Another Day in the Air! (Open)

Emma thrived on the open air outside. The time that wasn't spent in class, in the dormitories, or in the Great Hall, she was outside, even when she couldn't get to the Pitch. Today however, she knew for a fact that the Flying Instructor had the Quidditch Pitch open as a free day today. Meaning anyone could take their brooms- or the official school brooms- for a spin. Emma wanted to take this chance to practice her upside-down turn-around, where she dives down and does a sort of vertical U-turn. The last couple times she tried it, she nearly fell off her broom, and she hadn't had the chance between the drills at Quidditch practice to really nail the trick down. If she did manage to master it though, it'd be a great maneuver for several possible situations during a game.

She ran down the dirt path as fast as her feet would take her, her broom over one shoulder, and her book bag over the other. She had to make it down there as fast as she could; the quicker she got there, the more time she'd have to practice. Then she would have time to study. Her priority however, was nailing that blasted trick. She lived and breathed Quidditch, and she only wanted to get better and better.

When she finally reached the pitch, she quickly made her way into the locker rooms to change into her Gryffindor gear; she didn't mean to show off to other flyers who weren't on a team, but official Quidditch attire and gear just worked and felt so much better than her girly school robes. When she got on the proper gear and tied her hair back, she threw her bag into her locker and made her way back outside, broom in hand.

Emma didn't wait for more than a second to get herself in the air. She took possibly two steps out the doorway before she was off, her hands tightly wound around the broom, and her feet planted firmly to the pegs on the back. She tore up high into the air, before leveling herself out to take a look around. She could spot who she assumed to be the Flying instructor, on his own broomstick down below, near the center of the field. She noticed a few other flyers as well, some in their own Quidditch team wear, others just wearing the proper padding over their school uniform. Either way there weren't too many flyers to begin with. She supposed many were probably too busy with studies, so she simply continued with what she had planned to do. She flexed her hands across the broom, making sure she could get a hold of herself if she stumbled through the maneuver. Somehow, she just couldn't bear the thought of the instructor having to save her. Once she was confident, however, she took a dive, and started to try and perform the trick.

As she dove down, her fingers began slipping from the broom, and in a rush of panic, she cut the dive early, and steadied herself. She kept flying forward though, as she tested her grip once again, and then spun a few times to the right, then the left. Her grip was fine, so why did it loosen during her dive? She darted down, trying again, but with the same result once more.

It wasn't her grip... it was... the momentum. She had to keep herself as small as possible during the dive, otherwise the air would try to keep pushing her up, off her broom. That was why her grip kept loosening. Yeah, that totally made sense! Now if only she could get this kind of act together for class!

She dove yet again, this time pulling herself in towards her broom as tight as she could. She even ducked her head a bit. She shot down about 20 feet, before pulling straight again, spinning midway until she flew straight once again. "Woo! Yes!" She swerved to and fro, before slowing to a stop to catch her breath. Her adrenaline was spiking like crazy.

She looked down, her eyes zoning in on the little ant of a shadow she had below her. But wait, that wasn't her shadow. Her gaze scanned over the pitch, but she didn't notice anyone else on foot. It was a bit dangerous to be running around under so many flyers. Emma was curious as to what this little Shadow was doing here, so she dove once again, getting closer and closer to the ground. Several yards away from the one traveling on foot, Emma leveled out and landed, laughing as she nearly stumbled forward flat on her face.

She started running towards what she could now see was a Slytherin around her age. Upon noticing this, she slowed down a bit, frowning thoughtfully. She didn't recognize him as a Quidditch player, but could he be spying on her for his fellow Slytherins? She couldn't help the thought, but she still pushed it to the back of her mind.

"Hey! Are you supposed to be running around down here?" She called to him.

"Tony?" Well at least the Slytherin didn't start out with an insult, that was already better than most Slytherins Emma had met or seen around school. Emma glanced around, a bit amused by his confusing statement. Perhaps Tony was a pet of his, like Rook was a pet of hers. Speaking of which, she hadn't let the mouse out of his cage in awhile. He could use a bit of fresh air, maybe she'd take him out tomorrow. But that was later, right now she was talking to someone.

"Someone could have crashed into you, you know." She teased as she stood her broom up and leaned her weight a bit into it. While she was speaking to him, she was looking around, at the other flyers. Again, there weren't a whole lot in the air, so it wasn't that big of a deal, but still, you really never know!

But she smiled back at him nonetheless, before extending her hand out to him, "I don't think we've met before have we? I'm Emma."

Her gaze followed him while he popped in and out of her line of sight before she looked up, to where he pointed. She hadn't seen anything up in the air, and now she was glad she hadn't. If the bug he mentioned had been up there, it probably would have hit her like it would against a car's windshield. Yuck. "Well, no I-" But once he'd said one thing, he moved onto the other, and introduced himself as Matthew.

