“Concealed talent brings no reputation.”
-Erasmus

Harry awoke and saw that no one else was in the dorm. He checked his watch and saw that the time was 8:54. The rest of the people in the dormitory must have gone up to breakfast already. But he was grateful that Zabini didn’t wake him up this time because he desperately had needed that long sleep. Harry remembered that he wanted to write to Ron and Hermione about how he finally got the connection Dumbledore spoke about.

Harry decided that he was going to go quickly to the Owlry, and then go eat some breakfast. Once he sent the letter with Hedwig, he went straight to the Great Hall.

As Harry went into the Great Hall, so did Hedwig, and Harry saw Hedwig fly to the Gryffindor table. He just hoped that none of the Slytherin’s recognized Harry’s owl. Harry sat down next to Nott and Draco. “Well, you finally got up, I see,” said Draco. “You must have been dead knackered.”

Harry yawned. “Yeah, guess so. What’s for breakfast?”

“Lots of things,” replied Nott.

“Good, ‘cause I’m starving,” said Harry filling his plate.

As, Harry ate, he saw Hermione and Ron read his letter, but it was a good thing they didn’t send a letter back because Hedwig would have flew right across the room, and that would have made the other Slytherin’s very suspicious. He saw Hedwig fly away with no letter. When Harry looked back, he saw that Hermione was looking at him nodding her head, and he nodded back. Harry checked the High Table to see if Dumbledore was there, but he wasn’t; he only saw Snape, who was thankfully not glaring at him, but talking to another teacher that Harry didn’t know.

The morning went by pretty fast, considering he didn’t do to much. Draco, Nott, Zabini, Crabbe, Goyle, and Harry went to the Quidditch field to watch the Slytherin Quidditch team fly around on their brooms to practice. He heard Zabini say that the Slytherin Quidditch team needed a Seeker. “What’s a Seeker?” asked Harry.

“I keep forgetting, actually, I think we all keep forgetting that you didn’t know about wizards because you used to live with Muggles. Well, the Seeker is the person that tries to catch a little ball, called the Golden Snitch,” said Zabini. “Catching the Snitch is worth one hundred and fifty points and when the Seeker catches it, it ends the game.”

“And what are the other players?” asked Harry.

“There are three Chasers, two Beaters, a Keeper, and a Seeker. The Chasers have to get the Quaffle, a big red ball, into those three hoops,” said Zabini, now pointing to the three hoops on either side of the field. Even though the others knew this, they listened, too. “While our Keeper has to prevent the others teams Chasers from getting the ball into our hoops. Each time, a Chaser gets the Quaffle in, its ten points for their team. And the Beaters have clubs that help them get the two Bludgers, which are two medium-sized black balls, away from their Chasers and at the other teams Chasers. And then there’s the Seeker, which I mentioned before.”

“Well, I didn’t know Quidditch was that complicated, but I think I got the idea,” said Harry. He looked up to see one of the Chasers put the Quaffle through the highest hoop.

“Good, ‘cause I’m not explaining it again,” said Zabini, jokingly.

“Do any of you have a broom?” Harry asked, still looking at the older students.

“I have one, but the first years aren’t allowed to bring their brooms because they aren’t allowed to be on the teams. I hate those rules,” said Draco, folding his arms.

“I have one, too,” said the others almost in unison.

“I wish I had mine here,” said Draco.

“I wish I had one,” said Harry sadly.

”If you want to be on the Quidditch team next year, I think Madam Hooch has extra brooms,” said Nott.

“But they are dead old!” said Draco. Crabbe and Goyle were laughing now.

“Well, I don’t know if I’m even good at Quidditch,” said Harry.

“Well, the Slytherin team look like they are coming down for a break, we can ask to borrow their brooms and test you,” said Zabini.

They all got up to ask if they could borrow the brooms. When the older students said they could, Nott asked Harry which position he wanted to play and Harry had no idea. “Don’t you remember what I told you about the players?” asked Zabini.

“Yeah, I just don’t know which one I would be best at playing,” replied Harry. He was a bit frustrated.

“Well, I like playing a chaser,” said Zabini.

“And so do I,” said Nott.

“Crabbe and Goyle like being Beaters, and I like being a Chaser, as well,” said Draco. “So you can be the Seeker or Keeper. Which one do you think you would be better at?”

“Err… I guess Seeker. I don’t think I’d be a good Keeper. And it doesn’t seem that hard to catch the Snitch,” said Harry. The rest of them were laughing now. “What?” Harry had no idea what they were laughing about.

“You think it’s easy to catch the Snitch? The Seeker is the hardest position to play. The Snitch is very small and incredibly fast,” said Nott.

“Oh and you guys gave me the most difficult position!” said Harry.

“Well, we didn’t know. We were just giving ourselves the positions we already like, and none of us like playing Seeker,” said Zabini.

They started walking out onto the field. “First we’ll help you, and then we can all play,” said Zabini. He went to the large chest in the middle of the field and opened it. He took out the Snitch and Harry saw how small really is. It was about the size of a golf ball.

“Bloody hell! I have to catch that?” said Harry, unable to take in that information.

“I told you it was small,” said Zabini.

“Well, let’s do this,” said Harry, preparing himself to be really embarrassed. He looked over his shoulder and saw the older Slytherin’s watching. Great I’m going to make a fool of myself in front of the older students, as well. I’ve never even been on a broom before!

“Ready?” asked Draco. They were all mounting their brooms, and Harry did so, as well.

“Not really,” said Harry.

