Daisy flew her Firebolt X-Treme in a sprint towards the middle of the pitch, her mind assessing the obstacle that was just ahead. There were twelve rings ahead that she had to fly through and Daisy was feeling nervous but determined as she powered her broom. The Hufflepuff then made her way through the coronas. She ended up going through all of the coronas except she just touched two of the coronas which did anger her slightly.

Daisy then did a fast sprint towards the goal hoops as a Quaffle was thrown into the air. She increased the speed of her broom and performed a Double-Eight-Loop to ensure that no Quaffle was going to go through any of the goal hoops. Daisy's efforts paid off as she successively blocked the Quaffle thrown by Bel.

With her goal scored, she set her sights on the coronas. She leaned down to gain the most speed possible to sprint to the coronas. The wind whipped against her face and she was thankful for the googles she had thrown on at the last minute. So fast! Her new broom thundered across the pitch and read her slight body moments as if they had been one.

She angled her broom, ever so slightly, to zip through the first hoop. She leaned left then right as she weaved through the hoops with ease. Her confidence was building with each hoop. Unfortunately, it went a bit too high and she clipped the side of the last hoop with the toe of her boot. "No. Better next time." Her speed, once again, got the better of her.

Quickly getting over her error, she once again with laser focus, zipped towards the opposite end goals where Bel would be waiting to score on her. Without any obstacles in her way for the sprint, Emmalyn let her broom gain as much speed as possible. At the last possible moment, she threw on the breaks and made a quick one eighty in front of the goal hoops. "Give me your best!" She shouted to Captain Bel.

With her broom at the ready, she waited for the first quaffle to be hurtled towards the hoops. Then one came. Much faster than anticipated. That Bel had an arm! Even with her speedy broom, she was unable to intercept the quaffle before it flew through the far right hoop and scored. "I'll get it next time!" She shouted before heading off towards the next obstacle.

As Maddie passed the barriers and headed toward the quaffles, she took a quick glance behind her, but this time it wasn't by mistake. This time, Maddie was checking to see if her housemates had followed suit and started the obstacle course themselves. It looked like most of them had, but she didn't stay turned around long enough to find out just who. She put all her focus into the quaffles which awaited her just ahead.

She steered her broom to fly directly toward them, and then it occurred to her that she'd have to momentarily take one hand off her broom in order to snatch up a quaffle. She felt her stomach do a little turn at the very thought of that, but then she reminded herself that if she actually made the team, she'd have to do that sort of thing all the time. Maddie checked her balance and made sure she was steady enough to take one hand off the broom. She was mentally judging a combination of her balance, her position in regards to the quaffles, and her position in regards to the goal hoops.

She wasn't exactly worried about the goal hoops. Concerned about making a point or not? Yes. But worried? Nah. She played backyard Quidditch a lot, and over the years she'd gotten pretty good with aiming and shooting. Scooping up a quaffle, she held it firmly in her hand while holding on to the broom with the other. Her gaze shifted to the first goal hoop, and she never took her eyes off it as she raised her arm, aimed, and sent the quaffle straight through the hoop.

"YES!" she cheered.

"On ya Maddie!" Bel called out encouragement as Maddie started things off. Bel flew over to her own quaffle pile, scooped up two of them, and then flew up so she'd have a) a good view of the course, and b) a perfect location for shooting goals for them to block as they got to the second set of hoops. Maddie was pretty speedy, Bel reckoned. Also she was good at readjusting her flight path, the maneuvering was good and it wasn't just about picking the right line to begin with it was also about adjusting when you made a mistake and making sure a little mistake didn't turn into a big one.




"Good stuff Daisy!" Bel called out. Her dormmate was flying great.... the only downside Bel could see was that Daisy was so focused on flying perfectly, scoring perfectly, and blocking perfectly, that she was sacrificing speed a bit, so that would definitely impact her final time once she got through the course. Especially with the double eight loop which was impressive but time-consuming.



"Great recovery, Em!" Bel yelled out, seeing the younger girl initially miss picking up the quaffle but righting herself and managing to get hold of it and shoot a goal. She didn't quite block the one Bel threw but that was okay, Bel was more interested to see how Em would do dodging the marshmallows.



Wow, Charlie was fast! Bel watched her new housemate speed through the obstacles, and cheered a little at his hook shot, though the flyby, like Daisy's figure eight loop, put a few seconds on his time. But that was okay, he could try and beat it on his second go through. She was interested to see how he'd manage the coronas! He was pretty controlled in his flying so far.


