"Good news, Kael!"
Early the next morning, the new Quidditch team captain Grace excitedly found Kael, who was reading in the library.
"What's up, why so happy?" Kael put down the book in his hand, "Did Headmaster Dumbledore take down You-Know-Who last night?"
"Huh?" Grace blinked in confusion, "Really, really?"
"I'm asking you." Kael looked up at her, "Didn't you say there was good news?"
"No, it's not that..." Grace finally understood what Kael meant and quickly shook her head, "The news I have is about the team, not You-Know-Who."
"Oh." Kael suddenly lost interest, but still asked out of politeness, "What's up?"
"Do you know who we're up against in our first match?" Grace asked.
"Gryffindor?" Kael said casually.
"How do you know?" Grace asked in surprise, "Did Ms. Hooch tell you?"
"No, I just guessed." Kael replied.
"Well, you guessed right, it's Gryffindor." Grace lowered her voice, "I noticed that their Keeper, that Weasley, is in really poor form, isn't that good news for us?"
"Poor form?" Kael asked curiously, "What do you mean?"
"Mikel and I secretly watched their practice..." Grace said, "Don't misunderstand, it's a normal thing to do, to gather intelligence."
Noticing Kael's change of expression, she shrugged and said, "Every team does it, maybe you didn't notice, but last year a month before the finals, the Weasley twins used to hang around the pitch while we were practicing... they weren't there for a picnic."
"Alright." Kael nodded, "Go on."
No wonder he kept bumping into Fred and George after practices, those two guys even tricked him into believing they were testing new prank items, now it all made sense.
"Where was I?" Grace thought for a moment, "Oh right, the Keeper...
"When we went to gather intelligence, we found that Keeper Weasley was always absent-minded, missing some shots that I thought had no technique at all.
"Turns out, Mikel was right, not every Weasley is a Quidditch genius."
Grace looked quite excited.
"I remember that Ron Weasley seems to be good friends with their captain, Harry Potter, right?"
"That's right." Kael nodded, "They're so close they could wear the same robe."
"Wear the same robe?" Grace was stunned again, "Although I've heard the Weasley family isn't very wealthy, I didn't think they couldn't afford a robe... A second-hand one is less than a Galleon."
"No, it's just a way of saying they're very close." Kael waved his hand.
"Alright." Grace didn't take it too seriously and continued, "I guess it's because of his relationship with Potter that he's still on the team. If it were up to me, with that kind of poor performance, he definitely wouldn't be the Keeper."
Kael nodded, agreeing with Grace's opinion.
Ron's talent is actually pretty good. When they played Quidditch in Ottery St Catchpole, his performance was remarkable and even got recognized by Charlie.
But his mindset isn't right, in critical moments, his skill drastically decreases. This was also evident in last year's match.
Among Gryffindor's three games, Ron was daydreaming in two of them, completely unaware of what he should be doing.
In such cases, replacements are usually made, and the previous captain, Angelina Johnson, did just that.
But Harry, not wanting to hurt his feelings, brought him back to the team after becoming captain and gave him chance after chance.
As Harry put it... he knew Ron could do it, he was just too nervous.
He used this reason to convince himself he wasn't abusing his power, then magnified the shortcomings of Ron's competitors to persuade others.
...
"Potter made a big mistake, he abused his captain's authority, but that's good news for us." Grace said excitedly,
"If Ron Weasley is in that state on the day of the actual game, we're sure to win!"
She became more excited as she spoke, and her voice involuntarily got louder.
"What are you doing! The library prohibits noise!"
Madam Pince stormed over and kicked Kael and Grace out.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Grace apologized repeatedly at the library door. "I didn't mean to."
"It's alright, never mind..." Kael, who got dragged into this, was a bit helpless, "I'll just find someone to help borrow those books later."
"So are you going to the match next week?" Grace's eyes sparkled as she looked at Kael, "Our chances of winning are great."
Only then did Kael finally realize her intention.
At the start of the term, Kael had approached Ms. Hooch to move himself from the main position to a substitute.
So according to the rules, he needed to adjust the team with Ms. Hooch in advance to be able to play.
Kael hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "Alright, I'll play."
He had opted to be a substitute because he needed to go to the Ministry of Magic on weekends, but now that the Floo Network to the Ministry was blocked, he suddenly had a lot more free time, so participating in the match wasn't a problem.