A pep talk for John U on Quidditch Pitch

Captain Anthony Carey

February 01, 2015 12:49 AM

Aladren Tryouts! by Captain Anthony Carey

Anthony had hoped to have a reserve or two who’d actually been Sorted into his House this year, but since the Aladren team had made at all, he decided it was wisest not to be too disappointed. Asking for too much was never wise, and it was enough that at least they were going to have enough players to field a team without Jay. It felt a bit like pushing it to assume they could still win without him to defend Clark and foil Annabelle Pierce, after all, so asking any more than that was all but also asking bad luck to strike.

“Good afternoon, everyone,” he said, smiling pleasantly, looking around to see if they had any walk-ons. “Most of us know each other, but we should be welcoming John Spencer to our ranks today, so if you could raise your hand, John…” He had decided against mentioning that they now had two Johns yet and hoped that John and John could settle who got to keep his first name between themselves, or that the rest of the team would default to a nickname or surname for one or the other without Anthony officially settling it anyway. “I’m Anthony Carey, the captain, and this - “ he gestured toward Francesca, though he thought it was probably very obvious to anyone who’d read the list who she was - “is my assistant captain, Francesca Wolseithcrafte.”

And with that, he cleared the first hurdle. “We do have a position to sort out,” he acknowledged, “which two people have volunteered for. Right now, everyone fly three laps to warm up - “ the decision was going to involve some politics, but he really did need to see how John Spencer flew before he decided anything else - “and then we’ll start working on that.”

If one John knocked the other off his broom, the one still upright would win the right to his first name and whichever position he wanted. More likely, though, Anthony would have to settle at least the second question.

He had been surprised and originally a little scared when he saw John Umland had volunteered for Beater, but once he got past his initial horror at the thought of John sailing through the air with his head in the clouds and a club in his hand and other people within a mile of him at the time, he had started to see some merit in the idea. For one thing, it would get John Umland out of the Chasing formation and made him someone else’s - namely, Leonidas Bennett’s - problem. For another, John had apparently gone to archery club all last year and not killed anybody, so it was possible that his ability with ranged weapons was better than his ability to Chase. The problem, though, even if John was good with the bat, or at least better than it than he was with a Quaffle, was that Pecari was still their most likely opponent and usually attracted more pureblood girls than the others did even if they had teams. Logically, it made no difference if the person putting a Pierce twin or one of those younger girls in the hospital wing was Jay or John and Anthony knew that, but it just felt...more wrong, somehow, to think of John doing so.

On the other hand, John Spencer was almost certainly related to the Pecari captains. Aside from relations between the Carey and Princeton families not being overly warm these days anyway - the Princetons rejecting his cousin Theresa was objectively completely understandable, the Careys would not have been too happy to welcome a girl who’d showed Theresa's poor level of self-control into their ranks, either, but it had inconvenienced them enough that they weren’t likely to help the Princetons with whatever their objective in America was unless the Princetons did a little groveling first, and maybe threw a husband for Theresa into the deal - the fact remained that House did not come before blood. His cousin Malcolm had simply told Anthony everyone who’d signed up for Pecari’s team without Anthony even asking and he and Mal weren’t even that closely related. What if John Spencer was really here to spy on him for Rupert and Adam? Keeping him away from the Chasers would be the best bet if that was so, to give Pecari the least amount of information possible about what formations and strategies Aladren knew best….

“All right,” he said once they were all back on the ground, resigning himself to deciding on skill and then just praying that the politics didn’t somehow blow up in his face, “to start with, Leonidas, why don’t you give Mr. Umland a Beating lesson - er, let's start with one of the less lethal balls - while Mr. Spencer works with Francesca? We’ll switch in fifteen minutes and see how well they do with each position. Clark, just practice with the Snitch now if you want, we’ve got plenty of time to practice with the Beaters once we figure out who they are. Theodore, we’ll have whoever’s Chasing take a few shots at you once they're through passing, block everything you can. All right, everyone?”

As they sorted themselves out, he looked over John Spencer. He needed to watch everything, which made their lack of a reserve here as much of a problem as it was going to be for the Beaters. With more people, they could have let the Beaters practice maiming people a lot more freely and introduced more realistic play for Chaser practice, but as it was, they’d have to just hope Clark didn’t take any head injuries in the last practices before games and do the best they could with everyone else. And maybe spend some time in MARS, if they could reserve the sports room; he’d have to ask Professor Olivers.

