It’s Quidditch Time! – By Lumos and Nox
Gryffindor V Hufflepuff – 560 – 460
And so, another Game Day has arrived.
This one being the encounter of the two fluffiest animals in the Castle: Badgers vs Lions.
Will there be blood? Will players from both teams end up with scratches, bruises and the potential ground for suing their opponents? -These writers highly recommend going against this path; unless the reward is chocolate frogs instead of Galleons… In that case, well, maybe?
Find out in the future lines of this amazing article -Brought to you by our lovely Owl Post.
For now, a brief insight on how things are within the current season:
-Gryffindor vs Slytherin? We saw the Snakes took the lead with an impressive scoring and capture of the Snitch. Their Keeping was on point, and the Trio of Chasers flew like magic is supposed to be. Final score? 490 – 760.
-Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw? The Badgers obtained victory, also with a festival of Quaffles going through the Eagles’ hoops. Alas, even with the final capture of the Golden Snitch, Ravenclaw couldn’t win, ending with a final score of 520 – 320 for Hufflepuff.
-Ravenclaw vs Slytherin? Oh, how the Mightiest have fallen. With Troy Mercer out of the game, Jasper Hawksworth flew like a lost puppy. Even with their Beaters giving all the Bludgers away, Ravenclaw -and Argyle Demoray- were unstoppable, winning with a final score of 690 – 390.
So what could this game mean?
If Hufflepuff wins, they would be the only house with two victories, which would put them in a favourable position among the rest.
But if Gryffindor wins… Well, that would mean that all Houses would have a victory, and that just until now, this Cup could be anybody’s.
Let’s just jump into the formation of the teams for this match! Rumour has it, Quidditch Scouts will be watching!
GRYFFINDOR TEAM ROSTER FOR THIS GAME:
1 – Isabella ‘The Menace’ Watson: First Chaser and Captain of the Gryffindor team. A pretty face that hides a fierce confidence that truly seems the backbone of the team. She’s good on her broom, as good as she is shooting her quaffles. With a current loss, Watson could do with a Victory for her team, but Rumour Has It… She’s playing against her girlfriend, on the opposing team. This is not the only couple of the match with star-crossed lovers! Scandalous!
2 – Chase ‘Lionheart’ Ashford: Second Chaser, and new blood for the Gryffindor team. This lanky lion definitely has some tricks up his sleeve. One of them being the boyfriend of the Captain -and chaser- of the Hufflepuff team, making them the second couple with star-crossed lovers! Will love prevail when one of them loses?
3 – Dawn ‘The Donkey’ Kayhote: The third Chaser for this roster is the enigmatic Miss Kayhote, a Seventh Year Witch that has been known to have a profound love for Muggle objects as she wanders around the halls. Will her ‘Magic 8 Ball’ -we think Muggles use such artifacts to predict the future in a serious way- help her to choose the correct winds to fly and… To which hoop to aim?
4 – Oliver ‘Kfir’ Prescott: First Beater and Co-Captain of the team. Do not let his innocent face confuse you. He will beat you up. Repeatedly. Ask the chasers of any other team.
5 – Timocleia ‘The Welsh Fury’ Gwilym: What can we say about the tiny Welsh girl? Despite her size, she’s a force to reckon with. Rumour has it, she simply enjoys the art of beating. And she’ll beat people up -with bludgers only, allegedly- with a smile on her face.
6 – Ben ‘Flash’ Coletti: The Keeper of the team. No, really, he actually keeps the hoops, preventing quaffles from going through. Rumour has it, he sleeps whilst practicing to keep quaffles away from his area. That might explain how he is such a powerful Keeper.
7 – Horatio Devante: The Seeker for Gryffindor this game is Mr Horatio Devante. Quiet, shy, hiding behind his glasses… One might think he is not made for the game. But just like others, do not let appearances fool you. This is not Mr Devante’s first rodeo -or Snitchodeo? He will seek until the end, and he will capture the snitch.
