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Death Grip (Gus)
Author: Phinfilius
Date: 10-19-09 19:16
Augustus sits back on his broom, bat cradled somewhat haphazardly across his lap, massaging his bat hand with his other hand. He'd been gripping the bat so tightly even between bludger hits that the hand has become cramped and painful. Gus doesn't pause overly long in his ministrations. There's still a match going on and with Ravenclaw now in the lead, he can't sit idle for very long while the rest of the Hufflepuff team works to tie up the score.
Picking the bat up, this time making sure to hold it firmly but saving the death grip for when he's actually making a connection with a bludger, Gus spurs his broom into motion. As he picks up speed he glimpses Aleydis searching, searching, searching for the snitch. Seekers work hard looking for that tiny ball but when the real work is done by the other players on a team, sometimes it hardly seems right that catching the snitch is worth one hundred fifty points. Gus knows that's a subject that comes up from time to time among many Quidditch fans. In fact, just the other day he read an opinion piece in Quidditch Weekly in which the writer very strongly urged a change in the way Quidditch is scored, with one suggestion being to make the value of catching the snitch far, far lower than it currently is. Gus can see merit in the arguments posed by the writer and those of others with similar ideas yet at the same time he sort of hates the thought of that sort of change being made if it were going to be done. If any changes are made to Quidditch, Gus would prefer those changes to involve things like being able to substitute players during a game. Like if someone is badly injured, that player could leave the match immediately while another took that player's place. Or if a match were to go really long, then being able to switch out players, even if only for a short amount of time, would help refresh the starting line-up. For Hogwarts, it would mean more kids could make the team and know what great fun being on a house team can be. The teams last school year were okay but Gus can really tell a big difference in comraderie and cohesiveness between last year and this.
Reaching a bludger, Gus tightens his grip and gives his bat a mighty swing. It hits the bludger with a resounding crack, sending the bludger on a trajectory to hit Hadrian Rabnott whose trying to keep Emerald from making any forward progress with the quaffle. Things don't go as planned though because Emerald slows to set up a pass to Milo and in response Hadrian slows as well. The bludger shoots past well in front of where Hadrian now flies and is intercepted by Fritz who hits the bludger at Milo with the intent of keeping the Hufflepuff from easily catching the quaffle.
Gus darts forward, thinking he can get between Milo and Fritz and thus the bludger but sees Caerwyn's already on it. Gus peels away to go after the other bludger, which has just been hit by Coco. From the looks of it, she's sent it on a course to hit Aleydis even though it doesn't appear as though the Hufflepuff seeker has spotted the snitch. Doesn't matter. It's Gus's job to protect his teammates while knocking bludgers into opposing players.
Gus reaches the bludger before it reaches Aleydis. He'd already been looking at where the chasers are, who's now got the quaffle, and in what direction and how hard he needs to bat the bludger to successfully interfere with Ravenclaw again.
No Sign
Author: Christopher Chant
Date: 10-19-09 23:18
Where could the snitch possibly be?
So far the only glittering golden object Christoper's seen was an adult female spectator's overly large medallion catching the sunlight just right. The medallion is big enough that its flashing glints were enough to blind someone. Christopher's not even sure how she could sit up right with that monstrous weight around her neck.
The snitch should be red. A really bright red. Even a hot pink would do though Christopher can think of a few overly macho professional seekers who might be reluctant to grab onto a small hot pink winged ball. Christopher wouldn't care because hot pink would be better than white with gold wings. Much, much easier to spot, or so he thinks. Sure the snitch's color is based on the small bird originally used but after the use of a live bird was made illegal and the snitch as a winged ball had been in use awhile, did no one ever stop to think that a color change might be in order?
Color change. Now there's a thought. A snitch that constantly shifts colors throughout a match. That might be interesting. Maybe next pick-up match he'll have to see if anyone's up for something like that. Of course, then they'd have to have someone who knows a spell of that level. Christopher doesn't yet but only because that sort of spell hasn't been in his curriculum yet. Those types of spells will be part of his education and they're ones Christopher's looking forward to learning, especially where Defense Against the Dark Arts is concerned. Not only color change spells and charms but loads of others like being able to transfigure body parts. It must be so great to be a metamorphmagus. Christopher always wished he were one but the only person he's ever personally known with that talent is Great great aunt Didi and the only time she shows her ability these days is by accident. She's so old that something on her body will change and she doesn't even realize it. It's both amusing and gross in that she'll suddenly have a hairy wart on her nose or one ear will grow so long it touches her shoulder only to spring back to regular shape then shrink to the size of a peanut.
