Quidditch Spectator Hufflepuff Vs. Gryffindor - Fall 2022

George panted, holding his chest and feeling his heartbeat thumping under his hand as he reached his seat in the stands, collapsing into it. It seemed like they added more stairs to the pitch every time he came to see a game. Sadly without omnioculars, he leaned over forward, risking a long fall as he sought out the girl he was looking for. There she was! Little Alma. Waiting on the bench for her turn to show off the flying skills that George had taught her. He'd arrived slightly after the start - it took time to make yourself presentable, and someone as important as the broom racing captain couldn't show up unprepared.

It was a tough call. People who had seen George in the stands before would be used to his usual routine - paint his face like a badger and loose a glass-shattering scream of delight whenever the other Hufflepuffs seemed excited. This, however, was a different match. He'd seen and cheered for Quinn before, and @Alma Stoll had already gotten all the support he would get. Today - he was here to cheer for Gryffindor.

Eyelids blazing with red and gold, a cat mouth and whiskers painted on his face, George let out a hearty cheer when he saw that the players hadn't quite gotten into the action yet. Ignoring a few dirty looks from his housemates, who valued loyalty, George opened up his enchanted satchel and began pulling free a massive sign that took some pivoting to get out of the small opening. But eventually, it came free, and he hefted it up over his head with a hearty cheer.

Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff would be the first game of the season. It had been brought up that he, David Howard, and AngelFyre McCubbin should attend, to cheer on their fellow badgers, and to catch up on recent events. Honestly, Simon hadn't a good chance to talk to Dave since last year and he wondered how his friend's dueling and studies were going, as well as how his Summer had been. They never seemed to cross paths anymore when the other wasn't busy and he was looking forward to catching up - as well as always spending time with his girl.

Quidditch was something relatively new to him, but he had read Quidditch Through the Ages recently and was becoming more interested in the sport ever since joining the unofficial quidditch game at the end of last year, becoming the seeker for Pygmy Puff Riot! and catching the golden snitch to win for his team. He was interested in seeing a game play out from the stands.

He was also interested to see how Haley Rose, a chaser for Gryffindor and past girlfriend, had improved over last year. She already had turned out to be a pretty great asset to the Gryffindor team to his house's misfortune. How might that play out?

The three were to meet there. Simon had quickly finished a letter to his Aunt Maggie and took it to the Owlery before making his way to the Hufflepuff section of the stands, taking a seat. Wasn't it supposed to be cooler than this for October? He glanced around, eager to catch sight of AngelFyre or Dave so he could wave them over and show that he had saved them premium seats.

The Company She Keeps with @Simon Kincaid and @David Howard

AngelFyre, unbelievably, had lost track of time while studying in her little dorm room for an upcoming Transfiguration test. It was unbelievable because she had a date to meet Simon and David Howard to watch the Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor Quidditch match and she let time get completely away from her. AngelFyre was rarely late for anything, especially when it involved a chance to be with Simon, so she needed to hurry.

She just left everything on her bed as is and ran a brush through her hair quickly. She applied her sunscreen and threw the tube in her enchanted satchel along with her water bottle, and hiked the satchel strap over her shoulder. She lightly glossed her lips with her honey flavored bee balm and grabbed her hat on her way out the door. It was another surprisingly warm and sunny day in the Scottish Highlands for this late in the season, so sun protection best practices, even if not a dhampir, was the name of the game today.

She found herself torn about this particular date. She absolutely loved watching the broom races, especially when Simon competed, and she was of course excited to see Simon and Dave, but having to sit through a Quidditch match was not high on her list of interests. She was probably the only magical being in the Wizarding world who was not a Quidditch fan. Oh well. Maybe Simon and Dave could explain it in a way to draw out her interest and if not, possibly their enthusiasm would rub off on her.

For now, she was simply going to have to rely on the company she would be keeping to keep her focused and engaged.

When she arrived at the stadium, it was already pretty crowded. It took her relatively no time at all to find Simon as she looked for him first in the shaded areas. Dave did not appear to be with him, so maybe she was not so late after all. She raced up the stairs to his section, her anticipation growing at the sight of him. Scooting past a few students in the row where he was seated, she finally reached him and sat down beside him.

Smiling widely at him she teased, "What is a broom racer like you doing in a place like this?"

