The Gryffindor continued like this for the next thirty seconds, flying through hoops that weren't changing colors. No visible concern on her face.

But this changed very suddenly. Why? Because Tessa had just flown through one of Zoryn's hoops. And it changed to RED.

Blink. Blink. Blink.

WHAT????? Zoryn frowned, looking back at the hoop. Just to be sure, she flew through it again. Still red. And flew through it another time. And another. And another. OKAY. Something fishy was going on here and it had Anna Meriwether written all over it.

Zoryn Amari Spinnet was stressed.

Did this mean that she'd get a total of zero hoops for the activity???? Was this even legal???? Why the hell would she do this??? Okay, Zor knew the answer to the last question, but her point still remained.

But if anything, this wouldn't stop her from completing the activity. It may have caught her off guard and did a number to wipe the smirk off her face, but it also brought about a sense of panic. Which meant the Gryffindor was flying at full speed now, off of pure adrenaline. She weaved her way in and out of as many hoops as humanly possible, knowing quite well that none of them were changing colors. But she couldn't give up because that's exactly what Anna wanted.

She'd deal with that tragedy later.

For the second time in her life, she wasn't calling the shots. And it scared her.

Focus. That's what Józef needed to do. Focus on himself and no one but himself.

Which was something he did most of the time anyway, so this shouldn't be difficult.

With a nod to Anna, he kicked off from the ground and whizzed around to pitch a few times, throwing in some loop-the-loops and some very quick changes of directions because they were key for a keeper to do. Up, down, side to side. Between the stands and weaving in and out of the hoops.

He felt so much more relaxed in the air, even if he was still very stressed about the whole tryouts situation - no one else could no that.

Stopping abruptly in the air to listen to Anna's instructions, Józef adjusted his grip on his broom handle and focused his gaze, looking to where all of the hoops were positioned around the field. Then, he took a few deep breaths and set off again, happy when the first hoop turned purple.

Purple. He could work with that.

Two hoops, three hoops.... He had to keep turning to check that no one else was changing his hoop colour as he accumulated purple ones, retracing his flight path a few times in order to change hoops back.

Oh yeah, Abra remembered this exercise from tryouts last year. Nice touch, though, making the colours of the hoop change completely when someone else went through it. A nice, stressful touch. Merlin.

Well, no matter, Abra was already thinking up a PLAN of ACTION. Instead of just flying around haphazardly, looking for hoops and what have you, he mentally planned out a route around the pitch and through the hoops. The plan was to continue around that route again and again, like he was going around a track, and hit as many hoops on the way around as he could, using all of his well-practiced agility. At least that way, he didn't have to keep an eye out for when his hoops had been turned another colour; he would just reach it again and turn it back to his own colour, showing off his flying skills and speed and agility in the meantime. Okay, good plan.

Once he had a general idea of the route he was taking, Abra turned his broom in midair and flew towards and then through the nearest hoop, before glancing over his shoulder to see what colour it had gone. Pink. Okay, nice and easy to spot, which could be both an advantage and a disadvantage.

That done, he put on a sudden burst of speed and went right into the activity, weaving his way down the pitch, dodging this way and that, climbing and diving, and Sloth Grip Roll-ing once or twice just for the heck of it. Behind him, the hoops - which had previously been an array of blue, red, purple, and the starting hoop colour - went pink one by one as he sped through them.

Around the pitch and through the hoops went Abra on the route he had planned out, carefully avoiding collisions with fellow Gryffindors. Before long, he reached the point he had started at, and sped off through the hoops again, some of which had already changed colours.

As for any other predicaments that might have been going on, Abra hadn't noticed anything... yet. He was, you know, in the zone.

This was pretty straight forward. Kinda intense, but it made sense.

Chasers had to have agility and good reaction times and this exercise was perfect for showing off hers. The longer it went on, the more she got into it and improved her technique. Instead of haphazardly flying through the first or nearest hoop she could see, she was now being conscious of choosing a path that would allow more hoops to remain red for longer. She went through a whole bunch of the outside hoops - one, two, three, four, five - in quick succession, at high speed. Then she went onto to the inside hoops - the ones that were closer together - and started changing them. A couple remained red from her last circuit, but she had to change several hoops from purple, blue and pink to red.