“Francesca, you know the drill,” he said. “Pass from above, below, ahead - however you like,” he said. “I’d like to see you try passing to Francesca at least once before you try to score, too,” he added to John Spencer. “Fly your best – I want a complete view of your skills going forward.” He tossed the Quaffle to Francesca. “Good luck.”

OOC: Walk-ons are welcome – just assume Anthony asked for names at the beginning and then added extra Chasers to the scrimmage, sent Beaters to a lesson with Leonidas, or Seekers and Keepers to Clark and Theodore. Creativity and realism are, as always, what we want to see in all posts.

Subthreads:

A pep talk for John U by Theodore Wolseithcrafte

Going by Jack. by Jack Spencer with Francesca

Trying new things with Leonidas. by John Umland with Leonidas Bennett

On my own by Clark Dill

0 Captain Anthony Carey Aladren Tryouts! 0 Captain Anthony Carey 1 5

Theodore Wolseithcrafte

February 02, 2015 8:53 AM

A pep talk for John U by Theodore Wolseithcrafte

John Umland wasn’t really that much of a problem, as far as Theodore was concerned - he was simply new, with all the inexperience that came with it. He didn’t really know how the rest of the team felt and had no indication the level to which their captain despaired (Francesca had been limited in her comments - John needed work and was the weakest link in the chain, but those were fairly accurate summations, without necessarily implying she wanted rid of him in any way). However, John’s sudden indecision over his position made Theodore wonder what the lad himself thought…. Perhaps John carried the mistakes of his first year rather heavier than he needed to - especially easy to do when everyone else playing it was older and more experienced, giving a false impression of how good one should be. The morning of the tryouts, Theodore took the liberty of joining the younger boy at the Aladren table.

“Now, perhaps the position of Beater has always deeply appealed to you and you were simply waiting for it to be available,” he began, without the unnecessary ‘good morning’ or ‘Mmm, that looks like a nice whatever-you-eating.’ “Or perhaps you made a few mistakes last year, freaked out and are now position jumping. You will always make mistakes. Even if you stick at a position for seven years or go pro. You will make mistakes and then you can either learn from them, carry on blindly or jump to something new. You strike me as someone with a higher than average capacity the former, which probably puts you ahead of ninety percent of the Quidditch players I’ve known.” He was willing to be drawn on the subject should John desire but did not have much more to add. He didn’t want to pressure John to rejoin the Chasers if he didn’t feel comfortable but he felt that one or two fumbles in his first year of playing were not a good reason for him to reject it outright. Theodore trusted the boy’s logic to reach a reasonable conclusion, perhaps just needing a little encouragement to steer him back onto the right track, though of course now it would ultimately be up to Anthony and Francesca.

He joined the rest of the team for the tryouts, starting with the warm up laps. He took them at a steady pace. A Keeper needed to be quick in terms of reflexes and agile in flying. Whilst being comfortable with going fast was bound to help a little, it wasn’t the be all and end all. He focussed his attention on hugging the curve of the pitch as tightly as possible to show his precision, rather than simply racing everyone.

The remainder of his role was fairly straightforward, especially as no one else had their eye on his position. He could refamiliarise himself with his territory, and his own body within it - he had grown a considerable amount of the summer, which was, in the long run, an advantage for a Keeper but a little bit of an inconvenience as he adjusted to how his weight and centre of gravity had altered, and where exactly in space and time all his limbs were and could be at any given moment. He could also get a feel for the conditions and keep an eye on how the Chaser trials were fairing before they started coming at him.

He made some laps of the hoops, having to slow and correct a few times as he found the alterations to the margins of how close he could get, or how much more he needed to tuck his body in.

13 Theodore Wolseithcrafte A pep talk for John U 270 Theodore Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Jack Spencer

February 03, 2015 5:01 PM

Going by Jack. by Jack Spencer

Apparently Jack was the only first year trying out for Aladren. It was somewhat intimidating to be surrounded by players who were more experienced than him, but he knew this would be a fantastic learning opportunity. After all, the team could only be slowed down by their weakest player - the eleven-year-old, undoubtedly - and Jack was a quick learner. He knew how Quidditch work and he could use that to his advantage.

