Tryout Viewing Area
 

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5...iewingarea.jpg

If you are not trying out for your house's Quidditch team, take a seat in the stands and support your classmates during tryouts! No rule-breaking, poor sportsmanship, or other nonsense will be tolerated.

OOC: All SS Board Rules apply.

Having finished his own tryouts, West didn't go and change right away, instead he found a spot in the stands and waited to watch the next team tryouts. Which happened to be Gryffindor. It was no big deal. Just... watching the competition and stuff. Really. That was all. He watched them come out and kept his eyes on the pitch as Alice told them stuff and then started the scrimmage.

... and then he just kept watching.

No big deal.

Ravenclaw tryouts were coming up soon, and Mo was feeling... conflicted about them, which drew him out to the stands well ahead of time. It was good to be out in the fresh air with his broom and bat clutched to his chest as he took a seat up and over from where West was observing the Gryffindor tryouts.

That West... always watching.

"Good Gryffindor turn out this year. Liquorice wand?"

West looked up slowly, that really obvious sort of tearing eyes away from something that had his attention.

...

He nodded once. To the turn out thing. Though actually he hadn't really noticed and had to glance at the pitch again to check. "No. Thanks. Not really into liquorice." West said quietly, and smoothly too, not a crack or a squeak to be heard.

Yeah, hmm. They weren't his favorites either, but they were different and Mo had a sophisticated palate for sweets and required variety. Or no, really, he just was overloaded on chocolate frogs and jelly slugs and couldn't stand them at the moment.

He shouldn't have bought so many over the summer, obviously, but that was before.

"I have chocolate frogs too. You can let me know if you get hungry," Mo answered casually as he settled his bat and broom on the bench beside him and leaned back. His gaze returned to the pitch and to the Gryffindors gathered there.

"Thanks, but I can't. Quidditch season, y'know." West paused and decided to elaborate in case Mo didn't know. "Dylan has us on pretty regimented food intake." Which wasn't so easy this term so far. Not that there wasn't food available, just that... the food provided by the school wasn't all that palatable. Made it hard to eat healthy and all, even if West was inclined to shovel almost anything into his mouth.

His eyes were back out on the pitch too, but only on a certain Gryffindor.

"..... you have tryouts today?" West had noticed the gear. His own broom was laid out carefully on the seat behind him, and he was still in his practice robes, hair tied back and all.

No, Mo didn't have ANY idea what Quidditch season had to do with not being able to have chocolate frogs. He glanced down at his stomach and patted it almost affectionately before returning his attention to the pitch. Was Elise going to make them all go on restrictive diets? Wasn't it enough that Mo'd spent all summer training (and growing)?

"Yeah, in a bit." He wasn't nervous or anything, just sort of wishing that it was over and the team was selected. Trying out had him all conflicted anyway, so it would be better if the decision was just made. "Did you end up making that salmon ladder thing?"

"We just had ours. Earlier." Obviously. West watched as the Gryffindors left and the Hufflepuffs started their tryouts. Eh. Well. That wasn't so exciting. He had no interest in watching Ella run a practice, even if he should be taking notes.

"Yeah, at home, not here yet. My dad helped me build it."

That earned a nod, because it was obvious to Mo that the Slytherins had just come off a practice too, especially considering that West was sitting here dressed for the occasion and carrying a broom. And, y'know, it was tryout season. "How do you think you did, then?"

Probably a stupid question, since West was an ace Quidditch player and always did well in tryouts, but it seemed like implying infallibility was unwelcome. Plus it was good to know what West thought about his performance.

"How'd you like it? The ladder thing? Did it work for you?"

"I did good." West said casually. "But I arrived late and Dylan isn't too happy about that, and I got a lecture about not presuming I have a spot on the team and all." Which... yeah. Alright. Point taken. But still, he'd proved himself hadn't he?

"That new girl, Derry, she's in our year?" West looked at Mo to see if he twigged onto who he meant, "She's pretty good." So that was interesting. West thought Derry was pretty cool. A bit quiet, but maybe Quidditch would fix the stuff wrong with her.

The ladder...

"Its fun." He said, eyeing Mo sideways, "I'm strong enough I just..." Eh it didn't matter. Mo didn't care. Mo wasn't his friend. It didn't matter.

Of course he did well. Mo scoffed a little at getting a lecture from Dylan, especially when it was impossible to get anywhere in the school on time with the turnstiles and things. "Sometimes being late is just being late and not a sign of presuming anything, though."

