Quidditch Day

"Lance. Lance. LANCE."

This was one of the more pleasant wake up calls Lance Corkshire had had in a while. In fact, he couldn't remember a single time this past summer that his older brother Josh hadn't set off a loud bang to wake him up. "What?" groaned Lance in response.

"Quidditch Day! Yorkshire is matching off with Quiberon in this year's finals up on Yorkshire Marsh. Dad managed to get us box tickets through work! Mom's not too pleased though; she says today was supposed to be our shopping day for the new year at Hogwarts. But anyway, dad convinced her to take us to shop on a different day instead, so that we can see some more quidditch before the new school year."

"Great! When are we going to the portkey?" replied Lance. "It's still so early," he added with a note of annoyance in his voice, as he gazed through the window into the yard below.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But come on, mom's got bacon and eggs down there. She says we need to eat well before school starts. She was never a big fan of Hogwarts food." Josh said, rolling his eyes as he departed the room, leaving Lance to his thoughts.

He seemed happy, Lance thought to himself as he got up and dressed. After all, Josh was interested in playing quidditch when he grew up. And since he was in his seventh year at Hogwarts, that wasn't far off.

He had already gotten offers from both the Chudley Cannons and the Yorkshire Youngbloods, the local team. But all thoughts of quidditch slipped his mind when breakfast caught the nose of Lance Corkshire.

"Boy, my mother is a good cook!" said Lance as he walked towards the lovely smell of bacon and eggs. "Hogwarts food is good, but it's nothing compared to your cooking mom!"

"I told you, Hogwarts food isn't all it's cracked up to be dear," insisted Jennifer Corkshire. Once you get to be my age, you'll learn that deep fried drumsticks in truffle butter aren't the best for you."

"Yeah, but it's so good," retorted Lance.

"When will you learn?" said Mrs. Corkshire sadly, all the while rolling her eyes. "I hope you enjoy quidditch!" she continued. "Your father presented a strong argument for you and your brother to accompany him to the game, don't prove him wrong," she finished warningly. Knowing of his own mischievous nature, Lance nodded, cleared his plate, and met his father George, and his brother Josh outside. After meeting up, they then set off to find the portkey. At the portkey, they met up with Josh's girlfriend Penny and her father Mr. Bastol. Penny ran up to Josh and flung her arms around him.

"I missed you so much!" Cried Penny.

"You saw him yesterday," remarked Lance, disgusted by his brother's overly obsessed girlfriend. But, if she made his brother happy, he'd accept her with open arms.

"Oh shut up, Lance," responded Josh with a twinge of annoyance in his voice. Before Lance could argue further, a stern glance from his father shut him up. After a short while chatting beside the portkey, it started to rattle.

"Everybody grab on!" exclaimed Mr. Corkshire. Everyone took hold of the dirty old shoe and was swept off the ground into the abyss. Once the portkey hit the ground, the five companions set off toward the stadium. Lance was in awe seeing the spirit of the fan base on the marsh, the warpaint, the colors, and best of all, the music. Josh and Penny started dancing to the tune of, "Yorkie the Porky" with some Yorkshire Youngblood fans. As night fell, the fans made their way over to the stadium for the match. At the top box, they walked past Walter Malfoy, the well known commentator. As the five sat down, they heard Walter say, "Sonorus" while pointing his wand at his throat and immediately his voice was at a decibel level ten times that of the crowd below.

"Welcome, from all over the world, to the UK quidditch national finals!" Malfoy bellowed over the chatter from the crowd. "Before our final regular season game commences, I would like to take a moment to introduce our team mascots! From down in Yorkshire, may I present to you, the Kelpie!" A giant tank of water then floated onto the field. It was like nothing Lance had seen in his whole life. "This green water demon," Malfoy continued, "is normally found at the surface of rivers or lakes, and will attract its prey by taking the form of a moss covered rock and allowing their prey to grab hold. Once stuck, the kelpie zips down to the bottom of the lake to devour their prey." Lance was in awe of this new creature and was so excited to go and tell his friends about it.

"This creature is amazing!" said Lance, thinking the Quiberon team surely couldn't top this.

Malfoy spoke again. "And all the way from Quiberon, the cockatrice!" The Quiberon crowd went wild. Floating onto the field in a glass box was a majestic creature. It was a serpent like no other with the body of a dragon and the head of a rooster. Lance yet again found himself in awe at the majestic presence the cockatrice had.

Malfoy started again by saying, "The cockatrice is a close relative to the basilisk, however, with the head of a rooster, its cry is fatal to the basilisk as all rooster's crows are. But enough with the mascots, Let's meet the teams! Riding on the brand new shooting stars, for the Quiberon Quafflepunchers, I give you, Trent! Molov! Aspin! Drovel! Delev! Mono! Aaand Hoffer!" Quafflepuncher fans went wild.

