The wind whisked savagely through the Hufflepuff's hair as she flew through the skies. To Elysia, the only thing that could clear her thoughts and calm her mind was flying. She loved being on a team, loved being their captain - but nothing else came close to the solidarity of being alone, save the broom she rode astride. Today, however, she had very little clouding her thoughts - so as she sped rapidly through the air a big grin spread across her face. She hummed a tune and did a couple of feints and dives before racing back and forth between the goal posts.

The Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain looped around and around, widening her trajectory so far she left the pitch behind, veering toward the broom shed and changing rooms.

WHACK!!!

Normally, as a keeper, Elysia's eyes would have been scanning her surroundings - there was nothing more embarrassing than getting knocked in the face by a bludger. However, Elysia was not playing quidditch so she had not been paying attention when the spherical object came careening through the air to connect directly with her face. Though the object, now identified as an orange, hadn't been travelling very quickly, nor had she, the hit still hurt.

The smile slid from her face quicker than one could say 'ouch' and the Hufflepuff girl's eyes narrowed both out of anger and to help her identify the blithering idiot that thought it would be amusing to throw citrus at her. Obviously they had no clue who they were dealing with and by the time Elysia's vision landed on the Gryffindor lounging atop the broom shed, she'd already thought up thirteen different ways to end his miserable existence. Seconds later, she was stepping from her broom in front of the Caldara boy - aghast and furious.

"What the bloody hell was that for?" She screeched. "You realize you could have knocked me off my broom?" It took her less than a second to whip her wand from her pocket, though she refrained from actually hexing the boy into oblivion. Using magic on another student, even one as stupid as Marco, was against the rules - and while Elysia didn't mind breaking a couple rules now and then, that one seemed pretty major.

The keeper raised her free hand, broom forgotten by her feet, to rub her face where the fruit hit. "You have exactly seven seconds to explain yourself before I turn your favorite past time orange... permanently," She said, pointing her wand toward the boy's nether regions threateningly. Hopefully the jackass didn't think she was joking. She wasn't.

The weather as of late had been cold and miserable-- not at all ideal sitting on the rooftop weather. Not that it ever stopped him. If detentions and many broken bones didn't, than nothing would. Perched on top of the broomshed, Marco sat, eating a lunch that he had pilfered from the kitchens. Okay, maybe not pilfered-- house elves were far too accommodating for anybody to brag about stealing from the kitchens. 

Taking a bite out of his sandwich, Marco people-watched. Some people practiced on the quidditch pitch; some people went for a quick walk, and others were simply collecting brooms to fly around on while the weather was still nice. He had resisted many an urge to chuck fruit at fliers. But being the caring, loving, apathetic Gryffindor he was, he had mercy.

Even when he saw Elysia Hughes.

She was arguably, the best-looking person in his year-- with her giant smile, bright blue eyes, and freckly complexion. Elysia always seemed so graceful, every movement she made seemed intentional, yet effortless.  She was flawless. And he hated it how it always made him fumble and do stupid, weak-ass shit that he wouldn't do around anybody else. Marco, rightfully, blamed her veela blood.

Before he knew it, he was throwing an orange in her general direction to get her attention. "Elysia!!!" Marco warned, though she didn't hear.

....And it clocked her in the face. He stifled a horrified laugh.

Marco Caldara had assaulted the prettiest girl he knew with airborne citrus.  And naturally, she wanted to know why she did it. And threatened the hue of his genitals for good measure.

"I was testing your reflexes." He lied easily, "You're a keeper. I thought you'd catch it."  No way in hell was he going to say, "Oh, I lost my mind a little bit and decided that throwing fruit at your face was a good way to get your attention." Even if it was totally true.

He glanced down at his pelvis and slowly looked up, dark eyes solidly, pleadingly meeting her icy stare.

"Don't." Marco said, "Unless you're prepared to fix it later." Well, that came out totally wrong. He set his jaw stubbornly and pretended like he totally intended to be lecherous scum.  This, this was not going well. He was going to have an orange penis, and everybody would know him as: Marco, the man with the cursed dick.

The sad and pathetic look on the Gryffindor's face, paired with his overtly lewd comment about his impending manhood quickly stifled most of Elysia's fury - surprising even herself when her mouth opened involuntarily and let out a peal of laughter that she cut off awkwardly because laughing made her face hurt - and she was supposed to be mad at him damn it!

Though she let the smile fall from her face, she did allow Marco with courtesy of lowering her wand... Either because she was feeling a little lenient or because she wasn't sure if she wanted to know what he had meant with his comment. His excuse, however, was bogus, and she said as much.

