At the Quidditch Pitch ||Open||

[dorcas]

Dorcas had nothing to do. All her homework had been completed at the weekend and her lessons were over for the day. Dinner would be starting soon but Dorcas had other plans. She hadn't been for a jog in days, weeks actually so it was time to get back out there despite the freezing cold weather. So getting changed into some muggle clothing, jogging pants and a tank top, Dorcas set out through the corridors and towards the castles main entrance.

Dorcas didn't jog to get fit or maintain her fitness, she jogged because she enjoyed it. She enjoyed the endorphins, the adrenaline and the cold fresh air and so Dorcas found herself with blotchy, red skin, panting on the quidditch grounds. She'd pushed herself, jogging for a long while around the grounds and towards the quidditch pitch but now she was exhausted. What she really fancied right now was a quick fly around the grounds, maybe hitting a bludger around a little bit at the quidditch pitch she didn't have the energy right now and she didn't have the energy to walk up the stairs to sit herself down in one of the stands so she just slowly started walking about the edge of the abandoned quidditch pitch and made her way onto its deserted grounds.

outift

[Emily Prescott]

Emily was out running, not something she usually indulged in, she preferred to dance, but today had craved the fresh air. So after changing into something suitable, and dropping her bag off in her room, she took off out the schools main entrance and took to running around the grounds, no clear, set, destination in mind. Part of the reason she'd felt the need for exercise today was because over recent months she had been slacking in exercising. Between school work, her friends and Chase there was simply no free time and she was beginning to feel the effects of it all, not that she was fat, she was far from it she just didn't feel as fit as she liked.

Thinking of her boy-friend and the Christmas she'd shared with his family put a smile on her face. It had been an interesting holiday to say the least, but it had all turned out right in the end and Emily found herself happy his family had accepted her, considering how much of a fail their first impression of her had been. She still felt embarrassed about it now.

Shaking her head, she let out a small laugh and slowed her running down enough to realize she'd arrived onto the Quidditch Pitch. Looking around she finally came to a slow and easy stop and stretched her arms behind her back, her lungs burning in a satisfying way. It wasn't too long before Emily realized she wasn't in fact alone and a small smile spread over her face as she waved to the other person, immediately recognizing who it was, "Hey Dorcas...looks like we had the same idea." she laughed softly, walking over to the other girl, thinking she'd take a break before attempting the vigorous run back up to the castle.

[dorcas]

Dorcas looked up from the ground to see someone else in the grounds of the quidditch pitch. A someone that was now waving at her. Dorcas smiled and waved back, recognising one of her fellow classmates of the past five years - Emily Prescott. Dorcas was surprised to see anyone about down here. It was a cold February this year and today was a particularly cold day, Dorcas was surprised there wasn't any snow on the ground but there had been frost this morning that coated everything in sight. It had been a beautiful landscape to behold but now the frosty morning dew had just melted into the earth and made it soft and a bit icky. Dorcas had found herself faith messy shoes. She'd forgotten to charm them before she'd left and now she had mud all flicked up her legs, bum and back. She was certainly going to need a shower when she got back.

"Hey Emily." Dorcas laughed and nodded. "Indeed it does but I think I took on a little too much today. Just catching my breath a little and then plan on making my way back up to the castle." Dorcas liked to keep her muscles warm and limber between runs and what with the weather the way it was, keeping warm was top priority, sitting down would only cool her muscles and make them achey right now. "I was just taking a little walk, care to join me? I think I could use some company." She said. Dorcas had always liked Emily. They weren't best friends but they were friends. At least that's what Dorcas would call them, Emily had never given Dorcas reason to dislike or distrust her so she didn't mind the girls company, in fact Dorcas would actually quite like to get to know Emily a bit better, sure they'd talked before but nothing really in depth Dorcas really wasn't sure of anything Emily liked apart from jogging apparently but that was a recently knew discovery.

[Emily Prescott]

Emily laughed softly, looking over her shoulder and back in the direction of the castle. "I know what you mean, I think I'm going to have to do a little more than catch my breath. Need to psych myself up first...it's going to be a killer running up there." she said with a grimace, suddenly wondering why she had thought it'd be a good idea to come running. There was no doubt in her mind her legs were going to be like jelly by time she reached the castle, not to mention the fact she'd be ten times as muddy by time she reached the top of the hill. Though in another way she looked forward to the run back, it'd be today's accomplishment.

"I was just taking a little walk, care to join me? I think I could use some company."