Jack noted that the assistant captain was the only witch on the team. He wondered briefly why she had decided to join in the first place, but he realised and recognised her as his older brother's friend. Francesca was her name, the one who still considered Adam a friend. Jack felt his stomach sink slightly. It seemed as though he'd be cursed to be the little brother until Adam and Charlotte graduated. Nevertheless, he'd prove that he could stand on his own without his older siblings. Once he felt confident enough, that is.

It was very strange hearing his full name being spoken out loud by someone who wasn't old and decrepit. There were two John's on the team, but Jack never wanted to hear his peers call him by his given name. His parents had encouraged him to establish himself as John first, to keep from confusing the professors, but Jack didn't think he liked it very much. He'd never been called 'John' in his life except by the adults who didn't care for nicknames. Jack stayed silent, however, for the time being and joined the others in flying laps around the pitch.

He was a good flyer; he'd never flown laps around the pitch like this, but he'd flown his toy broom in secret back home when his mother wasn't watching. He'd only received a real broom when Adam gave away his used one, and that was the broom Jack was using now. He was a confident flyer, though not as quick as the others. It was different flying in a group rather than in solitude, but it was something he would have to get used to. He'd seen professionals do it all the time.

Once the laps were finished, he listened to the instructions, looking over once with dread at his brother's friend. No doubt Francesca would tell Adam all about how he'd done during the try-outs. Jack would have to work hard to prove himself, and already he felt the burden. After Anthony had dismissed them, Jack went up to him quickly. "I go by Jack, by the way," he said. "John's too formal for me."

With that, he walked over to Francesca, wondering whether his flying skills would be adequate enough to be a Chaser. Chasers had to be fast and agile on their brooms, both of which Jack was not. "I go by Jack," he said to Francesca, a phrase he was sure he'd repeat often now that everyone knew him as 'John'. At the very least it would clear up the potential confusion having two 'John's' on the team. "What shall I do first?" he asked.

40 Jack Spencer Going by Jack. 299 Jack Spencer 0 5

John Umland

February 04, 2015 2:38 PM

Trying new things with Leonidas. by John Umland

John had not had much on his mind besides regretting the amount of honey he’d put in his tea when Theodore Wolseithcrafte approached him at breakfast. When Theodore started talking, he briefly found himself with even less on his mind, a bit occupied with being surprised. The last time they had spoken, after all, Theodore had made a point of reminding John that the odds of them speaking were low enough that the sight of John was likely to make people specifically looking for Theodore assume the person he was talking to was not Theodore without even checking. He wanted to ask which book Theodore planned to use as a helmet today, but since their interaction at the Ball had not actually been hostile, a day could not end well if it began with him getting hexed on less than one cup of tea, and Theodore’s failure to engage in conventional greetings meant not having a good opening for it anyway, he kept this thought to himself.

Instead, he replied to the speech with, “Uh - thanks.” He took a sip of his too-sweet tea. Weak-based and apricot-flavored. The kitchens had to be crazy. “Assuming you've known under a hundred Quidditch players and most of them were of at least average intelligence,” he added. If the percentage was accurate, then either Theodore knew over a hundred Quidditch players (there were five besides him and Theodore on the team right now and others who had graduated before John started school but after Theodore did, meaning there had likely been more than ten Aladren Quidditch players in the total) or he thought John was smarter, at least in some ways, than some, maybe even most, of their teammates. That would almost certainly be an unambiguous compliment. He was not sure how to deal with one of those and so decided to assume Theodore was just saying numbers that meant nothing. “But both of - neither of your hypotheses is correct,” he continued matter-of-factly. “I’m being adaptable.” He struggled to find useful sentences quickly. “Quodpot’s my dad’s game. Quidditch is new. I took Chaser last year because that was the open slot. If New John’s better at it….” John shrugged. “Greater good, yeah? The objective’s to score more points than the Pecaris. I don't really care how.”

The fourth year was, he thought later as the team gathered, an interesting one. When he'd thought about it in the summer or the past few weeks, John had been mildly anxious about the prospect of running into him this year, thinking he might want to over-compensate for his possibly-drug-induced behavior at the Ball and act very much like a Real Rich Pureblood Man so no-one questioned that he was one. Instead of taking that path, though, and being predictable in the dullest way possible, he had engaged in more behavior John had not interpreted as hostile. Theodore’s behavior was strange, not typical of his age or kind, but non-threatening; John had been baffled (yes, they clearly had some things in common, but the things they didn’t have in common meant that being on the same team while said team needed John just to make numbers was really the only reason for Theodore to be even civil to him, and civility between people with their backgrounds did not usually, he was pretty sure, extend to seeking him out when he didn't have to, much less to complimenting him), but not worried.

