Keelan Walsh wears, for once, plain black robes with no hint of team affliation. This is rare enough at a game against Ravenclaw, but it seems she’s either had a talking-to or a rethink over the summer break about bias in Quidditch. Maybe her red robes were just dirty. At any rate, she’s standing underneath her umbrella in the center of the pitch, squinting out toward the locker rooms of each team, trying to spot red or blue robes coming through the downpour.

Riley Markham makes his way on to the pitch with a soft yawn, his pale skin sizably more alabaster than tanned under the chilling effect of all the rain. Broom draped avross his shoulders, he waits to kick off anxiously. Growing more nervous by the minute.

Nervously Andy walks onto the pitch, his broom in hand and his robes getting soaking wet in seconds. Looking up to the dark clouds he mutters to Keira “Hm, great.” Then his hands slip into his gloves as he lines up with his teammates, waiting for Keelan’s initial whistle blow.

Boyce Gardener follows behind Riley quietly, trying to hold on to the excitement he felt in the changeroom, and dismiss the nervousness that was trying creep up in to his belly. He carries his broom much more traditionally, though the damp air keeps causing the broomhandle to slip from his fingers.

Quincy Matthias lumbers out onto the pitch, making some crack about the weather to his teammates and hoisting his broom over his shoulder for now. The rain doesn’t otherwise seem to bother him, though he uses his spare hand (beater bat tucked under an arm) to push hair off his forehead.

Rhian says, “Good afternoon everyone, students and faculty alike. Today is a lovely autumn day, if you are a duck perfect for the first Quidditch game of the 1927-28 year. I am Rhian Brecon, your announcer for this year, and for those of you unable to see, I’ll make sure to tell you everything that’s happening. Today’s game is Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw and as this is their first game of the year, I will give you a quick listing of the roster. For Gryffindor, the Chasers are 3rd year Andy Carver, 5th years Keira Sanguine and Tobias Raleigh, their Beaters are 4th years Kelly Pantall and Quincy Mattias, with the Keeper the 3rd year Briony Wexler and their Seeker and Captain, 4th year Gabriel Goden. For Ravenclaw, who this year comes to try and hold onto the Quidditch Cup they won last year, their Chasers are 4th year David Mildren, 5th year Prefect Bailey Williams and 3rd year Boyce Gardner, the Beaters are 5th year Prefect Tegan Madison and 3rd year Riley Markham, their Keeper being 5th year Laney Abbott and their Seeker and Captain, leading them once again, 6th year Prefect Noémie Ribouet. The official for today’s game is Professor of Herbology, Professor Walsh. We now wait for both teams to come brave the weather as we are now, so let’s get this game underway.”

Making her way out into the pouring rain, Noémie appears to be in quite a mood today. Her face is set seriously, and her eyes squinted, though this could likely be caused by the amount of water cascading down into her face. Coming to stop near Keelan, she does not look at the captain, instead looking in the direction of where the Gryffindor team is to join them. The rain does make it difficult to see what, exactly, is going on, and Noémie finds herself biting her lip while she looks around, rather hoping that the snitch won’t be quite so hard to see when it comes time to begin.

David follows the other members of his team, muttering against the rain and how it might affect the game. He carries his broom under his arm, hoping that it won’t behave as it did during that practice, when it suddenly stopped midair for no reason. That should not happen, though, since he had it looked over by the flying instructor, who reassured him that it should fly fine from now on. A bit nervous about the match, David stays silent and waits for the game to begin.

Laney Abbott is more nervous than anything, and keeps pushing her glasses up her nose with her free hand. Her broom is clutched hard in the other, and more than once she redoubles her stride to stay with the rest of the team, lips pressed into a thin line. Still, a “Lovely, I’ll just divine where the Quaffle is in the mess and block it that way.” escapes her lips in a sour sort of mumble.

“N– I’m su– no, Bri — c’mon, you–” Gabe starts as he walks out to the pitch, trying to sneak words in while Briony chatters at him quietly on their way out to the pitch. “You’ll be fine, I’m sure,” he tells his friend and then falls silent as the two of them come out, their red robes easily dampened by the sheer volume of water falling upon him. Squaring off in front of Noémie, his nervousness is not easily hidden, especially as he turns away from Briony a bit, perhaps to hide this very fact from her.

Trailing behind Keira and Andy, Tobias nestles on his broom a last time. It’s his first match in the main team and now it comes to a close against last season’s champions Ravenclaw. Quiet as usual he hides his excitement quite well, except of a trembling left eyelid.

Not to be left out of the intial comments, Kelly Pantall holds onto her broom, bat, and, like everyone, gets very wet.

Following Gabriel out to the pitch, once she is finally coaxed into silence by him, Briony starts to fidget. Her broom in one hand, and the other hand shoved deep into her pocket, she shifts from foot to foot while glancing around at the rest of her team.

David Mildred is about as grumpy as the other teammates about the foul weather, and doesn’t mince her words about it. She is rather in a foul mood today, for no apparent reason, and twirls her bat around, ready to play with the bludgers and send them over to the opponents.

Keira Sanguine looks almost annoyed at the water as she makes her way out to the pitch, though the smirk on her lips seems to say that she might know a bit more than she’s letting on. Glancing behind her, the smirk fades as she realizes who is following her. She’s got to do well this game. She just has to.

“Doesn’t seem all that bad to me,” Riley murmurs, sincerely, as he drives his hands in to his pockets. Both of which are wrapped in suede gloves, so that the scars of his left hand don’t catch on the fabric of his robe pocket. “Could be worse. And they have ter play in the same muck.”

Usually easy-spirited, Bailey does not look quite so easy today. The conditions are not the best for Quidditch, especially not for the first game of the season, and, with only a glance to Tegan, he goes to stand next to David, holding his broom with a rather tight grip.

“Alright, let’s keep our formation close and I…ahm…want to see clean passes. Don’t give away quaffle possession to easily. Just like in the practices. We can do that!” Andy tries to encourage his fellow chasers, finishing with a weak clap and wrings out his robe for the first time. The match hasn’t even started yet and he’s wet to the bones already.

Keelan Walsh smiles, though the gesture is merely polite. “Well, it can’t be lovely weather all the time. Okay, Captains, lets get the handshake through so you can start this game, shall we?” She watches them, gives a small nod, and turns to open the box of Quidditch balls, folding up her umbrella and setting it down. A click releases the Snitch from it’s special holder, and away it flies into the rain. Then Keelan takes hold of the Quaffle and calls, “On your brooms?” before blowing the whistle and tossing it into the air to get the game started. A few moments later, the bludgers are released, and Keelan mounts her broom to watch for fouls.

Laney Abbott is in the air and traveling toward the Ravenclaw hoops at the sound of the whistle, and soon hovers before them, waiting for Chasers to come her way with a Quaffle to, hopefully, block.

Swing his broom from his shoulders and mounting it in one easy motion, Riley turns and nods to Tegan — communicating that he understood their practiced tactic of knight at dragon. He was the knight who defended his teammates, she was going to start off being the one who grabbed a bludger and attacked.,

Quincy Matthias and Kelly rise into the air and spread out a bit, wielding the bats and watching (or at least attemping to) for bludgers to hit at the Ravenclaw team.

Reaching out to shake Gabriel’s hand, Noémie doesn’t wait long before getting herself onto her broom afterward. “Alright, keep it clean, and play hard. Remember what we practiced, everyone,” Noémie tells her team and as soon as she hears the whistle, she flies upward, though not too high. She wants to see where the snitch goes, after all, so that she has more chance of catching it.

Biting his lower lip, Boyce takes off in to the air after mounting his broom — almost slipping off it from the rain. He seens to grow a bit more confident once in the air. He’s ready.

Gabe Goden shakes Noémie’s hand as she offers it and then turns to his team. “Er –” he pauses as Andy begins to tell the team a quick last minute pep talk. “What he said,” Gabe tacks on and hops onto his broom, keeping a close eye on Noémie, though his attempts to keep up with her are rather obvious.

Following his teammates, David kicks off the ground starts to take some speed, making a direct flight towards the quaffle, which he grabs deftly before flying towards the Gryffindor goals. He makes a silent nod at the other Ravenclaw chasers to indicate them to be ready for a pass should the need arise.

Flying upward, Keira makes an attempt at the quaffle which has been released. Reaching close to David, Keira‘s face is set and she reaches out with intent to blatantly steal the Quaffle from David, though this does cause her to lose balance a bit and she has to slow down in order to gain control over her broom again.

Andy mounts his broom and sets up to shoot for the quaffle once it’s tossed up into the air. He sees the ball flying upwards and accelerates, but doesn’t reach it, since David has been more agile this time. Andy orientates again and chases the Ravenclaw.

Making her way up to the goals, it is not long before there is a small crowd headed toward her, and Briony looks almost fearful as she rubs her left wrist carefully, biting her lips while she gets situated more carefully in front of the goals, at a slight slant rather than straight on.

Nodding in silent agreement with Riley, Tegan pushes her broom forward and flies directly towards the nearest bludger, which she sends towards the pack of Chasers going after David, notably Andy.

Tobias gets into the air and hesitates a bit to go for the quaffle, since Andy and Keira are already racing for it. He stays back, turns around and is flying in front of David now, trying to guess where he is going.

Rising up quickly, Bailey is too slow to even be in contention to get the quaffle. This time, however, it appears as if a Ravenclaw has gotten it, and this bolsters Bailey a bit. Making his way down the pitch in an attempt to catch up, he swerves wide around Keira as she slows down and reaches out with an arm to let David know that he is currently open.

Kelly swoops in and knocks a bludger toward a streak of blue that will probably turn out to be Boyce, while Quincy takes flight, however slowly, toward the sound of another bat cracking, in order to attempt to intercept the other bludger, though he doesn’t yet.

Boyce Gardener moves notices Bailey postion himself and moves further up field to provide Bailey a passing lane ad possibly an attempt a a score., moving at a moderately quick speed but holding a fair amount of control. He is completely ignorant of the bludger sailing at him.

Feeling that the Gryffindor chasers are getting a bit too close to him, David makes a pass at Bailey, before continuing towards the goals to prepare the field for another pass.

Not being aware of Bailey, Andy stays behind David, coming nearer inch by inch he is now at his heels, but still not able to reach for the quaffle. As David passes, Andy notices that he’ll only be able to cover the Ravenclaw now. Bailey is too far away already.

Reaching out with his hands wide, Bailey makes a clean catch and begins to fly forward in an effort to catch up to Boyce. The older boy swerves a bit and then flies in to toss the quaffle to the younger chaser as he crosses in front, making his way diagonally away for a moment before coming back behind David and making his way around to hover behind a bit, in case the quaffle needs to be passed out again.

Riley, however, is very aware of the bludger that has been hurtled toward Bailey. Laying low on his broom in an attempt to keep the rain from blinding him, he darts foreward. Reaching out with his bat, he bunts the bludger away from Boyce almost at the last moment, before wheeling back and hitting it toward Keira. Though his aim isn’t dead on, exactly, it’s a right sight more sharp than last year, and definately sail in the general direction of his hopefully distracted target,

Seeing David’s pass, Tobias tries to intercept the ball, but it’s too well thrown, so that his finger just get the quaffle’s gust. He dashes down to hassle Bailey now, but too late, another pass he could not reach. “Keira, watch out!” Tobias points at the bludger and keeps flying next to Bailey, to cover him.

Shrieking a bit, Keira turns her broom and tries to get out of the way of the bludger, finding this difficult as her broom hasn’t quite calmed down yet, and her broom is stuttering a bit as she tries to out-fly the metal orb. “You bloody beaters! Get over here and hit this confounded thing at those bloody Ravenclaw!” Several more sentences, riddled with obscenities follow and the girl’s face gets quite red while she tries to get control of her broom still.

Quincy Matthias is in the path of the bludger at last and aims it with a powerful crack of bat-on-ball back toward the Ravenclaw Chasers with a grunt. Kelly flies for the other bludger, a bit peeved that Riley redirected it.

Freed of the bludger he’d not realized he had, Boyce catches the quaffle on the tips of his fingers, nearly dropping it a few times because of his slick it was, and making his flight briefly jerky. He manages to get himself relatively under control, however, arching up as he comes at the hoops, before diving and trying to shoot over Briony’s head, hoping for a quick score.

Deciding to let her role as the dragon aside for a while, Tegan flies towards the chasers to prevent the bludger from hitting them. She is still a bit away from it, so she does not reach it immediately, but flies there the best she can.

Rhian says, “The captains come into the center of the pitch and shake hands before both teams are called to their brooms. Professor Walsh waits until they are ready before releasing the Quaffle, the two Bludgers and the Snitch. With the toss of the Quafle, Mildred is quick on his broom and manages to catch it. Ravenclaw has first possesion this game as they head down toward Wexler who waits at the goals she is guarding. Pantall manages to get to one of the Bludgers and hits it over at Gardner, who seems totally oblivious to it. The Ravenclaw Chasers seem in good form as Mildren passes the Quaffle to Williams and Williams in turn tosses it to Gardner.”

Kelly takes care of the bludger again, calling something out to Keira that is lost in the sound of the rain and noise of Quidditch, while Quincy tries (poorly) to keep pace with Tegan and prevent her hitting the other.

Reaching up with both hands as the Quaffle is tossed at her, Briony manages, for once, an easy block. The block is easy, but the catch is not, and she fumbles with it for a moment before getting a good grip on it. Tossing it outward, she aims it to Andy without a word, though a grunt does ensue.

David Mildred groans as well, but for another reason, as he sees that the quaffle has been blocked. He immediately starts to chase Andy, hoping to get the quaffle from his hands.

Rhian says, “Markham manages to notice the Bludger flying after Gardner and hits it away back over to Sanguine. However, Gardner is having a slight issue with the Quaffle while he flies. Mattias takes the other Bludger and hits it in general at the Ravenclaw Chasers, though Tegan is attempting to protect her team’s Chasers. Pantall goes after the Bludger that is chasing Sanguine, attempting to keep it away from the Chaser. Gardner, now in the clear, attempts to score… But is stopped by Wexler, but it is only batted to Carver to head down back the other way.”

A short smile brightens on Andy‘s face, as Briony saves the first shot and gets a hold of the Quaffle. Flying for a second, then seeking one of his fellow chasers, Andy finds Keira at his side and instantly flings the Quaffle to the girl, noticing David behind him. Andy then performs a hard turn, to force David to slow down and get Keira an advantage.

Finally reaching the iron ball which was flying towards the Ravenclaw chasers, Tegan swings her bat and sends the bludger towards Keira. “Take that!”

Tobias slows down and lets his broom drop a bit to avoid the crowded field. He shoots forward and heaves up again, so that he finds himself in front of Keira now.

For a moment, Noémie thinks she’s spotted the snitch. While she begins to fly toward the gold fleck that she thinks she has seen, it is a moment before she realizes that she has a bludger following her, and her course is altered in order to avoid the orb that is hot on her tail. “Riley, Tegan! Someone” she shrieks in a rather undignified fashion, flying downward through the action in hopes of losing it.

Rhian says, “Pantall finally got the bludger that was after Sanguine away, and now it heads off to Ribouet, give the Seeker something to do until the Snitch is spotted. Meanwhile, Mattias is trying to stop Madison from getting at the other Bludger, but she manages to get it away over at Sanguine, who just recently got the Quaffle from Carver. Carver is trying a nice move though of attempting to block Mildred from persuing Sanguine as she barrels her way to Abbott.”

David Mildred narrowly escapes a collision with Andy Carver as the Gryffindor does a reckless turn right in front of him, and dives to avoid him. He lets out a shout of rage as he does so. Keira is already far from her, but noticing the bludger flying towards her, he decides to anticipate her (very likely) pass to Tobias and flies directly towards him instead.

It takes Riley a few moments to divine the location the bludger, having heard the sound of a bat striking it, but unable to see it for all the rain. Sailing upward quickly, he chases after Noémie — not quite able to keep up with her in all the rain and wind (he did have more wind resistance, naturally). But he could get close enough to send that bludger away. His aim is off, though, for the angle he had to strike it. It sails off in no particular direction toward friend or foe.

Keelan Walsh pulls up short on his broom to change direction, sweating a bit even with the rain coming down. He and his broom are not the fastest on the field, and it’s likely that the bludger will inflitrate the Chasers before he makes it. Kelly remains, for the moment, on the lookout rather than the offense, thanks to the rain unable to see the result of her last hit.

Quincy Matthias pulls up short on his broom to change direction, sweating a bit even with the rain coming down. He and his broom are not the fastest on the field, and it’s likely that the bludger will inflitrate the Chasers before he makes it. Kelly remains, for the moment, on the lookout rather than the offense, thanks to the rain unable to see the result of her last hit.

Laney Abbott starts to get a bit more nervous as she squints through the rain and detects scarlet blurrs moving toward the Ravenclaw end of the pitch. She begins to bob vaguely in place on her broom and her grip tightens around the handle.

What has she done to get the bludgers flying toward her today? Keira Sanguine has only barely managed to get the Quaffle secured under her arm and started on her way to the Ravenclaw goals before another bludger is directed at her. Looking over her shoulder, she checks to see if there are any other Chasers available, before she notices Tobias in front of her. Chucking the Quaffle quickly, with a shout of “HERE!” Keira swears a little more and veers away so as not to direct the bludger to Tobias.

Beginning to grin as his bet has paid off, David begins to chase Tobias, closing in to him as every second goes by. Had he gone for Keira after his near-miss with Andy, he wouldn’t be so close to the Gryffindor chaser as he is now… David has good hopes to at least bother him a good bit if he tries to throw the quaffle.

Tobias looks over his shoulder and receives Keira’s well-metered pass. He zooms up into the zone, heading for the left hoop and attempts a score. He dekes to puzzle the keeper, but notes David then and flies out of the zone again, throwing the Quaffle to Andy.

Making his way down the pitch, Bailey seems to think it a good idea to stay close to Andy now that David has gone after Keira, leaving Boyce to follow Tobias. As the Quaffle is tossed to Andy, Bailey sees his opportunity, and flies forward a bit, as well as his broom will let him. This is just in time, as he manages to get a grip onto the red orb, turning quickly and flying as fast as his broom will take him in the other direction. He is headed straight for the Gryffindor hoops with the slick ball.

Quincy Matthias is belatedly in the fray and with a very wet smack, sends the Bludger flying in the opposite direction, hopefully scattering at least some of the Ravenclaw Chasers, now that they’ve recovered the Quaffle. Kelly scans the skies for the other and zips toward it, sending the Bludger toward the Ravenclaws as well.

Seeing Bailey crossing in front of him, Andy‘s flying becomes unstable and he can’t avoid him stealing the ball from Gryffindor. Changing into defensive mode again, he shoots away to follow Bailey and gets a hand on the Quaffle, pulling at it.

Noticing the smooth work done by Bailey, Boyce does his best to tag Tobias and prevent him to follow the Ravenclaw chaser and intercept the quaffle.

Rhian says, “Markham manages to get the Bludger away from Ribouet with ease, but where it went, I don’t know… Matthias has also managed to get the other bludger away from the Gryffindor Chasers while Sanguine tosses the Quaffle to Raleigh. Raleigh now takes a chance to pass it to Carver, but wait… Williams has managed to intercept the Quaffle and the field now turns around to head to the Gryffindor goals.”

Gabe curses loudly as Ravenclaw gets hold of the Quaffle again, and the Gryffindor pulls her broom around, making a hard turn to try to follow down to the other end of the pitch in an attempt to retrieve the quaffle for her own team and scoring.

Keira curses loudly as Ravenclaw gets hold of the Quaffle again, and the Gryffindor pulls her broom around, making a hard turn to try to follow down to the other end of the pitch in an attempt to retrieve the quaffle for her own team and scoring.

A second later, David turns his broom and flies in Andy’s direction, attempting to hinder him and prevent him from catching up with Bailey.

Tobias slows down and ponders if he should go and dive into the bunch of chasers, threatened by both bludgers or wait where he is to receive a pass, should Andy really get the quaffle from Bailey.

The situation is a bit dire for the Ravenclaw chasers, since the two bludgers are directed towards them. Noding to Tegan, Riley Markham decides to take the bludger, which he reaches easily enough. The bludger is sent away from the pack of chasers in a matter of seconds. On her side, Tegan has more difficulties to catch the other bludger, and reaches it just as it was going to hit David, but as she does so, she prevents him from tagging Andy correctly and nearly collides into the Ravenclaw boy.

Tugging back at the Quaffle as Andy attempts to grab it back from him, Bailey growls a little and says something rather unintelligible as he tries to fly over a bit, pulling both the quaffle and his broom at once while he yanks again, finding this difficult due to the wetness of the Quaffle.

Andy pulls and turns the Quaffle in Bailey’s arms and hands. A tough opponent, as Andy isn’t the strongest of boys after all. But then his arms slips through and prises the ball out of the Ravenclaw’s grasp. A quick look and the Quaffle is on it’s way to Tobias again, who seems to have been sleeping at the zoneline.

Back and forth, back and forth! Keira turns around again and makes a rather sour comment under her breath before yelling, “Make up your confounded minds!” The chaser makes her way back down the pitch and pushes her auburn hair out of her face, looking quite irritated.

Rhian says, “The two Gryffindor Beaters seemt o have a vengence for the Ravenclaws as both Bludgers are sent to the Ravenclaw Chasers. Gardner attempts to block Raleigh from following while Mildred tries the same thing with Carver, but it fails as Carver tries to steal the Quaffle away from Willaims. With this rain, it seems overly difficult to keep a good grip, and it seems that it succeeded as Carver pulls the Quaffle from Williams and tosses it to Raleigh, the closest to the goal.”

The Quaffle is pried away from him as just as a bludger connects with the Ravenclaw’s leg. “AUGH!” he shouts loudly and grabs his leg. This prevents Bailey, at least for the moment, from following the group of chasers who have turned and headed toward his goals while he — rather babyishly — rubs his leg, his eyes pricking with tears, though he’s not about to show them.

A bit surprised Tobias prepares for the catch, does well and whirls around towards the Ravenclaw hoops. Maybe his first goal for Gryffindor, today? With a small groan he tosses the Quaffle towards an empty ring, hoping that the keeper won’t get it at that speed.

Quincy Matthias gives momentary chase to the Bludger, hitting it neatly toward Noémie, while Kelly guards of her own group of Chasers, intentionally or not, in case a Bludger heads their way.

