“No no no no no no!” Gabriella Dagon yelled to herself as she sprinted as fast as her boot clad feet would allow along the long wooden bridge towards the grounds and away from the snake that had a few moments ago been hot on her tail. The students that attempted to walk along the bridge were briskly pushed aside as a mass of dark hair slapped then in the face and the blur of the young witch whizzed past being far from quiet. Her heavy boots thudded against the wood and her squeals certainly alerted her school mates to the quickly arriving witch.

Nearing the end of the bridge, Gabby spared a glance back to see if she was still being followed. She’d been convinced it was murder she’d seen flashing in those grey eyes of the Slytherin boy and Dagon knew very well not to stick around and find out. The seventh year she’d snapped a picture of had been at least a foot taller than the small Gryffindor and while he had the advantage of muscle and pure terrifying glares, Gabby had one up on him that came from having growing up dodging dragons. Few young witches could run away quite as quickly as this sprinting one had perfected.

Yet unfortunately Gabriella hadn’t yet perfected watching for her chaser while looking out for her footing. Multitasking worked for most females yet apparently after having been brought up a wizard, multitasking skills had missed Gabby Dagon and left her only able to follow on one task at a time.

This task had not been watching where she was going.

One foot flew forward, expecting to land on the rest of the bridge but the steps had appeared far sooner than Gabby had expected. Her entire body lurched forward as her heel missed the step and she made hard contact with a blunt, hard form. Within less than a second both figures hit the ground hard and Gabby, winded and out of breath didn’t move for a moment. She wasn’t sure she was able to.

Corey had spent the morning reading through his COMC materials, and that included a sizeable portion of it reading through the text, even though he was sure no one else taking the class would be so devoted to it this early in the term.

But of all the classes on his schedule, it was the one that held the most promise him. He had spent many a vacation gaining hands on experience with many of the creatures the class would be studying, but he didn't mind the added information he would get from class lectures or book learning. It was something to pass the time as he waited for Tournament competition to get underway.

Corey prefered to study outdoors, but after a while he realized that he had not brought any food with him to munch on while doing so. Thus, even as he wished to continue to sit along the banks of the lake, he knew that he needed to head back into the castle to grab a snack or two. He could always come back outside and find another place that was ideal for studying later.

Monster book and notebook tucked under his arm, Corey strode up the steps of the stone Gazebo, ready to head through the Covered Bridge towards the castle. The bustle of noise coming from within took him by surprise and soon he collided with its cause -- a girl who seemed to be making a hasty retreat.

Corey's belongings scattered to the ground first as he reached out to try and keep the girl from falling to the ground. But the Beauxbatons boy underestimated both his footing and his balance causing both he and the damsel in distress to collapse in a heap on the ground.

Luckily (for her), Corey's frame absorbed most of the fall and the fall, in turn, absorbed most of his breath. It took him a while to get it back and to fully register what had happened.

He coughed as he attempted to sit up, sucking in air as his blue orbs came to rest on girl who now half lay on him and half lay on the ground beside him. Even though he wasn't sure what would come out, he managed to rasp, "Are you okay?"

Gabriella was a mess of limbs, hair and breathlessness. Sprawled across the muscular lad and the grass in a manner so undignified the Queen of England would have cried. Gabby closed her eyes and tried to focus on getting her breathing pattern back to normal, not even considering possible onlookers or the Slytherin buffoon who had given chase.

"Are you okay?" The French accent was hidden underneath the raspy question and Gabby lifted her head up from the boy’s chest to see who had broken her fall so chivalrously. He certainly didn’t sound at his best for having done so.

Dark eyes widened in recognition of a boy whose shirt she had seen off more times than on. She knew his arms and chest better than his face yet she was still able to recognise it enough for usually tanned cheeks to turn an embarrassing shade of pink. No one could forget eyes that blue, especially a teenage girl who had never been kissed and stared at every handsome boy as if he was the roman sun god.

“Mhmm.” Gabby murmured with closed lips as she made no move to climb off his impressively firm chest. “You broke my fall, Gaubert.”

It was then that Gabby realised something. Did he recognise her? Did the handsome French boy that had helped her dad on the ranch actually recognise her or would he now think she was some freaky Hogwarts teenager that was practicing to be a stalker? After all, she had been running away from someone with a camera slung over her arm...

Instinctively, Corey's first priority was to protect the girl from the fall. Etiquette, manners, and attempts at chivalry were all part of his school's regular instruction. And though he didn't always dress the part of a fashionable gentleman, he didn't mind acting the part whenever possible.

