Striding out onto the pitch in the early evening, there is still enough light to hold a good practice. The balls are out on the field, and Noémie herself is already out on the pitch, and has a bucket of golf balls to aid in her own practice as well. She seems to be attempting to fine-tune her broom as she waits for her teammates to approach the field for the practice she has called.

For once not looking quite as pleased as usual, Van stomps onto the pitch, her broom in hand, and crosses her arms at Noémie. “You had to schedule a practice on Valentines day, didn’t you?” Van‘s displeasure at this is apparent, and though she does not say another word about it, her face does not come out of its stony position een while she begins to stretch out for the practice.

Following the captain of the team, David walks silently on the team, his broom in his hand, with an air of concentration on the face. Looking back at Van, he replies in a sharp tone: “We must practice if we want to be the best, Van. You know that.” It’s not as if David had someone to spend the nascent evening with, either. In fact, Quidditch could prove to be a good distraction today. “What are we going to do today, Noémie?” he asks.

A fine day to practice. Even if he had other plans for the evening, Bailey Williams doesn’t see anything wrong with a bit of practice before dinner: “Exactly, Van. Training never hurts.” he chimes in, his broom in his hand. The boy seems more than ready to fly, and waits for his captain’s instructions.

Tegan tromps onto the pitch, wearing no less than five layers of clothing. “It’s so bloody cold,” she tells them with a visible shiver. While this is not something that any of them need to be told, after all — it is winter. But Tegan seems to think it is something important for them to know, and half-heartedly begins practicing just as Van is doing, though Van’s are perhaps a bit better than her own.

“It’s a lovely day, and you snog with your boyfriend all the time; how would today have been any different Van?” Noémie chuckes as she says this and mounts her broom. “Alright, here’s what I’d like to go on. Bailey, David, and Clavicle, if you’ll go run a few plays at Van, who’ll try to block them. Do some creative things, I want you all to stay on your toes. And, Tegan, if you’ll stay on the ground today and throw golfballs at me, that would be great. Riley’s out sick today, so it’ll be best for you to stay on the ground and help me practice up a bit. You can use your bat to hit them, if you like.” Noémie smiles and begins to ascend, not giving much room for complaint or protest.

Van‘s face doesn’t move from stony annoyance as she, too, mounts her broom and begins to fly up into the air, headed directly towards the nearer set of hoops. “Make it interesting at least so I’m not bored over here watching you do the usual formations.” Van shrugs and looks almost bored, though the annoyance in her face has not yet subsided. Being u in the air seems to help her out, however, in appeasing her sour mood.

Tegan shrugs idly at Noémie’s request and grabs a bat as well as the bucket of balls that Noémie has set out for her, and trots down the pitch some so that she’ll be out of the way of the chasers. After all, she doesn’t want to take any of them out with a golf ball! She tosses one up in the air and gives it a hard whack, missing a bit too late and causing the ball to fly low to the pitch and get embedded into the turf. Trying again, she manages to send the second one flying high above the pitch, looking almost smug as she manages this.

“Alright, Captain,” says David, making a mock salute before jumping on his broom and flying away. Yes, it was a bit freezing tonight, but his scarf is doing a good job at protecting his throat from the stinging cold and wind. The condensation on his glasses, created by his breath, is a bigger problem though, but David knows that it is going to fade in a few instants anyway. The boy finally stops midway to the hoops, waiting for the Quaffle to be tossed up in the sky. “Make it interesting, eh? Hmm. Let’s see what I can do.”

Bailey Williams rolls his eyes at the comment about snogging made by Noémie, but doesn’t say anything, actually agreeing with her about the importance of training. “Okay… let’s find some new tactics for a change.” he says, as he puts his own broom into position and mounts it. “Hey, David, wait for me!” he yells, but he soon manages to catch up with the third year. He takes his own position, a few meters behind and at the right of David, ready for the training to begin.

Flying around a bit while Tegan gets into place, Noémie dives a bit as the first one arcs just short of her, and dives to catch it. She does manage it and gives it a hearty toss towards Tegan, though the ball does not quite make it to the younger girl. Soon another is flying at her and another so that Noémie is having to make sharp turns to catch them, and is now just tossing them generally towards Tegan, rather than trying to get them close. Soon, there is a break, and Noémie pauses to get her breath up again. It isn’t long though before the balls start up again, and Noémie has to dart around, back and forth.

Van now flies about before the hoops, trying to get herself into her groove. It doesn’t take long, in fact, she seems to be at the top of her game today, despite her bad mood. The seventh year looks to the chasers before her with a sly grin. “Let’s see what you’ve got, then!” she laughs, apparently having quite quickly forgotten about her anger just moments before. “Show me what you plan to do to Slytherin this next match!” She laughs a bit, rather loudly, and it echoes across the pitch.

Pausing a moment to give Noémie another breather, Tegan again begins to toss the ball up, and then whacking it with the bat high, low, left or right, trying to make the most variety for her captain, as well as trying to refine her own aim for the impending match. “Hold up,” she calls, “I’m out of balls, I’ll have to gather them!” Accio golfball! is heard over and over again while the white balls fly towards Tegan and she gathers them into the pail that has been provided for them.

“Okay. So, where’s the Quaffle?” says Bailey, turning his head and noticing that David hasn’t it, either. “Oh, you didn’t take it?” he asks, taking out his wand. “Accio Quaffle!” he yells, and the shiny red ball suddenly flies up in the air towards Bailey, who deftly catches it. “Right. Let’s try to practice some side shoots. Those are the hardest to do, after all.” he says, pushing his broom forward, taking a turn and flying in a parallel direction relatively to the hoops. When he comes near enough, he throws the Quaffle over his shoulder towards one of the rings.

Tegan finally manages to gather all the balls together, and then begins hitting the balls towards Noémie again, with varying degrees of success. “Sorry about that!” she calls, as one errantly flys towards the chasers who are all grouped, nearer than she had expected them to be. It is but a fleeting moment before she readjusts her aim and is again shooting the golfballs towards Noémie instead of her other teammates.

Van zooms up towards the hoop, but a loud CLANG is heard, and it is clear that she missed catching the shot. She flies around the hoops to retrieve the quaffle and heaves it back towards the chasers. “Alright, well, you got me this time; I’ll get the next one!” She laughs a bit and centers herself in front of the hoops, and this time keeps her eyes more on the chasers this time than the previous.

David catches the Quaffle and readies himself to do a side pass as Bailey has shown. He suddenly feels a bit nervous; throwing the Quaffle sideways has never been his strongest move. David takes a deep breath, then pushes forward to launch his broom on its trajectory. As he flies in front of the hoops, he throws the Quaffle. His throw completely lacks the style and power of Bailey, though, and it is only by pure luck that it somewhat flies in the general direction of the hoops. David lets out a soft swear as he turns his head to watch the result of his throw.

Noémie flies around, missing more now, and she grits her teeth as she starts missing some. No, this is not a good thing. Pausing for a moment and letting some of the balls deliberately fall to the ground as she readjusts herself on her broom. A few more golfballs are caught, and Noémie looks about. The fading light has started to weigh heavily on her ability to see the balls flying about, and after she is hit in the shoulder hard by one she sighs a bit and begins to fly lower. “Let’s wrap it up!” She calls to everyone. “It’s getting to be a bit dark for practice!” Landing near by to where Tegan is, she smiles. “Good shots. That was a good workout for me.” She pauses and starts summoning the balls back to her as well, trying to help her teammate clean up.

This next shot, Van manages to get her hands on, and lets out a loud whoop at it. The sky is, in fact, getting quite dark, and she starts to fly down towards the pitch, the Quaffle in hand. “Good run, guys,” She calls to the chasers as she lands on the ground, plunking the quaffle into its spot in the box that Noémie had brought out. The keeper takes it upon herself to close the box up and take it to the broomshed along with her own broom. “I’m off to supper,” she calls, and she is quickly off to the school, clearly intent more on her sweetheart than the actual eating.

“Look where you throw your Quaffle, David!” shouts Bailey, who has observed the younger Ravenclaw doing his pass. “You can’t throw it correctly if you don’t aim.” he says, just before the call of the captain comes to his ears. “What, finished, already? We only did a couple of passes, do you call that a training?” he answers good-naturedly. “Okay. Let’s get down. I’m hungry as well.” he says, before diving slightly and landing near the box where the Quidditch ball are stored.

Chuckling, Tegan finishes putting all the balls back into the bucket, then plops her bat onto it, striding over a ways on the pitch where she had set her broom down upon hearing Noémie’s request. “It was good practice for my aim,” she admits to Noémie. “Thanks for a good practice,” she calls, stretching her arms a bit, and reaching tall. This motion causes her to readjust herself completely and rewrap her scarf. It seems that Tegan doesn’t want a bit of cold to get to her, even as the practice is nearly over.

“Hmm…” says David, a bit flustered by the fact he didn’t manage his throw correctly. “Look where I aim… right… and shouldn’t I also look where I fly?” he asks. “You do that as if it were totally easy… except it isn’t.” he protests slightly. “But yeah… I don’t mind a good dinner.” he says, finally, following Bailey and landing next to him. “Too bad we’re only in February. The night comes so quickly…”

Laughing a bit, Noémie nods. “Well, it’s the dark that’s keeping me from catching the golf balls. We’ll get together again tomorrow, a bit earlier, I hope, for the practice, and that way we’ll be able to go for longer.” The girl chuckles and picks up the bucket of balls as well as the bat that Tegan has left for her. “I’ll put this away if you all want to go to dinner. I promise we’ll get more complete practices in this week. Perhaps when some of our members aren’t distracted by the silly holiday.” Despite these comments, Noémie looks quite cheerful as she strides off towards the the broom shed.

Tegan waves at her teammates as she starts to run to the school, holding onto her hat as she does so. It seems as if Tegan herself might have someone to rush off for, perhaps, on such a day as this, though she hasn’t yet said a word about such a thing. The girl is soon gone, vanished into the school, and the warmth that it holds.

are here.

Standing in the center of the pitch, stretching, Noémie appears to be quite pleased with the clear weather for once. The sky is clear and bright, and the sun is shining down on the drifts of snow that cover the pitch and the tops of the hoops. “Just start stretching. It’s cold enough, without people getting injured from it,” she calls to her teammates who seem to be straggling onto the pitch. Her broom lays over the top of a box of Quidditch balls and she breathes in deeply as she begins some other stretching exercises.