Laney Abbott‘s lips have been moving at a nervous under-toned mumble for the last few moments, as if the rain weren’t distracting enough, and so she doesn’t move fast enough, and the Quaffle soars past her outstretched hands through the hoop, bringing bright red splotches to the Keeper’s cheeks.

Letting out a loud “WHOOP!” as she hears the clang from the other end of the pitch, Briony seems to be ready to jump up and off of her broom. The game, however, is not over, as the Seekers are both still prowling about, flying this way and that, and Briony does not move off of her broom, instead, getting situated to prepare for another shot, should it come.

Rhian says, “Raleign manages to get the Quaffle, and before anyone can stop him, he turns around and tosses it to the goals. Abbott can’t seem to get there fast enough and Gryffindor scores… It is now Gryffindor-10, Ravenclaw-0. Though the game isn’t over yet… Williams has gotten in the leg with one of the Bludgers while the other one seems to be going after Ribouet once more.”

Riley Markham glances a few differant ways, trying to make out shapes in the rain that had long since gave up trying to sting his eyes in a more worthwhile pursuit of hoping to freeze them. The bludger, however, can hardly be missed as it sails past his head directly toward Noémie. Wiping his eyes with his sleeve, Riley grabs his broom, pulls up, and gives the cannonball chase.

Unclenching his teeth again after the loud scoring sound, Andy throws his hands into the air. “Yes! Great shot, Raleigh!” He backs up again to be ready for more chasing and scoring.

“I scored.” Tobias looks into his empty hands and to the score board. Then he flies back again to set up for defending.

Boyce Gardener swoops in behind the Gryffindor hoops, snatching up quaffle (much more easily than the last time) and looping back hard — Bailey and David both seemed rather close, but he didn’t reckon he could he bank hard enough in the rain without falling off his broom to give himself a good go at it. Chosing between the two, Bailey and David — Boyce tosses the quaffle to David, trying to put himself in the airway enough to set up a pick for David to have a clear shot if he catches the red ball.

Having fully recovered now from his pain — or at least put it aside — Bailey makes his way around just in time to see a score go through for Gryffindor. A sour look crosses his face at this and he turns, flying toward the middle of the pitch and pausing as Boyce comes down. At the pass, he flies forward more, making his way toward the other hoops. They’ve got to even up!

Approaching Bailey again, Andy tries to cover the zone between him and David to prevent a pass to this Ravenclaw chaser.

Catching the quaffle, David quickly assesses the situation and the position of the chasers –both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. And then, he darts towards the Gryffindor goals, choosing not the direct path (which would probably sent him straight towards the Gryffindors) but choosing the right side of the pitch instead.

Heading for Bailey first, then trailing off towards David, Tobias tries to reach the Ravenclaw, but it’s still a long way to go. He didn’t see Andy on Bailey’s other side and lost a good amount of time, now.

Keira Sanguine flies down, a grin on her face. Sure, she doesn’t like her teammates, but it’s still her team, and a win for Gryffindor is a win for her. She tries to catch up to David, but her broom appears to have a bit of a stuttering problem, likely due to the rain, or perhaps her issues at the start just persisting on, and she has trouble catching up, especially as he swerves out to an alternative path.

It takes Riley a fair bit of effort to catch up to the bludger chasing Noémie — especially considering how graceful and fast Noémie could fly, even in adverse conditions. He was no slouch in the flying department, it was his best strength. But in this weather, it was killing him. Swinging, aming as best he can, he tries to arch the bludger at Keira. His bat begins to slip out of his hand, though, as he swings — and the bludger takes off in Gabe’s direction, instead.

The golden snitch has come into Gabe‘s view! He flies downward in pursuit of the little golden ball which e has only barely been able to see. The rain seems to have let up some and he makes his way downward, downward, making it only slightly closer to the little orb as it continues to stay just out of reach while he begins his chase.

Deciding to give the Gryffindors something else to think about than the quaffle, and cursing herself for having allowed a bludger to hit one of the Ravenclaw chasers, Tegan goes after the other bludger, which she intends to send after Andy. At the last minute, though, she notices Gabe’s dive and sends it against him instead.

Rhian says, “Ravenclaw heads back to the other end of the Quidditch Pitch with the Gryffindors chasing them. Markham manages to intercept a Bludger that was going after Ribouet, but turns and sends it toward Sanguine… What is this, seems that Goden has caught sight of the Snitch and has begun the chase. Madison has spotted this and sends the Bludger near her his way to try and change his attention and to loose the Snitch.”

The bludger, this time, doesn’t even register to Noémie as she spots Gabriel beginning to fly quickly downward. Flying before she even begins looking for it, it doesn’t take Noémie long to catch up to the younger boy, and she is flying neck-and-neck with him, her hand outstretched as if she is to be able to reach the little ball before he will. The snitch swerves this way and that, up and down, and it appears as if this chase is not about to stop soon.

Noticing that Bailey was totally covered by Andy, David has no option but doing the job himself. He approaches to the Gryffindor hoops the best he can, pretends throwing the quaffle towards the rightmost hoop but sends it to the middle hoop instead…

Bumping into Noémie a little — on accident, he promises! — Gabe makes a sharp turn as the snitch does, and overshoots it a bit in his excitement at being so close to possibly winning. His broom does not turn quite as well as he would like back, though he tries to catch up to the snitch and Noémie.

Keelan Walsh and Kelly almost simultaneously spot the double bludgers heading toward their Seeker and take off through the rain to try and stop them. Kelly, faster, arrives first and manages to deflect the Bludger, but Quincy is trailing behind.

Quincy Matthias and Kelly almost simultaneously spot the double bludgers heading toward their Seeker and take off through the rain to try and stop them. Kelly, faster, arrives first and manages to deflect the Bludger, but Quincy is trailing behind.

Reaching up as the Quaffle comes her way, Briony makes an attempt to catch it, but the Quaffle’s slickness does not help, and it flies through the hoop behind her. Briony does not look pleased at this, and scowls a bit as she retrieves the Quaffle, tossing it out to Tobias harshly.

Rhian says, “After some jostling, the Ravenclaw Chasers make their way down the pitch and right in front of Wexler. Mildred attempts to score, faking to one hoop and trying for the other. Wexler misses and Ravenclaw scores! It is now tied at 10 a piece. Bludgers are still flying around though as both Goden and Ribouet fly after the Snitch. Goben almost had it there, but seems to have missed.”"

Noémie hears the clang, but she doesn’t even know who it’s for as she reaches out, despite the jostling, and closes her fingers around the golden snitch. The little ball goes limp in her hands and its wings fold up again as Noémie holds it above her head triumphantly. The sixth year pushes her water saturated hair out of her face and flies down to the pitch quickly, hopping off of her broom and then holding both broom and snitch in the air in celebration. They’d won!

So close, and yet, so far. Gabe Goden flies down to the pitch, having nearly managed to get his hand around it before Noémie but not quite making it. He flies down to the pitch and looks up at his team, a bit disappointedly, before sighing. The captain doesn’t even wait for his team to come down before he makes his way off of the pitch, bound for the locker rooms. A nice warm shower sounds about right for the fourth year captain.

Rhian says, “Ribouet has caught the Snitch. Ravenclaw has won the first game of the year, and are on their way to a wonderful streak to trying to keep the Quidditch Cup. Final score is Ravenclaw-160, Gryffindor-10. Now what do you say to getting out of the rain everyone?”

Keelan Walsh blows her whistle signifying the end of play, and with less terseness then usual congratulates anyone who goes by as she collects the balls and returns them to their box.

Feeling quite disappointed, Briony flies down and lands soon after Gabriel has. She waits just a moment, intent to see how Kelly had done — after all, Briony couldn’t be watching the Beaters the whole game, could she? — and see if perhaps they had at least bruised up some of the Ravenclaws well enough. After she has caught up to Kelly, the girl makes her way slowly off of the pitch, whether Kelly is following her or not.

Riley cheers from his place Noémie lands, throwing his arms in to the air and whooping. “Yeah, Raaaveeenclaaaw!” Drifting down toward ground, pleased as hell to be done zipping around a too-cold sky in too-wet rain, Rilet leaps off his broom and cheers. Those practices had paid off. “YES!”

David cheers loudly, both for the ten points he managed to score than for the victory of the team, and quickly lands to celebrate with the other members of his team.

Boyce Gardener lands not from Riley, grinning and cheering “Yeth! Yeth!” Clapping Riley hard on the back, he walks over to congratulate Noémie on her catching the snitch. His first victory with the team.

Catching the quaffle as it is thrown to him, Tobias has only a moment to fly toward Ravenclaw goal before he hears that the snitch has been caught, and not even by his team. His disappointment is apparent as he flies down and hands the Quaffle over to Keelan, making his way inward. Perhaps he can talk shop with Gabe in the lockers.

Tegan Madison shakes her fist in the air. “YESSS!” she squeals, happy that Ravenclaw has won, and lands near Riley, David and Boyce. “Congratulations, everyone!”

Letting out a stream of obscenities, Keira Sanguine makes her way down to the pitch, looking sourly at the Ravenclaws, and then stomping towards the lockers. That no good Wexler, and that confounded Goden and Raleigh and Carver and Matthias, all of them were worthless. Yes, even Raleigh. The girl doesn’t head to the lockers with the rest of them, instead deciding to head into the commonroom and the girls’ bathrooms.

Cheering with the rest of his team for a moment, Bailey grins widely. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to go get dried off and head to the commons! I heard there’s going to be a wild party!” Without another word, the boy trots inside, waving a fist joyously above his head.

Quincy Matthias rather dejectedly, and with a good deal of squelching, dismounts and heads off to shower(as if being wetter was at all useful) or at the very least to dry off and sulk in the Common Room with everyone else.

Laney Abbott feels some of the good spirit at winning, though her only role in this sodden game was to let Gryffindor score. As such, her jubilation at her first Quidditch game being a win is tinged with self-mockery, evident with the rather closed expression of her eyes as she avoids the team and stalks off of the pitch, murmuring vague pleasantries that sound rather forced if anyone addresses her.

Grinning at her team, her demeanor much improved from the start of the match, Noémie looks quite pleased now. “Good work, everybody! We played beautifully!” Hearing Bailey’s comment, though, her attention strays toward the castle. “A party sounds about right, don’t you think?” the girl tells her team. “Come on, let’s celebrate!” Striding over to hand the snitch over to Keelan, Noémie turns, then, and runs inside. She doesn’t even stop along the way, instead going to the commonroom dripping wet. What’s a little detention in light of this cause for celebration?

Making her way out to the pitch, Noémie‘s face is set as she glances up at the sky, from which falls a light drizzle of rain. She has the usual Quidditch fare already set out — a box with a set of practice equipment, as well as some extra quaffles. Some curious bits of fabric are hanging from each of the hoops, a veritable rainbow of variety decorating, though Noémie‘s glance does not stray there as she instead sets her broom down and begins to stretch her arms over her head slowly, awaiting the arrival of the rest of her team.

Almost bouncing as she makes her way out to the pitch, Laney looks cheerful despite the weather. This behavior is especially unusual of the girl, and it seems as if she almost has an agenda in being so as she grins widely at the captain. “‘Lo, Noémie,” she greets the girl and drops her broom abruptly, mimicing Noémie’s movements of stretching, though her own are half-done and don’t seem to do much good for her.

Riley Markham appears on a the field a few minutes after Noémie, walking beside Boyce — the two classmates having holding a mildly interesting coversation about the finer points of Goblin speech. “You’ve almost got it, eh?” Riley says, placatingly. Trying, earnestly, not to laugh at the younger-but-in-the-same-year boy’s efforts. “All things considered.” As usually, his broom is draped across his shoulders, his wrists hanging limply over it, giving him a vaguely cross-like shape. His damp hair, mostly undone from the leather strap he attempted to bind it with, clings to his sundappled, but curiously pale features. Though it was clear he spent a good deal of time outside, he looked decidely more bleached than he had in several weeks. His quidditch robes bear the same general disregard for appearance as his school robes, wrinkled and dishevelled.

Striding out to the pitch casually, Tegan looks quite subdued today, in comparison to the angry atmosphere that has surrounded her the last several days. And, is that — does her hair look rumpled, too? Well, whether it is or not, Tegan appears to be tight-lipped, saying nothing at all as she joins the others on the team, throwing an arm up to start stretching it. After all, that appears to be the thing to do, doesn’t it? Yawning and trying not to grin to wide, the girl still says nothing, though she does look smugly in Laney’s direction.

“Gehthwackthwis? Gewthawaxthwis.. I don’th know, Marthum. I juwth don’th need’th to thwear that bad,” Boyce concludes, finally, giving up on the complicated and intricate pronouncation of Goblin vulgarity, before turning his gaze toward the sky. Adding after a moment, “Nawthty weathwer.” Waving to Noémie once their in range, he lifts up his broom as if eager to get in to the air, before turning his attention back to Markham. “Iwth good to know the meawnthing though, I thupothe.” Boyce says, sincerely. “Tho, thawt meawths awthho–”

Having just waved to Noémie himself with one hand, Riley‘s eyes widen and his gaze shifts back to Boyce, silencing the boy with a meaningful look and a small shake of his head. “Ixney on the eaningmay, eh?” He hisses, under his breath — the last thing he needed was for Noémie to chuck him another detention and spark another fight for swearing. Looking back to Noémie, he puts on his best, seemingly innocent smile, in hopes that she hadn’t heard or, god willing, wasn’t paying attention.

Bailey Williams strides on to the pitch somewhat after Tegan, wearing a somewhat bemused, bewildered expression. As though the world were suddenly a differant color, and he weren’t entirely cetainly why or how it had happened. His own hair is somewhat askew, though it’s hardly unusual for it to be so. Still, he seems happy enough, flahing a smile at Noémie and nodding to the rest.

“Hello, everyone,” Noémie greets the team as she turns around and looks up at the sky once more at the light rain. “Alright, today, we’re just going to run like we’re in a game, for the most part. I’ve got extra quaffles out in case the one in the box turns out to be a bum. Alright, now, you see those ribbons? You’ve got to try to retrieve as many as you can. Tegan, Riley, your job is to prevent the chasers from getting them. It looks like David couldn’t make it today, so it’s between you and Bailey, Boyce. Laney, you’ll try to keep the boys from scoring. Only after you have made a score can you get a ribbon, and you must not get hit by a bludger before retrieving your ribbon, or else you’ll have to make a nother score first. Alright, all clear? I’m going to practice my dives over at the other end of the pitch with the practice snitch. Make sure you’re obeying the rules. Whoever has the most ribbons at the end of practice, well… wins.” With that, Noémie strides over to the box and retrieves the practice snitch from the box, waiting several moments for it to disappear from view before she mounts her broom and takes off, leaving no time for questions.

Well, at least she didn’t scold him for swearing. Passing a quick look to Boyce, wide-eyes implicating that the short, stocky lad needed be more careful with his tongue — Riley mounts his broom and kicks off in to the air. Good lord, that was close. Lifting a hand to brush his long, wet hair from his pale face — the wine red strings not unlike trickles of blood against his white skin, Riley makes himself ready. Nodding to Tegan, making sure they were far enough apart to get good coverage of the field.

“Alright! I get to actually hit them this time!” Tegan responds, sounding rather gleeful at this, despite the fact that she is not so annoyed with Bailey this time. “Up and at ‘em, then,” she tells everyone, somehow deciding that she’s the boss of this practice while she strides over and lets out both bludgers without warning, causing her to have to duck so it doesn’t hit her straight off. “Alright, Markham, let’s see if your aiming practice has paid off!” The girl says this while brandishing her bat and hitting a bludger upward while she gets on her broom. This gives her enough time to fly up into the air with a good distance from Riley while she hits it again, this time to Riley — not at him.

Boyce Gardener grins knowingly at Riley — an small glimmer of mischief in his eyes, before grabbing up a quaffle and taking to the air. Waiting for everyone to get in to place, he tosses the quaffle in to the air a few times and catches it — twice very well, once on the edges of his fingers. Nervous though he might be about the upcoming match, he was excited as well. And he was ready to show what he try.

Lifting a hand to rake his wet hair back from his eyes, Bailey grins somewhat to himself as he climbs up on to his broom and kicks off in to the air. He was grinning quite broadly, at that. And an awful lot. “Great weather for a practice, isn’t it?” He notes to Laney as he passes her, hardly noticing the tiny rivulets of water that washed down his face.

Hmmm, how is it that all the practices seem to revolve around Laney making blocks? The not-so-terribly-confident-yet keeper gets onto her broom and flies up to the hoops, not looking quite so chipper and cheerful as she had been before. “Alright, go when you’re ready!” she tells the chasers and limbers up her shoulders a bit, rotating each of them on its own. The keeper does look a bit nervous, as if the realization that the match is nearly here has just set in and she has just realized what is at stake in playing it.

Riley Markham seems relatively pleased with the change that has come over Tegan — her bossiness was something he had grown accustomed to, but her air of anger and tendincy toward violence usually left a distastefully coppery taste in his mouth. Often due to a bludger in the face. Or chest. Or groin. Twirling his bat, as if to gain it’s balance, he thwacks the bludger back toward Tegan easily enough. Same as she, not at him, but toward her. His aim and control much improved, though still needing a fair bit of refinement.

Boyce Gardener makes his go first, holding the only quaffle. Gripping the front of his broom, he darts toward the hoops in a quick, direct assualt. Unveering and unwavering. Brave, reliable, but very predictable. His attention is fairly focused, and though he is relatively certain where Tegan and Riley are behind and above him, he’s unwisely let his guard down to each of them.

Giving the bludger a good, hearty whack back at Riley, the metal orb seems destined for Boyce instead of her fellow beater. This is well and good, however, because she finds that the other bludger has headed toward her as well now, and she gives it a less forceful thwack toward her own sweetheart this time, in an attempt to slow him down. This ought to make for an interesting practice, especially as the girl is supposed to keep them from “winning.” Tegan grins and flies down the pitch a bit, making her way closer to the hoops in hopes of more easily throwing the boys off course.

Watching carefully as the younger boy makes his way toward her, Laney‘s face appears to set, though the apprehension is still a bit apparent. Come on, come on, come on, she’s just got to make this block. Nevermind that she’s got goodness knows how many shots to possibly block, the girl doesn’t want to let even one slip through the hoops. “Come on, you sissy, don’t dilly-dally!” she tells Boyce loudly, as if attempting to provoke him into shooting sooner.

Fortunately for Laney, her provokes aren’t needed. Hearing the whistle of bludger coming at him, the boy veers right and hard — completely destroying the vector of his toss. Grazing his shoulder, Boyce winces as the bludger sails past — but looks up to see Bailey and tosses the quaffle up to his older teammate. Finishing his arch behind and around the goal posts, Boyce rubs his shoulder as he moves back mid-pitch, centering himself for another pass at the hoops.

Bailey Williams is in the perfect position to grab the quaffle, having taken off as soon as he heard Tegan’s bat crack against the second bludger — knowing it had only one target. Soaring quick and high, Bailey rushes straight at Laney, Tegan’s bludger on his broomtwigs. Pulling up at the last possible second, he tries throwing the quaffle over Laney’s head through the hoop by distracting her with the bludger that Tegan had left him. One that will likely fly right under Laney and slam in to the goalpost.

Flying up high, Noémie is very high above the pitch, where the air is a bit chilly and the rain seems to fall a bit more heavily. Then again, that could be her imagination as well. The little golden snitch is so far nowhere to be seen — even though it is slower than the true thing, it still can be a bugger to catch — and Noémie decides it would be best to practice her diving for the time being. Flying downward quickly, she picks up momentum as she approaches the ground, pulling up sooner than is necessary, perhaps out of fear of crashing, or distrust for her broom. Either is plausible for the prefect, and others may never know for sure as she is soon climbing high into the sky, feasibly to do just the same thing again.

The bludger does well to distract Laney, and instead of an attempt to block the shot, she flies away instead, swerving wide to avoid the bludger. “That’s got to be a foul, Williams!” she tells her year-mate sourly and frowning. Oh, he ought to just wait. He’d find frogs in his bed if Laney had anything to do with it. Flying back up with a reddened face, Laney has retrieved the quaffle, and tosses it far out into the middle of the pitch, to neither of the chasers specifically. Sour grapes, anyone?

Finding himself somewhat caught between admiring Bailey’s handywork with Tegan’s bludger, and simply admiring Noémie, for, well — being Noémie, Riley almost completely misses tbe second bludger coming up around him and toward his face. Letting out a small squawk of surprise, he lifts his bat to bunt the bludger away from him — almost stunning it in midair for a moment, before considering the pitch. “Where do you need to go — there!” And lifting his bat up in a quick, solid arch, he drives the bludger hard at Bailey as the boy goes to fetch his ribbon. Hoping to clip him on the shoulder.

Feeling rather proud of himself, Bailey had nearly forgotten that they were still considered viable targets until they had actually collected a ribbon and thus gained the “point”. Thus, his reaction to the bludger sent by Riley isn’t nearly as quick as it might have been otherwise. Turning quickly, he manages to get out of the path of the bludger — mostly. It rather obviously strikes his right arm, just before he can snatch up the ribbon.

Flying around quickly, Tegan is headed for the bludger that has missed Laney quite completely — thanks to the girl’s swerving maneuver — and has every intention of stopping Bailey with it. This proves unnecessary, however, as Riley has chucked one at him, which has quite successfully put a stop to his point gathering. Instead, Tegan gives hers a whack and sends it out toward Boyce, hoping to intimidate the boy with the bludger again. It worked the first time, after all!

Boyce Gardener goes to fetch the quaffle tossed by Laney, having to swoop a bit faster than he’d been altogether prepared to do in order to catch it. Flying somewhat off to the side, hoping to maybe sweep past Laney and get the quaffle in to the hoop behind the girl, Boyce veers far off his original path in an attempt to dodge Tegan’s bludger — paying much more attention to the beaters than he had the first time around. Tegan’s distraction may prove enough, though, as the throw that tries to put past Laney — while solid enough and well aimed, is forced in to a rather predictable arch.

Seeing the Quaffle headed toward her again, Laney is quite a bit more prepared for it this time. No red ball is getting by her this time! She lets out a loud “AUGH!” as she reaches out to grab up the ball. Such exertion was not exactly necessary, since it was coming almost right at her, but Laney does not appear to realize this, though she does look at Boyce smugly, tossing it back to him with ease. “Go again!” she calls and grins.

