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OOC: May 15th, Friday afternoon.
Please read this post before posting!

Warm weather and bright skies await the Quidditch players on the pitch! A few clouds loom in the distance, predicting a tough game ahead. The Hufflepuff and Slytherin flags fly high above, flapping in the breeze. 

(Spectators, pick a side! Talk to fans! Or get a head start on your summer reading!)

-- SUPER HUFFLEPUFF SPIRIT OUTFIT YAY. --

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Beatrix Dark felt incredibly dirty.

The girl had always cheered for Slytherin. Every single game they played, as long as they weren't playing against her. The house held her sister, most of her friends, a buttload of cute boys, and her boyfriend, Vinnie. However, no one she cared about was playing on the Slytherin team. She couldn't care less about it at that moment. Not only was Callum the captain, but ugly little Erin Harper was there, too, looking totally attractive on his broom as he waited.

By attractive she meant unattractive. Sometimes Beatrix got those words mixed up.

However, the Hufflepuff team had both Mystique (one of her close friends) and Razzy (her cutesy, baby cousin). It was only natural that Beatrix would cheer for them instead. While she wanted to dress up in green and silver for Vincent, because she knew he'd like that, she instead donned black and yellow and buzzed around her dorm like a tiny, Beatrix bee waiting the day away until it was game time. Beatrix adored Quidditch. It was exciting and violent and she had been watching it all her life. She enjoyed watching the Holyhead Harpies especially, as they were from her hometown. And they showed that even ladies kicked major booty in competitive sports. Beatrix, herself, had always wanted to join the Quiberon Quafflepunchers herself, simply because of their bright pink robes. But they were French. And while Beatrix was basically half French, she didn't like letting people know that.

Beatrix had quickly made her way to the stands, dodging every Slytherin she knew so they wouldn't see her or tell Vincent or Bellatrix. She was especially avoiding Vincent. She had a plan to quickly change into Slytherin colors before meeting up with him. She'd fake pity for their stupid lil' loss and would look forward to seeing Hufflepuff in action herself when they next played with each other. She'd kick their butts so hard they wouldn't have time to be mad.

Besides her pink hair, Beatrix blended in well with the Hufflepuff crowd. They were always a nice bunch, the Hufflepuffs were. And she chatted cheerfully with anyone who approached her. The crowd was buzzing with excitement. She loved the feel of a Quidditch game.

Once the teams flew out onto the field, Beatrix's high pitched scream could be heard across the stadium. "Go, go, Hufflepuff! Go, go, Hufflepuff! Yay!" she excitedly shook her pom poms, "Go Mysti! Go Razzy! Hooray!"

She only hoped Vincent wouldn't see her.

Compared to the roar in the student's stands far below, the high tower the teachers got to observe from was much quieter; the yells of students a semi-distant hum. It wasn't bad yet, and he hoped the game would be over quickly.

The distance didn't drown out the chattering and cheers of a few of the teachers, however. It wasn't that Tapendra didn't like Quidditch. He just felt he was perfectly able to see from his tower. Literally, actually. He could have watched the game while sitting at his desk. Oh well; the students could use the stress relief, right? At the teachers to some extent.

He'd tried to keep himself neutral on which team he preferred. Family loyalty called for him to cheer for Slytherin, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Tapendra sat at the far, high corner of the stands. In his lap and next to him sat books and odd little Astronomy devices, namely his Astrolabe; under the bench was a small pack, which inside held a decanter of pomegranate juice and some candy. The book on his lap, open to his book mark, would undoubtedly have bored most of the other teachers right off the tower; An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe was not the most riveting read. But it was coming in useful in referencing facts for OWLs and NEWTs.

Around his shoulders was wrapped a large, soft cloak[1] - which on inspection was actually a blanket with a faulty disillusionment spell on it. Tapendra had attempted to make it look white in a hurry; out of the corner of the eye it gave away bright colors, mostly in the house colors of Hogwarts. It also seemed to have faces, a rather disturbing thing to see out ofthe corner of the eye.

He glanced at Aileen and Landis, hoping they wouldn't get too into this. It was far too easy to imagine Aileen swelling with pride and floating away like a balloon.

1.

Outfit

Outfit

Edmund shuffled nervously in the Hufflepuff stands, a stoic figure of concern amongst the crowds of screaming students and canary yellow banners. Both arms folded, he'd said very little to the group he'd travelled with, and for once, his reason of silence wasn't Lou. The coaching sessions with Fauna had seen a vast improvement in the unlikely Quidditch player, but he was still terribly worried. Slytherin's line-up was pretty evenly matched with the house of the badger, and they had a good shot - the only thing lacking was dollops of garish, unabashed confidence.