"Why would you throw fruit at someone not paying attention to you? Am I wearing my goggles?" She wasn't, she was in her quidditch robes, but she'd only worn them because they were comfortable! "All I wanted to do today was ride around the pitch, not having to think that something fifty times smaller than a bludger or quaffle is going to come hurtling toward my face."

Having exhausted herself in her tirade, Elysia crossed her arms and plopped down on the roof beside Marco. Uncrossing her arms, she exclaimed "Accio! while pointing her wand toward the ground where the vitamin c had hit her. Almost immediately after, the offending orange was in her grasp. "Why'd you want to get my attention anyway?" She asked, while sitting her wand on the roof beside her - on the opposite side of Marco. Then she started peeling the orange, thinking that Caldara had lost all rights to its yummy goodness after lobbing at her face.

He was surprised that she didn't hex him right then and there. His stoic expression nearly broke with relief, though Marco did his best to compose himself. He liked pretty girls. Although he hated people, he had an appreciation for gorgeous women. Elysia was, well-- extraordinary. It scrambled his brain, even though he had known her for years. Soon, they'd be graduating. They were almost ready to jump into the adult world and go their own ways.

It almost made Marco wish that he had been more open to friendships during his time at Hogwarts. During his first couple of years, it was fine. But. Something inside him shifted as he grew, and Marco found it was easier to retreat than it was to maintain relationships.

Marco thought about lying. He was a good liar. Usually.

Elysia's bullshit meter was also incredibly sensitive.

He shrugged as she barraged him with inquiries that called his common sense into question. Why would he throw fruit? He didn't know. She wasn't wearing her goggles. He had no good reason.

"Clearly, Elysia." Marco said, "I have poor impulse control." Yes, but that didn't mean that he usually went around hurling fruit at his peers. "I saw you, and some weird part of my brain said 'throw it.' And I threw it." That had more truth to it than he liked. He was not going to tell Alex about this. Not Jordyn either. Their judgement would be scathing.

There were few things that smelled better than a freshly peeled orange. He lamented his loss of custody.

There was little that the handsome Gryffindor could have said that would have dissipated Elysia’s anger so quickly, but Caldara’s honesty had all ill intentions fading from the Hufflepuff’s mind. Yes - he was a jerk, but he was a dumb jerk, so it wasn’t actually his fault… at least not entirely. There was nothing necessarily wrong with that – Hufflepuff house was filled with well-meaning idiots. When your house dormitories make you hum a tune to get through, you know it’s only because most badgers couldn’t remember an actual password.

The soft wind wafted the tantalizing scent of the orange toward Elysia’s nostrils and she inhaled deeply – taking in the pungent and delicious odor. Bits of orange rind littered the roof around her as she savored the feeling of her fingernails breaking through the rough exterior to reach the beauty within.

She said nothing for a long time, contemplating what she was going to say next. Marco was an interesting character – a person Elysia had wished she’d gotten to know better over the years. It seemed that her extremely busy Hogwarts career had left her little time to branch out and make new friends. From being captain of the Quidditch team and NEWT studies and worries about the future this year, plus being a champion in the TetraWizard Tournament, and OWL studies before that – it hadn’t been easy to keep up with everything and be a budding social butterfly.

Not to say that Miss Hughes didn’t have friends – quite the opposite. People did seem to flock to the veela descendent and so it seemed to the casual observer that Elysia Hughes had quite a few friends – however, anyone bothering to take a closer look would find that except for a select few, she held most people at arm’s length. People had to work hard to get into the badger’s inner circle. If you could make it through Elysia’s fears that you only like her for her looks, and then make it through Elysia’s occasional rage outbreaks (that she blamed solely on her veela temperament) – you’d find no better friend. Needless to say, it was a hard road to traverse.

“If you’d like,” She finally said, “I’d be happy to escort you to the Hospital Hut to get your noggin examined,” Then she smiled slyly (with only a slight grimace from her swollen cheek) and peeled apart a quadrant of the citrus fruit and held it out toward Marco – not quite a peace offering, but certainly a step away from open hostility.

“Okay, so step one of the amazing Marco Caldara’s plan has passed. So now that you have my attention, what was the next step in the plan?”

He accepted the orange wedge gravely. Trying to look cool, Marco popped the piece into his mouth whole, letting out a noise eerily similar to a cat coughing up a hairball as he nearly choked. For a brief moment, he saw the headline in the paper: "Local Gryffindor chokes to death on an orange on top of a shed. He probably deserved it."

"My noggin," Marco insisted, clearing his throat and pretending he didn't nearly die, "Doesn't need any healing intervention."  With a dry laugh, he looked over at Elysia. "The stuff that's fucked up in my head isn't physical. It isn't for most people.  But it makes us fun. Have you met Zia?" Zia Piselli was his cousin. As much as Marco liked being around her, she was definitely going through some stuff that was making her more reckless, and by extension... Much more exciting.

