Circling above the game really wasn’t working. It had been several minutes, and all Harry had managed to do was easily dodge bludgers because he could see them as soon as they broke through the dust towards him. At this rate, he would never see the snitch again. Then again, Skyler didn’t seem to be having any better luck down there in than he was up here, and the dust had to clear at some point. When it did, his eyes and mouth would be in much better shape, which would have to be an advantage.

As a result, he settled in for a long match that probably wouldn’t be settled until the dust was gone. Whenever that started to happen he would probably call a timeout so that Ron could fill him in on the rest of the match and he could adjust the team’s strategy accordingly. As long as this terrible dust storm ever ended, that was.

That plan was ended, as Sky went streaking across the pitch like her broom was on fire. Harry couldn’t tell where exactly she was going, but she had to be after the gold ball of destiny, so he pulled into a hard dive in the general direction she was headed, adjusting his trajectory as he went. To his great delight, when he finally caught sight of the snitch it was directly between himself and Professor Snape. It would be the best thing if he could catch the snitch right in front of the git. He flew hard through the match, ignoring everything around him in his desperate attempt at the snitch. His hand was out, getting stung by dust, and it was time to make this match end.

The member 'Harry Potter' has done the following action : Quidditch

'Seekers' : 1

God. Fucking. DAMMIT! Draco was going to kill someone if this bloody dust didn’t quit soon. Rather than letting up, it seemed to be getting even worse, and he couldn’t see for shit. He didn’t know what the hell his team was doing anymore, there was dust inside his eyes to such an extent that he couldn’t even blink without tearing up, and all he wanted to do was end this stupid game so he could go to the locker room and have a bloody shower.

This was fucking horrible. He didn’t even care if they won or lost anymore. He was so damn angry, he just wanted to find some way out of this hell. The boy flew blindly for a while, then got so fed up he just stopped in mid-air and pulled his wand from its holster inside his boot, casting an aguamenti on his eyes so he could finally see again before casting a sort of shield around them. There. Now the bloody dust couldn’t cut his damn corneas at least.

With that accomplished, the blonde took off through the dust, managing to run into one of his own Chasers, then the Gryffindor Beater who he’d hit with a bludger earlier. Damn. She hit hard even when she wasn’t using anything but her own bulk. Crazy redhead. Between her and the Weaselette, Potter could have the start of a crazed team of angry gingers.

Once that awkward run-in was over and he reminded himself that he owed her another hit for her hitting him before the damn dust picked up, Draco focused on what looked to be a bludger nearby. With the clouds of dust all around him, he could do no more than blindly beat the thing in what he hoped was the direction he’d just come from running into the McGregor girl. Maybe he could get another good hit in on the bint even with the dust cutting his aim so horribly.

Salazar’s steamy muffin, someone needed to catch the bloody snitch!

The member 'Draco Malfoy' has done the following action : Quidditch

'Beaters' : 1

…more dust? Really? They weren’t having a hard enough time with this match? The universe had to throw more bloody dust at them? Now there was no way her brother would make another save if the Slytherin Chasers could see a single hoop. She’d have to keep the quaffle away from Zabini. That one was a hidden talent she never quite expected.

She growled as she made her way down the pitch, flying low to the ground where it seemed the dust was a bit lighter. There were at least less people to risk running into down here, though she did have to be sure to avoid bludgers. Not many beaters to take care of those so close to the grass it seemed.

The redhead flew hard, eyes narrowed against the onslaught of dust and debris. She was determined to get down there and at least get a shot in. Who knew what the damn dust would do to her aim, but she’d be damned if she didn’t give this match her all. Really, she’d be damned if she didn’t give every match her all.

Ginny flew straight up like a bullet, flashing through the swirling wind and dust as if it didn’t matter at all to her. Sure, it was painful, probably slicing into her cheeks if the stinging was anything to go by, but she didn’t bloody care. It was time to score. She had to keep working hard at this game until the ending whistle blew and someone landed with the snitch. Ginny took her aim and threw hard at the hoop, hoping the storm didn’t skew her shot.

The member 'Ginny Weasley' has done the following action : Quidditch

'Chasers' : 5

This dust needed to go. Now. As bad as it had been before, the wind picking up and blowing harder made it even more difficult to see, breathe, and fly. This was insane. Like the match wasn't bloody difficult enough. Orion didn't care if he got called on a penalty for it, he snatched his wand from the inside of his boot and conjured a pair of goggles. Fuck this shit.

