[falmouth] the seekers are the sought [alex/quinn]

Alex was mildly disappointed that Elias ignored his interest in the subject of his impending marriage, but it was a small concern next to the otherwise great relief that the match was finally getting interesting enough to draw their concentration away from this conversational black hole. He leaned forward in his seat as Quinn began to speed toward, presumably, the snitch. This was the best part of quidditch. He’d gone to watch his sister in however many matches and she never did anything until the one or two minutes at the very end. Unless, of course, there was a false alarm and then she returned to aimlessly hovering again until she saw the snitch for real. He wasn’t sure what he hoped would happen in this case. On one hand, she was obviously ahead of the other seeker and a Quinn who’d had a win would be much more fun to deal with. On the other, perhaps he could turn his conversation with Elias back to more navigable waters…

He was chastising himself for being irredeemably distractible when something finally captured his full attention. Where Quinn had been flying there was now a dark shape, and before he could get what had happened through his head the shape was falling from the speeding broom. Alex rose to join Elias on his feet and heard him make a sound of horror at his side as Quinn(?) hit the ground. His eyes darted then to the other players as they hovered, trying to see if any of them had their wands out.

“What the fuck?” he said loudly over the roar of the crowd. “Has she been transfigured?” He turned to Elias in shock. “I—who does that!?” The black hairy thing that had been Quinn was weakly stirring on the grass of the pitch far below. She’d fallen a long way. “I should get down there,” he said, hurriedly gathering his things. He was about to turn on the spot before realizing Elias hadn’t immediately followed suit. “Come on, then,” he instructed. It wasn’t a family thing. His companion had been invited by Quinn same as him.

They reached the field. Somewhere between anxious and furious, he was ready to force their way out onto it, maybe flash his badge around if it would help. Was malicious transfiguration at a hundred feet cause for an arrest? He wouldn’t have any qualms.

People had been gathering on the field in the meantime, players landing their brooms and officials trying to get a closer look. Thankfully, it didn’t take any more than explaining to a guard that they were Quinn’s guests for him and Elias to join them. The dog was no longer moving by the time they could push through the crowd. A mediwitch had knelt by her side and was inspecting one of her limbs that hung at a horrible angle.

“She’s alright?” he demanded to know.

She would be fine, just broken bones, and she needed a profession detransfiguration, obviously. Maybe a stay in St. Mungo’s as a precaution. Alex didn’t envy her that, or look forward to having to visit her. He’d had his fill of the place. But so had she, surely. Not that he thought she’d notice much where she happened to be after this indignity, she’d be so blind with rage.

He looked down at her furry face, starting to calm down a little.

“Sort of cute, really,” he said breathlessly to Elias.

Though surprised at Alex’s invitation to follow him down to the pitch, Elias moved after him at once. His instinct had been to be respectful of Quinn’s privacy and to let Alex and the mediwizards be the first to see her, but his concern and outrage were enough to give him no hesitation about being on the scene. If the chance came to provide witness or help in any way at all, he would be happy to do so. He had no idea if Quinn was alright, or even alive, but being there with her and seeing the situation firsthand would be better than waiting for news of her fate at home.

Elias and Alex pushed through the crowds on the stairs, the looks of anxiety and fury on their faces enough to get people to move out of the way. When they finally made it out onto the pitch and over to where a crowd was gathering, Elias followed closely behind Alex as the guard stood aside to let them pass. The dog’s legs were twisted horribly beside her as she lay on the grass, not moving but clearly breathing. Elias let out a sigh of relief as he saw the mediwizards that were gathered around her, administering potions and preparing a stretcher for her to be flown out on. They were quite far from London, but she seemed to be in no immediate further danger. He supposed a portkey or apparition would be an uncomfortable and dangerous option.

Elias looked over at Alex in surprise. He wasn’t sure the shock had worn off enough yet for him to be appreciating Quinn’s new furry form, but he didn’t want to be rude. “I suppose,” he agreed, looking more closely at the dog’s dark fur, which was the exact shade of Quinn’s hair. “Still, I wouldn’t want to be there when she wakes up.” He could only imagine the fit Quinn would throw in St. Mungo’s once she was awake and caught up on what had happened.

