Wild At Heart

[Tybalt Archer]

Tybalt had been stressing quite a lot, exams put a lot of pressure on his mind. He could hardly think of anything else. He could barely see what was fun any more. Gone were those carefree days of first year. He realised clearly that he needed to do well in the exams to be able to continue on to with what he wanted to do, but the stress of the exams was bringing with it just a lot of excess energy and in parts some anger. He had spent the full night trying to remember all the different things from the Ancient Runes class, since he had done the class last semester and the exam was in this. It had lead to an early morning, where he found himself sat in Gryffindor common room, just bored and in parts frustrated of reading the words on the pages. His hand felt like it was cramping from so much writing. Ty had never really been naturally smart, he worked hard and got the results he worked for. But, that morning, he just couldn't be bothered with reading, or writing one more page. So, instead the teen had packed away all those things, and with an abundance of energy decided that he needed to get rid of it. Which was why, to him, going to the quidditch pitch and doing a bit of practice would be a good waste of it. He had a game coming up, and while it wasn't hugely important for them to win, he knew he could use the practice. With that decided in his mind, he gathered what he would need to practice and left the dorm room heading straight for that pitch. As he made his way through the school, he realised that he really needed this. It wasn't just those exams that were causing him stress, he had a lot of extra curricular that he focused on, which had to take a step back as he focused on his studies, and finally there was that little issue of his relationship. He was technically still seeing B, but he hadn't seen or really heard from her in too long. He had no idea what was going on, and it made things tricky. He loved her, he was almost sure of that. He just didn't know what this meant, where they stood, or even where she was. He didn't know if he could tell anyone about them. Would it really matter, if she or her twin were not around to do anything about her. All in all, it felt like it was just too much to the young Gryffindor.

Stepping out of the school, into the cool morning felt like a giant relief. The common room had always felt like home, but it had felt cramped and just too warm. The light cool morning air came as a welcome relief to him. He continued down to the pitch, and placed his belongings down beside some of the Gryffindor stands. The broom held in his hand was put on the ground. Already wearing his gryffindor t-shirt the teen just switched the trousers he was wearing for his quidditch shorts. He knew it was early, and that he might need to get his trousers, but for now, he wasn't bothered by it. He couldn't just jump on the broom and get started, Ty spent the first fifteen minutes before any quidditch practice, warming up and stretching, so it was exactly what he did. Only when he was warm, and ready did he grab the broom, and then fly up into the air. He took a few moments to just settle in the air, glancing around the pitch, the morning was pretty overcast, the light slowly growing and he was happy with this. It made his poor eyesight slightly better. He hovered for a few moments before just starting with laps. Tybalt admittedly had a routine when it came to flying. He flew around the pitch several times over, before he did any other kind of practice. The Gryffindor prefect however on this morning, became less interest in the usual way he practiced. The wind in his hair, and the feeling he was getting from this flying was settling all that stress, all of the nerves. He felt calm for the first time in days. All this stress wasn't good for him, he realised. Tybalt knew that he needed to start practicing more, generally just doing more that would help lower his stress levels. He slowed his flying, to a much slower pace. Flying back down to the ground, landing much more gracefully than he usually did. Tybalt grabbed his water bottle and took a long drink from it. He wanted to get some practice done, but he also just wanted to fly. He didn't want to have to do anything, he wanted to enjoy the feeling of flying, of the wind rushing past his ears. The weather beaten look his cheeks had, and the coolness of his entire body. Everything that might annoy some about flying so early in the morning were the best things to the teen. Placing down the water bottle, Ty grabbed the broom, but he did not take off, instead he just stood and for the first time that day, actually smiled.
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[Caroline Beckett]

The end of the semester was drawing to a close as exams were rapidly approaching. The anxiety and pressure were enough to drive any sane girl mad, and Caroline was on the edge. Over the past week, she had buried her nose in her textbooks, trying to prepare herself for exams. Her parents always made a big deal over her grades when she came home during school years, and so far, the grades hadn't really been stellar. Deep inside, she thought a part of that might be a form of rebellion against them. Caroline didn't usually agree with her parents and the high expectations that they had for her. The blonde couldn't handle the pressure of exams and grades and parents. Not today. The Gryffindor girl gathered her things from the common room where she was sitting next to the window. It looked beautiful outside. Caroline decided she would much rather be out there than in here. She went back up to her dorm room and threw all her textbooks on her bed. She would pick them up and organize them later. Right now, Caroline bent down and rummaged in her trunk, looking for her Quidditch gear. Flying seemed like the perfect stress relief, and it would help her to prepare for the game next week. She finally found her gear, tucked under her favorite book. Caroline changed out of her robe and into her gear. Getting down on her hands and knees, she pulled out her broom from under her four poster bed. The blonde grinned and her eyes flashed blue as she darted out of the room to head down to her favorite place at the school.

