Two hours later, after multiple angry outbursts from the team captain Gabriel Truman, several broken Comet 260 brooms, and a few lost teeth, Hufflepuff finally selected three Chasers.
Cedric didn't make the cut. He had been too excited, which threw off his game... Well, to say his performance was off, is putting it mildly. He transformed into a one-man wrecking crew, missing shot after shot.
As Cedric attempted to throw the Quaffle, the sound of the Quaffle hitting the metal hoops echoed loudly through the field—thud, thud, thud—as if someone were hammering iron. Out of thirty attempts, he only made one successful shot.
On a basketball court, Cedric would have been the enemy's hidden ace and his own team's Kobe Bryant.
Still, Cedric's flying skills were exceptional, and Captain Gabriel Truman decided to give him another chance by allowing him to participate in the Seeker trials.
The crowd erupted into mocking laughter, and Cedric's face turned as pale as a vampire's. He didn't look happy at all, shading his eyes as if blaming the sunlight for his poor performance.
"Come on, Cedric!" A voice suddenly rang out from the stands.
Cho stood on her seat, cupping her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice as she shouted her encouragement.
Everyone turned to look at her, but Cho showed no sign of embarrassment, continuing to cheer for Cedric with all her might.
A sour, lemony atmosphere began to fill the Quidditch pitch. Even Captain Truman seemed reluctant to give Cedric another shot.
The air was thick with jealousy.
William, George, and Fred weren't idle either. They rummaged through Niffler's treasure bag and pulled out a battered silver bedsheet. On it, they had scrawled "Go Cedric!" in black ink, the letters twinkling like neon lights.
Niffler lay sprawled on a bench, sobbing loudly as its tiny paws kicked at Fred's leg. Fred, however, remained unfazed, his expression stoic. William was impressed—it seemed Fred had mastered the art of Iorn Crouch after the last time Niffler bit him.
In just five minutes, Cedric managed to catch the Golden Snitch. Without question, he became the youngest Seeker on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
Watching the Quidditch tryouts made William look forward to their upcoming Flying Lessons.
In his past life, William had been the star point guard of the orphanage's basketball team, earning the nickname "Little Curry, the Three-Point Killer" in the neighborhood.
Ravenclaw's Flying Lessons were scheduled for the second week on Friday afternoon, shared with Hufflepuff.
As a house known for producing academic overachievers, sports had never been Ravenclaw's forte.
In fact, Ravenclaw's Quidditch team had gone seven years without winning the Quidditch Cup.
To Slytherin, Ravenclaw's team was like a bunch of easy targets. Gryffindor referred to them as "the gift that keeps on giving," and to Hufflepuff, they were just easy pickings.
Even Professor Flitwick, Ravenclaw's Head of House, was at his wit's end. He probably wished he could join the matches himself—After all, with the score at 3-0, even I could manage!
The reasons for Ravenclaw's pitiful state in Quidditch were manifold: lack of competitive spirit, a flawed selection system, the lackluster attitude of players... Any problem you could think of, Ravenclaw had it.
Former Ravenclaw captain and current coach of the Scottish runner-up team, Jack Van, had put it bluntly in an interview with The Daily Prophet:
"Ravenclaw Quidditch? What's their level now? Just a handful of players, with people like Roger Davies playing as Chasers. Can he score? No, he can't. He doesn't have the ability!"
In his interview, Van had harshly criticized Ravenclaw's Quidditch team, pointing out that they had lost seven matches in a row.
"How do you explain that? They've lost all sense of pride!"
Van claimed that what Ravenclaw needed was a captain with talent, someone on par with Viktor Krum, the rising star from Bulgaria.
Sure, Ravenclaw's reputation in Quidditch wasn't great, but that didn't stop the first-years from boasting about their potential.
Marcus Belby, for instance, couldn't stop rambling about the pros and cons of different brooms available on the market. If you didn't know better, you'd think he was the chief designer for the Nimbus Racing Broom Company.
He loudly complained about how first-year students weren't allowed to join the house Quidditch team, recounting a series of long, self-aggrandizing stories.
In each tale, he claimed that he had almost breached Earth's atmosphere while flying on his broom.
Of course, Marcus wasn't the only one spinning tall tales. According to Eddie Carmichael, he had spent his entire childhood on a broomstick.
He even claimed that he was currently writing to the owner of the Chudley Cannons, offering his "professional" advice, and that the team was seriously considering it.
Even Marietta Edgecombe got in on the action, telling anyone who would listen about the time she nearly caused a Muggle aviation accident by flying her ladies' broomstick into a rocket.
Those who came from wizarding families couldn't stop talking about Quidditch.
Books like Quidditch Through the Ages, which had been gathering dust in the library, suddenly became bestsellers.
Other similar books were quickly checked out, as if reading them gave students a head start in their Quidditch careers.
Marcus Belby even got into a heated argument with his dormmates Bradley and Chambers about who was the greatest athlete.
Marcus insisted it was the Scottish Seeker Hector Lamont, even though the Scottish national team had recently lost the Quidditch World Cup to Canada by a mere thirty points, securing only second place.
But that didn't stop Marcus from proclaiming, "Hector did his best! The loss wasn't his fault."
Marcus even suggested that Hector should transfer to the Irish national team to play some real Quidditch.
Meanwhile, Bradley argued that the Los Angeles Lakers' Magic Johnson was the greatest athlete of all time. This was before Johnson's HIV diagnosis, and Michael Jordan had just been eliminated by the Bad Boys of Detroit.
Chambers, on the other hand, insisted that Diego Maradona was the greatest player of all time.
One day, William even caught Marcus poking holes in Bradley's Lakers poster with his wand, as if he were trying to bring the players to life.
William found it odd that these three were arguing about athletes from completely different sports.
That was until he posted a large Madonna poster in their dorm, along with several catalogs from Victoria's Secret's UK promotions.
Suddenly, the arguments stopped.
No one claimed those athletes were the greatest anymore. Marcus even apologized for his earlier behavior, and Chambers regretted his immaturity.
William had undoubtedly saved their dorm's friendship, his methods gentle yet effective.
He couldn't help but marvel at how simple-minded these young wizards were.
It reminded him of his own high school days when his dormmates would argue about sports stars.
In his past life, William had also tried to mediate by showing off similar "artistic" posters from Japan, hoping it would help everyone get along. But instead of restoring peace, it had led to a new obsession with gambling.
Every night, William would hear whispers coming from under the covers: "Macau's first online casino is now live..."
Eventually, William had to move out. He was afraid his dormmates would start asking him for loans!
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