Beginning of the Future PV Anastasia B. Closed

Anastasia Beckett was more than over school. Maybe she would just quit and play Quidditch forever. That was the plan for after school anyway, so she hardly saw the point of continuing with school at this point. Alright, that wasn't fully true since she did like seeing her friends, and was quite good at school and moreover, knew that she'd need it to become an Auror later on. Still, at this point in time, dropping out was seeming like an amazing option.

She was far behind, which was very unlike Ana, as a result of missing several months of school due to her family's travels. She had enjoyed the traveling, really she had. She had loved being new places and had learned a new language. She just wasn't convinced that they had needed to take place during school. Her parents were though, and now the girl was stuck playing catch up on months worth of assignments. Sure, she'd had a tutor with her which meant that she could in fact do every spell her classmates could, but the teachers hadn't been convinced, and her parents hadn't been able to reach Headmaster Lear to get everything sorted out.

Her long dark hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and the girl was wearing her flying robes from home. The dark grey with green accents irritated her, but they were her robes and she wasn't about to let her parents being pushy jerks about her not being in Slytherin ruin that for her. She made a mental note to change that as soon as she learned that one spell in Transfiguration, but for the moment, this would have to do.

Carrying her Nimbus at her side, she approached the training pitch. God, she loved flying. Sure, it was dangerous, but the rush that she felt was more than worth it. Almost as good as the rush that she had when she'd jumped off the owlery. Alrighty, she had been relatively safe when she'd jumped, or as safe as someone leaping off a high building, but it had been amazing. If there wasn't such a strong chance of her getting in trouble or dying, she would do it every day. It was better than coffee or sugar or anything. She'd felt wide awake for days after.

Still, she was going to need to behave fairly well around Søren. She liked him and all, but she couldn't risk him mentioning anything to his parents and having her parents find out about her antics at Hogwarts. Still, she enjoyed his company well enough, and the two hadn't seen each other in a while.

"Lovely to see you! Søren, how are you, love?" she said brightly, unable to resist smiling at the boy's sunny nature. The term love was something that Ana had picked up when they were in France, and had kept because her parents had hated it and said that it was inappropriate and informal. Fast forward several months, and the Gryffidnro had taken to calling pretty much everyone "love". People's reactions were always different and always hilarious to Ana.

Grinning as Anastasia approached him, Søren chuckled at the girl’s use of the word ‘love’.

“That’s new,” he mused, “Where’d you learn that word? It makes you sound like a true Londoner,” he laughed. It was the type of word that the older folks would use when they saw him at parties or banquets. It was always “Søren, love” or something similar, usually when they wanted something or felt like prying into his family’s life. It sounded different coming from Anastasia, though. Kinder and less intrusive.

Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he skipped around Anastasia, unable to hide his excitement for the day’s activity. “So how were your travels? I mean, your letters were great and all but I would love to hear about it from you. Where did you go? What was your favorite place? Did you learn a new language? I wish I could learn a new language. Actually, I should learn –.” Catching himself, he stopped rambling and rubbed the back of his neck, scoffing at himself. “Sorry. I guess I’m a bit hyped about today. Or maybe it’s the coffee. I think I put too much sugar in it this morning.”

Picking up the school broom that he had tossed to the side on spotting the brunette, Søren brandished it with a smirk. “Paid a lot of money for this girl. Think she’ll give me an advantage out there?” he joked. “So, what are we starting with? Parkin’s Pincer? Hawkshead? Alley Oop?... I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I?”

@Anastasia Beckett

Ana laughed lightly at her friend's words. He had always been more exuberant than her.

