Flying Again closed

Olympia let the wind blow across her sunkissed cheeks. It really was a beautiful day. She was skipping her next class in favor of soaring high in the sky, something she'd dreamed of doing since she was a little kid. Letting a laugh escape her, she flew in a zig-zag with her eyes closed.

When she opened them, she nearly ran into someone dropping their next class as well. Oh. It was Maeve, from Potions. She didn't stop, only sped up, dodging the girl. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to Maeve, because she really had been a nice girl. It was the adrenaline. Olympia felt like if she stopped, she would fall out of the sky to her death rather than just hovering there.

Figuring it was probably rude to just zoom past, she turned around, heading towards Maeve.

"Hello again." A grin spreads across Olympia's face, something she'd been doing a lot of since she arrived here. They hadn't really socialized other than family life, so she was still curious. Mabe she'd talk to Russ and see if he'd seen her around. It would be nice to get some other information on her. Not in a creepy way. She was just curious.

"Hello, Olympia." Maeve said, a small smile on her own face. "Do you skip class to fly oft-often?" She teased gently, starting into a quuick dive and pulling up at the last second. She couldn't hear Olympia from over here, but maybe they didn't need to talk. Maybe flying would strengthen their budding friendship. Her sister, Dahlia, had told her that she could make friends by bonding over something they shared, something they both loved.

This seemed like one of those things.

"Race you to the quid-quidditch pitch!" Maeve called, flying so she was next to Olympia. "Three... two... one.... go!" She yelled, and they took off, neck and neck, both trying to beat the other to the pitch.

Maeve decided to use her brother's quidditch technique. Duck down closer to the broom, get higher up, and dive towards your target.

It seemed to be working well for Maeve, who was in the lead so far. She glanced down and her eyes found Olympia. Her body, however, found a tree.

"Oof!" She gasped, hitting it head-on. It wouldn't be a bad injury, just one that left her dazed. Maeve hadn't fallen off, thankfully, so she gently floated to the ground.

Olympia grinned as she raced ahead of Maeve. She laughed, knowing she had a pretty good chance at winning. Her and her siblings always played Quidditch at home, just like Maeve, and she was usally a first pick for teams. That is, if she wasn't the captain. Then her team was surefire to dominate and conquer.

Olympia's breathing stopped for a second as Maeve zoomed past her. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Was this girl really passing her? Sure, Olympia was good, but maybe not as good as she thought. She put her head down, thinking of a tactic to race ahead and take the lead. Once she looked up again, plan implanted in her brain, she couln't see Maeve anywhere. Confused, she came to a sudden halt, searching the skies.

Maeve most definitely wasn't in the sky, that was for sure. Maybe she was hiding in the trees, already racing forward. Maybe she'd already won. But Olympia couldn't find her anywhere, and she wouldn't feel right if that wasn't the case and she'd just left Maeve behind. Looking to the ground, she was barely able to make out two silhouettes. One of a broomstick, the other of a small girl. So that's where she'd went.

The descent was slow. Olympia was hurrying as fast as possible, without the risk of hurting herself on accident as well. Once her feet were firmly placed on the ground, she dropped her broomstick, rushing over to Maeve. "Are you alright?" Olympia offered a hand to help her up.

"What? Oh... um, I think so?" Maeve said, trying to stand up. She was dizzy, so decided to stay sitting for the time being. "I just hit the tree. Whoops. Total acci-accident." She laid down and caught her breath.

"Guess I shouldn't have ski-skipped charms." She laughed softly. Her head was throbbing painfully. "Oh, I... I am going to... to beat you... in that race..." Maeve murmured. She tried to remount her broom, but stumbled almost immediately.

"Or... or maybe I am going to sit down for a while..." Maeve said, as an afterthought. "Well, I guess you win by def-default." She laughed breathlessly.

She sat, dazed, and stared at the sky, trying to catch her breath. She was fine after a few minutes, and could stand up easily. Maeve eyed the broom warily. "I think... I think I'll be do-done for the day..." She murmured, more to herself than Olympia. She grabbed the broom. "Do you want to go to the kit-kitchens or something?" Maeve asked, shooting a grin in the Hufflepuff's direction. "We don't have to, but I am not ge-getti-getting back on that thing today." She started towards the broom shed, not checking to see if Olympia was following her.

"You're sure you're alright?" Olympia stood, brushing dirt off her robes. "And I so would've won anyways," she joked. Picking up her broom, she began to follow Maeve to the broom shed. She hadn't heard Maeve's question about going to the kitchens, and as she was thinking, she heard her ask it again.

"O-Oh. Yeah, sure. I'm sorry I didn't answer before. I guess I didn't hear you." She grinned, putting the broomstick back in its original place. Her stomach grumbled. "When's lunch?" Olympia rubbed her stomach, grimacing. She hadn't really eaten much for breakfast, and now she was regretting it. "Or dinner. I don't even know what time it is," she added, realizing that was the truth.

