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Squad B In The First Match (Hunter)
Author: Emerald Green
Date: 10-13-10 20:10
Perched on his new broom, a surprise from his aunt and uncle and picked out by Olive and Emerald, Hunter thinks it's a darn good thing that the four squads the Hogwarts Quidditch team has been divided into for today's exhibition matches are all wearing different colors. He'd be beyond confused trying to remember who was on which squad otherwise, especially after a few weeks of daily practices where the focus has been all twenty-eight players working together as a team. They do play practice scrimmages against each other but even then they wear different colors though Basil Wynbourne did once suggest they play shirts and skins even though there were girls on both sides that particular practice. None of them were very amused by the suggestion. Hunter found it funny though wouldn't have dared admit it what with being flanked by Jade and Olive right then.
For the Homecoming and Exhibition Matches today Hunter is on Squad B. Squad B is in the first match, currently going on, against Squad A. Jade's also on Squad B so is simiilarly donned in light blue with orange trims but she's a beater while Hunter is keeper. Olive is also playing right now as a chaser for Squad A, which means she's wearing black with cream and is their opponent. Hunter doesn't have to see Jade's face to know that's having a little fun being able to hit bludgers at Olive and having the hits be considered by most as good things. Not that Jade or Hunter dislike Olive. Quite the contrary. Despite there being the ages differences between Emerald and Olive, between Olive and the twins, and between Emerald and the twins, the four Green siblings are close. Jade and Hunter are extremely close but they've always put that down to the twin thing even though they are fraternal girl-boy twins. There's also the fact that due to the age differences, Jade and Hunter had each other to keep each other company and for entertainment while Olive and Emerald were in school. It's not animosity or bad blood between siblings that has Jade enjoying being able to aim bludgers at Olive. It's just the fun of being able to harass one's big sister and it be sanctioned.
For Hunter, the fun comes into play when he's able to successfully block a shot Olive's made. Just as for Olive there's the nah nah fun of getting the quaffle past Hunter or dodging one of Jade's bludger's. Unlike say Basil and his cousin Julietta. It's no secret that there's no love lost between them. That said, when it comes to the good of the team those to have, so far in practice, tolerated each other and not overtly done anything to sabotage how well the team meshes as a whole.
Right this second is one of those "fun" moments with Olive. She's just ducked under Squad B chaser Griet and zagged past the other Squad B beater Alastor and the bludger he's just hit to come to an abrupt stop within goal range of Hunter. He sizes his sister up, trying to read any tells she might have that would give away where she's going to throw the quaffle. Olive lets the red ball fly. Hunter's already in motion to get between it and the hoop on his left.
Hunter's fingers connect with the quaffle and he's able, just barely, to tip it away from him. He's unable to actually grab it just then though so goes after it in hopes of snatching it up to be able to pass off to one of the Squad B chasers. Before he can get hold of the quaffle, Squad A chaser Marjani's got it forcing Hunter to have to back pedal at top speed to get back into blocking position.
Hunter makes it, just, but then Marjani's hit by a bludger, loses her grip on the ball, and after other chasers converge in a mad scramble, it's Wiggy, a Squad B chaser, who emerges with quaffle in hand, racing back the other direction.
Watching them pull away for the time being, Hunter wonders how Coach Batuti arrived at the decision to put three of the most experienced players - Wiggy, Griet, and Deak - and all of them chasers on the same squad. The only conclusion he's been able to draw is that part of the reasoning was to help force other players to pull together more and work even harder. Much as he'd like to know, Hunter's not going to be the one to ask so he'll just have to keep wondering. Marjani's stolen the quaffle so the action is coming back his way. Hunter watches intently, ready to act as soon as Squad A tries to get the quaffle past him again.
(Gus) C vs D
Author: Johanna Steele
Date: 10-14-10 15:56
Gus walked into the pitch alongside with the rest of the members of squad D. They were all dressed in their purple uniforms, ready to face the opponent team, squad C. Gus felt all his nerves disappearing once he noticed the cheer-leading girls at the stands. He now felt confident and ready to show them how good he was as a keeper.
He flew to his position at the hoops waiting for the whistle that would announce the beginning of the match. Gus couldn’t say that he liked or disliked his team. Of course he would prefer to have Mark as his teammate not to mention Griet Vanderbilt, but still he got lucky because Basil Wybourne and Cornelia Vanderbilt were there and so he wasn’t alone as a Slytherin in this squad.
Of course Gus knew that this year they were representing Hogwarts and not houses but still he couldn’t avoid thinking , maybe in a childish way, that the players from Slytherin were better than the rest.
