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The Pitch is home to the flying lessons at Hogwarts and is surrounded by the Stands. When Quidditch is hosted at Hogwarts, the Stands are decorated in the colors of the playing teams. When not in use, the Pitch is open for students and staff to practice their flying skills.
Want to set up a friendly game of Quidditch or Creaothceann? A quick chat with the flying instructor Mr. Baldvinsson, and he will grant you permission to the necessary equipment locked away in the Broomshed.
Usage of the Pitch is a privilege which can be revoked. Please play nicely, kids. If brooms or equipment have been borrowed, please handle with care if you wish to borrow them again.
Be safe, show sportsmanship and have fun!
Note: The pitch might be reserved for Quidditch practice. Please check the schedule if the pitch is booked by a team.
In a way, Abra was glad that the Quidditch tryouts were to be so early in the term. It meant less time to practice, of course, but also it meant that there was still some of the summer warmth in the air - or... whatever passed for warmth this far north - which meant that low temperatures wouldn't be an extra obstacle while trying to get on the team. If he made it, then he'd work out ways to get better at flying in the EXTREME (read: not actually that extreme at all) COLD. Also, Abra had been flying all summer sooooo... personally, a lack of practicing time was a bit of a non-issue, except he kept that part to himself because it might have made people mad at him.
Despite all this, Abra still had every intention to get a bit of last minute practice in, though eventually he did admit to himself that it wasn't actually because he wanted to prepare for tryouts, but because he just wanted to have some fun. Sometimes it was nice to just have a good fly with no real reason behind it.
Which was what he'd been doing, actually, for quite a while, taking advantage of a mostly empty Quidditch Pitch in order to fly like nobody was watching. After some time zigzagging around the wooden towers that formed parts of the stands, and ducking through the goal hoops a couple of times, Abra came back down towards the ground again and hovered there for a while. There, he rested and took advantage of the way it was much warmer near the sun-heated ground, and tried to decide if he should do a few laps next or take the opportunity to try out a new idea. Said idea involved flying directly upwards to see how far (literally) he could push it, maybe even as high as the clouds. Then, as an added bonus, he would dive back down to the ground at full speed and pull up at the last possible second, which was really fun even when it wasn't from cloud height. He'd never actually tried his idea before, given that at all other opportunities either a coach or a parent always seemed to be nearby, but here at school - Hogwarts especially - he was sure to have a little more freedom in trying out daring stunts.
The only problem was, of course, that it would be really really cold up there. Abra wasn't sure he was prepared for that, but then he also had the sudden desire to do it anyway, not helped by the fact that he was already out there and on a broom and buzzing with the natural high of flying.
While he tried to decide what to do, Abra's hovering turned into lazily flying into small figures of eight down near the pitch, occasionally looking up at the sky and wondering if it really would be as cold as he was anticipating. Surely not, right?
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Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Chocolate!
In a way, Abra was glad that the Quidditch tryouts were to be so early in the term. It meant less time to practice, of course, but also it meant that there was still some of the summer warmth in the air - or... whatever passed for warmth this far north - which meant that low temperatures wouldn't be an extra obstacle while trying to get on the team. If he made it, then he'd work out ways to get better at flying in the EXTREME (read: not actually that extreme at all) COLD. Also, Abra had been flying all summer sooooo... personally, a lack of practicing time was a bit of a non-issue, except he kept that part to himself because it might have made people mad at him.
Despite all this, Abra still had every intention to get a bit of last minute practice in, though eventually he did admit to himself that it wasn't actually because he wanted to prepare for tryouts, but because he just wanted to have some fun. Sometimes it was nice to just have a good fly with no real reason behind it.
Which was what he'd been doing, actually, for quite a while, taking advantage of a mostly empty Quidditch Pitch in order to fly like nobody was watching. After some time zigzagging around the wooden towers that formed parts of the stands, and ducking through the goal hoops a couple of times, Abra came back down towards the ground again and hovered there for a while. There, he rested and took advantage of the way it was much warmer near the sun-heated ground, and tried to decide if he should do a few laps next or take the opportunity to try out a new idea. Said idea involved flying directly upwards to see how far (literally) he could push it, maybe even as high as the clouds. Then, as an added bonus, he would dive back down to the ground at full speed and pull up at the last possible second, which was really fun even when it wasn't from cloud height. He'd never actually tried his idea before, given that at all other opportunities either a coach or a parent always seemed to be nearby, but here at school - Hogwarts especially - he was sure to have a little more freedom in trying out daring stunts.
