3:25 AM
Quidditch Feilds
Outfit

((Godmodding approved by Tor))

It was a crisp summer morning with a gentle breeze wafting the soft scent of the dew laden grass through the neatly trimmed quidditch field. The sun was just peeking out over the forest, casting it warming rays on the stands, lighting the brilliant colors of the house flags. With the game coming up, everything was clean and fresh. The wooden beams of the benches were cleaned and covered with a fresh coat of paint and the banners of red, gold, green and blue were washed and waving crisply in the wind. On the north goal, a trio of birds twittered happily, greeting the sun as it rose. It was peaceful and quiet until...

Slap... Slap... Slap...

The sound of battle hardened wood hitting soft flesh cut through the peaceful air and sent the birds scattering. The cause of the sound was a heavy old beaters bat which was being rhythmically slapped against the slender hand of it's owner, Malynda Viridian-Drake, as she hovered above the quidditch feild on her broom. The fact that it was 3 in the morning did not affect her. In order to win, you had to make sacrifices, and she was perfectly willing to sacrifice 3 or 4 hours of her teammates time if it meant winning the cup this year. It was important to her to win the cup since it was her final year, and she would be damned if she didn't go out with a bang.

"Lala... What time is it? It's almost 3:30 isn't it?" She paused the beating of her palm as she spoke to the girl next to her without looking over, her eyes still fixed on the entrance to the field expectantly "... I told them explicitly that practice starts at 3:30... They had better be here in the next 5 minutes or I will take their bloody heads off myself..."

Ava trudged through the squelching mud that led down to the quidditch pitch. 3 o'clock in the morning was a time that Ava saw rarely. In fact, she wasn't sure that she'd ever seen it. And much as though she was tired, she was qute excited with the prospect of this long, hard practice. None of the team had enough time over the last month or so, what with various assignments and exams. This was going to be the perfect way to end the year - by lifting the quidditch cup!

Although it was summer, the early morning was a cruel master. Ava would have been there ten minutes ago already, had it not been for the fact that when she stepped out of the entrance hall and into the courtyard, a blustering gut of wind sent shivers to part of her body she didn't even know existed, and scooted as quickly as she could back inside and down to the Slytherin dormitories. There, she adorned her quidditch kit with a jumper and a slytherin scarf, and tied her hair back in a ponytail. At least they were layers that could easily be removed if it turned warm when the sun rose.

As she made her way onto the pitch, Ava saw Mal and Laney. "Hey" she said as she tried to stifle a yawn. "Nice morning." She stated. Well, there was nothing partiuclarly nice about it. "Or different morning...that seems to fit more..." Ava turned her broom around so that the shaft was pointing upwards ready for take off. She looekd down at the end of the shaft and pulled a face. "Yuck." She hadn't realised she had been letting it trail the ground, and a lot of unecessary brown goop had accumulated on top, like a ridiculously unfashionable hairstyle. Ava pulled out her wand and aimed it at the broom. "Scourgify!" She looked at the other girls and grinned. "Might as well while we wait for everyone else."

Outfit

It was early. Ungodly early. And Evelyn Pascal had quidditch practice. While she did enjoy the time spent with her cousin and on the field, she did not enjoy the 3:30am practices.  Malynda was nice enough, but got really intense when it came to quidditch.  So Evie had to pull herself out of bed in order to make it down to the soppy quidditch pitch.  And Evie wasn’t particularly happy at the fact that the sun was just coming up as she was heading out the door.  She rather enjoyed sleeping in, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen today.

Outfitted in comfortable, and warm, clothes, Evie set out towards the quidditch pitch with her broom over her shoulder.  She frowned as she heard the “squish squish” of the wet and muddy ground. A chilly breeze came across her, and she was thankful she’d decided on the sweater and scarf. Evie was also glad at her shoe choice, a nice pair of durable boots.  They were perfect for quidditch and for the mud.

Continuing her trek through the mud to the pitch, Evie soon saw a few of her fellow teammates.  Looking at her watch, she was that it was 3:27am.  She was actually a little early, though Malynda would probably say she was late.  That whole “if you’re early, you’re on time, if you’re on time, you’re late” thing.  So then technically she was on time.  Evie took the last few steps to where her teammates were.

“Well, where is everyone else? And why must we practice so early?” Evie asked, stifling a yawn.  She would have been quite a bit more awake had it been 5am.  But 3:30 was just no time to be practicing in her mind.  But if Slytherin was to win the quidditch cup, then she supposed it was justified.

