"It's controlled violence! No one's gonna get seriously hurt with this much magic being thrown around, and it's a more direct outlet than psychologically pranking blood purists."

"People do get seriously hurt. They can get fixed after, but they do get seriously hurt."

"But they can get fixed after," she insists. "And being on a team selects for being willing to get seriously hurt to actually win. People get seriously hurt playing rugby, too!"

Miranda just looks disconcerted.

"Anywho," she says, "tryouts for Slytherin are tomorrow at nine, I think each House gets two hours on the Pitch. Dunno if you guys can come watch mine, or," she looks at Miranda, "if you'd want to."

"I'll see when ours is, and I'll try to come watch yours!"

"If you desperately want to be supervised, I can make time, but I wouldn't go on its merits."

"Tryouts are probably not as interesting as games."

"I think the Captains and Madam Hooch will be there supervising us."

"Cheered, then, whatever benefit you might derive from us attending." Shrug.

Shrug. "I like you guys, so I like it when we do stuff together."

"I'm not sure there's many affordances for interaction between Quidditch players and people in the stands."

"Well, no, but it's... Eh, nevermind me."

"Okay. Well, have fun, anyway."

Slytherin has the 9AM slot and Ravenclaw has the 3PM, so Willow shows up to cheer on her friend.

And the Slytherin team captain turns out to be someone whose underwear drawer Sadde's familiar with. "Woods," Nyle Arens greets Sadde with pursed lips.

"Arens," she greets him with a smile, and sits cross-legged on the grass.

He then proceeds to summarily ignore her until nine. One other person—a rather large fourth-year boy—arrives to try out for Beater, and four other people—Sadde's friend Jacob, a third-year, and two fourth-years—for Chaser.

At 9AM sharp he says, "As you all know, one of our Chasers and one of our Beaters graduated last year, and the Chaser—Urquhart, to those who've heard of him—was the previous captain. I'm captain now, and will be for the next three years. He was nice on you—I won't be. Which of you are trying out for Beater?"

Sadde and the fourth-year raise their hands.

Nyle raises a disbelieving eyebrow when he sees Sadde raise her hand but doesn't comment.

"Very well. We will start the day by running ten laps around the Pitch, and I do mean all of us—" The rest of the team—Astoria's the other Chaser, the Beater is a fifth-year girl called Gabrielle Dearborn, the Keeper is a sixth-year boy called Jeremy Prince, and the Seeker is a third-year girl called Ophelia Burke -, who had arrived earlier with Nyle, groans in response. He furrows his brows and folds his arms. "I'll hear no complaints, last year we lost to Hufflepuff."

The team groans again but gets up to obey.

Sadde's actually pretty in shape! She doesn't interact with her field operative Jacob, but she approaches the boy who's trying out for Beater, too. "Good luck!"

The boy narrows his eyes at Sadde suspiciously, but nods curtly, then starts running.

Well. Better than nothing, she supposes. She'll start jogging on her own, too. She has good relations with the third-year trying out for Chaser, and he gives her a smile as she passes by him.

Eventually they're all done, and Nyle's waiting for them in the middle, sweating a bit.

"So, I'm not going to go over the rules of Quidditch, if you don't know them you have no business being here. The four of you are going to each show me what you can do," he tells the prospective Chasers. He kicks the chest with the balls open, and the chained Bludgers immediately start twitching and trying to get out. "You be quiet," he snaps at them as he grabs the Quaffle. "Prince's going to Keep," and Jeremy mounts on his broom and flies towards the hoop, "and you're going to each try to score against him. You'll each have five minutes to score as much as you can. Any questions?"