It had to be said that, when it came to efficiency, Ludo Bagman and Hamish MacFarlane were both extremely responsible.
In just one week, Hogwarts' Quidditch pitch had been completely transformed to meet international competition standards, and the remaining five members of the England team had also gathered at Hogsmeade.
Thus, on Saturday afternoon, Lewis and Shirella joined the England team for their first training session.
On the Quidditch pitch, Lewis and Shirella met their five teammates:
Avery Hawksworth, a black wizard with messy hair, the team's Chaser and captain;
Dawn Weasley, a black-haired witch, one of the team's Beaters;
Indira Choudhury, an Indian witch with brown skin and the distinctive red dot on her forehead, the team's other Beater;
Dennis Frisbee, the team's Keeper and also its oldest player, a bald, burly man;
And finally, Bryce Parkin, the team's Seeker, a brown-haired witch who possessed a specially modified silver Nimbus 2000. It was also her signature feature.
Anyone familiar with the name could tell that she came from the famous Parkin family, which was something of a Quidditch dynasty in England.
As early as the fifteenth century, the seven children of the wizard butcher Walter Parkin had formed the Wigtown Wanderers and invented the famous "Parkin's Pincer" tactic. Even today, members of the family continued to frequently play for the Wigtown Wanderers.
After seeing Lewis and Shirella, the attitudes of their future teammates varied.
Captain Avery was clearly disappointed.
As a Chaser, he would be partnering with Lewis and Shirella in the future. He had been hoping Hamish would find him a few stronger opponents to train with. Who would have thought they would be two underage children, with the younger one only fifteen years old?
The other players had roughly the same attitude.
They had no grounds to question Hamish's decision, but there were so many skilled adult wizards available. Why had he chosen two underage students to serve as Chasers instead?
They really wanted to know the reason.
Not everyone was Viktor Krum.
Still, perhaps because of Lewis's natural charm and his [Charm Human] ability, the attitudes of the female players were surprisingly friendly. They greeted him warmly and enthusiastically, which immediately caused Shirella's expression to change.
"Today's training will consist of basic ability tests," Hamish announced right away.
His meaning was obvious: he wanted everyone to get a feel for one another's abilities and conduct an initial assessment.
There weren't many tests, and the exercises varied depending on each position.
Lewis's tests consisted of flying, passing, shooting, and dodging.
They were all basic skills for a Chaser.
The first test was flying.
Hamish mounted his broomstick and flew one lap around Hogwarts. As he flew, he waved his wand, causing countless rings of various sizes to appear across the pitch, in the sky, and even around the castle.
The rings connected together, forming a racetrack that circled the entire area.
"Your task is to mount your broomsticks and fly through these rings," he announced to the players. "You must pass through every ring exactly once. The faster you finish, the better.
"Everyone starts at the same time. You may interfere with one another during the flight. The person behind is responsible for clearing the course."
Every player had to participate in this event, including the Keeper.
To obtain more realistic results, everyone was required to use the team's Nimbus 2000s. This prevented Lewis's Firebolt or Bryce Parkin's modified silver Nimbus 2000 from affecting the results.
"Although I don't know how you two managed to get onto the team, kid, you'll soon see the level of a real professional."
Before the test began, Avery deliberately issued a provocation toward Lewis.
"Don't do that, Hawksworth," Seeker Bryce Parkin advised. "They're newcomers."
She was the only person on the entire team with enough status to disregard the captain's authority.
Faced with hostility from a veteran of the team, Lewis abandoned his usual modesty and directly fired back.
"Enjoy the time when you can still talk tough, Nigger, because this is your last chance."
"What did you call me?"
Avery was instantly enraged by Lewis's use of the N-word and moved as though he were about to confront him.
Then Hamish's voice rang out.
"Everyone, take to the air!"
Avery did not dare disobey Hamish's order. He glared viciously at Lewis before obediently mounting his broomstick and taking off.
At the command, seven broomsticks shot forward from the starting line like wild horses breaking free of their reins, leaving long white trails across the sky.
