Tessa scraped her hair back, pulling it up into a ponytail, as she walked towards the Quidditch pitch. It was time for tryouts, which meant her hair needed to be out of the way. She grinned as she made one of the school brooms float along beside her. Honestly? She was PUMPED for tryouts this term. Maybe this year she wouldn't be just a reserve, maybe she could make the cut. She would be putting all her energy into this and, let's be honest, with this much sugar in her system, she had ALL the energy.

She made her way onto the pitch and waited for more people to show up.

From the moment quidditch tryouts had been announced, Cordelia had been eagerly waiting for her chance to show off her flying skills. All summer she had been practicing flying on the quidditch pitch at home under supervision. She would, of course, be trying out for the quidditch team on a school owned broom as she was a first year. Cordelia had a spring in her step as she arrived at the quidditch pitch for tryouts. This was so exciting! Cordelia couldn’t wait to learn more about playing quidditch. She had tried tossing a quaffle around before, but never really played a match. Being seeker sounded like it could be really fun too! ”Hi.” She greeted the girl who was already there. Maybe there would be some other familiar faces arriving soon, like Rylee or her roommates. Was it time to fly yet?

He was BAAAAACK.

That's right, last years resident keeper in the HOUSE. Or rather, on the pitch. Józef swaggered his way down from the Castle and towards the tryout area, BRAND NEW broom over his shoulders. His sling was also noticeably absent, although he'd milked that injury for all it was worth until the day previously.

He hadn't needed it though - his arm had been fully functional for a while, but injuries were COOL and obviously so was Jó. He grinned at the other people who were already present, before putting his broom CAREFULLY on the ground and starting to stretch a little.

Not because he was particularly bothered about warming up, but because he knew it was good to look like he was prepared and ready and like he BELONGED.

and also because, you know, he didn't want another injury and wanted to do his best at the tryouts and make the team again, but obviously the cool think was more inportant.

Of course Abra was trying out for Quidditch this year. Actually, it would probably be his last chance to really play on a team; he wasn't planning on even attempting to go pro and he had no plans to go to university either, so a university level team was out of the question. He'd just aged out of the Alexandria U17 team too, so... yep... this was his last opportunity to play, and he was going to take it. Seeker again, if he could wrangle it.

He still battled with obscene amounts of anxiety, of course, that was a given, so Abra was a bundle of nerves as he arrived at the Quidditch pitch, though he tried to cover it up by jangling around his limbs like he was trying to warm them up or something. Even sprang into a few stretches, to keep moving, you know? As long as he didn't trip over his broom (entirely possible) it was all good.

"Hey everyone," Abra said to those others that had gathered before him. "Good luck!" In the tryouts, you know. Obviously.

Anna's high ponytail swang back and forth as she made her way towards the Quidditch pitch, a huge grin on her face, a clipboard in one hand, her broom on her shoulder, and a trunk floating next to her, as well as last year's hula hoops. Yas, they were back! That task had been really useful for her to see people's flying skills and Ollie's spellwork was quite clever, she had to admit.

Anyway, the Gryffindor arrived at the pitch smiling at those already there, making the trunk plop down beside her and carefully placing her broom on the ground. "Hellooooo! Alright?" She greeted them all, placing her fists on her hips and taking a good look at those already there. It felt amazing being there and this year Anna wasn't even nervous! She was SUPER excited and hoped there'd be a good turnout that day. More people to see, more people to choose from, more options, more talent, more everything! EXCITING!!!!

Fixing her ponytail, she moved over to the other side of the trunk and glanced towards the Castle before turning back to look at her housemates. "Let's start with some gentle stretching and warm up as we wait to see if anyone else is coming." She said, starting to pull her arm one way then the other, rotating them forwards then backwards.

