Hufflepuff...won.

Penelope wasn't sure how to feel about this. She probably wouldn't have known how to feel even if it had been Ravenclaw who had won. Because now, suddenly, the next match felt so close, even though she didn't know when it would be, and so intimidating. It was easy to not think about it before and during this game, but now...now she didn't know what to think.

She bit her lip as she started making her way out of the stands. All she knew was that she had to work even harder at practices now.

Dylan stood there and watched the last snitch catch of the match to see who came out in front and to see who his lions would be playing next, he watched and saw as the puff seeker kid.. had caught the final snitch “[size=“4”]ROAR!![/size] to the hufflepuff kid!” he didn’t have anything to cheer about since he wasn’t supporting either of them. But just then he heard Minnie call someone cute! Ugh!!! Why did all these older ones have to like like one another.. it was just yucky and gross!! He couldn’t understand how anyone could do all of that, it was just… girlfriends and boyfriends just.. they just stopped you from having all the fun you wanted. #

So he was not going to have a girlfriend EVER!!! Well now there was nothing to do so he decided to have a bit of fun and roar around “ROAR!! To the Hufflepuffs” at the people in the stands, he ran to one end of the stands “ROAR!! To the Hufflepuffs” he ran to the other end and again “ROAR!! To the Hufflepuffs!” he then looked at Minnie “Great commentating Minnie,, though you could have mentioned me a bit more but its ok.. There is always the other games” he said wiggling his eyebrows that she couldn’t see since he had his lion head on. He ran to the middle “ROAR!! To the Hufflepuffs” he carried this on until he got tired and his throat was starting to hurt from all the roaring. So he went to where Minnie was and sat down to see what her commentating box looked like from the inside where she was, he had to admit that was one awesome place to sit.

He waved at Minnie since he didn’t want to talk about anything she said, and she seemed to be embarrassed.. So with his slightly hoarse voice “You find someone cute? I don’t know you all deal with that icky stuff. But you were fun to listen to.. loved how you mentioned me in my costume.. you have to mention me at every match now, its fun!!!” he said chuckling and he bounced a little in his seat and then went over to her microphone “And the Lions are the bestest in the whole school!!” he called out not knowing that the microphone was off! He looked at Minnie before going back to the microphone “And Hufflepuffs!! There I added your house.. Ok?” yeah that had better be ok.. cause he had to add it.

Minerva heard everyone cheering and excited.. She was afraid to look around especially towards a certain puff and a certain claw.. First she spotted Harvey giving her a questionable look. Oh.. great Harvey caught that, well of course he did the entire school caught it.. Now she was going to have to explain things to him, but not right now.. Not at the moment. Her throat was killing her from all the announcing and all the screaming and she was humiliated for saying what she said.

Then she spotted Ed who had a look on his face as well.. Wow no one missed that did they. She gave a weak smile with her cheeks beat red. When he opened his arms, she moved quickly into them and hugged him grateful to have a new friend like him. 1. He was super nice, 2. he was tall enough to completely hide her for a moment, 3. it wasn't a bad thing to be around a cute guy after embarrassing yourself by saying another guy you liked was cute, now was it...

It was obvious she didn't even need to think about hiding from the world school. He hugged her to hopefully give her a moment to compose herself. Dropping his head, he murmured, "Don't worry about it." Poor kid was probably devastated to have outed her crush in front of everyone. Maybe she should erm...stay away from the microphone for a while? He patted her back gently as his eyes turned back to the pitch. Was he actually seeing a little Claw screaming into the grass? Apparently so. Well, she was young, so it was forgivable.

Lana plopped down in her seat as the news settled in. Her team had been so close and even though it was within their reach, the Puffs had won. To say that she was sad was a complete understatement. She didn't even know where to start with how she felt, but she knew sad didn't even start to cover it. Her heart even as crushed as it was at the moment, went out to all her friends down on the pitch. She couldn't even start to imagine how they were feeling after such a match. Even thinking back to her first year and the matches she lost in, she didn't think the feeling compared at all.

Slowing getting up, she started to shove her pom-poms back into her bag and pulled her hair from out of the pigtails, tossing the ribbons bows in with the pom-poms. Moving over to her banners, she took them down as well. Rolling them neatly, in case she wanted to use them at future matches and stuff. She had spend a lot of time on them and she wasn't going to just toss them.

Pulling her jacket back on, she sighed before doing a double check of her things before heading back to the castle. She wanted chocolate and a hug.

With her jacket buttoned up all the way, her bag swung over her shoulder and banners under her arm; she started on her way back to the castle. Just as she got up to the Ravenclaw Dragon, she looked at him and pouted. "Can I get a hug, please?" She was sure that she would need more than one hug today and massive amounts of chocolate in the common room.

