American Girl: An Avengers FanFiction

Chapter 48

 That's a really simple aerial view of a quidditch pitch for all you muggles out there :) and Wood explaining the game to Harry.

Peter walks back downstairs with a large wooden chest in his hands. he sets down on the grass of the field. I briefly explain quidditch, "Two teams of seven, one keeper, two beaters, three chasers, and a seeker. Keeper guards the hoop, chasers pass the quaffle, that'd be the red ball and try to score, each goal is worth ten points; beaters protect their team from the bludgers, the black balls that try to knock into people and hit the bludgers at the other team with the bats; the seeker catches the golden snitch which ends the game and earns 150 points for their team. Simple enough. The team captains will be Peter an myself since we are the most familiar with the game. I'm a seeker and Peter is a keeper. Peter, you pick first."

"Sam, chaser. Gryffindor."

"Nat, chaser. Ravenclaw."

"Steve, chaser. Gryffindor"

"Clint, chaser. Ravenclaw."

"Dominicus, chaser. Gryffindor."

"Eliza, chaser. Ravenclaw."

"Bucky, beater. Gryffindor"

"Thor, beater. Ravenclaw."

"Stark, beater. Gryffindor."

"Dereck, beater. Ravenclaw."

"Wanda, seeker, Gryffindor."

"Loki, keeper. Ravenclaw." With the teams set , that leaves Krizzy and Banner as referees. Krizzy opens the chest and distributes the broomsticks, replicas of the nimbus 2001's, with sleek black varnish and silver trim. She opens the rulebook, as based on the rules in quidditch throughout the ages and reads, "No crossing the boundary lines, captains may call for time out which may be extended to two hour periods in the event that a game lasts over twelve hour, only during official timeouts may a players feet touch the ground, the referee may award penalties against a team, the quaffle may be taken from another's player grasp but no player is to touch any part of another player's anatomy, in case of injury no substitution will take place, no magic is to used, a game ends only when the snitch is caught or by consent of both captains. There will be no blagging, blatching, blurting, bumphing, cobbing, flacking, haversacking, quafflepocking, snitchsnip, stooging, or any of the other seven hundred official fouls. I want a nice, clean game, from all of you."

The quidditch hoops are pulled out of the chest and fly to their places, lines forming on the field as they do, turning this into a proper quidditch pitch. We are given thirty minutes to train our teams as we see fit.  Nat, Clint, and Eliza are my chasers, I let Eliza talk to them. I gather Thor, Dereck, and Loki. Thor and Dereck are handed beaters bats by Krizzy, Dereck has played before so he at least knows how to fly. I show Loki and Thor the basics of steering and such and make sure they understand their roles. Thor seems unsure about hitting the bludgers at the other team, but I am confident he will do fine at blocking them from hitting us. Dereck, I know won't have any problems hitting bludgers at the others focusing on protecting everyone is a slight problem for him so hopefully the two will balance each other out. Loki understands his job and quickly grasps the mechanics of flight, he's a natural. 

Over on the sidelines Banner studies the referee's manual and Krizzy sets up the automatic commentators box. I hand out the quidditch robes to everyone, blue and bronze for ravenclaw and red and gold for gryffindor. The last name of each person appears on their back. The robes are enchanted to turn whatever we are wearing into the proper padding and garments to protect everyone. We meet at the center circle to begin the game, Peter and I shake hands across the circle. We mount our brooms, Krizzy blows a whistle, we push off as she releases the ball. I remain at about the level of the goal posts doing a slow lap to look for the snitch.  I check on all of my teammates as I circle. 

"Aquae with the quaffle, a nice pass to Romanoff, tens points Ravenclaw! Barton with a nice steal from Rogers. Now to Aquae, Aquae blocks, and Wilson is in possession of the quaffle!" The commentary rolls. "Wilson tosses to Rogers, Rogers to Dominicus, will he score? Laufeyson saves the quaffle, passes to Aquae, Barton, a nice formation around the Gryffindor chasers and Romanoff in possesion, she shots, she misses, back to Rogers now, Rogers to, intercepted by Aquae. "

I tune out the commentary, as a bludger heads for me, Thor bats it away, I spot the snitch by Roger's ear. I speed towards him leaning into my broom picking up speed, he panics and startles the snitch which disappears. I pull up and sit watching for the snitch, Wanda has caught on and is keeping an eye on me and the other looking for the snitch. Loki is a fair keeper, Nat, Clint, and Eliza are remarkable chasers, Thor and Dereck, they have potential, I guess. 

A glint of gold on the other side of the pitch, near the Ravenclaw goalposts alerts me, and I fly towards it locked in a neck to neck race with Wanda who is a fairly decent flier. I win though by scooting forward on my broom and reaching out as far as possible, and I just close my fingers around the snitch. "Aquae has caught the snitch for Ravenclaw, Ravenclaw wins, 220 to 70. " An imaginary crowd cheers in the background. I land and hug my team, shake Peter's hand. The sun is starting to go down by  now, so we head inside for a snack. 

A good portion of the team consumes more calories than normal, even for top  athletes. Steve has a metabolism to match his strength, Thor and Loki are Asgardian, the elves covert energy to magic as do Peter, Eliza, and I to some extent, mainly just to make up for our separation from our native land which helps fuel our magic. Not that it matters what we, just that there are enough nutrients to convert to magic, cookies and milk, hot chocolate and mini marshmallows make up our evening snack. The last of my mother's cookies are eaten and laughter resounds in the kitchen, which feels more like a family kitchen each day and less like an HGTV or other interior design magazine exploded in it.