Match in the Night

[Professor Windwaltz]

It was very dark when the doors of the Entrance Hall opened up to reveal two figures strolling out towards the Quidditch Pitch. One of them was Talon Windwaltz, the Professor of History of Magic, looking as shabby as ever. The other was Aidana Hawkins, the red-head Gryffindor who had landed herself in this challenge that the Professor had punished her with. Of course, the Professor had every intention of giving her a real detention afterwards - but even so, a little bit of Quidditch couldn't hurt. And in truth, Talon was a bit tossed by the fact that he hadn't played Quidditch in the longest time. And when he looked back on it...he recalled exactly the last time had had played Quidditch.

And remembered exactly why he never played again. It was with a heavy heart that he finally reached the Quidditch Pitch, and he pushed open the doors to the Gryffindor locker room. He had gone in here because this was the place where he had stashed away his Quidditch gear so long ago. He breathed in the air of the room and it brought back the fierce memory of that day...that last game he ever played...and it made his heart drop considerably. It was doing less good for him that it was Aidana to be here. He removed his wand from his shabby robes and pressed it against the great mural of a Lion on the wall. "Finite Incantem." He said softly, and the Lion disappeared as if it were an image reflected in water that had been hit by a rock. In the place of the Lion was now a locker similar to the ones beside it. Nothing seemed special about it at all.

"This," he said to Aidana, "Is my locker. After my last game I was just...too ashamed. I was Captain that game too...and we lost. I couldn't do it. I sealed up my locker and my broom too." He pulled open the door, revealing a pair of clean, intact scarlet robes and a broomstick. He pulled out the broomstick, shut the locker, and then turned back to Aidana. "Well, you're a Chaser on the team, right? Go grab your broom from your locker and then let's go meet Professor Azrael."

[Aidana Hawkins]

Aidana followed the professor out of the library and out towards the Quidditch Pitch. Every so often, she sent a withering look in his direction. She had been caught without permission in the resticted section, and gotten herself a detention.This pleased her a bit as it showed that she wasn't being shown special treatment, but the fact was that she still had detention. Maybe he thought he could appease her first with a game of Quidditch.

Walking into the locker room, she noticed a dramatic change in his disposition. A few minutes ago, it seemed that he had been quite pleased he had given her a detention, and now it looked as if he didn't want to be here in the first place. She watched him take out his broom from a hidden locker, and went to retrieve her own. Walking down the aisle, she wrenched open her own locker. Her Quidditch robes rained down on her as she had been too much in a hurry to put them away neatly after the last match. Distangling herself from the scarlet and gold mess, she grabbed her broom and shoved the robes in her locker once again. Forcing it closed, she turned around and made her way back to the professor.

" Prefect, Head Boy, and Quidditch Captain? You were quite the perfect little student weren't you, Professor?" she asked with a grin. Then disticntly, she could tell it was a bad time for her to poke fun at him. The smile on her face was replaced with a curious look.

" Why did you hide your gear, professor? Everyone looses a game, no one wins all of them. Like just the other day we lost to Hufflepuff! That's no reason to give up flying," she said sincerely. Broom in hand, she walked ahead of him and out into the crisp night air.

[Professor Windwaltz]

Talon chuckled somberly at Aidana's remark about his positions in his school years. "Assistant Captain," he corrected, "The real Captain couldn't get there that time. Otherwise, yes. I suppose you could say I was 'quite the little perfect student'. I didn't go sneaking around the Restricted Section." He smirked at Aidana, "Or at the very least, I never got caught sneaking around the Restricted Section." His eyes rolled away from Aidana, his smirk not fading. He ignored the question as to why he hid his stuff. It was enough that he had to be here in the Gryffindor Locker Room again, let alone recall the story of why he left Quidditch forever.

