Flying or Falling

[Rose Holland]

Rose wanted to make the most out of her fourth year at Hogwarts. It was starting to dawn on the girl that she wouldn't be a student at the school forever, as in only three short years she would be in her final year. It felt strange, thinking of a life after school. Unlike some of the serious students, she wasn't really thinking all that much about her future. She had picked her subjects in the previous year based on what she enjoyed right now, not because they would be useful later. But the goals she had for this year weren't really related to classes. What the girl wanted was to keep up with the friendships she had made during her time at Hogwarts. She had no doubts that the group of her, Rory, Harley and Hayley would keep in touch even after graduation, but she didn't want to lose all her other friends over the course of time. There was someone she hadn't talked to in a while, and she wanted to find him. Charlie was a lot more serious than her, and kind of a nerd, but he was still fun to hang out with. After all, the two had met while sneaking out at night. It was a funny memory now, and she couldn't wait to find him to tease him about it.

But where would she find him? She hoped he wasn't in the Ravenclaw common room as it would involve her asking another student to check for her, but she knew she would have to check there eventually if she didn't find him anywhere else. She checked the library first, but didn't find him there. The only familiar person she saw there was her sister Phoebe, and she had simple waved at her before going on her way. If she had told her sister who she was looking for, she was sure Phoebe would have called him her boyfriend again. It was silly, but she didn't feel like being teased with that right now.

Her next stop after the library was the student lounge, and to her relief she spotted his familiar blond head almost right away. With a grin, she headed over and slung an arm around him, messing up his hair before letting go of him and taking a seat next to him. "Surprise! Remember me?" It wasn't a serious question, as the two shared classes even if they hadn't talked outside of them for a bit. "What are you doing?" She asked him, looking at him curiously. "Don't tell me you're studying already."

 

[Charles Abberline]

Another year had gone by and as always the now fourth year found himself reading ahead on classes again so he would better understand what the Professors were going to teach them this year. He had already tried starting to read back at home but with his father around there hadn't been many opportunities to do so as he continued to ask Charlie's attention now that his mother wasn't around anymore. He did not mind that his Dad wanted to do all sorts of activities with him over the holidays but it had gotten a bit tiresome near the end of the summer so he was glad to be back at Hogwarts for another year of school.

A smile appeared on his face almost instantly when she slung her arm around him. ''No, not the hair, not the hair,'' the thirteen-year-old said dramatically as she ruffled his hair, obviously joking. ''Hard to forget such a face like yours,'' Charlie said, though didn't quite understand why he had said something like that to Rose. ''No?'' The Ravenclaw said, closing the book he had in front of him, and smiled weakly at his friend. ''No, I wasn't studying already... I was just eh... just reading,'' he added nodding slightly, too embarrassed to tell his friend that he had actually been reading for class during their first week back at school. He pushed his book to the side and shifted position on the chair to face her. ''Anyway, how are you? I haven't seen you in a while,'' he asked, genuinely curious as to how she was doing.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose laughed happily when Charlie complained about his hair, reaching over to muss it up a little bit more. "I like it like this." She told him, but then pulled a funny face when he talked about how it was hard to forget a face like hers. That had to be a jokey insult. Right? She didn't let herself ponder that for too long, though somehow his comment had made her a little bit nervous. She tried to ignore the strange feeling in her stomach as she reached for his book. With a smirk, she held it up. "Right, 'just reading' a textbook we use in class. That's called studying, you know." She teased, waving the book at him. "It's okay, you weren't put in the nerdy house for nothing." She said with a small laugh, handing the book back to him. "I'm good! Just having fun with my friends and taking a few classes, honestly glad to be back at school. I haven't seen you in a while either. I guess that's kind of obvious. But anyway, that's why I came to find you." She said with a happy smile. "Any more late night sneaking around adventures?" It was funny how Charlie could be all serious about his studying and things like that, but also break a few rules. She liked that about him, though she had a feeling he might have become more serious since their first year. Obviously she would have to be a better bad influence to him in the future.

 

[Charles Abberline]

He chuckled when she said that she liked his hair all ruffled up and ran a hand through his hair to make it look somewhat proper again. Charlie never spend too much time fuzzing about his hair whilst waking up as he knew that it would eventually fall flat again no matter how many hair products he would put into it. He smiled sheepishly at Rose when she was waving his book at him. He should have known that she wouldn't fall for his oh so obvious lie but could not blame himself for hoping that she would. Charlie was aware that the other houses thought of Ravenclaw as the 'nerdy' house amongst the four of them and could easily see why they would as some of his housemates were kind of nerdy but the fact that Rose associated him with that as well bugged him a bit. Surely she didn't think that he only liked to read books and do his homework, right? If so, the teenager needed to prove to his friend that he was fun also and that he could do those fun and somewhat dangerous things she and her friends liked to do, too. He nodded and listened to Rose, happy to hear that she was doing all right. ''Not lately,'' Charlie answered. ''But I'm always up for more if you would like to sneak around again soon,'' he added, determined to show his friend that he could be loads of fun too.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose didn't linger on her teasing about his book, as she knew there was nothing wrong with being serious about your schoolwork. Especially not if you were also up for fun things. It was the best combination in her opinion, and she sometimes felt a bit sad she didn't really care about her classes too much. Rose knew she wasn't the best at school and not as smart as her younger sister, but she would have liked to enjoy it more. She smiled at his answer to her question. "I haven't done that lately either, to be honest. Maybe we should go together sometime again, just like old times. But let's wait until after the Brightstone weekend. I'm so excited to get some new candy and check out some of the other shops, and if we get caught we may be banned from going." She said with a grin, proud of herself for thinking so far ahead. "Do you need anything from Brightstone too?"

 

[Charles Abberline]

Charlie sat up and listened attentively to his friend. ''I would like that very much,'' he answered. Although the teenager didn't look forward to getting caught again if they were even going to get caught this time around since both of them knew the castle much better compared to last time, but he did really want to prove to Rose that he could be fun and cool instead of lame and nerdy. ''Actually, I was thinking of going too. Dad asked if I could buy him some sweets from Honeydukes as well as some joke items from Gambol and Jape's,'' the Ravenclaw told his friend. ''We could go to the village together if you would like that?'' he then asked, a little bit nervous to hear her answer. It would be a lot nicer to go to Brightstone together with someone rather than what he usually did which was to go on his own, especially with Rose since she was a nice person to hang around with

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose grinned widely. "Agreed, we're going to go explore! I don't know where, though. Maybe the dungeons? I bet those are creepy at night." Creepy in a cool way, she hoped. But she did think it was smarter to wait until after Brightstone. Hearing Charlie wanted to go as well made her smile, but then he asked if they could to together and her smile widened. "Sure!" She said happily, before stopping to think. It would be fun to hang out with Charlie, but after saying yes she wondered suddenly if he had meant it as... anything remotely like a date. Surely not, as he didn't say that. No, they would go as friends. "That sounds like fun, I've been meaning to check out Gambol and Jape's. I sort of want to prank my sister Phoebe."