Choices. To beat or to chase?

She liked both. She'd played both competitively. She liked Keeper too, of course. But that'd been taken.

The rocks made her decision. She'd rather be in control of them, than be protected by someone that possibly didn't know how to wield a bat. Her legs were enjoying the lack of bruises this term, and it'd be nice for that trend to continue.

Grabbing a bat, and lightly tossing it in her left hand, Nia kicked off. Good job too, as Vindictus had just released a load more rocks. Actually, not just more. BIG rocks.

Time for business!

She swivelled round, alert. And then she heard a SMACK! from the direction of a fellow 'Claw. It was headed straight for her. She smirked, and swung at it HARD. She grinned triumphantly, winking at the guy who'd hit it. She was a tough'un, Nia was. Though, that shot had jarred up her wrist more than she'd anticipated. It'd rattled up the muscle. Repetively hitting those big boulder would probably mean achey arm in the morning. Not that she'd let any pain show.

Woah.

That girl was fast.

Before Melanie could register what happened, the Ravenclaw girl had possession of the Quaffle she'd dropped... and then a Gryffindor! Ohh! She was heading in the same direction Melanie had been! Leaning forward, the Hufflepuff zoomed after the other girls, toward the baskets the Head Boy was guarding.

Hmm.

"Nice work." Jimmy was obviously SUCH a good sportsman and it had nothing to do with the fact that there were pretty girls zooming around everywhere and everything to do with the fact that this girl had retrieved a quaffle and made a tidy pass with it.

Nothing to do with the girl factor at all.

He flashed his usual charming grin and then smacked another rock out of the way.

"You alright?" Jimmy's grin faded a little and he pulled up, just to check if she was okay. He saw the rock hit her and glanced around, to check there weren't more bumping around right that moment. Heck was he the only one smacking at them right now? He hit another one that actually sent him spinning. Heheh.

Heh. His arm hurt. Awesome.

The spinning stopped and Jim caught a wink.

FYI winks are more awesome to catch than quaffles. So says James Wilkes.

He shook out his shoulder a bit, switched the bat into the other hand, and zoomed right back in, ready to smack the miniature boulders away from anyone he'd mentally deemed as being on his team.

And hit them at everyone else of course.

This one could be on his team.

Why hello there. A charming grin almost meant that the next rock to come his way would mess up his pretty, but Jim ducked it at the last minute and when it zoomed back for a second try?

-THWACK!-

"FOUR!"

Ah! There were rocks! No, there were boulders hurtling toward him. He swerved quickly. The swerve nearly flung him off the broom. He hated school brooms.

He then looked around for the quaffle. Rubiey now had it. He flew toward her and then pulled along side her so they were flying side-by-side. "Go Rubiey!" he said encouraging the first year. He'd stay near her just in case she dropped the quaffle or needed someone to throw it to.

Rubiey was flying faster than she had ever gone before. Her long brown hair was coming out of her lose bun, but she didn't care, right now all that mattered was her, the quaffle that hung on her arm, and those baskets.

She felt rather than saw the older kids that flanked her, and she grinned. There was no way in hell she was dropping this. About ten feet away from the baskets, she raised her arm, and threw the quaffle with all the strength she could muster.

Pleaaaaase let it go in!!

Nia shook her wrist out casually. Those rocks were HARD. Nevermind that though, as she had work to do.

She leant forward on her broom, ducking some smaller rocks. As she did so, she caught the grin on the guy's face. She shook her head with a light chuckle, her fringe falling in her turquoise eyes. She tucked it back with a light touch.

And when that rock came? She didn't know whether to wince or laugh. He ducked it though. What a disappointment. She leant forward again, and pushed on towards a large rock that was heading for Vashti. Yep, she was totally protecting her own. Not that she was anymore. But, yeah.

She hit the rock with a thwack! just as ClawGuy announced 'fore!' She glanced around, watching as his effort whizzed past. It was a good shot, even if he had been distracted first time round.

