[QUIDDITCH]: Slytherin – Game 1

The first game of the season! You can feel the electricity in the air. Spring is upon us, the weather is mild with the occasional showers and the wind is not blowing too strong. Perfect to kick-start the craziness that is soon to be unleashed.

The crowd begins to fill the stands as 14 enchanted dummies specially ordered by the HeadMaster take place in the air, 7 on each side of the field. You can see that each dummy supports a letter in their chest. ‘P’ for “Professional Level”, ‘S’ for “Student Level” and ‘A’ for “Amateur Level”.

For this game, skills were randomly sorted and the dummies for Chasers support “Ss”, Beaters support “As”, Keepers support “Ps” and Seekers support “As”.

Who will show up to take the place of the dummies? Who can guess the outcome?

***

-          Remember to always add your position in the beginning of the post.

-          Once you enter the field and announce your position the corresponding dummy will disappear. You DO NOT take the skill level of the dummy. Skill levels have been assigned to the dummies so you know how hard is to beat the opposing dummy or how helpful the dummy on you side will be. Your skills are your own and will be shown by your posts.

-          You can only make 1 post per day up to a maximum of 30 in total and a minimum of 4 posts in total.

You’ll be judged on the following aspects:

Number of posts – 30 pts*

Creativity – 50 pts

Skill shown/Manoeuvres – 50 pts

Knowledge of the game – 50 pts

Cooperation with the dummies/Facing the opposing dummies – 50 pts

Team work (only valid if other members show up to play with you) – 10 pts+

Spelling/Grammar – 10 pts

*If you make 30 posts but there are mostly one paragraphs you will not get the full marks

+If you want to increase the chances of your House winning, call others to play and benefit from these points

Total possible: 250 pts

The House score will be the average score of every member.

Your House Points for the game will be your score points multiplied by 10 for a possible 2500 HP per game.

The game will end on the 12^th of March or if someone catches the Snitch earlier than that.

Raistlin entered the Slytherin locker room and surveyed it with raised eyebrows. It had not been used in years and it showed. Cobwebs dropped from the ceiling and the light of his wand made small spiders retreat into darker corners. He stopped in front of his old locker and opened it with a flick of his wand.

It was empty of course, he would have not let his gear here to rot and decay. His Quidditch equipment had been stored safely in this office behind glass showcases all these years. He was glad he was the first one to arrive for his team. It gave him time to do some sprucing. Another wave of his wand cleared the whole place of cobwebs, made the torches lit up and cleared all the dust that had settled in.

Happy with his work Raistlin exited through the door that led to the Quidditch pitch. He was greeted by a soft wind that rustled some loose hairs. He patted his cap to check it was safely secured, hopped on his broom and took flight. There he stood mid-air admiring the culmination of years of planning to bring Quidditch back. The dummies had been expensive to acquire and took a lot of negotiation with the Department of Magical Games and Sports. In the end, some extra galleons had solved the issue.

 “BEATER!” he shouted and watched as one of the dummies disappear in a cloud of smoke. He looked down to see the dummy reappear in the ground where he stood still and silent. Raistlin grabbed the handle of his broom with his free hand and headed towards the vacated space. As soon as he closed in the balls were released and the game officially started. He made a few swing movements with his bat and darted forwards in pursuit of a bludger, he couldn’t wait to start breaking some things.

The wind blowing in his ears made Raistlin feel exhilarated. For a few moments, he forgot he was supposed to be chasing the bludger and just relished in the sensation of flying through the air at full speed. A sudden swooshing sound woke him up from his reverie and he turned just in time to avoid a rogue bludger.

“Fine, if you wish to be beaten to a pulp that much, I’ll be happy to oblige”, he said. Great, now I’m talking to bludgers, I need to get some people in here before I find myself an old man talking to the walls. Raistlin made a nosedive and got his bat ready. He was gaining terrain, a few more seconds and the bludger would be within reach.

WHAM!

Raistlin hit the bludger with full force. With too much force, he might have added. His arm reverberated. I’m so out of practice. He had not aimed the bludger to anything specifically but a dummy chaser was passing by and got hit in its arm. Raistlin covered his face as splitters flew all over.

“Awesome!” he whispered. He might a sophisticated wizard, but deep down he was still a dude who liked to watch things blow up. His glee lasted only a second as the dummy’s arm repaired itself in an instant and the Chaser. I see the money was well spent.

Raistlin took pause to see how the game was going. So far the game was tied. The Keepers of both sides were having no troubles defending their goal posts. The Chasers did not have the skill to beat them. Raistlin would have to get creative in order to help them. He might be playing against dummies and himself but he would still like to win.

Raistlin dashed towards the opposing Keeper. He had spotted a bludger in the area on the right side of the goal posts. The silent Keeper made no motion and kept simply guarding the goal posts. Let’s see how good these professional dummies actually are.

Grabbing the bat with both hands, Raistlin wacked the bludger towards the Keeper. He put the bat over his shoulder and waited for the blast. But it never came. Without even turning its head, the Keeper easily dodger the bludger and still managed to defend the centre goal post in the process.

“OK, so maybe I underestimated you, doesn’t mean you can’t be beaten,” he muttered through gritted teeth.  Time for plan B.

Raistlin searched to see where his dummy beater partner was. He found it in the middle of the field flying aimlessly. Oh for Merlin’s sake, Raistlin cursed mentally.

“Oi! You, come help me!” Raistlin shouted to the dummy. The dummy seemed to come to life and flew closer to Raistlin. Huh, they might be good at taking directions. I wonder if…

“Chasers, to me!” Raistlin shouted and his team chasers joined him. Any other time he might have been worried the opposing chasers would take advantage of this but the Keeper kept doing its job properly.

“Listen,” Raistlin wondered if they were really listening, it was hard to tell when talking to faceless objects, “I’m going to try to distract the Keeper, use the opportunity, it might be the only one we get. Now go, retrieve the Quaffle, shoo” Raistlin made a hand gesture to disperse the chasers.

“Now you, follow me. I’ll throw the Bludger at you and I want you to throw it back at me. We must do this until we get close enough to the Keeper”.

Raistlin raced for the Bludger. Tightening his grip on this broom with his right hand with his left he hit the bludger towards his beater partner. He saw the dummy drew his arm and swing it at bludger and… miss!

“Are… you… kidding… ME!” Raistlin cried. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths. He couldn’t  let his temper get the best of him if he wanted a chance at winning.

“Fine, let’s try again…”

However, he never got the chance to do it as the dummy referee blew the whistle indicating the end of the match.

“But… we have time, what…”

Then he saw it, the opposing team’s Seeker holding the snitch. Raistlin’s eyes were ready to pop out of its sockets. Finally, his anger burst out. He withdrew his wand and pointed it at the dummy Seeker.

“REDUCTO!” he shouted and watched as the dummy blew into a tiny million pieces only to reshape itself a few seconds later. Raistlin reached for the ground, dismounted his room and stormed off the Quidditch pitch in a rage.

Individual Score:

Raistlin the Wizard
Number of posts – 4 pts
Creativity – 50 pts
Skill shown/Manoeuvres – 40 pts
Knowledge of the game – 35 pts
Cooperation with the dummies/Facing the opposing dummies – 50 pts
Team work (only valid if other members show up to play with you) – 0 pts+
Spelling/Grammar – 10 pts

- 10 off in skill/maneuvers for lack of any specific special moves
- 15 in knowledge of the game for two fouls, one of which should have been called in game (Bumphing in post 3). The second foul is of course use of wand on an opponent, but since the game was over, only 5 points are deducted.

Total: 189

House Points: 1890