Emily nodded her head and smiled at the other girl brightly, "Sure, got to keep moving..." she said, falling in to step with the dark haired girl in front of her. Knowing Dorcas was a fan of running as well, and since Emily was debating making it a regular thing she was tempted to ask the other girl if she fancied making it a regular thing they could do together a couple times during the week. Emily wouldn't mind getting to know her a little better than she already did, she always enjoyed getting to know people. "You go running around the grounds often?" she asked, conversationally, brushing away a stray lock from her face as she looked across at Dorcas, a smile on her face as she continued to speak, "Usually I just indulge in dancing but fancied the run, despite the lovely weather..." she laughed softly, it wasn't as though she could feel the cold right now, her body was still warm from the run.

[dorcas]

The run down from the castle was the easiest part but the run back, all though difficult, was always far more rewarding to Dorcas. She found the endorphins always ran more freely after a jog up the hill, after some hard work had been put in but tonight she'd pay for it if she didn't warm down properly, a bath as opposed to a shower might be the trick tonight, she just sort of wished she had the password to the prefect bathroom. From what she heard it was pretty fantastic in there.

Dorcas nodded to Emily "Yeah, but you'll be fine, you seem athletic enough to handle it." Emily joined Dorcas in her walk and Dorcas was silently grateful to the Gryffindor, it was nice to have a bit of company on the grounds especially in this weather, talking would keep her mind off of getting cooler as she got her breath back. Hopefully it wouldn't be long until the two of them would be ready to jog back up to the castle.

"Yeah, well usually I do but I haven't jogged in a couple of weeks, been catching up with a few things and just haven't had the time, paying for it now, but hopefully I'll get into a routine again, maybe three times a week would be good. Build myself up to four perhaps even every day." Dorcas was interested to hear about Emily's dancing. "What kind of dancing do you do? I didn't realise anyone did that sort of thing here. Is there some sort of club or something?" Dorcas barely ever checked the notice boards around the school so if there was some kind of dance club, she wouldn't have known about it unless someone told her about it, and even then little trinkets of information weren't always well held in the busy mind of miss Dorcas Meadowes.

[Emily Prescott]

Emily was finding she was grateful for having ran down here now, the company was a welcome kind. "Thanks. You to. I'm thinking of sprinting it back up, I jogged down...if your interested in the challenge." she said, bumping her shoulder with the other girls. The run back would be a highly interesting one if they took off on a sprint, it'd make it twice as harder though Emily had no doubt, but again that was part of the fun, mixing it all up.

"Three times a week sounds good, I think I'll just stick to the once or twice for now. Hard to find time to indulge in something like this with how much I like to study." she pulled a face as she spoke, she really did study too much sometimes, but then again between that and Chase, when did a girl really have time to do anything else. At the question about her dancing Emily's smile widened considerably, "Sadly there is no club, it's just usually me in my dorm, or any where private. I do mostly ballet but thanks to my Mums insistence I also do some Belly-Dancing, Jazz, Modern and Latin Dance...basically a lot of different kinds." she said with a smile, laughing lightly before sighing quietly though at the end.

It was rare she ever got to indulge in those activities, it wasn't as though many people knew about the different forms of dance, considering most of them were Muggle Forms...although thinking on it she began to wonder if she could somehow persuade Chase to indulge in some dancing with her, she usually needed a partner. "We should get together some time, I could show you how Muggle's do it..." she joked, shaking her shoulders.

[dorcas]

Dorcas laughed as Emily bumped into her, nudging her shoulder with her own. Sprint up to the top? Dorcas had never fathomed the thought before. She was a long distance runner, she wasn't sure if she'd have the stamina to get all the way up the hill at a sprinting pace. That was a lot of hill to take on. "Seriously, jeesh! I'll give it a go, I enjoy a good challenge." Dorcas smiled at Emily and looked up through the bare stands to the hill, it was exceedingly daunting but Dorcas knew she'd be better for it after. She might not make it all the way but she'd give it a damn good shot.

Dorcas wasn't an open studier, she liked to socialise and put her friends first, yes she was a Ravenclaw but there was more to life than just studying, but that didn't mean that Dorcas didn't study or do homework or any of that sort of thing, in fact she studied quite hard in the dead of night. She wasn't much of a big sleeper, she usually had about four to six hours and that suited her just fine, she usually spent her weekends sleeping in so all though it was a tricky balance to maintain, friends, school work, homework and studying, it was all manageable, Dorcas just thought it a shame there were so many lessons, she really would have liked to have tried out for her house Quidditch team this year.

"That sounds incredible! I'd give it a go if I could find the time, maybe you should start up a dancing class or club, maybe there's plenty of people in the school wanting to give it a go but not having anyone to do it with." Dorcas wasn't completely unfamiliar with muggle-dancing she'd been to a couple of her primary school dances but she had to admit, there wasn't much dancing gone on just more tag and sticky glue sorts of games. "You might be able to learn some of the more traditional pureblooded dances! Some of them are a bit boring though." Dorcas thought it would give plenty of people a great chance to meet up, exchange cultures and have an all round good, fun time.