"Picked it up from this friend of mine in Paris last summer," Ana said with a grin. She wasn't sure friend was exactly the right world for the French boy, but she wasn't sure exactly what else to call him. They'd nearly kissed the day before she'd left, but she wasn't certain that she liked him that way. Not that it mattered much seeing as they hadn't seen one another or spoken since then. It was really just as well, she supposed. In any event, she'd rather liked his habit and had tried it out herself

"Good Lord, how much coffee have you had? And there's really no such thing as too much sugar," Ana said teasingly in reply to his energetic cascade of questions. She was obsessed with coffee in a way that was more than likely deeply unhealthy, but that was an entire other problem. "Travels were amazing, but I'm so glad to finally be back here. Went to France, Italy, Germany, China, India, the States, Russia, and a few others I can't think of. France is always going to be my favorite, no matter where else I go. As for languages, I'm finally fully fluent in Italian, and I like to think getting there with Chinese. I'm working on Russian at the moment, but it's a bit harder. And if you're going to learn a language, learn French. It's pretty easy, seeing as I've been speaking it since I was a toddler, she told him, her voice speeding up to match his enthusiasm. It was just infectious.

She laughed at his implication that the school broom was anything more than a glorified stick. It was really rather sad that the school brooms were so pathetic. "Let's maybe start with something a tad simpler," she said, grinning. "Let's see what you've learned so far in flying class."

At the mention of Paris, Søren ‘ooh’ed. He had been there only once before and barely had time to make friends the way Ana probably had. No matter how much benefits came with being a part of the Silverwood family, he often wondered what it would be like to have his own schedule, travelling to new countries and becoming friends with people from all walks of life. It was likely that Ana had her own restrictions on her trip, but he was happy that she enjoyed herself and made friends in lieu of his restrictions to do the same.

His grin widened at the mention of coffee. He knew she loved the beverage just as much as he did, though, he did have concerns for what being ‘addicted’ to a drink that caffeinated would do to them in the long run. Who cares, anyways? He was here for a good time, right? “You know how I am. I guess I got too excited. Downed two cups,” he chuckled guiltily, “Y’know, I used to have those same opinions about sugar, but after this morning, I think we’re wrong. I can just imagine myself crashing later.” He knew it wasn’t healthy either, but refrained from mentioning as much.

Ana’s voice sped up as she spoke about her life on the road. He wanted to ask her how much coffee she consumed prior to their meeting, but he could barely get a word in. A solemn feeling worked its way up his body. He could only imagine what it would feel like to be that enthusiastic about something. All he ever did at home was network and study. It was getting boring rather quickly. He wished he could do what he wanted, travel where he wanted and make friends with people from all walks of life. But all these things were difficult with his family involved. Her mention of new languages deepened the feeling. Ana probably learned new languages for her own personal fulfilment. If he were to set aside time to do something like that, it would be at the request of his parents so he could network better.

“I’m happy that you enjoyed it, Ana. You deserve it,” he placed a gloved hand on her shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze. “I think I’ll take up French,” he said assuredly, but knew that he would barely have time to squeeze in even five vocabulary words in a day.

With the conversation back on Quidditch, Søren sighed. “Not much, truthfully. All Bercegeay and Jemari seem to think I’m capable of is ‘learning the basics of flying’ and ‘how brooms were developed’. Bunch of dragon bogies if you ask me,” he grumbled, using air quotes and saying the quoted words in a mocking tone. “But I’ve read a lot, though. I know that can’t substitute for practice in the presence of an adult, but I’m desperate here. I need to make the team,” he begged, the pitch in his voice becoming higher.

@Anastasia Beckett

Ana laughed at him downing two cups. Poor thing, thinking that was a lot. "Amateur,I have three before breakfast and too many more during the day," Ana laughed. "Don't worry, you'll learn the ways of the coffee master before you graduate." Grinning, she laughed at his comment about the sugar. Sugar crashes were impossible if you kept inhaling sugar. Ana had discovered that one Christmas week. Of course, she'd vomited later on, but it had been such a rush. Anyway, Ana wasn't trying to live forever. Her motto was "Live fast, die young, leave a pretty corpse."

Søren's reaction to her chatter about her travels made her smile. In many ways, he had a lot more freedom than her, in that it seemed to her like his parents somewhat trusted him to make small choices about his own life. Ana's parents didn't trust her with anything, and as a result, she made absolutely terrible decisions anytime anything was at all up to her. Granted, that might have something that factored in to their micromanaging of her life, but how was she expected to be able to decide anything when they tried to force their will onto every single aspect of her life?

