Chapter 50: Hosting Tryouts

The first week of classes passed. It was just like Scorpius and Rose suspected it would be. Busy. With N.E.W.T''s coming up at the end of the year, the teachers loaded the students up with boatloads of homework. So, every evening, Rose and Scorpius would go to their new spot, and work on homework and study together, just like they did for O.W.L's. But, now, a new Quidditch season was unfolding. Rose had already hosted her Gryffindor tryouts the previous yesterday afternoon. But, tonight, Scorpius and Rose's studying would have to pushed back a few hours. Tonight was the night that Scorpius chose to host Slytherin Quidditch tryouts.

"I know you are going to be great picking out a team." Rose said as she rubbed circles on Scorpius's back. He was a bit nervous. Scorpius had never had this big of a task to be responsible for. If he didn't pick a good team, his entire house would be mad at him. But, he was planning keeping most of the team from last year. He just had to find a replacement for Jessica.

"I know, it's just that, if I don't do this right, I'm NEVER going to hear the end of it." Scorpius responded, already changed into his Slytherin Quidditch Uniform, and clutching his Firebolt 2 in his free hand. But, Scorpius and Rose's conversation was interrupted by someone.

"Hey, what time were you planning on going down and setting up? I can help if you'd like." Allison said, coming into the Heads common room, already changed and clutching her broom, where Scorpius and Rose were planted on one of the couches.

"Well, I guess we can make our way down there now." Scorpius almost sighed, and got up from the comfortable spot he was sitting in, where he was leaning against Rose. Rose was a little disappointed that he had to get up too. He was all warm. But, Scorpius gave her a nice, sweet, kiss goodbye, and made his way out of the Heads Flat.

"So, what's your plan this year?" Allison asked, as her and Scorpius exited the Heads Flat.

"Well, I thought it would just be easiest to keep everyone from last years team. We just need to find a new Chaser to replace Jessica." Scorpius explained, as him and Allison were climbing one of the moving staircases.

"I would have to agree with that." Allison said back.

Scorpius wondered how big of a turnout there would be. He had posted a sign up sheet in the Slytherin Common Room the day before, but, he never checked it to see how many names were left. But, right now, him and Allison were going to see.

After a long walk down to the dungeons where the Slytherin Common Room was, Scorpius and Allison were let in.

"Oh, hey Scorp. Are you guys going to host tryouts right now?" Albus said, looking up from his spot in the common room, and noticed that Scorpius walked in with Allison.

"Yea. We just need to see how big of a turnout we are going to have." Scorpius said, tearing the sing up sheet he posted off the bulletin board in the common room. Allison noticed many people sitting in the common room in Quidditch robes.

When Scorpius looked at the sign up sheet, there were about 30 names written on it. This made him just more stressed. The more names, the longer this would take, and the more evaluating he would have to do.

"Well, that's a lot of names, we should probably head down there before any of them get there." Allison said, after seeing the same number names as Scorpius did.

"Good Luck." Albus said, returning to his homework, as he saw Allison and Scorpius exit the common room.

After another very long walk, Allison and Scorpius were down at the Quidditch pitch. Scorpius set his broom and the sign up sheet down. Him and Allison went over to the broom shed, and pulled out the trunk that had the Buldgers, Quaffle, and Snitch inside it. Once they were back out on the pitch, they noticed that people started coming towards them, and some people were filling into the stands to observe.

One of the people who fled to the stands to watch was Rose. Shortly after Scorpius and Allison left, she decided to go watch the tryouts. Not to plot against Slytherin, but, to see how Scorpius was going to handle all of this. Besides, she had gone to watch their tryouts for the past two years now, surly it couldn't hurt to do the same this year.

Scorpius waited a few minutes before starting tryouts, for everyone to arrive. He just watched, as more and more people came to try out, and watch. Then, something very familiar caught Scorpius's sliver eyes. He made eye contact with his beautiful girlfriend. She simply waved down at him, and he waved back. Scorpius had done the same thing, when she hosted Gryffindor tryouts. Not to plot against Gryffindor, but to watch how Rose captained. She kept the same team, except she replaced Molly and Roxanne with different people in Gryffindor. They both loved to support each other, even thought technically they weren't supposed to due to rival Quidditch teams.