She'd introduce herself and everything, but those who were there already knew her, so she'd wait until everyone had arrived before formalities. Spreading her feet apart a little and keeping her legs straight, Anna bent forwards and touched the ground for a few seconds before grabbing her right ankle and pulling her torso towards it. "No need to overdo it, but make sure you're nice and stretched because we won't go easy today!" She told them with her cheeky grin - though they wouldn't be able to see it, maybe they could hear it in her voice. She meant it, though! Heehee! She then pulled her body towards her left leg and stayed there for a few seconds.

Standing back up, she did some high jumps as she looked to see if anyone else was coming. "As you warm up, please tell me your name and the position you'd like to tryout for." The girl finally said, grabbing the clipboard from the top of the trunk. [B"It can be more than one position if you're not sure or if you'd like to give more than one a go.[/b]


OOC: Hi, all! Thanks for coming and welcome to tryouts! Wooooo! As mentioned in the first post, this thread will be open up until the survey closes on the 18th January. If you want to be considered for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, make sure to post here as well as to fill out the survey linked in the first post. You and your charrie can jump in at any time, and all Gryffindors from all years are welcome to try out (yes, even first years)! So come along and let's have some fun =D

I'll post again to move things o in 24-48hrs. Feel free to post your kiddos arriving, stretching and answering Anna's question :3

Tryouts were starting! Curiously, Cordelia looked over at the trunk that Anna had brought with her. Maybe the quidditch balls were in there. What would they be doing? Cordelia took a few moments to adjust the settings on her insulin pump for doing exercise. She then pulled out her blood sugar testing kit from her bag, put a clean test strip into her meter, pricked her finger with the lancet device, and squeezed a drop of blood onto the test strip. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Good to go. Cordelia put away her testing kit and put her bag down so she could participate in the warm up. The first year tried to copy the movements of the quidditch captain as Anna did her stretches. She leaned forward and touched her toes and held that position for a while. After that she grabbed her right ankle and pulled it up behind her and held that for ten seconds, and repeated the same exercise with her left leg. Without stopping her stretches, Cordelia answered Anna’s question. ”I’m Cordelia Winklebleck, I’m a first year, and I’m not really sure but I think I’d like to try out for seeker and chaser.” There were many positions that would be fun to play. Really Cordelia just wanted to get the chance to learn how to play quidditch, and hopefully make the team and be able to play in real matches. Cordelia went down into a lunge with her right leg out front bent at 90 degrees and her left knee almost touching the ground behind her. Then she switched positions to have her left leg in the front. Getting up, Cordelia reached her arms up to the sky as high as she could reach and slowly spread them out to her sides and lowered them. Standing with her arms at her sides, she did rolled her shoulders in forward circles and then switched to rolling backwards. By the time they moved on to the next part of tryouts, she would be all warmed up and ready to fly!

If one looked into the distance, they would see TWO figures approaching. Who were these two figures, you ask? Anna Meriwether's worst nightmare.

That's right. Zoryn Spinnet and Faith Chosen were here to steal the show AND two spots on the team. Despite the fact that Anna Meriwether was the human equivalent to a sour piece of day-old dragon dung, Zoryn was here to prove a point. Many points, actually, but the main one was that ANNA WAS THE WORST. She approached the rest of the gang (the majority of which were gangly looking, pathetic underclassmen). This was their turnout? Bloody hell. Gryffindor would need a MIRACLE to come home with the cup this year if this was their team.

Turning to her RIDE-OR-DIE, best friend and love of her life, if she ever chose to admit it Zoryn said, "Let me do the talking, okay? She deserves the worst."

Fortunately for these sorry dishtowels, Zorth was the best miracle they could ever count on. Still holding Faith's hand, Zoryn walked up to Anna and gave her a thorough look up-and-down. "Almost didn't recognize you without your nose bandaged up," she smirked. Yes, that is right. The most glorious moment of Zoryn's summer was absolutely the moment she sent the HARDEST BLUDGER right at Anna's face.

It's a shame it healed so quickly.

"You know who we are. Beater, keeper," respectively. "We're a package deal this time. You can write that down." K bye.

