Ascanius just kept his head down as Nigel commentated. He didn't need to watch this and, honestly, he didn't want to, y'know? This was his team. And this was really brutal having to commentate, especially when they had all been so close. Not that he was counting them out. EVER. He just couldn't watch.

So when he did finally pick his head up to grab the mic from Nigel, he almost laughed at the irony. Alice was here now. Perfect. She could have commentated this a lot better then Ascanius ever could have. Unbiased commentator was NOT unbiased, okay? That was his team out there. And today was a freak day.

"CLARKE puts the quaffle back into play and NEWELL, the one with the busted face, so the girl one, comes back with a vengeance. Almost knocking Clarke off of her broom, much the to amusement of KINSLEY, NEWELL races off to the end of the Pitch and tries to make it past SUMMERS. He swats it away, but ODESSA is there on the rebound. He collects it and then just throws it RIGHT back at SUMMERS who, not expecting any of it, misses the goal. Slytherin scores. Which makes the score 130-20. For Hufflepuff."

He was gonna sulk more.

Nigel...just the thing. Make sure that gets done.

Brant DeVaice.... Brant DeVaice.... Brant DeVaice....

Nope. Repeating his name over and over wasn't doing the trick, which was awkward and embarrassing. "I'm terribly sorry, while it sounds familiar, I just can't... place you." She felt bad, so so bad... was her brain finally mush? Was this Alzheimer's? Did she have it? Was she done for? Seren raised a hand to her face and rest it over her nose and mouth, cupping her chin. She was still thinking, but not making any head way. She could at least deduce a couple of things. He was a former student, potentially a Gryffindor or at least taught by her. "Which year did you graduate?" she asked, removing her hand from her face and resting it in her lap.


"Minus math," he confirmed, not at all discouraged by her being closer to him. Zeke slumped a little in his seat, but turned his shoulder into her so he was kinda leaning against her. Comfy.

"Alright, you got a deal," she agreed, wondering if he'd want to shake on this one, or if he trusted her enough to let it be.

"Whoooaaa!" Zeke called out, pulling away from her and leaning forward in his seat, appreciating his view of the match for the first moment today. It was a gripping game, even if the Snakes were losing by a lot. Funny how that worked, so suspenseful yet so clear-cut. "Uh uh... good, deal," he acknowledged, relaxing back into his seat, eyes still trained on the players.

oh she didn't remember him.. that was quite understandable.. he's heard what has been going on here this term, all the craziness doesn't seem to end.. which gave him a smile.. "oh its alright.. I was in your house Gryffindor…" wait was she still the Gryffindor head of house…. ughhh Brant way to go.. if only Miranda had come too… ohh what year did he graduate.. thats the thing he was terrible at dates.. "ermm… i can't really remember but i was Quidditch Captain when Gryffindor won its last cup" unless they won another one that he couldn't remember… "also prefect" he quickly added.. "but any ways its great to see everyone and everything its like it hasn't changed" he told her.. as he finally sat down.

Bay was so happy for the Hufflepuffs they were doing great!! and man were they ever fast.. holding up his sign he waved it around.. he quickly made it out of parchment and his quill where he wrote "GO SLYTHERPUFFS" and Slyhterin was doing very well too.. maybe he should have started to take notes...

Supporting yellow? "Pfft. I'd have to hex myself in that case," she smirked. She didn't mind them, but never a Hufflepuff supporter, and probably never would be. It's how life went. "It's the perks of having a mum as professor and a dad who is a generous money donor for the school." That is one of the points she liked in America. Power, money and Quidditch.

Peyton beamed at Ariana. She noticed something else, but...she'd keep her mouth shut. Her sisters had always been sensitive when she pointed it out. "Yeah, it's like you're glowing." She made an exaggerated gesture with her fingers all over her face. GLOWING.

AND THERE WAS A CASSIA. The blonde was quickly pulled into a hug and squished. "Hiiii, Cassia!" OMM! This was a reunion she hadn't expected. Eeeep. Oh, she had noticed the strange Wayne. "Beverly? Yeah, she's my cousin. Might want to keep an eye on her," Peyton said, nodding. Strange child was strange.