"That's it everyone! Keep it up!" And she had another quaffle ready to throw...




ooc: We are still going with the first run of the obstacle course! You can do this in as many or as few posts as you want - just have fun with it! Its up to you if you want to wait for me to say Bel is throwing a quaffle at your character when they reach the second goal posts (I will be posting at least once a day for anyone who is keen on the interaction), otherwise you can just say the quaffle has been thrown for your character- but don't RP for Bel please! The map linked above should help you visualize how the pitch has been laid out though its obviously not to scale (there's more than four barriers for instance, and a whooole lot of marshmallows, which are about the size of baseballs, and are limited to the one section). You can interact with each other and post off each other as much or as little as you like.

Obstacle Course
1. Fly a sprint from the start line to the barriers
2. dodge through the barriers, staying low
3. pick up a quaffle and try and shoot it through one of the goal hoops - one attempt!
4. fly a sprint to the middle of the pitch
5. fly through the glowing coronas, try not to touch them (they are not solid, think of glowing rings)
6. fly a sprint to the hoops and block a quaffle -one attempt! (thrown by Bel)
7. Fly down to pick up a bat
8. Make your way through the enchanted marshmallow section (baseball sized)
9. Fly a sprint to the finish.
10. Return to the start line (clockwise) and take a second turn!

It is not too late to 'catch up'. If you're just joining us it would be great if you include a response to the greetings and introductions part, but if you choose not to thats okay - just title your post with the position your charrie is going for .

And if you haven't posted yet, its okay to jump in any time! Just pretend your character was here all along. If you haven't submitted the survey yet, please do so here. You have until the 18th of May.

captain post index:
welcome to tryouts
greetings and introductions
Starting the Obstacle Course
Observing the first run through (this post)

The fifth year was REALLY trying to pay attention to everyone else as they did their self introductions, especially beaters because he had some formations and other things he had thought out that he wanted to test out and share...though he was getting ahead of himself a bit in that department, but it really wasn't until one of the younger Hufflepuffs had spoke to him directly that he actually trained his eyes away from the sky. He was just really anxious about getting on his broom and in the air, you know?

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, have a couple that are being particularly elusive," he nodded to to the fourth year. Did that mean that HE had SOME? But before he could properly ask...Bel was explaining the course and it was TIME! In anticipation, Derf had already mounted his broom the moment 'started' had left his fellow Aussie's (okay so he was half Aussie but you know) lips and had kicked off the ground when only the 'th' sound to her three uttered. Holy flaming SALAMANDERS did it feel GOOD to be in the air. So much so that Derf did a couple of tight turns and a lazy figure air in the air before finally steering himself towards the course. Had to get a little warmed up in the air anyway, right?

Which meant he had to wait a bit before it was his turn, but it was nice to get to watch some of his housemates have a go first. Maddie's enthusiasm, for example, was refreshing and he clapped loudly for her - and gave a little whistle - as she made her way through.

When it was finally his turn, the playful look in his eyes only intensified and in the next second he was leaning forward on his broom and shooting through the air. Not exactly at his top speed, but still impressive IF he did say so himself. His broader shoulders made handling his broom a lot easier now, as did the added muscle, and it took less effort on his part to command it where to go as he made a sharp and precise zigzag path through the barriers before moving even lower to the ground in anticipation of snatching a quaffle. His fingers grazed the surface of the grass, it tickling his fingers and causing him to laugh a little - though part of that was just the JOY of flying weighing its influence - and fluidly slid his hand under one of the quaffles before tucking it under his arm, holding it close to him as he pulled up to give himself better elevation to attempt a shot.

Er...it had been a WHILE since he had done this, his hands much more accustomed to gripping a bat and whacking bludgers away, so his hold on the quaffle was not entirely ideal. Bit sloppy, really, but he reckoned he could at least get a toss on frame. Making a bit of a banana flight path towards the hoops, Derf pulled his arm back and tightened his abdominal muscles so he was throwing more from the waist than his shoulder, and gave himself a bit of an internal pep talk. Just like throwing the ball for a crup...juuuuuuuuuust like throwing a ball for a crup......

And then he let go and watched the quaffle hurtle through the air with some unfortunate and entirely unintentional topspin. Fudge sticks. This was why he wasn't a chaser.

Daisy did feel her broomstick had decreased in speed slightly due to the double-eight loop she had done. This was something that she was going to rectify in the following obstacle. She roared her broom into gear as she flew down to pick up a bat. Maintaining a firm grip on the handle, Daisy began flying towards the Finish Line. The trouble was, those enchanted marshmallows were proving to be quite a hindrance. Daisy managed to hit a few of the marshmallows but that's didn't stop a couple of marshmallows coming into contact with her Quidditch robes.