Gradually, other Gryffindors started turning up and Tessa put her game face on. "Hey," she said and gave Cordelia a friendly grin. Did she remember the fiasco the first night back at the castle had been 'cause Tess definitely did. It was hilarious looking back at it now but that was only because it was Soraya had found it funny, too. Actually, she had barely noticed that anything was different. The only thing that kept eating at her about it was the fact that she forgot about her boyfriend. She literally f o r g o t about his existence for a good few hours.

Where was that game face she was thinking about?

Tessa tried to put all of that - actually, anything that wasn't related to Quidditch - out of her mind. That was when Anna arrived and set them off doing stretches. Cool, cool. She started with the basic stretches first, stretching out her legs, her shoulders, her arms, and her back, too. Then she did some lunges.

While she was doing those, Faith and Zoryn arrived........ She had always admired their Quidditch skills a lot. It annoyed her to admit that seeing them here shook her confidence a little. There was so much talent on this pitch. The more people that showed up, the harder it would be to get a place on the team. That was her logic anyway. But no. No. Fierce. She was a fierce lioness and she had the support of Soraya in the stands and, you know, enough skill to justify trying out in the first place.

"Tessa Roberts. I'll be trying out for Chaser," she announced after Zoryn finished speaking and Anna had, uh, responded.

"Yo, Anna!" Józef said with a grin, waving as their Captain joined them. He had one arm dangling behind his head as he stretched, and slowly switched to the other as she started putting things down and asking for names.

He scowled as he leaned into a lunge, though, because the movement came at the same time as the arrival of Zoryn who Jó thought was very cool and kinda scary and that made her even more cool and also talented and her assertions that Faith was the Keeper. And that they were a package deal!

Honestly, he'd been surprised when he'd been chosen as Keeper last year - not that he would have admitted that to anyone ever, but he'd become pretty arrogant over the course of the term and now he was almost SURE he'd get the position again. But here Zoryn was, to throw a spanner in the works. Would Anna chose another keeper just to keep the brilliant beater on the team?!

For the first time in his life, Józef Kowalski was STRESSED. S T R E S S E D. He intensified his stretches, performing some dynamic ones that he'd learnt at camp over the summer, before pulling himself together enough to speak to Anna again.

"Józef Kowalski. Keeper. But I'm great in a lot of positions, so... y'know."

He couldn't help but add that last bit, because he really wanted to be on the team, and he was now really scared he wouldn't be the keeper again.

Mark would never let him live it down!

Stretching, warming up, yes, yes, Abra was right there already. Now, though, he made a more conscious effort to do proper stretches as opposed to the ones that covered up his jittering. Pulling an arm across his chest, holding it there for a count of ten, then switching to the other arm. Reaching a hand up over his head and then down his back, hold it for another count of ten, switch arms.

"Abra Botros," he said when it was his turn to speak, switching to stretching out his legs as he did so. "Trying out for Seeker." Again. Yes, he was unbelievably aware that they'd never won the cup with him as Seeker, and yes, he was disappointed in himself because of that, but... not enough to dissuade him from trying out for the same position again. Because it was fun to play, and it wasn't like he wasn't good at it, you know?

Once both legs were stretched out in various ways, Abra did a few star jumps on the spot, because he really was feeling very jittery and needed to work it out of his system. Maybe they could get up in the air soon because what he was really desperate to do was to fly.

Rylee was here and she was ready!

The fourth year lioness was pumped up and more than prepared to get these tryouts started! Her hair was tired back into the usual tight french braid that she normally sported during tryouts, practices and matches. In her hand was of course her new broom that she had bought with her own coins and was custom designed and tailored to fit her perfectly. The Hale Storm X in all it’s amazing glory.

Reaching the pitch she smiled brightly at everyone there, calling out a very cheerful, “Hey everyone!” There seemed to be a nice turnout this term, Anna had to be proud about that. Some of last years team and newcomers! Oh, Cordelia was trying out too! Rylee was literally already bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement.

