Disclaimer: Ah, ca tourjour? C'est pas pour moi.
Blah Blah Blah: When Li Chen is speaking.
Blah Blah Blah: When Sylvie St. Pierre is speaking.
Blah Blah Blah: When Both of them are speaking
japan vs. france
issalee
Ginny awoke the next morning feeling as heavy-headed. She cracked her eyes open and found herself staring into Gwinn's black eyes.
"What?" she asked irritably. The dragon clacked its teeth together just as miserably.
"Both of us like to sleep late, I see." He said mournfully. "But sadly, it's twelve minutes to two, and you have a match to attend to." He was barely finished before Ginny was up and running like the devil was at her tail. She took a wild guess, flung her trunk open and grabbed the first outfit sitting there, just as Tessa, Colin and Carina burst in, breathless.
"Gin! We've got twelve minutes!" Colin panted, in an attempt to catch his breath. "Gabrielle's waiting for us already by the field with our tickets!"
Carina eyed the clothes. "Er—Ginny, do you really—"
"No time for talk!" Ginny interrupted. "Quidditch is on the line! Clothes do not matter!" When she put her shirt over her head, however, she found that it didn't go past her navel. In fact…it didn't even reach the damn thing. The top was black, off the shoulder, and something she was sure she must have snuck from Tessa.
"Ginny, maybe you'd like to change?" The dark-haired girl said, raising an eyebrow. "That is, into something that belongs to you." But a bugle was heard from outside, and Ginny took a deep breath.
"For today, I sacrifice my dignity as a human and—ah, forget it, hand me the skirt and chain." And they complied.
Draco and Blaise were already seated on the Japanese side, Blaise muttering over where Tessa had gone off to, and Draco silently wondering the same about Ginny. Hermione was sitting on Draco's side, leaving a seat in between them. She bit her lip worriedly until she saw a flash of bright red, and stood.
"Ginny! You're—" But her words died on her lips as the redhead clambered up the steps wearing the top (which I'm feeling too lazy to describe again) a skirt that showed plenty of leg on one side and was all black, exactly three belly chains, and with a black scarf tied around her head like a head band. The ends of the scarf trailed down her back along with her hair, which was in a braid. Ginny winked.
"Sorry, I overslept and it was the best I could do at the moment." She looked over at Blaise and Draco, both of whom seemed to have pulled on that cold Slytherin mask and shrugged, until she realized it was because Gwinn wasn't on her arm anymore.
"Ah…impertinent dragon," she muttered to the black-haired boy next to her. Gwinn shrugged and said, quite loudly, "You didn't expect me to stay all by my lonesome, did you?" And so saying, he pushed her into the seat next to Draco, sat down in Hermione's vacated seat, and fixed his eyes on the field. Ginny sighed before leaning closer and whispering in his ear.
"You damn matchmaker; you're worse than Dumbledore." The Elemental let a thin smile pass across his lips.
"You never said I couldn't come, and besides, last night Aislinn and I played a little game to see who could take on a human form. I won, and she's lending me some of her power so I can watch this whole thing."
"What was the game?" Ginny frowned.
"I bet her that you wouldn't wake up early. It pays to be telepathically linked to you!" Ginny hit him in the shoulder, before she realized that everyone was staring at her comfy interactions.
"Ginny, who is this?" Hermione asked curiously. Ginny exchanged a look with Colin and Tessa (He'd been told as soon as they'd gotten back from the beach) before turning to Gwinn, but he was already standing and had planted a firm kiss on Hermione's hand.
"My name is Gwinn—eh, just Gwinn. Change my last name every day, it's boring with just one, don't you know." Hermione giggled, and Ginny rolled her eyes while she shoved Gwinn back in his seat.
"Stupid, she has a boyfriend, remember?" Gwinn smiled, and she tried to hide one of her own and ended up failing miserably. Tessa arched an eyebrow, and Ginny stuck her tongue out at the both of them, turning to face the other side.
Draco stared back at her, emotions carefully hidden. "Who is he?" She didn't answer, instead reaching up a hand in awe to finger his hair.
"Merlin! There's no gel here!"
And it was true. Draco frowned. After the incident at the beach, he'd been utterly distracted and had lost the bottle. He was in too much of a hurry to get to the match to buy anymore, and now his hair dropped in neat strands of platinum blonde hair, curling slightly at the ends; like Harry's hair, but much neater.
"Lost the gel," Blaise said next to him, and Draco realized he had been staring. Ginny smirked in a very Draco-ish way, before turning to the field, where the second bugle announcing the beginning of the game had started.
They were sitting in the best seats, exactly in the middle, and from it Ginny could see the Beauxbatons courtyard had changed very much. Hedges had popped up in a sort of maze, with a fountain spouting water in the very middle. On either side were the goal hoops and entrances. Banners fluttered from each side of the arena just as a booming voice filled it.
"Welcome, one and all! My name is Li Chen, and I will be your announcer today! My co-announcer is Sylvie St. Pierre, and today we are watching the seventh game in the World Cup series, Japan vs. France! Next year, we hope to see one of these team in the World Cup!"
