Leap of Faith PV Kent Gresham Finished

Sure Emma had a passion for Quidditch, but she had never generally played the game before. It was more of a burning desire of hers to play in a school game or a game in general. Certainly, the broom had done most of the work but had that been good enough to merely miss a rocketing iron ball? The game was brutal indeed.

The bludger had been a few meters in front of the brunette before she actually decided to make a choice, what stopped her, she had no clue. By the look of the hit, it was perfect. The iron ball seemed to travel meters by the second, well, dozens of meters. This guy was unquestionably Hufflepuff Quidditch team material. 

As if the bludger hadn't been close enough, she felt herself being spun around once before regaining her balance. Looking back from the tail of her broomstick to Kent, she smiled, but she didn't know whether to call it a mischievous or happy smile, it was undoubtedly a mix between both. "Are you trying to kill me?" She laughed, the leather Quaffle still inside of her arm. 

Guess it's my turn, she thought to herself, glancing back at the broom one last time.  Flying with a broom was torture, but it was fairly easy to adjust after the first few seconds. After all, a few hairs never really hurt anyone... hopefully. Several times she did drop a foot or two at once, but naturally, she allowed her stomach to plummet along with it. It was oddly satisfying, almost like a roller coaster. She would have rather taken the bludger.

ACTION: Wait to score Quaffle and scout out bludgers

Emma dodged. Kent breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for injuring another student unintentionally. When she called back, it was all the boy could do to keep from acting surprised and to keep his grip on the broom without using his hands to emphasize his response.

"W-what? Hell no!" Kent called, noticing the smile from Emma and grunting with his own smirk. "I kind of have an idea of how hard to hit it now, so you do your thing, and I'll keep the bludgers coming..."

Kent looked down to the bat in his right hand, as he flipped it and caught the handle again, getting a feel for weight of the sports gear. Surprisingly well-balanced, short enough to allow quick hits in small proximity, and hard enough to withstand a metal ball impacting on it at a hundred miles an hour. Kent could only imagine how interesting baseball would be with similar bats, the sheer amount of home runs would be off the scale.

Still if the Hufflepuff wanted to get better at playing Quidditch, he had to begin training properly. That meant swinging the bat while moving on the broom. It was all too easy to remain still and get a solid hit, so now it came down to following Emma and giving her a chance to get some decent training in, too.

"Alright, let's do this."

The first bludger had circled around by this point, and was coming back at Kent again for another pass. Flying the broom as best he could, the tall boy swung the bat, and connected with another solid crack of metal on wood. This time the hit wasn't as accurate, but it still sailed in Emma's general direction. Meanwhile, Kent tried to keep hold of the broom, compensating for the swinging he was doing, while moving through the air... and surprisingly, he kept his balance almost perfectly, which was reassuring considering how high the pair were getting above the grass below.

"You going to hold that all day, or actually try to score?"

Kent smirked as he called out, just as the second bludger soared in from his left. He twisted on the broom, teeth gritted, as he swung and tried to hit the second ball. It hit with another solid crack, but this time wasn't near as accurate, instead sailing in a very broad direction toward Emma. Though Kent managed to keep his balance perfectly, despite turning on the broom to make the hit from his opposite side, which the lad chalked up to a combination of luck and sports background.

Let's see what she can do.

Getting into each other's heads now, are we? Emma thought to herself smirking, this time it was mischevious. She was a dirty player, well at least when she was playing by the rules. There was no problem with taunting other players, even if it gave them something to think about. This was going to be fun. Remarkably fun.

"Just try to aim for me, pretty boy." Her smirk grew into a smile, she began to fly towards the hoops with the Quaffle inside of her left arm. The first bludger came for her, it seemed to fly for her winded up bouncing off her gut, a direct hit. The wind had been knocked out her, and she let out a grunt, but still she could move on. She wasn't done talking, nothing could take that away from the brunette, it was apart of her.

She pushed forward despite the injured broom's plead to stop. She didn't want to stop, even if it put her life in danger, nothing wizards weren't familiar with. Maybe she was like her dad, after all, daring. As if her flight hadn't been injured at all, the glance of a bludger had indeed taken her by shock. She could go without the bludgers in Quidditch.

Still continuing, the Ravenclaw began to charge for the goals the red Quaffle slowly coming in contact with her right hand. Effortlessly dodging the second bludger, she bought her hand to the leather ball and threw it into the left hoop. If they had a keeper it would have been way harder, but dodgeball was an amazing way to exercise her accuracy.

"If I could use both my hands I'd be clapping," she snickered, then finally spoke in her natural tone. "Nice first shot!"

Kent winced as Emma took a solid hit to the stomach, but also nodded to himself in surprise at how she continued afterward, pushing through the bludger impact to deliver a snippy comment. The boy smirked and shrugged, watching as the quaffle was thrown through the ring and a goal scored. Kent couldn't help but notice that the broom Emma was on seemed a little worse for wear, from one of the previous hits, and was about to suggest a change over until she called back a retort.

"Oh right, yeah," Kent called out as he gave a mock salute with the bat hand, his tone matching Emma's own, except for the last part. "Go on and try clapping, it would be really amusing. And thanks, so far I'm liking this!"

Kent maneuvered on his broom as the bludgers circled around, dodging the heavy metallic objects with some wobbles, but otherwise avoiding being hit. He wanted to give the girl time to retrieve the quaffle before sending more bludgers in her direction. For his first attempt at Quidditch, Kent thought he wasn't doing too bad, and if it was this easy in a match he would be set to become a professional in no time!

"Nice goal, by the way!" Called the Hufflepuff, as he kept a weary eye on the flying bludgers. "So you got a point? Or are the rings worth different points because there's three of them?"