Caroline sighed as she consumed her first breath of fresh air in what felt like years but had only really been a few days. The sky was a clear blue and the sun was shinning down. It was a little cool with a breeze blowing across the grounds, but Caroline didn't care. She thought the weather was perfect and so much less claustrophobic than the Gryffindor Common Room had gotten. She half skipped, half ran to the pitch. Caroline expected to find the place empty with finals upcoming, but it seemed that she wasn't the only one not in a studious mood. The pitch was occupied by one of her teammates, Tybalt. She didn't know him that well. Other than practices and games, they hadn't had much interaction, but it wasn't as if she disliked him. Caroline waved at him from across the field as she made her way towards him. This might even be better if she had a teammate to practice with. It wouldn't be so bad to get to know Tybalt better either. Caroline neared the boy and gave him a smile. Her light grey eyes looked him over; he looked like he had been here for a while. "Hey Tybalt." she greeted him. "Didn't feel like studying?" she asked him. "Me either." she told him with a shrug. "Have you been out here long?" Caroline asked him, trying to gage how long he might be willing to hang out on the pitch with her.

 

[Tybalt Archer]

The teen ended up mostly losing track of time, he zoned out on what he was supposed to have been really doing, and had just spent his time flying. Stopping ever so often and then flying once more. His mind drifted away when he flew. Those stresses and worries, just flew right out of him. He was smiling. He felt comfortable, happy. It was annoying how time consuming exams were. He could barely do anything else because of them. He worked hard, and he wanted to do so much more, but due to those exams he could do nothing. It was frustrating, but it was what he had to do. He had many times in his practicing thought about going back to his work, but not once had he actually left. He was enjoying the pitch and the flying too much, and knowing what awaited him upstairs in his dorm was not something that he wanted to really think about or go back to. Tybalt loved his classes, he loved learning, but all this studying was stressful. He wanted to do more, he felt like the studying was never ending, this, flying was freeing. It really made it feel like nothing else really mattered. A part of the teen was really glad that he'd worked through his fear of flying. He couldn't imagine what he'd be doing now if he couldn't get rid of his stress by flying. Each lap he took around the pitch he understood less and less why he'd feared it. With each lap he was glad that he'd gotten over his fear. Tested himself in something that he had never thought he could be good at. In the time since then Ty had really improved, and he'd really shown himself that if he put his mind to something he was more than capable of doing it.

As he stood on the pitch on another of his breaks, he noticed that someone else was now on the pitch and was waving at him. It took his eyesight a few moments to make out who it was, but he they did, he was actually quite glad to see them. Caroline, a fellow member of the Gryffindor quidditch team. He didn't really know her outside of quidditch. He'd seen her a few times around the Gryffindor common room, but he'd never really had the chance, nor really taken the chance to get to know her properly. Maybe now was that chance He smiled brightly over at her as she made her way across the pitch to him. "Morning Caroline" He greeted brightly back. He was glad that he wasn't the only one that had thought of quidditch being a good escape from the studying that he was supposed to be doing. It was better. Nodding to her question, he was very glad to know he was not the only one who had decided to leave their work behind for a bit. "Just couldn't take reading one more word." He agreed with her, at her second question, Tybalt chuckled lightly. He actually didn't really know. He definitely couldn't tell her. "I..uh." He paused and glanced up to the air. "I don't know. I wasn't paying attention" Tybalt gave a small shrug. "Still full of energy. Studying leaves me with so much energy" He was sure that Caroline would want to practice, perhaps she wouldn't mind if he took the time to practice with her. "I'm no chaser or keeper, but I have so much energy if you don't mind me sticking around, we could practice together for a bit?" He asked, knowing full well that perhaps Caroline would be more interested in doing some practice alone, but quidditch practice he found was more fun when there was more than just one person.
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[Caroline Beckett]

