Gryffindor V Hufflepuff Spectator Closed

Interactions | @Lydia Cooper | @Sean Hearth | @Elaine Cathail |

Mentions | @Rafael D'Spacito |

Anastasia smiled at the Hufflepuff boy introducing himself. She assumed he was a first year since she was slightly taller, and most of the boys in her year or above had already begun to have their growth spurts, and as such, towered over her. She also noted that he didn't show any emotion, which she found a tad odd. She joined them in their seats.

"Both, I suppose. I love Quidditch and Gryffindor, so this is probably the best thing ever," she said to the Hufflepuff girl, Lydia. She noticed that the other girl seemed to be bothered by Ana, but she wasn't sure what she had done to bother this girl. Maybe she was just imagining. She had a tendency to make snap judgments about people, which she was aware made her quite a few enemies.

The group sat and observed the game, with Ana cheering loudly every now and then. Another Hufflepuff girl approached and asked if she could join. Anastasia smiled brightly and nodded. "The more, the merrier," she said. She was sure she would irritate the Hufflepuffs at some point with her loud cheering, but then again, they had known what they were getting into, based on her outfit.

As the other Hufflepuff joined them and the game began, Ana focused back in on the game. Rafel was making an attempt to score, but it didn't get through. It was alright though, since it was only the beginning of the game, and one of the other Gryffindor chasers scored anyway. However, shortly after that, a bludger game hurtling towards the Gryffindor boy. Anastasia shot to her feet, her enormous grin disappearing. She wanted to call out to warn him, but she knew that it wouldn't help much. He nearly avoided it, but it hit him hard and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. "Rafael! she shouted in horror, knowing she couldn't do anything.

She clapped her hand to her mouth as everything seemed to slow down. Normally, the violence of Quidditch was fun, and she was sure he could take it, but that didn't mean she wanted to watch Rafael get hit by a bludger and fall to the ground. Her heart was pounding in her throat while time started to speed back up again.

IInteracting with 

@Janet Jackson and @Ariana Walker

James wrapped his warm scarf around him as he made his way down to the pitch. He was undoubtedly excited for the game and he couldn't wait to be a part of the cheering crowds in the stands, supporting his house, his friends. As he neared the training pitch he looked up to the stands and noticed Janet sitting there, she looked slightly shivery although she was beaming surveying the grassy grounds below. He quickly made his way through the rows, stopping when he got next to her “Janet!” He exclaimed, “I suppose you're here to support gryffindor?” He added with a smirk, “I can't pretend that I don't want my house to win, but I definitely came to watch Ariana play, she has been going on about this game for days now.”  James chuckled and scanned the pitch below, narrowing his hazel eyes as he tried to spot Ariana. “I can't see her” He mumbled, not taking his eyes off the pitch as he spoke to Janet.”Me neither, I don't think she is out yet…” Came the reply from next to him. The two friends continued to talk until a hush came over the crowd as the game began. The gryffindors came zooming out on their brooms wearing their famous, fiery, scarlet red uniform, and James spotted Ariana at once, her long brown hair rippling in the slight breeze and although she was far away, James could still see her beautiful smile as she beamed up at the two of them and waved, her twinkling green eyes glistening with happiness. James and Janet beamed back, waving down at her. Now James watched the other players zoom onto the pitch, he cheered with the other hufflepuffs as the badgers team entered, wearing canary yellow robes. And they were off. James watched in anticipation as the game progressed rapidly, and he found himself watching Ariana again, just in time to see her target a bludger at Reid. Her accuracy was on point and the gryffindors cheered loudly as the bludger knocked Reid clean off his broom. Ariana raised a triumphant fist in the air, turning on her broom to look at James, her signature, breathtaking smile plastered on her face. His heart skipped a beat as he watched her fly through the air effortlessly. Janet was screaming cheers for Ariana beside him, and James joined in with her. He knew he should be feeling regretful that one of his house's players had been knocked to the ground, but he couldn't help feeling proud for the brunette gryffindor as he watched her zoom back into position again ready to strike. So far, Gryffindor was winning.