Daisy wasn't going to let herself get distracted by such trivial things as stained robes. She sprinted past the Finish Line and turned her broom clockwise to begin her second run.

As much as Maddie wanted to just hover there and enjoy her success with the hoops, there was still half the obstacle course left to go. Then on top of that, she had to fly the entire thing twice. She gave her broom a sharp turn around and steered it toward the coronas. Looking up, she could see them all hanging there at different heights. She had already almost clipped the side of a barrier, so her determination to clear the circles without hitting them, despite the fact that they weren't solid, was high.

She gave a deep sigh in preparation, narrowed her eyes so as to focus a bit better, and then flew a sprint down the pitch and in the direction of the first corona. She cleared it with ease. The second corona was an easy attempt, as was the third. It was on the fourth corona that she started to mess up. Looking back on it later, she'd probably realize that she had relaxed her focus a bit since she'd cleared the first three with ease. She'd started to speed up, and in doing so, she'd bumped against the glowing side of the fourth corona.

"UGH!" she said aloud, although she doubted anybody could hear her.

Her focus and determination was now back with her a hundred percent, and she began clearing the circles with ease once again. She might have brushed against one of the last few, but all in all, she was pretty proud of herself. She hoped Bel would be, too.

On that note, she was free to fly a sprint toward the goal hoops, which she immediately took care of. With her eyes on Bel, she began hovering in front of the goal hoops in an attempt to block Bel's throw.

Shaking off her missed block at the goal hoops, Emmalyn darted towards the beater bats. Her dive was flawless and she was able to pull up to a stop just in time to grab a beaters bat. She hovered a moment, taking in the marshmallow laden field before her. “Those marshmallows are huge! Can we eat them when this is over?” She said with a giggle before heading in, bat at the ready.

The sweet sugary smell would not distract her from her end goal. Her broom followed the commands of her body as she took swings to the left then right, smacking into the floating balls of goodness.

Not more than a few feet into the marshmallow obstacle, she was smacked square in the back of the head. That was going to be messy to wash out, but she was glad it didn’t hurt. More aware that marshmallows would be coming from ALL directions, she let her eyes scan as she made her way towards the end of the marshmallow madness.

“Bam! Off you go!” She yelled and giggled as she flew through the last few meters of the obstacle. Her heart raced as she realized she only had one last portion of the course to complete. Her body leaned forward, giving her broom more speed, as she sprinted towards the finish line. Right after she crossed the line, she sat upright and waved her hands in the air. “Not bad, but next time will be better.”

As she made her clockwise turn to head back towards the starting line, she eyed Daisy just ahead of her. “Great job, Daisy! You must have been practicing a lot over the summer.” Her friend made great time through the course and she was proud of her. While she waited for her turn to go start again, she eyed Derf on the course. He seemed to struggle a bit at throwing a goal “It’s okay, Derf! You’ll be spot on next time.” Then, she spotted Charlie out on the course. “Keep it up, Charlie! Great job! You too, Maddie! Block that quaffle!” With as great as all her housemates were doing on the course, it was going to be a tight race to grab a spot on the team.

Yeah, if his Quodpot captain saw him, he'd be growling a TOO SLOW CHARLIE right in his ear. Well, the American sport required speed and precision-- something that Charlie still had to master. Or maybe he was just being too hard on himself since he wanted to play professional one day. He'd heard Emmalyn call out and gave her a quick thumbs up to say his thanks. "Let's go, Charlie...move move move!" he mumbled to himself, steering his broom in top speed towards the middle field where the glowing coronas beckoned him. He imagined the coronas as opposing chasers wanting to block his path, and that he'd have to swiftly dodge them as they try to snatch the quod from him. The only difference was that there was no quod...just him and his broom acting as one.

He'd compressed himself, leaning his body towards the broom handle, melding his torso with it. Charlie let his broom do the flying, and he did the quick steering from left, right, up, and even a quick dive downwards to fly thh a lower corona. Barely scraping the edge of the last corona, Charlie heaved himself up, did a quick turn and guarded the goal hoops behind him. "O Captain, my Captain! Throw me the quaffle!" With his feet firmly on the broom's foot rests, and his hips loose, Charlie hovered high above the ground with both of his arms extended to his sides ready to block a quaffle. Really, his Quodpot training should pay off at this point.

