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Chapter 957: A disastrous training session
🕑 Added 2023-12-07 15:30:50 +0000 UTCBefore long, everyone from the team came to the pitch, including the substitutes, ready to start the first training session.
"How do you feel, Ron?" said George, winking at him.
"Alright," said Ron, controlling his broom as it descended. "The Starcatcher's response is really good!"
"Of course, it's a great broom, you should have seen Ginny's performance yesterday morning."
“Ready to show us all up, Ickle Prefect?” said Fred, a slightly malicious grin on his face.
“Shut up,” said Ron, stony-faced.
"Okay, everyone," said Angelina, waving her hands vigorously. "Hurry up and change into your robes. We must make good use of our time. Alicia and Fred, if you can just bring the ball crate out for us. Oh, and the substitute players should join in the practice too."
Gryffindor's substitute players consisted of three individuals: Ginny, third-year Demelza Robins, and first-year Ritchie Coote.
All three of them had small and fragile-looking bodies.
Especially Ritchie, this boy blushed even when talking to others.
It was conceivable that after Angelina and the others graduated next year, Gryffindor's style would completely shift towards agility and skill. Since they could not engage in direct confrontation, tactics were particularly important, which had always been the strength of the Ravenclaw team.
From a rational perspective, Evan had to admit that Gryffindor's future looked worrying.
Especially when Evan saw the Slytherin Quidditch team members and assorted hangers-on coming onto the field, he felt a stark contrast. Each one of their players was tall and sturdy, with physicality that could easily overpower Gryffindor.
They noticed Evan sitting alone on the empty stands and gestured and discussed a few words among themselves but didn't come over.
Although they didn't like him, provoking the Head Boy would be an irrational act.
Evan didn't pay them any attention either. He smiled and waved at Astoria Greengrass in the crowd.
The girl smiled back at him, nodded slightly, but turned around quickly. Evan was now Slytherin's number one public enemy. At least on the surface, the entire Slytherin students tried not to contact him
After a while, the Hufflepuff team also came to the pitch, and they all came to say hello to Evan.
This team was known for its stable and cohesive style of play. They would play until the last second and were adept at endurance battles. They had once been strong contenders for the Quidditch Cup, but to be honest, they suffered a heavy blow after their captain Cedric left. They were emotionally low and hadn't recovered until now. They even believed they didn't stand a chance this year.
The Hufflepuff team recruited a new Seeker and a new Chaser this year, respectively, fourth-year Arnot Rosek and first-year Alecia Esther, who was the first student to officially join the Quidditch team in her first year after Harry. (T.N. These two names are to be found nowhere in Harry Potter. Maybe just characters created by the author)
Alecia was a girl with long blond hair. Her parents were both Muggles. Before coming to Hogwarts, she had never been exposed to brooms and Quidditch. However, Evan remembered that when she took a test flight on the Starcatcher in the morning, she flew very well.
She was very talented in this, just like Harry back then, her performance was amazing, and Professor Sprout specially approved her to join the team.
Of course, she was just as shy as other first-year students and didn't dare to talk to Evan.
The Hufflepuff team found her a Cleansweep Ten. This old broom was a model from three years ago. It was slow, but it was also the average level of the Hufflepuff team. For an ordinary student, it was already their limit! (T.N. There’s no Cleansweep Ten In the original story)
About five minutes later, the Gryffindor players came out in their robes.
It was the first time for Ron to wear his own team robes. They fitted him well considering they had been Oliver Wood’s, who was rather broader in the shoulder. Ron seemed somewhat surprised when he saw the Slytherin and Hufflepuff teams at the edge of the field.
There was a storm of catcalls and jeers from the Slytherin crowd.
They didn't seem to be in a hurry to conduct their own training, but instead commented on the Gryffindor players, focusing on Ron, their voices echoing loudly around the open-air stadium.
Their purpose was obvious; they wanted to see the performance of the Starcatcher.
The reputation of this new broom made by Evan had spread almost throughout Hogwarts. People from other Houses were very worried. One Firebolt was deadly enough, and now there was the Starcatcher, which was no less impressive in terms of performance.
Not to mention skill, Gryffindor could crush their opponents with the Broom itself.
"These guys are so annoying!" said Ginny. As Ron used the Starcatcher, she was using Evan’s Nimbus today.
"Ignore them," said Harry. “We’ll see who’s laughing after we play them!"
“Exactly the attitude I want, Harry. Our goal this year is the championship!" said Angelina approvingly, soaring around them with the Quaffle under her arm and slowing to hover on the spot in front of her airborne team. “Okay everyone, we’re going to start with some passes just to warm up, the whole team please, spread out now, let those down there see what we can do!"
The practice started, and Angelina raised the Quaffle with one hand and threw it hard to Fred, who passed to George, who passed to Ginny, who passed to Harry, who passed to Ron, who dropped it.
There was another burst of laughter from the Slytherins. Ron controlled the Starcatcher and rushed to the ground, trying to catch the Quaffle before it hit the ground. But the broom was too fast, and he seemed unprepared. With a loud bang, he crashed hard onto the ground.
The Gryffindor team froze, the Slytherins nearly fainted with laughter, Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson laughed rough and screamed, The Hufflepuffs also stopped their training and turned to look at Ron.
Evan covered his head powerless; he never thought that such a thing would happen. Ron hadn't gotten used to the Starcatcher yet, and starting the second acceleration in such a short distance caused the broom to become too fast, so fast that he didn't even have time to react before he hit the ground.
Fortunately, the sturdy and large Starcatcher, unlike other brooms, had built-in protection magic, so Ron was not injured.
Even so, his face was already red enough to bleed, and his ears were also red.
He remained silent, and returned to playing height, looking embarrassed.
Harry wanted to comfort Ron, but didn't know what to say. Crashing onto the ground was not a common mistake.
He saw Fred and George exchange looks, but uncharacteristically neither of them said anything, for which Harry was grateful.
“Pass it on, Ron,” called Angelina, as though nothing had happened.
Ron threw the Quaffle to Alicia, who passed to Ritchie, who passed to Harry, Harry passed to George, who passed to Angelina; she reverse passed to Harry, who had not been expecting it, but caught it in the very tips of his fingers and passed it quickly to Ron, who lunged for it and missed by inches.