Ethan had been on the edge of his seat, awaiting the verdict. Hufflepuff had three snitch grabs.. but the score was tied. Had that ever happened before? In all his years of watching Quidditch, he didn't remember anything like that. And then came Vindictus' announcement.. something about a rarely used rule.

So his team had lost. But it still had been exciting and Ethan had a good time. "Good game, everyone," he called out to the players on the pitch as he offered them his applause.

And then, he froze.. eyes slightly widened, staring out onto the pitch. Did she say I look cute? Ethan sat for a moment, absorbing this information, then slowly turned to look at Minerva. Apparently he read too much into it as he saw she was hugging some other guy. A small frown appeared on his face as he felt a tiny twinge of... what, McCarthy? No, that was not jealousy, he told himself. Besides, he had no reason to be jealous. She could hug whomever she wanted, he had no claims to her... they were friends. At any rate, the wind was picking up and he felt rather cold in the brisk December air. Ethan stood up and headed back to the castle. Maybe one of the house elves could get him that espresso he didn't have time for this morning.

Minerva felt Ed hugging her and then heard his words. She shrugged into him, "Yeah.. I guess.. It's not like everyone heard me." No she didn't see stupid Maxwell at the game today, so that was a blessing.. He couldn't use that against her like he did at the party. Pulling out of the hug she smiled up at Ed, "Thanks for well being nice. Sorry I teased you about the badger costume." she felt a bit bad about that now.. She glanced around feeling bad about a few things she might have said during her fun moment. That's when she saw Ethan leaving the stands. Should she go after him or just stay. He probably hated her for embarrassing him and what if he really didn't like her. Then she would be even more embarrassed.. She looked back at Ed, "I..I can't believe I said that.."

Was there ever gonna be a Ravenclaw game where it wont send half its spectators into some kind of cardiac arrest?

No? Yeah Vickers didn’t think so either.

He was barely sitting down-- how could he when at every turn the Eagles and the Badgers would score or do some crazy stunt against each other? But as the points grew and the Snitch grabs got more intense Vickers grew more quiet and crossed his arms across his chest, biting his lips to the point that its gotten raw and close to bursting open and bleeding.

Then there was a Snitch grab from the Badgers. His piercing blues shoots towards the scoreboard. That places them in a tie!

An eerie silence fell as all eyes shifted to Vindictus…. and gave the final call.

The game goes to the Hufflepuffs.

...............
.........
....

Whaa???.... No tie breaker? No sudden death round?

Vickers stood agape, he… he couldn’t quite believe it. He would think his ears were playing tricks on him. But no, his Head of House said it pretty clearly, and the Minerva the Announcer said it too.

Ravenclaw lost… on a technicality.

For a while he just stood there. Obviously the Hufflepuffs were over the moon but it was clear that to the rest of the three houses there was quite the confusion and the disappointment.

He could feel the crowd starting to thin out and with a deep sigh he finally got his legs moving and started making his way out of his row of benches. As he queued towards the stairs he looked back to the pitch and saw the players starting to land ”You played great Eagles! Proud of you!” he called out. A consoling holler when it was clearly visible that the team spirit was pretty much in the dumps. Oh and he can see Vivi clearly with her pale blonde hair against the greens, trying to console the younger Claw ”You did great out there Vivi BraNxton!!” Yeah its Branxton with an N people, just like the former Hogwarts Potions Master, who luckily isnt around in the stands to hear his name murdered repeatedly. Or his wife-- and the Board of Governors President--for that matter.

Aaaand that’s it. He is so outta there. Back to the ill Head Girl who deserves more of his time and attention than moping around here with the unfairness of it all.

Emmaleigh had sat there the entire match, not cheering, just watching. Watching just one person out there on the broom. She hadn’t even realized the game had ended until she heard Vindictus declare Hufflepuff the winner. Keeping her eyes on Max, she watched his reaction, and felt her heart break. He had been amazing, and she knew she had to find him just as soon as she could so she could. She was going to give him a big hug and tell him how great he had been, even if he didn’t want to listen.

Well that was unexpected. "We tied...but lost?" he muttered aloud, processing this information. His heart sank for the rest of the team. They'd all played amazingly well, especially little Aidan. Spike was proud of the kid. And Max for being back his rightful place in front of the hoops. As much as Spike liked Keeping last term, it really was Max's place.

But still. They lost. Could the start of his sixth year actually get any worse? Maybe...he shouldn't think about that. He didn't know what might have happened with the flowers in the Common Room. Things could get a LOT worse.

A little voice broke into his thoughts, and Spike gave the young 'Claw a smile. "Of course you can," he said with a nod, extending his arms to engulf her in a fluffy dragon hug. "It's part of what I'm here for." And Spike meant that as a dragon, and as a Prefect. "Not the result we'd have hoped for, but still an awesome match. We've got a strong team..."

