World War Q (OLD)
Scootaloo looked at the paltry selection of players she had to choose from and sighed. It was as she had feared. Six, just six, players aside herself had turned up to the try-outs. To make matters worse autumn had hit with a vengeance. Grey clouds covered the sky and pelted her and her teammates with ice cold rain whilst the wind howled relentlessly.
“For fuck’s sake,” she mumbled to herself as she walked up and down the line of players she had the pleasure of working with this year.
On the plus side, at least she had enough players to make a team, even if only just, and for the first time this year her day had gone by without any crazy shenanigans. Yeah, there had been a few more close calls in Charms, but otherwise nothing truly terrible. Actually, scrap that. The garish yellow and green spotted onesie Apple Bloom had knitted their Mandrake was an utter abomination. Unfortunately, she was slowly starting to learn that Apple Bloom’s answer to debates and problems was to throw the opposition to her view into the lake and ask questions later. Thus, she had sensibly not questioned her about it. To be fair, it had also made the Mandrake a lot more cooperative whilst they were changing its soil and feeding it.
Anyway, enough distractions. Back to the here and now. She took a deep breath and got into character. “RIGHT YOU MISERABLE LOT,” she yelled at the top of her lungs yet still only just audible above the wind. “Don’t think the lack of competition means you can take it easy this year. Training will once again be Monday mornings 6-8, Tuesday evenings 6-8 and Thursday evenings 8-10”.
Kendra suddenly couldn’t help but let out a snigger at the end of the line. Despite all the background noise Scootaloo’s sharp ears caught it and she immediately locked her eyes onto those of the young woman through the evening gloom. Kendra started barking like a dog much to everyone else’s amusement as the oldest member of the squad clasped a hand over her mouth in embarrassment.
“Miss Abbot,” Scootaloo said sternly approaching the older girl so as to be heard. “I’ve no idea how you ran the Hufflepuff team, but I run a strict but fair ship. I need your help in making me the best damn Beater possible but if I have to hypnotise you to do so then so be it.”
“WHAT? You don’t have the power to do that!” Kendra practically screamed in astonishment.
“Oh, don’t I? I believe that if you go ask Professor Sprout she’ll say otherwise and that it is perfectly legal under my powers as captain due to a recent update in the legislation she pushed through,” Scootaloo said with a smug grin.
Kendra’s mouth dropped open and her brain was working overtime to deduce whether the cold, wet streets of Scotland might have been the better option to the cold, wet quidditch pitch of Hogwarts.
“That goes for all of you,” Scootaloo roared to the rest of her team. “Hypnotism is a new addition to the punishments list, although, sadly, limited to a maximum of five minutes at any one time and nothing dangerous. Still, that should be more than enough time to have fun with any troublemakers; I may even at times let the rest of the team decide just what we should make the troublemaker do. Understood?”
“YES MA'AM,” the rest of the team, aside Kendra and Ginny, roared back to Scootaloo.
“YES MA'AM,” Ginny bellowed realising what she was meant to say.
“Well, I’m waiting?” Scootaloo said looking up expectantly at Kendra in front of her.
For a moment Kendra locked her eyes rebelliously with the younger girl before dropping her head, letting out a sigh and muttering under her breath, “yes ma'am.”
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear that. So everyone can hear, please,” Scootaloo taunted wickedly.
With a snort Kendra lifted her head and bellowed as loud as she could, “YES MA'AM.”
“Excellent, I trust there will be no further disruptions,” Scootaloo said solemnly as she turned and started marching back up the line. “For those of you with the team last year, this year will be slightly different. I will be having to have a number of lessons with Kendra to become more accomplished in my new position whilst Cedric will be doing a lot of solo training due to his new position. As such, Tamsin, Heidi…” she paused momentarily in front of the two third year girls.
“Yes cap,” they replied instantaneously.
“I am counting on you two to get my cousin up to scratch. She’s already got the raw ability, just needs you two to teach her tactics, moves, drills and so on and so forth. I’ll also need you two to keep Sweetie in tip top condition; she’s been eating way too much cake over the summer.”
“HEY, I am not ‘meow’,” the girl finished as Scootaloo locked her eyes onto those of her best friend accompanied by a devilish grin. “Stop ‘meow’ making ‘meow’ me ‘meow’,” Sweetie grumbled refusing to back down and remove her gaze from that of her best friend’s.