The only problem was, of course, that it would be really really cold up there. Abra wasn't sure he was prepared for that, but then he also had the sudden desire to do it anyway, not helped by the fact that he was already out there and on a broom and buzzing with the natural high of flying.
While he tried to decide what to do, Abra's hovering turned into lazily flying into small figures of eight down near the pitch, occasionally looking up at the sky and wondering if it really would be as cold as he was anticipating. Surely not, right?
The logical part of him told him that the more time he had before tryouts the better simply because it also gave him MORE time to prepare and practice. The impatient emotional side of him, however, just really really wanted to get it over with so that he didn‘t have to feel anxious about whether or not he would make the team anymore. Naturally, he felt very conflicted. Constantly it felt like. Either way, he was out every day practicing.
There was nothing he could do to change the tryout date anyway.
Carrying his broom over his shoulder and the rest of his equipment in a bag slung over his other shoulder, Cameron had made his way over to the pitch after warming up down by the lake. It was surprisingly quiet out here, he could only see one other person on the pitch as he approached. Once he was closer he even recognized said other person. He shouldn‘t be surprised to find him out here really, he was quite sure that he was going to be trying out as well.
„Hey.“ He offered, giving the other boy a polite smile. Right. Okay. What first?
A greeting drew Abra's attention and brought him out of his musings. He looked towards the speaker to find Cameron Tamesis of Slytherin had also joined him on the pitch. Cameron was one of those people that Abra mostly knew by association, through friends (or acquaintances) of friends (or acquaintances). Despite being in the same year group and therefore the same classes all the way up to this point - almost halfway through their entire Hogwarts lives - an opportunity or reason to interact had never really cropped up.
Ultimately, Abra didn't know for certain what kind of person Cameron was, and it was for that reason that he decided to put the possibility of trying out his idea on the back-burner. Tamesis didn't seem the sort to try and get him in trouble for trying out DARING (i.e., dangerous) STUNTS, but it probably wasn't a good idea to operate on that assumption, actually.
"Hey," Abra returned the greeting, pulling his broom up a little higher so it was a decent distance from the ground, and then sliding himself off the side of it. Instead of dropping to the floor, he hung from the broom handle by both hands, and dangled there for a moment. There was a reason behind this, of course; in Quidditch games people often ended up in this situation, hanging off the broom by either one hand or two after being bashed by a bludger or rolling to avoid something or just plain sliding off. Abra tried to avoid doing that if he could, but he also preferred to be prepared just in case it happened anyway. Upper body strength was not his forte, so he liked to know he'd be able to hold onto his broom and pull himself back up to it if he needed to.
While he dangled there, the thought briefly entered Abra's head to show off how many chin-ups he could do from this position, but a second later he remembered that actually he was totally rubbish at chin-ups actually, and could do a grand total of one and a half, so that was probably not a good idea. Instead, he stayed as he was and turned his attention back to Cameron Tamesis.
"Are you..." he started, and then trailed off for a moment when his courage left him, because talking to people that weren't his friends could be a bit (read: extremely) anxiety-provoking. But it wasn't like they were complete strangers either, which was probably what made it a little easier for Abra to clear his throat, psych himself up, and try again.
"Are you trying out too?" He assumed that that was the case, given what he knew about Cameron, particularly that they had something in common where flying was concerned. Specifically Bel Macindoe.
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Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Chocolate!
Other people might have considered Abey‘s stunt strange, not Cameron, however. It seemed to be a perfectly reasonable way to be practing his Quidditch skills. You had to make sure you always stayed on your broom and were prepared for whatever came your way, be it Bludger or a fellow player. It actually seemed like the Gryffindor was quite good at what he was doing too. He hadn‘t fallen off yet. That was impressive.
Dropping his bag on the ground next to where he stood, Cameron was about to turn his attention to his own practice routine when surprisingly Abey spoke again. That was when Cam looked up again, leaning on his broom a little, waiting for the other boy to finish his question. “I am, yes.“ The ‚too‘ implied that he, too, would be trying out so Cameron didn‘t return the question.
Simply dangling from a broom handle like a monkey was actually a little boring after few moments, even if it was in the name of refining a Quidditch-related skill. For that reason, Abra began swinging lightly backwards and forwards as he hung there, just to spice things up a little bit. As he did so, he wondered if he could managed to gain enough momentum to swing himself right back onto the broom, all of his own accord. It was often easier to do tricks like that while already flying, because the forwards-momentum could be helpful, but it couldn't hurt to give it a try, right?
