To Fly And Whack Things PV Anastasia Beckett

@Marshal Mozor

Anastasia needed a break. From what she wasn't sure. From other people. From her thoughts. Just a break. She couldn't continue like this, as clearly evidenced by her attacking a random person in the hallway. Granted the girl had one thousand percent earned it since she was frolicking the school chattering and spreading rumors about how Anastasia Beckett had brutally murdered her parents. Obviously, that was a pack of lies, but Ana had completely lost it and tackled the girl. In retrospect, that probably didn't help her case about her not actually being a murder. Call Ana crazy, but she doubted attacking people with seemingly zero provocation made her look completely sane and stable.

Then again, she probably wasn't exactly stable at the moment. Even she recognized that her behavior recently had been erratic, and with good reason. Her life as she knew it was shattered. Her mother was dead and her father was in jail for it. She couldn't allow herself to consider for a moment that her father had done it. Even if the Aurors and everyone who was involved in a professional capacity seemed to believe that. Even if all the evidence pointed towards that. Once again, she was deeply grateful for the discretion that this entire mess was being handled with. Sure, it was terrible to have to deal with the stupid rumors that everyone had heard, but dealing with people knowing the truth would be worse. Even if her father was proven innocent, that was something that would follow her for the rest of her time at school.

She crossed her arms as she stalked out to the Quidditch Pitch. Technically, flying alone wasn't the best idea, but she wasn't doing anything she hadn't done a million times before. Anyway, the pitch was usually fairly full of Quidditch players and wannabes practicing, so she wouldn't really be alone. She had to fly. That was one thing she was certain of. She had made her house Quidditch team, but she was going to need to clean up her act. She hadn't practiced since July, and even years worth of flying didn't do Ana very much good if she was rusty. She wasn't going to push herself today, just fly. That was the last time she could remember feeling genuinely happy. An early morning flight the day she'd been disowned. She had managed to drag her mother out to fly with her, and for a few moments, everything had seemed okay. Of course, that was shattered a few hours later when her father had disowned her, but that was the last time in a while that she had truly felt happy.

As long as she could remember, flying had been her greatest pleasure. Now it was the thing she had that connected her most to her mother. Other than the necklace Ana had found when she was wandering around the house. It had been Athena's, Athena's mother's and her mother's before that. It was the only physical connection she had to her. The Gryffindor glanced down to make sure that the chain was securely tucked into her Quidditch robes as she entered the field.

Even with her recent brooding and dark moods, she would be lying if she said she wasn't even a little bit excited by the prospect of breaking in her new broom a bit. It had been one of her many purchases when her elf and aunt had dragged her out for a shopping trip for school supplies. It wasn't like she had anything else to spend it on, or that anyone could really stop her, so she had bought herself a new wardrobe and the most expensive broom she could find. Her aunt had stopped her from buying a Firebolt, but Ana's pathetic agreement had earned her aunt's approval for her Silver Arrow.

As she entered the field, a blond boy caught her eye. In addition to the fact that the field was surprisingly empty for the time of day, two things about him made him noteworthy to Ana. The first was his dour expression. The second was his definite lack of a broom.

@Marshal Mozor

The blond boy seemed to notice her and stared for several moments as Ana continued to walk out on the pitch. She rolled her eyes slightly. She knew she was pretty, even with the slight bruising around her eye from being hit the previous day. It wasn't something she had ever really needed to work at, and she definitely took it for granted. She slightly hoped that he would be too busy staring to talk to her since she didn't want to be distracted from her flying.

As per usual, the universe seemed to hear her hopes and wishes, and proceed to laugh at her while ensuring the opposite happened. The boy approached, warranting an internal sigh. He carried himself with confidence and even in her melancholy state, Ana had to admit he wasn't unattractive. However, he was also a solid six or seven inches shorter than her, and by the looks of him, probably a first year. Even if Ana were in the mental capacity to be her normal flirtatious self, he didn't seem quite like her normal type. Generally, she preferred tall, dark, and handsome, ideally with a hint of brooding. His comment about models earned an airy eyebrow arch but no actual reply from the older girl.