"Nice hit," Nia said, sitting up on her broom. "So, you wanna be with me, or against me?" she asked, eyebrow raised and lips rubbing together. Because she wasn't exactly on a team yet. And she was up for a bit of fun. The Quidditch Pitch was her true home, afterall.

Huh?

Like....Whut?!

Okay so she had been totally distracted, by what was far beyond her but she was lost. Really lost. With a shake of the head she realised that she was still up in the air, pretty close to Oliver still and with a bit of an evil smirk on her face.

*Cough!Splutter*

Right, back to chasing then. The slytherins head switched from side to side, she'd been used to this in a real game situation but she couldn't actually see where the alternative quaffle had disappeared too.

"Why thank you." Jimmy answered, just glancing at her, eyes still zooming around and watching for likely rocks to smack.

"With you." He answered turning a crooked grin on her. "Or rather, you can be with me. With us." He gestured at a few people, including Fletcher, Cam, Salander, Ivy, Vashti and a Gryffindor that had made a nice catch a moment ago, plus a few others that had sort of had this whole team work thing going on and then pointed at the goal the Head Boy was keeping at.

As if he were holding a wand, Jimmy held his bat out and mentally zapped the goal. Yep. Thats where they were trying to score. And right now, a few people were well on their way to managing that. But he had kinda heard that this Oliver guy was a bit of a legend so... they'd see.

Hmmm. He headed that way, shooting another grin over his shoulder at the blondie.

SMACK!

Jim swerved close and knocked a rock out of the way. Heh. His shoulders were BURNING. It rocked.

Hah.

Rocked.

O____________O

What just happened? Trixie watched as that Ravenclaw she'd met in the observatory swerved in front of her smacking rocks away, narrowly missing the blondes side. She blinked a few times before deciding that she was on Olivers side.

Hang on was there another keeper around here or was it just Oliver. In fact did they even have teams or were they just playing against every single individual person. Oooor...Was it all against Oliver?? *Smirk*

The Slytherin sweeped down to dodge out the way of a few rocks whilst still looking around for the ball. Ah come on where had it gone. She was a chaser in the Championships, if she was banned from using a bat, at least let her touch the ball. Just once..

*Pout*

"Awesome," she answered, though she caught his meaning and crooked smile. "Watch it," she commented. Ahem. Former Captain here. Didn't do self centredness on the pitch. "I'll take the us option, ta."

She scanned the players he was gesturing at. Quite a few, and some she didn't know the name of. She noted where they were, and where the majority of the rocks were. Far too close, really. She needed to get on to that.

With a nod at the bat-goal-pointing thing (she assumed he was just trying to point out which way they were trying to score), Nia zoomed towards the hoops.

"Mine!" she claimed, as she swung a back hand shot at a rock aimed for the Gryffie shooter that had been pointed out. She caught it oddly. Maybe due to the uneven shape. Whatever, it was headed in a different direction, which was the main goal.

Only after she'd gotten rid of the Quaffle did Vashti realize that only moments before Ivory must have been heading for the Quaffle as well. Their had gotten fairly close together at the time, though they hadn't collided, thankfully. But still, oops. Sometimes she got so into the game that she didn't notice anything but the Quaffle... Heh...

Giving the Gryffindor girl who had caught the Quaffle a thumbs-up in response to her thanks, Vashti flew her broom up next to her fellow Ravenclaw and said, with an apologetic grin, "Sorry about taking that Quaffle from you. I really didn't notice you coming for it."

As she started to turn her broom to follow the girl with the Quaffle, Vashti heard a guy call out to her - the one flying around and hitting all the giant rocks. "You too," she replied with a grin. "Nice job." He was really hitting those blooders, wasn't it? Quite the Beater, he was. Perhaps he would try out for that position next year. Ellie and Jacob would have some competition then, wouldn't they? Hehe.

