Making things interesting (the David thread) on Quidditch Pitch

Captain Daniel Nash (the Second)

June 23, 2011 11:39 AM

Aladren Practice/Try-Outs by Captain Daniel Nash (the Second)

Aladren had an amazing Quidditch season last year, and Daniel Nash hoped this year would be equally amazing. Samantha had decided to take a year off, which was disappointing because it meant he didn't have exactly the same team that dominated the season last year, but it was close. Kitty had signed up to fill the opening of Aladren's Only Girl, and David had been training as his reserve last year, so the loss of one player was not going to be debilitating for them. They still had a full team, a reserve, and a solid compliment of crazy Careys, a lunatic Layne, a psycho Stratford, and a nutty Nash.

He was already reasonably sure the try-outers included a mad McLevy (if her rapid fire questions at the Opening Feast were any indication), and while Wilkes hadn't yet proven to be wacko, Daniel felt confident that it would only take one real match for it to come out of last year's reserve. Everyone else on the team had demonstrated insanity last year, so it was probably contagious and David had been exposed.

Daniel waited on the pitch for his players to arrive, his own first class broom laying beside him with two Quaffles, and neat pile of four brand new brooms a little further beyond them. Most of his team had their own brooms, and most of his team (being Nashes, Careys, and Stratfords) had very good personal brooms. Daniel was pretty sure this was at least part of the reason they did so well last year. This year, they would all have top-of-the-line brooms. There was no rule against it, Daniel had the money to spare, and he really wanted to win again this year, since it was his final year at the school.

He wasn't above making sure his team had every advantage.

"Hello, everyone," he greeted, once they had all arrived. "I am Captain Daniel Nash. This is Assistant Captain Edmond Carey." He introduced himself and the oldest Carey to . . . Kitty. That was a change from last year when more than half of the team was first years.

"This is going to be a try-out. We have have eight people and seven spots. I liked our Chasing line-up last year, so that will be Arthur, Russell, and I again. Arnold won us both games, so he will be our Seeker again. Aladren dominated all other teams in Beating, so we've got Edmond and Preston returning there." Truthfully, that was mostly Edmond, but he doubted either Kitty or David would out-beater Preston. "That leaves Keeper open for the try-outs. So, let's put both of at either end of the Pitch." He pointed down toward hoops left of where he was standing, "David." Then he pointed to the right. "Kitty."

"Chasers will be passing two Quaffles amongst themselves and trying to score on both of you. Beaters will be supporting the Chasers and hitting practice bludgers at you. Practice bludgers are not quite as brutal as real bludgers, but they still sting pretty bad, so try not to get hit."

"Arnold, you're running your own drills, as usual. Your practice equipment is in the box." Daniel pointed to a box containing an actual snitch and some similarly sized golden practice balls that would randomly launch into the air and were intended to be caught before they hit the ground again.

"Preston and Edmond, practice bludgers are in the trunk," he pointed to an open trunk with two metal balls leashed inside. "Anyone who needs one, the Nash Family generously donated some top-of-the-line brooms to Aladren House, so feel free to borrow one." He pointed at the pile of brand new brooms and tried not to look too smug about it.

"Any questions about the try-outs?" He'd shared a room and classes with Quentin for too long to leave the offer to answer questions open-ended, and he was mildly afraid Kitty would be just as eager to take advantage.

Once any queries had been dealt with, he picked up his broom and one of the Quaffles, and announced, "Okay, let's get started. Everyone in the air." Once the two would-be keepers were on their way to their designated sides, Daniel threw one Quaffle to Arthur, then picked up the other and threw it to Russell. He pointed Russell toward Kitty and Arthur toward David. "Give them each a couple of straight shots first, then we'll start getting more complicated."

OOC:
Hello and welcome to Aladren Quidditch. To avoid a lot of repetitious posts, each Keeper can write a post where they try to defend their hoops from about five simple straight shots. You can assume the Chaser tries to make it reasonably difficult for you by using fake-outs or throwing to a hoop you're not directly in front of. But it's your call on how well you do.