As she was walking out, her robes caught one of the broomsticks propped up against the wall, obviously by a student who was too lazy to put it back in its spot. The broom came tumbling down, creating dominoes with the others. A loud clatter filled the small space, causing Olympia to flinch. "I'm sorry. I can clean this up and meet you there if you want. It might take a little while, thought." She surveyed the mess. Dozens of brooms lay on the floor. She sighs, preparing herself for the cleanup.

"No, I can help. Lunch is after this class." Maeve said quickly, putting her broom up and starting to help Olympia with the rest.

"Did you skip bre-break-breakfast?" Maeve teased gently, rolling her eyes as she spoke. She could tell from the stomach rumble that the girl probably had. "I thought Hufflepuffs love food."

She nudged Olympia gently and giggle. "I'm kidding, I swear. You know, you're the first Hufflepuff I've spo-spoken to this year. Most of the others saw the robes and steered clear."

Maeve tripped over a broom, and suddenly more brooms started fallen as she stumbled around, knocking into things. It would have been hilarious if it didn't create even more work for the pair.

Maeve groaned as she stood up. "I'm not usually this clum-clumsy, I promise." She said softly, but that was an obvious lie. She was an absolute klutz, and she loved it.

It was a good excuse to fall back on when she broke something. ("Maeve, that was my favorite vase!" "Sorry, Doll, I'm a big klutz... Mom can use re-repar-reparo on it, though.")

Maeve laughed again as she picked up the brooms. "I lied, yes I am." She admitted reluctantly. It was funny sometimes, but not right now.

"That's alright. Me too." Olympia grinned, remembering a time from when she was a child. "I remember one time when I was little, I was obsessed with symmetry. If I did something to one side of something, I had to do it to the other. I was sitting in an old rocking chair that we had, with an end table type thing next to it." Olympia used her hands as she talked, all the while cleaning up the brooms on the floor.

"I was sitting on the right arm of this chair, and the table was on the left side. I've always been extremely underweight, so I wondered if the chair would tip over. I was experimenting, and I didn't want the chair to tip into the table, so I sat on the right side of the chair first. I promise, I had some common sense as a kid. The chair didn't tip, so I thought that it would be alright if I sat on the left arm of the chair.

That didn't work out so well. The chair ended up tipping into the table, breaking a lamp and my mother's favorite bowl. But the funniest part is that Ross told me to go to my room. And I was crying, so I did. My mom came in later and comforted me about it. But that was the last time I can remember my mother being genuinely nice to me." Olympia picked up another broom, propping it up against the wall.

Maeve nodded thoughtfully. "I rem-remember once, when I was six or seven, I broke my mother's favorite vase, and I destroyed the flowers from my parents' wedding. My mother had them mag-magic-magically preserved so she could keep them forever." She began slowly.

"I decided to blame the entire thing on Dahlia's owl, Flore-Florence." She said softly. "Dolly loved that owl. More than anyone, and my mother was trying to convince our father to force her to get rid of it." Maeve chewed her lip.

"So, they did get rid of poor Flore-Florence. But, my clums-clumsiness and I continued. I accid-accidentally spilled a potion on my father's work robes. All of them. I blamed it on Alexander. He denied it. I blamed it on Dolly, saying she wanted reve-revenge for her owl. I thought it was funny at the time. Now I think I was a monster." Maeve laughed softly.

"For some reason, my parents bought it. To this day, they don't know that I did all the clumsy things. I think Dahlia does, and that might be why she's so rude to me, but she did get her owl back, so she's kind of let it go. Now I'm more care-careful around them. I don't want to get on Doll's bad side at Hogwarts. She could make my life a living hell." Maeve giggled. "I don't feel bad anymo-anymore, but I did for a while, begging my parents to get Flore-Florence back for Dolly."

She grabbed a handful of brooms and gently put them away.

"Well, at least Dahlia got her owl back." Olympia smiled, wiping the dust from the brooms off on her robes. She checked them, making sure there weren't dust marks. Of course, there were. "How unfair," she joked. "I do something nice. I could've left the brooms all over the floor and I decided to pick them up. This is what I get in return." Olympia throws her hands up in the air sarcastically, letting a laugh escape her lips.

"I think we did a good job. What about you?" She looked to Maeve, who was putting the last of the broomsticks away. It hadn't taken that long to clean up, but it seemed to last forever. Not because it was boring, but because she was having such a wonderful time. She hadn't wanted the fun to end, but she couldn't be organizing brooms the entire time she was here. She'd have to have her homework delivered to her, and even then, she wouldn't know how to do it. Plus, it would just be weird.

"I didn't skip any of my meals. I just didn't eat much, I wasn't really that hungry when I arrived. I kind of filled up on trolley candy." Olympia blushed, turning her head away so Maeve wouldn't see.