Boyce Gardener catches the quaffle and takes back off back up pitch, pulling in — and passing glance to Bailey (who seemed to be rubbing his arm) to make sure that the older student didn’t mind his taking another go, before having one more pass at goal. Going straight didn’t work, going down and around didn’t work — maybe going up? Pulling up on his broom, and soaring high in to the air — Boyce does something fairly brave, and perhaps a little silly. Holding on to his broom tight as if he expected it to fly right out from under him at any moment, or expected to fall off (either seemed equally likely at the moment), Boyce half-dives, half-turns, banking at the goal (and putting every last ounce of flying skill he had learned over the last two months to use), before throwing the quaffle at what he hopes will be over Laney’s head in to the hoop, while providing the beaters an odd angle to strike at him from. The unexpected bonus being, he’s flying straight for the ribbons should he happen to actually score.

Completely befuddled by Boyce’s confusing flying — it appears the boy has had his broom tuned as instructed — Laney jumps one way, then another, only to decide the wrong direction to dive as she misses the Quaffle completely. The loud CLANG echoes through the pitch and her face becomes set and somewhat disappointed as she flies downward in an effort to catch the quaffle up again to prepare for another go-around. She also would rather be down here retrieving the safer red ball than be in the way of the bludgers that are bound to fly.

Riley Markham draws a deep breath, wincing a little at how he caught Bailey’s arm — honestly hoping that nothing where broken, though he knew with a certainty that Madam Wexler would be able to fix any damage his bludger might have done. Drifting across the pitch, he watches with quiet nod as Boyce tries some daring flying. Nothing that anyone else on the team (except perhaps Laney) couldn’t do more or less in their sleep, but for the lad still mastering his own position on a broom — it was quite well done. Finding the bludger that had bounced off Bailey coming back his way, he cobs it in Boyce’s direction — trying to stop the throw. The aim is a bit off, though, and sails well over his classmate’s head.

Everything has moved so fast that Tegan, in a moment of confusion, ends up whacking the bludger that she has approached at Bailey instead of at Boyce, who ought to be her target. Letting out an exhasperated yell, she flies around, almost as if to try to save Bailey from it (and instead direct it toward the younger boy). The force with which she has hit the bludger, though, prevents her from catching up to it as it approaches her fellow prefect very quickly and with surprising momentum.

Dive after dive, Noémie does not appear to get much lower before she has to pull out, either for fear of safety or perhaps just for ease of the reascent. It is during another of these dives that Noémie spots the little golden orb. She flies downward toward it, downward, downward, and then as it pulls up, so does she, completely oblivious to how close to the ground she was at the time. Accellerating as fast as she can manage, she does manage to overcome it and close it up with her fingers into her palm. This is followed by a triumphant whoop and she begins flying toward the other end of the pitch to see what is going on. Chaos appears to have taken over as there is a bludger flying at Boyce and another towards Bailey. What is going on up there? “Alright, bring it in!” she calls once it has resolved, flying down to land on the ground. She quickly walks over and secures the little snitch into its spot in the box marked “Practice” and waits for her team to join her.

Rubbing his arm and trying to work out the kinks of his first bludger attack, Bailey can’t help but cheer and whoop as his fellow chaser sinks the goal and darts off to grab a ribbon, unimpeded by the beaters. Tegan’s cry misses his ears, reaching him almost to late. “What?” THWACK! Tegan’s bludger hits him square in the chest, leaving him only enough time to look surprised. To his credit, Bailey remains on his broom, but he clearly is gasping for breath as he drifts toward the ground, holding his broom handle for support.

Boyce manages to get his hand on a ribbon moments before Noémie calls the practice, which he thrusts up in to the air with a resounding “YETH!” And after a small moment of celebration, he lands and moves toward the captain.

From his place in midair, as Noémie calls the practice, Riley withdraws his wand and freezes each of the two bludgers (his aim with a wand sizably better than his aim with a bat), before making his way to the ground. As is his usual habit, he leaps off the broom while it’s still several feet above the ground.

“Bailey, are you alright?” she calls, biting her lip and flying over to him. “Do you need some help? Merlin, I didn’t mean to do that, can I help you? Oh, geez, Bailey, will you at least say something to me, please?” the girl speaks quickly, though the speed she’s speaking doesn’t leave much room for interjection. Flying downward with him, she soon is on the ground. “Let’s get you to see Madam Wexler, alright? I’d rather you didn’t have a broken bone or something,” taking over the role of caretaker now, Tegan waits for Bailey to get to the ground before seizing him to almost drag him into the school forcibly, with the intent to make him see the school nurse.

Rolling her eyes at Boyce’s exhuberance, Laney doesn’t say anything as she makes her way down to the ground, putting the quaffle into the box. “I need more practice,” she mutters to Noémie at the last, swinging her broom over her shoulder and making her way off of the pitch before the captain can make any affirmative response to this remark. (And, of course, it would have been affirmative — couldn’t they all use more practice, after all?) Laney is soon gone, having put her broom away and made her way back into the school.

“Well done, mate — ’bout fell off your broom there, though, didn’cha? When yer bankin’ like that, lean in’ter the wood, alrigh’? Giver yer more control,” Riley says, after walking over to Boyce and clapping him on the back. “Yer gonna do alright, I think. Remember what I said last time, if yah miss, yah miss. Simple as that. Get the ball an’ try again. S’what my dad told me.” Grinning, though not really feeling his grin entirely, he and the stocky, short boy headed on up to the castle. Though Riley did wait for several moments to watch Noémie put things away.

Noémie is left alone to tackle the bludgers, a fact which, for once, doesn’t even seem to bother her. As the pitch has emptied and the light is waning, the sixth year flies up on her broom, wand drawn to immobilize them. Having caused them to stop moving, they are then easier to wrangle into the box. Both bludgers put away, and Noémie is off toward the broom shed, slowly making her way to put the overabundance of supplies away. But the prefect isn’t complaining. A strange calm has overcome her now and she soon makes her way back into the school, the same, easy demeanor following with.

With her broom under her arm and a look on her face that could make a stone idol run in terror, Tegan marches down onto the pitch. Her hair tied back in a tight unattractive bun that looks hastily done. The Prefect kneels down to tighten her laces waiting for Noémie to begin the practice as usual. Is she still upset at Bailey? You bet! Does she remember why? Chances are that she doesn’t but why should that stop her?

“Tegan, come on, will you stoppit?” The familiar whine comes from the boy as he follows out hastily, tripping a bit over, well, grass. Bailey manages to catch his balance in time to prevent himself from falling over, but he still looks a bit frustrated. “Come on, I’ve apologized about a hundred times. Won’t you talk to me again? Please? Tegan? Tegan!” A frustrated sigh emits from him as he comes to a stop about five feet away from the other fifth year girl. “It isn’t my fault the professor gave you detention. I even told him not to do!” It is with another loud sigh that Bailey shakes his head and decides, fine, that he can also play this game. Turning sharply, he puts his back to his teammate and crosses his arms over his broom.

“Leave me alone, guyth, I have to go to practithe,” Boyce tells some heckling classmates as he makes his way out to the pitch, still pulling on his sweater over his practice robes. “Go inthide, guyth. It’th raining anyway. You can’t watch.” The boy shakes his head and makes his way out to the pitch carefully, buttoning up a sweater lopsided and coming to stand near Tegan and Bailey. “Hi, guyth,” he greets them and stands in between them, looking from one to the other, seemingly oblivious to the tension between the two.

Like his usual self, David is totally oblivious to the little sentimental drama occuring in front of him. The boy walks the last few meters to where the other players are standing, holding his broom over the shoulder and whistling lightly. “I hope the rain won’t start to fall more heavily, that’d be too bad.” he remarks casually, before looking at his broom and noticing a twig that is oddly out of place. “Ah, darn it…” he swears, before putting it back in place.

“I’m sure we’ll practice anyhow,” Laney responds with a chuckle and a bit of an eyeroll. “After all, it wouldn’t be the first time Quidditch was played in the pouring rain. Mind the time we played last year and it was torrential?” Laney pauses. “‘Course, I was only second string then, so of course it doesn’t matter, does it?” Glancing over her shoulder to see if Noémie is approaching, Laney looks a bit pleased that the captain has not heard her say this. She does push her eyeglasses back up on her face and run a hand down over her hair while she glances around. “Will you two just stop already? It’s so annoying.”

Hearing only the last bit of what Laney has said, Noémie strides out to the pitch, stretching a bit. “Hello, everyone,” she greets her team and looks at them all silently for a moment. “Alright, today, as you can tell, it’s raining. It’s good practice, in case it’s stormy the day we play Gryffindor. So, Gryffindor’s team is better this year, it looks like, so we need to work harder this year. I’d like to do a sort of a scrimmage. You chasers, up there, running plays and taking shots on Laney. Don’t give me that look, Laney, you need the practice before the match. And then, Tegan, I want you to take out that modified practice bludger and hit it among the chasers here so that you can get some practice with your aim. Please don’t kill anyone and don’t aim only at Bailey. I mean it. Alright, In the air. Let’s do a couple of laps first. The practice balls are down over there,” Noémie points to a box nearby on the pitch. “Just get them out after we’re done. I’m going to be working with the practice snitch.”

Smiling at most of her teammates (This doesn’t include Bailey of course) Tegan nods to Noémie. “No killing…. stick to hitting Bailey…. check.” Well she got it half right at least. The fifth year girl hops over her broom and speeds off into the air quickly to get her two laps in, which is hard to do with raindrops spattering about your face and eyes but she eventually manages it. When she comes in for a landing to get her bat and practice bludger she slips up just a bit getting herself muddy here and there while the rain threatens to undo her tightly woven bun of hair.

Flying first, right-o! Quickly getting onto his broom, Boyce takes off slowly — after all, bad things happen when he tries to start too quickly — and begins to make his way around the pitch. It takes him a full lap, but after the first lap, Boyce manages to speed up a bit, gaining speed even more after a third lap. After his third lap, he comes to hover in the center of the pitch, looking at the other Chasers, who have likely beat him into the center of the pitch. “Alright, we’re trying to thcore, right?” he comments, cringing a bit as his lisp is quite loud and apparent.

“A scrimmage? Nice.” David says, hoping on his broom and taking off to do his two laps, following Tegan. The first lap goes well, but as soon as David begins his second lap, the broom begins to wobble slightly. At first, the boy does not really notice it; when he finally does, he dismisses the thought and thinks it is the wind, or his imagination. Yet the landing after the practice laps is a bit harder to manage, and David inspects the broom for a few instants, his eyebrows quirked, but nothing seems to be out of order. “Strange…” he mutters.

Laney gets onto her broom and, pausing a moment before she takes off, she glances around. Sigh, she does not need practice that badly, no matter what the stinking captain says. The girl is up on her broom, though, before she can allow herself to say anything snarky to the girl with whom she should at least put a little effort into getting along. Swerving hard to avoid David as his broom begins to wobble, Laney scoffs a bit and flies one more lap, having passed the boy, likely, due to his broom trouble. After all, she hasn’t passed him up often in the past. No matter, however, as Laney soon finishes and wastes no time in flying straight up to the hoops. “Alright, I’m ready when you all are,” she tells them all and resituates herself on her broom.

Cringing as Tegan makes this comment, Bailey hangs back a bit, letting Tegan and some of the others take the lead so that he does not have to be near the girl with whom he is now not speaking. After all, two could play at that game. “You alright, mate?” he calls down to David after he has finished two laps of his own and looks concerned as he glances down at his fellow chaser. Bailey is obviously not concerned enough to come down, however, and stays up on his broom, nearly level with Boyce, though a small distance from the boy.

Making her own three laps quickly, Noémie is soon finished and flies down to the practice box to take out her practice snitch, letting it go before she even notices David. “Mildred, get back up there and get going. If you’re having trouble with your broom, just use a school broom,” She tells him, and is quickly back on her broom and up in the air. Clearly, Noémie isn’t in the mood to dilly-dally today. This is further exemplified by the fact that she hardly lets the snitch out of her sight before she has swiftly caught it again. This time, letting it go, however, she lets it disappear from her sight before she begins to fly around in pursuit of it. Despite it being gold, the little orb is certainly difficult to see with the rain.

“You’d be better off flying a broken broom David!” Calls out Tegan playfully as she releases the practice bludger into the air only to dodge aside quickly as it comes rushing back down to her. She climbs onto her broom and makes her way into the air again grinning for the first time at Baily, it’s a menacing sort that says payback time’. The bludger comes rocketing up at her again and she deflects it away waiting for her team mates to rise as well.

“Ah, well, it’s probably my imagination.” David says, walking up to the Quidditch box and taking the Quaffle out of it. He puts it under his arm and hops back on his broom. With a firm kick on the ground, he flies up in the air, and starts to look around to see where the bludgers are. Seeing nothing, he throws the Quaffle at Bailey and flies towards the goal post.

Grabbing at the Quaffle as it is tossed to him, Bailey manages to catch it only by the tips of his fingers, and this throws him off a bit. “Don’t you hit me, Tegan!” he calls to his girlfriend — or is she? — as he flies quickly, making his way over toward the goal posts. Giving the Quaffle a mighty hurl, he ducks down a bit, aiming the red ball at Boyce, with only a glance over his shoulder to aim. It isn’t much of a throw, but it ought to get itself all the way to Boyce.

“Oof!” Boyce calls as the Quaffle does get to him, and in fact collides with his stomach. “Careful!” he calls out to the older boy, but it doesn’t take him long to figure out that he probably ought to be practicing rather than talking, and takes off after his teammates. Flying as quickly as he can manage, Boyce realizes just a moment too late that he probably ought to know better than to get his broom going this fast, as he begins to lose control. Chucking the Quaffle up in the air, he doesn’t even pay attention to whether he has thrown it to one of his teammates, instead focussing on getting control of his broom. He does manage this, but only after it is too late for him to catch the quaffle. One of his teammates will have to do it.

Watching carefully as the boys make their way toward her, Laney bites her lip, putting her hands up. What are they doing? That couldn’t possibly be a play. Not a very good one, at least. “Come on, stop fooling around!” she calls, shaking her head. Taking her spectacles off, she wipes them off, and then draws her wand, casting impervious, and a sticking charm as well on them before putting them back onto her face. Hoping the rain won’t make it more difficult for her charm to stick, Laney watches more closely what the chasers are doing, hoping to be able to see a real play going on, rather than the mess that she thinks she sees.

A shrill laugh comes from Tegan hearing her boyfriend on the rocks beg her not to hit him. As the bludger returns it looks as though she just may but instead the Bludger is knocked toward David with minimal ferocity. After all Noémie did tell her not to kill anyone. “You’re next Bailey so get your butt in gear and get flying!”

“What are you doing, folks?” David yells from his vantage point, as he observes the two other chasers. He was waiting for them to approach the goal hoops and try to score a point, but apparently, something else is going on in their minds. Deciding that he should rather try to catch the Quaffle, he starts to dive slightly to pick up speed and flies in the direction of the red ball. At this moment, the characteristic buzz of the Bludger results in David losing his concentration. He misses the Quaffle, not by much, and curses as he tries to avoid the Bludger. Fortunately, the Bludger loses his lock on him after a while and goes back towards Tegan. David turns sharply, but feels that he needs to put more force than usual on his broom handle. “Uh oh, it’s not starting again?” he says to himself, a little worried.

“I don’t know what you’re doing, folks, but I’m flying!” Bailey retorts quickly, turning and looking over his shoulder at David again. Spotting that the Quaffle has been missed, he dives low and quick, narrowly missing Noémie as she flies by. “Watch it!” he calls, though not in a malicious way. The Quaffle is almost to the ground by the time he gets his hands on it, but he manages a solid catch before it falls completely onto the pitch. Flying back upward quickly, the boy tosses it to Boyce again. “Careful this time!” he calls to the younger boy. “You ready, David?” to the other.

“Ah… yes, I am!” David yells, coming out of his turn, and preparing himself to catch the Quaffle should Bailey toss it to him. Quickly, his eyes scan the field to see where everybody is currently, especially the Beaters. “It’s when you want, Bailey!” he adds, finally, and he starts to fly a nice linear trajectory.

As the bludger makes it’s way back to Tegan she knocks it without much reserve for safety at Bailey as promised. “Keep your eye on the ball!” She says zooming quickly to another vantage point down pitch as the bludger flies toward it’s intended target. She’s not bitter…. honestly. Tegan readies her bat in her grip for when the bludger makes it’s return.

Boyce has managed to get his broom under control, and he is quite ready for the throw when it comes to him. He catches it quite easily and rather than tossing it to someone else, makes his escape for the hoops, especially as the bludger has been hit at Bailey instead of himself. Boyce finds it very easy to get to the hoops and having approached them, rears back and makes a hard shot to the left-most hoop. The shot isn’t a fantastic one, but it has a good bit of speed on it, and Boyce looks quite proud of himself, as he looks back at his fellow chasers momentarily, quickly turning to fly back down the pitch in order to try at it again as a team — hopefully with less broom issues.

As the Quaffle is thrown to the hoop, Laney makes a dive, but, not being quite as prepared for their approach as she thought she was, she falls just short, and while the Quaffle does not go through the hoop, she does not manage to catch it either. Flying down to catch it before it makes its way all the way down to the ground, Laney flies back up quickly, tossing the Quaffle forward, directly at David. “Come again now,” she calls to them, reseating herself on the broom so that she might better be prepared for the next one.

Flying about, Noémie scoffs as Bailey makes this comment to her, and he nearly prevents her from getting her hand on the practice snitch. “Watch where you’re going if it’s so much trouble to you, Bailey,” the captain calls but she doesn’t wait long down near the ground where she has caught the snitch to dwell on this. Releasing it again, she watches the happenings for a moment, applauding as Boyce makes an attempt at a shot. “Good try!” she tells both — or it is at least not clear to which of them she is speaking — and then turns her attention back to her own task, making her way upward, far around where the action is taking place and peering out in the rain for the tiny golden snitch.

“Augh!” Bailey calls, ducking quickly before the practice Bludger tries to take his head off. “Watch it with that thing!” This is yelled congenially, however, without any malice apparent. Perhaps the practice will end up being therapuetic for his girlfriend and he will be able to spend time with her again without fear for his health. “Alright, give it here, David!” Bailey calls as he flies down toward where Boyce has gone to, evening up with the boy to a degree while he watches David. “Is your broom still alright?”

David Mildred lets out one last curse but manages to catch the Quaffle this time. He keeps it under his arm as he continues to fly forwards. The slight buffeting on his broom seems to stop, and David turns his head towards Bailey, a bit relieved. “Yeah, well… the broom is a bit tough to steer, I guess it needs some serviceing.” David says to him. “Catch this one!” he adds with a grin, before throwing him the Quaffle, doing the pass from behind his back. Immediately after, he does a hard turn right to go back towards the goal hoops.

Tegan‘s glare softens a bit seeing as how she very nearly gave her boyfriend a concussion, she says nothing though not wanting to make it look as though she was sorry about it or anything. Seeing David catch the Quaffle Tegan waits for the bludger to return and when it does she again hits it lightly toward the fourth year only to see him pass it himself. “Watch yourself Mildred! Worry about that broom after you land!”

Hearing the characteristic buzz of the Bludger coming at him, David performs a series of evasive manoeuvres. For a moment, that seems to do the trick, but the Bludger suddenly resumes his course towards him. David frowns, and decides to make another sharp turn with the intent of having the Bludger overshoot him. Unfortunately, the broom decides, at this very moment, to refuse any movement. David lets out yet another curse and performs a roll as his last resort, thus narrowly escaping the Bludger. “Darn it, darn it, darn it…” he says, when he is back upright. “I really need to have that broom looked over.”

Grabbing at the Quaffle, Bailey flies forward, the ball tucked under his arm carefully while he maneuvers through the rain. “Get it!” he calls, and though he doesn’t attatch a name to this command, the ball goes flying toward Boyce as he flies downward for a moment, and then back up, headed straight toward Laney, though he is still a good distance from her. Bailey‘s broom seems to be the only one of those the chasers are riding today that is in good condition and he even brakes quickly and turns to look over his shoulder, propelling himself forward and out of the way of the hoops so that David and Boyce may make their way inward.

Watching as David is also nearly brained by her bludger Tegan cries out “Sorry David!” and being completely distracted by the bad flying broom Tegan is hit in the side by her own bludger. Luckily it was a light blow but it still managed to knock that horribly ugly bun in her hair loose letting it fall again over her shoulders soaked in the rain. Tegan shakes some of the hair from her face and turns to hit the bludger this time not at any of the chaser but at the Quaffle itself.

Leaning out to catch the Quaffle, it is a good thing that Boyce has his ankles hooked onto the broom, else he may have ended up sliding clear upside down from the reach he has done. Turning to throw, Boyce flies forward, waiting a moment before he tosses the Quaffle to David. After all, he must make sure the boy can move first. Affirming that he can, Boyce makes his toss, “Here you go! Make the thot!” he calls, his lisp not carrying as well as someone else’s voice might.

Flying up and around Boyce as he stops, Noémie doesn’t say a word about the yelling, or even the fact that it is unlikely that he would have time to stop in a game. Instead, Noémie spots the little orb upon which her attention has been fixed for the entire afternoon. Flying upward, Noémie speeds up, following it closely, but never getting quite close enough to catch it. Seeing it turn, she bears a hard right and reaches her arm out, managing to close her fingers around it. This will be the last time she does this during this practice, though, and she flies down to the pitch rather lazily, hopping off of her broom to watch the rest of the team continue on their progress. She’ll stop them soon.

“Hmmgn.” David mutters, as he tries to “unlock” his broom after having recovered from his roll. The broom doesn’t budge for a while, and David tries harder. “Hgnn, will you move, stupid broom!” he yells, shaking the handle to no avail, but suddenly, the broom resumes his motion and David is pushed backwards by the acceleration. “Ahh!” he yells, taken by surprise, and he needs a couple of second to readjust, just in time to catch the Quaffle.

Realizing that the Bludger was actually after the Quaffle, David hurriedly decides to pass it to someone else. “Bailey! Catch it!” he yells, and throws it to the other boy.

Grabbing the Quaffle that has been sent his way, Bailey quickly decides that now is the most opportune time to make a shot. Quickly flying in, he lobs the Quaffle toward the middle and highest hoop. He leans back a bit, flying upward in order to see better where his shot goes, and then glances over to David. “Might want to get down to the ground with that troublesome broom!” he tells his teammate, and then turns to look at the goal, just in time to see what happens.