Sure, Søren didn't travel like she did, and his family had their own problems, but it seemed to her like they were at least trying to prepare him to do something meaningful with his life. Ana was constantly reminded that her parents really didn't want her doing much more than marrying well and popping out a pureblood baby or two to continue the Beckett line. Maybe have some small short career as a healer or something acceptable, but nothing like what she wanted.

"You ought to, it's quite easy to learn," Ana said in reply to his comment about French. "I picked it up when I was younger, or my parents made me, but it's still easy. " She somewhat doubted that he would. Languages were rather boring if one didn't have a meaningful and immediate reason to learn them. For example, she had learned Italian because she wanted to be able to access amazing yummy food, or Russian because she was in Russia and also because there was a Russian novel that she had wanted to read.

"Oh, you need to make the team?" she teased, her voice raising in pitch to match his. "I might say one needs to eat or drink coffee, but if you need to make a team..." She burst into giggles before continuing. "I'm teasing, Quidditch is 100% a need. Let's see you call your broom and kick off and go from there."

She herself wasn't on the Quidditch team, mostly because she had been gone when tryouts had happened and now was too buried in school to ask about getting to try out late or anything, but she was determined to make the team next year, and there was some saying that the best way to master something was to teach it to someone else and that was exactly what she was going to do.

“Wow, we got a badass over here, huh?” Søren laughed in defeat. He wasn’t sure if he should be egging on a potential addiction, but he knew how much coffee helped him out during the day and he really had no right to request for Ana to cut back. Still, though, three cups before the day even started sounded harrowing and he wasn’t sure he actually wanted to learn from the coffee master. He would surely pretend of course, as the few moments with Ana so far had reminded him how of much he enjoyed her company when they were younger. If he had to pretend to guzzle coffee like a maniac, so be it.

“Hmm, guess I should ask you to help me out with French then? But I wouldn’t want to take away even more of your time. I bet you’re popular and all,” he sighed. Ana could be a handful sometimes, but he was sure the second year had more friends than she could count. She was the kind of person that was easy to get along with, from his point of view at least. “And yes, I need to make the team. It’s all I’ve been dreaming about since… since forever,” he fretted, unsure of when he decided that Quidditch was the only path he could see himself taking for the future.

As he mumbled about how much the sport meant to him, Søren followed Ana’s instructions, placing his broom onto the ground at his side. Reaching out, he gave a firm, “Up!” and the broom sailed up into his open palm. Of course, he would never tell Ana the absolute hell that the broom gave him in his first flying class, refusing to even budge unless it was to knock him in the face. Thankfully, that embarrassment had him practicing day and night until he could take to the skies with the ease of a seasoned player. He wasn’t quite there yet, but in front of Ana, he kicked off from the ground as any other first year would, hovering just a few feet from his former position.

The rush of adrenaline he felt as his feet lost their stable surface was a feeling that never got old. He rose even higher, stopping before he reached an altitude that would cause Ana to scold him. Grinning as the girl’s figure became smaller, he called down to her. “Done! What now?!”.

@Anastasia Beckett

Ana chuckled at the badass comment. She was sure there were people at school that would agree, although she doubted it was due to her massive caffeine consumption. It probably had a bit more to do with her bullying of first years and the handful of people that she had accidentally set on fire. And also probably the random transfigurations went wrong that she had chased down the halls. Or the jumping off the owlery. She supposed that Søren thinking that because of her coffee habits was really for the best.

She grinned and winked at his comment about the French. "Aw, of course, I always have time for you, Søren," she said brightly. She tried not to laugh at his comment about her popularity. While she certainly had a few good friends, she wasn't popular by any means. Between her quick temper and the fact that she'd been gone for so much of the year, she either didn't know or was loathed by most of the younger students. It was a pity since she thought she was quite lovely company, but then again, so many of the first years were whiny little brats that Ana couldn't tolerate, so maybe it was just as well.