A roar from the stands has Christopher swiveling his broom to see what's happen. He can't tell if anything spectacular has taken place but then the announcer mentions that Ravenclaw was rebuffed from scoring three times in a matter of seconds.
Would have been nice if Ravenclaw had increased its lead. It's only up by ten and the score is low, only thirty for Ravenclaw and twenty for Hufflepuff. That means that unless a bunch of goals are scored between now and when the snitch is caught, the match is definitely going to be decided on snitch points. There are matches won on goal points but usually with such matches, when as much time as passes as there's already been in this one, there are more points on a board. A lot more.
If Hufflepuff were to lose a player or two to injury, especially their keeper, that would increase Ravenclaw's chances of running up the score before the snitch is caught. Since having a player out of the game usually means being pretty badly hurt or unconscious or both, Christopher doesn't truly want to have something like that happen to any of the Hufflepuffs.
Flying by guest referee Viktor Krum puts Christopher in mind of a World Cup match Mr. Krum was in. He was only like seventeen or eighteen and played for the Bulgarian national team even though he hadn't yet graduate Durmstrang. Christopher was at that match though with it having been around nine and a half years ago, he only remembers bits and pieces of being there. He remembers being overwhelmed by the number of people and all the noise. Christopher also remembers watching Viktor Krum catch the snitch but instead of being happy that the team he was rooting for had gotten the snitch, Christopher's father was disappointed. He'd had to explain to Christopher that sometimes getting the snitch does not equal winning the match.
Something going at high speed darts in front of Christopher, literally brushing against his nose. He jerks his broom around to follow, already sprinting after it when he finally sees that it was just an insect. He slows but keeps his eyes on the bug, trying to figure out what kind it is. It's too bad he can't catch it to study it more closely then let it go afterwards. Christopher doesn't think anyone but Hufflepuff would take kindly to his stopping during a game to inspect a bug up close.
Turning to get back on the course he'd mentally plotted as a search pattern Christopher finally spots what he's supposed to have been looking for this whole time. He doubts he'd have seen if it not for that bug distracting him though.
Christopher approaches slowly, cautiously, hand starting to come up, fingers outstretched.
He never saw or heard the bludger until it smacked him in the shoulder. It's not a particularly hard or painful hit but still, it was enough to make him lose sight of the snitch.
If he spotted it once, he can spot it again.
Resolved to do just that, Christopher starts searching for the snitch again.
Tying It Up Again (Caerwyn)
Author: Julian Valentine
Date: 10-20-09 13:53
Caerwyn reaches out with his bat to hit the bludger he's come up on only to jerk back quickly when the other bludger sails by in a blur. This delay causes him to overshoot where he needs to be positioned to best hit this other bludger so he maneuvers around to try again only to have Fritz get in the hit before him. Fritz had had an intense look on his face, so intense he looked angry but once the bludger is soaring away and he sees Caerwyn, the older boy grins the grin of one having a great deal of fun despite having spent ages on a broom flying around in the numbingly cold air.
Caerwyn grins back but doesn't linger. He's got a bludger to get to so he rockets after ball, pouring on the speed to not only gain on the bludger but to pass it. Swinging around once more into a position suited for sending the bludger where he wants it to go, Caerwyn snaps off a hit, vibrations traveling up the bat to his hand.
The bludger, which Caerwyn thinks Fritz had aimed at Emerald, flies on a straight path to where Jack is keeping Tim from taking a pass from Emerald. The bludger conks Jack in the back of the head, which isn't ideally the best place to be hit by a bludger and not what Caerwyn had been aiming to do, but which still has the desire effect of giving Tim the opening he needs.
