Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff!

[kael]

It was a wonderful day. Well, in a way. On one hand, it was the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor quidditch match and one of the chasers had just scored a goal for Hufflepuff. On the other hand, he was on the team and now he’d been substituted in as a Chaser. It was his first game; he had a right to be nervous. But hey, as long as he got through the match without falling off his broomstick or, you know, being attacked by a bludger and being forced to spend time in the Hospital Wing.

Neither seeker had noticed the snitch so Kael took a second to silently cheer on Charles. And then it was time to properly join the game as a Chaser, since Cassandra was passing the quaffle to Lenora. He gained speed, heading closer with his aim fixed firmly in his mind. Intercept that pass!

((Intercept the pass from Cassandra to Lenora.))

[Arywiel Coone G3]

Arywiel watched Kael Collins head towards Cass and Lenora, ready to intercept the pass. She turned back to Lenora and shot her a fleeting look. Ary abandoned her post near the Gryffindor and swung her bat faster in a tight circle. She pulled up to a black ball cannoning through the air and sped after it, one eye kept on Kael. She sped up and raced on. The bludger seemed to read her thoughts and intentions, for it hurled in the opposite direction of Kael. Finally Ary managed to catch up on it and throw herself in front of the ball. For a second she panicked as the black blurr was a foot from her face. Surely she hadn't miscalculated? She decisively gripped her bat and sent it through the air with such force that it flew through her hands. Before it left her grip, however, it had slammed the ball and sent it in a straight line towards Kael. Ary clutched her chest and dived for her bat. She caught it and whirled around, hurtling towards her marked target. If the bludger were to miss her victim, she was ready to send it back with force. Such was her determination, as she grinded her teeth and brandished her bat like a sword.


((Abandoning Lenora *sorry* and hitting a bludger at Kael))

[Charles Driscoll H7]

There still reamined no sign of the Snitch, not only had it managed to remain practically invisible to both Seekers but also to everyone on the pitch, since Charlie had seen no sign of excitement which occasionally happened in matches when one of the spectators or the commentator happened to see the Snitch. But Charles was not disheartened, he was a very patient person who rarely gave up on anything. And when Hufflepuff scored the first goal of the match he felt an incredible warmth bubble inside him and wash all over his skin giving him a boost of energy. It was an incredible feeling to have scored the first goal, it had been so long since Hufflepuff had done that. He was unable to restrain his joy and yelled out a cheer, Ivy and Harmony had done an amazing job at scoring that goal and he hoped he'd do the same for his team.

He could no longer feel the cold and it felt strange to be perspiring in such cold weather but he'd never been so intent on something. He was going to get that Snitch! Something shone not too far from where he was, a little to the left right above him. Could this possibly be the Snitch? Charles flew over to the Gryffindor stands, flying as fast as he could without falling off his broom.

((Snitch... oh, Snitch! ))

[Sophia Hallington H7]

Sophia's pass to Ivy was, fortunately, successful, despite Zara's unsuccessful attempt to intercept. However, Branden sent yet another bludger away from Maryn towards Ivy, which she carefully managed to avoid. Sophia expected that everyone on the pitch had lost count of how many bludgers had been sent towards the captain...probably more than half of the bludgers sent towards the Hufflepuff team, and probably more than all of the bludgers sent towards the whole of the Gryffindor team. Luckily she was a skilled chaser, and had dodged the majority of them, and the ones that hit her didn't seem to have done too much damage.

Branden was now sending yet another bludger, this time towards Harmony. She seemed to be quite badly hit, but she wasn't doing anything important to the game, so she had time to recover and get her concentration back. Then Maryn unsuccessfully tried to steal the quaffle from Ivy, and then Ivy sucessfully passed the quaffle to Harmony, who had recovered by then, despite the attempted interception by Lenora. Maryn then unsuccessfully attempted to steal the quaffle, from Harmony this time, but Harmony kept it, flying to the other end of the pitch and threw the quaffle past Cassie, and through one of the hoops. SHE'D SCORED!!

Sophis was ecstatic. Hufflepuff were now in the lead, even if it was only by 10 points to none. She cheered and congratulated Harmony, and watched the rest of the game. Kael, having been substituted in as a chaser was attempting to intercept the pass to Lenora, while Arywiel was sending a bludger to him. And, as usual, the seekers of both teams were still searching for the snitch.

((Well, not really doing anything but defending the goals if anyone attempts to shoots this round)).

[Branden Davis G6]

Hufflepuff were up 10 nothing. Not a happy thought but a necessary one, it was necessity that Branden do all in his power to stop that lead from growing. It was his duty. As beater Branden was actually in a pretty good position to stop Hufflepuff from scoring. He could do nothing about getting a lead for Gryffindor, besides saving their necks, he supposed. Speaking of which, there was a bludger flying past Branden and seemed to be heading toward their seeker Scott. With a sigh Branden speed off in the direction of the bludger.