There was only one person for whom Laney would roll out of bed at three in the morning (when she was usually just settling into an hour or two’s worth of sleep), and that person was, without surprise, Malynda Drake. Where any other Quidditch captain might have made the girl groan, roll her eyes, and mutter curses behind backs, Mal’s own brand of militant leadership was almost endearing, in a viciously snakey way. But then, they were Slytherins, weren’t they?

Swallowing a yawn and looking down at the pretty plum watch attached to her tattooed wrist, Laney nodded and made a sort of ‘mmm’ sound of confirmation. Her opposite hand rested easily on her broom, upon which she was sitting sideways, with the grace of a sleepy cat, her legs dangling easily as she floated in place. “Two minutes, actually,” she told her friend, her eyes finally looking up to catch Mal’s expression in the moonlight. She smirked knowingly. Even if they had a cup to win, it was always rather fun to see one of their team be reprimanded by Malynda.

Laney laced a leg over the broom, mounting it more properly now, and sped several meters down and to the left of Malynda, her own gaze finally settling on the stadium’s entrance, too. She drew a tiny, rice-filled sack of gold cloth from the depths of her pocket practice robes and tossed it in the air, whirling after it in lieu of a real snitch.

And then they began to filter in: first Ava Grosvenor, whom Laney rather respected as much as she could anyone, and then the fourth year Evie Pascal, whom she did not know as well given her youth, but the girl was a good Keeper. She nodded at both of them between flying after the mock snitch, and finally settling once more next to Mal. “Time for some decapitation?” She suggested in a whisper, nudging her friend and pocketing the practice toy.

Before meeting Malynda Viridian-Drake, Vienna did not know 3:00 AM existed. Now, 3:00 AM was the new 7:00 AM. In preparation for the final game against Ravenclaw, the Slytherin captain seemed determined to whip her team into shape by any means necessary. Unfortunately, among her arsenal of ruthless tactics and intimidating pep talks, she also had a fondness for holding uncharacteristically early practices that were the bane of Vienna’s existence. Stifling a contagious yawn, she trudged into the locker room, leaving a trail of muddy shoeprints in her wake.

Vienna threw her duffle bag against the wall and sat down on the bench. She shrugged off her clothes and changed into her Quidditch gear. The clock on the wall read 3:25. She tied up her hair and squared her shoulders. Without wasting another second, Vienna grabbed her broom and marched towards the pitch.

Several of her teammates were already there. From the distance, Vienna spotted Malynda with Laney to her left, Ava closing off the circle, and her cousin, Evie, yawning while checking her watch. That would leave Jasper and Alex still out of commission. Oh, Boys…

“Morning,” she acknowledged everyone’s presence with a polite nod of her head. “What will it be today?” Vienna arched an eyebrow and smirked, “Clean version or dirty version?”

Vienna had no qualms with underhanded tactics should the need arise. After all, she played to win. Honour was found in the ends, not the means.

Normally, Jasper was on time. In fact, normally Jasper was early. That was just Jasper being Jasper and he expected nothing less from himself. Then again, Quidditch practice wasn't normally at 3:30am in the morning. He had slipped out of bed at three, hadn't even bothered to shower (which was strange, for him), hastily got ready in all the normal ways, and popped on the Quidditch gear. Shin guards, arm guards, chest guard, goggles, and gloves, check. Socks and shoes and shirt, check. Pants, check. Jasper donned the remaining attire. He slipped his wand into his shoe, where it quickly melded into the trainer, just a brown stripe until he murmured the words that would turn it back into a wand. It was a convenient trick, allowed him to keep his wand with him without fear of it breaking.

He checked his watch - 3:20! Damn it! Mal would kill him if he was even a second late! Seizing his broom, Jasper flew (not quite literally) out of his dorm, letting the door shut with a BANG! He sprinted up the stairs and to the entrance, and began jogging as he got outside. Jasper didn't want to be late, but neither did he want to appear out of breath. Vienna would be there. Vienna.

As he finally arrived, Jasper counted heads. Vienna, Laney, Mal, Evie, Ava...him. Jasper checked his watch, a smirk on his face. 3:29am. Oooh, Alex was in for it now... He heard the end of Vienna's speech “Clean version or dirty version?” and smiled. While you'd never find Jasper doing anything so despicable as cheating during exams and schoolwork, Quidditch was entirely different. There were no A's and O's and EE's. There were just O's and T's - pass or fail. Jasper would do whatever it took to win, the only reason he hadn't fought rolling out of bed so early.

"Morning." he grunted with a nod.

As the sun rose higher in the haze tinted sky, and its warm rays danced across the weary cheeks of the assorted players, Malynda greeted each one. First was Ava, who Malynda greeted with a nod and then watched as Ava cleaned her muddy shoes off for Merlin knows why. They were going to get muddy either way. Evie, surprisingly, was the second person to arrive and naturally complained about it being too early and inquired where the rest of the players were, to which Malynda replied "Excellence has no alarm clock Pascal... and they will be here soon enough."