Daisy was ready to begin her second run of the obstacle course, determined that she would improve on her first run where possible. The Hufflepuff took off from the start line, keeping her body close to the broom to keep momentum and speed. As she made her way to the series of barriers, Daisy stayed low and weaved in between each one, not coming into contact with any of them.

She then flew towards the pile of Quaffles and picked one up in her right hand, her left hand firmly gripping her broom. With a small grunt, Daisy launched the Quaffle towards the right goal hoop which hit the edge but didn't go through. She wasn't going to get distracted so she moved onto the next obstacle.

"Never mind it, D!" Bel hollered. And honestly he flew so well and she knew how good he was with a bat that she wasn't worried about him missing a single goal in an obstacle race. Giving things a shot (literally) was part of the point.



"Try to increase your speed next time, Daisy!" Bel hollered once Daisy got through the obstacle course. "Great stuff!" Everyone was gonna be sooooo sticky at the end of this weren't they?

That was part of the fun though! Bel wrote Daisy's first time down from the stopwatch on her clipboard and then grabbed another quaffle, ready for the next person to come through the coronas and head to the goals.



"Woohoo! Onya Maddie!" Bel cheered the younger girl on after her pass through the coronas, they weren't super easy but they were fun right? A good challenge? And Maddie was doing great, at least Bel thought so. She had the quaffle ready too, and just as Maddie hit the goal hoops, Bel threw the quaffle as hard as she could for the younger girl to try and block. Or not block. She was interested to see, really!




Eating the marshmallows? Weeeell. Bel said nothing but grinned. Oh she had plans for after. Fun ones, hopefully. She watched the younger girl go through the marshmallows and then wrote down her time from the stopwatch.

"Great run, Emmalyn!"



She was ready for him, after watching the speed that Charlie took the coronas with, and the quaffle was already coming at him when he called out, Bel having hurled it as hard as she could, with a bit of a spin too. Now lets see...



And Daisy was taking her second attempt, the enchanted stopwatch beeped and began timing her.

"Great run at the barriers, Daisy!" Bel encouraged. "Never mind about the goal!" She'd already shaved a few seconds off her first attempt, so Bel was eager to see how her dormmate would do for the rest of the run.

ooc: We are still going with the first run, and starting some second runs of the obstacle course! You can do this in as many or as few posts as you want - just have fun with it! Its up to you if you want to wait for me to say Bel is throwing a quaffle at your character when they reach the second goal posts (I will be posting at least once a day for anyone who is keen on the interaction), otherwise you can just say the quaffle has been thrown for your character- but don't RP for Bel please! The map linked above should help you visualize how the pitch has been laid out though its obviously not to scale (there's more than four barriers for instance, and a whooole lot of marshmallows, which are about the size of baseballs, and are limited to the one section). You can interact with each other and post off each other as much or as little as you like.

Obstacle Course
1. Fly a sprint from the start line to the barriers
2. dodge through the barriers, staying low
3. pick up a quaffle and try and shoot it through one of the goal hoops - one attempt!
4. fly a sprint to the middle of the pitch
5. fly through the glowing coronas, try not to touch them (they are not solid, think of glowing rings)
6. fly a sprint to the hoops and block a quaffle -one attempt! (thrown by Bel)
7. Fly down to pick up a bat
8. Make your way through the enchanted marshmallow section (baseball sized)
9. Fly a sprint to the finish.
10. Return to the start line (clockwise) and take a second turn!

It is not too late to 'catch up'. If you're just joining us it would be great if you include a response to the greetings and introductions part, but if you choose not to thats okay - just title your post with the position your charrie is going for .

And if you haven't posted yet, its okay to jump in any time! Just pretend your character was here all along. If you haven't submitted the survey yet, please do so here. You have until the 18th of May.

captain post index:
welcome to tryouts
greetings and introductions
Starting the Obstacle Course (start here!)
Observing the first run through
More observations and encouragement (this post)

When Bel gave Daisy some words of encouragement, Daisy gave the Hufflepuff Captain a brief thumbs up as she made her way down the middle of the pitch. Daisy wanted to make sure that the speed of her broom was maintained at a fast but safe level as she headed towards the coronas. Daisy flew through eleven out of twelve of the coronas which was one better than the first attempt so she was feeling pretty pleased with herself.

Daisy then headed for the goal hoops as the Quaffle was thrown for her to try and block from getting through the hoops. She didn't want to do anything complicated this time so as the Quaffle neared the left hoop, Daisy punched the Quaffle to stop it from entering the hoop, thanks to her boxing training.