((Defending Scott and deflect to… Sophia))

[Madam Xiomara Hooch]

((There have been some line-up changes for Hufflepuff. Kael has replaced Sydney as chaser. Sydney will replace Weetzie as chaser beater.

Ashley hits a bludger at Scott and Branden tries defend.
Ashley = Bludger (D6 + Str) = 2 + 4 = 6
Branden = Defend (D8 + Str) = 5 + 5 = 10

Branden succeeds in defending Scott and deflecting to Sophia. There is a bludger flying at Sophia.

Arywiel hits a bludger at Kael. I will roll this next round to give the Hufflepuff beaters time to react, as they didn’t seem to see it yet. There is a bludger flying at Kael. Sorry guys, I don’t think we have had it before where there wasn’t a reaction to a bludger in the same round so I think as it was just hit this round we can carry it over to next. If anyone has any arguments against making this precedence please PM me!

Kael tries to intercept Cassandra’s pass to Lenora.
Cassandra = Pass (D6 + Dex) = 3 + 5 = 8
Kael = Intercept (D4 + Dex) = 2 + 4 = 6

Cassandra succeeds in passing to Lenora. Lenora has the quaffle.

Charles searches for the snitch.
Charles = Searching (D30) = 7

7 is not the snitch number. Charles does not see the snitch.))

[Sydney Rawson H6]

Circling the pitch, she watched as Hufflepuff scored! Smiling from ear to ear, Syd cheered from her heights on her broom. "Whoo Hoo, Let's go guys!" She shot as her hands erupted in the air above her head. Looking around for her Capitan, she saw Ivy talking to Madam Hooch. Changing Syd's position to beater, she nodded as she sot to the ground, picked up a bludger bat, and shot back into the air. Rolling her wrists out, she got used to the heavy bat in her hands. Her favorite position was beater, she felt more comfortable as a beater; However, chaser was a wonderful position too!

For a few moments, Syd studied the game to see where the bludgers were going. Cursing under her breath, she saw that two bludgers were flying at two Huffie players. Looking back from Kael, and Sophie, she wasn't exactly sure who to go for... without thinking Syd shot for Sophie. She was following on the bludger's tail as she wound up, and attempted to deflect the bludger and hit it toward Lenora. As she attempted to deflect the bludger, she shouted for Ashley, to catch her attention that she could hopefully save Kael.

EDIT:
((Sorry! I forgot to write this in. Um... Deflect from Sophie & direct toward Lenora. ))

[Maryn Livley]

Maryn blinked when Hufflepuff scored. Darn it. Well the game wasn’t over yet. Maryn tried her best to stay with the action and out of the bludgers way. Everything was going so fast. Her head was spinning. But, she had to keep going. Maryn took a deep breath and leaned forward on her broom. Maryn eyed the beaters. She smiled and nodded when Branden defended Scott and then Arywiel tried to send a bludger Kael’s way/ They were doing an excellent job really. Maryn wanted to cheer, but she had to stay focused on the match. Maryn smiled when Lenora got the quaffle. She tried her best to stay with the action and see what Lenora’s next move would be.

[Harmony Chan H6]

Harmony watched hopefully as Kael soared between Cassandra and Lenora, whom she was passing to. Kael had just been substituted on to fill Sydney's place as Chaser, for Sydney to move to Beater and Weetzie to leave. Kael, a sixth year and somewhat fellow 'friend' of Aurora's was Harmony's big brother in BBBS, but now wasn't the time to be pondering over such trivial matters. Harmony inwardly sighed when Kael failed to grab the Quaffle, and it went to Lenora. Never mind, Harmony thought to herself as she looked backwards at Maryn. She wanted to go steal the Quaffle from Lenora, but either Kael or Ivy could do that; she was marking Maryn and was hesitant to leave her side. Harmony's eyes noted steathily that Zara was some way away, so Lenora's likely choice to pass to was Maryn anyway; Harmony decided to stay in her current position; it was like the Quaffle would come this way, and Harmony could then try to intercept it. If it was on Zara's end, Harmony could still zoom across very quickly, but then maybe her fellow Chaser would mark Zara. Either way, Harmony was on standby to intercept any pass made.

((Attempting to intercept pass from Lenora to Maryn/Zara.))

[Zara Phoenix]

Zara hovered patiently again when Kael Collins, a sixth year Hufflepuff, was substituted on as Chaser, and Sydney moved to Beater for Weetzie. She noted absently the large amount of sixth years the opposing team had, but had little time to contemplate properly as she whooped when Kael failed to intercept the pass between Cass and Lenora. Lenora caught it neatly, and grinning, Zara moved forwards hastily, in case she wanted to pass to her. Maryn was closer and had a higher chance of gaining the Quaffle, but at the same time she was marked by Harmony. From the looks of it, Harmony was going to try to intercept a pass, leaving Ivy or Kael to try to steal the Quaffle. Zara narrowed her eyes and waited for Lenora's decision.

