Defying Ground Rules ((Riley))

[Ariane Chan]

As a prefect Ariane was supposed to keep order, maintain decorum, and instill the school rules in the student population. What's more, as a seventh year and one of the oldest pupils in the school, Ariane was to set a good example to those in the younger years.

Right now, the last thing she was doing was setting an example, or following the rules.

Ariane stared Riley Coxen up and down once; twice; three times, before she sighed in defeat. The fifth year girl was one of the notoriously 'difficult' students, renowned for her pranking and mischief, along with her twin brother Oz. Twins were the worst, Ariane had decided. One was bad enough, but two? Ariane didn't want to imagine two Jez Cuthberts. Uh uh. One was bad, and two would drive even her crazy. Ariane could only take so much. So when she had left the castle to come to the Grounds to practise her flying, she'd done a double-take at the sight of Riley zipping about on her broom already. One step before her. Ariane had grit her teeth in annoyance and signalled the fifth year to land and come to her. Now she continued to watch Riley silently, her eyes narrowed in thought. Ariane didn't - couldn't, really, since she was gripping her own broomstick guiltily - want to punish Riley, even though she was one of the banes of her existence as a prefect. The amount of times Riley had caused Ariane and her fellow Gryffindors and prefects trouble... It made her head spin to remember them all. How could she and Osmond be related to Chace, who was so quiet and reserved? He was a Hufflepuff like Aurora, and Ariane had not ever spoken a word to him. But Riley and 'Oz', as her twin was better known; gosh, the number of times she'd chastised them for their pranks - countless. But this time, Ariane had no solid ground to stand on; if she punished Riley for using the Quidditch pitch without permission she would be labelling herself a hypocrite; which Ariane tried her hardest not to be.

Normally Ariane would follow the rules. She didn't use her wand in corridors on her enemies to rile trouble; she never wandered into the Forbidden Forest. But she had snuck onto the pitch a few times. How else could she practise her flying? Ariane was certainly not auditioning for the Gryffindor team; the thought of teamwork and relying on her housemates repelled her. Ariane was a lone wolf. No one was to touch upon that outer boundary she'd made without her permission; hence why she was so irritated by Jez's constant presence in her life. Even though he was physically not too close for her liking, he was always finding ways to crawl under her skin with pranks she could only label childish and a waste of time. OK, they required some genius of its maker, but didn't Jez have better things to do than stalk her endlessly with his idiotic, time-consuming pranks?! Ariane was sick of it! She was so sick of Jez; so sick of Harmony and her cover stories about what she'd been up to recently, when she was certain she was with that good-for-nothing child, Rex Carter; sick of Aurora even though her best friend had not done anything, anything at all to annoy or hurt or betray her. Aurora was just there as usual, and even though she wanted to be grateful to her cousin, Ariane merely despised her presence. It was all a reminder of the past. Everything had changed for Ariane since Tristan had left her behind; now she was a shell... a shell that longed, more than ever, to grab her broomstick and fly. Fly out there in that blistering winter cold and lose herself and her love for Tristan.

But Riley - yes, that was who she had found when she'd decided to slip onto the Grounds for another quick fly around the large games pitch. Ariane stared intently at the younger girl, and after sighing defeatedly, mounted her broomstick. "You know what?" she asked Riley without humour or emotion. "I don't care. Do what you want. Fly here if you want. I won't say anything. I won't report anything. I'm a hypocrite. I break this rule all the time. It's a stupid rule. We should be allowed to fly if we want to. We should have that slice of freedom if we want it." Ariane breathed harshly, her eyes turning to look up at the clear skies. "Scratch that," she muttered to herself. "I'm going to take my freedom if I want it. No one can stop me. Not the rules. Not my enemies, my friends, my family. And especially not him." Shoving tears to the back of her sockets with frustrated, angry blinks, Ariane tried to make her feet move, make them propel her off the grass and into the air. But she couldn't... not yet. Not with Riley still standing there. Ariane fixed her eyes on her again, this time dry once more. "You can stay or you can go," she repeated impatiently. "I'm not going to punish you. I didn't see you, you didn't see me... Let's just pretend there's no rules, OK?" She watched the younger girl, searching for something in those clear eyes of hers. She could see, beneath that exterior or confrontation, mischief and attention-seeking, there lay a damaged soul. Maybe she was just as damaged as Ariane was. "It's a beautiful day," Ariane started again after a long pause where she remained floating on her broom. "It's a perfect day for flying. It's too perfect. Nothing should be that perfect. Perfection and happy endings... they don't exist." Bitter... oh so bitter. That was Ariane Chan.