"Darling, I'm already famous," Ana said, a slight bit of amusement audible in her voice. He was certainly confident and he rather reminded Ana of an overly enthusiastic puppy. A Golden Retriever, maybe. Anyone who knew anything about the wizarding world would have heard of the Beckett family, and with all the rumors about her, she often rather felt like she was a celebrity surrounded by nosy paparazzi. She was well aware that other peoples' lives weren't as interesting as hers, but the level to which students at this bloody school felt entitled to one another's business never failed to baffle and annoy her. For instance, the girl she had punched the previous day had just been frolicking the corridors spreading rumors that Ana had killed her parents for no reason other than she was bored and felt like it. Ana still felt completely justified in her actions, even if they had maybe been a tad extreme.

His eyeing her broom and then asking if she was going to use it earned another eyebrow arch. "That would be why I'm wearing flying robes and out on the Pitch, yes" she said slowly, her sarcasm less biting and more teasing than it normally was. Maybe it was from the energy she was devoting to brooding and being angsty or maybe she was maturing, but she didn't really see a point to mocking people for no reason anymore. There were so many good reasons to mock others that it was silly to waste it on people who hadn't warranted it. Additionally, if she was being perfectly honest with herself, she was just far too tired to devote attention to that as she had in previous years. "Were you planning on flying without one?"

Her question was somewhat rhetorical since she didn't think there was really any way to fly without a broom, certainly not one that a first-year would know anyway. Was he just standing there watching? That sounded like pure torture to Ana, but to each their own. If he was a first-year like she suspected, he had probably only had one or two flying classes, which would explain his lack of a broom. Still, he could always get his hands on a school broom if he felt like practicing, right? Not that Ana would know, since she had never used one of the rickety old brooms aside from during a handful of flying classes. In any event, there weren't any rules or anything about first years having brooms like there used to be.

He seemed a bit confused at her answer, which made her smirk slightly. Was she famous or infamous? It depended on who you asked. Her family, for instance, was well known in the Pureblood community and there were all kinds of perceptions about her because of that. There was also the fact that she had managed to catch on fire at the Blossom Ball the previous spring. While she had been popular before that, it seemed since then, everyone knew her name and far more of her business than she would have liked. There was also the fact that nobody had heard anything from her family since mid-July, which was probably the source of the majority of the rumors and such surrounding her.

She wasn't sure if his cluelessness was a positive attribute or a negative one. On one hand, in previous years, she herself had paid quite a bit of attention to gossip and thought quite poorly of those who didn't. Then again, it meant she wouldn't have to deal with the nasty tales that had been following her all school year. Many of the things that had seemed so important were meaningless now, and, at least at the moment, someone who didn't keep up on gossip sounded like a satisfactory companion.

She rolled her eyes, still more amused with his unearned confidence than annoyed. Unlike several of the other first years she had had the displeasure of encountering, he seemed fairly pleasant if a tad cocky. She definitely thought her overly enthusiastic puppy description was accurate, but so far, that wasn't a bad thing. Still looking rather amused, she extended her hand and shook his. "Anastasia," she said, the right corner of her mouth tugging upwards slightly into a small smile.

She somewhat cocked her head when he suggested her robes might be a fashion statement. She was well aware that, even in her reduced state, she could pull off just about anything, and flying robes were no exception. His replying to her sarcasm in kind was yet another thing that rather endeared him to her. Most of the time, younger students either shriveled away from it or were boisterous and self-righteous about how mean her words were. This was vastly preferable to the other possible reactions.

She cringed a little at his words. He was most likely joking. After all, when she had first met her best friend she had mentioned something about launching audience members at opposing Quidditch teams and she didn't do that. Not yet, anyway. "Oh, of course, how silly of me for not thinking of that," she said dryly. "I can't think of any possible ways that could end at all badly. Although might I suggest getting your hands on a school broom?" She didn't say whether he ought to ask for one or just steal one but she was fairly certain first years could use the god-awful school brooms. They were horrid, and Ana did not miss having to use them outside of flying class one bit, but they were better than nothing and most likely better than whatever plan Marshal had come up with.

She really would have rather liked to dislike him, as she was in the habit of disliking everyone these days, and it would be far easier to go about her business if she could rudely brush him off. However, she found him rather endearing, and certainly preferred his company to others of his year or worse still to older students she had punched or hexed.