She kept doing that. It seemed to be quite effective.

RED, RED, RED!

It was all she wanted to see!!!

And it hadn't escape her notice by this point that something wasn't right with Zoryn's hoops. Without trying, her mind was associating each hoop colour with the player it was assigned to. She had the feeling that it wasn't an accident or glitch in Anna's charm, considering it seemed to be working perfectly fine for everyone else. While she wouldn't let it distract from tryouts now, she was definitely going to bring it up later.

Zoryn Spinnet wasn't just angry. She was panicked, a feeling which she did not experience very often.

The Gryffindor tried to channel this frustration into the task and while it did work to a certain extent, it was also quite distracting. Why weren't her hoops changing??? This. Wasn't. Fair.

Quidditch was the only thing she was good at. It was HERS. And Anna sucked for taking that away every time without fail. Perhaps this was the real reason behind her heated hatred of the girl. Because at the end of the day, Anna was taking away the one thing Zoryn Spinnet loved most.

The seventh year continued flying her path, but did look around the pitch to see if anyone else had taken notice of what was going on. Either no one did, or no one was going to say anything. Figures. Everyone was in it for their own, apparently.

AD;FASDFLKJ.

She kept flying. Trying to refocus. Hoops. That's what she was doing here. Regardless of color changes, she was meant to fly through hoops.

FOCUS, SPINNET, FOCUS!!!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Aw, Merlin, send help!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!

Anna had to hold up the parchment in front of her face to stop others from seeing her trying to control her silent laughter. It was a good thing the number of hoops each person was flying through was being recorded on the parchment - including Zoryn's, mind you - because Anna was most definitely not paying attention to whatever was going on anymore.

Except for Zoryn's face. AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! That was too funny! It made her entire year already.

The fifth year took a deep breath and tried to stop laughing so she could have a look at how people were doing during the exercise, but as soon as she spotted Zoryn she had to hide her face again so she could laugh her head off... silently.

Had the girl learned her lesson yet? Yeah, who was in charge now, hm?

Anna would've smirked if she wasn't busy wiping away the tears that were now rolling down her cheek from laughing so hard.

Ahh, okay, okay. That was enough. She wasn't even sure if the ten minutes were up yet, but she was actually starting to feel slightly bad for Zoryn curse being an ENFP. Blowing her whistle, Anna waved her wand, making all hoops drop to the floor in their final colour. She wasn't that interested in who had finished with the most hoops in their assigned colour - though she did take a peek because she was curious - as the information she really wanted was written in the parchment.

"Okay, everyone. Well done! We'll now move on to the next part." She let the parchment float next to her again and waved her wand in a wide motion, creating a visible division in the middle of the pitch. She flew down towards it and hovered next to the trunk. "I know you're not trying out for all positions, but I'd like to see all of everyone's abilities. You've done well with speed and dexterity, now I'd like to see you playing different positions." Anna tried to look at each candidate as she spoke. "Please try and have a go at each station, even if you think you'll suck. I promise it'll be fun!" She said with a grin.

The Captain first pointed towards the goal area to her right. "Over there is the scoring area, where you'll test your skills as chasers and keepers. Try and alternate, but if you're sure of what position you want to play out of those two, go ahead and spend more time doing that. But I want to see everyone trying everything!" She was going to repeat that a million times if needed to make sure there would be no excuses!

She turned to the other side of the pitch, the goals on her left hand side. "On that side you'll test your beating skills. Grab a school bat if you haven't got one." She said, hopping off her broom and kicking the trunk next to her, making a good number of bats pop out and fall onto the ground. "I want you to try and send bludgers through the goal hoops. If you're not hitting a bludger towards the goal, I want you to try and stop others from scoring." Double the work for beaters! Both trying to 'score' and protecting the goal hoops. Anna was excited to see what they'd do to accomplish that.

