Alistair felt a strong sense of pride as sat in his dormitory after the Opening Feast, writing out the Quidditch sign-up sheet for his own house so that he could put it up on the board in the common room. Although last year he had been Co-captain of the Teppalus team, this year was far more exciting as he felt he had more of a shot at being a captain on his own and just of Crotalus.
The second year’s natural handwriting was not particularly large and, although it looked fairly nice and neat, was nothing particularly eye catching. Now, however, Alistair took particular care in making the sign-up sheet large and bold, written in red ink with silver shadowing the header. He wanted everyone to notice it every time they entered the common room so that literally no Crotalus student could miss it and not know when the try-outs would be.
Crotalus Quidditch Sign-ups!
Sign below if you are interested in joining the Crotalus Quidditch team. Please give your name, year and desired position(s). Try-outs will be held on Saturday morning and walk ons will be welcome.
When finished, he looked at the sign-up sheet as it dried, a slight smile on his lips. He felt like a real Quidditch Captain now, all he needed was an actual team to captain and this was the only part that worried him. He thought he made a good captain and took his duties seriously but there was no point him having the qualities if he had no need to use them.
After the losses of last term, Alistair had considered switching to the position of Seeker, a position he thoroughly enjoyed and thought he was very good at. Whilst Uzume Shinohara proved decent enough at flying, her track record so far wasn’t all that great. But after further contemplation, Alistair had realized that it didn’t matter whether he was better than the Korean girl or not. If he took her position as Seeker, Shinohara would likely quit the team and he most definitely couldn’t afford that. It was for this reason that the Crotalus Captain wrote as an example:
Alistair Johnson, 2nd, Chaser.
He then took the sheet downstairs to the Crotalus common room and pinned it up on the house notice board. It was late evening by the time he did so but he wanted to put it up now so that everyone would see it in the morning, even if they got up before he did.
Subthreads:
Seconded. by Arne Reinhardt
If I have to. by Shinohara Uzume
Temporary insanity, I tell you. Nothing else. by Isaac Douglas
The idea of Crotalus forming a team and then that team potentially playing and then annihilating the Teppenpaw team was one that brought great joy to Arne's heart. However, as he ventured close to the sign-up sheet that Alistair Johnson of the Arizona Johnsons posted on the board, the only thing that he could really think about was the joy of flying through the air. When he was younger, Arne and Tobi had enjoyed playing a family invented version of lacrosse on broomsticks with their cousins on their mother's side and ever since then he had dreamed about playing wizarding sports.
The family on his father's side, however, did enjoy playing Quidditch greatly and as such Arne had grown to have a certain amount of respect for the game. Sports had always been something that Arne liked to do more so than Tobi. Though off the field his brother was the more cooperative one, Arne had always had the team mentality--that on the field, what was best for the team was what counted. In elementary school he'd always been one of the first outside for kickball or baseball, because despite being pureblood he had grown-up in a Muggle town attending Muggle elementary school. Basketball was never really something he had found himself get into but he was almost certain that when he reached middle school he would try out for the sport anyway since it was something active to do.
Arne's mother had always said that playing sports as a child was what kept his aggression at bay, and when he stopped playing that last year so that he could hang out in the workshop more, that aggression came back in full force. The thought was one that made Arne roll his eyes and run off in a very childlike manner, but it had made him decide to play summer baseball again so that he would have a reason to avoid Tobi around the house while he was home. Eating dinner with Alistair Johnson of the Arizona Johnsons, and talking with Valois in the Labyrinth Gardens the night before however had really driven the idea of being on a team again into Arne's head and so it was that when Arne woke up to start his day, he scribbled his name (along with the same position that his brother played because really, who wouldn't want to yeild a bat and be in charge of demonic balls when flying twenty plus feet up in the air?) in his untidy handwriting under that of Alistair Johnson of the Arizona Johnsons:
Arne Reinhardt, first year, beater
He was half-disappointed his was only the second name on the list because it meant that six names still had to sign up, but then again he figured it was only the morning and the other students still had until Saturday morning to put their names up.
Uzume hadn't planned on playing quidditch last year, only having done so because she wanted to ruffle Jamie-kun's feathers. However now she was faced with a crossroad: be the Seeker of a losing team with the chance of actually going against the Pecari boy, or give up and do something better with her time. She tapped the quill to her lower lip as she pondered her choices from the plush chair. Either way it could result in her peers viewing her as foolish, however if she really cared what they thought she would have actually been nice to them. However the idea of Jamie-kun reprimanding her for quitting irked her more than she would have liked. That boy really had a way of getting under her skin.
"I could always just walk on?" she thought to herself. Making their dear captain sweat a little would be pretty entertaining, but having to prove herself against some newbie trying to take her position would be much more annoying. "Fine," she huffed under her breath. "You win Quidditch." Standing up from her lounging position she walked over to the sign, examining the name of the foreign player. She wondered which Teppenpaw the boy belonged to, deciding after a moment that she hoped that this Reinhardt took after Tobi-kun rather than Liac-kun. She wasn't sure she could stand another Liac-kun.
Writing her name under Reinhardt-chan, she carefully scribbled her position, happy that the new Reinhardt wasn't hoping for her spot.
Shinohara Uzume, 3rd year, Seeker
With that she turned on her heel and headed off to dance practice. There wouldn't be too much time before she had to preform her ceremony, so she had to made sure all her movements were prefect. Even so she couldn't help but feel a little nervous, especially with the events of summer looming in the back of her mind. Shaking her head as if to dispel the troublesome thoughts, she grabbed her bag and headed off to the MARS room.
Temporary insanity, I tell you. Nothing else.
by Isaac Douglas
Being on the Quidditch team in his fourth year was not something Isaac had enjoyed. He had been terrified during the games and humiliated whenever he thought about it during the time between games, sure that all of his classmates were laughing at him for being subordinate to a pair of first years, one of them a Teppenpaw. He had somehow managed not to outright disgrace himself during either game, he thought, which was something, but overall, it had not been one of his favorite life experiences. It was just something he’d had to do to make the right impression on Skies, make sure she thought he was a team player and all. A necessary sacrifice. If his half-sisters could make sacrifices for their ambitions, he could, too. Weren’t men supposed to be tougher than women anyway, at least in most cases? Right, then.
So he had endured it last year, and sworn he would never do it again once he had his prefect’s badge. He now had it, and since he thought he had a snowball’s chance in the desert of making Head Boy, he no longer really needed to make himself suffer more than the duties that went with the prefect’s badge already ensured he would. From what he’d heard, Teppenpaw was doing well enough that the Teppalus team could reform without him. There was no reason, no reason at all, for him to sign back up for Quidditch.
He signed back up for Quidditch.
The next day, he checked back just to make sure he hadn’t dreamed it, but no, there it was in black and white: Isaac Douglas, 5th, Chaser. He walked away quickly, a little worried. If he was already giving in to fits of temporary insanity this early into fifth year, what chance did he have of even making it to CATS?
16Isaac DouglasTemporary insanity, I tell you. Nothing else.273Isaac Douglas05