Once those two posts go up, we'll start writing Chaser and Beater posts to make things more interesting. Arnold can go ahead and practice Seeking whenever he likes.

Any questions, drop me an OOC and I'll try to clarify.

Subthreads:

Finally! by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy

Off to a fairly good start. by David Wilkes

Making things interesting (the Kitty thread) by Captain Nash with Russell Layne, Daniel Nash, Kitty

Making things interesting (the David thread) by Captain Nash with Arthur and Edmond Carey, David Wilkes, Edmond and Arthur Carey

Practicing on my own by Arnold Carey

1 Captain Daniel Nash (the Second) Aladren Practice/Try-Outs 130 Captain Daniel Nash (the Second) 1 5

Katrina (Kitty) McLevy

June 23, 2011 1:22 PM

Finally! by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy

Kitty awoke with a huge yawn, stretching she rubbed at her eyes. Suddenly all the sleepiness vanished from the young girl as she nearly fell out of bed in her haste to get up. Yes! Try-outs are today, this is going to be the best day ever! Her excitement was almost a living thing in her chest as Kitty quickly braded up her fall of ebony curls, wanting to make sure that the dark mane didn’t get in her face at the wrong moment. Once that was done she pulled on navy blue t-shirt and some black shorts before practically running out the commons. She thought she heard someone tell her to slow down as she flung herself thought the library but Kitty didn’t even pause to look back. Quidditch try-outs were today and she was determined to make it on the team.

Slightly out of breath from running all the way to the Pitch Kitty grinned with delight when she saw Daniel. Next to him was a very large boy Daniel introduced as the Assistant Captain Edmond Carey. If possible she gave him an even bigger smile, sky blue eyes lighting with delight. After talking to Arnold for a while she decided that the Carey’s were an interesting family and she was sure Edmond would be so as well. His size also didn’t intimidate the tiny girl. Though to her it seemed like he was almost twice her height.

For someone as short as Kitty, everyone was taller, it was only by a matter of how much. That, and the fact that her dad resembled more a grizzly bear than a human being at times. Edmond next to her dad looked like nothing more than a gangly half grown wolf pup. Her brothers often teased her that she was her mother’s clone, because with her diminutive size there was no way that her dad could have been involved.

Kitty gave a happy little wave to Arnold as Daniel explained how the tryouts would go. She was a bit disappointed that the only position open was keeper, having played goalie before she thought it was rather boarding. But, Quidditch was not soccer by any stretch of the imagination so she was sure it would be way better. And if nothing else she still got to fly, which was better than just standing around waiting for the ball to come to her.

When Daniel asked if there were any questions Kitty held her tongue, normally she would have asked a few just to satisfy her own curiosity about…well everything. But, the sky was calling and flying was way better than questions could ever be. “New brooms?” Kitty squealed with delight as she went to grab one. With out second thought she took one of the new brooms, small fingers whispering over the wood as she grinned. New was always better than old and she couldn’t wait to see what it could do.

Instantly she was mounted and shot off towards the right. Her laughter carrying back to the team on the wind as she pushed the broom to almost break neck speeds, her braid whipping behind her like the lashing tail of an angry cat. The near recklessness of her flight would have made any teacher cringe with the knowledge that she was still a novice at flying even though she did it well. In a few short moments she was hovering in front of her goals, a huge grin on her face.

While Kitty got the feel of the new broom she noticed one of the boys headed her direction a Quaffle in hand. Bright blue eyes watched his every move, making note of his flying style and things she would shift in her own to better improve her skills. Moving fast it appeared the Quaffle was aimed for the left hoop and as Kitty dove in that direction the ball flew through the center. Glaring for a moment Kitty returned to her former position and waited for the next throw. This time she was better able to read his movements and didn’t fall for the feint, catching the ball in her seemingly delicate hands.

