Amidst the hustle and bustle of children of assorted ages and uniform colours, Gabriel Goden shoves his way through the masses in the Express’ corridor, Briony in tow. “Mooove,” Gabriel mutters under his breath, eventually spotting an empty section. “In here, Bri,” Gabe advises, turning his neck to make eye contact as he points. He opens the door with no intention of closing it himself and slumps onto a seat. The summer, against his will, had gone so fast, and now it was back to school. How could anyone be cheerful? “Well, another year,” Gabe says to Briony with a sigh.

With a bit of a flourish, the door opens again and Carrie Mary Jane Whittier enters the door. She’s carrying a smell pet carrier in which a siamese cat lays sleeping, a suitcase of clothes, and a small golden harp. But that’s not what draws attention from anyone who knew her before. When she left Hogwarts last year, Carrie had beautiful long red hair that used to fly behind her during quidditch matches. Now, it’s cut off into a jet black, bob-style haircut. Her face is powdered, and her lips painted into a petite blood red circle. “Terribly sorry to intrude,” She grins as she enters, “But all the other carriages are full.”

“Isn’t it exciting, Gabe-y?” Briony answers cheerfully, bounding in with a rather harried looking cat in her arms. “It’s okay, Whimsy. We’re going soon. Come on, Alden! Don’t straggle!” Briony sounds like quite the all-knowing older sister as she plops down as close to the window as she can, on the seat facing Gabriel. “I can’t wait for Quidditch this year, can you? I’m sure we’ll do better. I’ve been practicing all summer, of course. I want us to get the cup this year! And we’re going to do good with the Good Deed Club. Alden, you can be with us if you’re sorted into Gryffindor. Well, of course you’ll be Gryffindor. You should be, anyway. I’ll be terribly disappointed if you’re not. And, and, oh, I get to start the electives this year! I’m so excited to see the Divination teacher. Nearly everybody likes her!”

Alden Wexler follows Briony in to the cabin with a small sigh, his expression grave. “Don’t shout, Briony. It’s unbecoming, especially when I’m just behind you.” He lingers in the doorway for a moment, waiting for his older sister to find her seat and clear the way, before placing his suitcase neatly up in the rack and taking a seat near the door and opposite from Briony. His arms folding over his chest in a thoughtful way. He had vague feeling that this would be a long trip — much longer than the floo power ride still dusted his cheeks annoyingly with soot that delivered him to Diagon Alley.

Gabriel truly doesn’t recognize Carrie as he replies to her with, “Yeah, it’s no problem,” and turns to glare somewhat at Briony. “Exciting?” he echoes before he remains silent for a few seconds, not hearing much of what Briony says (though, this lack of attention can partly be defended by the notion that Gabe thinks she is mainly talking to Alden anyways. Though, it was hard to tell for Gabe sometimes). Despite the figurative cloud looming over him, he almost can’t help getting caught up in Briony’s excitement somewhat. Maybe this year would be better. Shrugging to Alden, Gabriel Goden sighs as he looks back to Briony. “This year will be great,” he says with the naive, hopeful tone so common of him in his younger years.

“I didn’t shout,” Briony comments, taking this in stride as she continues on. “Hi! You’re on Hufflepuff team, aren’t you?” she tells Carrie, but doesn’t linger. “Anyway, buck up, Gabe. We’re going back to Hogwarts! Your mum is still our House Head isn’t she? I like her being our House Head. Professor Calwern scared me a little bit. She had all those rules and I was afraid I was going to break some.” Briony shakes her head a bit and then shrugs, grinning cheerfully at her brother and her friend. “Why are you so glum? You’ve been this way all summer. It’s no fun. We didn’t even get to go on any adventures because of it.” A pout crosses Briony‘s face as she says this, but it doesn’t last long. “Maybe we can find some while we’re running through the Good Deed Club and solve them! We didn’t find many last year. It was really sad. I wish we had.”

Felicity Wexler lingers for as long as she is allowed on Platform 9 3/4 — standing beside next to a short, silver-haired woman in her early seventies, who leans heavily on a cane. With one arm linked with the elderly woman, helping support her, Felicity talks in near tears to her until the whistle blows it’s last warning and the ushers begin making final shouts. And it’s with deep, obvious reluctance that Felicity parts with her (not for the least of the matter that the lack of support almost causes the old woman to fall over, until two men on the platform come to help), make it on to the train. Tears in her eyes that she fights to hold back, Felicity makes her way quickly to the nearest cabin with a window looking out on her Grandmother Larsen — and without worrying about it being Briony who she has to press close to in order to look out the window and wave, she abandons her suitcase at the door and cuts straight to her objective, watching sadly as the two men help the old muggle woman toward a hearthstone so she can return home.

Sitting down to the lukewarm reaction from Gabe, Carrie actually bursts out in a tiny laugh, “You really don’t recognise me, do you? I’m offended, Mr. Gabriel Goden. I stole the quaffle enough times from you last year to think you’d have noticed me.” She winks, and plucks at her harp, noting, “Briony here has a sharper mindski, I see.” She also smiles to Felicity as she comes in, and quips, “Oh, my! I’ve boarded the Wexler compartment, I see!” Her smile doesn’t dip, though, and she even begins to play a quiet tune on the harp.

“What?” questions Gabriel, confused at Carrie and showing it with a perked eyebrow and ignoring Briony for the time being. “Oh,” he says, realization dawning on him finally. “Right, I guess I recognize you, K… C… uhh…” he stutters with her name, though he probably did know it at one point. “Yeah, I recognize you,” he says quickly and looks away, a little flushed. As luck would have it, he turns immediately to the teary Felicity. Even worse! Girls and their emotions…! In a last effort, he turns to Briony, safe and always cheerful Briony. “Yeah, I… I…” he starts before crossing his arms and smiling, maybe a little falsely. “I’ll tell you later… this summer was kind of… a failed mission.” He shrugs. “But yeah, my mum’s the head of Gryffindor again this year.”

Alden Wexler arches a brow as Felicity comes bolting in to the compartment, leaving her suitcase at what is, essentially, his feet. Exhaling a long sigh as the Felicity leans over Briony to get to the window, knowing at least in part the nature of the girl’s apprehension and tears, Alden (much like Gabe) looks away. Though his motion is bore more out of modesty than any embaressement. Without a word, he rises, takes Felicity’s trunk, and stretches himself once more to place it in to the racks.

As Felicity continues to cry, Carrie finally breaks her carefully constructed image to shuffle next to her and ask, “Hey, hey. You alright, Jane?” She rubs a hand over Felicity’s shoulder. “It’s alright… shush. It’s alright. I’ll play you a song, OK? Make everyone happy here?”

“Hey, I was here first,” Briony comments and frowns a bit. Felicity isn’t her favorite cousin, after all. Does Briony have a favorite cousin. “Get your own window seat if you want one.” Briony doesn’t say this with as much sourness as usual, because having seen Felicity’s grandmother, even Briony can’t help but feel a little bit sad for the girl. “Oh, a failed mission?” Briony responds to GAbriel, looking almost concerned at it. “Why did it fail? You should have let me help! We would have succeeded together. After all, I’m thirteen now. I’m every bit as good at stuff as you.” So Briony thinks anyway. The train has begun moving, and Briony shoots a beaming look of pride to Alden. “Look, isn’t it nifty? The train ride is so fun.”

Wiping a few tears from her cheeks that manage to escape despite her best efforts, Felicity looks briefly to Carrie — smiling a little, in a brave sort of way, before rising and pulling away somewhat from Briony and the window. “No, thank you, I’m alright –” Briony’s words, strangely, are somewhat comforting to her. The mild harshness in her tone is familiar, and so it’s in the nature of that solid rock that she pushes Briony on the arm (though decidedly more gentle than she would most other times, matching Briony’s understated kindness with some of her own) before flopping down next to her Gryffindor cousin. She passes a small smile of thanks back to Alden, for his putting her suitcase away, and decidedly keeps her gaze from the window as the trainstation fades well from view. Otherwise, she remains quiet.

“I said I’ll tell you later,” Gabriel re-states with much emphasis, eyeing the others in the compartment furtively. Really, it wasn’t the type of ‘mission’ one discussed openly while among others. “And…” though it pains Gabriel to say it, “I… don’t know if you’ll be able to help. Or anyone.” He blinks quickly a couple times before forcing a smile again and trying to change the subject. “It’s okay, Felicity, it’ll be summer again soon. Just think about how fast last year went,” he lies, trying to make her feel better about leaving.

Felicity Wexler nodding slightly to Gabe, in response to his comforting words — words she knows to be false, but words that are comforting never the less, she puts on her best smile, in an attempt to convince herself that she might believe them. Her hands fold in her lap, and she finally turns her gaze to Alden — somewhat curious what it is that Gabe is whispering about, but feeling a little to down to pry. “Are you excited?”

Alden Wexler shifts his gaze back to Felicity once she has regained control of herself, his expression mute — excitement, it would seem, wasn’t a part of his typical profile. “About Sorting, you mean?” Alden murmurs, thoughtfully. His voice mildly high pitched, and somewhat effeminate despite the clarity and certainty he pours in to his words. It only adds to the general air of “delicacy” that radiates from the child. “Not especially, no.”

Keelan Walsh is standing on the platform, covered in robes that seem impervious to the rain that falls thickly from the sky. “First year students, please, this way!” She swings about a lantern, held high over her already considerably tall head, to emphasize her location. “Everyone else, the carriages are–over there!” Indeed, the carriages are lit rather warmly, as though they’ve been fitted with heating for the particularly blustery weather this Sorting day. “Come on, first years! We’ve got a lovely trip planned for you.” If being drowned from above while floating across an icy lake in the dark could possibly be considered fun.

Kara Raine hopes off the train, turning back to wave towards Rhyne. “Good luck! See you at the feast.” Glancing around, the second year tries to stay up with her fellow Ravenclaws, trying to see where they need to go next. No boat for her this year.

Alden Wexler hardly seems to notice the rain as Keelan calls out for the first years — quite despite the fact that in a little under a few moments, the poor boy in new school robes is throughly soaked, head to foot. Without a word, he does as instructed, following Keelan along the way. Ugh, rain. Olivia sighs and pulls her hood up carefully, tucking her hair back into the hood as best she can, though the water has not done nice things to it. “I’m glad we’re finally here,” she comments to Evan, making her way to the carriage and stepping into one several down.

Exiting the train, Evan pauses after a few steps to hear Keelan’s familiar voice and watch the first years begin to separate. He looks in particular for one first year boy; upon spotting the child confidently walking off toward Keelan with a few others, he hurries to follow Olivia into the carriage.

Riley Markham throws a somewhat cold look up at the Faculty table as he enters the Great Hall — wine red hair soaking wet despite his brief exposure to the rain. His expression is nothing short of rageful as it falls upon the Headmistress, before he flops down at the Ravenclaw table with a dark, dark hiss.

(Gryffindor) Being seemingly confused due to the events in the train compartment, Andy sits down at the Gryffindor table, keeping an eye on Orion. As Felicity comes in, he wishes he could be invisible or vanish in the ground. Still unsure how to handle the experience he looks down to the table, glancing up only from time to time, checking Orion and the Faculty table.

(Gryffindor) Forcing himself into something resembling a cheerful mood, Gabe glances up to the faculty table, too, as he seats himself at Gryffindor’s table. After he is unable to catch his mother’s eye (she seems busy talking to a child at the table, go figure), Gabriel shrugs, acting like he didn’t try to make eye contact in the first place. “These feasts are always the same, have you noticed?” he asks Briony with a perked brow. “Not that it’s a bad thing,” he adds, catching himself in what could be interpreted as a negative comment.

(Gryffindor) “Well, I suppose so,” Briony answer quickly, shrugging a bit. “I like watching people get sorted. And my brother’s going to be sorted, so I’ve got to pay attention. I do hope he’s in Gryffindor like me and mum and dad. I’ll be so disappointed if he isn’t.” She pauses. “Though, I’ll still like him no matter what house he’s in.” She sounds very rehearsed as she states this and then leans down with her chin in her palm. “I dunno if I’d like him to be in Slytherin, though. I don’t know many Slytherins that I like. I think they’re too mean.” Clearly, the girl hasn’t had many run-ins with Slytherins.

(Gryffindor) Felicity Wexler sinks down in to a seat next to Andy, looking preoccupied and tired. Her gaze lowers toward her empty plate, and almost idly, she reaches up and takes a curly lock of hair between her fingers before absently moving it toward her lips.

(Gryffindor) “Like my sister you mean?” Gabe asks with a grin. “If she’s a model Slytherin, I’m glad that we don’t have much to do with them,” he says. “If my mum would have had another kid, I bet it would have been in Ravenclaw. Then mum would have a full set,” muses Gabriel , idly scratching an eyebrow. “It’s strange how we all ended up in different houses I think,” he continues with, picking up a fork and standing it on its tines, though not letting go. “Don’t you think?” he asks Briony, looking down afterwards.

(Gryffindor) “I guess it kind of is,” she answers cheerfully. “But my dad was in Gryffindor, and then Uncle Logan was in Slytherin — dad still doesn’t like that; I think he wishes Uncle Logan had been Gryffindor, too — and then Uncle Jared was a Ravenclaw and Uncle Gilbert was Hufflepuff, and then Uncle Freddie was Gryffindor, too, and Auntie Eva was Ravenclaw. So I guess they have all the houses, too. Maybe it’s not that uncommon. I wonder if any families have only people who go to one house. That would be neat, don’t you think?” Briony giggles as she says this, thinking more about it. “Imagine, a whole family of Ravenclaws. I bet they’d all own libraries!”