Vashti heard the whooshing and whizzing of all the flying rocks but there was one that seemed to be getting...closer? Looking around, she discovered she was right - there was a gigantic rock heading straight for her. She started to lean forward on her broom and urge it forward to dodge the rock, but she hardly needed to as a second later Captain Nia came flying seemingly out of nowhere, giving that rock a good thwacking in another direction.

Vashti grinned. "Thanks, Nia!"

Hearing a few voices shouting his name, Oliver took that to be that they were on his team. He squinted towards Treyen and grinned at him. The kid should have been in goal, not him. He was a little gem that kid, Hufflepuff’s secret weapon.

More yelling, but a smile pulled at his lips when he caught sight of Cameron with her Beater's Bat held confidently in hand. Merlin, she was totally hawt when she was showing those rocks who was boss. . “Awesome!” He grinned in reply.

His eyes flitted to Jimmy just in time to see him blowing a kiss at the wee lassy. “DUDE!” He yelled, waving his hands to get the kid's attention. “You mind not making kissy faces at my girlfriend!?” But he smirked – it was just friendly warning. In all honesty he wasn't all that bothered by it.

The rocks movements suddenly became rather erratic. The Snake ducked as one whistled past his ear, narrowly missing him. He grinned as he looked out over the players. Just watching the chaos out there was exhilarating. Chaos. heh. Just the way Oliver liked things.

But, huh? Was no one going to challenge him? It was all well and good watching the game but the lad wanted to be part of that action, you know?

The moment that thought entered his head, things made a turn on the pitch, it was like the other players had read his mind. His head jerked upwards when he heard the voice of one of his fellow Slytherins bellowing for him to 'gitouttadawaayyy!!!' It had to be him, right? No one else went by the name of Curly.

His eyes narrowed to slits, both hands on his broom for control. The guy wasn't slowing and it was too late to move.. not that he would. CRACK! Came the sound of wood on wood (or was it bone on bone?) as the large boy veered straight into him. “AUGH!” The Slytherin yelled, his left hand being caught in the collision. He reached out with his right, making a grab for the Quaffle.

He successfully batted the Quaffle out of the way with the tips of his fingers, He gripped his broom tightly with the other ignoring the pain as the Quaffle made it's decent towards the ground.

In the chaos, he didn't see the little Gryffindor busy throwing the Quaffle towards the goal and it sailed into the basket smoothly, unnoticed by the goalie who was somewhat distracted by his current predicament. “Nice try.” He hissed rather visiously at the Slytherin dude, spitting out onto pitch below. Exactly why hadn't this kid been on the team last year?

Just how many was Oliver playing against here? Had they all decided amongst themselves to take on the might that was Captain Greenwood? Hehe! Awesome.



ooc: iFail. I'm sorry. I'm sick so bear with me. :/ If I've missed you, give me a poke and I'll rectify it.

ooc: get well soon hun *hugz*

Salander was nearly knocked off his broom by the Curly Collision, spinning around haphazardly, his leg hooked onto his broom and is the only thing that kept him from plummeting towards the ground. It took him several tries to hoist himself back on his broom, by then only catching something vaguely hissed at him "Huh? Goodbye? You'll see me later." he chuckled as he dizzily sped downward, scooped up the quaffle before hitting the ground then buzzed through the air.

He was still shaking his head when he approached some members of his team. The collision was pretty strong and the lad was still trying to get his bearings again. "Quaffle here. Make a score!" he said as he handed the ball to them.

Cameron winked at him. Now back to her rock batting. HEHE. It was incredibly relieving to just THWACK something really, really, really hard and watch it swerve in the direction you'd hit it in. Y'know. Extremely. And it had been a while. She could feel her arm muscles protesting but she ignored that.

She had ROCKS to obliterate.

THWACK

She breathed in luxuriously. Man, that was so satisfying. It spiralled towards a group of stagnant students but her attention was already turned to the next one. She egged the slow, tardy broom on and walloped the piece of floating rock into oblivion. MAN. That was sooo satisfying.