AngelFyre - #17451b
Dave - #fff79e
Simon - #000080

It was a nice Friday evening, but it wasn’t an average one. How come? Because today was the day the Fall Games we’re going to take place. Why were they called the Fall Games? I didn’t know, but they were really just two quidditch matches. The first one was the Slytherin vs Ravenclaw match and I had already attended that one. The second one was the Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor match and that was the one that was going to be starting in a few moments. During my first year in Hogwarts, I had grown to be a lover of quidditch, and this year, my brother Matthew was going to be watching it too. Of course, we wouldn’t be rooting for the same team since we were in both in different houses, but that didn’t matter because we would both enjoy the match as it happened. And then again, next time we could both root for the same team since our houses wouldn’t be going up against each other.

I dropped Matthew and his friends George and Landen off with the rest of the Gryffindor (we had hung out all day after the first quidditch match) before making my way over to the stands where the rest the Hufflepuffs were. The stands were pretty crowded with other Hufflepuffs and it took me a while to find Simon and AngelFyre. I made my way through the stands towards the two before taking a seat next to Simon and turning towards the two. “Hey guys! How’s it going?” I asked in my usually cheery voice. “Sup man.” Simon said as he held out his hand for me to shake. I stretched out my hand and shook his after which Simon began doing additional things and seeing where this was going, I cooperated with him and together we did some sort of messed up handshake that we had clearly never done before. “We will need to work on that secret handshake later buddy.” I said through a little laugh. “Anyways, it’s been a few days since we last met and honestly, I’ve been really excited about meeting you two and just catching up, in more detail then we did at the ball of course. And look what I brought!” As I finished the sentence, I held up my pair of ominoculars for the the pair to see. “And before you ask, yes, we’ll be taking turns seeing the match in detail. So, who wants to go first?” I then stretched out my hand for Simon or AngelFyre to take if they wanted to.
Mentioning @AngelFyre McCubbing and @Simon Kincaid.
Authors Note: The reason why I have Simon’s dialogue from the post down below in this post is because the text would sound worse if I included it in a new post rather then in this one.

Gettin' ready for some quidditch watching with @AngelFyre McCubbin and @David Howard

He had been watching for her since he had sat down - punctual as always. Perhaps though it was because he didn't have to worry about fixing his already-perfect hairstyle or the fact that he was looking forward to spending some time with two close friends. Maybe he wanted to cheer on both Hufflepuff and one Gryffindor (there was no harm hoping that one individual had a good game while the rest of the team lost, was there?)

He saw her approaching, gliding past a few other students to get to where he was and then stating her adorable line that made him smile brightly. Surely that warranted a just response. "Waiting for a pretty duelist to come sit next to me. Looks like dreams do come true," Simon smiled wider and reached to take her hand into his own and brought it to his lips to kiss gently. "I hope these seats are alright. I figure with it being so warm, that's just one more reason to take the shade. I haven't caught sight of Dave yet."

And that was okay, because for the moment the two could just be there alone and he could watch her, taking in her beautiful features and all of which was AngelFyre McCubbin, inside and out. For that moment, he could selfishly have her all to himself and he told himself to pause often and take in these moments because life was always evolving, and while he looked forward to their future and he appreciated their past, he wouldn't take their present for granted.

Soon Dave did arrive and Simon smiled to him, glad to see him. "'Sup, man," he said as he held out his hand to Dave. If he should take it, Simon would engage in a handshake that then was going to lead into a series of other things like a secret sort of handshake only the two never truly established a secret sort of handshake so David Howard was probably going to think him mental.

"Doing well, man, doing well. How about you? How've you been, Dave? What's up with you? I think we both want details about your date at the dance. Oh, and I say we let ladies go first," he said, speaking of the ominoculars. He wasn't quite sure what they were exactly, but he could guess, and Dave did say they could watch the match closely. Still, Simon hadn't exactly seen this product from the wizarding world prior to this.

He then did something somewhat unexpected of him, and he took his enchanted satchel and pulled it a little closer to him and pulled out a rather large box of popcorn, about the size of a large that one would get at a muggle movie theater. "I'm sharing too if anyone should want some," and he took a piece and popped that buttery goodness into his mouth.