Laney, who had been happily tossing a bag of galleons around as a practice snitch, returned to Malynda's side and almost gleefully inquired in a whisper  “Time for some decapitation?” Malynda's mouth curved up at one corner and she shook her head slightly "Not yet. I am gonna give them 2 more minutes..."

Lo and behold, no sooner had she uttered this did Vienna make her appearance, smirking at Malynda as she asked about their tactics. "Why Vi, you wound me. I would never resort to dirty tactics..." Malynda said, horrified, before grinning "... Though it depends on what you consider dirty tactics." She would have continued, but then she noticed Jasper. Ah, so one of the final players was there. All that left was Alex, but she wasn't too worried about him. He told her he might be late, and since Malynda found herself oddly doting towards him, she excused him. It really didn't matter, his beating skills were excellent even if his ability to show up on time wasn't.

"Ah nice to see you decided to show Quinn. One minute late I see..." She sneered, a smirk of satisfaction on her lips. She didn't know what it was about the Quinn boy, but Merlin did she love to pick on him. "... That means you get to be my practice dummy today..." She clapped him hard on the back in a gesture that could be friendly... or very sinister if you knew her well enough. She then turned back to the rest of the team.

"Alright guys, You are all wondering why I called you here so early... Aside from the beautiful sunrise..." She paused and motioned towards the horizon and waited for some oohs and ahhhs before continuing "... I do wish to talk strategy. Like Vienna so sweetly suggested, we Slytherins are known for dirty tactics. I personally have no problem with dirty tactics, you do what you can to win... but unfortunately the refs do and they regrettably know most of ours by now... SO..." She paused again, as though she was going to reprimand them for breaking rules, before grinning and adding "... What are some new tactics and how can we hide them from the refs? I am open to suggestions..."

While she never tired of watching Malynda reprimanding other people, and might have liked a decapitation or two in the metaphorical sense, Laney was admittedly glad to see Vienna arrive on time, and humored that the male players were the ones trailing behind. Beauty sleep and being entranced by the mirror weren’t merely traits the for femme fatales of the dungeons. Or maybe Jasper Quinn was simply not a ‘morning person’… or a 3:30 AM person, rather.

He was, however, Malynda’s newest crash test doll. Laney felt it was fair game for his belatedness… and perhaps his odd choice in muggle-bred friends. Furthermore, it was amusing. If they were going to get up at the crack of dawn to practice burying Ravenclaw alive, a little humor never hurt. Besides, Alex Snark was still nowhere in sight, and Laney had the feeling he would find his way out of trouble when he finally bothered to show up. Snarks put the sly in Slytherin.

"I think Quinn has an idea," Laney offered, tilting her head a little and sweeping a strand of dusky brown hair from her eyes as she zeroed in on the chaser. If Mal was going to tease him on this fine, frightfully early morning, Laney thought she might as well keep the quaffle flying. She offered a very subtle smile to the sixth year, waiting to see whether he had anything immoral and inherently Slytherin to contribute to their growing collection of shady tactics.

Vienna didn’t want to admit it, but Mal had a valid point. By now, their reputation for rough play had become legendary. It was the reason why every referee known to Hogwarts fawned over them during each and every game. They were always watching, and always overreacting, even when the Slytherins chose to play ‘nicely’. Let them believe what they will, Vienna sighed. It would be impossible to convince them of otherwise anyway. Bigoted jerks, the lot of them.

Vienna leaned against her broomstick and stared up into the sky. The sunrise was indeed lovely but she wasn’t here to enjoy the scenery. Quidditch was the first and foremost priority. A few tactics ran through her mind but none seemed particularly plausible. In the past, they have tried skinning, cobbing, blatching, and if they could get away with it, the occasional quafflepocking.  However, that was then, and this was now. The finals called for something far more shady, sophisticated, and discreet.

Vienna was just about to speak up when Laney called on Jasper to face Mal’s inquisition. She couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her friend. Vienna didn’t know why Mal and Laney had such a fondness for belittling Jasper, though she could speculate it probably had something to do with the purist politics of the House of Slytherin. Naturally, Vienna tried to stay out of it whenever she could even though she disagreed with their views. There was no need to burn bridges just yet.

Whether Jasper had anything substantial to say Vienna did not wait to find out.  She had a feeling that even if he did come up with something utterly and ruthlessly Slytherin, he would end up as the practice dummy anyway. Once Mal’s heart was set, there was no dissuading her. Vienna might as well throw her bit in and buy him some time while she was feeling generous.