And finally! "Then seeking! The area is... the entire pitch!" She exclaimed, spreading her arms out, beamy smile on her face. "I'll release dozens of snitch-sized balls that will fly all around the pitch and your job is to try and catch as many as you can!" Anna wasn't a seeker herself, but she would've loved to have a go at that. Alas. She would just watch them all have fun while taking notes. The down side of being Captain.

"Ready when you are!" The girl said, pointing her wand at the trunk, sending out two zooming bludgers towards the left side and dozens of snitch-sized balls everywhere. Grabbing the quaffle, she threw it upwards before hopping back onto her broom and zooming off to watch from above, floating parchment always following her.

OOC: First off: fill out the survey if you haven't already! Quick! Before you forget! Heh.

Second: now it's all up to you! Title your post with the station your charrie is at atm so others can all keep track and join in if they wish!

Chaser station: righthand side of the pitch. Simply try and work as a team and score goals. You can either work with others or RP on your own as if your charrie was interacting with others. Just please don't RP for anyone else's charries! No need to mention names if you are unsure.

Keeper station: Same area as the chasers. There should only be one person acting as the keeper at a time IC, but no need to wait until someone posts they're not playing keeper anymore to RP your charrie doing so. Just pretend it's your charrie's turn when you post.

Beater station: Lefthand side of the pitch. Simply hit bludgers through the goal hoops and try to stop other beaters from scoring. The point of it being around the goals is so that charries don't need to try and hit each other with bludgers, as Anna doesn't want any injuries before the season starts xP so no overly dramatic feats, please!

Seeking: You have the whoooole pitch to fly about, dodging bludgers, quaffles, beaters, chasers and keepers to try and catch as many of the snitch-sized balls as possible!

Everyone: Anna would like to see everyone trying everything, but don't feel like your charrie must do it if they don't want to. Post as many times as you like in each station, either playing with others or on your own. Again, make sure not to RP for other people's charries, but feel free to pretend they're interacting with other candidates (you can mention some NPCs if you must/want).

Let me know if you have any questions! The thread will be open until the 18th January, and we'll post again every few days until then! Might do one extra thing before finishing things off depending on the activity level

Zoryn stopped zooming around the pitch once the whistle was blown, but her heart was still racing. As she looked over at their """""""captain"""""" she noticed the girl's facial expressions and.... Anna. Was. Dead. To. Her.

Of COURSE. The whole thing had been a joke. Thought she'd pull one over on Zoryn's head. The Gryffindor stared at her for a few moments, considering what to do. There were many options, you see. She could always send another bludger at the girl's face. Or call her out. Or take the higher road and pretend like-- ha na. She wasn't even going to toy with that option.

Instead after the instructions were given, Zoryn Spinnet flew towards the Gryffindor captain, giving the girl a very serious look, pretending as if she had no idea that the girl had done the whole thing on purpose. "Your hoops were defective," and with that, she flew off to do the part of the seeker.

Because for some reason, Anna thought it'd be a great idea to have them try out for all the positions they didn't want. Ugh.

Whatever.

Speed and agility. She had those.

With that in mind, the beater began to circle the pitch. Upon flight, she immediately caught one of the snitch-sized balls (though it was completely just luck). The next catch was looking to be much harder.

Emma Dakest wasn't much of a beater, but she sure could TRY and play like one. Even if that wasn't the position she was going for. She liked Anna and would do whatever her captain asked of her. The sucky part was that she couldn't hit anyone with the bludgers - which was what she thought the whole POINT and FUN of being a beater was all about - but only to strike them through the goals.

Whatever, she could be awesome at this too. Playing around with her bat, she soared lazily around the goal posts (mostly for her fanclub. Hi girls!) and sized up the other players who had joined the beater group and adjusting to the weight of her bat before she actually attempted to swing the bat. It was heavier than what she was used to, but she played like it was no big deal and almost lost her balance hitting the bludger.

GRIN.

She loved this.

Emma yelled excitedly and went at it again.

As soon as Anna blew the whistle, Tessa circled off the path she was taking through the hoops and stopped in the air, facing their Captain. Anna made a good point, - she had already seen speed and dexterity from them - so maybe it would be good idea to try out a different position. She couldn't remember if they had done something like this last year but, either way, Tessa was excited to do it now.