Maddie was actually pretty calm as she hovered there at the goal hoops. She surprised herself by not really even being nervous about this at all. That is, until Bel hurled the quaffle toward her at an amazing speed. It caught Maddie off guard, and she momentarily froze before jumping back into action and making an attempt at a block. In the end, the quaffle soared through the goal hoop, as it was only brushed by Maddie's attempt and not even bothered at all.

That one stung and left Maddie so disappointed. Well, she supposed, you win some and you lose some, and at least she'd still made that goal a few minutes ago. The obstacle course wasn't a full failure. Plus, she wasn't quite finished with her first round, and still had one of the most exciting parts to go---THE MARSHMALLOWS! She gave her captain an apologetic look just before flying down to pick up a bat.

How Bel was testing them on all the positions was becoming more and more clear. This next one was for Beater, and the last had been for Keeper. The one where Maddie had made a goal had been for Chaser. Bat in hand, the third year steered her broom toward the marshmallows, made a determined face at them, and then flew toward the finish line in an attempt to not get smashed. Maddie was able to steer around the first few, and she even had better luck with the next one. She decided to try her luck at smashing it with the bat, and upon impact, she sent it soaring away.

"YEAH!" she cheered, and in that exact instant, one smacked her in the face. She couldn't help but laugh. It had been kind of awesome, and now her face was a mixture of splatted bug and marshmallows. She dodged a few more marshmallows, then raised her bat a second time. With one hand keeping the broom under control, she was able to smack a second marshmallow away from her. This time, though, she skipped the cheering part.

...and on that note, she'd cleared round one of the obstacle course.

Daisy flew down to collect a bat and really give those enchanted marshmallows a good seeing to. She powered her broom and weaved her way through the marshmallows giving a number of them a huge whack with the bat, hoping that none of the marshmallows once again came into contact with her robes. She decided that she wasn't going to inspect her robes until she had finished the course.

She sped past the finish line, curious as to whether or not she improved on her time. She looked at her robes and found that only one marshmallow had made contact.

“Thanks, Captain!” She was hovering near the starting line, ready to make her second attempt at the course. Daisy had zipped out first and was doing a fantastic job of her second go round. “Ready, set, go!” She yelled as she sprinted towards the first set of obstacles. The barrier walls had met their match. Her body was low as she maneuvered left and right, dodging the barriers and keeping as close to a straight trajectory as possible. The more she wiggled, the more time it would take to conquer the course.

Her determination didn’t waver as she blasted past the final barrier and bolted forward to snag a quaffle. This time she was able to grab it on the first try. Barely slowing enough to make the turn, she pivoted mid-air and hurtled the quaffle with her left hand, up over her head and towards the center hoop. “Score!” she cheered as her broom finished the turn and sprinted towards the middle of the pitch. The coronas were next and she wasn’t going to touch one this time though.

Her mind stayed focus, her body tight to her broom, as she finished the sprint and headed into the first corona. A slight lean to the left took her though the dead center of the next. Her slight hip movements carried her through the remaining coronas, left then right, minor movements and just fast enough to keep up her time, but not so fast to lose control.

Alright. One more go if it. That is, unless, Bel had something else planned for them. As Maddie made a clockwise turn around the pitch and headed back to the start line, she thought about how she'd performed so far. She thought she'd done pretty well, even if she had missed Bel's throw. She'd get it next time, though! That was her round two goal!

Reaching the starting point, Maddie made another sprint toward the barriers. She'd been through them once, so she knew more of what to expect than she had last time. That didn't mean there wouldn't be any surprises, but she wasn't going into it with her eyes wide shut, so to speak.

As she approached the barriers, Maddie reminded herself to stay low and not fly above them. She'd managed to pass the barriers the first time without brushing against three of them, but this time, she focused more on not doing that. Maddie steered her broom around the barriers, making sure to turn in just the right places, so she wouldn't hit anything. She'd gotten through all of them with no mistakes whatsoever, when she misjudged her distance from the last barrier and bumped it just a little.

"UGH!" she yelled into the wind. She'd only hit one barrier this time, which was better than the three she'd hit before, but it wasn't the perfect score she was aiming for. She sighed and turned her focus to the next obstacle in the course---the quaffle through the goal hoop. This was the position she was trying out for, so Maddie wanted so badly to make the goal this second time, as well. Maddie flew toward the pile of quaffles and scooped one up. This time, she was ready to balance broom and quaffle at the same time, and so she was already in a steady position with one hand on the broom and the other gripping the quaffle. Maddie's eyes narrowed in on the goal hoop in the middle, and she raised her arm in a way that would hopefully result in the perfect aim.