Oh! And look! Little Bev was holding a boy's hand! OH MERLIN. Wait until the family hears about this. MAJOR NEWS. Hehehe.

---

Beverly looked down at his hand and took it, not really hesitating, though hers might have been a bit cold. They've held hands before and it wasn't weird. Quite nice, actually. "Thanks," she said, moving to sit down. Did he want his hand back?

Jeremiah agreeing with her meant she wasn't exaggerating on Peyton's volume. "Yeah, she's the family banshee." But who cared about Peyton when he was complimenting her. Beverly grinned at him, her free hand going to the back of her hair where the green and silver bow was. "I was trying something new...I didn't have time to charm my hair though." And now it was grey and he's seen it. SAD.

Much to the amusement of Theo. HeHe. Pretty funny stuff. If you were not rooting for Slytherin. Then maybe sulking was in order. Just look at his commentating partner for example.

"Alright the quaffle is back in play. Bishop takes it and speeds on down to mid field. Yeah that sound right. She passes it to Clarke before Newell can almost take out another Hufflepuff chaser. Clarke then weaves on down the the Slytherin goal and makes it look like she was passing it to Holiday. But instead passes it behind her back to Bishop and with Kingley not expecting that SCORES!"


That was pretty awesome passing right there."The race for the bludger is still between Wisteria and Adams. It looked like Adams had an excellent path to it. But at the last minute Wisteria hit it away from her and it seemed like she was aiming it at" Nigel ducked as the bludger soared on over his head. Really Lottie "Whoa would you look at that. The bludger acutally connect with the other Newell in the face also. Must not have been expecting that" Now they really did look alike. Still the question was now who was Lottie really aimming at?

"NOW LOOK AT THAT THE SEEKERS SEEM TO HAVE SPOTTED THE SNITCH. Tempus and Ferrier are now weaving in and out of own teammate to try and capture the snitch. Best be careful" Do not want a repeat of the last capture "Racing all over the pitch. Still fighting it seems like the Hufflepuff Seeker just can not be denied today. They both stretch out their hands to grab it and HE HAS THE SNITCH. TEMPUS HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH. HUFFLEPUFF WINS"

"The Final Score is 190-0 Hufflepuff"

"GOOOO ADELAIDE!" Garth shouted, watching as the red head zoomed around the pitch. He cheered so loud when she got her first bludger. Never knew the girl had it in her. This game really had him on the edge of his seat.

But in the end his old house triumphed. He couldn't help but be proud. He clapped loudly watching as they made their way back down to the pitch. He saw Adelaide wave to him and gave a wave back and a thumbs up. She did good.

Poop. Slytherin lost. Even worse Hufflepuff one. Gwen clapped, only for her dad's sake. She smiled and waved at Adelaide. "Are we gonna be able to see her after the match?" Or did they have to leave? Because Gwen wanted to say hi and ask how awesome quidditch was here because she definitely wanted to play.

Garth looked down at his daughter. "I don't know. We can wait around here a bit and try." Because he wanted to congratulate his former pupil as well. She did so well.

Oh wow! Everyone was here! She gave Oakey a big smile and was going to say hi but... why would Flamsteed be proud of her? Was she missing something? That was... odd, Oakey. You are odd. She opened her mouth to say something but was accosted, that was the only word for it, by Min... who seemed to be a little... excited. Rora returned the hug and nodded, trying to keep up with Minerva's talking. "Yeah I'm good, we're good." she said, addressing everyone who'd asked her. "Active, today." Cue a little prod to the belly. ... Shower things, right. Aurora still thought baby showers were a strange concept... she was having a baby, why would people give her gifts? 'Congratulations on reproducing, here, clothe your child with these gifts!' ... It was strange. But then again, Rora still wanted one. Cause it sounded fun. "Yeah, sure, I'm finished with uni now so I'm free all the time..." she said, nodding.

