Don't Upset the Rhythm [open]

[Katie]

James groaned. As he opened his heavy eyelids and moved his stiff body, he remembered the night before-or at least whatever his mind could salvage from his night of drinking. He remembered firewhisky. A lot of firewhiskey. And girls. Yes, there were a lot of girls too. He smirked to himself as he rubbed his sleepy eyes and rose up, only to fall back down on the bed with a huff. 'What the hell happened last night?' He pushed his hair out of his eyes with a sigh and looked at his watch: 5:00 AM. Time for quidditch.

James rolled out of bed, ignoring the fact that his muscles were groaning in protest, and stretched. Once he felt steady on his feet, he grabbed his jeans from the floor and put them on, along with a shirt from his trunk. He walked barefoot to the bathroom, quietly so as not to wake his slumbering dorm mates. He grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste, and started brushing the nasty sleep taste from his mouth. Spitting, he looked up at himself and saw that his hair was in complete disarray. He didn't even try to smooth it down, or run a brush through it. 'It will get messed up when I fly anyway.'

He found his broom and walked out of the dorm into the common room, grabbed his shoes that were sitting at the bottom of the stairs, and shoved them on. As he walked out, he noticed a buddy of his passed out on the couch, further making James wonder what happened the night before as he grinned.

Jumping down a few stairs in the grand staircase earned him a few "shut up!s" and "can't you be quiet, boy?"s, but he just smiled. He inhaled the fresh morning air as he walked out of the doors and onto the grounds. He appreciated the fact that he didn't run into anyone as he made his way to the vast quidditch pitch; he liked the serenity of walking alone. He walked through the locker room and onto the field, feeling that all too familiar excited feeling as he knew he was about to get a rush one can only get from kicking off the ground. Feet planted, James bent his knees and soared through the air. Then he raced around the length of the field to warm up.

[Rowan O'Shea]

Saturday morning. Rowan absolutely loved Saturday mornings. The sixth year Ravenclaw had herself on a very strict routine for Saturdays, which meant Friday nights were strictly off limits for partying, unlike the Grffindors. Unfortunately, today, she was a little off-schedule. She rose from her sleep at exactly 5:05AM, the time she'd usually be coming back to bed from quidditch practice. She wasn't too worried though, a lazy day thrown into the mix would spice things up. Quietly, Rowan slipped on a pair of gray sweatpants, a pink t-shirt, and some socks. She grabbed a banana that she'd placed beside her on her end table in one hand and her practice sneakers in the other. She tip-toed out of the dormitory and skipped quietly down the steps into the Ravenclaw common room.

It was empty in the common room as she stretched out her legs. Rowan then pulled out her wand and lit the tip so she could see, and left the common room, walking quickly down the staircase, still in her socks, and out the front doors. It was still dark outside, but the sun would very soon be rising. She sat down on the steps and put on her shoes very quickly. Once they were on, she broke off into a warm-up jog down to the quidditch pitch. As she was jogging down, she ate her banana. She jogged straight into the girl's locker room so she could grab her broomstick and steal a hair tie from a friend's locker, since she'd broken all of hers. With a slight skip to her step, Rowan pranced out onto the field, pony tail swinging, broom in hand.

She didn't expect to see someone else out on the field, but then again, she'd usually be done with her practice already and back in her cozy bed. This would put a bit of a cramp in her routine, but the field wasn't only hers, so she'd have to deal with it. She squinted as she tried to make out who was on the other broom. Rowan was all too familiar with the boy. It was James Potter, seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. She could tell so easily by his style. She'd had to face him multiple times before during matches. It was between her and him who won the game, and he was quite a tough component. Rowan even knew him slightly better now that she'd actually met him face-to-face and talked for a while.

The Ravenclaw mounted her broom and lifted off into the air. She was kind of happy that she'd have someone to maybe interact with while she practiced this morning. She lifted off the ground and hovered, waiting for him to come back around and meet her. She wore a welcoming smile.

[Katie]

James exhaled and closed his eyes, reveling in the feeling a good, fast lap around the wide quidditch pitch. The wind blowing through his unruly hair, the cold air stinging his face and eyes, the illusion of floating on air; there was no other feeling like it. James thought back on his last quidditch game, and how he had raked in another win against the snakes. The party after that win was almost as bad as the one the night before. James smirked and opened his eyes, and noticed someone else was on the pitch. Except he was a tad too late.

"OH SHI-!" were the unfinished words James shouted as he all but pummeled the hovering girl head on. He should have opened his eyes sooner. It was like everything was moving in slow motion: his broom colliding with the girl's broom, her flying off of it, him just barely grabbing her arm as her broom slid from underneath her and fell to the ground. His breathing quickened as he realized the only thing keeping this girl from certain death was his hand. "Hold on, I gotcha." James grunted to the girl as he started to pull her up. Thank goodness she was light, because even though James had been contemplating getting around to lift weights, he never had.

As he pulled the girl up, he realized that she looked familiar. Really familiar. As soon as the recognition hit him he almost dropped her again. 'Did I have to hit HER?!' It wasn't like James hadn't already caused her enough damage. He seemed to remember a certain incident including himself and a pile of his dirty gym clothes. The blush that seemed to only appear when he embarrassed himself around this girl reappeared as he scooched back on his broom and lifted Rowan onto it.