As soon as Kitty Li and Demitria Strelnikov soared into position, Edmund's heart sank. It was clear that the Slytherins (even the first timers amongst the team) meant serious business. Knight would make sure they were all readily briefed in the art of fouling and injury dramatics - anything to get one up; poor Fauna would just fall prey to cut-throat comments, aggressive shoulders and wayward bludgers. Edmund clenched his fists at the thought of it, immediately clasping for a hip flask borrowed from Clarissa and topped with Firewhiskey from Quinn. Taking a swig, the Ravenclaw winced as the vicious liquid crawled all over his tongue, the scorching beverage a lot harder to swallow than he remembered. It was supposed to be purely medicinal - a contraband nerve settler, although it seemed to do very little.

Over their coaching, Edmund had grown to become quite fond of the rather pleasantly awkward Fauna Blake: she was still one of Lou's friends, but that didn't mean they weren't on good terms. He didn't care if Hufflepuff claimed victory - he just wanted Fauna to have a fair and good game. It'd prove all of her critics wrong, and if it meant an end to Fauna's somewhat tumultuous relationship with the student body, then so be it. Only positives could come from a good performance. If Fauna were to fail, however? Well, she'd become a laughing stock, and Edmund was quite ready to lamp anyone who gave her a hard time. Besides, it'd look terrible on his coaching.

Drowning out Beatrix Dark's jubilations with another difficult, more liberal glug of alcohol, Edmund looked every inch the nervous father watching their child's first Quidditch game. Slipping the hip flask into his pocket, arms folded once more as Edmund repeatedly murmured to himself: "come on, Fauna, you can do it..."

outfit. so ~festive. deal with it.

Vincent stuffed a pair of sunglasses and a half-empty carton of cigarettes into his pocket and took the stairs two at a time, a sort of lackadaisical jog. He'd overslept, having spent too much time studying (or pretending to study while carrying out his bromance with Julian and drinking lukewarm butterbeer well in the A.M.). Still, he didn't rush. His long, boyish legs simply tended to cover more ground than, say, Bea's might at the same pace. Lucky for Vincent, his girlfriend was as quick as she was routinely hyper: a ball of energy in a small, pink-haired package.

So it was no surprise to find that she had beat him there (along with most of the school). The stands were crowded, the stadium stairs more slow-going than those that led from the dungeons to the Entrance Hall. The walk over had been eerily silent in comparison. (Though not so eerie that Vincent hadn't thoroughly enjoyed it.) The sloped lawn of Hogwarts was empty, the span of green as quiet as any other patch of earth in the Scottish mountains. If he could find a way to steal Beatrix away from the chaos before the game ended, he would surely do so, bad example of school spirit or no.

But...

What was this?

"Hey," he cleared his throat gruffly, looming behind her. She'd been easy to spot in the crowd, and too seemingly occupied with being an adorable traitor to notice him. "I leave you alone for five minutes and you switch sides?" He asked, leaning closer, half smiling as his eyes landed on the patch of sky in front of them. The game had already begun.

Vincent's hand found the small of her back, and made its home not far from her right side. "I don't think I can date a girl who finds badgers sexier than snakes."

Tilting his head to the side, and eying her finally, he raised a suggestive brow, inviting her to argue. His free hand tapped the outline of the smokes in his trousers. He'd picked up the habit in recent months-- the result of having two older brothers with too many tobacco-fiend friends-- and it was quickly becoming his favorite way to relieve stress. Unfortunately for Vincent, the professors weren't want to likely a similar opinion. He'd thus been confined to lavatory stalls and the backs of trees. And the shadows under the arena bleachers.

Vulpes had never gone to a Quidditch match before, and felt a little strange standing with the other people from Slytherin. Well to be more precise, he was standing a little off to the side from them, as no one seemed to want to be near him.  He originally had his headphones on, but he realized he wouldn't be able to the commentary if he did. Instead, they found their place hanging around his neck, Vulpes instead simply humming some of his favorite symphonies.

A loud cheer erupted from the other Slytherins, and he looked around, trying to figure out what caused it. Feeling slightly silly, he realized it was because the teams had flown onto the pitch. He smiled and cheered along with them, hopping up and down slightly, clapping his hands.

He was very excited to watch his first Quidditch game. Vulpes could hardly care who won, he just hoped they both played a good match and had fun.

In a gaggle of first year students, mostly Hufflepuff, sat Heliotrope LeJean. Instead of swimming, as she typically would, her roommates dragged her out here to experience "house pride," which had something to do with that sport on the broomsticks Quidditch.

The point of sitting in these raised seats was to watch the game which Heliotrope could do by default. As the teams made their positions into starting formation, waiting on the starting whistle, Heliotrope was bent over the guardrail to see. You wouldn't find a first year so fearless flung over the guardrail as Heliotrope. The entirety of her torso could be considered in field, her hands gripping the railing, feet (barefoot) hooked on her section of bench.