The boy pulled them on over his eyes and around his head. The things narrowed his vision more than he liked, but atleast he wasn't getting dust blown into his eyeballs every time he blinked and risking permanent damage to his eyesight. He would have to deal with the swirling amount of dust making everything mere shadows. With his eyes not burning and hurting now, Orion could focus more solely on the game. Or what he could see of it anyways.

The most he could make out we're outlines of large figures he assumed were the other players, and from his end of the pitch he couldn't even make out the Gryffindor end, which he couldn't see what the hell was going on over on the other end of the pitch. The wind had picked up to such a speed it roared in his ears and around him, making hearing any announcements impossible. Riddle needed to get that bloody snitch before he became some kind of sandman.

Eventually his gaze was drawn to a form rising from below, shooting towards his hoops. As the chaser came closer the red stood out against the swirling dust and he recognized the Weaselette right away. Orion swooped down to try and smack the quaffle away. She had already scored enough on him for the day. It was time the bloody lions learned their place. He would keep their goals out. Blaise would get theirs in. Malfoy would knock one of those lions off their broom and out of the game. Riddle would get the snitch. Those were their jobs, and that's what they were brilliant at. All they needed to do was to stick with it.

The member 'Orion Ramellien' has done the following action : Quidditch

'Keepers' : 3

Flying against the wind was horrible with all the dust being kicked up and around by it. It burned against her face and the wind was blowing extra hard now, so when that demon ball of a snitch took off before she could get her fingers around it, Skyler had pulled her broom sharply to both avoid colliding with her Gryffindor boyfriend and crashing directly into the stands.

She avoided Harry completely, but wasn't so lucky with the stands, and smashed into them with the right side of her body. The brunette cried out in pain before she could stop herself, but wasn't worried about it considering the wind was so loud she barely heard it herself. That hadn't exactly been a gentle hit, and she was sure she would have a decent amount of bruises now. Not to mention the now painful breaths probably meant she had hurt something more than she would've liked.

Oh well. No pain, no gain. The sport was rough, and if one wasn't prepared to take a hit or break something, they didn't belong in the game. The Slytherin shook it off as best she could. Her entire side was sore, but it wasn't unbearable, so she took off again in search for the snitch. The wind was making flying straight hard for the petite girl though, and she was more zig zagging around than anything. It worked with the wind conditions though, so she didn't care.

Her eyes burned like hell though, and the teen really hoped the bloody storm would either turn into rain rather than dust or just stop completely. Or that the snitch would fly up her sleeve. That would be grand. Skyler couldn't help the grin that split her face at the thought of Harry's face if that happened. Then she could something extremely cocky, like that she was just so good the snitch knew better than to try and out fly her. Yea. That would be hilarious.

Now where was that bloody devilish ball....

The member 'Skyler Riddle' has done the following action : Quidditch

'PP' : 5

This was not the way that Aimee had envisioned her first match going. Sure, the early part had been spectacular. She had just about killed Slytherin’s best Chaser with a couple of excellent hits. She had gotten revenge on the Malfoy prat for hurting her shoulder. She had kept her chasers alive once she was off of Potter guard duty and even helped them take a decent lead in the match.

Still, she had not envisioned spending her first match flying in a dust storm that only got progressively worse. Dust did not go away and leave you alone if you swung your bat hard enough at it, but it did cause pain to your eyes and skin and everything else, that only got worse as time went along. Somehow she had managed to keep her chasers marginally alive and healthy, but she still wasn’t sure how. If the dust ever cleared up to allow her to see again, someone was going to die.

And then it did. The dust settled down, coming to lie mostly in a thick sheet at the bottom of the pitch, a dirty blanket for the grass below. Aimee shook her head like a wet dog to clear the dust out of her eyes and ears. There, that was better. Now she shot off, looking for a bludger to hit and someone to hit it at.

She grinned widely as she came across both at the same time. A bludger was sailing right into her strike zone, and Slytherin’s pretty little seeker was just now turning away from the stands, which she had apparently flown straight into during the dust storm. She swung hard, hoping to cause some real damage, though she would be happy either way. Either Captain Potter’s pretty toy would be in even more pain, or it would sail straight past her and into the undefended spectators in the green wearing portion of the stands. Both were good fun.

