CL SPECTATOR BROOM RACING - HUFFLEPUFF vs GRYFFINDOR - WINTER 2023

"Broom racing? What is it? Is it similar to Quidditch since I suppose the name suggested it is also involving brooms of course?" Rita wondered when the Second Year Hufflepuff beater heard the announcement that the broom racing winter game of 2023 had started on Feb 11th. As a Muggle Born Quidditch player who had never watched a broom racing match before, she did not know anything about this kind of sport, and besides trying to know more about this sport, the only reasons she decided to spectate a broom racing match were 1. since she had played Quidditch and spectated dueling, and found both of them to be quite interesting, she figured out broom racing should also be somewhat fascinating as well, 2. there was the name "Simon Kincaid" on the Hufflepuff broom racing team roster.

The Second Year Hufflepuff`s latest interaction in the unity errand last month with this older prefect of their house had been somewhat..., complicated to say the least. The third-year prefect said some quite mature words during the errand, but the Second Year Hufflepuff always feel like Simon was hiding something from her. No, actually everyone was hiding their true identities although that was supposed to be an errand for students to actually share their identities rather than hiding them, and Rita was just confused about that until AF explained to her that not everyone was comfortable to share their true identities in an event like that, since it was a unity meeting, not a meeting for everyone to come out from their shadows...

Anyway, enough about that errand, it was just too chaotic. Now moving on to broom racing. Despite the fact that Rita could not understand what Simon was hiding from her, the Second Year Hufflepuff still wanted to support the generally calm, nice, and mature prefect of their house. Standing inside the crowds who was cheering for the broom racers, Rita called out in her usually loud voice, "Come on, Simon! You got this! I know you must have been practicing hard with your skills on the broom, so give it all and hopefully you and the rest of the racers can beat the lions like we do in the Quidditch match last fall!"
Mentioning: @Simon Kincaid @AngelFyre McCubbin

Simon, as always, was enjoying his time on his broom and the opportunity to compete. She could just see it in his bearing while on his broom. He made it through the first obstacles somewhat cleanly, but those big things called trees seemed to get his attention. OUCH! She knew that had to have hurt.

The last match, against Slytherin, had been a rout. By the end, no snake remained on their broom and it had been quite a decisive Hufflepuff win. The new Capt., George Henry, had a different idea of how cleanly the team was to play. His directives were effective, but not very sportsmanlike. That bothered her... a lot... and she thought it might bother Simon, too. He was a team player, yes, but time would tell. Maybe the outright cheating would be tossed to the sidelines. This match was going to be an interesting one as both teams had won their first match. Gryffindor was a very physical team, so AngelFyre was honestly prepared to see a lot of questionable moves, from both sides.

The good news was that there was no pigeon poop this round, but there was a cockatrice. Yowza! She hoped Simon's curiosity would not get the better of him and have him look at it at the wrong moment. She was just about to put her omnioculars up to her eyes to see how he was doing when she heard Rita Su call out to him. She was seated a few rows below AngelFyre who quickly gathered her things and moved a couple of rows down to join Rita.

"Hi, Rita!" she beamed as she quickly swiped the light dusting of snow off of the seat. "Are you here to support the broom racing badgers or are you thinking of making the switch from quidditch to broom racing?" she teased.

Her eyes moved to the course in time to see Simon fly through a waterfall. Whew! At least he stayed on his broom, but the boy was going to be very cold.

She knew he was a fair distance down the track, but she wanted to yell out her support for him anyway. You never knew. The sound might carry on and he might hear her. One thing she knew for sure was that if she stayed silent, he definitely would not hear her.

She stood up and cupped her hands around her mouth, hoping to magnify and amplify the sound.

Way to fly, Simonnnnnnnn! Be the tamer of those lions!!!

Then thinking about it, she knew she needed to support the whole team, so she burst out with, Gooooooooo Hufflepuffs! You have this!

