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Post by Belle Carter on Feb 17, 2007 16:15:26 GMT 10
Belle stomped across the grounds wearing her Quidditch uniform and grasping a beaters bat and a minute bludger. She’d purchased the minute bludger from Quality Quidditch Supplies in Albury and was going to utilise it to practice for the upcoming trials for the Quidditch team.
The minute bludger was a very cool invention, or at least Belle thought so. It could be activated only by the touch of the witch or wizard who purchased it and would remain active for five hits. This way she could hit it, it would fly around in the air and return to strike at her again, where she would again hit it away. Each time she hit it; it would get larger and heavier until in the final three hits it was at full size.
Luckily for Belle the minute bludger also had a fail safe, it sensed her bat and while its objective was to get past it, if it managed to do so it would shrink back to its small size and bounce of her robes harmlessly deactivating.
She trudge out into the middle of the green field which was usually the site of ball games. It was late in the afternoon and there were a few people sitting in clumps around trees, but plenty of room to practice without getting in anyone else’s way.
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Post by Holly MacFarlane on Feb 22, 2007 13:36:52 GMT 10
"Hello Young Emerindyl!" Holly greeted her peer, "It's Belle, isn't it?" She had a wide smile on her face and broom in hand. She had seen this fourth year often about in the commonrooms and Golden Hall etc, but had only talked to her a few times.
It looked to Holly that she was practising for Quidditch and vaguely remembered seeing her name on the signup sheet. With her broomless hand on her hip, she turned and scanned the pitch. It was full of students, all obviously eager to join the team.
Holly had been on the team the year before, but knew that Godric as captain would make everyone try out anyway. In that case, her position was up for consideration and she too was here to practice.
"Do you need a practice buddy?" she asked warmly.
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Post by Belle Carter on Feb 22, 2007 15:42:10 GMT 10
"Hi, hows it going? …Older Emerindyl,” Belle greeted the girl she had seen several times but did not have a lot to do with, “Yeah,” she said to her with a slight nod catching the minute bludger so it would not hit anyone else, that could be awkward, “I’m Belle,”
She smiled not minding the intrusion at all, it was nice to have someone to talk to while her friends were off doing other things, and everyone else was so caught up with trying to impress Godric and get on the Quidditch team, so no one was really into talking at the moment, focusing on training.
“You’ve been on the team before, haven’t you? Last year? I think I saw you,” she said as she hoped this might give her the fantastic opportunity to ask the girl some questions, “What is it like? Being on the team? What is Godric like, for a captain, I mean?”
”Do you need a practice buddy?" the girl asked her warmly and she found it very hard not to let her jaw drop, someone who was already on the team wanted to give her some training advice, “Do fish fly?” she said, which meant [/I]’OH MY GOD YES!’[/I] and Holly would understand this if she really was a witch, to muggles fish may not fly, but when you have magic, anything is possible.
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Post by Holly MacFarlane on Feb 22, 2007 16:01:45 GMT 10
"Yep, Keeper on last years team. I'm hoping to keep my position, but who knows, there might be some over Emerindyl who's ten times better than me. A depressing thought, but what's best for the team..." She had been looking over the pitch again and but turned to Belle.
"Well yeah, fish fly. So I'll take that as a yes." Holly grinned. She enjoyed Quidditch immensely and was excited at the prospect of playing for the House team again this year. Of course, there were quite a few positions open this year, and she wanted to see who had the talent. Rumour had it Belle was quite good so maybe Holly had alterior motives to helping her practice.
"Godric's a great captain. He's not superior, but a good leader. And well, being on the team has it's perks, if you know what I mean? But anyway," she changed the subject, "You're going for beater, aren't you? You'll have to be a fast flyer. What broom have you got?"
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Post by Belle Carter on Feb 22, 2007 17:02:54 GMT 10
"Keeper, wow, do you like that position? It seems so much more involved being the Keeper in Quidditch then being the goalie in any muggle sports,” Belle hoped she hadn’t just slipped out the words that might make Holly any less interested in helping her she was a muggle born, but she was quite passionate about being a Quidditch Player, “With muggle sports, they usually stick the fat kid who is the worse player in the goal posts, but Quidditch is so much more involved, especially with three hoops, it must be a very difficult position to play!”
She was getting excited again, she could feel it, and she had to stop herself from saying something or making a noise that would make her appear crazy so she shut up after her question and remained silent while she waited for an answer, she knew this would not last very long but a pause seemed important to the situation and to her chances of gaining the trust of this Keeper in the Quidditch team.
“So how about the score of the final last year, I heard it was something like three hundred and fifty to thirty, you must really have been on your game that day,” she was very excited, she had missed the match due to an untimely make up exam for muggle studies, a class she had ended up passing only barely, later deciding to axe it from her schedule altogether.