"Great minds and all that," she told him. Quidditch really was life. Ana had never doubted that she was going to play professionally when she grew up. Her stupid parents and traveling meant that she wasn't on the team yet, but she had little anxiety about actually making the team next year. Quidditch was pretty much the only constant in her life and, in her mind, it was the sole reason she was put on this planet. Sure, she was brilliant in school, which meant she would have all sorts of options once her Quidditch career was over, but Quidditch was everything.

Søren kicked off with the skill and ease that came with either natural skill or a crapload of practice. He went decently high for a first-year and had a sane amount of caution. Allegedly, caution was a good thing, especially for flying, and Ana knew that her complete lack of fear had caused her mother no small amount of worry when she'd been starting out. "Decent!" she called to her friend as he hovered and looked down at her. "Let's see you come down safely before anything else. I'd hate to get you flying circles around me and then find out you can't get down." Ana's teaching style was something between "tough love" and "insane Dance moms lady", but Søren hopefully knew her well enough not to be completely traumatized or anything. Mounting her own broom and kicking off, she hovered around the same altitude that Søren had been to watch as he fulfilled her instructions.

Søren smiled at Ana’s assurance. He took solace in the fact that he would always have a friend in her. The year hadn’t been going his way so far. He had no close friends to speak of, only ones he sat next to in class and cheated off. His grades were poor and he was going to return home to his boring family instead of joining the famous Hogwarts summer camp. At least Ana would be ever-present and she definitely put a smile on his face. Her and Quidditch, of course.

He waited as she made her way up to his altitude and then crossed his arms and gave her an annoyed look. “Decent? I think you mean magnificent. I was magnificent, jaw-dropping, exceptional. I take offense to decent.” He pouted at her then broke into a smile. “And I hate to break it to you, but I’ll be flying circles around you in any case.”

Laughing, he sailed downwards at a moderate speed until his feet hit the ground, after which he looked up at Ana with a mischievous grin and kicked off with more strength than was needed. As he sped towards her floating figure, he completed a barrel roll. The move and speed filled him with adrenaline and he could only imagine what it would feel like to be in an actual stadium, having people chant his name as he hurtled towards a goal hoop. The thought filled him with a burning desire to make it real.

Reaching Ana, he came to a stop across from her and slid down into a Sloth Grip Roll. “See?” he said as he angled a toothy smile at her inverted silhouette until he could feel the blood rushing to his head. His first attempt to right himself did not go as planned. He was a strong kid, sure, but working around a thin broom stick was difficult. He tried again and made it to an upright position, but it wasn’t pretty. Trying suppress the heavy breathing and the rose colour spreading across his face, he shook his head. “Ignore that, will you? Like, let’s never speak of that again.”

@Anastasia Beckett

@Søren Silverwood

Ana wrinkled her nose and pressed her lips together when her friend proclaimed his flying to be magnificent before laughing slightly. "Love, 'decent' is generous, you have a long way to go to 'magnificent'," she laughed before sticking out her tongue. "And far longer than that til you're flying circle around me. Dare to dream though."

She watched as he flew downwards and landed successfully. That was promising since when she'd first learned to fly, she had kicked off as hard as she could and then been stuck since she had no idea how to get down. The young girl had thought the event to be loads of fun, but her mother had been rather traumatized by the whole incident and had made sure Ana was excellent at landing before her next actual flying lesson.

He launched himself back towards her and did a better than decent barrel roll as he zoomed upwards. She arched an eyebrow slightly as he neared and inverted himself into a Sloth Grip Roll. He seemed rather proud, and even she had to admit it was pretty good until he began to wiggle and flop about trying to upright himself. "Oh, that was magnificent, Søren," she said between peals of laughter. "More than magnificent, it was pure perfection, I think the Slytherin team ought to just add you to their roster now."

She managed to stop laughing long enough for him to try again. He was successful this time, but it was rather ugly and she couldn't hold back another round of cackles. She laughed so hard that she was flipped over into the position her companion had just barely escaped from. After a bit, she managed to stop laughing long enough to upright herself in one smooth motion. "Never speak of that again? Not a chance," she said, her cheeks red from the laughter and also likely the blood that had rushed to her brain when she was upside down. "When you're a big and famous professional Quidditch star, I'm going to get a portrait of this exact moment painted."