Striding onto the pitch a bit behind, Van sets his broom against the same box as Noémi’s and begins his stretching. “Well it’s been colder than this… and at least it stopped snowing… and the wind isn’t as bad as it’s been.” Calls Van out to the captain. He stretches down to touch each foot and holds in place for a few moments before standing upright and tucking his arms behind his back. He’s pretty used to the whole stretching routine by now. “So what’s on the slate for today?”

Despite the clear sky, the wind is cold and stings David‘s face as he joins his other teammates on the pitch. He holds his broom over his left shoulder, as usual, privately wondering about the drills that he’ll have to perform today. He nods to the other players, without a word, as a greeting, and does just as he has been told. A few stretchings, he can do that.

Striding onto the pitch a bit behind, Van sets her broom against the same box as Noémi’s and begins her stretching. “Well it’s been colder than this… and at least it stopped snowing… and the wind isn’t as bad as it’s been.” Calls Van out to the captain. She stretches down to touch each foot and holds in place for a few moments before standing upright and tucking her arms behind her back. She’s pretty used to the whole stretching routine by now. “So what’s on the slate for today?”

“Yes, we’ve seen worse before, haven’t we? We’re in Scotland, after all.” Tegan Madison chimes in, as she joins the group. “Hello everybody, by the way.” she adds, as an afterthought, and she waves to her teammates. Then, she puts her own broom on the ground, and starts the stretching routine herself, bending forward, then to the left and the right. “So yes… what do you have in store for us?” she asks to the team captain.

Coming to the pitch at a jog, Bailey grins at the lot of them. “Afternoon, everyone,” he calls, half-heartedly beginning to stretch as he sees his teammates doing. “Have a good holiday everyone?” he asks, holding his broom out, ready to hop onto it. “Ah, I can’t wait to fly again. Sick of not being able to fly! My parents are just too weird about it.” He chuckles and switches arms, watching out the corner of his eye for when the captain finishes her stretches.

“I thought we’d fly some laps around the pitch for starters, get the holiday laziness out of us, and then do some passing exercises with the quaffle while the beaters work with a bludger. How’s that sound?” Noémie says this in a tone that makes it clear that they haven’t really much room to disagree with her. Then again, after the practice in the pouring rain during the fall, some of them seem relieved that they’ll at least be on brooms. “Alright, everyone up. Let’s do five laps.” She gets onto her broom and begins her own without another word to her team.

Cracking her back with an audible pop Van takes her broom in hand and smiles. “Hullo Teagan! Bailey! I hope you both had lovely holidays! Well laps aren’t so bad…. at least it’s not raining….” A small laugh rises out of her as she mounts her broom and begins flying a bit behind Noémie trying to get her broom back into the groove of things. As Van swings by the bleachers she waves a bit carelessly to a boy sitting pretty well alone and one might guess that it was her sweetheart from the way she blows him a kiss. Of course waving one hand in the air like a ninny throws her a little off balance but she’s kick to get herself back under control.

“Okay… it’s going to be good to fly again…” says David, as he takes his broom and mounts it. “Five laps, huh?” he asks again, to make sure he heard it right, and obviously afraid of making a fool of himself by not following the right instructions. He concentrates on his takeoff, checking his surroundings to see if nobody is in his path, and he notices Van blowing her kiss to her sweetheart, to which he rolls his eyes, before kicking off the ground.

Bailey takes to his broom and begins to zoom around the pitch. He’s a good bit behind Noémie and Van, who both got a head start on him, and since he’s not interested in wearing himself out first thing into practice. Soon, his five laps are finished, and he comes to hover in the center of the pitch, near where the box of Quidditch balls are. “So, which exercise are we doing, then?” he asks, his voice perhaps a bit deeper than it had been a month ago.

“Okay… let’s warm up a bit and fly for real!” says Tegan, enjoying the opportunity for a good training, and she takes off after the others, dutifully performing her five laps. She notices with satisfaction that the holidays didn’t make her too rusty, and smiles as she feels the wind blowing against her face with the speed.

“Alright, Tegan, you get the bludger, and your bat, and head on up with Riley, and I’ll practice with the chasers. We’ll do throwing exercises.” The prefect flies low and opens the box, pulling out the quaffle and tossing it up towards the chasers. “Van, you go by the hoops, and practice your diving until we work our way towards you,” Noémie orders, taking to her broom again and flying up high over the pitch. “What we’ll do is toss the quaffle over the two in the center, and if one of them catches it, then we’ve got to switch. We’ll fly towards the hoops as we do it. This should hopefully improve our coordination.” She smiles at the others and situates herself on the outside.

As soon as Van finishes her laps she flies over to the goal hoops as instructed by Noémie. “Alright, dives…. good…” Van takes a deep breath and waves to the person in the bleachers who is always making her late. “Watch carefully!” She flies away from the center hoop to the far right and charges back to the center as if diving for an imaginary Quaffle while grasping tight to her broom with both legs and extending both hands to clasp an imaginary ball.

Tegan Madison nods as she hears the instructions, and lands to look for her bat. The bat was useless for the warming up, hence she left it near the box containing the balls. As soon as she has gotten hold of it, she heads towards the box and releases the bludger. As the ball shoots up in the air, she walks away and gets back on her broom, kicks off from the ground, and motions for Riley to follow her.

Bailey‘s up in the air as soon as Noémie gives the order of events, positioning himself in the middle near the other Chaser. He grins to his partner and gives a sly look to David and Noémie. “Alright, we’ll be back on the outside before you know it!” He chuckles and reaches out to grab the quaffle as it comes flying upward. “Alright, which one of you wants it to start?” he asks, looking from David to Noémie and back again.

David Mildred nods as he hears the instructions, and follows the team captain from afar, hovering in the air near her as he watches her getting the Quaffle. As she takes off, he turns his head to follow her with his eyes. It is only a few seconds after that, that Tegan releases the bludger from the same box. Hearing the characteristic buzz of the metal ball flying towards him, David instinctively ducks on his broom, barely avoiding the Bludger as it flies past him. A near miss. David struggles a bit to put himself into position again. “Be careful with those, Tegan!” he yells angrily towards the Beater, before flying over to where the other Chasers are gathering. “Okay… what are we going to do?” he asks.

“David, you take the quaffle first. I fear for my own ability in this. After all, the snitch is a bit smaller.” The girl winks and chuckles as she says this She watches as Bailey tosses the quaffle towards her teammate and then begins flying at a good rate forward. “Throw it fast now. And don’t be afraid to fake them.” She grins widely and gets herself situated comfortably on her broom while watching for David’s throw. Yes, Noémie will have to do her seeker practice later.

“All right, I’ll do my best.” says David, catching the Quaffle from Noémie’s hands. He steers his broom so as to fly away from the other Chasers, giving himself some room for the throw. When he estimates the distance to be decent and still within his skills, he throws the red ball, trying to put some force in it, but missing his aim a bit as he does so. David frowns as he sees his ball flying over to Van. This is not going to be an easy throw for her, and David wouldn’t like to catch one of those.

Pulling herself up right after her dive Van gets repositioned to try another dive. This time she hovers a few feet in front of the left goal and flies all the way to the far right again trying to catch David’s errant Quaffle doing a bit of a strange sideways turn on her broom with an arm outstretched to catch the Quaffle. Catching it she gets set back up she looks a little dizzy. “Oie I hope I don’t have to do that one too often….” she shakes her head and mutters. “Just glad I didn’t have breakfast yet…” Van tosses the Quaffle back toward the group of Chasers.

“Perhaps we should start back a bit farther,” Bailey suggests. “Doesn’t do us much good to start right off trying to make goals, hmm?” He chuckles and turns, flying backwards a ways, then stopping. “Alright, now try to get it past us, David! I’m sure you’ll be in the middle in no time!” He grins at the other chaser as the others fly to where he has stopped and align themselves appropriately.

“Here, David!” Noémie calls, clapping her hands and putting them up in the air, mostly hoping that she won’t make a fool of herself by dropping the quaffle when it’s thrown to her. “Nice and high so they can’t get it,” she calls, laughing a bit as she sees Bailey rise on his broom, clearly ready to intercept a high toss, should the ball come that high. The captain watches carefully, ducking as the bludger comes flying rather close to her.

“Okay, Riley, let’s send the Bludger around the Chasers!” says Tegan, flying after the metal ball and throwing it back in the general direction of the Chasers, not targeting anybody in particular –this is still practice, after all.

David groans and nods, catching the Quaffle once again, this time getting a bit nearer from Noémie and trying to avoid Bailey. When he is close enough, he sends the ball in a parabolic trajectory, as instructed, sending it directly towards Noémie. This time it is an easy one, and Noémie will have no trouble catching it, even if she is used to smaller balls, as she has put it earlier.

Slowly stalking back and forth in front of the center goal Van watches the chaser’s carefully ready to block an attempt to score again. She takes another moment to watch the beaters as you never know when a stray bludger might end up lodged in your skull. “Good one David! Way to go!” She calls out trying to encourage the younger team mate.

Flying up as David tosses the ball, Bailey misses being able to catch it, though his fingers do brush it slightly, causing its trajectory to be much higher than it would have been, were it unbothered. He turns quickly, keeping up with the group of them as they fly slowly towards the goals, and watches to see if Noémie manages to catch the red orb.

Noémie manages to grab the ball, though she looks as if she’s ready to fall off her broom as she does so. She soon lobs it back towards David, managing to keep the thing high enough to miss Bailey’s hands once again. “See, if we can pass like that during the game, we’ll have no trouble dominating the quaffle long enough for me to find that snitch.” The girl grins and winks as she watches to see if David gets his hands onto the Quaffle.

Smiling as he manages to catch the Quaffle without too much difficulties, David nods to Noémie and agrees. “Yes, we should play like that, but for the moment, it’s not that hard, since we aren’t really moving either.” he says, throwing the Quaffle to Bailey. “Perhaps we should fly around a bit to make it harder” he suggests.

Hearing a voice calling to her, Noémie looks sharply. “Oh, what? Oh… alright,” She answers to the person, turning to look at everyone else. “Bring it all in,” she calls to those present. “I’ve got to go do studies for OWLs, and the headmistress wants to see me as well. Give the quaffle here,” she calls, holding her hands out as Bailey tosses it to her. Soon she is on the ground, packing it away. “Tegan, can you put the bludger and the box away? I’d better go quickly so I don’t keep her waiting.” With that, Noémie is gone, broom in hand still as she trots into the school.

