I Came, I Saw, I Fell Outta a Tree Pv Feather Brain Closed

Every time her basketball hit the ground, the loud sound echoed through the quiet street and soon after the ball would be pushed down again by her hand. The young girl was on her way to her favourite playground in her neighbourhood, which Samantha visited regularly during the summer break. It had become part of her daily routine to visit the playground and after her dad finished his work he would join his youngest daughter. Sometimes her dad would bring ice cream or lemonade for the two and another time they would play basketball. Whatever the two did, Samantha always loved to spend time with her dad, who she had rarely seen because of school. During the day the brunette would spend time with her mom, who was free from work during the summer break, and her older sister who also didn’t have any school. Before she had been allowed to go outside, her mom had reminded her to be careful with the new clothes she was wearing. The reminder was followed by a kiss that Joanne planted on her youngest daughter’s forehead, after which Samantha had hugged her mom and quickly left the house. She wanted to be outside and enjoy the nice weather instead of sitting inside and scrolling through Instagram, like her sister. As soon as the brunette set foot on the playground she had completely forgotten about her mom’s warning not to ruin her brand new clothes and started playing with her basketball.

The game she was playing was quite an interesting one, namely throwing the ball straight up in the air, closing her eyes and seeing if it would hit her head. In case the basketball hit her head it would hurt a lot and if it missed her she would throw it up into the sky again. It was a stupid thing to do, but Samantha loved it and continued to do it, despite her parents’ disapproval. The game would not only help to improve her aim but also improved her pain tolerance. Stubborn as she was, she refused to stop with the idiotic game and she continued it today. The young girl fully focused on shooting the ball into the sky and when the ball left her hands she quickly closed her eyes and stood completely still. As the gravity started to work on the ball it made its way down to the ground and it landed on the ground a little left of Samantha. After she heard the basketball hit the ground she opened her eyes and ran after it, as it rolled away from her. Rather disappointed the ball hadn’t hit her, she tried again and launched the ball into the sky. This time the ball brushed past her right arm and a little smile appeared on her face. She was improving fast, maybe the next ball would hit her head! Confidently, the brunette threw the ball, which did hit her head when it came down this time. Even though she was happy the ball hit her head, it did hurt a lot and she couldn’t suppress a little scream. “Ouch!” But she soon got over the pain and threw the ball in the air again, hoping to start a streak of the ball hitting her. This time she quickly covered her head with her arms so it would be protected from the ball if it would hit her head again.

Being used to aiming a wand instead of a basketball, Samantha had slowly drifted towards the huge trees on the side of the playground. The only thing the small girl had attention to was the ball she kept throwing in the sky, so she didn’t notice the trees or the boy who was sitting on the swing. On her fourth try, the ball didn’t hit her and the expected sound of the ball hitting the ground stayed out as well. Samantha looked around surprised, trying to see if the ball had landed further away from her on the ground and she had just missed it, but she didn’t see it anywhere. Confused, the brunette looked up and soon realized what had happened. Unknowingly, she had thrown the ball into one of the trees she was now standing under. Between the green leaves, she could see the orange of her ball, far out of her reach. She walked over to the trunk of the tree and tried to get the ball out by shaking the tree, which failed horribly due to her being too small and weak to get any movement in the huge plant. Disappointed, she looked up at the ball, which was chilling in the tree, maybe she could throw something at it to make it move? The twigs around her were definitely not big enough to get the ball moving, so she had to come up with something different. Scanning the ground for a rock or something similar, she noticed the old sneakers she was wearing. Should she? No, she shouldn’t do that, right? But they were big and heavy enough to get the ball out of the tree. Besides, it wasn’t like they were going to get stuck into the tree. It would be fine!

She quickly slipped her right foot out of the worn-out sneaker and picked up the shoe. Weighing the sneaker in her hand, Samantha looked up and tried to find the perfect way to throw the shoe without it getting stuck in the tree. When she finally found the spot she wanted to throw the shoe from, she hopped over to it on one leg, not wanting to get her white sock dirty. She watched attentively as her shoe flew through the air and moved closer to the orange ball and the tree it was stuck in. Nothing of the confidence she had felt when she launched the sneaker into the sky did Samantha feel now as she saw her shoe disappear between the green leaves and not come out of the other side of the bunch of leaves. “No!” she exclaimed as she stared up at the branches which now contained both her shoe and basketball.

