Apollo {ray of sunshine} Black (errordynamic) wrote in quidditchprose, @ 2014-02-25 16:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | felicity wood |
Who: Felicity Wood
What: Prompt Challenge - Cold
Where: Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch
When: November 6, 1993, age 11
Rating: Low
Status: Complete [Narrative]
Hogwarts wasn’t what Felicity imagined. Oh, there were exciting classes and flying, but the dementors. Dumbledore promised the creatures couldn’t come onto the school grounds, but Felicity hadn’t known Hogwarts would be so cold. She clenched her jaw to stop her teeth from chattering, hitching her chin just a bit higher. She’d forgotten her Gryffindor scarf back in the dorm, but it was only November and early at that. So who cares if the weather was near on terrible and that they’d had to sleep in the Great Hall the night of the Halloween feast? It was her first quidditch match as a Hogwarts student and she wanted a good seat. Elbowing her way through older students, hitching her chin up even further when a forth year protested until his friend pointed out that she was Wood’s little sister and that maybe we should just let her be, the first year found herself in the front row, the ground a dizzying distance below. Normally Felicity would scorn being just anyone’s little sister, but she really did want to see Ollie play and beat Hufflepuff. A few select first years had followed her wake and sat while she chose to stand. She was sure she yelled the loudest whenever Spinnet, Johnson, and Bell passed the quaffle back and forth to score a goal or Ollie stopped one from going in. Yelling brought color to the eleven year old’s cheeks and soon she forgot about the missing scarf, the fact she could no longer feel the tip of her nose, or the rain that pelted down on players and spectators alike. Instead, hazel eyes watched the match, hoping she could spot the snitch even before their seeker. One day she would be playing instead of watching. Felicity was in mid-yell when a sudden iciness overtook her, fighting her body from the inside out and freezing her vocal cords all at the same time. Dementors poured onto the pitch and she, along with the rest of her house, could only watch in horror as Harry Potter tumbled from his broom, only to be saved by the Headmaster. Somberly, Gryffindor and the rest of the student body, were ushered back to the castle, Hufflepuff having caught the snitch and won the game. For the first time, however, Felicity’s head wasn’t filled with flying, quidditch, or seeking out the snitch. She just wanted to know if she would ever be warm again. |
Felicity hovered in the air, above the fray of chasers and beaters, eyes sharp for first sight of the snitch. This was her first year on the team and while she was no Harry Potter, she was not about to let Gryffindor down. Gripping her broomstick, a hand me down from Ollie, between her knees, Felicity stretched lazily, knowing full well her opposing seeker watched her like a hawk. Good. Let him. Will I play quidditch in Hogwarts too?, her six year old self echoed in her head. Ollie had promised her in all his adolescence assuredness. She was playing now, wasn’t she? Felicity could practically the snitch’s wings against her palm. Rubbing her hand against her thigh to rid it of the phantom sensations, she could hear the crowd let up a roar as a chaser scored a goal. A quick check of the score assured Felicity that even if the snitch made it’s appearance now, Gryffindor would win, regardless if she caught the snitch or not. Not that not catching it was even an option in Felicity’s mind. Better than both of us, her brother had promised her all those years ago and Felicity was still inclined to believe him. A flash of gold peeked at the corner of her eye. She did not spare a glance to see if her opponent had spotted the same. It would cost her precious seconds and Felicity was not in a habit of second guessing herself. Arcing to the left, the chase was on; the fifth year felt laughter bubble up and subsequently lost itself to the wind. Her brothers’ words rang in her ears, fondly exasperated as she badgered them for their expert opinions after she first made the team in her third year and started this year. She kept herself low, tucking her legs up against the broom rather than letting them dangle uselessly and slowing her down. Felicity sent herself into a roll as a bludger tried to set its sights on her, leaving it to her beaters to deal with. There was a snitch for her to catch. Continuing in the roll, Felicity gave felt her opponent no more than half a broom back. She’d give him a firm kick or an elbow to the head if she didn’t want to be accused of cobbing. She dove with the snitch, pushing the broom to limits she had yet to test, until… SUCCESS. Wings beat furiously against her palm as Felicity pulled out of her dive, right arm raised in triumph. Gryffindor’s roar sounded in her ears and she doubted she had ever heard something so sweet. |
