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Chapter 40: “William Turner”
🕑 Added 2024-01-23 15:34:24 +0000 UTCSirius, noticing Rabastan's incredulous and furious look smiled broadly, "Look at the mess you've made," said Lupin, noticing that many students at other tables were complaining loudly, saying that James had broken a school rule.
'Why didn't he open it quietly?' thought McGonagall irritably.
"Professor! Why does a first-year student have a state-of-the-art broom?"
"He broke a rule. First-year students are forbidden to have their personal brooms!"
Many first-year students showed their discontent, especially the Slytherin students towards their professors. They all looked at McGonagall, who had a vein protruding from her forehead.
"Silence!" the witch bellowed, standing up. All the students instantly fell silent, the large dining hall was silent. Since she was the person who gave James the benefit, she had to be the one to explain to everyone.
James saw McGonagall's furious expression and regretted having listened to Sirius.
"First-year student James Potter has special permission to have his personal broom. Headmaster Dumbledore accepted my request as Head of Gryffindor House," explained McGonagall, trying to remain patient.
"So, can I have my personal broom?" asked a Ravenclaw student.
"Me too!"
"And me! Give me permission, please!"
"Not just anyone can have special permission to bring their personal broom. James Potter demonstrated great flying ability, and the entire Gryffindor quidditch team agreed. So they need the approval of their head of house and their quidditch team," explained McGonagall.
"James Potter can have his broom, and I have to clean for three more weeks in the armor room!" growled Rabastan indignantly as he pounded his fist on the table. He couldn't believe that his Head of House Professor Slughorn would be so neutral towards students in the same house.
On the other hand, McGonagall, who had a stern and neutral reputation didn't seem quite like that. Although she had punished James as he was supposed to be the team's prop for the whole year, few knew that.
Everyone looked with surprise at James, who wanted the earth to swallow him up. He drew too much attention these days, and now everyone in the large dining room was looking at him.
"That's it. Back to your business," said McGonagall, sitting down.
At that time, many first-year students went to their Heads of House to apply for their broomstick claiming they had great flying skills, although most of them were lies. Besides, it's hard to get your house quidditch team to agree to coach an eleven-year-old instead of training him.
James grabbed his broom and started walking towards the dining room doors as hundreds of eyes followed him with their gazes. Sirius quickly followed him with a smirk, "What's the matter, the talented James Potter is embarrassed?" he asked.
"Shut up, it's your fault!" said James with a scowl.
"What? I didn't do anything, just suggested you open it, and you did," said Sirius, playing dumb.
"Don't play innocent, Black!" said James as he started running at Sirius and throwing broomsticks at him which Sirius nimbly dodged. Many couldn't believe that James was using the Nimbus 1001 as a broom to shoo away flies.
"These two stand out," muttered Lupin with a slight smile as he followed along with Peter. Toby watched the group from a corner of the Gryffindor table, 'Looks like fun...' he thought, but quickly shook his head.
During that day, James struggled to pay attention to his classes. All he could think about was today's training in the afternoon. He would finally be able to fly after so long in his precious Nimbus 1001 (although not much happened).
After class, he had to go to his punishment, and he made many mistakes in sorting the ingredients, making him fall further behind. Slughorn was right, there were a lot of ingredients, and finishing in less than two weeks was very difficult.
Then he went to dinner and did not pay much attention to what he ate, finished quickly and hurried to his bedroom, to take out, finally, the Nimbus 1001. He took it and left the castle, heading for the Quidditch pitch.
So far he had never been to the stadium. There were hundreds of seats that rose in bleachers around the pitch so that the spectators were high enough to watch the game. At each end of the court were three golden poles with hoops at the top fifty feet high.
'It won't be long before I can play a proper quidditch match,' thought James, looking around the stadium and imagining himself, flying while facing Slytherin's house and the whole of Gryffindor's house chanting his name.
Although he would only be training with the team this year, he would be able to play practice matches against the reserve team. So far he had never played a serious quidditch match, so he was very anxious.
"Hey, Potter! Sorry I'm late," said William Turner, who arrived with his broom over his shoulder. The boy who was in his fifth year a very important time in his student life, was the captain of the team and occupied the position of Guardian. So, he had a robust and muscular body.
"Pleasure meeting you, captain!" greeted James respectfully.
William was very popular throughout the school, and James as a quidditch fan had to show respect to his captain.
"Tell me, Will," said the boy, happy for James' attitude and giving him a handshake.
"McGonagall has told me about you. I've also heard about the 30 house points you won, even though you've already lost them..." said William, and James put on an embarrassed expression.
"Don't worry, the older Gryffindor's aren't mad. I'm sure you'll get more points," said William, patting James' shoulder.
"You know the rules of quidditch, right?" he asked to which James nodded. He had watched many quidditch matches and read hundreds of magazines about the sport, he considered himself a knowledgeable person on the subject.
"Good. We'll start with a little test today," said William, pulling out a bag.
"Is the rest of the team not coming?" asked James, who had thought he would meet the whole team today.
"No, first I would like to see with my own eyes your flying ability. The seeker position is the most difficult of all and very few people have the talent to be seekers. How do you know it's been seven years since the Gryffindor team won the cup... I managed to join in the third year and since I joined none of our seekers caught the golden snitch..." he said with a depressed expression.
'Is the situation that bad...?' thought James surprise.
"Well, that was until last year," added William.
"I hear that the seeker Alex is very good," commented James.
"Yes, Alex is very good... the bad thing is that he realized his talent too late. He joined the team last year when he was in his sixth year because a close friend of his was on the team, and we badly needed someone in the position. That year we came second and were only 10 points away from winning the cup. If only I had saved that last play..." answered William with a painful expression as he remembered how close they came to winning the cup after so long.
"Sorry..." said James, running a hand through his hair.
"No big deal. This is Alex's last year, unfortunately. So we can't be without a seeker at the level that in previous years. When McGonagall told us about you, the whole team agreed, and they're eager to teach you," he said with a smile.
James nodded. He had to train seriously, "Well, let's try these," said William, taking some golf balls out of the bag. A few minutes later, they were both in the air.
William was throwing the golf balls as hard as he could in all directions so that James would catch them.
James didn't miss one, and William was delighted, "Let's move on to something more difficult. I will use my wand to make the golf balls go at incredible speed and harder, simulating bludgers. You must dodge them," said William and James nodded showing he was ready.
The seekers are always the targets of the bludgers because if they catch the snitch the match is over, and they usually win. So you look for them to be agile and have good reflexes to dodge.
William showed great magical ability by controlling many golf balls and sending them hurtling toward James with his wand. James swam like a fish in water and dodged all the golf balls.
After 40 minutes, it was already dark and they could not continue, "Well done! Let's go back to the castle," said William cheerfully taking a load off his mind.
He noticed that James was very talented, everything a seeker needed: agile, with great reflexes and a lot of courage. If they didn't win this year, they already had an assured seeker who would even have more projection than Alex, who started late.
'If he trains with us and Alex gives him the tips he learned as a seeker. I'm sure he'll be the best seeker Gryffindor has had in a long time,' William thought with a smile.
Comments
Alkole
Thanks for the chapter
AUSO
Thanks for the chapter