That was until a wet black ball came barrelling into her looking for the cat he’d just heard.
As a few more titters ran round the rag tag quidditch team Scootaloo turned her attention back to Heidi and Tamsin. “So, you two think you’re up to the job?”
“YES MA'AM,” the third-years hollered in reply.
“Wonderful. Now, we’ve ten weeks to get ourselves ready before our first game. Today though most of you will be quite glad that you will not require your broomsticks,” Scootaloo yelled at the top of her voice to be heard once more.
There were sighs of relief at the thought of soon being back in the castle in front of a nice warm fire in their common room or dormitory.
“Let’s see just how many of you have been slacking off over the summer. An hour of laps around the quidditch pitch,” Scootaloo continued. The sighs turned to a round of groans. “Tut, tut, you really should have let me finish before reacting. Anyone who does beat me receives a Honeydukes gold gift basket. I’ll even give you a thirty second head start starting now.”
There was a mass panic as everyone besides Kendra attempted to make the most out of their head start, slopping through the mud, wind and rain in their quest for over ten galleons worth of the best chocolates and sweets known to wizarding kind. Sweetie practically threw Wallace of her chest as she scrambled back to her feet.
Kendra just strolled in behind the rest of them at a steady pace.
Scootaloo smiled as she watched her team set off. It felt good to be back on the quidditch pitch once more in spite of the terrible weather. Still, there was something missing. She reached down and unclasped a box of quidditch balls, the bludgers fighting desperately in their straps to be freed.
“Oops!” she chuckled mercilessly as she released first one and then the second before moving onto a second box.
*
Despite the wind and rain, it didn’t take long for Scootaloo to catch up to Kendra who was sauntering along like she was out for a midday stroll on a hot Sunday afternoon in the middle of summer.
“Just a heads up,” Scootaloo yelled to the older girl. “You might want this.” Scootaloo handed the girl a beautiful brand-new oak Beater’s bat coated in iron. “Had these made by a friend of mine, Randolph Spudmore. Goblin made ironwork allows for greater power to be generated whilst minimising the impact to stability, especially in adverse weather like this,” she explained.
“Okay? Thanks,” Kendra yelled in reply a little confused. But why do I…” she ducked as one of the four bludgers flying loose around the field nearly took her head off. She’d only just noticed it in time due to the weather conditions and only her quick reactions had saved her. “You didn’t,” Kendra stated with a look that was part shock, part impressed, part pure evil.
Through the wind and rain Scootaloo gave a wicked smile in return. “I thought we could start my training. What do you say?”
“You know, for a pipsqueak, you’re not half bad and extremely devious,” Kendra replied. “I mean, tempting your team with sweets and threatening them with hypnotism to get them to cooperate and now this. Look out, that bludger is coming back.”
“Oh, I got it,” Scootaloo replied using her keen eyesight to pinpoint her target before hitting the bludger sweetly with a bat similar to the one she’d just given Kendra.
"And utilising your tail as an extra limb to generate more power with your bat."
“OUCH MY ARSE!” Sweetie screamed five seconds later before being followed by a loud splash as she landed into a particularly muddy puddle. “SCOOTALOO, WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, YOU’RE A COFFIN. YOU HEAR ME. I DON’T CARE HOW HARD IT MAY BE, THAT’S WHAT I’M GOING TO TRANSFIGURE YOU INTO AND THEN BURY YOU WHERE NO ONE WILL EVER BE ABLE TO FIND YOU!” the girl roared indignantly somewhere up ahead, hidden by the evening inky gloom.
Scootaloo and Kendra simply doubled over with laughter. For them the next hour was going to be a whole lot of fun!
*
Cedric looked one way and then the other. Having studied the Muggle World Wars in his final year at Primary School he had always wondered what fighting in one would have been like. He really wished he hadn’t. The reality was horrifying. Rain had soaked him through and through, screams seemed to come from every direction as his comrades lay howling in pain in the dirt while bludgers, the equivalent of bullets, seemed to be everywhere he turned and looked. But that wasn’t the worst of it, oh no. That was the cackles of laughter of the enemy that constantly pierced the air and sent shivers down his spine. In some ways he had to admire his captain’s deviousness and he should have expected her to pull a trick like this.