“Well, I’m sure Jasper probably has something brilliant up his sleeves,” Vienna piped up and flashed him a knowing smile, “But if I may, I would suggest an improvised version of Parkin’s Pincer. If two of our Chasers could ram in on one of theirs and steer them towards the stands or a flag post or something solid, we could surely take them out of the game one by one, thereby increasing our scoring chances and decreasing theirs. It’s not a foul, per se, just slightly unethical and generally frowned upon.” She chuckled darkly, “The crowd will surely heckle us but I think we’ve all grown used to that…Right?”

According to his watch, Jasper wasn't late. In fact, he was exactly two seconds early. . "... That means you get to be my practice dummy today..." But he wasn't going to argue. Throughout the years, Malynda had taken each and every chance she'd had to torment him- he wasn't going to add another reason to the list. She disliked him, that was obvious enough, and if it wasn't for Quidditch Jasper doubted if he would ever even bothered to be amicable to the seventh year. And if she disliked him, she hated his friends. Jasper supposed it was Waker and Trent's muggleborn-ness that did it (although Trent was pretty strange to start with).

So he swallowed his complaints as he'd done often during Quidditch practice and games alike, and listed with rapt attention as Mal greeted them all. Alex still wasn't there and Jasper scowled. The lazy bastard was probably still in bed and wouldn't be showing up at all and he, Jasper, was taking the heat for it. Ugh. Mal cut to the point quickly, as he'd thought she would, asking for suggestions for new tactics. Jasper bit his bottom lip, as he usually did when thinking hard. New tactics, hmmm...

It might have seemed strange to someone who didn't know Jasper - quite obviously he didn't cheat in class and was often found studying his life away - but games were made for winning. Jasper didn't intend to loose, no matter what it took. "I think Quinn has an idea," Laney chirped up and Jasper frowned, shooting her a glare. "Thanks, Irving." he muttered sarcastically, but (thankfully!) had no chance to grudgingly half-formed idea since Vienna took it upon herself to save him.

“Well, I’m sure Jasper probably has something brilliant up his sleeves,” she smiled at him and he smiled back, unable to help it, even as she went on suggesting a modified version of the Parkin's Pincer. “The crowd will surely heckle us but I think we’ve all grown used to that…Right?”

"The crowd would heckle us if we played the cleanest game of our life." he commented without any sarcasm. It was true enough. "I'm not sure about that, though, Vi, the modified Parkin's Pincer." Yes, he adored her and worshiped the ground she walked on thought she was a brilliant witch, but Quidditch was a different matter entirely.  "It's a bit too obvious and besides, if we crowd up one chaser we might be able to drop them but there'll be two chasers with free reign of the quaffle." he swallowed, still thinking. "Not sure it's worth it. Perhaps, instead, we could..." We could, we could WHAT, Jasper? the infernal voice inside his head tormented him. Think fast! Don't want Vienna thinking you're an idiot, do you? "...take out their Seeker. Padmore, I think. The girl's a mouse, she wouldn't give us any trouble and it wouldn't take nearly as long, if we're going to Parkin Pincer.."

Jasper's voice trailed off.

"Maybe obvious is what we need?" Ava pipped in after listening to the discussion about tactics. She leant on the end of her broom and put her chin in her hand. "Ravenclaw will expect us to come up with something brilliant and intricate." She looked at Malynda and flashed a grin. "As always. But what they won't expect at all is if we take one of the most well-used tactics in quidditch and just...well, tweak it slightly." She looked around the group.

"Ravenclaw will try and match our game, won't they? Well, they'll try and match what they think our game will be, based on past performances. If we do something like this, it'll throw them completely off guard. They will never expect us to do something so...obvious." She grinned at Vienna. Sometimes all it took was two people to back an idea up, and then other people would start coming round to it too.

The group was excruciatingly quiet, which was disappointing. They were the Slytherin team for Merlin's sake! Coming up with nefarious and cunning plots were literally part of the requirement for being in the snake house. She was about to give up and start bashing heads when Laney chirped in with a grin "I think Quinn has an idea,". Malynda, who was of one mind with her dear Lala, zeroed her own sharp green eyes in on the younger boy. "Oh... Does he now?" She quipped, looking at him expectantly. When he snapped a retort back at Laney, Malynda's right eyebrow raised dramatically. If he was wanting to get on her good side, he should have just gone with Laney instead of snapping at her. Even the slightest rib at her friend would make Malynda come down even harder.