HUFFLEPUFF TEAM ROSTER FOR THIS GAME:
1 – Leilani ‘Alley-Oop’ Tamriel: The first Chaser position and the role of captain is for Leilani Tamriel this season. She’s fierce inside and outside of the pitch, and everybody knows to stay away from her very well trained wand. Will she bring the Cup to the Badgers this year? And how will the relationship between her and her Vice-Captain affect the team? Rumour has it they used to date, although that should not be a problem, as she seems more interested in Lions these days. Indeed, she’s one of the Quidditch-star-cross-lovers of the season!
2 – Lachlan Stewart: Although a reserve for many years, this fifth year chaser is finally ready to play his first game officially. Usually portraying a chill and calm -even shy- demeanour, Stewart seems to radically switch his personality when he’s on the pitch. A cocky side that speaks volumes backed up by his results. Definitely one of the new players to keep an eye on. DO NOT confuse with Lachlan Stewart -the real Lachlan Stewart-, a professional Quidditch Beater playing for the Falmouth Falcons -speaking of, have you seen the Rise and Fall of the Falcons? One must wonder if Hufflepuff will follow suit, as they share a player with the same name…
3 – Kayli ‘The Knife’ Byrne: Maybe a last call for the team, or perhaps a premade decision. Whatever the case, Miss Byrne enlisted the Badgers’ side with a smile on her face and a dream to carry on. Sweet, loyal to her friends, and pretty cool girl in general, Byrne could be the Dark Horse for this encounter!
4 – Muriel ‘The Sweet’ Maple: With a shared passion between cooking and quidditch, this fourth year Hufflepuff is the second beater of this roster. Will she be cooking with bludgers too? One thing is for certain, she’ll probably cook trying. Or try cooking? Is the pitch a kitchen? This is getting confusing. But she has a bat, beats and cooks. And also did some experimental chasing. Hopefully beating is her true calling, even if in this case, she must throw bludgers at her Gryffindor girlfriend. Tragic, truly. These Quidditch-star-crossed-lovers are bringing tears to our eyes!
5 – Reika ‘De Sharl’ DuBois: Another prefect with a bat attached to her hand! The second Beater for Hufflepuff’s roster comes in the shape of Reika DuBois. Usually pretty chill -or at least in front of the Head Boy-, this witch seems to pour her inner violence into the shape of bludgers. Probably another player to keep an eye for.
6 – Coltrane ‘Steel Wall’ Kerr: The Hufflepuff Keeper for this game is fifth year Coltrane Kerr. New to the team, rumour has it this badger is scared of even his own shadow -and yet, he’s dating a Slytherin, or is he being kidnapped? Wait, was it not a Gryffindor? Does he need help? At least he’s not scared of heights! Or at least his passion for Quidditch is stronger. A fair player that always seems to be trying to make others laugh. And a fun fact about him? He loves the colour pink. Wonder what we get mixing pink and yellow… Pastel orange?
7 – Tybalt Tarrowwood: The male part of the Hufflepuff Mini-Veela Duo is Seeking for the Badgers this match. Not a stranger to the Golden Snitch, Tarrowwood was out of the first Hufflepuff game of the season, leaving spectators wondering whether he’d be too rusty to seek or not. We know from last year that he’s truly someone to be aware of.
Will he keep terrifying his opponents as some sort of ‘secret weapon’ this season too?
And with this, folks, we conclude our players’ stalking insight.
How did the actual game go?
What a sensational game to bring everyone’s nerves high on alert, only to crush them like abandoned hopes! -Mostly if you were rooting for the Badgers.
With the match starting exactly at 13:00hs, the rush could be felt in the air.
Maybe the Badgers were eager to score right away, and as their Chaser Lachlan Stewart -not the Pro Player one- aimed for the Gryffindor hoops -and instantly gets taken by Gryffindor’s Beater Timocleia Gwilym-, something out of the ordinary happens: the quaffle does not go in.
There were similar other attempts with the same outcome, and the first Time Out of the match was called. Resolution? Both Team Captains agreed to restart the game.
With the scoreboards reduced to zero, things began to move again, giving the spectators hopes for a great match.
Gryffindor scores, and…The hoops were not accepting more quaffles in? Is this part of a Ghost Joke? Jeeves? Are you with us? Some people seem to think so.