Of course, he could have just read it all wrong. If Theodore was actually out to get him for some reason, he was definitely smart enough to pretend to be friendly in order to lure John into a trap which ended in public humiliation, half the team (he assumed they’d leave Francesca out and probably Clark as well, though they might gain additional amusement from playing ‘let’s make a deal’ with him and Clark, seeing who, offered the chance to avoid being beaten up himself, would turn on the other and join the rest of them first) assaulting him, or both; it would only work once, but John didn’t even want to deal with that. Occasionally, his books taught him lessons relevant to someone who didn’t have a sword or a government job, and one of them was never trust the odd rich person offering you compliments for no obvious reason.

He knew that. It was good advice. But....

He decided to stop thinking about it, at least for now (he would, now that he was definitely a puzzle, observe the subject further, but Theodore wasn't really doing anything interesting right now and there were other things going on that he needed to pay attention to), in favor of putting a face to New John’s name. John was happy enough to go by his last name if necessary - he valued his surname more than his given one because he'd gotten 'Umland' from his parents and 'John' had just been a whim of his biological mother's; he had no objection to his confirmation name, either, but people would see switching to that as weird and even more confusing and then they'd probably just end up with another Thomas on the team next year anyway - but just nodded in the new guy's direction for now and then flew around the Pitch. His broom belonged to the school, but it flew well enough for him.

Then he decided to provide data quickly. “Hello,” he said to Leon. “I’ve never hit a Bludger before, but I have played a game where you hit a ball with a bat before, if that’s useful information.” He wasn’t sure any of his teammates besides Clark would have ever heard of baseball; longer bat, lighter ball, and he hadn’t been on a proper team or in a full-length game before, but he had hit a pretty fast-moving ball with a bat before.

16 John Umland Trying new things with Leonidas. 285 John Umland 0 5

Clark Dill

February 06, 2015 10:40 AM

On my own by Clark Dill

Clark Dill was still getting used to thinking about himself as an Intermediate student. This was more pronounced during the Aladren Quidditch Try-Outs than he'd thought it would be. As there had been no Quidditch his first year, it was only Clark's second year on the team, and it struck him as particularly odd suddenly as he stood on the pitch that he wasn't in any of John Umland's classes this year and there was a new John he'd never seen before. (Well, presumably, Clark had seen him get Sorted, but a blue skinned kid you only saw from a distance looks rather different than a guy with a normal skin tone who you see standing only a few feet away.)

In spite of his graduation to the next level of classes, he found himself chosing a spot to stand that was closer to Umland than to, say, Theodore, largely because he still viewed John as his peer moreso than the older Intermediates.

At least, Clark hoped it was an age peer-ship he was clinging to, rather than a subconscious acknowledgement that Clark and Umland were of a different social class than the rest of the team. Clark liked to imagine such things didn't matter to *him* even if it did influence the others. Okay, yes, he avoided his roommate, who seemed to be the worst sort of rich entitled folk, to the best of his ability, but that was just self-preservation. It shouldn't matter here on the Pitch.

Fortunately, Anthony soon got things started and Clark could just focus on the practice. Clark flew his three laps casually, not pushing himself too hard, but keeping up with the other players. As he always did, he rode a school broom. This one looked like it had been a really good one once upon a time, but time had taken some of its luster away. He made a note to try to find it again for future practices and matches, and maybe administer some meticulous maintenance to it. It still probably wouldn't outperform Annabelle Pierce's broom, but it might come closer than any of the other school brooms he'd tried so far.

Once the laps were over, Clark headed off alone to practice his Snitch hunting. He'd been pretty sure his position was safe after his double win last year, but it was made infinitely more safe by nobody else trying out for it. He found and released the snitch, closed his eyes and counted to twenty to give it a head start, then kicked off into the air again. "Ready or not, here I come," he mumbled under his breath, unable to resist the illusion that he was playing hide and seek with the golden alien.

He started with a basic scouting pattern, crisscrossing the pitch in a precise manner calculated to help him cover ground quickly and thoroughly. He varied his pace slightly, testing his broom's capabilities, and getting used to the feel of having one under him again. He'd flown a little over the summer, with a broom older and more battered than even the school brooms, but as he lived in a muggle neighborhood, it didn't happen as often as it did during school.

