Camilla and Lily were walking back from their last lesson of advanced ancient runes.

Camilla and Lily were cut from the same cloth. They both adored learning. However they differed in why.

Lily was so eager to learn new things, merely due to the thirst to know it. She wanted to know as much as she could. Lily was curious and strived to know all of the answers to her questions. She worked hard and it consequently brought good results

However, Camilla didn't necessarily have the sam thirst for knowledge. Her success was down to pure competititiveness. She wasn't necessarily too interested in actually being intelligent, unlike Lily, but was too competitive to let the people beat her grade. Her mother Doris would always say her competitiveness was a terrible trait of hers but Camilla disagreed.

Camilla and Lily would often battle it out for the top grade in the class. However they wouldn't always be number 1 and 2. Both Remus, and surprisingly James, also did very well, as well as another Ravenclaw student named Amelia Bones whom they shared transfiguration with.

Though both girls often battled for top of the class there was never any rivalry between the two of them. They would always study together, often with the company of Remus, and share their tips and tricks.

"How about that deciding round of wizard chess for an hour before dinner?" Lily asked as she muttered the password, the portrait swinging open and allowing them to enter the common room

"I can't" Camilla sighed as they reached Marlene, Alice and Mary who were all gathered around a sofa chatting, "I wanted to head down the Quidditch Pitch for a little bit of training before people start turning up"

Marlene gasped as Camilla explained, a hand to her mouth "I forgot it was try outs today!"

Camilla laughed, "No need to panic marls" she said dropping her voice to a whisper, "I've seen everyone in his house play quidditch. You've got a pretty solid chance of making it"

Marlene seemed a little relived.

"Heading down now?" Alice asked, "Frank says thats he's planning on trying out"

Frank Longbottom was Alices long term boyfriend whom was a year above them in his seventh year. He was on the team last year and was an excellent keeper.

Camilla beamed, "Thank merlin, I was praying he was going to. I remember him mentioning that he wanted to focus on his NEWT's this year. Im happy he's decided to try out"

Alice nodded.

"We will see you after dinner then Cam?" Mary asked

"yeah, should do" she replied, "We will defiantly be done for when dinner starts"

Camilla had slipped on her Gryffindor quidditch jumper, tied her hair in a singular French plait, like Molly would aways do for her, pinned her captain badge to her jumper and made her way out of the castle and to the Hogwarts grounds. For September it was a lot colder than she had expected and she was annoyed with herself that she didn't bring another layer. Still, she figured that she would warm up when she got flying.

Camilla's smile and excitement to be back on the Hogwarts quidditch pitch was instantly squashed.

Someone had beat her to it.

"Alright Prewett?" James sung cockily, as he noticed her from a distance and flew over to her, hovering just in-front of her

Camilla's mouth hung open agape. She couldn't believe it.

"Is...is that the new Cleansweep 5?" she said, pointing to the broom in which James hovered upon.

James touched back down and held it out in his hand admiring it , "Oh this old thing?" he teased

Camilla suddenly grasped her old Cleansweep 3 in her hand a little tighter. She had begged her parents for the new broom which had only just come out. She had owned her current cleansweep for the majority of her time at Hogwarts but Doris and Gavin had explained that they just couldn't afford to buy Camilla a new broom. Money was tight for the Prewetts and Camilla knew for a fact that the Cleansweep 5 was the best there was and therefore came with a pretty heavy price tag. She understood completely, but it didn't make it any less heartbreaking to see James Potter flying it right infront of her.

The speed difference was not too bad between her Cleansweep 3 and James' old Cleansweep 4, but how on earth could she compete with him now? How was she ever going to prove to McGonagall she was far superior than James when she couldn't even keep up with him.

She guessed she'd have to rely on her own abilities to out fly him.

Swallowing down her jealously she decided to take more a graceful approach.

"You've got a very nice broom there Potter" She said taking it into her hand and admiring it as James held it out towards her, for her to take.

Camilla rand her hand over the wood. It was incredibly smooth and it smelt strongly of cedar broom polish. She guessed James had been spending every minute of everyday polishing it. She couldn't blame him whatsoever. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

Camilla thought she was in love.

Handing it back to James she sighed.

