“Right, I hope you are all feeling fit and ready to go,” Sioni began. “Because you can be sure that Wankins and his lot out there are.  Now I don’t know if you all have noticed it or not, but there’s just a tiny bit of mist out, see? Regular pea souper. And I for one are glad of it. Because we’ve been practicing our plays so many times that we should be able to do them with our eyes closed, isn’t it? Well, we’re going to use that. That and an idea Skrumpkin gave me just now.”

Sioni waved his hands to get the team to spread out.

“Shane, let me hear you say, ‘Ting-a-ling’ nice and loud. Lindsay, I’m Going to teach you a little Welsh, isn‘t it. And the word I want you to know is ‘De.’ Simply that. It means Right, see. Got it?” He paused.

“Now here’s how this works. Lindsey? Go stand over by the lockers and stand with your eyes shut. Ding-dong? You walk along saying ting-a-ling, right? And Lindsay, when I shouts ‘DE!’, you move to the right of where ever you hears Shane, alright, and I’m going to toss you my gauntlet. You just grab for it when you hear me shout ‘de’ right? But keep your eyes shut. Alright, go for it.”

It didn’t work the first time, because Sioni threw to his right an not Lindsay’s. But the second time he smacked her with the glove.

“Right, Shane I want you to shout ‘ding dong’ or ‘clang’ or ‘ting-a-ling’ or any other blasted thing you want, whenever you has the Quaffle, see? You other two Chasers place yourselves according to his voice. Lindsay, if I shout DE it means I’m sending a Bludger to the right of where Shane last shouted. If I shout anything else, it means left. De means right, that’s all. Your right.”

He looks around at his team, and smiled. “Sounds bloody stupid, doesn’t it? Half the time we won’t hear anyway. But if it works even once and we can get a goal out of it, I don’t care how stupid it is. And Lindsay, if you can return the Bludger to me. I’ll make sure Gryffindor finishes the match with fiuve players, not seven.”

He turned to head for the door, and stopped suddenly. Turning slowly he looked at his Keeper. “Skrumpkin, I don‘t want you making a sound, see? Last thing I want Gryffindor to know is where YOU are.”



Not Getting Any Younger