Smack! ((Caitlin))

[Luke Dallan H7]

Luke stared vacantly at the piece of parchment in front of him. A charms book was laid to the side of his bed, a red velvet thread in the crease. “Just write down one sentence, and it will all just com to you,” he told himself, averting his eyes on the book next to him. Scanning through the pages, he looked for something to just start him off with. Normally he would leave it to do finish it some other time, but the say was due the next day. It was probably given around Monday, due on Thursday, and now it was Wednesday. Luke really had to work on not procrastinating so much. There was even a time when he left off a huge report for History of Magic, which caused him to stay up all night to finish him. Maybe that why he hated being in his fifth year. There was so much homework to finish, and add Luke’s procrastination, and then the year was horrible. At least it helped him to try to over come his usual walls. He wasn’t going to put this essay off again, staying up all night just to finish it. Luke sighed as he read through the book, moving different positions on the bed. Then it hit him. Just like a train. Moving the parchment closer to him, Luke dipped the end of the quill in the ink tray beginning to write.

An hour had passed by when Luke had started. His tongue hung out of the side of his mouth in concentrations. The quill scratched along the paper his hands slowly falling down the paper. Putting a period at the end of his last sentence, Luke smiled as he shook out hid cramping hand. Now that didn’t hurt too much, did it? Massaging the inside of his palm, Luke read over his own words. He hated his handwriting. It was large, crammed, and hard to read. No matter how hard his tried to make it look neat, it still looked horrible. Shrugging, he took out the yarn from the crease of the book. Rolling the parchment up into a thick wad, he tied the red ribbon around the base. “Finished!” he shouted excitedly, looking down as he saw Romeo playing on the hardwood with a little red string. Setting the rolled up paper into his shoulder bag at the end of the bed, Luke stood from the mattress. Picking up a dark blue jacket, he pulled his arms through the sleeves, zipping the front up. Head down the stairs to the main common room, Luke exited out of the portrait hole and onto Hogwarts fresh grounds.

Stuffing his hands into the side of his pockets, Luke whistled to himself silently. It was a familiar tone every on new at Hogwarts. The school song. The sun was shinning just barely, with a cool breeze rushing by. Hearing someone shout, Luke turned around his whistling stopping as a red quaffle came zooming his direction. Quickly reacting, he caught the quaffle before it could hit him in the head. Noticing a large group of younger students by the shaded group of trees, Luke shook his head, throwing the quaffle up into the air. Catching it, he looked back over at the students. “Heads up!” Luke shouted, throwing the quaffle in his direction. He was about to turn around and leave, when he heard a shriek from a girl. Wincing as the ball hit her squarely in the head, Luke quickly ran over to her side. Knelling down on the ground in front of her he tried hard not to laugh. “I’m so sorry….” He apologized, not even knowing her name. Moving aside a strange of her dark hair from her face, his hands gently stroking her head. “Are you alright?”

[Caitlin Martinez G7]

How did they get that Quaffle anyway? Caitlin scowled as she attempted for the tenth time to return to her reading underneath the tree on the grounds. It was a bright day and it was really warm, so Caitlin had decided to take advantage of it by finding a quiet place to read. Or at least, it had been quiet until the rowdy group of second years seemed to appear and begin tossing a Quaffle back and forth. It wasn’t a school Quaffle, because it would have the Hogwarts crest indented into it, but Caitlin wondered if they could buy a Quaffle at Quality Quidditch Supplies. She had never been in the shop, so she couldn’t say yes or no for sure, but it didn’t matter at the moment because she was highly annoyed with the laughter from the second years. There was a squeal as one of the second year girls caught it barely in her fingertips. The group then laughed and continued playing as Caitlin raised her head to look at the group again. “Honestly, there are some people who want peace and quiet today!” Caitlin finally snapped, but the group either didn’t hear her or didn’t want to look like they heard her, because they continued their game. She glared daggers at them and then shut her book with a snap and stood.

Instantly she wished she hadn’t, because at that moment the Quaffle was flying at her and hit her in the face, narrowly missing her nose. Caitlin’s hand flew to her forehead and she felt blood. It had opened an old cut and it was stinging. There was someone jogging up to her as she put her hand to the tree to steady herself. She had closed her eyes to stop the spinning, it had hit her rather hard. She opened them when she heard a voice and someone touching her head. Caitlin scowled and brushed the guy’s hand away, “I’m fine.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a tissue, pressing it to the bleeding cut. She looked at the tissue and frowned, “I hate blood.” Caitlin pressed the tissue to the cut again and looked up at the guy who had thrown the Quaffle and hit her. She recognized him as Luke Dallan and shook her head, the tissue still pressed to it. She stared into his eyes a moment, and then wobbled to the side, “Whoa… I think I need to… yeah, tha- that’s good.” Caitlin had sunk to the ground beside the tree and put her head in her hands.

