Hufflepuff vs. Slytherin!

[Sydney Rawson H6]

Syd heard the hollow sound of her bat hitting the bludger as it soared toward Drake. She watched it for a moment as she waited for impact. Turning her head, she tried to see where the other bludger she hit fell to. She saw Wynd fly through the air with the quaffle unharmed. "Bloody Hell!" she shouted as she layed low on her broom and flew to the falling un-aim ball of iron. She got under the ball and shot it back up into the air toward Wynd again.

(( Attack Wynd))

[Josephine Bowman S7]

Josephine dipped and dove for a moment as she lowered her body to find a new area to search through. Maybe the snitch was milling around the ground. Wouldn't be the first time it'd done so and definitely wouldn't be the last time. She sighed...her eyes wandering to the other part of the game. The Slytherin team was in shambles. Wynd and Drake were the only ones really in the game, other than herself. Everyone else seemed to be lose in their own minds. She shook her head. She sure hoped the others would wake up and get their bums in gear. They weren't going to win the Quidditch Cup by flying around aimlessly. Sighing once again she returned her attention to the sky and her snitch searching responsibilities.

(snitch searching)

[Wynd Lehane]

Bleu's words hit his ears with amusement. Was that the best she could do? If she thought that he was going to be bothered by her childish attempt at insults she was sadly mistaken. He casually laughed to himself as he raced with the Quaffle in his possession toward the waiting Hufflepuff Keeper. Wynd had no idea what was wrong with the rest of his team. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jo search near the ground for the Snitch but other than that the rest of the team seemed to be mindless. Maybe someone in the stands was confounding them. Maybe the Lions were so afraid to lose that they had to stoop to such low tactics. And people said Slytherin was the cheating house.

((Avoiding Bludgers and Chasers, Defending Quaffle + Focusing, Scoring))

[chace]

The Slytherin Chaser slipped past Chace as if avoiding an insect. He didn't even seem to break a sweat. There was no way he would get to Ivy before she could score anyway. Wrong. Just as Chace was turning to watch Ivy score a goal, Wynd zoomed past him with the Quaffle in his possession. Sophia and Ivy took no chances and were soon after him. Sophia seemed to want to steal the Quaffle back from him while Ivy worked her way between Wynd and the other Slytherin Chasers. As Chace made his way over the words of the commenter registered in his mind. There was no doubt in his mind that Trinity was in favor of Hufflepuff. Although who could blame her? No one wanted to see Slytherin win. Save Slytherin of course.

((Marking Wynd))

[Madam Xiomara Hooch]

((Ivy, your focus didn’t need to be used so I haven't counted that towards your total of five.

Drake has not posted and has had no warning about Sydney’s Bludger, so he will not get his stat points for dodging it.
Sydney = Bludger (D6 + Str) = 5 + 6 = 11
Drake = Avoid (D8 + Dex) = 8 + 0 = 8
Sydney’s Bludger hits Drake! He has no actions and so does not need to focus.

Sydney hits a Bludger at Wynd. There is a Bludger flying at Wynd.

Chace attempts to mark Wynd.
Chace = Mark (D4 + Dex) = 3 + 6 = 9
Wynd = Avoid (D8 + Dex) = 6 + 6 = 12
Chace fails to mark Wynd.

Sophia attempts to steal the Quaffle from Wynd, who attempts to defend it. Both focus.
Sophia = Focus Steal (D4 + Str + Con) = 3 + 5 + 5 = 13
Wynd= Focus Defend (D8 + Str + Con) = 4 + 6 + 5 = 15
Wynd retains the Quaffle.

Wynd shoots. Kael did not post and so will not get his stat points for defending.
Wynd = Score (D6 + Str) = 4 + 6 = 10
Kael = Defend (D6 + Dex) = 1 + 0 = 1
Wynd scores! Kael has the Quaffle.

Hufflepuff 0
Slytherin 10

Sita searches for the Snitch. She must get a search roll of 5 or more in order to search successfully.
Sita = Search (D6 + Con) = 2 + 3 = 5
Sita is able to search.

Sita = Search = 2
2 is not the Snitch number. Sita does not see the Snitch.