Quidditch "might" be interesting thanks to @Simon Kincaid and @David Howard

Sure, it was a completely corny opening line she greeted Simon with, but it was totally worth it. He met the moment head on. She was rewarded with the pleasure of seeing his gorgeous smile and a very gallant kiss on the hand and a lovely compliment. Only in his presence less than 10 seconds and her smile felt as if it was as wide as the the Grand Canyon is deep. "I will give you exactly the rest of my life to stop that," she chirped and then leaned over to kiss his cheek. She really wanted to kiss him proper, but a peck on the cheek was most likely what would register as proper in the current venue.

"I was afraid I was going to be late. I was deep into studying for my Transfiguration test. Would have been harder to find you once the game had started, methinks." Then she just stopped to look at him looking at her and she leaned over one more time to give him another peck, but this one was on the lips. "Yeah, that is right. Right on the lips in front of God and the whole Quidditch Stadium. Scandalous! It is your fault for being so irresistible," and she grinned while turning her attention to her enchanted satchel where she grabbed her water bottle.

It was just about then that she heard Dave greeting them. He had approached along the row from Simon's other side, and AngelFyre was happy to hear the excitement in Simon's voice. He offered his hand to Dave and AngelFyre watched with great interest to see if the handshake would be a normal one comprised of a couple of quick pumps or whether the two had worked out one of Simon's fabulously long, complicated handshake shows such as she had seen him perform with his friend Henry over her summer visit to London. That performance piece really had been a marvel to behold.

This handshake, however, was not that. Clearly the two had not practised. She giggled a little when Dave went along with it as best he could and finished by saying they really needed to work on it. She hoped he meant it and hoped they would. She was all for anything that would keep Simon grounded in the types of things that kept his mind in the light places and away from the dark doldrums he had been experiencing lately.

"Hi, Dave. Did you see the earlier match?" and her first thought was that one match was punishment enough. Who in their right mind would sit through two though?" And in that moment, Dave handed over his omnioculars to Simon, who politely handed them over to her because ladies first, of course, with her fellow.

She had heard students talk about these last year, but thought they might be pulling her leg. It was her muggle upbringing that had her think it. She should have known better. Magic could do remarkable stuff and had any number of remarkable gadgets. This gadget would slow down and even replay what could be seen through the lens during the game. She immediately put it up to her eyes and could see the few students flying practice rounds doing so in slow motion. "Oh, wow! This is so cool! Simon, if Haley does something particularly astounding, you are going to want to see it through these!"

She smiled over at Dave, "Thanks for sharing, Dave. I have never seen anything like it. These alone might make me a Quidditch fan. Question. I only hear people talk about omnioculars with respect to Quidditch. Would they work at a broom race?"

And then as if things could not get better, her fellow brought out a large container of popcorn from his enchanted satchel. Buttered by the look and smell of it. Then he blew her mind when he reached his hand in and grabbed some buttery kernels before popping them into his mouth. She was stunned. Honest. She teased him and put the back of her hand dramatically to his forehead, playfully checking for heat stroke. She took a handful of popcorn while handing the omnioculars over to him.

"Okay. Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?" she asked before tossing some kernels into the air and catching them expertly on her tongue.

AngelFyre - #17451b
Dave - #fff79e
Simon - #000080

After I had finished speaking, Simon said “Doing well, man, doing well. How about you? How've you been, Dave? What's up with you? I think we both want details about your date at the dance. Oh, and I say we let ladies go first.” after which AngelFyre said “Hi, Dave. Did you see the earlier match?” As Simon took the omnioculars before passing them to AngelFyre who immediately put them up to her eyes, I said “Yes I did watch the previous match and it was pretty fun experience considering that I had been there with Matthew, George, and Landen. We were rooting for Slytherin and the team didn’t disappoint.”

After looking through my omnioculars a bit, AngelFyre said “Oh, wow! This is so cool! Simon, if Hailee does something particularly astounding, you are going to want to see it through these!”. I replied saying “Yep, especially because they can show an instant replay if you want to, a feature I used multiple times during the last match. And they have the option of seeing things up to eight times slower if you want to.” “Thanks for sharing, Dave. I have never seen anything like it. These alone might make me a Quidditch fan.” Hearing that compliment made me very proud of my decision to make the five galleon purchase earlier this year. See, I had done a quite a number of freelance gigs over the summer and I had traded a huge chunk of my earnings at Gringotts in exchange for wizarding currency which had allowed me to purchase quite a few things, one of them being the ominoculars AngelFyre was using at the moment. “Question. I only hear people talk about omnioculars with respect to Quidditch. Would they work at a broom race?”. “Oh, yeah, and they not only work at quidditch matches or broom races, they work anywhere, including underwater if you want to use them there. Alright, I’ma be honest, I’m not sure if they work underwater, but they work everywhere else I’ve used them at so there’s that.”