She hurled the quaffle forward, and for the second time, it soared through the goal hoop.

Derf was mostly laughing to himself as his toss hit the post and then fell to the ground with a thud in the sand around the base. There wasn't really time to linger on a missed toss, you know? It was like in the heat of a match. Things didn't go the way you hoped and all you could do was just keep on flying and try to do better the next time. Though it WAS a bit embarrassing to not even be on frame when there wasn't even a keeper around, but he shook that off rather easily. "Or I won't," he laughed, throwing Emmalyn a wink as he speed off towards the coronas after making his U-turn around the hoop that he had hit. "Did hit the smaller target thoooooooooooooough."

So that...sorta counted for something, yeah? Dad used to joke about it how in football it should be worth more points if you hit the goal post as opposed to getting it in the net. He was a little inclined to agree at the moment.

The zigzag path required to fly through the coronas was easy enough for him to manage and his stronger arms and broader shoulders helped make those sharp turns, well, sharper. It was something he had had to practice over the summer at quidditch camp, getting used to his new bulk and how to compensate for it in tighter situations. Though, well, he couldn't help giving one of the rings a bit of a high five as he zoomed through it - since he knew that it was not solid and his hand would pass right through it and all. Sorta like pretending that he was high fiving a cloud, you know?

Which now brought him to the other end of the pitch and the other series of whoops. He was actually much more confident in keeping than he was chasing, the defensive mentality and some of the same sharp movements towards balls and deflecting being along the same lines as playing beater. At least how his brain was processing it.

Grinning, Derf nodded his head in Bel's direction. "A'ight, hit me with your best shot," he called out to his friend as he straightened his posture on his broom.

Really...he just wanted to get to the marshmallows because his stomach was starting to rumble and he had a plan.

Maddie had learned her lesson about wasting time stopping for a quick cheer on the pitch. She was happy that she'd scored a second goal, but at the same time, she didn't want to perform badly during the last round of the obstacle course. She was still pretty proud of herself so far. If she didn't make it, she'd at least look back and know she gave it her all.

On that note, it was time for the coronas again. Maddie rounded her broom and saw the glowing circles ahead of her once again. She honestly couldn't remember how many of them she'd bumped up against last time (despite the fact they were just glowing circles and not solid ones). She just knew she wanted to make a perfect fly through as many of them as she could!

Maddie continued the sprint toward the circles, all the way eyeing the one closest to her and trying to judge her distance from it the best she could. When she reached it, she flew through it with ease. She managed to fly through all of them except one, which she misjudged and got a little too close to the left side. Even still, Maddie figured this time was better than the last time she'd been at this point.

Maddie didn't stick around to regret that last hoop any further. She started in on the sprint toward the next hoops, which were the hoops she'd try her hand at Keeper on. The first time she'd made a try for it, she'd missed the block, but this time she was hoping she'd do much better. As in, she was hoping she'd actually block the quaffle. Soon enough, Maddie reached the goal hoops, and she turned toward Bel as she awaited the throw.

After finishing the last part of the coronas, she leaned forward and rocketed towards the hoops. She was determined to block the quaffle and not have another goal scored on her. Her positioning was perfect, the wind was in her favor, and her body was itching to intercept. Her eyes locked on their target as the quaffle came hurtling towards the goals. She darted left, trying to beat the quaffle to the hoop. Her hand reached out, her broom zoomed a head, but the quaffle slipped right past and through the goal hoop. "I guess Keeper is not the position for me." she said with a shrug of her shoulders, already over the miss and ready to conquer the rest of the course.

Swiftly zipping down, she grabbed a beaters bat and entered the marshmallow zone. She was on it. She swung to the left and blasted a marshmallow, then whipped to the right and slammed into another, sending it soaring away. Her giggles of joy growing with each contact her bat made with a marshmallow. "This is so much fun!" She imagined her bat as a giant flaming marshmallow toaster and beat her way through the marshmallow forest.

When she was finally free and safe from marshmallow attack, she rocketed towards the finish line, trying to make up for any extra time spent unnecessarily on the course. She pulled up to a stop just after crossing the finish line, made a clockwise turn, and headed to where they started their stretching for the day. She wanted to be able to see her housemates finish the course and cheer them on. "Keep it up Hufflepuffs! You are all doing a great job!"

Hovering closer to Daisy, she leaned in and asked "How do you think you did? I feel like I did okay with the chaser portions, but I completely tanked the keeper position part. I also have to say that I loved bashing those marshmallows. I could totally be a beater if it's that fun to smash things!" Her eyes were still filled with excitement and energy from running the course.