He didn't have a second step. He gave her a noncommittal shrug and scooted closer to take a look at her cheek. It looks like it had hit her harder than he intended. "Does it hurt?" He wasn't sure if the redness was due to the fact that pale people tended to flush easier, or due to the fact that he had, legitimately, hurt her. Amazingly, the orange didn't take any damage.

The small chunk of pulpy orange goodness rested between Elysia’s fingers for only a few moments before her classmate took it from her delicate fingers and popped it into his waiting maw. After (apparently) swallowing the sliver whole, Marco seemed to choke. Great, she thought, exactly what she needed was to kill the relatively good-looking guy who chucked fruit at her face. Surely, were he to die, McGonagall wouldn’t kick her out… right? After all, it wasn’t her fault that she was on the rooftop in the first place.

Thankfully, all those thoughts crossed the young lass’s mind in an instant, for in the next Caldara had managed to get in control of himself. In response, Elysia merely raised an eyebrow in characteristic “What the hell?” style. Then Marco did something the Hufflepuff didn’t expect… he moved closer.

Hadn’t she been about to curse his favorite body part only minutes before? Elysia knew that if someone had been threatening her lady bits she certainly wouldn’t be moving closer to the one doing the threatening. Marco was certainly an odd one – and it intrigued Elysia just enough to keep her from hopping back on her broomstick and flying far, far away.

"Does it hurt?"

That earned the boy yet another raised eyebrow, “It did,” she admitted quietly, “but only for a few seconds. It’s fine now.” After all, was she not a quidditch player? Had she not dealt with much worse injuries in the past? Pain was an old friend, one that she didn’t necessarily welcome, but one she knew she could never avoid so instead embraced.

“D’you mind?” She asked – without pausing or giving Marco a chance to say no, Elysia reached across the boy’s frame and snatched a bag of crisps from the opposite side of the Gryffindor and shoved a couple into her mouth.

Elysia didn't outwardly judge his near-death experience by citrus, and for that Marco was thankful. Well, kind of thankful. She did raise a silently criticizing eyebrow at him. He found that he didn't particularly care.

He dropped his hand to his side. She was fine. The girl took bludgers to the face and came back with most of her sanity intact. As much sanity as someone who was half veela could possibly have, anyway. He'd heard that they had tempers. He'd also heard stories from the smaller Hughes about his mother throwing... Fireballs or something at a family get together. Wasn't that Elysia's sister?

Marco was about to protest about the crisp thievery when he realized that if Elysia's sister could throw fireballs, then Elysia probably could too.

Shit.

"Only if you don't mind sharing." Marco replied dryly, all too aware of just how much she invaded his personal space. "C'mon, Elysia!" He made a motion to snatch the bag from her, a shadow of a smile teasing the corners of his mouth.

Thankfully the boy didn’t choke to death, and showing intelligence she didn’t think he possessed, Marco lowered his hand. Elysia wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not – but the Gryffindor didn’t seem inclined to scoot back away from her. Noticing this, a slight flush crept into Elysia’s cheeks that she hoped Marco wouldn’t notice. Perhaps he would think the redness was simply from the offending fruit. Right?

Chewing on her recently stolen chips, Elysia chose to ignore Marco telling her that she should share. Sharing wasn’t always a good thing – if Caldara hadn’t tried to share his orange with her, Elysia would still be flying around the skies and Marco would have had all of his snacks all to himself. It wasn’t until he reached over and tried to snatch the bag from Elysia’s hand that her mouth opened again.

Crisps flew from her mouth as the Hufflepuff laughed – spraying the roof and Marco with predigested potatoes. One hand flew out to block the boy from reaching the chips, while her other dropped the bag to cover her mouth. Caught in the slight wind, Elysia barely even noticed as the rest of the almost full bag slid down the side of the roof to tip across the side. Slices of starch fell in almost slow motion to the ground, but the quidditch player was too embarrassed to pay any attention.

Had she seriously just spat all over the guy beside her? What was wrong with her?!? If the blush in Elysia’s face wasn’t noticeable before, it certainly was now. “Awww,” She said, hand still covering her mouth as she paused to swallow the few bits still in her maw. “See what you made me do?” She asked, lowering her mouth and reaching out to brush the bits from the front of Marco’s robes.

He froze in horror as Elysia ungracefully spewed half-masticated crisps all over his shirt. Elysia's freckles were even more noticeable when her face got so red. It was cute. Even if she covered him in filth.

"That was the most disgusting thing I've ever witnessed." Marco choked back a laugh. "I didn't make you do anything! You're the one who chose a life of thievery." Okay, a little dramatic, but he couldn't resist teasing her a bit. She began to brush the crumbs off his front, and he startled a bit at the touch.