The member 'Aimee McGregor' has done the following action : Quidditch

'Beaters' : 3

This dust was shit. This wind was shit. These bludgers that kept sailing at him every ten seconds were shit. The Weasel actually keeping for once was shit. It was all shit. This entire game was shit. That about summed up Blaise's inner monologue.

Just when he didn't think it could get worse, it did. The wind had picked up and the dust blew around them harder than ever. It whipped at his skin and got in his eyes, and it was suffocating him, he was sure of it. The dark skinned wizard was sure he had a concussion by now thanks to McBatShitCrazyGregor, so why not add suffocation by dust?

What he really needed to do was to quit bitching and to get his head back in the game, because even if he did have a concussion, at least his head was still attached to his fucking body. At some point one of those bludgers had made it feel like it was being ripped off his neck, so Blaise was grateful that that wasn't the case.

His eyes narrowed to slits as he spit out a bit of blood from his mouth. He came into the game expecting it to be brutal and he was taking a hell of a beating for being slytherin's star chaser. However, this was a game, and slytherin was so close to winning it he could feel it. Just as he took possession of the quaffle, the wind died down and the dust was gone, settling on the ground where it belonged.

A smirk appeared on his bruised and bloodied face. Now this was more like it. Tucking the red ball under his arm the boy shot off toward the other end of the pitch. He ended up rolling his broom to avoid another bludger at the last second just as he came up on the hoops for his score. This meant that just as he went to toss the quaffle he had had to slip sideways and upside down on it to avoid being decked by another crazy black ball.

It was too late to change his mind now and if he waited a second longer the Weasel would definitely block anything he tossed. Judging the distance more accurately now that he could see Blaise shoved the ball towards the middle hoop hanging upside down from his broom. The snakes were still in this thing and even Draco had started focusing on more than just Potter. Now they just needed their seeker to catch that bloody snitch and end the game. That didn't look like it would be so easy anymore if it ever was to begin with considering the entire pitch was now glittering with gold that glinted and reflected in the sunlight. What in the name of Merlin was going on?

The member 'Blaise Zabini' has done the following action : Quidditch

'Chasers' : 6

The dust storm got worse and however bad things had been because of it just got that much more bad. Visibility was nearly shot to hell and at one point Ron couldn't even see the hoops he was supposed to be guarding. If this kept up there was no chance in hell this game was going to end good in any way. Tension was already high between the two teams naturally, so it went without saying that the frustration mounting in the game was going to see someone seriously injured or worse.

By some miracle the red head had managed to not get hit by a single bludger but he wasn't too sure his luck would hold out now that the Ferret was actively searching for others to hit bludgers at and now that the storm had died down. In an effort to not be a sitting duck Ron flew around his hoops and kept his eyes roaming every which way. There was specks of gold glistening in the sunlight all across the pitch now and he groaned. The safest and best way for them to win at this point was for Harry to catch the snitch. How was he supposed to do that now?

This had to be a slytherin tactic. The sneaky little cheats must have come up with the idea before the game. No wonder they looked so smug beforehand. Speaking of which, here came Zabini with quaffle and Ron dove towards the center hoop where the ball was headed, trying to stop the unorthodox throw and hoping the snake fell from his broom.

The member 'Ron Weasley' has done the following action : Quidditch

'Keepers' : 10

Skyler had had to make a very sharp turn to avoid being hit with a bludger, and pushing the pain she felt from her side hitting the stands, the brunette shot the red head with a bat a smug and challenging grin. "You're gonna need to do better than that!!" The teen called out to the Gryffindor beater, taunting her. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to provoke the crazy girl with the bat, but hell, the entire match was insane as it was. Atleast that god awful dust storm had blown over. Thank Merlin for small miracles.

Besides, the Slytherin was confident in her ability to dodge whatever that nut job whacked her way, but hopefully Draco would take it upon himself to do the red head a bit of damage soon. Repay her in kind for the brutal beating their chasers were taking from her. One could only hope. When the dust storm died finally, Sky took it upon herself to breathe in a deep breath of fresh, dirt free air. Her eyes were welcoming the relief, and she headed off in a new determined search for the snitch.

Not without doing a few loop-de-loops for the crowd of course. She even took the time to fly low enough over the stands to reach her hand out and slap the ones that reached back up with a wild grin on her face as she flew the entire pitch, slapping hands as she went. Poor things. They probably hadn't been able to see a thing with all that dirt. Sky didn't mind provoking some excitement.

