"Hellooooo Hogwarts, and honoured guests of course. And welcome this sunny Saturday to today's international friendly match between Scotland and Finland! I'd like to thank Hogwarts for loaning the use of your stadium this weekend on behalf of the Ministry of Magic in both competing countries. Now, I can see today's referee, Candelaria Santos from Spain approaching the centre circle with the chest of balls, it won't be long until I can introduce you to the teams, then!" boomed the announcer's voice over Hogwarts' Quidditch Stadium which had had extra seating installed since it wouldn't just be Hogwarts students spectating. Supporters of both teams had come from far and wide to watch.
"And here we have the Scottish home side in their robes of green tartan. First onto the pitch is Keeper Duncan Rutherford!" He was a wizard of medium build with black hair just long enough to blow in the wind but not long enough to interfere with his vision. He flew around the centre circle waving to the audience, shook the hand of the referee then took up a spot on the right side of the pitch from where he had entered, facing left.
"Next, the Chasers, starting with Ailsa Boyd." She was slightly smaller but tougher looking than the Keeper with light brown hair in a ponytail that reached the middle of her back. She flew around waving to the audience and shook the hand of the referee as Duncan Rutherford had done previously and took her place to his left, facing the same direction. They shook hands.
"Griselda Ruskin!" A pale, dark haired witch who might be confused for a dark witch if you couldn't see her face, which was round and wore a cheerful grin. After circling and waving then shaking hands with the referee, she flew past the two lined up players, shaking hands with them as she passed and took her place next to Boyd.
"The team captain, Fiona Ralston!" A tall, severe looking witch with black hair in a high bun came onto the pitch and did the same as her team-mates before her, taking her position next to Ailsa Boyd.
"Beater Angus Macbride!" An enormously muscular wizard with a huge fiery red beard and hair that made him look like he had fallen face first into a burning hedge, the quintessential Scottish stereotype. The look of silent fury on his face suggested that he'd punch someone before even thinking about using his wand in a fight, unlike most other wizards. He punched the air above him with his bat wielding hand and roared where the other players had waved to the crowd but shook hands with his team-mates and the referee gently enough.
"Cormag Macfarlane!" was another muscular redhead, though much tamer than Angus Macbride, and much smaller in every way. He was still huge compared to his other team-mates, though Ralston was a little taller.
"And finally, the Seeker, Ronalda Stewart!" who was dwarfed by the Beaters she took up position beside and easily the smallest player on her team. She had blonde hair in a ponytail braid that fell a little further down her back than Ailsa Boyd's did. The commentator noted that she seemed fast even for a Seeker.
As soon as the Scottish players were lined up, the Finnish team started to approach the pitch in white robes with a blue cross on the front, the two lines of the cross meeting over the heart.
"Now, I've been given a pronunciation guide but still, I apologise to any Finns present if I get these names a little off. First up, Keeper Henna Vanska," a slender brown haired witch with her hair in a bun, though she was nowhere near as severe looking as Fiona Ralston on the Scottish side. She shook hands with the Scottish team, quickly ending the handshake with Angus Macbride as if expecting him to crush her hand. He looked a little hurt.
"Now the Chasers, first, Arto Laukanen," who was a wizard with a long blonde ponytail and goatee. When he reached Angus Macbride he stopped to speak.
"I apologise for Henna, she had her hand broken by a Bludger before, she's nervous about shaking hands with Beaters with it now," Arto told Angus in surprisingly good English.
"Ach, dinnae fash yersel'," Angus replied with a smile.
"Oh. Okay," Arto said, wondering what that meant. At the end of the row, Ronalda Stewart stopped him.
"Don't worry about Angus, even we have trouble understanding him sometimes," she said quietly with a grin. "Translated, what he said means 'don't worry about it,'" she told Arto. He nodded his thanks and joined Henna in his team's line.
"Wonder what all that was about?" the commentator asked, having seen the players talk but not heard their words. "Anyway, next up, Paavo Onkeli!" He was bald, the only visible hair being his brown goatee that formed a vertical line on his chin. He had the look of a trickster, always grinning.
"Tuomas Ollila! Hope I got that right." He was a wizard with long brown hair in a ponytail. Like the other Chasers on his team, he too had a goatee. The women on the Scottish team seemed quite interested in him as he shook their hands.
"Now we move onto the Beaters starting with Niklas Kohvakka." He was large, like most Beaters, with short blonde hair. He had an air of relaxedness about him.
"Ari Kolehmainen!" came next. He had long, loose, light brown hair that he only tied up when he had joined the line next to Niklas Kohvakka.