(Gryffindor) “No, no,” Gabriel says, being caught up in his excitement of times past. “One, a sister, would own a library. The parents would own a dusty museum and the brother would be the manager of Flourish and Blotts,” he says, ticking the entities off on his fingers. “The youngest sister would be an editor for the romance novels of the oldest sister, and the oldest brother would be a guide on the tours of his parents’ museum,” he says, grinning as he pictures the family, all with inch-thick glasses and disheveled hair.

(Gryffindor) “My mum was in Slytherin,” Felicity says, quietly, turning her gaze toward Gabriel and Briony. Her tone is somewhat shy, almost as if she isn’t certain she should be joining thier conversation. But all told, she needs to talk, to get the image of the receeding train station out her mind. “Dad, too, I think. I’ve never asked him. Not sure about my sisters, either, though I’d bet Maura was in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff.” Felicity didn’t have much oppertunity to speak to her family often, socially, considering how busy they all were.

(Gryffindor) Sensing the pathetic tone in Felicity’s voice, without really understanding what she, Briony and Gabriel were talking about, Andy is torn between staying quiet and involve in the conversation and maybe find out what was her cause of concern. He finally lifts his gaze and turns to his housemates. “Hey, I…ahm…unfortunately didn’t find you in the train.” he attempts with a tiny voice.

(Gryffindor) “You don’t even know what houses they were in? How could you not know?” Gabe asks Felicity, obviously surprised at learning these things. Just how someone could never have heard what houses their family members were in is completely lost on Gabriel. The boy shrugs as he lets the subject drop, sensing somewhat that Felicity is still a bit depressed about leaving that woman he saw her waving to.

(Gryffindor) Felicity Wexler cringes a little with subtle voracity of Gabriel’s question. Any other time, and she might have bristled, lashed back with a stressed few words of her own which, likely, would met and exceeded anything Gabe’s slightly exasperated question might have delivered with a hint of sack full of righteous anger. However, the simple fact that she has had a lingering, mild crush on Gabe ever since they were first years, combined with the nature of her current, delicate state, instead only lowers her voice and makes her retreat a little. “I.. mum and dad.. are just busy, I don’t see them.. much, and Maura and Ariena are so much older than me.. and they’re gone, living on their own.. and really, it’s just me and Grandmother Larsen.. and she’s a muggle..” Her voice sort of drifts away, accepting Gabe’s willingness to shrug and let it go, before turning to look to Andy. “What cabin were you in? Who did you sit with?”

Entering later than the other faculty, Astra wipes her hands nervously on her robes. Hurrying up to the table, she doesn’t greet anyone or even Arriving at the faculty table; she walks around behind it and takes her seat.

(Gryffindor) Andy shudders a bit at Felicity’s question, but answers right away. “Uhm…It was the…third, yes. And there was this Hufflepuff with me. Orion. I suppose you know him?” Andy tries to look into her eyes for the first time this evening. He can’t hide a hint of reproach in his glance.

(Gryffindor) Felicity Wexler blinks, twice, before looking at Andy wide-eyed. “You sat with Orion Kari?” A small, quiet hint of excitement fills her voice as she turns in her seat and reaches out to take both of Andy’s hands in both of her own. “What was he like? What happened? Did he say anything?”

(Gryffindor) Another world collapsing for Andy, every crumb of hope has just been blown away. Shutting his eyes for a split second, Andy gathers some power to be able to speak again. “He has been drawing, just sitting around, not talking much or let’s say hardly anything. Just not my type of person to be with, I think.” he replies, rolling his eyes a bit.

Keelan Walsh leads the firt years out of the Waiting Room, most of them still soaking wet, Keelan herself strangely dry as she removes a ridiculously large cloak. Up she goes toward the head of the room, darting a glance at the other faculty with a ‘And why do I have to do this?’ look on her face. Then there’s a brief smile as she disappears off to the side. Returning, she carries with her the age-old stool (although it’s sturdy) with an ages-older rumbled bit of hat. This is set down in front of the Faculty table and she steps aside, clasping her hands silently in front of herself.

Fern Featherstone follows after Keelan. Her upper teeth press gently against her thin lower lip as she attempts to control her nerves, while looking over the room from beneath the curtain of her sparse lashes. She then tilts her narrow chin and looks up toward the ceiling. A gasp is heard, but Fern stubbornly and with much pride tries to control her vocal and trembling reaction. When the hat begins to sing, she looks upon it with a nervous kind of suspicion. She then looks toward the other first years, waiting to see what how they respond before stepping into a line.

Alden Wexler widens his eyes at that last line — no matter how composed a young boy appears about the process of Sorting — the notion of possibly being bitten by a old, dirty hat raises a hint of alarm as regards the patched bit of leather on the stool from the end of the line of first years. Still, he remains quiet, hands clasped in front of him, regaining his composure with a small shake of his head that sends droplets raining in a meager arch around him.

Keelan Walsh unclasps her hands and produces from a pocket a thick role of parchment. Unfurling it a bit, she repeats the instructions, “When I call your name, step up and place the hat upon your head, please. Peering through her spectacles at the first name, her voice comes, a bit unsteady, truth be told. “Castle, Rhyne!”

“I’m going to be in Slytherin, I know it,” Satinka tells Seker in a quiet whisper as she crosses her arms. Her voice is stronger and more certain than the look on her face would have one believe, but the girl appears rather focussed on the old-looking hat that sits nearby and then glances to Keelan. “Oh, I wonder where he’ll be sorted,” she comments and watches with interest as the first name is called.

Rhyne Castle makes his way to the Sorting Hat and settles it firmly on his head, doing his best to project more confidence than he actually feels. He waits in silent anticipation for the hat’s verdict.

Rhyne Castle blinks, owlishly, as he removes the hat, looking just a little bit bewildered. Although the bemused expression doesn’t fade entirely, it is joined by something at least resembles pleasure, and he puts on a more-or-less convincing smile as he goes to join his new housemates.

Falling into line behind Satinka, Seker only nods and watches nervously as Rhyne is sorted. “I met him in Hogsmeade,” comments Seker after a moment, clapping as the boy is declared a Ravenclaw. “Well, it looks easy,” Seker notes, sighing.

Fern Featherstone shifts her slight weight from one narrow foot to another as she stands in the line. She watches as Rhyne is sorted, seemingly slightly less nervous now. Her thin lips curve into the ghost of a smile. She then glances between Satinka and Seeker, clearly listening to their words.

“It didn’t hurt him, it looks like. Looks kind of easy. All you have to do is wear it. I wonder what it does. Do you suppose it just randomly picks, or if it really does decide based on, well, how you are?” Satinka whispers back, watching for the next name to be called while Rhyne makes his way to Ravenclaw table.

Keelan Walsh calls out, “Cowper, Jason,” who takes approximately four seconds before the hat calls, “Gryffindor!” and then Keelan calls another Ravenclaw, then a Slytherin and “Featherstone, Fern!”

Alden Wexler applaudes politely as Rhyne Castle is sorted in to Ravenclaw, squinting a little as the newly sorted student removes the hat as if he might actually be able to see if the leathery bit of rag actually had teeth or not to carry out the threatened biting.

Fern Featherstone approaches the hat with tentative steps, suggesting that the slender girl is rather shy. Still she throws back her narrow shoulders and lifts her dainty chin, as if trying to display a bit of pride. She reaches for the hat, while frowning with distaste in response to its ragged appearance. She then places it upon her head, leaving her lank ragged dark locks to cascade against her shoulders. Her breath quivers in the hollow of her pale slender throat, as she awaits the sorting and her small form is tense, as she sits still, silent and statue like.

Keelan Walsh claps a bit awkwardly and briefly and then continues on with two Hufflepuffs, another Gryffindor, “Linwood, Patricia!” who goes to Gryffindor as well, a Ravenclaw followed by a Slytherin and two Gryffindors and then, with a smirk, Keelan announces, “Rathe, Satinka!”

“There’s no way it’s random, are you joking me?” Seker whispers in an incredulous tone to his sister. “Haven’t you heard of the families who all get into one house, no fail?” Seker questions, crossing his arms. “No, it’s got to read your mind or something,” he says with determination, though clapping idly. “We’ll be joining her in a few minutes, hopefully,” Seker says, watching the girl go to sit down. “Go!” Seker says suddenly.

Looking startled, Satinka lets out a gasp as her name is called, and glances back at her brother, walking to the stool with unusual caution. Hesitating a moment, she looks at the hat, and then picks it up, simultaneously plopping it on her head while sitting quickly onto the stool. She bites her lip and closes her eyes up tight, seeming to be in deep conversation, or else in deep pain while she wears the illustrious hat.

With very little pause, Keelan announces, “Rathe, Seker!” as if she really needed to emphasize that he was next in line.

Still taking deep breaths, Seker does smile as his sister is sorted, nodding in her direction. One down! Now the other Rathe needed to be placed rightfully as a son of Slytherin. Hearing his name called, Seker feels like choking and fainting (life is so hard), but instead nods and steps up to the hat, sitting down and putting it on.

“It isn’t random,” Alden assures them, finally, as Satinka’s name is called. Though he chooses not to elaborate on anything else he might have gleaned from his summer reading. He draws a deep breath the closer it gets to his name being called, idly wondering if it were better that his last name was poised at the end of the alphabet, or if it might have been more simple to be at the beginning and get it over with. Indeed, despite all appearances, he is nervous. Though largely, it’s more rooted in the fact that his mother is watching from the faculty table, and seemingly a half dozen relatives are all scattered in the audience, eagerly awaiting another Wexler in their house, and sure to give him guff should he fail to share it.

Stunned, it is a few seconds before Seker comprehends the word emitted from the hat. “What?” he asks, standing up and turning around to look at his mother, his face a mask of surprise and horror. He can’t bring himself to try and look at Satinka, not after she made it and he didn’t. What is this. What it this? Seker is in a stunned reverie as he stumbles to the Hufflepuff table, not thinking, yet, to look for Rafe or any of the other Hufflepuffs he’s acquainted with. It was probably a prank or something. Well, Seker would play along for now. “Hello!” Seker greets his ‘housemates’ with a put-on genial demeanor. “What are we having?” he asks, pointing to his empty plate with a perked brow.

Keelan Walsh chokes a bit on the next name, though Sheldon, Galen sorts to Slytherin all the same. Three Ravenclaws, a Gryffindor, and yet another Hufflepuff later, she calls, “Wexler, Alden!” who is second to last in the world of Sorting unless someone has been missing from the list or Keelan‘s recitation of names.

Alden Wexler swallow a breath, Alden steps forward, moving toward the stool and the old, patched hat with an even stride. He pauses briefly to glance up at the faculty table toward Sibyl, then to the Gryffindor table toward Briony and Felicity, before exhaling a long sigh and lifting up the Sorting Hat. With a grave expression, he climbs on to the stool and places the hat on his head.

(Gryffindor) Gasping, Briony‘s face falls ever so slightly as her brother is sorted into Hufflepuff. Brothers apparently are to go to different places than their sisters this year, and it is clear that Briony was hoping rather hard for him to come to Gryffindor. “He would have made such a dandy Gryffindor,” she comments. “It’s sad, now he’s a Hufflepuff.”

His eyes somewhat wide, caught a little off guard by the insight of the hat, Alden quietly removes the cap after it’s shout and slides off the old, solid stool. “Thank you,” he says, politely, to the ragged bit of leather, before turning toward the cheering table to take his seat. He was certain he could feel Briony gaping at him from behind.

Keelan Walsh calls out, “Wexler, Kyler!” who takes a seat and sits there for so long Keelan is actually startled to hear, “Slytherin!” call forth from the hat. With one last look over the assembled students, she rolls up the parchment, claps briefly, and takes the stool and hat away. When she returns, it is to her seat at the faculty table, where she relaxes, duties done.

Melvina Prichard rises from the faculty table purposefully once the ritual of Sorting has concluded, lifting her nimble, long-fingered hands in a suggestive way as she beckons the student audience for silence. “Excuse me, quiet please — yes, that includes you, Mister Alcot.” Her voice is thick and strong, but laced with an ever-present hint of amusement. An almost coy half-grin touches her lips, looks over the heart of her school.

“Greetings, everyone,” Melvina calls, her voice dancing across the Great Hall at a comfortable volume. “Welcome to your school year nineteen hundred and twenty seven! I trust that all of you enjoyed your summer vacations! As I’m sure most you of you are now aware, my name is Melvina Prichard and I am the Headmistress of Hogwarts school. Last year, all of you helped give this blustering, frugal old woman a home and a purpose. This year, I hope to reward and repay each of you for that wonderful gift. Now, pressing on, I’ve some beginning of term announcements to make.” Clearing her throat, the Headmistress pulls a pair of spectacles from her emerald robe pocket and resting them on the bridge of her nose, before gathering up a tightly-bound scroll sitting next to her empty plate.