"Are we ready to start?" Allison asked, interrupting Scorpius's thoughts.

"Wha- oh, yea, I suppose we should." Scorpius responded, reorganizing his thoughts to focus on reality.

Then, Scorpius cleared his throat very loudly, to get everybody's attention. To his luck, this actually did work. Now, everyone's attention was devoted to him, eager to know what he was going to say. Then, Scorpius started to speak.

"Hello everyone. I assume you are all here for Quidditch tryouts. Well, most of you probably already know this, but my name is Scorpius, and I will be your captain this year. I'm a Chaser, and Allison is too. I can't wait to see what skills you all have. First, I want to see some flying drills. Five laps around the pitch." Scorpius started, and looked at Allison for her consent. She seemed to agree. With that, all the people from last year's team, and the ones that hoped to make the team this year, mounted their brooms, and took off into the air. Scorpius and Allison also mounted their brooms, and flew to the center, so they had a good view of everybody's flying skills.

After everyone did their five laps, they all went back down to hear Scorpius's next direction.

"Okay, that was some good flying. I think we should first start off by evaluating the Beaters. Everyone who is trying out for a Beater position come over here. While the rest of you wait, Allison will run you through some speed drills." Scorpius explained.

With his direction, everyone who was trying out for a Beater position followed Scorpius over to the opposite side of the field. Scorpius automatically recognized Thomas and John, they were the Beaters who played for Slytherin last year. Scorpius was planning on just keeping them again for this year, but, he still wanted to see his options.

"Okay, so, what I want you guys to do is, when I fly up and try to score, I need you to aim Buldgers at me. It's fine if they hit me, nothing a good charm can't fix. If anything, that's probably a good chance for you if you do hit me." Scorpius explained. Then, all of the potential Beaters and Scorpius mounted their brooms, and zoomed up into the air. Scorpius instantly intercepted the Quaffle, and zoomed by on his Firebolt 2, towards the goal hoops. Trailing him, all the potential Beaters swung their bats at rouge Buldgers. Before Scorpius could tell, two hard, fast, Buldgers hit him, but luckily, he didn't fall off his broom. Scorpius could already tell that these Buldger hits were cast by Thomas and John.

Then, Scorpius said that the Beaters were done, and that they could go practice speed drills with the others. Scorpius wanted to evaluate the Keepers. He got all of their attention, and they made their way back to the opposite side of the pitch.

"Okay. What we are going to do is, one at a time, I need you to go and fly up to the hoops two guard them. I'm going to start at the 50 yard line, and throw Quaffles and try and score against you. You each get five chances. Whoever blocks five out of five, gets the Keeper position. Everyone got that?" Scorpius asked all the potential Keepers. They all nodded in response. One of the potential Keepers was of course Connor. He wanted to be able to keep the same position he had last year.

With that, Scorpius took a Quaffle, and mounted his Firebolt at the 50 yard line. He zoomed through the air, as fast as he could go, even throwing a barrel roll in there, and throttled back, and fired the first Quaffle towards the first potential Keeper. He missed.

Keeper tryouts went a lot like this for a half hour. There were 7 people trying out for the Keeper position. Then, it was Connor's turn. When Scorpius fired Quaffles at him, he didn't let one through any of the goal hoops. Scorpius knew that he was going to keep Connor as Keeper.

After Scorpius evaluated all of the Keepers, he did the same as he did with the Beaters. Scorpius called up to them all, and asked to see all the potential Seekers. This part was not going to be easy. Sometimes, it took over an hour to find the Snitch. In an hour, it would be dark. Scorpius just hoped that Cara would perform well, so he could get this part over with.

"Okay. You are all trying out for the Seeker position. Now, as we all know, most of the time, it takes an hour to find the Snitch. So, I am going to set a timer for 15 minutes. If the Snitch isn't caught in that amount of time, then, if any of you had any signs of seeing it, then explain that to me in full detail. Go." Scorpius stated, casting a timing charm. Cara and the other Seekers flew up into the air, all keeping their eyes and ears open for the Snitch.