Tybalt's response was friendly when he answered Caroline's questions, not that she had expected anything different from him. He had always been pleasant to her, and he seemed to appreciate the company on the pitch. Caroline grinned as echoed her sentiments about the studying overload. Her brain just couldn't take anymore knowledge today. The blonde teenager laughed lightly as he said he had no idea how long he had been out here. "You sound like me. That's how I get whenever I come out here alone." she said, shaking her head. She never learned to bring a watch even though she always stayed longer than she had the time to stay. "I even missed history period once." she said with a smirk at the memory. Caroline had head in the clouds that day, and she had never wanted to come back down. She just never felt as comfortable or as free as she did when she was on the pitch. Caroline always felt like she belonged on the pitch. She wasn't so comfortable with other aspects of her life such as her "disability" as her parents liked to call it. Caroline looked over at Tybalt as he spoke. She understood his energy problem if you could call it that. Caroline didn't think there was such a thing as too much energy on the Quidditch pitch.

The Gryffindor girl couldn't hide the grin that occupied her face as Tybalt asked if he could practice with her. She had been afraid he wouldn't want to stay and practice since he had clearly been out here for some time. She was grateful for the company and the chance to get to know him better. "I was hoping that you would say that." Caroline said brightly. "It's so much better to practice with someone than to practice alone." she said, having learned that lesson in her first year at Hogwarts. There had once been a time that she had been so painstakingly shy that she couldn't imagine uttering that statement. Thankfully, she had grown out of her shyness over the years. She took a moment to stretch out a little first, before going to get a Quaffle out of the shed. "Do you want to play chaser or keeper?" Caroline asked, raising an eyebrow at Tybalt. She knew neither one of those were his preferred position of beater, but she had never played that position before. She didn't know if she had the strength for it with her slight frame. Of course, she would try it if he wanted her to. Caroline just didn't think she would be the one to suggest that.

 

[Tybalt Archer]

Tybalt did find that when classes were in full swing he only really flew at night, practiced much later in the day. With the rare occasion of the morning when he had later classes, but he stayed much more to a schedule than this. It was just so he didn't get too preoccupied with quidditch rather than his studies. However, he figured doing something like this was not as bad as he was imagining. He felt better, he had a clearer head and he just felt better overall. It wasn't easy to explain, but the carefree flying was exactly what he'd needed, and something he knew he'd come back to often. When Caroline said that she went there alone, he wondered if perhaps he should leave. It wasn't really in reference to studying, just that she flew alone she too lost track of time. He smiled when she said she'd missed history once because of it. "I've never done that" He smiled at her, and he hadn't. He was pretty focused on his studies, and while he'd had a few stumbles along the way, he couldn't imagine forgetting to go to class because of flying. Well, he was now able to understand it a little more. Flying when stressed was the best thing for stress. Everything else faded away until all that you were left with was flying. The teen was really keen to keep flying, and practicing with a team mate seemed like the best way to keep going, just as long as she wanted to practice with him too. He didn't want to interrupt time she'd maybe wanted to spend alone.

At her words, the smile grew. While he'd been more than happy to continue practicing, and just flying alone, she was right, it was better. It was more fun, and he knew that improvement came from playing with and or against others. Their skills were a little different on the pitch, Tybalt was much more used to his role as beater than anything else. It was just the first position he'd played and since then, the only position that he'd ever played. Sure sometimes in practice's he'd filled in for others, but that wasn't anything serious. Since he'd been out longer, he would be much happier to be helping her practice than him. he knew that Caroline was a crazy good chaser, so he was more than happy to attempt to play keeper. "Keeper. It's closer to being a beater than a chaser" He said with a nod. "In saying that, go easy on me Caroline" He smiled at her, but he wasn't altogether kidding. He would try his best to be a good keeper, but he was a beater. With a smile, he jumped on his broom, and headed to the nearest set of hoops. He felt pretty good and was happy that she had decided to come to the pitch. This would be good fun, and it would be good practice for the two of them. Tybalt was much happier doing this than he would be studying in the dorm room. Once at the hoops he hovered in front of the centre on. "Right, give it your best shot" He shouted to her happily. This would be good fun he was sure.
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