That was true, it wasn't everyone, but it was certainly enough people for it to go round Hogwarts as a rumour. Thankfully, Edmund had more sense than to say that out loud. When she finally pulled away looking all composed like, he smiled down at her and shrugged. "I endeavour to always be nice. Forget about the costume, I was pretty ready to wear it after that look you gave me." He grinned, hoping she'd cheer up a bit. He glanced in the same direction as her and then looked back to Minnie, trying to keep the sympathy out of his expression. She didn't need that right now. "I know, but we all do crazy things sometimes, you know?" he shrugged, hoping she'd understand it was easier to shrug it off.

Minerva looked at Ed and smiled even laughing a bit, "I have a look?" she said trying to seem innocent. "Well if you ever want to wear it, it's in my room." she chuckled. She then shook her head, "It's getting colder, we should probably head back." she then looked at him, "Yeah I know everyone does things, but I just wish I wouldn't have done that." or the part about Oakey in the beginning that was dumb as well.. "Oh hey, I'm going to get some ice cream and stuff for the common room if you want to join in the celebrating later." She smiled, most people had cleared the stands..so Min figured it was safe to leave.

"Don't pull the innocent card with me, missy." He nudged her jokingly before nodding. "Yes. Yes, you do. It's a little puppy dog look." He tilted his head and eyed her curiously. "I don't think I can get into the girl's dorms, and to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't want to, so..." He trailed off with a shrug. "I know, yours was a little more public than most people's would be." He grimaced. Oooh, ice cream and sweets! "I'm totally there." He looked around them and noticed the stand was pretty empty. They could leave without her getting super embarrassed now, right?

Minerva laughed, "Well I..I didn't know I had that look is all." she grinned at him and shook her head, "I wasn't meaning you go get it. I mean I could get it for you silly." she jokingly hit his arm. She then blushed at him, "I know it was really public, but whatever it's out, it's over, time to move on." she tried to be strong and act like it wasn't that big of a deal. So what if the two guys she had a crush on were both in the stands, so what if one heard her get upset he wasn't playing in the match, so what if the other heard her call him cute. No big deal, she would just hide from them for awhile, yup that sounded about right. She then smiled, "Thanks for being nice about all this. Your a great friend. I'm glad you came to Hogwarts." Minerva smiled and turned, "ready to head back to the castle?"

Of course she didn't. Wait, what if she really didn't know? He just grinned knowingly at her. Now she knew and was probably going to use it to her advantage. "Ah, I see. Well, maybe next time you're announcing." He laughed, looking at her hand amusedly when she hit his arm. It seemed like they were at the 'good friends' stage now. His eyes turned back to her face in time to see her blush again. The girl was constantly pink! "Yup, I agree." He nodded, knowing she was just putting on a front, but if he played along and hung around her a bit more than usual, he could keep an eye on her, yes?

He glanced at the ground as she thanked him. "No need to thank me." He waved a dismissive hand, trying to shrug it off. That's what friends did, right? His eyes lit up at her saying he was a great friend. GREAT friend. "Thanks, Minnie. You're a great friend, too!" And the fact that he'd practically offered to hide her from everyone should have told her that he really did care about her. "Yup, lets go clean out the kitchen!"

Sarah had arrived at the stands before the match not knowing who to support.She was a GryffinclawRavendor after all. Her father and half her brothers were Ravenclaws and her friend Blue was on the team... Yet her friend Bliss was on the other team as was her friend Nessie. And Nessie was the captain. So she had decided to support both teams that game. That way whoever won Sarah would be happy. She did that with her brothers as well, half her brothers supported one quidditch team and the other half of her brothers supported the arch rivals. So Sarah said she supported both, yet when they played against each other Sarah was stuck. So she then said she supported herself.. then her dad got too excited at the prospect of not having to pay for Sarha’s school fees, textbooks...
She was happy the lions had beaten the snakes the other match though. Penelope her best friend (well they were not officially best friend she was just the friend Sarah was closest too in Hogwarts. Penelope had lots of best friends it seemed) had saved the game. She was an amazing seeker.
Sarah watched with baited breath the proceedings, at first it seemed like the Hufflepuffs would win, they had scored the most... yet then it got a bit blurry when the ‘claws quickly caught up... in fact the teams were equal when the snitch was caught for the time. Yet the judged ruled that Nessie’s team had won. Sarah was proud of her friends. Blue on the ‘claws team, Bliss and Nessie on the ‘puffs. In fact her friends were amazing. No one could Say that Sarah had bad taste.

For the first time, Ed had got it right. He was wearing a Slytherin scarf to support Isaac. Choosing a seat RIIIIIGHT at the front, he leant against the edge of the stand and gazed out over the pitch, thinking about just how much this game meant to his best friend.