The third and forth were also caught well, though the forth required her to almost half lung off the broom to snag it before it made it to the hoop. And the fifth she just barely missed, the Quaffle grazing her fingertips and hitting the side of the ring still making it in. She was slightly out of breath, and grinning widely when she sat up. That wasn’t too bad at all, way more fun than soccer.

0 Katrina (Kitty) McLevy Finally! 0 Katrina (Kitty) McLevy 0 5

David Wilkes

June 23, 2011 2:57 PM

Off to a fairly good start. by David Wilkes

David had joined the Quidditch team mostly for the social aspect, and in that regard, it had not disappointed him too much. He still couldn’t call the guys there close friends, but he did feel like he knew people, now, and was able to conduct a smiles-and-greetings routine with most of the others as they arrived. He even included the girl, whose name he knew by default from glancing occasionally at the sign-up sheet before Daniel took it down, even though that meant introducing himself, which had never been something he really liked doing.

The speech was pretty straightforward, more or less what David had expected except for the revelation that Daniel’s family had bought brooms for the handful of them who were not very, very rich – a handful which included David, though he imagined his parents could have afforded a middle-of-the-line broom if they’d really wanted to and had known what to look for. These were a good improvement over even that sort of thing, though, never mind the school broom he’d been expecting to use, and his bench observation last year had been that Arnold’s speed had as much, if not more in the Final, to do with their victories as his skill, so he took Daniel up on the offer of a loan without feeling any particular reservations about it. Keeper was a sedentary position most of the time, but being able to move fast when the Chasers were coming seemed prudent.

He didn’t race to the left hoops the way Kitty raced to the right, but did move at a decent clip, impressed with how maneuverable the broom was. Once he was in place, he made a quick loop around the goals and between the right and center ones just to see if he could – an experiment which, to his satisfaction and relief, worked out the way he wanted it to. He had definitely gotten better at flying since last year, another benefit of Quidditch practices.

He wasn’t as sure what to think, upon turning around, about finding Arthur heading his way. Arthur was a good Chaser, no doubt about that after last year, but if David remembered right, he was at his best when he was working with someone else. That was how they’d scored their first goal against Crotalus in the final. How he’d do when it was just him was a little harder to tell. How long he’d stay solo was another question, too; he wasn’t totally sure, but it had sounded like the Chasers were going to start working together somehow, and that at some point the Beaters were going to start using him for target practice.

The first shot, trying to concentrate on everyone and everything, David nearly missed on a feint, but saved with the tips of his fingers. The second he saved more easily, but the third went past him. He had to fly fast over to another hoop for the fourth, wobbling on his broom for a moment before he regained his balance, and the fifth was another close save.

Then things started getting interesting.

16 David Wilkes Off to a fairly good start. 169 David Wilkes 0 5

Captain Nash

June 23, 2011 4:52 PM

Making things interesting (the Kitty thread) by Captain Nash

Granted, things weren't too complicated yet, but both potential keepers were doing well. Kitty only missed two and David saved all but one, so both had an over 50% save rate. David's first shot was saved only on the same slimmest of margins that Kitty's last shot was missed by; both touching only by fingertips. Both had slight issues with staying on the broom, but not so much that Daniel was worried about it. If they hadn't pressed their luck, they wouldn't have made those saves. He liked that both of them were going all out. It boded well.

Once each of them had tried to stop five shots, he called Arthur and Russell back to him in the middle of the pitch. Drawing them to a huddle, he explained his plan, far from where the Keepers could hear him. He let Arthur and Russell keep the Quaffles they already had.

"Russell, Preston, and I will head toward Kitty. Edmond and Arthur, you guys head for David. Make two shots at the keeper and then we'll switch sides and try the other Keeper. Edmond, I'll be relying on your observations and advice to help me pick the first string Keeper, so keep that in mind." That was also why he was sending Arthur with him instead of going himself in an attempt to keep the two group's experience levels about even; one of the captains should be in each group to observe the response.

"Questions?" he asked, in case the plan wasn't as simple as he thought it was.