[Emily Prescott]

"Oh come on it'll be fun...may be feeling it later, but I think the run up will be just what the Doctor ordered." she laughed using a muggle phrase as she spoke, her eyes eyes sweeping towards the hill. There was no doubt she'd be paying for the run back up tonight but that was tonight, right now she was looking forward to the challenge and the sense of achievement it was sure to bring her.

"That sounds incredible! I'd give it a go if I could find the time, maybe you should start up a dancing class or club, maybe there's plenty of people in the school wanting to give it a go but not having anyone to do it with."

Emily thought on that for a moment, it sounded great, starting a club where anyone with a similar interest in dance could come share that with others. Emily though immediately brushed the idea from her head though, there was no way she was going to be able to do something like that. She liked to stay in the shadows, running a club like that would require her bringing attention to it, and suggesting outright that people maybe learn some muggle dancing was sure to get her some unwanted attention. She'd already paid for being a Muggle-Born, almost lost her life, the last thing she wanted was to rock the boat again. "All sounds great but I won't be the one to do something like that, between school work and friends I don't have that kind of time, it is OWL year after all." she lied easily, smiling softly.

"Traditional pureblood dancing...ball room kind of stuff right?" she asked, brushing a wisp of hair from her face and looking across at Dorcas.

[dorcas]

Dorcas gave a resigned sort of sigh and shake of the head. "I think 'feeling it' is going to be a bit of an understatement, I think I'll be living it again later." Not that it mattered too much, it was nearly the end of the school week and it would be the weekend soon enough, she could recover tomorrow and go jogging again on Saturday, getting herself back into the swing of it all again and who knew, maybe she'd start sprinting too, it couldn't hurt.

Dorcas sighed once again a little more sadly this time. "No escaping those OWL's. Constant reminders everywhere, still, I'm not worried about them yet, I'm on top of all my studying for now, how 'bout you? Going well with it all?" Dorcas knew how her own housemates were doing with the fast approaching exams but she wasn't sure how her friends in other houses were coping at the moment. She suspected most people were fine but get closer to May and June and she was sure more people would start panicking and craming in as much study time as they could.

Dorcas thought about ball room dancing and the differences between that and pure blood dancing. It was very similar but with a few twist, uses of wands and tripping up someone that looked like they were doing it all better than you, though of course you had to do it secretly or risk being shamed in front of the entire pureblood community and then, if you were the one doing better, you had to be prepared to dodge spells and set up some protective barriers around yourself without looking as tough you had any, after all they would just ruin the view of the dancing. Still not everyone danced like that in the pureblood world, some kept their wands for strictly ascetic purposes while dancing, as should be done.

"Yeah, pretty much ball room dancing with a bit of wand work here and there." Dorcas smiled and wondered how things would go if there ever was a dance like that at Hogwarts, in the presence of pureblooded elders one had to be on the very best of behaviour or just appear to be and at the end of it all, everyone had to be getting on swimmingly even if it was just to maintain fake friendships. Dorcas was glad that she went to few of those get togethers growing up.

[Emily Prescott]

"No escaping those OWL's. Constant reminders everywhere, still, I'm not worried about them yet, I'm on top of all my studying for now, how 'bout you? Going well with it all?"

Emily smiled and nodded her head, she was on top of it all, had been for a while, still she was a worrier and always had her head stuck in a text book, trying to absorb all she could to hold off the panic she felt when she thought about the exams. She had a tendency to have a complete brain malfunction when under pressure, so she wasn't looking forward to that. "I'm on top of everything...and I'm honestly dreading exam time. I don't work well under pressure...and it's usually me who puts all the pressure on myself no one else." she chuckled, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. Shrugging lightly she smiling softly and looked back at Dorcas, "I just want to do well, I'm aiming for top marks, I'm not going to accept anything less." she said, maybe she sounded just a bit silly but so what. Every mark counted and when she got out of this school she wanted to do something productive with her life and that was only going to happen if she worked hard.

"Wand work...in dancing?" she laughed softly and shook her head when she looked at Dorcas, "Those two I never pictured together." she admitted, wondering exactly how that would work. Though like everything she knew of purebloods, and wizards in general upon coming to this school. They never did anything by halves, and for a moment she actually wanted to be able to witness this kind of dancing, as she doubted the picture in her head did it any justice. Though being Muggle-Born she doubted she was going to be invited to any grand parties held by purebloods any time soon.

