Quidditch Pitch
The Quidditch Pitch at Hogwarts
is quite impressive; it looks as if it could seat the whole school, and more.
Hundreds of seats are raised in stands around the
stadium, which are positioned very high so that the spectators may view the
game at its full potential. At both ends
of the field are tall, golden poles; three to each end, with hoops attached to
the ends of them. Usually the field is
empty, except for the case when the houses of Hogwarts may be playing against
each other, or a team may be practisting. Below the airborne pitch is a well kept field
of green grass. A distance away from
here lies the
Sure. He's breaking the rules. He's outside. Again. But Draco Malfoy isn't anywhere near the Forbidden Forest and if Dementors start emerging from behind the trees, he has
plenty of time to turn-tail and run back into the castle like a coward. He
could always try to fend them off with the bludgers,
by knocking the twin attack balls of Quidditch at
them, but if there was more than one, such tactics would prove to be utterly
useless. Wait... bludgers? Yes. Well, at least one of
them. That's exactly what soars about the pitch at the moment and he stands in
the middle with a bat in hand, venting his frustration on the object by
knocking it as far as he possible can when it gets close. It's a lot better
than starting a fight with Potter, for instance.
Bad Draco... The last time that
Cho was out at the pitch was the fateful day that
forced the relinquishment of her broom and the loss of a lot of the more
leisurely activities that the students could entertain. This isn't the first
time since that she's been outside though. Hardly.
She's been out more than a few times so far, but just never this far. The main
reason she hasn't come out is because one, no broom. It's just not the same to
come to the pitch and not be able to kick off for a
few laps around the goals. Two, because she was honestly worried about getting
caught out here and having Quidditch postponed even
more than it already happens to be. For some reason though, she really doesn't
care about that today, so as she steps out onto the Quidditch
pitch... she just /barely/ side-steps out of the path of the sailing bludger. What's the bludger doing
out!? He likely can hear the soft yelp escape her, and for the moment, she
doesn't see the person who's in the center of the pitch. She was a little lost
in thought when she wandered out here, and, well... somehow she happened to
miss the sound of someone beating on a bludger (which
is much better than beating on a Gryffindor). She's honestly just lucky that
her Quidditch reflexes warned her just in time.
He had been quite happy being the only target on the
pitch, but when the bludger doesn't exactly return to
attack him, that alone is enough to certainly grab his attention. The blonde Slytherin wheels around, using the balls of his feet to
pivot, holding the bat in one hand, the other shoved into the pocket of his
trousers. "What in hell..." Nevermind that!
"Oh sh--" The bludger
streaks across the pitch at him... after missing one target, it's
goal now is clobber the other... He winds up for it and then... whee! Draco smashes the bludger to the other side of the pitch with a strong
side-arm swing... followed by rushing over to the girl with a, "Stupid git. What are you doing, here? Trying to get your head
knocked off?" >.< Such love and compassion.
*cough*
Oh, she almost wishes he'd get clobbered sometimes. Ah,
it's so difficult being the 'nice one' in this so-called 'friendship'. Cho is a little relieved when he comes over to stand near
her, mainly because he has the big stick and she doesn't. "I just came out
for a walk! I didn't expect there to be a lose bludger
to dodge? What are /you/ doing out here?" She actually half yells for a
second, but the last few sentences come out at a normal speaking voice.
"And keep your eye on that thing, I can't really
help you out with it." She shows off her bare hands.
Beetle is hidden up in a crack in the broomshed
over the door. Back to the old grindstone when it comes to
snooping. Nothing to see here, no small insectoid
reporters here! The little bug skitters to poke just a bit out of the crack to
get a look around then slinks back to stay out of sight.
Well. If you want to talk to him like
that... Fine! He'll leave! Draco turns around,
sneers, and, like the asshole he is, begins to walk away at a leisurely pace
back to the middle of the pitch. "Go grab a bat." He says with a
casual wave of his hand back over a shoulder. "If you're going to be that
nasty to me, then I certainly won't be helping you." n_n
"Better hurry up before that thing decides to come back." And come
back it does! With a vicious vengeance! Time for round t--awww!
Draco bashes the thing away across the pitch, again.