More prepared this time for the shot, though not by much, Laney throws her arms up in the air, standing up on the stand of her broom, her heels hooked into it. She manages to tip the Quaffle away from the hoops, and though she doesn’t catch it, this is enough to block the Quaffle from going into the goal. Laney looks quite proud of herself as she sits back down onto her broom happily and glances at the rest of them. She is about to shout to them to get on it again, when she hears, “Bring it in!” hollered from below.

Watching as her Bludger chases the Quaffle even as it is tossed to the hoop only hitting it after it’s been blocked and then bounces away. “Bullocks!” Says Tegan with a sigh. “I didn’t hit that one hard enough to stop the score.” Tegan holds onto her bat ready to deflect the angry looking failed bludger as it returns. Though when told to bring it in she instead makes a catch and wrestles the practice bludger under and arm and comes in for a landing to return it to it’s box.

Boyce hears the same as Laney has, and wastes no time putting his broom into motion again, coming down to land on the pitch. “Good practice!” he calls and wipes some rain off of his hair which had been threatening to drip into his face. “I’ll score yet, I will. I promise.” Grinning and swinging his broom over his shoulder, Boyce waits for Noémie to make her statements to them while he tries to wring himself out a bit, for all the good it does since it is still raining quite heavily.

Flying down to land after Boyce, Laney rolls her eyes. “Don’t count on it,” she tells him and laughs a bit. She doesn’t say much else, though, waiting instead for Noémie to debrief and let them know just how many practices she is to subject them to over the course of the week.

Making his own way down to the ground, Bailey lands rather close to Tegan. He doesn’t stand as close as he usually might, keeping just enough distance from her so that it doesn’t seem too obvious that he’s about to ask her to accompany him to some secluded area around the school. He, too, only waits for the captain to give down her verdict as the team all gets down to the ground near where she has been standing for he doesn’t know how long.

“Yes, I’d better land soon” David says, nodding at Bailey. Fortunately, the broom follows his orders as he approaches the ground and touches down. “That was some practice, huh?” he says to his fellow chasers as he unmounts his broom. “I’ll give it to the broom flying instructor tomorrow, perhaps we could do something about it. It’s getting a bit too late tonight, I think. It’s strange… I flew that broom yesterday without any problem…” David says, obviously lost in his thoughts. A good thing he managed to come back to the ground without causing any major accident…

“Alright, good practice everyone. We’re going to practice again later, after supper, and I’ve arranged for a teacher to be out here with us so nobody need fear that we’re breaking any rules. Mildred, get your broom tuned up. You’re not to ride that broom until it’s fixed. You’ll have to use one of the school brooms in the meantime. Gardener, you’d best get yours tuned up, too; it appears to malfunction a little when you speed up. Alright, everyone get dried off, have some supper and then I’ll see you back out here an hour or so after dinner’s over so that we can resume practice. I want us to have the best edge possible against Gryffindor. Alright, see you all later,” Noémie tells the others, putting her practice snitch back into the box and leaving it there on the pitch, apparently so that is is there for their practice after dinner, and walking off of the pitch.

Trotting over to where the Quaffle has dropped, Laney grabs it up and plops it into the box. She goes the way of Noémie and trots off of the pitch, taking only a moment to stow her broom away in the Broom Shed before running into the school, hoping rather hard that the caretaker won’t spot her in all her drippy-wet glory.

Having wrangled the bludger while she was still in the air, Tegan has an easy time carying it over to where the box is and securing it in. It being only a practice bludger, as well, it has quite a bit less fight to it. Soon enough Tegan is walking slowly toward the broom shed and just as she goes in, she glances over at Bailey, who seems to have followed her. This time, not a sneer, but a smile erupts and it is clear that whatever anger she’d had before is now gone.

The smile has given Bailey confidence and he wastes no time in following Tegan off after depositing his broom off. The two of them are soon vanished from the pitch and from sight, theoretically off to their commonroom to study and to tidy up for supper, but those who know them likely know better than this.

Nodding to Noémie as she instructs him to have his broom tuned up, Boyce seems to jump a little. “Thankth!” he tells her cheerfully and trots to the broom shed, putting his own broom away. The stout boy is dripping quite heavily, as his sweater has absorbed a good amount of rain, but he doesn’t seem to mind, aside from the sloshing, as he makes his way into the school, presumably to get into some clothes that are actually dry.

are here.

Making her way out from the broom shed, Noemie carries quite a few Quaffles, haphazardly kicking one out to the pitch as she drops it. The girl doesn’t apper to be used to carrying quite so many of these without the aid of a bag or something similar, but she manages as she drops them all near the edge of the pitch, glancing around to see if anyone has showed up yet. Finding that nobody has, as yet, she makes one more trip back, returning with a Quaffle she had dropped as well as her broom. Despite it being afternoon, it is still quite cool outside, and though she knows she won’t need it later, Noemie pulls a sweater on over her quidditch robes. It wouldn’t do to fall sick, after all.

Tegan Madison stalks her way out on the quidditch pitch in threatening silence. Stalk, perhaps, being a rather generious word for the action. Though her movements are quiet, fluid, and even graceful, and her expression seems mild enough, the narrowed cast of her eyes and the tightness of her fingers gripping the handles of her broom and bat carry the presence of her anger like a thunderclap.

The trail from the castle to the Quidditch pitch is fairly straight, but Laney Abbott still manages to meander down it as she makes her way towards practice, her dreamy bespectacled eyes focused on something far off in the distance. Her winding path takes her close enough to one of the edges of the gate to the pitch that her broom bristles knock against it, startling Laney back to reality with a fluttering blink as her broom jerks on her shoulder. Her plump cheeks, already slightly flushed from the autumnal chill, go even pinker, and she mumbles an embarrassed, “Hullo, Captain,” as she hurries past Noémie onto the pitch.

“Teg– Oh, come on,” Bailey calls as he pauses at the edge of the pitch. “I didn’t do anything. You’re being impossible.” The boy sighs and crosses his arms over his broom, rolling his eyes. Girls could be so dramatic. “Do we really need that many Quaffles, Noémie? I mean, I know you aren’t a chaser or anything, but I would have thought that you of all people would’ve understood how the game works…” Ah, always time for the ill-advised quip.

“And then th’e thaid I could come in after practithe and work on it. I’ll th’ee you then, alright?” Boyce bids farewell to his comrade as he makes his way out to where everyone else is gathering. “I th’pothe we thould have our broomth?” he comments, pausing. He is the only one who appears not to have his. It is a moment while he trots over to the broom shed and then makes his way back out. This takes longer than it might someone else, because Boyce has not yet hit his growth spurt, and is, in fact, quite short still.

Riley Markham follows some ten steps or so behind Tegan, and near Bailey. His broom draped across his shoulders and his wrists hanging over it, Riley regards Williams with a lofted brow. As they reach the pitch, however, and Bailey attempts to swallow his shoe, Riley ultimately decides distance might be the wisest option. Walking beside a man who had one upper-classwoman mad at him was dangerous, but amusing. Standing next to one who might draw the ire of two would be to implicate himself in the snark remark and write his death sentance. No, no. Already done that once this year. Not again. Moving toward the quaffles, Riley widens his eyes a little, finding it rather difficult to believe that Bailey didn’t do anything. At least, unintentionally. As usual, he seems oblivious to the weather, though he does appear rather pale. His clothes are loose and baggy and customarily wrinkled.

“Hullo, Laney,” Noemie greets the girl, giving Tegan a curious glance as she, too approaches. “Something wrong, again?” the captain asks quietly and shakes her head while the boys, too, make their way to the pitch. “Hi, everyone — stuff it Bailey,” Noemie greets them all, while setting her broom down and picking up a quaffle. “Alright, here’s the deal. Today, you beaters are going to use these quaffles instead of bludgers, and you’re going to work on your aim. We’re going to go up in the air, and you’re going to hit these one at a time to each of the chasers, and Laney as well. I want you to change it up. The Chasers and Laney will work on their agility while you work on your aim. Please at least try to aim, alright?” Noemie asks, a pleading tone to her voice. “Boyce and David go to Riley’s side, Laney and Bailey to Tegan’s. Alright, let’s see if you can’t run this smoothly. I’m going to be chasing this practice snitch. Holler if you need me.” Without another word, Noemie mounts her broom and ascends, releasing the practice snitch and pausing just a moment to let it get ahead of her before she follows it upward.

Tegan Madison had been debating between either continuing to ignore Bailey’s pleas, or turning about letting him have a rather solid piece of her mind. Either way would ensure a satisfactory amount of suffering on Bailey’s part, which she rather felt he deserved. Especially if he didn’t realize what it was he had done wrong! To Noémie’s question, she parts her lips to respond, but finds the captain has already gone on to meat of the practice. Huffing a bit, and wondering why Noémie had even bothered to ask the question if she were just going to go on, Tegan can’t help but smirk as Noémie shares the nature of the practice. “’bout time,” she says, not-entirely-quietly, as her gaze falls on Riley. She was feeling quite catty, indeed.

A passing leaf, a chilly breeze, a stray idea, a fluttering bit of unruly reddish hair – each of these things command Laney‘s attention for a few seconds at a time, throughout the captain’s speech. She hardly looks at Noémie at all, and it might appear that she isn’t even listening, but Laney nods at the end, and heads directly over towards Bailey and Tegan as instructed. She directs another dreamy smile up at her teammates, including both of them in the vague friendliness, then swings her broom down off her shoulder and climbs onto it. Up into the air she goes, and flies with a slightly startling directness to a position about halfway down the field, where she hovers, waiting for the others.

Alright, time to show his mettle! Boyce wastes no time in hopping on his broom, though it does not go quite so smoothly as he would like, and he wobbles a bit. The boy manages to catch his balance again and flies up, taking his place up where he assumes Riley will be, and he glances around, waiting for everyone else to situate themselves. If nothing else, the boy gets points for sheer enthusiasm while he gets himself better situated on his broom.

Riley Markham simply groans — not unlike he’d been punched in the stomach. This was bound to be a rough practice. Tegan’s words and glance spark a hint of challenge in the boy, however, as he swings his broom off his shoulder, mounts it, and kicks off in nearly one motion. He found himself getting rather annoyed by Tegan’s attitude. Even on those rare times she had complimented him, she seemed condescending. He was improving, damn it. He hadn’t knocked a teammate off a broom unintentionally since the second practice. Turning his attention to Boyce and David, he nods to each of them once in the air, to signal that he was ready to begin.

Cringing a bit as Noémie informs him that he will be working with Tegan for the entirety of this practice, Bailey decides that it would be in his best interest not to flirt aimlessly with Laney today. Had he done that to get Tegan mad at him? No, likely not. Still and all, the boy mounts his broom and flies upward, giving a slight glance to Riley before he watches Tegan, waiting for her signal. Perhaps he’ll let Laney go first. That would give him time to try to apologize, at least. Well, theoretically.

Rolling her eyes, Noemie doesn’t seem in the mood for drama as she zooms up ward quickly and manages to close her hand around the snitch easily. Perhaps she ought to have made it a bit more difficult for herself. After all, at games, she would have to contend with bludgers and quaffles and the reality that she’s got to keep an eye on her team. At the moment, this does not seem to concern the girl, however, and she lets the snitch go again, waiting several moments this time for the snitch to escape her vision while she watches the team get organized.

Seeming somewhat pleased with herself for Riley’s reaction, Tegan mounts her broom and kicks off, seating herself in the air relatively even to her fellow beater. Preparing herself and giving her bat a few test swings, she nods her okay to Laney and Bailey. She was ready.

Waiting a moment until Riley gives him the go-ahead, Boyce flies out as quickly as he can propel his broom to go. This, however, proves to be a bit dangerous because as he turns to look where the Quaffle is going to come, his broom skids and he ends up flying backwards a bit rather than stopping. Perhaps next time, he won’t make such a quick take-off. It takes him a moment before the broom slows down enough so that he can right himself enough to catch the quaffle, but Boyce does not appear down-trod or embarrassed. If anything, the boy just looks more determined.

For the first time, Laney looks directly at Bailey, hovering in place watching him as she waits for him to go first. And then, for the first time, uncertainty makes its way onto her dreamy face, as she registers Bailey’s posture: slightly behind her, hands motionless on his broom. The plump little Keeper swallows, and waits for a second more, as if to make absolutely sure…and then she floats forward, Quaffle in hand. Laney sends the ball towards Tegan in a quick, overhand throw – but hesitation weakens the force behind it, and even though Laney‘s aim isn’t bad, the Quaffle might not have enough momentum to carry it all the way to Tegan.

“Any catch is a good catch, mate,” Riley calls over Boyce, before drawing up another quaffle, taking fairly careful aim, and clubbing it at David. It goes a bit wide and to the right, but compative to his previous year’s attempt at accuracy, it’s a noteworthy improvement. David fetches it easily enough. A few throws happen between the two of them, with Riley batting away the want-to-be bludgers back at David until he actually strikes a score by hitting the very hand that David had thrown the quaffle with. Smirking to himself, and bolstered a little by that success, he shifts his gaze to Boyce after flagging David back.

Shrugging at Laney as she finally makes her way out, Bailey glances at Tegan. “She’s an odd one, wouldn’t you say?” he comments quietly to his girlfriend. He waits a moment for an answer, but not being very hopeful starts tossing his quaffle back and forth from hand to hand. He waits until Laney has cleared the way before he flies out in pursuit of a good catch of his own, which Tegan will hopefully not hit too far past him. He is not hopeful however, as he flies out at an angle, glancing over his shoulder from time to time to see where she is aiming.

Tegan Madison regards Laney, almost curiously, as her broom drifts toward the nicely arched, but weakly thrown quaffle, catching it with the end of her bat and tossing it straight in to the air in order to aim and direct it (in the general direction of Bailey’s chest, or possibly head — whichever gets in the way first). “It’ll need more power than that, Abbott!”

Flying back next to Riley, Boyce watches as David goes his turn. “He’th better’n me,” the boy comments quietly. “Do you think it’ll matter if I mith thometimeth? I don’t have much practithe.” The boy seems rather unsure of himself today, which isn’t like him. Though, he doesn’t seem to be distraught or down-trod as yet. “I’m going to have to do more practitheth, I think.” Soon, it is his turn again, and he flies out, not quite so quickly this time at the start, tossing his quaffle back to Riley for his own shot. Turning a glance over his shoulder, Boyce watches as he waits for Riley’s shot to come back to him.

More used to blocking Quaffles than throwing them, Laney still looks slightly sheepish at her teammate’s reprimand. “Sorry,” she calls back, and actually drifts downwards a little as she hangs her head. But she can’t be distracted for too long, not when there is another Quaffle coming towards her. She blinks her bespectacled eyes, focusing in on the ball that Tegan has redirected towards her, and zips straight towards it, scooping it up easily in one hand. Another flicker of movement draws her attention for a moment – the Quaffle aimed at Bailey zooms just past her, and for a second, Laney almost moves towards it. But she has to leave that one for Bailey, and with a regretful little wrinkle of her nose, Laney keeps going. She hefts the Quaffle in her hand, and after another moment’s hesitation, tosses it back towards Tegan. There is a little more force behind it this time, but the neat arc of her first throw is gone – Laney‘s attempt to put more strength into her throw has made the ball’s trajectory straighter, and less graceful.

This time, the snitch proves more difficult to locate, and Noemie takes quite a bit longer to catch it. For several moments, she pauses, snitch in hand, and then releases it again. Once again, taking a moment to look at her team and their progress. For all intents and purposes, things seem to be running smoothly, and Noemie does not give this a second thought while she propels her broom forward again, flying downward steeply, just past the lot of chasers and beaters — and Laney — in pursuit, once again, of the practice snitch.

“Good on you, Laney,” Bailey calls anyway, as if she had done perfectly well in catching it. The Quaffle does manage to hit him in the head, however, and a loud yelp emits. “Good grief, Tegan!” he yells to her and rubs his head, managing to only barely catch the Quaffle in his fingertips. “To me, not AT me!” With a shake of his head, he flies back and tosses the Quaffle to Tegan, flying back outward again quickly. “Please be nice this time!” he calls and flies out quickly, careful to avoid Laney’s path as he makes his way outward again.

Tegan Madison almost grins at Bailey — obviously, having gotten some of her aggression out having down the dark-haired fifth year some good. She doesn’t have much time to savor her attack, as she notes Laney’s ball sailing toward her. Reaching up, she hardly more than taps it, making the quaffle mirror Laney’s first throw at her. A well aimed arch, but one that falls short, so that Laney might have to dive to grab it. Bailey’s quaffle is given the exact oppsite treatment, as she hits it hard and slightly wide to Bailey’s right side, far enough that if unstopped, it would land in the Slytherin stands. Slightly amused, she seems at least to be taking things a bit mroe seriously now.

Riley says, “Missing sometimes is part of the game, mate,” Riley calls back to the lisping third-year, as he lowers himself on his broom a little to catch the quaffle with the edge of his bat and send it back. Arching the ball more or less in the direction of his target, but perhaps twenty or so feet higher than Boyce’s arms could reach. “Keep at it, an’ you’ll do fine.” Contrary to what might be popular belief, he was the living example of that. Unless he really just got nervous or mad and clammed up, he seemed to handle his bat at least adiquettely. A far cry from his fist shot on the team.”

Flying fast and hard, it takes all of Bailey‘s might to catch the Quaffle that Tegan has hit to him, though the boy is quite pleased that at least he wasn’t struck with it this time. Gaining his balance again — for he was a bit unstable after the chance catch — he turns and flies back, nearly evening up with Tegan before he tosses the quaffle in her direction and flies out hard again, this time not looking over his shoulder until he is nearly as far out as he was when he caught it.

Much like Bailey’s Quaffle, the interaction between him and Tegan flies right past Laney – the sparks of hostility between the squabbling couple produce only a vaguely confused blink from the Keeper. Short, long, high, low – Laney is used to catching and blocking all kinds of shots, and she times her dive perfectly to intercept the Quaffle that Tegan has sent sailing towards her. She is not, however, used to having other people in close quarters with her when she’s doing it – Laney hesitates, pulling back to let Bailey go in front of her in pursuit of his Quaffle. And that throws off her timing – Laney has to scramble to catch up with her own rapidly-falling Quaffle, going into a steep, sharp dive to catch it before it falls too far towards the ground. But she does manage to scoop it up, and she manages to get her broom under control a few wobbling seconds later. Another player might have tried to throw the Quaffle all the way back up to Tegan from that position, but Laney plays it safer, delaying yet again as she soars back up until she is level with Tegan, and tosses the ball towards the Beater in a straight, easy line.

Canting her head a little, Tegan notes the small stop-gap in Laney’s flight. How she hesitated when Bailey got to close to her. Considering, and working the angles in her head, she reaches out with her free hand and catches Laney’s quaffle rather than hitting it back. Allowing her bat to slip from her hand and dangle from the leather strap about her wrist, as well, she then catches Bailey’s. This was supposed to be about agility, right. Glancing to make certain Noémie was watching, she lifts one quaffle and points it at Bailey meaningfully. Tossing it in the air and swinging her bat in to her hand, she knocks Bailey’s quaffle down and to her left, somewhat close to her. Then quickly pointing the other at Laney, she tosses it and send it sailing far, high, and to her own right. Hoping to force Laney and Bailey to cross paths in the air again as they move to fetch their balls.

“But Mithing meanth the other team can get it,” Boyce comments before he flies out straight ahead. He hasn’t a moment before he spots the Quaffle again, but this time, he is forced to speed up faster than he would usually like. Soon Boyce begins to lose his balance again and though he is quite unsteady, he does manage to get hold of the Quaffle. He does not fly back in straight away, however, pausing out in the air, trying to get control over his broom again.

It takes a good long time before Noemie is able to spot the practice snitch again, and instead of letting her catch it, this time, it decides to make chase. The girl is quick on her broom, but as it descends sharply, she is forced into a dive — her least favorite part of being Seeker. Even the injuries are more favorable to her. She descends quickly, quickly, and pulls out of the dive just short of where the snitch has gone level and begun to ascend again. This move has, for once, worked to her advantage as she manages to close her fingers around the little orb. “Alright, bring it in everyone! Catch your quaffles and come down!” Noemie, for her own part, flies down to land, looking up to watch them all wrap up.

“That true, Riley conceeds, waiting for Boyce to throw the quaffle back at him while David finishes rubbing his hand. “But we learn from our mistake, no? We learn what not to do again. If you miss but learn how not to miss like that again, then it’s promised fer a score fer later, eh?” Riley Markham, amateur philosopher. As Noémie blows the whistle, however, he offers Boyce a small shrug. “We can practice together later, eh?” And in a lazy arch, he spirals his way slowly to the ground, leaping off his broom while his feet are still some ten feet above the ground.

At first, all that Laney sees is her own Quaffle. Fixed on it with something very different from her usual vague, dreamy look, the Keeper flies swiftly up, heading directly towards it. Only when she is halfway there, though, does she see that Bailey’s Quaffle is also heading directly towards it. Forced to break one of the cardinal rules, Laney takes her eye off the ball – she glances behind her, judging with a quick, cautious look how far away Bailey is, and where he is going. While she hesitates, her Quaffle reaches the peak of its arc and starts to fall again, crossing paths with Bailey’s once more. If she waits any longer, Laney will either lose the ball or be forced to fly even closer to Bailey than she already is – so she gulps, clutches her broom a little more tightly, and dives for it. The course of her flight takes her just barely outside the path that Bailey will take, if Laney has judged the angles correctly, and a slight sideways jog gives her an extra foot or two, just to be safe. Hardly daring to look behind her now, Laney reaches out – and grabs the ball with a grin of triumph and relief. And down she goes, flying safely towards the ground again, as the practice draws to its close.

Bailey has over-shot how far Tegan would hit it this time in his estimate, and he is forced to turn hard and dive down to catch his Quaffle. This time, he is not successful, even in a haphazard catch, and the Quaffle falls to the ground. This does not seem to phase Bailey much, though, and he flies down to the ground, landing near to Noémie, though his attention is more toward the girl up above him in the sky. Pity she was wearing trousers.

Tegan Madison watches the results of her handywork with a pleased expression — though she does look slightly remorseful as Bailey misses his catch. No matter how mad she is, or how well he takes failures, she’d always prefer see him success. A clear sign that clubbing him with a quaffle had at least proved somewhat cathatic. Once Laney has gotten her ball, Tegan makes her way down to the ground. Nothing fancy. Just a simple, easy dive. She does land next near Bailey, however, giving him a straightfoward but not unkind look that notes quite plainly she knew what he was thinking.

