Not Romantic I Swear! PV Closed

Unmoving in the pouring rain she watched the Prefect. She did not understand what he was doing or what his fascination was with the leather sphere that occupied him. She was studying how he moved, especially on the slick terrain. The rain made it harder for the former Head Boy to hide to lie. The water weighed down not only his hair but also his clothes, they clung to him and she tried to memorize his shape. Had it not been obvious from the start that the young woman was mad, perhaps even a sociopath one would think her focused gaze had a shade of lust. There was no desire for a one Reid Kovacs, not the romantic kind at the very least. However one could say that there was a physical desire for him.

Her heart hastened when Kovacs noticed her, she could tell that her intent gaze gave him pause. Was she afraid? No, she was excited. Erin was after all fearless, despite the irony found in the fact that her actions that drove her to this moment were founded in a paranoid fear. Being fearless for Erin was not a lack of fear to start with, it was exhausting that very fear and using it as fuel to propel her insane form of justice. 

She was no Ravenclaw so she did not have a plan. As Reid trudged through the muck in her direction, Erin combed her fingers from her brow back to pull her soaked hair away from her face and broke away from the pillar her back had rested against. She had been there for some time, it was the only part of her that was dry. The shock of a cold stream of water down the valley of her spine gave her a chilled shudder that was betrayed for but a moment in her expression. She stepped towards the approaching Hufflepuff Beater.

"Are you looking for something?"

She eyed him, his expression down to his muddied shoes. There was a definition to his form that distance failed to translate. She knew people better than she knew math, studies or convoluted plans. His face had changed over the summer, he looked older. His form broader than she recalled. His features, symmetrical. "I think you know what I am after, Prefect," Erin replied with a sharp tone as she moved closer. He was likely taller than her, this was when most boys started to spurt past the girls but even if they were not evenly matched size was of minimal importance. After all, she was confident he was death witch rather than a midget giant after Max Avery admitted that he and Eris were both death witches.

"I have been watching your kind for so long..." she exhaled as she diverted her course if she had nearly reached arm's length to circle around him. He could turn, never allow her to leave his line of sight. That would be smart and something he could be successful in, she was not moving particularly fast. There was confidence in the way she held herself, the words she had chosen. "Wondered what you are... What made you so special..." She nearly spat out the words as they escaped her pale lips. "Noticed how a mud-blood such as yourself, hardly exceptional..." She would have made a full circle by this point, had he not turned she would simply look, not touch the young athlete. She was sizing him up.  "Yet a Prefect his first year, then Head Boy by some dangerous omission of logic and now a Prefect once more," she cocked her head to the side like a curious bird. Perhaps viewing him from a different angle would allow her to glean some truth she had overlooked.

"Friend of Ben Eckenrode..." She took a step towards him, finally within melee.

"Complicit if not guilty in the gluttonous tendencies of your Peers." Another step, well within Reid's personal space. Close enough that she could smell him had he not been soaked with rain. Despite this, Reid would smell something strange in the air. It was not awful and it came from Erin, it smelled like she sat too close to a campfire. This hickory wood and ash scent would seem to fill the air.  

She would try to deck Reid with her left arm (her weak arm), presuming he would block as to leave an opening for her right to swing around from the outside and attempt to clock him. Would he be able to determine her plan, if he had gotten into enough fights as a kid it was likely intuitive. Her feet were wrong for her to be sucker punching him on the same side as her lead foot, there was no weight or leverage behind it. Of course this was a risky move for Erin as well, she would be temporarily off balance as she attempted to pretend to land a strike on her left. Her weight would be shifted forward rather than back to make that obvious attack and for just a moment she would be vulnerable as she shifted back to her posteriorly placed leg.

Had she played or even seen American football, she might understand what Kovacs was doing as he rose with a hunkered posture. His weight lower and his center of balance slightly forward. She saw the posture change but it made no sense, to fortify against her attack by becoming an immobile--

He was moving towards her. Her eyes widened, what was he doing? He out-weighed her, in a contest of weight coupled with locomotive force, the Hufflepuff Prefect would be the victor. Erin had too choice -- attempt to evade or stand her ground and allow this to devolve into a contest of strength. She should have chosen the later, in a moment of erroneous judgement she faltered. yes, Reid was heavier than her, he was a moving object whereas she was a still object, but she was just as strong as the third-year and had she simply struck him in transit she might have derailed his less than glamorous tackle. 

Erin moved to the right, Reid's left. Most people were right handed and he would be at a deficit on his  opposite side she reasoned. She was caught off-balance, off guard. He would hit her in the lower ribs with his shoulder, she could have sworn she heard a *crack*. His left arm did not extend like she expected, everything would stay close and compact in football. It would not only be foolish but also dangerous to extend a limb - that is how arms are broken and shoulders are dislocated. 

OOF!

The air left her lungs in a single large release. The left arm, not wrapping around but finding the curve of the waist to rest on as he knocked her back. Erin's feet slid back over the slick earth several feet before she lost her balance and was knocked back. She did not try to save herself from the fall, it would have been an exercise in futility. Rather, once her footing was lost Erin would bring her knee up. Her aim was for the jewels but considering his pose and the frenzied act itself it was more likely to hit him in the gut. 

She would hit the ground, hard. The grass and sponge-like earth would give way some to cushion her fall. She was already soaking wet from the rain but the mud to her back felt as if it was oozing its way inside her clothes. Kovacs on top, every girl's dream less Erin. He did not even feel warm. It was like an angry block of ice was on top of her. 

She only had a second before the Prefect would get his bearings. Her best chance was to get some leverage. Her left leg would attempt to wrap around Reid. The rain pelted her in the face. Her right would attempt to bend at the knee. The point right now was to prevent him from pinning her. Her muddied right hand would reach up and attempt to push him up and off as she rolled to the left. Yes, the goal was to get on top of Reid. The other coveted position among the girls (and some of the guys) in Hogwarts for ahem... other reasons.  