"Damn you, Tristan MacCay. Damn you."

[Riley Coxen G7]

Riley couldn't wait to get out there and fly her broom. She had been granted a starting chaser position this year, and Riley was thrilled about that fact. She needed to brush up her skills as much as possible. She didn't exactly care all too much (actually, she didn't care at all to be honest) that she technically wasn't supposed to be flying her broom without permission, but hey..it was a stupid rule anyway. Why couldn't students practice their Quidditch and get better at the game on their own? What would happen when say the captain wasn't doing their job (although Riley highly doubted that day would ever come considering who their captain was) and forgot to schedule practices right before a big game? Was Gryffindor supposed to lose simply because they couldn't attend the scheduled practice? Of course not. So Riley took pride in breaking this particular rule, and walked down to the pitch proudly with her head held high. She had bundled up for the crisp fall weather, and, suddenly missing the summertime tied her magically straightened blonde hair back in a high pony tail, allowed the wind to whip at her slightly pink ears. She had to remember to bring ear muffs next time she went out for some practice. "Oh well." Riley said to herself with a casual carefree shrug as she mounted her broom and prepared to take off.

Riley had been in the air, warming up for less than ten minutes before she noticed a small speck underneath her. She had been quickly zooming across the pitch, speeding from one goal post to the other as fast as she could to warm up. She would then work on her aim, but she had been interrupted by that one flaming red little speck. So whoever was down there must have been a Gryffindor. Hopefully it wasn't a prefect or a professor, but even if it was Riley wouldn't fret too much over it. She'd simply talk her way out of it like she did with most sticky situations. Riley had always been one with a way with words. She had always been the Coxen sibling to go to if one was in trouble, because she could very easily find her way quickly out of trouble. That was how she worked, how she functioned. But in order to try and find a solution to this minor setback, she had to get her feet on the ground to see who she had to persuade to turn a blind eye.

And so, Riley reluctantly guided her broomstick to the ground to meet whoever it was that had noticed her zooming around on the Quidditch pitch. Just moments after landing, the figure walked closer to her, giving her an icy glare that could create icebergs in the black lake and freeze anything living in it for centuries. It only took Riley a few moments to match the icy glare with the name Ariane Chan. It was no secret that Ariane could not stand Riley and her brother Oz. Being a Gryffindor prefect, Ariane could not stand that Riley and Oz were always causing trouble for their house and losing points. In fact, Riley could remember getting that icy glare from her many times in the past year. It was odd how unlike her family Ariane Chan was. Harmony Chan was in Riley's year, actually. Only she was a Hufflepuff rather than a Gryffindor like her sister. Harmony was polite, kind, and always had a smile on her face. Riley remembered seeing her a lot toward the end of last year with that Rex kid in Riley's house and year. And then there was Aurora Chan, Ariane's cousin, who was the epitome of chipper and cheery. The girl always seemed to be in a good mood. Never once did she see Ariane's trademark glare on any of her family member's faces.