Maybe she could catch one of the balls from here. That golden winged one was very shiny.

OOC: I hope it is ok if I post here?

Professor Didymus Tawse loved Quditich. It had been about 20 years since he had played a full game but the former Chaser went to every match he could wether it be at Hogwarts or supporting the Prides. The diminutive 39 year old was sitting at the front of the teahcer's tower, other wise he would not be able to see being 4'2'', and wore very colourful robes. He was known to wear very out going colours and today no colour but yellow would do.

Although he was small he was easily visible from the other side of the pitch due to the colour of his clothing. As he saw the teams line up excitement began to bubble up within him as he waited for the game to begin. He wanted Hufflepuff to win of course but he hoped that every one would be safe. Although he didn't like to point fingers or stereotype Slytherin had a reputation of having a dishonorable style of play. He also hoped his former house would play fair as winning by underhand ways was even worse than losing.   

"Yay, Go HUFFLEPUFF." He yelled as the teams took their places. He didn't care that most of the other teachers were remaining silent. The crowd should be like 8th player in his mind. Egging the team on with everything they had. As the Professor enjoyed putting off the large work load he had back at his office, namely lesson plans and marking, he turned around and saw his college Tapendra.

The Astronomy Professor, who towered over Didymus, seemed like a nice man. He was liked by the pupils and staff alike and he had not heard a bad word about him. He had read a few of the man's books but had not got to know him very well since taking over the transfiguration post. As he glanced at the taller man he saw he had a pile of books and a few devices. For the life of him Didymus could not name any of them; though the Astrolabe did ring some bells from the tiresome Hogwarts lessons on the stars.

Pax was positively glowing with energy today. Today, at least for the duration of the match, he wasn't going to worry about spellwork, or werewolf rights, or secret crushes. He, Dahlia Collins, and Charles Harcroft had managed to snag some decent seats near the guardrail on the Hufflepuff side of the stadium, and darn it, he was going to cheer his heart out for Hufflepuff. One could tell from a glance which house he supported; he wore a bright yellow woollen jersey and the black trousers he usually reserved for formal occasions, topped off with a yellow-and-black striped scarf that he'd had to wind a few times around his neck due to it being several sizes too big for him.

Oh, and then there was the banner he was holding aloft. Pax was really happy with how it had turned out; it was originally going to be fairly simple, but then Charles and Dahlia had offered to help, and it had snowballed. The letters sprawled across the banner, reading, 'GO HUFFLEPUFF!' flashed yellow and black, and the badger Pax had painted underneath waved its paws enthusiastically. The charms had, of course, been Charles and Dahlia's doing. Pax envied their talent a little, but that didn't detract from how pleased he was with the result. He hoped the team liked it; maybe it would even inspire them to play even better!

Of course, Pax did realise that it wasn't winning or losing that was important so much as how you played the game. And that he'd need to keep reminding himself of that, given the Hufflepuff team's last minute scramble to fill some of its positions (or so he'd heard). But all the same, Pax couldn't help but hope his house won.

As the players flew onto the pitch, Pax tactfully refrained from booing the Slytherin team (apart from anything else, Noriko Wakahisa was in Slytherin, and he liked Noriko) but really let rip cheering for Hufflepuff. 'Yay, Fauna! Gooo, Mysti!' He shot an abashed smile to Dahlia and Charles, hoping he wasn't embarrassing them too much. But he didn't have too much time to be self-conscious before, in a rush of brooms and bludgers, the game kicked off. Pax waved the banner happily when Razzy Chancelier snatched the quaffle before it reached Demetria Strelnikov, but then as if out of nowhere, there was a bludger hurtling towards the Hufflepuff chaser. 'Razzy better move fast!' he yelped.

Dahlia had been hesitant about going to watch the Quidditch match. It wasn't for a lack of house pride or anything of the sort but simply because if she was supporting the team than she would be supporting Ayla and that was something she wasn't sure she wanted to do. Though it had been over six months since Dahlia had embarrassed the older Collins girl at her birthday party the sisters still weren't speaking. She hoped that she could find something to occupy herself during the two months the three siblings would be forced to go back to their penthouse suite in downtown Muggle London.

However Dahlia had put all her selfish reasoning aside when she saw Pax making his wonderful banner and soon found herself wrapped up in helping him charm the letters and make the badger move. With the spectacular help of Charles Harcroft the banner was the epitome of Hufflepuff pride and there was no way of getting out of helping the other first years show it off.