Making his own way down to the ground, Boyce is glad just to have managed to get himself balanced again. He lands next to Noémie and looks up at her for a moment. Well, her name was a pleasure, since it didn’t accent his lisp, but her height did make him feel rather stout. “Good practithe, everyone,” he comments quietly, shrugging at everyone, though looking in particular at Laney, as if trying to discern which of them is taller.

“Good practice, yes,” Noemie agrees and smiles at her team. “I’ll see you all tomorrow. Remember, we’ve got that game against Gryffindor coming up. I’m sure we can manage some good practice so that we’ll have our usual edge back!” With this, Noemie turns, grabbing up as many of the excess quaffles as she can, and strides over to the broom shed and out of sight. Clearly, she seems to have somewhere else to be.

Out on the pitch, Noémie appears to have been out for quite a while. Her hair is rather voluminous on this warm afternoon and she shows signs of wear, though she is now on the ground, surveying two obstacle courses that she has set up for teh tryouts to happen later in the week. Plopping down onto the ground, she leans back on her elbows and crosses her ankles, apparently content just to look at it for the time being.

Clavicle Gravely comes walking out carrying the broom. It upsets him he had to push for Noémie’s time like this, but he has landed a detention the day of the tryouts and has to spend the entire day dusting placques and p[olishing ancient bone models. He sighs afraid that he will be in some trouble with the captain when she finds out, when he stops and blinks at the voluminous hair. “Wow…” he stutters, “That’s a good look for you.”

Having just enjoyed his fifteen birthday last week, Bailey‘s been growing in leaps and bounds and has, unlike some boys, done it with a surprising degree of flair. His shoulders have broadened out, and he’s allowed his reddish-brown hair to fall over his eyes. “Hey, cap,” He remarks as he comes onto the pitch. “Hate to rush you, but I’ve got a tutoring session with Walsh in a bit.” He crosses his arms in front of him, low at the wrists, hunching himself over in a very rebellious looking manner, attempting to appear roguish and dangerously handsome. (He does it half-well, at least.) “So I gotta scatter kinda soon. I’ll get in my tryout, though.”

Coming down onto the pitch Tegan looks out over the course that Noémie has set up. “Hello Noémie…” She says softly as she looks at Clavicle “Her hair is a bird’s nest. What do you mean it’s a good look…” She sits down beside the captain holding ehr broom over her lap. The beater gives a nod to Bailey as he strolls in as well.

“You hush, Madison,” Noémie retorts and scoffs. “If you two hadn’t been caught canoodling on the train, you wouldn’t have detention on Friday and we wouldn’t be here right now.” The girl rolls her eyes, and though her words are somewhat harsh, her tone is more casual. “I s’pose you can join, too, Gravely. Seeing as you didn’t make snotty comments about my hair like some folks.” The girl glances over her shoulder and then stands up, shooting a sharp look to Tegan as she picks up her broom. “Put your brooms aside. We’ll do the ground course first. Alright, line up. You know the drill. I’ll be watching from over here. Don’t fall.”

Clavicle Gravely shrugs, “I think it looks… good.” he grins a bit. His hair is messy as usual. He trots on over to do the ground drills and falls into line immediately. If his eyes linger on Noémie’s hair, the look he has isn’t mocking, rather, it’s the kind of look a boy has when he finally realizes, Hey, Noémie is a GIRL. He shakes the look off his face before the Captain makes him do extra laps for being odd. He whispers to Bailey though, “What’s canoodling?”

“Ask Noémie if she wants to demonstrate. I’m sure she’ll be delighted,” Bailey mutters, and grabs a quaffle, running down the obstacle course and vaulting over the first fence. He’s not running it that quickly — He’s more of a thinky quidditch player and the raw athleticism required for this isn’t his strong suit, but he does run it smartly and well, taking each obstacle with the least effort required.

Muttering as she falls in Tegan rolls her eyes at the captain “Well if you put a little more effort into _your_ appearance _I_ wouldn’t have to say anything.” Tegan sets her eyes forward having left her broom with Noémie’s she begins going through the ground course with a bit of a fast pace trying to hurry herself along it seems.

Clavicle Gravely stays in formation, even though he’s on the ground. He flanks Bailey and slowly pulls closer. “Er… I think you are trying to get her to hex me.” he shakes his head. “I won’t say anything like that till after the tryouts results are posted.” he jumps a fence with a long legged leap. Clavicle is good at the raw physicality of it, and has filled out a bit over the summer. He calls out. “Pass it Bailey!” And opens his hands to catch if Bailey does indeed shoot him a pass.

“I heard that, Bailey! You’ll do laps for that,” Noémie calls and crosses her arms. “You should NOT have been doing it in the train, of all places.” She shakes her head and sighs. “Don’t run around the bludger area, that’s cheating!” She tuts and shakes her head. “And one at a time!” the captain calls. “Come on, work off the summer. You all look stiff — like you’ve never played!” Noémie seems limbered up a bit and she trots along down the line of the obstacle course on the ground. “The bludgers are for dodging! I want to see you dodge! Be nimble!” It all comes out as a stream of orders while she continues trotting up and down.

“You’re such a pain!” Bailey yells back, “You were an Egyptian slave driver in a past life, weren’t you?” He runs through the bludger area and finally really shines, as his natural observation skills let him negotiate it with ease — He leaps back at first as a bludger slams into the ground in front of him, ducks under a second and the dives out of the area into the next area before throwing the ball hard at Clavicle.

The bludger does come close to hitting Tegan a couple of times as she’s distracted by Noémie’s yells. “Aren’t you going to join us Cap… AHH!” Tegan gives a shreik as she jumps out of the way of an oncoming bludger only just in time. Instead of finishing her interupted statment she begins moving a bit faster.

Clavicle Gravely tries being nimble. This makes it look like he’s trying to do some sort of skeletal based dance, or he’s having seizures. But he starts dodging then, back and forth, weaving as he runs. Slowly he finds a more fluid movement that actually doesn’t look like he is suffering from Kneazles in his pants. The bludger zips by him once, and as it comes back around, he spins sideways and barely dodges it again. “Hey! Are those practice ones or the real thing?” he asks, not fully expecting to dodge bludgers on the ground. “They seem a bit aggressive for a practice bludger.”

“Can’t you see the sweat? Like I haven’t done my own work today!” The captain tuts at her teammates and shakes her head. “They’re just the same as last year’s; the only excuse would be that you’re out of practice.” Watching carefully, Noémie crosses her arms and comes back to where she has placed her broom. “Alright, well, you all look like elephants, so get up on your brooms. I want to see you on that other course. But not after you do five laps around the pitch.” She pauses and mounts her broom. “Well, get to it!” Flying up into the air, evened up with the obstacle course in the air, while she attempts to make some sense of her own hair.

“You built up a sweat whipping, Noémie! Wha-kish! Wha-kish!” Bailey makes a whipping motion with his arm before hopping up onto his broom and beginning his laps. He’s a good flier, maybe not the fastest in the world, but precise and smooth. He’s always been a good playmaker for the team.

Hopping again out of the way of a bluder Tegan hurridley skips over to her broom. Taking it tightly in her grasp she mounts it and leaps into the air flying after Noémie “Bludgers can smell fear Gravely, … and hunger. That’s why you should eat before practice.” She calls out in her usual smart allec sort of tone.

Clavicle Gravely takes up the Sandsweeper 25, the foreign broomreally is one of his prized possessions. He takes to the air like a rocket and does a barrel roll as he comes up along Bailey. “Yeah Tegan? Well I am starving. When’s dinner?” the super thin boy does eat like horse at dinner. “I barely got thirds at lunch.” he moves into a tight turn at the laps end, tighter then it has to be, he pushes the envelope as to what the broom is capable of doing. This causes his straw end to drift a little as he races out of the turn and into the straightaway. Flying really is one of his joys. “Bailey! You’re falling behind, come on!”

“Can we just fly and not show off?” the girl calls and shakes her head, seemingly oblivious to the probability that her team will even be able to hear her. Noémie crosses her arms as she watches them make their rounds, though she doesn’t move, other than to try to tame the bush of hair that seems to only get messier as she fiddles with it.

Bailey Williams falls behind a little, but not by much (he flies slow but makes up for it with tight cornering) and descends, hitting the ground. “Alright, Hatshepsut. What now?”

“Boys… always compairing brooms.” Calls Tegan to Noémie. Not bothering to try and speed ahead of anyone, Tegan is just enjoying a nice leasurley lap around the pitch.

Clavicle Gravely lands after Tegan and grins hugely. He’s always grinning after flying. “Can i take one more?” he asks as he steps off the broom. He grins at Noémie and waits to hear what she has in mind for the rest of practice, or rather, this tryout.

“Well, through the obstacle course,” Noémie states, waving her arm at the course in front of her. “You didn’t think that was it, did you?” the girl comments and shakes her head. She flies around along the side of the course. “And let’s not try to get around any of it this time!” the girl calls. “Through all the hoops, too! No slacking!” It seems that Noémie‘s prior workout has put her into quite the mood for this pre-tryout.

Finally finishing her last lap long after the others Tegan smiles watching the bludgers weave in and out of hoops dangerously on what Noémie calls an obstical course. “You know I was only joking about the hair yes? It’s just loverly… you will catch me if I get knocked off right?” Her tone is playful as she speeds forward through the first hoop unscathed.

Clavicle says, “Hey! She never fully landed! That’s … that’s… That’s so Tegan like!” he looks at Noémie and waits for her to give him the ok to take off. “You want us one at a time through it or free for all Captain?” He grins, ready to kick off the moment he gets clearance to.”

“My, my, isn’t someone in a mood today!” Bailey comments and grins as he mounts his broom and flies up again. “Alright, alright, I’m going.” He goes through empty-handed this time, nearly getting beaned in the head by a bludger, but the boy does manage to get through all the hoops, though just barely. “I’ll do it better next time, he calls and laughs loud at Tegan’s comment. “If she won’t, I will!” It’s the first public recognition all day that he’s given to Tegan.

“Go on, go again,” Noémie calls, watching as the team goes through one after another. “Be careful of that hoop,” she calls and does a spin on her broom as she waits for the next of her team to go through. “C’mon, pick it up. Be agressive, stop dawdling,” she barks and sits up on her broom to watch them continue to go through the course. “And, no, Tegan, I will not catch you. It looks like Bailey will handle it just fine.” Pausing a moment. “Get to it!”

Clavicle Gravely upon seeing the others going through the course a bit staggered in time, waits about 30 seconds and then takes off. He uses more care then speed this time as the captain said be careful, but he still tries to be expedient. The bludger homes in on him and he does a quick bank to dodge it and barely makes the second hoop because of it. But his fear of bludgers seems to be nearly gone, “Coming up on three.” he says to himself, and he tucks his elbows in and ducks down, and zips through, hoping the bludger catches the edge of the hoop, and the deep sound of ‘Clonk’ confirms his suspicion it would. “YES! take that you dodgy bludger!”

“Fine! But keep your hands to yourself Bailey!” Yells Tegan back with a snicker moving out of the way of a bludger before finishing the course and flying through again with a bit more speed. “Was that sound your head hitting the bludger Gravely?” Asks Tegan looking a bit chocked as she heard it but didn’t see what happend.

“You weren’t saying that yesterday!” he retorts quickly and grins. “OOF!” Bailey hollers soon after. It is apparent that the boy has been hit in the side by a bludger. “Ow, ow, ow!” he calls as he hastily makes his way out of the obstacle course to nurse his side. “UGH, that was hard!” he complains as he hovers outside the course. “Pass me this time, guys. I’ll go again after this excruciating pain in my side goes away.”

“Please do not break the practice bludgers, either of you!” the captain tells both of the boys practicing and shakes her head. “Oh, get over it. Since when are you a sissy?” Noémie scoffs and watches some more. “Alright, well, I think I’ve seen enough. You’re all terribly out of shape. I’l pose the list after the trials on Friday. If I were you, I’d be nervous.” She shakes her head at all of them and glances around. “Go get your study session, Bailey. I won’t be the cause of you getting flack from Professor Walsh.” She pauses. “And do three more laps in the meantime.” Without another word, Noémie flies down to the pitch and gets off of her broom, stretching a bit in between attempting to keep her hair out of her face.

Clavicle says, “Nah! my head would sound a LOT more hollow, I got the bludger to bean itself on the hoop!” He clears the 4th ring with ease now that the bludger has to recover. He dodges by Bailey, but unfortunately this means Bailey’s bludger locks on to him and now he has two trailing him. “Hey! I was only supposed to have 1.” he complains and then BRAKES suddenly as the bludgers nearly hit him. the braking trick was one he learned from David. he takes off again, zig zagging and jinking hard to dodge the two angry training bludgers. He chuckles a bit. “I swear I think they take this personally.” he turns as he hears Noémie yelling. “I think she’s going to go pro Bailey…and I think she’s going to practice on us.” he sighs.”

Sighing as Noémie puts things and end Tegan pulls out of the course glanceing at Bailey to see if he’s very hurt. When it’s clear that he’s not she smile ad yells at him. “You need to stop watching _me_ on the pitch! It’s going to get you killed one day I swear!” Tegan lands finally and brushes herself off. “Noémie… break and egg in your hair. It works like a charm.” “Well not an actual charm but you know…”

Clavicle says, “My aunt Lombardia Minor showed me a charm to do braids! i can show it to you.. well…sometimes it doesn’t work right.” he hmms, “And as she’s currently bald because of it, maybe it’s not a good idea.”"

Scoffing as Tegan makes this comment, Bailey seems to get over his pain rather quickly. “Well, you’ll just have to make it up to me later, won’t you?” he comments and starts flying around the pitch, performing his three laps as ordered. Soon enough, he has finished his three and lands. “I’ll see you around!” he tells the captain. “Don’t cut me, please!” This is said jokingly, but he seems to have a bit of seriousness in his voice as he makes his comment. “And I’ll see YOU later, Tegan!” he tells the girl and trots off the pitch in the direction of the greenhouse.

Clavicle Gravely Speeds up to do his laps. “Hey Bailey… don’t forget to wax the broom! I got some ‘Mr. ZigZug’s Enchantment enhancing Broom Wax’ It’s supposed to make your broom’s enchantments last longer!” He pours on the speed as he zips through his 3 laps.

Grumbling, Tegan climbes back into the air having forgoten to do her laps, she waves to Bailey as he trots off with a small blush in her cheeks. Agains she takes her sweet time doing her laps because after all the third lap isnt going anywhere till she’s done it and after she finishes she lands makign her way back to the castle in search of food.

“Go on,” she tells them all as they finish up with their laps. “I need time alone to think. This stuff is staying out here anyway.” She offers no further explaination as she collapses to her rear and leans back, much in the way that she was before her teammates showed up for their alternatively scheduled tryout. Noémie‘s eyes seem to glaze over as she stares out across the field absentmindedly.

Clavicle Gravely starts to exit the field after landing, He pauses as he looks back and tilts his head. “Hey.. uh, are you ok? Do you need someone to talk to Noémie?” he asks with genuine concern.

“Time alone doesn’t mean something’s wrong Clavicle. It means time alone, upon which you’re infringing.” The captain glances momentarily up at him and then shakes her head. “Go on, go eat or something. Looks like you could use it.” Noémie shrugs and turns her attention back into the distance, lounging back as she looks across the pitch, more into the sky.

Clavicle Gravely trots on out nodding a bit. “I was just making sure I guess.” he waves to folks as he goes off in search of dinner.

Rhian Brecon settles in her seat at the announcer’s booth and after a quick test she starts of. “Good afternoon Hogwarts! It may be cold out here, but we’re all warming up for a good match today. Today we have my own house, Ravenclaw versus Slytherin. As a reminder, Ravenclaw is led by Noémie Ribouet, Fifth year Prefect and Seeker for the Ravenclaws, while the Slytherins are led by Martin Foster, this year’s Head Boy and one of Slytherin’s Chasers. Today’s match is being officiated by our Professor of Herbology, Professor Walsh. Well, now that the boring part is over, we now wait to welcome the two teams to the pitch.”

Keelan Walsh waits, as usual, at the center point of the Pitch for the teams to arrive, sitting somewhat comfortably on the box containing the balls, her broom propped up against it as well. Today, with Slytherin on the field, she wears robes of a rich green, and has threaded silver through her braid today. As the announcements begin, Keelan looks up from a small book, and then toward the entrances. With a small smirk, she rises, and clasps her hands together, waiting.

Ah, a beautiful sunny day awaits Noémie as she steps out onto the pitch in the cold, late-winter air. Walking quickly to the center of the pitch where Keelan stands. Perhaps it is Noémie‘s imagination, but she does seem to see a few extra signs rooting specifically against her in the stands today. Shaking her head quickly, she gives a smile to Keelan and looks behind her as the rest of her team follows onto the pitch.

Making there way onto the pitch together in Slytherin’s last match of the year Louis and Martin both looked primed and ready to go. Louis comments to his captain after looking around the stands of the pitch and spotting a large sign with “Go Martin! Go Louis! Slytherin’s Dream Team!” written on it in large glowing green letters. “Looks like we have fans Martin, …. wait is that … it is! It’s the sign girl.” Louis shakes his head and Martin chuckles softly and gives his seeker a pat on the shoulder. Both boy’s waste no time climbing onto there respective brooms and getting into position in the air.

The seventh-year Ravenclaw keeper makes her way onto the pitch with the rest of her team. Feeling very sentimental, the idea that it’s the last time she’ll ever play Slytherin team seems to cause her to tear up a bit, and Van takes a deep breath. The Slytherin team is rather boisterous for her own taste (though Ravenclaw team is rather comparable, it’s different when they do it, of course), but she says nothing, instead coming to stand near Noémie and wait for the usual opening formalities.

Following the other members of the Ravenclaw team on the field, David and Clavicle are trailing behind. David is clutching his own tightly, and observes the Slytherin team, while Clavicle adjusts his gloves. “I wonder how the match is going to go…” whispers David to the other Chaser. “But this time, we’ve trained a lot more than last year, haven’t we?” he says, trying to sound confident. Yes, they are going to fly against Slytherin, but this is not David‘s first match anymore, and eagerness has replaced apprehension.

Bouncing excitedly, one would think that Bailey ate half of the sweets at Honeydukes before coming out to the pitch for the match. “Whooo, Ravenclaw!” he calls, waving his arms up in the air before coming to stand near Van, and rather distancing himself from Tegan, though a furtive glance is given in her direction. The chaser doesn’t say another word, though there is a large grin spread over his face.

Ashton Merck walks onto the field following his captain. With a confident smile he waves over to the Slytherin bleachers, raising his broom into the air and enjoying the atmosphere which seems to pervade him totally. “They look frightened, don’t they?” he chuckles, adressing Adalynn, the Slytherin keeper, who is walking a few steps behind him and seems to be more concentrated on the match than on the opponent’s feelings. Both of them stand in line with their teammates, nestling on their brooms and adjusting their gear, waiting for the game to begin.

Tegan Madison takes short but fast strides along the pitch, not very formiddable on the ground. She shifts her broom to one hand and tucks her bat under one arm in order to adjust her scarf and rub her nose. She comes up alongside her teammates, face set in determination. Her nostrils flare a bit as she overlooks the Slytherin team, and if her face softens as she looks nearly from the other end of the Ravenclaw lineup at Bailey, it’s hardly noticeable.

Sage Cloverwood and Tahiri Sol are following Ashton, their own broom over their shoulders, and sporting a set of matching confident smiles as they appear on the pitch. “Ah… the ickle Ravenclaws… I’ve heard they’ve trained quite a bit. But that’s because they couldn’t stomach their defeat, last year. I’m not afraid of them.” says Sage, and she readjusts her hair as she waits for the team to take off. Tahiri, in the meantime, just nods and observes the pitch, already concentrated on the match to come.

Clavicle Gravely nods to David as he walks in. The boy seems a lot more confident this game then last. His nevous step is gone and he grins up at the stands. “Come on David, we have to do the noble cry of the Ravenclaw.” He chuckles. He steps out from the line a bit and wavs to the stads. “AUK AUK!”

Keelan Walsh smiles back at Noémie, but mostly because it’s polite to do so. “Alright, teams. I don’t want to see any funny buisness,” she looks more harshly at the Ravenclaws than the Slytherin, of course, “I won’t hesistate to award penalties.” A grim sort of smile surfaces momentarily and then visably softens into a grin, “Captains?” She waits expectantly for the hand shake, and then opens up the ball box and lets the snitch fly. Taking hold of the Quaffle, Keelan lofts it into the air with one hand and blows the start-of-match whistle with the other. A minute or so after the teams are in the air, Keelan releases the bludgers, which whistle into the air after the players. Shortly, the referee mounts her broom and flys up to circle around the perimeter, eyes on the players.

Noémie‘s hand darts out for a quick-but-firm handshake with the Slytherin Captain, and then withdraws it nearly as quickly, taking her broom and mounting it. Soon, she is flying very quickly up, up, up above the stands and into the air far above the hoops and all the action. “Let’s do it, Ravenclaw!” she calls down to her team, though whether they hear her or not is debatable. She begins to fly in large ovals above the pitch, her eyes scanning the sky quickly.

Kicking off the ground, Van flies at a moderate pace towards the Ravenclaw hoops. She doesn’t appear to be in much of a hurry, though her face is set, and she takes her place in front of the goals, turning to survey the action, and find out who gets the quaffle. After all, if it’s her own team, she has reason to relax a bit for the start. The seventh year’s attention seems to become distracted to the stands for a moment, as a hastily waving Gryffindor stands out among a sea of blue scarves and banners, causing the seventh year to shake her head with a bit of a grin.

“All right, let’s go!” shouts David, mounting his broom and taking off, positioning himself near the center of the pitch at a low altitude, near the other Chasers. As soon as the Quaffle is thrown in the air, David steers his broom towards it. By pure luck, it was thrown somewhat in his direction and David catches it without difficulties, and he immediately flies towards the Slytherin goals. A quick look is given to his teammates, to assess the situation. “Clavicle, Bailey! Cover me!” he shouts as he tries to fly his way through the Slytherin line.