The match finally started and he watched how Mason Jeffers was the first one to grab the quaffle. He passed it to Adina Blakwood who passed it again to Mason, because a bludger from Augustus Hodfuffer had been shot in her direction. Mason hold still the quaffle but then he didn’t had success when he was throwing it to Alexa Wenlock because Jack Emerson had intercepted the pass.
Gus watched as the three chasers from the squad D, Jack Emerson, Jill Prewitt, and Julietta Wynbourne worked together in order to reach Gloriaspasiana Hodfuffer’s hoops. Etta was about to score when a bludger (with the signature of Ella Harville) came to her direction. She shot the quaffle anyway but it didn’t go in the right direction.
Attentive to what had happened, Alexa captured the quaffle and flew right away as fast as she could towards Gus’ hoops. She simulated a throw to Adina but she ended up passing the quaffle to Manson who tried to score.
But Gus was watching the quaffle and he make his first defense, which provoked a loud wave of cheers from the stands. Smiling he threw the quaffle to Jack who managed to avoid a bludger from Caerwyn Valentine.
For a moment, when he was sure all the chasers where far away, near Gloriaspasiana’s hoops Gus risked a look to the seekers. None of the Vanderbilt sisters seemed to have spotted the snitch yet, although they seemed to fly pretty close to each other. Gus hoped Cornelia would manage to beat Aleydis on this one.
He paid attention to what was happening to the chasers again, right on the moment Manson Jeffers was approaching him, once again, with the red quaffle on his hand . Gus was determinate to not let the quaffle pass any of the hoops he guarded.
Cornelia vs Aleydis
Author: Griet
Date: 10-14-10 17:37
The last time Cornelia had faced off against Aleydis in a real Quidditch match had been last year at the Slytherin and Hufflepuff game, in which Cornelia had inadvertently caught the snitch when it had gone down the front of her uniform. Of course, she refused to think of the catch as purely accidental and believed that she had simply outplayed her little sister.
Deny it all she might, Cornelia knew that Aleydis was a forminable player. She didn't think her sister would have earned one of the coveted seeker positions if she wasn't one of the best. Cornelia just wouldn't say it out loud to anyone, not even Gervaise.
She chanced a glance into the stands and searched for him, but the crowds were larger than usual since parents and other family members had come to Hogwarts to view the exhibition matches. Although she hadn't seen them yet, Cornelia knew that her own parents were there with her little brother Franciscus.
Not wanting to distract herself too much, she gave up on looking for Gervaise and concentrated fully on finding the snitch for Squad D, before Aleydis had a chance to catch it for Squad C.
She started systematically looking around and noted that Aleydis was doing the very same where she was positioned in the blue sky. The weather was quite fantastic for a Quidditch match, though it was a little on the cool side. At least the sun was out, and though there were occasionally breezes, it wasn't like the winds were strong blasts of cold air.
Something reflected in her line of sight, drawing Cornelia's attention, but then she noticed that the offending object wasn't the golden snitch but the gaudy bracelet of a witch who sat in the stands. Cornelia scowled, first at the woman and then at Aleydis, who had also come to investigate.
Aleydis wondered if anyone else felt strange playing with their current teammates. Although they had all been working together for weeks now, sometimes it still felt a little weird to have a Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor player for a teammate.
Squad C only had two other Hufflepuffs, Caerwyn, who Aleydis already knew from last year's team, and Glori, a new keeper. The other team members were Gryffindor Ella and Slytherins Adina, Mason and Alexa. What was especially strange was that one of her and Caerwyn's former teammates, Gus Hodfuffer (not to be confused with Gus van Tassel) was playing opposite them in this match. It was probably especially weird for Caerwyn and Gus, since they were also real life best friends.
Aleydis spotted her family in the crowd and gave them the quickest of waves before devoting all of her attention back to the match. She wondered where the snitch was hiding. It hadn't shown itself all match!
Potion and Plant Poisoning
Author: Hermione Granger
Date: 10-14-10 18:15
Potion and Plant Poisoning was the fourth field of study Hermione practiced in her clinical rotations at St. Mungo's. She had only recently transfered to the third level of the hospital and found the new cases with which she'd been presented quite interesting.
In some ways it was like studying Potions and Herbology again. Although it had been years since her formal studies in both subjects, Hermione still kept many books on Potions and Herbology, which she of course diligently read and reread.
Quinctilius Crumm came bustling to the nurse's station, where Hermione was dropping off some paperwork, and said, "We've got a live one, but possibly for long."
Hermione immediately dropped what she was doing and hurried after him into the exam room, where a balding wizard who was quite red in the face, though whether from his poisoning or natural disposition, Hermione couldn't tell. His dark eyes were wildly dilated, and he was extremely fidgety. His mouth opened, and it looked as if he were trying to speak, but no words emerged.
