Commemorative Quidditch at Hogwarts
Date: Saturday, 3 March 2001
Time: Noon
Location: Hogwarts Pitch
Characters Involved: Anyone who wishes to attend. (Remember to add your character's 'tag' if you enter the thread here.)
Rating: G
Hogwarts Commemoration Services - Opening Ceremonies
The Hogwarts Pitch has never looked newer or more a sparkling jewel of Quidditch enjoyment as it sits, ready for the sold out performance of the Alumni Exhibition Game. But first, the Official Commemoration Ceremonies are held as Headmistress McGonagall understands well the need for memorial and honour for those who fought and died in the War before the excitement and celebration of the Exhibition and Ball can be truly appreciated.
The Headmistress and members of her staff are the first to arrive on the field, standing solemnly at one end of the Pitch, wands drawn and ready. As one, their wands command either truth or illusion, it matters not which, that the opposite end of the Hogwarts Stadium appears to open, giving full view to the white marble tomb of the previous Headmaster, Albus Dumbeldore, standing brilliant and shining in the noonday sun. The awestruck crowd is stunned into silence, and rises to reverently give witness to this event. It was the appropriate and intended reaction as the first of the new Hogwarts Quidditch teams entered the field. Each team enters in full uniform and flies in precise formation, delivering commemorative memorial wreaths of white flowers interlaced with white streaming ribbons emblazoned with the names of the war dead inscribed in silver gleaming letters. Each wreath is delivered to a group of waiting first, second and third year students who place the wreaths around Dumbledore’s tomb with apple-cheeked smiles and light hearts. They alone in all of the hushed crowd around them did not know the previous Headmaster. Only a few know that these young students were all specially chosen as representatives of the recipients of the patronage at Hogwarts today: war orphans one and all.
After the new teams are all in the stadium, come the Quidditch House teams. In another break with tradition the House teams come out in formation squads by position, showing a possible future of new unity with their mixture of House colours and singularity of purpose as they deliver their wreaths to the younger children and take their place in formation on the Pitch. Next come the flying representatives of all the Professional teams of the British and Irish League, bringing out more wreaths with more flying ribbons. They are followed by visiting representatives of the foreign leagues and teams, sporting their own colours and uniforms, but all united by the seemingly endless white wreaths and with flying white ribbons.
The Pitch is nearly full when the final contingent arrives in the sky, the Exhibition Players led by Harry James Potter. In practice they were supposed to all fly in together, but during the ceremony, as if by prior agreement, all the others lag behind, flying in broken wing formations, while Mr. Potter, flying suddenly solo through the emotionally charged stadium, delivers the final white wreath with the final white ribbons. These ribbons name the last of the war dead: Lily and James Potter, Joanne and Geoffrey Granger, Sirius Black and Albus Dumbledore.
As Mr. Potter lays the final wreath, the teams reform and take to the skys in a spectacular display of flying excellence and precision as each team displays their own special talents as they depart the Pitch. As all eyes are trained on this wonder in the sky, the reality or illusion of the split stadium fades and the white decorated tomb of Albus Dumbledore recedes, honoured and not forgotten, but set aside with reverence so that the festivities and celebrations of the day may commence.
Madame Hooch blows her whistle and releases the snitch and the bludgers and the excited roar of the crowd can be heard everywhere on the castle grounds as the game begins.
(Comments, observations, conversations by Participants, Players and Spectators are encouraged!)
Image credit: The Harry Potter Lexicon
Time: Noon
Location: Hogwarts Pitch
Characters Involved: Anyone who wishes to attend. (Remember to add your character's 'tag' if you enter the thread here.)
Rating: G
Hogwarts Commemoration Services - Opening Ceremonies
The Hogwarts Pitch has never looked newer or more a sparkling jewel of Quidditch enjoyment as it sits, ready for the sold out performance of the Alumni Exhibition Game. But first, the Official Commemoration Ceremonies are held as Headmistress McGonagall understands well the need for memorial and honour for those who fought and died in the War before the excitement and celebration of the Exhibition and Ball can be truly appreciated.
The Headmistress and members of her staff are the first to arrive on the field, standing solemnly at one end of the Pitch, wands drawn and ready. As one, their wands command either truth or illusion, it matters not which, that the opposite end of the Hogwarts Stadium appears to open, giving full view to the white marble tomb of the previous Headmaster, Albus Dumbeldore, standing brilliant and shining in the noonday sun. The awestruck crowd is stunned into silence, and rises to reverently give witness to this event. It was the appropriate and intended reaction as the first of the new Hogwarts Quidditch teams entered the field. Each team enters in full uniform and flies in precise formation, delivering commemorative memorial wreaths of white flowers interlaced with white streaming ribbons emblazoned with the names of the war dead inscribed in silver gleaming letters. Each wreath is delivered to a group of waiting first, second and third year students who place the wreaths around Dumbledore’s tomb with apple-cheeked smiles and light hearts. They alone in all of the hushed crowd around them did not know the previous Headmaster. Only a few know that these young students were all specially chosen as representatives of the recipients of the patronage at Hogwarts today: war orphans one and all.
After the new teams are all in the stadium, come the Quidditch House teams. In another break with tradition the House teams come out in formation squads by position, showing a possible future of new unity with their mixture of House colours and singularity of purpose as they deliver their wreaths to the younger children and take their place in formation on the Pitch. Next come the flying representatives of all the Professional teams of the British and Irish League, bringing out more wreaths with more flying ribbons. They are followed by visiting representatives of the foreign leagues and teams, sporting their own colours and uniforms, but all united by the seemingly endless white wreaths and with flying white ribbons.
The Pitch is nearly full when the final contingent arrives in the sky, the Exhibition Players led by Harry James Potter. In practice they were supposed to all fly in together, but during the ceremony, as if by prior agreement, all the others lag behind, flying in broken wing formations, while Mr. Potter, flying suddenly solo through the emotionally charged stadium, delivers the final white wreath with the final white ribbons. These ribbons name the last of the war dead: Lily and James Potter, Joanne and Geoffrey Granger, Sirius Black and Albus Dumbledore.
As Mr. Potter lays the final wreath, the teams reform and take to the skys in a spectacular display of flying excellence and precision as each team displays their own special talents as they depart the Pitch. As all eyes are trained on this wonder in the sky, the reality or illusion of the split stadium fades and the white decorated tomb of Albus Dumbledore recedes, honoured and not forgotten, but set aside with reverence so that the festivities and celebrations of the day may commence.
Madame Hooch blows her whistle and releases the snitch and the bludgers and the excited roar of the crowd can be heard everywhere on the castle grounds as the game begins.
(Comments, observations, conversations by Participants, Players and Spectators are encouraged!)
Image credit: The Harry Potter Lexicon