Rhian says, “And here they come, both teams coming out into the field, and after a type of acknowledgement from the captains, I think… the two teams take to the air. Now we wait for Professor Keelan to release all four of the balls so that the game can actually begin. There goes the Snitch, and the Quaffle is in the air! And it is Ravenclaw that claims the Quaffle, by David Mildred at the start of the match. The bludgers are now released. This game is now underway!”

Rising in the air Louis is already peering around the pitch with eyes squinted looking for the snitch. Obviously the best time to catch it is before any side score right? Martin, having shaken Noémie’s just as quickly gets a steely expression on his face and begins flying toward the quaffle trying to be the first to get it. Louis grins a bit to himself before yelling out. “Don’t worry Ravenclaw! We’ll try not to beat you too badly!” Nothing wrong with a little competitive ribbing right?

Following David sharply, Bailey makes his way down the pitch, ducking to avoid a bludger which flies a little too close to him for comfort. “Wide!” Bailey calls to Clavicle as Bailey himself widens the berth between David and himself, flying near the edge of the pitch. He glances behind him and scowls a bit at the Slytherin chasers. “Someone take care of them!” he calls, the annoyed tone in his voice rather apparent as he directs his gaze to Tegan and then to Riley, before turning it forward again.

“Let’s go and hunt some Ravens down!” says Sage, swinging her bat in the air as she mounts her own broom and takes off, following her teammates. Tahiri calmly follows suit, without Sage‘s vulgar and simplistic display of house spirit. As the Bludgers begin to be dispatched in the air, Sage nods to Tahiri. The communication between the two Beaters is going on smoothly. Understanding what is to be done, Tahiri flies toward the Bludger which is flying over the Ravenclaws stands. On the other side, Sage tackles the other Bludger, which she reaches quickly and sends towards the Ravenclaw chasers with a quick and precise swing of her bat.

Ashton Merck briskly mounts his broom as the referee’s whistle is about to be blown. His eyes focussed on the quaffle, his hands clinged to the neatly polished broomstick and his legs ready to perform a mighty kickoff. At least that’s what he’s thinking. “Let’s tear them into pieces!” he calls, not too loud, so that Keelan won’t hear it through the crowd’s buzz. Then he lifts off and heads for the quaffle, paying attention to Martin and Evan, not to interfere with them on their way to the red ball. As David catches it, Ashton slaps his broom and turns to chase David. Adalynn flies up in front of the hoops and watches the events on the pitch rather relaxed, until the quaffle is taken by the Ravenclaw. Now she is sweeping to and fro to be in the most appropriate position to intercept a scoring attempt.

Clavicle Gravely races up after Louis and tries to edge him away from David, and block the other boy’s approach. he pours on the speed with the Sandsweeper 25, the egyptian broom is elegant, and fast. His goggles reflect the light as he zips on up and towards David. “Where’s the bludgers?” he asks aloud as he zips on.

Tegan Madison is in the air before the sound of the whistle can die out, though she’s well used to Professor Walsh’s tendency to give the teams a small grace period before releasing the bludgers. Parting with Riley, the female beater grips her bat and suddenly looks a lot fiercer than she does, say, in class. As it is released, Tegan moves toward the bludger with a good deal of speed and with the crack of her Beater’s bat, sends it on a dead aim for the Slytherin Chasers, to break them up and away from her own team. Riley, on the other hand, moves himself toward the other, racing to get it before the Slytherin do–and he doesn’t, so now it’s a race to meat the bludger before it hits his teammates.

“Oh, we’ll see how things go, Harper,” Noémie comments to him, grinning, before she flies away quickly, only glancing over her shoulder for a moment at him, an amused expression on her face, before turning and flying downwards a bit, to better hear the action at least. After all, it would do her well to see what their mistakes are before they commence practicing for the Hufflepuff match.

Rhian says, “The Ravenclaw Chasers head down toward the Slythering Keeper, flying in formation to keep the Quaffle away from the Slytherins. The Slytherin Beaters have seem to have found the Bludgers, as they go chasing after them to send them after the Ravenclaws to try and knock them out of the air. The Ravenclaw Beaters have now moved after the Bludgers in order to intercept them from the Slytherins.”

“Don’t mind them!” shouts David out loud, hoping that his teammates would do their job and cover them from the threat of the bludgers. He is not aware, yet, of the bludger flying in his direction, and concentrates on trying to escape from the Slytherins. Ashton, in particular, is coming dangerously close behind. “Go ahead, you’re faster!” David shouts to Clavicle. If things are going the bad way –which would surely happen– David would then have an opportunity to make a forward pass to Clavicle. “Where’s Bailey?” he wonders to himself.

As Martin watches as bludger quickly approaches and swerves quickly out of the way while still keeping in hot pursued of David and the quaffle. Louis hovers nearby the Slytherin goalpost grinning like an opossum. “That we will Ribouet!” Not really much of a comeback, but in the heat of a match there is no real room for cheesy one-liners. Louis vaults down the pitch high above the game keeping his eyes peeled.

Rhian says, “Mildred passes the Quaffle to Gravely who continues forward toward Walker who seems to be getting ready to defend the Slytherin goals. The Bludgers narrow in on the Ravenclaw Chasers, which cased Mildred to pass the Quaffle before he possibly get hit. Harper takes a position up above the pitch, the usual position for a Seeker while Ribouet takes a lower position, seems the Captain wants to keep an eye on her team.”

Ashton Merck is still approaching David, not really knowing how to recover the quaffle from his opponent. “Come on, let’s get’m” he conjures his broom to race faster. A few seconds later he notices Martin on David’s other side. “Let’s go, captain!” Ashton shouts over, maybe trying to unsettle the Ravenclaw chaser a bit. Adalynn however is still prepared to engage in the events for the first time.

Of course, Bailey cannot hear what David says, and continues to fly wide, throwing his arm up in the air, and then swerving inward as they make their way closer to the Slytherin hoops. “Do something!” he calls to his teammate helpfully, before swerving out a bit more, looking from David to Clavicle, back again, and then forward at the slytherin keeper.

Rhian says, “The Ravenclaw Chasers continue to make their way to the Slytherin goals, closer to Walker who seems to be getting ready to defend her house’s goals. One of the bludgers narrow in on the Ravenclaw Chasers while the other one heads for the Slytherins in order to keep them from catching the Ravenclaws. Harper takes a position up above the pitch, the usual position for a Seeker while Ribouet takes a lower position, seems the Captain wants to keep an eye on her team.”

Clavicle Gravely suddenly bursts forward. There are advantages to being little more then skin and bones, you don’t weigh down your broom much. He zooms ahead from below and to the right of David, crossing in front of the boy so he can catch the forward pass that David hurled up. It’s just like practice, right over the shoulder. He pours on the speed as much as he can. “You go to the lower hoop. I’ll go to the middle. If I can’t make the shot, I’ll pass!”

Tegan Madison hovers for a moment, waiting to see if anyone will hit her bludger away from the Slytherin Chasers. Riley, on the other hand, swerves up on the bludger and sends it with all his considerable force flying in the other direction. True to form, it doesn’t exactly head toward, say, the Slytherin Chasers, but it might head up toward Louis. Or the bleachers. With an exclaimation, Tegan heads down toward the bludger to hit it toward Louis and not the crowd of specators. “Righ’, Markham, it really helps to take out portions of the crowd!” she calls somewhat irritably; Having had to bail out the mis-aimed ball, she’s lost track of the second bludger.

“Lower hoop!” David shouts to acknowledge the move, and the boy adjusts his heading slightly to go straight to the lower hoop, while still keeping an eye on Clavicle. A frontal pass… David would have only a split second to catch the ball, throw it, and break away, if he didn’t want to collide with the goal. But this is just like during the practices, isn’t it?

High above the game by now Louis turns as he hears the screech of the bludger coming at him full speed. Luckily for him he’s got quite a bit of breathing room. Louis does a sort of corkscrew on his broom and the bludger goes flying past him off into the air. “Yeah those bludger intensive practices really worked Sage!” Louis calls out to the youngest beater. Martin is now switching targets and flying for Clavicle at top speed coming up on him as fast he can until he is close enough to literally touch the bristles on Clavicle’s broom. Martin tries swipeing for the quaffle in an attempt to steal it away.

Ashton Merck is still following David, decreasing the distance rapidly and now flying at his very side, touching the Ravenclaw, trying to push him away from the lower hoop with a steady pressure, so that it would not look like a rough action and for the relief of Adalynn, who is getting ready, moisturing her lips nervously and with a determined look, covering the middle hoop, but always being alert to be able to change her position instantly. “Cover the lower!” she calls, adressing Ashton.

“Ah…” So that Ravenclaw beater got the bludger before her. Darting a somber look to Tegan, Tahiri pushes her broom forward in an attempt to catch the bludger before it could do any real harm. On the other side of the pitch, Sage is doing the same thing, and flies towards their chasers the fastest she can, confident that while the bludger would disperse the Ravenclaw chasers, she would only have to worry about the other one. A terrible mistake: she doesn’t notice Riley’s move immediately. Fortunately, Louis is capable enough to fend for himself. This give her the time to regain her bearings, change her direction, and go after the bludger, once again.

Clavicle Gravely makes a feint to the upper hoop from the middle, It would be a lousy shot. This is probably why he air brakes and sends a side pass to David, letting him go one into the scoring zone if he catches the pass. he hopes the sudden braking throws Martin off his tail. “Take the shot David!”

Stopping just outside the scoring zone, Bailey hovers, looking at his fellow chasers as they’re both covered by Slytherin chasers, and glances around. “Open?” he calls, waving his arms a bit and then looking down the field at the action. He does little else for the moment, save to fly around a bit, outside the scoring zone in his distance from the other chasers, though not out of scoring range, by any means.

Turning his waist slightly, David catches the Quaffle and pushes his broom forward, concentrating on the hoops. Entering in the scoring zone, he aims directly towards the lower hoop, and waits until the last moment to throw it. He hasn’t much time left, after that, to watch it fly and see if he has scored, and does a sharp turn instead to avoid any collision with the goal hoops or the goalkeeper.

Could that be, possibly, a glimmer of gold in the sky! Shocked that she’s spotted it so soon, Noémie tears her attention away from the pitch, though she does make mental notes as to what she has seen, zooming upward, moving quicker and quicker towards that little gold dot in the sky. The sun doesn’t help her vision as she works her way up into the sky, soon flying past Louis and still farther up, until from the stands, she is little more than a blue dot in the sky.

Spotting the snitch just as Noémie begins her ascension into the sky Louis is right behind her laterally inches away rising speedily into the air with the opposing seeker gritting his teeth trying with all his might to pass her. He only manages to get neck and neck as they both rocket toward the same object. Stretching one arm off of his broom Louis gets ready as they draw closer.

Clavicle Gravely air braking lead to a full stall. His broom drops, with him spiralling and flipping out of control. He turns the maneuver into a dive to regain direction, then he stops the barrel rolling, but the ground is racing up towards him. He pulls back. Heaving back on the broom to level out mere inches before the the ground makes a sudden stop to all his quidditch scoring dreams. “CRUMPLED HORN SNORCACKS!” he exclaims, but he manages not to ground plant himself. He tries to race back up towards the other hoops.

Stretching herself as well as the two of them make their speedy ascent still upward towards the small golden orb, Noémie‘s speed picks up to its top notch and she manages to speed just slightly forward, out-flying Louis by a bit and then reaching higher, her rear rising off of the broom itself. “Augh!” Noémie calls as she reaches just a bit too far over her broom and loses her balance. This, however, has not stopped her from capturing the tiny golden ball in her hand as she rights herself on her broom. A loud whoop is let out and she soon begins to zoom downard towards the pitch, her hand up in the air with the tiny ball clamped within it. It is several moments before she is close enough to be visible to those in the stands. Letting out another whoop, Noémie comes to a stop and dismounts her broom, still holding the snitch up. A second win for Ravenclaw!

As David isn’t really affected by Ashton‘s physical interference the Ravenclaw shoots at the lower hoop as he enters the zone and Ashton has to turn around hard not to break into it and cause a penalty. With a fierce expression on his face, he watches Adalynn zooming towards the quaffle. It seems senseless because the hoop is still far away and the quaffle sails through the ring as Adalynn is still approaching.

Missing the snitch only by a few inches Louis leans against his broom as it is all over looking terribly dejected. “We lost….. we lost……” Images dance in his head of the Quidditch cup going snitch wings and flying away. Louis shakes his head and descends to the ground. “Good job Noémie….. it was pretty close…”

Keelan Walsh curses under her breath, so that she can barely hear hereself, as she watches Adalynn miss the Quaffle. A whoop above her deepens the frown, and Keelan raises the whistle to her lips. “Game to Ravenclaw! 160 to 0.” That’s all she announces, spiraling down in a quick, frustrated way. As she waits for the balls to be returned (the bludgers tending to come directly), she smiles, weakly, at the players and murmurs something about a good game.

Rhian says, “What is this? Ravenclaw seems ready to score. The Chasers get in position to score, Walker moves to defend the goals and Gravely makes an attempt to score, but then stops just before entering the scoring zone, passing the Quaffle to Mildred. Foster is on Gravely’s trail and so Mildren catches it, entering the zone, he takes a shot to the lower hoop and Walker doesn’t manage to stop it. Ravenclaw scores! The score is now Ravenclaw – 10, Slytherin – 0. Of course, Gravely tried to plant himself in the ground because his broom stalled, but did just fine. Just a second, the Seekers seem to have found the Snitch! The two are neck and neck, getting closer and… it’s Ribouet that catches the Snitch. Ravenclaw wins! Final score is Ravenclaw – 160, Slytherin – 0. Now let’s get back to the castle where it’s warm.”

Clavicle Gravely manages a landing. After his powerdive, he looks a bit shaky. He’s nowwhere near as good at Airbraking as David is. He shivvers a bit. “I don’t think I will be trying THAT again without practice.” he grins a bit and waves “Good job Noémie!”

Putting her hand out to Louis, Noémie smiles widely at him. “Dashing chase,” she tells him. “It was really close. Thanks for keeping me on my toes, Louis,” the prefect tells him, her accent sliding just slightly into a french one, though her accent is usually delightfully English. “Good job, team! Practice, first thing tomorrow!” She strides over to Keelan and returns the snitch to the referee with a beaming smile, but not another word. Without another word, the captain makes her way to the Prefects bathroom to have a nice, long, relaxing bath.

“I scored?” says David, disbelief clearly displayed on his face, after his turn. He lands after the others, and runs to Clavicle with joy. “I really thought I wouldn’t be able to make it. I scored! I did score it.” he says. “Whoo! We only need to win against the Hufflepuffs, and the cup is ours!”

Tegan Madison gives a gleeful shout as David manages a score, and then actually zooms up a bit on her broom when she realizes Noémie caught the snitch. Her path to the ground is erratic, first a zoom toward Bailey and then a zoom far away, with a bit of a loop. They won again! “One more match to the win!” She’s in high enough spirits as she lands and dismounts, grinning ear to ear at the Captain. All the practice really paid off after all. Oh, she’ll be herself again later, but for now, Tegan is elated.

Clavicle Gravely grins at David and nods. “Excellent work Mildred. Good job. You have to show me how you do that brake maneuver though. I stalled it badly. Good thing she caught the snitch or I’d have been useless for the next score.” he grins a bit and looks at the stands “AUK AUK!” he grins then gives a salute to the Slytherin players.

Louis Harper shakes Noémie’s hand and tries very hard to be sporting about the loss. “You were a bit faster Ribouet.” He grins a little and comments in a sly tone. “I hope Alexandra is even faster in the next game.” What’s this? Louis seems dead set against Ravenclaw winning the Quidditch cup for some reason. “And she’s faster than me…. that’s a fact. Good luck Ribouet.” With that Louis turns strideing with his teammates back to the castle.

Frowning at the cheering going on at the Ravenclaw side, Sage shakes her head and lands, following the other members of her team. Tahiri is following closely, disappointment clearly visible on her face. “That’s too bad. Pure luck, I reckon.” says Sage, looking one last time at the Ravenclaws before walking away to the locker rooms.

Ashton Merck swoops down to the pitch in rage about the lost game, ploughing through the lawn considerably while breaking with his heel before jumping off his broom. His head glowing red and headshaking he smashes it down and kicks it away a few yards. “Good game.” he grumbles at Clavicle. Adaylnn has also landed and is walking up to her teammates, not accusing herself of a mistake.

Flying down to the ground, Bailey is oddly stolid. His face is steady as he makes his way down and then having gotten to the ground, inward to the school. No, Bailey‘s not much in a mood to celebrate at the moment. Well, mostly. A wide grin is given to Tegan, and then it is gone as soon as he realizes what he’s doing. Instead of hanging out, Bailey runs, quickly, into school. His destination is unknown to others, but for Bailey‘s part, there’s a secret nook, hidden away where he will soon be meeting someone special in that same nook.

Clavicle Gravely nods to Ashton. “Actually .. you guys looked on spectacular form.:” he nods. “I think if your broom was a touch faster, We’d not have scored at all. Your moves were superb. And your teamwork, excellent.” he admits to Ashton. “Better luck next time.”

With a loud cheer, Van flies down to the groud, beaming at all of her teammates. “Good game, everyone!” she calls to all the Slytherin, who may or may not even care that she says this. She trots off to put her broom away quickly, and then retreats into the castle, likely either looking for a certain Gryffindor seventh year, or on her way to her own commons for a party in celebration of their win.

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.

Leaning on her broom, Noémie looks over a bit of parchment as she stands in the center of the pitch. The falling snow doesn’t seem to bother her, though she is wearing several more layers of clothing than usual, including not one, but two scarves. The prefect waits for her team as she peruses the information on the parchment, a very serious expression set on her features. No, Noémie does not look thrilled today.

It is a busy day for David. With the school year going slowly towards the end, the essays begin to be more and more demanding, and David is often spending his entire evenings in the Library. Having Quidditch practices on the top of all that work is not helping much, either, especially since the Ravenclaw team has now a clear chance to have the Cup, which means that practicing is now essential. Running to reach the pitch before the practice begins, David arrives there totally out of breath, and with a red face. “It has not begun already, as it?” he asks nervously, but apparently he is among the first to be on the pitch.

Following David from afar, Tegan walks at a slower pace. The fourth year is totally unwilling to run to get on the pitch; this is ridiculous, especially since they were both on time. Finally reaching the spot where David and Noémie are standing, she makes a quick nod as a greeting. “Hello, Noémie. So, what do you have in store for today for us?” she asks, trying to focus her mind on Quidditch, when she is really only thinking about one particular team member. “Bailey isn’t here yet.” she states, simply, thus revealing what is really going on in her mind.

Bailey Williams strides down to the quidditch pitch, wrapped up in several layers of clothing and looking for his teammates and especially for Tegan. He is determined to show his best in the upcoming practice. As he comes into range, Bailey waves and greets his teammates. “Hello Noémie, everything set up, yet? Hey, David, Tegan.” sounding very businesslike during the last name.

“Damn, it’s cold,” Riley mutters, pulling his cloak closer about his shoulders as he trudges his way out on to the pitch. His broom drags along behind him, and his eyes are heavy. His long, wine-red hair is unbound, and moves behind in like a flame streamer in the light breeze. He doesn’t looke very well, all told, pale and puffy-eyed. Never the less, his black beater dangles from his wrist idly.

Trotting out to the pitch several moments after the rest of the team has convened, Van looks quite happy, despite it being quite cold for March, and her having to bring herself out to practice. “Hello, everyone,” she calls chipperly as she finally makes it onto the pitch with a beaming smile. The seventh year slings her broom over her shoulder and comes to stand casually near the center of the group of them on the pitch, grinning to all of her teammates as she does so.

“You’re late, Van,” Noémie comments, her voice low and rather sharp as she says this. “Alright, good job beating Slytherin last weekend,” she tells all of them, though her face doesn’t have a single bit of congratulations in them. “I think that was the least organized we ever were,” she tells them all, her eyes narrowing as she looks to each of them individually. “Today, I want us to work on our teamwork, flying and playing as a fluid team.” She peers a bit and then turns around, gathering up some cut twine. “Alright, Bailey and David, you two together. Tegan and Riley, here for you two, Van, you go over there to the hoops. No, I’m not tying you down to the hoops. I don’t want to see your legs separating,” she directs to the two teams she has designated with a fierce look. “If we can’t work as a team, then we’re not going to beat Hufflepuff. They’re a good team, they work together, and they pay attention to each other. I don’t want anyone to get ignored this time, and I want us to take the cup. As of now, we go into double-duty. We’ll break for supper, and then come back down to the pitch for more drills afterward.” The girl looks at each of them. “Well, what are you waiting for? Get situated and get in the air. I’ll pass out the balls momentarily.”

David Mildred nods silently at the team captain and walks towards Bailey. “So it’s you and me, apparently.” he says, looking at the fourth year boy while attempting to smile. “Let’s take off, shall we?” he says, grabbing his own broom, and flying up in the air in a matter of seconds. When he reaches a few meters over the pitch, he slows down and turns around to wait for Bailey. The nagging impression that much of Noémie’s speech was directed solely at him is beginning to bug him, but he tries to shrug it off and concentrate on the drills.

Tegan Madison nods silently as well, looking at her bat as the speech goes on. When the pairs are made up, Tegan walks towards Riley, but steals a last glance at Bailey before talking to the other Beater. “Let’s go, then.” she says to him, trying not to mention anything about Riley’s tendency to send the Bludgers towards the public or even the Ravenclaw players, instead of the opponents. “We’ll do just fine. Or so I hope…”

Bailey Williams initially quirks an eyebrow as his captain reveals her plans for today, but then cottons on to the rather unconventional drill method. Glancing over to Tegan, the faint wish of having tried out as a beater emerges. “Alright.” he replies to David and briskly mounts his broom. Bailey zooms up and positions himself next to his fellow chaser, waving with the piece of twine. “Come a bit closer and I’ll tie us up. I hope we won’t totally crash.” Bailey chuckles.

Riley Markham passes Noémie a somewhat curious look as he accepts from her the length of twine, before turning to Tegan. His expression isn’t it’s usual brash, energetic cast — instead, he looks tired, and vaguely pained. Knotting one end of the twine about his wrist, he hands the other end to his partner, mounts his broom, and kicks off a few inches off the ground. Hovering there until his partner is prepaed and they can both soar high. His flight is as always smooth and fairly natural, one of his better attributes. But it lacks it’s usual umph.