Gently setting her new broom down at her feet she quickly began with the usual warm up stretches. Some jogging in place, shoulder rolls, leg stretches. Pretty much the usual stuff. Taking a moments pause from the stretching she looked towards Anna and smiled. “Rylee Prichard and I’ll be trying out for Beater.” If she had the time and felt up to it she may just give some of the other positions a good as well. Though Anna knew how she played already and what she was capable of.

Anna smiled and sent salutes and waves as her housemates greeted her back. What a nice atmosphere! Imagine if her team actually got along well this year? Maybe they'd have a chance, lol.

She noticed what Cordelia was doing and although she could guess it was because she was about to exercise, the Captain didn't know exactly what that was all about, so she made a mental note to ask later, especially if the girl made the team. In fact, she scribbled something as a reminder at the bottom of her parchment, juuust in case.

The fifth year nodded as she listened to the candidates' names and the position(s) each wanted to try out for, jotting it all down as they continued to stretch. When she noticed Zoryn approaching from the corner of her eye, Anna didn't look up because honestly, she couldn't be bothered. And she was also making a point. Alright, she was mainly making a point and continued to write stuff down.

But the older girl's comment made her stop writing to scoff. Anna finally looked up at the former Captain, her nose all perfect again thanks to the healer who saw her straight after the match in which Zoryn actually broke her nose. "It's a shame you're hallucinating." See? No bandages anywhere to be seen. Just like there had NEVER been any bandages ever. Blood, yes lots of it, actually, but no bandages. Thanks, efficient healer. "I hope it doesn't affect your performance today." The Gryffindor said, a hint of smugness and almost malice behind her half-smirk. The smirk turned into a smile as she looked at Faith. "Good to see you again!" She added, her tone back to friendly as if Zoryn wasn't there.

The next lot of things Zoryn said couldn't be ignored either, so Anna got up, bringing her parchment and quill with her. "The only things I'm writing down are your names and positions you want to try out for. Separately." The smile was still on Anna's face, but the hint of smugness and malice was back as she replied to the seventh year. "So. Names." She repeated, her smile vanishing as she gave the former Captain a hard stare square in the eyes and waited to hear their names as previously requested. Pettiness had a name. It was Zoryn Spinnet, but Anna could play that game too, you know. If they wanted to try out, they'd have to play by her rules. No exceptions.

Heh. This was actually fun!

She'd wait all day if needed. They had a lot of time on their hands anyway.

...

RIGHT, onto the real deal. Almost. Not yet, but at least they'd be using their brooms from now on. Anna made sure she was facing at least most of the candidates as she clapped her hands once. "Thanks, everyone, for coming! I hope you're as excited as I am and try not to stress over things too much. This is mainly about us having a good time and you showing off your skills!" Anna grinned as she looked around at all of them. She was so excited to see all of that talent in action she had to stop herself from bouncing on the balls of her feet! "You'll all start together doing some laps around the pitch on your brooms, just as a warm up. If you haven't got your own broom, you can get a school one. As you take off, please fly through these hula hoops." She said, waving her wand and making the big bundle of hula hoops to float a few metres away from her. "I won't send them out just yet, but keep an eye out because from now on you won't need to come back down here. I'll shout more instructions in a bit."

OOC: Please make sure you fill out this survey if you haven't already! Anyone can still join in at any time, just pretend like your charrie has been here all along - or that they're late, that's a possibility too, haha. That might not look too good for them, though =P up to you! And like I said, any Gryffindor from any year can tryout, so feel free to join us.

They're off on their brooms, finally! Anna likes it when people show off their skills for the sake of showing off, but don't feel like your charrie needs to do it if it's not something they'd do x) they can just be doing normal laps, she will notice everyone! I shall post again in 24-48 hours with the next part of tryouts!