And she wasn't even half as nasty as he usually is. What
a double-standard! Cho opens her mouth and almost
defends herself, but changes her mind and instead decides to get herself a bat
so she isn't a defenseless standing target. Now, she's honestly not very good
with the bat, as she almost always dodges (she's a Seeker, after all), but
she'd rather have one then be without. She grabs the other bat and turns around,
just in time to beat the very same bludger away from
her. It doesn't go very far, she's not much for it, really, it's obvious. But
at least it's moving away from her. "So did you just wake up today with
the urge to beat something?" she calls out to him, but at least she isn't
quite 'nasty' anymore.
Beetle stays nice n'nestled in
that little crack in the broomshed. So the little
bratty child of Lucius Malfoy
got offended by a little article about him and some girl. If that article was
considered in bad form, that's nothing in comparison to what she can do. One
could think the boy was embarrassed to have rumors written about him and a
pretty little girl. Unless Malfoy secretly has a
thing for Potter.. then
wouldn't /that/ make a lovely headline.
... Oh yes. He has a thing for Potter. He hates him so
much and, yet, finds the boy SO IRRESISTABLE. *HACK, COUGH* Why don't you write
that he has a thing for Ronald Weasley, too. You know, the guy who tried to give his jaw a new alignment.
Anyways, back to other things. Don't go hitting the thing back at him! He
barely manages to dodge quickly enough out of the way and avoid what would've
been a nasty hit to the face. "No." Draco
retorts with a rather haughty tone. Well, maybe. Kinda. Sorta. Okay, so he did.
Young Malfoy isn't going to admit it, though! "I
just simply decided to come out here and vent over things. Do you have a
problem with that?" u.u
"Sorry!" Cho calls
out as she realizes what direction she sent the bludger
sailing. She really isn't that good at this. There's a reason that whenever she
can't play seeker, the only position she ever trades to play in practices is
Chaser. She starts to move towards him so the chances of her hitting it in his
direction are less as she responds, "No, I have no problem with that, I
suppose you could have picked worse things to vent over." At least she
didn't walk in on him and Harry fighting again... That would not have made this
day particularly nice. "I was just a little surprised to suddenly have a bludger heading towards my head when Quidditch
practice is supposed to be off." Hence, why she kinda yelled.
Beetle taps at the side of the wooden crevice with a leg.
Vent? You're fifteen, what have you to vent over? Uncontrollable
acne, poor exam scores? Your father being a very evil
person? Bad hairdays?
But given that hair of yours Draco, that would be an
everyday occurance. Tsktsk, naughty students out on the
grounds in the Quidditch equipment. Tut-tut.
"Well, it's a good thing that it didn't." Not
that he... cares or anything if she gets hit, but, "If it had knocked you
out or anything, I don't doubt that I'd have quite a bit of explaining to
do." The bludger returns, arcing through the air
and sailing back towards the pair. It's a good thing Draco's
ready for it... and you better be too, evil Rita Skeeter
beetle-cow, because when he knocks that bludger away
with the bat, it goes streaking across the field and, for convenience sakes,
right at that little sheds doors! "Oops." o_o;
"I can imagine. Madam Pomfrey
would hardly be pleased." The idea of being hit by bludgers
isn't exactly unknown to this young Seeker. There's a reason she was never on
the House team until her fourth year, and it had nothing to do with lacking
skill. Either way though, Cho
certainly would rather avoid such occurances,
especially since Quidditch is still technically
'off'. She'd really not have it canceled entirely because a Slytherin decided it'd be a good idea to break rules and
she just happened to get her face cracked open. As the bludger
returns, she's more than content to let him get it, but her mouth drops at the
direction it heads. Oh great... This'll be just as fun to explain as a bloodied
Ravenclaw Seeker.
Beetle bets that you would have a bit of explaining to do
you horrid little boy. And.. oh..
golden snidgets! O.O Here comes a bludger! You did that on
purpose! Instead of shaking a leg in tradition 'I'll get you and your little
dog too' manner, she scrambles out of the crack and down out of the bludger's path! She's just a bug, no really, why's a bludger flying for her??