Josephine searches for the Snitch.
Josephine = Search = 1
1 is not the Snitch number. Josephine does not see the Snitch.))

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy groaned in frustration as Kael made a spectacularly poor attempt at saving the goal. She wasn't so upset about his failure as the fact that he didn't even appear to have been trying. He could barely have put any less effort into it! "Kael!" she shouted in frustration at his lacklustre performance, too late to do anything about the goal already scored. "The time for sleeping was last night!"
She sighed quite audibly, knowing that she was being ungracious and that lecturing him for an error that had already slipped through was no way to make the team pull together. The thing was, she knew that the rest of the team was doing a fantastic job, and Kael had let them down. Ivy felt even worse about it because she was still smarting from Wynd managing to steal the Quaffle from her, and she felt like she herself had let the team down.

"Look," she said, flying up to Kael and taking the Quaffle off him a little forcefully, "I'm sorry but you'd better go sit down on the bench and get focused. Tell Seth to come up here." She signalled over at Madam Hooch that she was making a line-up change and explained it in words as the referee flew over.

Impatient to get going again as she saw the Slytherin team were also shifting their line-up, she put herself in as Keeper for the present; she could switch with Seth when he got up here. For the time being, she herself threw the Quaffle towards Sophia, hoping that the quality of her pass would be sufficient to beat the Slytherin Chaser (hang on, he wasn't actually a Chaser, was he? How confusing) trying to intercept her pass.

((Losing her rag a bit with Kael... substituting him out of the game and subbing herself in as Keeper. Seth can go as Chaser for the moment. Passing to Sophia.))

[Mary Evans]

It was a hot day, a very hot day, as Mary made her way down to the pitch after breakfast. Today was her very last match at school, she was about to graduate and was going to start training with the Harpies in two months. That meant this was also her very last game as captain for a very long time, maybe even forever. That meant she had to make sure this game was great, something everyone would look back on and smile when they watched her play major league matches. They would surely bring this match up if she ever got to play for England one day.

The locker room was full just before the game, she had the largest team in the school, enough players to stalk two teams when everyone was in good playing form. That was a great thing to be said about Slytherins, house pride. While the rest of the houses had school pride, which could only get you so far really, Slytherins put their effort into house pride, which meant so much more. “This is it ladies and gentlemen, our last game as a team together. It has been really great working with you all this past year, and every other year we’ve been on the team together. It’s no secret I joined this team in my third year and have seen many wins and many losses through the years; and I can honestly say this is one of the best teams we have ever brought together. I’m not going to tell you how to do your jobs, after a year training together and more you all know what to do. So let’s go out there and make this game a memorable one.” That was that, her speech, and with that they all made their way onto the pitch.

Ivy, a fellow prefect and Hufflepuff captain snarled at her in such a way Mary didn’t think Hufflepuff’s were capable when they shook hands. Mary just gave the girl a smirking grin, no need for a glaring contest when they both knew Mary was the more intimidating one. Really, a Hufflepuff trying to scare her, something new every day at this school, that’s for sure.

The game was in full swing and Mary and Dylan both missed a few easy bludgers to defend, that put her in a rough mood right off. Hailing Madam Hooch Mary took out Julian, Pyro and Dylan substituting in Adalia, Stephan and Kailyn respectively to make sure everyone knew she expected them to be in top form or they would be taken out, no discussion. No more of this nonsense of her players going off unsupported.

On that note, Mary noticed a bluger fly past her in the direction of Wynd, who had just scored. Mary smirked in an unkind way and went off after it.

((Defending Wynd and deflecting to Sita.
Replacing Julian with Adalia.
Replacing Pyro with Stephan.
Replacing Dylan with Kailyn.))

[Sydney Rawson H6]

"Yes!" Syd cheered as she watched the bludger hit the Slytherin Keeper. However, the score board seemed the most unsatisfactory. The Slytherin team was up, and Sydney was not into that. She wanted to at least get on the board, and a chance for the Hufflepuff team to do some damage. Flying over to the free quaffle by the Slytherin goals, she shot the second bludger toward Wynd again. Yes, he seemed to be her target thus far in the game, but he seemed to be one of the most powerful chasers for the Slytherins and he needed to be knocked down to size.