Tim grabs the quaffle and in a lightening quick move, immediately passes on ahead to Milo. By that time Emerald's made a mad dash to break ahead of them, her opening to break clear coming when all three Hufflepuff chasers concentrate on Tim and Milo for a moment in an effort to keep them from moving the quaffle forward. Milo passes off to Emerald with an extremely bad through made worse by interference from Deak but the quaffle still reaches its target. Emerald takes off with it, already withing goal shooting range.
One bludger passes uncomfortably close to her but that doesn't stop Emerald from setting up for the shot. In the meantime Gus has gotten to the other bludger and hits it at Daniel, trying to time it to help Emerald make the score.
The quaffle has a subtle curve to it causing Daniel to misinterpret where it's going and where he needs to be for the block. The quaffle passes through one of the hoops bringing the score to 30 points for Hufflepuff, tying the score with Ravenclaw.
Coming Down With Flu
Author: Coco Nutt
Date: 10-20-09 14:30
After the third Hufflepuff goal, Hadrian takes possession of the quaffle. The three Ravenclaw chasers begin moving the quaffle down the pitch using patterns and formations they'd practice over and over until done seamlessly. They're working well together with Fritz and Coco giving bludger support but the thing about practice is that there aren't three other chasers and two other beaters flying around doing their utmost to play havoc with well coordinated patterns and formations. As she swings her bat to send a bludger at Milo, Coco toys with the idea of getting a few of other Ravenclaws to join them once a week at practice to give them team people to scrimmage against. It would definitely give them a better idea of whether something will work in a game or not. Coco can't believe she's only just now had this thought and can't believe no one else to her knowledge has, at Hogwarts, done something along those lines.
Coco is flying fast after a bludger but has lost track of whether it's the one she hit just moments ago or the other one. Two chasers are in her path so she breaks right to go around, starting back to the left almost before she's around them, then it's dodge Ravenclaw seeker Christopher Chant before coming up on the bludger, her bat at the ready. The score is tied again but Coco is doing her part to help Ravenclaw take the lead a second time. As such, she sends this bludger in the direction of Tim who's trying repeatedly to steal the quaffle from Deak. He's got his fingers touching the quaffle, Deak angling away but Tim sticking with him as though glued. With a little bit of the right time and a whole lot of luck, Coco's hoping the bludger will hit Tim in the hand that's grubbing for the ball.
The bludger finds its mark, Tim jerking back his now stinging fingers. Coco doesn't stop to enjoy the moment because she's racked by her umpteenth sneezing fit. As the game has progressed Coco's nose has become stuffier and stuffier and her eyes more and more watery. As if that's not enough, she's now got a growing headache and is shivering some even though she's grown increasingly warm the past half hour or so. After the match ends, even if Ravenclaw is celebrating a victory, Coco's first stop after the locker room is the hospital wing for a flu tonic or whatever it is school nurse Poppy Pomfrey would give her.
Jack as the quaffle but a bludger at the same time Emerald gets close enough to steal gives possession back over to Hufflepuff. Pressing her now overly used tissue to her nose, Coco sneezes again then sniffles, tucks the tissue away and takes off to reach a bludger she's spotted before either Gus or Caerwyn get to it. Reaching the black ball, Coco bats it hard at Milo who's in the process of accepting the quaffle from Emerald. Hadrian sneaks in for the steal and takes off with the red ball as Coco tracks down one of the black ones, intent on helping her chasers stay in possession of the quaffle until scoring again.
Psychically Linked
Author: Emerald Green
Date: 10-20-09 15:45
Hadrian had the quaffle then Jack then Hadrian again and now Deak. Those three have worked so well together passing the quaffle that if Emerald didn't know better she'd think they are psychically linked. Then again, they're wizards so maybe they found a spell that does that. Just because she's never heard of such a spell, or potion, doesn't mean one doesn't exist. There are so many things Emerald has yet to learn about this world she came into later in life but, then, from what she does know, few who've grown up in the wizarding world and have completed their educations know of every magical thing there is.
Even if there were such a spell, charm, or potion that enable a psychic link, Emerald doubts those three would use it. She might be wrong but none of them seem the deliberately cheating type. No, they simply play well together as a team. Emerald's own team works well together too but not quite so well oiled as to appear to have a psychic connection. Other than perhaps Coco and Fritz. That's how they seem to Emerald anyway.