“All the usual suspects, of course. Our caretaker has asked me to remind you check the updated list of prohibited items and punishable offenses that have been thoughtfully posted in each of your common rooms–” Drawing in a deep breath, the Headmistress begins to unroll the wound parchment, “Spellwork outside of the classroom, rough play, pranks, hijinxs, dungbombs, Whimple’s Pimple Powder..” Demonstratively, she allows the end of the scroll to slip from her fingers, clatter to the table, spill over the edge, and roll across the floor Great Hall until it exhausts itself somewhere near the door of the waiting room across the entrance hall. A somewhat playful glint sparkling in her eyes, Melvina sets her end of the very long list down and vanishes it with a flick of a wand which she withdraws from the sleeve of her robes. “As you can see, the list goes on. Be sure to check it.”

After a small bubble of laughter, Melvina takes up a blessedly smaller sheet of parchment. “Hogwarts tradition demands that I remind you the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds for all students. As seems to happen every year since antiquity, some of you will most certainly forget that pesky little rule. It just slips out, squeezed away from the building pressure of knowledge our fine professor work so hard to fill your head with over the year.” A rueful chuckle escapes her as she shares a knowing smile with the hall. “Know then that detention is the minimum punishment for entering the Forbidden Forest without a member of staff or faculty beside you, and that such acts will usually will result in a substantial loss of house points as well.” With a small, meaningful glance around and a pause to clear her throat and savor a sip of pumpkin juice, Melvina continues. “Naturally, we ask that you respect and defer to your Prefects. Also, I’d like to congratulate our new Head Boy and Head Girl, Andrew Larson and Margaret Cresterton. Mister Larson and Miss Cresterton, please stand.” She applauds once the two have risen, leading those who care to join her in a modest round of congratulations, before continuing on.

“Well done, Head Boy, Head Girl,” the Headmistress says, sincerely. “On to faculty. There are many exciting changes in Hogwarts staff this year, so to begin I hope you all with help me in welcoming Professor Phoebe Helit whom will be heading up our Muggle Studies department, and Professor Addison Williamson whom will helm our History of Magic class.” Melvina holds for a pleasant-enough round of applause before plowing on. “Also, though she has been with us a great while, I hope you’ll all help congratulate and welcome Professor Rathe in to her new role as Deputy Headmistress. Naturally, she’ll continue to provide you all with excellent lessons in your Defense Against the Dark Arts courses as well.” Another pause for applause, and quietly surprised murmurs — it was hardly a secret that last year Professor Rathe could hardly stand Professor Prichard. Now she was Deputy Headmistress? “Sadly, I must inform you that Professors Calwern and Ashcroft have chosen to step down. Professor Fallon will properly replace Professor Calwern as Gryffindor head of house.”

Following a deep, relieved breath and Melvina finally sets down the parchment and removes her glasses. “That said, I have only one more announcement to mention before we start in on the delicious feast I know you’re all patiently waiting to savor. This is my second year as Headmistress of Hogwarts school — last year was a daring step on to the path of the uncertainty for all of us. A maiden voyage, where bold choices were made, some rising to shimmering brilliance, others not so much. But in this second year, the fright of the unknown fades as well all walk in a comfortable security. Each sure we know, or at suspect, of what to expect It is in this peaceful repetition that we as a family forge traditions. Thus, I announce to you all our first of many traditions, the second annual Barefoot Social.” A sly, almost devillish grin dances over the lips of the Headmistress. “A celebration of the new term, greeting those whom are just joining us, and welcoming home those of us returning for another year. This dance will semi-formal, open to all years, and include an… outdoor feast.” The too-clever look on her face almost seems to gloat, briefly, as she looks out at her young crowd. Obviously, she is terribly proud of herself. “As this is the mother of tradition, we shall follow the precident set by last year’s grandmother event — the ladies will need ask the gentlemen for the honor of an afternoon’s courtship.” She waits, eagerly, for the reaction to that before at last finishing up. “I will be resuming the Student Events Committee, made up of students from all years to help me prepare for the Barefoot Social, Governor’s Ball, and a handful of other special events I have planned through out the school year; if you’d like to be on said Committee, you may contact me through any of the usual means. Exact details regarding date and time of the Barefoot Social shall follow shortly. Let’s eat.” And with small nod and a sly, lingering grin, she slips casually back in to her seat.

Rhian Brecon settles into her announcing chair and does a quick test to make sure that everything is working properly and she can be heard. “Good afternoon boys and girls, Professors and staff. Today is a wonderful and beautiful day, perfect for the last Quidditch match of the 1926-27 school year. Today, we have a battle against two excellent houses, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. These two teams have managed to win both of their previous games this year and so making them tied, point for point for the Quidditch Cup, and so this match will determine which House walks away with the Quidditch Cup this year. This match is being refereed by Professor Walsh, our Herbology Professor. And now we merely wait for the two teams to take the field and to get this match underway.”

For the last week, the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team has been in constant motion, bouncing from practice to practice in a blur of manic energy. Today, Eliza Marlowe is wearing the same grin that she has worn throughout the period leading up to the big game, but her eyes are serious as she looks around at her team for the last time. “Right,” she says, her strident voice as firm as ever, but with a low quiver of intensity behind it. “This is it. This is for the Cup.” Eliza looks slowly around the circle of faces. “This is what we’ve been working for this all term. We’re going to go out there and play a good game. If we win, we win cleanly. If we lose, we lose cleanly.” A different kind of quiver enters Eliza‘s voice as she mentions the possibility of losing, but she pushes ahead. “You’ve been a good team. You’ve worked hard. Now get out there and play your best.” Eliza gives her team one last crooked grin. “Good luck,” she says, and slings her broom over her shoulder to head out for the handshake that will start the match.

Alexandra Leong looks distracted as she strolls onto the pitch, broom in hand, canary yellow Quidditch robes hanging loosely, her straight black hair contained in a rough ponytail. She nods at her Captain’s little speech, making very little eye contact with her teammates. This is it, and for the Hufflepuff Seeker, the pressures are nearly overwhelming. She shifts her grip on her broom, then starts to twirl a stray strand of hair between her fingers, a nervous gesture she’s had since before her Hogwarts and Quidditch days.

Striding out to the center of the pitch, Noémie‘s face is set in a serious expression as she looks around. The stands seem to be buzzing even louder than usual on this occasion of the Quidditch Cup. The captain and seeker holds her broom down in her hand and glances around, standing off from where the Hufflepuffs are to line up before she turns to look at her teammates. “Gather ’round here,” she calls to them, clearly ready to give them a talking-to, though how harsh she will be today is a matter of some uncertainty. The cool air seems to be causing goosebumps along her arms as she waits for her team to join her.

Contrary to Noémie’s stony expression, Tegan stomps onto the pitch, looking almost angry as she settles herself near to Noémie. Riley follows just behind her, not looking quite as angry, and Tegan almost yanks him to stand next to her. “Don’t screw up today,” she hisses at the younger student, her eyes staring into his face as she says this, until he nods affirmative. The girl stands next to Noémie and crosses her arms over one another with her broom in hand and waits to see what the captain will have to say.

Rooted to the place she’s standing while listening to Eliza’s speech, Carrie stares straight at her captain with something of a determined expression having descended upon her face after Eliza finishes up. Nodding definitively as the captain goes to shake hands, Carrie, somewhat nervously, switches her broom from her right hand to her left as she takes a few tense steps ahead. She makes a point of not looking at Marybeth, but glances down to Alexandra shortly before looking to Eldric, nodding once more.

Leaning in close with the rest of her team Marybeth has her broom clutched tightly in one hand listening intently to Eliza’s pep-talk. When the captain finishes Marybeth grins and adds. “This is for all the marbles! …. No really I’ve got a big bag of marbles I’ll split them up if we win.” Yes it was a lame stab at humor but it was lighthearted and isn’t that just the Hufflepuff way? The chaser grins a final time with a small laugh bolstering her courage before she begins doing her stretches. You always want to be nice and limber for when you are playing the most exciting game ever!

Standing a little apart from his fellow Chasers, Albert Bryce listens to the captain’s speech with rapt attention…or, perhaps, nervously glazed eyes…or, perhaps, an extremely determined effort not to look at Eldric. At any rate, he’s staring straight at Eliza through the whole thing, nodding every so often, his hand wrapped so tightly around his broom that his knuckles show white.

Charlie Linwood stands, in freshly laundered robes, with a freshly polished broom, in front of Eliza, listening seriously to her speech. This is it. “For the Cup.” he croaks back, voice belying the nerves that have settled in at the last moment. It is, after all, true. If they win this the Quidditch Cup belongs to Hufflepuff… for the first time in how long? Charlie stands unnaturally firm, though he seems to force his face into a sick grin. Today of all days it is important he not accidentally hit his team instead of the other.

Bailey Williams walks out to the pitch, broom in hand, smiling and ready to retrieve the best performance of the year from himself. Stopping at the group of teammates, he addresses Tegan with a short grin and leans on his broom, waiting for his captain’s speech.

Clavicle Gravely trots out. Sort of the clown of the team, he stops in front of the Ravenclaw stands and flaps his arms, “GO RAVENCLAW!” he slings the broom, the sandsweeper 25 over his shoulder and trots over to Noémie. His robes ripple around him in the wind as he looks to the captain.

A feeling of nostalgia sweeps over Van as she makes her way out to the pitch, standing in group with her team and glancing only momentarily at the Hufflepuff team making their shouts before turning her attention forward again. It is her last match at Hogwarts, and Van seems to have to wipe a tear away as she thinks of this, taking a deep breath of the cool air and looking up into the sky. A nice clear day, perfect weather for the determinative match for the Quidditch Cup.

Eldric Carver still has a bandaged up neck, and as possibly the largest member of the team and thus the biggest target, also sports two furry purple horns like a goat’s and, barely visible under his robes, an abundance of bright pink arm hair. “I’ll get it fixed after, doesn’t change how I play!” was his reponse when he turned up to the changing rooms with these anamolies, and now he stands trying to look serious while marked by some clever but, fortunately for the casters, anonymous hexes. For a moment, he glowers over at the blue-clad players, but then nods (and grunts a bit) to his Captain’s speech and tightens his grip on both his broom and bat without a word.

“I’ve been nice this season before matches. I’ve not demanded that we win, and yet we managed to pull out wins against Gryffindor and Slytherin. Let’s keep this up and manage a win today. Let’s get that cup, because we deserve it.” Noémie‘s face is focussed and set, and her expression as she glances to Hufflepuff is almost annoyed. “We’re not going to do any stupid chanting or pep talks, because I think we have the technical skill to manage this. So, let’s pull it off. I know we can do it.” With a nod, she offers a rather strained smile to her team and turns to face the Hufflepuff team, walking forward to prepare for the handshake. Her face is stony and set as she does this, as if showing emotion to the Hufflepuff captain during the handshake will put her at a disadvantage.

Clavicle Gravely looks over to David, as David comes out as well. Today David is in serious mode. His broom is clipped and polished and he comes up to Noémie as well.

Keelan Walsh looks absolutlely disgusting in yellow, so her robes are black instead. It could almost be called unbiased, except for the yellow ribbon she’s laced around the end of her broom (Which lies next to the box of Quidditch balls). A closed expression surfaces as she watches, in a strange, detatched way, the teams chat a bit. She straightens her shoulders when it seems they’ve had enough time, clears her throat and says, “Captains? Shake hands, everyone else? You might want to get in place to start if you’re not.” Her voices rises, though still likely inaudible to the watchers. “While this game may determine which team has the glory of the Quidditch Cup,” a smirk, soft, “I want it clean. If I have to call any fouls for roughness or underhanded tactics,” she seems to look at the Ravenclaws more, though they haven’t any more record of the behavior than the Hufflepuffs, “I will not hesistate to award as many penalty shots as possible or to ground the off ending players.” Serious as stone, now, she turns to gather up the Quaffle, but doesn’t throw it yet.

At the center of the pitch, Eliza reaches a steady hand out to Noémie, and gives her Ravenclaw counterpart a firm nod. “Good luck,” she says, with complete sincerity, and even a fainter version of the crooked smile that she gave to her own team.

Noémie‘s face barely breaks its expression as Keelan makes these comments, seemingly entirely in the direction of her own team, and then nods at Eliza, giving her a stiff handshake and withdrawing her hand as quickly as she has offered it for the traditional handshake. Noémie does not say anything in response, merely nodding again and making her way back to the line of her team to make way for the chasers to vie for the Quaffle.

Readying herself to take off into the air, Carrie takes a few cleansing breaths as she looks to her feet and prepares to play a hard game. She is only vaguely aware, somehow, when she looks up to see the two captains shaking hands. Looking avidly to Keelan and the Quaffle, Carrie takes a firm grasp on her broom and waits.

Nodding firmly after the speech, Bailey looks and walks over to Clavicle and David. Clapping into his hands he urges them on. “Let’s go guys, I want to drink a good amount of butterbeer out of that cup, when this is finished.” Then he steps into position and readies himself to shoot up for the quaffle.

Making her way to get into position as the captains shake hands Marybeth is primed and ready…. if not completely nervous. She flashes a friendly smile Eldric’s way despite his shocking appearance while Professor Walsh makes her statement. She takes a deep breath and readies herself mounting her broom waiting for word to start.