"Okay, go."

He took his broom - which was equally as new as the ones he had donated to the team; buying it was what had given him the idea for purchasing the others - and headed toward Kitty, setting himself up for a pass.

\r\n\r\n\r\nOOC:\r\nSo this is Kitty's thread. It'll start with Daniel, Russell, and Preston for two shots, then switch to Arthur and Edmond for two shots.

0 Captain Nash Making things interesting (the Kitty thread) 0 Captain Nash 0 5

Captain Nash

June 23, 2011 4:53 PM

Making things interesting (the David thread) by Captain Nash

OOC:
\r\nSee also: Making things interesting (the Kitty thread)\r\n

\r\nStarts with Edmond and Arthur tag teaming David for two shots, then will switch to Daniel, Russell, and Preston for two shots.

0 Captain Nash Making things interesting (the David thread) 0 Captain Nash 0 5

Arthur and Edmond Carey

June 27, 2011 8:07 PM

Interesting is good by Arthur and Edmond Carey

He had not done as well as he might have liked to against Mr. Wilkes in the preliminary shooting stage, but it was a decent day to be outside and he felt well and had gotten his spot on the team back without having to fight for it, so Arthur was not going to complain too much about a minor matter like that. Nor was he going to be displeased to be assigned to work with Edmond. He was a little cross about not having another Chaser to support him – couldn’t they have at least loaned him Arnold for a while? His brother had spent all summer practicing Seeker, he really was not going to lose his edge because he played another position for one day – but he supposed Edmond being able to decimate most things with relative ease was supposed to be compensation for this, and besides, he might well end up without any backup, not even a Beater, in a game, so it was just as well to get used to it.

The fact that he and Edmond were supposed to be family didn’t occur to him as a reason for their partnership. He had been a little overawed at first, last year, but after months and months of regular exposure, he didn’t really think of Edmond that way anymore. The family was a distant thing here, and the blood relationship between them was more distant than that. It occurred to him that they were both Careys as they received their assignment, but he thought it was an oversight of Captain Nash’s, not a deliberate plan.

It also made him think of how things were going to be next year, when Edmond was Captain Carey. Would he be able to give Arnold and Arthur back their places because he knew they had it in them, or would that be seen as nepotism, forcing an elaborate tryout and their cousin to judge them more harshly than he would anyone else? And he couldn’t hope that no one came out, that wasn’t in the best interests of the team, they needed reserves…..

“Hitting a Bludger at him while I try to score is predictable,” Arthur told Edmond, putting the problem aside for now. “But it’s effective. You could try to take him out from further out, too.”

Edmond, to his credit, managed to suppress the surprise and amusement Arthur knew he must have felt over having strategy discussed by a second year. “Those are valid points,” he said calmly. “Are you planning to rush him, or shoot from a distance?”

Because Arthur’s distance from the hoops would affect what Edmond could do with the ‘Bludger’ without hitting his Chaser as well as or instead of the Keeper candidate. “I think I’ll go in close, but coming down from above,” he said. Edmond nodded his acceptance and flew off ahead – a preliminary attack, to either hit David or at least put him off balance while Arthur moved in, so he couldn’t keep his eyes fixed on Arthur all the way down. Not quite as good as having someone to pass with, but it would do.

Arthur didn’t look to see if the tactic succeeded, though Edmond only just arrived and carried it out before Arthur showed up, flying high and descending toward the middle before pulling away to the goal post that looked furthest from David and taking the first shot.

0 Arthur and Edmond Carey Interesting is good 0 Arthur and Edmond Carey 0 5

David Wilkes

June 29, 2011 6:48 PM

Says you. by David Wilkes

On the bright side, David only had one Chaser to deal with. No passes, no watching everyone in case of passes even if they never came, none of that stuff that could make things harder. The new kid had two Chasers, and so all of that to think through.

