An Art of Balance

Chapter 21: Seizing the Chance

Warning: use of alcohol, underage drinking

Even behind the closed flaps of the changing room tent, the roar of the crowd was deafening as McNully fired the students gathered on the stands up for the match. Orion had seen the masses of making their way down to the pitch from high up above as the teams had warmed themselves up for what was to come.

It was almost time for the game to begin and Orion gathered his team around the blackboard with their key manoeuvres for their moment of vivification.

"My friends, the time to prove to ourselves of what we are capable of in the face of adversities has almost come. But before I will enlighten you with the wisdom I want you take with you into the air, one of ours has something to unburden her mind from." He stepped aside and Skye, who had been tugging at the hem of her Quidditch robe while he had been speaking, stood up and took his place.

She took a deep breath before she tried to bury her hands in her pockets as she would often do with her signature jacket; when she realised her robe had none, she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I'll make this short," she said brusquely. "I know I didn't act the way a teammate is supposed to and I want to apologise. I'm not the only one with stuff on my mind, I see that now. It was wrong to let it out on you guys. Said some things that were not my place to say," she glanced at Lizzie, who would have had every right to be mad at her, but she just smiled encouragingly, "and I hope that you accept my apology."

She turned to Orion and rubbed her neck with her gloved hand. "Orion, you are a smashing captain and you'll know what to do to make us win today. And if anyone is as stupid as I and disrespects you again," her eyes flickered to Everett and her nostrils flared with indignation, "I'm going to shove a Beater's bat right up their- ",  

"Thank you for your heartfelt words, Skye, I think you made your point," Orion cut her off hurriedly. Skye glared at Everett one last time before she sat down next to Judith, who muttered "As long as you don't take mine, go ahead," under her breath, making Skye grin.

Orion took his place in front of the semicircle of his teammates once again.

"There is little time left before we have to depart, so I, too, will make this shorter than usual. Every one of us knows what is at stake today. I don't need to set your minds because I can see the fire burning in every single one of you. But beware, my friends, a single flame is not enough to build a fire; I ask you to join our flames together and make our fire blaze brighter than ever before. Let us show Slytherin that our House is not to be messed with." He gripped the handle of his broomstick tighter as he looked at every single one of his teammates. "Let our fires burn as one, for we are one team!"

"One team!"

*

The team had taken Orion's vivification speech to heart. Despite all of the problems they had had to deal with beforehand, the Hufflepuff team finally managed what had always been their greatest strength; they moved as one conscient being, every position complementing the others perfectly.

It hadn't taken them long to carve out a comfortable lead; the tactic Orion had chosen was working splendidly. He had decided to take Skye's concern into consideration and had assigned each Beater a specific task. Everett was perfectly suited to bang the Bludgers into the Slytherin Chasers with his brutish strength. As soon as they formed anything resembling a formation, he was determined to scatter them.

Judith, on the other hand, had an eye for the flight paths of the Bludgers and was a lot more experienced, so she was set to clear the path for their own Chasers to score.