Chapter 164: Babel and Opening Day (2/2)
”H-He really changed the stadium, didn't he,” said Tracey as she sat down.
Daphne, who sat down beside her, looked around the new quidditch stadium and nodded, ”With people actually sitting inside, you can actually see the changes that had been made.”
Both had been inside the stadium once before, but at that time, everything was covered in scaffolding and covers, but now they saw the true glory of the new stadium.
Today was the opening day of the quidditch tournament, and Hogwarts students, along with outsiders, had already filled most of the stadium, with only a few seats remaining that too were being quickly taken by their incoming owners. The stadium had been re-constructed, the seating capacity had been increased, and the stands had been raised into an elevated setting instead of a previously comparatively flatter one. Even the lowest seats were raised above for a better watching experience.
”Where is Astoria?” asked Tracey looking for her best friend's younger sister.
”She's going to watch the game with her friends,” replied Daphne.
”Is she still miffed about not getting selected in a team?”
”She got over that in two days,” said Daphne shaking her head, ”what did she expect? She hadn't picked the broom more than a handful of times ever since she got better; no way was she going to get selected.”
The younger Astoria had tried to get into four different teams recruited via tryouts but failed to get into any of them.
”She has been pretty active these days,” commented Tracey, ”it seems like Quinn's treatment is working well.”
”That it is.” Daphne had told her best friend about her sister's condition. ”I need to remind Astoria that her next treatment date is coming. All of us have been so busy that I almost forget about it.”
Tracey was about to continue but saw the pitched and pointed, ”Look, Quinn came out.”
Daphne, along with many others, looked towards the pitch to see Quinn dressed in royal blue and gold robes.
.. .
”Welcome.. . all,” said Quinn looking at the crowd greater than he had addressed during the first task, ”I'm Quinn West, and today, I welcome you to Silver Moon Printing MagiTech presents Tri-school quidditch league — TQL.”
Along with the edge of the quidditch pitch and below the stands hung multiple banners of varying sizes, all stark white at the moment. As Quinn opened the tournament, every banner shifted — an ethereal design of a blue night sky with a silver crescent hanging in the sky. If one would look closely, both the sky and the moon designs were made from printed paper with actual readable content on every inch of all banners present in the stadium.
”It's my pleasure to kick off this event today in all your presence,” smiled Quinn while walking on the pitch, ”I'm sure you'll are aware of the Tri-wizard tournament currently being held at Hogwart; as such, we have the exciting opportunity to host Baeuxbatons and Dumrstrang for the school year — but because of that, we had to cancel the quidditch season to make space for the Tri-wizard tournament.. .”
Boos were thrown from the entire Hogwarts crowd — no one had been happy about that particular decision/announcement.
”See? That's what we at AID thought as well,” grinned Quinn, ”so we decided to bring it back along with certain twists to make things interesting after all, we've players from three schools.”
There were cheers of approval, showing the joy and happiness towards just the fact that quidditch had returned.
”Before we start, I would like to walk everyone through the new rules that this league and tournament will be following for all its games,” announced Quinn before placing the first rule in front of them,
”Every game played will have a total duration of two hours —” There was a lot of murmur in the stands, ”— unlike the standard rules which allow games to go as long as the snitch isn't caught, we(I) decided that to impose a time limit on the game; this way, the teams will have to think about time which will give rise to all kinds of interesting scenarios.”
Quinn didn't stop and continued because the second rule change was tied to the first change.
”The second rule is for the seekers and golden snitch,” announced Quinn, ”a standard golden snitch is worth a whopping hundred and fifty points — an amount that could turn the tides of the game in an instant.. . sounds exciting, right?”
Crowd aye-d in agreement about the rule change when a seeker locked onto the snitch, the flying was definitely the most fun and exhilarating with the seeker flying literally weaving in and out the game — with the risk of getting hit by others.
”In this tournament, we've decided to change the worth of the golden snitch from a hundred fifty to a lower fifty points. In return for decreasing the snitch's value, we created another home role or provision for the game: as I previously said, the game will end after two hours and not when the snitch is caught; therefore, we've decided that every time a snitch is caught, a minute later, another snitch is released for yet another fifty point chance. That way, the seeker gets to play while staying a considerable part of the game.”
.. .
”Oh my, what a smart idea,” said professor quidditch-nut, ”the snitch would be needed to be caught thrice for a seeker to get the same level of control over the game; this will relieve a lot of pressure from the chasers, beaters to increase the point game — maybe this is a good chance to see a slower-paced game with more passing and teamwork.. . interesting, truly interesting — I wonder if the teams have thought about chaser-beater routes and beater-to-beater cross-team defensive options.. .”
In the professor's box, the professors stared at McGonagall as she droned about the new possibilities that the rule brought in.
Aurora Sinistra, the Astrology professor, leaned towards Lily Potter's side and whispered, ”I bet that today she is going to speak more than she speaks in her classes.”
Her voice, as it turned out, wasn't as low she had planned, and many professors (sans McGonagall, who was too involved) laughed and snickered at the comment. Let's just say that even the professors who weren't that interested in quidditch were going to have a good time.
.. .
”What do you think about this, James?” asked Sirius Black, pocking his mate in the side, ”seeker won't be the most popular position if these rules were imposed everywhere.” Which Sirius liked as he played as a Beater who didn't get appropriate recognition, well he was okay with it as long as he got to swing his bat and flung bludgers towards smug chasers.
”I don't like it,” replied James, ”do you know how hard it is to first spot a snitch? Those things don't shine as much they should. Even if we do spot them, it's only one out of three-four times when you're able to follow it — catching the damn thing is another shitstorm.. . this doesn't make sense.”
”I like it. Everything will depend on chasers, beaters, and goalies. You guys can just have fun flying while we actually play.”
”I can play chaser if I want.”
Sirius scoffed, ”Your stupid face would be the first I would've hit with a bludger — it would've been supremely satisfying.”
”.. . We were on the same team.”
”I know.”
.. .
”Now, I'll not waste any more of your time and introduce the teams that will be participating in the much anticipated open game sponsored by WesternForge Constructions,” shouted Quinn.
Smoke started to escape out of two tunnels opening to the pitch, and from inside came the players on their brooms, shooting to the sky as fireworks lit the stadium up.
”I present to you.. . Trolling Bogeys led by Cedric Diggory and Treacherous Barons led by Victor Krum.. . The battle of champions is afoot!”
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Quinn West - MC - Glorified photocopier.
Luna Lovegood - Designer - Out!
Minerva McGonagall - Quidditch Nut - Omoshiroi!
FictionOnlyReader - Author - I don't like the pacing and structure of this chapter.
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The link is in the synopsis!