But today, Ariane had absolutely no reason to glare, for she had been breaking the rules as well. Right there, clasped between her pale fingers was her very own broomstick. Ariane had come here with the intention of illegally using the pitch just like Riley did, so she had no reason to be angry at her. In ratting Riley out, Ariane would be proclaiming herself a hypocrite, which is something Riley was sure she wouldn't like to do. So Riley just stood there with a smug smile on her face, looking up at the slightly taller and slightly older Gryffindor. She could have fun with this. She simply stood there and smiled that same smug smile as Ariane babbled on and on about the silly Quidditch rule like a slightly insane person talking to herself. Riley merely nodded when Ariane concluded that they would simply ignore each other and pretend they hadn't seen each other. It was perfectly fine with her. But Riley found something odd about Ariane today. She seemed especially bitter and especially cold. What was the deal? "Ok fine. I'm definitely staying. But not to be rude or anything, but may I ask why you seem to be so angry at this 'beautiful day'?" Riley asked as timidly as she could. Although, Riley knew she wasn't at all timid, so her question would probably come off as rude and nosy instead of the 'timid' tone she was going for.

[Ariane Chan]

Ariane blinked at Riley's questions, blank emotion frozen on her face. After a long pause she slowly stated, "I'm not angry. Evidently angry means two entirely different things for you and I. You wouldn't know me well know to recognise my true anger." Ariane's voice was rigid and quiet, but not cold or condescending. She wasn't trying to be malicious, she was just stating the facts. Ariane had always been blunt like that. "You don't want to see me angry. You may have seen me irritated by your pranks before but real anger takes a lot more to arouse. We Prefects have better self-control than you can imagine." She gave Riley a pointed look, as if to say, we have the patience of angels, having to put up with you and your brother - nothing can faze us.

"Anyway," Ariane started again abruptly, her fingers reapplying themselves to her broom and tightening her tendons to a ghostly white. "The weather doesn't define my emotions. Does it define how you feel?" Sending Riley one last pointed and cool - yet not spiteful - look, Ariane launched into the air, her feet kicking strongly off the ground, throwing up blades of grass. She enjoyed the swooshing of cool fresh air around her body, breathing it in with relish as she swooped across the clear sky. She circled the Quidditch pitch twice before doing a somersault in the air, her cascade of black hair falling into her eyes and mouth. She brushed off a grin and uprighting herself, came to a halt to throw her obstructing ebony locks into a high and tight ponytail.

As she paused for breath Riley rose up beside her and Ariane cast her a cursory glance. "Practising for Quidditch?" It was more a statement than a question. Ariane had never been interested in people or making conversation with them. However, she had spoken to Riley on more than enough occasions for her to be somewhat comfortable with beginning a short-lived exchange. "You had better win against Slytherin." She gave a half-scowl at the thought of the upcoming match between the green team and Gryffindor. Ariane didn't hide the fact that even she disliked Slytherin, despite the fact that she was a Prefect and still didn't exude Gryffindor pride. She had once been known as the Gryffindor who should've been sorted into Slytherin, but Ariane didn't have as dirty tactics on the Quidditch pitch as they did. It was downright disgusting. Sometimes Ariane wanted to storm onto this very pitch and cuff those cocky Slytherins around the head. They deserved it.

On the contrary to what others thought of Ariane she was actually very proud of her house, just like all Gryffindors. Aurora had once teased her about it in fondness, even if Ariane had found it rather irritating at the time. She didn't scream and shout and wave banners at Gryffindor matches, but she always showed her support somehow - a red scarf during the winter season, maybe a red hair tie or some sort of accessory in the summer. Ariane was very defensive of Gryffindor really. She was a Prefect through and through, even if she broke the rules now and again, such as the Quidditch pitch one. She had been rather surprised when she'd received the position upon entering her fifth year, and although she had considered giving up the role when she returned to school - because she really didn't think she was right for the job, or wanted it quite frankly - Harmony had persuaded her otherwise. Mum would've been proud of her; she would've wanted Ariane to take the responsibility. So she had and although her school mates saw her as cold still, she always did her job well and never complained.

((I'm sorry if there's not much to reply to. Ariane just never says much. I wanted to make her say so much more but it's just not in her nature.))