[Courtyard] Catch me again, I'm fallin' so far

[Felicity Locke]

Snow clung to every part of the school, and a white blanket covered the outside. Students ran outside, grinning and laughing while throwing chunks of snow at one another. A few girls screamed as snow was dropped down their shirts and snowballs flew past their heads. It was just a carefree day for the Hogwarts kids, no classes to worry about today.

Felicity pushed her way out of the school, and her scarf flew away from her face as a gust of cold air hit her. The frigid weather sent a chill through her, but the winter was always a beautiful time at Hogwarts. Whenever someone looked outside, all they saw was white. Fields, and fields of white. It was a drastic change from the usually green lawns.

Fay moved some hair out of her eyes and glanced up at the cloudy sky. The sun would peak through the clouds every so often, but not often enough for her. She sighed a bit and loosened her scarf, the thing was starting to choke her. As soon as her hand dropped back down to her lap, a gust of air hit her, sending her scarf up into the air.

The blue thing flew higher up into the sky and further away from her as the wind carried it away. Felicity stood up quickly and started to chase after it, cursing softly under her breath. She took out her wand, ready to call it back to her, until she saw it change directions instantly. A hand reached up and caught the scarf, and Fay felt her hands clench into fists.

Apparently, a group of her housemates found it funny to try to take the girl's scarf. So now, one boy had it in his hand, and he waved it in her direction. Felicity marched over there, not really in the mood for games.

"Can I please have that back? It's rather cold out here."

There was a snicker from the one holding the scarf, and he switched his scarf to his other hand. His wand soon appeared in one hand, and with a muttered spell, Fay's scarf was soon reduced into a pile of ashes. The group walked away, leaving Felicity standing there. She shook her head and turned, ready to run from the spot, until something caught on her foot and she slipped. Another spell no doubt.

So there Fay lay, on her back, glaring up at the clouds and silently wishing that her days of torture would be over.

(( Randomness, yay :D ))

[Bradyn Reed]

Bradyn, unable to spend another moment inside the warm castle when a lovely blanket of snow was covering the grounds, headed outside with just a light sweatshirt and his scarf on. Usually, he was never cold and even when he went to the doctors they told him he was running a fever. Coincidentally, or more likely not, that temperature was the same as his cat form's and he just figured that some things stayed with him. When asking his sister, she said that perhaps his body didn't like changing it's temperature during the transformation and that 98.6 would be far too cold for it. Whatever it was, he didn't care and was just the small, warm lad who loved snow.

Heading outside with his gloved hands shoved into his pockets, he winced as the cold sent a hint of pain through his bruised jawline. Bray, of course, refused to have it treated which was turning out to be a painful mistake. Glancing up as he heard voices, he spotted a group of Ravenclaws not too far off. Stupid younger ones too, just wonderful. The newer Ravenclaws could be so hot-headed with the idea that they were the most intelligent people in the world, while all the real Claws would just like to toss them out the tower window. He raised a brow when noticing that one of them was actually Fay. 'What's she doing, talking to a bunch of morons?' He thought and changed direction directly towards her once he noticed that they had their wands at the ready and pointed at her. 'Oh.'

He took out his own wand with a frown and pointed it at the group. Let's see, what would be good punishment for messing with his friend? As they ran away like the little cowards they were, he smirked and waved his wand, muttering a silent spell. Soon they were all on the ground themselves after tripping on their pants that somehow ended up around their ankles. "You really ought to wear a belt." Bray said with mild annoyance mixed in with his sarcasm and held out his hand to Fay with a hint of amusement on his face.

"You alright?" He said but his voice cracked with the hint of laughter.

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

((Mind if I join? Don't worry, there won't be any nasty comments))


Ash loved the winter, it was so beautiful and peaceful. He walked along kicking up drifts of fluffy white snow, smiling, he looked around. The ground was covered in snow, and ice covered tree braches glittered like diamonds.It truly was a winterwonderland. Suddenly heard a familiar voice, "Can I please have that back? It's rather cold out here." Felicity. Ash walked a little faster, he came upon Fay, a group of boys, Ravenclaw boys, had just finished reducing her scarf to a pile of ash's. Ash glared and shook his head, true he and Fay weren't exactly on speaking terms, but those boys had no right to do that. Especially, when the whole situation was Ash's fault. He had created this mess, now it was time to fix i, once and for all.

Walking over, Ash knelt just a little behind Fay so she couldn't see him yet, and placed a gentle hand under her arm. "Come on, let's get you up." he said, as he started to pull her up. "I saw what happened." he said quietly, "They had no right to do that." He sighed, "And I have no right to be treating you the way I have. You were right, this whole mess is my fault. And I'm sorry. I just wish I'd realized it sooner. I wish i hadn't been so damn stubborn." He walked around so that he was facing her, he looked into her eyes, and smiled. "And I hope that the girl who was my best friend, can forgive me. Not today, not tomorrow. But someday." Ash heard another voice, and turned. It was Bradyn. Ash smiled slightly, "Hi." he said quietly. "Sorry about what happend in Hogsmeade." He sighed, "You were right, I am being a pompous, fickle jerk."