She raised an eyebrow at the outburst at Jim. But she found it incredibly adorable that he was jealous.

.. Or not.

HMPH. Fine. Let anyone make kissy faces at your girlfriend, Oliver. Good job. Good job.

She scowled. She'd take it out on the rocks.

In his general direction.

Sweet.

Wait.. WHAT? She watched, practically in that creepy slow motion as Oliver got bowled over by a Slytherin. Salander? Whutttttt?

She frowned. "You right?" She asked, flying over to him. "Didn't.. break anything didya?" It looked pretty painful.

Crap.. the dude was struggling to get back on his broom. Oliver wheezed dryly, winded by the blow and helpless to do anything to help. The kid eventually managed and the former captain had to smile at his words as he flew off. He had no doubt he'd be back. Snake determination and all that shizz.

Winded, he clutched at his chest, struggling for air and to regulate his breathing, his hand throbbing away merrily. He shook it, grimacing.

He steadied himself, getting back into position in front of the basket goals, ducking out the way of a stray rock. He took a few deep breaths and feeling his breathing begin to settle back to normal when Cameron made an appearance to see if he was alright. “Could... could've... been worse.” He breathed, smiling at the redhead. What an absolute sweetheart she could be sometimes (of course he had no idea what had been going through the girl's mind only moments before). "Jus' a side effect of Quiddtich." Quidditch wouldn't be Quidditch without a little pain... especially under Vindictus's watch.

Well chyeah cos it was the same option as the him option, since Jimmy was about acknowledging the 'team' that had sorta formed. Just sayin that he meant for her to join them rather than him, Jimmy, join the blondie with the cute smile.

She was in to it wasn't she? That was good. Jim figured she had things over there covered and kept his eyes peeled for more rocks.


He winked in reply but was too busy watching for blooders to respond. Though he did find a reason to grin. Blondie's name was Nia? Yep well at least she was good. Keeping this Vashti girl from getting her head taken out by a mean rock.

"Take it as a compliment, you've got taste." Jim pointed out, unfazed. He watched with interest as Salander went at the goal and a Gryffindor managed to score.

"Ha." Jimmy fist pumped.

Eh. He was fine. Jim didn't bother to stop and check.

Cam was just doing her thing, impressive it was, but Jimmy had his attention drawn by... you guessed it, rocks.

He leaned back and used his momentum to take the impact with his bat, a large THWACKCRACK! resounding and the bat itself splintering from the force of the rock. It was more of a small boulder really. And nasty. Here it came back for more. Not easy to get his bat back around either, but by the time the blooder looped back Jim had his arm up again and felt the impact shudder up his shoulder.

THWACKCRACK!

The rock went sailing off, a nice curve on the thing. Heh.

Watch out Head Boy dude.

Meanwhile though? Beaters Bat? Was trying not to, but there it was, dying an unfortunate death. He eyed the fractures in it. Wouldn't last much longer.

Oh, shoot. That must have hurt. So, rocks to heads of those doing nothing. With a LOUD sigh, Evan moved his broom a little, grabbed one of the Quaffles--since only two or three were in the play and sloooooowly went to one of the keepers. Really, you could never be precautious enough. So, again, sloooowly he threw the ball--errr, Quaffle--towards them. He wasn't a baseball player, after all, he couldn't throw it so fast. And he didn't want to injure anyone. So really, just playing cool. Though, he still expected it to be a goal--or whatever it was called in this highly dangerous and stupid game. Because he was Evan Cartwright.

Rubiey almost fell off her broom in all the hullabaloo. It was such a blur. One second, Oliver was bobbing in front of her, the next, he had crashed with the other Slytherin who was on her team, then the Quaffle she threw had gone in.

WAIT!! It had gone in?!

Rubiey whooped. She had actually scored. Wowsers.

But, really, should it count? I mean, the keeper was, like, out of action. Y'know, being winded an all.

Hmph.