1 Clark Dill On my own 277 Clark Dill 0 5

Leonidas Bennett

February 07, 2015 1:20 AM

Hoping for the best by Leonidas Bennett

Anthony was, Leo thought as he collected his bat, a lot wilder an optimist than he had any right to be if he’d thought there was even a chance that Leo was going to start either of his prospective partners off with a real Bludger. He valued his life highly and did not even dislike any of his classes enough to think spending a week in the hospital wing was a better idea than going to any of them. Eventually, one of the beginner boys would be chosen to replace Jay and they’d all be in danger until someone named John figured out which end of the bat to hit the Bludger with, but he’d do what he could to minimize the risk.

He was seriously considering approaching Anthony and Francesca and asking for a say in which of them it was. The captain and his assistant were good at what they did, but Chasing was a completely different skill set, and he doubted either of them would really be much more proficient with the bat than he expected Umland and Spencer to be. He knew what a decent Beater, or at least someone who might turn into one, looked like, or at least most likely had a better idea than Anthony and Francesca did. It was possible neither of them had even tried the position out before. It would horrify his mother, but apparently, Anthony and Jay were a completely different kind of Carey than the ones Uncle Vic and Aunt Katherine had had some dealings with more than a decade ago, and he doubted that even the bad ones would go to the trouble of rendering him incapable of going outside without a minder just for making a valid point about a Quidditch appointment….

For now, he looked his first charge of the day over and was mildly surprised when Umland started talking. “It could be,” he said, wondering what game this was and if it was some Muggle thing. He knew Umland at least had a sister who was magical, a Teppenpaw who’d been in his classes last year and might have been pretty if she’d known how to dress, but since even Muggleborns occasionally had magical siblings, that really didn’t tell him anything about either Umland. He couldn’t think of a magical game that involved hitting anything but Bludgers with a bat, though, so it was probably some Muggle game either way. Leo highly doubted that anything Muggles could do was going to be useful on the Pitch, but stranger things had happened.

“I’ll take this ball – “ he indicated a middle-sized non-flying ball, which he assumed normally went with a Muggle game and was here for use in flying lessons usually – “and make it fly,” he said. “You hit it with the bat. Not at me,” he added. Better to be as clear as possible. “This isn’t as heavy as a Bludger, but you might want to hold the bat two-handed when you swing anyway,” he added. “Just to get used to it.” He thought Umland could fly well enough to not fall off the broom, anyway, since the real problem with him last year had just been that he made really stupid decisions about which direction to point the broom in under the pressure of game conditions. Then he broke formation in really illogical ways and made it really hard for Leo to return him to his sister intact. “Hitting a Bludger one-handed isn’t impossible, but it’s not really a good strategy when you’re new to it.” Or in general, in his opinion, but it could work. He really doubted it would for Umland, though. He was hardly the burliest example of a twelve-year-old Leo had ever seen.

He kicked off for the second time, flew a distance away from Umland, and then turned back and threw the ball at him as hard as he could. If it fell, that might be Leo’s own fault, though he’d expect Umland to chase it; if it hit him in the face, then he was unlikely, if Leo did get a say, to get the position.

0 Leonidas Bennett Hoping for the best 269 Leonidas Bennett 0 5

Francesca

February 07, 2015 4:10 AM

Not "Adam's Brother"? by Francesca

Francesca was feeling relatively optimistic about the Quidditch team, in that they still had seven players and the possibility of filling all seven spots with everyone having what they wanted. It was always hard when someone left, and you were faced with the prospect of a first year where a seventh year had been, especially when that place was Beater, but they could be doing a lot worse. The new player was Adam’s brother too, which she suspected meant he wasn’t starting cold when it came to broomskills, unlike their other more recent recruits. Still, on that front, Clark was shaping up very nicely, having caught the Snitch in both matches last year, and John could only get better, she assumed. She tried not hold the poor decisions he’d made under pressure against him, in his first matches in a sport and even a way of travelling that were completely alien to him because she could logically see that that was unfair. However, he did rather highlight some of the feelings her family held about the issues in trying to integrate such types…. She assumed him to be Muggleborn, never having had a detailed conversation about his rather more complicated background and, as mother said, Muggleborns happened. They weren’t like halfbloods, where someone had deliberately turned their back on wizarding kind, and so she felt inclined to cut him a little slack, especially as he was better than being a player down. Still, whilst she could accept that it wasn’t really his fault that he existed and was less than useful (and, hopefully, that could change), she did sometimes find herself wondering why he had had to happen to her and her team.

