Quidditch Sign-ups

Alice was very nearly jumping up and down with excitement. Her usual surplus of energy was overflowing out of every pore of her body. It must have been contagious as well, because sooner rather than later, her teammates looked as if they felt the same way, though it may have just been nerves. It was the first game of the year, and against Slytherin too, the team with the greatest reputation for fouling other players. That was Alice's biggest cause of worry. Despite being a very talented Quidditch player, she had a tendency to lose her temper when she was fouled on. She'd sent more than one poor soul to the Hospital Wing in her first year of playing the game for fouling her team. In fact, she had once knocked a Slytherin beater off his broom entirely for Blagging one of her team mates. The Gryffindor captain threatened to kick her off the team on a regular basis, but the fact that she was still playing certainly said something about her skills as a Chaser.

As everyone took their places on the Quidditch Pitch, Alice held her breath and raised her eyebrows at the other chaser next to her. She mounted her broom and waited impatiently for the announcer to declare the beginning of the game. The instant he did so, Alice was in the air, her Clean Sweep 180 clenched tightly in her fists. She scanned the field for the Quaffle with the same intensity that one might search for a buried treasure about to disappear forever. It didn't take long to find the enormous, bright red, flying ball. While some took a more slow and steady approach to Quidditch, Alice raced at the ball, completely ignoring a Bludger as is nearly grazed her ear.

Alice stretched her arm so far out in front of her and with such great force that she felt it might disconnect from it's socket. With a great rush of excitement she felt her fingertips brush against the Quaffle and as soon as she felt it's rough surface, she snatched it up under her arm. As she dashed towards the other end of the pitch, Alice soon found herself flanked on either side by two rather large Slytherin Chasers. She bit her lip but held tight to the Quaffle with one hand and her broom with the other and dove face first beneath the two of them.

When she came back up on the other side of them she quickly rid herself of the Quaffle by passing it to the nearest Gryffindor Chaser to the hoops she could find. Breathing a sigh of relief, Alice let down her guard and relaxed, only to let out a screeching sound as Slytherin Beater sent a Bludger flying in her direction. She attempted to escape an unpleasant, head-on collision with the ball by flying in the other direction, but the Bludger hit the end of her broom hard, sending her spiraling in some random direction.

Alice attempted to steady herself as the Bludger flew off in another direction. She looked over her shoulder, to just see the Quaffle flying through the Slytherin's hoop. Alice through her fist up in the air and let out a loud whooping sound. She laughed and dizzily flew towards the hoop.

Marlene followed her team as they made it onto the Pitch. This would be it, their first game against Hufflepuff. Marlene, being her usual competitive self, was determined to win this match. She assembled herself in her usual circle as she had a tight grip on her broom. It was probably older than the others but it felt right to her. The nimbus 1970. She mounted her broom as she exchanged a few side glances and smiles with the other players on their team. She had one of those really good feelings about the game this year. She tucked a loose brunette strand behind her ear as she examined the other team. Analyzing each player trying to find possible weak points in each. This was her strategy, to make them use and most likely fail with those weakpoints.

She got ready to be the first one up once the game began. As she did so, thousands of plans ran through her head, only one would be used depending on the situation she would get herself in. She heard the ringing of the whistle as she immediatly pushed off the ground. She caught sight of the quaffle from the corner of her eye. It wasn't hard to miss, well for someone who was good at noticing things it wasn't. She immediatly raced to it, adrenaline running through her veins. The reason she loved quidditch so much was the freedom to gave her. She felt as free as a bird. But stronger with more stamina.

She sped up immediatly in the direction of the quaffle. She saw the Hufflepuff Chaser also heading there. The Hufflepuff had it at his fingertips almost grabbing it. Thinking quick and impulsively, she swatted it away towards a fellow teammate to her left as she immediatly followed them. If any Chaser tried to get in the way Marly would immediatly slip in front of them and get the ball passed to her. She went as fast as she could to the Hufflepuff hoops. Her target was set. Then she noticed her fellow Ravenclaw chaser get to their personal sweet spot. She knew from practice that her teammate barely missed from the area.

She did a reflex as she pretended to shoot it through the hoops even though her hand never left the Quaffle. She passed it to her teammate leaving the Keeper confused for a few seconds, Which in quidditch was enough to show the difference between the winning and losing of a game. She saw the Quaffle go through the hoop as she smiled and clapped as she raced to a possible teammate the Keeper would pass the Quaffle to, just to be ready for the next round.