On the not-so-bright side, he had Edmond to deal with. He would have rather taken the two Chasers. Yeah, Daniel was pretty much by definition going to be harder to beat than Arthur, but the nature of the practice Bludgers wasn’t quite as comforting when he considered who was hitting them. Demelza Eagle was tall too, but Ed still won Intimidation Idol.

That nature was still some comfort, though. If the Bludgers had been real…Yeah, no. He was pretty sure knowing that they were on the side Edmond wasn’t deliberately going after had been a definite psychological advantage for the Aladren team in both of last year’s games, especially since only one of the school’s remaining seven other Beaters hadn’t been a first year.

He thought he might still have an advantage, though. There was only one Chaser, so he knew who to keep his eyes on. No sudden passing. No both Beaters teaming up on him and trying to take him out from both sides, if Edmond and Preston were good enough together to do that already and just hadn’t gotten the chance to demonstrate during last season, or Seeker diving down at him – well, okay, that was possible, especially since it was Arthur, but he also didn’t think Arnold had ever interfered with what Arthur did at the goals – or anything like that.

Oh. Bludger. And there went Arthur in the direction it had come from, the same direction David had just moved away from. Fun times. At least, though, he had been able to see exactly what the guy was doing instead of having to think in two or three directions at once. That helped. So did having a faster broom than usual, if he could manage to stay on it at its awesome good-broom speeds designed for the split-second advantage in a competitive flying activity. He went forward, hurrying in the direction of the shot, and, for lack of a more viable strategy presenting itself to him as he did so, he kicked the Quaffle away from the goal hoop. It hurt his foot a little, but it worked.

Now for round two…or seven, depending on he counted it. He thought he wanted to call it round seven. That sounded far more impressive, and made him feel like he was doing a lot better. If this was round seven, then he was up to five saves and one loss, which was a lot better than just one save. At least in his mind, and that was where he was hanging at the moment (well, sort of), so he guessed it was okay for him to call the shots there. No one was around to contradict him, anyway.

16 David Wilkes Says you. 169 David Wilkes 0 5

Russell Layne

June 30, 2011 12:06 AM

Here we go. by Russell Layne

By the time the initial trial for the Keepers was over, Russell still wasn’t sure how he felt about Daniel walking in with a bunch of super-expensive brooms to loan them, but he was willing to admit that they were pretty cool. If he had been more used to the one he was on, he thought he would have gotten even more past Kitty, and as it was, he’d still beaten her one time more than Arthur had beaten David. Though that might have had less to do with Russell’s skill as a Chaser than it did with David having a year of training and Kitty being an itsy-bitsy first year girl, he was still going to tentatively let himself have the point.

He did wonder, though, what it was about Arthur that made him the rival, the one he was bothering to count points against. It made more sense for it to be Arnold, the star, or even Preston, who was at least a little noisier. But it was Arthur Russell sometimes found himself, to his surprise, comparing himself to, and sometimes, he was sure Arnold and Preston – from his own social class, with the same over-the-top early education, one of them Arthur’s own brother - did the same thing. There was something weird about that to him, and not just because he usually wasn’t that competitive.

After the fifth shot, Daniel called him and Arthur back in, and Russell listened to the instructions for the second part and nodded that he understood and said, “None here,” when asked if they had questions. The plan sounded simple to him – test each Keeper against the teams, so he and Daniel would make two shots against Kitty, who was being assaulted by the crazy Beater, while Arthur made two against David, who was being assaulted by the big Beater, and then reverse it. It made sense to him, at least in concept, and he wouldn’t know about how it would work for him while they were carrying it out until they did.

He had the Quaffle, and Daniel didn’t seem to want it back right away, so Russell began the run toward Kitty. He smiled a little to himself as he picked up speed, liking to feel the air on his face and in his hair. It would, he knew, get annoying if it went on too long, even flat-out uncomfortable, but at first, it was usually good, unless the wind was already blowing pretty hard when he got started. Today, though was a nice kind of day so far.