As he swung - gently at first - Abra looked from Cameron to his bag to his broom, and then back to his face. That... was a good question.
"No," he answered honestly, sounding a little surprised at his own answer. "I mean, I'm anxious, yes. But actually I usually am about literally everything." Stuff to do with people, and groups, and everyone looking at him while he possibly made an idiot of himself were all pretty high on the list, too. "But I'm not nervous about not making the team, because even if that happens I know I'm not a bad player." Because he was already on another team, of course, but Abra didn't specify that part right off the bat. It felt a little too much like bragging, which was not really his style. Uh. Anymore.
Now, if he lost his place on that team, then the emotions would probably start happening. Truthfully, Abra's fear of failing was probably his biggest obstacle in life; if he thought he wasn't going to be able to do something, he tended to give up instantly, avoiding failing but only through deciding to not even try. Quidditch was just one of those things that hadn't yet fallen victim to that tendency, perhaps because he enjoyed it as much as he did.
Swing, swing, swing...
"It would be fun to get to play, though. What about you?" Was he nervous, that was. "What position do you play?" Whether or not Cameron wanted to get on and do his own thing had not, apparently, become clear to Abra. Normally he might not have tried to embark on a conversation for fear of bothering the other person, but... well... the topic was Quidditch, so...
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Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Chocolate!
Absently watching Abey's swinging for a moment, Cameron eventually got on his own broom, as well. He didn't push himself off yet though, instead he remained standing on the ground with his hands on the handle, brushing his fingers over a teeny tiny dent he'd just discovered. He would have to fix that before the tryouts. That could cost him speed.
And in turn a spot on the team roster.
Cam nodded along to the other boy's words, first to show that he was listening and then that he was agreeing with him. "They would be idiots not to want you on the team, though." He wasn't trying to compliment the Gryffindor, just stating a fact. He was GOOD. Like, really good. He'd seen it. So unless for some reason he was REALLY bad at tryouts (which Cameron doubted) it was highly unlikely that Abey wouldn't make the team.
Now Cam himself, that was a whole other story. "I am. A little." He admitted while at the same time pushing himself off the ground so he was hovering in the air. "Beater." At that he gave the other boy a small smile.
If there was one thing Abra was bad at (and, actually, there were about a zillion things, but that wasn't the point) it was taking a compliment, even (and maybe especially) when it wasn't even a compliment at all. Any nice words, however simply stated, counted. He never really knew what to say. A simple 'thank you' sounded almost conceited, as if he was thinking 'THANK YOU I KNOW RIGHT?!' which wasn't ever the case, but returning the compliment in any way felt like he was doing so out of obligation, like he felt he had to say something nice back. Well, in a way he did feel like that actually, but he often chose something true to say back to the person rather than just a throwaway comment that meant literally nothing. Still, it didn't make him any less worried about it.
Hopefully, his swinging made it hard to see the sudden awkwardness showing on his face, and mercifully he didn't have the opportunity to shift around or wring his hands because his entire body was busy. Maybe he did swing a little faster though.
"Thanks!" Abra said, and tried to decide mega quickly how to proceed. Uhhh. UHHHHH. "You too, I bet. You've been teaching Bel to fly and everything too." He'd known about that for ages, considering he was doing the exact same. Maybe even caught sight of them once or twice or five times.
... swing, swing, swiNG, SWING..... UP!
With one last burst of momentum, Abra swung himself as far forward as he could go, then twisted at the height of his arc and swung his leg over his broom. It wasn't the cleanest or the most impressive of moves; there was a little bit of a wobble and he needed to steady himself quickly so he didn't immediately fall off the other side, but he managed it. He couldn't help but grin as he looked over at Cameron, but once he had done that he continued the conversation when nothing had happened (when actually it totally really actually absolutely had happened and he was so thrilled but unwilling to brag in front of someone he didn't know too well).
"Beater." Abra repeated the word to himself and took in the sight of the Slytherin, now on his own broom, and pictured him holding a bat and looking menacing and/or protective in the name of the great game. "I quite like whacking Bludgers actually. It's really good for..." The word. The English word. It was on the tip of his tongue. "... uhhh... tension relief." 'Tension' wasn't the word he had wanted, but it would have to do.
Honestly, he started getting past his initial jitters around talking to people, and suddenly the words themselves decided not to cooperate. The universe was truly working against him.
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Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Chocolate!
The Quidditch Pitch 
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