15 minutes past. Like Scorpius thought, no one had caught the Snitch. He knew that wasn't near enough time, but, he still needed to evaluate the Chasers. That would be the hardest because he needed to find a replacement, instead of keeping the players from last year. Also, Cara approached Scorpius, and explained for a split second, she heard a buzzing, but, that was the only sign of the Snitch she found. To make Scorpius's decision way easier, she was the only one who noticed any sings. Scorpius was relieved for this.

And, last but not least, Scorpius then dismissed the Seekers to wait for their results. It was time to evaluate the Chasers. He got Allison's and the potential Chaser's attention, and lead them back to the opposite side of the pitch to start their tryouts.

"So, you all are trying out to be Chasers. Well, me and Allison are already fill two of the Chaser positions, so that means we have only one spot left. You all need to work extra hard and show us you deserve that last spot. I'll have one of the Keepers come and guard, and you guys have to score against him. The person who scores the most gets the spot." Scorpius explained. He considered Allison already on the team because number one, all week, she wouldn't stop talking about the upcoming season in the Heads Common Room. And, number two, she was really good, and Scorpius wasn't going to replace her.

Then, Connor flew over and guarded the goal hoops, like Scorpius directed him to do. If everything went to plan, Connor would be able to guard well, but a good replacement Chaser would be able to score against him. Multiple Chasers went. They were okay, but not to great. At this point, there was only one left. She was a small 5th year, and she didn't look that strong. Scorpius recognized her to be Chloe Clarkson, a muggle born Slytherin who was two years younger than him. (Over the years, Slytherin had to accept Muggle Borns. They couldn't exclude them anymore. If they were cut out to be a Slytherin, then Slytherin house it was.) But, the reason why Scorpius knew her name was because she had fancied him, and she was obvious about it. But, Scorpius always ignored her. The only girl Scorpius had eyes for was his beautiful girlfriend Rose Weasley.

It was now Chloe's turn to go. When she went, Scorpius was very surprised. She was actually pretty good. She had scored more than anyone. She got five attempts, and she scored three out of the five times. It looked like they found their new Chaser.

Scorpius called them all back down, and they all met up with the rest of the people that showed up there for tryouts. Scorpius just wanted to get this over with. People were just going to say it was rigged because he mostly picked the same people from last year. But, they performed the best out of anyone, and that was the key to having a good Quidditch season. So, Scorpius thought of the fastest and easiest way to do this.

"Okay. Wow. You guys all did very well. I'm impressed. But, as you all know, on a Quidditch team, we only need 7 players, and counting myself, we only need 6. So, I would like to see, Allison, Cara, Connor, Thomas, John, and Chloe. Unfortunately, the rest of you did not make the team. You are dismissed now." Scorpius said to everyone. Most people had a disappointed look on their face as they left, but, the people's who's names were called had smiles etched across theirs.

"Well. This is the Slytherin House Quidditch team for this year. You all did really well today. I hope that we can play just as well as last year, and Chloe, welcome to the team." Scorpius continued once the six of them were surrounding him. Everyone congregated Chloe, and welcomed her to the team. Then, Scorpius handed everyone their uniform for the year, and they all said goodnight as they walked off the pitch. The only person left on the field was Chloe.

"Scorpius, I can't thank you enough. I promise I won't let you and the rest of the team down this year." Chloe said, then, she unexpectedly hugged Scorpius. Scorpius was caught very off guard by this, and he did not think that it was pleasant.

Up in the stands, Rose decided to wait for Scorpius to finish to walk back to the Head Flat with him. But, she saw something that made her stomach turn with mixed feelings. Mostly angry type feelings. A girl had her arms wrapped around Scorpius. This made Rose's blood boil. She was the only girl allowed to wrap her arms in those places on Scorpius's body. But, Scorpius was facing the other way, so she couldn't see his face. Eventually, the girl got off him, and skipped off the pitch with her broom and green Quidditch uniform. Rose just wanted to storm off. She just couldn't believe what she just saw. He had some explaining to do.

Scorpius felt very awkward and uncomfortable as he watched Chloe leave. Why did she hug him like that? He only gave her a Quidditch position, that's it. Then, a thought popped into Scorpius's head. Rose. Bloody Hell. She was up in the stands still. Had she seen that? Scorpius hoped she didn't. But then, Scorpius turned around after packing things up, and saw Rose storming towards him.