Smile for the camera! Felicity smiles for the camera, but not like she used to. She doesn’t offer the wide, almost mischievous grin, an enthusiastic boy a year her senior once asked to photograph. Instead, she offers something just slightly less dazzling and brilliant. Felicity, like most of the underage students, had been evacuated through the Room of Requirement to the (relative) safety of Hogsmeade. That wasn’t her original intention. It hadn’t been like her to turn her back from a fight. She’d joined the revived DA after a detention with the Carrows, her chin raised, mulish and just as proud as when she’d caught her first snitch for Gryffindor. To run and hide went against every fiber of her being. Evading the staff members and ghosts escorting her and her peers was easy enough, Felicity found. She hung back, wand drawn and at the ready, stepping out only when she recognized one of the faces of those that had returned to defend Hogwarts. "Colin." Felicity stepped out of her alcove, smiling that wide, honest smile for the boy who so patiently worked with her to master the Impediment Jinx and asked again to take her picture as they sat at the edge of the Great Lake, mourning the Headmaster’s death. He had been her first, seventh, and forty-third kiss. The boy, no man, stared back at her, as if he did not expect her to be there. Or that she would suddenly disappear if he dared to blink. In the shadows of the left corridor of the seventh floor sweethearts looked at one another for the first time in nearly a year. "Flicka," he said finally, voice wearier and hoarser than she remembered. Did she sound and look any different, Felicity wondered. "What are you doing here?" they asked one another simultaneously. A crack of nervous laughter and they started again. Felicity explained the Carrows and Colin showed her his Coin. "You need to get to the Hogs Head," Colin told her, gently guiding her towards the door he just walked through, ignoring her protests with the sort of sardonic grin she didn’t remember him having before. "You can curse my name all you want, but I did not spend the last nine months on the run to hide now or to worry about you." He pressed a kiss to her forehead, both of her cheeks, and finally her lips. "I’m not going to apologize." Opening the door, he pushed her through, swiftly closing it behind her. Try as she might, Felicity could not get the doors to reopen. She tried tugging. She tried hexing. She even tried begging the Room to let her out, but her please fell on deaf stones. Felicity had no choice but to withdraw to the passage that would lead her to the Hogs Head, curses still falling from her lips. Eventually, when they were brought back to the Castle to see the destruction and mourn their dead, Felicity found Colin again. He looked more like she remembered him, laying still in death. She remembered collapsing beside him, yet more curses fell from her lips as tears streamed down her face. She remembered being led away into the protective arms of a brother. Most of all she remembered Colin’s last words. I’m not going to apologize. So maybe Felicity had lost that smile, but she’d gained something more. Smile for the camera! |
Felicity turned the camera over in her heads, so like Colin’s, but not. She wouldn’t have accepted his actual camera, even if his family had thought to give it, but it wasn’t that had to track down a similar model. Truth be told, she hadn’t known exactly what to do with it once she purchased it, though it had hardly been a whim on her part. Her first photographs weren’t very good, whose were, but Felicity wasn’t going to let something as silly as that stop her. She continued to look through the viewfinder, setting up each shot, imagining Colin looking through with her, guiding her, offering suggestions and tips, much like he had done with the Impediment Jinx. Over time Felicity got better and Colin’s voice became less distinct. Photography became less of a homage to her dead boyfriend and more of an interest and hobby of her own. She began to carry it with her, chucking it in her school bag or quidditch bag as an afterthought. One never knew when you might want to capture a memory. Or a truth. Though Felicity those spontaneous moments with her friends for the entire contents of Gringotts, she quite enjoyed her solitary sojourns across the grounds. She saw the lingering damage the Final Battle, a sharp reminder that not everything was so easily fixed. Felicity loved shooting in rain best, especially when it fit her mood. The sharp, piercing drops of the November rains soaked into her hat and gloves, turning them nearly icy in the Highland wind. She never cared for November, not since her first year and the Dementors, but the rain numbed her anger. There was rain-snow-fog in December and January, sometimes so thick Felicity couldn't see fifty paces in front of her, and sometimes she did not know if she were awake or dreaming as objects just seemed to appear out of nowhere for her camera to capture. Considering she was at Hogwarts either option was possible. By far her favorite rain, however, held the promise of spring. In April and May, when she ought to be revising for exams, there would be days like today when her skin would feel too tight and nervous energy would spark across her skin like a spell gone wrong. Too wet for a proper flight, Felicity took her camera and explored the grounds for the infinitesimal time. The rain soaked through her jumper soon enough, she never thought to dress in proper rain gear for times like these, but she did not mind. It was nothing a dose of Pepper Up couldn't cure that evening. Besides, it wasn't even that cold. That was the nice thing about spring rains; they could be gentle and warm. Hardly rain at all. Spotting a rabbit amongst the grasses, Felicity crouched down and raised her camera up to align the shot. As her knuckles brushed across her cheek, she was surprised to find them warm and wet. Rain drops or tears, Felicity could not tell the difference, but as she depressed the shutter button to capture the rabbit in mid-leap she found that she did not rightly care. |