((Attack Wynd))
((No hard feelings Wynd ))

[Stephen Donahue S7]

Stephen was off the bench as quickly as he heard his name. Quidditch had become something of a fascination with him. Before he had absolutely hated it, felt that it was a jock sport and only for the idiot minded, but he had grown to like it after randomly auditioning for the team. His love for flying had formed into a love for a game that he wasn't the best at, but still enjoyed playing. It gave him an outlet for his aggression, which was definitely something he needed. As he flew out to the pitch he realized that Mary had called him in as a chaser, though it was necessary practice that he learn all the positions in quidditch it was fairly clear that he was better served as a keeper or seeker, but he'd just have to make due. Manning and Bowman were the best at what they were doing, just like Evans was the best at being a beater, so Stephen would just have to work extra hard as a chaser. His attention focused on Lehane as he flew off to fly near him letting him know he was there.

((intercepting pass))

[Josephine Bowman S7]

Josephine heard the yells from the Slytherin crowd and blue orbs quickly flicked around to look at the goals. Slytherin had scored! That meant they only needed to score once more and then catch the snitch to beat out Gryffindor for the Quidditch cup! Victory was so close that Jo could literally smell it...or maybe that was just the recent hallucination that seemed to pop into her mind. Whichever it was all she wanted was to make sure she caught the snitch, which meant she had to concentrate much more than she was concentrating now. She nodded her head in agreement with herself as she quickly looped back through the sky her eyes trying to catch a glimpse of gold anywhere.

((snitch searching and avoiding bludgers))

[Finn Miles H7]

As soon as the match had begun, Sydney seemed to be flying in overdrive. She beat Finn to every single free Bludger, and was single-handedly making him look like nothing more than a yellow lump in the sky. The crowd probably wondered what was wrong with him.

Finn didn't want to worry about that though, as he watched Sydney zoom past and send the second of the two Bludgers at Wynd. She'd already managed to hit the unsuspecting Keeper for the Slytherin team, and he didn't look too happy. Hopefully her next two attacks would, in succession, give the dominant Slytherin Chaser something else to worry about for a moment. Wynd had really stepped up in the game, and Finn feared that he might score another few goals if Syd's Bludgers didn't get to him.

Seeing that Mary had made a few substitutions, Finn rolled his eyes when Kailyn Valak took the pitch as the other opposing Beater. That girl had been, or still was perhaps, Merrick's girlfriend. He wondered if she had anything to do with Merrick's disappearance as of late.

((Doing nothing, as there's nothing much for him to do at the mo' ))

[Kailyn Valak S6]

Kailyn stood with a smile as Mary called her to the pitch. Even though he was the vice captain, Dylan hadn't been doing much as a Beater. She hoped that she could change that. Even if she was primarily a Chaser, this wasn't the first time that Mary had called on her for her Beater skills. Kailyn knew that she'd try her best to impress the elder Slytherin.

As soon as the game started back up, she saw that one of the Hufflepuff Beaters had sent not just one, but two Bludgers toward Wynd. And, seeing as Wynd was essentially the only Slytherin who had done much in the game, Kailyn shot forward to try to protect him.

She focused on the first Bludger, seeing that it was coming in the fastest. Once it was within hitting distance, she wound up and swung a heavy swing. She heard wood connect with the dull metal, but she wasn't certain of the level of impact. It was well known that the Bludgers could burst their way through all sorts of barriers, and she wouldn't be surprised if one of those barriers might be her bat. Still, if she was successful, she would have managed to send the Bludger back toward the Hufflepuff team. By the looks of it, the angle was perfect to send it right toward the captain of the team herself: Ivy Tunstall.

((Defending Wynd from the FIRST Blduger, and deflecting toward Ivy if successful.))

[Sita Mehadi H7]

Oh no! How could Slytherin have managed to score? The Hufflepuff Chasers were such a good team... it was unthinkable that Slytherin could have scored the first goal. Sita tried to push down her panic, feeling sick. It was so vital that Hufflepuff caught the Snitch... what on earth was she of all people doing up here carrying that responsibility for her team? Again, she tried to banish her panic to the back of her mind, but for the first time she felt scared about being out on the same pitch as the Slytherin team with its famously twisted principles and star Beater. Where was the Snitch? Hufflepuff needed it! Sita scanned the skies almost frantically, hoping fervently to catch sight of a flash of gold.