♤♧ Say not that we age, but that our beauty develops with time ♧♤

@Anastasia Beckett

As was the most preferred response - short of her bending down and planting a kiss on his entirely welcoming cheek - the beautiful girl gave his outstretched hand a shake, accompanied by the offering of her name. Anastasia, a name just as splendorous to his ears as her small smile was to his eyes.
He really should learn to ignore her looks sooner, rather than later. But of course, that never had been a possibility for the young Gryffindor. He was hopeless, but at least he was aware of that fact.

Anastasia struck Marshal as a bit, ah… grumpy. Yes, that was certainly a good word for it. And possibly slightly self-important. Both were traits that he himself didn’t quite comprehend, but he wasn’t about to hold it against the girl. Perhaps she was born that way, or perhaps she had lived a life that warranted a bit of grouchiness more than his own situation. Fact was, he had no way of knowing what she had been through, so he would look past any negative attitude she gave him, assume she had had a bad day, and try to make it better any way he could.
Making a new friend was always a good way to improve a day after getting punched in the eye, right?

Of course, her personality had one big upside for him as well; her quick and ready use of sarcasm could make her companionship very entertaining indeed, as she showed again in her response to his “plan” to gain a broomstick.

“That’s right, it’s a fool-proof plan!” he said eagerly. “I know because I gave it more thought than I’ve ever given to anything.” He scratched his chin lightly, his eyes temporarily wandering to the distant horizon, and added, “Which would make it about four… no, had to be five seconds. Only people who are afraid of how things will turn out give their ideas any more thought than that, anyway.” His eyes and his smile drifted back to her.

Then she mentioned something incredible to him. Something he hadn’t even considered before now. There were school brooms? Brooms that could be accessed by just anybody? He internally smacked himself, only just refraining from doing so physically, for Anastasia’s sake. How had he not thought about that? He had contemplated raiding random closets until he found a broom, but never imagined that he could do so without breaking any rules.
“You mean there are brooms that I can just use? Are you serious? I need to go get one!” He glanced around the area, as if he thought a school broom would just be lying around. Then he paused and gave Anastasia a suspicious look. “There must be a catch. What do I have to do, run a hundred miles before I earn the right to fly? Cause I’ll go now.”

The whole thing made him appear rather ridiculous to her, more likely than not, but he didn’t care. For one thing, he was ridiculous, and for another, he simply could not contain himself when it came to flying. It was flying! His dreams could be realized, if only he could find a random broom somewhere, waiting for him to crash it into a tree.

He waited impatiently for Anastasia’s response, his desperation far too evident.

He was definitely obnoxious but in an endearing way. He was quite enthusiastic about flying, which she could certainly respect, as well as just about everything else. Still, seeing as she was lacking that joie de vivre in most matters these days, that wasn't necessarily a drawback. The last time she had seemed as please about something as he did about her offering her name was when she had been a toddler and unwrapped her first racing broom. She almost envied the ability of the boy to approach life like that. Scratch that, she definitely envied it. In recent days, it seemed all she did was wait for the world to disappoint her and still managing to be surprised and hurt when it inevitably did.

If his overly bright deposition wasn't enough to motivate her to continue this interaction, he had one other major thing in his favor and it was an important one to the girl. He was far quicker to match her wit than most people she had met, and certainly quicker than the other first years she had had the displeasure of encountering. One girl had replied to Ana's dry, vaguely threatening sarcasm with faintly disturbing and most likely anatomically impossible threats to steal her eyeballs, and of course, Ana had then hexed the girl. She vastly preferred this. He was more than willing to poke fun at himself - a trait that was rare in Ana's world - and more importantly, he was legitimately funny. Too many people thought that they were funny when they were in actuality pathetic, but, at least so far, the younger boy seemed to have the humor to back it up.

"A whole five seconds?" Ana inquired as though she was thoroughly impressed. Granted, the majority of Ana's schemes were thought up in four to five seconds, but she didn't admit it. She also probably ought to be afraid of how most of her plans turned out, but thus far, she wasn't. Was that a good thing? She wasn't sure at this point. "I've found people who are afraid of how their ideas turn out are generally far less entertaining."