As for Richard. "Yeah, he's working. He's got a photoshoot today." she added when Ethan asked if he had a game. "He says hi to everyone though." Well, he didn't. But Aurora was sure he would if he knew they were going to be there. Even if he wasn't working he probably wouldn't have come though, he wasn't too bothered about the school's championship anymore...

Fergus felt... smug, okay? He was smug. He was smug that he could make his daughter's boyfriend feel uncomfortable. But only because Derry was special and no boy was allowed to get off easy. "Good." he replied, smiling. It was time to put the poor boy at ease. "She just never tells me this stuff."

"Oh, no I was at the first one this term, but she didnae ken." he said, turning to the pitch as the players came out. "And I taught her to fly, so we've played a bit together. It's in her blood." he added, smiling. Right. Here we go...

~~~
Post match

Ouch... that had been a really intense match. And Fergus had seen Derry's focus falter towards the end... that little... child... man... person had been really fast... and Fergus was kind of devastated. Not for the championship, it was just a game, but he knew how much of a bad loser Derry could be. And even if she tried to put on a brave face... sigh. He was still stood up from watching the last chase for the snitch as she flew to the ground... and as he looked at her through his binoculars his heart dropped. That look.

He knew that look too well... and there was nothing he could do about it. If he ran down there, 1. He probably wouldn't be allowed, 2. People would watch and that would just make her worse and 3. Derry would never, ever forgive him for over parenting her in front of all these people. So he stood there, the binoculars hanging from his fingers at his side, watching his daughter and seriously hoping her friends would know how to calm her down. Or at least make her feel better. Come on people, his baby was important.

Ascanius didn't even need to hear the results to know how that game had turned out. He had known the moment he gave the mic to Nigel. He had this nasty pit in his stomach that twisted and turned into something sort of ghastly and rotten. A part of him was glad that Nigel was the one who was going to be handling announcing Hufflepuff's victory. The sixth year knew there was no way he would have been able to do it, y'know?

And was he a grump? Yeah. Was he upset? Yeah. And he really didn't wanna talk about any of it. In fact, he just wanted to find his team and hand out some hugs, which was HUGE for him. Ascanius Stark was not a hugger. Never had been and was not keen on ever being one. But everyone needed it right now. Or maybe he did. Whatever, either way worked.

He felt properly useless up here in the stands.

Maybe that was best. He wouldn't help anyway. If he knew his team, and he did, West would be devastated, Theo would be grumpy, Snaps would be blaming herself, the Newell siblings were competitive so they wouldn't be happy either...and both of them were really broken. Adelaide would be trying to keep up team morale and that Rhodes kid? Who knew.

His attitude wouldn't add well to that mix. So he was just gonna go back to the castle and try to zen his mind after such a stressful game.

He was at least gracious about the whole thing, didn't seem all that fazed about her failing memory at all. It was when he started going on about leadership roles that it got her realllyyyy thinking. She remembered every Lion leader she'd been here for, so... this didn't make sense. This was only confirmed as he continued on about cup wins. She hadn't witnessed the Lions win anything other than Gobstones. "You know... I think I do remember you, or your name at least, but only from my time in the trophy room... I came to the school a few years after that victory."

Perhaps she wasn't the only one with an addled brain? She hoped he hadn't caught whatever contagion was responsible for this aging thing. That'd be tremendously unfortunate. "Hasn't changed at all? Really?" she asked, though she supposed he was right, it hadn't changed all that much since she was a student either, which was much before his time too.

West's what?

She did a full turn in her seat, pulling her gaze away from the game to try and crane her neck in the direction in which Dora had previously waved. It took a little while for her to notice him, but there was a Mr. Odessa there.

Merlin. Parents. Alice shrank down in her seat a bit and refocused her attention on the game, trying to ignore Leon's looming presence... and Dora's ridiculous requests about which clothes she wore. No. No, she would not wear the stuff her best got her for Easter. Still maintaining the fact that she wasn't a dress-up doll, the captain turned back to the game.