But which station first.....?

She was curious about the Beater station because, even though she much preferred the position of Chaser, - she didn't have the necessary ability to potentially hurt someone with a bludger - she did have the right build for the position. What was that quote she used to love back in first or second year? 'Though she be but little, she is fierce.' Still applied now tbh. Or so she would like to think.

Tessa flew down to the ground to grab a school bat and then flew back up, towards the left-hand side of the Quidditch pitch. Then she did a mixture of blocking shots and scoring using the bat but it wasn't easy. She wasn't used to the weight of the bat at all and it took her a while to adjust to it and, even then, she wasn't doing great at scoring. She found it much, much easier to score with her own hands. Blocking others shots, though? That was fun and surprisingly easy. BUT she wasn't really hitting them anywhere specific, just AWAY. There was this one time when she defected someone's shot and then, SOMEHOW, it redirected into another hoop.

Pretty cool.

But not her station.

She flew down to deposit the bat and then back up to try her hand at the Chaser station.

Faith wasn't showing off, not at all. No, she was just doing tricks and zooming through hoops at top speed, once she'd done her laps. If Anna wanted showy, showy was what she'd get. She wasn't going to let anyone keep her and Zoryn apart, not again. Not this last year. This year was their year. Nobody was going to ruin it.

She'd only turned about seven rings YELLOW when she turned to check on Zoryn, and noticed that nothing was happening to her rings. She stopped in mid-air and stared. She stared for a long time. Something wasn't right and it was making her sick to her stomach. She exchanged a look with Zoryn as soon as she could make that eye contact, and then tried to nonverbally signal that they would not take this sitting down. Or was it lying down? Whatever it was, they wouldn't do it.

But for now, she'd have to play Anna's game. And so she made her way to the beater's station. Truly her least favourite position, but it could work. She had some decent upper body strength, she just had what was possibly the world's worst aim.

She grabbed a bat and got to work, only to end up ducking every time a bludger came near because there was trauma involved when you were a good keeper and the English U17 beaters' new motto seemed to be "forget the seeker, take out Faith Chosen". Worked in their favour, though. Nia caught the snitch even when they'd incapacitated Faith that second game.

ANYWAY. Time to actually hit something. Then she could move on. Probably. There came a bludger! Faith took a deep breath and stood straighter, then as it came towards her, swung the bat and ---

THWACK!

Success! Except, where was it going? That wasn't into the hoop -- that was flying DIRECTLY at another human person. Ohnononononono. "WATCH OUT!"

Maybe she'd try actually score something before she moved on.

Aaaaaaand there was the whistle. Abra just about heard it over the wind whooshing past his ears, but when he did, he pulled up to brake on his broom in between two of the hoops, and looked back towards the captain.

Oh, they were doing stations for ALL the positions? Well... sure... okay then. Once they were given the go-ahead to get on with it, Abra naturally opted for his first position of choice: the Seeker station. He planned on avoiding the Keeper station for as long as humanly possible.

There was no particular area on the pitch he needed to go to for Seeking, of course, so Abra waited for a moment to give the snitch-sized balls a head start, and then just zoomed off, ready to show off his skills.

The first couple of balls were easy to catch, given that he hadn't exactly let them fly very far before chasing after them. Reaching out his left hand, he snatched up the first ball he came to, put on a burst of speed, and scooped a second out of the air as well, all in the space of a few moments. Not slowing his pace or really taking much time to stop and think, Abra dodged around two other flyers - he couldn't have been sure who they were - directed his broom upwards and gave chase after a third ball.

... At which point he just about heard a yell to watch out. Well, Abra didn't know who it was directed to, but that meant he couldn't just assume it wasn't him. Taking his eyes off the ball he was chasing for just a moment, Abra glanced around just in time to see a bludger headed STRAIGHT for him.

In a quick, fluid motion, Abra quickly went into yet another Sloth Grip Roll, rolling underneath his broom stick as the bludger went over it, narrowly missing him, then coming back upright half a second later. He'd lost the ball he was chasing, so, still flying, he turned to see who had yelled out the warning. Faith.