“Alright, see you all later!” Bailey calls, making his way to the ground. He runs over to the broomshed, storing his broom inside and then he, too, runs off of the pitch and back into the warmth of the school. Ah, practice was fun, flying was better, but nothing beat the warmth of the castle in the middle of winter.

Hearing the captain call the practice to a close Van comes in for a landing. Not long after the boy who was sitting in the bleachers comes down to meet her and she wraps an arm around him. “That was a really great practice even if it was a little short. See you later everyone!” Van walks with the boy back to the castle all lovey-dovey.

“Well, since the other are leaving, let’s go as well” says Tegan. She and Riley, followed by David, land on the ground and walk away towards the locker rooms.

Landon is totally and utterly excited! He’s buzzing and jumping about and grinning from ear to hear. Of course, the crowd can’t tell because Landon looks a neutral as ever on the outside. His broom is grasped firmly in his hand and he is holding his beater’s bat between his arm and his side. He uses the free hand to wave at the audience in no particular rhythm. A few waves here, a finger-wiggle there, and arm flap after he gets a little further towards the center. When he reaches his spot, he stops and just stands like a Landon-Statue.

Gabriel is psyched. Holding his broom well off the ground as he makes his way onto the pitch with his team, Gabriel looks around, reminding himself to take cleansing deep breaths. “We’ll win this,” he says aloud, switching his broom from his left hand to his right. Looking to Keelan as she speaks, Gabriel gulps a little, glancing at Briony.

Briony, who has all week been practically shivering with excitement, looks a bit green in the face now as she strides onto the familiar pitch. An unfamiliar sight greets her as she makes her way out behind Gabriel. There are far more people here than she ever remembered seeing at a match, all with their eyes down on the pitch as the teams collect and get situated. Oh, Briony is very nervous now and she hardly hears what Keelan says; she is far too distracted by all the commotion.

It is a clear day, free of rain, and Noémie smiles a bit as she pauses at the edge of the pitch. The fifth year has a determined smile on her face as she makes her way to the center of the pitch, holding on to her broom and comes to a stop near where Keelan is. “Yes, Professor,” she responds, as she always does and puts her hand out to Marie-Anna. The Ravenclaw’s hair is skillfully pulled back for once, rather than flying all over the place in a mess of wavy light brown, for better sight of the snitch.

Clavicle Gravely comes striding out carrying his Sandsweeper 25. The Egyptian broom has sleek lines. He waves to the Ravenclaw stands and yells “AUK AUK!”

Keelan Walsh is already in the center of the pitch, perched atop the box that holds the Quidditch balls. Her broom is nearby, waiting for it’s use. Today, her robes are a somber shade of deep red. The whistle hanging about her neck shines in the autumn sun, and she plays with it idly, waiting for the children to arrive. When they do, she stands up, shoulders straight, and says, “Captains? Shake hands, nice and sportsmanship-like, now.” with a grim smile.

Broom in hand Marie-Anna stands in suitable position that she may shake the opposing captains hand. Upon the professors call the Gryffindor beater shakes Noémie’s proferred hand, offering the Ravenclaw captain a polite smile.

Van stalks behind the rest of her team, gripping tightly to her broom. The Seventh year isn’t too excited, but a faint smile is still plastered across her lips as she gazes out into the stands. She breathes out a little laugh at Clavicle, shaking her head a little but in no belittling way.

Tegan makes her way onto the pitch, a foul look on her face. The fourth-year beater grips her bat in one hand and her broom in the other and stops far to Noémie’s left, looking the Gryffindor beaters up and down, sizing them up before the start of the match. Tegan is now seasoned to the matches, and she has to suppress the urge to laugh as she looks at the faces of some of the newer players, who look rather nervous. She says nothing, and no sounds emit from her while she stands there, waiting the beginning whistle, just smirking.

Andy Carver‘s heart pounds with excitement as he enters the pitch with his team. He has clenched his right hand around his broom to minimise the trembling. He takes a few deep breaths, lines up near Gabriel and nods towards him slightly, not being able to force himself to a smile.

Josh MacLean is pale beneath his freckles, his eyes wide and his newly-developed adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows nervously. He raises a hand to his mouth to chew on a fingernail, but puts it back down at his side after accidentally tasting the leather of his gloves, proceeding to stand somewhat near Landon, and waits, his knuckles white with his hand clenched tightly around his broom.

David walks in line with the other players of his team, holding his Moonsweeper over his left shoulder. He punches his right fist in the air, saluting the Ravenclaws who were cheering on the team from their bleachers. It is a fine day for flying, and David is feeling exceptionally confident, owing to the inordinate amount of training the team captain arranged for the whole team… he certainly feels less frightened than on his first match last year.

Quidditch! Hooray! Tybalt‘s favourite sport on the planet. He lives for it, he’d die for it, and it is the best opportunity in the world to show off! He slicks his hair back with a graceful movement of his hand and pulls on the bands of his fingerless gloves a few times – just for how of course, they’re already firmly attached to his hands. Once he’s done with that move he waves towards a group of girls that are frantically waving their red and gold banners at him in an attempt to get his attention. He winks in their direction and they all shriek with giggles and start talking excitedly amongst themselves. Now, off towards the center of the pitch! After a slinking along in a graceful fashion, Tybalt reaches the seeker’s spot and stands tall and proud, waving like he’s the one who invented Quidditch, or something.

Clavicle says, “Auk! Auk!” he grins and trots over to David with a laugh. “Come on David…Just one Auk, for the team!” He grins and prepares to mount his broom when signaled to.”

Bailey Williams follows David, no trace of fear or excitement on his face whatsoever. He tries to concentrate on the match, remembering the moves drilled in him after those numerous practices. He holds his broom in his right hand, waiting for the order to mount it and dart into the sky.

Riley Markham cant’t help but feel somewhat nervous as he makes his way on to the pitch, broom slung across his shoulders like a clothes rod, as if he were carrying pales of water. A feigned attempt at looking cassual, almost as if he hoped he might somehow fool himself. His aim had gotten better in practice, but there was still a lot of work to be done. And here of all places, with his Gran wave down at him from the faculty stands, he could almost feel his heart beating somewhere in the vacinity of his throat. Purposely not turning his gaze up to respond to her, pretending interest in the color of the grass.

Keelan Walsh spends the hand shaking time undoing the latches on the trunk. Almost as if sentient and able to understand what was going on, the Bludgers begin to shake the box from the first releasing ‘click’. However, when it’s opened, they just struggle against their bonds. Keelan pushes a button which reveals the Snitch. Taking it gingerly from it’s holder, the Professor turned Referee allows the tiny golden ball to unfurl it’s wings and bat them a few times before letting it zoom away. Now, the Quaffle is collected, and Keelan turns back to the teams. “Everyone ready?” She doesn’t let it go yet, “Let’s play a fair game, I don’t feel like giving a lot of penalty shots today.” This is said seriously, and she raises the whistle to her lips with her free hands. Giving the Quaffle a toss rather impressively high, she blows the whistle, signaling the beginning of the match.

Mounting his broom, Gabriel resolves to shake of his nervous feeling as he prepares to kick off the ground, trying to have faith in his game skills. He and Briony had practiced a lot, and he needed it to pay off. At Keelan’s whistle, Gabriel jumps a bit before lifting off in the direction of the Quaffle.

Eh, what the heck? She’s not going to be here much longer so who cares? She over beside Clavicle and Dave, waving her fists in the air towards their audience, “AUK! AUK!” She screams, giggling. Van claps, turning and grinning to her teammates before swooping over to her position.

Switching from anxiety to alertness in a split-second Andy Carver mounts his broom as the referee grabs the whistle and pushes off the ground with all his force, even losing the balance a bit and nervously adjusting his seat again. He heads for the quaffle. Maybe he would be able to grab it before Gabriel. Every second counts now.

In one move, Landon jumps onto his broom and pulls his bat from under his arm, ready for use. Then, with a quick move of his leg, Landon shoots straight up into the air, and slightly off to the side so that the Chasers can have control of the field and he won’t be in the way. Now, to wait until the bludger are released so he can make sure they don’t hit anyone on his team.

As soon as she hears the whistle, Noémie is on her broom and she flies high above the pitch, above the hoops. The Ravenclaw sees the golden snitch released and watches as it quickly is gone from her sight. Well, it’s still early in the game, and Noémie is not concerned about missing it this time. She stays perched on her broom, staying very high above the action of the game, hoping to quickly spot the snitch, rather than have the game go on for days.

“Don’t clobber the ball, control your swings, follow through with the connection,” Riley murmurs, over and over again under his breath as the call to mount brooms is given. Athletism and mindless bravado his specialty, Riley hardly thinks at all as he pulls down on the handle of his broom from his shoulder, flipping it in to place. Mounting it and kicking off from the ground in one smooth motion. Impressive for a second year, even though he nearly dropped the broom and fell off the other side of the broom. Recklessness to match his brash flying style. Soaring up high, he flips his bat in to his scarred hand with a flick of his wrist. Still pointedly avoiding looking the faculty stands as he glances around the pitch at his teammates and enemies, looking for a leather-wrapped cannon ball.

Marie-Anna Greyton is back in the appropriate position for her to start on the ground from, bat under one arm as she mounts her broom. It’s not long after that she launches into the air, her bat in hand. She’s a little to the side, much like Landon is.

David mounts his broom and, with a firm kick on the ground, takes off in the air, taking his position. Once floating in the air, waiting for the whistle to be blowed, he looks at this teammates, grinning at them. “Give’em hell, Riley!” he shouts, and mutters under his breath: “and don’t send the Bludgers to me, please.” David was impressed by Riley’s skills on the broom, and never forgot that it was thanks to him, inderectly, that he got on the team. However, Riley’s aim was sometimes very random and downright dangerous…

“Remember, Riley! AIM!” Tegan calls as she, too, gets onto her broom and kicks off the ground, quickly ascending with her bat gripped tightly in her hand. She may not have as much power as her fellow beater does, but at least she can aim. Tegan‘s smirk is gone from her face now that the game is in session, and she gives a passing bludger a hard WHACK!, aiming it generally in the direction of the Gryffindor seeker, in hopes of quickly giving Ravenclaw an advantage.

Josh MacLean takes a deep breath as he mounts his broom, flying at a steep angle upward before levelling out to head towards the opposite end of the field, but not too far from the Quaffle, trying to keep himself open for passing and mostly paying attention to the other Chasers.