"Care to explain why that girl was hugging you, Malfoy?" Rose hissed. Scorpius knew she was upset because she never used his last name.

"Rosie, I can explain." Scorpius said desperately. Oh, Bloody Hell. Bloody Hell. He was in trouble.

"Don't you Rosie me! Then tell me why that girl arms were wrapped around you!?!" Rose hissed again. She never thought that she would be like this towards Scorpius.

"No. Really. Listen. All I did was give her the Chaser position. I didn't expect her to hug me. Trust me Rose, it was nothing, really." Scorpius tried to explain, but Rose didn't look convinced.

"Prove it then." Rose said, with expression.

Scorpius stepped towards her, staring into her deep blue eyes. Rose couldn't help but stare back at his misty, sliver ones. Dang. That boy's eyes were so seductive. Scorpius inched closer and closer to her, with caution, and then, the gap between them had closed. Scorpius kissed her very sweetly on the lips, taking her hands into his. Rose didn't respond for a minute. She was still angry. But, I said minute. Gosh dang! Rose couldn't help but respond. She loved when Scorpius's familiar lips brushed against hers. She couldn't stay mad at him when he did that.

When the gap opened back up again, Scorpius brushed a piece of hair out of Rose's face, and tucked it behind her ear, looked straight into her eyes, and began to speak.

"Rose Nymphadora Weasley, you have to trust me that I would never have eyes for anyone except you. I don't look at other girls the way I look at you. You are the most beautiful human being I have ever seen, and no one, I mean no one, is going to replace you. I love you more than anything in the world. Please forgive me. Look, Chloe has fancied me for a long time, but that's it. I've just ignored her all this time. She's not you. She just caught me off guard. Rose, I love you so much, and I'm not going to ever let another silly girl get in the way of our relationship." Scorpius said, straight from the heart, while taking Rose's hands in his, giving them a reassuring squeeze, and staring into her beautiful ocean blue eyes.

"Oh Scorp! I'm so sorry. I should have never accused you of that. I was so stupid to think that." Rose replied, really touched by Scorpius's speech, and feeling really bad about what she said. She should have known that Scorpius would have never let her hug him.

"Hey, it's okay. I probably would have gotten jealous if I saw you hugging another guy. I used to be jealous of McClaggen back in fifth year." Scorpius admitted. He would used to get so jealous of McClaggen, between getting to be Rose's Prefect partner, and asking her out multiple times when Scorpius had fancied her. He knew it all sounded silly now, but, he thought it would help the situation.

"McClaggen? You were jealous of McClaggen?" Rose said with a little giggle. She thought it was silly too. How could Scorpius be jealous of such a prat?

"Yep. He got to see you way more often. Between Prefect rounds, and he used to play Quidditch with you. He got to spend way more time with you, and I couldn't even build up the confidence to not say something stupid to you." Scorpius said with a chuckle, admitting everything he had said.

"Well, let's just forget about this and move on. Not the part when you kissed me, and you said all those nice things about me, but the rest of it. I think we have a nice sofa by the fireplace in the common room waiting for us." Rose said with a smile and small giggle. She was so happy that her assumptions weren't true. She should have known they weren't true, but, it still shook her up a bit. She didn't want something like that to happen again.

With that, Scorpius and Rose walked off the Quidditch pitch, holding hands, all the way back to the Heads Flat. She had explained to him how good of a Captain he was, and how good he flied while she was watching. When they got there, they plopped down at their signature sofa near the fireplace, and did some N.E.W.T studying for the rest of the night.

Author's Notes:Hey everyone! Okay, that chapter was just a little bit crappy. I don't know, I had a little writers block in the middle of it, so I had to step away for a few hours. Usually, I don't take breaks because I will loose my train of thought. And, not to mention it, but this is the THIRD Slytherin Quidditch Tryouts chapter I have written. I just needed to show you guys a little bit of Captain Scorpius. I'm exited to write the next chapter. It may involve a small time skip, but I'm not sure quite yet. Anyways, I still hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you all for all your support. Stay safe and healthy amigos.

-christinahpfan12