By that time, Kent hoped Emma had got the quaffle and was ready again, because the bludgers were zooming toward the boy again. Focused on the metallic balls, Kent brought the broom around and swung at the first, hitting it with a solid crack and keeping his balance and grip on the broom effortlessly. But like last time, the second hit was a little worse and unsteady, and the second projectile sailed toward Emma's general direction, unlike the first that shot right at her...

"Heads up!"

Emma snickered audibly at Kent's remark as she continued to steady her unbalanced broom, she'd be having to find a new school broom afterwards, well, a new favorite. She steered her broom to the ground to reclaim the leather Quaffle from the small piece of terrain. She wasn't the one to show off, well, not in her broom's conditions. Carefully, she hovered over her landing spot before feeling her feet hit the ground once more.

The Ravenclaw jogged over to the Quaffle and picked it up using both her hands. It appeared rather strange to jog with both your hands latched on to something, not to mention the reoccurring pulse in her abdomen. Finally shifting the light ball to her left arm, she mounted her broom and pushed off the ground, nearly missing the yellow hoop as she flew. There she was greeted by a question.

"Ten points for each Quaffle successfully... goal-ed? Well, ten points if the keeper doesn't catch it and it goes through the hoops." The girl gestured to each of the three hoops with her broom handle instead of using a hand considering her left arm held the leather ball and her right arm kept the broom steady. 

Flying low, about fifteen feet high, her head continued to bob back and forth looking for those grey iron bludgers. Even that wasn't enough to avoid the iron balls. Her offensive tactic was distracted by a searing pain that went through her right shoulder blade. Thankfully, this one didn't wind up in her stomach, but it sure was close. She found herself losing balance, and shortly being flipped off her broom, if the bludger hadn't done its job of breaking a bone, the fall surely did. Still, she signaled upwards with a thumbs up, still optimistic about the sport.
 
"I'm good!" So much for having fun, and it was starting to get fun. She frowned slightly.

With broom weaving, Kent kept grinning as Emma collected the quaffle and remounted, flying back up into the air. And once she explained the scoring system the boy felt he had a better idea of how the game worked, as his information and knowledge expanded. It seemed like Quidditch could turn out to be a pretty awesome game, really, and had a bit of everything in it from a range of sports!

"Ten points per goal, got it," Kent repeated, nodding to himself. "Alright, so what's the deal with the small gold on--"

But before Kent could finish his question, he watched with wide eyes and concern as Emma was hit by another bludger. This time one caught her against the back, and she fell to the ground with a thud, which caused the Hufflepuff to immediately turn his broom around and start zooming toward the ground where she landed. Kent noticed that below a certain height the magical balls stopped moving and simply hovered, a training safety probably.

"Oh shite," Kent shouted as he jumped off his broom, landing heavily before running toward Emma who was offering a thumbs up. "Are you sure? You hit pretty hard..."

Kent stopped beside the girl, crouched, as he checked her over for serious injury.

"Can you stand? We should get you to the nurse," He said, clearly worried. "I'll support you, put as much weight on me as you need to."

Kent offered a hand and shoulder, and if he needed to would carry her...

A pulse traveled throughout her body, but she couldn't admit that. As far as she knew, she wanted to get back on to the broom and continue flight. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't convince herself to get back on the pitch to fly once more, well, not in the condition. She didn't know which one was more important, a broken arm or a broken leg (even though she had broken her leg). Even though it pained her to admit it, a fractured arm would have been much more enjoyable.

It was hard to accept help from others, but this time she might have needed it. Debates flew inside of her head. She needed help but she didn't want it (how ironic). She was the one supposed to be teaching, not the center of attention, she dreaded it.

"I'm... Thanks," Emma concluded. Wait a minute, that made absolutely no sense. "I'll try to stand." I suppose that was slightly better. She thought to herself trying to divert her eyes away from the throbbing of her right leg. 

The brunette grabbed ahold of his hand and pulled herself up, putting as much pressure as she could on her left foot. Still, she couldn't help putting some pressure on to her opposite leg. A pain shot through her leg and like her broom, she dropped a few inches. 

Something was definitely wrong. Grabbing Emma's hand tightly, Kent was careful not to apply too much pressure to limbs and avoided yanking. If her shoulder or arms were hurt, it wouldn't do to make the injury worse. And judging by the favoring one leg, Kent suspected a leg injury, and that meant a visit to the hospital wing and nurse.

"It's fine, put your weight on me," Kent said, barely struggling to support Emma at all. He was strong for his age, his physicality the result of being a year older than his peers and having played sports for most of his life. "You're light, don't use your leg at all."

When Emma stumbled, dropping down somewhat, Kent shifted his arm and hooped around her waist. He then effectively lifted the girl, bringing her back up to his height, in an attempt to have her avoid using the injured leg completely. Leaving the brooms and Quidditch supplies in various states of floating and levitation, the pair moved at a comfortable pace away from the field. Kent wondered if he should offer to carry Emma, supposing he could if it was needed, but didn't want to make her feel more awkward or embarrassed than she was.

When I got hurt a few times, I tried to put on a brave face, Kent thought as he glanced to Emma, smiling reassuringly. And the last thing I wanted was people fussing. It's probably the same.

After several minutes, the training pitch was cleared, and the pair continued onward toward the castle proper. It was a good trek to make it back, but they couldn't really use brooms, and Kent made sure to keep his grip firm and supportive to make sure Emma had as little reason to use her right leg as possible...

"No idea what they have for medical assistance here, but I'm hoping there's magic involved, right?"

The Hufflepuff chuckled, trying to keep the mood light. He didn't know if it worked. He pressed on...