190-0? .... ouch.

Why was Alice shrinking? Dora shot her a confused glance before turning her eyes back to the pitch, amused by the commentary, but not so much that she didn't notice Alice ignoring her question. "You didn't respond to my question." She'd just pack the things in the girl's bag herself. Yes, good plan.

The game though... good, but Merlin.

Dora sunk back in her seat and just sort of stared at the pitch. "That was..." where there words? She glanced over at Alice.

"I'm not going to promise to wear the stuff you left me over break." Alice already had plans to burn everything that her best friend had left on her bed. It was also rather difficult to focus on defying Dora at the current moment, since she only had eyes for a West.

".... unexpected?" And bad.

At least for Slytherin, it was. Ravenclaw must have been throwing a party.

ASDFGHJKLKJHGFDSASDFGHJKLKJHGFDSA!
"CASSIA!" Ariana nearly topped over Peyton trying to hug the girl but grinnnned as she did. "whoa!" she reached out and grabbed onto Peyton's arm as they swayed and Ari almost last her balance. That would of been horrible for many reasons but mainly cause with the way they were Cassia would of landed on top of her and that would harm more than just her. She looked over at Oakey who was so into the game it hurt. It would of with how he was flailing and shouting and being well, Oakey. He was cute though and she was going to keep him forever, yes. "trying to kill us now?" She said looking back at Cassia, the 'us' came out on accident but could of went for Cassia and herself, them being the 'us' you know so she didn't think anything of it not really. "Hi hi hi, How are YOU!" it's been since Christmas since she last saw her which was a LONG time ago and she missed her.



Active was GOOD an Ari gave her a little smirk cause she knew how that was. " yeah you can say that again." Active. seemed it was a circus in there or something. Min was still on about showers and such which made Aurora bring up finishing Uni. "OH! How did that dress work for you?" Ari had made a dress for her final performance and she hoped she wore it and liked it and all cause that was two weeks worth of work and she was damn proud of that dress. Rich also wasn't there cause work, well Boo him!



Hex herself, yeah she would. Ari might of too if she had come wearing yellow or any other color for that matter, though she noted the slytherin shirt, nice touch, yes. All those advantages, WOW, that was kinda awesome. "Lucky you then! you're mum's a professor?" she didn't know that, that was cool.

.................................................. .....Glowing...............................

Sheepishly she looked down and tucked some hair behind her ear, yeah that.. that was a thing. "yeahhhh, just a bit." though she had yet to see this 'glowing' thing people spoke of. when she looked into the mirror she just thought she looked sickly. Granted most of the time she was but you know, technicalities.




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

Why was her hand Cold, it was hot out. Jeremiah eyed it suspiciously, she was dying or anything right now was she?! 'Cause that'd be tragic and not a way he'd want to meet her cousin. "Hi, i was holding her hand and she died I'm Sorry." that would not be fun. "why are you so cold?" really h was curious and she knew how he got when curious. "your hands anyway." her hands were cold, in case he didn't already point that out. "banshee." that made him chuckle a bit seeing as how he knew a think or two about banshees from what he's read about them so it amused him though he understood why cause she was loud and squeaky. He shrugged a bit, the two of them did a lot of that he noted, "i think it looks great the way it is." she didn't need to charm it or anything it still looked nice. The bow was just a bonus, a nice one.

Dora made a face. "Did you even try them on?" Because that so clearly made a difference in whether Alice would like them or not. Clearly. She was still going to pack it.

"... Yeah." That .

Very unexpected.

"Do you want to go down there?" Alone, she meant. And Alice knew. Dora, for no particular reason, didn't go down on the pitch after matches.

".... does it matter?" Of course she hadn't. When did Alice every try wearing the girly stuff?

Unexpected. Depressing. A lot of words fit in that spot, actually.