What was she doing?

Elsian stared in awe, unable to comprehend the glorious scene playing out before him. It was unbelievable…It was hilarious. The basketball flew from the girl's hand; it was like watching something in slow motion, the ball sailing up before coming down hard with a loud, painful sounding smack and tiny strangled yelp of pain. Who knew it would hurt? Not the girl apparently! Because again it repeated. It almost felt wrong to stare at this whole scene playing out, but he couldn't help it! Couldn't turn away in sick fascination as the basketball narrowly missed her; and for some reason because of this she threw it, again and again.

It was so stupid. And yet, he was intrigued.

So he watched, shaking with laughter as the stranger once again yelped in pain and the loop continued. Until it didn't.

He laughed, a loud bark of a thing as the ball got stuck in the taller branches of the tree. Who would’ve thought? He kicked out a leg, sending the swing rattling as it swung; she still hadn't looked up. Briefly he thought about calling out but just as he went to shout the person seemed to figure out what was up. Literally. He stifled a snicker as they tried to shake the tree.

“No,” he gasped, staring in horrified glee as a show was shucked off and promptly sacrificed to the tree, “no way!” Elsian wheezed, laughter choking the Gryffindor as the shoe went flying straight into the branches as the stranger hopped on one foot and squealed in horror. The swing set practically rattled through the concrete holding it in place underneath the grass with how hard he was laughing. Soon he was losing his balance and slumping onto the grass with an undignified wheeze. It was too good! Giggling he got to his feet, dragging himself up by the chain and struggling on the fresh gulp of air he forced into his lungs. He gasped; it hurt, how breathless he was. Laughing hurt.

But at this rate he was just asking for some karma. He’d had his fun but it was time to call the show a quits. Besides, if the way the girl had screamed and was still balancing on one foot was anything to go by she probably could use a little help. Kinda seemed like no one else was about to anyways. Everyone else looked happily busy.

Mind made up he dusted his knees off, patting the dirt off the jeans and walking over. Passing by the weird spinny thing he was gifted the wonderful sight of a kid around his age going flying into the grass with the combined efforts of his friends practically spinning the thing off its hinges! It was great. Elsi toyed with the idea of joining in and risking the skinned knees and possible broken arm but first, the tree.

Too lazy to go around he used a tree to brace himself and hopped the bushes with all the grace of a squid on land to the other side, almost tripping for the effort when his sneakers laces snagged and tugged viciously on sharp branches. He caught himself on another tree, ducking his head to look down and tug his feet free as he laughed at himself, “h-hey, do you need some help?” he asked, stammering on his laugh.

“I saw what happened, if you want I can climb up there and try to whack your stuff down.” He’d say this after a pause, listening to her answer even as he quickly breezed past her and over to the tree. Back to her neither would have realized their mistake in being even the slightest bit kind to the other. If she tried to shrug it off and tell the Gryffindor it was okay he’d barely pause in his quick lunge to the nearest branch, and point out he was already up there anyway with a laugh. If she agreed to his help he’d simply nod. Either way, it’d result in the boy pausing to sit on the branch to figure out where to climb from there, the 2 finally seeing the other's face for the first time in months as he looked down at her.

He paused, staring her down with a frown before blurting out-

“Oh great. It’s you.”

He should’ve stayed by the swings…

Ugh, but he couldn't back out and climb down without feeling like a huge jerk!

He groaned, sending Samantha an equally dirty glare to match whatever she sent his way. “Just…” He craned his head to look higher where the Ravenclaws shoe and basketball had gotten stuck. Equally high but in different branches. “Just stay down there and don't throw anything, okay feather brain? You’ll just make it worse.”

Desperate, the brunette looked up at the tree which contained her basketball and sneaker, while balancing on her left foot. If only she had been allowed to use magic. She could have effortlessly retreated the ball and shoe by simply levitating them out of the stupid tree. As the young girl was trying to come up with a different plan to get her things out of the tree, she heard some bushes move. It didn't catch Samantha's attention but when she heard somebody laugh her attention was drawn to the voice, which now spoke. There was something familiar about the voice like she had heard it before, but the brunette couldn't figure out who it was from.