Daisy looked at Emmalyn and smiled. "I think you put in a fantastic effort. I made a few errors myself. You did very well in the Chaser aspects and you did well in other aspects. I am sure you'll make the team this term."

As Maddie hovered in the air and waited for the quaffle to be thrown, she thought about how badly she wanted this. She'd missed that first one, but she was too determined to miss this last one. But what if she---no. She was not going to think that way. She wanted this too much, and she was going to make it happen!

Maddie stared at Bel, but at the same time, she willed her body to be ready to dart to the left or right, or even up or down if need be. The odds of Bel throwing the quaffle straight to her were slim, so Maddie figured she would have to move in at least some other direction. When the quaffle finally came, Maddie was ready for it. Just as she suspected, she was going to have to move. The quaffle was coming to her slight left, so Maddie watched it for a bit before decided to shift her position to be in line with the quaffle.

Her broom was ready. Her eyes were ready. THIS WAS IT. In the final second, Maddie turned her broom and SMACK! She felt a weight blow against her broom, and in her surprise, it took her an extra second to realize she'd blocked the quaffle. "I DID IT! I DID IT!" she cheered. Okay, so she'd said no cheering, but this one was well-deserved. Maddie was still on an energy high as she soared toward the bats and scooped up one. Bring it on, marshmallows! Maddie was no Quidditch pro, but that last victory had her feeling like one. She almost felt unbeatable until a marshmallow smacked her in the face.

Hello, wake-up call.

She was back to 'Determined Maddie', and she began smacking the marshmallows away from her with such energy and determination, you would think all their lives depended on it. "UGH! TAKE THAT! OUT OF MY WAY!" she said to them. She was getting really in to these final seconds. When the last of the marshmallows were out of her way, Maddie soared to the finish line like a proud victor.

She had bug guts on her face and in her hair...and there were marshmallows stuck to the bug guts on her face and in her hair. Still, she'd made it.

[/DONE].

"Nice one, Daisy!" Bel called out when Daisy punched the quaffle, and she wrote down a few notes for herself about Daisy's technique. All of her notes she'd be sharing with Professor Baldvinsson afterwards.



"Onya, Maddie!" Bel whooped her encouragement as the younger girl got through the marshmallows, and in the end, the course itself. She'd done great! And Bel of course was one to appreciate the younger girl's enthusiasm, being the enthusiastic sort herself.



And Daisy was through her second go at the course. Bel hoped her dormmate was having a good time, and also that she was distracted from her grief. Bel knew the other girl was having a tough go of things lately. Quidditch would help, right?

"Nice one, Daisy!"



Emmalyn was doing great on the coronas! Bel had noted down the younger girl's progress, through barriers and scoring and dodging coronas and now she was ready to throw a quaffle for her to block. She'd definitely improved her speed so far through this second run, according to the stopwatch.



Maddie's second go was definitely one Bel was interested to watch. Sometimes just being familiar with what was expected of you could change how well you did the next time. And the barriers WERE tough, because you had to think about dodging between them and keeping your height right, and the ground being nearby could be pretty distracting. But it was a good thing too since it would help everyone be a bit braver and not overthink low flying when it was required in a match.

"Nice one, Maddie!" That was a brilliant goal!



"You asked for it!" Bel said. She was ready with a quaffle and she put all her strength into hurling it at one of the goals, knowing that she didn't have to hold back for Derf, not one bit.



"Nice flying, Maddie!" Bel said. She did pretty good at those coronas, and she seemed to be really getting in the swing of things. She threw a quaffle for her next and held her breath, waiting to see if Maddie would block it.



"Never mind, Emmalyn!" Bel was still pretty pleased with how Emmalyn had done, even with missing the blocks, she was flying great! And she was glad that she was having fun with the marshmallows too. The idea behind that was to take away some of the fear of beating, because being timid with a bat wouldn't get anyone anywhere.

"Nice work!" She called out when Emmalyn finished and joined Daisy.



"Onya Maddie! You did great!" Bel said as Maddie finished up the two rounds of the obstacles. There were a few more people still finishing up of course, but they were nearly ready to move on.

To those who were waiting, having finished the two turns at the obstacle, Bel directed a new lot of instructions.