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Post by Holly MacFarlane on Feb 22, 2007 17:10:36 GMT 10
"They stick the fat kid there cause they think he'll cover more of the goal," Holly laughed with the muggle sport hockey in mind. She too was muggle born and it was nice sometimes to find someone who knew about some of the same things she did.
"It's difficult only because you have to be watching the entire game, and you've got quite a bit more space to deal with than a goalie. But then, you've got a broom too so it shouldn't be that hard." she grinned. Holly quite enjoyed talking about Quidditch and it seemed she'd found quite the enthusiast in this fourth year.
"There's a lot of factors that go into a match though," Holly said in reply to Belle's score question, "Like weather and viasbility. Umm, the team you're playing against and what their form is like. And then there's your own team too, the beaters we had used to do a spectacular broken nose, and nobody feels like playing after their nose has been broken and repaired. Oh my, what am I saying? Of course I take all the credit for that game!" she laughed
"But anyway, what are we? Men? How about we do it instead of just standing around and talking about it?" Holly suggested with a wink.
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Post by Belle Carter on Feb 22, 2007 17:50:11 GMT 10
Belle laughed, and she did not feel the slightest bit bad about laughing about fat kids either, she had been one herself and had only managed to lose a lot of her weight because she really got into sport when she found it came with magical qualities, such as Quidditch. It was odd because you did just spend a lot of time sitting on a broom, but it was still all about physical exertion, and while Belle was still a little on the heavier side, she was the perfect size for a beater.
Belle soaked up all of the information the sixth year was giving her, enjoying and cherishing every word of wisdom as it came to her, this was really a lot of fun, she had never really been interested in being a keeper, she was a beater through and through, but she could tell that Holly had the same amount of enthusiasm for her position as Belle had for her own.
”I’ve never actually played a real game of Quidditch, I mean, well you know how it goes, unless you are on the team you don’t really spend a great deal of time on a broomstick when your in school and unless you take up something like racing brooms,” Belle had said testing the water here. She was quite interested in racing brooms as well, but she didn’t want to seem too rough as she looked at this girl, who besides being a Quidditch team member; looked somewhat delicate herself.
”But yes, of course, lets practice,” she smiled at this announcement, she couldn’t wait to see what this girl had to teach her, “What do you suggest first?”
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Post by Holly MacFarlane on Feb 22, 2007 18:07:56 GMT 10
"Yeah, it's a bit weird. They want you to be good at Quidditch when you start playing, but how can you be good at something you've never played? Bit of a catch 22 isn't it? Luckily, people have either got the skill for Quidditch or they don't. There's only so much a good broom can do..." Holly suddenly felt like she was lecturing and shook her head, her cropped white hair falling into her eyes. It was a common problem for her, but she wore a headband while playing Quidditch to increase her vision.
Tucking her broom under one arm for a moment, she pulled said headband from around her neck and up to hair hairline, tucking her hair away from her face.
"Have you got another bat? We can hit bludgers at each other if you want? You've got to practice avoiding them yourself as well as hitting them. Can't forget there's two of them."
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Post by Belle Carter on Mar 12, 2007 19:39:36 GMT 10
“Sure,” Belle said as she hurried back to the bag she had sitting a little way’s away and pulled out one of her other bats. This was the one she got when she was little and it was a bit battered but it was better then nothing,
“I can use this one if you would prefer the better one?” she offered holding up the very old and slightly dented bat. She knew that it would make it a little difficult to hit the bludger straight, but as she had been using it for a long time, she knew exactly where each dint was and used it to her advantage.
“I don’t mind using either, I am the same with both,” she smiled tossing the newer one to Holly and climbing onto her broomstick.
A moment later and she was flying around, preparing for the shot. The minute bludger in hand she wondered something for a moment, “Are you…” she didn’t really know how to broach the question, but would try her best, “Are you pure blood then? I’m not…”
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Post by Holly MacFarlane on Mar 12, 2007 19:56:47 GMT 10
Holly raised her eyebrows as she kicked off, mounted on her broom. It was an odd question, and not one she was usually asked. Still, it was valid, and there were a lot of witches and wizards out there who were quite predjudice about the subject. Holly was quite sure Belle was Muggle born, for how else would she know about muggle sports, and so she answered the question with relative ease.
"Yup, Muggle born and raised. But of a surprise of course, when I found out" she said as she hovered on her broom, stretching her arms. It was quite a good broom and Holly took very good care of it. Her family didn't have a lot, but the one thing she'd been truly passionate about during her time at Koalingo, and so her parents had spent a small chunk of their savings on a decent broom for their only child.
"I assume you're asking because of the duelling tomorrow night? I'll be one of those that gets to sit in their dorm and then hear about it all the next day, annoyed I didn't get to go" she got highly irritated at the Bloodlust club and their snobbery.
"How about you?" she asked as she swung the bat a few times, loosening the muscles in her arm.
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