Mo tilted his head and continued to watch as the Hufflepuffs took the field, although he was trying to figure out who Derry was. Oh, he'd seen her in class, yeah? A little quiet, but that was pretty natural for most new students. She seemed nice enough, and clever enough to answer in class.

West dropped out half way through talking about the ladder, and Mo wondered if West had just remembered he was mad or bored or something. He go a side-eye, and Mo hesitated before commenting, "You just what? I've never tried one before, so that makes you the expert."

"I was doing research." West said, looking out at the pitch again, taking note of that one firstie that was zipping around. Interesting. "But I shouldn't have been late its a bad precedent." Especially given his personal Quidditch goals.

"I just.... its nothing." West shook his head. It was a personal thing, nothing to do with the actual physical act of using the ladder, more about... perceived results. "You can try it at Christmas if you like. Its around the back by the Sycamore." And West didn't mind if Mo went around there.

Mo wanted to know what the research was about, because research was always interesting and because West's projects were generally the MOST interesting, but he could feel the wall inching its way back down. Two unfinished sentences in as many minutes were a sure sign.

Instead, he grunted and nodded in acknowledgement. "Still, once out of four years seems like a really good average. I'm glad he didn't come down harder about it."

Mo leaned forward, elbows to knees, and wrapped a hand around the handle of his broom. It was almost time for his own try-out, and he was going to have to head to the pitch soon. He was aware of the bulk and movement of newly developing muscles beneath his hooded jacket and t-shirt, thanks to the regimen his sister had set up over the summer. The salmon ladder thingy was interesting, but it turned out Mo hadn't needed it. Funny how that worked.

Still... "I'll check it out, then. I'm very interested in how it works."

"I've been late before." West said. He hadn't said anything about it being the first and only time had he? Or at least,l he'd been late to practices, not so much to tryouts but tryouts were kind of like practices in a way. "And I'd do the same thing, if it were my team."

West watched Mo for a moment and then straightened up in his seat, stretching out casually. "Its fun so, yeah. Feel free."

He should go shower now huh.

If he'd thought of it earlier, Dylan was probably not a topic they could talk about, since Mo never really got why West worshiped him and had recently given up on the idea that he could look to the older boy for any leadership or mentoring or... anything, really. The thing about Slytherins, maybe including West (was this one of those things Mo still needed to learn about West?), was that they were only able to care for a finite number of people and anyone else didn't exist.

So Mo did not exist to the older Slytherin boy. Was it a matter of time before he stopped existing to West? Nope, that was too sad, and Mo didn't want to think about it anymore.

He scrubbed his palms along his trousers before shrugging. "Well, thanks for that. I'll let you know if I try it out and what I think. I ought to head down... I think we're up next."

...

Yeah... nice conversing and stuff.

West just nodded. "Have fun." Y'know. With all of that. "I gotta go shower. So see you and all." He picked his own broom up and left, not planning to stick around to watch the Ravenclaws.

Transfiguration HW1 Post 1
 

Staring? No, Alice was checking out the competition, obviously. She had to assess the other players' skill level for Captain reasons and all, right? Slytherin chasers in particular, because they were really, really tough to beat, and maybe if she paid them enough attention, she could snag a couple of moves from them to teach her own team. Or something. That sounded like a real reason, didn't it? One that she could tell people if they asked why she was watching so closely?

Of course it was.

"Hey Penelope," she greeted, slipping into the spot beside her and pulling her legs up onto the seat, crossing them like a pretzel. Was she here because Scany was trying out? Oh, he was, wasn't he? Alice spared him a glance, too, before redirecting her attention to searching for certain other snakes.

Astronomy Homework (post 1)
 

Doobedoobeeeee.

No, she was not spying on the other team try-outs. It was a free country, right? So she was allowed come and STAAARE at the newbies. But she wasn't here to do that. Nope. She was here to hoover. Blue dragged the vacuum along behind her, the nozzle over her shoulder. She was using BOTH hands to tug it because it kept getting caught. Stupid thing. Okay. This looked like a particularly dusty spot.

She grabbed her wand and slipped it out of it's holster. Tap tap tap. "Vacavis." Nothing. "Vacavus." The hoover vrooooomed into life. The fourth year ran the nozzle up and down and up and down the floor of the bench, sucking up dry and crunchy leaves, brown with the season. Not much help to the castle but maybe it would distract a couple of Quidditch hopefuls?

Once she'd vhooped up a total of nine leaves the hoover died and the curly haired brunette hefted the nozzle over her shoulder and whistled on her way, going to find a new place to make all clean and sparkly.