Faith was perfectly cheerful, skipping down to the quidditch pitch along with her ride-or-die. Unlike literally every other tryout they'd had so far, this time Zoryn actually remembered to wake Faith up before leaving and they'd gotten some food before heading down to the pitch with brooms and gloves (just Faith for that one) and bats (actually, just Zoryn) under the arms that weren't holding hands. What a beautiful way to start the day -- starting off their last quidditch tryout the way the others should have started.

She was even in a pretty twirly mood today, but she'd save that for the pitch, because as she'd noticed, Anna appreciated in-the-air (she forgot the word Nuri had said it was) gymnastics over actual goalkeeping ability. Wasn't it lucky that she could twirl?

The blonde had been a little bit away with the fairies until she realised that Zoryn and Anna were busy staring each other down, and then gently pulled on Zoryn's hand so they backed away to just out of whispering-earshot and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Please don't make her mad right now," she said, her hand tightening desperately around Zoryn's. "You need to make the team, and if she's mad at you, I'm scared she won't let you."

Anyway. Now that that was done, she turned towards Anna and gave her one of her brightest smiles. "Great to see you too! Her name's Zoryn Spinnet, in case you forgot. Middle name, Amari. Beater." Clear? Faith Chosen was only really fierce when she was defending Zoryn, and even then it was barely convincing. Anna'd be nice to humour her, though. "Mine's Faith Chosen. Keeper. You might remember it from the U17 pitch." A pretty good keeper, considering they'd crushed England both times they'd played even though her reserve had to play the second game since she was out with a broken arm.

"Do we need to spell them? Or have you got that?" This probably would have sounded a lot sassier if her face hadn't been so earnest.

Because spelling? That would be a disaster. Faith couldn't spell for peanuts. Sure, her own name at this point was muscle memory, but it wasn't like spelling out loud got easier with time.

And, y'know, stretchy stretch. Faith was pretty flexible, but it took a good bit of warming up so she set off first to limber up her back by touching her toes, then moved into a couple lunges, and then slid herself down into a side split and resumed trying to touch her toes. Also side splits helped to resist the urge to wiggle, which was good. Too much wiggling gave off the wrong impression, she'd been told.

Could they fly now? FLYYYY? Perfect! Now Faith could move her restless butt all she wanted, and zigzag through the sky and loop-de-loop and -- was Zoryn okay?

Big yikes, you know? BIG YIKES. That was all Abra was saying. Or... well, not actually saying, but thinking very loudly. Ahem. Yikes. Big ones.

Pretending very hard that there was absolutely no tension on this pitch at all, whatsoever, Abra focused on what Anna was asking them to do, nodding to himself as he mounted his broom. Laps to warm up, got it. Simple stuff. Once they had the okay to go, Abra kicked off from the ground and zoomed up into the air, flying through the hoops as he took off, just as Anna had instructed.

It didn't take long to reach the perimeter of the pitch, and once he did, Abra put on a sudden burst of speed that turned him into a blurry streak of Abra as he began his laps. He liked to go fast. How many could he do before the next set of instructions were called?

Whatever was going on between Anna, Zoryn and Faith was none of her concern. Yes, she was more than aware of the tension between some a few people but it was what it was. Some things just couldn't be helped and other things... well it wasn't her place to try to figure it all out. There was only one task on her shoulders today. Show Anna what she was all about and that she deserved to remain on the team another term.

There was nothing more important right this minute than flying. And the very second Anna had given the 'okay' to fly, you better believe this little ginger lioness was up on her feet. "Up!" she commanded softly in a near whisper, her broom flying up to meet her open hand that was ready and waiting. With a more than confident grin on her face she walked more onto the pitch away from everyone before mounting her broom. Hovering a few feet off the ground, she pulled her fingerless Beaters gloves from her pocket and tugged them on making sure they were nice and snug.

