A Race! closed

"You’re letting me plot the course?! Ok... umm... how about around the entire school!"

Mardella felt a grin overtaking her face. She'd never even walked around the whole school, let alone flown - "Sounds like fun!" She agreed.

"The rules for this race should stand as follows. Rule #1, Safety first, and the race will be canceled or post-poned if either of us gets hurt. Rule #2, No wand work except if it is a life or death situation, which it shouldn’t be. Rule #3, Have fun and do not get caught!Also, you can start us off, like with a ‘READY’, ‘SET’, ‘GO’, type of thing... I mean it’s your choice...”

"Looks like you've thought it out," She chuckled, before loosening one hand from around the broomstick and stuck it inbetween them. "Shake on it?" Mardella grasped his hand, shaking it up or down once or twice cheekily before letting go.

Placing her hands securely around her broom, she poised herself to start. Glancing one last time at Gabriel to check he was prepared, she declared, "Loser has to...answer any question honestly! Ready, set, go!"

And then she lent down hard against the broom and was off! The grass was a green blur beneath her, the Great Lake out of the corner of her eye only a smudge as her hair and robes streamed behind her. She darted around two black blobs she faintly registered as other flyers before she was across the open lawn and the high walls and battlements of the school were in sight.

Gabriel watched as Mardella quickly flew almost out of view. "Hey Wait up!" Gabriel yelled, but the wind blew his words away before Mardella could even hear them. Ugh., he muttered to himself, and then he was off!

Gabriel streaked left and then 'bounced' right as he tried desperately to evade the sudden draft of cold winter-like wind. Mardella was halfway to the school and he was not even halfway across the open lawn that separated the main 'campus' from the Quidditch Pitch. The view was outstanding, even compared to the one in the drafty Owlery. He saw bright streaks as the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team practiced out on the Quidditch Practice Pitch, and then he continued looking forwards, desperately trying to locate the blur that was Mardella. IT WAS NOT EASY!

Suddenly, to his left, Gabriel spotted something brownish-gray and it looked like an owl. It was not just any owl, it was his Brother's. It was flying fast, surprisingly fast. Fast enough to intercept and maybe even ram into him as it delivered the small letter that it had within its talons. As Gabriel would later say, the owl rammed into him, but this was not the case as Gabriel himself had rammed into the poor bird. He grabbed the letter, managed to stuff it into one of the numerous hidden pockets within his robes, and continued at a much faster pace with only one goal in mind – to catch up with Mardella. Having passed the battlements, Gabriel felt a little better, but he knew that the real problems that he would no doubt encounter within the race would only come next.

Ha! She thought, feeling adrenaline swell in her chest as she gained a little more confidence on the broom. Mardella let out a peal of laughter freely at the startled shout Gabriel gave behind her. She was quite laying flat on the broom, more than worried that she wouldn't be able to control it at it's top speed but she'd already seen Gabriel fly, and he would no doubt be gaining on her soon.

She might be a little hesitant in the classroom, but when it came to being competitive outdoors... perhaps it shouldn't have been such a surprise to have been Sorted into the House of the Unruly after all!

"I'm win-ning," She sing-songed out, teasingly as she finally made it across the grounds to the familiar flagstones, archways and sloped roofs of the castle. Hogwarts itself was located on a high rock, elevated above the sprawling grounds and overlooking the black waters of the Lake, and in her quickly growing confidence, Mardella had forgotten the short but steep uphill slope to the castle walls. She let out a strained yelp, yanking hard on her broom.

Not quite close enough to crash, but she'd braked in her panic, breathing hard at having to slow so quickly and losing precious few seconds recovering at the base of the slope, that she knew Gabriel could be using to gain on her. Mardella grinned fiercely, she certainly wasn't going to let him win without a fight!

Gabriel watched with surprise as Mardella abruptly braked in front of him. To bad for her, he thought to himself. But he was extremely happy, because he was having tons of fun flying in the race and because he was gaining ground fast, fast enough to maybe even pass Mardella.

As she braked to a stop, Gabriel laughed. Quickly putting on a bit of speed, he smoothly soared past her while yelling for her to hear: “Woo-Hoo! I’m in the lead! Finally!” he took a sharp right turn at the first “mini-tower” and then continued on towards the astronomy tower that was looming in the distance but inching forwards every second.

In his glee, Gabriel forgot to watch out for any dangerous surroundings, and his broom managed to clip a statue, sending the broom and Gabriel (who was still on it) veering off to the left. The left was not part of the route of the race because it created a shortcut. He banked with a small barrel roll, and then continued forwards to the Astronomy Tower. However, by the time that he reached the Astronomy Tower, his smile changed to a look of determination as he glimpsed a blur moving his way. It was Mardella and she was catching up to him...

