"Might be better if I go alone."

Slow nod. "Okay, if you say so..."

"I'll be fine. Promise."

"Alright. I'll probably get dinner from the house elves then head to the dragon room..."

"I'll meet you there if you save some for me."

She giggles. "I will! Promise!"

Off to Flitwick's office, then.

He's there! It's a homey place, full of books and papers and overstuffed armchairs. There's a Ravenclaw girl - sixth year, maybe - there ahead of her, talking to Professor Flitwick.

"Come in, Miss Potter!" he says, smiling. "Please make yourself comfortable."

Oookay. She takes a seat.

"Now, I understand you haven't chosen a physical education club yet?" he asks.

"No, Professor. Not yet."

"Well, you demonstrated quite remarkable skill during Flying class today, I should say - especially for only your second time on a broom - and I was speaking to Miss Hayes, here, about how Ravenclaw has an opening this year on their Quidditch team..."

"Um."

"I think you'd be a rather excellent addition - we'd waive the usual restrictions against first years playing, of course, that's mostly to give you all time to settle in and learn to fly properly, and you wouldn't have to continue taking your Flying class while you were on the team."

"You... want me to join the Quidditch team?"?

"Why, yes. You'd be quite the credit to the team, Miss Potter."

Blink blink.

"Uh." This is not at all where she thought this conversation would be going.

Jovial smile. "It'd be quite helpful to you, too - a well rounded schedule is important to success, of course, in just about everything, and team sports present an excellent opportunity to stretch the body and the social mind."

"Right..."

"And I don't believe it's too onerous a time commitment at all..." he says.

"It's ten hours a week, but you wouldn't have Flying I guess, so really only adding eight hours to your week," says Hayes, leaning back and looking at Ellie. "An hour in the evening every weekday, two hours on Saturday, three hours on Sunday. We're not actually allowed to have any kind of team training or meetings outside of that, I guess since there used to be issues with Captains pressuring players to spend so much time on sports they fell behind on schoolwork. And no team meetings during school holidays."

Nod.

Hayes pauses, then, "And next week's Mabon, so there'd be just this Saturday and Sunday, and then nothing until Monday after this coming one."

Nod. "Okay."

"Cool. We're meeting down at the Quidditch Pitch at three tomorrow and noon Sunday. Though I'll wanna give you my own tryout, not just take Professor Flitwick's word," this she directs half to the Professor.

"Okay."