"And last but not least, the Finnish Seeker and captain, the lovely Justiina Virtanen," the commentator said with a sigh. It was obvious to the players that he had a bit of a crush on her, at least those who were paying attention. It was just as obvious that most of the Scottish wizards had just discovered that they too had a crush on her. Presumably the Finnish wizards were used to her enough to be able to ignore her looks. She had long blonde hair in a high ponytail and she was quite small like the Scottish Seeker.
"How'd ye get tha scar an' bruise?" Angus asked her, referring to the large scar that ran from her left nostril to her left ear and the bruise over her right eye. Beside him, Cormag wondered how the woman was so attractive even with those injuries.
"Scar's from a fight with a bear, bruise I got training for this match, Bludger to the face," Justiina said with a grin on her face. To her surprise, Angus chuckled.
"Ah heard ye Finns were tough, ye dinnae disappoint."
"Maybe later we can have a look at my... other scars," she said, her voice and face oozing seduction, running a finger down Angus' chest.
Beside them, Cormag was confused. He had never known scars be used as a seduction device, or any woman try to seduce Angus, although he knew that Angus was impressed by injury stories; that was why he'd asked her about them in the first place.
"You've pulled," he said to his friend, nudging him with an elbow. If anyone was going to go well with Angus, it'd have to be a woman as violent natured as he was, Cormag mused. It wasn't until the referee had released the Snitch and Bludgers that he cottoned onto the fact that Justiina had been a little hasty with the seduction. Either she really loved the burning caveman look or was going to end up hurting Angus. Cormag decided to keep an eye on the two of them.
Before that, when Justiina took her position next to Ari Kolehmainen, they had the following conversation in Finnish;
"What do you see in this one, captain?" Ari asked.
"He's so big and strong, and the scars didn't put him off. Do you think he likes me back?"
"Your scars don't put anyone off, everyone fancies you even with them, I have a crush on you and I'm gay! It's the stories of fighting bears bare handed that puts people off. Still don't get what you see in this Scottish guy though. Looks like a big pink troll with a burning head to me."
"Hmph, just because you prefer feminine guys. What's the point in being gay if the men you like are practically women anyway?" she said, smiling. Ari and Justiina were close friends who often poked fun at each other like that.
"Better than bestiality, that guy's practically an ape."
"He's a lot nicer than he looks, and he'd look perfectly presentable if he brushed his hair. There's just no point when he's going to be flying. He's handsome behind the beard and hair too. Surely you saw that."
"I saw, I just don't agree with you."
"Fine. You have your girls without breasts and I'll take the real men."
"Sure whatever, the match is about to start, we can insult each other some more later, see you in a bit," Ari said, flying off to look for the Bludgers and leaving Justiina feeling more hurt than he'd intended. She had been looking to him for approval and got bestiality jokes instead.
"And everyone other than the Finnish Seeker sets off..." she heard the commentator say. The match had started without her, she needed to concentrate fast if she wanted to keep her place on the team, never mind her captaincy. She jumped back into the real world and flew high up into the air to look for the Snitch. She couldn't see it yet, but she did see that the Scottish Chasers were heading for goal with her side's Chasers defending. Behind them, the Beaters were approaching, delayed a little because they kept slowing down to bat Bludgers at each other. It wasn't until Macbride smashed a Bludger towards the Chasers with a back handed strike of his bat that they finally caught up and started interfering. The Bludger narrowly missed Laukanen's head as he tried to intercept a pass by Ruskin to Ralston but missed. Ralston took the Quaffle and charged at Keeper Vanska.
Ralston was a witch who paid a lot of attention to muggle basketball and incorporated bits into her Quidditch tactics. She had once seen a basketball player start to throw the basketball to another person only to wrap his fingers around the top and slam it downwards into the ground. She did this, pretending to shoot ahead into the centre ring, throwing Vanska off balance as she nearly fell off her broom trying to save a shot that never came, and hurled the Quaffle straight down into the waiting hands of Boyd. Boyd passed to Ruskin who was waiting above to her right, then Ruskin hurled the Quaffle through the right hand ring. The Scottish part of the crowd roared.
"That's an offence I've never seen before!" the commentator said. "You can bet the Finns are going to be looking to stop that working again. Ten nil to Scotland."
Vanska had fetched the Quaffle and was passing it back to Ollila. The Scottish Chasers had already left to defend their goals, so Ollila was free to carry the Quaffle as far as the centre, when the Beaters who had gone back to their duel noticed him. Kohvakka hit the Bludger towards Macfarlane who smashed it in Ollila's direction. Ollila performed a sideways dive and passed ahead to Onkeli as the Bludger passed over him. Ollila looked behind him to watch for the Bludger's return and saw it narrowly miss Virtanen as she had come closer under the guise of thinking the Snitch was here. Really, she wanted a quick look at Angus.
