*~~the world is mine and i don't know anything

[Verity Bromley]

CLOSED || Verity&&Aiden

Verity missed the summer. She missed being able to walk outside and immediately feel the warmth of the sun on her face. She missed being able to walk outside without her wool pea coat on and her warm boots. Well, actually she adored her coat…and the boots had even been on sale!! Anyhow, she wanted to be able to run outside and jump into the Lake to cool off, but as soon as she ran outside, her chest began to ache from the cold and she knew the Lake would feel frozen if it wasn’t actually frozen yet. Going outside had seemed like such a good idea when she first thought about it. She had been stuck inside for too long, both at Hogwarts and at the Three Broomsticks, and she needed to get out. She had forgotten what fresh air was like. It was pathetic.

The second Verity stepped outside; the cold slapped her in the face. It was almost like she was being slapped around a bit with a large fishbot. Almost. Nonetheless, Verity made her way towards the Quidditch Pitch. So maybe it wasn’t exactly the ideal time to go for a ride, but she hadn’t been on a broom in ages and that wasn’t acceptable. Especially if she wanted to get her little butt back on the Quidditch team. Verity was wrapped up from head to toe in layers. Her hair was tucked under a wool beret, a scarf was wrapped snugly around her neck and tucked into her wool pea coat, she had on her long, dark skinnies, and a pair of warm boots. Despite all of this, she was still freezing. And despite freezing, she was still planning on taking her broom out.

Verity had grabbed a spare broom out of the broom closet. She didn’t want the wood on hers splitting because of the cold weather. She mounted her broom and hovered for a bit, just to make sure she was still used to riding on a broom. She forgot how much she loved it.

[Aiden Shover]

Aiden had managed to get a better hold on that stupid waterproofing spell for his yellow and black checkered vans, not that he really had much chance to get them wet today. He had carried his broom through the castle with him, and the second he had set foot outside the door he had hopped on to ride down to the pitch. He wasn't going to walk in slushy, nasty snow if he didn't have to. No, he didn't care that it was powdery right now instead of slushy, it was still cold, and it would get his feet cold and, eventually, wet.

It was great to be able to get out of the castle and on his broom, something he hadn't been able to do in way too long. He was bundled up in a thick, fur-lined dragonskin jacket and a hat that so wasn't dorky at all. Yes, his mum had made it, but it was one of the few things he had of her and so he felt no shame in wearing the black knit hat with the bobbing yellow ball on the top. She had been in Hufflepuff, too. He didn't notice the other person on the pitch as he zoomed in from above, gripping the broom tightly with his hands in fingerless gloves.

[Verity Bromley]

Verity almost lost her balance when someone else zoomed past her. If they hadn’t been going so fast, she would have assumed it was some kind of damn bird. She blinked and held onto the nose of the broom with a firm grip. Who the fizzlesticks thought they could just whip past her, nearly knock her to the ground, and keep going like that?! Oh no, that wasn’t about to sit well with Verity. She kicked off from the ground with a start, and zoomed upward so she was at least the same altitude as whoever it was that had zoomed past her. Wait a second, what were they even doing flying at a time like this? Verity hadn’t expected anyone else to be using the Pitch, that was part of the reason she decided to go out to it.

Verity hovered mid-air and searched around the the mystery flyer. They sky was grey and thick with clouds. Was there going to be more snow? Ugh, that was the last thing she needed. Maybe next time they had an insane snow storm, she could just lock herself in the Three Broomsticks with all of the Firewhiskey to keep her warm.

Verity saw another blur move past her in the sky. She whipped around and narrowed her eyes. She hadn’t seen anyone fly that fast in a while. In all honesty, the Quidditch teams at Hogwarts hadn’t been all that strong in the past few months. Herself included, but she was working to change that. “What the…?” Verity muttered to herself in amazement. She was caught somewhere in between awe and jealousy towards whoever it was who was flying around.

[Aiden Shover]

Aiden had noticed the girl sometime during his second lap, and he couldn't help but smirk at what he could see of her reaction. He wasn't a mean guy at heart, he just loved fun. Right now, fun was rushing through the wind with the girl sitting there dumbfounded. He wished the school's quidditch was more active, it was all but boring lately, so he got his excitement where he could. He swooped down to her and looped around her before he swung around to hover next to her.

"Hello there, afraid I'm going to hit you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. There was too much energy coursing through him to settle there, and so within a minute he was making lazy circles around the girl. "I'm not going to, you know, I'm a professional," he said with a wink. Sure, his face and fingertips were frozen, but he didn't particularly care for the moment. He would recover.

[Verity Bromley]

Verity nearly jumped off of her broom. Where did he come from?! “You know, it’s not nice to sneak up on people when their feet aren’t on the ground like that.” She said, keeping her chin tilted up slightly. “You could do something stupid like cause them to fall off of their brooms or something.” Her voice was calm…it was far too cold get over-emotional about silly little things. A shiver ran up her spine, causing her shoulders to temporarily spaz out. If she stayed where she was, she was sure to freeze to death. Verity was getting dizzy from following his pattern with her head. In one swift movement, she dove under him and then pulled back up so she was above him. “Not at all.” She said. She could feel a challenge coming on. Or maybe that was due to the fact that she was looking for a good challenge. “Not that you could.” She added with a sly smile.