[Felicity Locke]

There were a few more thuds, followed by several profanities flying from the lips of the boys who had fallen. Felicity blinked and twisted her head a bit to see what had happened. The kids who had torched her scarf were on the ground, pants around their ankles. That was..interesting. Fay blinked and looked back up, noticing a hand stuck out at her. Well hello there Bradyn.

"Oh, you know me, I can take a couple young, idiotic Claws any day."

Felicity grabbed his hand and yanked, trying to get her friend to fall down into the snow beside her. If she could handle the cold bite of the snow, than certainly kitty boy could. Him and his freaky high body temperature of doom. Throwing snow at him was just no fun at all when he didn't freak out over the cold.

There was a hand on her shoulder now, and she tensed in response. Fay twitched and rolled out of the way of the shoulder-grabber. Then, the person spoke. Wow, her luck really did suck didn't it? Ash had found her, and Bray, again.

The veela girl shot up so she was standing now, and had to force herself to remain calm so she wouldn't jump Ash and beat him for punching Bray. Attacking Fay's friends is not something that is advised.

"I've heard all of this before Ash. But.." Felicity placed her fingers against her forehead for a moment. "Words can't fix everything that's happened. Just look what you did to Bray! You can't expect me not to be pissed for that."

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

Ash sighed, "I know. I was wrong, and I'm sorry. And... I know words can't always help, but what else do I have to do to prove to you that I want to be your friend?" he smiled softly, "I can't get through this without my friends. And you two were my first. If I could go back in time, and change everything, I would do so, in a split-second. But seeing as I have no time-turner, I can't do that." He sighed, "But I can change the future, and I am not going to stop until I prove to both of you, that I am serious about wanting to be your friend." He bit his lip and looked down, his palms were slightly sweaty with nervousness. "If you still don't believe me, that's fine. But I promise you, I will not stop. Not until I have proved to you that I am willing to do anything for you. I'm not asking you to be my best friend. I just want you to be my friend. We've been fighting long enough. So long that I can barely remember why, but I know it was something I did." He looked up at Fay, a small smile on his face, "I want things to be okay between us again, I want us to be able to talk without throwing insults and punches."

[Bradyn Reed]

Bradyn laughed out loud at Fay and shook his head. "Oh, you can take care of yourself? So being hexed and laying on the ground like that was all part of your master plan, right?" He said and rolled his eyes until suddenly Fay was a lot heavier to lift than he remembered and he ended up falling down. Seeing the victorious smirk on her face he snorted at her. "That wasn't very nice." But, too lazy to stand back up again, he just sat there in the snow and leaned back on his arms.

Hearing someone else join their little party, he narrowed his eyes instantly at the voice. Ashton, what did he want now? Ignoring his little pleading with Fay, he just sat there quietly. Bray had recently argued with Ash and he wasn't willing to do it again so soon. Might as well have some time for his face to heal up. In his mind, their bond was broken and it could never be fully repaired. Even if attempted, it would still be scarred and honestly, he didn't want it to be. He didn't like Ash anymore and the bruising on his face just fueled the fire.

'I want things to be okay between us again, I want us to be able to talk without throwing insults and punches'

He couldn't help but snort and laugh at that. Did he honestly think that was friendship? That was just being able to tolerate someone, and that's what they had. Bray only went off on Ash at Hogsmeade because he was the one who started it.

[Felicity Locke]

"Mmhm, and I didn't even have to lift a finger. You did it all for me." Felicity grinned up at him and winked. "I'm a diabolical mastermind. You should be afraid."

Did Ash prepare a monologue for her or something? He probably only took one breath throughout his whole speech. Fay's eye twitched slightly and she glanced back at Bray. He was dutifully ignoring the whole thing by just looking up at the sky. She was itching to join him.

"We're talking right now, aren't we?" She tried not to smile at Bray's snort. He could jump in anytime, and she sent a glare his way to give him the hint. "But just because you came back here apologizing to us and such doesn't mean we exactly want to go back to being friends." She glanced at Bray again, guessing he was thinking the same thing. "We don't always have to throw punches or shout insults, but I can't say I want to go back to being buddy buddy again."

Felicity moved over to Bray and plopped down on the spot next to him. She leaned back on her hands and looked back up at Ash. "Forgive me for being harsh, but whenever something happens to you, somehow it affects me in some horrible way. I'm tired of recieving the short end of the stick." And with that she rested her back against the snow covered ground and looked up at the cloudy sky.