You could hear the fans loud over Malfoy's voice, chanting, "Hoffer! Hoffer! Hoffer!"

"And the moment you've all been waiting for, your Yorkshire Youngbloods! I present, Love! Chofe! Jason! Jarry! Benson! Lynch! Aaand Klepski!" Josh was astounded. These fliers flew like angels, It seemed as if they could fly even without their brooms.

"Do you see that, Lance?" Josh asked excitedly.

"Yeah! Amazing!" Lance replied enthusiastically.

"I'm going to play for them one day." Josh said.

"You were psyched when you got their offer," Mr. Corkshire added. "I know that keeper position means a lot to you, but frankly the pay isn't that good, and plus, wouldn't you prefer to have a more honorable profession?"

"Like what dad, a Journalist? No offense, but I don't want to make people look bad for a living."

"Offense very much taken, son. Journalism speaks truth to otherwise unspoken secrets about society, and I won't hear a word against it! End of conversation!"

Even though it seemed as if the night was ruined, all thoughts of anger and tension faded as the game began and Walter Malfoy's voice echoed over the crowd below.

Malfoy began commentating by saying, "And they're off! Chofe's got the quaffle for Yorkshire and passes it to Love! Back to Chofe again and now the Youngbloods signature move: he throws it up to Benson with the bat, who hits it to the hoop and BENSON SCORES! Yorkshire leads ten-zero" Youngblood fans went crazy. Lance had never seen a crowd so alive. Malfoy kept going. "The Quaffle is dropped to Aspin! Now to Trent! Molov! Stolen by Love! Ooh! That's a nasty bludger there from Delev! Back to Trent! Molov! Trent again, he goes for the shot! Nice save from Lynch's end of the field and back over to Jarry…" The game moves so fast Lance could barely keep up.

"Did you see that?" Josh said to Lance. "That Barrel Roll block was something special!"

"Yes yes," replied Lance, knowing that ever since his brother started studying the keeper position, he'd been unbearable at the dinner table and at quidditch games. "You know, if you really want to become a keeper in about a years time, you should start taking notes on the great ones, like Tyler Mono and Jessica Lynch."

"That's a good idea Lance," Josh said as he conjured some paper. "I'm going to start taking notes on everything they do, starting with blocks all the way to fouls."

Lance was glad to have his brother off of his back, and he turned his head back to the game. What he heard next, were not screams of excitement, but screams of fear. As Lance looked towards the ground, he saw a rampaging cockatrice charging across the field. The quidditch players were evacuated, and the department for the control and regulation of magical beasts were alerted. Within minutes, the department officials arrived in order to capture the cockatrice. It took about an hour of frantic searching before the cockatrice was found, captured, and put to rest by the department officials so that the game could continue.

Malfoy continued the commentary by saying, "Well, that was exciting! Let's get back to the game, shall we?" To much approval from the crowd, the quidditch players from Quiberon, Yorkshire, and the referee hopped on

their broomsticks and soared into the air. "And for the second time, they're off! Love takes the quaffle and tosses it up to Jason! He chucks it to Chofe who shoots AND SCORES! Quiberon's Lead is down from sixty to fifty! But Hoffer shoots off! I think he sees the snitch! But Klepski is on his tail! Hoffer's Shooting Star is no match for Klepski's Cleansweep two! Klepski reaches out, and GRABS THE SNITCH! YORKSHIRE WINS, ONE-HUNDRED-EIGHTY TO EIGHTY!"

Penny and Lance cheered for Klepski and the rest of the Youngblood team. Josh was scribbling things down left and right submerged completely into the actions of the keepers so much so that he didn't even notice the end of the game, and even when he was alerted, a simple, "Oh, nice" was all that escaped his lips.

As the players exited the field, some triumphant and some disheartened, Walter Malfoy said, "Well, there you have it folks! The Youngbloods win, one-hundred-eighty to eighty! What excitement, I tell you! The adrenaline of these fliers are off the charts! I'm your host, Walter Malfoy, and I bid you, adieu."

As the clapping died out and the stands started to clear, Lance and Josh spotted Mr. Malfoy. "Brilliant commentating Mr. Malfoy, this is my brother, Josh! He is in his seventh year at Hogwarts, and hopes to play keeper one day for the Youngbloods!" Josh then waved nervously at Malfoy.

"Hogwarts eh?" Malfoy responded as he hurried himself away from the onlooking crowd of journalists and admirers. "I used to go there myself when I was your age. You'll be seeing me a lot more at Hogwarts this year, that's for sure. The Triwizard tournament is a big moneymaker for my industry, and I finally get to have a crack at it! Anyways, see you boys at Hogwarts! And with that, Malfoy disappeared into the crowd of journalists.