Van sighs a bit and rolls her eyes at Noémie as she says this. “Oh, like you’re any better. I heard you skived off Wizo-music the other day.” This is no sooner out of Van‘s mouth than she is up in the air and flying towards the hoops. No, she doesn’t want the captain’s wrath on her, and she certainly doesn’t want to get an earful at how often she’s late because of her boyfriend. This thought quickly passes out of her mind, though, as she spots that very person sitting in the closest bleachers. An animated wave is given to him and she grins widely while doing small figure eights on her broom, waiting for everyone to get situated and take to the air. Though, how this was going to work, Van can only guess.

“Alright, let’s go,” Noémie calls, pulling out a Quaffle and tossing it to David, then getting out what appears to be a modified bludger and holding it up. “This is a different kind of bludger. It’ll only come back to you, no matter how hard you hit it.” She tosses it up in the air and it hovers. “It will go when I say for it to go. “Now, I expect you all to be able to run your own plays, for I’m going to practice with this practice snitch that I’ve nicked off of Eliza. Holler for me if you really need me, but remember, I can’t help during matches, I’ve got to focus on finding the snitch. Can’t be letting Leong get it!” With this, Noémie hops on her broom and releases the practice snitch that she has had in her hand, and waits for it to disappear upwards before following it without another word.

Bailey Williams bends down and fixes the rope at his ankle with a firm knot and reaches over for David’s foot now, tying it to his not too tight and not too loosely. After having swathed their entire shanks together Bailey readjusts his seat and smiles. “You heard it, let’s go!” Bailey calls, definately being up for some new experience today. “I think we should get used to it a bit.” he offers and slowly begins flying straight as a start.

David Mildred catches the Quaffle and begins to fly away, but the flight is not as smooth as usual. Somewhere behind, something is tugging him away and prevents him from flying towards the hoops. “Oh…” says David, realizing his mistake. “Sorry about that, Bailey.” he says. “Where should we go? I thought we could perhaps, uh, toss the Quaffle to Van, but if you feel like going somewhere else…” Flying in close pairs is definitely a hard thing…

“Okay… we could perhaps try to fly in a straight direction for a moment, just to get used to that rope? Then perhaps some turns?” says Tegan, eyeing the twine with some suspicion. “I hope this won’t cause us to crash.” she says, a bit worried. “You never now what could happen…”

Riley Markham exhales a deep yawn, covering it briefly with his beater bat. “Sounds good, eh?” Taking the lead off, he flies forward quietly, taking a moderate pace. Allowing him and Tegan enough time to get used to the bound flying, before motioning briefly with the bat toward the right indicating a turn and shifting toward the right on his broom. He seems to be adapting well enough, though it doesn’t seem like he’s really allowing himself to get worked up over it. Most of Riley‘s problem seems to be stress and nerves, but today he seems to be opperating out a part of his mind where stress can’t quite reach.

“Give it right here!” Van calls with animated motions, pointing directly to herself. The seventh year chuckles as she says this and waves at the two chasers who are tied together. “C’mon, give it here!” Truth be told, though, she can’t hear a word they’re saying, so she has no idea what the two of them are planning as they get used to being connected to one another as they begin to fly along, though not getting close to her at all.

“Just hit the bludger when you’re ready to actually practice,” Noémie calls to Tegan and Riley, closing her hand around the practice snitch, then letting it go as she looks down at them from far above. “Just make sure you get to it soon. No slacking today!” The girl nods curtly down to all of her teammates before flying off again to locate the practice snitch, which, thankfully, is a bit slower than the game model, but fast enough to challenge the seeker during the practice. Back and forth over the pitch, high and low, Noémie seems to be avoiding where the majority of her team is for the moment while she executes her own exercises.

“Woho! Slow slow!” Bailey shouts, getting dragged forward as David seems to underestimate the difficulty of performing a synchronous broomflight. A wonder, that Bailey did not fall off his broom, but as he didn’t he does not really care about it. “Alright, let’s head towards Van and try to provoke a good save. What do you say?” the boy asks his teammate, with a grin, not blaming him for his unawareness.

“Okay. Let’s do that. And, uh… sorry again about that.” says David, giving himself a mental slap behind the ears for what he just did. “Let’s do it slowly, this time…” he says, steering his broom gently towards the hoops. When flying at a lower speed, and looking at Bailey, it is easier to actually fly as a pair, but it is nowhere as comfortable as when flying alone. “Not that easy, eh?” he says, before adding: “Which hoop?”

There is a bit of resistance, but not much, as Tegan belatedly understands Riley’s intentions. A split second later, though, she leans on the right to negotiate the turn with Riley. Being slightly on the outer side of the turn, she feels that she must slightly accelerate to keep up with the boy, but the manoeuvre goes smoothly enough. “It’s not that hard, finally…” she says, with a grin. Of course, it’s easier to fly with Riley than, say, David. Another quick glance is given to Bailey as she hears him complaining about David’s brutal acceleration…

“Yeah…” Bailey answers briefly, concentrating on the unusual drawback. Bailey increases the speed slowly but constantly, always assuring, that he doesn’t fly at a too fast pace for David. “Still fine?” he asks another time. “We could try to get some swerves in before heading to the left hoop and we could keep passing the quaffle among our hands.” Bailey proposes.

“The speed is fine for me…” says David, checking on his trajectory before turning his head towards Bailey and adding: “Yes, let’s do some passes…” Without changing his flying direction, he holds the Quaffle for Bailey to take it. “There. Your right hand” he says, so that Bailey could take it without looking at him.

Van hovers in front of the hoops, looking from David and Bailey to her fingernails, and then back again, as if bored while she waits for them to come close enough to shoot. The girl doesn’t appear to be particularly concerned today, though, as if she will be able to block shots no matter what. This attitude gives her a rather nonchalant air and she even goes so far as to yawn while she waits for the chasers to make their way towards her, clearly underestimating the ability for her teammates to suddenly get their speed and surprise her with a quick shot.

“No, not really,” Riley agrees, suggesting another turn with the point of his bat. This time, so that he is on the outside edge of the turn. He catches somewhat in the accelleration, but it moves relatively smoothly as well. “Alright,” Riley murmurs, finally, in response to Noémie’s call. “Let’s get the bludger, then? You first, then me, then you? Sound alright?” Even his voice sounds a bit lackluster, and vaguely hurt. Never the less, he offers a faint smile to Tegan after brushing his long, wine hair from his face, even if the smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

Tegan Madison nods, feeling something strange about Riley today but unable to precisely pinpoint what it could be. “Okay, let’s fly towards the Quidditch box. The Bludger is hovering nearby, that’s where Noémie left it.” she says, and the pair begin yet another, smoither turn towards the ball. Once they’ve finally reached it, Tegan hits it with the bat, finding it very difficult to swing her bat without hitting Riley, who is just flying at her right. “Be careful”, she yells, just before hitting it.

“My right hand? Oh…” Bailey says and reaches for the quaffle. After letting it bounce from hand to hand a few times, while trying a few understated swerves, Bailey bounds it to David again. Now coming into the zone, they’ll have to prepare for a shot soon. “I could pass the quaffle to you behind my back, when we are in shooting range.” Bailey suggests with a chuckle and glances over to David shortly. “Maybe it confuses Van a bit.”

“Hehe, let’s do that.” says David, happy to try something that could show Van that she should pay attention to the game. “Just tell me when you’re ready” he says, readying his right hand and waiting for Bailey’s nod to catch the Quaffle and toss it through the hoop. The two boys are approaching the goals at a modest speed. “We need to make a powerful throw…” thinks David. “Ready.” he says simply.

The seeker seems to be on a bit of a rampage, throwing the snitch away from her after she has caught it, and hovering for a moment to observe what her team is doing. One would think that after winning to Slytherin so completely, Noémie would not be quite in this type of mood, but instead of being congratulatory, she is instead a bit short with them all. Instead of saying a word, she flies higher until she is but a spec of brown and gray to those who are closer to the pitch. It isn’t long, though, before she comes zooming downward after a snitch which seems to have found a bit of speed that she had not been expecting.

Riley Markham simply nods as Tegan warns toward caution, before pointing up with his bat suggestively and pulling up on the broom’s handle. Gaining altitude at a marginally quick pace, holding off long enough to allow Tegan to adjust before he is sufficiently near enough to club the bludger back down. Using an overhanded thrust, he has someone knock it down toward the ground. Obviously trying to stay in the spirit of the excersize by making them fly up in differant directions together. His eyes remain distant, somewhat clouded.

Tegan follows Riley without a word, and adjusts without too much difficulties to the new changes in the flying direction. Leaning a bit forward, she observes the Bludger as it flows towards the ground, eventually flying up again towards them. She wonders privately if Riley has really intended to hit it that way, but says nothing, realizing that Riley hadn’t spoken much since the beginning of the practice. “All right, Riley?” she asks, finally, wondering if there is something wrong.

“Fine,” the flame-haired boy responds, tilting back on his broom and pointing with his bat in a downward direction and toward the left. There’s a serious look on Riley‘s nearly fourteen-year-old features, that would suggest that the previously shut bludger went exactly where he believed it would. And as he reaches out with his bat, and sends it sailing out againt toward the edges of pitch, there is no indication that the bludger went anywhere other than exactly where he wished it to go. “This one is yours, Madison.” There’s an air of tired maturity to his pale features, one that gives him a much more grown up cast that he usually allows him.

Eyeing his keeper’s moves and performing a slight draft to the right, but still being in range to score at the left hoop, Bailey nods and adds a low “Go.” to call up the choreography.

Nodding slightly, David takes the Quaffle and from behind his back and throws it as fast as he can towards the nearest hoop, which also happens to be a free one. The whole movement lasts perhaps a second, and the ball flying towards the hoops is now sure to wake Van up. In the meantime, David stops his broom to enjoy the spectacle.

Van readies herself a bit more as the chasers approach, reaching out in a bit of a dive as the quaffle is thrown to the hoop. She has drifted perhaps just a bit too far to be able to manage to block it entirely, though the tips of her fingers do send it off track a bit, and rather than going straight through the hoop, it knicks one side of the hoop, bouncing to the other, then falls through with a loud CLANG. Scoffing a bit as this happens, Van flies down and catches the quaffle before it falls to the ground, and from her position, chucks it back to the chasers, a more determined look on her face as she flies back up to the hoops. “Just try that again now, won’t you,” she calls and puts her arms out at the ready.

Swooping about, Noémie‘s attention is caught by the clang. “Go again!” she calls to them, looking at Van specifically. “A few more shots and we’ll call it a practice for now.” Either Noémie is letting them off a little early to study a bit, or she’s trying not to wear them out before their evening practice after supper. One way or the other, it isn’t possible to tell by the look on her face as she closes her hand around the practice snitch quickly, flying down to the ground where she has all of the storage for the equipment out and just stands on the ground, snitch in hand as she watches her teammates perform their drills.

“Are you sure?” says Tegan once again. “You seem a bit tired, to tell the truth.” Her look is concerned, but she still tries to concentrate on the practice, and especially on that Bludger. Riley managed to throw it rather far away, but here it comes back again, as if attracted by an invisible force towards Tegan. She readies her bat, muttering “Careful!” once again a second before she swings her bat and sends the bludger away.

Bailey grins, as David scores, demanding a bit of effort from Van, who seemed to be rather absent-minded. “Good shot, David.” he cheers and cheers up Van. “Keep your eyes on the quaffle and you’ll save the next one.” Bailey says with a blink. Readying himself for the next attempt, he catches the quaffle and heads for the hoops again, always considering David on his side. Coming closer to Van with every second, Bailey fakes a pass to his partner and lets off the red ball towards the left hoop. Grimacing, as this shot is more than saveable, Bailey turns around to set up for the next and hopefully more satisfactory try.

“That last was a gift!” Van calls, just before the quaffle is shot at her again, this time in a more catchable place, as she is more ready for it to go this direction. Van dives for it, and this time manages to secure a catch of it in her hands. Coming to fly in the center, she tosses it back to them with a grin. “Come again!” she calls to them, staying in her readied position, so as to better catch the quaffle this time around.

Riley Markham passes a brief glance toward Tegan in regard for her concern, but he says nothing of it. Instead, pulling forward on his broom and pushing on. Waiting long enough for Tegan to adjust to the new direction before laying on the speed, to meet the bludger in mid-course. Shifting the bat in his hand, he gives the bludger an underhand struck from the bottom side of the bludger, sending it blazing almost in a directly upwards direction. The strike is powerful enough that the crack echoes through the stadium, and the reverbation shakes through his bat to his scarred hand, causing him to yelp almost in spite of himself. His bat slips from his fingers, but the leather strap about his wrist keeps it from falling to the ground. Wincing somewhat, he pulls his hand close to his, openning and closing it as if it ached. Something a shot even that hard shouldn’t have done.

Tegan Madison decides to drop the matter about Riley for now and instead concentrates on the match. Wielding the bat with someone at her side is hard, but shot after shot she improves, and the formation flying becomes rather natural after a few moments. Deciding to adopt Riley’s style of silent communication, she indicates the direction she wants to take with her bat, which is efficient enough in her mind. “Plus,” she thinks, “it could also work from afar, and help us to coordinate our strategy.” She decides to talk about that to Riley once they are on the ground.

Shot after shot, the awkward flying pair formed by David and Bailey turns into a more coordinated team. It is still not perfect, but they have gone a long way and are flying together more intuitively. Finally, starting to notice that the sun is getting low near the horizon, David looks at Noémie. “Hey, Noémie, isn’t it a bit late if we want to have our dinner?” he calls out, a bit worried now about that Herbology essay that he planned to finish this evening. The practice has been lasting for quite a long time now, and even if the drill has been extremely profitable to them, they need to eat as well.

For the remainder of the time that Riley and Tegan are practicing, Riley never seems to strike the bludger as hard. Even as he holds his bat, it seems as if it’s causing him some obscure pain that he’s attempting to hold back. Once they’re on the ground, he actually seems to be having some trouble standing. It’s subtle, but noticable under careful observation. Again, he hardly seems to lift his broom, and he waits officially for Noémie to call break so he can walk to the castle, though he doesn’t directly look at the team captain. “Aye, sounds good,” he mutters to Tegan, whom before now always seemed vaguely annoyed with his presence in her general vicinity.

Several shots follow as Bailey and David head towards Van again and again. The first of a series of attempt is thrown hard at the opposing hoop, with a good spin, curving nicely towards the ring. Following, there is a last-second hand off from David and Bailey tries to score, tossing the quaffle inbetween Van’s legs, a bit too obvious maybe. Getting it going they seem to harmonise better and better. Now they are trying to embed more complicated manouvers to increasingly challenge Van’s skills. One particular as they fly straight towards their keeper and lean apart to opposing sides, trying to let Van slip through the gap inbetween them and to score at the lonely hoop afterwards. They finally get untied and land to get into the warm castle to attend dinner.

Catching some shots and missing some, Van continues to go through the rest of the practice with a very set expression of concentration. No, she isn’t angry, but she doesn’t appear to be so cheery and nonchalant as when the practice first began. The girl pauses as the last shot comes to her and leans on her broom, looking around, not daring to look at Noémie, who she knows is watching them all from the ground now. “Good shot!” She calls to the last of them who made the throw, but she does not throw the quaffle back, hoping that Noémie will call the end of practice before she has to block any more shots.

“Alright, everyone come in!” the captain calls, her expression still rather tense as she watches them all. “No, David, it is not too late for supper. In fact, you’ve got plenty of time to do some homework before you all get to return to the pitch for our evening practice tonight after supper. We’ll be doing a lot of exercises, so make sure you get enough to eat this evening. Anyone who’s late will pay the consequences.” Without another word, Noémie watches for them to all come in, then goes and sets her broom in a large stand that she has drug out for the purpose of practices today. “No need to put the equipment away just now. We’ll be back after supper for it.” The girl nods to them all, then grins a bit. “I’m going to do homework and have supper, and I will see you all on the pitch this evening.” She doesn’t say another word, rather turns and strides off the pitch and into the castle quickly.

Scoffing as she lands and hears Noémie speaking, Van has barely removed herself from her broom and put the Quaffle in its box before Noémie has finished and turns to go into the school. “Snog her little boyfriend, more like,” Van comments, putting her own broom into the stand and grinning at her teammates. No, Van isn’t immune to the grapevine that has been busily spreading rumors of the prefect and her boyfriend. “I’m sure Joseph Wexler is great homework to be working on,” the seventh year adds with another chuckle then glances to everyone else. “I’ll see you at practice this evening then,” she tells them all with a sigh and makes her way off of the pitch slowly, waiting for a certain someone to make his way down from the bleachers before heading into the school.

Riley Markham nods vaguely, now that the official word has been given, before turning and starting toward he castle without a sound. His movements are natural, but slow. As if he were walking through quicksand, but trying to make everyone else believe the air was no more thick for him than anyone else. Again, he pulls his cloak tighter about himself, but he says nothing about it. Riley Markham does pauses, briefly, in his retreat, as Van’s voice reaches him. But his gaze remains downward cast, and after a moment, he continues on.

Once back on the ground, David walks away, more than a bit unhappy about the prospect of staying up late at night to catch up with his essay. “Plenty of time… yeah….” he says to no one in particular, but far enough from Noémie not to risk to be the target of her wrath once the practice resumes after the dinner.

Having gotten untied from David, Bailey stores his broom away with everyone else’s and sighs a bit. Double practices were not his favorite by any means, and he was certainly not looking foward to whatever exercises were in store for them after supper. Once he’s got his things situated, he runs back into the school, so as to make the most advantage of the time that has been awarded to them between the practices, and is gone from the pitch.

Back on the ground, Tegan unties her rope, pretending to need much time to do it but really only waiting for Bailey, who she looks from afar. Once the boy is free, too, she follows him, being careful not to run directly at his side: the last thing she needs is to spark another rumour in the school…

are here.

Stepping out onto the Quidditch pitch, Noémie breathes in deeply. She has her broom in hand, though she looks about as distracted as one could get. She crosses her arms across her chest as she surveys the cold, hard pitch before her. While it is not covered in snow, it is still quite cold out, and the ground has little give as she strides out to the center of it, tugging her scarf up higher around her neck. There is oddly nothing set up on the pitch today, no obstacle courses, nor any extra equipment brought out to the course. Just the quaffle, two restrained bludgers and bats, and Noémie with her broom.

Van comes trotting onto the pitch, having also gathered her broom, and crosses her arms over each other. “It’s too bloody cold,” she complains, though one might wonder why she only seems to have meager amounts of warm clothing on. The seventh year yawns a bit, too, as if to make a point, then looks to her captain. “Can we make this quick?” she asks, jumping from foot to foot while she tries to warm herself up a bit. No others have yet made it to the pitch, and she almost looks as if she hopes they won’t, and the practice on this cold day would be cancelled.

Clavicle Gravely is coming back to the pitch, he’d been out earlier. So his face is already red from cold and his scarf lined with frost. But he grins as he adjusts his gloves. “I’d gotten a warming charm on them if anyone else wants one. It’s on my socks too.”

“Good day for a practice, don’t you think?” Tegan comments as she strides up and cuffs Van on the shoulder. The girl grins widely at the older teammate, and it stands to wonder why she is suddenly in such a good mood. “What’s in store today? No obstacle course, I see. Pity, too, because I’d have liked to whack a chaser good with it.” Tegan grins all around and is clearly trying to rile someone up, but the effect just comes off as her being giddy, and she shrugs again, a grin still plastered to her face.

Just behind, on Tegan’s heels, Bailey‘s hair seems to be a mess, and his face is quite red, and is that sweat? Despite the cold, it looks as if Bailey has been up to something before making his way out to the pitch for practice. He doesn’t say anything, though there is a smug grin on his face. Perhaps he’s got a sweetheart now, or perhaps the boy has just managed to beat someone at a particularly rousing game of Wizard’s Chess. Either way, he looks as if he’s raring to get into the air immediately and get some practicing done.

“Well, I was thinking that the chasers, you all could go over and work on your passing a bit. Not that you need it, per se, but I want to see how you manage to do some long passes. So, here, take the quaffle, and try to change it up some, show variety. Don’t worry about dropping it; that’s what practice is for, after al.” A pause as Noémie looks at the other three teammates before her. “You beaters, I think I’ll want you to practice hitting quaffles towards the hoops there, and Van, of course, you’ll try to block those.” She nods, and then sets her broom down, trotting to the shed. It is a moment or six before she’s back out with two extra quaffles in hand, which she tosses one to each of the beaters. She takes the one from the box and throws it to one of the chasers, before ascending. “I’ll be flying about the pitch, and I’ll stop if I think I need to let you know something, but I’ve got to work on my dives.” With that, she picks up her broom and mounts it, beginning to fly around the pitch at a steady pace to start.

With a bit of a sigh, Van realizes that she isn’t going to get off quite as easy as she would’ve liked this time around, and mounts her broom, flying slowly up to the hoops. Hey, Noémie isn’t going to watch them, Van is certainly going to take her time! The keeper gets herself situated in front of the hoops, while glancing out to see if the beaters have made it up yet. She has a moment longer while they situate themselves and she begins to set her hair to rights, which is, by some unknown reason, still hanging freely and not covered by any hat or even earmuffs. Clearly Van was hoping Noémie would cut things extra short today.

Clavicle Gravely snags the quaffle and grins. He an Bailey had been practicing this after all. “You betcha Nomes.” he grins as he takes to the air with the sandsweeper, only wobbling a touch when he pulls his goggles on well. As he circles to make a long pass, “Hey Bailey! you got any broom wax? I’m out.” he zips around a touch as he uses the broom to spin a touch, this gives his throw a lot more force and distance.

Tegan nods and oofs a bit as she is thrown the quaffle. The fourth year tucks it under her arm and makes her way over to grab the smaller of the bats that’s left out for use. Readying her broom, she hops on it and starts to ascend. “This is a bit odd,” she comments, trying to get used to having to handle the quaffle, bat and broom. Soon she manages to get herself put to rights, and tosses up the quaffle, rearing her arm back to give it a mighty whack. The quaffle starts going off in the right direction, but being as it is a much different sort of ball than what she’s used to hitting, it falls short of her target, missing Van by at least ten feet. Accio quaffle is heard! and the quaffle comes flying back towards her as she tucks her wand back away.