So Dahlia now found herself sitting in the stands helping to hold up the banner and keeping a slight eye on Heliotrope to make sure the girl didn't end up hurting herself. Dahlia smirked a little at the sight of her fishy room mate bent over the guardrail as if she were trying to touch the players.

"Go go Hufflepuff!"

Matty slipped into the stands holding onto the hand of his girlfriend. The couple settled in amoungst a group of fellow Hufflepuffs. Matty produced a bag of assorted candies he had picked up the last time they had gone to Hogsmeade and offered some to Adelia.

The young Spaniard was decked out in house colours, a pair of black slacks, a bright yellow polo t shirt and a light spring jacket in black with yellow trim and the hufflepuff crest on the back. His long brown hair was pushed back behind his ears and his caramel eyes were wide with excitement. He loved quidditch though he would never play it. He found it absolutely fascinating to watch the split second decisions the players needed to make. It took almost pure reflex rather than active thought to know where to fly, when to intercept, when to throw and when to dodge.

He let out a loud whoop as Razzy threw the quaffle towards the Slytherin goal posts only to be out matched by jeers from the Slytherin stands when Erin Dark - of all people - caught it and tossed it to her team mate, Li.

Voice booming over the stands, Dax's naturally casual and vague french-accented tones shouted along with the crowd from where he sat in the teacher's booth. Occasionally the teacher's voices were amplified as well, usually as they attempted to curb in his enthusiastic comments.

"Oh!" Dax's magically enhanced voice roared along with the boos from Hufflepuff as the ball passed into Slytherin's hands. "Li's got it - Chancelier now - he makes the shot, and - damn!" There was a murmur and a pause, and then his voice came back with a drip of sarcasm. "I mean sugar, Dark blocks it." The roll of his eyes was audible.

"Harper, the snitch is a bit bigger than that!" He added. "You're an expert in small balls, you'd think you'd know this - fine, fine, out of line, whatever! Sellaphix, get your act together! Li's making a shot for the goals! Dion, you'd better - good, maybe you don't suck at this as much as you thought!"

His brother didn't seem greatful for his encouragement. His loss. "Li takes a shot right on the bum! Had it coming, kitty! Catch it with your face next time!"

Hannah sat happily in the Slytherin stands, her hair tumbling in long waves over robes charmed entirely green. In the staff box across the way she could see her brother's long hair and straight shoulders as he watched the game, her other brother was in the game, Pax and Mary Beth and lots of others were in the Hufflepuff stands, and beside her was Noriko. She turned to the other girl, beaming, before her head snapped back to the game after the crowd let out a low roar as one chaser stole the Quaffle from another.

"Go Slytherin!" she hollered enthusiastically, after a moment's hesitation to see what was happening. Hannah didn't really understand Quidditch all that well, so it took her a moment. "Go Erin!"  She waved a Slytherin flag she'd enchanted herself (thank Merlin she'd practiced this color-changing charm so much with Tynan) and giggled at anyone who looked at her oddly. Sitting in the Slytherin stands, clothed all in green and rooting enthusiastically for her brother the Seeker, the only thing she hadn't charmed was her Gryffindor badge.

Mary Beth, though she was not really up on all the rules of Quidditch, was an avid fan of muggle sports. Ergo, she was terribly excited to be able to watch one again. She had painted her face with yellow and black stripes across her cheeks and come dressed in her brightest, proudest Hufflepuff colors. As the game started, she actively tried to figure out the rules and nuances of the sport. When she began to catch on, she began to revert to her usual self at sporting events- whether a player or spectator, she tended to turn into a tiny, roaring beast who shouted obscenities at the opposing team. This often surprised people.

There was no doubting which side of the match Noriko was cheering for.  She was decked out entirely in green, with even her face painted in her house colors. 

"SLYTHERIN!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, excitedly jumping up and down in the bleachers next to Hannah.  The Slytherin keeper had made her first save, and Noriko let out a relieved sigh as she dropped down on the bench next to her fellow first year.

"Why did he say your brother is an expert in balls?" she asked the other girl with a frown, just as the excitement on the field snagged her attention once more.  Noriko let out a gasp as Kitty went careening toward the pitch, but the older student seemed to right her broomstick just in time.

"That announcer isn't very nice," she confided to Hannah, sneaking a look across the field at the Hufflepuff side of the stands.  She didn't really dislike Hufflepuff -- not like Ravenclaw, which was still neck-and-neck with Slytherin in the House Points standings -- but every good Slytherin was expected to go all out while cheering for their house.  Hannah, who had a brother on the team, was considered a Slytherin by default. 

"Ooooh -- go Demitria!" she shouted, leaping to her feet again as Slytherin's chasers took another shot.  Noriko had been too frightened to ever say a word to either of the Slytherin Lionesses, but everyone knew who they were.  "Make the shot!  Get it in!"