Chapter 209: Stood Up

The Ravenclaw Quidditch tryouts are this coming Friday at five in the afternoon.

By that time, classes for all years will have ended, and anyone who wants to participate in the tryouts can go.

Ryan also immediately went to find Captain Roger to sign up.

He signed up for the Seeker position, even though the team currently has Autumn Zhang from the sixth year filling that role.

But that doesn't stop them from recruiting a substitute or training the next Seeker.

John and the others also agreed to accompany Ryan to the tryouts when the time comes, and for this period, they'll let Ryan practice riding his broomstick more.

It is worth mentioning that, except for the no-fly period like last year.

Anyone who wants to practice riding a broomstick normally can do so freely after reporting to Professor Hooch.

Of course, it must be within the confines of the Quidditch pitch; you cannot fly into the castle and zip around.

Since they happened to have free time today, the group excitedly rushed toward the Quidditch pitch.

Besides them, there were also some other students practicing on the pitch; it stands to reason, as besides their Ravenclaw House, the Quidditch teams of the other three houses are also recruiting people recently.

So there were quite a few people on the pitch, and there were even night lights; even Professor Hooch had to come to the scene herself to keep an eye on things.

After a round of applications, they each took a broom and flew around in the sky, helping Ryan practice.

Ryan's flying technique is actually not bad; at the very least, it counts as proficient, and he won't be wobbling around like Ethan and Titus.

So they still have a lot of confidence in Ryan.

"John."

Just as the few of them were flying back and forth on their brooms, a call came through.

John followed the sound and looked over; it was actually Hermione.

At this moment, she was standing by the railing of the stands at the edge of the pitch, holding a thick book in her arms.

"Hermione? Why are you here?"

After seeing who it was, John was also stunned for a moment.

Then he controlled his broom to descend to Hermione's side.

"Uh-huh~ Because someone didn't keep their promise to come to the library to find me, so I came to find you."

Hermione said in a slightly dissatisfied tone.

Hearing Hermione's words, John only then reacted; he had gotten too caught up in playing with his brothers and forgot to go to the library to study with Hermione.

"Er... sorry Hermione, I..."

John scratched his head in embarrassment, just about to start apologizing.

"—However," Hermione suddenly tucked the book into the crook of her arm, her tone softening, and continued.

"Seeing you playing so happily, I won't hold it against you."

Hermione smiled and blinked at John, tucking a strand of brown hair blown messy by the wind behind her ear.

"You're not angry?"

John looked at Hermione's appearance, his heart skipped a beat, and he asked back strangely.

He had stood her up, after all.

"Of course I'm angry."

Hermione gave a light huff and poked John's forehead with her finger.

"But I'm not angry that you stood me up, but that you went out to play and didn't bring me!"

"I'm not just a bookworm who only knows how to study; if you want to play, I can accompany you too..."

By the time she finished saying this, her voice was as light as a feather, but her cheeks were quietly stained with a blush.

Because she felt like she was acting spoiled, hoping John would take her along to play.

Of course, in John's eyes, this was acting spoiled.

Stereotypes are truly terrifying.

Because the vast majority of the time he spent with Hermione was studying, he almost forgot that the original Hermione was capable of getting into trouble with him.

Plus, they had just gotten together; in front of the person they like, they always subconsciously pretend to be the way they think the other person likes, leading them to forget their most simple relationship.

"Alright, I was wrong, Hermione."

"Because Ryan plans to participate in the Quidditch school team tryouts next Friday, so we are accompanying him to practice."

"Can you accompany me to watch it then?"

John changed his previous attitude and invited Hermione very sincerely.

Hearing this, Hermione's eyes lit up, and she immediately responded happily.

"Okay."

The two looked at each other and smiled, both feeling that they were closer to each other.

It wasn't the kind of closeness confirmed by status when they confirmed their relationship, but a kind of tacit understanding between each other, a more solid and comfortable closeness.

"Eww~"

"Can you accompany me to watch it~"

Just as the two were being sweet to each other, several untimely jeers came from overhead.

It turned out that Titus and the others had been eavesdropping since just now.

Hearing these sappy words of theirs, they couldn't help but jeer sourly.

John and Hermione both blushed instantly and took half a step back in unison.

"Shut up, you guys!"

This was the first time John had been watched by them while being sappy with Hermione, and he felt quite embarrassed.

He scolded them with a red face.

Hermione's ear tips were also flushed red; she was quite familiar with these friends of John's.

But in reality, they weren't in the same circle, and usually, when they met, it was at most a nod and a greeting.

But today was the first time she felt she had integrated into John's circle of friends.

"You... you guys practice hard, I have something to do, so I'll go first."

Hermione tucked the hair by her ear in embarrassment, glanced at John, and after hurriedly leaving a sentence, turned and fled in a panic.

She didn't even give John a chance to ask her to stay.

John looked at Hermione's hurriedly departing back, then looked unkindly at those few bad friends who were covering their mouths and giggling.

"Like to laugh, huh? Today I'll make sure you can't laugh!"

John immediately got on his broom and chased after them.

Seeing this, the three of them burst into laughter, each controlling their own broomsticks to scatter and flee.

The few of them jumped up and down in the pitch, disturbing the other practicing team members who complained one after another.

Then...

The four of them were kicked out of the pitch together, standing on the sidelines with dirt-covered faces.

"What a truly satisfying practice."

"Where was it satisfying?"

"Don't worry about that, just tell me whether we practiced or not."

It was quite late by the time the group returned to the castle.

So they didn't continue to wander around, but prepared to go back to their respective homes.

However, on the way back, when they passed the floor of the Black Magic Defense classroom, they ran into an acquaintance.

"Senior Harry."

The group met Harry, who looked to be in a bad mood, and called out one after another.

"Oh, hello you guys..."

Harry saw it was them and managed to pull out a smile to respond to them.

"Senior, what's wrong with you?"

Seeing that Harry's state didn't seem very good, John moved half a step closer and asked with some worry.

Harry waved his hand.

"Nothing, just got called in for detention by Umbridge."

It seemed Harry didn't want to say much.

Hearing from Hermione that he was still arguing with his Gryffindor friends, and now he was punished with detention, so that's why he was in a bad mood, right?

"By the way, Senior, do you remember the matter about going to find the Headmaster together that we mentioned before?"

Seeing Harry's appearance, John simply changed the subject.

"Er... ah, sorry John, next week, I'm really too busy this week."

Hearing this, Harry paused, remembering the matter John mentioned.

But he still said with a hint of apology.

Seeing this, John couldn't ask anything more, so he had to say goodbye to Harry first and let him go back to rest.

The group turned around and prepared to leave as well.

Ethan, who was on the side, stared at the portrait on the wall and muttered strangely.

"Have the portraits in our school been raising cats recently? How come there are cats everywhere."

"Who knows." ===== CHAPTER 210 =====