She narrowed her eyebrows slightly at his surprise. Had he just been completely unaware of where the brooms came from for flying class? Had he ever flown before? It was the second day of classes, so he had to have had at least one flying class, right? Was she about to aid someone in doing something stupid and dangerous? Had that ever stopped her before?

"Generally, I've heard you have to tie up the Flying Professor and cast the Tickling Charm at him until he tells you. I've got my own broom now and I had a different Flying Professor first year, but I've heard Jemari's a particularly tough nut to crack," Ana said, deadly serious. She lowered her voice and glanced about as if to make sure there wasn't anyone around to overhear in an attempt to really sell the act. His desperation for a broom made it all too easy for her to think up something to pull his leg, even for someone who was generally an absolutely abysmal liar. She did a half-decent job in her own opinion, at least until she busted up with laughter. She hadn't laughed in months and it felt surprisingly good. "No, in all seriousness, as Flying is a very serious subject and I would never impede someone else doing it, I think you can just go ask. Some of the Quidditch players who don't have their own use them, and we all have to use them for Flying class anyway."

♤♧ Say not that we age, but that our beauty develops with time ♧♤

@Anastasia Beckett

Both shoulders and hands shrugged as his head cocked in mock arrogance, the grin on his face clearly stating how much smarter he was than everyone else. After all, most people took at least a few minutes to concoct a plan before enacting it, which obviously alluded to the fact that their brains didn't move at the same sheer speed as his own; certainly not that they were simply more patient in every way...
While it was entirely true that Marshal's mind moved at a ludicrous pace that would leave 'normal' folks certain they were going clinically insane, it wasn't always a good thing. It was less because he processed things faster than others, and more because he didn't bother to think on them for long, especially if those things leaned toward the realm of boring.
Speaking of boring, Ana had just touched on that very subject.

"Exactly!" he exclaimed in response. "Why waste time thinking when you can do? Nobody ever accomplished something by just thinking all the time. The only way anything happens is by getting out of your own head and making it happen. And when things happen, that's where the fun starts." His eyes glinted with a mischievous passion for the subject. He had spent a lifetime not thinking- or, wait... nah, best not to think about it too much.

In all fairness, the first-year had experienced a grand total of one flying class, and he hadn't even been allowed to fly, or mount the darn thing like a pony stick toy, for that matter. It had been a source of unprecedented disappointment for him, thus driving him to the quidditch pitch, where the two of them now stood.
A memory of being told that students could fly school brooms outside of class failed to surface among his mountain of frustrations. He was fairly certain that he would have heard such a piece of information, what with the way he had been clinging so desperately to every word that left Professor Jemari's mouth, as if his voice was the only thing leading the Gryffindor through a dark, collapsing tunnel.
He refused to blamed for his own ignorance.

The ignorant lion listened intently as Anastasia lowered her voice, a terribly goofy grin growing on his face.
While he didn't fool himself into actually thinking that he was some sort of genius - despite his pretenses to the contrary - he was smart enough to recognize the falsehood behind her words, even in his urgent state. Yet his grin still grew, likely giving the appearance that he believed her completely, for he found it rather amusing. Not to mention, the scenario she suggested sounded incredibly entertaining, and entirely like something that he would like to be a part of. Momentarily, he wondered just how quickly one would be expelled for such an act. And would it be worth it?
A vision of his mother disowning him upon learning about his heinous crimes crossed his mind. Not worth it, he supposed. It probably wouldn't help that he had never heard of the tickling charm, either.

