The Weight of Gravity (OPEN)

[giovannella]

It was 9:06am. Not that the time was important in the plot but it was always nice to know when you were especially if you didn't want to be Where you were. At least that's what Andrew DeVerde was telling himself as he looking up from his gold pocket watch to the innocent looking broomstick lying on the ground by his feet. He wasn't fooled. He didn't ware how innocent the broom managed to look up at him; he wasn't sure how it managed to look at him in the first place but he wasn't in the mood to question it, unless it got him out of the latest tasks set him by the ever dedicated flying instructor. You may at this point be wondering WHY a 6th year student was standing in the middle of the quidditch pitch during what should have been a free period; surrounded by overly excited 1st year students and a selection of the schools brooms. If you were in fact wondering about this then let me inform you that this was the 6th year on the go that Drew had been dragged unwillingly from his precious books and onto the pitch in order for the flying professor to once again convince him to fly a piece of wood through the air. A feat Andrew would prefer keeping his one and only F grade over completing. It didn't stop the professor though, she was convinced the boy would love being in the air if he would only gie it a go. A statement Andrew wasted no time in disputing, sure he had dropped over the edge of a cliff face suspended by only a piece of rope but that piece of rope was not only spelled to be unbreakable it was also a piece of rope MORE than he would be given if he was to fly. He liked his face exactly how it was thank you and no amount of peer pressure (especially when that peer pressure appeared to be the 12 first years from his own house) was going to get him on that broom.

It was worth pointing out that the broom in question (that was still laying by Andrew's feet looking up at him) appeared to be one of the older more experienced brooms. It's experience was shown in the disarray that its tail end where in. Only an experience broom, for example, had the ability to look like it had been dragged though a bush backwards then used by a teething terrier puppy as a chew toy and then STILL be considered one for the more sturdy of school brooms (a fact Andrew was not ready to test though he did make it a point to scoff whenever those words came out of his flying professors mouth) He wasn't buying it.

Frowning at the slim piece of wood and the few surviving bristles that made up its tail end Andrew know without a doubt that if he was to believe the innocent look sent his way by the wood then he would be leaving the pitch assisted by a levitation charm with his next destination being the hospital wing. IF he was lucky. 'Does Hogwarts have a morgue? There is certainly enough dungeon space for one I suppose'
Lucky for him (and for Hogwarts since Andrew doubted they had a morgue and where therefore under equipped to deal with his death should he believe the broom) Andrew didn't believe for a second in the school broom and as if to make this clear he turned slightly away from the object of his consideration to look instead across the pitch to the group of students sitting in the stands there. He had no intention of flying so maybe he could convince one of those students to destroy the broom. He would have done it himself but after he managed to set fire to 5 school brooms last year his wand had been confiscated until he completed the flying lesson.

It could be a long day.

COMMENT: I had an interesting plot idea...then it ran away so this topic is really just a load of dribble. Please reply

[serena]

Serena wasn't one for flying. It was scary to be up so high with nothing preventing you from falling apart from some very quick thinking and a stick of wood they all called a wand. No thank you. Even the thought gave Serena goosebumps as she found herself walking towards the quiddicth pitch. Looking up and around at the sky and the lack of student bodies about the place, she figured most of them would still be asleep but she was going to position herself in the stands to watch anyone practicing Quidditch. She of course knew who she wanted to see but as she had not yet memorised his school timetable she didn't know what he'd be doing or how he'd be spending his weekends, but maybe he'd be down at the quidditch pitch.

Serena had her hopes up even though she had learnt over the years not to do so through many a disappointment. And even if the person she was hoping to see didn't turn up she'd have a quiet morning just reading in the stands. Who knew, maybe she'd even give flying a go, only a couple of feet of the ground of course and no higher than her actual height, that way if she did fail flawlessly then she wouldn't do too much damage to herself just maybe a little bruise here or there.

Serena shuffled her back into her backpack a little more comfortably and psyched herself up to get on a broom. She got to the quidditch stadium and rather than going straight to the stands, she went and got herself one of the old school brooms and walked out onto the pitch, leaving her bag in the broom room Serena only took her wand and the broom with her onto the pitch because she was pretty sure she wasn't going to need a lot of books yet but maybe a first aid kit would have been a good idea in case she got any cuts or scratches or worse, broke a bone.