A hysterical woman was was standing next to his bed. "He was gardening in the backyard. I stepped out to give him some hot tea when he showed me a plant he'd found growing between the rose bushes. He thought it might be some variety of mint and put it in his mouth... I don't think it was mint! It didn't even smell or look like mint!"
Hermione said, "It was belladonna, or deadly nightshade."
"How do you know?" Quinctilius asked.
"Because there's some right there, just inside the collar of his shirt," Hermione said, plucking the dull, dark leaf from its hiding spot between the wizard's neck and shirt collar.
Quin looked at it closely. "You're right, and the symptoms match. Loss of voice, dilated pupils, continual movement."
He turned to the man's wife. "You'll need to leave for the moment. We have to pump your husband's stomach, and we need to do it now."
When the hysterical woman did nothing to move from her husband's side, Hermione stepped beside her and gently guided her out of the room. "You can sit in the hall, if you wish, or would you like me to escort you to the Visitor's Tea Room?"
The witch, still yammering, found a seat near the nurse's station and sank into it like a dead weight. Hermione lingered for only a second more and then hurried back into the exam room to learn how to magically remove contents from a wizard's stomach.
(Mark) Exhibition Matches
Author: Isolde
Date: 10-15-10 09:56
Mark found the black uniforms assigned to Squad A better than all the rest, except for perhaps purple, which had trimmed his robes a few years ago as a sign of his pureblood status. Black was a bold, powerful color, and it made Squad A look sharp.
When it came time for Squad A to participate in another exhibition match, Mark grabbed his bat and took position with his team members. This time they were playing against Squad D, which consisted of a few of his old Slytherin teammates like Basil and Cornelia, and also his friend Gus.
That Gus had made the Quidditch team had come as a little surprise to Mark, though he couldn't say that Gus didn't make a decent keeper. It seemed as if along with his new good looks, Gus had also developed the skills of a good Quidditch player. Mark wondered what Gus would accomplish next. Good marks in all of his classes?
Mark was definitely a trifle jealous that Gus seemed to be the center of everyone's attention these days, especially all the girls. A whole bunch of them sat in the stands and cheered him on as they giggled and batted their eyelashes. As far as Mark knew, his only fans today were his parents.
He hadn't even wanted them to come. Mark worried that they would say something about him having an interest in Kate again, which was totally bogus anyway. The only reason he even felt a bit weird around her sometimes was because of his mother's accusation that he liked her. Which he definitely didn't.
He inevitably found himself scanning the stands for her but he stopped as soon as he heard the shrill tone of Coach Batuti's whistle. Jack of Squad D got the quaffle first and tore off in the direction of A's hoops, with Jill and Julietta flanking him. Mark immediately set to work seeking the nearest bludger and aiming it so that it tripped up a pass between Jack and Jill. Olive, one of Squad A's chasers, snatched it from the air and took off in the other direction. Mark went in pursuit to protect her and the rest of his team and to discourage the opposition from stealing the red ball back.
Homecoming
Author: Bronwyn Dewhurst
Date: 10-15-10 10:58
Bronwyn and Toby sat in the stands at the Quidditch Pitch at Hogwarts for Homecoming. Toby didn't have a game of his own today, and nowadays Bronwyn worked Monday-Friday from early morning to early afternoon. Because they were both free today and didn't have any other plans, they thought it might be nice to visit their alma mater.
They had seen Ariella already, who sat in the staff box with her husband Lawrence. They weren't sure if Anthony and Alanna were there or if they were even planning to come. Anthony had a pretty busy schedule and often worked Saturdays, and now that term had started up again at St. Emrys, Alanna sometimes put in her hours for her part-time job at the Ministry of Magic on the weekends too.
Katherine found them in the stands early into the first exhibition match. She hadn't attended Hogwarts herself and other than outside curiosity, didn't have that much interest in visiting the school. She was there to cover the event for The Daily Prophet. Bronwyn's brother Siegfried was also there, covering the exhibition matches for a blurb in an upcoming edition of Quidditch Illustrated.
Bronwyn supposed that she ought to take notes as well, since she would likely want to say something about the matches on Monday morning for her WWN sportscast. Maybe she'd just borrow from Katherine and Siegfried.
The extended family all sat together, along with Bronwyn and Siegfried's uncle Will and their cousin Kate.
"Who is that stud playing for the purple team?" Bronwyn asked Kate, when she saw the keeper for Squad D take his position before the goal hoops.
Kate followed her cousin's gaze and said, "Oh, that's Gus."
"What's he, like sixteen?"
"Fourteen," Kate answered. "He's in my year and a good friend."
"You should make him your boyfriend," Bronwyn said.