With yet another full restart of the game, -and scores down to zero once more-, everyone is questioning the same: will the match ever actually start and end?
Well, apparently, it did start. And with scores of 10-10, -both Captains scored for their teams-, the game went on, -finally. Chasers chased, Keepers kept, Seekers tried to seek, and Beaters… Oh, well.
Beaters.
Whilst Hufflepuff’s Muriel Maple was doing her best to be tactical -and she made some good tactical calls-, Gryffindor’s Oliver Prescott and Timocleia Gwylim were flowing with their Bludger rage -with a preference of a target on Stewart’s head. So much, that Gwylim was grounded for excessive beating, just as the scores were 240-140 for Hufflepuff and yet another time out was called.
Was Dawn Kayhote shaking a ‘Magic 8 Ball’? Sources tell us she was asking about ‘Will Hufflepuffs get mad if she stole all of their snacks?’, and getting answers such as ‘Outlook looks cloudy’. Excuse us, the skies are pale blue right now! Is that Muggle Artifact not reliable? This feels like… Betrayal.
Anyway, back to the time out.
Apparently Gryffindor’s Isabella Watson had stolen the quaffle in the no-no area. Oh well.
Mistakes were made.
And those mistakes favoured Hufflepuff with two penalties. Lachlan Stwewart took the first and scored, whilst New Girlie in the Block Kaily Byrne took the second one. And did not score. But, oh! She did score with that cute Quidditch Uniform Style! Fashion matters, even in events like these!
As the dust settled on a chaotic, hard-fought match, one thing was clear – the points in this game belonged to Lachlan Stewart and Isabella Watson. The two chasers went goal for goal in a relentless duel, each dragging their team forward and refusing to back down.
But in the end, it was Seeker Horatio Devante who had the final say, seizing the Snitch at the perfect moment and sealing Gryffindor’s victory in one swift move. Hufflepuff’s Tybalt Tarrowwood had dived for it and failed too, thanks to a Bludger sent by Gryffindor’s Oliver Prescott.
And, of course….. A special mention to the stands, who seemed oddly committed to keeping Kayli Byrne out of play. At this point, we’re not saying they were biased……but we’re not not saying it either.
Final score? 560 – 460 for Gryffindor.
In the end, all Houses have now a victory.
“It was a rough defeat. Being such a close game makes it all the tougher to swallow. The Gryffindor chasers really stepped it up in the final 15 minutes of the game. We were getting ahead, but they pulled it back in time. I’d like to apologise on behalf of our team to our amazing housemates. We’ll do better next time!… I promise I’ll mix up my shots a lot more often.”
-Lachlan Stewart, Hufflepuff Chaser and NOT a Professional Player. At least not yet?
“It was my first game, I do think I looked hawt in the Uniform, and I think the bludgers are mighty more terrifying when they’re chasing ya.” She giggles softly. “The quaffle is hard to carry while you’re trying to fly, and staying on your broom. But everyone was super fast, and my teammates were so sweet and encouraging. I might play in the future, who knows?”
-Kayli Byrne, Hufflepuff Chaser, on her insights about her first Quidditch Game and the style she was wearing as the uniform.
“It’s been a while since I was on a broom, so it felt good to be up there again.”
-Tybalt Tarrowwood, Hufflepuff Seeker and Great Enjoyer of Simple Things.
“First Victory of the year, yes. But it was a super super great win. The game was super super even, so the win feels even nicer. I love good games like that.” She pauses a moment, when asked another question. “We have no secret weapon. We just put in good practice with the team, and we all work so well together. We know what to do, and we do it well!”
-Isabella Watson, Gryffindor Captain and Chaser.
“Um… I think I bludgered a lot of people today? So it was a good day? I always want to bludger more, of course? Because maybe the more I bludger the lower their score is? And today was very close. So I will be trying very very hard in the game against Ravenclaw? I suppose that will be my strategy. Hit as many of them with the Bludgers as I can?” She pauses as she’s asked about the pizza she’s eating. “It is very tasty. I always like pizza after a game.”
-Timocleia Gwilym, Gryffindor Beater who adores pizza. Wait… Is pizza her Secret Weapon to Beat to Perfection???