Charlie Linwood moves rather mechanically to his proper spot, bringing down his broom and lifting one leg over it to stand like a muggle child with a broom for a pony, feet still on the ground. Holding his broom one-handed as he has learned to, he holds his bat-hand in the air at what could be a menancing angle if only he didn’t look so ridiculous standing and waiting. Perhaps if he didn’t look as though he might be sick it would help as well.

Tegan uncrosses her arms and crosses them again, doing this over and over until Riley finally reaches over and snatches at her arms, forcing them to hang at her sides for the time being. Tegan glares in his direction as she stands this way, and stands on her tiptoes to see what Bailey is doing, and whether he even notices her. No, Tegan! Now is not the time to get distracted. The girl manages to shake the thought out of her head and she watches for the whistle, putting her broom in a position to be able to take off for the bludgers as soon as she can.

Alexandra Leong hops onto her broom and stands ready to take off. Her gloved hands fiddle nervously with the polished handle of her broom, rubbing at none existent smudges and scratches. “We have to win we have to win we have to win…” she mutters to herself, her face scrunched with with anxiety.

Van seems to still be trying to stifle the tears that want to fall from her eyes, and she waves rather discreetly towards the Gryffindor bleachers, a smile spreading over her face. Then she seems to realize the gravity of the situation, and she rolls her shoulders a bit, rotating her arms as if to limber herself up for the shots that might come her way over the course of what promises to be a very exciting match.

Clavicle Gravely straddles the Sandsweeper and gets ready to take flight. The Egyptian broom is ready, polished and trimmed. He looks determinedly to Bailey. “Lets hope the pratices paid off then. ” he grins, having spent quite a few days in practices with Bailey getting passes down and all. David is ready as well. He looks to Noémie and Tegan and gives a thumbs up, then turns to watch the release of the quaffle.

Eldric Carver tries a smile at Marybeth, but it seems the final Quidditch match of the season, one which is so important, has drained most of his flirtatious spirit. Moving into position, his eyes fix on Professor Walsh expectantly, legs already pushing down a bit in anticipation of take-off. Unlike Charlie, he manages to look somewhat imposing with his bat lofted, as long as nobody notices, in the slip of his robes, the arm hair, or that his horns have a bit of sparkle to them. Really.

Keelan Walsh pauses, still holding the Quaffle, to release the latch that holds the Snitch in it’s own compartment. The golden ball flies out, hovers for a second, and then soars upward erratically, as if unsure how it will fly today. Turning, now, the Herbology professor straightens. With one last look at the teams (is that the tinyest of smiles toward both?), she brings the whistle to her lips, lofts the Quaffle skyward with a strange amount of force, considering it’s one handed, and blows. With one shrill note, the Cup game has begun.

As the whistle blows, Noémie pushes off the ground and flies high up into the air as fast as she can manage. If she is high up where she can see the action, she figures she will be better suited towards catching the snitch quickly. At this point, the little gold ball is out of sight, unable to be seen from where she is high above the pitch. However, as the match has just begun, Noémie does not appear nervous at this.

Glancing momentarily at Riley, Tegan kicks off the ground and flies up, brandishing her bat in her right hand. Her arm is reared back, as if there is a bludger to be hit already, despite that the bludgers have not yet been released. “Remember, Riley! AIM!” She calls to her very sullen-looking teammate as she flies to the other side of the pitch as he is at. Riley, for his own part, makes his way towards the center, watching Keelan carefully for the release of the bludgers.

With all her speed Marybeth is up in the air gunning toward the quaffle, her expression determined losing it’s usual carefree expression. With an outstretched hand she hopes to grab it before any of the Ravenclaw chasers do. As she draws closer Marybeth pushes herself to go faster and faster until she is close enough to try and make a grab for the quaffle plucking it out of the air like so much ripe melon! The girl begins flying with all her speed down pitch ready to play he heart out in this one.

In a flash, Eliza is in the air and soaring swiftly towards the goalposts, taking up her position as Keeper. Her eyes narrow, keeping close watch on the Quaffle as she edges from side to side, covering as much space as she can. “Good luck!” Eliza shouts. “Go for it, Campbell! You’ve got it!”

Rhian says, “The two teams have come out of their respective lockers, words are exchanged among them, obviously encouraging words from the Captains to their own teams. The two Captains, Seeker Noémie Ribouet for Ravenclaw and Keeper Eliza Marlowe for Hufflepuff, come to the center were Professor Walsh waits for them, which they give their starting handshakes before the two teams take their starting positions. Professor Walsh releases the Snitch before it goes zooming off, then one last look at the teams, she blows the whistle and tosses the Quaffle into the air. The game has started. Cambell manages to get a hold of the Quaffle off the toss-up for Hufflepuff as the bludgers are also released. The Hufflepuff Chasers take the Quaffle and head down to the Ravenclaw goals, the Ravenclaws working on keeping up with them.”

Van is already up in the air when the quaffle is caught by a Hufflepuff chaser, and this causes the Keeper to fly even quicker towards the hoops, readying herself quickly. Perhaps she ought to have spent less time in practice goofing off. The seventh year is stationed in front of the hoops, however, and she holds her arms up, balancing carefully on the broom as she looks out at the clump in the middle of the field, keeping her eye mostly on the chaser with the quaffle.

Bolting into the air as the professor tosses the quaffle up and blows the whistle, Carrie is off with quick reflexes. The girl notes Marybeth’s better positioning to snatch the thing and veers left, out of her way. Seeing her catch out of the corner of her eye, Carrie flits towards the Ravenclaw goalposts, turning around after having gotten a bit closer to them, her arms outstretched. “Marybeth!”

Alexandra Leong kicks off hard and scrambles towards the snitch, but it vanishes within seconds. Grumbling, the small Hufflepuff climbs rapidly, stopping a dozen feet above the rest of the players, scanning the entire pitch for signs of the erratic little golden ball that is her query. “Come to Hufflepuff…” she says in a small voice… “I’m wearing yellow, see? We could be friends, little snitch…” This recent bout of talking to objects (inanimate or otherwise) appeared last week, after speaking with a teacup resulted in a successful transfiguration of said teacup into a skittering spider-like creature. She pays almost no attention to Noémie, at least for the moment.

Clavicle Gravely shoots for the sky in the swarm of chasers shooting up after the Quaffle. His robes wip around him and he looks determined, but he is not in the lead today, as he had a bad shove off at the get go. He sees Marybeth get the quaffle to begin with and instead tries to get into a better position to harry the Hufflepuff on the way to the rings. David shoots up as well to prepare to try to steal the Quaffle as well. The two split to try to come at the Hufflepuff girl from both sides to force her away from the rings if successful.

Keelan Walsh watches for a minute and then, quickly, frees the bludgers, ducking under them as they move at first of their own speed, with the seeming joy these inanimate objects always seem able to express at freedom. One bludger heads up at almost a straight line, detouring at last toward Bailey, though the course is random. Of course, a bludger doesn’t focus on one person. The other bludger moves skyward toward Alexandra, as if aware(though of course it is not) that the other went for a Ravenclaw. For her part, Keelan mounts her broom and begins the slow, careful circling of the pitch, eyes darting here and there with a strange intensity, alert for fouls.

Seeing Marybeth moving forward to catch the Quaffle, Albert moves to take up a supporting position. One hand out to catch the ball if Marybeth decides to pass, Albert starts to maneuver himself carefully between David and Marybeth, trying to prevent the opposing Chaser from intercepting any passes. Albert aims a quick, wary glance over his shoulder at David, keeping a careful eye on his Ravenclaw counterpart.

With the sound of the whistle Bailey kicks off and rushes towards the quaffle. Seeing that Marybeth has an advantage, he accelarates even harder, trying to tip it out of her hand. But as the Hufflepuff grabs the ball, Bailey zooms up, performing a hard turn to chase the carrier. He notices his fellow chasers approaching her from both sides and keeps follow her closely.

Spying that one bludger is headed toward one of her own chasers, Tegan begins to fly toward it quickly, her bat brandished. “Heads up, Bailey!” she calls to him, to warn him of the danger he’s in in case she should be too slow to get to it. Thankfully, Tegan catches up to the bludger fast enough to be able to give it a whack, sending it directly toward Marybeth in hopes of dislodging the Quaffle from Hufflepuff posession. Riley watches for the moment, as he is not entirely motivated to go save the other team’s seeker from being hit by a quaffle.

Charlie Linwood is in the sky as soon as the whistle blows, though he sort of hovers below the rest of the teams, waiting for the release of the bludgers. As they are, he notes the one that hurtles toward Alexandra, and makes pace to stop it, bat brandished two-handed like the club it is. Coming level, he looks, briefly, for a flash of blue, and smacks the ball away from his team and toward–it looks like Tegan. Oops. Never hit a bludger at the opposite beater, Charlie.

Flying as fast as her broom will take her Marybeth is well aware of the three Ravenclaws on either side of her and looks hastily down the pitch while maneuvering a bit snakily to avoid them. A great smile comes to her face as her savior Carrie is spotted and with a great heave Marybeth sends the quaffle hurtling toward her fellow chaser down the pitch with a yell of excitement “Carrie!” It is unfortunate however that the moment the quaffle left her hand Marybeth was struck in the side by bludger hit by Tegan and nearly slips off of her broom before catching herself. Well she seems alright for now.

Eldric Carver is off toward the bludger Charlie hits before he spots Charlie doing so as well and makes a wide, banking turn to avoid redundancy. The redirected bludger is spotted, but of course he’s farther from it than he should be and doesn’t make it in time to save Marybeth. “Sorry!” escapes as he zips past to redirect it from his own Chasers–toward Clavicle goes the bludger, at the sound of Eldric‘s bat. The horns seem to quiver, but of course they can’t be. Too small.

Wincing as Marybeth takes a rather nasty-looking blow from a bludger, Carrie has only a split second in which to compose herself. Doing so, the girl lunges down to receive Marybeth’s pass, managing to catch it using two hands. “Okay!” she exclaims, turning and bolting off in the direction of the Ravenclaw hoops, hoping to make it there before the Ravenclaw chasers can catch her.

Rhian says, “With the bludgers released, a new danger is in the game. One of the bludgers goes after Williams, though Madison manages it to deflect it before it got too close to the Ravenclaw Chaser, hitting it towards Campbell in hoping to get Ravenclaw the Quaffle. The second Bludger has gone after Leong, the Hufflepuff Seeker. Linwood manages to get that Bludger away from Leong, though now it heads toward Madison, possibly a bad move. Campbell notices she’s surrounded by blue and passes the Quaffle to Whittier, just before she gets hit by the Bludger sent by Madison. Carver gets the last of that Bludger and sends it off toward Gravely.”

Wincing at the impact of the Bludger with his teammate’s side, Albert still keeps his focus, and moves ahead to position himself for a pass forward from Carrie. They’ve practiced this dozens of times – Albert keeps his eyes on Carrie, ready for one of her fancy flying tricks. And he keeps on the Quaffle, ready for another pass so that he can bring the ball one step closer to the goal.

Startled that for once a bludger is headed directly towards her, Tegan‘s head seems to quirk a bit, but not for long as she sends the bludger flying to the group of chasers, hoping to hit Carrie this time, as she has already managed to shake up the quaffle’s posession from Hufflepuff a little bit. Riley spots the other bludger flying towards one of the Ravenclaw chasers, and starts flying speedily down toward the group of chasers in hopes of intercepting it before it hits someone. “Look out!” he calls and brandishes his bat out as far as he can manage to try to keep the bludger from hitting. He only barely manages to whack it back in the other direction, at nobody in particular before he has to pull out of the way rather than run into his own teammate.

Clavicle Gravely turns and sees the pass and whips the sandsweeper 25 around. He pours on the speed. The Egyptian broom is built for speed and soon he’s catching up to the hufflepuff, The broom catches up to the other and Clavicle sees David’s broom didn’t quite have the speed to be close enough, so he tries for a steal, He shoves at the Quaffle, and sends it off towards Bailey instead!

Charlie Linwood seems to have taken up protecting Alex, somewhat out of his head at the fact that this leaves Eldric to deal with both bludgers most of the time. He doesn’t get too close to her, but neither does he swoop in to join the main fray. Charlie‘s face has gone about as pale as it is able, though he swings his bat around in a somewhat lunatic way.

Rubbing her side furiously and just hovering in place for a moment Marybeth shakes her head to get over the pain of the blow and get her head back in the game. Again she quickly begins to fly down the pitch this time trailing a bit behind Carrie as a bit of a safety net incase the quaffle needs to be passed backward. This time Marybeth is quite careful to be on the look out for bludgers as well as Ravenclaws…. those things really do hurt. Letting out a cry of frustration as Ravenclaw steals the quaffle, she moves into position flying toward Bailey with aggressive speed.

Eldric Carver does notice Charlie’s abscense as he flies to meet the bludger with his bat. Carrie of all people on the team is under his particular protection (plus he was already right there), and so off the ball goes, this time toward Bailey, given that the Ravenclaw Chaser seems to be in line to take the stolen Quaffle. “Go!” he calls to the Hufflepuff Chasers, not waiting for the ball to get closer.

“Aughhh!” the girl shrieks in aggravation, in echo to Marybeth, as Carrie loses possession of the quaffle. Attempting to trail Marybeth without competing with her, Carrie flies a fair distance behind her. Spotting Albert, Carrie moves to compensate, trying to maximize Hufflepuff’s position for opportunities on the pitch.

