Things were moving fast- and there was a huge difference in practicing versus actually playing a game. Frowning a little, he watched as bludgers were hit back and forth. And then he spied one coming dangerously close to one of his fliers- one of his female fliers.

Callum flew as fast as he could toward Demitria Strelnikov, bat ready. It collided with the bludger- barely a foot away from her broom- sending it toward Dion Fayette after he heard the Hufflepuff boy call out for Blake to aim at his chasers. There was no way that was going to go easy. And, if Fauna wasn't a girl, his response would to aim it at her- so that she couldn't hit the others.

"Why don't you play like a man, Fayette?" Callum yelled as he chased the bludger, whacking it with all of his strength- the final hit had the bludger spiraling toward Dion's face- with a surprising amount of speed.

(G-modding approved by Thea!)


Yes!! Ayla had scored! Fauna grinned widely, thrilled to hear some cheers from the crowd, and hoping, just a little, that she and Tiny Beater's teamwork of hitting the bludger had helped make that happen.

Dion reassured her he was alright, but she still hung out by the Hufflepuff hoops for a few minutes just in case. When the quaffle sailed through one of her team's hoops, she was disappointed, but tried not to show it, thinking that Hufflepuff was doing better than expected so far. One score for Hufflepuff, and one for Slytherin. And she hadn't fallen off her broom yet.

As the quaffle went from player to player, Dion shouted something at her about Bagnold and Fauna heard Callum yell. It was Klint and Ketteridge's good coaching that had her veering off immediately towards the threat. Fauna was flying faster than she ever had during practice. She was just a few feet away when Knight lobbed the bludger at Dion!

She made a valiant, desperate swing!

Fauna not only missed, but couldn't seem to stop flying forward! Right into Callum Knight! Fauna heard her bat connect with something that wasn't a bludger, and lurched away, cursing and offering apologies as she tried to regain control of her broom.

Callum saw Fauna flying toward him- and he knew, before it even happened, what was going to transpire. Her bat connected hard with the side of his face, and he was reeling. Callum's broom and body plummeted toward the ground. He managed to regain control well enough not to crash at full speed into the pitch, but it still didn't feel very good when he toppled from his broom onto the grass.

He lay on the ground for a few seconds. He could feel the blood pouring from his nose, and when he tongued at his teeth realized one was more than a little loose.

Slowly the Slytherin sat up. He coughed, and then spat. Spittle, blood, and his tooth fell to the ground in front of him. Reaching up, he touched the side of his face. It was swollen, it hurt, but nothing (other than his nose) felt particularly broken. "I'm okay," he stated loudly- simply. "It's just a little blood." Even though he announced he was alright, though, Callum remained in his seated position. He had a feeling Hooch would be blowing her whistle and that she might demand he seek medical attention- even so, he was determined to finish the match, broken nose or not.

Kitty headed north on the pitch, quaffle tucked tightly under her arm as she gained some height, the hoops in-sight. Strellie was way behind, and Spleen? Well, he'd be a Nancy No-Show all match. It was her and Demitria's first ever game, and in Kitty's honest opinion, they were killing the competition. Building up speed, Kitty swerved towards the left hoop, arm outstretched ready to take a shot.

She turned her head momentarily, hearing a commotion and witnessing Fauna smack a bat straight into Knight's face. What, a, klutz. Kitty couldn't contain a giggle, and that spine-chilling titter fell from her lips. It was rather laughable watching an absolute idiot like Fauna try to play Quidditch: was that girl good at anything?

Averting her attention back to the game in-hand, Kitty lobbed the quaffle with full force when she was barely a metre from the northern hoop, hoping to get a goal in goal before Hooch called time on the injury.

Hufflepuff scored which Mairead had to remind herself was a good thing.  The quaffle landed in the hands of a Slytherin and the lot of them made their way back towards the Hufflepuff goal.  Mairead continued to flank Mystique until they reached the other end of the pitch, ready to throw her diminutive weight into any errant bludgers.