KABOOM! The doors to the shed give way under the pressure
of the bludger. It's kinda
unfortunate that it just didn't happen to kill Rita, as well, just by chance. Draco's jaw... just drops... O_o
"I didn't hit it that hard! Honest!" But, then again, when one vents,
anger can be turned into physical strength. He hit it a lot harder than he
thought he could. And even after all that... the thing still hasn't given up!
Well, of course, being an inanimate object, it can't feel pain, but still. The bludger darts out of the hole it created and zooms back
across the pitch. He drops the bat on the ground. "We're going to have to
catch it." >_>
Okay, catch it... Draco, you do
realize that both of them are /VERY SMALL!/ Anyway, Cho has about the same reaction as the Slytherin
when the bludger hits and causes that damage. She
flinches a little. "Either way, you have a good arm..." She isn't
going to accuse him of lying, but well... he unless there was someone inside
the shed, it doesn't make sense it would speed over there like that. Unless of
course whatever was wrong with the Snitch that made it leave the pitch was also
wrong with the bludgers. "Catch it?" He
wants /them/ to catch it? This is certainly not her idea of fun. There's a
reason most the rest of the Ravenclaw team consists
at /least/ medium sized young men. She lets the bat drop from her hand and
braces herself, either way.
Beetle drops straight to the ground just as the bludger connects with the doors of the shed. She cowers on
the ground under a few blades of grass. Look! It's A Bug's Life II starring
Rita Skeeter! She stays low to the grass, not that
she can get any lower, with her front legs thrown over her little buggy head.
Is it safe? Uhm... nevermind
this nonsense.. it's
dangerous out here! She just slinks off to go find a rock to hide under until
the bludger's put away. How appropriate @.@;
He is certainly serious about catching the ball. Perhaps
it's a good thing that the bludger comes for him,
however, as he is the bigger of the two. He absorbs the impact of the thing
much like catching a football, cradling it in towards his abdomen, but that's
certainly not enough, because the force of the bludger
knocks him right off his feet and sends the boy skidding a couple feet back on
the pitch. That's a nice introduction to a whole new world of pain, and not
only that, but he's not exactly strong enough to hold onto the thing either and
breathe at the same time.. @.@ The bludger
escapes from his arms and rises up high into the air, only to dart away towards
the other seeker, giving him time to sit up, somewhat, and squack
out, "Toss me a bat and get out of here! Go to the Slytherin
common room!" One, two, three... And... BREATHE! x.@ "Grab Crabbe. Grab Goyle. Either one'll do! Tell
them I need their help." Oh god... he's gonna
wretch or something. x.x He
just admitted he needs their assistance. "Goyle'll
recognize you.." He hopes. "They can catch
it!"
"Draco!" Oh.. oh no. She really hopes he
didn't break anything there... The pure horror on her face doesn't have much
time to stay there as Cho has to dive out of the way
of the bludger. The fact that she is very athletic is
readily apparent, as she manages to dive right in the place to grab up the bat
that she had dropped. She waits a second, the bludger
spins around to come back at her again, and she gives it the best full armed wallop
that she can manage. Nowhere near as good as any of
the ones that he's done, but it at least heads away from her and doesn't head
towards him. The bat is tossed underhanded towards him as she straightens, then
immediately she runs off the pitch, hoping that the bludger
doesn't decide to wallop her in the back before she can get out (which we'll
say it doesn't) and goes straight to the castle to find one of those big dumb Draco-ites. She'll even go as far as going into the common
room to get them if she has to, but hopefully she won't have to play on the
fact that she knows the password, unless they changed it overnight.
It's quite likely that the mere mention of the name 'Draco Malfoy' might bring the two
goons rushing to assist him. If Goyle
does recognize Cho from yesterday, then that will
make the odds of it happening quickly even better. There's always that
chance that they will question her about it, first, but the two boys ARE rather
thick, so that would be giving them too much credit. Anyways, back to the boy
on the Quidditch pitch. He's certainly putting up a
good fight to keep that bludger far away, for someone
who's injured, kinda. He's recovered enough to stand,
one arm wrapped protectively around his mid-section, the other with the hand
that holds the bat. And each time he swats the thing away, he just... curses at
it, swearing, calling it terrible names, and numerous other things. Well, it's
a good way to vent, but now he's no longer venting about the letter and such.
Now it's because he's furious that it winded him and then got away!