Flexing her fingers she gripped her broom, lowering herself down almost completely flat along it taking off faster than she normally started off. There was nothing better than a broom made just for you. The slightest lean or movement and the broom responded to her. The first lap around the pitch was all about speed, the faster the better. A second lap was flown in an up and down motion, yes she was keeping all her fellow lions in her sight! No worries about her smashing into anyone. Some zigzags were thrown just for fun.

Now where were those hoops she needed to fly through?

It took some effort - Tessa's mind was always SO active and her thoughts raced all over the place - but she managed to get in the zone and focus solely on flying. She was good at that. If something was important enough to her, she could block everything else out while it needed her attention. Was she trying to convince herself of this or was it actually true? You'll never know.

Nevertheless, as soon as Anna gave them the go ahead, she was on her broom, heading straight for the hula hoops they had been instructed to fly through. Once that was done, she took a few laps around the pitch. She was purposely not comparing herself to the other Gryffindor who were trying out while she was actually flying. It wouldn't help her, it would only distract her. But she did notice a few of them were taking fast laps around the pitch and that seemed like a good idea to her. She accelerated and, even on a school broom, managed to give the others a run for their money. Adding in a few sneaky moves that she had learnt over summer - good ways to compensate for an older broom - she grinned as she completed another lap of the pitch.

Every so often, her eyes flicked towards the hoops and Anna.

Had Zoryn noticed the way the other kids stared? Duh. And you know what? She was REVELING in it. Her most coveted personality trait was intimidation, after all.

But Anna pretty much ruined that. Zor was F U M I N G. And had it not been for Faith, bless her soul (BUT ALSO WHAT THE HECK), she probably would’ve spat fire at the fifth year. Fortunately for everyone, Zoryn stayed quiet. Faith Chosen was actually the only person she did listen to. And even though she wanted nothing more than to unleash a bludger at Anna’s nose right here right now (again), she let Faith do the talking. Or well, she didn’t have much of a choice but to seeing as the Gryffindor had taken it upon her own to do it.

Honestly, the whole act was so convincing that even Zoryn didn’t know who’s side Faith was really on?????

Which meant the keeper would get a mouthful after tryouts, but for the moment there wasn’t much that could be done. They were a collective unit after all and Zoryn was rash, but not stupid.

“What she said,” she gave Faith a look as if to say ‘I’m really annoyed that you gave in but I can’t yell at you here and also I hope Anna dies tonight’. Without wasting another second, Zoryn tugged on Faith’s hand to pull them away from the banshee and towards a clearing so that they could kick off. They had stretched beforehand, so that wasn’t an issue. And without so much as another word (but perhaps a well placed GLARE), Zoryn took off for the sky, where she immediately began doing all sorts of extra af swoops in and out of hoops as she did laps around the field. Speed. Agility. Great aim. Duh.

Zoom zoom zooooooom. Maybe it was just flying laps, but Abra was really enjoying himself. He really loved going as fast as he could, in straight races, or snitch chasing, of course. After he'd done a couple of laps just flying flat out, he decided to mix it up a bit, flying up and then down over and over so he made ~wavy lines~ around the edge of the pitch.

After that... well... maybe he could be understandably accused of showing off a little, but these were Quidditch tryouts, and if you couldn't show off your flying abilities there then where could you? Especially when you were more confident on a broom than you were anywhere else. Anyway, after that, he added in a Sloth Grip Roll here and there, making like he was dramatically avoiding bludgers, even doing one right as he had to round the end of the pitch, which was a risky move which required a fair amount of skill - turning and rolling at the same time, you know?

Once he was done with those - as it was probably wise not to do too much rolling, in case he got a bit dizzy - Abra settled for just the ~wavy line~ laps again, now keeping an ear out for Anna's whistle so he didn't miss the next set of instructions.

Aahh, that was more like it. Anna gave Faith a pleased smile when the older girl told her their names. "Thanks, Faith, I knew I could count on your wisdom." She said, looking down at the parchment she was holding to finally add their names. Much better, even though it was all covered in sass. Anna could take sass, that was fine. As long as they knew who was in charge there.