"Er...nice to see you again, Rowan." He chuckled nervously, awaiting the sure to be hell wrath coming from the girl in front of him.

[Rowan O'Shea]

Rowan continued to watch him, but she heard something from the other side of the pitch. A pretty sparrow landed on the wall to the Hufflepuff section and was hopping around. She smiled sweetly and tilted her head to the side, letting her red curly pony tail slide off her shoulder. A light breeze brushed past her face and trees rustled in the distance. She turned back to see where James was, but she barely even had time to flinch at what she saw next.

James came flying at full speed into her. She braced herself on her broom and tucked herself in in order to protect herself. It didn't do her much good though, the force of the collision knocked her broom clear from underneath of her and it started to descend toward the ground below them. She looked up, wondering why she was still hovering in the air and not taking the death plunge. James had grabbed onto her arm just in time. He was holding on very tightly, sure to leave a bruise tomorrow, but she'd take the bruise any day over becoming one with the ground. She panted heavily as James lifted her onto his broom in front of them. She felt helpless, just hanging there limp.

Once she was safe on his broom she sat there in shock, trying to catch her breath. She didn't know what to say. She was thankful that he had literally just saved her life, but it was also his fault in the first place that he hadn't been paying attention to where he was flying. Of course, Rowan being a tad spoiled and used to things going her way, it didn't cross her mind that if she hadn't been hovering in his direct path it would be her fault. When people do stupid things, Rowan likes to make sure they know about it, and James certainly knew that after the dirty laundry incident, but she couldn't possibly yell at him after he'd pulled her up. Rowan was ready to look him in the eye and give him one of the most sincere 'thank yous' she'd ever given when she took in a breath.

"Ew, you smell like stale alcohol," is what flew out of her mouth instead.

[Katie]

James exhaled roughly, smiling a bit as he realized he was not being scolded. He had prepped himself for the reaming of a century; especially since he knew what this girl was capable of. He thought back on how terrible he felt after she got an avalanche of stinky clothes, and how the apologies flowed like useless dribble from his mouth. Well he was not going to do that today. One apology would do.

After smelling himself discreetly, and quietly agreeing with her, he nodded and said, "Late night last night." He grinned and then apologized for his lack of observation. "I really thought I was the only one who would be out here this early. Sorry I nearly killed you." As he thought back on how she almost died, he jumped and remembered her broom. He looked down on the ground and sighed in relief of the fact that her broom was in one piece.

He placed the shocked Rowan's hands firmly on the broom in front of her so she would not slip as he made a slight dip towards the ground below. As her broom came into focus James started to realize just how good it was that he had good reflexes. He didn't know what he would have done if he was flying towards a broken Rowan right about now.

When he was close enough to hover on the ground, he stopped and let Rowan get off. "If you don't mind me asking, how come I never see you around on the pitch in the mornings? Maybe if I saw you more I'd be on the lookout." He let his curiosity show, as well as his overly flirtatious style. He winked a bit as he helped her slide off the broom and onto the semi-frozen, crunchy ground.

[Rowan O'Shea]

Heart still racing and shaking ever so slightly, Rowan smirked at his comment about a late night and his apology. The wind blew her hair toward his face and she flipped it over.

"It's okay," she told him, trying to not let her voice shake. "You made up for it by not letting me drop to my death." She looked back down at the ground where her broom was lying, waiting for her. She caught another smell of alcohol off of him and turned her head to the side, grinning. Obviously, he hadn't been out here long enough to air out. He gently took her hands and placed them firmly on his broomstick. Gracefully they descended and he let her off. She hopped off the side and grabbed her broom in her hands, inspecting it to make sure all was still well. There didn't seem to be a problem.

"I wasn't expecting to see you either," replied Rowan after he asked about seeing her in the morning. I'm down here practicing every Saturday morning, but I'm usually down here by 4AM and out of here by 5 and back in bed. I went off schedule a bit today and slept in." Sort of nervous to get back on her broom and fly, she mounted it anyway and hovered next to James. "What about you? Are you always down here this early on a Saturday morning?" she asked, trying to keep her mind off of her close-to-death encounter.

(OOC- D: Short post fail)

[Katie]

James's eyebrows shot up behind his hair when he heard Rowan's schedule for flying. He thought he was being regimented by waking up at 5! He'd have to step it up to compete with this girl. 'Or...' he thought, 'Maybe I could just practice longer and still get to sleep another hour longer than Rowan.' He grinned haughtily at his smart thinking, ignoring the fact that when it came down to it, he'd probably still practice the same amount of time.

He ran his hands through his dark hair and smiled at Rowan. "I'm usually out here at 5 on Saturday and Sunday mornings. During the school week I sneak out here at night usually," he answered truthfully. When James wasn't in class, hardly doing his homework, or hanging with his friends, he was situated on the quidditch field, practicing his moves and precision. You could say its like his third home.

Noticing Rowan getting a little antsy, James stretched his arms and back, yawned, and then shot into the air, yelling, "Let's race!" He got to a decent height; about just above the stands, and stopped to wait for Rowan to catch up. He was always a fair competitor. He breathed in the morning air, noticing that the sun was all the way visible now. He judged his chances of winning, and felt pretty confident. As much as he liked Rowan, he was almost positive that he would come out victorious. But he was just happy that he was going up against a worthy competitor, and didn't have to worry about holding back.

(ooc: me too! not feeling the posting tonight :/)