And the more Matthew talked in his strange and unusual patterns, the longer Emma took to figure out what he meant. She wasn't put off by it, but it certainly made her more curious. "Kantakari?" It took her a moment, but she did remember reading about the plant in class, "Oh, yeah, I did read that didn't I?" She smiled, realizing that he must have been in class with her. That meant he was also a fifth year, like herself. Strange that they had never met before.

Emma hadn't meant to make it awkward, but she was quiet for a short period, looking around up at the rest of the Quidditch Pitch once again. When she finally returned her attention to him, she gave a light shrug, "Your flutterby couldn't have gotten too far, could he?"

Emma also tried to remember what smart people called it, but laughed when she couldn't either. If Emma had the smallest thought about returning to her practice, she'd been too distracted to do so. His confusing way of speaking piqued her interest. She wouldn't do it if she could, but imitating him would certainly be a challenge. He was special, though Emma didn't see that as a negative thing.

His way of talking allowed Emma to choose what order she would answer him. And at the first mention of the 'shiny thing', Emma's eyes brightened as she answered with a grin, "The snitch! It's worth 150 points if the team's Seeker catches it!" She thought about it a moment, before looking up as she guided him towards the edge of the pitch, where they could slowly trail their way along to the exit.

"I was up there practicing for my next game. I wanted to nail a cool trick!" The grin never left her face whenever she talked about Quidditch. It was her favorite subject, and if it was considered a class, she'd have an Outstanding!

"Well, there's the Quaffle, which are what the Chasers score with by throwing into the hoops," Emma turned to point over her shoulder at the goal posts, and before she continued, she rested her broom on her shoulder, "Then there's the Keeper, who tries to defend the goals from the chasers of the opposite team. After that's the Beaters, which have the funnest job: they get to knock away the bludgers that are trying to ram into all the players. They keep the bludgers off so the Chasers can focus on scoring."

She gave a nod, believing she gave a pretty good summary of the game itself. She was more than happy to talk about it, if that wasn't obvious enough to begin with. She laughed a little as she looked back at him, "I wouldn't call it dancing though. Flying though, that's the one thing I can say I'm good at- for sure." She nodded again, though this time it seemed more for herself than anything. She struggled in all the technical classes, like potions and Herbology, and in DADA, she was about average. Charms, she was okay in, she gave herself that at least. But flying, she definitely enjoyed. Emma grinned, as she looked ahead, watching the Flying instructor barking up at the flyers above.

"That's Seeker," She was quick to say, but not for the sake of being a know-it-all. She merely had a close place in her heart for that position; it was what she played, after all. She couldn't let there be any misrepresentation of it. It was the coolest part of Quidditch, ever. Stressful, maybe, but there was quite a thrill in chasing the Snitch. Especially when you had to catch it before the other Seeker.

"And when someone catches the Snitch, the game's over. Usually it also means that team wins, but that's not always true." She learned that after reading the most recent Daily Prophet.

Matt had been kind enough to let her go on about her favorite subject, so she thought it'd be nice to let him do the same, "So if you're not into Quidditch, what are you into?" She looked to him curiously, thinking about the flitterby he'd mentioned. Maybe he was a fan of bugs, but she'd let him tell her that.

"Wow." Was all she really said at first, as she didn't quite understand, initially. She looked up at the sky, staring blatantly at the sun until it left a spot in her vision. She was quiet for a time, thinking about what he'd said, until it finally clicked.

"I think I get it. I don't like being inside much either. For classes sure, but any other time, I like being out here. Mostly on the Quidditch Pitch." She laughed a little; she knew she was practically obsessed, and knew others probably noticed that too.

"Definitely! Especially Potions, it's always stuffy in there! I think it screws up my brain sometimes," she paused, thinking better of it, "Okay, maybe all the time." She grinned. She adjusted her broom so that it settled across her shoulders and let her hands hang over it. For a moment, she wondered what it would be like to fly all over the school grounds, soaring over the castle, and zooming across the lake. If only they were allowed! She glanced over to Matthew, trying to remember the last time she actually enjoyed a Slytherin's company, and said, "You're kinda different from other Slytherins huh?"

She hadn't meant any harm by it, and was merely curious of him. She glanced down at her worn down sneakers and smiled as the ragged shoelaces bounced up and down with each step she took. He was different from most Slytherins, but he wasn't all that similar to anyone else she'd met either. In her book, that made him even cooler to hang out with. She hadn't been waiting for a response from him apparently, cause the next second, she turned on him and said, "Do you like flying? We could get a broom from the storeroom!" She was only on the ground for less than 10 minutes, and already wanted to get back up there.