Unfortunately, before she could grill him into a little patty and chew him to bits, Vienna cut in with her own suggestion. Sitting back, Malynda pouted a little as she listened, irritated that her fun was taken away from her. But this WAS the biggest game of her Quidditch career and tactics were more important then picking on Jasper at this point. She nodded and interjected a few hems and haws here and there as Ava and Jasper both offered their suggestions. As much as she hated to admit it (on Jaspers part), they were all good points. Nothing amazing or game winning though. THAT'S what they needed more and anything.

She sighed "This is all fine and good, but we need something that will knock their socks off... something crazy and unexpected. And I don't mean us suddenly fighting clean and fair. No one wins that way...." Scrunching up her face in thought, she fell silent for a moment before adding "... You brought up a good point about Padmore, Jasper..." she found herself admitting, with a little '..surprisingly..' interjected under her breath. "... Let's look at their weaker links..."

"Accio chalkboard..." She waved her wand at a small pile of stuff sitting in the nearby Slytherin stands. It came floating towards her and she levitated it next to her before writing 3 names on it with acid green chalk: Sclagen-whatever, Padmore and Dark. "What can you tell me about these three and their weaknesses?"

Evelyn just stayed silent.  She’d never been a very good person to give input on strategies.  She would just nod her head in agreement with what everyone else said.  Whatever they told her, she would do.  Evie preferred it that way.  She thought herself to be quite a good keeper, and figured she would just need to focus on keeping the quaffle from going through those hoops.  So she listened in silence as the others strategized. 

Of course, another reason she preferred to stay silent was because Captain Mal intimidated her.  Well, both Malynda and Laney did.  This was why Evie found it best to agree with whatever they said.  Mal hadn’t led them astray yet, as they did make it to the Quidditch Cup.  Then, Evie watched as Malynda wrote the three names on the chalkboard.

"What can you tell me about these three and their weaknesses?"

“Well, neither Padmore and Dark know how to dress well.” Evie said it before she could stop herself. Wanting to smack herself, she decided to actually contribute something.  “I mean... Well... Padmore seems to be quite a paranoid girl.  Perhaps we could get into her head a bit? Or just take her out.  Her or Dark.  Both aren’t that big either.”

Of course, she just hoped that the Ravenclaw didn’t try that on her.  Evie would be pretty easy to take out, as she was a bit smaller too.  But on the other hand, she was a decent flyer, so she’d be able to avoid such hits. Also, they hadn’t done that to anyone in the past.  Ravenclaw was usually clean when they played Quidditch.  At least this was her reasoning to keep her from getting even more nervous for the upcoming match. 

Laney liked Vienna; it was a lucky thing, because a shouting match between the two of them would have been epic. The girl had ruined her fun… Luckily, it was three in the morning, and Laney didn’t want to put in the effort to discover whether it had been intentional. She chalked it up to the Pascal girl simply knowing the game, and knowing it well. At the end of the day (or, in this case, the very beginning of it), Lorraine Irving wanted a Slytherin win as much as the next player… maybe even more. She and Mal were seventh years and it was their last chance to fly off with style.

Jaw tilted and mouth parted slightly, but still set in an expression cool judgment, she listened with a mixture of apparent aloofness but obvious calculation.

Vienna, Ava, and Jasper brought up equally thoughtful points. The younger Pascal’s contribution was a bit less on-topic, but the fourth year eventually reasoned the weaknesses of their future targets. Laney particularly agreed that Padmore should be taken out. How the child ever been made Seeker was beyond Laney, but apparently Ravenclaws weren’t as smart as they proclaimed. They should most certainly have kept to the libraries and left the Quidditch to the professionals (in the relative sense).

Her eyes settled again on Jasper and she smiled, only just.

“I think Padmore’s size is the only working in her favor, actually…” Until Malynda hit her with a bludger. Then weighing the equivalent of a bag of rice would be a weakness. But generally seekers were small and gravity-defying. Laney glanced to Evie.

“Dark’s hair makes her a standout, and she’s in love with Snark. Send him after her, and they’ll be one beater down.” Of course, Malynda probably had something special in store for Alex, who had still not arrived.

And the last one? That blonde boy with the name that made quirky wizarding spellings look like Smith and Jones. Laney narrowed her eyes, trying to recall him from the last game. He was the visual definition of Ravenclaw. “The boy, whatever his name is, is the same one who’s always kicking around that black and white quaffle on the pitch, instead of practicing on his broom… clearly flying isn’t his top priority.” It made sense in Laney’s head, anyway. Whatever sport he’d been playing, it wasn’t a wizarding game. Things which were inherently muggle were usually a waste of time. The distaste and humor were evident in her voice. “I don’t know anything else about him.” Now was possibly the only unfortunate time for such an unfamiliarity.