((Panicking just a bit, and searching for the Snitch.))

[Madam Xiomara Hooch]

((There have been changes in the Hufflepuff and Slytherin line-ups.

Kael has been substituted out of the game. Ivy Tunstall H7 takes his place as Keeper.
Seth Wright H7 takes Ivy’s place as Chaser.

Julian has been substituted out of the game. Adalia St John S4 takes his place as Chaser.
Pyro has been substituted out of the game. Stephen Donahue S5 takes his place as Chaser.
Dylan has been substituted out of the game. Kailyn Valak S5 takes his place as Beater.

------------------------------------

Kailyn attempts to defend Wynd from Sydney’s Bludger and to deflect it towards Ivy.
Sydney = Bludger (D6 + Str) = 3 + 6 = 9
Kailyn = Defend (D8 + Str) = 7 + 3 = 10
Kailyn deflects the Bludger successfully! There is a Bludger flying at Ivy.

Sydney hits a Bludger at Wynd; Mary attempts to deflect it towards Sita.
Sydney = Bludger (D6 + Str) = 4 + 6 = 10
Mary = Defend (D8 + Str) = 2 + 6 = 8
Mary fails to deflect the Bludger; it continues towards Wynd.

It is assumed that Mary would warn Wynd to dodge the Bludger.
Sydney = Bludger (D6 + Str) = 3 + 6 = 9
Wynd = Avoid (D8 + Dex) = 3 + 6 = 9
Tie! Re-roll.

Sydney = Bludger (D6 + Str) = 4 + 6 = 10
Wynd = Avoid (D8 + Dex) = 8 + 6 = 14
Wynd dodges the Bludger!

Ivy passes to Sophia; Stephen attempts to intercept the pass.
Ivy = Pass (D6 + Dex) = 2 + 6 = 8
Stephen = Intercept (D4 + Dex) = 4 + 5 = 9
Stephen intercepts Ivy’s pass! Stephen has the Quaffle.

Josephine searches for the Snitch.
Josephine = Search = 10
10 is not the Snitch number. Josephine does not see the Snitch.

Sita searches for the Snitch. She must get a search roll of 5 or more in order to search successfully.
Sita = Search (D6 + Con) = 2 + 3 = 5
Sita is able to search.

Sita = Search = 23
23 is not the Snitch number. Sita does not see the Snitch.))

[Seth Wright]

Seth shot up from the bench as he heard his name called impatiently by Ivy. The Captain was not in a good mood at all. Slytherin had just scored, which was surprising, given Kael's impressive track record. Perhaps his concentration had swayed, but that was a tendency of Seth's, not Kael. The 10 points had certainly hurt, though, and Seth was keen for Hufflepuff to equalise. It was surprisingly, therefore, that he was told to step in as Chaser. "Eh?" Seth made a confused sound as he mounted his broom automatically and obediently. "Why am I Chaser? I'm hardly a good Chaser like Chace--" Before Seth could protest further, he was thrown into the game with the blow of the whistle. "Aw crap," he groaned. What a way to end his 'glittering' school house team Quidditch career: looking back and hiding his head in his heads at the memory of dropping the Quaffle, having Slytherins mock him whilst stealing or intercepting the Quaffle, or throwing an embarrassing throw or shot.

Throwing Chace a furtive, nervous look, Seth propelled head-first into the game. Before he could even think, however, he saw a Bludger whip past his face, causing him to turn and watch as it neared Ivy. "Ivy, Bludger!" he yelled, distracted for his Captain's safety. She hardly needed the reminder, because at that moment, Stephen Donahue swooped in and grabbed the Quaffle sailing between Ivy and Sophia. "Damn damn damn," Seth chanted, feeling utterly useless.

((Doing absolutely zilch!))