Interacting with @Anastasia Beckett , @Elaine Cathail 

Mentioning @Rafael D'Spacito , @Aaron Jones

As Lydia listened to Anastasia talk, she couldn't help but think that she sounded like a really nice person, and she felt kind of guilty for the wave of jealousy that had hit her earlier. She had always been the kind of person to look for everyone's good side, giving the benefit of the doubt no matter who the person in front of her was; so why all of a sudden would she have done the opposite, and judged or not liked the Gryffindor girl, just because she might have been someone close to Rafael? That was not the kind of person that Lydia was. 

"I only recently got close to Quidditch, but I think I can understand what you mean," Lydia said and smiled, this time without hesitation, at Anastasia, before focusing back on the game that was about to start. The voice of another girl got her attention, and Lydia smiled at her.

Once the game started, the red headed girl focused completely on what was happening in front of her, almost instinctively blocking out any kind of distraction; she needed to properly concentrate, the players flying fast in front of her. Her eyes easily found her best friend, and she cheered loudly, before her attention got caught by Rafael flying with the quaffle in his hands towards the Hufflepuff keeper. When his throw didn't succeed, Lydia shook her head and chewed on her bottom lip, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as one of the Hufflepuff chaser got closer and closer to the Gryffindor's keeper, and a groan escaped her lips when her team didn't score. Useless to say, that was the same reaction that she had when Gryffindor actually scored, bringing the first 10 points of the game to them. 

When Anastasia stood up, Lydia got a little bit confused and followed her gaze, just in time to realise what was happening. "Oh God..." she said as she joined Anastasia, standing up next to her as she watched in horror the scene in front of them, her open mouth covered my her left hand, as her right one still held the banner for Aaron. The blunger hit Rafael hard, and Lydia held her breath, hoping that maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked. But when the Gryffindor Captain dropped from his broom, the red headed girl felt a wave of nausea hit her - she was already not used to how violent the sport could get, and if you add the fact that the boy that was falling to the ground was her crush, well who wouldn't have been worried? -

Lydia instinctively looked at Anastasia, knowing that the girl was probably way better informed on Quidditch than she was, and noticed the look on her face. 

"Do yo- do you think he will he be okay?" Lydia managed to as to the girl, her eyes glued back on Rafael.

Interacting: @Lydia Cooper @Anastasia Beckett @Elaine Cathail

Interactions: @Lydia Cooper | @Sean Hearth

Ana's heart was pounding and she could hardly breathe as Rafael plummeted. She had some difficultly swallowing as her friend hit the ground. She knew that he likely wouldn't be permanently injured or anything since Hogwarts wouldn't exactly be able to continue having Quidditch if students ran around getting life-altering injuries in every match. However, that certainly didn't mean that he wouldn't get any injuries. Rafael really needed to stop getting himself flung about like a rag doll or Ana was going to have to kill him. Beside her, Lydia asked a question, which took Ana a moment to register. "He'll be alright, but I'm sure that wasn't much fun," she said, hoping she sounded more certain than she felt. Just because she loved Quidditch and had been knocked off her broom plenty of times herself didn't mean that she wanted to see one of her best friends get yeeted off. Frankly, since she knew exactly how painful that could be, it meant that she wanted to see that even less.

Inhaling, she tried to focus back on the game. She would have to yell at Rafael for getting himself yeeted later. The alternate chaser flew in a scored 10 points and Ana clapped and let out a cheer that was a bit lackluster. The new chaser shortly scored again, and louder this time. That girl was pretty good for presumably a first year. She couldn't help but let out a small chuckle when one of the Hufflepuff players was flung from his broom. For a practice match, this was certainly eventful. After a bit, both seekers were sharing a broom with someone else, and both seemed to have spotted the snitch. Ana was on the edge of her seat as she watched. "Let's go, Gryffindor!" she said, almost all the way back to her normal level of loudness.

