Montagnard vs. Cerisier: Round II

Professor Bowen smiled at the nice weather they had today. Not too bad for a Quidditch game. It was starting to get colder out, warmer clothes were needed. But it could be worse, and as such she was just thankful for that. She stood to the side, looking at Linette before nodded. “Remember, Ms. Puchard, try to keep the audience entertained without being too biased towards your house. I know you try your best, but a reminder never hurts anyone.” She told the girl with a smile before taking off on her broom and addressing the crowd.

She nodded at both of the teams. “Now that the Quidditch Pitch is back to normal.” She said, hardening her voice at the words before speaking normal again. “I am pleased to start the second match of the year. Due to the coolness of the weather, warmer clothes are permitted. Currently, the Cerisier’s have won once and this year, Montagnard has no wins. But it’s still anyone’s match for the Cup. Captain’s shake hands.” She told them, before throwing the quaffle, and letting go of the bludgers. And finally, she released the snitch, mounted her broom and when in the air as well.

It seemed like that day was going to be a good day, or so Payton hoped. They had lost the last game and he was blamed the most for not catching the snitch. It didn't seem to matter that he had tried his best. It had to have been beginners luck for the opposite team's seeker to have gotten the snitch. It had to have been. After all the training with Osmund that his team underwent, Payton was feeling better about this game. Maybe, just maybe, would be the day that changed their losing streak.

When the snitch was released, Payton mounted his broom and took off. He hoped that the lucky rabbit's foot that Sawyer had let him borrow would bring him luck. Since it was his twin's, it had to be even more luckier than anything else. He just hoped it wouldn't fall off his neck while he was playing. The weather had gotten colder since their last game, so they had to wear warmer clothes. So, Payton did.

He flew above the game and searched around for the snitch. Below him, the game was going on. "We can do it!" he yelled to his team. "Go team!" he said one last encouragement before searching for the snitch again.

Cerisier: 0
Montagnard: 0

Time had passed since the last game and the seasons were starting to change. Osmund was glad to see that the pitch had been returned to its original color, and was almost feeling better about this next game. Almost. He had been looking forward to it in the days leading up, but on the morning of the game, when he and woken up, he was immediately filled with dread. fact is, Montagnard needed to win or else Oz was sure his team would commit mutiny on his leadership. He couldn't lose his position as captain. His father would never approve.

"Right guys, just win or whatever," He said, as a mini pep talk. His other teammates seemed more enthusiastic than he, but it had been made clear in the first meeting after their first loss that everyone was sick of hearing him talk, so he was just going to shut up and wait until they really messed up to start yelling.

After shaking Christian's hand, sighing in slight envy of the other boy, Osmund took off to the sky. He tiredly watched as Montagnard failed to be the first to the quaffle and meandered his way over to swing a bludger at the player, knocking the quaffle free again. Nonetheless, his efforts seemed to be in vain as a Ceriser chaser got the quaffle again and scored.

Cerisier: 10
Montagnard: 0

This was going to be another day of success for Cerisier and Linette was going to make sure everyone knew it. That was until the professor spoke directly to her. Okay. Maybe disguise the bias? "Entertain without bias," Linette repeated with a nod. "Got it Professor Bowen." Should be easy enough. Mix it up with the menagerie of animals she planned to mention.

Linette was back in her customary place in the announcer box and the game had begun. "Hello wizards and witches up in the stands. It's that time of year when the geese fly south and the qudditch players try to out do each other prancing around like peacocks. On our left we have the Cerisier team bounding like kangaroos and on our right we have the Montagnard team crawling like turtles. Soon all will be soaring like eagles. Though I do suspect the Montagnard team will be circling like vultures hoping the Cerisier team starts to die so they can swoop in and pick their dead bodies like carrion birds do."

She paused and looked around for that glass of water she'd prepared earlier. Nothing. Linette shrugged and coughed dryly. "Cerisier has scored the first goal of the match. They are slyer than foxes. Montagnard will have to out fox them to do better."

Cerisier: 10
Montagnard: 0

Marie-Laure didn't mind Osmund's speeches. She'd much rather he say what he really thought than use fake encouragement. This one though could have done with a little more work. Did he really want a win or not? From the sounds of it he didn't really care but Marie-Laure couldn't see how that could possibly be right. Who wouldn't care about winning or losing?