As Anastasia erupted into a fit of laughter, Marshal followed suit. The melodic sound was so infectious, he simply couldn't help it. Besides, he loved to laugh anyway, so why put a stopper on it?
He noted the girl's laughter as yet another thing that made her beautiful. That list seemed to be growing quite long, didn't it? Pretty soon it would look like a certain Naughty and Nice list that could be found at the North Pole. And every item on it would only increase the sting that accompanied the harsh truth of his inevitable rejection at her hands. But why should that stop him from trying? He saw no reason. He knew that his chances were infinitesimal with the older girl, but the unlikely could never occur if the underdog didn't throw himself into the ring to be beaten to a pulp multiple times, now could it?
However, he had another important matter to attend to at the moment.
"And here I thought that finding a broom would be almost as fun as flying," he said with half-faked disappointment. "Oh well. We can do that some other time. Right now, I need to find myself one of those brooms." He paused, glancing at the spiffy broom she held in her hand and rubbing his chin playfully. "Unless, of course, you would be willing to let me take that one for a spin. Just think, you could see the type of fancy flying I'm capable of. I would get to fly, and you would have the pleasure of being utterly astounded by my skills. It's another fool-proof plan!"
He may or may not have been on the path to receiving a black eye like the one that Anastasia currently sported, but that problem could be sorted out later. His new plan had been crafted in under four seconds, after all.

Marshal's words brought a small smile to Ana's face. Despite their contrasting demeanors, they were more similar than she would have thought. She wasn't someone who sat around waiting for things to happen around her. Far too many of her classmates and really, people, in general, seemed to be perfectly content being side characters in other's stories. Ana wasn't. Some people said nonsense about how everyone was a different character in a different person's story. Maybe an antagonist in one, a love interest in the other, a wise sage in another. Ana was determined to be the main character in the stories of absolutely everyone that she encountered.

Granted, her quick temper and lack of impulse control had caused no shortage of problems and sorrow. There were only a few things she regretted about it though. Maybe she just wasn't built for regret or maybe it was because her unanswered dreams were few and far in between. If she never leaped, she would never fall but she would also never fly, and risking watching her life speed past her was her worst nightmare. It happened to so many of the older purebloods she knew, and she had refused for it to be her fate. That determination had cost her dearly, but if she had done it all over again, she wasn't sure what she would have done differently. Despite the blame she had assigned to herself and carried every day, she wasn't sure exactly what she had done to cause it. None of the contemplation that she had done in the past months had done anything to clear up the situation. As much as not thinking had hurt her, thinking hurt worse.

The grin that grew on Marshal's face amused Ana to no end. Either he legitimately believed her, in which case she would keep him around to tease occasionally, or he was playing along with her and had no issue looking a little silly, in which case she had a bit of respect for him and would also likely keep him around. Kidnapping and tying up professors wasn't exactly Ana's brand of mischief, but that wasn't to say she would do anything to stop it if it were to happen. Well, there were two or three professors she liked well enough that she would object to them being kidnapped and subjected to the Tickling Charm. Still, Ana's particular brand of malarky revolved around flying under the adults' radar. Other than her recent, admittedly drastic change in wardrobe, not a single adult had much of a reason to think that Ana was anything less than the perfect student her impeccable grades and hours spent in the library hinted at. It made it all the more fun for her as if she were a secret operative or spy of some kind.

His joining her laughter only cemented her decision not to set him on fire. While her aura of icy elegance and recent choices to push away those she cared about might suggest otherwise, Ana was desperate for others to value her and her thoughts. Even if it was a small thing, having someone to laugh with meant more to her than she was remotely willing to admit.

She arched an eyebrow at his suggestion. A number of inappropriate comments involving puns and innuendos about broomsticks came to mind, but she opted to keep those to herself. Hogwarts would corrupt him soon enough, and it wasn't her job to traumatize him just yet. Furrowing her brow as if she was deeply considering it, she pressed her lips together and glanced at the ground. If she was the type to loan her broomstick, a first-year would have been her last choice. Not that she remember exactly, but she highly doubted that he had done more than summon a broom to his hand at this point in the year. It didn't help that she was definitely not the type to share or that her broomstick was the equivalent of her precious baby. The only thing that she cared for with more love and delicacy was her cat, and that was somewhat debatable. If Hogwarts went up in flames, the only things Ana would grab were Jasmine and her broom.

"Hm, as adorable as you are, not a chance," Ana said. On that pleasant note, she mounted her broomstick, blew Marshal a kiss, and launched into the air. Leaning forward, she began to accelerate, the wind causing her dark ponytail to whip about wildly. If there were a way that she could bottle the feeling she got flying and save it for a rainy day, she was certain she could make millions selling it.

Exeunt Anastasia Blair Marie Katherine Alexandra Sophia Isabella Ann Beckett