Serena spotted another that the whole of the Gryffindor team were out on the pitch getting an early start. Serena was not going intrude on this, but she had already got her spirits nice and high to try flying so the only other safe place she could think of was where the flying lessons were held. So she got her bag and headed up to the class area but she saw a single person there and for a second she was very apprehensive to continue but she decided she might as well learn how to fly. By the end of the morning she could be as good as anyone else. She very much doubted it on realistic level but in a dream world it was totally possible. Maybe she'd even be able to make a new friend today.

Walking further onto the lesson area Serena came to notice the body ahead. It was Andrew Deverde, he was in her year but a Ravenclaw. She'd had a few lessons with him but she'd never really talked to him, she'd never really talked to anyone as she tended to just keep to herself and get on with her work and reading as many books as possible. She doubted if Andrew, or Drew as she had heard he'd liked to be called, would even know her name, most people didn't, only the girls she shared a dorm with. Serena really was more of a shadow sometimes.

"Hello." She called quietly. She was probably too far away for him to hear her. Her soft Irish accent never carried across distances very well and never if there was even the slightest wind so she got closer and tried calling out again only louder. "Hello." This time she surprised herself a little, she was plenty louder and didn't realise she had it in her. She blushed a little but kept walking, looking towards the ground as she tried to calm herself down with some slow, deep breaths.

"I'm sorry to bother you." Serena stopped walking as she was pretty close to Drew now and she'd stopped yelling too, even though she had never really been yelling. Just sort of talking quite loudly. "I was just going to practice flying. I'm not very good at it so I'll try not to get in your way, if that's ok with you." Serena got a little bit chattier when she was nervous and felt as though she had to explain everything to everyone that she would be in close proximity to and in this instance it was Drew.

[giovannella]

They were ignoring him! The stuck up little brats where sitting there and ignoring his very obvious glare. It wasn't like they could miss understand his expression, if he had a mirror on him to look in he knew he'd find his face would show his request clearly 'Please-for-the-love-of-magic-burn-all-the-brooms'
Or maybe they did understand and had just chosen to ignore the request. Now that he thought about it they did look like quidditch fanatics; squinting at the distant group Drew thought he could make out a pile of sports magazines around the group where they had made themselves comfortable on the grass. 'At least some of us are comfortable' He grumbled; shifting on his feet slightly; he had been there for 2 hours after all and the crazed flying instructor showed no intention of letting him go anytime soon.
Shifting his gaze to glare up at the Professor who now appeared to be practicing dives Andrew would like to point out at this moment that he did not in fact jump and hold in a scream of shock at the sudden arrival of another 6th year student, he just choose at that moment to move positions by jumping and happened to be holding his breath at the time.

His view of the diving professor was hindered by the arrival of another person, a girl to be exact. Not bothering to smile he turned to glare down at the girl as she approached. He wasn't really in the mood to be polite right now, he was tired and his fingers where starting to go numb even with warming charms over every inch of him. "Does it look like I would care if you practiced here" He snapped, gesturing toward the broom at his feet he resisted the urge to roll it toward the other with the toe of his boots; he didn't want to teach the thing at all and that included his clothing and footwear "By all means take my broom with you" He glanced down to glare at the wood, it was in the same place it had been since he had arrived, along with its innocent expression and it's... '1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17...seventeen twigs left in its tail...bush?

....along with its innocent expression and its 17 twigs that the thing had the insult to call a tail. The insult was felt by other brooms Drew was sure.
"In fact why don't you take ALL the brooms with you, your flying over the lake right?" He looked over the girl, just to make sure he didn't know her because it wouldn't do for someone who knew him to see him having a fit over a broom "I would invite you for butterbeer should you drop them over the lake on your way back" As he finished a bright smile spread itself accross Andrew's face as he thought of the sure anguish the flying instructor would feel if the girl came though. If it was anything to what she did when Andrew set fire to the brooms last year it would be amusing to watch as long as the girl had someone to hid behind that wasn't him.

