Sweat in the Midst

[Hamza Khalid]

"Five more pushups and I'll break my previous record." Hamza was doing push ups to keep up with his exercises and to keep himself in shape. With his feet on a four foot rock, and his arms on the ground, it was hard for him to do those intense pushups, but Hamza wasn't the type of person to give up. "I've got to keep myself in shape for Quidditch next year." said Hamza with confidence in his voice. He finished up his push up routine and started to jog on a straight path. Hamza was breathing hard, continuous sweat coming down his face, and having his wand in his back pocket. He looked towards the sky and remembered when he used to race against his father back in the muggle world when all of a sudden, he tripped over a small rock hitting his right knee on the ground. With a small bruise on his leg, he got up slowly and walked to the nearest tree right outside the Forbidden Forest. "I guess that's enough for me today." said Hamza while ripping a part of his spare sweat band that was in his pocket and putting it on his bruise to stop the little amount of blood that was coming out. "Wow, I've made some good progress today, at a cost." said Hamza looking towards his leg. He then looked towards the sky again watching the clouds that were in different shape.

 

[Sureya Eidos]

Sureya Eidos walked somberly along the grounds of the school with no set destination in mind. Her thoughts were completely taken up with so many things that had happened to her since she had arrived at Hogwarts. She had written to her best friend in England relating every detail from the Brotherhood auction and her bids on the wrong boys though quite happy with the results, to Jai Dionysus and his pigheaded moods around her. She related the more mundane facts as well, school work and professors, house points and such.

As she looked up briefly it was to discover that she had walked a considerable distance from the school, almost in a stones throw of the Forbidden Forest. About to turn around and return whence she came, Sureya paused and looked closely at a figure further away. A smile came easily to her when she recognised the person to be Hamza and walked eagerly to greet him. It was only as she got closer that she noticed he was favouring his leg as if it ached.

"Hamza" she smiled at him moving closer to where he sat, "hi."
She moved to sit down beside him, her cool blue eyes regarding his leg.
"Did you hurt yourself?" it was then she glanced up at him and noticed the sweat that glistened on his face. She of course didn't know he had been exercising but thought the sweat was somehow connected to his leg. Reaching up with the back of her hand she touched his forehead gently.
"Are you alright Hamza?"

 

[Hamza Khalid]

Hamza looked towards his leg again and saw that the blood was slowly going away. Hamza's body could heal faster compared to a normal person. He didn't know how it would happen so fast, but it happened to him. Hamza laid his head back and thought of the time when he fell off his bike in the muggle world. He fell down pretty hard and had bruises and scars all over his hands and legs. His mother and father brought him home and were going to heal him themselves, but they noticed that the scars and bruises were healing away very quickly, as if his healing system worked at a very fast rate.

Hamza was just laying there, with both his hands giving comfort to his right leg when he heard a familiar voice. He looked over and saw Sureya, whom was coming to see him. She called his name and said hi to him. Hamza smiled and said, "Hey there Sureya.' Hamza tried to hide his wound to not stress Sureya, but she had already noticed something was wrong with his leg, so there was no point in hiding anything from her. Hamza wasn't the type of guy to hide anything from anybody, but when it came to comfort and worries, he would do what would be best for the other person, even if it mean't hurting himself. "I'm fine, just fell over a rock and bruised by right knee. How clumsy of me right?" said Hamza with a chuckle. "I'll be fine though. My bruise is already starting to heal and will be at full strength in no time." said Hamza. Forgetting about his wound, he wondered what Sureya was doing all the way out in no where, especially near the Forbidden Forest. "Out of curiosity Sureya, what 'are' you doing all the way out here?" said Hamza as he let his right leg straighten out.

 

[Sureya Eidos]

She lowered her hand from his face thinking it had been a little forward of her to be checking his temperature, especially when his explanation let her know it had not been warranted. Her ice cool blue eyes regarded him when he quizzed her about being so far out and looking back across the lawn and gardens to the school, she realised she had walked a good distance indeed.

Placing her hands on the stone beside her Sureya sighed a little.
"I needed to get out for some fresh air and think. I guess my thinking took me further than I had planned on going" she shrugged slightly glancing down towards his leg.
"Are you sure you're alright?" he was a good friend and with the fact that they would be attending the Yule Dance together, Sureya found she had begun thinking about him nearly as often as Jai. Though not in the same context at all.

 

[Hamza Khalid]

As Sureya lowered her hand off of Hamza's head, he noticed a drop in concern from Sureya, which gave Hamza to feeling that Sureya was at ease now. Hamza didn't have the habit of making his friend's worry about him, though over the course of Hamza's life, his friend's have proven to be of good help in tight spots. Adjusting his knee with his right hand, and a small painful expression on his face, Hamza said, "Fresh air? I see.' Hamza wiped off the expression of his face and then continued, "Everyone needs to get fresh air once in a while, even I do. One of the reasons why I was out here.' It wasn't often Hamza got out to have time to himself. After he broke up with his ex girlfriend, he had much more time to himself, getting things done, keeping up with classes and what not.

Hamza noticed Sureya glancing at his leg as if something major had happened. He looked at his scars and bruises again, and most of them were healed off already. Only the big major scar was left to be healed and his body was working on fixing that right now. "No need to worry Sureya, I'll be just fine." said Hamza with a smile. Last thing Hamza wanted was to see someone worried sick about him. Hamza looked at his wound again and noticed his big scar was completely healed, and all of his scars and bruises were healed as well. He wanted to stand up, but he didn't want to put any pressure on his legs because the wounds were just healed, and he didn't want to do anything reckless that may hurt him again. He looked towards Sureya with innocent eyes and said, "Do you mind help me stand up Sureya?" Hamza extended out his left hand to Sureya to help him stand on his legs.