“Did you see who did it? Will they be arrested?” Elias looked around as he asked, but saw no signs of any aurors flooding the field. He couldn’t be sure if it had been a player or someone in the crowd who had interfered with the game. He looked up at the scoreboard and saw that Quinn hadn’t been awarded the points for catching the snitch. “Are they seriously not going to give the Falcons the win?”

[span style="font-size: 36px; font-family: Cambria; font-variant: small-caps; font-style: italic;"]"Foul!"[/span] Jonathan Gardner stood up in outrage from seat 28G, grabbing his wand out of the holder on his belt and promptly Apparating directly onto the field as he pulled an embroidered gold-and-silver flag - more like a handkerchief - out of his pocket. As he wordlessly cast [span class="jgspell"]Periculum[/span] into the air, he waved the flag frantically until he was sure he had caught the attention of Dawson, the referee in charge of officiating this game. Some of the players didn't seem to realise who he was right away because they were also yelling at Dawson or some of the stadium security enforcers to remove the spectator from the field, but all the enforcers knew who Gardner was - namely, the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports - and sternly shook their heads, if they weren't already commiserating with Jonathan's anger at the shocking flout of several international Quidditch rules.

"FOUL!" he screamed again, pointing a finger (shaking uncontrollably with the rest of his arm) at Burney O’Kernaghan, the neotenic Chaser with a pronounced supraorbital ridge that he had watched use his wand to transfigure Quinn Regan into an Irish setter. O'Kernaghan was acting like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth and his wand was hidden back in the folds of his robes, but there were enough eyewitnesses here - not to mention the dog with the broken limbs on the ground - to still penalise him. "ABSOLUTELY DISGRACEFUL!" He threw his embroidered flag down on the ground and signalled Dawson to come over to him as he went over to the body of Quinn Regan. A Bats waterboy was backing away, certainly having tried to make sure the fallen player was okay and probably having gotted barked at or possibly bitten. Enraged, he turned and clenched his fists at his sides as Dawson brought down Captains Quigley and Bowen to speak with him.

"'Players may take their wands onto the pitch, but they must not be used on or against any players!'⁽¹⁾" the Department Head recited the rule in a red-faced roar at Finbar Quigley, who was already looking appropriately abashed if not angry enough at this illegal action of one of his players. Before he could respond to Jonathan, however, there was a huge roar of excitement from the Ballycastle fans. Jonathan's head snapped to look up at the action where he saw that Brendan Byrne, the Bats' Seeker, had caught the Golden Snitch. The scoreboard suddenly changed to reflect a change of one hundred and fifty points to the Bats, and the announcer was beginning to comment on it. Jonathan immediately pointed his wand at his throat and incanted, "[span class="jgspell"]Sonorus,[/span]" as he stepped away from the gaggle of Mediwizards and Quidditch players on the ground.

[span class="jgspell" style="font-size:14px; line-height: 120% !important;"]"Attention all spectators. Due to the major infraction of several rules of the International Confederation of Wizards Quidditch Committee by the Ballycastle Bats, by my authority as the Head of Magical Games and Sports, I hereby annul the catch of the Snitch by Mr. Byrne!"[/span] Groans, which he had expected, and boos, which he also expected, came from the Bats side, but Jonathan was not backing down. [span class="jgspell" style="font-size:14px; line-height: 120% !important;"]"Under the same authority I am ruling that the Ballycastle Bats forfeit this entire game due to the grievous harm caused another player by this rule-flouting! [span style="font-size:24px; font-family: Cambria; font-variant: small-caps; font-style: italic;"]This game is now concluded!"[/span][/span]

Behind him there was a singular snarl of the canine variety, and a singular yelp of the very human variety. Jonathan turned back around to see Captain Quigley clutching his arm. Just at that moment before Gardner's eyes, Regan was Transfigured back by on-site Mediwizards but was emitting a steady stream of pain-induced cursing -- the emotive kind, not the spellcasting kind, though Gardner wouldn't have blamed Regan if she had been doing that. "[span class="jgspell"]Quietus,[/span]" he muttered at his throat as he crossed back over to the Mediwizards, ending the Amplification Charm. "What is wrong with her leg?" he asked tersely, knowing better than to interfere with an in-progress healing but still feeling due an explanation.