Bailey shakes his head. “No, I’ve left all of my broom kit in my dorms. I’ll bring it next time if you need me to, though,” he offers with a shrug, pulling a hat out of his pocket and pulling it down over his ears to try to keep his head warm. “It’s SO cold!” he calls to his fellow chasers as he makes his way wide, to catch the quaffle. Looking about as Noémie passes, He pauses a moment, then chucks the ball out towards David, who in turn tosses the ball back towards Clavicle. “Let’s try flying in a circle while we do this,” he calls, adding demonstration by waving his arm in a circle. “After all, we’ll be flying when we make these passes in the game.”

Flying full circle around the pitch, Noémie seems to have gotten her groove back and glances around as everyone gets set up and gets going on their drills. No comments are made at the time, instead, she flies up high above the pitch, as if it were a match, and looks around, then begins to dive hard towards the ground. Flying, flying, flying, and soon she is down to the ground, pulling up hard from this difficult maneuver, and looking as if she isn’t entirely comfortable with the situation that she has just previously put herself in. Instead of reflecting on it further, however, she flies up high towards the bleachers, and then higher, and higher still, until she is far above her team, and perhaps ready to try this again.

“Augh!” Van calls, diving to block a bludger that Riley has hit to her. She misses catching it, and the quaffle flies past her. It does not go through the hoop however, and instead she flies down quickly to actch it before giving it a return throw to Riley, as far as she can manage. The keeper puts her arms up and rolls her shoulders in anticipation for Tegan’s next shot and manages to dive and block it this time, catching it in her hands and throwing it, too, towards the beater in question. “C’mon, change it up!” she calls. “Don’t keep going for that same hoop!” For one who was largely disinterested in the practice to begin with, she is goading the beaters a bit harshly.

Clavicle says, “Warm yourself by thinking about Slytherin not getting a score on us.” he laughs. He catches the quaffle. “I was also hoping we could come up with a few hand signals to use with each other. So the opposing team doesn’t hear us yell what we’re up to to each other. Y’know? Like a circle is Come round on my left, a counterclockwise circle is come around on my right, and lets make like 4 positions to have one two three or four fingers up to let the person with the quaffle knows where we can be if they need to pass, or they can tell us where to go to get a pass. It’s just an idea I was mulling over.” He hurls the quaffle to David who sends it back towards Bailey. “Bloody bones .. She’s pouring it on!” he states gasping at Noémie’s move. ”

Tegan laughs a bit at Van as she says this, flying down to retrieve the quaffle which hasn’t quite made it the full distance back. Waiting as Riley makes another shot, the beate tosses the quaffle in the air again and gives it a hard whack, not exactly paying attention to where the quaffle is directed, and she manages to send it flying rather upwardly of the hoops. “Oops,” she calls to both Riley and Van and shrugs. “I’ll go it again.” She summons the quaffle back to her once more and then gives it another whack, this time in a more straight line towards the hoops, a different one this time than her previous shot had gone.

“I dunno, I’d never remember that kind of stuff. It could slow us down,” Bailey responds and catches the quaffle more with his stomach than his hands. “I’m moving out a little,” he tells his fellow chaser and widens his berth from them a good deal, though staying close enough to be able to shoot the quaffle to his teammates. “She’s just practicing her dives,” he comments in response to Clavicle’s gaping. “She said that was what she was going to do after all. Anyway, that’s why I’m not a seeker. I’m awful at dives and the like.” Back on topic now, Bailey. He gives the Quaffle a hard throw towards Clavicle this time, using the full force of his arm, now that he’s so much farther from his teammate in the circling.

Noémie has no comments for any of her chasers, even as she comes zooming down through the middle of their circular formation. This could perhaps be because she hasn’t heard any of their comments, or it could conversely be because she simply has nothing to add to their conversations. This dive is considerably less steep, though it is from a much greater height as she begins to fly down more and more quickly, stopping with many feet to spare, and looking much more pleased at this dive, in general. The captain takes a deep breath before doing another two laps around the entire length of the pitch, chuckling as Van mutters some extremeties at just the moment when Noémie is passing behind her.

“And curse you, too, for flying by right then!” Van adds, sucking on her finger some more, having clearly been injured a bit just a moment before. “You don’t have to hit it so bloody hard, Riley,” she calls to her teammate, cradling her hand perhaps a bit dramatically as she waits for the pain to subside. She does continue to cradle the hand still after the pain has stopped completely, but only for show. She then dives, as Tegan bats another quaffle at her, and manages to block this one, too. She then tosses the quaffle back towards Tegan and prepares herself for another of Riley’s shots, which flies right past her and through the hoop with a loud clang. Van doesn’t seem pleased by this and doesn’t make any movement to retrieve it for the younger beater, instead, deciding that he might just gather his quaffle on his own.

Clavicle Gravely nods to Bailey. “Yeah, I hope her hand doesn’t slip, that’s a lot of speed to work off.” he grins, admittedly impressed with her pull outs. “Well Think it over about the handsignals Bails, they could give us a minor advantage against a team.” He grins. “The army uses it. As do muggles in the America’s in games.” He manages a catch but has to drop off the broom by one hand, he flings it back to Bailey and scrabbles back up on the broom to get control as the sandsweeper starts a slow spiral down as he makes the maneuver. He manages a rise again before he’s close to the ground and grins over to the other chasers. “Bother! but I got it.” Clavicle is doing better now that he’s not as worried about bludgers. He pulls back into his place in the circle.

Tegan holds onto the quaffle for a moment, flying to a different angle, both a bit higher, and a bit more to the side, and then readies herself again to make her shot. Up goes the quaffle, and then just as it’s in the right position, she gives it a good hard whack, and it zooms towards the keeper. This time, however, she’s gifted with a loud CLANG! as the quaffle goes through the hoop. Recalling Van’s previous actions towards Riley, Tegan slides her own wand out again and calls the quaffle to her, saving time and energy for the older chaser. Tegan glances over her shoulder, and while the chasers might not seem all that interesting, her gaze seems to linger for just a moment longer than it ought.

“Well, I just think we’re moving too fast in the game to even see the motions,” the chaser comments with a shrug. “Stop goofing around, are you trying to get us into trouble?” Bailey calls while shaking his head. “Don’t let Noémie see you doing that! I don’t want laps today! ‘Specially not the running kind!” He laughs a bit as he says this, obviously recalling that mid-fall practice in the pouring rain, when he had not been more grateful to get off the pitch, for once. “Over here,” he calls with a clap of his hands. “Y’can advise Noémie that you were thinking it might work to use hand signals, though, see what she thinks. I just know I’d forget ‘em all, if we even managed to see them on the pitch.” He shrugs again.

“Do get back onto your broom, Clavicle,” Noémie calls with a shake of her head while she hovers far above the pitch. “It’s better not to have any causalties during practice, after all. We want to have all healthy teammates so we can slaughter Slytherin this weekend!” She laughs as she says this and shrugs a bit, turning her attention back away from the group of chasers to return to her own task of dives. Just a few more, she decides, and she’ll call it good. She soon begins to descend with more speed than any of her previous dives, and is on her way towards the ground quickly before pulling out of it to fly steeply up into the air again. While this dive had had the most speed, it certainly hadn’t been the most impressive that she had managed.

Grumbling, Van readjusts her position on her broom to better be able to see the two beaters with, now that they are farther apart. Two quaffles come at her more quickly this time and she yells. “One at a time, else it’s not even hardly fair!” It appears as if perhaps the Keeper’s attention is waning as she continues to try to block, and indeed manages to block one of the two quaffles that were shot at her, and tosses the one she caught back to Riley, though she is only guessing at this point who the shot came from.

Clavicle Gravely finishes the maneuver and takes his place in the flying circle grinning a bit. “Right. Er…Just had to try it you know? Never know when something like that would be good in a game right?” He catches a shot from David and zips around to toss it towards Bailey. His face is quite red from the cold. “Right then, so tell me? If I can’t feel my nose anymore, is that bad?” he laughs a bit “I should have heat charmed the ruddy scarf!”

Tegan‘s attention is still on a certain chaser as Van has blocked both the shots, and it is several moments before she hears, “Tegan!” shouted rather loudly by two individuals and snaps her attention forward again. “Sorry!” she calls and her face deepens to a rather purple shade as she calls the errant quaffle back to her. She hardly waits a moment before sending it back towards Van with a determined look on her face. It is clear that she does not want to be asked about her moment of distraction.

Bailey nods and lets out a laugh. “Well, it’s normal for this time of year, anyway. Glad we’re moving, else I think I’d be more frozen than just my noze and lips!” He chuckles as he chucks the Quaffle towards David again. “Ugh, I hate winter practice. Too bad we don’t have room to practice it in the school.” Bailey pauses as he ponders this, and nearly misses a toss to him back from David. He grabs onto it with the tips of his fingers though, and brings it back in to toss it over to Clavicle. “I hope we’re done soon. I could really go for some cocoa or perhaps some warm pumpkin juice!”

Clavicle Gravely looks at Tegan “What gives? you got the sun in your eyes?” he doesn’t clue in that one of the chasers is being scoped out, maybe if she drooled and it froze he’d have a clue. He turns and catches the quaffle with an oof. “Good one.” he zips around and heaves it at David. “What’s with Tegan, she’s staring over here.”

“Alright, bring it in!” Noémie calls, slowing out of a dive instead of flying up out of it, and then landing on the ground. She puts her hands on her hips as she looks around at everyone, breathing in deeply and stretching out a bit as she has landed. The captain looks quite worn, clearly the dives have worn her out quite a bit. “This was a good practice, I think,” she hollers to them while still waiting for them all to join her on the ground. She sets her broom down, and rather nonchalantly plops herself on the ground to stretch out in other ways.

Seizing her opportunity to stop practicing, Van avoids the quaffle flying towards her and instead directs herself towards the ground, the glee on her face very apparent. The seventh year doesn’t look as if she even wants to wait out while Noémie gives any final words or instructions. Landing, she strides over to where Noémie is. “I’ve got some homework to do, so if you don’t mind…?” It comes out as a question, but Van does not wait for Noémie’s response before she trots off the pitch and has vanished from view.

Clavicle Gravely looks at Tegan “What gives? you got the sun in your eyes?” he doesn’t clue in that one of the chasers is being scoped out, maybe if she drooled and it froze he’d have a clue. He turns and catches the quaffle with an oof. “Good one.” he zips around and heaves it at David. “What’s with Tegan, she’s staring over here.” He zips down in a Noémie like dive to pull out at the last moment. He grins at Noémie. “Sure thing boss.”

It is Tegan‘s shot that is missed and she quickly calls it to her one last time before giving Clavicle a red-faced glance. She says nothing, however, before flying down to the ground, grateful for the distraction that the end of practice will bring. After all, outing their feelings now would be bad for the both of them, especially as Bailey seems to have been entirely oblivious to her glance. She lands on the ground and seeing her captain stretch, begins to do so as well, though admittedly she is doing it rather half-heartedly (as usual).

Bailey shrugs off the comment and in an effort not to bring any further attention to the situation, comes to land on the ground, rather distant from the rest of them and stretches his arms over his head with his broom in hand. “That’s all then?” he asks in a curious voice, with not a single glance towards the female beater. “It was a great practice,” he tells everyone, looking around. “Very useful for the match, I think.” Then again, his opinion is not exactly the one that matters in this situation and he pauses, waiting for Noémie’s response.

“Yes, good practice all around,” she tells them all with a wide smile. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to go back into the air to practice a bit more — after all, it can’t hurt, right?” Noémie chuckles as she says this and glances at everyone. “Feel free to leave everything here, and I’ll clean it up on my way back into the castle. Go and get yourselves warm, and then you’d all better be working on your assignments. I don’t want to have a handicap because someone didn’t finish his homework!” A pointed look goes to Riley as she says this, though her face is not at all cruel. She stands and picks up her broom, climbing onto it and then flying up high into the air, doing figure eights up far above the stands.

Clavicle Gravely carries his broom in with him to work on waxing it. “I need to tim the brush too.” he chatters with a shivver. “See you all Later.” But as Noémie goes off to practice, He gathers all the practice equipment into the bags and carriers to make it easier for her. He then tramps off towards the castle.

“Good practice, everyone! See you tomorrow!” Tegan calls, tucking her broom under her shoulder to fix an unbuttoned bit of her sweater, and then trots towards the broom shed. A moment later, she emerges and makes her way back to the castle, sans broom. The speed at which she exits the pitch seems to signify that she has somewhere important to be. Soon she is gone from view.

Bailey, too, heads off the pitch, offering a wave to his teammates as they all disperse. The chaser seems to hesitate a moment before putting his own broom into the shed, and then leaves, strangely in a different direction than the one Tegan had headed in, though it is safe to assume that they would either head to the Great Hall for something warm, or to their commonroom, so the varied paths could increase suspicion on the part of others, should they choose to notice. It is not long before he, too, is out of sight, however, and his doings concealed from those who are not specifically following him.

It is clear that Noémie has been on the pitch for a while, and for one in the midst of study for her OWL exams, the girl looks surprisingly calm. The pitch is set up with an elaborate obstacle course, strangely enough, set up on the ground rather than being up in the air. A shorter set of hoops are at the end of the course. There are hanging-type large bags, which seem to sway only slightly in the wind, hoops moving back and forth to dodge around or jump through, and various other charmed distractions to make the running of the course more difficult. The girl steps back from her creation and looks about, picking up her broom while she waits for the rest of her team to show up.

Being a bit late from a class that didn’t seem to finish, David runs on the pitch. He has barely had the time to change his clothes and take his broom in his commons, and he is completely breathless when he finally stops near the other players of the team. He just nods to greet them, as he tries to calm down, and it is only after a little while that he notices the various obstacles set up, apparently, by the team captain. “What”… he says, still trying to breath correctly, “… are we going to do, today?”

Van trots out to the pitch with her broom in hand and she pauses at the edge of the pitch, staring a bit. “You’ve got to be kidding,” she calls, then starts walking towards Noémie. “Not again.” Van has clearly gone through one of these before, and she doesn’t look entirely pleased as she sets her broom down in the stand that has been set up near the edge of the pitch. “Only a couple of times through. Last time I did one of these, it bruised me for a week, and that is the last thing I need now.” The seventh year just shakes her head and crosses her arms over her stomach.

“An obstacle course!” Tegan calls, as if her teammates haven’t already noticed this. She and Bailey come running to the pitch together, having come from the same class just before, and for her part, Tegan looks thrilled to be at practice for once. The fourth year stows her broom next to where Van has put hers and trots over to the rest of them, looking as if she’s raring to give the course a try.

Bailey doesn’t seem quite as enthralled as Tegan does as they approach, though he quickly stows his broom next to where Tegan and Van have put theirs, for easy retrieval later. “Bruises, huh?” he chuckles in response to Van, and shrugs. “Bruises aren’t so bad. At least they aren’t broken bones.” Another shrug is gifted and he elbows Tegan nonchalantly. “I bet I can beat you through it any day.” Not that it’s much of a threat, being as the two of them play different positions.

“Alright, we’ll go Chasers first, and then beaters. Van, I want you to go put yourself in front of those hoops and try to block shots when the chasers get through. Tegan, you and Riley go on either side of the course, and hit this bludger back and forth through it. That’s the last obstacle.” Noémie crosses her arms, looking almost smug as she says this, glancing to everyone. She leans down and picks up the quaffles that she has brought out for the express purpose of this course. She tosses one to each of the chasers. “Let’s get set up, I want to see this course run!”

David looks at the obstacle course, then the other players, and finally the team captain. “I take it we don’t need our brooms for the moment, right?” he says, and before waiting for an answer, puts his broom near the box where the balls are stored. He then takes out the red Quaffle, and readies himself to run through the obstacles. When the other chasers look ready to dash towards the hoops, he starts to run, and after a few meters, throws the Quaffle to Bailey.

Van trots over to the hoops as she is told to do, and stands in front of the hoops, looking up at them. “They’re a bit high,” she calls, looking up at them, and jumping up. When she jumps, she finds she is able to block the hoops, but it isn’t easy. This doesn’t look promising to the Keeper, and though she does start to look more sullen, she doesn’t say anything more to the captain, who seems to have her mind made up for the day’s practice.

Taking her own position near to the end of the course, Tegan readies the bat she has grabbed and waits for the bludger to be released. “Alright, Riley, try not to hurt anyone too badly. Especially me.” The emphasis on this statement almost seems to indicate that she thinks he will hurt her somehow in their practice. As the bludger is released, Tegan runs a bit and gives it a hard whack towards Riley, trying to keep her line as straight as possible.

Starting to run, Bailey takes speed and starts to jump over several obstacles which were magically moving so as to distract him. After the third obstacle, starting to feel a bit breathless, his course slows down a bit. The fourth obstacle, a mere sandbag, seems easier than the two previous ones, but as he jumps, Bailey‘s foot suddenly gets trapped in a sort of ring that was hidden on the other side. “Ow!” he yells, as he falls forward in the mud. He stands up, massaging his ankle for a while, then looks back. “That’s a nasty one you’ve put here!” he yells, reproach clearly audible in his voice, but he resumes his course and finally comes in front of the hoops protected by Van. With a large swing, he tosses the Quaffle at the goalie…

“Well, we’re playing Slytherin soon, and I want you all to be on your toes!” Noémie calls in response, jogging down the length of her course as she watches Bailey run through. “Get on through, you can do it!” she calls as he makes his way through. Noémie looks to have quite a bit of extra energy today. “Good run,” she calls and turns her attention to Van as she is shot at. “Next up, go!” she calls to whoever is next in the line, while she glances momentarily at the Beaters who are both steadily hitting the bludger back and forth.

Coming back from his first run, David pants and holds his knee with his ankle, after having fallen a couple of times. Noticing that nobody else is waiting in the line, he starts to run back towards the goals, holding his Quaffle (which Van threw back to him after his attempt at scoring a point.) Despite the sore ankle, the second run seems way easier than the first one, since David now knows where the obstacles are and is a bit warmed up. Reaching the hoops, he throws the Quaffle at the rightmost hoop, hoping that Van wouldn’t catch it, this time. But it is unlikely: this time he has thrown it harder than the first time.

Van jumps up, and she misses this first one, grumbling a bit, and she pushes her sleeves, despite the cold, freeing up her arms and hands to better catch the quaffles flying towards her. The second quaffle that comes towards her, the first from David, she manages to catch, and she tosses it towards the other end of the obstacle course, more or less aiming to hit him. “Take that!” she calls and turns her attention back to the course, jumping up and again missing as David makes his second shot. “God, did you have to make them so HIGH?” she complains at Noémie, jumping as another of the chasers makes a shot, which she does manage to block this time.

Tegan hits the bludger high, and it comes down low to Riley’s side, crashing into the ground. She shakes her head and readies her bat as another bludger is hit her way, sending it flying in a more straight path towards Riley this time. “Look out!” she calls as another of the chasers comes running through the obstacle course. “Don’t need injuries before the match or anything!” The girl continues hitting the bludger back and forth with her fellow beater.

Another turn for Bailey Williams. This time, the boy runs faster, jumps higher and dodges the obstacles more effectively than he had done before. This time, the practice seems to pay off and Bailey reaches the goal hoops in the shortest time yet. Letting out a loud roar, he tosses the Quaffle towards the hoop, aiming at the nearest one. The boy halts and watches the ball fly, wondering if Van would be able to catch it…

Noémie claps loudly at her team as they make it through. “You’re getting better,” she calls as less of the obstacles trip them up, and as Van does manage to make some blocks. “Just a couple more, and then we’ll wrap up. I’ve got to get back to studying, and I’m sure you all could do with a healthy dose of it, too.” She chuckles at her own comment and crosses her arms and watches as the chasers continue their rounds through the obstacle course.

Coming back from another run, panting from the effort but grinning widely since he managed to do his last tries without too many falls, David jogs back to the line where the other Chasers are waiting. “It’s getting a bit dark, isn’t it?” he asks Noémie. “And we’ve all made at least fifteen runs each. How long do you want us to practice further?”, he asks.

Van jumps up and catches the last quaffle that’s come to her and walks away from the hoops holding it. “Honestly, I’m exhausted, can’t we stop?” she whines, coming completely out of the obstacle course and tossing the quaffle towards where the brooms are. She puts her hands on her knees and shakes her head as she tries to catch her breath again.

Pulling her wand out quickly, Tegan immobilizes the bludger. Calling it to her, she trots over to Noémie and plunks it into the box that it had come from, breathing a sigh of relief. “Good practice,” she tells everyone with a happy grin. The girl does a twirl and plunks the bat down next to the box, shoving a quaffle in, completing the set. “I’ll put this away, I’ve got to go somewhere!” she hollders and practically prances off.

“Is it finished, already?” asks Bailey, making a mock pout at the other Chasers. “I was just warmed up… too bad.” he says, but if the whole truth has to be told, he is as happy as the others to call it an evening. “Seriously, I think we’ve practiced well tonight. That was a great drill you prepared for us, Noémie.” he says, nodding with respect at her. “And now, it’s time to hit the showers!”

“Yes, good practice,” Noémie echoes. “Everyone off, I’ve got some cleaning to do.” In addition to her own bit of training. She turns without another word to grab her broom and soon is in the air, doing a series of laps, clearly not allowing anyone to even try to ask her if she needs help. No, Noémie is in an interesting mood today, and her behavior has demonstrated this, but now, she is in the air, swooping and diving, and completely ignoring the couple of teammates still on the field.

Van stands up and takes a deep breath, grabbing her broom and Tegan’s, which she had left when she so quickly. The seventh year waves at Noémie, though she is already in the air, and makes her way to the broomshed, storing the brooms away safely from the elements, then heads out of that shed, and into the school, set on perhaps a snack, or maybe a secluded meeting with a ‘certain someone’.

“Well, if everybody is leaving, I’m not going to wait, either.” says David, who grabs the broom he left near the ball box. “Goodbye Noémie, thanks for the practice and the drill.” he says, and he walks away towards the locker rooms. The house elves will surely have a hard time cleaning up the mud stains out of his Quidditch outfit…

David looks at the obstacle course, then the other players, and finally the team captain. “I take it we don’t need our brooms for the moment, right?” he says, and before waiting for an answer, puts his broom near the box where the balls are stored. Catching one of the Quaffles tossed to him by Noémie, he starts to run towards the goals, trying his best to dodge as many obstacles as he can. He falls a couple of times, nothing serious, but soon his clean Quidditch outfit is completely filled wih mud. He curses mildly as another Chaser of the team passes in front of him with a laugh, then starts to run again.