The faintly familiar voice offered her help, something she could definitely use, but she didn't take the offer right away. First, she scanned the branch that kept the ball and shoe hostage, trying to find a way to free them without needing anybody's help. The only idea that popped into the girl's mind was throwing her left shoe in the tree and hoping it would come down, which wasn't the best idea she had ever come up with. "Yes, some help would be nice," she admitted as she turned to the voice. The idea of climbing in the tree was a pretty good one and the young girl was disappointed that she hadn't been able to come up with that one herself. The person offering her help was nice and smart at the same time! With a big grin, she looked at where she had heard the voice from, still not recognizing the other person. "Yeah! That's a great idea!"

After the boy climbed as fast as spiderman would, he stopped and looked down at her. Samantha's eyes had followed the boy, trying to get a better look at him, but only when he stopped did she recognize him. Spider boy had realized a few seconds before she did who he was talking to and stated how 'great' it was to see her. Not being any happier to see the boy than he was, she dramatically rolled her eyes as she looked away from him. "Ew!" she outed her disgust. What was the idiot doing here? She didn't expect her neighbourhood to be infected by idiots from school!

Okay, she knew he was an idiot, but she didn't expect the boy to be such a big idiot to even consider for a moment she would listen to him. There was no way she was going to 'stay down there and don't throw anything', not now Elsian told her to do so. "What did you just call me?" she screamed at the boy. "Who do you think you are?" Where in the world did this boy get the audacity to call her a feather brain? Seriously! They may not be at Hogwarts right now, but she still was a prefect and a great one if you asked her, there was no way she was going to let him get away with saying things like that to her. Samantha quickly shifted her balance to her right foot and kicked the remaining shoe off her left foot. Not caring about getting her socks dirty, she stood on the grass and aimed at the branch containing her shoe and basketball. Before she let go of the shoe, the idea of throwing the white sneaker in the boy's face had popped up in her mind but she had quickly suppressed it. Though it was a very tempting idea, she couldn't throw her shoe in somebody's face, she had a reputation to uphold.

She should have aimed for the idiot's head, maybe then she would have hit something... After the young girl had realized the shoe, which she had aimed at the branch her other sneaker was stuck in, the stupid thing had moved from the course and missed. It hadn't just missed the shoe or the branch, no, it had missed the entire tree! How embarrassing! The short walk to her shoe, which had landed a couple of meters away, would be the most shameful walk she had ever had. She just knew Elsian was having the time of his life, that stupid boy, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of watching her pick up her sneaker after missing the tree. Instead, she walked to the trunk of the tree, the complete opposite of where her shoe was laying on the grass. "I can get it out myself! I don't need your help!" she told the boy as started to climb the tree.

He scoffed, kicking a leg in the air irritated. Ew, she says. Maybe it would have actually stung a bit had the idiot not just said his idea was great.

“Didn’t realize you were deaf,” he said sarcastically. “And the guy you just admitted needing help from,” he answered cheerfully. All fake sweetness and sharp smiles as he shuffled back to his feet to begin climbing again.

It’d been quick enough. Scaling up a fair bit higher onto the tree before he needed to pause again as the branches got thinner and Elsian less confident in the stability of just what he was about to go putting most of his weight on. He’d grabbed onto the trunk, pressing most of his weight against it carefully, shaking the newest branch with his foot, tentatively watching as leaves rustled free. It was safe, despite appearances, and he went ahead and stood on it, letting all his weight settle save the stabling hand he had on the trunk as he looked up. Judging what branches would be safe enough to use when getting close enough to whack the feather brains stuff outta the tree.

He went to climb again. Then the thud of something on the ground had him paranoid. He looked down and promptly gave the idiot the dirtiest, most judgmental look he could as she aimed.

“Don’t you dare,” he snarled. Not that she listened. He swore to god if she hit him-

The shoe went flying past the tree.

…Did…did that really just happen???

He stared. Oh god it totally had; she’d missed! A loud snort tore itself from his throat, lips trembling against the wide, shit eating grin hiding behind his hand. He tried to stop himself, stifling the glee rearing its ugly head. He failed miserably.

Dropping his hand he barely caught himself against the tree trunk, gracelessly slumping to sit on the branch, back braced against the trunk behind him as he cackled, body beginning to shake with laughter. “You,” he wheezed, hunching in on himself and trying to bloody breathe. “You missed the treee-hehe!” The words faded into hissed giggles, petering out to a soft gasp for air. That had possibly been one of the greatest moments of his life and he would cherish that slow walk of shame for the rest of his meager days.