She flew over to him, coming to a halt next to where he bobbed. "Are you okay...?" She asked uncertainly. It looked like it woulda hurt. Lots.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

"You alright?" Jimmy's grin faded a little and he pulled up, just to check if she was okay. He saw the rock hit her and glanced around, to check there weren't more bumping around right that moment. Heck was he the only one smacking at them right now? He hit another one that actually sent him spinning. Heheh.

Heh. His arm hurt. Awesome.

If only there was a way to tippytoe on a broom, Ivory thought as she tried to see around rocks and other players to see if the quaffle had gone in.

But wait-there was. Shaking her head at her quite frankly bordering on ditzy assumption, Ivory merely gained a few feet in height and watched as Salander sped in for a collision with the head boy goal keeper even as the little gryffindor got closer to scoring.

Crossing her fingers and her toes in her sneakers, she almost didn't turn her head at the sound of a voice nearby. "Mmm?"

Oh. Concern. That was always nice.

"No worries. Right as rain." She assured, smiling a little at his concern as she wiggled said shin in the air a bit, to illustrate its current rightness. "Nothing a little bruise-healing paste won't fix."

Eyes fixed on the basket ,she watched as the Gryffindor made the quaffle in.

"Whoo that's how you do it!" Well you know maybe absent of the whole head on collision. Flashing him a grin, she took off. That was her cue after all...a falling quaffle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snape'sGirlThru&Thru

Giving the Gryffindor girl who had caught the Quaffle a thumbs-up in response to her thanks, Vashti flew her broom up next to her fellow Ravenclaw and said, with an apologetic grin, "Sorry about taking that Quaffle from you. I really didn't notice you coming for it."

Leaning forward on her broom, she smiled as Vashti flew up next to her keeping pace. Shaking her head at the girls unnecessary apology, Ivory smiled sincerely. " Oh no worries, that was a great pass by the way."

Speaking of passes....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

He was still shaking his head when he approached some members of his team. The collision was pretty strong and the lad was still trying to get his bearings again. "Quaffle here. Make a score!" he said as he handed the ball to them.

"That was great catch by the way, and you know the whole collision thing...a stupendous distraction."

Feeling almost the need to tsk tsk like a mother hen at the shaken up guy, Ivory made do with just showering him with compliments and accepting the quaffle with a sympathetic smile before cradling the quaffle securely under her right arm and heading towards the goals.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deniiz

Oh, shoot. That must have hurt. So, rocks to heads of those doing nothing. With a LOUD sigh, Evan moved his broom a little, grabbed one of the Quaffles--since only two or three were in the play and sloooooowly went to one of the keepers. Really, you could never be precautious enough. So, again, sloooowly he threw the ball--errr, Quaffle--towards them. He wasn't a baseball player, after all, he couldn't throw it so fast. And he didn't want to injure anyone. So really, just playing cool. Though, he still expected it to be a goal--or whatever it was called in this highly dangerous and stupid game. Because he was Evan Cartwright.

Her eyes perked up as she watched someone else heading straight for them as well. Maybe this could be the right moment. Maybe the keeper would still be a little dazed...although quite frankly she did feel a stab of guilt for taking advantage of the moment like that.Reassuring herself she tried to remember that his was a game of old fashioned quidditch.

Steeling her resolve she weaved between flying rocks and beaters until she was coming up in the opposite direction as the Slytherin boy (Evan). If she timed it right maybe she'd be able to launch it in, milliseconds after he did so the keeper would be busy on the other side?

Maybe? Possibly?

Oh what the hey. What did she have to lose? It was a game of good fun.

Yup. Zooming forward, she timed it. One, her arm stretched out in preparation. Two, she swung it backwards building momentum.
And three! Release of the quaffle straight to the baskets.

If she hadn't been wearing gloves, Ivory for sure would've spend the next seconds anxiously biting her nails.