Still, she got Little Spencer to start with, who introduced himself as Jack - something which rang a bell from her conversations with Adam.

“Good,” she smiled, “That will roll off a lot easier and faster than Little Spencer or Adam’s brother,” she joked. She didn’t really share Anthony’s worries of espionage. It wasn’t like she told Adam of their every move, in fact she was carefully selective, but they talked Quidditch. Friends did. Families did. It was part of the game. Knowing what your opponents were like and might be planning was very different to using that knowledge to foil them in midair. Besides, having the best friend’s little brother as a protegee was kind of fun. Again, whilst she didn’t dislike John-John per se, she couldn’t help but want Jack to outshine him in the Chaser stakes….

“Let’s get up in the air, and do some passes. Fly parallel to start with and do three side passes. Then I’ll move to let you pass forward, back, up and down. You set the pace you’re comfortable with and I’ll match your speed. Then we’ll go throw things at my brother,” she explained, nodding towards the Keeper’s hoops. “Depending on how we go, I might do a few passes where I set the pace or try to throw you, if I feel like I need to stretch you. Sound ok?”

OOC - feel free to assume that Francesca does as she says she will.

13 Francesca Not "Adam's Brother"? 250 Francesca 0 5

John Umland

February 08, 2015 12:46 PM

Always look on the bright side. by John Umland

John nodded at the cautious optimism. Hard, he guessed, to get much more specific when they probably weren't quite speaking the same language. "Let me look at this for a minute," he said, indicating the bat.

Like a baseball bat, it was a wooden club with a knob on the end to help its wielder hold onto it. Close examination proved it a little shorter than he'd thought and definitely much shorter and differently weighted and balanced than a baseball bat, and he thought it was going to be harder to use. He'd have to apply a lot of force over a short distance to get a Bludger where he wanted it to go, and given the amount of force he was capable of putting into it, he'd probably have to be pretty close to where he was aiming. A lot of the hit would, after all, just go into stopping the Bludger and changing the speed and direction of a heavy, fast-moving object; moving it in a new direction at any speed would require that he exert a good bit more force against the bat than the Bludger did in the moment of their meeting, and Bludgers were hardly lightweight targets. A longer bat, though, which was heavy enough to work on a fast-moving iron ball would probably be very heavy, and probably given to snapping, and incredibly awkward to use without hitting someone over the head every time he hit the Bludger. Fairly close-quarter Beating was the best he'd be able to do if put here.

Beaters, he thought as he took a slow, experimental swing to test the bat out, had a bit of a reputation as thugs, all brawn and no brains, but the better ones probably really did have a good understanding of basic physics. Their society was too primitive for most of them to have the vocabulary to express what they knew, but learning vocabulary was a lot easier than really understanding. Perhaps something to think about more later.

He nodded again when given instructions. "Okay," he said, and returned to the air.

Watching a ball someone else had was habit after the Chaser training in his first year, so having one thrown at him with little warning didn't throw him too much. He didn't have time to try to figure out an optimal strategy, but he hit it before it could hit him in the face and in a direction which was not his teammate's. It flew away from him pretty strongly, he thought, though he flew after it to catch it before it ran out of momentum and he had to go back to the ground to get it instead.

"Er - is there anything in particular I should aim at instead of you?" he asked as he returned, throwing the ball back toward Leonidas.

16 John Umland Always look on the bright side. 285 John Umland 0 5

Leonidas Bennett

February 08, 2015 11:35 PM

Easier said than done by Leonidas Bennett

Umland appeared interested in the bat itself, asking for a minute to study it and trying it out against the air. Leo really hoped he wasn’t thinking of a clever plan. The Quidditch pitch was not the place to be clever. Being clever here was a good way to experience the joys of a cracked skull and maybe take your own teammates with you instead of some of the opposing players, and never more than when you didn’t really know what you were doing. It was bad enough having him on the team, no doubt really entertaining the other Houses after all the years they’d spent resenting how good the Aladren team had been. If he took out half his own team, they would be laughingstocks. The bonding the rest of them did while killing him and making sure no one ever found the body wouldn’t be worth the years of being mocked whenever Bludgers came up.