As the whistle is blown Tybalt makes a big show of turning on his `Seeking Sense’ – as he calls it – as he hops onto his broom and soars as high up as he can be while still visible to the female members of the audience. He flips his hair out of his eyes and scans the skies for that elusive, golden ball. He needs to catch it and he looks like he won’t quit until he has it.

Keelan Walsh gives the teams a moment of playing before stepping back from the box and undoing the bludger restraints with a charm. Mostly because she can and partially because the stupid balls are dangerous. Having unleashed them on people ranging from 12 to 17 (or possibly 18) who are typically assumed to be at least partially under her care, the Herbology Professor mounts her own broom, but does not rise as high as the players, as of yet.

Clavicle Gravely mounts the”Auk Auk!” he hops on his broom and the sandsweeper and zooms up. He heads for the quaffle as well, trying to use the foreign brooms speed to go for the falling quaffle. He pours on the speed to try to cut through the crowd. For now he trusts Riley to keep the bludgers off.

Briony Wexler flies up towards the hoops, looking rather unsteady as she does so. Chances are high that the second-year will lose her breakfast before the match is over. “Whoo, Gryffindor!” she calls as she takes her place in front of the three high hoops. Is it possible that they’re higher up? Briony doesn’t know. The girl tries to watch as there are now twice as many people on the pitch as she is used to, more things flying around to keep her eyes on. Just watch for the red one, Bri, that’s the ticket. Keep your eyes on the prize. Echoes of Gabriel’s recent pep talks fly through her mind.

Still concentrating on the match, Bailey follows his fellow Chasers and takes his position, on the right wing of the field. He keeps his eyes fixed on the box where the Quaffle was stored, waiting for it to be released. Bailey doesn’t partake much in the cheering, and totally ignores the comments that the other players of his team were exchanging between them as a way to release the tension. His flying is the only thing which matters to him now. As the Quaffle is released, he pushes his broom forward and flies directly towards it.

Worry rapidly becomes frustration as Riley flashes a slightly uncomfortable look toward David, then an annoyed one toward Tegan. “Yeah, alright, already!” Gritting his teeth a bit, Riley bucks his broom, spotting the second down low. Twisting in to a barrel-roll dive that is perhaps even more reckless and showy than normal (as if to show that he did have SOME talent), thesound of Riley‘s own bat connects with the ball almost in tandem with Tegan’s own CRACK. Pivotting his broom in a smooth turn, he does as instructed, and the bludger whistles off fast in the general direction of Briony. The first person he’d seen after coming out of the one-eighty turn. “Ha!”

Being totally surprised Andy finds himself having plucked the quaffle out of the air just in time. He hectically turns his head into all directions, sees Josh first and tries to pass the red ball to him. Giving the toss way too much of speed.

“What? I’m on your team!” Tegan calls, scoffing a bit. Really, now, one would think he’d be grateful for the advice she was offering. No matter, Tegan watches as Riley shows off a bit. “Oh, gimme a break, Riley!” she calls, rolling her eyes again at her teammate. She is forced to duck, however, as his bludger comes directly at her head. “Aim at THEM! Not ME!” Tegan does not seem very pleased, does she?

Marie-Anna Greyton grins as she watches the release of the bludgers. “Let the games begin,” she states with a bit of a cackle before swings her arm a bit, warming it up a little for those encounters she’s certain to have with those nasty bludger. As she see’s the bludger go flying towards Briony, Marie offers a shout. “Bri! Heads up!” is given, as she herself races towards the keeper intent on getting between the bludger and the Gryffindor keeper.

As Noémie sees Tybalt showing off for the girlies in the stands, she rolls her eyes. Go right ahead and do that, she decides as she flies in a figure eight over the pitch, watching around carefully. Noémie is alert, determined not to watch the action in the game, rather, to look for that bit of precious gold that will name her team winner.

David briefly turns his head towards RIley and Tegan, hearing tiny bits of their argument carried to him by the wind. He quickly turns his head back to the Quaffle, which Andy has just thrown to Josh. David decides to try and steal it from the Gryffindor player, and flies in his general direction.

Watching the players, Landon flies the length of the field as he waits for one of his players to be in danger. He’s the defensive beater, at the moment, and he doesn’t feel like chasing down a bludger so he can whack it at another player, just yet. Of course, once he has a bludger he will whack it at a player on the opposite team.

The Ravenclaw keeper wets her lips, adamantly watching the game as it continues on, leaning here and there as Van does her best to predict when she’d best actually do her part.

“Josh!” Gabriel yells upon seeing Andy’s pass to the boy. “I’m open!” he adds, shooting forward towards the Ravenclaw goals, hoping to get into a better position to be passed to. Gabe is unaware of whether or not Josh actually caught the Quaffle, or if it was intercepted.

Clavicle Gravely turns to try to intercept the quaffle as it was speedily tossed. He doesn’t have time toi catch it. So instead he tries a quick 180 to try to tail bat it toward David.

Watching David going for the Quaffle, Bailey decides to play a preventive game and manoeuvers such as to place himself between Gabriel and Josh, should David fail to catch the Quaffle and the Gryffindor try to shoot the Quaffle at Gabriel. Besides, covering the Keeper is never a bad idea.

Briony shrieks a bit and flies downward as she sees the ominous black orb flying towards her at a rather fast pace. No, Briony would rather abandon her goals than get hit straight-on by a bludger. She is now about halfway down the tall hoops, rather out of the way of where she ought to be in order to block shots, but — but the bludger! Briony is not going to head back up until the object has been deflected.

Luckily for him, Josh is better at catching and throwing than he is at flying, and was paying attention, so although the quaffle is flying really fast, he sticks out an arm in time and with a sound thwack, it connects with his arm and is held close to him, his arm curled around it, as he zooms further towards the Ravenclaw goals when he notices David and Gabriel almost simultaneously. With a nervous glance from one to the other, he clamps his teeth down on his bottom lip and circles a little to the left to see if he can’t get a clearer shot to Gabriel, and attempts to chuck the ball with enough speed to get it safely to his teammate.

Marie-Anna Greyton takes a quick whack at the bludger, the noise resounding as bat meets ball, and deflects it away from Briony, who gets a crooked grin. The bludger, meanwhile, was deflected in the opposite direction from which it was going, perhaps far and fast enough to get to Van.

Tegan is in the middle of the pitch and seeing Marie-Anna alter the bludger’s trajectory, she flies as quickly as her broom will take her to stop in front of Van. It is a mere moment before the bludger has connected with her bat again, and it spirals towards the clump of both team’s chasers who seem to be still jockeying for posession of the quaffle. “Riley! Get the other bludger!” she calls, watching as one flies his direction.

As Andy speculates that his pass has not been caught by Josh, he lets his broom fall back a bit out of the action and pushes it up afterwards to get a better view on the events on the field, not flying out of his fellow chasers passing range. And then he sees the quaffle swooshing through the air again as Josh passed it. Andy shoots forward on his way to place himself in front of the Ravenclaw hoops.

Eek. There’s a bludger flying right towards him. Stupid things have minds of their own. He winds up and whacks it across the stadium and away from himself. And, now it looks to be heading straight for Van! Good aim, Landon! Good thing he practiced with targets at the last practice!

Marie-Anna Greyton flies off towards the bludger that’s flying towards the clump of chasers. “Landon, stop Riley, get that bludger!” is shouted by the elder beater, though her call is unnecessary as, evidently, Landon’s already on it. Of course, now the Gryffindor eyes the bludger, trying to assess if one of her own chasers will get hit, or if it’ll hit a Ravenclaw chaser. Then again, it may not hit anyone. Either way, she doesn’t seem intent on stopping the bludger if it’s going to get a Ravenclaw.

Riley Markham seems fairly pleased with himself there for a moment, as he as the bludhger sails past Tegan toward it’s original target. A faint smirk touching his lips. “Past you! Jus’ followin’ your advice, eh? Aimin’!” It wasn’t his fault Tegan’d got in the way, and though he usually got on with him at least amiably, the nervousness he felt being on the pitch for the first time and the aggrivation of being told the same thing day-in, day-out during daily practices with both the varsity and junior squads — it had ground down on his patience. Add to that the undue expectations he felt with his Gran watching.. His nerves were fairly shot, she he had reverted to his more base self-defense mechanism. Show-boating and gloating. Gloating soon to become brooding. “Hah!” He shouts again, before blinking. Having, briefly, taken his mind out of the game to admire his own handywork. Turning, he manages to get his bat up just in time to deflect the bludger half-away (in the direction of Tegan herself, which is doubtful to improve her mood or disposition toward the boy). The impact catches Riley off balance, though, knocking him in almost exaggerated slowness off the edge of his broom after flailing hims arms in circles not unlike a duck. He does, however, manage to save himself, reaching up to grab the handle of his broom, leaving him dangling there for a moment with a slightly dumbfounded expression.

“Catch it, Bailey!” shouts David, as Josh throws the ball towards the Ravenclaw balls. David is too far away to attempt a catch, and besides, it would be better for him to be slightly nearer of the middle of the pitch so that if Bailey catches the ball, he could pass it to David afterwards.

Looking backwards to check for a pass in his direction, Gabriel‘s gaze first falls onto Briony– what was she doing!? “Gah!” is Gabriel‘s outburst, but he then notices Josh’s strong pass to him and turns his broom around, extending one hand towards the ball.

Tegan hasn’t moved since Marie-Anna’s bludger shot came straight for her team’s keeper. Rearing her arm back, the beater chucks the bludger towards the group of chasers once again, hoping that it’ll come into contact with someone from the other team rather than her own. Of course, as they’re all in such close proximity, it makes it difficult for her to judge where it will go or who it will hit.

Clavicle Gravely turns seeing Riley having trouble. He flies fast and herd under the boy ready to pull a catch if he needs catching. “Riley! Are you alright?” he calls out, then sees the boy catch himself and he gives him a thumbles up. “Auk Auk!” He turns and zips back after the quaffle.

Keelan Walsh is being a nicely unbiased ref(really!) and just sort of slowly circling the pitch at a level where she can see what is going on without getting involved unless she needs to be. For a worried moment she hovers, watching Riley. Under her breath a muttered, “Ruddy Ravenclaw, don’t get yourself killed.” She resumes her slow circling, patiently waiting.