“No, no,” he gasped, straightening up from his seat to begin the climb with a shaky laugh, “no, it’s fine. You’ll just hurt yourself or something.” Like losing another shoe. He bit the inside of his cheek to stop a laugh.

“Just-ugh!” She got a glare slightly softened by the glee from before as she began to climb after him. “Stay down stupid! You’re gonna-!” He groaned, turning away to focus on himself as he dragged himself up another branch closer to the basketball, the shoe was slightly aways away under the ball but he’d go for that later. It was on a shaky, tiny branch that he wasn't sure was safe. He’d probably have to throw the ball at it to whack it down. But first he had to get to the branch holding the basketball.

It wasn't like she was gonna listen anyways. If she fell it was her own damn fault, the feather head.

“Oh, just forget it.” He grumbled.

The fact that Elsian answered her rhetorical question annoyed Samantha a lot. Why couldn't he just be quiet? She wasn't deaf! Ugh, this boy got on her nerve. Maybe if he had been a tad smarter he would have understood that it had been a rhetorical question, if he even knew what that was, and he wasn't supposed to answer it. Taking a deep breath, she suppressed the urge to yell all those things to the boy and decided she wouldn't waste too many words on him, for now. "I admitted needing help, but that was before I knew it was you. If I had known it was you I would haven't accepted your offer," she told him honestly. "I don't trust you near my stuff. You might steal or set it on fire again."

Pissed that he had reminded her of needing help, she watched as he climbed higher in the tree and tested the branches to see if they would hold his weight. If the branch could just break, no, she couldn't think like that. When the brunette got ready to throw her shoe, the idiot stopped climbing and watched as she missed the tree. Her expression hardened as the sound of Elsian's laughter reached her ears and she glared up at him with the most disgusted look on her face. "I hope you fall out of the tree," she told him angrily, before making her way to the trunk of the tree.

She ignored the thief's remark about her getting hurt, she wasn't a baby! There was no way she was going to stay down, she would show him she didn't need his help. Left foot on the lowest branch and arms wrapped around the trunk, she pulled herself up and quickly placed her right foot on another branch. She hadn't paid any attention to where she had placed her right foot and as soon as she switched her weight to it, something stung in the bottom of her feet.

Her face twisted when she felt the twig stinging and she quickly retreated her foot, while trying not to show any of the pain she felt. Now a bit more cautious, she tried to find out how to continue her climb and she paused for a bit she glared at the idiot. It wasn't a race but she still wanted to be faster than the boy and get to her stuff first. The wide sleeves of her brand-new, white shirt gave her the freedom to move around easily, yet they also restricted her in a way. Not wanting to break the promise she had made to her mom, Samantha would try to be very careful and not ruin the new clothes she was wearing. Cautiously, she started moving again and stretched out for the next branch within her reach.

Slowly but surely, she started to catch up with the boy, who was a faster climber than her. "You stay away from my stuff," she said a little out of breath as she continued climbing. "Don't you dare to touch it." Maybe she should take a little break from climbing? It was pretty hot today. But what if Elsian would get to her stuff first? No, she couldn't let that happen. Her caution slowly faded as the branches got thinner and it didn't take long for her sleeve to get caught by a twig. Samantha tried to continue climbing, but something held her back. After weirdly twisting her upper body, she could finally see what was holding her back and a horrified look appeared on her face. Her shirt! If she would ruin it her mom would be pissed! She tried to get the sleeve to lose but it didn't work, it was too far out of her reach. "I'm stuck!" she yelled. The idea of asking Elsian for help was horrible, but the idea of her mom being angry was a lot worse. "I need your help," she told him reluctantly.

“I hope you fall out of the tree,” he mocked back, voice pitching up obnoxiously as he dug his shoes into the bark of the tree. “I hope you get a better aim for your spell works sake.” He shot back, stopping just long enough to send the girl a rude smile.

One branch turned into 3, soon enough he was at the basketballs level, the only thing stopping him being a few sharp twigs and a handful of distance. Elsi had almost gone for it, would have, if not for the idiot's sudden frantic tone; he groaned, peeking down with an unimpressed look at the girl's plight. “I told you this would happen,” he grumbled, begrudgingly climbing down to the branches below.