"Great job you guys! Take a quick water break, and then once everyone else finishes the obstacle course, we're going to all start working on some drills, and then after we're all done, I've got a little surprise lined up!" Bel told them. A chance to wind down together... after they'd all showered of course. She wanted to encourage the team vibe even now.


ooc: We are wrapping up the obstacle course runs. Its okay to join in now if you haven't yet - the kids are to do two runs through, you can just RP the second one if you want, or both, and you can do it all in one post or in as many or as few posts as you want - just have fun with it! You have 48 hours from the time of this post to finish the obstacle course posts. After that we will be moving on to the kids trying out different positions. Please do not start the drills until directed by your captain! If you're waiting, your character can have a water break and chat with others, stretch, anything like that, just to give others a chance to finish RPing the obstacle course if they wish to do so (nobody HAS to, so don't stress!)

It is not too late to 'catch up'. If you're just joining us it would be great if you include a response to the greetings and introductions part, but if you choose not to that's okay - just title your post with the position your charrie is going for. If you are just joining us, information about the obstacle course can be found linked in the posts below. Its okay to jump in any time! Just pretend your character was here all along. If you haven't submitted the survey yet, please do so here. You have until the 18th of May.

captain post index:
welcome to tryouts
greetings and introductions
Starting the Obstacle Course (start here!)
Observing the first run through
More observations and encouragement
Last chance for obstacle course! (this post)

Daisy was feeling a bit parched after her tryout so she took a bit of a break to quench her thirst, feeling proud of her efforts thus far. She decided to do some light stretches do prepare herself for the upcoming drills as she watched her housemates do the course.

Oh wow. This obstacle course was so much fun. Harriet was a pretty determined and competitive person, but she wasn't taking this so seriously. She did, of course, want to make the team, and wanted them to win, but she was trying to be a bit laid back this term. That meant she was just trying to enjoy the whole process, and have the best last term possible. So this was obstacle course was the best. She was enjoying it, and found the first round pretty good. She wanted to do a bit faster for her second run though. She took a quick break, just to catch her breath before she went in for her second run of the obstacle course. Hopefully she could be faster this time.

She began by flying the sprint, as fast as she could towards the barriers. She really wanted to beat her time. She was careful to though, wanting to be fast, but also on point. She then tried to keep this speedy up as she flew across the course. She picked up a quaffle, and threw it off towards the goal hoops. She did slow down here just a little, wanting to aim good. She beamed as it soared through the hoop. Hattie she was the best. Then she sped up again, flying towards the middle of the pitch. Then she carefully flew through the coronas, being careful to not touch them. It was a good thing she was so small, it really did help in situations like this.

She then flew towards the hoops, and intended to block a quaffle. It didn't go quite so well, and she was glad she wasn't trying out to be a keeper. At least she was good at the chaser bits! The blonde giggled a little as she flew through the enchanted marshmallows. This was funny, though they were making her a little bit hungry. Hmm. Maybe she'd go and have some marshmallows later.

Finally the flew, fast of course, towards the finish line. She beamed as she finished, coming down to land. Then she quickly grabbed some water. That was good, but she was glad to have a little bit of a rest now!

He had indeed.

Grinning as he checked his balance - since in all likelihood he was going to need to use one of his arms to catch or whack Bel's shot away. Only her shot, as he had anticipated, was not one to be easily reached. Laughing, delighted with the challenge, the fifth year gripped his broom firmly and darted off in the direction of the flight path of the quaffle and he quickly realized that he was not going to reach it with his hands nor even the tips of his fingers in time. The only chance he had was to use his broom; specifically the bristles.

Holding his breath, unintentionally, he leaned forward and then at the very last second he kicked his foot down in an almost motocross fashion - as if the air were a dirt track - and grunted as he twisted firmly from the hips to put himself in a strong half spin. Teeth grit, Derf attempted to glance over his shoulder so he could make any sort of last minute adjustments he might need to keep his bristles on the right trajectory.

*THWACK*

Hey hey heeeeeeey! Look at that! It worked.

Fist pumping the air and throwing Bel a smile worthy of the cover of Witch Weekly, the fifth year remembered about four fist pumps later that he was on a timed trial and returned his hands to his broom's handle and took off towards the bats to scoop one of those up and then made his way over to the marshmallows. Right on cue, his stomach gave a bit of a rumble and, well, seeing as he was one of the last people to make their way through this...no one would REALLY mind if he snagged one of the mashmallows, yeah?

Hopefully not.

Which was why instead of avoiding the first marshmallow...he went at it head on and caught it riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight between his teeth. Which he then kept there for the remainder of the course as he weaved through or whacked a marshmallow away with his bat before speeding through to the finish line and pulling up on his broom to bring himself to a halt.

Now time for that post workout snack. Maybe next time they should make each of the marshmallow obstacles a different flavor.