"Thanks for the warning!" he called out to her over the rush of the wind as he passed her, then directed his broom upwards and flew off looking for more balls to catch.

Rylee had taken flying through those hoops like she was born to do so. Tucking herself down against her broom, making herself as flat as possible wasn't to hard to do when you were already small. There had been a whole lot of zig-zagging, loop-de-loops, up and downs and turns in order to get to as many hoops as she could changing each ones color that she had flown through green. She hadn't really paid much attention to what anyone else was doing at the time only focusing on her own flying. Okay, well that wasn't entirely true she did pay enough attention not to go flying into someone.

When the whistle sounded, Rylee slowed to a stop not only to catch her breath but also hear Anna's instructions. It was time to head off to different stations. YES! This was her favorite part. Getting to showoff her skill. Her first plan of action was the Beaters station because it was her thing. What she needed to do was collect her bat though first which she quickly did before taking to the air once more.

And just in time to see that rouge bludger head straight for Abra! Dear Merlin! Someone had already shouted out a warning and it appeared Abra had it under control but just barely! Leaning down on her broom she zoomed in the direction of the bludger that just missed the lion Prefect and gave her bat a hard swing. *CRACK!*

She only watched it long enough to see the bludger sailing directly for the goal post, if it had gone through she wasn't entirely sure. Rylee had already dove down and was swinging her bat at another bludger sending it hopefully through the goals. The goal here was to get as many as she could in small amount of time so she could move onto something else.

Zoryn had managed to capture about five different snitch-sized balls, before deciding that she had enough of this ridiculous activity. Of course, in her humble opinion, she made an EXCELLENT seeker as well, but she was meant to be a beater. It was what she was best at.

Throwing the snitch-like-balls back into the air, the Gryffindor flew to the keeper station.

Unfortunately, playing as keeper was NOT her cup of tea. Staying stationary? Only getting to play when a quaffle came by? Ew. Zoryn HATED it. And she wasn't very good, either. Of course her aim was well practiced, but she swung too hard and missed the ball a few times.

Her typical practice was in strength. Not defense.

This was stupid.

After an excruciating seven minutes in front of the goal-post, Zoryn had enough and swapped out for a go as chaser. Still not her favorite position, but she preferred to be on the offensive side. It was MUCH better than playing chaser, anyhow. Plus, she could totally be a better chaser than Anna Stupid Meriwether sooooooo?

AND GOAL! Ha.

Easy.

After having quite a bit of fun whacking bludgers towards the goals, Rylee returned her beaters bat to the ground. It was only when her bat was safely out of harms way of anything that she returned to the sky, zooming across the pitch. Time to put her Seeker skills to use.

There was no surprising anyone that didn't already know her that she LOVED shiny things. Anything that was shiny, sparkly and or glittery always got her attention. And it was safe to safe that this had caused her some issues on more than one occasion. It wasn't her fault though, shiny things just drew her in like a moth to a flame.

When it came to playing as Seeker though her attraction for shiny things was perfect. Bright blue-gray eyes spotted that glint of gold super fast (maybe this also had to do with the fact that there were dozens of snitch-sized balls flying about?). Flying full speed ahead she pulled up suddenly on her broom, narrowly missing colliding with a Chaser that was flying the opposite direction. She was closing in on that snitch-sized ball, never letting it out of her sight, fingers closing around it once within arms reach!

"Hey, Anna?! Do we let them go after we catch them or hold onto them for a little bit?!" She called out towards the Captain already zooming past on the pursuit of another one.

I'll take you... and you... and you... aaaaaaaaaaaand... you...

Up and down, swooping, diving, rolling, weaving, Abra was doing it all. He had to do it all, so, you know, he was really trying to show off as many of his skills as possible. This was his last year of being able to really play Quidditch, after all, and as he really wanted to be Seeker again, this was the station to really show what he could do. He had nothing to lose by going all out.

