Closed Crosswind

Alfred Gorbach

Alfred Gorbach

Lost & Found
 
Messages
124
Blood Status
Half Blood
Age
11
The wind was annoying. Not unmanageable, but inconsistent and strong enough to make decent practice pointless. One gust would slam into the side of his stabilizer mid-draw, the next would vanish completely, leaving him overcompensating and irritated.

He'd shot a few ends anyway, but now he was lying in the grass, one leg stretched out, the other bent lazily. His bow rested next to him. He wasn't packed up, just indecisive about what to do next. Maybe the wind would settle. Maybe he should go home. But neither option felt right, so he stayed, waiting for indecision to turn into decision.

His shirt flapped lightly with every rush of air. The clouds weren't moving fast, but they weren't still either. Kinda like his thoughts. Just enough movement to be distracting, not enough to be useful.

Surprisingly, practically no one else was here yet. Then again, only the die-hards or desperate ones came down here in this weather.

For some reason, Eris came to mind. He hadn't seen her since that day, and he cringed a little, remembering all the nasty things he'd said to her, which she'd somehow taken so well. And how maybe he should've asked why she never wanted to leave this place either. Then again, what would've been the point of getting to know her if he was going to go away anyway? Either to some freak school or run back to Norway.

The freak school part didn't hit as hard as it usually did. L might be going too. And she was amazing. So freak and amazing didn't quite line up.​
 
Mania and Gaia had gone back to Hogwarts again and aunt Sofia had insisted on going to the same place they'd visited a few weeks ago. The whole time Eris had stuck by the woman had been filled with non-stop whining and complaining about Mania in particular. It was a surprise Eris had managed to stay walking with her for as long as she did but eventually she'd asked to go practice, had she not she might have done something stupid like yelled at the woman who had nothing good to ever say about the Gryffindor in their family who was trying her very best to be enough.

The weather wasn't optimal, but the brunette had still decided to go to the archery range to practice, just because it wasn't optimal for good shooting didn't mean it was useless to practice in the wind. If she was going to become the best of the best might as well master archery in whatever weather may be tossed at her. Not to her surprise the place seemed empty, apart from one person laying on the grass. Eris wasn't going to approach the boy, that wasn't what she'd come here for, but then her eyes focused on him more and she realized she knew him. "Fancy seeing you here today Sparkles." She spoke out before being able to stop it. What did that even mean?? Fancy seeing you here? For all she knew he could very well be living on the other side of the street. Sigh. Well it was out there now. She settled standing a few inches away from the boy, looking down at him with a neutral expression, though a hint of a smile was fighting to be seen.
 
He lifted his head and slid one arm behind it, squinting toward the voice to see who was talking to him. Just to check he wasn't hallucinating, because he'd literally just been thinking about her.

"Why, good day to you too, Princess." A self-satisfied smile crept onto his face. He wasn't sure why he kept calling her that. First time had been to mock her, but it sort of stuck, and that was that.

"Was wondering when you'd show up. Braving the storm for your loyal subjects?" His voice carried no bite and a crooked grin pulled at the corner of his mouth. "Or maybe you just missed me. That it?"

He'd just been thinking about how he regretted the things he'd said to her, and now here she was, and the first thing out of his mouth was teasing. Again.
He had no explanation for it. Eris just had that effect on him.​
 
Eris resisted the urge to roll her eyes at that stupid nickname. Princess. She didn't look like one so she wasn't sure where it even came from but whatever floated his boat she supposed. She did however fully roll her brown eyes and snort at his next set of comments. "In your dreams maybe, just needed to get away from my aunt for a bit." She said placing her hands on her hips and turning to look towards the rows of bales in the distance.

Eris was glad Sparkles didn't seem to have heard her admission about never wanting to leave the range. If he had and decided to ask about it she wasn't sure what she would or even could say to make it make sense or to no sound like she hated her family. She didn't but they were a lot. "Though I suppose if I want to get better this type of weather would be the perfect challenge." She said shrugging and turning to look back at the boy again.
 
"Naww, you want me to be dreaming about you?" She made teasing her way too easy. "Bold of you to assume you're even in the top three things haunting my sleep." He grinned, eyes squinting up at her from the grass.

"I think it’s too windy," he said more seriously. "They’d cancel comps for less, not worth messing with the aim. Then again," he sat up, brushing some grass off his arm, "aiming’s optional if your arrows run on sheer spite." He remembered how she'd landed three perfect shots right after he got under her skin. "Kinda makes me wonder if I should taunt you more often. You know, for training purposes."​
 
Eris glared at the boy, the nerve on him. Bold of him to assume she'd want to be on the top three of anything of his. "Who said I wanted to be? I was just making a point of the fact that no I did not come here for you." She gave him a sickeningly sweet smile. He was okay but he was far from making the cut of people that Eris would want to go see, for all she knew he was a muggle and she'd have to hide her life from him for the rest of their friendship, if there was even anything like that to exist between them.

