Emmalyn had recovered most of her energy from the quick rest after her second obstacle course run and was ready to get going again. She noticed several of her teammates heading out to the Chaser and Keeper drills, so she decided to try her hand at beater first. After the marshmallow course, she was oddly attracted to the beater position. Plus, she had spent a good deal of her non-chaser time at camp working on her beater skills.

She remounted her broom and zipped out with beater bat in hand. It was a different feel than she was use to. Her new broom had more power and agility than the old borrowed brooms she used over the summer, and her body had grown not only in size, bun in strength as well. She felt at one with the bat. Like it was an extension of her arm. Just as she was about to take a quick survey of the field, she spotted a bludger headed towards one of the chasers. “I’ve got it!” She yelled as she bolted across the pitch. The wind whipping her ponytail out behind her and her robes crackled in the breeze.

Her right hand held her broom as her left, holding the bat, reached out behind. The windup and subsequent hit smacked the bludger off course and away from her housemate. She flicked her hips to the side and her broom made a smooth one-eighty, her eyes never leaving the bludger. It would soon be returning, that she was sure of.

No sooner than she had the thought, the bludger was headed towards another housemate on the pitch. Straight from behind. She zigged and zagged between the other players on the field, making sure to not hinder their progress, as she rocketed to intercept the bludger. No matter how fast her broom was, she feared she was not going to make it in time. She knew that in order to hit the bludger away from her housemate, she would need to beat it to the target, then have time to turn back around. It simply wasn’t going to happen. Emmalyn decided to sacrifice herself in order to keep her chaser safe. She leaned forward, increasing speed as much as possible and threw her body between the bludger and her housemate. The loud thwack of the bludger slamming off her shoulder-blade rang in her ears, but she was able to stay on her broom. Her eyes watered from the impact as she tried to shake it off.

Deciding it was time to take a break from the beater position and try out the Chaser position, she flew down to put her bat away. It gave her just enough time to compose herself and get psyched up to try to score some goals.