Beauxbatons Quidditch Practice

Grace was becoming more disappointed as whenever she saw bludgers they were either too far from her or the other beaters got to hitting them first. She winced when Theodore got hit, but at least Grace hadn't failed to hit it away from Nadine if it had targeted her. She grinned when the chaser scored and decided to switch up her game again, looking for any sign of a bludger she could try to hit.
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She hoped Theo would forgive her for hitting him with a bludger, it wasn't as though she had a lot of choice. Moving on she tried to locate another, ignoring the sinking feeling as though if she kept this up she was going to lose friends.
 
It was reassuring for Theodore to know that Maia was circling him, and he felt safer because of it. When the older girl did depart after there was not much of an immediate threat to him anymore, the young seeker was still reluctant to see her go, but returned her smile all the same. Knowing his luck this match, this would be the moment Fletcher decided to hit him with another bludger, but it was so far so good. He made sure to keep his distance from the red haired girl, and continued his search of the snitch.
 
Fletcher felt as though she was on fire in the last couple of minutes. Sure enough she managed to find another bludger, and coming up from the side she hit it as hard as she could, making contact and watching it fly towards the younger seeker. She could have sworn just now Maia had been protecting him, so she was shocked to find that the girl had flown away, leaving him defenceless to the incoming threat. She swore under her breath as it collided with the blonde, she was definitely going to need to apologise once the game was through.
 
Celine managed to save the first attempt from the new chaser, and then successfully defend against Cheryl, but then each chaser managed to get past her on the second attempts. Celine made sure to give each of the younger girls encouragement, especially the new girl. Celine threw the Quaffle back out, hoping that she would be able to get her defence back on track – two failures to save in a row didn't sit that well with her.
 
Elvira took a mental note to compliment Fletcher after the practice. The girl was on fire, hitting bludgers left and right. She knew right now her teammates weren't the happiest with her, but she wanted to encourage the younger girl. If she could keep this up, the Hogwarts team had no chance. For now, she focused on trying to gt the snitch. But she didn't see a glimpse of it.
 
Either the other chasers were stepping up their game, or Celine was going easier on them. Fulke couldn't tell, and while he cheered their successes, he made a small mental note to ask the Keeper if she was giving them a win, or if they really were just doing well. It was surprising coming from a beginner in the role, which is why the captain felt the way he did. Flying around, he kept an eye out for the quaffle being thrown back, but gave the others their space to continue taking possession and attempting to score.
 
Theodore had been right. With his luck, barely moments after Maia had left him to fend for himself, Fletcher smacked a bludger his way. He tried to avoid it, but was too slow, and the heavy iron ball collided with his ribs, knocking the air out of him yet again. He placed a hand on his chest, trying to apply pressure to dull the pain, and turned his broom around to fly further away. Tears were stinging his eyes, but he was afraid to stop and recover from the hit, in case the redhead decided to attack him yet again. What was up with her targeting him today? It wasn't fair at all. The boy flew off by himself, to get as far from everyone else as he could just to take a safe moment to catch his breath. The snitch was the farthest thing from his mind at this point.
 
''Are you kidding me?!'' the Beater shouted when she saw that Theodore had been hit with another bludger. Why did Fletcher wait until she was done protecting the young Seeker? Annoyed at how poorly she had been protecting the other players, Maia wanted to fly over to Theodore again but couldn't find him. Instead, she chased after a bludger, hoping that she could at least show the captains that she was good at attacking too.
 
Fletcher was initially alarmed when she heard Maia call out, but she quickly pushed down any remaining feelings of guilt. No, they just needed to get better at their jobs and at avoiding the bludger. The beater were there to aim towards their targets and thats exactly what she'd been doing. Keeping her head held high, the fourth year just continued to look for another one, and hope that her teammates became more aware of where the balls were.
 
Maia continued to chase after the bludger. She was determined to hit at least one more bludger this training
 
Elvira noticed Theodore fly off on his own and she hoped the boy was okay. She knew it wasn't easy to be the main target for bludgers, and even in practice they weren't safe. Though, to be fair, no one seemed to be truly safe with Maia and Fletcher around. Elvira was proud of the beaters, and knew for sure they would help them win against Hogwarts at the end of the year.
 
After Cheryl managed to score, Nadine got her hands on the quaffle again. Eager to prove herself more to the captains, she rushed her lap around half of the pitch and neared the hoops again. She knew she could do this again. She had to.
 
Elvira still didn't see the snitch anywhere, to her intense frustration. She was tempted to fly over to Brendan to ask if he was sure he had released it, but she knew there wasn't really any point. He wouldn't make a mistake like that. With a sigh, she continued her search.
 