 

[Sureya Eidos]

Sureya could only smile at him, he was sweet and always concerned about her when they met. She didn't doubt for a second that he would be fine but that didn't stop her from being concerned about him either. It was always different around Hamza compared to being near Jai. They were like ying and yang, completely different ends of the spectrum and yet she wouldn't change either of them for anything. She cared about both just as they were, even if Jai did wind her up no end.

"Of course I don't mind" she told him standing up before him and taking his hand in her own as she helped him to stand. His hand felt warm in her own, pleasant as if it felt utterly right to be holding his hand. She smiled at the thought as she waited for him to use her to help himself up.

 

[Hamza Khalid]

It was a little embarrassing for Hamza to ask for help from someone. He didn't have the habit of asking help from anyone because he was tough at heart, he never gave up or anything. Asking help from Sureya didn't make him feel odd for some reason, as if whenever Hamza would need help, Sureya would be there to help him get up, but that didn't mean that he was weak. Hamza smiled as he heard Sureya agreeing to helping him. Hamza raised his right hand slowly, trying his best not to cause any damage to his leg as Sureya pulled him up. Keeping his leg straight, his warm right hand in Sureya's warm hands, he was pulled up by Sureya. He supported his leg with his left hand to make sure nothing would be damaged as he would try to stand up straight.

"Ouch." said Hamza as he stood up straight and felt small pain in the area where he had the big scar. Hamza instantly looked at his big scar and noticed that it was still hanging in there, but there was some internal bleeding going on. To not worry Sureya, Hamza instantly turned around and started to do a few jumps and started to jog around Sureya to get his groove going. He felt his internal bleeding wound being taken care of by his cells and felt better as he contunied to jog around Sureya.

Hamza then stopped in front of Sureya, and said, "That's much better. I feel better now." Hamza caught up with his breath and looked at his wound again. It seemed that the internal bleeding had stopped and Hamza was regaining his strength. He raised both his eyes brows as he rose up to look at Sureya and said, "Thank you Sureya for Helping me.' Hamza took a small pause while looked behind Sureya noticing he could do a small sprint to make sure he's gained his strength and said, "I'm gonna do a short sprint and I'll be back in a minute."

Instantly, Hamza bent to the ground with his legs straight up in a racing position, and then took off fast. In the muggle world, Hamza won many trophies in school events for running and what not, so he was pretty fast. As he ran fast, he felt his strength coming back to him as he pushed himself more every second. Hamza's goal was to always keep moving forward and to improve himself. He made his way to the point where he looked at to return. Without stopping, he swept his right leg downward to turn as if he was swinging, the started to push himself even further. Hamza was trying to make a good impression on Sureya that she has a friend that isn't weak, who is a strong person and will be there for her whenever she may need help, will be there in her good and bad times. As he made his way back to Sureya and stopped right in front of her, then said, "That's better. I feel much stronger and I have my full strength back.' Hamza was glad to have made that run because it helped him focus more and had obtained his full strength back. Hamza then said, "Sorry about what just happened, I had to do it to test myself. Anyways, enough about me, so, what's on your mind?"

 

[Sureya Eidos]

She watched him flex and stretch before he took off running through the trees. It felt like an age that he was gone for and in that time Sureya leaned against the trunk of a tree and closed her eyes as she hummed quietly to herself. It was peaceful here, she hadn't imagined the forbidden forest could be but then again they weren't deep inside of it. Wrapping her arms about her waist she smiled dreamily to herself picturing herself dancing at the Yule Dance. She had never attended a dance before but had been taught a few steps by her father and grandmother, so she wasn't going to show Hamza up on the dance floor or anything.

Her eyes slowly opened as she heard the crunching of feet through the trees and saw Hamza return from his sprint. He baffled her at times how he was so studious and kind, gentle and yet as strong as an ox if the mood took him. Chivalrous and caring and yet as she looked at him standing there glistening in his own sweat she could not help but conjure up images of him being a bit more than caring. Her hand tingled where he had held it earlier and she clasped it tightly. Unable to tear her eyes from him. Sureya wondered what was happening, it felt like an attraction to him but he was her friend, wouldn't it be wrong?

Though she did surmise that she knew she had feelings for Jai that were all over the place, he infuriated her and calmed her all in a few moments. Unfortunately when Hamza asked if she had anything on her mind she blurted out the word without any thought.
"You" her eyes widened at first before she finally managed to tear them away from him, "I mean ... about the Yule Dance, that is."

 

[Hamza Khalid]

Catching up with his breath after asking Sureya what was on her mind, Hamza coughed when she said that she was thinking about him. Wondering how those words came out of Sureya's mouth, he questioned himself if Sureya was moving towards him in other way? With a puzzled face, he knew that he did have something towards Sureya, but even he didn't know what it was, maybe positive? I wasn't because of Sureya being Part-Veela, because if it was, Hamza would have crashed all over when he first met her, but to his surprise at first when she told him she was Part-Veela and him not being attracted to her in that way was odd. "Me?" said Hamza with a puzzled face.

She continued saying that she was talking about the Yule Ball. Hamza hadn't been thinking about the Yule ball yet, though it was one a day or two away and Hamza hadn't thought about what he was going to wear, what he was going to with Sureya at the ball, or anything. He kept a cool mind and thought that it would all work out just fine and panicking would not help. "I see." said Hamza. Hamza then pointed to a tree and said, "Let's sit over there and we can talk more.' Hamza was a little tired now, so he needed to take a small break. Sitting down, putting his legs in forward position, crossing his legs, then said, "So, it would seem that we are going to the Yule Ball together. First I want to ask you that are you ok with going to the Yule ball with me? I don't want you to feel pressured or anything because of the auction.' said Hamza taking out a small cloth towel to wipe off his sweat.