“I knew that Quaffle was going to cause trouble,” Caitlin scowled again as she leaned against the tree and closed her eyes to stop the spinning. It didn’t help much.

[Luke Dallan H7]

Luke’s hand gently brushed the girl’s dark, soft hair as he listened to her mumbling. He felt horrible for hitting her so hard with the quaffle, but it was just a little mistake. She had to know he didn’t hit her on purpose. “I’m sorry…” Luke apologized again, his blue eyes landing on the small cut on her forehead. “Normally my aim is rather good. Today must be an off day for me.” It was true. Usually, Luke never missed a target when throwing things thanks to his older brother slash coach slash trainer. Shaking his head, Luke frowned as the girl swatted his hands away from her face as she stood up from the ground. Didn’t she not just almost get the wind knocked out of her? “I don’t think you should be standing…” he said inaudibly, quieting down as she pressed a tissue to her head. Blood. Luke nodded his head toward the comment never liking blood himself. He was used to getting different scabs on all different parts of his body, but that was slightly different. “Ever seen any of the Quidditch games?” he asked standing up from the ground slowly, his blue eyes carefully watching her every moment. “Normally when some people get hit in the head with either a quaffle or bludger, they would lay down for a few moments before getting up to find help.”

When she sunk down to the ground, Luke was quickly knelling in front of her. “Here let me help you.” Plucking the tissue out of the girl’s hand, he lightly pressed it onto her small cut. Cleaning the red streaks around her forehead, Luke smiled as he added more pressure to the cut. “I’m sorry….” Luke grinned at her as he pressed just a little harder onto the cut. “I don’t know how many times I have to say sorry….I guess I’ll just have to say it until you forgive my horrible aim…” he said lifting the white bloody tissue from her forehead. The bleeding had stopped, but did he throw the quaffle that hard to create such a scratch. Shrugging that out of his mind, Luke threw the dirty tissue on the ground, wiping his hands on his jeans. “See? No more blood.” Laughing softly, Luke sat down on the grass in front of her noticing that the boys were watching them in a distance throw around the quaffle. “I didn’t mean to hit you on purpose…Just so you know,” Luke mentioned quickly not knowing why he kept on apologizing to her. Maybe it was jut that he hadn’t ever hurt someone so badly before.

Looking back at the girl, he smiled genuinely at her. “I’m Luke Dallan….I don’t think I know who you are though.” She did look quite familiar. A face he had glanced at in the hallway or something along the lines of that. “Are you sure you’re alright? No dizzy feeling? Your vision isn’t blurry, or seeing stars?”

[Caitlin Martinez G7]

“Qui-quidditch? No, I haven’t, actually. I was always afraid of…well… something like this happening, so I would take the opportunity to stow away in the Gryffindor Tower and catch up on my homework that I was always behind on.” Caitlin grinned slightly, her mind still focused on the cut that was bleeding. It wasn’t a big cut, and she doubted the Quaffle would have given her any type of cut if there hadn’t already been a cut there from a previous accident, but still it was bleeding and that alone was enough to make Caitlin queasy. She watched as Luke knelt down in front of her and then told her to let him help her before plucking the tissue from her hand. She was too light headed to do anything much but lean forward a little and let him dab at her cut. It was when he apologized again that Caitlin finally smiled; “Really, don’t worry about it. I should have seen it coming, but unfortunately I don’t have Professor Trelawney’s gift of seeing things before they happen.” The last bit was completely an insult at Trelawney because Caitlin thought she was an old crock who had as much Seer blood in her as Caitlin did, which was none. She let out a quavering sigh, trying to steady the spinning world.

There was silence around them, except for the sounds coming from the group of younger years who were still throwing the Quaffle around. “Ugh, you’d think they would learn.” Was her agitated remark to the silence and the thudding of the Quaffle hitting little hands and the ground. She pressed her hand against the right temple of her head and looked at Luke with a small shrug, “Even if you were, I wouldn’t blame you. Don’t get yourself into a knot over it, it was an accident.” She sent him a sour smile before leaning back against the tree. She didn’t know if it was the pain of the reopened cut or the fact that she had been bleeding that made her dizzy, but either way it was happening and there wasn’t much she could do about it except hope it went away. It was when he introduced himself that Caitlin opened her eyes; “I know who you are, I’m good with names and faces. I’m Caitlin Martinez. As for an answer to your question, I always see stars, Dallan. It’s my passion. But, now that you ask… I feel really… di-…” She pressed her palm to her head and without another word fell softly to the right, her eyes closing.

She didn’t remember anything after that, having lost consciousness. But she could remember thinking that it was either really lucky that Luke was the one who had thrown the Quaffle or else really unlucky because he had such bad aim that day and that no matter the luck or unluck of the situation – she was dizzy and all she wanted to do was sleep.