Either Alexandra is exceptionally brave, or she just didn’t see the fact that she was quite close to getting creamed by a bludger. Either way, she carries on zooming about the pitch, looking for any sign of the snitch, while starting to keep an eye on Noémie. Her flying is quite solid, although her turns are wide and occasionally wobbly.

Stolen! “Blast!” Albert exclaims. He leans down over the handle of his broom, pushing himself faster to chase after the stolen Quaffle that is now heading towards his own goal. Faster – faster – he zips ahead of first Carrie and then Marybeth. Albert‘s eyes are fixed firmly on the Quaffle in Clavicle’s hand as he speeds forward, his breath quickening as he spurs his broom ever faster.

Hearing Noémie’s call, Bailey ducks on instinct as the bludger passes him and knocks Marybeth in the side. He races towards Carrie now, catching up to her and letting himself drop a bit beneath her, using her as a protection from the approaching bludger. “Watch out, Clavicle.” Bailey calls. But too late, Clavicle has been fast enough to hustle the quaffle out of Carrie’s possession. Swooping down to finally catch it, then forming up with Clavicle and David to initiate the offence, Bailey calls “David! Left!” and dashes the quaffle over his shoulder towards David at a good speed and just manages to avoid the bludger in time, hoping that he’ll get knocked away soon.

Riley has stayed near his teammates and is ready to meet the bludger, rearing his bat back and giving it a hard whack up towards Alexandra, despite the fact that Charlie appears to be guarding her closely. The bludger flies off and gratefully Riley turns his attention back to his chasers. The other bludger seems to have veered off its course that Tegan sent it off on, and the girl flies towards it to try and prevent it from hitting her own seeker, catching up to it quickly. Soon, Tegan has whacked the bludger back towards the group of chasers, aimed right towards Albert.

Clavicle Gravely races to the side and calls out “YES!” He grins then blanches as a bludger races at him “NO!” He dives trying to get away from the thing but banks…trying to lead it over to the ravenclaw beaters “Assistance!” David hears the call and takes the Quaffle, He chuckles a bit. “That boy is cursed by bludgers. ” he races back towards his scoring hoop!

Faster, faster – Albert flies in a perfect, smooth arc, his hand out to intercept the Quaffle at the peak of its flight – and then with a cry of alarm, he abruptly jerks out of the way as a bludger comes hurtling directly at him. “Aaaaahhh!” Albert manages to escape the bludger, but he is too far away from the Quaffle to even make another try for it. “Blast!” he mutters again, and speeds forward again in a desperate attempt to protect his own goal.

Charlie Linwood snorts. “Hah!” he calls. “That’s not ruddy well going to work!” Really, he’s much too close to Alex (without, you know, being so close as to crowd her) for a bludger to get through. Even in his somewhat panicked state (with a distinct sort of green tinge about the edges), he can at least smack the bludger back toward the Ravenclaws–this time, actually, toward their own Seeker and Captain.

Rhian says, “The Bludgers are getting a beating as Madison now hits one of the Bludgers to the Hufflepuff Chasers in general, while Markham manages to protect his own Chasers and sends that Bludger off to nowhere it seems. Gravely attempts to interfere with the pass to Whittier and knocks the Quaffle off toward Williams in Ravenclaw’s attempts to steal the Quaffle from Hufflepuff. With the Ravenclaw steal, the players move back the other way, though Williams now has a Bludger after him thanks to Carver. Williams tosses the Quaffle back over his shoulder to Mildred as Bryce attempted and failed to steal the Quaffle from the Ravenclaws due to one of the Bludgers getting in the way thanks to Madison. The other Bludger is sent off to Leong by a hit from Markham. Ravenclaw still has the Quaffle and getting awefully close to Marlowe and the goalposts she’s guarding. Linwood manages to intercept the Bludger heading towards Leong and sends it after Ribouet who is seeking the Snitch as well.”

Watching as Albert tries to take the quaffle and fails Marybeth hurries to try and make up for it racing at top speed around Albert and his bludger to make her way behind David. She is a bit behind though and catching up is going to take some doing but that’s what Hufflepuff is good for, trying hard. Marybeth bites down on her lip and really lays into her broom.

Eldric Carver again fails to keep the bludger from one of his Chasers, though mostly because there is only so much flying space, and over half of both teams appear to be attempting to use the same amount. Still, once Albert misses the bludger(or rather, it misses him), it’s an easy enough hit back toward David, nostrils dialated in annoyance. Well, at least continually deflecting the same bludger from and to the same people is something to do. And he does enjoy hitting them. The bludgers, not the people.

Clavicle Gravely recovers and races towards the goal. David is doing well as well, and coming in to the edge of the scoring zone. he suddenly banks right at the scoring zone edge and makes a hand off to Clavicle as the boy races by, Clavicle uses the move he and Bailey practiced a lot. suddenly braking fast and hard, he feints high and shoots at the lower hoop, It’s his first in game scoring attempt.

As David catches safely, Bailey swerves to the left hoop and waves to him, signalling that he’s unguarded. Hovering inches before the zone, he is ready to shoot into it and attempt a score. One fine pass and Ravenclaw would lead in that deciding game. But then the quaffle is tossed to Clavicle, who performed the known manouver. “Come on, Clav…” Bailey mutters and zooms lower to be set up to catch a dropped quaffle or so, watching his teammate attempting the score at the right hoop.

Tegan is ready to leave her seeker to the job she has before her, and then seeing that the bludger has been whacked in her direction, Tegan backtracks a bit, quickly hitting the bludger in the direction of the hoops, hoping that she’ll maybe get it to the Keeper, now that the quaffle is in scoring range so that her team has a chance at scoring. Riley, for his own part, makes his way towards the bludger which is headed toward David, and tries to get a hold on it. Within seconds, he has managed to catch up to it, and whacks it in a direction that he thinks will make it head toward Marybeth, but which instead seems to head down the other direction on the pitch, headed directly toward his own keeper. In a resigned fashion, he begins to fly down to retrieve it an hopefully manage to hit it actually toward a Hufflepuff.

Eldric Carver has banked back somewhat to escape the crowding of Chasers and to keep from entering the scoring zone, a glance sent toward Keelan, but now sees the bludger on it’s way to help and quickly darts into line. There is a massive CRACK as the pink-arm-haired, purple-horn bearing Beater swings back and then forward, this bludger sent chasing after Riley as well. After all, if Riley gets taken out and doesn’t save Van from his own bludger, well, that might be a penalty shot, right?

Throughout the match, Eliza has been hovering a few yards in front of the goalposts, watching the interchange of Quaffle and bludgers, shouting encouragement to her team. “Good! Right, keep it up! Good save, Bryce!” And then, suddenly, the Quaffle is heading towards Eliza, and she is speaking to herself. “Right! Here it comes!” With a little upwards skip, she takes off towards the right-hand goalpost, keeping her eye fixed on the ball. Aiming…aiming…and then WHACK! she spins swiftly to block, hitting the Quaffle away from the goal with a firm smack of the bristles of her broom.

Clavicle Gravely flies stright through the zone and out of the other side. He begins circling back, unlike what some may think, he is not dissapointed he was blocked. Quite the contrary, he looks exstatic he got to try. “I’ll get it next time!” he calls out to Eliza as he circles around laughing, he looks to see where the quaffle is. David never entered the zone, he’s all business, and zips down to assist Bailey to attempt to get the Quaffle.

“Where are you, little snitch?” Alexandra continues to mutter to herself. “Don’t you like me anymore? Come on little snitch… I’ll be gentle…” She’s flying in faster and faster circles now, a sense of desperation and panic raising in her chest. “Snitch snitch snitch… snitch… SNITCH!” A glitter of gold catches the small girl’s eye, and immediate she starts to zoom towards the stands.

Sighing a breath of relief when the Quaffle is deflect Marybeth hurries a bit faster trying desperately to catch up and catch it. She is nearly next to Clavicle and begins racing with him giving him a bit of a glare…. well as much of a glare as a Hufflepuff will muster that is. Her eyes quickly dart forward though onto Bailey.

Tegan flies quickly down the pitch toward the bludger, as she certainly doesn’t want to give Hufflepuff free penalty shots, especially if Van is taken out by it. She manages to get to the bludger in enough time to block it from Riley, and she sends it flying toward Marybeth this time, rather than back toward the keeper. The crowd around the goals causes Tegan to fly back toward it quickly so as to save her own teammates from the bludger if necessary.

“Argh.” Bailey hits his broom and dives for the bounced off quaffle, which just passed him by a few yards. He picks it up, hoping that David and Clavicle got out of the zone quickly enough and rushes towards the left hoop, trying to catch Eliza off guard. “Hewk!” Bailey strikes out and fires the quaffle at the hoop, leaning hard into the shot to give it an enourmous boost. Then he performs a curve and watches the ball rushing for ten points.

Rhian says, “Carver manages to protect his Chasers by sending the Bludger off toward Mildred is passing the Quaffle off toward Gravely to make a scoring attempt. Madison sends one of the Bludgers off to Marlowe, who is intercepted by Carver, which is now going after Marcham, who in turn just sent a Bludger down at his own Keeper, Douglass and is now attempting to intercept it once more. Marlowe protects the goal by knocking the Quaffle away with her broom and while Gravely and Mildred get out of the way, Williams manages to recover the Quaffle to try and score again.”

Riley Markham curses, quiet loudly, as he darts across the pitch after the bludger he sent sailing toward Van. He wasn’t having a terribly good game so far, he thought. Trailing through the sky as fast or faster than the safety regulations for a Windwalker would suggest, he demonstrates a hint of his only real talent, it would seem, on the quidditch pitch — trick flying. Out-running the by fractions, he does his best to position himself between it and the keeper.. only to find Tegan having taken it out from under him. He can’t help but shoot the girl a somewhat angered, narrowed expression. Floating there for a moment with no real purpose, he watches the cluster of people at the other end of the pitch for a long moment before drifting that direction, until he’s lingering around mid-pitch.

Eliza‘s relief at protecting her goal lasts for barely a second before the Quaffle is back in action again. Speeding across the length of the goalposts, Eliza leans down, kicking her heels back as if by doing so, she could make her broom go faster. Closer, closer – Eliza turns outwards, trying to intercept the ball before it can reach the goal It’s to no avail, though – the Quaffle gets to the goalpost a fraction of a second before Eliza does, and it goes through. “Blast it!” she cries, her face crumpling with frustration as the opposing team scores.

Clavicle Gravely does something very odd to Marybeth. he waggles his eyebrows and winks. Clavicle is having the time of his life. He comes up neck and neck with the Hufflepuff girl and pours on the speed, trying to outclass her broom with the egyptian sport model he’s using. He’s racing her. What a cheeky bugger. “Nice hair.” he comments as he pulls ahead a bit. David is racing around back as well. Heading towards the : Quaffle, waiting for it to hit play again!

Spotting that Alexandra has started flying quickly toward something that she herself can’t see, Noémie turns quickly and starts on Alexandra’s path, trying to catch up to the other seeker to hopefully overtake her and snatch the snitch out of the air before her. After several moments, Noémie manages to come up to full speed and comes neck-and-neck with Alexandra, flying perilously close to the girl on her left, trying to keep up as well with the tiny gold ball.

“Aww nuts!” Cries out Marybeth as the Quaffle is scored and Ravenclaw gets in the lead. Worse still that little ravenclaw twig is _hitting_ on her distracting her badly and eliciting another glare. As she turns Marybeth is indeed so distracted that she has no idea that there is a bludger coming right at her until it is far too late. Again poor Marybeth is pummeled this time right in her stomach taking the wind right out of her and probably her lunch too, though wether from the bludger or from the younger boy’s advances is anyone’s guess.

Bailey raises a fist into the air as the quaffle sails through the hoop with a loud “CLONK!” Not saying anything, as the game isn’t decided at all yet, Bailey nods over to his fellow chasers and gets back into formation, peering for a cheer or any other reaction from Tegan, until the game is continued.

Eldric Carver throws Eliza a look, whether sympathetic or annoyed, it’s hard to tell, but either way, he’s distracted from his duties–and then there’s bits of lunch in the air and Eldric swerves hard to the right to avoid being splattered, and misses. Now he’s got purple-and-sandwich colored horns, and bits of partially digested something in his hair. Behold the Hufflepuff’s elder beater’s panic. “Disgusting! Campbell!” Far be it for him to feel sympathy or responsbility, he’s got bits of regurgitated food in his hair. Apparently, far be it for him to remember the closeness of the bludger until it’s almost too late again. Flying erratically, he hits it away-up, really, just far, and continues doing weird circles to get the vomit off without, you know, touching it.

Clavicle Gravely nods to Marybeth. “I had the pea’s for lunch too. by the by…there’s a bludger coming.” he zips off having a laugh. He gives a hands up victory fist to Bailey. “Good show!” He sighs, maybe he can score next time. “I’d stay away from the ham before a game next time though.” David can’t help but go, “Ewh, Gravely…that’s just…gross!”

Gulping back her frustration and anger, Eliza zips behind the goalposts, dipping down to retrieve the fallen Quaffle before it can descend any further. “Blast, blast, _blast_!” she mutters, her expressive face still crinkled in a frown of discontent as she soars back up to the level of the other players, the Quaffle held securely in one hand. Up goes Eliza‘s arm, drawing back to wind up, and then she sends the Quaffle flying in a high, graceful arc over the cluster of people crowded around the Hufflepuff goal with a forceful overhand throw. “Campbell, are you all right?” she calls, a different sort of frown coming to her face as she watches her Chaser’s plight. “Carver! Focus!”