[serena]

The reception she received was not very nice, not at all. Andrew seemed to e one of the rudest people she'd come across in quite sometime and now she remembered the reason why she barely talked to anyone, especially boys, they could all just be so rude and hurtful for no reason at all. What reason did Drew really have to be so snappy at her. The first years were having their lesson with the flying teacher a little way off but that was no need to be so grumpy. It wasn't her fault the pitch and the lesson field were both taken.

Drew seemed to be having a hissy fit that she had caught the end of. He mentioned something about her taking the brooms and the dropping them in the lake. Serena was ever so confused by Drew. She knew that some Ravenclaw's were eccentric but this Drew fellow just seemed down right bi-polar she thought as he then proceeded to smile at her. Serena was confused beyond all belief and was temporarily frozen to her spot with no clue of what to do in regards to a response to this boy that was causing a fuss over brooms and flying. And she thought she had issues with flying? Clearly this boy had far more than she did.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you." She said as she took a step back to get a little bit further away from Drew. "I'll just leave. You seem a little crazy." She said truthfully for she was not a liar and didn't really have the common sense to hold back a comment like that. Serena was smart at some things but not with socialising and especially not with socialising with people that seemed really quite insane.

[giovannella]

The smile fell of his face like humpty dumpty fell off the wall but that wasn't really on his list of things to care about right now, he had just been called insane! If there was one thing he couldn't stand; after being told he looked effeminate that is, it was being told that he was insane. He didn't mind it so much off the people who knew him since it was agreed that most people with an IQ above that of a dolphin (which he had) had to be a little insane; it was the fact that he was being called insane by someone he didn't know!
"Excuse you" He snapped, stepping forward toward the smaller girl 'and away from the broom!'
"Who are you to call me insane, you know nothing about me" He glared down at the girl, his earlier idea of her helping in to destroy the schools supply of brooms by drowning them in the lake forgotten as he felt his temper raise; he was never usually so quick to anger, in fact he was never one to be angry he didn't think the emotion suited his face, besides anger was so messy and for someone like Drew, who liked to e clean and neat that was enough to keep him off the emotion.

"In any case are you not the one here to 'practice flying'" he sneered as he quoted her words back at her "In my view that makes you the insane one" He pointed out as he moved another step closer so he could glare down at the girl who had pushing herself into his life and then after only a minute had the gal to insult him "Being wiling to go up in the air with only a stick to keep you there is insane" He sniffed as he used his slight height advantage to look down at the girl.
As odd as it was for Drew to feel anger what was even stranger was that he voiced that anger. He wasn't sure why but he felt the need to engage this girl in an argument. Mayb it was his subconscious, he had noticed it pointed out that the closer he got the the girl the further away the broom got but that wasn't really the issue, this was a matter of pride. Manly pride and everyone knows the lengths taken to protect that.

[serena]

Serena was really quite scared now and had wished she had never said anything. Having talked to Kat and Remus had brought her out of her shell a little but now she was wishing she hadn't been so confident as she had no idea how to handle such absurd interactions with her classmates (even though they weren't actually in a class as such right now, the first years were).

Serena took another little step back as the boy towered over her. She had never really seen this side of anyone before and she hadn't really expected it from Drew but she didn't know him on a personal level so what did she expect really? Whatever she had been expecting Serena was pretty sure that this had not been it.

Serena felt all sorts of emotions stir inside of her as the boy stepped up closer to her again. He really was quite tall she thought as she seemed to shrivel. Feeling threatened quite a bit Serena wondered how quickly she could reach her wand and maybe curse him before giving her time to run away but she had never cursed anyone before and wasn't really sure if she could actually do it but her mind was telling her she had to do something. Fight or flight. Those were her options and as her brain and her emotions got the better of her with this boy she barely knew at all standing over her and scaring her to hell, Serena just did what came naturally. She cried.

Placing her hands to her face Serena buried her face into her hands. She was actually scared for her life and it was now that she noticed her body was shaking and yet completely unable to move. She wanted to just take off and run but she wasn't able to due to the lead that seemed to have appeared in her legs. Not sure what to do now the Hufflepuff just stayed where she was and hoped the professor would come over soon before she was killed by this bi-polar psychopath.