Having noticed the ball being thrown at Gabriel probably second before he did, Bailey pushes his broom towards the Quaffle and intercepts it deftly. He then dives a little, attempting to get some speed so as to distance Josh and get to the middle of the pitch, hoping that he would be able to send the Quaffle to another chaser then.

Now that she is out of peril, Briony flies back up to hover about three feet in front of the hoops. As the other team gains control of the ball, her arms go up in a defensive position, one that she has been taught through copious practicing. The girl still looks a bit green in the face, but is noticably shaking less as she watches the action. Her exhileration is beginning to overcome her nervousness.

Marie-Anna Greyton hovers close enough to get in the way of a bludger if it appears to be out to hit a Gryffindor, but she makes no move to try to stop them if they’re out to hit a RAvenclaw.

“N-noooo!” Gabriel cries as the Quaffle is intercepted and whisked away from him. “Oh no you don’t!” he yells, shooting after Bailey, hoping to catch up with him and regain possession of the Quaffle for Gryffindor.

His cheeks turning crimson, Riley pulls himself back on to his broom with no small effort — immediately glad that he’d done so well with chin-ups in muggle grade school. “Yeah, yeah, dandy, Clavy,” he calls out, once he’s he’s secured himself back on to his broom, and pulled his back back in to his hands. The confidence and bravado of his anger suddenly gone, he pushes forward.. Allowing himself enough time to flash a half-dark, half-embaressed sort of look at Professor Walsh, Riley returns himself to the game. His movements nowhere near as quick or sure, but much more controlled.

“Ugh, Riley!” Tegan shouts as she gets knicked in the hand by the bludger before she manages to whack it towards Gabriel. She grabs onto the hand that got hit by the black sphere and frowns hard at her teammate. “Haven’t you been listening at all?” she snaps at him irritably, clutching her hand for the pain in it. Deciding that she would get it looked at later, the beater, rears her bat back up, waiting to see where the bludgers end up next.

Curse it! They were beaten away! Landon makes a dive and manages to hit the bludger hit by Tegan. He aimed it straight towards Noémie and it sails quickly through the air, displaying the force it was hit with. Landon supposes he probably should have waited until someone on his team was in immediate danger, but that could take too long. It was much more likely to hit a Ravenclaw if it was aimed at one.

Clavicle Gravely is lagging behind the quaffle chase, So he’s actually in good position as he never got so far down the pitch to chase the quaffle, going after Riley. He zips towards the Gryffindor hoops. “I’m open!”

Van Douglass is more nervous about Gabe and Josh then anyone else, throwing up an arm to attempt and block the approaching bludger rather then abandon her post just as her teammate moves in front of her. Not noticing the other one coming from Landon, the girl pushes out from behind Tegan to once again have a view of the field. When she does notice it, she swoops back behind Tegan until the girl beats it away, at which time she comes back out. Nope. She wasn’t as cowardly as the other keeper at all.

Josh MacLean yells, “No!” at the interception, and zooms closer towards Gabriel, trying to stay in an easy throwing distance to his fellow chaser, but not actively going back for the quaffle himself, until Clavicle shouts out from near the Gryffindor hoops and Josh lowers himself to his broom to get more speed as he flies towards the path the ball will probably take if thrown to Clavicle.

“Argh!” Andy ‘articulates’ under his breath as the pass is intercepted. He whirls round to try to get the quaffle back as he hears – and a split second later sees – a bludger fizzing behind him. Maybe he could redirect it to a Ravenclaw. Andy races down towards David and crosses his way, touching the tip of the Ravenclaw’s broom slightly. He looks back to see if it was a successful attempt, still rushing across the field.

Riley Markham shifts his gaze toward Landon, then the bludger than he struck. Tegan’s shout ringing in his ears, frustration and embaressment gripping him at nearly equal measure. Darting upward, he moves in a quick attemp to put himself between the bludger and Noémie, to perhaps reclaim some of his honor. Bat ready to knock the cannonball back at Landon with as much force as it was struck. Calm the bloody hell down, Riley.. you can do this..

Noémie is not ignoring the action of the game so much as to miss that there is a bludger flying in her direction. She quickly flies away from where the bludger is, but had not spotted it fast enough to avoid it altogether. The bludger knicks the front of her broom, tacking a good six inches off of the tip of it. “You’ll pay for that!” She hollers as she rocks back and forth unsteadily on her broom. The usually graceful Noémie looks decidedly displeased as she manages to move herself out of the bludger’s return trajectory.

“Argh!” yells David, nearly hit by the second-year Gryffindor. “That’s a foul!” he yells, and as a result looses sight of the Quaffle for a split second. Upset by the near miss, he only realizes a couple of seconds later that the Quaffle is still in Bailey’s hands… but for how long? He flies towards the Gryffindor goals, trying to catch up with the other Gryffindors who were beginning to build a defensive wall.

A day late and a galleon short, as they say. Riley‘s attempt to intercept hadn’t been quick enough, and the bludger is missed by centimeters off the end of his bat. This was going quite splendidly for him, wasn’t it. As the end of Noémie’s broom is clipped, Riley winces violently, flashing her an appologetic “I did the best I could” sort of look, before swinging back for the bludger’s return path. The same mantra he’d been repeating when the took off play in his head, he flashes Landon a somewhat harsh look before lifting his bat and swinging again. The crack errupting from his bat colliding with the ball something like thunder. Maybe the destruction of part of his Captain’s broom helped bring focus, but his aim is true, sailing quick and fast at Landon. He can do it.

Keelan Walsh is alert and not wondering if she will have to start muttering about Astra needing potions ingredients, honestly. Almost missing the collision, it isn’t until David yells foul that she realizes he’s right. Her faces falls a little as she blows her whistle and announces, “Foul! Penalty shot to Ravenclaw!” A small frown, and she waits for the attempt to be made. Sigh.

Oh no, a penalty shot! Briony has not had much practice at all with this, and her eyes are wide as Keelan announces this. The girl grips her broom rather more tightly than she needs to, her knuckles turning white. Okay, Briony, time to show your skill, your merit. Aw, hell, just try to block the shot. She tries to think encouraging shots, though she has a hard time of it, knowing that two of the keepers on Ravenclaw aren’t first years at quidditch as she is.

Clavicle Gravely turns and wanders over to the side he’s supposed to stay on while a penalty shot is being finalized. he hovers a bit and grins “AUK AUK!!!!”

What? A foul? That would simplify things for David. The Ravenclaw chaser, still holding the Quaffle, now has a free way towards the penalty line. Once he reaches the line, hovering for a while to decide to which hoop he’ll throw the ball, he finally turns his broom to the right, feinting a shoot to the right hoop, but in reality throwing it to the left hoop.

Yes, the second year has seen shots like this before, but in her nervous distraction, she mistakenly begins to dive to her right, where David has first begun to shoot before realizing that the red orb is heading the other direction. Quickly pulling on the end of her broom to attempt the block for the other hoop, she nearly falls off of the flying mechanism just as the quaffle flies through the hoop with a loud CLANG! Briony‘s face falls and reddens as she rights herself on the broom and centers herself again. No, this was not a good start.

Keelan Walsh watches Briony miss with a wince, and the announcer gives a booming “Point to Ravenclaw!” but she flies in to collect the Quaffle and resume play. With another blow of the whistle, she does just that, and quickly removes herself from the thick of things while she’s at it. A sympathic glance to the Gryffindor Keeper is all she spares.

A loud groan escapes Riley as the foul is called, of course momentarily pausing the bludgers, including the one he’d clobbered at Landon. The one good hit he’d had, the one that was bound to actually have a positive effect. The air seems to slip from him and his shoulders slump. And he makes the horrendous mistake of looking back toward the faculty stands, as David shoots. Catching the surpremely dissapointed gaze of his grandmother from the corner of his eye. Yeah, that about did it. At the moment, there was nothing more he wanted than to land, find some great rock and crawl under it to die. The fight gone from him almost totally.

Clavicle says, “AUK AUK!!!” the chaser yells as he does a 720 on the broom. He then watches to see who will take possession of the quaffle.”

Giving a cheer as Bailey makes the score, Tegan starts flying a bit as the play resumes again as normal. Well, it was something, and it put them ahead, even if it was Gryffindor’s own fault that Ravenclaw even had the penalty shot. Spying a bludger heading down towards her end of the pitch, Tegan flies quickly towards the black object and gives it a hearty WHACK! She sends it towards the captain of Gryffindor team, trying a different tack rather than attacking the chasers or keeper.

Josh MacLean curses under his breath as the penalty is called, and scowls and repeats himself as Briony misses the shot, but once the whistle blows, he is all business once again, or even moreso now that they’re down a point and Josh is a bit angry. Ascending and zooming towards the quaffle, he grabs it, slowing down to glance around and try to spot one of the other chasers.

“It’s okay, Bri!” Gabriel shouts from across the field, though he doubts she could possibly hear him across that distance and amid all the noise. Looking the other way to Josh, Gabe sees his teammate in possession of the quaffle and flies up towards the Ravenclaw goals again. “Josh!” he calls again as he passes by.

Marie-Anna Greyton cringes slightly as she makes note of the score, a shake of her head is given before she spots the incoming bludger and aims to take a whack at it. Unfortunatetly for Marie, two things went wrong with this intent, the first one being, she was too close to the bludger to hit it properly, therefore resulting in it hitting her shoulder. The second thing, the black orb was hit too hard and was going too fast for Marie to maintain her balance, so not only did it hit her shoulder, and, quite possibly, break it, it also knocked her off her broom to the ground below. Upon landing the captain wrinkles her nose. “That’s gonna hurt in the morning,” is muttered as she stands to make her way off the pitch.

“Yeah! That’s for you Gryffindors!” cheers David, as Bailey manages to score a goal. When the Quaffle is put into play once again, David concentrates and turns his broom towards Gabriel. David had difficulties to steal a Quaffle from someone, but covering another player is easier. He hopes to catch the Quaffle as it is thrown towards him, or at least turn Gabriel into a tactically useless player for Gryffindor.

Sharp eyes spy the bludger heading straight for him. Yeegads! Luckily it pauses at the penalty shot is taken, but once play resumes it hurtles straight for him. Without missing a beat Landon lifts his bat and stops the bludger and reverses it’s flight. Of course, the force of the stop and hit combined chipped a hunk out of the top of his bat, but Landon doesn’t seem to be worried about it. He’s studying the bludger closely to make sure it takes out Noémie just as it has been aimed to do. He is forced to tear his eyes away, though, as Marie-Anna takes a hit. The Gryffindor boy is now the team’s only beater, and that could be a problem.