"Well then, let's go," he said after a moment of silence, and turned toward the doors out into the pitch. He pushed them open and stepped out onto the pitch. The scent of the mowed grass, the crisp night air against his face, the stands rising around him, it filled him with nostalgia. Nostalgia that he didn't really want to feel. Sighing softly, he comforted himself with the memory that he never would have to play Quidditch on a team again, and let anyone down. This game was meant to be for fun, not for glory. Reaching the center of the pitch, he dropped his broom onto the ground and collapsed next to it, looking up at the starry sky and at Aidana.

"Well, now we just have to wait for Professor Azrael."

[Aidana Hawkins]

When Aidana stepped onto the grass, she immediately felt the need to jump on her broom and ride away. There was just something about being in a Quidditch Pitch that heightened her mood, and made her feel as if she had no other care in the world. When she was flying, she forgot all her problems. It was just her and her broom, nothing else. Everything was perfect when she was up in the sky.

Even at night, everything seemed perfect. The only light was soming from the warm glow of the castle, and the faint light of the starts. Even the moon was dark tonight, only showing a faint cresent of silver. The professor had sat down on the grass next to her, but Aidana remained standing. Like he had said, all there was to do was to wait. Suddenly a thought struck her, something she had never thought of before.

" Professor Azrael is the Divinations professor, right? Shouldn't he have Seen us coming?" she asked with a wry smile.

[Lord Azrael]

The doors of the entrance hall swung open for a second time that evening, donning his usual white robes which contrasted sharply with the typical student apparel. After all, when one has teacher privileges, why not flaunt them? Giving detention out at his own discretion was another great plus to his job.

Fortunately, things could only go up, and a fellow professor had asked him to watch over a match with a student whom he had taken particular interest in. Thus Professor Azrael had sufficient reasoning behind leaving a student he currently held in detention to her demeaning task while he went to referee a game of quidditch.

As he approached the Quidditch Pitch, he saw that Talon and Aidana were already awaiting him. "Greetings!" he called, waving briefly at the pair of them, not wasting any time on idle conversation before heading off to the stands. "Sonorus," he said, pointing his wand at his own throat, magically amplifying his voice so they would be able to hear him from way up where he was seated, "I am ready when the both of you are."

[Professor Windwaltz]

A great smile appeared on Talon's face as the Professor Azrael appeared on the pitch, possibly in time to hear Aidana's comment. Talon had not bothered to answer it, for he knew quite well how Azrael took to jokes about his Sight. He knew how fickle the task of Divination was, despite how extremely low his grades were at the class. Azrael did not seem to give any notion to the question either, but instead shouting a friendly greeting. Talon went forward to shake the fellow Professor's hand and perhaps get a word in with him; but almost as quickly as Talon went to move toward him, Azrael moved away. Talon supposed it was simply the fact that Azrael had not seen him coming.

The fact that Azrael had come at all to the Pitch this night was proof that all the rumours Talon had heard were true. Oftentimes Talon would hear discussion in the hallways, moaning about how cruel Professor Azrael was at his classes. It was surely just the incessant thing that students tended to do of insulting their teachers behind their back. It was impossible that a man such as Azrael, who was so generous as to help him referee a Quidditch Match in the middle of night, could be as cruel as the rumours.

Now reminded of the Quidditch Match in the first place, he nodded in the direction of Azrael and pointed the wand that was still in his hand at the suitcase in the far corner of the pitch. "Accio Quidditch Balls." The suitcase came soaring toward him, and he caught the handle in his free hand. "Alohamora." He said to the lock, and it flipped open. Within were the four balls of Quidditch. Two bludgers, one quaffle, and one snitch.

"Now here's how the one on one game is going to be played. I have sent a message to a student who seems to like Quidditch as much as you do to be our Seeker. There will not be opposite seekers, just one. We will each proceed to get the quaffles through the hoops and stop the other from doing so. When our Seeker finds the snitch, the game will end, but no points will be distributed to either side." Talon nodded, and then looked over to the entrance to the Quidditch Pitch once more. "And now we just have to wait again."