Nia swinged her broom round, returning Vashti's grin. "You're welcome, as always," she replied to the younger girl. Oh, it felt great to be flying with a bat in hand again. It took her back to her younger years on the Ravvie team. And it felt as natural as ever. Or, at least, it would if the big rocks weren't so hard and sore to get moving in a decent direction.

"Keep up the good work," she added, as she turned to go after her next rock. "Use those awesome chasing skills you developed last term." Yes, she was totally taking credit for her teams improvement.

Nia glanced to see where the Claw guy was. They seemed to be taking a zonal technique, so she looped back where she'd been holding her ground. And for a bit of fun, she swapped the hand in which she was holding her bat. She'd been training the other side for her upcoming Pro tryouts, and now would be a good time to give it a go.

Seeing some of the smaller rocks, Nia held her bat high. And with some sweeping shots, they were soon out of her way.

Now, where was the Quaffle? And who needed protecting?

Nope, he caught it before it could get inside the baskets.

Ancient times were hard, people, he was actually wondering how long the game lasted back in those days, Professor Vindictus forgot to say that, right?

Quaffle in his hand, the boy zoomed away, away towards the other baskets, and then...

....whaaaat?!

One of those mini-boulder things came towards his Quaffle and knocked it away from him, making him lose balance on the broom for a bit.

That's what you get for holding the Quaffle like a purse. Pffft, silly blooders.

Fee was flying on front of the baskets catching one after another.
Wow, she knew she was good but this was amazing.
She souldnt for the real Qudditch. Ancient type seemed a little more difficult.
As everything ancient.

Hearing a shout of victory from the other team, it dawned on Oliver what had happened when he was distracted by the collision. Someone had scored. That someone being Rubiey!Gryffindor who was busy whooping her victory cry. Oliver couldn't help a wry smile. “Well done” He winked at the little Lion. “Very shifty.” Very Slytherin-like.

He blinked as she flew over, taken aback by her concern. “I'm fine, Rubiey. Thanks.” He replied with a bright smile. “Injuries are all part of the game.”

And... INCOMING!

Erm..

Incoming at snaaail pace.

heehee! Lookit him go!

Jerking his broom to the side, Oliver reached out caught the Quaffle tossed towards him with almost bored ease. He took it in both hands and threw it back into play...

...Towards Trixie the Pixie.

She was on his side, right?


He saw the other Quaffle out of the corner of his eye and knew then he'd made exactly the same mistake as he had with Rubiey. But seriously, how many Quaffles could you prevent from going into the goal at the same time? He made a lunge for it, but Treyen was in there before him. Oliver whooped, straightening up and watched with a massive grin on his face as the kid zoomed off towards the other goal. This was just waaay too much fun.


More rocks were flying his way. Jeez! Oliver was beginning to think that everyone had it in for him. He ducked out of the way of one, only to be hit in the shoulder by another. The blow knocked him backwards, veering off to the side from the goal he was guarding. He cursed, struggling to get his ancient broom under control.

Crap crap crap.

And the world comes into focus again.....

... as Salander watches the Puff lose the Quaffle.

"Oh yeah baby!"

The Slytherin lad made a crazy corkscrew dive for the fallen Quaffle, then catching it... with his face.

"Ow...." he grumbled as he gripped the quaffle straps, but he was still diving, and needed both hands to pull up the broom. He then BIT the quaffle strapps and pulled up, wizzing by his team "Beatersh Covermeeee!" he yelled between clenched teeth as he made another attempt at the goal.

TWEET!

The rocks suddenly quit zooming around and fell like rain as they rocketed towards the snow-covered grass. Vindictus took out his wand and with a few flicks, the six scoring baskets vanished. It was time to end the lesson that he allowed to run longer than planned.

"Return the equipment to the bin and everyone's excused!" he announced loudly.


OOC: You can't go back and finish role playing the lesson - please react to the whistle and Vindictus's announcement. I'll close the thread in less than 24 hours from this post so that many of you can RP leaving.