Mentions @Simon Kincaid and @Rita Su

While Rita was cheering on Simon and the rest of the racers in the Hufflepuff team, she heard a familiar voice calling the Second Year Hufflepuff beater behind the back. The black-haired Hufflepuff first-string beater turned around, and found out it was from her Hufflepuff housemate and amazing duelist, AF McCubbin. Well, it was none others than that particular AF, that Hufflepuff girl with pretty long wavy light-brown hair she had some argument with during that unity errand, but eventually they apologized to each other and maybe they are not friends yet, at least they formed some sorts of a bond from that individual moment from the classroom. Anyway, AF was obviously going to support Simon. "AF and Simon, there must be something going on between these two. I remember AF standing up for Simon during the unity meeting as well. Several months earlier, there was that Frankenstein and blonde Halloween customes, and I even don`t know AF back then. Maybe these two are dating since Simon mentioned having a girlfriend before? Oh there are just, I don`t know, besties?" The black-haired Hufflepuff thought before replying to her housemate with long wavy light-brown hair.

"Well, I am just here to see what this broom-racing thing is all about, but I`m still staying on Quidditch at least for now. And I`m doing the same as you, support my friend Simon and of course the whole Hufflepuff team. And yeah, this is the first broom-racing match I`ve ever watched." Rita replied to AF with a friendly smile, and then again, called out to the team, "Go badgers! Give it your best shot and beat those lions! I wish all of you good luck, and you can do this!"
Interacting with: @AngelFyre McCubbin
Mentioning: @Simon Kincaid

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She had brought her omnioculars up to her eyes after calling out to Simon and was actually very pleased to see that he turned, ever so briefly, in her direction. A smile crossed his lips and she just knew it was because he had heard her. The cool thing about the omnioculars, unlike regular muggle binoculars, is that they would allow you to see replays of certain things. Of all the moments she could look at over again in the match, Simon smiling in that moment was the one she viewed at least 4 times. The girl just could not help herself when it came to him and she honestly did not want to.

When she finally stopped with the instant replay of his smile, she proceeded to see what else was happening in the match. Hufflepuff was still playing extraordinarily rough, but unlike their last match with Slytherin, it did not seem to be going quite as well for them. Lions were proving to be more of an even match for the badgers, and one she knew Hufflepuff truly wanted out of the match was Nick McCowan.

Well, they got their wish, but the jury was out as to whether or not it would make any difference as a young Gryffindor AngelFyre was unfamiliar with was actually close to giving Gryffindor the win here. The nearest badger seemed to be Jack, and he was still a distance behind her. Then AngelFyre watched as the lioness got herself entangled in some vines. "Yes!" AngelFyre cried out. "You just stay in those vines like a good baby cub for a while, please, just long enough for a badger to sweep by you and take the win will be long enough, thankyouverymuch."

She was about to ask Rita if she would like to view the race through the omnioculars for a bit when a huge explosion was first heard and then seen on the track. AngelFyre knew, based on where she had last seen him on the track that Simon was not there, but she was worried for any who might have been there. Pigeon poop and Cockatrices were one thing. Heck, even the Whomping Willow and Herman were obstacles the racers could contend with, but explosions?!? Was that even legal?

AngelFyre hoped George had not talked one of the badgers into casting that at the opposing team members. If so, the Hufflepuff playbook had gone from questionable to severely injurious... maybe even deadly. As she sat there, rewinding to see what had actually happened, she was disappointed to find that it was Serena who had cast it. The only good news at that sore bit of knowledge was that she genuinely looked mortified at having done it. Ahh... that looked to be what took McCowan out.

Sigh

Going back even further, needing to get eyes on Simon to know he was actually okay, AngelFyre breathed a sigh of relief, on that score at least. She was less pleased to see her fellow launch a... was that a rock?... at Della's head, but launch it he did. His aim was true, but she noted there was no smile on his face at his success. That much was reassuring, she supposed.

She brought her omnioculars down and asked Rita if she would like to look at the match for a while through them. AngelFyre, at least for the time being, did not want to see more. Simon always spoke about anyone would have to be crazy to want to be a duelist and stand on a piste while people purposefully launched spells at you. She could see his point, but the truth was, it seemed more fair-minded to AngelFyre's way of thinking than broom racing did. At least anything she threw at an opponent they would not be too awfully surprised by as anyone standing up there knew they were nothing but one big target from the other side's perspective. Hitting someone in the back of the head with a rock... well... what did that have to do with racing exactly?

No matter. He loved his sport and she loved him. As long as he continued to race, she would be here to support him. Who knew. Maybe he was working fervently behind the scenes to change the type of gameplay that had recently emerged. For all AngelFyre knew, Simon, or any of the badgers, may be trying to change it for the good. She just knew he could not be happy with it, but one thing she did know for certain was that if he left the team, his voice for a change would be silenced for sure.