Luckily, Cho doesn't even let
them have the thought of questioning her. She can't physically drag them (and
she actually did try to grab the one she found, she can't tell them apart at
all, so it could be either) so what she says is, "Draco.
Malfoy.
Told.
We'll just say that the one that accompanied her to the
pitch does happen to be Goyle. Maybe it's a good
thing that he didn't seem to forget who she was as Draco
said he would. Maybe at least one of the goons deserves a little credit, but
that doesn't change the fact that he's still not the brightest crayon in the
box. Draco continues to bat away at the bludger, knocking it away with a string of profanities, then it sails back, so he bashes it away, again. Rinse, lather, repeat. This is getting exhausting. How much
longer will it be? Goyle follows the command, if only
because he does see that his ringleader is in trouble, not that he actually
wants to. For a guy so big, he sure does rush out onto the pitch rather
quickly, which means a new target for the bludger. It's course towards Draco winds up
changing, the black ball steering away and towards Goyle,
instead, who just simply reaches, catches it in one hand, absorbs the impact
much like Draco had, but isn't quite so moved by the
impact. Draco's jaw drops. Again.
O_O; So does the bat. Right onto his foot!
"@#%^!" x.@; There goes another bad word
that would probably be enough to make his mother cry.
As soon as the Bludger is
caught, Cho just... stares. She's seen Bludgers caught many times, but... never like that... It's
shaken off a moment later and she yells, "Put it up! I'll tend to Draco!" With that said she runs back out onto the
pitch and straight to the cursing Slytherin. His
mouth earns a raised eyebrow and a soft, "You kiss your mother with that
mouth?" No, he kisses her with that mouth... arg.
She really wishes that she wouldn't have said such a 'default' response to
those swears. She pushes away the nervousness and asks more firmly, "Do
you need anything? Did it break anything? Are you all right?" She works in
the Hospital Wing, so as long as it isn't /too/ major she can probably get him
patched up without them having to answer too many questions. Though people are
likely going to wonder what happened to the shed's doors...
"I haven't kissed my mother since I was a boy, so,
no." Draco admits, not too pleased that Narcissa has been brought up, but at least her name wasn't
used in vain. "But I do kiss you with this mouth." He adds on slyly,
smirking. Perhaps they're on the same wavelength of thoughts, here. And poor Goyle stands there, looking on at the scene rather blankly,
the struggling bludger trapped between two of his
large hands. Now, if he were Hagrid, he probably
could've caught that bludger and crushed it into dust
so fine that Snape would of
been able to use it in one of his potions. He heads over to the box, containing
the snitch, quaffle and other bludger,
then sets it in the empty slot, making sure to fasten
the latches. Back to the blonde. "I think I'll be
fine." He starts and then sniffles pitifully. "My toe hurts,
though." Q.Q He's whining, really.
The fact that their minds are actually thinking in sync
doesn't diminish the blush that suddenly appears on her cheeks. Cho shakes it off after a few seconds though, though the
pink shade remains a bit longer. She moves closer to him and asks, "Would
you let me look? If you have a fractured rib it's best
if we find out now, instead of you figuring it out in the morning when you get
up and find yourself unable to breathe without pain. Much less do anything
else." She knows how cracked or broken ribs feel, but she won't say that out
loud. If he hasn't heard of her problems with injuries, than she certainly
won't bring it up. And at least she's /asking/ instead of telling. Which is
what Madam Pomfrey would probably do, but she's not
Madam Pomfrey. "If you do, I can probably take
care of it." She /shouldn't/ but she shouldn't
even be out here, so it's not like she hasn't broken a rule or two already
today...
Wow. For once, it's not him who happens to be blushing.
This causes the Slytherin to become slightly pleased
with the results, but, still. Um. He understands that
she just wants to make sure he isn't injured or anything, but doing that in
front of Goyle is just... "What do you want me
to do? Lift up my shirt?" c.C; The face he makes is that of disgust and then, he begins to
walk away. "I should probably go talk to Goyle,
first." And talk to him, he does. He strolls right over to the larger boy
and begins to speak with him. Whatever it is, it causes Goyle
to grin stupidly back. Draco probably congratulated
him, sparred maybe a compliment or two on the catching
of the bludger, and then offered something in return.