The captain may not care but the young chaser did. She was disappointed to see the first goal go to Cerisier. That was a trend that could not continue. Soon enough the quaffle was in the control of the Montagnard chasers. She felt she worked well with the other two and was pleased when their efforts ended with her scoring the first goal for Montagnard. This game of Quidditch was enjoyable and Marie-Laure was in one of those moods where she was pleased about the day she discovered she was a witch.

Montagnard: 10
Cerisier: 10

After being a part of the winning team last round, Quentin was completely psyched for the next one. They had one win down and Ceriser only needed one more to win the cup this year, and he could say he was on the wining team!

The chaser was slightly crestfallen to see that the pitch had returned to it's normal color and even more so that he never learned who had done it, he wanted to be friends with them. Nonetheless, the disappointment didn't stop him from being first to the quaffle. Him! Of all people! He was actually sort of shocked and hovered in the air for a moment, staring at the red ball in his hands before remembering he had a job to do and started towards the goal. He was about to pass it when a bludger knocked him off his path. 'Ouch!" It was that sodding dark haired boy again! He knew he was friends with his cousin and all, but quote frankly Quinn found him to be sort of an ass.

Fortunately, the quaffle found it's way back into possession of Ceriser and they managed the first goal. He watched as Montagnard quickly made it up by scoring their own and this time vowed to pay better attention in the game, rather than getting over excited. This time, when the quaffle was in his own grasp, he immediately turned tail and made his way to the opposite side of the pitch, passing it along to his fellow chasers and making sure that the Montagnard one's didn't get in the way. When the ball flew through the hoop, he smiled to himself thinking that he was starting to get the hang of it.

Montagnard: 10
Cerisier: 20

Louise was feeling good about today's match. Christian had drilled her on catching the snitch. But something else she'd also discovered was that Montagnard had lost every game that had ever been played in Quidditch. She was determined to keep it that way. Really...how hard could it be?

Getting to the pitch, it seemed almost to its original state. She smirked to herself and flew into the air. As soon as the snitch was released, she was on it like a hawk. She zoomed past Payton with a furious speed. She wanted that Snitch. Not paying attention to anything else in the pitch but the snitch. "Almost there...." She said reaching out for it. But within seconds it went up. As if it was nothing she was off after it again. "It's mine." She said to encourage herself.

Charon jumped on his broom and whizzed to the keep. He noticed how sadly the field was not their colors anymore. Was that a bad omen? He stayed locked into his thoughts before seeing the various balls rise into the air. He sunk into protecting the goals with poise, making a few saves already even after letting a goal up, thankfully Motagnard was behind by ten still. He took the opportunity to gaze for a second at the Cerisier focus, and grinned to himself at her focus before focusing back in on the game, he really wanted another one of those after game parties.

Montagnard: 10
Cerisier: 20

Osmund rolled his eyes as Linette was spewing animal metaphors instead of just plain bias. He supposed this was somewhat more entertaining, but it seemed that no matter what Linette was saying, when it came to her announcing Quidditch games, Osmund was irritated no matter what.

With Cerisier ahead by only one goal, Osmund figured he'd help out his own chasers, even though they should've been fine on their own. He was used to mainly hitting chasers with the quaffed but there was nothing against hitting other players. He wanted to clear up the goal post for his own chasers, but as soon as he received a bludger, it became apparent that he was too far away to aim and hit correctly.

"Bellerose! The keeper!" Osmund yelled towards the fierce blonde beater. He made gestures with his free hand as well so she'd get the point before sending the bludger towards her.

Montagnard: 10
Cerisier: 20

Cerisier was still getting ahead of Montagnard. Marie-Laure snarled at that and became more aggressive with the obtaining of the quaffle. She was small and believed it was her small stature which made it easy for her to move fast. Never mind that the broom was the same length as others on the pitch. It was the style of flying and amount of wind drag which made the difference.

She heard the Captain's shout. "Yes," she added, "do it." Though why on earth he didn't do it himself was beyond her. Wasn't Osmund also a beater. If he could hit his own keeper as she'd heard he'd done then he could also hit the other one. Marie-Laure shook her head before catching the quaffle one of the other Montagnard chasers threw her way. They'd scored again. Marie-Laure did wonder though just how much longer before Cerisier pulled ahead of them again.

Marie-Laure was determined the other team would not do what she most feared. She watched for her opportunity and then flew it to capture the quaffle again. One pass to a fellow chaser and then they scored again. That'd show Cerisier that Montagnard was not going down again without a fight. In fact if Payton actually managed to get his act together they wouldn't go down at all.