[Aiden Shover]

Aiden smirked, "If you fall, I'll catch you," he said. "I'm pretty good with my broom." He made another loop and hovered in front of her. "Bet I'm better than you," he teased. Sure, he could be cocky when he wanted to be, but he never let it cross that line from teasing to just being a plain old jerk that took the fun out of everything. He didn't want people to hate him.

[Verity Bromley]

"Bet I could tell you where to shove that broomstick of yours." Verity muttered to herself. She rolled her eyes. So, it was probably true that he was better than her, but she wasn't about to admit that. She used to be a damn good player. Had she never taken that break from flying, she still might be. "I doubt that." She said with a huff, for an added effect. "You're a quidditch player, I'm assuming." Verity said. Now she was the one circling him. He certainly had the build of a quidditch player, she concluded after getting a good look at his ass, and people who were that good on a broom usually didn't get that way from taking one flying course as a first year. "What position do you play?" She asked as she kept making lazy circles around him.

[Aiden Shover]

"Keeper," Aiden said, dipping around her to ride by her outer side in those lazy circles. "You play?" he asked. He would bet that she did, even if she wasn't on one of the school's teams. Finding someone else to play with was always a good thing, even if all they could do was fly and maybe toss the quaffle around a bit. It would be fun. Assuming their fingers were warm enough to hold onto the ball and their brooms.

[Verity Bromley]

"Yes," Verity said in a of-course, wasn't-that-obvious? kind of way. Okay, maybe that wasn't entirely true. She hadn't played in a couple of months and it most likely killed a great deal of her hard-earned skill. But at some point in her recent past, she was one of the best players on her team. Of course, that was before she came to Hogwarts, but it still counted...right? "Beater," Verity said. In her opinion, it was the best. It was an open opportunity to whack a ball as hard as you possible could towards people you didn't particularly care for. It was every teenager's dream. "Although, I've been forced to play Chaser as well." At the school she was at before the school she was at before she came to Hogwarts, the only positions available on the Quidditch team were for Chaser. It wasn't her favorite, in fact she found it dreadfully boring, but it was her only option at the time. At several schools she went to, since she joined in the middle of the year, she wasn't even allowed the opportunity to be on any Quidditch team. Thus resulting in her making her own Quidditch club of various witches and wizards that were denied the opportunity to play as well.

[Aiden Shover]

"You're a beater, eh?" Aiden asked, eying the girl. "Remind me to watch out for you if we meet on the pitch." He doubted she would hold anything back when she had the club in her hands. "So, are you going to give me a name, maybe a house or a year or something?" He didn't want to call her that girl on the pitch, and he wasn't one of those that was satisfied with just not knowing someone's name.

[Verity Bromley]

"Hmm..." Verity said eyeing him. She could just tell him her name, wait politely for him to tell her his name and go on from there...but where was the fun in that? "Maybe." She said. "But you'll have to catch me first." She said, having already sped off before finishing her sentence. She crouched over her broom and sped towards the other side of the Pitch as fast as she could go. She braced for the icy wind to bite at her little button nose. The cold air stung her eyes as she raced towards the other end. God, how she missed zooming through the air.

[Aiden Shover]

Aiden let out a loud laugh and broke the circle to speed after her. He would have no problem catching up, not when he laid flat against the handle and willed his Nimbus 2010 faster and faster. It was great that his father let him stay up-to-date with his brooms. There was no way they could afford the famous Firebolt line, but the Nimbus' were close enough. Someday he would be able to get a Firebolt.

[Verity Bromley]

Verity wished she had her trusty Firebolt with her now, but she couldn't afford for it to break. Her father had gotten her that one before they had their riff and there was no way she could afford one on her own now, even if the Three Broomsticks was pretty well. Sometimes she wondered why the school couldn't afford better brooms, especially with the cost of tuition. Verity could see the end in sight. She clutched to the broom as tightly as she could. "Come on, come on!" She urged it on. Her heart was beating in anticipation. It had been so long since she had a good race. She was so close she could practically taste it.

[Aiden Shover]

Aiden could be somewhat reckless with his brooms, but it was such a pain riding a school broom, and right now he was so glad he was riding his own, because it so easily caught up to the dinky brooms the school offered to the poor saps who didn't have their own. He couldn't imagine not having his own broom. "Name?" he called as he caught up and the tip of his broom passed hers.

[Verity Bromley]

Verity glanced over to see his broom nearly passing hers. There was no way in hell she could let him pass her. She wasn't the kind of person who gave up easily, even if she was on a crappy school broom and there really was no hope of her beating him. She kept her eyes focused on the hoops at the end of the Pitch. Just a little bit further. She was gripping her broom so tightly that she was shaking. She managed to keep up with his broom only half a length ahead of her. Now, if only she could pull through a bit more.