But he couldn't stay at the Seeker station forever; there were others to visit and Anna had said she wanted them to try everything. So, after one last spectacular catch which involved a speedy chase, a final burst of acceleration, a daring swerve as the ball changed direction at the very last second, and a resulting barrel roll through the air, Abra righted himself and held up the ball victoriously. Then, he let it go, and zoomed on over to the Beater station, his second preferred position.

While Abra had never played as a beater in a game, he certainly knew his way around a beater's bat, mostly thanks to his habit of belting bludgers around when he was in a particularly bad mood. Granted, he never really aimed them at anything in particular, but he could hit the things relatively hard if he got a good swing.

Flying down to the school bats, Abra picked out the least dented looking one he could find before flying up to the area of the pitch designated for the beater station. He didnt have to wait very long for something to happen, either. With a whistling eeeeeeEEEEEEEEEE sound a bludger came flying at him for the second time that day, and Abra quickly reversed his broom, swung his arm back, and... BLAM! Off the bludger sped, soaring... flying...

... just wide of the goal hoop. Rats.

Zoryn hated this. She wanted one position and one position only. Trying the rest of them was stupid. Of course Anna Smelliwether came up with THIS to be their tryout. Why was she made captain again? The Professors resally were delusional. It was the only explanation.

Either way, Zoryn was still at the chaser station, working with others to pass the ball around and score. Y A W N. This was so boooooooring. If anything, this activity just showed Zor how much she hated every other position on the pitch. Being a beater was 100000% her life's calling.

After a few more minutes at the Chaser station, Zoryn kicked back a flew to grab her bat before heading to the other side of the pitch. Where she TRULY belonged. As a beater. Duh. Immediately as she flew into the air, she spotted Abra and his unfortunate swing. Yikes. But Anna had said they were scoring AND defending, so Zor sped up and made contact with Abra's bludger... Sending it whizzing down the pitch.

Fortunately for everyone at try-outs, Zoryn didn't actually aim at anyone. She had carefully sent it down the side and past any real threat of danger. You're welcome. You have no idea how much self control it took not to send it at the back of Anna's head. A lot. It took a lot of control.

Ahem. Either way, she wasn't about to waste another moment thinking about breaking Anna's nose again, although the image did nothing but bring her glee, Zoryn had a position to try out for.

Adjusting her grip on the bat, the seventh year flew towards another bludger, eye on the target and swung her bat from behind her to make contact with the bludger. It made an INCREDIBLE sound upon contact and the ball went bellowing towards the hoop. Yeah, she did that. Thank u next (bludger). So was she going to get her jersey noooooooow or were they really going to make her wait?

See, that right there was why Zoryn was a beater, and Abra generally stuck to seeking. As much as he liked to hit the bludgers, his aim, while not bad, was pretty inconsistent. Still, he was having plenty of fun at the beater station, flying back and forth, waiting for the bludgers to come back his way.

EeeeEEEEEeeeEEEeeeeeEEEE... Abra drew his arm back again, swung the bat through the air and with a CRACK! the bludger was sent back off towards the hoops again. Abra watched it go, shielding his eyes with his arm, and did a double fist pump when he saw that it had sailed through the centre of the middle hoop.

And then... eeeeEEEeEeeeEEEEEeeeee... another one was coming, only this time, when Abra swung at it, he caught it all wrong and ended up missing the hoop again.

Abra's arms were getting tired; never having needed to train as a beater before, he didn't really have the stamina for it. He also still had two more stations to visit, and it was probably a good idea to not completely exhaust himself first.

... Maybe one more go.

Moving his broom into a good position, so that he had a decent view of the hoops, Abra eyed the next bludger that was headed his way, and held the bat ready.

EeeeeEEEEEEEeeeeeeEEEEeeeeee...

THWACK!

With an almighty two-handed swing, Abra let the bludger have it, sending it flying back towards the goalhoops at fearsome speed. For a moment, he thought he might miss the goal again, but the bludger ended up ricocheting off the inside of the far right hoop with a great GONG!, then continuing through. Errrr... those things were charmed not to be damaged by bludgers, right? He wasn't... going to get in any trouble?

...

Abra was just gonna... leave this bat here, and head off to another station. Super casual, like.