Her curiosity satisfied, she told herself to play properly for the rest of the match and flew up high again. Luckily for her, Stewart the Scottish Seeker had been fooled by her dive towards the Beaters and had come down as well. The Bludger had smashed her right in the gut after missing Virtanen and she was lying face down on her broom. Virtanen and the two Scottish Beaters looked at her, Macfarlane looking away for a moment to smash the Bludger towards the Finnish Chasers. Stewart slowly pulled herself upright, coughed hard, then flew away. The commentator was impressed with her toughness.
Virtanen flew high, stopping next to Stewart to ask if she was alright, then flew off to find the Snitch as soon as Stewart confirmed that she'd had worse before.
Back on the attack, both Bludgers were simultaneously battered away from the Chasers by Macbride and Kolehmainen then Onkeli passed upwards to Ollila who was a little behind but flew into the Quaffle's path, grabbing it and passing it right back to Onkeli as he dodged a tackle by Boyd.
Now the Scottish defence was temporarily a player down, and Onkeli flew towards Ruskin with Laukanen finally showing his face to his left. Now Ralston had to defend both players so Ruskin flew over to try to help, leaving Ollila alone. That wasn't how Ralston had trained her team to defend with two Chasers against three.
"No! Get your side, ye know the drill!" Ralston cried to Ruskin as Onkeli passed to the now unmarked Ollila. Boyd almost got a hand to the pass as she rejoined the defence but the Quaffle still reached Ollila safely. With all three defenders stuck on the left of the attack, Ollila was alone against Keeper Rutherford and easily scored in the centre ring after faking a shot to the right. The score was ten all.
Ralston got her Chasers together to tell them to use the 'muggle 3v2' next time that happened. The other two nodded as Rutherford passed the ball to Boyd.
The Finnish Chasers had already gone away but their Beaters were approaching, as were both Bludgers. Macbride managed to throw one off by headbutting it away, earning a joint groan and gasp from the crowd. As Macbride rubbed his head, Macfarlane chased the Bludger that he had headbutted. The other one was ducked by Ruskin whose cheerful grin had faded since her defensive error. Boyd flew off ahead with the Quaffle, prepared to take on the Finnish defence alone if needed. She didn't need to however, and she was quickly flanked by her team-mates.
"The Macs have the Bludgers under control, forget 'em," Ralston said. Boyd looked over her shoulder and saw that the Beaters had gone back to smashing Bludgers amongst themselves again, the two Scottish ones fighting to keep the Bludgers from getting anywhere near the Scottish attack.
Now the Finnish Chasers and rings were near, so the Scottish ones split up to start their offence. Boyd flew to the left and passed back to Ruskin in the middle. A Chaser with the ball worked best in front of the centre ring with a team-mate on either side so both sides were accessible for passing. Ruskin didn't bother with a pass, instead charging straight towards Onkeli who was marking her. Ralston groaned. Ruskin had a habit of not always bothering to pass the Quaffle around and was kind of a show-off. Ruskin swooped under Onkeli, passing him and forcing Laukanen to move closer to her to keep her and Boyd marked. Ruskin faked a charge for goal but turned sharply right and threw the Quaffle around her back to Boyd on the left who hadn't been expecting it but still managed to get hold of the Quaffle in time to keep it away from Laukanen who had ended up right next to her. She threw the Quaffle around him back to Ruskin who shot a left handed shot at the left hand ring, but Vanska saved it easily. As the Scottish Chasers flew back to defend, Ralston shouted at Ruskin to stop being selfish with the Quaffle, which Vanska threw back into play. Ollila took it and flew away, flanked by the other two Chasers.
"PRESS 'EM!" Ralston shouted. All three Scottish Chasers immediately spun around and flew straight at the three Finns to block them. Onkeli flew back a bit to give himself room to receive a pass from Ollila but Ruskin had seen this coming and flew right into the path of the Quaffle as the pass came, intercepting it. She flew tentatively towards the goals until she heard Ralston's voice.
"Aye, that's when ye go it alone, go, go, go!" Ralston yelled. Ruskin pressed herself against her broom to reduce drag and charged full pelt towards the goals upon the 'Aye', quickly reaching Vanska. She couldn't tell, but her two team-mates were distracting the Finnish Chasers to buy her time. She faked a shot to her right and quickly moved her right arm to the left, using the force to help her swing past Vanska to the left.