Halfway through, when the other blocked his easy path down, he abandoned the trunk. Lowering himself down by the branch above Samantha; he let go, dropping the last few inches of the way and sending the branch shaking with the landing. “Ok…” he hummed, haphazardly balancing as he walked up to her place half stuck on the trunk and teetering on the edge of making it to another branch. Had her shirt not been holding her back at least. “Ok, try to stay still for a second.” Hopefully she listened.

There was no easy way to get to the twigs tugging at her shirt from where he was. No branches he could stand on to get closer, the one he was on was the best he got, but even then he needed to practically reach around her from where he stood in order to get to it. A fair bit of awkward shuffling on both kids' parts was had to make sure neither fell out of the bloody tree, Elsian forced to crane this way and that while doing his damndest to not fall as he reached around her, and Samantha being forced to help him keep balanced and bear his weight.

“Sorry,” he said unthinkingly, wincing when she had to take the brunt of his weight on her shoulder. His fingers trembled in her shirt with the effort, the boy's balance hanging by a thread when he had to go on the tips of his toes to reach around her enough.

It was a painful process, but one that worked. And they were rewarded with Elsian being able to dig the fingers of his free hand into her shirt before the twig could rip the shirt in one big, ugly tear. Carefully, gently, he pulled it out alongside the pricker that had dug itself into the fabric. “Done!” he gasped, quickly scrambling back.

That’d been way harder than it should’ve.

He was already tired…

It was fine, this whole thing was almost over. The basketball was still close, he hadn't had to go down that far, and with that thought pushing him forward it was less than a minute later before he was back up the tree and right near that stupid ball. The branches were thinner up here, slowly growing more gangly and spidery the higher you went, and the sticks tugged at his clothes, threatening to pull his hair every time they ghosted his head and the leaves peppered the black locks. He was forced to hunch as he walked the branch holding the basketball, at times even needing to crouch as he shuffled forward; no wonder the stupid ball had gotten stuck up here.

They were lucky the branch was just sturdy enough to hold his weight, but even then it slightly shook more than he’d like with each step. The tiny sticks and then branches above would offer no help, they would break under his weight.

Kneeling down he pressed on knee to the bark of the tree, bracing as he leaned forward on one hand, the fingers of his right barely grazing the bloody basketball. It was tricky. And it took a few attempts to shake it free enough but soon he was slowly rolling it free and dragging it to him with happy relief. Grinning he sat down, one leg dangling in the air while the other propped up, foot on the wood and knee bent to rest the newly reclaimed basketball. “Got it!” he called out, looking down to show off his new prize to the feather head.

Of course she was going for the stupid shoe.

“I don't think you should do that,” he began slowly, cautiously.

She hadn’t even actually started walking on the branch right below him and it was already groaning under the new weight! They had a better shot just throwing the ball at it or whacking it down with a broken branch in his opinion.

“Seriously, it’s already shaking! You’re gonna fall.”

The idiotic boy didn't even come up with his own comeback and just repeated her words in a mocking voice. She didn't even glance at him when he made the stupid comment about her aim, he wasn't worth it. Honestly, she had better things to do, namely getting her shoe and basketball out of the tree before the boy could touch them with his filthy thief fingers.

Ugh, she couldn't stand this boy. Having him remind her that he had told her something like this would happen, only fueled the negative emotions towards him. Knowing she needed his help, the young girl managed to keep the rude comment she was about to make to herself and quietly waited until he would free her shirt. The branch she was on shook as the boy dropped himself on it and the brunette lost her balance for a second but soon recovered it. That was close! Tilting her head a little, Samantha tried to see how far she was from the ground so she could estimate the damage it would have done if she had fallen. She would have survived that fall but she still didn't want to test her theory and patiently waited for Elsian to tug the sleeve free.

It was nice that the boy helped her, yet Samantha hated how close he had to get to do so. He invaded her personal space and she even had to move a bit so he wouldn't fall out of the tree. Awkwardly, she sat still as she was forced to balance the boy's weight and make sure he didn't fall. Even though she had yelled at him to fall out of the tree, she didn't really want that to happen. After what seemed like an eternity, Elsian had finally been able to get her sleeve free from the rude little twig that had held it captive. "Thank you for your help," she said embarrassed as she avoided looking at the boy.