Ginny couldn't see the announcers, but it didn't matter as suddenly, the doors below them opened. A woman's voice, with a slight French accent behind it spoke up.
"Here is the Japanese team! Their Chasers are coming first, and good Chasers they are indeed! Here we have Noriyuki Saado!"
Ginny cheered with the rest of the crowd as a man with large spikes of blue hair flew out, dressed in the Japanese quidditch robes. Green and yellow underneath for the padding, with the actual robe being white, and a red dragon curling (actually moving!) on the lower back and around the sleeves.
"Ah, and here we have Hideyuki Tanaka!"
A man with black hair pulled back into a ponytail and a dark blonde streak down the center pulled out, waving. He had on thin glasses, and as he waved, Saado flew over and tapped them with his wand, supposedly for a sticking charm.
"Yoshihiro Suzuki!"
The last Chaser was a man with dozens of small brown spikes and a red headband and glasses flew out, tapping his own face with his wand. He seemed slightly shorter than the others, but had the same sleek build of a chaser.
"Now the Beaters! Reiko Kiuchi is a marvelous gal, I asked her out on a date once! She said no, sadly. And there's Kenichi Ogata right behind her! The man is crazy, just look at his hair!"
But both Beaters had unusual hair. Reiko's hair was the same light blue color as Saado's, and had a ponytail on the sides of her head, leaving more hair to spill out. She was indeed, attractive. Ogata's hair was a shock of different colors, standing up in a punk-ish electrocuted look. He was the only person who looked to be Non-Asian.
"Here is their Keeper, Yosuke Ito, who has conceded a goal only when severely injured or unable to fly!"
A man who looked to be absolutely bald except for one ponytail of green hair flew out, with goggles shaped like a bee's eyes covering his eyes. There seemed to be a hush now, as everyone awaited Japan's new seeker.
"Now, this girl has never been seen before, but Japan assures us she's great. This is her first game, seeing as Misayo, the old seeker, had her arm broken and is under strict orders not to fly. We're hoping that she'll prove her worth! Give a hand for Atsashi Sakai!"
There was an explosion on the Japanese side of the stadium as a young girl only just out of school flew out, with short black hair pulled back into two ponytails. She seemed a little nervous, and rocked on her broom as she joined her team.
"France! I know you know your team, so let me introduce them to you! Our Chasers, Thierry Bourdon, Hildegard Lafarge, and Josephine Ballard!"
Two women with shoulder-length black hair flew out in the traditional white and light blue robes, followed by a man with the same colored hair and a slightly snooty look about him.
"The Beaters, Stefan Gordon and Sophie Goodwin!"
A man and woman with brown hair, either family by blood or by marriage flew out with giant grins on their faces.
"The Keeper, Brigitte Lecordier!"
A woman with blond hair and steely blue eyes took her spot in front of the goalpost, obviously the Captain of her team by the way everyone quailed slightly under her stare.
And finally, their Seeker, Nathalie Blegnie!"
A woman with short cropped black hair and tanned skin flew upwards, flashing a bright-toothed smile at the frenzied crowds.
"LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"
The referee pulled underneath both of the teams, waited a moment, then signaled. Below her, another ref released the balls. The Golden Snitch fluttered into sight for a moment before disappearing rapidly. The ref above blew their whistle, and threw the Quaffle up.
Saado caught if first, and a rippling passed through the French side. He passed it to Tanaka, who narrowly avoided Lafarge as he swooped underneath her. But Bourdon was coming too close, and he had Stefan behind him, club raised and Bludger on the way, so the he sent it to Suzuki.
There was a split second where the Quaffle seemed too high, but in a fantastic move that showed exactly how good the Chasers were, Suzuki grasped his broom with both hands, flipped over in a handstand, and stopped the ball with his legs. It fell quickly down his back, and as he returned to his normal sitting position, he grasped it firmly under his arm.
"GO!" Ginny found herself scrambling over Gwinn in an attempt to follow the Chaser as he sped down the field. "GO TOWARDS THE GOAL, GO, GO!"
Suzuki actually looked towards her, flashed a thumbs up (leaving him without any hands on the broom!) before veering sharply in front of the goal and throwing it into the lower right hoop.
Ginny screamed.
Thankfully, she wasn't alone, as everyone was erupting into cheers. Hermione seemed particularly joyful (she explained later it was because Japan was the only team she had ever been interested in for Quidditch) and she was standing on top of her seat as she cried out.
"And Lecordier is retrieving the Quaffle. She's thrown it to Ballard, and she's taking off—what's this? Merlin, that's a bold move for Saado!"
The blue-haired Chaser was flying directly next to Ballard, seemingly unawares of the two Beaters flying next to him. Saado cast the Beaters a face, before swooping low as if he were leaving them alone. But with speed that defied any laws of gravity, he gripped his broom with one hand, swung both his legs over and kicked the ball out of Ballard's grasp. With the same speed he grabbed the ball from the air, made a daring swoop and took off down the stadium.