"Post-Transfiguration incongruence," the Head Healer of the squad said without turning around. "We're not qualified to heal non-human animals so we had to Transfigure her back first and it's interfering with standard Healing spells." Jonathan thought he understood vaguely - Regan hadn't had a broken leg when she was turned into a dog, but when she was turned back into a witch, the injury was present. Any healing or mending of bones, muscles, and other tissues would have to be filtered through the prior transformation.

Elias looked shocked and a little offended at how easily he’d started to joke, and Alex glanced away awkwardly. He tended to be desensitized compared to other people, forget himself in company that hadn’t also found it an adaptation necessary to the job. “Oh, yeah,” he said, choosing to respond to Eli’s actual comment rather than his unspoken question. “She’ll be out for blood and no mistake.” As they were sent further away so the healers could work, he shifted his attention to the players. The head of Games and Sports was shouting furiously at the captains while most of the others hovered or had landed too. “They’ll be penalized, obviously,” he said loudly over the noise to Elias as he scanned their faces. “Kicked off the team if the captain’s got any sense, but I don’t know if the law’ll get into it. Though almost certainly there was intent to harm—“

There was a great cheer from the Bats fans and Alex realized that their seeker had caught the Snitch while no one was looking. “Oh, no, they won’t honestly—“ he began to snap, whirling around to look for the referee, but Gardner beat him to it. The match was declared forfeit. He didn’t think it would make Quinn feel much better when she recovered, but she might be a tiny bit satisfied that her misfortune had derailed an entire game.

But then he could hear Quinn’s voice, obviously in pain, and he pushed his way back through toward her. The healers didn’t appear to be done with her, though, despite having returned her to her usual form. They explained the issue with the bones, that she’d have to be taken to London. Alex’s heart sank. When he could find a big enough gap, he bent down to hold her hand for a couple seconds before she was lifted off the ground.

“Well, I’ll meet her there, I suppose,” he said, watching with Elias as Quinn’s stretcher was lifted. Though the thought of hours in the St. Mungo’s waiting room was dreadful, he couldn’t very well just go home. “Do you want to come too?” he asked after a hesitant moment. “I don’t know if they’d let you see her if you’re not family, but if you’d just like to wait and make sure everything’s alright…” He realized then that he had no idea how close Quinn and Elias were. For all he knew, they were just casual mates she gave free tickets to sometimes. But he seemed deeply concerned about her and not to even offer felt profoundly cold. Or maybe some of it was that Alex just wanted company until his parents could arrive. “Oh, hell—“ he said as he registered it, “I guess I’ll have to tell our parents. They’ll be thrilled to hear they’ve got another kid in hospital.” Sighing softly with a mirthless grin, he looked around the still-crowded pitch. “Clearly I’m the worst good-luck charm in history.”

Elias listened with interest as Alex gave his opinion on the outcome of the match, wondering how he had learned the technicalities of Quidditch and the law so intimately. Before he could open his mouth to respond, however, the crowd roared and Alex's voice was drowned out. Elias looked around and caught sight of the scoreboard, confused. Had the game been continuing even after Quinn's fall? How was that even possible? His question was answered quickly when the voice of Mr. Gardner added to the noise and chaos, officially ruling the match forfeited. "It seems they could have given her the points," he commented, annoyed. Quinn had been about to catch the snitch anyway; there was no doubt she would have, if the other team hadn't interfered in such an illegal way.

As anxious as Elias was to see that Quinn would be alright, he hesitated at Alex's offer. He would be happy to wait at St. Mungo's to get the chance to see her, but he wasn't sure that she would want to see him. It was bad luck indeed that the one match he had managed to make it to this season was the one where she had been humiliated by the other team and failed to catch the snitch. Besides, he could think of at least one person who would probably want to know that Quinn was in hospital, and Elias was the right person to deliver that particular message, he was sure of it. "I am sure that your parents would not want me to be in the way," he replied politely, hoping that his declining the invitation didn't come across as cold-hearted. "I would probably be of more use if I let a few people know what has happened."

Elias extended his hand to give Alex a farewell shake, grasping it reassuringly for a moment. "I'm sure you know this has not been your fault," he added, wondering how Alex could possibly have come to that conclusion. "You are a good brother, to look after her. I hope we will meet again soon." With a final nod, and a last worried glance in Quinn's direction, Elias turned on the spot and vanished, moving through the suffocating darkness toward his apartment.