He approached the scoring area, but at the last moment he thought he could swing it passed to Daniel, who’d set himself up for it, and then pulled away left, hoping to distract Kitty from the actual person with the Quaffle. She should have been trying to keep an eye on both of them, so it would either work or backfire. He just had to wait and see which it was.

16 Russell Layne Here we go. 183 Russell Layne 0 5

Daniel Nash

July 07, 2011 12:59 PM

Taking a shot by Daniel Nash

Russell brought the Quaffle most of the way toward Kitty before making a solid yet sneaky pass. Daniel caught it easily, and he felt a moment's satisfaction with his decision to keep the Chasing team the same even as he immediately started moving right while Russell went left. Giving Kitty only a moment to realize the two chasers were threatening opposite hoops, Daniel then threw the Quaffle at the one he was moving toward.

In a later practice, he might try throwing back to Russell after Kitty had committed to Daniel's side, but right now he was just curious to see if she had tracked the Quaffle to the correct Chaser. This was, after all, the try-outs between a first year and a second year, not the practice before the final. He didn't need to get overly complicated just yet.

They were both doing reasonably well already, and Daniel felt confident that he wasn't going to be faced with a Nic Sawyer or Grayson Wright situation this year. Ideally, whichever one got chosen wouldn't have to do much anyway, but he didn't think he was going to need to specify to the Chasers that one of their main objectives was to keep the Quaffle far away from their own Keeper.

1 Daniel Nash Taking a shot 130 Daniel Nash 0 5

Kitty

July 07, 2011 10:52 PM

My turn! by Kitty

A Cheshire Cat grin dominated the small girl’s face as she watched three members of what would hopefully be her future team head her direction. Kitty couldn’t help but feel a bit smug that she had three while the other potential Keeper only had two. Excitement thrummed though her veins as she waited for the chasers to reach her. The wait…it was the wait that always made playing goalie, or in this case Keeper so difficult for the young girl.

Sharp blue eyes watched the red ball, excitement making Kitty fidget slightly on her broom as she watched the Chasers come closer still. She’d just begun to move to protect the hoop Russell was headed for when a flash of red made her hiss in annoyance as her older brother’s words rang in her head. Remember Kitty, always watch the ball. Don’t get lost in fancy foot work, if you keep your eye on the ball, you’ll be fine. Kitty cursed softly under her breath as she flipped and streaked towards the other goal. Just because the players were on brooms that was no excuse for her to get lost in fancy footwork, or in this case flying.

Sharp blue eyes narrowed as Kitty realized she was facing the same problem she had with the last shot Russell took. Her reach wasn’t long enough, the ball had been passed too quickly for her to get into place in time. Determination and what her brothers often labeled an insane competitive streak drove Kitty forward. She remembered some of the stunts she’d pulled on the broom during her first flying adventure and gave a wild grin.

Bringing her feet up Kitty looped them over the top of the broom with her ankles crossed, then in a move that would have any responsible adult pulling their hair out she straightened her left arm and pushed up with her ankles, bringing most of her body up off the broom. In that one instant the only thing holding her on the broom was the iron grip of her left hand as the rest of her slender body arched up and forward giving her an extra foot of reach. The Quaffle smacked hard against her right palm and Kitty batted the ball away from the hoop. Then, in a move that would make any male watching cringe she unlocked her legs and fell down onto the broom once more, a triumphant grin curling her lips.

0 Kitty My turn! 0 Kitty 0 5

Edmond and Arthur Carey

July 08, 2011 12:48 AM

So say we both by Edmond and Arthur Carey

Edmond had, as was proper for the assistant captain, arrived early to tryouts, and had been amused, if almost a little stunned, to see the new brooms. He had also begun to wonder seriously for the first time just how wealthy Daniel was, but hadn’t asked, even with the mental image of what Morgaine’s face would have looked like if he had asked her to make such a gesture. It wasn’t a fair comparison anyway. Getting North Carolina had saved her from financial ruin, but watching her father lose the majority of their fortune along with his sanity bit by bit while she was growing up had made Morgaine peculiar about money.

