Chapter 5

"Alright-y, team," Olivia called as she walked onto the pitch with Jude. The boy fidgeted in his quidditch uniform as he stood beside her, staring at the others in their uniforms as well. "We have a new member to our team. He's a first year named Jude Porter. Jude, this is the team."

She gestured to the others, "I'm the keeper. Here we have Roxanne Weasley as our chaser." The dark skinned girl grinned at the boy, waving to him. "Louis Weasley who is our beater." The red headed boy gave him a grin as well with a thumbs up. "Kelli Sharp who is one of our other chasers." The blonde girl on the team gave him a small wave. "Fred Weasley who is our other beater." The dark skinned boy bowed at his introduction. "Niall Hunnam is our last chaser." One of the blond males smiled, giving a wave. "And Chad Walker here was our seeker."

The other blond began to grin before the sentence fell on him. He glared at Olivia, "What do you mean 'was'?"

"Just as I said," Olivia rolled her eyes. Jude noticed almost everyone else on the team looked very relieved at the girl's words. "We've gotten a new seeker and he's a hell of a lot better than you, Walker."

"You can't kick me off the team," Chad spat viciously. "I'm all you've got to win this cup."

Olivia glared right back at him, stepping up to his face, "Oh really? You might think you're tough, Walker, but it's because of you that we haven't won a match since our last seeker left us. You're only a 4th year, so you have no power against anyone."

Chad glanced at Jude who meekly stood in his place. He grunted, throwing his broomstick to the ground angrily, "Fine. You think you can win with a little first year then be my guest. I'll just be laughing on the sidelines when you lose."

Olivia only shook her head as the boy stormed away, shoving Jude as he did. The first year righted himself, gazing at everyone apologetically. A beat later, everyone was cheering. Fred grinned, catching the boy in a loose headlock, "Oh thank you, Porter. You don't know how happy you've made us."

"Seriously," Roxanne laughed. "He was the worst seeker I've ever seen. My parents thought so too."

"Yeah," Fred nodded, keeping his arms around the glasses wearing boy. "Our mom and dad played together and never had they seen a more atrocious seeker. My uncle is a fan of the Chudley Cannons and he said the same thing."

Jude tilted his head at the two, "You're siblings?"

Fred chuckled, "Twins actually. We're both seventh years. George and Angelina Weasley are our parents."

"I'm one of their cousins. I'm a third year." Louis chimed in. "Bill and Fleur Weasley are my parents. My sisters go here too, but they're in Ravenclaw. Victoire is a sixth year and a prefect while Dominique is a fifth year and also a prefect." He smiled at the younger male, "You hang out with James. I'm his cousin as well. His mother is my father's sister."

"Ours too," Fred piped up.

Jude blinked at all of them while Olivia patted his shoulder reassuringly, "Come on, you're overwhelming the boy. We got to get him started on training since our first game of the year is in a few weeks. Let's get started." She clapped her hands and everyone got on their brooms.

Jude inhaled anxiously, mounting his broom. He slowly ascended in the air with everyone. Niall whistled, impressed by the broom, "He's a natural. Hey, nice broom by the way, Porter."

Jude blushed as everyone gave praises on his broom, "Thank you. It's a Lightningbolt."

"We know, Jude," Olivia smiled. "Alright everyone, you'll be going through drills today while I train with Jude." She flew over to the boy while everyone got their equipment. "Now Jude, there are 7 people on every quidditch team. You can have alternates though, in case anything happens to the main players. You have one keeper, which is me, who makes sure the other teams never scores into the hoops."

She pointed to the three rings on both sides of the pitch. "Ten points is given to the team who makes it in. There are three chasers who score the points with the quaffle." She pointed to Roxanne, Niall and Kelli who were throwing a red ball around. "They are the only ones who can score the points. The beaters use bats to smack bludgers around and try to distract the other team."

The two reacted quickly and moved out of the way of the black ball that whizzed past them dangerously. "Sorry," Fred called out sheepishly.

Olivia rolled her eyes, going back over to Jude, "Nasty buggers. Watch out for those, there are two of them. They can cause serious injury if they hit you. And last, there is a seeker, which is you, who catches the snitch. The snitch is worth 150 points. The game is not over until one of the seekers from one team catches the snitch. Matches can go on for ages if the snitch isn't caught. Now the snitch may be worth a lot of points, but if the points don't go over the other teams, we still lose. Got that?"

Jude nodded as she continued, "There are other rules. You have to stay in the boundary line, but you can fly as high as you want. Only I can call time out since I'm the captain. Penalties are called by the referee, and the ref differs on every match. Contact is allowed, but you cannot touch another person's broom. Keepers can only block shots. Wands are allowed on the pitch but you cannot jinx anything. Substitutions are not allowed throughout the game. If you are injured during a game, we have to wait till the next game to replace you.

"There are fouls in the game. There is blagging which is taking hold of another's broom to slow them down; that counts for all players. There's blatching which is flying the intent of colliding with someone; that also counts for all players. There's blurting which is locking your handle with another's handle to steer them off course. Bumphing only counts for beaters and it's if they hit a bludger towards the spectators. Cobbing is for all players and it's the excessive use of elbowing another. Flacking is for keepers only and it's if we use any part of ourselves to get a quaffle out of the hoop. We have to stay in the front. Haversacking is for chasers only and it is if the chasers don't throw the quaffle through the hoop. Quaffle-pocking is only for chasers and it is if they tamper with the quaffle. Snitchnip is for anyone other than a seeker and it is if they touch or catch the snitch. And last there is stooging which is for chasers only. It is if there is more than one of them in the scoring area.

"There have also been very impressive quidditch moves over the years. Some are known widely such as the Wronski Feint which is one you should look up. You should look up almost all of them, actually. You may just be able to do them."

"Got it?" Olivia asked the wide eyed Jude. The poor boy never had that much information stored onto him before and it was hurting his brain a little. The dark haired girl chuckled, "Alright. Let's see what you got."

…

After five grueling hours of practice, Jude slumped onto his bed, groaning at his screaming muscles. He never exercised so much before. He glanced up at James who stood next to his bed. The other boy grinned at him, "I see training went well."

Jude grunted in confirmation which caused James to laugh. "Walker was beyond mad when he came to the Great Hall. He started screaming at Professor McGonagall. Luckily, Professor Harmon cast a quieting spell on him. He was rather annoying."

Jude made an incoherent noise which only served to cause James to grin even more, "Are you ready for your first match?" More incoherent noises served to the boy's amusement.