Hector Did His Best

Two hours later, after Captain Truman had lost his temper several times and smashed a Comet 260, and several more people had had teeth knocked out, Hufflepuff finally selected three Chasers.

Cedric didn't make the cut. He seemed to have been so excited that his touch was off... All right, his touch was more than just off. He had turned into Milan's little blacksmith.

When Cedric shot, all William could hear was the clang, clang, clang of the hoops, as if someone were hammering iron. He threw the Quaffle thirty times and scored only once.

On a basketball court, Cedric would have been an enemy spy, our very own Kobe!

Cedric's flying skills were excellent, though, so Captain Gabriel Truman decided to give him another chance and let him try out for Seeker.

The spectators erupted in jeering laughter. Cedric went as pale as a vampire and looked rather unhappy.

He shielded his eyes from the sun, seemingly complaining that the sunlight was affecting his performance.

"Come on, Cedric!" a voice suddenly rang out from the stands.

Cho stood on her seat, cupped her hands around her mouth, and shouted.

Everyone looked at Cho, but the girl showed no sign of embarrassment and continued cheering Cedric on.

The sourness of jealousy spread across the Quidditch training field. Even Captain Truman was less inclined to give Cedric a chance.

So sour!

William, George, and Fred weren't idle either. They pulled a tattered silver bedsheet out of the Niffler's bag of treasures, with "Go, Cedric!" written on it in black ink.

The letters flashed like neon lights.

The Niffler lay on a seat, crying loudly and repeatedly kicking its little paws at Fred's groin.

Fred's expression didn't change. William was awestruck. Apparently, after being bitten last time, he had mastered the legendary art of the iron crotch.

Cedric caught the Golden Snitch in just five minutes. Without question, he became the youngest Seeker on the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team.

Watching the Quidditch tryouts, William also began looking forward to Flying Class.

In his previous life, he had been the star guard of the orphanage basketball team, known throughout the surrounding villages as Little Curry, the three-point killer!

Ravenclaw's Flying Class was on Friday afternoon of the second week, and they would be taking it with Hufflepuff.

As a house that produced one top student after another, Ravenclaw had never been strong at sports.

The little eagles had it even worse than Gryffindor: they hadn't won the Quidditch Cup in seven consecutive years!

In Slytherin's eyes, the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team were a bunch of weaklings; in Gryffindor's words, they were easy points; and in Hufflepuff's hands, they were an rbq.

Professor Flitwick, their head of house, was at his wits' end too. He wished he could play in the matches himself. After all, at three to zero, even he could do it!

There were too many reasons Ravenclaw had fallen into its current state: a lack of fighting spirit, the selection system, the players' attitudes... Whatever problem you could think of, you could find it in Ravenclaw House.

As Ravenclaw's former captain and current coach of Scotland's runners-up, Jack Fan, put it:

"What level is Ravenclaw Quidditch at now? Look at these few players. People like Roger Davies are playing Chaser.

"Can he score? No, he can't. He doesn't have the ability, you know?!"

Finally, in an interview with the Daily Prophet, Jack Fan aimed his criticism directly at the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team.

"Ravenclaw House once lost seven matches in a row. How do you explain that? Have they no shame?!"

Jack Fan claimed that Ravenclaw needed a talented captain to turn things around, at least someone on the level of Krum, the genius who had burst onto the scene in Bulgaria.

All right, Ravenclaw Quidditch's reputation might not have been great, but that didn't stop the first-year witches and wizards from talking big.

They all thought they were a one-in-ten-thousand ball-playing prodigy!

Marcus Belby talked at length all day about the strengths and weaknesses of the various brooms on the market. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought he was the chief designer of the Nimbus Racing Broom Company.

He complained loudly that first-years weren't eligible to join their house Quidditch team, and he also told many long, boastful stories.

They always ended with him nearly flying through Earth's atmosphere.

But he wasn't the only one who talked big. From the way Eddie Carmichael spoke, it seemed he had spent his entire childhood on a flying broomstick.

He claimed he was writing to the Chudley Cannons, and that the team's owner had said he would seriously consider his suggestions.

Even Marietta Edgecombe, whenever someone was willing to listen, would talk about the time she had nearly knocked a launch vehicle out of the sky on her lady's broomstick and caused a Muggle aviation accident.

Everyone from a wizarding family chattered endlessly about Quidditch.

Quidditch Through the Ages, a book that had been gathering dust in the library, suddenly became hugely popular.

All the other similar books were borrowed too. It was as though getting hold of one would give you a head start on everyone else.

Marcus Belby had already had a huge argument with his dormmates Bradley and Chambers.

They were arguing over which athlete was greater.

Marcus said it was Hector Lamont, the Scottish Seeker.

Although at this year's Quidditch World Cup, the Scotland National Team had lost to the Canadian Team by a narrow margin of thirty points and finished as runners-up.

That did nothing to diminish Hector Lamont's greatness, though.

After all, Hector had done his best; the loss wasn't his fault.

Marcus also suggested that Hector join the Irish National Quidditch Team to play hometown Quidditch.

Bradley, meanwhile, claimed that Magic Johnson of the Lakers was greater. At this point, his AIDS diagnosis had yet to come out, while Lee Jordan had just been eliminated by the Bad Boys.

Chambers thought Maradona was the greatest player.

William also happened to see Marcus poking at Bradley's Lakers poster with his hand, trying to make the players move.

William found it strange. They were sports from three entirely different fields, so how had they managed to start an argument?

The argument finally disappeared after William put up a large Madonna poster in the dormitory and pulled out several Victoria's Secret Angels brochures promoting them in the United Kingdom.

No one claimed those men were the greatest players anymore. Marcus even apologized of his own accord, ashamed, while Chambers deeply regretted his own childishness.

William had undoubtedly saved the friendship in this dormitory, using a gentle approach that worked silently, like spring rain nourishing the earth!

William couldn't help marveling at how innocent these young witches and wizards were.

He remembered his high school dormmates in his previous life, who had likewise argued over a few players.

William had pulled out similar posters from the island nation, thinking they would make up, but to his surprise, several of them had suddenly become hooked on gambling instead.

Every night, William could hear a voice coming from under his dormmates' covers: "Macau's first online casino is now live..."

So William hurriedly moved out. He was afraid his roommates would ask to borrow money!

(Second update. Dear readers, please vote!)