Montagnard: 30
Cerisier: 20

Annaliese had a good feeling about the whole game she was confident that today would be different. Oz seemed to be in a better mood. It seemed that he'd taken the team's advice and stopped being a grumpy bear. She was also sure  that today was the day to show him that she wasn't some useless add on to the team she'd block the goals and help Montagnard win this game.

As the game continued on Cerisier was in the lead by one goal then wasn't. Montagnard was in the lead. She smiled and looked at the quaffle coming towards her. Throwing her arm out it bounded off of it and was sent shooting back out into the pitch straight towards the Cerisier's seeker. The Seeker seemed too concentrated on the snitch to notice the item flying at her.

Montagnard: 30
Ceriseri: 20

Quentin managed to score a goal on his own and also helped out a fellow Cerisier chaser score a their own. He felt that the game was going swimmingly for his team until Montagnard quickly caught up and surpassed their amount of goals.

"I'm really trying!" Quentin took the time to say to his beloved captain as he stopped to take a breath. Usually the score wasn't so even like this. He had hope that they would still be able to catch the snitch until he watched his seeker be knocked out by a miss guided quaffe. "Can she do that!?" Quentin called, in outrage, glaring at Montagnards blonde keeper. "Fly it off, Puchard!" Quentin called to the seeker, not sure if she heard him or not.

Cerisier: 40
Montagnard: 50

Payton was happy with the turn of events, Louise was out. Even if it was for a little while. It gave him time to find the snitch without her being annoying. Usually Payton wasn't so mean and would worry if she was okay, but this game was far more important than to worry about the girl. Payton zoomed around, keeping a look out for the snitch. "Come on," he whispered, looking aimlessly around. It shouldn't be this hard. People were depending on him.

The game was intense around him after the other team's seeker was hit. Cerisier was determined and showed that by scoring another ten points. But, Montagnard was on their tail, they were also determined to win. "Come on team!" he shouted words of encouragement to his fellow teammates. He cheered when they scored once more, then focused back on finding the snitch.

Cerisier: 50
Montagnard: 60

Paige bounded onto the field in high spirits, she had a good feeling about today. The practice they had had shortly after losing the last game seemed to help the team bond and feel more like one whole team instead of a lot of individuals. She was a bit worried about how everyone on the team seemed to alienate the captain as if he was really that different than all of them. Sure maybe he yelled a lot and wasn't nice all the time but he wanted the same thing as everyone else, he wanted to win, he just said it differently. She hoped they could all look past that and work together like one big machine to kick butt today. As soon as the balls were released she flew into the air and started chasing down as many bludgers as she could.

The game started to get moving score wise later on and it picked up fast. She hadn't actually hit anyone yet but she had gotten in their way so they had to pull up short and some dropped the quaffle from that. She watched as the captain of Cerisier passed the quaffle to his brother/cousin, so she hit the closest bludger right in the young ones way and watched him try to avoid it. Somehow Cerisier still scored shortly afterwards, making her curse under her breath. While she was doing that she heard Captain Hollow yell for her and she turned to see him pointing at the keeper a few feet from her. He hit the bludger towards her and she didn't hesitate for a second when it came to smacking it at her best friend. Normal she would be super concerned that he was going to be hurt, but currently in her quidditch mind she hoped it hit him and hard and put him out of the game. It at least bought their chasers a chance to score.

Cerisier: 60
Montagnard: 70

Christian could tell his team was a bit upset about the pitch being back to its normal color, he just hoped that it didn't bother them too much. The last thing he wanted was his team to worry about the color of the pitch and forget that they're playing a game. Ever since he had been named Captain of the Cerisier house quidditch team they had been undefeated. Of course he had only been captain for one and a half years now but they had won four games in a row, and that wasn't exactly easy. He shook hands with Oz as usually and this time he wished him good luck, he was starting to feel bad about their constant winning because his best mate's team kept losing and he was captain so it looked bad on him. Of course when he was up in the air scoring points he forgot all about his mate.