He was pointedly pleasant and cheerful. After last year, he thought it might be wise to seem so. He was aware that he had not…been seen in the best light by most people in the first few months after Julia’s death. Hadn’t really been himself at all, in fact. He couldn’t make much of his behavior make sense in retrospect. He thought he had been acting unwell, and while he knew more of it than others did because he had possessed just enough self control to not go completely to pieces, he could see that there wasn’t much for it but to act the opposite as much as possible now and hope people wouldn’t trust their own memories. As far as he could tell, memory was just unreliable enough, while it was still in someone’s head, for it to perhaps be possible.

There was only one new player, but he smiled pleasantly at her when Daniel introduced the two of them. She was a tiny little thing, so he didn’t expect her to be much use if the Bludger game got hot – one hit would most likely take her out – but every little bit helped. He was mildly surprised by how well she did during the first round, but then reminded himself he was being foolish. This was the Aladren team. They were Aladrens. Most of them were good at whatever it pleased them to be good at.

In the second round, he and Preston got into it. “Very good,” he called out to David when the younger boy made the first save. Arthur gave him a slightly cross look as he took the Quaffle back, but Edmond ignored this. They were all on the same team here, after all, even if they were temporarily working against each other, and he knew Arthur was a perfectly competent Chaser. Commenting that a Keeper had done well was more of a compliment to the Keeper than a slight to any of the Aladren Chasers.

Arthur took a simpler strategy the second time, going straight for the center and then pulling away and throwing toward the right, looping back out of the scoring area as he did. Pretty simple. Edmond was curious to see if it worked.

0 Edmond and Arthur Carey So say we both 0 Edmond and Arthur Carey 0 5

Arnold Carey

July 08, 2011 1:13 AM

Practicing on my own by Arnold Carey

Arnold hadn’t felt nervous, really, going into Quidditch practice because of his certainty that his position was secure, so he was surprised to feel a little relieved when Captain Nash confirmed that for him. He guessed being on the team, having that responsibility for how things went for them, meant more to him than he had thought at first.

Everyone else turned up except for Samantha Hamilton, which made him frown, confused, and look around as though expecting her to step out of hiding as the captain’s speech began and it became apparent that she wasn’t coming. Why wasn’t she, he wondered? She had blocked goals last year. She was most likely a better Keeper than David, the guy who hadn’t even really tried to get a real position last year, or Kitty, the tiny Muggleborn, could be. This wasn’t really good.

Still, he smiled slightly and lifted his hand in a return wave when he saw Kitty do so. It wasn’t her fault the team’s former only girl had left or been banned by parents or something like that, and while she was a little talkative, she wasn’t that bad really. Not enough for him to be unpleasant at this stage, anyway. Arnold didn’t particularly like to argue and fight with other people if he could avoid it. There were some issues where it was just necessary, no question, no doubt, and she might have very well been toeing the line already if she’d been a boy, but she was a girl, so she wasn’t nearly there yet. Plus, he was pretty sure she was just ignorant, not trying to give offense.

He really hoped she stayed away from Arthur, though.

While the rest of the team began doing things with Quaffles, Arnold took off into the air, starting out with the practice balls before he took out the real Golden Snitch. He had played with a Snitch over the summer, most notably at the family game, but that hadn’t really counted as practice since he had been allowed to hex the other players and they had hexed him even worse, and at home, he hadn’t had a Pitch with a bunch of people on it to interact with. It would be better for him to warm up a little bit and then bring in the real ball.

The first practice ball game along easily, though, and while the second shot far away from him and was getting closer to the ground than he liked by the time he caught up with it, he got it, too. He wondered if he could persuade the set to throw out two at once so he could see if he could get them both before they hit the ground. That had no bearing on the game – though he might suggest it at the next Reunion; two-Snitch Quidditch sounded like it had potential – but it was more of a challenge for him, to see how fast he could really go when he needed to and wanted to for some reason.

0 Arnold Carey Practicing on my own 181 Arnold Carey 0 5