He ducked as yet another bludger appeared out of nowhere heading towards his head.
“Oh Cedric, I see you!” Scootaloo cackled from seemingly nowhere yet everywhere.
Cedric shook his head, snapping himself out of his daydreaming and back to reality. He kept on running. He’d not let Scootaloo get him as easily as she’d gotten the others.
*
Heidi, Tamsin and Ginny kept on slogging through the mud and rain. Every one of them sported horrible red welts across their bodies from where they’d been to slow to dodge one bludger or another. Even so, despite the larger target the three of them together made, it had provided them with not only more eyes to spot the bludgers but a great chance to get to know and trust one another. Ginny had taken the right side, Tamsin the left, Heidi down the middle.
“Bludger, three o’clock,” Ginny cried from Heidi’s right.
“And another coming in from eight o’clock,” Tamsin stated from Heidi’s left.
“Shit. Well, time to put that move we were discussing about into practice girls. I think I speak for all of us when I say we’ve already received enough bruises tonight,” Heidi stated.
“Agreed,” both girls replied before Tamsin dropped off while Ginny burst forward in front of Heidi.
Unbeknownst to the three girls Scootaloo wasn’t far off and watching every move they made and impressed by their cohesion and teamwork after such a small amount of time. Her plan was going far better than she could ever have dreamed.
*
Sweetie cackled as she rode atop her stead in search of her prey caked head to toe in mud. Underneath the mud you could just make out her horn glowing red instead of its normal green. Her eyes also sported the same blood red colour. It was, in truth, highly disturbing and combined with Wallace and his sharp teeth, mud covered black fur and mournful howling to complement Sweetie’s cackles looked like something out of a horror film. The only thing the girl was missing was…
Sweetie revved the chainsaw she’d managed to transfigure from a piece of wood she’d found lying around and split the bludger hurtling towards her perfectly in two.
“Nice try Scoots, but you’ll have to do better than that to catch me of guard,” Sweetie cackled like a lunatic before disappearing into the gloom once more on her steed in hunt of the elusive draconequus, revving the chainsaw as she did so.
A safe distance away Scootaloo and Kendra looked on, their faces frozen with looks of what the actual fuck.
Finally, Scootaloo spoke. “I suppose I shouldn’t be to surprised. Her sister acts exactly the same around mud and the few unicorns I know back home also all seem to act irrational from time to time. I’m sure it has something to do with their horns causing to much pressure on their brains leading to permanent brain damage or something,” she explained to Kendra.
“You forgot to add she’s a quidditch keeper. You have to be nuts to play that position,” Kendra replied distantly still staring at the spot Sweetie had been just moments before.
“True. Now, let’s get back to the entrance; the hour’s nearly up,” Scootatloo responded beginning to move once more.
“You sure that’s wise? If I was you, I’d either find Professor Sprout, hide or apparate as far away from Sweetie Belle as possible,” Kendra enquired giving Scootaloo a knowing look.
“Pfft, I know Sweetie. She’s all talk. Now come on; we’re wasting time standing around here.”
Kendra rolled her eyes. This was not going to end well.
*
“Let me at her, let me at her,” the mud monster bellowed trying to wriggle itself out of Kendra’s grip so that it could wring Scootaloo’s neck. “Just let me have one clean shot with my horn, pleaseeeeee,” Sweetie whined.
She had been the last of Scootaloo’s team to come in, still atop Wallace, although thankfully the chainsaw was gone. She had immediately lunged for Scootaloo only to find Kendra blocking her path.
“Scootaloo, just look at what you’ve done to me. It’s going to take me all evening to get this mud out of my hair,” Sweetie wailed.
Trying to hold back a chuckle, Scootaloo poked her head out from behind her human shield. “Would it help if I told you, I’ve got all the girls’ access to the Prefects bathroom for the evening and gift baskets for everyone for being such great sports?”
Sweetie momentarily stopped attacking Scootaloo’s human shield. “How many types of hair products we talking about?”
“Twenty-seven,” Scootaloo said smugly, her confidence slowly returning.
“Okay, I’m in. But first…” Sweetie whistled.
