The Story of Regulus Black - Years 1-4

XXIX. The New Seekers

September came and went in a blur of warm weather and gusty days. The leaves were starting to turn various shades of reds, oranges, and yellows, though there were still splotches of green hidden within.

Carson Nott, along with all of the other house captains, had posted the date of Quidditch tryouts the week before. For this reason, the pitch was a flurry of students practicing their flying skills.

James Potter, Sirius Black, Marlene McKinnon, Gillian Fairman, Evan Rosier, Mark Mulciber, Lorenzo Jordan, Deacon Ackland, Francesco Anderson, Benjamin Stone, and Regulus Black were just a few of the regulars. They would spend their days zipping this way and that 'round the pitch, flying laps, playing pick up games, you name it. They were all preparing themselves for the upcoming tryouts, and they were all determined to make the team.

Everyone, that is, aside from Deacon Ackland.

He liked Quidditch and all, but he didn't necessarily think that he was the best at it. After all, he hadn't caught the Snitch at their midnight pickup game. But, Benji and Fran were both adamant that Deacon at least try out for the team - as far as they were concerned, Deacon was a Quidditch genius.

Deacon didn't necessarily know if either of his best mates were all that interested in playing, either. They both seemed to spend more time helping Deacon than they did trying to improve their own skills. In fact, now that he thought about it, neither of them had really mentioned participating in tryouts at all.

Regulus, on the other hand, was more determined than he ever had been in his entire life. He wanted desperately to get onto the Quidditch team so that he could impress his older brother. Regulus still hadn't forgotten James Potter's words to him from after their midnight game.

James thought that Sirius was proud of Regulus for what he had done during the game. Regulus had made Sirius proud.

And, despite how persistent the voice inside of his mind was when it came to not being close with Sirius or attempting to rekindle their friendship, Regulus still wanted to make his brother proud.

So, he resorted to Quidditch.

However, Regulus didn't spend loads of time on the pitch. Not nearly as much as the others, at any rate. This was due to the fact that he was still trying to actively learn Occlumency.

He had successfully snuck back into the restricted section and found the rest of the books that he needed, so now came the practical part. He spent most of his nights sitting awake with all of the books open in front of himself. He would use his wand to illuminate the pages, carefully reading the theories and steps that each book held. Regulus was quite worried about his ability to learn Occlumency, solely because of the fact that his mind was still abnormally cold. And, more than one book had specifically pointed out that colder minds meant weaker and sadder minds, and weaker and sadder minds equaled a harder time learning Occlumency.

But that didn't stop him.

The morning of Sunday, 30 September was clear and warm.

The sky was blue and cloudless, which was particularly unusual, and it was much warmer than it had been for the past few days. Breakfast was a frenzy of excited students, all talking about the Quidditch tryouts. Unlike years previous, all of the tryouts for each team were going to be back-to-back this year. First was Ravenclaw, then Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and finally Gryffindor.

None of the other students were allowed to watch tryouts, and neither were the other teams, but that didn't stop everyone from being excited.

Regulus was barely eating. He was so nervous about the tryouts that he would be participating in later that day that he couldn't even bear the thought of food. So, he kept his head down most of the meal. Barty was saying reassuring words to him, though he couldn't help but have the feeling that Barty was only doing this because he was Regulus's best mate, not because he actually believed it.