"Do you usually spray innocent Italians with half-chewed food?" He asked, raising a dark brow.

The situation could not have been much worse. Though she certainly hadn’t meant to cover the boy in her saliva and potato particles, surely he wasn’t upset about it? Without even knowing Marco that well, Elysia knew that he had more than likely been splattered with much more disgusting things.

Her outstretched hand quickly retreated at Marco’s words, bringing Elysia back to her senses. Why had she touched him anyway? Couldn’t she have simply reached for her wand and used a cleaning spell? Then again, after threatening the boy earlier, Elysia wasn’t sure he would have been keen for her to point her wand anywhere in his direction. Either way, she shouldn’t have been touching him – that was just weird.

Bringing her hand back, she crossed her arms and gave Marco a haughty look, “I dunno, do you usually attack innocent women with flying fruit?”

“And maybe I have a career in theft, but I feel like assault is frowned on a bit more,” Okay, so she’d said her peace, but what was she going to do about the crisps? She was still hungry and wasn’t about to take anything else from Marco’s goody pile.

"Only if I think they're capable of catching it." Marco replied easily, though he couldn't help but notice she had recoiled away from him as if he had splintered her broomstick to pieces. He raised a dark brown inquisitively, though he didn't comment. He was too much of a gentleman to do so.

Okay, let's face it, Marco was no gentleman. He was far too passive-aggressive (and sometimes just plain passive) for the job.

Also he kind of tended to say dickish things to people who came to him for comfort and advice. He didn't know how to deal with it, though he tried.

Marco reached into his backpack and pulled out a couple of cold sausage rolls, pilfered from the kitchens. Okay, maybe not pilfered-- the house elves were far too willing to shower him with food.

Regretfully, he offered her one. They were cold, but if she was hungry enough, she wouldn't care.

Elysia eyed the proffered sausage warily. She was still hungry, but she was certain taking more food from the Gryffindor was a bad idea. First she’d been assaulted, then she’d covered Marco with pre-digested crisps. She should just hop back on her broom and head back to the castle. Surely one of her classmates would be happy to share some snacks with her… or she could stop by the kitchens herself on her way back to her dorm. She didn’t need to take that sausage. She would be fine.

With an almost imperceptible sigh, Elysia’s hunger won and she reached out to take the food from Marco’s outstretched hand. What if no one had food to share with her in the dorms? Marco had obviously pestered the elves already, so what if they didn’t feel inclined to share with Elysia too? This was the safest option, and maybe this time they could avoid culinary awkwardness.

“Well thank you for thinking me capable,” She said haughtily. Then, a bit less savagely, “and thank you for the food,”

God, she was prickly. He'd apologized, or at least.... Got close to apologizing. That was good enough, right?

"You're welcome." Marco replied stiffly before sitting in awkward silence with her. He didn't know what to say, or what to do. He didn't even know what Elysia liked to talk about besides quidditch, and he'd never been the biggest quidditch fan. He took a bite of his food. Chewing it felt like the longest feat in the history of man. Marco washed it down with a gulp of water from his bottle.

"Right then." He ran his fingers through his hair, "What're going to do, after graduation?"

Elysia had been prickly, and she wasn't sure why. Even though Marco hadn't said anything, the awkward silence between them was all she needed to know. Normally, she would have shrugged off being hit in the face, or being toyed with - but this guy was being friendly and she was moodier than a niffler in a concrete box. Maybe, she thought during the long silence, maybe this had nothing to do with moody teenager angst, maybe she had been cursed after all. Maybe she'd just been suppressing her veela heritage gifts because she so wanted to believe they weren't there, and what if they were now showing in all the wrong ways?

All this she thought while sitting awkwardly with Marco, munching on the sausage, that might have been cold, but was still quite delicious. A blush rose to her cheeks before the Gryffindor finally spoke again, asking her about what she was going to do after graduation.

The change was instantaneous, a gleaming smile lit the witch's features as she began, "Well, I've heard tell that a certain scout for a couple professional Quidditch teams are coming to the upcoming Hufflepuff and Gryffindor game. I know Hufflepuff's had it rough lately, but I'm hoping that my flying skills might get me noticed," She paused, the gleam fading from her eyes just a bit, "But, not having a winning team for most of my captaincy doesn't make me look like a very strong leader, so if that doesn't work out for me, maybe I'll be working for the Ministry, my mum is a consultant in the being division on the Creatures floor, I'm hoping her connections in the beast division can get me in. If I can't fly forever, I at least want creatures in my life. Being in nature is what life's all about, y'know?"

Realizing she had been rambling on, Ely let out a small laugh, "I'm sorry, you asked a simple question and I gave you a monologue, what about you? What do you plan on doing?"