Scootaloo turned to see yet another mud monster barrelling towards her on four legs. Crap, she’d forgotten about Wallace. The next thing she knew she was on her back completely covered in mud as rain poured down on top of her along with soppy wet licks.
“Eww, dog breath,” Scootaloo grumbled trying, to no avail, to get Wallace off of her.
“BUNDLE!” she heard Cedric suddenly cry and before she knew it, she was under a mass of mud and sweaty bodies.
“Okay, okay, you’ve all made your point. No more running in pouring rain,” Scootaloo wheezed from the bottom of the pile.
“Or excessive amounts of bludgers in training,” Tamsin added. “One of those bludgers gave me a frightful bruise on my arm while another gave Heidi a nasty looking bruise on her hip.”
“My left leg is going to be stiff for a week!” Heidi grumbled from somewhere in the pile.
“Okay, fine. Just please get off me,” Scootaloo pleaded.
“Ooh, what else can we push her for,” Kendra said mischievously on top of everyone.
“Don’t push your luck, otherwise I’ll hypnotise the lot of you and make you run for another five minutes,” Scootaloo growled. “And Wallace, when was the last time you had a bath? You reek.”
Wallace immediately disappeared in a puff of black smoke at the mention of the B word causing the whole pile of bodies to collapse.
Laughing heartily in the mud and rain Scootaloo called out, “Come on; let’s get inside and have that bath before we all catch a chill. Although, before we do, did any of you realise the point of today’s training?” she asked as she slowly rose to her feet.
“I’m guessing you wanted some time with Kendra whilst hoping for likewise between me, Heidi and Tamsin to dodge the bludgers. As for Cedric, a key part of a Seeker’s job is to remain in the background and invisible so the oppositions’ Beaters don’t target them and they can thus remain focused on catching the snitch,” Ginny interjected with a smug smile.
Scootaloo's and the rest of team’s mouths all dropped open in shock and surprise as they stared at their youngest member.
“What?” Ginny said with a shrug. “When you’ve been around Scootaloo for a while you kind of expect her to pull stunts like this and have some devious reason for doing so. Plus, I had a lot of time to think whilst running in the rain this past hour.”
“I told you she would fit in perfectly,” Scootaloo whispered to Cedric next to her before turning her attention back to her whole team. “That’s some outstanding deductions Ginny; you should be proud of yourself. I won’t deny that me and Kendra were observing all of you at some point to determine just how you would face the extra challenges I put in place.” She turned her attention back to Cedric. “Cedric, as Ginny stated the key to being a great seeker isn’t solely about being able to catch the golden snitch first before the opposition. There are many smaller goals you have to achieve first to be able to do this. One of these is to have great awareness of your surroundings whilst blending into the background so that the opposition Beaters don’t pay you any attention. I hope today’s training session helped you understand that.”
“You sly dog,” Cedric replied giving his captain a playful punch on the arm. “And yeah, it did. Thanks cap.”
“Excellent,” Scootaloo replied turning her attention onto Heidi, Tamsin and Ginny. “As for you three, amazing job. You may have got hit a few times but you were able to shrug those off and learn from your mistakes quickly. The three of you are already working together extremely well and way better than I could have hoped for at such an early stage of the season. You should all be proud of yourselves.”
The three girls all now had beaming smiles upon their faces and Ginny was redder than a tomato in embarrassment.
“Thank you, captain. We shall strive to be the best we can for our house,” Heidi replied for all three of the girls with a salute.
“I know you will. Now, we really should get back into the warmth of the castle before we all catch a chill. I personally am longing for a nice warm bath and there are snacks set up for us as well. Afterwards we can retire to the common room and play some charades before bed time,” Scootaloo stated turning and beginning the long arduous journey back to the school before turning and addressing Cedric once more. “Sorry Cedric, but Professor Sprout made sure some snacks have been sent to your dorm along with your gift basket. I’ll hopefully see you for charades in a couple of hours?”
“No worries, understandable and you know it,” Cedric said with a smirk “Wouldn’t miss you having a temper tantrum when you lose again for anything.”
