Edric Blight
HE SHOOTS! HE SCOOOOORES!
Chase Crosby
“One of these days you’d better talk, Crosby. People might think you’re a mute!”
said Thomas with a grin. Chase could see the golden snitch about to be released out of the corner of his eyes as he raised his eyebrows in anticipation. But just as it was about to be released, Madame Hooch stopped, as did everyone on the Quidditch pitch, players and spectators included, stopped. Chase’s blood ran cold as his eyes widened, hearing a scream and a bit crash. The first thing he saw was his brother looking wide eyed with concern down at the Slytherin section of the spectator stands. “Bloody hell… that doesn’t look good…” Chase could hear his older brother say quietly as he put a hand over his mouth and watched down in shock. Now it was Chase’s turn to look, and he wished he didn’t.
To young Chase’s horror, he saw the scene down in the Slytherin section of the stands. A Gryffindor player clearly standing out in a sea of black and green was laying down, injured, having fell off his broom and into the Slytherin crowd. But Chase could just make out the unfortunate victim underneath the Gryffindor player. She was on the younger side and had a distinct head of red hair. Chase’s stomach sank- it was Grace Walsh. Immediately play suspended on the pitch as both some Gryffindor and Slytherin players flew down and attempted to aid both the injured player and spectator. Others stood around waiting nervously and shocked into a stunned silence, Chase one of them.
He then saw Thomas quickly fly down to a particularly horrified and even guilty looking Slytherin as he took him by the shoulder and whispered something to him. Presumably this was the Slytherin player who had just pulled the dirty move, and thanks to the boys’ actions, at least two people were hurt. There was only so much the players who were attempting to aid the Gryffindor player and the poor red headed Slytherin girl fan. Luckily, Madame Pomfrey was very quickly called to the scene. Chase couldn’t believe what he was saying. His first reaction was to immediately rush down and come to Grace’s aid, but he realized that’d certainly draw some suspicious attention. His thoughts then turned to anger- anger with himself for being somewhat the reason why she was there and able to be hurt in the first place, and anger with his brother for his aggressive captaining style which resulted in the ensuing dirty move that led to the injury of both his teammate and Grace.
Chase zoomed down to where his brother was presumably comforting the Slytherin player who had performed the dirty move and bumped the Gryffindor player off of his broom and into the Slytherin section of the crowd. He furrowed his brow as he flew over to his older brother and the Slytherin player as in the stands, Madame Pomfrey and a few others helped carry out Grace and the injured Gryffindor player who had been crashed off of his broom and into the stands and carried them out on stretchers as both sections, Gryffindor and Slytherin, watched on with concern. Many players had their hands over their mouth, shocked. A few Gryffindor players understandably shot some dirty glances at the Slytherin captain who was talking with the boy who was responsible for this. Of course, Thomas too was responsible for this to an extent thanks to his blatant disregard for the rules of the game here at Hogwarts and his strict instructions to be very aggressive especially when playing Gryffindor.
“Thomas! This is your fault!” yelled Chase, who looked like he was holding back some tears. Thomas just raised his eyebrows, clearly stunned and not expecting to be interrupted, and surely not by his little brother of all people. He then locked eyes with Chase and Chase could’ve sworn he saw a sly little smirk from his older brother. Thomas chuckled, “Welcome to Quidditch little brother, I knew you couldn’t handle it,” he sneered. “Th- that’s not right Thomas! Y- you’re a dirty player! I can’t believe they let you captain that team!” Chase barked back, his brow furrowed angrily, his voice visibly shaky. “Good thing you’re not that captain of YOUR team! Listen to yourself, you can’t even get a sentence out with out sounding, and looking, like a scared little puppy!” Thomas cackled. Thomas smirked, “Au revoir brother, I look forward to seeing you in the stands next game. You won’t last a day on that team, you’re pathetic. Let’s just hope you don’t end up like the poor saps who got injured,” laughed Tom, causing Chase’s blood to boil as his face got red and he furrowed his brow angrily, gritting his teeth. “C’mon now,” he heard Thomas say softly as he turned to address his teammate, “We’ve got to play damage control. Find some flowers and visit the injured. We’ll avoid a PR nightmare,” said Thomas as he rolled his eyes, guiding along his friend presumably to find some flowers before visiting the injured in the hospital wing for some sort of publicity stunt to pretend like they cared and were concerned. Chase found it all so sickening.