Lewis immediately noticed the difference between professional athletes and the players on a school team.
Every one of them possessed excellent flying skills. Even Keeper Dennis was no exception.
They were practically the best flyers Lewis had ever seen.
And among them, the best flyer was naturally Seeker Bryce Parkin.
After all, generally speaking, only the best flyers could become Seekers.
Captain Avery's technique was not bad either. He was the second-best flyer on the team after Bryce, and he intended to put Lewis in his place from the very beginning.
Thus, the moment Hamish gave the order to start, he shot forward, intending to position himself directly in front of Lewis and suppress him with sheer professional-level pressure.
Ideally, he wanted to keep someone permanently in front of Lewis so that the boy could never accelerate throughout the entire course and would ultimately have to slink away and clean the pitch.
Unfortunately, Avery had no idea that the "ordinary little wizard" he had encountered was actually someone who had cheats stacked upon cheats.
As a female witcher, Shirella was naturally far more agile than an ordinary person. After taking Lewis's attribute potions, she had practically become a humanoid female Tyrannosaurus.
When controlling a broomstick, she was utterly fearless. No matter how violently she accelerated or how sharply she turned, nothing could stump her.
As for Lewis, although he had not used the Strength and Agility attribute potions that had the greatest impact on physical performance, he could cheat.
He constantly maintained [Bull's Strength] and [Cat's Grace], which was practically equivalent to using attribute potions.
Combined with the constant assistance of his psychic abilities and his astonishing 29 points of Intelligence in his normal state, his flying ability was no worse than Shirella's.
And so, Avery was dumbfounded.
He was left behind from the very beginning.
No matter how hard he tried to catch up, the gap only grew larger and larger. In the end, he could not even catch a glimpse of Lewis and Shirella's trail.
By the time he barely reached the finish line, the two had already been resting there for quite some time.
Yet he did not feel embarrassed at all.
It wasn't that he was too weak.
It was that the newcomers were too strong.
Hadn't even Seeker Bryce been questioning her entire life?
But the flying test was only the beginning.
The passing test finally allowed Avery to witness what seemed like the limits of human ability.
No matter how tricky the passes were, the newcomers could catch them with ease. Their physical coordination and spatial awareness were terrifyingly good.
Lewis Green was especially astonishing.
He seemed to possess an instinctive sense for the Quaffle. Even with his eyes covered, he could still catch passes coming from every direction.
During the shooting test, the newcomers' throws were fast and accurate, comparable to those of the most experienced Chasers.
But what shocked him most were the newcomers' fancy techniques.
Banana shots, dipping shots, curved shots, and all kinds of unpredictable trajectories were fired one after another, leaving Keeper Dennis Frisbee questioning his entire existence.
The dodging test was even more absurd.
The two newcomers' instincts and reaction speeds were terrifying. They dodged almost every Bludger thrown at them.
The most outrageous was still Lewis's performance.
His ability to react as though he had eyes in the back of his head was so astonishing that even Bryce could only marvel at it.
After just the first day of training, the two newcomers had completely convinced their teammates.
And during the training sessions that followed, the performance of the two Chasers continued to shock them again and again.
Their skills, tactical ability, stamina, and the incredible chemistry between them...
It was as though the greatest abilities of every outstanding Chaser throughout Quidditch history had been gathered into these two people.
After undergoing Hamish's professional training, they unleashed all of that potential.
Originally, the arrogant captain Avery had thought that after the arrival of the new players, he would become the team's primary scoring force.
But in front of Lewis and Shirella, he could only serve as a supporting role—a blue-collar player.
As Ludo Bagman, the ever-present Director of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, put it:
"They're so strong they might as well be from another dimension."
Originally, the biggest favorites to win the World Cup were their rivals and friends, the Irish team.
Hamish had long endured the pressure of England's national team failing to win a championship, and sometimes not even making it to the final.
But now that he had Lewis and Shirella, he felt that the championship was within reach.
He was about to become the hero who would save England.
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