Well, Tegan‘s shot was successful, much to her own surprise, and the bludger in true form comes flying back in her direction. As it approaches she rears back and chucks it directly towards Josh, who seems to be the most agressive Gryffindor chaser at the moment. The girl rotates her shoulder a bit as she watches to see whether the bludger indeed goes where she indended for it to go or whether she ought to start flying to intercept it again.

Bailey is still lagging behind the zone of interest, due to the fact that he was the one who shot the penalty and thus has to cover the distance between him and the middle of the pitch where the Quaffle is. He pushes his broom forward, trying to get some speed, and hoping that nobody would have the bad idea to send a Bludger against him.

Clavicle Gravely pours on the sandsweepers speed to try to go help cover the hoops and try to snag the quaffle. He pours on too much speed and flies dangerously close to the hoops. It takes him a moment to recover and he looks for the quaffle.

Riley Markham had remained fairly near Noémie while the penalty shot had been made, so it doesn’t take much for him to place himself between it and the Ravenclaw seeker. He is, after all, quite quick. And he brings up his broom and deflects the bludger back with an annoyed expression. His hit is strong, even though he doesn’t place all his weight in to it. The aim is poor, however, flying wide of Landon by several feet, sailing instead toward the Gryffindor seeker.

Andy hangs his head as the penalty has been called and sweep aside as it is performed. Not watching the first Ravenclaw goal he feels like having a big chunk of stone in his stomache. But as the game action sets in again, Andy sees Josh carrying the quaffle and tries to fly ahead of him to be the preferred receiver. “Josh!” Andy calls.

Josh MacLean doesn’t notice the captain go down, being preoccupied with having the quaffle in hand. He chews on his bottom lip, Gabriel is covered, where the heck is Andy? His searching is interrupted, though, by the glimpse of something black, metal, and moving very fast in his peripheral vision, too fast… Josh turns slightly, unable to get out of the path of the bludger, and is hit in the stomach, at which point he drops the ball, doubling over in pain and wobbling precariously on his broom as he floats towards the ground.

Tybalt Holmes flips his hair back and winks at his girls as he soars around the stadium for all to see. So, of course he doesn’t see the bludger that is heading straight for him! It connects with his shoulder and sends him spinning around in circles so fast that he is nothing more than a red and gold blur for a few seconds. Several groups of girls sprinkled throughout the audience scream in horror as their pretty boy is shot down. He floats down towards the ground for a bit before he regains his head a bit. “YEEGADS, LANDON!” He shouts across the pitch and he grabs his shoulder with one hand and rests his forehead against the handle of his broom. But, after a few moments he lifts his head and throws both of his arms up into the air (One of the making a sickening POP as it is raised) and he shouts, “But I’m OK!” and his girls shriek and clap excitedly. Now, he needs to go back to finding the snitch. That bludger is now flying off towards Clavicle and it doesn’t appear as though it’ll bother him twice in a row.

“Good one, Riley!” Noémie calls encouragingly to the beater with a wave. She has managed to pick off the sharpest bits off of the end of her now-shorter broom, and appears to be paying a bit closer attention to the game, knowing that she has not got the same flying advantage as usual. Momentarily, Noémie thinks she spots a glint of gold near to the ground and begins flying downwards, around the center of the pitch so as to avoid her teammates who are attempting to get the quaffle and make shots. She manages to get the feel for the less-than-whole broom as she comes down, but her lack of control at the start had her taking too long to get to the ground and the snitch is now gone again. Grumbling quietly, the fifth-year makes her way back up above the commotion to see if she can’t spot the snitch again.

“Aaah!” shouts Gabriel as he sees Josh hit, bringing both hands to his head, each grasping his hair. Without hesitating anymore, Gabe grips his broomstick and heads downwards, trying to catch the Quaffle before it falls down completely. Gabe comes up with it, hurling it at Andy. “Go!” he shouts after the haphazard throw.

ACK! Landon‘s losing it! He was speeding off towards Tybalt in hopes of grabbing that bludger and he completely forgot about the one headed for Josh. “Sorry!” Of course, it doesn’t sound sincere, or anything. Landon‘s not capable of that. He flies off after the bludger and smacks it with one sharp movement. It hurtles off, after Riley. Take that!

Wow. That’s got to hurt! David watches Josh falling down, but remembering the advice given him during the practices, he turns his eyes back again on the Quaffle. That Gryffindor player who nearly downed him a few minutes ago now has it. David turns his broom in his direction and pushes it into full speed. Ravenclaw has scored a penalty, but David is still decided to show Andy personally what he thought of his flying skills.

Riley Markham arches a brow.. watching the bludger collide with Tybalt with a hint of surprise and growing satisfaction. It didn’t quite ease the void that had grown in the pit of his stomach, but it did make him feel sizably better about things. “Thanks,” he calls back to Noémie, though the cockiness is gone from his tone. You can do this, just stay calm. As Noémie goes in to dive, and knowing that her broom is damaged — Riley makes a last second choice. Considering he just winged the Gryffindor seeker, if Noémie has seen the snitch, she’d become a target. Turnning his broom, he plays point, matching her descent, keeping himself between she and the Gryffindor keeper. As Landon smashes one at him, he lifts his bat to simply bunt the bludger away, pushing it almost gently in the direction of Tegan.. “Madison, heads up, ammo coming!” He shouts. He could salvage this.. he could pull himself out of the grave, or at least out from under the rock.

Keelan Walsh watches the game with a masked but growing concern. The Gryffindor team really seems to be getting smashed up, but so far it hasn’t been in the appeaance of a foul. She is, however, watching the Ravenclaws like a hungry predator, just waiting for one of them to do something that is actually against the rules.

Bargaining for Gabriel saving the quaffle from fumbling again Andy positions himself away from the other Ravenclaw chasers and the bludgers trajectories. As Josh is floating down he notices his captain lying on the floor, either. “Fair enough.” he mutters and sees the flying quaffle from the corner of his eye. And it’s flying perfectly. Andy boosts up his speed at snatches the quaffle out of the air, not thinking about his actions, just letting it flow. Like a falcon bringing its prey to the nest… Andy shakes his head slightly to redeem this flow of his consciousness, though it got him in a quite more cheerful mood. He races towards the opponent’s hoops and clinges to his broomstick, the quaffle under his arm.

Clavicle Gravely wasn’t paying attention to the bludger, but sees it at the last moment! He blinks and takes off, but he’s too close for the bludger to target someone else. “HEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPP!” he cries as he takes off….the bludger mere inches from him. It’s not a rogue bludger, just too close to find a new target. “RIIIIIILLLLEEEYYYYY!!!!!”

His head swimming, Josh reaches the ground near the edge of the pitch, where he staggers off of his broom and promptly vomits on the ground in front of him. His expression pained, he remounts his broom, wincing but determined to stay in the game, and rises slowly back towards where the action is, his eyes wary, watching for bludgers.

Bailey finally comes to the Ravenclaw end of the pitch, and flies towards the hoops, attempting to prevent Andy from having a clear view of the goals. He is essentially acting as a secondary goalie, flying in front of, and a little below, the Ravenclaw keeper.

Having had to entertain herself for the last few minutes, dear Van takes a few moments to realize that Andy is approaching. Hurriedly, she tries to finish up adjusting her pony-tail to prepare to actually do something. She grips her broomstick with one hand, keeping the other open and braced for blocking. Which hoop? Whiiich hoop?

David flies behind Andy, reducing the distance separating him from the Gryffindor, and soon flies to his side. Were they not wearing robes of different colors, one would nearly think they were two players of the same team flying in a perfect formation. David then releases the grip of the broom with his left hand, and extends his arm to try and punch the Quaffle out of Andy’s grasp.

Josh MacLean gains speed, his expression still uncomfortable and his face greyish as he flies over to the Ravenclaw side, about as far from the hoops as Andy but on the opposite side, raising up an arm and calling over “Andy! Right here!” in a somewhat hoarse voice.

Seeing the bludger coming her way, Tegan rears her batting arm back and then brings it forward, hearing the bat connect with the bludger with a mighty WHACK. She watches as she aims the ball directly for Andy, hoping to slow him down to a degree by whacking either him or his broom with the sphere.

Landon spies the bludger right off, and speeds towards it. He’s hot in its trail and ready to beat it away from Andy as soon as he catches up. It’ll take some speed, though. He presses his chest flat against his broom until he can bring himself between the bludger and his teammate. *WHACK* And it soars off in David’s direction.

Riley Markham glances back with Clavicle’s shriek and exhales a rather loud groan. “NECKFRICHZT!” (A gobledegook word whose definition is best left undisclosed) He growls, wheeling about on his broom without thought and kicking up. Laying close to his broom, acting on instinct, he blazes daringly close to Clavicle. Close enough that his robes might brush the fellow second year’s face. And without pondering it, he gives the bludger a might stroke, sending it again, unintentionally, at the Gryffindor seeker.

Spotting the snitch again, this time, near the Hufflepuff bleachers, Noémie starts flying quickly in that direction as fast as her broom will take her. (She’s definitely going to have to replace the broom now, thanks to the Gryffindor beaters.) The fifth year speeds her way across the pitch, eyes focussed only on the little golden ball across the way as she keeps her right hand out in front of her, leaning close down to her broom to increase her speed.

The whole scene seems to center around Andy. Everything seems to slow down and last for minutes instead of seconds. David approaching from the right, Josh waving to his left and the bludger rushing towards him. “It’s hopeless.” Andy thinks. But just at this moment Landon knocks away the bludger and everything seems to be colored brighter than before and seconds become seconds again. He notices David’s hand shooting towards the quaffle and reacts by doing a braking sharply and slinging the red ball into restored Josh’s direction.

Clavicle Gravely grins thankfully “Good one markham.” he flips around and a sparrow bounces off his head. “Oww!” he grins and zips back towards the holder of the quaffle. “Great save Markham!”

WHAM! Again, poor Tybalt Holmes is smacked by a bludger square in the chest. Or, is it the same bludger. Really, he’s not keeping track. He’s winded as he spins around in a red and gold blur. Once he stops, he spies Noémie speeding towards the snitch! He’s got to get it. He tilts his broom in the correct direction and shoots off like a bullet. But despite his determination he’s going down, down, down, down. . .down. He collides with the ground so sharply that his broom is stick at a forty-five degree, angle, and Tybalt does a summersault as he rolls off and faceplants in the dirt. He’s gone black. The Gryffindor seeker is down and out. Tybalt‘s fan girls shriek in horror and all run towards the front of the stands. The reach out, leaning over the railing as though it the just reach far enough they can save him. They’re in hysterics now. Someone is going to pay later. Poor Tybalt.

