Eda thought Oliver Wood needed to calm down, but he went straight to Professor McGonagall. Eda believed Professor McGonagall would never agree to such nonsense—only to be betrayed by dear Professor McGonagall.
Once again, she forgot that McGonagall was also a Gryffindor.
But McGonagall didn't share the strange ideas of the twins and Wood. She simply felt that Eda should participate in more physical activities, especially Quidditch, which would be good for her.
As for whether Eda could actually play in the match, she didn't think it mattered much. If she could play, she'd experience it and fight for it. If not, she'd treat it as a form of personal training. After all, she was a natural genius and fast learner of magic. Maybe she could pull it off.
And so Eda was pre-assigned a spot, receiving the same treatment as Katie Bell. The difference was that Katie earned it with her own skills, while Eda relied on brute force and connections.
If, after next week's tryouts, no better candidate is found, Eda would take to the field wearing the number 7 jersey.
The number 7 was quite likable.
In the wizarding world, 7 was also a number full of magic. 7 was Cristiano Ronaldo, was MS Dhoni, was David Beckham, was Eric Cantona, was George Best, was Bryan Robson.
Although they didn't play Quidditch, they would stand with Eda—that's the will of 7.
Wait, in 1991 there wasn't Ronaldo or Beckham yet, and Cantona was still with the White Rose, Leeds... But that didn't matter. The sky over Manchester would always be…
Well, that had nothing to do with Hogwarts either.
Hogwarts was in Scotland. Whether the sky over Manchester was red or blue wasn't something Eda needed to worry about.
The second week of term, Gryffindor's Quidditch tryouts began on a sunny afternoon. Katie Bell proved with her strength that even without a pre-assigned spot, no one could take the Chaser position from her. With her spot secured, Gryffindor's offensive line would now be fully staffed by three girls.
The other students performed with varying degrees of success, but Wood still hadn't found a suitable Seeker, nor had he discovered any promising talent.
A second-year named Cormac McLaggen did fairly well, but the kid's brain tended to short-circuit—he wasn't cut out for long-term development.
Just as Eda was resigning herself to fate, deciding to bring her talents to the Quidditch pitch, a thrilling piece of news arrived: Professor McGonagall had found a Seeker, solving the team's biggest problem.
It happened on Thursday. By then, the Quidditch tryouts were already over. Eda wondered if Professor McGonagall had studied scouting at Bluefield or something—how else could her talent-spotting skills be that good?
Wood had nearly worn out the sign-up sheets without finding anyone, yet McGonagall found one effortlessly while sitting in her office.
At the time, Eda was in Ancient Runes class, sitting with Cedric, whom she was relatively familiar with, listening to Professor Babbling's lecture and her endless complaints.
Cedric even asked Eda how she ended up as Gryffindor's Seeker.
They had played Apple Quidditch together over the holidays, so Cedric had a clear sense of Eda's abilities—she wasn't suited for the Seeker role.
And Eda didn't shy away from telling the boy the truth. There was nothing to hide. Why she was getting on the field—anyone could guess that much.
But just as class ended, Eda's starting position—still barely warmed—was changed to a substitute spot. The twins were waiting for her at the classroom door to deliver the good news.
Eda also learned that the new Seeker was none other than Harry Potter. He had once again rescued Eda from a dire situation.
Whether or not Harry could save the world was uncertain, but he had certainly saved Eda twice now.
"He dived fifty feet, reached out and grabbed the thing—without a single scratch. Even Charlie Weasley couldn't do that," Fred recited Professor McGonagall's exact words, eyes gleaming with excitement as if he had witnessed it himself.
"Harry must be the youngest player in decades," said George. "He's got to be incredibly talented—otherwise Professor McGonagall would never make an exception to put him on the team."
Eda thought for a moment and said, "Probably the youngest in a century. Also, if you two paid more attention when cleaning the trophy room, you would've seen Harry's father's name. He was an excellent Quidditch player too—helped Gryffindor win the Cup."
"You've gotten a lot more talkative now that you don't have to play. Are you really that afraid of Quidditch?" Fred asked.
Eda stopped in her tracks and said seriously, "I'm not afraid of Quidditch, and I'm not afraid of embarrassment. I just don't want to disappoint Professor McGonagall. If I can't do it, then I shouldn't give her false hope. That's a cruel thing to do."
Now, things like Snape or Quidditch had nothing to do with Eda. Hehehehehehe~~
As long as she didn't get involved with Quirrell's business, this would be a perfect school year.
The three of them, light on their feet, went together to the Great Hall, and sat right down next to Harry.
"Congratulations, Harry, youngest Seeker," Eda said, though her hands didn't stop moving—she had already helped herself to a pie.
"Don't worry, we're all teammates now. We're the Beaters, and your Seeker position came from Eda," George whispered.
Harry quickly turned to Eda to explain, "Eda, I didn't know you were the Seeker... I..."
"Ahaha~ It's fine, it's fine. Eda was only the Seeker for a little over a day," Fred patted Harry on the shoulder reassuringly. "She's probably thanking you now!"
"Yup! She'll definitely be able to eat a few more slices of pie today," George added confidently.
After a while, the love of Harry's life—Malfoy—showed up. Naturally, he wasn't there to congratulate anyone. He brought his two little henchmen along to stir up trouble.
But with the staff table full of professors and Eda and the twins sitting right beside Harry, Malfoy only dared to toss out a few harsh words. Before leaving, he challenged Harry to a wizard's duel.
Eda, in high spirits, didn't take Malfoy's behavior to heart. This time he had been careful with his words—he hadn't dragged the Weasleys into it—so she couldn't be bothered to argue with him.
"Want me to teach you a few moves?" Eda said to Harry, who looked a bit nervous about the duel. "I guarantee Malfoy will start going the other way when he sees you. What do you say?"
A duel between two first-year wizards was nothing more than a few sparks shot back and forth—less threatening than a fistfight.
"That's a bloody brilliant idea, Eda, you've got to teach Harry a few moves!!" Ron said excitedly, as if he'd just found his pillar of support. "Harry, you know Eda's amazing—I'd say no one but the professors could beat her."
But in the end, Eda didn't get the chance to teach Harry any self-defense moves—Wood called her away.
He started by offering some words of comfort, even though Eda didn't care about losing the starting position. Then Wood laid out his next plan.
Publicly, Wood still claimed that Eda was the team's starting Seeker—whether to mislead or intimidate the opponents, it didn't matter. Wood intended to keep Harry a secret until the actual match and catch the other team completely off guard.
Eda agreed with the plan. She was willing to help the team in any way she could. She also intended to look after Harry a bit—after all, he had saved her twice.
BUT...
What happened next made Eda take back that intention. She even began to feel a twinge of jealousy toward Harry.
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