As good as the Ravenclaw chasers are playing, they've not run up the score. The Hufflepuff chasers aren't making this a cake walk, Sophia's been spot on with blocking, and beater combo of Augustus and Caerwyn is gelling quite nicely. Emerald can well imagine them appearing to have a psychic connection in just another couple of years if they both continue as Hufflepuff's beaters.
Deak passes off to Hadrain who fumbles thanks to a Caerwyn sent bludger. Milo shoots in, grabs the quaffle before Hadrian can recover and is off like The Flash. Emerald's sometimes glad that if she makes nerdy Muggle metaphors and similes, those around her have no idea just how nerdy they are. When she does get asked and has to explain, she often gets blank looks, not because whomever thinks she's nerdy but because the person is trying to get a handle on whatever Muggle tidbit she's given. If she were to mention to someone that any of the players today took off like The Flash, she'd get that same blank look if asked to explain.
Emerald takes off like The Flash herself, coming around a couple of other players, braking as she does. She slows a little too quickly and if a broom in mid-air could skid, hers would right now. She keeps control, uses her thighs to steer the broom and holds out her arms to take a hand-off from Milo. The second the quaffle touches her hands, her fingers grip it tightly and she accelerates through a gap between Gus, Tim, Jack, and Deak.
As she zips by Tim, Emerald deposits the quaffle into his grasp but continues on as though she's still got the ball. The ploy works for all of half a second but half a second is better than nothing, especially in fast moving Quidditch. Heck, even in Muggle sports a half second can be huge.
The quaffle changes hands six or seven more times, the Hufflepuff chasers passing often as they move the quaffle down field. Deak steals, gains a quarter of the ground they'd covered back only to take a solid thumping from a bludger, losing the quaffle to Emerald in the process.
Milo, Tim, and Emerald regain the ground they'd just lost then cover the remaining distance to get with the area thought of as goal range. Goals can be made from beyond that area of course, but they're less likely to put points on the board. It's Tim with the quaffle now, hurling the ball at the middle of the center hoop. Daniel blocks with his hands but the quaffle rebounds oddly off them, smacking into the rim of the hoop to his left, then rolls through.
It's Hufflepuff ahead now 40 to 30!
(Aleydis) Go for the Gold
Author: Griet
Date: 10-20-09 18:24
Although Aleydis was glad that her team had pulled ahead, she didn't let herself get too excited or distracted. The game wasn't over yet, and it wouldn't be until either she or Christopher caught the snitch. She had her heart set on catching it before he did, and doubled her efforts to locate it so that Hufflepuff could be the undisputed winner of the match.
She searched systematically, moving up and down the Pitch in a gridlike pattern. Aleydis tried not to think about how the snitch may end up where she'd already looked, and how her efforts to work systematically might be for nothing. She just didn't know how much better off she'd be if she searched every which way.
Just when she thought she'd scrutinized every last inch of the Quidditch Pitch and needed to start looking for the snitch in a more erratic manner, she spotted it. It zigged and zagged close to the ground, dancing on brief gusts of wind that chilled the players and spectators to the bone.
Aleydis pointed the nose of her broomstick downwards and dove, keeping her arm tucked in until she got close enough to make a grab for the golden orb. Her sharp movement caught the announcer's attention, as well as the crowd's, and most importantly, Christopher's. He followed suit, attempting to cut Aleydis off before she could reach the snitch.
Aleydis leveled off her broom when she got close to the ground so that she wouldn't plow into the turf and flip onto her back with a thud. The snitch continued to dart on a fairly horizontal pattern, but as soon as both seekers were nearly upon it, it shot up vertically, like a geyser.
Aleydis and Christopher shot up right behind it, their arms stretched as long as possible. Aleydis could feel the pull in her muscles and wondered if she could accidentally dislocate her shoulder from stretching too far. She and Christopher were practically shoulder to shoulder.
Just a little bit farther! Aleydis silently urged herself.
She stretched as far and high as she could go. Suddenly, the snitch veered off of its vertical path. Both seekers angled off after it, but Aleydis was a hair closer because it turned in her direction instead of Christopher's. She urged her broom to go faster, and as if it understood her wishes, it shot forward on its own. Wind propelled her forward, and just like that, the snitch was in her hand.