Wand thief moved closer to her basketball and Samantha couldn't just hang around in the tree and wait for the boy to get her stuff out. She wasn't a fragile princess in need of saving from a tall and handsome young prince, not that Elsian was tall, or handsome or even a prince. Victorious the boy made known to every single soul in the universe that he got her basketball, great... Now she just had to get the shoe before he did or she would be so embarrassed.

She started by walking on the branch with her arms spread for balance but quickly resorted to some kind of half-crawling. "I'm not going to fall, I am not an idiot!" she yelled. Why did he think he knew any better than her? But the boy was right. The branch slowly bent under her weight as the young girl proceeded her climb, but Samantha had her eyes on the prize, or in this case, on the shoe. She didn't notice how the branch groaned under her weight as she reached for the white sneaker. Haphazardly, she stretched her arm trying to reach the show which was mockingly chilled in the tree just a little too far away for her to touch it. It seemed like the universe was against her, as she lost her balance and was now hanging upside down on the branch, which bent a little more with every second.

It was like it all happened in slow motion. The shock that moved through the branch as it broke under her weight, caused her to lose her balance and the branch slipped out of her hand. Her eyes widened in surprise as she realized what would happen next. She would fall. To the ground, she would fall, to the hard ground.

The branch creaked and shivered, slowly beginning to dip under the strain of her weight; he hid a wince at the sight, hugging the basketball to his chest and tugging his leg up less the other got annoyed and hit it when in range while crawling past. He didn't want to fall. He sure as hell wasn't about to risk it with her around, nor did he think the Ravenclaw would appreciate accidentally getting kicked.

Even if she did deserve it.

“It’s bending,” he began anxiously, craning awkwardly in on himself and over the ball to watch the branch, “Feathers stop, I don’t think-”

A sharp crack filled the air, a warning. Elsian watched in horror as the branch bent forward at an unnatural angle. It shook and trembled dangerously like it was caught in a storm, Sam slipped, fingers losing their purchase and toppling sideways for a single, heart stopping moment where the boy was sure she would fall. Thank Merlin he was wrong. But it was still a horrifying sight, forced to watch her hang there upside down by only the strength of her hands and legs when it was obvious that the branch was not gonna be able to hold her weight for long.

Shit! Shit, shit, shit- ok.

First things first get rid of the ball. He looked towards the shoe. Preferably with the shoe also outta the tree once and for all. He threw it down with all the strength he could, the ball knocking the shoe down and bouncing, high, way higher than he thought would be possible against those twigs, before coming down right on top of the bird brain's head with a tiny thud. At least it fell to the ground right after?

Ok. This was fine.

Both legs were thrown over to hang off the side of the branch. Totally fine. Not like the branch was totally weak and not ready to hold up both their weights and he was gonna fall- he took a shuddering breath; totally fine. His fingers curled on the branch, digging in, it was too wide to really grab onto with a safe grip but at the least it’d be fine for this. He leaned backwards, letting himself topple back and ignoring the way his stomach flopped at the second of weightlessness; his hair fanned out into the open air and blood began to rush to his head uncomfortably as he hung there, suspended upside down by hands, and soon to be only legs. Oh, he didn't like this. This did not feel stable enough but what choice did they have?

He let go, wincing at how he swung by his legs. But as he straightened Elsi found it gave him just the kinda reach he needed to try and haul her back up.

Thank god Feather brains branch was just below his. But it still wasn't quite enough.

“C’mon,” he grunted, arm straining as he reached for her hand. Fingers grazed the surface of the wood, just ghosting it. He couldn't reach her.

“I-'' he huffed, shoving some hair outta his face, “I can't reach you.” The branch was gonna break out from over her if they didn't hurry. “You’re gonna need to grab my hand.”

Again, he reached forward, eyes catching on hers for the brief moment when she didn't move. Then like magic she was trying to drag herself up, heaving herself up so her torso almost brushed the branch and one arm strained up to try and grab on. Their grip failed, fingers brushing, hand flailing miserably for what felt like an eternity as she was forced to flail half blind. But then he snatched her wrist. Unthinking he loosened his grip for a terrifying second before tightening more firmly around her forearm and pulled. It was working. Samantha slowly regained her spot atop the branch; it was too good to be true.