Smiling at Rita, she told her, "Well, there is not a whole lot of difference between Broom Racing and Quidditch to me these days. The name of the game just seems to be to knock your opponent off their broom. I liked watching it better once upon a time when the focus was on the actual race skill sets, but that is clearly just me." Then she leaned over to show Rita how to use the omnioculars. "Here. If you slide this over, you can watch replays of what happened in the race in slow motion. Move it back and you are watching the race in real time. Pretty cool, yeah?"



Mentions @Simon Kincaid @Rita Su

Rita giggled with hopes for the broom racers in the Hufflepuff team to win the match and crash those Lions when AF said the name of the sport, Broom Racing, seemed to knock your opponent off their broom. "Yeah, I hope so! Actually I think the Hufflepuff broom racers are doing pretty good great at this point! Hopefully, they can teach those lion cubs a lesson by winning the game against them, like what we did in the fall Quidditch match last October!" The black-haired Second Year Hufflepuff beater turned to her housemate with pretty long wavy light-brown hair with a bright smile on her face, "As for the difference between Broom Racing and Quidditch, I think there is a difference since in Quidditch matches you deal with Quaffle, Bludgers, and the snitch, while in Broom Racing matches you deal with those trees, vines, waterfalls, bright light, things like that."

Then AF handed Rita the omnioculars, one of the many magical items the muggle born Hufflepuff had never seen and used before, and leane over to teach her how to use that, "The fact that you can watch playbacks in slow motion and watch the live game using the same device do seem to be quite interesting! I've never used that before, so let me try operating that thing and hopefully I will not break it!" Rita then carefully held the omnioculars AF gave her in her usually clumsy hands and tried to figure out how that unfamiliar magical item is used. Since the black-haired Hufflepuff beater had never used that before, it took a while to be familiar with that intriguing magical item, but Rita eventually got the hang of it.
Interacting with: @AngelFyre McCubbin

AngelFyre smiled as she watched Rita playing with the omnioculars, getting the hang of how they worked. They really were quite interesting pieces of magical technology. In an attempt to reassure her friend, as that is how she now thought of Rita, AngelFyre told her not to worry about breaking the omnioculars. "First, I really do not believe you will, so just relax about that. But even if you were to, I would know it would be accidental, so there would be no hard feelings whatsoever," and AngelFyre nodded at Rita most earnestly. "Better still is the handy little spell known as Reparo. These are magical, so Reparo may not be completely successful on them, but I choose to live in a state of perpetual optimism whenever possible," and she continued to smile at Rita.

The two sat there, watching and cheering on their house team, narrating to the other who was not in current possession of the omnioculars in any given moment just exactly what was going in the distant part of the track. The game seemed to be going along as it had been, but the badgers were slowly knocking out the lions from the lineup. Della and the girl caught up in the vines close to the FINISH line both succombed to the ferocity of the Hufflepuff drive and determination to win this match. Even so, it was by no means smooth sailing for her badger in particular, or the badgers in general.

There would be a successful Alley Ooping of Jack by Simon, and that.... now that... finally made AngelFyre smile. That was true broom racing at its best and Simon executed the move beautifully. She was so proud of him. Jack, not surprisingly, closed the gap nicely with Simon's launch, so things were beginning to look a lot more hopeful for the badgers. This had been some match... projectiles, Alley Oops, cockatrices, blindfolds, explosions and now... wait? What was that? AngelFyre looked over to Rita with a look of confusion and surprise.

"Did you.... did you hear that? It sounded like a couple of primal roars!" AngelFyre lifted the omnioculars and looked down the track. The racers were coming back around and getting closer as they made their last dashes to cross that Finish line. He was close enough that she could have seen him without the omnioculars, but watching Hugh, the mighty Gryffindor half giant let loose with his roar sent chills down AngelFyre's spine, but it made her smile, too. He looked sooooooo happy.

She was still rooting for the Hufflepuffs and her Simon... that was a given... but she knew they better get on their best game now because the power of resurgence had just been injected into this race and that would be hard for anyone to overcome.

She stood up and yelled as loudly as she could,

"Come on Jack!!!

You are almost there. The giant is flying blind.

YOU CAN WIN THIS!!!"

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Mentions: @Simon Kincaid @Rita Su @Hugh Lowe @Jack Warren