Today was no exception to that, Christian was playing to win. He was getting frustrated that as the game went on him, Quinn, and the other chaser seemed to get slower and slower about scoring. They were still almost matching Montagnard with goals but not quite they still seemed just a bit ahead. The damned Montagnard beaters kept hitting the bludgers in their faces, not hitting any of them thankfully, but always seeming to cut off their paths. Christian smiled when they finally evened the score back out but he wanted to score again to pull ahead. He heard his mate yells to his fellow beater about taking out their keeper or something like that, he watched in horror as Xavior's little sister his a bludger at Winthrop who didn't seem to notice it.

Cerisier: 70
Montagnard: 70

Louise was almost at the snitch, she was confident that she was going to catch it. "Almost there...." she said overreaching her arm and grazing the snitch with her fingers, but within seconds of that....BOOM!!!

She was suddenly spiraling out of control, and heading towards the ground. A quaffle had hit her broom spliting the end off and sending her the ground. "Whoa!!!" She yelped trying to get ahold of the broom. She suddenly felt the impact of the ground and groaned. "Argh..." The team was sure to lose and it was her fault. She looked to see who had thrown it. The Montgnard Keeper was smiling gloriously.

Montgnard: 70
Cersier: 70

Annaliese laughed a little in spite of the other girl's fall. She looked up the score and saw they had a winning shot. "Good work guys!!!" She called out to her team hitting away another shot, with a new surge of confidence that hadn't been there before. She was glad she had the other girl.... It was what the team needed to win...they could win now because of it...they would win because of it. She smiled to herself. Despite her and Oz not getting along very well it being in Quidditch or during school she felt a strange need to prove herself to him. 


Finally looking looking at the other team, they looked disoriented and confused. They weren't use to not being ahead. Annaliese knew. With the seeker out of the game, the Montgnard team had it in the bag. She looked to Payton with determind eyes. "Catch that snitch, Johnson!!!" She yelled to him with a smile. "We can do this team!!" She shout to everyone else. And for once...she believed it.

Montagnard: 70
Cerisier: 70

With Louise out of the game, this was Payton's chance to catch the snitch. The snitch was in his few and he was determined. He zoomed towards it and reached out. He felt it against his hand and shut his hand around it. "I GOT IT!" He yelled. He was so happy that he had caught the snitch. Now no one would blame him for losing the game. He was so proud of himself, his lucky charm had worked.

Once he was back on the ground, he held up the snitch with pride. "We won!!" The Montagnard house seemed to explode with excitement and cheering. He handed the snitch back to Professor Bowen and ran back over to his team. "We won!" He then went over to Louise to see if she was okay after hitting the ground like that. Even though they were on the opposite team, he was still worried about the poor first year.

Montagnard: 220
Cerisier: 70

Osmund watched as the odd turn of events rolled out in front of him. He had passed off the bludger to Paige with the orders to hit the Keeper, but suddenly the seeker was falling from the sky. If he hadn't hit her and Paige hadn't, who did? A Cerisier beater? He doubted that Linette would miss out on announcing that one with another animal metaphor if something that exciting happened. Whatever the cause, Payton was now unexcused from missing the snitch. Their score was pretty equal to Cerisiers and the only thing that would guarantee a Montagnard victory would be if the snitch was theirs.

"Don't you dare miss this again, Johnson!" Osmund called to the second year as he flew off to attend to his own business. He swung around a few more bludgers before the game had finally ended and Osmund almost didn't believe what he heard. "We...won?" It seemed impossible, given their losing streak, but that streak was over now. "In your face, D'Angelo!" Osmund called out to the other captain, and his only friend in quidditch. He tossed down his club in victory and actually laughed and smiled for once. "We won!" He called, making his way over towards his friend and hugging the other captain.

Montagnard: 220
Cerisier: 70

"Sylvian the Swan has scored the first goal for Montagnard. It remains to be seen if they play like sheep as they have done in the past. Always following Cerisiser and never catching up or changing it up and getting ahead." Professor Bowen couldn't find anything biased in that. It was a fact. Cerisier's goals had always been more than Montagnard's.


She smirked and laughed. "And D'Angelo the younger Dove has scored for Cerisier bringing them ahead of Montagnard again. It looks like Montagnard really is no mountain goat. They cannot seem to get out on top. They're going to have to rely on Johnson the Pigeon to catch the snitch. Already we've had Louise the Llama go after it and miss. My threat from last time still stands Llama. Books in the bed if you know what doesn't happen."

"Osmund the Ostrich is shouting instructions for all to hear. Really Osmund don't you know that you should speak in code?" The fun she could have had with that. Such a shame for Montagnard he made it clear the Cerisier keeper was a target.