The branch broke the moment she got back atop the branch.

He yelped at the sudden weight, fingers curling painfully in her arm as she grabbed hard enough to bruise. Wildly he threw out his other arm for her to grab onto, a fine attempt to hold her up, one that would've worked had the branch been able to hold them both. Sadly, it was not. And it snapped with a heart stopping finality.

Elsian hit the ground, or bushes, rolling. Breath knocked out of him painfully and both kids ended up falling into a heap of pained whines atop the grass. Their fall was only broken by the bushes they’d rolled off of. Side by side, limbs awkwardly tangled, the Gryffindor let out a muffled groan of pain into the grass and slowly dragged his arm out from under Sam’s back. Luckily not broken. Still, no doubt a painful pose for both involved. Her elbow dug into his side from where it was jabbed due to her landing but he was far too dead inside to do anything about it. All he could bring himself to do was force his arms under his face to burrow there rather than risk a mouthful of dirt and grass.

Feather brain said something, a question? Was he okay? It took a second for his muddled brain to put the words together but by then she was already rambling. It hurt his head. Patiently, he waited a grand total of 30 seconds before interrupting. “I think so.” A pause. Silence settled over them. “Are you okay?” He waited, simply nodding when she said yes in her own long winded way.

“Good. That's good.” He twisted to his side, fallen basketball in hand from where he’d snatched it on the ground. “Now I can murder you without feeling bad.” He snarled, quickly sitting up to serve up some well deserved justice.

“Who the hell climbs a branch that bends like that!” He demanded, smacking her once with the ball before it was slapped outta his hands. She slapped back. Peace had never been an option.

The clearing of a throat put a temporary stop to their childish slap fight. Elsian stared at the stranger, clothes a rumpled mess and hair sticking up any which way, a twig and leaves stuck to the black strands. Sam ceased the opportunity to smack him in the head, he glowered at her, grabbing the ball again to throw at her arm.

He ignored her wail of outrage.

The horrible sound that was the breaking of the branch reached the young girl's ears and her eyes were filled with horror, she knew what was going to happen. The world turned upside down, down, down, down. Freedom for America, freedom for France as she clutched onto the branch for her life. If only she has listened to the annoying dark-haired boy's warnings that the branch was bending, she would be in this situation right now but her pride had stopped her from listening to Elsian, just as it will stop her from admitting she did anything wrong. Not that she had time to say anything about it anyway. The only thing that left her mouth was a horrified scream as the fingers of her right hand slowly slipped from the branch.

Refusing to ask Elsian for help again, she went over all the possible outcomes of this situation, one more horrible than the other. She would be lucky if the only thing she ruined were her new clothes since breaking a couple of bones seemed more likely to the young girl. As she didn't spend any attention to Elsian, she also didn't notice the idiot decided to throw the basketball on her head for some idiotic reason! Her reflexes had improved a lot since she joined the duelling team almost a year ago and most of the time that was a good thing, but not now. After the ball had hit her she automatically covered her head with her arms. Both of them. As soon as the last fingertip of her hand had left the branch, gravity caused her to swing back and now the only thing that kept the young girl from falling were her legs which luckily were still wrapped around the tree. Being held together by an elastic, her brown hair hung under the rapidly red-turned face.

The situation seemed hopeless but the not tall, not handsome not prince gave Samantha a little hope as he tried to help her. His hand tried to reach her, as the boy hung upside down, but they were too far from each other. Completly unneseacrry Elsian told her that she needed to grab his hands like she hadn't figured that out already. She suppressed an eye roll, this way, not the time to be hostile towards him, she could do that later. Right now she needed all her focus on trying to get ahold of the branch with her hands again, which required a lot of strength since gravity only pulled her down. With a strength she didn't know she had in her, she was able to get her right hand around the branch again and quickly swung her left arm around the tree. Samantha almost hugged the branch as she pulled herself closer to the branch.

A little drop of sweat rolled down her forehead as she extended her right arm towards Elsian, all of a sudden glad wand thief was there. Stretching her arm as far as possible, she tried to reach the boy's hand and to her relief, their fingers touched each other. Only for a second, a quick brush, so soft it she could have imagined it. Luckily*, she hadn't and Elsian was able to get ahold of her wrist. With the combined power of the two kids, Samantha managed to get back on the branch and sighed in relief. Yet, the moment of relief didn't last long. It seemed like the tree finally had enough of the two idiotic children as it broke as soon as the girl sat on top of it.