With crowd officially riled up and roaring again, the brunette eased back up into the air, planning on circling above the game in her search. What she hadn't expected once she got there was to look down and see flashing gold everywhere. Fucking hell. From up top, it looked like hundreds of snitches had been released. There was no way she was going to be able to spot the real one from her current height with all the glinting gold.

There was also no way she was going to let this new and improved bump in her way to victory lane stop her from getting to that snitch before Harry. Skyler turned her broom yet again, dipping lower and lower as she swept around the match. The lower she got, the more she realized that whatever was causing gold to flash around the pitch wasn't moving. But there was enough of it to drive her eyes crazy.

There had to be a way around it though, and the answer came immediately forward. If whatever it was wasn't moving, then she needed to focus more on movement, versus the color. The sun beating down and making the glittering worse didn't help, but there was nothing else for it. Atleast now the brunette had a plan of action. It was better than nothing anyways.

Skyler was flying low enough that she was dead even with the actual match, which meant she had to keep an especially close eye out for bludgers heading her way. Especially considering her taunting after that last failed attempt to hit her with one. The brunette had just finished watching Weasley make a block and had turned her broom back around to head the opposite direction when her intense gaze had caught the fluttering of wings.

There, right in front of her. So close she could taste the win. The golden ball was hovering just above the side of stands she was on, and Skyler shot forward on her broom before another second could be lost. Just as she went to reach for it the devilish thing seemed to have a mind of it's own, as if it were trained in evasiveness, because it shot straight up into the air. Naturally, the brunette followed, turning her broom straight up in a complete incline.

A bludger came pelting her way and the Slytherin expertly rolled her broom, and it rotated without deviating from it's upward path, allowing her to avoid being hit and still chase the snitch as it rocketed upward, Skyler on it's tail. Her broom continued to rotate, causing a spiral effect as she shot upward. The brunette had no idea where Harry was but it was probably safe to say the cat was out of the bag and unless he had taken a bludger to the face, he would know by now that she was on a chase for the snitch. Urging her broom faster, it kicked up a notch in speed and Sky almost feared shooting past the damn ball, and her hand shot out to try and grasp the little devil before it could do any more amount of dipping, dodging, and diving.

The member 'Skyler Riddle' has done the following action : Quidditch

'Seekers' : 1

Suddenly everything was coming up Gryffindor. Sure, he hadn’t gotten the snitch on his last attempt, but at least he hadn’t been the one to go skidding into the stands. Now he and Skyler were at least even on hits taken, and hers might have actually been harder. As long as his girlfriend wasn’t seriously injured, it could only be a good thing that he might be flying a touch faster and seeing a touch clearer, even though she had the faster broom.

On top of that, Gryffindor was slowly pulling away, Ron was playing like the magician who had won the quidditch cup last year rather than the idiot the Slytherins generally caused to come out, and the bloody dust was finally gone. Harry took a moment to take his glasses off and clean them with his wand, and suddenly everything made sense in the world again.

Then he noticed that the crowd was roaring again, and looked around to see that his girlfriend was putting on a show to make up for what had been lost to the dust. Shooting her a smirk and then grinning widely, he matched her move for move on the opposite side of the pitch, right down to slapping five with the wildly cheering Gryffindor fans as he finished the show and turned back up to do his job and win the match.

Skyler slowly moved lower and lower against the blasts of gold suddenly covering the ground, but Harry had stayed at his normal searching height, entirely unfazed. Once the initial weirdness from the Slytherin stands had passed, none of them were moving, so they weren’t really a problem. After everything that had happened so far it would be the absurdly fast blur of flight and the beating of wings that told him where to find the snitch, anyway.

Then he saw it. The snitch was taking another pass in front of the crowd, and the wings shown against a set of Ravenclaw robes in the stands. He took off like a shot, but before he even got close a bludger passed so close to his broom that it actually spun him around. Where had that bloody thing even come from? By the time he came to a stop, righted himself, and shot off back in the proper direction, his girlfriend had clearly caught on to the snitch, as she was spinning like a top as she chased after what might be the toughest snitch Harry had ever flown against. If he caught the damn ball he was never giving it back.

As if trying to prove itself one more time, the snitch changed direction again, darting straight up just as Sky was about to catch it. That gave Harry a distinct advantage, and he shot off after the ball, his own hand out, hoping that he could catch it before Skyler was able to change direction and give him a fight over it.

The member 'Harry Potter' has done the following action : Quidditch

'Seekers' : 10