Once they were all off the ground and flying around, Anna herself got on her broom and remained hovering around the middle-ish of the pitch, organising a few things such as charming the parchment to float next to her. She watched her housemates do a few laps and already started observing some of their flying skills, although that was technically only the warm up.

Casting Sonorus on herself, the Captain tapped her wand on the parchment a few times, casting the last few spells so the whole task would work as it should. "Okay, some of you might remember these hula hoops." She said in a loud voice, waving her wand and causing dozens of hoops to fly in different directions, positioning themselves throughout the entire pitch. "For those of you who didn't try out last year, your job is simply to fly through as many hula hoops as you can. You'll be assigned a colour when you fly through the first one and that'll be your colour until the end of the drill. This time, though, the colours aren't cumulative." Anna explained, with an amused grin plastered on her face. "So if someone flies through a hoop you went through before, your colour will disappear and the hoop will turn a new colour. I want each of you to try and have as many hoops in your assigned colour at the end of ten minutes. You may go back and fly through the same hoop as many times as you want in case someone changes its colour. YOU MAY NOT USE YOUR WANDS!! Get ready!" She finished, bringing the whistle to her lips and blowing into it to let them all know it was a GO!!!!

Tapping her wand one last time on the floating parchment, a tiny side-smirk made its way to her lips. She then quickly flew to the side of the pitch and turned her full attention to her housemates to watch their performance.

OOC: They're off! This is the first part of tryouts. Once your charrie flies through the first hula hoop, they will be assigned a specific colour (your charrie can't pick the colour, but YOU can!). The task is to try and get as many hoops into their assigned colour before the 10 minutes are over. HOWEVER, the hoops can only be one colour at a time. It will change every time someone flies through it, so it's a very competitive task. No wands allowed! They can only have the hoops change colours by flying through them. Anna will be watching! x)

I hope that made sense, lol! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me! Also don't forget to fill out this survey if you haven't already.

Tryouts and the survey will stay open until the 18th Jan and anyone can jump in at any time until then. Just pretend that your charrie has been here all along! I'll move on in around 24-48 hours.

Cordelia took the opportunity to drink a juicebox that she had brought with her before mounting the school broom she would be flying for tryouts. Got to keep her blood sugar up for flying. Satisfied that she had consumed sufficient amounts of sugar to last her through tryouts, Cordelia commanded her broom ”Up!” The broom flew up from the ground and Cordelia clasped her small hand around the handle. She mounted her broom and took off, flying through the hoops as Anna had instructed. For her warm up laps, Cordelia leaned forward so her body was almost parallel to the broomstick and went as fast as the broom would carry her.

Eventually it was time to move on to the next tryouts activity. Cordelia watched curiously as the hoops spread out and listened attentively to Anna’s instructions. At the whistle, Cordelia flew through the hoop nearest to her, turning it blue. She dived lower to get at the right angle for another hoop and passed through that one as well. Ten minutes sounded like a long time to keep this up, especially if the hoops could be changed, but real matches would be long so Cordelia needed to be alert.

Flying through color-changing hoops? Easy. Zoryn could do this IN HER SLEEP. And would still win, probably. Because here's the thing, keepers didn't rely too much on flying speed and chasers had two other partners to pass to, but aside from the seeker no one else needed to keep their speed up throughout the game aside from the beaters. Because as a beater, Zoryn coveted two things and two things only: working fast and the element of surprise. And also causing a few major injuries if she had the chance, but this was besides the point.

The point was that Zoryn practiced speed constantly. And so, this activity? Had her name ALL. OVER. IT.

... If only she had been paying attention to Anna when the captain had tapped her parchment. Because that could've given the confident Gryffindor an indication that something was about to go wrong, which it did, but it was too late then.