Thus, despite the girl's identity being unknown to him, his aim had been to tried to have her land more on him as opposed to the more unforgiving ground. He felt like he had absorbed most of the fall, but he couldn't know for sure until the girl responded to his near breathl

His blue eyes tried to see her expression behind a mane of disheveled dark hair. It took a moment before the veil fell away but not much longer afterwards when he registered who she was.

Corey knew by heart the names of every notable dragon tamer, dragon sanctusry or ranch owner, or just about anyone significant having to do with the great beasts. Whereas many of his classmates memorized information that would help them pass every class, he spent most of his time on one specific facet of one specific class. He was a geek like that; a dragon geek, so to speak.

So this encyclopedic knowledge of various dragon related individuals often extended to knowing information about their families as well.

But in when it came to Felix Dagon's daughter, his knowledge about her extended beyond just what might be found in books or passed down through other sources. No, Corey Gaubert had met her in the flesh well before their current tumble. It was hard to forget that kind of girlish innocence among the brawn of grown men.

When he finally felt confident in his ability to speak in whole sentences, Corey responded to her comment. "I guess that is what I am here for, non? I would rather break the fall than to have a broken Dagon," he teased lightly. He said her last name with his French inflection, for he would never consider that it might be spoken so harshly by his foreign counterparts.

Corey shifted slightly beneath her so that her elbow was not poking into him. He looked her over fully to be sure she was not hurt and realized that she was hardly the gangly teenager anymore. She had more womanly curves now, which he could clearly feel pressed against his figure.

With a smirk, Corey wryly added, "If your pere found out I let you break, I would never have a hope to work with him again. What tragedy for all, indeed."

The delicious French specimen beneath Gabby told her in his smooth accent that he certainly didn’t want to break a Dagon. His accent was so knee buckling she’d have fallen to the floor if she hadn’t already knocked him to it mere moments ago. Instead the Gryffindor giggled like the daft school girl she was and drew her eyes away from Corey’s for a moment. At least he remembered her and didn’t think she was just some frizzy haired creeper with powers to sweep him off his feet and leave him speechless in seconds.

Legs entangled and her body sprawled across his and yet Gabriella still made no move to climb off him. Her dark eyes were back staring at his blue ones and she regarded him with the intensity a girl would if she had never seen a boy before in her life. Hopefully he didn’t notice...

“What tragedy for all, indeed.” The beautifully accented beautiful boy said and Gabriella looked from his face to his chest which she was very inelegantly lying across.

Somehow she figured her ‘pere’ would like this even less. Not that she much cared. Felix Dagon could go drown himself in the lake, she was getting a boyfriend this year! At least she was going to get her first kiss from one of these devilishly handsome foreign wizards.

“If Felix found out you stopped me like this you would never work again.” Corey would probably end up in a dragon’s belly if Mr Dagon found his daughter sprawled across him in such a fashion, saving her life or not.

Corey was surprised at how small the world was turning out to be as he looked Gabriella over with curious eyes.indeed she had changed since they had last saw each other.

"I would manage," Corey said quietly. Though he knew Felix Dagon was bound to be formidable in the Dragon community, the Beauxbstons lad knew there were plenty of others to act as a mentor to his ambitions. Unless they could be easily swayed by the whims of an overprotective father.

In which case, Corey would worry about such a situation when it presented itself. For now, he was concerned about making sure Gabriella was in one piece -- for his own peace of mind.

Shifting again, Corey sat up, gently nudging the girl to do so as well. Then he knelt and finally started to stand. But before he could rise to his full height, he bent towards her and held out an inviting hand to help her stand.

"It may be worth taking the chance though," he lightly teased. After a pause, he told her, "He might be lenient with me knowing that it was you who almost broke me. Where were you off to in such a hurry?"

Reluctantly Gabriella accepted the nudge and climbed off Gaubert’s warm muscular chest and she lifted a hand to her hair, brushing back some of the bushy mess to reveal cheeks tinged with embarrassment and nervousness. Gabriella was normally find around boys, she could chat to them and be herself. She had no problem with housemates and classmates but when there was an older boy so attractive and foreign? Well she was as knowledgable in this area as Merlin had been in co-ordinating nail polish with his robes.

She wasn’t about to tell the handsome French boy that her Dad would never be lenient, that he was a moron and he should stay miles and miles away because she didn’t want to scare Mr Sexy French Accent away so quickly. Instead she took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.

Eyes shot around to glance back in the direction of the bridge and where she’d ran from. “I was...um...” Gabriella’s eyes suddenly widened as a very tall, very ugly Slytherin 7th year started pounding down the bridge in their direction. Whatever had held him up, Gabby didn’t want to know and she didn’t want to stick around to find out.

“DAGON!”

Without wasting a moment, Gabriella grasped tighter onto Gaubert’s hand and practically shouted, “Leg it!” And with that, she took off, dragging the older boy with her.