"There's a long line of girls waiting for him already," Kate replied, "and besides, I don't like him like that."
"He's not the one who picks on you, is he?" Uncle Will asked.
Kate started to color. "Dad, no one picks on me." She hadn't ever mentioned to him that she had gotten picked on, had she? She remembered him saying that boys who pick on girls like them, but she was sure she hadn't given him a reason to say so. He'd said it just because.
"What house is he?" Bronwyn asked, nodding again to where Gus hovered on his broom.
"Slytherin."
"That's unfortunate," she murmured, "but some of them can be nice. I mean, most of them aren't in my experience, but one or two can be. You said he's your friend?"
"Yes."
"Does he like you more than a friend?"
"I never got that impression," Kate said. She felt a little weird talking to her cousin about girl stuff in front of her dad, but Bronwyn tended to blather on about boys in front of anyone.
"Too bad. You should totally date him."
"Umm... I guess I'll take that under consideration."
Toby gently elbowed Bronwyn in the side. "Do I need to point out that you are drooling over a child?"
Bronwyn stuck her tongue out at him. "Calling me a pedofile now? Besides, I'm only looking. That's allowed, isn't it?"
"He doesn't even look fourteen," Siegfried supplied, in an unexpected gesture of support for his sister.
"I know," Bronwyn said.
Toby rolled his eyes.
Bronwyn laughed and cuddled closer to her husband and forced herself to watch all of the players, not just the young hottie guarding the goal hoops.
Dying Wish
Author: Marzipan
Date: 10-15-10 18:19
Initially, Marzi had planned on attending the Homecoming festivities at Hogwarts, but at the last minute, her mother had owled, asking her and Weston to come to her home in South Kensington. When they got there, they found not only Georgia FitzRoy present, but also their half-brother Marius, and Caleb's mother and father. Baby Carter was asleep in a bassinet in the living room.
Simon and Juliana Black were a solemn couple. Caleb had been their only child and without him they felt lost. He hadn't lived at home for quite some time but his not being around anymore hit them harder perhaps than the loss of Carolina did Georgia. Not that she wasn't still in mourning for her daughter. Georgia had worn nothing but black since that fateful day when the young couple had died in a terrible car crash.
Marzi and Weston went around the room and greeted everyone and then took their places on the empty loveseat.
Georgia spoke first. "We found a slip of parchment when we were cleaning out the flat," she said, referring to the London flat Caleb, Carolina and Carter had called home until very recently.
"It was a rough draft of a will," she went on. "I suppose they started thinking about the future after the birth of their son."
"I'm sure they thought it would be a distant future," Weston commented sadly. The couple had been so young, several years younger than he and Marzi themselves.
Georgia nodded. "It's an unfinished will, but it does say something of interest that I think we should adhere to in memory of Caleb and Carolina." She looked to Caleb's parents, who looked stiff but resigned. Juliana Black had tears in her eyes.
"What is it, Mum?" Marzi asked.
"They said that if they died before Carter came of age, then you and Weston should raise him."
The news came as a bit of a shock, and both Marzi and Weston immediately exchanged looks. They had known that a guardian for Carter had yet to be decided and that anyone in the immediate family was in the running to take him in if they were interested, but Marzi thought for sure that her mother or Caleb's parents would be at the top of the list.
"I'm not as young as I used to be and chasing after a little boy in a few years would probably be too exhausting for me," Georgia said.
Marzi didn't think of her mother as old and by wizarding standards, she certainly wasn't.
"It's what Caleb wanted," Simon Black said, speaking up for the first time. "Carter is the nearest thing I have to my son and having him near to him would help me with my grief, with our grief," he amended, taking his wife's hand and giving it a loving squeeze. "But if you want him, then you should raise him. It's what Caleb wanted."
Marzi didn't like talking about Carter as if he were a pet or just a thing they could pass from one person to the next. If it was her half-sister's will, then she would raise Carter as her own, but she also didn't want to take him from his grieving grandparents. She sensed that the Blacks would rather have him for themselves, even if they said otherwise.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
She looked to Weston when the Blacks nodded their heads.
"It makes sense," Marius said, while Marzi and Weston wordlessly communicated with each other. "They were close to you. You got married in a double wedding. I think if it had been the other way around, you probably would have been happy to have them raise your child."
"You're right," Weston said, looking away from his wife to his half-brother. "They would be at the top of my list." He looked to the Georgia and then to the Blacks. "We'll raise him gladly."
Marzi's breath caught in her throat when she suddenly remembered something from last spring, when she'd gone to Hogsmeade during a school visit to the village. The fortune teller had told her that she would be a mother before the end of the year. Now it looked like her fortune was coming true.