"I see we've had the same idea" James said, hopping back onto his broom and hovering before her, "you here for a bit of a fly around before tryouts?"

Camilla nodded, mounting her own broom, pulling her brown worn leather flying gloves onto her hands, "That was the plan"

James rose higher into the air followed by Camilla and gestured to the Quidditch posts, "First one to make five goals gets to take the lead at the tryouts"

Camilla hated how cocky the look on James face was, "You're on Potter"

Both Camilla and James had been there about an hour and so far neither of them had managed to get five shots past the other. James' new broom didn't make too much of a difference in this case, as it wasn't being used in actual play, but camilla could tell by the sharp and agile movements it made when James blocked her shots, that it would be absolutely rapid across the pitch.

As people had started to turn up for tryouts the pair of them had gathered quite a crowd. The Gryffindor spectators had seemed to be enjoying the show, all except Marlene and Sirius, who looked up at them from the pitch, ready to try out, knowing full well how long both Camilla and James could go at it for.

Lily, Mary, Alice, Remus and Peter all sat in the stands supporting their friends that were trying out.

"They're going to be here all day, aren't they" Mary sighed from Remus side

"Im afraid so" Remus nodded, wrapping his scarf tight around his neck while Alice nodded in agreement with dismay.

So far it was 4-4.

It was Camilla's turn for a shot and James tossed the quaffle back to her. She caught it in her hands and turned back around, facing the posts.

She really had to make this one count. Her hands were aching from grasping her broom and the tips of ears had turned red raw from the cold wind which was relentlessly hitting her body repeatedly.

Lily Evans watched from the stands as Camilla sped forwards on her broom, launching the quaffle forwards towards James and the posts. She lifted her gloved hand to her lips.

"Confundo"

James' broom suddenly jumped out of the way, jolting under his body towards the right hand post.

He watched in horror as the Quaffle sailed through the left hand post.

He could hear Camilla's shout of happiness in the far distance and he shook his head in dismay.

Camilla flew over and held her hand out for James to shake, "Good game Potter"

James took it begrudgingly, shaking it.

"I don't know what happened" He said shaking his head in confusion, "The broom, it was sort of confused"

Camilla simply shrugged, "Should of stuck to the broom you know"

From the stands Peter gasped, "Lily!"

"what happened?" Remus asked looking from Peter to Lily

"She confunded prongs" Peter said accusingly, pointing a finger at her

Lily looked around and shrugged at the others, "Come on, I had to. You know we would have been here all day"

The others all hummed in agreement and nodded. Lily wasn't wrong.

"Just no one tell either of them for merlins sake...and our own" Mary added

Once again they all hummed in mutual agreement.

Since camilla had won their little game James had let her take the lead at try outs.

"Firstly, I want to thank you all for coming!" she smiled addressing the group, "James and I really appreciate it". Camilla had to stop herself from laughing as she looked over to James who stood beside her with a sour look on his face. "For the first half of the session we are going to split you all up into Chasers, Beaters, Seekers and keepers; so if you could all do that really quickly for me now" The group of Gryffindor students shuffled around and sorted themselves into one of the four groups respectively.

"So, as I mentioned, for the first half we will be watching you demonstrate some key skills and practices as well as perhaps some time trials, for your respected position. Throughout this process we will let you know if you will be progressing into the next round, where we will mix you all back up again, and we'll play a couple of matches to see how you are able to cope in a game environment"

Camilla looked at all the faces in the massive group of students that had turned up to try out and she glanced to James who also seemed to be thinking the same thing. They'd have to cut so many people.

"And remember!" she continued, "If you don't make it this year, don't be disappointed, there is always next year! This year is a particularly difficult year with only one Chaser position remaining, so don't be disheartened. All said that, go and have fun and try your hardest!"

James hated to admit it but he didn't think he could have said it any better himself.

Camilla had fallen into the role of shouting instructions and pointers; while James made notes on some of his favourite players and broke the bad news to some students, explaining that they were not able to progress onto the next round this time.

Camilla felt too bad to break the news herself, so James had fallen into the position of bad cop for the day.

The try outs had come to an end and the Gryffindor students had made their way back up to the castle to change and shower before dinner.

All James and Camilla had to do now was agree on their team.

How hard could it be?