The announcers then got word and let the crowd and players know that the game had been cancelled. With the score 60-10 in favor of Slytherin, the game was declared a Slytherin victory. There were no cheers from Slytherin nor boos from Gryffindor as any win or loss of today’s game had been over shadowed by the fact that two people from both houses were injured. Chase clenched his fists with anger as he saw his brother smirking and nodding his head as he was walking away, presumably pleased with their victory as he heard it announced, patting the boy who injured the Gryffindor player and Slytherin spectator, Grace, on the back as if he were proud of the move. The Slytherin boy didn’t look so proud, more concerned and guilty…. Then, Chase felt a hand on his shoulder as he stared angrily at his brother getting off of the pitch. “Let him go…” said the soft voice of his sixth year captain, Mitchell Markstrom. “I saw you have words with him. They’re no use against Crysby- err, I mean Thomas, your brother,” he said. Thomas “Crysby” had been a not so loving nickname given to the Slytherin seeker ever since year one when he proved himself to be quite the dirty player, but also a bit of a whiner on the field, always putting on an act and constantly complaining to Hooch every time something didn’t go his way. Hence the nickname, “Cry-sby.” “Sorry your first game didn’t go so well, but ya did well champ. Looking forward to seeing you in action our next game. Apologies you had to see your brother’s dirty captain style early on and didn’t get too much action today. No worries, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff play a classy game. I know their captains personally,” said Mitch, giving their youngest player a little proud smile and soft pat on the back. Chase just nodded, looking worried. His concern began to grow for Grace. He quickly rushed to the locker rooms as both teams’ players were slowly making their way to the locker rooms to change and the stands were clearing out, everyone going back to the common rooms or the Great Hall to eat.
Chase rushed to the Gryffindor locker room. He didn’t even bother to change out of his Quidditch uniform robes, quickly putting away his Firebolt broom, shoving his flying goggles in the locker, and rushing down to the hospital wing. He burst through the doors, the first visitor of the day. He frantically looked around as there he saw it, Madame Pomfrey treating a young red-headed Slytherin girl in one of the hospital beds. In another bed was the injured Gryffindor player, still in his crimson and gold Quidditch robes, as was Chase right now. Chase without thinking quickly rushed to the hospital bed and to Grace’s side, his eyes widening as he frowned with concern and worry looking down at her. “Mr. C- Crosby? In Gryffindor robes?” asked Madame Pomfrey, who had never seen the younger Crosby boy. She’d plenty of times seen his older brother for Quidditch injuries though. But upon further examination, she saw it clearly wasn’t Thomas. No, this boy was younger, shorter, and of course, wearing Gryffindor robes. She just shook her head and went to tend to the injured Gryffindor player, letting Chase visit the injured Grace. Chase paid Pomfrey no mind as he quickly but gently grabbed one of Grace’s hands and rubbed it comfortingly, gulping nervously.
“Oh Grace… I’m so sorry…” lamented Chase softly as he frowned. He looked at the poor unconscious red-haired Slytherin girl that he so loved. His heart hurt to see his crush in an injured state like this. Unbeknownst to him, his brother, Slytherin’s captain, and a few of his Slytherin teammate goons, would be on their way to show up to the hospital wing and visit. No, not out of the goodness of their heart, but as Thomas had put it, for a publicity stunt. Thomas was Slytherin’s beloved captain. He had to of course keep up that persona. Visiting the injured after the game was the “classy” thing to do, a PR win for the Slytherin team and more specifically their dirty captain. But in the eyes of the Slytherin house, their beloved captain Thomas Crosby could do no wrong. He’d prove it by showing up to the hospital wing for the publicity. He was a sly little dog…. The Gryffindor captain Mitchell and quite possibly a few Gryffindor players were most likely on their way to send condolences to the young injured Slytherin and check on their poor injured Gryffindor teammate. “Oh Grace….” moaned Chase with concern and worry, still frowning, gently rubbing the top of one of her hands with his thumb. “Please be ok….” he pleaded softly.