Josh MacLean‘s eyes widen in alarm as he sees the bludger near Andy, shouting out, “Lookout!” on reflex, but apparently that wasn’t needed, and Josh breathes a sigh of relief in the second between the bludger getting hit away and Andy lobbing the ball at him. He catches it well, and without missing a beat, throws it at the left hoop.

Riley Markham frowns slightly, wheeling about to float momentarily beside Clavicle, watching the bludger blaze in the direction of the Gryffindor Tybalt — and looking somewhat satisfied as it connects with Tybalt’s chest. “Not really, eh? I was aiming fer that prat,” he mutters, motioning with his bat toward Andy, before turning on his broom and moving to place himself physically between Noémie and the Gryffindor seeker. Hopefully causing him to vere off. With Noémie’s broken broom, any number of seconds he could shave off of Tybalt’s flight might help Ravenclaw’s captain the win. And if nothing else, Riley had proved he could fly fast enough to at least put himself in the way of things. He might not be able to hit them, but he could get in the way.

Mere seconds pass between Tybalt’s unfortunate connection with the ground and Noémie‘s connection with the snitch. Her hand closes around the golden object and she lets out an exhuberant ‘Whoop!’ as she flies around the Hufflepuff bleachers, holding the small golden ball up in her right hand triumphantly. Ravenclaw has won the game! Noémie flies down to the pitch, Her broken broom in one hand and the snitch in the other, holding both up in the air. Yes, this was a good start for Ravenclaw’s Quidditch season.

Briony‘s face falls as she sees that the Ravenclaw seeker has managed to get hold of the snitch. Gryffindor has lost their first match of the season. The second year cannot help but feel slightly responsible for the game’s result and flies down to the pitch rather slowly, getting off her broom and wiping her eyes rather dejectedly. So much for lucky robes. She will not cry, she will not cry… except she already is. Rather than wait for the rest of her team, Briony retreats back into the school, intent on hiding out in the lockers for a while until she feels a bit better.

Clavicle Gravely sees her catch it and he hollers “AUK AUK!!!!” and does a circle around Noémie.

Van Douglass rears on her broomstick, using her own weight to swat at the quaffle with her broom’s end. She too doesn’t miss a beat… in hitting it right back in Josh’s direction. Her expression slowly melts away to one of complete horror, that is, until it is taken over by her smile after Noémie catches the snitch. She moves away from the hoops, motioning for Josh to take his best shot if he likes. What with it not mattering.

As Andy has just been about to switch into a celebrating mood, because his action seems to develop into a goal, he just gets his next and last punch into his stomach, because he hears the resounding noise coming from the standings. Even the most of it from the Ravenclaw bleachers. Andy looks up and sees Noémie commemorating the victory. He shrugs, looking to Josh and Gabriel with a miserable face and heading for the ground.

Riley Markham pulls up as Tybalt collides with ground, smirking softly to himself, the soles of his shoes almost brushing the blades of grass. He shifts his gaze toward Noémie as the Ravenclaw crowd roars, and rather carelessly hops off his broom as it still moves, stumbling foward a few steps.

“Hurrah!” Tegan calls exhuberantly, waving her bat around cheerfully as she sees that the team seeker and captain has caught the snitch. She flies down and runs with her broom quickly towards Noémie, enveloping her in an excited hug, screaming rather loudly with excitement. “We win! We win! We win!” Laughter mixes with her screams as she happily clings to the captain.

Narrowly avoiding the Quaffle that locked on him instead of Andy, David lets out a cheer when he understands that the match has finished. Ravenclaw has won! “AUK AUK!” he yells, finally surrendering to the peer pressure set by Clavicle and the others.

“Ooof,” Noémie responds, being enveloped in Tegan’s arms. “Yes! Go Ravenclaw!” the usually reserved fifth year yells, waving around her fist with the snitch caught up in it still. She drops her broom to the ground. She’ll worry about that later, right now — they are the winners! “Good job, team!” Her elation is clear by the wide grin on her face.

Landon pants slightly as he rests his head against the stick of his broom. Sheesh, that game was tiring. This is why Quidditch has two beaters. He needs a nap now. But, of course, he has a terrible feeling that a hoard of angry Tybalt fans are going to want to tar and feather him. Hopefully, though, they’ll choose to fawn over him in the hospital wing, first.

Keelan Walsh gives a whistle to officially end the game, and collects the balls (either by summons or a player simply bringing them) back to their holding places until they’re needed next. “Excellent game,” she murmurs to any who go by, though her tone is considerably sulkier than one would expect from a mature grown woman.

Riley Markham is blissfully ignorant of Tybalt fans, luckily, as he makes his way over to the team, after collecting up his broom. His expression pleased, but somewhat subdued. He has resumed his practice of not looking back toward the faculty bleachers, and seems to be breathing fairly hard, even for the amount of excersize he just recieved.

Josh MacLean glares fiercely at Van, trying to resist the childish urge to stick his tongue out at her. Instead, he scowls unpleasantly, catching the quaffle and holding it far away from his injured abdomen as he descends to the ground and hands it to Professor Walsh. Walking over towards Andy, he groans. “Absolutely d-destroyed,” he comments. “And I think… I p-probably should head to the hospital wing.”

Van Douglass blushes as Josh glares at her, smirking a little as she floats gracefully to the ground to join her team in their celebration, cheering happilly.

Once he’s on the ground, Landon drags his feet over towards the spot where Tybalt is currently flopped and he pokes the boy a few times with the ends of his shoe. “Anyone care to help me cart him off to the Hospital wing, or something?”

“Nice shot, though.” Andy tries to encourage Josh and adds “I hope Nova will be back next time. I’ll come with you to the castle. I really need a shower now.” But as he passes Landon. “Ahm, sure, wait a second.” Andy fastens his belt and puts on of Tybalt’s arms around his neck.

Clavicle says, “Ravenclaw Ravenclaw AUK AUK AUK!!!!” he lands and joims the throng around Noémie”

Melvina Prichard walks out on to the pitch quietly, striding across the small grouping of damaged Gryffindor players, nodding the each in turn as she passes, “Well played,” she murmurs, congenially, to each. Keelan is similarly offered a small, polite nod. But her path across the field is fairly direct. And without wasting a word or movement, she finds Riley’s side and lays a hand down on his shoulder. Not so much lays, grips. Grips down on his shoulder, meaningfully, even though he gaze finds the Ravenclaw captain. “Well played, Miss Ribouet. Nothing less than I’d expect from a Bones descendant.”

Clavicle Gravely Blinks “Bones Descendant?” he steps forward. “Who’s a Bones descendant? The Bones are closely tied to the Gravely’s.. or were around the Goth invasion of Rome.”

Josh MacLean steps alongside Landon. “I’d help, but I, uh, wel, y-y-you two got it. I’ll walk with you, though, we’re all heading to the same place, anyways.” As the headmistress passes, he shrugs, and gives Andy a small smile. “If I’da been paying attention I wouldn’t have g-gotten hit in the stomach.” And he blanches. “Oh, no, I just puked in front of the entire school…”

“Thank you, Headm– what was that?” Noémie faulters over her speech halfway through, glancing to her headmistress and around at her celebrating teammates. Perhaps she had misheard. “What was that you said, Headmistress? I think I missed it.”

With a flip of his wand, Landon levitates the rest of Tybalt. “Come on, then.” He nods and motions his head towards the castle as he makes his way slowly across the field. “It’s fine, Josh. Come on, you’re going to the infirmary, too.” Of course, it is at this time a horde of fan girls decide to flood the field, and crowd around the trio carrying their fallen hero. They have their hoods up and sob on each other as they traipse across the field. Man, you’d think he died or something.

“I am, Mister Gravely,” Melvina replies, glancing to Clavicle with a slightly arched brow. “And Mister Markham, and Miss Robouet, more importantly.” Clavicle’s brush on geneology brings a faintly amused smirk to her lips. “Indeed, most all of the pureblood families are intermingled eventually. The Bones family is one of the oldest. Naturally, the Gravely and the Bones intermingled juncture, though as you said it was a great deal ago, on another branch of the family. Miss Ribouet’s relation is a but more, immediate, let us say.” Shifting her gaze toward Noémie, she grins, almost absently. “Second cousins, I believe. Once removed? I’d have to look at the tree again to be entirely sure. You and my Riley, I mean. Never the less, dear, well played. We must be off, an appointment to make, you see.”

“Oh no.” Andy moans as the horde of girls rushes towards and surrounds them. “Let’s get him there quickly.” he emphasizes and pushes the levitated Tybalt towards the castle. “Move!… Get out the way!” Andy keeps on repeating as the procession gets going.

Clavicle Gravely blinks at Pritchard. “You are a Bones? Wow! Er.. that means we’re related.. on a cousin aunt or uncle side.” he hmmms. “I could be your Uncle! Er…ma’am.”

“What, really?” Noémie‘s face is rather blank as she is informed of her family ties to, well, anyone, really. Noémie has known none of her family, save for Arnauld Ribouet and his parents, who are a part of her father’s family who were also ostracized. She is not able to react to Melvina any more than this however as the Headmistress makes her way off the pitch again, Riley in tow. Riley and Melvina were related? Noémie is shocked by this, and rather than celebrating with her team, now wanders into the school, seeming rather dazed and now distracted. She’s definitely going to have to think about this. And owl her parents. Yes, perhaps she would send owls. Truth be told, Noémie isn’t exactly sure where she’s wandering.

Melvina Prichard shakes her head toward Clavicle. “Perhaps, thirty or forty times removed. There are several branches of the Bones family. The one from which I hail has shied away from Gravely blood. The carnival nature, mind. I don’t think it suited their more.. refined, tastes.” She doesn’t waste anymore time, however, pushing Riley off. Not even allowing him a moment to react to the startling news.

Striding onto the pitch, Noémie looks quite annoyed by the weather. Her usually wavy hair has turned quite frizzy with the moisture, on top of having to practice in the rain. Then again, Noémie is no quitter, and she’s certainly not about to call of a practice on account of a bit of rain. However torrential it happens to be. The captain takes to her broom, flying around a bit as she waits for the rest of her team to show up.