There's a stash of candy in his trunk, so it was probably that. The blonde Slytherin doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. He only
really fancies the things his mother bakes for him. Everything else just tastes
rather drab. His brutish thug's grin widens and then he nods his head, says
something back before leaving. Goyle even lifts his
hand and waves to Cho quickly, and soon after, he's
gone, leaving them behind. Draco folds his arms
across his chest and looks rather smug for a few minutes. He's been looking to
get rid of that candy, but it actually came in handy to eliminate a possible
debt. How wonderful.
"All right." Cho replies to the request to go over to his lackey. She
doesn't try to intrude, standing where she is, patiently waiting as the blush
finally dies down. As the large Slytherin waves at
her, she gives a small start, then offers a smile and returns the wave. After
he is gone, and it is apparent that the blonde isn't going to come back over,
she moves towards him and says, "Now, lift up your shirt, if you don't
mind. If you want to step into the shed, we can. It'll probably be a little
warmer in there at the very least." She's trying to make him more
comfortable, but also trying to keep from looking too nervous. She works in the
Hospital Wing. It won't be the first or last time she sees a guy with his shirt
off. She's seen a half the Ravenclaw Quidditch team post-practice getting patched up!
He could lift up his shirt and show off his chest either
here or in the shed. What a dilemma. Neither one sounds entirely too favourable. If he doesn't, she'll probably be quite willing
to do it for him, which could be equally, if not more, embarrassing. He runs
the options through his head and other than obvious consequences, he starts
looking into other ones. If she checks out in the field, other people just may
see, but they'd know what was going on. If she checks in the shed and someone
opens the doors to inspect them because of damage, they'd get the wrong idea...
And then! Aha! He pulls his wand out from his robes and brandishes it towards
the doors of the shed. Draco was planning on doing
this a little bit later, but now is just as good of a time as any. "Reparo!" And the spell
fires off. Almost immediately after, the door begins to repair itself, piecing
itself back together and eventually fixing the damage wrought upon it by the bludger. "We can use the shed." And like a
gunslinger, he twirls his wand around a finger, then
sheaths it back into that pocket under his robes.
What a show off. But Cho
doesn't look anything less than pleased at his use of magic. It will certainly
save them the trouble of having anyone wonder what happened to the doors. She
offers him a smile and starts to move towards the shed, tempted for a second to
grab his arm and lead him over there, but that would ruin his wand twirling and
sheathing trick. Besides, he seems to have resigned himself to this, so
hopefully he won't back out of it. She starts to say, "Now, I'm going to
need to feel around a moment, and if you have any pain, just let me know."
She's just going to explain what she has to do when he gets his shirt off, so
that when the time comes she can focus on it entirely and not worry about
blushing any. He's so tiny after all. How much can there really be to see?
O.o; You
mean... there's no actual spell that can be used in this sort of situation? How
utterly appalling! It was probably too much to hope for a trick to get around
that. He'd weasel out of this if it were possible, but
she'd hunt him down, or so Draco thinks. So, it's in
his own best interests that he goes along with this, too, also because what if
he does have a fractured rib? That'd be an unpleasant thing to wake up to. The
young Slytherin follows along behind to the shed,
making sure he grabs the one end of the box to drag it along. He'd have to put
it away, eventually. Why not do it while he's heading in that direction?
"It won't take long, will it?" o.-;
"Depends on how long it takes to get started mainly.
If there /is/ anything wrong... I can try one of the charms I know, but it
would be better if I just gave you a potion to make." Cho
is actually allowed to use the potions, as they are less likely to get messed
up and kill someone. A person can usually tell if the potion was messed up
/before/ anyone has to consume it. She certainly doesn't want to attempt to
heal the rib and instead cause more damage and /really/ warrants a trip to the
Hospital Wing. As they get inside, she politely looks away from him, examining
the locked up brooms with an odd sense of longing, leaving him to take off his
top in relative peace.
Hmph. Is she accusing him of stalling? They haven't even
started! Well... he kinda does stall. Draco makes sure to take his sweet time in pulling the box
containing the various Quidditch objects into the
shed, then shoves it back into its proper place where
he had found it. That probably takes a few minutes, alone. Then, he smirks.