One of the Slytherins scored and another recovered the quaffle.  Hufflepuff was in trouble though, given what Mairead had seen, that didn't seem surprising.  Rene would have probably been a better fit for the team.  If she could have gotten the broom high enough.  A crack reverberated across the field and one of the Slytherin beaters pummeled towards the ground.  Mysteriously enough, though, the bludger was hurling off in an entirely different direction.  Mairead cast a surprised, inquisitive glance in the other beater's direction before taking off in pursuit of the bludger.  With one beater on the ground, if they could take out the Seeker before Hooch blew her whistle, the Huffles might stand a chance. 

(It was probably the only way, too)

She flew in a path to intersect one of the bludgers and whacked it in the seeker's direction and took up pursuit, ready to further help it on its way, if necessary.  And, also keeping an ear out for the sound of the whistle.  She'd have to be careful to stop while facing in an as unpopulated a direction as possible to avoid detection.

"BLAKE!" 

Madam Hooch and the rest of the crowd winced as Fauna Blake's bat clocked Callum Knight square in the face.  "Ooooooh!" moaned the crowd as Callum went down.    Hooch's exclamation of Fauna's name was nearly a question - Blake had a reputation for being a very good girl, and despite Callum's new leaf, she expected the reverse more likely.

The players knew the game, however, and continued to speed around the pitch until a whistle blew.  Quaffles were flying and bludgers speeding and Callum Knight was down sitting in the grass, bleeding. 

"Fweeeeeet! Fweet!"  Hooch's whistle stopped the match, the bludgers easing into a docile pattern.  The snitch however, whereever it was, kept on doing its thing.

She swooped in on Fauna Blake. 

"What are you thinking!" she snapped from her broom and tugging sharply at the Hufflepuff's elbow.  "Get off the pitch! Two minutes, Blake, for Morgana's sake! No substitution!"

Accident or no, Hooch had learned that grievous recklessness like that couldn't be allowed a reprieve.  It was far to easy to abuse that leeway, and soon enough everyone is smacking everyone in the teeth and calling it a mistake.   Good girl or not, Fauna would be out and Hooch's pitch would be safe.   

With the grip on Blake's arm, she shoved her down towards the locker rooms. 

Releasing Blake, Xiomara now quickly sped down to Callum Knight.  She didn't get off her broom. 

"Find a substitution, Knight, and get fixed up.  I'll restart the match in 30 seconds.  Understand?"

There wasn't any need to coddle the sturdy Captain of Slytherin.  He could send in an alternate while he saw Madam Nagde and pop back into the match when he was no longer concussed.

Callum wasn't surprised when Hooch barked at him to find a substitution. He stood up, and wiped his nose on the sleeve of his quidditch uniform. He offered her a very crooked, very pained looking smile. "I'm alright, Madam Hooch. Just a bloody nose. Nothing out of the ordinary. I can keep playing." Callum held is hand out over his broom, and it jumped quickly to his hand.

"Look- the bleedin' isn't so bad anymore," he offered. His words were slow- it hurt a bit to talk, but Callum wasn't going to give up that easy. This was the last quidditch match of the year, and by Merlin's beard he had busted his ass practicing with his team and getting them ready for the game.

"B'sides, don't have an alternate beater. And I'm not putting some chump on the pitch who hasn't been to any practices in the last few months. I'm not going to blow the game on account of a little injury. S'just a broken nose. I've had 'em before." Which was true, but he generally got them from fists to face- not from quidditch bats to the face. "My team needs me," he told her firmly.

Hooch knitted her brow and landed, walking right up to the taller fifth year student.  He was insisting to keep on playing.  She wanted to reward heart, but not stupidity. 

She put her gloved hand on his face gently but firmly turning his head.  His nose was clearly broken, and despite his claim, the blood was still streaming.  She didn't have a lot of time as she preferred to keep the game moving - Quidditch really lost momentum when it came to a shrieking halt like this.

Hooch let go of Callum and stepped back, regarding the determined boy.  He'd worked so hard this year.  All the staff had commented.  His grades were up, his detentions were down, and Slytherin looked excellent. 

She steeled herself and took out her wand.  "Hold still.  It'll hurt and it's only a temporary fix."  She gave him a pointed look, then, "Episky!" 