[Stephen Donahue S7]

Stephen couldn't tear his eyes away from the Hufflepuff keeper, which also happened to be the captain, nor could he keep his eyes off the red quaffle that was snug in her hands. He was going to grab it...if it was the last thing he did he was going to catch that pass. His mind was focused, he was waiting ready and open to try to intercept and sure enough he moved quick and smoothly as the keeper released the quaffle and his hands found the hard material. He dove immediately out of reach of whoever might be trying to take him out. This was more than intense at the moment. He grinned to himself as he pulled back up, his eyes finding Wynd.

I have to pass, Stephen thought to himself as he rose on his broomstick, the quaffle tucked under one arm as he looked for a way to get the pass to Wynd. Wynd was one of the better chasers on the Slytherin team and he would most certainly be able to take a better shot at the goals than Valak over there who was probably concerned she'd break a nail. He smirked at the thought before he found an opening and attempted to pass across to Wynd.

((Focusing on attempting to pass to Wynd + avoiding bludgers + protecting the quaffle from any attempt to steal it))

[Josephine Bowman S7]

Josephine flipped around again, her body language telling the story of someone that was real close to panicking. She wanted that snitch. The Hufflepuff Seeker was intense in her searching and fear was ebbing at Josephine's mind. She didn't want to believe that the Hufflepuff Seeker would find it before she did, didn't really think she would, but it was possible. Right now everything was possible, but what Josephine was more worried about was the fact that if Slytherin didn't score once more before she caught the snitch they'd only tie Gryffindor for the Quidditch Cup and that was the last thing any of them wanted. They were in this to win it! Not to tie! She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself as she flipped around again making a long fly by over the field. She was high in the sky at the moment and she found it to be relaxing as she watched the game for a moment before turning her attention back to the horizons. The Snitch was just playing with them it seemed and if there was one thing Josephine hated it was to be played with. She'd have to pay more attention and fly around a heck of a lot more in order to find it.

((Snitch searching + avoiding bludgers))

[Ivy Tunstall]

Argh! No! What was she doing wrong today? Ivy knew that she wasn't playing badly, but yet Slytherin always seemed to have the upper hand and she didn't know how they were doing it. The Slytherin Chaser-who-wasn't-actually-a-Chaser had managed to intercept her pass and he was haring away out of reach. Ivy wanted to go after him and get it back. She'd only put herself in the game as Keeper so as not to lose Madam Hooch's patience for delaying the game too much with her line-up change. She might need to make more yet.

"Oi Seth!" Ivy shouted over to her fellow seventh year. "I want you in as Keeper. Get over here and do what you do best." She waited until he was close enough to defend the hoops and then accelerated off after the Slytherin Chaser in possession. The Hufflepuff Chasers were closing in on him and he was going to have to pass - he had no clear route to the goals. She waited patiently, eyeing up the angle of his pass. But of course he would attempt to pass to Lehane. She sprang into action, hoping that she could pounce on the Quaffle before it reached Lehane.

((Subbing Seth to Keeper, Ivy to Chaser.

Focusing on intercepting Stephen's pass.))

[Sita Mehadi H7]

The game with the Quaffle seemed to be getting worse and worse, but the game with the Snitch was non-existent. The Snitch was still hiding and didn't seem to have any intention of showing its golden face any time soon. She could afford to relax, a bit like lying on your back in the sea with your toes sticking out of the water, bobbing over the swell. Or maybe that was a bad thing to think about when trying to maintain one's balance on a broom, she realised with a grimace as she grabbed onto her Firebolt in alarm. Right, Snitch. This would be a lot more interesting if there were some clouds in the sky... then she could contemplate their shapes. The painfully bright blue sky was becoming a bit monotonous.

((Almost falling off her broom and searching for the Snitch.))

[Sophia Hallington H7]

Awwww no, this game was going awfullly...the Slytherins had the quaffle, and had scored already! Stephen now had the quaffle, after intercepting the pass from Ivy to her, so now Sophia had to try and get the quaffle back for the Huffles. Stephen was now trying to pass, unsurprisingly, to Wynd, and Ivy (after a brief stint as Keeper) was intercepting, so Sophia could only really try and steal, again. And like the last time, she focused her mind purely on this, ignoring any bludgers that may be flying about and not having a clue what any other players were doing, so she flew over to Stephen as fast as she could and tried to steal.

((Stealing and focusing))