Term 20 Commentator Tryouts

It was that time of year again, the beginning of a new year at Beauxbatons meaning it was once again time for quidditch tryouts. This was one of the professor's favorite times to be the flying instructor, however it could also be very stressful to choose students for the teams especially since their were only two teams and a ton of students wanting to be on those two teams. However she was always able to decide in the end and she just loved the happy looks on the students faces when they flew around the pitch and you could always see that moment when each one of them finally got some confidence in their tryout performance. There used to be a time when she could just hold all of the tryouts for both teams and the commentators at the same time now she had to stagger them throughout the day. The final tryouts this Saturday morning was the tryouts for the commentators.

Professor Bowen walked out onto the quidditch pitch to see a group of excited students standing in the center, some scared looking and others confident. She stood in the middle and quickly got everyones attention, "Alright everyone welcome to this years Quidditch Commentator Tryouts." She said loud enough for everyone to hear her. "How this is going to work is like this. Some decoy players will play out a small portion of a quidditch match and each one of you will take turns giving your comments on the match as if it were a real game." She told them all slowly to be sure they all understood. "Alright so with that let's get started. She finished before starting the tryouts.

ooc:
-You are to post strictly in character and write a one shot of your character going through their turn.
-Be sure to give enough detail in the post to help the Ministers make an accurate decision about who to pick.
-Message your house's Minister with any questions

Andrea knew nothing about Quidditch beyond what a couple of her classmates told her. Mr. Smith hadn't mentioned it and when she asked him about the shop they'd walked past in Amethyst Alley he dismissed it as unimportant. Well she soon learnt that for a lot of wizards and witches it was extremely important. So much so she felt a strong need to learn more about this game and what better way than to be a commentator for it.

Throwing herself in there and announce a game she knew little about sounded rather daring but so was coming up with a story about how she ended up on top of a door. Okay maybe that was a bad example since the end result of that experience had been detention. After watching a few tryouts she felt more confident about this idea.

By the time her turn came she felt ready and sat at the commentator's desk waiting for the decoy players to come out. "And the red ball is in play and being thrown between two players. I'm not sure how they plan to score anything if they keep...never mind. One of them scored against the goal keeper. So that's one point? I think that's it." She knew it was wrong when she heard a whisper of ten from somewhere behind her. "I mean ten points. Sorry. I forgot to multiply by ten. And there they go again with passing the red ball and this time avoiding the big heavy ball." How did heavy balls float like that? she wondered. "Another ten points. Now at twenty points to the red team. Ooh look the golden ball is flying and another player, the one in green, is going for it and caught it. And it's over 150 points to the green team and 20 points to the red team." And that was it. A very quick game and Andrea now remembered the correct names for the positions and the balls after her tryout.

Carlie didn't think she would be very good at playing quidditch, but she still wanted to be involved. And when she heard that there were still spots open for announcers, she decided that she'd at least give it a try. She had a decent voice and knew a decent amount about the game. And maybe she'd even make a friend or two. And if she didn't like it, she could quit.

Carlie decided she needed an edge of sorts. Something to make her stand out a bit, at least for the tryouts. Conformity worked, but it just wasn't her style. So she decided it right then and there: she'd recite lines like poetry.

She watched the charmed decoys fly around and thought carefully of what she'd say.

"Nuage hands off the quaffle and flies it to the other end of the pitch. Ten points to them. Easily. Without a hitch," Carlie said carefully.

Carlie was glad that the game was so short. It made things really simple for her. Her last line had to be good.

"Nuage scored again,
But Cerisier blocked it
and they caught the snitch."

Carlie was proud of herself. Her haiku was perfect. Maybe not perfect for quidditch, but it was worth a shot.

Tryouts lasted for awhile, but Professor Bowen gave each performance her undivided attention. There were so many fresh faces that needed to be carefully thought over. Maybe Quidditch was something new to the applicant or maybe it was something that had been part of their life before. Whatever the back story, their skills and their potentials had to be weighed equally and no matter how tiring the process was, Professor Bowen wanted to make sure she made a wise decision.

"Alright!" The witch cried out, clapping her hands as the last actions of the decoy player had been played and the game had ceased. She faced the stands, where each and every applicant sat, waiting. "That concludes tryouts for today. Thank you all for coming down and I look forward to seeing two of you very soon," She announced as she clasped the clipboard which held her notes on the applicants to her side. "You will be notified of the results as soon as I make my decision." With that said, she waved goodbye and departed from the pitch.

ooc: Please note that this concludes Quidditch tryouts. No more posts will be accepted. If you missed your chance to tryout, you will have to wait till next term.