[kael]

He didn't have the Quaffle. Yes, well, that was fine. It was just a minor setback after all. It was his first game, no one expected him to be perfect - and such things always happened in Quidditch. Sure, he might have felt more confident if he had managed to intercept that pass but he hadn't so it was time to move on...Bludger! Flying right at him. Kael blinked slowly, not really comprehending the idea of a flying black ball heading right for him until it came closer than he could ignore. Isn't that just what he'd hoped wouldn't happen? Hopefully, he'd managed to avoid this bludger since he'd finally kicked his brain into gear long enough to move away.

((Avoiding the bludger.))

[Ashley Hill]

Ashley gripped tighter to her bat as her brown eyes narrowed across Braden. What!? He defended again and now it was heading toward Sophia. Looking around as her name was being called, Ashley’s eye landed across Sydney as she went to Sophia’s side. There was another bludger heading toward Kael now though. Quickly speeding forward with grim determination across her face, Ashley swung hard at the bludger as Kael dodged just in case.

((Defending Kael and deflecting bludger toward Lenora.))

[Scott Ryder G7]

A roar of cheering from the Hufflepuff section indicated that they had scored the first goal of the game. It wasn't like they were winning by a lot, but scoring the first goal could possibly give them the bit of momentum that they needed to make a run. Scott watched disappointedly. In the moment that he had lost focus of the game, he hadn't realized that there was a Bludger headed right at him. He spun in mid air, about to head off in another direction to keep searching whenever he saw Branden fly between him and the speeding metal mass. Branden had successfully deflected the Bludger away from Scott. "Thanks!" he shouted, letting out a breath of relief. He knew that he couldn't afford to keep losing focus. It was so hard though. He was still nervous and his mind was easily distracted when he was nervous. With that, he zoomed off in another direction, still desperate to get an actual glimpse of the Snitch before Hufflepuff could get any sort of a demanding lead.

((Searching for the Snitch))

[Arywiel Coone G3]

Arywiel watched the bludger fly towards Kael. Was he-? Surely he wasn't going to duck the black ball? Yes, and there was Ashley ready to deflect the Bludger! Ary snorted to herself. As the game was growing more and more violent, so was she growing more and more impatient. Lenora had the Quaffle, and the bludger was headed towards the Chaser. Ary sped up and drew back up to the Gryffindor. "Sorry about abandoning you!" she tried a smile. The bat was poised over her shoulder, ready to smack back the black ball if it would come towards them.

((Defending Lenora))

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy's optimism from the successful goal was still there, but Hufflepuff's position wasn't quite as good as it had been now and they needed the Quaffle back to regain their momentary advantage. Still, she believed that they had it within them. She hoped that the new Beater lineup would be doing their job to protect the Hufflepuff team and hamper the Gryffindors now, because she was going back into active play herself and she had no time to monitor that.

Lenora had the Quaffle now and it wasn't utterly impossible that she would try to score - she was certainly very fast. So some direct action was needed to get that Quaffle back off her. Ivy's encounters against her so far had mostly gone Lenora's way, unfortunately, but Ivy believed that this time it would be different. She didn't think that there were any Bludgers heading her way, after all. Manoeuvring herself into position next to Lenora, she again began to try to punch the Quaffle out of the Gryffindor's arms.

((Attempting to steal.))

[Sophia Hallington H7]

Sophia blinked in surprise. Branden was defending Scott from the bludger that Ashley had sent towards him, and deflecting it towards Sophia. She thought that was an odd thing to do, but nontheless attempted to dodge it. She couldn't afford to be hit, as losing concentration would give the Gryffindors a chance to score, which she refused to let happen. Come to think of it, maybe it wasn't that strage after all. Luckily Sydney was now attempting to defend Sophia and deflect the bludger towards Lenora. The other bludger however was being sent from Arywiel towards Kael, who had recently been substituted in, and was now trying to dodge it, however hopefully he wouldn't need to, as Ashley was attempting to deflect it, towards Lenora again who was being defended by Arywiel.

Kael had also failed to intercept the pass from Cass to Lenora, so Lenora now had the quaffle. She was now decided who to pass the quaffle to-Maryn or Zara, both of which seemed to be concentrating on the quaffle. Lenora threw the quaffle, and Harmony attempted to intercept the pass. It was getting exciting, but Gryffindor having the quaffle wasn't the best of situations for the Hufflepuff team. At least they were winning, though it could still go either way.