Minerva smiled as she walked onto the stands. It was so cold and she had her hot chocolate in her hand. She had freshly transfigured her hair green to cheer on her best friend. Making her way through the stands she felt her nerves jump a little. She was doing this again, this time she was going to try to keep her personal life off the microphone today. Looking around she smiled, "Hey Ed, here to be my body guard when I get carried away again?" She chuckled a bit, she had time before the announcing started so she sat down next to him to chat for a few moment.

He turned at the voice and chuckled instantly. "Always. You want me to sit up next to you again?" He asked, his eyes scanning the pitch nervously. He knew Isaac was probably sat in the locker room, desperately hoping he did it this time. "You're supporting Slytherin too?" He asked, nodding to her clothes and AWESOME hair.

Minerva laughed and looked around, "Only if you want, but if you have friends to sit with or your girlfriend, you don't have to sit near me. I guess if I need my body guard you won't be to far away right here if your waiting on people." She winked and laughed some more. Well at least Richard wouldn't be in the stands today, so those comments should be ok.. Well maybe he was playing most likely she could use some of that for her announcing. So maybe she won't be a good as she thought she would try. "Cold enough for you?" She looked at Ed. Then she agreed, "Yeah I guess I am. I actually have some friends on both teams, but my best friend is Slytherin and playing, so I have to cheer for her. "

Making her way up to the stands, Emmaleigh pulled the zipper on her coat higher. The coat had once again been transfigured from its usual light blue color to a perfect Ravenclaw blue. Choosing the perfect seat, one that had an excellent view of the 'claw's goal posts, Em took a seat. Nervously, she looped her borrowed Ravenclaw around her neck. Okay, she had stolen the scarf, but she was sure Max wouldn't mind. That, and she had replaced it with her own Hufflepuff scarf, so they were even. Looking around the stands, she couldn't help but wonder about where all the people were. The stands were usually packed. There definitely needed to be more blue out here.

He shrugged and gestured around. "Nope, I'm all alone again. I can come and sit up by you. I enjoyed it last time, even if there were a few awkward moments." He smiled encouragingly at her and looked around. "It's okay, I guess. Bit mild." He was used to a more bitter cold, so he was kind of loving the Scottish winter. "I'm cheering for Isaac, so I'm Slytherin too." For the day, at least. "Hope they'll do well." He bit his lip and got up. "Suppose we should go sit by your mic. Come on." He nudged her in the right direction.

Bliss really hadn't known which team to support. All her friends, who she loved LOTS, were in both different teams. Blue was a Ravenclaw and she was her soul twinneh. Theo and Terry were in Slytherin and Terry was her bestest friend ever. Even though Terry wasn't on the team, he'd probably still want her to support the snakes. Theo definitely would and Blue wanted her to support to support Ravenclaw. Talk about being torn.

URGH.

In the end Bliss had decided to support Ravenclaw, but if Theo did well, she'd cheer for him. Problem solved. Sort of. After all, Blue was her twinneh and THAT was a higher status than anything else. Right? Now Bliss was sat in the stand, huddled up on her seat and wearing pretty much ALL blue. She was ready for this game. She knew it was gonna be good.

I hope you're happy Blue, she thought.

Ella hurried to the stands, an excited smile on her face. It was a Quidditch day and those were the best days, obviously. Plus Ella had lots and lots of gummy worms for this match! That was important too! BEAM. She was a bit nervous, though. This was because she had friends on both teams. Knowing that Theodore and Blue were playing against each other didn't exactly sit well with her, mostly because she knew they both felt very strongly about winning. And she couldn't exactly pick sides... Meh.

Spotting Minnie, the third year grinned and waved. "Hi Min!" Beam. She really enjoyed when Minnie announced, finding her to be quite amusing. Oh! And there was that Emmaleigh girl! That was Max's lady, yeah? Grin. Ella definitely needed to sit with her. She hadn't properly met the red head yet and honestly, she was curious about her. Max was her brother practically so the third year needed to make sure the older Puff was good for him. Mhm!

Plopping down next to the older girl, Ella grinned and waved at her. "Hi, I hope you don't mind if I sit here." And she wouldn't, yeah? "I have gummy worms if you'd like some..." Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. This was the first test.

Emmaleigh was nervously playing with the fringe of Max's scarf and didn't even notice anyone approaching her. When someone sat down beside her, Em looked up to see who it was and smiled. It was the baby badger Max had helped after the last game. “Yeah, it'd be great to have some company, I'm Emmaleigh.” she said sitting up a bit, and letting go of the end of the scarf. “I'd love some.” Em said grinning as she reached over and pulled out a couple of worms. Biting the end off of one of them she said, “You know, I'm glad wizards haven't made these into something gross and literal like cockroach clusters.” she scrunched up her nose “That would be gross.”