Eternal Enigma
Author: Albus Dumbledore
Date: 03-17-04 08:54

As Sirius introduces me to Drucilla, I have a perfect chance to get in one fleeting probe. A quick scan of her surface thoughts reveals absolutely nothing that would tie her to the Dark Wizards or to Voldemort, himself. Everything I encounter is sweet and loving and open. Her obvious infatuation with Sirius… her profound pleasure at finally meeting Albus Dumbledore… her great joy at being present at this quidditch match… her love of life, in general. Nothing but goodness and light. I emerge from the probe, feeling as if I had just taken a dip in a vat of treacle.

Now, she sits between a rather surly Harry Potter and myself, saying all the right things and making all the right moves. I try to analyze the reasons for my misgivings as I pretend to concentrate on the match before us. Try as I might, I can find nothing Dark about this young woman. She is perfect! Whenever I speak to her, she meets my gaze openly and directly. Her Veela ancestry is obvious; the long blond hair, the pale complexion, the delicate features. And yet, she makes no attempt to use her Veela charm. If anything, she seems to be trying to suppress it. Trying to avoid any hint of impressing or influencing those around her in an unnatural manner.

Hufflepuff is already up by some fifty points when I finally hit upon the source of my unease. She is perfect! TOO perfect! Everyone, myself included, has a few thoughts which should never see the light of day. Petty gripes, minor maledictions and the like, are part of a normal mind. In Drucilla, these are curiously absent. Her mind has been swept clean of anything negative. Some Legilimens has done a very thorough and complete housecleaning on this girl. The paramount question is… "What is missing?"

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Scoring At Last
Author: Kody
Date: 03-17-04 16:57

Things are definately not going well for Ravenclaw. They're playing well, making few mistakes but Hufflepuff is playing brilliantly. Watching them, if he didn't already know be Kody would have sworn the opposing team members had been playing together for years.

Kody's eyes dart around following the quaffle and when he sees an opening he takes it. Coming from just below and behind, Kody's fairly certain he's coming up in a blind spot. Staying low over his broom, he zips in neatly between two of the Hufflepuff chasers and quick as a blink snatches the quaffle in midpass.

Just as quickly, Kody passes it to Alden, whose flying the right direction for Ravenclaw to score. As tightly and as swiftly as he can, Kody turns his broom and races to catch up with Alden and Ariana. Alden passes it to Ariana who deliberately wobbles to dodge a bludger before handing off to Kody.

Kody feints left, goes toward center but shoots right. Desdemona realizes her mistake a shade too late and the quaffle easily sails through the right hoop. Finally! Ten points for Ravenclaw but still forty points behind!

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Knights Walpurgis: The Next Round
Author: Nathaniel Hawkins
Date: 03-17-04 18:30

Nathaniel stared at the exit to the labyrinth, watching for a sign of life from between the rocks that hides the passageway. Suddenly there was movement and then the young woman burst out from between the rocks, holding a large stick. What could she be possibly doing with that?, he thought.

Seconds later Bryon de Lacey appears wearing a face like thunder. He appears winded and out of breath, something Nathaniel would have thought impossible. "The first round goes to Appollonia Solon!" he called to the gathered knights. There was a general muttering and Nathaniel noticed Merdroit handing a hefty bag of coins to another knight.

Without waiting further, Nathaniel turned to address the combatants. "There will no break in the proceedings," he said. "We will immediately continue on to the next round, which will a test of skill and strength. This will be a round using swords. Remember, the winner is the person who is undefeated. There are no rules to this round, except one. If a participant looses his sword he may not request a replacement. He must fight on with his bare hands until the bitter end. You may request a reprieve but you will loose the round."

Nathaniel gestured and a knight stepped forward with what looked like a substandard sword that was at least two hundred years old. With a smirk he presented the weapon to Appollonia and stepped back.

"Let the round begin," intoned Nathaniel. A circle was immediately formed by the watching knights with Appollonia and Bryon in the middle. Appollonia watched as Bryon drew a massive sword from his belt, highly polished and extremely sharp. It was a two handed sword, but Bryon's bulk made it easy for him to use with one arm. The fight began.

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Knights Walpurgis: Hold Fast!
Author: Dierna ní Cíaran
Date: 03-17-04 18:58

I almost laugh at the announcement of a sword fight. Almost. Smiths have great power over the weapon they make. It makes me somewhat nervous not to know what kind of magic went into this weapon. Is it strong? Or will it shatter on first contact with another weapon?

I don't have the chance to worry about it though.

De Lacey comes charging at me with all the fury of the Morrigan. I take a firm grip on my own sword with both hands. de Lacey slashes downward - only to have his sword meet my own. The force drives me back a few steps. Then I find my balance. Fintan's tutoring takes over. I hear his counseling clearly. In my mind, it is to the Finian leader, my instructor in weaponry, I shout, "Greim go dangean!!"

Out loud, to my rival I say, "I wonder how a girl like me would know how to fight?"

De Lacey pushes forward several more times, only to find his attacks blocked every time. I seethe pattern in his movements, can read his attacks from how he moves his body. After letting him attack a few times, I start to push forward, lithe, quick, unpredictable. I slash, opening a deep angry red mark in his arm. "Oh dear, that's going to be painful."

The look of realization on de Lacey's face is fleeting. Quickly replaced by the rise of his anger. I am a woman who knows how to use a sword; and with considerable skill.

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Strenthening the Lead
Author: Sebastian Sjoblom
Date: 03-17-04 19:26

Sebastian feels a stab of frustration when he realizes the Ravenclaw captain dodged past him to score, but that's quickly overwritten by a pressing need to win, something Sebastian has little experience with. He isn't very familiar with competitiveness, but so far he's been able to discern that it works a strange alchemy on him, transmuting Sebastian, carefree and maybe even bumbling, into his clinical-minded alter ego.