Mardella pulled on her broomstick, whirling the front around to orientate herself towards the castle once more. Shifting her weight, she darted forwards, stray locks of hair sticking to her forehead as she urged the broom faster up the slope to the castle.

"C'mon, Bram -C'mon!" She muttered, as the world blurred past, scanning the skies for her competitor. There! She took off, tucking her legs tightly below her and bringing her shoulders in, streamlining herself as she swooped through the air. Veering right with a quick jerk at her elbows, she sped past the low turrets, nearly skimming her feet on the parapets in her haste and fought the knee-jerk reaction to look down.

"Woo-Hoo! I’m in the lead! Finally!”

Heart throbbing in her ears and adrenaline thrumming in her veins, she almost missed his whoop as he soared in front of her. Despite herself, Mardella found she couldn't bite back the grin on her face as she chased after him towards the Astronomy Tower.

Suddenly, up ahead Gabriel seemed to hit off something, sending him disappearing off-course to the left and out of sight. On guard, she checked her surroundings for any sign of the blond Ravenclaw, but pushed on - yes! Now he would be the one who needed to catch up! She snickered as the shape of the Astronomy Tower loomed closer, a flag waving on the tip of it's roof merrily.

Almost as suddenly as he had disappeared, a black blur zoomed out from between two turrets a second or two ahead. This time Mardella did react, "Shortcut?!" she squawked as she caught up to his tail.

Shortcut!

“It’s not a shortcut! It’s a... a... fine it was a shortcut! But it’s not my fault that it happened I’m ridding on, he started to check his broom for a tag or a nameplate, searching frantically for a name while occasionally glancing upwards to see that he was still going forwards. Throughout this, Gabriel and the broom were zigzagging left and right in a smooth dance-like motion as he searched his broom for any sign of ownership, even for the Hogwarts seal. It’s..Its... a Cleansweep 5?! This broom is well known for unsafe flight! No wonder no ones ridden it or even cleaned it for years, it’s unrelaibly horrible! But it does surprisingly fly fast, and I am having fun... Gabriel yelled into the wind, hoping Mardella would bear at least part of it.

They had passed the Astronomy Tower, and were now flying towards the Griffindor Tower, with Gabriel hugging one of the closest walls as he sped forwards at a speed that he didn’t know of before. It was exhilaratingly amazing. Such fun, but also dangerous. Gabriel was understanding the reasons why his father did not let him ride a broom while he was growing up, he didn’t want him to get too hurt. Either way, Griffindor Tower was coming up...

Mardella chuckled freely into the wind as she caught Gabriel's rambling explanation, happy as she flew alongside him closely. Her brothers would love Quidditch! Even if they had to hold onto her as they flew, Tiordan would just explode in happiness she was sure - her heart felt full and warm. She wondered if Gabriel did any muggle sports, hmm... maybe not football, since you needed more than two people but...tennis? Could be fun.

Shaking her head with a wry upturn to her lips, she held herself close to the broom, eyes on the red flag fluttering above Gryffindor tower as it loomed ever closer. Just - a - little - faster! She willed her broom on, Gabriel mere inches ahead of her. The wind kept catching their robes, causing billows of black fabric behind them. Perhaps they should have shucked them off before racing?Maybe she'd thought extremely loud, and maybe magic worked in weird in-your-head shouts but the broom below her seemed to thrum with magic as the speed increased. Yes! Yes, she was totally going to overt-

"Merlin! GET DOWN FROM THERE! IMMEDIATELY!"

Mardella's eyes widened, just in time to catch the distant figure of an upper-year prefect leaning out the window, before both they were gone in a blur.

“Oh no! We have been seen!” Gabriel yelled! Mardella! Follow me! I think I know of a route that can take us back to the Quidditch Field without any more prefects yelling at us! Gabriel shouted towards Mardella.

Now Gabriel was quite infuriated at the prefect as he or she, he did not know which, had just abruptly ruined all of their peaceful fun. It's not as if they had set a chimera loose inside the corridors or had accidentally hurt someone, NO, they were just flying around the school! Oh what a difference it would be in life if the "regal" prefects would just all disappear, Gabriel thought to himself. 'But You MUST NOT wish harm of that level upon anyone, no matter what they have just done!' Gabriel reminded himself.

Gabriel turned around and with a spurt speed off into the intertwining towers of the Astronomy Tower and the Owlery. If they were to make it unseen, they had to get close to the ground and to the surrounding castle, which Gabriel did without a second thought. The only thought running through his head at the moment was: DO NOT GET CAUGHT! AND MAKE SURE MARDELLA DOESN'T EITHER!!!

With such cheerful thoughts in mind, Gabriel flew on, desperate to get to the Quidditch Field unseen and safely. And of course with Mardella still there, he reminded himself.