Penelope's eyes were glued to the pitch, so she didn't notice Alice approach her until she spoke. She jumped slightly at the interruption of her focus but managed to remain in her seat. "Oh hey Alice," she replied with a smile, glancing over at the captain. "Come to watch the Slytherins try out too?" Or just one Slytherin in particular like her? Penelope didn't ask that aloud though. No need to really.

"Uh, what?" Priorities, okay? Alice blinked a couple of times, but her eyes didn't move from the pitch while she spoke, because staring took precedence. "I, um, guess, so, but.. uh.." She sat up a little straighter and craned her neck to get a better view. "It's just for checking out the competition and stuff. Assessing the opponent's talent or something." Did that sound believable?

"Are you watching Scany? He hasn't fallen off his broom yet, has he? Is he looking down?" She was too preoccupied to check herself.

Alice was awfully distracted, wasn't she? Heh. Penelope turned her eyes back to the pitch as well, taking only a couple seconds before she found him again. Even from this distance, she could recognize him. She still listened to Alice though as the girl stuttered, probably trying to think of an excuse to be there. Honesty was usually the best policy, which was why Penelope would unashamedly admit why she was here, but the real reason for could be a little...well...awkward. For reasons. And stuff.

"Well there's lots of talent out there." It wasn't surprising though. The Slytherins were usually pretty good. But that was the same for all the teams, she felt like. They all had some level of talent. That was what made all the games so fun.

"Yep." She was watching Ascanius. It was the only reason why she was here, really. She didn't usually watch other tryouts after all. Just practices sometimes, but that was once teams had been decided and all that. "And no, he's doing pretty okay for the most part. I think he even scored." She was really proud. Not simply because he had scored and hadn't fallen off and hurt himself, but because it was really brave of him to face his fear like he was. Even if it was mostly an ego thing in the beginning, it was still brave, and she was proud, despite her lack of enthusiasm in the beginning. Maybe he had a little Gryffindor in him after all.

"Loads of talent on every team. Except, um, most of the other houses' tryouts are.. at, uh, awkward times for me. So I usually only watch Slytherin ones." Penelope could read between the lines, couldn't she? Alice knew she could, and with every word she said, bunches of things were communicated non-verbally, too. Things she didn't plan on actually saying aloud any time soon.

He scored? "Really? Scany scored and I didn't get to see?" She would beat herself up for missing it later, but right now, staring still took precedence. "I bet he will again, and then we can both see and cheer real loudly and obnoxiously for him." And if other people scored, she could just keep looking and cheer mentally or something. Did that make sense? She thought it made sense.

Also, watching from the stands gave her a much better view than in the common room with omnioculars. Alice was making mental notes to come back later.

Awkward times. Probably in more ways than one. Penelope nodded, eyes not leaving the pitch. "Yeah, lots of scheduling conflicts, I'm sure." Which, y'know, maybe there was, on top of other reasons. She'd never been captain herself, so for all she knew scheduling tryouts around everyone else might be pretty difficult, and Alice had other things to do on top of that. Like maybe homework or something. So...lots could conflict with her ability to watch Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff tryouts.

"Don't feel too bad. I missed the first tryout he went to." For...reasons. Angry ones that had caused her not to sleep at all that night until she'd finally sorta dozed off later on around the time the tryout started. But all that was behind them now, thankfully. Now was the time to focus on cheering once he scored again, as Alice suggested. "Maybe we could try out that Sonorus spell thing. The one that makes your voice louder?" Then they could be REALLY obnoxious about the cheering. Heh.

"Yeah." Alice had stopped watching now, her eyes dropping to the folded hands in her lap. Not that it mattered, anyway, because the Slytherin team's practice was ending now and there was no one she wanted to watch anymore. Maybe the Ravenclaws would come out sometime? Or the Hufflepuffs, and then she could do watching on behalf of other people or something.

Penelope had missed Ascanius' first tryouts, though? That didn't seem like a very Shark Bait-ish thing to do, and Alice's mind started wondering almost immediately. "Why?" Maybe she was napping or eating or doing other stuff that Penelopes did in their free time. "I know Sonorus. We can try that the next time they're trying out," she nodded, glancing at the empty pitch again.

For Kat/Kahlan!
 

Upon hearing that there was a Slytherin tryout today, one in which Kahlan would star, Forrest made his way to the tryout area and sat down on the stands to watch it and maybe cheer for her.

Maybe. If he felt like it.

