Half an hour later, I was ready to leave. After tightening my half-ponytail, I reached for my Silver Arrow (shining after a long, much-needed polish) while stuffing the ad into my pocket, never forgetting what it said:
New Beater for Appleby Arrows
Tryouts on July 1st
Previous experienced needed
I nervously clutched my Silver Arrow. I had never Apparated long distances, and this would be my first time. Of course, thinking of Charlie didn’t help…after all, he had failed his exam the first time.
Concentrating very hard about my location, I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated on disappearing into nothingness. I felt like I was being squeezed through a very narrow straw. As suddenly as it started, it stopped, and I was facing an old, run-down factory with an elaborate dollhouse painted on the front. The paint was now peeling off in long pieces, revealing the building’s old age more than the crumbling bricks and yellow windows.
I walked up to the dollhouse and tapped the doorknob with my wand. All of a sudden, the door began to grow to a size that would allow me entrance. The door swung open, and I cautiously stepped inside. It was a glistening white reception room, similar to those in hospitals. Secretaries sat busy answering letters, making appointments, or (in some cases), causally chatting away with co-workers.
“Excuse me,” I began, “but I’m looking for the -”
“Tryouts?” The woman asked me with a smile. I nodded. “You’ll have to go for an interview first. Go up to the fourth floor, first door on the right. I already sent a friend of yours up there. You’ll need to fill this out first,” she said, handing me a resume.
I thanked her and was on my way, wondering what she meant about ‘my friend’. I quickly pushed this out of my mind, concentrating only on getting my job. I sat down at a waiting area, filled out the resume, and then checked it over. Going up to the fourth floor, I knocked softy at the door until I heard a voice boom, “Come in!”
I turned the handle and took a deep breath before I stepped into the room. There was a man behind an oak desk, with the name plate reading ‘Mr. Walter Falcons’. He was a man in his mid-twenties, wearing a grey three-piece suit and a red tie. On the chair in front of him sat a dark-haired girl. She turned around as well, and hard, grey eyes fixed at me. My heart suddenly pumped a shot of ice water through my body.
It was Levia.
She had come for the Beater tryouts! I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, and my common sense was telling me to turn around and bolt out of there. Levia was a cruel, jealous and dangerous person. She attacked me twice (once unsuccessful) in our sixth year. I couldn’t report her, or else I could have possibly gotten Charlie in deep trouble. In the hallway of her attempted second attack, a painting had gotten hit with a spell from her wand. A few days after New Years Eve, the painting had been found, and the surrounding portraits had described a situation…and had also described Levia’s raven black hair and moon colored eyes. Narrowly escaping being expelled, she was put in detention with Professor McGonagall for two months, although I personally thought that the punishment was too soft.
“Ah!” greeted Mr. Walter Falcons. “Welcome! I’m Walter Falcons, and you are…?”
“Arianna Perry.” I garbled, not taking my eyes off of Levia.
“Well, Miss Perry, I was just finishing up my interview with Miss Levia Orsi.” He gestured to Levia sitting in the chair. “If you would excuse us for just a second, I would finish up here and would be right with you.”
I nodded in agreement and stepped out into the corridor. I tried to calm myself down and compose my thoughts and speech, when Levia stepped out into the hallway and Walter Falcons ushered me inside his office. Before going into his office, I caught a look that Levia gave me…and it sent chills down my spine.
“So, Miss Perry,” began Walter Falcons, “what kind of experience do you have?”
I took a deep breath as a last attempt to calm myself down. “Well, I was Beater on my house team in Hogwarts for two years. When I was on the team, we won the Cup.” I didn’t mention that it was because Charlie was on the team.
Walter Falcons made a note of this. “So, you were in Hogwarts? Which house?”
I didn’t see how this was relevant. “Gryffindor,” I replied with raised eyebrows.