Bailey comes trotting onto the pitch, a bit out of breath, as he was forced to run clear from the Astronomy tower down to the pitch in order to make practice on time. That was what he got for trying to ask for extra credit work! “Oi, Noémie!” he calls and hails to his captain. He does not get onto his broom, instead, begins stretching out and readying himself for the rigorous practice his captain likely has in store.

Tegan Madison stamps onto the pitch, crossing her arms as she makes her way out. “Couldn’t she be bothered to ever cancel a practice?” the fourth year comments and sets her broom down on the ground nearby, mimicing Bailey’s motions as he stretches in preparation for their practice in the pouring rain. “It shouldn’t be this rainy so early in the year.” Nevermind that it is already early November. Tegan doesn’t care; she’s just in a rotten mood.

Late again, Van doesn’t seem quite as annoyed at the rain as Tegan. Indeed, Van doesn’t seem to be noticing much of anything as she comes trotting onto the pitch. “Hullo, everyone,” she greets her teammates in a chipper voice. Subject to Tegan’s glares, Van doesn’t appear to notice that her teammates are indeed less enthused about the rain, the weather, and life in general as she is at this moment. Her mussed hair could be attributed to rain, but then, those on the team know better than to assume such a thing. After all, on the clearest days, she often shows up in that very state. Regardless, Van drops her broom rather hazardously and begins half-heartedly stretching as well. The girl is clearly distracted and not thinking about Quidditch at all.

Flying down to land, Noémie steps off her broom and sets it down on the ground, coming to stand just in front of her team. “Well, thanks for finally joining us, Van,” she says coldly. “It’d be nice if this weren’t a habit of yours.” Oh, it is clearly going to be one of those practices. Noémie crosses her arms and squares off in front of those in front of her. “Alright, this is how it’s going to be today. You might as well put your brooms away, because today, we’re playing ground quidditch.” As if the name she used wasn’t ominous enough, Noémie‘s tone is rather forboding as she looks from person to person. “So, what I want you to do for starters is run four laps around the lenght of the pitch. And I do mean run, not walk.” Noémie herself has already done these laps, which would be obvious if any of her teammates bothered to notice how thoroughly soaked she was, but the chances of that happening were slim.

“What?” Bailey asks quietly, then sighs and turns on heel to begin running his laps around the pitch. No, today’s practice was not going to be a good one. He is thoroughly out of breath by the time he finally manages to finish his four laps. The laps were no small feat, after all! He was used to flying, not running. He hunches over, his hands on his knees as he stops trotting where Noémie is still standing in the center of the pitch, waiting for the others to catch up.

Tegan is noticably annoyed as Noémie makes this announcement and frowns very hard as she takes up running behind Bailey. It isn’t long before Bailey has lapped her, either, because Tegan is nearly a head shorter than the chaser, and she is certainly not accustomed to having to run anywhere. She does her best however, slowing down from time to time, attempting to catch her wind, but keeps up a steady pace otherwise, coming to a stop several minutes after Bailey has made it there. The girl, too, hunches over in exhaustion. How was this supposed to improve her Quidditch game, exactly?

Rather than groan and scoff as her teammates have done, Van makes her way around the pitch silently, at a rather slow, but steady pace. She is noticably less winded than Tegan or Bailey have become from the run, though she is a bit out of breath. She, however, does not feel the need to hunch over in the way that they have, and stands in front of Noémie, her hands clasped behind her back, rather afraid to ask what their captain has in store for them next.

“Alright, good run,” Noémie practically barks as she looks at all of her red-faced teammates. “Now, what I want you to do is, here, Tegan, take this bat, and Van, Bailey, you go just over that way,” She directs them with her arm towards the middle of the pitch. Throwing a quaffle to each, she steps back and picks her broom up again. She gets onto her broom and hovers in the air a bit while everyone gets set up where they are directed to go. “Now, what you’re going to do — no, back up more — is throw these Quaffles towards Tegan, then I want Tegan to hit them back to the person who threw it. If it misses, you do a lap. If you throw too short or too far, you do a lap. I’ll be keeping track. This is to work on your aim, Tegan. We’re counting on you, since Riley’s aim is unsteady at best. He’s got the power, I want you to be the aim. Alright, get to it!” Noémie is high enough above them to see what’s going on, but low enough that she can still bark orders at them if need be.

Clavicle Gravely is on the broom practicing throws with the team chaser and the second teams’ chasers. He speeds a quick circle as he finishes the Laps (Probably with David) and he zips around and looks to Noémie. “What’s the game plan now Captain?”

Bailey Williams runs over to where Noémie has pointed for him to go, and oofs rather loudly as a Quaffle is thrown at him rather hard. What was going on with Noémie today? Was it the rain causing her mood? The fourth year squares off towards Tegan, who is holding the bat, and heaves his ball hard in her direction. His aim is not the greatest on the shot and he seems to throw it about two feet above her head. The boy hopes very hard, though, that she is able to hit it, because he really doesn’t want to do any more laps, as he is still rather out of breath from the four he’s already done.

Clavicle Gravely is on the foot practicing throws with the team chaser and the second teams’ chasers. He speeds a quick circle as he finishes the Laps (Probably with David) and he zips around and looks to Noémie. “What’s the game plan now Captain?” He calls out, He’s apparently rready to start flying.

Tegan doesn’t look pleased — in fact, when has she looked so since the beginning of practice — and she looks even less pleased as her first shot is far above her head. She jumps up and hastily whacks it with her bat, but it heads towards the ground, and while it does roll to Bailey, it does so most of the way on the ground. The beater frowns, knowing that this means she has at least one lap for herself.

“Good one, Bailey,” Van comments rather chipperly, earning a glare from her teammate. “What?” She asks as she throws her Quaffle as close to Tegan as she can manage. The Keeper is adept by now at making these types of shots, though this one is rather pitiful, as it hits the ground about ten feet before it gets to Tegan. “Oops,” she comments rather blandly, watching for Tegan to retrieve it. Ah, well, Van still appears to be a bit distracted.

“You’ll keep throwing those quaffles until I say you’re done,” Noémie responds, her arms crossed as she hovers above all of them on her broom. “That’s one lap for Tegan and one for Van so far,” She announces, holding up one finger for demonstrative purposes. “At least ten throws each. I want to slaughter Gryffindor this weekend,” she tells them, her face still stern and unmoving.

Clavicle Gravely continues jogging and throwing. He starts looking a bit bored doing the repititive activity.

“Sorry, Tegan,” Bailey calls, sounding genuinely apologetic. He wipes his eyes and hair, attempting to dry them a bit, then looks to Tegan again, heaving the ball in her direction again, though this time not quite so hard. He watches in hopes that this throw will redeem himself, by making it a bit easier for her to hit this one where it goes.

“Don’t worry about it,” Tegan calls, though her irritation is apparent at the whole scenario. She hits quaffle after quaffle to the best of her ability, lobbing them each to the person who has thrown it while she attempts to keep her vision in all the drenching rain. She’s going to need a nice, hot bath after this. Lobbing another quaffle back, thankfully making more to her teammates than not, Tegan rather overestimates and ends up slipping and falling flat on her back. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” she calls and closes her eyes for a moment before standing up again and trying to rid her robes of mud. Oh, she could not wait for her bath!

“Good shot, Tegan!” Van calls wearily, catching another quaffle directly in the chest. The seventh year yawns a bit, quite tired already, but is jolted a bit as she watches Van fall flat on her back. “Oh, dear,” she breathes and looks carefully to make sure her teammate is alright while awaiting her turn to throw again. This certainly would be a practice to remember.

“Alright, I think the count is…” Noémie flies down while she tries to count up how many drops there were between the lot of them. “Oh, I don’t remember. Six laps for everyone, because ten makes a nice round number, and call it a day.” Noémie dismounts her broom and stands on the wet pitch, her vengeance clearly served as she looks at all of her drenched teammates. “Run your six, then go have a hot shower and do your homework. I don’t want to hear that we have to use someone from the Junior Squad because someone hasn’t done his or her homework.” She walks around, collecting the quaffles, her broom still in hand, then stalks off to the broom shed without much else to say. She is, of course, watching to make sure that nobody skives off their run. There would be hell to pay if she caught someone cheating.

Clavicle Gravely continues running up and down with the other chasers. practicing tossing and catching. He occassionally watches the beater practice.

Bailey Williams takes off for a run as his quaffle is retrived from him. One, two, three… How he hates running! The chaser huffs and puffs, and the last lap of his set is rather slow as he has run out of steam for running and practice. He had to hand it to Noémie, she never ceased to surprise him. The chaser finally finishes his laps and puts his broom away, though the object hasn’t gotten much use this practice, quite glad for once that he had bothered to stretch beforehand. “See you tomorrow,” he mutters to his teammates as he makes his way inside, already stiffening up from the extra activity. Yes, Bailey will sleep very well tonight.

Tegan Madison is quite glad practice is finally over, though she’s sure she didn’t drop the ball quite so many times. Then again, Noémie seemed to just assign an amount to everyone and have on her way. The beater runs at a much slower pace in her final six laps than she had in her first, and much of her anger has subsided and evolved into pure exhaustion as she, too, stores her broom in the shed and makes her way to Ravenclaw commons. Tegan finds herself feeling very glad that she had already finished her homework before coming to practice, because she certainly was not going to be able to manage any homework now.

Van, too, is exhausted at the end of practice, and is, indeed, the last to be off the pitch after her laps. The keeper is rather glad that none of her teammates are around to see her thoroughly dissheveled appearance when she finishes. Van makes some vain attempts to smooth her hair and dry her clothes under an eave near the entrance to the castle, but finds that this is futile and instead stomps on the stairs to the commonroom, headed for hot bath and a warm bed. To hell with homework.

Clavicle Gravely wraps up his part and trots over as he helps clean up the balls and practice gear

The captain of the team organizes the supplies in the shed and then steps back out onto the pitch without her broom. She walks into the center, glancing around, then starts her own set of six laps around the pitch. She would do no less than her team did, even if none of them saw it. The fifth year prefect keeps a steady pace as she does one, two, three laps, then four… After finishing her laps, Noémie slowly makes her way into the castle, for her part, to dry off and clean up a bit, and then to work on her remaining homework. After all, she had OWLs this year, a fact which none of her teammates could claim. The girl shrugs off all thoughts of Quidditch and practicing as she attempts to focus on her schoolwork.