"YES!" Ginny turned around and had to work to stifle a grin as she saw Draco cheering loudly. Gwinn was standing off to her side, watching not the game but both of them as Draco turned to the redhead, caught her eye, and winked.
There was a loud whoop from a big, rather obese man standing behind them without any shirt on, just as Saado passed to Tanaka, who volleyed it in for another goal.
There was no time for any of the Chasers to celebrate, however, as the French Keeper pulled up the Quaffle and shot with startling force, almost knocking over Bourdon, who managed to catch it.
With a start, he turned and realized he was directly in front of the Japanese goals. Looking dazed, Bourdon threw the ball in. Ito was on the other side. He never had a chance, and the French side erupted in cheers.
The game went on like that for quiet a while, and about two hours in, the score was France: 260 and Japan: 240. The reason for such a low score was that the French Chasers had somehow gotten it into their heads that if they kept the Quaffle away from a Japanese Chaser, and kept all three Chasers from each other, they had a chance of winning. And the funny thing was, it worked.
Ginny was sitting on the edged of her seat, hoping against all hopes that some miracle would happen. She didn't realize her hand had subconsciously wrapped itself around Draco's, and was squeezing it, as if looking for a little bit of reassurance.
Suddenly, there was a hush along the pitch. Hildegard Lafarge seemed to be struggling in the air, the Quaffle hugged to her side. In a moment of pure divine intermission, Reiko Kiuchi sent a Bludger careening Lafarge's way. The Chaser looked up, opened her mouth, and promptly shut it again as the Bludger caught her in the stomach, forcing her to drop the Quaffle.
Saado immediately went under, grabbing the ball. A loud groan arose from the French side as they realized Tanaka and Suzuki were right next to him.
"Let's go!" Saado shouted clearly, and they tore down the pitch. The three French Chasers were in a line, forming an attempt to stop them. But Saado shot forward off his broom and spun in the air over their heads for a moment before falling behind them and grabbing the handle of the broom (A Firebolt, like his whole team's), which had shot between the opposing team. Without waiting, he shot the ball to Suzuki.
Suzuki stopped as soon as he got the Quaffle so as to kick the person rushing to him, the Keeper, Brigitte from her broom. He took careful aim and with deadly precision, hurled the ball across the pitch to Tanaka, who hit the Quaffle with his fist so that it went straight through the middle goal.
But Saado was right behind the hoop, and again, holding onto his broom with a hand he flung a leg into the air. It connected with the ball and sent it soaring in a diagonal line directly towards Suzuki, who jumped into the air, turned one circle, and hit the ball with the flat of his foot. He landed on both feet on his broom, and the ball went straight through the hoop.
There was complete and utter silence.
"GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLL!"
"Mon Dieu! That was certainly unexpected!"
The whole Japanese section jumped to their feet, roaring in happiness. Suzuki flew towards the stands where Ginny was, flashed her a huge grin and stood on the tip of his broom. Looking perfectly at home, he performed a back flip and ended up sitting. Ginny smiled back, but had to stop herself giggling when she heard Draco mutter "Show-off" under his breath.
"Sylvie, look there! I think Nathalie has spotted the Snitch!"
The cheers on both sides intensified as Atsashi Sakai pulled back and dropped like a stone to where Nathalie was heading. Suddenly, Sakai pulled out of the dive and shot forward.
"She was faking, she was faking!" Tessa shrieked. "Sakai's spotted the real Snitch!" Blegnie was hurrying to catch up, and now the two Seekers were battling it out. Blegnie pushed viciously at the younger girl's broom, and Atsashi almost fell off before she regained her balance. Showing her country's balance, she put on an extra burst of speed before jumping up and standing on her broom.
Standing.
And she was rushing after the Snitch, going at almost a hundred miles an hour, swerving around and around the pitch. The audience was boggled, and even more so when she suddenly lunged. Atsashi fell for a moment, before her broom swept under her, and she grabbed hold if it. A grin unfurled around her mouth, and she punched her fist in the air.
The Snitch was fluttering in it!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ginny stood on her seat and screamed along with the rest of the crowd as Saado and Suzuki rushed up to hug Atsashi breathless.
The traditional chant went up:
Douka Shita No? Douka Shita No? (What's wrong, what's wrong)
Have you lost, have you lost
Yeah, Japan shows you who's boss!
Arigatou, Arigatou, (Thank you, thank you)
Thank you for the win!
Wasurenai, we warned you! (Don't forget, we warned you)
What it is we do!
Kireru, kireru, crush, crush, crush! (To break, to break, crush, crush, crush)
We thank you for the good play!
We wish you a good day!
And leave you with two words:
Ja ne! (See you later)
Ginny was suddenly crushed as Draco enveloped her in a hug, his eyes silver in delight. "We won!" He whispered in her ear. She pulled away a little, smiling.
"Yeah, we did." And she kissed him.
...So what do you think? As I said in the last chapter, I'm basing most of these moves off the Quidditch World Cup game, and that was Japan's team special move. Some moves I've made up, but tell me, did I do a good job? Oh, and the little song insert was completely and totally random, something I just did for the hell of it.