She wanted very much to head down to the pitch at that moment, but what reason did she have? West had plenty of others to comfort him, he didn't need her. Alice wasn't good at the sympathetic stuff, and while she could feel for him, he'd be better off getting cheered up by others. And he still had a duty as captain to see to his players and all; it'd be a while before he'd be alone and most likely a wreck.

"Maybe. But I won't."

His conversation was soon interrupted as the game began. It started out well and Leon cheered where appropriate. But then... he wasn't entirely sure what had happened or how, but those two boys commentating, who were more friends of West's and had spent quite a bit of time at his house with their rehearsals, explained things at least passably well.

He didn't stop cheering after the snitch incident but Leon felt a terrible helplessness for his boy, coupled with a profound sense of admiration. He played on anyway, and now at the end of the match he could see his son down there doing precisely as he should. He was a good captain and Leon knew that West's heart was broken but he was so proud of his son. How could he not be given everything he had to deal with? And three goals wasn't it? That was hardly anything to sneeze at. His heart sank a little noticing that West was barely able to look up at him. Leon had to make sure that West knew he was proud, and that he didn't need any shiny metal cup to prove he was worthy of that.

"Excuse me." He said to Fergus, and stood up. He was gone an instant later but not leaving, rather he was simply descending the stands and heading to wait for West, intending to catch him on his way off the pitch. He'd not leave today without seeing him.

Was this not great! She came here to watch a match and support her house and friends and she ends up reuniting with not one but two former Slytherins. She definitely didn't wake up thinking she'd be seeing someone that she'd missed. And maybe she hadn't known how much she missed the two of those until she was here with them. She had seen Ariana later this year at Hogsmeade, wasn't recent but she had. But it was Peyton whom she'd not seen for a good length of time. She grinned at Ariana's comment realizing that she indeed could have pulled them down with her if she'd fall. Oh, and the headboy was here, too. The former one that is. Riiight, he and Ari and all that. It was good to see that people actually stayed together after school.

Upon releasing Logan, it was Peyton's turn to be squished. "Hey!" She said, again. She was in a loss for words obviously. "I am good," she answered then glancing at the field her smile dimmed a bit. "As for Slytherin, though," she trailed off then went on, "They played very well and trained so hard," She saw how much they worked for it and they were winners for sure, that much she believed and knew. "How are YOU, though?" she asked her eyes back on the older girl, "You look.... really great," She looked like she put on some pounds from when she last saw her.

And Beverly was Peyton's cousin, whaat?! "Oh, really?! I didn't know that," how come the third year never mentioned it. Was there a reason, hmmm.. "Hmm... I see," she playfully crossed her arms and squinted at the younger cousin. "Though, from what I have observed this year, she is a good snake," Helping out when she could and doing good in classes generally. "So how have you been?" she asked the fellow sixteen-year old.

"Yes." Duh. It always mattered.

She didn't know how to take the maybe, but sitting up in the stands watching them was worse than watching the match. Dora didn't want to do it. Reaching out, she took hold of Alice's sleeve and gave it a gentle tug. "Want to go then? Catch him later?"

"Yup, DADA professor. It kind of sucks." Because no one wanted an ex-Auror mother as a professor. Too strict and Peyton couldn't even mess around or her mother would be up her butt about the importance of setting an example. It was quite awful.

Hehe. Peyton's never seen that look on Ariana's face. It somewhat confirmed her suspicions, but she wasn't going to pry. Some were privy with that sort of thing. "It suits you," she said in all honesty.

She raised an eyebrow at Cassia. So the kid hadn't mentioned they were cousins. What a butt. Did Cassia know something about Beverly that she didn't? Did she have more boyfriends walking around? Damn. "Oh, really? She hasn't, oh, I don't know, tortured anyone? Who's that boy over there? Is it her boyfriend?" She jerked her head to her right where the two kids sat at near the stairs. She needed the details!

As for her, heheheee. "I've been great. I love Salems' but not as much as Hogwarts. Annnnnd...you're not the only one with a badge." She poked Cassia's. On Peyton's letterman jacket was pinned a badge of her own as one of Salems' Quidditch captain. "Congrats, by the way!" Cassia would go far, she knew it.