Linette gasped. "I don't believe it. Montagnard has actually managed to achieve something I never thought I would live to see. They are now ahead of Cerisier by ten points. Come on now Cerisier. If you want to maintain your reputation you'd better get your act together." Maybe that wasn't so unbiased but Linette could not change where her loyalties lay. "And Montagnard keeps on maintaining their lead over Cerisier."

She leaned forward in her booth as she watched the quaffle hit her sister's broom, tension stiffening her body. "LOUISE," she shouted, "YOU'D BETTER NOT HAVE HURT YOURSELF OR I'LL DO WORSE THAN BOOKS IN YOUR BED." When she was certain her sister was alright she sat back again. "Ah now where was I. Oh right. Scores are equal at seventy all and one seeker has disappeared. The Pigeon sweeps in and takes the snitch meaning Montagnard has won the game. However, that was only because of a quaffle hitting a broom. Don't let this get to your heads Montagnard. Next time the Llama will not be hit and she will sweep in and catch the snitch." Linette switched off the microphone. It was time to check that Louise really was okay.

Cerisier: 70
Montagnard: 220

Charon was too busy spying the Montagnard chasers to notice the bludger hurling at him, which struck with a thunderous clap into his side. So much for today being a good day he thought in the split second he noticed the bludger before the impact. He was hurled forcibly off his broom and used a grip on closest goal post to break his fall, landing on the same side as he'd been hit on. There was a small crack and he felt extremely winded and gasped for air. He forced himself to his feet and moved to his broom, even though his body felt like jello. He climbed on and attempted to ascend but he was just too tired and hurt to be effective as keeper. He took  deep breaths and laid on his back as someone came in to replace him. Soon he heard cheers from the Montagnard end of the pitch and Payton flying around gleefully, he was mad, mad that they lost and he couldn't help but blame himself a little.

Montagnard: 220
Cerisier: 70

Christian was sure that if he could just get a hold of the quaffle and not let it go they could get back ahead. They were even and that was unacceptable, especially when he saw his seeker go down. He was concerned for her well being obviously but he spared no time to check on the young Puchard, which might make her older sister in the announcer booth upset that he didn't even spare her a glance as she fell. There really was nothing else to be done about it, if their seeker was out then that could only mean the other seeker had a better chance at the snitch so they had to score as much as they could so they would still win when it was caught. Of course as soon as the Puchard child went down so did his keeper Winthrop. This was just great it was all coming down to just a few now.

It didn't matter anyways for as soon as his two players hit the ground the Johnson seeker had the snitch. Christian cursed aloud, he didn't even try to hide it under his breath. The Cerisier was spewing out words that he had never in his life used before, he wasn't quite sure what some of the words even meant, though he had heard his father use them. Once he made it to the ground he didn't even bother to go check on his two ickle players who had fallen, he simply looked over to see that someone was attending to them. His mate and fellow captain yelled over about winning, which received him some nasty names spoken quietly. The dark haired boy rushed over and wrapped him in a hug. Christian simply didn't handle hugs from anyone, especially not now from the enemy leader that just beat them. The boy pushed his friend off him, more roughly than intended and forced him to shake hands before turning on his heels. "If you can walk let's go." He called to his team rounding them up to go to the changing rooms, there was an ear-full waiting for them there for sure.

Montagnard: 220
Cerisier: 70

Paige watched her friend crumple to the ground from the bludger she smacked at him, and she was so far into her quidditch playing mind set she didn't think anything of it. Now the goals were unguarded so the chasers had almost no excuse for not pulling the score ahead. When she turned around she saw the seeker for Cerisier on the ground and looked around confused. Osmund had just passed a bludger to her and she had just hit Charon, who could have hit her. Not that it mattered much, with the seeker down there was no reason they couldn't win now. In fact if that didn't win now the team would find their smallest teammate almost as scary, if not scarier than their captain.

Within a few minutes of those two falling Payton caught the snitch and the game was over. As soon as the whistle was called and everyone started to descend she remembered her best friend laying on the pitch below, laying there because of her. She quickly descended and dropped her broom before running over the hoops to see Charon. Once she was there she started spilling out as many apologizes as she possible could. As soon as a professor came over to take him to the infirmary she rejoined her team after promising to visit him there soon. She celebrated with her teammates with more joy in her heart than she ever thought this game would give her.

Montagnard: 220
Cerisier: 70