So, sitting somewhere in the middle, he tried to draw Kahlan's attention by waving when she seemed to be looking in that direction. He'd decided he'd keep silent in case he distracted someone off their broom. It was literally on FLYING brooms, and it took all his will not to fret about them. Not that he was afraid of height--who was he kidding, he was well afraid of height and that thin stick was the most dangerous place on earth.

So, he didn't have any time to cheer actually, because he was busy nailing his face anxiously to contain from yelling out of anxiety and praying no one fell.

Oh...tryout was over now? She was a bit disappointed because it was actually kinda fun to watch, but it was probably good for Ascanius. He could be back on the ground and hopefully calm down soon. Maybe she should go down and meet up with and check on him...

But first, her attention was back on Alice, her eyes turning to her. Penelope considered for a moment how much to answer and decided a general explanation would do. "We had a little disagreement the day before. And then I didn't really fall asleep until around the time the tryout started." That was it in a nutshell basically without giving too much away. There wasn't really much to tell anyway, especially since that was in the past now and they were fine. "Cool. You can teach me then." She'd never properly cast Sonorus before. Would be a good spell to learn though.

Having finished with the try-outs, Kahlan would've gone to get dressed into something else before she remembered that she'd seen Forrest in the stands while she was flying, though even from the distance on the odd occasion where she got the chance to actually look at him for more than a few seconds he seemed quite uncomfortable just sitting in the stands. Then again... he was a muggleborn, and he hadn't couldn't fly so that could probably explain that.

So in a light jog, because she was already sort of worn out from the try outs, she managed to go up, flopping herself down in the seat next to the other first year.

"So you did come to try-outs" the blonde mused, a small smirk on her face.

Forrest was thankful that she saw his only waving throughout the whole session, because for the rest of it he had been frozen where he sat and praying that no one fell. It'd taken all his will not to yell at them or try anything stupid to get them down, and a few minutes passed till he could breathe properly.

Fear and fascination. Fascination and fear. It was difficult to decide which one was stronger.

"Yeah, I--" he frowned as he turned to her, trying to collect his mind from flying brooms and falling people, "You said you would be in this one, so I came to--watch you." He blushed a little out of embarrassment, because that must have sounded awkward: him coming to watch her. "I mean--" he went on quickly in an attempt to correct his mistake, "I wondered how it was and look at it you're here too--"

Just shut up Charlton.

A blush also forced it's way onto the Slytherins face as she bit her lip in a failed attempt to control it. While normally she would've teased him slightly to sort of joke her way through it, Kahlan wasn't going to this time, for multiple reasons. The first being the blush that made it's way on her face, and the second being the fact that the Hufflepuff already looked completely flustered - blushing and stumbling over his own words.

Wracking her brain for something - anything - that could make the situation a bit less awkward for the both of them. So internally screaming at herself she managed to force the blush away again, replacing the embarrassed look with a smug grin.

"So what did you think of it? Honestly I wasn't playing well today but I s'pose that I'll have to deal with it" she mused, trying to get Forrest out of his own flustered state. "And of course it wasn't as good as a proper game" she added as an afterthought as she thought of some of the games that she'd watched her brother play.

HAAAAAAAAAAI you two :3 *barges in*
 

Jumping slightly as another voice came from behind her, she spun around to see Professor Airey sitting behind them, a smile crossing her face as she remembered the class that he'd run, which had been completely insane not to mention the completely amazing homework that was set.

"Good day Professor Airey, how are you?" she greeted in return, though internally she thought that it probably sounded a bit formal. And then another blush appeared on her cheeks, so that meant that at least one professor had seen her try outs... oh dear! Or maybe she was being too harsh on herself because her brother was a quidditch player. Nodding at what he said she turned her head to the side in curiosity.

"So do you like Quidditch?"

And then for a moment she almost had her fingers crossed that this teacher wasn't a Quidditch fanatic or at least hadn't heard of her brother

Oh goodness no, she was all flushed too. That meant she DID find it awkward and maybe she didn't want to talk to him anymore. Forrest clenched his first that she couldn't see, and tried not to panic.

Hopefully, she spoke again.

Luckily, Professor Airey intervened before he had to utter a word.

Forrest grinned a liiiiittle maniacal at the man, hoping Kahlan missed it, and rushed to answer his question.

"I am--I got the highest grade, thank you," he said as he smiled genuinely now. It was all the man's help that he got so high, and he wanted to show his gratitude properly.

...

As they conversed about Quidditch, he just leaned back in his seat and listened to them as he triedt not to be sad all over again for missing English Premier League.