Because Zoryn didn't waste even a moment. As soon as they were told to start she WHIZZED past that oompa-loompa of a first year (Cordelia) and began flying through hoops. One, two, then four. As she flew through them the hoops changed color to--

Changed color to--

CHANGED COLOR TO-????????????????????

Wait?!?!?!?!?!!?!!? These hoops were defective!!!!! They weren't changing colors????? The Gryffindor stopped in the middle of the air. What. was. going. on???? And so she few back through the hoop she had just gone through to make sure. No change. Okay.... She flew through another hoop a little further away this time. Still no change.

....... She had all but a moment of fear before cracking a grin. The thought hadn't yet occurred to her that it was only her hoops that weren't changing color. She had earnestly thought that it had been the particular hoops she had flown through. Defective hoops. Not an act of malice. And honestly, Zor was amused more than anything. Anna was horrible at putting a winning team together, but she was even worse at making sure her drills actually worked! It was pathetic. Hadn't she checked the hoops before coming up with this game?

HA!

Regardless of the lack-of-color change, Zoryn kept flying. Five. Six. Seven. Like she said, easy.

Anna was looking forward to that moment, it was a pretty awesome sight to see, especially now that she had made this part of the tryouts more competitive than last year. Look at everyone go!

But the Captain was looking forward to this part even more this time around because...... heeheeheeheehee...

Smirk.

That was why. Zoryn looking terribly confused. Anna fought a loud laugh, having to bite her lip to stop herself from cracking up. Aw Merlin, that was priceless.

Anna watched the other people for a bit so it wouldn't be too obvious she was using Zoryn's confusion as entertainment. Cordelia seemed to be doing pretty well for a first tryout. The fifth year smiled at the younger girl as she watched her fly around for a few seconds before turning her attention back to Zoryn. The former Captain seemed to be grinning now, which was a bit weird, and she kept flying through the hoops even though hers weren't changing colour. Hmmm... maybe she hadn't realised it yet. Or Zoryn was just weird like that and actually didn't care as much as Anna thought she would. Shame.

She turned her attention back to some other housemates for the time being, glancing at the parchment every now and then to keep track of numbers.

OOC: Still doing the same drill! I'll move things along in a little over 24 hours

At the blast of Anna's whistle, Tessa sped off towards the nearest hoop, veering down slightly to get through it. She didn't look behind her to see what colour it had changed to, she just went straight for the next hoop. And the next. And the next. It was soon clear that her hoops were turning RED because she caught sight of them whenever she turned to get other hoops.

She briefly noticed Zoryn stop flying at one point, which she thought was weird, but she didn't give it much thought.

Now wasn't the time to get distracted.

She zipped through hoop after hoop, feeling SO CONFIDENT and kept doing that. Blue to red. ALL the colours to red. Whenever she spotted a hoop that had been red turn another colour, she adjusted her course to include it. She felt like she was doing pretty well. Better than she had done last term, that's for sure.

Cordelia zig-zagged around the pitch flying through one hoop to turn it blue, and then another. Although she was primarily focused on turning more hoops blue, Zoryn’s dilemma did not escape Cordelia’s attention. How come Zoryn’s hoop color was the same color that all the hoops were to start with? Seemed like an unfair advantage if it really was Zoryn’s assigned color but maybe they just weren’t working for Zoryn for some reason. Cordelia felt slightly uncomfortable around Zoryn after seeing the way Zoryn had treated Anna, and Zoryn didn’t seem like the sort of person Cordelia wanted to be on a team with. No time to dwell on that though, because it looked like Tessa was turning some of her previously claimed blue hoops to red. The game was on. Even though she was just a first year, Cordelia intended to give Tessa a good run for her money in the hoop exercise. Cordelia darted around the pitch to reclaim her hoops and turn them blue again, going through as many new hoops as she could in the process. She kept her eye out for new hoops in her path that she could fly through and watched for people who turned them other colors so she could go back to them, all the time flying as fast as she could and maneuvering efficiently around the pitch through the hoops.