Nadine tried her best to score again. In her mind, she already saw the ball sail through the hoop flawlessly. But in reality, her body still ached from the bludgers that had been hit at her and her arms weren't very strong. She threw the ball lower than she had intended, and watched in dismay as it was easily stopped. With a small huff, she flew off.
 
Barely able to dodge a bludger that was heading her way, Maia lost sight of the one she had been chasing. Groaning loudly, she turned around to look for it again.
 
The only thing that would have made Theodore feel a whole lot better, would have been catching the snitch. Alas, it was nowhere to be seen, and even Elvira hadn't seemed to catch it yet. The practice could not have been any more frustrating than it already was.
 
Celine watched the new chaser carefully as she approached the scoring zone, and she hovered approximately in the centre of the three hoops, waiting. The girl made a good attempt, but Celine managed to beat the Quaffle to the hoop it had been heading towards. Although she was glad that she hadn't managed to miss saving another goal herself, Celine felt slight regret that the new kid couldn't have more personal successes in her first practice. "You're doing good!" she called encouragingly as she tossed the Quaffle back out into play, but the young chaser had flown away so quickly that Celine didn't know whether the other girl had heard her.
 
Just as Theodore was about to give up, wanting nothing more than to return to the ground and go visit the nurse to get the bruises he could feel developing looked after before they got too bad, the boy suddenly caught sight of the snitch. It seemed to pop out of nowhere, and hovered practically in front of his face. He stared at it in disbelief, almost expecting it to be his imagination from too many bludger hits. The beating of its wings certainly matched the dull throb in his aching shoulder and chest. The moment of it fluttering on the spot passed as quickly as it had come, and the golden snitch started to move away again, but Theodore wasn't going to let it go that easily. He leaned forward in his broom, going from a stand-still to as fast as he could get it to fly, and quickly pursued the golden orb. In a matter of moments, it was back in front of his face, and he reached out to snatch it from the air, feeling his fingers curl around its metallic surface and cease its zipping about. "I got it!" He shouted out, a little louder than he would have normally given the distance he'd put between himself and the other players to avoid any more bludger shots.​
 
Overall, Fulke was happy with how the practice was going. The Beaters were doing well, and the newest players were already beginning to look promising. What was surprising was the lack of successful seeking. The captain had thought that one of the two would have caught the snitch by now, particularly Elvira, since she was the more experienced of the two, and Theodore seemed to be avoiding the practice entirely now. He couldn't blame him for feeling that way, but that was how Quidditch went. It was all a part of the game. The redhead took possession of the quaffle as Celine threw it back into play, and gave the Keeper a thumbs up when she encouraged the younger chaser. This was the kind of teamwork he liked to see, not the arguments about who was being hit by what bludger he'd seen earlier. Tucking the quaffle under his arm, Fulke flew away from the hoops to do his half-lap, which was when he heard barely audible shouting coming from one of the other players. Thinking it was another bludger complaint, he was almost reluctant to look, but was glad that he did when he caught sight of the alternate seeker holding what appeared to be the snitch. It was about time someone found the thing. Fulke glanced at his wristwatch to see exactly how long it had taken to find, and realised that they'd basically used their allotted time on the pitch for the day. A snitch catch was as good a place as any to wrap up, so with a blow of his whistle, he ended the practice and called everyone to the ground.

"Great work today everyone. Keep it up, and we'll have another win under our belts this year. I just want everyone to remember that we all have a job to do, so don't get short with other players for doing what they're supposed to do. Elvira and I will let you all know when the next practice is coming up. Also, Celine, I want to talk to you about something later, if that's alright. That's all for today, I'll catch you guys next time." He said, letting them go back to their studies, or free time, whichever they had to do for the remainder of the day. He had to remember to catch up with their keeper when he could, just to gauge how well the younger chasers were actually doing.
 
As Celine returned her attention to the practice, and the chaser now in possession of the Quaffle, she made sure to keep her eyes on Brendan as he completed his half-lap. At first she ignored the shouting from someone across the pitch, but as the captain seemed to take notice of it Celine judged that a break in her attention would be alright, too. The shouting had come from the other seeker, and he had caught the snitch. What would Elvira think of that, Celine wondered, and bit at the inside of her cheek in slight humour. She descended to the ground with the rest of the team, and listened to Brendan wrap up the practice. It was slightly surprising to hear that he wanted to talk to her specifically about something, but she assumed that it probably wasn't anything lacking on her part. At least, she hoped not. "That's fine," she replied to Brendan once he had finished. "I'll be free." Celine felt it had been a good practice, despite the bludger hit she had taken. She should probably go have it checked out, just to be on the safe side.
 

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