[dorcas]

Dorcas had never felt under pressure at exam time, not even from herself. Sure she wanted to do well but if she didn't then she always had the option of re-sitting them, repeating the year or just getting on with what she got. She didn't need perfect grades for the career that she wanted but then again she was indecisive sometimes and her future career might change. She wanted to become a hit witch, go in to the law enforcement area of the ministry, being a aurora seemed a bit too much for her, it seemed more about the paperwork than the actual arresting of idiots, it was too much tracking and biding your time. Being a hit witch was like being a muggle police officer, out there, doing good actively even if it was on a smaller scale, someone needed to maintain the peace from day to day.

"Wow, remind me not to come near you during revision time then. Are you one of those crazy studiers with timetables for studying and breaks, eating, sleeping, pooping?" Dorcas laughed "Because seriously,I have a couple of people like that in my house. Well more like the majority of the house. The burdens of being a Ravenclaw, so much is expected of you."

Dorcas nodded her head. There was no way that purebloods would want their dancing to be exactly like some form of muggle dance that they could imitate flawlessly. No. Being a pureblood was all about magic and they incorporated it into their lives in every way possible, mostly for tradition and to not be associated with muggles and also to show one another up, they were a dying breed the purebloods so those that had sons wanted to marry them off to pureblooded girls and have sons to continue the family name and those with pureblooded daughters wanted them to make respectable pureblooded marriages. Bring honour to the family name by doing what they ought to do and bring an heir to their new family name. It was what had been done for centuries and they wanted it continue. Dorcas didn't know how much longer it would all last, it was falling to pieces.

"I think I'm ready for a bit of a sprint, how 'bout you? Caught your breath yet?" Dorcas was starting to feel the cold a little more now and if she let herself cool down too much then she was going to collapse about a quarter of the way up the hill, she wanted to take on this challenge and beat it, she wanted to get to the top of the hill and then a bit further. It might not be what happened but she'd push herself until her thighs were s creaming for her to stop, until her heart felt as though it were going to pound out of her chest.

[Emily Prescott]

Emily gasped in mock horror, going as far as to put her hand on her chest and look affronted before she laughed. Nodding her head she shrugged her shoulders, “I have a timetable for studying and breaks yes...though I’ve found trying to keep a structured schedule for the rest of my day is useless. Too many distractions.” she said with a smile, not mentioning that her boy-friend seemed to be her biggest distraction lately. “I know, hence why I’m so happy I was sorted in to Gryffindor, I mean I love studying, always have to be on top of everything but you Ravenclaw’s seem to have it almost pushed on you to do well...” she commented shaking her head.

She loved structure, learning new things but the Ravenclaw’s had it all but nailed to their heads. They had to be devoted to their studies and be the best in whatever they did. Emily didn’t know if she could handle that kind of pressure, God knows she put enough on herself already when it came to school work. At Dorcas’s comment though she smiled and nodded her head.

“I’m ready...” she said, bending her right leg behind her and grasping her ankle for a few seconds before releasing it and doing the same with her left. Feeling a little looser now she began backing up a smile on her face, “Let’s go.” she encouraged Dorcas before turning and taking off at a sprint towards the hill, eager for the challenge that faced them both now.

[dorcas]

Dorcas laughed, it really seemed like Emily should have been a Ravenclaw but clearly she must have had aspects of her personality that reflected the qualities of Gryffindor more so than Ravenclaw. Dorcas remembered wanting to learn so much when she first came to Hogwarts, she still liked to learn but she'd changed in her ways of learning, she'd grown more secretive and wanted easier ways of learning things, she preferred her friends now over learning which was why she did her studying and essays at night when she probably should have been sleeping but if she wanted to fit everything in and maybe even Quidditch next year, she was going to have to keep up with how things were and drop a subject or two.

Dorcas sighed heavily. It was a little tough to be a Ravenclaw. Everyone expected you to do so well when you were in the house of the Eagle that it seemed a little unfair at times. They were just regular teenagers too, just a little smarter than some others. Dorcas didn't think she was the smartest in the school, not by a long shot, but there were certainly some that she could outwit and her eagerness to learn? Her drive to make sure that even though she kept her friends she could still study? Well that was quite a Ravenclaw thing to do in retrospect. Keep your friends and still study your arse off. Best of both worlds.

Dorcas swung the upper half of her body from side to side, not twisting herself too far but just to stretch her muscles a little more. This sprint was going to be hell and when Emily gave the word, Dorcas started sprinting fast towards the hill. Her thighs were already beginning to get that pre-burn burn and so she knew that she was either going to die at the top of the hill or her legs were going to fall off half way up. Either way, Dorcas was looking forward to the sprint as the bottom of the hill approached faster than she had anticipated.