“And push off,” said Nott. He pushed off the ground, like the others, but they were already used to flying, so it took him a while to keep his balance. “Don’t worry, Harry, you’ll get used to it,” said Zabini, flying over him. “Fly around a bit and it’ll get easier.”

As he flew around, Harry saw that, surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad and that he got the hang of it quickly. “Alright, Harry, I’m going to throw the Snitch into the air and I want you to fly toward it and do your best to catch it. Its okay if you don’t get it on the first try,” said Zabini.

Harry watched, as if in slow motion, Zabini throw the Snitch into the air. Harry saw it go past his head and he flew after it at an incredible speed. “Cor!” said Nott. He was surprised at how fast Harry was going, and so was everyone else. On the ground, the older Slytherin’s couldn’t stop watching; they were in amazement. Harry locked his eyes on the Snitch and followed it. When he was close enough to grab it, he took his left hand off the broom and reached forward. Harry almost fell because he wasn’t used to flying and needed both hands, but he surged forward a bit more and felt his hand wrap around it. He heard the others cheer because he had caught it. Harry was focused so much on catching the Snitch that he didn’t concentrate on balance, and fell off the broom, but it didn’t matter because he was only a couple feet off the ground.

“Bloody hell, Harry! That was amazing! Are you sure you’ve never been on a broom before?” asked Zabini, as he flew down to the ground. The rest followed.

“No, I’ve never been on a broom. That was the first time ever,” said Harry, getting up from the ground. He looked at the Snitch in his hand with nothing, but utter shock. I caught this! I was up there on a broom, flying around and I caught this! I can’t believe it!

The Slytherin Quidditch players came over to Harry. “Hey, Potter, do you want to be on the Quidditch team? We need a Seeker,” said the boy closest to him, who Harry guessed was the captain and who looked like a troll.

He was going to say definitely, but Zabini asked a question that brought Harry back to reality. “But I thought first years weren’t allowed to be on the Quidditch teams?”

“I’ll ask if we can bend the rules for Potter, who was completely amazing. You must have gotten that Snitch in a couple of seconds!” said the captain.

“I didn’t realize it was that short of time, it seemed longer,” said Harry.

“Harry, you don’t have to be modest. You are clearly a natural,” said Zabini.

“Potter, I’ll ask Snape and he’ll ask Dumbledore if you would be able to be put on the team because you would, obviously, help us win. Can you be in the Common Room this evening? I’ll tell you what Snape said,” said the captain.

Harry doubted very much that Snape would let him on the team, since he hated him, but if the players persuaded Snape, he might be nice. Yeah, right! Snape is not nice. Hopefully nice enough to let me be on the team, though. “Yeah, I’ll be in the Common Room,” said Harry.

“Okay, I’ll give you the news. Sorry, mates, but we need our brooms back,” said the captain, as him and the rest of the team walked away with brooms in their hands.

“Harry, if you get on the team, you’re going to need a broom,” Nott told Harry.

“Do you have money to buy one?” asked Draco.

“Yeah, I have a vault at Gringotts with some money,” Harry told them. “But how would I get to Diagon Alley to buy one if we can’t leave the school?” Harry asked.

“You don’t have to leave school, I have an old newspaper with an ad from The Golden Broom. If you send in your name, vault number, and the type of broom you want, they’ll send you the broom in two days,” said Nott.

Once they were all back in the Common Room, they started looking at the ad. They talked for a while about brooms, and then the Quidditch captain came in. “Potter.” Harry walked over to him. “Welcome to the team. Let me introduce you to everyone. I’m the her captain Marcus Flint. This here is one of our other Chasers Adrian Pucey the other is Terrance Higgs. Our Keeper is this Miles Bletchley, and our Beaters are Bole and Derrick,” he said, as he held out his hand. Harry got up and shook it.

“Thanks,” said Harry, smiling. He was completely surprised that Snape and Dumbledore allowed him on the team.

“Now that you’re on the team, you’re going to have practice with us. We practice every Tuesday and Thursday on the Quidditch field at six. And when a game is coming up, we also practice on Friday, as well. Don’t be late.”

“Okay, I’ll be there,” said Harry. The Flint and the rest of the team walked down to the dormitory. Harry walked back to the others.

“So, now that I’m on the team, what broom should I get?” said Harry with a grin on his face.

“Congrats!” said Zabini, shaking his hand.

“Thanks,” said Harry.

“What broom you’re going to get depends on how much you want to spend and how much you got,” said Draco.

“Well, I want a good broom, but I don’t want to empty my vault,” Harry answered.

“The newest broom is called a Nimbus 2000 and it’s a dead good broom. It won’t empty your vault… completely. It might nearly, though,” said Nott.

“It’s fine, where’s the parchment?” said Harry, he knew that he had a lot of money, so it wouldn’t be a considerable chuck from his vault. He wrote down his name, his vault number, and Nimbus 2000, and went to the Owlry to send it off to The Golden Broom.

Once he came back into the Common Room, people started coming up to him and congratulating him on making the team. “Which one of you was it that told everyone else?” said Harry jokingly.

“Not I!” said Zabini, who was being sarcastic. “What? Can’t I be happy that you, a first year, were able to be put on the Quidditch team?”

“Sure you can be happy, but you don’t have to tell everyone,” said Harry, who was now shaking two people’s hands at once.

After shaking almost everyone’s hand, some people started heading towards the dormitories to go to sleep. Harry and Draco waited for the last person to leave and finally got up from their seats.

Preview to chapter 8: Harry and Draco go exploring the castle, once again, because Harry said that he could find a better room than what Draco had shown him. But the room they find is not what they were expecting…