When Leo threw the ball at his head, though, he hit it without any unnecessary ceremony or other efforts to make himself look like even more of a liability than he usually did. For a beginner, it wasn’t too bad, and he retrieved the ball without ending up on the ground or dropping the bat. Compared to the rest of the team, that was still like praising him for being able to walk and talk at the same time, but at least going after the ball showed some initiative.

So did asking for an extra challenge after just one hit and then throwing the ball back at Leo. Leo batted it away lightly and then flew forward to catch it as it fell. Initiative was good, and he got the feeling Umland really did want to learn. Those improved Leo’s opinion of him a little. But only a little. It would still have been so much easier if they’d had enough people to just ignore him completely, or at least if he could have coaxed Theodore into Beating so they could have put Umland in the goals and ignored him much as they did Dill, though that would have applied even if he’d been a better player. Socially, he thought the whole team would be a lot more comfortable if John and Clark were both off in their own little boxes where the rest of them did not have to deal with them. Even they would likely find that more agreeable, since they’d still have each other if they wanted company and wouldn’t have to surely be as uncomfortable around everyone else as everyone else was, he assumed, around them….

“That wasn’t too bad,” he said. “Now - “ he took out his wand - “I’m going to make it actually fly. Chase it, defend yourself from it - whatever’s more appropriate. I’ll move it around five or six times, work as fast as you can. You can hit it back toward me now.” Since he’d be in control of it, he wasn’t too worried about getting hit, and it wasn’t like that ball was going to break anything unless he had extremely bad luck anyway. He levitated it, started it left, then flicked his wand in the opposite direction, sending it flying right to start with. Next, he thought he’d make it ‘attack’ again, a little more aggressively than just the thrown ball had, and then see if he could get it to sneak up behind him, then make him fly sharply up and sharply down a time or two….

0 Leonidas Bennett Easier said than done 269 Leonidas Bennett 0 5

Jack Spencer

February 13, 2015 3:54 AM

Not if I can help it. by Jack Spencer

The witch’s joke didn’t roll off quite as easily as his name did off her tongue. Little Spencer sounded rather demeaning to his ears, but Jack did his best not to take offence. Clearly he would have to work hard to prove himself as Jack Spencer Extraordinaire instead of the tag-along brother, and he wasn’t going to shy away from the challenge. When Lily got here, he hoped she would be known as ‘Jack’s Little Sister’. It wouldn’t be fair if she got to make a name for herself simply by her odd clothing and stranger mannerisms.

Flying was something Jack could do confidently, and what he’d been practising often during Flying Lessons when Coach Olivers’s attention was on the lesser competent first years. Jack picked up the Quaffle and rose on his broom, squinting to see if Francesca’s brother looked like her. That meant there were three Wolseithcraftes at this school, and he’d met one during class. Funnily enough, their family was not unlike him and his siblings with an untidy little one soon to join.

Jack began to fly, setting the pace a little faster than he was comfortable. He wanted to challenge himself to do better whilst showing off just a bit at his competence in flying as an eleven-year-old. Though he had never played Quidditch on a pitch like this before, he hoped to give a good impression. The realisation that he was here at a team try-out hit him suddenly and Jack felt nervous, his stomach suddenly knotting up and his heartbeat picking up. He tried to ignore it, but he couldn’t help it. If he failed, what would his brother say? What would Francesca say to him, and what would Adam tell Charlotte? Jack flew halfway down the pitch without making a single pass, and he shook his head, trying to overcome his nerves. “Sorry,” he said, taking a deep breath before making his first pass. It was adequate; at the very least the Quaffle had made it to Francesca.

When she threw it back, Jack caught it awkwardly, almost dropping it before he tucked it under his arm. He felt embarrassed, but justified it by telling himself he’d never played the sport before, never mind the tossing of a Quaffle back and forth during Flying Lessons. He threw it back and caught it a little easier this time. The passes were getting a bit dull, but he needed to improve if he wanted a spot on the team. He was beginning to think he’d be a better Beater than Chaser, but it was up to Mr Carey or whoever put the team roster together. Jack was a bit anxious to try his hand at throwing a Quaffle at the hoops. He’d done a bit of that with his room-mate during his Flying lessons, but then he hadn’t had a knotted stomach.

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