"Would have thought a death witch used a wand at least," she huffed from either on top or below Kovacs. Regardless of the position, winded and covered in mud and rain. She looked both beautiful and terrible at the same time, like a D rated horror movie where all of the zombies were cheerleaders. "How did a guy like you end up with the likes of them?" Erin's line of questioning likely made no sense to Reid, just the ramblings of a maddened school bully.

His hand curled around her twig thin wrist. It was nothing short of astonishing that the small girl was as powerful as she was. It was one part panic, that adrenaline surging through her as she fought for her life and one part anger towards the unfortunately Hufflepuff that she had become certain was a part of, if not the leader of some nefarious plot. The students were disappearing, it was not as if she had not noticed all this time, but rather she did not care until it effected her and what was hers. She tried to overpower the boy, using her weight to aide her endeavor but the young wizard tensed his arms and she lacked the power to simply overwhelm him, unlike most students her age.

"You're fucking strong," she complained, but still weaker than Healy or Lowe. Most wizards here in Hogwarts were made of wet paper. That was what happens when they spend their life and time refining their magic rather than their body. That was not the case with Kovacs. She tried to hit him again, but his grip despite the slick, cold falling rain held tight. 

"You're mad! I don't know what the hell you're talking about!"

"Liar!" She hissed as she shook her head like a wet mongrel. Rivers of rain ran down the sides of her face and soaked her long, dark hair.

"I'm not a Death Witch, whatever that is! I'm not even a witch, I'm a wizard. So you can get off me and leave me alone!"

"That's exactly what a death witch would say!" She cried. "I will get off... I will stop when you give me back my friend or his bones," she demanded. She assumed @Thomas LeStrange was dead, it has been more than six months since she last heard from him. More than six months since he disappeared without a word, a reason or a farewell. Like all the rest. "I am not fucking playing!" She shouted. She was a good actress if this was all a game. She tried again to pull her wrists free, she was stuck. "I could care less whatever you masterminded with the giants. I don't care about your deals... your damn ambitions... Quinn ate my fucking friend and I want his bones or I will spend every waking moment making your life miserable." It was a threat she was making good on right now. Reid likely did not care much for the cracked Slytherin, he did not deserve her wrath but he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time far too many times.

The rain pounded on her back. Her knees dug into the mud. She hardly even noticed the cold any longer. Her weight was concentrated on her knees and hips as she tried to pull her arms free. His vice-like grip tightened as she tried to pull her arms free. 

"I don't know who the hell told you about any plan or Quinn eating anyone!"

He claimed. He was not denying it. "Maxwell Avery," she obviously did not know 'Max' very well. She tried to pull her arms free again, almost knocking herself off the Hufflepuff. She held her stance with the grip of her thighs. "...and Fawley" what was the midget's first name? "...Erica?" There was the inflection of a question. She had no reason to protect either of them. "The old midget Prefect," but she was able to clearly describe her in so few words.

She yanked again, not that she would get her arm free or fall over. Reid had a good grip of her arms, his life somewhat depended on it. "They told me what you were and it is not like I have not confronted your damn partner Quinn," she was crazy but she was not lying. "Just give me Thomas and you can be on your fucking way!" She wanted his bones as morbid as that sounded. The girl sounded mad but she had names. 

"You're mental, goddamn mental. You attack me for no reason, you attacked Ben for no reason, get away from me."

BEN. He had to bring up Ben...

No Reason? NO FUCKING REASON! That was rich. "You don't fucking believe your own bullshit," Erin grunted. "Ben was screwed up, terrorized the school for the better part of the year," a fact made public after he was discovered. Not that Erin was an angel but at least she owned her actions. "After he was caught, people like you just accepted he was what... all better now?" People don't just change suddenly, it takes time and effort. She stubbornly tried to overpower Reid, leaning herself forward onto her arms in hope that the leverage would be enough push or pull herself free.

It would work, but not the way she had intended. 

This was Reid's opportunity, not hers.

"Get OFF!"

He relinquished his grip on her arms and knocked out one of her legs. His escape attempt left the unbalanced part-Veela face-down in the mud. A splosh of water muffled the agitated yell that escaped the girl. 

Reid had rolled away, looking like something that might have been titled it came from the swamp. Erin hurried to her feet while Reid stood on his. She would wipe the mud from her face with the back of her hand which was also covered in mud. She was caked in earth. She took a few deep breaths through her mouth. She got a taste of mud when she did so. 

"They told me what you are," she reiterated, her chest heaving. She was winded. She did not care enough to scrape away the thick player of frigid mud that the rain was slowly washing away. "Why are you protecting the giant?" She did not even call Quinn a part-giant, she only saw the giant. "Why were you protecting Ben!" There was no good reason he could come up with that would settle her madness. "In fact, where the hell did he go? He's gone again isn't he?" She tensed herself and readied herself in case he tried to attack. She actually believed the sermon she was spouting. "Back to his old tricks? Or playing the bullshit role of the victim again?" 

Nobody ever seemed to address or even notice when a kid disappeared. "Thought you two were friends?" She shook her head. Friendship was cheap. People made friends too easily and called people they hardly knew or cared for friends. For someone like her, they were rare. People just did not make friends with her, choose to be around her. They did not call her a 'friend'. Maybe it meant something different to her, a girl that hardly seemed sentimental. "People hardly ever believe the words that they say. Mean it either," she admitted. 

She moved onto Ben because she was curious. Where did he go? Did Reid know? Did he even care? Was Ben ultimately a victim of his own bullshit? "Would love to get my hands on him..." She smile she made through a veil of mud almost looked perverse. "But I will settle for you."