Now she was alone in front of the left ring and it was a trivial matter to throw the Quaffle in and make the score twenty ten to Scotland. As she turned to get back on defence, Ralston approached, smiling and they shared a slapped handshake. Ralston told her well done and Ruskin's own happy grin returned. As they flew back to defend, the Finnish Beaters had finally managed to get past the Scottish ones and a Bludger shot at Ruskin. She used her agility to dodge but nearly flew into Macbride as he attempted to stop it. She got her balance back as Macbride went for the other Bludger and Ralston shouted at her team to separate now. They went into a spread out formation as they passed the Beaters, avoiding any more Bludgers that went their way and made it to their defensive positions without any further incidents on their side.
Behind them, Macbride had managed to unseat Laukanen with a Bludger shot and the two Finnish Beaters guarded him as he climbed back onto his broom. Ahead of Laukanen, Onkeli and Ollila had gone on the offensive without him. They passed the ball around, clearly stalling for time until Laukanen could rejoin them. Unfortunately, with only two Chasers it was trivial to work out where the next pass was going and Ruskin intercepted just as Laukanen was flying over. He tried to block her as she broke for goal but she outmanoeuvred him and flew away. She was as fast as she was agile, and the three Finns couldn't reach her as she casually threw the Quaffle into the centre ring to make the score thirty ten to Scotland.
Vanska threw the Quaffle back into play. Laukanen took it and flew off. Ahead of the three Chasers, the Scottish Beaters were waiting. Macbride smashed a Bludger at Laukanen who dived to avoid it, then the other Bludger caught Ollila in the gut, swung at him by Macfarlane. He curled up on his broom as his team's Beaters made it over and started to defend the Chasers from more Bludger attacks. Ollila recovered and took a position to the right while Onkeli flew to Laukanen's left. Laukanen passed to Onkeli but stayed low. The Scottish defence repositioned themselves to limit Onkeli's options only for Laukanen to suddenly shoot upwards, receive the Quaffle, pass down to Ollila on the right then dive for goal. Ollila had the option of passing to Laukanen again or attempting to score. He faked a pass, throwing the Scottish Keeper off and threw the Quaffle into the now undefended right ring as Rutherford got his balance back. The score now thirty twenty to the Scots, Laukanen and Ollila gave each other a high five and Onkeli followed them back to defend.
As Boyd passed to Ruskin, Laukanen suddenly turned around, aiming for the area between the two Scots and, reaching as far ahead of him as he could reach, got a finger to the Quaffle. It started to drop to the ground but Laukanen dived after it, looking like a Seeker according to the commentator. The Scots followed him and a Bludger tried to hit his outstretched left arm, but he pulled it in and the Quaffle was hit instead, knocking it upwards. Ralston grabbed it only to be tackled by Ollila and dropped it. Laukanen was still below the Quaffle and rose to grab it. He then shot past everyone, narrowly avoiding the second Bludger as it headed straight for him. He remained low until he was close to the rings then spun around as if to look behind him as Rutherford charged him to try to grab the Quaffle. He moved it away from Rutherford and charged towards the now open goals as Rutherford swore behind him. The score was now an even thirty all.
As the Scottish Chasers were attacking again they were interrupted not by the Beaters or Bludgers but by the two Seekers diving almost vertically in front of them. They were almost at ground level before they realised the Snitch wasn't there, and flew their separate ways back up to their vantage points high above the match. The Scottish Chasers were in disarray for a moment but quickly got their act together when Ralston called for the Quaffle, focusing her team-mates' minds on the game again. Ralston flew with the Quaffle towards the centre ring and Laukanen. To her left, Boyd had faked Ollila left and went above him to the right. Ralston passed up to her and she scored in the left hand ring below her, the Quaffle bouncing off the bottom of the ring as it went in. Scotland had the lead again.
As the Finnish Chasers started their latest attack, Kohvakka thwacked a Bludger in the direction of the passing Scottish defence, unseating Boyd.
"Muggle! Muggle!" Ralston shouted. It was a strange thing to shout, but Ruskin knew she was referring to the 'muggle 3v2' she had mentioned earlier. The two of them left Boyd to defend the rings, both taking a position in front of the centre ring, Ralston at the back as she was taller and could see over Ruskin's head without flying too high.
The Finns reached the rings about now, and Boyd was still struggling onto her broom near the Beaters. Ruskin headed forward to put pressure on Ollila who had the Quaffle in the centre. He passed to Laukanen on the left and Ruskin shouted 'pass!' so Ralston knew Ollila had passed. Ralston moved to put pressure on Laukanen now, as Ruskin moved to Ralston's position. Laukanen passed back to Ollila – 'pass!' - and Ruskin moved up to him. Ralston took her position in the centre again. The Finns were getting steadily closer however. This defence was only really good for buying time while waiting for the third Chaser to get back into play. Boyd managed to get back to her defensive position in time to see Onkeli put the Quaffle through the right hand ring to make the score even again at forty each.