-Interacting with @Anastasia Beckett, @Sean Hearth -
-Mentioning @Aaron Jones -

Lydia instinctively closed her eyes as Rafael hit the ground, jumping slightly as she felt Sean's hand on her shoulder, Anastasia's words feeling slightly comforting. She then looked at Sean and nodded, before she dared to look towards the Gryffindor captain, the image of him there on the ground was too much for her, so she sat back down and tried to take a deep breath. He was going to be okay, he had to.

She tried to concentrate back on the game, and only then noticed Aaron going for the Quaffle and successfully grabbing it. Lydia cheered loudly for him, holding up the banner she had made and as her best friend flew closer and closer towards the Gryffindor keeper, the more nervous Lydia got. When the boy scored his first goal, Lydia couldn't hold back the rush of happiness she felt and jumped up, cheering even louder for her best friend; he looked so happy, his face beaming with excitement, and Lydia felt incredibly proud of him.

After that moment, the game got more and more intense, with all the players taking the Quaffle and trying to score. Unfortunately, Gryffindor seemed to have the upper hand this time, scoring points one after the other, even though Hufflepuff, with Aaron, was trying its best to score again.
When the Gryffindor seeker managed to catch the Golden Snitch, using a move that left Lydia speechless (in a good way, 'cause that looked so cool), the Hufflepuff girl pouted, unable to mask her disappointment.

"Well... this was an interesting game! You guys were really good," she said as she looked at Ana, offering her a small smile.

Anastasia let out a loud, spectacularly unladylike whoop when the Gryffindor seeker caught the snitch. Sure, it was a practice game, but it was a good game nonetheless. She didn't actually think she knew any of the players other than Rafa, but Quidditch was Quidditch, and anyway, she was big on house pride. Glancing at Lydia, she grinned again. "Right?!?" she said, in reply to Lydia's comment. She wasn't sure if it was boasting since she really didn't have anything to do with Gryffindor's victory beyond some loud cheering. "I'd better be going to check in on Rafa at the hospital wing to make sure he's managed not to kill himself. It was lovely to meet you, Lydia, I do hope we'll see one another around."

She nodded at the other Hufflepuffs as she made her way out. She wasn't too worried about Rafa, after all, people got knocked off their brooms all the time in Quidditch, so surely, they would know how to handle this. Still, she wouldn't breathe easy until she saw her friend was actually okay. Her half ponytail bounced up and down as she jogged towards the castle. She was going to have to strangle Rafa if he had managed to actually injure himself.

Anastasia Beckett has exited this thread.

-Interacting with @Anastasia Beckett -
Mentioning @Aaron Jones , @Sean Hearth , @Rafael D'Spacito

Anastasia's excitement for the Gryffindor win was kind of contagious, so when Lydia smiled again towards the girl, the smile was genuine. Her words about wanting to check in on Rafael in the hospital wing made the red headed girl bite down on her bottom lip; she wanted to visit him as well and make sure that he was alright, but she didn't want to intrude in what could have been a private moment between him and Anastasia. The doubts that something might have been going on between the two came back, tugging at her from the inside and making Lydia feel insecure all over again.

"It was lovely to meet you as well Anastasia!" she told her with a small smile, "Say hi to Raf from me. I better go check on Aaron, I'm sure he's pretty bummed out that we have lost," Lydia added and waved the Gryffindor girl goodbye. Once she had left, she took a deep breath and decided that she would have checked in on Rafael the day after, just to be sure she didn't run into Anastasia, she would have been too embarrassed and probably panicky to explain why she went, and she was sure that accidentally saying something like "I'm here to check on my crush" to Rafael's potential girlfriend would have been extremely awkward.

Lydia said goodbye to Sean, and after picking up the banner she had done for Aaron, she walked towards her best friend, ready to morally support him.

Lydia has left the thread.