"I don't know why you're looking away. It's not as though I'm changing my
pants or anything." Not that that'd matter, either. She's seen his boxers,
before, too. o.-; Christ. Is Cho
going to walk in on him in the shower next? Or will Harry become a bit more
daring if he depants him, again? Nevermind. He pushes his
robe off each shoulder and then allows it to fall into a crumpled heap on the
floor, followed shortly after by his vest, which he tugs, from the bottom, over
his head. The temperature just dropped in here. e.e; Gee. Wonder why. Draco loosens the tie of silver and green around his neck, then pulls out the button-up shirt from being tucked into
his trousers. He won't have to... completely remove
it, will he? Here's to hoping. He starts undoing the buttons at the top and
moves to the bottom, followed by a simple, "There. Finished."
His skin looks as though it's never seen the sun, just as pale as the rest of
him, but faintly glossy, due to the last of the sweat. And despite appearances,
he's not exactly scrawny with absolutely no tone. He's thin, but also in shape,
obviously. The muscles definitely have definition to them, but are not really
overbearing. Muscle weighs more than fat, for one thing. Too much would make
him unfit for a seeker but too little and... well.. he'd be a real pansy, then. Heh.
Which makes one wonder why Cedric was Hufflepuff's Seeker. Sure he wasn't the best Seeker
on the House Teams, but he was rather tall and not small like the rest of the
Seekers of that year. Cho blushes as he says the bit
about his pants, but since she is turned from him, she doesn't have to worry
about him seeing it. Hopefully she won't walk into him on the shower though. It
certainly isn't something she's going to go out of her way to do (no offense
intended)... She remains turned away until he says that he is finished. The light ting of pink still remains on her cheeks as she turns and
sees him. After a second, she clears her throat and walks over, lifting
her hands up to carefully touch both of his rib cages, lightly (for now)
running her fingers along the skin and bone, waiting for any sign that it's
hurting him.
Phew. Well. At least he doesn't have to remove his entire
shirt or anything, which is a nice relief. Of course, he has to put up with
being lightly poked and prodded, but hey. He can deal with that. Kinda. Draco can't exactly help the faint tinge of pink on the
tips of his cheeks, but he can't help but be kinda
thankful that she isn't looking up right at the moment. Haven't
hurt him, yet. Everything seems to be in order thus far. He took the bludger right to the abdomen, after all, not the sides of
his rib cage.
Well, honestly, Cho didn't get
a very good look at where he got hit, so if he would have been a bit more
specific, this likely could have been avoided. Or not.
She'd probably check just to make sure, either way. Since the first pass seems
to have not produced any yelps or 'Hey, quit that!' or more showing of his foul
language, she glances up at him and offers a quick smile. It's just so he knows
that nothing seems to be wrong so far. She does notice the pink in those
cheeks, but she doesn't look amused or smug at it. She's just hopes she doesn't
have any in her own... She lowers her eyes again and applies more pressure,
checking lower.
O.o; And
then he begins to make funny faces, the blush immediately fading as quickly as
it had came. "Knock it off, that tickles." >.< A hand moves to
swat away hers. Draco believes that that's quite
enough, really. He doesn't have any broken bones and the most pain he will
probably suffer from will be because of his back. And that's just mere aches
and pains. Nothing really big to be worried about. The
blonde Slytherin has more than likely had worse just
by growing.
Letting out a small sigh, Cho
lets her hands drop away and she looks up at him. At first it looks as if she
might want to say something about how she was just trying to help, but instead
she has a flash of inspiration. "I'll keep in mind that you're so
ticklish." is what she says, offering a smile that /almost/ touches on
amused. Hey, he was accusing her of being mean earlier, so she might as well
actually do something that might actually /be/ mean. Though
that's hardly very mean at all. Only if a person has the mentality of a
six year old would that really be considered such. She backs away, not
diverting her eyes just yet. "Think you can make it back to the
Castle?"
Draco thinks for a few moments,
then nods his head. "I'm sure I'll be fine. You
go on ahead. I'll lock the shed and all of that." And he immediately
starts to button up his shirt again, followed by sorting the tie. He bends at
the knees and scoops up the vest and robes from the ground, folding them over
his arm.