Eris had turned away to look at the trees dancing with the wind. She loved windy days, there was something about the way the wind and trees danced together and how the wind felt like it was whispering in your ears. Her yes turned to glare at Sparkles as he yet again made a comment no doubt meant to get a rise out of her. "Yeah if you want to be shot with one of my arrows keep going Sparkles. Today may not be the day to push all the wrong buttons." That would be the only warning she'd give. Her emotional capacity for vile comments about one thing or another was at its max and while she might not outright shoot him she might smack him on the back of the head. Eris was a patient person to the core, she'd grown up in the middle of chaos, she'd leaned into the patient side with all her might but some days even that patience faltered and today was one of them. Her aunts complaints had really pushed on every nerve ending and she didn't need any more negativity, at this point she too was looking forward to when she'd start at Hogwarts.
 
Alfred chuckled, clearly entertained by how defensive she was getting, even though he already knew she hadn't come for him. Still, watching her try to justify it was pure gold.

"Oh, you wound me, Princess," he said dramatically, grabbing at his chest. "I’d have died a noble death, you know. A public servant. All so you could become a better archer."

He smirked up at her, satisfied with his performance. "So what did your aunt do? Make you wear a pink dress instead of a yellow one?" He said, approaching her. Then figured, she actually did look pissed. Maybe he'd pushed it too far.

He raised both arms in mock surrender.
"Alright, alright. I’m sorry. You don't even look like you wear dresses." He gave her a quick side glance, then eased off the teasing. "Seriously though. What’d she do?"​
 
Eris rolled her eyes at the boy's ridiculous comment. A noble death? Yeah right. She then snorted at the comment about her aunt making her wear a pink dress instead of a yellow one, yeah she wouldn't be caught dead in a dress. It was too movement restricting and she'd always have to worry about it flying in the wind or getting caught in something. She much preferred her current attire. Leggings with knee high boots and a tunic or just a normal shirt, today it was a normal shirt, with 3/4 sleeves.

"Complained, complained and complained." She admitted shaking her head. "You'd think she'd be happy three of the kids were out of her sight at a school, but instead she's using that free time to complain about the second oldest that's not even been around much for two years now." It infuriated her how mean aunt Sofia could be behind Nia's back and in front of her face. "That woman is the most bitter person I have ever met." She concluded with a shake of her head. "I'm so glad I'll be joining my sisters at the school soon too." She hadn't explicitly said anything about Hogwarts but she still hoped an owl wouldn't come poking at her head for talking so much about kids going away fro school.
 
"Alright." He got a bit lost somewhere between whether there were three or four sisters total, but didn’t ask. The stuff about her aunt being bitter sounded like first world problems anyway, not really his business. What did catch his attention though was the school part.

He shifted his weight to one leg and tilted his head slightly, eyes still on her.
"Why are you switching schools?" he asked.
She was about his age, which meant she had to be in some school already. That was the part that stood out. If she was already going somewhere, why change now?

He hooked his thumbs into his pockets, gaze flicking out toward the empty bales before coming back to her. They'd met here, at the archery field. The most normal place he knew. The only place that made perfect sense. So the thought that her new school might have anything to do with his didn’t even cross his mind.​
 
Eris was well aware that complaining about someone being bitter might sound silly but she had to also remind herself that they only heard of it, they didn't see or experience it. It was bound to be exhausting having everything scrutinized and seeing those you loved broken apart by the disapproval of a parent, no matter what they did. Eris huffed out a breath of annoyance, she was reaching her limit and for the first time in her life she was speaking up about her frustration about her aunt. She had never dared to say a bad word about the woman, after all she'd taken her in after her own parents had died and she'd been important to her father, but Merlin was she exhausting.

Glancing sideways Eris said the first thing they were taught to tell anyone they didn't know explicitly wasn't a muggle about the school. "A boarding school." That was that, technically it wasn't even a lie. It was a boarding school, just not one with mathematics and geography, but potions and charms instead. She'd never fully understood Nia's need to grow her own wings and get away from the family, not until she was gone and all that negativity that had been her burden to carry was directed at the rest.