From that point on, both teams alternated scoring until the score was seventy sixty to Finland and Virtanen, floating over the centre circle, spotted what was definitely the Snitch floating in the centre ring on the Scottish side as the Scots were attacking. Thanking her great eyesight she flew as fast as she could towards it. She could hear the commentator ranting about her going for the Snitch which alerted Stewart the Scottish Seeker to the fact. She looked back and saw that Stewart was chasing her. She swore and urged her broom to go faster, using all the tricks she knew to reduce drag. As she got closer, the Scots evened the score and she could see Stewart in her peripheral vision so she swore again more violently and set to work trying to keep Stewart from getting any further. Now the score was completely even it was even more important that she caught the Snitch, or at least stopped Stewart getting it. She moved her broom into her path, but Stewart just swerved and passed her on the other side instead. She tried to push Stewart out of the way, gently enough to avoid being called for Blatching, but Stewart pushed back, stronger than her tiny stature would have suggested she could. Virtanen looked to see if the Snitch was still there, and it was. Unfortunately, because she had stopped concentrating fully on Stewart, she was pushed away and nearly fell off her broom. Still urging it forward as hard as possible, she got back in her seat but the damage was done, Stewart was getting ahead. The end of Stewart's broom was within arm's reach and she could easily attempt to pull on it, but that was a Blagging foul and Virtanen hated cheaters and didn't want to be one. She resisted the temptation and tried to catch up instead, coming close as both players tried to enter the centre ring at the same time because the Snitch had gone a few feet behind it.
Virtanen heard that her team had failed to score at the other end of the pitch as she reached out for the Snitch, her left arm pressed against Stewart's right. Despite the fact that Stewart's arm was so much shorter than hers, Stewart's hand was a little ahead of hers. She tried to shove it out of the way of the Snitch and succeeded, but before she could capitalise, the back of her head exploded in agony. A Bludger had smashed into it. As she fell from her broom, she saw Stewart's fingertips just reach the Snitch and she closed her hand around it.
Scotland had won, 220-70, as the commentator pointed out.
"Perkele," Virtanen muttered before she blacked out in mid-air.
She woke up in the musty gloom of the Hogwarts Hospital Wing, which she worked out after asking where she was and was answered by a severe woman she guessed was the nurse, though asking where she was wasn't the first thing she said after waking up. The first thing she said was 'voi vittu'. Her head still hurt quite badly.
"That Bludger broke your skull apparently," said Ari's surprisingly calm voice in Finnish from next to the bed as the nurse left for a back room. All of her team had been let in to see her. There was no sign of the Scots but there was a commotion coming from outside the room and a few other beds were occupied by students in various states of injury.
"Feels like it's still broken," she groaned, putting her hand gingerly against the back of her head. There was no wound, it felt completely normal, and as she tapped it as a test, her headache didn't get worse. "Never mind, feels healed. Still hurts like hell."
"It would do, an impact like that. That big hairy guy you like went mad at his team-mate for doing that to you. I still reckon he's got a bit of a crush on you."
"Maybe I'll get a new scar to show him," she muttered, only half sarcastically.
"Your head's fully healed good as new. Madam Pomfrey the nurse healed it in seconds."
"Madam? Is she French?"
"Sounds English to me, but I could be wrong. Too many accents around here, it's hard to tell."
"Maybe they call all of the nurses Madam at Hogwarts," she said shrugging. "Can I help you?" she said in English to one of the other patients who had wandered over, a tiny red haired child holding some parchment and a quill who looked too young to be at Hogwarts. Justiina suspected she was a first year.
"You were playing Quidditch on our pitch today weren't you? I missed the match because I wasn't allowed out. Which team are you? Did you win?"
"We're the Finland team and we lost," Justiina told her.
"That's a shame... That you lost I mean. Where's Finland?"
"Between Ruotsi and Venäjä," Justiina said without thinking.
"She means Sweden and Russia," Niklas translated.
"I've heard of those places, I think I know where you mean. Can I have your autographs? I love Quidditch."
After the team had signed autographs on the girl's parchment, Madam Pomfrey came back to check on Justiina then let her go. The team went back to their lodgings in Hogsmeade where Justiina spent the afternoon exploring the shops with Angus Macbride then the teams shared an evening meal where Angus proved to be much smarter than he looked. By the end the teams were firm friends and looked forward to having another match in the future. Justiina was just looking forward to seeing Angus again.