All of a sudden, Simon pulled out a giant bucket of buttered popcorn, seemingly out of nowhere before saying “I'm sharing too if anyone should want some.”. Seeing this, AngelFyre dramatically put the back of her hand to Simon’s forehead to check his temperature. She then took a handful of popcorn from Simon’s bucket while handing the omnioculars over to him. “Okay. Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?” she asked me before tossing a bit of the popcorn into the air and catching them in her mouth, she had clearly had practice doing this.

“Me?” I asked dramatically. “I’m David Logan Matthew Patrick Howard and I am one of the most powerful wizards in the world who just so happens to be a metamorphmagus which is why you thought that I was only a young boy this whole time.” If AngelFyre remembered the first time we met, then she would hopefully remember the name I used when I first introduced myself her. I then continued by saying “And what kind of question is that? ‘What did you do to my boyfriend’?’ I bewitched him of course, even the average muggle would be able to see that.” I chuckled a bit before saying. “Nah, I didn’t bewitch him, he’s just in a good mood or something like that. And I’m pretty sure that if someone bewitched someone else, then the average muggle wouldn’t have a clue about it.”

I then picked a handful of popcorn for myself before gulping it down, just as the match started. The Hufflepuff chasers would score four goals before one of them would be knocked off of their brooms by of the Gryffindor beaters. Well that sucked, but at least we had forty points while Gryffindor had zero. I was was in a very cheery mood as we were winning, but then, Elena, the Gryffindor seeker dived down to catch the snitch. I quickly said “Gimmie!” before snatching the omnioculars from Simon to look be able to see the snitch better, but after a few moments, I realized that it was just a Wronski Feint. Luckily, Ethen, the Hufflepuff seeker wasn’t fooled by this and continued looking for the snitch. “Sorry about that Simon.” I said apologeticly before holding out the ominoculars in case he wanted to take them back. “I should’ve asked instead of snatching those away from you.”

As I turned around, I noticed one of the bludgers knocking two of the Hufflepuff players, Akemi and Rita off of their brooms and I instantly shouted out a “DAMMIT!” before putting some more popcorn into my mouth. “Two Hufflepuff players down, five left to go, this is really bad guys. I mean, we still have the benched players who can splay for them, but the situation is still bad.” And just when I thought that the situation couldn’t get worse, it did. See, moments later, Pax Zhang, one of the Gryffindor beaters and a person I had dueled earlier had sent his own bludger at Akemi and after hitting her, it went right for Ethen, the Hufflepuff Seeker who luckily, wasn’t knocked off his broom despite being damaged quite a bit. But this wasn’t the bad part however, the bad part being that Hailee, Simon’s ex and one of the Gryffindor chaser had decided to blanch Quinn, one of the Hufflepuff beaters.

Almost immediately, an uproar broke out as the sound of many “BOOO”s and “FOUL”s erupted from many of the spectators, me included, as we shouted our disapproval of Hailee’s actions and the girl was soon sent by the referee to ride a penalty lap around the Quidditch Pitch, along with Finnegan, another Gryffindor Chaser who had caught her after she was knocked off her broom by Quinn. “Serves her right!” I exclaimed before popping some more popcorn into my mouth. Hailee however, wasn’t the only Gryffindor doing the blatching during this match however, because Akari, the Gryffindor keeper had decided that it was a good idea to blatch Howard, one of the Hufflepuff chasers and while the latter managed to dodge, Akari was still awarded a penalty lap around the Quidditch Pitch for attempting to blatch another player. Honestly, what was up with the cheating from Gryffindor? They were like the Ravenclaws at the start of their match earlier today, except the Ravenclaws cheated less and scored more.
Mentioning @AngelFyre McCubbing and @Simon Kincaid.

Is it supposed to rain down Hufflepuffs, @Simon Kincaid and @David Howard?