Riley Markham curses, quiet loudly, as he darts across the pitch after the bludger he sent sailing toward Van. He wasn’t having a terribly good game so far, he thought. Trailing through the sky as fast or faster than the safety regulations for a Windwalker would suggest, he demonstrates a hint of his only real talent, it would seem, on the quidditch pitch — trick flying. Out-running the by fractions, he does his best to position himself between it and the keeper. Ultimately, it’s a narrow victory on Riley‘s part. Inching out ahead of his clobbered bludger, he has very little bat-room to swing and his deflection away from Van sents it up high and above the grouped crowd on the end of the pitch, angling up toward the sky. Still, the power he puts behind the hit rather substantial. The sound of the bat cracking against the leather cannonball is echoing. “At least I can do something right!”

Charlie Linwood is startled when Alex begins moving in earnest toward the stands, and looks wildly about himself for signs of the bludgers. Down, he goes, as the bludgers soar upward–”Hey, Carver, what are you playing at?” Charlie missed any Quaffle and/or Gravely induced vomiting, and instead hits the first bludger back down at the group of Ravenclaw Chasers, and turns tail to get to the bludger and aim it again at Noémie. Just a little bit further–CRACK! Well, hopefully it won’t get too near Alex, who he watches with no small amount of trepidition.

Pulling hastily away from the distressed Marybeth – and giving Eldric’s filth-covered form a look that is decidedly less romantic and admiring than any she has given him before – Carrie keeps her focus on the game and races up towards the Quaffle. Looping neatly around Clavicle’s back, Carrie reaches out to snatch up the Quaffle in one hand, holding on to her broom with the other as she speeds towards the Ravenclaw goal. Albert circles around the other way, giving his other teammates a wide berth, and starts flying ahead of Carrie, positioning himself for a forward pass.

Rhian says, “Williams gets back into position and Ravenclaw scores! Ravenclaw has made the first score of the game as it is now Ravenclaw-10, Huffelpuff-0. Marlowe takes the Quaffle and tosses it to one of her own Chasers, Whittier , who with the others heads down the other side of the pitch to try and answer the Ravenclaw swore. The Bludgers come flying back around, one heading towards Campbell which her, once more. See’s she’s having some bad luck today with those Bludgers. The other one Markham manages to deflect from Douglass, sending it off into the sky with quite an amount of force. Linwood manages to get one of the Bludgers, sending it after the Ravenclaw Chasers. What is this? It seems the Seekers have found the Snitch. First it was Leong and Ribouet is after it as well. They are neck and neck as they chase after the Snitch. The match and the cup rely solely on these two ladies as they go after it. Linwood has now sent the second Bludger after Ribouet to try and get her off the chase of the Snitch.”

Both bludgers go flying at once, and Tegan is alarmed to see her seeker targeted once again. She flies quickly toward the bludger in hopes of catching up to it. The seekers are moving very quickly and the girl is having a tough time catching up to the bludger, but she does finally manage to do so, hitting it toward another Hufflepuff chaser with an echoing crack.

Wobbling badly on her broom as the bludger is smacked away by Charlie Marybeth can’t seem to get her broom to go forward even though she is leaning hunched over cursing the sarcastic ravenclaw’s name (which she wished she knew… so she could actually curse at it you know.) she begins sinking toward the ground slowly until she is safely on the grass before collapsing on her side.

Alexandra Leong clenches her teeth as she zooms straight for the stands. Noémie’s presence is not lost on Alexandra. She urges her broom on, gaining a bit of speed, but the quickly upcoming stands forces her to abandon speed for manuverability. The snitch is quite clearly in front of her, a fluttering golden ball, extremely speedy, and extremely erratic. The Hufflepuff Seeker almost slams into a supporting beam holding up the stands as she follows the snitch. Weaving between the various beams, supports, and struts, she tries to keep up, and almost succeeds… until she grazes a beam with her left arm, causing her robes to rip, revealing a deep, argry looking scratch.

Clavicle Gravely was going for the Quaffle as well but Linwood’s well aimed blow sends a bludger at him, His face blanches and he dodges to the side as the cannonball like bludger slams right by him, “Great bones… that thing gave me a shave as it went by… and I don’t have whiskers yet! Markham! A hand!” he zips around to head towards a beater to get the bludger off of him. David banks swiftly and takes off after Carrie to try to Harry her Scary scoring attempt!

Noémie manages to avoid the beam, but is forced to dive a bit and pull back up as she tries to avoid getting hit, pulling forward ever so slightly from Alexandra, but she is still unable to grab onto the tiny gold ball. While they zoom about, avoiding the supports and the beams, and then soon they’re out of the bleachers again, flying now behind them, out of view of the pitch, and thankfully, out of range of the bludgers. The girl’s balance seems off, and her broom begins to veer of its own accord, separating her distance with Alex until she is a full two feet away, though she tries to guide the broom back closer to where the snitch flies. Soon, there is a swift right turn and she follows the snitch back into the stadium, barely missing a beam to the head as she closes the distance between Alex and herself again.

“Campbell!” Eliza shouts. “Get to the nurse! Whittier! Bryce! Spread out! Cover that ground! Only two of you now! Good work, Alex! Keep going!” Either Eliza is no longer feeling the pain of letting the shot go through, or she has gotten too busy with her teammates’ plight to pay much attention to her own emotions. “Come on! Carver, focus! Whittier, watch out behind you! Come on, Alex!”

Charlie Linwood is totally distracted by the disappearance of the Seekers underneath the stands, eyes trying to follow them as he catches glimpses of yellow and blue through the beams–and then there’s Noémie again, and Alex with a cut. “Oi!” Then Charlie seems to remember his duties as a Beater, and spins around to look for the bludgers. Quickly he zooms, rather faster than normal, and the bludger is this time aimed for the Ravenclaw Chasers. He isn’t about to risk putting Alex off track by aiming at Noémie, that’s for certain.

Eldric Carver is very, very distracted by his state of disgustingness, but at the reappearance of Charlie where he belongs there’s a” Took you long enough, Linwood!” and a redoubling of efforts in order to look better. The bludger that missed Clavicle is zoomed toward, now, Eldric‘s expression determined that he get to it before one of the Ravenclaw Beaters can.

Alexandra Leong can’t hear anything but the whistling of the wind past her ears. She’s struggling with her control of her broom; with one arm injured, her turns are becoming less and less controlled. She’s slowing down, little by little, as the pain of her arm starts to register. The snitch is gaining a larger and larger lead on both Seekers, and it threatens to disappear into the sky once more. “Come on come on come on…” Alexandra mutters as she flattens herself further on her broom, hoping to gain speed and control.

Following their captain’s instructions, Carrie and Albert split off, veering sharply towards opposite sides of the field while Carrie accelerates, struggling to move past Clavicle. Albert, too, tries to maintain his speed as he spins off from Carrie – but a bludger is whistling towards him, and he lets out a yelp and wheels even further to the side, sending himself spinning into a barrel roll. Charlie saves him from the bludger, but vertigo is another story – Albert shakes his head quickly to clear it. From far ahead of him, Carrie still has time to laugh, “Leave the fancy flying to me, Albert!” as she speeds ever faster.

“Argh!” Tegan hollers as Clavicle shouts about the bludger, doing her best to go and intercept the one headed toward her chasers now. “Let’s pull close!” she suggests to Riley, flying in toward her team as fast as she can manage and rearing her bat back. The girl is soon amidst the thick of things, her bat held high as she whacks the bludger quickly toward Albert this time, trying to knock out as many opposing chasers as she can manage. “Get the other, would you?” she calls to Riley and bites her lip, following in the direction that she has hit the bludger in case of a quick return.

Riley Markham lofts his brows and dashes forward from having been more or less waiting at mid-pitch, sparing a somewhat side-long look toward Clavicle before pulling up high enough to collect the bludger, somewhat above the rest of the tightly knit group of chasers mingling below. A small bunt to hold the bludger more or less stationary is followed by a hard whack — supposedly in the direction of the approaching Eldric, in an attempt to de-bat him. Instead, however, the bludger archs upward toward Leong, quite by accident, in a startling burst of speed and power.

Rhian says, “Tegan has managed to get the Bludger away from Ribouet and Leong as the two Seekers now disappear among the stands… but there… Leong seems slightly hurt, loosing some ground on the Snitch. Gravely almost got hit by one of the other Bludgers, quite a close call as help is called for the Ravenclaw Chasers. There’s the Snitch, as it and the Seekers come back out onto the pitch. Ribouet seems to have lost a bit of ground on Leong but is working hard to gain it back. Campbell seems too hurt from the two Bludger blows in order to continue as she leaves the pitch to be seen by the Nurse. Linwood has learned his lesson and now sends one of the Bludgers back to the Ravenclaw Chasers who outnumber the Hufflepuffs 3 to 2 in their Chasers. Let’s see how long the Hufflepuffs can hold onto the Quaffle. The Bludgers are going everywhere, Bryce has had to dodge one, the beaters are going insane trying to keep the Ravenclaws off the Hufflepuffs or the Hufflepuffs from scoring.”

Going after Albert and getting between him and Carrie, Bailey watches the quaffle and Albert, trying to guard him as close as he the speed allows it.

Resisting the urge to shove her shoulder into Alexandra, Noémie flies straight for a moment, and then as the snitch ascends, she makes her way into the sky, flying up higher and higher, trying to get her fingers around it. Having the other seeker right neck-and-neck with her makes it more difficult, as well as the snitch staying just out of reach. Noémie‘s face is red from exertion as well as frustration at not having caught the snitch yet, despite the chase it has been. Grunts emit as she reaches out for it, trying to wrap her fingers around it, but only tapping it with them instead, and the snitch begins to descend again at a very steep angle. Noémie follows, however precariously diving as she has practiced so hard. The improvement is apparent, though she is still not all that great at it.

The situation among the Hufflepuff Chasers remains the same: Carrie is still in possession of the Quaffle, and the same bludger is still chasing after Albert. “It’s like that thing has it in for me!” Albert mutters, as he glances apprehensively behind him at the bludger, searching for his team’s Beaters. And then Bailey closes in on his other side, and Albert is caught weaving back and forth, frantically trying to avoid colliding with the bludger on one side and the Ravenclaw Chaser on the other. Carrie attempts to evade with a sharp curve that sends her into a sideways loop, holding on precariously with one hand while still trying to maintain her grasp on the Quaffle.

Charlie Linwood gives out a strangled yell as the bludger moves toward Alex, “This is why I was watching her!” He shoots off to intercept, while being mindful of not getting in the way. Difficult buisness this, as Charlie circles round behind them (sharp! thanks to a lot of practice at it) and manages, barely, to hit the bludger straight diagonally down the other way–more toward the ground than any particular group of people. His face is pale again, but furious.

Alexandra Leong‘s heart almost stops when Noémie grabs at the snitch and makes contact. Luckily, it’s not over yet, and as Noémie pulls into a steep dive Alexandra follows effortlessly. The dive ends only several feet from the ground. The Snitch flattens out it’s trajectory suddenly, and the Hufflepuff Seeker pulls up to follow. The trio – Noémie, Alex, and the snitch – continue straight at breakneck speeds, with neither Seeker within reach, until the snitch makes a sudden left turn. Alexandra pulls left hard, but her arm throbs, and her turn isn’t as sharp as it needed to be. She starts to lose speed as pain shoots up her arm.

Rhian says, “The Snitch flies high into the sky, the girls now neck and neck as they case after it. Ribouet seems to almost have it… but no, it dives to the ground, the two Seekers going after it. It seems one of the Bludgers likes Bryce as it continues to chase him around and away from Whittier who still goes for Douglass and a goal. However, Bryce comes back around and causes Whittier to go into a loop, trying to desperately hang onto the Quaffle. Bludgers flight back toward the Seekers once more though Linwood manages to protect them once more. A hard turn by the Snitch causes Leong to lose ground once more as it seems her arm is bothering her again.”

The flight to the groun causes Noémie to go breathless and she is perhaps just a bit slower than Alex in pulling out of it, and it takes several feet before she has managed to right herself and even up with the Hufflpeuff chaser. As the snitch turns left, Noémie follows suit, turning as hard as she can manage and thrusting her arm out, closing her fingers around the tiny ball with a shout of victory. She had managed to catch the snitch! Ravenclaw wins! She flies down to the center of the pitch and holds up the snitch, her face joyful, and are those tears on the Ravenclaw seeker’s face as she laughs for joy, thrusting her fist into the air again and again jubilantly. “We did it!” She shouts.

Eldric Carver is having a hard time keeping up with the bludger and the Hufflepuff Chasers, given that he had to completely change course to do so. Finally, he joins the fray, grip on his bat so tight his that the whitness in his knuckles seems to spread, he slams into the bludger full force, sending it arcing skyward, as much toward the Seeker-Snitch train as he can from here, hoping Alex will dodge and–there is a very, very loud string of curses here, as the vomit-and-hex covered Beater deflates, quite literally sinking down at a slow, defeated pace.