As the brunette had held onto Elsian when she fell, he was dragged down with her. Before she even realized what had happened, the two were awkwardly laying on the ground, his arm under her back and her elbow dug into his side. Her head was pounding loudly as she tried to move into a more comfortable position. After taking a few deep breaths, she remembered she hadn't been the only one to fall out of the tree. "Are you okay?" she asked Elsian, immediately worried about the fellow student. Wait, why did she even ask him that? He had caused all of this! "Just so you know, this is all your fault. You were the first one to climb into the tree and if you hadn't done that, I wouldn't have needed to follow you and we wouldn't have fallen out of the tree," she started rambling. "So any pain you currently have is your fault. Don't even try blaming me, because I had nothing to do with it." Samantha was mostly trying to convince herself she hadn't done anything wrong but deep down she knew she was as much to blame, if not even more, than Elsian. I just wanted to get my basketball and shoe out of the tree and you-" she stopped talking as she was rudely interrupted by the boy. Even though she disliked the boy, she was relieved to hear he was fine. "Okay, good," she said before he asked if she was okay. "I'm fine," she told the boy, too stubborn to tell him about her pounding head and the pain in her back.

Murder her? Murder her? What kind of idiot was he! "You almost murder me already! Not even 2 minutes ago!" she almost screamed in his face. Okay, that wasn't entirely true, he had tried to save her and he even helped her when her sleeve got stuck. Crossing her arms like a little toddler who didn't get what they wanted, she ignored his question which wasn't really a question and whose obvious answer was her. "Thank-" she started, wanting to thank him for helping her earlier because her mom had raised her well, but stopped when he hit her with the ball. Hadn't her being hit with the basketball two times been enough already!? "Stop it!" she yelled in his face as she slapped him back furiously.

An extremely familiar sound reached the young girl's ears, she had heard it a thousand times and knew exactly who had made it. Horrified, she turned to her father, wondering how much he had heard and seen. "Hoi papa," she said with a sheepish smile. Trying to figure out what he was feeling, she scanned his face. His bright blue eyes of which her own were almost an exact copy were filled with the exact confusion the frown on her father's face showed. The father-daughter duo shared a lot of things, among them the completely oblivious to certain situations. It seemed like her father hadn't completely comprehended what he had just seen, something Samantha was extremely happy with. She couldn't imagine what would happen if her mom would find out she had 1) ruined her clothing by climbing in a tree and 2) hit a boy who had helped her.

With 1.85m Samantha's father was a tad taller than the average Dutch male but a significant amount taller than the world average, yet he didn't look intimidating at all. The childish smile he wore most of the time and the wrinkles any man in his late forties has, gave him made him look exactly how he was, caring and sweet. In his hands, her father was holding two small bowls containing slowly melting chocolate ice, the favourite flavour of the man, which he quickly put aside to check up on his daughter and the other kid. "Are you guys okay? I saw you fell out of the tree," he said with a slight Dutch accent as he removed a twig out of Samantha's hair. "What happened?" he addressed the question to his daughter. "Nothing," she answered shortly, glancing at Elsian in hopes he wouldn't tell her dad anything. "My head is hurting a little from the fall and my back hurts too," the girl told her father, steering the conversation in a different direction as she knew her dad didn't believe her 'nothing'.

The attention of her dad then shifted towards Elsian. That Samuel had never met the boy before didn't stop him from caring and checking up on Elsian. "Are you okay? It was quite a fall you made," he asked with a little smile. Samantha was a bit jealous when her father gave his attention to her schoolmate who, according to her, didn't deserve any of it. Disgusted, the brunette watched as her father offered Elsian his hand to help him get up from the ground. To show Elsian she didn't need any help to get up, she quickly stood up which made her dizzy. In order not to lose her balance she had to seek support from her father and hold his arm for a second before being able to stand on her own two legs again.

The dad:

Tibits Reducio Name: Samuel Salwis Age: 48 Eye colour: blue Hair colour: brown Length: 1.85m

Speech Reducio "English" "Dutch"

Outfit: Reducio

Faceclaim Reducio John Dallas