((Dodging bludger if not deflected and defending goals))

[Lenora Byers]

She had it! The quaffle, Cass passed it to Lenora and she caught it. Of course, catching the quaffle was the easy part – even with Kael jumping in trying to intercept it. Now was getting across the pitch with it – or getting it to someone who could. Lenora dashed off as soon as she felt the rubber ball reach her arms but not far behind her was Ivy; naturally trying to punch the quaffle out of them. Lenora held fast to the quaffle and tried as she might to keep it from slipping. Soon they were at the other end of the pitch and Lenora was having a real task keeping hold. Out of the corner of her eye Lenora didn’t notice anyone to pass to, not that she had time to really look. Struggling to keep the quaffle Lenora hurled it at the hoops, not sure if she had even managed to keep it away from Ivy, never mind knowing if she aimed right.

((Defending against Ivy and shooting))

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

"Yes!" Cass screamed exuberantly as Lenora caught the ball easily. The Gryffindor's were playing way above her standards, but so were the Hufflepuffs. Cass readied herself in front of the hoops knowing that she would not let another quaffle pass into her hoops.

((defending goals))

[Madam Xiomara Hooch]

((After the confusion in the last post a new rule has been devised. If a bludger is hit within the first 12 hours after Hooch posts, or if it was deflected and therefore stated in Hooch’s post, it will be rolled in that round regardless of if anyone has responded to it or not.

If said bludger is hit after those 12 hours it will rolled that round if it is defended against. If the bludger is hit later and no beaters come in to defend it then it will be put aside to roll within the next round; allowing people time to see it and respond.

However, in the interest of the game we would rather not put off any bludgers because it slows the game down; it would therefore be greatly appreciated if all beaters could do their best to respond to all bludgers within the round it is hit.

That being said, this rule is now officially in play and will affect the bludger flying at Kael as it was hit after the initial 12 hours and would be put off to this round.

Sydney attempts to defend Sophia.
Branden = Bludger (D6 + Str) = 4 + 5 = 9
Sydney = Defending (D8 + Str) = 4 + 2 = 6

Branden’s bludger continues flying at Sophia.

Sophia attempts to avoid the bludger.
Branden = Bludger (D6 + Str) = 6 + 5 = 11
Sophia = Avoid (D8 + Dex) = 8 + 5 = 13

Sophia dodges the bludger.

Ashley attempts to defend Kael.
Arywiel = Bludger (D6 + Str) = 3 + 4 = 7
Ashley = Defending (D8 + Str) = 5 + 4 = 9

Ashley defends Kael and deflects to Lenora. There is a bludger flying at Lenora.

Ivy tries to steal the quaffle.
Ivy = Steal (D4 + Str) = 2 + 6 = 8
Lenora = Defending (D8 + Str) = 8 + 3 = 11

Lenora holds onto the quaffle.

Lenora shots as Sophia defends the hoops.
Lenora = Score (D6 + Str) = 4 + 3 = 7
Sophia = Save (D6 + Dex) = 5 + 5 = 10

Sophia saves the quaffle. Sophia has the quaffle.

Scott searches for the snitch.
Scott = Searching (D30) = 29

29 is not the snitch number. Scott misses the snitch.))

[Zara Phoenix]

((*sigh* I suppose I have to do something with Zara; I'll have her attempt to intercept Sophia's pass, but I doubt she'll get it. Then either Lenora or Maryn can try to steal. )

Zara's eyes turned to the Hufflepuff-guarded goals in hope as Lenora swooped up the pitch to attempt to score. Sophia was bobbing there reliably, but Zara had noticed Branden having just sent a Bludger her way. If Gryffindor were lucky, no one would defend the fifth year girl, she would fail to avoid it, and then there would be a distracted Keeper. That would really heighten the chances of Lenora scoring. Zara watched as Sydney flew to defend Sophia, but it was evident the sixth year was more comfortable in the Chaser position. The Bludger flew past Sydney, still heading for Sophia. Zara was about to praise their luck, when Sophia nimbly dodged the black ball, remaining safe. Sighing in disappointment (though Zara was glad somewhat that Sophia was unhurt, because injuries were always harsh), Zara glanced back to Lenora with the Quaffle. Ivy was trying to steal it, but failed to do so, and Zara cheered her team mate on towards the goals. "Go on, Lenora!" A Bludger was heading towards her fellow seventh year, in fact, but by that time Lenora was already in front of Sophia and the goal posts, and threw the Quaffle high, attempting to score.

"Come on." Zara muttered under her breath, watching the the red ball sail through the air. Unfortunately, for the second time that day Sophia caught the Quaffle, saving Hufflepuff from an equaliser. Zara heard cheers from the Hufflepuff stands, and groans from the Gryffindor side, and found her inner self burning with the need to win this - or at least, for her to pull her socks up high and get her act together. Now that Sophia was readying to pass to one of the Chasers on her team, Zara flew forward quickly to attempt to intercept the throw.

((Attmepting to intercept the pass from Sophia.))