Sebastian whips his head up at the sound of Desi's shout of "Hey, Seb!" She's tossed the Quaffle out to him, he realizes, and as he practically loses his grip on his broom reaching for it he decides that there's no time for quiet reflection during his first Quidditch match.

The Quaffle thumps heavily and reassuringly into his outstretched fingers, but he feels himself falling, pivoting from the knees clamped vicelike around his scuffed broom handle. He hangs upside-down from his broom, twisting and contorting himself in an attempt to regain his seating one-handed. Finally, seeing a dashing face and shock of blond hair (flipped vertically), he palms the Quaffle off to Arley and rights himself with an aggressive pull-up.

He zooms after Arley, who steadily approaches the goal, though faced with a Ravenclaw Chaser trailing him closely and waiting for a fatal fumble. Sebastian makes a wide arc around the two of them, and outstretches his arms in anticipation of a pass.

Trey, too, approaches from behind Arley, his eyes fixed on the Quaffle. That's his greatest skill, Sebastian thinks with a sigh. However, Trey's presence close behind him offers Arley the opportunity to make a clean pass, and he does.

It's a hard pass to miss, but Trey does, necessitating Sebastian's dive to retrieve the falling Quaffle. The Ravenclaw Chaser dives, too, and though her superior broom outstrips Sebastian's, she went after the Quaffle late, and Sebastian just barely manages to lightly bat the Quaffle out of her reach with the back of his hand. He then pulls it to his chest protectively, taking a panting inhalation and smelling the leather-and-dirt Quaffle smell.

He beelines toward the goals, and tosses the Quaffle, though a second later he immediately curses himself. He was too far away for a goal to be assured, and the Quaffle's headed straight for the Keeper, who reaches out one hand to catch it. However, an unintentional wrist flick from Sebastian gave the ball just enough topspin to make it tricky to catch. It escapes the Keeper's grip and, though it was headed for the center hoop, is knocked off course and bumps into the leftmost hoop instead.

The crowd cheers, with the heartiest ovation coming from the black-and-yellow-bedecked section, a tiny smattering of applause from the Slytherins and Gryffindors, and a few boos from Ravenclaw, though they don't seem to be much for antagonism.

The Keeper tosses the Quaffle underhand to the Ravenclaws at the end of the pitch to put it back into play, but Arley intercepts the too-slow pass neatly and tosses it off to Sebastian, who waits downpitch, within ten yards of the goals. The Quaffle has barely entered his palm when he winds back his arm and shoots again. The ball finds its target, quick and true, before the Keeper can react.

Seventy points, he tells himself, and glances around while the Keeper retrieves the Quaffle. He watches Hannah and the Ravenclaw Seeker warily, and reminds himself that despite the considerable lead, it's too early to predict an outcome. A glint of gold in the nippy air could spell the end for Hufflepuff. There's already been one sighting of the Snitch, and Sebastian aims to put away as many goals as possible before there's another.

He follows through on this aspiration reliably. Though Ravenclaw gains possession and attempts a goal, Desi catches the Quaffle ably and tosses it over to Sebastian, who, while the Ravenclaw Chasers are still at the other end of the pitch, darts in and scores again. Eighty.

However, before he can make another goal, a Bludger from the blue-haired Beater doubles him over, hard, remorseless iron slamming directly into his stomach, burying itself in his robes and then heading off in the other direction, leaving him to hold back hot tears and check that his internal organs are all there. He flies in a wobbly, lopsided way for awhile, one hand on his stomach and the metallic taste of blood in his mouth, a little red pooling at the corners of his lips.

While he's fairly incapacitated, Arley and Trey thankfully manage to cooperate and, though they don't score, keep the Quaffle out of Ravenclaw's reach, while Vera's Bludger hits the twigs of the Ravenclaw captain's broom, sending him into a tailspin and keeping the Ravenclaws from getting into a coherent formation to regain possession. The game is going well, and he manages to ignore the persistent ache somewhere near his liver. Eventually, it fades.

By way of Trey's butterfingers, though, the Ravenclaws gain possession again, but they're rather sluggish. With a war cry of "Norvel Twonk!" (another name lifted from Chocolate Frog cards) Sebastian and Arley execute a pincer maneuver, closing in on the Ravenclaw Chaser with the Quaffle from either side, overwhelming him and disabling his passing, and finally snatching away the Quaffle. Another goal is scored promptly, the Quaffle whizzing just past the Ravenclaw Keeper's head and into the hoop. Ninety, and no sign of a slowdown.

It's starting to feel almost routine, scoring, but Sebastian doesn't mind. He takes a few glancing blows from respectably-aimed Bludgers, and as the game progresses he's sweating and aching and loving each goal that brings him closer to a victory, which means, among other things, a good mark on his record, a rush of pride, the congratulations of his fellows, a step closer to the House and Quidditch cups, and most importantly, Arley's favor.

He sneezes into the crook of his arm, wondering if the wet socks have anything to do with the illness rearing its head, before diving after Maison and retrieving the Quaffle again, now with the nonchalance of someone who's made the maneuver quite a lot over the course of the game. Ravenclaw poses little threat. He and Arley pass back and forth, and then it's another goal, made mechanically. The Ravenclaw Keeper looks dejected; he hasn't yet deflected one of their shots.

The Hufflepuffs, on the other hand, go wild, and Bronwyn forgoes objectivity and cheers as well. The hundred-point mark! Sebastian isn't as impressed with himself as they are, but nonetheless he dons his trademark grin, smiling at the Hufflepuff quarter of the stands and waving. He's too busy courting their favor to realize that one of the Ravenclaw Chasers has the Quaffle again now, and is heading toward Desdemona with a burst of renewed speed.