Dang! Dave was not joking when he said things had taken a bad turn for the badgers. Seeing a giant, well technically a half-giant, fall from the sky was a scary thing. And the brutality it took to make it happen had been delivered by none other than Haley Rose. She did not come out of it without having paid a heavy price herself. Before he went down, Quinn sent a massively powerful bludger her way, knocking her off her broom as well. Where she got the better of the encounter is that one of her teammates saved her from crashing into good ol' terra firma. Quinn was not as lucky. The moment he hit, AngelFyre could have sworn she felt the ground beneath them shake. Of course, it was more likely shaking due to the extraordinary reaction from the fans. An equal number of Gryffindors would be cheering the cheaters on as the same number of Hufflepuffs would rise, stomping their feet, shouting out and declaring their displeasure at the dangerous antics.

She did not like the cheating, of course, but she had to give it to Haley. She was a ballsy character. Penalty laps seemed like too lenient a punishment for cheat moves that took two players out of the game in AngelFyre's opinion, but she was new to this game. Benching their keesters for the duration of the match would have been a penalty more befitting the crime, but that would actually act as a deterrent quite possibly. It struck her all of a sudden that deterrence was really not at all what the players, and most likely the fans, actually wanted.

AngelFyre looked over to Simon and grasped his hand. She knew where and on whom his focus was, and she could not blame him. It is a sickening feeling to watch helplessly as someone you love plummets to the ground. She knew that well enough herself from personal experience, unfortunately. Thank goodness he had been spared the image of seeing her actually hit.

When she took her seat after the excitement had died down, she looked across Simon and over to Dave. She did not want to make Simon feel self-conscious about anything he may be feeling in the moment, so she was trying to give him some space to process it all. "Okay. You have probably already forgotten more about the game of Quidditch than I currently know, so I ask you, Master David Logan Matthew Patrick Howard," and she chortled at the memory of addressing him as such upon their first meeting, "we have scored 40 on the board, but we are down three 1st string players. What do you see our chances to be?" And as she awaited Dave's reply, she gently squeezed Simon's hand while reaching for another handful of popcorn, hoping he was okay.

Attire: Usual weekend kit: Slytherin pride, neck ring, kilt, no shoes. Nothing fancy!

Reducio

Colin had no idea what quidditch was all about. He'd never been to a match, and never played it as a kid. The local sport of choice in his region was called camanacht, and that was played with balls and sticks whilst standing --- almost dancing really! --- upon enchanted cabers. Colin was actually pretty good at that! He reckoned quidditch must be similar. He knew there were goal hoops and players flew on brooms, but he didn't know if they surfed on their brooms or sat they way he did for racing.

Really all he knew about quidditch was that it was somewhat dangerous and his friends Pax, Keith and Alma would be playing in this match. Finn was a trickster and Pax was a fighter --- he could see them both playing quidditch well. But Alma was a different story. Apart from AngelFyre, she was probably the nicest Hufflepuff that ever wore yellow fringed school robes! Colin was certain that she'd be the one up in the air shouting "Excuse me!" and "So sorry about that! Are you okay?" whenever she knocked someone off their broom!

He could hear the cheers and the moans and gasps of thrill and excitement before he even got to the pitch. He had no idea what time the match was supposed to start, but obviously, they decided to begin before Colin chose to arrive. Oh well! He dashed up the steps of the stands and when he emerged, Colin found himself in the midst of a sea of Huffs. He wondered if he'd see Tes there, or even ---

Colin smiled. He could hear AngelFyre's voice nearby. She was engaged in an animated conversation with a boy. Wait. Was that Simon? He remembered meeting her beloved briefly last year. He didn't want to disturb them, so Colin just sat by himself on a stretch of empty bench. A bit of green and black in a sea of yellow.

He looked at the scoreboard, but couldn't tell who was winning. He did catch sight of a streak of yellow plummeting towards the ground, though! Now that was exciting! He didn't know who the poor player was, but he did recognise their replacement --- Alma Stoll! He was just in time to see one of his friends take to the sky above the pitch!

He looked around and spotted Pax! He knew she carried a stick. She was a drubber or bludgerer or something. All Colin knew was her job to knock people down! He couldn't find Finn anywhere --- Colin hoped he hadn't already knocked off his broom!

Open to interaction.
Mentions: @Pax Zhang | @Finnegan Conner | @Alma Stoll | @AngelFyre McCubbin