[Aidana Hawkins]

Aidana smiled at her own joke, but noted that the professor didn't say anything in response. Maybe he thought it was his duty as a professor not to comment on his colleagues. She, on the other hand, was a student and could say pretty much what she wanted when she felt like it. Right now she felt quite lighthearted at the thought of Quidditch. She was almost twitching with anticipation at being up in the air once again.

Her imaptience was temporarily quelled as Professor Azrael joined them. Aidana nodded in greeting, but didn't say anything. Her experience in his class was quite...interesting to say the least. A student, and she knew exactly who, had set off some firecrackers which lit up the dull dark classroom. It had amused her quite a bit, until she saw Professor Azrael's reaction. His cold and sarcastic manner shocked her, and made her miserable for the rest of the class. Yet, for some reason he had come out to the Pitch tonight, and she couldn't quite figure out why. Though he didn't seem to talk much even outside the classroom.

As soon as he walked away, Professor Windwaltz explained the rules of the game. It wasn't that complicated, just basically what they did for practice on the team. Except now they had to wait some more for another to join them. She nodded in agreement, but she was impatient once again. Looking around the Pitch, Aidana realized something which she thought was quite sad. Here she was playing Quidditch with two teachers, and someone else. Shaking her head, she knew she had to find her friends once again. It had been some time since she had last seen them.

Last time she had seen Sylph was at the game, she had been the beater.this brought Aidana's thoughts back to the game they were supposed to be playing. There was one thing which she didn't understand.

" Wait, professor," she said turning to him. " Are we just bewitching the bludgers to fly then? Since we don't have any beaters at all."

[Aylen Hawkins]

A bleary-eyed student managed to stumble his way into the Quidditch Pitch without performing any of his extraordinary klutz maneuvers. He stifled a large yawn. Who in their right mind would have a match at this time of night? And who in his right mind would give up sleep for Quidditch? The redhead grinned sleepily. Me, that’s who. An owl had woken him up, insisting that he take his note. He had the bruises to prove it, too. The parchment was an invitation to a midnight Quidditch game. He hadn’t been able to find the time for Quiddith for ages. It was simply impossible for him to resist.

A refreshing wind blew through his hair, taking his tiredness with it. Aylen felt the adrenaline flow through his body. Just the thought of flying made him feel a bit giddy. There really wasn’t anything like flying and playing Quidditch. He grinned as he caught sight of his sister’s auburn locks and the professor’s sparking ones. He mounted his broom and sped towards them, snapping a salute to Professor Azrael as he passed him. “Seeker, reporting for duty!” he announced, grinning at them both.

[Professor Windwaltz]

Talon fiddled around with the Quidditch Balls for a few moments, his wand still in his hands, and he tapped his wand tip onto the wildest ball - the bludger - and muttered, "Reducio." In an instant, the bludger went from the size of a volleyball to the size of a baseball. Not believing that it explained the question, he elabourated. "I've reduced the size of the ball, as you can see, so that it is lighter. It is still quite as painful if you get hit by one of these, but..." He pulled a bat out of the case and threw it to Aidana. He then put his wand back into his robe and took out one himself. "We shall carrying these, and beating them off ourselves, makes the game a bit more difficult for the both of us."

Just as he finished his explanation, another redhead quite familiar to the young woman said standing next to him appeared on his broomstick. 'Seeker, reporting for duty!' The boy said grinning at them, and Talon couldn't resist a smile back at how eager he looked. "Ahem, I have volunteered your brother to help us in your...detention." He said in a purposely snooty Professor voice. "Young Master Hawkins, good to see you could've arrived," he motioned to him, "Now..." He turned quickly to face the balls once more, and let loose the quaffles quickly, setting a time limit before the bludgers would fly out, and lastly the snitch.

"Master Hawkins?" He said in a combination of his regular and vainly snooty voice, "Are you ready?"

ooc: I need you both on to start the game.