Suddenly Eris was done talking, she was starting to get a headache from thinking. She hadn't come here to dwell on what was going on in her life, she'd come here to get lost in the routine of shooting. "I am going to practice now." She said in a monotone voice, all spark gone from it. Right now she needed the calm that archery brought her, she needed to do what she knew she was good at. Maybe she'd get back into a good mood.
 
Interesting.
Eris didn’t strike him as someone who’d just shut up. As a matter of fact, he’d tried pretty hard the first time to make that happen, with zero success. So what was it now? The school?

He didn’t say anything, just watched her get ready to practice. He considered whether this was some subtle magical cue for him to leave, but decided against it. How could he, when he was drawn to anything with depth, and she’d just sparked his curiosity. Or maybe it wasn’t depth. Still, had to stay and find out.

He stood there a while longer, not looking at her, just like the first time, when he was definitely not looking at her but still noticing everything. Eventually, he figured that if he kept doing that, it might cross into creepy territory, so he grabbed his bow and fired off a few more shots, which he soon gave up as he really didn’t want to mess up his aim.

One thought kept bugging him. It would explain the sudden shutdown. But she'd seemed glad to be going, and nobody he knew was glad. Still.

"So, um," he said, not looking her way, "that school. Is it for kids who are eleven and older? Where birds like to deliver post?" He figured it was a safe enough way to ask. If you knew, you knew. And if she didn’t, he could always play it off as a joke.​
 
Eris soon lost herself to the routine of getting into your stance, drawing the string, aiming and letting go. Every arrow was way off the middle mark, but it didn't bother her. She wasn't expecting to hit bulls eye's, she wasn't even trying to if she was being honest. Eris just wanted to let go for a moment, fall into the comfortable rhythm of what she knew and it worked like it always did. It worked so well that it felt as though it was just her, her bow and the wind and arrows. Everything else ceased to exist for a moment and no offense to Mr. Sparkles over there she forgot he was even there.

That was until he spoke, Eris had had her moment of peace. She'd been able to reground herself and refocus on things that mattered, which genuinely her aunt wasn't even on that list. The comment about the school made her head snap toward the boy faster than should be humanly possible, fast enough to give her whiplash. Her eyes narrowed, he knew? She looked him up and down, considering, calculating the risks. He could very well be a wizard, she knew that. "Owls to be exact." She finally specified. "They bring you a cute little card on your eleventh birthday, Merlin knows how they find you." That was half a joke at this point, half real concern about what kind of a tracker they had and what kind of a bird knew to fly to your exact location. "So you got one too?" She asked lowering her bow finally.
 
Her head snapped toward him so fast he actually blinked in surprise. That was all the confirmation he needed. She hadn’t said anything yet, but the look alone gave it away.

He saw how she looked him up and down and had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from commenting on it. The last thing he needed was to ruin this moment by saying something stupid about her checking him out like that. The joke died anyway when she described his death sentence as a cute little card.

"Unbelievable," he said, head tipping back as he ran a hand down his face, pausing briefly like the contact might ground him. It didn’t.

Then the thought hit him.
He looked back at her, eyes sharp now.
"Are we better than anyone else because we're like this?" he asked, dead serious, gesturing at targets. "I need to know. Does magic make us shoot better?”
It wasn’t until the silence after that he realized he hadn’t even confirmed he received the letter, but the question gave it away.​
 
Eris stared at sparkles, kind of taken aback that he too would attend a school like hers, probably Hogwarts as well. As he said it was unbelievable she almost told him not really, more people than he probably realized were like them, but she held back. Then the question whether or not the magic had anything to do with their shooting aired and she shrugged. "I don't think so? I mean I am from a magical family, both my parents were magical my aunt, uncle and sisters are too so far, but I also know that I wouldn't be as good as I am without all the practice I put into this." Sure magic could make odd things happen, but Eris refused to accept a silly thing like that her skill was only because she had magic running through her blood.

"There are small things that can happen from having magic I suppose, but if you look at my current target, you'll see that magic isn't all it takes to shoot." She said as she looked at her target, almost grimacing at the atrocious misses of the bull's eye. The arrows were scattered all around it, not even close to the center. That only proved her point probably, she had magic and she still wasn't unearthly good. "I sure do hope you won't start disregarding the work I put into my skills just because you found out I'm a witch, and don't do that to your own skills either. You worked on those skills, magic has nothing to do with it." Not as far as she was aware anyways.
 
He dropped to his knees like he’d just been shot, then sat back and fell flat into the grass, arms stretched out like he was celebrating a goal. He stared at the sky, breathing out in a long, slow exhale.
He hadn’t even known this was something weighing him down on daily basis. He always pushed those thoughts away. But the second she said it, said it like it was obvious, it was like something unlatched in his chest.