Rhian says, “Ribouet is still on the Snitch though and manages to catch the Snitch! Ravenclaw wins the match and the Cup! Final score is Ravenclaw – 160, Hufflepuff, 0. A marvelous game by both teams indeed with an excellent chase provided by our Seekers. A wonderful end to a wonderful season for Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff did a wonderful job as well. That is it for Quidditch this year, the next match not starting until November of this year. Well, I am Rhian Brecon of Ravenclaw and I’m signing off for the last time this year. Good luck with your end of term exams everyone.”

Alexandra Leong sinks dejectedly to the ground (luckily not too far up), holding her left arm with her right hand, and grimacing. She is clearly in pain – not surprising, as there is a rather large slither embedded in the poor arm. Tears are falling down her cheeks. She nearly falls off her broom as physical and emotional exhaustion catches up with her.

“Bloody — ” Tegan calls, pulling out of the chase she has been in, she makes her way down to the groun. “Bloody brilliant!” she calls gleefully and throws her arms around Noémie. “Champions!” Her voice rings out loud and echoes as she laughs with Noémie, her joy having overcome her previously serious attitude. “We did it!” The Ravenclaw bleachers seem to have erupted with incredibule noise at this and the girl is hopping up and down with sheer energy, though lord knows how she could have any left.

Keelan Walsh is watching, and has been, and several times she’s had the whistle up and had to drop it at the last moment. Now, however, as the Ravenclaw Seeker closes her hand around the snitch and announces the win, Keelan blows-hard-on the whistle and then, without looking much, zips down to the box. Amid the celebrating Ravenclaws (and the noise from the stands ringing in her ears), she shoves out her open hand. “Snitch please.” Pause, “So I can put it away.” From accross the pitch, some students, jubilant, carry the silver Quidditch cup. A very terse “Congratulations.” is all Keelan has besides a demand for things to be cleaned up. Poor Ravenclaws, a lot of them will have to go to Herbology this week.

Clavicle Gravely almost falls off the broom! “We won? WE WON! ALRIGHT! Great catch Noémie!” He does a prouette in the sky, a spin on the broom and zips off towards the ground where he will try to lift noémie up in a victory dance!

The fight goes out of the bludger – and out of Albert and Carrie, too, as the thunderous cheer erupts from the Ravenclaw bleachers. With one last look at each other, their energy fading swiftly into disappointment, the Chasers drift down to the ground, starting to cluster towards Alexandra and the fallen Marybeth.

Was that…? No, it couldn’t…or really? Noémie has caught the snitch and Ravenclaw has won the cup. It’s like a huge stone falling from Bailey‘s head and a wave of joy filling him up. “We won it! Wooohoooo!” he shouts, raising his fist and cheering wholeheartedly. Bailey performs a huge turn over the Ravenclaw bleachers and then lands on the pitch. He runs towards his teammates and helps Clavicle to lift up Noémie to celebrate their captain.

Looking quite green Marybeth stares up at Clavicle as if willing him to fall off of his broom when the game is won. “Well…” she croaks out rubbing her stomach. “Im still splitting up my bag of marbles so the joke is on you Ravenclaw.” Yes even with possibly broken ribs, a defunct stomach and scars of ravenclaw flirtation Marybeth is still a joker.

“Bravo!” Van calls as she has finally made her way to the ground, coming in to hug her captain and the other female beater. “Good on everyone!” she says, the tears that have been threatening to fall finally coming streaming down her face. “What a way to go out!” she comments, but her comments are drowned by the noise on the pitch as she celebrates with her teammates excitedly.

For the briefest of moments, Eliza‘s face crumples, her eyes closing against the sight and sound of the other team’s victory. But she opens them again, and swallows hard, and brings her broom down to earth in a smooth, controlled arc. Eliza steps lightly off of it, runs a hand backwards through her dark hair, and begins to stride, shoulders straight and posture upright, towards the center of the pitch for the closing handshake.

Charlie Linwood bites his lip and lets himself go limp. It was over. They hadn’t won, but they put up a good fight. Not typical behavior, this time when he flies down to the pitch he stays with the team, giving Alex a–well it’s almost kind look. “Want to go to the nurse, Leong?” That’s about as many words as he’s said to her in a row for a long time. Eliza, he doesn’t look at. Actually he’s mostly muttering things to his chest rather than looking up at people’s eyes or anything.

“Oh, right, sorry Professor,” Noémie tells Keelan and wipes her eyes from their tears as she hands over the snitch to the referee, detatching herself from her excited teammates. “No, no, guys,” she tells the boys who seem to be bent on picking her up in celebration, and she strides over to Eliza, putting her hand out much more cheerfully. The girl’s face cannot hide her obvious joy at being the winners of the match. “Well matched,” she tells Eliza with a mighty grin. Looking to the stands, there appears to be a Ravenclaw fifth year who looks to be trying to garner her attention, and she waves excitedly. “I’ll see you all in the commonroom later, there’s sure to be a party!” she tells her team and trots off, looking at the stands, where the boy has disappeared, and makes her way off the pitch very quickly, broom still in hand.

Clavicle Gravely then does something differen’t After hopping around with the team, he crosses the field to the hufflebuff side and offers first, Charlie a hand. “Good show.” he says stoically.

Keelan Walsh closes her hand on the snitch and turns to put it in the box. The bludgers have moved in and are strapped down, still somewhat wiggly from getting used. With a click, all balls in need of restraint are returned, and now the Quaffle is placed in as well. Noémie runs off without the cup and so it is presented to the rest of the team, though it seems that as Keeper and oldest, it is shoved closer to Van. Keelan, for her part, moves away from the students (especially as those in the stands trickle down) and out.

“Good match,” Eliza replies, with a firm nod and a sincere tone, giving Noémie’s hand a strong shake, with a true, honest smile that even lingers for a moment after the handshake has finished. And then Eliza is off towards the edge of the pitch, reaching Alexandra’s side in a few long, swift strides. “Come on,” she says softly, stretching her hand down to touch Alexandra’s shoulder gently. “Let’s get you up to the nurse.”

Alexandra Leongshakes her head at Charlie, although her arm is turning an interesting shade of purple. She is trying very hard not to burst into tears, but her efforts are less than successful. In a few seconds, she completely loses control and flings herself into Charlie, sobbing into his shoulder.

Does Charlie look like a crying post? Still, he’s in such a subdued mood that he merely pats her back a bit awkwardly and lets her cry. “It’s okay, it isn’t your fault the Snitch went under there. You’d've had it otherwise, really.” Clavicle’s offer of a handshake is just stared at–he does, after all, have a girl sobbing on him. He still won’t look at Eliza, and probably won’t for at least a week or so after this.

Clavicle Gravely lets his hand drop awkwardly. “Right then.” he nods and looks to the other Hufflepuffs, “Good match.” but feeling more awkward then anything he heads back to his side’s locker room.

There is no anger in Eliza‘s expression as she looks down at her teammates – just sympathy, and a little of her own sorrow. “Come on,” she says again, still softly, with a gentle but strong tug at Alexandra’s shoulder, transferring the weeping girl from poor bewildered Charlie to herself. “Let’s go.” Eliza swallows hard, and starts to walk her sobbing Seeker off the field.

Donovan Harrison stands in the center of the Quidditch Pitch, not in his usual robes but in more appropriate referee robes for the game. With a broom in one hand, he also has the box full of those well-known Quidditch balls that are needed. He waits patiently for the two teams to arrive and the captains to come over to him to do the usual pre-game ‘meeting’ with the referee of the game.

Rhian Brecon settles into the announcer’s seat and clears her throught. “Good afternoong everyone, what a wonderfully white day to have a quidditch game, isn’t it? I hope everyone is nice and bundled up like I am, though I’m sure the two teams today won’t need it. Today’s game we have Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff, two excellent teams so this should ideally be a good game, despite the weather. Today we have, for the first time this year Professor Harrison of Transfiguration refereeing this game. Let’s just hope that we will be able to see this game, as well as the Quidditch players.”

Marie-Anna Greyton steps out onto the pitch in the colours of Gryffindor House. Broom in hand the captain makes her way over towards the referee of todays match. “Professor,” the teen gives with a slight nod of her head as she looks towards the rest of her team, and towards the Hufflepuff team.

Wandering out to the pitch, Briony seems to be feeling almost ill as she steps onto the pitch for the third and last time during the season. Granted, the girl has practiced all she could manage for this last and final match, but while she is quite adept at blocking the shots of her own team, her confidence is still lacking when it comes to blocking shots from those whose movements she cannot predict.

As it is his first match for the Gryffindor team, Sebastian Praw is more than nervous. He is trying to hide his excitement behind short smiles and because he’ll be the seeker today, he’ll be watched especially hard by everyone. Of course dressed in Gryffindor colors, his nearly mint broom in hand, Sebastian is standing on the pitch next to his teammates, waiting for the game to begin. Agitated, he rubs his short blonde hair with his free hand, wondering if he’ll be successful today.

Eliza Marlow strides onto the pitch with a confident gait, her broom on one shoulder. She gives her team a wide smile, projecting her confidence at them, hoping to calm their nerves. “We will do just fine,” she said to them as she motioned for all the members to gather around for a quick huddle. “We’ve worked hard, and we’ve really improved, even after our last game. We won against the Slytherins, and we will win here. Now let’s go out and play hard. Chasers, remember to work together, and keep an eye out for the bludgers. Beaters, you need to know where everyone on the pitch is, on our teams and theirs. Alex, don’t let your nerves take over your flying.” She paused in her impromptu little speech, and flashed a grin at her team. “You are all great flyers, now let get out there and win this for Hufflepuff!”

Donovan Harrison gives a nod to Marie-Anna and then looks to Eliza as they both stand on either side. “Well, I’m sure I don’t have to tell either of you that we should have a good, clean game. Just be careful of course, with this weather. Now, shake hands, get in position and let’s get this game started then.” He lets the captains do such and turns to the box with the Quidditch balls and opens it up to get ready to release the four different balls into the air.

Following the team captain, Eldric Carver walks on the pitch, sporting his trademark confident smile. The boy walks with his chest sticking out proud, his broom is swung over his left shoulder. As he walks forward, he toys with his heavy bat in the right hand, and he occasionally waves to a few people he knows and who are sitting on the bleachers. “We’ll smite them!” he replies with a broad grin to the captain’s little speech.

Marybeth Campbell wanders out to the Pitch, this time with her very own scarf on, near Carrie as usual. Her own broom is held carefully, and she keeps brushing snowflakes off of her robes with her free hand, if just to keep them from melting and soaking through before the game has even properly started. Listening to the speech, she punctuates the end with a bit of an excited yelping noise and “Right! We’ll win!” but then she gets into position for kicking off.

Charlie Linwood is practically bouncing on his feet as he comes out, not even half as ridiculously bundled as he has been for the last several …dozen… practices. No, he’s still got on a full set of clothes under his Quidditch robes, gloves, scarf, hat, and cloak, but that’s about a layer less than usual. After all, it’s a game and if he’s used to being weighed down, this should help. The other Hufflepuffs get a grey-eyed glance, but any turn of the mouth up or down is concealed, as usual, with the thick black and yellow stripes of his scarf. Clutching his broom, it seems that Charlie is not about to display any nerves. Just don’t mind the way his eyebrows are kind of twitchy. Even with Eliza’s characteristic enthusiasm, he’s Charlie.

Marie-Anna Greyton nods towards the Professor and turns to offer Eliza her hand. Once the formalities are done she offers a smile at the Gryffindor team. “You guys’ll do fine, you’ve worked hard for this match, just like all the others,” she gives in a calm voice before she takes her position on the pitch. Her stance is that of someone ready to play the game.

Feeling remarkably dizzy, while stepping onto the field, Andy Carver clings to his broom. Today he does not care about its tousled looking tailtwigs. He positions himself next to Briony and glances over to her, while tying up his hair to a ponytail, so that they won’t bother him during the match. As acclimates slowly, the spectators seem to come out of reach. ‘You’re playing here. Don’t care about them. Don’t-care-about-them’ he says to himself under his breath and puts on his father’s old quidditch gloves. Finally he puts his head back and breathes in deeply, looking up to the sky.

Alexandra Leong titters nervously, bouncing on her toes, toying with the handle of her broom. She gulps as Eliza mentions her nerves, but nods in response, bobbing her head up and down vigorously. “I won’t let you down, Captain,” she blurts, and turns a bright red. She looks at the rest of her team, then, in a small voice, adds. “Good luck, everyone.”

These words to not soothe Briony‘s nerves, and she looks to her fellow second-year with a bit of a gulp, then readies her broom for when the whistle is given to fly up to the hoops. The only thing Briony can hope is that there is a large tussle for the quaffle and she won’t have to see it for a good long time.

“Yes… we’ll smite them.” Carrie Whittier repeats after Eldric, clutching her own broom firmly with her right hand and smiling back, for the briefest moment, at the sixth year boy. “We’ve trained a lot and I’m sure this will pay off eventually” she goes on, mostly for herself. She wonders how she’ll fare in this match and if she would be able to do justice to her team, but now is not really the time to doubt about such things, is it?

Eliza Marlow steps forward and shakes Marie-Anna’s hand firmly. “Good luck,” she said to the opposing captain, with a friendly smile. “Alright team! Let’s get started!” She mounts her own broom with an almost careless grace, like something she’s done a thousand times (and perhaps have), and could do in her sleep. There is a certain edge to her movements, however, as soon as she is on the broom. Poised and ready to take off, her grips her broom firmly, adjusting her grip until it is perfect, flexing her gloved hands.

