Harry and Ron were walking down to the Quidditch pitch for the first practice of the season.
"This new captain better be good," joked Ron. Harry grinned. He was the newly appointed captain of the Gryffindor team. As he walked, he imagined his new team's winning the Quidditch Cup under his leadership, and his grin widened.
Ron and Harry reached the locker room and started to change into their Quidditch robes. The rest of the team started to file in: chasers Katie, Ginny, and, in his Quidditch debet, Lee Jordan (Lee had always done the commentary for the matches but had proved surprisingly superior at the try-outs), and beaters Jack Sloper and Geoffrey Hooper. Ron remained the keeper and Harry was, of course, the reinstated seeker.
"Right," said Harry as everyone looked expectantly up at him, "as you know, I'm the new captain for Gryffindor. I know we'll have a great season if we just work hard and try our best. We've got a great team and, with some effort from everyone, we can win the Quidditch Cup this year."
Ron interjected an enthousiastic whoop, which set everyone off on a round of applause.
Harry continued, "Er, today I thought we'd just try some passing and shooting, just to see where we're at. So let's get started."
Harry lead his team out of the locker room and onto the pitch. His Firebolt vibrated beneath his fingers as though begging to be ridden once again.
"Let's just take a warm-up lap," said Harry. He mounted his broom, kicked off, and was off, soaring in the air, finally, again. Harry took in the feeling of being back in the air where he belonged as he whizzed around the goal posts. He went into a spectacular dive, pulling out just in time to tumble lightly onto the grass below. He heard clapping to his left and turned. Hermione and Proffessor McGonagall were sitting in the stands and had evidently come to watch the practice. Harry smiled at them before turning to him team, who had also all landed.
"Jack, Geoffrey, if you could get the balls and your clubs, we'll get started. "
Five minutes later, they were practicing in the air. Harry had set Jack and Geoffrey working with one Bludger, whacking it back and forth between them like some fom of mid-air pong. Ron was protecting the goal posts while Lee, Katie, and Ginny passed and shot. Harry just observed for a while.
He found that Jack and Geoffrey were a lot worse than he had expected. As for the chasers, well, Ginny and Katie were quite good, but Lee had a tendancy to intercept the Quaffle and try to shoot and do everything himself -- subsequently usually missing the posts all together. When a shot did get aimed at the posts, Ron only saved about one third of them.
This is pathetic, thought Harry. Feeling much less excited and happy than he had at the beginning of practice, Harry decided to call it a day. He and his team landed, his hopes of a cup victory dashed.