After the penalty the game went all sorts of directions, unfortunately, favoring Hufflepuff in the end. Peyton's stomach twisted. Her eyes automatically sought out for West. She's always found him impressing, but this, the way he was reacting to the loss and having his teammates shake hands an all, was more than impressing. Inspiring. She wasn't sure she'd be able to react like that. Peyton glanced back at Ariana and Cassia and smiled, a bit sad.

---

He noticed. Of course he would, her hand WAS in his. "Oh, well...I think it's my condition that's causing that." Also feeling nervous. Her hands tended to get cold when she was nervous or anxious. In this case, it was neither. It was as if she had little bats flapping away in her stomach. She eyed Jeremiah. His fault, really.

Did he like the banshee comment? Beverly sniggered. "Just don't let her hear you say that. She takes it personally." Then things get ugly, but she'd defend Jeremiah if she had to. She wasn't scared of Peyton.

Oh, and he liked her hair. Little bats were going crazy in her stomach. "Um, thank you," she grinned, looking down so he wouldn't see her reddening cheeks. "You look nice in red." Even if Gryffindor wasn't playing. He looked nice.

Well, she hadn't. But Alice had more sense to tell her that outright, so she just dropped the subject.

"Yeah. Catch him later." With a last glance at the pitch, she stood up and wriggled her sleeve out of her best friend's grasp. Instead, she took Dora's hand and dragged her unceremoniously out of the stands.

Awww her heart broke as Bentley talked about the old thing, "But you are still beautiful professor and I want to know when they figure this all out so I know you are all better. I'm going to snoop around my books and the hospital I worked at in Germany before Gunnar to see if I can figure out anything for you guys." She was so worried about them.

Her frown continued as Bentley spoke of her son. She couldn't even fathom how she handled not seeing her son so much. Min was struggling not being near Gunnar and it only had been a day, not even. "You know Professor if you or your husband ever needed, I'm just staying at home with Gunnar right now. Ethan works for the German ministry, so if you would ever need anyone I'd be happy to help out with Derfael." It wasn't hard to get places just a quick few floos. Plus she loved children.

She beamed proud mom and all, "He looks just like Ethan minus the blue eyes." She liked that he had her blue eyes, though she wouldn't have minded if he had Ethan's amazing green eyes. She looked at the picture of Bentley's son, he was so freaking cute. "OH MY GOSH!!! He is sooooooo adorable! Look at those eyes and that cute little smile." She was gushing over this cutie pie big time.



Candy! "sweet candy!" She was going to share right? He gave her a grin and hugged her back, see no awkward after the kiss. They were cool as just friends, plus she understood he wasn't doing the relationship thing at all it wasn't just her. Relationships were such a waste of time. He watched at the pitch and frowned. Glancing down at his knee he wondered if he'd play again. If they didn't get this old thing figured out he might never get his knees back. Just watching these bludgers were making his knee feel worse. He turned back to Cinnamon. "So ready for summer?" He was he was over all the school stuff. Big time!



Minerva was getting way into the match and on the edge of her seat. What a freaking good game. Slytherin was always great and it was great seeing West and Theo playing. She actually missed seeing those two. "COME ON HUFFLEPUFF!!" This was just so great seeing everyone and it wasn't weird to have two Slytherin around her cheering. She was use to it over the years with Ariana. It made their friendship even more unique.

"Yes we should do dinner, Aurora you will do dinner too right?" She was so excited to have everyone around. She listened as Ariana told Ethan she was feeling good. "Good good, I knew you would. Eeep I have so much planning to do. Showers, get together's between the three of us. It's all so exciting." She was clapping her hands super excited.

And then she was on her feet jumping as Toby was after the snitch. "GO Toby!!!" She was screaming her head off, she'd probably not even have a voice come dinner time, but oh well it was so worth it. Her screams only got louder as Alec caught the snitch and won the match! Puffs got the cup again. "AWESOME JOB PUFFS!! WOOHOO Toby!!" Her friends did so awesome! She was so proud of them.