Ch-10 Quidditch and Flying
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT QUIDDITCH IS!?!?!?!?!?!?"
"Girl, I'm muggle-born."
"Oh right... well it's a wizard sport. With four balls and seven players and everything. Quidditch is not hard to understand. I'll tell you the basic stuff and Quidditch season starts at November. So, you might want to get some books for more info.
"So, where to start... In Quidditch, one of the balls are called Quaffle. Three players on each team, called Chasers, throw it around trying to get it through one of the hoops. If they can, they score their team ten points. There is also the Keeper, he or she moves around the hoops to make sure the other team doesn't score."
"So, it's like soccer on brooms in the sky?"
"wtf is soccer?"
"Nevermind. Quidditch sounds more exciting and fun."
"It is! Omg wait 'til you see! Anyway, another ball, actually two balls, are called Bludgers. These zoom around trying to knock players off their brooms. Sometimes they give serious injuries like a couple of broken jaws-but they were never fatal!" Eileen added, looking at the look on Skylar's face.
"There are two Beaters on each team. Each of them have these bats to protect their team from incoming Bludgers and hit it in the direction of the other team instead. The last ball is called a Snitch. This one see?" Eileen pointed at the golden, walnut-sized ball dashing around the cover of Quidditch Through The Ages. In the wizarding world, pictures do not just stay like how they are like the Muggle world. They move around and sometimes even disappear to go to other pictures.
"They are super fast and very small. Smallest ball in Quidditch, making it hard to catch. The last player, the Seeker, needs to capture the Snitch in order for the game to end. It is a very important job because the Seeker who catches the Snitch earns his or her team a hundred and fifty points! So it's usually a straight winning. The game doesn't end until the Snitch is captured. I think the record was four or five months... I don't know. Anyway that's pretty much it."
"Cool! Hey, now that I think of it, I wanna try and commentary for a match or two."
"OK. You can try. I can't wait!"
They came to a halt at the edge of the Great Lake. There were a few trees there and a slight breeze of fall: a perfect place to relax. Eileen opened the book and started reading it. Skylar just sat there and admired everything about Hogwarts...
But it looked like nothing special was going to happen. It was just their lessons, (the next day, Friday, they had Double Potions with the teacher who handed them timetables whose name was Horace Slughorn) and weekends.
Their common room was sometimes hard to enter if neither of them had checked the noticeboard for it changed every fortnight. They had to learn it the hard way on Friday.
In their second week at Hogwarts on Monday, there was a notice on the noticeboard for the First-years, along with the new password (Slitherin'):
"Flying lessons?! OMG!"
"Slytherins and Gryffindors together. At the edge of the Forbidden Forest... I thought we loathed each other?"
"Yeah. Well, you know because of like, I don't really know but did you hear what Blustrode did to Vassilar yesterday? Oh, terrible! Just because Vassilar got more house points in Potions!"
Lomania Vassilar was a Gryffindor girl. Slytherins and Gryffindors only had Potions together, until now since the flying lessons started. Most Slytherins already had bad relations with the Gryffindors. For reasons only they themselves knew. The only exceptions were Skylar, Eileen, Tom and his cornies. Tom and his cornies were not caught in open wrong doing but fellow Slytherins did catch them doing stuff like calling Skylar 'Slytherin Mudblood' and putting a Dungbomb in Vitricia Lamenrose, a Gryffindor's, pumpkin juice.
At three-thirty, after their Herbology class with Ravenclaw and Defence Against The Dark Arts with Hufflepuff, the Slytherins went out to the grounds towards the Forbidden Forest. The smooth lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the Forbidden Forest already had about twenty broomsticks on the grounds. The Gryffindors were also scurrying down the sloping lawns. Then a mousy grey haired woman came to the ground. She had bright purple eyes that attracted people's attention the most.
"So what are you doing? Everyone hurry up and stand by a broomstick!"
Everyone did as they were told. Skylar saw that the brooms were very old.
"Now stretch your hand out and say 'UP!'"
"UP!!"
Skylar's broom shot up to her hand at once. One of the few whose did, including Riddle. Eileen's one shot up the second time she did.
Then Madam Mary Goshawk showed how to ride the brooms. After that, she went around fixing the way they were gripping their brooms. She strode past Skylar but, unfortunately, Eileen had been doing it the wrong way for several years.
"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle, three- two-"
As Madam Goshawk blew the whistle, everyone took off. Almost everyone were doing good. But there were some collisions which were mainly caused by the Muggle-borns. Everyone just flew a few feet then came back down but Skylar did not. This was something about Skylar's nature: she was not always obedient when it will not affect her that much. she flew a few more feet up. Then she spotted something. Something that looked like...
"Galloen!"
Galloen had an identical parcel that Eileen got on their first day. Skylar took the parcel and Galloen went in the direction of the Owlery, probably to go to sleep with the other school owls. Skylar watched him go then, with the parcel in her hand, Skylar sped down. She heard Madam Goshawk yell, "EVERYONE BACK DOWN!!!" As everyone came down, Madam Gashawk said, "I see a few people actually had the nerve to fly a few more feet up. Well, as you all know, First-years aren't allowed their own brooms so, cannot join their house Quidditch team. But you can practice over the summer to join in your second-year - What is that you're holding?!"
She had finally spotted Skylar handing the parcel to Eileen.
"An owl I know and I got passed each other in mid-air"
"OK, well. It was stupid of you. Isn't it your first time on a broom?"
"Er. Yes..."
"Well, you are lucky then. You should practice more before you do stuff like that. Once someone almost broke their arm. Off you all go."
They all scurried off to wherever they wished. Skylar and Eileen went back to their common room. Eileen opened the parcel while Skylar read Quidditch Through the Ages, which Eileen had finished reading. Quidditch Through the Ages was a very interesting book.
"Now will you look at this! It's my Gobstones set! It's unpopular than even Wizard Chess but you know... the more you know..."
"Yeah it's like what Muggles call marbles, right?"
"Except they squirt putrid liquid at the loser's face!"
"I think I will go and sign up for commentating for the first Quidditch match, Slytherin vs Gryffindor. Wish me luck."
"OK. I'm sure you'll be awesome."
Skylar went out of the common room. She made her way to sign up. If she was lucky, she could be chosen...
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