Magically, the bones and cartilage of Callum's nose struggled roughly back into place in what must have been a horrible sensation.

"Up you go."

Callum winced when she grabbed his face, turning his head. But he kept his mouths hut. Somehow- he wasn't sure how- but somehow it hadn't taken much convincing from his side, and Hooch seemed content to let him keep playing- for now at least. Hopefully he wouldn't take another hit, and he'd be fine for the rest of the game. He'd go to the hospital hut afterward.

He held still when she pointed the wand at his face. He knew what was coming. Callum groaned- loudly- as his nose began to realign. It was all he could not to twitch it in response- but moving his nose would likely make it hurt even worse. But soon enough it was (mostly if not entirely) fixed, and the blood slowed considerably. He gave Madam Hooch a lopsided grin.

"Thank you," he told her- the most sincere thanks he had ever given anyone in his life. "I'll go to the hospital hut after game- promise." Callum then grabbed his bat from the pitch where it had fallen and remounted his broom. He pushed off the ground, and did his best to push the pain of his nose and face from his mind.

Callum did a quick loop around the pitch. Some of the Slytherins had cheered when he'd remounted, and he wanted to show everyone that he was okay- and that something like a broken nose wasn't going to stop him. This game was too important, and he was certainly a hell of a lot tougher than that. He wasn't going to slow down, and they were going to win.

"Hands off Blake when she comes back on the pitch!" he yelled out to his team. "We're not going to play dirty and get disqualified."

Hooch couldn't help but smile with pride as the lad thanked her and got off into the air.  Hooch knew that her favorite students weren't always the ones the other professors chose as oustanding, but Callum had made an impression.

Fweeeeet fweeeeeeeeet fweeet!

"Game on!" Hooch called, and the balls re-animated.

---

Everything was happening so quickly - almost too quickly to keep up. Dax did his best, wishing he had some way to see the entire pitch at once without the players vanishing into little specs.

"Li's got the ball again, off she goes-" He was in the middle of that announcement when Fauna clipped Callum, sending the Slytherin to the ground. He let out a pained 'Oooh' into the mic; but inside, he joined those in the stands who screamed for Callum's blood.

"Quiet down, you lot! Looks like-" he said, over the roar of cheers, boos and worry from the stands. He was cut off by a loud bong as Li all but placed the Quaffle through a hoop, taking advantage of Dion's distraction. Dax growled into the mic as the score ticked in Slytherin's favor.

"Looks like Li's happy to use her Captain's injury to her advantage! I'm sure he'd be proud. Speaking of-"

Hooch had called a timeout, and Dax fell silent as Fauna was sent off. And Callum stayed, apparently being healed. Dax let out a sound of disapproval into the mic, but picked back up as Callum's voice carried.

"Looks like Blake is on timeout! Knight'll live - and he's calling for the team not to play dirty? Might want to pass that memo along, Knight! You're in the wrong house if you want that!"

When all he got was laughter and vague indications from the crowd, Figaro grinned and kept on flying.  He was having a hard time scanning the skies around the pitch because the actions of his fellow players was far more interesting. 

He idly circled his broom, instead looking for Erin Harper.  Then -

"Oooooh snaaaaap!"  Figaro cried and winced wildly as he caught an eyeful of Fauna giving Callum a faceful.

"Oh, Fauna, bloody excellent.  Just damn well-played.  Solid...!" he laughed as Kitty Li slipped a quaffle past Dion just as Hooch stopped the match.  He didn't even seem phased that Hufflepuff was now behind, and with Fauna off-pitch they were likely to just fall further behind.

When the match restarted a few moments later, Figaro picked up the pace still hot on the trail of the golden snitch.  His eyes kept going to Erin Harper, the Slytherin Seeker, who seemed like he had some idea of how to do this. 

Dipping low under most of the action, he sped around the pitch to come right up along side Harper.

"Lovely weather, mate.  Alright?  Seen the snitch at all?" he asked affably as if he and his beau were on a Sunday broomstick ride together.

