffle to me. I caught it and passed it to Maggie. I flew ahead as quickly as I could and Maggie tossed it right back to me. I did a Chelmondiston Charge and the Quaffle went right into the goal.

"That was really good Gee!" Frank exclaimed.

I grinned. "Thank you Frank," I said.

We practiced until dusk. It felt really nice to be back on the Quidditch field, even if it was only until the tournament started. If only this feeling could last a little longer.