Archery was his. Not magic. Not blood. Not anything his dad could twist into some shameful freak explanation.
Just him.
The work he’d put in, the hours, the days, the years, the bruises, the drills, the control, all of it, that was his. And no one could take it away.

"Thank you," he said, eyes still on the sky, voice quiet but steady. "Seriously."
He didn’t care if it made him look weird. He was weird. She could expect more where that came from.​
 
Eris blinked a few times as Sparkles fell on the ground. She shrugged figuring it was best to let the boy ride out those emotions on his own rather than make any comments about it, call it returning the favour from earlier if you will. She did however close her eyes and turn into the wind fr a second, for the first time today fully feeling it on her skin. She'd been so wound up by her annoyance that she hadn't even fully enjoyed the day until now.

Her eyes snapped open after a bit when she heard a quiet thank you from behind her and she turned to look back at Sparkles again. "For what?" She asked curiously, not sure what she'd done to be thanked for. "You are welcome I suppose." Eris added after a bit, perhaps her words had held more sway on him than anticipated.
 
Alfred didn’t move right away, then lifted one arm off the grass to gesture vaguely in her direction, as if that was supposed to answer everything.
"For that," he said, still lying there. "For saying it like it wasn't up for debate." He finally sat up, brushing grass off his shirt without looking at her.

"I didn't really think magic did it either, but… I guess it's been in the back of my head," he reached for a blade of grass and started shredding it between his fingers. "Like maybe all that work didn't count as much as I thought. That it was just some fluke, some magical blood thing I didn't ask for."

He flicked the shredded grass away, finally glancing her way with a crooked smile.
"You’re still kinda scary though, just for the record." He got to his feet. "And a bit of a brag, aren’t you? Whole family’s magical, huh? Should I bow, or does the royal bloodline prefer a standing ovation?" His eyes glinted and he didn't look away.​
 
Eris merely raised an eyebrow as the bou gestured to her. She wasn't a mind reader he better speak up and so he did. She shrugged. "It's not." She stated. "Up for debate I mean, some things are magic some things are learned skill. This sport is the latter." She turned to look at her bale, internally grimacing. She needed to get those arrows down, trying or not that many misses was just sad. Even in this weather. "That, Sparkles, is just your inner doubts trying to sabotage you. We all have them, but the important thing is to know that its not always necessarily true." She had no idea where she was going with this, all Eris knew was that she was channeling her inner Hera with this speech.

Rolling her eyes and huffing out something resembling a laugh Eris shook her head. She'd merely explained that she wasn't sure if magic had anything to do with it. She'd grown up in a family of those with it in their blood, though her uncle was a muggle-born so they did have cousins, or whatever they even were to her at this point, that were muggles but they never cared for archery. Besides she certainly wasn't better than some older than her. "Well my family's not pureblood? Besides I don't believe in that pureblood supremacy stuff even if they were and I'm just like you. A kid trying to make sense of the world around her, though I do have the advantage of a magical family then I suppose?" Shaking her head a smile pulled at the corners of her lips. "What comes to scary, you'd hate to meet my sister Gaia. I fear you'd be left shaking in your boots after her." Gaia could be scary, she was perhaps the scariest out of all of her siblings and one not to be messed with.
 
"I'll walk with you to get the arrows,” he said, noticing how her eyes kept drifting toward the bales. “If you tell me what that pureblood supremacy stuff is." He was already walking towards her.
"Are there... ranks or something?"​
 
Eris shrugged, it being a way to agree on it. She began walking towards the bale while trying to collect her thoughts on it, how'd one even explain that ridiculous mindset some people had? "I don't know a lot about it. Never really knew anyone that believed in it but I heard things." She clarified while walking. "Purebloods are like magicals who have been well their blood is pure so there's like no mixing in muggle-born or anything, I don't know the whole science that goes behind it and how they prove that even." It was a headache to even think about and to think some people stressed over it too? "I think some families have some silly ranks, not sure though because again never really knew any of those people." Merlin she hoped no pureblood's were around to hear her call the ranks silly.

"But it's just some of them seem to think because their blood is" she made quoting signs on her fingers as she spoke. "Pure or whatever, they are better than the rest of us. Now obviously not all of them think that but some do. Its silly really if you ask me but that's just the way the world works I suppose. Some people are born with mindset bordering on god-complex while others aren't, now don't ever quote me on all of this information. It's just bits and pieces of what I have heard." She hadn't even seen much of these things herself, luckily so. "Are both of your parents muggles, or like non-magicals then?" Eris asked, not wanting to be rude but it was interesting.
 
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