Scootaloo glowered at her vice-captain as they started making their way back to the castle. “One time and you never let me forget,” Scootaloo lamented looking up to the sky. “One point, one blasted point and all because Tamsin couldn’t work out that I was drawing a crystal ball with my wand. Goodness knows how many times I had to repeat no, it is not a circle.”
“One time? What about that time over the summer when you…”
“Scootaloo thrust a hand over Ginny’s mouth before she could incriminate her further.
“They don’t need to hear that story,” Scootaloo said sternly.
“Oh, really?” Cedric said from Scootaloo’s other side. “Come on, out with it.”
“She added an extra window to the burrow when Ginny couldn’t guess poison from her acting and ended up hiding from Molly for hours. She was furious.” Sweetie nipped in from behind much to Scootaloo’s embarrassment and Cedric’s delight. “Now, are you going to tell me what I was supposed to learn from the past hour or what?”
Scootaloo slowly lifted her beetroot face from her hands and said to Ginny next to her, “Any ideas?”
“Not really. I’m guessing to improve Sweetie’s fitness and sharpen her reaction times would be the two main purposes of the training session for her,” Ginny replied not a hundred percent sure.
“Yes, there is that and the fact it was blooming hilarious firing a bludger up her arse and covering her in mud,” Scootaloo admitted to a round of laughter that immediately stopped as the sudden sound of a chainsaw revving behind her materialised.
With a gulp Scootaloo turned around to see the red eyes and glowing horn had returned.
“Five second head start,” Sweetie said with an insane cackle.
“Where the hell did she get that?” Tamsin questioned although Scootaloo hadn’t heard her.
“Scootaloo, I’m coming for you!” the mud monster cackled chasing after Scootaloo.
“Shouldn’t we stop her before she cuts off Scootaloo’s other arm or something similar?” Cedric said somewhat concerned.
“It’s your funeral,” Kendra replied before adding, “Although I do hope Sweetie doesn’t drown Scootaloo in the bath before we get there.”
*
Monica stood in the doorway to the castle munching a bar of chocolate already regretting her decision to accompany Ginny to the quidditch tryouts. Why did it have to be chocolate, her one weakness?
It had been over an hour now since Ginny had disappeared into the rain and she hoped it wouldn’t be to much longer until she returned even if the clothing she was wearing was keeping her nice and warm.
And that was when Scootaloo shot past her faster than lightning.
“Hi Monica, can’t stop. See you in the common room or if you want a bath follow the others,” she said so rapidly Monica could barely understand her.
She didn’t even get a chance to respond before the other girl was gone.
“SCOOTALOO, where are you?” Sweetie’s voice bellowed from nearby sending a bloodcurdling chill down Monica’s spine.
And that was when the mud monster appeared with a chainsaw cackling like a lunatic.
Before she could even say a word though, the mud monster was gone and for a moment Monica wondered if she’d eaten to much chocolate and was hallucinating. Then, a soaked Ginny appeared with the rest of the team.
“Hi Monica! How are you enjoying being the new mascot bearer?” the girl giggled.
“Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle. Mud monster. Chainsaw,” Monica mumbled from within the badger costume.
“Oh, don’t worry about them. Just Sweetie and Scootaloo settling some differences,” Ginny replied. “Now, come on, Scootaloo managed to get us the Prefect’s bathroom for the evening - as long as Sweetie doesn’t kill her beforehand,” Ginny giggled pushing her stunned best friend along down the hallway.
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I am surprised that Sweetie went so easy on Scootaloo. In her position, I would have transfigured all of Scootaloo's clothes into frilly dresses.
10819575
We'll see what happens next!
Alright then, if you need a break it's okay, take however long you need. Great job with this chapter, I enjoyed the CMC's antics
I need fanart of sweetie bell from this chapter someone make it happen
Nepotism is magic
10819775
What is nepotism?
10819927
I had to research that to, nepotism is the practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs. To be honest I don't think Scootaloo has much choice here, not like there's any competition.
10819927
Basically, a professor in school gave a student a special privilege, to make it legal she passed a new law in the government. It would be like Malfoy Sr. buying Nimbus 2001 for Slytherin, or trying to execute a hypogriff in the 3rd year
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10819575
That would be great to start. I would also have them sing to her in creepy voices.
10895258
Nah just singing My Little Pony in a sickly sweet tone over and over again,