Erin wondered what to make of all the commotion.  She saw the rather blatant foul on Blakes part, and though she had a few insults ready, Erin was more concerned with Callum.  Erin was slowly starting to realize that the bludgers were giving her chasers more problems than the opposing keepers, but she still had not spent enough time in goal to develop that tactical mind.  Erin was about to fly over to Knight, but his exchange with hooch seemed to be simple enough, and Callum was already flying a lap.  Going back over to her hoops, as Callum flew by, she had some commentary.

"Captain - I know the girls like to hit on you and all - but could you tell them to be less obvious?" Erin teased, wondering if this was going to be a repeat occurence.  Erin was surprised that Callum took the hands off approach to Fauna.  Her train of thoughts on that matter would have to wait, since the whistle blew, signalling everyone to resume hostilities play. 

Erin jerked his broom in surprise, shooting Razzy an indecipherable glance. Predictably, the other boy had come to mock him. Erin's expression morphed into a scowl. "Shut up," he said irritably. "We're in the middle of a game." But though his eyes slanted sideways in a bitter search for the Snitch, he didn't immediately fly away from Razzy. And because he wasn't racing madly about he actually saw the  collision of Fauna's bat and Callum's face. His eyes went wide as Callum's nose burst into a gush of blood, and he forgot his anger to let out a low, appreciative whistle with the mildly impressed air of one who'd had his own nose broken enough times to know the pain Callum was experiencing now. The whistle blew, all the Quidditch balls froze in mid-air, and he began flying in a slow, restless semi-circle around Razzy like a moon in orbit for want of something to do.

"Knight'll be up in a minute," he said, imparting the statement with the matter-of-fact tone of one who knew his captain. His eyes narrowed speculatively, and he gave Razzy a slight smile. "So what's the matter, Reynaud? You have so little care for the Quaffle that you've got the time to come over and see me instead?"

True to his word Knight got back into the air soon enough, yelling for his team not to take dirty retributive action as the whistle blew to resume the game. Erin found this a bit rich, as he personally did not care enough for Callum's well-being to risk game suspension for him and because Kitty had taken the opportunity to earn Slytherin another goal while everyone's attention was distracted. In a way, they'd already had their revenge. Erin was about to tip Razzy a smirk and zoom away, but somehow in the interim Sellaphix had taken the opportunity to fly under his radar and pop up beside him; Erin turned to fly and then jerked his broomstick sharply away at the sight of that unexpected, goofy face. He skittered away, restraining the automatic urge to punch at things that jumped out of him. Yeah, it'd be satisfying, but Hooch would string him upside down.

"Gah! Ah? Sellaphix!" Erin's face changed into a scowl again, more fierce and bewildered than the one he'd given Razzy.     Did the twat not know that this was a competition? "What the bloody flip are you doing? Get the hell away to your own side of the field before I pound you!"

He didn't hear the bludger Mairead had whacked his way coming. After all, the balls had just reanimated, and it wasn't close enough yet to project its tell-tale whine. Flanked by Razzy on the one side and Figaro on the other, Erin didn't make a very clear target.

The gratifying sensation of actually scoring was soon outmatched by the fear of what the bully sisters were going to do to her. She had fully expected Demetria and Kitty to come after her but still wasn't able to fight off the 'attack'. First Demetria gave the tail end of her broom a tap causing her to begin to spiral. Just as she was starting to right her broom Kitty had body checked her and she soon found herself hanging upside down. Ayla squeezed her eyes shut and held onto her broom for dear life. She didn't even want to think about what it would be like to fall from this height.

The whistle blew, having been upside down with her eyes squeezed shut Ayla had missed Fauna whacking Callum - which really was a right shame, that was something she would have thoroughly enjoyed watching - so she could only assume that Kitty was the one getting the time out for having checked her but no one came to check on her and soon there were cheers from the Slytherin stands that drowned out whatever Callum had called to his team.

She started to feel dizzy from hanging upside down and just when she thought she'd pass out from the sensation a strong hand took hold of her shoulder and used their own weight to swing her back up to a proper sitting position. She took a moment to make sure she wasn't going to vomit before opening her eyes, only catching the fleeting back of a Slytherin player.

Then the game was back on!