Donovan Harrison looks up at the two teams and waits for them to be in the proper position as he takes the Quaffle out of the box into his hand. His wand is in his hand to be quickly used though. Once everyone was relatively settled despite the weather, he points to the box and has the Golden Snitch released, which flitters in place for a while and then goes zooming off into the snow. Following that the two bludgers were let go, which he dodges one while they go to create mayhem. Once that is done, he waves the box off the field and then tosses the Quaffle up into the air between the Chasers, letting them argue over it as he moves to his broom and kicks off to keep an eye on the game.

Charlie Linwood is not in the habit of mounting his broom until the referee has signaled the start of game. With a “Why do they always release them before we’re even airborne?” under his breath, Charlie pulls out his beater’s bat, mounts, and zooms upward. He watches as the other members of both teams begin to play. He looks, as always, a strange combination of menacing and ridiculous, holding the bat and moving rather quickly from here to there, but thin and all bundled up against the cold.

Marie-Anna Greyton makes her way up into the air, with Landon no ttoo far behind. Both beaters have bats in hand as they prepare to keep their teams from getting knocked out cold from the flying monsters that are bludgers.

Andy Carver sets up as the game is about to start. His toes seem to dig themselves into the ground to perform a proper kick off the ground. Since the quaffle is taken out of the box his eyes only know one direction. As it gets thrown into the air he shoots up into the air, trying to reach it earlier than the Hufflepuff chasers.

“I don’t know, but we’d better take off quickly” Carrie Whittier says to Charlie. Mounting her own broom, Carrie quickly takes off and takes her own position with the other Chasers of the Hufflepuff team, and starts manoeuvering so as to get closer to the red ball.

Marybeth Campbell moves with her team-within-a-team toward the quaffle as well, racing with the set of Gryffindor Chasers to gain hold of the ever-important red leather ball. “Oi!” she calls briefly, moving suddenly to the left, “Mind the wind!” Down, toward Andy, then, expression set rather seriously, for Marybeth.

Eldric Carver follows suit, and jumps on his own broom, bat firmly held in his right hand. He kicks off the ground, flying directly towards the nearest bludger, which is, however, still a bit too far away to be hit directly. Eldric mutters something under his breath as he presses his broom forward towards the heavy iron ball. The beginning of the game is the best moment to shoot a Bludger against the opponents and wreak confusion amid their ranks, he thinks.

Alexandra Leong kicks off hastily. Once in the air, her hair black hair flying, she lost some of her nerve, and began to fly a search pattern above the game, her eyes scanning the pitch for any sign of the snitch. So far… nothing. She does a fancy little turn, to change directions, more to calm her own nerves than anything.

Sebastian Praw decided to always keep an eye on Alexandra, as she is the opponent seeker and he really isn’t experienced. Of course he already caught a Snitch in his life, but this was a real Hogwarts quidditch match and not a fluffy training session. He whisks off some snowflakes from his broomstick, to make it more handy and looks up again. Where is Alexandra? Apparently gone. “Argh.” Sebastian curses himself and kicks off, following the Hufflepuff seeker and glimpsing out for the nasty bludger he has heard of.

Marie-Anna Greyton flies towards a bludger and takes a heavy swing at it, doing her best to aim for the Hufflepuff seeker. Meanwhile, Landon’s on his way towards the other bludger.

Seeing that he has a small lead in the race for the quaffle, Andy reaches out for it and plucks it out of the air. A bit surprised that he made it again to catch the first quaffle, he zooms upwards, trying to get out of the trajectory of the Hufflepuff chasers and starts looking for Josh and Gabe, who were flying next to him a second ago.

Rhian says, “And the two teams have come out. The captains, Eliza Marlow and Marie-Anna Greyton come to the center, getting last minute advice from Professor Harrison, shake hands and go to get their teams into position. Once everyone is settled, Professor Harrison releases first the Golden Snitch, good luck in this weather Seekers, then the Bludgers, which one attempts to hit Professor Harrison, and now the Quaffle is tossed into the air, with… Gryffindor taking it, Carver managing to get a hold of it. Greyton manages to get a hold of one of the bludgers and sends it off toward someone else.”

Too late for Landon. As he reaches the bludger, Eldric Carver swings his bat and sends it towards Andy, who seems to have caught the quaffle. This would give him something else to think about, he smirks.

Eliza Marlow launches herself with a firm kickoff, and within seconds she was bobbing about her goal posts. Her eyes narrow as she watches her team and the trying to keep an eye on the play, but so far, everything seems to be fine. “HUFFLEPUFFS! Communicate!” She yells out, sounding a bit short, although her tone of voice is usually like this during a game or a practice. Short and to the point, although not unkind or angry. Hopefully the team remembers that what “communicate” means in Eliza terms.

Charlie Linwood watches Eldric go for for the bludger and so heads in the direction of the other ball, rerouting when Marie-Anna hits it, with a bit of a glower. Actually, the ball is now closer and becomming rapidly more so. Quickly applying the breaks he glances very briefly around the pitch and barely has the time to swing and hit the bludger back toward Andy and the Gryffindor Chasers, with a bit of a shout.

Pushing her own broom forward, Carrie begins to chase Andy, trying to get the quaffle, exactly as her role requires. As she hears the sound of the bludgers drawing nearer, she breaks off the pursuit. It wouldn’t do much good to be targeted by the bludgers. Better leave them all for Andy to taste.

Marie-Anna Greyton flies upward a bit to have a better view of the players below, and the bludgers. Just as she’s about to head off towards the bludger Landon beats her to it. A swift hit of his bat sends the bludger in the general direction of the Hufflepuff end of the field.

For the very first time in her life, Alexandra felt complete at ease with her direct competition. After a few minutes of flying, she felt completely comfortable with her broom, and actually started enjoying the flight, although her muscles are still tense and she still overreacted to every sound or shout. She could tell that the Gryffindor seeker was following her, and that gave her an idea. Suddenly she zooms in the opposite direction as she was flying before, hoping to distract the other seeker and maybe lose him with a bit of fancy flying.

Marybeth Campbell frowns as Andy gains the quaffle, but follows Carrie out of the path of danger, swooping rather unexpectedly sideways (hopefully not into anybody else’s airspace). “Linwood! We’re down here too!” she calls in a surprisingly good-spirited tone, not that it’s likely to reach his ears. For all she knows, Eldric hit the ball in this direction, but it’s more fun to blame Charlie, for one reason or another.

Sebastian does not really search for the snitch, he’s more trying to keep track of Alexandra and avoiding bludgers. As Alexandra performs a hard turn, Sebastian wonders if she is trying to trick him, but then he just decides to stay behind or at least near her.

Andy hears the sounds of the bludger rushing towards him and hectically passes the quaffle to Gabriel, who caught up and swooped down to his left side. An adequate toss and Gabriel catches the quaffle. A grin escapes from Andy‘s lips and then he the bludger slams into his chest. “Ugh.” Andy moans and fights back onto his broom. Sitting on it again holding his side, he watches Gabriel engaging the Hufflepuff hoops.

Rhian says, “Ooo, the Hufflepuff chasers have to break off their attack following the Gryffindors due to the bludgers coming in from their own beaters, not a good thing. Leong seems to behave that she’s found the Snitch every now and then, but keeps changing direction, Praw following her almost like a lost puppy. Carver tosses the Quaffle to Goden, just before Carver is hit straight on by a bludger, that had to hurt. Carver tries to get air back into his lungs while the other two chasers head off toward the hoops.”

Marie-Anna Greyton looks towards Andy. “Come on, keep it going, Carver!” she shouts as she flies overhead, still, taking on the bludger that hit Andy. With an oomph she winds up and hits said bludger, intent on getting it towards the Hufflepuff chasers.

Charlie Linwood hit someone who isn’t a team member! Far from feeling bad that Andy took the quaffle to his stomach, he gives a bit of a whoop, grinning a bit (still obscured by his scarf) and waving about his bat. Andy isn’t Leong, who is the only person (or broom) he’s managed to hit yet (it was Louis’s fault, really!). As Marie hits the offending bludger toward his own chasers, however, Charlie urges his broom forward, eyebrows set. “Not if I can help it!”

Eliza Marlow watches calmly as a bludger heads towards her end of the field. The other bludger is hit towards the her chasesrs, which is a bit of a relief, as two quaffles might be a bit dangerous to deal with, if the Gryffindors get towards her end quickly enough. “Hufflepuff chasers! Watch for the bludgers!” she warns her team.

Alexandra Leong rights herself from her turn, just in time to see a glimpse of something glittering gold in the falling snow. For a moment the small Seeker shocked into a kind of trance, but the moment passes and a plan quickly forms. She still closer to the snitch than Sebastian, but not by much. Quickly she pulls into a sharp dive for about 10 feet, then she shoots straight up again (something she’s learned how to do from losing control of her broom way to many times), pulling up hard, then righting herself. She makes another swerve, then heads straight for the snitch, her body pressed against the handle of her broom as she urges it faster, everything around to beginning to blur as she gains speed.

Rhian says, “Gryffindor heads for the Hufflepuff hoops, but what is this? Leong has suddenly picked up speed. Has she actually spotted the Golden Snitch? And where is Praw?”

Marybeth Campbell pushes snow flakes away from her face, but it seems they’re coming down thicker than before, or maybe she’s just looking at them instead of through them. “What?” She urges her broom toward a blur of red that must be a Gryffindor chaser, as they haven’t been much far apart, and finds herself flying ridiculously close to Josh. “Ugh, you haven’t got the quaffle at all!” is her statement, as the whistle of a bludger reaches her ears and she leans sideways to increase the distance between herself, the ball, and Josh.

Sebastian suddenly sees Alexandra swooping down, but has no idea where the snitch could be. His new broom giving him a faint boost, Sebastian catches up to Alexandra slightly but still is a few yards behind her. Then he focusses something glimmering in front of the snow covered scene. It the snitch. Come on, broom. Sebastian leans forward to hide from the wind. The opponent’s seeker coming nearer in front of him, just in form of a fluttering robe.

Andy tries to catch up to Gabriel and Josh, who is also trying to maneuver into a good position. As Marybeth let’s go Josh, Gabriel tries to throw the quaffle to him, fooling the Hufflepuff chaser, who is heading for the other direction. Josh gets a hold of the quaffle, but then he gets entangled in his cape and drops the red ball. The three Gryffindor chasers seem to sigh simultaneously and discontentedly steer downwards to recover the quaffle.

Charlie Linwood finally notices the bludger heading toward Eliza and, figuring that the Chasers are, for starters, not in possession of the quaffle, and for seconds, much more able to avoid the hurting ball of metal, changes course. He isn’t about to let his Captain and Keeper have to deal with the bludger, even if it’s unlikely she’ll be his. Away, and then CRACK!, with an awful lot of force, he sends the bludger in the opposite direction, toward Gryffindor’s end of the field.

She’s close now. Only feet away, Alexandra raises one arm, reaching forwards, but she’s not close enough. She mutters to herself, pushing for her broom to go faster, and it obliges, although the increase in speed is only slight. With the golden ball so tantalizating close, she is aware of nothing else, not even the other seeker.

The race goes on and Sebastian is getting nearer inch by inch. He’s approaching a bit faster now, that he is right behind her, but there its still a long way, if he is going to overtake her. The Hufflepuff’s cloak whips into his face, but he won’t concede. Sebastian swerves to the left, as it seems to be a good moment and perceives, that Alexandra’s fingers are only inches away from the fluttering golden ball. He reaches out and tries to catch it with a single strike. He misses and tumbles, doing a awkward roll in the air and falling back immediately, losing several yards in a second.

Sebastian’s sudden appearance (and disappearance) startles Alexandra, and she nearly falters, but as she turns to check on the other seeker, her outstretched hand brushes against something fluttering. Instinctively, she closes her fist. A second later she is slowing down, and in a few moments she is stopped, right dead center of the pitch, looking a bit confused, her hand closed on something. She opens in hand a little, taking a peek, and suddenly she breaks starts to laugh. Finally, she raises her arm into the air, holding the snitch, now visible in her hand, it’s wings protruding from between her fingers. “I catch it!” she says intelligently.

Rhian says, “The Seekers are so close it seems in catching the Snitch, Praw makes a grab for it but fails in getting it, quickly loosing ground on Leong. Leong has stopped and… she has the Snitch! Hufflepuff wins! The final score is Hufflepuff 150, Gryffindor 0 as they failed to get a score before the Snitch was caught. That’s it for the game and lets all get back to the castle and warm up.”

Marie-Anna Greyton screeches to a halt as she hears the words from Alexandra. “Oy, good try guys,” she gives to her teammates as she looks around and offers a nod towars Alexandra. “Yeh did good,” with that she lets her broom make it’s way to the ground. Once having touched down she offers her congratulations to the Hufflepuff team before heading back to the castle.

Donovan Harrison gives a whistle as he sees that Alexandra has caught the Snitch. He flies up to her and nods. “Good job Miss Leong. I’ll take the snitch now. Go ahead and get cleaned up and celebrate with your House.” He also goes around and gathers up the bludgers and quaffle, putting them away as he also makes sure the pitch is cleared of players before he goes to get warm himself.