Walter Falcons smiled knowingly. “Ah, Gryffindor…where the brave dwell at heart.” He then chuckled. “I was a Ravenclaw “ I suppose that’s why I’m in charge of the paperwork!”
I found this stereotyping extremely unfair. After all, Levia was a Gryffindor, however she was more malevolent then any Slytherin I had ever met.
After a few more questions, Walter Falcons allowed Levia inside the room. “I’m going to send you both down to the stadium where you will officially try out for the team. Best of luck to both of you!” He took down a flowerpot with Floo Powder in it, and motioned towards the fireplace. I took a pinch, threw it into the fire, stepped into the jade flames, and yelled out, “Appleby Stadium!”
I was whisked down fireplaces, coughing and holding tighter to my Silver Arrow, fearful that I’d loose it. At last, I stepped out into a locker room. Finding the doorway, I opened the door right when I heard a thud signalling Levia’s arrival. In less then a second, Levia was there. She pinned me to the wall with her cold gaze. “I hope you aren’t actually trying out.” She hissed in mock concern. “Just save yourself the embarrassment and leave now. You know you can’t beat me.”
I stared back at her. “Oh, you mean, like I already have at Hogwarts?” With that, I turned around and exited the room.
I walked onto a large stadium, three times bigger than the one in Hogwarts. The bright, green grass crunched slightly under my feet, while the bright sun reflected painfully off of the bright metal seats. Squinting, I made my way over to where a man in scarlet robes clutched a clipboard.
“Hello,” I began with a polite smile. “My name is Arianna Perry. I’m here -”
“For the tryouts?” he asked in a board tone of voice. I nodded in agreement. “You may sit down on the bench for the time being.”
I sat down, my eyes darting around the stadium as Levia introduced herself. When she took a seat a distance away from me, the man began to speak.
“My name is Peter Tilman, and I will be judging your tryouts. When you try out, I will create targets for you to aim at. I will be judging you on how you fly, your aim, your ease in the air, and overall skill. You have 5 minutes to warm up.”
I mounted my broom and kicked off to do some laps around the stadium. When I took off, joy erupted into my heart. The Silver Arrow felt as if it was a part of me, and it seemed to respond to my thoughts instead of my touch. I glided through the air, dove, rolled, and did some tricks I haven’t done in the longest time. All my worries flew past me as quickly as the air did when I ripped through it. The joy, however, ended quickly, when Peter Tilman’s whistle blew and I landed back on solid ground.
Levia tried out first while I sat down on the sidelines. Curious as to how the tryouts would work, I watched with intense attention. When Levia took off, Tilman waved his wand and images of imaginary Quidditch players appeared on the court. Levia began to pelt the Bludger at them, while Tilman kept count. After twenty projections, Tilman blew his whistle and Levia landed on the ground. Her smug smile told me everything I needed to know; she had hit every target.
Tilman motioned me over. My stomach knotted tightly. It was my moment of truth….
I mounted my broom and when Tilman blew his whistle, I kicked off of the ground. I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt myself glide through the air. The sky was my friend; it was the only place I could really relax. Returning back to my task, I waited for the first projection.
The tryout was fairly normal, just flying around and hitting the Bludger. There was one part where I did slip up….
I had just hit a Bludger at a projection and was flying on when suddenly another projection appeared less then a meter away. Caught completely by surprise, I took a sharp turn right, dove almost at a 180° angle, pulled up centimeters away from the ground, ascended sharply, and made my way to the Bludger on the other side of the field. Feeling very stupid (I could have turned around and flew to the Bludger at the other side of the field instead of creating my own three ring circus) I channeled my humiliation into force and pelted the Bludger at the projection.
After I hit that projection, I heard Tilman’s whistle and landed on the ground.
“Thank you, ladies,” he began, “for trying out. We’ll contact you by next week if we decide to accept your application.”
He turned and walked away, leaving Levia and me staring at each other. If we both hit the twenty targets and both did well…who got accepted?